A few moments after Thundergirl and the Rogue flew off into the forest, Simon let go of his controlled breathing and continued normally. He spoke to me shortly after, with his stutter removed from existence again.
"We should be safe now. How did you know it was there?"
"I'm not sure, I just… felt it. It was a presence that struck my entire body."
"Ah, well, let's look into it some other time."
A loud blast and a dazzling light came from Thundergirl's direction, and mere fractions of a second later, the Rogue flew over our heads. It wasn't creating any more pine trees. Simon watched it and opened his laptop to note it down.
"Wait what if he notices us?"
"He won't. We're fine until we move from this spot. Though, don't talk too loudly."
The Rogue landed on his feet, and trees instantly grew beside him and stopped him from flying any further. It was an instant, autonomous reaction. It ran past us, back to Thundergirl, and ignored us completely.
"Why didn't it stop?"
Simon sighed, so I turned my head to him.
"What was that breathing just now? And not the sigh, but before that."
"It's my power. I'm a Stormasticist."
The thought had never come to me earlier that Simon could also be a Peacebringer. But, it made sense. He was with Autumn a lot, and always went cycling home with him.
"I am not supposed to share that with you since I don't trust you yet. Not as much as Autumn anyway. I mean Thundergirl. Their names are still confusing me after almost two years."
"And what about-"
A brief, radiant glow suddenly appeared in the corner of my eye. It was white, with a hinge of green mixed in. It was Thundergirl, in her signature, and already damaged outfit. There were tears in her skirt and her thigh was bleeding lightly, with pine needles still stuck in the skin.
"Eclipse, what did you catch?"
"It's a Type 1 and grows pine trees with its feet, so the Cores must be there. The tallest tree I've seen was about 5 to 6 meters."
Eclipse was Simon's Peacebringer name. While Thundergirl fought, he collected information to help her out. In the distance, looking between the two, I noticed the Rogue slowly getting on his feet.
"He's up."
Thundergirl briefly looked at me after I told them, and then behind her.
"Thanks, to both. You're good at noticing stuff, Larissa."
Her voice was almost indistinguishable from a regular teenage girl's voice. From only this fact it was hard to accept that Autumn and Thundergirl were the same person, but I had seen him change up close. Still, it was hard to comprehend.
Her legs glowed dimly before she took off towards the Rogue. It was an incredible horizontal jump. She went behind the Rogue and kicked it towards our hiding spot and it landed in front of us. It stood on his arms and legs like an animal and saplings sprouted from the ground around his feet.
"How can't it see us?"
"That's because of my breathing earlier. I-"
Thundergirl lunged towards us.
"Charged-"
She lifted her right leg behind her while flying in our direction and kicked the Rogue in the stomach while using the left leg to stop herself in time.
"- Kick!"
It flew up into the air. Thundergirl crouched down and both her legs glowed a dim white-green, before she jumped high into the sky, headed after the Rogue.
"When I breathe with the rhythm of the wind, I can cause distortions in a small range around myself. Using that, I can conceal our presence by making it seem we aren't here. It's a lot more complex than that, but you don't have to know the details."
He spoke while watching the sky, watching Thundergirl and the Rogue, with his fingers periodically tapping on the keyboard. The explanation was clear, and the details weren't needed at this time. Simon had a great sense of the situation and good judgement, and felt completely different from his usual personality. Eclipse was different from Simon, just as Thundergirl was different from Autumn.
"Charged Fist!"
With a wham, the Rogue came flying down to the ground again. It bounced off the ground and before it could create any trees, Thundergirl was on the ground next to him and lifted her leg behind herself again.
"Charged Kick!"
With a second kick in the stomach, the Rogue flew up above the tall trees of the forest and Thundergirl followed him with a high jump again.
"Doesn't it feel pain?"
"The Rogue?"
"Yeah. It's being hit by her over and over again, yet it doesn't seem to flinch one bit."
"It isn't confirmed, but I don't think they do. Some have tried to capture Rogues before, but anaesthetics don't work, and their heart has already stopped, so you can't silence them in any way."
"They don't have a heartbeat?"
"No, and I know that from experience. We tried to capture one, but we couldn't restrain it, so we put it to rest after less than a day."
I had always thought Rogues were still partly human, but the evidence Simon provided goes against my view completely. Often enough they look human, but they are actually far from it.
"You can't talk to them, they don't have emotions, and-."
"You don't know that."
"Hmm?"
The thought that they had lost all their humanity after their Awakening, felt unreasonable to me.
"There is no certainty about them losing everything, so they might still have something deep within. Something they can't show. Like emotions."
"Well, who knows. A brain scan is yet to be done on one of them."
Simon was obviously more knowledgable on this, but his condescending voice irritated me. It was as if he was already certain. That everything was clear. But I was sure of myself too. Rogues must have something inexpressible within themselves.
The Rogue came crashing down to the ground again, with a wave of dust flooding our vision. Thundergirl slowly descended and stood beside the unmoving Rogue.
"Twelve per cent Charged Fist."
Only twelve per cent, I thought. Thundergirl raised her fist slowly, and it began glowing white with a green tint, much brighter than before. The glow went up until the shoulder, and I had to evade my eyes.
"Let's go."
Simon addressed me and we stood up, and we ran away from the bush and towards a tree, not too far away.
"We were a little too close. Her Charged Fist powers up her arm internally and fortifies it externally to reduce the backlash on the skin. The lightning can only be used for power-ups like this, it can't be emitted."
"I see."
I knew it couldn't be emitted, which was a detail I, for reasons unknown, remembered from an interview she had a while ago with the press via a video call. Her fist was now at its apex, and she pushed it down onto the Rogue's feet, hitting both at once.
A loud thud, and a quiet crack.
The Cores of the Rogue shattered, and the body shrivelled up shortly after. Thundergirl stood up and untied her hair, removed her torn crop top, and took off her shoes.
"Simon do you know where my clothes are?"
The voice was masculine again, so Autumn had returned. He took off the skirt and stood there in his underwear, next to a quiet forest path. Simon passed him his bag, and he dressed up back into his normal clothes. Besides the dirt and grazes on his face and the burn marks on his right hand, it looked like nothing major had happened. He just fell off his bike, is what others would have thought.
"How did you get hurt on your leg?"
"I didn't know the range. But, after you told me he couldn't get another hit on me."
"Here, give me the pieces, and cover it up with some leaves."
Autumn handed over the orange shards of the Rogue's Cores to Simon, who put them in a modest bottle. This was the first time I had seen a Core in real life, be it shattered or whole. Autumn had covered up the Rogue's lifeless body with general fauna, before turning towards me.
"Larissa."
They both stood in front of me. The dazzling light of the sun passed through the trees and lit them up while leaving me in the shadows.
"Thank you, for noticing him. If we had noticed a little later, we would've had a worse outcome."
"Oh, I mean, no problem."
"T-Thank you, L-L-Larissa."
Simon's stutter had returned, and that made me realise I still hadn't asked.
"Oh, Simon?"
He locked up, didn't respond, and was shivering heavily. I wanted to continue but felt that it might have been insensitive to ask.
"Nevermind, I'll ask you later."
"Oh, I- I see."
Autumn put his hand on Simon's shoulder.
"Don't worry, she's not gonna ask you out or anything. You got Heather anyway so-"
"A-Autumn!"
"Haha, I'm sorry. I'm just joking."
With a grin on my face, I followed them to our bikes. I hadn't felt this joy, or pride, or whatever feeling it was in a while, so it felt odd but pleasurable. Autumn might have been right. Ditching Christine and Madison wasn't such a bad idea after all.