(Back at Sylvia’s office in the Grand Mirage Casino, Focus stands still in anticipation, waiting for Sylvia to take in even a sip of that spiked drink, but to his shock, she tosses the cup away with a smirk, then the door slams shut on Flare. She attempts to barge in, even using her fiery fist to break through, but it doesn’t work. Focus grits his teeth as he sees the desk so shockingly split into half and let Sylvia pass through, who stands up in front of Focus with a widening smirk.)

  Sylvia: (her smirk widening) I’ve been expecting you… Focus.

  Focus: (gritting his teeth) What’s that all about?

  Sylvia: (pulling out blurry pictures of Flare and Focus) I recognized you ever since you stepped into this place. It was no secret what you were after. Besides, it was clear that the drink was spiked. Cranberry mimosa is usually a darker shade of red.

  Focus: (firmly) Alright, then. I wouldn’t shy away from a direct confrontation. Give it your best shot. You won’t win.

  Sylvia: (slyly) You still underestimate me, don’t you?

  (Sylvia raises her right hand up and snaps her fingers, and to Focus’s shock, the area around them distorts and contorts. Focus glances around and sees himself in a massive limbo under glamorous chandelier lights, and then he sees Sylvia ahead of him, several poker card symbols floating around her: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.)

  Sylvia! The Casino Royale Surge! Fittingly enough, her abilities are mainly inspired by all sorts of luck-based casino games, from poker to roulette! With such an array of options, she has a variety of tricks up her sleeve! While she can use her Surge in open spaces, it’s even more effective indoors, where she can manipulate the area into a domain of her own that suits her abilities best! She’s not the strongest Surge user out there, but she’s certainly a handful!

  Focus: (shocked) Is that… a Surge?!

  Sylvia: (grinning) What you see is what you get. Surprised, huh? I do have a Surge. I just don’t use it often, if at all. I don’t usually bother with that, but I’ll make an exception just for you.

  Focus: But… you shouldn’t have known about Surges! Even if you did, how did you manage to develop your own?!

  Sylvia: I’ve been around the Sparks for long enough to figure that out. They shared their own knowledge about Surges, and admittedly, they helped me apply my own Surge before it fades away. Now, then… (letting out a low chuckle) Queen of Clubs.

  (Sylvia forms multiple club projectiles around herself and launches them at Focus, who repeatedly jumps out of the way to dodge them. He takes off his tie and the black cardigan then unbuttons the white shirt and throws it away, returning to his usual attire, a black track suit with a white strip on either side. However, a club projectile closes in on him, and he’s forced to block it with the back of his hand, but it explodes, sending him skidding back, and Sylvia dashes at him, kicking him in the face and sending him flying. He immediately gets back up on his feet and skips past a spade projectile as he dashes at Sylvia once again, but before he gets to deal a blow, Sylvia manifests a red heart and grabs it with her hand, her smirk widening.)

  Sylvia: (smirking, muttering under her breath) Queen of Hearts.

  (Focus gets blinded by a pink smoke that sets off the moment Sylvia crushes the red heart with her hand, and she then — taking advantage of this — punches Focus in the face, sending him skidding back before launching a flurry of quickfire diamond projectiles at him, sending him flying further.)

  Sylvia: (grinning) Queen of Diamonds.

  Focus: (unamused) I somehow knew that this was coming next.

  (Focus dashes at Sylvia once again, landing several precise chops to block the diamond projectiles. As he closes in on Sylvia, he fails to notice a spade mark on the floor and inadvertently steps on it, his foot getting stuck in it for a while.)

  Focus: (gritting his teeth) Queen of Spades, huh?

  Sylvia: (cockily) You know the drill, but that’s not all that I’m capable of. I’m spinning on even.

  (A roulette wheel appears above Sylvia’s head and starts spinning, the silver ball inside it ricocheting rapidly before slowing down and settling on number twenty black. Immediately afterwards, Sylvia’s fist glows with green energy, and she lands a powerful punch at Focus’s gut, sending him flying. He regains his balance and grits his teeth as he takes a fighting stance opposite to Sylvia’s confident grin.)

  Focus: (gritting his teeth) This is gonna be harder than I thought, but at least you’ve given me a solid walkthrough on your Surge.

  Sylvia: (sneering) Don’t count that as a blessing. I’m just turning up the heat bit by bit.

  (Meanwhile, outside the domain held by Sylvia in her office, Flare keeps on trying to barge in, but the door is locked. As she keeps on trying time and time again through gritted teeth, she gets ambushed by a group of security guards, led by none other than the two guards she and Focus got through when they first entered the casino, and they certainly don’t look happy about it.)

  Guard 1A: (cracking his knuckles) You’re in big trouble, kid!

  Guard 1B: (gritting his teeth) What’re you doing trying to barge into the boss’s office?!

  Flare: (gritting her teeth) Just what I needed. The door’s locked, I can’t get to Focus, and now you two losers brought your friends along.

  Guard 1C: For your own good, you better come with us quietly.

  Flare: (faintly smirking) I don’t do “quietly”.

  (Flare lunges at the security guards for a blow, but a guard holds down her fist and knees her in the gut, sending her skidding back. However, she quickly regains her balance and kicks one of the guards in the chin, sending him skidding back, then she follows with a kick to the gut, sending him further back. Another guard — the same guard Focus humiliated at the entrance — moves in on her, but she grabs his ears and subtly uses her fiery hands to heat them up. He winces in pain and falls on his knees as his ears get heated up, and Flare smirks at that before kicking him in the face and sending him falling on the ground.)

  Flare: (grinning) Boy, that guy was done dirty! Getting bullied by Focus was humiliating enough!

  (She roundhouses another guard in the face, sending him crashing sideways into the wall. However, she receives a kick at her back from the last remaining guard, sending her off balance, but she quickly trips him up with a kick at his leg then uppercuts him with a fiery fist, sending him off balance. This results in him falling off this floor and into the casino hall, alerting the guests, who put the festivities into a halt and glance up, seeing Flare glancing below at them and chuckling nervously.)

  Flare: (chuckling nervously) Oops. Guess my cover’s blown. Oh, well.

  (Flare confidently smirks then jumps across to the casino floor, pulling off a front flip as she lands on a table and shatters it with her feet. That knocks off several plates and cups on the table and alerts the guests, especially those sitting close to the table, who get knocked off their seats in shock. Flare looks around and sees several more security guards heading for her, while the other guests are separated between standing still in shock and running away in panic.)

  Flare: (thinking to herself) Okay, Focus is unreachable at the moment, so I gotta improvise. Might as well just skip ahead to step two and see what happens. (grinning, turning to the guards) It’s your loss, folks! YOLO!

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  (She takes off her black cardigan and throws it at one of the fleeing guests then dashes at the security guards, slipping under a guard’s legs then kicking him in the back. She then takes off her tie and skillfully wraps it around a guard’s neck, slamming his face into the table then continuing her run. As she punches two other guards in the face with her fiery fists, she unbuttons her white shirt and throws it at another guard’s face, making use of that by kicking him in the gut and sending him out of the way. She then propels herself upwards as she drops her trousers, fully reverting to her usual attire: a sleeveless orange vest over a sleeveless black top with orange shorts. She manages to grab the belt and strike a guard’s face with it, sending him off balance and falling on the floor, then she regains her footing and stands in front of the last guard in here.)

  Flare: (chuckling, signaling him to approach her) Come at me if you dare! Or don’t… if you care about your life. (repeatedly making swings with the belt) Hiiiiiiiiiiii-yah! (inadvertently striking her own butt, wincing in pain) Ow, I think I whooped my own butt!

  (The guard raises an eyebrow in bafflement but lunges at her regardless, and she quickly notices him closing in and — in an almost compulsory manner — swings the belt at him in panic, striking his face and sending him crashing into a roulette wheel, knocking it into the ground. Flare shrugs it off and throws away the belt, heading elsewhere to continue her rampant streak. Meanwhile, Sylvia keeps firing club projectiles at Focus, who keeps jumping out of the way of the explosions while circling around her. She launches a heart projectile at him as he closes in, but he kicks it at her, causing a pink smoke that blinds the two of them. However, Focus is disturbed much by it, and he punches Sylvia in the gut, sending her skidding back. As he moves in on her once again, he gets pushed back by a small explosion coming from a club symbol on the ground, and Sylvia stands firm, smirking as the roulette wheel above her head spins once again.)

  Sylvia: (grinning) Go on, Focus. Place a bet. See how it goes for you.

  Focus: Why should I?

  Sylvia: This is merely a game of luck. If you get it right, you may receive an advantage. If you don’t, that advantage will go to me.

  Focus: Pass. Why don’t you make a bet and see how you get on?

  Sylvia: Alright, fine. (smirking) I’m spinning on red.

  (The silver ball inside the wheel keeps slowing down until it just seemingly was about to land on a black spot, but then it takes a weird shift to a red spot, one that shocks Focus, and Sylvia receives a power boost, one that allows her to kick Focus in the face and send him flying. He regains his balance, only to receive a roundhouse kick to the face, sending him flying to the right. Upon regaining his footing, he grits his teeth as he stands opposite to Sylvia, who launches several club projectiles at him, forcing him to repeatedly move out of the way.)

  Focus: (thinking to himself, gritting his teeth) That was blatant cheating. She’s obviously rigged that wheel to abuse the luck factor associated with the game. This game of roulette grants her a power boost for any correct bet, and the higher the risk, the higher the boost. Classic casino stuff. However, the nature of her Surge dictates a punishment, and I’m sure that would apply to her as well for any wrong bet. Or I myself could gain an advantage for any correct bet. I could make use of that. (out loud, to Sylvia) Spin that wheel. I’m betting on odd.

  Sylvia: (snickering) Finally. As you wish.

  (Sylvia snaps her fingers, and the wheel behind her spins, but she still doesn’t stop her club projectiles, launching them at Focus regardless. As the silver ball slows down and is about to land on an even number, Focus quickly grabs one of the club projectiles while lunging at Sylvia, throwing it at the silver ball, which — as a result — shifts into an odd number, to Sylvia’s shock.)

  Sylvia: (gritting his teeth) That’s cheating!

  Focus: (faintly smirking) That’s rich coming from you.

  (Focus wins this bet, and he receives a power boost that helps him land a kick at Sylvia’s gut, sending her flying. Upon regaining her balance, she grits her teeth at Focus, who firmly takes a fighting stance with a sharp expression. Meanwhile, back at the mess going on in the casino, Flare nonchalantly opens a door leading into the kitchen, seeing several staff members going about their work and putting it all to a halt upon seeing her.)

  Staff Member 1A: Um… what’re you doing here?

  Flare: (smirking) Being the reason behind all that noise outside, that’s what. Now listen up. I’m about to do something crazy, so if you wanna live another day, then please get outta here.

  Staff Member 1B: (trembling) What’re you talking about?

  (Flare lights up several stoves with her fiery finger, then by lighting up her fists, she amplifies that fire into full-on flames, which start spreading across the entire kitchen. This prompts the staff to immediately flee the area, Flare mockingly gesturing them towards the door. She even trips up one of them and chuckles as he sees him hurriedly get back up and run away. After they all leave, she lights up even more stoves to enlarge the flames, which sets off the fire alarm in the casino hall.)

  Guest 1B: (shocked) What the hell?!

  (The fire sprinkler system is activated, but even that fails to put down the flames, and as Flare walks out of the kitchen and into the casino hall, she sees the crowd panickedly making its way out of the building. She opens the entrance and lets them pass through while leading other guests to the exit.)

  Flare: (grinning) This way! Come on! I definitely didn’t start that fire! It wasn’t me!

  (As she too gets ready to leave, she stops dead in her tracks with a blank expression — as if remembering something — and glances up at the door leading to Sylvia’s office, noticing that Focus still hasn’t gotten out. This brings an unamused expression out of her.)

  Flare: (unamused) You’re still not done yet? Come on.

  (Meanwhile, Focus shows a lot more adaptability to Sylvia’s tricks, eloquently working his way past her various projectiles. He also manages to kick the roulette wheel above her head, causing the silver ball to land at another spot. Sylvia loses the bet and gets electrocuted on the spot, and Focus seizes that opportunity to pull out his syringe and move in on her in an attempt to sedate her. However, Sylvia creates a shield of diamond symbols around her, gritting her teeth as she gets back up on her feet.)

  Sylvia: (gritting her teeth) You only get to play by my rules, Focus. I should always have the greater advantage. After all… the house always wins. I’m spinning on twenty-eight! Red!

  (The roulette wheel above her head spins once again, and Sylvia keeps launching club projectiles at Focus to stop him from interfering. He eloquently dodges those projectiles but fails to get close, repeatedly getting held back by the explosive club projectiles. He attempts to throw a club projectile at the wheel, but Sylvia blocks that with one of her diamond projectiles.)

  Focus: (thinking to himself, gritting his teeth) Damn it! She’s certainly gonna rig the wheel to receive what she’s betting on, and since she took a greater risk, that’ll only grant her a greater reward! I probably won’t be ready for this.

  (The silver ball starts slowing down, and judging by its current trajectory, it’s bound to land on twenty-eight red. However, Sylvia’s carefully crafted domain starts to distort and catch flames, an indication of the state outside. This lessens Sylvia’s control over her Surge, removing the diamond shield she had around her, and she looks around in shock.)

  Sylvia: (shocked) What’s happening?!

  (Focus too is shocked, but upon seeing the opening, he wastes no time and lunges at Sylvia, punching the roulette wheel and causing the ball to land at twenty-nine black instead. Since Sylvia lost the bet, she receives a crueler punishment, getting electrocuted on the spot with greater intensity, and this time, Focus quickly pulls out his syringe and injects it into her neck. She grits her teeth at this, but her ferocity is quickly replaced by dizzy eyes and tiredness, then she falls unconscious on the floor, the area finally returning to normal, except that Sylvia’s office is now on fire. Flare finally barges into the room, the magical lock on the door finally removed, seeing Focus with an unconscious Sylvia.)

  Flare: (smirking) She gave you trouble, huh?

  Focus: (deadpan) Don’t act too cocky. You’d have lost to her.

  Flare: (rolling her eyes) Let’s just get outta here. I already jumped ahead to the burning part.

  Focus: I still have to grab her laptop. Just a second. You grab her.

  (Flare carries the unconscious Sylvia on her back, and Focus pulls out a key chain from her pocket and heads to her drawers, opening them up with a key one by one until he finally finds her laptop. He picks it up and helps Flare carry the unconscious Sylvia as they head outside the office and out of the burning casino hall. They take a back door into the parking lot and start up Sylvia’s Audi Q5, opening its trunk and placing Sylvia inside. As Focus closes the trunk, Flare glances at him with a wide, innocent grin.)

  Focus: (unamused) You’re not driving.

  Flare: (annoyed) Come on! You got to drive the motorcycle!

  Focus: Because I can drive a motorcycle.

  Flare: Well, I can drive a bicycle!

  Focus: (deadpan) Proves nothing.

  (Flare gets into the passenger seat while pouting, while Focus gets on the wheel and immediately drives off out of the parking lot and out of the burning casino, leaving the guests glancing at the flames in pure shock. Jax, Proxy, and Pulse — who have just recently arrived at Reno, see the flames from afar and a vehicle heading out and speeding up. Proxy quickly writes down the car plate on a note.)

  Proxy: Something’s weird about this car. Whoever’s in here has gotta be involved. Someone here wanted to kidnap Sylvia, and I could only think of one person who would do that in the given situation.

  Pulse: (firmly) The Surge Beacon’s at it again.

  (The trio head out of the chaotic scene to figure out their next move, that simple observation taking them closer to finding Flare and Focus, who — despite a few setbacks — have gotten the job done and kidnapped Sylvia. With that, they’re one step closer to unraveling the mystery.)