The Next Chapter: 19

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 19: Ready for Your Cue?

Ulrich had been prepared to act.

That is: He wanted, he needed the part badly enough, that he would do anything he had to to make it happen. It was a step toward his dreams, and, while maybe not every imaginable cost would be worth it, there were plenty of things he'd be willing to do to make that step. Getting himself turned into a girl for an important part was certainly worth it in his eyes, and so was pretending to like a group of people, plus doing whatever would ingratiate himself to them. So, when Nancy set him the challenge of seeing whether he was a "good fit" for Omega Zeta Kappa, he had come in fully prepared to do some chameleonic improv, to make at least a majority of these strangers want him there, and of course to pretend he wanted to be there, too.

...He certainly hadn't expected to like this group this much!

There were plenty of gamers; there was Jay, an energetic dreamer like himself; there was Kyosuke, who he didn't talk with much but gave off the vibe of another kindred spirit anyway. L'hoxifel was a cheerful ball of energy; Polaris was hilarious; and even Tokanwa (though she wasn't a member yet) seemed like she'd be fun to hang with. He didn't have to pretend to like them, or pretend to have fun, because those things were really happening.

After dominating everyone in the house at Smash, Mary waved him over. "Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Have you..spoken with your parents about this?"

Despite her emotionless, monotone speech, Ulrich could tell this was someone genuinely concerned about those around her. "Hahah, yeah!" he said. "I called 'em before I ever came over."

"That's good," she nodded. "Do you need any help getting your things from the dorms?"

"Weelll...I kinda got what I need packed up and ready before I came over too. I figured, if I was in, I'd grab one trip today and get the rest—plus turn in my key there—tomorrow. Don't worry, I've got this."

"Okay." She wandered off after that.

It did seem a little weird that she was covering this stuff; shouldn't it be Nancy's job as the "boss" or "founder" or whatever? But Nancy seemed to have disappeared somewhere right after supper. Maybe she had some last-minute homework to catch up on, and had specifically asked Mary to look after him in her stead.

But either way...the sun was already threatening to set, so it was about time he actually did that. After saying a couple of goodbyes, Ulrich headed out to grab his stuff.

"Hello." He'd opened the door to find his (soon-to-be ex-) roommate working on some homework at his desk.

Dante sat up. "Oh, hey. So..?"
"I have succeeded in joining! By tomorrow morning, you can expect me to be the woman the part requires," he announced.
"Ah. Man, I still can't believe you. Doing all that just to get into a play."

"Anything to advance my dreams. But, dude—they're actually a lot of fun to hang with! Since I'm joining, you could always come over as my guest. Hang out, maybe have a look around and stuff?"
"Sure," he nodded. "Lemme know the first time you want me over, I guess."

"Mm-hm! Just don't fall asleep inside."

"Yyyyeah.

"It's still gonna be a little weird, though—you being a girl. How do you think you'll end up looking?"

"I dunno...cute, I guess? Hopefully. Attractive actresses definitely tend to get more and better parts," Ulrich said.

"Dude, that's harsh."
"It's just the reality I'm working under." He finished getting his stuff together. "Well—see you later!"
"Yeah, see ya."

He would have a new roommate at some point, but for tonight, Ulrich settled into a previously-empty room by himself. Maybe some extra privacy for tonight would be better, though; Ed had seemed concerned enough to warn him that changing might feel "really weird". He'd also heard from a couple of people that one tended to wake up from transformation ravenously hungry. Things like that made it feel like they already cared about him, which was nice.

Ulrich found himself getting kind of excited, and maybe a little nervous, as he finished up what he needed to before bed. Becoming a girl was a practical need for him, but now that it was down to actually happening, he really did kind of wonder how he'd end up. Those in the house who'd been changed by it came in a variety of shapes, but he did notice that (apart from Polaris) they'd all wound up part-animal, with some fuzzy parts, if they weren't already. That'd be a new and interesting experience, he thought; such traits might also help him (rather, her) stick in the director's mind after trying out for the part.

He got into bed feeling fairly eager and excited, ready for it to happen..! But this had the ironic effect of making it harder for him to fall asleep, which delayed it instead. He wondered why they'd decided on "falling asleep" being the rule this magic worked under, rather than just having some object one touched or wore, or a food or drink one consumed, in order to change. Maybe this was easier? He'd have to ask one of the "magic experts" in the house later...

Eventually Ulrich did fall asleep.

He found himself in a little dressing room, the details of it not familiar though the context felt extremely clear. He was here to get ready to go out on stage, to play his part. He glanced around the room for a moment, trying to figure out where he was in the process of preparation. Did he have clothes? Make-up? Any props he needed? After a moment, he noticed a full-length mirror on a nearby wall, and...

...and walking up to it, the reflection it showed was very different from what he expected. "Whoa..what?" He looked down at himself, then back up again. "H..hahah!"

The mirror showed a cute, white-haired girl with tall furry ears, flowing white hair, and a big fluffy tail, wearing a white dress that showed off her neckline and cleavage, and which only went down to her thighs. "Heheh!" What Ulrich found funny about this was that, well, he was actually wearing that dress! And somehow hadn't even noticed it? Or...remembered it? How had he missed that? Maybe this was some kind of prank, he thought for a second—and if so, he could certainly appreciate the humor!

"Uh..hmm." He crossed his arms, and so did the cute reflection in the mirror. He remembered why he was here again—to get ready for his part—and thought about it for a moment. "Actually, I...yeah..." He realized that the mirror was showing what he was supposed to look like on stage. He was dressed, but (of all things!) it was his body that was wrong for the part. He needed to...somehow...change that? How?

He thought about it a moment longer, then reached a hand up to where the reflection showed a furry ear. The girl in the reflection was able to touch that ear of hers; when this happened, he felt that actual ear of his beginning to tingle sharply. "Oh..?" He put his other hand up to "touch" the other of her ears, and that one started tingling too. The sharp tingling turned into a pushing, stretching sensation, and soon he could feel his ears pushing out into place, running into his hands. "Ah..th-there we go...!" It was a nice feeling on both sides: Those ears were soft and warm to his hands, and his hands brushing through all that fur stimulated some rather sensitive nerves in the ears. "Mmh...mrr~rrrh..." Continuing to rub them brought a soft churring sound to his throat; the girl in the mirror's tail began to wag, and as it did, he felt another rush of tingling and stretching from his lower back. Soon he could feel a tail just like that waving back and forth through the air behind him, erupting in one more burst of tingling as its fur grew thick and long, and by the time he thought to let go of the ears and turn around to check, he found it already fully-grown to the very same size and shape.

"So..that's..hmm." Now that he had the ears and tail, Ulrich tried to think of what else he could do. He turned to the little make-up station near the mirror and picked up a brush. His reflection also found a brush, and—indeed—when he began to brush his hair, she brushed hers too. Bringing the brush beyond where his hair actually was caused a sharp tingling to hit his scalp, and his hair flowed out rapidly longer and longer. He caught sight of his bangs as their color faded through a light gray to the same pure, snowy white as in the mirror, and before he knew it he could feel those locks across his shoulders and back. "Ye~eah..?" He hadn't noticed it before, but his voice had changed a little bit during that churring; now it cracked slightly and came out higher still.

"O-oh..? Is..a~am I..?" Ulrich paused to look around the room; it seemed taller than before. It seemed, now that he'd gotten things started, his body was happy to continue in that direction on its own. Looking down at it, he saw his shoulders narrowing, his waist trimming inward, and his arms and legs growing slimmer. He hadn't noticed it before, but his chest and legs—exposed as they were by the dress—already seemed clean-shaven and smooth; a quick feel of his chin found it much the same. "I~I'm..r-re~eally..!" He brought the hand that had done that up in front of his face, then the other one too, dropping the brush to the floor with a brief clatter; before his eyes, those hands shrank smaller and softer, the fingers turning slender and delicate, and the nails even growing out a little longer, shifting into a perfectly-manicured shape.

His heart was racing; his face felt warm. The girl in the mirror had started out with a slight blush earlier, but now her face was as completely red as his felt. Ulrich realized that there was soft, tight underwear holding onto his hips, and that it was now pulling rather tight between his legs. "Oh..mm~mh..?" The upward motion of the room around him settled, leaving him small, soft, and cute; his voice, likewise, was leaving the male range for more adorable horizons. "Aa~ah...I-I'm really..o~ooh...!" A tingling between his legs started, then rapidly grew in intensity. "Aah...rr~rrrh..m-mnn~nnfh..!" Then it was a tugging, and slipping, and...!

"Aaa~AAA~AAAaaah..!" Ulrich's manhood vanished away, the panties hugging her hips pulling completely flat down there. "O-o~oh..m-my goodness..!" Her voice began to settle into a soprano just deep enough to be mature, yet still high enough to match her cute stature; at the same time, she could feel her hips and bottom pressing out bigger, her thighs thickening a bit, and her chest pushing up into the dress, some small breasts beginning to fill it out. "Heheh..hahaha~..! Y-yeah..!" She looked down to see her body looking more and more like the one in the mirror, and enjoyed the fuzzy feelings hitting her down between the legs. She could see where someone might think this sensation weird...but it was wonderful, too! She was really starting to look forward to being a girl for a while!

"Mmh, mm~mmh...mrrr~rrrnh...!" Her tail wagged excitedly as her lower curves settled into place, and her bosom began pushing out a little harder and faster. Soon she'd be..just as curvy as the reflection! Perfectly fit for the part! And...and then she could...? Something! It felt like a concept was on the tip of her mind, but she was a little too distracted by the tingly, girly feelings down there to fully grasp it. Either way—getting into character was what mattered most right now, so she could always figure that part out later!

"Aahh...mm~mnnh..." Finally, the new girl's bust finished growing, leaving her looking just exactly the same as what she'd seen in the mirror to begin with. She was about to look into that mirror again to double-check when there was a knock on the door. "Ah!" Quickly Ulrich turned to the door, starting that way. A knock like that could only mean—it was time for her cue! No time to waste!

"Mrr~rrrrrnnh..." She awoke to the feeling of sunlight on her skin, and slowly sat up in the bed. "Ah..oh..?" Looking down, she found herself in the same cute, curvy body as in the dream, with the same fluffy tail and snowy-white hair! Only..that hair was kind of a mess from tossing and turning in the bed, and she was in quite a state of undress right now—just a pair of panties and a nightshirt half-unbuttoned. Still—she could see herself smiling back in the reflection of the dresser across from the bed—it was perfect!

"Yeah!" Her eyes shone a bright, golden yellow; her teeth sported some fangs. She certainly hadn't expected being part-...some kind of canine, to feel this natural! Let alone being a girl, though that was certainly convenient. She hopped down to go up to the mirror and get a slightly closer look, running a hand through her hair.

"Look at you, cutie~! Aah, this is amazing! I'm so...so..?" She paused, tilting her head as her stomach audibly growled. "I'm...so...hungry!! Aaaaah!" With that, the new girl scampered straight toward the kitchen. She was starving!!!

The Next Chapter: 18

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 18: How Do You Like It?

"Oh. wow!"

The pale young woman stared impassively back as Tokanwa leaned in slightly to get a better look at her eyes. "Can you see through those?"

"Yyyeeeah?"

"That's amazing! I've never seen pitch black irises before. Though, now that I'm looking a tad closer, your pupils are a tiny bit darker still." She stood upright again. "I wonder if your epidermis is anything like a demon's—like, an actually different pigment, since it's definitely not an unhealthy complexion?"

"I appreciate a curious mind, but I'm not a science project, you know."

"Oh! Whoop, sorry. I'm Tokanwa," the werewolf introduced herself, shaking the shorter girl's hand. "You're Mary, right?"
"Guess you've heard of me, then."

"Uh-huh! Nice to meet you."

"..Same. But I think we're supposed to be going to the dining room now."
"Oh—right, right!" She hurried off that way, and the goth girl shuffled along slowly behind her.

"Okay, everyone—this is Ulrich." She heard Nancy's voice from inside the door, and opened it to find her gesturing at an unfamiliar guy standing next to her. "He says he wants to join up, so I offered to let him meet everyone this afternoon to see whether he'd be a good fit."
"Hi!" the guy waved. "Pleased to make you guys' acquaintance."

L'hoxifel was busy carrying dishes full of food out of the kitchen, and behind her—helping with the same task—was a brown-haired wolf-man who had to be Ed. The rest of OZK's members, aside from Mary, were seated at the table already. Tokanwa had had a chance to meet most of them already, but the two-tailed kitsune sitting across from Jay was new to her. They said their hellos to the newcomer while the werewolf went to take an open seat near the middle of the table, and Mary entered after that. Pretty soon everything was ready, and they were invited to tuck in.

The demon-girl's cooking was as delicious as it had smelled, of course. The whole group seemed like a lot of fun, some of them quiet and pensive while others were rowdy and energetic. Ulrich seemed to fit in with the latter crowd, and made no secret of wanting to join specifically so that the house's magic would turn him into a girl. Tokanwa thought this might be a kindred spirit—at least in that regard—and got into talking with him a little bit more. It turned out his desires were more practical than mere curiosity, but he didn't deny having at least a little bit of the latter anyway.

Someone asked Tokanwa about her major, and she energetically talked about some lab work she'd been doing recently. After a little of that, Nancy interrupted her by saying, "Uh, you like to work out too, right?" It turned out Camilla and Rob the cat-boy were on a basketball team, so the three of them talked about exercise routines and sports teams for a bit. Her ears could pick up some bits of other conversation along the way: Ulrich talking with Ed and Jay about video games, Polaris talking some kind of magic jargon with Kyosuke, and so on.

Near the conclusion of the meal, Ulrich said, "So—hey..what do you guys think? Do I pass? Can I join?"

A number of voices gave their various sorts of assent; Mary nodded. "Seems so," Nancy concluded once the noise died down.

"In that case, is anyone free tomorrow morning? As in, bereft of classes? I shall apparently have need of a chaperon to help buy garments and other necessities. It's crucial that I start living here as soon as possible!"

"Uh...why?" Ed asked.
"I must try out for that part tomorrow! Before the doors begin to shut on this glorious opportunity!"

"Well um..I guess, I don't have a class 'till one," he admitted.

"Anyone else?" Nancy asked the whole group. Tokanwa figured she wasn't really being asked, considering she wasn't even a member yet, and so kept quiet—not that she was free anyway. After a second or two of silence and/or head-shaking, she said, "Well, seems like you're up, Ed—if you don't mind helping us out a little. I'll give you the card and instructions later on~!"

"Uh..s-sure."

"Okay!" Jay suddenly stood up. "Anyone who wants to—let's play Smash!" she pumped her fist high into the air, as if this was a meaningful declaration.

"Uuhh.." Tokanwa's confusion as to what the phrase 'play smash' meant was matched by that of around a quarter of the others in the room.
"It's, a fighting game," Ed explained, his tone betraying a tiny bit of annoyance at Jay's failure to give any context. "Video game. Like, four-player competitive. Easy to pick up and play. There're some copies and consoles in the 'arcade', plus enough TVs..."

"Yeah! I'm so in," Ulrich said.

"I shall demonstrate my superiority easily!" Polaris announced.
Mary mumbled "You wish" in her characteristic monotone immediately after that.

"I, guess it sounds like fun?" Tokanwa said. "As long as it's really that easy to figure out."
"It should be," Camilla said. "I'll help you figure it out."

"I'll join second round," Ed added after most of the other members had announced intentions to participate. "Gonna, help with the dishes here first..."

Ultimately, Tokanwa's efforts to play this game amounted to largely—in the gamer vernacular—"button mashing". She still won several matches, however, thanks to Camilla helping her pick a good fighter for a beginner to play as. Ed showed up in female form around the third round, a slight blush on her cheeks, and seemed too flustered to play very well for her first couple of games. And by the end, Mary went completely undefeated, even coming out on top in a three-on-one match against the night's runners-up. It probably helped her that Polaris didn't seem to want to be a team player with those other two.

All in all, it was a fun evening. She did eventually need to say her goodbyes and head out to her apartment. Her things weren't going to pack themselves, after all!

---

After their tour of OZK's house, Alyssa and Beth headed to a Chinese restaurant in easy walking distance to get supper together. "Hey.." Alyssa asked once they'd been walking for a minute or two. "When you saw that...thing, coming out of Mary's back. Weren't you—weren't you terrified?"
"Uhhh, no? I mean—it was kinda freaky looking, but nothing to be scared of, really...considering the context. Heh, I thought it was kinda funny. Polaris must be enough of a jerk to deserve that kinda treatment sometimes, so if anything it's like, a good thing someone's around to keep her in line."

"Hmm." Alyssa thought carefully about how seeing it had made her feel. It wasn't that there was something conceptually scary in front of her, but her body had gone into fight-or-flight paralysis before the sight had even fully registered, and then her mind had followed suit. "Beth...I'm pretty sure, you actually passed a will save back there."
"What, really? Huh."

As they continued, they passed a couple of guys talking. "I'm telling you, man! A house full of cute girls! Full of them!" One of them was trying to convince the other of something, his body language animated and ecstatic.
The other one sighed, just seeming annoyed. "Whatever, man...I guess it takes that many to think you'd have a chance with one."

"Hey, c'mon, that's a low blow!"

"Well, I'm still not over the..."

They turned a corner out of earshot at about this point. "Do you think..?" Alyssa asked.
"Yeah. Don't know of any other thing that could really be about."

"Surely they'd reject someone with intentions like that."
"I dunno. You can't judge a book by its cover, right?"
"...Maybe not..."

Finally, they got to the front of the place, and the third member to join their eventual group. "H-hi," he said, waving. Zurik was a fellow freshman, a guy so short and scrawny that it seemed like puberty had forgotten to finish its job before he turned eighteen. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a generally nervous disposition—like how Alyssa was around strangers, only with everyone instead. She'd felt a certain empathy toward someone like that hoping to meet people and come out of his shell through DND, and had agreed to let him join the group on that basis alone.

"What do you uh..th-think? I-is the place any...any good?"
"It is pretty sweet," Beth said, giving a thumbs-up. "Plus we've got at least two more players."

"This should be an interesting group so far," Alyssa said. "And they'll let us use the space as 'guests' even if we don't join."

"Th-that's great!" The three of them headed inside to eat together and discuss the details.

---

The group cleared out fairly quickly—those who weren't off to play going elsewhere—and it wasn't long before Ed was left alone with L'hoxifel in the kitchen, working together to get the last few dishes into the dishwasher.

"So...uh..."
"You decided on a male form!" She stood up, pre-empting him, and waved her arms up toward him. "Heehee—sorry. I didn't get a chance to say much in all that noise, but you look great like that, Eddy~."
"Oh..um, g-good. I guess...it's still slightly weird, having fur, but I'm also just so used to it already..."

"Soo—!" She knew he was just babbling, and that it was fine to just interrupt him. She was leaning forward and slightly up with a grin. "I think I might like wolf-boys after all~. Let's finish up here and go somewhere with comfier seats."

"Uh...s-sure." Ed realized at this point that he actually was more used to how a girl's body reacted to someone cute flirting with 'her' than how his was reacting to that same stimulus now. His heart racing and tail wagging were nothing new, though.

The demon-girl grabbed his hand once they were done and led the way to the lounge (which was unoccupied) and then over in front of one of the couches. She reached her arms up toward him with an expectant expression. "Um.." Hoping he interpreted this correctly, Ed gently picked her up into a hug, and immediately she started petting his ears and sliding her tail on his! "Rrrufh!"

"Awwh~, that's kinda cute too," she mumbled in his ear once he started nuzzling her. "Ye~esss, I could get used to this~."

"Mmh...mrrrfh...!" While this still felt very good, he was getting a mounting urge to...

After a while, Ed pulled his head back a bit. L'hoxifel did the same, stopping when they could see into each other's eyes. "Fel. C-can um..could we..?"
"Yeah!" she seemed to read his mind, and enthusiastically pressed her lips into his. So he kissed her back, giving fully in to that urge. One of his hands was on the back of her head, pushing her toward him, and he found himself feeling unusually aggressive, not letting her out of it the first time she moved to try. The second time, he'd recovered enough self-control to pull out with her and let both of them catch their breath.

"Pffh...hahah..hffh...heehee..!" She giggled incoherently in between breaths. Ed thought he was hyperventilating at first, but it seemed like it was just a 'part-canine' thing to pant this fast. "Where've you been..haa~aahff..hiding that!?"

"Um..w-well, I've never kissed anyone before, s-so.."

"You're good at it, Eddy," she said, running a hand up and down his cheek, through the beard. "Again? One more?"
"Uh, s-sure...!"

She didn't want out of this one, it seemed. The demon-girl pushed so hard into him that he fell backwards and wound up sitting on the couch—which, maybe, explained why she'd maneuvered them to in front of one in the first place. Ed had to be the one to decide that they needed to come up for air, and was left gasping for breath even longer than the first time.

"Hffffh...." L'hoxifel's hand slid down his arm to hold one of his, her fingers tracing the edge of the ring currently keeping him male. "Eddy...I know it's greedy of me, but. I kinda want it both ways? Can I, take this off for a bit?"
If anything, this offer was something of a relief. After that second kiss, Ed's body was reacting like it wanted to do something...much more extreme than he felt anywhere near ready for. "S-sure, Fel," he nodded. "Um—d-don't lose it, though."
"I'd never!" She protested, sliding the ring down his finger and then seeming to let go of it. He didn't hear it hit the floor, but there were very swiftly other things to think about.

Ed, of course, began rapidly shrinking and shifting from the instant the ring was off. Only a couple of seconds changed him back into a girl (a soft "Aa~ah!" coming out of her mouth at that moment), and within a couple more her breasts pushed out to their usual size, pressing into the other girl's pair. L'hoxifel grinned at her for a moment, stroking her cheek again with a hand.

"Mm~mh...mrrfh." She felt like...reciprocating this gesture. It was a show of affection, after all. Ed pulled one hand from around the other girl's back to try to touch her cheek back, and bumped it clumsily into one of her horns instead. "Uh—sorry."
"Pffhaha~! Y-you can touch it if you wanna," she said, her face flushing redder than before.
"N-no, I mean—I was going for your cheek, s-so."
She grinned. "Touch it."
"O-okay!"

She gently slid her hand up and down L'hoxifel's horn for a moment. Its surface was largely smooth, with horizontal ridges that seemed to divide one section from the next. The end was a spike, but looked sharper than it felt. The demon-girl shut her eyes, smiling and letting out a soft "Mmm~mmh.." Eventually she pushed herself forward enough to press a nose into Ed's cheek and started petting the wolf-girl again.

For a few minutes, Ed lost track of time, and just enjoyed herself. She hadn't really...fully accepted how nice this kind of thing could feel for a girl until now. But something about L'hoxifel saying she liked 'both', the fact that she could turn back whenever now, made it feel like simply enjoying it wasn't going to trap her.

By the end of this, she was on her back with L'hoxifel on top of her. "Heh...this's nice, Eddy~," she said quietly. "We'd better stop before someone comes looking for you, though."
"Um..rr~rufh...y-yeah.." As soon as the demon-girl had pushed herself up enough to see her face, Ed gently placed a hand on one of her horns again. "Th-thanks, Fel."
"Oh?" She blushed brightly again, a terribly cute expression overall. "Heheh...n-no problem! Anytime!"

---

"I think I have a solution. Hopefully." Fritz had classes earlier on Tuesday morning than her roommate did, but they had agreed to wake up at the same time to try to sort out the 'Hendrix being turned into a dog-girl' problem. Even if the victim didn't seem to really consider it a problem.

"Sweet!" She gave an encouraging grin and a thumbs-up. "What've you got?"

"I've...hopefully..figured out how the ring works. To turn me back. So, I'll just..try to do that. Hold still..."

The blue-haired girl held up her right hand like she was getting ready to throw a baseball; a small ball of sparks gathered into the area that ball would be. Then she gently "tossed" it forward, and the ball floated over to the dog-girl's chest. She jumped slightly at the moment of impact. Then..

"Whoa...aa~aah..heheh! I think i~it's wo~orking..!" It took ten or twenty seconds, but by the end of it, Hendrix's body and clothes were back to normal—he was the same man he'd been before last night's accident. "Cool! You can just do that now! Isn't that awesome!?"

"I..guess so. But, uh, there is a problem." Felix took a moment to slip the actual ring on her own finger; standing across from her objectively handsome roommate as a girl was already feeling very awkward.

"Yeah?"

She waited out the transformation before continuing. Then he said, "Well—this ring would come off if I fell asleep with it on..and then I'd just turn back into a girl. So—I'm pretty sure that will go away if you go to sleep."
"Ah. Well, that's kinda inconvenient."
"...Sorry. I don't really know what I'm doing," Fritz admitted. "But—when they get someone to help me go permanently back to normal, I can take you along, and hopefully they can do something for you, too."

"Heh, well—'till then, I guess it's better if we both sleep as chicks anyway," Hendrix said. "But no napping in class for the next couple days, huh?"
"Not if you don't want to have some really awkward conversations."

---

Here it is! The first chapter of this story to not feature an image. But I don't consider that a huge deal. I think we're close to an average of 3 images per part anyway, and that was never really the most important thing. The next couple of parts will continue to have images, though.

Battle Vixens! - 145

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Episode 145: Steady as She Goes

Amp started the call, and they discussed the plan over speakerphone.

"We've got three spots to defend starting off, and after that they'll show up at various points around the city," Clark said. "I've spent some time plotting some fairly efficient 'lines' to use, but we pretty much need three groups no matter what.

"There'll be several of them in that new 'training area' of ours—you know, where the Gigaworm trashed the ground. Might be tricky to move around on."

"Hey, Light and I have some practice fighting there!" Magus volunteered. "I mean—not fighting monsters, but at least with like, how to get around the place and stuff."
"That works for me," Light agreed.

A gryhpon dove toward what it thought was Light, trying to rake its claws into her. "Photon Wall!" Magus called from the side, and the light making up the illusion joined some more light focused nearby, arranging itself into thin, pure-white rectangular barrier that the monster slammed into, shattering it while crashing onto the ground. The real Light came and slashed through its wings, while Magus fired another prepared orb of light out as a bunch of sharp spikes straight from the tip of her blade into its side.

The snakewolf that had arrived with it couldn't see either of them, but could hear Magus, so it charged at her. This was well anticipated, Magus silently transposition-ing out of the way while an illusion of her was left behind; behind it, a tangle of metal wires (a trap spell she'd set earlier) snapped up around the monster's limbs, making it crumple into a ball and tumble helplessly for a moment. Then Light was on top of it, slashing into its body with two swords, and Magus threw a few fireballs into the gryphon while it tried (with no success, thanks to shredded wings) to get back into the air.

"Would it be acceptable to lend us Ning?" Rowan asked. "Wide coverage is crucial for dealing with the swarm. We could trade out Tora, perhaps—she's very efficient at fighting Class 1's, and has higher mobility to easily maneuver from one target to the next."

"I've got a babysitter ready, so, should be fine?" Ning said.

In the city, a dark cloud began spewing out an array of small, flying or crawling red-eyed monsters. Almost as soon as they appeared, a branching bolt of lightning shot out from the roof of a six-story building near VI's headquarters. Ning had one hand gripping a 240-volt extension cord running out through a roof access door while the other one was spread skyward. Electricty arced all over her body, but most of it flowed through the arms and chest—from one hand to the other—to concentrate the charge on the outstretched hand. Whenever there was enough, she fired it out into the sky again.

Several more cords ran next to that one, continuing over to the other side of the roof. They were plugged into a huge speaker system, borrowed from a resident inside, playing some dubstep—and Hugo stood in front of that. The monsters missed by the periodic lightning strikes hit a wall of pressure waves going out in time with the bassline, knocking those that survived the impact itself down to the ground.

A rooftop garden between them had some unusual trees growing out of it. Nico was sitting on a conveniently-shaped branch of one of those near the center and humming along to the music.

"If I stick with Gemma to get plenty of weapons, then maybe Tora can go with my husband," Rory decided.

"Let's do that, then. Better get transport arranged pretty quickly, though," Clark said.
"Already on the way."

"Great. Rory, you'd better start toward the apartment complex, then."
"Alrighty~. Love, you dear!" She took a moment to audibly kiss his cheek, then left, the door-closing barely audible over the phone.

Rory punched a triplet at a nearby building, and the structure's shadow erupted into a short-lived spike to impale it. She caught the "handle" of another one's spiked-hammer-arm, using that to judo-throw it to the ground. Then she held out a hand. "Scalpel."
"You said that one already," Minus pointed out, handing her a longsword made of wind and shadow.
"Forceps?" Rory immediately plunged the weapon into the prone triplet's center mass, slamming it halfway into the ground with a fist and then stomping it the rest of the way down so only its handle was visible.

"We're not even near a hospital." The one she'd thrown at a building was running their way, and Rory accepted an axe from Gemma just in time to swing it straight through that body's middle, erupting black mist off of its body and sending it tumbling sideways.

The third "part" of the monster was trying unsuccessfully to hit an illusion of Plus, while the real one tossed some fire and lightning and rocks at it from one side or another of the fake.

"How about a jackhammer, then?"
"I can do a normal hammer." Electricity and steel wire formed into a sledgehammer, which Rory took and used on the still-prone triplet's head. Minus followed up the axe swing with a few daggers made of some elements not already in use. "We really—" "—need to get moving soon—" "by the way!"

"No worries; these are almost dead. Two swords and I should be able to finish 'em myself, if you wanna start toward the next set?"
"Okay!"

"It's raining monsters!" Karis ran around, jumping occasionally, punching a gauntleted fist through one stunned flying beast after another; her Stand did much the same thing, only slashing with her sword instead.
"Would you prefer it was raining men?" Petra asked. One of her stone fists was holding onto the last survivor of a group of chargers, while the other one exploded apart into a bunch of rock-shrapnel to bury into the front end of a freshly-appearing bear-monster, the combined momentum enough to knock it prone. She pressed the advantage, launching herself into the air by briefly shoving the concrete beneath her upward, summoning her sword into the hand not clenched into a fist to keep the charger held, and then plunged it straight through the beast's neck. She didn't linger, just planting the blade and then leaping back away to the side as it tried to swipe for her.

"I think that'd be more terrifying, but prolly less dangerous at least!" Remedy went over to keep the "bear" busy, slashing into its leg as it stood up and then hopping back just ahead of its attempt to grab her.

"Focus, please?" Zeno caught a few bits of the swarm with some arrows just as they began to get up off of the ground. then threw up a hard-light shield to block a swipe from the bear when it had nearly cornered Remedy.

"I am focusing!" both other vixens responded in unison.

"Send Tora to campus; that's where I'll be." Clark sighed slightly. "The courtyard, same as usual. At least there shouldn't be anyone congregating there this morning."
"Affirmative."

"C'mon!" The basher stumbled, its thin legs tripping over each other, when it tried to turn to retaliate. Tora leapt and slashed into its side, then landed her feet onto it and kicked herself off, the impact knocking its already-unsteady stance completely off balance and toppling it onto its side. "Gimme a real fight!!"
"Please don't ask the universe for a challenge," Clark said, tossing a net of prepared string around the beast's tangled legs. "It'll be all too happy to oblige."

"I know, just—" Tora went back to their first target—another monster of the same type—as it began to snap the strings holding it, and slashed her claws repeatedly through its side. "I really like to get the adrenaline pumping!"

"Well, there's plenty more 'excitement' on the way." Dr. Quinn's left hand was busy controlling a couple of puppets, using them to lure monsters toward them, while her right hand waved about alongside her needle, assembling thread to trap them with. Tora was very good at keeping the monsters' attention on her, allowing Clark to essentially stand still in the middle of the courtyard without much fear of attack. The only thing more reassuring would've been, maybe, Light or Gemma making her invisible too, but if push came to shove, she could always bring out another puppet to take the heat.

For now, a couple of the tentacled rats came along chasing those puppets. Tora seemed to know exactly where those tentacles' blind spots were, dashing in and out of what should've been a dangerously close range to them and slicing into their core masses with her claws without being so much as touched herself. The basher she'd just been working on stood up, so—freed as they were from the chase thanks to Tora—the puppets went to deal with that instead, one of them grabbing the net Clark had just finished weaving while the other picked up and threw a rock at the monster's head to get its attention.

"Miss the rain?" Fay asked, lightly tapping her staff against some surviving pieces of the swarm, each touch placing a point-explosion just big enough to finish that one off.

"Not particularly." Rowan was drawing water up from a nearby storm drain and forming it into some spinning blades to help keep her current opponent—a razor lizard—busy and make openings to slash into its body with her sword. When it backed her against a wall, she let Warp move her out of range; Fay took advantage of its overcommitment to an attack to tap it on the back with her staff, placing the largest explosion she could right inside of it.

It staggered briefly as black mist erupted off of its body, then whirled, starting toward her. Rowan regathered the water that had recently pooled all over the ground into some limbs to wrap around all six of its legs (and its tail), pulling it backwards and pinning it to the wall. Warp took this moment to appear in front of the monster and throw her weapon at it, retrieve it to the other hand, throw it again, and repeat in rapid succession until the mist bleeding off of it began to obscure her vision; then she disappeard again. Rowan tossed her sword at it, splitting it apart into the shape of her water-dragon's "teeth", and reformed some of the water holding the monster into the shape of a mouth just long enough to carry the weapon's momentum into a bite.

"Second one's on the way!" Warp reported; Fay came back to shove another explosion into the lizard's midsection, and then Rowan retrieved her blade to slash through it several more times as it turned indistinct and began to dissipate.

As things started to get more crowded, Magus began to feel like Light had an array of "spells" of her own. A shouted phrase brought down a bolt of lightning from the clouds to finish off the gryphon; another shot a fireball out from her hand to explode right in the middle of a pair of twins just as they formed. She caught the snakewolf's back head in a thin limb of water before slashing through the base of its "tail" with one of her swords, severing it completely and making that part of its body dissipate back into mist.

The mage vixen was hardly idle herself, continuing to use the provided orbs of light to toss out some efficient attacks, running or teleporting herself out of the way of retaliation, and occasionally setting off a prepared trap or two to hurt and stall their opponents. They steadily moved from one end of the ruined street to the other like this, drawing the surviving monsters along with them and constantly damaging them as they went. Soon they came close to the edge of the area, and Light leapt past a wide trench of lower ground, Magus using transposition again to get herself to the opposite side too.

"Ready?" Light asked.
"Feels like it—let's see!" Grabbing the brim of her hat in one hand, Magus swept her weapon in an upward arc with the other. A "seed" previously planted in that trench sprouted and grew out all at once, becoming a collection of thick, thorned structures resembling the roots of a tree, but colored in a similar blue to the "special effects" that tended to accompany Magus's magic. They spread themselves out rapidly thicker and longer, twisting around the limbs and bodies of the monsters that had been pursuing the vixens and holding them tight.

This was a summon spell she'd cast the "first part" of before the fight began, and had been channeling to give it plenty of power and duration ever since. Light went running along the branches once the beasts were caught in them, slashing her swords into one after another and occasionally following up with a "borrowed" lightning bolt or fireball. The mage just kept her sword held out at a forward-up angle, feeding the "Yggdrasil Roots" as much magic as it needed to remain stable against the monsters' struggles.

"Looks like the swarm's done coming out," Ning reported, yelling toward her phone, which was sitting several feet away on a small wooden table.
"Good. Are you feeling any exhaustion?" Rowan asked.
"Nope! Borrowing from the grid super helps, I guess."
"I may have to take a breather, though, boss," Hugo added, stumbling her way to behind the speakers before sliding down to sit on the concrete leaning against them.

"Affirmative. Ning, Warp is on her way to move you."
"Trap's nearly ready," Sam added.

"We're headed toward it!" said Karis. "Got plenty of guests!"

A scorpion tiger was advancing on Plus, while Minus kept a pair of chargers busy. Rory ran up next to the former, grabbing a leg and using it to toss the monster behind herself, landing it upside-down onto its back. She barely even slowed her run while doing this, and only stopped a couple of feet in front of Plus to hold out an empty hand.
"You lost the swords already?" she said, making another new one and handing it over.

"Extra weight. Needed to run fast!"

"Fair enough." The monster was already halfway to righting itself, so Rory turned and grabbed a limb with her free hand again, twisting to turn it over again. Then she hopped onto its underside, gripping the hilt in both hands to slash through it several times.

Plus had already made another sword, so she stuck it into the ground for Rory to get later and ran to attack Minus's opponent.

"Hey, don't these things usually screech sometimes?" Rory asked, sheathing her current weapon into the monster's underside before hopping off of it to get away from a stinger strike.
"I'm muting it.—" "—Have some sound." the noise of one of its vocalization was bent around to in front of Rory and then formed into a dagger, which she caught and then threw into the scorpion tiger's eye as it began trying to charge toward her.

"Great, thanks!" She moved aside, grabbed a limb and threw it into its back again before going to get the sword in the ground.

When the chargers ran toward "one" of her, Gemma had the other one strike them from the back or side. Then they would turn toward that body and start trying to charge, giving the other one a breather and another couple of shots. Since these monsters still couldn't learn anything, she had an easy pattern to follow, broken up only by Rory's next couple of requests for weapons. All three of their remaining targets were looking very indistinct before long, so it was just a matter of keeping them nice and far from each other so they wouldn't merge or do anything else nasty.

The city's vixens converged toward a certain park, letting the surviving monsters from their respective fights chase after them as they went. Sam stood in the middle, surrounded by several interconnected nets of thorned metallic wire, some of which had already closed around the monsters Phoneix and Dawn hadn't already dispatched. Ning was teleported next to Sam, and they exchanged a brief nod as everyone else began to show up.

Limbs of water and hands of stone grabbed and tossed any monsters whose own momentum didn't carry them onto the nets, landing them deeper into the park. Sam set each trap in turn, turning the park into a strange kind of zoo whose freakish collection would be (to everyone's relief) very temporary. The vixens stopped at the rim of the network, where Sam's pair of teammates had already gone a moment earlier, and once the last of them arrived (and the last few of their enemies were caught in the net), Sam yelled to double-check: "We got 'em all?"
A few separate voices called out, all saying some form of "yes".

So Sam put out her free hand—the other one holding on to one end of the wire—and Ning took it. "Light 'em up."

"Yeah!!!" She lifted her free hand to the sky, drawing all of the excess charge recently deposted into the clouds back down toward herself and having it flow through their two bodies and branch all throughout the wire nets, electrocuting all of the monsters at once. One by one they dissipated into mist, the most stubborn of them receiving some extra fireballs or chunks of ice from Cynthia and Don respectively, until they were all gone, the lightning fully spent, and the park was quiet.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

At least Tora was having fun. Clark watched her dart from one monster to another, slashing through them each in turn. Her puppets played support, and she kept tying them up in string whenever possible to keep the heat off. Some of the earliest arrivals were turning indistinct by now, but the two of them they weren't meant to finish off this group alone anyway.

Her ears picked up the noise of two people running, and before long Magus's voice casting some spells. Light showed up near Tora, helping slash apart the "free" monsters while Magus focused on taking out the ones still bound up in string. It only took a couple of minutes for the four of them to finish cleaning up the first of the day's four messes.

---

Amidst numerous reports of a successful defense against the day's first wave of attacks came one less-than-optimistic message:

Good work so far, but don't start thinking like, 'this is supposed to be worse than yesterday?'.

You know full well by now what the enemy is really capable of.

The words "You", "know", and "full" linked to news stories covering increasingly severe devastation and loss of life that attacks over the past couple of weeks had brought on; "well" was a map link, the coordinates pointing to a city in Mexico they had more-or-less completely leveled before Espadas could arrive.

Complacency is the tip of a blade in one's own chest. Be careful, and be ready.

So, if the Giver was impressed or satisfied by the vixens' performance so far, she wasn't showing it.

---

We pretty much get a warm-up victory lap to show off how everyone has learned and grown throughout the story before things start getting bad. Some highlights include Rory fighting a scorpion tiger in a repetitive but effective way; Gemma comfortably playing along with her banter; Magus and Light showing off some of the results of the previous day's training; Ning trusting others to protect her grandkid to the extent of going over to the other town without her; and a whole lot of just "fighting smart" overall. I actually imagine this episode (in an audio/visual format) as being a montage, sort of like some of those scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy that have semi-diagetic music built in.

P.S. I don't know whether sending electricity up from the power mains up into the sky would ever actually "accumulate charge" that could come back down as actual lightning later, but Ning thinks it works that way, so her magic is helping make it so.

Battle Vixens! - 144

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Episode 144: Deep Breath

Marcus came back from his 'training montage' with Light, opening the apartment door to a sight he would have found positively surreal just a week or so earlier: A curvy, blond-haired catgirl lying on the couch asleep, hugging one of the pillows. Yet now, it was just Thad—or maybe 'Thalia'. As worn out as he felt from all of the sparring and experiments with magic, a stray part of his mind sputtered out that he should put on his hat and join her...but he immediately shook his head to dispel the thought, continuing on to his own bedroom. The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful.

After Emma left to negotiate and possibly sign a contract with the VI, Amory headed back to his own apartment. Both of them kind of wanted to go back to what they'd been doing before the call...but there was an eventual, mutual, semi-reluctant agreement that they'd do so the next day, after all the fights were over. It was good to have something to look forward to, maybe, for both of them—and besides, they both had some other things to take care of. He pestered Blake to go to bed early that night instead of continuing to read comic scans on his computer, and turned in himself not long afterward. Well—more like herself, given the plan for the night.

Rowan sighed, leaning back in her chair. Fox ears didn't miss a single whisper, of course, so a neighboring vixen at the table said, "Long hours getting to you?"
"I can't even rest when I'm asleep. If this crisis ever ends, I won't know what to do with myself," she admitted. "I may end up committed."
"Don't count on getting free time anytime soon," she advised; despite her young appearance, this person was in her nineties, if Rowan recalled right. "The cleanup after a hurricane is often far more work than living through it."
"True..." She looked over to where Espadas was busy arguing with an Italian vixen, noting their volume getting louder and their tones increasingly heated, and took a sharp breath in before standing up to intercede.

Simon treated his wife to a dinner out. Sure, he had dramatically instigated a few large-group meals which she also attended over the past couple of days, but that wasn't quite the same thing as just the two of them sitting across from each other at a table, with nobody else around.

"I think I've got her warming up to the idea," he was saying.
"You mean you feel like you've bullied her enough for the moment?" Karis retorted.

"Sure," he said with a small shrug. "There's an art to this sort of thing, you know. Push too little and they'll forget; too much and they'll refuse to do it just to spite you."

"You're not gonna forget that it is Cynthia's own choice what to do with her life, are you?"

"Oh, perish the thought. But it would be a terrible shame for the art world to lose such a talent just because she's a superhero," he said. "Now, look—she's going to have to pass the GED. If going to college is what she wants. And I have no idea how good her math skills are; they might be even worse than mine."
"Now that's scary," Karis said.

"Right? So I was just wondering, you know, pre-emptively, whether you'd be willing to play tutor once in a while. In the event that it's needed?"
"I guess that wouldn't be too bad. As long as she doesn't start burning the books or something."

"Rowan's been helping her learn better control. Besides, I don't think that's the kind of thing she'd have done even before all this."

"Good, good. Say—you're not worried at all about tomorrow, are you?"

"Worrying really isn't in my nature, my dear."
"I know, I know. But, after everything we've been through so far...I admit I don't really like imagining what 'even worse' is supposed to look like. Maybe we'd better, at least, go to bed early tonight."

"Well, I am more or less caught up on my portraits for the moment," he mused. "I've got some projects from before this disaster started that I really should get back to, but I think the people waiting on them will be understanding if I put them off just a bit longer."

"So you spent more than half your day off talking to youg'uns?"
"Yeeeah...but it's not so bad. I mean, it helps I look like one of 'em again," Ning said, "complete with all the energy." She'd called Corporal Samuel Langdon for a chat a couple of hours after her lunch, now that the shop was empty of both applicants and customers. "I got some pretty good applicants once the folks who were just there to gawk had their fun."

"Being the owner of your own business seems awful tough. Can't say I'd be cut out for it."

"Well—what'd you do today, army man?"
"First thing in the morning, back to base to help run a few drills. After that..Simon bugged me to do a press spot in that t-shirt Lucy gave me."

"Lucy, Lucy...ah! You mean No Evil's leader, right?"
"Seems I'm an 'honorary member', on account of missing half a leg. He reckoned it'd be a 'good angle', for me to talk about what it's like going around on a prosthetic."

"Uh-huh. So, did you do it?"
"Aaaafter some thinkin'. On a couple-a things Lucy told me when she was handing over the shirt. It would be awful nice if everyone who's missing pieces could get 'em back as easily as I did mine...or, 'least, something more similar than what they can make now."

"Heheh~, well, I guess even talking to the press can be tolerated for a good cause.

"Hey—you get any time to talk to your kids? Or grandkids?"

"Just over the phone. They gave their well-wishes, told me to be careful, all that. I said they might want to locate the nearest storm shelters, print out some maps—just in case."

"You think it'll be as bad as that?"
"I don't know, but...it don't hurt to be careful. Our 'spy' told us the enemy's got something big coming for us; it'd be a fool who doesn't take a threat like that seriously."

"True. I guess I'll be sharing Nadia's bedtime tonight.."

"I wanna have some fun tonight, too!"
Clark sighed, then chuckled slightly. "You realize that would mostly defeat the point of turning in early, right?" It was good to have his wife fully back. Even if it wasn't precisely the "old Rory", he would still call it a "new and improved" version. But some things hadn't changed.
"Bleeh, nonsense!" Rory said. "I sleep way better after. You're telling me you don't?"
"I suppose I can't argue otherwise." Now that she'd had a taste again, she was back to being insatiable.

...Well, that was something he'd always loved about her.

Ezekiel walked back inside, and then to the office, reporting: "That's the last set packed up and shipped out."
"Good..." Dr. Brand nodded slowly, lifting his near-empty coffee cup like it was made of lead and attempting to take a sip from it.

"Have you considered, maybe...using that younger form of yours instead of ingesting unhealthy amounts of caffeine?"
He glared up, ever-so-slightly, and then slowly put the cup down. "I know my limits. Exhaustion carries between appearances anyway."

"I told everyone to go home, you know—of those who didn't already need to before. It's past 2 AM—we're really testing the limits of 'same-day delivery' at this point. I'm about to head home to catch a little shut-eye myself. What've you been staring at there, anyway?" Ezekiel leaned over the paper on his colleague's desk; the fact he was looking at it upside-down didn't make it any more comprehensible.
Dr. Brand just shook his head in that 'you're-not-a-physicist' way, then sighed. "If our work is done for the day, then I will go to sleep."

"You make it sound like you intend to collapse at your desk." Ezekiel offered his arms over. "C'mon, I can drive you home if you need me to."
"I'm sleepy, not drunk," he said, rising a little slowly from the chair.
"Impaired judgement comes from both."
"My judgement is not impaired."
"Okay, okay—just, take it easy, you know? Maybe sleep in a little bit?"
"This body loathes a late morning."
"That body? What about the other one?"
Dr. Brand glared briefly, then shrugged. "Haven't tested."
"In that case, I'd venture that an experiment is warranted. You've got to get some rest somehow, right?"
"Hmmph."

---

"Let's see..." Amp had her laptop at the kitchen table, and scrolled around a map of the college and town. "Attacks here, here, here..." She was mostly mumbling to herself. "Not exactly simultaneous. If we go from one to the next...three teams might be able to manage it. Probably gonna have to do some kiting, though..."

Her ears picked up Blake getting out of bed, going about a typical morning routine in his room and bathroom...and then he came into the kitchen. "Hey! I've got breakfast in the oven," she said. "Actually—it's prolly done by now."
"Thanks. Smells good," he said, going over to get it out. "We already have warnings?"

"Yep! I was just thinking about the most efficient way to handle the first set. Looks like it's gonna involve a lot of running around no matter what."
"Greeeat." He put together plates for both of them, setting hers next to the computer before sitting down on the opposite side of the table. "How long do we have?"
"At least another hour right now. Uh, the probably bad news is—this is first of four. And she's said there will be 'at last thirty minutes' between one attack and the next, which...isn't much time to rest."

"That's...hmm. If they happen as soon as possible, they'd be over by the afternoon," Blake computed aloud. "But if they're as spread out as they can be, two to two-and-a-half hours between."
"Right, right," the fox-girl nodded.

"You had a look at how things are for our neighbors?"
"Grrmfh," she mumbled through a mouthful of food. Then, after swallowing: "Not yet. Lessee...oh, oof."
"What's 'oof'?"
"The city's getting a 'swarm' like last Friday, plus several Class 1's and a few 2's around to make it extra spicy. They're already putting out public warnings and notices to 'shelter in place'. Aaand..No Evil's town has got something similar to ours. Oh, hey—they added a new team member! Uh...'Love No Evil'? ...Treatment-resistant arrhythmia, apparently..."

"Getting off-track there."
"Oh! Right. Anyway, I'm in a group-text with Dr. Quinn an' Rowan an' Lift in case one of us gets a bigger attack when either of the others has a gap, or anything like that—so we can send support back and forth. The police are volunteering some vehicles for rapid transport, you know, kitted out for a high-speed chase."

"That's good..."

They ate quietly for a couple of minutes.

"Three weeks," Blake said eventually. "Almost a month."
"Yeah."
"I guess we've been over this a dozen times already, but—tell me I'd wake up to a blond, curvy fox-girl making breakfast in the kitchen, I'd have thought someone had been...watching too much anime or something. Maybe sleep deprivation from studying too much."

"Heehee."

"The thing really making it surreal is that it's just so...normal now. I don't really notice it unless I take a step back and try to put myself in that frame of mind."

"I have a cute, strong, brave, girlfriend," Amp added. "I, myself, literally am a classified asset. There are other universes out there—not just a few, but too many to count. Like the stars in our sky, and each one with its own sky full of stars and planets. The list goes on and on, huh?"

"Yeah. And yet, somehow..our lives go on."

"Not if we don't really want them to. Not if we don't keep fighting for it."
"Right—right," he nodded.

"I won't let everything we've fought for and struggled through and suffered be for nothing. Not now, not ever. Today I...today we'll be heroes. And again tomorrow, and..for as long as it takes."

"Pfft. Finish your breakfast, hero. Then I'll put us on a call to figure out who goes where."

"Y-yeah."