Throne of Power

A box came a few days. Getting mail anywhere in New York nowadays came as nothing short of a miracle, but when a box showed up in her postal box, Bliss brought it back to her townhouse without a second thought. The return address seemed out of her realm of familiarity, and the contents didn't look like anything she remembered ordering. Outside of her daily routine of keeping tabs on the cities slow but steady regrowth, Bliss really never left her home. Security around the complex made her feel secure enough for her to keep her windows free of the boards others within the city resorted to, but only on the second floor. She felt secure, not stupid.

With the slow grinding of convoy after convoy pulling through the city streets, blasting an echoing barrage of horns and overworked break pads through the reconstruction, no one really ventured too far outside. An over abundance of stolen technology from the fall of Necrodium made thugs more superpowered, ushering in a golden age of crime in the streets. Vigilantes used captured gear to try and fight back, but in their well intentioned crusade, the city turned into a warzone.

And Bliss felt she needed a break from it all.

Inside of the box she found a small, teal ice tray. Thinking nothing of the sentiment, but more as to what kind of trick this small token could amount to, Bliss continued examining it for more than its worth. Tossing the plastic tray aside, Bliss pulled out a post card from the box.

"Visit Italy."

Written in a cursive face over a scenic view of the Italian coast line, with a sporty car driving along a highway carved into the Italian mountainside, the coincidence drew Bliss's memory back to the breakfast eaten at the table only a few days ago. Between bites of sausage and talk of prehistoric artwork, Bliss brought up a trip to Italy and garnered the attention of Tyuki. Maybe taking her on a trip wouldn't be so bad; it would give her company and she could book the hotel in Tyuki's name to keep her finger prints off of things.

Bliss flipped the card over to see the small iconic symbol of Thrones. Over the years Bliss fell out of touch with the group, and normally she would turn down any contact with the group, but with so much time passed by and so much destruction, she need to do any intelligence gathering she could. Thrones. A shady little group, but a good one to keep up with.

A quick flippant message keyed out "Meet me at LaGuardia in two hours." Bliss confirmed the two tickets and made a quick call for a cab to take her towards the air field. She traveled light so she could avoid any stowage of luggage and to avoid international bag mix ups. The mere smell of the atmosphere of the city when she stepped out made her cringe at what became of the city. Nothing changed but it got a whole lot uglier.

"LaGuardia." Bliss took a seat in the back of taxi, while her driver ushered the two bags into the trunk.

The scenery of the broken city passed by while the taxi pulled through the travesty of lower Manhattan. The bridges showcased the damage from a more unique vantage point. Clouds of smoke dissipated from the long time dilation between the war, but the rubble and dust colored the city in deprivation. Jack hammers tore through the old concrete of the dead city to try and exhume a pulse from the landscape.

Bliss exited the cab in front of the departure doors and settled the tab with the taxi driver. If the short timing didn't leave her in too much turmoil Tyuki would get there soon enough. Regardless, Bliss waited next to her bags.

"The bags are for style. The meeting is for this." A printed flight itinerary mapped out the duo's scheduled trip to Italy. With a few layovers in Iceland and then Germany, the overall time of the flight would take a little over twenty-four hours, but the posh surroundings of the first class cabin would make the long trip a little more bearable. "I've got business to do, and my phone doesn't hold a charge long enough to keep my attention." Her carryall laid pressed against the extended handle of her suitcase, her grip ready to tip the case back to keep pace behind her. "Take these and don't do anything suspicious." A small booklet held a fraudulent passport and a corresponding driver's license to lend credibility.

Moving along to the security checkpoints, flanked by an phalanx of extended security protocols in the wake of the travesty of the city, Bliss showed the identification she used to make the reservation. Keeping with her methods, Bliss never gave the security officer a direct look, moving her face to the side to give only a profile glance to anyone inspecting her. The glow of the flashlight patrolled the top of her ID while Bliss let out a sigh. Once the card moved back into her possession, she slid the card back into her passport case, and like Russian dolls, quickly placed the associating items back into her luggage.

Bliss waited for her companion to pass through before beginning her stride through the heavily engaged terminal of La Guardia. "Contractors are probably leaving. They come on a contract for a few years, but most only stay for a bit. Health concerns and what not from the environment." The distinct posture of the cell phone armed bystanders acted as a their only lifeline to a place with life. Any place outside of New York would suffice. "Then more come. New York's got money to throw at contracts, but needs people dumb enough to come to New York. Which is why we're getting out for a bit."

Cutting the flight time as close as she could, the two arrived just as the priority boarding took place. War weariness took place on the whites collars lining the black, fuax leather benches before the primary counter. Moving past the few men and women waiting for their section to be called, Bliss handed the piece of paper with the bar code on it to the man waiting for her to check in. The crisp sheet slid back into her hand, and found it's place beneath her arm. She could fix the itinerary into her bag when she put her bags up; she needed to make her way down the waygate now.

The smell of pressurized air filled the upper cabins of the intercontinental plane. Clicking against the button embedded in the handle, Bliss forced the handle back into the body of the suitcase, allowing her the size she needed to stow the bag. Two chairs lined their half of the row with an aisle separating them from the two chairs on the other side. "Get settled in. We've got eight hours til Iceland..." Bliss looked over the itinerary listing the time frame they hoped to meet. "...Two hours there, then it's six hours til Germany, another hour there, and then Italy in three."

"When we get there, make sure to talk to people who I don't want to. Since I only have one of you, and I may have needed to bring more depending on how social this place gets, I'll need you to learn how to pass people onto one another, so you can move on to the next person I don't want to talk to." Bliss ran her fingers over the controls of the small handheld device, moving her small cartoon racer along the track hovering dangerously over a blank oblivion. "Most people are stupid and easily amused by being flattered by preconceived notions they hold about themselves. Compliment someone on the fabric of their shirt and you can probably make them forget they wanted to talk to me." She dug further into the cushion of the seat, wearing the length of the flight sorely in her back. "And then you need to monitor and gauge the attention and awareness whoever you are talking to gives you. If they are engaged, but timid, break off and tell them you just saw someone you haven't seen in ages. If they are flaky and aggressive, divert their attention by introducing them to someone you don't even know. Don't make eye contact with people, and use words, but never say anything. If I introduce you to someone, don't expect me to stick around for a second glance at you." Turbulence flew against the wings as the tops of the wing broke like a barrier against the wind, slowing the plane. "Grab your stuff and lets get going."

A light dew rested over the early morning condensation. Long flights arriving in the morning always set a bad day for Bliss's mood. All she wanted for the next twenty-four hours involved a nice bed and a quiet travel partner. Maybe her travel partner didn't need to stay in the same room as her. "Tyuki, I'm getting you your own room when we get to the hotel, so don't break anything or I'll charge you for it. And don't smoke in there, or I'll charge you. And don't wake me up before, well, don't wake me up." Wheels turned from the luggage to the taxi pick up outside of the terminal. "We can practice the art of social-not-giving-a-fuck. Tyuki, how is your boyfriend Alex?" Bliss walked and pressed the button to alert a cab driver. All during anything Tyuki said, Bliss made sure to keep her attention focused away from her. With the social error on the name of her boyfriend, and the lack of attention, Bliss felt she could give her enough of an example on how to be a dick.

"That's cool. Here's a cab." Bliss cut Tyuki off when the cab pulled around and handed her bags to the cab driver whom placed them in the trunk. In a few minutes the cab would take them to the hotel Bliss arranged for the night. "Be on your phone a lot when you talk to people. Great way to kill conversation; you don't even have to say anything to end the conversation. I've seen people texting and just walk away from some guy in mid sentence. All this stuff will come in handy, and keep it in mind. I need you to talk in a social setting. It's what gave you the job over Gwharr."

"You only ignore people who are interested in you, and give them minor information to let them know you are better than them." Plucking away at gum proved both annoying and promising of control over a social setting. "You don't need a working phone; in fact, you should probably always have your phone off. You can't control when people text or e-mail you, but if it is off, then nothing gets through. Look at it, start moving your fingers like they are composing the great American novel, and then walk away with a half muttered one or two phrased sentence."

A cavalcade of sun baked buildings passed into the distance as they moved towards the dawning skyline. "We have two separate rooms because you need to focus on other things." Even though Tyuki wouldn't buy the poor reasoning, Bliss failed to register the complaint, since Bliss already made the confirmation from the plane. "But don't worry, you have a TV and that's just as good as another person." As Tyuki began to doubt herself as opposed to how she could handle a room inferior to Gwarr, Bliss soured her face up. "Gwharr does not make people laugh; Gwharr makes people run in terror of him eating them. Normally, because he has eaten something of importance, not made for digestion." The cab pulled into the curved driveway arching from the access road to the covered drive way of the hotel. "So, you are better than him by default."

Water cascaded from the mouth of an assortment of grotesques placed along the upper walls down into elongated basins running along the bottom of the walls. Each drop splashed against the water beaten walls, seeping into the cracks splintering from the slip of the wall against the separate basin. "Get checked in, and you can relax for the rest of the night." The keys slid across the marble counter parallel to Bliss's hand pointing to her last name on the credit card she booked the rooms with. "Yours." She handed the card to Tyuki. "Mine." The other card slid into her pocket.

"You can try and find a charger for your phone, but it's Italy, so who knows." With the arrival of the duo to the adjacent rooms, Bliss swiped her card and opened the hard wood door, giving a minor smile, as she rolled her bag behind her against the hard carpet of the living room. The suite opened up into a small sitting room adjoining a small room with a bed, separated from each other with a small banister arising from the half wall.

Bliss pulled her shoes off and tossed her socks on the ground. A nice bath would do her just fine.

A number of messages from a number of ill informed suitors piled into the rarely viewed e-mail account Lucy setup for her villain empire. With the number of villains barely fitting the bare minimum of the word, Lucy felt only right to take the mantle of world's more nefarious villain. Then she stopped caring and never actually checked to see if anyone needed the services of the never before revealed madame of mischief.

For now Lucy existed as an ideal, a boogeyman law enforcement kept in the back of their minds when dealing with suspects who contained no knowledge of the crimes they explicitly committed on camera. She held this not from anything she tried out herself, but mostly from the apathy echoing a silence to place the world around her in a position to examine themselves. Like a mirror to the soul, but Lucy would never say anything so pretentious.

Italy called to her. Not the scenery, or history, though she would make use of it, something else needed her direct attention. A preliminary calling from a woman of relegated self worth who followed the call of power to the ancient throne of power. Hey, that sounds familiar.

In the lead up to her plans, Lucy cut down on a long drawn out acquiring of materials and decided to do this one as easily as she could. She grabbed a bag full of sand, some odd wrist binders Elena Marie sold to her for a captured superhero a few months ago, and a roll of duct tape. And she found them all in the utility closet of her penthouse, not in the closet of someone who's house she invaded. Lucy learned to be good at being bad.

Contributing nothing to society frees up your time, so travelling across the Atlantic on a luxury cruise under the name Baron Jeff von grundy, arch duke of the Neanderthals. Surprisingly, not a lot happened, but somehow Lucy got a stun gun during a midnight mixer fueled by red bull and Cristal, even though Baron Jeff von Gundy informed all of the party tenders Jay-Z no longer endorsed Cristal after the owner rebuked the hip hop community by stating "We can't forbid people from buying it." Needless to say, Lucy at one time read the Economist and now has a stun gun.

Hitching rides and taking strides, Lucy stalked her prey from the airport. The talkative Asian girl fit the profile and even though it may lack accuracy, racially profiling normally does its job at the expense of human dignity. And if Lucy loved anything, it was being right at the sake of human dignity.

Lucy saw a few glimpses of time to grab the preoccupied girl, but she never truly stepped out of the public eye. Waiting for the perfect time to strike always gave Lucy the perfect time to enjoy the company of others. The small talks, short glances, elongated laughs, and trailed off emotions, they all seemed so easy to mimic, yet so profound in what they did to the human condition. Alas, Lucy saw her mark make her way back to the hotel, and as Tyuki walked backed, Lucy counted the doors so she could pounce.

Travelling through the mirror world, Lucy made her way to the comfortable suite. Her mark frolicked on her phone for a few minutes while singing an odd tune. Tyuki walked to the bathroom. It always happened in the bathroom. Lucy ducked and crawled across the ground, grabbing the tape a binders from her bag. Carefully, she tore off a piece of tape and pressed it against the side of her arm. While Tyuki reached for the faucet, Lucy would take advantage of her hands being so close together and cuff one of her hands and then jerk the girl around to secure the cuffs behind her back. Keeping her identity to herself, Lucy opted to take the form of the girl she sought to capture, what better gloating then taking freedom and identity. Tyuki let out a scream, but it fell silent as the tape fell into place.

Without fully stepping out of the mirror, Lucy held Tyuki still. The binders possessed a unique power to use the power of the captive against them. Any struggling Tyuki put up would only work to crush her wrists. Delightful, Lucy thought, but as she her thought brought a smile to her face, it dissipated when she saw through another mirror Bliss sitting on her bed. "Who's in the other room?" Lucy pulled the tape back to wait for the answer, closing it tightly as soon as she heard an answer. "So we have a slight problem, of course I mean you, but I'm merely getting into character."

"If that's my mother, then what I'm about to do is going to be very odd." The doppelganger left Tyuki alone in the bathroom for the time being. "I'll leave you here for a little self reflection. Ha, I bounced a transitive joke off of myself and back to you." Stepping out of the bathroom, Lucy grabbed the key card off of the dresser and slipped it into her pocket.

The Tyuki clad Lucy took the small walk to the room next to hers and banged on the door. "Hey it's me." The most unassuming greeting Lucy used to gain all the information she needed from unsuspecting intelligence suitors.

"Go away." An annoyed voice came from Bliss on the other side. "It's Bliss time."

"But I want to come in and look at things." The voice of Tyuki kept trying to wash against the frigid stone of Bliss. "I bet you have cool things to look at." She spoke in a peaking tone, emphasizing the last part of the sentence in a peculiar manner.

"Are you--" Bliss put down her magazine and began moving towards the door. "I told you I was charging you if you smoked in the room, so you better of done whatever you did outside." The door opened abruptly and Bliss stood faced to face with the fresh faced Tyuki. "Why aren't your eyes bloodshot? Are you just weird and not high?"

"I'm out here, and I want to be in there."

"I. Don't. Care." Bliss slammed the door and made her way back to the couch to continue her reading.

"I'll make you care." With the odd conversation complete, Lucy took what she needed about Bliss and some good information about Tyuki. With a swipe of her card Lucy walked back into the room of the girl, who she now knew harbored a smoking habit. How could that hurt her? "Want to smoke something girlie?" Lucy looked down on Tyuki, holding a pipe and a lighter.

"I'll let you smoke first." The pipe in her hand dangled in Lucy's hand just over Tyuki's head. The sliver of tape Lucy fixed over her mouth kept coming undone, but duct tape came with more than one piece. Lucy brought the roll of tape and a knife, but all of the other components came from Tyuki. "I'm going to be a good version of you. Given what others think, it shouldn't be hard to one up your game."

Preparing for the means of disposal, Lucy lined Tyuki's mouth in tape. Lucy snapped the switchblade open and held it towards Tyuki's face. The precarious blade sat perilously close to her cheeks. "Don't worry." The apex of the blade poked against Tyuki's cheek. "You'll go out in a much more pleasing way for you." A sharp cut sliced a hole in tape, allowing Lucy to insert the bong, while keeping Tyuki's mouth shut. "See?" Gently, Lucy tipped the bag of weed to a sizable amount into the bong.

As Lucy toyed with the lighter to ignite it, the tape holding the bong in place would move with each shiver and shake of Tyuki's jaws. The stability lacked nothing in support, so Lucy continued with the device until she thoroughly felt satisfied with the flame. A glimmer of light glared across Tyuki's face as the flame slowly lowered down into the bowl. A trail of smoke rose, and the marijuana began to dissipate into a smoke. "You know it's called evanescence when material turns into a vapor. Dying when you can't get high from suffocation will be as bad as that band." Finally Lucy finished up her set up with a piece of tape over Tyuki's nose to keep all of the smoke trapped inside of her.

One last toke goodbye.

God, it would've been cool if Lucy had said that before she disappeared.

Bliss sprawled out in the icy tub. Times like these helped her get a little rest back into her frozen body. Twinging toes flicked a lose stream of water against the wall, while she rested her head against her tied back hair. Slowly, she rolled her head from side to side, stretching the lateral muscles of her neck, rolling back for a little lateral bliss. "I should really copywrite the word 'bliss', then I could make a fortune suing greeting card companies like the 'Happy Birthday' guy does." She trailed off as her relief came more and more relaxing.

Her toes sunk towards the stopper plugging up the tub. The pull of the whirlpool circling around the drain enveloped her toes. It felt so nice she laid her head back, while extending her arm to grab the nearest towel. Even with the oddities of the day, Bliss truly did not know how to appropriately deal with the following acts becoming upon her.

Bursting through the wall with all the subtlety of a train wreck, Tyuki inserted herself into Bliss' alone time with a low whine. Barely containing her frustration and anger, Bliss immediately wrapped the towel around herself before taking notice what she surveyed. "I'm going to get dressed." A barely veiled chagrin escaped from her teeth to the squirming, now winged, meddling apprentice. "Why do you have wings?" A mixture of astonishment and annoyance at the fact a full wingspan would cause so much damage to a small room. "It doesn't matter right now. I'm getting dressed--" Bliss walked to her drawer and pulled out her clothes as she continued on her insensitive rant. "You can lay there and think about what happens to damsels in distresses. When I get done, I'll come and see about letting you out--" Bliss disappeared for a few minutes all the while continuing to talk. "and going over a list of charges you're paying for."

Keeping her partner is suspense as to when Bliss would emerge to assist her, four minutes and thirty-four seconds later, Bliss emerged in jeans and a hooded jacket. "Also--" She failed to let anything other than her Bliss-ness fill the silence. "You're getting way to old to keep getting kidnapped." Bliss pushed Tyuki up to give her a clean shot to ice over the handcuffs. "It's all fun and games at first, but you don't see me going around getting kidnapped, and I'll punch you in the mouth if you try and point to anytime that contradicts me."