[Third Person Pov]
Within the Sentinel facility, flames and oppressive heat coated the walls like a second skin. The air shimmered and warped, metal groaning as if the structure itself were screaming under the strain. It was hell on earth—an inferno born of science and warfare—but for someone like Lizzy, it was nothing short of paradise.
"Hahahaha!" she cackled wildly, her laughter echoing through the burning corridors like that of an unhinged witch. Waves of raw energy poured from her body, invisible at first, then igniting into roaring fire as their intensity spiked. The energy twisted and bent the space around her, the air rippling as if reality itself were struggling to keep its shape.
'I really should thank Bruce for those lessons,' Lizzy thought, a manic thrill running through her despite the chaos. Gratitude and excitement mingled in her chest. Thanks to his training, she could finally feel what she was doing—not just unleashing power blindly, but understanding its effect on the world around her. Solid surfaces began to soften, steel beams sagging and flowing like molten wax as the molecular bonds gave way, reduced to liquid by the overwhelming energy saturating the area.
The sheer volume of microwaves she was flooding into the environment pushed the Sentinels past their limits. Their adaptive systems struggled to keep up. As Lizzy darted through the air in streaks of fire, the Sentinels' HUDs flickered and glitched, scanning her again and again, failing to properly lock on. Her form blurred and distorted on their displays, making it nearly impossible for them to analyze her abilities and formulate a countermeasure.
Under normal circumstances, metal would simply reflect microwaves due to their relatively low frequency. But Lizzy wasn't operating under normal circumstances. The extreme heat she was generating overwhelmed those defenses. Several Sentinels began to glow a bright, searing orange, their armored bodies softening and sagging as internal components liquefied. They moved too slowly—too cautiously—and paid the price as they melted down, collapsing into glowing heaps of slag.
The remaining Sentinels adapted faster.
Unable to counter Lizzy directly, they shifted strategies entirely. Instead of resisting heat and fire, their bodies reconfigured into systems capable of generating and deploying liquid nitrogen. In an instant, torrents of extreme cold erupted outward, snuffing out the flames around Lizzy with violent efficiency.
Lizzy barely had time to react.
The sudden extinguishment of her fire was so abrupt that her body went into shock. One of her arms flash-froze solid in an instant—encased in brittle ice before she could even scream. A heartbeat later, it shattered.
The arm exploded into fragments like a pristine porcelain vase dropped onto stone, shards scattering through the air.
"AHHH!" Lizzy screamed in agony and horror, the sound raw and desperate as she stumbled backward in panic. Pain tore through her, sharp and overwhelming, and her concentration faltered. The Sentinels advanced without mercy, their heavy steps deliberate and unrelenting. Tears streamed freely down Lizzy's face, born from both fear and shock.
Their eyes glowed ominously as they closed in, emotionless and calculating.
Gritting her teeth through the pain, Lizzy forced herself to act. She tore open a portal behind her—but not before another blast of cold caught her leg. It froze solid mid-motion and shattered as she crossed the threshold, the loss following her through the gateway.
She emerged into the endless void of space.
The portal didn't close immediately. Instead, the sudden pressure difference created a powerful suction, dragging every nearby Sentinel along with her. One by one, their massive bodies were ripped free from the facility and hurled into the vacuum alongside her.
They floated in silence, suspended in the black vastness of space. For a brief moment, the Sentinels froze completely, their systems struggling to comprehend the sudden environmental shift. Lizzy, meanwhile, instinctively released a protective wave of microwaves across her body. The energy spread outward, forming a faint, shimmering silhouette shaped like her own figure—a barrier that shielded her from the lethal effects of the vacuum.
Curled into herself, Lizzy hugged what remained of her body, tears drifting away as tiny crystals in zero gravity.
"Stop crying," Aria's voice snapped through Lizzy's earpiece, sharp and unimpressed. "Why the hell are you even crying?"
"Give me a break," Lizzy sniffled, her voice shaking. "I just lost an arm and a leg. It hurts."
"Exactly," Aria replied flatly. "You just lost an arm and a leg." She sighed, sounding genuinely exasperated. "I swear, your powers are completely wasted on you."
"Aren't you being a little mean right now?" Lizzy muttered, still sobbing softly.
"That's because you're being stupid," Aria shot back. "Now listen. Move fast. While the Sentinels are still adapting, I'm going to guide you through using the weak and strong nuclear forces. You're going to regenerate your limbs and get back into the fight."
Aria's tone grew more urgent as she continued. The frost coating the Sentinels was already beginning to melt. Even now, they were absorbing solar radiation from the nearby star, converting it into usable energy. Their eyes shifted from red to a cold, luminous gold as they slowly rotated in zero gravity to face Lizzy once more.
"You're just like father," Aria said quickly. "You've been holding back your power to protect the people around you. If you ever truly went all out on Earth, you'd risk distorting the planet's electromagnetic field and causing unimaginable destruction. But you're not on Earth anymore."
The Sentinels finished turning toward her.
"So stop holding back," Aria said. "Go all out."
Lizzy clenched her jaw, forcing herself to focus through the pain.
"First," Aria instructed, "start by absorbing the electromagnetic field from the stars around you…"
Lizzy squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to listen, blocking out the pain screaming through her nerves.
"Absorb, don't emit," Aria commanded. "The world won't break apart if you do so. Every charged particle, every wavelength. Pull it in."
Lizzy drew a shaky breath. The microwave field surrounding her shifted, no longer flaring outward violently but tightening, condensing against her skin like a second layer of flesh. She could feel it now—the electromagnetic spectrum stretching endlessly around her, radio waves drifting lazily, solar radiation hammering down in relentless torrents, cosmic background radiation whispering through the void.
She reached for it.
The sensation was intoxicating.
Power flooded into her, not hot like fire but dense and crushing, like gravity made of light. The pain from her missing limbs dulled as her awareness sank deeper, past molecules, past atoms.
"Good," Aria said, her voice calmer now. "Now stop thinking of your body as flesh. It's a pattern. A structure. You already know what it's supposed to be, no one knows your body like you do."
Lizzy's teeth clenched as invisible forces gathered around her shoulder and hip. The air—or rather, the space—warped as she manipulated the strong nuclear force, dragging quarks and gluons into alignment. Matter assembled itself obediently, particle by particle, drawn together by bindings far more fundamental than muscle or bone.
Her shattered arm began to reform.
First came a faint outline, a ghostly silhouette made of light and energy. Then density followed. Bone crystallized into existence, woven together at the subatomic level. Muscle layered itself over it, fibers snapping into place with audible pops. Skin flowed last, sealing seamlessly as if the limb had never been lost.
Lizzy gasped as sensation returned all at once.
Her leg followed moments later, rebuilt from nothing but will and force, snapping back into place beneath her as if reality itself had corrected a mistake.
She floated there for a second, stunned, flexing her fingers, rolling her ankle.
"I… I did it," she whispered.
"Of course you did," Aria replied coolly. "You're done crying now?"
Lizzy wiped her eyes, her expression hardening as she looked up.
The Sentinels had finished adapting.
Their bodies gleamed with new alloys, surfaces rippling with absorbed radiation. Thrusters flared as they stabilized themselves in space, weapons charging, golden eyes locking onto her in unison.
Lizzy straightened.
"No more holding back," she murmured.
She thrust her hands outward.
The microwave field around her detonated—not as fire, but as compression. Space itself buckled as the radiation density spiked, slamming into the nearest Sentinel like an invisible tidal wave. Its armor crumpled inward, compacted layer by layer until the machine collapsed into a dense, glowing sphere before imploding silently.
The others fired immediately.
Beams of energy lanced toward her, but Lizzy twisted her wrists and bent the electromagnetic field around her body, warping the attacks off course. The beams curved uselessly into the void, missing her by kilometers.
She moved.
Lizzy vanished in a flash of light, reappearing directly behind one of the Sentinels. She slammed her palm into its back and released a focused burst of radiation straight through its core. The machine seized, systems overloading, before tearing itself apart from the inside in a burst of molten debris.
"Hahahaha!" Lizzy laughed again, but this time it wasn't manic—it was fierce, exhilarated.
The remaining Sentinels attempted to regroup, forming a defensive formation.
Lizzy raised both hands.
"Let's see you adapt to this."
She reached deeper than before, seizing control of the surrounding electromagnetic environment on a massive scale. Solar radiation bent toward her like a storm answering a call. Charged particles spiraled inward, forming a blinding corona around her body.
Then she released it—not outward, but through them.
The Sentinels' internal systems went haywire. Sensors burned out. Power cores destabilized. Their adaptive protocols screamed conflicting commands as Lizzy hijacked the very forces they relied on to function.
One by one, they went dark.
Their lifeless shells drifted apart in silence, tumbling endlessly through space.
Lizzy hovered there, chest heaving, energy crackling faintly around her like embers.
"…Fight's over," she said softly.
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