“So that’s how it is… it was all a trap,” Iron Pack whispered into the night.

Wait, nonono! I had no idea the heroes would be here!

“So that’s why a fox,” she said, staring poisoned daggers right through me. “You are sly and deceptive.”

That was all a misunderstanding! Mouth! Stop being frozen in shock and explain it to her!

“What the hell are you talking about, Pack?” Nova shouted.

“Why doesn’t the Fox here explain it?” Once again, she shot me a cold glance.

All eyes were on me at that moment, and I couldn’t say anything more than, “Uh…”, which, of course, the voice modulator turned into an arrogant “Hmph…”

“Everything according to plan, huh? Of course, I should have seen this coming from a mile away. Why the hell would a civilian constantly get into super fights?” 

Wait, no! That really had just been a coincidence!

“Wait, a civilian?” Nova narrowed her eyes. “Are you the one with the fox hoodie?”

Ah, crap! Now I was going to get blasted by Nova as well!

“So that was just a ruse to get closer to Pack? I’m not sure I approve, but it worked, so I won’t complain.”

Wait, what?! That was definitely not the case! Why was everyone misunderstanding the situation?! And why had my mouth suddenly stopped working?! I needed to refute this madness!

“Hah, well, you got me! Is that what you thought I would say? Screw that! Even though I don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell, I'm not about to just give up!”

Iron Pack violently waved her hands and the ground shook before a metallic bear and a lion emerged from the ground. The constructs didn’t wait for anything and the lion charged Fissure while the bear went straight for a tackle on me.

Unfortunately, this time, panicking and pressing buttons at random didn’t magically defeat my opponent in an instant. And since I was rooted to the spot by the ongoing events, it made me an easy target for the bear to slam me into a wall. Thank god for the armor, that would have broken some bones at least. But even though I was armored, the hit still dazed me for a second.

Luckily, my manic button mashing finally did something and I shot a stunning blast at the bear, making it back off with a stagger.

Jesus! Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I would be duking it out with a freaking bear. And not just a regular bear, but a bear made of iron!

My rocket boots activated and I spun in the air, dodging yet another tackle by the metallic giant. I quickly looked at the other side of the fight only to see Iron Pack’s lion lying at the side with smoking holes in it. Iron Pack was getting desperate, summoning snakes to shoot up to try and attack the flying Nova. It didn’t work.

I needed to help her! But she’d sent a bear after me! What should I do?!

The bear in front of me got tackled by Fissure for a change, finally giving me some room to breathe.

“You okay?!”

“Y-yeah?”

“I’ll take care of this! Go support Nova!”

“O-okay.”

Not okay! I didn’t want to side with Nova! I didn’t want to be Iron Pack’s enemy! Goddammit! 

Despite my inner protests, I got up and headed for the other side of the fight.

But I had no idea what to do. Of course, I wouldn’t attack Iron Pack, no way. But I also couldn’t attack Nova either, that wouldn’t help anyone. So, logically, I just stood there like an idiot and watched, while my tiny brain tried to come up with my next move.

Before my brain could finish loading plan.exe, the flow of the battle changed. I watched as one of Nova's beams shot straight at Iron Pack.

My eyes widened for a second, thinking it was over.

But then, the beam hit something, got reflected, and shot straight back at Nova. I was still frozen as Nova screamed and hit the ground. I saw a glint come from Iron Pack’s direction and realized she had a pocket mirror on her.

She shot me one last irritated look before summoning up another wolf and speeding away.

“Nova! Are you alright?!”

I looked to the side and saw Fissure running from the deformed iron bear that was lying on the ground.

“Fuck, she got away again!” Nova cursed as she held her arm.

It was a really strange sense of deja vu. What even was going on? Everything was wrong. This was not supposed to happen at all. Even though for some reason, something told me this was the best possible outcome, I couldn’t stand it.

I could still go after Iron Pack. I felt like that would be a bad idea, but for once, I ignored that feeling.

“Uh, Fox, right? Can you--” Fissure started saying something, but I wasn’t listening.

I pushed the buttons and activated my jet boots, speeding after Iron Pack. She wasn’t turning corners like before and instead went in a straight line which allowed me to catch up to her.

Unfortunately, she noticed me at the last second and summoned up a bear-shaped barrier to block me off. I crashed into it as she sped away through one of the alleyways.

By the time I got my bearings, the bear had already managed to get around me and hug me from behind, preventing me from continuing the chase.

“Wait!” I shouted after her.

But she didn’t even acknowledge me.

Not even button-mashing could free me from the bear’s embrace. I was stuck watching as my crush sped away, thinking who knows what about me trying to lead her into a trap.

“No!” I shouted from the top of my lungs, but it didn’t convince the bear to let me go.

It took a good few minutes for Fissure to catch up and get it off me. By then, I must have cycled through every curse word I knew in my head.

“You okay?” the hero asked after dealing with the bear.

“Yeah…”

“Good. Let’s go back to our base. You have some explaining to do.”

Oh, great.

BottledChaos

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