Iris chuckled. "What are you planning to do? You can't reach me from there."
There was a good amount of distance between Iris and the two of them. No ordinary person could cross that space before she could point her gun and fire. Trying to maneuver around it, to predict where the gun would shoot so it could be dodged, wasn't going to work. There wasn't enough space, and even if there were, they had already seen that she could control the bullet.
In this situation, Iris had the full advantage—to the point that she dropped her guard. And it wasn't technically misplaced confidence, because Kai didn't try to move toward her. Instead, he got into a throwing stance almost instantly.
He followed through.
Mid-motion, his empty throwing hand—holding nothing just a second ago—suddenly formed a ball of fire. And when he completed the throwing motion, a flying fire sword shot toward Iris.
She was completely caught off guard.
The sword hit the ground right in front of her and exploded. The shockwave sent her flying backward.
During the week of training before they went to the nightclub—or even the bar—Kai had already known that his power's potential was limited. After all, the fire sword was cool, but it was still a sword. However, unlike a real one, this was a power, not a physical weapon. And if there was any advantage to that, he was going to train it.
The first thing he practiced was an aspect of his sword that he noticed almost immediately after awakening his ability for the first time, but hadn't been able to do much with at first. His sword could levitate from his hand—but only a little. If it went any farther, it would dissipate.
At first, he thought he could make his sword into a flying sword. That would have advanced his strength by leaps and bounds. But he had no luck with it. In fact, he focused on it a lot, and nothing changed.
He almost gave up.
But he didn't stop training there.
He didn't ignore the advice that he would eventually give to Ren later on: the first step to becoming stronger with your ability is to understand how your power manifests.
So he studied his power.
After some experimentation, and after noticing the visual cues that appeared whenever he manifested his ability, he realized something. A fireball always appeared on his palm first—it didn't matter which hand. That fireball then almost immediately Springs into the shape of a sword through motion.
That realization gave him the idea to throw it.
He didn't know if it would work, considering his sword dissipated if it went far enough from his hand. But when he threw it for the first time, it went farther than expected. Over time, he managed to increase the range as well.
Even though the hovering didn't improve, the distance did.
This technique was incredible. It helped that his sword itself seemed to be stronger than his physical body. He could use it to block attacks that he normally wasn't strong enough to block, even if whatever he was holding was capable of withstanding it. And it dealt a lot of damage—even though his own speed and strength weren't enough to produce that level of force.
Because of that, the technique he decided to call Arrow, keeping with the weapon theme of his ability, was quite powerful.
He didn't use it during the nightclub. Even though he could have used it as a disguised form of his ability when they fought the bodyguards, he thought they were too weak to handle Arrow. And when he fought Mark, it was the same situation. He also didn't use the shockwave like he did with Iris, because when they first fought Mark, they were inside a room small enough that everyone would have been affected by it. And when they fought in the alleyway, the fight was already over by then.
Boom.
Fire erupted from the spot where Arrow landed. It covered their sight, not allowing Iris to see beyond it.
"Dammit, what the hell—" Iris muttered.
Mark had said that only one of them had a power. Most of Iris's information about these two came from Mark. For the longest time, he was the only one who managed to see them without most of their disguises. But even then, Mark never experienced Arrow during that fight, because Kai never used his ability back then.
Mark assumed Kai didn't have any power—just like him.
A couple of seconds later, the fire disappeared, allowing Iris to see again.
The next thing she noticed was a door to the building next to them—and it was open.
Ren and Kai went inside.
Iris quickly got up and ran after them.
She couldn't let them escape.
A couple of seconds earlier, Ren and Kai were making their way through what turned out to be a kitchen—the door leading into a restaurant.
"Hey, what are you doing? You kids!" a couple of adults tried to stop them, but then they noticed some blood on Ren's leg while he was limping.
"Oh my God, are you okay?" a woman said.
"Excuse me, we need to go from here to the nearest hospital. Do you mind?" Kai asked.
Once they said that, the adults let them pass through the kitchen. They moved quickly through the restaurant area, drawing the attention of the other students who were eating there—and a few adults as well—but Ren and Kai didn't pay them any attention. They pushed through the restaurant doors, stopped a taxi outside, and immediately got in.
There was a window separating the backseat from the driver and the front seat. They closed it for privacy. Taxis on Star Island had privacy settings on by default—no one could hear what was being said in the back.
Kai looked at Ren. "Are you okay, man?"
"Relax. Just like she said, the bullet only scratched me," Ren replied. "So other than limping, I can walk and fight just fine."
Kai sighed in relief, then spoke with clear frustration. "I told you letting her chase us was a bad idea."
"I know, I know," Ren said. "But it worked. We know what her ability is now."
Kai sighed again. "Yeah. I think it's pretty obvious. First the purple electricity coming out of her hand, then the bullet coming back to her. It's definitely magnetism."
He clenched his jaw. "And that is practically the worst power to fight against—especially here. Star Island is an artificial island. A lot of it is made of metal. Obviously not every place is metal, but you can find it everywhere."
He paused, thinking. "At the very least, we need to find a place with the least amount of metal to fight her head-on."
Ren glanced back through the rear window.
Far in the distance, another taxi was following them.
"And we need to figure it out now because Iris is still behind us."
Kai thought for a second—then his eyes widened slightly. "Wait. There's a training area called Greenfield for the hero course. It's basically one gigantic forest. There's practically no metal there."
He continued quickly, "And it's currently open because there's an event happening soon. They're making preparations, so we can just walk in with no problem."
Ren thought about it for a moment. "Wait… what about your fire?"
"Don't worry," Kai said confidently. "I can extinguish it immediately after the hit. I trained for that. In case I ever fought in a place with flammable material."
He hesitated, then added, "Plus… I also have a plan."
Ren blinked, surprised. "Really? What is it?"
Kai partially smiled. "Well… it's a partial plan."