(OOC: For Iris to begin only.)

(OOC: Preceeded by "Central Park -> Lost without Direction")


Iris cringed inwardly at the blows Nail sent into the red man's face and groin, just before taking off in the opposite direction. Her dismay grew as the giant gave chase, seeming unfazed by the attack. She wasn't sure splitting up was a good idea, but now she had no choice.

Her attention focused on the second man in front of her. Her first instinct was to run, as Nail had, but something told her that she shouldn't turn her back on this one. Maybe it was from watching too many anime show, but she felt it was the quiet ones that were always the most dangerous.

"What do want with us?" A dumb question she didn't expect an answer to. But she was loathe to do anything until she knew what he could do. Of course, by the time she figured that out, it might be too late.

She continued to step backward as she spoke.

<"Ooooh, this is NOT going to end well.....">, she told herself.

An eyebrow raised from the blows Abyss received. Nerves twitched to attack the man, but just as quick, a counter order was sent to his muscles to stay. <He can handle himself.> Keeping his eye on the girl in front of him, he steped forward as she stepped back.

"What do you want with us?"

Quickly he covered the distance between himself and the girl, which wasn't far as she had nearly backed into a tree. Lightly, he put his hand up touching her cheek with his fingers. He completely ignored the frost that seemed to have collected on her. Leaning close to her he spoke softly, "What if I just wanted to bring you with me?" His face was less than an inch from hers, while his other hand was on the small of her back.

<"How did he do that??"> She hadn't even blinked before suddenly the man was right in front of her. She tried to back away, and felt his hand on her back, then the other on her face. Now that was just WAY too close for comfort. And his statement didn't help either.

"S-sorry, I have other places to be." The stutter definately came from fear; she'd heard umpteen stories of women in New York being raped and left for dead in back alleys. Coming from a rural town as she did, she was more likely to believe them than a native might. But fear or not, she was not about to let it happen to her without a fight.

She put up both hands and tried to push him away.

Kaz laughed at the girl, as he let go of her and stepped back a bit. He hadn't even noticed her trying to push him away. <She may be a mutant but she's got no strength at all.> Holding out his hand, palm up, "Are you scared?" Touching his forhead with his hand, he sighed, "I show a bit of power and you cower like a dog." Lowering his hand a bit he looked at her, fixing her with a glare, "No, scrap that, you cower like a HUMAN!" His voice raised with the last word, "Dogs at least FIGHT BACK!"

He moved beside her and grabbed one of the blades in the sheath. With one he sliced the tree behind her, right above her head. Jumping, he spun in the air and kicked the top half. Bark spintered and cracked from the impact before it went flying, crashing into another tree and snapping in two. Landing behind her, he grabbed her shoulder and spun her, "You're a MUTANT! So act like one!" Placing a hand on her chest, he shoved her back. Not with his full force but enough to make her stumble back a few steps. Clenching his teeth as he spoke in a near growl, saying each word with great intensity and clearity, "Fight back."

The demonstration made it clear he was both fast and strong. Very fast, and very strong. The coward taunt didn’t really register in her mind. Her breath was coming fast, creating an odd fog that surrounded her whole body. It was obvious she was scared. At least, until he pushed her. At that point the adrenaline kicked in full blast.

"Fight back.”

“If you insist!”

The second he touched her the fog solidified into a wall of ice, and shot outward towards him with the force and speed of a bullet. A second wall followed the first within seconds. Even as she stumbled, the ground beneath her hardened and froze over in a thin layer of ice, extending outward and beyond where they stood, fifteen feet or so. A small pillar formed behind her, keeping her from losing her balance.

Her first reaction was to go on the defensive; in response the pillar continued to grow up and around, until she was surrounded by a four-inch thick dome. Spikes stuck out from the sides, making it look like some weird ice cactus, thick enough to keep out another attack. She hoped. Unlike normal ice, it was completely clear of flaws, so she could see everything that was going on around her. But as she looked around in the growing darkness her anxiety level went up several notches.

The first wall came hard and fast, almost too fast. If his hands hadn't already been up from pushing the girl he never would have gotten a guard up in time. His arms were crossed in front of his face to guard against being struck by the ice. Both hands were clenched into fists, one still holding the blade which had been struck into the wall of ice by the force exerted against him. He dug his heels into the ground to get traction. It didn't help at first due to the ice that suddenly covered the ground. This nearly made him topple backwards until he adjusted his stance and placed one leg behind him as he leaned forward.

As soon as he felt dirt under his heel he kicked off the ground and jumped into the air. Landing in a tree a bit of a distance away from the girl and her icedome. He felt something warm on his chin. Reaching up he touched his chin with the back of his hand. Looking down he saw bright crimson. A wicked grin crossed his face. <Now that's what I'm talking about!> Though she drew first blood, he wouldn't let the blood lust overtake him. Sarrus was glad Kaz gave the girl a chance. Normally Sarrus can't stand weak mutants. It was Kaz who held back the blade from slashing through her neck. He called out, the tone of his voice as cold as the ice surrounding the girl, "Very good. But how long can you hold out? You're the one with the obvious power. Can you afford to just sit there? The authorities will come along eventually. Just because you're a mutant, they'll asume you've caused a lot of damage and trouble and take you away. I can wait all day, can you..." Sarrus used his speed to jump from tree to tree at extreme speeds so the girl wouldn't know where he actually was. He hoped she would fall for his quickly thought up plan.

Iris shuddered. He was right. She had a hour, maybe. Then she would be a sitting target. <“No,”> she corrected herself. <“You’re already a sitting target. You’ll probably be dead if you don’t do something.”>

Not that she had many options. Forget outrunning him. She probably wouldn’t get more than a step before he caught her. She couldn’t even see him anymore, so there was little chance of her hitting him with a dagger, despite her aim. For that matter he could probably dodge a barrage of daggers. She couldn’t move without leaving the ice dome. He was armed with at least one knife, which she doubted she could dodge if he threw it. And if by some chance she did dodge one blade, was there another waiting in the wings? And if by some miracle she got to her car in one piece, what was to stop him from coming after her? And where would she go? There was no way she could lead him back to the mansion. And she refused to even consider what would happen if the police got involved.

She shuddered again, and clenched her fists. She had no choice. She had to stand her ground and fight. Maybe, if she could slow him down a bit, just maybe then she’d have a chance. First things first; she had to find him.

She stood in the center of the dome and closed her eyes. Adrenaline and fear raced through her system, making it hard to focus. She held out her arms. The dome shrunk in size slightly, until she could place both hands, palms out, on the walls. The world around her suddenly became louder as the ice amplified every sound. It took a full minute for her to filter out the normal sounds and ignore them.

A faint whooshing sound reached her ears, like the rustle of a breeze through the leaves. He was in the trees, circling her, like a vulture circles a soon-to-be-meal.

She shook away the mental image and opened her eyes. His speed had given her the glimmer of an idea, if her body had enough energy to go through with it. The park was well taken care of, and trees surrounded the area thickly. There were a few benches scattered here and there, but no light poles nearby.

She took a deep, shaky breath, and again closed her eyes. The spikes lining her dome began to change shape, flattening, thinning and rounding out, until they became more like the blades of a scythe. The dome shuddered. In an instant the blades began to shoot out and away. When one left, another formed to take its place. The barrage pelted the trees and benches, shredding them into splinters. She wasn’t aiming for anything; just getting rid of everything. As the barrage continued, below her feet the ground continued to freeze over. The ice layer extended further out, covering both ground and debris.

It took quite a bit of concentration and strength to accomplish both feats, and the strain began to show. Instead of sweat, frost collected on her face and neck with the effort. And, although she didn’t realize it, as the ice below her spread out, the ice above her was thinning out. By the time she collapsed, chest heaving, her dome had thinned to a mere two inches thick.

But she’d accomplished her goal; the area around her was clear of anything he could jump into or off of. And the ‘black ice’ on the ground would ensure he’d have no traction when he did land.

A small smile crossed her face. “There,” she murmured aloud in between gasps. “Let’s see you...run on that...Speed Demon.”

With his back asgainst a tree he faced away from the girl. He looked up and checked the angle of light that was reaching him before he moved his place over to the side of the tree. Making sure the light wouldn't reflect off of it, he used it as a mirror to check what the girl was doing. His eyebrow raised with curriosity as the shape of her dome changed. He watched as the spikes turned into scycles. He sheathed his blade with a smile crossing his face, <Ahh, it's a good idea if you can pull it off. Though you'll bring a lot of unneeded attention here.> Throwing his voice off to the side so she couldn't pinpoint where he was he called to her, "Are you sure you want to do that? You may harm some lowly animal, or even some HUMAN." Not that he cared about either, "Could you live with yourself catching others in the crossfire?"

A moment later the scycles began to fly, <Guess she didn't hear me, heh, no more catching her off guard I guess.> Since he wasn't right next to her, he had time to watch the destruction caused by those scycles. Not all of them flew straight, some twisted off into random directions, others spun and seemed to wrap around objects they hit, while others just sliced through the trees. While watching, he noticed the ice moving further and further from the girl, covering more ground.

"Tch." Mentally he pictured the outcome if he went down to the ground. It would be over the moment he hit the ice. His speed would count for naught, he could probably catch the scycles, but that carried too many risks. He could stomp and pound the ground to break the ice to give himself traction, but that would be futile. She could cover the newly broken ice with new ice, besides even if she didn't, as soon as he moved forward towards her, he'd have to break more ice, leaving him completely open to attack.

His body lurched away from the tree he stood behind just as one of the blades of ice came out right where his head was, landing on a tree not too far away. Still in his mind thinking, the reaction was completely reactionary. The mind is free as the body takes care of all movement by itself, another part of his mutation. The top of the tree he was just on toppled over onto the ground. <If the ground doesn't work,> Coming back to himself he looked up into the vast blue sky. Touching his boots, he made sure his hidden daggers were there. He always carried daggers in special slots built into the boots, the slots had a gel-like substance to keep these daggers from going off. <Time to fly.>

Jumping to the tree that that had been cut in half, he crouched, judged the distance to the girl, and launched himself into the air with all the strength he had. The tree splintered and cracked from the force he let loose. Raising fast into the air, he began to cast a large shadow on the ground. As his momentum slowed, his cloak rose up, the shadow on the ground looked as if wings were covering the park. If she looked up, she would look directly into the sun which lay above and behind him. "This ends NOW!"

Grabbing four of the daggers, he launched them at the dome. They flew fast and true. All four impacted the dome, though three of them were carried off by scycles, the force of the impact triggered the blasting cap inside the daggers. Two of the three carried off exploded with the force of a hand grenade, sending shrapnal in all directions as well as destroying the ice they rode on, the third went off in a blade of liquid fire setting fire to anything it touched.

Only one dagger stuck to the dome, he only needed this one. The dagger went off in a burst of flame, the heat created had been compared to the heat of a dragon's breath. Most of the liquid fire shot out accross the side of the dome, eating it away, a bit of it blasted down inside the dome, melting away the ice inside. Falling towards the dome with massive speed, he was halfway there when his daggers went off. Fire surrounded the girl and what was left of her ice dome. Twisting, so he wouldn't do a faceplant into the ground and kill himself, he landed next to the girl as she lay on the ground, her chest heaving. In one fluid motion he turned her over, he picked her up into his arms and lept away from the fire.

When he found a safe spot away from where their battle took place, he set her down. Reaching inside his shirt, into a hidden pocket, he pulled out a pouch of thick leather. Opening it, he reached in and grabbed some of the pouder. The girls' closthes were on fire in some places, eating away her pants and shirt. Putting the powder on those places he spread it around and patted it down, snuffing the fire out. Checking her over again, he looked at her hair, some of it seemed to have been smoldering, but not on fire anymore. The hair had been pressed against his clothes completely, his close were fire resistant so they wouldn't catch fire, that is what put the fire on her hair out.

Sitting her up, he looked at her face, moving hair from it, he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," he lifted her into his arms again, "For proving me wrong about you." Looking down at her for a moment before he began his trip back to the Sanctuary. "If you're still awake, I'd like to know your name. And I'll give you mine. Least I can do for having fun with me." He smiled as he sped down the streets.

An attack from above was the last thing Iris expected, and she never saw it coming until it was too late. And in her present form fire was the one thing she had no defense against, especially since she was already tired. Fully expecting the explosion and fire to be the end of her, at first she didn't notice him moving her. Frost began to form in various spots to numb the burns.

<"Why is he helping me?"> Her dazed mind couldn't quite get around that fact. And her body refused to move as he picked her up again.

"If you're still awake, I'd like to know your name. And I'll give you mine. Least I can do for having fun with me."[/i]

<"Fun? Is that what you call it?"> she wondered silently. Still, he hadn't killed her. Yet. Wether that was a good thing or not, she hadn't a clue. But as long as she had her life, there was a chance for a rematch.

"Iris." The adrenaline had faded, leaving her voice hoarse and her body limp with exhaustion. She looked up at his face. He was bleeding, just a little. Still under the ice gem's influence, she managed one last comment. "Sorry 'bout that."

The gem deactivated, reappearing below her shoulder blade, and her hair washed back to blonde. Then her world went black.[/color]