Leap slid to a stop in front of Psycher. True to what Go Loud had said, her hair was "strange," a writhing mass that almost seemed to reach for anyone it could "see."

"Is it supposed to do that?" Leap asked.

"What?" Psycher demanded.

"Do that whole creepy eldritch gropey thing... your hair... it's like -"

"Oh... it's you, Catherine Knight... Leap? Is it?"

Leap's blood froze in her veins and a chill ran its way up and down her spine.

"How did you -"

"Know that? I've had Sorli Grimmarson... Grimm, as you've called him, under my fingers for three days. Delving through his thoughts, his feelings, seeing who it was that came to his mind while I was... interrogating him. You came up a lot, Miss Knight."

"You know, I knew I didn't like you when I heard about you, your methods... I was pretty sure I was still not going to like you when you decided to just drop Go Loud -"

"He told me I could -"

"I wasn't done talking yet!" Leap shouted.

She warped a few steps back, away from Psycher at first, than to right in front of her and slapped her, open-handed, right across the face, before returning to her original spot.

"You brat!"

Leap smirked.

"But you talk about torturing Grimm like it was fun, and I get it, he's punchable, quippy, broody... but that doesn't mean -"

"My position as the GSO Inquisitor does mean that I get to do what I want to get what I want, by law I'm in the right, you little bitch, you are in my domain, my house, and that means you're going to play by my rules!"

Psycher's speech had her levitating about a foot off the floor, looking down at Leap.

"You should have listened to Verna, this is a bad matchup for you, Cat. I wonder how Audrey is going to do against the street-level heroes I'm sending to take her in? That safe house in the barrows is cute, just like that orphanage back in the UK, isn't it?"

Leap's head was spinning.

"How did you -"

"Know that?" Psycher finished, again, with a satisfied grin, "you slapped me, Cat. I get what I want from criminals by touch... I know you know that much. My file, the information made public about me, never said whose touch though, did it?"

Leap ground her teeth.

She's a telekinetic and a telepath... played over in her head.

The Supplier would have been the better match-up to take Psycher out, but it had been personal before, Leap had to kill this bitch.

"Or... maybe you'll let my little gang take care of Audrey, that way you can have Grimm all to yourself, hm? Poor Cat, always the one doing the saving, never actually being saved. Sure, he helped you, but he saved Audrey and went back to check on her. You... well, he just didn't turn you in."

Leap's cheeks went red.

"I'm not jealous!"

"Are you sure?" Psycher continued to float upward and away, taunting Leap from above, when it clicked.

Leap dug into the back pockets of her pants and produced a pair of leather gloves, pulled them on, and sprinted forward. Psycher was stalling.

Leap ported to the top of one of the maze walls, right next to Psycher, and jumped off, driving gloved her fist across the telepath's jaw and latching onto the lapel of her blazer, continuing to pummel the face in front of her.

"Stupid... fucking... bint!" Leap grunted between punches.

Psycher's hands flew up and Leap's instincts screamed. She released the falling woman and teleported three feet to the left, narrowly avoiding the telekinetic blast that tore through the space she'd just occupied.

She warped back in front of Psycher, grabbed her by the hair, and whipped around, flinging her upward.

Psycher grunted with effort and stopped herself, turning on reflex and blasting down.

Leap wasn't there.

The heels of two heavy boots drove into Psycher's back, launching her toward the floor again. With the reaction of practice and habit, Psycher rolled over, stopped herself, and extended her hands in the direction that Leap had been in, then turned all the way around, looking back to the floor.

The sound of movement to her left caught Psycher's attention, she turned and looked, her eyes wide.

Leap, upside down and soaring upward past her with an A-10 Slugthrower, one of the guns Atreyu had commissioned for his squad, pointed right at her face.

"Boom, gotcha bitch!"

"That one almost tickled, Presto... try again," The Supplier demanded.

"It's not fair!" Presto shouted "That was my coolest spell! Temporal Displacement and you just shrugged it off?! And why did you bring me to this old, crappy field? No one's gonna see me destroy your ass!"

The Supplier scoffed.

"Your coolest spell? Coolest... really?! Do you know nothing of magic?" The Supplier stormed forward, batting mana-infused cards, dice, and staves aside with her hands and tail. "If you knew anything of substance, anything besides which viewing angles were the best for your instalike profile, or what distraction tactics worked best for planting evidence, you would know that you don't use your coolest spell when you try to kill someone, Presto..."

A small mote of fire appeared at the tip of The Supplier's extended finger, blossomed into a torch flame, and soared into Preso's chest, sending him careening to the floor.

"You don't use a cool spell, you use a simple one. Magic is not meant to be cool or flashy, that's a benefit of mastery. Magic is power, Presto, an inflicting of your will upon reality made manifest..."

The Supplier made another firebolt at the tip of her finger as Presto got to his feet, hands flexed with effort and arms outstretched as the ground around him tore up to form a massive spike projectile.

The bus-sized stake soared through the air, hurtling toward The Supplier at impressive speed, she twisted her wrist, shaping the flame into two intersecting lines, and flicked her fingers forward.

The impact sent dust, dirt, and astroturf into the air, obfuscating Presto's view of The Supplier.

"Fire Bolt is too basic, bitch... it can't stand up to Cave Spike... and that's what you get!" Presto declared, assuming his victory.

"You fool..." The Supplier's voice boomed from the, now swirling, cloud of dust as a pair of gleaming red eyes shone through the maelstrom.

"Oh... shit..." Presto muttered.

The pair of eyes and the forming tornado soared upward, seeming to glower down at the small magician.

"Okay... but that's cool though!" Presto shouted over the howling winds. He looked down to see the gargantuan spike he'd made cut into four, perfectly even pieces. "No way..." Presto babbled, "there's no way a firebolt can cut through a cave spike! It's impossible!"

"Cave spike isn't a spell, it's an algorithm," The Supplier declared.

"W-what? No... it's not... it's definitely -"

A small titanium box, no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, tore free from the lining of Presto's tailored jacket.

"No, wait!"

The box hovered in front of the whirlwind, its previously impervious casing peeling away like the skin of a banana, revealing intricate circuitry and a pair of mana-charged batteries.

"A gesture programmed Reality Engine? Cute. I was curious how you made the portal, how you had been 'casting' your spells without me feeling the flux of mana in your magic circuits... this little device has been doing all of the work for you. I'll admit it's clever, but any actual Mage would see through that in a second. There is only one creature that uses a singular organ to fuel their magic, and you're no Dragon..."

The small box crumpled in on itself and dropped to the ground, the sandstorm slamming down on top of it before Presto could react. A thin line of white light shot out and impacted the same spot The Supplier's firebolt had, sending energy surging through Presto and parting the remaining detritus.

Presto collapsed to his knees, breathing rapidly, then looked up at The Supplier. Her tail lashed playfully back and forth, her eyes still shone a glaring red, and the silver markings on her crimson skin shone through her clothing.

"W-what did you do to me? Why aren't I dead?" Presto babbled.

The Supplier walked toward him, glass blossoming out across the incinerated turf under her hooves. Her tail whipped forward, stopping just under the cowering man's chin.

"Oh, Presto..." she crooned, mocking his state as she pressed up with her tail, forcing him to meet her gleaming gaze, "you really are clueless... poor boy... I gave you mana, enough to cast a real spell, now come on, up up..." she instructed, pushing harder with the spiked tip.

"Okay okay! Yikes, lady!" Presto scrabbled to his feet and stepped back.

"You've got one shot, Presto, but I'm warning you if you waste it -"

Presto shouted with effort, firing off a bolt of lightning that surged over The Supplier. She cracked her tail against the ground, sending a shower of sparks throughout the whole of the practice field.

"You're going to regret it..."