Battle Vixens! - 3

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Episode 3: A Personal Visit

"Mnnh.." Her eyes slowly reopened as she recovered from being stunned. "W-wha..what did you...do? I feel so...weak."

"I'm not really sure. I didn't kill you though—and I won't." Blake dismissed her weapon (and heard sparking sounds nearby as the other girl's weapons disappeared as if from the same command) and swung back until she was off of her opponent, sitting on the ground with her legs bent backwards on opposite sides of her butt. It was an unfamiliar position but felt strangely natural. Her opponent slowly sat up. "Now maybe you'll just talk to me for a minute, huh?"

"I...I guess so." Her ears twitched, and she looked around.
Blake jumped slightly, realizing they'd just had a somewhat visible and loud fight, and she looked around herself, quickly making both of them invisible. There wasn't anyone visibly here, but surely someone in that house over there, or the houses they'd run over or around, might have called the police by now. "Err, rain check. Let's go somewhere the cops might not be in like five minutes." She hopped to her feet and offered her former-opponent a hand, which she took, rising more carefully to her feet. Well, at least she seemed to be able to stand. "Uhm...This way."

Blake started moving at a brisk but human-attainable pace, but stopped not long afterward, hearing the smaller girl panting heavily, and turned to see her bent over in exhaustion. She went over, putting a hand on the girl's back. "What's going on? You were running way faster than this before."

"I-I was...but I c—hh—can't anymore. I feel like I'm j-just a normal girl." She managed to stand up again.

"Okay, um..." There were sirens, distant but audible to her ears now. They couldn't just walk away, invisibility or not. Blake tried carefully picking the girl up; it was manageable, but only because she was so small and light. "Alright. Just hold onto me for a minute." The girl put her arms up around her shoulders, and Blake started off again, not a full-tilt run but a little faster than the "human-achievable" speed a moment ago. She found a small patch of trees after a minute or so of running, and stopped in the middle of them, setting her passenger down and sitting down in front of her in the same manner as before.

"Phew. This should be far enough for now," Blake nodded. "Nobody can see us so we're good if we keep our voices down. Now can you please tell me why you'd rather die than turn yourself in?"
"I-I..." She looked on the verge of tears. "They...they took my granddaughter!" she said finally, and did start crying, an immature-seeming sob that juxtaposed very strangely with her just saying she was a grandparent.
"They—? Who did it? You were, you stole money for a ransom?!" Blake said, finally catching on.
"Mn-hnh.." She nodded, and sniffed. "J-just enough to pay it, with what I had in savings. They took her a few days ago, a-and I told them I didn't have enough. They kept saying 'no police' and said I was holding out on them. W-when I woke up this morning and I could, do this," she made a motion to the current state of her body, "I thought, 'this is it, I can save her!'"

"You..?" Blake's left ear fell to the side in a bit of confusion. "I mean, I would've thought the same thing, but...by actually tracking them down and literally saving her, not stealing for it. If they think you can just get money whenever you want they'll keep asking for more! Or—wait, you're not even rich, right?" She shook her head. "What kind of stupid bad guys are we dealing with here?! You're supposed to kidnap rich people's kids if you want ransom money. Or at least someone in government or, something! I mean—"

Her rant was cut short at this point by another loud-ish sniff, and seeing the other girl rubbing a teary eye. "D-do you really think they'll keep asking for more? I d—...I just want to see my baby again." She sounded like she was really going to start bawling now, advice to keep quiet or not.

"H-hey, hey..." Blake put her hands on the smaller girl's shoulders, trying to calm her down. "There's no need for that, alright? Seriously, we have superpowers now. Or..." Her ears went down a little. "...I do at least, I'm sure I can figure out how to make yours work again though. Dealing with 'no police' ransom situations is supposed to be a thing you can do with those."
"I have no idea who they are, or where.."

"Look, I'm pretty good at tracking someone who doesn't wanna be found. I found you, didn't I? You get me to the last place she was seen, or like where their car pulled away or whatever, and I'll do the rest. We can find their hideout, get her out without them even noticing, and then you can like, electro-taze them until the cops get there! And..we'll figure things out with you and the police after that."

She seemed calmer, but still cautious. "Y-you don't even know me, or if I'm even telling the truth..."

"You could've literally stolen all the money this morning, but you only took as much as you needed. I saw it on the news. As for not knowing you, well—that doesn't matter at all! You need help, and I can help you." Blake nodded, giving a hopeful grin.

"Mnn..." The smaller girl's eyes started to tear up again. Then she surprised Blake by a tackling hug, and cried "Awwwhh!" The taller girl returned the hug with only a little awkwardness, patting her back a couple of times and trying to ignore the collar of her shirt getting wet. After a moment, they disengaged, and the small girl drew herself back out of personal-space range, looking a little surprised and confused. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what...that's not how I normally act," she said, her face reddening with a blush.
"I wouldn't expect so," said Blake. "I think looking different comes with some kind of personality changes. It's okay, I've had some of those too." She nodded.
"O-okay."

"Now, this is how we should play it, I think," said the taller girl, crossing her arms and aiming for a serious expression but unintentionally landing at a cute frown. "We could track them down from where they first picked her up, like I said, but there's a quicker, easier option 'cause you paid them already." The smaller girl nodded. "They're gonna contact you soon for one of two things—'here's where to get your girl back', or 'we're greedy jerks and want more money now'. Either way, you send me a...you have a cell phone, right?" She nodded again. "Okay, you'll send me a text that says 'go time' and I come to your house and we go to where they want the pickup or drop-off, and then we can bust 'em from there." Another nod. "Alright, so the first thing we should do is get back to your house. Ready to hold on for a few more minutes?"

They reached the house, still invisible of course, with no problems, and he hadn't locked the door before going fox-girl, so they were able to go inside for some privacy. "Alright, now we just need to get each other as contacts," said Blake. "I left my phone back, uh...somewhere. So I'll give you my number and you can text me?"
"That sounds fine," said the smaller girl, leading the way into the bedroom she'd been a man pacing in before. But when she started to reach for the phone, she paused, lowering her hands and fidgeting a little bit. "Uh...um...problem."
"What?"
"They—if they call me they'll expect to hear my voice, not...not this one."

"Well, yeah. Sooo, turn back to normal," said Blake.
"I don't...I don't know how." She looked a little panicky on realizing this fully. "I can't—what I said to change before, to this and back to myself, I can't remember—I know what it sounds like but I don't know how to say it anymore!"
"Oh! Um, wait wait don't panic," said Blake, waving her arms. "When that...whatever it was, happened after we fought I learned how to say it. Maybeeee I can turn you back?"

"It's worth a try," she said, nodding.

"Okay..." With a deep breath, Blake said the other girl's phrase, hoping desperately it would turn her back to normal. When she did, some small arcs of electricty shot from her hands into the other girl, and she started growing bigger and taller again, her ears and tail retracting and her clothes reshaping...and soon, with a sigh of relief, the old man was standing there instead of the small girl.

"This is a relief, at least," he said, and took his phone. "Give me the number."
The remaining fox-girl nodded, and recited Blake's number. She didn't exactly have the foresight (or delusional whim, as it would have been before today) to have set up a secondary one for "being a superhero," and there was no time to do that now.

"Okay, I'll—wait," he said. Then, scratching his head: "We never actually introduced ourselves, did we?"

"Yee-eah, we were kinda busy chasing and fighting and all the other stuff," said Blake, putting a hand behind her head. "I'm...sorta uncomfortable giving out my real name like this, soooo, you can call me Light."

He nodded. "I understand your caution. I wouldn't trust me at this point, personally. Well, Light, it's good to meet you, though I wish it could be in other circumstances." He offered her a handshake, which she accepted. "My name is Gerald Nelson."
"Back at ya. I mean, sentiment's mutual. Umm, anyway I need to go back to normal for a while too, so it won't look like I'm missing. Text me as soon as they get back to you—we'll figure out how to make your powers work again when we meet up."

"I hope so," he said. "Though I suspect you can handle those scum who took my girl on your own if not."

She found herself blushing a little from the compliment. "Erm, yeah, maybe. I'll see you soon, anyway." Light fled from the house then, and returned to her own apartment complex, putting back up a 'Blake' illusion as soon as there were about to be cameras and witnesses. It was late morning, almost lunchtime now, and there was more of a crowd to avoid bumping into, but she managed to make it back to the bathroom without any incidents. It was empty again this time, but it was clear this wasn't going to work as a long-term solution.

Light went to one of the showers and drew the curtain, hoping to block the possible flash from changing back from being seen outside as much as possible, and tried saying her own phrase. It had the expected effect: Her body glowed brilliantly and she began refracting and changing back again, the order of changes from earlier that morning going in reverse until Blake stood fully clothed there in the shower, feeling slightly winded and suddenly very hungry.

He got himself out of there, and after recovering his breath he hurried back to his own apartment to check his phone, just in case the kidnappers had already called Gerald. Amory had left, so he was free to get his phone with the one text saying just "G" and add the number to his contact list, and then move on to preparing lunch. He hadn't eaten breakfast in all the excitement of suddenly being a superhero, but on top of that...the winded feeling, the gnawing hunger, maybe together meant that running around as Light and using her powers actually used up energy he needed to then get back as Blake. It was a possibility worth watching out for, at least.

Blake was on edge the rest of the afternoon, waiting for the text, but it didn't ever come. Eventually he was standing in his bedroom ready to go to sleep, and decided that setting his phone volume as high as it would go would have to do. They probably wouldn't call in the middle of the night anyway, right? And it was better to get a good night's sleep than risk being sleepy and mentally useless as Light whenever they did call. So he went to bed.

It was another dream like the first one...but he stood not in a grand audience chamber, but in a small, lavish bedroom that seemed to perhaps belong to the same castle. He looked around briefly before hearing something he didn't quite understand, and feeling suddenly compelled to speak his phrase. At once he did, and found himself shrinking down, his hair lengthening and the ears and tail growing back into place. There was no light show with this, just a guy suddenly turning into a small, cute fox girl, complete with his t-shirt refusing to change sizes, tenting out around her and its collar hanging over one of her shoulders, but his boxers choosing to soften and shrink into a pair of panties, tugging tight between her legs as her chest pushed back out to complete the transformation.

She blinked a couple of times, holding up an arm and looking down at herself, feeling a little confused. Was she dreaming about having changed today, or...? "Hello there."

"Wuah!" The girl jumped at a voice suddenly less than a foot away from her, right in front of her, and took several rapid steps backwards while processing the sight of its source, which had also just appeared in that same instant. It was...the woman from before. From the last dream, that is, wearing a nightgown which seemed as elegant and overly complex as the dress she'd worn on the stage. She had the same kind of condescending smirk as before, and her presence applied the same pressure to this room.

She chuckled to herself. "Hmhmnh. You weren't expecting a personal visit, I suppose."
"Um...no?" Blake..Light said cautiously. Had she done something this woman didn't like, and now..?
"Nothing like that, no," she shook her head. Okay, reading her thoughts then. That was...great. "Just the opposite. I'm here to congratulate you, dear." She held out a hand as if for a handshake.

Light looked at the hand and back at the woman's face, and stepped just close enough to take it if she stretched. The woman just held onto her hand for a few seconds and let go again. "You don't trust me," she said, nodding sagely. "You're wiser than a lot of people for that. But at least you can trust that if I wanted to do anything to you right now, I could have already done it." In a motion Light was unable to follow, she was suddenly standing barely an inch from the smaller girl, her hand on her head, rubbing it and scratching the bases of her ears. "See?" She shivered in spite of herself; she was surprisingly, deeply sensitive there, or perhaps just to the woman's touch, and it felt distressingly good. The woman just chuckled to herself. "Hmhmn, you're a cute one if I do say so myself." Finally Light was released from the hand, and stumbled back a couple of steps, her face burning with embarrassment.

"S-so, what do you, what are you congratulating me for?" she said, trying to sound respectful just out of fear of that power and whatever else it was the woman was willing to do to her to demonstrate it.

"Believe it or not, you're the first—and only one through the whole day—to defeat another I gifted in battle and not kill them." The woman crossed her arms. "Honestly, I thought your world more peaceful overall than this. The trouble hasn't even really started yet and so many lost just to each other. It does raise the stakes a bit, I suppose." The fact that she smiled at this suggested she didn't particularly care about the people who'd died personally, nor would she mind if whatever the "real trouble" was killed everyone as long as it was entertaining.

"Anyway, as a reward I thought I might explain what your spoils are from that victory, and how to use them. It's really quite simple but you can gain a little advantage from not stumbling into it all, at least."
"Oh-kaay..." Light had tried to say something more deferential but that was what came out. At least the woman didn't seem to mind.
"Now, when you knocked down your opponent and demonstrated full opportunity to slay her, but did not, her power—her gift from me—bowed down to you. It became yours, in a manner of speaking." The smaller fox-girl's mind was drawn to how Gerald's body had sent a bolt of lightning into her and then she had known how to say his phrase in addition to hers. "If you actually kill them, you get a much weaker version of their gift tacked onto yours, but gain complete and easy control over it. From a power bowing down to you, the advantages are different. You can call upon her power for brief momentary use as you like, by asking for it by name, and every time it will be at full strength. It's a little clumsier because they're not really yours as long as she lives, they just obey you. You see?"

"Um..yeah." So she could make lightning bolts and things like that by saying Gerald's phrase.
"But that's just the beginning. You can also command her powers to return to her in whole or in part for a time, and to leave her again...and the best part—you can ask them to change her."
"Ch..ange her?" said Light, unsure what that meant. She had been able to turn Gerald back to his original look today...
"Not just that," the woman shook her head. "If you don't like how she looks as a vixen, you can fix it. Taller, different clothes, a better figure maybe..?" She leaned forward a bit, bringing at least her head back inside of Light's personal space. "There's a limit, of course; really the changes you can make right now aren't all that extreme. But the more powers you rule, the greater the variety and intensity of changes you can make. You could even make those whose powers you own obedient to your every whim if you collect enough of them..."

Light's ears were down, her face red again; she wasn't really sure how to respond to this information. "Uh..."

"I know, you wish to be a hero, right?" The woman stood fully up again. "You're a clever girl, I'm sure you'll find virtuous uses for all that control. But I doubt you've never been at least a little bit curious. Either way, good luck to you. I'll be watching~." With that, she disappeared from the bedroom again, as suddenly as she had appeared. And Light was left to look around the room briefly before it too faded from view, and she felt herself lying down on her side, halfway curled up, with covers over her. There was light coming through her closed eyes, and she could feel it moving around in the room...

The fox-girl's eyes opened slowly, fluttered shut, and then opened wide again, and she flung the covers off herself, sitting abruptly up. She was—she was in Blake's room, in his T-shirt and a pair of panties, just what she'd been wearing in the dream. He had...turned into her in his sleep. Speaking the phrase even in the dream had done this..and it must have done it with a bright flash, too. Had Amory seen...?

Her ears twitched and turned around. The TV was on again, the news of course. So he was awake, and there was an unfamiliar girl in Blake's room. More importantly: Light quickly went after the phone and picked it up, and breathed a small sigh of relief that there hadn't been a text sometime in the middle of the night—she hadn't failed to respond when she was needed. That was good, at least. But...back to the problem at hand. There was a girl in Blake's bedroom, Amory was awake just outside of it, and changing back would cause a sudden flash. She couldn't say anything to excuse the flash beforehand because she sounded nothing like Blake; she couldn't walk out silently with Blake's image over her, he'd find it weird when his roommate didn't respond to anything. Even turning on the lights in the bedroom to make the flash seem less bright by comparison would draw a "Hey, sorry, did I wake you up" or something else like that which demanded a vocal response of some kind.

Eventually, the fox-girl decided on a course of action. She went into the bathroom. The fact was that she needed to do that anyway, and...being a girl made it feel a bit different in a way that was kind of, awkward. With the bathroom door closed, she thought while sitting down to take care of the problem, maybe the flash wouldn't be as visible. Maybe...if she whispered her phrase and timed it to happen right as she was flicking on the bathroom light it'd just look like that was what he was seeing. And Blake could explain the light sorta...flashed for a second at first, maybe a power surge or something, if Amory questioned it later. Good. Great.

The plan worked just fine. When Blake came out the door of his bedroom, the only thing his roommate did was look over at him and say, "Oh, man—Did I wake you up again?"
"Um..no, I was kinda planning to get up early today anyway." He went over to the chair Amory wasn't on and sat down; the news was still about the fox-girls—and yes, the anchor noted, they were apparently all girls. The crime spree had kept up, it seemed, and in places gotten much worse, but there were also several reports of them fighting against each other, or the bodies of some found stabbed, chopped or torn in half, headless, frozen in ice, charred beyond recognition...and on top of that, dozens of people going missing.

"The world's goin' crazy, man," said Amory. Footage started up now: A bunch of police had closed in on a girl next to a fire hydrant; with a wave of her hand she pulled a flood of water out and formed it into a globe around herself with tentacles that lashed out at them all at once. They replied with volleys of gunfire that just bounced harmlessly off the globe, and as many of them were choked or picked up and thrown away by solid arms of water the girl laughed insanely...until one of the shots, by luck or chance, pierced through the shield and got her straight between the eyes. She went limp and the water all fell to the ground at once, resuming its normal obedience to gravity. The man who had shot her stood there still in shock, his hands shaking, as something blue and fluid flowed out of her unbreathing chest and into his.
"Makes what's happened in our town seem tame by comparison," his roommate continued. "I mean, there were some reports of two of those girls fighting out in the suburbs but nobody found a body or nothin'."

The TV cut to an interview with the man. He said something unpronounceable—his phrase now, Blake knew, and probably the phrase of the girl he'd killed before that—and changed at once in a brief fluid-like motion, becoming a light-blue-haired girl. "I don't know how to explain it," she was saying, "but I pledged my life to protect and serve the people. That hasn't changed."

Blake jumped back to his feet, hearing a brief but extremely loud jingle from his phone. He got up and went back to his room to check. It was from Gerald; it said "go vine". A second later, a second text arrived which said "go time".
"What's up?" Amory called from the couch.

"Uh—I gotta go," he said back, pocketing the phone and heading to the door right away. "Catch you later."
"'Kay. Stay safe out there, man."

"Yeah."