I hadn't had enough time to heal my chest, stomach, and hip wounds more than sealing them up with clotted blood. Like precarious stitching, I knew any blow from Miss Toontastic which landed on any of my wounds would open them up again.

Infuriatingly however, I also knew with a surprising degree of certainty that she had already considered striking my partially sealed wounds, but had chosen not to.

Because, although I had demonstrated I had the upper hand having gotten the better of her twice over using my Intuition ability, she was still going easy on me.

I dodged several swipes from Miss Toontastic in rapid succession. It seemed so obvious where she was going to strike next to the point I wondered how I had ever been in any doubt about what her next attack was going to be.

After dodging three swipes in a row, I swatted away her sharp-clawed right hand.

She's going to get frustrated by that, I thought, or rather, an automatic part of the power inside my head helped me to understand, in the same way the power would feed me medical information.

Miss Toontastic's frustration was obvious, but I saw in my mind's eye her spinning and, using that spinning momentum, delivering a sideways kick as part of the spin. A spinning kick made all the more deadly because the nails of her feet were extended into claws as long as the ones tipping her fingers.

But that wasn't going to be the real danger.

Because she was aware how she no longer had the element of surprise in our sparring session.

She had used sudden inspiration during round two of our fight to extend her legs with a sudden elastic SNAP! to increase the power, reach, and unpredictability of that attack.

And she intended to do more of the same.

As anticipated, Miss Toontastic spun clockwise, bringing her head low to the ground. She swung her right leg with martial artist finesse. Her clawed foot was so close to my unshapely Slip-faced nose it was a hairs-width from cutting into it.

But that attack was the feint.

Because the momentum of her spin continued in tandem with my inching away from her too.

The real, truly dangerous attack from Miss Toontastic was the follow-up.

Using her blood-bending technique, she continued with the momentum of her spinning clockwise and then, with a sudden SNAP! her left foot shot out elastically.

I fell backwards. The claws of Miss Toontastic's left foot glinting in the sunlight for a microsecond directly in front of my field of vision before springing back again with yet another SNAP!

Upon hitting the grass I rolled backwards and smoothly righted myself to a standing position again.

And I knew what was going to come next, and decided to have some fun with it.

"How are you doing that?" I resonated, at the exact same time Miss Toontastic said the words too.

"Seriously?" We said in tandem again.

She licked her lips and then bared her fangs in a look of both amusement and annoyance. Her hair had taken on a wilder, fluffier look from all the rapid movements. It suited her.

"I can predict your movements," I resonated.

The blood leaking from my nose had reached my lip, forcing me to wipe it away.

"How?" said Miss Toontastic.

"Same way I could predict the Sub-Divisioners coming to the mansion," I resonated, "It's hyper advanced pattern recognition – I think."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Miss Toontastic's eyes narrowed to the point they almost looked regular sized. For a moment she looked like she was going to call me a pighead again. But, she realised, she didn't have to. I could tell what she was thinking – mostly – and she knew it.

This is a major invasion of my privacy, she thought.

It was so clear what she was thinking it was as if she had said it aloud. A stab of guilt struck my chest, which, in its own way, was far more painful than the wounds Miss Toontastic had dealt during our training session.

"I know," I resonated, "I didn't think it through."

It wasn't so much what Miss Toontastic thought then that made me realise I had royally messed up. I could feel what Miss Toontastic was experiencing within her own body and mind to the point we were still, though we weren't currently fighting, very much in tandem.

Her world was a closed box. Tight. Suffocating. Invisible yet ever present and constricting. And the person she saw as a pressure-release-valve to that restriction – me – had just tightened all of those restrictions even more.

She put a hand to her chest. It was becoming harder for her to breathe. I had to fight the urge to not mimic her every action, because it was becoming harder for me to breathe too.

I saw what was coming next. Anger, brought about from the friction of her own self-doubt and a sense that freedom was only ever going to be a desire, but not a genuine reality for her.

Because she knew she was entirely predictable on her own.

And, she knew, there was no point telling me to stop using my Intuition power, because the reality she needed to ask defeated the whole point of her having the freedom to not have to ask in the first place.

The anger she felt passed into fear, because the memory of killing that Pied Piper officer flooded her mind. It sobered her thoughts and reminded her how dangerous it was for her to lose herself to her emotions.

There was a lot I wanted to say to Miss Toontastic, to let her know I felt restricted too. Every day since the evacuation had felt as if I never had enough time, power, energy, discipline – that I was never enough to handle all the problems pressing down on me.

But I knew saying anything about how I felt about these things wasn't going to have the intended effect of making her feel better. I went with what the power, in line with my own mental faculities, knew would be the 'right' thing to say.

"Hey," I resonated, smiling, "I like the name Miss Toontastic. It's really unique."

And, as intended, this caused Miss Toontastic to shoot me with an amused pout.

"But?" she said.

"But," I resonated, "What's the sound your body makes when you use your elastic power?"

With almost childish glee despite her prior frustrations Miss Toontastic said, "Snap."

I made a 'so what do you think?' gesture, showing my red-hued palm to Miss Toontastic.

"Snap?" she said.

"Clang," I resonated, "And Slip."

"And Snap," said Miss Toontastic.

"So…?" I resonated.

Implying I wanted to know if she was keen on the new nickname.

"I don't like it!" Miss Toontastic squeaked all of a sudden.

This I hadn't predicted. Perhaps because it was suddenly Regina, and not Xandra, in control of their Miss Toontastic form.

I raised a hairless eyebrow.

"Miss Toontastic is way better," she squeaked, "So don't go tryin' to change things up! Or yah gonna have me to mess with!"

I threw my hands up, noticing the cool morning breeze against my Slip-suited body as if it were a gentle caress.

"It was just a suggestion," I resonated.

"Just-a suggestion," Miss Toontastic squeaked back, "Miss Toontastic suits us just fine, yah hear?"

Miss Toontastic's head jerked strangely, and then she said, speaking in Xandra's voice, "No, I like it."

Miss Toontastic's head jerked again. "No yah don't!" she squeaked.

Another jerk, "Yes I do!" she said in Xandra's English accent in return.

They went back and forth arguing like this for a little longer. Strangely, I found myself unable to predict what either of them were going to say or do as they continued with their bickering.

Xandra took control of her body again. And, for some reason, she seemed quite happy.

"I like Snap," she said, "That will be my nickname when I'm in control."

"Fine!" Miss Toontastic squeaked, "But I don't like it."

"Good," said Snap, "Fine with me."

It was then I fell backwards onto the grass. A sudden dizziness had taken hold of me, no doubt, because of the immense mental pressure I had undertaken by using the mental aspects of the power so forcefully during the training session.

"Slip?!" Snap called in alarm.

She bounded over to my side and crouched low. I was in such a daze I started to throw up my arms to defend myself.

"No, no, the fighting's over," said Snap, putting her hands gently atop my closed fists.

I relaxed.

"I think that's enough for today," said Snap.

"Yeah," I resonated.

She helped me get to my feet, putting my arm over her shoulders. Her hair was soft and nice to touch, and her shoulders firm yet soft in a way only a woman's shoulders could be. If I still had skin on my face I would have been caught blushing.

"Thanks for including me," said Snap in a whisper.

I knew what she meant. The training. The nickname. It hadn't just been my Intuition ability that had tipped me off to understand she was feeling left out of the comradery which had built between Clang and me.

"No problem, Snap," I resonated.

She giggled.

Without saying a word about it, we both understood that we wanted to make our way back inside The Shops pub for food, drinks, and to rest.

As we started to walk towards the side-steps of the wooden decking, I couldn't help but hear the heavy clonking footfalls moving away from the pub window.

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