Harris Institute for Gifted Students Episode 13: Split

Harris Institute for Gifted Students by Pineapple | Content Warnings

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Sam rounded a corner. “There!” He shouted. He fired off a spell. Something explosive. Something to delay the regrowth of Elliot’s magic. Just like before—ever since they’d been separated from Marjani and Sugi—a wall slid across the floor, cutting them off from the doorway Sam was trying to reach. The heavy, wet clay blocked the red, crackling ball of magic before it reached the threshold.

“Damn it!” He yelled. And then, before he could catch his breath, the floor shifted underneath them like a conveyor belt. He’d have fallen if not for Greyson’s quick reflexes; he grabbed Samuel around the waist and Sumire by the wrist. Vanessa held onto Sofia’s arm, while Ben and Mickey caught themselves on each other and the wall.

Sofia was dizzy by the time they stopped moving. She had no idea where they were anymore. It felt like whenever they got closer to the voice of Alaric or Sahar, the building twisted or moved around them. “We won’t be able to get anywhere until we deal with Mr. Elliot,” Sofia said, trying to blink the motion sickness away. (It wasn’t working very well.)

“His magic is stronger than before,” Greyson said, an edge of annoyance in his voice. “I think they learned from what Sugi did with Sofia.”

“When he said he wrapped his magic around Sofia’s?” Sumire asked. “He was just making things up.”

“Sugi’s imagination is his power,” Samuel said. And then, bitterly, “I guess an old dog can learn new tricks. Alaric infused Elliot’s magic with his own to reinforce it.”

Sumire sighed. “His imagination has limitations, even to himself,” she said. “It shouldn’t… he’s never been able to influence other people before.”

Ben knocked her with his elbow. “Li’l bro’s growing up,” he said. It sounded apologetic.

Sofia could hear the frown in Sumire’s voice from behind her helmet. “He’s technically older.”

He laughed. “He’s not gonna leave you behind.”

“Worry about yourself,” she said, and then she picked a direction and started walking. Everyone naturally followed. It wasn’t long before the Evil Ones returned, carving themselves out of the terracotta walls like they’d been hiding there. They’d been what chased the group away from where Sugi and Marjani had been left behind in the first place.

Ben’s barriers went up instantaneously. Sofia tutted and tried to merge what monsters she could with the rest of the clay they were made of. Mickey and Vanessa took shots from the back, while Greyson and Sumire fought on the front lines. Samuel evened things out from the middle range.

When all that was left of them was globs of wet earth, the pieces skittered back to their home in the walls.

“We can’t keep this up,” Vanessa said.

Sofia looked over at her. Vanessa’s hands were on her knees, her head bent over. She was sweating; they all were. Sofia felt her heart drop to her stomach, a lump in her throat. She wanted to call out to her, tell her not to give up. They’d fought at least four swarms now, counting this last one. Who knew how Sugi and Marjani were doing. (Sofia knew Sumire and Ben were worried—their thoughts hadn’t stopped buzzing about it. Sumire was anxious if they stopped moving for just a minute.) Every time they felt like they were almost there, the rug was literally pulled out from beneath them, but… to give up…? Sofia couldn’t even get out the words to reassure her friend.

Vanessa stood up, rolling out her wrists and ankles. “We have to split up,” she decided.

“Won’t that just make us easier to pick off?” Mickey asked.

“We’ll cover more ground.” Vanessa looked around at everyone, assessing, like she did on the field. “Either we’ll find Elliot or we won’t, but with two groups, we’ll have a better chance of finding something.”

Sam glanced at Greyson. “Considering how close we’ve gotten, she may be right. It might be getting harder and harder for him to keep up since he split us.”

“If his magic is anything like mine,” Ben said, “it’ll be difficult for him to maintain if he’s spread too thin. I don’t like it, but I think Nessie’s making the right call.”

Normally, Vanessa would have make a comment about Ben not calling her that, but she was focused, staring hard at Sofia.

Sofia cocked her head at her.

“I don’t want to leave you all,” she said, her voice soft. “And I don’t want to ask you to do it, Ben. But protect them, alright? Greyson, Samuel, and Sofia. You four try to push ahead.”

Ben was too mature to look as crestfallen as he must have felt, but Sofia knew that he wanted to go back for Marjani.

“Mickey, Sumire, and I will go and try to find Elliot,” she said. “Or distract him so he won’t interfere with you. Or we’ll find Sugi and Marjani.”

“Pick an objective,” Sumire muttered without malice.

“Will you guys be okay?” Greyson asked.

“I can pick up mid and long range,” Vanessa said. “Sumire’s got beast-like stamina. Elliot won’t be hard to take down. All we have to do is find him.”

“Maybe I should go with you guys anyway…” Ben said, glancing over at Greyson and Samuel.

“No, Ben, I need you to guide them,” Vanessa said. There was a nervous, almost frantic edge in her voice. She never lost her calm, but she was desperate as she looked up at him. “These three don’t have the experience or the head you do. They need guidance. If you guys find Alaric… they’ll need the protection, too.”

Ben stared at her, ready to argue. But he saw the honesty in her eyes and relented. “Alright,” he said.

Vanessa nodded. A whole exchange going on between them that Sofia had no hopes of understanding even with her powers. It was something deeper than thoughts. A mutual understanding, a warmth and a responsibility passing between them.

“Stay safe, okay?” Ben said. “And keep Marjani’s head cool once you find her.”

“I think you’re the only one that can do that,” Vanessa teased. “Let’s go.”

Ben looked at Sofia. “Which way?”

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Marjani kicked uselessly at the wall. It had only gotten thicker since they’d broken it the first time, and softer since they’d tried beating their way through again. It was clear that this was not their way to the others anymore. “Can’t you just imagine that the wall isn’t there anymore?” she asked idly.

“It doesn’t work that way,” he answered back. He was sitting against the wall, watching the way the patterns on Marjani’s clothes moved. They’d already fought a few waves of Evil Ones who’d come out of the walls. He wasn’t tired yet, but he knew it would be a losing battle if they kept going this way.

“Why not?” She asked, in a way that Sugi knew she wasn’t really asking.

“I can’t just…” Sugi gestured vaguely with his hands. “… undo somebody else’s magic. That would be too OP.”

“What?”

He continued, like she hadn’t even said anything. “I can not affect them. I can just… know what I would do.”

“So what would you do to get through this wall, then?”

Sugi looked at it. “I’d have to get rid of Mr. Brady,” he said. “I am… trying to find him.”

Marjani raised a perfectly sculpted brow at him, crossing her arms. “Can you not just imagine him here?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” he said again.

“I don’t get it.”

Sugi shrugged. “I think we got separated because they think it was me who found Sahar,” he said. He stood up. “Because I really believed that I covered Sofie’s magic all the way. But it doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t know now, given that she’s projecting her thoughts everywhere now…”

“We’ll have to fight more Evil Ones soon,” Marjani said.

Sugi groaned, mussing his hair. “If Sumire were here, she’d help me. She’d give me an idea. I can’t think.”

Marjani gently took Sugi by the wrists. “You don’t need her,” she said, looking into his eyes. “You can do this. Step one: what do we need to do?”

“We need to find Mr. Brady, but…”

“But?”

“But we keep getting interrupted by Evil Ones!” He shouted. “We can’t search and fight at the same time. There are too many for just you. This is why we need her!”

Marjani brushed off the thought, scoffing.

“You are strong, but you can still get hurt,” Sugi said. “You and I are both one bad hit away from being useless.”

Something in her face changed. Sugi saw it. Like she was recognizing a reality she hadn’t even foreseen.

“You and I could both be worry-free because I had my sister and you had Ben.” Sugi stole his arms back. “The difference is that I…”

“You what?”

He turned around, taking a few steps away from Marjani. The walls were starting to shake around them, scraping together the scraps of wet clay and slip to make more enemies to keep them pinned down.

“I always knew that Sumire would leave me someday,” Sugi said. His eyes and his hands were starting to glow. The brass knuckles formed in his hand, equipped with red-hot irons to cook the Evil Ones in place and make them easier to crush.

Marjani’s foot slammed so hard down on the ground that the floor split beneath them. She used the rubble to keep the Evil Ones from getting too close, throwing it as they approached and even before they formed. “Your sister isn’t gone. We just have to get to her,” Marjani said, almost yelling, as she kneed one of the baked monsters Sugi had hit. It shattered on impact.

“‘Just,'” he repeated. “If only it were so easy.”

“Yeah,” she mused, “if only Ben were here to help. We’d have another person and you wouldn’t worry about little old me.”

Sugi landed a kick, jumping off of one of the enemies and flipping gracefully off of it. It stopped, heat spreading through it slowly until it was hardened completely like pottery. He shot it with a bullet from a finger gun afterwards. “What did you say?” he asked.

“If only Ben were here, then—”

Sugi held up a hand to hush her.

“Don’t you dare—” she started.

If she finished, Sugi couldn’t hear her. He’d landed on something. He could feel it stirring within him, now that he was thinking about it. They needed another body to solve this.

Another body. A second body, maybe, but that might be hard to manage. If it were something smaller… something different…

He felt it come off of him. Just like what Mr. Brady had been doing, but in his own way. He hadn’t even realized his eyes were closed until he opened them.

“Sugi…” Marjani’s voice sounded far away. That was fine. Sugi was focused entirely on what was in front of him.

It was a butterfly. A bit larger than an average butterfly, but unmistakable. It was red, with an aura of pink around it as it fluttered, sparkles coming off of it like it was shedding glitter. There were patterns of black that matched Sumire’s motosuit.

It was a part of him but also not. He knew when this was done that it would return to whatever part of him it was it came from. “Go find Mr. Brady,” he said to it.

It flew away, searching, as the new wave of enemies started to gather themselves. The monsters took no notice of it.

“Sugi,” Marjani said with more urgency.

“Yes,” he answered. He sounded dazed even to himself. Like he was hearing himself from the butterfly’s distanced ears. “I’m here. I think I can do it.”

“You think?” she repeated incredulously, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him backwards. Just out of range of a nasty looking pair of claws.

The split consciousness was a bit difficult, but Mr. Brady was close by. Sugi could feel it from his other self. He was there, with Marjani’s hand digging into his shoulder, but he was also zooming through the corridors, searching.

“Well,” he said, refocusing on what was in front of him. He needed heat or water to most efficiently destroy these things. He imagined something like a giant water gun and shot it. Boiling water, just to be safe. “I think I understand why I could fly now. It didn’t make sense until now.”

Sugi felt Marjani at his back. She easily took out the remaining monsters. “And now?”

“And now…”

“You’ll never be alone,” the butterfly said to him, in between the flapping of its wings, somewhere far away, but attached to him still.

There was an open door in front of the butterfly. For the first time since they’d entered this building, there was a window, looking outside, even further north, away from the campus. There was a standing easel with paper clasped to it, and seated in a stool in front of it was Mr. Brady. The room was a few turns, a few corners away, if nothing changed on the way.

Sugi looked and saw Marjani in front of him. “And now I think he’s close. Let’s go.”