Scene 14 - November 6th

Exterior Training Grounds, Continuous

Abraham Armstrong

I arrived back where Sequoia, Newton, and Starling had been and saw with some annoyance that Starling seemed to have been taken out. It must have been a good minute or so ago, too, for me to have been too far to have heard the announcement. Sequoia and Newton were both gone as well.

“Broadcast: status update,” I grumbled. “Starling looks to have been taken out. Sequoia and Newton’s locations are unknown.”

“Should I join the hunt?” Vulcan asked.

“No, stay with the flag. With Sequoia still out there, we can’t leave it unguarded. If we take him out, on the other hand...”

“Understood.”

“What about me?” said Anima. “I’ll note that I’m running a bit low on energy - I had to burn it pretty quickly to keep up with Newton. Kid’s fast.”

“Stick with what you’re doing,” I ordered her. “I’ll come to join you so they can’t gang up on us like they must have-”

I was interrupted by a light blue bat shooting unerringly at me, unguided by any hand, and I twisted the energy within myself to skid out of the way. It spun in midair and followed, and I dodged again.

This time, it pulled away, returning to the hand of the newest member of the Journeymen. Quinn gave me a cheerful wave, and I bounced after them.

“Anima: Change of plans,” I said. “I’ve found Newton and am in pursuit. Follow as fast as you or a golem can.”

“Can’t,” she grunted. “Sequoia just showed up. I’m going to be bit preoccupied.”

“...noted.” I didn’t want to lose Quinn, so I continued pursuing them at slightly under my top speed, not wanting to catch up until I had deciphered what their plan was.

They didn’t seem to be that interested in actually evading me, as when I began to fall behind they would pause, standing or lying on the side of a building and taunting me. If I slowed to much, they sent a dagger at me to spur me on. Definitely interested in the chase, here... but why?

My first thought was that they were having fun. They had bounced back from their father’s death remarkably quickly, it seemed, and judging from the joy they had had on that first night of trying their powers, they could well be the type to mug like this. If not, they were doing a remarkably good impression of it - they were doing what I suspected to be a not-very-flattering impersonation of me at this moment.

Or perhaps they hadn’t bounced back all that fast after all. Perhaps they were simply throwing themself into heroism, and this game, to keep them from remembering their loss. That might also lead them to spur me into a chase without actually trying to escape - to keep in motion, because of the grief that could catch up if they slowed down, much as I was catching up in the chase.

But far more likely than either of those, I realized, was that Holly had told them to keep me occupied. They were no doubt leading me far from Anima, keeping me from giving her backup against Jack - who in normal circumstances wouldn’t be able to take her any more than any other melee fighter could, as a single touch would let her safely drain him into unconsciousness. In this match, however, that draining power wasn’t allowed - all our powers were banned from direct use on other players - and he would have a far better chance. By Anima’s word, Holly couldn’t keep all five of the Journeymen manually connected and also lead - but could he do it with just four? Or even three, cutting off Nic - who still had yet to make an appearance - in favor of providing better leadership to the rest of the team?

As though spurred by this unpleasant thought, my earpiece crackled to life and Anima, her voice strained, said, “Having a bit of trouble with Sequoia. I’m low on energy and I think Loki is nearby - my golems are shattering as fast as I create them.”

“Shit,” I swore. If Holly was breaking golems - with shockwaves, no doubt - then he had surely cut Nic out, and had probably been directing the battle the entire time. I had let myself be complacent, thinking that the Journeymen were acting without an overarching plan, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I skidded to a halt at the edge of the rooftop I was approaching instead of leaping, and with a twist I reversed my momentum. I didn’t know if I could get back to Anima in time, but...

I ducked instinctively, and another one of Quinn’s daggers flew over my head. My duck turned into a roll and I spun around again to see that they had leapt at me, probably seeing an opening in my sudden flight. I barreled towards them at high speed. This had gone on too long already.

They reversed course midair, jerking backwards as I approached and fell off the side of the building. My heart stopped for a moment before remembering that they could walk on walls with their power - hell, they had been taking brief pauses there for the entire chase! If I took the bait and looked over the edge, they would strike.

Instead, I knelt and put my hand to the roof I stood on. One of my lesser known tricks was that I could send a sort of pulse through objects, and use that to map them out to an extent. It took longer than was useful in combat - at least, it did if I wanted to avoid damaging the object, as a faster, more energetic pulse could do - but it was perfect in a situation like this.

The pulse returned to me, and my suspicion was confirmed. Quinn was lying on the side of the building, both daggers floating in midair virtue of their power and ready to strike any whatever came over the edge. Fortunately their perception power couldn’t see through solids, so they wouldn’t be certain where I was or what I was doing.

Instead of leaning out, I leapt - massive kinetic force sending me past them before they could react, then twisted with my power to spin myself around to view them and slow me. As their daggers shot towards me, I launched my own heavier bat towards them, and...

“Newton has been taken out by Canaveral and is disqualified,” declared Sam.

Two down, now, and Quinn sighed in disappointment as they began making their way out of the artificial city. But, as I had just realized, Holly’s ability to contribute increased with each of the Journeymen that were removed.

Holly was far from unstoppable, but... he added a lot of complications to a game like this. Already, their flag was undoubtedly beyond reach. If he decided to go for stealth, then we, having already lost Starling, didn’t have a great chance of finding her. Him. Anima, Vulcan, and I all had some way of expanding our senses, whether through my kinetic echolocation or by sensing heat or life, but... Vulcan couldn’t hunt until we caught Sequoia, and my trick was strictly short-ranged. And while his chances of taking the rest of us out weren’t great, particularly given his historically poor aim with any sort of gun, he did have what was arguably the best weapon in this entire game. So...

“Anima:” I began, intending to ask her to target Holly before he came to the same conclusion I had, but I was interrupted.

“Can’t... really... talk...” Anima hissed.

“Fucking...” How had I forgotten that she was outnumbered? I spun on my heel again and raced in her direction.

“Keep talking until I get there,” I ordered her. If I couldn’t get to her in time, I could at least know exactly when they were tagged.

“What... do you want... a bedtime-story?”

I snorted. “One more chapter, mom?”

“Fine... you little... brat...” she said with a faint chuckle. “Once... upon a time... I was outnumbered... and surrounded...”

“By two people?”

“By two people... who could be anywhere.” It sounded like Holly was making full use of his increasing capacity for magic. He must have duplicated himself, or at least Jack, so that Anima didn’t know where their attacks were coming from. “And they... got far too close... for comfort... far... too...”

She stopped. “Damn it,” I swore, slowing a bit. She had been hit, I was certain, and was therefore no longer allowed to communicate. I was too late.