Once in a Blue Moon (Siren & Pinnacle)

So... Are you ready to depart? Israel said, standing in the center of the ISO building where they had agreed to meet.

Earlier that day, Siren had contacted him through ECLIPSE channels about trying out some of her newest abilities in one of the ISO training facilities, but upon her arrival, she had found that the room, large as it was, was not quite large enough for the kinds of things that she had planned, thus, Israel decided that it might be best to spar somewhere that nothing in the world would possibly come to harm...

... Namely another dimension.

The planned location for the sparring match would not just be any random dimension however, it was Israel's home dimension, or at least, his place of technical origin, if you will.

Within said dimension, he had selected his Earth's moon, terraformed as it was into a garden world, it would be a pleasant place to try out their abilities. Plus, it helped that Israel could restore the terrestrial moon world to its original unscathed glory at the end of the fight with no problem considering the way by which it was made to be such a tranquil, livable dwarf planet.

Israel watched the Siren expectantly for her reply.

The entity standing before Israel was Siren...but at the same time, it wasn't.

Spoiler:

The story behind this was a bit of a complicated one but the simple version was that Alan and Aurora had finally managed to discover a way home for the latter and her people. Needless to say, the celebration was a grand one but when it became evident that Alan still wished to remain on Earth at least for a while longer...Aurora made the choice of returning with him, and that's when the rest of their people decided to let them take their home with them.

Their entire race came together and merged with them, forming together into a single entity. Getting back to Earth was simple with their new power, but now there was the question of what to do now. As such, they contacted ECLIPSE and before long they were here. Siren scratched their head, "I guess I am, yeah. Lead the way, sir," She would follow him through the portal, "So, remind me again how this evaluation is going to work? I recall back when we first met that eldritch horror we fought together technically counted as my evaluation."

Israel nodded before rotating his right arm in a semi-tight circle as a portal flared to life before them. "Yes, that is somewhat the case... Consider this your first official evaluation, then." He said, and with that, he stepped through the portal.

Beyond the Proscennial gate that now lay behind them, they found themselves on a beautiful garden world, with the Earth in the sky looking back at them, partially obscured by the clouds and the blue tint of the atmosphere.

"Welcome to Olea." Israel said. "Internationally recognized as a neutral zone for all the nations of the Earth, and not for colonizing. You're looking at one of the largest nature preserves in the galaxy."

As he added this, the portal flickered and closed behind them, giving a fuller view of the landscape.

The dwarf planet was filled with flora and fauna, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial in origin, and the craters that used to dot the moon were largely preserved as lakes and seas. A gentle wind blew in from the northwest as the two stood in the midst of a clearing with a stream flowing nearby.

Siren was speechless as she gazed around at all the beautiful scenery. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, "Sorry...one of my fellow Sirens seems to remember seeing some of these types of plants back on our homeworld..or at least something similar to them. Still getting use to all these new voices in my head too," She tapped her noggin before gazing up at the Earth, "Beautiful...you know, no matter where I go from here on out, one way or another, I think I'll always find my way back to our mother."

She bent down to examine the water and flora closer, "How did you manage to make all this? Heck, I'm surprised the nations of Earth even let you."

"The answer to that question is actually part of a much longer story, but to cut said story short, I ended up making a deal with the governments of the Earth to terraform various worlds for them if I got to designate some for preservation and sanctuary purposes. The whole Solar System here has been largely terraformed, actually. Venus is now an Earth Colony world, in fact, but that has a lot to do with the fact that different universes are sometimes further along or farther behind some of their sister universes. Mine just happened to be ahead in the time stream somewhat." Israel replied, attempting to keep his response fairly short.

"As for how... Well... The best way to regulate each world's temperature and climate was for me to essentially become its elements... Though, I can currently only really accomplish something like that here in my home plane of existence..." He continued.

"I can only imagine how much work that must've taken, especially considering how stubborn many of Earth's governments can be..." Siren gently stroked one of the flowers, "But you do have a point. Just cause things are a certain way in one timeline, don't mean it's the same for all of them," She went over and leaned against a tree while watching him, "So, now that we're here, mind telling me how we plan to do this new evaluation? You want me to fight you or something?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Israel replied, wading into the stream somewhat for no particularly apparent reason. "I am of the opinion that a sparring match of sorts would give you the opportunity to display some of those abilities that you mentioned you wanted to show me. I also figured that you could more or less cut lose here once we travel north towards the pole."

Israel gazed out on the small dwarf planet. "And it would be dishonest of me to say that it wasn't also my intention to show off Olea. I'm quite proud of it."

"Sounds like a plan," Siren levitated into the air, not entirely sure how well they could do against someone like Pinnacle as they could not recall having ever seen him cut loose, but was determined to put on a good showing anyways, "Lead the way."

Israel nodded and rose into the air himself, the water somehow not clinging to him at all as he began to fly in the direction of the moon's northern polar region at great speeds, still, he made sure to keep pace with the Siren in order to mask both of their produced sound and force from said speed.

A short time later, they both arrived in the empty and desolate frozen north of Earth's moon. The Earth was still visible in the sky as they touched down upon the snow-covered ground.

"Unlike Earth's north pole, there's no complex life for miles out here. It should be a good sparring ground." Israel said. "Are you ready to begin?"

"I will be in just a moment. I need to ask a favor first," Siren shivered a little at the chilly air in their surroundings, "Could you perhaps raise the temperature here? My powers are kinda weakened when in a really cold environment, and if we're gonna be cutting loose, I'd like it if both of us could use our full strength."

Israel nodded as the snow beneath both their feet seemed to inexplicably blast away in nearly an instant into the air as steam radiating out from them as the soil came into view, and the climate's temperature increased to a far more comfortable 16.1803399 degrees Celsius in nearly the same instant.

"Better?" Israel asked.

Siren breathed a sigh of relief at the warmer temperature and nodded, "Much better, thanks. Now then..." The entity brushed its bangs aside, "I guess its only proper we introduce ourselves again. I am Siren, or as you may come to know me, Akhenhapi, and I accept your challenge, mighty scion. Rest assured, I will not put on a poor performance..." Siren mentally groaned, wondering which of the voices within them had given the push to say that.

Regardless, they started by raising a hand and closing their eyes...before they started to sing. Their voice echoed through the landscape around them as it waited to be bent to the singer's will. With but a gesture, chunks of the earth began to float upwards, crumbling into dust before said dust cloud suddenly ignited in flames and was transformed into countless glass shards. The singer then flicked their wrist forward and launch the massive barrage at their target with high velocity.

Pinnacle couldn't help but smile as the thousands of shards of glass flew towards him with great speed, though to his mind's eye, every unit of Planck time was registered individually, and thus, it was a massive understatement to say that he had more than enough time to react, especially considering the set-up.

Pinnacle stood where he was as each individual shard of glass stopped short in the air in front of him, temporarily forming a bladed glass hemisphere around his person before they shot back at the entity before him at the same speed with which they first approached Israel.

"I haven't seen that one before." Israel said. "How very interesting."

Siren transformed their arm into a huge shield and slammed it down as the barrage was turned back on them. Why did I forget that he had telekinesis as well? Seeing that he had yet to move, Siren flexed her wrists and primed a psychic field around her body and pulled back before launching towards him through the air and at high speeds.

They looked ready to throw a punch...only to seemingly vanish as their body quickly morphed and shrank into that of a serpent who quickly slipped between Pinnacle's legs and and changed back behind him before letting loose a powerful sonic scream.

Israel watched as the conglomerate hive-entity that was both the Siren and not the Siren shot towards him again after blocking the barrage of glass just as he thought she would. He never would have sent the attack back at her if he didn't trust in her abilities to negate the counterattack.

Again, Israel could have reacted sooner due to his nearly unfathomable reaction "time," if you could call it that, but chose instead to observe where she was going with said attack, letting her shoot straight past him in an apparent feint before morphing back into herself behind him.

Once she had done so, he sent most of his mass phased below the ground, leaving a hollow shell of himself before her as she let loose a powerful sonic scream.

He allowed the decoy to be blasted apart as though it were his true body (a feat easy to achieve considering his inane density,) as a new crater was blasted in the moon by her scream, before rising up out of the ground about a meter's length away from her from behind; his own sound completely absorbed, but the other sounds passing through him and around him as if he were not there at all.

"A powerful attack, but I've seen that one already." The moon seemed to say in his voice, as the air around her vibrated to simulate it perfectly. His decoy body then sublimated into the air and he spoke from his true location thereafter.

"You're holding out on me, aren't you?"