[center][h2]Lana & Zeke[/h2][/center]
[hr][hr]A collab between [@Zetsuko] & [@PureHeroine]
[b]Location:[/b] Carl's Grocers
[b]Date:[/b] 3rd August 2017
[b]Time:[/b] 10:00PM[hr][hr]

Lana was fuming by the time Salem had left. The woman had been an utter bitch the majority of the time she was there, but even so, her anger wasn't directed towards her. That bastard Zeke had nearly fooled her into helping him infiltrate Dark Shadow. That was something she wasn't going to let go without repercussions. That would have to wait until after work though. While she carried out the rest of her shift she did her best to avoid the other mage as much as possible. The more she was around him, the bigger the risk she ran of having her anger boil over, and she couldn't afford to do anything with other people around. Fortunately time seemed to fly by, and her work was done before she even knew it. All she had left to do was lock up.

Zeke had seen Lana come out of the the break room when she had finished speaking with Salem. He could tell she was mad but that didn't stop him from trying to talk to her. He did wait till the end of the work day, however, hoping that it would give her time to cool off...or at least avoid to much attention if she hadn't. She had avoided him the whole day but by closing time he caught up with her, thinking better of tapping her shoulder or anything to get her attention he simply walked up and asked [color=000000]"Hey Lana, do you have a moment?"[/color]

Lana hadn't seen Zeke on her way to lock up, and assumed he had gone home. She was disappointed, but figured it was for the best. She knew Aloysius didn't like them interacting with Guildys anyway, especially if those interactions lead to fighting. For the most part her temper had settled and all she could think about was how great it would be to finally get home and relax. Until out of nowhere she heard the man's voice from behind her, catching her off guard and making her go tense. The anger that had faded came bubbling back up the instant she heard his voice. She quickly finished locking the door and stuffed the store keys into her pocket, before turning on her heels and throwing a concentrated blast at Zeke's chest. Clearly, she wasn't in the mood to talk.

Zeke was barely able to say much more as she rushed the door close and whirled around and threw force into his chest. The blast was hard enough to send him flying back, sending him a few feet before he suddenly stopped, levitating in the air slightly as he caught himself with his own power. One hand was on his his chest and he slowly regain his breath, but even his breathing seemed to turn somewhat aggressive. In a very different tone of voice from the one he had before he muttered [color=9e0b0f]"So it's going to be like that -hn- hmm?"[/color] he would’ve taken the hit, waited longer and talked the next day perhaps, but between the surprise attack and instinctive use of his power he had slipped control and this other side of him very much wanted to return the favor. And return it he did, still hovering a just bit off the floor he twitched his free hand slightly, sending his own bolt of force straight for Lana's chest.

Zeke's sudden change in voice and demeanor caught Lana's attention. He had gone from a quiet, soft spoken man, to something more sinister in a manner of seconds. It was a little unnerving, but not enough to make her second guess her decision to start a fight with him; she was still angry. Probably too angry. She was notorious among Dark Shadow for letting her emotions -especially her anger- cloud her judgement. This case was no different. 

Her anger also tended to make her arrogant, which is why she took the hit from the bolt of energy he threw at her straight on. She could have blocked it, but she wanted to see how strong he was. The impact sent her reeling backwards a few feet, but in the end she was actually disappointed. Lana had managed to hold herself up on her feet and prevent herself from being moved too much by binding herself to the ground, but that didn't do anything to stop the hit from hurting, and causing her to have to take a moment to recover from being slightly winded. [color=306754]"That all you got?"[/color] She scoffed at him while sending several larger and stronger but less direct blasts back at him.

Zeke moved quickly when she threw her next set of attacks, sliding left in the air as he was still levitating slightly. His eyes followed the attacks as they whooshed past and devastated much of what was behind him. Upon seeing that he turned around with a wicked grin [color=9e0b0f]"haha, you've got some power in you![/color] not only could she hit hard but she took a shot to the chest like a champ, this could be fun. Still hovering he turned his body toward her and reached out with his power, this time instead of going directly for an attack he reached for her sides, it would be as if two large invisible hands were clamping down from either side of her. Meanwhile the slight movements of his hands were the visual indication that he was trying something.

Lana cursed under breath as she watched him effortlessly drift to the side to avoid her attack. Even though her attack was pretty predictable, she still didn't expect him to see through it so easily. It was almost as if he had sensed it coming. Which would make sense, as they both had the power to manipulate the telekinetic force. He seemed to be more adept at it than she was however, she hardly noticed herself being constricted from either side by his energy until it was too late. He had a hold of her, which was quite unnerving, but it wouldn't be long before she would start pushing back against his grasp. Eventually she would have pushed back enough to be free to move again. She didn't waste any time then, and launched herself into the air, flying right towards him, her hand cocked back and ready to release a powerful telekinetic punch to his face.

Zeke had gotten a hold of her but she broke free a lot quicker than he thought. She came flying right toward him, prepared with a slightly more conventional means of attack. If the damage she left to the store behind him was anything to go by she could throw a lot of power into a hit but she threw it around like a brawler, heavy-handed but rather basic. Still, if she gets a hold of him it's over. With that in mind he dodged her attack by dropping backwards, using a combination of his telekinetics and her own momentum to propel her over him and send her flying past. The move still left him tumbling through the air for a moment before he regained his composure, but as he did his faced had changed again this time with shock and concern as he looked in her direction [color=000000]"oh fuck! I'm so sorry!"[/color]

Lana was prepared to follow Zeke down as he dodged, but her own momentum, mixed with what she could only assume was his telekinetic force, kept carrying her through the air, over him, and eventually into the wall of a nearby building. There wasn't any structural damage, but the force from the impact was enough to knock all the wind out her lungs so she couldn't even groan from the pain she felt. There was definitely going to be some bruising from that.

She lay on the ground, unmoving, for a few moments; trying to recover from hitting into the wall. Her back and ribs ached, but her anger wasn't going to let her quit. After a minute or two, Lana slowly pushed herself back up to her feet and turned to face him. His mood seemed to have changed again, but she couldn't care less about that. She went straight back onto the offensive, summoning too waves of energy on either side of him, like two invisible walls, and pulling them together in an attempt to crush him between them.

Zeke felt the two walls coming in just before he was crushed. On instinct he put up barriers to try and stop them but he was straining to hold them at bay. Thinking quick he turned his attention to Lana, reaching out toward her. He tried to pull apart the skin on her arms, creating small cuts and gashes. The goal was more to break her focus than cause damage.

Lana cried out at the feeling of the skin on her arms being torn apart to create small cuts. The gashes were only small but they were painful, enough so that it broke her focus from trying push past Zeke’s barriers and crush him. The walls she had built up disappeared as her attention turned to the wounds on her arms, and trying to figure out what the hell was causing it so she could make it stop. Of course the obvious answer was Zeke, he was the only other person around, but she didn't know that was even possible to do with telekinesis. This man was incredibly efficient with his magic, and it seemed not even her stronger power level would be enough to stand against him. Her anger was slowly beginning to subside as her thoughts changed from wanting to fight to needing to find an escape.

Zeke's effort paid off. Not only did Lana's walls fall but she was distracted by her sudden injuries. Aiming to take advantage of her momentary distraction he broke apart the force of his own barriers into several small projectiles, sending them at her quickly one after the other. Hopefully if they all hit they'd be enough to pummel her and knock her out of this fight.

Lana didn't sense the next attack coming unt it was too late. She was still focused on the new injuries on her arms when she suddenly felt herself being pummeled by several small projectiles. Most of them hit her body in the chest and abdomen area, a couple hit her face, and the rest hit her arms and legs. The attack ended up knocking her to the ground, but this time she was in too much pain to get up again.

Zeke waited until it became apparent that she wasn't getting back up before he approached Lana. Finally letting himself down and walking over to kneel beside her prone form and sighing [color=000000]"For what it's worth Lana, I'm still sorry about lying to you...and for this[/color] he reached out with one hand and brushed along her arm, closing the wounds he caused as he talked [color=000000]"You've got a lot of power in you, but you don't have much control. I can help you with that if you want, train you"[/color] he pulled his hand back, finished healing her arms [color=000000]"Least I can do right? make up for what happened?"[/color] he sighed again and stood up, looking around at the mess they made. He looked back and offered his hand to help her up, they'd have to clear off quick.

Panic began to set in as Lana watched Zeke approach her, in her mind there were only two possible outcomes. The first was him killing her, and the second was him arresting her and taking her back to The Guild; which honestly seemed like a worse fate than death considering what they did to people like her. She didn't want either though, and tried her best to wriggle herself away from him, but she didn't get very far before he knelt down beside her and did the strangest thing. He healed her arms. But that wasn't even the craziest part. He also offered to train her with her magic before standing up and reaching his hand out to help her up. 

Lana of course didn't trust him, and refused to take his hand, preferring to try and push herself up while using the wall behind her for support instead. [color=306754]”Fuck you, I don't need your help.”[/color] She sneered weakly at him. With the gashes on her arms gone, she was able to steady herself against the wall with one arm, while reaching into her pocket to pull out her phone with the other. Surprisingly her phone hadn't suffered any damage in the fight, which she was quite grateful for because it meant she was still able to call herself a cab to take her home.

Zeke pulled his hand away and stepped back [color=000000]"If you're sure"[/color] He lingered for a bit, standing a short distance away intent on making sure she would make it out of here alright [color=000000]"If you ever change your mind, well...I think we can find eachother easy enough"[/color]

Lana was more focused on stumbling her way out of there and getting in the cab she had called, than listening to what Zeke had to stay. The guy seemed unstable so she wanted to get out of their as quickly as she could before he snapped again and tried to kill her. She didn't believe he wanted to help her for a second, though she would admit that the idea of being trained in her power by another telekinetic would be great. 

>>>>Small time skip to 10:57PM<<<<

She arrived at her apartment building half an hour later. The driver insisted on taking her to the hospital several times, but she refused each time. All she wanted to do was get home and get some rest. It was a hellish time making her way up to the third floor to her apartment, and by the time she got there, she was too exhausted to make it to her bed, and collapsed onto her couch instead. 

She was grateful for the soft but firm support the couch gave her, but she couldn't get completely comfortable as her mind could only focus on the aching pain throughout her whole body. That's when the most unexpected thing happened; she began to heal herself. She didn't even know it was possible, but she wasn't going to question it. Eventually her injuries would be healed to the point where her pain was bearable enough she could fall asleep. Her body continued to heal through the night as she slept.