Studio Smackdown: Round One, When 'No Thanks' Doesn't Work

Judge was in his clone body, sitting near the ether well. After the meeting with Clio, he couldn't go back to his real body since he knew he would fall asleep. So he did himself a favor and teleported to the studio before switching with the clone and heading back to the forest.

Now he just sits there looking for some way to teleport near his real body. But according to what Clio said, he cannot teleport inside the city of dragons. Even if there was no anti-teleport barrier, it would've been a chore to teleport.

As he was pondering about what to do like a squirrel who had lost its hidden stash of nuts (the edible kind, seriously—if you thought otherwise, please see a therapist). He could suddenly sense his real body somewhere very far away.

"Did Mom succeed in teleporting out of the city? Maybe I should go see her." But there was one tiny problem— She didn't know about his clone, and a man in an unknown attire with a smiling white mask wasn't very well welcomed by people, especially his mother, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he was honestly scared of her.

Using the magic of EC (Enhanced Cognition), he found the solution, he didn't have to use it but he did anyway. He could teleport near his real self and quickly head back to the studio, observing what had happened in that split second. If he used his EC he could get a better grasp of the scene.

"Alright," He stood up, he now had another problem to solve, teleporting such a great distance would require a great deal of ether, and he wasn't sure he would have enough ether to go back into the studio.

He decided to scourge the researcher's office for any catalysts. And he found one— well, many actually. There was a box full of unused, single-use catalysts. "Yep, this will work!" He excitedly took a few and laid them out on a table in front of him.

Laying them out on a table, he focused on the catalysts, drawing ether from each until he could not draw any more ether from them. Focusing on his real body's location, Judge folded space and stepped through, activating his EC to gauge the surroundings instantly.

The teleportation consumed almost half of his ether reserve, which was surprising considering the fact that there was a huge amount of catalysts from which he absorbed ether in order to perform his principle.

Hoping to see his mother, all he saw was another forest, but not as thick as the one before, the trunks and branches of the trees present had a more orange hue than... well, trees. The leaves were bright red instead of green. There was a path nearby, not fancy but clear enough to indicate that there were people using this path regularly.

But the most important thing, there was no one present. No Mom, No Grandpa, No Melina— No one was there with the egg. He deactivated his EC and proceeded toward the egg that held his real body, and he picked the big egg in his hands.

He noticed two things about it— one, it was extremely heavy, he could imagine someone struggling to power lift with two of these on each end. The second one, was that it was extremely hard, though not as hard as his clone body.

"Who might you be young man with a masked face?" A woman appeared behind him. "And will you tone down your Will? Your presence is pretty intense, any normal person would've been on the ground, gasping for breath."

Judge almost panicked in surprise, someone appeared behind him and he did not even sense her coming, which alone made him wary. He turned around, starting his masquerade of a mysterious entity.

 "My apologies," he said smoothly. "But I cannot contain my anger, and that naturally leads to an overflow of Will. Since you're unaffected, I see no reason to hide it."

The woman smiled faintly, her eyes gleaming with amusement. She reminded him of Clio, but less annoying. "I see. So, what angers you, masked one?"

Judge's eyes narrowed, as if clones were capable of such feats of course. But his expressions were hidden behind the mask. "It is none of your concern." He turned around, ready to leave, "But if you must know, I am here for personal reasons. Now, if you would excuse me."

"Your temperament is pretty bad." She tilted her head, she was curious about him but her facial expression did not change. "That arrogant nature will get you in a lot of trouble."

Her voice was annoyingly calm, leaving Judge to wonder if she was Clio 2.0— but her character was way off from Clio's warm attitude.

Judge was starting to understand that standing here any longer would not spell 'good' for him. "I did not ask for a lecture lady, I will be going." He decided to teleport back to the studio after he was out of her sight.

"Who said anything about lecturing?" Without a warning, she launched herself in front of him, the sword in her hand had the scabbard on. She aimed at his mask, probably to see the arrogant guy's face.

Judge, luckily had his EC still on, which helped him to block the attack that could otherwise hit him straight on his mask. His hands did not break due to the hard materials it was made of, but he was blasted back, hitting and destroying many trees on the path, he was still clutching the egg in his arms.

"Wow you are strong, I expected a broken bone or two." She was still smiling, but this time, the smile felt illegal. He suddenly felt the urge to apologize to Clio for thinking her smile as annoying.

"What do you think you are, doing? Are you looking for a fight?" Judge could not falter, he needed to keep up his acting.

"You can take it in whatever way you want, but some with a will as domineering as you should be able to take my attacks." She launched at him again.

Judge had no choice but to fight back, and there was only one way to do it. He snapped his fingers, teleporting both of them inside the studio.