Fresh air blasted into her face as soon as it was given its first chance, reawakening senses which had dominated during her stay indoors. She had known for quite a while now, and this experience only continued to prove the case, that if it wasn’t that almost all business took place indoors Nox would never set one foot inside the threshold of a building; why would you want to? Inside you always felt trapped, and suffocated, while in the open the only limitations were of your own making. That, in addition to the lack of the sunlight and therefore a constant power supply, were probable at the core of her dislike for indoors, a dislike that built up slowly until it could no longer be ignored, and so she would escape.

She had, as she had predicted, found herself drawn to the roof once more. It hadn’t been so much as a conscience thought, but rather the fruit of her wonderings, her feet had apparently decided where to go. And as she had seen the, by now almost reassuring, ‘authorised personal only’ sign, she had realised sitting on a roof was exactly what was called for. The heavy reinforced door slammed into place, locking the noise and troubles of life behind her. Her desired escape found in all its glory.

Unlike, however, the first time she had come up here, she didn’t sit on the edge before her, but rather walked behind the metal casing that covered the entrance. Up there is not only the highest point, but also if someone came it wouldn’t be obvious I was there, she lightly mused. Having pulled herself up with the aid of a little jump, she stood on the highest point of the labs, and enjoyed the wind tugging at her before laying down. Her spine pressed against the cold metal, her gaze, due to her position, beholding the sky with no obstacles in between, her thoughts drifting - her peace found. The weak winter rays of the sun warmed her bare arms, the heat naturally absorbed by her body, as she lay there, content momentarily while she forgot about the present. For the present of Stalkers and whose captured, of plans and complications, of risk and battles, could wait.

Strolling nonchalantly through the great labyrinth of hallways and passages that were Mondragon labs with his hands slung idly into the pockets of his jacket Zephyrs brow was furrowed in thought as he debated over his present situation. He had taken up his role as a camp guard a little over two months ago and had spent his time becoming a familiar, yet forgettable character around the facility. Such a role swiftly became drenched in monotony however and after the elemental had exhausted the little entertainment available to him by locating and examining the majority of the security features which were employed at the mutant prison he had begun to wish for a change of scenery.

Fortunately, unlike the other mutants at the camp the merc was not forced to spend all of his time behind the looming steel walls of the camp. He was only required to spend forty hours a week within the dreary atmosphere of the concentration camp, otherwise his time was his own. This did not however make his task any more pleasant and so as he was beginning to reach the limits of his patience and with no word from Hunter for over a month Zephyr had chosen to return to the Labs and… discuss, the length of his assignment with the immortal among other things.

However when he had arrived the elemental had found the labs significantly different from what he remembered, gone were the desolate and pristine hallways that had been the unofficial trademark of the facility. Now the place was packed with all manner of refugees and runaways who sought shelter from the registration act. Furthermore it seemed as though his employer had abandon the labs in an effort to overturn the law himself. Such a move made little sense to the elemental because from what he knew Hunter had relatively little political power, and although the man was undoubtedly wealthy there were far too many who hated mutants and approved the new law for the vampires money to be of any real aid.

Lost in thought as he was the merc’s feet led him on a seemingly random journey through interconnected network of hallways, steadily rising in elevation as he wandered along ramp ways and upstairs until he was abruptly dawn out of his thoughts by a sudden breeze and the heavy metallic click of a lock falling into place. Glancing around and taking stock of his environment for the first time Zephyr noted that his travels had brought him outside and onto the roofs of the lab, a barren stretch of space to be sure; littered with vents and cooling units but nothing of real significance.

With a few short steps the elemental was standing on the rooftop ledge gazing down at the metal and concrete structure below him, up here there was no hint of the chaos and disorder which was taking place below. There was simply silence, broken only by the gentle murmur of the wind.

‘I like it.’

Lights played behind her closed eyelids, mimicking the movement of clouds passing over the sun, while her thoughts were idle; in this state Nox contently passed the time. Glad to be a way from both the enforced order of the labs and the turmoil that the last days had been. She was, in other words, simply glad to be away from it all. Click as the door fell into place, her eyebrow arched up in a sign of annoyance; company was not something she wanted, in fact she would go so far to say she wanted exactly the opposite. She knew her much appreciated state wouldn’t last, nothing ever did after all, but that didn’t mean it had to be cut short by some irritating sympathiser, which the labs seemed to be crawling with currently.

To check that her desired wish, which entailed the noise being of her imagination or simply due to wind, wasn’t true, she sent out her awareness. As soon as she focused on the energy around her a human heat signature instantly, and rather garishly, glared before her. She was not pleased. Using up her reserve of patience she waited for a moment hoping that the intruder would leave. Luck, however, was so against her that not only did the intruder remain on, what she perceived to be, her roof, but it walked over to the ledge, and seemed to make itself comfortable.

Her eyes sprung open; this was not going to do. Having made up her mind she twisted and jumped her feet to her hands, therefore springing herself upwards. Her coat, which, though she couldn’t remember doing so, she presumed she must have put on at some point, flicked around her ankles in response to the movement and was aided by the gently tugging of the wind. And so she stood upright, upon the metal oblong that contained the entrance, looking down upon the intruder. His back, however, didn’t seem to give much away, and as far as she could tell he was just another castaway; everyone seemed to be. But what did he want here? She stood staring down upon the intruder, waiting to see his next move before she would make hers. With any luck the roof would be hers once more soon enough.

The abrupt sequence of movement behind him had not gone unnoticed by the elemental. Even if he’d had no inkling of having any company in this particular setting the harsh clang of boots upon metal had effortlessly sliced through the winds gentle murmurs.

The moment the sound had registered in his mind Zephyr’s entire body had tensed, and his perception had instinctively shifted to incorporate his spatial awareness as he dissected the winds movement and swiftly located his target. fixing his attention upon the unknown figure as he waited for any kind of threatening action to accompany the sudden appearance. When none was forthcoming however the merc forced himself to relax, there really hadn’t been any point worrying in the first place; if this individual had wanted to start some type of brawl they would not have attempted to make their presence known in such a way as this one had done. Still this unknown figure undoubtedly wanted something from him else he would have been left alone.

‘Murphy’s law at it’s best’ he thought wryly as he pivoted upon one foot and slowly performed a 180° turn, the action was performed without any hint of his initial tension and made it appear as though the elemental was completely at his ease as he raised his gaze upwards and took in Nox’s figure with an upraised eyebrow.

Dressed almost entirely in black and equipped with a rather dramatic billowing trench coat the woman gave every indication of being a reject from one of the three matrix movies, lacking only a pair tinted sunglasses. Strangely enough her appearance also put him in mind of a black widow, though he couldn’t give a definite reason as to why. Still, this was clearly not an individual who wished to blend into the background and as he ran a critical eye over her wardrobe he found additional support for this theory in the form of slight, yet distinctive bulges underneath the woman’s sleeves; too shallow for a firearm and the wrong size for muscle the odd shapes had just the right dimensions for a knife or some other bladed weapon.

If the woman was armed then that meant she knew how to fight, or at least thought she did, additionally considering where they were it was more than likely the blonde was a mutant which only served to complicate things further. Best to remain polite and inoffensive until he had some kind of idea who he was dealing with.

“Can I help you?” the question was pitched in a tone of innocent curiosity with a slight upwards pull at the corners of his lips. The over all effect worked well to hide the distrustful sequence of thoughts taking place behind the apparently friendly visage.

He turned, seemingly at ease, until he faced her, so that she finally could see who she was dealing with. Her gaze, however, found nothing of interest. With his average build, normal brown hair, and plain attire he seemed to be nothing more than college boy. Great, yet another naïve youth to deal with. She knew she wasn’t much older, yet there seemed to be group of teens at the lab, each of which seemed yet to have lived unprotected from life’s woes. A group, which she was not in any way part of. The figure before her, on the other hand, seemed to fall very nicely into the group.

Sugar coated words of innocence spilled effortlessly from the youth, causing her to grimace inwardly. “Can I help you?”- perhaps the most pathetic phrase ever to have been formed by four words, since it implied this willing to please for the sake of dong so. Her immediate response to his words, therefore, was at first a simple hardening of her glaze as his words grated against her mind. Having gone past her initial displeasure, she then considered them and instantly saw, that yes, there was something he could do to help. Precisely, he could leave her be by removing his presence from the roof, the faster this was done the faster her discontent would finish. It was, to her, a rather simple request, which had a very clear answer.

Wanting, however, to remain within the civil boundaries, she elegantly jumped off the container, crouching as she lading so to absorb the impact, and faced him. Since the consensus was that conversation, short as they may be, should take place face to face on roughly the same level, and peering down, as she had been, did not exactly conform to this. Her hard eyes met his, as she responded in a cold tone: “That’s depends on whether your willing to leave or not.” And so she waited, hoping he would be agreeable and leave, while formulating what she would do if he didn’t.

Zephyr’s friendly mask did not falter in the slightest under the woman’s hardened gaze, his expression only exposing a slight increase in interest as she departed from the block and landed nimbly before him in a crouch, and for a moment the elemental thought she was in fact kneeling, however that illusion was swiftly dispelled as Nox rose smoothly to her feet and proceed to answer his query with a thinly veiled threat.

The thought that this woman was attempting to intimidate him would normally have been enough to elicit a low chuckle from the elementals lips, however not wanting to abandon his façade so soon a subtle shimmer in his azure eyes was the only clue to the merc’s silent laughter. Like most mutants who possessed offensive ability’s he had an assured confidence in his skills which bordered closely on arrogance. Considering some of the company he had kept in the previous year it would take more than a matrix wannabe to inspire any kind of fear in him.

However simply because he was confident did not mean he was foolhardy, Zephyr normally preferred to avoid confrontations where possible, you made fewer enemies and it tended to make people underestimate you. Today though he was somewhat restless, his life for the past few weeks had been less than fulfilling and he had come to the labs with the intention of changing that. Since his initial plan was no longer feasible he needed something to else to focus on, a distraction of sorts, and this women would do nicely.

Creasing his brow slightly the elemental adopted a confused expression which was also reflected in his tone as he replied with the same air of innocence, “Why would I want to leave? It’s far more pleasant up here then it is down in the labs.”

Toying with her should hopefully prove at least mildly entertaining, if not then he could always amuse himself by finding out if she actually knew how to use the knives hidden underneath her coat...

He didn’t take the hint, which boded ill for at least one of them. She had to admit it surprised her somewhat; her first impressions being rarely wrong, and her impression of him had been that he lacked the nerve to stand up for himself. Which, when considered with the latest rabble that over spilled from him, meant the only conclusion available was that either he really was so simple as to understand only surface meaning, or someone was putting on an act. Either way her patience was approaching it limit, which meant that she considered his true nature inconsequential. Getting him to go back inside, on the other hand, was the objective.

While managing to mask her contempt for the irritating ‘do-gooder’ before her, she mused upon his reply, so to formulate an answer that would get her point across. His words not only emphasised his dimness but seemed to be a treason to language; his misunderstanding and then innocence did no justice to the words he corrupted. Then, having decided he was worth no more of her time, she decided she would make it nice and clear one last time. And so, in the most condescending tone she could muster, she spoke: “That is precisely my point, however, you presence rather spoiled the solitude I was enjoying. So, for the last time, let me make this perfectly clear: Leave the roof now.” The last phrase barely covered the strain of restraining her contempt for this naïve youth.

Unconsciously, as soon as she had recognised this task wasn’t going to be easy, her awareness begin to cover her immediate environment. Luckily for her, not only could she feel the hum of wasted energy that came from the various machines beneath her, but also her body had absorbed some the sun’s rays that had been warming her arms. She could feel the slight buzz of having this energy running through her; she was after all in direct contact to the greatest source of electromagnetic radiation – how fortunate. Additional, her stance widened ever so slightly, making it even easier for her to adopt her fighting position if required. Her preparations may end up being unnecessary if he was wise, however, she knew from experience that it was by far wiser to prepare for the worst.

Despite his best efforts Simon could not prevent the twitch of his lips which caused his polite smile to transform briefly into a self-satisfied smirk as he heard the woman’s rather blunt reply. Even though her tone had been unmistakably patronizing the elemental could tell from the blondes choice of words that she was reaching the end of her rope and was struggling to not only control her temper but mask it as well, leading to only partial victories on both fronts from what he could see.

Strangely enough such behavior was eerily similar to the merc’s own conduct when he allowed his irritation to get the better of him; his eyes tended to narrowed almost to slits as he sought to vent his frustration through his gaze as this woman was doing, his responses became short and clipped leaving no doubt to the fact that he was in no mood for conversation and he tended to loom ominously over people if he was able so as to subtly impress upon them the power he had over them.

Sadly his unexpected companion could not quite achieve the final measure for she was several inches shorter than he was, yet in spite of this she was doing a rather good job of looking down her nose at him. Additionally she made up for her slight deficit in the way she had adjusted her stance and therefore her center of gravity, it was by no means a fighting stance, but it left her with very little to do should she wish to adopt one. She was attempting to raise the stakes without committing herself to any course of action, to intimidate him with halfhearted threats. Such behavior was almost embarrassingly easy to interpret; despite her irritation this woman did not want to fight, she simply wanted to be left in peace and was therefore giving him every opportunity to leave. A wasted effort really for the elemental had no intention of abandoning his latest source of amusement.

It was ironic really, if someone had approached him a few months ago and tried to persuade him that he would actually enjoy acting the part of oblivious bystander Zephyr likely would have labeled the unfortunate messenger as moronic and, depending on his mood, placed a bullet in their skull. However much had changed in a few short months; whereas before he would have been too concerned with his dignity and professional appearance to act in anything like the manner he was now the merc had come to realize the value of such a simple deception. People were more open when they believed themselves to be dealing with someone inferior to themselves, they were more inclined to engage in discussion, to answer questions with less suspicion and generally paid him less attention. The fact that his façade happened to be immensely irritating to certain individuals was simply a happy bonus.

Remaining silent for a few moments Zephyr adjusted his features to express disappointment he did not feel and gazed down at the floor while he gathered the scattered spectrum of his thoughts and contrived upon what his response would be, obviously he was somewhat disinclined to acquiesce to her request but he needed his words to support his false aura of innocence…

*

‘Heh, why not?’ He thought with almost childish amusement as he started extending his influence to the air between himself and the blonde, pressurizing it and condensing it, not quite to the point of a solid but certainly enough to impede anything that tried to pass through it because for some reason he doubted the woman would find his response as entertaining as he did. Raising his eyes back to Nox an expression of mirth chased away the faux disappointment on the elemental features.

“Say please.” he replied simply.


--


((OOC: As you probably noticed I kind of cut out the flash back scene. I did because I felt it interrupted the overall flow of the post but since I actually enjoyed writing it I have included it below for your reading pleasure.))


*The merc’s thought process froze as his mind suddenly tore through the vaults of his memory and presented him with an image of a slim young girl roughly 8 years of age possessing smooth blonde hair down to the middle of her back and twinkling blue eyes which were alight with glee. Decked out in what could only be the attire of some expensive private school the child sported a pair of black stockings topped by a mundane charcoal grey skirt underneath the traditional collared shirt. There was a crimson striped tie and crested blazer to go with this rather bland ensemble but both items had been rather carelessly tossed over a chair behind the girl in a minor display of childish rebellion as she improvised a wild dance in the middle of the three room apartment and sang along to the tune of Alice Coopers “Schools Out” which was currently being blasted over the radio.

“Schoooools Out for summer!”

“Schoooools Out for ever!”[/color]

A sudden bang barely managed to echo over the din of 70’s music as a 15 year old Simon slammed open the door of his bedroom and stuck his head out into the hallway that led to the rest of his rather sparse, if expensive, living space.

“Sarah! Turn it down! I’ve still got exams to do next week!”

In response to her siblings rather ill advised command the little girl swung her way over to the radio in kitchen, cranking up the volume and raising her own voice to match before proceeding to utilize her socks as impromptu ice skates as she glided over the kitchen floor, further increasing the absurdity of her song and dance routine.

“Schoooools been blown to Pieces!”[/color]

“Sarah!”

The yell came now with a clear note of frustration and caused the child to giggle as she temporarily reduced the volume of the radio and cried back in an immature singsong voice, “You didn’t say please!”[/color]

In response to this there was only silence as Simon’s brow twitched in annoyance at the ludicrous retort his sister had given him. Please be damned! He was the one who lived here! Hearing the infernal music start up once again he slammed his bedroom door shut with enough force to shake one of the nearby paintings. The young teenager then stormed over to his bed and went down on his hands and knees as he began to rummage in the small space between the floor and mattress before finally emerging with an oversized Super Soaker squirt gun which required the use of both his hands. He shook the weapon slightly and was rewarded with the beautiful sloshing sound which indicated the presence of liquid.

“Someone needs to cool down”[/size] he muttered as he strode out of the room and into the kitchen.

((OOC Why thank you, and congratulations on a wonderful piece of writing))

A smirk traversed his face momentarily before his prior expression returned once more, the whole incidence began and finished in such quick succession that she was dubious to whether it had even occurred. After a momentary silence, however, in which his gazed focused upon the ground before finally raising once more, amusement broke through his masquerade. That was unmistakable. How much of his character was an act she didn’t know, nor did she care to, for the simple matter that he was toying with her was enough. To say the least she was not amused. In fact, you could say it infuriated her, and then you would be much closer to the mark.

She had been patient, she hadn’t acted immediately on instinct, she had tried, but his actions were increasing provoking, and she could not last much longer. A part of her urged her simply to act now, since the sooner she acted the sooner he left, and therefore the sooner she was alone. Another, possibly the echoes of a conscience that had long ago been eradicated, advised her to try reason one last time, for if it worked then he would leave faster. Under the circumstance these echoes were doing rather well to have lasted this long, but their defeat was inevitable.

Then, before she her mind had managed to cast its vote for her internal debate, he uttered two words. Two words that severed the last frail remnant of her patience. The words had catalysed her accumulating anger, the anger brought on by the interruption, by his presence, by his naivety, by his stupidity, by his refusal, by his act, and by his words. Her patience gone and anger unleashed meant that she had long surpassed the point when words sufficed.

For a brief moment silence stretched between them. She knew all too well that she had lost control of her expression, so that contempt shown through clearly, though one rational thought did manage to speak out: she shouldn’t and couldn’t fight like this. She let one breath slowly mingle with the surrounding air, in what could be read as an apparent stress relieving technique. It was in fact, her mind reining in her anger, since emotions could be hazardous at a crucial moment. When she finished, her control had been regained to an extent, and though her eyes were still cold, her expression was empty – she was ready.

Her wrist flicked back and then forward, in that time the blade concealed in her sleeve had been forced up and so allowing her fingers to clasp its hilt. Resulting in the forward motion sending the dagger on its course, which so happened to be his shoulder owing to the fact that though extremely painfully it was not lethal. At least that had been her plan…

The expression on her face was truly priceless; if there ever was such a thing as a Kodak moment then this surely must be one of them. And it had been so easy! To think that such a simple childish masquerade had allowed him such a level of manipulation; it amused and astounded him all at the same time as he waited for the inevitable explosion of fury which was painted on the woman’s features, it was time to see if the temperamental blonde could actually back up her rather mundane threats. If so then good for her; he would put her through her paces and see what she was capable of. If not then well… taunting her had proved entertaining thus far.

As Zephyr waited for the woman to attack though he noticed that something seemed off and he instantly recognized what it was; he shouldn’t have to wait, the expression on his companions face alone was enough to inform the elemental that he had angered her sufficiently to provoke an immediate attack yet she was holding herself back. The merc’s azure eyes lost some of the joviality as they narrowed slightly and noted the slight rise of the woman’s chest as she inhaled and filled her lungs. ‘Someone knows the value of self control’ he thought lightly as he watched the blonde’s expression gradually shift to an impassive mask that was, ironically, all too familiar.

Then, abruptly, the time for observation was over as movement caught his eye and he focused his cobalt orbs upon the woman’s left hand just in time to watch a metallic hilt fall softly into her palm as her arm rose up, the sleeve falling away momentarily to reveal a strangely familiar Rolex watch, however there was little time to ponder this odd discovery as, with a subtle flick of the wrist, the dagger was sent flying towards him.

Had he not been as aware as he was the elemental was in no doubt that the blade would sliced cleanly through the subscapularis muscle just below his shoulder before then going on to embed itself in the bone of his shoulder blades. As it was though he’d had the foresight to set his defenses and as the knife encountered the pressurized wall of air between itself and its target the blade slowed to less than half its former speed as it spent its kinetic energy on struggling through the barrier before it. In that brief time Zephyr became aware of almost every detail of the weapon as it passed through the pressurized air; everything from its size and shape, the design on the handle, even its projected flight path. With such knowledge it was a simple feat for the merc to twist his body out of the projectiles path and let it pass him by, craning his neck as it did so and watching as it sailed off the roof and plummeted to a lower level of the concrete jungle that was the labs rooftops.

‘Well that was disappointing.’ The merc had been hoping for something slightly less mundane than that, if throwing knives were the woman’s only skill then a brief skirmish wasn’t really an opt-, no that wasn’t quite right; he could initiate a brief skirmish but with emphasis on the word brief, there was only so many knives a person could carry after all. The elemental gave a mental shrug; it was time to move on to plan B then and see how many more buttons he could push, maybe, just maybe, she could surprise him.

“You know…” he began naively as he turned back to her and focused his gaze on her limbs, settling once more into his exaggerated simpleton role, “…you should be careful with those, you might hurt someone.”

Her cold eyes hardened with resolve as she watched her knife fall into the embrace of empty air instead of biting into his yielding flesh as planned. She had after all a strange attachment with her blades and wasn’t fond of losing them, which resulted in a single concrete thought standing clear in her mind: He’ll pay for that. Her astonishment as her knife had slowed down had been hided behind her empty masquerade, yet now she had to force the resulting question of how out of the way till later. Having seen her blade lose its speed, she had not been surprised when he then managed to avoid it; even he could mange that. And so now, keeping in mind the abilities he had shown, her mind began to formulate, since evidently blades were not going to hold the solution to this particularly infuriating problem.

It was while in this process that his words interrupted once more. It was, however, the malice that she felt towards his pathetic voice and not the words themselves that surprised her. The revelation was not caused because she didn’t hate a lot of people – she did, the vast majority to be precise - but it was the depth of contempt towards this petty youth; he simply wasn’t worth it. Regardless of the fact she knew she was being provoked, she responded in an utterly unforgiving icy tone: “And you should be careful with that tongue of yours, you might lose it.” She hoped her bitter mockery of his own words would get through to him, though it was but a minor detail, and hoped it wouldn’t simply heighten his entertainment. Either way she intended to make him pay for both the inconvenience caused, and her lost knife before she had to hear any more of his feeble little voice.

Since her senses were already spread out she could act without hesitation, and so immediately after her lips had formed the last word she did so. The simplest way of procuring the energy which she needed, was to take the away the light around her and to store it within her. It was for this reason, and not because she expected the darkness to scare him, that she created a sphere of darkness, with a 5m radius, centred around her. It was an unnatural phenomena, that she knew unnerved some; they could see daylight in front of them yet they couldn’t see they own hand before them. But it was also practical since, as the sun rays entered the semi circle, she absorbed it instantly, giving her a constant energy source. Having done so, she felt the willing energy throb within her and noted that due to the amount of energy her finger tips glowed ever so slightly.

As she casually lifted her right hand, she called into being a little orb of red light, using the restless energy within her, for each of her fingers. Her eyes watched the five orbs as they picked up momentum as they spiralled around each other. Her eyes lifted, locking into his gaze as she sent the orbs into motion – this wasn’t just a light show after all. They flew at him as only light could, growing slightly larger to resemble golf balls in size. Four of them would come to a stop just before him, while the fifth would continue. The four would remain as a visible threat, while the fifth, lowering its course, would go on to hit the back of his hand. As they travelled, she poured more energy into them, in the form of heat, so that the red orb on impact would result in something similar to an instant, and rather severe, burn.

She was confident that whatever he had done to her knife couldn’t be done to the light, since only other electromagnetic waves would affect her attack. In addition, their course could be easily altered if he chose to move, she had, however, yet to meet anything that could move faster than light. It was for these reasons that she believed her plan would succeed, which was why she spoke with a slow menace as the orbs began their flight: “Leave the roof now”. It demanded immediate response or else she would up her game, which, since she could do far more than little burning orbs, would be easy. She, however, hoped he would find it within himself to leave, since the time he was wasting could never be regained, and his newly acquired burn would for awhile serve as sufficient reminder to leave her in peace.

Zephyr’s eyes continued to dance with mirth as he watched the subtle play of emotions flicker over the blonde’s face. The girl’s stoic façade was at least on par with his own if not better, her eyes however told the mercenary everything he needed to know about the tempest of emotions boiling just beneath the surface. The woman was well and truly furious with him and for some peculiar reason the elemental found this amusing beyond measure, and it was proving increasing difficult to maintain his masquerade and prevent what was currently an oblivious, albeit polite grin, from growing into an overbearing smirk.

His lips twitched ever so slightly as the words reached his ears and for a moment the elemental nearly lost control, however he swiftly schooled his features once more and regarded the women with an innocent yet puzzled expression. Threats again? Hadn’t the woman realized she was out of her league? Giving a silent mental shrug Zephyr decided that it mattered little; the blondes clearly anger must have clouded her common sense, ‘All the more fun for-’

A pure obsidian sphere drew abruptly into being around the woman and promptly obscured her from the mercenary’s sight, earning a speculative raised eyebrow from the contract killer. ‘About time,’ he mused as he stared thoughtfully at onyx globe. ‘I was beginning to doubt that she even possessed the gene.’

As he continued to observe the strange sight before him Simon subtlety probed the spheres perimeter and was slightly perplexed to discover that the thing seemed to hold no substance; his weakest air currents drifted through the strange orb with no resistance whatsoever, as though it were not even there. He could still detect the woman’s form as easily as if the globe were not there so… ‘an illusion?’ he pondered as his eyes clouded over slightly, ‘but what would be the point? Even if I couldn’t sense her I’d still know roughly where she is.’

A sudden flash of scarlet erupted from the otherwise ebony sphere and instantly the elementals attention became fixed once more upon the present as his azure eyes cleared and tracked this new oddity which was swiftly revealed to be five crimson orbs, no larger than an everyday golf ball but considerably more mobile as they shot through the air without any apparent regard for the laws of physics and closed in on the merc’s position, passing through the condensed wall of air as if it were no more than… well, you get the idea. The point was that Zephyr was non too pleased to find that he was incapable of influencing something within his own element, still he didn’t let it bother him unduly; the orbs were nothing more than a distraction after all.

At least that was his assumption until one of the bloody things had flashed towards him and charred a good section of skin off the back his hand. The sudden blaze of pain caused his entire body to jerk in shock as he instinctively brought the injured appendage up to his mouth in an attempt to alleviate the burning sensation. Although not terribly effective the action had the unexpected helpful effect of completely muffling out his short string of curses and also bought him a few moments time to concentrate on withholding the prickling sensation behind his eyes which indicated the approach of tears.

Removing the injured limb from the confines of his mouth the elemental made a show of ignoring the blonde’s words as he inspected the damaged area of skin, although he had little experience with burns or pain in general Simon had a general idea of what a severe burn should look like and was therefore somewhat thankful to see that aside from being slightly swollen and red the charred area of skin did not seem overly damaged, although it was still less than comfortable as his pain receptors sent a continuous throbbing ache through his mind.

Turning his attention back to the strange sphere before him Zephyr gazed narrowly at the spot where he knew the woman’s eyes would be, his earlier façade of naivety had been all but completely discarded to be replaced instead with his more customary calculating expression as he considered his next move. He was torn at the moment between two emotions, the first was a moderate level of annoyance and surprise that the woman had actually managed to harm him, the second was an almost academic curiosity about the blondes mutation and how it functioned. Given the current circumstances though he doubted that any of his questions would receive answers, so the diplomatic route wasn’t truly an option.

Taking a moment to glance at his surroundings properly for the first time the merc took in the multiple plateaus of concrete which crowned the top of Mondragon labs. Although in the early days of his employment with Hunter he had occasionally flown to the labs he had always landed several miles away in an effort to conceal his aerial capabilities so he had never truly taken notice of the rooftops layout before now. Looking at it now he observed several features which inspired a myriad of possibilities in his mind, chief among these features was a maze of twisting metallic shafts roughly twenty behind him which he assumed were somehow used for ventilation.

‘That will do nicely’

Offering a mock bow to the obsidian globe the elemental straightened and then leapt nimbly off the edge of the roof directly behind him. Enjoying the sensation of freefall for only a moment the merc than deftly conjured a current of wind beneath his feet to cushion the 10ft drop to the platform as well as propel him towards the lattice of metal work which was goal allowing him to cover an additional twenty or so meters rather swiftly and bringing to stop right in front of the first shaft which he leaned against casually for a moment before swiftly backing away as he found the metals surface to be hot too the touch and for a moment he berated his own ignorance; of course the pipes would be hot, it was still virtually winter after all and the pipes would contain the boiling water which coursed throughout the entire complex and kept the labs warm.

The temperature of the pipes mattered little though, they would still provide suitable cover as long as he was careful and so he commenced with the second part of his hastily concocted plan. Crafting a thin, immobile stream of air between himself and the woman Zephyr pitched his voice appropriately and allowed his words to travel along the unnatural stream.

”Rather sensitive aren’t you? Is it that time of month?” he questioned innocently “You really should calm down; all that stress can’t be healthy for you,” His eyes spotted something glittering in the sunlight to his left and a sudden gale brought it skittering across the concrete to his feet, “I know how about a game of tag? If you win I’ll give you back your knife.”

Without waiting to see what response his words would have the elemental swiftly grasped the fallen blade and ducked inside the maze of heated pipes.

--

((OOC: Sorry for making you wait so long, the first week back at college has been more hectic than I thought it would be what with seeing old friends and chasing down professors and practically begging them to let join their courses and what not.

Anyway I’m going to admit that this post is something of a rush job because I didn’t want to make you wait any longer and so there may be a few errors here and there, additionally just to mention it I’m having Zephyr hide among the pipes in an attempt to mask his heat trail without him knowing it. A cheap move I know but then how successful the move turns out to be is up to you.

Any problems just send me a PM.))

(OOC not a problem)

Satisfaction. It was quite honestly her favourite feeling; that grim satisfaction when you’ve overcome your task, be it a theft, a fight, talking another’s life, or simply causing pain to irritating youth, its what made the whole lifestyle worth it. In illustration of her new fond contentment a small crept into life as he held his sore up to his mouth; he might just have learnt a lesson. Not that Nox was partial to educating today’s youth, but rather that she made a high priority of insuring that those she found irksome would avoid her; it made her life far more pleasant. In the moments that followed as he sorted himself out, she hoped he was just delaying his reaction, but the more realistic part of her recognised the fact that he should have made his retreat by now.

As soon as his now cold gaze tried to penetrate her darkness realisation struck, I’ve underestimate him, it was a thought she rarely had, and that was a mistake she would have to nullify. His previous expression had been wiped away revealing, what she presumed to be, the actor behind the act, whose shrewd expression suggested a far more experienced opponent. Oh well. He was still the same to her – an irritating, though now apparently somewhat competent, youth - and if he wasn’t going to leave she was going to have to use some stronger persuasion techniques. Her thoughts had just undertaken the task of deciding what she would try next when his actions interrupted; he seemed to making a habit of that. She dismissed his bow, mockery was only worsening his case, his acrobatics, on the other hand, were somewhat impressive, and completly unexcpeted. Quite clearly she was now dealing with a different character.

The lack of any, and what would have been welcomed, cracking of bones indicated his safety. So gravity isn’t going to do my work, well then the pleasure will have to be mine. She allowed the glimmering thought that this, somewhat elaborate, exploit was his retreat grow in her mind until his voice, rather unnaturally, reached her and shattered such hopeful ideas. Life was never easy. The first question angered her, the second surprised her; she didn’t think he would stoop that low, and by the time he had said his third phrase she knew full well what this was simply aggravation, that wasn’t, however, to say it still didn’t work. Her smile had vanished, her satisfaction gone, and her expression had hardened once more – this problem ended here. His taunts were followed by a challenge, Tag?, and though in no mood for a game, if it so happened she fulfilled some of the game while hunting that infuriating creature down, then so be it. Tagging, him, however, was not what she had in mind for when she caught him. And she could always retrieve her knife after she was done with him.

Covering the space between her and the ledge within a couple of brisk strides, she considered the situation. Before her a 3 metre drop lead down to another level, whose main feature were the numerous ventilation shafts that snaked around each other to form a labyrinth of metal, which was set back about 20m from her ledge. As soon as she realised the youth was no longer in sight she instinctively sent her awareness, hunting his heat signature down. It was only then to her annoyance she realised, that either by purpose or accident, the entanglement of shafts, which apparently were very warm, conveniently hide any heat signature that entered the maze. The possibility that the deed had been purposeful done disturbed somewhat, but she had to push that back for the time being; questions would be answered alter. So she would to do this the old fashioned way, and trap him. She scanned quickly for the appropriate site, and luckily one became came clear rather quickly. It was a complete dead end surrounded by rather high, and practically solid ‘walls’, perfect. So now all she had to do was guide him there…

Nox was sadly part of the majority of people in this world who weren’t luckily enough to be able to simply fling themselves off walls and remain uninjured, though she did have rather adept scrambling skills. Since she wasn’t comfortable with exposing herself for the moment it would take her to reach the next level, she decided she might as well utilise the sphere of darkness that was still hovering just behind her. But as she gazed at the 100 metres squared level below she realised she could put it to much better use. This was why the lower level was now being engulfed by absolute darkness, whose tendrils spread upwards for about 3metres. It would serve many uses, including hopefully making his navigation much harder, as well as providing her with vast amounts of energy, as constant sunlight was channelled elsewhere.

With a firm grip on the ledge, she lowered herself over, decreasing the distance between the floor and her feet into something she was comfortable drooping to. Having landed softly she patiently made her way towards the labyrinth, calling to her, as she did so, the four orbs that had hung forgotten on the upper level. There were five main plausible entrances, one for her and each of the orbs, controlling all of which she would be able to herd him towards her chosen site. Due to the now vast supplies of energy available, the orbs were able to swell to basketball size, and retain even more heat. Prepared as she was and willing to take on the role of the hunter, she began, stepping within the turmoil of the shafts. Ready or not.

Hidden within the confines of the metallic labyrinth Zephyr remained cautiously tense as he crept steadily deeper into his chosen arena while awaiting some type of response from his opponent above. Truth be told he was not entirely comfortable with his current situation; throughout the entirety of his illustrious, though admittedly short, career he had never come across any form of assault that his mutation could not nullify in some way. The fact that this woman’s own mutation had proven invulnerable to any of his manipulations had forced him to withdraw from the immediate area and implement a more conventional method of defense. Although this was somewhat irritating it did provide the mercenary with an opportunity to recall his knowledge of more conventional tactics from the recesses of his mind, and what he had concluded was as follows:

‘If the odds were unfavorable take every possible opportunity to make them favorable.’

Admittedly this was a rather basic solution but the elemental had always found that the more straightforward a plan happened to be the less likely it was to go astray. The problem with complex strategies was that there were always too many variables, too much delegation and reliance on others and they always attempted to have a plan for every eventuality, which in the merc’s opinion, was absurd. One could never plan for every possible outcome, there would always be a scenario that you had not forseen and therefore to attempt to plan against every occurrence was not only a monumental waste of time, it was also exceedingly arrogant and so Zephyr strove to avoid far sighted strategies and instead utilized his own natural talent for tactics to overcome whatever difficulty’s happened to pass his way.

Returning to the matters at hand though, the elemental had recognized that to continue his stand would have been pure folly, by some freak of chance his opponent had managed to obtain the upper hand for any form of direct confrontation. The obvious resolution to this quandary therefore had been to redraw the “battle lines” as it were and attack using a more indirect method. A form of cover was, consequently, the most straightforward solution to his immediate dilemma, the woman could not hit what she could not see after all.

In hindsight though the elemental realized that his hastily crafted tactic was far from perfect, if his adversary was capable of tracking him beyond sight alone then he could very well have trapped himself inside a metal coffin. There was also the fact that he was not entirely sure how versatile the woman’s mutation was, it was entirely possible that the damn orbs were capable of passing or obliterating his newfound shelter completely. Logic however informed that it was unlikely either of the two would happen, the latter because any type of damage to one of the labs core heating systems would only bring his adversary more unwanted attention, the former because too much time had passed already and if the woman had intended to make such a move she would have surely done it by now.

Then, abruptly, the elemental found himself shrouded in utter darkness and he froze; still far from certain about his opponents abilities the merc was unsure if this new adjustment to the playing field was simply to inconvenience him or some new form of attack; he’d heard that shadow users were not uncommon and from what he’d read there was at least one in Hunters employ. However after several moments passed and nothing untoward had happened to his person the Kabal member allowed a shallow grin to develop on his features. If the blonde was resorting to such measures then it could only mean he had successfully managed to evade her and thus put him put him at an advantage.

Any thoughts of complacency the mercenary may have been entertaining did not last long though, for it was not three steps after he had plunged into the sightless void that he was suddenly struck by an unseen obstacle and a searing pain made itself known across his cranium as he stumbled back with one hand atop his injury and a muttered curse sliding fluently from his lips. ‘What the hell?’ The elemental was not given long to contemplate his silent confusion though, for as the second hand he had set out to steady himself encountered one of the walls of the metallic maze a sense of pain once again flooded down his synapses and into his mind. Jerking his wounded limb back to his body with a silent mental exclamation the merc this time managed to regain his balance without external assistance and simply stood for a moment as he nursed his self afflicted wounds and berated himself for his carelessness. Striding ahead into an unknown environment without any type of guidance was a mistake that could get you killed, as it was he now had two additional burns for his trouble, although hopefully these were not as severe as one he had received moments ago.

Forcing himself to remain motionless Zephyr drew a deep breath and allowed the influx of oxygen to to stabilize his rapidly heartbeat, he was going to have to extend his awareness and in order to do that he needed focus. When his pulse had calmed sufficiently and he was satisfied with his current state of mind the elemental readied himself and plunged into the spectrum of his element, becoming aware once more of the millions upon millions of particles in existence around him as his perception rose to a new plateau. Everything suddenly took on a golden tone as the air made itself known and informed him of its energy and presence. The twisted confines and narrow paths of ventilation shafts became clear as day as he noted the strangely empty areas which existed within his new form of vision. Perhaps most vitally though was his detection of a type of mobile empty space, which as he continued to watch approached one of the many entrances his current hideaway and proceeded slowly inside.

So she had decided had to play, Zephyr’s amusement rose a notch as he tracked the blondes progress within his hideaway. Now he would witness how well the woman could cope when she was at a disadvantage, because make no mistake she had now entered his domain; an arena of his choosing… this would be fun.

“You know, some people might say you were cheating” Simon stated in an amiable yet chiding tone, “or at the very least this would be considered unsportsmanlike behavior.” The words traveled easily throughout the multiple passages of the metallic labyrinth buoyed and distorted somewhat by the air by that carried it as the merc bent the element to his will and made it impossible to distinguish where his voice was coming from. “Fortunately I can still find my way around so it doesn’t really matter, you however are heading for a dead end.”

This was of course far from the truth, the elemental was simply trying to disorient his pursuer and two of the best ways to accomplish this was to either disrupt their sense of direction or give them cause to doubt their own abilities. Zephyr was attempting to accomplish both and although he was doubtful whether he would succeed to on either account any type of response would be worthwhile, and as he waited for his opponent to responds the merc slowly began creeping away from Nox’s position, completely unaware of the crimson orbs which also inhabited the maze.

--

((OOC: A few quick questions for you Nox:

1) Can Nox see within the void she has created?
2) Would Zephyr be able to distinguish one of the orbs if he happened to come across one?
3) What would happen if Zephyr were to light a match? Would he be able to see the flame or feel the heat?

That's about all for now.))

((OOC: First for some answers:

1) She can sense the heat in enough detail to navigate, and if she needed to see detail she could create a small amount of light to allow her to do so.
2) This is more complicated, I don’t think wind can affect light, but with a blast of cold air the heat may transfer from the orb to the air. Though some heat might be retained at the core of the orb.
3) Nox is only channelling the light, so a lit match would still give of heat but you wouldn’t be able to see it.
And secondly I hope you don’t mind the slight God modding at the end, tell me if you do))

To her the twisting metallic world of shafts was one of sensation rather than sight; she could sense and not see the way the vents snaked across each other. Doubling back on themselves, abruptly changing direction, weaving in between one another, these were the pattern that formed the maze, and its was this which she felt. When she had seen the pipes from above they had been inseparable, because their heat signature had merged into one. Down here, on the other hand, among the twisting forest she could distinguish the extreme of heat that indicated a pipe from the wasted heat that the surrounding air stole. And so she could make her way through the metallic jungle without problems.

She approached the end to her entrance passageway and stopped, for now she need to put the orbs into action. Focusing her conscious upon the orbs she directed them to zip several times up and down their entrance passageways, insuring that no one was there, before picking a side entrance for each of them to start with. She knew a simple duck by the youth would prevent detection, yet due to the incredible speed at which they travelled, she had to leave it down to hope that he wouldn’t be able to react that quickly. Unless of course he navigated the entire maze on his hands and knees out of habit, she figured the method was sound, not as sound as she would have preferred but it would have to suffice. Instructing the orbs to ‘check’ their first side passage, and having checked the dead end to her right was clear, she chose to explore the path to left. It may take time, but this methodical procedure was her best option.

Once more his voice found its way to her ears when normally its vibrations should have died long ago, yet even in its extended life his voice was just as grating. Cheating I am? Firstly, because she felt his remark required a response, and secondly because she was intrigued to see whether his little trick would work in reverse, she replied: “How can I cheat if there are no rules? And even disregarding that, talents are there to be used.” Her tone kept its cold unforgiving tone as she spoke to empty makeshift corridor before her. His second comment was luckily more interesting, since firstly it portrayed confidence, which meant he at least sounded as if he was comfortable in the this slumbering darkness – so the hunt will be all the more interesting then – and secondly, because he was clearly trying to unsettle her. When, however, you can sense several cold passages coming off the one you’re walking upon, being told you’re heading for a dead end isn’t all that troubling, in fact it reeks of arrogance.

She continued in this fashion, checking all the off shots to insure she didn’t pass him by, as step by step she approached the heart of the maze. While she walked part of her mind constantly guided the orbs, so that, between all of them, no passageway was left untouched. In this fashion, they would be able to herd him into the chosen dead end, which lay at the far side of the labyrinth. Little did she know, that within one of the main passageways, which an orb was now zipping up and down in, lay an off shot, and in that rather large off shot was the youth. When the orb finished its check, however, it would soon turn its attention to the side passageways….