Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXVII - "Audrey vs Lynn, Part 2"

"That's why I need to win, here and now," Lynn proclaimed, still standing on the other side of the clearing. "I have a goal in mind. I want to change society for the better. I want to make things more equal between those with powers and the powerless. And I’m not just talking about that in terms of the Rddhi."

Lynn's voice almost broke as she continued. "But on my own, I'm no good. I'm not good with figuring out things for myself. I'm trying, but I need somebody to follow after. Mackenzie's been real good to me. She's confident and smart and is good at thinking things through. She planned out our strategy for the simulation, after all. She's good at caring for people and treating others nicely. She knows things, and she's confident in what she knows."

Lynn kept her voice even, finishing with strength. "I need somebody to believe in and follow. And, in return, I'll give that person all they need to succeed."

When Lynn finished her diatribe, Audrey, standing in the center of her circle of vines she grew below the ground, scratched her head. "Sorry, I'm still processing all this. Um…isn’t that kind of mean of you, throwing eggs around?”

Lynn chuckled awkwardly. “Well, I grew out of doing stuff like that. And then I made sure all my younger siblings avoided causing any trouble from then on.”

“Hmm…and did Mackenzie actually have a monkey butler?"

"Unfortunately, no. But that would've been so cool, right?"

"The coolest!" Audrey agreed. But then her eyes widened in realization.

"I get it!" she declared. "I understand your issue. Your backstory has helped me understand!"

Audrey pointed a finger at Lynn. "Because I was the same way!"

Audrey motioned with her hands. "You see, every time I got into something scary, like a sewer fight or microwave fight, I got too nervous. I couldn't believe that I could do it! Even before that, would you believe that one time I actually told Isaac that I wished he had my powers? It was the day he could use the Rddhi for the first time."

"You did?"

"I did! Because I felt so bad for him since he knew what he wanted, but me? I didn't believe in myself, so I thought, why should I have them? I can't do anything with them."

Audrey spread her hands to the sky. "It was my sister! All this time, I wasn't very confident because a part of me always thought I wasn't good enough to see Esther again! I never had the confidence to see things through the end because I didn't believe in myself. But they did! Isaac did, Reed did, Esther did. They all wanted to help and thought that I could do it! So...I did it!"

Audrey pointed at Lynn, that finger full of encouragement. "That's what you need! Just a little self-confidence. Your friends will always have your back...but first and foremost, you need to have your own back! Believe in yourself, trust in the training and each other, rely on others in a pinch! You can rely on Mackenzie...but don't be afraid to get a big ice cream bowl of confidence in your own answers, too! You need both!"

Lynn looked away from Audrey, down at her own shoes. "But I'm no good at being confident in myself. If I was confident in myself, I could've just told Mackenzie the truth about me blowing up her microwave instead of going around the city and getting into a gunfight and everything."

"But you can get good at being confident in yourself!" Audrey countered. "You said you'd help me find my parents. Well, I'll help you change society! And along the way, we can each get a whole nice pie-ful of self-confidence with some apples and or pumpkin mixed in!"

The smile returned to Lynn's face. "I like that, Audrey. Thanks."

"No problem!"

Audrey thought of something else.

"Oh, wait! We were fighting right now, weren't we?"

"We were," Lynn said, her breathing even and stable by this point.

Audrey felt decently recovered as well. "Well, let's keep going then!"

As Rddhi charged up around her ankles and legs, Lynn rubbed her wrist. “Sorry about this, Audrey.”

Audrey tensed, because then Lynn was off, disappearing in a flash in the direction of the vine circle.

I’m ready this time. Either she lands on me, or she’ll land in the vines. No matter what she does, I can get her!

Audrey waited for Lynn to reappear…except she didn’t. This time, Audrey heard a thunderclap as what felt like a train hit her. The force of the blow forced Audrey to blink away the black spots from her vision as the collision sent her careening into the air. She bounced off the dirt, disoriented and dizzy, but before she even land again, Lynn - still completely invisible - smashed into her stomach from above.

The two landed in a heap, Lynn appearing on top of Audrey, now visible. Audrey saw stars and felt like the wind, her breath, and any other sort of air-related bodily things had been knocked out of her. The force of the collisions also knocked Audrey’s vine out of her hands.

Before Lynn used her left fist to smash her face in, Audrey caught a glimpse of her right arm - both the wrist and elbow didn’t look so hot. Cold, even. Injured - most certainly.

Lynn repeatedly punched Audrey with her left fist. Normal punches, not superspeed - based on how Lynn fought, Audrey guessed she could only make her whole body move at dangerously-fast speed, not just a limb.

Audrey also guessed that if she didn’t do something fast, she would be toast! And not the kind you’d want to eat! Burnt, even!

“I remained invisible those last two times because I didn’t stop myself,” Lynn explained as she repeatedly struck Audrey. Her knees pinned both of Audrey’s arms to the ground, leaving her face defenseless to the current asswhooping Lynn was delivering. “I hit you at full-force. It must’ve hurt. It certainly hurt me a lot. My right wrist and elbow are going to be trashed for some time. And I’m sure my brain and organs aren’t doing so well, either. But I need to win, Audrey.”

Audrey understood why Lynn’s wrist and elbow were out of commission, since those were the two points of contact that collided with Audrey, but wasn’t sure why her brain and organs would hurt.

But that’s a physics question! Right now, I need to figure out this survival question!

Audrey struggled to think, something made especially harder with Lynn’s punches. She struck Audrey so many times that her own knuckles bled, but she wouldn’t let up until Audrey surrendered.

And Audrey was certainly not going to do that. With no vines in her hands, she decided to do something she took for a class at school for - improv(isation)! With Lynn focused on her face, Audrey dug with both of her hands into the dirt, scratching and clawing.

C’mon!

The latest left hook left Audrey slackjawed, but she had it! Her right hand dug down deep enough to make contact with her vine, still buried below the ground. Sparks of red Rddhi appeared in her hand as she sent her power into the vine and accelerated its cell growth.

The end tip of the vine burst out of the ground and headed for Lynn. Audrey was nearing the limit of the growth, but before Lynn could throw a final haymaker, the vine wrapped itself around Lynn’s left arm, holding it back.

Lynn struggled with the vine, but with her left arm held back and her right arm useless, she was running out of options. Audrey grimaced as she put more power into the vine, trying to peel Lynn off of her, but Lynn elected to strike with the only remaining option she had left.

“Oh no!” Audrey exclaimed as Lynn went in for the headbutt. Audrey managed to pull her back with the vine just enough so that the heatbutt only glanced off Audrey’s temple. Audrey groaned from the pain and growing headache, but Lynn was already sitting back upright, looking far from the pleasant girl she usually was, ready to do it again and again until Audrey surrendered.

Audrey freed Lynn’s arm from the vine. Not understanding, Lynn looked at her freed arm in confusion, just for a moment, giving Audrey time to instead wrap the vine around Lynn’s leg. Lynn looked surprised as Audrey pulled her leg away with the vine just enough to free one of her arms.

Audrey threw a hook to Lynn’s jaw, surprising her even more, which freed the other arm. Both arms raring to go, Audrey clapped both of Lynn’s ears, stunning her, and now Audrey was on the offensive, pushing Lynn off of her, using more seeds to send a blast of thorns at her.

Lynn accelerated herself, disappearing before Audrey’s thorns could reach her. She appeared on the other side of the clearing, looking tired beyond relief. But there was a look in her eyes that made Audrey feel rather relieved that, once this was all said and done, Lynn would still be on her side, because she certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that intent to kill.

Oh wait, things aren’t all said and done right now! I’m still on the other side of those eyes!

But Lynn’s eyes softened, and she took a deep breath.

“Can you make it through one more round, Audrey?” Lynn asked. “This next clash will be it for me.”

Lynn’s admission made Audrey reflect on her own pain. She had a terrible headache, her stomach and ribs didn’t feel all that good, and she felt dead tired all over.

“Same here,” Audrey admitted, trying to calm her breathing.

Lynn tapped her foot on the ground, charging up energy. “Then let’s finish this.”

Audrey nodded, because she had one more trick up her sleeve, one that really could finish things. Before Lynn moved, Audrey used one hand to grab a huge handful of seeds out of her uniform. With the other, she suddenly raised the entirety of the vine out of the ground all at once, creating a huge cloud full of dust that covered her.

Undeterred, Lynn disappeared and charged, leveling her right shoulder, intent on delivering a final collision to end their fight. The cloud of dust didn’t matter, because Lynn saw where Audrey was last before the cloud appeared, and Audrey certainly couldn’t move that far away before Lynn got there.

In fact, Lynn burst through the cloud and found Audrey right away, right as expected. Lynn crashed her shoulder into her with all her might.

Something felt a little different about that collision. The two landed in a heap just as before, and the dust soon settled.

Lynn frowned, and it wasn’t just because of the shoulder pain. The Audrey she collided with, the Audrey she was now on top of, slowly crumbled beneath her. The alleged Audrey was little more than a believable dummy version of herself made with a mixture of arts and crafts and various seeds. Yellow water lilies made up her hair, beige reeds made up her face, long grasses made up her green-colored uniform. Some strawberries were even mixed in to act as the red that came from her cuts and bruises.

But if that was the dummy, where could Audrey herself be?

“Surprise!” Audrey exclaimed.

Lynn gasped and looked up and saw that Audrey had ridden upwards with one of her vines she raised out of the ground.

“I couldn’t move out of the way faster than you, but I guessed that I could move upwards faster than you!” Audrey explained, clearly enjoying the moment as she hung off the side of the vine with one arm. “You move so fast, you can’t see anything! You couldn’t tell that it was a dummy!”

Audrey let go off the vine, an acorn in her other palm facing Lynn. As she descended downward, Rddhi poured into the acorn, which exploded outwards into the solid trunk of an oak tree with Lynn’s name on it.

Lynn tried to move, but the flowers and grasses of dummy Audrey held her in place, Rddhi flowing through them. As she struggled, she saw a strawberry plant runner stretching away from the dummy’s body, up the vine, into Audrey’s acorn-free hand.

Stuck there, with no escape possible, Lynn could only watch as Audrey smashed a tree trunk into her.