Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXIV - "Reed vs Demetrius"

Is this how a goalie feels? You just kind of stand around here and wait for something to happen?

Reed sighed, standing in front of Team Red's flag, looking up into the blue sky above her. It’s not like stayed behind with the flag out of pure laziness – staying behind played to her strengths. She could move fast over a span of something like ten feet. Anything beyond that required something called stamina and endurance, and when it came to moving long distances, Reed had little of either of those.

So, rather than mosey her way across the arena, she would stay here and guard the flag. She didn't like to brag that much outside of all those times she did like to brag, but she was the strongest on the team. She would have the best odds of keeping anyone on Team Blue from seizing their flag.

I just wish I realized how boring sticking around here would be.

Nothing better to do, Reed paced around, kicked a few rocks, then got down into a squat.

Then immediately stood back up, because doing something like that set her hamstrings on fire.

I guess I should stretch more. We all stretch at the beginning of practice, but I really just go through the motions sometimes.

Why? Because I’d rather be anywhere than there. I’d rather be at home.

To do what? Watch television, of course.

And that’s not a bad thing. But...that really is all I do...

Babs’ and Stennis’s words from earlier today coalesced around in her head, and all she could do to respond to their arguments was frown.

It’s alright, Babs is a jerk and Stennis just argues good. Just because you’re good at talking doesn’t mean your point is right. And if I really can’t get my mind off of it, I’ll just get high later tonight-

Damnit. What’s that saying? Nothing wrong with it some of the time, but the only thing is, you do it again and again and again and again...

Making the rare decision to do something productive, Reed closed her eyes, opening the black Rddhi grid around her. She felt the Rddhi signature of the flag behind her, and could feel as far away as the rough middle of the arena, Hanai and Clayton up in that watchtower. Her four teammates had all reached their hiding spots, and Reed even felt the distant pulse of a clone Isaac sent out.

Well, everyone’s in position. Let’s see what happens.

Reed’s attempts to concentrate gradually gave way to reflecting on articles in this month’s edition of her Japanimation newsletter, the desire to be anywhere but here, and some other darker thoughts involving nervousness and other things that she pushed away by thinking about the Arnold Corporation Agricultural Department Tripler Decker Luxury Liner Party Cake waiting for her.

But that just made her grumble.

I got everyone those two extra decks. People forget that. Stupid Mackenzie. That’s why we need to beat her now – nobody bakes me a cake without giving me some, and I don’t get anybody a cake without getting my fair share.

…why do I have so many cake-related arguments with her? Are these arguments stupid? Am I stupid?

Reed shook her head and ran a hand through her hair.

Fortunately, she now had something to take her mind off of everything that was wrong with her and her life – heartbeats, enemy heartbeats, just passed the halfway point of the arena. Multiple heartbeats.

It’s still a little distant, but I think that’s...four separate heartbeats?

Her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword.

The four changed their direction towards Coleridge, that poor bastard. Reed spun the sword in her hand, debating on whether to send a signal up or not, but decided to wait.

Coleridge’s heartbeat slightly moved to his right, then picked up in intensity, waves of adrenaline pouring out into the Rddhi grid.

Yeah, he’s toast. Better get him out of there.

Reed went to send up a dreampop sound wave telling Coleridge and Audrey to retreat, but the feeling in the Rddhi ahead of her shifted.

Three of the heartbeats stopped. Only one continued onward, which should’ve been a good thing, but when Reed felt the waves coming out of that lone heartbeat, she realized it was none other than Mackenzie.

What? Why’s she up so far ahead-

Reed had to bring her arm across her face – there was a blinding flash of light that covered her entire field of vision. She squinted, and saw a huge blast of energy in the distance, sending the treetops shaking and gusts of wind blowing past of her.

Well, Mackenzie’s in the center of that, all right. Did we know she could do that?

The explosion sent a mushroom cloud into the sky, and scanning her way through the yellow mass covering the Rddhi grid, Reed saw the blast blew Isaac and Alfie away and currently kept them pinned down. The same happened to Coleridge, but Audrey managed to shield herself and had sent a vine to drag Coleridge away to safety.

Mackenzie must’ve done that to knock the wind out of us, give them a better opportunity to make it past our defense. I bet, now her friends will charge-

A heartbeat dashed past Mackenzie, darting through the fields. Then a green-shaped line – one of Audrey’s vines – snaked its way around him, stopping him for a moment, and from the way the vine wrapped itself around the outline of the person’s body, Reed realized that large frame could only belong to Demetrius.

For a moment, Audrey had him, but he soon turned the tables on her, yanking her vine to and from until launching her into the sky. To Audrey’s credit, she held on as Demetrius resumed his charge towards the flag, and then another heartbeat rushed past Mackenzie, and from the speed, Reed supposed it was Lynn.

Mackenzie herself seemed to make no movement, and soon actually retreated backwards with the other heartbeat. Mackenzie’s pulse seemed low and tired, so no doubt she was retiring back to her flag until she regained her strength. As for Lynn, Coleridge moved to check her.

That just left Demetrius, who had dragged Audrey behind him across the forest floor for some time until the vine snapped.

Reed spun the sword in her hand. Just a 1v1 then? No need to call for reinforcement.

Demetrius’s heartbeat moved closer to the clearing with Team Red’s flag, and by now, she could hear his footsteps, as well as his deep voice regaling the forest with ancient Macedonian war songs.

Reed wasn’t one to let her opponent get himself set up. Before he even arrived in the clearing, Reed sent several sound waves into the forest, intent on having her guitar noises silence the music of ancient Hellas.

Each sound wave was met by a blast of Rddhi that cancelled it out. Reed frowned, and then Demetrius emerged into the clearing at a full-on sprint.

“Ptolemaic Thunder!” he roared. He slid to a halt, sending dirt flying, then punched his fist into the air in Reed's direction. In less than a second, a beam of pure purple Rddhi exploded out of his fist, roaring towards Reed. Reed just managed to shift her head – the beam missed her by less than inch, striking a tree behind her, splitting it into two.

Demetrius grinned and flexed a bicep – Reed swore she heard a gunshot noise go off.

“Do you like it?” Demetrius declared, his voice deep and booming. “I call my power the Besieger. But don’t worry, I only have it set to ‘knock-out’ at the moment. You’ll simply dream a peaceful dream should the Besieger get a hold of you.”

Reed pointed her sword at him. “I’d like to see that.”

Demetrius could only smile wider. “Fantastic. Fantastic!”

He flexed his shirt off, the tattered remnants falling to the ground, gunshot noises going off as he posed. “The improvement of self is life’s greatest challenge, for man is both the marble and the sculptor! Let me show you the fruits of my labors!”

“...okay.”

Demetrius charged at her, punching the air with each powerful step, sending out Besieger beams towards Reed. She raised her sword in response, running sound waves through it, knocking away each Besieger beam as they came, sending them smashing into the trees, bits of wood fragments and trunk exploding into the air around the clearing.

Demetrius shot a beam at the ground, propelling himself high into the air. He did a flip simply for aesthetic purposes and then on his way down, he brought both fists together. “Tyre Smash!” he roared, and sent off a larger, combined beam from both fists at her.

The beam looked so powerful that Reed elected to backroll out of its way into a crouch. The beam smashed into the ground and created a crater right next to where she was once; Demetrius landed in the middle of it, sending up dirt and dust from the force of impact.

He fired a Besieger beam right down at Reed, but Reed backrolled out of the way once more, sending him soundwaves as she came back to her feet. One of the sound waves caught Demetrius in the shoulder; feeling the force of the collision and subsequent shockwave of reverb, he stumbled backwards.

Reed moved in for the final strike, intent on sweeping his legs out from beneath him then pressing her swordtip against his neck, but Demetrius fired a beam at the ground, propelling him away from Reed, back toward the edge of the clearing.

Both sides caught their breath. Well, Demetrius caught his breath while Reed cursed herself for not properly stretching her hamstrings (a simple crouch did a number on her).

“Excellent, excellent!” he yelled. “I was hoping you’d provide me with a challenge! Challenges are the only way I can keep improving and succeed in my ultimate goal!”

“Your ultimate goal?” Reed repeated.

Demetrius nodded. “The endgame to my existence. My purpose."

He saw the bored look on Reed's face and cocked his head. "You don’t have one?”

“...can’t say I do.”

“Very well. Perhaps hearing mine will help inspire yours.” Demetrius looked off into the distance, a gust of wind blowing past him, and somewhere, in some distance space or time, Hellenistic flutes played a sorrowful tune of his ancestors. “It all began-”

“I don’t care.”

The flutes came to a stuttering halt, and Demetrius looked over at her. “You...don’t care?”

Reed shrugged.

“But...my goal is why I fight!” Demetrius protested. “It’s the reason why I try so hard. It’s the reason why I’m fighting you at this very point. The ultimate goal is what separates man from the animals! You don’t want to know why I’m trying so hard against you?”

Would it be wrong to say I've been already reminded two other times today about lacking a direction in life?

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Reed told him, putting her cold and aloof voice on. “You’re a nice classmate. Maybe tell me over dinner or something.”

Demetrius looked confused, then a deep sorrow appeared on his face. “I’m sorry, Reed. I never wish to crush someone's dreams, but I just don’t see you that way.”

“...alright, yeah, I could’ve phrased that better. I'm not interested in you like that, I just wanted free food.”

The smile returned to Demetrius’s face. “Don’t we all,” he proclaimed. He flexed both his biceps, a gunshot sounding off to each, as he readied his next attack. “DON’T WE ALL-”

Two vines wrapped themselves around each arm, preventing his attack. Demetrius squirmed around, but the vines held tight. He tilted his head back and saw Audrey standing behind him in the woods, scratches and bruises all over her face, but she held on tight.

“Thanks, Auds,” Reed said, sound waves running through her sword. “Let’s finish this-”

Demetrius managed to point his fists at the ground and punched with each of them. The two beams propelled him into the air, giving Audrey just enough time to gasp before being dragged into the air with him. Reed sent a magnetic wave at Audrey, attraching her to the ground, preventing her from being flung away.

By this time, Demetrius shifted his arms around and used his beams to slash through the vines. Now freed, he fell back to the earth, but Audrey sent out another vine, wrapping itself around his leg. The vine held-tight and would keep Demetrius in the air, away from the flag.

Demetrius seemed to realize something mid-flight, so when Audrey swung her body to pull Demetrius away from the flag, he didn’t offer any resistance. In fact, he sent out a Besieger beam horizontally to him in order to make Audrey’s swing even faster.

Demetrius did a complete 180 in the air – moving towards the flag to now moving away from the flag. He then used a beam to sever the vine, the momentum carrying him away from the two girls, instead propelling him back into the forest, his booming laughter and chanting disappearing into the woodland.

Audrey returned to the ground and caught her breath.

“You alright?” Reed asked, looking at all the cuts on her face.

“Better than ever,” Audrey answered, and the determined smile on her face gave that answer away as being genuine. “Ever since we beat up that microwave last month, I feel more confident in myself. I used to get more worried when we fought, but since you guys are with me now, I know we’ll do good!”

“That’s the kind of confidence we need,” Reed said, feeling relieved that their flag was still there. But then she frowned. “Shoot. Looks like Coleridge was about to knock out Lynn, but Demetrius is about to get him.”

Audrey gasped. “So that’s why he headed away from the flag! Coleridge must’ve been tired from his fight, giving Demetrius a great opportunity to incap...incapac...knock him out!”

Audrey spun around and headed off into the forest after Demetrius. “I’ll be back, Reed! I’ll go stop Demetrius!”

Reed’s first thought was you can?

But then when she saw the way Audrey ran, how she didn’t look tired at all, Reed realized her friend had come a long way.

“Alfie and Isaac are moving,” Reed called out as Audrey re-entered the forest. “Hopefully they’ll be there to help out, too.”

“You got it, chief!” Audrey sent out a vine to a treetop, wrapping itself around a high branch. She picked up her pace into a full-on sprint, then swung herself into the air. She used another vine on a different tree branch ahead of her to keep herself moving fast and off the ground, and that’s how she disappeared into the forest, swinging through the treetops.

It felt nice, to see her friend succeeding like that. But Reed still had to scratch her head.

…did I know she could do that?