Jessie was surprisingly serious when she got into fight mode. I'd seen her cheerful, lazy, happy, sad, and several other moods, but I had yet to see her put her game face on, and when she did I was shocked at the change. Her normally expressive eyes we cold and distant, chips of emerald ice as she gazed at Benny with all the sympathy of a winter sky. She had her wand gripped loosely in her her hand, fingers cradling it, but not gripping tight enough to limit mobility.

Benny, for his part, was taking her seriously. He's integrated the umbrella on his left arm, while his right had the glove worked in for extra punching force. They stood facing each other, about five feet apart, waiting for me to officially start the match. I looked between them. "Ok you two, obviously no aiming for anything lethal, but otherwise go hard. You have enough Impact to handle it, and I want to see you push each other."

They nodded, and I called the sparring match to a start. Within seconds I saw Jessie flick her fingers into a pouch on the back of her leotard and then out in a spreading motion, then twirl her wand in a series of quick arcs between her fingers. The wand glowed green, then the there were sparkles of green in the air, and then there were plants. A series of twisting vines sprouted midair and latched onto Benny, fueled by Jessie's Vitality. The wand made a dangerous creaking sound.

Benny jerked an arm to one side, and I saw the limb glow as the plants were jerked toward it. His projectile ability apparently counted the air borne plants as projectiles and the things wrapped around his limb, but didn't manage to catch his body. He dove forward, right fist cocked back for a punch, ready to lay Jessie out. It was jarring seeing my six foot three inch friend, someone of a size equal to me, bear down on tiny little Jessie.

That jarring feeling intensified as Jessie lashed out with a high kick, which Benny met with that extended fist. Despite that, he was driven back about two feet by the impact, his eyes widening at the force. Benny was too used to being mortal. He'd forgotten how big of a Might different there was, and had tried to engage Jessie in close range combat, which was a big mistake.

Benny lifted the bottom of his shirt, extending the rope from his midsection and winding it around his left arm, holding a few feet up from the end with his right, so he had an extended slack between them. I nodded approvingly. Benny couldn't muscle Jessie, but he could potentially immobilize her with leverage given the reach advantage. The rope was H rank, and if he could wrap her up tight enough to limit her leverage he might pull out a win.

Jessie smiled cooly at him, waving him on as she stood ready. When he came in this time, he tried to wrap her extending leg with the rope to trip her up. His strategy failed unfortunately because the still active vine on his left arm tangled itself in the rope, causing him to fumble the catch and take Jessie's leg to the side. I winced as he was driven back again, a loud thud echoing through the room when he hit the ground after she pushed him away.

Jessie was...scary effective. I'd been wrong to worry about her, I didn't know if her brother had taught her to fight or what, but she did not mess around. Unfortunately from what I could tell her training was all defensive. She was used to being the weaker party and driving off attacks, so she wasn't taking the initiative. She was stronger, faster, and generally tougher than Benny, but her weapon WAS going to break at some point, and then she would be in a much worse position than she was now.

Not that I thought she would lose either way, but she absolutely had to learn some offense or she was never going to get anywhere. I'd been picking up more than I thought from my spars with Callie apparently, and my Focus stat helped a ton, because I hadn't expected to be able to analyze the fight like this. It occurred to me that I might be experiencing my first signs of recursion.

As a newbie Ascendant who took down a feared serial killer, aside from the Perception stats, I had also developed a bit of a reputation as a young genius. I'd also been touted as a somewhat ruthless combatant because of the abrupt nature of Stricture's death, which somewhat explained some of my more violent urges lately. As big a dick as Callie's dad was, my constant wish to curb stomp him seemed...excessive in retrospect.

I frowned slightly. Now that I knew it was there I could feel that urge to solve my problems quickly and violently scratching at the back of my head, even as instincts I was pretty sure I'd never had before instructed me on the best ways to do that. I clamped down on the urge. Callie had said that recursion was dangerous and needed to be managed. If you didn't pay attention you could get stuck in a spiral that you might never get out of.

I realized this would be something I needed to manage from now on constantly rather than a button to press, but I made a commitment to try to curb those impulses. Still, recursion could be useful at times too, like how easy it had been to stay cool under pressure when fighting Stricture. Heroes didn't freak out, and that bit of truism was very much a form of basic recursion. This ability to pick apart combat was a second example of positive recursion and I wasn't going to throw it away to get rid of my violent impulses.

I focused in on the battle, paying attention once again to my friends and what I could glean from their fight via my new combat instincts. Benny had come back in for another attack, but this one had been slower, more methodical. He'd managed to pull the vine off his arm and toss it away, though he was a mess after doing so because it had tried to grab both his head and his other arm. Jessie was able to control her plans incredibly well after they had grown apparently, even from a distance.

Now that he was clear of greenery he was inching back in, but slowly, rope held between two hands again and far enough away from her to take advantage of the height difference. Jessie's legs, which I assumed she used because they had more reach than her arms, lashed out one after another, but she kept the strikes quick and pulled back at the first sign of a tie up. Her leotard gave her a wide range of leg movement, and her high boots gave her legs protection, something I hadn't noticed about her costume before.

She battered Benny's arms and upper body with fast hard kicks, but couldn't commit to anything without getting wrapped up so it was nothing that was able to put him down. He did his best to weave around them, clearly trying to take any impacts on spots where they would have less effect. Despite that having several points of Might on him at least meant the kicks still hurt, even if they weren't show stoppers, and he winced with every impact, clearly feeling those hits keenly in his muscles.

Benny began to slow down. Not much, but enough, the bruises that must have been building up from all those quick blows adding up. Jessie backed up, disengaging abruptly, which surprised me, and Benny stayed where he was, clearly wary of pursuing after the slow ass kicking he'd been getting. Jessie got a few feet away then surged forward, driving Benny back from her intended assault.

At least. He would have moved back, except Jessie flicked her wand again, and the thing glowed green. The wand exploded from overwork, the I rank artifact not even scratching Jessie's skin as it blew, but it was just durable enough to cause the seeds she'd been dropping behind her back as she kicked, a motion which even I'd missed concealed by her cloak, to sprout into a tangle of leaves and stalks, wrapping up around Benny's legs and tripping him.

Once he was on the ground the plants continued to crawl and wrap around him, and I had to grin. Jessie's ability at I rank was Minor Botany but she also had a skill in horticulture. Horticulture involved managing plants as well as planting them, deciding when they went and how they grew. I was pretty sure she had synergized that with her ability when she ranked up to H. Once the plants had been spawned by the wand they were under her control, though I hadn't realized just how much control she actually had. She backed off and I called the fight for her, walking up to clap her on the shoulder.

I whistled as I looked down at Benny. "Damn. That was an impressive showing. You've got a knack for combat." I smirked down at my friend's form, much larger than hers but still subdued by the greenery. "You didn't do bad either Benny. I think you could use a few more offensive options, and maybe some capture stuff and defense. Either way you stayed cool and made her work for it, no shame in losing when she's got much higher stats. It was a good fight, both of you."

Jessie's eyes, which had been clinical during the fight, were their usual happy sparkling green again as she smiled widely at me. "Thanks Shane!" Her smile wilted a bit. "Alan used to work with me on combat. He worried about me a lot. Even before my power showed up he would give me lessons on plant manipulation and hand to hand, and Lindsey showed me a whole bunch too." She shrugged. "I prefer working with plants to hurting people though. I've been looking into picking up first aid, work it into my ability like I did with horticulture."

I raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of that. What IS your ability? I know you ranked up but I thought you kept Botany. The plant control must have come from horticulture. What did you end up synergizing?" I'd been so caught up with Stricture I hadn't even really noticed Jessie's rank up. I'd made the mistake of dismissing her as the plant girl, and I could see from her showing in that fight that much like I'd noted others doing, I'd missed some important layers to my friend. She was a complicated person, and always full of surprises.

She smiled proudly. "Lesser Florokinesis. You weren't the only one working hard during that mess with Stricture." Her face hardened when she mentioned her brother's killer. "I was tending my plants and working on my horticulture skill and I even did some patrols with Lindsey. H rank is a pretty quick jump if you put the work in. I've been doing pretty well here too, considering the Alchemists and all the help I give them with my ability."

I smiled at that. Jessie had been putting in the time just like I had, and I was glad to see it. I felt bad I'd been so focused on my own stuff that I'd missed her effort, but we were a team, and now that we were here I'd do my best to help her get stronger. Eventually I was planning to tell her and Callie about my ability and my origins, but I wasn't really there yet. Instead I gave her a big smile. "Well fair enough. How about we cut Benny loose and you can tell me what you know about first aid. I find that teaching others can help you familiarize yourself with a potential skill." Besides, it wouldn't hurt to be able to patch people up.