The twins stared down at their battered opponents, and in that instant the battlefield's balance shifted like a scale suddenly weighted with lead. For three heartbeats, nobody moved. Every muscle coiled tight, every breath held, waiting for the inevitable.

Ashley struck first.

Wind propelled her upward while plasma jets screamed from her hands, driving her forward in a streak of white-hot fury. Straight toward Angelo.

She was fast. Faster than anything he'd fought before.

Instinct overrode thought. Angelo grabbed Neiva, his forged energy wings erupting from his back as he launched them both skyward, clearing the treeline in seconds.

"Hold on—what about Sol?" Red's voice cut through their shared consciousness.

"Shit." The word ground through Angelo's clenched teeth, but the choice was already made. Ashley closed the distance behind them with terrifying speed, and turning back meant death.

Plasma beams carved through the night air.

"DIE!" Ashley's scream accompanied each blast, raw grief twisted into pure destruction.

The silver threading on Angelo's Trinergy jacket saved them—those unpainted strips giving him rear vision even as he fled. He banked hard left. A beam scorched past where his head had been a heartbeat ago. Rolled right. Another blast turned the air where Neiva's legs had hung into superheated vapor.

Neiva clung to him as they zigzagged through the sky, feeling like she'd been strapped to a malfunctioning rocket. "Two on one! We could take her!"

Angelo couldn't spare the breath to answer. His wings beat harder, diving toward the forest canopy in hopes the trees would slow her pursuit.

It worked. Barely. The dense vegetation forced Ashley to adjust her trajectory, buying them precious seconds.

"Did you see what she did to my armor?" Angelo finally managed between gasping breaths. "We wouldn't last ten seconds!"

Ashley's response came in the form of plasma beams that didn't dodge trees—they simply obliterated them. Ancient trunks exploded into burning fragments, clearing a path of destruction behind their flight.

"She's gaining!" Neiva twisted to look back, her face illuminated by deadly white light.

"You think I don't know that?" Angelo's wings faltered slightly. "Can't push any harder without Red and Blue!"

The realization hit him like cold water. He'd become dependent on them. Without them, he was—

Neiva made her decision. She grabbed Angelo, twisted in his grip, and kicked off his chest toward the nearest tree. Her Force aura flared yellow as she caught a branch, compressed it like a spring, and launched them both toward the next tree.

"What the hell are you doing?" Angelo barked.

"Saving us." Neiva's voice came tight with concentration as she bounced from trunk to trunk, her movements deliberately random, unpredictable. "Face it—I'm faster like this."

She was right. Her Force-enhanced leaps put more distance between them and their pursuer than his wings ever could.

Angelo grumbled something incomprehensible, humiliation burning hotter than Ashley's plasma. Being carried like some damsel in distress—

"Brilliant strategy, Neiva." Blue's voice carried scholarly approval despite their dire circumstances. "Angelo, with her handling our movement, all three of us can utilize your connection simultaneously."

"And accomplish what exactly?" Angelo snapped at empty air. "We'd all be operating at a third of our actual power!"

"You're missing the fundamental point!" Blue's formal tone cracked slightly. "We aim to distract, not defeat!"

Angelo blinked. "Oh."

"CRIMSON PUPPET OF CHAOS, HEED MY CALL!" Red's theatrical announcement preceded his materialized form appearing directly in Ashley's path—a grinning crimson construct that dove straight at her face.

She deleted it with a plasma blast. Another puppet appeared. Then an azure one joined it.

"Impossible!" Ashley shrieked, incinerating both. "I destroyed those things! How do they keep—"

More puppets. She had to slow down, had to deal with these pestering distractions that swarmed her like—

"This is actually fun!" Red's voice bubbled with chaotic glee. "Come on, Angie! Join the party!"

Angelo's teeth ground together. "Nothing about this is fun."

But he did it anyway. Three forged energy puppets now harassed Ashley—crimson, azure, orange—zipping and diving like demented fireflies while Neiva carried Angelo deeper into the forest, actually gaining ground.

Until Ashley realized they were literally just mosquitoes. She stopped destroying them and simply flew through their attacks, swatting them aside when necessary, her focus locked on the fleeing orange figure below.

"It's not working!" Neiva stated the painfully obvious.

"Can't think straight like this!" Frustration bled through Angelo's voice.

Neiva's resolve crystallized into something hard and certain. "Then hide. I'll bait her."

"What?" Angelo didn't process the words immediately. "Absolutely not. She'll kill you!"

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"My life means nothing if you die!" The words ripped from Neiva's throat, raw and absolute. "So hide and figure out how to beat her before she does!"

"That's..." Angelo couldn't find words. "That's insane..."

"I agree with Neiva," Blue said quietly. "It represents our best probability of collective survival."

Angelo bit his lip hard enough to taste copper. "Fine. What's your plan?"

Neiva nodded once, sharp and efficient. "We use the distance we've gained to make a puppet wearing your jacket. If we're lucky, she'll follow it long enough for you to think of something."

"Ha! Just like we pulled on Hugo!" Red approved. "Smart girl!"

Angelo sighed, already working. "And where exactly am I supposed to hide?"

"Saw a cave about half a klick back. I'm circling around now. When I give the signal, have Red and Blue do something really distracting, and I'll throw you inside."

"Bait and switch." Angelo's voice carried resignation. "Fine. But you don't engage her. You hear me? You run."

"I'm not stupid." Bitterness crept into Neiva's tone. "Even I know my limits."

Angelo dressed the forged energy puppet in his Trinergy jacket—a difficult task while bouncing through trees at breakneck speed. Red and Blue kept dancing in and out of Ashley's vision, puppets appearing and vanishing in patterns designed to confuse.

"Ready," Neiva said. "We're almost there."

Angelo looked at her profile, conflict written across his features. "Don't you dare die out there. I'm serious. Don't do anything stupid."

Bill's face flashed through his mind, refusing his order to run and dying for it. History couldn't repeat itself. Not again.

He reached through their shared consciousness. "Red. Blue. While I'm working this out, you two stay with her. She's got the swords as anchor points—use them."

"Anything for sugar-tits!" Red's cheer sounded only slightly forced. "Girl's got serious balls!"

"That's..." Blue started, then sighed. "Regardless of phrasing, I concur with the sentiment."

"Now!" Neiva commanded.

The crimson and azure puppets dove at Ashley's face simultaneously, detonating into clouds of colored smoke. While her vision was blocked, Neiva hurled Angelo toward the cave entrance like she was shot-putting a boulder.

Angelo hit the ground hard—Neiva's Force aura gave her frightening raw power—and immediately scrambled deeper into the darkness where no one could see him. He dropped onto a rock formation, chest heaving, while outside Neiva zigzagged away from the cave with the orange puppet still in her arms. Red and Blue continued manifesting fresh puppets from her position, each one adding to Ashley's mounting frustration.

Back at camp, Sol blinked at his suddenly empty surroundings. Everyone had scattered, leaving him alone with—

He turned slowly toward Nova. Only her eyes showed through that crimson helmet, cold and dead as winter stars.

"So." Sol gestured in mock surrender. "Technically, I'm not the one you've got beef with. If anything, I should be mad at you." His hands spread wider, performance-ready. "But I'm willing to call it water under the bridge. We both lower our weapons and—"

"Silence."

The single word cut like a knife across vocal cords. Her tone carried the quality of someone who'd already died inside and was simply waiting for their body to catch up.

"You die. Then he dies. End of story."

Sol's jaw tightened. The playful mask dropped. "Okay."

He popped his neck, rolling his shoulders as his aura flared violent silver. "Then I take it back. Guess it's payback time for that metal shard you put through me. For real this time."

Sol launched silver fireballs in rapid succession. Nova created a shield from her crimson metal, intercepting each blast. The metal glowed white-hot where the flames struck but held firm.

Nova studied the hovering shield with detached curiosity. Sol watched it with intense focus, eyes widening when nothing happened.

She grew bored. With a gesture, the shield twisted into a spiraling blade and shot toward him like a heat-seeking missile.

Sol dodged—far more than necessary, his movements exaggerated as he dove and rolled across the clearing.

Nova's confusion lasted exactly one second.

BOOM.

The shield exploded violently, shrapnel screaming outward in a deadly radius.

"I see." Understanding settled over her like frost. "Your ability detonates matter."

"Not as dumb as you look." Sol landed with a smirk that immediately faltered when he caught the dangerous narrowing of her eyes. "Uh... that came out way meaner than I meant."

"Die."

A simple declaration followed by a death knight and her twin blades screaming through the air.

Sol's smirk vanished. He threw himself into evasive maneuvers, refusing to touch any of her metal with his explosive darkness. She was faster now—much faster than before. Every successful dodge felt less like skill and more like borrowed time.

And borrowed time always runs out.

"ARGH!" Sol yelped, leaping backward. Her blade carved through his Auranium underarmor like it was tissue, opening a clean line across his torso. Not deep, but blood already stained his silver jacket. He landed in a crouch across the clearing. "Should've taken this thing off..."

"You should be more concerned about your life than your jacket." Nova's voice carried no emotion whatsoever.

Sol peeled off the jacket anyway, tossing it through the CampShip's open doorway. "Not accepting defeat. That's loser mentality."

His entire being crystallized into pure determination. He launched skyward, and to Nova's visible surprise, managed to stay airborne through controlled detonations beneath his feet—tiny explosions that propelled him like a human firework. Silver lightning danced along his right arm, coalescing into something new.

"Get ready for this!" Genuine excitement crept into his voice despite everything. "Even gave it a name!"

His darkness stretched and twisted, forming a whip of crackling electric violence. "This one's for Veronica! SILVER THUNDERWHIP!"

He lashed out, the whip cracking with unpredictable movements. Each strike kissed the ground near Nova's feet, and after a heartbeat's delay, detonated violently. At first she held position, tanking the explosions. But after several consecutive blasts, even her enhanced armor showed damage. She began dodging.

Then she stopped dodging and deliberately blocked with her gauntlet.

Sol's eyes widened with realization a fraction too late. She launched into the air, closing distance with impossible speed. Sol veered away but she hurled her gauntlet at him. It detonated mid-flight, the explosion catching him square in the ribs and sending him tumbling like a ragdoll through the air before he managed to stabilize.

He wiped blood from his mouth, muttering, "Clever girl..."

She held the advantage in both offense and defense. He held superior maneuverability. Was it a stalemate? Or were they both too stubborn to admit defeat?

Deep in the cave, Angelo closed his eyes. His mind raced through scenarios, calculations, desperate strategies.

"Energy fusion? No chance. We can't pull it off this soon into training..."

He kept circling back to one idea, even knowing how terrible it was.

"No choice. Share my connection with the others and charge a Trinergy attack."

Frustration crashed over him like a wave. "Worst plan ever. It'll take forever to charge something strong enough to actually take her down. And even if we manage it, she'll just dodge—I'm not fast enough to land a hit!"

"Just think of something before this all goes to hell!" Red's usual cheer had an edge now.

"You're not helping!"

"Arguing wastes time we don't have." Blue's formal composure was cracking. "Both of you stop."

Angelo scratched at his head frantically before clamping his hands over his ears. "Everyone shut up and let me THINK!"

His breathing came hard and fast. Sweat dripped despite the cave's chill. The cold, calculated Angel of Death was discovering he might have bitten off more than he could chew.

Outside, Neiva zigzagged through the forest, an increasingly suspicious Ashley burning through trees behind her.

At camp, Sol fought for survival against a grief-dead opponent who felt no pain, no mercy, no hesitation.

And hundreds of miles away in opposite directions, two other groups found places to settle.

Milo, Ivan, and the Biodroids reached Leilani, securing lodging for the night.

Maxwell, Vera, and the professional Aurons arrived at MountShade, locating accommodations without incident—no bandits to complicate their evening.

Neither group knew their target might be dead before dawn broke.

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