Northern Lightning

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It was a cloudy afternoon in the breezy Zephyros City. The dark-grey and vaguely intimidating clouds made the highly-advanced urbanized city a perfect backdrop for something dynamic to happen. Even the locals unconsciously recognized that their was something great in the works that day; all that was needed was a catalyst to set things in motion.

And, even though nobody was consciously aware of it, that catalyst was making it's way down a city alleyway at that very moment.

Elysia Blank, to be precise. Elysia was a very twiggy-looking probie (or soon-to-be-agent, if she could pull this mission off) from the Harmonia Republic's Criminal Investigative Service [ooc: as a side note, that name be temporary XD]; a small yet very refined branch of the military. She had long blonde hair (tied into two ponytails on either side of her head), pale blue eyes, an orange hoodie, white shorts, and boots that went about halfway up her shin. An excited yet determined glow blazed in her eyes like fire; she finally had a chance to finally give herself a reputation amongst the other agents in her field, and she wasn't about to just pass it up.

Elysia walked warily yet rather confidently down the abnormally long alley; occasionally glancing down at a small device which she was using as a GPS. She was looking for the back door to an old building near the edge of the city called Pace Warehouse 1, where she was being sent to apprehend a certain infamous felon who had apparently been hiding out there.

Gradually, Elysia's pace slowed a bit. She was well aware that the only reason she had been dispatched on this mission was because it only had a 10% success rate and none of the regular agents wanted to deal with it. Despite this, Elysia also knew that there were boatloads of greenhorns just like her that could have been sent out as cannon fodder instead of her, one of the newest probies out there. Her pace quickened back up again. Somebody had to have at least a little faith in her, and she wasn't about to let whoever they were down.

Finally, she reached a rusty metal door with "PACE #1" painted on it at the very end of the alleyway. Elysia drew a breath and quietly pressed an ear to the door; attempting to detect any signs of life inside with a supersonic listening device that could even pick up the fluttering of a butterfly's wings- underwater. Hearing nothing after a few minutes, she decided to risk it and began stealthily focusing pure electricity through a prism that allowed her to quietly and inconspicuously cut through the metal door.

For Elysia was no ordinary human. She was a Mage, or specifically, an electricity-weilding Mage; very few of which were left in the world.

Edit by Jay;
http://bluejay.titanpad.com/2
^Wootwoot I found the pad! |D

After dashing past Simon, Jack used another burst of wind to scoot around a corner without skidding into the wall. A short way down the corridor was an open window, the same one he had entered through. Quickly, he hopped back out of it, using the hooked end of his staff to close it behind him. The ice mage then summoned a final burst of wind to propel himself forwards. He landed gently in an alley, catching his breath before dashing off, leaving no trace to show that he had been there.

Elysia chased Jack as far as she possibly could; up until he just sorta... disappeared. With a frustrated growl, she pounded the wall with a clenched fist.

She would never forget this; that much she knew

---Three weeks later---

Elysia wandered the streets lazily, enjoying some hard-earned time off. She didn't know what she really wanted to do with her time, so she just walked and walked; losing herself somewhat in the city.

A certain white-haired ice mage wandered down the same city street. He hadn't noticed the electric mage on the opposite side of the road, but luckily he was walking in the opposite direction and would soon be gone without her even noticing his presence. He was wearing slightly smarter attire than when Elysia had previously encountered him, replacing his blue hoodie with a pale blue t-shirt and wearing an unbuttoned darker blue shirt over the top. From the waist down though, his clothing hadn't really changed. He was still wearing those ragged brown trousers and still had no shoes on.
Engrossed in the piece of paper he was staring at, his staff was tucked under his arm. He seemed oblivious to everything around him and yet he seemed perfectly able to avoid everyone with the staff poking out from under his arm.

Elysia sighed and streched out her arms contentedly, not really paying too much attention to her surroundings...

Until she saw it. The staff. The artifact that had gone missing; that had eluded her for so long. She didn't even stop to try and identify who was carrying it; she just whirled around and started running against the flow of people to try and follow it. Seeing as this wasn't getting her very far at all, she decided she had no other choice but to use some magic. She cursed lightly under her breath, then focused a jolt of electricity into her blood that magnetized all the iron in it and then jumped; allowing her to levitate quickly across the street. She touched down on the concrete, and scrambled after the unidentified staff bearer.

Jack frowned at the piece of paper. There was an object pictured on it, but there was no information as to the object's whereabouts. Another dead end. Sighing, Jack folded the piece of paper and shoved it into one of the small pockets in his dark blue shirt. He took the staff out from there it was tucked under his arm and carried it by his side. He stared up at the sky for a moment before his eyes widened. In the corner of his eye he had seen Elysia levitating towards him. It was the same mage as before, and he didn't particularly want another encounter with her. As she made her way towards him, he calmly carried on walking as if he hadn't noticed. However, upon reaching a turn in the path he ducked down into it before making a break for it, running as fast as he could. He knew he shouldn't attempt flying, lest he attract unwanted attention, but he also didn't want to lead her back to where they others were. That would be even worse. So he was stuck, running down the path, barefoot.

Elysia only lightly touched the ground with her foot once before she shot right back up and forward over the tops of the buildings. From here no one would be able to tell that she was flying, and she got a pretty good bird's eye view of the street below her. For a moment, though, she lost her target in the see of heads... That is, until he turned down a different street and took off running. Elysia dove for the little sprinting speck, keeping it within her field of vision as she dropped through the air. She wouldn't let him escape; not a third time.

Jack kept running, keeping an even pace as he did so. He veered around another corner as Elysia dove for him, heading towards emptier alleyways. When he reached one such alley, the ice mage kicked off from the ground in a burst of frost, using the wind to hover in the air. He blinked as he glanced around to look for his pursuer. It took him a moment, but he spotted her and quickly veered off. He headed back towards the set of warehouses where they had first met, hoping to lose her in the darkness of the buildings.

With a burst of blue static electricity, Elysia broke out of her now full-on nosedive and shot in pursuit of the ice Mage; really not paying attention to the direction in which she was flying. She wasn't about to let him get away; not a third time. The decreased pull on her body allowed her to fly with precision and ease, and she used her electromagnetics to also give her a boost in the air. She had gotten very good at using these components of her magic over the years.

Realising that he still wasn't losing her, Jack made a wide turn around one of the warehouses and with his staff, sent a trail of glittering frost particles soaring through the air and around another corner. Jack himself then ducked down in the shadows of an outside wall belonging to one of the warehouses, hoping that the icy trail would mislead Elysia and give him time to find somewhere safer to hole up for a while.

Elysia was -for a second- distracted by the frost trail, but by this time even mild-tempered Elysia had had it up to here with this Joker's antics. She had never planned on doing what she was about to do, but rage impeded her logical thinking at that point in time.

She stopped mid-air and held her breath, storing up crazy amounts of static electricity inside her very bod and soul. Her face turned red, then purple, and her hair started defying gravity even more than it normally did. Dark thunder clouds began to pour into the sky, and Elysia started to look like she was that close to popping.

Then, without warning, she exhaled through a bloodcurdling scream and started blasting everything that she could feel having even the slightest electrical pulse or field; but not enough to kill...
HOPEFULLY.

Machines exploded, small city-dwelling birds and creatures exploded, and other varying amongst of collateral damage were caused. Nothing within her radius was safe.

In that split second that Elysia had turned her gaze upon the frost trail, Jack had made a run for it. He darted out from the corner and would have run for all he was worth had Elysia's burst of electricity hadn't gotten there first. The force of it due to his closer proximity disorientated him and he staggered into one of the warehouses trying to catch his breath. He couldn't see anything in the darkness and felt his way into a corner that he hoped was unseen from the outside.
Jack sat curled in that corner for a few moments, waiting for the disorientation to wear off. He felt dizzy but he soon recovered, keeping his staff in both hands. Jack used the staff, creating a small volley of snowflakes to flutter around him. He found that the cold would help to calm him, and it did now. Only it was too dark to see their bright white shapes... and that unnerved him.

Elysia quickly ran out of energy (not used to being caught up in these flurries of extreme emotional discharge) and dropped like a rock out of the sky; only just managing to save herself from going "ker-splatitty" on the pavement below. She staggered around, using the feeling of the faint, lingering cold left behind by Jack's presence to lead her. She almost lost the trail, but another new source of cold suddenly alerted her to a slightly ajar door leading into the warehouse next to her. She walked in and saw some little snowflakes out of the corner of her eye. She didn't say a word; she just kept extremely quiet and tiptoed over until she saw Jack, and only one thing stopped her from running up and tackling him into submission.

His eyes. They looked... empty.

She suddenly began to wonder if they were even looking at all.
Staying just as silent as she had been sneaking over (only now with a new sense of possible guilt blooming in her chest), she crept until she was directly in front of him and well within the center of his field of vision and just stood and held her breath; waiting to see his reaction.

Jack stayed in his corner and listened. He couldn't see anything in this darkness, but he could still hear things. He could hear footsteps, the (albeit quiet) echoing sound getting ever closer. Jack wanted to move, to find somewhere to hide, but he couldn't see anything in order to try and find someplace better. And yet, even though it was dark, the footsteps were heading straight for him.... as if she could see and he could not.
Jack began to panic, his usual cool demeanor fading as his heart rate picked up. He blinked multiple times in quick succession, as if hoping that he would be able to see again if he blinked enough.
All of a sudden the ice mage realised that the footsteps he had been listening to before had stopped. He froze, grasping the frost-covered staff tightly with both hands. He had assumed that the footsteps belonged the Elysia and glanced around with dull, empty eyes, attempting to locate the electric mage.

Elysia crouched silently down to Jack's level and hugged her knees as she watched him panic, a few tears welling up in her eyes. She didnt make any attempt to arrest him or take the staff from him, as she clearly could have. Instead, she reached forward and put a hand on his head gently, while she tucked her face into her knees.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." She said quietly in repeated, muffled sobs.

Jack froze at the contact, unsure of what to do. He couldn't see to react accordingly and was too busy trying to calm himself down. He muttered quietly, repeating one word under his breath as if trying to deny the truth.
"No. No no no."

He began gently rocking back and forth, his head bowed into his knees much like Elysia. His concentration on the temperature around him seemed to slip as the room slowly grew colder. A gentle breeze whipped around the ice mage's face, ruffling his hair as if trying to comfort him, but he just didn't know what to do. After a few moments, the muttering and rocking ceased, leaving an eerie silence.
The ground beneath his feet was beginning to freeze over due to his lapse in control and he realised that he needed to get himself back under control before the entire warehouse froze over. Jack whispered beneath his breath, talking to some invisible entity. A pause. The firm grasp that Jack had on his staff loosened slightly before he tensed again and slowly but surely rose to his feet.