According to Omizen's pn, three Armon-type dropships descended onto the crimson forest's tallest peak, their metallic angur hulls shaped like a bulky cleaver. At the rear of each ship, near the engines which billowed with ugly bck smoke, hung an attachment of artillery resembling a metallic spider with six limbs and a towering cannon that perked up from beneath the armor like a creature's head.

  Neither Li nor Ivy needed detailed accountings of the Consoritum to understand what they were up against. They ceased their pointless argument and made a break for the bushes. Luckily, it seemed, they hadn't been noticed.

  The sides of the dropship detached themselves to reveal an entire group of Consortium warriors composed of a few noticeably bulkier Daregens, three Vespers, and a handful of Psion operators whose size fortunately paled in comparison to Yrix.

  "I have an idea." Li reached out to Ivy with a Psionic link.

  "What? No, we need to leave the moment they get distracted." Ivy protested. "There are too many to face all on my own, especially with you!"

  "Okay, well, first of all, wow." Li scoffed. "And second of all, we can't just leave them here. That artillery is long ranged, they'll blow up our friends to kingdom come the moment they get a peep about their position."

  "And?"

  "Sonera spared your life, dipshit. Remember?"

  For the first time in what seemed like her entire existence, Ivy silently agreed. She couldn't really argue with such logic. Despite her inability to come to terms with her own feelings, she hadn't been oblivious to the mercy she had received on many occasions.

  "Don't swear at me."

  Li tried not to ugh out loud. "Are you serious?"

  "I am." Ivy tried to smother her own blush beneath the flesh of her cheeks.

  She was still flustered from the previous argument, a fact that only stung worse when she realized how quickly Li had focused in on the task at hand.

  "And so am I, when I tell you we have to do something," Li muttered in a serious tone. "Here's the pn."

  Ivy could see the girl's strategy five miles away.

  "Oh no, you don't!" The heiress hissed.

  Li expined in a comedically monotone voice, holding out both her hands as if serving a ptter. "So get this. Artillery shell goes boom."

  "How?!"

  "Imma figure it out."

  "No, expin!"

  "We ball."

  "You 'balled' st time with a total of four teammates to cover your sorry strategy!"

  "I got one more in me."

  Ivy covered her face with an exaggerated sigh. "So you need me to distract them."

  "Yuppers."

  The heiress shut her eyes, focusing entirely on controlling her baton as she forced the weapon to flutter about like a silver boomerang, crashing into a few distant branches before dissapearing out of sight. The Consortium warriors shifted their gaze like wild animals, searching on their motion trackers for what could have caused the commotion. That was stage one of the distraction.

  Li used two consecutive Psionic blinks to appear directly behind the first artillery pcement, her magenta trail shrouded in the dust and cmoring of machinery. For as long as the next few empcements were still nding, she had plenty of noise to finalize her pn.

  "Shit." Li narrowed her gaze, staring at a sealed compartment that contained several metal cylinders the size of her body. "Why couldn't they just keep their munitions lying around?"

  Realizing her 'comrade' needed more time, Ivy threw out her staff, using it to strike one of the Vesper's shielded armor before tossing her weapon into another random direction. A few deep-throated voices called out for assistance as the entire company poised itself for battle.

  "There." Li smiled as she climbed atop the giant machine, looking down at its shell to see a tiny window.

  Within the machine sat two Psions, their gaze fixated on the monitor screens that were tracking Ivy's weapons. But with no clear way inside, Li was left perplexed. Perhaps, she thought, her powers could be used in new and daring ways.

  But that was suicide. Right?

  "Ivy, I need a baton!" Li called out to the heiress with her Psionic link.

  That would require an even greater distraction. Ivy groaned loudly before standing up from her hiding pce, dusting the dirt and leaves off her dress. By the time the Consortium warriors had aimed their weapons at her, she had already retrieved her staff, sending it hurling towards them like a malestrom of ivory metal.

  Thankfully, the Vespers were of a lower rank and bothered to dive for cover. But the Daregen, whose armor was far shinier and bulkier than the ones encountered before, unfolded a massive disk-shaped shield from their forearms before stopping Ivy's staff in its tracks.

  The heiress squinted at the shield before tugging at it with all her strength, ripping it clean off the mechanism that kept it bound to the Daregen before sending it hurling towards the formation of warriors from behind. She only needed one look before knowing exactly where to pull. The spinning shield swept the warriors clean off their feet, allowing Ivy the chance to call her baton to her side.

  "Catch!"

  Ivy threw her baton into the air and, using the levitating shield as a bounce pad, sent it spiraling down towards Li's exact position with uncanny accuracy. She was learning. Or at the very least, she was learning, one step at a time, as such concentration left her wide open to a bst of psma from her left.

  Ivy's Psionic ambience flickered, having been nearly depleted by the Vespers who refused to simply stand and watch as the Daregen were tossed around. She called her staff to her side before using it to remotely combat the Vesper, all the while struggling to pick herself off the ground.

  "Li." Ivy groaned. "Figure something out already."

  "Holy moly wackamoli, she just trick-shotted that shi-." Li gasped, mouth agape, before catching Ivy's baton with her face.

  Li scrambled with her new weapon, looking down at the artillery cockpit with pensiveness as she attempted to gather the courage for her next move. One look at Ivy, however, gave her all the motivation she needed. Li dissapeared into a sea of translucent magenta before reappearing inside the cockpit, staring down at the two Psions from behind their seats.

  "Better scramble like an egg before you get folded like an omelet-."

  Before she could finish her joke, Ivy's baton sprang to life, bouncing against every inch of the cockpit as it assaulted the Psions with a flurry of attacks. Li was rather dazed, but in good time, she had enough energy to begin fumbling with the cockpit's controls using her outstretched hands.

  She had no idea what she was doing. And she could barely even interact with the controls. But somewhere along the line, she pressed something correctly. The vehicle beeped and chimed, directing Li to pick a firing path in its alien nguage.

  "Uhhh."

  Ivy chimed in, seeing through Li's eyes. "Left button, looks like a heart."

  "That looks like a butt."

  "Crank it!"

  "Haha, crank it." Li giggled as she did as she was instructed. "That's what she said."

  If Ivy weren't presently engaged in a fight for her life, she would have chided the girl for her immaturity. But there were more important matters at hand, such as the fiery streak of energy Li had just fired straight up into the sky. It would only be a few moments before that munition came crashing down, engulfing the mountaintop in fmes.

  Just as pnned.

  "Oh goodness." Li fumbled over herself as she teleported back outside the vehicle. "Oh, gee-wilgers."

  The Consortium warriors dove off the cliff, confident in their durability as they scrambled to escape the inevitable explosion. Ivy, on the other hand, was visibly weakened, limping across the ground with an audible whine.

  Her left leg was a bit singed.

  "C'mere," Li appeared behind the girl, grabbing her by the hand before speeding off. "Not gonna leave you here."

  Pulling the heiress in tow, Li utilized her immense speed to evade the oncoming wave of fire and debris as the entire artillery empcement became vaporized. She ran as fast as she could, refusing to look back and relying on the warmth of Ivy's hand to remind her she was alright. Such was the ferocity of the moment that Li failed to realize just how much more in tune she was with her own Psionic abilities.

  She ran across a sheer wall of stone.

  She didn't stop there, however, as Li led Ivy deeper into the forest as the sun descended over the horizon. When she finally came to a stop, both were covered in ash and sweat, tumbling into a pile of leaves as they rolled downhill.

  The mountain was abandoned, and the Consortium was evaded.

  "I think..." Li panted. "I think we made it."

  Ivy's breath hitched as she slumped over against a fallen tree. She was exhausted. And yet, sitting next to Li, with their hands still firmly csped togethor, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by a surge of energy.

  Ivy had to take her other hand and pry Li's fingers off, hesitating multiple times. Li took no offense, understanding the gesture to be a moment of rest and reassurance. The heiress was safe after all. She had done well.

  "Li." Ivy began to giggle, unable to control her feelings. "Did you say...scramble like an omelet?"

  Both girls ughed, their legs shifting under the dead leaves as they kicked at the air. Li rested alongside Ivy, their hands mere inches away. Their hearts began to beat out of their chests for reasons neither of them could comprehend.

  They stopped ughing.

  Ivy's hand tried desperately to tch onto Li's. But the heiress couldn't allow it. She grabbed onto the dirt tightly, restraining herself from doing something she would regret. From there, Li was the first to pull away.