Big in Japan

Nori stood in silent fury as Bliss scrambled for an insult. He no longer cared about Clayton; she was his new enemy, and he would kill her someday no matter the cost if his masters did not kill him for his failure. The humiliation of the scarf on his tongue made the taste of his defeat twice as bitter. With his limbs frozen, he could do nothing but stand there and watch while Bliss walked away.

Clayton could faintly hear yelling coming from outside his tomb of ice. He could not entirely make out what was being shouted and assumed it was just a scared office worker. There was nothing they could to do help him. He remained silent and continued at the door. Clayton was sure he might break his shoulder he kept it up. Then something happened; the person that was yelling found their way into the room. From the colors and outline that shone through the walls, he could tell it was the woman responsible for placing show She was talking to him, that much he could tell. The ice walls made it difficult to decipher exactly what she was saying. It was all mumbled sound to him. He shouted for her to get back, but she probably could not here him. It looked as if the prison was ready to collapse. If this attempt did not break the door down, it would be enough to topple the whole thing over on him. That was a risk he would have to take. He made a rush at the wall one more time. This one sent him crashing through and onto the ground again with water rushing out and ice crashing behind him. He looked up to Bliss from his position on the ground. He should have exploded at her for ruining his day. One million insults rushed through his brain at one million miles per hour; far too fast for any of them to connect with his mouth. Clayton opened his mouth, “Um, hi.” was all he managed.

"Yeah, hi." Bliss stood back as the water rushed over her shoes. It looked cold but Bliss could felt water of a normal temperature. "I just finished taking care of that weird kid. I'm going to take him with us so that we can figure things out, also you might be thinking why does this girl think that she is coming with me, I'm handsome and a loner and only work alone because I'm a mixture of Joel McHale and Mickey Rooney before his face was run over by a truck. Well, you'll probably die without me, so by me coming with you I'm doing you a favor."

Bliss walked back to where she left Nori in his ice prison. The ice melted quickly when Bliss left, but when Bliss stepped back towards Nori the ice recoiled. "So, we're going to interrogate you, but not here. We have a special place we're going to take you." To make him more movable, and to avoid him freezing to death, Bliss allowed the ice to melt quickly. She froze the punks arms to his side and left the scarf around his mouth. "I'll lead him; you lead us to where we need to go to break this guy open." Bliss placed her hand to the back of his neck and prodded him forward.

“Die without you? Miss, you came closer to killing me today than anyone has in a while. But anyway, I’m just going to look past the Mickey Rooney comparison there and focus on the part where you called me handsome. Lead the way, Ms. I-Have-A-Closet-Full-Of-Vintage-babyrinne-Shirts.” Clayton brought himself to his feet. The air around Bliss actually felt somewhat colder than it did in the house of ice, and his jeans and coat being half soaked by the fall only made it feel worse.

True to her word, the ice queen brought the American faggot back. She seemed to have no interest in harming the man. That meant she was helping him. But why? Was she a paid body guard or just some heroic idiot? Nori could not even begin to fathom the reasoning behind helping strangers without any form of compensation. Compassion was practically a foreign concept. Bliss made threats of interrogation. They did not phase Nori in the slightest. He would have rather died than tell them anything. Anything they could do, the company would do to him tenfold as punishment for talking too much; that is what they told him, anyway. He allowed his arms to be frozen to his sides and complied with the physical request to step forward with only the slightest hint of defiance.

“Come on, this way.” The truth was that Clayton did not know where to take the kid for questioning. He did not want to risk making himself look any more foolish than he already had that day. So he made the most logical decision and picked a direction at random. He lead Ice Queen and Lightning Lad around the corner to the left. It was long and darkened hallway that only lead to another left. Once the group turned the corner they were greeted by sunlight shining in through the window wall of the hallway. The light revealed a rough looking man wielding a cane, and wearing expensive leather over coat. He looked like an older, slightly chubbier version of Clayton with longer, greasier hair and a face graced by a light beard and a scar along the side of his cheek. The man was being followed escorted by four men in black face masks with matching leather outfits. Clayton recognized the man as his father immediately. A sudden shock set in and rendered him temporarily immobile. He was staring face to face with a man he learned to fear most of his life.

“Well there you are, boy. See you finally made some friends.” Washington Wray spoke to his son with a slight hint of a southern drawl in his voice that only amplified the venomous undertone to his words.

"I have no idea what those shirts you're talking are, but if they..." An error in her comment came to mind. "Shit. I meant Mickey Rourke. It's not like you were spewing rants about petty nonsensical irritants when I pulled your ass out of the fire." Bliss kept a stern command over Nori with her hand. This kid kept some talent to himself, and Bliss fancied not letting him use it to his advantage. "You thinking that I came close to killing myself just shows that you don't really know just how good I am at what I do. You're alive right. You know what you call almost dying? Not dying. I'm so sorry that I not-died you. If you hang around me too much you might not-die some more. You don't know what it is like being gifted with the power of making people not-die."

The light broke on the trio's faces. "Jesus guy, whats with the GIMPS?" Her grip tightened on the back of Nori's neck. Bliss froze up, but not in the way that would benefit them. Well according to what Clayton told her minutes ago perhaps it would benefit him to not have Bliss flinging ice around the place. "I think I can safely bring that Mickey Rooney comment back for him."

A few of the same thoughts occupied both Clayton and Nori’s minds, but for different reasons. They were both were curious as to why Washington was there. Nori thought it meant that his mentor thought he was incompetent and felt the need to clean up after him. Clayton thought it meant his father had gotten himself into some kind of mess and planned on using him to get himself out of it, most likely throwing Clayton under the bus while he was at it. They were both correct. They also both wondered if Bliss ever shut up.

Clayton turned his head to the girl, “Shut up for a second.” He turned back to his father, “Wash! What are you doing and why are you dragging me into it? Maybe I didn’t make it clear enough last time I told you to fuck off.” in an instant Clayton had his pistol drawn and aimed at Washington, “Give me one reason not to.” the men accompanying wash raised their guns and waited for the order to fire.

“You mean aside from these four here?” Wash raised an eyebrow, and motioned with his hand to the gimps with guns, “The first time you meet face to face with dear old dad in who knows how long, and you pull a gun on him? Thought I raised you with better manners than that. The damn cowgirl they said you were pallin around with must have been a bad influence. Them Filipinos never did anyone any good, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that smug slut there is the bad influence.” A grin spread across his face.

Clayton kept his gun trained on his dad without a word.

“Oh for fuck’s sake! All of you put your damn guns down, would ya? You want a reason, Clay? How’s this for a reason. Don’t shoot now, I’m just gonna open my jacket here and show you. I’m not exactly armed.” The men obeyed the order. Wash slowly moved the hand that was not on his cane to his jacket and pulled back. He was wearing a bomb. “My heart stops, and it blows. It’s crazy, I know, but the damn Japs won’t let me take a walk without it. You pull that trigger and we’ll all be continuing this conversation in hell.”

Clayton lowered his gun. “Well, what do you want with me, then?”

“I’m old, Clay. I need a replacement. That’s all it is. Now come on peacefully and we won’t have to gun down Miss Fokukama here.” the grin never left his face.

"Don't tell me to shut up." Bliss never liked the others telling her what to and not to say, but after she gave that response she promptly shut up. This situation looked to grow worse with every exchange that Clayton and Washington gave each other. Her face looked on with displeasure at the racism that the entitled man spewed down on what he considered lesser people. Refusing to take the orders that Clayton gave her, Bliss began to find the words to speak her mind. Washington took those words from her when he called her a smug slut. To her dismay no one spoke up on her behalf.

Taking her head out of the seriousness of the situation and to the pettiness that normally decided her decisions, Bliss began freezing the soles of Clayton's feet to the ground. The particles rose up with some subtlety to secure his feet. Before she could finish capping off her work the old man exposed them all to a terrible secret. How powerful could this guy be if people strapped bombs to him? For some reason in all of these odd situations of rescuing people Bliss always maintained first hand experience of what having a bomb strapped to your chest felt like.

She wanted to crest flowers over his frozen feet until she heard the man say her name. "How do you know my name? I don't have my real name on any files?" A few years ago Bliss set cyber fire to all files that gave her any traces of documentation. The mention of her name struck her far more than what should rally her attention. "I got a plan." Bliss launched a bolt of ice into the ice around Nori to project him forwards. Once he pushed forward Bliss threw up a shield of ice to guard her and Clayton.

It took longer than it should for Bliss to wonder if she should free Clayton or not. If she left him Washington would take him and she could go free. If she took him with her then at some point Washington would capture her as bait or something else, because that's how it always panned out for her. "If I break you out you gotta make sure your dad's goons don't get me, alright." Bliss couldn't thaw the ice, but she could break it. She projected more ice into the foot sculptures, causing the flowers to shatter leaving a gap that Clayton could pull his feet out of.

“No files? Me neither. Got a thing for faces though.” Washington shrugged. He meant to continue blathering, but Bliss had a plan. A plan that caused a scrawny popsicle of a kid to fly briefly before it slid the rest of the way towards him. Washington calmly glanced down at the boy on the floor and then back up at the newly formed ice wall where his son and the Fokukama girl once stood. “Looks like we can do it their way then. My boy will get his three days. Better grab the other kid just in case. He should be landing soon.” He looked down at Nori again, ”Well stand up, queenie. We got ourselves some more work to do.” Washington figured his bosses could only keep the police out of the area for so long and that it would be best to get a move on.

Behind the ice wall Clayton glanced down at his shoes. Bliss was able to keep him trapped without him even noticing. The flowers were the insult on top of the potential injury. Why would she do that? She asked him to make a promise in exchange for his freedom. He wanted to tell her it was a promise he was not sure he could keep, but he wanted to get out of there more. “You’ve got my word, Princess.” For whatever it was worth. “Why do you keep trapping me like that? Are you trying to kill me or just keep me still long enough to kiss me?” he stepped out of the ice and felt the glass wall. “Doesn’t feel bulletproof. You might wanna cover your ears and step back for a second.” Clayton took a step back and shot the glass wall three times which was enough to shatter the bulk of it. The glass fell down in large pieces. “Guess it wasn’t.” He looked over the edge. It was a long way down. “Ready?”

"Oh my God, just make a Han Solo reference why don't you. I had a change of heart about leaving you behind to get beat up by four guys and..." Bliss found herself interrupted by a bullet flying past her head as Clayton asked a question that did not need an answer. "No, it's not bullet proof. I'll work on that." Bliss dropped her bag to the ground and rummaged through make up compacts, her cell phone, and the computer that she really needed to use to pull out a pistol. "I could always try to strengthen the density of the wall." Chips of ice bounced off of the side of the wall. "Or you could just keep shooting at it. That's working for us." Bliss began retreating back into the hallway. She really did not know where to head from here. "Any ideas? Good or bad they I'm up for anything." Knowing that the guy with her looked like a text book creeper, she identified creepers as people with "Y" chromosomes, she decided to clarify. "I'm good for anything that involves escaping this thing, but how does you dumb, gay dad know my name?"

“She doesn’t like Han Solo. That’s a problem.” Clayton muttered to himself while Bliss dug through her bag. “Oh get over yourself, Misses Blisses. I know what you meant. Though I don’t know where you’re going. We have an exit right here.” Clayton assumed that the men not shooting at the ice meant that they would not be there to shoot at them on their way down. He assumed that they were looking for another way around it to get to them or sending others their direction to cut off any escape routes. He needed to stop assuming things. There were no other men, and those behind the wall were on their way back to where they came from. “There might be more of them anywhere around here. Making a slide or something out of ice is probably our safest bet. Anyway, I don’t know how my old man knows your name, but I know him well enough to tell you that its not a good thing.”

"Never call me misses Blisses again. That is the dumbest thing I've heard anyone ever mutter. And yes, Han Solo represents a class of phony bravery that is hidden behind quips and a smile. So in short Han Solo is, one, a wuss, and two, a bitch. Now, can we get going or do we need to do some other soul searching?" While Bliss continued her finger counting rant, her ice splintered through the ground barricading the way they came in. This time the amount of ice held firm in layer after layer of ice to hold the line.

Clayton started on about his father and their estranged relationship. "I was here getting an inheritance. You know what I got? I got a letter about how much of a disappointment I am, while my grandmother, whom I know nothing about, got a ten million dollar payday. Why am I telling you this?" Ice continued to flow through the halls with a small opening that made an ice tunnel that continued down the corridors. Tiles cracked and broke as the ice crept deep into the foundation and made openings for the two. "Because I stole it. I stole it with a great plan to hide it, but someone turned off the power. and the money got stuck in my best friend's bank account, my best friend who kicked me out of her apartment. So am I going to get over myself." Bliss air quoted 'get over myself.' "No, I think I'll stay situated in what drives me. Now to quote something you might understand, into the chute flyboy." Over the course of her long winded diatribe, Bliss dug a tunnel of ice that extended far down below the basement levels. She planned on trying to aim it to get to a subway tunnel to break into their. Bliss waited for Clayton to go through so that she could close the hole behind them so no one could follow them.

Clayton felt like Bliss’s delusional problems with the greatest fictional character of all time were actually problems she perceived in him. He scoffed. What did he care what she thought of him? He knew she was wrong about him, and about Han.
Then came the water works. It looked like Bliss did not take kindly to being told to get over herself. From the sound of things she had definitely had better days. “I came here to steal some things too, at least I was under the impression that was what I was here for. Turned out to be this dumb gay trap I still don’t understand.” Clayton shrugged before he holstered his pistol again, “If it’s any consolation, at least none of your estranged relatives showed up with delusions of grandeur, armed guards, and a bomb strapped to their chest?” He really did not know what to tell the girl. For all the fake conversation he was able to make with strangers, when it came to actual talk, Clayton had difficulty finding the right words. “We’ll get this all cleared up; even the best friend situation. If we live, I mean. Yeah.” That sounded right, right? Right enough. “See you at the bottom, your worishpfulness.” He lowered himself right into the icy rabbit hole.

The ice was as slick as it could be. Clayton landed too hard and too quickly on the hard ground. The wind escaped from his lungs almost as quickly as he escaped from the building. A dull pain flooded itself though his body. His vision straightened and he realized he was in the middle of a subway tunnel. Assuming they didn’t get hit by a train, or touch the electrified rail, all the princess and the scoundrel had to do was find a platform and they were home free. He stood and attempted to dust himself off. His clothing was not meant for this kind of activity.

Knowing what would happen if she carelessly slid down the ramp Bliss made a staggered staircase that she descended down into the subway. Now all she needed to do was figure out how to get rid of all of this ice. Then her incentive sounded in the dark. The coldness of the ice wall greeted her hand as Bliss tried to usher some control over the ice. Nothing came to her. Not only did she need to get her and Clay out of danger she also needed to save the train from colliding with her ice vortex. She placed her hands on the bottom and began to force ice to break the structure of the ice pillar. Cracks etched through the wall. Shards collapsed and fell to the ground around the two.

The lack of breakage among the total pillar would not allow the entire structure to collapse in front of the train without bringing down the ceiling on everyone. Every time a piece of ice fell cracks shot out from their entrance hole and shook a piece of concrete loose. Lights flashed onto the side of the wall, announcing the arriving train from around the winding tunnel. Enough of the ice came loose to allow Bliss and Clayton to escape, but Bliss needed to stay back to keep the tunnel from collapsing. "Get out!" Bliss shouted as she held her hands up to create pillars to strengthen the durability of the tunnel. She wasted time with that effort as a small piece of debris hit her head. Bliss moved back and turned her attention to sealing up the cracks in the tunnel. "I did this and I have to fix it. Now get out before you die too!" Resolve ushered over her while ice crept along the walls to fill in the tunnel.

A small maintenance shaft lie only twenty feet down the tunnel. Any further access would require opening a sealed door, but the doorway would give five feet or protection from the velocity of the train.

“And they say I’m dramatic.” Clayton shook his head and took steps towards Bliss, “Neither one of us is going to die here. There’s a maintenance shaft right up there.” It was true that the train posed an immediate threat to them and the collapsing tunnel posed an immediate threat to both them and the train. The lives of a train full of people would be worth the sacrifice, but Clayton could be selfish and stupid if he needed to be, and he was willing to be just that to prevent having another Ileana on his hands. He grabbed Bliss by the arm, “Come on, Princess, before we’re splattered across the tracks. You didn’t need to touch my shoes to freeze them. You can fix the tunnel from over there. I’m not just going to leave you here.” Clayton began to pull her towards the shaft. His heart raced. Why did she have to be so stubborn?

Angered by the audacity of a man pulling her from her action and giving her a better line of action drove Bliss to continue on with her reckless plan. Ice continued seeping from the cracks in the walls; the time it would take her to get into the shaft the tunnel would collapse on the train killing the occupants. Lights passed along the turn and came to shine down on Bliss's face. Force shot from her hand to knock Clayton back with a burst of ice to his chest.

With everyone other than Bliss accounted for in safety Bliss lunged herself to the side of the wall. Wrapping her arms as close as she could get them to the wall ice began to encase her to the side of the wall of ice that she surrounded the tunnel with. She forced herself deeper into the wall to keep herself safe from the passing force of the train. Ice flew off as the train whirled by with blinding speed. Water ran down the side of the walls as the heat generated from the speed of the train melted away at the barrier around her.

The five passenger compartments pulled away from the iced over tunnel partaking of the wonderful and artistic calligraphy that Bliss imbued in her work. Flower arrangements littered the sides of the tunnel with small caricatures of birds and fish dotting the quickly melting walls. Bliss remained inside of the wall slowly sticking her hand out for someone to help pull her out of the ice and back down to the ground, so that she could continue the previous argument that needed some finishing.

"Oh wow George Lucas watched Hidden Fortress at some point in his life and then added spaceship; what a marvel to pop culture."

The sudden burst of cold into his midsection took Clayton by surprise and sent him backwards a short distance. The impact caused him to fall backwards into a roll as certain death rapidly approached. His roll brought him to the five feet of safety that the maintenance entrance provided. He stayed low to the ground, shut his eyes, and covered his head with his hands for the short duration of the train’s passing.

When it was over Clayton sighed in relief; the deep kind of relief that only comes from surviving a brush with death. He sat himself up against the wall and checked his inside pocket for his cigarettes that he hoped were not completely crushed by the day’s events. It was just his luck that out of all of his cigarettes, two remained intact. He cursed soft packs before placing one of the two cigarettes between his lips and gazed at the mess of ice before him. Where was Bliss? Another brief shock ran through Clayton’s system. This shock was quickly dissipated as a hand revealed itself from a mound of ice against the wall. It was all he could see of her from the angle he was at, and it was enough to know she was alive. There was another sigh of relief.

After helping Bliss out of her ice barricade, she continued on with her Star Wars hatred as if nothing ever happened. A smile spread across Clayton’s face and he shook his head, “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to get it.” He offered her the other intact cigarette from his smashed pack. “Anyway, we should probably get out of here, Princess.”

Bliss took the cigarette within her index and middle finger and accepted the light. A few months ago Pain offered her the same gift for her conversation with him; this felt more deserved as ice dripped down from the ceiling. A long drag on the cigarette moved the composure of the tobacco into place and brought the flow of the smoke into her worthless lungs. Even without the necessity of breathing she could still summon up the flow of air to bring outside sources down into the depths of her lungs. "We should try to find a way out of this place. I'm sure no more trains will be coming for about fifteen minutes, so we should get to moving."

Her feet trudged through the ice tunnel with some support from ice along the soles of her feet to keep traction. Bliss learned that the stickiness of ice could make it so that she could take an unfair advantage over any adversary that tried to face her on her ice. Well this guy already told her not to freeze his shoes, so Bliss would just try to seem unnaturally graceful as she strode across the ice with Clayton in tow.

In between drags the cigarette fell just below the hem line of her skirt, hovering a few centimeters away from the leggings. She stayed just behind Clayton as the two made their way to try to find a maintenance access to take them back to the surface.