Grim

My pack weighed heavily on my shoulders. We've been walking for three days and I was cold, but I wouldn't dare light a fire or open my shed. We could have been at our destination already if we could ride Orin, but using his copy ability too much put him out for a while. There was an agreed-upon silence between Devin and me, the overwhelming shadow of the Constables loomed over us and we dare not speak.

"Yo! Ingen! Wait up!"

I turned around in a defensive stance, weaving my best spells, only to see a familiar face. My guard dropped for just a moment until I remembered my current position.

"Stop right there! I know I sold enough Changeling Suits for you to be in disguise! Go away Ben, if that even is your real name."

Ben used his sub-affinity, Body Enhancement, and declared:

"Professor Lana is a lightning mage but is too small to disguise herself as me, and as far as I know, I'm the only person in the entire school with the body enhancement sub-affinity. So I'm like, ninety-nine percent sure that I'm Ben."

'It's hard to argue with his logic. Spirit, thoughts?'

'It's Ben alright, take a look at your glasses' log.'

[Ben] Appeared above his head.

"Well then, you are definitely Ben, now, what are you doing here?" I eyed him suspiciously.

"I'm here to help! Devin and I organized an escape plan as soon as he got involved with the rebels." Ben looked back. "And I brought Yomo."

Over Yomo's head appeared [Laura]

"Alright, let's see him prove his identity." I gave Devin the signal for 'liar'

Fake-Yomo used both hot and cold at the same time, only getting a spear in the chest in response.

"Just kidding! I know it's you, Laura!" I shouted as I took advantage of her opening.

'Where are my allies?'

I looked around and noticed that Devin was gone, he was behind Laura with his sword out.

My spear didn't actually hit Laura, instead, it was redirected at me with a dimensional portal.

Devin swung at Laura too, trying to catch her by surprise, only for his blade to be deflected by her dagger.

"You can drop the facade, Laura! I know it's you!" The spear hit my armor and fell to the ground uselessly.

"Fine, this mask limits me anyway!" The Changeling Suit slowly crept away from her face until her long hair fell to her waist. "I'd better get this out of the way." She grabbed a handful of it and chopped her hair to a bob.

"Ben! None of us are strong enough to defeat her on our own! We have to fight together!"

Ben knew what to do, he pulled his signature weapon off of his back: an all-metal halberd.

"I didn't score second place for nothing!" He swung the heavy weapon like it weighed nothing, nearly decapitating Laura.

Laura disappeared through a portal created by her Rift Garden spatial glove.

Lightning arced off of Ben's legs as he sped forward faster than the portal could even close, and he was upon Laura again.

"I didn't get first place for nothing."

Ben found himself without support for a few seconds as Devin conjured a portal and I took off to catch up. Ben was immediately forced onto the backfoot, Laura's weapons were extremely fast and he could barely keep up, only keeping her off with surges of lightning.

Despite her victories in fighting Ben by himself, We were not planning on playing fair. Devin attacked from behind and I attacked from above.

Laura expertly defended against Devin and Ben, one arm each. I was in a position to finally end the fight, but unfortunately, Laura followed the first rule of fighting greater numbers: Bring friends.

Soon Constables started to pop out of the woodwork, Lana appeared, as well as Unda and Larry.

Something was off about them, Unda and Larry looked at Lana like she was a traitor, and Laura and Lana returned the sentiment.

"Constables: Civil War?" Devin made another reference that no-one got.

Without warning, Larry and Unda started to attack Laura and Lana.

"Why are you ok with this!? The king killed your husband!" Larry shouted, "And now he wants you to kill a kid for thinking incorrectly!" He deflected Lana's bolt before she could shock him.

Unda's muscles rippled as she swung with her longsword, and her face tensed every time she blocked a blow with her shield.

"What are we standing around for! Get it together!" I shouted to bring everyone back to their senses.

Just then, more portals opened and an army of Constables marched out, sights set on our little group. Unda had just enough time to make a critical blow on Lana, felling her in an instant.

"Never mess with my students!" She shouted.

"Scratch that! TIME TO GO!" Devin recognized the cue and portaled everyone to me, including Larry and Unda.

I recreated the metal drill I theorized in the hunt, making several rings float around me.

"Larry! Keep us steady!" The rings spun at a very high rate, scraping the topsoil off, then the next layer, and the next, until we were cutting through bedrock like butter.

We were standing on near-solid air, just like what Orin does on a bigger scale.

My flow manipulation pulled more and more metal from the ground, eventually making a metal platform to replace the air one.

"Devin, you work with the Larry to bring air in here remotely. We will all suffocate in ten minutes if we don't get a resupply before then." I sighed, there was no way we could keep this up for long, my Eneru would be out in less than an hour.

"Unda, why did you decide to fight against the Constables? I understand Larry, he was Ingen's teacher and seemed attached, but you, you don't strike me as someone who would betray her side." Devin was staring at her like she was an alien

"You're right, I didn't betray my side, I was tasked with making sure Ingen was safe during his schooling by his parents. I've been part of the rebellion since I was fourteen." She responded

Suddenly my Telespeak amulet pulled at my consciousness, breaking the monotony of me explaining how bad our situation is.

"Ingen! Finally! I've been being jammed for the last three days! You can trust Larry, Unda, and James, they are going to help you escape."

"Alright, are you safe, dad?"

"I'm fine, but your school is a smoldering wreck and the rebellion is ruined."

"Ok, I have to focus on escaping now, I'll talk to you when I'm not being chased by crazy constables."

I cut the mind link and finished my speech.

"The short of it is that in about forty minutes we will all die."