The Origin Of The Most Dangerous Fell-Touched In The World
Mingle And Bloodfall
Three Years Ago
With a shout that was more fear than anger, the white-uniformed security guard at a museum in New York City opened fire on the figure walking that way slowly. The subject of his attack, and the source of his panic, was a woman who stood about two inches under six feet. Her leather pants were black, with a bit of red near the waist and bottom of the legs, leading into dark red boots. She wore a black sleeveless shirt with a red leather vest, her arms left bare aside from a set of spiked bracelets on either wrist. Dark red gloves covered her hands. Finally, her entire face was covered by what appeared to be a reddish-black ceramic mask at first glance, but would prove to be something much worse. Her blonde hair was cut quite short and styled into sharp-looking spikes. She walked toward the man casually, in no apparent hurry and without paying any mind to the pistol that was pointed her way.
The guard got off three shots, all right on the mark despite his terror. And yet, none of the bullets accomplished much. The first two were heading straight for his target when a red stream of liquid flew into the air in its path. The liquid was blood, torn from the fallen body of another, quite dead security guard who was lying in a heap nearby. It streamed up out of the corpse, forming a circle in front of the advancing figure. Just before the bullets struck it, the hovering liquid hardened, forcing them to ricochet off in random directions.
On the other hand, the third bullet went straight for the woman’s face. Yet it too proved harmless, rebounding off the ‘ceramic’ mask, which wasn’t ceramic at all. It was more hardened blood. She drew a small bit from every victim she encountered, and added it either to the mask, or to the various bits of body armor she wore under her actual clothing.
Her name was Bloodfall, and she was one of the more dangerous Fell-Touched in New York, a place where the competition for such a title was already incredibly fierce. The fact that she had no qualms about severely mangling and killing anyone who happened to get in her way meant that she could very casually employ her ability to rip blood straight out of the body of anyone she either physically touched, or who had an open wound. And as soon as she had control of one person’s blood, it became child’s play to shape that into bladed weapons that could create more open wounds in anyone nearby. Suffice to say, she became an exponentially more dangerous problem the longer any particular fight went on. Even the strongest Star-Touched had trouble dealing with the woman, considering the moment she laid a hand on them, she was capable of doing horrific damage no matter how tough they were. It made facing Bloodfall a precarious situation in the best of circumstances.
And this… well, this was far from the best. This single surviving security guard scrambled backward, firing two more shots that went wide in his panic, before turning to flee.
With a disgusted, half-amused snort, the woman transformed the blood shield hovering in front of her into a whip. It lashed out, catching hold of the man’s ankle to yank him off his feet. As he hit the ground with a cry and was pulled backward, the man scrambled to turn over to point his gun once more. But Bloodfall was there first, taking two steps forward before lashing out with a kick that knocked the weapon from his grasp and sent it flying into the wall.
“You shot at me,” the woman informed him in an annoyed voice. “You really think I’m just gonna let you walk away after that?” The blood whip transformed into a set of ropes, securing the man’s arms and legs while she crouched next to him and ran a finger up his back. “No, no, no, we can’t have that. If people think they can get away with shooting at me, it’ll cause all sorts of problems. I think I might need to make an example out of you. So people know what a bad idea that is.”
While the man struggled and protested frantically, she smirked and reached for the back of his neck. However, before she could touch him, a rush of movement drew her attention. She caught just the barest glimpse of a figure running toward her, before it dropped into a slide and went straight into the imprisoned man. Just like that, the sudden new arrival went into his body and disappeared.
In the next moment, the man snapped his arms out to break the blood rope that was wrapped around him. It shattered and dissolved back into liquid, while the man flipped around onto his back. While Bloodfall was still reacting to what she had just seen, his foot lashed out to slam into her chest, sending her flailing backwards away from him. Then he was on his feet.
Or rather, they were on his feet. Because by that point, as she rolled backwards and rose once more, Bloodfall had realized what was happening. She held a hand up, snarling, “Mingle. Did you have to show up right now? I was just about to have a little fun.” Even as the words escaped her, she was trying to use her power to rip the blood from his body. But something about Mingle’s possession blocked her power. Which was quite annoying, she had to say.
“Heya, BF.” The voice that came from the man’s mouth was female, an odd side-effect of power belonging to the Star-Touched woman who had possessed him. Anyone she took over this way could be made stronger, faster, and so forth, but spoke with her voice despite retaining their own vocal cords. It was just one of those things. Beyond that, their bodies and clothing tended to shift somewhat, blending between that of the host and Mingle herself. In this case, the guard’s clothing had gone from a simple white uniform, to more of a yellowish color, with a faint smiley-face visible on the front of his shirt. His face wasn’t quite the same either, having adopted slightly softer features, while his skin darkened a bit.
“I hate to tell you this,” the feminine voice added, “but I really don’t think your buddy here was very enthusiastic about playing with you.”
Cracking the man’s neck with a slight twist of his head, Mingle added, “In fact, he’s been making it pretty clear that he wants me to make sure you don’t hurt him, or anyone else. So uh, I think your game’s over.”
“Over?” Eyes narrowing, Bloodfall retorted in a low voice which seemed to crack with barely restrained anger at the very suggestion. “No one gets to tell me when it’s over.”
With that, she snapped one hand down toward the body of the dead guard she had already begun to use. At the gesture, the rest of his blood was torn free in a wet explosion that sent chunks of flesh spraying in every direction. The blood itself transformed into a pair of reddish swords, which spun through the air twice before flying straight at the possessed guard.
But Mingle, of course, wasn’t about to take an innocent man into actual combat against a murderous Fell-Touched. Even as the blood swords flew toward him, their forms separated. Both she and the security guard were left briefly intangible in those couple of seconds, and she used that to send his body backwards and sideways, through the nearby wall so he would be safely out of the fight on the other side. Then he could run and escape from the place with his blood safely intact since he was out of Bloodfall’s line of sight.
Mingle, meanwhile, was also left intangible for that brief moment, allowing the blood swords to fly through her. That moment did, however, give Bloodfall a chance to see her opponent clearly for the first time. The Star-Touched girl stood only a couple inches over five feet, leaving her quite a bit shorter than her opponent. Her costume consisted of white, knee-length shorts, a bright yellow hoodie with a pair of smiley faces on the front which seemed to be merging into one another, matching yellow shoes with white socks, and a white head-encompassing helmet with no visible visor but a pair of yellow eyes and smile painted on.
With a thought and quick gesture, Bloodfall yanked the swords back through the air, trying to impale her opponent in the back as her brief intangibility wore off. But Mingle was already moving, twisting sideways to allow the right-hand sword to go flying just past the front of her helmet, before ducking so the left-hand one would pass over her head.
In the next moment, Mingle managed to lunge and catch hold of Bloodfall. The Fell-Touched woman immediately tried to rip the girl’s blood from her body. But Mingle was faster with her own power, vanishing from where she stood to possess the other woman instead.
Well hey, now we can have a real conversation!
Despite her enthusiasm about that fact, the only response Mingle received from the woman she was possessing was a low, dangerous, Get out.
Okay now hold on, I know you’re the bad guy and I’m the good guy, but we can find some common ground here, Mingle insisted. You’ve gotta have some redeeming qualities, right? Like, what’s your favorite flavor of Pop-Tart? She didn’t actually need to know that, of course. But it took time for her to take full control over people who were fighting her instead of cooperating, and distracting them with random chatter usually seemed to work.
In this case, however, all she felt from the Fell-Touched woman was broiling rage. Bloodfall was not a happy person at the best of times, and she especially didn’t seem to like being possessed. Get out. Get out. Geeeeeeeeeeet ouuuuut! She screamed inside her own head. Her body was already staggering from one side to the other as the two fought over control. They were each struggling desperately to push the other down. On the outside, Bloodfall’s black sleeveless shirt had turned white, while her vest was more of an orange color, blending red and yellow. The reddish-black hardened blood mask had a smiley face on it.
Through the next few moments, as Bloodfall’s body stumbled into a wall, then spun around to punch that same wall hard enough to bruise her own hand, the two struggled with one another. Dude, chill out, I’m not gonna do anything bad! Mingle blurted those words before realizing, Actually, not doing something bad is probably what you’re afraid of, huh? Just hold on, you can’t push me out. You can’t stop this, okay? So just–
Out! Out get out get out get out get out!
So intent was she on forcing the Star-Touched out of her own body, that Bloodfall turned to desperate measures. In most cases, that wouldn’t have accomplished anything either. But the mix of her specific power and her rage were a potent and deadly combination. Her voice came through, even angrier. You can’t control me. If I can’t control me, no one can control me. No one! No one! Nooooo ooooooooone!
Those words echoed through their temporarily-shared head, even as the Fell-Touched focused on her own power. But not to pull any of the very exposed blood coating the walls around them. No, this time, her power was directed inward. Mingle, in her relative innocence, realized too late what was about to happen. Hey wait, what are y–
Then she said no more. Not as herself, anyway. Because Bloodfall, in her rage, used her power to halt the blood flow to her own brain. The joined figure collapsed to the floor, jerking and spasming violently. She had meant what she said. No one else would control her, and she would kill herself to ensure that.
In the end, death was not precisely what happened. But for so many throughout the world, things would have been better if it had.
*******
Present Day
The sound of an agonized scream, enough to send chills down the spines of most who retained any semblance of empathy, filled the air of the small office. It devolved gradually into wordless sobs. A man in his late forties, with a brownish-gray beard and a full head of hair, lay on his stomach in the middle of an average, ordinary waiting room. Five chairs lined one wall, with a table full of magazines in the corner and another three chairs along the next wall. The counter where a receptionist would have waited was empty, though a heavy splattering of blood against the nearby wall left little hope for her fate.
A blood whip was still wrapped around the fallen, sobbing man’s neck, holding him in place. Not that it was particularly necessary now, given the damage that had been done to his spine.
“You know, Doc, I don’t think you’re gonna be able to fix that.”
The speaker was a woman casually reclining in one of the chairs with her feet resting on the man’s back. She wore a full covering bodysuit that was black as a base, with red-orange cloud-like designs across the arms and legs. Most of the costume’s front torso was taken up by a red smiley face. But this was nothing like what would be found in most online conversations. The eyes were shaped more like diamonds, slanted slightly diagonally. The smile itself was crooked and looked somewhat like a V, rising too close to the eyes to seem natural. Taken all together, the effect appeared unnatural and off-putting. There was simply something wrong with it, even if most couldn’t particularly describe why. Some would say it looked like a demonic smile.
The woman’s face, meanwhile, was covered by a black helmet, with a visor across the entire front. The visor was red, save for two black dots for eyes and a black, smiling mouth. She held the ‘handle’ of the blood whip lightly in one of her red-gloved hands.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Oh, that’s right,” she added idly, “you’re not actually a doctor anyway, are you? No medical license, no prescription-writing authority. Honestly, if you can’t write prescriptions, what’s even the point?”
Sobbing pathetically on the floor, the man made a sound like a wounded, dying animal before pleading, “Wha-what do you want?”
Lightly tapping her heels against his back, the woman retorted, “A little appreciation for one thing. I mean, you’re a chiropractor, and now your spine is broken. Or, you know, shattered. That’s funny. You could at least laugh a little bit. I guarantee the people who find you are gonna laugh. Twenty bucks says at least one cop makes a joke about it right outside your earshot while they’re still on the scene. But uh, friendly advice, don’t take that bet. You’re gonna need all the money you can get after this. Cuz I don’t think you’ll be practicing… what do they call what you do? It’s not medicine. Chicanery? I’ll go with chicanery. It’s a fun word. Point is, you won’t be doing any of that any time soon. So you might want to start digging for quarters in your…” She trailed off, looking down at him as she considered his situation. “Ah, you might want to have someone you trust start digging for quarters in your couch.”
With that, she took her feet off him and stood up. “But as for what I actually want from you, nothing. This is a waiting room, isn’t it? So, I’m waiting.” As she spoke, the woman walked around the man, peering out through the glass doorway to the building across the street. “How long do you suppose it takes firefighters to drown?”
As the man made a weak sound that was mostly another sob, she nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right. The same amount of time as everyone else.” Looking over her shoulder at him, the woman added, “Oh, I didn’t tell you, did I? Get this, that’s a fire station over there, right? While they were sleeping in there, I filled the doors and windows of their little bunkroom up with cement, then hooked the hoses from their trucks up and started flooding the room through the vents. Can you imagine the headlines tomorrow? Or the memes online! Firefighters drown at their station, in the water from their own trucks! People are gonna have so much fun with that.”
The man had no real response to her words, other than to duck his head and sob to himself a bit more. But she didn’t care. Her attention was on the figures who had just arrived outside the fire station. Three of them, one hovering in the air on a pair of forcefield discs under his feet. He wore army-patterned metallic armor with a matching helmet. The woman to his left on the ground was tall, standing several inches over six feet, and built quite muscularly. She wore a black tank top, green pants, and had a simple bandana over her face along with a pair of welder’s goggles. The man to the right, meanwhile, was Latino and wore baggy red pants and a white long-sleeved shirt with an orange chestplate for armor. His face was covered by a red ski mask.
Seeing all of them there as they started to move to the building itself, the woman in the waiting room took a step forward. As she did so, her body shifted slightly. She shrank by a couple inches, while a flowing cloak with raised hood appeared where none had been before.
With that shift, she took another step and was suddenly standing in front of the group. “Hey, heroes!” Her body shifted back to its original appearance. “I have been waiting so long for you. And if I’m annoyed, imagine how the guys in there feel. Honestly, C Plus on your work so far. And I don’t think it’s about to get any better.”
The trio stopped short, the hovering man pointing that way to summon a forcefield around her as he blurted, “Casura!”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” she cheerfully blurted. “I mean, it’s my name now, since the… ahh, accident. Also known as my birthday! Don’t worry about buying me presents, you won’t be around for that.”
Casura, as she called herself, had been born when Mingle and Bloodfall were joined together. When the latter had given herself that catastrophic stroke, something about the way Mingle’s powers blended her with Bloodfall inextricably merged the two together. Their personalities were twisted and melded into a single mind. The resulting woman was neither one, nor the other. She had all of the original Bloodfall’s power, permanently boosted to be much stronger than it had been before by Mingle’s gift. And while she couldn’t use Mingle’s power to possess people, by pulling the blood from others and absorbing it into herself, she could manifest their skills. Or even portions of their powers if they were Touched. Doing so had the side effect of occasionally also manifesting portions of their appearance and twisted versions of their personalities.
Bloodfall by herself had been an incredibly strong Fell-Touched. Being merged with Mingle in order to have the permanent power boost would already have made her one of the strongest in the country. But given the ability to manifest the powers of anyone whose blood she had absorbed had quickly shot Casura to the very top of the list. She was, in so many ways, the most dangerous Fell-Touched on the planet. Baldur was the strongest Star-Touched because they could shift between dozens of different versions of themself, all with different powers. Casura was the strongest Fell-Touched because with every Touched she killed, she gained parts of their powers.
The man with the forcefields knew that. Which was why he shouted for his companions to run. But before they could, Casura raised her hand. At the gesture, two columns of cement rose on either side of the man. He quickly manifested a forcefield around himself, but the columns slammed together with enough force to completely shatter the shield, breaking the man himself between them.
The forcefield around Casura vanished. To their credit, both of the other Star-Touched immediately opened up on her. The man sent a torrent of fire at her from his hands, and the woman caught hold of a nearby sign post, ripping it from the ground before hurling it through the fire and directly toward the woman’s chest.
It didn’t matter. A burst of blood exploded from Casura’s body. One of her very first actions had been to absorb the healing capabilities from a dozen different Touched, on both sides of the law. This, combined with several ‘pain dampening’ powers, allowed her to use her own blood, tearing it from her body. That was then magnified by another power she had stolen, which turned small amounts of liquid into much larger amounts. A small bit of blood pulled from her own body could turn into a hundred gallons or more with a thought. A hundred gallons which, in turn, could become any number of deadly weapons and tools.
In this case, the blood formed a bubble of sorts around the woman, shielding her from the fire. Not that it would have mattered that much, given the amount of heat-resisting powers she had stolen, but still. It was the principle of the thing.
A second later, the flames stopped, as three spikes extended from the blood shield to cut straight through the man’s throat, head, and chest. Meanwhile, as the woman hurled that sign post, it went straight through empty air. Her target had vanished, using her stolen teleportation once more.
She appeared behind the strong woman, laying a hand against her back. “You’re very tough. But are you tough enough to withstand all the blood in your brain becoming acidic and melting its way through your skull?”
In the end, she was not. As the body fell, Casura hopped over her with a gleeful sound before standing in front of the broken forcefield user. He was still alive, though barely, and lay in a crumpled heap.
“Now then, Mr. Bulwark,” she casually began. “I hear you made a rule that people on your team weren’t allowed to make jokes when they’re in the field. Something about how you had to take things seriously to be effective?” Crouching next to him, she asked, “How effective do you feel right now? Don’t you think being able to make a joke in this sort of situation would help?” Pausing then, the woman looked his shattered body up and down before coughing. “Okay, maybe that’s a bad example. Still.” Her hand reached out to pat the side of his head. “I think we all learned something today. So I really hope whoever takes over for you will rethink that rule and allows humor back into the workplace.”
“Cuz I’d hate to have to come back here.”
*******
Broadway Talks To Pack About How The Party Where She And Amber Revealed Their Identities To Each Other Went
Dani and KD
Humming to herself while she stood with the refrigerator door open in her apartment (the one that her mysteriously never present ‘aunt’ owned), Dani remained lost in the memories of everything that had happened at the party earlier that night. And afterward. She found herself staring at a can of pineapple juice for a solid ten seconds without actually processing what it said. Her mind was adrift, completely incapable of actually focusing on anything other than… other than…
Blushing at her own private thoughts, the dark-skinned girl took the can of juice and a half-eaten blueberry pie from the shelves. She was going to crash on the couch, find something mind-numbing that both she and the lizard brigade could enjoy for awhile, and just enjoy the–
“So how’d it go?”
Having just turned as she shut the fridge door, Dani saw a figure standing right there on the other side of it just as the voice spoke up. She jerked backward, giving a sort of mixed yelp and curse as she flung both the pie and juice can reflexively at the intruder.
KD’s head shifted to the side to avoid the can as it went sailing past her to land somewhere in the living room, while she caught the pie tin. “Oooh, blueberry. You got a fork?”
“KD!” Dani blurted, catching her breath as she stared that way. “What the hell are you– how did you even get–oh right, teleporter. Don’t do that!”
Raising an eyebrow, the short girl with bright blue hair slyly replied, “Uhh, yes, I am a teleporter. Among other things. And in most cases, I don’t even mind a bit of breaking and entering. Or, you know, just entering since there’s not much breaking involved in teleportation. But that’s generally frowned upon in friendships.” She paused deliberately before adding, “As is forgetting when you tell one of your friends ‘oh yeah, sure, whatever’ when they say they’re gonna wait at your place to see how your totally cool and awesome date went.”
As soon as she said that, Dani played that conversation back in her head from earlier in the day. KD was right. They were out on the balcony talking about what was going to happen, Dani had insisted it wouldn’t be a big deal. KD had then declared that she would wait around to see how it went. And Dani had indeed replied, ‘oh yeah, sure, whatever’ without actually thinking too much about it. The entire conversation had completely slipped her mind thanks to… well, all of that.
Exhaling, Dani waved a hand. “Sorry, I just–sorry.” Turning back to the drawer next to the fridge, she plucked out two forks and slipped past the other girl. “Come on, we can share the pie. And see if we can find where my juice went. You couldn’t catch that too?”
“Pie was more important,” KD replied while trailing after. “I mean, it’s pie, dude.”
Soon, the two of them were nestled on the couch, with all the lizards spread out around the room in their own most comfortable spots. Many of those were under heat lamps where they could stretch out and rest properly. They had a couple different litter boxes in a corner of the bathroom where they could do their business, as well as an assortment of water and food bowls in the kitchen and at strategic spots throughout the house so they could always find something nearby.
With the pie set between them, both girls started to eat. KD, swallowing the bite in her mouth, gestured with the fork. “Okay, one, great pie. I am totally stealing the address of wherever you bought it. But two, how did it go?! Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me!”
Oh boy. What was she actually supposed to say here? What could she say? There was no way Dani could actually tell her the whole truth. That would completely betray Amber’s trust. Hell, it was going to be hard to tell her any of it without accidentally giving away too much. KD wasn’t stupid. It would be far too easy for Dani to say the wrong thing, leading to KD figuring out the truth. But did that mean she had to lie to her friend and teammate?
Yes. Yes, she did. Amber was keeping her identity secret and not turning her in. Which meant she would be lying to all of her own teammates and friends. So yes, Dani needed to lie right now. Thankfully, she had the perfect distraction. “Haven’t been watching the news, I take it? Or looking at your phone?”
Blinking at the question, KD slowly replied. “Uhh, no? I took a nap. Only woke up when I heard you making all that racket over there in the kitchen. My phone is uhh…” She looked around before shrugging. “Somewhere. Why, what–hey did you rob that hotel?! I told you to tell me if you were gonna rob the hotel so I could help!”
Snorting, Dani shook her head. “I didn’t rob the hotel. I would’ve involved you if I was gonna do that. And I definitely wouldn’t do it at a place I attended as a civilian anyway. That’d just be dumb.” Before the other girl could press her any further, she launched into the story. Well, a sanitized version of the story, anyway. For obvious reasons, she left out the part where she and Amber had seen each other unmasked, and what came after that. And, just in case, she fudged a bit by adding in descriptions of listening to That-A-Way talk in her ear while actually in sight of Amber. That felt like worse lying than she absolutely had to do, but there was too good of a chance of KD putting two and two together simply from That-A-Way being there in the first place.
Besides, if and when the truth about this came out, she was positive the other girl would understand.
Taking another bite of pie, Dani finished with a simple, “So, you know, at least the date didn’t completely bomb.”
Groaning, KD reached back to pick up a throw pillow before smacking Dani upside the head with it. “Ugh, dude, foul! That’s just wrong. But seriously? You went on a date with one girl you like and then had a whole bomb defusing adventure with the other one you like? Was that weird?”
“You have no idea,” Dani confirmed dryly, managing to keep a straight face with a bit of effort. “And now I’m even more confused about… a lot of things.” There, that was the literal truth, even if she’d obfuscated what exactly that confusion was.
“Aww, poor Dani.” KD smiled that way, before tilting her head with a curious expression. “Hang on, so which one did you kiss?”
Choking a bit on the bite of pie she had just taken, Dani’s gaze jerked over to the other girl. “What?”
With a snicker, KD primly replied, “Come on, you kissed one of them. I can tell that sort of thing, it’s a magic gift. So which one was it? Did you kiss that Amber chick, or is this a Batman-Catwoman sort of situation?”
Okay, what the hell was she supposed to say to that? Denying the whole thing would just make KD even more curious, and she might start thinking about why Dani would deny it. That would be yet another good way of giving up Amber’s identity. God, this was even harder than she’d thought it would be. And this was with her best friend!
She had to think quickly and make a decision. Which one made the most sense for her to have kissed, that wouldn’t cause as many issues later? God, pick one and say something!
“Amber,” she finally blurted, glancing down at the pie as her blush returned. “I uh, I felt bad about walking off on her so much. So I umm…”
“Oh my God, did you tell her who you are?” KD quickly put in, eyes widening at the thought.
Right, if Dani had choked before, she almost died in that moment. “What?!” The word burst out before she shook her head rapidly. “No! Of course not. I didn’t–I mean why would you even–I mean what? Dude, how stupid do you think I am? I didn’t tell her who I was.”
She did not, however, say that she hadn’t shown the girl who she was. A clearly important distinction.
Squinting at her a bit, KD seemed to be trying to decide if she believed that. Finally, she shrugged. “It’s none of my business anyway. You can tell whoever you like. Just, you know, be careful, okay? I get that you like this girl, but you also like That-A-Way. So that whole thing is complicated enough already without adding in Amber knowing who you are. If you do decide to tell her, uhh, warn me ahead of time so we can plan out what to do if it goes wrong?”
Swallowing hard, Dani offered the other girl a short nod. “Yeah, sure, I can do that.”
A small laugh escaped KD then, as she took another bite of pie. “I mean, it’d be one thing for some rando from school to know your secret identity. But can you imagine if That-A-Way found out?
“Now that would’ve been a complicated date night.”