“Hello, Agent Wolfe. It has been quite a while.”
Daniel barely heard Mr. Stone over his music and the hum of the train, but that line alone was enough for him to pull one of his headphones from his ear. Carmen laid her head against his shoulder, but met his eyes, blinking awake.
There was only one reason Agent Wolfe could be calling. She hadn’t reached back out to them ever since they first gave her the information on Apex, to start her investigation. Either things were going well, or they were going horribly wrong.
“How are you?” Mr. Stone said, closing the book in his hands. “News about the case, I assume. Go on.”
The windows went dark as the train went underneath a tunnel. Next to them, Rafiq stood and held onto one of the railings, but he met Daniel’s eyes, nodding slightly towards Mr. Stone.
“Oh.” Mr. Stone cleared his throat. “Worthwhile was an understatement.”
Worthwhile? Good news for tracking down Apex? Did they finally have some leads on her to prove everything she did? From what Daniel remembered, the info in Gigabyte’s chip was chilling. He only had one ability, yet she had the power to steal any technique, and God knows how many techniques she had stored.
Were they finally getting ready to take her down? Last time they were face to face, he almost felt like his stomach would fall out of him then and there out of fear. A one on one wouldn’t do the job. They’d have to use several people to take her down.
That was it.
Daniel had to hide his surprise and astonishment. This was a recruitment call.
“I’m sure that it would, but…I must apologize and deny the offer, Wolfe. My years of gallivanting across the globe to right wrongs passed long ago. I must ensure the safety of my students.”
His knee-jerk reaction was disappointment and sadness. But, the last time they were face to face, she gutted Mr. Stone in his own front yard. His opinion flipped completely. He didn't need to fight with her again at all.
Daniel had never seen so much blood. If she finished the job next time, how could they keep going without him?
“That wouldn’t change my mind. We’re traveling the world, and such an act would sacrifice their own limited time for only my gain.”
They only had a few more weeks in the program with Jazz Hands Insurance. It was the best opportunity for him to rise up the ranks quickly, traveling the world to fight anyone they pleased. If Mr. Stone left, how would they use the rest of their time?
“I am sure. Every endeavor has a chance of failure. If I joined your mission and we failed, who would be left to protect my students from her path of destruction? My injury no longer impedes my ability to fight, but I use my strength for self defense and education, not for the offensive.”
…what?
The doctors said Apex’s wound meant Mr. Stone couldn’t fight anymore at all. So…what had changed? Since when could he fight?
Even if he could, the scenario still shook Daniel down to his core. Without Mr. Stone, if Apex came after them, Rafiq couldn’t stop her. Carmen definitely couldn’t — he didn’t want her to even try and risk death.
He was the only person that could counter her, and not just in his literal sense. Hypothetically, no matter what abilities she threw, all he had to do was counter them. They were perfect polar opposites, but the thought of facing her still sent chills down his spine.
“I apologize. I do wish you the best of luck, however. If I may offer a piece of advice…” Mr. Stone stroked his beard. “She’s left-handed, and always had the habit of leading attacks with her left hand.”
The train left the tunnel. Outside of the window, over the low buildings and behind the distant skyline, the sun had finally clocked out of work, and the night settled over the embers of the sunset.
“I look forward to it.”
Once he hung up, Carmen shut her eyes, Rafiq gazed out of the window, and Daniel pretended as if he was always focusing on his music this hard. Mr. Stone apologized for his call, and they acted none the wiser as the conversation instead moved to their fights.
Carmen swiped open her Fighter menu and showed her clips of how easily she handled Sakura. Rafiq’s fight was worse and way bloodier to watch, but the win in the end made it worth it, and Mr. Stone congratulated him for rejecting his deal. Meanwhile, Daniel’s fight left them all disoriented and confused, as the camera twisted and turned back and forth to catch them teleporting and flipping.
Daniel was just glad they couldn’t hear their conversation.
On the way back to the hotel, though, Mr. Stone didn’t go back to his room like Daniel thought he would.
He stayed in the hallway and told Rafiq to attack him.
Rafiq knit his eyebrows. “Huh?”
“As I said. I want you to attack me. Right here.”
“Are you sure, teach?” he said, nervously eyeing Mr. Stone’s cane. “I don’t want you to—”
“I will be fine, but I cannot tell you why until you hit me.”
Rafiq popped his neck, setting his bag down in the hallway. “Bet. I ain’t doing this ‘cause I’m mad at you, but this is for when you told me my kicks were sloppy!”
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He jumped and kicked off the wall to boost his attack, and Daniel tensed up in anticipation, watching from behind.
Rafiq’s foot met air. Mr. Stone’s cane clattered against the ground. Rafiq fell onto his side, clutching the side of his stomach as Mr. Stone drew back from his blindingly fast strike, exhaling and stiffening for a brief moment.
Mr. Stone leveled a challenging glare. Daniel dropped his bag and rushed in with a low cross, but Mr. Stone picked up his cane. His cane smacked against Daniel’s wrist, redirecting his punch before he chopped into his throat. He coughed and stumbled back as Carmen tried picking up the slack, sending Chip in his muscular form. Mr. Stone weaved past the punch, pivoted around Chip, and rammed the tip of his cane into Carmen’s forehead, knocking her over.
The three of them were left panting in the hallway, but Mr. Stone only popped his knuckles. Even if he froze after every attack, he could still attack. He didn’t need his cane.
He could really fight again.
“We will no longer need to rely on my allies for protection or training partners,” Mr. Stone said. “Because I’m back. Flow is back, and soon, you three will be able to defeat me yourselves. Now, stop taking turns and come at me at once.”
----------------------------------------
When the impromptu ass-kicking finally concluded, the three of them watching a back and forth between two Zoners on Daniel and Rafiq’s TV. Daniel drank water to soothe the pain in his throat while Carmen sat beside him, and Rafiq sat in their singular plush chair with an ice pack against his side.
“Did he know we were listenin’ on his call?” Rafiq asked.
Daniel shrugged. “Even if we were, he probably thinks we couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.”
“But that was Agent Wolfe. And if she’s calling him, and he’s turning down an offer for a mission to capture Apex, then—”
“Then shit’s really about to go down,” Rafiq cut in. “And he said no!”
“What, you would’ve said yes?” Daniel asked.
“If I was him, hell yea. He trained her. That man’s read the book front and back on how she fights, so no one else would be better at taking her down.”
“Right, but what happens if they fail?”
“Huh?”
“Imagine you’re still him, bro. You go with them, but the plan goes wrong and you die, and your old student’s still trying to take revenge on your students. Who’s gonna stop her?”
“I—” Rafiq started to talk, but paused, adjusting his ice pack. “Damn. You’re right.”
“I have a really bad idea,” Carmen said. As he and Rafiq went back and forth, Carmen was holding her chin, the same cute habit she always did when she was thinking or figuring something out. “Not actually bad to me, but you two might say it’s crazy.”
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“Think about it. If the SRB is trying to take down Apex, they’re not gonna pull any stops. They’re gonna call in their best Agents, sure, but some Fifties — maybe a Ten!”
Daniel bunched his eyebrows as the sheer scale dawned on him. The Fifties were the top Fifty, but the tens were the top ten strongest Fighters in the entire world, elusive and unseen outside of the Ultimate Versus.
“And so,” Carmen continued. “If there are so many of the top fighters in the entire world gathering to take down Apex, maybe…we could get involved.”
“What?!” Daniel exclaimed.
“Huh?” Rafiq shot out of his seat. “You want us to go fight Apex? We just got our asses handed to us by Mr. Stone, and you want us to go fight Apex for another rematch?”
“No! Not her, but there won’t be this many top Fighters in one spot ever again, outside of the Ultimate Versus. Mr. Stone wants us to pick our next destination and targets by tonight, since this is our last flight.”
“Oh, hold up. So you’re saying, we say our destination and targets are wherever they’re gonna jump Apex, and then we get in the mix and challenge our own top Fighters and go even higher?” Rafiq said. “Shit, if it’s gon’ be that big, we could even run into some Fifties and try taking them down!”
“Yeah! What do you think?”
Daniel shifted nervously in his seat, his mind reliving the pure malice behind Apex’s gaze. “This might be too large scale for us, y’all. Yeah, all these top fighters are getting together, but they’re getting together to fight Apex. If we crash their party and interrupt their music to pick fights, we’re gonna piss off the center of the party — her. And she knows what we look like. What if she sees us, or sees Mr. Stone?”
“Then we just shouldn’t get in her way,” Carmen said.
“But still. I don’t…” Daniel pursed his lips.
I don’t want her to hurt you.
The words couldn’t escape his lips, not with Rafiq there. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“It’ll be fine, dawg,” Rafiq said. “If you’re afraid of Mr. Stone knowing, we just won’t tell him the real reason. But Apex, she’s not gonna have time to fight us if all those top fighters are jumping her. Even if she does try, she’d be getting distracted, and that’s gon’ help them out in the end!”
“Rafiq’s right,” Carmen said. “We can be careful and stay out of Apex’s way, and challenge even higher ranked people. Mr. Stone already said he wants to train us to beat him, and he was a Fifty. So once we can beat him, we can beat one of them. If we each beat one of them, we’re in the Ultimate Versus.”
“I guess. We don’t even know where they’re going, though.”
“But we got all three of us here,” Rafiq said. “Three heads are better than one, and this one’s got a start. See, I been thinking about that wild shit Apex’s been doing, and I noticed she’s just moving straight up the list. She’s prolly gonna go for the next person up next week.”
Carmen swiped her menu open and opened the rankings tab of the Fighter menu, scrolling to the very top. “Rosen died and got replaced last week, so she’s probably going for The Great Fayez.”
“Does he have anything big next week?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah! He’s the ringleader of a monthly underground fighting tournament in Marrakesh. Their next event’s next Friday.”
“Hell yeah! My Abbu loved that dude.”
“How do you know about it if it’s underground?”
“Underground literally, dawg. It used to be secretive ‘cause Fighting was illegal in Morocco way back,” Rafiq said.
“Yeah. Once they repealed that law, it became more popular, and they kept using the underground arena just for the tradition,” Carmen said. “If I was Apex, I’d get someone inside and strike during that tournament.”
“And the SRB probably knows, and plans on capturing her during that!” Daniel said.
“So we just gotta tell Mr. Stone we wanna go to Marrakesh, and pick some fake targets to fight, y’all!” Rafiq pumped his fist. “This ain’t a bad idea, Carmen. I’m in.”
“Me, too,” Daniel said. “As long as we keep away from the main operation.”
“Then that settles it!” Chip fluttered over from Carmen’s shoulder, flying and doing a celebratory circle around the room, happily chirping. “We have to pick targets involved in the tournament as fakes, or backups in case we don’t run into anyone high-ranked from the capture. So…who do you guys pick?”