This could get steamy (Seagirl)

The music in the club reverberated off of Dante's ribs and his foot falls followed beat for beat as he moved his way though the crowds. Between the lights, the writhing bodies and throbbing music Dante felt almost a bit like he was at home, except the fire, the place could use more fire. His looks had gotten him through the door and he was approaching the bar with his best devil-may-care smile and some money that he picked off some guy's pocket. A quick discussion of drinks Dante walked away with two drinks, one that was fruity and more colorful than a drink ought to be and one that could strip rust off a steel girder, what he was going to do with them he honestly had no idea but he planned on making it good.

Sometimes the loudest, noisiest places gave you the most time for reflection. This was not one of those times. Hanna sat at the bar checking her phone for what seemed like over an hour only to see her battery light decline further down. Meeting old friends in new places never worked. You just tried to rekindle an old bond you vaguely remember with some new coffee or a new annoying sound, and you just realize why you drifted apart in the first place, but the coffee might not be bad.

This place was the worst though.

No one noticed the once famous Seagirl, giving Hanna a long time to think about whether that was a good thing or not. If nothing else, the blue dress clad twenty-four year old assumed someone would at least try to pick her up at the bar so she could at least choose a life of solitude instead of letting it deliver itself to her. She threw her head forward and tossed her hair back to let it rest along her shoulders.

"Don't get your hair on my bar." A man with a sharp widow's peak took his rag from cleaning a glass and wiped the area in front of Hanna. "Ain't I know you form somewhere?"

"Have you heard of the Naut-A-Loss?" Hanna tried selling it with a smile even though no one ever heard of any of her attempts at rebranding Seagirl.

"Should I?"

Her smile faded. "Ever heard of Seagirl?"

"That's where I know you." He chuckled and finished his wiping motion. "Don't get your hair on my bar Seagirl."

Hanna turned to the party to her right. "I was Seagirl, now I'm..."

A man who looked to be enjoying the company of a woman already turned his head back to Hanna. "Tell it to a whale." He turned back to his party.

As Dante turned away from the bar the bartender went over and started complaining to some young thing with long blonde hair. First she called herself Naut-A-Loss which got Dante to grin but had no registration with the bartender so the name Seagirl was dropped and that did jog the bartender's memory but did not seem to have too much of an effect on him. Dante hadn't been in the world long enough to have caught up with recent events, he was still getting used to cars, electricity, cellphones, remembering who was being ogled by everyone else really didn't matter especially with how quickly it dies out... like most humans for that matter.

Dante decided since the girl had caught his attention anyway from him to give her a once over. Naut-A-Loss as she seemed to like being called had pretty eyes, a cute face, a good body and a dress that suited it. He was about to say something to her when some guy told her that she should complain to a whale instead and Dante took exception to that. If there was one thing that had learned it was never to insult a women, you could be borderline rude, brash, a bit crude and not be there the next morning but you don't insult even if she is trying to cut your throat.

Walking up to the man Dante tapped his shoulder until he turned around. "Hey don't talk like that to a lady." Dante got ready to swing a punch when he realized he still had a drink in each hand and didn't want to dump either. "Whoops one second." Dante downed the shot and felt the lovely burn down his throat, he knew that it would take far too much to start to bother him but it was the thought and the burn that counted anyway. "Ah! That is good." Tossing the glass out of his hand Dante laid his now free hand across the insulting man's jaw, even with pulling his punch with his strength the man had a half a second of airtime before landing unmoving onto the floor. With the man down he knelt down beside him and putting the fruity drink on the floor checked his pulse, the throbbing he felt under he finger meant the man would live but would probably not be talking for a while til his jaw was back in place. Next he took the man's wallet and removed everything that looked like money and tossed it back onto his chest. "Your offer to buy me and the lady drinks as an apology is well accepted."

Picking up the colorful drink he walked back to the bar and Naut-A-Loss giving his best "yeah I just did that" grin. Looking at the bartender with a look that almost challenged him to say something he put some more money down on the bar. "Whatever was in that shot, I want more. Turning back to the lovely young women he raised the despite everything unspilled drink to her as an offer. "I seem to have this extra drink and no one to drink it, do me the honor of gracing your lips on my drink?"

While Hanna felt no certain enjoyment at the snide comment given to her, the unexpected arrival of a comment demanding an apology brought her away from her phone. "It's really okay..." As she turned around, the ever so hollow sound of a fist collided with the perpetrator. "What the hell was that? Are you riffling through his pockets?" Knowing a crime scene when she saw one, Hanna snapped a few pictures of the man lying on the ground.

The bartender kept his gaze on the heroic Seagirl while avoiding eye contact with the belligerent man. A shrugged shoulder gave the bartender all he needed to know about what level of commitment Hanna would give him in terms of fighting this man to keep order. Maybe he shouldn't dismiss other people's stories so quickly. After she gave the thought a once over she remembered the man could no longer listen as he laid senseless on the floor.

Different levels of attention found their way to Hanna in the past, but this stood on a new level. Hanna put her phone in her purse as she started to move away from her seat when her new suitor smiled at her and offered her a drink. "So let's add sexual harassment to assault and petty larceny. Anything else I can add when I'm putting together this filing?" Accepting the drink, a quick motion of her wrist sent the drink into Dante's face before Hanna turned to walk away.

Not wanting to do the awkward shuffle of digging through her purse while wearing heels, the sudden ring of her phone brought her to a dead stop. Moving her smoke bombs aside, she pulled her phone out and pressed the receiver to her head. "Hello?"

No sound came from the other side. She took the phone back to identify the number. Nothing familiar. As she put the phone back to her ear, a static came back over deafening a frail voice at the other end. Her finger slid the phone to end the call. Odd, she thought. Of course, if she was bailing on this place, she should probably tell her friends she would go somewhere else. Putting more space between her and the crime scene, Hanna stepped out of the club. Fresh air and the noise of something other than pounding bass felt nice.

A tickle ran against her side. She dug out her cell phone again and read the same number. "Hello?" With more force than before, Hanna tried to pull out a response from the other side.

"Go to the docks." Static overtook the rest of the call leading to silence.

"Docks?" She muttered. "In these shoes?"

Sexual harassment, this was a new phrase for Dante but added with a couple of other words that he did understand it seemed as though she did not approve of his offer until she took the drink. It then being sent into Dante's face confirmed that she had no appreciated the drink, or his beginning of a conversation, or the fact that he had just punched a man in the face. Sticking his tongue out and licking his upper lip he got a taste of the drink that was now all over his face, the taste reminded him of rotten fruit... she must have not liked the drink.

Blinking the last of the drink from his eyes he found that Naut-A-Loss had left and as he looked around he did not see her. Looking back to the bartender he pulled out the what he was pretty sure was the most valuable bill in the cash that he had so far stolen. "Tell me where the young lady went and you get this." The bartender looked at Dante, the man he had laid flat, Dante again and then the money he was offering. With a grunt the bartender shook his head towards the door that Naut-A-Loss had walked out, Dante put the money on the bar. "Thanks again for the drinks."

Dante walked out of the club just in time for Naut-A-Loss to be complaining on going to the docks. "Well I suppose that you could put on some sneakers but I don't think they would go well with the dress."

Turning from creepy to dangerous, the man stalking Hanna gave his advice in a jovial manner. "I still remember what you did in there and plan on prosecuting. If I weren't in a hurry right now, I would take matters of justice into my own hands, but you know, busy..." She shook her phone and started on her way to her car. Given the fact he directly mentioned something from what she spoke about going on at the docks, shaking her phone may not have been her best course of action. "Actually, before I go, I'm going to need some personal information to hand over to the police. Maybe you can get some counseling on how to not be a douche or whatever, but you're definitely going to have to answer for this." Hanna pulled out a pen and paper and looked back up to Dante. "Okay, give me the vitals, contact, and where I can find you."

Whatever awkwardness lie between the superheroine profiling the half demon did not phase Hanna. Most of her life fell somewhere in the awkward stage of not fully existing between any set world, so this step back in politeness was all par for the course. Once she felt the answers matched up, Hanna would flip the book closed, place it back in her bag, and carry on towards the next endeavor in her life. "Don't skip town and try to stay out of any more trouble."

Keeping smoke bombs in her purse felt a little dangerous, especially when digging quickly to find her car keys. For the past few years, Hanna's cars declined in luxury, starting with her first luxury car when she was sixteen to the now beaten Ford Taurus she got around the city in. It got the job done and that was all she could ask of it. Especially, since the job nowadays consisted of driving less than twenty miles a week. The gear stick shifted into place and Hanna checked her back as she pulled from the parking spot. Fifteen minutes of traffic and Hanna pulled into the lower docks of Sydney.

Crates lined the piers with towers of metal cannisters. Teams of security guard normally made their rounds during the late night rotation of guard duty, but the streams of flashlight illuminations were no where to be seen. She remembered an ominous text brought her here before finding the lack of guards odd. Climbing the fence in heels would be torture and probably cost her the dress, so Hanna walked the fence line until she came across a gap between the ground and the bottom of the fence. She gently rolled under the fence and brushed herself off before feeling the vibration of her phone come back to life. "You're not going to believe this." The familiar static broke out the clarity of the voice, while the vagueness destroyed the clarity of the message. "Keep going to the end of the pier."

"Who is this?" Hanna surveyed the immediate area. Someone knew she made it to the docks, but she couldn't see a single soul in the area.

"You've got to see this."

You can take any part of me into your owns hands that you wish. Naut-A-Loss seemed annoyed enough as it was with him so he kept the comment to himself, the smirk that came with the mention of the police however was not so hidden. Maybe it was the fact that he had been in some adjacent to Hell or the fact that horns were growing out of his head but he just really didn't see cops as being able to teach him much... actually anything that he cared about. "Batering is not your strong suit is it Tesorino?" The Italian flowed from his mouth like the natural speaker that he was, even with his ability to understand everything spoken to him he still enjoyed speaking his natural tongue. "How about you give me a piece of information for every piece that I give you?"

"Here I'll be nice and start. My name is Dante, I don't have a sir name cause they didn't give those to bastard children. I don't own a cellphone or a house so contact might be difficult. As for where I will be found I am never quite sure as go as some have said with the flow. Though I must say your tide seems to be pulling me right along." Despite the line Dante did find himself enjoying following this attractive young women and thought that perhaps a trip to the docks was in order, if nothing else he could continue to enjoy Naut-A-Loss' company.

After Naut-A-Loss had walked away undoubtedly to the docks Dante only had one thought. More trouble? Don't mind if I do. Looking around the area quickly he saw what looked like a more expensive nightclub, while they were not normally his kind of party (more money meant more security and at moments oddly more control) they were a great place to get a ride. Turning on the demon charm he saw someone in a fancy looking car drive up in front and asked if he would like him to take care of his car. The man seemed to assume that he was a valet and tossed him the keys telling him to take good care of the car. Seeing that is was a convertible he simply jumped into the car, started it up and peeled off. Hopefully he wouldn't crash it since he lacked a license and most of his driving experience involved crashing but he was learning all the time. He assumed the car was expensive but he didn't realize that it was a nearly $300,000 Bentley.

Since "the docks" generally meant there was only one Dante was able to find where he was going without breaking too many road laws. Dante "parked" his car next to the car that he had seen Naut-A-Loss drive off in and looked around once again not seeing her. "And this time I don't have a bartender to bribe." He muttered to himself as he approached the fence and looked around it. The dress that the women had been wearing probably would have been damaged but he saw nothing that would suggest that so she must have found another way in. Dante ever being the subtle one simply grabbed two spots and pulled until it ripped in half and he could walk through. "Now I just have to find her."

What an odd fellow. No phone, no address. Strange.

But, with the cryptic messages coming through her phone, Hanna needed to focus her attention elsewhere. A burst of bright light began to break from the bay. Water poured from the edges of a cylindrical object emerging from the depths. Spanning twenty meters in diameter, light shined through the prism of the cascading font.

"This is what I wanted you to see."

"Who are you?" Hanna asked the question she asked at least three times already. She began to inch closer towards the pier like a moth to flame. "And what is this?"

Now her questions became more centered on important details she could gain herself. Her phone dropped to the ground as an eye from the cylinder began to illuminate the rows in between boxes.

Hanna grabbed for her phone as she ducked behind a box while the cylinder began to hover above the storage rows. Lights almost shined upon her as she crawled around a sharp corner to avoid the ray beaming down on her. The sound it made hummed right in Hanna's ear.

Ten meters away and from the opposite direction.

Hanna, spun around and darted between two crates as a second orb arose began its search. From her vantage point she spied the arrival of her stalker. Now, she needed to address a second, well third, problem. Sneaking through the crate maze, Hanna came up on Dante. "Okay, so did you have a crush on me in middle school or something, because this is just-"

Before she could finish chastising the man standing behind a destroyed fence, a third orb sprung from the bay and unloaded two arms with red hot lights beaming from the bottom of their appendages. Two lasers fired towards the duo as the other two orbs closed in around Dante and Hanna. Fighting on the ground never did well for the aquatic heroine, so Hanna made her way towards the water to try and draw one under the tide.

Dante had barely begun him search when he realized that they were eyes shining light down on the docks as though they were looking for someone and Dante had a suspicion that it was the same person that he was. So did I just walk into a trap for someone else involving a water demon? I knew this girl was going to be interesting. After a moment of just standing there observing the situation Naut-A-Loss snuck up to him and chastising him about following her. "Seriously what about anything that I have said or done at this point cause you to think that I even went to a low school?" The lasers cut the conversation short.

Dante leaped backwards to get out of the way of the attack, now he had a fight on his hand as though the night wasn't exciting enough. He was pretty sure that he would do a lot better up close against this monster so he was going to need a distraction. Grabbing a hold of the car that he had stolen he proceeded to throw it towards the orb that had tried to attack him. "You want to fight bring it on!" Once the car was about to reach his target he followed it up with a fireball aimed at the gas tank with the plan of causing the car to explode after the impact to increase the damage and perhaps damage the other orbs as well. "But I do not fight fair.

With his distraction complete he began running towards the whatever it was that attacked him.

An eruption of metal burst out above Hanna's head. Running in heels caused her to stumble to a life saving position on the ground as a piece of metal impacted through the pier three feet from her. A laser sliced over the top of her, cutting through the metal containers she hoped to take refuge behind. Removing the strap from her heel, she found it easier to move without pivoting around the delicate obstacles. With the low hum of the metallic being behind her, Hanna dove for the bay and propelled herself downward.

Breaking the calm rhythm of her dive, two appendages missed in their attempt to grab Hanna. The darkness of the depths blurred out her vision of the lower bay beneath her. Dropping fifty feet, Hanna finally made contact with the bottom floor right beneath the pier. A barrier of kelp edged around the invading arm moving towards her. The tangled seaweed began to pull the metal shell deeper into the course ground. Dirt clouded around the hole swallowing her adversary informing Hanna her time in the deeps were no longer needed.

Along the shores overlooking the dock, Hanna climbed atop a rock line to view the ensuing attack coming from the remaining drone. Hanna ran barefoot along the rocky ground to finally get back to the fence she initially climbed under. Under the veil of destruction, Hanna crawled to find her bag humming in a low frequency. To her surprise, the cell phone never died in the heat of battle, but shouted for her attention. Look Behind You. A message bathed in unknown meaning grabbed Hanna and drew her attention around the immediate area.