Catching Rays (Silver Scion)

"Some vampire." A swift kick landed against Bliss' knee, knocking her to the ground. "She can barely even take a shot to the back!"

A swift kick knocked Bliss to the ground while another hit her in the side. Bliss pushed a gloved hand to the ground, pushing her back to allow herself to put a hand up in defense. A shield of glass materialized in front of her, hoping to block the impact in full force.

It did not.

Shards of glass shattered, letting the fist push through and strike Bliss in her shoulder. Even on good days that shoulder hurt like Hell, but the impact from a woman with titanium fists almost knocked it entirely out of its socket. "Had enough?" The metallic fist grabbed Bliss by the throat and lifted her in the air. A blonde woman standing around six foot four lifted Bliss higher off the ground, letting her dangle off the ground. A suit of synthetic material covered her body, dripping around her joints from the excess water from the melted remains of Bliss' ice attacks. "I think you've had enough."

Bliss flew back through the air, landing in a pile of crates. Light peaked through the windows around the warehouse from the vivid night life of Brazil. Wearing a blue skirt going down to her mid thigh and a black half top, Bliss looked more well suited for the life outside this warehouse than the life inside of it. "Hold on a minute!" Bliss pointed a finger up, holding it in place with her other hand. "I think you guys got this all wrong. I'm not here to stop you from stealing the enriched necrodium serum! I'm here to get it as well! You see? We are on the same side."

"You attacked us." A woman shorter than the blonde but still standing a commanding five foot eleven stepped forward. Her raven hair fell across her shoulders as she tossed it to the side as she brandished a weapon.

"Well, yeah. I thought I couldn't trust you." Bliss began to stand up, only to feel a sudden push knock her back.

"We still don't trust you." A man stepped out of the shadows, gripping Bliss in a telekinetic grasp. "So, do we kill her?"

"She's a vampire, so I don't even know how you start with killing them other than leaving them out to dry in the sun." A number of ideas crossed through the brain of the Raven haired woman, but they all took too much time, and this shipment needed no more delays. "We've wasted enough time with Bliss already. Let's just leave her here."

"I can think of a few ways to start trying to kill her." A massive titanium fist reached down to try and grab Bliss, only to feel a bolt of fire cross in front of her. "Cut it out Ember."

"She's kinda funny when she isn't trying to stop us, Golem." A trail of smoke rose from the raven haired woman's hand. "We can just let her go. Even if she tries to stop us again, we beat her easy enough. I doubt she has friends here."

"Let's leave it to fate." The man stepped in between Golem and Bliss. "Get the serum ready. We need to get them out of here. Ember, set the test up for our friend here."

Bliss woke up a few hours later. On the beach of Rio. With a splitting headache and no enriched isotopes. "Well that sucked." Beams of terrible light seeped into Bliss' eyes, splitting her headache even more severely. "Sunlight can go to Hell." Water began to seep from her fingers as she tried summoning ice to her will. "Great. Now, I'm a broken water facet. Oh, wait, those guys stole the necrodium serum. Well, time for-" Bliss tried to feel her side to find her purse. "They stole my cell phone too?!"

Israel listened to the waves rolling in along the shore, lost in thought, as he watched the sunrise. He tuned his eyes to see the full spectrum of the star as it rose. Beautiful He thought, as the mealstrom of colors danced before him. The other stars, normally hidden by the visible spectrum sparkled along with the sun and the whole universe seemed to glow with inviting brilliant light. As he tuned his ears to hear the waves more vividly he turned suddenly to his right to see a girl on the shore.

Her breathing had caught his attention, and he could see somewhat strange physiological signs in her as he came closer. Though there was blood in her kidneys and trace amounts in her stomach, he could detect no internal lacerations, however her shoulder was bruised and her nervous system sparked, showing signs of pain.

"Are you alright?" He asked, leaning down slightly and offering her his hand to help her up. While he was somewhat concerned for her well being, he couldn't help but be curious as well due to the oddities he had observed.

How many people walked by Bliss and either pointed did not care or most likely she just partied herself into a blackout would never quite be known by Bliss. However, she could safely assume just about everyone who walked by her thought she passed out from partying too much. "I did not pass out from partying too much." Bliss rubbed her head as the first response to her dismay finally appeared. "What I did pass out from is none of your- well-" An outstretched hand typically stayed there long enough to be useful, and in this case, it did its job perfectly. "I don't think you need to concern yourself with that."

Still wearing the same dress from last night, Bliss could still smell the failure of her operation from it. "I gotta find my way back to the hotel. So, I'll be on my way." Two steps separated Bliss from Israel before the sun beat down on her, pulling more sweat out of her than even the most strenuous of exercise would. "I stayed at the-I can't remember, I'll just check my- dammit." She turned back to Israel. "Let me see your cell phone."

Little of Bliss' outstretched hand gave the same feel of generosity Israel offered Bliss when he helped her up. "I need to call my phone, so I can find my phone and then get to my-" The bellowing shadow of the hotel bore down on Bliss. "That's my hotel. I still need your phone though." Her greedy little hand stretched out with all the benevolence of a racoon. "Please."

Israel smiled, increasing various senses one after the other to solve the mystery that was this girl, taking in her scent especially and storing this information for later use.

"My apologies, but I am afraid that I must disappoint you. You see, I never carry a phone." He said, waving both his hands in a half-shrugging, half-dismissive manner. "But I would be happy to help you find your phone. Is it far from here?" Israel added, tuning his eyes to detect radiowaves and scanning the area with a quick flick of his eyes.

Four of Bliss' fingers continued to motion for the acquisition of the phone until they gave up their wave. "You don't have a phone? But you can find one? What are you a bloodhound?" Bliss dropped her hand to her side, rubbing an unnecessary amount of sand on her dress. "If I knew where it was, I would find it myself. I think I left it-" A finger rose up to Bliss' chin. "Hmm."

No one stole Bliss' phone. She left it in her hotel room, because she did not want to risk losing it during her mission or have someone call her during the mission. Of course a severe blow to the head mixed with a sun allergy all combined with the fact Bliss regularly misplaced things. But, Bliss would never admit to such a poorly planned obstacle causing her such trouble.

Fortunately, the problem would require a more acutely aware Bliss than the current one. Bliss began to wander in the direction she thought her hotel was in, but in reality started making her way towards a local restaurant situated between two towering hotels.

Israel's face shifted to show a countenance of perplexed amusement as he watched her to see if she would continue to walk towards the restaurant instead of the hotel... When it became quite apparent that this was almost certainly her destination, albeit an unintentionally incorrect one, he caught up to her in a jog on her right side, keeping a respectable distance of a couple of feet from her shoulder.

"You think you left your phone in the restaurant?" He hinted, trying not to sound patronizing, whilst nodding towards the now-meters-away building before them.

He then examined her face for any reaction that would confirm his suspicions that this girl may be suffering from mild delirium.

This guy kept following her. Wasn't he supposed to be finding her phone? "I'm going back to the hotel. I'm just going to crash for a bit. Gotta headache." Bliss planted in the side of a sand dune, letting the sand cushion her face. "I'm just resting a little. I'm well aware this might be a sand dune. I am also aware I now need a shower."

Bliss pushed herself out of the dune, getting a slightly worse view of the world in front of her. "I wasn't going towards a restaurant. I was merely taking a detour when I- oh great, I have sand in my mouth." After a few seconds of spitting, Bliss remembered her ice powers lack of real power turned into a useful power of making slight swells of water. With a nice handful of water spooling around her palms, Bliss washed her face and began to wash the sand out of her hair. Once the water dripped onto her top she remembered the clothes she wore to a club last night did not do so well with water. "Well, this is unpleasant."

"Detour over. Did you find my phone yet?" With the sun in Bliss' eye she could not really make out exactly what buildings rose in front of her. "I'm going to the hotel. If you could just point me in the right direction, I'll make my way. Come find me when you have my phone. Or don't. They're both good options."

Fascinating Israel thought to himself as she seemed to produce water out of thin air. He magnified his vision to examine her genetic markers, and sure enough, she possessed macromolecules not found in regular human DNA. It would take a better, less shaky look to isolate them, so he presently returned his vision to normal when he noticed her looking at him, and he realized that her shirt, partially soaked as it was, was not something he should be looking in the direction of.

"Well this is unpleasant."  She said as Israel looked away.

Before he could say anything to explain, she continued on, asking if he would point her in the direction of the hotel, to which he dutifully obliged, pointing to the first hotel that she locked eyes with when she had declared her continuing desire for his nonexistent phone. He turned away after a few seconds and began walking back towards the shore, but kept his head turned to the right, looking sideways through his hood with his eyes still trained on her through the use of the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This way, he figured, he could see which floor and room she went to without raising suspicion. Once he had this information, he could attempt to answer some of the myriad questions surrounding, her, not the least of which would be the source of that smell; a chemical concoction containing various isotopes of catalytic elements. There was indeed more to this girl than she was letting on...

Finally Bliss found her hotel. Or, at least she assumed Israel pointed her in the right direction. "Thanks. You're alright for a blurry, ball of pure energy. I have no idea if you're even real. Good luck everyone." A wide wave emerged from a Bliss vaguely aware of the world around her. She turned back to the direction Israel positioned her and began pacing until the giant shadow turned into a giant wall.

As soon as the sun parted from her, the splitting pain between her brain and eyes began to subside. A reprieve as welcome as the cool breeze of air conditioning. Bliss stepped in and took a breath of the artificial coolant. "So much better than salt." The floor looked clean enough for Bliss to go ahead and kick her shoes off, taking strides to the stairs. A little bit of exercise should get the blood moving away from the parts of her brain that kept telling her how much pain she was in. Soon, she would really get down to whether the sun or the crushing defeat acted as the primary cause of her debilitating problems.

The door to the stairwell closed behind her, putting the whole capacity of the third floor in front of her. She rubbed her eye gently as she started her pace towards room 317. Committing numbers to memory never blew past Bliss' mind, but finding where she placed electronics always had a way of sneaking under the radar. Bliss took a moment to look around her before checking her pockets for the key card. There were as many combatants in the hallway as key cards in her pocket. She did not know if that was good or bad. But, she though of a solution.

With the sun no longer beaming down on her, Bliss quickly opened the lock with a telekinetic push against the mechanism. A gust of air pushed through the room as Bliss entered, letting the door slam behind her. Her mind focused so quickly on the room itself, she never heard the door fail to catch. Her cell phone sat atop the television, but quickly found itself in Bliss' hand as she dug through text messages from her fiancee and any other members of her team whom offered support. Thinking of it, she might need some back up.

But, first she needed a shower. Dripping water barely did anything against the sandstorm currently residing in every place Bliss wanted to be comfortable. She walked to her suit case, pulled out the necessary clothing and walked to the bathroom, tossing the light shirt and shorts on the counter. She turned the water on to the coldest setting it could get before grabbing the ice bucket and stepping out of the room. She slid the door stop, again keeping her blind to the safety problem facing the door. A few minutes later Bliss returned with a bucket full of ice and closed the door behind her. The rush of the shower drowned out the fatal flaw once more.

The events surrounding the appearance and disappearance of Bliss drew many interested crowds, but none more interested than the local police. Teams of two officers canvased the sidewalks showing sketches of a think Asian woman in her late twenties. She was scowling of course. Their tone grew more hostile towards other locals, before softening when approaching anyone from out of town, going so far as to offer reward money for any information pertaining to the whereabouts of the woman.

So she's telekinetic as well... Curiouser and curiouser... Israel thought, still looking sideways towards the hotel from the shore. He watched her as she opened the locking mechanism without a key, a feat that displayed a practiced hand in the art, before she brought her phone to her hand with this newly displayed power as well. Not missing after all then... He tuned his brain like a scanner to intercept and "listen in" on any outward calls or texts from the general vacinity but none came, at least none that gave ample hints that they were from her phone. There were many conversations, but very few were not benign. When the girl headed for the shower, Israel looked away, his eyes searching the building for any other suspicious activity, but he stopped when two officers of the law approached him.

"Bom dia. (Good morning.)"
"Bom dia, oficiais. (Good morning, officers.)"
"Já viste esta mulher? (Have you seen this woman?)" One of the officers said, handing him a police sketch of a woman in her twenties. She was thin, she was asian, and she was definitely the mystery girl he had met only a few moments ago, although she was scowling in this artistic rendition of her.
"Por que está procurando por ela, oficiais? Ela é perigosa? (Why are you looking for her, officers? Is she dangerous?)"
"Sim. Ela é uma dessas pessoas superdotadas. (Yes. She's one of those gifted people.)"
"Obrigado oficiais. Eu estarei olhando para ela. (Thank you officers. I will be watching for her.)"
"Obrigado" The officers nodded and continued on their way.

More to this girl than meets the eye indeed. He thought.

The towel could be softer, but it still did its job to the best of its ability. It took a minute for Bliss to finish blow drying her hair before putting it back into a ponytail falling over the back of her shoulders. Bliss forewent her casual change of clothes for something more combative in nature. She reinforced the black unitard for heat resistance and kinetic shock. The right glove would help with the build up of ice and release of power while her left glove would focus her telekinesis. Both of her boots ran up to her knees ending with knee pads to keep her joints safe while the soles of the boots now came with an added shock absorb capability able to discharge energy downward for boosted jumping ability. Her pleated skirt fell just below her thigh and only just held the piece together in a fashionable way. Giving herself a double take to check her make up, Bliss decided her time for revenge would be now.

She did even take one step out the bathroom door before she felt a sudden movement flash towards her. A clove of garlic landed right between her teeth with a forceful hand lodging it into her mouth. Her vision blurred as she struggled to find the body of her aggressor. Nothing metal crashed her jaw, so it could not be Titantits, but nothing about her was on fire, so it being Red Hot seemed unlikely as well. While gasping to try and force the garlic out with her tongue, Bliss managed to get a sudden smell of flame brush by her nose. Well, where there is garlic there is fire apparently.

"I was afraid leaving you in the beach may have been the end of Bliss." Ember pressed the flame in front of Bliss' face, causing her to tilt her head to the side to avoid contact. "We found out the serum works best if you try it on someone who had been modified by it before, so-"

A swift elbow hit Ember in the throat, followed by the crown of Bliss' head slamming into Ember's chest. Bliss quickly pulled the garlic out of her mouth and threw it into Ember's face. "That's gross!" The distance between the two closed as Bliss delivered a swift kick into Ember's side, followed by her knee impacting into the fire starter's face.

Both of Ember's hands came to life with flames as she looked for the most flammable thing to ignite. "You're not very smart are-"

"Shut up!" Ice burst forth to quell the fires in Ember's hands as well as cement her to the wall. Bliss pulled the clove of garlic closer to her with telekinesis before getting the proper angle to stick it in Ember's mouth. "See how you like it."

Israel watched the officers head away before expanding his perception of light once again and gazing back towards the hotel, returning to his watching for anything suspicious. He scanned for a few minutes before he observed another anomaly. Another girl was approaching the hotel, but this girl's internal temperatures were far above the norms for someone of her approximate age, build, and height.

Wonder where you are headed... he thought, half-expecting her to be related in some way to the smell he had caught from off of the other girl, and turning up his sense of smell again to check.

Sure enough, he smelled the same chemical odor coming from the intruding girl.

The newcomer, glowing brightly in infrared, made her way towards the same floor as the girl from the beach, and Israel tailed her from a safe distance, keeping a floor below her at all times and watching other heat signatures for hidden threats just in case she wasn't alone. He increased his hearing and sense of touch as well so that he could feel the vibrations caused by the steps of those around him.

Best to be cautious rather than dead, he thought as he trailed her from below to the girl's door. He was relieved to see that she was out of the shower by this point. Even though people look about the same in infrared, it always felt awkward to see someone that way and know that they were without...

The newcomer had burst into the room and thrust what appeared to be a clove of garlic in her mouth. He rushed towards the stairway and up to her floor increasing his natural speed and thinking as he went: A vampire of some kind? That would explain her kidneys. By the time he was up the stairs and to her floor he heard muffled speaking from her room and slowed way down, slowing his heart rate as well and tuning his ears to focus on the conversation.

"-ng you in the beach may have been the end of Bliss." The intruder said, pressing a flaming hand in front of her face, causing her to tilt her head to the side to avoid contact. "We found out the serum works best..."

A serum... He thought, remaining outside to catch his breath. (Slowing one's heart-rate, while great for listening in, is not conducive to oxygenating the blood of one only recently running at 25 mph.) That's almost definitely what I'm smelling.

"... if you try it on someone who had been modified by it before, so-"

Israel readied himself to run in but the girl from the shore acted first, elbowing the intruder in the throat before following up with a headbutt to her attacker's chest, sending her backwards and disorienting her long enough for the girl to pull the garlic from her mouth.

The pyrogenic was visibly shaken and appeared to be looking for something to burn. Israel waited by the door, ready to assist if necessary, but not knowing either party, he remained still and alert in order to learn more about these two. He remembered everything he ever saw or heard, so he did not need to look back to know which rooms were unlocked and which were empty should he need to duck inside one of them.

He couldn't help but smile when the first girl he had met, the telekinetic, froze the pyro to the wall and returned the "gift" of the garlic clove to its sender.

So she is a cryokinetic, not hydrogenic. He mused to himself. ... She produced the water by condensing it from the air. And she was apparently modified by this mysterious serum as well.

If she moved to exit, he would dart into the nearby empty hotel room with its door unlocked before she could get to the door to see him, then make his way out the room's window if necessary.

Either way, he would remain ready to detain the pyro that showed obvious signs of malicious intent, not the least of which were how her brain lit up in her EM readings. The first girl he could probably afford to observe a while longer; she hadn't killed her assailant even though this was a clear opportunity for just that.

Each of the icicle shackles began melting at an alarming rate. Bliss pressed both of her hands against Ember's shackled wrists, further icing them over. "You can burn this, and I can keep doing this, but that ice is going to hurt." Bliss turned her head to see a bag hanging at the side of Ember's waist. "Brought cool stuff?" Tucking down to allow herself to keep freezing Ember, while looking through he bag, Bliss managed to get herself in a good enough position to pull out a pair of binoculars. No good. Bliss tossed them behind her. Once more she dug in the bag until she felt something metal and circular.

"Well, this is interesting." Bliss pulled out the pair of handcuffs. A small device rested between the cuffs connecting the link. "I know what these are. I remember them from Doc Nec. You better burn faster." More water began to pool up as the ice melted. Once one of Ember's wrists were clear enough, Bliss locked it around her wrist. Once it snapped in place, Ember's ability to melt her other hand began to fade. "Exactly what I thought it did. This is good to bring along. Too bad you can't handle it."

Bliss popped her back. She needed to get serious now with these clowns. "I'll be back in a bit. Stay here, and don't order room service." Bliss looked back at Ember, whom she left handcuffed and hogtied with towels with another keeping her gagged. "Oh and, don't mess with me again. K?" The door slammed behind Bliss as she stepped out into the hallway.

One villain down. Now, Bliss needed to go on the hunt. In order for Bliss to go on the hunt she needed a clean Internet access, and good for her, she stole a cell phone from someone attempting to steal her. "Put garlic in my mouth- I'll hack your phone. Let's see who all you have on your contact lists and how many of them are sending you- that's a dick pic." Bliss pushed her back against the door to open it, spinning to move into the stairwell oblivious to anyone hiding. "Well, let's just move past that and go to the messages. Wow."

Israel waited for the Telekinetic to pass as she left the room and went down the hallway. He could get to the ground floor much faster from the outer wall...

For now, he was focused on the Pyrogenic, and the device that made his job of bringing her in for questioning a lot easier. Discharging a small amount of electricity into its EM lock, he opened a pouch on his side and took out his badge, flipping it open and pressing its center, sending out a homing beacon and opening a secure channel to ECLIPSE. The communicator was custom designed to interpret the incoming radio-waves into subsonic frequencies for communication, and likewise, Israel would return communications with his own voice with the same level of infrasound. Only the Silver Scion, or someone very similar to him, would be able to perceive the conversation on his end.

"Hostile PG in custody. Room 603. Advise. Over." Static "The local PD have been informed. Sending pick-up. Remain with target until the asset has been secured. Over." "Negative. Another meta is involved. TK and CK powers confirmed. Permission to pursue secondary target. Over." "Stand by." Static "Secondary target is a go. Over." "Pursuing. Over and out."

Israel snapped the badge shut and replaced it in his pouch before closing it back as well. He then entered the room with the Pyrogenic, closing the door behind him, striding over to her and leaning down slightly, but keeping alert just in case she was able to break out somehow.

"I'm going to untie you, but I apologize for what I have to do first." He said, before placing his hand over her sternum and disharging a brief pulse of electricity into her. It wasn't enough to stop her heart, just enough to knock her out. After checking her sigs to make sure that she was incapacitated, he removed the hogties from her, as well as the Garlic from her mouth.

He then opened the window and flipped over the sill and out onto the side of the building, clinging to the wall like a spider before quickly descending by intermittently dropping down the wall vertically to the ground floor.

Running back inside the hotel, he approached the front desk and pulled out his badge again. "Agente Knight. ECLIPSE. Há um meta hostil em custódia em 603. Não envie em arrumação. Obrigado. (Agent Knight. ECLIPSE. There is a Hostile Meta in custody in 603. Do not send in housekeeping. Thank you.)" Israel said. He didn't have to say thank you, but being polite felt more natural to him than the alternative.

As soon as his message was delivered, he resecured his badge in its EM locked pouch and ran back outside looking for cover. He would tail the girl from a distance of at least 30 meters, wary of any other "friends" of hers showing up.

Bliss could walk with all the confidence she wanted. She should probably tone it down a little, but Bliss was not dressed to tone it down. Not when the remaining two members of whatever team stole the serum from her still wandered the streets looking for her. A constant beating sun bore down light- soul sapping and energy draining light. How she ever once loved it was beyond her- and that was literally beyond her.

Most of the shade kept her brain from feeling less like a frequently pounding gong, but it also kept her a little too close to the sides of alleys for her own comfort. Taking a stroll down the middle of the sidewalk would feel a little safer- mind splitting pain maybe not so much, but at least the sun would feel warm.

One of the stolen messages gave her a heads up about a meeting location situated in the lower section of the city docks district. It would be a little bit of a walk, but Bliss did not feel like grabbing a cab- and also needed to actually think of something of a plan before getting anywhere near the danger of this situation.

Well, right until the danger of the situation came right into her chin. The sudden blow from the titanium knuckle punched Bliss against a street sign, saving her from rolling out into the sunlight. "You aren't dead." A fist clinched around Bliss' shoulder as Golem pulled Bliss in closer. "Let's make you broken though."

"This ends badly for you." A swell of ice began to form around Golem's hand. With a focused blast of telekinetic force raging through her hand, Bliss shocked the frozen flesh enough to cause it to burst. The street began to clear to a safe distance as no one wanted to stand between two powered fighters going at it, but still wanted to watch said event.

Twisted metal began to sprout from bone, pushing up the forearm and eventually molding new appendages, joints, and finger. "Nice try."