The "Best" RPG Ever-47

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As soon as he came back out, Zack stopped to check with the wolf. "You don't want a bath, right? I'm not sure they'd let you in, anyway.." The wolf looked confused. "A bath? Getting in a bunch of water to clean—yeah, I didn't think so. Looks like everyone's gonna be...doing that. So I guess you could wait outside, or maybe come in and sit next to us if you want, but...that'll be pretty close to the water." It didn't look pleased with that idea, either. "Well, are you hungry again? Want to go off and hunt? We're not doing anything dangerous for a while, I think." It made a slight growl, a negative gesture. He couldn't tell if it meant it wasn't hungry or had some other reason, but the rejection of the idea in general was clear. "Okay, well..you like the Captain? You could just stick with her a little longer. I'd come back after you even if everyone else managed to forget...not that they would." Finally, it barked an affirmative to that. "Fine, then. Just, um, don't get in her way. I'm pretty sure she's stronger than I am." The wolf tilted its head slightly, apparently not believing this claim. "Well, as your alpha or whatever I'd rather you didn't annoy her. Okay?" Another affirmative bark.

Mira came out after everyone else. He looked over at her. "Hey, what took you so long?"
"Um..the Captain wanted me to know she was watching me and would stop me if I turn evil. But that won't happen anyway, sooo..." She gave an arms-up shrug, and then went to go talk the two of the other group they hadn't already met into the bath plan. Or at least, help Rose do so.

"Alright, I'll see you later then." On an impulse of some kind, Zack stuck his hand out and rubbed the wolf's head and ears a bit. It didn't resist or bite him, and even leaned into the petting slightly, but when he was done it gave a soft, brief growl and drew its head back again, pretending to be offended by the gesture. About this time Zack's name came up in the context of "handling something", and he stood up to shake his head at Mira, not really caring to find out what she was attempting to volunteer him for before deciding he didn't want any part of it.

The catgirl walked up with a serious expression. "Hey, are you done negotiating with the animal friend?" The wolf was already stalking its way back into the guardhouse, taking advantage of one of the guards pushing the door open on her way out. "I have something to talk about in mental--private."

"Yeah, go ahead." Mira was waving her hand and leading the way off toward the bathhouse, with Rose almost falling over from excitement behind her, so the two of them followed the group, taking the rear.

There's another reason to get to know those four from the other party, I mean besides us just fighting together with two of them and them being cool in general and all.

What reason is that?

Um, I was distracted earlier, before we went out to get the worm, because uh...I did a little bit of digging in one of their minds. Aaaand, found out they're from Earth. Confirmed all four are, at this point.

Zack looked ahead; Aria and Clera were just ahead of them, moving much more slowly than the others. More 'main characters', huh?

Maybe? That was the lines I was thinking along too, but Nora suggested there might be a ton more people from Earth by the time we've met four, in which case it isn't too surprising. But...it's something we all have in common. I suggested we could all meet whenever Rose leaves back to her forest and just, talk. Too bad it can't be this bath meeting, but, you know.

She wouldn't leave from this if someone told her it was on fire, he agreed.

Anyway, I had the idea, but didn't want to formally offer before checking with everyone...the house we're getting built. Maybe they could live there too? It seems like they haven't thought to make any 'permanent' arrangements here yet.

I guess we could talk to the Captain about adding more bedrooms. Or just have roommates. He didn't like the idea of again not having a room completely to himself, but still...

I can sleep on the couch if you want.

Zack gave her an angry look. That was not a thought for you to hear!

Sorry, to me it was like you were yelling your doubts even louder than the suggestion they came with. Hard not to hear it. She looked at him, put a hand up on his shoulder briefly. Hey, you can't be making all the sacrifices. Not good for you. You're just as important as everyone else and deserve to be treated that way.

Yeah, yeah...

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Rose thought she was perfectly comfortable, used to this body. Running around in revealing clothes, or changing clothes, didn't seem to bother her at all. She certainly liked the way it looked and felt, after all! But standing in the changing room just before going to the big bath they'd rented out, she was not just facing herself even more exposed than usual, but thinking about all the other girls seeing it, and it made her feel awfully nervous, embarrassed even. A towel draped over most of it somehow felt like far less than some underwear definitely covering certain small parts. It didn't help that she couldn't hold the towel all that well with the clawed hands, and her tail made it impossible to cover her entire back. She just bounced around in front of her other-self in the mirror for what felt like a long time, trying to work up the courage to go out there, before finally forcing herself to just do it and let whatever was going to happen, happen.

A few steps out through the hallway, she found Aria and Mika—err, Mira slowly making their way along, and quietly passed them, waving nervously back when the witch said hi. Everyone else was already sitting in the bath, and Rayna waved her over, pointing out a seat next to her. Rose felt herself blushing pretty badly and involuntarily making a noise like a hot kettle, but made it over there and slid herself down into place. Embarrassment about her own body aside, the number of pretty girls wearing hardly anything in close proximity was enough to make her brain overload.

Rayna patted her head a couple of times. "Calm down, girl. Easy there."
"Eheheh," she fidgeted. "Um, s-sorry."

This particular bath was a big almost-circle shape with room for probably even one or two more than they had. Rose was across from Zack, who was blushing almost as much as it felt like she was but for probably slightly different reasons; he had on some kind of necklace still but it was partially obscured by the towel. Nora was to one side of him, Katherine to the other, Lynn past the elf, close to Rayna, and Clera to Rose's right, in the middle of a bunch of empty space. Knowing what she did about the relationships between everyone present, it seemed like they must have arranged this intentionally to some extent, maybe with Katherine's mind-talky thing. The winged girl was focused intensely on the hallway, and it became clear she was watching Mira half-carry Aria toward the bath. After a moment the shifter was carefully slid into place between her and the catgirl, and then Mira sat next to Rose.

"You've got an adorable blush," said the witch, drawing another short squeak from Rose.

"Please, stop, that sound hurts my ears even worse than yours," said Zack, folding his ears down. He was busy running shampoo through his hair and ears to get the green worm-blood out.

"I'm really sorry," she said, looking away.
Zack sighed. "I was talking to her," he said. Aww, he was so nice and knew she couldn't help it. Or...well, he didn't think much of her self-control judging by this seating arrangement anyway, but Rose could accept that. It wasn't like she'd made a good impression as far as holding back her impulses went.

"How are you feeling?" said Clera; Aria's eyes were closed.

"Greeaat," she said in a half-sigh, stretching her arms a bit. "This water's really nice. Thanks for letting me try this." She smiled brightly, ruffling the smaller girl's hair.
The intended effect of Clera's stern expression was slightly ruined by the blush. "Just be as careful getting out as you were getting in."
"Mhm. Oh, do you want me to try and figure out the skin area thing here? You can even observe it this way."

"That, seems sensible..."

The fox-girl hummed to herself, carefully running some shampoo through her ears, hair, and tail all at the same time with her eyes closed. Well, she knew she was kind of giving Rose a show but honestly didn't mind.

"You're just off in your own little world, huh," said Lynn.

"It's a happy world I live in~," she replied. "You're always welcome to join it if you want."

"I don't even want to know what that would entail."

"Hah, tail."

"Not everything is an intentional pun."
"The unintentional ones are the best, though!"

"Do you want any help washing your back? The tail, or wings, or anything?" said Mira. "Or, hmm..maybe I shouldn't though."
"Aww, why not?"
"You just look really sensitive around the base of your wings. I don't want to do anything that'd make you uncomfortable."

Rayna turned her head, opening her eyes. "Hm? How do you know that?"

"What, did I find something your 'special vision' doesn't do?"

"Well—maybe, but why would I want that?"
"I can think of a few reasons," Mira chuckled. "But anyway, yeah, I ate an incubus last night, we're pretty sure. Along with turning my eyes purple it gave me a kind of...you know, sensitivity vision. But only toward girls, because incubus."

"Seriously!?" said Katherine.

She shrugged. "I can't completely turn it off, either. You know how that is, right? I can tell you if you're curious."

"Well, I'm interested," said Rayna. "Although I think I already know~..."
"Mmh. Well, in general it seems like the fuzzy parts of people who have those tend to be a weak point. Especially right near the base. It's not universal, but..pretty common. Certainly applies to you. But it's special, it sort of doesn't 'activate' around someone you don't already trust quite a bit."

"Anything else?"

"You really want me to say? I could route it through Katherine and only embarrass you in front of one person at first."

"I do not volunteer for this!" said the catgirl.

"Well, that's out."

"I'm not embarrassed. It's my boobs, right?" Rayna grinned.

"Uh-huh. Not as common as you'd think, that...but in your case, that's the spot."

"How does that work on someone whose body can change at will?" said Aria. "Ears, no ears," she added, giving herself tall foxish ears for a second as a demonstration.

"Well, I mean there is most of your body that's always there, right? I noticed a few specific places on your back, and I won't go into more detail than that unless you really want it."

"W-well, I was just wondering about the ears or tail themselves," said Aria, reforming them and blushing slightly at the half-revelation.

"Let's see..." Mira stared for a second. "Nope, not those. I kinda wonder if you couldn't shift yourself to intentionally have certain spots if you're consciously aware of it. Anyone else?"

"You'll tell me in private later," said Lynn quietly.

"I will, huh? I assume you're not asking for a demonstration though..."
"Yeah, I have a boyfriend," she said. "Just..."

"Maybe I'll tell him and let you figure it out from there," she said with a mischevious grin.

"You better not!"

"Rose is boiling over again," Zack pointed out, putting his hands half into his ears. Rayna took a moment to pull her into a side-hug and run a hand over her shoulder a couple of times.
"Keep it together, hmm? This is a lot of fun but we don't want to make the big bad wolf mad."
"I can still hear you through this."

"I know!" she said cheerfully.

"And—" he started to say in Mira's direction.
"I wasn't gonna say anything about you!" she said. "I know, that's private. And probably irrelevant. Right?"
"Thank you."

"Um, I-I'm a little, curious," said Nora quietly, the first thing she'd said since coming in.
"You want me to tell you later, or just announce to everyone?"
"I d-don't really care. U-unless i-i-it's somewhere, uh.." she blushed and looked away vaguely.

"Oh, it's not. So I can say?"
The elf nodded, still looking away.

"Belly. Mostly the front side. I know, you have that out in the open all the time, but it's sorta like the fuzzy parts thing. If a total stranger touched you there, no effect, so you don't have to worry about that at least."
"I-I guess that's good..."

"Err, uh.." Rose had calmed down and disengaged from Rayna's hug. "S-so, what about me? Y-you said, where my wings..?"
"Yep. Sorry I kinda started announcing it without asking you," said Mira.
"W-well—I don't really care. I just wanna know!" she said excitedly.

"That's...why I did that, I guess. Thought that'd be your opinion. Okay. You're sort of like someone with fur, except of course it's scales?" She pointed at each in turn: "Just the base of your wings is one spot, and then the whole tail but especially the base, and also on your head just right around where the horns are coming out from. Obviously there's no..feeling in the horns themselves, but that's pretty close."

"Oooh."

"Pardon my skepticism, but I haven't heard of anything like this," said Clera.

Katherine said, "Like what exactly?"

"'Sensitive spots', as you call it. Not that those..don't exist, but normally one would expect the same...kind of person to always have them in the same place."
"Well, I don't know," said Mira. "I can only tell you what my weird new magic power is telling me. I guess I could prove that it actually is telling me something and I'm not making it all up myself at least, though. With...two volunteers."

"Ooh, me!" Rose said excitedly.

"Why two?" said Zack. "Ow." He had been trying to reach a certain part of his tail to clean it, and drew back from the stretch hurting a bit.

"Well, one person needs to be the target and the other person needs to try a spot or two to touch. I can't be the one doing the touching or you could accuse me of using incubus magic to make just any touch have an effect," said Mira.

"That..I had not even considered that possibility," said Clera.

"Well, I don't mind, just a little," said Rayna.

During this, The wolf-girl was looking at Nora, apparently having a mental conversation with Katherine's help: You didn't have any trouble before, no, she agreed. I think you're still sore from the injuries.

Well, can you get it then? You're the only one here I feel like I can trust with this, to not make it weird.

Okay.

The elf nodded after a moment, and took the shampoo from Zack, getting to work on the part of the tail he'd had trouble reaching. "Thanks."

"Okay, well, the wings aren't near anything particularly, uh, private," said Rayna. "How do you feel about that?"
"Go ahead," Rose nodded. The fox-girl reached over and gently ran her fingers up and down the ridges right where the draconic wings emerged from her back.

It felt...pretty good. A little calming, or freeing maybe; it would be hard to put into words. The dragon-girl found herself closing her eyes and making a low, almost growling sound, but a very pleased one. Some green mist emerged from her nostrils, and she felt like..stretching for some reason. Her wings spread out...and out, and out; she didn't see this part but they glowed faintly green and rapidly grew out, quickly expanding into grand, gold-scaled wings with pink undersides, and a wingspan wide enough to reach behind and past both of the girls next to her and tall enough to dip halfway into the water.

Rayna, of course, pulled back in surprise almost as soon as this started. So Rose opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times, and looked back at her wings before willfully folding them against her back, where they weren't threatening to knock anyone into the water. "Uhm..hmm...?"
"That was...unexpected," said Mira, in a bit of an understatement.
"Oooohh, heehee...I, forgot I could do that. Oor, uhm, it's more like I figured out how to do this," said Rose, focusing on making her wings small again and feeling them quickly constrict back to their usual, vestigial-looking size, "a really really long time ago, and, uh, forgot I could undo it. I guess that sorta relaxed them?"

"Something like the intended effect, then," said Clera. "You did seem to have a...reaction, at any rate. I'm convinced enough for now." She was blushing a little, maybe a little concerned about what behavior Rose might have if she 'relaxed' too much in this setting. And..she had let go of her towel, but it was still there; Katherine waved when she seemed briefly surprised, and she nodded a quick thanks.

"I wonder if you can fly when they're out like that?" said Lynn.

"By all accounts, her body should still be far too heavy for any wingspan to carry," said Clera. "Um, to clarify, I am not calling you overweight; the only reason I am able to fly is that my bones are actually hollow, which I strongly doubt yours are."

"I dunno, I feel like I should be able to fly with them," said Rose. "I can almost remember flying..." The memory was a slippery one, mostly forgotten and hard to get any solid grasp on.

"Well, I mean, you are a dragon after all," said Rayna. "Dragons are supposed to be able to fly, and I don't remember any reports of them being particularly lightweight or having hollow bones. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a magic thing. Actually, wait, you said you could hover with tiny wings, right?"
"Mhm!"
"Well, that's already kind of absurd. So we should definitely test whether you can fly with big-wings. Somewhere the landing won't accidentally destroy someone's house, preferably."

"I hate to be the one to say this," said Lynn, "but I kind of wonder what other changes you've forgotten you did to yourself and could possibly 'relax' to undo under the right circumstances..."
"Heheh, well, um. I don't wanna take Aria's thing," said Rose awkwardly, blushing again. The way she'd felt just from the wing-touching was already making her feel a little shy, exposed maybe.

"Oh, I don't mind. I'd be pretty happy in a world where everyone could shapeshift," she said.

"It's so cool, and convenient, you know? You can match heights to always look people right in the eye.." She shrank herself down to Clera's height, the towel becoming extremely loose on her in the process as she not only lost height but some of her usual figure. "..have whatever figure you want, barring already unhealthy ones.." Her next trick was to grow only an inch or so of height while shifting to a voluptuous figure, a little like Rayna's. "...make changes to your ears, face, hair even, all without anyone else's help!" In turn, she gave herself pointy elf-ears, made her face slightly rounder, pulled her hair up to a short just-framing-the-face look. "I mean, the power to decide whether or not to have a tail is totally something I think most people with tails would appreciate." Shifting the rest of herself back to the usual height/sizes, and taking care to draw her towel back up around herself to keep the growth from really exposing anything, Aria gained a raccoon-like tail for a moment, white with dark stripes instead of the usual coloration. "I think even the voice is malleable. Hmm, hmm, hmmm~" Aria hummed a few times, each one in a very different voice: High, squeaky; low, rumbling, back to normal. "Great, right?" The tail disappeared and she turned back to her "base" appearance.
"Yeah, cool!" Rose forgot about her towel again to clap some, but Katherine was cognizant enough to catch it. Lynn and Rayna shared a look which was meaningful only to them for the moment, ending with a mutual nod.

The rest of the bath was relatively uneventful. There was some more chatter between them in pairs or so, some relaxed quiet. As offered, Mira helped Rose get her wings and back clean, being careful not to "upset" things too much out of mutual courtesy for everyone else around. Since Nora was helping him, and his hair wasn't as ridiculously long as before, Zack finished at about the same time everyone else did, and was the first to get up, declare he was done, and start off toward the changing room to dry off. The others followed one by one, with Clera making sure Mira and Rose both helped get Aria up and onto to a chair in her room before going off to their own. Lynn and Rayna were the last ones out, staying behind after the human girl started to get up but Rayna gave her some kind of meaningful look. Probably some kind of private conversation that couldn't wait. All in all, Rose felt like the entire adventure was a huge success. All of her friends seemed to like each other, and liked or at least tolerated her okay, and while nothing too much was ever exposed she did see more of their beauty than she had before.

It had been a while, and she was starting to get the itch to see how her forest was doing again. Although not as extreme now thanks to the skill she'd learned, that was not something to ignore, as the dream that one night had taught her, so it seemed like a good idea to go test whether she could fly, and then either do that or take the plant-cart out to her forest and rest there for a while. As wonderful as it was being around everyone, it would be good to have some quiet time to think about things a little bit. Rose felt like she was starting to remember and/or discover things about herself that really needed to be sorted out or at least considered to some extent, whatever it was that meant. The need to go back to her forest and be there alone for a bit was a perfect reason to attempt to really think about things, no matter how little success she anticipated in that department.

Battle Vixens! - 15

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Episode 15: The Price

After the...most likely attempted/partially successful assassinations, things were quiet for the rest of the day as far as mist monster attacks went. The five in the science building spent some time going over each one's known powers, for coordination purposes:

Light was only slightly stronger than normal, but by far the swiftest with the best reflexes. Her power over light was primarily useful for illusions, but lasers were pretty good at doing damage, too. Her weapon was a single katana with no sheath. She seemed to need light to recover more quickly and easily use her powers, making the day easier for her to fight in than the night.

Ning was a little slower than Light, but super strong. Her power over electricity could amplify power from the nerves, from clouds, from power lines..but it seemed difficult to control the more lightning there was, making it dangerous to use near allies, and she actually tired quickly from using it. Her weapons were a katana and a smaller blade, dual-wielded. She was extremely hesitant to test whether she could actually "regenerate" from electricity the way Light could from light, although it seemed plausible.

Rory was ridiculously strong (much stronger than Ning) and tough, except for the recently-discovered weakness to "magic". She was relatively slow and unarmed, with no apparent "magic" abilities; however, she was able to concentrate in order to make herself stronger or tougher in specific spots, or faster, apparently.

Clark was able to make the "spirit string" stuff, apparently from her wrists in a spiderman-string kind of way, and pull it along behind the needle, and move the string/needle around even in midair at will. On top of that, pointing the back end of the needle at people allowed her to instantly scan for injuries or other problems and heal injuries through some kind of "spirit vision". She could only heal injuries in particular, and couldn't do anything about cancer or disease or anything else like that besides see that it was there. It seemed like her physical abilities were well behind everyone else's—no stronger or tougher and only a little faster—but the healing powers were ridiculous enough, and on top of that the evidence so far suggested her string was more effective against the mist monsters than the average weapon or light/electric attack.

Beyond figuring that out and discussing some creative uses and combinations, they just talked normally for a while—about as normally as possible under the circumstances, anyway. As professors of the university, the Quinns seemed to feel obliged to ask how the students' classes were going. Rory particularly wanted to remind them to keep up studies, even with everything that was happening. Stopping everyone's education during a long-term disaster was a good way to drive civilization backwards, after all.

Blake returned to normal once they got back home, and Ning headed off to change back and get in a car to pick up her granddaughter—the main reason they needed to leave, though the discussion was more or less finished by then anyway. Amory was finally hungry, so they ate and agreed to forget about the present insanity of the world for the afternoon, just hanging out and playing some games. Watching the news was useful, but for now at least the Internet was still around, and a good way to catch up on anything major happening.

That night, he woke up in the strange bedroom again, lying in bed under the covers this time. As before, he quickly felt compelled to speak his phrase and quickly change back into Light. She sat up, looking around and down, and finding the t-shirt from the day and another pair of panties on her body; apparently this was just what she wore to bed somehow. Nobody was here yet, so she took a moment to crawl out from the center of the bed and hop off, onto her feet.

"How's it going, Hero?" Light jumped at the voice coming from behind her, where she hadn't seen anyone and her ears had not heard until just then. She turned around; obviously the voice was from the same woman as before.

"Um...fine, I guess?" She wasn't sure what to make of this meeting, or the question. The most that could be gleaned was that 'Hero' was now her nickname according to this woman.

"What, you don't like it?"

...Right, mind-reading. "No, it's, um, fine. I just, it sounds kinda sarcastic is all.."
"Well, it's what you want to be, isn't it?" A hand gently patted Light's head; she started to jump but was stopped by some kind of calming feeling. The woman had disappeared from the other side of the bed and appeared just behind and to one side of her to do that. "I think it's cute."

"Uh-huh.." She wasn't sure whether it was wise to attempt to step out from under the woman, but did make an awkward effort to turn around and look up at her face. "I, assume there's a specific reason for visiting me...?"

"Aww, you're no fun," she mock-frowned. "I could just be visiting to feel your lovely fur again." Her hand hovered over Light's head for a moment, and then drew back again. "But, of course you're right. You are one of the more interesting to watch, Hero, so I want to trade questions."

"You ask me something, and I ask you something?"

"Sharp. I do really like that about you," she smiled. "How about it? But if you aren't completely truthful, then I don't have to be."

Light's ears folded down. "That leaves open the option for you to lie even if I don't."
She laughed, "Hmhmhm, you're so supicious!" She booped Light's nose, drawing a wince and a brave couple of steps back. "Alright, alright. I will absolutely tell the truth if you do. But I ask first."

Light crossed her arms—not forgetting how powerful of a person she was dealing with, but this was getting ridiculous. "..Fine. Go ahead."

"I've seen your willingness to protect and help even people who try to kill you. It's fascinating. You want to save everyone; that's why I call you Hero. But what will you do with a real monster, when the option is to kill or allow many to be killed?"

"If that really is the case, then I'll kill the monster." Light frowned. "I'm not Batman. I'm not gonna let a mad dog run around hurting people just to preserve some idealistic code of honor. Someone who's misunderstood, or desperate, or acting out in anger is one thing, and if someone can be captured that's great, but there's a clear line between trying to do the right thing and letting innocent people die from your own stubbornness."

The woman looked briefly...surprised? And then delighted. "You've actually thought about this already! Here I was thinking I'd make you say something rash. I'm impressed!"

"I guess that makes it my turn, then."
"Of course," she smirked. "Take your time to think up a good one, since I did spring this on you as a surprise."

Light tried to think of a good question; it seemed like there would be only one round this dream. Why was Amory attacked? Well, she gave off an impression of knowing everything, but maybe she didn't really know every bit of their opponent's plan. "I don't know" would be a perfectly truthful answer and that would completely waste the question. But asking whether she knew why was equally useless; there was no guarantee a second question would ever be offered, and even if it was the opportunity might come too late for that answer to be useful.

What do you really want from all this? The answer was clearly "entertainment," based on what she said the very first night. But at the same time, some of her comments and behavior seemed to suggest she wanted her ready-made soldiers to succeed at defending Earth from this attack, at least to some extent. This would be good information to confirm for certain, but it didn't seem like something that would be urgent to learn. Surely there was a better one...

How do we win? No, no...she could just say "keep fighting" or something dumb like that and be completely truthful without giving out any actually useful information.

She was reminded of a story about a super-intelligent being or something like that being asked for the pair consisting of the best possible question to ask it and the answer, which turned out to be exactly that question and the answer a completely useless "this answer". It was obviously a bad idea to make the question "too perfect" like that, even if the problems with asking that particular question could be fixed. After all, this woman was no emotionless supercomputer; she'd get annoyed at a question that was asking for too much at once and find some way to dodge around it while still technically being truthful. On top of that it would make her less willing to play this game again. So—just think of something that will be useful to know, now—or at least as close to now as possible.

"...How do we help the people in comas?"

"I appreciate your consideration of my feelings too, Hero," she said with a toothy smile; seeing it up close, her teeth were all rather sharp, predatory. "You almost asked what happened to them, but that wouldn't be very helpful to know, would it? I'll tell you anyway: Those disgusting creatures took their power and turned it inside-out for their own use. Your powers are closely tied to your you," she said, pointing vaguely at Light's chest, "and your you doesn't handle being inside out so well. It takes them out of the game, and makes them mere targets for the opportunistic. There will be someone who can turn them rightside-in again, but they haven't arrived yet. Perhaps I am wrong, but I believe you will know that person when you see them."

Light didn't say anything, processing the information.
"You want to know what the part about being tied means, but you don't want to push your luck on violating the rules of the game, hmm? Just think carefully about how you think. I believe that should be enough to occupy your mind for a while."

She moved a little closer, but...normally. Walking, instead of suddenly appearing. "Maybe you'd allow me just one little touch? You were happy to have your friend pet you," she said.
Light blushed; of course she was even watching them in what should be private. "Fine.."

"Heheh. You're thinking I'd do it anyway, but I wouldn't have~," she said teasingly. Appearing behind Light, she gently picked up the tail and hugged it for a second, running her hands across it. Just as with brushing her ears before, the smaller fox-girl found this a much more enjoyable feeling than seemed right, and shivered slightly in spite of herself, even having to willfully hold back an urge to make some kind of sound in her throat. It ended after a few seconds. "Now, you really should be going. We'll meet again, Hero—if you survive. But I predict you will, and that you'll have one, maybe two more pets by then."

With that, Light abruptly woke up to the feeling of morning sunlight coming in through the blinds. She sat up, felt the hair play across her shoulders. Apparently she'd managed to become one of that woman's "favorites", at least enough for her to plan regular visits of some kind. It was hard to decide whether that was a good thing or not, but doing what she could to keep the visits going and reap some sort of benefit from them (information, like from the questions the night before) seemed wise.

This form felt good; it was powerful, and so it was necessary with what was happening. But as of now there was something..uncomfortable about that. About the way it reacted to touch and closeness, especially those ears and that tail. For the moment she changed back into Blake to start the morning.

Think about how you think...how were his powers tied to him personally? The way she'd said it suggested that the specific powers he'd received had something to do with his personality, or psychology, or...something like that. He couldn't quite wrap his head around it, even thinking about it all the way through breakfast.

Amory slept in for a while; understandable with the day he'd had, even with being insta-healed afterward. A close watch over the news didn't show any of the monsters appearing, so Blake tried to take his mind off of things by doing some of the schoolwork he should've done last weekend, but was too busy rescuing a little girl. He knew the whole time that he was going to ask Amory what he thought of the woman's words. It was something like...he was hoping that someone who hadn't gotten any of these powers, an outside perspective, would see something he couldn't see himself. It was just a matter of waiting until he woke.

---

Emma did not know where Amory lived. Before he was attacked, that would have definitely been a step too far. But with her decision to protect him, it seemed like something necessary to know. She needed to know if his home was attacked; she needed to know if he went out and needed to be protected. It was...just sensible. Right? Sure, Light might already be protecting him at this point, but Light wasn't the one who'd saved him the first time he was attacked. The only problem was, she had no idea how to get that information. Sure, as a student he was probably staying in one of the dorms...or maybe the apartments tied to the school, like her. That didn't exactly narrow it down.

But then—there he was, on the news. He was...she knew that hospital! And he must've parked in town, so he would come back to his car at some point. She just needed to wait there. Or in front of the hospital. Or...both? Obviously. It was high time she tested just how far apart her bodies could actually be.

For now, Minus hid in the shadows of the parking garage, looking for any sign of him coming in, while Plus, concentrating on using the light-bending to look as normal as possible, headed off to the hospital in case she could catch him coming out. She wasn't really sure how or if she would follow him when he got in the car, since she didn't quite feel fast enough to outrun one of those, but knowing his car would be a good start. There didn't seem to be any problem with one body being way over at the hospital while the other was in the garage; that was good, at least.

Plus somehow missed him—possibly she was too preoccupied with not letting her fox-parts be seen—because Minus saw him slowly making his way inside the garage. After following him a bit, she saw him get in his car. She did what she could to memorize the plate, make and model, and then began to chase after it. Maybe she couldn't follow the car the whole way, but at least she could figure out..which direction, or something like that? Plus found a corner to hide herself in and sat down, putting all of her focus on the other body.

In town, the car actually moved fairly slowly, enough for her to run after it. Of course, the speed limit where traffic was usually high was pretty low; that hadn't really occurred to her. Minus stuck to shadows; the streets were actually pretty empty, so she didn't actually have to hide from that many people.

Her luck continued out on roads with higher speed limits. Amory was driving slowly; he wasn't feeling well and wanted to be careful. She felt simultaneously pleased and upset by this information, and hoped he would get better soon. And, before she knew it, Minus was standing there, panting heavily, and seeing him take a spot in the apartment garage. It was the same complex she was staying at! But a different building, apparently. Now she just needed to see exactly which room...

Going through the halls as Minus was a little bit more tense. She kept thinking someone would pop out of a room at any time and see her, and then she'd have to run away before finding out...! But her luck held. Finally he finally stopped, and knocked on the door. There were footsteps from inside, and someone else opened the door. "Heyy. Back to normal, I see?" His roommate, no doubt.

He smiled. Emma's hearts both fluttered, but of course he wasn't smiling at her. "You feelin' any better?"
"Um, yeah, a lot, thanks. What about you?" He started to walk inside, which meant this was definitely where he lived. That was quite enough privacy invasion for her, thanks!

Plus spoke the phrase, and Minus disappeared, thankfully not needing to be nearby to change back. Emma stood up, brushed herself off, and realized her glasses were still in her apartment. Also her car. She had already been in two bodies and her first thought had been to run into town instead of do the obviously sensible thing. With a sigh, she changed herself back into two people. All the shadow and light moving around, all that running after the car as Minus—probably also the fight earlier too—had both of her feeling tired and a little sore; clearly she'd pushed it a little bit. But she was able to take a slower walk back, and eventually made it to her apartment. It was well after lunchtime by now, and she was doubly starving; the smart thing was to change back, so she did. It was only a couple of hours later that she lay down for a nap and wound up asleep for much longer than just an hour or two.

---

Amory listened to Blake's description of the dream. He gave a long pause, chewing his breakfast/lunch. Eventually he said, "Look, when you're...her. What do you feel?"

"Um...feel? I guess, a little weird...girly. Fast, confident. Powerful, sorta. It's hard to explain."

"Yeah, but. Let me see...you jumped in front of that cop girl, between her and the monster the other day. Why did you do that?"
"What do you mean? I couldn't just let her die."

Amory shook his head. "Uhh..let me put it to you this way. If I told you last week that you were going to jump in front of an attacker to keep someone else from getting hurt, what would you think about it?"
"I..." He squinted slightly, trying to put himself into last week—before the superpowers, before all of this insanity. "I guess I wouldn't believe you. Why would even be in that situation, and anyway—I'm not really that brave. I just..." He scratched his head.

"You'd say, what, 'I'm just a normal person, I'm no superhero,' right?"

"Maybe?"
"But I'm sure you've thought about what it'd be like before. I'm not really the expert on it here, but there are at least some nice things about being the hero, right?"

"Well, yeah. It's—it means I'm really doing something. I'm actively saving lives, not just...studying to go into some job. I'm protecting people and saving them."

"You're using your powers to do all that," said Amory. "You're fast, with good reflexes, so you can put yourself up as the target and block or dodge attacks so nobody else has to. Your powers are mostly good for illusions—drawing enemy fire elsewhere, protecting people. Right?"

"I guess so..? But the same powers would be useful for like, stealing from people and avoiding the police. It's kinda too ambiguous to say."
"Okay, let me try this with someone else. What do you think our friend Mr. Nelson was thinking last Friday night?"

"Um...well, his granddaughter had just been kidnapped. I guess he was thinking about how to get the money, or how to save her some other way, or something like that."

"Yeah, and electric powers plus super strength are a pretty good combination for stealing from a bank. But that's not all. Imagine you're an old man and the only family you have left has been taken. If someone offers you power, what are you thinking of using it for?"

"Saving her? How's that any different?"
"No, no. You don't just want to save her. Maybe you're too nice of a guy, Blake, but I think Mr. Nelson was thinking of making sure the guys who took her suffered for it—especially if they actually hurt her. If you were younger, maybe, you'd consider doing something reckless, and taking them out yourself. Maybe if they got arrested they'd get the electric chair?"

"That last part's...a stretch. But..."

Ning liked how she looked. She liked being the size of her granddaughter, to be able to be a playmate sometimes. She didn't want that about her to change, even if it meant a greater risk of being caught by the police. "I wonder if it's just the powers, or the body too somehow...if he was thinking about Nadia..."

"Yeah? You think you look like a hero when you're Light?"

"I don't know, maybe? But I guess I...feel heroic. I feel like I can do almost anything, like I should do anything I can to save people. Especially from.."

"The mist things, right? I think there's something to that, too," said Amory. "Doesn't it seem weird that everyone, everywhere, that gets those powers wants to fight them? Does fight them?"
"But they're..." Blake attempted to express what he felt in words; he moved his hands expressively for a second or two.

Disgusting creatures. His eyes widened a bit. "That woman...she said...so, she hates them for some reason. So she makes us feel that way about them, through the powers somehow..."
"But it's more than just a feeling, right? You want to fight them."
"I want to fight them because I think they'll hurt people, and I want to protect people."
"And you want to protect people because you feel like a superhero. Just like you wanted to before you got your powers. Right?"
"I...yeah." Blake looked down, trying in vain to understand what to feel about this.

"That's..horrible. Isn't it? It's..."

"It's a gift that exacts a price just by being given. It's really clever, and maybe awful for a lot of people," said Amory. "But in your case, I don't really know if there's that much to worry about? I mean, those things were going to appear anyway, and they've at least shown a willingness to kill some normal people by now, so that means they're probably aiming to hurt people in general. I mean—if I told you last week that you were gonna get superpowers and that monsters were gonna show up too and start hurting people, what would you think about doing?"
"I'd think about fighting the monsters," he said without hesitation. "I guess, but...what does it mean for someone like Ni—like Gerald? Who just wanted to live in peace with his granddaughter? Or..or, the Quinns are just college professors! They're...they didn't volunteer to be part of some war!"

"Well, I'm not coming to that woman's defense, you know. I'm just trying to make you feel a little better," said Amory. "I do wonder what those two 'wanted', though, to wind up with their powers."

"Should we ask them? Who should know about this, this side of it?"

"I think so. They're looking at all of this like scientists. They want to know everything they can. So if it hasn't already occurred to them, then I'm sure they would ask us to tell them no matter how...unpleasant it is to know."

"I just, don't know how it didn't already occur to me," said Blake, leaning back. "It's like some kind of mental blind spot and even after I got a hint, you had to figure it out from there."
"To be fair, it was a really vague hint."
"Yeah, but...I mean, if our heads are being messed with then it makes sense to make it hard for us to convince that's happening, much less realize it ourselves. Why would she tell me if she doesn't want us to know?"

"I really get the impression that she just likes playing games with information. Just like telling only you how beating someone in a fight and learning their powers works. Like playing a question game with you. She knows we're not, and we can't, just tell everyone everything, and probably finds it entertaining to see who we decide to tell and why. There's probably a bunch of other stuff we don't know that she's told someone else."

"Well...most of the attacks have been in the afternoon anyway." Blake stood up. "I guess we should call them for a visit, maybe look around town and leave someone to guard you. Oh, wait, are you done?"

Amory looked down at his mostly-full plate. "...No." His mouth had been too busy with talking to keep chewing.
"Um, I'll get my phone anyway," he said, heading to his bedroom.

Battle Vixens! - 14

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---

Episode 14: Less Secrets

The scheduling had been intentionally vague, so the Quinns got into the building after having lunch, switched to their fox-forms, and then just lounged around for a while. About mid-afternoon, there was finally a knock on the lounge door. Clark nodded, heading over to get it open, and Ning walked through first, carrying an extra person a little awkwardly over. "Lemme get that," Rory rushed over and picked him up, setting him on the couch. "Hi there, Amory. How're you feeling after that attack this morning?"
"Um, hi Dr. Quinn. Both. I'm on way too many pain meds to tell right now."
"Aww, that'll wear off pretty soon I bet. I brought cookies!" She waved at a plate on the table in the middle of the couches.

"Yeah, bought 'em on the way here," Clark said, receiving a glare.

"Are there any cameras in here?" said a voice right next to the usually-male Quinn, making her jump.

"No, we don't spy on our students," said Rory.
"Sheesh, give a guy a warning. Or a..you know what I mean," said Clark. Light went back to the door and shut it before appearing herself.

"So uh, I know he was attacked and met Ning today, but how's this guy figure in, huh?" said Rory, waving to her student.

"Amory is my roommate," said Light. "Hi, I'm Blake, also a student here. This is Gerald Nelson but you already know that."
"We were pretty sure, but—" Clark started

"My roommate figured out what I was doing within a couple of days," she continued. "We don't think he was attacked because of me, but it seemed like a bad idea to leave him alone after this morning."

"Well, have a seat, you two," said Rory, going over to pat her husband's head a couple of times while she pouted over being half-ignored.

"So, are you dropping the whole secret identity thing?" Rory said, crossing her arms. "Or.."
"It's dangerous for everyone to know who we are. There are still a lot of fox girls out there who will come here and probably hunt you two down to try and kill you for your powers, or worse," Light said. "But I'm tired of keeping secrets from allies. Whenever those people come, they'll already have multiple powers and our best chance of fighting against them is to work together. Killing someone only gives you a weaker version of their power, and you're still one body. Between us we have four full powers and four bodies to work with, which should be a major advantage."

"I almost get the impression you're worried about us," said Rory. "We know what we're doing, Blake. Or..."
"Yeah, I'm used to being called Light while I'm like this. Easier to keep the secret calling me that, too."

"So, who were those other girls?" said Clark. "You mentioned on the news..."
"I don't know. But it's just one person," said Amory. "I got the distinct impression we're dealing with one person in two bodies. And she's Megamanning."

Rory and Ning both looked equally confused by the reference. Clark said, "Umm, don't we already do that?"

"No no, I mean—she 'learned' powers like Light's by watching her at some point, and Ning's by watching her just during that one fight. A lot weaker, but she could use all four at the same time and each one gave her a new knife as far as I could tell."

"Four? You mean two, right?" Rory didn't think he'd suddenly forgotten how to count.

"Wait, when did she see me? Like on the news?"

"I don't know, she just said she watched someone bending the light and that has to be you. One of her bodies does some kind of inverse thing, and uses shadow powers instead of light powers, earth instead of lightning...I guess maybe that's the 'second' one if there is such a thing."

"Well, what's our megaman look like, in case we run into her?" said Clark. "Or...one of her. However you're supposed to describe that."

Amory went through a description of each body, with Ning filling it some of the details.

"Seems like an ally, but she ran off without introducing herself," he finished.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think she liked you specifically," said Ning. "Her reactions seemed like someone who briefly forgot who they were talking to and then just remembered..."

"Really? I dunno about that," said Amory. "Well, in any case she did save my life, so I guess she does like me at least that much. But I don't really know anyone, and I haven't gotten any secret admirer notes or anything..."

"Well!" Rory said suddenly. "We can talk about Amory's love life later, but there is actually a reason besides getting to know each other that we wanted you all here. We figured out something about how our powers work, in the general scale I mean. Do you want to demonstrate, dear, or should I?"
"Um, you go ahead," said Clark.
"All right." She spoke her husband's phrase, and immediately a bluish glow surrounded Clark as if exiting her body, and rushed over to Rory. "We decided to try and teach each other our key phrases. It took forever, but going one syllable at a time seems to eventually work." She pulled her wrists back slightly and got a small amount of glowing spirit-thread to come out before cutting off, pulling it into her hands and starting to play cat's cradle with it.

"As far as we're able to tell, speaking the key phrase the first time takes the power and the knowledge of how to say it from the person whose key phrase it is. But then after that, you can keep saying it to make the other person's power do what you want to some extent."

Ning made sure to get eye contact with Light and then nodded meaningfully. "Um..learning the other person's phrase and them forgetting it, also happens another way," said Light. "If you win against someone in a fight, like to the point where you could kill them, but don't. And the level of control goes beyond the person's power. I was able to change Ning's appearance slightly."

"Ahh, so you were the two the news caught rumors of fighting briefly on Saturday," said Rory. Her string broke apart from a little too much force on it. "Drat." Then she spoke her husband's phrase again and sent the power back to Clark. "I guess we know who won, too. How did you get the idea you could do that?"

Light hesitated for a moment, uncertain. She reminded herself: Less secrets, better. "The night after that fight...she visited me in my dream. Personally."
"She..you mean the woman who gave us these powers on Friday?" said Clark.

"Right. And she said I was the first person to win a fight but not kill the loser. She said I have 'full' control over that person's power, and..could change their appearance. She suggested that controlling more people also gives you more, control over them," she said, beginning to show some real discomfort with the idea. "Not just more ways available to change the body, but..."

"You're talking mind control," said Amory seriously. "That's a little..disturbing."
"Yeah. But...hopefully not with just one. And especially with me avoiding doing it."

"Hmm." Clark nodded to herself. "If I had to guess, I'd say the real way it works is this: The rule is that beating someone in a fight gives you their phrase. But learning someone's phrase in any way, including being taught it, is what really makes them forget it and gives you 'control'. So, my wife and I 'control' each other now according to these rules."

"Just like we always have anyway," Rory chimed in. "It's not something to do lightly, then."

"..Are you okay?" Light asked, looking at Ning.
"I'm just fine. Knowing you're worried is proof enough that you aren't taking advantage of me," she said. "I'm glad you were honest about it, even if it took some time. But...this isn't something we can just tell everyone. It's dangerous information."

"Yeah it is," said Amory. "You guys lose the advantage of being several bodies with full power working together if someone else can just mind control a bunch of 'slaves' and have basically the same thing. But there's no telling if that's already happened somewhere..."

"At least there's less of a risk if we don't tell this to people we don't trust, though," said Light.

"Oh, fine. I guess we'll bottle up this amazing discovery for now. Eventually we'll maybe get rid of all the bad eggs one way or another, and then it won't matter who knows how it works, though," said Rory.

"One more important thing to discuss, then," she continued, sitting up. "Our mutual enemy. What do we know about it? Why did attack you specifically?"

"I have no idea," he said. "We've more or less eliminated the possibility that it has to do with my relationship to Bl...Light, I mean."

"It attacked a lot of other people everywher else," she added. "Killed a lot of its targets in a way that suggested they were specifically chosen. I think there's something special about Amory and those others that they don't like, but we just don't know what yet."

"We'll have to think about that later, I guess. Hopefully more information comes," said Rory. "But hey, miss Light, how does your sword do more damage than my fists to them? Any ideas there?"

"They pretty much ignore bullets, too," added Clark. "I've heard of explosives doing very little, even."

"I think there's something about our weapons, and powers, that they're weak to. But..I guess for some reason your fists don't 'count' as one of those weapons, even when your powers are strengthening them..."

"Damage resistance," said Amory.
"Hm?" Rory looked to him.
"They have some kind of general damage resistance to everything, except I would guess...magic. Might as well consider your powers magic, right? And weapons summoned out of light or electricity or whatever when that's what your magic is centered on turn out to be magic weapons. More magic, more piercing the resistance, so a big strike of magic lightning kills it dead quick. But the fists aren't magic because they're not summoned that way."
"That's a pretty good way to think of it, I think," said Clark. "And my string stuff does even more damage. Maybe it's extra magical, like some kind of 'purer' magic instead of based on the natural elements or whatever..."
"You're mostly invincible to regular attacks too, right?" said Amory, looking at the tallest fox-girl in the room. "But I'm worried that just means you have the same weakness as they do."

"Weakness?" Rory looked around for a second. "Hmm. Well, that is a worrying thought actually. We need to test that right now."

"What, you want one of us to attack you?" said Light.

"No! Just...like, use a weak magic attack on my leg or something and let's see how much damage it does. Or get your sword out and carefully poke me somewhere non-vital."

Light looked to the purple-haired girl. "Ning?"
"I, I-I don't really have enough control to be sure I won't really hurt someone. Honestly I kinda took a gamble w-with the, uh, the..."

"The officer. Okay then. Um..hold your arm up for a second. Maybe this will burn."
Rory did as instructed, and Light tried making a 'stinging'-level laser like she'd used to make Ning let go of a blade near the end of their fight. The light in the room dimmed briefly.

"Oww!!" Rory winced, waving her hand around; Clark immediately got out her needle bulb-forward to heal it. "Okay, theory confirmed. Be very careful of magic weaponry!"
"Wait! How bad is the wound exactly?" said Light.

"Um..really shallow. Like, touching the stove for just long enough for it to hurt," said Clark.
"That's..I think that's weaker than what it would be on someone unprotected. Were you using your power to be tougher?" she asked Rory.

"I was trying not to, but might have instinctively a little bit, knowing an 'attack' was coming..."
"I hate to say it, but we should try it again with you putting on as much 'armor' as you can to that arm."

It was back to normal, not hurting again. "Okay..wait, how did you know I can do that?"

"I was listening during the twin fight," said Light, pointing to one of her ears. "All right, you braced?"
"Yeah." The light dimmed again, and the laser reappeared.

"Um...you sure you're doing the same amount?"
"Yes."
"It just feels a little warm to me...wait, I can sort of tell I'm actively shielding against something instead of just having my arm 'be' tougher." Light nodded, and stopped the laser. "Huh. Well, this gives me something to think about."

"Making yourself tougher or stronger is your magic," suggested Clark. "So...magic sort of cancels magic to some extent. That doesn't bode well for if one of those things eats one of us, though."

"We really need more information on how that all works," said Light. "The news only says so much. But there's no safe way to experiment on that, and so far anyone who gets eaten just goes into a coma forever, which we can't let happen."

Amory sat up suddenly. "Wait, they do? That wasn't just something that happened once? Ow." He winced and leaned back again.
"Told ya," Rory said. "I've got some ibuprofen if that'll help."

"Or, um, I could just..." Clark stood up and walked over to him.

"Oh, doy!" She smacked her forehead while her husband got to work fixing up the wounds. "Sorry Amory, I haven't rewired my thinking to account for literal healing magic yet."

"It's fine. Oh man, that feels good..." He closed his eyes, enjoying the vaguely warm feeling of being healed.

"Anyway, yeah, I looked it up," said Light. "Every time someone got eaten, they wound up in a coma. A lot of them got killed pretty soon after, but lately, around here at least, they've been taken to an 'undisclosed location' for treatment instead of showing up at the hospitals."

"And none of them have woken up yet?" he said.
"No reports of it."
"Well, that's worrying..."

---

Officer Shepherd sat across from the culprit, changed to the fox-eared form. He was back to his normal self, a tall, gaunt man with a hoodie pulled back over his head the instant people stopped shouting at him to keep his face visible. Just some punk, but no record of any kind; he'd been out fighting monsters while she was still on the mend. But that was a big part of how he'd wound up here.

"What do you want. You gonna throw me in jail, kill me? Do it already!"

"Mister Keller, I am not here to kill you. You've already allowed yourself to be placed under arrest." It had become increasingly clear, to Rowan and peers alike, that being in this form gave her an almost eerie kind of calm—most of the time. As long as that could be maintained, it seemed good for negotiating with...difficult people. He mumbled something; she could hear it, but for the sake of the recording: "What was that?"
"It's Don. Ain't no 'mister' nothin'. I didn't want no trouble with the cops. Those..things out there're enough trouble."

"Don," she leaned forward on her elbows, "If you didn't want trouble with the cops, you shouldn't have snapped that girl's neck on camera, right in front of us."

"It was what she wanted," he said quietly.

"What—"
"SHE WANTED ME TO!" he yelled, moving as if to jump at her. He was chained to the chair, which was bolted to the floor, so it didn't actually happen, but it expressed his intent pretty well. Rowan shook her head slightly while he was looking down, a signal to not intervene. He sat back down, shaking slightly. "She said, Donny, if one a' those things eats me and I won't wake up, just kill me," he said quietly. Then, in another yell: "That's what she said!"

"You have much incentive to tell that story," said Rowan, "but I believe you; I've seen lying to get out of trouble and this isn't it. The problem is that it just doesn't matter. She might have been unconscious, in a coma like the others; she might have even wanted you to do it, but in the eyes of the law, it's still murder."

"Rrrrrrrrgh...what else was I supposed ta do, huh?! She was bleeding out! She wasn't gonna make it to the hospital; her powers'd be just gone. An' even if she did, she'd just be a vegetable! Some other sick freak would just kill her to take her power. Wouldn't matter to 'em one bit who she was, who cared about her."

"We've been keeping the other coma patients under close guard since the first few incidents," said Rowan. "But I still understand the choice you made."
"Yeah, right." He looked down again, obviously unconvinced.

"A murder charge isn't easy to get rid of, Don. But I don't think locking you up is a good choice. Not with what you've proven capable of. We're dealing with something much bigger here, and even the folks in charge understand, we need all the help we can get."

"So whaddayou want, then?"
"Work with us, instead of going around fighting those things on your own. You'd have support, allies. We're already figuring out quite a bit of how these powers work in general. And you could help."

"Yeah, sure, put me on a leash," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms.

"You don't have to like it. But the only alternative we have is to put you away. Your abilities are well-recorded, including the new ones; I guarantee we can build a cell that'll hold you."

"Hmph."

"You like this city, right Don? Don't want it to be destroyed by those beasts? Otherwise I can't imagine why you'd show up every time more of that black mist did. You and I have that in common. Work with us until this crisis is over, or until things get stable...the charges go away. You'll be seen as a hero instead of a murderer. Maybe you'll even get to like it."

"Doubt it," he rolled his eyes. "...Fine. Not like I got much of a choice." He leaned over as much as he could to extend a hand.

She took it and gently shook. "Rowan Shepherd. Good to be working with you, Don." After letting go: "Let's get those restraints off. But you start running or attacking after that, and a lot of people here won't think twice about shooting you. Just so we're clear."

"Yeah, yeah. Ain't gonna kill no cops."

Beach Tails

Time for another "caption that turned out too long to reasonably edit into an image and thus became a standalone story"! Hopefully this will still make anyone pining for more captions happy.

---

"Hey, check it out! The Sage posted again!" Jim pointed excitedly at his computer screen. He was a member of a private board whose users discussed and analyzed "magical incidents", fully believing those incidents to be real.

His roommate, Otto, was a little more skeptical. Well—not that magic was real, but rather that the obscure and bizarre incidents the board typically reported were. But a couple of months ago, someone had signed up with the username "The Sage" and, instead of discussing magic-related events after the fact, posted to cryptically predict them.

The first couple of predictions had been so vaguely described that nobody figured out where to go to see them. The Sage "graciously" pointed out what event had supposedly happened after the fact, and in at least one of the cases someone was able to find evidence of it which many on the board, Jim included, found convincing. After that, The Sage started making the puzzles a little easier out of either frustration at nobody figuring out the first couple or laziness perhaps, and usually most of the board would figure it out quickly enough to witness the event.

"What is it this time? More northern lights making pretty shapes?"

"Aww come on, our luck was amazing when we tried the casino at the time The Sage suggested."

"Yeah...that was a coincidence." Otto had bought a brand new, big, fancy stereo system with his winnings from $10 of bets. Jim had been much braver about following the advice and wound up with a hefty savings account. "Lots of coincidences."

"That many coincidences at once is solid evidence!" his roommate retorted excitedly. Otto was under the impression that this was some kind of scam furnished by "The Sage" him or herself, with several alternate accounts "reporting" things to be true that hadn't happened. Therefore, while Jim believed that every one of the twenty or so people who'd gambled in the exact time window The Sage's hints had pointed toward won big, Otto saw it as only their two minuscule points of data in an ocean of random events.

"Okay, whatever. What's it say this time?" Between the two of them, Otto was the one who actually tended to figure out The Sage's puzzles, with Jim always goading him to join in actually going to wherever the solution pointed to see the "magic". It wasn't because he thought said "magic" was legitimate, but because he enjoyed a good puzzle. And even after The Sage started making them "easier", they weren't exactly trivial; there tended to be some actual, decent brain teasers buried in this conspiracy theory/scam-riddled forum.

Jim pointed excitedly to the post. It was just the sentence "Tomorrow's a great day to go to the beach!" and an attached image: A photo of a vacant, but pleasant-looking, beach.

"Look, we only have until tomorrow to figure this one out!" he said. "What do you think?"

Otto sighed; it didn't seem like he'd be getting to relax tonight until he figured it out. "Lemme see that thing," he said, taking the laptop.

The photo actually had some faint lines running all over it, invisible without zooming way in on the several-megapixels-huge file. Otto eventually determined that it was an overhead map, and tried comparing it to some online map services. "Looks like it's another local one," he said. Many of the events The Sage pointed to were like this, difficult to impossible to reach unless you already lived nearby them. More evidence it was a scam, to Otto.

"Aww." The news deflated Jim. The "global" good fortune was, in fact, the only one of Sage's hinted events that the two of them had been able to both figure out and try so far, either because Otto was too slow to figure the others out or they were local.

But to his surprise, he discovered that the map actually matched some roads right near where they lived. "Hey, look," he said; his roommate leaned over his shoulder at the screen for a moment before gasping (re-inflating, Otto thought with an inner chuckle).

"It's here! It's in our town! There's not that many beaches nearby, right? Are any of them closed or empty this time of year?"

"I'm already looking into that," Otto sighed. What, did Jim think he was dumb? It took him a little longer, but eventually he found not just a vacant beach, but one for which the street-view feature of the map program showed a photo just like the one The Sage had posted, but with much lower resolution and (at least apparently) minus the hidden map. "...There." Not that he needed to point it out; Jim had been breathing down his neck the entire time.

"Yess!" Jim fistpumped. "A local event we can actually get to!"

"Um, not 'we'. I mean, you can go if you want, but I'm busy tomorrow."

"Really?" Otto had the day off, and of course his roommate knew that. "Busy doing what?"

"Not going to a beach just because some weirdo posted about it on an obscure forum. Like, literally doing anything else."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun! We'll get to see some real magic! The local events are always the more obvious, dramatic ones. Trust me, you come with me tomorrow, you are gonna see something! And then you'll have no choice but to believe The Sage!"

Otto sighed. "Okay, look. Fine. I'll go with you BUT. If nothing happens, then you don't drag me along on any more adventures. Deal?"

"Deal! Something will totally happen, though! Oh man, I can't wait...!"

The next day, they took Otto's car (with Jim paying for a full tank of gas; at least he could get something out of this) out to the beach, and stepped out. It looked like a pretty normal, nice, if strangely deserted beach. "Well, nothing's happening, let's go." Otto pretended to be starting back into the car, but turned back around when Jim complained.

"Oh, quit playing around. C'mon, let's go see if there's anything weird here!"

"I guess nobody else in our area's on the forum," said Jim, looking around. "Or at least, nobody who figured it out."

"Eh, it wasn't a very good one. I think anyone could figure it out with a little effort. Sooo, probably just nobody else nearby." It was a little strange how deserted this place was. It was a nice spring day, bright sunshine, somewhat cloudy but no threat of rain. A beach like this really ought to be packed with at least sunbathers or...something, right? Honestly, he was a little worried that coming to this place somehow was the trap the whole scam was leading up to, and he looked around with a touch of nervousness as they continued to wander around on the sand.

After a while, Jim stopped. "Hmm. I don't get it. Do we have the wrong place?"

"No way. This is exactly what was in the picture," said Otto. "I saw literally the exact view from it a few minutes ago."

"Well...we've looked all over. Maybe we're just supposed to wait for something to happen?"

Otto crossed his arms. "I'm not waiting around on this beach all day."

"Well...hmn. You know, we haven't checked the water. Maybe there's something magic about the water!" He ran over to the edge of the beach, looking around at the waves going in and out.

"...Just looks like normal water to me." Otto had taken a far less excited walk up to just behind his roommate.

"Yeah, but...what if you, drink it? Or, or just soak in it?"

"It's ocean water and my phone's in these shorts. I'm not doing either of those things."

"Hmm. Well, I'll try it then! My phone's in the car," said Jim, and then took a few quick steps forward, his sandaled feet splashing in the water. His steps slowed and then halted. "Hmmn?"

"What? You feel the magic?" said Otto sarcastically.

"I, don't know...I thought I felt something, though." Jim turned around, and paused, looking up and down at his roommate.

"What're you looking at?" But Otto noticed it too just after asking: Jim looked shorter than usual, and he was visibly continuing to get shorter.

"Ohh, this is it! Something's definitely happening, I'm shrinking!" he said excitedly, with an almost-manic grin.

"That's—that can't be a good thing. C'mon, get outta the water before something bad happens!"

Otto reached out to pull his friend back onto the dry beach. Jim grabbed his hands and tugged the other way. "No, no, look, this is it!" His shrinking started to accelerate. He wasn't just getting shorter, but thinner, too. "Something cool is gonna happen. I want you to be in on it too, come over here!"

"No way, I don't want something weird to happen to me, too!" Otto pulled back, leaning away; he couldn't get loose of the grip, and Jim was stronger than him. This tug of war wouldn't last long before he got pulled in...!

Except, with whatever strange thing was happening...Jim didn't seem to be as strong as usual. In fact, his arms looked thinner, less muscular, and..less hairy, too? What was happening?

"No no no, this is really neat!" Jim's voice sounded strange..younger? "You've gotta get in the water!" And still younger. He was almost down to Otto's chest height now, and his strength was diminishing more and more...soon he'd be well out of danger of being pulled in, and then maybe he could keep this weirdness from progressing any farther on Jim.

"I really don't need or want whatever that is!" said Otto, pulling back.

A young boy's voice from the shrinking guy's mouth cried, "Come ON!" With it came one sudden, sharp tug, much harder than he'd been pulling before now.

That was it; Otto had miscalculated and committed too much to his last pull. This sudden, sharp tug caught him off guard, and he lost his balance, stumbling forward straight into his friend, landing them both in the water with an audible, tangible splash!

He stood up and took several steps back, out of the water, trying to brush it off of himself, off of his clothes. Jim pushed himself up much more slowly, first sitting and then standing up. What...his shorts were really small all of a sudden, and they shared a pink-white horizontal stripe pattern with his shirt—also much smaller than it should be, showing off a rather slim midriff.

Otto realized with some fear that Jim appeared to be moving up toward him, slowly, and that he was not, in fact, regaining lost height. "Oh no..no no no.."

"Yeees!" Jim grinned brightly; his face was so small, so cute. And his voice was even higher, he sounded almost...!?

His trunks' leggings were vanishing away, the shirt's sleeves folding inward and its collar sinking down. His shoulders narrowed down even more as his blond hair suddenly spilled out across his cheeks, down onto those shoulders, and a little ways down his back. "Ooh, this is sooo cool!" A girl's voice, from a very girly face. And with the way the shorts were starting to tighten between Jim's legs, there could be no doubt of the impending femininity.

"Th-this really ihh—" Otto started, and heard a higher-pitched voice coming out. His shrinking was starting to accelerate now, just as his friend's leveled off. "Isn't my idea of co~oOl!" It cracked in the middle of the word, and was clearly higher afterward, sounding like he had as a young teenager. He was starting to feel a gentle tingling all across his body, and a feeling like his muscles steadily relaxing themselves more and more. Looking down at himself, he saw his own arms and legs slimming down and the hair on them retreating away. Also, a dark polka-dot pattern was spreading from the wet spots on his clothes to all the rest of them and seemingly causing them to start pulling tighter as a result. The beach sand rushed up toward him uncomfortably, and he looked back up, realizing Jim was making another sound, not exactly speech this time.

"O-oh..." He was blushing; now there was clearly a bikini bottom there instead of shorts, and who knew what had happened to his underwear; and a matching top, hanging awkwardly loose from his shoulders over a flat chest. But speaking of flat... "Ooh..aah, aah, aaAAaaah~!" Jim blushed brilliantly as the bulge between his legs shrank, shrank, shrank, and then cried out as it fully disappeared. Otto knew full well this was his own future, as he felt the beginnings of a gentle tugging down between his legs as his clothes continued to pull closer against his increasingly short, slim body.

"Th-this is, mmh~!" Jim said cheerfully. "I'm so glad I got to share this with you!" Her chest was beginning to puff out slightly.

"Sh-share!?" His voice sounded like a young boy trying to imitate his father, but he didn't care. "I didn't—I don't want to get turned into a, aah, aah~!" The masculinity fled his voice completely as he was interrupted by a sudden upward tug and sharp tingling from his ears (a bizarrely pleasant feeling!) followed immediately by an equally pleasant downward push from his lower back. All at once there was a long, slim black tail twitching around behind him, and his ears were tall, fuzzy, triangular, and equally twitchy as they poked up through his hair. "..a girl," he finished, already sounding like one. He could feel hair beginning to play across the sides of his cheeks as it grew, more slowly than Jim's had but clearly quite fast enough.

Jim's eyes sparkled delightedly, her smile only widening. "Oh wooow, do I get—mnnrrrrrh~!" Her eyes closed as her ears grew up, blond triangles of fur pushing their way up past her hair, and at the same time a long, fluffy yellow tail with a white tip emerged from her back, gently swishing back and forth behind her. While this happened, her hips pushed out and her butt ballooned backwards, and her chest (which had been making only relatively slow progress so far) suddenly pushed forward, beginning to really fill the bikini top she had on. She bent partway around to look at her tail with another happy grin and bright blush. "Oh, yes yes yeee~s!" she sang happily.

Watching this display only made Otto realize that his height was now nearly down to hers, but the shrinking had at least finally started to slow down. "Th-this is, this is so weird, and bizarre, and—and, why is the water doing this to us?!" he said, feeling hair start to fall down his back. His own clothes were rapidly losing coverage, the shirt slipping up off of his stomach while the shorts' leggings vanished. His face felt as warm as Jim's looked.

"I dunno, but isn't this cool?" she said excitedly. "It's—ahn~ —real magic, right here in front of us! Or—mrrrnh~ —rather, on us!" She was interrupted by two sudden forward pushes of her chest, stretching the top out a little bigger along with it each time, but didn't even let what appeared to be feminine pleasure stop her excitement at what was happening in general. "And it feels goooood~. Doesn't it!?"

"It—I, I.." he stammered incoherently. He was now done shrinking, her forehead at his eye level. With long, soft hair tickling the small of his back and his clothes rapidly approaching the exact shape of a bikini, he knew it wouldn't be long now. "Aah~!" His voice didn't continue to change after the tail had suddenly appeared, leaving it a low, deeply womanly alto; now it made an embarrassingly pleased sound as the tugging down below suddenly, for an instant, became far less gentle. It..did feel good, though... "Oooh.." His eyes, briefly closed, snapped open again. "N-no no no...I, I'm..! Mrrroooooooow~!!" Otto's sentence was interrupted by the pleasant, slippery feeling of his manhood melting away and being instantly replaced by something very different. And she instinctively responded to it with a feline noise, a surprised yet pleased one at that.

"You're a girl~!" the other girl cheered. A yellow flower had appeared in her hair. She walked up, her hips gently swaying back and forth along with her tail, her new breasts bouncing up and down, and pulled her arms around Otto.

The new catgirl blushed furiously, and even more at the feeling of those new breasts pressed against her own body. "W-wha..I.." Jim reached a hand up and gently rubbed her ears, keeping the other one wrapped around her slim waist. "Mnh, mrrrrh~!" And then...her own chest was starting to push itself out. "MrrrRRrrRRRroooooooooooooowwr~!" This was not a gradual-with-some-punctuations growth like Jim's, this was an instant, deeply pleasant blooming of her chest from totally flat to big, full balloons straining the material of the top, surpassing her friend's results by a noticeable bit. As if that weren't enough, she wriggled back and forth as her hips gently pulled themselves outward, plumping up into the lower third of a full hourglass figure. And just like that, her own transformation was done.

"Ooh, you turned out so pretty~!" said Jim. Otto's arms were..around her? She was returning the hug!? "And cute, and..!" She was interrupted by the audible flash of a camera.

"Eep!" Otto pulled away, pulling a loose strap back up onto her shoulder, as she and her roommate both discovered a camera where there definitely hadn't been one before all of this. It was an instant camera, and printed out the picture it had just taken; there didn't seem to be anyone around who could've made it take that picture, though.

The catgirl walked up to the camera and grabbed the picture, trying to get used to the way her body wanted to move around now..it made her feel good somehow; sexy, maybe. Did she...want that...!? It was a photo of the two of them hugging, and... "Were you trying to undress me?!" She waved it at Jim; what she'd thought was just a loose strap had apparently been intentional.

"Hey, I see your hand going somewhere inappropriate too," the fox-girl giggled, pointing out on the picture where her bikini bottom's string was slipping between Otto's right hand.

"Th-that was an..hey, there's something written here." Now noticing the back, Otto pointed it out to her friend.

"To keep your tail, pet your friend. Otherwise walk away, and all will be as it was. -L"

"As it..was? We can turn back?" said Otto

"Well, I don't want to turn back. So I need to pet you!" said Jim, grabbing her in another hug.

"Wha-wait, don't I get a say in this?"

"Well.." The cute fox-girl's face looked up at her friend's, giving a blushing but earnest expression from just a few inches away. "Don't you like it? Doesn't it feel good?"

"I—y-yeah, but this is, I'm..I mean.." Her hands were already creeping up toward the top of Jim's head. It was irresistible...the cuteness...that soft, fluffy-looking fur...!

"Eeheehee! You like this as much as I do," Jamie teased. Wait, Jamie..? Was that...was that her name? "Maybe even more, hmn?" Otto found herself purring again as a hand gently rubbed each of her ears from top to bottom, bottom to top. In this compromised, instinctual state and with her hands already so close to the other girl's ears, she began rubbing them too, and leaned her head forward just that little bit needed to begin nuzzling Jamie's cheek.

The fox-girl churred softly, pleasantly, forming an adorable duet with her best friend's purr. She found her memories being replaced—or, not exactly that maybe, the old ones were all still there—so more like overshadowed, maybe, by those of being Olivia...Olly, for short. She could remember growing up in a family of cat-folk, just like her best friend from middle school was from a family of kitsune...fox-folk, of course. And of course they'd decided to live together after finding out they were going to work in the same town, reconnecting after Jamie had moved away just before high school and soon finding some brand new things to like about each other.

Slowly, the slim black tail lifted itself, slid forward, and began to curl itself around Jamie's own soft, fluffy tail. The vixen let out a pleased "MrrrRRrrrh~!" and rubbed her nose a little more vigorously against the catgirl's cheek. They had come out to this beach for a little fun in the sun and waves, and after that, this had started happening. Pretty soon they were going to need to take a break to go back to the car, drive home, and resume in private. After all, even with this beach seemingly deserted all the time someone might show up at some point, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?

Olivia felt a small, soft hand leave her ears, sneaking in past her hair and running itself down her soft, smooth back, feeling the curve of it. She shivered, and then continued to purr a little louder as the hand rotated forward along the waist and traced its way down to her hip before letting go. Finally, they released each other, all except for the tails gently twined around each other.

"I think we made the right choice, Olly," said the vixen cheerfully; they started toward the car in lockstep, both of a mind to keep their tails together as long as possible.

"I don't know where you think I had a choice in all that," said the catgirl. "B-but, I...I'm happy, too," she blushed.

"Heehee~!" Jamie giggled, and ruffled the catgirl's hair, a less intense, quite friendly gesture. She needed to be less distracted to drive, and they could save the intensity for a little bit later, after all. Olly patted her head back in response, and then finally disengaged their tails to go around to the driver's seat.

There was a curious response that some people chose to give to The Sage's threads. It seemed to be some kind of a code word or something: "Tail Received." The Sage always responded with delight and congratulations to such posts, as if they were confirmation of some deeper puzzle being solved. Well, for once there was an even stranger variant tacked onto the post with the mysterious picture of an empty beach: "Two Tails Received." The Sage even got a PM with a picture in it this time, a scan of the photo, though they weren't entirely sure that any sort of proof was necessary. The response came fairly quick: "Have fun, girls!" along with a picture of Sage's own, this one of a dark-haired wolf-girl giving a winking salute. There also seemed to be a bespectacled, dark-haired catgirl poking her head in at the back of the shot, just out of focus.