Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXXV - "Reed vs Babs"
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Reed groaned from the pain. Not that she had received any injuries during her brief singular bout of fighting so far - it’s just that she decided to give stretching another shot. Once Demetrius and Audrey left, it was back to the boring old routine of guarding the flag. She wouldn’t admit it, but upon seeing how nimbly Audrey could move - as nimble as a squirrel, or even a monkey - Reed decided to take stock of her own body’s limits.
Reed bent over, trying to touch her toes, but her calves started screaming before she could reach them. She walked off the pain, and spent the next few minutes thinking about all those other stretches she was supposed to do at practice.
But we’re talking about practice. Practice. How the hell can I make my teammates better by practicing?
They had their own goals and motivations and reasons, and she had hers. As to what those three things might have been for her, she had no idea. Reed took a good look at the clearing around her and wished she could’ve been here in more peaceful times.
Fortunately, another rush of combat seemed to interrupt her thoughts. While Audrey battled Lynn and Alfie fought Demetrius, Reed detected a member of Team Blue rushing right down the middle, in between those clashes.
Deciding to opt for the same strategy she used earlier, Reed didn’t wait for the person to arrive in the clearing - she slammed a sound wave right toward the forest.
Something seemed in the air seemed off. By the time the sound wave reached the edge of the forest, the air seemed foul - not in terms of stench or touch, but in terms of existence. The sound wave petered out, as if somebody had pulled the plug on her guitar mid-strum (Reed preferred the new semi-acoustic guitars with that hint of electricity in them over the more traditional ones).
The culprit arrived in the clearing, and Reed pinched the bridge of her nose, having had enough of her for the day.
“Reed!” Babs exclaimed, her arms outstretched. “Heeeeellllloooo!”
Reed frowned. Babs stepped towards her, an arrogant beauty in her movements, a shark’s smile on her face to match. She had a purple bruise on her jaw, but she didn’t seem too bothered by it.
The air seemed to grow stale as Babs advanced. Reed kept her own breathing calm and tried to find out how exactly her opponent messed with the air, but she couldn’t see any sparks of Rddhi on her. Nor did she see any movements out of Babs’ hands, which was the most common way to manipulate Rddhi.
Said hands remained in her pockets as Babs approached Reed. “Now, we didn’t finish our conversation from this morning-”
Reed slammed another sound wave at her. Babs frowned from the interruption, but the sound wave once again petered out before it could reach her.
“Jeez, everybody’s interrupting me today-”
Reed hadn’t just been standing around when she sent that sound wave. She chased after it, charging at Babs, firing off more waves that sounded like angry strumming. Sound waves crackled around her sword, looking and sounding like a chainsaw, so Reed wouldn’t accidentally chop off any of Babs’ body parts, but she certainly intended on leaving a mark.
Babs made no attempts to counterattack. Instead, she let Reed come at her, stepping around all of Reed’s attacks with ease. Frowning, Reed continued her attack, hoping to connect with either the sword itself or the sound waves exploding out of it. None of her attacks hit their target; almost lazily, Babs continually maneuvered herself out of the way, a smug smirk on her face the whole time.
The air felt hot and muggy now, making Reed’s hair cling to her face. By this point, her hair had grown so shaggy that the next time she fought, she would certainly need a hairband; fortunately, they remained just barely out of her eyes at the current moment.
Reed tried again, and then again, and then over and over, slashes and strikes and stabs, sound waves coming off the edge of the sound each time, but Babs moved like water, each strike sailing past her harmlessly.
Deciding brute force wasn’t very effective, Reed jumped backwards away from Babs.
She doesn't move like water, Reed realized. Her strikes had been on target. Babs wasn’t completely dodging them through natural skill of her own...somehow, she pushed Reed's strikes slightly off target so they always missed.
Babs kept waiting, her hands in her letterman jacket pockets, her opened coat trailing behind her. “As I was saying-”
Reed sent several sound waves out in a large arc. Babs sighed from yet another interruption and stood there as the waves targeting her failed to reach her, stopping just short. The sound waves that sailed past struck the trees at the edge of the clearing; the ground seemed to slightly shake as a number of branches and even trunks collapsed to the ground.
Babs looked at the carnage and let out a whistle. “I think you might’ve missed me with that attack, Reed. And that’s no good. If that sword’s all you got, then what happens when you’re no longer good at it?”
Doing her best to ignore Babs’ taunting and the increasingly heavy air, Reed enacted the next part of the plan. She charged Babs once again with the same strategy - a flurry of strikes, waves rolling out of her sword.
Babs did the same as well, simply dodging and sidestepping. “Is that really all you can do-”
The first of the broken branches struck her in the back of the head. Babs stumbled, barely dodging another blow from Reed right as several twigs arrived and slashed across her arm, one even implanting itself into her shoulder.
Babs lost her footing, twisting herself to avoid a tree trunk flying towards her skull, but that gave Reed an opening for her sword. Babs, stumbling to the ground, looked up and saw Reed lining her sword up for a downward swing, dull fire in her eyes as she went in for the kill (well, knocking her unconscious with her muffled sword).
A gust of wind came out of Babs’ mouth, propelling her away to safety, Reed’s sword only managing to slice the side of her coat. Babs landed a good distance away, eyeing the tattered part of the coat.
“So,” Babs concluded, pulling the twig out of her shoulder. “I guess you can use magnetic waves too. All the waves you sent out weren’t just sound, were they? You were targeting all the crap you knocked out of the trees with the waves that went past me.”
“You got quite the brain,” Reed dryly supposed, all the dryness trying to cover up how much difficulty she currently had with breathing. The air didn’t have a stench, yet it seemed like Reed was breathing in something rotten. Every breath made her insides feel a little sluggish, her mind a little clouded.
Reed decided not to waste any breath by answering Babs’ taunts with her own.
And besides, I already know her powers now. It’s her own breathing. She doesn’t need her hands because she can do everything with her mouth.
Reed snickered, then got serious again.
The spark of Rddhi must be inside her throat or lungs. No wonder I can’t see it.
And sound waves move through the vibrations of air molecules. If she can control the air, she’s able to block my sound.
Fortunately, Reed did have a secret move that could potentially overwhelm Babs’ control of the air. Gathering her strength, Reed made another charge at Babs, her face growing red in disbelief that she was really about to call her attack.
Babs opened her mouth to speak, but Reed opened her own first, her sword raised into the air. “Resonate!”
The whole clearing shuddered from the piercing noise of a guitar connected to a vacuum-tube amplifier up too high and screeching too loud. These sound waves smacked Babs across the face, making her ears blend, sending her to one knee. Resonate’s drawback was that it affected Reed herself, but since was expecting it, she moved through the pain.
Babs knelt there, looking disorientated. Reed raised her sword, intending to slash Babs across the chest and end things. She swung with all her might-
The air shifted, and Reed realized that her sword had been stopped in place. Babs had simply grabbed it and stopped it in its tracks. Well, she didn't quite grab it. By manipulating the air currents, Babs formed a sort of air glove around her hand, letting her grab the sword without cutting herself. Well, the sword had enough force to push some of the air far enough back into Babs’ hand to cut it; blood dripped out of the wound on her palm. Had Reed been at full strength, she would've been able to push through Babs' defenses, but she felt just as lethargic and stale as the bad air around her.
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But the shark’s grin returned to Babs’ face. Her own mind feeling increasingly hazy, Reed could only watch as Babs, still holding the sword, stood back up. She was taller than Reed and looked down on her.
“Now it’s my turn,” Babs declared, unveiling her other fist from her jacket.
Reed raised a hand to protect herself, but instead, Babs sent a roundhouse kick into Reed’s thigh. A palm strike to her chest sent Reed sliding backwards. But Babs was already there, moving far faster than Reed expected, sending kicks and strikes and even a headbutt or two that made Reed dizzy and disorientated, pains all over her, just barely able to keep a grip on her sword.
Something wasn’t right. Reed had been in several fights before this, but she seemed to be moving a step slower than usual. She felt tired and increasingly exhausted, unnaturally so. Reed went to block a strike with her sword, but the air shifted the sword just slightly out of the way; Babs’ fist slid past it, right into Reed’s nose. She could feel the sudden sting of the pain and the metallic taste of blood in her mouth, but she felt something else, or rather, the lack of something…
Oxygen. Oxygen and air aren’t the same thing. I’m no rocket scientist, but you need oxygen to breathe. Babs can manipulate the air, but can she replace oxygen with something else? Something that’s making me feel sluggish?
Reed frowned, and it wasn’t just from Babs dodging another strike and then kicking her in the shins. Between Babs being the center of attention and all the debris I knocked down at the edge of the clearing, no wonder I didn’t notice him.
Reed ducked under a strike from Babs and swung her sword at her, the sound wave rolling off of it. Both missed, as expected, but Babs wasn’t their true target. The sound wave sliced through a tree trunk at the edge of the clearing, knocking over several others on the way down.
Reed heard a yelp and saw Dan Turner propel himself out of all the debris he hid himself in, rolling into the clearing. From the way he launched himself - hand pointed at the ground - and from the ripples through the air, Reed realized the true culprit behind the air’s toxicity.
“Babs can control air currents,” Reed realized as the fight came to a slight pause, “And you can emit gas from your hand. A gas that can replace the oxygen in the area.”
Dan, never one to give up an opportunity to look cool and or smart with the ladies, nodded in his laidback sort of way. “My strongest class is chemistry. I got a few gasses that can come out of the pores in my palm. I covered this whole clearing with an odorless chemical. It’s so subtle, people don’t notice until they suddenly pass out.”
“Well, I noticed,” Reed informed him.
“...most people.”
Babs glared daggers at him. “It’s not like you needed to tell her that!”
Dan shrugged. “She would’ve figured it out on her own.”
Reed had figured it out on her own, feeling rather pissed off about the whole thing.
What the hell kind of broken combo is that? Dan blankets the whole area, Babs can protect herself from his gas simply by manipulating the gas away from her. Why didn’t we get them? I’d trade Coleridge and Alfie for that sort of firepower.
But then Reed frowned, because of course she would never trade anybody from her team. They all stood up for her this morning, and now, Reed was going to have to stand up for all of them to protect the flag.
“No wonder you guys attacked at the same time,” Reed muttered, figuring out her next angle of attack (which, in all honesty, might’ve been a dreampop sound wave telling Audrey to come back (Reed was proud, but she was also a realist (and she would enjoy stomping in Babs’ face with her best friend))).
Dan rubbed his head, chuckling. “Well, you see, Barbara here decided to go off on her own and attack first.”
Babs cracked her knuckles. “It’s because I wanted to tell her something. And speaking of speaking-”
Babs moved fast. Reed, still slowed by the effects of the gas and exertion, managed to avoid a few of Babs’ attacks, but several well-timed kicks sent Reed stumbling. Babs dropped to the ground and spun, swiping with her legs at Reed, tripping her. With one hand on the ground, Babs pushed herself into the air, kicking Reed across the face.
The whole time, Reed saw black spots growing in her vision, but more importantly, felt her grip on the Domino Sword loosen, little by little. She decided to go for another Resonate-
Babs jabbed her windpipe with two fingers. Reed coughed and sputtered; Babs then struck the back of her palm, and just like that, the Domino Sword was out of her hand, sliding across the grass.
All thoughts overridden, Reed immediately lunged for her sword, but Babs caught her by the throat and threw her to the ground in the opposite direction.
“This was my whole point,” Babs finally found the opportunity to say, kicking Reed in the stomach. “Knock that sword away, and what do you really have going for you?”
Reed knew it was pathetic, but she instinctively reached out for her sword, even though it was too far from her to grasp. Babs sent another kick to her stomach, the impact knocking what little breath remained out of Reed.
“Think about it, Reed,” Babs taunted, standing over her. “Why is this school so interested in you? Because you can use the Rddhi. But you can’t use the Rddhi without that sword. So, without that sword, who are you? What do you have going for you? Can you name a single thing you like? That you’re good at?”
Reed choked, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“What do you really bring to the table?” Babs continued, the shark’s grin growing wider. “People only keep you around because of the Rddhi. Otherwise, why would anyone want anything to do with you? Do you really think Isaac and Audrey like palling around with you? Does anybody?”
Dan scratched his head. Reed kept hers down.
“Tell me, Reed,” Babs concluded. “Tell me who you really are. Without the sword, without the Rddhi…who exactly are you? Do you know yourself? Do you even feel comfortable with yourself? Do you know who the real you really is?”
“C’mon, Babs,” Dan called out, an uncomfortable look on his face. “Just leave her alone. Let’s just get the flag.”
With Reed down for the count, Babs turned around to face her teammate. “It’s love for a classmate. A tough love, but that’s how I was raised, and I think I turned out alright-”
Dan gasped, because before he even realized it, Reed tackled Babs from behind, slamming her into the ground. The two collided in a heap, a cloud of dust over them; the two struggled, but Reed gained the upper hand, kneeling on Babs’ chest, one hand firmly gripped on Babs’ collar, the other hand raised high in the air, brass knuckles slipped around the fingers.
Reed wanted to say a lot of things. About how smart she was for bringing in brass knuckles, since this was a simulation of combat, and combat more or less had no rules outside of victory, and Reed certainly intended on winning.
She wanted to say that Babs was wrong, but truth be told, Reed didn’t really have a counterargument to present to her.
In fact, Reed would never admit it, but she might even go as far to agree with Babs’ analysis entirely, and would answer with a resounding “no” to all of the questions presented to her.
But still, Reed would never, ever allow Babs to say to her and get away with it. Not while Team Red and the hundred dollar bet she made with Class 2-B on them depended on her.
Reed’s face had turned an angry scarlet, and each breath was a great labor, but she spoke anyway, since all those thoughts, the dark ones, the positive ones, all the agreements and anger, hatred directed both outward and inward, came out in a short phrase, each word punctuated by the sound of brass colliding with Babs’ face:
“Nobody. Touches. My. Sword!”
Before the fifth punch could arrive, Babs regained her senses enough to breath a gust of air that knocked Reed’s punch away just enough to send it smashing into the dirt rather than her nose. Babs shoved Reed off of her, but another punch from Reed sent her stumbling backwards. Babs answered Reed’s advance with a punch of her, resulting in a pause in the fight, just for a moment, both sides aching and sore.
Then Babs put her hands back into her pockets and pulled out two brass knuckles of her own.
Reed went mute for a moment, struggling to breath, but managed a sigh.
“Life comes at you fast.”
The two girls got into boxing stances, ready to beat the ever-loving piss out of each other.
“Ladies, ladies,” Dan interjected. “There’s enough of me to go around-”
“Shut up Dan!” the two girls yelled in union.
Dan supposed they had a point. “Alright, fair enough. But on a more serious note, I know we’re free to do anything below killing each other, but this is sort of going too far. We’re supposed to be training our Rddhi skills here, not boxing each other to death.”
“I’m killing her,” Babs replied.
“Feeling’s mutual,” Reed said.
Dan sighed. “But we’re classmates. We’re getting cake after this with each other.”
Ignoring his pleas, the two girls went after each other, fists raised-
Dan raised his hand and a purple haze rushed out of the pores in his palm. The gas quickly covered the two girls, interrupting them before they could hit each other. Reed took shallow breaths, grabbing at her throat, then simply collapsed onto her back.
Babs stumbled to one knee, her ability to manipulate the air overwhelmed by Dan’s attack. If looks could kill, Dan would’ve been crucified.
“Your own teammate?” she choked out.
Dan chuckled. “Well…I don’t exactly have the best sort of control over this thing. I mean, knocking you out if it knocks Reed out is worth it, right?”
Babs reached out toward Dan, but then fell face forward.
“And besides,” Dan said, “I have a bone in my body that I occasionally find use for. It’s called a spine. You may be my teammate, but both of you are my classmates. Treating Reed like that is just uncalled for.”
Babs gave no reply, passing out cold from the gas.
That left Reed, who managed to keep her eyes open, just slightly. “Dan,” she croaked out, “Did I know you could do this?”
Reed could only groan - well, she was so oxygen-deprived that she couldn’t even do that - as Dan waltzed and even shimmied toward the flag. He plucked the flagpole out of the ground and rested it across his shoulders.
“It’s my strongest attack,” he told the barely conscious Reed. “So strong that I can’t actually use any of my powers for the rest of the day. But I thought it was the right time to use it.”
“Right time, huh…”
Dan realized Reed’s arm was extended, still reaching out for her sword. But it was too far away.
Dan whistled as he did a little dance and shimmy to celebrate a job well done and a successful capture of the enemy flag.