Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXIX - "Numbernine (Back in Tyo)"

Isaac, pinned behind a tree by the huge blast in the center of the arena, had sent a clone into the fray to investigate. The clone only made it just a little bit into the blast until it disintegrated into smoke, but thanks to its reconnaissance, Isaac sensed that two users of Team Blue dashed past the center of the explosion. Fortunately, it looked like Audrey and Coleridge moved to engage them.

And conversely, as the blast slowly subsided, two other Team Blue members moved away from the explosion, back towards their own flag. That’s where Isaac came in. Hoping Alfie was on the same page, Isaac began to move, scrambling back up to a treetop and traveling through the forest toward his targets.

If Alfie moves now, we can trap four of their team members with the five of us. That’ll put us in the driver’s seat for the match!

However, moments later, when Isaac took a step on a tree branch, he sensed that something felt wrong. Normally, the air around you is just air, and you take it for granted, remaining unconscious of it. It's when you notice the air - that's when there's a problem. The movements in the air felt unnatural, a slight bend in reality that signified the Rddhi was involved. Isaac immediately dropped to the ground; he looked up and saw the branch he had stepped on was now broken into two.

Wait…not broken. More like…it was sliced.

A huge gust of air whipped Isaac as he fell to the ground, knocking his back into a tree trunk. He maneuvered himself out of the way of another air strike, and before he could congratulate himself on (what he felt was) an amazing pun, he landed on the ground, Babs Moran standing before him. Proudly wearing her blue letterman jacket, she unveiled her hands from her jacket.

“Isaac,” she greeted, her arms outstretched. “Hellooooooooooo!”

Isaac eyed her wearily.

So, my first opponent is Babs.

He grinned.

Works for me.

“Don’t think I forgot about our little conversation this morning,” Babs began, putting her hands back into her jacket pockets. “You see, I got all your friends, but I didn’t have the time to talk with you-”

Babs frowned as she jumped backwards, a clone emerging from the earth below her. “At least let me ask my question-”

As the first clone reached for her, another clone appeared out of the ground behind her, intent on being the anvil to the first clone’s hammer. Instead, in one fluid motion, Babs bicycle-kicked the first clone, then landed too quickly for the second clone and swept its legs out from beneath it.

In his earlier fights, that would’ve been enough contact for the clones to disappear, but Isaac concentrated and kept their form intact. They continued attacking Babs, who nimbly stepped away each time a clone got close to reaching her. She didn’t block any of their strikes; she just dodged all of them, moving in time to an imaginary beat.

Isaac himself then entered the fray. Babs knocked the two clones away, but the original Isaac was now on her, sending a haymaker toward her chest. Babs sidestepped him, sidestepped more clone attacks, then jumped away to give herself more space. The whole time, she still smiled, her hands still in her pockets, the air around her carrying that unnatural feeling to it.

A pause came to the fight, now that Babs created some space between her and the Isaacs. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. Instead, she blew a bubble from the gum she was chewing on, her grin growing wider as she could see the frustration building on Isaac’s face.

Isaac kept his clones with him for a moment as he thought.

Alright, so she obviously controls the air somehow. But the only other air user I know, Clayton, blows gusts of air out of palms. Babs has kept her hands in her pockets this whole time. She must be controlling it some other way. But where? I don’t see any sparks of Rddhi suggesting where her control is coming from.

“As for my question,” Babs began. “I overheard your little conversation-”

Oh well, I can just beat on her until I find it!

Isaac and his clones charged Babs, interrupting her question once again. Unfortunately, the same scenario played out as before - Babs moved around freely, neither the clones nor Isaac himself able to land a strike on her. Isaac felt his blood boil, because this was how things played out exactly with Reed in their practice match at Domino Dojo last month.

Tempered mind, Isaac, tempered mind! The angrier you fight, the sloppier you fight!

“Fine, since you forced me, I’ll ask while we battle,” Babs complained, ducking below a clone punch. “On the platform there, you talked with a would-be revolutionary-”

Don’t approach head-on!

With the two clones distracting her, Isaac maneuvered around, attempting to stay on Babs’ backside, in her blindspot. Babs kept herself moving, but between all the clone strikes and the fact that Isaac managed to keep up with her, an opportunity presented itself.

Isaac reared back, stable energy building up in his right fist, and let it fly. Babs recognized it just a second too late; her eyes widened, just for a moment, as the fist slammed into her jaw with enough strength that it knocked the gum out of her mouth.

The blow sent Babs skidding away, but she remained on her feet, and her breathing remained even. Before she could collect herself, the clones were on her, not wanting to give her any chance to recover. Meanwhile, Isaac sent out a flare of energy from his fist, a bright flare intent on distracting her, and planned out his next move.

Does the gum have something to do with her powers?

“I just like gum, Isaac,” she answered, seeing the wheels in his head spinning. Her eyes had a meaner look in them now, and when the clones arrived, she appeared done with dodging. She let the first clone hit her, but Isaac felt that the punch had been slowed by the air until it was little more than a fist-bump to the chest. Babs raised a leg and kicked the clone in the thigh, then another kick to the chest, another to the jaw, the blows enough to make it disappear.

As for the second clone, Babs stepped around its punch, kicked the back of its legs so it fell to its knees, then decapitated it with another kick.

Babs turned to face Isaac, who remained a ways away, trying to figure out his next strategy.

This whole time…she’s kept her hands in her pockets. Is that where her power comes from?

“My fists only come out when things are serious,” she answered, not sounding winded or tired at all. “Now, no more interruptions.”

Isaac grimaced, but kept quiet, decided to let her ramble as enemies tend to do (sans the microwave, he supposed) while he continued a plan of his own.

“You had a conversation on the platform today with that centripetalist,” Babs said.

Isaac narrowed his eyes.

“Relax, I won’t tell anybody. Nothing wrong with expanding your horizons. But during that conversation, you said something interesting. You claimed that the whole system and society we live in isn’t broken. That all we need to do is work hard at fixing it. That all a person needs to do is stop engaging in self-destructive behaviors, making friends, working within the system.”

Isaac frowned. “What’s your point?”

Babs made a slicing motion across her throat. “Well, that’s the same thing you said to poor Harriet, right?”

Tempered mind, Isaac! She’s trying to bait you!

“How’d you know about that?”

Babs shrugged. “I have my sources. Word spreads quickly around here, don’t-cha-know?”

Who did I tell about my fight with Harriet? I only told Audrey and Reed…okay, I told Dan, too…I bragged a little about it to Demetrius and Coleridge…well, I guess Alfie obviously knows about it…and I told Esther in the after-action report, which means a whole lot more people might know about it, too…

Okay, she could’ve learned that from a lot of places.

“What’s your point?” Isaac asked.

“Well, I was just wondering how it feels, knowing a girl killed herself because you didn’t know the right words to say at the time.”

Don’t lose your cool!

“We fought, I won, and she made her decision,” Isaac slowly said. “And that’s that.”

Babs wagged a finger. “Oh, but that’s not it, Isaac. You didn’t win. You won the fist-fight, maybe, but you didn’t win the fight with her soul. She threw words at you, you threw words at her, and then because you won the fist fight, you assumed your words must’ve won as well. But that’s not how it works.”

She tapped the side of her head. “So much information gets thrown around nowadays that people forget the power of words. Words are how we make sense of the whole word, don’t-cha-know? Harriet’s entire worldview, and your entire worldview, you could’ve only communicated them through words. And they’re the only way you can make sense of your own worldview as well. Otherwise, it just remains as, what, a general feeling inside your head?”

Babs shrugged, though the tone of her voice suggested she loved every word that came out of her own mouth. “Ah, well. My point is that you got blood on your hands, Isaac. If you understood the world better, knowing what’s real and what’s fake like I do, then maybe you would’ve won the word battle with Harriet. And if you won both the word battle and the fist fight, then maybe she would still be alive. But she necked herself on your account. How does that make you feel?”

Isaac gritted his fists for a moment…then grinned.

“Sorry, Babs, but I don’t think I’m going to win either the word battle or the fist fight with you.”

When Babs looked nonplussed, Isaac continued.

“There were two people that headed back to your flag from the blast,” Isaac said. “I assumed that one was Mackenzie and you were the other, sent here by her to check me. But while my clones fought you, I did some sensing around. The blast must’ve taken a lot out of Mackenzie, because she’s still heading back to the flag. And so is that second person.”

Isaac pointed a finger at her. “You were the one she left behind to guard the flag, weren't you? I bet she told you to stick around with it until she came back, but you sensed me and decided I was too good of a lone target to pass up on, right?”

Before Babs could answer, Isaac spoke. “And I appreciate your whole speech about words and all that. It gave me time to cover some distance. And right now, I’ve reached my limit, so I’ll see you around.”

The Isaac in front of her disappeared into smoke.

Babs scratched her head.

“...oh.”

When he landed that first punch on me, he sent a flare of energy while the two clones went after me, she supposed, not feeling too particularly perturbed by the whole thing. I thought he was just using the light to distract me, but he actually made another clone with it, leaving it here while the real one ran off toward the undefended flag.

After reflecting on her own actions, Babs gave a lackadaisical shrug.

Gotta hand it to you, Isaac. You’re a lot more clever than you look. Physically and mentally strong, too.

Ah well, Mackenzie and Dan will be at the flag around the same time he gets there. They can handle him.

She cracked her neck.

And since that’s the case…let’s go get ourselves a flag.

Babs bounded off in the direction of Team Red’s flag.