Judge sat back, his enhanced cognition working in the background like some overclocked brain engine. He scratched his head (Well, he tried to, but his body was still slow), his thoughts were bouncing between options faster than a rabbit hopped up on ether, as if that was a thing.
He needed a distraction, something to throw both his master and his mother off his trail. But nothing too obvious, because let's face it, if Selena suddenly started breakdancing or juggling fireballs, it would definitely raise a few eyebrows.
He held back a chuckle after imagining Selena doing a break dance. He wanted to see it really bad.
No, Selena had to act normal. Judge sighed dramatically. "Why can't things ever be simple? Just once, can I have a problem that doesn't make my brain melt?"
He toyed with the idea of sending her a mental message. But then again, telepathy took time, and time was something Judge had less of than a guy in a time loop who forgot to set his alarm. He can't afford to spend time, because it would mess up his grand entry. And there was no guarantee that she will abide.
So he had to come up with something fast. With his EC still firing on all cylinders, he came up with a script that would do the trick—without making Selena look like a complete weirdo.
He conjured a piece of paper and began scribbling furiously. His hand moved so fast it looked like he was trying to start a fire with the power of friction. "This better work," he muttered, "or I'm going to have to fake my own disappearance. Though I would have done that already if it was possible."
He had no choice whatsoever, his master could catch him before he even tried to teleport after getting out of the studio, and his mother could disrupt it. At least he assumed she did, he was not the one to take chances.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Studio- the real world, Selena was, quite frankly, losing it. She'd been holding up a fiery orb for what felt like an eternity. Her concentration was becoming thinner than Judge's excuses, and the persistent feeling that she'd done this a thousand times before was itching at the back of her mind like an old sweater she couldn't take off.
"You're doing great, Selena!" her master, Eleyn, chirped in that overly sweet tone that only moms and kindergarten teachers use when they're trying to convince you that drawing inside the lines is a life skill. "Just five more minutes!"
Five minutes? Selena's brain screamed in protest. Five minutes felt like five eternities, and her arms were about to give up and unionize against her. But that wasn't even the worst part. No, the worst part was her actual mom—Seraphis—who was nearby, angrily squeezing the life out of a mug. A mug that, as Selena noted bitterly, Dad had just made.
"How dare that little—!" Seraphis muttered through gritted teeth, her fingers turning the mug into an unfortunate victim of parental frustration.
Selena wanted to scream. She wanted to hurl the fireball at her mom, at the universe, and maybe even at Judge, wherever that slacker was hiding. "MOM!" she finally snapped, sparks flying from the fireball as it burst in a shower of dramatic flair. "Would you quit whining for five seconds?! Judge is probably off pretending to be important, but can we at least get through this lesson without—"
But before she could finish her tirade, both her mother and Eleyn turned to her, not even flinching at the fact that she had just set off an ether-firework display. Instead, they simply looked at her and said, in perfect unison, like a creepy ether-powered doll, "You've lost focus."
Selena blinked. That's what they were concerned about? Not the fact that Judge was off to who knows where, probably doing something completely reckless? Not the fiery explosion she just caused? No. It was her focus.
She was tempted to scream again, but then it hit her. Why was she even mad at Judge? There was something… off, like a half-forgotten dream. Had Judge said something to her before he left?
Her mind wandered. Maybe she'd throw in a little theatrics of her own to distract them. She smiled to herself, unknowingly being urged by some unseen force that was trying to keep both her mother's and her master's attention away from someplace else.
"Well," Selena muttered under her breath, "if I'm going to lose focus, I might as well do it in style."
With the air of someone about to disclose information about a grand secret organization— except with considerably less poise— she turned to her mother, who was still in a rage like a gang leader whose minions hadn't followed orders.
Selena took a deep breath and put on her most confident face. Well, as confident as one can look when their mom's doing her best impression of a crime boss.
"Mom," she declared, walking forward with the grace of a slightly tipsy drunkard, "let me show you a principle I created from scratch!"
But as soon as she said that, her confidence wavered, especially when her mom's gaze locked onto her, but it was too late to back down now. She had committed to this. And something was forcing her to move forward with the act.
However, to Selena's surprise, her mother didn't seem fazed by the bold declaration. In fact, she looked more amused than anything, like a cat toying with a very brave mouse.
Before she could lose her nerve entirely, Eleyn stepped forward, placing a hand on Selena's shoulder with the kind of serious face reserved for the moments where they took life or death decisions. Which, in her case, wasn't exactly common.
"Can your psyche and ether handle this principle?" Eleyn asked, her tone dead serious.
"Yes, Master!" Selena replied, her voice a little too eager, but hey, it's not every day you get a shot at a redemption arc after blowing up a fireball. She was feeling good— great even— thanks to her ether talent and her solid psyche. But she knew she'd have to push this confidence a little more.
"I can handle it," Selena said, puffing up her chest just a bit. "And if things go south, well, I have both of you here to back me up, right?"
Eleyn smiled, a proud, somewhat teary-eyed grin that Selena swore could only be found in overly sentimental dramas and TV shows. "Well then," Eleyn said, wiping away her imaginary tears, "let's get to it, shall we?"
With a flick of her wrist, they all vanished, teleported to who-knows-where, because obviously, if you're going to try some reckless new principle, you might as well do it somewhere with a better view.