Season 1, Episode 4 - The Microwave XIV - "Isaac vs Reed"

Isaac and Reed gazed at each other from each side of the sparring arena. Their match had been ad hoc thing, all beginning with one of their usual back-and-forths about something ultimately mundane. But because they were arguing next to the arena, though...that’s where the idea came from.

Reed grinned and pointed at Isaac. “Let’s make this interesting. Loser has to buy something for the winner at the convenience store. I’m thinking chips for me.”

Isaac grinned. “Feeling some donuts today. They’re gonna taste even better, knowing you paid for them.”

Reed chuckled. “We’ll see about that.”

She got into a combat stance, her hand inches away from the hilt of her sheathed sword.

Isaac did the same, his fists raised in a boxer’s stance.

Domino looked them over from the arena sideline. “Remember you two, I don’t have insurance or a particularly good lawyer, so if anyone dies or gets maimed, I was never here. Reed, make sure to blunt your strikes by cushioning them with a sound wave upon contact. And Isaac, keep the mass and acceleration of your punches low. You both should try to win this match through a light use of your skills. With some finesse.”

Reed and Isaac nodded in agreement.

“Everybody ready?” Domino asked. Both fighters grinned.

Domino swung his arm down. “Alright, begin!”

Isaac already expected Reed’s first move. You don’t spend a whole weekend learning about the art of the iajutsu quick draw and then not use it. Isaac immediately jumped into the air out of the way of any incoming sound waves; he grinned when he saw Reed perform as expected.

Right as the match started, Reed did indeed unsheathe her sword in a quick draw, the sound wave coming off of it in one fluid motion. Isaac expected the wave to come straight for him, so leaping out of the way would’ve sufficed; instead, Reed sent the sound wave a little low, bouncing it off the sand, right into the path of Isaac's leap.

Isaac blocked his face and chest with his arms; the sound waves slammed into him, knocking him backwards. He managed to land on his feet, and he looked around-

Reed was already on him, her sword mid-swing. Isaac rolled out of the way and narrowly dodged several attacks. He brought up a clone that was immediately vaporized by a sword-swing, but it gave the real Isaac enough time to circle back toward the center of the ring, give himself some breathing room.

Isaac rolled his hands into fists at the sight of Reed, the look on her face. How smug can you get it? Isaac asked himself, his thoughts thundering with anger. Look at her, laughing at me like that.

Reed did laugh, but Isaac noticed something odd about it.

No time to waste for thinking, however. Reed sent two slashing sound waves at him; Isaac brought a clone to take the first, then side-stepped out of the way of the second. Reed advanced on him, lunging with her sword. Isaac breathed deeply and struck the side of the sword with his right fist, forcing Reed past him. He turned his body, hoping to strike her back-

Reed spun out of the way, laughing that odd laugh of hers, a huge grin on her face. With some space between them, Isaac found the time to materialize two clones. The trio of Isaac’s all charged at Reed, who strafed around, back and forth, dodging punches, using kicks to swipe their legs out beneath them. A clone disappeared, and another, but Isaac already made two more to replace them, pushing Reed on the defensive.

Still smiling, she sidestepped another Isaac, then spun around a punch, slashing the back of a clone. The real Isaac aimed a punch square at her forehead; Reed used her free hand to knock his punch away, then side-kicked him in the stomach, sending him sliding back across the sand. More clones then came at her.

“You want to avoid head-on collisions, Isaac,” Reed explained as she continued her dance. “If you approach me head-on, full frontal charge, then your force is meeting my force on equal terms. That’s no good.”

Reed stepped around several punches, then smashed her elbow into a clone’s face before continuing to strafe and sidestep. “You want to approach me at an angle. That way, your full frontal force is meeting me on my side. I’m not at full strength that way.”

Isaac gritted his teeth. So smug, so goddamn smug.

Isaac tried to attack Reed with two clones on either side, and as she dealt with them, another clone materialized above her. She ducked her head, letting the punch sail past her, then grabbed hold of his body, falling backwards, rolling backwards, using one of her legs to kick him in the stomach, sending the clone sailing away behind her, all in one fluid motion. She rolled back into standing up, facing the two remaining clones.

“C’mon, Isaac,” she said with a grin. “Harder. Faster. Keep going, I’m not finished yet!”

Isaac narrowed his eyes. That’s what odd. It’s not smugness, she’s genuinely enjoying this.

Deep down, he did actually feel kind of happy about that. But on the surface, it pissed him off for reasons he struggled to find the words for.

Reed quickly dealt with the clones and was on Isaac again. Slashes, lunges, downward strikes. Isaac narrowly dodged them all. Reed kept the pressure on him, mixing heavy panting with laughter. Isaac used his fist to deflect her sword one way, but then she brought the hilt back faster than he expected, smashing it into his face. He hit the ground and tumbled away. He wiped his face and stood in a dusty cloud of sand.

And she’s pulling her punches, too, Isaac realized with a frown. When it comes to her attack, she’s holding back.

One the one hand, they agreed to pull their punches before the match started. On the other hand, Isaac didn’t like the fact that he was losing this bad to someone pulling their punches. It’s not like he was striking as hard as he could, either...but none of his punches had even connected with her yet, full-strength or not.

Reed sauntered toward him. “Almost there, Isaac. One more dance. It looks like you’re almost done, so make me finish first!”

She’s enjoying this a little too much, Isaac supposed. But that wasn’t important at the moment. What was finishing things, here and now. The fight wasn’t over yet. Isaac could still land a lone, knock-out blow that would leave him the winner.

He eyed Reed, still a decent distance away. From the side, Isaac reminded himself.

But she’s so fast...it’s worth a shot, though.

Recognizing he was running low on stamina, Isaac used his last bit of strength to create two more clones and a little surprise for later as insurance. The two clones ran to either side of Reed, looking to catch in her a pincer movement. She seemed amused by the whole thing.

Isaac closed the distance fast; he strafed to his right, then threw a charged punch at Reed, who seemed currently distracted by the two clones. Seemed would be the important word though. Reed let out a laugh of pure joy, then nimbly dodged the strikes delivered by the clones. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she leapt backwards, giving herself some space to deliver a sword slash. The drooping guitar noise slammed into a clone, then bounced off in the other direction, striking the second clone.

Both clones disappeared right as Isaac reached Reed.

Ah well, here goes nothing!

Reed quickly spun to face him, far faster than Isaac expected, smiling all the while. Due to her movements, his punch was now aimed square at her chest, but then Reed brought her sword up, holding it horizontally in front of herself, one hand on the hilt, the other hand at the far end, to block his way.

She held it up so Isaac would hit the long, flat side, at least.

Too late to change up his trajectory, Isaac struck the sword, which emitted a loud wail as it deflected Isaac’s charged punch. Before Isaac could realize what was happening, Reed spun again, pushing her sword in tandem with her movements so she ended up facing Isaac’s back.

She brought her sword across his neck. “That’s check.”

Isaac chuckled. He had been waiting for this moment.

Unfortunately, so had Reed.

The ground below Reed buckled, then out shot a clone, hidden below surface all this time! Isaac positioned him right below Reed, so there would be no where for her to run.

“The movement upwards below ground creates vibrations, you know,” Reed simply informed him. The clone shot out of the ground fist first, the rest of his body trailing behind him; Reed kept her grip on the real Isaac and leapt backwards, dragging Isaac with her, stretching his body horizontally so when the clone punched upwards, he struck Isaac square in the back.

Isaac had never punched himself before.

For lack of a better phrase, it fucking hurt.

The sudden shock and pain of being hit resulted in Isaac releasing his clone, which disappeared in a smoky cloud full of golden sparks. Reed let Isaac go, and he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

It took Isaac a moment to catch his breath. He rubbed his eyes and realized Reed was kneeling above him, her face warm and inviting. She reached her hand out and tapped a few times on his forehead gently.

Then there was small spark of Rddhi in her fingers and she flicked him square in the middle of his forehead.

“That’s checkmate.”

But Isaac didn’t detect any gloating in it.

In fact, all Reed did was sheath her sword and hold her hand out for him. Isaac took it and with Reed’s help, got himself back to his feet.

“That was fun,” Reed said with a crooked smile.

Isaac expected a lot of taunting, a lot of gloating, a lot of teasing that straddled the line of being light-hearted and being a jerk. But all Reed had done, both during the fight and after, was treat him, well, nicely.

Isaac had his moments. In this one, the pleasantries actually pissed him off more than the taunting would have.

“Don’t patronize me,” Isaac muttered, dusting himself off.

“What?” Reed questioned. “You got a beautiful woman here giving you an earnest compliment, and you go and shoot her down.”

“Compliment,” Isaac repeated under his breath. “I just got my ass kicked. You’re a Class 3 and I’ve been chasing you this whole time. I’ve been in three fights already. I really thought I made some progress and was catching up to you. But I just got jerked around and didn’t even get a single hit on you. I’m nowhere closer than I was before.”

Reed flicked him on the forehead again. Isaac winced at the feeling of the sparks.

“You’re being such a nattering nabob of negativism, you know that?” Reed told him, her hands on her hips.

“...nabob?”

“You heard what I said,” Reed continued. “You gave me some big whole speech last night about progress and how we have to take pride in the little achievements we make, and here you go, making a big stink about feeling like a failure. You did good in that fight Isaac, you really did. Don’t sell yourself short. Now quit your bitching and buy that bag of chips for me. I’m in the mood for ranch today. I feel like ranch has a very autumnal feeling.”

Isaac mulled it over, his eyes, narrowed, then took a deep breath.

“Alright, goddamnit. Practice what you preach and all.”

Reed patted him on the back. “There we go. Now, don’t get the wrong idea, but since this is your first time around here, you probably don’t know where the convenience store is, especially considering it just recently opened to replace the one with the rats. And since you don’t know where it is, I’ll go with you, just this once.”

“Good,” Isaac said. “We can talk about how there’s absolutely no relationship between ranch and fall.”

“Of course there is! Just think about it...”

As his two students walked off, Domino nodded proudly. One night alone with each other in a room with a single pull-out couch usually did the trick when it came to inter-student relationships.

Yep, his pull-out method always worked.