Clay stands in between a triangle of Wes, Alexis, and Aaron.
Clay: You three certainly are eager I’ll give you that; you ran past me and my team with the full intention of leading me out here, right?
Aaron: Maybe.
Clay: You saw my quirk in action against Walker and took it upon yourselves to lure me away to assist your classmates against the rest of my team. Am I correct?
Aaron: Maybe.
Clay: Play coy all you’d like; your lack of answer is all I need to know that I’m right.
Alexis: Mind if I ask you a question?
Clay: Go ahead.
Alexis: Why are you guys here?
Clay: Hm?
Wes: She wants to know why you and your team showed up here in the middle of the night, killed one of our teachers, poisoned another, and mutilated the last one.
Clay: Well, I guess there’s no point in keeping that information from you: We’re here to capture you and your friends.
They all get surprised looks on their faces.
Alexis: What?
Wes: Why me?
Aaron: For what?
Clay: In order: we’re going to capture you all, you’re more of collateral, and I won’t say.
Aaron: Mister talkative huh?
Clay: I told you my objective. I don’t need to give you my motive. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that you three will be leaving this forest with me.
Aaron: And you’re so sure of that?
Alexis: We’re not going anywhere with you!
Wes: What they said!
Clay: I don’t know where you guys got the impression you have a choice!
Aaron transforms his right arm into a grenade launcher; Clay promptly turns his skin metallic.
Aaron: Alexis, Wes, run!
Aaron fires a smoke grenade that explodes upon contact with Clay and shrouds all four of them in a thick layer of smoke. Alexis, Wes, and Aaron all turn around and run.
Aaron: (With my wrist screwed up, it’s gonna limit my options against him. He’s seen my fights against Zach, Alec, and Kevin, which means he has a pretty good feel for my fighting style and some of my best moves. The odds are stacked against us, and I can’t let him capture Alexis and Wes.)
Wes meanders through the smoke.
Wes: (Did Aaron have to cover the whole area in smoke? I can barely see in front of me!)
Wes walks into a tree.
Wes: (Goddammit! You know this is a pretty good metaphor for us fighting this dude. We’re just stumbling around without any idea of what we’re doing… As far as I can tell, this guy is a human tank. He can eat Aaron’s attacks like they’re nothing… it’s like he’s got no weakness.)
Clay: Boo.
Wes turns around as Clay socks him in the face.
Clay: I’ll take you out first! You’re not on the list, so I don’t have to be gentle!
Wes: List?
Clay punches Wes in the stomach and knocks him to his elbows and knees. Clay stands over Wes menacingly.
Clay: I’m going to capture you now. If you resist, I won’t be held responsible for what happens to you.
Clay reaches into his pocket. Wes reveals a hidden wrist blade in his right sleeve.
Wes: Like hell I am!
Wes stabs Clay in the right thigh.
Clay: AHHHHH! You little bastard!
Clay kicks Wes in the jaw.
Clay: Little fucker!
Clay rips the knife out of his thigh.
Clay: *frustrated grunt* You didn’t have that in the Sports Festival!
Clay rips up his left sleeve and wraps it around his thigh. Clay has a pink Greek symbol for Iota on the back of his left shoulder. Wes gets up and looks at Clay.
Wes: (I didn’t even think when I stabbed him… I would have thought his metallic state would make him immune to a knife… His quirk is similar to my own. The blade wasn’t a projectile, so he wasn’t immune to it.)
Clay finishes wrapping his wound and turns his attention to Wes again.
Clay: There, thanks for sitting still and waiting for me to finish!
Wes: Ah crap… I forgot to run.
The smoke clears as Clay charges at Wes.
Alexis: Wes, duck!
Wes dives to the ground as Clay is hammered by three paper shuriken that blast him into a tree. Aaron and Alexis run over to Wes.
Alexis: You alright?
Wes: I got some bruises, but I did get a hit on him.
Alexis and Aaron are surprised.
Alexis: You did?
Wes: I stabbed him when he got close to me, he wrapped up the wound, but I definitely got him.
Aaron: Well, I’ll be damned. You actually did something!
Alexis helps Wes to his feet.
Wes: Fuck you!
Aaron: Nah.
Aaron transforms his arm into a machine gun.
Aaron: Eat lead, you piece of shit!
Aaron starts firing a barrage of bullets into Clay, pinning him against the tree.
Clay: *frustrated grunts* (This guy packs some serious heat, he’s not hurting me, but he’s one hell of a problem for me!)
Aaron looks at his left hand as he continues firing.
Aaron: (This may not be hurting him, but it’s a lot of fun!)
Clay attempts to break free of the barrage but is pushed back into the tree as his body digs into the bark.
Clay: (I can’t move! Master Iota… give me strength!)
The Iota symbol on Clay’s shoulder begins glowing, Iota’s voice begins speaking inside Clay’s mind.
(Iota): (As you wish, Clay.)
Clay’s eyes become clouded. Clay pushes himself off the tree as Aaron, Alexis, and Wes all watch with worry.
Alexis: What?
Wes: How can he defy Aaron’s barrage!
Clay starts walking through the gunfire as if it was air.
Aaron: (What the fuck!)
Aaron intensifies his barrage but to no avail. Finally, Clay reaches Aaron and punches him square in the jaw knocking him back.
Alexis: Aaron!
Wes looks terrified.
Wes: (I’ve never seen that before… he just walked through Aaron’s attack like it was nothing!)
Clay starts trying to punch Alexis, but she dodges each one.
Alexis: (No snarky remark after hitting Aaron? It’s like he’s completely different now.)
Alexis pulls a paper bomb from her sleeve and slaps it on Clay’s arm. It explodes, and he goes flying into a nearby tree.
Alexis: How was that for you?
Clay shakes it off, gets back on his feet, and walks toward Alexis.
Alexis: (Okay, he’s definitely turned it up a notch. And with Aaron and Wes hurt, I need to take charge and wipe this guy out.)
Alexis turns her entire paper cloak into a massive swarm of origami birds.
Alexis: You won’t survive this!
Wes checks on Aaron.
Wes: Are you alright?
Aaron gets up.
Aaron: This guy is starting to piss me off. I’m nothing more than a nuisance to him; it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything.
Wes: Well, let’s do something about that.
Alexis leaps back to create distance between herself and Clay. She checks to see where Aaron and Wes are.
Alexis: (They’re safe, so it’s time to end this.)
The birds fly circles around Clay, forming a cylinder around him.
Alexis: Ceremonious Dance: Vulture Formation!
The birds detonate, creating a massive explosion.
Alexis: Eat that!
The smoke clears, Clay is standing unharmed at the center of a crater. Alexis is visibly shocked.
Alexis: (No way…)
Aaron and Wes huddle up.
Wes: I think we’re going about this the wrong way.
Aaron: Clearly…
Wes: When I stabbed him, he was in his metallic form.
Aaron: What? That would have been nice to know before now!
Wes: I’m sorry, but that clarifies that his quirk has a weakness, almost the same as mine.
Aaron: So I have to fight him as if I was fighting you, huh? That shouldn’t be too hard; I could kick your ass easily.
Wes: Yeah, which in this case, I’m happy about.
Aaron: Hand me a knife; I know you’ve started carrying a few for self-defense since the Sports Festival.
Wes rolls up his pant leg and reveals a knife; he takes it out of the sheath and hands it to Aaron.
Aaron: Alright, I’ll lure him into a false sense of security then stab him in the neck!
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Wes: That’s extreme, but we are permitted to kill him if we have to.
Aaron: Exactly, as much as I want to beat this guy myself, we need to end this so we can go back and see if any of the others need help.
Wes: If they’re still fighting…
Aaron: What do you mean?
Wes: You and Alexis are two of the strongest members of our class, and together you’re having trouble putting a dent in this guy. I can only imagine how bad things are going for everyone else.
Aaron: Wes, don’t think about that; focus on what’s happening here. Otherwise, we might not ever find out what happened to the others.
Wes: I know, I just…
Clay charges at Alexis and tries to punch her, but she dodges each punch as she walks backward to avoid him.
Alexis: (I used up all of my paper on that blast, but he’s still standing. I’m usually not one to lose her cool, but this is insane, we were almost evenly matched with him before, but now he’s so much more powerful!)
Alexis trips on an errant root sticking out of the ground and falls on her butt, twisting her ankle in the process.
Alexis: Shit!
Clay winds back a punch, but he gets hit upside the head by a cannonball that sends him flying through multiple trees.
Alexis: Huh?
Alexis looks to her side to see Wes in his mirror form and Aaron with his arm transformed into a cannon. They change back to normal and run over to Alexis.
Alexis: Thanks for the help, guys.
Aaron: How are you doing?
Alexis: I think I sprained my ankle.
Wes: That’s not good.
Alexis: What did you guys do to hit him that hard?
Aaron: I fired a point-blank cannonball into Wes; because of the short distance, it didn’t have enough time to switch directions before being reflected.
Alexis: Oh, nice! Smart thinking.
Aaron helps Alexis to her feet.
Alexis: We should take cover somewhere and come up with a new strategy.
Aaron: Well, Wes finally decided to tell me some important information about this guy that I can share with you. It can help turn this fight in our favor, but we should still take cover somewhere; we’re all pretty banged up and could use a breather.
Aaron helps Alexis walk as the three of them move as quickly as they can through the forest. Wes looks over his shoulder.
Wes: (Let’s home that cannonball keeps him down for a little while.)
Elsewhere Clay lays face down in the dirt, his Iota symbol stops glowing, he picks himself up from the ground, his eyes are no longer clouded.
Clay: *groans* They won’t stop hitting me! I’m getting tired of their shit! I’m gonna capture them if it’s the last thing I do! I hope the others are having better luck with this crap than I am!
Jagger sits behind the cover of tree leaves, watching over Silver and Eve as they survey the area.
Jagger: (That silver bastard is giving me quite a bit of trouble, but the tide of this battle is turning. I’m most dangerous when I’m lurking in the shadows. He let me escape his sight carelessly, and I’m going to make him pay for that.)
Eve and Silver are standing back-to-back, watching for Jagger.
Eve: The anticipation is killing me.
Silver: Yeah, he could silently strike at any moment, and unless I notice in time, he’ll almost certainly hit one or both of us.
Eve: You know, you could just say that you think I’m a liability.
Silver: What are you talking about?
Eve: You used the dome to shield us because you weren’t sure a standard shield would be enough, even though I told you exactly where they were.
Silver: Well, I-
Eve: You didn’t trust my call out, so you went to drastic measures to protect us, knowing that you were giving him exactly what he wanted. I may be short-tempered, but that doesn’t mean I’m not perceptive.
Silver: I- I’m sorry.
Eve: It’s okay; I understand that I haven’t been the best teammate in the past. But, If we want to make it out of here with Ash, we have to trust each other, alright?
Silver: Agreed.
Eve: So, do you have a plan?
Silver: Well, I assume he’s taking his time to allow fear to seep into our minds. He’s probably also waiting for one of us to drop our guard for even a moment.
Eve: Probably.
Silver: I can’t say with any certainty that I can block his next attack. With no sound, our only hope would be for us to be lucky enough to look in his general direction when it occurs.
Eve: So then what can we do?
Silver: We have to flush him out, and I have just the move for that.
Eve: Are you talking about what you did against Hayze?
Silver: Yes.
Eve: But wouldn’t he be expecting that? It feels like the obvious move here.
Silver: I don’t think he is; remember, he also saw that all the silver dust I used in that attack was destroyed in the process, which would only leave me with a single dust canister to work with.
Eve: I get it… he doesn’t think you’re to take that big of a risk.
Silver: No, but the question is, are we willing to?
Eve: It seems like the only play we have left that isn’t relying on luck.
Jagger readies a needle.
Jagger: (I think I’ve let them stew in their own fear long enough, it’s time for me to end this and bring them back with me. Master will be pleased with me for capturing two of his priority targets.)
Silver begins forming his dust pile into a giant shuriken.
Silver: Serrated Shuriken of Destruction!
Jagger: (What!)
The shuriken starts spinning so fast that winds form, blowing through the trees. The leaves that surround Jagger are rustling as he looks at the shuriken with panic in his eyes.
Jagger: (Why is he using that thing? There’s no way he’s actually going to try and kill me while I have his friend, right!)
Jagger starts jumping from tree to tree to try and escape the shuriken range.
Eve: There he is!
Silver launches the shuriken straight at Jagger. Jagger sees it coming behind him, cutting all the trees in its path.
Jagger: (Is he insane!)
The shuriken continues toward Jagger, who continues to jump from tree to tree to try and escape, but to no avail.
Jagger: (This is where I die?)
At the last second, the shuriken curves to chop the tree that Jagger is jumping on.
Jagger: It was a trick!
Jagger plummets and slams into the ground with force.
Jagger: *groan*
Silver and Eve run to Jagger.
Silver: We’ve got you now!
Silver opens his final canister of silver dust and uses it to hold Jagger to the ground by covering his upper body.
Silver: He’s restrained.
Eve: Nice work!
Jagger: You pieces of garbage… You tricked me!
Silver: I can tell you’re a strategist like myself. You assumed I would fight logically, so you didn’t plan for my Shuriken of Destruction. You panicked when you saw it coming at you, which was your downfall.
Eve: For being the leader of your team, you’re kind of stupid. I don’t know why you separated from your masked friend back there. You kind of served yourself to us on a platter.
Jagger: Don’t question my leadership! Separating from Ivy was a calculated risk on my part.
Silver: What do you mean by that?
Jagger: Our goal was to capture as many of you as possible, so by sending her off alone, I assured that Blair Maddox would be ours no matter what. I honestly didn’t think any of you would have followed Ivy, but your friend seems to be some kind of idiot.
Eve: Yeah, he can be like that.
Silver: Hayze must have some kind of plan to get Blair back from her.
Jagger starts laughing hysterically.
Eve: What’s so funny?
Jagger: Ivy is the most deadly person in this forest! None of you stand a chance of stopping her! Your two friends are gone!
Silver: Blair and Hayze will be just fine!
Eve: Speaking of being just fine.
Eve reaches to unhook the bubble containing Ash from Jagger’s belt.
Eve: I don’t know how to get her out of this, but at least we have her back.
Silver notices a device with a blinking red light on Jagger’s belt.
Silver: Eve, wait!
Eve unhooks the ball from Jagger’s belt, the light on the device turns white and starts expelling
purple gas from it.
Eve: Huh?
Silver pushes Eve out of the way, but he inhales some of the smoke in the process.
Silver: *groan* You bastard…
Silver keels over.
Eve: Silver!
Jagger: You really thought I wouldn’t have a backup plan in case of emergency?
Silver passes out.
Eve: Silver!
The silver dust restraining Jagger loses its strength, and he’s able to push through it as though he was buried in sand.
Eve: Ah crap…
Jagger: Weren’t you the one that called me stupid?
Eve: This isn’t over yet, fucker!
Jagger: Now that isn’t very nice, but I’m sure my Master will teach you some manners when we go home.
Eve: Stay away from me!
Eve runs behind a tree and hides.
Jagger: I’ll give you a minute or two to rethink your decision, but you have to know that you can’t defeat me, right?
Eve is silent. Jagger readies ten needles.
Jagger: I’m not going to wait all day.
Jace and Zach are following Adonis as he runs through the forest.
Zach: We’re lucky he’s not that fast.
Jace: Yeah, we’re keeping a good pace with him.
Zach: I guess the only concern is what we’re gonna do when we catch up to him because I’ve got nothing.
Jace: Well, all we have to do is get those three balls back from him and then run for our lives.
Zach: I guess that can be your job since you’re faster, but we have to figure out a way to distract him.
Jace: That’s much easier said than done.
Zach: Man, this bites.
Jace: Tell me about it.
Alexis, Aaron, and Wes walk through the forest.
Wes: He can’t be too far behind, right?
Aaron: Who knows, that cannonball had to have sent him a reasonable distance away from us, but we’re not exactly moving that fast either.
Alexis: Sorry…
Aaron: Hey, it’s your fault. We’re all hurt.
Alexis: What was it that you needed to tell me, by the way?
Aaron: Wes stabbed him while he was in his magnetic form.
Alexis: What? So sharp weapons like knives can injure him in that form?
Aaron: Yeah, Physical attacks like punches and such seem to be the way to go. Our explosions can send him through the wringer, but they’re not damaging him at all. Wes and I have knives on us, and we’re gonna try to strike him when he least expects it.
Alexis: Do you think that will work?
Wes: That’s how I got him earlier; he’ll be expecting it from me, but not Aaron.
Alexis: It’s simple, but it just might work.
Aaron: Hopefully, after all, we are-
Clay: *from afar* I FOUND YOU, YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES!
Wes: Fucked, we are fucked!
They turn around as Clay clotheslines Wes and starts beating the shit out of him.
Wes: WHY ME!
Aaron helps Alexis to a tree that she can use to support herself.
Aaron: Stay here; I’ll save Wes.
Alexis: Be careful.
Aaron: No.
While Clay is distracted with Wes. Aaron starts sneaking up on him with his knife drawn.
Aaron: (Thanks, Wes, for being so fun to punch… I might just be able to pull this off.)
Aaron gets right behind Clay and tries to stab him, but Clay spins around and grabs Aaron’s wrist.
Clay: Nice try, dirtbag.
Aaron: (Shit!)
Clay twists Aaron’s wrist until he drops the knife. Clay then kicks Aaron in the chest and knocks him to the ground.
Clay: It’s time for me to get rid of you once and for all.
Clay picks up the knife and holds it to Aaron’s neck.
Aaron: I thought you couldn’t kill us!
Clay: What are you talking about? This is an unfortunate accident!
Alexis watches from the tree.
Alexis: Aaron!
Alexis tries to move to help him, but she can’t seem to walk on her ankle; she can do nothing but watch.
Clay: You’ve taken quite a beating from me, yet you keep taking it upon yourself to try and fight for your friends!
Aaron: Fuck you!
Clay: You ever hear the theory that we hate people because we see ourselves in them? Well, that’s why I hate resilient little douchebags like you; you make me sick!
Aaron: (Both of my arms are fucked, I can’t get him off! Alexis and Wes are both hurt… I can’t figure a way out of this!)
Jagger turns the corner of the tree that Eve is behind.
Jagger: Boo.
Eve starts running frantically, but Jagger shoots her in the back with a needle, she falls to the ground.
Eve: *groans*
Jagger: Sorry, but I’m tired of being in this forest. Let’s go home.
Jagger pulls out a capture bubble and walks over to Eve.
Eve: (This is it…)
Clay pushes the knife, and it slightly digs into Aaron’s neck.
Aaron: (I can’t believe I’m actually going to die to this guy!)
Zach and Jace start slowing down from exhaustion.
Jace: (I’m almost out of steam…)
Zach: (We’ve gotta keep pushing for Angel, Gus, and Justus’ sake.)
Jagger gets hit by a laser beam.
Jagger: AHHHH!
Eve: What!
Clay gets kicked off of Aaron.
Clay: *grunts*
Aaron: Hm?
Jace and Zach hear an annoying voice.
Jace and Zach: Huh?
Eve looks up to see Isaiah and Demetri.
Isaiah: Have no fear, Eve!
Demetri: We’re here to save the day!
Karma gives Aaron her hand.
Karma: Sorry it took so long for me to arrive.
Alden runs between Jace and Zach.
Alden: I thought you guys could use some muscle!
Jace and Zach: Yay… Alden’s here…