[h1][b][i][color=FFCB00][center]Leah Jordan[/center][/color][/i][/b][/h1][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/a97e8983-b22c-4dfe-b2a2-4825bd67ff76.png[/img][/center][center][/center][hr][center][color=FFCB00][b]Location[/b][/color]: New Orleans [color=FFCB00][b]Gear[/b][/color]: [color=FFCB00][b]Skills[/b][/color]: [/center] [hr][hr] Her teeth clenched together tight enough to snap a man's leg. She noticed him doing that thing shitty parents did where they wanted one thing, then pulled back to guilt trip a kid when the kid refused. [i]Fine, I'll do it myself,[/i] and other sniveling little gaslights. Or was he actually doing that at all? Imperator- She refused to think of him as [i]dad-[/i] He might've worded things that way just to instill the thought in Leah, and it worked. But Leah wasn't the same person she was four years ago. She didn't even have the same face anymore. Leah was different now, she wasn't [i]scared[/i] of him. No, not at all. She was just scared of what he could do. The things he [i]did[/i] to people just for looking at him funny, the world leaders he could assassinate at any moment. [i]He’s not a fire or a robbery, he’s a fucking invasion, an atomic bomb falling right on your head.[/i] She told the therapist that, the day she went there. It was true, as far as she was concerned. And he didn't seem to care that she was stronger. Imperator was always cocky like that, and seeing it again not made Leah's blood boil up until it was ready to burst from her veins. He [i]mocked her.[/i] Back when Agatha had first told her that he'd survived the collapse, a feeling had been nagging at her. The feeling that she was right, that he hadn't once taken his eyes off of her. That there wasn't a single lapse in his intel on where Leah had gone. He was showing that to be the case, and he had his reasons. He always did. She found herself straining to stand still and not tear his fucking throat out. A person could only handle themselves so much. There was a breaking point for every sapient creature to ever exist, Leah considered herself to have one that was so far into the metaphorical weeds that she didn't know it even existed. But that breaking point wasn't always someone snapping, having a breakdown and going to CAGE for self-harm. That breaking point was sometimes a person's [i]patience.[/i] People could only handle so much bullshit. Leah was nearly out of patience with him. [color=FFCB00]"You want to try and fucking stop me?"[/color] She growled. And it was an honest-to-god [i]growl.[/i] A snarl as much as it was human speech. [color=ffcb00]"You might be fast than me, but I only need to hit you [i]once."[/i][/color] Leah was speaking unusually quick. She was on edge even if she thought she could take him out in one swing. Of course, it was never that easy, but she [i]REFUSED[/i] to be in his shadow again. But, of course, there was his millionth trick up his sleeve. The school. The one she tried her best for so long to not be attached to. The one she thought she'd just coast through and walk away from not remember the name in a month. The one April and Sabine called home. Andy. Vicky. She didn't consider Dorian and Danni friends, but they were good to April. He'd consign it all to oblivion if he got bored, he chose not to. Because she was there. Did he think the place could actually teach her something important, that he couldn't? That couldn't be, he was the closest thing to fucking omnipotent a mutant could usually reach. It was a callous, [i]idiotic[/i] mistake to let a building mean something to her. Leah's heart skipped a beat, and then it banged against her ribs like a hammer. All he had to do was snap his fingers, press a button, or email some dictator in another country. Doing that, he rain holy hell from the sky in the form of nuclear bombs, or maybe he'd just set the place on fire. Leah could never tell which he'd be more likely to choose. [color=FFCB00]"You know what happens when people I care about die."[/color] And he likely learned a lesson in the last time it happened: Do it from further away. Imperator wanted her to come home. Back to the old life. Back to Arizona, that fucking hole in the ground. And in hearing that, the weeds were parted, scythed away and burnt to ash. Leah's fist went out faster than a bolt of lightning. She might've hit Andy square in the nose with that, or cracked Thor's jaw, but all she hit was empty air. He fucking [i]vanished.[/i] Of course he knew she'd try that, before she knew she would. Her hand stayed there where his skull should've been, taking stock of reality. [color=FFCB00][i]He was there. He was right in front of me. I missed him.[/i][/color] Leah felt the white noise of the hotel go mute. It was just her and her thoughts. And those thoughts were like water from the North Pole, because they made her feel numb. He was in her reach... Her chest started to do that thing it did when she didn't feel right. It jittered, like she was cold or like she'd been electrocuted. It made her breath shorten, and come and go quicker than was normal. That was strange, and not just because she felt like she could breath in entire clouds after the Andy situation. He didn't say anything about what she'd turned into. He didn't even have to fight her. [color=FFCB00]"No. Come back here, you- You fucking piece of shit... We're- We're not done- [i][sub]No...[/sub][/i][/color] She teetered towards a wall, and for the first time since she was eight, tears fell down her face. [center] [hider=My Worst Enemy] [youtube]https://youtu.be/9WP0mitxQ2E?si=OUfFmc4P93oZvCZc[/youtube] [/hider] [/center] Leah slumped down, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. She clawed at her face as if that would stop the waterworks. It didn’t, but it just smeared it all over her hands and face. She looked like a madwoman, gasping for air and sobbing like a toddler, with her hands trying to tear out whatever part of her eyes were responsible for this. Leah was a fighter. She was a mountain in form a teenager, inscrutable and unmovable. There was pride in being the last one standing, the one who endures the worst the world had to offer and says [i]No, you move.[/i] That was Leah’s way of reckoning with the universe. Right now, she felt pretty damn fragile. It was happening again, history not quite repeating by echoing all the same. Family that she confided in, murdered without a second thought by a walking nightmare. What was she thinking? Mayra had died when she flew into the air. Leah came back down to Earth in another state, but no matter how far she went, no matter how high she built herself up, that scared girl was still there. It wasn’t something she could just tear out with her bare hands, strong as they were. It wasn’t enough to stick it behind bravery and a new name, behind walls of stone and sheer willpower to carry on. Nothing felt like enough. There were bugs crawling underneath Leah’s skin. The tears wouldn’t stop, they were streaming down her shirt. Her hair was getting wet at the ends, but she didn’t feel like parting it from her face. Someone could’ve walked by and saw her like this. But Imperator did something to her by appearing and disappearing. He won a battle Leah couldn’t fight, and left her this way. The most dangerous thing she’d ever had to deal with was her own fucking [i]thick skull.[/i] He knew that. She was his daughter, after all. Precious moments went by, where Leah sat there on the floor blubbering like a newborn. Her eyes were bloodshot, orange where a normal human’s would’ve been red. Her face felt like she wakes through a sauna. Leah didn’t feel like standing. She felt like [i]screaming.[/i] Burying this entire hotel, and there city around it, a mile beneath the planet’s surface just to tell herself that there was no possible way that devil of a man could find her again. It wouldn’t even be that hard, she could just snap the bedrock a stomp of her foot. She wanted peace. She needed it, and she could only have it if the walls were intact. Walls that Leah needed in the same way April needed her brothers. The same way Andy needed someone’s soul. This wasn’t her. For a moment, Leah wondered if she could’ve just stayed at the hotel while her team went to the contest. She would be disqualified, but that wasn’t a concern. Besides, Leah dreaded having to fight Sabine. Not just because they were dating, but because Sabine was scary in her own ways. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, if she’d just gave in to that voice in the back of her skull that told her to tap out. It felt so damn tiring at times, the thought of not bothering for [i]once[/i] was enticing. That thought passed when her phone went off. It was a message from Vision. They had to do the medical thing soon. Leah hated stuff like that, but she was distracted by this. It didn’t sit right with her that Vision could just hack her phone. It was probably nothing to fuss over. Still, it felt weird when some guy who was maybe 40 in human years could just do that. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. The mountain was very much moved by the wind this time. But Leah had to go back out there and put her stern face back on again. The thought of being seen feeling sorry for herself would’ve made her sick. April and Sabine would’ve- [color=ffcb00][b][i]”…Sabine.”[/i][/b][/color] Leah clutched her phone in both hands, completely ignoring the fact that she’d just put a crack in the screen with that movement alone. Her hands were bigger now, flying across the screen with enough force that someone on the other end of the hall might have heard the sound of her typing messages. She pulled up the old group chat they had made. [hider=@April+Sabine] [color=ffcb00]earthbender: where are you earthbender: imhere earthbender: are you hutr earthbender: where is he earthbender: i k oe you can see this vicosn [/color] [/hider] It wasn’t a rational course of action but it was [i]was[/i] the sort of thing that Leah’s current mindset made possible. She wasn’t the young superhero Jotunn right now, and when the numerous messages she fired off in less than ten seconds, to a group chat no one used anymore, Leah scrambled to her feet and bolted. Her feet were like blows of a hammer, it was hard to miss the sound of Leah storming down the hallways in a half-senseless frenzy. Wherever she had ended up, there hadn’t been people to stop and ask for directions. She didn’t pass anyone on the way back and she didn’t know if this even [i]was[/i] the way back. She didn’t know if Vision could secretly read the messages on her phone, she didn’t even know if Sabine was alive. April could’ve been in that position too. There were starving predators that ran slower than she was running. He might’ve killed her just to remind Leah that she’d always lose. It was a maze, Leah had to wonder if Imperator stole a fucking spellbook and put her in some Lotus Eater shit. Thankfully, it was just the way this damn building was constructed. She rounded a corner like a bat out of Limbo, and locked eyes with Sabine. She was alive. There was some other girl there holding her hand- A detail that Leah paid little mind to. She ran so fast that she was [i]still[/i] short on breath. Leah towered over both of them, making absolute zero effort to conceal the murderous, outright desperate madness on her face. One of them was okay. Good. [color=ffcb00]”Did he hurt you?”[/color]