Post by Cold Shadow on May 5, 2013 23:59:18 GMT -8
Beautiful Beast
It seemed an ordinary enough day in Calisota. Though in a US locale which featured masked criminals and vigilantes alike, as well as all manner of events which many would deem supernatural, “ordinary” was a very subjective word indeed. Could it have been deemed 'ordinary' for the morning newspaper to declare that a British school girl in blue-and-white spandex had brought down a crazed criminal in a jester outfit whose accomplice was a plush banana toy? In cities such as Epcot City, Duckburg and St. Canard, such a headline was far from outlandish, where as in most other parts of the United States, and even the world, such a newspaper article would cause more than a few raised eyebrows. Though even by such lofty standards, there seemed little to do on that particular day for the heroes and heroines who comprised the crime fighting team known as the Dream League.
On that afternoon one such superheroine, the Eyvindrian princess, Aurora, though better known outside of her homeland as Sunshine, had taken to the skies to survey Epcot City from a bird’s eye view. Her mastery of flight was among her mystical talents bestowed upon her by three fairies harboring potent magicks of the arcane. Her beauty was unparallelled, her pink and sky blue costume clinging flatteringly to her every curve, accentuating her athletic (though not overly so) physique. A pink domino mask was worn around a pair of dazzling, amethyst eyes which scanned the city streets both below and ahead in the distance. The elder teenager’s golden hair flowed about her neck and back as she gracefully glided through a pristine, blue sky nearly devoid of obscuring clouds. All seemed serene enough, and she allowed herself to inhale deeply of the crisp, clear air as the sun overhead bathed her light-colored skin with its radiance, supplying her with the solar power necessary to fuel her own superhuman capabilities. It was just when she had decided to head back to The Outlook that her eyes caught sight of something intriguing.
Atop a building in the business district, several blocks away from the sky-breaching Khan Tower, stood a figure. The shape was only vaguely humanoid initially, though as she drew closer she could make out that it was a man, his back turned to her. He was merely standing in place, unmoving save for the wind whipping through his black hair and rustling the fabric of the black tank top and grey cargo pants he wore, his black-booted feet planted firmly on the solid surface of the concrete roof. He didn’t look like the sort who had any usual business atop such a building, and thus the blonde vixen decided to investigate the matter further. Aside from the man looking entirely out-of-place, there was also a part of her which was curious as to his purpose there.
The inch-long heels of her pink, knee-high boots gently found purchase upon solid ground as she descended to the rooftop, landing several feet away from the man so as not to startle him. Almost as soon as she had landed she felt a sort of apprehension, a sinking, tingling feeling in her chest all but causing her to physically wince. She subconsciously raised a hand to her breast, placing it over the sun insignia emblazoned upon the chest of her form-fitting costume, as if to still her heart. He continued to stand idly, either not having noticed her approach, or having noticed yet not bothered to acknowledge her. Sunshine’s naturally red, lush lips parted, and her golden voice spoke out to the enigmatic roof dweller. “Pardon me, sir, but I couldn’t help but notice you up here all by yourself. Are you in need of any kind of assistance?”
At first there came no reply, and she tried to convince herself that perhaps he hadn’t heard her, though deep down inside she knew that he had. She could see that he possessed a muscular frame, and could also clearly make out the series of intricate, black tattoos adorning the entire length of his arms before disappearing beneath the tank-top he wore. She was prepared to speak to him again when he slowly started to turn to face her without any further prompts. Her heart skipped a beat as his front came into view, and only then did she notice that what she perceived to have been black hair actually bore a noticeable white streak, acting as a stark contrast to his otherwise black head of hair. More noticeable still was the fact that he was unquestionably attractive, every line and curve of his face befitting of Adonis himself. His hues, of a shade of amethyst not unlike her own, locked onto hers, and her heart skipped a beat in her chest. His eyes, like the rest of his physical features, were gorgeous, though there was something inside of those orbs that made her uncomfortable. They were haunting, or perhaps even haunted. For such a beautiful man, it occurred to her then that his eyes and facial expression were uncomfortably cold, and even hostile.
His gaze remained locked onto hers for several seconds, and she returned the gesture in kind, unblinking as she peered into his purple hues. A blush came to her cheeks, and words were lost to her as to what to say. He was simultaneously alluring yet threatening, and she was entirely unaware of how to proceed with the situation. His eyes then broke away from hers as he looked down to her feet, his eyes then slowly rising past her double skirts, each a differing shade of pink, past her torso, before settling back upon her face. His stare was far from obscene; he was not admiring her body, but rather, sizing her up. It made her feel uncomfortable, and her muscles tightened in key areas as her body tensed. “Hm.” He muttered, his eyebrows furrowing thoughtfully. “You’re a fighter, then? A martial artist?” He asked her in a tone of voice which was masculine yet callous. It perfectly matched the rest of his demeanor.
She was taken aback by the question. Out of anything he could have potentially said, she couldn’t have guessed that such an inquiry would have passed from between his lips. “Well, I’m Sunshine, a member of the Dream League. I suppose you would consider us fighters of justice. As to whether or not I’m a martial artist... I’m uncertain, in all honesty.” She responded as best she could. She used her fists and body as weapons to combat villains, but she had never truly stopped to consider whether or not that made her a martial artist in the traditional sense. His next question caught her off guard as surely as his first. “Do you value your strength?” The blossoming teenager hesitated, again unsure of exactly how to respond. “My strength was given to me as a precious gift, and I have chosen to utilize it to help those who are most in need of aid. In that capacity I suppose I find value in it, yes.” He narrowed his eyes at her response, his facial expression souring, renewing her feelings of being uneasy. “I’ve come a long way seeking a challenger from your world. I do hope you won't disappoint me.”
Sunshine, surprised by his bold statement, took a step backward. Her world? So the man was an alien entity who was challenging her to a fight? The heroine had encountered her fair share of oddities during her career as a symbol of justice, though none of her encounters generally wound up such as the one she had stumbled upon that day. Whenever she fought it was out of necessity to protect the innocent and her comrades, and she only fought when she had to. Yet here was an individual, whom she had never met before, challenging her for no immediately obvious reason. “I do not wish to fight you. Please, if we could just discuss this--” Her plea was interrupted as he struck a fighting pose and cut her off mid-sentence. “If you are a fighter who values your strength, show me said strength.”
The youthful heroine took a couple of steps backward, though she kept her eyes glued on him all the while. She sensed that he was waiting for her to make the first move, but she had no intention of doing any such thing. There were numerous reasons why she wouldn’t oblige such a request, and no reasons as to why she would. He must have realized that she would not take any preemptive action, because he darted forward toward her. She had no way of knowing whether or not the impetuous man had the ability to cause her physical harm, nor did she wish to find out. She flew back and away from him, and was about to try and talk him down again when he leapt after her before she could create a great enough distance between them. He grabbed hold of her right ankle in his right hand, and she could feel herself being violently ripped out of the air despite her attempts to pull away from his grasp. She didn’t have the time to conclude that yes, he did possess the physical strength to harm her, given the fact that he had defied her superhuman strength and prevented her from breaking away from him. She had no time to ponder such thoughts, for within the confines of a second or less he had slammed her against the concrete surface of the building. She hit her head upon the smooth, grey surface, leaving an indent and accompanying cracks upon it as her head swam, her vision going dark momentarily as a result of the sudden head trauma. She regained her sight just in time to see him descending upon her with his left fist poised to impact upon her face. She rolled out of the way as his ferocious limb shattered a crater into the space she had occupied a fraction of a second before. The newly-formed indent expanded, cracks snaking across the roof before a large chunk of said roof caved in, crashing into what appeared to be a fire escape within the interior.
Rather than climbing to her feet she used her power of flight to glide from her laying position, then back and away from him as he recovered from his missed attack and set his sights upon her once more. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you don’t stop.” She paused before continuing pleading. “Will you please stop?” But he had no intention of stopping. He advanced once more, the tattoos scrawled out upon his arms suddenly illuminating with a fiery red-orange glow. Sunshine fought the urge to merely fly out of the way to avoid the attack. The two of them were atop a building occupied by civilians, after all. If a simple punch from him could cave-in a portion of the roof, as his previous effort had accomplished, then she couldn’t allow whatever follow-up attack he had in store to cause even greater damage, for it was apparent that whatever was being directed at her was a notch above his previous strike.
Throwing his fist at her, his entire right arm became enveloped in searing flames which swirled in an otherworldly manner which was both beautiful yet deadly. Reacting quickly, she reached out to grasp his fist in her left palm, clutching it as she grimaced against both his strength and the flames. After a brief contest of strength a surge propelled through his arm, resulting in an explosive plume of flames which won-out the power struggle in his favor as Sunshine was sent rocketing backward and away from him, a light cry of pain escaping her lips. She managed to awkwardly catch herself from her trajectory, ripping herself away from the force of the blow and back into control of her own flight. Quickly locating him, it she observed that he had initiated a follow-up attack, intending to take advantage of the lapse between his last blow and the time it took for her to catch herself from the air. Clearly he was a calculating warrior, and underestimating him would be an unwise decision. She arched her back and twisted to one side as he drew close, just in time to feel his fist whiz past her face only to hit empty air. Seizing the moment, she grasped his outstretched arm in both of her hands and, with a quick motion, spun him around and flung him further back on the roof. His trajectory made it look as though he would land square on his back, though he expertly managed to correct his body in midair to allow himself to land into a crouching position, where he dug the rubber heels of his boots into the concrete to slow down his backward slide, dark skid marks leaving trails as he did so, a grimace painted upon his face as he exerted effort to anchor himself and cease his backward momentum.
Talking proved fruitless, and his destructive attacks were ill-suited to a city environment populated by innocent bystanders. He needed to be stopped before someone was injured. And thus Sunshine followed up with an attack of her own. Her body illuminated in a golden radiance as she extended an arm toward him. Discharging the solar energy she had accumulated, Sunshine launched a solar ray from her palm. Much to her surprise, before her attack could make contact he erected a dome of iridescent light which encircled his body in a protective shell which resembled a translucent pearl. Upon making contact with the barrier her sun-ray dissipated, dispersing harmlessly over the exterior. A moment later the protective field dropped, and he advanced upon her once more, preparing a left hook. She dodged the blow and countered with a right hook, where she managed to dig her knuckles into his left cheek. She could feel the bone of her hand crunch against the bone of his jaw as he recoiled from the impact. He wasn’t stunned for long enough for her to take advantage of a follow-up, for he was upon her with his right hand forcibly grasping a handful of the front of her costume. They both tumbled backward and, in her horror, Sunshine realized that they had been so close to the edge of the roof that his latest action had caused them both to tumble over it and into a free-fall. She would most assuredly survive the impact, given her superhuman endurance - but would he?
As they fell he delivered a swift swipe to her left cheek with a clenched fist. Pain shot through her face and neck from the blow, and she understood that he would never stop his assault, no matter what. Even being in free-fall had failed to curb his urge for combat. She struck back, punching him in the face with enough force to send him flying away from her. He still held fast to her costume, and tore a sizable chunk of the sun logo upon leaving her proximity. Her blow caused him to hurtle toward a neighboring office building, where he then crashed through a window and into a room of office cubicles as men and woman shrieked and sprang to their feet as shards of glittering glass washed over the high-polished, wooden floor. The enigmatic fighter grimaced as his back collided with the panel of a cubicle wall, which effectively stopped his backward momentum. A bruise was starting to develop on his cheek where she had struck him last, and blood, either from the glass or from the force of her fist, trickled from the corner of his mouth, as well as from his forehead. Realizing he still held a shred of her costume in his clenched fingers, he aggressively slammed the piece of cloth upon the ground where he sat.
An office worker, a husky woman in a light brown skirt and suit jacket, had sheepishly started to approach him to check if he was alright when he jumped to his feet, startling her and causing her to recoil away from him as he dashed for the window. As he suspected, Sunshine had drawn close to check what had become of him, and likely check on the well-being of those within. He leapt toward her, once again locking her into a grapple as they continued to plummet the rest of the way to the ground. In an aerial power struggle he managed to pin her from above, and when the two of them smashed into the roof of a parked car, her back took the lion’s share of the impact. She gasped as the vehicle crumpled in, the windows all shattering as a loud, obnoxious alarm started blaring from within the ruined automobile. Acting quickly she managed to kick him off of her, and free of his grasp she rose from the top of the car and into the air. As she expected, he was back to his feet and ready to advance. Her breath was heavy, the front of her costume singed and torn, revealing her cream skin beneath. Her lungs struggled to intake enough oxygen to operate against the strain of her exertion. He was prepared to advance again when someone placed themselves between the two, their back to Sunshine in an act of defense.
Her claws bared, She-Wolf snarled at the Adonis fighter, the Japanese-American’s stormy grey eyes seeming to burn right into his soul. Her short, dark brown hair almost seemed to stand on edge, like that of an agitated beast. She was clad in a costume which was familiar to Sunshine; one which consisted of wolf furs, tribal paint, and other primitive adornments. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re going to regret messing with us!” She all but hissed with seething venom, a look of utter contempt upon her modestly attractive face. The mysterious man stopped in his tracks at her appearance, his eyes locked with hers, his face showing not an single sign that he was at all intimidated by the wild child. “And that goes double for me, pal! That was a gnarly tumble you took, but even still... you’re way outta your league, skunk-head.” The smug voice projected from atop a nearby van, where the dark-shrouded form of the Duck Avenger stood, his dark mask and black cape with red interior, draped dramatically about his shoulders, accentuating the ensemble of his black-and-red, skin-tight costume which the anthropomorphic, white-feathered duck wore. His trademark blue sailor hat crowned his head, and with his yellow booted feet planted firmly upon his chosen perch, both of his hands were poised about the utility belt he wore, ready to draw a fitting weapon at a moment’s notice should the fighter have chosen to make a move.
The brawler’s eyes remained on She-Wolf, not bothering to shift to the orange-billed duck as he spoke to him. Not being acknowledged was probably more irritating to the prideful avian hero than the piercing stare Sunshine and She-Wolf had received. “This doesn’t concern you. Stand aside.” The amethyst-eyed man stated matter-of-factly to She-Wolf in a detached, though gruff, tone of voice. Duck Avenger tilted his head to one side, his baby blue eyes looking at the man skeptically. “You gotta be kiddin’, right? Of course it concerns us, bozo! You really think we’d stand aside and let you try and rough up Sunny? Not that you really stand a ghost of a chance, but that’s beside the point!” She-Wolf wrinkled her nose and tensed in her defensive stance. “Make even one move and I’ll cut you down where you stand!”
Having caught her breath by that point, Sunshine, then grounded rather than flying, approached She-Wolf, placing a hand on her shoulder as she stood by her flank. Although no words were exchanged, the symbolism of companionship was evident then. The feral heroine never removed her hateful glare from the tattooed fighter, though Sunshine’s facial expression was decidedly soft, especially considering what she had gone through mere seconds prior. “In some respects, I do value my own strength. But to tell you the truth, I value the strength of my friends all the more. The bonds we form and share as a team are far greater than the strength any of us have as an individual. My inherent strength makes me strong, but my friends keep me strong. I don’t wish to fight you, because I don’t believe in fighting just to prove something. I only fight when I have something worth fighting for.” Even battle-ravaged, dirtied, and her costume torn, Sunshine still held an air of serenity and dignity, and it was apparent that she harbored no contempt for the man, even though he had attacked her unprovoked.
At her statement he sneered, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked away from her in disgust. In the distance the drone of police sirens were audible, and closing in at a brisk pace. “You hero-types are all the same in the end. You find such gibberish and empty sentiments to be meaningful, but in the end weakness is nothing more than a disease.” He retorted with disgust. Whether he meant weakness in her, her perceived bonds, the people she protected, or any combination of the aforementioned was unclear, though such an outlook made her heart sink regardless of which he had meant. The otherworldly fighter started to walk away, but before She-Wolf or Duck Avenger could even move to stop him, a vortex of swirling darkness and purple mist appeared before him, producing a vapor-like haze which distorted his image as he entered the portal. It then closed behind him, where he vanished without a trace.
“Eh?!” Duck Avenger exclaimed as his eyes widened, trying to make sense of just where the culprit had disappeared to. “Oh, phooey! He got away!” The masked water fowl then proceeded to start grumbling something under his breath regarding 'dirty disappearing tricks.' She-Wolf turned toward Sunshine just as the first squad car appeared over the not-too-distant horizon. “Are you alright? Who the heck was that guy? Did he hurt you?” The Asian girl then started to look over her friend with concern, at which Sunshine only smiled and made haste to put the heroine’s mind at ease. “I’m just fine, She-Wolf. There’s no need for concern.” Of course, the fighter had packed a mean punch, and she ached all over. Though Sunshine had incurred far worse injuries in previous battles, and there was no sense troubling her friend over it. It was nothing a hot bath, a compress and a little costume sewing couldn’t solve. The other concern She-Wolf shared was one she couldn’t so easily dismiss. The blonde teenager’s purple hues looked solemnly over to where the unknown assailant had stood before his vanishing act. “Someone with haunted eyes...” She murmured under her breath, causing She-Wolf to cock her head to one side, a skeptical and inquisitive expression upon her face.