Iced Tea In The Morning [IC]

[Darksider42]

Lady winter smiled, a sort of amused expression on her face. "I am actually not that powerful. Against someone else, I could be easily knocked aside with little trouble." She actually wasn't sure how powerful she was, but it was safe for her to assume she didn't have quite the same kick as everyone.

After some time and the Taxi took the old man away to city hall and the site of Equinox floating off the ground on wings of magic. "I will follow." She said, Ice gathering around the Russians feet, a platform of ice taking shape and ready for her to follow the witch to her dwelling.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox flew off towards the Theatre District, pausing every so often to make sure that Lady Winter was following on. Ah, well, the neighbours are used to strange goings-on. Might as well add another. Landing on the sidewalk and clicking her fingers, she immediately switched back to plain old Siobhan Drake, in a white t-shirt and black pants. Her hair dye vanished, leaving her hair a mousy brown, and her eyes stopped glowing brilliant white.

Leading Lady Winter up to the apartment door, she turned and pulled her silver pentagram out of her shirt. "Alright, I hereby formally invite you to my abode." She stood aside straight away and led the icy heroine into her sitting room. It was quite cramped, consisting only of a green-grey sofa, a battered TV apparently so old it had a metal V-shaped antenna coming out of the top. The most alarming part of the room was the fact that the dull red wallpaper was barely visible, most of the walls covered in warped brown bookshelves. Even so, the carpet was rendered a dangerous minefield by stacks and stacks of books. Titles apparently ranged from Great Expectations to Harry Potter to Caedes Lamia.

"Sorry about having to formally invite you. Well, I don't since you're not a supernatural creature, but it eliminates the risk of messing up the atmosphere." Siobhan gestured to the sofa. "Can offer you anything to drink? Tea, coffee, orange juice?"

[Darksider42]

A little cramped Lady Winter thought as she tried to slip through the stacks upon stacks of books without knocking them over. "It is no problem. I don't clam to know how magic works. Best to leave it to those that do." Taking Equinox's indication that she could sit, she did so. She made sure not to suddenly flash freeze the sofa, she didn't want to cause any problems in a home this small. "Tea would be fine. Coffee tastes horrible when it goes cold."

[Ecalsneerg]

Siobhan went into the kitchen adjourning the living room, shouting through as she put a pot of tea on. "This is probably going to take a while," she called. "Feel free to look through my book collection while I work up something to find a golem." She leaned around the door.

"If you're looking for something specific, but can't find it, ask me, odds on if it's printed, I own it." She produced a tray with a pot of tea and mugs, along with some sugar, milk and spoons, laying it atop one of the more stable piles of books.

[Darksider42]

"I will keep that in mind." Lady winter said as she watched the tray come in. She was a little reluctant to actually attempt to touch the set out of fear she would knock it over and spill tea over the carpet and books, but after a minute she moved forward. She quickly mixed herself some tea and started looking at the impossibly vast selection of books. She wondered how much money Equinox got to allow her to be this extravagant when it came to literature. She picked a book at random and stat down. Her tea was already going cold.

[Ecalsneerg]

Siobhan was flipping through books and papers frantically, looking for that one spell she needed. After a couple of minutes of searching, she found it. "Right, here we are." Pulling the chunk of golem from her pocket, she went over to a small table in the corner, and pulled a cloth from off the top of it. Underneath was a simple crystal ball on a small metal frame, not adorned with much of anything.

Placing one hand on the top, and the other on the fragment of ceramic, she began chanting.

"Eyes of air, body of wind,

Strafe the world, see what you find,

Lord and Lady, if you be kind,

Speed up this ball, speed up my mind."

For the next few minutes, she stood stock still, eyes blazing an even more brilliant white than usual, the ball blurring as images came up in it, flashing through buildings and rooms and sheds of Freedom City, pausing on each for only a millisecond.

"The boardwalk, he's taken up a warehouse there," said Siobhan hoarsely, shaking off the magical power. The golem fragment had been slightly burned away leaving it looking blackened and crispy. "We need to stop him while we can." She snapped her fingers, and in an instant, she was back as Equinox, white clothing and black trenchcoat, eyes blazing white and hair raven black.

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter had since finished her Iced Tea and was about to make herself another when Equinox announced where the Golems creator was. She carefully put the mug back on the tray. "And we shall." She said as she stood up, cracking her knuckles as she followed the young witch outside. Once there she kicked herself off the ground as she focused on creating a pathway of ice for her to travel on. A hammer of Ice was quickly forming in her hands as she traveled towards the boardwalk

[Ecalsneerg]

At Equinox's prompting, the two arrived at an abandoned casino on the Boardwalk, called "Archie's". The windows were boarded up with mouldering grey-brown boards, and parts of the roof were falling in. Atop the roof was a rusted, cracking metal model of two six-sided dice. Trash bags were torn open and littered around the front of it, and young thugs had clearly been busy, graffiti covering most of the available surfaces, with gang names, the usual "x loves y" messages, and some unprintable swear words.

While hard to spot from the street, in the side of one of the two dice was a rusty service hatch, splattered with the same paint and mould that most of the building was covered with. But not quite, while Lady Winter was unable to see it, Equinox spotted what looking like arcane runes carved among the paint, although at this distance they weren't quite legible.

[Darksider42]

"You would think they would have cleaned up this part of the city." Lady Winter commented as she kicked a stray soda can away from her. She didn't spot anything in particular that would have stood out in a slum, so she turned to Equinox with a questioning look on her face. "Well this does look like the sort of place a gang would hide, though I do not imagine it to be the sort for those tampering with magic. Think we should find a way inside and introduce ourselves to anyone hanging around?""

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox nodded. "Ok, we go inside and find out what's going on. But we don't go in guns blazing, we have to give them a chance to explain themselves." She turned to the door, wand held up in her right hand as her left went up to the pentagram hanging from her neck. Fixing her white-glowing glare upon the front door, she pointed the wand as her pentagram started emanating a white aura, magical wards and boundaries flying up around the witch.

"Fire."

It didn't come in an incantation, it didn't come with ceremony about it. One word, and the door was blasted clean off its hinges in a gout of white-hot flame. Equinox glanced at Lady Winter. "Any way you can frost up the floor or something similar? I mean, talking first doesn't mean we can't prepare for him fleeing or fighting."

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter took several steps away from the sudden flash of flames, her unique instincts ringing alarm bells in her mind. If she could breath as a normal person, she would have started hyperventilating. She was able to get a hold of herself quickly though. "Va-That would be problem. I would be more focused on stopping frozen floor from melting. I would not be able to do much other than that. I do not exactly have that much control over my powers as I would like." Lady Winter said, trying to keep her mind on the task at hand. She swung her hammer over her shoulder and headed inside. Don't think of the flames....

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox followed Lady Winter into the building, the entire doorway now one black scorch-mark from her spell. I'm getting worryingly good at that...

Some smoke from the blast was still wafting across the dusty room, old tables and chairs scattered everywhere. The room had a rancid, fetid smell, of mould, old furniture and something even worse... like someone had taken every chemical in a high school laboratory, mixed it up together and then set it on fire. It was a truly disgusting, rancid stench, cloying into the lungs of the two heroines and threatening to dislodge their dinner.

Equinox clapped her hands over her mouth as she held back the retching, breathing in through the mouth to minimise the need to smell that... odour. Then, looking up, she saw the corridor leading away from the main room. It was obvious to both of them that it had doors coming off of either side, although what was in those rooms, was impossible to tell from here. But, at the end of that corridor, was a man, hunched over a desk, wearing grotty yellow robes and a black beret stained with what looked like clay. His face wasn't visible, but his muddy, dirty arms were visible past his rolled-up sleeves, hammering down on something in front of him on the desk. He laughed consistently, a low-pitched, deep giggle.

Equinox pointed with her wand and nodded to Lady Winter. "That's him," she whispered. "I think you should watch my back, I need to t-" She was suddenly interrupted as the man started laughing more, and hammering down even more frantically.

"Well, I need to talk to him." She tried valiantly to hide her distaste at that fact.

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter had little choice but to cover her mouth and nose as they progressed. Even without the need to breath, the horrible tang of the oder still clawed at her sense. She made every effort not to breath like she was used to. As she followed Equinox and looked at the man, she gave her Magic companion the sort of look that said "Are you crazy?" "I doubt he will want to talk. He laughs like madman." Didn't take Lady Winter much to realize He was responsible for the clay monster now entombed in a cafe at the waterfront. "Well, if you insist. I vill make sure to keep you watched while you try to talk to him."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox nodded curtly, and started striding upon towards the man. As she walked, she spoke in a high clear voice which reverberated around the room. "Sir, we know you made the golem which rampaged along the waterfront. And, before we have to arrest you by force, I ask you: please, hand yourself in. If you serve your time, perhaps you can-"

Her words were cut off as she hit the mid-point in the small hallway, at which point a snarl erupted from one of the walls. In a shower of woodchip and masonry, a lion-shaped form, still glistening wet from new-formed claw, erupted through one wall and hurling Equinox to the ground, her mystic force field throwing up white sparks as it repelled the blow.

[Ecalsneerg]

Rolling to her feet across the dusty floor, Equinox raised her right arm, wand tip sparking with white light. "Well, you can't say I didn't try to let you give yourself up," she said, glancing to the laughing man. Shaking dust from her coat, she flicked her wand and rose a good foot off the floor as the huge white wings emerged from her glowing white force field. "Now FREEZE!"

Raising her wand high, suddenly the whole building changed. The temperature plummeted as Equinox channelled raw elemental power throughout it, the white glow in her eyes temporarily going icy blue. It became so cold that, on every surface both in and outside of the building, a thick layer of frost formed instantly, crackling into existence with both the mundane crack of an ice rink in winter, and a slightly otherworldly hiss of a lot of magical energy being layered through the building.

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter smiled as the air grew cold. It felt great against her face and hands. It really helped settle her nerves from the flames by the door and the massive beast that just smashed through the wall and was ready to tear them a new one. More golem smashing. I would think he had something else other than living clay. Of course the Blue Russian did not have time to consider any other threats, just the one that burst through the wall. Hefting her hammer of ice, she charged forward and swung it towards the creatures head. "Come and get me!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Pottery flew as the hammer crashed into the lion, sending a chunk of its mane falling to the floor. With a snarl, it turned to face Lady Winter, claws scraping along the ice.

The golem's creator cackled gleefully. "Yes, by all means smash my golems!" He pulled a wand from his belt and pointed it at the floor before him. A holographic image appeared of the golem they'd attacked smashing its way clear of the police van, covered in shards of ice.

"Every second you waste here, people die!" He threw his head back and roared in laughter as another two golems came out from the door the lion had sprung from. One was covered in burlap and straw, the other with plates of corrugated iron. In unison, they marched forwards, the tin man hefting a dangerous looking axe and swinging it towards Equinox's head. With a gesture, she halted the axe's movement in mid-air with the wall of white force surrounding her.

The scarecrow lunged at Lady Winter, shaking straw around to distract her while the lion lunged straight at the icy heroine. Unable to dodge for the erratically-moving scarecrow, the lion's claws gouged into her flesh.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox could hardly react to the golem, but tossed its axe blow aside with a gesture. "I have to stop it," she said, looking at Lady Winter. "I'll come back when it's stopped, but someone has to get there now." With a flick of her wand, she sent a gout of flame towards the tin golem, hitting it hard in the chest and sending it crashing down flat onto its back.

Then, with a wordless cry, she'd disappeared in a flash of light, the displacement of air sending up ice in cloud of vapour and steam from the heat of the superheated metal golem.

---

She crashed into Midtown with a screech of white light, and a blinding flash of white noise. The fatigue from such a huge amount of magical expenditures in the past minute was taking its toll, and she could feel herself breathing hard. Up ahead of her was a police van, crushed and wrecked, a huge hole in its side. The golem was still chipped and cracked from earlier, frost hanging off its form. But it was still going strong, hefting a car above its head and smashing it into the front of a truck in its rage.

Then its magic sense went off. Oh no, breathed Equinox as it looked at her with sightless eyes. Which clicked on red. Standing herself up straight, feeling the light emanating from her eyes dimming. She pointed her wand at the approaching monster with a trembling arm and braced herself for impact.

[Darksider42]

The claws of the lion did little against Lady Winter's genetically toughened skin except graze it. None the less as it still hurt a little. She turned around at the last spot Equinox stood and sighed. She would have to do this all by herself. "So, you like Wizard of Oz?" Lady Winter siad, her eyes growing cold as a wind started to blow through the room. "Very well then, I give you BLIZZARD OF OZ!" Hunks of ice flew through the sudden tundra as the winds continued to pick up, battering everything around her and smacking around the automations around her.

[Ecalsneerg]

Dusty straw flew and burlap slapped off the ground as the scarecrow golem screeched in pain, crashing down to the ground in a tinkle of icicles and squidge of clay. The tin golem rolled along the round, taking the edge of the blast but not nearly enough to feel the effects of it.

But the lion golem roared, surging up through the icy attack seemingly unfazed, bringing huge clay paws crashing down onto the woman with the ice-cold wit in a flurry of painful strikes.

---

Meanwhile, pavement cracked asunder as the 10 foot tall golem charged like a bull elephant, feet stomping the ground as people on the sidewalks cowered behind rubble in fear and watched in awe.

As the giant headbutted forwards with it's solid stone head, Equinox let her knees sag, falling down underneath it while pushing up with an effort of will. The golem rocked backwards in a stagger as the blow missed completely, rebounding off a wall of will and magical force.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox pivoted out of the way of the golem, redoubling her efforts with renewed confidence. So, resistant to magic... resistant to car? She spun and pointed her wand at a car.

"Car of petrol, steel and lead,

Smite down upon this golem's head!"

Well, I've improvised better rhymes... The car flew up into the air in a glow of magical force connected to Equinox's wand by a thin glowing cord of magical force. Spinning round and moving her wand like a hammer all in one fluid movement, she pitched the car forwards like a hammer, letting it snap free of the telekinetic spell.

In a small explosion of petrol and engine parts, the thoroughly non-magical car shattered the golem's torso into a fragile, half-held-together heap of damp clay and burning petrol. It collapsed backwards into the pavement with a resounding thud.

[Darksider42]

For once, Lady winter actually felt that. The sudden flurry of blows made her cringe as the air around her stopped circling in a miniature blizzard. "It vill take more van vat!" She shouted as the cold winds and hunks of ice spun with renewed vigor. The lions face got it by a larger hunk, but the Scarecrow and tin man all but danced along the hazardous weather she was pouring into the office. Equinox, where are you?

[Ecalsneerg]

Diving through the maelstrom of ice and snow, the scarecrow and lion roared and hissed and circled, trying to herd Lady Winter into the path of the Tin Man golem, which was swinging its axe viciously towards Lady Winter's chest.

---

Against all odds, despite the massive amounts of punishment it had taken from Equinox's attack, and from Lady Winter's earlier savage beating. Pushing against the ground with a deep groan, it began to pull itself up off the ground, standing to face Equinox with a ferocious look on its fierce face.

[Darksider42]

The Ax came down and cut into Lady Winters skin. Thankfully, it only left a shallow cut that was already starting to seal up. Whatever happened to her to give her these powers, she was thankful that an ax wielding fiction character could do little to her. The Storm around her kicked up anew, snow and ice smashing furiniture apart even more and assaulting the three golems with the full fury of winter itself. "Just stay down!" She sounded as the furious blizzard continued.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Stay down," growled Equinox as the golem struggled, despite the horrendous damage it had suffered, up once more. "DOWN!" Sighing deeply, she pointed her wand at another car nearby, and lifted it up into the air without a word.

And spun full circle, wielding the car like a giant mallet suspended on a handle of white force, hitting the golem full force in the stomach. The cracks and dents groaned once more, the massive beast crashing to the ground once more, making buildings reverberate around it. And Equinox lifted the car high into the air. "I'm sorry," she told the clay thing, slamming the car into the ground.

Clay and pottery rained across the street.