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Judah stared out his window deep in thought. It was early in the morning, but Judah had not slept a wink. After the horrible encounter at the warehouse he had felt shook. Judah glanced at the bottle in his hand and took another swig. Right now it was all he could to to keep his nerves calm. That and....make a plan to hunt down the start of all this mess in the first place. Patriarch. Sure that woman had killed Zach, but she was only acting out in response to what had been done to her. The cycle of revenge would continue indefinitely if the start of it was not put 6 feet under. Judah intended to find out his whereabouts.

Judah looked at the unlikely group who had followed him home after the previous night. They had all taken different places to rest for the night. Even the strange spider woman. After exchanging some information they had learned about one another they had come to more of an understanding of one another. If it hadn't been for Healer, Judah knew he wouldn't have survived that deadly knife. Judah gave it a good long look in his hand. Maybe he could one day use it to end him..

“This shit is fucked,” Gaia said as she threw a bouncy ball against the ground next to Judah. “Dunn’s been silent in my head for a day. That’s not a good sign.“ Normally Dunn would have something to comment on the situation, but right now it was just an empty mind. It was really unsettling to be honest. With every thud of the ball, Gaia thought harder. “What’re we gonna do for Zach? I feel awful for just leaving him there unceremoniously.”

Whip stood in the corner, leaning against a matrix of string as she listened to this useless rabble. They'd tried to ask her shit, and wouldn't stop, so she had given simple, often singular, responses in return. They were under him, couldn't they see it? He was playing their master. She couldn't stand it. She very much wanted to just bisect him.....

But she couldn't. She couldn't guarantee she could escape. And that brainwashed girl would just save him again. No. She couldn't.

"Save the girls from themselves," she spoke up finally. "Save them and then kill him. Obvious."

Alone for the moment, Genevieve held a glass underneath the kitchen sink faucet to drink some much needed, room-temperature water. As she slowly sipped on the beverage, images from the night of the fight danced in her head. She had more than likely saved Judah's life by removing the knife from his leg, and even though she didn't have anything against the guy-in fact, she liked him-she would sooner or later dangle that little bit of truth over him in order to get him to help her with her own mission.  

A few moments later, Genevieve walked over to where the others were, the slight tension in the room hard to miss.


Axel sat on the ground nearby and watched the ball Gaia threw very closely. When the opportune moment presented itself he leaped forward and snatched it out of the air. He seemed mighty pleased with himself as he then dropped it at Gaia's feet in triumph.

Judah smiled at the sight. Then he replied to Gaia, "There is nothing we can do for Zach. It would have been worse for us all if we had taken him. The authorities will most likely investigate the death of a parahuman and try to find the ones responsible. It works in our favor." He paused trying to bury the emotions down. 

That's when Whipstitch spoke up up about saving the girls and killing "him?" Judah eyed her warily. He was grateful for her help last night, but her emotional state was filled with contradictions. So much so that Judah had a hard time keeping focused. "I'm assuming you mean Patriarch," he replied, " We need a plan to take him on and find more information on his group."

Just then Genevieve walked in. Judah looked with a contemplation at her for a few seconds. He finally spoke up, " Thanks for bringing me out of death's door. I owe you," he said as he flipped the knife over handle facing her to take.

Whip huffed, picking a bit of dirt from her hair and flicking it in Judah's general direction. Asinine. Utter shit.

"Of course, he's the biggest. Remove the head, remove the rest, remove the left. Those two were tainted. Remove the taint, remove the ass. Drop venom in his eyes, destroy the painter," she said in a singsong tone, glaring in Judah's general direction without looking at him.

"Listen, hear, words float into your ears. Know when to strike. Remove the taint."

Gaia looked at Judah after throwing the ball for Axel once again. “I know. I contemplated taking his body, but I figured it’d be more trouble than it would be worth...” Gaia sat there for a moment as she pondered what to say. “I still feel like we need to give him a proper funeral, even if it’s just us.” 

Looking to Whip, Gaia tilted her head. Whip was a... weird one, to put it lightly. She didn’t really know what to expect of the woman yet, but she didn’t really care to know either. To be frank, she was kind of afraid of the idea of knowing. “Getting to Patriarch is gonna be a lot harder than that, though.“

Seeing Genevieve walk in, Gaia gave a small wave as she smiled at the woman. She didn’t know what to say to her just yet, seeing as she was new and saw the team have a bit of a nasty run in. What was there to even say about this, really?

Genevieve shrugged her shoulders, walking over to take the knife from Judah. "I think any one of us would have done the same in my shoes." She grabbed the knife from him before she made her way over to the corner spot, sipping on her water some more as she took a seat, her pointer finger very delicately  tapping the point of the blade with no particular rhythm. Genevieve didn't know what to expect next, what to do, or where to go. She was simply waiting to see where the team, or Judah, in that regard, would take it from there.  

Judah ignored the dirt thrown at him and replied to Gaia, "With that info we picked up last night, finding him may be easier then you think. That is our next move.."

With that Judah motioned for Gaia to reveal what they found that night
 If it contained information they needed, perhaps it could lead them one step closer to Patriarch. 

"... I don't suppose any of you guys can solve this puzzle," Gaia had already had the intel out on the counter.

The Intel, it turned out, appeared to be a series of directions scrambled in some kind of code leading to.... Something? Without breaking the code and finding the starting point, it would be useless to the group.

"Just a jumble of shit I can't figure out. Not even Dunn can guess his way through this." The entire ordeal had been like Calculus to Gaia, and she wasn't good at math. Dunn was, and even he was stumped. "If you guys wanna try it, please do. I might call up Chilly if we can't solve it, see if he knows anything."

Whip looked over Gaia's shoulder, frowning. "That looks like trash."

Judah walked over and took a good long look at the Intel. Finally something he could use all his energy for. He spent a few minutes looking for any clues to the code as well as on the back of the document. This could take some time...

Having spent a few moments watching, Genevieve finally put the glass down beside her and stood up. "I can help with that," she said, walking over to where Judah stood. "I'm a bit rusty, but nothing a few extra keystrokes won't fix." 
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