Lovely Weather We're Having [Open]

Alicia was easily pushed away from Danny.   Fortunately the handcuffs attaching the two had deconstructed by this point or Ares might have been less successful.  

She cursed under her breath; this had all backfired very quickly.  “Did what? Alright alright it’s my van here take the keys just don’t hurt us!”  She blurted out tossing the van keys at him.  

“It’s got some kind of machine in the back, I stole it from a corporate R&D department.  Look, you can have it if you want, just don’t sell it back to them.   As long as they don’t get it back I don’t really care what happens to it, this was payback more then profit.“  She confesses hoping Ares will calm down.

Ares squinted at the two. One had attached get other so they clearly aren't friends, and he was surprised when the woman gave up the keys. She clearly didn't know about the van. He sighed, frustrated. "Look." He said, motioning towards the window, at the solid van.

"It's frozen. Completely. How? What kind of machine did you steal?"

Danny shook her head. It was the only thing she could do with any energy at all. "If it's frozen, just wait for it to melt." Somewhere Danny actually wanted to say something intelligent. "It is only going to get colder. Until it gets warmer." Her eyes shifted through different stages of dilation. The bracelet on her right arm began to itch for action, but Danny could only look to her left arm. "Maybe I can help with getting it unstuck. I have powers that allow me to create magical constructs, also, I can channel the spirits of every warrior who has ever died, also, my parents are rich and I can probably just call a tow truck. This one time I started fires, but I can't remember how to do that anymore." The forthcoming Danny moved her hand up to her nose to try and rub some of the dust out from her nasals, but only managed to get some of the dust in her eye.

"Yeah, you can just have the truck if you don't hurt us." The lie Danny told made its way back into her brain. "I can't remember what I stole, but it's perfectly fine to take. Wow, I'm hungry. You guys up for some food?"

Alicia paused a moment to take in everything Danny was saying, interested but feeling rather guilty about causing her sudden exposition.   Plus the whole channeling sprit thing sounded pretty scary, she was getting the impression she’d probably regret having crossed this girl.  She offered Danny a packet of crisps (that’s English for potato chips) from her satchel.  That would have to do for now, she needed to focus on the larger problem.  

She stared out the window reflecting on the fact that her Van was now an ice cube.   Weirdly enough compared to everything else she’d seen this evening that seemed rather typical.  

“I don’t know what the device does; it just looked like the most expensive thing there so I got it wheeled out and...”  She paused as gears started to turn in her mind.  

“Wait!   It all makes sense now.  The sudden deteriorating weather, the cold, the reserve power supply and the charts in the lab.   Ha!  This is perfect!  People never believe me when I tell them Makeli is evil but they’ve built a weather machine!   A bloody weather machine!  I mean could you build a more cliché evil invention!?” Alicia exclaims, strangely delighted by this discovery.

Her sudden outburst of joy then passes as she realises the severity of the situation.  “Oh… We really need to find a way to turn that thing off, before it starts hurting people.” She concludes, growing concern in her voice.

Ares observed the woman's outburst of excitement, then stared questioning my at the other girl. "Did any of that make sense to you because I'm lost.."

The girl was talking about some "Maccale" or something, and a weather machine (which sounded like it could be expensive) . He turned to the tall, apparently magical one, who looked slightly haggard after the other girls attack." So, it's not your van, it's hers." He turned to the other girl. "And you, Makali? Weather machine? I think you've got some explaining to do but first, let's handle this machine."

Ares went back out the window and jumped over the van, attempting to land on it, blades fully drawn. "Magical girl, lend a hand?" He yelled back through the open window. "And you too pepper spray one!"

A feeling of warmth flushed out of Danny. She bit down on the crisp and felt a pressure in her head. Each one of her membranes slowly expanded like a balloon filling a bone ridden helmet. "Like I said, the van is mine. I have no clue who this girl beside me is." She looked dwown to the bag of chips in her hand with no clue as to how they got there, or why her nose felt like she dove face first into a sand dune.

Ares jumped out a window and went towards the van. Wait, didn't this happen before? "And why am I helping you?" Being in the room alone with Alicia felt familiar. When Danny went to create a handcuff with her constructs, she couldn't help but feel a wave of deja vu wash over her. She lifted a finger and let the construct dissipate. "You need to explain a lot of things right now."

A weather machine did enough to give Danny a reason to get outside of the house and manifest a turquoise jaws of life. A frozen van quickly saw its roof peel back, allowing Ares to make his way inside. "I really hope that was the right van."

“No I need to help disable the machine.  When that’s done –then- I owe you an explanation.“ Alicia replied with a serious tone, disregarding Danny’s demand for an immediate explanation.

She followed Danny out to the front of the house pausing to gawk as Danny effortlessly tore the encased van’s roof off.  

Coming back to her senses she cupped her hands and started shouting to Ares “The device is the big plastic and metal thing in the back.  I’m pretty good with machines, if you can get the back panel off and tell me what you see I might be able to walk you through disabling it…  Or you could just shoot the crap out of it.  It probably won’t explode… probably.”  

She considered entering the van to disable it in person, but without ice-climbing gear she had little chance of getting up to the torn roof.

Ares stood out in the snow, cape whittling in the breeze as the woman spoke to him. He didn't know how valuable this thing could be, so he wasn't gonna destroy it.

"Just tell me how to deactivate it!" He yelled, now inside of the van. The machine was making all kinds of noises and lights were going off all over it. He was very tempted to just shoot the damn thing, if it weren't for a big possible pay day.

The roof tore open just nicely, and the lack of complaints made Danny rest assured she broke into the correct vehicle. The amount of subtlety Ares looked to have did not fill Danny with much confidence, so the now sober heroine put her best efforts forth to create turquoise constructs at the edges of the box to apply enough pressure to pop it off. "This is going to be a good explanation. I just know it."

The weather did not look to get any better. Sadly, Danny could not construct a space heater, but she did give herself and Alicia some safety from the elements by conjuring up a turquoise canopy to block the wind. "I sure hope we can make a nice summer day with this thing." Danny huddled herself up to try and preserve body temperature.

Alicia noted the canopy and smiled at Danny “I’d settle for a day where I can feel my legs.”

She then refocused on shouting over to Ares “Alright, magic-girl over here has taken the back of the machine off, now you need to tell me what you see.  I’m no weather machine expert, I have to approach this methodically.  If you want me to deactivate it you need to be my eyes.  Now, is there anything cylindrical with coils of wire surrounding it?” 

The back of the machine had been removed by the girl with the magic powers. Ares stared. And stared. And stared some more. The girl wanted him to be "her eyes" and frankly her eyes didn't know what the hell they were looking at. Ares was an assassin and warrior, not a scientist so this thing was beyond him. Despite the fact that he reaaaalllyy wanted to just shoot the damn thing, Ares looked for the coily wirey thing that she had asked him about.

"Is it silver?" He shouted back "I think I see it." Ares reached for it, and regretted it soon after, as what must've been thousands of volts of electricity surged through him at once. Metal suit + Electricity + melted snow aka water = not good. The entire van became a death trap, with Ares cooking nicely in the middle. Luckily he had that handy regenerative ability, but it sure as hell hurt.

He gain control of his muscles long enough to hop out of the van, onto the snowy ground. "ow.." He managed to get out, laying there as his healing factor did his thing. Healing always winded him, so he put his index finger up as if to say 'Give me a second' and laid there to heal up. The van meanwhile, was sparking and hissing, and it seemed that the machine took great offense to his attempt to deactivate it, because the weather began to get worse, with thunder and lighting being added to the blizzard.

Thunder and lightning did not make anything better. "I have no idea what happens to my constructs if they get hit by lightning. I do know what happens if we do though." The expectations of death from electricity did not just exist above her though. The vehicle itself seemed quite unhappy about the current predicament. "That goes double for not knowing what happens with what the van is doing right now."

Even with no proof her constructs would save anyone, Danny put up a barrier to at least keep the rain off of Ares as he worked on such a vital piece of dissemination. "Wait, you're guessing at how this thing works?" The sound of pounding rain pulled Danny's attention upward. "Well, I hope you chalked this one up in the bad idea category."

“Yes that’s it!”  she responded to Ares. “All right now whatever you do don’t-“ She was interrupted by the sound of surging electricity.  

She watched as Ares escaped the maelstrom of electricity and slumped onto the ground, astonishingly still responsive.   “-touch it.” she finished, letting out a shocked sigh of remorse.  

Alicia hurried over to check on Ares before stopping at his gesture.  

“I’ll add it to todays list of bad ideas.”  She grimly responded to Danny casting her gaze between Ares and the now raging storm clouds above, this was her fault, there was no escaping it and more people were going to get hurt.  No more dancing around the problem she had to fix this herself, right now.    

“I’ve got another bad idea.  Stay here and keep that barrier up!”  She dashed inside pulling her gas mask out and donning it as she moved.  It was mostly rubber so maybe it could stop her taking a lightning bolt to the face if nothing else.  

Running upstairs Alicia opened a top floor window and leaped out of it onto the floating light barrier below.   Landing with a thump she slid a little from the surface moisture and had to grab a side to remain upright.  

From atop the light barrier she had a good view of the insides of the van.   She started emptying her satchel of its contents dumping out a flashlight, more crisps, a wad of cash and a random assortment of other items.  Finally she pulled out something resembling a large silver marble, giving it a once over before stowing it in a pocket.  A quick shake of the bag confirmed that the satchel was full of these marble-like spheres and now devoid of anything else.  

She closed her satchel and stood at her full height, swinging the satchel around her head like a sling.  After an unsteady moment she released it, flinging it into the open-toped van.  

She retrieved the remaining sphere from her pocket and started mentally lining up a throw.  “You’re both going to want to stay low!”  

She squeezed the sphere briefly before throwing it into the van towards where her satchel had landed.  An immediate cluster of fireless explosions obliterated the Van’s interior, pummelling its insides and forcing its shell to expand with spherical dents.   The ice surrounding the van was ill prepared for this sudden warping and fractured shooting off in all directions.  

In the moments that followed a few more explosions rang out from inside the van, apparently late to the party.  As these stragglers departed a welcome silence fell on the scene.  The storm clouds began to slowly disperse as weather gradually returned to normal.  A cold, but snowless winter night’s sky slowly reasserted its dominance.  Inside the weather machine was completely destroyed, crooked pieces of metal and circuit board spread all across the van.  

Alicia surveyed the scene blankly, it was over but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to relax.  She looked down; a large shard of ice was sticking through her leg, illuminated eerily by the glowing barrier below her.  

“Oh… would you look at that?” she remarked in faint surprise before passing out.  Her limp body fell clumsily off the light barrier towards the snow below.

Ares was healed up and feeling ok now. The short woman had donned a gas mask, and basically blew the inside of the van, machine and all, to hell and with it, any chance of a pay day for him. He sighed, and sat up, just in time to see a large shard of ice enter the girls leg. He didn't know if she was a meta, but from the way she started to waiver slightly, he could tell she was gonna fall.

"Ugh. Probably shouldn't let her die. She still hasn't explained this shit." he muttered to himself. Ares shot his grappling hook into buildings side, pulling himself up towards the light construct. He reached out, attempting to grab her arm, and release the hook, once over the construct safely.

A little drip of water drizzled past the construct Danny used to keep them mostly save from the elements. It looked all well and good, and then Alicia took an icicle through the leg. "The fact you did that is going to make this look really mean." Even though Alicia clearly hurt herself, she still looked to be guilty of quite a few things. And Danny never got her explanation. "If we go to a hospital, they're going to ask questions. So, how about you get whatever is in the van, and I get the perp to a friend of mine for some medical expertise and then see if she is guilty of any major crimes."

Turquoise bars would wrap Alicia's feet to keep her from trying to make a one legged retreat from the area while Danny spoke it out with Ares. "I guess you want in on the whole explanation too. I guess you aren't willing to give me a business card and trust me to send you a letter detailing it."

Ares successfully grabbed Alicia but she remained unconscious, her ice shard wound starting to bleed out messily.   The cold weather was preventing her blood from clotting and exasperating the wound.  The amount of blood she was loosing made a strong case for the “she isn’t a metahuman” theory.    

Alicia’s possessions remained strewn about the light barrier, including several false IDs, a smartphone, some bags of crisps, a flashlight and a now rather soggy wad of cash.  Everything inside the Van, including the rest of Alicia’s possessions and important things like the steering wheel, had been pummelled into oblivion.  If the van had any value now, it was as scrap.