Breaking Bones in the City of Angels.

Nina's fingers gingerly placed a toothpick between her lips, letting her teeth pull it in further as she strode down the streets of Los Angeles. She had needed a break from the oppressive views that New York provided, and with an ounce of hesitation, she boarded a plane to the west coast, coming to the conclusion that The Golden State could use her special brand of whoop-ass. She had gotten herself some new clothes for the occasion, dawning a form-fitting drab green t-shirt, some pinstripe pants that cut off just below the knee, and even another pair of leather gloves, all completed by a heavy black trench coat made from canvas and muslin. The only things that didn't change were her beloved combat boots, now clearly worn in, and as she took heavy steps down the sidewalk, drawing a few curious glances, she bowed her head slightly, preferring to simply slice through the crowd than rake in attention.

A series of small-scale explosions had drawn her attention to this city in particular. After combing through the news coverage, she began to notice a pattern; All of them were caused by similar explosive compounds, all in population-dense areas, and lastly, all around mid day. No one had a definitive description of the criminal, but one anonymous contributor was known to say that it was a woman, about average height and weight, dark hair, possibly of mongoloid descent. With a fuzzy image in her head, The Valkyrie began her journey to stop this dastardly lady. A map of the Los Angeles was still pinned up to her wall back home in New York, a red tack pinned in every location that had been attacked, and with little shock, she discovered a pattern that led her to the La Brea tar pits.

- - -

She took no pleasure in standing guard over a large hole in the ground filled with hot, smelly tar, but she managed to will herself there by thinking about innocent people being kept out of harm's way. The sun baked the ground, making Nina wince and regret not getting a pair of sunglasses. The stench of the pits bathed her, and, like the heat, set her nerves on edge immediately. She hated heat, and her coat stifled her, causing her face and chest to bead with sweat that might as well have boiled on her skin. Being in the cooler environment of New York had made her even more susceptible to heat, and as she rolled up her sleeves, nostrils flaring bitterly from the odor of the tar, she winced down the length of the street, eyes scanning for someone fitting the rather shaky description she had to go on. All over the city, clock's were showing that it was ten minutes till mid day.

Her usual aversion to sitting still caused her to peruse the surrounding area, searching for suspicious packages or ne'er-do-wells. There were no mysterious bags, unmarked boxes, or overly-shady people to be seen, making Nina even angrier. If the last attack had truly been the last one, then she would have exposed herself to all of this unpleasantness for nothing, and the mere thought of it made her teeth grind together. By no means did she wish ill on the public, simply that she would find the damn bomber and pound her face into powder so she could go the hell home. Criminals were the worst coworkers, and even though she loved working, this particular job had a real bitch of a commute that Nina didn't want to find out was all a waste.

Certain pedestrians began casting wary glances at her, but she simply glared back. If they think I'm the bomber, I'm going to eat my own hands... she thought bitterly, deciding it was better to remove herself from the scene. Not caring about remaining inconspicuous anymore, she coiled down and launched herself upward like a bullet, cutting through the air with nary a sound before landing in a solid stance on a building with a clear line of sight to the pits. She took care in perching herself on the edge like a bird of prey, fingertips digging into the brick lip of it like talons in wood, her steely gaze scrutinizing every face and movement.

''Come on, you sick fuck...'' she growled. ''Come out and play with Valky...''

A rough cloud of smoke blew from her cold lips. She loved the feel of the burning gas in her lungs. While gazing at the multitude of those shuffling through the streets Bliss kicked up her left boot and rested it against the pink socks that ran up over her knee. The cotton of her black sweater kept her arm cushioned from the wooden back of the bench she took up residence on. Her past few days took her to the brink and back several times. Different countries and different people, but she made sure that she remembered these guys for when she would need them. The good doctor still waited out there somewhere, and she resolved herself to build a team that would stop him. An electric kid from New York, a rogue Joel Mchale from Japan, and of course her new best friend a caveman she just met.

Today she did not know what she would do, but she still kept a few leads in the superhuman market. For a second day she tried to track down a shadow manipulating Chinese girl, but every time she got nothing. Nothing but cold looks and dead ends. Brushing the wrinkles from her plaid skirt she stood to her feet and flicked the cigarette into the tar pit. The upside to all of this work in the superhuman industry came from her developing more control over her powers. She could make ice fade away now a power a few weeks ago completely eluded her. So much to do in so little time, but she just smiled thinking of all that she accomplished in these last few weeks. It made her more expedient to get out and assemble this team.

Her heels clicked along the concrete of the walkways that cut through the tourist attractions. This intrepid shadow manipulator needed to join up with Bliss. She already possessed two key attributes that made her perfect for the job. One, she was a shadow manipulator. Two, she wasn't Sarah goddamn Webster. Out of all the female superhumans she hated that girl the most. At least she thought that as she continued her walk through the crowds under the watchful set of eyes from the upper buildings.

Time for a little display. Ice formed up all around her and began to take the shape of small dogs. Around the dogs rose a few ice flowers around them. Chiseling details into the canines, the animals began to take the plump shape of corgis while the trace amount of flowers bloomed into full blown gardens around the pits. Bliss kept moving as her ice continued to spring up the collection of small animals and beautiful flowers. Sun light glistened off of the moist ice sculptures, foretelling their doom with a rainbow of prismatic beams that reflected rainbows against the sidewalk.

The lovely sculptures attracted the attention of the pit to Bliss's path. Such a lovely display of powers. Such a delicate display of power.

Sound emanated at a high pitch throughout the area. The sculptures began to shake uncontrollably to fight off the movement within their formation. One of the roses shattered. Ice shards flew out cutting several onlookers. A small boy bled from the laceration to his forehead from the icicle. Tears mixed in with the blood from the unexpected incident. The continuation of this high sound shook through her field of flowers; Bliss acted as quickly as she could to return those sculptures back to her body. The build up of the ice she released would need a medium for her to transfer all the excess to. The historical society would hate this, but Bliss aimed her arms towards the tar pit and unleashed her frozen build up.

Panic and hysteria overtook the crowd. Children ran away from the sight that rained devastation on their sense of wonderment. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" A middle aged woman stepped up and shoved Bliss in the chest as hard as she could. "I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget." Bliss reacted against the woman's belligerent attack by sweeping her legs out from under her. More angry pedestrians began to take interest in taking action against Bliss. She needed to escape.

Stairs of ice came from the ground. Not wanting to face the consequences of beating up a group of parents expressing anger over a superhuman attacking their children at a family park, Bliss began to climb the stairs to fade away from the mob. Against her ear and even through her body she could hear the high pitched humming return. Shattering to the ground Bliss and her ice stairs fell hard. Ice littered the ground while Bliss just laid on her back gazing at the sun. The light of rainbows reflected over her eyes.

God did she hate tar. She looked over her shoulder and spat the nasty taste out of her mouth, wiping her lips with the back of her glove before she returned to her vigil. Nothing special stuck out, aside from a rather callous citizen discarding their cigarette into the pits. Nina gave a heavy sigh, her shoulders dipping into a lazy hunch. Hurry up... she pleaded with the criminal, Make an appearance, monologue, anything! A high-pitched sound pricked at Nina's ears, but she simply shook her head and tried her best to let it be. Unless... this was somehow connected to the explosions? With renewed vigor, she leaned further over the edge of the building and scanned the constant pulse of people, dismay playing across her face as nothing of merit unfolded.

The sight of a average-sized, dark haired woman made her grin from ear to ear, and as a myriad of ice began to simply show up from nowhere, she felt a wave of satisfaction that rolled over her along with the heat. Not the bomber... Relief shot through her and unclenched her usually tense muscles. She stood and stretched her legs out, flexing her arms down to her fingers as she watched this superhuman work. It was beautiful, and if Nina asked nicely, maybe she would use her ice powers to cool her down somehow, from one super to another. It was only when they began to burst that fear and anger laced into her blood. A young boy cried out after being struck by a shard of ice, coming away with blood-streaked cheeks, and as others ran from her with similar afflictions, Nina let out an angry bellow that encompassed all of her stresses, impatience, and hatred of those bull-headed enough to hurt children. ''Heads up!'' she cried out, leaping from the rooftop towards the mayhem.

She chanced a look down as she arced through the air, coat flapping behind her like a foreboding black flag; a frigid blast coursed through to the pits, sending even more people reeling back, and some harder citizens surging forward to attack this assailant. Stairs materialized from nowhere, giving this woman purchase to escape the onslaught, but apparently not for long. The ice shattered, sending her back down to earth, and just as her head lolled around to look up at the sky, The Valkyrie blocked out the sun.

Her legs extended and brought her to an abrupt landing, her feet creating thin, shallow craters in the concrete. People cleared a fair amount of space as it began to dawn on them what was happening; superhuman fight. Nina gave her hair a punctual flip as she strode over to the perp, clucking her tongue like a disapproving mother. ''You should know better than to hurt innocent people.'' she chided, standing just before her as the woman brought herself to her feet. ''Now you're going to get what's coming to you, courtesy of Valkyrie.'' A small murmur of recognition pulsed through the crowd, surely news of her and Pain's exploits had reached this side of the country, even if it hadn't been very long. She gave her knuckles an experimental crack before folding her arms, her head tilting slightly to take in more of her opponent, and with one finger, she beckoned her forward.

Reflective lights disappeared from Bliss's range of sight under the towering form of the new girl. The closest tar pit looked like a frozen bay with jagged pieces of ice blocks floating in the thick tar. Her impact gave Bliss a good deal of what she stood to face. With how the girl stood in stature it looked like Bliss would find it difficult to get back to her feet in her current stance. That's when the challenge came; a single finger ushering Bliss to get to her feet so that the real fight could happen.

Taking advantage of the allotted time and realizing that the only people who could pull off the feat she performed must possess some super strength, Bliss thought of a way to avoid the impact of the girl's attack. "You're blocking my light." Bliss knew that any kind of explanation would only make this worse; even with her ice miraculously failing around her no one would believe that someone else used Bliss's powers to instigate a fight. Ice wrapped around Bliss's hands and chest to give her a little more of an advantage in lasting against this girl in a fight.

As Bliss began to think her next few actions through the sound returned. She could feel the cracking of ice within her hands and chest. If this continued for any longer Bliss would find herself at the losing end of a brutal beat down. This brawling woman somehow managed to keep some wave emitter that could counter Bliss's ice attacks with a little time. Her strength in the ice made it last a little while against the device, but it put Bliss at a very great disadvantage. "Cute trick with whatever it is you got against my ice." Bliss knew that speed would need to be on her side to keep her alive. Blasts of ice shot from her hands to hit Nina in the chest while Bliss darted towards the ice flows in the tar pit.

''Huh?'' was all she could manage to get out before the ice blast struck her in the chest, sending her sprawling back into the brickwork of the wall behind her. The force of her impact left a sizable dent, with cracks spidering up for several feet before the destruction stopped. Her ears rang, making her groan and squeeze her eyes shut tight. Dust and small bits of debris fell around her, and with a quick shake of her head, Nina watched the girl run for the tar pits. ''Oh, you bitch.'' Little effort was used to dislodge herself from the architecture, and a few powerful strides had her catching up to the woman in no time. In spite of her anger, she began to relish the challenge that was being presented; this was a fight she would enjoy winning.

A strong bound sent her flying toward the top of one of the floes, a wild smile cutting through her face. Her eyes wide, pupils gaping black holes, she looked frightening at best. Adrenaline always did fun things to Valkyrie in the heat of battle, and she truly needed that in this altercation. The frigidity of this woman's abilities would give Nina a run for her money, and her only defense against the frozen strikes was sheer willpower. As she soared over the tip of the floe, she thrust her fingers into it, satisfied when they dug in like picks, allowing her to stop in mid-air and come crashing into the ice. It cracked, pieces fell, but more forceful pawing from her hands kept her steady. Once she managed to get sure footing, she broke of a large hunk of ice, tossing it up and down playfully like a baseball.

''C'mere, fucker. I kinda feel like pounding out my stress on your face.'' she called out, face in a disgusted snarl from the smell of the heated pits. Through her excitement, she barely noticed the wavering thrum of the noise that sent cracks through the ice, or the way the small berg gently swayed and sank with every move she made.

Gripping the iceberg with the stickiness that her ice could provide let her gain a little balance to keep her from stumbling into the tar pits. "You're going to follow me into this pit even though your little device is shattering my ice?" Bliss could see the ice readily crumbling under the impact of Nina. "Good call." With a hint of inflection Bliss readied her defense. All she needed to do the other girl would do herself. Even super strength would find navigating the thick viscosity of tar almost impossible. Especially if Bliss could add a little frozen touch to the tar when Nina fell in.

Keeping away from the power of Nina became Bliss's only real option of subduing her opponent. Her iced over steps kept the cracked filled from the high pitched hum that permeated the structure of the ice. Balancing under the icebergs under normal tar would not present much of a challenge with the thickness of the tar, bit the splintering of the ice caused the chunks to submerge into the tar. Heat from the black thickness slowly ate away at the icebergs, causing a new level of difficulty to the fight.

Ice fired from Bliss's hand to try and snare Nina's feet to the iceberg that she balanced on. Layers and layers of ice would stack up after Bliss saw how quickly she discarded the first wave of ice that Bliss levied at her on the sidewalk. If Bliss wanted to elude capture she would need to juggle staying out of the tar while keeping Nina trapped in it. The humming continued to ring.

The woman's comment caused Nina to pause, ''Device...? What are you talking about?'' The barely audible, but painful, thrum continued, making her brain ache and her eyes feel like they were about to pop. Another head shake, which was just enough of a disturbance to cause a large swath of the berg she was clinging to to slough off and plow into the hot tar, fracturing and melting back into nothingness. A ripple of fear disturbed the tumultuous waters of her mind. ''What the hell is that sound?'' she said to no one in particular, one eye shut tight from the ache in her head, the other a precise scope on her opponent. The piercing gaze of the trained heroine was just as good as any rifle sight. Her mouth bent into a displeased grimace, and with one heft of her arm, she sent a hunk of ice the size of a beach ball rolling through the air towards her enemy.

Too late did she register the retaliating blast.

The force of it knocked her back, but the ice sheets kept her attached to the doomed floe. She fell back, her ankles now burning with the intense cold and sudden strain from her weight being held on them. A short, frightened scream escaped her, but was quickly snuffed out when she had the wind knocked out of her from hitting the ice. Another shudder, more pieces of the berg dislodging themselves and disappearing in the heat and tar. All at once, it sank a good two feet in a span of seconds before slowing once more to its creep down into the black fluid. Nina began to panic, tearing one leg free of the ice before beginning to whimper at the other that still remained underneath her chilling bonds. Fear was never good for Nina, as it often sapped her strength and crushed her resolve, sending her into pure flight mode. Have to get out, She thought blindly, not thinking about structural integrity as she drove her fingers into the floe, dragging herself backwards and freeing her other foot, get out, get out, get out!

The chill of the ice coupled with the searing Los Angeles heat made Nina begin to sweat and shiver, and in a last ditch effort, she bounded from her perch and onto a larger, almost purely vertical berg. In her haste, she had miscalculated, sending her close to the base of it. Her impact made it slip further down, but fall and lay flat in the viscous pit. Like a spooked animal, she scrambled onto the horizontal surface, remaining on her hands and knees. Amongst all of the mayhem she was enduring, she couldn't help but notice the woman's stability. ''How the hell can you just stand there?'' she called out, a mixture of frustration and nervousness in her voice. The ever-present sound made her heart flutter and her brain burn. ''And stop making that fucking noise!''

Momentum swung over to Bliss's side in a literal manner. The bruiser looked like a bear trying to walk a tight rope. And then she threw a chunk of ice. Avoidance kicked in forcing Bliss to leap from her ice berg and landed with a good deal of traction on another large ice chunk. With her lack of brute force and small frame she kept the cracks from breaking under her. "I'm talking about..." In her fleet of foot Bliss forgot to strengthen the ice she jumped onto. Her foot kicked through the ice and into the heat of the tar. Jagged edges of ice lent Bliss no support to get back to her bearings.

Pulling herself up out of the cracked hole looked out of the question as the cracks grew more invasive. Enough ice came up under Bliss to keep her from falling completely into the tar. She looked up to see her adversary struggling to stay on her feet. More and more layers pushed Bliss into the air. Her pillar of ice held her slightly above Nina. The chasm between them spanned a good thirty feet. "Not wearing combat boots helps. You may like jumping around and breaking things with those things on a regular basis, but on an ice sheet that is thin, those things are punching you a ticket to sleeping with the dinosaurs."

One reckless leap from Nina could destroy both of the pillars and send the two girls to the pits before. She didn't seem suicidal, but she really exuded recklessness. Before this could get any worse Bliss needed to restrain the other girl so she could put her in a situation that would make her more likely to negotiate. Fighting against several other environmental caused Bliss to gain enough of an advantage to feel confident in pushing Nina even further down into an odd situation. Bliss decided to go at it from a subtle push. Instead of making an abrasive attack against Nina or her pillar, she created a line of ice at the bottom of Nina's pillar that exacerbated the stability of the pillar. Lines would pierce through pillar causing it to break apart underneath the stronger girl's footing.

The fault lines that continued to run through the pillars put the large pillars they stood upon very frail and dangerous. From the heights above the base of her pillar Bliss could not keep her pillar from falling into the tar just as Nina's would. A bridge began to run from Bliss's ice chunk over to the edge of the pit. High pitched sounds made it so that Bliss could not wait for the bridge to materialize because it would merely collapse upon itself. Bliss began to run across the bridge while conjuring an end. Force turned against Bliss as she could feel the cracks in the ice destabilizing her footing. All she needed was to stay up for a few more meters and she could see what became of the other hero.

''Oh just shut up.'' she groused, nails digging into the frigid platform like claws. Watching the destructive vein of ice begin to splinter her support made her brain swim in confusion and fear, and with a frustrated cry, she got up and began running the length of the ice pillar. A quick glance to her side showed that the woman was escaping via her very own ice bridge, and as the frozen floor beneath her groaned and splintered violently under her weight, Nina risked it all by making another daring leap. The pressure from her take off was enough to destroy what was left of her shelter, taking a considerable amount of the inertia out of her jump. As she soared through the air, the thick smell of the pits burning her nose, she fought against her better judgment to close her eyes and hope for the best.

Her legs and arms stretched out like a jittery cat attempting to land on its feet, and in her mental calamity, her hands and feet scrambled against the small strip of bare wall and fencing before the surface of the tar, barely giving her purchase as she made her way out. Once she was safely panting in the street, her brain had a chance to continue to chew on one of the bigger problems at hand, namely, that annoying sound that just wouldn't quit. She rose to her feet as quickly as she could, not letting her back be exposed to her opponent for too long. ''Ok... what were you talking about when you said something about a 'device'?''

"Determining by your antics and lack of tactics, skill, and grace I can put together that you aren't very smart..." Bliss rattled off the list of condescending insults she felt she had a right to relay to Nina. "...So using a device to counter my ice may not be up your proficiencies." A victory of any means over adversaries filled Bliss with a bravado that usually spelled her downfall. "Which would mean someone else is after me." Ice fell from Bliss's fist. While Nina turned her back, Bliss planned on attempting to incapacitate her with a shot to the neck. Most likely this would end with Nina beating Bliss into submission, so perhaps her revelation saved her from an untimely death.

"We just need to find that machine and turn it off." In her quickened plan Bliss overlooked two key principles. The first, whoever created the machine far superseded the importance of what the device did. And two, Bliss gave herself the impression that whomever created the device came after her. Bliss could feel the intensity of the sound ringing through an office building a few doors away. Like a malevolent Pied Piper it drew Bliss towards the bland, opal building. "I'm going to take a look. Someone must be watching, so we better be careful."

Hundreds of eyes gazed across the chaotic tourist attraction. For all the calamity and turmoil the two created among a busy area no police responded. For good reason. Tapping her fingers across a keyboard laced with silk threads that held the keyboard over the desk, a red headed woman clad in a blue body suit watched the street. Not only could she make short work of Bliss's ice, but she could also keep any pedestrians from calling for help. Once anyone escaped to a safe enough distance they could contact the police, but it would be too late. The flies would have stepped into spider's parlor.

One blonde fly in particular.

The insults struck Nina right at the core of her pride. ''...well fuck you too.'' she muttered under her breath, folding her arms as her opponent spoke on. The mention of others being after her wasn't surprising, but still caused the heroine to raise an eyebrow. What sort of enemies does an ice-maker find? What do they want from her? Why not attack out in the open? The use of the device to negate the woman's ability to create a solid structure suggested that they knew their target well, and were smart enough to pose a threat to Nina, should they see things that way. Would they be fellow heroes attempting to subdue a chilling femme fatale, or villains that wished to crush the bewitching beauty that was her gift?

Whichever way this little play would turn out, Nina wanted to see it through to the end. If anything, her presence was a definitive being of unshakable justice that could maybe help end it.

"We just need to find that machine and turn it off."

''That we do.'' she said flatly, eyes barely flicking over the crowd to assess their demeanor. No one was standing out, just the usual doting mothers with their children, teens huddled in trembling groups, business men panicking and turning tail to their respective vehicles. Amidst all of the differences, they all had one thing in common: their frightened gazes stared back at her, pleading for a release from the fear and danger. A plea she would answer with an earth-shattering ''Yes.''.

Her guard dog-like stare watched Bliss, and when she mentioned proceeding into the unflattering, but otherwise unremarkable building of pale stone, her proverbial hackles went up. She didn't like fighting in tiny places, she tended to bump her head a lot, but on the other hand, she had to wrap this up.''I'll watch your back, no way in hell am I letting you go in there alone.'' She would not only make sure that no more damage was done, there was always the chance that she had unknowingly attacked a fellow do-gooder, and would now need to protect her just as much as all the innocents in that boring office. With a final nod she followed the mysterious woman, fists tight and at the ready to break some faces, completely oblivious to anything beyond the fact that an unknown adversary lay ahead, and much to her naivete, she believed it was one she would take down in a matter of minutes.

Behind the closed doors lay dangers within every nook the girl could ever fathom. Eerie noises continued bouncing through the halls of the building, masking the skittering of legs that monitored their approach. "A few more minutes of this and I'll lose my mind." Bliss continued onwards passed the lobby and down a central atrium. A pair of open doors ushered her into the conference room that housed the ever so screeching noise emitter. "Watch out for whoever put this thing here." Her words could barely make their way to Nina under the duress of the screech. "I guess I should say 'whomever'" Her idle chat drown as she stepped towards the machine. An odd silk string case covered the device, no bigger than a typewriter.

While Bliss took to uncovering the secrets of the machine, a sinister plan began to unravel behind her. Several holes littered the tiled ceiling, hidden behind curtains of silk drawn over them like hubs over manholes. A blue gloved hand drew across the curtain. The creature came close to hissing in victory as it viewed the prey it wanted so badly.

"I think I got it." Bliss pulled a piece of paper out from under the shell. "It looks like a note." The moment began to weigh heavily on the creature. All of these moments of preparation would soon trigger the trap. "...And it led them to their doom?" Bliss spoke with a confused bewilderment.

"You and me both...'' she muttered under her breath, the sweat on the nape of her neck and brow now chilled on her skin from the sudden wash of cool air that tumbled from the buildings air conditioning, enveloped with inorganic sounds and other disturbing tones. Though she was grateful for the change in temperature, she was quickly coming to the conclusion that she would rather endure the stagnant heat of Los Angeles than the shifting negativity that slipped about in the halls, setting every single one of her nerves on edge.

She followed behind Bliss like a lost puppy, never more than a few steps behind, eyes constantly scraping over the area around them. Lobby empty of people but full of fake palm plants, tile floors buffed to an impeccable and pointless shine, desks ruler-straight and clean of unnecessary or efficiency-slowing debris... It felt wrong, set up, like pieces of furniture in a dollhouse all placed by someone who didn't quite understand how people lived and worked. The sound increased as they descended further into the mouth of the proverbial beast, and the din reached its unholy peak as the doors to the conference room obligingly opened and let them in. Nina clapped her hands over her ears and cussed loudly, her voice drowned out in the sound. Bliss spoke, but she didn't catch a word. ''Huh?''

Her companion pulled out a slip of paper, reading off the words that got folded in with the noise. Nina grumbled and strode over, looking over her shoulder and reading the scrawl before her. ''...what does that even mean?'' she asked, louder than normal so that she might be heard, ignorant of the scheme that unfolded not a few feet above her.

With surprise on her side, the creature lowered a spinning lasso hovering over Nina. Precision guided the long strands of strong webbing lowered around her body. The webbing would ensnare her ankles before tightening up and wrapping around her legs and arms. In the surprise of the moment the creature would drop from the ceiling to place a hand around Nina's mouth, while another wrapped around her body. The remaining four would grab at her triceps while the last two would begin to pin her hands behind her back. In the palm of the hand accosting Nina's face, a toxin would seep into her pores and lips. Within a few seconds the strength to fight back against the creature would wane. ""Ssshhhhh." The rough face of the creature moved forward to usher a demand to Nina. Course hairs poked through the leathery surface of the disturbing face. A smile would curve over her face as she turned her attention to the girl fidgeting with the noise emitter. "What do we do about her?" A pause lapses. "I know."

An acidic spit shot forth from her mouth and flew towards Bliss. Steam seared as the substance ate a hole in the back of Bliss's shirt. Pain forced her to take refuge digging her nails into the particle board table she fell onto. "Wasn't that fun?" The rattling voice of the creature took pleasure in her work. "Only one fly at a time. And I can't let my nursery get too cold." The creature would take the opportunity of Bliss's pain to retreat to the second floor with Nina in tow. She did not want to keep her children waiting for the girl she saw as Pain's heir.

The snap of restraints on her ankles caused her to yelp in alarm, falling backwards before being caught and bound by the grip of the unknown assailant. It all happened so fast, she barely had any time to react, only enough to have her cries muffled by a foreign, vile hand. Her muscles went taught before she felt her face heat up; the sweat on her enemies palm burned her skin and made her whole body ache, causing her tense limbs to slacken without even unleashing a single blow. Something dug its way into her veins, hot and unyielding, crawling around her muscles like ants, stinging away her strength and power. She winced, then regretted the decision when the room around her began to get fuzzy.

As her head lolled forward and into the support of the attacker, her vision tunneled, but she focused it on Bliss as best she could. Only one thought repeated through her mind like the chatter of gunfire. Save her, save her, save her... Nina tried to call out, flail an arm, alert her associate in some way, but it was all for naught; not a single part of her body would obey. Her companion went sprawling forward from the single blast of saliva, sending a tendril of anger snaking cold and fast into Nina's hot, drugged blood. Once her captor began to move, Nina's hair fell forward and blocked her sight, causing her otherwise keen vision to be reduced to a swaying vortex of blonde and the tiles beneath the villain's feet.