A Remedy For Bliss

Bliss let her legs float in the water of the hot spring, flipping through pictures on her computer from the security archive of the Bangkok showing the layout of the Impact, Muang Thong Thani from several vantage points. She set her drink down on the wooden deck. The seclusion on the tiny spring made Bliss fairly inconspicuous in her bikini top and jean shorts. But, the seclusion only gave her time to plan. None of her operation would take place next to a spring, or with such a laid back drink in her hand.

Tonight, Bliss planned on accessing a data point in the Impact, allowing her to stream into Bangkok's servers, letting her monitor cash flows coming in and out of the city. Her reasoning only pointed to one source. She needed to track where the resources from her previous company were heading and what Clement Corp hoped to do with those resources. Luckily, the Impact hosted an international fashion show hosted by the Prime Minister's daughter. A top notch, star studded event- with a great deal of security, but Bliss knew her in perfectly.

Mitsuko Tanaka happened to be an up and coming fashion designer- and also happened to be Bliss' half-sister. Even though Bliss did not invite her to come along, she did make sure credentials were mailed to her, giving Bliss a way past security into the staging area of the arena. If everything went perfectly, Bliss would be in and out in no time. Bliss closed the laptop and leaned back. The hotsprings would be here in a little bit.

Lights filled the air as limos pulled up to the front of the grand arena. Cameras flashed along a red carpet to bathe the walkway in iridescence. None of those lights fell on Bliss. The technaut made a more subtle approach towards the side of the building. Her hunter green, puffy skirt fell halfway up her thigh with a pair of black boots running up to her knee. A black, sleeveless turtle neck gave Bliss the look she needed to try and show some semblance of belonging in this superfluous environment, but the real fashion accessory currently rested on her hands. A pair of gloves designed by Bliss- with a lot of help from Mitsuko- to allow her to more easily channel her telekinesis into the grip of her hands.

The credential badge got her through the side door, but it would only take her to the audience sitting area. The isolated festivities for the night pulled all the attention away from the auxiliary hall Bliss moved into. She needed more credentials, and spotted her way in. "Excuse me!" Bliss chased after a woman sporting a backstage pass. With straightened blond hair and designer skirt, Bliss knew she would not be a model of any kind. Her attitude to the question would let her just how important she was and how many people would miss her.

"I can't talk right now. My client is very busy, so I am very busy-"

"Okay. An agent. Good." Bliss reached into her bag and pulled out a roll of duct tape. "You can disappear for a little while and no one will care."

The look of shock and disgust on the blond woman's face bought Bliss just enough time to quietly incapacitate the woman using the roll of duct tape and a utility closet. "I just need your badge." Bliss reached for the woman's waist to pull the credential off. Backstage. "Great. You're doing me a big favor." The woman huffed against the duct tape as she tried to escape. "Just be quiet for the next couple of hours and I'll come let you out."

With a new found badge and a massive liability waiting in a closet, Bliss took off to the backstage area to begin her investigation.

"How could you be so stupid? You were supposed to bury it all!", the ghostly spectre of a long deceased WOLF unit operative berated Remedy, and he was right, how could he be so stupid? Remedy's hallucinations had become much more severe than usual recently, perhaps it was the stress of finding out there was intel that linked him with the assassination of hundreds of heroes in his past life, perhaps it was his ever-growing dependence on chemical compounds to keep himself combat-ready, maybe it was even something as simple as his advanced age. Whatever it was didn't matter, the mission, the mission was all that mattered, it's always the mission that matters.

Observing his target through his suit's omni-eye, he knew he needed to tread carefully. Why the only accessible data point that would allow him to destroy intel that shouldn't even exist was housed at the venue for a fashion show he didn't know. Either way, there were civilians, a lot of them, and killing innocent people certainly wouldn't help his fragile state of mind. "What do you see, son?" In life, Remedy's father was his mentor and best friend, it only made sense that his conscience would manifest itself in the form of his most trusted loved one. "I see an unguarded side entrance, no guards on the other side according to the camera I hacked, either they don't know what they've got on their hands or they're already preoccupied. I assume it's the latter, I need to stay sharp."

The ghost of his father faded away as he made his way down the steep incline from where his vantage point was. Thankfully, the area leading to the side entrance was poorly lit, he didn't feel like getting into a fight with some woefully under-prepared lackeys today. Taking cover behind an unnecessarily expensive sports car, it was clear why the side entrance was unguarded now. Just off to the left, the security guard was flirting with a stunning woman in a dress that left very little to the imagination, clearly a supermodel, although Remedy couldn't tell you which one.

Sneaking through the side door and finding himself behind a sizeable audience, Remedy stuck to the shadows and found an air vent that should lead him directly to the access point. Crawling through the vent and passing above a utility closet, he heard the muffled screams of a terrified woman. Dropping down into the closet, a blonde woman was bound and gagged with duct tape on the floor. "If I take this off, you cannot scream, or some very bad things could happen, do you understand?" whispered Remedy. The woman nodded, obviously having no interest in causing any more discomfort for herself this evening. Remedy needed to be quick if he wanted to get the upper hand on whoever did this, luckily, he didn't even need to ask a single question, the woman was eager to give him everything he wanted to hear already. "It was a woman! She took my credentials and put me in here! Hey, what are you doi-" Remedy had to place the gag back on, not only was she being far too loud, but he needed her to remain undiscovered for as long as possible so he could hopefully escape without having to evade the authorities. Lifting himself back into the vent, he made his way to the data point, more than ready to fight whoever was here to get what he needed.

Walking into the backstage area only took a quick flash of her badge. No one cared about what the talent agents looked like, and most were terrible enough of people to cause most security to just look at the badge and wave them through. She practiced her fake smile enough today to make it past security with no qualms at all. Working alone had its perks.

Racks of designer clothes filled out a labyrinth in between the wall to wall make up and hair sessions filling the room with every chemical imaginable. The room stunk with an overwhelming aroma, but Bliss could only hope none of these chemicals would mess with her hair. A young model crashed into her, knocking Bliss through a clothing rack without as much as a look. It took a door to shift Bliss' gaze from ire to satisfaction, but the satisfaction allowed Bliss to pick herself off the ground in a much more graceful way.

Too bad it came with a security guard standing in front of the door. Bliss stood in quiet thought for a moment as she thought over the process she would need to go through. Time to shoot a plan into action. A telekinetic lift pushed the clothing rack over onto the model responsible for knocking Bliss over. Pinned under the weight of the rack, she struggled to squeeze out. So did three other men and two women trapped by Bliss. "Not bad enough to detract, however-" Bliss looked over to the guard as he kept his station by the door. "Excuse me! What are we paying you for?! Get this rack up. Now!" The stern voice peeled the guard from the door, allowing Bliss to take a few steps back towards the door. The locked door opened with a tug of telekinetic force against the locking mechanism.

Bliss disappeared from the backstage area, locking the door behind her. Now, a data point should be around here somewhere, but these places typically ran them through a server room. If Bliss could see through walls, it would be amazing, unfortunately, she would be stuck with going door to door and checking for tags outside the door to point her where to go.

You can never really get used to crawling through an air vent. Remedy estimates he must have crawled through close to 100 miles of vent since his first infiltration mission and he is still bothered by it. The stench of sweat was nauseating, and if not for his night vision goggles he'd have no idea where he was going. Below, a scuffle could be heard, he had a hard time making anything out, but he definitely heard someone shout "Excuse me! What are we paying you for?! Get this rack up. Now!" Looks like our friend was here.

Thankfully, there was a grate just a few feet away, so Remedy decided to see what all the fuss was about. It appeared that someone had knocked a clothing rack onto some models, which actually made Remedy chuckle somewhat, clearly he was dealing with someone who had a sense of humour. But the fun stopped right there, as he realised the only type of person that could pin a group of people under a clothing rack without being caught is either someone with invisibility...or telekinetic powers.

No, not now, why now? The mission needed to be completed, the woman who was wreaking havoc needed to be stopped. But it was too late, Remedy was having an episode. "You can't kill me, boy!" The words were forever etched in his memory, the first time Remedy had ever encountered telekinesis. He was hunting a bio-terrorist who had killed 500 people in the span of 3 days, now he was being flung around like a rag doll. Remedy knew he couldn't afford to relive the memory again, his PTSD brought him back to the hell he lived through, his hallucinations made them feel real.

"Gotta work fast. Can't...let it...happen...now..." Remedy was going through every coping mechanism he had. He'd gotten over his telekinesis trigger years ago, but the recent pressure on his brain was bringing everything back. It took every ounce of energy for him to crawl to the end of the vent, once he was back out in the open he'd be able to breathe properly and focus on the task at hand. Every movement felt like he was swimming through concrete, all his years of training were worthless in this moment. He had to concentrate harder than ever to not unleash a force field that would give away his position, he had to try not to over exert himself and destroy the vent with his incredible strength. Just 50 more feet, he could smell his exit, 40...30, it was a game of inches, 20...10, one final push.

He was there, directly above the server room, he knew exactly where to go, he never went into a building without knowing exactly where he needed to be. Dropping down and inhaling deep breaths, the images started to fade away and bring him back down to reality. "Well done, son." he heard from his father's apparition. "Thanks, dad." he responded. Now he was on his way to the data point, but his keen senses never deceived him. He made a lot of noise during his episode and while no one in the backstage area would have heard him, someone near the server room most definitely would have. He wasn't going to be alone for long.

So this room looked like a breaker room. Might be useful in the future, but not now. The next room happened to be a break room. Cool getting second hand radiation from multiple sources Impact. But, what was making the ruckus in the ceiling. Was it water rushing through the pipes to help a model lose five pounds in the bathroom or help a man who ate too much do the exact thing? Probably did not matter. "How long is this hallway and why can't they just put the server room- oh here we go." And here she went. The server room door of course came with the problem of a lock, but the ever resourceful Bliss drew upon her telekinesis to pop the lock. Still, the same rumbling continued the closer she got.

The door slid open and Bliss found the light switch on the side of the wall. Light beaming down on the server was expected. The man in the middle came as a surprise. "Who are you?" Sensing her attitude would probably make this worse, Bliss pulled her gloves out of the bag and slid them over her hands. "Doesn't matter. I need you to go wherever it is you want that isn't here, and then never come back. This is mine." Bliss popped her back and began to canvas the room for objects to use. Chairs. Good. A table. Fine. A block of servers. Last ditch effort.

Sometimes he hated being right all the time, now he's staring down the girl that's caused him all this trouble. Remedy had dealt with telekinesis before, but that won't make it any easier. Their powers can vary in strength and he can't afford to let her destroy the equipment, he needed to thoroughly dispose of the intel. He considered reaching for his gun, but he didn't want to kill the girl, the fact that she had to ask him who he was means she wasn't here for him. They could potentially work together, but he knew that now wasn't the time as it was clear she was ready for a fight. Paying close attention to the micro-movements in her face, he knew exactly what she was planning, she was picking something to hurl in his direction.

His exceptional reflexes would allow him to dodge anything she can throw at him handily, but that won't stop her from lifting him up and pummelling into the ground. A force field could probably hold her off, but for how long? It depended entirely on just how powerful she was, which was still an unknown factor. The key here was to either incapacitate her or try and talk her into some kind of truce.

"All you need to know for now is that I'm not here for you, and I know you're not here for me." Would Remedy's sentiments be enough? He couldn't tell from her face, it was clear that she's an erratic individual, he wouldn't know her decision until she made it. But he was ready, he prepared to throw up a force field and charge if she wasn't going to play ball, it was in her hands now. Would she fight someone who she had no reason to, or would she see reason?

This problem could be solved very easily if Bliss decided to go at it from a diplomatic approach. Or, she could throw down and make it really easy for herself by taking anyone in her way out. Or, the diplomacy. "You're not here to mess with me, and you are telling me I'm not messing with you. Or, are you asking, 'hey Bliss, don't jack up my grill'?" The chair looked like it would make for a follow up action. The table would be the lead move. "Cause, there is a big difference between the first and the second."

Bliss kept the furniture on the ground. For now. The next part of her plan rolled into the corner of her eye. Instead of between her opponent with the stack, or after she hit him with it, she could bend the railing to wrap him up with the metal grating. A decent way to take out a guy who could probably taser, or smoke bomb, or pocket laser her. But, for now, Bliss wanted to see if this guy would let her make her way to the terminal. "I need to install something on that terminal. Very hush hush, so don't make me hush hush you."

He couldn't believe this, some punk kid was trying to tell him what to do. But she clearly knew her stuff when it came to computers, it's always useful to have a technician on hand, and a powered one at that. "Listen kid, I need to destroy some highly sensitive intel that no one but me can know the details of. It's far more important than whatever you are after. Besides, I can already see that you're favouring your right arm, meaning you aren't so good with your left, do you realise how easy it would be for me to snap that arm in half?" Remedy wasn't one for telling people his plans in combat, but he could see she wasn't much of a fighter and could hopefully be made to see that this was her fight to lose.

"Furthermore, I already know that you possess telekinetic abilities, do you know how many people like you I've met over the years? I already know how you fight, and the more I see you looking at that railing, the more I think I should dim your lights before you get any bright ideas. So, what's it gonna be?" God, this was demeaning, why was he trading verbal blows with some snot-nosed kid? He probably could have knocked her out by now, but something about her gave him pause, not that he had any idea what it was.

It was a fine proposition. Too bad it clashed with what Bliss planned. "No, no, no, no, no. You can't delete anything. If you delete things it will tip off someone in the defense mainframe. Then, they send some guy down here to dig around and find the bug I planted. So, no. Just no." The reason existed, but the argument contained some flaws. "Okay, so no one calls me 'kid' either, gramps. I developed the greatest tech company before a series of freak accidents involving cruise ships and oil lines and a misplaced trust in a super hero turned pop star caused it all to crash and burn. Now, I'm tapping that terminal to see where my money goes."

So Bliss' left arm did not look too great and people could tell. "It's only like that because I have to carry the weight of a global incompetence on my back. You think people hate you, and that's cute, but you know that feeling of jealousy and disdain you have for me right now? You aren't alone. So, I need to figure out where people who are incredibly spiteful of me are sending my money."

Now, Bliss just waited to see what Remedy would ultimately do. The amount of talk Bliss could throw into the air greatly out numbered how much of a fight she could put up. She once led the only successful defense during the assault on New York, but since then, she really slacked off on any kind of training for telekinesis.

Remedy was almost too good at calling a bluff, so he thought he might as well enjoy himself. Cracking a smile, he darted at Bliss full speed, fully anticipating her to protect her hurt arm with everything she had. That didn't matter though, he was aiming for her right. He was one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the world, he was one of the youngest people to achieve a third dan black belt, who was she to challenge him? It was time to take this kid out. He saw her fire and energy though, she'd be useful in the wars to come.

The sweet talk went unanswered. It was fine. Bliss would just jot that down as a win in her book. It was a long book, full of plot holes and vague context, but Bliss signed her name on it loud and proud. "Alright big guy, just don't go crying when I show you what I can do."

Then, she realized it went unanswered because a man darted towards her. He called out her weak arm in his opening intimidation, making Bliss lean forward with her right arm. While he would be able to get in contact with her, Bliss had no intention of allowing him anywhere near her. Instead, she grasped at the railing of the servers flanking her. It took a moment of strength to pull enough telekinesis, but Bliss yanked the rails loose, creating a barrier of jagged metal between herself and Remedy.

The bearings after the pull weakened the integrity, but it would give Bliss a short time to prepare her next barrage before Remedy closed the gap and pinned her. "Woah, woah, no touching. My sister designed this dress. Give me your phone and I'll subscribe you to her fashion blog. You could really use some help." His grip grasped around Bliss' right arm. "That's a firm grip. I think I can one up you though." Utilizing her glove, Bliss would put her left hand on the man's forearm, channeling her telekinesis into his muscle with a very focused and potent push of energy.

Just as the surge of energy would release, Bliss began to feel a sharp pain in her head. A little too much excitement in such a short period of time began to trigger in a splitting headache. Bliss bit down on the back of her tooth and clenched her right eye almost shut. She really hoped this would pass. Really, really hoped it would pass.

This kid had a surprising amount of fight in her, even though it was clear she was inexperienced, completely missing Remedy's bluff and leading with her right arm. He didn't blame her, he'd been fighting for over 40 years, it was all he knew, it was what he was good at. Preparing to snap her good arm and thus only leaving her with the weakened left, he felt a rush of highly focused telekinetic energy. Smart kid, she certainly played to her strengths, feeling the massive release of energy, he was forced to relinquish his hold. That amount of force would have shattered every bone in a normal man's hand, although all it did was give Remedy what felt like intense pins and needles.

Unlucky for her, the girl may have the worst poker face in human history. It didn't take Remedy's ability to read micro expressions to know that the girl's defensive manoeuvre had taken a lot out of her. "I wanted to do this peacefully, you should have known that this was always going to end badly for you." Remedy needed her to know that she had screwed up, it may be the only way she ever learns.

Some of the best fighters in the world couldn't cope with Remedy's BOMB combat system, primarily because he was the only person who knew how to use it. This girl was not one of the best fighters in the world, she was reckless and potentially dangerous. He knew that she would never be able to defend against his onslaught. "This ends now, kid!" Remedy said as he surrounded his hands with his signature force field boxing gloves. His super strength made his punches hit hard, and he was too stressed to control himself, one well-placed hit would probably kill her. With his force fields converting his hits into pure concussive force, she'd only be knocked out with little permanent damage.

It was time for action, he was going to unleash a barrage of punches, kicks, grapples, everything he knew about breaking a person. Without any further hesitation, he launched into his devastating combo, she had more than her dress to worry about.

Her arm came back from the grapple. The first of her plan put into action well enough, but her head still felt like it was splitting in two. A difficult decision now rested in between staying somewhat stealthed in the grand scheme of this plan, and delivering a well deserved blow to the man accosting her. She could always rebuild the servers at a later time. Probably make the whole system run better with less lag with compression.

All this went through her head as the first server tower came crashing down, blocking the first punch. Another tower, another punch. A third one for good measure to keep him out of her guard. A poorly placed bundle of cords ran into the back of the fourth terminal. When Bliss pulled upon the grating to bring down the beast, it tore down the bracing on the adjacent towers. The second tower collapsed, raining down sparks as it crashed to the ground.

Bliss hopped to her feet, gritting as she took in the pain. A large section of the ceiling ripped down under the duress of the wiring leading from the upstairs input. "Well, I guess I've got some extra-" The whip of the wiring rained down, snapping Bliss in the back of the head, sending her to the ground with her face planted against the ground. Her eyes blinked as she watched the tower plummet towards her. A quick burst of energy diverted the falling tower towards the pile up of now wasted hardware, but the ability for Bliss to keep her right eye open began to falter.

She slowly sat up, brushing her hand against her forehead when the diverted tower fell off its bearings and collided with her hand, sending enough concussive force into her to knock Bliss out.

What the hell just happened? Was this girl insane? Thank goodness for force fields or Remedy would be buried under a mound of servers by now. Sure, he'd be able to just throw them off, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt. He saw the same tenacity in the girl that he had, that urge to unleash everything you had, but he had years of learning to control himself, this girl had never held back.

Now Remedy had an unconscious hero and no servers, he was an expert at hacking computers, but rebuilding them? He wasn't an engineer, at least not when it came to technology. Then there was the other problem, the girl's little stunt most definitely gave away their presence. Despite trying in vain, he couldn't wake the girl up, but he had to get out of here and he needed her if he was ever going to find his intel. He'd extracted enough hostages to know how to escape a guarded area with another person on his back, but that didn't mean it was an easy task.

Vents weren't an option, he'd have to physically drag her and one pull too hard would rip her arm off. "Loud disturbance at the Impact, all units, please advise." Great, police radios never brought good news, still he was thankful that he hacked their frequency, he probably had a 5 minute window before the place was crawling with cops. Then it struck him, why did the police speak in English? With an American accent, no less? "You stupid man! You led them right to us, they knew you'd be here!", more demons from his past telling him what he already knew. He had to work fast, his face may have changed but his DNA and dental records hadn't, he couldn't afford anyone knowing he existed, otherwise he couldn't operate.

He slung the girl over his shoulder, even with his super strength he knew that she was light as a feather. Despite her being unconscious, he thanked the girl for not slowing him down, all the years of talking to ghosts had made him uncomfortable with having normal conversations. The girl seemed to have helped him again even more than she anticipated, her little episode had made a pretty sizeable hole in the ground. Obviously they'd be followed through there, but they wouldn't find a thing, he was fast and determined.

Remedy already had the blueprint of the building committed to memory, punching out a part of the wall in the basement allowed him to locate an entry point into the sewer. Not the most glamorous of escapes, but necessity trumps desire every time. Navigating through the pipes, he was quickly able to distance himself from anyone that may be after him, the sewer had various paths to take, too many lefts and rights for anyone to accurately track him. They were home free.

The safehouse wasn't much, in fact it was essentially an old log cabin, but Remedy rarely operated in this part of the world so he didn't bother making a fortress. He knew the handcuffs that were attaching the girl to a wooden chair would be of little use once she woke up. They were more for his own reassurance than anything, handcuffing an assailant was a force of habit at this point. What the hell was he going to ask her once she came to? Asking for a name would probably be a good start. Interrogations were the closest thing he had to idle chatter most days, but he wasn't trying to threaten her. So why all the fuss? Why not just lay her on the bed and let her rest? Was he so out of touch with humanity that he didn't even know what a warm gesture was any more?

This was ridiculous, she was hotheaded but she wasn't a threat. She wanted something that was important to her, Remedy was being selfish, what she wanted meant just as much to her as his intel did to him. He needed to realise that she wasn't the enemy, that warm gesture might be a good start. So he uncuffed her after all and laid her down on the mattress in the corner. He never slept anyway, he couldn't remember what it was like to sleep without having a nightmare, so sleep was something he avoided. "Please don't try and kill me when you wake up. And for God's sake don't destroy my safehouse." Talking to her like this was much easier, but the interaction was coming. He knew exactly what to ask her once she woke, her name, and reluctantly, if she could help.

An unconscious sleep always had a Space Odyssey ring to it. Sleeping without dreams, but you could always somehow feel a deep pain in the sleep. How much time passed felt inconsequential, but her new found location held a few revelations. One, she was not dead. Two, she was not tied up. Three, judging my the marks on her wrist, at one point two may not have been true. Also, four, this mattress could be more comfortable. "Like, I was saying. I've got some extra work I need to put together." Bliss sat up and swung her legs off the edge of the mattress.

Sleeping in a pair of boots did not do many favors for her lower legs. "You know you should have taken these off right?" Bliss fit her hand between the lining and her tendon. "You didn't tape me up with the roll in my bag, so I guess I won't mess your place up, but I do need to get back to doing my work. You kinda knocked off my primary location." Her back popped as she leaned over to grab her toes, stretching out her back. "You haven't put together who I am yet, and that's cool, so I'm going to just keep it to myself for now."

Now she just needed her bag. And free reign to leave this place. One she could find, the other she hoped she would not have to take through massive destruction. "Where's my bag? I need to get in contact with someone from my team. If you could grab that for me, it would be pretty cool. K?"