Black and White (Me and Juney)

SMASH went the roof as it was bashed in, and our heroic cavemans felt very happy about being allowed to cause wanton property-damage again. His adrenaline-fueled state made him quite restless and somewhat 'smashy', so to speak. Gwharr nodded as Bliss claimed they had synergy. He had no idea of what synergy was, but the way she said it suggested that it was a good thing, and that they should be proud hey had it. Maybe it was like teamwork? That would hae been correct and also rather cool.

As bliss made her little Ice-slide the Heroiac Captain Caveman quickly realized what going on, and he knew that he was going to take the ice-slide down into the hole. Sure, he would have easily survived the fall, since he was for all intents and purposes much harder and tougher than the surface he landed on. However, the Caveboy that still Dwelled within his subconcsious demanded that the slide was the only way to go, and Gwharr was always happy to satisfy the wishes of his inner child However, he waited untill Bliss had been given more than enough time to get out of the way. After all, he wouldn't want to accidentally crush his newfound packmate, now would he? Good packmates did not crush their packmates, not even by accident.

Even though Gwharr was used to leaping tall buildings in a single bound, climbing what was basically vertical walls and swinging himself from building from building in a manner similar to the way an orangutan swinging from branch to branch, but taken up a notch or two. However, despite all this, he thought that Blisses famous Ice-slide was quite thrilling and very amusing. He couldn't help but to wonder what manner of slide she would be able to build she had actually constructed it to be a thrill-ride, rather than the means of entry into a genuine witches lair.

Gwharr nodded as Bliss asked him to 'hear around'. A wise decision, since the silence in the facility would make even the tiniest noise audible. Heck, he could even hear their breathing and their footsteps clearly, almost as noticable as the trumpeting of a wild mammoth as it disovled the heavy, gloomy cover of silence that lay over the corridors. . .

Despite being on guard Gwharr was taken completely aback by the sudden attack directed towards bliss. An attack that she barely managed to deflect. So this was the witch, and these where her methods? Magic! Gwharr snarled angrily. He hated magic, and considered it the worst form of unsanctioned tampering with the magical forces. Science and technology merely bent natural elementes in a certain direction, whilst magic flatout twisted and broke them to shape them into something decidedly unnatural.

Gwharr was about to rush to his friends help when the witch retreated back into the wall, calling him a primordial. He knew the word. It meant something akin to "old" and "primitive" but on a much deeper plane. apparantly she was rather taken aback by his presence here.

It did not take Bliss long to get back on her feet and bark an order at him. Not that he needed an order. The caveman had already decided to charge through the wall where the witch had dissapeared. She had attacked his packmate, and a good packmate did not let such a grievous tresspass go unpunished. That magic-using hussy was not going to get away from him! The masive concrete wall stood about as much chance to withstand his charge as one made of wet cardboard would have, and like a pretty angry wrecking-ball our primitive primordial primate went through it! . . .

With a devastating resolve the caveman burst through the wall. Bliss followed through to make sure she could keep up with her companion. Echoes of the destroyed plaster rang through the building. With a good deal of destruction to the structural integrity of the building Bliss truly hoped that they would survive all of the damage that the two of them inflicted if the building collapses on them. Thoughts of surviving that highly unlikely situation faded to the back of her mind when she saw the room before her.

Sparking to life at the sign of intruders seven featureless gray dolls came to life and began to move at an alarmingly fast speed. "Welcome. I see you brought me my third and final guest." The witch stepped into the middle of the triangle and struck her staff into the ground. Two of the automatons moved back and created a shield of light that surrounded the witch and the two girls in the ritual.

Without hesitation the five remaining dolls took to action like veterans. Light blades sprung from their hands illuminating the room. The shadows cast from these blades came as a violent surprise to Bliss. Grabbing at the duo the shadows wrapped around Bliss's legs and began to crawl up her form as two other dolls charged at Gwharr. "I want the girl alive and I want to primordial as a special host to keep all of these powers. I'll just need him dead first." One doll moved carefully to keep Bliss entangled in shadow from the light of his blade. Keeping the shadows where he wanted them he drove the blade into the ground so the light continued to keep her in place. With care and proficiency he reached down and summoned a blade from the shadows. Alive took many forms. Barely alive would do just as fine as alive to the creatures thought.

Taking advantage of reflective light Bliss created a wall of ice to beam the light of the blade against the shadows around her legs. She fell free and moved away from the shadows on the ground. Radiant lights moved with each swing of the blade from the dolls; she just needed to use that light against those shadows. Adapting to the changing prismatic particles the dolls unleashed light tendrils to trap Bliss in a cage. Fighting against their weak powers, Bliss and her ice attack blasted through the beams of light and hit the two dolls in the chest.

Of course the dolls would only act with minor powers; the witch could not give them the full powers of the two trapped girls. Bliss began conjuring up a chunk of ice over the light dome in preparation to drop it on top of the light shield. Just as she let go of the ice a doll gained his way through her defense and wrapped her arms to her side with a light beam. Even though the power may be weak, Bliss lacked any real physical powers to break through it. Bliss looked on as the large ice block crashed through the barrier to expose the witch. Now the two dolls who defended the witch joined the fray of action.

"Good job securing the third sacrifice." The witch surveyed two dolls fighting the caveman and one standing over Bliss. In an effort to capture Bliss two perished from the severity of her ice attack. "Take care of that creature and we can finish the ritual." Springing to the aid of the dolls parleying with Gwharr the two dolls launched attacks by sending light particles as a ranged attack and then lunging to attack with light created swords.

"You'll enjoy having your mind trapped in the consciousness of a void creature with the other two." The witch stayed in the middle of the triangle preparing for the finale of her ritual.

"The only thing that would make this situation worse would be sharing eternity listening to Sarah Webster." Bliss shot through her teeth as she conjured ice to wrap around the light. "Cap, break these stupid things off me!"

As Captain caveman smashed his way through the wall he stopped dead in his tracks. Gwharr was definately not amongst the most intelligent or observational men in the world, but not even he could overlook the obviously occult things going on in the room. It was no doubt that this strange event was very important and something of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Gwharr fellt the multitude of hairs on his back stand on end. He was not a magician, but even he could feel that there was something incredibly sorcerous about the whole place. Something decidedly unnatural. It mad Gwharr feel unneasy and nervous. When he had charged through the wall he had been all fired up, ready to fight, but now he felt the bloodlust pour off of him like the mud from a pig during a storm.

Three women seemed to be in the center of it all and two of them where either unconscious, asleep or merely unwilling to move. The tallest woman he could not recognized, but her costume made her look like one of the more heroic sorts, presumably the stitchy-type person that Captain Wombat had told them about earlier. the other woman was easy to recognize. The gaudy costume, the hair, the face, everything. It was no doubt that this was the shadow-light woman they had "followed" here. Captain Caveman quickly decided that he liked her alot more when she was unconscious. Her voice was not all that annoying in itself, but the self-righteous, "holier than thou"-attitude and the haughty way she talked was so annoying it would probably have gotten her kiled a long time ago if she hadn't been in posession of her superhuman abilities. The last woman he recognized from only a few seconds ago. She had been the one that had appeared through the wall, trying to get bliss with a surprise-attack! The Witch! The reason for them being here.

The witch started off with "activating" a few of her unliving minions to kill them off, ordering them to take bliss captive and kill himself off to use as some sort of a vessel for unnatural magic. This really pissed him off. Not only was she going to kill of himself and his packmate, she would also use her souls and bodies for conduits of horrible, awful magical powers! "To talk why it still can, sorceress! Captain Caveman rip your tounge off an' EAT IT IN FRONT OF YOU!!" Gwharr roared as he felt the wave of anger and bloodlust wash over him once again! He beat his chest violently, howling with rage as the servants of the witch approached! The challenge had been made, now it was on!

Two of the dolls charged at Gwharr at break-neck speed, trying to cut into him with with blades made of light and darkness, seemingly utilizing the same abilities of the shadow-light. Gwharr tried to throw a quick jab at one of them, to create some distance whilt he dealt with the other, but the doll deftly slipped under his fist and jabbed a blade into his chest with all force it could muster. Gwharr felt a brief sting of fear, shutting his eyes and waiting for the inevitable pain. the shadow-blades used shadow-light woman had been notoriously painfull, and Gwharr expected no less from these things. . .

. . .However, out hero was relieved to find out that these things where not playing in the same league as the shadow-light woman. The shadow-blade shattered as the creature tried to stab him. Apprantly, the creature had not expected this either, since the rather straightforward attack had managed to land it very close to Gwharr, well within the grasp of his massive arms. The doll-creature placed his foot against Gwharrs belly, trying to push itself away, but it was too late, Gwharr wrapped his arms around the creature, catching it in a massive bearhug, effortlessly crushing it to shards.

In the meantime, the other creature had been keeping its distance, trying to prod Gwharr with its blades, trying to find a vulnerable spot where it could manage to do some damage. However, it made no effort to save its colleague. Apprantly it realized that it was beyond salvation. As Gwharr dropped the shattered remains of the horribly mauled clay-doll, The first one tried to make a stab for it, prodding at Gwharrs face from a safe distance. As Gwharr tried to grab ahold of it with his overly long arms, it deftly leapt aside, repeating the process. Normally this would be considered something of a stalemate, but Gwharr had other plans.

The caveman backed towards the wall, seemingly falling back, but the clayman decided to keep his distance, apprantly still remembering the fate of its comrade. However, Gwharr had a Plan with this movement. Without much warning he leapt backwards against the wall, The clayman followed, raising its blades, but this was what the caveman had anticipated. As Gwharr felt his back hitting the wall, he quickly placed his feet against it, kicking wildly, sending himself against the clayman like a projectile, arms spread wide to make sure it couldn't sidestep. It tried to dodge left, but Gwarr managed to catch it with his arm, holding it against his massive torso. He was about to crush it when he noticed that two more of the dolls had joined the fray. He quickly hurled the captive doll against one of the newcommer, hitting it dead on, causing both of the dolls to shatter into smithereens. Three outta seven!

That was when he heard that Bliss was in need of assistance. Gwharr quickly charged over there, the doll assaulting her did not stray from its task, either too focused on the icequeen to even notice the caveman, or maybe even unable to stray from its order even to save its own life. Gwharrs massive fist envelopped the torso of the creatures, lifting it into the air, away from the blade and away from the light and shadow, seeimgly losing a parto its control of the assaulting tendrils as its blade left the ground. Gwharr then proceeded to crush the torso of the unresisting clayman into dust, by merely clenching his fist, putting an end to its assault. He quickly shot a glance in Bliss direction to see if she was injured or anything similarly troublesome. She may be a powerfull superhero in her own right, but she was still far more vulnerable to these things than he was. "To be okay?" He grunted as he turned around to see what the remaining doll was up to.

The witch laughed as Bliss struggled with the light bonds and her caveman expressed worry over her. "No." The witch laughed. "Not to be okay." Her laughter turned from cynical to severe when she struck her staff into the ground and the snake grew from her staff. Coiled flaps sprung out of the head giving the snake the features of a cobra with fangs as long as blades. Slowly the staff faded into the scaly body of the ever growing snake.

Taking advantage of the display of the snake the witch launched her attack at Bliss and the caveman. Shrieking sounds erupted from her voice. The sound that emanated from her voice could not come from any human source. The siren rang out like a piercing howl so fierce and sharp the sound almost appeared to take physical properties itself. Spiraling and rushing out in circular order, the ravenous noise encompassed the duo.

During the course of the erupting sound the snake grew to the full stature that is possessed. It sat upon a coiled base and stood to over twenty five feet with several layers of hidden girth underneath him. At full extension the black clad cobra would stretch out over eighty feet of pure muscular constriction. "I only thought it would be fair that if you brought some muscle I should bring some as well. Mine might be a little more overpowering though." With her taunt the snake lunged forward to devour the caveman.

Over the course of her struggle Bliss brought her hands out to aim them towards the assailing snake. Ice snapped against his neck to knock him off course of a direct attack against Gwharr with his massive fangs. "Don't count on that." A cold fire burned in Bliss's eye as she stepped to defend her companion. Even though the snake fell off course of the attack his massive neck flew towards Gwharr with enough force to cause considerable damage to anyone in its path.

Now that the immediate damage disappeared from her radar Bliss took time to conjure up a bar of ice against the ground. Unable to cope with the lack of balance Bliss delivered to his equilibrium the snake uncoiled more of his body to give him some power to pull himself back to his aggressive stance. His body slid along the ground with wild recklessness to regain composure at the expense of everyone in his way. The wild wrecking ball of muscle ripped through the air towards Bliss prompting her to take immediate action. Leveraging the bar against the frozen bonds Bliss slipped out in time to jump out of the way of the snake's attack.

While the snake prepared to continue to his assault to constrict Gwharr and then devour him when he could no longer defend himself, the witch took aim at Bliss. She conjured up a thick red blob of napalm and threw it towards Bliss. She wanted the girl alive, but knew the level of skill she exhibited dodging her attack would be inside of her ability. Ice shot out to hold the napalm at bay while she maneuvered along the edge of the triangle, trying to keep the witch's attacks from accidentally burning away at one of the two captive girls. Bliss readied her attack and unleashed a fury of flurry against the witch in preparation to defeat the witch. The witch acted in the same manner.

For a moment the primordial was almost convinced that the two of this had this one bagged. He had dealt with four of the witches magical murder-dolls himself whilst Bliss had managed to disable two of them with her ice. The witch herself had yet proven reluctant to join the fray, seemingly preffering to having her magically summoned minions do all of her work for her. Even thought the rather powerfull magician did not look it Gwharr thought she was afraid, and he did not blame her for it. She was right to be scared. Bliss had powerfull ice-based abilities at her disposal, a sort of obvious to the 'son of sun' he had encountered earlier. And when her formidable powers could not win her battles she had quite the brain to pick up the slack. Gwharr knew his own abilities, the most notable wich was his superhuman strength, but it was not the ability that made him dangerous, quite a few superpowered types had similar powers. What made Gwharr dangerous was his durability combined with his Regeneration, two abilities that together created a solid defense, greater than the sum of its parts. His durability minimizes any damage he recieves and the regeneration fixes up what little damage that his toughness cannot soak.

However. even though he was aware that he and bliss formed quite the powerfull duo, his hope of an easy victory waned as soon as the witch started to 'sing'. The noise seemed almost to have physical form, and as it surrounded them, Gwharr understood that it would be a bad idea to try to break through it. He did not know why, he just knew. His hopes where even more thurougly as the snake apperaed. The smirk on the witches face was far too confident for it to be a bluff. The snake grew larger, and larger and was soon extraordinarily massive. several times larger than any other snake Gwharr had ever seen. The gargantuan caveman suddenly felt tiny in comparison to the snake. The massive limbless monstrosity stared at him, and Gwharr seemed to lose himself in the gigantic serpents almost glowing yellow eyes. The shake was about to devour him, seemingly without resistance, when Bliss hit the snake with her ice, temporarily breaking eye-contact and the hold it had over the caveman. Gwharr wasted no time reflecting overthis and slammed his fist into the nose of the best, sending its head back upwards. However, the hit had been rather lousy, and it had done little damage other than cracking a few of the snakes plate-like scales.

The snake then turned to bliss, trying to attack her, but once again, the agile ice-woman used her speed and agility to avoid the snake, causing it to once again turned his attention to Gwharr, but this time Gwharr was ready for it. The snake tried to wrap his coils around the caveman, but this was just what the caveman had been hoping for. Gwharr quickly wrapped his massive arms around one of the coils, quickly utilizing his massive strength to hurl the snake into a wall, hoping that it would be enough to finnish of the creature, however, this was apprantly not the case. The snake was seemingly all but unharmed, but now kept his distance, vary of getting caught by the cavemans clutches once again, whilst Gwharr in turn knew that if he leapt at the snake, it would be quick enough to counter. . . The two beasts where left in a stalemate for now, neither side making a move, whilst trying to figure out their opponents weak-spots.

Shadows clashed in the background of the illuminated room silhouetting the aggression of the duel. The heated viscosity burned away at the ice chunks that littered the runes. Bliss conjured up barriers of ice to defend the two potential sacrifices while providing enough of an offense to detract the witch from going out on a full offensive. Lights glowed eerily along the markings of the floor as Bliss grew closer and closer to the spot on the ground laid out before her. In the split second that Bliss took to register the consequences of stepping too close to the spot on the floor set aside for her, blistering heat crashed on the ground before her. Ice crackled and hissed in defeat while splatters of napalm threw up towards her face. Conjuration brought a feeble defense to sacrifice itself along the onslaught of heated magic.

Given the situation and belligerence that she now faced from her adversary, Bliss moved to assault the witch by removing her power from the rune circle. Tracks of ice pulled the sacrifices away from the ends of the triangle for which a sinister plot awaited. In this moment Bliss kept up chunks of ice to intercept the napalm shots to buy her enough time to attempt to create a terraformed filed in which Bliss would take the upper hand. Napalm tore through the ice, shattering the crystallized bonds and dragging them down to the conjuration circle.

Those delusions of superiority melted away as quickly as the ice that she relied on for life. Puddles of water began pouring across the battlefield giving Bliss an unexpected surprise. Her ice may lose to the fierceness of the explosive fire attacks, but it would present her with the alliance of a field soaked in water. While the room reeked of fire and napalm Bliss moved against the witch throwing ice along the water to strengthen the attacks. Crystals hardened and grew in stature and coated themselves in water that could seek to fend off the violence of the napalm for slightly longer than the ice could alone.

Sweat ran down from Bliss's face. A splatter of the napalm impacted along her neck, peeling away some of the skin and forcing the thick fluid that encompassed and pulses through Bliss's body to spill out along her collar. Any comments relating to Bliss having ice water in her veins or being above a witch sending a shiver down her spine seemed removed from the severity of the incident, but still came to her mind. A calm rested in between the battle while the breathing of the two became so intensified neither needed sight to aim attacks against each other.

Bliss threw what she still could muster behind her attack to usurp the witch in her own domain. Even with what Bliss thought to be her ace in the hole the witch took master of the elements and forced a concentration of the thick napalm through Bliss's defense. Blood ran down from the witch's forehead from a large gash that Bliss inflicted with a piece of ice that pierced through the witch's cheek. The pierced skin showed a true unnatural tint to her complexion. An eerie black tone lied just under inside of her mouth, not just shadowed, but an actual blackness in the tissue lining her mouth. Unnatural colored blood ran down the ice as the witch discarded the shard to the ground. Bliss laid on the ground with a smoldering blast tearing through her hooded sweatshirt. Enough ice kept the napalm blast from tearing into her chest, but Bliss could feel the heat resting on top of her. "I liked the hoodie." Bliss said as she looked up to the witch.

"Primordial, stand down or I kill the girl." The witch held her hand out just above Bliss's head. In defense Bliss tried to move her arm but the pain in her chest kept it just fragile enough to cause her to hesitate.

Gwharr snarled viciously at the snake that watched him from above with its cold and expressionless eyes. It was so still it could almost be mistaken for a very large sculpture made by an ambitious yet somewhat unbalanced artist. The only indication that the creature was actually a real gigantic snake was the fact that its tounge occasionally darted out of its mouth to 'taste' the air. However, Gwharr had wisened up to its tricks by now, and no matter how much it stared into his eyes, he would not get mesmerized by it this time around. The snake was also more vary of the caveman than it had been earlier. It was probably the fact that the comparitively small hominid had been able to hurl it into a wall with enough force to crack. A slight trickle of blood running from its mouth was proof enough that the Caveman had strength enough to be considered a proper threat.

Gwharr slammed his fists together with such force that pebbles scuttled away from him and a slight cloud of dust rose into the air. He roared at the offensively oversized serpent, but the snake didn't even budge an inch in response to his display of rage, brute strength and agression. It sat there, umoving, seemingly waiting for something to occur, or holding off its attack to see what the Primitive Primordial would try before it resumed the combat. However, it did not take long for something to happen that resumed their lock. Suddenly Gwharr saw something flying towards him at top rather impressive speeds. At first he figured it was the last of the Witches claypuppets that was trying to avenge his comrades now when the caveman was distracted by another thing. Gwharr turned his head. In fact, it was not the puppet, it was a shard of ice that rebounded harmlessly against his shoulder. He felt slightly relieved, and was just about to turn back to the snake when he felt a sudden sharp pain in in his left shoulder and torso. He looked down to see his feet leave the ground as the snake lifted him into the air, presumablyt o devour him. Gwharr couldn't help himself to be impressed by the snakes powers of observation. The half-a-second of distraction was all it had needed to turn this battle around.

However, Gwharr had not given up quite yet. He could feel the snake trying to close its mouth to swallow him, but he would not allow it. It took much of his strenght, but he was able to keep the snakes jaws from closing with his left hand, whilst he clenched his right hand into a fist.And then with all of his power, he punched the roof of the snakes mouth, the force of the blow causing the snakes mouth to open enough for Gwharr to fall out onto the floor. He was covered with the thick, phlegm-like saliva of the snake, but it did not bother him. He had managed to get free. He felt a slight pain in his shoulder again, somewhat surprised that it had not yet regenerated, but he soon found the reason. The long, almost sword-like fang of the snake was still stuck in it. Apparantly it had broken off as he had punched the slithering abomination. He quickly grabbed it and pulled it out, his shoulder already beginning to heal, but he could not help but to feel rather woozy.

The snake twisted, hissing sharply and loudly, seemingly in pain. blood pouring from its mouth as it quickly slithered around the caveman, trying to catch him off-guard before he had time to recover. However, this time Gwharr was ready for him. as the snake lunged forward, baring its remaining fang to make yet another bite-attack Captain Caveman managed to give it a powerfull uppercut, causing the massive reptile to be flung back int othe wall once more. However, even if the snake was injured, bleeding and in pain, it was fart from ready to give up. Gwharr was about to make another attack when he heard the voice of the witch again

Accursed woman! She had caught Bliss! At first Gwharr was about to leap at her, but then he thought about Bliss. The smaller woman was not invulnerable like he was, so the witch could probably kill her. Easily. The Cautious Captain Caveman had no idea what to do, and simply stood there, rather awkwardly, his fists somewhere between raised and lowered, looking at Bliss. Maybe she would give him some sign of what to do. She was the brains after all, he himself was just good for opening doors and smashing walls. . .

For the first time in her short relationship with the caveman she witnessed a show of restraint come over him.

Touching, but only in the least.

Bliss knew that she could not afford to give any moves of belligerence against the woman who commanded the superior position to her. All things considered Bliss looked better than the witch; all of her bodily fluids rested within her body. Ice began running up the arm that she placed her weight on. Under the gaze of the witch Bliss needed to keep discretion on her side while giving the caveman an opportunity to strike.

"It seems old fashioned wits come to pass the newer ones." Nothing in the room held as much power as the pulsating circle of power the witch scribed on the floor. The activation that Bliss brought from her touching of the circle brought a burst of energy that could hardly contain itself. In the scope of the unfolding situation, the witch looked down to the radiant colors coursing through the floor and escaping through the dust laden lines.

"This doesn't look appealing." Raw energy shot through the hand of Bliss. Vigor surged through her body and an awakening seemed to flow back into her. As Bliss thought to move her hand she felt a familiar feeling that she lost several months ago.

Her heart beat steadily.

"Stay put." The witch never needed to relay the request to Bliss. In the fervor of the moment the witch readied up what power she could muster from the circle of power. Ice began to form within the crevices of her hand. The cold, wooden feel of her staff rested in a mildewed dampness under its touch. "This is..." The staggering power pulled from the circle sent chills up the witch's back. Or at least she wanted to believe that to be the case.

"This is what it feels like to be me." Bliss chattered in a shivering convulsion. The temperature around her dropped steadily, but beads of sweat dropped from Bliss's brow. A steady rocking of her heart increased the rampant breathing in her chest. For the first time she felt pain from the frozen barrier that surrounded her arm. The cold, nullifying feel of the ice against her skin hurt in the greatest way Bliss could imagine. "So tell me again how this was supposed to work?" Bliss saw the opportunity to strike. "Because right now it looks like you put out your own light."

In many ways she was right, but only because the witch could not seem to grasp the power that freezing her napalm could do. The cold shivers coursed through her body like a menacing ghost, shooting in and out of her nerves and invading her brain. The sensation would only last for a few moments, but a few moments seemed to always make up the best parts of life. "Gwarr now!" Bliss knew that luck was when preparation met opportunity and that gargantuan monster may not possess any preparation, but he always brought the opportunity with him.

The Particurlarly Preturbed Primordial clenched his fists so hard that they shivered as he started breathing more and more heavily, almost hyperventilating, due to the frustration he felt. A frustration that was growing more powerfull with each passing second had been building up within him due to the conflict of two Urges. Two things he "needed" to do. First he wanted to smash that witch into pieces. Her scornfull ways and cowardly tactics had displeased him, as had her attempts on his life. However, this urge went in direct violation of his self-imposed duty to protect his pack, In this case constituted by Bliss. If he attacked the witch Bliss would probably pay for it with her life, but if he did NOT attack the witch, they would probably lose, and the caveman also presumed they would die.

However, even if if his decision to not take action would probably allow the witch to kill them both, he would indirectly be the cause of bliss'es death if he did so. This was a burden he did not want to bear. He might die, but he would still have his honor if he did so. And who knew. Maybe dying wasn't so bad. He had lived for long. Longer than most, presumably far longer than he should have, but some part of him screamed that it was not nearly long enough. Gwharr whined and growled lowly to himself. He was not all that well suited for situations like this. He had spent most of his extremely long life making simple choices, but once in a while something like this happened. He did not really like it.

Yet he had to put his faith in Bliss. It was not over untill it was over, and he knew that his partner was smart. Much smarter than he was, and presumably much smarter than the woman they where fighting too. If there was one person who could think of some way to get out of a hopeless situation such as this one, he was sure Bliss was the one who could scrape together enough brains to do it. Or at least he really, really hoped she was, cuz he was certain that he lacked that ability. The times that he had actually needed to use his brain for situations like this could be easily counted on the left hand of leprosy-infected neanderthal. He had been granted strength and invulnerability nstead of a very good brain.

Gwharr felt a wave off relief wash over him as Bliss yelled at him to act. Something he did not have to be told twice. "Gwharr CRUSH!!" he Roared happily and a with a hair-rasingly blood-curdlingly vicious laughter the Caveman leapt straight into the air, balling his fists together, musting as much power as he was able to smash them into the serpent, sending the poor critter flying in one direction, and he himself flying inthe opposite one:Straight for the witch He clenched his fists, spreading his arms as he flew towards her, trying to catch her in a massive, cave-man-style bearhug.

The distance between moments passed erased the flow of time that only previously held the newly formed duo in a precarious situation. Water dripped from her trembling hands under the weight of the temperature her chest felt. Returning oxygen to her lungs expunged itself into the air in a clearly visible gaseous form. Not only could she feel the chemical exchange return, the molecules now visibly confirmed the sensation she regained.

While air froze within the edges of her mouth the gargantuan creature dove towards the witch. His fists rained down on her catching her off of her game. Her staff collapsed under the weight of the blow, its brittle wood cracking and expelling drops of water from the icy grip that encased the staff. As the staff fall splintered to the ground, the mysterious beauty of the witch faded to that of a crone with cavernous wrinkles that forced her brow to cover the tops of her eyes. Rotting flesh peaked out through the cheeks that collapsed into the hollows of her jawline and a cornerstone chin that fell under the weight of the decay of age.

"Don't bother telling us we'll pay for that. Gazing upon you is doing all the retribution your sorry self could muster." Bliss cut the witch off short before she could respond to the situation. Picking herself up from the ground and onto her feet, Bliss now stood in a slouched position with her chin hanging below her collarbone. Pain from the fall crept into the back of her neck pulling her muscles more taut and tense. In her state bringing her arm up parallel to the floor would ravage her neck, but the caveman lowered the priority the witch saw Bliss as.

"You wouldn't understand all that I know little girl." The saggy voice of the crone broke in a shrill, haunting voice. "You wouldn't understand how liberating the absence of sleep is. The very expulsion from the collective unconscious that betrays you in your fragile sleeping state." Frail arms rose from swaying above the witch's body to take on the posturing of a raptor. "It mocks your secrets and tells them to all who will listen. It grips at your thoughts and transfers it for its own sick amusement of what perfection should be. It seeks to define the perfect condition by encapsulating your very death, and you mock me? You mock me with the very thoughts that thousands of years of others have instilled in your stolen memory?"

Blackness began to pour from the witch's pours and drenched her face in a melting sorrow. Slowly her fingers ailed and withered as the viscosity of the liquid oozed away at her material being. "How's it look where you're going?" Bliss watched as the woman slowly began her descension to nothing.

"You'll know soon enough." Bone and tissue fell and bled into the mystical markings of the ground.

"Is it that pleasant and endearing?" The travesty of the disintegrating woman passed out of one existence and into what Bliss could only assume would be a welcomed eternity.

"There is nothing."

Gwharr could not help but to cackle triumphantly as he made contact, smashing his massive fists into the witch! After all the fighting against summoned claydolls, whos faceless, bloodless and mindless nature was rather unnerving. However, the worst opponent he had faced of against tonight was the unnaturally super-sized snakes with the combined nastyness of all the combined nastiest traits of the nastiest species of snakes that Gwharr thought dwelled exclusively in the nastiest corners of this quite nasty planet.

The first blow was slightly off target, but it was still enough to smash her staff with such force that it did not just break, it actually shattered into spliters that scattered over the floor, bouncing and rolling away from ttheir point of entry. The second blow was enough to knock her onto the ground. This was where Gwharr stopped his beatings. The witch seemed to be. . . aging rapidly. He had to admit (albeit reluctantly) that she had been quite a looker earlier, but right now, her face looked like that of an old woman, somewhat like a grandmother, but not the quaint, plump kind wich baked apple-pie. No, she looked rail-thin, her limbs growing more spindly with every passing moment. The skin of her face hung loosely from her bones, its earlier healthy colour slowly fading into a pinkish pale colour, lines and wrinkles appearing faster and faster. Her once vibrant eyes briefly turned bloodshot before the iris and pupil starte dpaling untill they where a dull, milky white. Her back slowly bent as she shrunk together, and her posture went from as rigid as a plank to being as bent and malformed as an old tree. The muscles that had so effortlessly allowed her to move about in such a gracefull manner had visibly atrophied to such a degree that she could only move by a slow shuffling. Her earlier form-fitting dress hung from her like, looking far too large for her new form. As she spoke, even her voice had turned from its earlier melodius, self-assured alto, into a dry, rasping screech.

However, this was not it. When she had reached what Gwharr had presumed to be the maxiumum human age, her body started to visibly decay. Her eyeballs turned grey and dry as her already sunk cheeks sunk further, seemingly sloughing off. It almost looked as if her face was melting into nothing. Her eyes turned back and started rotting as they rolled into her skull, whilst the last of her wispy, thinning hair disintergrated into nothing.

Gwharr almost pitied the woman. He had understood that she had somehow used her staff to stay alive, even when her natural lifespan would have run out. She had staved off for quite some time, it seemed, judging from her rotting body. Gwharr had been alive for far longer than the woman, without having to resort to such tricks. To him it was a natural ability. He briefly wondered about how the non-regenerating part of the world felt about their mortality, if they would have eternal lifespans if they had been offered one. He could not say for sure, but he was certain that he would not take the chance to age and die if it had been offered the chance.

He looked towards bliss, patting her back affectionally with his massive hand, grinning brightly before turning towards the snake to see what the reptile was up to.

"Alright Caveman." Bliss placed her hands inside of her sweatshirt pockets. A sense of accomplishment fell under her feet. "We can go ahead and get out of here I guess..." She surveyed the room: the unconscious hostages, the quickly decaying snake, and the power circle that seemed to gain an odd momentous throbbing. The sobriety of the sad moment fell under what now looked to escalate into a more serious situation. "We have a problem Cap." The tile from the walls began to fall off and shatter along the ground. "Like, a big one."

To buy a little more time from the building, Bliss began to conjure ice to fill in the cracks of the faltering structure. "Grab the girls..." Harsh concrete shattered the bits of ice under the gravity of its fall. "Even Sarah." As the ice shattered a loud moan came from the sides of the building. Under the foundation of the building the ancient forces that the witch scribed found themselves super powered by Bliss's infusion of powers into the circle.

"Cap, this place is about to come down on top of us, and from every other angle as well." Knowing that holding the building up no longer would work under the crushing force of the faltering building. Bliss froze over a corner of the building and looked to the others. She could possibly freeze the others over, causing the building to collapse from the sides and hopefully drop the roof on top of them. It was risky, but it was also stupid and would get them killed. "Okay Cap, I'm really out of ideas and we're about to get crushed. Any ideas?"

A hardening ice froze over the other corners of the room. The inner concrete burst from the inside in large chunks, breaking violently along the ground. Just as Bliss predicted the ceiling stayed intact, creating a large hazard that would fall in one giant piece. Any ice she could summon would need a large amount of packing to hold up that ceiling, and with the force that it would come down in generating enough ice looked almost impossible. "Cap, we need to get out of here through one of the holes that the concrete has fallen through." Bliss pointed to a large gap in the side of the wall that led to the brisk night air of the city. She jumped onto the caveman's back and prepared for some fast movement. "Quick!"

The massive snake hissed angrily as its beloved mistress had seemingly fallen before she had time to finish of her grand scheme. It opened its massive jaws, its remaining fang dripping with a bright green liquid that actually caused the floor to his and burn as they collided. Apparantly its venom was also acidic somehow. It locked its one single remaining eye on Gwharr, quickly launching itself towardst he caveman, however Its wounds and bruises were making it move slower than it had earlier. Its lost eye also caused it some trouble, since it meant that it no longer could utilize its depth-perception in judging how far off the target was, not to mention it was still more than a little groggy from the many superpowered blows to the head it had recieved. The attack was nowhere near as gracefull and quick as the first, and the Snakes entire boody was slow and sluggish. It had misjudged the distance so badly, that it barely reached the caveman at all.

This time the caveman was ready for the attack, and he responded with balling his fists together, taking a swing at the snake, utilizing his entire body to get a punch as powerfull as possible. Such a tactic would never had worked on the snake if it was not for its injuries and desperation. However, luckily for the caveman, it was just injured enough to not be able to avoid the rather obvious attack. The blow connected with such force that the snake was not only thrown back, but actually lifted a few inches off the ground, as it flew backwards, colliding with the far wall of the building, where it collapsed in a twitching heap. Gwharr could not tell wether it was dying or merely injured, but he did know it had gotten enough of a punch to at least stun it for a few minutes.

Gwharr felt triumphant and partcirlarly awesome as he turned his attention back to the witch who had transformed entirely into a black, festering pile of goop that barely looked like it had been alive at all. They had won! No bloody way he was going to be used as a primordial vessel for whatever it was that the witch wanted him to act as a primordial vessel for! Yes, Gwhar had definately shown that vile, horrible, evil, humorless sorceress what happened to people that tried to use him as a primordial vessel for some sort of unkown horror: They got squished into goo, that's what!

Gwharr cackled to himself, stretching his shaggy head into the air, apprantly proud of his role in the defeat of the ancient magic-user. All in all, this hadn't been as bad as it could have. Both him and Bliss was alive. He had not really been as worried for his own sake. After all, compared to him, Bliss and the other girls where actually quite brittle and easily injured, and even if the witch had managed to scratch him up a bit, he would be all fixed up before you could say "Swords and sorcery" "To be strongest! Captain Caveman and Bliss be stronger than stoopud magic!" he roared happily, before hearing Bliss expressing a desire to leave this place behind. Might be the best thing really. The blue-boys would storm in at any time.

However, his smile dissapeared when she told him they had a problem. He snorted angrily in response. What was it this time!? How could it be that they had not won yet!? They had first managed to beat Sarah, and then they put the smack-down on the witch, not to mention all her little claymen and the massive snake!! However, as the rumbling started, he was afraid he had to reluctantly agree to Blisses hypothesis

He snorted unhappily as he was told to pick up sarah. He didn't mind the other one, but Sarah. Lets just say that he didn't like her very much after what she tried to do less than an hour ago. "To not like Sarah. Think she is stupid." the caveman grunted as she picked the two girls up, one in each hand. Gwharr positioned himself in the correct position beneath the biggest hole in the roof he could fine, before he looked in bliss direction with a whine, motioning for her to jump on so that they could get going. The thought of being buried alive (again) did definately not sit well with the captain, but he wasn't the type that would abandon his packmates so easily.

As soon as he felt the weight of the petite but (literally) coolheaded woman on his back, he leapt upwards, holding the other two women against his body, protecting them with his arms, so that they wouldn't be injured in an eventual collision. However, due to the fact that they waited, the hole had grown more than large enough for the group to pass through. He flew through the air, managing to land flawlessly on the roof of the collapsing ruin, from where he emediately leapt across the street, landing on the roof on a neighboring building in relative safety. There he finally dropped the two women, giving the tied up sarah a rather soft kick, just for good measure. A kick not meant to hurt her, but rather to express an opinion.

Dust erupted through the opening. The thunderous sound of the collapsing building gave an absolution to what transpired behind them. With the events of the night resting behind her experience with the giant, Bliss grew to expect the ups and downs of air travel with the large man. As he set back down to Earth Bliss hopped off of his back. The towering giant dropped the two girls onto the ground before Bliss; the proper thing would be to undo the thick layer of cellophane wrapped around their bodies. A soft kick brushed against Sarah's body, jostling her awake.

"Wuz gone on?" She spoke in a half stupor.

"Shut up." Bliss started the endeavor by peeling away layer after layer from the supervillain who went by Shadowstitch. "You should be lucky you aren't trapped in the whatever you call it of whatever that thing may or may not have been."

"What?" Through half closed eyes Sarah's mind opened to figure out the cause of her problems.

"You know. The thing you were talking about earlier." Slowly Bliss began to make leeway in freeing the captive.

"I explained something that threatened your life and you didn't even pay attention?" The ire of her plans unraveled teamed with the annoyance of the success of a rival made her forget about the fact that Bliss in fact saved her life.

"I guess I didn't need the run down, because I saved the day." Confidence exhumed from Bliss's overly confident mouth. "Go ahead and cut yourself out of that. I don't get how you ever came to get trapped in that when you can make swords and crap."

"There was some kind of..." A knife sprouted up from the shadows while Sarah tried to quantify her words. "Field that kept me from doing anything."

"I did just fine in there with her." The body of the black clad woman rolled out of the wrapping while Bliss continued her discussion.

"Clearly you had something helping you, or some kind of..."

"Get fucked Webster. I'm outtie." Bliss began to walk away from the girl as her body broke out of the cellophane.

"Hey Bliss." Sarah picked herself off of the ground and rested her weight on her arms. Her voice caught up to the situation and she began to gasp for the right words. "I really hate everything about you."

Bliss waved off the insult as she continued back over to the gargantuan ally. "I don't know how to contact you, but I think we can work something out. I can make some device that is so simple someone as stu-" Bliss caught herself in mid sentence. "of another culture." Lingering around with this guy could cramp her style, so she would need to find a way to throw together some kind of transmitter so she could keep an eye on this guy. "Maybe we should find that guy we picked up earlier tonight who kept saying 'bohiney.'" The last meeting between them may have left a sour taste in his mouth, but Bliss thought she could muster a way to twist his mind into giving her what she wanted.

This is probably why Webster said she hated me Bliss pondered to herself.

Gwharr snickered happily as he had finished his soft, harmless yet somewhat petty kicking of the "shadowlight woman" had been successfully completed. He might have felt bed if he had not taken great care to limit the power of his kicks. After all, he was not trying to hurt her physically, he was trying to hurt her pride. She had been extraordinarily arrogant, with an Ego that was pretty much as inflated as a balloon. He hoped that this rather crude behaviour would put her in her place. He was well that it was probably not the right thing to do, but it felt very good to do it anyway. Besides, she definately deserved it, after all she was attacking him and Bliss earlier on, poking a hole in his gut with those annoying shadowspears.

When the annoying, so-called heroinne and Bliss started Talking Gwharr felt strangely left out. He had a good idea of they talked about, yet he had no idea how to enter the conversation. Interracting with these "modern" bloody thinlings where so needlessly complicated at times. However, when the 'shadowlight-woman' had her little tantrum about Bliss not paying attention, Gwharr saw his chance, and he took it!

"Pffft, To know you pay attention! You get beaten! We no pay attention, we win! Only losers pay attention!" Gwharr said, his inhumanly deep, gravely voice filled with pride, presumably because the gargantuan believed he had just summed up the entire reason of why "Shadow-light-woman" sucked and he and bliss rocked.

"To know Captain Caveman save you'se life. You'se live with that forever" he spoke once again, talking to the annoying woman, an arrogant smirk spreading on his hairy face. He would probably come up with some other "barely veiled at all" insults, but Bliss suddenly talked to him before he had time to think up any more of them.

Gwharr might be something of a dullard, but he was well aware of what Bliss almost said when she spoke to him. 'Stupid'. While he had enough self-awareness to recognize his mental shortcommings, he reaelly didn't like having people around him pointing them out like that. It put somewhat of a dent in his mood, but he was still in a fairly good mood. He wondered what manner of communications-device they needed. He had been around for long enough to understand the purpose of a mobile phone, even though he had never really bothered to learn how to use one. However, Gwharr also realized that this meant she would leave his little "pack" It put yet another dent in his good mood. He hadn't come to expect anything else. People of this day and age rarely stuck together for all that long, not like the tribes of his day at any rate, but he had hoped she would stick around for a bit longer nonetheless.

Still, right now they where a pack, and if she wanted some sort of communicationsthingey, he really had no reason to refuse her request. He owed her that much at least. "Okay. We find guy." he said nodding.

Finding this guy may take a little more than merely wishing for him to turn up. Sometimes you need small miracles to occur. Sometimes those small miracles can lead to the greatest culminations of life. Sometimes they come from situations we would never see coming.

"Okay Gwharr. We'll take a walk. Get a little cool air for the brain and think about our next few steps." Bliss made her way back to the sidewalk of the street. Darkness provided a backdrop to the vast stores lining the blocks of this part of town. Not exactly prime real estate, but good enough for owners to not drop chain fences over their windows every night.

A small sliver of light permeated a bench ripe with graffiti. No respect at all for anything other than needless destruction and art for the sake of art became the clear motive for the City of Angels. Weeds poked through rugged cracks in the asphalt too derelict to offer any defense to what nature sought to reclaim, but no one cared about the wildlife of Los Angeles. Especially not the man in the wheelchair by the bench. Casting a deep shadow over his face, a worn and ridden Kevlar helmet drooped over the man's hard brow. Lines carved through the thick skin allowing him ample room to hide his thoughts.

His uninviting appeal caught the attention of Bliss and pulled her to him."Are you waiting for the bus?"

"What's it look like?" He kept a look forward while his eyes gazed over to the side. The stitching in the green sweatshirt began coming undone around the army emblem on his chest.

"Well, the bus doesn't come to this stop anymore." Bliss never visited major cities without committing to memory the major lines of transportation that ran through the city. Her passive memory recall gave her the perfect conversation starter with someone with no desire for conversation. "I guess it's too dangerous."

"Perfect." He began to motion his arms to take the reigns of the wheels to his side when his arms fell back to his side.

"Can..." Bliss wanted to leave the man behind. Something about him pulled her to him, but she wanted so badly to leave this guy behind. "I do anything to help?"

"I didn't ask for any help." Resolve came to his arms as he gripped the sides of his chair. Maybe Bliss wasn't the first person to consider leaving this guy behind.

"I can give you some help. I'm heading down towards a stop that the bus does come to." She would side track a little to get there, but expedience no longer rested in her actions.

A silence rested between the two. He didn't need the companionship. Someone to push him in his chair while wondering what his problem is didn't seem like a good enough trade off. He would push the remains of his life himself. "You can show me where the stop is."

"Alright." Bliss motioned to Gwharr to follow her. Without taking the direct meaning of his words Bliss moved to push the wheelchair.

"Don't touch the fucking chair!" His arms pushed his chair forward as he exclaimed in anger. "I didn't tell you to help." His demeanor returned but the severity in his eyes looked as sharp as ever.

Bliss swallowed her amazement and began to move towards him. At first she thought off moving behind him, but he might get the idea she would at any minute seek to proved unwanted help. Standing right beside him as they walked would be best.

"I'm a little jumpy. Heard some blast a few blocks over and, well..." In between the silence of his pauses rang the axle of his chair. "Not the best thing you want to hear in the night."

"Rough neighborhood doesn't really explain that does it?" Bliss continued on her way with her arms crossed over her chest. The top of the hood of her sweatshirt rubbed ever so gently against the few strands of hair from the back of her neck.

"I've seen rougher." A hint of inflection rested inside of his phrase. Not a complete joke, but also allowing Bliss a little insight into the man. "I didn't slip on a banana peel. If I had done that I wouldn't be taking a bus three hours from home to get a doctor."

"I hear tort reform in cartoons is getting ridiculous though." Against her instincts Bliss gave a small joke. He gave a small smile as he continued his trek. It must be lonely she thought. It's not that no one wants to talk to him; they just don't know how. You mix the service, the injury, and situation that gave him the injury and you don't know what you'll get in a social setting, so most people just do their part to hold the door open and move along. It wasn't much, but it was something. You always need something to get started.