Floating through an ever expansive empty nothing there was an island; and island which was covered with a thick and lucious forest which had simply been untouched by time. Its floor was covered by a beautiful blanket of perfectly grown blades of emerald green grass and trees of every sort which stretched out towards the darkness. Every blade of grass as well as every leaf upon the trees seemed to angle towards the center of the island from which a large hill sprouted into the sky and atop its peak there was a large steel clock tower. Upon the face of the clock there were no numbers and the trio of hands did not move in any specific fashion but rather simply spun randomly to and fro. This place and the tower had never truly been built but had rather simply appeared at the beginning of time, an unowned govern to time in all plains which usually held no life to speak of.

However as of just a few moments ago one man who had been long lost within himself awoke to find himself lying just upon the edge of this strange island with no recollection of having attempted to travel there. Battling against his confusion the man, known as Xavier Bloodbayne, righted himself from his lying position on the ground and stood himself up and stretched away a feeling of grogginess which filled his mind and body. How long have I been gone? He thought to himself. Where am I now? He could only remember a very destructive battle in which he had pushed himself much to hard against an opponent he could not best. The thoughts were soon interrupted as he became aware of a dull vibration in his chest, a repetitive pulsation which sounded off almost like the ticking of a clock. Curious, he finally took a good look around himself to get his bearings and this was when he noticed the hill at the center of the island which housed the large clock tower. This answered his question about what he felt within himself but brought about the new mystery of what exactly this tower was.

As he stared at the tower he could feel something calling out to him, beckoning him to the tower for some unkown reason and seeing no other option at the moment Xavier made to go towards it. Reaching up Xavier used one of his black leather gloved hands to brush the bangs of his ear length onyx black hair from infront of his red hued hazel eyes before setting off. Each step of his thick soled black rubber combat boots pressed numerous blades of grass against the ground and each step he took thereafter the blades would slowly rise back into the air and point themselves towards the clock tower; as though he had never stepped there at all. Within moments he found himself standing infront of the clock tower and infront of a thick oak door which staggered over his 5'11 form by a good 3 feet. There was a moments hesitation before Xavier shrugged slightly, the red hued metallic pauldrons upon his shoulders mimicking his movements before he reached out and pressed lightly upon the door which swung upon with ease.

Now the ticks and tocks of the tower almost shook the inner workings of his body as he stood just within the doorway. It was a sensation that was enough to cause a shiver to run along his spine, there was certainly something special about this particular clock tower. Was it the tower itself that had brought him here? It did not seem that anyone had been here in quite some time and there was absolutely no sign of life here at all, how strange. At any rate Xavier stepped forward and crossed a small gap between the front doorway and the nearest brass cog, a large and slow moving piece of metal. Quickly he batted his hands along his entire body, smacking any dust from his black cotton tank top and jeans before simply standing in wait. It seemed that this was all that he was able to do for the moment.

Sophia was never the type of girl to go on an adventure. She used to be quiet. Reserved. Restrained. The kind of girl more suited to some religious venue in an unremarkable part of the world. In a parallel world maybe she was, but in this dimension the worst possible situation had happened. She was being chased, and she was being chased by an ugly huge ass snake. It was something of a freak accident as she burst into the tower through a bubble of space and time. Kaboom! Chu! Chu! Whizzing through the air on top of her guitar, shooting lasers through her eye glasses.

It was a horrible, horrendous tragedy as the snake would not die! Instead, like some vengeance smitten spirit, it kept moving and spewing guts everywhere! If she got too close it would most likely expire in an explosion of blood. Yes! Blood! On her undeniably awesome looking school uniform, neon blue hair, and stylish headphones. What kind of terrible satanic power compelled this freak of nature to keep on moving? Why couldn’t it you know run as far away in the opposite direction?

It’s like pulling out a gun in a knife fight and the man still barrels towards you. Pow. Pow. Pow. What? You think this gun is fake? You think you aren’t dying? Yes, this cool girl may be tiny and small, but she is kicking your ass snake! Run away! Please! But no! Instead of running away this thing decided to spit freaken acid everywhere through some guttural cord hidden in whatever was left of its throat, melting everything around it in a muddled putrid goop that smelled horrifically of burnt eggplant.

Eventually, skipping the large bits where she cleverly trapped it between two cogs and had it bite its own face, this cool girl chopped its head off. Yes, chopped its mountainous repulsive head clean off with a toothpick of a katana not one hundredth of its size. That was how awesome this girl was. She also poked its heart, lungs, liver, and all the other vital organs that had not been blasted into scolding bits by her eye lasers to make sure the deed was doubly done. A huge river of blood then poured out of the things headless body, causing her to scream and run away to a safe distance on the massive cog she and the very dead snake carcass were on.

“Whew,” she exclaimed, relieved that none of her clothes got dirty. It took her five hours to prepare herself for the world. What kind of sick mind wants her to go through all that again! And then it was at this time, Sophia realized she was no longer in a jungle. Not surprisingly, she got very confused. She even had to pull out her mirror to make sure she hadn’t somehow been dreaming this up. No, she was still wearing the same clothes, had her backpack, and there were some marks on her cheek from when she messed up her lipstick.

No. Not dreaming. Which means… No clue what happened! Where is she?! Freak mode initiate. Breakdown commence. Some evil genius must have trapped her in some insane experiment. Or maybe she had drank too much of that weird juice she found in the jungle. Drugs! Is it drugs? What happened! She paced around in circles, out of her mind, looking at the large cog beneath her feet, then at the gray wisps of space-time floating about, then at the ceiling which was full of gears behind gears behind gears. It made no sense!

She never saw any of this stuff until today. Obviously, not cool! And when it couldn’t get any worse the snake exploded. Yes, exploded. Its body bloated up suddenly in one final act of defiance and then boom! A large deafening ring rocked her off her feet and the whole thing came crashing down with the grace of dying goose. Plop. Plop. The sickening sound of millions of tons of decaying flesh falling on your face. Sophia nearly went into shock, metaphorically, and sat there in chunks of snake flesh, with a look of confusion being replaced with one of pure rage.

“What the heck!” she screamed. She stood up and bounced up and down in fit. Hollering and running around kicking and punching snake flesh. She started swinging her katana chopping it to even more pieces and spurting even more blood on herself. She then sat and laughed manically to herself cutting a piece of snake meat into smaller and smaller slices until the bits were only as big as her pinky finger.

Satisfied after mutilating the dead bits for it danmable behavior towards mankind’s greatest treasure (her looks), Sophia calmly collected herself, breathing slowly in a nice controlled manner. She then calmly, very calmly, extracted whatever was sticking onto her by pushing an outward metaphysical force called a wave through her body. It was kind of like her special mutant power. Some people have lasers. She has an invisible force that magnifies, shapes, and tosses energy and objects.

Sophia then pulled out a mirror, took a few good whiffs of perfume, dashed a bit of cologne to reshape her hair, straightened the frills of her skirt, and tossed it all back into the little briefcase she carried along with her iphone. Standing up in a very calm manner, she then quietly muttered curses about how she will murder the next person she sees for some illogical reason. And that is how this cool girl ended up on the middle of a cog in the middle of nowhere.

Whilst he waited for his reason of being here to become more clear Xavier took some time to investigate some of the inner workings of the tower. Simply by standing on one spot on the large rotating cog Xavier became aware that his rotation speed as well as a full rotations time did not seem to be consistent. A quick look about the rest of the tower showed that there were in fact many cogs whose speed were out of place, whether it be faster or slower, when compared to the surrounding cogs. With his curiosity sufficiently peaked Xavier called upon the blood within his body and at the center of his palm, willing it to seep from the pores of his skin and to mold itself into the red hued metal known as Dread Metal. The plan was to release nothing more than a small globular amount of the material into the air and to watch the different effects it experienced as it floated; however before it could be released something far more curious happened.

From somewhere above his position in the tower a terrible ruckus sounded and echoed throughout the tower, the cause was hard to put his finger on right away but once the lights, sounds and energy signatures of lasers came to fruition he became excited. Someone somewhere, it would seem, was gracing Xavier with a battle and surely this warrior had great talents! Shifting his attention briefly Xavier made toward's the cogs nearest the wall and leapt up to grab hold of one whose position was vertical and held an innately clockwise rotation; lifting him up discretely up to the next level. That man must be putting a woman through hell! he thought eagerly to himself, sharing in what he thought to be a man's sickening thought pattern. I'll show him what hell..really....is? As the cog made a half rotation from the point Xavier grabbed it he was now able to see what was causing the hellacious disturbance and surprised doesn't even begin to describe the way he felt.

It would seem that the only thing he was right about was the fact that a woman was involved, the sight of the serpents head wedged between a set of cogs before it was severed entirely was surprising. By this point Xavier was standing upon the still rotating cog in the shadow of a larger cog up above, matching the speed of the cog with a backpedaling step pattern as the girl began to wig out concerning the veritable fountain of blood spewing from the now lifeless, headless serpent; about expected from a woman. Something seemed incredibly and indescribably wrong with this woman, almost as though she had a screw loose. Perhaps even multiple screws seeing as how she just lost it, going this way and that way almost as though some sort of inner argument was tearing her apart. Xaviers eyes darted back to center as he noticed more movement from the snake and judging by the bloated appearance it wasn't hard for one to guess what came next, a sickening pop of sorts followed by the violent self destruction of the serpents body. Xavier marvelled at the would-be sickening display, his attention lingering on the droplets of blood and chunks of snake meat which were caught in the pockets of slowed down time Interesting.. he thought to himself just as a string of blood splattered the wall behind him.

Saying that what happened next gave Xavier mixed feelings would be a significant understatement, sexist as he was it was no surprise to him the manner in which the woman was affected by being coated in blood; mentally it made him chuckle. But the prowess which she showed thereafter with her blade caused his eyes to widen slightly, it was not often at all that he saw a woman capable of handling any weapon with the accuracy and lethality she currently showed, impressive but nothing more than that. Then his jaw dropped an inch as he witnessed her essentially will the good away from her body in an instant, causing him to tilt his head as a droplet shot passed him. His look of surprise gradually shifted as his brow furrowed slightly and his lips curled into a gentle smirk, perhaps the amount of fun this woman could provide was more than met the eye.

While the woman set back about her typical woman antics Xavier allowed his eyes to shut as he drew a very deep breath through his nostrils. The oxygen itself was ultimately unnecessary as Xavier lacked the need of it as well as the vital organs needed to distribute it; rather he simply needed the air itself as a type of release agent for his energy. Just as the woman finished her beautification Xavier released the built up air in his body which came out almost as a thick red cloud of fog which would gradually thin and fill the entirety of the clocktower. The air had been laced with a rather small amount of Dread Energy and was aimed as being used for an extra sensory ability, Xavier highly doubted that the woman's ability was to control blood but could not understand exactly what he had witnessed; hopefully this would help. There would be more than just this to be done with his released energy, surprises still to come later on.

Looking down at the palm of his right hand he looked upon the small puddle of Dread Metal which had seeped through the fibers of his glove and commanded a form change. The puddle shifted towards the tips of his index and middle finger where they slipped between them before stretching outwards, gradually creating a small razor sharp disc which he released into the air above him. The disc made no effort to attack the woman and simply floated to a shadowed area overhead as Xavier made to reveal himself. Leaping effortlessly from the cog he landed in a crouched position no more than 5 feet from the woman on het backside very solidly, causing a thud to vibrate through the cog. Slowly he would right himself to a standing position, his head dropped and eyes gazing at the ground to feign the fact that he could not see her. No move was made to attack the woman just yet, but with his knees gradually bent and his arms tensed and ready at his side, it would be hard to think he came to discuss weather.

After calming down, Sophia began to notice that the place she had arrived in was truly immense. The cogwheels, the springs, the levies, and the mechanisms stretched far into the horizon. In fact, it did not matter whether she looked straight, up, or down. There was always a large rotating machine behind some wires behind even more machinery that went off to infinity. It was on this thought, after redressing her hair, and straightening her clothes, that a quiet thud could be heard on the cogwheel behind her. It was a man, looking out of place, wearing metal pauldrons, a black tanktop, jeans, and gloves. He did not appear to take notice of Sophia, though the girl thought it weird since her hair radiated out like a blue beacon of light. She clicked her fingers to enwrap herself in a bubble of her invisible wave before calling out to the man.

“Yo! Whatchu doing here?”

The click originating from the woman's fingers was nothing special, what Xavier became aware of next however was rather intriguing. It was hard to say for sure what had happened in that moment as all he knew for sure was that the energy which he had leaked into the air, specifically immediately surrounding the woman had come to a standstill. Unlike their brethren a number of miniscule particles were almost trapped around her, they could not come out, be controlled and nor could any others get close to her. Though the specifics remained just beyond his immediate thought processing, Xavier had a rough idea of what he was witnessing.

Hearing the woman speak snapped him abruptly back to attention, his head whipping up so that his eyes would have met Sophias. Simply standing there Xavier left the woman with no answer as a thin smirk began to manifest upon his face, his right hand balling into a tight fist as he once again called upon hos blood to create his metal. It oozed from every pore of his hand, hidden beneath the leather gloves, and began to gather upon his knuckles and the back of his hand. In one swift motion Xavier lifted and dropped his fist through the air, letting it slam upon the cogs brass surface, a distraction, while commanding the metal to gather upon his knuckles. The force of this hit would cause a dent in the cogs surface, one which would almost instantaneously disappear as the clock tower repaired itself. Following his previous command another was given for the metal to advance along the cogs surface as quickly as possible, propelled across the distance of roughly 8 feet in just under 3 seconds. When the metallic stream would reach just a foot away it would change form and stretch towards Sophias abdomen, now holding the form of a thin metallic spike. The spike could stretch for only a full 2 feet before stopping, unless it should meet some force which prevented its movement.

Sophia could feel a trembling in the ground and raised her hand instinctively to guard against the liquid metal traveling along the surface of the cogwheel. Her bubble of energy, malleable to her touch, poured from her body and over the ground, applying pressure from her wave to stop the streaming metal from moving. She then quickly put on her headphones which were resting on her neck; ignoring the sword sheathed on her waist, and still carrying her bag in her right hand.

She looked rather clumsy, unprepared, and a bit childish in her antics, but of course under those blue bangs, white blouse, white surgeon mask, and pleated skirt one couldn’t deny she looked rather cute for a girl her age. She looked directly at Xavier and with a light tap on a button on the corner of her eyeglasses blasted a ray of LCD lights out of the rim of her glasses. And then the most astonishing thing happened. The light from her glasses seemed to freeze in midair as it came into contact with her wave which was in front of her. It was if time had diluted its motions to a standstill, sticking it effortlessly in place.

It was an event that happened for a fraction of a second, but for human eyes the sight would have been truly odd as a beam of light drew a perfect line and then moved as if in slow motion through the air. Then all of a sudden as the light beam reached the edge of her wave it erupted, growing a thousand folds into a colossal column of light so intense that it melted through the floor and split the cogwheel they stood on nearly in half!

It was of no drastic surprise to Xavier that his metal had been stopped midstream, however it was curious that as she exerted focus upon stopping the metal the Dread Energy which surrounded her once again gained movement for a split second. As he watched Sophia situate herself he worked on upon calling the metal present on the cog to form a thin line infront of him in anticipation for retaliation, it didn't seem as though she was going to be confronting him in close quarters just yet. It was hard for him to get a good bead on exactly what type of powers the woman possessed, she had first intended it to be used as a shield however it had been used to exert an unseen pressure on his metal to halt its movement. Before he could come up with a decent hypothesis the woman moved her hand to her face and Xaviers muscles tensed in preparation, the liquid metal infront of him stretching a quarter inch into the air in response to his muscles. One thing was certain, his defense couldn't be dropped and the woman could not be taken lightly until her abilities became clear.

In the same moment that she would press the button upon her glasses the Dread Energy within the air around Xavier gathered in an unseen wall infront of him which finished just as the lights met with the unseen 'wave'. As his eyes had never left the womans face Xavier became aware for a split moment that the lights ceased movement for a very brief moment in the same space which he would lose connection with his energy. In one instant Xavier sent a command to the metal infront of him and it shot up into the air just as the womans beam of light would shift in power to that resembling a strong laser beam, creating a thin 5x5 wall of metal which served only to hide Xavier from sight momentarily; such a small amount of Dread Metal would serve little defensive capabilities against the beam. As the beam tore through the air Xavier would have slipped backwards and off of the cog, molding the shadows beyond the cogs edge to vaguely resemble his form in an attempt to make it seem as though he were hiding.

Though he could not physically see what had happened, the sounds Xavier had heard as well as what his energy could relay to him caused him to take mental note of what Sophia had done. There was certainly more to her than met the eye. Utilizing his energy he kept track of Sophias placement and silently but quickly maneuvered the cog system beneath her so that he could attempt to flank her. What would remain of the metallic wall would be scarce droplets scattered upon the cogs surface, looking innocently enough but holding just as much threat as ever. As Xavier began to rise upon a cog behind Sophia the droplets would quiver and rise into the air, a path being layed out for each droplet. In an instant the orbs shot through the air like bullets, each one picking a seemingly random front based angle of attack so as to keep Sophias attention faced forward.

Stretching out his right hand Xavier curled his fingers towards Sophias back and willed a rather small amount of Dread Energy to the center of his palm. The skin of his hand and the air directly infront of it crackled briefly with the energy before a slim bolt of Dreadful Lightning screamed from his palm and towards the middle of Sophias back. The overall effect of the lightning would be small but if contact were made it would be enough to send a moderately painful shock throughout her entire body.

The mysterious man slipped behind an iron wall and then disappeared from her view. The column of light from her glasses melted the wall he had erected into grey paste. In seconds, there is nothing left but the smell of burnt metal. Sophia’s eyes look for traces of the man in the smoldering remains. She does not think the stranger has died. He had the gift of bending metal and had attacked her first. This means the man is confident in his abilities. He should not have died so easily.

Sophia acts with caution. She walks forward, wrapping herself in her wave which is still pressing down on the liquid metal used to attack her earlier. Though Sophia is flamboyant and can act silly she is not stupid. She has the body of a normal human girl. This fact is ingrained in her head. Her wave is her first and only defense. If something heavy from the ceiling suddenly fell on her or if a little piece of metal flew and stabbed her in the chest. She would die. Her mortality is very humbling and present in her thoughts.

Little red orbs fly through the air in front of Sophia’s face. They are very small and fast; the size of a drop of rain. They are moving so fast that they look like buzzing flies. The concerning thing about them is that they are so many of them. Like a cloud of bees ready to sting. This must be one of the man’s metal bending powers. So he is not dead after all. The little beads attack Sophia from different angles, but her wave catches them all. The beads stick to the invisible wave like glue and are held in place.

A few beads penetrate deeper than others, but in the end her wave is too strong. None come within arm’s reach of her body. Even though her wave is her only defense, it is an impressive defense. This is why even when facing a snake a hundred times bigger than herself she is not worried about her life, but the condition of her hair. She is also not that concerned about the man’s powers either. The only thing that worries her is whether she will be hit when her wave is not around her. Getting distracted means death. So she cannot afford to get distracted in this fight.

Lighting then hits her from behind. She can feel electricity zapping the air around her as it strikes the wave surrounding her. This feeling is familiar and she manipulates the wave to divert the lightning to the side. Her wave is like a rushing river. It can not only exert pressure, but direct things away. It washes the lightning off to the side. Again none of the lightning comes close to touching her clothes. She remains unscathed, frustratingly so if the man meant to hurt her. She can see the man behind her and conjures up a lightning storm of her own.

Her wave has no power on its own. Instead she converts energy from her surroundings through touch into her own special malleable power. In this case, the awkward karaoke backpack on her back supplies the power. It has a battery life of five hours. Several hours of which were spent fighting the snake. This does not mean she has no way of creating the wave on her own, but it does mean she cannot surround herself in a bubble if the fight lasts too long. She siphons a bit of the energy in her karaoke box out in the form of electricity and projects it towards the man.

The second property of her power is that it can magnify any energy source several times over. She showed this power when she used the little lights on her glasses. Changing a small power into a big power. That is its second ability. The lightning is different from the shock that the man sent towards her. It is a white hot flash capable of ionizing the air. Even it didn’t hit you it could cause the normal human being to combust just from the heat from the passing particles. A quick instantaneous death. That is what the girl wants to happen since she knows the longer the fight drags on the more risks there will be to her defenses. She also relies on the fact that the man is wearing armor to attract the lightning. She does not need to aim, only shoot in the general direction. The attack will chase him like lightning to a lightning pole.

The more Xavier attempted to understand the ability he was facing the more dead ends and confusion he would find. The one thing which he knew for sure was that there was some sort of invisible shield at work, one which defended the woman seemingly of its own accord. Though if battle had taught him anything of shields, it was that each one had a breaking point. It only needed to be found. Throwing aside his attempts to understand it entirely, he set about focusing on one step at a time such as the distance his energy bolt had reached before it was swept aside; diverted but not destroyed.

As the Dreadful Lightning bolt was swept aside a path of the Dread Energy in the air created a path for it to travel along as well as allowing it to feed upon the energy it touched. This would cause an overall slim reduction in the energy present within the air but grant the bolt more power as it redirected back to Xaviers palm which remained outstretched. The initial plan was to send a volley of electric strikes towards the woman which would hold a nasty series of surprises for her upon meeting her shield, though a sudden spike in energy from the Dread Energy molecules within the womans shield brought about a sudden change in plans. While the energy change was small it seemed that the woman was readying to return the shock he had sent her way. Perhaps this could benefit him in the long run.

Preparations for a defense were made instantly, the energy replaced to his body by the stray bolt was instantly transferred to the Dread Metal creation process, creating a space of air directly infront of his hand that was thickly laces with Dread Energy. Blood spewed in ribbons from the pores on his hand and in the fraction of a second shifted to create a metallic shaft 4ft long and 12in in circumference which remained connected to the palm of his right hand. During its creation a thinner shaft began to manifest within his chest, piercing through the air and Xavier palm so as to make contact with the larger shaft while also connecting to the surface of the crystal energy orb planted behind his sternum; planning on essentially siphoning power from the impending lightning bolt.

Just as his preparations were completed the woman released her electricity, a weak energy spike at first up to the point it reached the womans unseen shield. In that moment Xavier could not keep his eyes from widening as a single word slipped from his lips. "Shit.." There was no time to change tactics or move as the now horrendous bolt of energy hurdled towards him, arcing last second to the tip of the shaft jutting from Xaviers palm. All at once it seemed as though thousands upon thousands of electrified needles pierced his skin while every vein within his body suddenly burned a bright, deep red as the majority of the electricity was channeled into his life support, converting it instantaneously to Dread Energy and super charging Xaviers body. Blisters could be seen in splotches up and down Xaviers right arm from which their oozed Dread Metal which covered each of them before hardening. All of it ended leaving strands of Xaviers hair hanging loosely in the air, smoke coming from his shoulders and the pungent odor of burnt hair and skin filling the clock tower.

Through all of this Xavier had shut his eyes and his teeth had been visibly clenched together, his lips curled back so as to expose his uncharacteristically white teeth. Though now, body aglow, his lips curled ever so slightly to that of a bare smirk just before his eyes burst open to reveal that they too possessed the same reddish glow. "Well that was pleasant." Though he attempted to hide it there was an underlying tone which could hint at the fact that the majority of his body was in a considerable amount of pain, but of course he was not about to let this stop him.

All at once the glow of his eyes and body began to ebb away while the now partially melted Dread Metal shaft began to heavily radiate the Dread Energy that it was comprised of as Xavier poured every ounce of energy he had just absorbed into it. What Xavier counted on next would be the womans confidence regarding the ability of her defenses, he knew that a successful hit would be as guaranteed as the other attempts however all he would require here was initial contact with the strange shield.

In one instant the muscles along the right side of Xaviers body could be seen tensing visibly which seemed to cause the metallic shaft to suddenly become riddled with hundreds of thick spikes before it suddenly lurched away from his hand, dropping until it was just barely above the floor to float upright infront of him. With a flick of his wrist Xavier set the spiked shaft into a vicious stand still counter clockwise spin and with a simple motion of his right index finger towards the woman a vast number of needles upon its surface jumped into action. The first 3 inches of the 4ft shaft suddenly began to spin much faster than the rest as well as shift in rotation before roughly 15 spikes were thrown from its surface and toward Sophia, each one leaving behind a thin trail of potent Dread Energy in its wake as it shot towards the center of Sophias chest or back.*

The following would happen upon a command from Xavier at multiple given moments. While the entire group of 15 spikes would travel together for the majority of their rather short trip, only 5(Group A) of them were intended to make a direct attack towards Sophia. The other 10 would split into 2 simliar groups of 5, one of which would angle down to the left(Group B) while the other angled to the right(Group C) at the last possible second so as to surround her as much as possible while doing their best to avoid the distance her shield seemed able to reach. Xavier would allow for Group A to be caught in the shield and at the very moment that they did each one would explode with a significant Dread Energy based explosion equal in force to that of a hand grenade. This would serve to lace the air with a very heavy amount of Dread Energy as well as the obvious concussive force the blasts would create, the lacing of the air itself was the overall goal. Groups B and C would do much the same just a fraction of a second after each one made contact, be it with the ground or Sophias shield, an attempt to wound her with the explosions yes but this would simply be the most obvious of uses. There was a greater plan at play as of now.

Sophia immediately dropped her backpack along with her bag and draws her katana. She had taken a good look at the damage done by her previous attack and was now readying herself to be more mobile. The man at first glance appeared to be able to absorb energy. A curious combination as she too absorbed energy into a malleable substance. It looked like the only difference was that her substance was invisible. His was metal. She backed away from him, lifting her backpack and bag with her wave so that they hovered in the air within arm’s reach.

Her foot slammed against the floor of the cogwheel as the man launched needles towards her. She magnified the force of her kick, launching herself backwards. She does this repeatedly as she backpedals, controlling the force so that she is only a few inches off the ground. She is not traveling faster than the needles thrown towards her, but she does not have to as she quickly flings herself down the gaping gash she had made into the middle of the cogwheel earlier with her light beam after only four steps, avoiding the needles entirely as they whizzed over her head.

As she disappears into the darkness beneath the huge cogwheel, she took with her wave the liquid metal the man first used to attack her. She begins molding the liquid into a sphere. A previous experience with curses keeps her from touching the metal directly. Instead, she uses her wave like a pair of gloves, handling and shaping it into the form she desires. She then snaps her fingers as she continues to shape the metal, bending the light around her so that all that can be seen from afar is a faint shimmer in the background.