damned_institute | Nightshift 38: Recreational Field

[For Logan, Senna, Reid, Jason and Akihiko. Plz read the lounge post here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned_lounge/1571838.html?mode=reply) before replying ^^.]

More blips were appearing on Ami's monitor. She gritted her teeth. It appeared the two she had just attacked had been injured somewhat but she wasn't sure to what extent.

Keeping an eye on them, she quickly checked the stats of the other patients in the field. Too many. This wouldn't do.

"MERCURY...AQUA...RHAPSODY!" She yelled again, using her liquid lyre to send out five more ice water jets, one towards each patient.

[Strong enough to knock you over (so like a force blast) and with freezing effects. Down time for freezing: 30 mins. Also possiblity of being cut by shards of ice.]

[From further up]

The voice was clearer this time, and unmistakable. It was so strange to hear such fire in the voice of one who previously seemed to be just a shy young girl. But it did allow Logan to pinpoint Ami's exact location in the fog. He didn't have time to contemplate the meaning of the words however, as half a second later his ears were filled with a cacophany of several things slicing through the air at high velocity.

Instinctively, Logan dived to his left, and almost got clear. The ice jet scoured along the full length of his right arm, and the force of it sent him spinning, even as razor shards of ice sliced at his torso. He completed two full horizontal turns before landing heavily on the near-frozen grass. "Ugh!" The wind was knocked out of him, but that wouldn't keep the mutant down for long. He tried to push himself to his feet again, only to find only one side of his body raising. That was when he realised the full extent of Ami's attack. He couldn't feel his right arm at all. It had gone completely numb. Great. Ice powers. He knew there was something more to the girl, and now he had the details. This was going to be...interesting, but not necessarily in a good way.

Mercury realised the two faster patients had already made it over the wall during her distraction. Darn, they are a lot faster than I thought.

Another patient had fled inside, while a boy and a girl were lying on the ground after dodging the attack. After checking the vital signs of the male patient (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/550570.html?thread=45564330#t45564330) who had been hit the hardest, and calling out for him to go inside, she then turned towards where the other, stockier one was standing, using her visor to locate him through the mist.

It appeared her attack had also hit him. Her readings showed much lower body temperature along his right arm than the rest of his body. "You too. Go back to your room."

Using his legs for additional leverage, Logan finally managed to stand upright once more. He squinted with his remaining eye, but still could not make out the girl's slight form within the fog. No matter; he knew exactly where she was now, and from the sound of her voice, she wasn't far. He wouldn't hurt her, or at least, he would try not to hurt her more than necessary, but she needed to be restrained, for her own good as much as anyone else's. Unfortunately that had just become more of a challenge now that he was down to one arm. He attempted to flex his right arm, tried to move it any way he could, but it was no use. It refused to respond, hanging numb and lifeless by his side. And he knew from experience that as soon as the numbness faded, the freezing was going to burn like hell.

The superficial wounds from the shards of ice that came with Ami's attack were already starting to clot, although if he'd been at full strength, they'd be close to fully healed by now. It was still frustrating, but the mutant supposed it could have been worse. Turning slightly so that he was facing what he thought was the exact direction Ami's warning had come from, he called out again. "Ain' goin' nowhere, darlin'." He sounded determined, although part of him suspected he was just being foolish. Still, the Canadian wasn't exactly known for backing down from a confrontation, no matter how badly the odds were stacked against him. "It's me, Logan. Don'cha remember me?" He had remembered Steve when he'd been Landel's puppet for a night, although that hadn't changed a thing in terms of wanting to attack him. And he and Steve did have a lot more history than he had with Ami here. He doubted that trying to talk her down would actually work, but he'd keep at it until there was no other option than to get physical. At the very least, it might be enough to stall her until he could get in closer.

It appeared the man was still able to stand, and apparently determined to stay. She took another moment to check his stats. What was that weird colour showing up on his bone structure? Keeping an eye out for other patients and on him, she pulled out her mini supercomputer and ran a data scan. It took almost no time at all to determine that his bones seemed to be covered with a metal of some sort. Strange. Better be careful - the metal bonding would mean his skeletal structure is much stronger than a normal humans, she thought, pocketing the computer.

She recognised his voice, but she had never told him her "other" identity. Worried that he would reveal it, Mercury decided to play it safe. "I'm sorry, but I don't know who you think I am. I am the Sailor of Wisdom and Justice, Sailor Mercury. My role is to protect the innocent from those tainted by dark forces, like you and the other patients here. I will not allow you to leave until you have been properly healed," she said in a strong voice, taking a defensive stance.

If it wasn't for the pain in his abdomen, Logan probably would have let out a hearty chuckle. So, tha's her codename? Eh, I guess I hear' worse. "Sure ya are, darlin'." He said aloud, the smile evident in his voice as he moved slowly closer. He supposed wisdom sounded about right; the girl was certainly super-smart, but then again, he of all people knew that wisdom and intelligence were far from being the same thing.

At her next comment, he almost stopped, but instead took yet another step forward. "I ain' gonna preten' I ain' been 'tainted by dark forces', bu' tha's all in tha pas'," (well, more accurately, that was in another dimension altogether, but to try and explain that would take more time than the mutant thought he had). Another step closer. "Now I'm like you, 's'my job ta protec' tha innocen', too." He doubted he was being very convincing, but he wanted to keep trying. "Tha' includes you, Miss 'Sailor Mercury'," he paused another second as he thought about the connotations of the name. Was she really a sailor? He might have thought her too young if he hadn't remembered some of the cabin boys on the fishing ships off the coast of Canada in the early 20th Century. Some of them had been even younger than her.

"I ain' tha only 'tainted' one here, girl. Righ' now Landel's gotcha under his spell, pullin' yer strings like a goo' li'l puppet. I know, coz he did it ta me a few nigh's back. 'N' when I woke up tha nex' day, fel' jus' as bad as a goo' person can fer all tha hurtin' I dished ou'. You really wan' tha' ta happen ta you, kid?" Okay, so he wasn't technically a good person, but he had a strong feeling she was, and figured it was as good a tactic as any to try and appeal to her sense of justice as he continued to move to within grabbing range. A few more feet, and he should be able to see her...

Mercury was upset at his condescending tone. What is it about me that people don't believe? I know I'm not as physically strong as the other senshi, but I can still fight...

She noticed him getting closer and quickly moved back. "It doesn't matter what you believe, but I won't let you pass."

She noticed the other boy and the girl had gone over that darn wall. That's it!

"SHINE...AQUA...ILLUSION!" She cried out, shooting out an ice beam to form a wall of sharp ice shards around her to create a defensive barrier. Moving the ice beam up to the institute wall, she kept the blast going for a minute or so, freezing the wall so that no-one could climb over it any more.

Damn. Almos' go' a glimpse o' her, was Logan's first thought as he managed to catch a flicker of blue amongst the haze. She had retreated, that much was obvious. Still shy, huh? He kept moving nonetheless.

'Shine Aqua Illusion'? Was that supposed to be some sort of incantation? Maybe that was how she accessed her power; through spells of some sort, like Dr Strange. The mutant shuddered mentally. He hated magic. Always felt so helpless against it. His experiences with his former mentor Ogun had done a lot towards generating that particular feeling. But he would not back down. The air had gotten colder again, but still he moved forward. Finally, he was able to take full sight of her. It seemed she had taken up a static defense for now, and had surrounded herself with ice. With his claws, or even the knife, Logan was confident he could make pretty short work of her cage, but for now he had neither. All that was left to him for the time being was to just keep on talking.

"I don' wanna pass, Miss Mercury. I ain' go' nowhere ta go. I jus' wanna talk ta ya, try ta help ya." He held his left hand out ahead of him imploringly (the right still refused to move), as if to show he was not a threat.

At least her defensive wall had stopped his advancement. She knew he was close enough to be able to see her, though a little unclearly through the ice and mist.

Apparently he still wasn't leaving. Fine. She hated doing it this way, but sometimes there was no other choice.

"SHINE...AQUA...ILLUSION!" The droplets of ice water spiralled around her before she threw the attack at him.

Ice water, potential to freeze. Freezing down time: 5-10 mins

Whilst the fog was still playing tricks on his eye, Logan was able to catch full sight of the girl through her ice barricade, although not as clearly as he'd have liked. She appeared to be wearing a traditional Japanese schoolgirl outfit. Was that what all the 'sailor' talk was about? Some sort of gimmick? Or just a bad pun? Either way, he had more important things to worry about just now; it seemed that she wasn't listening to him at all, as he'd expected from his own experiences.

The mutant was a fast learner, however; he hadn't lived this long based solely on his healing factor after all. As soon as she opened her mouth again, he knew what was coming. And since his right arm was telling him (quite loudly now) that it was useless to try and block her attack, he did the only thing he could, and dived forward toward the ground, just as she completed her incantation, making sure to lead with the one arm that still worked. He was almost fast enough, too. The jet of ice water that shot out from Mercury's direction burned across his back and down one leg as he hit the ground. Not enough to freeze them solid, but he certainly felt it. There was no numbing sensation this time, just a searing coldness that may as well have been liquid nitrogen coursing across his body. "Gah!" he spat involuntarily, as he lay there heavily for several seconds, desperately trying to work out a way to get through her defenses to subdue her.

She saw him dive to one side as her icy water connected with the lower half of his body. According to her data, he was still okay. She waited in a defensive stance to see what he would do, keeping an eye on the rest of the field.

It burned. Oh, how it burned. But he'd been through worse. From being trapped under a glacier, to being incinerated, there were far worse pains he'd endured than this. The only problem was, this was feeding the beast. Riling it up. Making it mad. He struggled against the urgings, tried to maintain his composure, his humanity. She was still a friend, after all. But it would be so easy to just kill her. No. No more killin' innocents.

Shakily, he got to his feet once more, and forced a smile. He could take this, he knew he'd still be alive tomorrow no matter what. Despite his reduced powers, he was still essentially immortal. And better she take her brainwashed anger out on him than someone more...vulnerable. "Tha' all ya go', darlin'? If yer finished, then mebbe we c'n talk now?" The pain still throbbed all down his back.

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/554969.html?thread=45699801#t45699801)

Toward the back of the rec field, Falis perched on the wall between it and the courtyard. She'd been drawn by the icy fog and her own desire to find some trouble. A bored bounty hunter was never a good thing, especially one with nothing better to do. Visibility was low across the field thanks to the fog, but the ice coating the wall below her was easily noticed. This wasn't anything particularly new to Falis, having encountered a lot of magic in her life, but she was pretty sure this was going to be challenging. No one had talked about an ice user anywhere before.

There were two immediate problems, though. The first was the ice on the inside of the wall. If Falis were to jump down, there was a very good chance she'd slip and fall, losing any shred of surprise. The other problem was that the hunter wasn't sure where the magic beastie creating it was. Both could be taken care of with a simple shift in position.

Carefully, the hunter crept along the wall, her profile low, as she rounded to the back of the rec field, thankfully not too far from where she'd climbed the wall originally. There was a shed only a few feet from the wall, thankfully ice free. As she heard a man with a gruff voice start to talk to whomever, whatever, was being the ice queen, Falis used the sound as cover to make her leap from the wall to the shed.

Landing lightly, making little noise, Falis crept to the apex of the she'd roof. Crouching down, she narrowed her eyes, peering into the icy fog and concentrating on any sound she could pick up on. She knew the layout of the field and this was just one of many times where she'd have to track a mark in the middle of a magical fog. Controlling her breathing so the small cloud it formed was less noticeable, the hunter waited. Soon, something will tell her what she needed to know.

Mercury was surprised that the man was able to stand. She had a recollection of meeting him before. Logan? Is that his name? No matter. He was still a patient, still a threat, and still not returning to his room.

She bristled at his words. "I am not intimidated by you," she said strongly from inside the ice ring.

"Return to your room. I do not want to injure you further, but I will do so if you continue to remain here."

On the fringes of the fog, Mercury registered another blip. Female. Since the female was a decent distance away and Mercury was surrounded by a defensive wall of ice, she focused on the immediate problem of the man in front of her. She would deal with the other patient later.

Apparently, his attempt at communication was falling on deaf ears. But then, he had suspected this would be the case. "You ain' go' no reason ta be intimidated by me, Miss Mercury. I'm yer frien', whether ya choose ta believe tha' or no'." He started to move closer to her again, his left leg dragging slightly. "I ain' returnin' ta m'room, tho'. No' until I know yer no' hurtin' anyone...or yerself." He was almost within reach of her ice cage now. Just one more step...

"Ya c'n injure me as much's ya like, darlin', bu' I ain' stoppin'." Finally, he'd reached her. Drawing back with his good hand, he thrust a punch foward with all the remaining strength he had, hoping to at least crack, if not shatter, her icy barrier.

A loud crack could be heard echoing across the field as Logan punched the ice, and a jagged seam formed straight down the centre of one of Mercury's ice spikes.

She gritted her teeth. Apparently the metal on his bones was a lot harder than she thought. No normal person should have been able to break through the ice.

She had to attack him again before he broke through her wall.

"MERCURY...AQUA...RHAPSODY!" The liquid lyre appeared once more in her hands, firing six icy jets over her defensive wall at him.

In the back of Falis' mind, she registered there was something familiar about the female voice she'd heard, something that nagged at her. Unfortunately, Falis was focused on where her prey was and the female voice brought to the forefront one word - witch.

The hunter had been patient and her patience paid off. The more both the witch and the gruff man talked, the closer she was to honing in on the witch's location. When she heard the ice crack, that was the signal she'd been waiting for. In a flash, Falis had leaped down from the roof of the shed and charged right at where she knew the target was, drawing her katana in the process. Hearing the witch call forth her magic, made it that much easier to adjust her angle.

The jagged icy ring surrounding the figure casting magic with blue sparkles and shit wasn't expected by Falis, but a split second assessment allowed her to gather her strength and vault over the icy wall. Normally, clearing a shoulder high wall like that would be nothing for the famed bounty hunter, but she wasn't quite as strong here as she normally was, so the sharp upper edge of the wall cut a thin line through her pants, drawing blood from the outside of her leg. The cold pain stung, but being just a flesh wound, it didn't stop Falis. Landing inside the ring, the hunter cut a horizontal strike at the witch, intending on taking the bitch's head off in one fell swoop. Then she saw a flash of blue hair and that warning bell that had gone off in her mind earlier blared in full force.

This was Ami - not a witch. Falis barely managed to stop her strike, the sword's blade less than an inch from Ami's head. Eyes wide in shock, Falis' arm trembled from the force needed to stop that strike. Relieved that she'd stopped in time, not taking the moment to analyze why Ami was in a ring of ice wearing a really short blue skirt that showed off her legs beautifully not to mention throwing ice around like a fucking witch, Falis yelled at her in a way only a friend would.

"OI! WHAT THE HELL, AMI?! I JUST ALMOST TOOK YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

The ice attack caught Logan square in the chest, freezing it solid and throwing him on his back. But still, it didn't stop him. It didn't burn yet, but again, he knew it would. Besides, he still had one am and a leg-and-a-half, so he wasn't prepared to stop yet. It took him longer to get to his feet this time, but his sheer force of will drove him ever onward.

Without wasting another second, the mutant punched again, this time smashing the shaft of ice to pieces. Wasting no further time, the mutant shimmied sideways through the narrow gap, just in time to see Falis swing her blade...and stop short. He barely registered Falis' outcry, before launching one of his own at her. "Wha' tha hell ya doin' kid?!? Tha's a frien' o' mine! Can'cha see she's outta her min'?!? Ain' no reason ta kill her! Watcha sel', or I take you down firs'!" He was angry, not feral angry, but very defensive all the same. This was what he was trying to prevent, dammit!

Mercury wasn't prepared for the speed in which the blonde woman moved, and would surely have lost her head if the other hadn't pulled the attack at the last minute.

She jumped back to the far edge of the icy circle, away from both the katana wielding woman and the short, hairy, and by now mostly frozen man who appeared to have, for some reason, jumped to Mercury's defence. Mercury was again surprised by the use of her real name, but the blonde hair and attitude seemed familiar. Alita.... The name swam up in her mind. But she had no time to think about it. They were much too close "SHINE...AQUA...ILLUSION!" She threw the ice water at the pair.

[Icy water, potential to freeze the area which is hit. Freezing down time: 5-10 mins]

Falis started to snarl at the man, clearly as angry as he was, when Ami started speaking. Instantly, the bounty hunter recognized it as an incantation and reacted before the words were fully out of Ami's mouth. She sprung forward, using all the speed this place allowed her, switching her sword from her right hand to her left.

She saw the water coming at her and twisted her body, taking the hit on her left shoulder and upper arm, powering herself forward while her right hand reached out in an attempt to grab a hold of the front of Ami's top where that ridiculous bow met the edge of her collar. The cold seeped deep into the hunter's upper arm and shoulder. She could still move her wrist, so she rotated her sword so it was in a non-threatening position, the unedged side of the blade toward Ami.

"I can fucking see that now, asshole," Falis growled at the man. "If you hadn't fucking noticed, there's this thing here called FOG. Makes it hard to see shit until you;re right up on top of it."

Crimson eyes boring into Ami's, Falis added on, "And she's my friend, too, so don't you dare think I Ain't pissed at myself for not recognizing her earlier. She's usually not the type to show off those legs of hers or cast magic like a witch."

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