He moved again. Faster than before. My Rubber Body dodged by instinct, stretching backward to avoid a punch that would have taken my head off. His fist went through the wall where my skull had been.
I wrapped an arm around his waist and slingshot us both through the gap. We crashed into the street outside. Cars burned around us from earlier in the match. Smoke filled the air.
"You can’t beat ," Nolan said, his voice steady despite the chaos. "Not like this."
"Watch try."
I opened a gate beneath my feet and dropped through. The In-Between swallowed —that dark space between portals that felt like drowning in warm static. I erged behind him through another gate and kicked his spine.
He staggered. Turned. Caught my second kick with his hand and twisted my ankle until sothing popped. I scread, the sound ripping out raw and involuntary.
He let go and I collapsed.
"Stay down," he said. "Please."
My ankle throbbed, already starting to heal but not fast enough. I looked up at him through blood and sweat. The protagonist stood above , backlit by arena lights, looking every inch the hero this story was supposed to be about.
Except I’d changed that story the mont I walked into it.
"No," I said.
Fire erupted from my hands.
Fire Fist activated, flas coating my knuckles and forearms like molten gauntlets. The heat washed over , familiar and hungry. I pushed myself up with my good leg, standing on borrowed power and spite.
"New trick?" Nolan asked.
"I’m full of surprises."
I threw a flaming punch. He blocked it with his forearm and the kinetic impact transferred straight into his body. But the fire stuck. His costu sleeve caught and he had to slap it out.
"Interesting," he said.
I grinned through blood. "Thought you’d like that."
He ca at again. I t him halfway. Fire against force. Speed against strength. Every punch I landed fed his ability, but every punch also burned. He couldn’t just absorb fire like he absorbed impacts. The flas had mass and heat and weight.
We traded blows in the burning intersection. His fists hit like freight trains. My fire scorched everything it touched. The ground cracked beneath us. Buildings trembled.
Sowhere overhead, Usagi scread Noel’s na.
I risked a glance upward. ra had found Noel’s physical body. Her red figure stood over the unconscious girl, a portal open behind her, ready to drop sothing heavy on Noel’s foot.
"Noel!" Usagi fired a massive gum shot from the water tower. The pink projectile sailed across the arena and slamd into ra’s portal before she could act. The adhesive sealed the gate shut and pinned ra to the wall of the building.
ra struggled against the gum, swearing in what might have been Spanish.
Nolan saw it too. His eyes found mine.
"Your team protected each other," he said. "Good."
"Don’t patronize ."
"I’m not. I respect it." He cracked his neck. "But you’re still losing."
He blurred again. This ti I was ready. I opened a gate directly in front of . Nolan’s punch went through the portal and ca out behind him, connecting with his own spine. He grunted, surprised, and stumbled forward.
I stretched my leg backward and used the elastic tension to launch a kick that caught him in the jaw. His head snapped to the side. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
First real damage I’d done all match.
He touched his lip, looked at the red on his fingers, and smiled.
"There you are."
The green light around him pulsed brighter. I felt the shift in his Essentia from ten feet away. The air got heavier, denser, like soone had turned gravity up a notch just around his body.
"Aurora," he said without breaking eye contact. "Get Usagi. I’ll handle this."
"Nolan—"
"Trust ."
Aurora didn’t argue. She pivoted and fired a light blast toward the water tower. Usagi dove behind cover, her position compromised.
Now it was just us.
The protagonist and the villain. Exactly how the story was supposed to end.
Except the villain had drain abilities, rubber body, fire fists, gravity manipulation, and portals. The protagonist just had one really good trick.
I stretched my knuckles and felt the elastic give.
"You ready to lose?" I asked.
"I don’t lose," Nolan said.
His stance dropped lower. The kinetic energy he’d been storing from every impact he’d taken since the match started flared green around both fists. This was the money shot. The mont where he ended it.
I grinned.
"Good. Neither do I."
We charged each other simultaneously.
His first punch shattered my guard. The kinetic force behind it drove through my fire coating like I wasn’t even wearing it. I felt ribs crack again, freshly healed bones breaking a second ti.
But I caught his wrist on the follow-through.
The drain opened.
Nolan’s eyes went wide as his Essentia poured into . Not slowly. Not gently. Fast and overwhelming, like soone had opened a dam straight into my chest. I tasted his power—sumr mornings and thunderstorms and sothing else, sothing that tasted like conviction and hope and every stupid heroic ideal ever written.
The taste of it turned my stomach. Everything about him was what I’d been before my first death. Before I learned what survival actually ant.
"Let go." His voice ca out rough as he tried to wrench himself free.
My fingers only gripped harder. "Co on then."
His free fist crashed into my jaw. Everything went sideways for a second. Copper flooded my mouth and sothing small and hard rattled against my tongue before I spat it out. A molar, probably. The blood ran hot down my chin and splattered against white strands of hair.
My hand stayed locked on his wrist.
The drain widened further. I was pulling his reserves dry, gulping down his Essentia like I’d been dying of thirst. The knowledge of his ability downloaded into my brain—how to feel impacts, how to store them, how to redirect them into explosive bursts.
His legs buckled. The glow in his eyes flickered.
"Ro," he said, his voice weak. "Stop."
"Sorry. Can’t."
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