Enter The Sandman 2: Karmatic Recreation

The Sands of Time Rule

"How in the world does that work?"

"The dexterity virus is weird that way.  It reacts to things in ways we've never seen before.  But your hour glass will not be perfect.  An enemy strong enough will be able to destroy it.  And destroying something that is disrupting time and space... it could be something like a miniature big bang.  But if you combine all your forms together, and then use the hour glass technique... the scale of power will be unimaginable.

Now, I want you to create an hour glass.  A perfect one."

I nod at her, but inside I still feel a little confused.  As I attempt to create an hour glass figure, I think to myself, "How is the hour glass supposed to stop her speed though?"

"In case you're wondering how the hour glass will stop me, the time and space distortion will override mine, making me unable to get close to you."

I look at her with a raised eyebrow.  "What're you, a mind reader?"

She just smiles at me.

Eventually after a minute or two,  I fall over on my back.  "I've never created such a complicated shape with my glass before!  I've only done stuff like... triangles!"

She walks over to me, and looks down at me.  "I knew you'd have trouble with this.  So, let's start from a simpler approach.  Try creating an hour glass simply out of your sand."

"Okay..." I say as I sit up.  Sand starts to piece itself together behind me, eventually creating an almost perfect hour glass shape.

"Good!  But it's a little sloppy.  I guess we need to take this step by step.  Work on perfecting your hour glass shape with your sand first.  Then after that, we'll work on you doing it with your fire."

I get a little pumped, and immediately begin working on my sand's hour glass.

After a few hours, I can hear someone open the door to the room.

Kristy, who was sitting all the way on the other side of the room looking at holo-television (watching the show I absolutely despise), looks up in surprise.  

I turn around to notice Rina standing at the doorway, holding a basket full of snacks and whatnot.  She looks at me, puts a small smile on her face, and says "I brought you two snacks!  I heard you were both working hard on your training... so I thought you should munch up a little."

"Oh... wow, thanks Rina" I reply.

She looks over to Kristy, while reaching in the basket. "I brought your favorite, chocolate ice cream!"

Kristy looks at Rina with a small smile on her face.  "Wow, I can't believe you still remember."

"I never forget things like this from old friends."

She walks over to Kristy, and hands her some of the said ice cream.  "Maybe we should play some video games together, for old times sake?"

"Oh yeah, I think I have just the right game in my data emitter" Kristy replies.

The two walk over to where Kristy was originally sitting before, and start to play their game.

I put on an extremely sad expression, and look at those two pitifully.

Rina looks at me in surprise.  "Oh, I'm so sorry Kiruh!  I got lost in the moment.  I have your snacks right he-"

"No, he needs to focus on his training here" Kristy interrupts, "Or we'll never make it on time."

"O-Okay... if you say so..."

Some tears start to fall from my eyes as I look at those two have a good time.  More so because I really wanted those snacks.  "So cruel..." I mumble to myself.