"Who the hell do you think you--"
Ozzy stopped Lykopis' advance with an outstretched arm, still staring at the new arrival.
"...Skully?"
The man calling himself Grimm opened his eyes again, looking straight at Baxter.
"Yes. No. Take your pick."
"Man...what...what's happened? Where did you come from?" Baxter began. "You remember us? Vanguard?"
"Well, I don't remember you looking like the Tin Man, but, otherwise...sure..."
"Do you remember the last year?" Ozzy asked point-blank.
Grimm's eyes went narrow...a new experience for Ozzy...as he seemed to try and remember.
"...no..." he finally said. "I mean...I remember you...Vanguard and all...but, one minute I'm doing my 'Death' thing...the next, the bald smoker is chatting me up something awfully cosmic..."
"Prometheus?" Lykopis asked. "You've seen him?"
Grimm nodded, looking around.
"Yeah...he filled me in on the situation...said you guys might need some help...so...here I am." he shrugged.
"Right...well..." Ozzy sighed. "...let me introduce everyone...this is--"
"Lykopis ala' the She-Wolf...Victor Reilley, the iceman, Icarus Sidewinder, the hot-shot...and I know Adem over there....how's kicks, Spock?"
"**(0){}||\"
Grimm's eyebrows arched a bit.
"...sure, well, I'm sure you can get a cream for that, or something..." he grinned.
Ozzy stared at this old teammate...a rather transformed teammate...with curious eyes.
"Hey guys?" he addressed the esemble. "Could you give me a few minutes alone with Big G?"
Everyone sort of shrugged, and cleared the room, leaving Ozzy and Grimm alone. Baxter sat down across from him, hands folded as he elbowed down on his knees.
"Grimm...you okay?" he asked sincerely.
Grimm looked at him, seeming to think about it for a moment.
"Actually...I haven't been this good in a long, long time." he replied honestly. "I know...I know Mxy has fucked up some things royally for the planet. But...and I don't know how...it looks like I actually came out of this a winner........for once."
Baxter nodded, looking down a bit.
"Have you seen any of the others?" he asked.
Grimm shook his head, sighing.
"No. No, the last thing I remember was darkness...a fall...splat...and I'm picking myself up off the ground outside."
"So...this Prometheus...he sent you here just like us, huh?"
"Seems that way."
"I wonder why..." Baxter queried.
Grimm thought for a moment.
"Well, if he's the one dropping us here...he obviously wants us together for some reason."
"To stop Mxy? To fix the world?"
"Could be, man...could be..." Grimm nodded. "...either way..."
He paused, a small smile coming over this new face.
"...it's good to see you, Ali..." he continued, holding his hand out.
Baxter took the shake with a smile, and a small chuckle.
"For once, Grimm, I think I can say the same about you..."
"Ha!" the large laughed.
"Man...you really have changed...haven't you?"
"Well, hopefully not my godlike tolerance for alcohol!" he suddenly bellowed with a gruff joy, the likes Ozzy had never seen from the man. "Where's the whiskey?"
Ozzy laughed, getting up and searching out a crystal cantor sitting on one of the fine oak desks. Two glasses poured, he handed the other to Grimm, both men staring at the caramel liquid for a moment.
"To the good old days..." Ozzy offered.
"To new beginnings..." Grimm countered.
The glasses clinked together, as they threw back the smooth liquor.
"*KAFF*!" Ozzy choked a bit, Grimm already pouring them another.
"Did I ever tell you about the time I drank Thor Odinson under the table?" Grimm asked, throwing back another.
"...what?" Ozzy rasped, still dealing with the second slug.
"Yeah, it was...fuck, I don't know how long ago..." Grimm began, lost in relvery. "...I'm in an Asgardian tavern, right? And there's this gorgeous piece of enternal sin sitting next to me, if you know what I mean........"
************************************************************************************************************************************************
New York City
One Grissom Montag sat at his desk, flipping through thick texts of history, and rumor. His eyes perused through pages on the Masons and legends of groups called The Illuminati. He sighed, his calculating mind crunching information and facts...spinning them off into theories and possibilities.
Grissom Montag did not like surprises. And he certainly didn't like uninvited guests. The stranger had caught him with his pants down. Literally.
Not again.
After a few moments, Montag leaned back up in his chair with a sigh, and persed lips.
"...I'm going to have to fire this security staff, aren't I?" he asked aloud.
Then, looking up, his eyes settled on a dark corner of the office.
"If you want to sneak up on someone, I would suggest actually finishing your smoke beforehand..." he drolled to the darkness.
A few footsteps, a small chuckle, and a bald figure clenching a cigarette between his teeth walked out from the shadows.
"Don't blame your staff..." Prometheus replied. "...it would make no difference."
Montag stared at the intruder with a calm calculation.
"You have thirty seconds to tell me why I shouldn't shoot you where you stand." he stated evenly, a pistol secure and leveled in his tight grip.
"I'll do you one better Mr. Montag...ten seconds..." Prometheus replied, striding over to his desk, holding a tan slip of paper. "I'm simply here to give you a message...a nudge, if you will..."
He layed the paper on the desk, still staring at Montag.
"...get ready for a new world..."
And with that, he turned, walking back into the darkness.
Grissom glanced at the folded paper, and then back at the shadows.
"The door's over there, you know..." he motioned to his left.
After a moment, Prometheus came striding quickly from the shadows, headed for the door.
"I'm so good at the dramatic entrances...but the exits...." he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, opening the office door, and walking out.
Grissom watched the door close, and after a moment, picked up the paper.
It read:
Only eleven people know the truth of the world. Ask yourself...what is 'Vanguard'?
Grissom studied the strange message for a moment, finally clicking his intercom on...
"Miss Jovanka...have security stop the man that just left my office..."
"Sir?" his assistant replied for just outside the office.
"The man that just left. Don't let him leave the building."
There was a pause...
"Ummm...sir? I've been here all evening. No one has been in or out of your office the entire time."
Montag said nothing staring at the paper.
"Sir? Is everything alright?"
There was a pause...
"Yes...everything is fine.......have the security staff fired, would you?"
************************************************************************************************************************************************
"Weapons." Lykopis stated evenly. "We need weapons if we're going to find out the problem here."
"I know...I know..." Icarus nodded, rolling his eyes.
"Then why do you keep leading me into libraries and pornographic dens?" she insisted.
"Look, I'm just following the information as I see it!" Icky replied curtly. "Okay?"
He continued his pace down a third hallway, Lykopis and Victor following.
"But, you know...that was a phat den...what a big screen, eh?" he commented, elbowing Victor.
Victor turned his head as if he were looking at Icarus. Icky caught the pseudo-stare, and got serious again.
"There." he said, stopping. He turned to his left, towards a pair of locked doors. "Something is feeding into here..."
"What is feeding? What are you going on about?" she asked impatiently.
"Energy...electricity....a security system, I believe..." he said. "Something important has got to be behind these doors.."
"Weapons?" she asked.
"Do I look like I have x-ray vision?" he replied sarcastically.
"If it is tapped with security, how should we open it?" she asked.
"Well, fuck girl...if Gaunt can get by the front door for us, I'm damn sure we can get in here..."
"Don't call me girl...boy..." she hissed.
"Jeez, you haven't changed THAT much, huh?"
Meanwhile, during all the banter, Victor was turned completely around looking at the bookshelf that lined the hallway.
He sniffed the air a bit, reaching out a hand. Pausing, as if perusing which novel impressed him the most, his fingers glided over the edges of literary spines.
"..I think..." Icky mumbled, trying to pry his finger through the edges of the doors on the opposite side of the hallway, "...if I can just get..."
Victor reached out and pulled out a copy of 'A Gentlemen and a Scholar'. With that, the bookshelf suddenly vibrated, and slid open.
Icky and Lykopis stopped what they were doing, turning completely around to see...
"Gun powder." Victor stated evenly. "Armory."
Before them, a vault of weapons spread forth, like the Fort Knox of all wars. Rifles. Pistols. Blades of all types. Even missle launchers, lined the walls in perfectly neat stacks.
"...whoa..." Icky muttered, a devilish smile spreading over Lykopis' face.
"I wonder what's in the other room?" Icky asked, thumbing towards the doors they had previously been trying to unlock.
"A security system...like you said..." Victor replied.
Icky took a step forward into the armory, Victor suddenly reaching a hand out to grab him.,..
"Stop!" he barked. And then, cocked his head to the side with a very deep sigh.
"..what?! What is it?" Icky asked, looking back at him confused.
Victor simply pointed down at his feet. Icarus looked down, noticing he was standing in the middle of a tiny, laser tripwire.
Lykopis rolled her eyes, as Icarus stammered a bit.
"I...I...HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!"
"You are the one who can see informatoin, correct?" Lykopis replied with sarcasm.
"This is all NEW to me, thankyouverymuch!" he retorted. "And how the hell did blind-guy over here know anyway? Fuck!!"
************************************************************************************************************************************************
New York City
Again.
*beeeep*
Grissom pushed the intercom...
"Yes?"
"Mr. Montag? This is Alex with security..."
"Alex? Who are you? Where's Bob?"
"Uhh..sir, you fired Bob. I'm your new head of security."
"Oh. Right. Yes. Sorry. What is it?"
"Sir, we're getting a feed from your summer home in the British Isles...someone's tripped a silent alarm."
Montag frowned.
"Patch me into the feed. My office laptop...now..."
A second, and the video feed came up...
"...etting Victor lead us around from now on..." a tall, regal female spoke, pulling a few swords from his armory wall.
"Oh, right! Fuck, listen to BLIND guy. Sure! Why not?!" an obviously hot tempered blonde man, with what appeared to be circuitry running over his face and hands.
"Icarus. Would you care to join me in the dark? Call me the blind-guy one more time." a very cool voice replied from just out of camera range. "And if I were you two, I would step out of the camera's line of sight..."
The female and the blonde kid looked over...around...and finally straight up at Montag....
"Oh....for gods sake..." the woman sighed angrily, suddenly tossing a blade into the camera.
Everything went black.
"Shall I alert the British authorities, sir?" Alex the new, and somewhat nervous, security chief asked.
Montag studied the blank screen for a moment. Then, he glanced over at the slip of paper on his desk.
"Sir?"
"No. Thank you." he replied, quickly cutting the intercom off.
He paced for a moment, lost in thought. Then, he reached for the comm again...
"Miss Jovanka?" he said very calmly. "Have my jet fueled and ready within the hour..."
