Battle Vixens! - 116

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Episode 116: Out of the Bag

It was sort of strange, Marcus thought once he was back to human form. 'Magus' had been running around, fighting, exerting whatever physical energy was apparently required to do magic, and had been hurt pretty bad once or twice too, even if she'd been magically healed of those particular injuries. It made sense for her to be exhausted, and sore, and to just overall feel like garbage. But 'Marcus', on the other hand, was just tired and feeling like garbage, without any of the physical cues that would normally accompany that. The injuries stayed behind with the fox-girl and her hats, but the exhaustion held onto him no matter what form he was in.

He sort of slowly shambled through the apartment complex, got his keys out and clumsily fumbled around to get the right one into the door to his apartment, then shuffled inside with as much of a hurry as he could manage to get to something he could sleep on. By this point, even his bedroom just seemed like it was too far away, and he just flopped over onto the couch, as uncomfortable of a place to sleep as it usually was. Fortunately, Thad had classes and practice for a good bit of the day, so there'd been no risk of running into him. Marcus could just...get up and make his way to the bedroom after a short nap.

The next thing he knew, someone's hands were shoving him in the side fairly hard. He groaned quietly, only barely conscious from even that. "Wake up!" Thad's voice growled angrily as he shoved him again, and this time Marcus groaned a little louder before half-sitting up, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeesh, finally! I thought you were in a coma, man!"

"Uugh..sorry. I've had..um, kinda rough day."
"Really?" Thad didn't sound happy, and now that Marcus's vision was clear enough he could see him glaring down at him with his arms crossed. "Doin' what, huh?"

"Well uh.." He had been thinking about how to explain his general state of exhaustion before, and now out came the one halfway-decent idea he'd had for that. "I-I didn't really wanna tell you, you know uh, until there were some..like actual results, but I've been trying to..exercise more, lately."

"Uh-huh." It didn't look like his roommate was buying that. Shoot, he thought he'd sounded pretty convincing there. "You been skipping classes, man? No one has seen you since this morning! They were askin' me where you were! I was getting ready to call your family, or the police!"

"O-oh uh..you didn't—"

"Of course I tried callin' you first! No answer! Look at your phone," he pointed emphatically, and then waited patiently for Marcus to retrieve his phone and find messages and missed calls asking where he was..not all of which were even from Thad.

He looked up again after that. "Uh..sorry. I guess I was really asleep."

"Yeah." Thad sat down on a nearby chair, not looking quite as angry as before, but he still wasn't happy. "So what is goin' on with you, bro? You been acting weird for days, and now this junk, too."

"Uh—"

"Don't even tell me it's just you 'exercising', man. I know what that's like."

"Well—"

"Pssh, nevermind." He shook his head. "I don't wanna dance around this, so I'll just tell you what I think.

"You been fighting monsters, haven'tcha?"

Marcus's voice completely caught in his throat. He had to be making the worst possible expression for a moment like this, the kind of shock that can only come from someone speaking what's supposed to be a secret they don't know aloud.

Thad didn't look happy to have figured it out; he pulled at his hair and said, "Aaagh, geez, I was hopin' I was wrong. So, what, you're 'Magus', right?"

"I..."
"Oh, stoppit, like I'm gonna tell anyone. I'm better at keeping secrets than you are. I mean, I don't really even care that you didn't want me to know, you know, but if you're acting all weird, and getting exhausted all the time, I can't help but at least try to figure out what's wrong, huh? No wonder I got the feeling you were into something dangerous!"

Marcus couldn't think of a reply to all of that other than, after a moment, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, look, I'm sorry for blowin' your secret or whatevs. But like—I couldn't not bring it up once I thought I knew, right? And I'm not telling anyone, 'kay? Don't even mind coverin' for ya if someone asks, like, if I gotta tell them you're sick or whatever."

Marcus leaned forward, burying his head in his hands for a moment. He was still a little too tired, and a little too soon after a rude awakening, to come up with any of the right things to say. Thad didn't seem to think this was a big deal, but from his perspective, this was a disaster. Out of everyone he knew who could've figured out he was playing superhero, even with the condition that they also promised—and kept the promise—to keep his secret, he was hard-pressed to think of anyone worse.

His roommate at least sensed that he was still very upset about this situation. "What's wrong, huh? You still feeling like garbage?"

He turned his head up just enough to look at him, with his hands now supporting it by the cheeks. "Yes. And. Like, dude, do you have any idea how awkward this is for me?"

"Awkward like how?"

"Like—'oooh, Magus is such a total cutie'!" he said in an high-pitched mock-voice.

"C'mon, man, that's not fair—I had no idea that was you."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about!" he said, spreading out his arms. I know how you—like girls, and now you know I can turn into one. That like, looks, how you like? Do you know how weird that is?!"

"I guess not. But it's not like I'm gonna hit on you, 'cause I know you! I mean, unless you acted like you wanted me to, which is pretty obviously not how it is, huh?"

"Just...I...ugh."

They sat in an awkward silence for a minute or so, before Thad crossed arms. "Well, maybe we oughta just make it fair then."
"Make—what?" Marcus said, very confused.

"You can pretty much make up whatever spell you wanna, right? An' it just works?"
"Not..really. I mean—I can't really, explain it, but..it has to like...make sense. As a spell, and. What do you even mean?"

"What I mean is, if you don't like that you can be a girl I'd find hot—you know, as a total stranger or whatever—then do that to me and see how I like it. You know, come up with like a transformation spell or somethin', make me catgirl or whatever. Like—temporarily, I mean," he added quickly afterward.

"Uhhh..you want me to try to turn you into a catgirl."
"Sure, why not?" he put out his hands. "For like, half an hour or whatever. If it'll make you feel better."

Marcus had already had the idea before, for a spell to change someone's appearance. He knew that magic could do it, both in the sense that the Giver had turned numerous people across the world into fox-girls, and also...the thing with Emma. Could he make a spell that would do that? Probably. But he couldn't very well cast a spell, as Magus, that would hit him, as Marcus. It would require another person to volunteer to be a target. That was where the idea had stopped before—enough inspiration that he could maybe cook up a spell from it, but without actually coming up with one because there was no point.

And somehow Thad had the same idea—or at least a somewhat similar one. He was volunteering to have Marcus try it out on him...in a very specific way. With this opportunity before him, the rest of the idea for the spell spilled into his brain before he could really stop it. The right words, and some of the right motions—enough that he felt sure he could 'feel out' the rest of it as he went. Of course Magus could manage a 'temporary transformation' spell..although, for some reason, it felt like a willing target would be much easier to use it on than an unwilling one.

Thad's idea was crazy, and stupid. Him turning into a catgirl for thirty minutes didn't compare to Marcus having an entire second identity—a publicly known one at that—which he knew Thad had thought of...romatically, to put it gently...before realizing it was him. But then, he'd come up with it out of a desire to make things less weird between them—despite the idea being so extremely weird itself. At least, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try.

He sighed. There was something about knowing magic, and thinking up spells, and wanting to try them out—he couldn't help himself sometimes. That was the real reason he'd screwed up and tried to teleport instead of just blocking that morning. That was why he'd decided to summon a lava elemental thing and almost hurt someone with it that afternoon. But, even realizing that, he couldn't help himself.

"...Alright, I guess we'll try that."

Marcus took out one of his hats and put it on, standing up at the same time as he changed into a short, cute, blue-haired fox-girl. She didn't feel quite as sore as expected, but wasn't exactly in peak condition either. The spell she had in mind felt particularly..short-range, and walking over to the chair Thad was sitting in felt like more effort than her body wanted to go to. "Uh...stand like..here somewhere," she gestured in front of her, and he shrugged, getting up and coming up in front of her, still enough steps away to be out of her personal space.

A part of what made all of this feel weird, of course, was that when she was Magus, she was a girl. She felt like one from the inside out. Thad was taller than her original form too, but it was strange seeing him tower this high above her. And it didn't help that a small part of her physical reaction to his close proximity and admittedly..overall attractive appearance was a slight elevation in heartrate and a slight warmth in her cheeks. She cursed her body, telling it to shut up—she needed to concentrate—and she drew out her sword, quickly putting together the last of what was needed for this attempt at a spell. Then it was a deep breath, and...

"Exchange your true shape for another..."

The motions for this spell were complex enough to take up more time than the first part of her incantation, and not needing to talk for the latter third or so of them helped her concentrate better on doing them right anyway. There was also an additional component required for this spell that split her focus yet again—she, of course, needed to specify what form her target would take. For this, she pictured a curvy girl with the ears and tail of a cat—a catgirl Marcus would find pretty hot if she were a stranger, and not her roommate.

"...Polymorph!"

Despite all of these complications, she got it all out, and ended with her sword pointed straight forward so that its tip was a half-foot or so away from Thad's center mass.

The bright blue sparks that seemed to be characteristic of her magic gathered where her hand held the sword's hilt, converging into something more closely resembling a sky-blue flame before flowing up along the blade and finally spilling out from its tip, spreading outward to encompass his entire body. Even with the bright blaze completely surrounding him, Magus could somehow make out his silhouette in it as though he were being brightly lit from only behind. In the silhouette, she could see his shape rapidly changing: His height plummeted a head or more downward, his hair fluffing out to voluminous, wild, shoulder-length locks, his frame narrowed and softened into a feminine shape. All the while, she heard his voice go "Whooo~ooo~oo~oaa~aah...!" starting out as his own but rapidly changing to a high, feminine, mid-alto tone. Then there was a soft "Aa~ah!" as the last of the flame flowed across Magus's sword and she saw the silhouette gaining visible curves: Wide hips, an impressive bust. And then one more, rather high and cute, "Wah~!" as two pointy triangles spiked up from the corners of Thad's head and a long, slim tail appeared from behind his...well, decidedly her back now.

As the flame dissipated, Magus took in the full appearance of the catgirl her magic had made: shoulder-length, messy blond hair, an adorable face with Thad's bright green eyes shining out from it, curves to die for. She was still taller than Magus, but only enough that her chin was about at the fox-girl's eye level. Her clothes had changed too, becoming a tight, long-sleeved white shirt with a red sweater and a green tie over it, a black skirt now fluttering around as if the flame changing her a moment ago had been a sharp gust of wind, and black tights below that holding close to some soft, shapely legs. "W-wa~ah!" The first thing Magus saw her actually doing was windmilling her arms, her slim tail whipping around confusedly behind her, as she lost her balance and toppled backwards onto her butt.

"Uh..a-are you okay?" Magus felt a little bad for not trying to catch her—her usual reaction time was good enough to have managed that, but her body still didn't really want to move that much. Thad seemed unhurt; she was just looking down to briefly examine herself, the sweater slipping partway off of her from the motion of the fall. Watching her, somehow..the warmth in the fox-girl's cheeks felt stronger than it had before. After a moment, Thad looked up at her with a small grin.

"Pfft..heheh," she chuckled after that—only it was more like a cute, girlish giggle. "You really don't do nothin' halfway, huh?" She took a moment to pull the sweater back over her shoulders, then fussed with the tie briefly before undoing it and tossing it aside. "Gotta admit, this feels pretty weird. Hey, how d'you stay standing up with a tail, anyhow?"
"Uh..you just...I mean, as far as I can tell you just let the tail do its thing..." Magus held down a hand, and Thad accepted her help getting up, shuffling her feet around briefly before letting go. She seemed to be getting the hang of balancing fairly quickly.

"Sooo? What do you think, huh? Am I total hottie or what?" she grinned.

"You uh..I-I guess so. I mean, you don't really look how...I know you like girls looking, but.."
"But I look hot to you, right?"

"I-I mean, if I was a guy, yeah..?"
"Then it totally worked. Woo~!" she pumped a fist high in the air and jumped with enough energy to make her...assets visibly bounce up and down.

Her landing was not so graceful, and ended with her teetering around briefly. "Wo-whoaa..!" Not wanting her to fall over again, Magus caught her shoulders and helped steady her.

"What'd you do that for?"
"I'unno, it felt fun," she shrugged. "I feel great and I look great. Riight?" She grinned in what was obviously a teasing manner, and Magus realized they were standing rather close at the moment.

The fox-girl took a quick step back, sighing. "I—don't think this worked, dude. This is just even more weird."

"Awwh, don't be like that. How long's this gonna last, anyway?"
"I..don't know," Magus said, shrugging. "I mean—I know it's temporary, but..it feels like how long it lasts, uh, varies. Definitely not more than an hour, I think. And, since I made it happen, I could probably just dispel it..."

"Well—don't do that! I wanna enjoy this while it lasts."

Thad tilted her head. "..What? You givin' me the weirdest look, bro."

"You seem uh—much happier about being a catgirl..I mean uh, a girl in general than uh. I'd ever expect?"
"Well—I dunno, it's just somethin' different. Feels kinda nice, in a weird way," she shrugged. "Guess it helps that I know it'll wear off. You mean you don't enjoy being like that at all?" she gestured at the fox-girl.

"I uh..there's certain things I like about this look, yeah. Like—I'm physically fit. I can actually run and jump and not get tired right away. But, uh, I think I could kinda take or leave the whole 'being stuck as a girl' part..."

"What about the cute ears and tail, then?"

"They're uh..there. They don't bother me or anything, and they help with hearing and balance I guess, but..I guess I'm kinda neutral about that, too."

"Do yooouuu..think my ears and tail are cute?" she asked, flicking her ears up and down in the process.
"I..guess?" Marcus didn't really know how to process her roommate even asking a question like this. It didn't help that the bigger girl's cute face looking down at her expectantly like that was making her feel...weird.

"Well, would you mind rubbing my ears just a little bit?"
"Uh—why?"
"'Cause I wanna know what it feels like! And like you said, I won't look like this for long, riiight?"

"Um..f-fine.." Not entirely sure why she'd agreed to this, Magus reached up her hands and carefully brushed her fingers across the bright-colored fluff on top of Thad's ears.

Her response was...purring. An actual, very feline sounding, low rumbling came from the catgirl's throat, and her face reddened slightly with a blush at, perhaps, embarrassment from making such a sound—but, at the same time, she was grinning wide. After a moment, Marcus felt too embarrassed herself to continue, and dropped her hands back. "Aah, brah, that feels great!"
"R-really?"
"Yeah! Lemme show ya!"
"Wait—!"

Before she could get an objection out, the catgirl had reached her small, delicate hands down and placed her fingers near the bases of Magus's ears. That sensation proved about as stimulating as she imagined someone directly tickling her spine might, making her gasp slightly, and it didn't get any less so as Thad's fingers slid all the way down to the tips of the ears before lifting up and starting back at the bases all over again.

After that intake of breath, the fox-girl could initially only manage an embarrassed "M-mnnnngh.." Once she was past the shock of how sensitive all that ear-fur seemed to be, there was something distressingly pleasing about the feeling of someone's fingers gently stroking across them. It certainly didn't...hurt that enjoyment that her view was mostly taken up by the catgirl's cute grin on a blushing face and, below that, her impressive bust outlined under the tight shirt.

After a moment, she mercifully stopped, lifting her hands back off of Marcus's ears and bringing them up to cross under her chest. "Sorry, heheh," she giggled softly. "Guess I got a li'l bit carried away, there. You did look kinda like you were enjoying it, though?"

"D-did you seriously like it that much?" she asked once she had the composure back to speak again.

"Yeah! Ahh, man, I'm starting to feel like I'm gonna kinda miss it now." The small frown she made from thinking this aloud wasn't any less cute than her smile.

"I-I guess if I was able to do that spell once, I'm sure I..can do it again..."

"You wouldn't mind? I mean, it wouldn't be too weird or nothin'?"
Magus felt kind of like she was getting a headache, and pinched the top of her nose. "It's...definitely too weird either way, so..like, whatever." She sighed tiredly, her body seeming to finally remember that it had already been exhausted today, and a transformation spell's stamina cost wasn't exactly cheap.

"I've, gotta sit down, dude..." She stumbled back and sat on the couch again. "Casting spells is..super tiring, even more the bigger the effect."
"Ah! Man, I didn't even think about that!" The catgirl slid herself around next to Magus—right next to her—seemingly without it occurring to her to think about how close she was. "Sorry 'bout that." And she carelessly put her arm up across the fox-girl's shoulders in a hug, too.
"Uhm, i-it's okay, I guess.." Marcus's face was almost burning from this gesture, but she couldn't bring herself to object to it, either. It really felt like Thad somehow hadn't thought anything of the closeness or the hug, and..she couldn't quite help enjoying it a little bit, anyway.
"Hey, I know! I'll order us some grub," she offered. "Y'know—once this stuff wears off and all."
"Uh..s-sure, thanks." Acting on some strange impulse, Magus slid her hand around the catgirl's waist experimentally, aiming to return the side-hug. Thad's reaction was another soft, cute giggle, and turning her head to look down in the fox-girl's face with a slightly-blushing grin.

"Are you suuure you don't wanna feel my ears again?" she offered. "Y'know, limited time offer and all."
"Uh..th-that's okay. Y-you can...touch mine again, if you really want to..." Why was she saying that?!
"Heheh, sweet~."

Thad took her up on the offer right away—before she had any chance to consider rescinding it—and set about not only gently rubbing her ears near the base again, but occasionally running a hand across the part of her hair not covered by her hat. It was hard to describe, but the feeling was somehow..very relaxing. Magus let out a soft "Mmmh" after a moment, feeling drowsy all of a sudden, and then drifted through a strangely pleased haze for a short while before falling asleep again.