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>>"No. Please, no. This is... I may have already taken care of it."

He nodded, the matter was settled. If she said she had already taken care of it, then it was over and done. Even if it was not, Hades respected her too much to step in unless she asked for it. He considered her an equal in many regards. She had a different set of skills, the use of which demanded a different price than Hades own but equal none the less. Hades was blissfully unaware of the fear that he had caused to blossom for a moment.

>>"I'm surprised anyone bothers to betray you anymore. You'd almost think there's someone out there that doesn't like you very much."

He smirked. "I wish it were so.
It is more a problem of proximity. You have seen me in action and have spoken to me. Others.... Less so." 

He paused collecting his thoughts, then continued.

"I have been in my profession for a long time. As a consequence I am the keeper of many secrets, ones that many would either like to get their hands on or erase forever. Over the years I have also amassed a considerable number of favors or promises. Ones which the next generation often think of as outdated, void or simply inconvenient. They think I am some boogy man made up to scare them or that I will be old and feeble and removing me will be their stepping stone to greatness or that I am a thorn that can be easily removed. Thus every so often, I need to refresh the memories of a few people. It is an annoyance that comes with the job I guess."

He pondered. Had he ever though of giving it all up and walking away? Of course. He had even done so from time to time. Over his lifetime Hades had been married twice. Those were... far happier times. But now was no time to get lost in the past nor to dwell on dark memories. Hades shook his head slightly as he returned to the present.

"Perhaps I should take a break from it all and do something else for a chance, open a pub, or a restaurant."

His eyes twinkled with amusement, imagining the scene. He smiled.

>>"I don't think..."

Hades chuckled and made a dismissive gesture with his hand, as if flicking the event away.

"It happens in my line of work, more often than you would think. No, think nothing of it. You owe me nothing."

He sat back, more relaxed than he had been in a while. He was enjoying this, he realized. There were not that many people that Hades felt he could relax around. He had been slightly wary of Noel when they first ment, but since then she had proved herself more than trust worthy in his books.

>>There is something you could do for me, though."

Hades sat up a little straighter and indicated for her to continue.

"Done. I will need the registration number of the plane, it's location as well as where you would like the funds transferred."

Hades knew just the man to contact. He memorized the information and sent a quick message on his phone. He realized that he did not know how to stay in touch. He shrugged mentally, if she wanted to she would mention it, otherwise he would respect her privacy.

Business concluded, Hades sat back and sipped his Chai, simply enjoying the silence and the company of a friend.

By the quick almost undetectable look that Noel gave Hades as he got up he was sure that she had spotted the stiffness.
>>"I would honestly rather not introduce you."
Hades blinked, perhaps there was something about Haley that Noel he would not like. Hades filed that away as a question to ask Noel later.
>>"Besides, chaperone is not her official job title. She's just doing me a favor so I can get out."
Hades nodded, again it did not totally make sense but he would ask about it later.
>>"Haley, Hades. Hades, Haley. No murder. Scouts honor. But some space would be nice."
Murder? What had Noel gotten herself into.
After ditching "Haley" who seemed less and less of a chaperone and more like a slightly over protective mother hen.

Noel grabbed her tea and his hand. It was an informal gesture, still a little jarring to someone who only recently returned to civilization and started putting on civilized behavior like one struggles to slowly put on layers of clothing. Hades allowed himself to be led to a spot in the back. He sat with his back to a wall, clear lines of vision around and noted that there was no one close enough to overhear them. They sat facing each other. Hades scanned Noel's face a little more closely. She had been through a lot he realized. He would like to know but she would tell him if she wished in her own time.
They sat in silence for a while, Hades at ease, Noel.... looked less so. FInally Hades broke the silence.

" It has been a while.".
He paused then continued.
" I apologize for the sudden disappearance, I was sent on a mission from our....former employer that... did not go according to plan.".
Hades eyes took on a faraway look, as he took a long sip of his tea.
"Ended up the wilderness of Siberia stripped of my abilities and had to hike back on foot. It took a while."

Welllll that was mostly true. He had not mentioned the part about being in a prison, being tortured and escaping. He had also neglected to mention that it had happened during winter, numerous brushes with death, while carrying out a 5+ month long game of hide and seek/guerrilla war with the army and trying to get back to the states. He also let out the part where he had kayaked across the bering straight in a record storm and almost died in the attempt as well as his journey back. Come to think of it there was quite a bit he had not mentioned. He would tell her if she asked he guessed. He had gotten a lot better with the bow and arrow and rather deadly with the slingshot.He shook himself out of his musings. He had killed a great many people in the past months, just to stay alive.

" What happened to you? Unlike you to go around unarmed."

Hades sat back and waited for Noels response.

Hades watched as Noel slipped beside him. She could have sat opposite him and made things easy, but no, beside.
Hades almost completely suppressed a slight wince as he turned to face her. He was not yet fully recovered. Still very much lethal if provoked but still recovering. The healer had managed to purge whatever mutation suppressor he had been injected then fainted. So his wounds were healing the old fashioned way.

>>"I'm so sorry. I have, like, 1 minute at most."
Hades raised his eyebrow and was about to ask but was interrupted.
>>"There's too much--"
She did not even finish the sentence before wildly launching into the next.
>>"Come back with me? Just across the street. My- er- chaperone is there."

Chaperone? First safe houses bugged and under surveillance now she required a chaperone? With a mental command Hades brought his senses back on to full and engaged his training. For a few seconds time seemed to slow as the world was brought into hyper focus. He noted the woman sitting across from them reading a book yet observing them, from what he could see she was unarmed, still he would keep an eye on her. He reflexively scanned the rest of the diner without appearing to do so and noted no other potential threats.

Turning back to Noel, he started noting things that raised questions in his mind. Her posture, was less confidant? Seemed less sure of herself than before. He also noted the lack of concealed weaponery, at least firearms and the usual backups. All this indicated that much had happened in the time he had been absent. Well the last time they met she had fled his house after submerging herself in his memories. Questions, there were too many questions. Hades mentally shook his head. Time returned to normal.

Out loud he replied. "Of course, lead the way."
He followed her not getting up quite as smoothly as he would have liked, he was still a little stiff. Though only those that knew him would be able to pick that up. As he followed her he continued.
"You must introduce me to your chaperone"
The emphasis was slight and easily missed, but was there none the less.

Hades slowly came too. His body ached, and he felt mostly spend, but strangely warm. He was either suffering from hypothermia or the temperature had gotten warmer for some reason. He did not move, his breathing pattern did not change but he did a check of himself. His breathing was heavy but not fully impaired. One of his lungs was probably nicked. As long as he could stay away from really vigorous activity like getting shot at or getting beaten to a pulp he should pull through OK. The salt water had been good for his wounds. Preventing infection and the cold had helped them clot. He would have to clean them and ensure that they were not infected as well as check that the bullets had not logged inside. He thought that all the shots were through and through but that was in the heat of the battle, where the main objective was to escape and stay alive by any means necessary.

Slowly he opened his eyes and blinked in the light. As far as he could tell he lay where he fell and yet there was a makeshift shelter over him. It was... crude but undeniably effective. Living off the land and hunting over a 5-6 month period had honed Hades senses. He knew how to listen. He noticed that there was someone inside the...Igloo? with him. As he slowly brought himself fully awake without moving he began to notice more details. There were claw marks in the shelter. Some beast had built it, more than one judging by the difference in sizes, spacing and length of claw marks. Slowly he turned his head to see who was with him.

He beheld an.... interesting sight. She, it was a she, was sitting with her back to him, watching the entrance. She was naked, that fact bothered Hades not in the slightest. Over the course of his bi-millennial life, Hades has seen much, a naked woman did not phase him in the slightest. He remembered a past mission where he had to carry out an assassination in a nudist colony, smuggling weapons in had been interesting. The next thing that struck him was that her hair was completely white, as he noted that fact more details came into focus, the pail almost sickly skin tone, the resemblance to a mummified corpse, the very visible vibrant blue veins, the fact that she sat close to the entrance but not in the light. Some sort of aversion to light perhaps?

Turning his head slowly and wincing at the stab of pain, he probably had a mild concussion, he noticed the dead hare. Slowly he propped himself up. He located his water skin, which still miraculously had some water in it, took a small sip and managed to summon enough breath to say one word. "Wood".  That was enough to exhaust him. Once he had wood he could build a fire, both to cook and smoke the meat and to sterilize the knife for any cauterizing work that might need doing once he started to clean his wounds.

He set about slowly taking of his clothes so he could examine his chest. The light shone upon his scars. He had accumulated many over the years, each one a memory. He still had some smoked meat left so he nibbled on that , just a little at a time. He held some out to the woman, to tired to say much.

Hades woke up. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that awareness returned to his body. He was careful to maintain his previous posture, the slumped back, the slow ambling gait, the listless look, the almost drooling face.

Slowly taking stock of his surroundings he surmised that he was in a mine. He was among others chained to an ore cart pushing it uphill out of the mines along old and rusty rails. The others chained to the cart looked listless and vacant, as if most of their brains no longer functioned, only good for grunt labor spurred on by the liberal application of whips or batons.

How had he come to be here? Before turning to that question, Hades examined himself. He was mildly under nourished, but functional, definitely not in peak physical condition but satisfactory. Most importantly he detected no physical handicaps. How long had he been in this stupor? Who was he. Parts of his memory were clear, but parts seemed to be hidden behind a wall of pain that intensified the harder he tried to reach for them.

He remembered a plane, yes a plane ride. It started to return to him. he had been on a plane. He remembered warning sirens and the plane going down. The some vague recollections of white rooms, injections and lights that were far too bright, then.... nothing.

Caught up in his thoughts Hades was shocked out of his reverie by a sudden drop in temperature. Suddenly the ore cart and its slave propulsion burst out into sunlight. It was cool, not yet cold but with sufficient bite to tell Hades that winter was on the way.

Hades continued to play dumb and keep his ears open and over the next few days he heard enough to start to piece things together. To begin with he was in Russia, near the Russian Mongolia border, near a place called Lake Baikal.

He was in a prison camp, a camp for mutants and spies. They were sentenced to work as slave labor in a mine. Not the industrial mine, but a smaller one nearby. One that was officially "mined out". There was an arrangement with the government that any thing of value that the prisoners dug up would not be officially reported and could be used as the Warden so desired. All mutants were injected with some sort of compound that would permanently nullify their powers unless the antidote was administered. Also every so often one of the prisoners would get selected at random and tortured for information. those that came out, never seemed quite in their right mind.

One thing was for certain. Hades had to escape and soon.

Due to having to juggle full time work and study for further programming certification I will on, well more... sporadically than usual. Apologies for any waits. I will still try to post during this time but no promises when. All will return to normal after October.... hopefully.

Hades was in charge of security. He had Green 1 keeping an eye out on the gun and weapons show a block away. Green 2 was sweeping the parameter. Teams Blue, Black, Yellow & Red were running spiral patrols in the North, South East and West quadrants respectively. Hades was in the Command Post. Technically speaking there were three levels of security. The first were the state troopers that were the outer layer. Then there were the hired guns. The teams that were under Hades command. Finally, the innermost layer were the personal bodyguards that each of the VIPs brought. While the ceremony was there to commemorate the lost, nobody had any illusions that this memorial would make a nice fat target. While three layers of security was good, and some might call it overkill, the three layers were somewhat…. Uncoordinated at times, which concerned Hades. He dismissed these thoughts with a mental shake of the head and focused on what was happening. Panning over the scene with binoculars.

The ceremony was proceeding smoothly. Dignitary after dignitary were making speeches, some remembered the dead fondly, others called for further unity…. The list went on. There was music, an orchestra, representatives of different Mutant communities came to lay wreaths. It was time for a sitrep.

“All teams call in.”

“Green 1 to Command, all clear. Be warned exhibition will fire blanks in 10 mikes.”

“Green 2, all clear”

And so it went. Ten minutes later there was a faint series of booms that drifted faintly over the memorial service. Hades had warned them ahead of time so although the bodyguards tensed up a little the service went on. 

“Green 1 to Command, show is wrapping up. Will observe then swing around to support Green 2 in perimeter sweep. Green 2 acknowledge.”

Nothing.

“Green 2 come in.”

“############## is Gre########, ######mma Alert, I repeat Ga#### Al####, Morta### Incom####. South by Sou## East.”

The feed went dead. Hades checked the time stamp, verifying that Green 2 should be in the South East quadrant then switched to the command override channel. In a calm, clear concise voice he stated:

“All teams this is command, Code 3, I repeat this is a code 3, South by South East. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill.”

Code 3 was short for incoming attack from the above, and since there was not a chopper in the sky, it would likely be mortar or artillery fire. Across the service, pandemonium reigned. Then the mortar rounds hit.