Epsilon Vs. Dahlia Capello

The city of New York was covered in a thin layer of snow, due to a unexpected storm blowing through the area. It was cold, and the white-out conditions didn't help much. Eric was walking though the streets wearing jeans and a hoodie, zipped up for maximum warmth. Usually, he would be flying, but the poor visibility restricted that. He could fly right right into a skyscraper when it was like this.

"Patrol sucks when you can't fly....", he mumbled bitterly.

You're relying on your powers too much. It's made you lazy

"...shut it. Man, it's cold. Couldn't you have given me a reading or something about this?"

I'm not the weatherma-

The voice stopped suddenly, and Eric could tell that Nero was looking or scanning for something. He stopped walking, standing still.

I've picked up some sort of energy anomaly. It's all over the place.

"Say what now?", he asked, confused.

I believe you would refer to it as magic.

"Oh, okay. Just say that next time....which way?"

Eric set off on the direction that the reading was coming from, which was very erratic. Apparently, Nero wasn't very good at this. After about fifteen minutes of changing directions and random turns, he finally spotted a figure through the snow.

"That the source?"

Yes.

"Uh....how should I approach this?"

Carefully. Source may or may not be hostile. Just.....try not to overreact.

"Okay, if you say so", he finished. He held up a hand, and blue energy surrounded it, creating a odd lighting about him. He moved forward cautiously, focusing on the figure. Unfortunately, while doing so, he slipped on a patch of ice. He hit the ground hard, and the energy around his hand fired off wildly, narrowly passing by the subject and hitting a car, denting it. A spout of flame shout out from the vehicle from the damage.

That wasn't good.

"Oh. Crap."

What did I try to tell you?

"...freaking... cold..."

Dahlia Capello shivered for what felt like the fiftieth time in the last two minutes. Ever since she had run from her native Esmoreldia, in France, the sorceress' on-the-run lifestyle had pleased her. She had never really felt the need for stability, for consistency... a home, a family, she was used to not having these things by now. Still, as she walked down an unknown street in New York, fighting back the intense cold and the bitter winds of the snowstorm, she had to admit she wished she had a place to go home to, at the moment. She used to have a safeplace, somewhere she knew she could go in times of trouble, but this had changed with Andy's disappearance. Nothing was safe anymore.

The young woman's raven hair blew in the wind, and so did her long, flowing purple dress, but no one around her even noticed her strange clothes. There was a simple explanation for this, of course: Dahlia was mentally projecting the image that she was wearing "normal" clothes. In fact, none of the people she walked by saw the golden staff she held in her hand, her spellwriting staff. This instrument was of the utmost importance to her-- simply because it is what Esmoreldians use to perform sigil magic by drawing mystical glyphs in the air-- and so she had decided to psionically hide it, too.

As she reached the spot where she was supposed to wait for a contact who might have information about a certain Sector 13, Dahlia tried to subtly shield herself from the wind and snow with a discreet telekinetic force field. As she waited, she let her mental powers run wild, scanning the entire area mentally for anything unusual. Suddenly she caught it. A presence-- or was it two?-- was coming towards her. Something was undoubtedly weird about what her mystical senses perceived, especially since there seemed to be some sort of... static surrounding her target. Unwilling to ruin her meeting with her contact, Dahlia decided she would deal with the intruder before her informant even got there. What strategy should she adopt, though? She needed to be discreet, and she didn't really feel like hurting anyone, she just needed to make sure her meeting wouldn't get disrupted.

As she was pondering this, the sorceress suddenly heard a loud noise behind her. She turned around in a hurry, just in time to see a blast of energy fly past her. At the origin of the blast was a young man, lying on the ground. He had apparently lost control, thankfully for Dahlia, for his blast might have hit her straight on if he hadn't. Telepathically probing the area, the Esmoreldian enchantress realized with satisfaction that she and her opponent were alone in the vicinity. Undoing her illusions, she revealed her medieval-looking dress and the staff she was holding. In a matter of seconds, she was surrounded by a purple aura and floated a couple of feet above the ground. Raising her right hand, in which the sigil from which she gained most of her power was tattooed, she unleased a concussive blast of telekinetic energy, which flew right towards the boy and hit the ground just a few centimeters from him, sending snow flying everywhere.

"Next time, I'll aim straight for you," Dahlia said, her voice calm and confident.

Eric looked up to see the target.....change. Instead of wearing the ordinary clothes that she had been previously a moment ago, she was now wearing a elegant looking dress, holding a large, ancient looking staff, and floating a good few feet off the ground. Definitely not normal.

She fired at him, the blast narrowly missing and landing beside him, blowing snow everywhere and concrete everywhere. Eric rolled sideways, taking cover behind a parked taxi.

"Next time, I'll aim straight for you,"

"Okay, Nero, I blew that one, I'm not going to lie, but give me some advice here!", he said, frantically.

Return fire. Lightly. Try not to do anything.....unexpected for a change.

"I think I can manage that....", he whispered. Taking a deep breath, he floated into the air, hands glowing blue. He tried to get a good bead despite the visibility. "I think it's too late to say that this is all a big misunderstanding!"

He waved his hand and the wind's parted and stopped blowing in his line of sight, giving a easy view to the woman. It was like a roof and walls had been put in place where he was looking, blocking the path between the two from the winds and snow. That being said, he was still freezing-the environment was the exact same around him. Carefully, and as precisely as he could, he fired off two light blasts, one from each hand. The first energy blast missed, purposely, hitting the ground behind the woman, sending some snow and ice to hopefully confuse her for a moment. The second went towards her torso, cutting a swath through the flakes.

She anticipated our arrival. She knew that we'd be coming.

"Wait, what? She knows about us?"

Well, not about us, specifically, but she knew that someone abnormal would be approaching. You sort of gave it away when you shot at her.

"It was an accident!", Epsilon yelled in frustration. He probably looked just a bit more than crazy, talking to himself constantly.

Dahlia gazed at her opponent with determination as her own telekinetic blast hit the ground near him and created a little explosion of snow. The boy didn't seem like a villain, from what she could pick from his mind (which was not much, due to the strange static) he was actually a good boy. The problem was, she could not afford to let him ruin her meeting with her contact. Andy's life depended on it, she needed that information. "Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time," she thought to herself as she tried to come up with a battle plan.

As she was lost in her thoughts, Dahlia saw the boy's hand start to glow a bright blue. A second later, he, too, was floating above the ground. Through the breeze, she barely heard him say something about a misunderstanding. She knew it wasn't his fault, she just needed him to leave the area as quickly as possible. For a split-second, the sorceress felt it again: it was as if there were two minds inside that one body. Could it be? Was that why her enemy seemed to constantly be muttering to himself? Suddenly, by what could only be the boy's doing, the storm ceased brutally. In the blink of an eye, there was no more wind nor snow flying between the two. Looking around, Dahlia quickly realized this was a localized phenomena, as the storm still raged, outside of this little bubble of protection. The Esmoreldian exile took a moment to appreciate her opponent's abilities, which she might have underestimated. Had she picked a fight with a stronger enemy than she thought?

When Epsilon fired his first energy blast, Dahlia telekinetically spun around in the air to dodge it. Stopping herself with her back to Eric, she stared at the ground where the blast had hit. Snow and ice flew around as a result of the blast, and Dahlia shielded herself with a small force field. Before she could turn back around, however, a second blast hit her in her upper back, sending her flying towards a nearby building. Stopping her motion with her telekinesis, inches from the building, the enchantress turned around, furious. Flying back towards Epsilon, Dahlia raised her right hand once more, her sigil glowing a bright purple. Two sign posts nearby suddenly glowed with the same purple and, in one motion, they were torn out of the ground by the sorceress' magic and flew toward her enemy. The two sign posts then began to fly in circles around the boy, flying increasingly fast as they slowly got closer and closer to their target.

Gaining some height, Dahlia looked down at  the golden staff she was holding in her left hand. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't brought her Book of Elders with her, so the Esmoreldian could only cast the spells she had memorized by heart. As her mind raced, the tip of the staff, encruted with two amethysts, began to grow brightly, indicating that it was being charged with magical energy. Dahlia knew all too well that Sigil Magic spells to a long time to cast, as one had to write out all the separate glyphs that made up the spell, so she would have to be quick. This needed to be over, and soon.

Eric was pleased to see that his attack had worked. That satisfaction didn't last long, as his target merely got up, and easily. She didn't look happy, either. Without warning, two signposts that had been standing straight and still were torn from the ground by an otherworldly force. They homed in on Epsilon and began to encircle him, spinning faster and faster.

They slammed into him multiple times, knocking him back and forth, before he was smashed out of their trap and he flew off to the side. He landed hard beside a building, his head knocking against the wall. He reached up and felt it with one hand, and was surprised to see a tinge of red on his fingers. He was covered in snow by this point.

He stood up, sore, and angry. Some of the blood ran down the side of his head, passing by his ear and going down to his chin, clustering his hair together.

Don't get carried away, Epsilon.

"Yeah, I'll try", he mumbled. The woman looked somewhat pre-occupied with her staff. Good.

He took off, flying off the ground with a surge of energy. A wave of snow followed him, and the flakes in the air swirled in his passing. He left a faint trail of energy in his wake. The snow blinding him, flying into his eyes and stinging. He could make out the woman, though, and that was good enough.

As he neared, he created a sort of shield construct in front of his hand, which looked like the famous hero Andferne's famous weapon. Coming closer, he swung it as if he was actually holding it, going for the woman's chin.

Don't let this get out of hand! You're supposed to protect and serve, remember.

The woman seemed to hesitate as the construct came at her, and for what reason Epsilon didn't know. The shield struck her dead on, and she was lifted off her feet. She got up quickly enough, though, and things became even more interesting at that point.

The wave of psychic energy was barreling outwards in a circle, whipping things about in a frenzy. To Eric, it looked like a wave of snow. Instinctively, he raised his arms, which almost automatically created a protective shield in front of him. It took the attack, although he was pushed back a few feet. After a few seconds, the wave passed, and the snow fell down in a clump, splattering on the teenager.

"Awesome", he muttered sarcastically. He started brushing it off before a bright purple light blinded him. He blinked, struggling to find his focus and recovery vision. The noise of something rustling grew, and came closer. He backed up and tripped, landing hard, and his vision returned in time to see a swarm of dark creatures descend upon him. They came fast, crawling, and biting, and surged over.

His vision was blocked and cries of the (bats?) flying things were deafening. They bit and drew blood, and he was terrified. He yelled out in fear and pain randomly as blood dripped out of his limbs. He was suddenly hit hard by a extreme sensation of deja vu-the feeling of being enclosed in something he could not get out of. Water? A cage? Both?

Epsilon, FOCUS!

The mental "kick" that Nero delivered shocked Eric into action, and he began blasting. The magical constructs nearly evaporated as the blasts tore them apart. He fired wildly and blindly, everywhere, screaming out in a panic. The blasts went all over the place, smashing into cars and rending them in half, blowing holes in walls, and shattering windows. After a few moments, it was over.

He stood up, wincing. Much of his clothes were torn, and he was bleeding from several cuts on his head, a few on his face, and numerous ones on his arms, legs, and body. He groaned in pain, before glaring at his opponent.

As if he was tossing something into the air, he gestured for the snow in front of him to rise. It did so, floating ahead. Thinking, he transformed it into a half a foot thick wall of ice, the flakes snapping as they were frozen even further rapidly.

With that done, he "pushed" the wall forward, and it shot towards Dahlia. He pulled back his other hand, electric-like energy crackling around it. He threw the limb forward and fired off a large, bright white blast which shattered the ice wall and kept going towards the woman.

The ice was like a shrapnel grenade, the shards flying everywhere and ricocheting. Eric had created a force-field around himself to prevent injury.

He had another hit of deja vu, as he realized that he had tried a tactic similar to this one once before, on the insane criminal Pallu Project. That battle had not ended well for either of them. How would he fare now?

At the very beginning of their magical education, Esmoreldian children are taught that, in Sigil Magic, time is the most previous resource. Dahlia had always been a good student, one who learned very quickly, and such an elementary notion had not been lost upon her. In fact, the sorceress did not even look to see if her latest attack had been efficient- although she did hear noises that indicated some sort of struggle between her constructs and the boy- for she knew the attack mattered not. It was merely a distraction, a short spell meant only to give her time to write a longer, more powerful spell. The exiled heiress had decided that a time-stopping spell would be the most useful. However, chronokinetic magic had never been her forte, and it was also one of the most taxing and complex branches of magic.

Her mind set, Dahlia began to hurriedly draw the various sigils, the symbols of power necessary for her spell to be cast. Her staff, its two amethysts glowing bright, was moving so quickly in the air that it almost looked like a blue, leaving purple glyphs floating in the air. The sorceress' mind was racing: every single symbol needed to be drawn right, placed at the correct spot, chained to the exact combination of sigils necessary for the spell to work... Sigil Magic was powerful, sure, but its power was far from gratuitous.

She was almost done with her spell when Dahlia caught a vague glimpse of light. Warned that her opponent was on the move again, the sorceress took her eyes off of her spell for half a second, but it was almost too late already. She only had time to erect a partial telekinetic force field before solid, sharp shards of ice began to fly everywhere. Although she had managed to protect her face, Dahlia's arms and the part of her legs that was exposed from her dress were covered in cuts and scratches, several of which began to bled. Some shards had actually penetrated her skin and remained lodged in her limbs, a sharp pain echoing throughout her entire body.

Furious, Dahlia's instinct had her rely on her psychic abilities. Unaware that her foe also possessed the gift of telepathy, she transferred all of her pain into a psionic lance that she fired at Epsilon. Her senses numbed from the pain, the sorceress passed a hand along her injured leg, covering her fingers with her own blood. Having dropped her staff in the attack, she resorted to a more primal way to cast Sigil spells. Rapidly, she began to draw arcane symbols in the snow around her. The glyphs glowed red instead of their usual purple, and they pulsated with a strong light that indicated their power. That crimson light was reflected in the sky where black clouds gathered, coursing with red energy. All of a sudden, at the very moment when Dahlia finished writing her spell, several bolts of red electricity came down from the clouds and hit the area in a surge of power. In the confusion, Dahlia crawled behind a car where she tried her best to focus and meditate, desperate to renew her forces. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, following the Esmoreldian masters' counsels. She knew not how long her enemy would be distracted by the storm she had summoned, but at the moment it didn't matter. What mattered was that she needed to rest. As she tried to clear her mind, she came to the realization that her walking away from this battle depended on the energy she would be able to gather now.

Perhaps even my life, she thought quietly.

Moments after the ice wall exploded, Eric was struck with some sort of psychic barrage. He was able to defend himself, by it was painful, like a extreme migraine that came and went within ten seconds. He staggered back, stepping through the snow and pressing his hands against his forehead, groaning in surprise.

Because of this, he couldn't notice Dahlia prepping another spell. He snapped back to the fight when the first crack of thunder reverberated throughout the city. The bolt came down and hit the wall of a electronics store. A surge of electricity pulsed through the building, and all of the various things for sale essentially exploded in a shower of sparks.

The next bolt landed metres from Eric, and the blast knocked him off his feet. He was sent flying back, to crash through the windshield of a car, caving in part of the roof. The glass shattered and the body of the entire car bent from the impact, the car's alarm going off. Slowly, he rolled off the hood of the vehicle and onto the snow-covered road, which was considerably softer. He had trouble breathing-at least one of his ribs were broken. He gasped weakly, trying to recover some of his strength.

He glared up at Dahlia, pushed himself to his feet, and began moving towards her. He fell to his knees shortly from the pain, breathing heavily, looking very weak. For a few moments, he didn't stir, the snow just building on top of him.

Without warning, the car that he had landed on was lifted off the ground and hurled towards the woman, flying straight and stable. Simultaneously, Eric launched a psychic distraction, meant to momentarily distract her. The car made a large "whoosh" while it soared towards Dahlia. Eric was using some of her own tactics against her.