Battle Vixens! - 127

First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Episode 127: The Eye

"So, this is Amory—a friend of mine. I guess you could call him a 'civilian expert' or whatever."

"Uh, I dunno if I'd go that far," he said, shrugging.
"Well, nice to meet ya anyway," Braille said, shaking his hand.

"Light—do you know what happened with Gemma?"
"Magus called and said she thought she'd transformed in front of people," Light answered.
"Worse." Amory handed her his phone, which was open to a shaky phone-video-recording of Emma reciting her phrase, jumping over some people, and punching a monster in the face-slash-telling everyone to run away.

"Oh..yeah." She handed the phone back. "Not much we can do about that, huh. Magus said she ran off after the fight and, they couldn't find her."

"She probably just, needs some time to deal with this..." Despite trying to sound optimistic, Amory couldn't seem to keep the worry out of his voice.

"Anyway!" Rory interrupted the dour conversation. "Braille here was hoping to get Gemma's input on how her powers work and all, but with her being 'busy' for the moment, we were hoping you could help us figure it out anyway?"
"Me? Well, what do you know about it?"
Braille repeated her description of how she experienced her powers for Amory. Light added what she'd noticed during the fight: The monster missing attacks it seemed ready to hit, as well as her own movement occasionally feeling slightly off-target.

"Well, your sense of aim when moving light around isn't usually wrong, right? It's practically automatic."
"Yeah. It was a little disroienting."
"In that case—I don't think the way you help people dodge is as passive as you think," he said to Braille. "You probably couldn't as easily anticipate where she was gonna go, compared to watching people or monsters get ready to move."
"I guess not?"
"To sum it up, then: You're generally aware of where things are around you. And I would guess that, when in a fight, you always feel like you 'want' people to make their dodges and land their hits?"
"Well, yeah—why wouldn't I?"

"I think your power has to do with distances," he suggested. "You can sense distances fairly precisely, and you can also distort it to some extent. Basically warping space to make lengths shorter or longer, even if not by very much."

"That makes sense, I guess. What about the uh..wobbliness, though? Why would the distances I feel not match up with what I see?"
"Can you describe that 'wobbliness' in any more detail?" Light asked. "What's it...'look like'—for lack of a better way to put that?"
"Well, uh...hmm."

Braille took a moment to cross her arms and really, visibly think about it. "It's a little like...the ocean? Back when I first got my powers, and Lucy was showing me some pics and videos, I said, 'what's the ocean look like'? So she pulled up a video of like, the deep ocean, not anywhere near a beach, from above. It shimmered and wobbled up and down, you know? It's..kinda like that, but in all directions instead of just up and down."

Light tilted her head slightly. "...You can't be serious."
"Huh?"

"I think..you must sensing gravitational waves. They warp space—distances—that's how gravity actually works. But the strongest ones do it by amounts so tiny that we need equipment on the scale of several miles long just to register them. And your power is apparently that sensitive. No wonder you get disoriented when comparing it with what you can see using just baseline human vision."

"Oh. Hah, I guess I'm pretty cool, then?" she said, grinning.
"Yeah. I think some theoretical physicists might want your number. Or—experimental?"
"Both, really," Amory said. He paused as his phone buzzed, then glanced at it.

"Huh...oh." It didn't sound like especially good news.
"What is it?" Rory said.
"Well—the vixens in the city had kind of a hard time," he said, putting the phone away. "Cynthia got eaten, but they killed the monster that did it and she's not hurt, at least."
"Ooh. So I guess the VI will be needing to use their usual way of waking her up, then?" she said.
"I guess they will. Uh, for some good news, apparently the Giver told everyone that we're getting a break the rest of this afternoon. The third attack she predicated today won't happen for at least five more hours. Buuuut it is supposed to be 'even worse' than the first two."
"Plenty of time to wake her up, then. I would assume," Dr. Quinn said—the last part added after a brief pause.

"Look...how'd you get here, anyway?" Light asked Braille, not wanting this halfhearted attempt at hiding Amory's powers from her to go on any longer.
"Friend drove me."
"Maybe you should go back. There's no good reason for you to stay here five more hours. We don't actually have...a base, or anything, unless you count the Quinns' house, and if things are gonna be that bad, then your team might need you."
"Maybe? I could stand to check in, at least." She went for the nearest chair, then sat down, undid the blindfold, and pulled a phone from her pocket.

"Are you sure you want to send her away?" Amory asked quietly. "Knowing how much harder things are gonna be already without Ning, plus Gemma might not exactly be in the mood to fight."
"After five hours?" Rory said, earning her a slight glare from him.

"She's helped enough," Light said. "And she was hoping to talk to Gemma, and can't right now. I already explained how they could meet later though—using the dreams? So, I can't keep someone here if they're needed somewhere else."

Braille went straight to talking on the phone; the voice on the other side sounded like Lift's. She sounded less chipper than in her conversation with Light that morning, and even a little tired. After some back-and-forth, the sentence that Light particularly picked up on was: "You think they'll be mad if I have to recall you before the day's done?"

Light gestured slightly at the vixen on the phone at this point; Rory nodded, but Amory pointed emphatically at his not fox ears. Then he sighed. "No, I guess you can't, huh."

---

Amory drove Blake back to the apartment complex, then went to leave Rory by the campus before heading out to the city. Blake walked through the hallways to their apartment feeling kind of sore and listless. At least his human form wasn't so completely soaked—and didn't have nearly as much hair to soak. It'd be nice to just sit on the couch and do nothing, he thought, or maybe just go take a nap. He tried to turn the key in the lock, but then realized that it didn't seem to want to go that way, because the door was already unlocked.

He took a silent, slow, deep breath in and out, trying not to fixate on the worst-case scenario. Perhaps Amory had simply forgotten to lock it. Still, he tried to open the door as quietly as possible, and mentally prepared to speak the phrase to go back to being Light if there was someone in there.

Well...there was someone in there, but at least it was someone he knew. She was sitting on the floor of the living room right in front of the wall opposite the front door, and turned around when it opened. She'd been staring at that wall in the dark, apparently.

"Um...hi." It was Emma, currently in combined-fox-form.

"What are you doing here?" Blake asked, coming inside and gently pushing the door shut behind him.
"Um..I d-didn't wanna go to my own..people know I live there," she said, the second sentence sort of a squeak. Even with relatively little light coming in from the overcast sky outside, he could see she'd been crying. "Sorry. I-is Amory...?"
"He went to the city, to wake someone up." Blake locked the door, then came farther inside, noting a phone face-down on the floor near the wall on the door's side of the room. "How'd you, get in here, anyway?"

"W-well uh, you know how I can make my weapons into lots of different shapes? That, also includes lockpicks..."
"Aaaand, you know how to pick a lock?" He went over to the couch and sat down.

"Beryl taught me how to do it with some hairpins," she said, staring at the wall again. "After about the um, fifth time I forgot my keys. She was like, 'I won't always conveniently be here to let you in, you know'? And then, the sixth time, she was there, but pretended she wasn't to test me...she was always doing stuff like that."

"Pulling pranks?"
"Sorta. When I finally managed to do it, she picked me up in a big hug, said she was proud of me, and made me a big supper. She was...always doing things like that, too."

"I know you technically broke and entered, but you can take a chair if you want," Blake offered.
"Uh, n-no thanks...I'm...I like it here," she insisted.

"Alright then..."

"So, your phone's over there..." Blake said, pointing behind him—not that she was looking. She knew where it was.
"Uh, my family...was calling. I, turned it off, and threw it, at the wall...hope I didn't break it."

"What's your family like?"
"Um...big. My..when my dad proposed, he apparently said 'let's have seven kids!', and meant it."

"And she married him anyway?"

"Mmh. They both wanted a lot of kids. So...I'm number seven."

"What's it like having that many people in your house?"

"Well...I kinda like it, I guess. There's, enough of a crowd that I never really have to worry about standing out too much. The oldest, April, was starting college by the time I got out of elementary school. She's, kinda more like a cool aunt than a sister, really. She's always extra nice to me, I think 'cause she's worried some of the 'middle' siblings might be bullying me or leaving me out, I guess..."

"You know, —"
"I know!" she said a little loudly, cutting him off. "Sorry...I..." She sniffed. "...I know. I just, can't, right now."

"That's fine. We have some time, actually—five hours off."

"'Off'?"
"Before anything else shows up. That's what she told everyone, at least."

"Oh."

"I don't really...know what to think about her anymore," Emma said. "When I..realized...I thought back on all of the little tricks she'd played, and thought she'd just been making fun of me the whole time. It made me angry enough to scream, and pick her up, and wish I could cut her throat. But then she started crying and said she really thought of me as a friend, and, I remembered all the nice things she did, too. There was...never...any time she jerked me around for, just no reason. It was always to teach me something, or help me out. If she pushed me, it was always..to be a better person. It's, still easiest for me, to think of her like she's two different people. But even then, the things she says sometimes sound to me more like 'Beryl'...

"...I wonder what she'd do with me right now."

"Probably laugh at you for being so upset and tell you to 'just get over it'," Blake said, sighing. "It's not like she has any idea what it's really like."
"Maybe..." Emma sounded unconvinced.

"Well." He stood up carefully, "I'm going to go to my room and take a nap. Wake me up if I'm still asleep after...three hours, I guess. There's a clock above the TV."

"...Okay."

---

"...No answer. Drat." Simon plopped his phone onto the table.
Karis arrived with a tray of desserts, sitting down across from him. "Who're you trying to call, dear?" Most of the team had come to VI headquarters for some debriefing, and then the cafeteria.
"Well, it seems like Gemma had a teensy little, 'secret identity malfunction'? I thought she might could use some encouragment? Maybe a little sage advice about being properly famous."

"You try leaving a message? She might be getting quite a few calls right now."
"But she should still answer me first," he said. "After all, I'm the one who can tell her how to respond to everyone else!"

"And yet the world still refuses to revolve around you," she said wryly.

About half a table away, Tora came up to sit across from Dawn—who was presently busy staring down into some untouched food. "Hey—it's dinner, not a TV. Eat up!"

"I'm...not feelin' so hungry," she said.

"When's the last time you ate?"

"Breakfast, I guess."

"Then you, are, hungry," Tora declared. "Your metabolic processes demand fuel! Especially after a workout like we just went through."

"Cynth can't eat right now..."
"Is that what you're worried about? I heard the boss say she'd be up within a couple hours."

"She did say that. Wonder what she's gonna say to me, once she's up."

"'Great job, thanks for saving me'?"

"Nah...more like, 'you idiot, you total moron, why didn't you just move outta the way?'" Dawn sighed. "I dunno...I dunno why. I saw that thing comin' for Rowan, an' I just...lost it, again. Like with the, the bat thing. Every time I go tryin' to protect someone, I do somethin' stupid and..someone gets hurt instead."

"Well, it's not like you didn't protect her, right? Anyway, outta everyone present who could've gotten eaten—well, all that rain must've made it pretty hard for that thing to use fire powers, right?"
"You think it's good it got her!?" Dawn demanded, finally picking up her head to direct a brief flash of rage Tora's way.
"No, no—don't get me wrong," she said, spreading her arms out apologetically. "It's always better nobody gets eaten. But if she's smart, she might've realized, 'better me than her'. And so, knocked you outta the way."

"...She is smart. Smarter'n me by a long shot," Dawn said.

"Smart enough to eat when she's hungry?"

"Guess so."
"C'mooon..." Tora gestured at Dawn's tray. She sighed, and picked up a fork to at least pretend to try to eat.

"Hey, whad'you do in America, when someone's clearly too mad to serve?"

Sam lifted her head to give Warp a long, blank-faced look, then deliberately ate a forkful of food before responding. "Honorable discharge."

"You think the VI can get something like that, maybe?"

"Well." She took a sip of drink before actually answering. "They're not a military organization. Volunteers can always un-volunteer."

"And if they're too stubborn to do that?"
"I s'pose someone would have to convince them. It'd be a little hard to force one of us 'empowered' to stand down for good."

"Guess it would, ey?"

"...There, message recorded." Simon put his phone down again. "Now let me at that cake!"
"Sure, sure," Karis chuckled, pushing the tray across to him. "You're too much, you know that?"
"Mmngh." He grunted through a bite, then swallowed and said: "I'll make every endeavor, in the future, to be precisely enough, then!" He brandished his fork in the air dramatically as he said this, then stabbed it back into the cake.

"Pfft." Karis dug into her own food again.

Rowan came carrying a tray of food, seeming to want to sit with them, so she gave an inviting gesture toward the spot next to her.

"Excuse me. Are you two only having dessert?"
"Why not? Everything else here is—"

"We ate lunch already," Karis said, cutting her husband off.
"Yes, that! So, did you get a reply?"
"...She'll be here as soon as possible," he said, nodding.

"I assume you know what happened to Gemma?"
"Absolutely," Simon said. "One who is the news must always be aware of the news."
"I..spoke to someone about her probable mental state. She may be unable to fight for the rest of the day."

"No way. Gemma's a tough girl," he said. "She'll be over it in a couple of hours!"

"Still. They don't have Ning; there hasn't been much sunlight for Light to work with, and the last attack may even come past sunset. Besides the fact that it's supposed to be even worse than the other two."

"I heard Braille showed up to help out, though."
"Their town needs her back. One of their members is down for today, too."

"I believe I might know what you're getting at, boss. You want to go help them," he said, sweeping his hand dramatically toward Rowan.
He sighed. "I would like to. They need..someone. But I don't know for sure whether I can take the risk."

"People always say 'it's great to be needed'," Karis observed, "but there is such a thing as being too needed, huh?"

Rowan nodded. "So when we learn...what we're all up against. I may leave you in charge here," he said. "Don't screw it up."

"What, me?" Simon asked, gesturing to himself. "It's against my personality type to underachieve!"

"Glad I can count on you, then."

---

I knew these "weather-themed" episode titles would include "the eye" at some point, but I didn't predict until I was writing this the fact that the word "eye" can be thought of as referring to a few different things actually happening here, too. Anyway, anonymous (post here) got Braille's power in one.