Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand

It had been the most peaceful place she could ever have recalled. At the time she'd simply needed to escape, a place to go to in order to just let things go. Luckily there had been no one out at Lake Hooker in New Zealand. An the shore of Lake Hooker, August Rayne Smith took in a breath of cool, sweet mountain air and released a belting scream over the lake. Her legs went limp and she flopped to the rocky sand bed. She lowered her head, unable to believe what she'd been through.She didn't under stand how or why she was in New Zealand. All she knew was that she wanted to be any place except for where she was. In her despair, she'd begged for a place to be, pleaded-all she wanted was to go. She remembered the most beautiful place she'd ever been in her entire life and then she was there-on the shores of Lake Hooker in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. She took a deep breath and sighed as she blew it through her lips audibly. This was better. She felt better. But she was being selfish. The others hadn't been given a means of escape as she had. Was it really fair for her to leave them behind to fight a proverbial war that she should have been a soldier in? No, it wasn't fair. She needed this though. She'd been on the move since that burly man crashed through her front door. And just to think; that had only been a few days ago.
It was almost as if her life had been thrust into overdrive and there were no signs on the side of the road suggesting that the speed limit would ever allow her to catch a breath. But now, she was able to do so. In fact, the mountain air stung her lungs but she welcomed the feeling.
Paris. She would soon need to go back to Paris. She needed to go back for Charles. She knew that Edana would be angry with her for her actions but she needed to go back for the others as well. They had been right; especially Alasdair. She didn't like the fact that she'd been thrust into this situation with the rest of them but she was going to have to make due. This was her life now and she wasn't just going to be able to turn the page to place herself on the pages of a new tale. This was what she had to do. She got to her feet and looked over the lake one more time.
This truly was a beautiful place. Upon that realization August decided on something. She smiled, almost as if she were embarrassed and she proclaimed to the lake and mountains, "I'm going to fight because there is beauty like you in this world, because we can't just let these monsters destroy everything..."
August also realized that she didn't really understand what her enemies even wanted from mankind or from their world. She was going to find out. they couldn't have all been wordless, bumbling idiots and she was going to find the first smart one and rip the answers she wanted from his throat. She closed her eyes and cringed, willing herself to go back to Paris but when she opened her eyes the expanse of Lake Hooker was still ahead of her. "Fuck," she whispered.
She didn't know how to get back. she didn't understand her powers actually. She would have been surprised to learn that any of them did. She could take a little more time to learn some things about herself. She raised her left hand and looked out over the lake. "A line burst of energy..." she said and she tensed her hand before her shoulder snapped back and the shoreline in front of her was torn with an incision. Her burst traveled over the lake, creating a thin parting of water. Nearly four hundred feet out and the line of energy trickled away.
She brought her other hand up and thought about a single, concussive burst of energy; short, controlled. As before, the intended eruption of force was released. The earth in front of her was torn away, hurled toward the surface of the lake. Dust settled and pebbles sprinkled the otherwise pristine surface of the lake as August was able to see that rounded wound appeared in the sand. It was shallow closer to her and of course, deeper about eight feet in front of her but the peculiar thing was that the end of the mark appeared to be perfectly straight. This was a very precise release of force. Each blast or line of energy was released with a dazzling pulsation of multicolored light. This light even presented when she deflected or defended attacks. She smiled as she lowered her arms. She swept her left arm up and released an arc of energy and an incision trailed away from her foot in response as the wound continued out over the water, following the path of her hand before she held fast in front of herself and the presentation trailed off. Before the water could settled she released a burping blast of energy that caused the water to part with such force that it washed upon the adjacent shores like tidal waves and firmly plopped August on her buttocks. She looked at her hand as the water settled and she said, "Oh-hoo, damn..." Then, a thought hit her. She said, "Oh, SHIT!" she got to her feet quickly, turned, and raised both of her hands. She didn't even think about it much before powerful burst of energy tore away from her and she kicked away from the earth. The release shot her out over the lake surface an she hardly disturbed the water as she traveled before she lowered her hands and released booming releases of energy that found her being drenched and hurled toward the sky. The towering spouts of water formed one column-like deluge that fell back toward the lake but August found herself hovering above the lake, continuous waves of energy being released from her hands. The lake was not allowed to return to a pristine form, as the jets of rainbow energy emitted from August's hands created sweeping ripples in the surface. She smiled. Maybe she knew what she was doing now. With that, she understood; and she was gone. The water was allowed to settle.