Harper pulled her head backwards by moving only her neck. A right hook brushed against her chin. Her quivering lips turned south. The ridge of her nose scrunched.
“This is your st warning, Caroline,” she said through grit teeth. The only reply was an uppercut to her stomach. Harper’s feet lifted into the air. The pavement under Caroline’s feet shattered like gss as it depressed in a wide circle; a shockwave followed the hit, and a strong wind shattered windows in nearby buildings.
Harper fell twelve feet before she nded, rolling to a stop. She scrambled upright and retched, clutching her stomach with both hands. She looked up. No kindness remained in her bloodshot eyes. A trail of red ran from the corner of her mouth and a residual magic imprint burned between her ribs.
“Fine.” Harper’s voice was hoarse and scratchy. She flopped upwards, standing on unsteady legs. “I’ve got nothing left to lose, anyways.” She brushed the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, spreading it in a thin haze across her lips.
Caroline mimed several punches in pce, shadow-boxing while bouncing on the balls of her feet. She stretched her neck from side to side. “‘Bout time you manned up,” she said. Stepping forward in a sliding dash, Caroline once again overpped with the shadow of her alternate selves. The pins in her head thrummed like a rocket engine. She led with a right-left-right combo, but Harper slipped all three punches.
“Hoh! Someone’s been practici—” Caroline’s smarmy words were cut off by a sharp pain in her leading leg and a sudden tilting of the world. Harper kicked her knee from the side, sweeping her off her feet. She floated for a moment, completely horizontal to the ground. A huge right overhand followed. Caroline raised her guard, protecting her face with both forearms tight together. Harper’s fist drove Caroline’s body into the broken pavement. Her body bounced and the impact took all the air from her lungs.
Caroline rolled on her side and flipped to her feet off one hand like a circus performer. “Oops. Must have let my concentration slip for a second, there,” she said, her manic smile now missing a tooth. Her brow furrowed and her voice dropped an octave as she said, “It won't happen again.”
“I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine, Sarah.” Theo wrung out his shirt over the railing. “It was an easy mistake to make.”
“I didn’t make it.”
“Anatoly, shut the fuck up.” Alyssa pinched her brow. Most of the team was gone. It wasn’t clear if the creatures killed them or if they were transported somewhere else, but only the four of them were left. With all the mental corruption abilities being flung about earlier, it was a bit hard to track real bodies in the chaos.
“For now,” said Alyssa, “We need to figure out how the hell we get off this boat.”
“Why don’t I jump you up into the sky as high as my magic can reach?” said Sarah. “With the storm gone you can look for the way to go. Just soften your nding by hitting the water when you fall back down—”
“Water isn’t soft, Sarah.”
“Huh?”
“Water. If you hit it from a great height it’s like nding on concrete. Even with my ability it wouldn’t be easy to pull off a safe nding.”
“Really?”
“Why would you think nding in water would be safe?” asked Alyssa. Sarah turned her eyes away and didn’t answer. She refused to admit it.
“How are you the American boogeyman? How?” Anatoly shook his head. He turned and started climbing the ship’s mast, choosing to avoid taking another 3D6 mental damage.
“I mean, you can just reinforce your body with mana when you hit the surface, right? It’s not like it’s that hard…”
“Sarah, please stop talking.”
“Theo has literally survived me throwing him onto harder surfaces.”
“Do not portal me into the sky.”
“The Chairman is different.”
“How is he different?”
“Look at him! The man looks like an experiment to bring steroids to life.”
“That’s fair—”
“Please stop talking about me like I’m not here.”
“But I have also survived higher falls onto harder surfaces.”
“Then jump up by yourself!” snapped Alyssa.
“Survived doesn’t mean uninjured!”
“WHAT ARE WE EVEN ARGUING ABOUT?!”
“Land ho!” Anatoly’s voice came down from the crow’s nest, silencing the pointless scuffle. “Starboard side I can see an isnd!”
“Which side is—”
Anatoly sighed. He called down, “The right side.”
“Lower the sails!” Alyssa sprinted to the helm and turned the wheel. “Let’s get away from this boat.”
“Shouldn’t you, specifically, like it here?” asked the Chairman.
“Shut up and help.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
‘Left. Right next. Low kick.’ Caroline’s ability allowed her to see the spokes. It manifested itself in many ways, but the most useful was her technique she called ‘Alternate Shadows’. She could observe the curve; she could predict the future. She could see the right actions, the steps a different her would take, that paved the way to success. Caroline weaved through Harper’s punches and kicks like a slippery eel.
Harper overcommitted on a high kick with her back leg. Caroline zeroed in on it. She followed her shadow’s path and ducked the kick by bending her knees and hunching her back forward. She stepped and her right foot pnted itself like a tree. Rotation followed her ankle to her knee, from her knee to her hips, from her hips to her abdomen, from her abdomen to her shoulders, and finally it followed to her forearm and knuckles.
The straight punch nded true. Knuckles met flesh as a kaleidoscope of mana spiraled behind. A burst of air popped on the opposite side of Harper’s body from the rebounding estic force that traveled along her skin. Blood seeped between her teeth.
“Hnng!” Harper stumbled backwards before falling to one knee. She didn’t have time to suffer. She grabbed her right bicep with her left hand, crossing her arms, in order to block the next incoming attack, a front kick.
“That all you got, Harper? What happened to all that confidence from earlier?” Caroline ughed, but her expression exposed her true feelings. Her right eye twitched. Her weight shifted from foot to foot in rapid order, mimicking her own heartbeat. Every breath she took burned like fire, and every punch she nded felt like striking steel. Caroline couldn’t help but wonder just how Harper managed to achieve so much growth in such a short time.
“Aaaah,” Harper drew out her sigh. She swallowed back the contents of her stomach and climbed back to her feet. “You’re adorable,” she said as she raised her guard again. Starlight danced behind her eyes. Her injuries and bruises healed in real time like a knit fabric unraveling itself.
“Regeneration?”
“No.” Harper shook her head. “Well, sort of.” She ughed. “Actually, why don’t you try to figure it out on your own.” Her legs felt like jelly and her eyes were stinging with sweat. Blood soaked her clothes as if it had been beaten into the weave. And, despite everything, she still stepped forward. She climbed back into the ring—by her estimation, it was only the 8th round. There was still a long way to go.
This time, Harper would take the lead. She was sick of dancing to someone else's tune.
“Hey, am I the only one seeing this?” Anatoly’s question rang like a loud church bell from the top of the mast.
“No, you’re not,” said Alyssa. “Because I see them too.”
“This is crazy," said Sarah. "How are we te?"
“Theo, can you drop the anchor?”
“Is the water even deep enough here to—wait. Stupid question. Just remembered who I'm talking to. I’ll drop it, hold on.”
“Sarah, once the anchor drops and the ship is stationary, can you portal us all to the isnd?”
“Sure. I’ve recovered most of my spent mana already.” Sarah tapped her chest twice and grinned. Her subspaces were filled with useful tools, food, weapons, etc... But just recently she added one more. Sarah filled an entire subspace with sea water. She looked over at her wife and winked.
Alyssa nodded. She looked up and Anatoly gave a thumbs-up. Her eyes darted back towards the approaching isnd and she dry swallowed. There were two other nearly identical ships moored there. That could only mean one thing: someone else beat them here.
