1.30.1

Battle of Wills

With that bullet, each side scrambled for cover.

Tenya finished off the S.O. at her side. Walker tugged at Rahna and shoved her behind him before he squared off with Anders.

Romo darted for the computers and, with a data device from Dell’s kit, initiated an invasion of the system. When his focus on the computers left him open to attack, Tenya moved to keep the S.O. operatives suppressed under a spray of fire.

While he shielded Rahna with his body, Walker unleashed the charge in his energy weapon in quick bursts.

Astrid dove for her team to deflect the volley, and soon she and Anders jostled to cover each other. The Aldebaran's team continued their assault on the S.O.'s but, with Astrid's interference, the enemy struggled to land a shot.

“Rahna!” Walker yelled.

“I’ve got her.”

The woman stepped out from behind her Guardian. Her crystal glowed bright and energy swirled over her palm. It flared with expertise Astrid had not yet mastered. Clearly Rahna's talent benefited from the experiments permitted in Sanctuary Argos. And her reluctance to fight proved not from lack of ability.

Pale blue energy flashed in sapphire eyes when Rahna's own combat instinct took over.

“She’s draining the power from the computers! I won’t be able to get the data!” Romo called.

“Lucas. Stop him!” Rahna ordered.

The Opposition's Channeler strode forward to meet the Aldebaran's own. The light between her fingers condensed with precision, before a tight bolt of power streaked toward the specialist's head.

Astrid’s eyes widened in alarm. She dropped her stolen weapon and threw up her hands to diffuse the energy that assailed her.

Energy discharge crackled into the air. Rahna provided her free energy, and Astrid collected it to return the attack. Soon, the two Channelers locked in an engagement that flowed power between them like water.

Nearby, Lucas reached Romo just in time for the agent to turn, but Lucas kicked the rifle from his hands, and it skittered to the floor.

Romo then went for his knife. The blade slashed through the air at Lucas’s chest and the man jumped back in a heated dance.

Tenya finally downed the first S.O. soldier and targeted the second behind Walker.

But the fighter moved into position, ready, and the chief ducked behind a desk to trade shots over the gap between, where Anders and Walker faced off.

The radius of power that spasmed around the Channelers in combat rendered Walker’s energy rifle a perilous risk. Astrid could feel its thrum in her expanding perception.

Well-practiced now in the feel of the clean pulse that resided inside, Astrid tapped into the source and drew it away, into her exchange with Rahna.

Walker was forced to abandon the useless tool for brawling, and he instead tackled Anders into a physical fight.

Worried, Astrid made to help him, but Rahna conjured another bolt. It took all Astrid’s focus to catch it and cast it back, away from her companions.

The thumps of hits landing, and the din of gunfire, resounded over her ears. But closer, overwhelming it all, buzzed the crackle of energy that lit Astrid’s body in garish light.

Rahna lobbed another glaring bolt. Astrid drained the energy that hurtled toward her head to burst it back in her own cone.

Wisps and sparks flayed at Rahna’s legs, and the woman's form, too, took on an aura alive with power.

As they traded attacks, they fed on each other. They resupplied one another. In an ever-recycling exchange, their energies melded in battle.

Astrid’s head grew hot, but either through her conditioning, or Rahna’s constant replenishment, she continued to fight, unfettered.

She could feel the torment, the self-hatred that wracked her opponent. Intensified by determination to do something about it.

Astrid bore down against the assault of such strong vile feelings buried under all that flowery fatalism.

Romo grunted when he took an elbow to the face. He kneed his combatant in retribution then set upon him again. The pain only seemed to sharpen Romo’s skills.

Tenya fired a sporadic spray as her own opponent looked to reassess targets. He clearly considered to aid the other fights that ensued around them.

But Tenya aimed to command his attention, to keep the field even in their individual battles. Another shot, and the interloper had no choice but to fight her.

Walker and Anders careened over a table. Their brawl elevated to a beast-like ferociousness. Hit for hit, they met in snarls and swear words so loud it competed with Tenya’s firearm.

Rahna shoved another focused bolt at Astrid. The specialist prepared to boomerang it back. But this time, Rahna followed behind its trajectory like a charging train.

The pair collided, and energy sizzled into the ground around them.

Astrid hopped to her feet, and Rahna as well, with her hands raised. Her palms and fingers straightened, rigid and flat.

Astrid recognized the fighting stance straight away. She fell into position just as hands chopped through the air for her.

Rahna boosted her strikes with energy flares that propelled her strength. Astrid braced against them and buffered the hits against her bracers.

Arcs of light crackled up her arm and she gnashed her teeth to resist crying out. She siphoned the power and sent it back in a vicious kick. Sparks flew when Polaris stumbled back, then narrowed her eyes.

Trained the same, their matched martial skills battered against one another in even offense. Whatever experiments Rahna endured made her talents more robust, but from them, too, Astrid learned.

She let the energy pass between them until every hit delivered euphoria. Each time Astrid expelled energy from her well, Rahna returned it. With each strike, whether the assailant or the target, Astrid was revitalized.

Blood flecked over a nearby station when Romo bashed Lucas’s head onto the corner of one of the computer towers.

Lucas staggered weakly to his feet. But Romo claimed an advantage in the brutal move, and though the agent, too, bled from the forehead, his next attack sufficiently converted Lucas into a heap on the floor.

Ashen pink hair from Astrid’s ponytail whipped in the artificial wind around her face while waves rolled over her. Black strands danced with her own. Blue eyes flashed against teal.

Pale light encased them both, untouchable to the chaos just outside their own bubble of roiling power.

Astrid felt her limits expand through their fight. How Rahna unwittingly, through demonstration, advanced Astrid’s capabilities faster than any clumsy, feeble exercises she explored on her own.

The more of Rahna’s flow Astrid shared, the more her own swelled to accommodate. And the would-be soldier retained a few tricks no one bothered to teach her opponent.

She balled up one of her fists how Romo showed her and slugged Rahna hard across the face.

“We’re running out of time!” the agent shouted over the cacophony. “We need to finish this!”

“Heard!” Tenya popped from place and cast an arc of bullets that put her last target on the defensive. He ducked with a curse under his breath. She kept up the hail, and boldly followed with a leap from cover to advance. A risky move that provided her only a second to correct her aim with more precision.

Until the chief’s superior position over the operative finally delivered her the winning shot.

Walker and Anders clambered to the floor. Walker hunched over the lieutenant, and though Anders still punched, Walker gained the upper hand.

Tenya set upon him, but the Guardian reared his arm back to throw her off. Elbow connected with cheek, and Tenya spun away.

Anders used the moment to scrabble aside, only to resume the onslaught once more.

But the men, both fierce and dedicated, did not have the benefit of the Channelers’ replenishing energy.

They each fatigued, and while Astrid and Rahna pitched balls of force through the air between them, both women felt the men dwindle and tire.

Each, determined that their own man succeed, silently dared one another to intervene. For they both knew whoever helped their counterpart diverted her attention from the task at hand first, thus granting the other victory.

And that’s all it would take.

In that moment, Astrid realized their team's success depended on the faith she had in Anders. That he could do it without her.

That she must believe in him, too.

Rahna sapped energy from the surrounding computers, and Astrid stole and shoved it back in, so Romo could continue to gather the data.

Rahna lashed at her once more when she recognized how Astrid thwarted her efforts, and soon they tugged for control over the energy that powered the mainframe.

Nearby, the chief rubbed at her jaw and moved it in place to make sure nothing dislocated.

“Hurry up!” Tenya cried while she hauled herself to her feet.

Tenya gathered Romo’s gun from where it lay discarded on the ground and shoved it into the agent’s hands. But when she turned to those that still fought, she, too, was unable to interfere with a clean shot on either front.

Anders and Walker crashed into another tower. Orange sparks flew over them, and one of the men cried out.

Rahna whipped around to avert the electricity from her beau, and Astrid used that brief pause to power the last of Romo’s console.

Finally, he declared success. “We’ve got it!”

Rahna hissed and snapped her attention back to her own fight. But Endra's Channeler stood ready to meet her.

Astrid tore the rest of the power from the computer bank, faster and harder than she’d ever previously dared.

She gathered the torrent in her hands, and with a mighty shove, heaved it over Rahna.

The woman barred her arms in front of her face against the blast that funneled over her.

Wild-eyed and enraged, Rahna gathered the discharge to return it. But behind her, Anders finally booted a hard kick to Walker’s thigh, and the man’s leg over-extended in a sickening contortion.

The former Guardian cried out, and Rahna, helpless to ignore it, lost all her focus to seek where the two men battled.

It gave Astrid her final opening, and she pounced.

She erupted the last of the errant energy between them, and off guard, Rahna was thrown to ground. With a yelp, she sprawled over the floor on her back.

Her head smacked into the stone, and her sapphire eyes fluttered shut.

Without the wild tempest of Channeler combat, it felt as though all the air flooded back into the room.

The group breathed easier, free of the thick charge the Channelers pushed outward.

Walker abandoned his clash altogether, and hobbled to Rahna’s side, where he knelt with panicked hands to check her over.

“Rahna?!”

His voice shuddered. A slow slick of blood leaked over the floor, and Astrid came to stand over them.

She could sense her fellow Channeler’s vitality.

Undeniably, it mellowed from the rapid pace of their skirmish. But Astrid could feel enough to know:

“She’s still alive.”