Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXIII - "Coleridge vs Lynn"

Lynn's heartbeat picked up its pace, both in terms of beat and in movement. It closed in on Coleridge, who found himself shaking his head to focus.

He knelt down and planted his palms on the ground - Rddhi shot through his arms, down into the dirt. Rumbling noises passed underneath him, and then a wall arose behind him. He sacrificed height for length, extending the wall as far as he could, even it only came up to the height of his hip. The wall blocked several pathways through the trees-

Coleridge frowned.

Ah, Coleridge! She has a dangerous level of speed, she can just run around the wall!

But then Coleridge realized her heartbeat was heading straight for him.

Ah, Coleridge! She thinks she can just wipe you out like that!

Fat chance!

Coleridge kept his palms planted on the ground, trying to time it so he would make a new wall in front of him right as Lynn arrived, since her going splat would certainly help his low chances.

But then she materialized in front of him, that soft smile on her face, a front kick striking Coleridge directly below the jaw. This sent him upwards, taking his palms off the ground.

Before he could react, she disappeared again, then Coleridge felt a sharp blow to his back. He turned around, but she disappeared, then she appeared in front of him, sending an uppercut below his jaw.

She's trying to keep me from touching the ground, Coleridge realized, gritting his teeth as she struck him in the back, then his side, then his other side, appearing and disappearing each time.

Fortunately, long games of Twister with Marie finally had a use besides serving as fond memories on those late nights when Coleridge wondered where it all went wrong. Lynn struck him in the face; despite seeing black, Coleridge nimbly jumped backwards and twisted in the air, trying to touch the wall behind him. Lynn must've realized this, for she reappeared between him in the wall.

But Coleridge himself realized she would do this, because he had a punch of his ready, her face serving as its destination. Lynn disappeared, giving Coleridge a lane to the wall. He touched with his body facing sideways, his torso perpendicular to the wall.

When his hand touched the wall, red Rddhi coursed into it, and a solid rectangular prism full of hardened dirt came out from the wall - on the other side of him, jutting out from behind his back. When Lynn cried out, Coleridge realized he had predicted correctly.

Of course she went to my back. I bet she thought I couldn't produce the behind-the-back no-look hesi-pull-up...prism jutting thing, but produce it, I can.

As Lynn stumbled for a moment, Coleridge kept the pressure on her, sending out more prism jutting things out of the wall towards her. A few struck her in the side, but Lynn cut her losses and disappeared. She reappeared a ways from him, out of reach for the prisms.

Coleridge frowned, because when he saw the look on her face, it seemed like she was seriously considering just running around his crumbling wall.

No good. I need to keep her attention on me so I can at least slow her down. I mean, maybe I can win, but I'm not one to ignore the reality of things unless it's a particularly terrible day. And all things considered, today's been pretty nice.

But how do I get her to focus on myself?

It's obvious!

He raised a finger and pointed at her, liking to think that this was a serious badass pose with a equivocally-badass look on his face.

“Hey, you ugly broad!” he declared, imagining explosions going off behind him. “You’re fast, sure, but all you use your legs for is to run away! Come fight me, here and now!”

Lynn’s smile didn’t disappear. “...ugly? What did I ever do to you, Lionel?”

Coleridge cursed himself for falling in love with yet another girl.

Yet he soldiered on, for there were times when men must fight.

“That’s right,” he confirmed. “Ugly! And your grades kind of suck!”

The energy continued to build up in Lynn’s legs, and she looked to either side of Coleridge, no doubt judging how far she would need to go to get around the wall.

This is bad, I need her to focus on me. Think, Coleridge, think! I tried her looks, her grades...wait, we all just got riled up this morning before going on the train. That gives me an idea!

“Mackenzie smells!” he called, hooping and hollering, because Lynn was the nicest, most pleasant person he knew. She wouldn’t get upset if anyone called she herself out, but when it came to her friends and classmates-

“Mackenzie’s a real jerk, Reed sucks, Oksana’s just weird-”

“Alright, Lionel,” Lynn cut in. She still smiled, but her words sounded as firm as steel. “Don’t take this an example of my anger getting the better of me. I know what you’re trying to do. But you don’t make fun of my friends, and it looks like that’s a lesson I need to beat into you.”

Coleridge grinned, because he had her. Then started sweating, because he really had her – she was going to charge at him.

Lynn tapped the front of her right shoe into the dirt a few times, sending sparks of Rddhi flying across the grass.

Coleridge readied himself, which really meant mentally freaking out.

Alright, alright, alright, Coleridge, you got her now, you really got her now. But think, think with that big, sexy brain of yours. I go to school, I know some physics. For her to be super fast – not crazy fast, but still a dangerous level of fastness – it means she’s gonna have to apply the Rddhi to her whole body, not just her feet. How else could she stop on a dime or change direction?

An object in motion will stay in motion. Lynn could use her powers to stop herself in an instant – but unless she uses the Rddhi internally, her organs and brain would keep going. That’s how concussions occur – when the body stops all of a sudden, but the brain, surrounded by its pool of liquid, keeps going and hits the skull.

She needs to have the Rddhi going through her whole body to protect her brains and organs and everything else inside. That’s gonna require a whole lot of concentration and energy.

Coleridge wiped his face again. Let’s see how much of that she has.

Lynn grinned, then planted her foot in the ground. And then she was off!

Right as she planted her foot and dashed towards him, Coleridge used his excellent Twister skills to drop to a crouch and sweep a hand across the dirt, sending up small jagged points in the area surrounding him.

Going that fast, could Lynn recognize that she was going to run right into the jagged points, no higher than her ankle? Going that fast, would her foot implant themselves right through it? And at that speed, the forces involved would make any impacts between her and anything else that much more...well, impactful. Could she take a blow at that speed?

Coleridge gasped and took a step back; right before she reached his defenses, she became visible again, still wearing that grin. And then she leapt right over the edges, since apparently jumping was something Coleridge never considered.

She landed by sitting right on his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his head. Coleridge would later have fond memories of this brief, peaceful feeling that was all too temporary before she started smashing elbows downward onto his skull.

No good – I'm gonna be the one concussed at this rate!

Coleridge dove forward, intent on driving Lynn right into his jagged points, but Lynn maneuvered herself off his shoulders, sending a Rddhi-filled shoe into his face to drive herself away. She propelled herself over the points and landed a good distance away, sliding backwards across the dirt.

Coleridge stumbled back into a crouch, ignoring the stinging pain on his face.

Lynn took deep breaths, breathing heavily from the exertion.

No doubt super speed takes a lot out of you.

Coleridge used the opportunity to swipe his hand again, sending out a long line of jagged points in front of him, then collected himself.

She stopped herself. That feeling when she hit me – sure, it was harder than usual, but it wasn’t dangerous-fast levels of impact. It’s like a car crash - she can’t hit me at full speed since it would hurt herself too! She has to slow down before hitting something. That's why she always reappears at the moment she actually strikes.

Lynn started building up energy again, tapping her right foot on the dirt. Coleridge frowned; her attention was away from him, looking at either side.

She’s actually trying to get past me this time.

“What happened to beating a lesson into me?” Coleridge called out, doing his best to sound tough and menacing.

“A better way to teach that lesson is by winning the match,” Lynn explained, her voice friendly. “I can’t get distracted by you for too long. I need to catch up to Demetrius.”

Lynn stared to his right, then stared to his left, sizing up her options.

This is just like a penalty shot, Coleridge realized. His love of that beautiful game known as fútbol– which was the source of an endless amount of teasing from his football-loving friends – led him to recognize situations like these.

A penalty shot is an all-or-nothing showdown between shooter and goalie (well, that’s how Coleridge explained it to his disinterested friends). Standing across from each other, the shooter and goalie make their move. The player needs to get the ball past the goalkeeper, and the goalkeeper needs to predict the direction of the shooter’s shot – left or right?

That’s the key word – predict. The goalie doesn’t react to the shot after its hit because there’s no time. The goalie guesses the direction the shooter will shoot, then dives in that direction right as the ball is shot.

Right now, Coleridge needed to guess which direction Lynn would run in. If he guessed wrong, she would get right by him and his wall undisturbed, and it would be off to the races, a race she would surely win. Coleridge needed to stop her and here now by guessing her direction and then extending the wall that way.

Lynn looked back and forth, tapping her foot, staring just a bit too long towards her right and Coleridge’s left, until she made her decision.

Despite how fast she goes, she was capable of realizing I made those spikes right before hitting them. That means she can react pretty fast.

Coleridge made his decision.

“See you, Lionel,” Lynn called out, then planted her foot.

She disappeared in a flash, and Coleridge moved left, sweeping his hand to strengthen that side of the wall and extend it outwards and upwards.

Lynn seem to have immediately realized Coleridge predicted her movement. She materialized just for a moment ahead of Coleridge to his left, the look on her face suggesting that it didn't matter whether Coleridge predicted her movements or not, because she suddenly changed direction, charging right at him-

Just as planned.

Because there was a third option in a penalty shot, beyond left or right. Sometimes, the shooter would shoot right down the middle, anticipating the goalie would dive off to the side, leaving the center open.

If he hadn't anticipated it, Lynn would've gotten to him cleanly, but Coleridge already decided to redirect his Rddhi the second she made her initial charge. Rather than extend the wall, Coleridge sent a solid pillar upwards right in front of him right as Lynn jumped over the ragged points and smashed her shoe into his face.

The force of the blow, not dangerous fast but still damn hurtful, planted Coleridge straight on his ass, but his column struck Lynn, sending her sprawling to the ground as well, though she managed to land out of harm's way of the points. Looking stunned and tired, she scrambled back to her hands and knees, but right after said assplanting, Coleridge immediately flung his back to the ground, slapping the earth with his hands as soon as he could reach it.

A layer of dirt rose up and covered Lynn, temporarily immobilizing her. Coleridge backrolled into a kneeling position and slammed his palms into the dirt in front of him. Lynn freed herself from the thin layer, but before she could flee, walls of earth surrounded her, coalescing into a teepee-shape that surrounded her entirely. Coleridge heard Lynn groan as the walls of the teepee connected at the top, blocking out the sun, trapping her there.

“You can go fast, but you can’t smash your way out of there,” Coleridge told her. He himself groaned as he rose back to a standing position. By now, he felt stings of pain all over his head and his palms.

But, as hard as it was to believe, he actually beat her.

Who's better than me?

No-body.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I don’t think you’re ugly. Or a broad. Or that Mackenzie smells.”

The walls muffled Lynn’s voice, which still sounded pleasant – but was that just a tiny bit of frustration Coleridge heard mixed in there?

“And the other things? About Mackenzie being a jerk or about Reed and Oksana?”

Coleridge thought about it.

“...tap out, Lynn. I could crush you with the earth right now. Surrender and I won’t do it.”

“I can't escape, but could you really do it in the first place? Unless you can actually do it, I don't need to surrender. If you can do it, I'll surrender or Clayton will intervene and disqualify me. Otherwise, I could sit nice and comfy in here and wait for a teammate to rescue me.”

Lynn's voice had a firmer edge to it. "Can you really do it, Lionel?"

Coleridge thought about it.

And I thought I was good at trash-talk. Whatever kind of warfare she's doing to my psychology right now, it's working.

Coleridge tried to fill himself with resolve.

“...I’ll give you to the count of five.”

Coleridge swallowed, then knelt on the ground. “I’m not gonna kill you, but I’ll squeeze you,” he warned her. “It’ll be a tight fit and not what I would consider fun.”

“I’m used to tight fits,” came the pleasant answer.

Coleridge shook his head, filing that answer away in his head for later usage, then planted his palms on the ground.

“Five...four....three...two and a half...two and a quarter...is that it? You’re not going to do anything? You’re just going to lie around in there like a dead fish-”

Coleridge groaned when he felt through the Rddhi a raging heart and thunderous footsteps charging at him from behind the wall. He tried to increase the width of the wall, but the incoming beam of Rddhi blasted right through both the wall and him.