Two ice queens and a flamer (Sul and Bliss)

Just a few minutes ago it felt like hours flew by. Since the trail of smoke ran up from the makeshift ashtray composed of a mug and two day old coffee told of her shortage of nicotine time began to slow to a crawl. Almost temporally in nature Bliss could feel the moments pass physically. Maybe it compensated for her heart beat; maybe all of her time dealing with a metaphysical timer started to give her some kind of physical ability to feel it; maybe she just needed a fucking cigarette.

All the glamor associated with Los Angeles long since left the mind of Bliss. But, in reality no one really viewed a city so crime ridden and stricken with poverty in a good light did they? Anything bright about this place looked just like any other Hollywood sound stage from behind, but Bliss kept finding herself pulled back to this cesspool for some reason. This time she decided to use a credit card without a spending limit to trick herself into thinking her stay would come with more pleasantries. Instead of the usual hotel she indulged with a full penthouse with a loose smoking contract.

Still, this city needed a little more help than New York at the moment. Staying shut away in luxury for two days only exposed hubris in her selfish nature, while attributing nothing to anyone. Bah. She thought while lacing up the strings running up her pink knee high boots. Nothing gets done in between smokes. Black tights ran from under the pink pleats of her skirt and into her boots. She grabbed a black, hooded sweat shirt on her way out of her atrium as she made her way down to her car.

In addition to the fashion industries and marketing campaigns sprawling out like rats, the more entitled ranks of the city loved art. They loved art almost as much as they loved keeping away from the crime ridden sections of the city. Given reports of activity it really made it hard to hold the feelings of insecurity and prejudice against them. Driving through traffic on roads almost paved of gold under a coating of smog really summed this place up for her.

Simply stopping at a convenience store would not fit her desires. A special kind of clove with a mango aroma grew on Bliss and now the only thing she would indulge herself on were those sweet cloves. With the blinking of a light and the switching of a clutch, Bliss stepped out of her car in front of the shop that tried its hardest to be a liquor store without saying anything low brow. Earthen walls gave the market square a fresh look under the metallic grating architects began implanting within complexes for a retro look.

Closed.

Of course when she needed a liquor store to stay open in the night time the owners would prioritize safety and time with family over her special scent of cloves. Thoughts of forced entry and petty theft began floating through Bliss's mind, when they began to materialize not so far away. Never one to turn down a chance to wander into trouble, Bliss made her way across the empty street towards a well maintained museum complex. Gucci, as one of her friends would say of expensive tastes. Very Gucci.

A soft trail of ice began evaporating off of the ground. Gucci became peculiar. Then it became very reasonable to follow what it looked like. A large hole told her everything she needed to know and after following the open trail the alarm told her of the rest. "Nice accessory. Very Gucci." Stopping a superhuman robber pressed against her for a few reasons, most of which seemed to come out of a desire to help, which actually gave Bliss somewhat of a sense of moral accomplishment. "If you can't use ice to do good, then don't do anything at all." Her snarky little comment stood between the two, that and nothing else.

It was a long drive considering his usual territory was the general New York area. But this journey had some sort of purpose. In his last journey with Sean, they had gone on a mission to search for some ring of ancient power. Sul wasn't exactly thrilled about the mission, magic was one thing that always bugged him. A power that mankind hasn't fully tapped, or known about. It was too mysterious for him. Despite that, he wanted to protect his friend. Fighting various tough foes, and overcoming challenges, they seemed to come out alive. Yet, he seemed to forgot his own 'code of honor' so to speak during the trial.

The bus was the only thing capable of carrying his weight, and even then the rear bumper occasionally scraped the pavement and emitted sparks in front of anyone stupid to drive behind the slow moving obstacle. Sul nervously smiled at the bus driver who was glaring at him through the rear viewing mirror, then scrunched his lip to the side and looked out the window. He wished he could fit in more. If his appearance didn't drive people away from his 'personal bubble', his weight sure made him feel unwelcome.

"We're here at the Museum." The driver stated as he pulled off to a shoulder by the sidewalk. Looking back into the mirror, he looked at Sul and slit his eyes. "Get. Out."

Raising his eyebrows but still not making eye contact with the bus driver, he was too shy of a person to start a fight. Especially since he got what he needed, a ride. Slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder, he rose to his feet and walked towards the front of the bus where the doors were located. On his way out, he made sure to stuff a five dollar bill in the payment jar even though he had payed when he first got on. He knew how much of a burden he was.

The doors swung open and he took in a breathe of 'fresh air'. Well, he thought it would be, but was surprised to find out it was as polluted as New York. He choked on the air, and wafted his hand in front of his face. Because he was at the right side of the bus by the exit, the entire bus started to lean that way. The angry bus driver was ready to boot his rear end off the bus, but Sul took a step off first. The whole bus violently shook to the left, attempting to stabilize itself, rocking back and forth and shaking the driver up.

Sul had never seen a bus do a burn-out until now. Horns honked at the vehicle as it peeled out, merging into traffic like he was a plague. The smell of burned rubber started to mask the smell of carbon monoxide in the air. Spinning around, he made his way to the entrance of the museum. Still daytime, he entered, looking for the museum's manager.

"Something I can do for you?" The manager said, as he came down the stairs.

"Yeah, I'd like to make a donation to your museum. An artifact I found while... err... travelling." Sul replied.

"How gracious of you, come on upstairs, we'll talk about your donation." the manager invited.

The two talked about the ring, and its origins for some time. From the beginning of the journey, Sul-Fury said he didn't trust magic. Yet, he decided to accept the magical ring as a gift because it suited his affinity to fire. Thus, he decided to make it a gift to the museum, calling it "Serenity's Gift", based off the character he got it from.

The night got late, and the Museum had been shut down for some time now. As they covered documents and swapped stories regarding ancient artifacts and lore, they seemed to lose track of time. An alarm started to ring in the Manager's Office. An intruder had breached the security. Extending a hand to the manager, he told him to sit down and call the police. He would go make sure his property is intact.

Mentally marking where the alarm breach came from on the map, Sul ran down the stairs, towards the intruders location. It wouldn't take him much time.

Whatever temperature the ice brought to the room probably slowed down the synapses relaying good ideas to both parties. "Why don't we both go back to that? You just put back whatever and then we can never see each other again." She knew she possessed the knowledge of his powers while he knew nothing of her. Tipping her hand in this situation or divulging any information would only serve her opponent. "You seem capable enough for breaking and entering."

Unless he planned on going through another entrance in a wall Bliss stood between him and any possible escape. Ice covered the walls and proved the means for the crime; Bliss took her mind off of the assailant and on to the possible transgression the police would take against her pinning her to the crime. An ice user at a crime scene where ice broke in, too convenient for her to merely be passing by for cigarettes. "Feel free to quit glaring at my hips while you ponder your next action perv."

Taking the first action would result in her revealing too much information related to herself. She needed surprise to give her an edge. Ice versus ice would make her uneventful day better, but she needed to diffuse this before it got bad for everyone involved. "Can you tunnel out of here? If you leave what you stole I'll help you escape."

Running down a flight of stairs, he hooked around corner after corner, reaching lower levels of the museum. Meanwhile, hopefully the manager he previously spoke to was dialing the police. Right place at the right time? Couldn't have picked better words himself. He didn't expect too much trouble. Some thief looking to rake in some quick money. He would surrender once he found out a knife or gun could not puncture Sul's hide. His feet sounded like an elephant stampede going down the stairs, but he couldn't help it. A mix between his weight, and the clacking of his feet hitting the ground could not be silenced.

Reaching the floor the robbery was taking place, he threw his shoulder into the door swinging it wide open. The door hit the wall behind it with a loud bang. His eyes studied the room quickly to find Bliss and John present. He inhaled deeply, then started walking towards the two. "Alright you two. Put your hands up high, it's over. The police will be here in moments. You're under arrest. Don't make this get ugly. Breaking and entering is a serious crime, but it'll only be worse if you try to struggle."

He came to a stop a few feet away from the two, with his hands hanging down by his sides. He quickly glanced around the room to gather his surroundings while waiting for a response. He didn't want it to come to a fight, but if it did he preferred to use his surroundings to his advantage.

More ice began to creep from under his feet. He mentioned something suggestion an accomplice relationship, but the only thing growing between the two held a familiar element. "I wouldn't presume on working as an accomplice. You would be better off just leaving this break in as is and give what you stole back." She wanted to avoid confrontation with John even though she knew exactly what she needed to know about him.

That changed.

Now she needed to take into consideration the new addition. Shouting about criminal entry and upholding the law wouldn't make Bliss turn over the stolen property, so she could only assume the threat and the growing ice meant something bad loomed on the horizon. "You think I'm with him?" An inquisitive look accompanied the finger pointed towards her chest. "And for some reason we just stopped to talk instead of leaving the crime scene?" Her tone remained more puzzled towards what these two would resort two if they could barely manage to sort out the facts in an organized flow chart.

Formulating a plan to resolve this issue into a mere verbal altercation could save several millions of dollars to priceless art. Bliss could careless about the museum owners, they probably took out a large insurance claim on all of this and insurance companies have insurance of their own, but the physical damage to works of creativity needed preservation. "Alright ice-guy, the situation just got worse. Right about now is when you should probably start making it more clear as to your intent, before..." Bliss looked over to the rocklike newcomer. "Things get a little too intense. If police are on their way, then people with powers fighting could cause loss of life as well as damage to this building. So..." She stepped away from her tirade. "Put it back."

Two blinks and a strange look is all he could give John as he started yelling outloud to himself. He began to believe he went off the deep end, maybe some time ago. Right now he should be thinking about his options. Running, surrendering, or attempting to retaliate. All the pieces surrounding the strange man came together when he removed an earpiece and destroyed it. His initially perceived 'partner' started to back out of his assumptions. But the logic didn't make too much sense to him. Why wouldn't they be talking if they weren't in it together?

The way Sul saw it, he was the only one invited in at this time of night. They were both suspicious, but the only way to be sure they both weren't in on this together was to make sure they stay until they're captured. Sort out the details later. She did seem to have a concern for both the building, the contents inside, and a regard for life. If anything, he wasn't going to harm her but wait to see what she does. Reverting the attention of his eyes back to John, he did have something stolen and he did seem to be 'caught red-handed'. What he was going to do next was not in Sul-Fury's control. His only job now was to make sure they were both here, and both got interrogated by a trained officer.

"The girl is right, you need to put that piece back to its rightful owners, and the path you've chosen needs to be seriously reconsidered. That is, if you get off easy on your apprehension. If you put it back and give up now, I can have a word with the museum's manager about not pressing charges. Other than that, there isn't much more I can do for you."

"Bad move." If lowering the temperature of the room looked like a good idea for him, it only proved amazing to Bliss. While her adversary armed himself with all the finest ice-arsenal he wanted, Bliss began something a little more subtle. All while talking Bliss started quietly exerting herself by moving ice under the floor and into the walls of the museum. While her feet remained planted no one could see the roots of her ice moving into the floor.

All her intentions wanted to accomplish rested in the mind of John. The temperature grew colder and colder with the combined insulation of her lining of the interior of the walls. Air still escaped from the hole in the wall John used to enter, but slowly Bliss arched the ice out of the interior of the wall to the outside. Holing the wall up would tip her hand as to what she could do. Instead she thought of a more sinister action to increase the coldness of the situation.

Her ice grew out of the bottom of the building and started creating a flooring for a funnel. Ice created a solid wall along the side closest to her which would rest outside of the view of John's vantage point. Creating rough architecture with her ice became something of a hobby to Bliss. Instead of creating fountains and corgi statues this time she created something more practical for herself. A low lip formed up at the end of the flooring ten feet outside to help the air flow create pressure differences in between the inside and the outside of the room. On the far side of the blown out wall another wall of ice began to grow at an angle keeping it from John's eye sight. With the two sides and the lip created it would create a low pressure front at the entrance of the hole and would expel the warm air out of the room and keep the cold air in.

While taking action to build up her funnel she kept herself unarmored from John. With the new hero arriving with a chivalrous aura to himself she decided it would probably mean he would intercept an attack if John charged her, as well as proving the two ice users friendship was less than solid. "Your move."

He could tell this wasn't starting out well. His diplomacy wasn't his strong suit, though he tried his best. He gave a way out, after all. But this guy wasn't backing down. John decided to use his power early, forming ice around himself like a suit of armor. Sul quickly analyzed his power and made a note of its uses. This wasn't the first time he'd seen the ability to manipulate temperature. His friend Sean and him made an excellent team because of it. The combination of his manipulation and Sul's strength made them formidable to almost any enemy.

He didn't like it, but he needed to give John the first strike. But he was at least going to try one last time to get him to stop. He needed to be a lot more convincing than he had been though. He decided to make a different approach out of it, and go for the 'threaten' technique. Sul leaned forward and took one powerful step forward, stomping his foot and crushing the tile flooring beneath his heel, popping a few pieces up into the air. A few splinters hit the ground and made a small tinkering on the floor when gravity pulled them down to earth. Extending an index finger forward at John, he inhaled deeply and exhaled a booming voice: "Stop this now! Don't make me have to rough you up kid."

Of course, John could be as old as he was for all he knew. But with his deformed appearance, nobody could make heads or tales otherwise unless they knew him.

Now the first moves went into action. Darting across the floor flew someone ignoring Bliss, and she took that as a sign she could now act. Out of he ground shot two ice-carved cylinders with just a hint of a lip to attempt to trip the young man as he made his aggressive lunge. Once he made contact, Bliss would try and ensnare his feet to the floor to place the larger man in a more dominant position for negotiations. "Little chilly in here."

With no feeling to detect the change in temperature, Bliss could only see what the lowered temperature did to the glass cases of the auditorium. The air sealed cases retained the artifacts inside unharmed, but the outside still remained in question as the lowered pressure bubble and the freezing temperatures would begin making their presence known. As the battle intensified eventually the ice would begin to weaken the foundation of the building if Bliss didn't make a modification to the building to account for the pressure displacement.

It didn't take long for her to surmise a plan by using the exact same logic John used when entering. Ice began to cover a section of the wall outfitting a small opening only two feet high. Now, she just needed to get the hole opened, but without the martial arts skills John possessed she would need another means of operating. Ice extended from her hand and leveraged itself into a crevice underneath the iced covering. It would take her a moment to crack open the hole, but once she did it might save a few metallic artifacts from the pressure crushing them.

Though the rooms temperature dropped dramatically, he stayed focused. His eyes peered into John's as he watched him make his move. The man took off into a sprint, running at Sul at his top speed. He wasn't expecting such a blunt attack, but if that's what the man wanted, Sul can give him a full dose of that. A confident smirk grew on Sul's face as he threw both of his closed fists up into the air and drilled them into the ground.

The powerful punch to the ground shot an aftershock effect through the floors. The ground appeared to peel up like tinfoil and completely block the view of Sul from John and Bliss. The shock effect traveled through the ground, making a large mound of dirt and debris like an enlarged molehill. The wave rapidly streamed in a straight line in John's direction in a counterattack.