"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails." -Corinthians 13:4-8

______________________

[Inner Sanpaku Entrance]

Zeke and Jeremiah have their flashlights on, as the confidently approach the door to Sanpaku.

Without a word, the friends look at each other, then nod in silence.

At the same time, just on the other side of the makeshift barrier made of plywood and sheet metal, held together with staples/nails, Katsu and Shelly exit the Sanpaku key shed.

They both head for the same exit/entrance of Inner Sanpaku.

Katsu: "Alright, are ya ready to head out Shell?"

His cherished adopted sister blush smiles with a nod.

Shelly(nods): "Mhm."

The constantly smiling Katsu goes to unlock and open the door.

However just before he can touch the door knob, the incredibly perceptive and always on alert Shelly, notices a moving light source from the tiny crack between the floor and the door.

She immediately reaches out and pulls Katsu back just in time, taking his spot in front of the door.

Katsu stumbles backwards to the ground, and briefly slides on his backside.

Suddenly, two fully charged SunSwords pierce through and slice through the rusted door like a hot blade through butter.

In her successfull attempt at saving Katsu, Shelly cranks her neck to the right and barely dodges one of the unbelievably hot blades.

The blazing SunSword does though, cut a strain of her beautiful golden hair.

She takes one incredible backwards lunge and slides to a stop in front of Katsu.

The penetrating SunSwords retreat, disappearing back to their side of the door and the edges of the puncture holes are hot orange for a moment before they eventually cool down.

Katsu: "What the-?!?"

Katsu(thinking): *Right on time.*

As Shelly stands in front of Katsu to protect him, a hard collision is heard from the other side of the damaged entrance/exit.

The force of the collision is enough to break it open.

The entrance to Inner Sanpaku swings open, and it blows up a cloud of dust, covering the breaching party.

From the settling cloud, a dust and dirt covered Jeremiah gets up from the ground, rubbing his hip in slight pain while on one knee.

Jeremiah: "Damn it, I didn’t think their door would be that weak.

Ow.

Shit sucks."

Zeke struts in calmly while he baton twirls his SunSwords once and immediately sheathes them, opposite hand to hip.

Clearly the culprit to the initial intrusion.

Zeke: "Hey, it was your turn this time.

You should feel lucky it’s only a shitty sanctuary with shitty security.

The last locked door I had to throw my body into, was on the fly when we were being chased by a mob of Icemen."

He holds out a hand and helps his partner up.

The prideful mohawked hardass looks away from his recovering friend and his eyes widen.

A gust of wind from the outside world makes it’s way through the broken entrance, and blows the golden hair out of the way of Shelly’s angry, glaring azule eyes, giving Zeke her familiar, intimidating one million mile stare.

There is a brief silence while the two trained fighters stare each other down.

Both Katsu and Jeremiah recover from their seperate tumbles and stand beside their respective ally.

Jeremiah: "Well, will you look at that!?"

Katsu: "Hey, wait a minute...

Are you two HFF soldiers?!

I think these guys are our enemies, Shelly.

Be careful."

Shelly doesn’t respond.

Her near photographic memory has already been triggered and she recognizes the intruder as the student she defeated on the first day of Combat Training.

Jeremiah: "Guess they don’t recognize you cuz of your new hair, Zeke."

Zeke gets pissed off, believing he actually isn’t being recognized, even if it’s recognition for a moment of humility.

He attempts to break eye contact with Shelly, trying to look at Katsu.

To his complete astonishment, the now locked in, badass Shelly moves her head and body in front of Katsu so perfectly, she actually forces their stare down to continue without interruption.

A drop of sweat rolls down Zeke’s temple and he swallows his spit. Getting visibly more irritated (and intimidated) the longer Shelly’s eyes stare through him.

Jeremiah: "Well shit Zeke, with the luck we’ve had today, once we get back to Erebus, we gotta go play Madame MamMon’s daily lottery. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Since God is clearly focusing and lookin’ out for us today."

While his unconcerned partner is basically conversing to himself about their luck, Zeke takes his SunSwords back out of their HeatHolsters. The fully charged and heated blades make the tunnels mood lighting change to an orange hue.

At the same moment, with an imperturbable smoothness, Shelly unsheathes her newly gifted, all black Seax. The blade in her left hand and the hard wooden sheath in her right.

Jeremiah: "Oh yea, doesn’t this goofy kid’s psycho girlfriend do something cr-?"

But as he is recalling Shelly’s fighting style, she so kindly gives the both of them a personal visual instead.

Without looking away from her enemy, she places the soft, all black grip between her perfectly straight and white teeth and clenches down. The tassel brushes across her cheek.

Jeremiah: "Yea...that...

Hehe. Shit, if she weren’t such a terrifying psycho, I wouldn’t mind putting my sword in her mouth too, am I right Zeke?"

The remark suddenly makes the smiling Katsu lose his grin...

Jeremiah: "...

..Zeke?

Oh, right.

You’re in the middle of your redemption arc thing right now.

Forgot for a second.

My bad..."

The battle prepping woman lightly taps her thumb on the sharp edge of her blade. Blood draws as soon as her tattooed thumb presses the freshly sharpened black blade, giving Shelly slightly more insight on the usefulness of her available weaponry.

Now ready for battle, Shelly clenches her right hand shut "packing her hand" with the dagger’s sheath. Almost guaranteeing her connecting right handers will cause more damage.

The unknowing Zeke snickers at her set up.

He looks across at the proven warrior’s smaller, cold, dark weapon in her jaw and the burnable wood in her small but dangerous fist.

Both Zeke and Jeremiah notice the golden sheath and Madame Fryer’s exposed hilt sticking to her hip, but in the pressure of his current moment, Zeke doesn’t decompartmentalise what his observing, less pressured friend does.

Jeremiah(thinking): *Wait...

How is that sword attached to her hip right now?*

Zeke: "Where are your SunSwords, Tomboy?

You clearly have another weapon at your disposal.

Or let me guess, it’s actually useless and just for decoration?

If you want, I can put my weapons away and we can throw fists like the old days."

Shelly’s eyebrow raises in confuzzlment.

Zeke: "Hehehehe!

And hey, just so when we bring you terrorists in, you can’t say I didn’t warn you, but ever since I got this alien eye, both my concentration and execution of my Mauy Thai and Taekwondo techniques have become almost super human."

His IceEye activates and releases the same smokey aura, all eye symbiotes emit when it’s vessel b"wants the smoke".

Zeke: "That embarrassing day, after you had humiliated me in front of a gymnasium full of gossip spreading students, General Grey made sure you and I never had Combat Training against one another ever again.

It pissed me off so much, just seeing your name and dumb bashful grin for the weekly posted Queen of the Mountains.

Every single week.

Even when I pleaded with the General, he told me if our fight hadn’t humbled me, I should go humble myself next.

Screw that.

Today, I wanna run it back, Tomboy."

Realizing her opponent is forfeiting time to monologue and shit talk, the golden haired woman’s inherent Valkyrie wit takes the opportunity to shoot a verbal jab back. A sure-fire way to get in her foe’s head before their fight.

Shelly smiles, relaxes her jaw muscles and lets her dagger fall out, only to snatch it in mid-air.

The condescending tone to her retorting quip fits perfectly with her taunts.

Shelly: "Okay, so there are a couple of things to unpack there.

First, I haven’t tried to embarrass anyone.

If anything, it was you who embarrassed yourself when you thought you could talk to Katsu like a douchebag. Most of those people in that introduction class already didn’t respect you from your own immaturity."

Jeremiah is impressed with the breakdown of Zeke’s own downfall that day.

Shelly: Second.

Go ahead and use your SunSwords.

Use whatever weapons you have, because you’ll need them.

You’re going to lose, no matter what tools you try to use against me."

Zeke’s snicker turns sour while she presents her third and final topic point.

Shelly: "And third, surely you aren’t referring to the ’good oId days’ when I didn’t even need to throw a punch to make you look pathetic?

Those days, am I right?

Because I assure you ’Red Hedgehog’, you don’t want to go reminiscing down those bumpy, unpaved roads.

I’ll tell you that for free."