Battle Vixens! - 18

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Episode 18: Poor First Impressions

Don understood, she really did: This was a test. It was known that she wasn't violent toward people, wasn't inclined to really do anything particularly bad, so letting her wander around on her own wasn't considered a risk as far as that went. The test was whether she'd run off and then probably that waterbending cop would show up and knock her out or shoot her or something, or if she'd just be lazy and do nothing, or if she'd actually do what she was supposed to do and somehow or other get a phone number into that Light chick's hands before meeting back up at the spot she'd been dropped off.

It just didn't matter that this was a test. It was stupid. She walked around, seething, thinking of what might be happening back in the city. They were already getting short of people who could fight those things, so why ship someone perfectly capable out to a place which clearly had an abundance of them instead of finding some pretext to lock one of them up and take them there? Surely at least one of them had done something criminal by now, right?

The internal rant was interrupted by the noise of thunder. Her giant fuzzy ears twitched. Thunder? Looking up in the sky, it was clear as could be. Well, it was coming from..that way. She wasn't all that familiar with these streets, but it shouldn't be too hard to get over there. She started running, shoving aside a couple of people in the way (but not so hard as to actually hurt them...probably), thinking this looked like one of them. A moment later, there was a flash of lightning from the sky, straight down at a particular spot, and another roll of thunder. Okay—white clouds generally don't do that, especially not on a sunny, slightly cloudy day. This was definitely one of the people she was supposed to "ingratiate" with or whatever. It seemed likely to be a fight, so just join on in that person's side and everything would be great.

Don turned a corner and finally saw what all that lightning was about: A giant bulb thing, a purplish blur caught in a larger dark blur of its several tentacles. Gross. She took a deep breath, starting to amplify the cold in the air around her. A faint blue glow swirled around her as the temprature dropped. She jumped back at the wall of a building just behind her and kicked off, going up and forward. "RRRRRAAAAAAH!" The energy coalesced into a big, sharp spike of ice all around around the leg she was leading with.

The ice shattered on impact, jagged pieces raining down on the thing's body and limbs while her actual foot impacted it in the middle of its body-bulb-thing, taking it down with her. She knelt on top of it, more cold swirling into thin blades of ice in her hands to stab into it. It made a low, rumbling noise in rage and started swatting at her with its tentacles. Don turned over onto her back and held her hands up, making a shield of ice to block each blow and shatter in the process while continuing to pump the heat out of the black body behind her. This wasn't a good place to be for very long, but if whoever she'd just rescued was in a good enough mood maybe they'd take advantage of this little distraction.

There was the noise of another peal of thunder, and Don sort of saw the flash from it; it didn't seem like it had done much of anything to the monster, though, which was concerning. Only then she heard footsteps running up to one side and some chopping noises of sword through tentacle, near where they were attached to the body. Okay, that was slightly better; that attack was slowing down the tentacles coming at Don.

It was about time to get off of this ride. She rolled over toward the opposite side of the body from the one the sword-person was on, leaving behind a block of ice and briefly turning off her power to fool the thing into thinking she was still there for a precious few seconds. Before long Don was able to stand up, hearing that ice shatter on impact, and followed it up by grabbing the nearby bases of two tentacles, one to each hand, sucking heat out as quickly as possible. Those two went limp, but of course there were always more. She was forced to jump back, back, aside, back, as it tried to counter, making another roar like an earthquake in the process.

It skittered, turning around so the base of its body faced her. Oh, that's where the mouth was. Why did these things have to have mouths? Well, Don had something to feed it, a special gift straight from Cynth. She sidestepped another tentacle and made a fastball-pitch motion with her right hand, sending a blue fireball straight inside of that ugly gaping mouth. Then it was clearly time to jump as the thing somehow ran forward on its tentacles right at her; the leap came with a somersault and a brief roll on the ground before standing up and turning to face the thing again.

"Um—thanks." The person she'd seen fighting it and making lightning before was next to her now; a brief look registered purple hair, very short, a kid or something? Looked scared—not that Don blamed her for that.
"Talk after it's dead," Don said tersely, holding up her hands to allow a giant sword of solid ice to appear in them. The monster was standing back up again, so she started running toward it.

The next tentacle to come toward her was dodged, and the huge weapon, with all of Don's ability to suck heat out of things channeled concentrated onto its blade, sliced right through, chopping it off and leaving it to briefly writhe before exploding into black mist. Another one came after her and met the same fate. Then there were two, but she didn't need to worry about one of them because the tiny girl chose this moment to jump in and block with an electrified sword; so those two became about one and half, with the whole one convulsing uselessly. The charge continued, the smaller girl flitting around and blocking two or three of them at a time while Don methodically dodged and cut them off.

It really seemed like this thing's supply of limbs was endless, but the distance to its body wasn't. Before long they were close enough for Don to slash at the roots, cutting every tentacle based on the front side of its body free. This she followed up with the highest jump she could manage and a chop right through its body. finally shattering the ice-blade midway through. The small girl ran up its body and stuck the longer of her blades into the partial cut, electricity starting to arc and jump all around her body as she pumped it through the weapon.

Don landed in a kneeling position, panting heavily and hoping the wild whipping around she was hearing was just involuntary convulsions because she wasn't in a good shape to move right now. The feeling of everything starting to get too hot was the indication that she was running up toward her limit. The giant beast began to collapse to one side, looking blurry and indistinct but still solid; the smaller girl finally fell off of it, awkwardly landing on one foot, losing her balance from that and falling onto her back. Don finally stood up, harnessing the heat she felt into another fireball just over one of her hands and lobbing it at the thing's side. That was the final blow needed, and another earthquake-roar just as obnoxious as the first one came with some weak wriggling around just before it fell completely apart and blew away.

The purple-hair girl was still lying on her back, panting up at the sky. Don took a few steps to stand over her, getting the first good, actual look at her appearance. ...Yo. You need any help gettin' up? Goin' someplace to rest?"

"No, I...just here...for a second," she replied breathlessly between gasps for air.

Don knelt down, grabbing a hand. "Come on—no naps in the road here, right?" She pulled the girl up to a sitting position while she was busy taking another gasp at how cold Don's hands were. Then she waited for the girl to catch her breath.

"Um.." She looked up at Don, blinking a couple of times. "So, you saved me. Thank you."
"Ain't really a big deal. More like I attacked something you were already fightin'," said Don.

"Not to be rude, but who are you? I seem to keep being the one to meet people..."
"Ahh, Don. You?"

"Err—Ning." Fake name; she wasn't so sure about it at first. Well, people could play around with that all they wanted, it wasn't against the law or anything—yet. Just, what kind of name was that anyway? Couldn't pick anything cool, or at least halfway meaningful?

"Well, Ning," Don tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice when saying the name, "you ah, ain't a friend of Light's, are you?"

"What if I am?" she said, immediately suspicious. With the reaction that other girl had before—did everyone actually hate this person?
"Look, I got a message from Officer Shepherd—that's the one who shot at her a couple a' days ago."

"Go on." Okay, no; this person was a friend of Light because the anger was now directed at the person the message was coming from, straight through the messenger of course.

"He's sorry about that and wants to talk about some stuff. So I got a personal phone number if Light feels like callin'. There's a big effort to coordinate things in the US, y'know, and maybe Rowan—ah, Officer Shepherd—ain't got accurate information, but Light looks to know most of the—y'know, like us—around here. So, the right person ta start askin' about coordinatin'."

"I see..I can give her the number," said Ning. Looked like she was still deeply suspicious, not directly admitting to being a friend. That was fine as long as what she did say was the truth.

"You need it written down? I forgot to bring any paper or pens or nothin'.."
"I should be able to remember a number for ten minutes," Ning said, clearly annoyed. To Don, being annoyed at the suggestion of a short memory seemed like an older-person trait. So what, this tiny girl who didn't even look past puberty was secretly a geezer? More strangeness in all this.
"A'right, a'right. Listen:" She said the number. "Ya got it?"
"Yes," the small girl nodded, and repeated the number. "Anything else?"

"Well, can ya stand up now? I won't feel great leavin' ya in the street there."

Ning sighed, and pushed herself up to a standing position. She looked tired, but uninjured; perfectly capable of walking away. "Satisfied?"

"Yeah. Just make sure Light gets that number, tell 'er she can use a burner phone, hide somewhere weird, hang up if anythin' makes her mad, whatever. It's just, I'm in even more trouble if it don't look like I delivered it."
"I'll do what I can," she brushed herself off. That seemed like the best Don was going to get.

"Okay then. I gotta go, make sure my town's still standin'. You keep yourself alive, hear?" Ning seemed a little surprised at that last expression, but nodded. Then Don turned around and headed off, not running but taking a brisk pace of a walk.

---

Blake (or rather Light after a brief stop by a restroom on the way) was not content to just sit around doing nothing. Once they went into the camera-free surgery room Clark had taken up as a temporary place of magic-based healing, she wove and bent the light around until they could see a clear image of what was happening outside. While she was figuring that out, Amory actually talked to Clark.

"How are you feeling?" She was sitting in a chair, looked a little tired maybe.

"Pretty good. A lot better than I thought, physically. About as good as I expected otherwise."

"So...you've been using your power to heal people, huh?"
"Yeah. I think I lost count after fifty." She gave a big, genuine grin.

"..Got it!" Light moved the 3-d model of the fight going on outside to the middle of the room where everyone could see it, resizing it to be a little larger. Rory was being thrown by one of the mist-things, but landed just fine.

"I guess I don't have to worry about her."
"She was worried about you," said Light. "Did you say fifty, how are you not uncsoncious by now?"

"I..don't know, really. I was limiting how much healing I was doing, enough to bring them back from the brink, you know." She took a long sip of the coffee Amory had made while Blake was in the bathroom. A deliberately unguarded break room near the waiting room they'd started out in had just finished making a pot; to a cup of that add generous sugar, creamer, and get something that at least didn't cause her to make a face. "Even then, it took a lot out of me every time. But whenever it was done, I felt better again. Like they were saying thanks and giving something back. It wasn't ever quite as much as I spent, but it was enough to keep going, every time."
"Hmm." Amory had a thinking expression. Outside, the two bodies of the strange girl who'd been following him yesterday split up, each one chased by one of the monsters. "It sounds the same as how Light recharges from being in a well-lit place. Maybe each power comes with some way of replenishing when you get tired."

"So mine's from healing people? But it isn't even enough to break even. Not much use, huh?"
"Maybe it depends...there's some kind of balance you could strike in some cases. I agree though, it wouldn't be much use if you ran out of string or whatever in the middle of a fight."

Light, who was watching more intently than the other two, gasped. "What? What happened?" Clark looked over.

"Look," she pointed with the hand that wasn't being held up to 'maintain' the image. "The body that ran in to warn us just got slammed into by one of those things..." She started to stand up.

"How bad is it?" Clark immediately hopped up and walked closer to try and get a better look, but it wasn't a very high resolution image.

"I don't know, but she's not getting up."

"The other body just knelt over," Amory said. Rory was busy tearing apart the gryphon that had done it, and went to the prone body as soon as it started to fade away.

"I should go out there," said Clark. "There's no danger, they're both dead now anyway, right?"
"We should all go," Light agreed, dismissing the image. "I'll make us look 'normal'. You came in in human form, right?"
"Yes. You remember what it looks like?"
She thought for a second. "...Yeah. I guess I do."

They started running through the halls on the way out, not nearly as fast as Light could run but more Amory-speed, which was also slow enough for Clark to handle, even while tired. They wound up in a hallway adjoining the badly-shattered entrance and nearly ran into Rory carrying the hurt body and going the other way. Light carefully rearranged things so the illusion wasn't on for Rory but still worked for the cameras.

"What are you doing out of your room?"
"We saw most of the fight, with Light's help," said Clark, starting toward the hurt girl.

"No, no—not here! Somewhere.." Rory saw an empty room nearby. "In there. Quick." She pushed past them inside, and Clark was the first one in behind her. There wasn't a camera inside, thankfully, and there was somewhere to put the girl down.

"Now?" said Clark, with some impatience.

"Yes, go. Fix." She waved. Clark put the bulb-end up of her needle to the groaning girl.

"Not great...some broken bones in really awful places. But no internal organs damaged, that's good. I'll take care of the bones, make it where you can walk again, I think that's the best I can do right now. Hold still, understand?"
She made a hoarse groaning noise in what seemed to be reponse. Clark touched her side gently with the bulb and a soft blue glow spread out from it over her before fading. The effect wasn't visibly obvious, but her breathing went from gasping staggers to steady, normal breaths and her eyes sort of fluttered open for a second, looking around the room before shutting again.

There was a knock on the door. The girl lying down croaked, "Other me...has a voice still, kinda." Rory nodded, and opened the door; a silver-haired girl came in, looking unhurt but like she'd spent the last few minutes sobbing. Looking around the room, and then particularly at Clark she said, "Thanks. It still hurts, but, not nearly as bad."

"Glad to hear it. I'm sorry you got hurt in the first place."

"No, it..it's fine." The dark-haired body slowly swung around to a sitting position, groaning slightly in the process. "I guess that's bruises..."

"Right. You should probably take a day or two off for that to heal."

"May I introduce you?" said Rory.

"Mhm."

"This is Gemma. Two bodies, Plus and Minus," she indicated each in turn—the injured one being Minus. "Gemma, my husband Clark healed you. Amory, but I guess you know him somehow? Light." Her reactions to each were very clear: She nodded gratefully toward Clark, blushed feverishly and refused to even look at Amory, and then fixed Light with a glare, her ears folded well behind her head.

"..What?"

"So you're Light, then."

"What...about it?" She made a valiant but unsuccessful effort to think of some way she could possibly have offended this girl without even meeting her.
"It's, nothing," she looked away, trying to make a more neutral expression but failing (especially the ears). "I-I guess, thanks for staying in here with him..."

"Are you okay?" said Amory. "You're acting kind of weird.."

"Er, I-I'm fine," she said, instantly nervous. The dark-haired body hopped down onto her feet, taking a second to apparently get bearings. "Um, I-I need to get out of here before the newspeople come. I don't really, want to be on camera answering a bunch of questions..."
"It's a little hard to get out without attracting attention," said Rory. "I mean, they're probably surrounding the building at this point and trying to figure out where the side entrances are 'till all that glass gets cleared out."
"I can help with that," said Light, "just make us invisible on our way out, and and let you off wherever you want."
Minus shook her head emphatically no, but after a second Plus said, "I—sure, thank you." To a brief questioning look, she said, "Um—I'm just, getting m-my responses mixed up, p-probably that body's head took a hit or s-something." Well, it probably would be confusing to be in two bodies at once—but Clark hadn't said anything about a head injury.

"Okay then. If you're ready, then let's go." Rory gave directions to a side exit, and they headed out. There was silence while they were in the building, with one or the other body occasionally giving Light a look that was hard to make sense of. Then they carefully snuck past the news crews and got to quieter streets. From there, Plus led the way to wherever it was they—er, she—wanted to 'appear'.

"I don't really know why you're mad at me," Light said quietly.

"It's, I'm not. I'm not mad at you. I just." Minus made a hoarse growl of frustration; it seemed like she was having trouble putting the feeling into words.

"Well, I hope you can get over it eventually, whatever it is. I mean, I like you just fine."

That seemed to genuinely confuse her. "...Why?"

"Well, you've saved or helped save a friend of mine's life twice now. Besides saving a ton of other people by getting the message to Rory about some of those things attacking the hospital. I'm, really sorry I wasn't out there to help, but she wanted to make sure her husband was safe. It looked like you were doing fine right up until.." She trailed off, finally looking at one of Gemma's faces and realizing that this seemed to be doing the polar opposite of reassuring her.
"Mrrrgh, just stop, please."

"Stop what?"

"You, you're making it...J-just, listen. I'm no hero," she said. "I, I just...—" "—I don't understand what I'm doing," Minus half-whispered, sounding terrified. It took her a second to realize she'd said that part aloud at all, and she violently shook both of her heads, eyes closed, for a second before looking around. They'd come to a pretty quiet street, well away from the hospital. "Here, here is fine!" she said.
"Okay."

"Look, you...you don't have to fight those things," said Light. "I know what it feels like, when one of them shows up, but...think about, whether the risk is worth it. I decided for myself that I wanted to fight them, and I'll do my best not to die or get put into a coma in the process, but I've accepted that it could happen. It's a decision worth actually thinking about instead of letting it get made for you—right?"

Plus shook her head, some tears starting to stream from her eyes. "Just...just go away, please. I...—" "—It won't end well if we meet again." She looked at the other body, confused for a second at it seemingly continuing to speak out of turn. The tone had been mostly cold, but with a touch of the fear from before still present.

Light looked back and forth between them for a second, still profoundly confused as to what was going on with her. Concerned too, of course, but her continued presence was obviously not going to improve things. "Um, sure...I, hope you can figure things out," she said, and ran off, turning invisible again.

---

Almost as soon as the other three bodies left the room, Rory said, "She likes you."
"...What?"
"You heard me. Whoever Gemma really is, she likes you. Not just a little, too—I'd rate that crush maybe a six or seven out of ten just based on her reactions in the last two minutes."

"That would explain why she was close enough to protect you so fast yesterday," said Clark. "Probably planning to talk to you, or just stalking maybe..."

"Seriously!?" He wasn't sure what to think of the idea of having a superpowered stalker.

"I bet she also thinks you're dating Light," Rory added. "Hence all that hostility on display toward her."
"Dating—!?" he started to react with incredulity before jumping forward a few words. "Wait, hostility?"

"How did you not notice it?" said Clark. "Oh, and weeee, just let them run off alone with each other. Whoops."

Amory looked at the door, back at the Quinns, repeated a few times. Part of him wanted to chase after them, but he knew there was no way he'd catch up; he wouldn't even know where to look for them once outside. "Well, at least one of that girl's bodies isn't really in any condition to fight right now, and Light's at a hundred percent, so odds are pretty good they don't kill each other," said Clark. "On the optimistic side of things, you know."
Something occurred to him. "Wait, wait...she's...so..."

Rory asked, "What?"
"The price. What we talked about earlier," he said. "If she was already...before last Friday, then..."

"Price?" said Clark.
"Fill you in in a minute, dear. So what, you think she's fighting monsters because of you?"
"That's, pretty literally it, yeah. There's compelling evidence for it, too. I think I need to sit down." He quickly found a place to do so.

"Ummh..." Clark's attention had been drawn to a TV left on in one upper corner of the room, tuned to the news. There was a monster other than the gryphon there, and a bolt of lightning striking it.

"Holy—! Is that live?!" said Rory, already getting ready to probably punch her way out of the building if necessary.
"Mmmno. Looks like...yeah, they're cutting to an interview." Rory calmed down again, looking at the TV too.

"She made sure I could get up and then ran away," said Ning on the camera. "Said her name was, Dawn I think? Whoever she is, she saved my life. Hey, do you have any folding ch—?" the editor cut her off, going back to an anchor.

"Well, at least she's alive too," said Rory, sighing. "That makes another one, right?" Cue the anchor mentioning that 'Dawn' was a known fox-girl from the next city over, and a brief blip of footage of her standing alongside another, much shorter girl—brilliant red hair, wreathed in flame.

Their TV-watching was then interrupted by Light's voice from just inside of the door suddenly saying, "Hey, what'd I miss?"