Downtown Fun (Bliss)

"Thanks for the lift."

"Don't mention it.", Alex smiled at the man as he put the bag on the rear seat, then got in the car sitting next to her, and the brunette started up the engine. "You know, we could meet up more often. Rebecca and Timothy sure like each other."

"Great idea.", the dark-haired guy nodded in agreement. "We could go out for a ride on Saturday and bring the kids with us. What do you say?"

"Splendid.", Alex couldn't agree more. They headed back to downtown LA after spending a nice afternoon at the stables. She needed to take care of some errands before she went to pick up her daughter from ballet class, and Matthew just happened to be heading to the same direction.

The brunette really enjoyed the company of his makeshift car passenger. They've met a few months ago at the stable where both of them owned a horse they took out for a ride quite often. Alex rode on her brown mare, Chanson, while Matthew owned a black stallion named Onyx. Matt was a single parent just like her, facing the same issues raising his son as Alex did with Rebecca. So, it was natural for them to bond together, and meet up occasionally outside the riding sessions. Alex liked the man and Rebecca was also took a liking to his son, Timothy. So, there was absolutely nothing to stand in the way of their friendship. And who knows, maybe something else besides being friends? Only time will tell. The only thing she feared was how would Matt react if he would discover her being a metahuman. That was something she never dared to mention to him yet. But sooner the better, she sighed.

As Alex was driving to the nearby bank to get some cash before heading to the supermarket to buy some food and other home necessities, she noticed something unusual. The road was blocked by a squadron of police cars, their sirens crying full volume, and armed cops taking positions around the streetcorner near the bank. A few policemen, equipped with loudspeakers were diverting the incoming traffic. It seemed like trouble. Putting down the car in the nearby street, Alex turned to her passenger, as she decided it's time for some superhero-ish intervention. "Please stay here, Matt. I have some work to do."

"Alex, what are you doing?", the man looked at her with a truly puzzled face.

"Sorry. I'll explain later.", the brunette said, as in haze, she got out of her clothes sans underwear, which made Matt even more puzzled by her apparently very strange behavior, and changed into her supero outfit.

Alex picked up a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment to watch the events near the bank entrance from a safe distance and prepare a plan. The situation was not exactly pleasant. Apparently a group of bank robbers got into the place using a stolen van and after grabbing a nice amount of money, were now preparing to leave. The cops were negiotiating with them from the outside, but it seemed quite useless. It was apparent that the bad guys were ready to walk out of the bank aiming their guns at the police, slamming them down in a surprise attack, and leave in their stolen vehicle. Alex planned to quickly get to the scene of the crime and grab the van, making the robbers' escape unfeasible. And then, help the cops get on them, of course.

The young woman got out of the car, and taking a few steps, concentrated on getting larger. In a few seconds, she grew to gigantic proportions, ending up around 60 feet tall. Looking down at her toy-sized car and the tiny man inside, who was now completely freaked out seeing her suddenly turning Gargantuan, she shook her head, "I guess I'll have a lot of explaining to do." Getting on her way, she hoped to give the villains an unpleasant surprise.

The rubber lining of the heel of Bliss' boot made her footsteps softer than her hurried pace would usually allow. Two of the lights along the ceiling flickered sporadically while Bliss took a corner, moving closer towards a more secure vantage point. Her stylizes battle suit paid homage to the classic Sailor Moon outfit, but with a slightly more combat readied efficiency. Her boots, gloves, and skirt were black. The upper body teal. The visor and ear piece both clear with a tint of black. No bows or overly elaborate ribbons hanging all over the place.

"Wow, Bliss, you gotta see this." Abby's voice peaked into Bliss' ear. The invisible girl made her way through the building to gather reconnaissance for Bliss in a similar outfit except for the pink hue to her suit.

"Try keeping your voice down. It isn't invisible." A small pistol like weapon rested in Bliss' hands. Chambered rounds would collect energy from the telekinesis Bliss could generate, then focus the energy in a single line, making for a non-lethal, but very powerful shot.

"There's this lady. And she's huge!"

"Just keep an eye on where I'm going, okay?" Bliss sent Abby to the video control room, but Abby failed to get into the occupied room, so she settled for making her way to the stairs above the main atrium, staying invisible, and keeping watch over a television monitor broadcasting the outside. "I don't want any surprises."

Across the alleyway watched a problem. Blond hair fell over the pale face of a Korean girl as she watched Bliss make her way through the second floor. A gigantic woman treaded not so gently towards the door. Her planning rarely consisted of long term goals, but hoping to make a fight go longer so she could make off with every penny in the process seemed like the Manhattan Project to Helix. She smirked and hopped off the roof towards the grating of a fire escape. The combination of speed and teleportation took her through the wall and into the bank.

It seemed today wasn't exactly an ordinary day for the cops. They not only needed to handle a bank robbery and prepare to greet the fleeing criminals with gunfire, but then, while standing ready at the bank entrance, they suddenly heard booming footsteps and a saw a colossal shadow hovering over the streetblock. Looking up with a puzzled face, they saw what something which they certainly weren't prepared for: a gigantic young woman was walking towards them, taking steps which were large enough to cross the street in a few seconds. She was trying to walk careful enough not to crush any cars or other other objects on the way. She almost succeeded... accidentally she walked over a bicycle, but promised herself to pay its price back to the unfortunate owner.

"Ma'am... Please stay out of this...", the team leader pointed his loudspeaker at the towering giant, trying to make his order heard loud and clear, while he seemingly weren't exactly sure how to deal with this literally big problem. Alex smiled a little, as she looked down at the guy standing near her feet, about half the size of the Ken doll her daughter owned. She always thought it was a bit funny how people tried to order somebody around who was almost ten times larger than them, but apparently they weren't bothered by the size difference not being in their favor. She felt she was talking to an agressive action figure, but she kept that thought to herself, not wanting the guy's ego to blow up. She knew the cops still had their guns, even if they were so tiny with bullets not bigger than ants, but with enough firepower to injure her. Not lethally or very seriously of course, but still, there was a chance of them giving harm to her with a concentrated attack. She knew the cops did not trust superheroes, and often tried to avoid them sticking their noses into their business, seeing them as a threat just like their supervillain counterparts.

Crouching down a bit, so she could talk to the miniature policeman, Alex tried to explain her motivations and plan to him. "I try to help you. Don't worry. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself.", she smiled, "I pick up their van, cutting their way of escape. Then, when they come out, I help you swapping them. Alright?" The cops were still not convinced of her good intentions and didn't really understand her plan, but nevermind, she thought. They'll soon see what she can do.

With that, the gigantic Alex stepped near the bank entrance (carefully avoiding crushing police people and their vehicles), and picked up the villain's van, which she placed on top of a nearby tall building. Then, returning to the bank entrance, she crouched down at a location where she could slam down easily, yet she stays unobserved from the inside of the bank, and looked at the tiny cops surrounding her. The guy with the loudspeaker now intended his words to the robbers. "Come out, we promise you won't be harmed. Let's discuss this situation out here in the open." Of course, he was never intending to do any 'discussions', and signaled to his people (equipped with bulletproof vests) to keep their guns ready and prepare for confrontation.

"You gotta check this out." Abby poked out from beyond the stairs, still cloaked in invisibility, but not wanting anyone to accidentally step over her in the process of her investigation. "This lady picked up a van. Can Tyuki do that?"

"Yes. And she can also remember what it means to stay incognito." Any direct confrontation would lead to unnecessary threats Bliss needed to avoid. "And not talk during the middle of an infiltration."

"I doubt that. I'm way sneakier than Tyuki and everyone knows it." During the initial run through of the bank, a few charges detonated caused the foundation of the stairwell to shift. The sudden movement of Abby rekidindled those lost feelings of stability, causing a large piece of the well to drop towards the ground, shattering and drawing the attention of the room.

"What was-" Bliss cut herself off as the fog of doubt parted. "Yeah, everyone knows way more about you than you or I would ever want." Bliss picked up her movement, hoping to get to the main atrium of the bank to assist Abby as the eyes of the room turned towards her compromising situation. Even invisible, it would not take a long time to figure out something was out of place.

While outside the bank Alex and the cops were awaiting the bad guys, who were promised not be harmed when they leave the building, inside there were some turmoil. Suddenly, from an unknown reason, a large piece of the starwell fell to the ground, causing the bank robbers as well as their captives to stir up, the former suspecting something going on, the latter starting to panic. "Cops! They're probably already in here!", the leader shouted and began to look around in hidden corners, shooting his machine gun at random points, "Come out now or I will kill these hostages!", he shouted.

Meanwhile, Alex and the police were waiting anxiously to find out what might've happened, but after a while, the head cop (who talked to Alex before on his loudspeaker), decided they need to take action. Apparently something has doomed their plans, and they needed to find out what happened. "What's going on?", he shouted on his loudspeaker in the direction of the bank, "Come out at once or we'll use force to purge you out!" Suddenly, they heard a voice shouting outside, "Don't lie! We know you're already in here and we'll kill the hostages if you don't leave us alone! I give you two minutes!"

Having no other choice, the policeman ordered his people to siege the building. As they were getting ready with their guns and bulletproof vests, he turned to the gigantic woman, who was still there, apparently much to his annoyance. "Please, ma'am! Let us do our job.", he spoke up via his loudspeaker. Still, he looked like an angry Ken doll from Alex's perspective. "As I said, I can help you. Please, let me do my job."

Abby rubbed her head. Then her knee. Then her back. She really hoped the blonde joke about the girl having a broken finger could be true, otherwise it meant falling down a stairwell did a lot of damage to her. "Oh, hey-" The yelling back and forth between police and robbers did contain a great deal of hostilities. None of which Abby wanted to be bestowed onto the hostages- and of course not to herself. "These hostage situations are really tough to deal with. You would think being invisible would be enough." Abby put her hands up and announced herself. She only provided lookout, and Bliss would be best suited to deal with the hands on aspects of this situation. "So, I'm not the police, so no one needs to get shot. I'm just an invisible girl who isn't all that invisible right now."



"Hey, you." A slender arm with a glove running up to its elbow thwarted Bliss from moving onward down the hall. A blond woman with a Cheshire smile looked Bliss up and down. "Hey, you seem like you have some powers to you."

Bliss thought about her next word, but nothing materialized. The long gap read out perfectly to Camille. "I'm busy right now. So, are you like-"

"Yeah. I'm a hero." Camille's smile grew through her broken English. "I'm Helix. Big in Korea."

The arm before her blocked her vision, but did not drown out the sound of the yelling in the entrance. "So, coming to California would make for- listen, I'm going to deal with one of my team members being incompetent, so why don't you just let me-"

"Telekinesis seems fun."

Bliss put her hand on Camille's arm to try to push past it. "How do you. What?"

Camille kept her arm straight as her smile grew larger.



Camille took her teleportation to the outside of the building. The police seemed on edge, but the giant woman interested Camille the most. "Don't storm bank." A trail of small trash and newspapers floated in the air after Camille made her speedy entrance. "Too many men. Too many other people." After her fabricated recon to the police, she turned her attention to the large woman. "You and me go in. I am- telekinetic." She bowed in her suit and smiled big. "After you."