The Palisade (Defenders of Bronx post here for your assignments)

Theresa ignored the fact the caveman didn't respond to her. Though her lips curled into a sneer as she crossed her arms across her chest and waited for any sort of order. More arriving to the scene including one face she remembered all too well. Infact she promised to stab him in the throat the next time he appeared infront of her. Which meant she would have to kill the man where he stood. A blade slid out fo the wrist container, gleaming in a dim light cast from the distance. Though something kept her from trying to kill him. Though what it was exactly she didn't know, or care to. With a free hand she pulled the hood over her head back, revealing a cascade of brown locks. Eyes narrowing like thos eof a jungle cats at Clayton.

"We meet again. Its been a long time since you cut me open, but by gones are by gones are right?" She allowed the blade to slip back into its proper place. With a boot tap against the ice, she looked away as people branched off to work. Not sure why she would be stuck with the man who had almost killed her once during her time under Elena. Though she found now reason to complain about having this burden,w hens he could find a way to kill him after this mission. He would be dead soon enough.

"Very well miss, I will work with this man." She shrugged, feeling over the whip at her side for a brief second, before her eyes darted over to Clayton untrusting. Baring sharp incisors before turning off in her own direction where she assumed the greatest threat would be. Though of course that wasn't a given int he situation, when she didn't know who was a threat now. Especially when she was stuck with this man.

Alice was not sure why she was here. She honestly was not sure. But she knew one thing. She was not supposed to be stuck in an army blockade with a bunch of other people being kept safe and sound. She glanced around nervously, flinching every so often as the gunshots rang outside and screams of the dying could be heard. Alice wanted to be out there doing something. But apparently, she didn’t have the clearance to help or something like that… well, they more said that she was a civilian and needed to be kept safe. It wasn’t that she couldn’t escape of course… it was just that she didn’t know where to go, and Bliss had told her to simply stay here until the signal was given… whatever the signal was going to be. This was stupid. She should be out there helping, not just sitting there a—

Suddenly, out of nowhere, and giant fortress of ice sprang up a few blocks down the street. Ice fortress. That could only mean one person… Bliss. Alice quickly jumped up, gaining the attention of one of the soldiers, though he didn’t do anything besides take one glance before moving on. She quickly moved to an isolated corner of the cleared area, changing into her “costume” if one could even call it that. Goggles and mask all went on, as well as her new belt of miscellaneous items. With that done, she quickly ran out, dodging past soldiers who now were noticing the teenager they had managed to save was going straight towards the thick of the fray.

They attempted to stop her. Of course they did, that was their job. The other people shouted at her as well, though a few seemed to go good riddance at the apparent stupidity she was displaying. She ignored them all though, intent on going towards the fortress without having to enter the strange dimension of darkness she decided to call the shadow zone. As adept as she was at navigating it now… it scared her in a rather non scary way. It felt too comfortable, that was the problem. That and she could swear that it wasn’t just her there… There were other… presences within that realm. And while they seemed friendly and helpful, the unknown quality of the… presences just gave her chills.

In short, she was going to long way. The gunshots were getting closer now. An officer attempted to grab her, but she quickly dodged. Another, faster, officer made the attempt, threatening to shoot her. “Sorry!” was all she continued to shout as Alice kept going, and soon, she was at the edge of tanks and such. More and more attempts were made, warning shots were fired. She concentrated, darkening one of the shadows cast by the massive tanks. And with that, she jumped, using the modified shadow as a super trampoline. It was apparent now. She was a super. They reluctantly stopped their pursuit, watching as she landed on a rooftop. Any help was welcome, even if it came from a teenager.

Alice quickly hopped from roof to roof, surveying the ongoing conflict. She passed by many other heroes, all fighting off these… monsters. That was the only way she could describe them. Monsters. A few glanced her way, but they were all busy. She did her best to speed up, angling each jump so that she went further and further forward. Adrenaline was one of the only things keeping her alive and not smashed into a wall right now, as she calculated the necessary angle almost instinctively with each jump. A small smile stretched across her face despite her circumstances. What could she say? This was fun. It had taken months of practice, but she finally had this down. A few of the monsters attempted to attack her, but she was moving too fast. So fast that she quickly arrived at the fortress of ice.

Gazing up at the massive thing, Alice felt awe fill her. If only she could ever do something like that. Small chance though. Her constructs had expiration dates. She quickly landed, using another patch of shadow to absorb the extra energy before running up to the nearest opening, waving her arms to get the military men’s attention. They looked at her strangely, but having seen her display, knew that she could do something to help. Like at the barricade though, they did not like it. Alice nodded in thanks before moving through, searching for Bliss. When she spotted her, she ran up, panting for breath at this point from the exertion of moving and using her powers.

“… Sorry… I’m… late.” She panted out, hoping that she wasn’t going to be yelled at or anything like that.

Commotion from the assortment of characters she rallied to her cause began to dust away with less than exuberant results. The new guys she met brought an attitude she didn't like, but knew it would probably mean they could take care of themselves without needing Bliss to bail them out at every turn. Once they departed Bliss could see her friend from Germany beginning to depart while her caveman pal let it sink in that Bliss would not depart with him. Bliss felt like hugging the big guy. But, she did not. She needed to keep this fortress moving; if New York stood any chance of escaping the horrible fate facing it, Bliss would need to set aside these relationships others held onto. Still, watching Gwharr walk off looked kind of like watching the vet take your dog away to "go to the farm."

A chill set in around Bliss. "You're going to need to spread out and use the tunnels." She kept in contact with the man she found commanding the man, but knew soon she would leave these men up to their own devices. "After a few hours of this anyone in here who isn't me isn't getting out." Clayton and Theresa left to embark on their assignment while Bliss continued to pour her heart, soul, and whatever made the ice into holding the defense of this building together. Footsteps echoed through the ice structure as the soldiers made their way out of the central chamber and out into the battlefield of the New York City.

Before the temperature began uncomfortable a new face approached from the wave of men. The old tree spirit Bliss met in Nebraska with a group of odd misfits stepped forward and greeted Bliss warm enough to compensate for the decline of heat in the room. "Aurora?" Confusion faded into relief as she knew she needed anyone she could get, and someone with actual superpowers finally walked in. "I don't know if you've..." While she began on figuring out some sort of plans for Aurora, another familiar face came into her frozen sanctum. "Texas?" This one did not sound with relief. "I told you to get her an hour ago." Shaking with frustration Bliss bit on her teeth. "Okay this could actually work. Aurora I need you to take care of making sure people are evacuating into the tunnel system below, and I need you to make sure it is big enough to handle all the people and strong enough to keep them safe. Texas can take care of moving from place to place and fighting off any of those things, but stay close to the ice. You'll know where the ice is; trust me." Bliss knew neither of these two could really stand alone against the raging forces out there like the others, so she wanted them to stay as close as what Bliss deemed safe as they could. "Stay in contact with this communicator." Bliss tossed a tiny mic to Alice. "And tell me how I need to move the ice to keep the damage I'm doing to civilians to a minimum."

Eating ice cream, that is what the most powerful shadow manipulator was doing during the assault. And he was enjoying eating his ice cream too, that is until a damn chaos clone ran by knocking it over. He frowned slightly and looked down at his empty cone ignoring the laugh that came from Vladimir and probably the slight smile from Boss Man, or Nightkill. “Shut up Vlad or I’ll shut you up myself…” he muttered then got an idea, a crazy idea sure but an idea none the less, “Boss Man I’m going to get more Ice Cream, Vlad here will stay and help you.” With that he smirked knowing he got Vladimir back and disappeared into the shadows, traveling off to a random part of the Bronx hopping to find some ice cream place or truck the clones haven’t destroyed.

Where he ended up though a very cold and icy place was sadly not in the back of an ice cream truck or ice cream freezer. No, instead the Lord of Shadows ended up in front of some giant ass ice dome thingy mabob. With a raised eyebrow he chuckled noticing the military standing out in front of it and realized this must be the ‘heroes’ base, oooh he would have to tell boss man about this when he got done having a little fun of course. Sure, he knew he couldn’t possibly beat all of the heroes, if any are in there but a bunch of little bag o’ bloods with guns? What could they possibly do to him that would actually leave a mark? Okay the guns may hurt a little and after a while he’d be dead, so they obviously had to go first, and with a chuckle the shadows rose up behind all the military personal and covered them pulling them all down onto the ground knocking them out. As well as that the shadows also ‘devowered’ their weapons.

With an insane and sadist laugh he had the shadows dance and swim in the air as he made his way forward, rolling his neck and anticipating a fight. “Where are you heroes? Come out come out…the Lord of Shadows wants to play….” He muttered under his breath really having no idea why he just said it, but it sounded a lot cooler in his mind and in comics. ”You got enough ice there for all the ice cream in the world time to share a little.” With a shrug he slammed his foot down sending out a small shockwave in all directions as well as sending the shadows flying out at the ice dome intending to crack through it and break it here and there. He didn’t know what he was getting into but he was obviously okay with that, and would do this a hundred times over again if given the chance that much he was sure of.

She carefully made her way over, starting to wave, only to realize that the woman definitely wasn’t happy with her lateness. Multiple excuses ran through her mind before she just decided to settle on the truth. ”Sorry… I didn’t really know what the signal was.” She laughed sheepishly, looking at the ice she had to navigate on top of to get here. It was not fun, especially considering the hurry she was in. That didn’t matter though. She had people to save and who knows what else to do.

Alice glanced back up as Bliss started to brief her on what she was to do while all of this was going on… Fighting. She winced slightly. It wasn’t that she couldn’t of course. She can and has. It was more the memory of the last time she had ever willingly engaged in any form of battle. It had not gone well. Heck, four people had died. Still… she knew what she had signed up for when she agreed to come here with Bliss. She knew she would most likely have to partake in the battle. Alice nodded, catching the communicator and clipping it on. She could do this.

”Got it…” She said, smiling nervously and clenching her fists in a mixture of determination and fear. ”Got it…” With that, she whirled around, carefully making her way back out by following the last of the troops heading out to battle. Once again, a few glanced at her, looks ranging from neutral, to curious, and even occasionally pity. Alice simply waved. They would do heir jobs, and she would do hers.

She paused for a moment, realizing that she hadn’t really thought about how she would make her way around this giant and still growing dome. There was a heck of a lot of ground to cover, and she was only so fast for so long… unless… Alice frowned. Wonderful. Just wonderful. She’d have to go down. Alice sighed, zoning back in, only to realize she was now all alone. Everyone was out.

”Better get going.” She thought, before resuming her path to the outside world. As she moved, she shivered slightly, glancing around. ”I swear, it’s getting colder and colder in he—“ That’s when she felt it… The shadows… something was wrong. Alice quickly turned on the mini-mic. ”I think something bad’s happening outside!” With that said, she broke out into a run, using the shadows underneath her to keep from slipping. She quickly reached the exit, and what she saw next stopped her in her tracks.

”Holy shit.” Her eyes widened at the sight of shadows dancing around and attacking the dome, under the influence of someone else for once. She had never thought she would meet another shadow manipulator. Never even heard of one for that matter. Yet here one was, and not only did he seem to be more powerful and experienced… he was a villain too, judging from the malicious laugher, the state of the military, and what the shadows were doing (she had missed the shockwave thank god).

As Alice continued to watch with a mixture of fear and fascinating, something in her simply… reacted. The shadows around her reared up themselves, surrounding her in a rather attention getting display. “Nonononono.” she whispered frantically, trying to force them down. It didn’t work. Actually, it seemed to make it worse as the existing shadows got more violent, knocking some of the military to the side and no doubt hurting them. “NO!” She closed her eyes, reaching forward with all her power and then, pulled back. When she opened her eyes again, she breathed a small sigh of relief. While the shadows weren’t gone, they were much more subdued. They were also keeping away from te unconscious men and women around her.

Alice could feel a small bit of panic rise up at that display. For a moment, she couldn’t help but wonder… were her powers really her own? Or was something else… No, now was not the time for such dilemmas. Alice redirected her attention to the fellow shadow manipulator. For now, her main goal was to keep this person away from the dome and survive. This was important. She knew it was. Alice took a deep breath, taking out her slingshot. Would it help? Probably not… but it made her feel safer. People were depending on her. She was going to fight.

Ice fought against the swarm of creatures breaking against the jagged walls of the dome. Each layer delivered a fresh set of spikes, and each spike shot barbs crashing through asphalt and concrete with no remorse. Bliss provided the strongest opposition to these beasts with her ever growing fortress, and the beasts crashed against her call to arms. Every ten feet of ground she claimed she could see the thick coat of blood pour under her walls and coat the crystalline visage of her battlement with a reminder of her resolve.

Cracks splintered into the fixture with the forceful blows of the assaulting force. Each fist and blast sought to tear away at her offensive. She could feel herself giving away into the ice. Becoming apart of her, she could feel the impact of each blow against her own skin. She could feel the recourse of the blood splatter against her face with each life she claimed. Screams no longer rang through her ears; all civilians either died or had been ushered into the safety of the subway system.

Air escaped from air. A breach within her walls opened and pouring into the sanctuary of her haven stormed a multitude of beasts bearing nothing but ill tidings. Slowly they began to beat against the murder holes of Bliss's defense. With her ever growing fortress she would need to take time to defend herself against the incursion, but knew any time she gave up would ultimately make her weaker against the storm of creatures. Ice collapsed the breach and fired out to claim the lives of whatever failed to move to a safe distance. Fist, fire, and fury broke through layer after layer, and found death from the walls themselves awaiting. Her offensive grew in every direction except for where she needed to fight off invaders.

Echoing roars came into the central chamber of her grand palace. She could feel the rupturing of her defenses near the initial rupture and knew she needed to place her energies into fighting off the wake of beasts outside. Her inner defenses may not be as broken as the creatures seemed to think.

Bewilderment turned away as a clone of Gwharr and Ibis made their way towards the occupied Bliss. Primal fury pushed the damaged Gwharr towards the smaller adversary, but he slowed in her wake. Confirming the situation, the clone turned back to gaze upon the frozen form of the Ibis clone. Upon entering the frigid chamber the creature crystallized, and the fate now encompassed the creature wearing the guise of her friend. Rapidly his systems failed as his eyes froze into the sockets holding them. Penetrating her defenses only delivered death to the final two creatures to gaze upon Bliss.

Blisters formed upon her fingers and the skin around her forearms looked more ice than flesh. Looking at her no one would be able to decipher if her bangs contained any color to them or if icicles merely formed from her head. She began to think of how Gwharr went through a similar process so many thousands of years ago. Maybe time would forget her too.

Cain watched as he saw the little kid run out with all the soldiers and raised an eyebrow wondering why she wasn’t away with the rest of the bag o’ bloods. Then he noticed her little ‘costume’ and laughed as he realized why she was still here, though all that laughing died down when he saw what she could do. Something he never though he would see in his life time or at least coming from a little girl like the one he saw before him. This was too good, a shadow manipulator was here to try and stop him, and a little tiny shadow manipulator thought they could destroy him? He was the Lord of Shadows he would put this girl to shame even if she was just a kid it was her fault for coming out and playing in the big leagues.

Cain turned to face her, still some yards away, he watched as she pulled out a sling shot and shook his head in disbelief. This fool honestly thought something as simple as a sling shot would stop him? She believed that a child’s toy would harm the great New York Vampire, the King of Night, the Bloody Bandit, and the Lord of Shadows? He smirked and had the shadows rise up around him forming giant whips as the swirled around him he spoke out loud for her to hear. “You think you can defeat me, The Lord of Shadows? I like your enthusiasm fellow shadow manipulator but it is time for you to meet the great beyond, for tonight you die my dear.” Running a hand through his jet black hair, blood red eyes glistening in the moonlight, he thought to himself as he spoke those words. Words he would usually follow up upon but tonight he would leave the girl beaten and broken instead of dead, beaten and broken she would remember him and spread fear into the hearts of all.

With a sadistic grin the shadows shot out at the girl in four whips, four whips powerful enough to defeat the strongest of enemies. Hell they could probably damage the true Ibis, the one that the big bad secret Doctor Necrodium cloned the giant scorpion beasts and magma monsters from that are running around with the caveman and chaos clones. While they flew out at her, to ensure they hit, he had two shadow walls form up one on either side of her, yet still giving the whips room to hit, and one behind her. If the whips missed then that was no problem as he would have the walls close in on her and hopefully squish her in between them. This was not his first get go with fighting a powerful manipulator and even if she wasn’t as skilled as the others he was not going to go easy with this girl, though he might play with her a little bit later on in the fight.

Honestly, Alice didn’t think that she could defeat anyone, least of all a criminal shadow manipulator who was surely in more control of his own powers than she was. She would be lucky to survive. She wasn’t stupid, not by far, knowing that she would never be able to defeat him in a direct fight. She was too weak for that (though not as weak as she thought she was). Every instinct she had within her screamed for her to run, especially as the shadow whips started towards her. The shadows around her seemed to whisper of safety and escape. It would be so simple to go down… Wait. Realizing she had a nice little dodge right there, she took advantage of it and before anyone could even blink, she was simply… gone.

Despite having been in… wherever here was, Alice could swear that it never became any less unsettling. It wasn’t scary unsettling… more just the not quite right type of unsettling. The type that made one feel like humans were never meant to see this place. Not that it wasn’t scary of course, but that feeling stemmed from something else, mainly what started happening if she ever stayed here too long… Alice shuddered, now wasn’t the time. This was her chance to get her… bearings and come up with a plan.

As she thought and analyzed anything that could be useful, she closed her eyes, trying not to notice the strange proportions and angles she could sense through her strange form of perception in darkness. This place was familiarly wrong if that made any sense. The majority of her being was screaming in discomfort, a small part rather liked it here, and knew how to navigate it too. She didn’t like thinking about that little part. Either way, this was not relevant to staying alive and keeping the giant ice dome safe.

The first main problem was the general lack of information on this guy, besides he manipulates shadows and he’s rather good at it. Alice frowned, that would definitely be a problem, considering her general inexperience. Also… he was dramatic, judging from what she could remember of that little speech he gave her. She took a deep breath. Dramatic people… yeah… maybe she could use that to her advantage somehow. First of all though, testing his reaction and all that. With that, she started to move.

All Cain would be able to see, if he even noticed, was a blob of shadow moving towards Alice’s chosen destination… the top of a building directly behind him. As she ran, pushing herself as fast as she could go and using the strange topography within the shadowy realm itself, she quickly (though occasionally, it took longer than simply walking to her destination) made her way to the top of the tallish building. As soon as she reached the spot, she pushed her way to reality, sling shot already in hand as she quickly shot out five pellets. The first three were in rapid succession while the last two were shot simultaneously. The whole while, Alice was watching Cain like a hawk, judging his reaction times and his response to the decidingly probably trivial attack. At the same time though, she could tell from the corner of her eyes… the dome was slowly falling to the enemy. She would have to hurry and get him away from here, maybe to another batch of heroes who could actually handle this guy. Then, she could focus her attention on the clones… the rather familiar clones. No time for that though.

Cain watched in amusement as the girl disappeared from sight, or so it seemed as when she was nowhere to be seen. He crossed his arms and chuckled to himself seeing she had shadow traveling powers just as he himself did until it randomly stopped working as if he couldn’t do so anymore. Which was fine with him, the loss of the travel had seemed to greater his control over the shadows even more so. So, to prepare himself from attacks that could come from anywhere he had the shadows cover his body as if in armor. In short he was completely covered in shadows from head to foot, except for slots for his eyes; the shadows formed a sort of armor on him. But, not just any armor, it was armor that was practically invincible and hardly anything could penetrate it, yet to him felt like a second skin.

He looked upon the ground when the armor was complete looking to the shadows to hopefully find the girl. Find her he did too; it seemed she was not as good with her shadow traveling as he himself once was. She gave up her positioning by appearing as a moving blob of shadows, and if needed he could have taken her down right then and there. Could have pushed her down further and further into the levels of the shadow realm, deeper even than he himself ever dared to venture but where was the fun in that? He simply turned and followed the blob, watching as it raced up the building that was ‘behind’ him or now in front of him. The slingshot pellets came fast, but not fast enough and though his ‘armor’ was strong enough to take them he didn’t feel like testing it out just yet. So instead he threw out two shadow like hands, the first one catching the first three pellets and the second one catching the other two.

In quick succession he sent them flying back ten times harder at the girl who sent them after him. He was not here to play games with this foolish little girl. She was smart he’d give her that but she would not defeat him, wouldn’t even come close to doing so. Though most would call him insane, and use his ‘overconfidence’ in his power against him they probably would end up failing to do so as hundreds before had. He was not simply overconfident in his powers he just knew how powerful he truly was just that powerful and had demonstrated it time and time again. “Come down and play little girl….it’s time for you to meet the undertaker.” He whispered though with the ‘armor’ it was as if his mouth never moved simply because you could not see his mouth underneath the shadows. When done with that just to make sure what he wanted was listened to he sent a shadow wall flying out from behind her to push her over the edge of the building.