1950/Testing the Metal

Testing the Metal
Date of Scene:	04 April 2015
Location:	Crystal Valley
Synopsis:	Mordekaiser calls Toph out in order to test her metalbending.
Cast of Characters:	20, 738

---

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Whoever this bozo is, Toph has to admit that it ought to make her Friday evening less boring. And even if it's been over a year since she first discovered metalbending, she can't help but be curious. There have been others with powers to control metal. Like Kaiser from Brockton Bay. Mordekaiser... the name is familiar, but the guy sounds different enough. For one, the former member of the Empire Whatevers had been totally dismissive of her. Because she was young, disabled and asian, Defiant had explained. Pfft, like Toph Beifong ever needs anybody's approval.

    It's not why she's there in the Crystal Valley right now, sitting on one of the massive crystals. As the discoverer of metalbending it's her duty to perfect the craft, to study it further so she can pass it on. It will be her legacy, and well... who knows what else there is to know? Is this guy somebody who can manipulate metal as well, considering his words?

    While she waits the blind girl works on bending the crystal, moving her hand in practiced and controlled gestures as the crystal shifts into various shapes, twisting into unnatural formations.

Mordekaiser (738) has posed:
    Before seen, the presence can be felt. A dark, cold presence of death that started to move over the area near Toph. The wildlife became very still and not even a sound from a cricket was heard as something heavy starts to approach. Each step in perfect timing to the next, heavy steps though. Heavy and metallic, with the cold, deathly chill only rising as the sound comes closer and closer.

It would not be much longer that anything living, such as plants, start to shrivel and soon wilt away. Life taken from them as a heavy armored plated figure is silhouetted in the shadows of this majestic force. Two red eyes gleam out like orbs of fire, before the details are even seen. From the spikes upon the dark metal armor, to the fine details of the plate, the clawed fingers, and crowned horn shape of the helm. Yet there was no face in the void of darkness under the helm, no face or sign of it all but beyond the eyes.

His voice rumbled deep with a metallic ring to it, "You are who wishes to see who is better between us? You a mere girl of flesh and bone who's soul while wise, still has much more room to grow?" The armored figure can only deeply, darkly chuckle at this cruel, amusing fact. "This will be a very delightful experience, I can already tell..."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Okay, did the sun get covered by clouds or something? Toph halts her bending as she feels the approach of somebody heavy. She can feel the metal easily enough as he approaches, and there's really something sinister in the air, isn't it?

    The deep voice is a contrast to her youthful and lighter voice, and well, he is far bigger than her. Compared to him she is also rather lively, isn't she? The blind girl lets out a snort as he comments on her age and possibly size. "Mere girl? As if. I'm the greatest earthbender of all time, Lordy," she states with the outmost confidence. Pushing off of the crystal she jumps down and lands on the ground with her bare feet, and she rolls her shoulders a bit. "You appear as sinister as you sound... you with the Feds or something?" she inquires, waiting. Delightful experience? So... it's a test of combat he wishes to have? It doesn't seem like he's the peaceful kind.

Mordekaiser (738) has posed:
The armor of on the Lord of Shadow Isles is all sorts of wrong from its sheer aura. Its dark, sinister, decay, and many more words could perhaps describe it, it is this reason, this air it exhales out that causes such death around it like some horror show. Mordekaiser reaches with his hand out, summoning a large mace to his hand at which he places the head of it against the ground, before resting that same hand upon the butt of the shaft. "As I said, Toph... was it...? I serve no one and no one will ever command me."

Mordekaiser then places out his other hand as his red eyes narrow slightly as his metallic clawed fingers search for how much metal or even ore was actually in the area. How deep below it lays in wait to be stimulated to his call. "Though I would suggest once you lose to me," His red gaze turns to her, "Heh heh, you should learn to call me with proper respects."

His hand then clutches into a fist, as the one on the butt of his Mace grips around. "Now, enough pleasantries. It is time to see what you can do, little metal bender!" As he lifts up the mace to bring it to rest on his heavy armored shoulder, he steps back with his foot. Mordekaiser's other hand extends out as metal shards off his own body come to his summons. They start to sharp themselves in a almost blade like edge while they float their in weightlessness but not long after do they fly right for Toph as deadly projectiles.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Whatever this guy is doing to the area is not good, that's for certain. The wild life is steering clear too. As he summons a mace she can't help but arch an eyebrow, though Toph still appears calm and collected.

    "Toph Beifong," she confirms. And when he has the nerve to suggest that she would lose? The blind girl lets out a brief laugh, though her expression is still serious. "I do not intend to lose. Besides, I do not bow down to anybody."

    It's a bit curious when the metal of his own armor fly off as he gestures with his free hand. Huh, that is a bit like bending, isn't it? Toph frowns and moves one foot, shifting into a defensive martial arts stance, her arms kept close to her torso. And when the sharp metal shards fly towards her, the young girl throws her arms out, reaching out mentally to the pieces of metal and doing her best to force them to go /back/ towards Mordekaiser.

Mordekaiser (738) has posed:
The metal shards move in toward Toph, but her own bending starts to shift them back the other as Mordekaiser raises up his own hand to halt them in place. The metal pieces trapped in a strange, unseen force of tug and war between the two metal elemental commanders.

"How... interesting..." Mordekaiser says with some hint of interest in his voice, before he lowers his hand to take a heavy step to the side. The shards at last flying by and jamming themselves into the very crystal behind him. "Shall we try... something a little more difficult?" The Metal Wraith asks as he takes a heavy step the side, his free hand extending out once more as the ground could be heard rumbling as metal coils raise up from the ground, shifting into spike like tips.

His hand remains clenched though, a ghostly blue light emitting around his cold, plated fingers. The spikes that Mordekaiser has summoned rotate gently, being held there by his sheer will alone. "Break them apart, if you dare... or take them from my control, Toph."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Toph narrows her eyes as she focuses, feeling the metal come to a halt. This is indeed interesting, that she can't deny. So he can control metal as easily as she can, at least in smaller amounts. As he steps to the side Toph remains standing in the same spot, only moving her arms back to a neutral position as the shards embed themselves in the crystal. His comment earns a snort. "Difficult? This is child's play." To Toph bending is as natural as breathing, after all. Maybe she would have thought controlling so many shards at once would have been a challenge right after she discovered how to bend metal, but now? It's as easy to control as earth itself.

    When the ground rumbles and the metal in the ground rises however, she blinks and arches an eyebrow. So he can control stuff in the earth too, huh? Just like her... As the spikes begin to rotate Toph huffs. Rather than doing what he demands though, the earthbending master reaches out with her arms... and the earth rumbles again. A firm kick to the ground sends up more metallic spikes that Toph directs with a sweep of her arms, and they are sent towards Mordekaiser's spikes. "Don't think you can tell me what to do!" she says in a defiant manner.

Mordekaiser (738) has posed:
The Lord of Suffering and Destruction has yet to get aggressive, though when Toph decides to defy him and bring out her own spikes to bare, this does not cause his anger, no, it only causes him to laugh. Laugh deeply with a cold tone, because what he sees right now is a living being who is matching odds against the very thing that is metal himself.

He moves his hand slightly at the spikes combine together to create a steel wall for her own spikes to impact, at first they hit with no injury to the wall, but shortly a fraction can be seen and this Mordekaiser to hmm softly as he observes shortly the spikes breaking through and the metal wall shattering as he releases his hold.

Once Mordekaiser's hand ceases to glow, the metal vanishes back into the earth. Toph may sense that it went back into its mineral particles that they once were before being summoned out by the Metal Wraith. This though is not the end of Mordekaiser's testing, instead those eyes narrow and he reaches out for the spikes she has generated herself, attempting to forcefully shape them around one another into a large rope coil of metal.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    That is an unsettling laugh, isn't it...?

    Toph narrows her unseeing eyes some, and she keeps the metal she drew from the earth afloat even after it had torn through the wall he had made. So he put it back in the ground. Though it is surpsising, he isn't really fighting her, just testing her to see what she can do. When he tries to wrestle hold of the metal she summoned however, she frowns.

    This the girl disapproves of, and she grunts as she does her best to fight it, instead she tries to move the metal even furhter apart and shapes them into individual cubes as best as she can. "There's no way you can control things of the earth better than /I/ can!" she states firmly, and just to make her point she shifts her foot, and the earth underneath their feet rumbles in warning. It's not the metal in the earth that is shifting, however.

Mordekaiser (738) has posed:
"I do not command the earth," Mordekaiser corrects the young blind girl. "I only command the metal within it and all things that make use of it." As she breaks it off into new shapes though, the Metal Wraith attempts to take hold of each of those blocks and twist them into spheres. There did not seem to be an end to the amount he could manipulate, but there was perhaps a distance as he had to step a bit closer in.

Even as the ground rumbled, the Lord of the Shadow Isles did not back away nor down, instead he moved in ever closer once more. As moves in once more, he breaks his hand away and stops attempting to toy with Toph's abilities. His red eyes looking directly at her once more and it was hard to say why he stopped, given he does not breath nor does he have a face to study. There is just a long, cold, dead stare at her, before he goes to turn away with a flip of his cape. "I have seen enough and your abilities are most worthy. Next time we meet one another, Miss Beifong... heh heh... I will be taking your soul."

"Enjoy it while you can," The Metal Wraith says with an amused sound in his voice, "Because I know I will."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Well, /I/ do. Means that my range of control is better than yours then, Lordy," Toph declares with a slight smirk even as she struggles to maintain control of the cubes. No way is she letting him reshape them! The metal shivers as the two battle over influencing it to their iron wills. And it appears that the metal will not budge easily between the two. Which is a bit unsettling to say the least.

    When Mordekaiser stops Toph lowers her arms, and the metal shapes, halfway between spheres and cubes, fall down to the ground around them. The blind girl studies his shape, and well... faces have never really mattered much to her, considering her blindness. When he turns away she remains quiet, listening to him as he speaks. And makes a rather unsettling claim. Which she of course scoffs at.

    "Good luck! I'm not intending on losing, and while I don't believe in souls, I doubt my friends and family who do would take kindly to your joke." Still, he did acknowledge her. "Even if you were to take anything of mine it still wouldn't make you better. Because /nobody/ can bend like I can!"

    With that she turns and begins heading in the direction of the warp gate she arrived though. It is getting late, and well... said family members might wonder if she's out too late, right?