Down Under the World (Villain Wanted)

The fights of heroes and villains have raged all across the Earth, covering America, Canada, England, Russia, China and numerous other countries in battles worthy of the Bible. But hiding under the equator, seperated by ocean, culture, and Indonesia, one of the most prosperous countries in the world remained safe from the evil gaze of villains. Everyone knew it was a matter of time before good and evil's war came to the shores of the island nation.

But woe all villains who see a land ripe for exploitation, with no guardians to defend them. In Melbourne, arugably the largest city of the nation and a staple of southern trade and culture, a different sort of hero guarded his den and all who dwelt in it.

The Antarctic Fox was on the prowl.

(Welcome, kinda introducing my chracter, but any heroes of villains who have come for one reason or another are welcome to join, ideally more 'real' era heroes and villains)

Bliss relaxed lazily on an open beach along the shores of Melbourne. The ocean waves caressed the smooth sands, under a lovely sun that caught their reflection off of her sunglasses. Her blue swim suit matched the perfect light blue coloring of the cresting waves, as the rays kissed her supple skin. She could now reminisce about her adventure last night.

The night covered her tracks beautifully; of course she engaged in a brief scuffle with the labs security, but nothing she couldn't handle. She kept a high frequency channel up as she broke in, disabling surveillance cameras and the crime of cyber-theft could take forever to track down. And now, she could relax, knowing that the files Ashley needed were sent to a third party computer and then loaded to a flash drive by her. Ashley stayed back in England anticipating the drop off, and recovering from the events that happened only a few weeks ago. After a narrow escape and near death experience, Bliss discovered a company financed with some Australian federal money in Sidney held the answers to many questions that lay unanswered. After the break-in and escape Bliss used Australia's amazing tram system to make her way to Melbourne to lay low. In two days she would leave Australia for Japan, and then to England.

She heard the ring of her phone from inside of her bag, and reached over and pulled it out, screening the number. She assumed Ashley would call her, but this appeared to be an Australian number. It rang several times in her hand, before she placed the phone back in her bag. If anyone in Australia had her number it couldn't benefit her in anyway. The ring came again. She sat up and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" She questioned into the phone.

The distinct sound of recording sounded out on the other side of the phone. Bliss ended the reception and quickly texted Ashely a message reading I'll call you before I go to bed tonight. Australia is wonderful! She removed the battery from the phone and placed it back in her bag, before grabbing the tote and beginning to walk back to the street. Her rental car sat in the spot she crookedly parked it and it appeared no major occurrences happened at the hotel. She took the stairs to the third floor and stepped into the freezing hallway of the hotel. The door clicked with the swipe of the card and Bliss entered her room. It seemed to be in order; Bliss walked in and threw her bag on the bed. A sound came from the hallway behind her as someone pushed on the door. Bliss, flipped off her sandals, and readied herself for whatever may come through the door.

Micheal backed off the door, he couldn't make out enough noise to tell if she was in the shower or not. He silently sighed.

Early this morning he'd recieved information about a cyberbreak in last night at one of the engineering corporations in Sydney. It hadn't taken long to track the file send to an outside computer. It had taken a little longer to discover it had been copied and then erased, quite thoroughly. He'd spent another angonising hours trying to match it to a drive manufacturer. His back was still quite sore from hunching over his computer.

-I need to learn better posture- He pondered this, only recently had his patents taking off, netting him more cash than he knew how to spend. And with his new found hobby sadly less time to spend it.

Still, it had it's perks, like the small supercomputer in his holiday house -still can't believe I can say that seriously now- that cross referenced the network of camera disruptions, with a hazy still he'd be able to get at of the thief. He didn't know what she used, likely some high frequency emitter, but it had scrambled the survallience camera inputs. He was pretty sure he'd developed 3 new image processing algorithms just to get a hazy face. Asian Ethniticty, girl, and a few other details could be made out. 5 more hours of the supercomputer crunching data, and himself, trying to do the same, netted him a number, a train ticket to Melbourne and a hotel reservation. He'd been quick to make one in the same hotel.

-48 hours, how long since I last slept, 6 hours. how long i've waiting for someoen to enter the room, 15 minutes, how long I hope this is gonna take-

He'd seen her enter the room, likely from the beach, given the swinsuit that wasn't actually wet.

And now here he stood, done up as a member of the staff, holding a bottle of good wine, a box of chocolates, and a note that read, 'saw you pass by in the lobby, Venus herself couldn't have looked better, please enjoy, Sincerely Anonymous.'

He'd planned this out very carefully, and summoning up the courage, he knocked on the door, mindful he'd have to duck to enter, 'Ma'am, room service, compliments of room 555.'

Not wanting to face uncertainty without clothing, Bliss grabbed a pair of basketball shorts and walked to the door. A bell hop stood in front of the door with a cart. Wine and chocolate adorned. 555? She thought to herself. She looked to the floor map posted on her wall. The rooms went up to sixty, so room 555 existed in this hotel. This is too peculiar. She stepped back and looked around the room. So much for her relaxing vacation she thought.

She began throwing her clothes into a bag. The windows were without balconies, so they lacked any conventional opening capabilities. If worse came to worse Bliss always possessed a way of breaking through glass. She altered the molecules around her into her reliable shield and walked towards the door. She kept the chain lock in place and opened the door peering out into the hallway. "I just stepped out of the shower. Would you mind leaving it and I'll collect it later?"

Micheal glanced at the face in the gap, He was somewhat surprised his large stature didn't unsettle her, as it did many who weren't expecting it.

-Likely she knows how to take care of herself- He thought as he nodded.

'Certainly Ma'am,' he nodded and reached under the cart for a cover for the fine, often used to stop the ice from melting fast in the warm weather. He under the curtain he pushed a switch, activating a small camera concealled under the edge of the cart. It was angled straight across the doorway and down the corridor. Around the bend in the corridor lay the elevator and staircase, where another had been placed.

He took off in the oppostie direction, towards the service lift. Once he rounded the corner from the Girl's room he took out an iphone and brought up the feeds from both cameras, keeping an eye on it as he jogged into his door and opened it. The bed wasn't touched, all that sat in the room was a single large gym bag which he unzipped, taking out the white furred piece in side.

-No time to waste, she'll be packing and leaving, maybe not even that- He tore off his clothes, revealing an undersuit he'd been wearing all along, covering is tubes of blue cooling fluid. It had been inactive, Instead of switching it on he tossed on some biker clothes from within the bag and paged the front desk to have the valet bring his bike up and with speed. He eyed the camera feeds, he needed to make it to the lobby before she did.

Bliss waited for the giant to leave the visible radius of her peep hole before grabbing a gray t-shirt and putting it on. After putting on a pair of black tennis shoes, she grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder and walked out of the room. She pushed the cart into the room and slid it as far as her strength would push it. Her stomach would not permit her to vacate just yet; Bliss reentered the room and grabbed several of the chocolates and the bottle of wine. She grabbed a towel from the bathroom and threw it over the cart before departing from the room.

She pulled her sunglasses up on top of her head and tried to walk with a smooth demeanor to avoid attention. The stairs were always a safe bet. They always permitted you an escape, nothing like elevators. Bliss pulled out the keys to her little rental car and walked out of the hotel. She unlocked the door and threw her bag in the back. The circumstances at hand presented her dangers, and these dangers might require getting in contact with Ashley. Her bag fell in total disarray at her speedy packing and after a reorganizing she pulled out her cell phone and the discarded battery. She inserted the battery and shut the back door before moving to the front door.

Micheal saw her tug the trolley inside and bolted for the lift still through his jacket on. On the cam he saw her enter the stairs keeping it easy and cool as the lift dinged

-That's it, take your time.- Micheal pulled on his gloves in the lift. He wasn't gonna have enough time to set up downstairs, but it didn't matter, he'd firgure something out.

Ding! Ground Floor. He looked over the heads of people and saw her reaching her car. He hunkered down, he couldn't really disguise his height, but in the crowd he appear smaller. She was fiddling with something on the back and when she went to the front his spirit leapt. She was holding a mobile phone, likely the one he had the number for.

Cursing he didn't have time to run a proper trace but if he hurried he might be able to listen in on the call. He inched closer, hearing the engine rumble. Out of the corner of he saw a valet hovering near his bike. He waited for the girl to drive off before jumping on his bike and tossing a tip at the valet. He asked fast and he got fast, good service.

Like most of his stuff he'd tinkered with his bike and helmet. A display popped up in his peripheral with a map, more of a remind, of the streets while on the other side of his vision he tongued a control to connect to the motorbike's antenna and find the ponhe signal. As long as the battery was in the phone he could find her 2 blocks away. How long before she removed it he had no idea. But a plan to stall her came to mind.

He drove off after her, wishing he'd practiced tailing and listening for her phone call.

The fox hunt had begun

Nothing could ever happen just as it planned, Bliss thought to herself. She pulled out her phone and dialed up Ashley.

"Everything fine?" Ashley responded diligently.

"Yeah, Australia's great. I may stay for a few more days." Bliss spoke in a preconceived innuendo.

"Meet anyone new?"

"Yeah, I met a new guy, that's why I'm changing my plans up. I'll probably head to Darwin and skip Japan." Bliss continued giving Ashley all the information she needed.

"Okay. Be safe. I miss you." Ashley wrote down the names of the locations Bliss gave her on a notepad.

"Bye." Bliss set the phone down and removed the battery from it's back. She turned on the radio and turned it up.

The engine roared up as Bliss pulled it back. She kept her demeanor cool and drove defensively through the parking lot and to the street.

'Bye' The sound echoed in Micheal's ears, he should've figured they'd mask it innocently, but to anyone in the know the meaning was obvious.

-Japan eh?- He smiled under his helmet, -you won't make it to Darwin, I can't stand tropical weather, it matts my fur- He kept a certain distance. As he moved off, unsurprised she'd taken the battery out again. He'd seen and heard enough now to know the lady was a professional.

He'd disrupted her plans, and now she was follwing his. He wouldn't get any more information watching. Keeping an eye on the map he followed, using breaks in the traffic to change his gloves for pair in the bag, a pair that had white furred fingers ending in metal claws.

-Just move out of the busiest streets, then I'll swipe- He hoped by then he'd have an idea of how to stop a moving car. He had one idea but it risked breaking his hand.

-Plan B sorted then-

The code Bliss gave to Ashley would probably take her sometime to decipher. Traveling through the highways gave her the safest course of action. No stops, no slow speeds, hopefully Ashley would get Bliss what she needed soon enough. The traffic packed the highways, but maintained a steady flow. The grid was still very unfamiliar to her and looked daunting. She needed to avoid trouble, but at the same time keep track of where she was.

Bliss followed the road west for a few minutes before pulling off to the side of the road. She reconnected the battery and sat it down by her side. She hoped the distance she covered would give her a little breathing room from anything that crept behind her. She traveled just to the outskirt of the metropolitan area; granting her some pedestrian onlookers, but avoiding any large scenes.

Her phone rang, triggering Bliss's reflexes.

"How are you?" Bliss said in a pseudo-sweet voice.

"Bliss, you rented that car with my credit card. There is no way you are doing that." Ashley pleaded through the receiver on the phone.

"Oh don't be silly. I said I'm going to Darwin, not Sidney. You should know the difference." Bliss continued on in a fake manner.

"Bliss seriously. I don't even care if someone is listening, you cannot do what you are going to do. You are insane." Ashley now nagged Bliss more than pleaded with her.

"Okay, well you got the message. So, I miss you and I'll see you real soon, okay. Bye." Bliss hung up and removed the battery again.

Micheal twitched hearing the second conversation. Maybe he'd been a little hasty about the interpretation. It was a code, and one that couldn't be crack without time, or a codebook.

He didn't have time, but there was a codebook ahead, prying it open was another matter. He reached back into the bag and hunkered low on the bike, drawing out a fluffy white tail and connecting it to the back of his pants. He didn't want to think of the results the first dozen times he'd practiced connecting his tail at speed.

With a small hiss and a brief rumble along his spine, the warmth of the Australian night faded, replaced with a slightly chilled temperature that was his preference. The tail twitched and came to life, before settling down slightly curled, displays in his helmet confirm everything checked out.

-No doorbell, lets knock- He revved the engine, pulling into the adjacent lane, before banking it quick enouch to knock on the driver side window of the lady's car before he pulled back to his own lane, giving enough distance to react should she try to swerve into him. He made a phone at her, while inside he had her number ready to call.

A knock suddenly came at the window of the car. A man on a bike got close enough to reach her window and tap suddenly. He pulled back to avoid her. While maintaining distance he flashed a finger gesture mimicking a phone. Bliss reached over to reconnect the phone's battery. The man looked colossal on his bike, and dressed in a peculiar fashion; she didn't know how many giant men Australia possessed, but she placed this man to probably be the man from the hotel. She grabbed the phone and scrolled down to hit a redial button going to his phone.

"Was there a problem with my checkout or do you have more chocolate?"

'You're a lousy tipper y'know?' Micheal grinned under his helmet, 'Those are belgium there, the good stuff? Or was it the wine? I'm afraid I don't know alot about it.'

He paused.

'Now I don't know about you but I'd rather not turn this into a drag race, and if I'm not mistaken, that car's still got the limiter on it? or should I add tampereing with a rental to the list of things not to like about you?'

"What's on the list of things you like about me?" Bliss smiled as she maintained one hand on the wheel. She really never thought about a the car possessing a limiter. Tampering with a rental car might give Bliss a step up from what she originally planned to do with the car. She took her foot off the gas and slowed the car slightly while keeping parallel with the unusual spectacle beside her.

'Japanese for one, ogenki desuka?' (How are you?) 'I'd like to ask some questions in a less... dynamic environment?'

Micheal paused, 'that can happen one of two ways, first is you stop and get out. Second is I stop you, can't really garrantee your health them. Oh and please don't try escaping, I've got acceleration and agility, and no limiter on my speed,' he chuckled, 'fuel is waaay too expensive these days.'