Trauma...

It was only a matter of time before Cleff got out of that damned palace... The Chaotic Palace... Where Cleff had not left from since Cross changed him back to normal... Cleff lived in there as a recluse... Filled with the trauma of all of the horrors he had committed whilst corrupt. Cleff held the side of his head, the traumatic memories flashing and causing him severe discomfort... But as usual, they came to pass.

Cleff could only float over the solitary alps of the Chaos... Where no one was... Where Cleff could just watch the world go by as he destroyed himself with the thoughts of the past...

"Lost little thing~?"-- Said a soft voice behind Cleff. It was Marta taken to the skies by her twirling ponytails, following the little lost thing she had clue was named Cleff.-- "Marta doesn't have any food for you, but Marta can help you~!"

Cleff turned around "... Food? ... Little...?" Cleff had grown significantly since the absorption of so much data. He was now veeeery close to almost being 5 feet tall. Especially with his hat. But no matter.

"... Ah... Marta, huh...? I only feed on data, electricity, knowledge and technology... I am doomed to fill my endless pit of a stomach with these things, never ceasing because I can never be filled... But I have taken in enough from this planet of Vescrutia, so far... Which is why I know your name... The horror..."

Cleff tried to shroud himself in his body/jacket... because the jacket was an extension of his own body. The streams of data embedded as lines on his jacket and body began to glow a dark blue hue... Which wasn't really a good sign.

--Marta thought to herself, then her face lit up as an idea came to mind.-- "The if you make your stomach smaller, at the rate that you take stuff in, you'd be over full! Or you can get rid of your stomach altogether...Marta doesn't have a stomach, so Marta doesn't understand your pain."--She scratched her head in confusion, but quickly lost a care for it.-- "Marta has been here for almost a year, and Marta never heard of you..do you have a name, little thing?"-- She said descending toward the ground.--

Cleff pondered the thought, but knew it was impossible. "... My stomach is my memory. My insides are filled with nothingness for the sole reason of storing literally everything I take in... It is what makes me what I am... The Technology Sprite, Cleff."

Cleff knew of Marta because of his massive intake of data during his corrupt phase. In fact, Cleff had information on everyone.

"... Regardless of my name, what brings you here to me..? I would much rather be alone... There is no reason for me to stay in contact with anyone anymore..."

"Don't be stupid."-- Marta said as she landed on solid ground. She pointed up at Cleff, scowling at him all along the way.--"If your stomach is a memory, then being around others will give you memories. And if you cherish those memories, then they will stay in your stomach permanently and slowly but surely, you'll be full of wonderful memories."-- She then smiled, putting her hand on her hip.--"Cleff, the spite of beautiful memories~! Oh, and Marta came here 'cause she felt someone around, so...Marta came, ya know?"

This was odd. Cleff, being filled with good memories? Cleff only wanted to consume the knowledge of the universe... Only the complete knowledge of the universe would actually fill up Cleff's stomach. Not even every single current event and event in history of the planet would fill Cleff now. He sighed "... But the good memories will definitely not overlap the bad... This is bad data inside of me... And to erase these memories now is.. It absolutely cannot happen."

Cleff lowered his head, his hat covering both of his eyes now instead of just one. "I remember when I was like you. Without a care in the world... When I was so childlike and all I had to think about was being the best I could be... But where did that go? It was overlapped by all of my new, horrible knowledge... In the end, I think I would like to be naive, like you... But at the same time... I need knowledge to grow and survive..."

"If you can't get all the knowledge you need to survive,"-- She smirked, and pounded her chest with her fist.-- "Marta will help you survive! Although, you have to grow on your own, Marta's not so good with that."-- She pulled out a megaphone and muttered something into it. Seconds later, Rezelia appeared next to Marta with her hand already on her katana.--" Marta probably can't get rid of your bad memories, but Marta can at least give you some good ones no?"-- Marta cloud ring ignited with such an intensity that the purple flame reflected off of her face. With that same hand, she pointed at Cleff once more.--"So, lets go! A good battle always gives Marta a smile~!"

Cleff's glowing ceased momentarily. "... A battle...? Yes.. it's been quite a while.."

Cleff wasn't sure about this girl, but it seemed as though she wasn't directly affected by Cleff's corruption reign. "... Fine then. I will do battle as best I remember..."

Cleff's 6 slender, technological expanded, Cleff's hand-claws flexing, eye gleaming from under the shadow of his hat, and body/jacket flowing. How did this go again...? Huh... Let's start with some machinery, first.

Cleff extended his arms, which would suddenly detach from his body and would be propelled by thrusters in the back of them, thus initiating the Rocket Fist. The fists were reinforced with powerful, indestructible steel as they flew toward Marta, growing to an immense size and ready to pound her to oblivion with immense speed, force and power behind them. Cleff's hands quickly reformed as new data as the rockets pressed forward.

--Marta held both of her hands out, and as the Rocket fists came to her, she managed to halt them with her bare hands. Being a bioweapon, Marta's body wasn't limited by the mind which allowed her to freely use all of her strength at any moment without repercussions. It was like someone with super strength always in an adrenaline rush without their body breaking down because of it. Since the rocket fists had thrusters, Marta would eventually get pushed back a bit, but she never planned on holding them for long, She forced her hands downward, parrying the fists right into the ground. The force of them hitting the ground blew Marta back about 10 yards, like she expected. She brought her megaphone to her mouth and announced to Rezelia,--"Rez, were working together this time, 'K??"-- Rezelia simply nodded, withdrew her blade. The very instant she did, hundreds of slashes in wide arcs seemed to simply appear all around Cleff, only a few feet from his body and not even a second from colliding with him. These slashes were not energy, but the power behind them would create a shock wave on impact.

"Black Mist!"-- Suddenly from Marta's little body came a smoke screen of black mist and it continued to expand outward by the aid of several crystal like objects known as Divine Grace. It was at this time that Marta took out her box weapon and stuck her cloud ring inside. Things were about to get fun~.--

As Marta used the Megaphone, Cleff remembered that he had the power of Transcendent Sound... An ability that surpassed any and all other sounds.

"Transcendent Sound; Resonance."

In a moment's notice, a bubble of sound was surrounding Cleff, absorbing all other sounds because of the natural ability of Transcendent Sound to overpower and 'eat'(absorb) all other sounds. However, once the Resonance bubble was up, that is when Cleff noticed that he was being attacked by something. It was unclear as to what, but the insane power behind the Resonance bubble would reflect hopefully the slashes that came his way. Mostly because of the insane repulsive force and massive compactness of the molecules around Cleff... But yeah. Not to mention Resonance's second ability, which was to make any and all metals that were in its presence totally and completely useless, and any weapons that someone uses on this attack or near this attack will cause them to be immobilized and paralyzed in all ways.

"... A mist... Be gone.. Transcendent Sound; Crescendo Bolero.."

Pointing a hand in front of him, the Resonance bubble's power was then transferred into the next attack, which was a powerful wave of sound that grew not only exponentially more powerful and louder the further it went, but also exponentially grew, covering a very wide area after just traveling a few feet. Hopefully, the Crescendo Bolero would force away all of the mist elsewhere...

Once Cleff was released from his barrier, to keep from getting hit again, Cleff would have to hear every single sound in the area at all times. To do this, he used his Ultrasound Vibrations, which allowed him to hear a pin drop whilst the planet was exploding. Yeah, intense, right? If he could hear any sound, he'd know when, where and how it was coming to him and could react accordingly, especially with his ability of Calculations.

--The slashes had such intense power and speed behind them, the transcendent bubble wouldn't be able to withstand every single slash coming its way, especially with the shockwaves backing them up with greater power.

Now, as Cleff focused the remaining energy of his transcendent bubble into a powerful sound wave and fired it at Marta, Rez would seem to vanish without a trace. Suddenly she appeared in front of him, then disappeared, leaving her afterimage to strike a slash at Cleff's torso at speeds higher than what she was traveling, putting it several inches away from Cleff's body before a millisecond could pass. And in an instant, she was behind him and commented the same type of slash with the same type of intensity and speed. However, Rez's sword strikes do not make a sound when swung, and because of the speed they tend to go unnoticed until the victim has actually been hit by it several seconds later. She then appeared back at Marta's side, sword sheathed. Her blade was no type of metal, which is why the paralysis never had effect. Her sword was apart of her, but in what way...this would be figured out later, hopefully.

As Cleff tried to repulse the black mist from the field with his transcendent sound wave, Marta clenched her fist, causing crystals of divine grace to appear and cluster together around the mist and sound wave. So as the sound wave tried to repulse the mist away, the divine grace rejected it back toward the field with a greater intensity, so as the sound wave repulsed it again, the mist would come back with even more power, and with these forces going back and forth, the cycle would get faster and faster. This would go on until the black mist eventually gained enough speed, force and power to eat and break its way through the sound wave and ravage the field even quicker than usual. Also because of divine grace rejecting everything in, the sound wave's travel would be ceased as it tried to expand outward while divine grace expanded inward, causing it to not grow any stronger since it wasn't traveling which in turn would also cause the sound to diminish since it is losing things to vibrate (the mist is devouring the energy from the sound, so it's actually hindering the sound wave instead of helping it).

When Marta released the ring from her box weapon, purple chains spurted out everywhere, connecting to whatever they touched. some went for Cleff's location while others simply flew about arbitrary.--

With each slash made at Cleff, since he could not react in time, he was hit with them, slicing through his metallic skin slightly... Though the very moment his happened, electrical currents surged out of him and into what was slicing his body, hopefully to shock Rez quite a bit in return. This was natural to anything that actually pierced Cleff's hide... For massive electrical currents surged throughout at all times, lining the inside of his body, since the depths of his body were infinite.

"... This does not follow my calculations..."

Was it really possible for Cleff's processing, which was thousands upon thousands of times more efficient than the best supercomputer... Actually fail with his intake of negative emotions? It was surely faltering, and would be until Cleff could really get a grip on himself.

"... If the sound doesn't work... Then perhaps Data will serve as a sufficient substitute..."

Cleff didn't seem to mind the wounds at all... One because Cleff's body could slowly regenerate itself with stored data, and two... Cleff had no nerves, so pain meant nothing. Cleff held out a hand to the mist, which had been hit with his attack beforehand. "Select." The mist would be outlined with a blue aura... It wasn't energy... it wasn't a force... It was some sort of unknown substance. However, it was absolutely harmless in all ways. "... Backspace." All of the mist would then be quickly returned to Marta as if it hadn't been used in the first place. Cleff only had to let something be hit with one of his attacks for the Select to work, and once Select was in place, an array of other post-Select abilities opened up to him. With this ability, it wasn't good to combat his attacks head on.

"Network Timeout.." Cleff opened his outstretched hand and started to wave it about in Marta's general direction. Nothing really seemed to be happening as this happened. A large ring of data of some kind appeared in front of Cleff's hand once he had a set target. Many different lines of code appeared within the ring, very swiftly starting to fill it up.

With Cleff's other hand, he created a barrier around him... A large, glass barrier of sorts with an X at the very top corner of it. This was to protect him from anything while he was finishing the line of code...

--Because the black mist was inside of Marta's divine grace being rejected toward the Cleff's side of the field, as Cleff tried to force it all back into Marta, it would simply get rejected back subconsciously. So, Cleff would continue to exert chakra to force back the black mist, and the cloud chains all around the field now would absorb that exerted energy, becoming stronger with the more energy they absorbed. Cloud chains continued to erupt from the box endlessly, expanding to the size of of a sidewalk as they exited the box, coiling around the field, putting Cleff and Marta in the center.

With Sin's Liquid inside of her system, Rez wasn't affected by electricity, nor could she conduct it. She felt nothing, and Cleff's remaining energy on her zanpakuto was decayed because of the Kirate Kitai poison coating it. Because this same sword slashed Cleff, he was infected with it. Even though he was a sprite, Kirate Kitai affected everything and had no cure. It could only be disposed of if Marta extracted it from the infected.

The poison could assume any form, and when Cleff was infected it turned to a mist, blending with his inner electricity and molecules, quickly deteriorating and decaying them. First thing, Cleff would begin to experience the paralysis of the poison, but he probably wouldn't be affected by this effect. Next, whatever mood Marta is in, the poison gains the corresponding ability. Because Marta is happy, it had draining properties, and like a virus the poison spreads throughout those it infects. So, as Cleff's electricity and other energies were being drained and decayed/deteriorated, it gradually got worse and drained and decayed even more. To top things off, Kirate Kitai adapts and fluctuates, becoming a different type of poison 20 times in a millisecond, infecting over 200 times in a mere second in order to keep itself from being adapted to and impossible to create a cure.

Now, with the field setting up Marta and Rez's hair began to connect to one another and they began to exchange energies and abilities.--

As the mist came near Cleff's barrier, the large X on it would cause all of it to be erased from existence upon touching it. Why? Because this was another data ability; Close. Anything that touched the glass dome would be subject to being erased once the barrier was, never to come back as it was the first time. It was a rather effective barrier, and could rid the field of all of the mist at once... One because it wasn't an attack, and didn't force the mist away, but allowed it to be touched. And if it was destroyed, it just Destiny Bonded the mist along with it.

So, Cleff could continue his Network Timeout ability... But he noticed it going slower than usual... Was he lagging? No, Cleff didn't even use the Lag ability... Something must be wrong within him. Cleff could easily scan his insides completely and fully, breaking down anything and everything to every point that it was made out of... Thus, locating the poison was easy. Though, once scanned, Cleff could not find a sufficient cure for it... Thus, it might drain him.. Unless... There was one way. Cleff stopped the Network Timeout and initiated something new.

As Cleff's power was being drained, he swiftly opened up 2 large holes beside him. He entered the first hole for a moment, and then afterward, appeared out of the second one, and it would close. If Cleff were successful, the poison should be gone. How, you ask? Simple. Cleff had opened a portal to the Data Realm. Nothing could enter it that wasn't made of Data, thus everything would be converted into data. Anything that wasn't able to be converted into Data would simply be erased or forced away, unable to be processed or accessed, and thus, unable to go inside. And if the poison were turned into data and Cleff had rule over data AND was in the Data Realm, he would have the most control over it, allowing him to destroy said data, excrete it from himself, or whatever he wished to do to rid himself of this plague. Hopefully, this would work. If it did, Cleff had a way to get rid of any internal ailments that plagued... That that many did that, anyway.

Though, Cleff was drained a bit from the poison, he wasn't down and out. All he had to do was enter Calculations Mode. Binary zipped through Cleff's eyes, green lines surging through them swiftly. He could make calculations to everything at any moment. It was very useful. And now, for the attack. Cleff's technological wings expanded, then pointed at Marta. From his upper right wing shot Plasma Cannon shots, directly at Marta and Rez. From his upper Left wing, Cleff shot numerous rounds of nukes into the sky. From his middle right wing, Cleff fired magnetic blasts from all around; mainly at the ground, then behind him and at Marta. From his middle left wing, he shot off the Disintegration Ray, which was very massive, despite the wing it came from. From the bottom right wing, he shot the Freeze Ray, but not at Marta or Rez... No, he shot it into the sky, as well, though in a different direction than the nukes. Finally, from his bottom left wing... He left that one idle for now. Though, if his calculations were correct, it would be very useful once Marta retaliated...

--Marta and Rez stood idle as Cleff initiated and fired his various beams across the field, but much to his dismay, they all suddenly vanished. Marta chuckled, having known the cause of this phenomenon and disconnected her hair from Rez.--"Final Destination."-- The barricade of cloud chains had completed its construction on the field and for added support, the outer layer was covered in divine grace crystals. With this field set up, everyone inside of it couldn't use any type of energy external from their body or the space around them. So basically, once inside, one had to rely on skill and technique to survive instead of abilities or powers. Marta smirked as pointed her finger at Cleff. "Bang.."-- Surprisingly enough, she fired a bullet right at Cleff with the force of a shotgun but range of a sniper bullet. Marta didn't even seem to suffer from recoil damage! She seemed to be getting stronger with each passing day.

Once the bullet was fired, Rez dashed at speeds that surpassed the bullet and appeared behind it, slicing it into pieces which would send a shower of bullet shards at Cleff, covering quite an area. If the shards couldn't pierce him because of their size, the force of the them would surely knock Cleff off his feet.--

(You would post back when I don't feel like using Cleff...)

Cleff's wings almost instantly changed themselves into 4 large shields in front of him, while the other 2 were still aimed at Marta. It was true that the force was powerful, but because of Cleff's Calculations mode, he had already taken that into account once they were fired, and as such, knew exactly what way to counter them to cause the most minimal knockback, the least amount of damage and the best angle to reflect them at to make sure they wouldn't come back, just in case. Anyway... Cleff's body flickered for a moment, and then it would stop. The flickering... That was part one.

Next, Cleff's wings would cover him completely instead of just his front by the last 2 turning into shields to totally encase him. Though, there was a large hole in his defenses right in front, for some reason. This was for the Eradication Grenade. Since Marta was able to use bullets and such.. Cleff should be able to use his Machine powers that involve firing off physical projectiles too, right? So, he would fire off the Eradication Grenade directly at Marta, and finally moved on to step 3. It was a good thing he was in Calculations mode.

Cleff would begin to glow inside of his protective shields while all of this was going on, almost immediately after he started to flicker. That was all that seemed to be done, but Cleff was well aware of everything that was going on right now.

(Heh, I guess I shoulda been more clear. since energy can't be used external of the body, then that means you can use energy inside of yourself. You couldn't transfer energy or whatever to the ground, because the ground is part of the field in which the effect is taking place, which is also external of your body..sorry for not being more careful with my words, but could you edit a bit?)

Edited.

--Marta simply smirked. Usually people tried to break out of this dome, but Cleff was different. He wasn't scared to fight without the use of precious abilities, showing that he made sure not to be dependent upon them. However, Marta wasn't dependent upon abilities either. As she stood their a giant, red sand like arm protruded from Marta's back and reached out for the eradication grenade. It grabbed it in mid air then solidified to the density harder than diamond, so once the grenade exploded, it was snuffed out and expanded nowhere. Because of the field, any ability the grenade had when it exploded was useless, since the explosion would be external of the grenade, making it susceptible to the effects of the field. The hand then opened up, dropping out the remains of the eradication grenade.

--"Oh ho, so you have these type of weapons too huh?"-- Marta said as the red hand split into two, and those two split into 4, giving Marta a total of eight red arms protruding her her back. She pointed her other finger at Cleff now, and fired a rapid succession of bullets like earlier, only now they were as quick as machine gun fire.--

Cleff started to float closer to Marta now. The bullets fired seemed to just disappear after getting a certain distance of Cleff. With each one that came at him, Cleff started to glow slightly brighter. Every now and then, he would flicker again, but for the most part, her was just glowing and floating toward Marta in his protective fortress of... powerful shields. He had already made the calculations... They were set.

Though, for the hell of it, Cleff made about 4 Vulcan Hammers appear from his shields, each being immense in size and extremely powerful. They were lit on fire and sparking with electricity, for both surged through them continuously and powerfully. The Vulcan Hammer could level cities with a full force blow. Let's see how much damage 4 can do to Marta... Though he wasn't ready to attack yet. So he just continued to float closer...

"Tch.."--Since her attacks seemed to have no effect, the best thing to do would be to stop for now. The giant hammers weren't anything Marta wanted to be apart of, so it would probably be in her best interest to get rid of them. She let out a sigh of disgust, as the arms on her back turned purple. Kirate Kitai poison must have added itself to the sin's sand. From the barrier enclosing the area flew a few cloud chains, which wrapped themselves around Marta's two real arms as she took a stance and awaited Cleff to do something interesting.--

( I almost forgot what I was doing...)

He was ready. Everything was set. He could see it. The 4 Vulcan Hammers would all try to smash Marta simultaneously, from her sides and from her top. They were surging with some sort of electricity and coated in flames, as said before, for extra support if the sheer strength of the hammers was not enough.

Cleff eyed the chains, his eye narrowing and his sort of traumatic scowl still pasted on his face. If everything went as calculations had it, then this would be Cleff's time to shine, even if the Cloud crap-- I mean, flame was active.

-The 4 hammers smashed at Marta's location, but Marta seemed to have vanished. Although, the hammers did indeed hit something, and this something was a bundle of divine grace. This little bundle of crystal like shards rejected the power of the vulcan hammers upon themselves, causing them to either destroy themselves or blast them back with tremendous force. Marta was far off from her previous location caressed in Rez's arm's. Marta had completely forgotten she was there, but Rez definitely didn't forget Marta.--"Hehehe....heh...thanks, Rez."-- Rez simply shook her head. Marta hopped out of Rez's arms and her eight now poisonous arms pointed at Cleff.--"Myeh, you gotta do better than that, Kupo! Marta isn't even trying....Kupo."--Where she learned this line no one would ever know...but she was in fact speaking her mind. Cleff seemed to have something cool in mind, and Marta awaited for him to get serious.--

(Yeah..I'm running out of ideas :>)

That was certainly not the way Cleff pictured it going... but it was...

"... Well within my calculations. Erase Claw."

Just then, thousands of Cleffs had made themselves known... they had completely surrounded Marta and secluded her from Rez in an instant. This happened long ago... When the bullets disappeared. Cleff had used his ability Copy and Paste to create thousands of copies of himself almost instantaneously, though they were very intricately hidden... Invisible by means of which Marta nor Rez could see or feel them, or even know that they were out. And once Marta and Rez were out of the area... They were followed.

"... The Vulcan Hammer was just a feint..."

Each and every one of the thousands of Cleff copies were using their Erase Claw technique, which enabled them to literally erase whatever it was they they touched, and a majority of them were threatening to erase Marta and Rez right then and there... And if somehow, they could be taken out, the Copy and Paste process that could be done by the others just as quickly was not a problem... They could easily regain their numbers in a matter of moments, and even exceed said numbers if the Copy and Paste technique was utilized to its full potential, which Cleff could do due to him being in Calculations Mode... Hopefully, this had gotten Marta... or at least stumped her... Ya know? But it would seem that Cleff was regaining some confidence, as seen with his display of abilities. He must be starting to get over his trauma...