Ice Meets Ice (Dar)

Ayumu sat cross-legged on the corner of the counter in Comics 4 Fans, Nina was reading the latest issue Deadpool and casually as she sat on her soft spinny stool, she also held a cup of tea in one of her tails, Ayumu was currently amusing herself with an ice yo-yo, she started doing tricks with it along with a bored look on her face, Ayumu managing to manipulate the string ice to make it have the properties of normal string, this caused Ayumu to focus a lot, it helped her practice controlling her unstable powers and took her mind off the recent things that had happened, she ignored the customers who came in as Nina simply tended to them.

Ayumu then broke out of her conversation and tossed the yo-yo into her hand, the ice toy disappearing seemingly into her hand, her icy blue eyes looking around the store "quit sitting there you're annoying me" said Nina casually as Ayumu looked to her with a smile "oh stop, you know you love it" she said with a teasing smirk.

A teen girl walked into the shop. Despite being only 17, she walked with the authority of someone much older. Grace Koori Dore had seen a lot in the last 2 years. It had changed her, forged her into who she was today.

Customers moved to avoid standing near her, and Grace almost smiled. She was wearing a flowing black cloak with the hood hiding most of her face. She carried a sabre on her waist, and at her heels walked a fully grown dalmatian, Mercy. Although some of the comic book enthusiasts merely thought she was a cosplaying fan, there was still something dangerous about Grace that bid them to stay away.

So this was a comic book store. Grace had actually never been in one before. She had never read a comic book. Picking on up, she paged through it. Strange. This looked like her every day life. Was this really what people found amusing? Why would someone read fictitious stories when there were real ones happening all the time?

Putting down the comic, Grace walked over to the girl who had been playing with an ice yo-yo. The girl looked familiar. Yes, it was the girl that Grace had met briefly over a year ago. The girl had been selling trinkets made of ice. Grace had scoffed at the idea back then, but now...

"Excuse me, you're the one who sells miniature ice sculptures, aren't you? I would like to buy one."

Ayumu looked to Grace surprised "oh, sure thing, any preference? I can make cats, dogs, horses, pretty much any animal you can name along with just basic shapes too" she said with a calm smile, having been shocked to see Grace again.

Grace thought about it. The girl's ice power didn't seem to work the same way her own had functioned. Grace didn't know how long the ice would last in the heat of the day.

"That depends. How long will it last at room temperature? Do I have to keep it in a cooler?" Grace looked sad for a moment. "Ice is so fragile, after all."

In truth, Grace wasn't worried about the ice charm, although it could very well become an emotional anchor for her. She was more concerned about the girl. Grace wasn't sure why, but she felt responsible for her.

Grace drew her sword, and it reflected streams of light throughout the store. "Can you make a blade? Perhaps a shield?"

Ayumu nodded "I can try although it'll take a while, any particular shape?" she asked with a smile "they usually last about two hours, the bigger they are the longer they take to melt though, although if you want to keep it forever you'll have to keep it in the freezer, and if you ever need the ice uhh...topping up you can always come round, free of charge" she said calmly as she faced her hands down to her lap, ice crystals starting to form on her palms, dropping off and starting to slowly spin into a basic shield shape.

"Too slow."

Without a warning, Grace's sword slashed through the ice shield even as it was being made, scattering the small ice crystals. She looked sternly into Ayumu's eyes. "A weapon forged so slowly would be a shame on the battlefield. A shield blocks an attack, so block this one."

Grace brought her sword around and slashed at the girl's arm. It wasn't a hard hit, and she was using the flat side of her blade, so there would be no injury. It would, however, sting quite a bit if the girl didn't defend herself.

"Ah jeez what's that for!?" yelled Ayumu as Nina suddenly sat up surprised "hey you two! No fighting in the store!" said Nina as Ayumu quickly ran out of the store "you want to fight? I could use a little practice" she said before she started spinning in a pirouette style, ice starting to spread around the area of her feet before an icy, spiked structure started to grow around her to form some-sort of close defense but the ice on the ground kept growing, as if waiting for Grace.

Grace followed Ayumu outside and watched as the girl spun in a circle. Interesting, she was combining her ice magic with ballet. Spikes of ice grew from the ground and continued to spread out to defend Ayumu. Meanwhile, a thin layer of ice spread on the ground, presumably to make Grace slip and fall.

Grace smiled. Even without her powers to bind the ice to her feet, she had still been walking on ice all her life.

Fishing a nickle out of her pocket, Grace threw the coin at Ayumu's face. Hopefully, the ice ballerina would lose her balance or at least be distracted by the small chunk of metal flying into her cheek.

Grace then ran towards the girl, sliding gracefully when she reached the ice covering the ground. Nearing Ayumu, she jumped off the ice, over the defensive spikes, and slashed her sword at Ayumu's torso. She used the flat side of her blade, of course. She didn't actually want to harm the girl. Quite the opposite, actually. Grace wanted to see if both of them were ready. Grace needed to be ready to return to Jump City, and Ayumu needed to be ready to face the dark threat that awaited all meta-humans.

Ayumu noticed Grace toss an object to her, the ice around her quickly covered her completely which deflected the nickle and caused it to fly off somewhere, although the ice was damaged when Grace's sword hit it and this allowed Ayumu to be injured slightly, she then stopped spinning and fell to the inside of her icy defense 'if she really wanted to injure me she wouldn't be using the side of her sword...' she thought before she melted the ice defense and backed away from Grace "what is your goal by attacking me?" she asked curiously before she rose up on a block of ice to make sure Grace couldn't harm her.

As thin as the girl's ice armor was, it had seemed to protect her well from Grace's attack. Grace smiled. It seemed she did have some combat skill.

The girl figured out that Grace wasn't trying to hurt her, and demanded to know why Grace was attacking her at all. It was a fair question.

Grace set the tip of her blade on the ground and rested her hands on the pommel. "I'm trying to find out how much I need to worry about you. There's a monster that has been growing in power for some time. It's only goal is to destroy all people with special abilities. I've decided to warn everyone, because it will be returning to Jump City very soon. Alone, nobody can fight this monster."

Grace narrowed her eyes. "How many friends do you have that would fight at your side? I don't see any here."

Ayumu motioned to the store "Nina would fight by my side defiantly, I also know a girl who is part angel and part demon too, you have no need to worry about my skills, a certain...someone returned from my past and he made me realize the full extent of my powers" she said before she gave a smirk "he didn't last long after he upset me..." she said darkly before she sat down on her small ice tower that she was on-top of.

Grace's emotions were mixed. It was good that this girl was able to defend herself, and that she had friends to help her. It wasn't wise to be isolated when a meta-human hunter was on the prowl.

But now she was saying that she had killed someone? Granted, Grace wasn't perfect, either. There were many people Grace had attempted to kill. Perhaps the girl had good reasons for what she did.

"I see. I do have something else to ask you. I was once an ice mage of great power. Nothing personal, but your technique could use some work. Would you allow me to train you how to use your powers?"

Grace had thought about this a long time. Just because she couldn't use her ice power anymore didn't make her useless. If she could teach what she had learned to others, like this girl, then she could gain a legacy. Grace could keep people alive by making them stronger.

Ayumu's ice tower slowly melted as she willed it and she walked up to Grace "okay then, I haven't got much else to do so I might as well" she said with a calm smile "and if this hunter is powerful I want to be able to at least stand a chance" she added.

OOC: I'll post soon. Sorry, I've been busy with work.

[OOC: That's fine no need to rush lol.]