Death Valley Showdown (Psammocide VS Burns)

Death Valley, Nevada; 10:00 PM

Gentle winds blew the sand across vast expanses of the Nevada desert. The light howl of the air begets the peaceful nature of the vast orange expanse that made up Death Valley. Cacti swung in rhythm, needles falling to the ground. The sand moved on, crossing miles of quiet emptiness. It blew and blew, collecting more mass on its movement through the desert, akin to a cloud in the Sahara itself. It crossed streams, hills, and sheer cliff walls, never stopping. It continued up a brown mountain, traversing the innumerable cracks and crannies, coming to a stop atop the very peak of the mountain.

The cloud slowly took the shape of a man.

He breathed in the night air, his face and the rest of his body concealed by a thick layer of cloth-like material. In one hand, he held a long pole, a rod made of the very same sand that comprised his very body. It moved with a liquid-like nature, the point altering itself, growing more spear-like, or developing spikes like a flail. Like his own biological systems, it never seemed to remain still until he required it. With his other hand, he touched the rocky ground, feeling the desert around him.

His target was here tonight. Somewhere out in the vast expanse of the Mojave, a metal man walked, moving from town to town, wandering. Perhaps he sought solace here tonight; Harvey would give it to him. Permanently.

After all, no job is too big...no fee is too big.

The cloaked, wraith-like figure dove back into the ground, continuing his hunt. Soon, the hunter known to the world as Psammocide would be upon the one called Burns.

The call is from here. But this...no this is not the place. I am unsure if it ever was here. But this place calls to me irregardless. This is where a piece resides.

The being that was known as "Doctor Burns" or commonly referred to as Burns, walked through the desert, searching for remnants of one long gone. He picks up something under a rock. Burns then came across this clue, and it was alive. The form of a boy, sitting there. Upon seeing the tall tattered cyborg, he stood up. Burns looked at him, and the boy looked back. As Burns stared at this boy, who walked up to Burns, and touched his hands.

Data flashed upon Burns very eyes. "Beginning Synchronization." The programmed commenced involuntarily. The cost of allowing these memories onto himself was that they enabled his body to react however such input would allow. Time for Burns would seem to freeze.

Data? Stored on human DNA. Unorthodox....ingenius.....

Burns experienced memories he sought in fragments. Not his own memories, but the memories of something else. Flashes of....a girl with a....scythe? And guns? Soldiers....A powerful machine. A mercenary. Helicopters. Things being thrown. A meteorite. Punches thrown, guns fired. fist clashing with scythes. Men launching powerful weapons to combat it. Clearly this was quite the fight. Not even Burns understood who was involved, as he knew none of the faces that flashed before him. He then however heard the words of a familiar voice.

"Use your power. In whatever form it may take. Learn. And Strike me down." Then the flashes of memory died down. Burns had to himself, analyze the surroundings, matching up the area with a database within his head. Using his own knowledge.

Mogadishu, Somalia

His next objective was set and Burns returned to the real world. Him having been standing there for 30 seconds and the child being gone. However, Burns could feel vibrations coming from the underground. There was something moving, something intelligent moving towards him. Burns only waited. Standing in one spot, and he would speak when the thing drew closer.

"I know you're here. I sense your presence. Who are you? What are you here for?" Burns spoke in a calm voice. His words were slow. Despite how calmly he spoke, he was very willing to move, should the thing ignore his words....

@doctor_burns:

"I know you're here. I sense your presence. Who are you? What are you here for?"

The Man-in-the-Sand heard his target call out to him, but made no attempt to respond. This was a job, nothing more. He had, however, clearly lost the element of surprise to whatever he now faced. His employers, despite their vague identifications, had made it clear that taking down Burns would be no easy task. That they had resorted to hiring Harvey was tantamount enough of Burns' apparent prowess; were he truly as technologically advanced as his employers had suggested, Harvey would need to resort to unconventional tactics in order to combat him with any measure of success.

As he approached the cyborg underground, he split his essence off into seven separate directions. Each swirled around his foe, weaving back and forth in an undiscernible pattern. Closer and closer the sand trails circled, all before shooting from the ground and re-forming into Harvey. The shape of the sandy man would reappear directly behind Burns, so as to strike him in the back of the head. In one stroke, he swung the Sand Stick, which had developed silicone tendrils at the end. When they made contact with the cyborg, the tendrils would seek out any minute crack or opening in his structure, traveling inside. After this, they would violently expand, ripping apart the interior of the android's head. With any luck, Harvey would end the fight before it would even begin...

@jack_:

Burns recieved no answer, and he no longer even attempted to say anything else. He did not turn, however, he new something had appeared behind him. He for a few milliseconds heard the wind of something moving to strike him, and the large being turned into a blur as he seemed to lash behind himself instantly to chop the stick with his 500 mile per hour hand. Hitting it with the force of a 60 tonner and intending to either break it or smack it away. Any sand feeling Burns would feel that he has no "flaws" in his structure naturally. If any flaws were to exist on Burns, they would have to be created. As Burns was in the midst of his strike, he slowed down his own perception of time as he looked at his now opponent. He sought to scan him before he made his next move. Time did not truly freeze, Burns just choose process everything much faster.

Using his eys to precisely scan him as a machine would, and draw information about him from observation.

Partially silicone based lifeform it would seem. Humanoid. He seems to appear to to break his body apart into sand. Perhaps indefinitely, perhaps not. He wears a mask that completely conceals his face, and He does not wish to appear human to his targets, as he has severed such connections with said mask. Clearly, not a man.I can reason with.

Very well....

With this, Burns keeps his view of time slowed, but does affect the actual flow of time. After his backhand he himself jumps back to retreat from his opponent, flipping through the air as he wathes from a hundred feet in the sky and lands with a very large thud. Causing sand to fly up. Burns' oft blank and icy expression is quick to turn Red eyed. He takes his stance and simultaniously deploys his Indra drones

No gesture was mad as they flew out to their opponent whirring at high speed as they sought to get near the hunter and ionize the surrounding air to generate lightning and attempt to project said lightning at the man, attmepting to turn him into glass, as Burns then observed his opponent, standing by alert, cautious and ready to defend or followup the attack. Though, he wishes to conserve valuable energy and keeps this constantly in mind.

Capacity at 310 MJ. Let us see how this one maybe combatted. Nothing ventured. Nothing gained.

@doctor_burns:

If Durden had eyebrows in his sandy form, they would have raised as his foe both anticipated and reacted to his attack with godlike speed. As Harvey approached him from behind, his opponent struck at him with a mighty backhand, crashing directly into him. Sand particles flew from within his robes as he was launched backwards by an incomprehensible force, a fist of pure metal that sent him sprawling across the desert floor. Luckily, he had been using his powers, or he would have actually felt the attack. He was sore when he re-formed; while not truly injured by an attack of such proportions, he had needed to recuperate for a second.

Within a moment, however, his target had jumped high into the sky, flipping a safe distance away from Harvey. Following this, he seemingly deployed two robotic minions of sorts, as they didn't necessarily move like ballistic projectiles. What they did do, though, was buzz by Harvey, emitting what appeared to be pure lightning. They shot towards him, turning the sand along their path into shiny glass. While Harvey had survived such an attack before, the change in fighting styles that accompanied his alteration would not suit him. True, he had even purposely exposed himself to intense heat in the past in order to study the effects it had on his strength, mobility, and biology; but today would not be the day to accept impermanent transmutation into glass. It would also, of course, pain him greatly to undergo such a procedure without proper preparation.

He would not be able to tank the lightning, as doing so would invariably turn him into a being of living glass rather than sand. Dodging, too, would be out of the question; the drones were closing fast, and would undoubtedly alter their course to accommodate Harvey's evasive maneuvers; thus, he would need to think creatively. He had felt the floor of the very desert itself, his silicone clairvoyance telling him all he needed to know about the dirt and rock. Basic science had also taught him that lightning would conduct to metals, as the electron sea upon them provided an easy path for the charged electron particles that made up lightning. Combining this knowledge and strategic know-how with his superhuman powers, he dug his fists into the ground, summoning forth a lode of impure ore. Using the silicate compounds found within, he smashed together the particles of metal, twisting them into a loose cloud that hung in the air for mere seconds before him. The lightning, now angled towards him, instead conducted into the cloud, collected by the sea of valance electrons that surrounded it.

His hasty defense was not perfect; a few stray bolts shot around the now highly conductive cloud, penetrating his cloak and heating up his silicone-based body. He grunted, stepping backwards, his cloak sizzling. While a small amount of smoke poured from between the openings of his robes, he was still relatively unharmed. His resolve, however, was tested momentarily.

This one thinks, he thought, his eyes unblinking as he studied his bounty. The drones had curved off, but they were still a threat that would need to be dealt with. While still focusing on suspending the electric cloud of sand and metal in the air, he stamped his foot, calling forth two tendrils of sand from the desert beneath, each weaving an unnatural path around the drones. They would quickly close in upon the automated agents, seeking to constrict them until they were mere scrap. Devoting a portion of his focus to maintaining the pressure on the drones, as well as keeping track of their positions, he returned his attention to Burns.

He wouldn't be able to harm him exactly the same way as before, but he had been momentarily been granted a resource to make use of. The electric cloud. Twisting his arms and contorting his fingers, as the masters in the Pacific had taught him all those years ago, he focused his inner energy on controlling the cloud. Feeling the sand within like an extension of his body, he sent the deadly combination of silicone, metal alloys, and electricity flying at Burns, gathering speed and more dust as it went. The sand in the cloud would at this point have been converted to razor-sharp heated glass; the tiny metal filings, charged with the electricity, would be even more dangerous. Controlling the cloud like an extension of his hands, he moved it with ever-increasing speed towards Burns, intent on both shredding and electrocuting him from a distance at the same time.

@jack_:

The Doctor watched as the man formed a large object of appropriate composition to absorb the lightning, and even store it. Impressive. Most people would attempt some sort of insulator. Like rubber. Which it would have melted and burned right through. However he made the wise move of scattering the energy.... Burns had thought, he then sought to retract his Indra drones the moment he saw the sand encricling it. He hardly kept them out for much time, especially with the amount of energy he had expended for the lightining.

As the drones appeared on Burn's back, he analyzed it's composition, it being composed of silicon composites, channeling electricity. He considered his options, and then decided to close his eyes, and simply, block, then await the collision. He remained calm and he was soon swept up in the sand storm, Burns was caught in it and knocked over by it.

The silicone and metal weren't strong enough to mar Burns. However, simply because he wasn't hurt doesn't mean he wasn't knocked over. Indeed he was getting shifted about by the cloud,not being able to adhere his feet to th tractionless sand.However, he did manage to garner kinetic energy to absorb from the impact of the attack and harness it's electricity. The electricity was reabsorbed backed into Burn's body and stored in a superconducting loop stored behind his abdomen.

*BOOM* It was as if an explosion went off. Burns clapped his hands with force somewhere in the thousands, and with sufficient force to cause blast winds from simply hittnig his hands hard enough, intending to knock all of the material away from himself with the "thunderclap." "An interesting physiology you have. I've seen similiar. Perhaps I can take you apart, molecule, by molecule. And see how you may be replicated. A partially organic being with such properties would be a sight to behold..." Burns says rather darkly with dim glowing red eyes.

Then for a moment, Burns seems to fade from existence itself as he dissappears seemingly. Gone from any sort of visual sight.

Footsteps created by nothing seem to appear near his opponent from 20 feet. Making his way through grass, Burns while cloaked from sight attempts to close the distance quickly grab his opponent with one hand and throw him into the ground like a doll.

@doctor_burns:

Harvey abandoned his stance of focus as the energy cloud slammed into Burns, allowing his semi-organic muscles to relax themselves. He slumped slightly, relaxing his shoulders and shifting his feet in preparation for his target's next move. His goggled eyes betrayed no movement, narrowing as they inspected his robotic foe. His drones had returned to him, undoubtedly with even more information on Harvey for Burns to utilize against him. He had no doubt that the longer the fight dragged on, the less of an advantage he would have; Psammocide relied on mystery and the element of surprise to take down his foes, and having been analyzed for an extended period of time, he would soon have lost the element of unpredictability. He twirled the Sand Stick once more, casually glancing from it back to his opponent. Within moments, his foe made yet another unexpected move.

A massive thunderclap of sorts echoed around the desert, sending sand out in a dust cloud that expanded continuously for miles. Harvey raised a hand to his face instinctively, then cursed himself for his foolishness. Neither sand nor sound would harm him; he was too far away from the initial shockwave to have been blown back, and he had grown accustomed to the sounds of bombs and shockwaves nearly a century ago in the second World War. And yet, he had raised his arm in defense...proof that he was still human after all. What disturbed him even more was the fact that his adversary had vanished from sight following the clearing of the dust.

Re-assuming a combat stance, he turned quickly, taking in every detail of his surroundings. Had his quarry escaped him? Such embarrassments were not unheard of. Harvey had a fair share of failed hunts, like any other mercenary, but they were nonetheless frustrating. But Burns had said something about getting a closer look at him...the battle couldn't be over that soon...

If Burns had not attempted to escape, he would have vanished at least from the visual spectrum. Harvey was no stranger to invisible opponents, and while he admired Burns' attempt at stealth, it would do him little good. Focusing inwards, Harvey utilized his sixth sense to seek out the patterns of the sand particles in the air. Raised by the dust cloud, he inherently felt each and every last atom, linked together with the loose flow of electrons. His eyes were no longer serving a purpose, with only his mind allowing him to see. Like radar, he would feel the changes in the structures of the sand around him, seeking out anomalies to locate living beings...or things that moved like them, at least.

There. Burns had somehow vanished from sight, and he was closing in on Harvey from behind. Every time he touched the sand, either in the air or comprising the desert floor, he gave away his location. Despite his stealth, which would have been enough to fool any normal man, no matter how well-trained, Burns had been spotted by the Sand Hunter. He remained still, though, giving the cyborg no indication that he had been detected. He waited until the last moment, until Burns was nearly upon him, and he turned, driving his silicone spear directly at Burns' vitals. This would be no ordinary stab, however; the Sand Stick's point would be constantly rotating, a mesmerizing microscopic spiral that would serve to puncture directly through the atomic walls that comprised matter. While control over this attack took away much of Harvey's focus, it may be his only chance at successfully piercing Burns' exterior.

He had, once again, underestimated the cyborg. Despite his size, he was incalculably fast, grasping at Harvey with the apparent intent to grapple with him. As Harvey attempted to impale him, he was caught up by an invisible arm, his sand-like leg wrenched into the air. He had still managed to direct the stab, using his last bit of energy to send it at the robot man, but it may be slightly off-target. Regardless, his enemy had succeeded in holding him, and had proceeded to slam him into the ground.

Having focused on the stab, intent on wounding his foe, Harvey had not prepared himself for the impact of the ground. The Sand Stick, which would now attempt to snake its way through Burns' body (provided it had succeeded in penetrating it in the first place), was taking up all of his focus. Unable to become sand fast enough, Harvey slammed into the earth, bouncing like a ragdoll against the ground. Were he human, he would have been pulverized by the sheer force of the impact; instead, he had been stunned, unable to focus for a mere second. The sand bent within him, keeping him intact and functional, but he was still helpless for a moment. He would rely on the Sand Stick to do the fighting for the time being, as he was now in no shape to move his fractured limbs.

They would heal in mere minutes, with this much sand around, but for now, he would be akin to a limp doll, putting all his energy into driving his living spear through Burns' heart...if he had one.

@jack_:

He sees through the cloak that robs most all of sight of me. Impressive. But no matter. Burns had grabbed the man and he succeeded in thrashing him into the ground. However, he saw that even as he did so, he attempted to drive his stick into through Burn's chest. Like a drill. The impact, like any other impact, disrupted Burn's cloak, which at this point, he no longer bothered to manitain.

"As if some quartz and silicon would have a chance of piercing-" Within about 3 seconds of continous drilling, Burn's vital fluid, Ichor, is drawn. Transparent fluid beginning to leave out of a wound of his heavy chest. What?!!! Burns hadn't noticed at first, but there was a small amount of silicone carbide in the mixture of the sand . Being at it's most optimal, only .5 points on the mohs scale of hardness, from diamond, the substance was hard enough to eventually cut through Burn's skin with sufficient power behind it. However, to breach through Burn's thick muscle, his diamondoid bone to reach one of his hearts, would take much time. Time Burnswould not allow.

"That" Burns takes hold of the stickwith one hand to prevent it from being driven any futher into himself "Is far enough." Through strength, he pulled the sandstick from within him, as the clear vital fluid Burns named"Ichor" drenched from Burn's chest like blood. However, the Ichor itself seemed more alive then even actual blood, because it moved and flowed in ways inanimate liquid did not. It was clear it was being controlled, as it moved around Burns arm.

Even within Burns wound, the fluid itself would move to combat the sand fragments within Burns internals. Breaking down molecules to atoms with micro-scale lasers from something akin to a cell and nanoscale chemical reactions. Manually pushing and extruding silicon from the wound. Any carbon was taken and made apart of Burns himself, to aid in te process of regeneration. Contrary to what most would believe, Burns had seemingly absolutely no metal inside of him, at all. Less metal then a human being even, ironically enough. Nearly everything inside of him of was made of some derivative of carbon. Graphene, carbon nanotubes, various diamondoids seemed to comprise the bulk of his structure. To repair himself fully would take time, but Burns was not concerned about the wound much.

"Admirable tenacity, but tenacity alone, will not defeat me."

Two blades intricately unsheathed from Burn's arms and they were ensared in a magnetic field that, then wrapped in plasma that never touched the blade physically. Burns adjusted the temperature to be akin to that found within the sun. Immense heat Radiated from the blade ino the air. Sand around burns glassed over in moments without even actually touching the blades. Burns then sought to slash through the sand stick with less strength. "Only" a ton, and less speed, as he did not breaking the sound barrier with his movements or even come close. He was moving at speeds the human eye could track. In place of this however, was a powerful searing plasma, that had a temperature in the millions and heated air into the thousands. Him intending to reduce the sand stick into scattering plasma, ionized air.

If this were to succeed. Burns would seek to dash towards the sand man, his blades bright, and slash through him as well, Burns seeking to destroy his opponent and end this fight with a single slash to his opponent's head.