11-12-2009, 09:41 PM
“Hey, uh...” Sophia nudged Sage playfully on the arm. Remarkably, Sage didn’t immediately recoil. “Let's go, huh? Plenty of forest left to explore. If we’re lucky, we’ll run into a rabbit or a deer instead of a gigantic freaking bear.”
The two of them set off, with Sophia just in the lead, while Sage mulled over everything she told her. There was a life after death. There wasn’t an empty, vapid oblivion waiting for her when she expired, as she had thought for so many years. To have someone with first-hand knowledge from beyond the threshold of life was... comforting.
Unless, of course, she wasn’t real. Sage couldn’t discount the possibility that her presence altogether was just a fabrication; Dukes’ meddling. But then, she had seen her before the competition started. Still, it was worth-
A shrill beep screeched from her collar, jarring the girl’s train of thought, which, she conceded, was probably for the best. Sage’s eyes flicked up to find Sophia’s, and she realized her collar was blaring at her, as well.
“Searching…searching…” a computerized, feminine voice spoke.
“Sage?” Sophia’s voice was apprehensive. Frightened. “What’s happening?”
“I... don’t know,” came the girl’s discomforting response.
“Signal located. Beginning combat protocol,” the voice droned. It was trying to mimic the soothing coo of a gentle, female voice, but the computerized industrial sound just made everything sound creepy.
“Combat protocol?” the priestess inquired. Sage shook her head, as if to say ‘I don’t know,’ and then nearly fell over backward. Sophia had vanished, and the world around her had been replaced with a clearing. Across from her stood a changeling - the same as those horrible creatures that had kidnapped Trixie - who looked just as disoriented as she did.
She had been staring at him for a while before he locked eyes with her. His confused countenance crumpled into a menacing scowl. This... thing was smaller than the one she and Vad had killed, but now she was alone. The creeping fear was much more intense now than it had been then.
“What are you looking at?” he spat in an angry, yet disinterested voice. “You realize this is a competition, right? You should be trying to kill me,” he paused, and looked Sage up and down before continuing. “Not that you could possibly hope to succeed.”
The girl opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. She blinked, unsure of what to do or what to say. Standing in front of her was a monster. Or at least, her mother had always thought so. Her experiences on Frost didn’t do much to dispel the claim. Still, Sage couldn’t believe that all of them were evil. Her mother was powerful, but she was quick-tempered and so keen to hold a grudge. It was hard to take her word on very much.
Sage did her best to ignore the fact that, on top of that, there were rumblings in the palace - at least, in her time - that her mother wasn’t fit to rule, and that only the counsel of grandfather and father kept her in check. But that couldn’t be true. She had been a wise ruler, hadn’t she? She had abolished slavery, or at least, the legal practice of slavery. It was a start.
“...Are you simple?” the changeling hissed, visibly irate. Sage gasped, suddenly realizing she had been staring at him the entire time. Yet, she was too frightened to look away, or, at least, to apologize. Finally, the changeling sighed. “Just... do us both a favor and stand still. I’m feeling generous, so this will be quick.”
Lazily reaching out as one would for a television remote, he hardly seemed to even be looking at Sage. So, when the bright flash of light leapt from his palm, she was even more startled than she could have been.
With a sharp yelp of surprise, she half-fell, half-dodged out of the way of the beam, smacking face-first into the grass as the vibrant energy crashed into a tree trunk, and literally shattered it under the force of the explosion. Sage watched the mighty plant as it fell to the earth, and then turned her head back to the changeling, her eyes wide with terror.
“Y-You don’t understand!!” Sage exclaimed, as the alabaster creature loosed another blast. The un-athletic girl narrowly rolled out of the way, but the resulting detonation propelled her across the clearing, until she hit the grass and skidded along the mercifully dewy clearing.
With a groan, the girl climbed to her feet, already out of breath. Her right side both stung and felt numb from the heat and force of her opponent’s last attack. “None of this is real!” she protested, while the changeling took aim at her head with his finger, as though he were lining up a shot with a handgun. “I have to win this, please, y-”
An effulgent dart of ki catapulted toward her, and Sage threw herself to the ground again, with a mighty Ooof! as she hit the surface. She wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for long, and the changeling looked totally relaxed.
Again, Sage righted herself, as gentle flakes of snow flitted about around her. She considered using her powers to try and force the changeling back, but she knew she couldn’t. There was nobody’s life at stake here, not like before. But then, she had already broken her oath, on at least three separate occasions. What difference would it make to do it again?
It’s not real, she assured herself. Killing him meant nothing. He would wake up somewhere else and go on with his life. But the pain and suffering... that was real. Could she inflict that upon a contestant? He might not have even been a willing participant, but another unfortunate victim of Damon’s deceptions, as Sophia and Kaden had been. Sage had joined willingly; she knew what this was. Could she really go through with this?
Another bolt of energy was suddenly sent sailing at her head, and again, Sage leapt out of the way - barely. But the changeling had been ready for her this time, and another precisely-aimed blast caught her square in the chest.
Sage felt a horrible impact as all the air was force out of her lungs under the pressure of the explosion, and she was catapulted, once again, across the soft, slick grass. Lying flat on her back, staring, dazed, at the sky, unobscured in the clearing, she fought for her breath.
It came in short, jagged fragments, each one accompanied with a pained grunt. She gingerly touched the spot that had been struck, only to feel... cold. Lifting her head as carefully as she could, she noticed shattered ice on her clothes, and no evidence of a burn or any other damage. Just like on Mercy-Sei, she had somehow evaded death with some kind of... was it armor?
Fighting the urge to rest, Sage fought her way upright, a hand pressed tightly on her chest. Serious injury or no, it still hurt so much. Looking across the field for her opponent, she noticed the air was already filled with luminescent orbs.
With a quiet shriek, she broke into a run as the energy plummeted out of the sky, racing after her. She was running perpendicular to her assailant, and the incoming blasts he was firing. She liked it better when he was just toying with her.
With the shrieking growl of mortar shells, the ki spheres pummeled the ground around her. The thunderous crashes and igniting energy shook the earth, stumbling the hybrid, but she collected herself and pressed hard, running as fast as she could as the explosions continued to rain down around her.
Finally, one came in, dead on the mark. Sage froze in step, the color draining from her face. The crackling energy came bearing down upon her, and then, in an instant, an opaque wall of ice separated her from the missile. The explosion detonated, harmlessly on the other side of her block, yet more attacks still pursued her.
Fleeing her frozen reprieve, she escaped just in time to feel the shockwaves as energy converged to obliterate the section of wall. But Sage now formed a wall taller than she was, stretching like a ray, forming parallel to herself as she ran. The blasts pounded harmlessly into the ice, leaving the girl free to focus ahead. Her lungs burned and her muscles strained, but she had to keep running. She was no match for this changeling she had been put up against.
Finally, the blue haired girl reached the tree line, and ran into it as though it were some kind of finish line, only to collide - hard - with what felt like glass. She bounced off and landed on her butt, and was left holding her forehead and wincing in agony. Looking up, she viewed the forest stretching ahead of her through a vivid, blue lens. Sage craned her head further, to see that the lens extended into a dome, high above her. And then she cursed her stupidity.
“St-Stasis,” she managed, shaking her head. She had been trying to escape for the entire fight, and the whole time, there was no escape. She would have to fight, whether she wanted to or not. And clearly, the changeling had no qualms about destroying her. Hopefully that would make her feel better about trying to destroy him.
Bursting from the tree line, Sage propelled a series of jagged spears of ice at the last place she remembered her opponent to be. Immediately, however, she realized how useless the act was, as they sailed harmlessly beneath the changeling, who had been waiting for her to re-emerge. He can fly, too?!
The ivory warrior suddenly unleashed a massive wave of ki at the girl below, who screamed and ducked down, encasing herself in a massive block of ice. The detonation sheared immense chunks off the structure, and sent deep fissures splintering all over the miniature Glacier the girl had entombed herself in. Smoke rose from the now-melting ice, and the changeling folded his arms across his chest. Pitiful.
He turned his back on the desicated Glacier, which was suddenly launched upward with immense force. Completely unaware of the gigantic block of ice racing up toward him, he took the full brunt of the impact as it smashed into and shattered against his back. He fell from the sky, crashing headfirst into the ground below. His body bent in sickly directions, but Sage knew he wasn’t dead. Any normal person’s neck would have been completely obliterated, but she knew better than to use ‘normal’ knowledge of physiology on ki-imbued creatures.
Sure enough, a very angry, somewhat bloody, changeling pushed himself to his feet. His furious eyes, set against his soft, white flesh, seemed to blaze like an oil fire in the arctic. He could have told her that the fury of all the gods was hidden behind his eyes, and Sage would have believed it. Immediately, she began to regret her decision.
“So,” he spat, splattering blood onto the fragile blades of grass. “You command ice, do you?” his scowl inverted into a smirk. “A human, no less. Beneath the apes of Vegeta-Sei, and yet you still try to practice an art reserved for your betters?” He raised a hand, and almost effortlessly forged a spear of frost.
Sage seemed horrified. But, I’m the only one who-
There was no time. It came screaming at her, and without missing a beat, she formed her massive, icy claws, and cleaved the frozen missile to pieces. Like a cornered animal, Sage lashed out at her aggressor with uncharacteristic ferocity, slashing and swiping through the air, desperately trying to carve up her clearly better-trained opponent.
His tail came from nowhere, then, and crashed into her temple, sweeping her off her feet and sending her crashing onto the ground. The place was getting cold. Actually cold, and not just because of Sage. She was supposed to be immune, wasn’t she? Her brows knitted as the reason slowly dawned. The changeling, she suddenly realized. Realization gave way to fear, then. He could actually make cold hurt her.
The two of them set off, with Sophia just in the lead, while Sage mulled over everything she told her. There was a life after death. There wasn’t an empty, vapid oblivion waiting for her when she expired, as she had thought for so many years. To have someone with first-hand knowledge from beyond the threshold of life was... comforting.
Unless, of course, she wasn’t real. Sage couldn’t discount the possibility that her presence altogether was just a fabrication; Dukes’ meddling. But then, she had seen her before the competition started. Still, it was worth-
A shrill beep screeched from her collar, jarring the girl’s train of thought, which, she conceded, was probably for the best. Sage’s eyes flicked up to find Sophia’s, and she realized her collar was blaring at her, as well.
“Searching…searching…” a computerized, feminine voice spoke.
“Sage?” Sophia’s voice was apprehensive. Frightened. “What’s happening?”
“I... don’t know,” came the girl’s discomforting response.
“Signal located. Beginning combat protocol,” the voice droned. It was trying to mimic the soothing coo of a gentle, female voice, but the computerized industrial sound just made everything sound creepy.
“Combat protocol?” the priestess inquired. Sage shook her head, as if to say ‘I don’t know,’ and then nearly fell over backward. Sophia had vanished, and the world around her had been replaced with a clearing. Across from her stood a changeling - the same as those horrible creatures that had kidnapped Trixie - who looked just as disoriented as she did.
She had been staring at him for a while before he locked eyes with her. His confused countenance crumpled into a menacing scowl. This... thing was smaller than the one she and Vad had killed, but now she was alone. The creeping fear was much more intense now than it had been then.
“What are you looking at?” he spat in an angry, yet disinterested voice. “You realize this is a competition, right? You should be trying to kill me,” he paused, and looked Sage up and down before continuing. “Not that you could possibly hope to succeed.”
The girl opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. She blinked, unsure of what to do or what to say. Standing in front of her was a monster. Or at least, her mother had always thought so. Her experiences on Frost didn’t do much to dispel the claim. Still, Sage couldn’t believe that all of them were evil. Her mother was powerful, but she was quick-tempered and so keen to hold a grudge. It was hard to take her word on very much.
Sage did her best to ignore the fact that, on top of that, there were rumblings in the palace - at least, in her time - that her mother wasn’t fit to rule, and that only the counsel of grandfather and father kept her in check. But that couldn’t be true. She had been a wise ruler, hadn’t she? She had abolished slavery, or at least, the legal practice of slavery. It was a start.
“...Are you simple?” the changeling hissed, visibly irate. Sage gasped, suddenly realizing she had been staring at him the entire time. Yet, she was too frightened to look away, or, at least, to apologize. Finally, the changeling sighed. “Just... do us both a favor and stand still. I’m feeling generous, so this will be quick.”
Lazily reaching out as one would for a television remote, he hardly seemed to even be looking at Sage. So, when the bright flash of light leapt from his palm, she was even more startled than she could have been.
With a sharp yelp of surprise, she half-fell, half-dodged out of the way of the beam, smacking face-first into the grass as the vibrant energy crashed into a tree trunk, and literally shattered it under the force of the explosion. Sage watched the mighty plant as it fell to the earth, and then turned her head back to the changeling, her eyes wide with terror.
“Y-You don’t understand!!” Sage exclaimed, as the alabaster creature loosed another blast. The un-athletic girl narrowly rolled out of the way, but the resulting detonation propelled her across the clearing, until she hit the grass and skidded along the mercifully dewy clearing.
With a groan, the girl climbed to her feet, already out of breath. Her right side both stung and felt numb from the heat and force of her opponent’s last attack. “None of this is real!” she protested, while the changeling took aim at her head with his finger, as though he were lining up a shot with a handgun. “I have to win this, please, y-”
An effulgent dart of ki catapulted toward her, and Sage threw herself to the ground again, with a mighty Ooof! as she hit the surface. She wasn’t going to be able to keep this up for long, and the changeling looked totally relaxed.
Again, Sage righted herself, as gentle flakes of snow flitted about around her. She considered using her powers to try and force the changeling back, but she knew she couldn’t. There was nobody’s life at stake here, not like before. But then, she had already broken her oath, on at least three separate occasions. What difference would it make to do it again?
It’s not real, she assured herself. Killing him meant nothing. He would wake up somewhere else and go on with his life. But the pain and suffering... that was real. Could she inflict that upon a contestant? He might not have even been a willing participant, but another unfortunate victim of Damon’s deceptions, as Sophia and Kaden had been. Sage had joined willingly; she knew what this was. Could she really go through with this?
Another bolt of energy was suddenly sent sailing at her head, and again, Sage leapt out of the way - barely. But the changeling had been ready for her this time, and another precisely-aimed blast caught her square in the chest.
Sage felt a horrible impact as all the air was force out of her lungs under the pressure of the explosion, and she was catapulted, once again, across the soft, slick grass. Lying flat on her back, staring, dazed, at the sky, unobscured in the clearing, she fought for her breath.
It came in short, jagged fragments, each one accompanied with a pained grunt. She gingerly touched the spot that had been struck, only to feel... cold. Lifting her head as carefully as she could, she noticed shattered ice on her clothes, and no evidence of a burn or any other damage. Just like on Mercy-Sei, she had somehow evaded death with some kind of... was it armor?
Fighting the urge to rest, Sage fought her way upright, a hand pressed tightly on her chest. Serious injury or no, it still hurt so much. Looking across the field for her opponent, she noticed the air was already filled with luminescent orbs.
With a quiet shriek, she broke into a run as the energy plummeted out of the sky, racing after her. She was running perpendicular to her assailant, and the incoming blasts he was firing. She liked it better when he was just toying with her.
With the shrieking growl of mortar shells, the ki spheres pummeled the ground around her. The thunderous crashes and igniting energy shook the earth, stumbling the hybrid, but she collected herself and pressed hard, running as fast as she could as the explosions continued to rain down around her.
Finally, one came in, dead on the mark. Sage froze in step, the color draining from her face. The crackling energy came bearing down upon her, and then, in an instant, an opaque wall of ice separated her from the missile. The explosion detonated, harmlessly on the other side of her block, yet more attacks still pursued her.
Fleeing her frozen reprieve, she escaped just in time to feel the shockwaves as energy converged to obliterate the section of wall. But Sage now formed a wall taller than she was, stretching like a ray, forming parallel to herself as she ran. The blasts pounded harmlessly into the ice, leaving the girl free to focus ahead. Her lungs burned and her muscles strained, but she had to keep running. She was no match for this changeling she had been put up against.
Finally, the blue haired girl reached the tree line, and ran into it as though it were some kind of finish line, only to collide - hard - with what felt like glass. She bounced off and landed on her butt, and was left holding her forehead and wincing in agony. Looking up, she viewed the forest stretching ahead of her through a vivid, blue lens. Sage craned her head further, to see that the lens extended into a dome, high above her. And then she cursed her stupidity.
“St-Stasis,” she managed, shaking her head. She had been trying to escape for the entire fight, and the whole time, there was no escape. She would have to fight, whether she wanted to or not. And clearly, the changeling had no qualms about destroying her. Hopefully that would make her feel better about trying to destroy him.
Bursting from the tree line, Sage propelled a series of jagged spears of ice at the last place she remembered her opponent to be. Immediately, however, she realized how useless the act was, as they sailed harmlessly beneath the changeling, who had been waiting for her to re-emerge. He can fly, too?!
The ivory warrior suddenly unleashed a massive wave of ki at the girl below, who screamed and ducked down, encasing herself in a massive block of ice. The detonation sheared immense chunks off the structure, and sent deep fissures splintering all over the miniature Glacier the girl had entombed herself in. Smoke rose from the now-melting ice, and the changeling folded his arms across his chest. Pitiful.
He turned his back on the desicated Glacier, which was suddenly launched upward with immense force. Completely unaware of the gigantic block of ice racing up toward him, he took the full brunt of the impact as it smashed into and shattered against his back. He fell from the sky, crashing headfirst into the ground below. His body bent in sickly directions, but Sage knew he wasn’t dead. Any normal person’s neck would have been completely obliterated, but she knew better than to use ‘normal’ knowledge of physiology on ki-imbued creatures.
Sure enough, a very angry, somewhat bloody, changeling pushed himself to his feet. His furious eyes, set against his soft, white flesh, seemed to blaze like an oil fire in the arctic. He could have told her that the fury of all the gods was hidden behind his eyes, and Sage would have believed it. Immediately, she began to regret her decision.
“So,” he spat, splattering blood onto the fragile blades of grass. “You command ice, do you?” his scowl inverted into a smirk. “A human, no less. Beneath the apes of Vegeta-Sei, and yet you still try to practice an art reserved for your betters?” He raised a hand, and almost effortlessly forged a spear of frost.
Sage seemed horrified. But, I’m the only one who-
There was no time. It came screaming at her, and without missing a beat, she formed her massive, icy claws, and cleaved the frozen missile to pieces. Like a cornered animal, Sage lashed out at her aggressor with uncharacteristic ferocity, slashing and swiping through the air, desperately trying to carve up her clearly better-trained opponent.
His tail came from nowhere, then, and crashed into her temple, sweeping her off her feet and sending her crashing onto the ground. The place was getting cold. Actually cold, and not just because of Sage. She was supposed to be immune, wasn’t she? Her brows knitted as the reason slowly dawned. The changeling, she suddenly realized. Realization gave way to fear, then. He could actually make cold hurt her.
Quote:That's it for me, then. Good luck, Frozen!
![[Image: Sage.jpg]](http://rebecca.florizone.com/sig/miscsig/Sage.jpg)