Catalysts: IC (Oh the thread is slowly dying...)

((since we can't wait for mata to post leaving I guess she gets caught up in the napalm, huh?))

Suddenly a number of packages around the square beeped, and blasts of air sent a semi-liquid mixture flying through the air, coating large sections of the area. Before anyone had a chance to register what had happened 4 additional packages beeped, suddenly exploding into a massive fireball that lit the napalm and set most of the devestated structure and fragments of the road outside ablaze.

Winter would have been gracious to the paramedic who was, at the moment, helping her from the rubble, if only she could have disappeared immediately after, as she was not as fond of the police as she was of doctors. In fact, she had in the past entertained a notion of becoming a physician herself, though such fantasies were always rudely interrupted by reality.

At the moment, she was busy being pestered by a police officer, the paramedic having scrambled away to excavate less-fortunate individuals from the stone slabs. No, she did not know what happened, yes, she was perfectly fine, no, she hadn't seen whoever caused the explosion on account of being buried in its aftereffects, and yes, she was sure that she was, in fact, perfectly fine.

This was, as it so happened, about to change. The police, it seemed, lacked the foresight of the terrorist, condemning even more lives to the abyss by detaining those who had survived the initial bloodbath. With an ominous beep that silenced the plaza, unnatural fire permeated the immediate area, and ground, debris, vehicles, and a vast percentage of people were swathed in merciless flame.

Winter herself was, to say the least, shocked by the sight of the policeman, hitherto an annoyance, combusting with an unearthly wail echoed by the many other (former) residents of the plaza, inclusive of Winter herself. She fell to the ground, rolling unintentionally, unable to cease the pain caused by the vicious liquid and succeeding only in assisting its immolation of her surface area.

She closed her eyes, unable to do anything but concentrate on the unbearable, indescribable pain - so this, she did. She wanted it to go away, to peel off and leave her be... and this, it did.

The burns lingered, the throbbing and searing and horrible smell which she soon identified as her own flesh, some of it mauled almost beyond recognition by the flames - all of this loitered. Yet the heat itself, the incapacitatingly abundant fire, had ceased its assault.

Winter, face scrunched into a fierce expression of perseverance, put all the effort she had into shrugging aside the pain and lifted her head to perceive the nature and origin of such merciful retreat.

The flames circled around her, and to her eyes did appear to dance with joy. She managed, her state of shock numbing the pain, to arise to her feet.

All around her was conflagration, inferno, as people burned and their screams filled the air, and the fire was happy.

It laughed and bubbled and danced around Winter and occasionally it got too close and she had to take a step back.

Gradually the ring of fire rose higher and higher, and it was when Winter raised a hand to, perhaps, touch this strange being in wonder that she noticed the change in herself, and the wonderfully familiar sensation of sharing her mind with one that lacks its own. For her hand itself was giving off an aura of aesthetic gradient, and Winter realized that although she did quite literally have her hand in the midst of the omnipotent pyre, she felt no heat. Even her own wounds had ceased to pain her, and looking down to examine her body, which had previously been rendered a charred husk by the napalm, now looked quite different indeed.

Every second that passed seemed to quicken the transformation, as the more Winter looked the more ethereal her body seemed to become. Blue and orange flames licked amicably at her clothes, and her skin burned with a searing white light.

The fire laughed at this strange entity, this ridiculous girl that had grown to resemble it so much, and danced around her jovially to welcome the creature into its world of the euphoric bliss of burning and carnage. Soon, it told her, it would die, but until that second it would take whatever joy it was able, whatever opportunity presented itself - burn, burn, burn. And Winter did feel in herself, as her skin appeared to fully combust and her clothes sank through her now-intangible form, thus consumed by the flames and transmogrified into ashes, the overwhelming urge to share in this glorious destruction. BURN. The satisfaction of the smoke, the heat, the pitiful panic of multitudinous throngs, were a symphony.

She danced with the fire-being for a time, and had begun to lose herself - for it had begun to adopt more serious concerns, the urge to survive, and as corruption came with knowledge it did regard her a serious threat.

Stay, it pleaded, and assist in exultation as we condemn the world to a fiery hell. Do not go, stay with me.

Winter, however, had other plans. Laughing in delight, she was soon compelled to vanish, as the plaza and many of those who had inhabited it were already ashes, charred beyond recognition - and the fire crew had arrived.

The being begged, urged, screamed, raged, cried for her return, as the horrible water sprayed from demoniac hoses kept it from pursuit of this life-bringer. But Winter was gone, having fled into a nearby building and then into another, and another, and those who saw this flaming entity who with every step grew more definite would attribute their hallucination to the heat and the horror of the day's calamity.

Shinigami walked down the tunnel toward the wreckage of the car, his shoe's heels clacking against the road as he walked. He pulled an earbud from his ear and looked at the exhausted man before him.

"Oh? Dead policemen a wreckage and you're exhausted. It seems you're evil, by this."

So saying he drew his right handed 9 mil. pistol from its holster.

"So must you be judged?" he said to Nox.

He began twirling the gun around, patiently waiting for a sign from the darkness about them. He grinned a yellow-toothed grin and laughed.

"Or did they deserve it?"

Nox motioned to the cuffs on his wrist. "Take a wild fuckin' guess," This new stranger unnerved him. The air of complete control was the most discordant in his mind. This era on thought he had a right to judge. Then he looked into the eyes. Heterochromic green and blue. This man looked to be mad.

He looked at the handcuffs thinking over for a moment before holstering his gun and using his right hand kusarigama blade to clink in between the cuffs against the hood.

"Well in this case, I'd say they blamed you for something dumb like dodging taxes, so I suppose your judgement is freedom. For now."

His eyes flittered and he pulled the blade to him, making a straight line across the hood.

"However, balance must be preserved."

Nox put the katana and kunai back on. He discarded one kunai, so he would have an actual even number of the daggers. "Just who are you, anyway?" This mysterious stranger was freaking him out. He had somehow deduced the situation. If he could read minds...

Winter awoke, dazed, in what appeared to be the clothing department of a mall. She felt as if she had just awoken from a particularly vivid dream, and fancied herself dead, incinerated by the flames.

Looking down at herself, she quickly realized that this was not the case.

She arose to her feet and, hurriedly, grabbed some garments from the racks and shelves to cloth herself with. Luckily, the building appeared to be vacant. Either the managers of this particular store had been evacuated after the terrorist's first strike, or they had fled when her flaming self had stormed in. In either case, Winter was considerably lucky that no one had been around when her re-transformation was completed.

Once dressed, Winter quickly removed herself from the store. Once the tenants returned and took stock of supplies, it would not do to have the thief hanging around.

Seeing as the rest of the mall appeared similarly abandoned, she decided that her first theory of evacuation was the more likely one. Not one to waste opportunity, Winter got herself a bite to eat from the grocery department and even a knife to replace her lost blackjack, plucked from the security office.

Thus clothed, fed, armed, and still confused, Winter decided to return to the scene of the attack in order to better work out exactly what effect she had had.

Ragnarok flashed a look of joy on his face and smiled widely at the strangers appreciation of balance and symmetry before speaking.

"I'm a catalyst. An Empath, you could say. That's how I found out your scenario here. I know you were wondering."

His vitalization effect began to rub off on Nox, fixing the tired feeling he had from the rage had it lingered in any bit.

Nox stood up, feeling stronger. He wiped the blood off of his chin, stretching and yawning. He began walking back to the abandoned city. "I need a good day's sleep."

Ragnarok smiled and patted his new "friend's" shoulder.

"I have a home in the abandoned city we can use. You'd be surprised how nice and empty the penthouse of most of the hotels are!"

He had a look of complete seriousness about him, hoping to gain the trust of Nox for his plan.

"The abandoned city? I live in one of the subway stations there!" Nox had more in common with this stranger than he had thought. They even shared a certain taste of style. They both obsessed over symmetry. He decided he could trust this "Judge," at least for the time being. How could it hurt, anyway?

"Really? I've been living in hotel sub-basements. And penthouses. I especially love the windowless rooms!"

Ragnarok looked at the police car and opened the door, making sure the keys were still in the ignition. He turned the keys and looked over at Nox.

"You intend to walk?"

"Dead cops and missing cars go together poorly." The reasoning was simple. The cops would find the bodies but no car. Then there would be an APB out on the car. The police would search the area they found it in.

"This may be true, but if the car is found in the quarantined zone and had its gas tank blown up, surely they wouldn't find us. Thats why we walk a small portion of the way."

He nodded understanding Nox's reasoning but favouring his own.

" Fine. But when shit hits the fan I'm out." Ah, this grew tiresome. It was almost full daylight now, far past his usual bedtime. He seriously needed a good day's sleep. He yawned, and got in the passenger seat. He put a disc in the player. "Hear the sound of the falling rain..."

"Coming down like an armageddon flame (Hey!)..."

This would lead to a duet between Nox and Ragnarok, involving many flailing hand gestures and even an air-guitar solo before they reached their destination. The plaza near the old Mall in the Abandoned City.

"Right. I'll torch this car, we head for the nearest Hilton hotel."

"Heh. I'll stay in my subway station if you don't mind. I may have friends coming over." Nox ejected the disc and laughed, pretty sure that he had just made a friend. The more allies the better, since it seemed Rodney was casting his lot with Pandora. He began to walk towards metro station 233.

Worried about being alone he stood up and walked after Nox.

"So this subway station is it uhm.. Symmetrical...?"

Though days had passed he knew certain parts of this city had raiders who were willing to kill people, and his innate ability wasn't exactly the strongest.

"Are they ever?" Nox laughed. His new friend seemed OCD as fuck. This was actually quite hilarious. He had just listened to good music and made a new friend. Other than the bombing things were going quite well today.

His left-right symmetry OCD was an actually disorder of his that was discovered when he was five, along with his dualism heterochromia.

"Well uh.. I meant the bedroom. Cuz.. I'm out of ammo y'see so.. I could get eaten."

While this fear seemed joking, it was a legitimate one he possessed.

"Pick a room, any room. Most are like big boxes. You'll have to improvise your bed though." Apparently his new bud wanted to crash at his place. This would work out ok, having a buddy to hang with. He might even help on looting trips.

"YAY!"

He began running forward into the tunnels and jammed open a door, beginning to arrange everything into its own proper position so all the items were categorized properly left to right with size and colour.

"Now then all we need is to prepare for operation theft.."

"It's not theft of it's deserted!" Nox was enjoying this guy's company more and more. Despite his faults he seemed to be a pretty cool guy. Nox walked around, looking for the intercom mic. He found it in a windowed office. He pressed the button. "The representative of New Suffolk now ha the floor!"

"Actually that's where OP:Theft takes place.. I'm going to steal a military APC."

He laughed and looked around for Nox, doubting he had heard his plans. He felt he trusted this man for the proper balance of order, however needed another source for chaos. He needed the bomber who had attacked previously.

Nox laid down, resting. He slowly let sleep wash over him. It came in slowly rising tides. Soon, he was in the subconscious haze we know as dreaming. Soon however, REM sleep stopped and he went into a deeper, more restful slumber.
(Requesting permission to timeskip.)