Lunar ECLIPSE (Lunetta & Pinnacle)

"I... I ca-can't win. You can see this." She said, widening her fingers so that her black daggers would form between them, then she lowered her head and her eyes started to water. Her hands trembled as she continued. "I'm not strong without her..." She whispered before throwing the daggers to the ground.

Israel shook his head at her words, dropping his defensive stance, (though this did not make him incapable of defending himself,) but before he could respond, she continued: "I am out of my element Agent Pinnacle, but I will give you what you want."

Tears rolled down her face as she ran at the man as fast as she could, her fists clenched and drawn back as if to go in for a punch. Even without his abilities, the attack was highly telegraphed, and out of character from her first sneak attack. She even gave a battle cry of sorts before lunging in for the punch.

Something was off.

That is when he felt a ripple in the Fateweave, alerting him to the danger behind him, but this was superfluous, as he had also heard the air moving out of the way of something solid taking its place there, and his echolocative abilities mapped its exact shape. Finally, he could feel the vibrations of the air around him as well, and knew that behind him, a spike of some kind had formed, most likely another shadow construct, waiting to stab him in the back after he presumably shrugged off her attack, and so, ultimately, Pinnacle decided to do a spinning kick in her direction, taking care to absorb some of his own force if it did connect with her so as to not hurt her too much. Then, as the spike came at him from the other side, if successful, he would continue this spin and grab onto it, emitting just enough light from his hands to disintegrate it but not enough to light up the room at all, then he would land after a somersault onto his feet.

"You do not need her to be strong. Your confidence should come from within. Yes, we may all need help on occasion, but that does not make us weak, it makes us human." Israel said, turning toward her.

"You shouldn't have such little confidence in yourself, nor should you compare yourself to others in this matter."

"ARRHHA" Cira roared even louder as Pinnacle took an offensive stance. He fell for it! She knew she had him but she had to sell the stunt. His foot came up nailed her. She attempted to block the attack with her arm but the move was still powerful enough to knock her into the ground. she rolled onto her back and watch as the spike launched itself at his back. She started to smile, but it was a waste of emotion.

The man kept spinning and grabbed the spike. Then his hand flashed, breaking the spike with the light alone. "How! how do you know what I'm doing! How did you know to do that! I never told anyone how my powers work!"

She went to pick herself up but her arm was still recovering and she fell back to the ground. This man was dangerous. She gritted her teeth as she cradled her arm to her chest. He was strong and still holding back despite giving her the advantaged. It was so obvious and she would of warned her. Why couldn't she be here now.

"Human? You don't understand Agent Pinnacle." Her voice wavier as the words weakness ran through her head, "We are all tools. When a tool can't do their job..."

She rose to her knees, still holding her arm. "No... I am not useless. I am not weak! If I can't get past your defenses..."

Her arm grabbed her 9mm and pointed it at him. "I will break through them!"

The air around the gun warped as black energy engulfed the gun, seeping into every hole of the gun. As she raised her other hand, the black energy slither behind her back and around the hand. A black gun formed mirroring her other and seeped with black energy.

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME AGENT PINNACLE!" Her voiced echo through the room. Her black eyes glowed neon purple before engulfing the white of her eye. She pulled the trigger. Slugs of black matter accelerated towards Pinnacle. She continued to fire until her clips were empty.

Israel could see that her arm was somewhat hurt, but decided to speak to her first before choosing what to do about her arm. As he spoke, he could see that his words of encouragement had only caused the girl to feel worse, and so, he did not add to what he had said for the time being as the girl utilized her umbrakinesis once more to duplicate a gun in her possession.

Israel could have stood where he was as the projectiles halted in the air in front of him one by one, but chose to hide this ability for later, instead choosing to literally catch the projectiles where they were in the air, one after another between each finger in each hand as his arm moved faster than most eyes would be able to comprehensively track before popping each shadow bullet into miniscule sparkles of short lived light, whilst the real bullets would likely seem to simply disappear as they were engulfed by his body's mass and conveyed away deeper into his central form by his amorphous autokinesis.

"If we are all tools, as you say, then allow me to give you an analogy, Ms. Vania. If a multipurpose power drill is incapable of flying me to Dallas, is it useless, or am I trying to apply a good tool for the wrong job? You are certainly not useless, Ms. Vania. You are, however, misapplying yourself. That said, to answer your previous question, perhaps I am just rather observant." He replied, simply. "After all, you followed the shadow of your hoodie when you first attempted to attack me. It is a rather logical extrapolation therefore to presume that your constructs depend on a certain level of darkness to stay durable." He explained in a purposefully cryptic manner as a part of himself phased into the floor, traveled underneath her, then rose into her body, projecting a healing aura of chi energy as it did so, thereby healing her injuries before darting back through her and into the floor, then back upwards into Pinnacle. For Ms. "Cira Vania," this would be unnoticeable other than the healing that was provided. Israel waved his hand as the healing occurred.

He left it at that, however, choosing to withhold the knowledge of how he had figured everything else out. She apparently saw him as her enemy, after all, and one's enemy should not reveal their weaknesses. He wanted it to appear that he knew much more than he did. In fact, he had only partially revealed what he had because he didn't want the girl to feel quite as bad.

She dropped both guns after exhaustion all her energy. It was not her style. It was not how she was trained. If she was here, she would be disappointed. However the Man was too fast. He new too much about her gifts. His experience far surpassed hers. And he was... still... standing. She was so focused on squeezing out every ouch of power from the darkness preserving her pride as... It mattered not. Agent Pinnacle was standing tall, unharmed.

Her pride, confidences in "her" gift shattered. A blackhole opened in her chest sucking all the feelings and thoughts in her head. Her chest grew heavy, much too heavy to support with her aching legs. Like a statue, she her skin turned cold. Her face, drain of all spirit stared at the man. Her eyes empty of the strength to record a single picture to her brain. A single word filled her head, abosrbing every resources in her head. How

Then Pinnacle started talking again. The jokey polite tone disappeared as he gave an analogy, one Cira saw no meaning in. His next words, however, were full of meaning. Her first strike, gave it away. She was sloppy and gave such a valuable clue. Her head fell, eyes gravitating to her quivering hands. No, such a move was perfect for the situation. Yet he managed to pick out such a detail. She raised her head to see every dagger and knife she created was lying on the ground. Her eyes shift her eyes back to her hands.

The hole in her chest warpped into a new mass. One heavier than the hole. One that burden to her body enough to make her faint, fear. The same fear she could only assume those she killed felt as she drove her blade into their chest. Only a thread of instict kept her awake, aware. This man was too strong, too smart, and too secretive. With power like his, what excatly was he trying to recruit.

Then she remembered her mission. She had to impress this man. This guy who was faster than anyone she ever known. Stronger than any man she ever fought. More knowledgeable then the oldest elder. He was a being weaker only to her. The fear that locked her body released her arms so she could place them on the ground. Then she lowered her head.

"Please, forgive me..." Her voice bounced between exhaustion and whimpering, "I-I-I not str-strong... but... I can still be useful."

She quivered, unsure what the man would do. He was an unknown entity with seeming infinite power and influence. His tone, his words, were not taunts. They never was. Cira was just blinded to the strength in front of her. Her heart raced. Her fingers struggled to grip the hard floor.

"Please, forgive..."

Israel watched the girl's microexpressions... Observed her aura... It seemed that every word he spoke wounded her.

But no, it wasn't so much his words, it was his actions all together. He had wounded her pride by mentioning what she considered to be an unforgivable flaw in herself. A flaw that could only be remedied by covering it with strength, and thus, she had attempted to display her full power in order to prove to herself that she was not weak. Clearly, her self-confidence was not the greatest.

He knew what that felt like.

"I have already done so." Israel said honestly. "And I consider this to be a somewhat successful combat evaluation. You have certainly shown that you are a skilled fighter. However, I have two points of concern that I wish to address..." He added, squatting down and offering his hand to help her up. Whether she accepted his hand or not, he would continue:

"First, ECLIPSE has need of level-headed agents that won't try to murder people due to something as simple as a sleight of character, be it real or imagined." He said, eyeing her. There was a hint of a joke in his voice, but his face was serious.

"And second, you may have considered that to be your best, but I know that you can do more. I also know how important it is to you to eliminate your weaknesses, so I will be forthright and tell you that your biggest weakness is your very focus on them. You need to focus on your strengths. To use the proverbial phrase: 'When through a path of jagged stones you walk, you can either step upon them and raise yourself up, or allow them to cut you down as you go forward.' If you continue to allow yourself to be cut down by the stones in your path, you will never reach your true potential, and believe me, even without her, you have great potential. Use what you consider to be weakness to make yourself stronger." He said.

"... I am not your enemy. I know that your history causes you to fear for its exposure, but again, I am not your enemy."

"Suc...cess...ful" her eyes shifted to the man. Not only was he not angry, he considered her terrible performance acceptable. "I... I couldn't hit you." Her broken mind hugged onto the idea running it through everything she was taught. Every experience she was dragged into. Even when she was child, all that mattered was the result. "I...."

The man explained that she was skilled at fighting. While she did not agree, it was nice to hear someone complement her. Her eyes fell as the words sunk in and their meaning bubbled up. She did it. She pasted the test. There was only one response, "Ah... t..." She could not say it, instead opting to As she grabbed his hand and accept his hospitality.

He mentioned that there were 2 conditions. Her fingers came together debating what the man could want. Was it her real name, her background, her gift? Her heart ramp up, sweat rolled down her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Then the man's first condition was, a bit of a surprise. Do not kill the target. It was a change in mindset sure, but it was not problem... so long as the target wasn't family. It was a rule Cira could abide by. She moved her finger to her lip but nodded to the condition. The next condition would be a little more difficult.

It came off as a motivational speech about her potential, that she was better than she was. A feeling of warmth build up inside her chest, a spot reserved for the cold thoughts of "her" and her hatred for the traitors. As she dug through her brain, her mouth went a head and turned into a smile. Her eyes moved up to the mans eyes. Blood rushed to her face as she made another attempt.
"Th.. Th... Thank you." Her words came out soft like a whisper.

She looked back down, satisfied with her efforts until she realized she was smiling. She quickly covered her mouth and turned away from the man. Her discipline went completely AWOL and she lacked the strength to hide any more emotion.

"You talk too much agent..." She moved her hand from her mouth and sighed, "But I wish not to make an enemy out of you either... so thank you."

Israel smiled and stood for a brief moment in silence before responding: "It's true, I'm afraid. I have been told that I tend to wax eloquent over the simplest of things, giving long orations about the science of French Fries going stale." He said, laughing a bit.

"Anyhow, if you can agree to the basic stipulations of being an ECLIPSE agent and what that entails, then welcome to ECLIPSE, Agent Vania." He said, offering his hand for a handshake.

"You'll need a code name as well. How does 'The Phantasm' sound? The codename 'The Shadow' is already spoken for, I'm afraid."

The man had to ruin the moment with a wave of metaphors and word play to construct some sort of meaning but all of it was gibberish. Gibberish which restored her abilities to simply not smile. Lunetta let out a sigh and wiped the irritation off her face before turning around. As easy it would be to just yell at him for being confusion, she prefer to just remember the good things he said.

"Don't kill the target, I done more difficult things in my life." She folded her arms and looked off as if their was a sky above her. Inside she was screaming excitement. She did it, she passed. She had a stable job and a wider range of access for goal.

"Thank you Agent Pinnacle. I won't let your words go to waste."

She looked down and saw his hand extended. She broke her arms apart and froze as she wondered what to do. She knew the correct answer, but her body did not want to act. Her leg started to go back but she powered through the nervousness. Her hand trembled before meeting his and grabbing it with just enough strength to keep them connect.

"If The Shadow is taken, then I will be L'ombra. Will that be okay?" She released his hand and took a couple of steps back so she could look at the ground without lowering her head too much.

"My apologies, Ms. Vania, but as an internationally recognized organization, translations of a single name would still be recognized as said name." Israel said. "However, I am open to any other names you may come up with that are not on the current roster."

Lunetta sighed, disappointed that her mother tongue was not good enough. She took a second before listing another suggesting.

"Stella Nera, or as you say in English, Dark Star."

She chuckled after realizing how much cool that name was compared to her other alias.

Israel smiled at that. "A fitting title. I look forward to seeing your work." He said, and the door to the facility opened. It was now night, and was likewise quite dark outside.

"Before you go, don't forget these." Israel added, handing her an ECLIPSE badge that seemed to materialize out of thin air in his hand as well as what appeared to be multiple specialized hand-cuffs. "It's got a built in communicator. Ofcourse, when you applied, you were already briefed on field agent protocols, so I believe this concludes your CoE eval. Once again, welcome to the Elite Covert League of International Powered Security Envoys, and good luck out there, Agent Vania."