(During the attack on Larkspur, Mr. Gallagher escorts as many townsfolk as he can find in an attempt to get them somewhere safe, hoping for this mess to be over. None of those people can hide their fear and concern, huddled up together with grim frowns. Shay too appears tense, yet he turns back, placing hope in Flare and Focus to put an end to this mess. Meanwhile, Focus runs across the entire town at high speed while taking out IRU soldiers whenever he goes. He ends up knocking out a group of soldiers while he’s at it. Another batch of soldiers attempts to link up with the others using their communicators, only to find that the vast majority of the soldiers aren’t responding.)
IRU Soldier 1A: (shocked) None of them are picking up! They can’t all be — !
Focus: Yes they can.
(Focus kicks the soldier in the face then quickly takes out the rest with swift blows, effectively dealing with all batches of soldiers in the area and finally making sure that the town is clear for now, looking rather unbothered about it.)
Focus: (unbothered) Guess that’s it for now. Might as well try to catch up with Flare. Now where did she go?
(Focus crosses his arms and narrows his eyes as he attempts to remember where Flare was last taken, finally recalling how she got dragged outside of the town and into the forest, promptly heading out for her with a navy blue energy trail. Meanwhile, Flare stands on one knee while panting in exhaustion, seeing Gauntlet approaching, his grin replaced with a nonchalant and unbothered expression. He shrinks his gauntlets and instead pulls out a plasma gun.)
Gauntlet: (nonchalantly) I guess I softened you up well enough. It’s high time I finish this.
(Gauntlet charges up his plasma gun and aims it at Flare, looking nonchalant and yet sharp, while Flare pants in exhaustion then grits her teeth and clenches her fists. Gauntlet fires, but Flare jumps out the way and attempts to get out of here and lose Gauntlet. Gauntlet launches a coil at her feet in an attempt to incapacitate her, but she jumps to avoid it latching onto her feet and continues traversing across the jungle while panting. However, Gauntlet quickly swings across a tree and strikes her with a whip katar, sending her flying into a tree.)
Gauntlet: No running away from this, you hear?
(Gauntlet then circles around Flare at high speed, using the surrounding trees for cover. With that, she can’t pinpoint his location and see him coming, being in the middle of all the bushes and trees, and she grits her teeth in frustration.)
Flare: (thinking to herself, gritted her teeth) Now what?! I can’t use my powers, he’s just too damn powerful, and I’m too damn tired! I can’t even see him coming like that either!
(Flare growls and clenches her fists in exasperation, caught in a moment of indecision in the middle of this inescapable trap but then suddenly, but upon squinting her eyes and looking around for a brief moment, she recognizes the area.)
Flare: (thinking to herself) This is… where Focus and I trained earlier in the day.
(With that striking resemblance, she visualizes Focus running around her in that same manner, using the bushes for cover as well, recalling that training session, back when she was surrounded and forced to block Focus’s pine cones. She also remembers what Focus told her back then after throwing a pine cone at her with full force that grazed her head.)
Focus (flashback): You don’t need eyes to dodge. You need awareness. Most people rely on sight, and that’s their mistake. Your other senses are faster. Hearing, pressure, air movement… they all give away what’s coming before your eyes can catch up.
Focus (flashback): See what I’m talking about? When someone moves fast, they displace air. You can feel it — a rush, a change in pressure, even temperature, and a sound. Every sound has direction. Every step has a rhythm. If I move to your left, your right ear hears me half a second later. If you can sense that shift, you’ll know which side the hit’s coming from. You’ll never be blinded. That’s anticipation, not reaction.
(Flare’s pupils widen as she reminisces those words, and as she looks around, her frustration and confusion fade away, replaced by a sense of calm. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath and assuming a firm fighting stance despite Gauntlet running in circles around her, baffling him.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself) What is this moron doing? She couldn’t lay a finger on me with her eyes open, and now she thinks she can do so with her eyes closed?
(Flare focuses intently on the rustling of the bushes and the other faint sounds around her, which she perceives in an amplified manner. Unbothered, Gauntlet fires his plasma gun at her, and she attentively notices the sound of him pulling the trigger and the sound of the approaching plasma blast as well, which is accompanied by a faint shift in the air as it heads for her. Having picked up all of those cues in mere milliseconds, she doesn’t overthink, immediately jumping out of the way upon sensing the incoming blast and effectively dodging it, leaving Gauntlet shocked.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself, shocked) She… dodged it?! With her eyes closed?! Acting on instinct is a thing, sure, but… are people like her even capable of that?!
(Gauntlet grits his teeth and keeps circling around her regardless, firing a few more shots at her, but she senses each of them coming at her along with their directions and dodges them with ease, hardly breaking her stance while doing so. Gauntlet attempts more shots at her in frustration, but she still dodges eloquently, and inside her mind, she visualizes a circle around her, mapping out the spots where Gauntlet fired at her to complete that illustration. Upon going deeper and concentrating further, she gets a solid idea of where Gauntlet currently is, just as he starts to slow down a bit to get a shot at her. She opens her eyes and lunges at him, timing her approach to head right at him, to his shock.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself) How did she — ?!
(Gauntlet swings his wrist to aim at her with the plasma gun, but she beats him to the blow, landing a roundhouse kick at his face that sends him flying into a more open area. As he regains his footing, he sees Flare approaching him, her lips curling into a faint smirk, which only frustrates him further.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself, frustrated) I don’t get it! I took away her Surge! It was supposed to be mere child’s play after that!
Flare: I’m not going down so easily. (fiercely smirking) You hear me?!
(Gauntlet grits his teeth at this and takes a fighting stance opposite to Flare. He enlarges the glove of his free hand, turning it back into his trademark gauntlet, a sign that he’s taking things more seriously. He uses this gauntlet to grapple himself upwards towards a tree and continues swinging above Flare while firing at her with his plasma gun, but she eloquently dodges the blasts.)
Flare: (thinking to herself) I don’t stand a chance in the air. Going offensive won’t help either. I better forget about winning this and just make sure I hold out, at least until Focus shows up. (faintly smirking) Knowing him, he’ll be done with the cannon fodder in no time.
(Seeing that he can no longer incapacitate her so easily anymore, Gauntlet places his plasma gun back into his pocket and enlarges his other glove, turning it into a gauntlet as well. Equipping his two gauntlets once again, he uses a pair of whip katars to slice off the surrounding trees into smaller and smaller chunks, and then he uses his pair of coil ropes to launch the slices at Flare, who dodges the projectiles as she runs after Gauntlet. He reappears above her and fires a couple of blasts, but she quickly jumps ahead to avoid the blasts, only for Gauntlet to launch a chunk of bark right in front of her, blocking her path and slightly disorienting her. That gives him the chance to strike her with his whip katar and send her flying.)
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Gauntlet: (smirking) I don’t know what you had going on a while ago, but it sure won’t help.
(The moment Flare sets foot on the ground, she dodges another projectile and punches a whip katar away, gritting her teeth as she retakes her fighting stance. Gauntlet launches his gauntlets at Flare, and the pair fire several blasts at her, but she jumps out of the way and runs off to lose them. However, she gets caught off guard when Gauntlet lunges at her from her right side, his gauntlets instantly returning to his hand. He wraps a whip katar around her waist and throws her into a tree, and before she regains her footing, he ties her to the tree with that same whip katar. He shrinks his other gauntlet into a glove and pulls out his plasma gun once again, aiming it at Flare to finally incapacitate her.)
Gauntlet: (nonchalantly) This was a nice showing back then. Could’ve made a difference against a lesser opponent. Anyway…
(Flare grits her teeth as she tries to break free from that fierce grip, but just as Gauntlet was about to pull the trigger, he and Flare’s eyelids widen in shock upon sensing someone approaching for a mere second. It’s none other than Focus, who arrives at the scene at high speed with a navy blue energy trail and drop-kicks the whip katar from the right, a kick so powerful it causes the whip katar to vibrate in an intense manner. The kick also causes Gauntlet to lose balance and miss his shot while losing his grip on Flare as well, who lands back on the ground and manages to regain her balance, all in a mere instant.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself) It’s… him!
(Before he gets to regain his balance, Focus lands on his feet and immediately punches him in the gut, sending him flying. He uses the coil ropes coming from his gauntlets and wraps them around a pair of trees, slowing himself down and regaining his footing in that manner. He grits his teeth as Focus stands opposite to him and takes a fighting stance, Flare joining him as well.)
Gauntlet: (gritting his teeth) Focus.
Focus: (firmly) Gauntlet.
Flare: Wait, you guys know each other?
Focus: Only surface-level details. How’s it going?
Flare: (shrugging) Well enough. (grinning) But it sure took you long enough. What, you were waiting to make a dramatic entrance or something?
Focus: (flatly) How did you know?
Flare: (exasperated) Wait, so you were watching me getting rag-dolled by that jerk all along! And for what?! A chance to aura farm?!
Focus: That, and I was also curious to see how you were getting on.
Flare: (seething in annoyance) Unbelievable.
Focus: (annoyed) Come on now! Any other entrance would be unbearably awkward! Imagine if I just walked in and said something stupid like (sarcastically speaking in a squeaky voice) “hey, Flare, I’m here to help!” I dunno about you, but having to arrive in the middle of the fight sounding like a timid nerd struggling for words is kind of a personal offense for most people!
Flare: (blankly) Well… when you put it that way, I… guess it’s fair.
Gauntlet: (nonchalantly) Sound argument. You do care about style, I’ll give you that. (noticing the red ribbon wrapped around Focus’s neck) Oh, and what’s with the ribbon?
Flare: I was just about to ask the same thing.
Focus: It’s… nothing. (muttering to Flare) I actually won the cooking contest and earned the ribbon for it.
Flare: (beaming with excitement) Really?! Ha! (playfully nudging him) I knew you could do it! You actually “cooked”!
(Focus reacts with a blank expression for a moment then groans in annoyance upon picking up that pun, while Gauntlet raises an eyebrow as he sees Flare and Focus chatting together as if he’s not even around, only annoying him further.)
Flare: And what about the other guys?
Focus: (firmly) I dealt with all of the soldiers beforehand, so there’s no need to worry about the townsfolk. Mr. Gallagher is — .
Gauntlet: I’m right here, you know?!
Flare and Focus: (in unison) Huh?
(Gauntlet grits his teeth and angrily swings a whip katar at the duo, but Focus strikes it away, only for the former to launch a barrage of blasts at them with the other gauntlet, forcing Flare and Focus to run around the forest to avoid the blasts, with the latter canceling the few heading his way with precise chops while running alongside Flare. He notices that Flare isn’t using her Fire Surge, instead resorting to simply dodging the blasts.)
Focus: (baffled) I see that you’re not using your Surge. What gives?
Flare: Oh, yeah, about that… guess this guy’s gauntlets can absorb my powers or something like that. The point is… I can’t use it anymore.
Focus: (still firm) That’s interesting.
Flare: (with a softer tone) Oh, and… uh… I had to fight without my powers for a while now, and… I thought about what you trained me to do. Guess it’s… not that useless, so… thanks for helping me out back then.
(Focus’s expression softens upon hearing Flare’s genuine words, who also blushes a little while bowing her head in embarrassment. Gauntlet swings in front of the duo and launches a pair of whip katars at them, but Focus eloquently strikes them away. Flare notices a smirk forming on his lips as he does so then takes a fighting stance, and in response, she grins in excitement and takes a fighting stance beside him and opposite to Gauntlet.)
Flare: (grinning) YOLO!
(Flare and Focus lunge at Gauntlet, who attempts to grapple onto a tree with a hook, only for Focus to kick it away, putting an end to his advance. This helps Flare land a kick at his face, sending him flying, and with Focus’s intervention, he remains confined to the ground and unable to make much use of his mobility options. He once again attempts to grapple onto a pair of trees behind him, avoiding Flare’s next blow, only for Focus to jump from branch to branch and chase him down, a navy blue aura enveloping him. He uses his whip katars to try and slice off the surrounding branches, but Focus kicks one away and manages to find a branch to land on and jump off. He reaches him with that jump, and Gauntlet is forced to block Focus’s kick and get closer to the ground, oblivious to the fact that his gauntlets are showing cracks from the kick he blocked. Before he uses his air shoes accordingly to get back up, Flare leaps into him and kicks him in the chest, forcing him to set foot on the ground once again.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself, gritting his teeth) I can’t use my aerial advantage with Focus constantly meddling like that! Pinning me to the ground makes me susceptible to attack!
(He gets no chance to catch a breath, with Flare attempting another kick that he’s forced to block with one of his gauntlets once again, adding to those small cracks. Focus then rapidly arrives from his right side and attempts a punch at his face, but he blocks it with his gauntlet and gets sent skidding back. He blocks a punch from Flare, who gives him no time to regain his balance, and then Focus — finding an opening to land a blow — steps in from the left and knees his gut, sending him skidding back. He grimaces in frustration as he sees Flare and Focus on either side of him, the former cockily grinning and the latter firm as ever.)
Gauntlet: (thinking to himself) They didn’t exchange words! They’re just going at me relentlessly, blow after blow, and with such synergy! Those two… won’t they just let me catch a break?!
(He propels himself backwards with his air shoes while charging up both of his gauntlets for a single powerful blast. He launches that blast at Focus as he jumps at him for a blow, taking that blast and getting sent flying. However, Gauntlet notices a faint smirk on Focus’s face, as if that’s exactly what he intended, and unbeknownst to him, Flare seizes the opportunity and dashes at him for a punch, setting one foot on the ground as she closes in on him. She reminisces about what Focus taught her about landing punches, as well as how he demonstrated that in front of her.)
Flare: (muttering to herself) Feet… (getting ready to swing) hips… shoulder… (swinging for a punch, out loud) fist!
(Before Gauntlet notices her approach and blocks her, Flare lands a powerful punch at his gut, exactly as Focus demonstrated, sending him flying. His gauntlets crash into a tree, further breaking apart, but he still doesn’t notice that and gets back up, panting in exhaustion and gritting his teeth. Focus joins Flare, who nods at him with a grin, and he nods back with a firm expression as he retakes his fighting stance beside her. Gauntlet gets back up on his feet and grimaces at them.)
Gauntlet: (grimacing) The commander wasn’t wrong. You two are a handful, and honestly, part of me is glad that I didn’t get the job done so easily back then. (clenching his fists) But I’ve got a point to prove and a job to do.
(Flare and Focus notice his gauntlets starting to cripple and form sparks, and just before they get to say anything, Gauntlet aims his gauntlets at them. However, as he attempts to fire a pair of coil ropes at them, the gauntlets suddenly stop working, with the sparks developing into crimson flames, to his shock.)
Gauntlet: (shocked) What in the world?!
(And so, the gauntlets erupt and release the crimson flames it priorly had stored. The trees catch those flames, and the fire quickly spreads out around the forest, to Flare and Focus’s shock, who get sent back by that massive burst of flames. As Mr. Gallagher and the other townspeople gather up to assess the damage to their town, they suddenly see the entire town getting caught in the wildfire, the relentless crimson flames devouring everything that the townspeople worked so hard to prepare for the festival.)
Mr. Gallagher: (shocked) Dear God.
(Flare and Focus glance around in shock, seeing the forest caught up in flames so quickly, while Gauntlet too is surprised. The duo lunge at Gauntlet in an attempt to stop this, but he regains control of his gauntlets and strikes them with a fiery whip katar, sending them flying. The situation developed from bad to worse, erupting into a full-scale wildfire. Is there any way to save the day?! And is Gauntlet ultimately too stubborn to go down?!)
