[i]ASSOCIATE: GESTURE - INTENT: MOVEMENT - ACTION: REMOVE NANITE WALL IN PATH[/i]

The ground is cold on Isabelle's feet as she walks through the facility. Those boots had been expensive, but more importantly they'd been [i]comfortable[/i]. Do you know how hard it is to get a properly comfy pair of leather boots? Even with all their money and the most expensive brands, she'd never been able to find a pair that fit just right from the get-go. You'd always have this period of sore feet and blister bandages until they eventually moulded correctly.

She missed her boots.

[i]ASSOCIATE: GESTURE - INTENT: PROTECTION - ACTION: REFORM NANITE STRUCTURE INTO BARRIER. MIN THICKNESS 20mm.[/i]

This was wasting time - she should rush to the mecha bay, shouldn't she? At least there, she'd be in something that would protect her. Something that would enable her to fight back. Something she could, if nothing else, potentially use to jump back to Akkar.

It wasn't Emberlight - but it'd do the job. So why wasn't she running for the exit - so to speak?

She missed Emberlight.

[i]ASSOCIATE: GESTURE - INTENT: CONFUSE FOE - ACTION: CREATE CLOUD FROM AVAILABLE MATERIALS[/i]

This whole adventure wasn't really shaping up how she'd thought it would. Getting kidnapped was never part of the plan, but getting dragged out here, hurt, and then discarded without a thought - [i]that [/i]upset her. In the stories, the heroine would be captured but all the action would revolve around her - her daring escape attempts - the trials her captors put upon her - the attempts of her friends and family to rescue her.

Would they get her message? Would they even be coming?

This wasn't a story. This was ... unfulfilling. Empty. Questions without answers. Echoes in the deep. Wasn't there meant to be some deeper meaning to all this? Some growth opportunity? Some purpose? She wished she knew more about what this Trak'tho civilisation had been about. Had more time to study it. Had more chances to interact with it.

Instead, here she was, wandering and wondering. An empty facility with a headache and nobody to talk to. Tate would probably help there - but she didn't know what questions to ask. It was the classic 'unknown unknown' problem.

Today sucked. 

[i]ASSOCIATE: GESTURE - INTENT: CONCEALMENT - ACTION: TURN OUT LIGHTS IN ROOM AND ACTIVATE SOUND DAMPENING.[/i]

[i]C'mon girl. Get. it. together. Solarel might need your help.

Why would she even want it? It's not like we're that good at fighting anyway. Tournaments aside - have you ever fought in a battle, a real war? What could you even hope bring to the table? Might as well find a corner to curl up in and wait it out.

You're not even worth keeping as a prisoner. Those pirates didn't even care that you got away.

Solarel cared. At least a little bit. She called you 'cute'.

Is that all your worth is? A 'cute' from someone you don't even know?[/i]

Isabelle's hand tightens into a fist.

[i]Look, what are your options? Stay here, keep playing with your new nanite friends and re-creating abilities from those fantasy stories you read, or actually go and do something? If you want to get out of here. If you want to help. If you want to be worth something; you have to at least [i]try[/i].
[/i]

[i]ASSOCIATE: GESTURE - INTENT: ATTACK - ACTION: TURN INDICATED SURFACE INTO MOLTEN METAL AND PROPEL IN DIRECTION INDICATED[/i].

The wall in front of her melted away, revealing the elevator to the hangars. Isabelle stepped through, frowning.

She missed her stories, and today really sucked.

But she'd make a fight out of it - even if for no other reason than to spite a bunch of indifferent pirates and a heaping of cosmic bad luck.