“Well this is an unfortunate turn of events.” I turn to my left and see Summer by my side with folded arms, Erik right beside her, the three of us forming a triangle. “If we slip up, we’re boned.”
“You think we don’t know that already?” Erik groans.
“No, I do. I just wanted to repeat it for dramatic effect,” Summer fires back in a sarcastic tone. “Their powers work well together. Ours are just a mashup that happens to work, but I feel like theirs have access to a strategy that’s unique to them. Roy has notable strength at his disposal and the power to stretch his ligaments. Clarissa’s is entanglement... She can shoot strong highly durable fibers from her fingertips. Von has flat out super strength. Get what I’m saying?”
“Two out of three members of their team have an affinity for lockdown tactics,” I interject while swiping across the screen on my wrist, comparing the information I have on them already to what my HUD provides. “Roy and Clarissa... Von’s primary role is to apply pressure while Roy and Clarissa work on finding ways to restrict their opponent’s moves... or that’s would I’d do if I had a say.” I look up from my screen and see Tristen in the distance staring at me with a stone gaze, clearly ignoring whatever it is Kaci and Wayne have to say. Not far from them, I catch the tail-end of Roy, Clarissa, and Von heading out to their side of our assigned sector.
“Your head in the game, Aiden?” Erik asks.
“Yeah, of course it is.”
“It better be.” Summer growls. “We can’t afford to babysit you this time.”
“Babysit? I held my own.”
“But I had to save you, and Erik had to set things in motion.”
“Whatever. You saving me was clutch, but everything else was strategy... It doesn’t matter though; I’m prepared to fight this time around. I’ve been working on a new technique—no babysitting required.” Summer’s brow perks up at my proclamation.
“Really now? So, you’ve been putting in overtime?”
“Haven’t we all?” I ask.
“So, what’s this new technique of yours do?”
“I think it’d be better if you see it on the battlefield.” I smirk.
“This I like. Mystery and suspense.”
“Guys... This is serious,” Erik reminds us.
“I am being serious,” Summer confesses. “Having Aiden in the back of our minds will only make us sloppy, but seeing that he has better control of his powers, that’s one less thing we have to worry about.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. What we do have to worry about are their coordinated assaults. Like I said, Roy and Clarissa will be aiming to restrict our movements, and Von will be applying pressure to make an opening and capitalize. Due to their strategy, we should stay as close as possible to one another. We can cover each other’s backs and push towards the objective as a unit. Their team doesn’t have as many range options as us. Clarissa can use her entanglements from a distance, but it doesn’t fair as well as typical projection types. She’s effectively midrange and she doesn’t have much power backing her moves. Her strength lies in the combos that she opens up and her fibers.”
“So, Von smashing in our faces,” Erik adds.
“Correct.” I nod. “One good hit from him might be enough to put you out of commission. These battle suits are amazing—temperature regulation, shock absorption, durability, pliability...but you can’t walk away from a well-placed shot without sustaining injuries unless you have counter measures of your own. I wish there was a way I could gauge the specs on these suits. Like, it can stretch to accommodate yours and Roy’s powers, tank fires and ice, acid, all kinds of stuff on top of the small tweaks made for our abilities, but I don’t know how much it limits force. I was able to swing a branch against Tristen’s head and he was still conscious, and I was slung across a forest by one of his fireballs. I was dizzy, but I could still go on.”
“All that speculation is worthless,” Summer cuts in. “Don’t get hit and you don’t have anything to worry about. If you can’t avoid it, find a way to lessen the damage or protect your vitals. Remember that the suits have monitors. You’ll be out of the fight if you’re deemed too hurt to continue. Von is strong and his durability is way above average. The tradeoff is that he’s shortrange. I have my ice and you have your flames...Erik is...out of luck.”
“Not necessarily,” I muse. “Erik has his own way of dealing with it, too.”
“That’s right. When I shift, my bone density scales to my size... I can effectively block his attack if I make my forearms big enough. I’m going to do that and counter him. I’m not as strong as him, but I pack a punch, too.”
“So, what’s the move? Are we going for Von first or what?” Summer asks.
“I don’t think it’s ideal, but we might have to. If we focus too much on him then we leave ourselves open to the other two...which I’m pretty sure is their strategy anyway. If we can balance our efforts between him and Clarissa then we should be okay. I feel like her abilities are the lynchpin to their whole setup. I’m banking that she’ll be the leader.”
“If we try to go on the offensive then we’ll be playing right into their trap,” Erik says after shifting his posture.
“Afraid so, but it won’t be as effective if we know what we’re stepping into. They know who we are and they know their own weaknesses as a team, so I’m guessing they already found a way to deal with our range.”
“Not to be a morale killer, but I heard that their last match was a landslide victory,” Summer says.
“They were against Team Green, right?” Erik asks.
“Yeah, and they were mixed just like us.” Summer nods. “But that’s not even relevant if we’re being honest. It doesn’t matter what composition they’re up against. They have Clarissa. You know what they call her right? The Puppet Master. She’s sweet as hell and everything, but she gets a bit sadistic when she’s out doing anything combat related. Like, real villain vibes. And the funny part is that she didn’t get her nickname from just her powers. She can detach and reattach her strings to her hands or another string, which can lead to some pretty gnarly feats, but on top of that, she’s super smart. She’s always several steps ahead, pulling strings from behind the scenes to shift the tides in her favor. I’ve heard stories, and I’ve seen hints of it weasel out of her during class. She’s an opportunist...”
“I haven’t noticed anything,” Erik confesses.
“That’s because you’re not paying attention.” Summer scoffs. “Plus, girls act different when boys are around.”
“So that means that you’re acting different right now?” Erik snickers and Summer raises her fist slightly above her stomach. A thin layer of ice slowly begins to enclose her hand.
“Don’t make me bash your head in. This is different.”
“Guys...” I blurt out in an attempt to calm them down. “Don’t worry, we got this. We’re better than them. Just focus and play it smart.”
“I hope you’re right... And your new move better be worth the wait,” Summer says nonchalantly. She’s trying to play it cool, but I can tell she’s nervous. I’m nervous too, but for the sake of the team, I can’t show it. I have to believe in our abilities...that we have a shot.
“Trust me, Summer. You’re going to love it.”
Chapter 9
“Well, would you look at that.” Summer snickers from beneath her cowl. “That’s an...uh...interesting choice.”
“I agree,” I say as we continue to navigate our assigned section of the forest used for the exercise. The time for our match had just begun, and our leaders were identified. I was selected for our team, and Roy was selected for the other. Given his abilities, the pick was unconventional at best, strange, at worst.
“Does this change anything?” Erik asks, jogging at a moderate pace beside me while scanning the area. Now that the exercise is officially underway, an attack can come from anywhere, and we don’t know what the other team is thinking.
“It s
houldn’t, but it does... With Roy being the leader, that means that Von is free to do whatever he wants. I guess it makes sense in the bigger scheme of things. Roy is perfectly balanced—his abilities are equally suited for offensive and defense. His stretchy limbs mean he can attack from a distance or travel around in unorthodox ways. His retreat isn’t restricted to the ground and neither are his attacks... His body can also take a beating due to its unique way of dealing with shock absorption.”
“But that shouldn’t be an issue for us right, Aiden?” Summer calls out from my other side.
“Correct. My energy’s destructive properties shouldn’t be hampered by his ability to stretch. It doesn’t do much to stop your ice either. Purely physical blows won’t do much harm to him though.”
“Okay, so it does make sense then. He’s the second most durable target. Clarissa’s playing to her strengths and leaving the heavy lifting to the one’s better suited for it. She’ll be in the background, pulling the strings, just like I expected. The only difference now is that she minimized herself as a target, but she’s still just as important. We can’t win just by bringing her down.”
“It doesn’t matter. If we’re going to win, we’re going to have to take her down anyway. It’s like you said, she’s going to be hanging out in the background, and the longer she’s on the field, the more time she has to set things to her advantage with her abilities. If you guys can get me in close, I can take her out in one blow,” I muse.
“Getting cocky now, aren’t we?” Summer laughs.
“I didn’t train all this time for nothing.”
“I like it. Keep it up. You’re finally sounding like you belong here and not like you lucked out.”
For the past two weeks I’ve put my body through hell. I still haven’t perfected my new technique, but it’s definitely something I can use to turn the tides if we end up in a pinch. “Spread out. Keep your eyes peeled, but keep the same pace. We can’t let them separate us. Be mindful of your surroundings.”
“Roger,” Erik chimes in and begins to pull away. Summer does the same while I stay on our original path.
We search for the opposition, but none of us manage to find anything. Their powers don’t directly add to their ability to be stealthy, so it’s a fair assumption that they are looking to catch us off-guard with some kind of trick of their own.
I don’t like where this is heading, and the longer our match goes on without establishing contact, the more time they have to setup whatever it is that they have planned. I give the signal for our team to regroup and we do just that.
“What’s the problem, Aiden?” Summer asks me as we rally under the cover of the forest. I’d found a tree surrounded by enough nearby bushes to cover us if we squatted together.
“It’s been ten minutes and there’s still no sign of them. I don’t know what’s going on. Did we somehow avoid them? Are they trying to flank us? It doesn’t make any sense. Did they some how find a way to get behind us?”
“Yeah,” Summer muses. “It is strange. No doubt it’s Clarissa’s doing.”
“I think we should pick another direction. The forest is huge, but there are boundaries set in play. I don’t want to split up, but we need to find them as soon as possible, and this isn’t cutting it.”
“My vote is that we make a hard right and go from there,” Erik says. “If we miss them by that point, we’ll have a better idea of where they are. We can loop behind them and reverse whatever it is they were planning to use on us, if that’s the case.”
“I agree.” Summer nods. “And if we catch them in a head-on fight, I don’t think there’s much that Roy can do to avoid my ice.”
“Okay, that sounds like a solid idea. Let’s move.”
We search high and low on our new route, desperate to find the opposing team before they find us. Summer decides to scout a bit ahead of us, and I feel like it’s a safe move. She has more range and options when it comes to offense and defense. We’re on the right track, but something’s still bugging me. Even though everything seems to be fine on paper, I can’t shake the feeling that this game of hide and seek is Clarissa’s doing, that she’s pulling our strings, leading us into one of her traps.
“Hey, you guys see that?!” Summer points ahead and runs behind cover near some bushes.
“Yeah...we do.”
“There’s Von, right out in the open,” she announces after we converge on her location. “He’s probably scouting ahead. If we take him out, the rest’ll be easy pickings.” Summer lifts her hand and a ball of ice materializes. This could be the break we were looking for, but I can’t be too sure. Clarissa wouldn’t have Von vulnerable like that—not unless she had a bigger play in mind.
“I don’t know. It’s too easy. If he’s out like that then his team should be nearby.”
“Well, I don’t see any...and they don’t have any defense against ranged attacks. It’s a free shot, and if it’s good enough, we can end this fight before it starts.” I scan the trees from our crouched position along the bushes. There’s no way they could have spotted us this early. We were careful and they don’t have any powers that relate to recon. What’s their plan here? Was he sent out for recon or does he think he can take us all on at once? He’s strong, but not that strong. Is Clarissa using him as bait? Erik should be able to take a couple of hits and at the very least, give Summer and I a window to take him down. He should be sticking near their leader, Roy, unless he has faith that he can handle himself. Maybe Summer’s right. Maybe it is a free shot and we caught a lucky break. “Come on, Aiden, he’s not going to be there for long. Should I take it? You’re the leader for this one, so it’s your call.”
He’s right there, but it’s too good to be true...and time isn’t on our side. We’ve burned through a good bit of our time looking for them, and now, one of the strongest members of their team is out in the open with his guard down just begging to get hit. If we attack, we run the risk of giving away our position, but if we don’t, we lose a golden opportunity.
“Erik and I will flank on opposite sides while you lead with a blast. Rush him down, but look out for his other teammates. They shouldn’t be too far off. If we can capitalize on this, we can win.”
“Roger.”
“Okay, I’ll take the left, while you take the right,” I say to Erik. “Count to five in your head and then fire. We’ll pincer him if they’re up to something, but be careful, Summer. We don’t know where the other two are.”
“Careful is my middle name.” Her saying that isn’t the least bit assuring. Everything about her screams otherwise. From what I’ve gathered, Summer’s fighting style is more about overwhelming her opponent, just like Tristen’s, except she tends to focus a bit more on technique rather than brute force. They’re both reckless, but she’s our only option. My new move won’t be able to hit him from that distance. I’m not strong enough yet, so I just have to trust her.
Erik begins to move, and I do the same. As I take off, I hear something rustling nearby above us, but I don’t think much of it—at least not at first.
“All right, let’s get this party started!” Summer dashes in and shoots a beam of ice towards Von, but he dodges it by using a nearby tree for cover. “Damn it! He’s quick,” she yells. It’s a given. I didn’t realize that it had to be said, but maybe Summer didn’t connect the dots. Strength translates to every part of his body, not just his hands. He’s always been fast, but he’s mainly known for his combat ability. “I won’t let you get away!” Summer follows up by slinging a second blast of ice while running and then shoots a trail of ice in front of her which she uses to slide ahead for more speed.
“Don’t chase too hard. It’s exactly what he wants!” I voice. As soon as I finish saying that, I notice more rustling from above, and then an array of leaves rapidly falling overhead—and then I catch on to what’s happening. “Summer, wait!” I cut in from my route, but I’m almost positive it’s too late. The only thing I can do now is cover her. “Summ
er, look out!” Two hands descend in front of her from the canopy and grab her by the neck, suspending her. Summer struggles to break free, but before she can, Von accelerates towards her and launches his fist at her face. “Summer!” Von’s blow connects, but only after Summer shields herself with a thick column of ice she projected at the last second. Her shield shatters and she’s sent flying through the air until she crashes into the ground and skids across the earth. “Summer!” Damn it. I stop and pivot to run to her side, but I can’t—something’s coiled around my arm and restraining me. I can’t break free.
It’s Clarissa. She got me.
I was so focused on Summer that I didn’t think to look for her. I shouldn’t have dropped my guard.
Clarissa’s threads are extremely thin, yet ridiculously strong. It wouldn’t be a stretch if they were as durable as steel.
“Going somewhere?” Her bindings tighten and more threads wrap around me, fastening my hands to my side. This whole time she’d been waiting for her chance, and I managed to take the bait. “You can surrender now, or you can take a direct hit from Von. Your call.” She giggles.
“Never,” I force out as her wires continue to squeeze around my suit, steadily building pressure. There’s a crash in the distance and a scream from Erik. I figured out their game plan, but I was too late. Roy stuck to the trees and used his powers for recon and to snare us. Due to the fact that his body is extremely limber, it was easier for him to position himself in and out of our field of vision when it suited him best.
“Don’t say I didn’t try to do the right thing.” She shrugs. “Fine, have it your way. He’s all yours, Von.”
I didn’t want to use my new technique this early in the fight, but I guess I don’t have any other choice. Summer’s floored and Erik’s fighting Roy. The clocks ticking, it’s two on one, and if I get hit, it’ll most likely be over. I don’t have any defensive options at my disposal like Summer to stave off the impact, so I’ll probably lose consciousness if Von connects.
The Loner Page 11
