Post by Cerise on Nov 29, 2021 21:52:45 GMT -5
“Well…?” the woman with short, bleached-blond hair asked, tapping her foot impatiently. “I asked you two a question!”
Emmalynn raised her hands up in the air, despite there not being any actual evidence of a weapon produced by this mystery female. Katarina closed her eyes and attempted to concentrate, tap into those powers of premonition that had served her so well in the past – at least, until recently. But, for some reason, she couldn’t see anything – couldn’t get an actual read on this woman. The self-proclaimed home owner narrowed her eyes at Katarina, spotting the several leather-bound journals in her posssessions.
“Thieves…” the woman growled, tendrils of black smoke suddenly emerging from her skin.
In an instant, the woman was gone, no longer where she was mere moments ago. Instead, she had vanished inside a “poof” of smoke, only to suddenly reappear behind Katarina. She grabbed ahold of her brown hair and pulled her backwards, dragging her into the closet with her. Emmalynn turned to assist but by the time she had, the woman was gone again, Katarina left flailing against the wall, swinging wildly at the air.
The woman re-emerged behind Emmalynn, shoving her into her friend, the two colliding and falling to the ground. Katarina gently rolled Emmalynn off of her and rose up to her feet, charging towards this woman but as she dove at her, the plume of smoke appeared once more, resulting in Katarina soaring through and the air, falling harmlessly onto the bed. Katarina brushed the hair from her face as Emmalynn cowered in the closet.
“What in the hell is…?” Emmalynn began to scream, before the woman reemerged behind Katarina. “Kat! Look out!
Katarina turned around, swinging at her assailant as the blonde easily ducked the blow, before lifting her palm upwards, connecting on an open-handed uppercut, launching Katarina up into the air. She felt strangely cold as the dark energy blanketed itself around her, propelling her through the ceiling and onto the roof. Whatever power had allowed her to pass through the structure of the building quickly faded as Katarina slammed down onto the shingles, before rolling down towards the corner. Desperately, she reached out and grabbed ahold of the storm drain, keeping herself from falling to her death. Though the pipes groaned against her weight, they still held firm as Katarina maneuvered back towards the window. Building up moment, she crashed through the glass, surprising the blonde woman, who seemed to be interrogating Emmalynn. Landing on the floor, Katarina snatched up a shard of the broken window as she charged forward, swinging at her attacker, each time the blade came close the woman, she would “blink” back a few feet, barely avoiding the blow. Katrina screamed and leapt into the air, looking to drive the glass shard into her heart but, once more, the blond enveloped her body in a cloud of black mist. The weapon passed through her entire body harmlessly as the woman smiled in response, shoving Katarina backwards while, at the same time, retrieving the blade from her magical aura.
“Kat…!” Emmalynn cried out, but she was too late.
The woman twisted the blade around in her hand and struck forward, shoving the knife into Katarina’s stomach. Katarina had saw the blow coming, did her best to block it, but only managed to grab a hold of the woman’s wrist after the glass shard pierced through her flesh. Katarina lurched, felt the twinge of pain creep around her side, up her spine, and into her brain. The woman appeared to not have derived any pleasure in dealing with these “intruders” but, none-the-less, seemed satisfied that she had dealt with the threat at hand. The blonde went to pull the weapon from Katarina’s stomach but found it embedded deep within. She looked down, amazed to see that in the area that she had struck, a black-hole of aura swirled around the area. Katarina followed the shocked gaze of her assailant down to her side, noticing the absence of blood and guts spilled across the floor.
“H… how?” the blonde finally spoke up, lifting her head and looking into Katarina’s eyes.
Seeing something in them that she suddenly realized, the woman released her grip on the blade and staggered backwards, her feet failing her as she – luckily – found the edge of the bed to break her fall. Katarina casually pulled the blade out of the black nexus inside of her, dropping the glass shard to the ground, her body seeming to return to its original form.
“You…” the blonde stammered, her eyes shifting back and forth as she racked her brain. “Of course… you’re HIS daughter…”
“What?” Katarina responded, lifting her eyebrow curiously. “Whose daughter; what are you talking about?”
“And what was that whole Matrix-type shit?” Emmalynn chimed in, pushing herself up out of the closet, remembering to grab up the journals that had been dropped during the brawl.
“I’m so sorry,” the blonde suddenly blurted out, as if realizing the severity of her errors. “Had I known who you were…”
“What are you talking about!?” Katarina screamed, beginning to get annoyed. “Who are you? How do you KNOW me!?”
The blonde collected herself, her eyes shifting back and forth rapidly as she searched for the proper words so as to properly elaborate on the situation.
“Forgive me,” she finally spoke up. “My name is Locke, I’m a Nomalie.”
“Nomalie?” Emmalynn questioned, not fully understanding.
“Yes,” Locke nodded her head. “We had… many names, most of them very unflattering. My family and I settled on Nomalie…”
“I thought you were all extinct,” Katarina interjected, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
“No, not all of us,” Locke responded, nodding in Katarina’s direction. “Our bloodline, it appears, has endured.”
“What are you talking about?” Katarina scoffed. “I’m not like…”
“Your father was the first of us,” Locke corrected, crossing her arms. “He was known as the ‘Primordial’; he was a great man, a savior, a hero…”
“Yeah, well…” Katarina shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t know… he died before I was even born.”
“Does not matter,” Locke stated matter-of-factly. “You carry his blood in your veins; the same strength – the same power. He was the only other Nomalie I’ve ever seen to do just as you did, to absorb my powers, use it against me.”
“That was…” Katarina tried searching for the words, but she had none. “I don’t even know how I did…”
“You are young, unskilled,” Locke reasoned, hopping off the bed. “But I can help you.”
“Help me… how?” Katarina responded, unsteadily.
“Come,” Locke smiled, reaching out her hand and intertwining her fingers within Katarina’s. “Let me show you!”
Before Katarina could protest, the cloud of smoke emerged and swallowed them hole, pulling them from the bedroom as Emmalynn stood there alone, her jaw practically on the floor.
Cerise continued shifting through the various brown journals on her bed, neither of them getting her closer to the truth that she needed to discover. This was all so frustration and annoying, this whole thing was taking too long. Dressed in only a pair of booty shorts and a tight tank top, Cerise walked over to the window, throwing it open and letting the cold winter winds greet her. Despite its frosty nature, she didn’t quite mind the elements here. For some reason, the air just smelt crisper – cleaner – here.
“Where are you?”
Cerise turned to find the sound of the voice, directing her attention to the TV screen that remained off. As she went to investigate, she knelt down in front of, the reflection of the lens showing her an alternate person.
“You said you’d be here by now,” Blaine spoke up.
“I know,” Cerise fumed, irritated with herself. “Things haven’t really gone according to plan here…”
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold out…” Blaine pleaded. “Please, you have to…”
A knock came at Cerise’s hotel room door, startling her and bringing her to her feet. She quickly glanced down at the TV but the image of her brother was no longer present.
“I didn’t order any room service…!” Cerise called out, slowly edging towards the door.
No verbal response, just more pounding.
“And I have plenty of towels,” Cerise added, her gaze going to the pile that she had stolen off the maid’s cart earlier.
Again, more pounding on the door.
“If this is about that ‘no pets’ policy,” Cerise began, snapping her fingers at the ocelot sleeping in the other bed. “I sometimes snore like a cat… it’s sort of like one of those deviated…”
Cerise tried to get her Spoofy to hide under the bed but the thing simply cast one look at her, rolled its eyes, turned over, and went back to napping.
“Some guard dog you are!” Cerise cursed under her breath as the incessant knocking continued.
Throwing caution to the wind, she finally unlocked the door and flung it open, only to find a professional video camera waiting for her, a red bow wrapped at the top. Thinking nothing out of the ordinary, she grabbed the camera, brought it into her room, closed the door and did as instructed, pressing “play” on the device. Cerise sat on the edge of the bed, her legs swinging wildly back-and-forth as a masked figured emerged on the screen.
“Hello Cerise,” the masked figure began, trying to sound ominous and imposing. “I want to play a g-”
“Boring!” Cerise announced, suddenly turning off the recording and, instead, setting the camera to broadcast. “Hello all my guys and gals, it’s I… your loveable, huggable, bundle of joy… Cerise! I know I wasn’t booked for a match this week and I was a tad bummed out about that but then my good ol’ buddy Khaos told me about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to go and fight on behalf of the ENTIRE world! Like, can you imagine, me… beating down Sara Pettis with my baseball bat, while the WHOLE world cheers me on. I had no idea that people really didn’t like Sara all that much but, then again, I guess I can’t say I’m not completely surprised.”
Cerise leaned closer into the camera, a twisted smirk on her face.
“I’d say that it’s not personal Sara,” Cerise mused. “But it definitely kinda is. You DID eliminate me from the Remembrance Battle Royal, after all. And if your spine hadn’t been made out of rubber, I wouldn’t have had the displeasure of Maggie Lockheart using your back as a launching pad in our triple threat match that followed after the PPV. Don’t worry though, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and tried again. And look at me now; I’m back in the winner’s circle after our marvelous PysKhotic break-down of Toni Beasley and Chelsea Skye. Guess that’s more I can say for you lately though, huh darling? I mean, when was the last time you had an actual ‘win’ Sara? You do know that’s the point of all this is, right? To win matches… NOT have them constantly end in ‘draws’ and ‘no contests’. I mean, it’s almost like you got so caught up on your 2nd place Remembrance finish that you forgot that not EVERY match is an over-the-top battle royal. For instance, this Gauntlet match of yours you got coming up. It sounds like it’s going to be a pretty tough one. I mean, YOU vs the WHOLE WORLD…? That’s a LOT of people that want to take a shot at you. I definitely don’t envy you there. Now, I don’t know where I’ll be in terms of placement in this whole wild ride but I do so hope that you, at least, survive long enough so that I can be the one that gets to puts you down for the count. So save me a seat, sweetie; because I can’t wait to see what ‘fate’ has in store for you this time.”
