Battle Vixens! - 37

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Episode 37: Shut Up

"I suspect she's right. She usually is..."
"Mmn." Simon had invited Dawn to lunch as extra thanks for taking a few photos. She really had no idea what the big deal was, and wasn't exactly eating normally yet, but it wasn't like there was anything else to be doing at the time. His wife was there too, and had...a lot of ideas.

"Then again, I suppose I am biased. It's not something anyone would want to you to feel pushed into, but.."

"I get it. It'd be good, maybe. I just...don't think I'm the right one ta talk about anything serious like that," said Dawn. "Not in front a' so many people, anyway. I'd end up sayin' somethin' stupid."

"That's just it, though. Even the stupidest things you might say could get through to people in situations like the one you were in where nothing else would. You're not the only person to ever go through all that, and finding that out could give someone else a better chance to live a bit longer, you know, without weird fox magic help."

She just gave a noncommittal "Hrmn" and mentally begged his car to get back to the base already. He seemed nice and polite at first, but had kind of an overbearing personality. Even his attempts to be polite or grateful or kind just felt like too much after a while, like some big elaborate mask he was putting on over who-knew-what underneath instead of any kind of genuine expression.

Karis wasn't the same way, and part of her wondered what she saw in him. Not that it was really any of Dawn's business, and not that she had any room to talk—but, there it was in her head anyway.

She braced herself, knowing that there had now been silence in the car just long enough for him to decide the old subject was over and change it, which meant more talking. Even though he was apparently a very good artist, from her experience it seemed like all he really knew how to do (pre-gaining superpowers) was talk. That bracing came in useful when his phone started making a familiar beeping noise instead.

"Oh! Well...can you look?" said Simon, starting to pull the car over. Dawn picked up the phone and read off the address—only a couple of blocks away from them. He immediately drove back out onto the street and started that way. "On to the fight, then! You're up for it?"

"Always." It did feel a little much to put it that way, but she meant it.

The car turned a corner and the monster came into view, towering in the middle of the street; it was just like the one she'd fought in that other town with the...lightning girl, whatever her name was. Simon was starting to slow down; she removed the seatbelt, opened the door, and jumped out with the remaining momentum, hearing a startled "Hey!" from the inside of the car. It wasn't going to be far enough to make it to the huge tentacled thing, but she did get about three-fourths of the way before hitting the concrete with a rough roll and getting back to her feet with some scratches in her clothes and grit stuck to her skin and fur in places.

Its eyes turned her way and it gave the same kind of low roar as the last one; at least she had its attention already. Once stable, Dawn took off at a run, making a couple of short blades with the ice to block and punish the first few swipes of its tentacles, and then jumped backwards out of its range again when she picked up the sound of Simon—Petra—whoever, running up.

"You coulda waited another second or to for me to stop."
"Whatever. I fought one a' these before. The head's the weak spot, it's fast, the mouth is at the bottom of the head an' it likes charging, so if it turns over onto its side get ready to move outta the way."

"'Kay." Petra raised her hands and picked up large chunks of concrete, starting to surround Dawn on either side and the back with them. "Cover ya?"

Seeing what she meant after a second or two, Dawn nodded. "Jus' keep an eye out for puppets." Then she ran at the thing again, listening to its limbs whipping against the concrete repeatedly and getting ready when the makeshift shield began to crack. She was already close enough to leap past the next several strikes, form a giant blade and stab straight into the middle of the thing with it, and then carry the momentum a little farther, running around its body to kick off of the back, make a couple more bounces and rolls off of the ground before standing up with another pair of small daggers to block its strikes with while moving back out of range. It was looking her way now (at least it had only one eye, she thought) which meant Petra should be coming up behind it one way or another.

It skittered forward and Dawn backed up a few steps, tossing some small fireballs its way to keep it doing that. This continued, the giant tentacled beast steadily gaining, until a massive spike made of compacted concrete pierced it straight through from back to front and it gave a deafening roar of pain in response, falling straight toward Dawn as if to crush her. She moved aside and slashed at it before it charged in the opposite direction (toward Petra, of course). No sooner did it start that charge than the ground shot up under it, flipping it into the air and into a wild spin that ended with it landing sideways, the mouth on Dawn's right. It turned itself around on the ground and charged at her next, so she dove out of its way and let it go until it realized it hadn't caught her and picked itself back upright again.

Her ears picked up someone coming up nearby—too nearby to be Petra. She turned that way, making a short sword out of ice and readying it just in case. And that turned out to be the right move; something blurred into view just in time for her to knock it aside with the sword and then rushed back to the hand that tossed it. It was a metal rod with a handle on it, which Dawn would later be told was called a tonfa. There were two of them, one for each hand of the gray-haired puppet in martial arts gear standaing there.

Her lips twisted into a forced-looking smile. "If it isn't, Dawn. I missed you, yesterday."

"Shut up." Dawn threw the sword at her and then ran just out of range of another flurry of hits from the monster's arms. The puppet dodged the sword easily, but then several of those blows hit her, knocking her away. Then Petra caught up.

"I see we have a special surprise guest." The puppet's weapons moved from the pavement back into her hands and then seemed to pull her back up to her feet themselves. "Any good ideas?"
"I'll take care a' her." Dawn took a step forward, making a new pair of swords. "Don't get eaten or killed."
"Sure, sure!" Petra interrupted the monster's approach, tentacles still flailing at them, with another tilt of the ground under it, toppling it over onto its side again before running up to attack.

This left her with the puppet. Dawn ran to her aggressively, slashing at her a few times, forcing her back with each move. "What's got you, so upset?"

"Don't talk ta me!" she stabbed (missed), knocked aside a strike, stuck a sword in the ground and pivoted on it to give a cold kick to the puppet's stomach, making her stumble back. Dawn landed on her feet and readied another slash with the remaining sword. "Murderer."
She ducked under it, and tossed one of the metal rods into the air. "Ha ha. What does, that, make you?" Then she struck forward with the other one, and Dawn moved aside, quickly making a shield above her head to block the first weapon coming back down at her head from an angle. The shield barely held, cracking and falling apart just after the impact, and the move left her in an awkward stance, forcing her to take several steps around to regain her balance.

"Incomiiiing!" Dawn picked up Petra's warning just in time to react, jumping as high into the air as she could and landing on top of the charging monster. The puppet followed suit and started swinging at her, so she backflipped off again, the momentum tumbling her across the ground for a few feet before she could get her footing back. A wall raised between them and the tentacled thing just before it started swinging its arms around again.
"You don't know nothin' 'bout me." Dawn threw a flurry of ice spikes at her, and she let go of one of the rods, making it spin around in front of her and knock them aside.

"Oh?" Another forced, twisted grin. "I know, what you did. Who, you killed."

"She was already dyin', stupid!" This wasn't working; she went for a longsword, charging forward and trying to hit the spinning tonfa away. It flew aside and then swung back, the puppet striking out at her at the same time.
"How does, that differ, from the other, fallen, ones?" She blocked the puppet's attack, ducked under the flying weapon.

There was a roar coming from the direction of that wall. "I think ya missed the part when I told you ta shut up!" Dawn swept at her opponent's legs, tripping her onto her back again.

The monster charged through the hastily-raised wall, aimed right at Dawn. She dove aside, which put the monster between her and the puppet. It put on the brakes and started whipping its limbs around again, and this time she charged into it, blocking and slashing until she reached the middle and threw a few spikes into its eye. Petra followed this up with a much larger spike of concrete and stone, which hit it hard enough to knock it over onto its back again. It roared in pain again while the puppet's weapons came at Dawn through the air to her left and right; she leapt forward and they followed, she ducked and they went past her head. "Mngh!" Then a kick hit her square in the back, knocking her into another forward roll.

Dawn stuck her hands on the ground and sprang into a forward flip, twisting in midair to turn around and face the puppet by the time she landed. "Ha ha. You can't, even defend, your actions. But I, can." The puppet held her hands out; they were still empty. Dawn's ears picked up the sound of the tonfas coming and she ducked again, striking a hand up to grab one and hit the other away with it. It felt like it was trying to pull itself out, like a struggling animal in her hand, but her grip was firm.

She growled, advancing on the puppet again. Her free hand formed another shield, blocking another strike from the weapon still in the air.

"You took, her power, so it wouldn't, be, wasted." The other tonfa finally returned to her hand. "Isn't that, why?"

"I made a promise." Dawn drew on Cynthia's power, making a fire from her right hand hot enough to make the metal in it faintly glow. She turned what was left of the shield into a club, swung it at the puppet to force a block, and then slammed her in the face with the burning rod. Its hair caught fire while it stumbled back, and the clothes followed.
"Ha ha. I meant, isn't that, why, she wanted that, promise?" The tonfa rattled, and finally pulled out of Dawn's hand and back into hers. "You're, worse, than you think, I am, if you've, never, even, thought, about it."

The puppet laughed as it started to fall apart into ash. "Shut up! SHUT UP!" Dawn tried to yell over it. The fire grew larger and hotter even as its fuel dissappeared. "RrrrrRRRAAAAAAAAAHH!" She pulled the fire off of the pile of dust and toward herself; it swirled around her as if in response to her frustration and rage. The mist monster returned its attention to her, striking with its tentacles, but the fire burned them away before they could reach her. She turned, feeling steam coming off of her eyes, and pointed the fire at its body, sending a spiraling stream of heat and combustion right at it. The creature roared one more time as it was destroyed, and then the fire finally dissipated.

Dawn knelt over, gasping for air. She felt sore, exhausted, and badly overheated. Petra approached her cautiously. "Hey...are you..?"
"J..just go away." There were more small crystals of ice falling from her eyes and breaking on the ground.
"Well I don't think that's a good idea." Petra crossed her arms. "I should at least get you somewhere safe to rest first, eh?"

Dawn didn't say anything; she was too out of breath and too angry to form words.
"Okaay..." Petra moved a little closer and sat down next to her. "I'll stay with you until you can move, then."

The silence lasted a minute or so, maybe. Long enough for Dawn to mostly catch her breath, but the idea of moving from this spot was still an unpleasant one.

"So, she's really trying the whole 'not so different' speech on you?"

She turned her head up to glare. "Whadda you know?"
"I know that talk is cheap." That was not something Dawn ever expected to hear out of Simon's mouth. Or...Petra's, same difference.

"...Even when it's right?"

"I dunno about that. I mean, however horrible the stuff you did before turns out to be, it's what you're doing now that matters most—after all, it's the only thing anyone ever has some control over. So think about it: You're running around trying to fight off the monsters and protect people, and what's she doing? Still trying to kill people, or at least get them killed."

Dawn didn't answer; she still didn't really feel any better about it. "Look, emergency responders are coming up already. If you don't wanna have a whole lot more people wanting to talk to you we've got to get out of here now. I'll carry you if you need me to."
She sighed, and pushed herself up to her feet. "...Naw." Looking around, the car was in...that direction. Dawn started going that way, taking a slow, listless walk like dragging her own self along the entire way.

Petra hopped up and put an arm around her, a gently supportive motion. "Look. So far you had a part in saving my life, and Karis's, and a lot of other people's too. By my estimation, you coulda killed one of the best human beings on the planet and you'd still be in the black on karmic balance by now."
That was obviously supposed to be encouraging, but it just stung worse. Dawn couldn't care much less about karmic whatever, and her mind just fixated on "killed the best human", which...certainly felt closer to the truth. "Just...stop talkin', please."

"Okay, okay."

To her surprise, Petra did turn out to be capable of shutting up for a while when asked. The entire drive back to base was in silence, except for the radio Simon turned on to keep it from being too awkward. The puppet's words were still echoing in her head, even with the arguments against them Petra had given, but it was easier to bear without the extra noise.

---

Rowan closed her eyes, listening carefully and "feeling" the water around her. She was staking out Nico's house, where her husband currently was, on a small hunch. In fact she was hunched over on the roof, hoping to take advantage of the natural tendency humans had to look down and forward and never up. It was practically a gamble, with the number of available targets, but it didn't take all that long for it to pay off. There was something with no water in it pushing its way through the vapor in the air over the back fence.

Remembering Light's words about announcing one's advantage, Rowan silently drew her sword and leapt down, slashing at the puppet. She would've just shot it, but felt certain she couldn't aim that well with a handgun from the rooftop at a moving target, besides the fact that that would take time and this she could do confidently and quickly. The slash connected, but only briefly before the target was gone from her range and a few steps to the side. The puppet hadn't moved, she had simply been in one place one moment, and the next right afterward. Not unlike an ability Light had recently displayed, but this seemed to be a much more immediate part of this one's powerset.

"Heh." The puppet held out its hands, and a pair of butterfly knives appeared in them. The right arm had a deep gash in it from Rowan's attack. She began to strike, but Rowan sensed a feint and moved diagonally forward-left toward the puppet; when she disappeared and reappeared behind Rowan, she hit only air. A thick arm of water shot up from the grass and around the puppet while Rowan whirled around, sword ready.

The puppet struggled (her arms were bound against her body, of course) but gave a forced grin. "I've been, looking, all over, for you, and here you are." Rowan remained tense, aware she could probably just disappear out of the grasp. Even before gaining power over shadows in Japan, the puppeteer had to have some way of quickly escaping after a kill. Some power capable of moving quickly, or flying, and preferably of bringing a passenger along; this seemed to fit the bill after making an extra assumption or two. Something like that would also be convenient for kidnapping; that was more or less the extent of the hunch.

"We have nothing to discuss." Rowan readied her blade for a stab dead to the puppet's chest. "Unless you wish to hear the Initiative's ultimatum again. I assume you get television or at least radio wherever you are hiding."

Predictably, the stab went through air, meaning it was wise to not commit too much energy to it; the puppet appeared on the ground to her right, and Rowan turned the move into one designed to block any slashes from that direction. None came just yet, and they ended up facing each other again. "You, know, where it is, don't you?"
"I do not."
"I would, leave everyone alone, if you told me." Not bothering with a feint this time, she just moved to a few inches behind Rowan—and was immediately struck by a thick tendril of water, knocking her over onto her side. The water broke apart from the impact and formed into a collection of sharp blades, spinning briefly in the air as they formed before half struck out toward the prone body. She reappeared on her feet to one side of the attack, and then parried the other half of the blades with her own weapons.

"And then what?" Rowan made a show of readying her sword again. "Find more people to murder? Wait around for a new 'crop'?"

"Come, now. I'm not, so,—" WHUMP. The puppet caught another arm of water square in the side and went spinning through the air briefly before catching herself on the ground and flipping back onto her feet. "..greedy. What you, have now, would be enough. I'd go, away, find, somewhere, in the middle, east, maybe. Make things, stable there." Her head tilted ever so slightly. "We, could be, allies. You're, pragmatic, aren't you?"

Rowan relaxed her stance slightly, creating a false opening, and continued to watch her opponent carefully. "You speak to me as if I have some say in the matter. I do not have the information you seek, and I do not have the authority to forge alliances."

"Do you, really expect, me, to believe that?" She pointed with one of her weapons. "Who is, in charge, if not, you?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "That information is confidential."

Finally, the move was made. Rowan ducked under a slash from just behind her, turned ninety degrees, struck the other blade with her own and knocked it out of the puppet's hand. Turning the rest of the way came with a hard kick to the puppet's side, knocking her over again. "No one is impossible to find with our resources," she echoed, starting in the middle of the statement that had been made on the radio and for the news. It reappeared next to her and was grabbed, lifted slightly into the air by another tentacle of water. She turned calmly to face the puppet, and continued: "If you do not give yourself up soon, you will be located and destroyed. Either way, you will be made to answer for your crimes."

Her grip on her sword was loose, and there were three or four more sentences to the ultimatum. So the puppet didn't anticipate the sudden motion of her hand to the gun, back up again, three shots, back into the holster. The damage done to her by three bullets to the chest was too much for the puppeteer to hold the body together for another laugh or more talk; it just collapsed into dust immediately. Nothing about this situation was good, but Rowan couldn't help feeling a small sense of satisfaction from shutting her up.

---

Light and Plus showed up back where Emma had left Amory, at one of the benches along the sidewalk between a couple of buildings. It was close enough to the quad that everyone evacuating the area for a monster attack to still be gone, and there weren't any cameras around, at least that they could tell. He waved as they came up. "Hey. Everyone okay?"
"Yeah. Seems like the big plan today was to talk to and/or attack me," said Light. "She sent puppets to stall Rory and Clark, probably would've sent another after her if she knew where to send it," she said, indicating Gemma. "Would you mind calling Rowan for me? And don't let me leave without getting the 'secret' version of that app on my phone."
"Alright."

Amory got to the communication part of the phone and tapped Rowan's name, then the "call" button. After ringing for what seemed like a little longer than a normal phone call would, there was an answer. "..Rowan speaking. Is everyone alright over there?"

"Yeah. We had.." he gave a questioning look, and Light made the number 4 appear in the air. "..four puppets over here. Uh, Light's here, I think she has more details."
"There are six accounted for here. As far as we know, that's all of them for today," he said. "It's probably not a good idea to assume that's really it, though. We're keeping our guard up here."
"Right." He tried to offer Light the phone; she took it but kept her hand out, pushing the speakerphone button. Amory waved incoherently and she pointed at Plus with her other hand. Emma just looked confused for a second until Light tapped one of her own ears with the palm of her hand.

"...Oh! Okay," she whispered, nodding. She held up her hands in a sort of shielding gesture, presumably keeping the sound of the phone from going too far.
"Hey, this is Light. One of Gemma's here with us. Sooo...she tried to 'negotiate' with me today, though the puppet."

"We had the same kind of thing around here. I guess yesterday was intimidation to try and make it more convincing."

"If anything, it just made everyone mad."

"Right."

Light went over a brief summary of the fight, with Plus filling in a few details on the puppet that had attacked Clark.

"...I can't say no harm was done today, but everyone came back alive and conscious, and still determined to keep fighting our puppeteer. I think it was more of a waste than she expected," said Rowan. "The Initiative is making fast progress on identifying her."
"Really? I thought that'd be pretty difficult," said Light.
"The knowledge that she has to personally be there to kill her targets helps narrow things down quite a bit. Think about it: The victims are from all over the world. Someone has to have the means to travel, and for the most part they have to get through customs over and over again. So it's just a matter of seeing who was in all of the right places at all of the right times. Even if she eventually gives up and gets away from us, I can just about guarantee she won't find passage at any airport in America by then."

"Yeah, that makes sense," said Amory. "I mean, assuming that theory is right. But, yeah, I still can't think of any other reason she'd go for feeding people to monsters instead of killing them directly with the puppets."

"...Light, she spoke to me again last night."

It took Amory a moment to work out who Rowan was talking about, but Light seemed to understand immediately. "What did she have to say about all this?"

"She told me about the person who I got my powers from. And then said something about wanting to make sure I wouldn't hesitate to kill the puppeteer if I needed to. Because it 'wouldn't be fair' otherwise. She also implied that these powers are 'mine' now, not because I have the full use of them but because of some kind of mental compatibility with how being in that form makes me talk and act."

"She told me that...what was it...'your powers are closely tied to your you'. I guess this is the same idea. Either she feels like that's how it should be, or having that 'compatibility' is really necessary to use our powers effectively," Light guessed.

"You think she's playing both sides against the middle?" said Emma.

"I'm more inclined to believe she's just playing around," said Amory. "Mixing things up to make them more 'interesting'...which is always more trouble for us."

"Still, you're right. We can't discount the possibility she's helping the puppeteer one way or another," said Rowan.

"Hey, did she uh..try to pet you?" said Amory.

"...Yes. With minor success. Why?"
"Um," he wasn't sure how to explain this with Emma right there.
"She did the same thing with me, too," said Light. "We haven't noticed any ill effects, so it's probably best to just accept it'll happen. Our benefactor is just..weird like that." And possibly rubbing off on Light a little bit, Amory thought. Implying it was harmless was as close as she could get to telling him it was probably helpful without either lying or letting his secret out, and he couldn't help but feel a small satisfaction at the cleverness of it.

"Alright. Well, I think that's everything," said Rowan. "I need to..get back to someone soon."
"Sure. I'll call you back if there's anything else."
"Just make sure to get enough rest. I suspect the puppeteer will be a lot more violent and less talkative tomorrow."

---

While I was silent for quite a while, I wasn't entirely inactive. I've been chipping slowly away at parts for multiple stories, including this one; I just keep getting stuck at a certain part and needing to pull myself along through to the next one. In this case, I was having some real difficulty figuring out what power the puppet Rowan was about to fight should have exactly. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to push past the block on the other stories as well, soon.