The Thing to Do (Travis)

Bliss sipped on a fruity little mixed drink in an open air restaurant overlooking Buen Retiro park. Nice place to be and drink at 11:30 in the morning she thought while finishing off her drink without the attention of anyone passing by. "How many of those have you had?" A red haired young woman sat down across the table from Bliss.

With the arrival of company, Bliss thought to put the martini glass down, but not until she emptied the drink."It's a working vacation, Abby."  And as such Bliss worked in a flowing sun dress with her sunglasses pushed up to hold her hair back. Not too stress free so it would rob her of mobility, but not so practical it would hinder her. As for the shoes, well, a good pair of green sneakers always worked.

"You are working very hard." The young woman looked more practical with a pair of yoga pants and a blue track jacket on. Practical not for working, but for gathering.

"Are you?" Bliss looked irritated. "Este vacio. Este vacio. Por favor." Bliss passed her drink glass off while accepting another cocktail.

"I found the file on this guy, but he doesn't seem problematic. He runs a pharmaceutical company and pays his taxes..."

"If a rich person pays their taxes they're up to something."

"I'm guessing you have off shore holdings."

"Of course, I'm not paying for public schools. Smart kids will learn to read on their own. Want something to drink?"

"I'm working."

"It's for me."

"When do we meet up again?"

"Get in touch with Ashley. She should have something to tell you once she looks through his place."

Once Abby left, Bliss stuck around to polish off another drink while reading through the report handed to her. The report left off fairly earlier than Bliss suspected, leaving her a large portion of her fifth drink still in tact. Bliss got to her feet, poured the glass upside down over her mouth and got to moving. Not so straight, but this was a working vacation. Moving away from the crowded veranda, Bliss walked through a small alleyway in between the restaurant and an adjacent business. Her working vacation took a turn for the work side when a woman grabbed her arm as she started to pull her sunglasses down.

"You should come with us." The woman came with a guard of four other women dressed in the same casual suit with sunglasses. "It concerns a business meeting with your friend Ashley and our boss."

"Can I at least pull my sunglasses down first. It's pretty bright out here." Once the woman let go of Bliss' arm, Bliss raised her arm towards her head to hide a feint. Once she began bringing the shades down, she shot her hand out with a burst of energy to push the woman into the wall. Putting one woman on the ground did not win this fight and four people still looked at Bliss with a resolve she did not like. "Who's next?"

"There's four of us and one of you. You're next."

Travis’ grey eyes scanned over the folder laid before him, information that EVE had both hacked for and downloaded before printing out for him. While digital information had its uses, something about material information had a certain beauty that Travis could not deny. He was sitting in a conservatively designed flat in Madrid, legs crossed over one another as he absorbed all of the information within the folder with a low and interested hum. Sitting beside him in stark white swimming trunks and a wife beater was his sibling Jason, playing around with his tablet as usually, flicking a finger across the touch screen and destroying the houses of egg napping birds.

Information networks had allowed him to track the female, one with powers much like his to this location. The interest within her was mostly due to her capabilities, though he would find out all of what she could do once encountering her in person. Unlike his sibling, Travis was dressed more simply, in dark colored slacks, a white button up shirt and a watch on one wrist, and a collection of bracelets on the other. While he scanned over the files, the AI implanted within his head would continue its search, trying to look through any security camera available and to sight the target.

Nothing however came up, and Travis cursed this cities lack of technology, this leaving him to doing some foot work. Shooting to a standing position, Travis would yawn lightly and stretch his limbs, small popping sounds accompanying that noise. Jason turned to Travis and silently nodded, standing to his feet and powering down the tablet, looking a little disappointed he had to do so.

”You do know what the person we are looking for looks like, right?” Travis would ask outloud to the slightly younger male, shaking his head in response. Travis audibly sighed, and produced a picture from the folder and handed it to Jason, who looked over it until he had it remembered and nodded.

”Find the lady, got it.” he said with a nod and a toothy grin. With that small part done they would begin to search the city, Travis walking ahead while the younger male would trail along behind him, eyes looking around alertly for any sign of something along those lines, acting more like a puppy and less like a powerful metahuman. Not that he would ever refer to himself as a metahuman, he would only call himself a human. Eventually however it was Jason who took notice of this Bliss lady and her entering into an alleyway, with people following her. It seemed that Miss Bliss was being followed by not only the perfect boy but also some strange women, which would just not do.

”Jason, help our target.” Travis muttered and the male would nod,a  few strands of dirty blond hair moving out of place as he would move to help out Bliss. All it took was a thought, and one of the people would find themselves being slammed into the wall with enough force to knock them out as the male entered the alleyway.

”Sorry, but I need that lady.” he said, sounding his age.

The fight ended well enough. Bliss pulled her sunglasses back to secure her hair in place. Turned out it was bright anymore. When one of the women turned and backed out of the alley during the scuffle, Bliss didn't give it a second thought, just a deserter running for her life. But, one by one the other women disappeared before her. Taken from right before her very eyes. The only piece of the puzzle remaining came from a wallet one of the women dropped. Apparently if- well, Bliss had no idea really what happened, so she decided to stop her train of thought and just be glad she found a wallet.  

"Did someone hire you?" Putting her eyes on the man who assisted in the beatdown of one to five women who might be a single woman, Bliss sized up the man who stood before her. "And this one isn't costing me a thing. I did most of the heavy lifting, so if anything you owe me." An ID from Liverpool England, Abigail Jones. "I already have enough help who need my help, so try not to need any help with what it is you're doing." Bliss pocketed the wallet after taking a guess at what line of credit Abby had off of her cards. "What is it you're doing?"

The scuffle was over as soon as it had begun, Jason watching the last woman run away for her life and seemed to hum to himself. Travis had not said to kill anyone, so he didn’t see any point in doing so. His brother did hate pointless killing, saw it as a waste of potentially valuable resources, and a waste was never good. Attention would turn to the young male, asking who had hired him and the male cocked his head to the side for a moment. ”Hired? No one hired me.” He was wondering what his brother was planning but he did not plan to really question the machinations of those more intelligent than him. More questions would follow and most of them he could not answer, but a familiar voice would answer for him.

”We were helping out.” Travis would answer for the male, stepping into the alleyway and resting an elbow against the wall with an amused smirk  and eyes trained upon the female. ”You did seem to have a little problem of your own Miss. Fokukama.” his expression was all smoothness, suave and covert arrogance.

"No one hired you? Good. You won't expect to get paid." Whatever credit score Abby had probably wouldn't be too impressive. Way too many pre-approved credit cards. Maybe Bliss should start running credit checks on potential operatives. "Wait, if no one hired you why are you here?" A more suitable question. Bliss liked to operate in small groups of meta girls and bands of roaming pop stars, but these two seemed off. What exactly she found off about them she could not surmise, and nothing made her more off put.

"So you're here to help?" When someone offers something they usually want something. Anything. Bliss set out a loosely laid plan to infiltrate and destroy a company she figured out for some illegal, shady operations. "I figured out something about a waste management company in Madrid. Then I discovered something about a small pharmaceutical company. That led me to a big pharmaceutical company. Then I inquired into a man named Jon Juan. His name was stupid enough to look into for a false alias, then I figured out his real name was Don Juan. Sometimes there are typos in reports and then after the revelation everything is still just as stupid as it was before." Thinking about reports made Bliss think about Ashley and Abby. She really needed to start looking for one of them. Then probably the other.

"If you're going to help, you need to try to find out something about a chemical company here in Madrid. Look for a guy named Don Juan. I need to find someone named Abby Jones. She is fairly useful. Don't think she would drop her wallet however, so I need to find where she went off to." Even with a smart brain between her ears, it did not give Bliss omnipotence. That small set back meant Bliss would probably need to see to this duo she picked up herself for some more practical application of their skill. "Abby gave me some reports of freak accidents happening in the area regarding pools of chemicals saturating into mental hospitals. Many of the police in the area report superhumans are responsible for the activities. Therefore, I think we're sitting in the middle of a web and need to find a strand to walk ourselves towards the end without calling an entire horde of spiders."

Travis found it easier to ascertain information from this woman than he had initially thought, and it seemed that her own goals would mesh perfectly with his own. His amusement however did not permeate into his features, leaving them as they were even before hearing the females plans. It seemed that they were dealing with some manner of pharmaceutical company, companies of that persuasion something that he was more than acquainted with. His father had made deals with someone using such a pseudonym, and they intereractions had been something that Tarvis had looked over silently. ”A man named Don Jaun? I think that should be doable.” Travis would reply with a nod and a smirk, considering how he would go about finding this Don Jaun. His ai would reach out, looking through both the internet and anything else, relaying the information to his mind. ”These reports about superhumans might be useful to look into as well.” He would add, and that was going to be done as well.

"Miss Bliss will give me minority ownership of her company which will slowly grow into a majority leadership role." A thick accent rolled off of each word cascading through the spacious board room. "Are you getting all of this my dear?"

Ashely penned away at a legal pad still wearing the fabrics of her powersuit. While she rarely wore her outfit to do administrative work, she did wear it when getting captured while infiltrating and occasionally worked in administration during captivity. "I got it, but that puts my shares at..."

"Damn your shares girl, this is me we're talking about." The pompous dismissal of her question barely needed the assistance of a single hand gesture, so he gave her several. "This is an empire I am building..."

"Well, Bliss built it..."

A well tailored suit rested over the slight bulge of his gut. Whenever he stood for a more powerful position, he would grab the edges and pull forward the folds of his jacket to hide the folds of his belly. "All empires are built upon the works of others. The Romans called Zues Jupiter and no one called them plagiarist."

"Yes they did because yes they are, also, they stole mythical beings. You're stealing codes you don't understand." Ashley tapped her pen against the table thinking of the sleep she could be having.

"I will merely find people to do these underling things. Perhaps I will buy this Bliss and have her."

Ashley drew something on the page. "It's going to cost you way more than you have..."

"Silence pleb!"

"Pleb?"

"Pleb! Silence! Take her back to her quarters."



"Listen, this is the part of the story where Bliss talks. I'm Bliss." Bliss cut off her companions when they started talking about things that could help themselves. "Go to a chemical plant he owns. Find a serum. See what's in it and what is guarding it. Make it interesting homie." Bliss began to walk off from the alley where she roughed up anywhere from one to five people who happened to be the same person. If anyone asked, she would tell them it was five, but the likelihood of her running into anyone in between here and her car would be miraculous.

A ruckus sprung forth from the trunk of a parked car. Bliss stopped for long enough to decide to sigh. Bliss sighed. A blast of telekinesis from her hand sprung the lock. Finding Abby didn't take as much time as Bliss thought it would. "Can't you go invisible?"

"They can still see my clothes and my suit that fits in with my powers is under my jacket." Abby squirmed uncomfortably with her hands zip tied behind her back and a zip tie connecting her hands and feet.

"I bet you wish you had that drink now." Bliss reached into the trunk to pull the young red head from the trunk and get her loose. When Bliss got Abby free she could begin to think about whether getting her powersuit or sobering up would be of more importance.

Travis gave Bliss a look but allowed her continue to talk, not used to being so rudely interrupted but then again the mark of an actor was hiding his emotions, including annoyance. Apparently his job was so simple it could be summed up in a few sentences, peppered with street slang, drawing an amused chuckle from Travis and a small giggle from Jason, the perhaps more childish of the duo. All it took was a thought and EVE would begin to scan the internet, and any data base with even a remote connection to the internet for information on a chemical plant owned by this man he was supposed to be learning about. It took a few minutes and the female had already walked away by the time he had gotten the information, being processed into his brain.

With all of that done, Travis would not and look to his sibling with a pleased expression. Jason seemed to perk up at that and all he needed was the telepathic message to confirm it. ”Okay jason just follow me, I’ll be able to take us to this Chemical plant we’re supposed to be looking for.” The male nodded receiving the mental message and Travis withdrew a small phone from his pocket, dialing into a number as he requested a limo courtesy of his father for this location. The black vehicle would pick the two up and carry them off to the chemical plant in question, travis sitting alongside Jason as he hummed to himself whimsically.

It was from there that they would find themselves before the nondescript chemical plant, large in size but for the most part fitting the bill of typical chemical plant. Stepping out of their vehicle, the two would make their way through the plant as covertly as possible, Travis doing his thing to stop any surveillance but that would not protect them from everything.

It only took twenty minutes to make a five minute trip. GPS lies. Not trusting Abby to make it safely to where ever she so happened to be off to, Bliss insisted Abby ride with her. Given the option of the trunk or removing her jacket, Abby took the process of becoming invisible. When asked why she needed to be invisible, Bliss merely turned the radio louder.

Bliss slipped into her powersuit and grabbed a pair of goggles before heading off to the car where she left Abby. Upon returning, she found the car in a very different condition than when she left. A large crack ran the course of the windshield from the epicenter of a major impact shot. The opposite end of the car sported a wide open track with both brake lights shattered. Once she fully rounded her car she easily put together all four tires being blown out was only the fifth thing wrong with her car. She bit a tooth to the point the upper enamel felt like it could burst at any moment.

Bliss swung the passenger door open and punched the headrest.

"I'm in the backseat." Abby came back into the visible spectrum sprawled out across the backseat. "There was like ten of them."

Bliss snorted.

"They didn't notice me, and the lead woman was talking to someone on the phone. She said she didn't find anything, but would return to their headquarter."

An odd noise sprung from Bliss without her mouth opening.

"I think we can still catch them if we..."

"'We'? Like 'we' watched my car get wrecked? You can get your dumbass down there and I'll meet you at his headquarter when I get the other guys."

"How do I..."

"Taxi. You're paying."

Bliss sent Abby off after throwing the redhead's track jacket at her. It took Bliss twenty two minutes to get Ashley's car out of the driveway. She could have cut it down if she did not yell at the man who insisted someone must meet the mechanic who would tow away her car. She even could have cut down on about twenty one minutes if she just drove off with the car and dealt with it tomorrow. Alas, she pulled out of the driveway twenty minutes later and drove to the pharmaceutical company she sent Travis to investigate.

She put her rubber souled boot on the ground and surveyed the area to spot where the biggest fire or explosion or screams happened to come from. She started to take a few steps towards the gate and broke the lock. Before the lock hit the ground, Bliss stepped through the gate. Something caught the edge of her ear, pulling away from her current path, Bliss shattered a window and jumped into the window sill. Before she stepped down from her perch a gun pressed against her head. This time she could feel part of her enamel break from her back tooth.

Stealth was strangely an easy enough endeavor once one got the basic mechanics of it thought up, including not getting caught and moving around in ways that would draw the least attention to ones self. Cameras and such were easily taken care of, and when he thought about it, even humans could be dealt with if they were unfortunate to run into Travis, as the AI was made to deal with anything that would otherwise threaten Travis. Jason trailed behind him much like a lost puppy as scanners would move about the area, looking over any schematics that they could get their hand on and eventually he found something, moving from his spot onward towards a rather important looking building.  Stepping through the door he would find himself nearly running into a group of armed men, pausing and the two hid before they could catch sight of them, slipping then through another corridor as EVEN alerted him of something via camera.

A certain associate of his that had been trying to sneak into the place, Travis transmitting the images via the waves that his ai sent out and the young male nodded, moving out to intercept her and perhaps make sure that the female did not get herself hurt, as even a metahuman deserved a certain amount of respect compared to the humans that he looked down upon like the scum of the earth. So with the two dirty blonds separating, Travis would continue on his search for the chemical that he was to look for while Jason would walk elsewhere, slinking about until reaching the room where a gun was being placed to the ladies head, mentally ready to concentrate upon one point and to keep the finger from pulling the trigger.

the poor decision of biting her tongue gave Bliss her best rush in months. Once the man gestured for Bliss to move forward, a blast from her hand pushed his hand above his head. Bliss spun and grabbed his arm, biting his wrist to cause him to loosen his grip as she pressed the magazine release and unloaded the chamber. Spinning out of his grasp, she spun her hand and landed the grip of the pistol against his head, sending him to the ground.

Out of the shadows of her hollow victory stepped the other five men. Two men wrapped chains around their fists while the others grabbed blunt clubs to take care of business. Bliss doubled down and threw the pistol at one of the men's head. With his attention diverted, Bliss slid towards him throwing a blast at the outside of his left leg to take him completely off of his stride. One man brought the club down a moment too late, giving Bliss time to get inside of his guard and lay her hands on his chest with the force of a ram. As the third man lifted the club over his head, Bliss thrust her hand on top of his face. His anxiety met her glare. "Fall down." The man dropped his weapon and hit the ground.

Bliss watched as the two remaining men circled her, taking opposing sides to their telepathic foe. "I have two hands you know."

"Our boss only wants one."

Bliss threw down both hands in shock. "What?"

"For a signature." The thug lowered his stance. "He wants your company. You need to sign."

Pulling back her guard, Bliss shook her head. "Oh my god." Throwing aside energy like poor wording, Bliss threw a blast to put both men into their corresponding wall. "How many more of you are there?"

A club fell on her leg before an answer did. "Enough." Bliss fell to one leg as the man she forced to the ground rose above her. The man Bliss bit grabbed the pistol and loaded the clip back in. The pistol slid to towering thug who placed his hand on Bliss' shoulder as he leaned down to grab the pistol and place Bliss closer to the ground. "Now, we need those gifted hands of yours."

"Are you guys actually doing this on purpose or are you just bad at English?"

Battered and bruised, the five men started to get up in a beaten fashion, but still looked to be in a better position than Bliss.

Jason waited, not really seeing any gunshot happening and so that meant he would not have to do anything, considering that Travis only wanted her alive, not in perfect health. Still, he felt like helping and Travis would not mind if he did that, so that was what he would do, stepping from around the door that he was peering out of and letting his own telekinetic power move into action. With a motion of his hand, he would unleash his power to throw these goons into the wall with seemingly little trouble, stepping into the room with hands buried into his pockets and considering the telekinetic on her knees.

Travis however was busy elsewhere, finding himself venturing into some manner of droll lab, various vials of unknown chemicals decorating it as a small light would issue from his left eye to scan the various compounds, looking for one. He was not sure what he was looking for, but it would likely look special in some way.

Once two of the downtrodden goons pulled Bliss to her feet, a wave of energy crashed over the room. Bliss fell back but sprung to her feet far quicker than anyone else in the room. Everything seemed neutralized enough. No second winds thrusting the men back to their feet, no follow up attack from the new comer, and only the feint sounds of aching men filled the area. Until Bliss cut the silence like a pile of books being dropped on a desk. "You could've done something sooner. If anyone asks or checks the security footage." Bliss waved her hand in a circular motion. "I did all of this."

Two weeks passed since any experiments took place in the chemical lab, but in haste, the former occupants left behind the materials required to instill someone with enough power to change their molecular binding- if they survived. A small set back in the chemical formula caused anyone drinking the substance to lose control of the ability to replicate their DNA, causing a terrible apathy to cause their body to completely shut down. And, the other time people got super powers, so people not taking it put it out there.

Before Bliss could continue poking her index finger into the chests of people angering her, a vibration in her pocket pulled her attention. Due to lack of coordination, Bliss could not answer her phone with her left hand, so she delved for the device and expected the worst.

"Allo, Dolly, how are you?" A voice came through the signal sounding like Bliss assumed too much cologne and not enough self awareness would sound like.

"Good. I beat up some guys I assume you employ and..."

"Well that's good dolly." A short pause punctuated his dismissal. "Listen..." He paused while brushing his hand to alleviate a kink in his wrist. "I've got your little friend and I just want you to do a little..."

"Don't interrupt me. You don't interrupt me when I'm talking."

"Well fine, dolly, go on and finish."

Nothing came. "You were saying."

"So, your friend, she is here. Did you get that? Okay, moving on. I want you to give me your company."

"No."

"Just listen. Give me your company and I don't dump boiling chemicals on your friend. It's a win-win."

"That's not a win-win. It's a hostage negotiation."

"I'm sorry, dolly, I finished talking and forgot other people continue to talk. Did you say anything important?"

More nothing.

"Okay. Duh-bye dolly."

Bliss turned back to Travis. "Just remember, when this is all over, I get all the major credit and you helped after I saved you a couple of times or so."

Jason did as was expected, helping the Bliss woman and waiting for Travis to return to them after having done what was expected of him, not that it was very hard given the whole thing. So until then he would stand there with all of the men now unconscious on the ground, hands interlinked behind his back as he waited for the Alpha to return, and he would with a small sample of whatever they were looking for, as well as the data that was needed of him. Travis entered upon the scene, a small amused smirk playing across his features mostly for the discovery he had made, and the possibility that it opened up towards maybe even creating his own superhuman serum, granted he refined what was found and if that were even possible.

”Take all of the credit you want, and maybe this too.” Travis noted with a chuckle, raising a single vial of the substance and letting it swirl about in its container. ”I found something you might be interested in however.” he would note motioning towards the vial, extending his hand towards the female with vial in it and likely letting her take it before withdrawing his limb.

Bliss could barely keep her phone from flying from her hand when suddenly there were two. If nothing else Travis knew how to stay away from getting in front of Bliss' ego. "Let me see." Stepping towards the outstretched hand under the invitation of investigation, Bliss took hold of the vial. "It's glowing. Seems pretty evil by the standards around this place." The vial slipped right where Bliss would put her phone if she and her phone were on better terms. For now the phone could rest in her back pocket, so Bliss could get something new to complain about it when she sat on it.

And she did. On her way to the headquarters in her stolen car filled with hate and other emotions. All of them negative.

"I have a plan of sorts." Standing in the shadow of the corporate structure, Bliss looked down at a sewer run off drain. Plunging through the murky waters in no way enticed her, but getting inside would step up as her main priority. "You're going to go through their. I would go through, but I came up with the plan. That makes me management and I may need to change the plan and so and so, just get in there. I'm the smartest woman in the world." While Bliss waited for her plan to unfold in the darkness unbeknownst to her or her companion, an opening awaited.

"Has the smartest woman in the world forgotten she sent an invisible girl to..."

"Shut up. You don't get to be smug until my windshield is fixed." Bliss turned back to Travis with her new plan. "New plan. Walk through the gate and start fighting everything."

Everything stood inside the warehouse. And the labs. And the armory. Most of it could only savagely beat someone with blunt objects, but some of it was actually dangerous. Chemicals melting faces dangerous. Twelve foot tall abominations with detachable limbs capable of burning through metal. "Don't stop, get it, get it."