Eclipsed

The Duke's appearance at the gallery left plenty of opportunities to the girls if they executed their plan seamlessly. Details fell upon the shoulders of Ashley, who spent most of her life meticulously planning every aspect of her life. Ashely curled Bliss's hair and pulled it back into a ponytail, leaving her with bangs, as she threw a green dress onto Bliss's lap.

"So, it's understood then? This will work, if we stick to it." Ashley snapped the back straps of her sleeveless, black, turtle-necked dress. It hung just above her knees in length, leaving plenty of distance between it's end and the black strapped heels she wore.

"It's still really risky. There's a lot of uncertainty, and we have a lot of disadvantages." Bliss picked up the dress and walked over to the bed. She disrobed and pulled the dress over. The green dress haltered at the top and progressed down into a rippled flow that ended slightly past her knees.

"It's not that risky. We have a good cover plan. The details will fall into order as we see it, not the other way around. Just keep telling yourself it will be fine." Ashley adjusted Bliss's dress to make sure it sat straight.

"That's what Vladimir Lenin said." Bliss rebutted as she lifted her arms for the adjustment.

"Don't over think. And don't wing it." Ashley stepped back and checked her dress. "We definitely look the part."

The drive over consisted of Bliss looking over images of the art that would furnish the walls of this gallery. An avant-garde artist choose London to premiere his latest line of abstract work. She put to memory the names of the pieces and the names. She felt like a college student again trying word associations to remember the different pieces. "Just focus on the art, and let me worry about everything else." Ashley assured Bliss.

They pulled to the side of the street; Ashley handed the keys to a valet as the two girls strode to the entrance of the building. Ashley flashed the passes to the doorman and the two entered into the exhibition hall. Shaped sculptures littered the room. Admirers and critics roamed the floor paired together taking in the experience.

"We should make our way to the back to meet that guy now." Bliss picked her pace up to leave the crowded hall with Ashley in tow. Bliss made her way to the antechamber of the rotunda where the man Ashley contacted asked them to meet. They turned the corner abruptly, and came face to face with Dr. Fokukama.

"Bliss." A hint of settlement cracked from his voice. "I didn't expect you."
"Just shut-up. You have something I finally want, so give it to me." Bliss let her eyes intensify in proximity to each other. "I want to know who the Duke is, and why he's after me."

Dr. Fokukama held back more than words against his daughter as he summoned an uncomfortable moan. "It's not safe..."

"When's the last time you cared about my safety."

"Fine, you want to do this on your own? Look for this man." Dr. Fokukama sent an image of the Duke to Ashley. "His name is Oliver Brunts and he deals in underground trade of chemical enhancement. If you kill him you'll do both us and the world a favor."

Bliss fought the urge to tell her father the favor she would do the world if she killed him, but kept it in. "You need to leave. If he sees you, he'll kill you and that could lead to me."

"You need to meet me at this address if you can steal the hardrive from his computer." Bliss's eyes perplexed slightly. "He has a drive here, for a business transaction. It's somewhere on the second floor. If you can get it, you can turn it over to the authorities, but first, I need it to know who I can trust and who I can't." He reached out and grabbed Bliss by the shoulders. "If there is one ounce or shred of family between us, you will get me that hardrive."

Bliss stepped back and pushed the man aside. "Pay for your own crimes." Bliss walked aside, as her father walked to the side entrance of the building.

Bliss saw Ashley begin her move onto Oliver by making small chat about the exhibit with him. She laughed at his little jokes; too hard of course, that way he knew she wanted more than laughter. Bliss saw the stairs leading to the second floor. A small exhibit had been set up there for show. Ashley wanted Bliss to give her back-up, but the plan changed.

Bliss made her way up the stairs and examined the surroundings. Patrons barely examined the art, this room seemed to be an escape from the noisy settings of the show downstairs. If you walk with confidence, no one will ever suspect you being in the wrong place. Bliss applied this to walk through a door marked private, and into a small hallway consisting of three doors. At the sound of the door opening a properly dressed man walked out to see who entered. The tips of his brown hair were growing gray with age and the lines on his face marked his age with stress.

"Who are you?"

"I'm here to see the Duke. I a potential client." Bliss walked up to the man and pulled out a roll of cash from her purse. The roll consisted of two one-hundred dollar bills wrapped around twenty ones, but he didn't need to know that.

"He's down stairs." Another man walked out. Slightly smaller but younger in age, his white shirt made his blonde hair look lighter in comparison.

"Is it just you two up here? Watching the business while the boss is playing." Bliss tossed the stack of money at the blonde man. As it diverted their attention Bliss swung her leg around and landed squarely in the man's stomach. She flipped over him and threw the blonde man over her shoulder into the ground in the next room. The blonde man crawled on the floor, while Bliss walked back and grabbed the graying man by the hair and pulled him back into the room. She tossed him down on the blonde man and delivered a blunt kick to the head, bludgeoning the two to unconsciousness.

She made her way to the computer and went to work. As she began to hack the system the network seemed too easy to get through. The desktop opened to a setting that read: "London Historical Society." Bliss realized the error of her mistake as she turned around to see Ashley pushed towards her.

"I told you not to wing it." Ashley said as a middle-aged woman stood behind three men with guns trained on the two.

"I'm the Duke." The woman spoke. She wore a black suit with her blonde hair was pulled back out of her face. "Are they safe?"

"We neutralized both their powers last night." One of the suited body guards told her.

"You don't have your powers?" Bliss looked over to Ashley in confusion."You should have told me they took your powers, too. That would have changed everything."
"You shouldn't have winged it." Ashley shot back, lifting her hands.

Bliss followed in action.

Bliss and Ashley laid on their backs with their necks sitting between two wooden planks in a peculiar device. Five wooden planks planted in the ground made up a box with one end containing a slot in the middle for the neck to go; the head sat in the middle of the box. There was no top to the crate, allowing the person in the box to see above them. A hinged piece between the two smaller pieces that made up the mid section locked into place securing them in the grounded boxes. The Duke stood above the two girls peering down at them. "If you were men, you would have been dead already."

"Is this really better?" Bliss tried squeezing her hands through the hole to try and leverage the hinge off.

"Maybe. Maybe not." The Duke continued her cold gaze on Bliss. The men who brought Bliss and Ashley to this spot returned with a wheel barrel and large bags. "I'll begin by answering a question I'm sure you're dying to ask, and then you'll start answering mine." A pause set out as the Duke gathered herself. "Those men are mixing cement right now. I'll fill each of your boxes with it and we'll see how long you live in those conditions." Bliss let out a groan, while Ashley released a high sigh. "That is if I think that you can't prove useful to me." The men opened the bag of cement and poured it into the wheel barrel. Another man poured some water into the mix to begin the process. "First of all, why the sudden interest in art?"

"We had a run in with some guys last night who turned us onto it." Bliss continued her struggle by trying to bring her feet against the ground, but only succeeded in hurting her neck.

"So they told you. I'll need to deal with them in that case." She put her foot up on the inside plank of Bliss's box. "Where did you get these little powers I've heard so much about?"

"What powers?" Ashley spoke under duress from her own struggles.

"Don't play coy girl. You two aren't getting out of this without me. All you're going to do is ruin that dress." She grabbed a handful of wet cement from the wheel barrel and threw it down at Bliss's face. "Where did they come from?"

"You know where they came from. That's why we had the arrangement." Bliss interjected.

"That's what I was getting to." She wiped her hands against the wood next to Bliss's head. "What happened that night Ms. Fokukama?"

"The deal didn't go down like you wanted. I kept everything for myself." Bliss thought back to that night, and the predicament that her father put her in. "I shouldn't have saved my father."

"I know what you mean. But three of my men are dead; the authorities say they shot each other." She stood back up with a pseudo perplexed look. "Why would they shoot each other?"

"Someone was going to get shot in that deal. I wagered them getting shot over me." Bliss's comment brought a laugh to the Duke.

"Truer words have never been spoken." The Duke looked over to Ashley. "And what good are you for?"

"More than you could imagine." Ashley spoke with her hands grasping at the hinged plank.

"I can imagine quite a bit. Especially with how you hit up my security." The Duke turned back to face both girls. "I guess the final question is: why do I need you two alive?" The question made both girls very uneasy. They choked at their reasons. Escape looked unlikely with the sinister form of execution being used.

"We can help you get her father." Ashely shot out.

"I don't have any love for my father, but I don't want to help these people." Bliss retorted to her friend.

"Listen to your friend Fokukama." Ashley's comment rang within the Duke's head as a good reason. For Bliss to stay alive at least. "How can you do this?"

"Bliss can take down his coding and get you into his records."

"This sounds good to me. I guess Bliss can live." She gave a look to her body guards who in turn began shoveling cement into Ashley's box. Ashley let out a scream against the action causing Bliss to protest violently against the wood.

"I won't do it unless we're both safe." Bliss yelled at the Duke.

"You won't have a choice my dear." Two of the men unlatched the plank and forced Bliss off the ground and carried her off to the limo.

"You bitch!" Bliss exclaimed at the woman. "I'll kill you; I'll kill every one of you!" Bliss struggled against the two men containing her. The men adjusted and held firm against the smaller girl, and threw her into the floor boards of the limo. Before she could muster a counter, she was accosted by the two men who forced her head to the ground and dug their knees into her back. She fought back to get an upper position, but only managed to fatigue herself and wear herself down. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes; she couldn't stop, she could still save Ashley if she tried hard enough.

A few seconds later, the Duke and her men stepped into the car. Bliss tried her hardest not to cry at the loss of her friend, but her hatred and other raw emotion couldn't be turned down. She lunged up towards her, but the men repelled her and sent her back to the floor of the car. One of the men grabbed her legs and held them together in the air, forcing Bliss into an awkward back position to strike from. Bliss continued lamenting her sobs of anger at the woman who just murdered her friend, before finally collapsing in on her emotion and crying on the ground.

The company dragged Bliss into an office building on the lower side of town. The heartbreak and travesty still fresh in her heart. Tears carried mascara down her cheeks, as she brought trembling hands to her wipe them away.

"Where do you want her?" A man covered by a large coat and a wool hat stood over Bliss.

"I'll need to make preparations for what I need her to do." The Duke removed her coat and hung it over the reception desk of the main lobby. "Take her to the back and keep her quiet."

Two of the men grabbed Bliss off the floor and lifted her. She went limp and offered no resistance to them. She thought of her face. The face she would never see again. She could only stay in those memories for a few seconds before tears would come to her. She hadn't cried or lost composure in front of someone, other than Ashley, since her mother died almost ten years ago.

"Don't do anything stupid." A red headed man barked at her. He opened a door leading into a copy room and dropped Bliss on the ground. "There's only one way out and we got it locked down." Her hand wouldn't stop trembling; her tears stopped, but her hand continued on. She laid on the floor staring at her hand as the stooge left back to the lobby. Her lips quivered as she fought back the memories that rushed to her mind. The long talks, the uncertainty about life, the final act that saved Bliss's life and cost Ashley hers. Tears rolled down her cheek, but she refused to give a cry. She kept her mouth closed, shaking in place, fighting her hardest to keep herself from making any noise.

"What are you doing down there?" A hand reached down and wiped the blotched mascara away from her cheeks. "I'm going to get you out of here, pretty girl." Bliss opened her mouth and let out a cry of relief.

Ashley put her arms under Bliss's back and legs and lifted her up.

"How'd you make it out?" Bliss questioned with placid joy.

"The serum wore off. I'm good to go now." Even through the turmoil and stress Ashley tried her hardest to present a calm demeanor to her beaten and bruised friend.

"I'm glad you're here with me." Bliss said weakly as she tried to support her head. Ashley coped with exposure to the enhancement serum better than any test subject before, her powers and abilities rivaled Bliss in some aspects. She lacked the raw emotion and self-serving attributes, but compensated with talent and channeled ability. She couldn't project motion the way Bliss always managed, but made up for it with just how high and precise her molecule projection could intensify.

"I know." She rose to her feet. "If you feel strong enough to walk tell me." With that request Ashley broke into the next room. In her entrance Ashley blasted the back of the skulls of two of the men left to guard Bliss. Their bodies littered the hallway in a silent manner. "Hey, keep your eyes open. You may have a concussion. Stay awake." She shook Bliss in her arms to keep her from falling asleep.

"Are we out?" Bliss tried her hardest to open her eyes wide, but that only made her want to close them more.

"No, but keep talking to me." The building still held belligerent men, but keeping Bliss awake sat at the top of Ashley's priorities. She darted through a conference room and into a stairwell.

"What building are we in?"

"It's a pharmaceutical company. A small branch that feeds into one of the bigger corporate conglomerates." Ashley picked up a few details in corporate intrigue through her years as a public relations agent for a few years. ""A way to sweep the trail clean of their tracks."

"What's the plan?"

"Sadly, I'm just going to wing it."

"That's never turned out poorly for us before." Bliss squinted her eyes at the bright fluorescent lights of the hallway. "Those lights are hurting my eyes."

"That's because you have a concussion. And that was only bad because you winged it with information your father gave you." Ashley peaked around the corner before heading up the stairs. "You can't let him get the best of you like that."

"I got the best of him earlier. You should have seen it."

"That explains a lot about you yesterday." Ashley's arms grew tired from carrying the diminutive frame of Bliss up the stairs. "I can't believe I'm having trouble carrying you." She lowered Bliss to the ground. "You and me are going to start going to the gym next week." After a brief pause Bliss stood to her feet. Ashley grabbed her arm to hold her up, but Bliss knocked her hand away.

"I'm good. I got this." Bliss took a few steps and regained her form along the wall. "Shouldn't we be going down?"

"They're downstairs." The noise they made in the escape probably alerted them already, but the slim chance of stealth made Ashley continue on her course of action. She handed Bliss a pair of latex gloves. "I pulled these off the guards." Ashley reached into her bag and pulled out a pistol for Bliss and one for herself. "If we make it out of here, all we need to do is go to the police, and bust this place."

"We don't have evidence." Bliss forced her back against the wall and projected herself forward.

"Shit. You're right." Ashley brought her gloved hand to her face.

"We got to stop them then. End it here." Bliss now stood straight up with no support. She started walking down the stairs towards the first floor.

"Bliss, wait. I'll go first." Ashley started her walk down at a brisk pace to catch up with Bliss. Bliss raced down the stairs in her competitive nature and kicked the push bar on the door open. She lunged forward with her gun pointed forward. Ashley tumbled through behind her as they made their way through the main workplace of the office.

Gunfire rang out through the office place as a bullet landed against a filing cabinet next to Bliss. A man stood behind the cover of a door opening firing at the two open girls. Ashley rang off two shots in the direction of the blast and pelted one round into a door and another into the wall in front of him. A burst of red blood came from his chest as Bliss found home with three shots to his chest. Bliss moved forward and ducked behind a desk. She blinked her eyes three times quickly, trying to shake the lack of focus. The other man fired two rounds into Ashley's cabinet barricade before ducking behind a wall. Bliss and Ashley jumped out to return fire at the wall hiding their adversaries.

Ashley moved from behind her cabinet to a desk while Bliss pelted the wall repeatedly. Bliss ducked down to reload her pistol, unannounced to Ashley. The final man popped out and fired a round into Ashley's arm, penetrating through. Feeling a surge of adrenaline, Ashley made a move for a closer desk and fired at the wall directly where the man ducked behind. He fell out from behind the wall with four gunshot wounds in his chest and neck.

"God dammit Bliss!" Ashley cried out. Ashley covered her arm with the latex glove. Bliss inserted the clip and stood to examine the scene.

"What, you're fine." Bliss commented at Ashley, as she tied another latex glove around her arm to stop the bleeding.

"I have to go to a hospital now Bliss. And I have to explain why a bullet is in my arm. Bliss!"

"Maybe you two should keep it down." The two girls looked to the main entrance in surprise as the Duke emerged with a military grade chain gun. Ashley's gun sat on the ground next to her as she gaped at the change of events. The Duke let loose a barrage as Bliss moved even more quickly than normal to escape. The Duke followed for a few rounds before focusing her attention back on Ashley. Ashley rolled with her pistol to escape behind a wall and duck into a prone position. Large caliber bullets riddled the wall but either hit too low or too high. Bliss bull-rushed the Duke from over a desk and knocked her to the ground. The gun slipped out of the Duke's grip and Bliss delivered it across the room with a swift kick. The Duke wasted no time and grabbed Bliss's pistol and pointed it at her head.

"You wanna know how I got the nickname 'The Duke?'" She asked pointing the gun at Bliss's head.

"I'm sure it's a cute story. Go ahead." Bliss focused on the jamming mechanism in the gun.

"Because 'I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on.'" She smiled and pulled the trigger. The bullet jammed and misfired, sending the bullet through the back of the Duke's head and into the ceiling.

Bliss gave Ashley a smile as she reached out to telekinetically grab her pistol and bring it to her hand. She faltered and the pistol lay on the ground. Ashley's eyes lowered as she looked behind Bliss.

"I think it's time we reconciled our differences." Dr. Fokukama put his hand on Bliss's shoulder. "My company will take care of this. You just need to leave the premises and lay low for a little while."

"I need to go to a hospital." Ashley retorted. "And so does Bliss."

"I'll send a doctor to your residence. Just do as I say for once." Bliss didn't know if the concussion caused her thought process, but she actually felt like taking her father up on his orders. She placed her hand on his. Dr. Fokukama smiled and began to bring his open hand on top of Bliss's, when she swept his hand off of her shoulder and into the air. She turned and walked by him without saying anything.

"Let's go home Ash." Ashley got up and walked behind her.

"I still have your number from the contact, so I'll send you where we'll be." Ashley turned to face him while walking backwards. She wouldn't give him the actual flat number, but instead a hotel room that they would rent for the purpose of being away from anyone who knew where they stayed before tonight.

Dr. Fokukama nodded to her as the two girls walked off.

((This this thread still open for a newcomer?))