spin_kick_snap | Stealth's Office, Rodenberry Building, The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles, Saturday Afternoon

In the wake of Josh's escape, the Mount looked like an anthill that had been kicked over. More soldiers were called to the top of the Big Wall, trying to keep a lookout in case he came back, or get a sense of which direction he ran in, or just to feel like they were doing something. The civilians weren't much different, trying to stare past the exes to see what the Thing in the Cellar had been. Everywhere there was a hubbub of noise and movement and confusion--except around each of the Heroes. They were still, calm, quiet--but then, they knew exactly what the Thing had been. Instead, their eyes were all on Stealth as she laid a hand on Captain Freedom's forearm and murmured something, her head giving a minute nod towards the Rodenberry Building.

So, a meeting then.

Kathy didn't know whether she had been intended to be included of if Stealth just didn't think it was worth kicking anybody out for. Either way, ten minutes after Stealth had left the Big Wall, she was ensconced in a chair high up on in the penthouse, with Raven as a big, black bird perching docilely on her shoulder. Kathy didn't realize it, but this was the same room her friends had gathered twenty-one months ago when Stealth had recruited them into the war against Rodney.

Freedom	Ma'am," said Captain Freedom, "sir, with all due respect, this is your fault." His comment made Stealth pause. He wondered how often anyone dared interrupt the woman. St. George had said it was possible to catch her off-guard, but this was the first time Freedom had ever seen it happen. From the expressions on most of the other heroes' faces, it was a first for several of them as well. His eyes tightened slightly as he caught sight of Kathy. Not out of any personal antipathy - he quite liked what he'd gotten to know of the girl - but because this was the first time since he'd arrived eight months ago that he'd been part of one of these informal meetings - and he knew it was entirely because of what he'd witnessed when the Thing escaped. And yet here she was as well. Because she had also been on the Wall? Because she used to be a superhero? Because she'd known them before the Loss of Los Angeles? Some other reason?
Stealth	"Please," said Stealth, bringing his attention back to the most dangerous person in the room. Her voice was ice. "Continue."
Freedom	"I've been here for over eight months now, ma'am, and this is the first I've heard of a high security prisoner in the Mount. One held a hundred yards from my own quarters," Freedom said, shoulders squared.
Stealth	"Are you claiming you have never heard of the Cellar?" Stealth asked, her own posture the same as it always was.
Freedom	"Of course I've heard of it, ma'am," he said. "Everyone in the city has. And everyone has a different idea what it is. I've been told it's a quarantine area, storage for ex-humans, and where we keep monsters." He gestured at St. George. "One very excited little boy told me it's where you hide the magic lantern that gives you your powers and you have to go down there to recharge."
Barry	Barry, for once wholly human instead of the energy being known as Zzzap, looked up at his best friend. "You've had a magic lantern all this time and you didn't tell me?" St. George smirked. So did Danielle. Nick chuckled outright before his face settled back into the expression of grim distaste he usually wore when discussing the 'Thing' from the Cellar. The joke didn't break the tension, but it cracked it enough for everyone to breathe.
Freedom	Freedom plowed ahead. "Who is the prisoner? Why did you hav him locked up? And where did he get all those primitive weapons from? Is it some...ritualistic thing?"
Nick	"Wouldn't that be nice," Nick said, a little snide. "So much simpler."
Kathy	"Speaking of ritual," Kathy said, glancing around, "shouldn't Max be here for all of this?"
Stealth	Without turning, Stealth pointed over her shoulder at one of the numberous video screens in the room. The high angle showed Max in another meeting room somewhere. He was scratching notes and symbols on a huge whiteboard. His brow furrowed at the board as he went back and erased a pair of lines. "He has been notified twice," she said. "As a courtesy. We do not require his presence."
St. George	"Still working on his demon-banishment thing?" asked St. George.
Stealth	"So he claims," Stealth said. "Legion's screams from the other day seem to have worried him." And having wasted entirely too much time on the subject Max, at least as far as she was concerned, she returned to the subject at hand by tossing something onto the marble tabletop. It made a hollow sound as it bounced over to Freedom. "This is the weapon the prisoner attacked you with?"
Freedom	He picked it up. "It looks like it, ma'am. I couldn't be certain. I only saw it a moment." Nick and Danielle both made inquiring noises and, with a quick glance towards Stealth to make sure it was okay, Freedom handed the weapon around.
Kathy	Danielle passed it to Nick who passed it to Kathy, who examined it closely. It was a thick piece of pale hardwood, scraped down to something that was almost a blade. She recognized the scratches down the length from crude weapons in network TV shows about jail. Someone had dragged the spike across rough stone or concrete to shape it. Then she registered the thick knob under the handle and nearly dropped it as her face went white and her hands nerveless. "It's bone," she said, shoving the weapon at the next person. "It's human bone." She wished she wasn't so intimately familiar with that as to recognize it on sight. She wished she had a different reason for being so familiar with it.
Stealth	"It's a human tibia," said Stealth. "To be precise, it is the prisoner's left tibia."
Raven	Raven hopped off her perch on the back of Kathy's chair at Stealth's explanation, shifting back into her natural form as she went so she could pick the shiv up. She ignored any reactions to her sudden transformation, turning the sharpened bone over thoughtfully in her hands. It wasn't poorly made, considering. . . .
Freedom	Freedom looked confused. "I'm pretty sure the prisoner had both his legs," he said, slowly.
Nick	Nick tipped his head forward and rubbed his temples. "Yeah," he said. "He did. Fucker."
Freedom	Freedom frowned and nodded at the table. "And the whip?" It had been coiled and stuffed into a large evidence bag. He wondered how Stealth had actual evidence bags when his people were using Ziplocs.
Stealth	"Identifying exact muscle tissue is more difficult without certain tests," Stealth replied. "However, judging from the density and length of the sinews, I feel confident it is comprised of nine sartorius muscles. There are also eleven molars worked into the braid, to increase either traction or damage."
Kathy	"Por que no los dos?" Kathy murmured, riding the edge of hysteria. She glanced at the whip on the table, shuddered, and looked away.
Freedom	Freedom pondered the whip and the knife both for a moment. "So there are multiple victims," he theorized. "He killed other people before he got out and we missed it someho--"
St. George	St. George shook his head. "No," he said. "They're all his. The prisoner's." He drummed his fingers on the tabletop for a moment. "Looking at these and some of the evidence we found in the Cellar, we're pretty sure he was tearing out his own bones and muscles to make weapons and tools."
Raven	Raven snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand. She could feel some of the others shooting her looks, as though they hadn't had to make due with whatever the hell they had on hand for the last -- however long it had been for this world since everything went pear-shaped. Credit where credit was due, that whip showed some seriously creative resource usage.
Freedom	Freedom blinked. He opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again. After another few moments he spat the words out. "And you never noticed this how, sir?"
Nick	"They never noticed," Nick drawled, slouched in his wheelchair, "because the fucker would grow new ones."
Freedom	The huge captain dwelled on his words for a moment. Both his size and the fact that he was a soldier often had people assuming he was slow, but that was the opposite of the truth. So it didn't take him long at all to put all the pieces together and see the not-so-pretty picture they were forming. "Before LA was lost," he said carefully, "there was a hero with healing powers. The one named Regenerator."
Kathy	"His real name was Josh Garcetti," Kathy said softly. "Also sometimes known as the Immortal."
Freedom	"But he was a hero," Freedom said, shaking his head. "He fought with all of you. So why was he in the Cellar?"
Stealth	St. George kept drumming his fingers. Danielle shifted in her chair. Even Barry squirmed a bit while Raven frowned. Kathy sat perfectly still, and Nick watched her with concern written below his goggles. Only Stealth showed no signs of discomfort, staring at the huge man. "During the escape, I'm sure you noted the prisoner's withered hand," she said. Freedom nodded. "Nineteen months ago, we discovered Regenerator's affliction - the withering of the hand that had been bitten by an ex during the last weeks of Los Angeles' survival - was an elaborate somatoform disorder, one where his abilities allowed his guilt to physically manifest as an injury."
Kathy	"Guilt?" At Captain Freedom's question, Kathy's face crumpled. She turned to study Max on Stealth's screen, as if that would drown out the rest of the conversation.
Stealth	"What you are about to hear, Captain," she said, "is known only to a very few people and now yourself. It does not leave this room under any circumstances. Ever." She waited for his nod and then said, "Joshua Garcetti created the ex-virus." Once Freedom absorbed that blow, she told him everything.
Freedom	St. George had seen Captain Freedom mad before. Back at Krypton, when the soldier had been brainwashed into thinking Stealth had killed his commander, he'd been furious. The icy calm that settled over the giant officer now, though, was even more disturbing. "He did this. He did all of this," Freedom said. "Your partner is the source of the ex-virus."
Nick	"He is not our partner," Nick snarled. "I was done with him long before all this bullshit came out." Roughly nine months before, in fact.
Danielle	"I never even met the guy until we set up the Mount," said Danielle.
Freedom	"This man is responsible for everything," growled the captain. "The death of millions of people!"
Stealth	"Billions," corrected Stealth. "By the last known population numbers and projection estimates, six-point-five-six billion people died in 2016 as a direct result of the ex-virus."
Freedom	"My men died!" shouted Freedom. "That man caused the death of dozens of soldiers under my command. You knew this and you said nothing to me about it."
Kathy	"A lot of people died!" Kathy shouted, pushing herself to her feet hard enough that her chair fell over backwards. "I died. I was his partner, okay?! I covered his beat when Meredith died, I attended her funeral, I worked as his nurse in the emergency clinics when I wasn't out fighting exes. My family died! My best friend went home and had to put down my father after he savaged my mother and was tearing into my little sister's corpse! We have all lost friends and family and loved ones, Captain! You think anybody in this room hasn't fantasized about going down there and chopping him up until the bits stop moving?!"
Nick	"Oh baby," Nick murmured. Similarly shocked faces ringed the table as they turned to look to Mystique; none of them had known about what she'd had had to deal with before she'd left for Baltimore.
Raven	Raven looked down and away at the mention of what she'd had to do to Kathy's family. It was probably the least savage of all her kills during that lost year between Kathy's death and reaching Fandom, but it was one of the only ones she could still feel.
Freedom	"Then why hasn't anyone?" Freedom asked, blinking a little at Kathy's outburst. Well. That explained a few things. Like why she was at this meeting. Damn.
Kathy	"Because we're the good guys," Kathy said quietly. "We remind everyone that sometimes you've got to do the right thing even when the wrong thing would be a lot easier and make you a lot happier. We're the ones setting an example so all of this doesn't turn into a Fury Road remake. That's a hero's duty. And a soldier's." She wasn't wearing rainbows, but for the first time in nineteen months, she almost felt like she could.
Freedom	And it was enough. Captain Freedom calmed himself, bowing his head, and nodding in agreement.
St. George	"He was being punished," St. George said gently. "He'd spent the last year and a half in a twelve-foot-square cell. He hadn't seen daylight that whole time. I was the only person he ever got to talk to and even that probably seemed a blessing when I let Banzai visit." St. George realized how that might have sounded and flushed. "Err, no offense, Banzai. Umm. Kathy." Sighing, Kathy waved the apology away and he continued. "We even stopped feeding him once we realized he doesn't need to eat. Once there's some real stability here, we were going to turn him over to the people for a trial."
Stealth	"As someone who understands morale issues," said Stealthy, "I am certain you also understand the need to keep all these facts secret until then."
Freedom	Freedom's jaw shifted. "Unfortunately, ma'am, I do," he said, voice grave. It rankled, but he even understood why they'd kept it from him. Didn't like it, but understood.
Stealth	"As such," Stealth continued, "our primary concern is not justice but containment. Which means recapturing him must be our highest priority."
Nick	"Yeah, I got a question for the floor," Nick said. "Is this really a bad thing?"
Stealth	Stealth turned to him. "I beg your pardon?"
Nick	"Okay, so Josh got out," he said, leaning back with all apparent unconcern. "Got out of the Cellar, got out of the Mount, got out of our whole complex of New Los Angeles or whatever the hell we're gonna call it." He shrugged in his wheelchair. "So now it's him alone against Cairax Murrain and, what? Seven million exes here in LA. Six hundred million or something in North America. Sounds like the problem's fucking dealt with. Mystique managed to survive that out of pure fuck-you-itiveness, but I don't know if anyone else can outside of maybe St. George. And as far as I'm concerned, good riddance."
Danielle	"Or is it?" Danielle pulled her arms tight. "Can they actually kill him?"
Freedom	"Forgive me for saying so," said Freedom, "but from what you've told me, can anything kill him?"
Stealth	There was a quiet pause. "To the best of my knowledge, he has never been decapitated," mused Stealth.
Barry	"Or incinerated," Barry added.
St. George	"Oh, come on," said St. George. "Are we going to hunt him down and chop his head off and then light the remains on fire?" Nikolai raised his hand to volunteer. St. George ignored him.
Stealth	Stealth bowed her head inside her hood. "I was merely offering a possible scenario where his powers would not allow him to regenerate."
Nick	"I was straight up volunteering to go do that," Nick said. He'd taken Kathy's death personally.
Max	There was a brief lull, and then someone cleared their throat. Max sat in a chair at the far end of the meeting table. His suit was navy blue with a paisley tie of red and silver. St. George realized he could barely see Jarvis in Max's face anymore. There was a little something around the eyes, a bit in the cheeks, but for the most part the salt-and-pepper man had vanished. Another person consumed by the dead. "Sorry I'm late," Max said. He swung his feet up onto the table. "I had a little adventure with one of our guests yesterday and then stayed up all night working out a couple ideas before I lost them. With Cairax being so determined and aggressive I figured I needed to put some serious thought into banishing him."
Barry	Barry glanced at the door. "How did you..."
Max	Max twiddled his fingers in the air and smiled.
Stealth	"He is wearing rubber-soled shoes," said Stealth, "and the doors have pneumatic hinges." Her mask beneath her balaclava was as blank as always, but there was still the impression that she was rolling her eyes.
Max	"Do you have no sense of wonder in your soul?" Max shook his head. "Good news is, I've got it figured out. I'll need four days of prep and I can get rid of Cairax Murrain for good."
St. George	"Really?" asked St. George, somewhere between hopeful and skeptical.
Max	"Yep," Max preened. He leaned back in his chair a little further. "So, what did I miss here? Anything that's still relevant?"
St. George	"Josh's escape," said St. George, "and if we should go after him or not."
Max	"Anyone crossing the wards before I banish Cairax would be bad," said Max. "Refresh my memory--who's Josh?"
Kathy	Danielle sighed. Stealth stiffened and crossed her arms. But it was Kathy who replied. "Joshua Garcetti," she murmured, "better known to you as Regenerator."
Max	"Wait," he said, sitting up in his chair. "Regenerator's still alive?" He grinned. "No way! It's like we're getting the band back together again. Like the Beatles, but without shit music. Where's he been?"
Kathy	"Read the fucking room, Max," Kathy muttered, brows drawing together as she tried to figure out what about Max's response was setting off alarm bells in her head. Something about the Cellar, oddly enough? And her.
Stealth	Nick and Barry both snickered. "He was our prisoner," said Stealth, "until he escaped two and a half hours ago. He is somewhere in Los Angeles beyond the Big Wall."
Max	"WHAT?" Max leapt out of his chair so hard it skittered across the floor and crashed into the far wall. He looked at each of them in turn. His eyes were wide and his chest heaved. Pressing his hands against the tabletop, he demanded, "Regenerator is out of the city? He's past the wards?"
Nick	Nick nodded and shrugged. "Yeah?" he asked, unimpressed by the theatrics.
Max	"Does he still have his powers?" Max didn't even notice Danielle picking up his chair, too intent on interrogating the room. "Just before everything collapsed, I'd heard he lost his powers."
Freedom	"He took over a dozen twelve-gauge slugs during his escape," said Freedom. "They barely slowed him."
Max	"Oh Jesus," said Max. He reached back and grabbed his hair like he was going to pull it out by the roots. "Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."
Stealth	Stealth crossed her arms. "Is there a problem?"
Max	Max's eyes were still huge. "Problem?" he echoed. "Well, everyone in Los Angeles has less than twenty-four hours left to live. But other that that, yeah, things are just fantastic."