Vin and the Shadow Dancer Chapter Nine: A Not So Friendly Encounter
It is daytime. Yves is happily sleeping on the hospital stretcher, still inside the tent from last night after the Ringleader incident. Her bruises are gone, but her right cheek still has the three-line scratch she obtained fighting herself. She yawns and stretches. Then she opens her eyes and sits on the stretcher. She looks at the ground. Judging by the light on the floor, this light is coming from the sun and not from a lightbulb. She moves her right hand to touch her right cheek. She winces once touching the scratch.
"There better be a medkit here so I can put cream on this," Yves told herself.
"Rise and shine pumpkin," Buck greeted, entering the infirmary tent.
Yves looks at her teammate. Buck is holding a small foldable table under his left armpit and a tray with a plate of eggs, bacon, a knife, a fork, and a glass of orange juice in his right hand. He sets up the table and puts the tray with food on it.
"Got your breakfast in case you needed a bit more rest," Buck told Yves. "Plus, Dana and Chris want the teams to be ready for today's challenge in the afternoon."
"Another challenge!?" Yves exclaimed in disbelief. "We just had a night one. A dreadful night one. How do they expect us to be ready for another one so soon?"
"Dana did say this challenge will be super easy. We'll be using the mechs today since they got fixed," Buck told Yves.
Yves scoffs. "Easy with mechs? Doubtful. What time do we have to be there?" She drinks some of her orange juice.
"In ten minutes," Buck answered happily.
Yves chokes on the orange juice in her mouth and spits it out immediately. "Ten minutes!?" She gets up from the stretcher. "What time is it?"
"Almost two hours past noon," Buck informed.
"I've been out for that long?" Yves exclaimed, shocked at the reveal. She goes to get out of the tent, but Buck stops her by putting his left arm in front of her.
"Eat breakfast first, then we will go. Like my pops always said, breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Buck said.
Yves can see in her teammate's eyes that he will not budge. So, she sits back on the stretcher and begins eating her food. "I'll call this more like a brunch than breakfast." She smiles at Buck. "Thanks for bringing me a meal. Are you sure our team won't get punished for coming late?"
"Caleb told me he figured out that I and Niu are Dana's favorites. I'm sure being a few minutes late won't do any harm," Buck secured.
Yves hums and nods since she has food in her mouth. While she eats, she notices a silver case near the left end side of the tent. She swallows the food in her mouth. "Is that the case with the million dollars or some bigger prize Chris has for this season?"
Buck laughs. "Nah, I wish. The case has that iron suit you wanted me to build for you."
Yves blinks at the MacGyver. She rapidly finishes her breakfast and completely drinks her orange juice. She gets up from the stretcher and gives a big hug to Buck.
"You're the best Buck. I really appreciate you doing this for me. You have no idea how much this means to me. How much I need it," Yves praised.
Buck's cheeks turn red. "No problem Yves."
Yves stops hugging Buck and grabs the silver case.
"Be careful, once you open the case the iron suit automatically activates. It can only be a one-use situation," Buck warned.
"Got it," Yves understood, smiling at the case. If the iron suit is anything like Cameron's, no enemy will cause her trouble. Yves turns around and notices Buck blushing brightly. Yves frowns. Is he…
"Buck, is there something you would like to say to me?" Yves asked.
Buck's smile grows wider. Is time to tell Yves how he feels about her. However, that frown from her crush is not making him feel good.
"Why the long face?" Buck worryingly asked Yves.
Yves takes a deep breath and smiles. "Go ahead Buck, tell me."
"Yves, I like you," Buck admitted his feelings. "You're smart, pretty, charming, amazing. I like how cold and calculated you are. You're just great. These feelings I have for you have been in me for the competition. And you taking down that Henry fellow with the help of Sami and stopping Yvette was amazing. I like that type of fire and passion in a girl."
Yves plays with her hair, appreciating the compliments.
"Want to go out with me?" Buck asked.
Yves does her best not to frown. Buck likes her. But she likes Knick. But Knick is in her world and Buck is here. What if she cannot return to her world? What if Knick breaks up with her if she gets back? Maybe Buck can… no. No, not that way. She still likes Knick and is fighting her way to get back to her world to be with him. Maybe she can manipulate Buck? Not that either. She is not the person she used to be. She is not Violette. She has changed. To prove that she has to be honest. Even if the truth hurts.
Yves gets close to Buck and looks at him in his eyes. Buck does the same. He closes his eyes and puckers up his lips, expecting him and his crush to kiss.
However, Yves simply hugs Buck again while holding the silver case.
"Buck, you're a great, kind, wonderful, extraordinary person. I have never met a guy like you who can think and build mechs, suits, and robots in such a short time," Yves admired the boy's qualities.
This makes Buck blush even harder.
"Which is why I'm not cut out to be your girlfriend," Yves stated. She stops hugging her teammate so the two can look at each other.
"I… don't understand," Buck admitted confused. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say you deserve someone else. I can't be your girlfriend," Yves rejected becoming a couple.
"Is this because of you wanting Knick?" Buck said, getting more perplexed. "He has a girlfriend you know."
Yves sighs. Buck has a point in the world but explaining the whole she is from another dimension will just add more confusion.
"Buck, us getting together will cause us nothing but trouble. I'll just try to use you to get what I want," Yves spoke the truth. "I already manipulated a boy into doing what I want and I'm facing the consequences. I don't want to do that again. Especially to you."
Buck is shocked to hear this. "I thought you were this innocent girl that just kept things to herself," Buck admitted.
"I'm not innocent," Yves said. "Have you seen me facing off against these intruders?"
"So, that's it?" Buck sincerely asked heartbrokenly. "We're not getting together."
"No," Yves simply answered. "Is for the best."
"I see," Buck said, realizing that he will not get together with Yves. He narrows his eyes at the silver case Yves is holding. "So, you manipulated a boy to get what you want before. Wondering if you did that to me."
Yves notices his facial expression and her eyes widen. She can tell Buck is looking at the case. "Okay, I know it looks like what I did is bad, but I swear. I genuinely asked you to make this for my safety."
"For your own safety?" Buck questioned.
"I should have worded that better," Yves acknowledged as she takes a few steps back from her teammate.
"So, all this time you wanted me to make an iron suit for yourself to use in challenges and get far," Buck thought as he walks close to the dancer. "And then dump me when I am no longer useful."
"That is not true," Yves told Buck. "You wouldn't understand why I need it." She hugs the silver case after she stopped walking.
Buck stops walking as well, two feet away from his former crush. "Sounds like there are a lot of things I don't understand about you. What kind of secrets you're hiding?"
Buck grabs the case, and the two Beta Bots do tug-of-war on it.
"Buck, I thought you wouldn't get like this," Yves declared, trying to keep the case for herself.
"I guess we both have surprises," Buck told, trying his best to pull the case away from Yves.
"Buck again, I did not use you for this iron suit, I desperately need it," Yves confessed truthfully.
"For what, why can't you just say the motivations behind doing all this," Buck wondered, about to cry.
"Because telling you I'm from another dimension is not going to make sense for you," Yves shouted.
"Huh?" Buck spoke confused.
Yves takes the opportunity to push Buck away from her. Buck stumbles and hits the ground on his butt. The dancer looks ashamed for doing that.
"I'm sorry Buck, but I need this suit," Yves apologized. "Please understand I'm not doing this to get farther in the game. I'm doing this to protect myself."
Buck sighs. "From what?"
Suddenly, a green Venus flytrap wraps its stem around Yves's right ankle. It pulls Yves out of the tent. The dancer still is holding onto the silver case.
"Yves?" Buck wondered. He goes outside the tent and finds it hard to believe what he is seeing.
A figure is shown, having four mutated Venus flytraps that are connected to her back. The Venus flytrap holding Buck's teammate's ankle has her upside down.
The figure with the mutated flytraps on her back has curly long unkempt black hair and orange skin. She is only five feet. She looks lanky but does not have any physical disabilities. Her outfit consists of grey goggles with an orange frame covering her eyes, a torn-up dark green hoodie covering up some of her hair, torn-up baggy jeans, yellow gloves, long black socks, and brown work boots.
"Ingrid," Yves said the name of the mutant girl, trying to not demonstrate any fear whatsoever.
"Hello Yves," Ingrid greeted with a sadistic smile. "How nice to meet you again face to face."
Buck watches this interaction, unknowingly how these two recognize each other. What is going on?
Yves notices the different outfit Ingrid has. This must be an Ingrid from another dimension.
"Before you go ahead and strangle me, I have to ask. Did you come here to this island by being engulfed by a red cloud?" Yves asked the mutant.
"Hmm, now that I think about it, I was transported here by a weird cloud," Ingrid admitted. "I teamed up with Henry to take you all down but then a cloud comes in and…" She notices Buck using his trusty wrench to break the stem of the Venus flytrap holding Yves' right ankle. "Hey!"
Buck is successful and Yves falls to the ground on her back with the silver case wrapped around her arms. The cut Venus flytrap is also on the ground, jumping up and down like a fish out of water. The dancer quickly gets up and opens the case. A wave of yellow light engulfs her.
She is now wearing the high-tech, full-body mechanical suit that Buck made for her. The suit's head resembles hers with black metal where her long hair is, white steel glasses with yellow circle frames attached to the suit, and dark orange steel skin. Its arms, thighs, neck, and fingers are also dark orange. White armor covers the shoulders, forearms, hands, chest, back, abdomen, and waist. There is also white armor that resembles underwear.
Yves turns her head to her right. "Go warn everyone that a mutant flower girl is on the attack," She told Buck. "I'll keep her occupied."
Buck nods and leaves the area. Yves puts her attention on Ingrid. The mutant girl notices her upper left Venus flytrap has been decapitated.
"Mutant flower girl? I have a name you know," Ingrid told Yves, pretending to feel hurt. "But you probably don't care about that anymore now do you?"
"Ingrid, I don't want to fight you," Yves told the mutant.
"You should have thought of that before betraying Sami," Ingrid stated. She takes a deep breath and inhales for a bit. The decapitated part of the broken stem regenerates the face of a flytrap.
Yves gulps. She forgot that Ingrid could do that.
"We come from different worlds," Yves spoke. "I'm not the one you faced."
"You are all the same," Ingrid stated. The Venus flytraps of her look hungry.
Yves sighs. "There's no way for me to convince you to stop this?"
"This is going to happen whether you fight me or not," Ingrid answered, getting in position for her flytraps on her back to attack.
"We don't need to do this. We can talk about this. What will violence solve? You kill me, and then what?" Yves said. "You think Sami would appreciate that? Still be your friend?"
Ingrid frowns. Yves has a point. How would her friendship with Sami continue by doing such an awful thing? However, Ingrid gives a sly grin. "But Sami isn't here, is she? As you said, we come from different worlds. As long as I get to end one of you, I'm satisfied."
Yves sighs again. "Alright, let's get this over with."
Ingrid puts her Venus flytraps in front of her. The flytraps breathe fire at Yves. Yves goes into the fire, not getting burnt due to her iron suit. She gives a swift punch to Ingrid's goggles. This sends the mutant girl back a few yards, but she is able to keep herself from falling. The goggles break in two and fall off. Ingrid's eyes are yellow while her pupils red.
Yves uses her rocket boosters under her feet to boost herself into the sky and land near Ingrid. She looks at how much damage she has on her armor from a blue screen inside her iron suit. It says ninety percent.
Ingrid scoffs in anger. She uses her upper right flytrap to bash Yves with it. Yves dodges the attack easily but gets hit by another flytrap Ingrid stretched out. This sends the dancer back a few yards. Yves does a backflip to stand on the ground.
Yves notices the glass dome and realizes that she is inside with Ingrid. She activates her rocket boosters again to fly and flee from the dome.
"Hey, thought you wanted to fight me!" Ingrid exclaimed and followed her prey.
While Yves lures Ingrid somewhere, Buck arrives at the massive field where the mechs pop out from the underground. They were not on the field yet since Dana and Chris are waiting for him and Yves. The rest of the remaining contestants are waiting as well, some being more impatient than others.
"About time you ****** got here," Caleb told Buck. "Where's Yves?"
Buck bends a bit and puts his hands on his knees. He ran all the way to this spot and is taking time to catch his breath.
"Yves is in danger. A mutant plant girl is after her," Buck told everyone.
Normally anyone will not believe him but considering there have been three intruders already, who is to say another is here.
Chris groans annoyed. He looks at the rest of the contestants. "Change of plans, no challenge today. Well, at least not an elimination challenge."
"You are seriously asking us to go up against a mutant?" Daniel questions the host's decision.
"Whichever team saves Yves and defeats Ingrid gets a reward. A spa treatment or whatever," Dana told the party dude. "All of you get in your mechs and find them now!"
"The last time our mechs were used your intern attacked us," Margaret pointed out. "How do we know this mutant won't be different?"
"Well, I can help you all with that," Buck said. "I got a good close-up on what that girl can do."
Sami claps happily. As Buck discusses how dangerous Ingrid could be and the contestants getting into their respective mechs, Yves is around an abandoned city with many cars and lamp posts all over the area. The dancer stops flying in her iron suit and lands in the middle of a four-way road under traffic lights. Looking around, she notices Ingrid is not in her sight. She has to keep on the lookout in case of a sneak attack.
"Okay, so what I know in my universe, Cali-tokyo is an abandoned tourist site. But still, did Dana have to invest in all of this unnecessary stuff?" Yves admitted while still looking around. "Feel like this island could have been a tad smaller."
Suddenly, a red car is shown in the sky heading towards her. Yves activates her rocket boosters to fly and dodge the car. Another car heads towards her from the air, this one being blue. Yves dodges this one as well. She notices three cars coming at her of different colors. She dodges the first two and uses the electric blasts coming from her fists to destroy the third one in pieces.
To her surprise, a gasoline truck comes at her. The shock of seeing a truck coming at her prevents the dancer from dodging it. The truck hits her and she lands on the road with the truck on top of her. She groans in pain. Her armor percentage says eighty.
Ingrid comes up from the ground, breaking a part of the road. She has an emotionless expression on her face. She breathes fire at the gasoline truck from a safe distance. This causes a huge explosion. She watches countless cars, lampposts, and window glass explode from the effect. She smiles, watching the fire and smoke from the destroyed truck. Her smile fades when she sees Yves in her iron suit walking out of the fire. She can tell the suit has been damaged, but the fact the dancer is still standing boils her skin.
"You can't tell because I'm wearing this suit, but I am really, really ticked off," Yves told Ingrid as she walks. She stops to get in a battle stance. "At first I was going easy so I don't hurt you, but now I realize I should stop trying." She looks at the suit's percent. It is fifty-four. She can feel the pain from the explosion, the heat going through the metal. It is hurting her so much. Yet she cannot back down. She needs to buy time for the rest of the contestants to get her.
As soon as Ingrid commands one of her Venus flytraps to attack, Yves activates her rocket boosters. She flies towards the mutant while dodging all four flytraps and gives a swift kick to Ingrid's face. One can hear the metal impact to the mutant's forehead.
Yves' next attack is landing on the ground and giving two punches to Ingrid's face. Then a good gut punch with her left fist to really hurt her opponent. Yves then opens her left fist into a hand to shoot an electric blast. This sends Ingrid high up into the sky.
Yves flies after her opponent and grabs the stem of each flytrap. She spins around in the air to make Ingrid dizzy and throws the plant lover into a building, destroying a part of the roof and top floor. Yves then creates a gigantic electric ball and throws it at the building. This creates an explosion of electricity that destroys half the building. The dancer waits for the rubble and smoke to clear to see how Ingrid from another world is doing.
To her surprise, Ingrid is nowhere to be seen in the rubble.
A Venus flytrap comes from behind and knocks Yves to the ground at a rapid pace. The impact is so grand it creates a crater. Yves moans in pain again as she gets up. She checks how much percentage of her armor has left. Forty, which is not what she wants right now.
"Come on Buck? Where are you and the rest of them?" Yves wondered.
Ingrid appears, coming out of the ground again. The Venus flytrap that attacked Yves shortens itself to meet Ingrid's height. The girl has severe bruises around her, and her clothes are more ripped than before. She spits out purple blood from her mouth.
"You're only alive because of that iron suit," Ingrid stated.
"And you're only alive because I don't want to kill you," Yves told the gardener. "If I was actually going to, you would already be dead."
"Really?" Ingrid said amused.
"You're on an artificial island Ingrid. You can't create plants as fast as you could. And if you do, you're just allowing me to get free shots," Yves told the truth.
Ingrid snarls. No wonder she can barely feel plant life on this island. "Then I'll just have to finish you as fast as I can!" She uses one of her flytraps to tie Yves' waist.
Ingrid's other three flytraps touch the ground and extend so the mutant can reach the highest tower in the area. She then uses the one holding Yves to run through countless buildings, damaging the suit bit by bit while causing destruction.
Yves can feel the pain throughout the attack. She is sweating. She has to stop this before the battery in her armor runs out. Is at thirty-two percent and going down slowly.
"Armor, increase strength to hands for three seconds," Yves commanded the suit. Taking the opportunity, she grabs onto the stem of the flytrap holding her and breaks it.
As Ingrid regenerates that part, Yves puts her hands together and flies towards her opponent and gives a well good whack to the head, sending Ingrid to the ground, creating a giant crater. Yves flies down to the ground and watches Ingrid get up slowly.
Ingrid breathes heavily as more bruises are all over her body. Some purple blood is escaping her forehead.
"Stop, now," Yves pleaded, about to burst into tears. "I don't enjoy doing this. Neither do you."
"Shut up!" Ingrid shouted while about to cry. She uses her flytraps to grab certain parts of the iron suit. These are the left arm, right leg, left ankle, and right hip.
The flytraps use their pointy teeth to pierce the armor and bite a bit of Yves' skin.
"Augh!" Yves shouted in pain.
"That's right, scream!" Ingrid exclaimed.
Yves notices the percent left in her armor. Only fifteen percent. "Activate electric shock repulsion."
The iron suit creates an electric current that shocks the flytraps and Ingrid. The flytraps stop piercing Yves' skin and suit. They quickly head back to their owner.
"I already forgave myself and want to make things right," Yves told the Ingrid from another dimension. "What I did was wrong, but if there is one thing I realized throughout my stay here, is that second chances exist. Even for myself." She creates an electric sword in her right hand.
Ingrid launches the flytraps at Yves who cuts them all with her sword.
"And forgiveness. Because I forgave myself for what I did," Yves continued talking. She turns her electric sword into electric brass knuckles for her fists. "And you need to learn that too."
Yves goes to Ingrid and delivers many blows to the mutant's body. This also prevents Ingrid from regenerating.
"But not like this!" Yves exclaimed. She makes the electric bass knuckles disappear and puts her hands on Ingrid's ears. "Send an immense electric charge out of the armor, full power!" The iron suit wearer commanded.
As instructed, the suit activates an electric voltage so powerful, that you can see Ingrid's skeleton from time to time. Ingrid also screams in agony as the electricity goes through her for ten seconds. Once done, Yves lets go of the mutant's ears and backs away as Ingrid falls to the ground unconscious.
Yves checks the power of her suit, four percent. Just enough to open its hatch. She waits a few seconds in case Ingrid gets up again. Seeing no movement, the dancer commands the suit to deactivate. The suit magnetically repulses out of Yves' body and the parts fall to the ground. One can see her tired with a sweaty face. Even though the iron suit stopped her from dying countless times, she still received massive damage all over her body. Her legs can barely keep her standing.
As she is about to sit down on the ground, a flytrap ties her by the waist. She struggles to break free, especially with the bare energy she has left.
"I'm, not, done," Ingrid declared softly between breaths as she slowly stands up.
Before she can command one of her flytraps to bite her enemy's head, a mech's right foot steps on her, this time completely immobilizing the mutant. The mech belongs to Margaret.
"I did it! I stopped her. My team wins," Margaret declared. She uses one of her large knives to cut the Venus flytrap holding Yves. Yves falls on her back.
The other contestants in their mechs arrive at the scene. Chris and Dana come as well on jetpacks.
"And the Delta Droids win the challenge!" Dana exclaimed happily. "Their reward is a spa treatment."
The Delta Droids cheer and head back to the dome while the Beta Bots get out of their mechs to check on Yves. Caleb and Violette do not want to, but they want to look good amongst their teammates.
"Thank goodness these kids really want the prize money," Chris informed Dana as they walked to the dancer. "Any other sane person would quit the show at this point."
"You're saying as if none of them are sane," Dana told her co-host.
Chris, Dana, and the Beta Bots circle Yves. Chris takes a good look at where Ingrid was pinned down. The mutant is no longer there. Chris sighs. Another person to take care of.
"Hey guys," Yves greeted with a smile, despite the immense pain she is feeling.
Sami and Buck quickly lift Yves up. The dancer groans in great pain. Once standing she takes some deep breaths. She tries to maintain balance, but once Sami and Buck let her go, she almost falls back down if it was not for the two Bots lifting her up again.
"Geez," Chris winced. "That looks bad."
"Be honest Yves, on a scale of one to ten, how much pain do you have right now?" Dana asked.
"Twelve," Yves spoke the truth.
"Well then, we can't let you stay in those conditions," Chris said. "It doesn't look as bad as Valerie's injuries, but I ain't taking no chances."
"Me either," Dana agreed. "We have to…"
"No!" Yves shouted at the two hosts. "I am not leaving this island." Vin can heal her. His injury is bound to be gone when they meet up again. and he must know plenty of healing spells. "Just, give me until the morning. If I'm still unable to stand and walk, then take me out of the game. But please don't give me a medical evacuation now."
Dana and Chris look at each other. This girl really wants to stay in the game. The two hosts look back at Yves.
"Fine, we'll monitor you again tomorrow morning," Chris agreed with the idea.
"I'll send two security bots to bring you back to the infirmary tent in a stretcher," Dana informed.
"Thanks," Yves smiled and expressed gratitude.
Dana and Chris leave with their jetpacks.
"I'll bring dinner to you tonight," Violette told Yves with a bright smile.
"I'll help her out too," Mitch and Caleb said at the same time. They narrow their eyes at each other.
Buck does not know what to do. He wants to stay to make sure Yves will return to the dome safely, but his heart got broken today because of her telling him it will not work out. Yet Yves also said the truth that enemies are after her. If he did not build the suit, she would be dead. The fact he tried to take the iron suit away feels him with guilt. Yves truly was trying to protect herself.
Sami can tell Buck is conflicted from his body language. She approaches him and puts her right hand on his right shoulder.
"I'll keep an eye on her," Sami told Buck happily and reassuringly. "Go get some rest. Thanks for telling us about the situation."
Buck says nothing but smiles, appreciating Sami's words. He gets into the control room of his mech and leaves. So do Caleb, Violette, and Mitch. Sami carefully places Yves on the ground.
"Everything is going to be alright," Sami told Yves. "You'll get better for tomorrow."
Yves simply smiles at the musical theater nerd. She feels like crying. If Vin cannot heal her then there is no way Chris and Dana will let her continue competing. She does not want to end it like this. She needs to go back to her world. She looks at the spot where Ingrid was and notices the girl gone. Another one to worry about.
"I'm going to rest now. Get in your mech and keep watch," Yves instructed politely.
"Will do," Sami understood and gets into her mech.
Yves sighs happily, glad that this Sami is just like hers. Always there for a friend and teammate in need.
"Wait a second," Sami realized. "What can't I just take you on the palm of one of my mech's hands to the infirmary tent?"
"That's a good idea," Yves said. She did not think of that. Then again, is hard to think of ideas when you can barely move after defeating a mutated human that can summon plants out of her body.
Sami opens her mech's right hand and lows it so her teammate can get on it. Yves crawls onto the hand. Sami steadily lifts up her mech's right arm and heads back to the dome with her injured friend. At least to Sami, Yves is her friend.
