Iris actually made several loop-arounds before finally pulling over, several blocks away from the stone building that housed the local chapter of the Church of Humanity. One minute she decided that Hunter was the one that got them into this situation, so he should get himself out. The next, she began to worry that he couldn't handle things on his own.

But he was how many centuries old? He'd survived all that time on his own. He'd probably be around to annoy the world for another few centuries.

But, what he was doing was unnecessary. There was no need to stoop to assassination. He claimed he couldn't wipe their memories, yet he'd done a great job wiping hers for fifteen years.

But really, it was his problem. Not hers. Nothing he did was any concern of hers. So what if he did get himself hurt, or even killed? She'd gotten along just fine without him for fifteen years, and he without her.

But, what about the Council's families? Death is death, no matter who has to deal with it.....

But this was his fault, not hers! She had nothing to do with this mess! Sure, she'd helped him get to the core of the organization. But she'd left it behind now. He was on his own, and probably happier for it. How many times had he called himself a monster, without a heart? So, now he was proving it. She did have a heart, which is why she wasn't helping any longer.....

But.... if she didn't try to stop him..... at least try....

Didn't that make her a monster as well?

She sat motionless behind the steering wheel, eyes closed, heart beating like a drum in her ears, mind arguing with her heart.

Finally she rubbed her eyes and sighed, realizing she'd forgotten to put her contacts in. Wearily she opened the car door and stepped out.

"Why can't life just be simple?" she grumbled. She headed down the block at a brisk pace, her now-silver-colored eyes fixed on the path ahead. She scratched idly at the clear gem hidden under her glove. She figured that, since life was already complicated, it couldn't get too much worse, no matter what gem she used now.....

(OOC: Didn't see Iris' post before I wrote this. If it contradicts something I'll change it later, but for now I have to go. Library closes in 5 min.)

Maybe Sebastian shouldn’t have used that last really cheap move. It seemed to make Hunter angry. His vision was swimming and he had no way of blocking Hunter’s next move. Or the next one. Or the next one for that matter. In a matter of seconds he was kneed, tossed, kicked, and broken. Then he was dead and his body was thrown into a table, which broke under the impact of his flying corpse.

So this is what it’s like to be dead, Sebastian thought as he lay on top of the broken table. Except there was way too much pain. The pain should have stopped when his neck broke. Had he ever had a broken neck before? Sebastian couldn’t remember.

Instead he tried to remember if he had enough money in his pocket to pay Phlegyas for his passage across Acheron. He wondered if American money would be okay. (Charon/ Acheron)

The whole fight had taken a matter of minutes. Everything had moved so fast that it was over almost as soon as it had started; a two minute tango. The whole thing had been eerily silent, too. Neither of them had made any sounds throughout the whole fight. Other than the quiet sound of bones breaking, there had been nothing, no noises to warn the council members behind the oak doors that their lives were in danger. Sebastian should have tried to warn them. Did he have any other regrets now that he was dead? Maybe he should have tried talking to Hunter, to convince him to stop rather than provoking him into a fight. Anything else? He hadn’t ever tried Dippin’ Dots. He’d heard about them, but never had the chance…

Zues, his head hurt. Almost as much as… Would those idiots stop with the pounding? It sounded like gunshots. And screaming. Well, it was the underworld after all, what would it be without a little screaming? Gods, it was uncomfortable on top of that table. And his neck was protesting being turned the wrong way. How was it supposed to start healing if it was turned at such a strange angle?

Heal? He was healing? He brought his arm up to his head and turned it back to its normal position. *Insert ancient Greek swear words here.* That hurt. In addition to the excruciating pain of twisting his broken neck back into place, Sebastian could feel the familiar tingling of healing cells, first at his neck, then in his torso. As the opposite of injury, one would think that healing would be painless. It wasn’t. If pain was fire, than healing was ice. It still burned.

The gunshots and the screaming continued. If Sebastian was alive, he still had work to do here. Perhaps he could still save some other souls today, be they innocent or not.

He tried to push himself up, but his head, no longer supported by the table top, fell back, thereby undoing all the healing it had been trying to do. Chimera droppings! Sebastian swore and readjusted his head once more. Burning and freezing all at once.

He tried again. This time he held his head with one hand and pushed up with his right hand. There was a table leg under his hand. Sebastian grabbed it. It would make a useful cane, to support himself if he was about to collapse again. Miraculously he could still stand. His legs weren’t broken, nor were his arms. His ribs would heal, were healing. His neck. It would probably take a while. He kept it supported with his free hand by holding on to his own hair.

Slowly, too slowly, he made his way over to the oaken doors.

The gunshots had stopped. He could hear Hunter’s voice through the door.
>>>"All of you, Come out. Sit in the centre of the room." None of them moved. "NOW!"

Sebastian leaned against the door. It was so heavy. It took him a moment of leaning his weight on it in order to get it to move, but the horrified and pain filled screams wouldn’t let him rest. He had to do what he could. Even if the Church council was made up of human supremacists who would kill a mutant just as soon as look at them, even they didn’t deserve this. Did they? Why was Sebastian trying to save them? Because he believed people could change. They could learn. Even someone as violent as Hunter could learn, though it might take a long time. Sebastian wasn’t sure where people went when they died, but he was sure that they deserved a chance to redeem themselves beforehand.

Throwing all of his weight into it, he finally was able to move the door. His ribs ached in protest. None of his bones were healed yet, ribs least of all. Most of his energy seemed to be working to heal his neck as quickly as possible, though Sebastian still held his head up with one hand and the leaned on the table leg with the other.

The smell of blood overwhelmed him. The metallic tinge brought back old memories. Some of the oldest of all.

Troy. Sebastian stood on the battle field, surrounded by the dead and dying. There was blood everywhere. The whole field, once green with crops and the promise of new life, was now dark and red. There was a spear and a shield in Sebastian’s hands. Both were covered in blood. The metallic smell of iron filled his nostrils. They had said battle was glorious and honorable. It was gruesome and horrifying. So much death.

So much death. And there in the center of it all was Hunter

>>>"It's people like you who made us this way,"
Hunter’s voice was full of fury. He really believed it, too.

Sebastian watched in horror as the man Hunter was speaking to suddenly lost his jaw. The resulting scream chilled his blood. He couldn’t stop Hunter from eviscerating the next council member or decapitating the next. As Sebastian slowly made his way closer, he tried to call out, to stop him, but his voice wouldn’t work. Hunter ripped out two throats, going so fast he was getting sloppy now. Another lost eyes, and another his heart. Sebstian was almost sick watching Hunter gorge himself on the blood from another man’s heart. He was closer now, but how to stop it? Finally Hunter paused to crush a head slowly and painfully. Sebastian’s own head still needed support and his neck twinged. Then Hunter surveyed his work. How many were left uninjured? One? Sebastina hated to see what would happen to him.

Finally he reached the place where Hunter stood. He forgo his crutch and lifted the table leg high enough to swing around. He hated violence. Violence to stop violence. Was it for the best? Was it for the greater good? Sebastian didn’t even know if these people were worth saving, but he didn’t waste any time deliberating. In his mind, Hunter had to be stopped. If he could cause a distraction and even one person could escape, it would be worth it. Sebastian swung the table leg toward Hunter’s head.

Hunter was too engrossed in what he was doing to notice Sebastian comming. The first warning he got about it was the table leg to the side of his head. Hunter's entire world exploded as he was smashed to his knees. The pain was excruciating, so much so Hunter was certain that his head had been smashed open.

As it was Sebastian had been weakened from the fight, and thus the blow didn't have enough force behind it to kill Hunter, and on some level Hunter wished it had. Such pain Hunter hadn't experianced in centuries. He cried out in anguish, an ear splitting sound, similar to that of a wounded animal.

Only through sheer force of will was he still concious. He would not be beaten now, not now. His vision swan, and he hurt so much that he could barely keep himself from just collapsing. What kept him going was rage, and he had a focus for it.

SEBASTIAN!

He wished for nothing more that to rip the bastards heart out, like he had with that council member. That thought, the burning desire to kill, allowed Hunter to unsteadily make his way back to his feet, though he'd be damned if he could actualy make anything out. All of his senses were out of kilter, he had no idea what was going on.

(OOC: Looks fine Seb. And feel free to ignore Iris's entrance at first, if you'd like.)

Iris knew where she was going, thanks to Crystal's digging into the church's blueprints to find the Council's Meeting Chambers. But as she walked, she found she really didn't need directions. She wasn't sure, exactly, why not. But as she reached the building, a wave of nausea hit her. The same thing had happened during the mobbing a week ago.

Blood. A lot of it. She could feel it. It sickened her.

She quickened her step. A giggle left her throat.

<"Stop it! Now isn't the time to lose control!">

Biting her tongue to hold back the giggle-fit, she scuttled continued further inside. The further she got, the more intensely she could sense the spilled blood. There was so much of it..... She fought the bile rising in her throat.

Someone screamed. She'd heard that cry only once before.

She had to stop this, before it was too late, for everyone.

There was a pair of huge doors up ahead. The feeling and cry came from beyond them. Running at full speed now, she aimed a sonic pulse at them, just enough to force them open and allow her entrance. She skidded to a halt on the threshhold of the room.

Hunter collapsed screaming in pain. Sebastian hadn’t expected that. He hadn’t actually been able to hit him very hard with his weak one handed swing. Sebastian dropped the wooden weapon. He wouldn’t hit him again, even though it gave him less time, he couldn’t justify hitting Hunter again just to make sure he was unconscious. Sebastian would do what he could with the small amount of time that he had. He would be fighting against death, not for himself, but for the others in the room. Sebastian couldn’t heal people from death, he’d learned that long ago. Sebastian and Death had an interesting relationship. They couldn’t affect each other, but they could steal from each other.

Sebastian planned to do that right now. There were several in the room that he could save, but he couldn’t save them all. He only had a certain amount of energy and there wasn’t enough for everyone. There was quality of life after the healing to consider and the amount of energy it would take to heal the variety of injuries. He should be logical and figure out the best plan of action to ensure that the most people as possible could go back to a life that was worth living. Sebastian didn’t care. There wasn’t time to deliberate, only act.

He staggered toward the nearest victim in the center of the room, and one of the ones needing the most immediate attention; the council member who fainted holding his own intestines. Sebastian shoved them back inside his abdomen the best he could and placed his hand over the area. The other hand still supported his head. His own healing would take longer now that some of his healing energy was being siphoned off for others in need. With his eyes closed he could sense the injury, sense the other man’s pain. He could feel death pulling him away as he lost blood. Sebastian’s fingers began to tingle. Ice and fire battled each other through Sebastian’s fingers and he could sense the intestines begin to twist back together and new pink skin knit itself over the wound. When he was certain the man would live, Sebastian pulled away his hand. He wasn’t fully healed, but Sebastian needed to save as much energy as possible.

Next to the first man lay the councilwoman with the bloodied throat. Sebastian touched her with his still tingling hand. She was already dead. Sebastian moved on. A man lay next to her with a similar injury, Sebastian touched him and felt a fleeting life. Sebastian replaced a flap of skin that was still dangling from the man’s neck and held his hand over his throat for the few moments it took to let the healing begin. The man had lost his voicebox to Hunter’s vice-like hand and would never again speak out against mutants. Sebastian didn’t have the time to fix it. As soon as he was certain the man would recover he moved on.

His neck still wasn’t healed, but Sebastian needed both his hands. Time was of the essence. Hunter was staggering blindly and others were dying. He tore a long piece of fabric from the robes that would no longer be needed and wrapped it several times around his neck. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do.

There was a man gasping silently for air, one of the guards had a crushed windpipe and was choking. Sebastian held his neck for a moment, healing the damage there. There wasn’t anything he could do about the brain cells the man had lost due to lack of oxygen. No time. Two more council members lay next to each other, still near the center of the room, one with bloody sockets instead of eyes, the other a face from a nightmare, his upper teeth flashing white as his tongue hung loosely down below, with now lower jaw to contain it. At least he was unconscious and not still screaming. Sebastian touched their faces momentarily, scabbing over their wounds to prevent more blood loss. The jaw was nowhere to be found. Perhaps a skilled surgeon could reattach it later. Sebastian hoped so.

He was beginning to feel the effects of the healing. His head was feeling light, as if it was he that had lost so much blood. His whole body ached now, his own healing halted, his body feeling a faint echo of each of the injuries he healed. He had to continue. Any moment Hunter would recover and… what would Sebastian do then? There was another councilwoman with her legs now bloody stumps. She was still conscious, but barely. As Sebastian reached toward her legs to stop the bleeding, her eyes met his. Her face was a mask of shock. There was no contempt in her eyes, only pain. Sebastian couldn’t tell if she even recognized what he was doing. Her legs scabbed over quickly.

Sebastian stumbled toward the periphery of the room, where the most of the guards lay separate from the council members. Sebastian could hardly walk. The healings were beginning to blend together now. A man with a indented chest, bone fragments impaling internal organs, clinging to life by a thread, one lung useless now. Another one with abdominal injuries, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his mangled hand was the least of Sebastian’s worries. One of the two survived, but the other died just as Sebastian placed his healing hands against his injuries. He had been too late. He couldn’t even remember which one had made it. Sebastian continued, working around the room growing weaker and weaker. Several guards Sebastian passed by without even pausing to touch, to check. They were so obviously dead. Others surprised him with the vibrancy of their life when he touched them, their lives still burning strongly as opposed to the flicker of flame he found in others. One, right arm and leg crushed by a pillar, and another with a spider web of cuts on his face and broken shards of pottery all around were actually conscious when Sebastian healed them, merely playing dead. The one might have a concussion and an interesting scar, the other might lose the limbs, but they didn’t require much energy from Sebastian’s touch to remain in the world of the living. It was a good thing, too, because Sebastian didn’t have much energy left.

He battled to stay upright with every step, battled to stay conscious. His neck was searing in pain, sending pulses toward his brain that nearly blinded him. Sebastian stumbled against the table that had been smashed against the wall and it fell. Three had been saved by the fact that their two comrades couldn’t control their appetites. Two fat guards had taken the brunt of the crushing blow, sparing the others from mortal harm. Sebastian collapsed on the floor as the table fell. He fought the darkness creeping in at the edge of his vision, crawled forward on his hands and knees. Forward. There were more. Lives.

Sebastian reached two more bodies, guards with mangled faces. He reached out. He collapsed with his hand outstretched toward one of the men, his own face landing face down, cheek to cheek with the other. His face buzzed and burned with ice. His fingertips did not. He felt the life floating away as he reached toward him. He was too late.

One councilman remained conscious in the center of the room. He had two broken legs and no way to run away. He saw everything. He wouldn’t forget what he saw for the rest of his life, however long that might be. The woman with amputated legs was likewise conscious, but she may or may not have even been in a state to comprehend what had happened around her. Two guards were likewise conscious, but would be pretending otherwise as long as possible. They hadn’t seen anything, but had felt cold and soothing hands touch their wounds, relieving some of their pain before moving on.

There was still one person left who needed healing, one Sebastian had injured himself. With great effort, Sebastian pushed himself up again. He crawled back to the center of the room, his head flopped forward, his neck burning. Hunter was still conscious and moving towards him. Sebastian could barely see him; blackness wavered at the edges of his vision. He had to do something or Hunter would kill them all again. Sebastian pushed himself to his knees, and reached out to put his icy healing hands on Hunter’s face, he would have told him then, please stop. Don’t kill them. But Sebastian fainted, falling forward, his arms outstretched.


(Save count: 5 council members (1 councilman had been left alive by Hunter), 8 guards

Hunter, feel free to have Sebastian heal you or not, collapse on you or the floor, or whatever you like.)

Hunter's visions still swam as he staggered around to try and find Sebastian. Once he regained his senses he was going to rip the man's head off. The bastard's healing was a lot more powerful than Hunter had given him credit for.

While his sight was still out, his other senses were returning. He could hear sounds of life, and there were a lot more than he had expected to hear. Hunter roared in fury as he realised that Sebastian was healing them. He'd gone to great efforts to kill them all and the bastard was undoing it.

Finally his vision returned, just in time to see Sebastian collapse in front of him. While he was still reeling from the blow to the head, he'd recovered enough to finish what he had started out in the corridor. Hunter knelt beside Sebastian. He'd have prefered to do this standing, but in his current condition he wasn't sure if he'd manage it.

Grabbing Sebastian's head Hunter took a deep breath, preparing to rip it clean off. He'd mount it in his castle back home, a reminder of the man who'd nearly foiled him this day. Hearing a noise behind him he span around to face the doors. The sudden movement caused his vision to swim and it took a few moments for him to recognise who it was.

Paragon.

(OOC: Just backing up a few moments for background.)

Iris felt as if she'd just walked in on a horror movie set, and the unstable gem reacted to the stress by flitting through all of her emotions in rapid succession.

Fear. Her face drained of all color, and one hand covered her mouth.

Calm. She watched a man going from one body to another. Was that a horn on his head? She giggled.

Apathy. Some of the bodies were still moving, still breathing, though the majority were not. They should have been prepared for such a situation. Either way, a just punishment for being narrow-minded fools. Her eyes turned cold and hard.

Overconfidence. She snorted. So much blood spilled; either Hunter had been sloppy, or he wasn't all that after all.

Fear again. How could she have let this happen? Why hadn't she arrived sooner? How could he be so cruel? Her eyes unthawed and tears welled up.

<"Stop it!"> She shook her head, trying to keep control of her emotions.

Her overstimulated senses picked up movement. She looked up, just as Hunter turned to face her. He held the man with the horn by the neck.

"No!! No MORE!!"[/i]

A blast of cold air filled the room, and floor beneath Iris's feet froze solid. The ice shot forward, flowing like liquid, then came up between the two men, in an effort to force them apart. A frosted tendril tried to wrap around Hunter's arm, trying to break his grip. Another wrapped around the horned man's waist, to support him.

"How could you do this??"

Within seconds her emotions changed again. The near-whisper sounded nearly as loud as her initial scream. But this time the tears had vanished, leaving behind an almost robotic-sounding voice in her throat. Her brain simply couldn't decide what she should be feeling at that moment.[/color]

Hunter withdrew his hand as the ice moved to interveen. Seeing the look on his daughter's face was enough to extinguish the fire of fury that was keeping him upright. He collapsed onto the ice, too tired todo anything for a moment. Then, slowly and somewhat shakily, he pushed himself up.

"I did this to protect all mutants," he answered, "You've seen with your own eyes what these people do to mutants. They'll keep on doing it unless someone stops them. I stopped them." He couldn't make it to his feet, so instead remained on his knees. The pain of his head wound threatened to make him pass out, but he clung to conciousness.

(For the record, don't wait up for me. Sebastian will be staying unconscious for awhile.)

(OOC: Let me know if I need to edit Seb.)

"I did this to protect all mutants. You've seen with your own eyes what these people do to mutants. They'll keep on doing it unless someone stops them. I stopped them."

"Sure you did. Just like gasoline stops a forest fire."

Iris turned to the rest of the room. She examined each body. To those that were already lost, she alternately cried and apologized, or shook her head and snerked. It didn't take her long to get a count of who still breathed. After seeing the wounds, she also figured out that they hadn't healed on their own. The horned man? Was he a healer of some sort?

Iris moved to his side, and put a hand to his throat. He was still alive, though the pulse felt weak. There wasn't much she could do; none of her abilities included regeneration or healing. Why couldn't Hunter have passed that ability to her?

A childish pout appeared on her face, then just as quickly vanished as the calm once again took over. The ice receded a bit, gathering under the unconscious mutant. It moved him off to the side of the room, then built up in a protective dome over him. She hoped the chill would numb any pain that he might feel upon waking.

Finally, her gaze fell on Hunter, her silver eyes hard as steel. She wanted to hate him, feel sickened at what he was, what he'd let himself become. She wanted to blame him for what she'd was. She looked over at the one Council Member still alive and fairly unharmed, at least not fatally. The pure rage and ferocity in his expression was exactly what she wanted to feel toward Hunter.

But....

He looked so tired, worn out. Exhausted. It was the second time she'd seen him vulnerable. Some of Iris's anger and horror drained away. She knelt on the ground next to him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"For someone who's lived so long, you sure don't understand people very well." She shook her head. "You can't force someone to change their mind." Then realizing who she was talking to, added, "Well, at least, not with violence."

She shifted her position so she was now cross-legged.

"You just don't get it. Do you? You don't know anything but pain, and death."

Her current disposition was easy-going, and a bit tactless, but that was bound to change within a few seconds. She rubbed her eyes, still feeling the effects of a night without sleep.

"That's where you're wrong," Hunter said, with a weak smile, "I know exactly what will happen after today. The majority of the Church will retreat back to their normal lives, still feeling anamosity towards mutants, but no longer acting violently upon in, their fear overcoming their hatred."

"However, a small hard core group will remain, this incident only strengthening their hatred. They'll fight on, but in doing so lose all the credability the Chruch had and becoming nothing more than a fringe group. A group who are dangerous, but will have no real power in the grand scheme of things."

"You are right about one thing though, I won't have changed anyone's mind, only hightened what was already there. For most it will be fear of mutants. For some, it will be hatred." Hunter's vison went red, causing everything to blur and become distored. There was blood in his eyes, but tired from blood loss and still reeling from the head wound he didn't bother to wipe it away.

"That's where you're wrong. I know exactly what will happen after today. The majority of the Church will retreat back to their normal lives, still feeling anamosity towards mutants, but no longer acting violently upon in, their fear overcoming their hatred."

"Until they're pushed into a corner...."

"However, a small hard core group will remain, this incident only strengthening their hatred. They'll fight on, but in doing so lose all the credability the Chruch had and becoming nothing more than a fringe group. A group who are dangerous, but will have no real power in the grand scheme of things."

Iris shook her head. "For this century, maybe. Maybe less. And perhaps the Church of Humanity will lose credibility. But their ideals won't. They'll just come back under a new name, with the same goal. Maybe even a new target.”

"You are right about one thing though, I won't have changed anyone's mind, only hightened what was already there. For most it will be fear of mutants. For some, it will be hatred."

"That's whole point Hunter. That's what you don't get. All you did was put a bandaid on a broken arm. The problem isn't humans' hatred for mutants. It's their fear." She held up a hand to the side of his face, and touch the side of his temple, sending a numbing chill over the wound. She tried to hold the blood in place until a scab could form.

"Humans fear what they don't understand. They always have, they always will, until they understand it. Just like a child who sees a dark hole, and pokes it with a stick. Something inside hisses at them, and they immediately scream, and either fill the hole with rocks, or even fire, thinking it’s a rattle snake. They don't realize that it was only a mother cat protecting her kittens. Then they'll move on to the next thing to fear. Until some learns not to be afraid, the cycle will continue.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly at him. ”Or until someone learns to stop spreading the fear.”

"Considering all that is going on now I feel most mutants would agree that we need a fast solution, not a perfect one," Hunter said in answer to Paragon's evalutation of his methods. He was greatful for the numming to the side of his head. It had felt as though it were on fire, and now Paragon had put it out.

"We can debate my methods later, right now we need to leave. Our commotion will attract security eventually, and it's likely to be sooner rather than later." He tried to get to his feet, but only succeeded in falling on his face. His balace still had not returned, he couldn't stand.

"Considering all that is going on now I feel most mutants would agree that we need a fast solution, not a perfect one."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Well, someone has to think about it, since it seems no one else is...." Abruptly she yawned.

"We can debate my methods later, right now we need to leave. Our commotion will attract security eventually, and it's likely to be sooner rather than later."

When he tried to stand, and failed, Iris giggled, then slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

"Sorry! Sorry...." She giggled again, and flushed red. Within another moment, the embarrassment drained liked water through a funnel, to be replaced by the coldness again. She looked over at the still-conscious councilman, glaring daggers at the two. She was surprised he hadn't yet said anything.

"What about him?" She was fairly sure Hunter was weak enough to be unable to kill the man. Otherwise she wouldn't have asked, and risked another attack.

Hunter ignored Paragon's giggle and pushed himself back up to his knees. He guessed, as he couldn't see, that she was using the clear gem, and that played havok with her emotions. "I'm in no state to finish him," he said in answer to her question, "and you're in no mind too. We'll leave him, let's just leave."

Had Hunter the time he'd wait until he had healed enough to finish the job, and kill all of them. However, he didn't and there was no way that he was going to convince Paragon to kill them. To be perfectly honest, he didn't want to.