Gritting her teeth, Hayley suddenly let out an inhuman scream, as if a demon had decided to possess her and tamper with her voice. With a chilling screech-like noise, darkness burst out from her shadow, circling her like an whirlwind that was out of control. It poured out of every orifices in Hayley's body before joining the pool of darkness under her feet, some coating her skin sporadically. Where the coating of unidentified darkness lied over her skin, demonic eyes or many shapes, sizes and color opened up and began erratically moving, even in places where they shouldn't be. The circling, uncontrollable darkness spinning around her began to cut her skin, blood seeping out of her wounds and dripping into the pool of darkness, the crimson hue consumed by the seemingly infinite black.

A distorted groan escaped her lips as Hayley hunched over, then the inhuman scream came as black pair of wings burst out of her back and tore through every layer of fabric that obstructed their full form. They were dripping with blood, as if they were newly created limbs forming at an alarming speed within her body. She eerily moaned and held her head in pain as her skull seemed to crack in front of Isaac and Nigel's eyes. Rough horns poked out of her blonde mop and slowly grew out, bending their sharp end to the front. She screamed in pain and roared towards the sky as the maelstrom of darkness grew more intensive and erratic, clearly no longer acting like herself.

Isaac watches as wings and horns suddenly sprout from Hayley's head and back while tendrils of darkness whip around her, slicing into her flesh and anything else within range. Watching it all, he can't help but feel scared, not for his sake, but for hers. What the hell's...he starts, only to stop himself as he remembers what happened at the arena, how those shadowy hands emerged from the ground and just about flattened the enforcers. "She really is the one who did that..." he realizes as Hayley shoots up into the air, screaming.

As she hovered in the air with the help of her large wings, her eyes began to change and dark shrouds surrounded her arms and began to solidify into an outline of razor sharp, beastly claws. However, before the out-of-control woman could start unleashing her chaotic maelstrom, she began to cough and gag, then watched as a black hand, shaped like that of a woman, forced itself out of her mouth, holding her face in its grasp. The whirlwind of darkness began to tighten around her until her form was completely obscured into a floating cocoon of darkness that slowly came back down to solid ground.

Isaac watched as the darkness surrounding Hayley condensed around her, forming a shell of shadow, before she started to drift toward the ground. Without hesitating, even in his injured state, Isaac limps toward the mass of darkness, calling Hayley's name. What the fuck are you doing?! Vincent asks, to which Isaac responds, [i]What if she needs help?! I'm not gonna just sit by while our only friend's in trouble![i/] However before he could go too far, the burns on Isaac's legs become too much, resulting in him falling to the ground, crying out in pain as the worst of his injuries on his torso slam into the pavement.

The pitch black cocoon suddenly liquified and fell to the ground like a thick sludge, revealing Hayley's unconscious, limp and naked body with her feet touching the ground and torn shreds of every single clothing item she wore on her, her shoes being the only things that remained intact. The horns and wings that previously grew out of her body had all but vanished and her now pristine body seemed to bear no visible wounds, scars or bruises anymore. The same black, shiny sludge covered her entire lower torso, small parts of her front upper torso like a censorious cover and her hands and forearms to resemble gloves. It would occasionally crawl around like a living thing and reveal bits of skin as it did, but not too often to be starkly noticeable and it would always return to its suit-like form. Her back, most of her front upper torso and shoulders up remained bare for the male fighters to see, but her skin took a noticeable paler hue. A black streak was visible apart from her stark blonde hair on the left side of her head.

When the body began to stir and stand up straight, she opened her eyes to reveal bright red irises outlined by dark limbal rings and sharp, slit-liked black pupils on the contrasting background of black sclerae. As she opened her mouth to speak, the voice that came out of her mouth bore some resemblance to Hayley's voice, but it was heavily distorted, as if multiple different people were speaking through the same mouth with the same intonation and tone, and it rung with an eerie, emotionless echo, much like a robot.

"Dormancy state permanently eliminated. Vital control has been activated. Primary observation completed and temporary priority has been formed."

"Preparing to eliminate imminent threats."

Without warning, the woman that used to be Hayley dropped into a fighting stance as the sludge under her feet suddenly moved towards Nigel and Isaac, sharp spikes erupting out of it as it trailed off towards her targets.

Nigel was the first to act. Racing forward, he wraps his arm around Isaac's waist, ignoring the cry of pain from the injured man, and jumps clear of the black sludge. Once they were momentarily safe, he sets Isaac on his feet and says, "You no doubt have some questions right now, but it isn't the time. If you wanna live, stay on your own two feet and help me!" That said, fire suddenly engulfs his entire body as he dodges another of 'Hayleys' attacks. Shaking his head, Isaac coats his body in carbon, ignoring the cries of protest from his burned flesh, and dashes out of the way of another attack, slowly pushing forward in an attempt to get to Hayley while dodging her attacks.

With a swift dash, it was clear that whoever was now within the blonde's body had designated Nigel at the top of a must-kill list, because she was prioritizing her elimination effort onto him. The spikes melted away into globs of black sludge, which then reformed into homing black arrows that chased after Nigel. However, as much as she focused on him, Isaac was never out of her mind. Seeing him dodging her attacks and moving straight towards her, she decided that he was interfering with her stated mission. Glancing at him and lifting her hand up, Isaac would find himself being closed in by moving sludge which formed walls that were closing in on him, as if they were attempting to trap him inside their thick forms that would be too hard to waddle through with sheer force and soft enough to be able to withstand physical force.

Seeing the walls of sludge close in on him, Isaac, the pain of his burns now gone from his mind creates massive walls of steel, combining the hardest carbon he's capable of with the strongest iron, which circle him. However, the sludge then starts dripping into the space behind the walls from the open top. Without wasting a second, he launches himself into the air with a carbon pillar.

Meanwhile, Nigel, seeing the black arrows whizzing toward him, swipes his hand through the air, creating an intense wall of flame between himself and the attack. He then starts moving toward Hayley, but stops as an intense pain lances through his head, behind which dwells a bestial lust for violence. Not...now...he thinks, doing his best to push it away.

The arrows melted from the intense heat of the fire wall and failed their pursuit, but then returned to their viscous liquid forms and gradually created an open gap on the fire wall for her to pass through. As she watched him close his distance from her, the woman thought up a course of action, then lifted her hand up. Out of Nigel's own shadow, several dark hands started to grab him by his ankles and legs. Whilst he was being immobilized, the pool of sludge that was the homing arrows slithered towards Nigel at considerable speed before launching itself at his face, expanding to a size big enough to cover his entire face.

Isaac, on the other hand, had to watch the sludge climbing up the carbon pillar and covering it as it made a head-on move towards its intended target. It also began breaking the pillar as it crawled up, which would cause it to crack, topple and fall, taking him with it, if he didn't do something fast.

Feeling the pillar begin to give underneath him, Isaac jumps for the ground, tucking into a roll as he lands. "There's no end to this," he realizes as he focuses on Hayley once more. However, just as he begins to move toward her, an intense wave of heat hits him. Turning toward the source, he sees a pillar of dark flame where Nigel used to be...

Just as he was about to clear his head, he felt arms grabbing at him before forcing him to the ground, breaking his concentration. In doing so, just as the sludge launches itself at his face, the bestial side of him manages to take over, resulting in a towering, dark inferno. Soon, a growling figure steps through the flames: Large horns top the creature's head, between which, a mane of black, blue, and purple fire blazes. Covering the wrists of its' muscular arms are what appear to be bracers, upon which tassels of flame are affixed. On each of the creatures' shoulders are what appear to be tattoos of flame and its' face tapers into a long snout, where sharp-looking fangs reside in it's mouth. Suddenly, it lets out a deafening roar before it lowers itself onto all fours, much like a primate of some sort, and charges straight for 'Hayley', ignoring the black sludge surrounding her.

With Isaac distracted, the black sludge took the chance and wrapped his body within its viscous form, save for his head. However, aside from keeping him immobile, it did no harm to him whatsoever and it appeared that its main objective was to simply restrain him. The surprisingly cool sludge pulled Isaac away from the source of heat and seemed to be keeping him safe, at least until 'Hayley' could take care of him.

On the other hand, 'Hayley' quietly dropped into Hayley's familiar defensive stance and waited for the beast to come and attack her. Depending on what it would do to her, she would respond appropriately with one other skill she had kept hidden up to this point. The woman showed no fear, her emotionless eyes scanning the bestial enemy analytically.

Isaac watches as 'Hayley' drops into her defensive stance as the beast that was Nigel charges her. What the hell's going on? Isaac wonders, feeling as if the black sludge were soothing his burns. How the hell should I know? Vincent replies. Jumping into the air, Nigel's arms, which end in clawed hands, burst into black flame as a blazing sphere forms between his hands. Roaring, he throws the sphere at 'Hayley', then follows it up with a few more fired from his mouth.

In response to the attack, 'Hayley' began to elegantly weave her hand around like a wave. The black sludge slithered up to her and formed an elastic, concave wall in front of her to receive the fiery spheres. The wall stretched when the first sphere struck it, then stretched even more as it held back the fiery spheres. With a slurping noise, the elastic wall broke off from the ground, engulfing the blazing spheres as it exploded and keeping 'Hayley' from harm. Letting out the resulting smoke from pores that formed all over it, it melted back into the gathering pool, then lashed out like a whip all of a sudden, moving to attack the beast.

Reaching out, almost casually, the beast catches the whip of sludge. Smoke rises from it's clenched fist as it's palm burns, but, seemingly unaware of it, the beast lets out a roar and releases the sludge, jumping out of the way before it can counter. It then launches another salvo of burning spheres at 'Hayley' before it once again jumps into the air. This time, it creates a sphere in each hand, which the beast throws. Instead of flying towards 'Hayley', however, both spheres hit the ground on either side of her. On impact, they create a tower of dark flame. Slamming it's hands into the ground, the beast pulls up a chunk of concrete, which it then throws into the inferno.

While she managed to absorb the spheres just as she did before, the towers of inferno emanated heat and light so intense that 'Hayley' was forced to back off before she was burned off. The concrete came with little warning as it flew past the fire and straight for her. At the speed it was going and the weight of the concrete chunk, she had no time to deflect or absorb the attack. Instead, as the concrete was inches away from her torso, she steeled her stance and aimed a hard punch, shattering it into smaller, less dangerous pieces. When all was said and done, the woman seemed to barely broke a sweat. With her super strength exposed, she decided that all bets were off and returned the beast's gesture in kind, breaking a chunk of concrete herself and flinging it at him.

Seeing the chunk of concrete flying towards it, the beast raises an arm and effortlessly swats it away before, seeming to think it was best, it begins charging again, completely ignoring the sludge surrounding Hayley. As it draws near, dark-colored flames engulf it's body, as if acting as a shield against the sludge, while it stands on it's hind legs, arms raised to slash at Hayley with its massive claws.

Seeing that brute force was ineffective against her enemy, 'Hayley' waited patiently as the beast charged at her, now resorting to a melee attack. Instead of trying to slow the beast down, the black sludge began to gather around her hands and forearms, thickening her sludge 'gloves' to protect her limbs from the fire. With both claws aimed at her, she grabbed him by the wrists in a vice-like grip, fighting his considerably monstrous strength with her own. She looked into the beast's eyes, but her own eyes reflected nothing but cold, calculative thinking. "Information updated. Proceeding with elimination of Nigel Howeland." Instead of trying to tip the beast's body, she began pulling his claws in as if she was trying to dislocate his shoulders or, worse, break his own arms instead.

The flames around the beast begin to intensify as 'Hayley' starts pulling on his arms, as if reacting to the pain he was feeling. As he attempts to bring his arms together, resulting in a stalemate between his and 'Hayley's' equal strength, the beast opens his mouth, creating yet another fireball in it's mouth. Instead of firing it, however, the beast clamps its' mouth shut, resulting in a deafening explosion of light and smoke. Using the distraction, the beast wrenches it's arms out of 'Hayley's' grasp and runs off.

'Hayley' was forced to let go of the beast when he had the figuratively bright idea of creating a deafening distraction. She instinctively moved to protect herself, but by the time she managed to blow away the smoke, the beast was long gone. She didn't appear to feel any hint of disappointment, or any emotion to begin with, and she merely stood still in response. The blast had finally inflicted injuries on her, albeit minors ones, which soon began to heal on their own, her body repairing itself in real time. The black sludge had regrouped, except the portion keeping Isaac restrained. "Priority threat out of sight. Pursuit ineffective," she said with the distorted voice that was silenced during the battle.

The woman then walked towards Isaac, looked at him in the eyes and said, "Presence identified as Isaac Ryder. Threat risk categorized as high and imminent. However, prior observation shows lack of retaliation and existing information reveals multiple accounts of cooperation and assistance. Approaching with extreme caution." Gently lifting her hand, she slowly moved it down as the sludge began to melt away, giving Isaac his freedom back.

As soon as the sludge melted away, leaving his injuries susceptible to the open air, Isaac winces and falls to his knees, holding his chest as his burns once more begin to pain him. Looking up at 'Hayley,' he says, "Hayley...I know you're in there...it's me, Isaac! I helped you when you were recovering from your bullet wounds...Do I look like I can hurt you, even if I wanted to?"