"Is this everything you have...?"

Her voice was calm, deathly quiet when compared to the viciousness of her actions. Bare handed, she twisted the man's arm further behind his back, pressing his face harshly into the hard, broken concrete. Three of the fingers she had a grip on here already ruined, nothing but hunks of stone-like matter. The man himself cried out, tears streaming down his gritty cheeks, and nodded his head as energetically as he could. "Yes! Yes, I swear on my life it is!"

After a moment of contemplation, she accepted it as the truth and let go of him. As soon as she stepped away, his wife and son rushed forward to sit at his side. The Greek ignored their questions about if he was alright, turning on her heels to march back toward the small pile of belongings they had dropped. Normally she wouldn't have bothered a small group of unarmed roamers... but this particular band had a cart with them. A cart that she had found to contain quite a few supplies. A small hoard of smoked meats, plenty of medical gear, and... alcohol.

Now, that was something she couldn't just pass up.

Unfortunately, two of the other people wandering with the group had thought to resist her. It had ended badly for them. The Gorgon glanced over at one pair of feet still peeking out from behind the cart she intended to take with her, and smirked. They always fought back... every single time. She couldn't blame them, really. It was a dog eat dog world, and she just happened to be a dog whose bite was worse than her bark. Stopping at the small pile of things the three remaining wanderers had dropped, she knelt to sift through them momentarily. Sometimes people hid useful things close to their bodies, sometimes things no one else knew they had.

Behind her, the son, only nineteen years old, looked up from where his father was nursing his ruined hand. Anger was written clearly across his features... "David... David don't you even think of--" His mother never got to finish her sentence. David climbed quickly to his feet before the woman could latch onto him, after having snatched up a length of splintered wood from his right. He ran at the mutant who had killed Nathan and Fredrick, hollering his rage at the top of his lungs. His mother screamed behind him, her hands flying to her mouth in horror, while his father shouted his name and tried to shakily get to his feet.

Andrea didn't bother turning around at first, not until he was nearly on top of her. The makeshift club arched straight toward her head, until Sloth whipped around and sank many little needle-teeth into the wood. The weight of the great snake alone sent the club careening off path, and that was when Andrea chose to stand. She turned in an instant and her bare hand latched onto the boys throat before he even knew what was happening.

"Stupid child..." Scowling, her fingers dug in until her venom had hardened the skin enough to physically stop her. Instinctively, he latched onto the appendage in order to pry it away, and ended up losing the use of a few fingers in the process.

"DAVID!" The heart breaking wail dragged the Greek's attention away from her suffocating victim to his parents. Her grip loosened and the boy dropped to the ground, clawing at his throat desperately. "Don't worry..." She muttered, stepping around the dying human with an air of nonchalance. "You will follow him soon enough..."

The shrieks that followed penetrated the air and carried on for a mile or more, echoing off into the distance. Then, all at once, they ended. Andrea stood above the body of the husband, inspecting the detail left behind in the fingernails of the newly detached hand that she gripped. The fact that her venom left behind such intricate things like cuticles and little flakes of what once had been skin never ceased to amaze her.

Sloth hung behind at her back, his lengthy body tensed as he held himself tightly around the neck of the weakly struggling wife. Every time she tugged, kicked, and gasped, he constricted just a little bit more... The Greek could feel bones and tendons popping against the pressure, until the woman finally stopped moving.

"How far away is the target?" He asked the woman next to him as he prepared for a rather lengthy jump... They'd heard word of many passing caravans being raided in this area, and he was here to find and kill the raiders... It looked like their tip off had been right on the money; Megan was getting really good at that whole information gathering thing. As of right now, she was staring at a caravan in the distance... his dim eyes only made out a blur a bit different than the surrounding area, but it looked about right... His senses couldn't read quite that far, so he trusted her with the long sight.

"I'll drop you close, and move in closer... We have to be careful, we don't know how many there are... It looks like they don't have any transportation of their own, so we can rule out it being a large raiding party; there aren't any along this road, and I doubt any of the big groups would come this far out for slim pickings." It was true... this area was one of the first ones looted and scraped bare by all of the hungry survivors back in the day... There was nothing left here, and anyone coming through here was probably headed toward better things.

Leave it to some bandits to ruin that for them, though. Bastards... It was odd, though... he didn't recall hearing any gunshots. "Have you managed to get any spiders close to the area?" He knew the suckers could only move so fast, but he didn't mind jumping in blind on a small job like this. He made sure his J's were strapped in tight to his chest and fore arms, and that his newly modified paper cutter blade was secure in it's sheath. "I'm ready."

"Eighty meters."

With one hand up to shade her eyes from the sun, Megan squinted into the distance. "Give or take a meter. Never was any good at math."

"Have you managed to get any spiders close to the area?"

She nodded, dropping her hand from her eyes. "They've got the position more or less surrounded. Just need to close the gaps and squeeze the circle tighter." From the information she was currently getting, she couldn't get an exact estimate on the number of enemies they'd be facing. One for certain, as multiple spiders had accounted for seeing someone stalking around the lone wagon. She'd been informed of two bodies already, which were further out and easier for her spiders to spot.

Stepping closer to him, Megan nodded. "There's a good amount of rubble off to the right, once we're close. It should provide good cover if these guys happen to be armed." Running in blind like this (heh) was pretty risky. They would have the disadvantage from the get-go, but... thankfully her children were hard at work fixing that little problem.

"Good..." He stated flatly at her estimation of the range. He made a quick note to try to find a way to teach her range estimation. Being blind, that would be somewhat tough, but he was sure he could find a way...The good thing was that he had enough energy to get them both up close for a surprise attack.

The bad thing was that he didn't have enough for much else... Maybe it was best he dropped her off half way. "To the right?" He supposed he could drop her behind the cover, and then jump on out... He was fairly safe from most gun fire with his armor on, so he wasn't really worried about your average bandit.

"Is there a half way point? Some cover I can drop you at? Maybe something ten meters away... Ten good steps. That should be enough." He twitched his head a few times, but couldn't get a reading from that far just yet... Still, his range was growing... Pretty soon he might not even need to have Megan walk him through every move further than ten feet. That would be good.

"If your spiders haven't spotted anything yet, there can't be many of them... Maybe even only one or two... This could be an easy one."

"To the right?"

She nodded.

"Is there a half way point? Some cover I can drop you at? Maybe something ten meters away... Ten good steps. That should be enough."

Pausing, since she had no answer on hand, she squinted and glanced back out. It was impossible to visually make out where good cover would be from where she currently was, so she turned back to her spiders for an answer. A moment later, with a bit of a headache and her vision once again fuzzy and distorted, she had one.

"I do see one... it's a little farther away than ten meters, but it's got enough room for me to take shelter behind." She nodded once more to the last bit he said, agreeing readily. Her children still couldn't see anyone other than the one lone figure.

"I'm ready when you are... I'll be ready to provide you with some cover fire, just in case you need it." She patted the old, dented .45 at her hip, which she was still getting used to using, and waited for him to make his move.

What she eventually found in the travelers bags, besides a bunch of junk, was not what she'd wanted to stumble upon... A gold locket sat in the palm of her hand, the contrast of colors lost on her because of her mutations. With the trinket cracked open two cheerful, chubby faces stared up at her from with in. Two faces that easily brought a swell of emotions upon the Gorgon. She was frowning, stewing inside herself, but it wasn't for the usual reason. There were no more foes to fight. There wasn't some annoyance trying to gain her attention.

...There was only herself, and the two little pictures of happy looking children. Either could have been any older than five....

She could see little bits of Charlie in them. A twinkle in the eye, the gaps in teeth where others had yet to grow. It made her chest hurt, and she felt uncomfortable in a way that she just couldn't stand. She missed him... she regretted that he wasn't with her anymore... that she'd failed to protect him when he'd needed her most. Ever since that day, the very moment she'd changed into what she was now, she'd carried a burden of guilt upon her shoulders.

What if she hadn't stolen him away from those people? What if he'd been better off with them, rather than with her?

...would he have lived, then?

The Greek tensed, gripping the locket in a curled fist, and stared off into space as she thought back.... wandered away on the planes of what-could-have-been.

WVOOSH! The wind whipped past as they were greeted with the sound and sensation of landing in gravel. He felt the rubble pile coming up quick, and knew right away that they'd over shot it a bit. Still, he was able to get a tiptoe down to touch the ground and kill their momentum, so they landed a little bit awkwardly, with him somewhat cradling her to prevent injury... she wasn't wearing steel armor, after all.

"Take note... that was more like 60 meters. You alright?" He promptly let her go after realizing he was still clinging to her, and rolled to stand... He hoped who ever they were trying to get the drop on them didn't hear the iffy landing, but he doubted that; they may have just lost the element of surprise. "This cover should block gun fire well, just stay low, and don't peek out. You can cover me with your pistol... watch my back." Without another word, he silently scrambled over the rubble pile, and started sneaking as best you could in half armor toward the cart, staying low, and feeling the area out with his sense...

It seemed like there were some downed bodies... no heart beats... he was too late to save anyone... Had they put up a fight, though? He could have sworn he only felt one person, and even then... the top half of their form was odd... as if it were moving... A mutant, maybe? A certain hair manipulator he'd fought a giant clay squid man with popped into mind... Nope... Most likely not.

He took his sweet time approaching. If someone poked a head out, Megan would alert him.

Somewhere in the distance, something made a noise. Ira caught it first, drawing the attention of Avarive and Vana quickly after. Three black heads swiveled about, tongues flicking out to taste the air for prey, and six orange eyes monitored their surroundings.

Andrea felt them. The sensation of their attention being elsewhere and what they were on alert for. Mice?... no. Rats? Tasty... but no. God maybe... but no scent. Whatever had made the noise was quickly silenced, and the Greek allowed herself to lapse back into her thoughts.

The only time she allowed herself to feel human was while alone. Where no prying eyes could see her discomfort. Where no one could see that she still felt things deep, deep within. Showing that kind of weakness around others was a mistake, always a mistake, and it was one she wasn't willing to allow. Even if that meant burying Charlie and never speaking his name. She was Andrea; The Medusa incarnate. The monster in flesh and blood. She'd carry the title proudly until the day came that her heart no longer carried a beat. When her blood no longer sang through her veins, and her snakes no longer hissed and spat their anger at the world.

Crunch

Even Sloth took note of the latest noise, and the Greek finally pulled herself from her thoughts for good. With his body still wrapped tightly around the neck of the dead woman, the large white snake lifted his head. There was a smell on the air now... human... no, the same as his mother. Predator, not prey. Andrea clenched her fists, the locket dug into her palm, but she remained where she was. She didn't move an inch. Whoever, whatever, was out there was smart enough to try and sneak up on her. No animal was willing to some this close with the snakes in her hair visible, and most of the idiots wandering around tended to think with their stomachs instead of their brains. Someone moving about quietly meant that knew to approach with caution.

Any other time... any other moment, she may have shrugged and chosen to ignore it.

Right now, however? She felt like making an example of whatever unfortunate soul had happened upon her. "I can smell you from here, filth. There's no use hiding in the shadows like a rat." Gula wiggled with excitement at the mention of a rodent, yawning widely to prepare his chompers for a meal.

"...Might as well show yourself."

"Yeah... sorry. I'm alright." The moment he let her go, she made for the cover close by, preparing herself as she goes.

"I'll warn ya if anything happens. Nip on the shoulder, as usual." The fuzzy black spider she'd stuck on him during the jump scrambled onto the back of his neck and hunkered down as well. Megan watched him leave before she plopped her back squarely against the cover behind her, and forced herself back into a vision.

A few glimpses of him making his way closer to the site of trouble popped up, as well as a quick glimpse of whoever it was that had caused all of the trouble. From what Megan could tell, it was a she. Long hair, or what she assumed was hair, and a dirty red raincoat being her only clue.

... was that green skin she saw? Furrowing her brow and squinting, she attempted to zero in on that image, through the spider currently seeing it. Yes. Green skin it was; of some sort, anyway.

So they were dealing with an obvious mutant?

The mutant in question turned, eyes scanning the area, and managed to accidentally make eye contact with the spider she didn't know was watching her. Meg's link suddenly went dark, and she was forced to try and find more answered from another arachnid. The one she managed to get a few visuals from, though, sent her dramatically different pictures. The bodies she'd been notified of before suddenly became very, very interesting. She could see fuzzy grey splotches as her scout circled around it. Glimpses of the wounds that had supposedly killed the man.

"Is... is that...?" Throwing all of her focus onto that one spider, she attempted to see the picture clearer. Even as a throbbing ache started up behind her eyes, and she could tell that she'd be left blinded and disoriented for quite a while. Once she realized how closely the markings matched others wounds she'd seen before, Megan was up and bolting out from behind her cover in a split second.

With her pistol in hand, she ran, jumped, and hopped over anything in her way in a mad dash to make it to the Judge's side before he discovered for himself what he was up against... and while she was at it, she ordered the spider on him to bite as a warning.

It was a female... She knew he was there... Odd... Was she a victim or a raider? She didn't seem to have the body shape of a raider... She was a mutant though- a sudden nipping of his shoulder caused him to jump a little.

The hell? Megan had a better view... That meant the spiders most likely had discovered that this woman was probably their bad guy. Oh well... It looked like there were no survivors after all. He was sure he could take one single mutant on alone. He got ready to step forward and initiate his attack when something about the woman's voice caught on his mind. It was familiar... Her shape was, too... He didn't even hear Megan rushing up as he stepped forward, out of his cover, and turned to look at her... All he saw was a slightly green blur...

"You..." His hand slowly wandered to his chest... His heart skipped one, and then two beats. The rest of the world slowly faded away: The spider, still biting him... The sound of approaching footsteps... Everything was gone. His eyes slowly closed.

"You did this?" He felt out the bodies... a whole family... Slaughtered like cattle. There was no one else here to take the fall, but he couldn't allow himself to believe it. He refused. unless he heard it from her own lips, she was innocent.

Well... this... was not what she had been expecting. No dirty wanderer, no starving scavenger. Someone who looked fit, strong, and armored. Hmm...

"Naw... I just happened upon the show."

Turning to face the figure fully, dragging the body of the woman with, the Greek evaluated the man. He was decked out in armor, armor which she recognized after searching her memory for a few moments.

"The Judge, huh? What, disappointed you didn't make it before the party was over?" Sloth's grip tightened around the dead woman's throat, and a few more dull cracks could be heard.

Megan came careening out of cover just then, firearm already out and raised to aim. She assumed her companion already knew who he was facing, so didn't bother wasting any time in pulling the trigger of her weapon a few times in quick succession.

Sloth was up in an instant, the wife held before the Greek as a makeshift shield. The body jumped with each hit, but managed to absorb each bullet fired. With barely a blink, the Gorgon's eyes slid from the Judge to the woman who'd attacked her. "...That wasn't very nice."

Megan, not knowing any better, caught sight of the Orange eyes leveled on her, and her world went instantly black.

"Someone should really teach her some manners." Andrea finished, sliding her eyes back toward the masked man. Sloth finally unfurled himself from around the woman's body, which fell in a heap at the Greek's feet.

"Is there something you want?... I'm a bit busy right now. No time for pleasantries."

It made no sense... It was there, though.

Without a doubt. There was no denying it. She was no longer the woman he loved... She was something else. Something horrible.

He stood silently as Megan attacked, and the body of a woman was used to block the bullets... It didn't matter... She'd already been killed... It was just further insult to her memory... He wondered if the woman was the mother of the shape of a young man not too far away... It was sickening. Megan froze in her tracks, a victim of the amazon's stony gaze... It was for the best.

"So... this is it... This is what you want to be?" It was probably an oddly personal statement coming from a man the woman had...'never met.' It was a stern question... Not filled with hatred, or disgust... No, it was all disappointment. Even as the words left his mouth he felt something else leaving him. What was it?

Oh yeah... Hope.

This whole time he'd been keeping a dull flame alive, somewhere deep in his chest. It was a fragile thing, and he'd carefully fed it to be sure it didn't die.

But here, with the love of his life grasping the lifeless form of a poor woman, whose family she'd killed, that flame was snuffed out.

He felt cold. "You're a monster."

"So... this is it... This is what you want to be?"

"What... I want to be..." She echoed, not moving an inch from where she stood. It was just him and her now, considering that the lady had already been taken care of.

...if only temporarily.

"You're a monster."

Ah, there it was. That word. The Greek smirked and chuckled to herself. He'd seemed blank at first. Hard to read.. but there it was. She was a monster.

"What do I want to be...?" Glancing down at the body lying beside her feet, cold and lifeless, she laughed again. "Alive." Came the answer. "I want to be... alive."

Cold, hard eyes returned to the man, the "Vigilante" she'd heard about before the bombs fell. "Isn't that what we all want? Life? To keep our hearts beating as long as they are capable, and make sure that anyone trying to speed their stopping is met with swift, merciless punishment?"

Hmph. And she was the monster?

"You and I... we are alike, you know. We both kill. We both end lives. Only... you do it with a mask on. I do not." Squaring her shoulders, the Greek tilted her head to the side to pop her neck and stretch her muscles. "The only difference, is that you claim it's for a greater good. That you do it for justice. Tell me, Judge... is there any Justice left in this world...?"

His fists clenched so tight he feared they might burst as she compared herself to him. They were the same? In what diluted, sick way where they anything alike?!

Slowly, he unclenched his hands, feeling how they cramped, and nearly refused his command... He had something he needed to do. At an agonizing pace, he moved his arms so that his palms were placed against each other... His hands spreading out in contact with each other... It almost looked like he was praying.

"These fine people lived just fine up until now without killing innocents..." What was he doing with his hands? Well, he certainly wasn't praying... It was a new trick he'd learned, actually... His body absorbed energy, and to a point, naturally amplified it... He'd found that if he took this position, concentrated, and held still, he could feed energy into himself to slowly build it without attacking his right side. It wasn't quite as fast as the more direct tactic, but it was less assuming.

"There is one big difference between you and I... You kill helpless innocents in order to make a living... I kill people who kill helpless innocents in order to make a living... You know what that means, right, Andrea?"

He'd stated it pretty plainly, he was sure... One of them wasn't leaving this place alive. Part of him wished that he could allow it to be him

Well gee, looks like she struck a nerve, didn't it?

Glancing down at her hand, the one still clutching the little gold locket, she felt a frown overtake her lips. "Innocents... yeah, sure... whatever." unfurling bare fingers, she flung the necklace away from her. "Those fine people wouldn't have died if they hadn't attacked me. Those innocent people couldn't manage to heed my warning, even after i'd disposed of the first idiots who tried to stop me."

What was he doing over there, with his hands held like that? Surely, he was not praying. If so, to who? And why? Any god had long since abandoned the lot of them to their fate.

"Do I know what you mean? No, hurhur, i'm so dumb I don't know what a threat is anymore."

Her snakes tensed as she did, preparing for a fight. "You act like I've been wandering around slaying anyone who crosses my path... well, you know what, Judge? If they would just leave me the @^%$ alone, I wouldn't have to deal with them. This place... it's not filled with down on their luck survivors. It's filled with people looking to gain the advantage. Every single one of them."

She knew that... better than anyone, she knew that. "You see people... defenseless. I see vermin. I see empty husks with no souls... it's really not my problem that people like you refuse to open your eyes to the truth. The world is @&%#... We are all monsters. We will all die eventually."

...Some, sooner than others.