Jessica "Jesse" Williams's Story

"Aaaand there we go. Give em hell, boys."

Jesse's voice spoke to no one in particular as the malicious trojan ran havok over the Foundation's piss-poor security system. Mercs and overzealous warriors stood at the ready, storming Horizon headquarters as soon as it's defences were down, right under the watching eyes of The 9th Whisperer, streaming live footage from a near-by street camera. Really, it was surprising how vulnerable the city security systems were. Whether it was police station records, the Emperian city cameras, the city's power grid, corporate accounts of big-wig billionaires, or the slightly better but not as good Horizon Foundation security.

Their strength was the fact that they knew they sucked. Hence their backup security, isolated networks, old computers, and paper documents. The foundation still held decent documents in their original network but none of the really good stuff. Hence the raid, to take them down and steal said documents.

As Jesse held a cigarette to her lips, she thought they'd make it out after thirty minutes. After three hours and ten cigs later it the MCF merc team didn't leave alive.

Jesse growled under her breath before taking a deep inhale. While she was inside the Manna Charitable Foundation HQ, she made sure to stay at her office, sit at her multi-monitor computer and respond to the higher ups egg-heads around her had no idea existed. She pulled up a front monitor from the direct sight of Horizon HQ to type at a status report with the failure of the original mission.

Of course that wasn't the only plan. Jesse implanted a second trojan as well, a "sleeper". Well-encrypted so it wouldnt be picked up by anti-virus software and non-malicious so it wouldn't crash the system. While they're busy trying to get rid of the Big Bad First Trojan, tracking it through multiple proxies in China, Russia, the Walmart four blocks away where Jesse is nowhere to be seen, The Sleeper Trojan lays low and quietly funnels info through proxies in ten countries before coming in through the MFC's Virtual Private Network where Jesse collects her info under her internet pseudonym.

Granted it's not perfect, sure the Horizon foundation aren't the best but they're not idiots, especially when the first trojan one was so obvious. There's bound to be some false info in there but that's alright. Not like that could ever cause confusion in their own ranks, especially if it's re-uploaded into personal computers and emailed through their boss' computer which someone could could hack into. Eventually, after they falsely track the first trojan to Walmart, they'll get rid of it, start using the network again and the Sleeper would take any info they typed in.

Not bad for someone who's two weeks in their new job at the MFC.

After detailing plans of sabotage and focusing on future successes, she noticed the complete black figure duck into the alley beside the Horizon HQ on the left monitor. It was odd, wearing black from bear head to toe in the middle of the afternoon. Her head cocked to the right monitor, expecting the figure to come out the other hand, all the more confused.
For about five minutes. Nothing. "This is starting to get shady, She thought half-way in until the figure came out of the alley. She was running but then came to a complete halt and started walking. People got out of her way. City camera after city camera followed her step, difficult as it was. Quality wasn't as much a concern and Jesse could swear she was doing her best to stay just at the peripherals of them.

A stop at a bridge as someone brushed past the mysterious black figure. Tall and skinny in blacks and reds. She made sure to screencap it, and went to one of the phones.

"Jason? I'm gonna send you the feed for the city camera #59 at 3:30:29. Trace the black figure on the right as far as you can and screencap anything suspicious."

"Gotcha Jess."

As soon as she hung up, she looked back to find the mystery figure jumping from the bridge, panicked, Jesse started going through multiple cameras to pick up her position. It wasn't until Camera #130 she got a feed of her again. This was a fucking catalyst, right in her sights, right in blurry shitty city camera. No human could have made a drop like that and walk away good as new, at least not without any tech. It could be one of their people. She had to be sure.

The figure ducked into a tech bar at The Crown, and Jesse got to work again. Internet Cafe's and that sort were the easiest to break into, the problem was all the individual terminals.

"Come on, God, Number 8"
The camera light for the Eighth terminal lit up despite no-one using it. and a perpindular view of the event in question, appeared before her eyes in the monitor's camera. With a resolution that didn't make her eyes bleed, she saw the profile of the figure, resembling a woman in black, armed to the teeth with weapons, throwing something at the monitor of terminal #20.

Pandora. Every moment screencapped, face and all. looking through the screencaps until she could find the right one, she realized, it was a red USB.
Her hands flew over the keyboard, and she found herself at the lit-up camera of Terminal #20's monitor. She broke the display and not the camera atop it.

Jess made sure that both streams were being recorded and left.

I'm going to go deal with some trash." Jesse remarked as she left the office with her laptop in tow. "If anything happens, update me on it!" she said before they could object. She was overstepping the bounds of her "official" job description and getting ready for her new duties.

The red four person pickup truck wasn't exactly brand new, the odd ding here and there, about five years of work put into it. She opened the back and saw her normal stash of supplies in the backseat, under a black blanket. Some C4, grenades, various explosives, spare hardware, more blankets and a simple yet elegant disguise.

-----------

She pulled into the spot close to the tech bar, right in The Crown, dressed up in a "TechGeek" T-shirt and matching cap, remnants from her first job doing tech support and fixing people's computers. Wisps of smoke escaped her mouth and twisted in the air as she figure how to give Horizon their little surprise back.

She fished around for an identitcal red USB, (there was always about six inside her car, when her work cell started ringing, holding it to her ear as she took a knife and started to get busy.

"What's going on?"

"You can't just go out like that! Leave it to the professionals and leave now."

A flick of the knife ripped open the copy-cat USB, leaving Jesse to push a white clay like substance inside amidst the hardware the small toothpick sized detonator pushed into the C4.

"Any reason why?"
"We're spotting some Horizon individuals going in the area right now."

"Perfect." She smiled, as she pushed in the plastic red casing for the USB, coming together with a satisfying click and hanging up. The Dummy explosive USB was ready.

Jesse pushed her through the sidewalk right into the scene of the location. Heading right to the cashier, she casually lied, saying the manager called to have her pick up the broken equipment and the fresh-faced guy let her go. They cleaned up a lot of the glass but she could still see the red of the USB, right at the back of the monitor's case. Wrapping the entire thing, in a black blanket to make sure she didn't get cut, she carried it out, expecting to be stopped by some Horizon bastard. Not ambushed, hell, they might have been evil but they weren't idiotic enough to go guns blazing at a simple computer repair person.

With not much more than a brief surveying of the streets for the mysterious set of eyes that he had just connected with, Jericho relocked his sights on the original matter at hand; the Tech-Bar. Of course, that strange staredown was fresh in his mind, and losing contact with the crew was a bit worrying, but all of that was nothing but guesses and uncertainty. For now, he stuck to possibly finding the real threat, and possibly the ba stars who dared to open fire on him. Who cares if Hunter may possibly be dead by now...
.
...It was time for some detective work.

Jericho eyed up the place briefly, watching the people nearby slowly dissipate back into normality. A few seemed to have been entertained by some sort of spectacle, and a bit of chatter flew by, but other than that, everything was calm out front. Nothing out of the ordinary...except for himself at this point. Jericho wasn't sure what to expect, but it was certainly more than this.

"Nerd-Haven doesn't seem wildly active...or evil...or interesting."

"Alright...Let's get interrogative."

Jericho began to step towards the doors, only to be backed up by a black square pushing towards him. A worker was carrying out, what one could only assume, to be a busted computer. To him, that was the only suspicious thing so far. And, who knows, someone on the job might have seen something. Jericho leaned backwards on the door, propping it open and letting the repairman out, before finally speaking up.

"Hey, buddy. What happened to the computer? Jericho questioned with a mix of nonchalant curiosity, and totally chalant nosiness.

P A N D O R A

It was up there on the roof that Pandora finally realized her mistake... how could she be so stupid. She had to double check to be sure, reaching under the collar of her suit her fingers fumbled around and returned with nothing. She fell to a squatting position, pushing her hands back through her short hair as she shouted, "FUCK!" She then brought her hands to cup over her mouth and nose as she attempted to keep herself stable. She had 2 options. Continue one without the data or try to go back for it. Either one had many issues and neither one would end well for her. She had already caused many issues that day, and returning to the insurgency empty handed would not go over well... high rank or not. Then if she went back she could possibly retrieve it either walking away successful and unnoticed, not likely, or get chased to hell and back. She knew there was a Trojan in it, but it doesn't mean she could find someone to pay or threaten to hack past it. Someone with more knowledge than her.

Pandora hated making decisions, especially when she didn't have much time to make them. With that her palms moved to push off her knees as she stood upright, taking a deep breath. "Oh god, you're fucking crazy..." speaking under her breath to herself as she cracked her knuckles, then her neck. "One day I'm going to get myself killed." And with that she took off in a sprint towards the edge of the building. Reaching the ledge, she pushed off it with her right foot, jumping over the side of the building, plummeting down the alleyway from the 10 story high rooftop. Landing on her hands and feet in a pre-running position, she used it to her advantage pushing off the stone alleyway heading towards the road.

Skidding to a halt as she neared the road once again, she leaned her back against the adjacent building. Peaking out, Pandora saw that she was on the opposite side of the tech-bar. Lucky direction choice. At least that foundation member wouldn't be looking in this direction for her. Pandora's eyes glanced around quickly until they locked upon the member who was holding open a door for some techy that was taking a computer out of the bar... The one she smashed. Her eyes widened as she saw the small red flash drive sticking out from under the black cover.

Slipping into the crowd, Pandora kept a low profile as she weaved through people coming up behind the males. She didn't really know what she was going to do... How could she even try to get the flash drive without being noticed by either of them. She could try and flirt her way, but she knew that wouldn't work. The one had already seen her and Pandora flirts about as well as Hannibal Lecter. She had 2 options once again, wait for an opportune moment or just go balls to the wall. And with that she took one large breath as she reached down, unholstering her pistol from her right thigh. Bringing the gun up, she locked her arms and aimed straight at the male's hand that held the computer. With her finger on the trigger she shouted, "MOVE!" getting all the civilians to dart out of her way. And just as she had a peak of a clear shot, her finger pulled back on the trigger. With a loud BANG the bullet flew through the air towards the techy's hand.

Just as Jesse pushed through the door, sticking the dummy red usb under her hands the blank blanket, she felt the weight of the door lift, and delighted for the assistance, wore a toothy grin.

The voice, however, caused her to turn her head faster then what she would have done for a normal person, and she paused once she layed her eyes on Jericho. She'd heard the voice and seen the face before, multiple times, always from afar, on a monitor and now here was a catalyst Jericho, right in front of her. She knew bits and pieces, he could create weapons out of light, but to what extent and possibilities Jesse knew far less of.

Face-to-face with an Catalyst. Somehow she expected the encounter to be more bizarre, like standing in front of an alien animal with mannerisms and logic as inhuman as their abilities. He was far too casual, far too lax, far too normal to be the model catalyst Jesse dreamed up of.

She paused for far too long to a rather simple question, staring at Jericho far too long, and snapped out of it.

"I just heard some psycho threw a USB at the computer, broke the whole fucking monitor, and started running."

She shrugged. "Good thing too, need to get paid soon to pay the rent.". She wasn't lying, totally, drawing her words from the good ol college days when she wanted to be independent from her parents.

Jesse, about to walk off, heard something shout and the crying of people nearby and turned her head to face Pandora, holding a gun right at her from across the street. She tried to move but her feet wasn't close enough, and the bullet went right through her left hand, tearing through muscle and tendons, through the monitor, and stuck on the ground of the tech bar.

The pain shot up her hand, arm, and body, unable to hold up the monitor and it crashed onto the ground while the blanket flew off, in more broken pieces then it should be, and Jesse fell, clutching her bloody hand to her stomach in an effort to put pressure on it, staining her shirt and pants. This was definitely the third worst pain she ever had, right under getting stabbed and getting gassed, but it still hurt like fucking hell.

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, GODAMN IT" She cursed through her teeth as she tried to look up.

Two red USB's fell onto the concrete, the dummy explosive one from right under Jesse's hand holding the monitor, and the one that was still stuck in the monitor now sprawled against the floor as well. The explosive dummy was the slightly fattier one, while the real one was the skinnier one but you really needed to see them up close and calm to differentiate the two.

Jericho blinked a few times as silence hung in the air, his question left to float for a moment. He locked eyes with the repairmen, and got a rather familiar look back. The sudden expression of surprise. Stunned with astonishment, the gears in the mind seemed to stall, grinding for a moment before reality sunk back in and knocked them free. When words finally came out, Jericho grinned a bit.

"Psycho, eh? So, I already missed the bastard." Jericho pondered aloud, as he looked at the covered up piece of technology. Sadly, nothing of interest was standing out...except for the sudden realization that he was speaking to a repair-woman. Not an important detail, but it was a detail.

"Yeah, I heard that money is tight all around. I wouldn't know about any of that, though. Anyway, I'm gonna need you to clear out. Horizon Foundation business and all that good shit." He warned, crossing his arms in front of his chest. But, it was just when he spoke, aiming to send the gal on her way, that his gaze shifted. A verbal warning was issued, people began to fan out, but Jericho didn't move as the techy did. From the crowd, a dark figure emerged, flowing out like a shadow with it''s arm extended. Just as the trigger pulled, Jericho saw it...those eyes that made his gut scream with accusation.

The culprit...The hooded-one...

...The Intruder...

Time seemed to snap back as the loud blast sounded, and connected as Jericho swept himself through the open door of the tech-bar, assuming the bullet was meant him. It was the tech-girl who dropped, and the computer smashed down violently. Jericho peered from behind the glass door, feeling his heart begin to race, and smile begin to creep on his face. The kind of smile one imagines on a coyote, stalking with pleasure. Today had finally gone somewhere. With utter disregard for the now injuries civilian, Jericho set his sights.

With his hand reaching down to his hip, Jericho''s hand began to surge with energy, and it crafted quickly with a bright blue glowing, into a handgun. One to match the shooter's, but not nearly as lethal. For now, a few energy-impact rounds. With a sidestep, Jericho dashed back out on the sidewalk, and fired with reckless abandon towards the approaching gunner, sending the bullets of energy popping on the surfaces they struck in an act of surpressing fire.

"Horizon Foundation, fucker!"

P A N D O R A

Just after releasing the trigger, Pandora took no time to linger in place to see if it hit the target. Time was of the essence and regardless if the woman dogged the hit or got injured it would be long enough to make a distraction and get them both off guard. Attempting to close the distance between the woman and herself in the shortest amount of time, Pandora took a quick step before extending her leg out in front of herself, sliding towards the woman. Once reaching her, she shifted into a crouched position, reaching up to grab the woman's good hand before she could attempt to make a move on her. With that, she whispered towards her, "The insurgency would have killed you by tomorrow if you had that on you."

To get herself a few more moments, Pandora raised up her pistol once again, shooting it at the glass door near the male causing it to shatter into shards around him. Then as quickly as possible she swept her free hand across the ground, grabbing both the decoy and the real memory stick as she moved to her feet. "You can thank me later!" She shouted towards the injured woman before hearing an eruption of gun shots explode all around her, thinking quickly Pandora chucked the 2 red sticks up into the air. As she raised her pistol up to aim, a bullet whizzed past her but not without slamming a powerful blow into her left shoulder. The shock catching her off guard, making her miss the mark. Pandora didn't know for sure if one was an explosive or not but she recalled reading up on this particular woman and her knack for explosives so it was a safe guess... and either way, explosive or not she'd rather destroy it then have it return to the foundation or someone else make off with it.

She had planned to shoot them at their highest point, but now the memory sticks descended back towards the ground. Without much of a choice, Pandora aimed her gun once again, and blasted 2 consecutive bullets... One for each stick. As the first made contact fragments of plastic broke out in every direction. But then the second hit, and for a millisecond nothing happened. Then BOOM!!! The explosion sent Pandora flying backwards only to abruptly stopped by a brick wall. The loud bang proceeded the sound of every window on the block shattering, then quickly followed by a loud ringing in Pandora's ears. The sonic boom temporarily robbing her ears of proper hearing as she dropped to the ground.

Pushing up off the ground, and stumbling to her feet, Pandora made her way towards the alley way as quickly as she could in the post explosion daze. Her left arm inert for the time being, she had no choice but to reattach her gun to her thigh as she neared a fire escape. With as much energy as she could muster, Pandora jumped up, grabbing the bottom rung of the ladder with her right hand. Grunting loudly as she struggled to pull herself up high enough, to hook a knee on the ladder. Once getting a little bit of footing she was able to shakily make her way up to the top of the brick building. Tumbling down onto her hands and knees as she reached the rooftop, she slowly rolled over onto her back coughing as she tried to catch her breath. She hadn't realized until she moved her right hand to place pressured on the gun shot wound on her shoulder, that there were small tears in her suit that seeped tiny amounts of blood. Fragments from the explosion caused this no doubt. Pandora needed to continue moving, but the explosion left her dazed and weak.

"Put it down! I swear, I'll fu-"

That was all the banter that Jericho could get out before he was rocked by the blinding force of the USB exploding. For the second time today, he heard the harsh bells of deafness, and for the first time, he felt how painful it was to smack your head on the cement. As his top half was toppled back, his legs went from under him, sending him tumbling a few yards back with a terrible collision with the floor, and a shower of glass shards from the windows. Truly, it was not a good time for anyone involved.

By the time he had peeled himself from the sidewalk and sat upright, he was watching the black figure turn the corner. The ringing was fading still, and Jericho could feel the knot forming on his head, but he was determined to not let this encounter go that easily. He shoved himself to his feet with a grimace plastered over his (a bit from pain, and a bit from rage) and forced his legs to wobble forward.

Of course, before he took off, he glsncrd at the injuries techy, who was now deeming as, 'Not my Problem.'

"Hey...Computer Girl. If you can move....Don't. Stay right...there."

Grunts of pain sounded more akin to the snarls of a rabid dog as Jericho's pace quickened, until he found himself sprinting around the corner, and into the alley. However, as he cut the corner, he watched as the escaping woman pulled herself up a fire escape. As he approached, he tossed out a few curses and jeers until he was staring up at the ladder, poising himself to leap upward and give chase on the rooftops...but, then he paused.

Slowly, that razor sharp grin began to reapear, the sign of Jericho having an idea. He looked down at his hand as he turned his palm upward. From the center, energy once again began to pool, but this time, the glowing blue began to darken, until it was a deep red. That shining energy surged until it took shape into that of a oval. With a wipe of his hand, and a few sparks, Jericho held an old weapon he had once copied; a grenade. Sure, it looked pretty, but what he held packed the punch of the real thing.

"You like explosions? Try this one! " He growled to himself, before over handing the deadly, artificial explosive upward. In an almost perfect arc, the energy grenade fell down onto the roof to Jericho's delight. With that smirk on his face, he knew it was only seconds before that building went under some deconstruction work, Maddox Style.

P A N D O R A

As Pandora was laying there trying to catch her breath she heard the male from before shouting up from the fire escape, "You like explosions? Try this one!" Her eyes widened and without a single moment of hesitation she rolled over then pushed off the ground. As she stood up right she saw the grenade vaulting through the air towards the roof, with a sigh and a roll of her eyes she said to herself "Son of bitch!" With that being said she pivoted on her heels and sprinted faster than she ever had before, running straight at the edge of the roof.

Just as she went to jump off the roof top and try to go towards the adjacent building, the explosive erupted behind her. The blast sent her body flying before she could complete the jump. The only thing Pandora could think to do was tuck her legs up to her chest before wrapping her arms around her knees tightly just before her body slammed into the brick of the other building. The impact made her loose her grip on her legs and sent her body tumbling and flailing towards the ground.

Nearing the ground, Pandora uncontrollably smashed into a dumpster then fell over the edge onto the cold pavement. If it wasn't for being a catalyst, she would have been dead just from colliding with the wall. She shakily pushed her torso up from the ground, coughing up blood as she glanced up above her just to see the building begin to crumble down towards her. "Give me a fucking break!" She saw a broken window to a basement of the building she previous had a fight with. Having no motivation to even get up, Pandora rolled towards the window and then through it, letting her maimed body fall the additional 7 feet to the ground with a thud.

Just as she settled on the ground in the basement of the building, she heard the bricks and debris rain down outside the window, sending a large cloud of dust and smoke in through the window. Pandora laid there on her back, coughing weakly from the dust and most likely several broken ribs. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and muttered, "I should learn to make friends..." Then with a sharp cough she rolled over onto her side, spitting up blood, "...That's not good."

The garbage can next to Lucielle exploded as she screamed in rage, spilling burning trash and smoking garbage across the street. She arrived to her destination, only to find a small crowd gathered over a girl cupping her hand. The girl was wounded. Blood leaked profusely down her arm and pooled around her slightly on the ground.

An easy target, but little bloodshed, fire, or death to account for the sounds of gunfire and explosions she heard on her way over.

Drifting into the crowd, Lucielle slowly burned her way through until she reached the injured girl. A broken computer lied at her feet, but her attire didn't seem to really suit a computer repairman. Perhaps a thief? A vandal? Or a mishap?

Perhaps the girl on the ground knew. Knew where the fun was. Knew where the excitement was.

"Hey, girlie." Lucielle yelled, waiting for the girl to notice her. "Yeah you! Know where those explosions and such came from? Tell me quickly, and I won't kill you."

Not the most elegant of questions, but elegant wasn't Lucielle's style. Lucielle realized she was still waiting for an answer, and deemed it too long. Fire a lighting I her palms, she spoke again. "This motivate you to talk?"

If it wasn't for the shock of pain shooting up her hand she would have clocked the woman in black the moment she picked Jesse up and it took a moment for her words to register. The explosion pushed her back down into the cement, her bloody hand wrapped around the black blanket, her consciousness scattered as she tried to piece together what happened and stunned when she realized.

She knew.

The woman knew that Jesse was the Emperium City Bomber and she knew that Jesse would use the opportunity to eliminate a catalyst but there was limits to that knowledge. If she knew her name, Jesse would have had cops pouring at her condo, if she knew the address, they probably would have taken Jesse out. The woman was a bit of blabbermouth, mouthing off "The Insurgency." and by process of elimination, the man being from Horizon, herself being MCF, Pandora would be the Chaos Insurgency.

Another explosion to her left.

On a different day, if she was still in her little air-conditioned office separated by a computer screen and not shot and bleeding on the sidewalk with her high-school job's uniform, this would have counted as a success.

The fact that her phone kept vibrating to warn her of the catalyst coming her way and the crowd that started to from around her only added to her annoyance and she started to grind her teeth until she realized something was wrong. Jesse looked up when she was called for and threatened but didn't answer, still processing the face, recognizing it in all but that moment when she held that fire in her hand.

The crowd backed off a few more paces.

Jesse remembered seeing her on one of the security cameras when she was tracking Pandora, the insurgent member having stopped in place once crossing paths with this monster. This Catalyst.

The expectation of fear from Jesse was unfounded, having reacted not so dramatically to the girl's powers, but her eyes narrowed, and she sneakily picked a shard of glass from the ground to her good hand as she rose. Her teeth grinding until they drew blood and for but an instant, a blink of an eye, pure unfettered "slam your head into the concrete" hatred for the abomination of the human being in front of her and her inhumane capabilities. As soon as it came, it went, replacing it now a mischievous grin as she calmly pointed with her good hand to her left, using the shard of glass as a pointer.

"You want the freaks in spandax and leather over there." and in a lower voice, still maintaining that steady eye contact, continued. "You should remember the girl at least, after all you did pass her by the bridge twenty minutes ago, and she looked you in the eye, so you should kill her quick before she decides to take your body, which could be any second now or the next year if you're lucky."

She was in no position to take on this beast. Not without her guns, nor explosives, nor element of surprise, all that was in her truck. But that didn't mean Jesse can't point her in the right direction, lie, and set them off to attack and kill each other off like rabid animals so they could leave the rest of humanity the fuck alone.

Lucielle's smile grew. The wounded girl was weak, though she looked rather strong and seemed to hold an air of rebellion around her. But her best trait was her eyes, or rather, what lie within them.

Recognition.

But, recognition was followed by fear, only to be immediately replaced by anger. Hatred. Defience.

The woman before her rose, pointing down the street with a shard of glass. Blood ran down her other hand, and fell to the ground, staining the street. Lucielle couldn't help herself from smiling fondly, not unlike a mother looking upon an accomplished child. Oh, how she reminded her of herself before she was given the power she deserved. Stepping forward, she snaked her way behind her, flames lighting on each hand. She grabbed her shoulders, speaking into her ear.

"Oooh, what was that I saw? You know who I am, don't you? You know what I'm capable of, yet you refuse to run. Who are you? And why so brave? Why so disobedient?"

Jesse scowled to herself once she realized this creature was too focused on herself in particular to pick up on that crucial lie. That nerving smile that stalked her sight brought chills on the back of her neck and her movement caused Jesse to tense up involuntarily yet keep standing strong to prevent that fear from ever showing.

The moment Lucielle started moving in that confident walk, moving out of Jesse's line of sight, she started to brace herself, jumping slightly when she felt hands brace her shoulders, slames coming from her hands but her shoulders, not quite being burned but the heat steadily rising and that slithering voice crawl in her head. Jesse, for all the terror in her, was flattered, in the same way a demon complimenting his prey would.

She chuckled at that, "Why so disobedient?"

Jesse wasn't prey.

In that same low tone of voice Lucielle spoke into her ear, tilting her head so she could see Lucielle's face and so Lucielle could see her shit-eating grin. She was going to be honest.

"I'm the Emperium City Bomber." She said with the pride one might have being named the valedictorian of their Harvard class.


"I also have a very powerful explosive on me, right now. Blast radius of two or three blocks, stolen Horizon Tech, Class A stuff. Fire would set it off but I normally carry a three-sequence detonator."

An anklet with small bars of the explosive covered by the loose ends of her jeans was that such explosive.

"Now it would probably kill, hundreds, thousands of innocent people if it went off here"

A Pause, and that same intense hatred in her eyes returned to a boil, almost crazed, back at Lucielle as she spoke as calmly and clearly as she could.

"But I would personally butcher every man, woman, child and infant in Emperia City and still get a free pass if it meant that I could take any one of you filthy Catalysts down. So, you could either fuck off and live for another day until I find you and blow you to pieces in your sleep or you can try to fight me here and die. I'll get my salvation and you'll freeze in hell."

Jesse cranked her head a couple more millimeters. The grip on the shard of glass tightened. Her voice hushed a little lower, her shoulders now smouldering but slightly turned.


"Or you could try to not set off the bomb with your fire-"
She pulled up her head slightly-


"and I'll bash your brains against the concrete!"

And shot her arm with the glass shard out towards Lucielle's open throat, determined to tear open an artery, and cave her head in when she's down.

During the woman, the bomber's, entire speech, Lucielle's smile only continued to grow. She considered burning the girl alive, detonating the bomber and killing all those people. The fire wouldn't hurt her, but the blast would. For a moment she frowned, as another thought crossed her mind, but she never got a chance to reflect upon it further.

She lept from the girl's reach, but, the girl was true to her strike, and managed to plunge the glass shard into Lucielle's arm. Tearing flesh and muscle as the shard burrowed into her, Lucielle felt a shot of pain course throughout her body. This woman, this wounded woman had actually managed to hurt her. Blood began staining her shoulder, running down her arm. Lucielle jumped back several more paces, noticing how empty the streets were. Leaping back once more, she winced as the glass continued to dig into her skin. Not allowing herself to look weak, she kept up her devilish smile, not letting any other emotion show through.

Her clothes were stained red now, a large, dying star emanating from her shoulder. She couldn't allow this to go on any longer. Pain was not the sign of those in power, they took pain only to lash it out a hundred times over. Lucielle liked this girl, she was nothing but a challenge. She reached over with a finger, dipping it in her blood before bringing it too her lips. It tasted wonderful. She giggled, heating her body up, until her blood began to boil and the glass turned bright orange, contorting and melting down her sweatshirt and onto the ground.

"I like you," Lucielle called out, "You're strong, brave, defiant. You're my favorite toy yet. Unfortunately, you will burn for this. I envy the day you lie before me, begging for mercy as I crush every part of you, before enveloping you in my welcoming flames. But until that day..."

Lucielle held her hands up high, a small cluster of cinders burning in her palms, before plunging them straight down into the street. A cloud of ash and heat exploded throughout the area, covering the entire city block. Lucielle ran straight towards the bomber standing directly before her, caressing her cheek as she leaned in to whisper, "Bye bye, for now, toy."

Within a second, she was gone.