Back at Titan Academy, Jayce was stepping out of his veil of stealth quite some distance away from where Cunall and Rueben had exited. As his braver-form faded into view, he caught the attention of the young man that he’d travelled to meet up with.

“Falco.” Xavier Stryke sounded as he noticed the Demai agent materialising in his presence. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’ve taken care of our ‘extra players’; sent them scampering off with their tails between their legs.” He reported. “I trust that you’re finding things just as easy on your end?”

“Not even close.” Xavier shook his head. “Like I was telling you, the McLeod’s make this whole thing a pain in the ass. If I’m not in class with Xell, then Xess is doing his own studies on the pocket… getting anything more than secondary data is nigh impossible.”

“Unfortunate.” Jayce shook his head. “And Kiara continues to be of no real use?”

“Yeah, like I keep saying… her abilities aren’t worth squat in this scenario.” Xavier nodded.

“Very well.” Jayce nodded. “In that case maybe I can help you.”

Xavier’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the uncharacteristic response.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” He inquired with scepticism, curious as to what Jayce could offer him that he did not already have at his disposal.

“Rather easily—” Jayce replied before pausing to assess his surroundings. “—but you might want to loosen up for this.”

Xavier’s gaze narrowed at the statement but before he could react his senses were overwhelmed by a surge of energy and his vision eclipsed by a halo of read flames. Unlike Jayce’s whispy red energy, these flames were much more intense and unfortunately for Xavier they were all too familiar. All he could do was attempt to muster flames of his own, potent blue ones that contrasted heavily with his normally electric aura. Unfortunately, they were of little use at such a late stage in Jayce’s attack. Before Xavier could perform any ability, Jayce’s now cloven hand impacted the side of his face with brutal force and sent the manipulator careening through the air. Oddly enough however, while Xavier’s body went sailing into the distance, the energetic aura surrounding his body seemed to linger in the air. It was as if it had become uncoupled from his hastily summoned braver-form, and separated into a zeta construct all of its own. Jayce smirked at the sight of this and dug his claws into the unfettered energy, swinging and launching the energy into a gathering of nearby channelers. Amidst the group of seven, six of the channelers proved to be merely collateral damage, with just one of them being his true target.

It didn’t take long before this target was revealed by a white aura and spinning shield that was instantaneously projected from his body. Unlike Xavier, he reacted with no delay to Jayce’s spontaneous attack and managed to generate enough energy to completely negate the effects of the powerful discharge.

In the midst of a group of thoroughly confused and utterly shaken channelers, Raen DeSaint stood up, his shining aura protecting those that had been attacked simply for being too close to him.

“You know better than trying to break my perfect guard Demai scum!” He declared as his casual clothing burned away under the influence of a surge of zeta energy; immediately replaced by the armour of a Xelot Knight.

“Quiet fool… engage me in silence.” Was all Jayce replied as he rushed towards the young man, who he knew was always eager for a battle.

Much like their mentors and the leaders of their factions, Jayce and Raen shared a strongly adversarial relationship. This grew from a mutual disdain sparked by the faction ideals that each of the youngsters had been raised to represent.

Jayce was the poster child of the Order of Demai and embodied the ruthless determination to succeed at any cost; a quality that had earned Rayad Demar the title of earth’s most influential man. Raen on the other hand drew Jayce’s ire due to his strict adherence to the Xelot ideals. These were the teachings of Marshack Almed and the very thing that separated the elite Knights of the Council of Xelots from all other channelers. Jayce believed that these tenets of righteousness and nobility bred only weakness, preventing the Xelot Knights from reaching their full potential as the Agents of Demai did.

Given their deep-rooted indoctrination of their factions’ ideals, the ingrained hatred for each other that sprung from it made perfect sense; and it was this irrational hatred that Jayce was counting on. As he’d expected, Raen wasted no time obliging him in his request for battle; not even thinking twice as to the actual purpose of the sortie. For the Junior Knight, dispatching a Demai threat was reason enough for any battle; a righteous enough cause to which he would always accede. For this reason, the Xelot summoner wasted no time conjuring his weapons of choice: a European styled longsword and a large kite shield. With his shield, he charged Jayce, using his greater size and weight to stop the smaller morpher in his tracks and push him backwards, drawing the battle away from the innocent by-standers that had gotten caught in their conflict.

By now, their conflict had drawn the attention of many more than those in the direct vicinity of the conflict. Channelers from all over campus rushed towards the site of the battle between these two well-known powerhouses. This was exactly what Jayce was counting on.

By now, his ferocious red flames had been replaced by their much tamer counter parts, the wispy red of his reaper energy-type. While not as directly formidable of the odd energy that he’d used to dispatch Xavier in one hit, reaper provided him with a far greater number of tactical options. Immediately the energy caused him to vanish from sight, forcing Raen to narrow his gaze in annoyance at the tactic.

This was not their first battle, and it was unlikely to be their last, so the two young soldiers already had quite the extensive knowledge of each other’s abilities. From the second that Jayce vanished, Raen’s shield began to glow, amassing luminous energy before he threw it into the ground. On impact, a powerful sigil expanded from the weapon, stretching hundreds of metres in all directions from the shield that now stood at the centre of the powerful ability. Within seconds Jayce was bathed in white energy that clung to his body and made him visible once more, negating the stealth capabilities of his reaper.

Raen merely shook his head at the futile tactic. Just as he was aware of Jayce’s stealth abilities, Jayce was intimately familiar with his ability to counter that stealth. This suggested that Jayce’s vanishing act was likely more geared towards disarming him than actually masking Jayce’s appearance.

“Trying to lower my defensive capabilities…” Raen muttered to himself as he fixed his gaze onto his opponent.

“Trying? Succeeding…” Jayce replied dismissively as he once again rushed toward Raen and opened up combat with a flurry a wild slashes from his cloven hands.

With no shield, Raen was now forced to defend himself with his sword. Immediately he switched to a two-handed grip and began to parry the attacks. His highly technical swordsmanship contrasted heavily with Jayce’s more feral instinctual combat-style. With each wild swipe from Jayce, Raen parried and carefully positioned himself, directing Jayce’s movement within their dance and controlling their spacing until he was at both the perfect range and angle. At this point, Jayce’s final slash would slide along the length of his blade before drifting off to the side, allowing Raen to pivot skilfully and deliver a powerful slash down the back of the Demai fighter. As his sword impact Jayce’s back, it cut cleanly through the baggy jacket that he wore, slicing through the shirt beneath and even his expansion suit before opening a gaping wound in his back itself. Additionally, the sheer force of the blow floored Jayce immediately and left him face down in front of his opponent.

Unlike ordinary channelers however, and much like Raen, Jayce possessed a highly specialised braver-form. His body was rebuilt from the ground up for combat, and could easily survive even with what would normally prove to be a fatal would. Raen was aware of this fact and so he did not relent. Instead he opted to go for a truly decisive blow as quickly as possible.

With another quick step, he moved forward and positioned himself above Jayce. Next he came down with a powerful thrust of his sword in an attempt to end the fight. Unfortunately, as he did this Jayce’s head snapped around unnaturally, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees until he was once again facing his opponent. Raen’s eyes widened as he saw the broad grin on the Demai agent’s face, which preceded Jayce’s entire body morphing so that he was now facing upwards rather than downwards. The gash that was opened up on his back now resided on his chest, leaking profusely as his muscles flexed and he slammed his palms together to catch Raen’s sword. Jayce’s skin hardened and his muscles rippled with his reaper energy as he redirected it towards stopping the blow most certainly designed to finish him off quickly. Instead he managed to lock Raen into a brief stalemate.

“You’re a rabid dog Falco…” Raen growled as he leaned onto the sword, in an attempt to drive it into the bloody wound already open on Jayce’s chest with his weight and brute strength. “Why don’t you just revert!”

But his words prompted no reply from his attacker. Instead of words, when Jayce’s mouth opened it spewed forth reaper energy that bathed Raen, much to his disgust.

“You vile cretin!” The Knight exclaimed as the noxious energy began to dissolve his armour and weaken his naturally high defences.

Jayce just grinned broadly. In disgust Raen pulled back from their stalemate, jumping a few metres away and leaving the sword that was still stuck between Jayce’s palms. Jayce’s grin faded into a smirk before he rolled backwards and pressed his body upwards, finally bringing himself to a standing position once more. As he did this, Raen flooded his body with his holy white energy, allowing it to purge his braver-form of the noxious effects of Jayce’s reaper. As he did this Jayce began to circle him, forcing Raen to dissipate the weapon that his opponent was still clutching before re-summoning it into his own right hand once more.

“We’ve already put on quite the show.” Jayce muttered as he watched the crowd gathering around them. “But a performance on this scale will not suffice, Raen.”

These words preceeded and eruption of red flames from Jayce’s body and the rapid escalation of zeta energy that was being processed by his form. Soon his energy signature dwarfed that of Raen, before it even exceeded that of any channeler in the braver-tier. Raen’s eyes widened at the sight and the sensation – he’d fought Jayce many times in the past but he’d never witnessed such power from the Demai soldier.

“Dana, on me!” Raen commanded, summoning his subordinate and sister – the second representative of the Council of Xelots at Titan Academy.

Jayce glanced back towards the crowd of bystanders that he’d first attacked, where he now sensed a mounting zeta signature. His gaze narrowed at the source, a young blonde-haired woman whom he’d not previously taken notice of. He watched now as the woman walked out of the crowd, energy swirling around her as she made her way to the side of her older brother and superior officer. Like him, her skin quickly bleached of pigment and her hair dulled from gold to white as a luminous aura emanated from her body.

Unlike Raen however, who specialised in the broad sword and kite shield, this young woman’s weapons of choice materialised as a thin rapier and buckler. Next, her own knight’s armour covered her body; replacing the casual clothing that she’d been wearing previously.

“Time to put this rabid dog down, brother.” She spoke with audible disdain, before allowing her own palpable energy leak from her body and into the environment.

At this point, her added presence in combination with Jayce’s mounting energy signature had finally gained the attention of Jayce’s true targets: the two heroic-tier channelers stationed at Titan Academy – the McLeod twins. Half a kilometre away, Xess’ data comm was beeping incessantly, forcing the scientist to finally accept the incoming communique.

“Xell…” He muttered grouchily, annoyed that he was being disturbed at such a crucial point in his research on the odd distortion of reality that he’d dubbed the ‘Gaea pocket’.

“How can you not sense this, Xess?” Xell inquired, completely ignoring his twin brother’s annoyed tone.

Only now did Xess remove himself from his work, tearing his focus away from the spatial anomaly that was the Gaea pocket and allowing his senses to drift back outwards into the environment. A curious look broke across his face as he did this.

“What on terra is going on?” Xess inquired with exasperation.

“The Demar boy is having an episode.” Xell replied with audible annoyance.

“Who are the first responders?” Xess inquired, reluctant to tear himself away from his work in an effort to respond to the mounting threat.

“There are none.” Xell muttered. “The MRA and RSF are both busy dealing with these spontaneous flare-ups in Neo Brighton… and the regular police are not equipped to deal with a threat like Jayce. Not in this state.”

“A braver-tier channeler, Xell?” Xess inquired. “I’m sure they could handle it.”

“Xess, focus.” Xell admonished. “His energy signature is heroic as it stands, and it’s still growing…”

Xell’s statement caused Xess’ eyebrow to tip upwards with curiosity.

“Wait, did you say the ‘Demar boy’ as in Rayad’s son?” Xess finally acknowledged Xell’s initial statement. Xell just nodded in reply. “Is he the new R.E.D. candidate?”

“No, that’s Rule.” Xell corrected him. “Jayce is the prototype – the one with the… instabilities.”

“Jesus… his actions could destabilise the entire pocket. Xell, what are we waiting for?” Xess exclaimed before disconnecting the call and rushing off to the site of Jayce’s battle with the two Xelot Junior Knights.

Some distance away, Xavier was slowly recovering from Jayce’s initial attack. The surprise attack had temporarily reverted him to his human form – and as predicted by Jayce – the shock and strain on his body rendered him temporarily unconscious. Minutes later however, he’d come to and witnessed Jayce’s plan as it played out.

“That nut’s gone full R.E.D… on campus?” Xavier shook his head. “Clearly he’s got no intention of graduating from this rinky-dink program…”

“He’s clearly also got no concern for the number of casualties he can cause in that state.” A disembodied voice added.

Xavier just smirked at the sound.

“I was wondering where you’d gotten off to.” He stated, before his subordinate Kiara Denver, faded into view.

“Luckily I hadn’t ‘gotten off’ too far before Jayce freaked out, so I was able to drag you to safety after he clocked you for no apparent reason.” She retorted.

“Apparent being the operative word.” Xavier retorted. “I gotta give it to the fool, this wasn’t a bad move.” He smirked.

“Not a bad move? He’s endangering hundreds of people!” Kiara replied with exasperatin. “Now what are we going to do about this nut, Agent?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Xavier shrugged. “Don’t let the fancy Lehomik moniker fool you; we’re mercs and we don’t do anything unless we’re getting paid.” He explained.

“You can’t be serious.” Kiara scoffed. “People could get killed.”

“Psh, they’ll be fine; the McLeod’s will handle Jayce.” Xavier dismissed her concerns. “You and I need to get to the pocket before they neutralise and expel Jayce from the academy… cuz after that, we won’t get another chance.”

Kiara growled lightly under her breath before finally conceding reluctantly. “For the record, I don’t like this.”

Xavier just chuckled at her response.

“Your displeasure is noted Recruit.” He smirked. “Now, let’s get this job done and you can write me up later.”