Big in Japan

Ace awoke with a jolt, no tranquillizer induced dreams this time, straight out and straight back into life. he looks down, he was missing his shirt, there were burns at various points on his body "Oh my, this is not good." Suddenly, like something had just kicked in he sensed there was something human shaped around him, like a sixth sense. Instinctively he whipped around to face the figure, he was an asian man, more like a teen though, his clothing confirmed that he was indefinitely in japan, Ace couldn't say much though, he was only in his loose fitting jeans and barely anything else. Ace went to charge his fist with electricity but he couldn't conjure anything "Bastard" Ace muttered as he threw himself off the bed. only to be pulled back by the straps on his feet, the ones around his wrists had burnt off when the blackout had happened.

Ace was now hanging upside down from his bed struggling to release his feet from the straps, they gave way and he fell to the floor, there was an almighty smack as his bare stomach hit the floor, "That's going to leave a mark." Ace grumbled,
*Ok now i need to get the hell out of here, wait, that guy is still there, damn, lets see, maybe he's a good guy?* Ace thought
"I don't suppose your a good guy, hell, you don't even need to be a good guy, just not trying to kill me" Ace spoke to the asian teen. While this was happening he tried to use his new ability to access the situation, He could sense the asian man, and to lesser extent he could sense either a man laying down or a corpse next to him, and next to that corpse/sleeping man was a gun or something that resembled a gun. *Ok, il need to get to that if i can, but i cant exactly move without flopping about, that tranq must have done a number on me, i might just lay here for a bit.* Ace thought to himself as he laid on the floor.

“Seacrest? Whats a Seacrest?” Clayton raised an eyebrow at what was probably an insult Bliss madeup to feel better about her failed experiment with her new powers. He watched with arms folded as she began to freeze the glass in front of them, “You know they have a door, right?” He was as snide as ever. It was too late for the door, though; the window was shattered and everyone within the building, including security, was startled and confused. When guards were startled and confused they usually began shooting. Clayton knew being shot at sucked. He needed to move quickly to avoid that situation, so he did. He spit the tooth pick from his mouth and rushed inside.

There were two guards in the building one standing by the front door and one near the stairs by a receptionist desk. The one near the door was closer and quick on the draw; he was already reaching for his pistol. Clayton practically flew towards him and delivered spinning kick, the kind made famous by Chuck Norris, in mid-air directly to the man’s head. He would be out for quite some time after. Without a thought Clay picked up the guard’s gun and fired a shot into the shoulder of the guard. The only other person in the lobby was a young receptionist like the one he intimidated earlier that day. She screamed and ducked down safe behind her desk. He was two for two that day.

He walked towards the wound guard. The guy was clutching his bleeding shoulder instead of reaching for his own gun. It was probably a smart move on his part. Clayton raised his borrowed Glock 9mm and aimed at the bleeder’s face. “So where can I find your boss?”

“Fuck you. The alarm’s already been sounded.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.” He fired the gun again. This time the bullet whizzed past the man’s head and into the wall, “Wanna try that again?”

“Please! No more shooting!” A voice spoke from behind him. He turned to see the young woman ducked behind the desk. She was an innocent with no idea what went on upstairs. “The board is meeting on the top floor. I sounded the alarm. It shuts down the elevators. You’ll die if you take the stairs…” She seemed genuinely concerned for his wellbeing despite the situation he put her in. It reminded him of a girl he once met in Mexico.

“Wanna bet on that?”

!!!!

Nori simply stood silently while his enemy struggled to get out of bed. That’s what he’d come to think of Ace as: an enemy. At that point he could detect nothing special about the boy. It only made Wash’s favoritism more frustrating. The enemy tried to speak to Nori from the floor. The boy wanted to know what his intentions were. Nori decided it was best to make them clear. “Your daddy sent me here to pick you up. Unfortunately for the both of you, all I’ll be able to bring him is a smoking corpse. I hope you put up more fight than your brother. Get up and make this interesting.” Purple lighting sparked around Nori’s forearms down to his black fingernails. He wanted to know just what was so great about Ace before he ended him.

"Fuck doors; get results." Bliss didn't mind the ensuing chaos coming from the room for two reasons. One, it would take a while for a response to come. Two, she wouldn't be there when it came. Clayton made his attack to subdue the guard while Bliss fired a bolt of ice into the other guard's chest. It took him to the ground knocking the air out of his chest and leaving Bliss an unopposed walking path to the confrontation Clayton took with the guard. "I didn't know you spoke Japanese. I guess reckless stupidity translates easily."

Before she could get a response a timid looking girl ran out to give them information. Looks could always mislead you away from the truth, but this girl sounded sincere. She probably wanted something. After she informed the duo Clayton immediately tried to impress the other sex by saying words. "She's right." Bliss didn't wait for her partner to respond before informing him of the plan developing in the middle of the lobby. "We're going up in a different manner."

Her ice moved up quickly and aggressively to knock a hole in the middle of the ceiling. Stairs dotted the circular ascending structure with enough room to safely move up the pillar. "I'll go up the middle. If you want to come you can, or if you want to hope they pay more attention to the ice pillar than the stairs you can do that. Either way I'll be the one doing everything."

Ace lay on the cold, sterile floor, it smelt like a hospital, Ace never like a hospitals, they always smelt so clean and sterile yet heaps of people died at them every day. The thoughts of it made Ace shudder at his core, he didn't like it when people died, unfortunately soon Ace wouldn't care because he would be dead. Ace had been given death threats before, but the man who made the treat sounded determined to kill him, Ace wouldn't admit it, but he was a little scared of this guy. Ace pushed himself up, finally regaining control of his body, he grabbed hold of the bed and pulled up into a standing position, this was hardly a fair battle, but the whole superhero thing didn't really understand the word fair. Ace looked up at his opponent and almost burst out in laughter. He looked like he'd fallen into a makeup truck and then fallen in a fairy floss machine, it was hilarious. The hilarity stopped when the asian man's hands lit up with purple sparks, "Hey! Thats my power, stupid cosplayers!" Ace said. He pushed the hospital bed towards the man and ran towards the Gun he sensed earlier, he skidded down and picked up the gun, he sent a shot in the general direction of Nori, before bolting for the door. He picked up his shirt and grappling hook on the way, "Purple is a horrible colour for your sparks by the way" Ace yelled back as he skidded out into the hallway, making his way towards the nearest possible exit.

Was he speaking Japanese, or was the guard? No one ever said Clayton was smart. He had no idea what Bliss was talking about. Time to be confused was another thing he didn’t have. “Thanks for the distraction. Have fun with your slippery ice stairs.” He stopped hesitantly at the door, “Hey, I might feel bad or something if you die, so don't. Ok?”

He pushed the door open and brought violence to the stairway.

Three more guards were making their way down the stairs. They were dressed more like the ones from the law offices than the two in the lobby. As the door swung shut behind Clayton there was a brief pause while they became aware of his presence and he became aware of theirs. His reflexes proved faster than all of theirs. It was three clean shots that sent them all to the ground. Clayton stepped over the first two bodies on his way up, and stopped at the last of them to borrow the dead man’s submachine gun. He wouldn’t be missing it. Clayton could hear more doors opening up the stairs. It was going to be a long way up.

---

The brat was laughing at him. Nori would see to it that it was the last mistake he ever made. He raised his foot and stopped the bed in its tracks. If that was the best Ace could do, it would be almost sad to fry him. Still, he was an obstacle that needed to be removed. The kid was faster than he looked though. Before he knew it, Ace was out the door, and he felt a sharp pain lodge itself into his shoulder. It was some kind of dart. Nori ripped it from his arm and continued out of the room. Whatever was in the dart wasn’t important. He refused to be stopped.

Nori let Ace keep running. There was no harm in letting the boy die tired. He raised his hand and let out a burst of purple lighting down the hallway towards Ace. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but Nori figured it would atleast stop him in his tracks. He’d decided on strangling Ace, and paralysis would give him enough time to catch up. Before he could do that, though, the air grew suddenly colder and the floor began to crack beneath him. He lept forward, and turned his back to Ace, his hands crackled with purple electricity as he waited for whatever came next.

"See you upstairs." Bliss started to make her way up the stairs before turning back to give one last gesture to Clayton. "May the force be with you." On cue with her words, Bliss parted her middle and ring finger to make the Vulcan salute while keeping her thumb close to her palm. Clayton turned to take the stairs while leaving her with a somewhat supportive statement and an insult to her idea. She could live with that, but she would make sure she didn't let Clayton know if they both made it out alive.

Concrete and structuring began to split as the pressure of the ice tore through the ice and into the main hallway of the building. Taking advantage of the multiple fracture points that tore through the floor, Bliss shot out through a peripheral break in the floor. Excitement filled the room with a nervous energy. Heartbeats and sweat glands no longer bothered Bliss, but gave her a road map to what feelings the others would need to put aside to fight her off.

Shards of ice shot through the floor to impale themselves through the calves of the guards defending the halls. Keeping the guards away from their initial goal would add to the confusion while Bliss kept her ice spreading through the room like a frozen wildfire. Each ice sheet would dig under the floors of the hall, keeping the doors, and guards, firmly stuck in one place. Raised noises from the staircase grew more ecstatic and frantic. Clayton sounded very popular.

Bliss made her way towards the staircase when two familiar forms made their ways down the hall. They darted in and out of Bliss's vision, prompting her to begin moving in accordance with them. As soon as she saw Ace dart off, Bliss shot a wall of ice to keep him and Nori separated. Hoping to gain his full attention from the other side of the hallway, Bliss made a minor finger wave to Nori with her elbow arched on the palm of hand. "Miss me?"

Ace knew Nori would pursue him, he didn't need his new power to know he would be hot on his heels by the time he was in the hall. Ace felt the rumble from the floor beneath him and immediately knew what was coming *Its an earthquake, i know japan is prone to them but couldn't this come at a better time?* Ace felt something surging towards him, like something had entered a field around him, instinctively he jumped to the side, the bolt managed to catch his foot and it sent a surge of electricity running up his body "Son of a gun" Ace yelled to himself, the sole of his shoes were burning but still intact "I didn't know electricity hurt that bad". Ace walked back out into the hall to see what had happened after the loud noise and huge amount of rumbling, "What the hell?" Ace said to himself as he stared at the ice wall, he'd only seen something like this once, and that venture involved almost getting killed a couple times by a giant robot-spider thingy. Ace wondered *Could those to events be related?* whatever would happen had Ace interested, he fitted the shirt over his torso, which only came up to his waist now, Ace made a mental note and fixed the grappling hook around his wrist.

Ace started talking to himself "So Ace, you're in japan, quite clearly by the signs on the wall, and you've lost your powers, great, and there's quite possibly a clone of a person you know in the next hall, fantastic" Ace liked looking at the positives "But you have a new power apparently, how you'll use it you don't know but you'll sure as hell use it, now lets get moving" Ace jammed open a door to the stairwell and stepped out into it. There was a frozen man, standing there, completely frozen, half brandishing his gun, half being scared out of his wits about being turned into a Copsicle. Ace smashed open the ice enough to pull the gun from his grip, whether it would work or not was another problem. Ace could hear footsteps rushing up the stairs, he pointed the gun at the opening in the staircase and hoped that the thing that came out wasn't armed.

It did not take very long for Clayton to work his way up the stairs. He still hated the idea of murder, even with the rental soldiers gunning for him. Most of his shots wouldn’t be lethal if attended to quickly enough, but they were certainly enough to keep the men down.

It seemed the stairway did not go all the way to the top, so his rampage was cut shorter than he would have liked after a few flights. It was getting colder as he ascended the stairs. The blood splatted in a line across his face rapidly began to cool. It seemed Bliss won the race. It sounded like there was one more waiting for him at the top.

He turned up the stairs, ready to fire if he had to. He swung his weapon forward and took aim at the first target in sight, but stopped just short of splattering its grey matter all over the walls. It was not a guard at all. It was a child of maybe twelve or something (he could tell how old kids were these days). The kid bore a striking resemblance to him; it was almost like looking at a mirror into the past, only he didn’t quite notice it then. He was more focused on the gun the kid was awkwardly pointing towards him.
He couldn’t kill a kid. He slowly lowered the borrowed machine pistol, and took a deep breath, “I don’t think you wanna do that.”

---

The ice bitch from earlier was back already and at the most inopportune moment. “Uggh! You’re like human herpes!” Nori cursed at the frozen thorn in his side. The tranquilizer was beginning to take effect, but seemingly endless anger would keep him on his feet a few moments longer. He wound back like a baseball pitcher and hurled a crackling ball of purple energy at her. If it hit, he would capitalize on the stunning attack by treating her face like home base with the same kind of hammer kick he nearly took Clayton out with earlier. The drug made him sluggish, but only slightly less deadly.

---

Washington surveyed the building through specialized thermal binoculars from a rooftop across the street. It looked like the gang was all together on the same floor. All he needed then was for the greedy snakes that ran the place to flee like they always did when the violence got too close to them. As soon as he heard their helicopter leaving the roof, he would go rescue his son. Not Clayton, of course, but the newer one. What was his name again?

The cold hallway heated up with the ensuing elemental battle. "Is that why you dress like a condom?" While Nori readied his attack, Bliss found herself underestimating how fast electricity moved. Volts of electricity surged through her body, knocking her to the floor, inadvertently saving her. Nori charged at her with a ferocious kick, but managed to miss a shot to her head. The force of the shot impacted against her chest, giving Nori some happiness as to thinking he could knock the air out of Bliss for the moment, but he would find the shot less than effective against the ice queen.

As his foot connected, Bliss grimaced in pain, but she pushed through the pain. She needed to encase her adversary in ice, but with his position over her she would need to take an offensive movement against him. Ice flew from her right hand to try and cause Nori to adjust away from her, while she tried her best to grab his foot with her left hand. With his speed and the power of his attack, Bliss only stood a chance if the kid couldn't use any of his advantages against her and ensnaring him with ice seemed like the best way to do that.

She managed to fire off two more blasts of ice with her right hand, while trying to grab at the foot with her left. With the speed and reflexes he possessed and Bliss's ineptitude from her current position her plan would probably need a few more moves to get her in reach of Nori, but for now simply getting some distance would allow her some breathing room.

Ace's hand was unsteady, shooting something wasn't the most appealing solution but he would do it if he had too. A man rounded the corner, the first thing Ace noticed was the dangerous looking gun in his hands, it lowered and Ace looked up at the owner of the gun. The man clearly wasn't a guard Ace could tell by his clothing, also judging by his clothing, he wasn't with the pink powder ranger he had just encountered. The man's face was what really struck ace as a surprise, it was like looking at a reflection of himself in ten years time if he constantly drunk for ten years and impersonated a tv star. The man spoke "I don't think you want to do that" he hit the nail on the head
*Of course I don't want to do that, I don't like shooting things* thought Ace *but I'm not going to let you know that, am I?* Ace lowered his weapon slightly, his obvious un-acquaintance with guns clearly showing. "It's probably a bad idea, but not one i'l dismiss" Ace stumbled with his words, the tranquilizer was effecting his witty banter skills "You wouldn't happen to know anything about all this ice would you? Does it have something to do with the living Anime out there?" Ace gestured to the door he'd just come through with his head. Ace made a mental note to keep an eye on the door, if Pinkie came through there he knew he would have to act quick or he would be deader than a black actor in a horror movie. The makeup man seemed to have it out for him, it was like he hated Ace, with every fibre in his body, it couldn't be because Ace beat up his friends, could it? Ace realized he would be here till he found out what was going on, and this man probably was a part of it.