Slice of Life

During class, Blake wasn't looking directly at his target, rather, he was watching her with his peripheral vision. Every so often, he would see her look over while he was pretending to take notes. The lesson today was one that he already knew, thus making it easier to "study" Jackie. By the time class ended, the boy came to the conclusion of his exam: Jackie was no immediate threat to humanity and thus, didn't warrant her termination. As soon as the bell rang, the teen quickly packed everything up and bolted from the room.

Upon reaching his motorcycle outside, he put his helmet on and started the engine. The motor purred quietly as he twisted the throttle. Despite it's sleek design it still turned a few heads. A lot of girls and men gave him various looks. He even heard one of them call out as he drove by, "Did Mommy and Daddy you a corvette as well?" mocking the ninja. As much as the comment boiled his blood, he didn't stop and didn't retaliate. It wasn't worth getting noticed anymore than he has already. Before too long, the motorcycle hummed down the street as he left campus. "Phantom to base, Phantom to base. I examined the target and-" "Your job was not to examine her, you were suppose to exterminate her!" "Negative, sir, my mission was to exterminate a monster. She is not a monster. I will, however continue to observe her. Should she turn hostile, I will terminate on sight." "Understood, continue mission, out."

Reaching his house, he couldn't help but think that his commander accept the conditions a little too easily. Normally he would refuse to budge from his position, let alone agree with the complete opposite of his views. Trying to shake the thoughts from his head, Phantom unlocked the door to his house and went inside. The subtle smell of lavender wafted in the air as the calming white colors helped him relax. Despite a TV and a few Asian decorations, the house looked fairly barren. However, hanging above the fireplace is an old sword that has been handed down through generations.

As simple as the three bedroom house was, to Blake, it was home for now. Sitting down in on the floor, crossing his legs, and resting the back of his hands on his knees, Blake took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. With each breath, he helped clear his mind and focused on the conversation he had with the unit. It bothered him that it was too simple. Perhaps he was just over thinking it? Regardless, only time will tell.

After an hour of meditation, the ninja went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Tomorrow would be the second day and he had to get ready for school.

Frost Flower
Gemstone

After school and parting ways with her friend, Kayley had gone to one of her alley spots and quickly suited up, taking off into the air as Gemstone once again. During her patrol the teenager had a lot of distracting thoughts on her mind, namely that Jackie, whom she thought gone forever, had returned alive and thankfully well. Unfortunately she'd been rather dodgy on some subjects and run off before she could be questioned. Gemstone wasn't sure where she'd run off to and trying to find her in a city as big as Chicago was like searching for a needle in a giant haystack. All she could do is hope her friend was alright.

The patrol had thankfully gone mostly without incident, until she came across a criminal she quickly discovered was donning some kind of costume that had some kind of high-tech wrist-mounted flamethrowers and a belt full of incendiary bombs calling himself "Scorch". While his tech made him more formidable then the average bank robber, Gemstone was still able to emerge victorious when she set off the sprinkler systems and soaked him before knocking him out before he got the chance to detonate every bomb on his body. She had gotten a lot better in the time Jackie had been away, but it still didn't feel as fulfilling when Jackie wasn't around, and her worry about her friend had put her a little off her game and nearly got her torched by the pyromaniac villain.

By the time she had resolved the crime as well as a few perverts who cornered a girl in an alley, Gemstone changed out and returned home, ever-cautious to make sure she wasn't being watched or followed. She was always on alert about that sort of thing with the government's growing aggression towards Neos and all, and their spokesman in the armored suit scared her a bit, as well. NOT someone she wanted to run into.

By the time she was home, Kayley got her dinner of a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs, Lucy's Italian spicy style their parents loved to make them, and got to work on her homework. Yeah, it was gonna be a long night with the assignments ahead of her after the time she took patrolling and fighting a walking flamethrower-man. Even then, it was tough to focus with thoughts of Jackie being back in town.

As the teen went to bed, curling up under her covers, Kayley hugged one of her pillows, Jackie on her mind as she drifted off to sleep. She'd see her again, tomorrow, right? This wasn't a one-time thing, right? She really hoped not. She hoped Jackie would never have to leave again, no matter what she had to do to make that the case.

"Jackie, wherever you are... I hope you're alright..." she mumbled as her eyelids grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep.

TAG Phantom Frost Flower

The day started early for Jackie as she woke from her slumbers by the glint of day light. She reached down and pet the kitty on her lap and moved her to the desk. She then gathered her school thing and a change of clothes. She found her way to the local rec center and showed them her member card. She made her way to the showers and opened her locker. Inside was her soaps and a towel. So she put her back pack inside and grabbed her towel and soaps and headed to the showers. Once she was in the safety of personal showers, she removed her old clothing and turned on the shower. It didnt take long for the water to heat up, the water was on full force of hot water, which would normally cause others to wince in pain. Jackie however, only felt it as a regular warm shower. She let the water coat her body as she just stood in the shower. Her mind off in different places, Mostly that place was kayley.

She felt bad for cutting things short like she did yesterday and she was going to appologize, it's just with being homeless it wasn't something someone should speak about. Especially if it would worry people. She than washed ger hair with strawberry scented soaps. Once she was finished she wrapped her towel around her torso and opened the curtin, only to see the room covered in fog. Lightly she giggled, knowing full and well it was from the hot water making contact with her cold skin.

Once making it to her locker once more the blonde dried off and wrapped her hair in the towel. She then dressed in blue jeans with a white tank top and a light pink long sleeve sweater. She then dried her hair with the blowdryer in the bathroom and brushed her way though it . After that she tied on her white sneakers and grabbed her back pack, placing both her soaps and her towel back in the locker.

Jackie made her way to the school and sat at one of the tables and finished up on what homework she needed to do and taking notes on chapters that would be discussed though out the day. Once she had finished this she made her way into her first class and took her seat in the back where Kayley and Blake would sit.

The girl smiled and waived at the boy when he came in. Trying her hardest to be the friendly person Kayley saw her as, but her attention quickly faded from Blake when Kyalet walked in.

"Kayley! Good morning!!" She stood from her place and hugged the girl as she did normally. Then class started as normal. She had her pencil and her note book out. She was ready for the day. Yet when Blake called out in a loud time to get down she looked to Kayley, but before she could there was men running in and pointing guns. Her anxity spiked, her fears came to life and worse she had gotten Kayley caught too.

With all this bubbling inside she started to change. Not just little peices, or cold tempratures, this time it was different. Her whole image changed. The blonde hair shed to a white snow color. Her eyes went ice blue but the biggest detail that changed was her skin. It went from a normal flesh color to a white, coated in shimmering ice armor. She looked like she had stepped out of a manga or even a comic book. The temperature dropped in the room to freezing tempratures, causing many to shiver.

She was then touched and that freaked her out more, she feared that who ever touched him would get frost bite, but no matter how hard she tried to pull away as they ran she couldn't get him off her hand. When they came to a stop in an empty class room, the panic that arose in Jackie only got bigger.

"Kayley im soo sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have came Back." As she spoke years fell from her eyes only to crystallize and shatter when they hit the floor. Soon her ice was moving from her body and encasing desks and starting on the walls. The ice was thick and hard enough that it would be hard to penetrate. Jackie was to busy panicking that she didn't even notice Blake had been a Neo Human too.

As the room grew colder, Blake was able to see his breath but he kept his body from shivering. Looking towards the girl of ice watching her tear drops shatter on the floor, his thought only about their situation. With the other girl screaming at him, the boy looked to her, but instantly looked off to the side, seeing the outfit she is in. Giving a small sigh, he replied, "I am Blake Cross of the Cross clan. I worked for the Black Mists, a special operations unit. I was tasked with taking down a monster made of ice that attacked a theater." With a pause, he gave a nod towards Jackie. "However, I do not see a monster, rather an innocent forced into an unwanted position. I do not harm innocents. As a result, my commander has accused me of treason. He said your name was Light-show, correct?" The glow on her hands attracted his attention, however, there was no sign of fear or hesitation in his face or voice.

With the noise of several soldiers clambering up to the door, the boy attempted to draw his long sword, only to remember he was in his civilian outfit and was completely unarmed. With a quick glance around, he grabbed the closest items he could: a yard stick, dry erase markers, and text book. Now the best items, but they should work for now. As soon as the door was blasted open, he swung the improvised sword about neck height, slamming it into the solder's windpipe, splintering the wood. Attempting to strike the second soldier with the text book, he was about to make contact when a shot rang out, punching through the brick of paper, lodging itself in his arm. Stumbling backwards, he took in a sharp breath from the pain. As much as he wanted to cry out from the burning sensation, he didn't want the others to know just how much it hurt.

Sweeping his feet, the ninja knocked the shooter off balance and threw a marker underneath his foot, causing him to fall backwards and fire a bullet into the ceiling upon hitting the ground. Waving the other two with his good arm, he glared at the girls. "GO! NOW!"

Frost Flower
Gemstone

Kayley noticed Jackie had returned to normal, appearance-wise. A good sign as it meant she was keeping her powers more under control, which made the teen give a sigh of relief. She barely got time to process what Blake said to them before more men burst into the classroom and attacked them. Blake reacted quickly with several items in the classroom and began holding them off, but one got a lucky shot in. Jackie reacted by freezing the man's hands together while Kayley deemed it time to leave, grabbing Jackie's hand and running past the downed thugs with her and down the hall, turning the corner to where her locker was, asking Jackie to freeze the floor behind them as it'd give any pursuers an obstacle to overcome to get to them and buy them more time. A quick turn of the knob and Kayley yanked out her bag containing her costume and pulled Jackie along to the girls' locker room.

"Freeze the door shut! I'm gonna need a minute to change!" Kayley ordered, taking her costume from her bag and beginning to suit up. It may have seemed absurd with them apparently guessing who she was, but her costume was more then a fashion statement, with its ability to soak damage better then the top and skirt she had on and the gems on the chest and gloves helped amplify and focus her powers more.

As she changed, Kayley looked over at her friend. "We're gonna get through this, Jackie. I'm gonna do all I can to make sure we do," she said, pulling on her gloves and standing up, fully dressed with her shades positioned on her forehead at the moment. "That was pretty awesome what you did back there, freezing that fed's hands to the floor like that," she added with a smirk. "You know, some time and some training, you might--"

Gemstone's words were cut off as banging could be heard against the door. "Hide!" she told her friend. "If it comes down to it... don't be scared to fight..." she added, taking to the air and going up till she was on the ceiling near the entrance so she would not be seen right away. The door burst open a second later and several armed men entered, looking around. Gemstone dropped to the ground, throwing a ball of plasma energy at one fed, sending him flying when the energy ball exploded, crashing headfirst into the wall and falling unconscious. The others turned to face her, Kayley fired crackling bolts of plasma from her fingertips, shocking several more and causing them to spasm on the ground, but one eventually got a shot in, grazing the teen hero's side. The costume took the damage but Kayley still sure as hell felt it, causing her to cry out and fall to one knee.

"Start glowing and the next one'll go through your head before you make another shot..." one armed man threatened as the others aside from the one who got plasma-bombed got back up and trained their guns on her, the teen glaring lividly at them. "Find the other one! She can't be far!" he ordered the other men.

TAG Phantom Frost Flower