Welcome to the Hotel Carlton

[Silverback]

Cordonned off by police safety barriers the blackened facade of the Carlton hotel looked bruised and battered from the previous days devastating fire. Scaffolding surrounded the sad looking building and, on the upper levels, tarpaulins flapped and strained against their sinewy restraints as if longing to be free of the skeletal steel.

Blackened, dirty, sooty water still dripped and oozed from the charred remains of the buildings interior as if weeping over its lost beauty. Outside stood a lone, black vehicle almost reminiscent of a hearse. Across its door ran the words 'Fire Investigation' below the emblazoned logo of the city.

The heroes approached cautiously as they were much too aware of the publicity that surrounded them and the negative press directed their way by the Daily Bugle. It wouldn't do to be caught here yet again.

[Hiro]

The hotel had a kind of spooky aire about it, like a funeral home or a shrine at night. The young Japanese mutant decided rather quickly that he wasn't going to enjoy being here, unfortunately it didn't seem like he had much of a say in the matter. With barely more than a whisper of sound, Anthony emerged inside the scorched shadows of the hotel, motioning for the boy mystic to follow after. This was supposed to be some kind of learning experience, not only for Hiro but also for Dr. Druid to gauge the child's power application in a real life situation.

Having arrived with the other's in Khalifa's sport-utility vehicle (a rather big one that Hiro didn't think he'd seen before), the Tribal group with the young mystic snuck inside the interior of the hotel. With the idea being to avoid notice, the mismatched band were garbed in street clothes; with Anthony sporting a blazer and jeans while his sandy haired, smaller companion was garbed in a pair of khaki cargo-style shorts with a white short-sleeved t-shirt over a long-sleeved green one. A red tennis bag was stretched across the boy's back, concealing the Nihonjin's mandarin-style broadsword and a pack of tarot cards. Not exactly common items to pack, but Anthony seeemed hopeful that Hiro would be able to use them to find this person that Antonio was so concerned about.

Man, this place got the shaft hard,[/i] the voice of the sword's spirit whispered into the boy's ear, though the spirit was unseen as the Shaolin warrior seemed more interested in exploring around the inside of the pitted building than it was in harassing the child. I don't see anything unusual though, the ghost reported back, appearing in front of the boy briefly, before vanishing inside of the tennis bag.

Glancing around the haunted interior of the hotel, Hiro made sure he was close on the heels of Druid as the group wound their way further into the blackened pit, curious as to just what they expected to find. Or for Hiro to find, rather.

[Tomahawk]

“Well, here we are,” Tomahawk thought upon beholding the burned-out ruins which once was the Carlton Hotel, “Back where it all began.”<br>
Things had been strange lately- very strange. The young Sihasapa warrior wasn’t quite sure of what all was happening, and the cryptic messages the Spirits had given did little to give him exact answers. Or did they? He closed his eyes for a quick second and tried to remember- to see if maybe there was something he had missed earlier.

FLASHBACK

“So, how was everything?” Khalifa asked, spotting Michael and Antonio on their way up from the Sauna.

“Umm,” Tomahawk started, “Perhaps now is not the time to explain everything, but soon my friend,” he thought, continuing with “Good. Not quite a proper Lodge, but good. I believe we have made our… Peace. Aho?” he added, looking in Antonio’s direction.

“Sì,” came the response from the Latino, nodding his head in agreement. He added, “We have also thought, perhaps it would be good to go back to the hotel, to see if we can’t find some clues, something to help our investigation.”<br>
“I agree,” Khalifa said, adding, “Some others had expressed the same desire. I’ll let you two go ahead and get changed, and let’s say we’ll meet at my vehicle in thirty minutes?”<br>
“Ok, sounds good to me.” Tomahawk answered, and suddenly paused, looking into the shadows at… nothing.

END FLASHBACK

“There it is…” he thought, opening his eyes and returning to the present. “Something… Watching? Looking? I felt something; I know I did- or did I? At the time it seemed just like an odd presence- I attributed it to possible after-effects from the Vision. But what if it was something else? When I took hold of my Chanupa, it was just… gone…”<br>
"Hey,” Khalifa said, getting Tomahawk’s attention. “Are you ok? You look like you got lost there for a moment.”<br>
“I’m ok, it’s just…” he paused for a moment, and then decided that of anyone here, Khalifa could be trusted. “It’s just that something strange has been happening lately. It all started here, yesterday, when I first met Antonio…”

“I thought you guys had sorted that out already?” Khalifa asked, a slight concern in his expression- most likely fearing a repeat of the morning’s ‘disagreement’.

“No no, that’s all taken care of- like I told you before, we made peace.” Tomahawk replied, trying to set his friend’s fears to rest. “It’s past, done, and over with- from my end anyhow. I’m talking about something else here- something different.

“The fire, the heat- even the pieces of the building collapsing- you know as well as I do that nothing that small is even going to affect me, with my… abilities. But still, somehow I lost consciousness, and it only happened when my Tomahawk- my ‘Medicine’, somehow crossed with Antonio’s aura. And then… I was gone.”

He paused for a moment, trying to decide exactly how to continue. Choosing his words carefully, he said, “My grandfather always says that it is very unwise to ‘mix medicines’. What if that is exactly what happened in there? How do we even know what really happened? And then again at the meeting- that one…” he nodded his head towards Dr. Druid, “he used his medicines on us. I felt it, I knew… somehow- I cannot explain how I knew, I just felt it- like something twisting in my stomach, a nauseating feeling…”

“You’re not saying Anthony was trying to hurt you with his powers, are you?” Khalifa asked, interrupting him slightly. “Because if that’s the case, surely-“<br>
“No, I’m not saying that at all, just that… Again, something strange happened. ‘Medicines got mixed’. But I do not trust him, not even a little. I think he is hiding something, and I feel it is very dangerous that one with a history such as his would be in charge of the children. But do not fear, I will be keeping a close eye on that serpent.

“There is something else though- some sort of… presence. Do you believe in ghosts, Kola? I think… I know something else was there this morning, at our meeting. It affected my thoughts, clouded my vision. I was not there in the meeting any more- I was somewhere else. My thoughts, my memories, my past, were alive again- bad things that had happened years ago. Suddenly there I was again, and it was not Hiro or Amy, or anyone else from Tribal; it was the same faces and voices- those exploiters who had come to the Rez- I was living it all over again. Now you see, I had to get away, had to go sweat it out, get those things out of me.

“Whatever it is, I do not think we have seen the last of it. In a group like ‘Tribal’ it should not be surprising that there are spirits about- but this thing does not belong here.

“I suppose some of this can wait- we have other work to do.” Tomahawk quickly added, watching as Dr. Druid led his young charge into the wreckage. “They are going to need someone up there who actually knows which floor the Mexican president was even on, otherwise we’ll be here all night looking for clues.”<br>

[Silverback]

Khalifa was troubled over Michaels suspicions of Doctor Druids motives especially since the man had proved nothing but helpful to the young African during his difficult adjustment to city life. Maybe Tomahawk was loathe to let go of the anger and hate he felt for those people who'd made his life such a difficult and destructive time during his childhood, feelings that could poison both the mind and spirit. There was nothing that Silverback could do to help him, it was something he'd have to work out for himself or let the pain destroy him.

Whilst moving over the sodden carpet of the foyer, with a schlop-schlop-schlop, Khalifas spiritual awareness detected the presence of two figures moving towards their location in the relatively untouched entrance to the hotel. Motioning quickly to his companions they dashed, as quietly as possible, to the small alcove usually occupied by the concierge of the once premier establishment. The little space behind reception proved quite a tight squeeze for so many bodies and it was a few tense minutes as the two officials finally departed the building.

Khalifas breath exploded in a sigh of relief that they'd not been detected and turned his attention quickly to the latino, Antonio. "Which floor were the president and his family occupying?"

[Madclergy]

"Well, when I awoke I was on the top floor."

Antonio thought back to when he had woke up, the dreams he was having of volcanoes then waking up to find the building on fire.

"But what happened before?"

Instantly Antonio's mind filled with one of the images, one of the images that he had only on occasion but explained so much. As usual, pain flooded itself through his mind as the images of the fire filtered through his mind; leaving Antonio with glazed eyes, rolled back to show what appeared to others as a seizure.

Antonio could see himself with the premier family, they were indeed on the top floor as Antonio recognized from the scenery outside a nearby window. Antonio's voice was carried through the hallway as he strained to understand the Presidents rough english accent.

From there the image jumped, Antonio could once again see the fire but this time it was different, this was on a different level. He was outside his body, watching the fire from what seemed like a perched bird outside of a window. From his perched position he could see that the fire had started on a lower level and worked its way up quickly, scaling the building like a match. Up the burning building the vision flew, Antonio felt as though he was rushing, he didn't care about the fire only what had happened to the President., finally he reached the top of the building; only to find his body already lieing on the floor.

Antonio awoke from the trance, he could hear a voice but could not tell whom it was who was talking.

"I know that I was on the top floor of the building, even more so I know the fire started on a lower level."

Antonio was hardly drained from the vision but as with all of the visions he obtained it left him with questions, but also something inside of him understood the vision.

[Silverback]

Surprising everyone it was the voice of Anthony that spoke up first. "Well, from what I understand the Carlton keeps a record of all it's guests on cumputer. If, like most hotels, they make backups we should be able to retrieve the data."

Anthony returned the puzzled stares he received from the Tribal members. "I've resided here before and . . ." Pinching his fingers together he indicated something being plucked from his head and made a small 'pop' with his mouth.

Rifling through cupboards and drawers the mystic finally located the fire-proof lockbox which, although covered with water, looked intact. With no sign of the key Doctor Druid closed his eyes and concentrated on the locking mechanism. Finally the box gave a click and popped open to reveal several cases containing optical disks. Each bore a series of dates indicating the period the data covered.

Deftly plucking one from the selection he turned his attention to the desk-based terminals. Of the four available only one looked undamaged by water. With a small "yesss" to indicate success Anthony finally manage to retrieve the records after thirty minutes of painstaking progress. "Here we go, suite sixteen on the eleventh floor."

[Silverback]

Sifting through the wrecked room proved of little use to the group of heroes. The young south american lashed out with a foot, kicking over a pile of rubble in frustration.

Idly watching the action Hiro picked up a blackened silver serving platter and quietly began to rub away the smoke encrusted surface. As his fingers traced the engraved patterns across its buckled surface an image began to appear in front of his eyes.

'There he was! But where was the president and his family?' Hiros brow creased in puzzlement as he saw Antonio gesturing animatedly and holding a one-sided conversation! By his movements and little nods of acknowledgement it appeared as though he was getting a reply.

Hiro approached the groups 'leader' and, in order to hear the young asian boy better, he crouched down and listened intently as Hiro repeated his findings. "It appears that the presidents family were never here Antonio. You've been duped by some kind of illusion or mental control."

Antonios eyes widened in shock and disbelief at this revelation. "Noooooo . . . I must find them, and quickly!" Without further ado he turned on his heel and left the group in disarray as he barged people out of his way.

"Antonio! Wait!" shouted Khalifa after the retreating figure. As he went to pursue the distressed young man Doctor Druid restrained him and shook his head.

"Leave him be Khalifa. This is something he needs to resolve on his own." Pausing momentarily he continued, "it's a matter of personal pride for him. Any help we would offer could only compound his feeling of failure."

"When he's ready he'll rejoin the fold." Looking around the ruined room and building once more he shook his head. "We've wasted enough time here. Let's get back to the mansion."