“S-stop!” she shouted desperately, blocking another blow. “H-hold on-UNH!”

Serena had blocked high, leaving her exposed. Chase slammed her shoulder bodily against her. Serena toppled down the hill, tumbling backwards, stopping only when her back stiffly collided with the trunk of a tree.

Chase was there almost immediately. Serena was stunned by the twin impacts, so Chase took the opportunity to check for some kind of master control, the device she used to connect with all the patches. There had to be one. She lifted the girl's hair off her neck. Nothing. Where was it?

Then, she thought of something. She moved her hand to Serena's front, and lifted her neat bangs.

There it was. A patch, right there in the center of her forehead. This one was thicker and larger than the others, too conspicuous to be concealed with makeup.

Serena swatted her hand aside, then pushed Chase away. “Get off me! Don't touch me!” she shouted. Her smart eyes met Chase's. “Look, you want to go? Fine, I'll let you go. And your friends too. You go your way, I go mine.”

Chase shook her head. “No! Will stop Sir! Will free all cheers, not just own friends! Will save!”

“You'll save them?” asked Serena. “From what? I'm the one protecting them! There hasn't been a single injury at practice since I've taken over! Not one! With me guiding them, they're already safe!” She pointed at Chase. “But you, you're the one going around beating them up! Look at all the injuries YOU'RE causing! Who's the real bad guy here?”

These words touched Chase in a sensitive place. Serena saw Chase's grip on the mallet slacken and took advantage, kicking it out of Chase's hand. It spun through the air once before its uneven weight sent it plummeting to the ground head first about fifty feet downhill. Pine needles splashed up at the point of impact and the hammer bounced another ten feet before sliding to a rest.

Serena ran and jumped for it, but Chase was right there with her. The two girls clawed and wrestled for control of the mallet, tumbling over and over past trees and rocks. They hit a line of bushes and their momentum carried them through...but once they burst out the other side, the ground beneath them was taken away. They spun in space, falling for what felt like a very long time.

They hit water.

Chase felt every muscle in her body tighten in shock as the water's cold autumn temperature hit her like a wrecking ball. Luckil, the water was deep, so she wasn't hurt as she plunged into it, but it was also moving very fast. Chase kicked to the surface and sucked in a deep breath. She looked around, and realized she was in a wide, powerful river.

A log was being carried past her. She swam over to it and grabbed on. Bobbing on the river and using the log was a life preserver, she looked around for Serena. She could have swam to shore, but she wasn't just going to leave Serena behind in order to do it. The fact they were fighting, that Serena was her enemy, didn't change the fact that she was a cheerleader.

As Chase looked around she saw tourists on the riverbanks. There were a lot of them standing behind waist-high rope barricades, watching the river flow, some taking pictures. She and Serena were clearly noticed; it seemed like there were a lot of phones and fingers pointed at her. Some people were calling out to her, but she could hear nothing but the roar of the mighty river.

Then, she saw a head break the water. Serena's. The girl's hair splayed across the water's tumultuous surface as she tried to swim, but the wild current was a force she could not overcome.

Chase swam out, wrapped an arm around her, and swam back to the log. The current was faster now. Trying to fight it with only one free arm while carrying Serena's burden with the other was something that tested the limits of even Chase's strength. When she made it back to the log, her arms and legs were aching from the exertion.

She wanted to try for the bank, but the river was wide, and she wasn't sure she could make it with Serena. The log had branches extending out the sides, sort of acting as outriggers. Chase tested its stability to make sure it wouldn't roll over, then helped the coughing, sputtering Serena up onto it before climbing up herself.

It was even colder out of the water. In her soaked clothes, the cool air which had felt refreshingly brisk when she was dry was now gnawing on her like an invisible monster.

But Chase understood cold. She had spent every winter of her life in a cabin with no heat. Serena looked to be feeling it far worse. She was shivering all over, body shaking with watery coughs, on her hands and knees.

Kneeling next to her, Chase put a hand on her back. “You fine now, Sir. Us get-”

Chase didn't see the mallet in Serena's hand. At the sensation of Chase's touch, Serena's grip on the mallet tightened, and she swung it against the side of Chase's cheek. Chase was thrown to the side, almost into the water, but she managed to grab a branch and steady herself. Serena rose to to her feet and swung the mallet again, but Chase deflected it with her hand. She swept a kick at Serena's legs, but the nimble cheerleader jumped over her, twisted in the air, and landed behind Chase on the log. She swung the mallet down at Chase's head, and Chase did a forward tumble out of its path. The mallet struck the dead, saturated wood with a wet thud.

Chase came up facing Serena, and before the brunette could raise the mallet for another swing, spun another kick against it. The weapon was jarred from Serena's grip and spiraled into the river.

“You not fight!” Chase ordered her. “Us must get safe!”

Serena let out a growl and rushed at Chase, fists flying. Chase easily rose and grabbed the girl's wrists, restraining her.

“Safe? I'm not going to be safe as long as you're free!” Serena told her. She struggled to free herself, but she wasn't a match for Chase's grip. Gradually, with the river raging around them, she tired herself out. The girl went limp in Chase's hands, and started to shiver again. Chase was surprised to see her cool, assured eyes well up with tears. She was defeated. Defeated, with the implications of that fact closing in around her. “Please don't turn me over to the cops. Please.”

The people on the shore were running alongside them now. They were still waving frantically and calling out to them, but Chase still couldn't hear a word they were saying. Why was the river so loud? She had been on rivers before. Faster ones than this. It wasn't normal for one to be this deafening.

Then...a sinking realization. With dread in her heart, she slowly looked downstream.

The horizon was damn close.

“Fall!” shouted Chase, throwing Serena away from her. “Wet will fall!”

Serena's eyes widened, fear drying her tears and stilling her tongue. Chase dropped to her knees, broke off a branch, and started trying to paddle the log upstream with it. Serena followed her lead, but there was nothing the two could do. The cacophonous roar of Paranske Falls was like hearing nature give a bellowing laugh at their tiny, pathetic scrabblings.

At the last second, Chase grabbed Serena and they bailed off the log. The two teens were swept over the edge of the Earth and into a free fall that seemed to last an eternity.

.....

Chase woke up to Caitlin's fingers pinching her nose, and her lips administering the breath of life. Chase felt her lungs expand, and water come up. She quickly rolled over and coughed it out.

“Chase! Oh, thank god,” said Alicia. She rushed to Chase's side and put a hand on her back as she continued to cough. “Are you okay?!”

When she had caught her breath, Chase sat up and wrapped Alicia in a hug. “Yes...Am okay.”

She was sitting on the grassy bank of the Davis River, just downstream from the mighty Paranske Falls. It towered over them. Anyone might have felt small standing at the base of such a formidable natural wonder, but since Chase had just been chewed up and spit out by it, had felt its impassive strength firsthand, she felt especially humbled. At the top of the bank was a wood barrier, and some tourists were standing on the other side of it, taking her picture.

“I can't believe you're alive!” remarked Lindsey. “You just fell a hundred...a hundred and...” She looked up at an information board posted nearby. “A hundred-and-thirty-four feet!”

Chase separated from Alicia and gave Caitlin a hug as well. “Thanks, Cait. Would not be live if not you.”

“Yeah, no problem, Chase. My mom taught me CPR.”

Chase remembered Serena. She sat back and held Caitlin out from her at arm's length, a worried look on her face. “Sir...?”

Caitlin nodded. “She's okay.” She nodded at something over Chase's shoulder, leading Chase to let go of her and look. Serena was sitting on a rock nearby, staring at the ground. The fall had left her face bloody, a large gash on her forehead leaking crimson. The patch was left completely mangled.

A couple short minutes later, the cops showed up. They put the cheerleaders in handcuffs, wrapped comfort blankets around Serena and Chase and questioned them thoroughly about exactly what the hell they thought they were doing.

“So as you can see, officer, this is all a BIG misunderstanding,” said Alicia sweetly.

“Yep!” said Lindsey. “I blame improper signage.”

“Improper signage?! Eyewitnesses said they saw you FIGHTING,” replied the cop sternly, glaring at Chase and Serena.

Chase looked at Serena, then at him. She knew this was a situation, and the wrong answer could get them all thrown in jail. She carefully considered her response. “Yes! Did fight! Much fun!” she said cheerfully. The others winced.

“Why on Earth were you fighting in such a dangerous place? What do a bunch of cheerleaders have to fight about that's worth endangering their lives over in the first place?” he demanded incredulously. He looked at the others intently. “Is there something I should know, here? Something you're not telling me?”

Alicia, Caitlin and Lindsey hesitated. They looked at Serena, then at the cop. “N-nothing serious, sir,” said Alicia. “They stole our routine, that's all.”

“Hey!” interjected Serena, offended. “We did not!”

“Did so!” shouted Lindsey. “You wanna get sent over that waterfall again? I'll do it, you know!”

The cop sighed and shook his head, frustrated. “Alright, that's enough.” When he was sure they'd cooled off, he uncuffed them. “No more fighting, and don't cross the barricades.” After around of 'yes, officers,' he got back in his squad car with a final grumble. “Damn kids.”

Serena rubbed her wrists as they watched him drive away. Some tourists still lingered around, but once they saw the excitement was over, they began moving on to other attractions.

“Why didn't you tell him about me?” asked Serena.

Chase looked confused. “Cause you ask.”

“I mean, it's not like he'd listen to us even if we did,” said Caitlin. “It's a pretty outrageous story.”

Serena hesitated. “Then...what are you going to do with me?”

The Sunnycrest girls looked at each other. “We aren't sure,” admitted Alicia.

Serena looked down at the ground. There was silence as the group ruminated on her situation, all except for the moving river.

“If you want to kill me, I understand,” she said simply.

“Wh-what?” asked Alicia, alarmed.

“What are you talking about?” asked Caitlin.

“If that's what you decide, I don't have any room to complain,” she said. A shiver made her slender body tremble in her wet clothes. She brought her knees up and hugged them. The water flowed by, and she let it carry her eyes along with it. “I might be too dangerous to let live, and it was my own actions that made that the case.”