[attr="class","tbbody"]the night was less than stellar for marisa than it was for maria. rather than enjoying a night out of shopping, hers was one born of restlessness and wanderlust.

comic had spent a majority of the day as usual - holed up in a motel room, pillow over her face, sleeping through the sunlit hours. finally motivated by gnawing of hunger to get up and out, she went over a few enough streets on the bus to find a food stand and nab a soda when no one was looking. easy enough to satisfy the hunger pangs. now it was just a matter of finding something in the city to go and do.

she was relatively free to be herself at this time; dark hat, hair back, and her red hoodie on and pulled tight. combined with being off the grid for a while and no one would be looking for a small timer like her, especially out of "uniform". she almost got pangs of embarrassment thinking about that skin-forming suit she wore; but, really, it was the only thing that was capable of not ripping apart with her powers. distracted by the distressful thought, she almost didn't notice the person who would - oh, there it was, the jolt of being bumped into.

comic whirred on the spot to face maria. an inhale of breath, her eyes scanning. lacking her eyepatch today, the visible scars around her left eye looking much uglier than usual as her face turned into a cold form of anger as she registered who it was who caused her inconvenience. "can you fucking watch it here? what do you want?" it was almost like she was spitting it, at this point. there was that catch in her chest; she already knew the words had left her mouth before she could stop herself. a moment of guilt, of hesitation, before it faded away to the anger. it was going to be easier this way.

[attr="class","tbbody"]just dont fight, marisa, just walk away from this one - that was what she wanted to tell herself, and if the opposing party had given a more passive answer she could have settled for grunting and moving on.

"figures." she felt her lips pull back into a snarl, canines showing off for a moment before her face pulled itself back into the cold look. honestly, comic's own body language was becoming a bit anxious. her shoulders rolled back and she kept balancing onto one knee and then off of it. she was still feeling heated and didn't want to be outdone by this twerp.

"so is that all you've got? a smart mouth? why don't you say something actually useful?" as she spoke, she tried to loom over the other, glaring down. picking a fight was what she was here for now, and she wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity to vent some steam, maybe even get something out of it. people had wallets, right?

[attr="class","tbbody"]comic had expected this to be a confrontation with a human, not something a bit more. she had followed through with her abrasive nature along the lines of the other being much smaller in stature and seeming more delicate; she cursed her foolhardiness on the matter. marisa lived in a city filled with metahumans and aliens and other kinds of weirdos and magicians; it should have been no surprise that this could be a result.

so being shoved back - really shoved - brought to her face a one second rainbow that cascaded from confusion to fear to understanding, and then to another shade of anger as she realized that this little one had started something much more than a verbal confrontation. "oh, so you've got some bullshit up your sleeve, too?" marisa spit onto the ground and took in a breath,

and then charged forward, hitting a smooth pace from the first step. she hoped to be at this girl in six, no, five steps, but nothing more than that; because once she was within distance she was aiming to hold her arm out straight and clothesline the runt, dipping in an attempt to put the neck into the crook of her arm.

there was no plan behind it, no strategy, no beauty in the execution. comic wasn't thinking about that kind of stuff anymore; just that she got hit, and she was going to give it better than she got.

[attr="class","tbbody"]she got the solid hit she was aiming for, knocking the little one down and then backing off a few steps in order to see what would happen. last time she stayed too close, she got hit with some kind of force that shoved her back, so maybe this time, maybe she could react if they got clos-

no, it didn't work like that. they mumbled some words and suddenly comic felt it again - like an invisible hand shoved right into her gut and pushing her all the way back across the street. by now, the few passerby's that existed had caught on that something was going down and began to scatter for their own good, leaving the area to the angry woman and what she could only describe as a witch for the moment.

hurt her? she would have to try a bit more to do that - comic wondered if they were only capable of the physical push and shove. but it was that tone that really pissed her off. "so that gives you the right to talk down to me like that?" shut up shut up shut up was all she could hear in her own head. marisa bit down on her own lip; she would never draw blood from the action, but it was her own damn fault for getting this worked up. the heat in her chest remained, still burning.

"then hurt me! put me in my place, then! come on!" marisa hit her own chest and then held her arms wide open, presenting herself as a target. screw you, witch, don't just make open threats.

[attr="class","tbbody"]marisa really fucking hated magic. it was fathomless, beyond her capabilities, and it never felt right to be hit with it in any form. it was never like a good old fashioned brawl; magic often left bruises within instead of out, it often changed people in ways never meant to be, and above all, a majority of magic-users she had met were straight-up creepy.

that line of thought faded as she really realized she had picked the wrong fight. first was the searing heat of sudden fire; unnatural and with a lifeless flicker than chilled her. fuck magic, she thought, as she felt the ground beneath her leave, her own face betraying calm for a look of despair, and fuck all of it, as she tried to process it all-

her mind went blank from pain. an angry, inhuman scream left her mouth as both hands shot up to her head; she registed multiple worlds of dizziness and pain as a dark blood fell from both nostrils to her face. thumping in her chest became louder than the fire, than herself, than the world, and then it was dark.

comic initially passed out from pain before regaining a fathom of consciousness; a limp noodle in the hands of the mage.