Corvayne moved deliberately through the streets, trying not to rush or hide from the helicopters he heard. He had to trust that his cloak would make him hard enough to follow that he could slip onto a train and get home. That was the plan, anyway.

Passing by rows of solar panel clad buildings, he kept his shadowy hands quietly moving over his form, making sure that he didn't have any more bamboo seeds on him. He wasn't familiar with this part of town at all, with the tall buildings blocking him from orienting based on a shoreline. He did see train tracks crossing the street above him, but not the yellow line that would take him home for sure.

He also was trying to pick roads and paths that had less people, mostly because if Argyle caught up with him he didn't want to have to cause a large number of deaths from the murderous monk's poor aim. He was getting angry about it, not just from hurting innocent people, but also that he lost to such a sloppy warrior.

He came to a large open space in the city, a fenced in pit where six huge flood channels ran side by side in a giant concrete basin, with flood gates and walkways built over them. There was also a path around the outside. He could see at the opposite end of the open space was a stairway up to a train station, one of the lines merging into it painted yellow. The sound of cars and smell of exhaust meant the large metal wall along the far end of the open space was a highway. Ah ha!

He heard a helicopter above him but kept walking while forcing himself to look at the huge concrete structures in the depression next to the sidewalk he was on, rather then at the chopper passing by. Of course, the chopper slowed.

“Can't catch a break, can I?” Corvayne said as he glanced behind him and saw the black helicopter moving into a firing position. His arms were stiff from his bus stunt, so he stretched his legs, then sprang across the road to his side, using an empty bus stop to block his line of sight with the helicopter. Once more, spines popped up all around the structure, with glass shattering and metal crunching. Corvayne jumped for a parked car, diving over a bamboo spear growing out of the sidewalk and heard the car get mangled, the door he was up against rocking into his back as more stalks of bamboo erupted from it. The chopper stopped firing for a moment. Corvayne saw another parked car and dashed for it, then dove behind it and channeled gravity to reduce it's weight. He lifted it to form a bar shape as the chopper opened fire again.

He activated [Cross-Skill: Shield Wall] and the car seemed to grow larger as bamboo spread all around him in an arc, growing into a ring of spines except for where bamboo had broken the fence into the culverts. Corvayne could run that way, but another idea crossed his mind. He pushed his gravity further, then lifted the car above his head, reduced weight still straining him as he used his ears to make sure the chopper was still hovering in the same spot.

He pivoted and launched the car while activating [Cross-Skill: Expert toss]. It flew and veered a little to slam into the chopper, the flying vehicle shattering as the car flew through it. Corvayne staggered under the drain of using the skill, both how it had tired him out to combine his power with his skill, and that he could feel he'd torn a muscle in his arm.

Argyle, the blue one he thought might be the 'prime', dropped to the street, managing to land on his feet. His staff clattered to the ground next to him as shards of the ability that made his helicopter fell apart and dissolved into smoke. Corvayne could practically feel the heat of Argyle's rage as the monk glared at him while standing up, dusting his blue robes off and straightening his string of wood beads. The monk was actually breathing heavily, perhaps the strain of flying a million magic choppers and clones around cost him something after all.

The monk pointed at him. “YOU! You know how many people have pissed me off three times and lived? None, that's how many!”

Corvayne wasn't sure if the Argyle was stalling for time to recover his skills, but he was also trying to catch his breath. “If it makes you feel better... you're probably somewhere around the twentieth strongest person I've fought, Argyle.”

“You don't even RATE you worm! I'm going to rip every limb from your body and wring every secret from you and your friends, Baron's orders be damned.”

He saw Argyle inch closer. There was a maximum range on the teleport, wasn't there?

Corvayne smiled and tried to sound as smug as possible. So a halfway impression of Nyxion. “Am I talking to the real one, or just another pile of garbage? Oh wait...”

He bled gravity off as he spoke, growing lighter, and the moment that Argyle vanished he leaped off to the side, flying over a few stray bamboo and the fence around the huge culvert. His control with lightening himself wasn't perfect so he stumbled and rolled as he landed, adding more scrapes to his already impressive pile. He got to his feet as Argyle walked to the fence, then teleported to close the distance, appearing twenty feet from Corvayne, dark metal staff tapping the ground.

Corvayne stood, and the monk appeared next to him, and he just barely manged to leap away to soften a blow that sent him flying. He was sure his ribs were broken from the impact, pain lancing from each little turn he did in the air. He dropped his weight further with gravity as he hit the ground, bouncing and rolling into the running water of the culvert. He pushed himself up with his good hand, wincing, and started climbing the embankment out of the water. He looked back and saw Argyle watching, amused at him struggling.

“Where's the bravado? The confidence? The banter? You stopped all the sudden!”

Corvayne saw him vanish at the same moment a line of splashes formed on the stream bed. He spun sideways, guessing the monk would aim for a jab. He didn't know what instinct made him think that but it saved him as the blow narrowly missed his guts, instead grazing his side harmlessly as he spun. Corvayne used his good arm to grab the monk's outstretched limb, then activated [Judo Throw] throwing the monk over shoulder off and into the water. He winced in pain, his broken ribs protesting the extra weight.

Corvayne didn't have time for pain. He was dead if he didn't get away, and the constant ability use was making him light headed. Behind him he saw the monk vanish from the water and a line of splashes leading to the monk halfway up an embankment, dripping wet. He turned forward and put as much energy into gravity as he could muster and jumped again, pain lancing through out his body. His stomach twisted when he saw how far away the ground was, but he managed to reach the metal top of the wall overlooking the highway next to the open area. He kept gravity on and started running down the wall, aiming for a truck driving by. He pumped his legs and hurtled off the wall and managed to land atop it, rolling and forcing his gravity power to flood him with weight for a moment, flattening him against the top.

He grabbed a soft drink shaped healing potion from his ring, truck rattling under him, and twisted the plastic top open and chugged it, drinking so fast that he inhaled a little. It evaporated rather then drown him, but he was still coughing. Thankfully, the potion was helping undo some of the damage he did to himself running around with however many broken bones he had. Looking back, he saw the monk pull himself atop the wall. The monk vanished and appeared on a car right below where he had been standing... the monk had definitely made longer teleport jumps before...

No. He wasn't teleporting... He left a trail in the water after he moved between moments. And it wasn't a shockwave like if he was just pushing through it really fast. His other powers... he caused things to rust and fall apart. He made seeds grow fast...

Argyle was manipulating time! He could stop it to move, but it broke when he had to attack! Corvayne pushed himself to a knee as he watched the monk vanish and appear on another car, closer in traffic to the truck. Corvayne turned and scrambled to the front of the truck, then looked up. Fifty feet above the road he saw the yellow line stretch across the freeway. Argyle appeared on the same truck he was on.

“You can't get away!”

Corvayne crouched and put all his remaining energy into reducing his weight, then leapt one more time as high as he could manage, soaring up to the tracks and desperately reaching for the lip of the bridge, just barely getting his hands onto the top of the metal rim and pull himself over before gravity gave out on him, flopping him onto the tracks. The pain and fear of death kept him from stopping or letting go or just falling asleep on the train tracks, he pushed himself to stand and run for the station, his boots probably doing more the keep him moving then his legs were. He was a few hundred feet from a station. He heard pattering sounds, and bamboo appeared then fell off the side of the metal track. Huh, that was something. The deadly green shoots normally stuck to and punched through metal.

He reached the station and saw the monk try something else as a light fixture above him start to fall apart, but the tracks didn't budge or crumble or even rust. Corvayne became more concerned when he felt the track vibrating under his feet. He could see the monk moving and vanishing over the lip of the bridge, following the train line from far below. He could also see a train coming around the bend behind him. One more jump. He could do it. He was wheezing, and his eyes felt heavy, and he knew he was going to pass out soon. He tried, and his legs failed him and he stumbled against the platform fell back to the track. He couldn't do more.

He thought about Wick getting upset at him throwing himself into danger. Was he going to let her down?

No. He opened his eyes. Was he going to lose to an asshole with a few powers and a big stick? No. Was he going to die an embarrassing death to a train when monsters couldn't kill him? NO.

Corvaynes love and pride forced him to push gravity away for another jump, getting about ten feet of air which was enough for him to make it off the tracks and land rolling on the yellow line platform. His whole body was limp.

He looked down behind him, through a railing at the edge of the station, and saw Argyle below him, about a hundred feet distant but with a clear line to Corvayne. The monk hefted his metal staff then hurled it like a javelin. Corvayne got down, and pushed himself away from the edge of the platform, the indestructible metal staff blasting through concrete without a dent or bend, then vanishing in a purple flash to return to the monk's hand. Corvayne frowned. He could destroy the station or the track like that. Possibly stopping the trains, which was Corvayne's only hope of getting far enough away from Argyle to lose him.

Argyle threw his staff at Corvayne again, and this time it broke off a chunk of fence as it slammed into a pole behind Corvayne. It started to vanish and Corvayne got the sense it was rewinding...

Instead of backing away and getting out of sight, Corvayne got to his feet, pushing his knees to stand, then flipped the monk off. He could see Argyle's face turn red and he once more aimed his staff from his fence-top perch by the freeway. Corvayne dove... Corvayne fell out of the way and felt air rush by as the missile shot past him to lodge itself through a steel garbage can into a wall. Corvayne scrambled to grab it, then activated his ring.

The staff vanished into his storage ring, with a faint tug a moment later that fizzled purple dust around him. He felt the staff firmly inside the ring when he thought about it, another tug doing nothing but puffing dust, and a third one, weaker, not even summoning little bits of magic crud. He turned, and some of his energy came back seeing Argyle's jaw had dropped.

Corvayne heard the doors to an incoming yellow track train open, and he used blood covered arms to push past concerned commuters getting off the train to flop into a seat. The doors closed and the train started rolling along the train tracks. He looked out a window and saw Argyle teleporting across a street below him to try to reach the station, and Corvayne stood and shuffled over to look back out of the other window, seeing the man appear on the tracks behind the train, which was speeding up to the point the monk couldn't keep up. Corvayne slumped on the seat as the figure disappeared around a bend. The pain might have been the last thing keeping him awake. He didn't dare drink more healing potions until he was sure he could safely fall asleep. Which might be never.

So instead of healing himself, he grit his teeth and got up at the next station and put credits into a machine to get a new ticket for a different line, covertly rubbing shadow hands to make sure he didn't have more seeds on him, then spent about fifty credits switching trains for another hour before consulting a map and taking a direct route back to Old Town Cascadia.

When he walked through the door to the community center, Wick rushed up to him, clearly pissed that he did his usual thing. He had a plan he had spent the hour developing.

As soon as she was close enough, he just fell asleep on his feet.