Assault and Battery (Forcewave)

"It's gotta be her man, she's perfect."

"I don't even know what that means Solo."

"It means  she lacks imperfections. Everything's constant and evenly distributed. I can't teach you the finer points of the magic arts in this van man, just take my word for it. We couldn't possibly find a better battery than this."

"Kidnapping man, we're crossing a line you know?"

"We've already talked about this. We came to a decision. It's for the greater good. It's for no more dead friends. Are you backing out Eric?"

"Let's just get this over with."

It was still early in the morning as Libra walked down the sidewalk for lack of anything else to do. She didn't actually require sleep and had no home to sleep in anyway so she simply walked around the city, hoping to find anything from a clue about her mother to a nice place to sit for a while. She was dressed plainly, dirty white tennis shoes with frayed blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a hole on the side that revealed a patch of pale skin. Very pale, Libra managed to stand out despite her mundane dress. Her pale skin was pale and seemed unnaturally smooth, long white hair fell down her back and straight-across bangs hung like curtains over her eyes. She looked a bit like an albino, though her eyes were also a nearly colorless silver.  

Libra slowed her pace as a black van pulled ahead of her and pulled off to the shoulder, turning its blinkers on. She wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but she didn't really know how traffic worked anyway so she decided to mind her own business and keep walking. As she passed the van the back doors swung open and a man grabbed at Libra. She immediately tried to summon a spell, but found something in the area was dampening her magical abilities. With plan A seemingly unusable, Libra instead turned to wildly flailing her hands about, grabbing and scratching at whatever target she could find. Her hands slid inside his coat pocket and she grabbed the lining and pulled to try to take him off his balance. She could feel some sort of card in the pocket, and instinctively read it as her hand touched it. It was a key, and had the address of somewhere on it. Was there where they intended to take her?  Index felt a sharp pinch and her back as she struggled with the man in the brown jacket and turned to see a young man in a dark suit holding a strange firearm. He pulled the trigger and Libra once again felt the pinch, as well as witnessed a dart attached to a small vial appear in her chest. The way her senses were rapidly failing her it wasn't hard to figure out that it was some form of tranquilizer. Her Homunculus physiology granted her some favor but she already had enough of the drug in her system to render a human unconscious and a third sharp pain told her that her time awake was limited.  She reached into her pants pocket and produced a small keychain of an owl. "Brother...you've got to get me some help okay?" She muttered too quiet and unintelligibly to be heard by her captors.  The man in the brown coat grabbed her by the color as her knees gave out and she began to crumple. she summoned what little magic she could, and flames quietly flicked from her fingers as the man lifted her up and her consciousness faded. They quickly stowed her in the back of the van, leaving nothing but the morning's stillness and one call for help.  

On the sidewalk a small cartoon owl keychain sat above a short message burned into the concrete.  It listed an address of a not terribly far off warehouse, and simply said "Please help me."

---

"So this is it huh? This is our weapon to defend the city?" Jeffrey asked of Eric and Solomon, the only two remaining members of what was intended to be a group of young heroes. Fighting super-powered villains turned out to be more dangerous than they thought, and now all that remained was a trio. There was no way they could defend Los Angeles if something like New York happened, and with the deaths of their friends fresh in their minds they were eventually convinced by Solomon to resort to more desperate matters.   "Well, this is the battery that will power our weapon. I'll be ready to extract shortly." Solomon tinkered with various things on the "battery." The girl's arms were locked in metal bonds and a metal helmet clamped over her head, her face completely hidden behind a blank mask of metal. Her white hair slipped out from the rune-inscribed silver collar at it's base, and various tubes snaked off of the gauntlets and metal hood and eventually connected to a golden spear. "Can she talk?" Eric inquired. Solomon shook his head. "No. She can't talk and her magic is sealed" Solomon saw the doubt in his friend Eric's eyes and attempted to comfort him. "Look, things worked out as good as they could have. She's homeless and as far as I can tell has no family or friends. I don't even think she's human man, she's clearly a magical being. Probably created by some seriously powerful magician, any naturally occuring being this magical wouldn't have been taken out with some animal tranquilizers. She probably has a limited lifespan anyway. We're doing the right thing. When this much magic is condensed into a single weapon, we'll be able to defend this city from anything."

Suddenly the guest of honor stirred, struggling lazily in her newfound bondage. Solomon spoke to Jeffrey and pointed towards the only door into the small warehouse. "go guard the door, we can't risk anything happening during the extraction. Jeffrey didn't speak but quickly headed outside, glad to not have to be in the room for this. He stepped outside and lit a cigarette, looking around at the dull surroundings. This place used to be busy, but when the city expanded it became too out-of-the-way to be practical to any businesses. None of the warehouses here actually held anything, so it was the perfect place to set up a base. Jeffrey was unusually aware of the gun at his side. He was the only one in the group without any powers, but he held his own as long as he had a firearm. He was an incredible marksman, but what would he do if the police showed up? He took another long drag off his cigarette as he nervously awaited for the ordeal to be over, he would be glad when things returned to normal for the crew of do-gooders.

So far this trip to Los Angeles had just been a wreck. For one, he did not tell anyone and now a lot of people were unhappy with him. Well, it was probably because he had been avoiding people like the plague and being a bit rude. Stress got to him and he had been behaving stupidly. So shameful of him it was. John had known about this upcoming trip to Los Angeles, California for a decent amount of time. He just chose not to tell anybody until after he had arrived there. That's probably why people were upset with him.

Perhaps he should make some calls. Try and fix things a bit while he was here instead of waiting until he got back home. John got out his cell phone as he tried to remember each and every single person that he had upset recently. He was probably not going to call his neighbor. Yeah, not happening. He pressed the first button on his speed dial and called up on his closest friends.

As the phone rang for longer than he would have hoped he started to ramble out "Come on, pickup already. Pickup, pickup, pickup. Oh, hi." he trailed off when the call was finally answered.

"Hey, what's up?" His friend Kyle responded. A week ago they got into a stupid heated argument because John had gotten on him about something he shouldn't have. He had since apologized for it sure, but he still felt bad about it and also thought that Kyle was still upset.

"Hey, I'm just calling to say I'm sorry about last week. I was just out of line and-" he was saying sincerely before being interrupted.

"Dude, I already told you I'm not mad at you. We're still cool. Alright?" Kyle stated reassuringly.

"Alright. Thanks. So what are you doing?" John asked relieved.

"I'm about to be forced to go to family dinner. You actually called just in time to catch me." He laughed a bit as he said it "And I'm being called downstairs. Talk to you later."

"Bye." he said as he hung up. Okay then, now who else did he need to call? Perhaps his girlfriend. He hadn't talked to her in awhile. He dialed the number and waited for her to pickup. No answer. Oh well. He turned the thing off since it was low on power and left.

Now, Los Angeles may be a weird city, but what was he looking at? It was strange, but cute too. It was a keychain of a cartoonish owl. Somebody had dropped it perhaps. Doubtful though. Not according to what it was located next to. Someone or something had burned a message into concrete. Into concrete of all things. That was pretty impressive of whomever did it. Reading the message indicated an address. The site of the address was just due west of here. Near the waterside. Possibly the warehouse district. Along with the address came a request for help.

John was kneeling over on the sidewalk reading the message. This distress signal. It was so unusual. Who had done it? If he went to the address he was sure to find out. Right? Surely it would be. Regardless of his desire to know who had sent it, something else had to be done. It was a plea for help after all. Somebody had to do something about it. He would, of course. He just had to. John would not be able to look at himself if he refused to do anything. Sure, it could be a trap. It was unlikely though. I mean, who would try this on him? How would they even know he would find this message? He didn't even live in this city and wasn't the type to mass inform people of his activities. Definitely a private person kneeling there. If it was a trap then whomever made it would have to be somebody that was following him. Even if it was a trap, the possibility of someone needing help was too great to ignore. As such, he was off to do something at that address.

That message indicated somebody was seriously in need of help. More than he could provide. It was truly unusual. John found a place to hide for a bit and changed into costume. It was time to go superhero mode in order to investigate. After he was done changing he walked over to the warehouse district. It took only one glance to see how generally abandoned this place was. However, there was one in use. The door was open and somebody stood outside of it. Forcewave was a few buildings away and snuck around them all to get over to it without being seen. He was sneaking around the side of the warehouse and peeked through one of the windows to see two men standing over a tied up young woman. He decided to climb to the top of it in order to get in. Once he was atop the roof he walked to the front and looked down at the guy at the door. Forcewave planned out his approach. First he would take out the guard and move him away from view. Then he would have to quickly sneak in and somehow get close enough to the woman without alerting the other two. If would be really helpful if they moved away from her, but he didn't think he'd be able to get in unnoticed. He would have to do this carefully.

Index was awake, but she couldn't move. Her hands were clasped in metal, as was her face. She tried to scream out, but no sound escaped. The iron mask muffled it so well she could barely hear it herself, but she could hear everything else. She could hear the humans talking about her. Like an animal, a tool, a thing. They deprived her of a name, hooked her to machines, and covered her face. It was all very familiar, it was if Index was living one of her night terrors. She struggled despite her hopeless situation, rattling her hands in the limited motion her bonds allowed. She could feel the metal grind at her wrists, but still she struggled. She summoned every bit of magic she could, but nothing escaped the strange metal that covered her hands. Every bit of fire, lightning, and either she summoned left the metal unharmed and returned upon her own flesh. She could smell her own burnt flesh but her mind was too frantic to be stopped by pain. Even if she could make a noise be heard, her throat was already screamed dry.

"What's she doing!?" Eric frantically asked Solomon. The girl hooked into the machine seemed to be having a seizure. The lack of a voice to accompany the rattling of her struggle only served to make things more eerie. Eric's doubts about the plan were fully manifested, but it was far too late to turn back now. "What do you think? She's struggling. It just goes to prove that this is a magical creature if draining its magic causes such a reaction. You should be elated. We get the power to protect this city without having to resort to murdering a person." Solomon's reassurance was not altogether too reassuring. Pale blood leaked from the iron cuffs as a precursor to the horrible stench of burnt flesh that instantly filled every corner of the room. Solomon was calm and collected as always. After Ellie's death Eric wasn't fit to lead anyone, and Solo had stepped up and kept the group from falling apart. He convinced them that this was the only way. With Ellie gone there was nothing left for Eric in this world, if becoming a monster meant no more lives would be lost he would pay the price. He would pay any price, being a hero no longer meant anything to him.

"Oh god, what is that?" Jeff asked. Eric hadn't even noticed him return. "Why aren't you outside?" was his only reply. Jeff looked at him quizzically. "I could smell that from outside man, I thought something was going wrong." Eric spoke to him with a flat tone Jeff found as unsettling as the rest of the situation. "Nothing is wrong, right Solo?" He looked to Solomon who quietly nodded. "Now get back outside and watch the door! If somebody crashes this party all our sacrifices will have been for nothing." Eric turned his back to Jeff and continued watching the slow death of the creature they had brought back. Jeff opened his mouth as if to say something but then decided better of it and walked back outside.

He returned to the post he had abandoned for a few moments, then abandoned it for one more moment while he expelled the contents of his stomach on the ground nearby. Jeff was a merc before this group, he always figured he was the one with the loosest morals...but after Ellie Solomon had shown a darker side. At first Jeff was happy the group was moving in a more practical direction, he never had much patience for all of Eric's idealism, but this was...this was something else entirely. He wanted to just walk away, but he owed Eric a great deal so he would do this for him...this last favor. He returned to standing in front of the doorway, trying to ignore the smell of burning flesh.

Forcewave was hanging along the wall of the warehouse just above the door. Just below him stood the man who was guarding the door. Two more men were inside, along with the woman they had captured and were holding all chained up. He was here to help her just as the message had asked. He had to be quiet no matter what he tried. He could take out the guard real quickly and sneak in, or try and sneak past him into the warehouse. Either way, silence was the important factor. If the two men inside discovered him the woman would be put in further danger. They would probably force him to leave by threatening to kill her if he didn't. Couldn't take that risk.

He could feel one of his hands starting to go a bit numb as he hung there holding on tightly to the handles of the hooks. Forcewave started to slide down a bit further as the guard suddenly turned around. Oh no. Had he heard him? This could be bad. Forcewave watched carefully as the man walked inside. He had not looked up, nor made any sign that he had noticed him hanging there. He shifted his positioning and slide down outside of view of the entrance. From there he snuck a quick peek inside. All three of them were gathered around the woman. They were discussing something. He just couldn't hear what it was they were saying. He could see the woman struggling to break free of the bonds she was chained too. He also saw everything that was in the warehouse. It was mostly empty except for some equipment. Like that thing she was tied to. Nowhere to hide though. Trying to sneak up on them wasn't looking like a good idea. What now?

The guy who had been guarding the door was heading back this way. Forcewave pulled back and started to climb back up the wall. He pulled the chain in to get airborne. Now he was back to hanging as the man came back outside. He was hanging above him as the man moved away to go vomit. Forcewave used this opportunity to climb down real quick and slip inside. He leaned against the inside wall, hidden as well as he could muster. Then he had an idea. The man had returned to his guarding post. Forcewave snuck up behind him and whacked him upside the head in order to knock him out. He then turned to see if the other two had noticed. If they did he'd use this guy as a bargaining chip. If not he'd go back to hiding and trying to get closer.

Eric watched the girl intently, his desire to protect devolving further into madness as he convinced himself he was doing the right thing. After a moment the girl stopped struggling. "How much longer is this going to take Solo?" Solomon looked up from the spear they were charging with potent magic. "Another twenty minutes or so." He said as if they were doing the most mundane task "Any faster and we risk losing some of the energies in the process."

Jeff's mouth tasted like Marlboro blacks and vomit. He'd definitely need a drink once this distasteful business was over. He was in the middle of pondering how his night could go any farther downhill when a sharp blow to the head knocked him out before he could register being struck. He fell forward, sprawled out on the concrete. His allies might have heard the noise, had they not been busy listening to something else.

"In twenty minutes you'll both be dead."

both men looked in surprise as the girl spoke. "I thought you said she couldn't talk Solo." Eric said with anger in his stern voice. Solomon's normal blank look showed a hint of concern. "She shouldn't be able to."  The girl in the chair remained motionless, and spoke with an eerie calm. "Your enchantments are amateur. Your understanding of the magical arts is that of an infant. It won't be long before I dissect the rest of your shoddy work and free myself of these bindings."  Solomon's brow furrowed. This was unexpected, and he hated surprises. "My only wish." The girl continued to speak from behind the iron mask, the unfortunate headgear giving her voice a muffled echo. "Is that you survive long enough for me to put you in this chair while I watch you burn."  Eric shot a look at Solomon that he understood to mean "take care of it." Solomon set about doing just that, briskly returning to his machine's control panel and pushing a lever to its maximum setting. "It will be dead before anything unexpected can happen." he said with a grim determination, his ego bruised by the creature's challenging him. Her voice returned to her, Index screamed as both her magic and life were drained from her at a breakneck pace. She thrashed violently as smoke rose from within her cuffs and the smell of newly burnt flesh washed out the smell of burnt flesh in the small warehouse. Eric watched the grizzly scene for a moment, before pushing his doubts back down and turning his back on the girl.

That worked. Forcewave knocked out the guy who was guarding the door. Quickly and quietly. Just as planned. Or was it? Was the effort quiet enough? If the other two had heard him, things might get out of control. So far so good though. Forcewave was looking towards them and saw no sign of any reaction. They were both still focusing on the girl, and she was speaking to them. He started to walk towards them as they were distracted by her speech. Slowly he traversed ever so closer, not knowing how he would attempt to rescue her. He could probably take them both out, free her from the restraints and they could just escape. It was probably the best course of action.

As he drew closer, the experiment they were running was well underway. One of the men set the machine to its maximum setting. Now the young woman couldn't speak at all, for she was having to scream in great pain. She was being burned alive by the energy surging through her and the fumes coming from her were almost overwhelming. Forcewave couldn't allow this to continue. He changed direction. This time towards the machine, and he wasn't being quiet either. He was dashing right towards it, regardless of the thought of being heard. So what if they heard him? Dealing with them would be easier than letting this woman die. He ran to the machine and grabbed the same lever that the man had just used. He pulled it down to its minimal setting. That probably wasn't enough to turn it off, but it should stop the surges from burning her alive. He turned to look towards her to see if she was alright, and prepare for whatever those two might do next because they were surely to know he was now here.

With a sudden gasp of painful air into charred lungs the hideous flow of her own energy ceased entirely. Where once it was a terrible river arrogantly rushing past the ruins of a broken dam it had been shut off like a bent garden hose. It was only an instant, but it was enough for the turning wheels in Libra's vengeful mind. Overclocking the Frankenstein machine had left the bonds more fragile then before, and Libra was able to command the flow to reverse. The machine's primitive fail safes caused the shackles around her hands to split and fall to the floor. The smell of burnt flesh was immediately overpoweringly offensive. It was no longer burning flesh, it was burnt meat. It was a smell reserved for the memories of old men who had fought in savage wars. The smell that chased them home from distant shores and occupied a small space in the back of the brain, inter tangling with whatever parts of the brain are concerned with fear. If you ever found one of these old men willing to speak of the horrible truth of those long-past wars they would tell you the smell. They would tell you with a straight face that it was what hell smelled like, and confronted with the smell in a dingy old warehouse you got an idea of what that meant.  

Solomon cursed Jeff's name as the figure burst from the shadows too quickly to be stopped. He heard a hiss and a clank as his subject freed herself from her bonds. He allowed himself a moment to panic, but only a moment. Then he let the calm overtake him, a calm reserved for those who practice the heretic arts. "Handle the intruder." He flatly barked the order without looking at Eric as he rushed to the burnt-out remnants of his victim. The smell didn't bother him. he had always had friends on the other side. Even as a toddler he saw the shadows move when his parents thought they stood still. He didn't even notice the smell. He had walked alongside death his whole life, and he could not remember a time when he smelled anything else.   As quickly as Solomon ran towards the girl Eric jammed himself between the intruder and the girl. "I don't know who you are, and I don't want to hurt you." he said with an eery calm, his eyes still and black with determination. "But leave now, or I'll cut you down. What's going on here is bigger than you. We are going to save the world." He reached behind him with his left hand and pulled a broadsword from beneath his heavy overcoat, brandishing it threateningly at the intruder as a sudden aura of fire erupted around him, brightening the dimly lit warehouse considerably.

Libra stood up from the throne sluggishly. She looked very much like she was already dead. The white hair that escaped the metal hood was dried and thin, and sweat held her white t-shirt close to her skinny frame like a rotting shroud. and her hands, oh god her hands. They were blacker than the night sky, the dehydrated flesh clinging tightly to the twisted fingers where it was not already falling off. She was still cut off from sight, but it was no longer the blackness within the iron mask she saw. She saw only red. She was weak; she could barely make herself rise from the horrible machine, but the madness had overtaken her mind and nothing mattered besides bringing death upon those that would deprive of her name. Better to be a murderer than to be nameless again. The morality she obsessed over was gone now, sucked away by the shaman's machine perhaps. She couldn't see, but she could hear his footsteps approaching.

"I told you that your childish charms would not hold me, dead man." She spoke in a raspy voice that accented her newfound undead appearance. She weakly raised up a blackened arm. The shaman laughed in her concealed face. "Your power is already drained, what are you going to do little creature?" Libra could imagine his smile without seeing it. She raised a ghoulish hand that crackled pathetically with nothing but whispers of magical energy, eliciting another laugh from her tormentor. She desperately summoned what little energy she had left, and while the man was laughing she managed to create a single shard of ice in her palm, and she wrapped her skeletal black fingers around it with an odd sense of satisfaction and...something else. A primal lust, an overwhelming desire to spill blood. She brought the hand down towards the voice with surprising force.

The icicle pierced the over-confident Solomon's right eye with a sickening sound. He reeled back clutching at his face as a river of blood flowed from the place where his eye used to be, the long piece of ice still embedded into his skull and sticking awkwardly out three inches. "You Bitch!" he cried out. "You arrogant, desperate, animal!" he spoke each word as if there was a period behind it, as if each insult stood alone as a complete thought. Libra replied only by laughing, a raspy high-pitched laugh of a woman free of all sanity, while clawing at the metal hood on her face so frantically pink blood oozed from beneath her fingernails. He continued backwards until he reached the table where the spear lay. "Enjoy your last laugh bitch, you're not killing anyone here. All your power is already mine!" He picked up the spear and aimed its tip at the mad girl.

and as the head of the spear began to glow with an unearthly light, even the light cast from Eric's raging flame seemed to dim.

Eric:

Solomon:

Success was short lived. It was still worth it though. She was alive. The girl whom he came all this way to help out was alive at least. For now. Who knows how much longer that may last though. Forcewave could tell from here that she was not in good shape. This was definitely someone in need of immediate medical attention. If you could even stand to get near her. The smoke was fuming off her and she was just roasted. The damage was sickening to behold. There was also the problem in that he didn't know if there was a hospital anywhere near her, and he still had to deal with the last two members of this strange group. These remaining two, they were unpredictable in their behavior. Especially the one who seemed to lead the trio. That guy, he seemed to be very dangerous.

Forcewave began to rush over towards her, but he was intercepted. They got there first. The one who seemed to be the leader went for the girl. The other one stood before him ready for a confrontation of sorts. He wasn't worried about this turning into a fight, and neither was this guy. He spoke, and it started off in the usual way. He was giving Forcewave the chance to leave, or he would attack. Then he mentioned something along the lines of what their intentions were. He was saying they were trying to save the world. What, just what? He then pulled out a large sword and suddenly became surrounded in a veil of flames. Oh, this was interesting. It was quite the sight to behold, but he was not intimidated. He was too angered by that statement to be scared. "Saving the world? From what exactly? And how? By killing her." he pointed at the woman as he said this. "What does burning her to death with this damn machine have to do with saving the world?" he asked with anger and sheer indignation in his voice.

Despite the sheer brightness of the flames erupting from the man before him, Forcewave's attention was on the severely wounded woman, and the other man. She was thankfully still alive, and still fighting for her freedom despite the injuries. She was also putting up quite the fight. A shard of ice that she produced pierced the man's skull, but he was still alive, and infuriated. This act of defiance drove him into a state of rage. He staggered in pain and anger towards a table where a spear lay, and picked it up. Forcewave knew what he was about to do and ignoring the man wreathed in flames, ran over to stop it as the spear began to glow. He fired a blast of lightning that formed a barrier between him and the woman and ran forth in an attempt to disarm him of the glowing spear.

Eric stood his ground, but refused to make the first move. He spoke with a fiery passion matched only by the aura of flame that surrounded him. "One life to save countless others, one life sacrificed for the world to live free of fear.  If it could have been me I would have gladly volunteered. Your childlike sense of morality is naive, saving this girl is the same as murdering a million others." As his speech grew more passionate the fire around him increased in temperature and intensity. He was so engrossed in his passion that he didn't quite have time to react when the hero darted past him shooting a blast of lighting forth.

Solomon, oblivious to everything but his own rage and pain, continued forward to fire upon the girl in the iron mask. As he pushed the spear forward the wall of lightning quickly turned it into a conduit, sending incredible amounts of electricity through Solomon's body that only saw to tighten his grip on whatever functioned as the spear's trigger. For a moment the combined luminescence of the electricity and magical energy of the spear made it impossible to see anything else as it culminated in a mighty explosion of energy. The spear could not withstand the amount of energies passing through it and exploded, sending shrapnel about haphazardly. A mighty blast of white-hot magical energy escaped the tip moving indiscriminately forward towards the white-haired girl still clawing at her iron mask. The white hot energy engulfed half her body, and iron mask and flesh alike were reduced to atoms. The body of the girl, now  grisly sight with nearly all the left half above the waste gone, fell to the ground like a ruined ragdoll. Solomon himself was not far from death's door, his own skin ironically burned not unlike his recent victim's. His black clothing was in tatters, and bits of his creation's shrapnel stuck out of his body. He deliriously stirred on the ground, unable to stand or truly comprehend his situation at the moment.  

Eric stood stunned for a moment, first by the blinding light and then by the violent scene it preceded. It didn't take him long to whiplash from confusion to anger. "You see what your naive view brings? Pointless death! You have doomed countless." He rushed towards the unwelcome vigilante flame trailing behind him. He jumped into the air, trying to bring his blade down on the hero with a wall of flame behind it that grew hotter as he let loose a battle cry as he descended.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to either the dazed Solomon or the enraged Eric, something also began to stir around the girl's body. White glowing lines in odd geometric patterns began to draw themselves around the body, which began to reconstitute itself somehow. The burnt dried flesh slowly began to return to a healthy color as missing flesh was replaced. The brain healed quickly, far sooner than the missing half of a skull around it, and though the body lay completely still a wicked smile stealthily stole it's way to its mostly-formed lips.

So he wound up not really taking a moment to properly listen to this man speak of his intentions and the reasons behind his actions. Sure he heard every word that was spoken, but his mind was focused on something else. The woman may have been freed from her shackles, but she was still in danger. It's why he chose to ignore him for now and focus on protecting her. Forcewave just could not make it in time physically and had gone ahead and sent forth an energy wall to block the incoming strikes. He had hoped it would hold up long enough for him to get over there himself, or at least deter this continual assault upon her. What he did not expect was what actually wound up happening.

Instead of just blocking the spear strikes, an explosion suddenly occurred. The energy from that spear simply did not mesh well with his own, and it led to disastrous results. The resulting blast was quite powerful. Forcewave was knocked to the ground by the sheer impact of it. The explosion sure left its mark as shrapnel was scattered and damage had seriously been done. He couldn't believe what just happened. It was all so sudden that it continued to shock him. Forcewave pressed his palm against the floor to help lift himself up off of it. He sat up and surveyed the scene. It was just a terrible thing to behold. Knowing how close those two were to that explosion, his imagination had come up with an idea as to how bad they were off, and the reality seemed worse. That one man. The one known as Solo. He was torn asunder by the explosion. His body burn't seemingly from head to toe, and bits of shrapnel spread about across his body. The really bad part was it paled in comparison to the condition of the woman.

She was just destroyed. There was no other way of putting it. The explosion had left her barely recognizable as half her torso was completely missing. Just baring witness to this made him feel like he was going to be sick. It actually was. He could feel vomit swelling in the back of his mouth. His throat now burning because of what he was seeing. Forcewave got to his feet and slowly took a few steps towards her body. This was the woman that he had been trying to save this entire time. It was really sad for him to see this. He failed. Plain and simple, and now knew not what to do. He came to a stop and just covered his eyes because it was just too hard to look.

His time to think was interrupted by the leader of the bunch shouting in rage before attacking him once again. Forcewave removed his hand from covering his eyes and turned to see him charging with those flames wreathing behind him. He quickly dodged out of the way and instead of attacking back chose to say something about this man's supposed good intents and what they had led to. "You are wrong. She's dead because of your own actions. Your friend was trying to kill her. If he had, your so called noble plans would have been ruined anyways. All this talk of saving the world is nothing more than just talk because you just abandon it in favor of raging like a violent psychopath. You're just delusional, and this." he told him with anger seething in his voice as he pointed at the two people whom had been hurt by the explosion "This is your own fault." he concluded. Forcewave was not interested in listening to a single thing this guy had to say. None of it was worth hearing to him. His words would probably drive the man into further rage, and lead him to attacking again. This time with such fury that he would not be able to stop himself. He shifted himself into a fighting stance and prepared for whatever attack came next.