Strapped for Cash

In an irritated mood, Mickey exited the doctors office with a bottle of pills which he had been assured would get rid of all traces of the condom. The whole appointment had been an embarrassment, especially after the annoying doctor had put that weird smile on after he had told him why he was there. Well, at least it was over. He kept walking down the street until he came to the apartment building he was staying at. He entered and opened the door to his rooms, locked the door, and flopped onto the bed. Life was not going his way at the moment. His first stroll as Songbird had completely fallen apart, and the police were likely looking for him by now. He would have to skip town soon, but he was strapped for cash. With a sigh, he got up and walked into the bathroom to take off the colored contacts he was wearing to stay under the radar. His head snapped to the side when he heard a loud knock, and he rushed out to see a red envelope be pushed under the door. In a flash, he opened the door and looked both ways down the hall. There was nobody there. Enraged, he slammed the door behind him and bent down to examine the envelope. It was a dark red, and there wasn't any writing anywhere. Now curious, he tore it open and examined the contents of the letter it contained. It read:

My master has found need of your unique capabilities.
You need not know who we are.
All you need to know is my master is willing to pay you a sizable amount in exchange for eliminating an enemy of his.
Do not worry, for we will keep your involvement a secret.
Once you have completed this mission, another letter will be delivered with the rest of the money. Use what has been delivered already to assist you.
Come out to the alley behind the building in three hours for info on your target.
The choice is up to you on whether or not to trust this letter.

The letter had come with $150. Should he go ahead and do it? What if it was a trap? Then again, he was in need of more cash than this in order to get out of here. After a few minutes of debating, Mickey decided it wouldn't hurt to at least check it out.

And that is how he came to be standing at 8:00 PM in the alley behind the apartment building only to find another red envelope. Typical. He picked it up and went back inside. Reading through it, he found out that his target was Felix Haas, a local drug dealer who tried to steal other peoples transports. He checked the clock and decided there was enough time to go check out Felix's house.

Genevieve had been in the LA area for the awards show that had happened just a couple days ago. The after party carried on for quite some time and she needed a day or so to recover. After waking up in her hotel room she looked through what she had brought and there was nothing but dressy outfits. There was what she had worn to the award show and then her dress for the after party. Gena made a mental note to bring some comfy clothes for the days after like this. She slipped on her dress, the matching pair of heels and threw her hair half up and down to the side to make it look like it was still somewhat done. Doing her makeup was the hard part, trying to make herself look more awake than what she actually was. She even felt herself dozing off in the middle of putting her eyeliner on.
Gena had done the best she could and then just threw some sunglasses on over her face and proceeded to check out and down the stairs from the entrance to the valet where she handed them the ticket for her car. While the boy ran away to grab her vehicle she rubbed her forehead thinking nothing I want coffee.... Her bright red Bentley rolled up and she handed the valet some cash, had her bags placed in the back, got in and pulled away. While waiting she had ordered her phone to direct her to the nearest Starbucks where she picked up a very strong espresso to kick herself into gear. She sat at the coffee shop for a minute just to take a breather, after wards she went off to run some errands and in the middle of driving a small beeping noise had broken her concentration. Her Talons' communicator was going off. She had customized hers into a fashionable bracelet that would go with near every outfit she had. It was just a report of a little break in around one of the worse neighborhoods in Los Angeles. At first she dreaded the idea because she really did not want to waste her time on something insignificant, but maybe just a small police call was exactly what she needed to wake her back up. She responded to the call to take care of the little problem. Once she got into her car and began heading to the scene she cursed herself for the car she drove. There was absolutely no way that whoever broke in would not see her coming. Oh well, it wasn't a stealth mission so she just shrugged it off and went on her way.
She parked her car across the street from the place that had been broken into and saw a figure move about in the window. She signaled back that she had arrived in case she needed back up for any reason and began her approach. She left her purse in the car and closed the door not trying to muffle the sound at all, as she walked towards the house she got some looks from the locals that were nothing short of rude. Her heels clicked against the ground as she got closer, watching her step as there was some glass on the ground. The apartment complex was kind of shady looking and once she got to the door she just pushed it open as someone had already entered. She moved up the stairs and came to a door that had been opened. There was damage to the frame so it had clearly been broken into. Whoever this was must have been a total amateur. She took a couple steps into the apartment and called out a couple times to see if anyone was home, there was of course no response but she saw a figure in the window so she knew someone was here. Gena closed the door as best she could behind her a took a few more steps into the room and scanned her surroundings. It did not seem like the room was very big which was good as she was planning on using her Flash Freeze in order to find whoever this was quickly. She let out a sigh and then help up her right hand, once she snapped her fingers the entire apartment was covered with a layer of ice. Whoever was here would probably get their feet caught in the ice at max, but it wouldn't be anything they would not be able to break free from. Though once they touched the ice Genevieve would know exactly where they were as she always knew what was in her playing field.

Mickey had been in the bedroom, rifling through the contents of Felix's dresser for signs of his illegal business when he heard someone call out. He mentally face-palmed himself, as he should have expected Felix to have some kind of alarm for occasions like this. He speeded up his search, until he found what he was looking for: a list of warehouses Felix owned. Suddenly the floor was covered in ice, and he involuntarily let out a short shout of surprise. He silently swore under his breath, as he had just broadcasted his location. He had three options. He could try and convince the hero he was a poor father trying to pay his infant daughters hospital fees, fight, or run away. Even if the hero did believe his story, they would still turn him in, and if his luck with fights was still the same, then a fight would be a bad idea. So he went with option 3. He stuffed the papers in the pocket of his jeans and after breaking free of the ice, jumped out the bedroom window. The glass left light scratches on his face and arms, but he ignored the pain. He landed on the ground with a loud thump, and took off down the alleyway, turning left and right in hopes of losing whoever had made the ice.

Gena heard the shout and instantly darted towards the direction that she heard the sound. Behind her the ice was fading away as she ran into the room to hear the glass shatter covering her face in case of any debris. She ran to the broken window and saw the man running away, and fast. There was no way that she would be able to catch him on foot. She could see where was he was heading and created an ice mirror behind him and one behind her. She stepped into the mirror in the house and the walked out from the one behind him, however he had already moved forward and to the left as she had just caught the back side of him turning the corner.
Following, he was already to far from her so she put her hand on the wall of the alleyway and materialized a wall of ice in front of the fugitive which then extended up and over. She started walking up from behind leaving no where for him to fun.
With her arms crossed under her chest she walked at a normal pace towards the man with her heels echoing through the corners of ice she had created.
"Listen here, I've had a long day and I cannot believe I'm saying this but, we can do this the easy way or the hard way..."
She stopped and began to tap her foot against the ground waiting for an answer, and what she meant should be clear. Either turn himself in or they could fight it out and one of them was going home in a stretcher. This guy didn't seem all to special so Gena was pretty confident that she would not be the one at the disadvantage here. She could see that he had already somewhat injured himself from jumping out of the window just moments earlier. It did not look like it would hinder him too much, but she might be able to build on it later. After a few taps of her foot Gena let out a sort of annoyed sigh and shifted her weight from her left to the right as she awaited the trapped man's answer...

This lady was definitely not a joke. It had taken her mere moments to trap him. It looked like he would be forced to take option 2 instead. He smiled wickedly, unseen by his pursuer. He might as well try to make the most of it.

"I'm guessing you wouldn't believe me if I said I'm just trying to pay my sick daughters hospital fees, would you?" Mickey asked without turning around. In one swift movement he took off the baseball cap he was wearing, made as if to attack, but instead just threw it at her to distract her, and quickly followed with a screech. As she was dealing with his attack, he punched through the ice and kept running. No way was he going to do this the easy way. As he ran he released another screech, destroying part of a building. The debris fell into the path, making it harder for the woman to follow him. Of course, that was only if she couldn't cast those mirrors without seeing. He'd have to tread lightly, as he didn't know her full capabilities.

"Well if it's money that you want--" Gena was cut off by the man throwing his hat as a near obvious distraction. Angered at the rookie move, she narrowed her eyes at him freezing the hat in the process causing it to drop to the ground like a rock. She was about to make a move when an ear-shredding noise tore through the air. She immediately covered her ears with her hands and just by instinct closed her eyes tight because of the pain. This caused her to lose focus on her ice structure and the fugitive was able to easily shatter it. Once the sound stopped Gena started off in persuit of the man, he clearly had sound based abilities and in order to counter it she filled her ears with solid ice blocking out all sound. It was a dangerous move taking out one of the major senses but it had to be done facing an opponent like this.
The culprit had started to destroy buildings in order to obscure Gena's path, so she knew that he had him on the run if he didn't want to stay and fight. She quickly manifested a sort of arch way out of ice that caught the debris and pushed it upwards so that Gena could run under it. Keeping the man in her sights she started to cover the ground and walls with a thick layer of ice which quickly formed another wall in front of the convict that extended up and over to form a ceiling trapping him again.
"This is your last chance kid..."
Gena had icicles come out from both of the ice covered walls and from the ceiling that she had created, as she walked forward more ice spikes rose out from the layer of ice she had put over the ground. The ceiling and the walls to either side of him began coming closer to him as well as spikes forming on the ice wall behind him. If he didn't give up soon he would be speared full of holes in a very slow and painful manner. Though hopefully he would reply sooner than not because eventually Gena's bluff would be called because she couldn't actually kill anyone in such a violent way.

She had taken the bait and had been unprepared for his attack, as he had predicted. But Mickey hadn't expected her to take the risk of blocking her hearing. It was a good defense against his powers, but she wouldn't be able to hear his next attacks. He soon found himself trapped once again, the deathtrap slowly getting closer and closer. She seemed to specialize in long-rang attacks, so how would she fare in close combat. Turning around to face her, he slowly raised his hands, in the fashion a criminal did in the face of the law.

"Fine, I give up." he said, but instead of waiting for her to restrain him, he let out a quick screech to destroy the spikes on the ground, and covered the distance between them. He screeched once more, and followed through with a punch to the stomach and and face. He wasn't going to hold back his punches on a woman, but he still hadn't decided if he was going to kill her in the end. It would depend on how much of a threat she was as a fighter. If she proved tough to beat, then he would have to finish her off in order to stop her from getting in his way.

At first Genevieve was at ease see that he was giving up so she stopped the spikes, however she knew in the back of her head that it could not have been that easy. And just as she suspect he used more of his sonic abilities to blast away the rising spikes in front of him. She took a stance by stepping back slightly as he saw him sprint to close the gap in between them. She quickly formed a small ice shield in her left hand which she used to block his punch to her stomach and using her wrist she knocked his punch to her face to the right slightly while ducking a little bit. Immediately following the block with her right arm she grabbed his wrist and completely encased his body in an ice prison. It was rather crude since it was created in a split second but she had to contain him quickly. Taking a step back she increased the thickness of the ice and expanded it out so that he could move, however she fashioned the prison in the shape of a very large great stellated dodecahedron. With all of the corners and pockets his sound based attacked would echo and reverberate into each other breaking them up causing them to lose their damaging properties. It would be extremely loud on the inside of her ice structure, but she was sure since he could create such highly condensed sound-waves that he should be able to withstand them as well.
After she finished with her work of art she pointed her index finger at the complex geometric shape and raised her arm up at an angle causing the ice prison to levitate up as well until he was about forty to fifty feet up in the air. After she made it reach that point she crossed her arms and waited to see if he would be able to escape the puzzle she had placed him in.

Mickey stumbled and nearly fell over as he felt the ice structure move and suddenly get higher. Once it had stopped he tried his best to balance as he examined the inside of the complex trap. It was dim inside of it, the light filtered by the ice. By what he could see, the shape was based on many spikes from together. He wrapped his dark coat tighter around himself, as the inside was also chilly. He experimented with a few screeches, but to no avail. The sound waves were broken up before they could shatter the ice. With a sigh, he sat down and thought of other solutions to his predicament.

He tried breaking through the ice with his fists, but that only made his hands hurt. How long was she going to keep him in here, anyway? What if he ran out of air? Come on brain, think! He sat there a few minutes longer before he eventually accepted the facts. He was screwed. At least that was what he thought until he came up with an idea, though he had no idea if it would work. He got up and carefully made his way to a wall, so his face was directly facing it. This way his sonics wouldn't be broken up. He started screeching, softer than usual, and cracks started to form. Yes! Now he just had to hope his opponent couldn't tell what he was doing.

Genevieve could sense movement in the ice so she knew that he was still conscious, eventually she thought that he would run out of oxygen or freeze. At this point she got kind of annoyed that she had decided to leave her purse in her car, her phone was in there and she was sure she had probably missed a few calls or something. Which then reminded her about her car, and in this neighborhood she started to worry. She snapped out of her train of thought and looked back up at the complex shape floating in the sky. Maybe Gena had gotten him into thinking that he had been out matched. There wasn't a whole lot of movement happening and a few minutes had passed. She was just thinking it was a way to keep warm his small movements and Gena was sure he was nearly out of air by now and there really had not been and progress in him escaping.
Ms. Montreal rolled her eyes in a kind of disappointment and then snapped her fingers taking her hold off of the floating ice prison causing it to plummet to the ground. Upon contact with the ground the ice would shatter into hundreds of pieces like glass. If her prisoner was Injured or not, Gena would stop every last shard of ice in mid-air as if they were stopped in time. After the crash landing she took a couple steps forward, shifted her weight and crossed her arms in a sassy manner waiting for this guy to do something again. Though most everything would be in vain considering the hundreds of ice shards that were still surrounding him.
"So, how's it goin'?"

Mickey was a very durable person, but even he would get injured from a 40-50 foot drop inside a very pointy ice sculpture. And that was why he was lying on his back on the ground surrounded by hundreds of very sharp ice fragments feeling as if he had been hit by a rhino and bleeding from more than a few places. It was a miracle he was still conscious, and even more of a miracle that he was still able to move, as proven when he tried flexing his hands and found he was able to do it without much difficulty. It didn't seem like he had broken too many bones, though he definitely would need to check if he had broken his tailbone. He heard the ice user check to see if he was still conscious/alive. Looked his best option was to try and get some pity and run away.

"You know what? I give up. I've been beaten by a freaking skeleton and a kid, and I can't even win one-on-one. All I ever wanted to do was get back at the world for how crappy my childhood was. My dad used to beat up on me just because I was born mute. it's not like I wanted to be born this way, I wanted to say. But of course, I couldn't. I'm pretty sure I'm insane, ever since I killed my dad. I must be, because I don't regret killing him. In fact, I don't regret any of the murders I committed. Now I know I'm being selfish, but could you please let me go? I understand I don't deserve it, so I won't be surprised if you turn me in anyway." while he spoke, his body tensed up in preparation to run, and attack if necessary.

Gena's face went through a number of phases as this boy described to her his childhood. What a dark and twisted life he had lived. Honestly it was kind of disturbing, she raised an eyebrow as he finished his story telling a pleaded for her to let him go. He had to know that she would not allow that, but she could tell that he was hurt so he needed to get proper care. Even if she tried to offer to take him to a hospital she could expect him not to trust her. Since the ice shards were still around she figured that she would utilize them to transport him to a hospital without him knowing. Genevieve made a fist and off the ice shards began forming to his body making another ice prison but this time around it was one that was form fitting. While the ice was trying to mummify him, she used some of the excess shards to mold a blunt object that she tried to hit him over the head with to simply knock him out. If it all worked out he would awaken in a hospital bed, with a handcuff chaining him to the bed he lay in. If not, then the conflict would continue.

His story seemed to have an effect on her, judging from her expressions. Unfortunately for him, she hadn't decided to let him go or even get distracted enough for him to run. Instead, she decided to 'mummify' him with ice. As it started to spread over his neck and mouth, she formed a weapon and raised it in preparation to knock him out. it was now or never. if she knocked him out now, he would likely be spending the rest of his life in jail. Like hell he was going to let that happen. He still had so much to do! Did he have enough willpower left to stay conscious after this hit? Her earlier attacks had already taxed much of his energy. For a fleeting moment the small part of his mind that still had morals, the part that was nearly gone, started to rise up. Maybe this was punishment for all the murders he had committed. Even if he wouldn't be able to live freely, he could still put his past behind him. Just like the last time this had happened, Mickey pushed down that part of his mind. He screeched as loudly as he could, putting all his force behind it. After doing so, he shattered the ice with his voice, and he started heading off down the alley.

"I'm really glad you're nice enough to actually pity me, but I'm not planning on getting arrested today. If it makes you feel any better, all of that was true, but I'm not going to let it drag me down. I'll bring this world down with me first. Maybe one day you'll be able to catch me and put me in a mental hospital where I probably belong, but until then, see ya!" he ended his rant with a maniacal laugh to add to the whole insane edge.

Gena was waiting for her ice to finish encasing when the man let out such a powerful screech she was knocked backwards off her feet and shattering the ice plugs in her ears. She writhed on the ground cover her ears and curling up from the pain she was experiencing letting out a yell even to try and cope. Finally the torture ceases and Gena slowly rose to her feet wiping the blood off her face from her ears bleeding from the piercing noise. Genevieved was pissed now. She was being nice to this kid, but draw blood and the gloves were off. She saw him running off and he had gotten quite a bit of a head start. She scowled and prepared herself for the game of cat and mouse.
"Oohh child, you have just royally screwed yourself..."
She began making ice mirrors all down the ally way with quite the distance in between each of them. Gen dashed off in a spring running through each mirror, appearing out of one and into the other down the ally until she had just about caught up with the culprit. He rounded the corner and Gena continued after him, now only a couple of yards away she pointed forward past the sonic wizard and let out a slight grunt exerting a bit of effort this time around. In front of him an extremely thick and tall wall of ice materialized the scaled both the buildings that lined the small street stopping at their roofs. She whipped her arm behind her and the same type of wall appeared, stopping her approached she gave the man a glare while pointing upwards with her index finder and right arm completely extended. Gena began bringing her arm down to point at her opponent causing the creation of an ice ceiling to box them in on all sides while also obscuring their vision. It was night anyways but the ice was two thick to allow much, if any, light to pass through. As it darkened, Genevieve was simultaneously creating her ice mirrors around him while also bringing to life numerous ice creatures. Saber tooth tigers, wolves, snakes, an entire zoo of dangerous ice animals. The last bit of light that was shining dimly on Gena's face was disappearing as an ice mirror appeared behind her and she stepped into it disappearing completely.
It was dark. Pitch black. Not only that but it was quiet. The domestic noises that ma have echoed earlier were not completely gone. The silence was eerie, all that could be herd was the friction between the joints of the ice creatures slowly moving about that sound like glass knocking against each other. The way she set up the mirrors was in simple pattern around her opponent. In front of him there were three, one to his left, one directly ahead and one to his right with the same set up and the animals were moving through in between the mirrors. Granted he could not see any of the ice or the animals, but Genevieve was controlling them and she could not see either. She was using the ice mirrors she had set up as a guide as she could sense where her ice creations were and could fashion a sort of grid from that. Since her opponent was a man of sound, at this point he probably would have noticed that the creatures had stopped moving. Genevieve clapped her hands twice from within one of the mirrors and everything shattered. The ice ceiling and both of the walls shattered into thousands and thousands of lethal shards of ice. The removal of all this shown light on the situation revealing the deadly animals that now surrounded him along with the ice mirrors and Genevieve's live image on all six of them. Her arms were crossed in a very confident and sassy way, she had a look on her face that would make him regret ever drawing her attention.
"Ouch..."
The animals attacked first, there were two dogs, two snakes, a wolf and a saber tooth tiger. The snaked slithered up each of his legs to constrict his arms, the togs bit and tore at his legs, where as the wolf and tiger went in to to heavy damage by knocking him over and slashing at his face and chest. The thousands of ice shards began swirling around the action like a tornado of glass. The shards were not close enough to hit the animals or the sound man, however if Genevieve sensed that her creations were beginning to fail she would close in the tornado to tear him apart. She was not aiming to kill even with the tornado, just seriously, seriously injure....

Now that he thought back on it, Mickey realized he had actions were incredibly stupid. He should have continued to attack the ice woman instead of running, especially when she could easily trap him again. And that proved to be true when he suddenly found himself surrounded by darkness. He could hear things moving in the darkness, watching him. And when the ice walls disappeared and he saw the ice creatures, he said only one word.

"Fuck." first he felt two of the monsters, both snakes, slither up his legs, which was definitely not a pleasant feeling. Then the dogs started clawing at his legs, causing him to fall over. Then the wolf and tiger leapt directly at his face. The tiger's claw left a deep gouge on his face from above his right eye to his left cheek, and he yelled from the pain. That was what caused him to snap. A serious expression spread across his face as he first screeched loudly at the tiger, then kicked the dogs back with as much force as he could muster. Two sonic blasts quickly followed after. To deal with the snakes, which were tightening around his arms, he slammed one repeatedly into a wall and another screech took care of the other. Now standing up, he ran and kicked the wolf in the face, then followed with a screech and another kick. He brought up a hand to check the wound on his face and when he looked at it his palm was completely smeared with crimson blood. There were also deep lacerations on his chest, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded. He staggered and fell to one knee, and his vision was starting to get hazy. He tried to resist, but he could feel himself start to lose consciousness. The odds were definitely not in his favor, and it would be foolish to keep fighting. "Looks like this is my loss. I give up, this time for real, i swear." He raised his arms as he did before, this time intending to keep them up. It didn't stay that way for long, as he fainted and fell to the ground, his blood splashing on the pavement.