Hope recoiled with a yelp at the shock of the metal canister exploding in her hand, mentally chastising herself for how completely stupid she was. The gloves she was wearing were not made for that type of abuse, as evidenced by the freaking metal shards going into her freaking hand. The gas mask protected her eyes and face and she didn't breath in noxious fumes, but her hand lit up with the intense agony of a thousand fire ants burrowing into her skin as the spicy liquid seeped into her open cuts. Naturally, Hope let loose a string of all the swear words she knew while fighting back tears.
The Room. The motherfucking Room. She wasn't too surprised it was him, she should've seen the signs before. That's why he could fight all day. The Room played the long game. He'd wait for you to tire yourself out, whittle you down, and then bounce your head across the floor like the gibbering idiot you were. Maybe it was the searing pain, maybe it was the realization that she was fighting a seasoned hero, but Hope's moral and attitude took a gloomy nosedive. She wasn't going to win. He knew what he was doing, it was his job to put down nobodies like her, and here she was making stupid mistakes and acting rashly like she was the baddest thing on the block. Hope sniffled a little and cradled her agonizing hand closer to her body, putting her other hand up in front of her face for protection. She didn't have a plan anymore. That plan backfired. She was going to blind him, rush him down, and get one of her handcuffs on him so she could maybe see him or pummel his face in but that just wasn't going to happen anymore.
Nope. Nope nope nope nope don't do this to yourself, Hope, don't drag yourself down. You can win this, you're tough. He hurts too, his skin probably burns just as much as yours does. He hasn't hit you yet, he wants you to lash out at him, don't do it. Take your time, play the long game. Let's think about this...
Hope's confidence bounced back fairly quickly, she wasn't one to give up so easily. As Hope began to focus, she listened to the footsteps through the space between her own pained breaths, and even slowed her breathing. Carefully, she began to circle with the sounds of the echoing steps, going wide and outward and keeping her injured hand behind her. And as she circled, Hope began to think again and plan her next move. He was a mind reader, so of course he was reading her mind right now. How would she fight something like that? Would it make it easier for him to mess with her mind if she just stopped thinking, or harder? Hope briefly contemplated rubbing her injured hand across her face to get some of the pepper spray on it so that she could focus on the pain and quit thinking to herself like she was, but thought twice. It was another stupid idea that'd do more harm than good. It's not like she had any training to stop a mental assault, she wasn't that kind of psychic. She didn't even really have anything in common with those types and wouldn't even know where to begin. Should she search her mind for a disturbance or some other kind of Jedi bullshit? Nah, probably not the effort. She didn't think he could put her down without touching her, so she wasn't too worried. Otherwise people wouldn't leave here with bruises, he was mostly a cheap-shot artist. So she had to find a way to fight someone she couldn't see or was hallucinating wasn't there or something since getting him out of her head wasn't happening. "Operation Scorched Earth" where she just let loose with energy all around her would be good, but she didn't want to do that right away if she could find another way to beat him.
Testing him, Hope threw a wave of force in the direction she heard the footsteps, but she didn't mean it. It was a kind-of-hard shove type of force, just to see if he was there. She was working towards her other goal: finding a corner of the room. If she could put her back into a corner, he could only attack her from the front instead of hitting her from behind like a coward. And if he came at her from the front, she'd blow him off his feet.
[Hope uses Telekinesis to send a force wave toward where she heard the footsteps, using 5 POWER.]
