Battle Vixens! - 16

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Episode 16: The Dawn

"Yo, Emma! You alive in there?"

She sat upright, confused. It should probably be past sunset now, so...why was there light coming in the window. "Um, y-yeah I'm okay!" she called half-automatically, realizing her roommate must have showed up while she was asleep. Clock clock clock...oh, it was..HOW late in the morning?! She'd been asleep for—for no less than ten hours, at least, not that she could remember what time it was she'd lain down exactly but it had to be at least that long ago.

Her roommate was peeking her head in through the cracked-open door. "Great. Sorry if I woke you up or whatever." And then the head was gone.

"Um, I just, had a late night last night." She winced a little at the lie, but tried to remember she needed to be able to do that now. Preferably without giving it away to anyone who was looking.
"Yeah? You have a nice, long date with that guy you like, uhhh....wha's his name again?"

"No!" She blushed furiously enough to hear at the suggestion. "I..I-I still haven't talked to him." Sleeping so long without having supper first, Emma was now starving. She fumbled for her glasses.

"Gurrrl. You gotta get your act together! No's a pretty funny name, but if I wanted him we'd-a been in his backseat by now!"

"No's..what?" She had to mentally stumble her way all the way through the pun before toppling over on what she'd followed it up with. "Beryl!!!"
"I'm just lookin' out for ya! If you don't act fast someone else's gonna get to him first!" Okay, that one stung. She winced in real pain from it. "You hungry, or just ate?"
"Um, I'm p-pretty hungry, yeah."

"I'll make somethin' for ya then. I picked up a new book, you know.

Beryl was a senior in culinary arts. She was already lined up to be a chef at some world-class restaurant as soon as graduation. And she was tall, gorgeous, blond-haired, loud, confident—how Emma had wound up paired with someone like that, and a nice one to boot, she would never understand. She had family nearby and stayed with them about as often as she did at the apartment. She seemed really busy in general anyway, so frequently she was out for days at a time and just came in to crash for the night, cook some food for the day, and head off yet again. And she really liked trying new recipes out on Emma, which was...admittedly nice, they were usually good and she didn't have to pay for the ingredients as long as she cleaned up the kitchen and avoided breaking too many plates along the way.

She stepped out of the shower to the smell of food almost done. "Yo! There's six donuts missing from five days. What, you eatin' for two now?"

"Um..I just, since school was cancelled, and, a midnight snack," she waffled ineffectually, walking into the kitchen.

"HAhahah! I'm just messin' with you again! But you should find some better variety than donuts every day, breaks the heart of a foodie like me to see that. Seriously, you try talking to the mirror like I said?"

"Yes..." And then some. "I, um..it sorta worked. But then the whole, and, I was gonna Tuesday but there was that attack..."

"Well, keep it up! And really, what was his name?"

In between bites: "A-amory."

Her roommate had a confused look for a moment, looking around the room as if whatever she was trying to remember would pop out of the walls or something. "Ooh yeeaah! He was on the news! One of those, uh, weird things attacked him right?"
"Y-yeah."
"Well, I bet you feel even worse not talking to him yet, right? I mean, that mighta been your last chance! You never know."
"I-I know. I already yelled at myself about it." Literally.
"Really?" Beryl grinned. "Wish I coulda been there to hear that. Your volume don't go over one and a half, maybe two whenever I'm around. How is it?"

How is what? Oh, right. Food. "Um, it's good...a little spicy..."

"Yeah, I know. It's a Cajun book, all like that. I made some substitutions to not burn your poor li'l tongue off. You need that for other things, hmm?"

Emma choked, coughed for a moment or so—not helped by the spicy food—and eventually forced some orange juice down before her roommate could get up and attempt a Heimlich maneuver. It took her a second to get to where she could speak again, and she immediately tried for a ten: "BERYYYYYYYL!" This had the effect of the named person laughing so hard she nearly collapsed onto the table, pounding it with a fist a couple of times.

"Sorry, sorry. You should really be worried, though, right? I mean, Amory got his life saved by some cute girls, hmm? Maybe one of them gave him a number?"
Part of her said, I wish. Aloud, it was more like, "Th-they didn't talk to him all that long. Um, and..some of them are boys anyway. Like, half."
"Yeeeah...it's kinda easy to forget that, though, isn't it? I bet, even for them." She was quiet for a second, and then hit the table again, making all the dishes and silverware rattle. "Man, it's too bad they closed everything down for the week. You can't even chase him if you wanted to, right? I mean, it's not like you know where he lives or anything, eh?"
"Uhhhhmm..." Well, some things were going to slip past, it was just inevitable.

"Oooh my goooooooosh, stalker alert~! How'd you find out?"
"He uh, well, the um. It's, I saw his car coming into the garage, when I went out yesterday." Technically true, avoiding awkward facts. "S-so, I just, looked. I thought about, talking to him but he was, he didn't look so good after the attack..."

"Well, you could totally make a move now, right? Just knock on his door and offer to come right in?"
"He has a roommate...so, what if he answers instead?"
"Tell him you're looking for the other guy! That's not complicated!" True, maybe, but her real situation was very complicated.

Beryl changed subjects abruptly, deciding to ask Emma how her classes were going and everything else like that. She made several more inquiries about the meal, nodding earnestly at all the feedback while eating her own portion of it. Eventually, breakfast was over and Emma was full again.

Her roommate stood up, pushing herself off the table hard enough to nearly tip it over. "Okay, I'm glad you liked it. I gotta jet, y'know, there's hungry people to feed with all a' this that's goin' on." She never seemed to go into detail about it, maybe some form of modesty or something, but Emma got the impression her roommate worked at soup kitchens or other places similar to that. It was always like that—Emma had to guess based on context and vague hints thrown into the conversation what her roommate was doing, planning, or thinking, but she always asked direct questions of Emma which she found nearly impossible to avoid answering. In some ways it bothered her, but in others it was...kind of nice.
"Oh, okay. Um, see you later," said Emma.
"Yeah. And you—" She stopped to put her hand on Emma's chin and turn her face upward, giving her an uncharacteristically intense look. "You go after him, girl. Take what you want. Don't let anything or anyone stop ya." The look was gone as soon as it had appeared, flashing instantly to a bright, toothy smile. "Bye~!"

The door slammed loudly a second or two later, and then a key turned in the lock. Emma finally noticed that the kitchen looked like a hurricane had been through it. The food was delicious, but it was always her job to clean up—a fair enough trade. It was just too bad Beryl apparently needed nearly ever cooking utensil in the apartment to make whatever it was, every single time. She stood up, sighing to herself, and started toward the sink. Then she stopped, looked around, walked out of the kitchen and up to the apartment door, putting an ear to it. Nobody out there; Beryl was already gone. She nodded to herself, resolving to listen carefully just in case, and spoke her phrase, splitting into two. This, too, would be easier with a teammate. Being generally coordinated was a solid idea, too.

After that, Gemma decided to go check on things. Plus went over to the hallway Amory lived on, and listened carefully to what was going on inside—not to eavesdrop, just to be sure he was safe! Minus started another trip out to the town, just in case someone new showed up. After waiting a little while, she heard footsteps in one place and someone getting out of bed in another. Two people, two roommates, so...he was inside, and he was fine! Good. That was enough for her to give up and head back to her apartment, sitting down to concentrate on the other body for now.

She wasn't really sure what she was looking for, or why she had chosen to take the body that couldn't look normal on its own to go around town. There was almost nobody there. No monsters, no fox-girls. Except...she eventually saw someone. A big, kinda gaunt looking guy sitting on a bench. She wasn't sure what, but...something seemed suspicious about him. Or, interesting, maybe? It was hard to say what instinct exactly drove her to hide in the bushes nearby, but she acted that instinct out anyway.

After a while, he sighed, sounding annoyed. He said something she didn't exactly understand...but realized after a second or two must be one of those phrases, just like hers. And in fact, he started to change, a faint, pale blue glow surrounding him.

He shrank down just slightly, the hoodie pulling down off of his head to show his hair growing a little bit longer and wilder. It pulled closer against his body around the waist, gaining a small belt there. His dark pants split at the thighs, the lower parts turning to cloth and crawling down a bit, showing off soft, smooth skin and tightening against slender legs. His body actually filled outward a bit, his hips pushing out andbutt growing bigger quite visibly through the short jean-shorts. Also, he clearly changed sex as those shorts pulled tighter.

Her ears spiked up, gaining soft black fur with tufts of white on the inside. The glow on her eyes brightened to a continual fire while it faded from the rest of her, her face becoming small and pretty. The hood converted into a blue scarf wrapped around her neck while her chest pushed forward, rapidly growing into a rather generous bust. Her shoes grew upward, turning into boots reaching nearly to the knees, with a white fur trim. Finally, a long dark tail spilled out from her back, the tip turning white as it reached its full length and thickness.

All that Emma could think for a moment was, why do even the boys get to have better bodies than me? The big fox-girl put her hand up, some fire swirling around her sleeve and gathering into a flame floating just above her gloved hand, the same pale blue as her glowing eyes. She stared into it almost pensively for a long moment.

Minus stared at the fire too, trying to understand how she was doing it—the same way she had learned the light, and the electric stuff before. But it wasn't working; there was something just not quite as truth-revealing about the way this fire was being made. She couldn't exactly make sense of it, but knew, felt sure, it wasn't just because only one of her bodies was seeing it, or anything like that. No, it was something about how this boy-turned-girl was doing it that was preventing her from making sense of it.

"Y'know..." Minus's ears perked up; the strange girl was talking. Her voice was deep, mature, a little...sad. "I can feel th' heat in the air. I can tell you're over there. Ya want me to just throw this at that bush," she pointed at the fire with the hand that it wasn't floating over, "or ya gonna come out?"

"Um—!" Gemma was immediately terrified. But she remembered that her 'real' body was safe at home, so if this turned into an attack then Minus could always just vanish. So she stood up, and came around into view. "...Hi?"

"Thanks." She closed her hand and the fire went out. "Ain't nice to stalk people, y'know."

"I wasn't—! I-I mean, I just saw you, sitting on the bench, a-and I wasn't really sure what you were doing..." she said nervously.

"Yeah. You ain't one a' Light's friends, are ya?"

"...No." Minus wore a sour expression, her ears folded back. Already getting tired of this Light business. What was so special about her, anyway?
"Pshh, too bad. A' course my first job ain't easy." She shook her head. "Ah well, I'm s'posed ta meet and greet whoever I see anyway. C'mon, you wanna talk?" She made a beckoning motion.

"Err.." Remember, real body elsewhere. This is safe, it's easy to disappear. Minus walked up and sat on the bench, as far away from the bigger girl as physically possible.

"Name's Dawn." She reached over, and Minus took the hand.

"Mm—uh—Gemma." Even through the glove, it felt like she was shaking a hand made of ice; she involuntarily pulled her hand back as soon as Dawn let go. "Yeah, I know, sorry. I pull the heat outta whatever I touch like this; I can do more if I want but it don't go below a three or four, y'know."

Minus nodded; this she felt she understood. Gemma was already beginning to understand the 'trick' behind this power, and was sure she'd be able to figure it out with a little practice, later. "Um, how did you, do the..fire earlier?"

"You wanna know how I can do that? It's my girlfriend's power. I killed her."

She gasped, and drew back, nearly squeezing herself into her corner of the bench.

"What, I ain't gonna attack you. I'm just sayin', you better not to me either. It's all I got left." She panicked slightly less, but remained tense. "One a' those things ate her. Y'know they can do that, right? Nobody they've eaten ever woke up. She was dyin' anyway, that thing tore her arm off. She wouldn't a' made it to the hospital, never mind wakin' up."

Both of Gemma's bodies were shaking. Not from cold. "Sorry. I guess, you ain't done much fighting yet," said Dawn quietly. "Trust me, don't. It ain't worth it if you got a life ahead of ya. Anyway, I had to do it. She made me promise. Didn't want the gift ta go to waste, was sure it would if she died without someone killin' her. She trusted me, I dunno why."

"But, I think I have to," Minus said quietly. "There's someone...I have to protect."
"Yeah?" Dawn looked her in the face, fixing a stare for a long moment. "Be careful with that. Don't take anyone's life, just 'cause you can. Just 'cause it's even easier now than it was before. You kill someone, you can't ever take it back." And she looked away.

"Um..."

"I dunno why I'm sayin' all this. You just got that look about you, like you're gonna do somethin' you regret. It doesn't matter if I say—I'm workin' with the cops, I confessed already.

"My girl, her dad was a real bad guy. He was hurting her, you understand? Not just her, lots a' people. Everyone he touched. When I woke up and I could do this..." She held her hand up, and a small pile of ice appeared in it from the air. "The first thing I thought about was him. I went to his place, put my hands on him..." She looked away again, staring straight forward at something Gemma couldn't see or even begin to understand. Her hands made fists, the one with the ice in it crushing it to powder effortlessly. "It was just like fallin' asleep, an' not ever wakin' up. Too good for a scumbag like him. I'll regret it as long as I live, so I'm glad that prolly won't be too long. My girl, she...helped me hide it. Burned the place down." Her other hand was held up, with a small fire over it. "Made me promise lots a' things after that. Then.." Closing that hand, the fire went out again.

"Anyway, you got someone you need to hurt, go hurt them. This is your best chance, with the world upside down nobody's gonna care that much even if they do notice."

"Um.." Was Dawn seriously advising her to go attack someone? "Didn't you just say..?"
"Yeah. Don't kill them. I ain't sayin' you should attack people on the street for whatever reason. But if you're gonna be stupid, limit how stupid you're gonna be."

"Okay." Gemma felt like she was supposed to say something more dramatic than that at a time like this. "...I promise."
"Oh yeah, be careful with promises too. Be real careful if you mean 'em. Anyway." Dawn pushed herself up off of the bench, standing up. "I gotta go run around, look for some people. Got nothin' but luck to go on, an' this body holds up better'n the real one, y'know."

"Alright. Um, I'll, see you later I guess?" Minus also stood up, a little less violently.

"Yeah, I guess we should hope so." And then started running off.

Gemma recalled her other body, speaking the phrase twice. It was time to see if she could figure out this new trick. Plus was able to make her hands cold enough to slowly freeze water around it by submerging a hand, and Minus could do the opposite, as expected, getting it to boil pretty fast. It didn't seem all that useful, except that when she was doing it her hands didn't seem to be hurt by the cold or heat respectively. As a test, she tried picking up some ice from the freezer with Plus, concentrating just a little on the power, and indeed the cold against her hand didn't bother her at all. Feeling a little braver, she tried turning on the stove briefly and putting Minus's hand there while making it 'warm'. This was fine, too. Slowly turning up the temperature, it took quite a while for it to feel unusually warm, much less painful as it obviously should be. One more brief test had her feel the ice with Minus's hand pretty acutely (as the ice rapidly melted), and likewise a barely-warm eye with the cold hand. So it only went one way with each.

So, this was a little hard to use as an attack, but if something tried to use fire or..like a cold, anti-fire attack thing, she could defend herself or somebody else like this. Did it come with a new pair of knives? Not exactly. Plus was, with some concentration, able to make a spike of ice appear in her hand. It felt far more natural to throw this than anything else, though obviously she wasn't going to do that in the apartment. Minus didn't seem to be able to do much of anything, but at least her 'defensive' ability seemed much more likely to be useful, with fireballs feeling like a far more natural threat to encounter than the opposite.

Emma changed back to one person to have lunch. Sleeping so long last night suggested that being two people was really taking more out of her than it felt like it was, so skipping meals was an especially bad idea now. After that, she figured she'd had enough "fun" for a while, and now was probably a good time to check on Amory again. Sure enough, when Plus quietly crept up to the corner by the hallway, she heard the door opening from the inside and quickly ducked out of sight, hearing both occupants leave.

"Back to the same hospital, huh?" Amory said.

The other guy: "Yeah, that's just where she said they were. Sooo, that's where we're going. Your car, my car?"

"You drive, I'm still sleepy. Anyway, don't want you to get out of practice."

Well...she knew where they were going, which was good, but she didn't know what his roommate's car looked like. That might be important to know later. And she was not going running into town again. So Plus followed just long enough to get a look at it before making a run for her own car and changing back to Emma just in case someone saw her driving around. This was all kind of insane, but...well, he needed to be protected. He might be attacked at any time! Just keep telling herself that...