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It feels good to finally get another caption out. Hopefully people who prefer captions to stories haven't given up on me writing more, because I always am intending to.

Battle Vixens! - 30

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Episode 30: Simon Says

Emma woke up, took a shower, and looked around the apartment. Beryl was still gone; not too much of a surprise, really. She might be back the next day, when school was back in session. She had breakfast and drove out to the university, changing over to the two-bodied form in the cameraless parking lot before walking a bit farther away, to another section of the campus—where they'd agreed to pick her up. She'd actually managed to get up on time without help today, probably something to do with not exhausting herself fighting anyone or anything the day before, and as a result she was slightly early. However, the wait wasn't very long.

An SUV pulled up and the driver rolled the window down where Emma could see her: A pretty normal-looking woman, maybe in her thirties. She waved. "Yo! Are you two Gemma?"
"Yeah," Plus spoke; both bodies nodded.

"Name's Karis. One of the, ah, newer recruits is my husband. Come on in, I guess."

Minus climbed into the back while Plus went around to the front. "Don't the tails make sitting in a car real uncomfortable?" said Karis.

"Um—" "—a little bit.—" "—I'll be okay, though."

She looked back and forth between the two of them for a second. "Did you have to practice to do that, or..?"
Plus said, "Sorry, it's, instinctive for some reason. I actually have to put some effort in to not do it.."

"Hey, it's cool." With both of the passengers buckled up, Karis started the drive. "It really drives home the fact that there's one person in two bodies. Just amazing!"

"I think the name's genius too. Almost 'Gemini', but not exactly? And something different to distinguish the two bodies. I didn't get where those names were from until I had a look just now."

"Uh, thanks I think." Since Plus was the body in the front seat, she tried to focus all the conversation there, just having Minus watch out the window.

"I guess I oughta go over the game plan, so to speak. Basically the Initiative wants to put you in our house until those things start appearing, and then you go off with him to kill whatever shows up nearby. We've got a big house, comfy chairs, lots in the fridge, nothing to hide if you feel like exploring a bit. Sound good?"

"Sure."

"Now, he'll want to talk your ear off. Don't hesitate to tell him to shut up if he gets annoying. For reference, he got earth-powers."

A little later, she said, "Soo, I'm a high school math teacher. My husband's an artist. I don't wanna mess up your anonymity or anything, but just to have somethin' to talk about, what do you do?"

"Oh, uh, I'm a college student." This seemed more than broad enough. "I'm looking at a literature major..." Even that was too vague to identify anyone in particular.

"Cool, cool," Karis nodded. "Best of luck with all that. Personally, I'm pretty grateful society hasn't collapsed from this disaster yet. It's heartening to see the attempts to keep things as close to normal as we can get, isn't it?"

"...I, maybe?" She hadn't really thought about it before. In fact..."It seems more like, we're so dependent on things being 'normal' that nobody really knows how else to respond to this, other than to try and drag it kicking and screaming into being part of that 'normal'."

"Well, when the alternative is going into collective shock and getting steamrolled, it's better than that, right?"

"Sure."

"And it's not being ignored—there's people trying to do something specifically about it. Normal people, not just the ones who got powers. There's a little bit of pulling-together goin' on, at least in some places. Maybe I just mean I'm glad we're one of those."

---

At breakfast, it was about time to bring up the topic Blake was more likely to fear than a hundred mist monsters. "So...how much of your homework have you got done?"

"Um.." He was looking away from the table, not a good sign. "Not really...much. I keep getting distracted by, things."
"In that case, you should go do that today. Take the day off from being a superhero so your secret identity doesn't have a suspicious drop in grades, hmn?"

"Ugh, you had to put it that way. Emma's not here."
"We get an average of one monster a day, and there's three other perfectly capable people in town. If one shows up right on our doorstep then you're gonna run out there and deal with it regardless, but if today's attack is out in the city or by the school...you can sit this one out, right?"
He still didn't look too happy with the concept. "...The last fight I sat out, I got to watch someone get hurt, and Ning was just lucky we had a visitor. She's probably still exhausted from yesterday, too..."

"You must admit the Quinns did most of the work on those twins, right? They could definitely handle a monster by themselves if they have to. Anyway, it's not like you being out there would've gotten you in a position to help Ning regardless."

Blake just sighed.

"Well, my homework was done ages ago. So if it'll make you feel any better, I could offer to 'boost' Ning. Considering you weren't particularly tired after that yesterday, it's possible that it'll help ease the exhaustion after the fact, too. Right?"

"There's not really any way to try that with Nadia there, you know. Considering..."

"We'll figure that out," Amory said in a reassuring tone. "You just get homework done. Keep an ear on the news, and if it sounds like the world's collapsing or something, then you come outside to help, alright?"

"Fiiiine..."

---

Simon crawled out of bed around midmorning, certain he'd been awakened very briefly quite a while ago and reminded to be presentable soon. He didn't really remember why he was rushing through the morning routine until he got out to the kitchen to find some mildly cold breakfast and lukewarm coffee. Right...the 'twins' from the next town over coming to visit. It was good timing to remember that since the front door swung open just as soon as he was finished reheating everything and sat down to start enjoying it.

"Welcome!" He gave the visitors—visitor—a friendly wave as they walked in. If indeed there was a single person responsible for the appearance everyone wound up with—well, probably the 'Giver' or whatever—they had quite a talent for visual presentation. In clothing, fur, hairstyle, and even eye color, they captured and expressed contrast, duality, twoness. It compelled him to ask: "Would you mind if I took a few reference pictures?"
"Uhh—" "—what?"

"Just ignore him," Karis waved dismissively. "Simon dear, drink your coffee before you try to interact with people."

He took a moment to chug some of it while they were properly introduced. "Pleased to meet you. But I am serious, you know! Forgiving the cliche, it's not every day you meet someone with a fox tail and superpowers. It is fully my intention to keep a visual record of as many of us as possible, if not more."

"Uh, I see.—" "—I, hadn't really thought of it that way." The light-haired one asked Karis, "He uh, wouldn't do anything weird with it, would he?"
"Not if you don't ask."

"I won't start selling your likeness or anything like that," said Simon. "I just want enough to do a portrait. I can even give you the finished work if you want."

"That's nice, but I don't really know where I'd keep it...—" "—It's still a secret that the 'normal me' can change into this."

"You just might change your mind about that sometime," he said.

---

After an exchange of sufficiently oblique texts, Amory drove out to the neighborhood Ning's house was in and wandered around a bit before coming to the back door, knocking shave-and-a-haircut on it, and waiting a moment before it was carefully cracked open. Then he walked inside, and found her in fox-girl form just inside. "Welcome."

"Hi. You, uh.."

"Surprised to see me looking like this?" She started off toward another room, which suggested he should follow. "I'm getting into the habit of being Ning whenever I'm in private at home."

Amory forcibly separated the implanted notion that this was the 'real, normal' her from his thoughts. "How come?"

"I'm getting on in years, you know. Once you get old, the ability to be young again whenever you want is..well, it's better than I can rightly describe. Besides, someday this will probably be the only body I can use."

They reached the living room, and Ning sat down, waving to a chair for Amory to take. He gave her a concerned look. "You're not worried about losing your old self, or..?"
"I've thought long and hard about it, and...there's very little I wouldn't be willing to lose for the opportunity to see my little girl grow up, and to be there for her into adulthood. Realistically, I won't have that chance otherwise. It's a little strange, but I'm trying to get myself used to the idea of Gerald just being a disguise I put on for protection."

"Uh, where is she right now?" he looked around briefly.

"Nadia's down for a nap for about the next hour or so. I thought you'd appreciate the privacy, as long as we're quiet enough."

"I do, yeah," he nodded.

"So, how much did Light tell you exactly?"
"Just that you got powers that can make other people stronger, but you can't fight."

"Well, that leaves out the more awkward part. The only way I can make other people's powers stronger is through, uh, touch." Sure, he'd already explained this twice so far, but it was one thing to tell his roommate, another to tell the Quinns who were—well, still pretty young and clearly open to some strange things in the first place, and still a third to try and explain this to someone as unfamiliar and old as this. "Specifically.." He poked his own ear once or twice to try and express it.
"O-oh! I see." Ning seemed to understand the gesture, and blushed slightly as a result.

"The sorta-good news is that after I do it once as much as possible for someone, I can grant them smaller boosts that don't take as long. But, I agree, it's awkward and doesn't really stop being awkward."

"Well...nothing's perfect. I-I assume you wanted to speak to me in person to try it on me?"

"Er, mostly it was just so it wouldn't be over the phone where someone might be listening in. But at least, I planned to ask about doing it at some point."

"Well, I'm game. Really, I suppooose.." She looked away briefly, and then back at him. "If you think it can be done quietly, then, we could do it now."

"Maybe?" It occurred to him that with the store, any time Ning was home was probably also a time her granddaughter was, so her napping was probably as good as they were going to get. "It's..worth a try." And he spoke his phrase to change again.

Ning watched with interest as Amory shrank down to a pretty, blond-haired girl. "Awwh, you're so cute like that," she said. "Err—"
"My powers make me a phrase catcher for some dumb reason. Uhh, that's just the first thing anyone with powers seems to say when they see me like this," she said.

"Oh. A little weird, but okay."

"So, you um..need to come over here, right?" she said a little nervously.

"Yeeaaah. I-if you're not comfortable, then we could put it off.."
"No no, heheh, it's fine." Ning scooted over to one side of the couch while Amory stood up. "I'm nervous, but it's also a little exciting."

After moving to the couch, Amory gently reached toward the small girl's ears, slowly enough for her to back away if she wanted. She was nervous, but not the way Clark had been—no tint of reluctance to it. So she felt Ning's fluffy ears, and then saw her lean forward and put her arms around Amory in a hug. She returned the hug, pulling her tail forward and around Ning's, finding it even bigger and fluffier than her own if that was even possible.

Amory returned her hands to the ears and got to work, listening to the soothing sound of Ning quietly churring and then nuzzling her back once that started. There was a silent, energetic excitement to her movements and the way she held onto Amory. It was strange, but once things were started Amory tended to feel she had a sense of what emotions the other person was feeling, what thoughts were going into their behavior. Light had felt a great deal of implicit trust; Clark had a mixture of curiosity and the desire to please Rory; Rory was just physically enjoying herself, resulting in an aggressive desire for more. Now that she was in Ning's arms, Amory got from her a sense of nostalgia, but at the same time the kind of eagerness for new experience one might expect from someone as young as she appeared.

The next step was to sort of reach through that emotion to the core of the person's power. Amory had a much weaker understanding of what exactly she was reaching for, but it felt obvious somehow just how to do it, and to draw it out into a fuller expression of the person's power. It gave her an intuitive understanding of the notion the one who gave them powers in the first place had expressed, that the powers had an intrinsic tie to the person's own inner self and desires.

Ning began to emit sparks, like little jolts of static, at first. The collection of brief zzt noises from that faded off into a more constant electric hum as her body took on the form of the element it usually controlled. Amory could feel a mild tingling where the electricity would normally flow into her, a pleasant tickling rather than the painful or convulsion-causing shock that it probably should be. And she allowed Ning's powers to reshape her body into one capable of using the full extent they were now on the way to expressing.

Ning grew taller, very very slowly. Her chest slowly pushed its way out against Amory's, steadily filling out more and more, and her hips seemed to spill outward too, giving her a curvier figure. Her clothes only seemed to change slightly with this, a slight shuffling around other than growing to fit the larger figure. Amory churred softly herself, enjoying the feeling of the other girl's chest squished into her own, and more than that—as usual—finding a deep satisfaction in feeling Ning's powers rise to their full potential.

The hum died down as the change completed and Ning's body hid its true nature again, and then Amory gently pulled herself apart. The growth in height was miniscule, only an inch or two and not even enough to bring her equal to Amory, but in the chest she was actually the bigger of the two now, with hips to match. Her top had changed into a black hoodie with a big ear-gloves in the hood.

Ning giggled, blushing cutely as she drew back and stood up. "This feels pretty good. I-I'm so strong, and fast, and—wow." With this last expression she waved at her chest. Then she took note of her clothes, and said, "Is this a hoodie?" She flipped the hood up over her head for a second. "Heheh, it even fits with the ears! Cooool."

She just tossed her head back to get the hood off again. "Really, I was a little worried I'd end up as badly clothed as Light was. All that skin, woo!"

Amory stood up too. "Err, I did mean to warn you about that. So far half of the people I used my power on wound up with overly revealing outfits."

"Hey, did I shock you while we were doing—that?" said Ning, darting around briefly to get various angles to look from and see if Amory had any burn marks or other noticeable injuries.

"No, you did sort of get electrified for a minute but it didn't hurt me at all. Hmm.." Thinking about it, Rory had held her pretty tightly without hurting her at all either, even while her strength was growing exponentially. Almost like...

"Could you test something for me? Actually try and shock me."
"Uh, I don't wanna hurt you."
"Just a little jolt! Like static. That doesn't injure anyone."
"Okaay.." Ning pointed an index finger at Amory and a visible spark traveled from it into her hand. It tickled slightly, just like it had during the petting.
"That didn't hurt at all. Slightly more?"

"Er.." She tried again, with similar results. "Huh?" Seeing Amory's lack of a reaction, Ning tried a visibly bigger jolt which also had no apparent effect. She put her hands near each other and mad ea bunch of electricity arc between them. "Is this thing on? I sure feel more powerful, but is it really less?"

"I don't think it's a problem with your power," said Amory. "We'd need more dangerous testing than I'm really comfortable with to be certain, but...I think I might just be 'magic immune'."

"Ooh. Cool! So you could come running into battle to power people up right in the middle of it, yeah?" She bounced on her heels eagerly.

"I was told the mist monsters couldn't touch me, so I guess that's technically possible, if we're right," said Amory. "It's kinda dangerous for knowledge of my power to get out into the open, though."

"Uh, what kind of new powers did you get?"
"Oh! I uh. Hmm." Ning thought about it. "I'm definitely stronger, and faster, but I already said that right? I feel, even more in control of the lightning than I already was. Actually, this sounds a little weird to say, but I feel like I am a bolt of lightning just waiting to strike. Does that make any sense?"

"Yeah, to me at least," Amory nodded. "So you can just turn yourself into electricity?"
"Maybe! I mean it sure feels like it! I don't wanna strike in my own house and break my stuff, but I bet I could jump straight through a bad guy to really mess 'em up. Or go zapping through the power lines! Zmmm~!" She ran a hand through the air as if to illustrate the point.

"Neat!" Ning was acting a touch childish, but especially while in this form, something in Amory's head made her feel like that was just naturally how she was. Anyway, her excitement was kind of infectious.

---

"Can you really hold two conversations at the same time?" said Karis.
Minus was sitting on the couch while Plus went upstairs with Simon to let him take a few pictures. "Yeah, pretty easily. I mean, I guess I technically haven't tried but I was able to read one thing and write another, and uh, I've fought two mist things with the other body while this one was running into a hospital to warn someone about them."

"I guess it'd make sense if you really have two brains to also have all the processing power of those two separate brains," said Karis. "You should do science a couple of favors and get in an MRI sometime. Or, hook up some wires to your heads and get some brain-wave readings."

"Uhh.."
"Oh, sorry, I'm not saying you should like you have to, but I'm sure anyone studying the brain would love to have a look at how one consciousness in two heads works," said Karis. "I guess I just mean it's one of the first things I would wanna do."

On the way up the stairs, Simon asked, "So you're studying literature? What for?"
"Um, I want to write," she said quietly.

"Good, good! You've been writing before now to know you like it, right?"
"Yeah," she nodded. They reached the studio, a huge room lit naturally by giant walls of windows. There were dozens of half-finished paintings, sculptures, and other kinds of artwork Gemma didn't really even recognize strewn around, but Simon gestured her toward the middle of the room.
"Listen, if you have the power of expression then you should be writing a journal about all this," he waved. "It'll be an instant bestseller, I guarantee."

"I'm, not really sure I can.."

"What, you're worried about secrecy? For one thing I think that's entirely silly, but even disregarding that point of disagreement, you surely don't plan on it being a secret forever, right?

"Hold that pose a second please." She thought about it. Probably not even Light would want to keep doing this secretly forever—realistically, if they survived then it would ultimately prove a futile effort; eventually the evidence would pile up no matter how careful they all were. "Listen, the one thing any artist—visual like me, auditory, expressive like yourself—needs to know is that if you're good at it then don't do it for free." The camera clicked a few times. "And I think we've all been made very good at monster fighting, right?" He walked around to a different angle and took a couple more. "I'm not so callous as to suggest we should demand money to keep fighting, but it instantly makes us famous and immensely interesting! Imagine how many millions of people must wonder what it's like to be in your shoes—and you can tell them!"

He was right, but.. "I don't really.."
"What? You're interested in doing fiction, is that it? There's nothing wrong with that, but some autobiographical work is a foot in the door! Oh, you can stop holding now, maybe send the other body up in a minute. Imagine how much better whatever you write afterward will sell when they see your name on it and realize that's the person who wrote something else they already know about. Your writing in both cases has to be good, of course, but the tragedy of art really is that there are a great many good works that never see the light of day because they don't get enough publicity, just—not enough eyes looking at them, or ears listening. To me it seems outright foolish to turn down the opportunity to have that for free."

"He already finished with the me upstairs," said Minus. "I guess we'll switch places."

"Why didn't you just both go up in the first place?"
"I, thought whatever he wanted to do would take longer," she shrugged.

After briefly waving to herself on the stairs: "Uh, part of the reason I wanted to come here was to see a few other people's powers. I can sort of 'learn' a weak version of someone's power by watching them use it."

"I see. Yes, just stand there the same way as before. Aaah, well, I don't want to tear up my foundation but I can show you a little bit in the back yard after this. Did Karis tell you I got earth powers?"
"Yeah."

"She would spoil it. Well, did she tell you my hero name? Petra!"

"You're using a different name? But.."
"No secret who I am? Aha, but it's for branding, you see. Makes people feel like I'm a superhero to have a superhero name distinct from the boring regular one. That, and I'm sure you can imagine but I don't really look like a Simon in the other body."

And downstairs: "Do you get hungry like that?" Karis asked. "Or..double hungry, even?"
"I do, yeah. I-I mean, I have two stomachs both with appetites like this, but eating as my real self seems to be enough somehow. Um..someone I know figured out that it makes us tired faster if we use our powers and don't eat."

"I seriously doubt Simon will have that problem." She took a sip of her water. "I know what he looks like but that's all metabolism. If I ate like he does I might have trouble getting between desks in my classroom."

"Um.."
"What?"
"Maybe it's a little personal, but, you seem to insult him a lot..."
"Pfft, naw, that's just our relationship. Listen: Simon is a self-important, pretentious artist with an overinflated ego—none of that is bad, mind you, all that confidence keeps him going and helps him sell his stuff. But I'm his anchor, and I work to deflate that ego so it doesn't carry him off into the stratosphere. It's just how I show my affection, that make sense?"
"Not, really, but..I-I mean, if it works for you."

"Exactly! And it does, trust me. We've been happy this way for years."

Back upstairs: "Do you think I can see some of the others here? Or, uh..."
"I was a little curious why they sent you my way instead of headquarters," he said. "There's plenty of beds and couches there, too, after all. You must've met Rowan and Dawn since they've been to your town once or twice, right?" She nodded. "So they sent you to me as someone whose power you haven't already watched. Then I would guess the plan is to cart you around to see the others—at least, whoever's willing to be seen—once the fighting dies down. As for why they picked me to go first..well, maybe they figure I'm new to monster killing and you have experience. Or they've noticed I'm sturdy and figure you're not as much so. Could be both, hahah!"

"I, can actually make the other body pretty tough," she said.

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend you or anything. Just taking some shots in the dark."

At this point, both of her bodies jumped at a sudden, blaring BEEP BEEP BEEP from the phone in Simon's pocket. Karis drew back slightly on seeing the reaction and her husband whipped out the phone to see whatever it was. "Today's monsters have arrived," he declared. "Looks like we'll have to give a more active demonstration." Putting it away again, he started downstairs, speaking his phrase and changing mid-run into a short, two-tailed girl through what looked like a motion of mud and clay; Minus followed.

Karis leaned forward slightly. "I was just gonna ask about being startled. What did he do?"
"His phone made a loud noise," she said, standing up. "Oh! The mist things appeared." She turned on cue to her other body following Petra down and toward the car.
"I'll drive so you don't have to adjust the seat!" Karis declared, following the three of them out as well.
"Very good! Do drive away from the fight zone as soon as we get out!" Petra responded.

---

Let's face it: An episode with this title was inevitable. I knew basically what was going to happen in this episode before I published the last one, but it was difficult to write out for some reason. Sometimes writing feels as easy as knocking down a bunch of dominos, and other times it feels like having to set them all up again; this was the latter.

The "Best" RPG Ever-51

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This world's grocery carts were made of wood, but at least in this store's case it was good wood, not "high risk of splinters" wood. The fact that they had them was comforting enough. Katherine came back with a significant portion of the list floating in the air around her, and Lynn watched while she gently set them all into place, reshuffling what was already in there to make it all fit. "You know...that's just way too cool."

"I'm pretty happy with it," she smiled.

Lynn started pushing the cart toward the location of the last few items on the list. "The first time we rented out that community center room, a guy said he recognized us as some kind of performers. Which went along with something I'd said before that to..."

"I don't want to be rude, but it makes my impatience to hear the point a lot worse when I can already hear said point bouncing around in your head."
"Well, okay then."

"Just about everyone in our party has some skills that would make for a good show. It'd be a nice break from fighting monsters, improve our reputation, make a lot of people happy, and probably still make some good money too."
"You're thinking of psionic juggling in my case."
"Right. Mind-reading is a good circus act in theory, but it's hard to show off to a big crowd. One: You and the random audience member you picked get accused of collusion; two: People have secrets they don't want announced in front of a big crowd and that's likely to be one of the biggest thoughts in their head when a known mind-reader is threatening to do just that. But the graceful way you can just wave objects around through the air, maybe combined with the gymnastics you can do..."

"I'll think about it. It does sound like fun, honestly."

---

When Zack finished and went looking for her, he found Rayna examining a pink bedsheet with paw-prints all over it. "I hope that's not for me."

"You? No no no, I'm thinking of this one for myself. I'll show you yours." She waved at a dark-blue one, no pattern. "You approve? Although I feel I should mention that at least back on Earth, blue was the girl color as recently as a century ago. It just flip-flopped a little later, in a manner just as arbitrary as the assignment was to begin with."
"It's good, I like it." He sighed. "You're..seriously not trying to tease me, are you."
"Huh?"
"You don't actually mean anything by saying that?"

"Of course not, what would I even mean?"

"If Katherine or Mira brought that up I would think they were trying to goad me into changing my mind and getting something pink or whatever. But you, you just...know things, and want to announce them."

Rayna hesitated for a moment; she wouldn't have expected Zack to pick up on something like this so quickly. "It's...an old bad habit. I know it comes across as 'look how great I am based on how much stuff I know', but it's just the first way I learned to relate to people. Somewhere in there, I feel like I'm trying to 'help'. Sooo, tell me if I start to annoy you with that? Or you can do what Lynn does and elbow me or step on my foot when I'm going overboard."

"I'm...fine just knowing you don't mean anything by it."

"Okay, so!" The fox-girl started digging through the pile, and first pulled out some sky-blue covers with a white cat-paw-print pattern. "Kat?"
"Kath. She has pajamas just like that..."
"So would she like something that matches or no?"

"I think yes."

Then, a purple cover with bats randomly strewn around on it. "Mira?"
"Should work," Zack nodded.

Finally (and obviously for Nora), dark green covers with an abstract pattern of diagonal lines pleated in. "I think she'll like it."

"Great! Now for sheets, all our beds are the same size, so I just got a bunch of sets in white, off-white, green, blue, and pink, to just get rotated around through laundry periods. It should be easy enough for you to avoid the pink ones barring a conspiracy—which I will personally work to prevent."

"Thank you."

"Oh yeah, I also found a really big dog bed that might fit, if you think...?" She picked up the object in question to show him.

He shrugged. "Might as well try, if it's not too expensive." The wolf had practically attached himself to Zack's leg since entering the store, but didn't seem to be aware they were talking about him. He wasn't sure at this point whether the animal would be insulted by the gesture, like the comfort of the bed, or just not understand the concept at all. He was strangely smart, and keen to not be seen as a pet, but then he had accepted a steak last night in a slightly standoffish way.

---

Zack and Rayna were the first to get back, followed not long after by the archer and psion. Everyone except for Aria got to work putting all of the groceries and toiletries away, and then the beds were made, Rayna's choices finding approval from everyone. The box of books which Mira and Nora brought was left in the library to be sorted late since it was almost time for lunch by this point. Just as offered, Katherine made lunch, with Mira insisting on helping out.

"We are actually close to running out of money," Zack announced halfway through the meal. "You?"
"Uh.." Lynn took a moment to appraise her own party's inventory. "It's not too bad, but a little more wouldn't hurt."

"At least some of us should go hunt some monsters, then. Unless there's something big like the worm that needs all six, two groups of three makes the most sense."

"Uh..you only have one healer, though," Aria pointed out.
"I can heal, too," said Zack. "Not all that much, but most of it is just getting whoever's hurt back to town anyway."

"Splitting up will work if we take low-risk jobs and Nora goes with whichever is the higher risk," Katherine agreed. "And I guess Zack with the lower risk."

"In that case, I should go in Nora's party," said Rayna. "With our best tank elsewhere, illusions are a good way to keep the heat off."

"You could still use a front-line fighter. And I've got a shiny new scythe I'm dying to really try out," Mira offered.

"That leaves me with the other group," said Lynn. "Sensible enough, we'd have short, mid and long-range covered, and I can do elemental damage if we need it."

"Well, that sounds like a consensus to me," said Rayna. "We head out after lunch! Right?"
"Right."

---

Rayna took over examining the available quests for something relatively simple, on the board outside of the guardhouse rather than the more exclusive one inside. "This seems simple enough. Thin out the dire leopards...seems they've been coming after the guard lately."
"We have anecdotal evidence of that," said the archer.

The fox-girl nodded. "Lynn and I actually fought a couple of those on the way into town."

"Does it actually say where they are?" said Zack.
"Yep, a cave area where a huge bunch have been spotted." She took the physical paper itself and offered it to him. "What do you think, your group for that?"

"What'll you do, then?" said Katherine.

"Hmmn..some newly-discovered ruins to scope out. They want a map of the area, no reports of monsters but if there are any then get rid of them. The end goal is to make the place relatively safe for the real researchers to look into, so try not to destroy it. Well, I do have a lot of advantages when it comes to drawing maps and diagrams."
Nora said, "Isn't th-that one the lower risk?"

"The cats are a known quantity," said Lynn. "Something where we don't know whether there even are monsters, much less how strong, is far riskier. Illusions make it easy for everyone to get away and make a better plan if there's something nasty."
"Hey now, reading minds isn't supposed to be your talent," Rayna teased with a grin.

With a small sigh, Katherine psionically pulled the ruin exploration request off of the board and exchanged it with the one in the fox-girl's hand. "So we're agreed on these two?" Everyone nodded or said or thought 'yes'. "Let's get going, then. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can actually relax in the new home."

After a brief trip inside to get a few more details and some paper for the map, they split off at the town gate.

"I don't know about you two, but I get bored of silence pretty quick," Rayna said.

"I agree!" said Mira. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

"Hmn. Well, I do wonder a bit about demon anatomy. Or at least, yours?"
"What abooouut it?"

"Just..okay, Clera has wings because she can literally fly. They're for flying. You have what seem to be vestigial wings, practically decorations, except they're probably a bit of a weak spot for being cut or pulled off by a particularly brutal opponent. Unless they help you fly your broom somehow?"
"I don't think so. But they are cute, right?"

"I'm of the opinion that they are, but not everyone is. To a lot of people they undoubtedly look...monstrous? I mean, there's even spikes on them, which gives a threatening vibe even though there is no way you could use those to attack."

"Well..I can't help looking monstrous. I mean, I'm on my way to turning into an actual demon, so it's to be expected at some point, right?"

"...Embryonic."

They shared a moment of mild confusion before turning to Nora. She clarified: "Th-the wings. I d-d-don't think they're actually v-vestigial. A newly hatched b-bird can't fly, either."

"Oh, yeaaah. That's a good point," said Rayna. "Your form changed after eating a demon, right?"
"Third one specifically," she nodded. "So it'll definitely happen again, at least at the archdemon stage if not before."
"Which means she could grow bigger wings." The elf nodded agreement. "And I guess either hollow bones or whatever kind of magic physics fudging lets Rose fly, too."

"So what about you?" said the witch.
"Me? My ears and tail serve the same purpose as a fox's. Sorta. Bipedal tail is different from quadruped, but there's definitely some balance help there."

"You don't need that much fur to balance, though. I mean, Katherine's balance is amazing with nowhere near the floof. Almost seems like a fire hazard."

"It's cold resistance. And fox tails just are bushier," she shrugged. "Honestly though, I think I'm more like those domesticated foxes in Siberia. Not only the thick, soft fur, but I'm also way friendlier and nowhere near as cautious as some shrewd, wild fox. But most importantly, I have the occasional urge to try and get someone to pet me."

"Really?" Mira squeaked excitedly, stepping slightly closer. "I have wanted to touch animal girl fur since I first met one. But Zack's—you know, Zack, and Katherine won't even let me touch her ears in a dream."

"Well, it's best saved for when we're not out in the wilderness with monster probablities about," said Rayna. "But I'd be happy to oblige that whenever we get back. Do you want a touch, Nora?"

The elf girl had started blushing and looking away since the topic of petting came up. "What?!" she sounded mortified that they were even talking about it.

"Well, I thought it was only fair to include you rather than talking around you."
"Th-th-that's very thoughtful, but no. C-can we talk about something else, please?"

"Sure, whatever you'd like."

---

The wolf didn't seem to like her.

Since the three of them had left, the huge, white-furred beast had paced around near Zack's legs or around Katherine's general vicinity, whichever one was farthest away from Lynn. "Soo...can this guy, really understand English?"

"Common," the catgirl corrected. "Respect the lore. And—pretty well. I can translate the other way if you want to talk."
"Well, I'd like to ask why he's acting so supicious of me."
"Actually ask him," Zack suggested.

"Okay.." She moved slightly closer, but not so much as to be in the animal's "personal space". "Why do you keep drawing away from me, huh?"

Katherine channeled the wolf's response: Alpha of rival pack.

"Wh—alpha? Rival? Look, we're friends here for one thing. Uhm, allies?"
You compete for hunts.

"It's, not really a competition. We get the jobs from...a bigger alpha."

Did that one win fight with Alpha?

"No.."
Not alpha, then. The wolf made a sound she was sure would be a 'hmph', if a human made it, and turned away.

She sighed, moved around to where he was facing her again. "..Okay, look. We're on the same side here, right? Uhh..killing some..competitors? So we need to at least be able to work together, right?"

Knew that already.

"So this..ducking away from me, then. You're not gonna do something like that in the middle of battle?"

No. But rival alpha won't poach me.

"..You, like the one you have now, huh?" Lynn smiled briefly to Zack, who seemed bemused by the whole exchange. "Well, I'm not interested in poaching, alright? We just share a common goal."

You are staying in our den. The thought came with an accusatory tone.

"Hey now, that was a mutual agreement," Katherine interjected. "Everyone's happy with it, unless you're not, in which case you're the only one."

The wolf looked surprised, and moved out from under Zack to give him an inquisitive look. He took a second to interpret the look, and then nodded.

You..joined our pack? Alpha won fight with you too? the wolf asked excitedly.

"Me? Like I was trying to tell you earlier, I'm not the alpha, Rayna is. You know, the fox-girl? I dunno if she fought with Zack or not, but do you think she'd win that one?"
The wolf made a grumbling sound and moved out from under Zack and brushed against Lynn's legs briefly before returning close to his alpha.

What's gonna happen when this gets brought up to her? Katherine asked privately—between humanoids, at least.

She'll say I'm the alpha. It's a joke from our channel and fans, whenever someone asks which of us is the boss, each of us says the other one is.

I don't think he'll get the joke, thought Zack.

He's basically human-level smart based on this conversation alone, Lynn responded. Maybe 'raised by wolves' culturally, which we should probably aim to fix. Beginning with fuzzing his idea of what an 'alpha' is.

Fine. If he decides to attack you, though, it's not on me.

Please, Katherine responded, If you see him attacking someone you'll jump in to save them anyway. He didn't respond beyond an audible huff.

---

The first couple of sections of this part really would've fit better into the previous part, and I'm honestly a little tempted to wait a little while with things the way there and then edit those parts backwards into 50 and hope it doesn't confuse people too much by then. It'd make this part a bit short, but that's not too horrible.
 

Battle Vixens! - 29

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Episode 29: Satisfy

"Stop tearing yourself apart!"

"Donny...you can't just keep beating yourself up like this. Yes, you did something wrong, real wrong, but you've gotta forgive yourself and move on. If you don't, it's gonna kill you."
"And who cares if it does, huh? Who?"

"Well, I would for one thing."

But you're not...

"You don't think anyone cares about you now? People you've saved this past week, even if they have no idea who you are, where you came from, what you've done? They care about you not because you have power, but because of what you chose to do with it."

...

"You always try to do the right thing Donny, even when you're a total idiot about it. Promise me, even if I'm gone, that won't ever change."
"Cynth.."
"Promise!"

"Alright, alright."

Dawn was leaning forward in the carseat, with her head in her hands. There was engine noise, and besides that, quiet. There was a flood of tears in there that she really didn't want to let out, and was to some extent trying to physically prevent. Rowan waited patiently for her to sniff a few times, lean back, and take a deep breath, letting out through the nose.

"...Since we're alone, I thought I should ask you again. Are you alright?"

"Not really, nah."

Another period of silence. "That girl, with the twin power or whatever. She's, got more fire than it looks like," Dawn said. "She said somethin' that just...I felt like I was talkin' to Cynth again for a minute. Couldn't take it."

"What did she say, if you don't mind me asking?"
"...I might need to take a day off tomorrow. Once one doctor gets a look at me they'll probably want a lot more looks."
"Hm. Well, someone has already volunteered to fill in," said Rowan. "I doubt there will be any problem with that."

She tried to look over at him for a second. His expression was neutral, unreadable, aimed straight at the road ahead. Still, Dawn couldn't help but feel like he'd gotten something he wanted out of this trip, even beyond the full use of those water powers.

---

They had missed the monster of the day. Rory was disappointed, but Clark was just relieved that everyone seemed to be okay. Well, that and satisfied to have proof that at least some of his ideas on creative uses for Light and Ning's powers held water—particularly turning a sheath into an electromagnetic cannon was impressive and fascinating to see. Maybe he could move her on to getting a functional railgun going, or else a coilgun. Then again, Light was also displaying some new abilities—ones Clark hadn't suggested and wasn't quite sure of the origin of.

In the midafternoon, Amory called Rory's phone. Clark was busy catching up on some grading at his desk, and mostly just overheard a series of "yeah" and "uh-huh" sounds until she hung up and came to him. "Amory wants to show us something he can't talk about over the phone," she announced. "He'll be here in the next ten minutes or so."

"Alone? What's uh, Light doing?"
"I don't know. I guess we can ask about that when he gets here."

"..You know, it's occurred to me. How is our house at all private anymore?" said Clark. "We announced that we have superpowers days ago. But I'm looking out my window right now and not seeing a bunch of paparazzi," he waved.
"Oh, uh..that might be my doing."
His eyes narrowed a bit. "What did you do?"

"Wh—I didn't hurt anyone or anything. Just, Wednesday morning I woke up really early and there was a bunch of people out on the front lawn. And I yelled at them, a lot. I don't even know exactly what I said 'cause I was half asleep, but I'm sure I remember something like 'we work at the college! Our numbers are publicly available if you want to talk, but we've got jobs to do and can't do them with a bunch of idiots harassing us.' And I think I wrapped it up with 'now get off my lawn before I throw you off', and then slammed the door and went back to bed. So...maybe that spread a rumor that I would literally throw people off our lawn if they bugged us. Not that I actually would, but it's understandable since I actually could—purely physically speaking."

Clark put a hand to his forehead, shaking his head a bit. "I feel exceedingly lucky that nobody's sued you at this point."

"That isn't even the fifth time you've said that about something I did," she said. "I was tired and they were making noise. Anyway, maybe someone's watching from a long-distance camera or something, but as long as our blinds are shut when we don't want them to know what's going on we should be fine."

Clark just went back to grading. A little later, Amory arrived, with Rory opening the door. "Hi stranger, come on in." He stood up and went to the living room to meet them. They stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds or so after arriving.

"So...what's this about?" said Clark first. "And where's Light?"
"She's...meeting with Rowan. That—policeman from last Monday. Emma's there too."
"And they just left you on your own?" said Rory, crossing her arms.

"Yes. I'm perfectly fine on my own now, because of what I wanted to talk about." He seemed to think on it for a second or two. "Or...maybe I'll just show you first and then explain."
"Well, don't let me stop you," Rory waved.

Amory nodded, and then said...a phrase. Evidently his phrase, which everyone present was reasonably sure hadn't been a thing the day before. And changed into a short, pretty fox-girl in pink clothes. Clark's wife gave a small gasp. "Oh wow, you're adorable! Isn't she?"
"Yeah, she is very cute," he nodded. "...Uh, wait." He scratched his head. "When and how did you get powers, though?"

"Last night. Um, it's not exactly a normal power though," she said, tapping index her fingers together. "I'm supposed to be immune to the mist monsters, but I can't actually fight myself. Just...I can make other people's powers stronger."

"I see...did you do that for Light today, then?" said Clark.

She nodded, "Mm-hm! By the way...why was that the first thing you said when you saw this form?"

Rory and Clark exchanged a brief glance. "...I don't know. I mean, you are, but that isn't really the kind of thing I would blurt out normally," she said.

"Light did the same thing," said Amory.

"I wonder if it's somehow one of your powers..." Clark suggested

Amory frowned. "How would people announcing that I look cute be useful at all?"

"Have you shown that form to anyone without powers?" said Rory. "It might be a test you can use to tell someone has them, whether they want you to know about it or not."

"I haven't, so I guess that's on the table. I really...don't want to, though. I feel really weak and vulnerable like this, and I'm not immune to like, being stabbed or knocked out and carried away or tied up and kidnapped..."

"That sounds horrible," said Rory.
"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. This is just, something that needs to stay as much of a secret as it possibly can."

"So, you can make people's powers stronger," Clark repeated.

"Right," she nodded. "If a bad person with powers finds out about me then I'm a huge kidnapping risk."

"How's it work, anyway? Do you just wave your hand at a fox-girl and they're stronger than before?" said Rory.
"Oh, no. It's nothing convenient like that." Amory wrung her hands a little bit, nervously. "Uhh...I have to, pet the target a little. Orr, a lot."

"Pet?" Rory said. "Like...ear rubbing? Tail brushing?"

"Mm-hm."

"That is super awkward."
"You don't have to tell me. But, that's the only way they work. And it's a temporary effect that wears off after a while, so..."

"You can't just do it once," Clark finished. "I don't know whether it's worse news that your powers work like that, or that they make you an even bigger target."

"Okay!" Rory clapped suddenly, making both of the others jump. "I want to see it at work. Try it on Clark."
"Wh—me?"

"Of course you. I can't see it if I'm in it. Anyway, if I did it then you might get jealous, since Amory is sort of a guy."

"And you won't get jealous even though she's literally a girl right now."
"I'm not the jealous type, especially of someone a decade younger."

"And you think I am?"

"Uh..do I have a say in this or anything?" Amory interrupted, looking slightly perturbed. "Not that I actually mind, but..."

"Oh, sorry. Once we start arguing it's easy for me to lose track of other people."
"We weren't arguing," said Clark, "just.."

"Arguing," Rory said. "Anyway, you must agree this is important. We need to understand everything we can about these powers, after all. That makes this valuable research!"

Amory twiddled the tip of one of her ears. "I haven't even mentioned thaaat..I have to 'fully' power someone up first and then I can do minor power-ups that don't take five minutes."

"This makes it difficult for me to say no," said Clark. "I was going to lose that discussion eventually anyway, I guess."
"Argument~!" Rory half-sang.

He went ahead and spoke his phrase, changing into the third girl in the room.

"But!" Amory said. "Doing this also seems to amplify a person's 'price', or..certainly something like that. Light was reeaally eager to go out and find a monster to fight. Changing back undoes the power-up, so we'll be safest if you agree ahead of time to do that if you feel tempted to leave the house."

"I'd like to think I'm rational enough to keep it together anyway, but alright. Now what?"

"Uuuhhm..." She looked around the room briefly, and waved to the couch. "This is much easier sitting down, I think. There's some risk of falling over otherwise." Clark followed, sitting on the opposite side. This still felt really awkward, especially with Rory there watching, and her first instinct was not to get very close to the blonde-haired girl.

Amory looked a little worried. "Are you ready? Sure you're okay with this?"
"It's fine. Just, a little weird, still."
"Okay then, just...stay there."

Amory leaned over and Clark found that it required physical effort not to draw back. But when she did make herself hold still, she soon felt the other girl's hands on her ears and immediately began to relax. It was a very calming, pleasant feeling somehow, and made her eyes cloes and her tail start to swish back and forth behind her as she leaned slowly into it. Eventually Clark's head just fell into Amory's lap, churring softly at the nice feeling. Then the other girl took a small break to gently pick her head up and pull her closer, and she found herself helping out by crawling forward on the couch a bit until finally their arms were around each other and their faces really close.

"M-mrrn? Rrrrh~!" Clark was startled slightly by the feeling of something warm and fluffy on her tail. It was...Amory's tail! And it was...slowly curling its way around hers. If having her ears rubbed had felt good, this felt amazing. There was so much more surface to feel it with, and so much more to feel of the tail than the hands. She collapsed forward, her arms tightening their grip, her nose finding the other girl's cheek and her throat repeating the pleasant churring from before. She began rubbing slowly as the hands returned to her ears again, and found it difficult to think of anything but continuing to hold Amory as close as she could so she wouldn't stop doing this.

Clark began to feel something deeper than the body pressed against hers, the warmth-like feeling her powe usually sensed, but particularly the one unique to Amory. It was so much more than a warmth, though, closer to a fiery blaze in comparison to the usual, and with their bodies entangled this way it felt like it was fully surrounding her, and beginning to kindle something. She felt the glow that represented her power when borrowed by her wife expanding, growing too large and hot to fit inside of her and therefore flaring out into a bright blue aura. Along with that, her body grew slightly taller, her chest slowly pushing forward slightly. The feeling of lightness she always had in this form grew stronger as well, becoming a feeling of total weightlessness, the capability of movement untethered to the Earth below. Without really thinking about it she enveloped Amory with her aura and lifted them both off of the couch into the air, their legs dangling just over it.

Eventually Clark's warmth came to feel equal to Amory's, and the changes eased off. Her clothes seemed to shuffle around on her slightly, and then Amory let go of her ears to return the hug with a tiny bit of urgency, seemingly only noticing they were off the ground just now. She let out a soft, comforting churr and gently set them down on their feet in front of the couch before slowly disengaging the embrace, her tail still reluctant to let go of the other girl's.

She opened her eyes, taking a deep breath and examining her appearance. Her body had grown maybe an inch or two taller, with a mid-sized bust replacing the usual small one; her clothes had changed to something like a shrine maiden kind of outfit, but the skirt was still blue. The aura she had felt during the change was still visibly blazing around her body like a fire. Then she looked to Rory, who was..in fox-form now, and seemed very pleased.

"That was adorable to watch, and now I really want a turn," she said. "But first—how do you feel?"
"Amazing! I think I can just..." Clark pulled herself upward with a small flex of the will, floating a foot into the air. Amory stepped aside, the tip of her tail finally leaving Clark's with one final brush. "...Pretty much I can superman-fly. I don't think it has to be just me, either."
"Oh? Can you pick me up too?"
Clark tried holding her hand out to Rory, and some of the aura surrounding her went over to her wife. Then with a small upward wave, she was lifted up as well. "I think I can only do this for someone willing. No good as an attack."

"Not directly, maybe, but gravity exists," said Rory with a slightly vicious grin.

"Well, any strange, overstrong urges showing up?" said Amory.

"Um.." Clark dropped both of them to the ground (gently) before facing her. "Not really?" She held a hand up before her face. "I feel certain I could heal a lot more people like this, more quickly and with less breaks. But I know better than to go flying out to the hospital like an idiot. We'll just have to bring you along next time I'm doing that. If you're okay with it, I mean."
"I can't argue with saving lives..."

"What about the string-stuff? Anything different with that?" said Rory.

"Hmm.." The needle was still in her ear at the moment, but Clark didn't feel the need to reach out and take it. Without even moving her hands the needle pulled itself out and threaded into the air in front of her, flying around in a complicated arc trailing string that not only glowed, but appeared to have caught the same fire as the aura around her own body. Then it returned to its usual place, and the big knot of string was easily drawn back to her aura, where it seemed to melt back out of string-form. "I guess this makes me even more of a mage than usual. I don't feel any tougher or anything."

"I bet you could just throw that aura itself around as an attack," Amory suggested. "At least against the mist monsters."

"Oh, probably!" Clark smiled and put her hands together, the latter a slightly unusual expression for her, but one that somehow felt natural at the moment.

"So, my turn, right?" said Rory. "If you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind," said Amory. "Using my power doesn't seem to tire me out at all like other people's powers do..."

"All this after talk of worrying about me being jealous..."

"Actually, I want you to watch very carefully. Then we'll discuss what we both saw. I want to know if you'll see what I saw."

"Ooh, kaay?"

"To the couch then!" She grabbed one of Amory's arms and led her back to it, setting her on one side and sitting on the other side herself. "Whenever you're ready?"

---

"So..what was wrong exactly?" Light and Gemma were taking a slower walk back to the apartment complex for now, covered by the usual invisibility.
"She looked—" "—...starved, just like it sounded. Her stomach was...—" Minus waved incoherently. "When I looked at her body was doing,—" "—the thing I really noticed was that her power was pumping heat in from the air to use as energy.—" "—That's why her skin is so cold all the time. She should be getting that from food and isn't. I don't know if—" "—I think something worse might be wrong with Don's normal body, to cause him to not eat and then...—" "—but surviving off of only the heat like that is messing her up too. It, technically works kinda, but it'd be like surviving on a diet of exactly as much sugar as the energy you use up. And—" "—stress! So much stress. I don't know about mental, but it looked like a general,—" "—overall physical problem that registered to me right away as a massive ball of stress. I wouldn't be surprised if there's sleep deprivation in there, too."

"I guess in that situation, anyone would be stressed, maybe have nightmares and trouble sleeping in general. Wonder if we should've asked them to stay a little longer and had Clark take a look.."

"No, Clark's power only heals wounds.—" "—this was all other problems. He might be able to, um,—" "—say more about exactly what was wrong but the vague gist I saw is enough to know we need a real doctor here.—" "—Anyway, I think I struck a nerve or something. She didn't even want to look at me after I said that."

Light nodded.

A little later: "...I guess you successfully 'copied' Rowan's power?"
"Oh—" "—yeah." Plus tried pulling a little of the water vapor out of the air; she waved it around a bit, and then briefly formed a third knife for that body out of it. "It's a little harder to 'make' fire...—" "—my best bet is probably using electricity to spark a bit of grass or something."

"So it is fire? How do you know without trying it out?"

"Umm...—" Both of her scratched their heads. "—I don't know. It just feels like it makes sense."

"Anyway, if it is fire you'll be really good at putting out any fires we don't want—even if water won't work. Just tear small pieces off and throw them into the air away from the fuel source so they go out."

"Oh—" "—I hadn't thought of that!"

"So what do you do with more weapons than hands? Assuming you're not letting Rory borrow one."
"Um...—" "—I could probably throw the ones that're easy to get back. Or—" "—if one element is more useful than another for some reason I can use that one specifically."

"Err...—" "—I just realized, we didn't really work out the details of how I was gonna get to the city. I mean—" "—I could drive, but then it'd obviously be me."

"I got the impression that Rowan wants to check with his superiors for a moment before making it absolute. And then he'll probably call or text Amory about it. I could call one of you up when he does that?"
"That'll work," Minus nodded.

---

Despite verbal claims to the contrary, Rory actually had experienced a small pang of jealousy. Not "romantic partner" jealousy, but "watching another kid eat a piece of candy" jealosy. Even though she was sure she ought to find it at least a little wierd, one of the most dominant thoughts she had while watching Amory 'power up' Clark was how much fun it looked like and how soon could she do it, too. That anticipation of getting a turn had caused her to nearly-unconsciously say her phrase and shift to her own fox-form right near the beginning of it all. On top of that, her husband had seemed visibly hesitant about it, tensed and almost ready to literally run away, up until the newly-powered girl actually touched her ears. It was like night and day from there, with her falling forward into Amory's arms and practically begging for it to continue.

Rory had had her ears and tail touched by Clark both while he was male and while they were both foxes. It felt...nice, but not quite to that level. The conclusion was that there must be something supernatural about Amory's touch when it came to other fox-girls—which did make sense considering it was already the channel for her amplification of their powers. She hoped that Clark would come to a similar conclusion or maybe have a useful theory she hadn't thought of, distracted as she had been with wanting a turn; since her husband had had a turn already, she might be a little more focused.

Finally, of course, she was deeply curious how her powers might be enhanced by this. Light seemed to have gained some more light-ish powers, like teleportation and somehow dual-wielding one sword, and definitely had more energy for illusions. Clark's "magic power" had expanded into a beautiful blazing aura that let her fly and even help others fly with her. Rory's powers were all body-based, but she wasn't sure it was possible to get much stronger or tougher; maybe she was wrong about that, but perhaps there would be some exciting new aspect to them she could play around with this way.

"Whenever you're ready?"
"Um, okay." Amory gave a slightly nervous smile, which was just amazingly adorable. Nearly every movement or expression she made since changing to this form was mercilessly cute and just made Rory want to pat her on the head and give her candy or something. It wasn't like there weren't other cute fox-girls—Light, her husband of course, that cop-turned-Initative agent (or whatever the right term for someone working directly with them was)—but Amory had managed to top all of them in just the past few minutes. It was something in her mannerisms while like this, maybe her voice?

The internal attempt to quantify or at least find the source of the cuteness was interrpted abruptly by the feeling of some small, soft, delicate hands on her ears. "MnnnNNnnh~!" Rory responded by immediately pouncing the other end of the couch, grabbing the smaller girl halfway through it so they wound up both lying down, Amory on her back with her head on the armrest and Rory directly on top of her. "Eheheheh!" Realizing she'd had such a violent reaction, Rory couldn't help but giggle briefly, a blush heating up her cheeks. Amory actually giggled back before gently wrapping her arms around the taller girl, and then running her hands up through Rory's absurdly-long hair back to the ears again.

"Mmnh..mmrrrrh.." Rory pulled the embrace a little tighter, enjoying the feeling of Amory's sizable chest against her own. She'd always had perfect control over her strength, and felt especially capable of keeping her handling of the small, fragile-feeling girl more than gentle enough to be safe just now. Her eyes fluttered closed as she began to gently rub her nose against Amory's cheek, her own hands running up through the smaller girl's hair to begin rubbing those soft yellow ears right back.

Amory returned the nuzzling quietly...and then there were the tails. Amory's tail curled around in front of her, along the side of Rory's hips to brush up against her tail. As soon as she felt it Rory let out an actual yip, followed by a calmer "Rrrrh~" while her own tail lay itself down the same side and helped tangle itself up in the smaller girl's fluffy fur. Rory found her noises and movements steadily slowing and calming in response to Amory's continued touch, feeling no less excited but somehow much more satisfied as it went on. She let out a slow, softer "Mrrrrh~" which Amory echoed back.

Now Rory could feel a gentle tingling all across her body, spreading down from her ears and in from the tail. She felt as if Amory's hands, though they were only on her ears, were starting to remold her body slightly. Rory found herself stretching out inch by inch even taller than she already was, her bust expanding yet more, her figure growing steadily more voluptuous. At the same time, her muscles gently tightened up, indeed gaining strength beyond what she'd felt possible before; she felt more flexible too, and more agile and energetic and even more invincible than usual like this. But that wasn't all, either; as Amory continued to mold and reshape her body, Rory couldn't help but feel that she was coming to understand more and more just how that was being done, and how to do something just like it herself.

"Mrrh..rrnn..rrf.." The changes continued for what felt like such a long, pleasant time but surely couldn't have been more than a minute or two. Eventually Rory could hear a slight ripping and shuffling noise from her clothes; her first thought was that she had grossly outgrown them before realizing they were actually changing shape significantly. And soon after that, the changes slowed to a halt. She remained there, petting and nuzzling the smaller girl, for a long moment before finally getting a hold of herself and pushing herself up off of Amory, swinging up onto her feet in a single rapid motion.

"Hahah, wow..." Her heart was racing and her face still felt pretty red; she looked around the room, trying to figure out how tall she was/process being so tall.

"I know, yeah?" said Clark, coming a little closer. The top of her head barely reached Rory's chest; bearing in mind that her husband had gained a little bit of height too, she must be the size of a slightly taller-than-average man at this point.

Amory sat up on the couch, rubbing the back of her head a bit. "Umh, how do you feel?"

"Amazing! Great! I don't have words for it. Like I could pick up the whole planet and throw it into the sun!"
"Please don't actually attempt that," said her husband with a slightly concerned look.

"Well, obviously not. I mean, my house is here. Anyway—uh."

Since she was looking down into Clark's face, it was only a small shift in view to get a better look at what her clothes had turned into. The skirt, tights and boots had reduced to some black denim short shorts and some sneakers, with the top converted into a halter top that barely even covered her resized chest, let alone the slim, muscular midriff below that. "Uhh, you don't pick what your vic—uh, target's clothes turn into, do you?"
"N-not that I can tell, nope." Having had attention called to that outfit, Amory was blushing and looking away—still impossibly adorable.

"Oh well. So my usual powers are a whole lot stronger, but I think I got a new trick too."

"What's that?" said Clark.

"Watch this!"

Rory put her hands together, trying to mold her body the same way it had felt like Amory had. Right away she shrank down, her figure reducing to something more moderate, until she was the same height as Clark. Her clothes seemed to keep themselves fitting about the same way as she changed, which was a somewhat welcome feature. Then she released her hands, holding them out to either side. "Nice, right?"
"Hm. Do you keep all of your strength when you're smaller?"
"Feels like it to me!" Without putting her hands together, Rory was able to pull her height and appearance back to the 'normal fox-form' one. "I could probably get away with being seen powered up and folks would have a hard time telling the difference if I don't shapeshift openly."
"That's pretty good news," said Amory. "I wonder just how different you can make yourself look..."
"Yeah, as long as we're violating the conservation of matter," said Clark.

"Me too! Let's try something really drastic." Rory took a deep breath first, changing back to the form she'd started out in upon being 'powered up'. This felt a little like releasing a hold on something, but not a hold that was too difficult to maintain. Then she planted her feet, her arms to the side and hands slowly clenching into fists as she tried to achieve the desired result. "Rrrrrrr..." She found herself vocalizing without really meaning to, like a long grunt of effort. The change began to take effect: Her body grew slightly taller still, but her chest and hips faded inward, her stomach pushing out slowly. The slim, feminine musclature to her arms and legs pushed outward, bulking up slightly. Her voice, still letting out that slow, long growl, audibly depeened farther and farther down as it continued. Her clothes began to adapt more drastically to the change: The shorts growing slightly longer, panties gaining leggings and loosening up in the middle, the top losing its low cut and growing slightly longer. Eventually she felt very, very close: Flat-chested, tall, broad-shouldered and all, and then breathed in before letting out a sharp "Rrraah!"

With that, Rory successfully changed sex, becoming quite possibly the first fox-man of the world (however temporary the ability to do this or stay this way was); the change completed in the one single burst. He huffed, feeling a little winded from the effort, but grinned seeing Clark blush up at him. "Impressive, right?" It was a little weird having a voice this low, but at the same time..he was already starting to appreciate the husband's other form in a whole new way.
"Y-yeah."
"Um..I get the feeling I should leave?" said Amory, standing up.
"Oh, sit down," he waved. "This is a very nice option but we'll save it for after some more discussion." Rory did feel some effort was necessary to keep this up; it was pretty clear that something about these powers' nature didn't really 'take' to a male body very well in general. He relaxed again and instantly felt the new equipment slip away, just before the rest of Rory shrank and grew back to the deeply female form again. "Phew. Are you able to 'top off' our timers, though, just out of curiosity?"
"Uhh, y-yeah. It's not exactly a timer, more like 'power usage' meter. I can just..." She held out a hand and wiggled her fingers to express, "a little bit and fill it back up. But I have been told it doesn't feel great when it does eventually wear off, if you don't change back yourself before then."

"We'll keep that in mind..."

---

"Flight and shapeshifting, huh? I almost feel envious." They were both back in the apartment for supper; Amory had sent off a text to let him know about what Emma should do tomorrow (posing as Light and saying 'Gemma' instead, of course).

"You can effectively teleport, without any fear of telefragging."

"I did say 'almost'. How far does the shapeshifting go?"
"Uh...it's mostly focused on body-shape in particular. She can't change her hair, skin, or or eye color, or really alter the fox-parts at all. But when it comes to the rest, it's pretty powerful. She even managed to go as far as turning into a guy."

"That's pretty far. I wasn't under the impression anyone could be male with fox parts under her 'rules'."

"I would guess this qualifies as bending rather than breaking. A girl temporarily shapeshifted into a guy. More importantly, it's useful for taking advantage of the boost without it necessarily being obvious it happened. Just look like her 'usual' self, and Dr. Quinn can fight at enhanced strength just fine."

Blake nodded. "So after all of that 'research' did they have any brilliant ideas about your power or how it works?"
"Uh..Rory suggested I have 'magic fingers' when it comes to foxes. It sorta makes sense with how my powers work in general, I guess."

"Hmn..." After a short pause, he said, "I don't really know how to describe it, but it felt like my uh, reaction this morning was at least as much emotional as it was physical. With how our powers are supposed to be tied to mentality or whatever, it sort of makes sense. If someone really didn't trust you, you might not have that effect on them, or be able to keep them still at all."

Amory nodded, seeming to agree. "At this point I guess Ning is the only one who knows that we haven't 'tried'. Did she express any, uh..?"
"Not particularly. It might be good information to find out, if it's not too strange to ask about. I guess Emma doesn't know, then."
He shook his head. "Unless you told her."

"It's your secret to tell or not. I'm a little sorry I told Ning, but she deserved some kind of explanation and I...I couldn't lie."

"Don't be sorry, I understand. Don't have any problem with her knowing, anyway. Did Rowan ask about your 'new' powers?"

"Not a word. There seems to be a lot on his plate, and if it was on his mind at all he must've decided not to ask. Do you...think we should tell Emma?"

"I don't know...we literally just stated dating. It feels like something really strange to bring up, and I'm not sure how she would react to...you know, stuff like this morning. After almost killing you over.."
"I see. Well, I won't say anything either, then."

A little later, the response came: "Approved. We have a volunteer to drive her. Name a location for pickup." So it was time to summon one of Emma and get things rolling for the next day.