#chapter 1x11

Jo put everything that she had into that Shadow Step. The speed of her Shadow Step depended on how fast she could move without it, and with her aura up, she was more than twice as fast as she was normally. No one could perceive her movements during a Shadow Step of that level. No one could see for sure just where the Shadow Step would end and Jo would strike, and yet Karen, as Soon as Jo vanished from her line of sight, sidestepped in such a way that, when Jo completed the Step, her fist outstretched to strike, the attack missed Karen by inches. Even worse, Karen somehow knew just where to attack to hit Jo where she was most open, scoring two solid jabs to Jo’s ribs. Jo stumbled to the side, away from Karen, grabbing her side in surprise.

That doesn’t make sense, she thought. She must have guessed where I’d end up, and how I’d attack, and got lucky.

Jo stepped in close to Karen. She threw a series of punches at full speed, aiming for sensitive areas of Karen’s torso. With her aura up, she hoped to be able to strike so fast the Karen wouldn’t be able to react, but only her first jab came anywhere close to accomplishing that goal. Karen deflected it at the last moment, and then began stepping and leaning in such a way that each of Jo’s strikes hit only the air around her. She moved as little as possible to accomplish this goal. It reminded Jo of the way that she would move to dodge attacks, but Karen’s movements were even less than Jo’s, and she seemed to start each movement just as Jo struck, before it was possible to see how she was going to attack.

Jo cranked up her aura, and began circling back and forth around Karen, attacking from multiple directions. Even without Shadow Step, using the speed of her aura alone, it still sometimes seemed that Jo was attacking from more than one place at once, but Karen was never fooled. Even though it should have been impossible to see at least half of Jo’s attacks, Karen always seemed to know where they were coming from and make the exact movements necessary to deflect them with the least amount of effort. Finally, after a few minutes of this, Karen sidestepped inside of one of Jo’s kicks, deflected her leg outward, and then, without even looking, stepped back, inside Jo’s guard, and elbowed her in the abdomen. Jo fell backward, her balance lost, but she managed to recover quickly and spring back to her feet.

Jo Shadow Stepped again. This time she changed things up, circling Karen a bit before attacking from behind. Karen didn’t turn with Jo, proving that she wasn’t actually tracking Jo’s movements when she Shadow Stepped. In fact, just as Jo moved to attack, she saw Karen raise her defenses, looking in another direction. Jo felt momentarily relieved, until Karen ducked and turned, avoiding Jo’s attack, and driving her own fist into Jo’s chest. Without even looking, she’d countered a sneak attack that should have been impossible to follow.

Jo fell back again. Karen didn’t hit hard, and her movements weren’t particularly fast, but she had the advantage of being able to move within a small radius. Coupled with the simplicity and the precision of her attacks, Karen was using far less stamina than Jo, and as far as Jo could tell, Karen wasn’t using any Sol yet. Already, keeping her aura going was wearing Jo out. She had to score a good hit using her superior power if she was going to have any chance of evening things out.

So Jo once again Shadow Stepped right at Karen, only to change direction at the last moment. She started to circle Karen at high speed, just as she had Christopher Johnson in their final exchange. She leaped from shadow to shadow. In the center of Jo’s technique, Karen could feel Jo’s presence in the movement of the air around her, but all she could see of Jo was a faint blur. Karen seemed just as calm as ever, however, which surprised Jo. She almost stumbled and lost the Shadow Step, but she managed to recover.

Still, the close call left her with adrenaline pumping through her veins. She attacked on impulse, flickering back into Karen’s field of view. Karen even looked momentarily surprised, as Jo’s swinging fist drew toward her face. She turned, leaned her body to the side, and raised her hands in time to push Jo’s attack ever so slightly off course. The strike missed, but Jo could feel the hairs on Karen’s face tickle her hand, the attack was so close.

Jo smiled, and she renewed her Shadow Step, darting back to the corner of the makeshift arena, and then zipping between it and the other three. She was sure now. Karen was guessing at Jo’s movements. Maybe her Sol gave her extra awareness, like the ability to feel where people were without having to see them at all. It wasn’t unheard of, and it was a useful power. It allowed you to react more quickly to what your opponent planned to do, but Jo had proven that she was fast enough to overwhelm that sense, whatever it was. Unless Karen was holding back her true speed, Jo had her outclassed.

She zipped toward Karen again, and again, jumping between the corners of the arena and the center at full speed. She was depleting her stamina, but it would be worth it. She was building up more and more speed, and Karen didn’t seem to know where she was or where she would appear. She didn’t seem confused, either, but she and her allies had proven to be able to keep composed in the face of shocking situations, so that wasn’t surprising.

Jo made her move. She flickered into view in front of Karen. Karen struck, but her attack sailed clear through Jo, revealing this Jo to be a latent image, like the one that she’d used against Christopher. Karen was surprised, and turned quickly to try and locate the real Jo before she could attack in earnest, but she made a mistake and turned the wrong way. Jo flickered back into view behind her opponent, and threw her heaviest punch at the back of Karen’s head. Backed by the strength of Jo’s aura, and the momentum from her Shadow Step, Karen, with no aura of her own, would be knocked out instantly.

Jo was sure that she’d won, so it was a huge surprise when Karen turned and ducked beneath Jo’s attack. She brought her right fist back, and suddenly energy surged from where she stood. Her body became wrapped in silvery light, and she punched Jo square in the gut. The force of Karen’s attack was enough to cancel Jo’s forward momentum. All of that energy meeting and clashing within her torso was enough to leave Jo seeing stars, her stomach churning, as she fell to the ground. Her own aura collapsed, and Karen, as calmly as ever, allowed her aura to fade away.

It took Jo a minute to recover. She stumbled to her feet, and shuffled away from Karen, who waited patiently. Jo relived the last exchange in her head. Karen had begun turning at the very moment that Jo had committed to her attack, at the very moment that she could no longer change direction. It was insane. She’d reacted not as if she knew where Jo was, but as if she knew where Jo was going to be. Was Jo telegraphing her attacks in some way that she hadn’t realized? If so, then how? And why, then, had Karen seemed genuinely surprised by her attack earlier?

Jo was amazed. She’s never seen anyone fight like Karen. Her movements were so simple and clean that there was an elegance to them that Jo hadn’t thought possible. Jo tried to renew her aura, but she found that she couldn’t. Her heart was still beating fast, and now…

Is my hand shaking? She thought. She looked down at her right hand, her main hand, and sure enough, her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. She was so off-put by Karen that she was actually unable to control a part of her body. She didn’t know how to react, so she did what she always did when things seemed out of her control: she doubled down. She clenched her fist, and willed her hand to go still, and then she bore down as hard as she could on the energies within her, and her aura flashed back to life.

Jo lunged at Karen. She struck twice, once with each fist, and then threw a kick at Karen’s head. Karen deflected each punch, and then ducked beneath the kick. She shuffled to the side, and her aura flashed to life again, for just an instant, propelling her inside Jo’s guard. With one foot still off of the ground, Jo couldn’t Shadow Step away as Karen launched a swift jab to her sternum, but she could bring her arms together to divert Karen’s strike down and to the side. She brought her foot back down, and drove herself forward, aiming to drive her right elbow into Karen’s chest, but Karen sidestepped, and knocked Jo’s arm up and away, and struck with her own elbow, driving it into Jo’s side.

The two stepped apart from each other. Once again, Karen had moved as if she knew what Jo was going to do. So this time, when Jo moved to attack, she tried keeping her arms close to her body until the moment of her attack, coming in low with a left jab, followed by a right. She hoped that this would prevent her from telegraphing her moves, in whatever way she was. It slowed her down a bit, as it meant varying from her usual technique, but she hoped that that wouldn’t matter. Despite her efforts, however, Karen avoided the first strike, and deflected the second. She seemed to almost have an easier time than she had before.

So Jo, desperate to surprise her opponent again, this time when she was prepared to do so and could use that surprise to her advantage, tried another straightforward feint, followed by a Shadow Step around behind her opponent, but Karen didn’t even flinch, and she turned ahead of Jo, shuffled forward, and struck Jo with her knee, knocking her out of her Shadow Step. It had only been a glancing blow to her oblique muscles, but with the speed of the Shadow Step behind her, the impact was magnified several fold. Meanwhile Karen remained unharmed, protected by her hard knee cap.

Jo almost collapsed. She had to catch herself to keep from falling, and stumbled away from Karen, clutching her side. She took a deep breath, and forced her body completely upright, but it was painful to do so. She’d taken a major hit thrice now in roughly the same area, and the pain of it was starting to get to her. Sweating, and shaking again, she returned to the question of how Karen was able to keep track of where she was, and predict where she was going to strike. She looked once again at Karen, and she was taken aback. Karen was ignoring her, running through a series of practice forms as if Jo weren’t even there.

“What’re you…” Jo began, but her question evaporated when she realized that Karen’s movements were familiar. Karen darted back and forth quickly, alternating punching high and low, utilizing elbow strikes in between her other blows. It took Jo less than a second to realize where she knew these forms from. She took a step back, and then another.

“Sorry if the technique is a little off,” Karen said in between attacks, “I’m not as practiced as you are, but I saw enough that I’ve managed to get pretty close.”

She stopped moving, and gestured toward a building further down the street, “I was watching from over there when you were practicing here a couple days ago. Between seeing you practice, and seeing you fight at the exhibition match, it was more than enough to note the basics of your fighting style, and then work out the rest from there.”

She turned to face Jo again, “Now I can predict how you’re going to attack each time you attack. Granted, you’re really fast, and keeping up with you, even when I know where you’re going to be, takes some effort, but it’s enough. I’m able to predict every move that you make before you make it, and even identify the best moments to strike to inflict the most damage with the least effort.”

Jo was reeling. She thought back on the fight so far, and suddenly it was obvious. Of course Karen hadn’t been guessing. That was impossible. Karen had actually been predicting her movements. It was the only explanation for everything that she’d been able to do. Even knowing how she was doing it, Jo had no idea what she could do. If she’d been aware of this at the start of the fight, she might have been able to change up her fighting style enough to counter Karen’s advantage, but after taking so many devastating hits, that wasn’t an option anymore. The moment that Karen saw that Jo was trying to mix things up, she would attack with everything that she had before Jo could get her bearings.

Jo let her aura disappear again, and she stood there in silence. Karen, realizing that her opponent was deep in thought, had the courtesy to wait. What could Jo do? She was honestly tempted to surrender the fight, so that Karen and her allies would finally explain what their intentions were. If she could buy enough time, she might be able to recover a little of her strength, and catch Karen off guard and drive her off. She put that idea out of mind instantly, though, seeing as how Karen wasn’t the only enemy that Jo had to worry about.

This is crazy, Jo thought, she was able to work out my entire fighting style after seeing so little. I didn’t think that my fighting style was so predictable, except to my friends, and myself, I guess.

Suddenly, like a spark, Jo was struck with inspiration. An idea which might be able to turn the tables in this fight. She didn’t know if it would work, but she didn’t see any choice but to give it a try. She straightened up, and met Karen’s eyes. Karen, rightfully so, took that as her queue that the fight was about to resume.

Jo had to be quick. She forced the energies within her to mix and build once again, and her aura flashed to life around her. It wasn’t as large as before, and it flickered wildly, but Jo still felt it charging her muscles, making her faster and stronger. She rushed at Karen again, repeating her feint from earlier, but this time, when her muscle memory threatened to take her sharply to the side, she fought that instinct, and acted on impulse. She shifted slightly to the other side, and then shifted forward. Karen turned in the opposite direction, but she immediately realized that she had misread her opponent and swung around to face Jo again. She was too late, though, and Jo struck Karen square in the chest, sending her sliding back.

Jo again fought against her instincts, and moved on impulse. She Shadow Stepped to the side, and then focused her will and turned her aura away from her, throwing herself forward, increasing the speed of her Shadow Step even more. Before Karen could recover from taking her first hit of the fight, Jo was right beside her. She slammed her fist into Karen’s gut, and then turned in place. Mid turn, she Shadow Stepped to Karen’s opposite side. This meant that, rather than hitting Karen in the less-protected back of the head, Jo hit her in her much sturdier forehead, but it still sent her stumbling back further.

Jo Shadow Stepped back and forth randomly, and then lunged at Karen from the side. Karen turned toward her at the last second, and managed, just barely to duck beneath Jo’s strike. So Jo Shadow Stepped past Karen, and turned sharply, aiming an attack at Karen’s back. Karen spun around on her heel, and knocked Jo’s attack to the side, but by the time she countered, Jo had flickered out of her view again.

Jo’s plan was working, but she couldn’t let that go to her head. She was still in pain, and she was breathing heavily, more so than her opponent, but she didn’t allow that to distract her. She continued to fight her own training, and move on impulse alone. She attacked Karen again and again, but she was well aware that, between her injuries and the shake-up to her fighting style, she was moving slower than usual. With every passing second, Karen was better and better able to keep up with her opponent. Jo had no choice but to finish this fast, even if it was going to hurt to do so.

Jo zipped back from Karen mid-attack, throwing Karen off. She began moving randomly around the makeshift arena, building up speed. She moved close to Karen, and then changed direction, leaving behind a latent image of herself. Karen, acting on instinct, turned toward that image, only to whip around further when she saw Jo flicker into view off to her side. Karen moved to strike, but she hesitated, realizing too late that Jo’s aura was flashing not in front of her, but behind her. Jo had created a second latent image to distract Karen further. Doing so had cancelled most of her momentum, weakening the overall power of her attack, but it had given her the opening that she needed.

She threw a punch, backed by the full force of her aura, right at Karen’s head. Karen flared up her own aura, and turned in place, lashing out with a full power punch of her own. Their auras clashed, flashing in Jo’s eyes, blinding her for just an instant, but it didn’t matter. The attacks of the two young women crossed. Each would score a direct hit on the other’s jaw. It would be a matter of fortitude which of them would be least affected, and therefore most likely to take advantage of their opponent’s fresh injury, and frankly, Jo was more fit than her opponent. She was sure that she would have the advantage.

So you can imagine how surprised she was when Karen’s fist sailed right through Jo’s jaw, and Jo’s fist sailed right through Karen’s. Jo realized instantly that that wasn’t Karen, that Karen had used that one moment of blindness to replace herself. It was like a latent image, except that it had somehow been able to move, like some kind of autonomous illusion, and the real Karen was hiding behind it. Jo was shocked, too much so to react when Karen lunged forward, through her own illusion, and drove her shoulder, with her full weight behind it, into Jo’s chest and jaw.

Jo was knocked back. Her head bobbled back and forth, and her ears rang. She could taste blood on her lip. Karen was still on top of her, unleashing another flurry of blows. Jo, acting purely on impulse, sidestepped her opponent’s attacks one after another as she stepped into position. She reached up to catch Karen’s outstretched arm, giving her leverage to counterattack, but her hand sailed clear through Karen’s arm. It was another illusion! Karen had, in the aftermath of her last attack, created another illusion to draw Jo’s eye, giving her clearance to step out of Jo’s line of sight.

The illusion faded. Jo turned, desperately searching for her opponent, but she didn’t have to search long. Behind her stood four Karens, their stances perfectly identical. Jo looked from one to another, but she saw no way to tell which was real, and which were just tricks meant to draw her eye. So Jo stepped back, and took up a defensive stance. It was clear that Karen was about to come at her with a finishing blow. Hopefully, once the four Karens started to move, Jo would be able to work out which of them was the real one.

Jo had barely a chance to breath before the first of the illusions made its move. It rushed forward. Jo sidestepped its attack, but she realized at the last instant that, just because it was the first to move, that didn’t mean that it was an illusion. So she drove her elbow into its chest, or rather where its chest would be, and felt no resistance as it disappeared. At that point, the second was already on its way. Jo ducked beneath its attack, and drove her fist upward toward its chest. Again, she felt no resistance, and this illusion, too, faded from existence.

That’s when the third Karen moved to attack. As it did, Jo had the strange feeling that this was the real one, but as it moved to strike, she saw the final Karen’s foot adjust position ever so slightly. It drew her eye, and led her to believe that it was not an illusion, but Karen herself. So, hoping to get the drop on her opponent, Jo renewed her aura, and launched herself forward. She intended to pass through the illusion, and bear down on Karen before she knew what was happening, but the moment that she shifted her weight forward, the third Karen smiled, and Jo realized her mistake.

The third Karen, the real Karen, was well inside Jo’s guard. Jo had let her inside. It was no surprise to Jo when, as the final Karen faded from existence, a silvery aura flared to life around the real deal, and she drove her fist as hard as she could into Jo’s gut. Jo coughed, her aura collapsed, and she doubled over, only to see Karen’s knee sailing upward toward her face. She closed her eyes, and felt a surge of unbearable pain travel from her nose throughout her entire body.

Her head spinning, Jo stumbled backward, to the edge of the place where Lawrence had shattered the asphalt during his fight. She tripped over a chunk of raised asphalt, and toppled over backwards. She felt her mouth fill with blood, and spat it out. Her head felt heavy, and her arms and legs didn’t want to move, but she still, after several long seconds of painful effort, managed to pick herself up.

Jo reached up and touched her nose gingerly. It was broken. There was no doubt about it. She looked at Karen. Despite having taken several solid hits, it was clear that Karen could continue to fight for some time, and that Jo simply could not. It was amazing. In the end, it was Jo who had been outclassed from the start, and not the other way around. So Jo straightened up as much as she could. With her nose the way it was, it was hard to breath, and she was still out of breath, but she still found it within herself to say, “That’s enough, fighting you anymore would be pointless. So let’s get this over with. No more stalling. What do you want with us?”

Karen shifted her stance slightly, relaxing in the wake of Jo’s surrender. She brushed herself off, and then met Jo’s eyes, speaking the words that would change Jo’s life forever. “Isn’t is obvious from our organization’s name?” Karen asked. She smiled, and announced, “We want your Sol.”