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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 13, 2024 1:14:09 GMT
Alejandra had been waiting for this moment ever since she had heard the news of her cousin's killing. The notorious and trendy Iceberg Lounge was a grimy little jewel in dreary Gotham, but still a jewel, Alejandra could appreciate that, the sleek building having been built with modern aesthetics in mind. While she had been doing her personal investigations alone in the city, Alejandra had her men case several places that were on interest to her, the Iceberg Lounge being one of them. That way, through reports, she had a sense of the layout before even entering. Important, since she didn't want to stay in the building for long. She only had one task, and nothing would distract her. Dressed in a form-fitting black suit, Alejandra strode into the casino with the poise of someone who belonged there. She certainly had the money to. Ignoring everyone else as she walked, she weaved her way through people, past bars and playing tables until she reached the stairs, not wanting to be seen going through the elevators. Alejandra climbed until she reached the executive floor, finding a guard stationed at the stairway exit. Not hesitating, Alejandra walked right up to the man as he barked at her to stop, and punched her molten fist through his throat, killing and silencing him simultaneously. She let the man's body drop unceremoniously to the floor before quietly walking onto the executive floor, her body starting to glow a deep reddish hue and her skin hardening as she shifted into her magma form, her suit starting to burn away from her. In case there were more guards in the hallway, she was ready to start her "work". |
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 24, 2024 20:41:17 GMT
"I think that's far enough," a calm voice pierced the air.  Stepping out in front of Alejandra in the hallway was a tall man in armour, wearing a black and orange mask that showed only one eye from within, covered from head to toe in different kinds of arments and weapons. The red glow from her magma form caused his form to take on a reddish tint, and it was not difficult to recognize him; it was Slade Wilson or Deathstroke. If he was intimidated by her powers, he certainly did not show it, nor did he appear worried about the possibility of facing her in a tight hallway. "Alejandra Ruiz, what an unexpected and annoying surprise, and here I had hoped for an easy day," Deathstroke continued, cracking his neck, the one visible eye narrowing slightly. He may look relaxed, but he was anything but that; he knew her reputation. "I suggest you turn right around and go back the way you came, La Niña Diablo."
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 24, 2024 21:10:32 GMT
Alejandra had been ready to stride all the way down the hallway to Cobblepot's office and melt him from the inside out, expecting only guards with machine guns and maybe an annoying sprinkler system. An assassin, and a lone one at that, was one of the last things Alejandra expected to see.
Fortunately for Alejandra, she knew of this man, though only through his reputation. Other cartel leaders have spoke of him, boasted (truthfully or not) of acquiring his services, if even for a short time. Alejandra always listened to the stories, fascinated by the implications. An assassin whose name was often uttered alongside hero's. She never once considered his blade being pointed at her.
The use of her other alias annoyed her, stoking an old flame in her heart. Alejandra would remember that. She waited, standing in the hallway, letting her clothing burn away completely as her entire body took on her signature red-orange glow. "Plata o plomo?" she asked him, though she felt certain she already knew his answer. Silver or lead? Money or death?
Without waiting for an answer, she suddenly stomped down hard with all her superhuman strength, first sending a tremor throughout the floor to try to compromise Deathstroke's balance. Second, she created a crater in the floor with her power stomp, making the floor and footing around her buckle and loose.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 24, 2024 21:47:50 GMT
Slade stood in silence, and the moment Alejandra raised her foot, he acted as well. As her stomp landed, Slade pulled a rifle from his back and fired three explosive rounds, but they were not aimed at Alejandra. Instead, they caused the main waterline of the building in the ceiling to rapture, causing a cascade of Icebergs' fridging water to burst into the hallway. He was unsure if this would damage her that much. But he had another reason for doing what he did, based on the simple fact that lots of cold water meeting hot magma would cause a rather extensive explosion as the liquid instantly turned into gas, doing much more than just cracking the floor. He raised his arm to cover himself as he was hit by the blast of rapidly expanding steam, thankful to be protected by his armour. It did seem like she wanted to go down, so he helped by causing the entire hallway to cave in on itself. Sure, it meant he would fall, too, but he did not have a problem with that. He landed with a grunt on the floor below, but all things considered, did not look worse for wear.  Still, that was not likely enough to take someone as powerful as Volcán out, not by a mile, so he did not have the luxury of relaxing just yet! Deathstroke quickly discarded the gun, throwing it to the side before pulling out The Deathstroke. "I guess not turning around it is then." He did not sound overly disappointed... |
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 25, 2024 0:30:04 GMT
Alejandra roared in fury when she was doused with frigid water, the explosion drowning out her angry roar. The steam from the explosion quickly filled up the hallway, and Alejandra could already feel her body weaken, her glowing body having dimmed somewhat. Loud cracking sounds underneath Alejandra followed after the explosion, the floor collapsing, and the hallway caving in on itself as the two of them landed on the floor below. Alejandra was not as graceful as Slade, however, landing on her back, disoriented from the explosion.
"Ughhh...Mierda..."
She shook her head as she got back up, water still sprinkling over her from above. Steam still issued from her body as water ran over her, the woman glaring over at Slade, where it was drier. "This is not your fight, cabrón," she snarled as she walked towards him, grabbing a slab of concrete rubble with both hands and melting it within her grasp. Then, as globs of lava dripped from her fists, she suddenly shot her hand out, firing a barrage of lava darts at Slade.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 25, 2024 9:28:41 GMT
Slade quickly began to dodge the incoming darts, dancing around them; he was quick enough to dodge bullets and did not feel that being hit by molten lava would suit his health; a few stray shots did graze his armour, leaving dark blotches on it. "Perhaps not; I've no idea what your beef with Cobblepot is, and honestly, I don't care." He replied, quickly closing the gap between them; a few times, he was forced to deflect the lava with the Deathstroke. "You clearly want him dead, which does make it my problem; you see, I want him alive." Once he was close enough, he began to attack Alejandra with The Deathstroke, aiming to attack her with a barrage of fast attacks.
While he did not put full force behind each swing, Alejandra would find that the sword was made of some weird alloy that could still chip away at her hardened magma form, and neither did the possible heat seem to do anything to it nor the strikes dull it. There were few things Deathstroke could not cut if he put his mind to it; it was just a matter of how one did the cutting.
Slade had never faced this woman before, but as they were fighting, he analyzed her movements, how she moved her feet, and how her body shifted whenever she used her magma powers. Controlling lava was a frightening ability.
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 25, 2024 18:27:06 GMT
Slade was fast, faster than any assassin Alejandra had ever encountered before. If he was agile enough to dodge gunfire, then Alejandra's darts had little chance of hitting their mark. Within moments, Slade was already upon her, bringing a rapid barrage of slashes onto her.
Reacting instead of thinking, she raised her arms in a defensive cross-block and stepped back a few times as she was being struck, expecting to shrug off the damage due to her durability. When the slashes did damage her, her eyes widened in shock, seeing and feeling chipped pieces fall off of her. She grit her teeth and growled in pain, not used to feeling pain while in this form. That disturbed her; that he could make her feel pain.
Her curiosity made her want to know more about Slade's presence here, and about why he wanted Cobblepot alive. But talking more now would only waste energy and time, so instead she suddenly crouched down, punching both hands down into the floor and reaching the concrete slab underneath their feet, her eyes flaring up as she melted the concrete slab. The ground suddenly got red hot, lighting the floor. While gripping the slab, Alejandra threw her arms up, as if upending a table, using her magmakinesis to launch the newly made lava beneath them at Slade as a sudden wide wave, like a rogue crest out at sea.
She knew this move would compromise their footing once more, that melting the slabs that formed the floors had a high likelihood to send them falling to a floor below once again. Alejandra didn't care. To her, if for some god-damned reason Cobblepot left alive tonight, his building sure as hell wouldn't be kept the same. She didn't care about collateral damage, and as the fight would drag on, there would be more of it. She would burn the entire building down if she had to.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 26, 2024 7:28:12 GMT
Slade gritted his teeth behind his mask as Alejandra pulled the stunt with the floor, forcing the assassin to retreat again to avoid the incoming wave of lava. He did need to remind himself that she was not a target; he was not paid to kill her; no, that was not why he was here. He felt the flooring vibrate as cracks began to form. Moments later, the hallway gave in, and this time, it would be a higher fall, right into the central area of the Iceberg Lounge, where the guests were milling about, playing at the casino, or just drinking and eating. Slade managed to catch himself on one of the many decorative icebergs.
Not thinking much about other casualties, he exchanged the sword for his high-calibre rifle and sent away several powerful shots at Alejandra while sliding down the iceberg.
It quickly devolved into pandemonium as guests began to scream, running over each other to get outside. Several of Penguin's people also started to pull out weapons and, without knowing who to side with, began shooting both Deathstroke and Alejandra, forcing the assassin to take cover behind an overturned table while cursing under his breath. ... perfect, not only did he have to fight the magma lady, now he also had to deal with the birdbrain's stupid goons.
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 26, 2024 19:16:31 GMT
Overall, this was going poorly. Alejandra was up against an opponent that not only could actually hurt her, but could easily outfight her. She knew he could. Alejandra was a sicario at heart, and usually killed with magma, strength, or the classic bullet. She definitely did not know martial arts, that would be clear. Furthermore, each move she made only put her further away from the main office, away from her target. If Cobblepot was here, the severe noise and tremors would have certainly alerted him that something wrong was happening right now. Alejandra could only hope that Cobblepot would stay to investigate or protect his lounge instead of flee.
After the floor collapsed and the roof of the central area of the lounge caved-in, Alejandra would fall from the roof, landing on her back with a loud CRASH! onto a roulette table, sending shards of wood and debris flying. She soon got back up from that drop with a growl, rubbing the back of her head and cracking her neck, feeling somewhat dazed.
"Guh!" Alejandra staggered and dropped to her knee as a few powerful high-caliber rounds sunk into her body, leaving behind obvious puncture wounds, though she were already melting the bullets inside of her, lava dripping from those holes. Crouched down again, Alejandra ignored the shots at her from Cobblepot's thugs and melted the ground beneath her, a circular area of magma spreading outward from Alejandra, at first only a meter across, but quickly swelling to ten meters, the woman taking advantage of them being on the ground floor now.
As she created more lava by continually melting the ground around her, she used her magmakinesis to make the growing pool of magma swirl around her like a whirlpool, making the lava dance as though it were more liquid than solid. Once Alejandra had sunk knee-deep into the now-molten floor, she dove face-first into the miniature pool, letting fresh lava wash over her wounds and replace the chipped pieces left behind, healing herself.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 26, 2024 19:50:13 GMT
"Curious," Slade muttered to himself, looking out from behind his cover, watching as Alejandra turned part of the casino floor into a pool of lava; he quickly took out two of Cobblepot's goons without looking away from the main problem. She was diving into the lava for a reason; was she healing herself using the magma? It would be a fair assumption, but at the same time... she was not looking at what happened outside, not like lava was water. Slade glanced at the rest of the club, his mind working quickly to make a plan. What could he use here?
She was powerful because her mutation was powerful...
She did not seem experienced with facing someone who knew how to fight back.
Slade retreated away from the pool, putting away the rifle and checking if he had any tools on him that could be useful here. Magma was challenging to deal with at the best of times, even more so when it also happened to be a woman. He was, however, starting to get an idea of what he could do... all he needed was to wait.
If and when Alejandra came back out of the lava, she would notice that Slade was nowhere to be seen, and the only sign of him was several dead goons spread around the room. "You open for some constructive feedback?" His voice would ring out, but the words bounced and the source would be difficult to pinpoint. "I have a feeling you could use it..."
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 26, 2024 20:03:54 GMT
Instead of emerging as she usually did, half of the pool swelled upward, forming a large mound that rose up until more defined features appeared. Specifically, arms. Alejandra felt comfortable and safe inside the pool, underneath the surface. She would prefer not to re-emerge just to open herself up to more attacks, but she still needed to fight. So she made the pool rise with her, encasing her body in the form of a towering golem, a few stories high, giant fists bright and burning.  There was one major problem, however, a problem that Slade noticed. Alejandra couldn't see or hear through her magma, and thus couldn't see anything outside of this new, larger defensive form of hers. To deal with that, instead of going after Slade directly, she charged roughly in the direction of one of the massive support columns in the central area, apparently intending on bringing down the entire building onto them, swinging her giant magma fists haphazardly in an attempt to smash whatever she ran into with superhuman strength. |
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 26, 2024 20:25:28 GMT
Okay, that was pretty impressive...
Slade had seen a lot and faced some of the best; he'd even conflicted with the man of steel himself, but this was still impressive. He was glad he remembered to keep the camera running so he could document all this. He raised a hand to the side of his head, "Yes?" He asked, listening in silence, "No idea why she's so keen to kill you, Penguin, but you'd best not still be here... or all this is a waste of time." He frowned, "I sure hope you've got insurance." He ended the call before Cobblepot could say anything else.
He watched Alejandra charge into one of the support pillars, causing it to crash, along with one section of the ceiling. The system inside his mask continued to analyze her magma form. She was likely not seeing much inside of there, nor hearing... at least going by her lack of reaction. Was she attempting to bring the house down? Yes, that seemed desperate; what was she trying to accomplish with that?
Still, it was difficult to fight her while she was inside that thing, so for the moment, Slade decided to bide his time, remain out of the way, and leave her on her rampage. He was curious how long her stamina would last going all out like this.
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 26, 2024 20:47:24 GMT
Alejandra could, at the very least, feel the tremors from a collapsing column and falling ceiling. Once one of the support pillars had crashed, the towering golem paused, and Slade would probably see Alejandra's head pop out of the top of the golem, like a little berry on a melon. She craned her head around and picked the next column before bull rushing that one as well, diving back into the chest of the golem before it tackled the mass of stone, ignoring the screaming people still trying to evacuate.
If Slade was going to wait for Alejandra to tire out, he would be waiting a while. Fortunately for her, Alejandra had stamina to burn, and plenty of rage to keep her going. That blast of water in the beginning did slow her down at first, but now she was surrounding herself with her element, for every chunk of stone and concrete that came from the columns was quickly melted to join the pool.
Alejandra ignored any rumbling that would come from the compromised building, not that she could hear it from within her golem, fully committed to destroying the building entirely in her frustrated desperation. She wasn't worried about being buried herself under the building; she was confident she could dig her way out.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 29, 2024 11:44:43 GMT
"Well, she's working herself into a state," muttered Slade, quickly deciding that staying inside would be a bad idea. Hence, the assassin used one of the windows and left the lounge, retreating to where he could overlook the chaos, finding such a place at the top of a nearby building. The police had also started to arrive below, but there was not much they could do due to the heat, The same could be said about the firefighters that also arrived; at best, they could keep the fire from spreading, but they were not equipped to deal lava.
The reporters had also started to make themselves known, with one even having a helicopter, to which Slade decided to duck down slightly so as not to draw attention to where he was.
Vultures for sensations, they were going to eat well that night...
Slade noticed he was getting another call and, with a sigh, raised a hand to his ear.
"Deathstroke," he said, before listening. "I don't know why she showed up or why she wanted him dead, but don't worry; the bird has already flown the coop; he's upset but very alive... for whatever it's worth." He listened... "My part in this will scarcely be remembered, not next to the chaos she unleashed with her over-the-top tantrum. If anything, I think this could work in our favour, don't you think?" As he said, a large part of Penguin's precious club decided it had had enough and promptly caved in, creating a massive cloud of dust and smoke as several hundreds of tons of material plunged into the molten pool, together with breaking the waterline, causing no small amount of steam when the water also hit the magma.
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Post by lvsphinx on Sept 29, 2024 21:20:25 GMT
Alejandra was obviously furious, if the giant golem's rampage was any indication. She was being loose with her control over her powers before, but now, in her fury, there was simply no sense of control at all anymore. The pool of magma that the golem waded in radiated intense heat, and lava started seeping to the foundations of the building.
She was succeeding in destroying the building, but ultimately failed in her goal. She was certain that if Cobblepot were here, he would have left by now. It had seemed that every move she made to fight back only pushed her further away from her target. Tonight was supposed to be a quick, simple murder. Not...this rampage. Not settling for the consolation prize of demolishing the Penguin's crown jewel. If anything, tonight showed her tenuous control over her temper, obvious from the tantrum she threw at being thwarted. However, she still had enough sense to notice this, and calmed down somewhat after the water doused her golem, the woman sensing it slowing down.
Deciding that this was barely enough destruction to satisfy her, Alejandra emerged from the base of her giant golem, still in her magma form. She could barely see through the all the dust and steam, but it served as great and convenient cover, so she simply charged in a direction, shoulder smashing or melting through any walls she came across until she burst from the flaming building into the back alley.
From that back alley behind the now-burning remains of the Iceberg Lounge, Alejandra navigated the back alleys until she reached an SUV that she had her sicarios park before the entire affair. She shifted out of her magma form, her men giving her some fresh clothes as she got in and they drove off. "You won't believe who I survived," she said to her men, a bitter expression on her face.
It would have been easy to blame Deathstroke for her failure tonight. After all, she came woefully unprepared for resistance like that. However, Alejandra couldn't stop blaming herself for this setback. It was now twice that forces in Gotham had thwarted her. She was not looking forward to a third time.
[END THREAD]
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