[zaya]

Wallflower; Offputting; Recluse; Terms that could no longer be used to describe Zaya. While her school life had started as an unwanted slog, she’d actually met enough people for the academy to become…

Not fun, but tolerable at the very least. Tolerable to the point of where the girl was more than willing to go out for several hours during the day, content to leave the warm safety and comfort of her bed, and readily accessible rest. She wondered, had her father actually intended for this to happen? For her to have an outlook on life that’s cheerier than a cold black pit?

Maybe he was trying to put her mental health first, but something told her that ShocK-King mostly just wanted her to follow in his footsteps. Still, the hand the punk girl had been dealt was looking better all the time.

The mall, while typically the home of peppy, preppy, pretty girls, was now housing one Zaya Inazuma; Who was currently waiting on her friend to join her for a bit of shopping. After their last conversation, the girl figured if she couldn’t get dating advice out of Jun, maybe she could get fashion advice.

Zaya had already sent out a text message to her friend, and now, with a smoothie in one hand and her cell phone in the other, she sat patiently and waited; Hoodie and baggy pants on, partly to conceal her identity and partly because the girl preferred comfort over fashion; Something Jun could hopefully help with. Maybe more stylish clothes would draw more unwanted attention…But maybe that was a risk this wallflower was ready to take.

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Zaya was spared from what Jun liked to wear a vast majority of the time. She was either in the school uniform (or some level of it), the gym uniform, her hero uniform, standard gym gear, or just plain pajamas. There might have been one time where she wore slacks and a green button up shirt, but that was the extent of it. There was a thing called 'Jun cute', and it was nothing spectacular. In fact, it did double duty of singling her out as plain and nerdy at the same time. Because it was getting into summer she of course wore shorts that went right to her knee, and a short pleated skirt over the top of that. Standard sneakers were on her feet, a plain ball cap on her head, and on top of all this a graphic T-shirt that, in order to shorten it, was bunched up in a ball to the side and held in place with one of her spare hair bands; she of course wore her hair in a ponytail all the time, so she had plenty. Malls were something that Jun was not too comfortable with, especially by herself, but Zaya wanted to do something off campus for once, so she could pry herself away for a day. It was good, after all! The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was a wonderful time to be alive! It'd take Jun a moment to spot Zaya (she was partially disguised, and she couldn't blame the girl), but there was something that concerned her as she approached. "I know the smoothie is cool, but aren't you hot in all that...?" zaya

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[zaya]

Zaya just shrugged off Jun’s comment. “Nah, its fine; I’m used to being cozy, so I always wear a lot of clothes. I know it isn’t very attractive, but it’s comfortable to me. Rather be too hot than too cold.”
Looking at her friend’s outfit, she couldn’t help but think it was cute, despite the corny shirt; Jun was clearly her most fashionable friend.

Which, considering how few friends she had, was admittedly not saying a lot.
“Anyway…That’s actually what I was hoping we could work on, to be honest. I never really focused too much on my outfits before due to…Ya know, not getting out at all…But…I wanna look cute, get some cute clothes, ya know?”
Zaya couldn’t help but feel the desire to get a bit more fashion in her life; Maybe it came about from being at a school surrounded by people her own age? Despite being a loner, she’d always wanted friends to do this sort of thing with, if for nothing else than to see what it was like.

“You wouldn’t mind going to Goth Topic, would you? That’s where I was looking at before to do some clothes shopping, they seem to have my aesthetic there.” She asked, already peering over at a glowing electronic directory to see where the store was. The brand was everywhere these days, and this mall was no exception, housing a rather large store on the bottom floor.
Hopefully Jun’s fashion advice would be better than her wacky, unreasonable dating advice.

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Jun blinked, and for a solid twenty seconds she was silent. Not because Jun was offended, but because she had never been asked to do anything like this before. Ever. Granted, she had gone shopping with others in the past, but it was almost always her dragging others to look into all her other hobbies, or looking for items to use for props, or something like that. She never, ever went clothes shopping with someone other than her mother or father. "A-absolutely! Let's go!" In an instant she was animated, and actually excited. This was new for her! It was something she never experienced, never thought she might experience, and was actually happening! While her aesthetic was not the greatest in the world, it would at the very least be helpful for Zaya's situation. "Bottom floor, bottom floor...there's a staircase over here, and that'll eliminate a lot of walking! Let's go!" Without waiting on Zaya she turned and began to head in that direction, more than willing to lead the way. In a manner, she was looking forward to this! And maybe, possible, she might get some ideas on her next piercing...not like anyone ever saw her piercings. zaya

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[zaya]

“Awesome!” Zaya shot Jun an enthused smile before heading for the stairs. She was excited; More excited than she’d been for anything in a long while. Her mind was already racing on what to pick out, how Jun would respond to the attire she chose, possibly even seeing what other knickknacks Goth Topic had; Most of the times she’d been there she had quickly grabbed the clothing she wanted and left, so taking the time to actually explore was an exciting prospect.

Walking beside Jun, the goth was practically skipping down the stairs, elated as if it were her birthday;
But good things hardly ever last. As if reality itself was punishing her for trying to be happy, an object flew at her, crash landing about halfway down the stairs; Thankfully missing any pedestrians. Zaya fell backwards, dropping her smoothie, surprised from the impact of what seemed to be a vendor’s cart, or at least what was left of it after its crash landing.

“Fools! I have come for revenge!”
Looking upward past the horde of scattering civilians, Zaya spotted the culprit of the cart thrower; Floating downwards from high above the ground was a man in a chair; At least, it looked like a man. More like an oversized head melded with a seat, with tiny legs dangling below and equally tiny arms resting on the chair’s armrests.
“I, The Kollector, have returned to extract payback on The Thunderbolts!”

Zaya raised an eyebrow at this comical looking villain. The Kollector, as he called himself, looked worse for wear, sporting a large bandage over his forehead, and part of his chair looking as if it was patched up shoddily with scrap metal; Probably where the revenge part was coming from.
“A trip to the mall;” Zaya started to charge up a lightning bolt in her hand. “Was that so much to ask?!”
More out of anger than anything else, the girl launched the bolt towards the floating fiend, who hovered out of its path.
“If it’s the Thunderbolts you want, why come after me?! Don’t you have anything better to do?”
Moving down the stairs and away from the debris, Zaya quickly peered over to Jun, to make sure she was alright.
“I have no idea who this is…I guess we have to get away from him and wait for heroes right?” She asked, trying to find somewhere to duck for cover.

“Uh…No! I have chosen to extract revenge on YOU specifically!” Kollector almost sounded like he hadn’t thought things through, as he telekinetically lifted a smoothie cart, and prepared it for a toss.

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... All was going to go well today. The sun was shining, the sound of birds were on the loudspeakers, children were playing on the lower levels. What a time to be alive! And then the cart crashed right in front of them. It would have crushed Jun, had she not spotted it and reacted in time, vaulting forward down the steps as it smashed into the tile. In an instant her body tensed, adrenaline beginning to course through her veins, and her rings glowed. Her gaze landed on the Kollector, and while she did thing he was in a sorry state she knew he was a threat to everyone there. She glanced over at Zaya as she made her way down, a frown on her face as she was beginning to analyze the situation. "It might've been better to not tie yourself to the 'bolts," she whispers, a Mjolnir construct forming in her hand. "He's incapable of striking back at his rivals in his current state, and his 'revenge' involves taking it out on anyone he can find. Which means you've painted a target on your back. Focus on getting people out of here on the lower level, I'll keep him busy. If I present a bigger threat he'll have to switch focus else he'll get hammered. More than likely someone's on their way, we just gotta hold out a little while until then." While Zaya's actions did irk Jun a little, she wasn't going to berate her over them. Especially since she was about to do worse. Besides, she was much angrier that this incredibly awesome day was being ruined by some jerk who couldn't keep his head down...in this case, literally. She'd send the hammer up at speed in a manner to force the Kollector to dodge, which was what she was wanting in the first place. "Hey, poozer!" She'd move forward some paces, doing what she could to emphasize herself as the sole target. "You've just turned a day that was supposed to be filled with fun and shopping into half a day of police reports and after action statements! You have, at minimum, broken five laws that I can see, and if you keep it up you're looking at thirty years in prison at minimum! Put the cart down, come down from there, and wait with us for the police to arrive! You don't want me going up there to drag your sorry butt down, so this is your only out!" What the Kollector didn't know was that the Mjolnir Jun threw didn't dissipate; if he failed to comply it'd boomerang back in order to hit him in the back of the head. zaya

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[zaya]

Trying to calm down a bit, Zaya nodded in agreement with Jun’s plan.
“Yeah, probably best to just get civilians out of the way…” Looking at the menacing villain hovering menacingly overhead, she prayed Jun could keep him occupied.

Looking at the sea of panicked people, Zaya knew exactly what she had to do; Get their attention, lead them to safety. She paused for a minute, collecting her thoughts and trying to think of the best way to do that. Probably just yelling, right?
The girl took a deep breath in…But no words came out. The mob of people was huge, all of them in a frenzy trying to get away from the scene unfolding; Yelling, screaming, shoving each other…
What was one girl supposed to do? As Zaya looked around, a realization hit her; She was just one of them. Another civilian being caught in the crossfire, being targeted by a rampaging villain.
And she panicked.
The initial adrenaline from the surprise attack had worn off, and ‘fight’ was quickly being replaced with ‘flight’. Breathing heavily, the only thought on Zaya’s mind was if she was going to get crushed by flying debris launched by the Kollector.
As she tried to move, her knees started to feel weak; Too weak to run, so she did the next best thing; She hid. Unfortunately for her, the only hiding place she could crawl to in time was a wooden bench, where she was still visible through the benches slits. There, she lied down and prayed Jun could take care of things…



“You IMBECILE! I care not for the shopping of untrained eyes! What collectibles can be found in a common mall?!” The Kollector asked, fed up with Jun’s defiance.
Seeing the hammer flying at him, the villain activated his telekinetic powers, stopping the construct mid flight.
“And I haven’t any interest in YOU!” With that, he attempted to fling the Mjolnir back at his foe; Whether or not Jun was hit by it, he’d fly past her and down to the lower levels of the mall.
Scanning the area, The Kollector looked over dozens of panicking, fleeing targets, not seeming to have any interest in them; Not until he spotted Zaya, cowering under a bench. Lifting up the bench with his powers, he pointed a finger dramatically at his victim.
“YOU! Quit hiding! Come out and face your doom!”
Zaya started scrambling to her feet, tripping over herself; She waited for the impact of wood on her body…An impact that didn’t come.
Opening her eyes and peering through her fingers, Zaya noticed that the Kollector hadn’t smacked her with the bench; Which would’ve been the obvious play. Rather, he had chosen to run his mouth.
“I KNOW you’re the child of one of the Thunderbolts, and I WILL take my vengeance out for-“

His monologue was cut off as Zaya fired off a panicked shock blast at him; It was more of an impulsive attack rather than a concentrated strike, and with a lot of her power already drained, she didn’t expect it to do much.
But it did; The Kollector took the blast straight to his stomach, hovering backwards and dropping the bench, which shattered on the ground. Stabilizing himself he moved forward once more.
“A powerful blow, but you’ll need to do more than that to-HEY!”
He stopped his monologue once more as he noticed Zaya starting to run in the opposite direction.
“Quit your running! Come back and fight!” The fiend called out. He was completely ignoring everyone else, Jun included, as he began to hover towards Zaya.

“Gotta get out of here…Just gotta get out of here…”

[junsuina]

[attr="class","bmsk"] in blackest night... Huh. That was new to her. But it made sense; other people had been able to interact with Jun's constructs in the past, telekinesis was no different. The silver lining was Jun was capable of maintaining some level of control over it as he attempted to fling it back, catching it mid-flight as she advanced. "I'm warning you, don't make me come up there!" She'd stay with him as she tried to figure out a plan. She could use chains to drag him down, but his his powers he was more likely to pull her up than not. Unless she gave the chains life...that might work. Or, better yet, attach a chain to him and then the other end to a railing or something. Jumping up at him and knocking him down was another worthwhile strategy, but she classified as an object and he could just fling her away. She needed to find a way to negate his distance, or at the least make him regret it. Cannons were the option there, but with this many people around his his powers...she wasn't sure she could maintain control over all those shells. As she was running through all this she realized he was focusing his efforts on one person: Zaya. She hadn't listened to Jun, and took to hiding. Why in the world- All it took was one look. In half a second, she realized everything Zaya might be going through. She knew she had to push herself beyond her limits now, and sprinting at top speed she leapt up onto the bench, summoning a chain attached to the upper level and slingshotted herself around into the Kollector's blind spot with the intent on kicking him at the apex of her swing. This would be helped with Zaya's sudden burst aimed at him, catching him off guard. He's a bad criminal. Any villain worth his salt would have gone for the throat. We're getting lucky. With adrenaline pumping through her Jun knew she had to end this quickly; once he was on the ground she'd have to grapple him and force submission. She hated this thought as it meant touching him, but something had to be done. Fast. zaya

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[zaya]

“Come back and face the Kollector! I will be your e-“ A kick to the back of his oversized head stopped him mid sentence, and his hovering chair skidded along the ground, throwing up sparks.

“How dare you! You weren’t supposed to be part of this!” Kollector called out, getting his chair back up to a nice altitude a few feet above the ground.
Zaya turned around to see why her attacker had suddenly stopped, and noticed Jun.
“Thank god…Maybe she can take him out…” She thought to herself, still praying the villain wouldn’t interact with her further.
“This is between me…And HER!”
Turning back around suddenly, Kollector grabbed a large, vintage television out of a nearby display, shattering glass everywhere. Without any time to react, he chucked it at Zaya.

The girl cowered away in fear, not even thinking to use her powers to defend herself; The television wouldn’t hit her square on…
But something stopped it; A giant wall of mud, having caught the object, tossed it aside.
“You look like you could use some help.”
Looking up, Zaya watched as the mud reformed itself into a familiar face.
"Mark?"
“I know I’m not your favorite person to be around…But I’m not just going to let this guy have his way.”
The son of Thunderbolt Polymorph, Mark, WASN’T someone Zaya was too fond of, with how much he bothered her about wanting to become ‘teammates’, but she wasn’t about to complain about getting help.
“Ah, TWO Thunderbolt prodigies! Time to squash two bugs…” Eyes still fully on the duo, not on Jun, the Kollector grabbed another television from the same store, this one a wide flat screen. “With one display!”
Before he could get the chance to drop the flat screen on the pair, Mark morphed his right arm into a large fist, mud dripping from it. Reeling back, he sent the oversized arm crashing into the villains face, sending him flying far back, even enough to push him back from where Jun was.
“Dunno who you are, but I think the three of us can take this creep.” Mark stated, shaping his fist back to normal. “I already called the authorities, but it seems like the closest heroes are a bit far out; We’ll have to clobber him ourselves.”
Picking herself up, Zaya gazed over to the Kollector, whose path had been stopped by a large potted plant, who was already getting back up and brushing dirt off.

“I…Alright, we can do this…” Zaya still sounded unconfident and scared, but maybe with the three of them she could avoid confrontation. Lighting up her arms, she prepared to hit the Kollector once he came back at them.


“Why you miscreant…” Now fully back up, the Kollector grabbed three other nearby potted plants, and lifted them around him with his telekinesis. “You’re dead meat!”
As the floating villain rushed forward, he tossed the plants, one at each young hero.
Firing off a bolt from both her hands, one of her zaps managed to hit the plant long before it got close; Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to be able to hit the other two projectiles in team, forced to leave her friends to defend themselves…