Zek slid across the hood of the car and quickly ducked down on the other side of it, just as golfball-sized chunks of ice soared right through the space where his head had been. The ice chunks cracked against the bricks of a building and shattered into bits. They weren't enough to kill anyone - probably - but many did they pack a punch! Zek knew he was gonna have bruises in the morning. His trenchcoat and extra layers hadn't helped too much and the first several salvos he'd taken that even felt like paintballs.

Speaking of paintballs.

There was a break in the hailfire so Zek quickly shot up and twisted around, taking aim with his paintball gun and firing off a couple of controlled bursts before ducking back down behind the car again. It was late in the evening and on the cold side outside, so there weren't a ton of random pedestrians around, but it was still a busy part of the city. Enough so that even Zek had thought twice about simply hurling molotov cocktails and dropping cars on his enemy.

The dude with the hail was Bobby Cool. He wore a white faux-fur jacket that reached his ankles. Under it he was shirtless and wore black leather pants. His chest had clearly been waxed that day and he'd gone overboard on the bronzer. A single gaudy gold chain hung around his neck. The rest of his gold chains were in Zek's pockets.

"You're a dead man!" Bobby Cool shouted as he launched another salvo of ice pellets at Zek's location. Then the angel of attack changed as Bobby started shooting hail in an arc.

"As least I don't look like a a carrot rolled in a lint trap!" Zek shouted back even as he ducked into a forward roll and came up sprinting down an alley, where he ducked behind a dumpster for temporary cover.

Cesca stepped out of the market, a bag in her left hand as she took a breath of the crisp air. It was nice to finally stop and breathe for a moment. Life had gotten busy, but in a good way. She’d worked her way up to head chef at a high end restaurant, gotten her own apartment, complete with two pets, and life was good.

But it was easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of things. She’d forgotten to just enjoy life, and take things in. Such was why she opted to walk to and from the store, dressed in her black leather jacket, a nice silk shirt, slacks, and black tennis shoes. Turning into an alley, she saw a perfectly blank wall. It’d been awhile, but she did conveniently keep a can of spray paint in her purse. Maybe it was still good. Smirking, she shifted her plastic bag of fruit onto her shoulder and shook the paint can.

Then, it was just her and the wall, pierced ears picking up nothing but the hiss of the can, yellow eyes focused on green paint as it jetted onto the wall, slowly forming a snake. And then, right as she added the finishing touches….a stray pellet of ice caught her right in the cheek.

“Ah! What the f–” It was at that moment a familiar figure shouted something, then ducked and rolled behind a dumpster. “Zek?” She said with a raised eyebrow in his direction, the sting in her cheek still slightly lingering. “Long time no see, eh?” I am not drunk enough for this shit…

Zek leaned out from the dumpster and popped off another few rounds of paintballs. There were a few delightful "umphs!" from down the alley and Zek cracked a delighted smile as the projectiles splattered across Bobby Cool's bare chest. "Take that,y ou lame-o snowcone!" Zek hooted.

Then his eyes opened wide as he ducked back behind the dumpster again. A baseball-sized chunk of ice sailed by and crunched against the back wall of the alley.

"Oh hey Maria!" Zek shouted. "Yeah, it's been a minute! How ya doing?" He leaned out but ducked back again as another salvo of ice chunks scattered against the dumpster. "I see you've been keeping up with your art!"

Zek reached behind him and a white ball appeared in his fingerless-glove-clad hand. The ball vanished and became a small portal to Zekworld, specifically the home team's locker room, and more specifically the paint locker. He snagged a water balloon filled with purple paint and golden glitter and pulled it into Dullworld, shutting the the portal, and then hurling it over the dumpster in Bobby Cool's direction.

"Oh what the--" Bobby began but then a loud splattering interrupted him.

Five second later a rain of ice shards began ricocheting off the dumpster as Zek began cackling.

Her cheek stung, though Cesca could honestly say she really didn't expect any less, if their first(and last) meeting had been anything to go by. They "painted the town red," but...it was quite literal, and it was with paint, not even any blood. Ah well; that's just how things go sometimes, she figured.

"Yeah, you could say I'm doing alright," she replied, adding a little signature to her art: a stylized 'M' for Miasma. Before she could converse anymore, Zek did...something that she didn't see because she was busy touching up her snake. But the next thing she knew, ice shards were raining down, forcing her to perform a (rather impressive) forward roll behind the same dumpster.

She sighed, leaning against the dumpster, closing her eyes. "Gotta admit, bud. This is not how I planned spending tonight, but..." Opening her eyes, she suddenly found herself wearing a rather sinister grin, and a gleam flickered in her yellow eyes. First, she pulled a few pieces of gum out of her purse, then peeked into the dumpster, grabbing an old beer bottle as she chewed, looking very much like a punk chipmunk. Holding the bottle in one hand, and the monstrous wad of now chewed gum in the other, she put the bottle to her nose(no way she was putting this thing in her mouth), and pinched the other nostril closed with her thumb. Then, she expelled a cloud of yellow-green gas from her nose into the bottle, and quickly sealed it with the wad of gum.

"I've never done this before but...let's see how it works," she mused, tossing the bottle across the alley to where she hoped their icy nemesis was taking cover. The bottle shattered against the wall, freeing the puff of gas, which....immediately dissipated upon release.

"Well...f***."

Zek returned fire again but got nicked by a few shards of ice before he ducked back behind cover. He spared another glance at Maria's artwork. "Ohh! You've upped your game! I like it!" Then Zek had an idea. "I have an idea! How about we go over to my friend's place? It's kinda like a mansion and there are some beautifully boring walls I'd like to introduce you to!" The mutant manor would look amazing covered in graffiti! And it would probably annoy Captain Icepants to no end! Win-win!

"Never done what before? Ohh!" Zek said as he went to fire again and...a smoking bottle exploded into gas. Zek's eyes widened and the whites of his eyes began shining with golden light while his iris emitted bright blue light. It was the closest he could get to green.

His head whipped 120 degrees so he could stare at Maria with the most delighted grin. "Nice style!" he said. Then he saw the gum chewing. His smile widened more, unnaturally so. "I like you! Can you do that bottle thing again? Here, I have some more."

Zek pulled three empty soda bottles from his trenchcoat pockets and passed them to his comrade-in-harms. His cackling picked upa gain as he leaned around the dumpster to fire off more paintballs.

Cesca smiled devilishly. "Moreso I've found my voice again," she said almost softly. "I've grown roots here now, found a home so...my art can flourish again." At the mention of a mansion with naked walls, the devilish grin grew even wider. "Ballsy...I like it. Count me in~"

She sat against the wall and pondered, as she took the soda bottles and set them in front of her, laying out her other supplies. "Well...my ability is kind of limited, but let's see if we can make it work." She chewed her lip. "Okay, so...maybe if I had a balloon...blow it up, put a small pinhole in it to leak the gas out, then had something I could throw the balloon in, that would release the balloon upon impact? Like some janky tear gas cannister?" she leaned back, one hand idly toying with her hair as she thought. "I never really thought about my powers in this way, honestly. Usually I just get close enough to blow it in their face...." Part of her had to smile; he may have been a tad...energetic, and she normally dealt with him drunk, but Zek really brought out a childish side to her. And to be honest, she kind of liked it.

Maria was rapidly moving up Zek's list of cool people. If she kept this up he might even start inviting her to events instead of just crossing paths with her willy-nilly! It was an honor only a few people were given.

"It's a date!" Zek said, matching her devilish grin tooth for tooth. Ideas began bursting in his brain about what they could do together!

But first things first. Bobby Cool was still attacking. "Oh! Oh oh! OH oh oh oh oh!" Zek hooted as he got an idea. He pulled out a party bag of balloons. "Here, try that with these!" he said, thrusting the bag at her before taking another potshot at Bobby So-Uncool.

There was a momentary lull in hail. Then it seemed that Bobby had also gotten an idea.

Suddenly marble-sized hail started arcing up and over the dumpster.

"Ack!" Zek yelped as he covered his head with his arms.