Ellie Bomber's Story

Looking up at the sign above the door Ellie cannot help but to faintly smile. Were her mother still alive then her parental senses would be tingling about now as her little girl actually considers entering a bar. Ellie can just imagine her mother bull-rushing down the street to snatch her by the ear and drag her back home 'where she belongs'. The thought of her mother doing that actually bolsters Ellie's resolve as she reminds herself that her mother is not alive any more and that she is on her own.
With a deep breath Ellie walks boldly in to the bar and is pleasantly surprised to find that it is not some dirty place reeking of sweat and booze. Sure she can faintly smell the typical B.O. of a gathered mass of bodies as well as what she imagines must be brewing beer but she never imagined that it would be so ... modern. She tries to smile but finds herself frozen in place. So she is here. Now where to?

Trying to keep a confident smile and even more confident posture, Ellie walks away from the door and heads towards the bar as it seems the most logical place to go first. She props herself up on a stool and tries to look relaxed as she leans against the counter.

With sparkling green eyes that her mother always compared to emeralds, Ellie surveys her surroundings. She has not been in Wing City for very long and this is her first time in a bar so she is definitely out of her element. She cannot help but to notice what appears to be some sort of altercation going on between two patrons and finds her nerves on edge at the sight of a gun. Ellie never did like guns despite understanding their practicality in almost any given confrontation. They were just as intimidating as they were effective.

Still, Ellie is wary of stray bullets and keeps herself on edge. Heaven forbid her first time in a bar be ruined by a stray shot.

So focused on the altercation between the two patrons, and a bit more than just nervous as the man is thrown on to the bar a ways down from her, Ellie never saw Markuss approach and so she is suddenly jostled by his, "Ey!"

"Huh?" she cannot help herself from saying when he sits down on her other side and introduces himself. She stares blankly at his hand for a moment as she is unsure of what to do but then she suddenly shakes her head, flapping fiery red hair as she does and accepts the gesture. "Right, sorry. Is it that obvious?"

She removes her hand then and remembers herself and what her mother taught her. "Ellie," she proclaims and then rather proudly, "Ellie Bomber."

She cannot help but to smile not just at the man's dialect but also at his sense of humor. If anyone could appreciate a good joke, especially a pun. Not to mention that truth be told his use of her last name made her goals of staying true to her late father's name a bit of a bonus. Perhaps it would get 'the word around'.

Despite resisting the urge to reach out and comb his hair, Ellie still finds herself struggling to not glance down at his missing limb. She has a curious nature and cannot help but to wonder just what happened to cause him to lose it. Still she manages to keep her eyes locked on his, or at least his face and even replies with a nervous chuckle. "No, no bomb. Well, at least not strapped to my chest. It might have something to do with an explosive personality being a sort of staple in my family."

She eyes his drink a little and then her gaze inevitably slips to his missing limb. Those sparkling greens squeeze shut and dash back up to his face. She stumbles a bit before managing to ask, "So, uhm your accent. Where are you from?"

She cannot help but to chuckle at his dialect and while she is not sure that she knows the true meaning of 'th'quines' she is certain she understands it through context. "Well," she begins, "I s'pose the red hair could mean I'm Irish but I've never been pale and don't burn easily under the sun so I s'pose I have something more in me. But truth be told I'm not too sure. My father died when I was too young to really remember him and my mother spoke little of ancestry and the such."

Drumming her fingers against the counter, Ellie glances up and down the bar and then back down to the drink. She is only 20 years old and is not sure if she could be served but then again neither is she sure if she would even want to try alcohol. He mother never had anything good to say about it unless she was talking about sharing a bottle of wine with her father when they were younger.

"Do you by any chance know how I might get a drink around here?"

Ellie cannot help but to bust out laughing as soon as the word 'technoshyte' comes out of Markuss' mouth and she actually has to wipe at a watery eye. Still, she appreciates his pointing out the holo'menu and she is not actually surprised.

She has virtually no experience with such technology but it is not like she stepped out of the medieval era. Her mother told her stories of city life and of computers. This is not to mention the many books she read during her life of relative solitude.

As she begins to 'type away' at the holo'screen she cannot help but to notice yet another confrontation and this time between two adversaries that seem far more formidable than the others. It seemed that this place was never short of action. Ellie cannot help but to wonder though just how a police officer would attempt to detain never mind arrest a self-proclaimed Prince of Hell.

"Considering the heated action going on around us I am considering taking my drink to go, to be quite honest," she says in a hushed voice but just loud enough for Markuss to hear her.

Ellie chuckles at his description of the bar and she cannot help but to nod in agreement. Even if the events within Gambit's was a little random at least it was not boring. Change, she discovered was rarely boring and almost always sudden.

When her bottle of club soda is delivered Ellie snatches it up and stands up from her stool. She keeps her eyes focused on the continued confrontation between the officer and the demon to make sure they did not draw to close even as she says, "I wouldn't mind at all. Wing City can be just as confusing as this place but likely safer." Then as an after-thought she adds, "Granted we do not fall in to whatever crevice leading to Hell that thing crawled from."

She heads for the door, making sure to take a roundabout path that would lead her away from the cop/demon fight.

After exiting the bar Ellie instinctively heads for the Main Street. She has always felt safer walking this street more than any other so late at night, with or without company. It was not as if she did not know how to defend herself should something happen but, well she sort of did not know how to defend herself.

Training in the genetic gift passed down from her father has always been solitary and she has only ever learned through trial and error. She never had any wise old mentor and it was not like she could summon her father's ghost in order to teach her. Even her mother was only ever able to offer vague details concerning her capabilities.

She twists the cap off of the bottle of club soda and takes a small sip. The fizz made her stomach feel better after being cramped inside the steel walls of Gambit's. At least her first time in the bar was not disastrous.

Ellie takes in a deep breath of the night air and cannot help but to smile. Her green eyes seem to sparkle all the more in the moonlight and her hair truly does look like a living flame bouncing around her face. She had been truly surprised by Wing City when she first came here as it did not paint the picture of stereotypical advanced living all of those old sci-fi books she read had described. She never noticed any oddly shaped buildings or teleportation devices though she did notice that many of the 'residents' seemed as if they had came straight from an Asimov story.

She glances over at Markuss and at last cannot help but to ask, "May I ask you a personal question?" She thinks about it for a moment and then says, "Well, at least one more personal than the one I just asked."

"How did you lose your arm?" she asks quickly. She had to or else she knew she might lose her nerve. She also made it a point to make sure it was when he was walking to the bench so that she did not have to look at him directly as she asked.

Still she feels a little uncomfortable and so she decides to try to add a bit of humor as she has noticed he seems to appreciate such tactics. "Well, I guess I don't mean lose. But, well you know... I mean." She quickly licks her lips as if she is literally trying to untie a knot from her tongue. "I don't mean lose. It's not like you just put it down some place and forgot, huh?"

Then she thinks about it some more. Perhaps he had a prosthetic arm of sorts and he really did lose it? She suddenly begins to feel silly especially as she is standing there in the street while he has seated himself.

She walks over to the bench and sits on the ground on the other side from Markuss, hugging her knees to her chest. She really had no place to judge another person for how they dressed but also she remembers his implication that he did not do so well under the sun. Maybe the same went for the moon or maybe he just did not do well outside at all.

Her own attire could be considered precarious by some but only in the sense that she was a decently attractive lady who chose not to flaunt her body to the world. Her open jacket is brown and covered in what looks precariously like magical runes when in reality they are just senseless designs. Her shirt beneath the jacket is low-cut but not enough that it shows anything of her chest and she chose to wear casual jeans and sneakers for reasons of comfort.

Despite the loss of his arm not pertaining to a mass ninja attack or a battle with a dragon while trying to save some fair maiden, Ellie's eyes widen in shock and horror. She could not possibly imagine the sort of fear one must feel when in the clutches of a creature so much more physically powerful and quite literally capable of tearing a man limb from limb.

However, though she would not admit such a thing, Ellie would not actually be frightened by a bear. With her gift she could very well blast a bear away with just a swipe of her arm. After all it was only a bear. But she remembers when her sister, Cian came home crying as she had been attacked by a wolf that had braved straying so close to their cottage. Although Cian never actually saw them she was certain that the wolf's pack was not so far away.

Cian did not inherit their father's gift as had Ellie. She was only human. When Cian came home bloodied and bruised, Ellie had never been so scared before in her life. Ellie knows that there are other people who have powers along the same power scale as her own and that there are many more whose powers dwarf her's but she has never run in to such a person. She has only faced wildlife and has never had reason to fear animals.

"I can't even imagine," she whispers. "My big sister Cian was once attacked by a wolf. We lived in a small cottage in a forest but wild animals did not frequently approach it as we often had a fire burning. But when Cian came home covered in blood and crying ... I've never been so scared before in my life. I mean, we fought as siblings do but ..."

She just shakes her head in disbelief and then looks up at Markuss. "Are you ... you know. Human?"

She smiles again. She could not help but to smile when he spoke. His dialect was just so damn funny and as Ellie grew up in general solitude she did not have a lot of experience with anything outside of the norm. Well, besides herself. Suddenly though she regrets asking her last question.

Was she human? She could not be sure. Half-human at the very least as she knows that her mother is human but considering her father and the genetic gift he had passed on to his youngest daughter she contemplates whether or not he truly was human. In fact, besides the recent death of her mother and having no more reason to stay home, discovering more about herself and her abilities was why she was here and also trying to figure out just why it was that her mother never wanted her to be recognized as "A Bomber". What sort of bad people did her father associate with that her mother would want to hide from them after his death?

"Human? Well, yeah. Of course," she says with less conviction than she attempted. She suddenly stands up to brush the dust of the road off of her butt. Even growing up in the wilderness Ellie still hated to get her clothes dirty. "But hey, I should get going. A girl's gotta' sleep, yeah?"

Again she cannot help smiling but this time it is not because of his dialect. This man did not seem to be phased by another's awkwardness and seemed genuinely, well genuine. Her mother told her that it was hard to find a genuine person in this world much less a genuine man.

Her face flushes a deep red when he mentions meeting someone normal and she is not sure how she should react to that. In fact she kind of felt like she was deceiving him some how even though claiming to be human on her part would be more out of ignorance if she was not rather than any sort of deception.

Temporary or not she has never been graceful with good-byes and so instead she begins to fish around inside of her pockets. She pulls out what appears to be a crystal and from the looks of it completely worthless. In fact, it looks more like a fancy rock with a hint of blue and purple tones to it.

"'Till next time, eh?" she says as she flicks the crystalline-looking rock with her thumb his way, even tossing in that last 'eh' just for him. Then she is gone, running carefree down the Main Street with her red hair looking like a wild flame in the moonlight.


Not knowing how much longer she is going to be in Wing City she hopes she will run across Markuss again. After all her mother told her about the strange people to be found within Wing City she is pleasantly surprised that the first person to approach her was actually normal.

Wing City. After being here for a few weeks Ellie cannot ever imagine returning to her quiet life in her mother's cottage even if that meant it might bring her back to life. Since she was young she has always felt like a person of action, always inclined to walk along the rocks at the top of a waterfall or to climb the tallest tree she could find. Anything that might give her that feeling of being truly alive. It is how she made up for the fact that her mother would never tell her anything about her father and that she could not tell her anything about the gift he had left her.

It is early morning and as she walks down the sidewalk of the city that is just starting to wake she cannot help but to wonder what Markuss might be doing at this moment. She had met the crippled hunter during her first visit to a bar; Wing City's infamous Gambit's. At least he was human. After all of the stories her mother told her about the city and how many dangerous people inhabited it, she was charmed to find a man who was actually normal.

With a long sigh that is actually half a yawn, Ellie finds a suitable spot at the front of an alley between a bakery and a jewelry store. The jewelry store is not quite open yet but the smell of fresh bread is enough to keep her around. She wouldn't be able to afford any sort of real jewelry anyways.

She takes a small satchel out form her jacket pocket and dumps the contents on the ground next to her foot. They are worthless rocks that appear almost like gems along with various shards of different colored glass; some are likely from beer bottles and the such. Beach glass hunting was something of a hobby of her's and was actually more useful than they appeared.

She begins to move the rocks and glass shards around in to their own little categories that no one may discern but her. Not because it is some sort of complex system of colors or weights or anything like that but just because she organized them according to how much she liked them. There was no rhyme or reason; just taste.

The sun shines on her curling locks and they seem to shine like a mane of fire. Her green eyes sparkle like the sea in the late evening and her smile seems to shine just as bright as she plays with her stones. A shadow darkens that smile though and then a dirty foot kicks her stones. Her brow furrows in frustration and she snaps her gaze up. She is about to yell at the man when she sees that he appears to be nothing but a bum.

"Git gone, girlie. Wolves about. Wolves walk the streets. Git gone, girlie!"

"Are you nuts, this is the city," she tries to exclaim but the old bum is already scuffling down the alley as he continues to mutter about wolves and other such nonsense. She rolls her eyes and gathers her stones and glass. Slipping the pieces back in to her satchel, keeping a few pin shards of glass to shuffle about in her palm, she gets up and purposely walks in the direction the bum had come from. Perhaps all the crazies took his same path and so she hopes that she will not run in to any more.

Ellie practically tosses her gaze over her left shoulder and boy do they widen at the sight of a wolf standing on his hind legs and be damned if words weren't coming out of his mouth as he flapped his lips. Ellie is only 5'4" and weighs as much as a girl her height is expected to. Her features appear soft and even her eyes sparkle with the innocence of a girl only 20 years old.

The fingers of her right hand curl in to her palm to make a fist but not so tight that the glass within will cut her. Not that it would matter though. Her older sister had always teased her for her 'man hands' as her knuckles are gnarled like those of a man and bulge as if she has been bare-knuckle boxing for most of her life. She hasn't. That's just her hands.

"How did you get past the gate?" she snaps with a tone as wicked as the fangs in this wolf's jaws. "I figured the guards would have smelled you walking in. I certainly can."

She will not let Wolf circle her for every time he drew near to her side she would back away and turn with him as to not allow him to have her back. She also makes sure to stay out of arm's reach. He might be able to reach her with that staff in a swipe but she'll hardly let him touch her with those paws. It would be a lie to say that she is not put off by that toothy grin but she manages her composure enough to keep her knees from shaking and to keep from sweating. *A predator can smell your fear, Ellie. Never be afraid or at least never let it know that you are.* The words of her mother comfort her but she is still unnerved by Wolf's advantage in numbers.

"You have but two thugs and you try to recruit a girl so you can take over a town? Meanwhile there are emperors who aspire to take over worlds." Her tone is amused and she actually laughs as she makes her next reply. "You and your dogs would not even be fit to drape my shoulders as fur. Now go away, there is a reason I don't have fleas."

The tips of her fingers press in to her palm as she tries to gauge how many shards of glass are in her hand. Four, maybe five and they are very thin. They will not be very effective offensively but Ellie is not a girl who thinks only in the offensive. She cannot help but to glance briefly down at Wolf's legs and smile.

It is five. She smiles. Even as the top of his staff attempts to lift her chin she smiles. She allows the staff to touch her but it does not move her head nor does Wolf's words move her position. Her fingers keep moving against her palm but now they are doing more than feeling and counting. One of the shards moves against the tip of her index finger and is then positioned just behind her thumb nail.

"It took you how long to earn that staff and yet it will take you no time at all -" her right hand begins to tingle and goosebumps crawl from the very tips of her fingers and up to her wrist. She finishes her sentence with a shock. "to lose it!"

Just then she flicks the shard with her thumb and it quite literally jolts outwards with the faintest sound akin to a fuse being blown. The shard is aimed for his hand holding the staff and if it hits it will shock his hand enough so that it will spasm and the staff will fly out of his to fall on the ground between them. She was also keen enough to hop backwards as she flicked the shard to assure that he cannot jab forward with the staff should her disarming attempt fail.

The wolf had spoken of taking over the town and never has she heard of tyrannic words begetting a just ruler. Yet here he was speaking of violence begetting violence and trying to be nice to her? No, she would not believe it. He had bared his fangs and as far as she is concerned that is the act of a predator with predatory actions in mind.

Turning his back was the worst thing he could do as it gives her time to reach in to her satchel and pull out the largest of its items; a purplish rock similar to that which she had given to Markuss when she first met him. While holding this tightly in her left hand she throws the remaining four shards at Wolf's feet as he departs.

The very moment they hit the ground even before they make a sound each one bursts with cold air. The chilly air however is the least of concerns as each one coats the ground in pure ice of ilk similar to that of a skating rink.

Each shard would create a sheet of ice five feet in diameter designed to force the wolf to slip and fall even if he might manage to dig his claws in. Then Ellie turns and bolts away as she laughs like a girl who just pushed her sister in to a mud pit while wearing her fancy new dress. She grips the larger rock in her hand as she runs almost hoping that they will chase her.

She does not trust this Wolf and he has already made her mad.

[color=purple]She manages a glance backwards just as he jumped after her and for a second time her eyes widen. Her laughing stops and turns in to huffing and puffing as she forces herself to run faster than she has ever ran before. Perhaps she had made a mistake?

In the little time she is given she tries to figure something out. He had slipped just as she planned but he did not fall flat as she had hoped. Then there was the way his arm had moved earlier as if it had no bones. The shock had seemed to have some sort of effect but not exactly as she had desired. She still had more to use in that element. That particular technique was meant to disable but she had others that might possibly restrict his movement altogether. A restriction that would move even with his stretching body so that he could not escape.

The large rock in her hand gives her confidence enough that she could very well perform that but it could also leave her strained. She had done so once before to restrain a bear and the poor creature could only wiggle. Still, if it failed and this creature got its claws on her then she would die.

Now she is sweating and now she is afraid. He would certainly be able to smell her fear now. She makes her decision and prays that it is enough to paralyze him long enough for her to make an escape.

Even as she comes to a sudden stop she is cursing herself for being so bold. It was one of the few traits about her that her mother hadn't admired. She always liked to believe though that her father would have admired it. She wastes no time and even fighting against her momentum she manages to launch herself in to a backwards roll.
Her plan is to watch as her foe leaps over her so that she can launch the rock upwards. The same tingling from before spreads across her hand but this time the goose flesh reaches her shoulder. This gem however does not need to strike its target. When it is but a foot away from the target six tendrils of what can only be described

as electricity spring out yet instead of striking their target they wrap around him and attempt to ensnare him. Should they manage to each tendril would go after one of his limbs while the other two would wrap around his torso and head. As soon this would happen it would be as if the electricity was attracted to the ground and it would instantly slam him in to it. The shock produced would only be akin to that of a shock received from a light socket but the real effect would be paralysis.

He would still be able to move but the tendrils would move with him and is why Ellie hoped that this could get around his queer ability to stretch. The main design is to keep him pinned to the ground as to give her time to run and that is just what she tries to do.

Ellie rolls to her feet but her knees do not support her and she ends up flopping right down on to her butt, leaving her panting like the dog she accused him of being. Just what she had hoped wouldn't happen.