Lee kept her nose in her book and focused on studying while students scrambled around her. Such commotion was usually notable, but this hustle and bustle was not apocalyptic in nature. The end-of-year test schedules had been announced, and students were merely experiencing last minute panic and academic pressure. Lee had better grades than most students, which eased the pressure on her enough that she could keep her anxiety bottled up inside where it belonged. She panicked with a composed dignity, as was proper.

Quiet as her panic was, Lee was still glad of the distraction when her phone rang. She was even more glad to see the caller was Leanne.

“Leanne, hello!”

“Hey boss. How you holding up?”

“It’s become slightly more difficult to enjoy my newfound freedom with all these tests coming up,” Lee said. “But I manage.”

“Good! Now, about graduation,” Leanne said. “I know I did promise to show up...”

“Yes,” Lee said stiffly. She didn’t like where this was going.

“Well, the thing is, I was kind of counting on your parents to pay for travel tickets and stuff,” Leanne said. “So-”

Lee nearly dropped her phone when something grabbed the back of her chair and spun her around. She found herself face to face with Leanne, phone to her ear and a smile on her face.

“-I’m going to need some help finding a place to stay.”

“Leanne!”

Lee all but jumped out of her chair to hug Leanne. Caught off guard by the sudden outburst of affection only momentarily, Leanne returned the hug, but quickly stepped back to give Lee another look.

“Lee, is it weird to say you actually look happier?” Leanne said. She hadn’t seen Lee in nearly two years, back when she was still well under the thumb of her parents. “I can actually see that you’ve been smiling more.”

“Well, I have been,” Lee said. She grabbed Leanne by the wrist and tugged. “Have you said hello to Vell and Harley yet?”

“Nope. Took me like a week to come up with that phone-call fakeout, so obviously I had to come to you first,” Leanne said. “Let’s get to it, been too long since I’ve seen those little nerds.”

----------------------------------------

After a heartfelt reunion with their long-graduated friend, Harley and Vell had made way for new friends to meet old. In spite of multiple stories about Leanne’s prowess in battle, Samson was still shocked to see just how imposing she actually looked in person. Hawke looked even more awestruck.

“Can you stay here forever?”

“Uh...no,” Leanne said. She was only here for the graduation, and justifying the trip by doing some guest coaching for the ballball team.

“Please? I want you to protect me.”

“You’re doing fine,” Leanne said, giving Hawke an encouraging pat on the back.

“I would be doing so much better if you were her to punch everything evil,” Hawke whimpered. “Please? I can pay you.”

While Leanne prepared another polite refusal, Kim was not feeling so polite.

“I already punch everything evil,” Kim said. “What do you need her for?”

“There is never enough evil-punching!”

Kim let out a digital huff and crossed her arms defiantly. Leanne also crossed her arms, and appraised the heavy metal looper with an intense scare. Hawke started to take a step back as the two locked eyes and stared at each other silently.

“Oh, this is going to be good,” Harley muttered under her breath, as she too took a step away.

“What exactly is happening?”

A tangible tension was rising in the air, though Lee could not yet understand how or why.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Two bad bitches have crossed paths,” Harley said, as the staredown continued. “They got to establish a hierarchy. They’re either going to bang or try to kill each other and I am down to watch either way.”

Lee took a few steps back, but did not look away. She doubted the first option would happen, but she could not pretend it wouldn’t be interesting to see the second. She had occasionally wondered if Leanne or Kim was the stronger warrior, and some proof would be nice.

“Lee?”

The sudden shout from Leanne snapped Lee back to focus.

“Yes?”

“Is it the first loop?”

“It is.”

“Good,” Leanne said. “Kim. Any ground rules before we get started?”

“Nah. Shit we fight never follows rules, why should we?”

“Good.”

The fight bell came in the form of Leanne punching Kim right in her metal gut, creating a ringing sound as Kim was launched across campus. Leanne ran after her, only to meet a kick coming the other way, as the fight continued. Vell rolled his eyes and went to find a seat on a nearby bench, followed shortly thereafter by every other looper.

“Shouldn’t we be trying to stop them?” Samson asked. Leanne had torn out a tree by its roots and used it as a bat to swat Kim into a building. “This feels reckless.”

“Which is why we’re letting them get it out of their systems now,” Lee said. “Rather than when permanent harm could be done. They’ll be fine.”

Leanne sailed overhead after getting thrown by Kim, and then leaped right past them again to rejoin the fray.

“Quit yapping and take your wallets out,” Harley said. “I’m taking bets.”

Hawke put money on Leanne, and Samson matched his bet on Kim. Lee and Vell politely refused.

“If either of them found out I bet on the other I’ll never hear the end of it,” Vell said.

“I’m just not sure who’s going to win, frankly,” Lee said. The match was blow for thundering blow so far. Kim had briefly lost an arm, but had reattached it.

“What, are you kidding? Kim’s made of metal, how can Leanne win?”

“You say that like this is the first robot that bitch has fought,” Harley said. In the background, Leanne suplexed a robot for approximately the seventeenth time in her life. “She knows what to do.”

“Technique only counts for so much, however,” Lee said. Kim threw Leanne to the ground and executed a perfect elbow drop. “Kim’s metal body does give her certain advantages.”

“Yeah, Kim would win a fight against any normal person, no matter how good they are,” Vell said. “But this is Leanne we’re talking about.”

Another impact caused a metallic ringing noise, and shortly afterwards a dull thud made the entire island shake. There were crowds of people passing through the teleportation gates as the end of the year approach, and they all scattered as the melee intensified.

“Don’t talk about Kim like she’s some kind of slouch,” Hawke said. “She also knows what she’s doing.”

Though the fight was now behind them, and only Samson had turned to watch, everyone felt it when someone got punched so hard their bench rattled.

“I’m not arguing that, but Leanne just knows way more,” Harley said. “Kim barely did any fighting in her first year, Leanne solo carried our entire team through most fights for a solid four years. Experience wins out.”

A single piece of metal sailed overhead, and another rumbling impact actually sent a crack through the pavement below them.

“Good lord,” Lee said. She turned around just in time to watch Kim throw Leanne across the quad hard enough to shatter a wall on impact. “Could you two tone it down slightly? Stick to boxing, or something?”

“Nope,” Kim said. A second later, a brick hit her in the head hard enough to shatter her already cracked facial screen. “Hey!”

Kim went for a diving tackle, slamming Leanne back into the building hard enough that the laboratory quaked on its foundations.

“Be a little more mindful of the island, please,” Lee demanded.

“Why? It’s the first loop,” Leanne said, as she picked Kim up and slammed her into the ground.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Lee said. “At this rate, you two are going to-”

Kim retaliated by grabbing Leanne and slamming her into the ground as well. This time, the entire island rattled and leaned to the side -and kept leaning.

“Excellent, you’ve cracked the islands foundation,” Lee said. “I hope you’re-”

That was about as far as Lee got in the scolding before the entire island tilted to the side and collapsed into the sea.

----------------------------------------

On the second loop, Leanne locked eyes with Kim -for roughly six seconds.

“No, no, none of that,” Lee insisted. “Thumb wrestle or something, but there will be no fighting today.”

Though the contentious glare lingered, Kim and Leanne eventually relented, with one small caveat. They both turned their intense gazes towards Vell.

“What?”

“Tell us who was winning,” Kim demanded.

“Uh…”

“And don’t try to weasel your way out of this one,” Leanne said.

“Look, things went wrong early, it was a pretty even bout as far as I saw,” Vell said. “Calling a winner would be impossible.”

“Vell! You do not get to weasel your way out of this with logic,” Kim said. “Tell us who would’ve won!”

“Look, I genuinely can’t say,” Vell said. He looked from side to side for any kind of exit from this conversation, and found one sooner than expected. He tried to subtly point behind them. “Oh geez. Uh, guys, we have a visitor-”

“Don’t try and distract us,” Leanne snapped. “Especially with such a cheap trick.”

There was no cheap trick, just Vell having a better angle on the crowds coming out of the teleporters, and a particular familiar face emerging from them.

“Hi guys.”

The heavily conflicted energy in the new arrival’s voice was matched by the deeply mixed reactions to their presence.

“Hi Joan.”