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.