Throwing Cards and Giant Explosions [Private/Jay]

Dewitt sighed as he trudged into the forest, he had met too many people in the past day, it was all kind of overwhelming. With another sigh he took a step into Beata Academy's expansive forest, hoping to get away from all of the people he had just met. Dewitt kept walking for quite a while -- he counted practically three thousand steps -- before he reached anywhere of interest. But the place he found intrigued him, it was a small stream, frozen over, just like every other body of water, but it looked surprisingly clean. He smiled a little bit, this place was starting to remind him of his old home. With a brief shout Dewitt grabbed a pebble and hurtled it at the ice, causing it to make a satisfying shattering sound. Despite the fact that it was the middle of winter, Dewitt jumped into the stream, only taking time to remove the deck of cards from him pocket, not even bothering to take any of his clothes off because they were so baggy they wouldn't bother him, even if they were soaking wet. "Today is just too overwhelming..." He muttered to himself as he floated in the water, staring at the thick green canopy above him. With a smile, he dove into the ice cold water and opened his eyes, looking around for any interesting stones. One in particular caught his interest, he couldn't quite tell underwater, but it seemed to be perfectly spherical in shape, and light blue in color. He smiled to himself underwater and scooped it into his hand, taking a deep breath as he reached the surface once again.

It was then that Dewitt realized that he was starting to get a really, really cold. Why in the hell had he had the absurd idea of jumping into freezing water? He wasn't quite sure. But he did know that he wasn't going to spend another second in there. So Dewitt scrambled out of the stream and opened his palm, gazing at the beautiful baby blue stone. Dewitt's teeth chattered and his body shivered as he got up, removing his shirt and his jeans because they too were starting to freeze. He was an idiot, a legitimate, bonafide idiot. Sure, he might have good grades, but anyone who jumps into a stream in the middle of winter is about as stupid as they get. "Stupid!" Dewitt yelled as he rubbed his hands together in a pathetic attempt to make heat.

Ice made a fantastic sound when struck by metal, a chain reaction hiss that sent cracks up the white cold. Whir. Splint. It was a bit up the stream, past the trees that obstructed vision, that Arbor had begun to toss coins at the ice, sending skate lines up the thin bluepale sheet, breathing clouds and spending a few moments with every toss to warm the coins in her hands. Hiss. Vrom. Imagining the ice was Cayden's skull caused it to crack faster. A few rode it out to where the stream curved, where they flew off the bank and into tree trunks, splinters scattering across the underbrush.

The ice gave way to the current quickly. She was not particularly satisfied, her hands still sensitive from when Cayden almost lit them on fire. She stared at the palms, the skin peeling and thin. She would find him again. She'd seen him, got accustomed to what he looked like in the uniform, what he sounded like. Until she located the boy, however, she needed to blow off some steam.

The Kaya girl wasn't enough. Far away, she heard a kerplunk and wondered if someone fell into the current. Breaking up the ice surely didn't help the stream's stability, and Arbor hopped along the shore, balancing on dew crusted stones and hoping she wouldn't slip and fall in herself.

'Stupid.' The small girl made her way past a bend of trees, resting her palm on the cold face of a stone. She stared out at the half-undressed boy. He must have fallen in. He had to be freezing.

She said nothing.

Dewitt looked around, looking for anything to keep him warm, but all he found was a girl who appeared to be around his age. He waved happily and said, "Hi there! My name's Dewitt, who might you be?" As he said this, a subtle English accent crept into his voice, a curse that followed him around no matter where he went. He walked towards the girl, picking up his deck of cards as he walked forwards, "Would you happen to be a student at Beata Academy?If so, what are you doing out here?" It seemed as though Dewitt could never escape Beata Academy where ever he went... Dewitt coughed and sneezed from the cold, but he didn't particularly care. He just wanted to know what this girl's Gift was, because some of these people seemed to have the wackiest gift, but it wasn't like Dewitt had a right to talk. As far as he was aware, projectile manipulation was among one of the wackiest gifts he had ever heard of.

Dewitt sighed once again as he approached the girl, holding out his left hand, which, by this point, was already dry. "Pleasure to meet you!" He said with a goofy grin, very reflective of his personality.

Arbor didn't take it. She studied him, his words, his facial expressions. Would he be going into shock, or at least shaking? She narrowed her eyes, digging into her pocket, and took out a small notepad. On a small, monotonous voice, she said: "Name." It was more of a statement than a question, like she was going through a queue at a bank. To keep up with the growing population, a checklist wouldn't do, so she took a small golf pencil stuck behind her ear and pressed it to her new pad. The girl shifted her weight onto her other foot, a faint jingling coming from her as she moved.

"Name?" Dewitt asked, suddenly curious. Perhaps the girl kept a list of all the people at Beata Academy... but that would just be weird. Then again, Beata was the epitome of weird. He shrugged, "Dewitt Spade. But may ask ask what you're doing there?" At this point, Dewitt couldn't even notice the cold, he was too busy noticing the fact that the girl was studying him closely, and that she gave off an ever-so-faint jingling sound. "And I ask again, who might you be?"

And again Arbor seemed to be keeping a one-sided facade. She wrote the name down on the notepad, Diwit Spade, and she carefully laid it on the rock she'd been leaning on. Another dig through her pocket, and she pulled out a coin, a crimson-colored penny.
"Fight me." Another bold-voiced command. She began to flick the coin into the air, the arch perfect as it went into the air and back down. She didn't look at it. She looked at him, mouthed curved in a frown.

"I'll fight you." He said with a sigh, "But can you at least tell me your name before you curb stomp me?" He was sure was going to lose, after all, he had literally no experience using projectile manipulation in combat... He sighed another time, "I s'pose you aren't gonna tell me. So let us fight." He withdrew a card from his deck and held it between his left index and middle fingers, "I insist you take the first move."

He seemed to give in easily. All she had to do was get him down. He seemed pretty down on his skills to begin with, so for the first time since she stepped forward, the girl flashed the smallest hint of a smile. In a final flip into the air, the girl jammed her fist into it. The coin flattened in magnetic ripples, each pulse thinning it more and more until it was a disc thin as glass. She curled her arm like she was throwing a frisbee, and it burst from her hands suddenly, a razor sharp disc flying in the direction of Dewitt. She already had her hand in her pocket, fishing for another.

With a smile, the girl flattened her crimson penny until it was thin as glass, and sent it flying at Dewitt. A projectile! Dewitt thought with a grin, if this was all that was in the girl's arsenal, then he might even have a chance, however slight. As the penny flew towards him, Dewitt flicked his right hand, and its course was suddenly altered, the girl's penny was now flying towards her.

Deciding that this wasn't enough, Dewitt let go of his playing card, and along with the girl's penny, it flew towards her without mercy. Dewitt gripped the blue stone in his right hand before grinning slightly, "Will you be able to dodge both attacks?" He asked, his expression suddenly cold and merciless.

Arbor watched with a confident silence, but her smile turned into a frown as he manipulated the path of her projectile. She thought about trying to stop it magnetically, but instead threw up the penny she had in her other hand. She expanded it just as the two collided, sharp fragments littering the ground. As for the playing card, it slashed her bare arm, drawing blood.

She grit her teeth. So he was stronger than she thought. She decided to do the same thing, throwing up a penny after the other, flattening and launching them again and again and again. She was dipping into her personal stash, and hoped the onslaught would overwhelm him. All the while, she stepped forward with each launch, closer and closer to Dewitt, almost sauntering across the sparkling dewy grass.

Penny after penny after penny went flying at Dewitt, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop all of them. However, he did notice the girl coming closer and closer to him, so for each step she took forward, he took back. He did his best to redirect the pennies back at the girl, but try as he might, he could only redirect about half. The half he didn't redirect, he attempted to dodge, but he only managed to dodge maybe half of those. Penny after penny sliced into his arms, warm blood gushing from Dewitt's cold body. He bit back a shriek, and decided he was done here.

"I've had enough of this!" Dewitt yelled, grabbing the fifty-one cards left in his deck and holding them up in the air. "It's time for you to lose." He growled, letting go of the cards, "Final Resort!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Infinity Chains!!!" As he said these words, the cards organized themselves into three separate rows and flied towards Arbor, encircling here and flying around her, only about a foot away from her body. Every half second one card would come lashing out of each circle, attempting to cut Arbor. This was Dewitt's ultimate technique, this had to work, he couldn't take any more wounds, he was losing blood and he was losing it fast.

Arbor watched the cards fly up and begin to circle her like a cyclone. She grit her teeth, digging into her pocket. She had two coins left. She had gone through them fast, and she regret slinging them with such carelessness. Now she was short, constricted to just those and the shards on the ground.

Of course, metal was metal.

The first card came and struck her. It bounced off her vest harmlessly, though the next came with such velocity, it stuck into her arm. Only when she saw it did she feel the pain. She gripped the pennies in her pocket.

Arbor tossed one down at her feet as another few bounced off her clothes. Another got her arm. Icy pain licked her with a gust of winter wind. Grabbing the other, she flattened it, and switched the charges in her fingertips. Another card found her arm. They jutted from her skin like porcupine needles.

They're just playing cards, she told herself, more bouncing off her vest harmlessly. They're paper.

The flattened coin disc began to float, and her hand shook as she began to distance it from herself, ever so slightly. Soon, it was in the storm of cards, getting pelted by the paper. A chunk of it broke off. Arbor saw the blood welling around the card in her arm, and suddenly it was joined by another. She winced harder, and channeling her energy, spun.

The battered disc spun with her, knocking down the cards in its path.

It didn't get them all, but it got enough. Arbor dove through the crippled defenses of the cards, and sprinted a few yards before turning. She made a motion with her hands, bringing them together.

The coin she had laid on the ground began to condense, to bend in on itself, rapidly, compacting more and more, a hot shimmer forming in the air around it as became barely visible. Then, she released the energy, and the coin exploded.

It was a small explosion, for she didn't have enough time to intensify it, but a shockwave was let out on the back of a deafening pop. Arbor felt her legs go out from under her, and she was brought to the ground.

Dewitt huffed, Infinity Chains had taken a lot out of him, and when Arbor broke through it, he was shell shocked, but he didn't have time to worry, he knew Arbor was going to come towards him. Suddenly, a coin the girl had laid on the ground started to shimmer and condense. It was going to do something, and it was going to do something bad. He suddenly chucked the stone in his right hand towards the coin, but because of the pressure, it simply exploded on contact, sending Dewitt hurtling into a nearby tree. He smashed into it with a satisfying oomph, too exhausted to get up. If Arbor were to attack him again, he'd have no way to dodge it, he would need to think of something more creative in order to block any future attacks.

Arbor stayed on the ground for a moment, slowly rising, picking bent cards out of her skin. Her arms were dirty from rolling along the cold mud after the shockwave caught her; she winced and got to her feet, and of the dozens of glasslike shards that littered the ground, she picked up the one closest to her. Slowly she walked, over to where Dewitt was thrown, and outstretching her arm, touched the jagged coin piece to his neck, to where his skin dipped in a valley at its point.

"Surrender," she said calmly.

"I... d-don't surrender." Dewitt managed, but his legs were injured, badly injured, he couldn't move. Through the corner of his eye he spotted a bird soaring through the sky, the wind catching under its wings, Perfect! He thought to himself. It seemed to be a bald eagle, but at this point, Dewitt didn't care, he just wanted this girl to stop. So he twitched his finger ever so slightly and the bird veered off course, totally bewildered at where it was going. The eagle was now positioned to strike Arbor's head with its razor sharp beak, "Y-you're the one who should s-surrender!" Dewitt managed, except at this point he was so drained of energy that he lost hold of the eagle and it flew away rather majestically. He was done for, "I-I s-surrender!" He croaked with a cough.