In front of Ellie’s and Fred’s eyes, Isla morphed: she grew taller and her muscles expanded; her clothes changed. Suddenly she was wearing white combat boots that went up to her knees, a tight blue leotard and a sleeveless top covered in martial arts symbols; her hair became shorter, curled into buns and plaits; and her hands, bunched into fists and covered in long black gloves – WITH METAL STUDS ON THE KNUCKLES!!! – had become three times their normal size.

Fred stared at her, terrified. Then he looked to Ellie.

“Isla …” said Ellie again pleadingly. “Don’t do this.”

“I am not Isla any more,” said Isla. “I am … KARABUKI!”

Ellie sighed. “OK, Karabuki. Don’t do this.”

In answer to this, Morris pressed their Controller’s buttons and Karabuki whirled around, doing a series of lightning kicks so fast they propelled her like a high-speed helicopter towards Fred’s terrified face.

“ELLIE! SHE’S NOT LISTENING!” shouted Fred.

“I KNOW!” said Ellie, whose hands had gone to her Controller – and only just in time. She made Fred, although still terrified, block Karabuki’s kicks with a series of hyper-fast defensive counter-punches.

THWACK! BLOCK! THWACK! BLOCK! THWACK! BLOCK!

Karabuki’s feet and Fred’s hands together formed a blur.

After twenty seconds of this blur, they separated and faced each other about three metres apart.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAA!!” shouted Karabuki, jumping and curving in a circle towards Fred.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” shouted Fred, jumping and curving in a circle towards her.

They met high in the air in the middle of the circle. Well, met isn’t really the word. The better word would be … smashed. Or maybe collided-like-asteroids. Asteroids that had arms and legs moving like high-speed weapons. Like the spikes Ancient Romans used to put on chariot wheels.

The noise of them colliding is almost impossible to describe in words. Maybe:

might kind of cover it. With a tiny under-noise, quite difficult to hear, of Morris’s and Ellie’s fingers tapping super fast on their respective Controllers.

For some time, the two fighters cancelled each other out. But Fred was more tired; and Ellie was more tired; and the Controller – their Controller – was more tired.

Eventually, a loose uppercut from Karabuki caught Fred under the chin and knocked him out of the air. He landed on his back on the asphalt: a particularly hard bit as well, a section of the playground which Bracket Wood hadn’t had enough money to convert to the nice new soft type.

Ellie ran over to Fred, who was quiet. Very quiet.

“Fred!” she said. “Fred!”

From behind her, she heard the sound of two combat-booted feet landing gracefully on the ground.

“OK, Isla,” said Ellie, without looking up.

“I AM KARABUKI!”

“Yeah, all right. You’ve won. Just leave us alone now.”

Karabuki nodded and narrowed her eyes. “Maybe I will.”

Ellie, ignoring her dramatics, turned with concern to Fred, whose eyes were closed.

So far, every time Fred had done all the things he was able to do via the power of the Controller, he hadn’t seemed in any danger. Even if he’d jumped down from a roof or a tree, he seemed to be protected from harm by the magic of wearing the bracelet. But now … Ellie wasn’t even sure he was breathing.