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."