Despite them being assholes we had Jessie patch them up first thing. The last thing we wanted was their deaths on our conscience, and since we triggered their beacons we didn't need to worry about them attacking us. They were out, and they'd lost all their materials to us, which kind of sucked for them admittedly, but it was great for us. Obviously they didn't have the last thing we needed from our list, but they DID have a bunch of really expensive shit we could sell, which was just a nice bonus and an excellent note to go out on after we got the last item.

To my surprise though, none of them seemed particularly angry once we healed them up. I expected more sneers and insults, but they actually seemed to have gained a measure of respect for us. We had them restrained at first, but Boreas brought that up once his teammates were all healed. "Well...that was impressive. Teach me to underestimate the new bloods I suppose. You can release us by the way. We're out of the hunt, and attacking you now won't just look bad, it'll count as outside interference and bring the whole Academy down on our heads."

Knowing the Academy punished interference was interesting, because it made me even more sure Aiden had people on the inside helping him avoid detection. Still, I didn't sense any dishonesty so I glanced over to Callie. "What do you think? I don't see a reason to keep them tied up. hell they could probably break loose if they really wanted to. That rope is only H rank, and lack of leverage or not I doubt it would hold up to a serious attempt to get loose." They were sure to have noticed the rank of their restraints already so telling them cost us nothing.

She stared at them for a second and then sighed, gesturing for Benny to cut them loose, since the rope was his and he had the easiest time handling it. "Oh what the hell. It's not like we lose anything by being polite. But if we're springing you early we could use a bit of information on the remaining players. You mentioned another group besides Fisher, info about them and any of the others you can mention seems fair." She phrased it like a demand, but let Benny keep freeing them even before she got an answer.

Boreas, who was the first untied, rubbed his wrists. "That's...borderline interference. But since you had us captive we can consider this payment for our release. That should be valid, at least according to the rulebook." I tried to hide my wince at the reminder that I'd been a total idiot and forgotten to even see if there was a rulebook, but once we freed the others they all sat back against the wall to wait for their pickups while they told us about the other players we might run into in the final leg of the hunt.

Astara, who was rotating her shoulder to loosen it up and glaring at me, was the first to speak. "Ok, well first of all. Ow. Also fuck you. Second of all who do you want to hear about first? We don't know everyone who's involved. Hell, half the people we expected to make it to the end might not have stuck it out. Our own loss kind of makes that clear." She gestured unhappily to her group. "We were some of the favorites to win and we got taken out by nobodies. No offense, but we literally didn't know you existed."

Callie probably could have taken that badly, but instead she just shrugged. "Fair enough. We're pretty new to the party. But yeah, that does kind of leave the option of a shakeup on the table." Granted it was less probable than they seemed to think. We weren't exactly your average joes in terms of freshman ability. "So tell us about the group you mentioned before, and Fisher. We're pretty sure he at least is still in the hunt. We saw him recently from a distance. Chances are good we'll run into him when we go for the Heart."

Astara nodded. "Fisher is...shit, Fisher scares me. There are some vicious bastards at the Academy, some of the upper ranks grew up with power and it shows. It isn't really common, recursion tends to take the rough edges off the real psychos, but Fisher. Fisher isn't vicious in that way. He isn't hateful or condescending or cruel. He just...does not give a fuck about literally anyone. He WILL hurt you. Not because he wants to or because he doesn't like you, but because he wants you out of his way and that's the fastest way to remove you."

That wasn't...great news. But it also wasn't what we needed to know. Hearing how this guy would torture us all without feeling bad about it gave us no actual tactical info, something Callie clearly agreed with. "Yeah, we get it, he's a cold bastard and we should be very afraid. What can you tell us about how he fights? His weaknesses. We know he phases through stuff and rides a motorcycle. We know he has chains that he wears around his body. Anything to add to that? Anything at all?"

Astara looked sheepish. "Sorry, not really. Fisher doesn't really have long drawn out fights. I can tell you he's efficient. He doesn't believe in dragging things out. Every time we've seen him fight someone he ends it fast and brutal. The least effort for the most result. Economical. If that makes sense. His bike is FAST and it synergizes well with his powers. He can go up walls and shit, not just through them, and he uses those chains to catch people as he goes by. They aren't just chains either. There are hooks on the end. Getting caught up in those things doesn't end well, so avoid them if you can."

None of this was sounding particularly reassuring. But still, the more we knew the more prepared we could be. I kind of wished she wasn't stuffing that information full of so much fatalism and doomsaying but hey, beggars and choosers right. Callie clearly felt like we weren't getting much more about this topic from her, because she changed to a different one. "Ok, tell us about Macdonald. Your boss mentioned him earlier. Is he another one of the freshmen most people have heard of?" She looked to Celine, who just shrugged. Which was fair, we couldn't expect her to know everything.

Astara, who was apparently the spokesperson of the group, sighed. "MacDonald is one of the freshman favorites, yes. His father is an E ranked, so he grew up on the fast track. He's kind of like that shitbag Cold Snap, only he isn't useless and annoying. MacDonald is one if those people that manages to keep just high enough of a profile to be consistently talked about without being the center of attention, and he likes it that way. He tends to move around quietly, but that's what makes him so dangerous."

Boreas groaned. "For the love of the revenant Star, you are the worst at this. You're just repeating useless hype that doesn't tell them anything of worth in a fight." He rolled his eyes at the now glaring redhead. "What my extremely dramatic teammate is trying to say is that he downplays his power by making it hard to notice in battle, but everyone is pretty sure he's telekinetic. He's Might focused, we tend to have the advantage in the early ranks because Might based powers are more impressive at low levels. Point is he's subtle with how he uses it. Coats his body in a force field that let's him exert his strength more effectively through physical combat."

I had noticed the plethora of Might based Ascendants who dominated the public eye. The fact that Might based powers had an advantage early on made a lot of sense. Might tended to be the driving force behind big flashy powers. Stats like Fantasy and Perception were much more subtle until they scaled to a high enough level. Still, that physical enhancement trick sounded nasty. He was essentially getting twice the bang for his buck Might wise. Not to mention the flexibility of telekinesis outside the way he was using it.

Sadly our question and answer segment seemed to be at an end, because the beacons flashed a warning, letting us know to prepare them for extraction. Without much fanfare the space next to us cracked and a door made of blue light ripped its way into existence in midair. A bored looking man in a yellow checkered suit stepped out, looking around until he spotted The Wavestriders. "I'm here for a pickup? I was halfway into my nap when you called so if you could hurry up and get your things together that would be great."

I stared at the blue doorway in the air in shock. The last time we'd triggered the beacons the pickup had been with shuttles. Granted we had been outside, but I hadn't realized the Academy had a long range teleporter with a portal power on hand. I couldn't imagine what kind of power you needed to tear a hole in reality across a planet, though I supposed he could have just been nearby, but either way that was impressive. I was guessing he was firmly in the E ranks. Though I supposed he could have been F rank, I didn't really have any context for the scale of powers like that.

Hell, even at my current scale I could kind of see something like that being possible. I could run fifteen hundred miles per hour, having enough power to tear a hole in space could easily be within the realm of G rank possibility. Longer distances could be F rank pretty easily. Who knew how shit like that even worked. Hell I could probably grant a wish for long distance travel with the stats I had now, granted that was a bit of a special case, but still.

Boreas, Astara, and Raleigh all stood up. The bigger man turned to give me a once over shooting me a grin. "You've got a mean swing on you, man. Not to mention you're annoying as hell to fight. Don't think that'll work on me if we ever go up against each other again though." Raleigh held out his hand. "Thanks for showing me where I need to improve though." I smiled and took his hand, shaking it, and he nodded, heading through the portal first, Boreas headed through next, but when it was Astara's turn she lingered behind.

She turned to look at Callie. "Hey, try to win this ok? If we have to get beaten by a bunch of rookies I want all the other favorite teams to lose too. It's only fair. You guys aren't too bad, just be careful and you might actually pull this off. Remember what I told you about Fisher and MacDonald. Whatever Boreas says that was solid advice. Fighting is about more than moves, knowing how your enemy thinks and acts is important." She gave one last nod and then walked through the tear in the world, vanishing into the blue light.

The guy in the yellow checkered suit didn't even bother to acknowledge us, just following them into the light before letting it wink out, leaving us alone in the huge lava cavern. Callie looked around, but didn't get up. "Last leg of the journey guys. Let's take a break before we go looking for the Heart. I have a feeling this next part is going to be tough. Might as well make sure we're in top shape." None of us could argue with that. We all just leaned back to get a quick rest. If The Wavestriders had been telling the truth, we were going to need it.