The "Best" RPG Ever-49

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---

Everyone wound up at the same big table down in the first floor of the inn for breakfast. Aria was last, immediately behind Clera who was busy making sure she didn't fall down the stairs. "Hey, how are you?" said Lynn once the two of them finally sat down.

"I have good news and better news. I can walk without much trouble now—just getting up and down feels a little woozy still—and last night I managed to 'remember' my other name for the Beacon thing."

"..Is that 'past life' really something you want to know about?" said Zack.

"Yes! It's an interesting plot thread. I can't just leave it alone, right?"

"But it's not real. It's...someone else is putting memories, in your head. That doesn't bother you, at all?"
"It's about as real as anything else around here. Anyway, I won't stop being me just because of a few extra memories."

Rayna, meanwhile, was busy staring at Nora intently. She didn't even notice at first, and when she did she quietly looked aside a few times before finally being too flustered to not respond. "W-what?!"
"I'm pretty sure...yeah. I saw your face before we actually met. It was..." Her eyes flicked around, watching some unseen information scroll past. "...A really old request on the board said that a priestess of...Haestra had gone missing. And to contact certain people if she was ever found."
"I s-suppose that makes sense...th-the bandits who captured me s-said something about me being a missing priestess as well. A-and I've had d-dreams lately of being, there, and leaving. S-sneaking out."

"More of these 'backstory' dreams, I guess," said Lynn. "Complete with evidence showing up in the 'real' world somehow..."

"Who is Haestra, exactly?" said Katherine. "One of this world's gods, obviously, but..."

"I was curious t-too, so I read about her yesterday at the l-library," said Nora. "She of nature and the moon. Sh-she looks like a centaur with brown fur, grass-color hair. Th-there's a scar on her right flank, and sh-she's supposed to be responsible for blessing people to have powers like mine. In legends of the origins of b-beastfolk, she's the most often credited with c-creating many of them. Often her worshipers t-take people 'blessed' by her to serve as her priests, but...th-there really isn't any evidence that she ever ordered anyone t-t-to do that."

"Did you read about any of the other gods?" said Mira. "It seems like it'd be a good idea to be familiar with them, in case someone asks us something or makes a reference we need to understand..."

"Um, I-I skimmed a little, b-but I was mostly.."

"I can tell you," Clera announced. "The side of me from this world knows them well, and sent me an overview the night before last."

"Well, go ahead then!" said Mira cheerfully.

"Hmn. Haestra's brother is Demaeus, he of sorrow and storms. The god of weather and death, who guides the departed to the afterlife. He hides a scarred, disfigured appearance beneath a cloak and wields a scythe. His temples handle funerals, but he communicates with mortals the least of all, so whether he appreciates or demands any kind of worship at all is unknown.

"Sophol is the god of magic, progress, and the sun. He is said to have gifted mortals with magic, teaching them non-violent, utilitarian uses for it and being disappointed to see them turn it to the use of war. He grants inspiration to innovators, mages, and other kinds of thinkers. His statues are always missing their right arm, and hold either a book or a sword, or otherwise are outstretched empty. Despite his hatred of it, he is the closest thing this world has to a god of war, said to intervene in mortal conflicts to aid the wronged side—but the evidence that he actually does so is sketchy at best.

"Sophol's lover is Aphera, she of love and the stars. She is depicted as a beautiful woman, but the exact features vary wildly; sculptors are simply told to portray what they believe a beautiful woman looks like. Her temples house most weddings and are often the richest for money made off of them. She is supposed to be the most peaceful and gentle of the gods, but is also said to occasionally walk the earth wielding a whip of thorns to punish abusers of her domain.

"...And finally, Bimorphaeus, who has no set gender or appearance, over the domain of dreams and memories. He or she is belived to be the main messenger of the gods, frequently appearing in mortal dreams to pass on information, but at the same time is notoriously bad with words, preferring to use the 'language' of dreams—images, sounds, smells or direct concepts—to communicate instead. This makes it far more difficult to be certain whether or not a dream even is a message from him at all. Bimorphaeus is said to have granted some of those who he or she saw had no talent for magic psionic powers similar to his or her own, but quickly made it clear those blessed this way should not be made to worship him or her the way Haestra's blessed do."

"And that's all?" said Aria. "I mean, where's the god of evil and demons and whatnot? Those all sound pretty nice, not even very capricious."

"Then again, so does Zeus if you just give a general description," Lynn pointed out.

"If there is another god then nobody has ever encountered them, and Bimorpheaus has never informed mortals of their existence. Sometimes he or she is seen is as the ruler over the darkness of night, so thieves or spies will turn to him or her for help since no other god seems likely to do so, but even that is a dubious connection. Although they do tend to be very aloof toward mortals in general...wait." She appeared to have a realization.

"What?" Katherine was visibly resisting the urge to just mind-read it out of her.

"Clera—the one from here—said that when she was first brought to the white room with me, she was in a state capable of detecting all kinds of magic, and sensed an exceedingly powerful, complicated summoning spell at work. The kind of spell that would require a great deal of magical power and mental focus to cast; for mortals to do it would more than likely need a great many mages working in sync. If a spell like that was used to bring me here, then it is logical that a similar spell was used on all of us, which further increases the cost to perform such a ritual beyond anything even halfway reasonable."

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense," said Lynn. "I couldn't think of something better than a 'summoning spell' to bring someone from our world to another using magic. And..we were all brought here somehow using a program on a disc, remember."
"You think there was some kind of technomancy involved?" said Rayna.

She nodded. "A big complicated ritual is ultimately a series of steps to be mechanically performed one after another. From a certain point of view that's exactly what a computer program is best at."

Dr. Kellen nodded. "And if indeed some large group of mages were responsible for us being here, then surely at least one of them would have contacted one of us by now. Or at least we would have heard about such an organization. On the other hand, the gods of this world are notoriously reticent. They rarely intervene in mortal affairs in a way that can be proven for sure, and even their 'messenger' speaks in oblique dreams rather than directly. They have among them a god of magic and innovation, and likely every one of them a far greater supply of it than any group of mortals could easily muster."

"You think we were brought here by the gods," Katherine summarized.
"It is a logical theory based on the evidence we have so far. And not only have we been brought, but each of us blessed with power and skill we did not possess before. Beyond that still, who else would be capable of 'creating' histories for each of us, complete with concrete evidence such as people and objects that make those histories appear quite real? However, it must be costly even for them to do all of this, which still raises the question of why."

"And why all girls?" Zack added. "That really makes no sense." Nobody could offer much more than a collective shrug of agreement to that.

---

Rather than everyone attempting to crowd into the Captain's office, it was agreed that just Zack would go as a representative to talk about possibly adding a few more bedrooms (although of course the wolf followed him out). But just in front of the door to the guardhouse, he ran into Reed. "Oh, hey there," he said. "I was just about to ask the Captain where to look for you."
"Why?"

"Well, your house is done."
"Done? It's only been two days!"

"Technically it's been three. We got some earth mages to get the foundation built, then I just needed to figure out how to arrange the rooms you requested. We have some pre-built pieces to teleport into place and slot together, and then added the furniture. I mean, it would usually take a week to build it the standard way, but the Captain paid up front for the quicker method."

"Oh.."

"Well, if you want to see it I can show you to the door, hand over the keys?" he said.

"Um. I guess so. I should get the others, then."

"Alrighty, I'll come with."

They went back to the inn, and everyone came out. Reed looked around at the group and said, "Huh. Seems like you've multiplied since the last time we talked, eh?"
"Little bit," said Katherine.
"I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. The Captain might as well be some kinda prophet at this point. Well, follow me!" He gave a wave and started off before anyone could ask questions.

There were a few parts of the city with a lot of doors seemingly placed too closely together on the wall to have anything bigger than some tiny apartments (or whatever this world's equivalent to that was); Reed led the way to one of those, and then pulled a keyring out, pointing out the door and its address. Then he offered the entire ring to Zack. "Well, there you go."

"Uhh...which of these is..?"
"They're all the same key," he pointed out; on closer inspection, their shapes were actually identical. "I had no idea why she wanted twice as many bedrooms and a ton of keys made, but like I said..."
"Wait, twice as..?" Reed just shrugged. So Zack tried the key in the door, and opened it into their new home.

"Anyway, enjoy the new house!"

The door from town was across from a door leading out to the front yard with Mira's ritual site taking up much of it. There was a fence fairly far out, and a small training yard with archery targets and dummies on it. The building itself was not quite a mansion or castle, but seemed huge as houses go, though for eight people to live there it would have to be. The first floor had among other things a living room, a library (with shelves but no books), a small blank room past some thicker walls that was probably supposed to be the meditation room, a kitchen and a dining room with a huge, long table in it. The second floor had eight bedrooms with a bathroom adjoining each pair (and there were a couple of smaller bathrooms in the first floor). Much of it felt like a modern house from Earth, though without any wall sockets or electronics to speak of. The appliances in the kitchen were differently shaped, but easy enough to figure out the functions of—oven, stovetop, refrigerator, just as expected. There was also a door next to the door to town that opened to a blank wall, which seemed slightly strange. While the place was fully furnished, it didn't have any books, sheets, toiletries or groceries in it, which meant a trip into town was necessary to get those.

Zack insisted that Nora take the bedroom neighboring his. Rayna and Lynn took adjoining rooms as well, and Aria went with Clera. That left the last two to Katherine and Mira, which they had no particular complaint about. For a while they explored around, familiarizing themselves with the layout, before having a brief argument on who should go buy what. Zack wanted to get his own sheets and covers and shower curtain, so Rayna went with him to buy those kinds of things and toiletries for everyone. Katherine knew what a fully-stocked kitchen would need, and asked Lynn to help her get everything from the store and/or market. Nora and the witch agreed to go looking for books, both regular and magical, for the library—after everyone settled on a budget to not go above in that endeavor. This left Aria and Clera at the house, for the obvious reason that the former would have a hard time running all around town to buy things at the moment and everything seemed to be pretty much covered by everyone else anyway.

---

"Well, you were just almost-visited by one of them," said Tsaron, appearing in the Captain's office.

Ezra took a second to glance in his direction, before continuing to rearrange the contents of a shelf. "I think your plan worked. But how did you get that architect to show up with such perfect timing?"

"Honestly? Luck in this case," she shrugged. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if that's technically a 'skill' I have too."

"You have some very nice items there, you know," he said. "Would you like some help with that top shelf?"

"I have a stool." He walked a little closer anyway.

"Is that the Storm-god's Favor in your hand?" he said, indicating a blue-crystal statue depicting a stormcloud. "Where in the world did you find one of those?"

"Someone was just selling it in the street one day. A man in a dark cloak claiming to have an amazing magical artifact doesn't get that much attention from the average citizen. And his original asking price was ludicrous."

"I can only assume you talked it down, as usual." She didn't respond, which was as good as an affirmation.

"Well, do you think this is the right move? Giving them a house is saying 'stay right here' as loudly as you possibly can."

"I haven't had any bad dreams lately. They had two days. And the dragon's domain, which she would not willingly leave behind, is right by here. Therefore..."

"And I suppose we're here, too. Do you think we're the last ones?"

"Possible. I have heard no news, good or bad, about the others. And I'm very good at hearing news. So if they're that far off the radar, I would guess they're either dead or trying not to be found."

"Hmph. I was doing that and I still wound up here."

"Ron, you wanted to be found."

"Hey now, I'm supposed to be the mind-reader."

Ezra stepped down off of the stool, and back over to her desk, placing the Favor on it as a display piece before taking a seat. "You could've left any time after you arrived, but you bought yourself a house and moved in."

"Fair." He shrugged, walking around to the front of the desk to sit in one of the chairs there, leaning forward. "Alright, so I wanted to see you again. Even though we split on such bad terms, we always got on so well before that. I suppose I missed having someone to talk to who has any idea of what I've been through. Won't you admit to the same?"

She shrugged. "It's nice to at least have someone I can be completely honest with. As long as we avoid certain topics I wouldn't mind the occasional chat."

"Oh believe me, I'm as eager to avoid that subject as you are. It just feels like flaying shattered horse bones."

"Good." She thought for a moment. "I have an appointment in half an hour. I know you're not terribly busy, so we'll need to arrange some way to communicate my schedule, hmn?"

"That shouldn't be too difficult. Just let someone else know what it is and walk them by my house every now and then. For the moment, I must ask what sort of heroic and wondrous deeds you did to get yourself the practical ownership of a whole town."

---

Sitting on a couch in their new living room, Aria turned the gem over in her hands a few times. Clera was nearby, watching. "Are you going to do it?"
"Of course. I can't think of a better time or place, too. I just...feel a little nervous still, I guess." She shrugged. "I dunno why. I'm just meeting someone, I've never met before really. But I feel amost like...I'm worried he won't like how I look, or who I am now. As compared to...a technically-fake person, who I never really was and only remember the tiniest bit about being. It's weird."

"Based on what we do know, I suspect he would simply be glad you are alive in any condition. Perhaps...that you are not hurting people."
"Heheh, thanks doc."

"How is your..."

"Bloodlust? Okay for now. I took some extra points in mitigating it not long after I woke up. It's...not exactly what my build's supposed to look like, but better that than flipping out while I literally can't fight. Anyway it'll help in the long run; once I'm the demon and the demon is me these points will still keep me less hungry and less crazy."

"Good..."

"Well, here we go!" Feeling impatient with herself, Aria held up the Beacon and said, "Ares!" For an awkward few seconds there was no response. "Uh...hmm."

"It is possible that the key phrase is not just your name. In case someone were to be in a crowd near

you with the same name, so that it would not activate by accident..."

"Oh. what about, 'I am Ares'?" No response. "Ares Ares Ares. Grrrr..my name is Ares! Wake up already!" She shook it in frustration, only to realize that it was finally reacting, glowing faintly blue. She stopped shaking it and watched the glow brighten steadily to a nice, visible glow, and then remaining that way. "...Okay, I guess that's it then?"
"So it would appear."

She watched it for a bit. "At least it's a pretty color...I-I mean, so now all there is is to wait. Now that it's active...hmm. If he takes so long to show up that I'm better and we go off fighting monsters, it'd really be better if he didn't try to show up where the monsters are. So we should keep this here, and I'll just write a note on the front door that says I'm out fighting monsters, wait a bit and I'll be back."

"..Or possibly the fence gates," said Clera.

"He's supposed to be a teleport mage or whatever, he might jump right past the gate. In which case...I'll put it in both places. And another note right next to the crystal in case he comes straight inside the house after it."

---

I found it best to disobey the writer's adage of "show, don't tell" when it comes to describing the house and living arrangements, because I really don't want to spend several paragraphs or possibly an entire part alone on them discovering its layout room by room and figuring out who's going to have what bedroom and so on when that's really not what the story is supposed to be about. Hopefully it's not too disappointing.

Also, lore! Lore I figured out a while ago and finally found an opportunity to say something about in-story. Hopefully not too clunky of a placement with it.

Battle Vixens! - 27

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Episode 27: Accursed Persistence

Though she was offered a ride, Light insisted on running back to the apartment herself. The less times Gerald was seen driving near there the better, for both of their anonymity's sake. Anyway, she was still feeling reasonably good even after the fight, and guessed that the power boost probably had somewhat of an effect on how much strain she could take—besides Amory's likely-correct theory about food. At any rate, she made it back inside by the early afternoon.

Amory was watching the news again. "Hey, you have fun?" he said, hearing her come in.

She sighed and changed back to Blake before answering. "For certain definitions, maybe."
"I swear, somehow our news anchors didn't get the pun at all until today," he said.
"What pun?"
"Light-Ning. That one."
"Yyeah...that was, Ning's idea." He came around. "So I guess the date went okay?"
"Pretty good. She managed to talk like I was a normal person before too long.

"Look, she wants to keep fighting." Blake sat down. "Be a part of the loose 'team' we have around here. I won't go into too much detail, but she's seriously thought about it and made the decision for some pretty good reasons."

"I see..." He was a little worried. She hadn't seemed too well after the hospital, after actually getting injured. But he couldn't very well tell her no—both because it was her decision and because strategically, every person on their side and willing to fight was a significant increase in advantage. "I guess we'll invite her to the next meeting of everyone if there is one, huh."
"Hmm."

"..So you know, your power wearing off feels pretty terrible," said Blake. "And I think I literally deflated and expelled some kind of white mist, which is hopefully not unhealthy."

"I think that's just visible special effects..."
"Anyway, along with everything else it 'enhances', as far as I can tell, the price gets worse too. You saw how I was acting this morning, right? I couldn't wait to get out of here and chase something."

"Definitely a risk to consider. But actually I can sorta..." He closed his eyes for a second or two, trying to get the thought together. "After doing, let's say, 'full power' like this morning for someone, I can give smaller buffs instead because I kind of 'understand' enough about the power to do that now. It takes less time—and probably has less adverse side effects too."

"That's good to know. Someone really has to be comfortable with you to get the first one, though..."

"Or at least they have to trust me enough to let it happen."

"Rrright."

Blake felt compelled to change the subject as quickly as possible. "..So, did you give my response to Rowan yet?"
"Hmn? Yeah. I did that just before heading out for the date. And sh—and he immediately wanted to know what would be good neutral ground to meet on. I, was pretending you were holding the phone at the time so I had to answer right away, and I just...I went with the quad. It's fairly public, but not too many people around there today."
Blake sighed. "I'm really starting to get bad associations with that spot, you know."

"I know, but...it was just the first thing I could think of that made any sense."

"I admit I don't know of anywhere much better."

Amory's phone buzzed, and he took a look at the message. "Hmm. Should I tell Emma you're here?"

"Go ahead," Blake shrugged.

"...Wants to ask you to test the power control thing again. See if you can...summon her body but let her control it."

"I guess I can do that." He stood up. "Ask her to reply when she's ready."

A few second or so later, the go-ahead went through and he said her phrase again, trying to make it to do as she'd asked.

This time, Plus appeared and Blake didn't have a sense of invisible 'strings' being present, which suggested things had gone as intended. "Ah! I was right," she said, looking around briefly. "I changed back with Minus last time, so..oh, uh, hi again." She waved a little awkwardly at Amory, who waved back just once. "Either way, this means you could summon me if you were in trouble. Both of me if there's time for me to change back and forth."
"Um...you might be in the middle of something, though," said Blake. "And it'd be a problem if you changed or disappeared from somewhere public..."
"But at least one of me could help you right away. Right?"

Blake crossed his arms. "I'm honestly not that comfortable throwing other people's powers around, much less the people themselves..."

"I just mean for emergencies anyway," said Emma. "If you really needed help and there wasn't anyone nearby. I could even have the 'main' body call for more help."

"Don't your powers not work right like this? If I make you appear instead of you appearing yourself..?"
"I think I know what that was about," she said, and waved some of the light in the room around slightly. "See? The powers didn't work right when one of me was 'normal'. Both Plus and Minus need to be around somewhere."

"...Which is one more reason it'd be a bad idea to just summon you into danger." Emma's ears drooped slightly in what looked like severe disappointment.

"Look, I'm really glad you want to help. And, it's not a horrible idea—especially getting you to call for reinforcements. I'm just worried about you getting hurt," said Blake. "I don't want to make a habit of using other people like tools, especially if it involves putting them in danger."

"What if you just summoned one of my bodies long enough to tell me where you are and then put me back so I can get help on its way there?" she suggested. "You could keep me invisible the whole time. That wouldn't be nearly as risky..."

"There's also the fact that the last several monster fights this week didn't take long enough for any reinforcements to really reach them. But—fine. If I'm up against something alone then I'm probably way better at delay tactics than directly killing it by myself," he said, remembering the near-disaster with the twins—the monster twins—up until Rory showed up and began launching them into the atmosphere.

"If I can interject for a moment," said Amory.
"Eep!" Plus hopped back slightly, evidently just now remembering he was there.

"Yeah?"
"How exactly do you learn new powers?"
"Oh. Um, I just, sort of, watch someone using their power. And then, it's like I can," she wiggled her fingers as if that would help explain. "I see, the trick behind what they're doing. And once I 'get' it I can imitate it. But I don't know how to put any of it into words..."

"In other words, though, if you see someone else using their power then you learn a new one. Which means you get more powerful the more people you see using powers."
"Um, right..."

"Well, what do you think?" he asked Blake. "Good idea, bad idea?"
"I guess it's okay," he said, managing to catch on. Then explained for Emma: "I'm meeting with Rowan—um, the policeman I sort of fought with the other day, with the water powers. He's bringing someone else, so maybe he won't mind if I take you with me, too. Then you could see how his powers work and learn a new one."
"Umm...he's from the city, right? There's lots of people with different powers there," she said. "Soo, what if I...volunteered to go help them tomorrow? I could learn a few more that way."

"They're dealing with three to five attacks daily, compared to our usual one," said Amory. "I'm sure they'd appreciate the help, but that also makes it a lot more dangerous for you personally."

"I know, but..."

"If you really want to," said Blake, "then we can ask them. I don't actually know how much authority Rowan has but it couldn't hurt to ask."

"Ohh, thank you!" Suddenly Plus jumped at Blake with a hug, which only lasted a couple of seconds before she realized what she was doing and dropped off, backing up several steps again.

"Um, I-I dunno how but, I forgot you were a boy right now," she said, blushing. "Sorry!"
"That's, okay." Blake turned to Amory, trying to let the awkwardness from that simmer off. "Ask Rowan if it's okay for me to bring someone along to meet him, say I'll explain in more detail why when we get there?"
"Okay..."

And then back to her. "We'll walk there together so they don't suspect I'm pulling anything weird. I guess we'll find out exactly when after all the attacks over in the city are clear. So I guess Amory will text you."

"Mm-hm!" She nodded and then disappeared immediately, probably her other body speaking the phrase to change back.

---

Maybe an hour and a half after Simon left the Initiative's facilities, he was calling and announcing he wanted to join them. Rowan went to bring him some papers to sign about that, primarily waivers that the Initiative was neither responsible for monster attacks nor for injury or anything else that occurred as a result of them. That was not his only reason for coming to handle this personally, although it was a perfectly good reason to give anyone else.

He wasn't sure about this one. Simon wasn't some desperate person who'd done terrible things or lost someone like Don, and he didn't seem to have a particularly strong sense of duty either. He was a not famous but very successful artist living in the upscale part of town almost entirely on the sale of his work, supplemented a little by the meager earnings of a high school teacher (his wife). There was a lot for him, or at least his wife, to lose if he got killed or put into a coma, and Rowan wasn't sure he was taking that possibility very seriously. While uncertain as to the method, Rowan really wanted to test whether or not Simon would hold up under pressure or crack the first time something really serious happened. If he was dependable then his reasons really didn't matter, but...

He got out of his car on arrival, briefly admiring the view of the big house, a fair sight up from his own apartment. There was an upstairs room—a studio most likely—most of whose out-facing walls were windows; the man was lucky his first attack hadn't been while he was there. Humanity was supposed to be past the point of worrying about the defensibility of a person's house, but then monsters started appearing all over the place. Simon opened up almost as soon as he rang the doorbell. "Hello again. Feels like we keep bumping into each other," he joked.
Rowan had the papers in his hand, and wore a serious look before pulling them closer to offer them. "Are you sure about this?"
"But of course! I wouldn't have called you if I didn't mean it. Had a talk with the wife first and everything."

Although he technically wasn't with the police now, there was a kind of understanding that Rowan was allowed to use his sirens in case of the kind of emergency that he was now one of the few equipped to deal with. Likewise, there was a police radio installed in his otherwise-civilian car. While Simon began to move his hands into position to take the paper, Rowan picked up a code from that radio—a code newly invented within the past week. And the location was...

His head involuntarily jerked to one side, to look back. "This will have to wait." He started to turn and go. "One of them just appeared nearby." It was honest, he needed to go deal with that as soon as possible, but at the same time Rowan thought telling him might...

"Well, may I join you then? I haven't really had a chance to let loose yet." There it was.

"If you're sure," he said, continuing to the car without stopping. "Just hurry."

Rowan heard some incomprehensible syllables and Simon came running up already in the other form.

"You know, the tail really isn't comfortable on car seats," he pointed out, heading around to the driver's side.
"Oh, well, I could ride on top of the car!" she said.

"No. Get in." Part of his brain automatically began listing off the laws that would be breaking and the amount of harm to self and others it would severely risk.

"Okay okay."

The siren wailed and the car tore off. Simon struggled briefly with the seatbelt but at least she was putting it on. Then, since Rowan had just roughly dropped the papers on the armrest between them, she took a look. "Hmm. Well at least someone consulted a lawyer," she commented.
"You should be ready to jump out in a minute. It's not far."

"Yep!" Setting it down again, she tensed and moved her hands toward the seatbelt.

"After we come to a stop," Rowan clarified.

The brakes screeched loudly, which could only sound worse to Simon's curren pair of ears, and then they got out, Rowan speaking the phrase to change in the middle of standing up and pulling a sword from the water vapor in the air. There was gunfire and then someone was thrown in the direction of the car, a blur of blue which Rowan dove toward and kept from landing directly in the concrete, setting the person down afterward. It was a patrolwoman from this precinct, probably either the one who called it in or their partner.

Hoping she was at least stable enough to not die lying there, Rowan turned to what had thrown her: One of those fat, feathered hooved quadrupeds with snouts seemingly composed entirely of spiky tusks and horns and the singular, unchanging tactic of "always charge". There were two more nearby, one of which had already noticed her and was getting ready to do just that.

"Ohh, it's my lucky day!" Simon said, raising her own weapons up out of the concrete. She took the sword with her left hand and closed the gauntlet into a fist. "Revenge! Catharsis!"

"Don't—!"

Not particularly hearing that half-warning, the two-tailed girl played chicken with the one that was charging them, stabbed her sword into the ground and vaulted over it just in time for the thing to charge right into it blade-first, tearing itself across the side and spewing black mist everywhere. Rowan sighed inwardly but ran up to follow with a quick stab to its side and then jumped away as another of them charged past. Simon had moved on to punching the third one right in its snout with the gauntlet, which sent it tumbling backwards in a ball and barely moved her an inch.

The one that had first charged them had already turned to face Rowan, and she had to dodge out of the way of that, and then another charge from the second one. Simon ran closer, jumped and stomped both feet into the concrete with far more weight than she seemed capable of having, driving a hole into it and raising some ground up into a big spike right through the center of the second one. Rowan recovered her footing and sliced at that one, then vaulted over it, landing the sword square through the top of its head, in the process of dodging the first one again.

The spike crumbled, freeing its prisoner, and the third charger that had rolled away was on its way back. Simon remade her sword and sidestepped with some time to spare, making a horizontal slash through it as it went by. Rowan saw both of the others coming after her, waited until it was too late for them to turn, and jumped as high as she could and slightly forward, letting them crash into each other. Simon stomped again and raised the ground under her, letting her land immediately and then hop back down, landing her blade into one's head before making it to the ground. The third one came back around after Simon during this, and she punched it in the face again, sending it rolling into the other two and knocking them over just as they had begun to recover.

"These things really aren't too bright, huh?"
"They're highly persistent," Rowan warned, taking advantage of the short break in action to draw together some more of the nearby vapor into her sword again and a few water-blades surrounding her.

All three turned and charged at them from the same direction, making a wide wall of mist monster. Rowan ran to one side, the one on that side following her, and moved around it, giving it constant slashes while luring it into increasingly small circles. Simon stomped, gathered most of the nearby broken concrete into one huge ball held over her head by the gauntleted hand and threw it forward, shattering it against the two of them and sending them flying off in different directions. Then, just as Rowan killed the momentum of hers Simon came up behind it and stuck her sword into it, then pulled her sheath off and bashed it over the head several times with that for good measure.

Rowan followed one of the ones scattered by the boulder, stabbing and slashing it while it was busy trying to stand back up and then getting out of the way when it charged her, directing the charge toward Simon. The other one charged her and she dove aside, rolling on the ground, dropping her sword and losing focus to keep the water-blades going so they dropped away. Then she stood up, made the sword again, watched for another charge.

Simon stomped again and threw the one sent her way by tilting the ground under it to nearly ninety degrees. Then she jumped after it and sliced its underside when it landed on its side. The one she'd just been busy with ran after her, and Rowan moved to intercept it, giving it another slash through the side. Simon just punched it in the face when it got to her, and then Rowan had to dive out of the way of the third one again.

"How do you even tell you're hurting these things?"

"They bleed the black mist. And look blurry when close to death," said Rowan, pointing out the one she'd just cut as it turned itself around.
"Ohoh, let's make this easier then!" Simon stomped another spike up through it, and it made a shrieking, squealing noise, writhing in place briefly before bursting out of existence.

Rowan was paying attention to the other two, and dove through Simon just in time to get both of them out of the way of another side-by-side charge. The same motion continued into rolling off of her and hopping to own her feet again, then offering a hand to help Simon back up.

"Ah, thanks!" Simon pulled the hand, stood up, and then threw her sword tip-first at the remaining two, which were turning around for another pass, then stomped the ground to tilt concrete under them and bowl them over. The sword pierced through one and pinned it briefly to the raised ground, and when the other rolled closer she punched it back in the direction of the other. Rowan ran after it, her water-blades reformed, and after they crashed together and began to stand back up she let loose on both with stabs and slices for as long as she could before taking a couple of steps back, panting and slightly sore from the effort.

Simon ran up and reformed her sword from all of the debris, stabbing it through one of them and destroying it, leaving just the last one. Rowan stepped forward, piercing it through the side with her own weapon, and then stumbled back, bending over in exhaustion. Simon picked this one up by a tusk with her bare hand and then punched it repeatedly with the spikes on her gauntlet until it too exploded out of existence and blew away.

"Alriiight! Hey, are you gonna be okay there?"
"Hhhf...find some..water.." Rowan breathed, starting to pick herself up again.

"Uuhhm..." Simon looked around and noticed someone coming partway out of the door of a nearby restaurant holding out a glass full of water toward them. She ran up, took it with a quick "Hi, thanks!", and then came back, offering it to Rowan. She chugged the entire thing, feeling it briefly unnecessary to breathe and impossible to choke on it, and then offered it back.

Looking a mixture of mildly confused and impressed, Simon took the glass. "...More!?"
"This is sufficient," she shook her head, and turned to the man who'd brought it out, and was still watching. "Thank you."
"No problem!" he said. Simon took the glass back, and they walked back to the car, some people coming out of the buildings nearby to cheer. The two-tailed girl seemed more reluctant to leave, waving to some of the crowd, but Rowan's body language was enough to get her inside and them driving away. There were already regular first responders coming in to help anyone injured, including the policewoman who'd been thrown back at the start, so there wasn't any reason to stick around.

Rowan turned back after sitting down for two reasons: The tail, and so that the chair and mirrors wouldn't have to be adjusted repeatedly. This was becoming a regular habit, really. He started driving back toward Simon's house. "Well, how was that for a try-out?" said Simon, sounding deeply impressed with herself.

"You fight well enough, but you're very reckless," Rowan said.

"I don't feel like there's a lot that could really hurt me like this, honestly," she said. "Well, getting tackled into the concrete hurt a tiny bit but didn't even leave me with a scratch."

"Feeling like you're invincible is dangerous. If one of those things eats someone, defenses don't matter. So stay away from their mouths."

"I see I see."

She turned half around to look back through the side window. "Did we really need to go off in such a rush? I bet some of those people would've loved to chat for a minute or two."
"There would have been a crowd. Crowds are bad for badly injured people and first responders trying to help them."

"Mmm..okay, fair enough. But you've got a habit of doing this, right? Running off as soon as the monsters are dead?"

"You got a point?"

"Well, it makes for a bit of a standoffish image, you know."

"So?"

Simon replied with a silence long enough to suggest she was stunned. Rowan was paying attention to traffic rather than her expression, so he couldn't precisely tell. "...Rowan, I don't know if it's occurred to you yet, but you're famous? Everyone knows about the policeman who got fox-girl powers and then started the whole Initiative thing."
"...I didn't start it."
"Well nobody knows that. Your PR guys really dropped the ball if we're supposed to know who did start it, so the rumor is that you did. Have you just not been paying attention to the news at all?"

"...My focus has been farther out lately." Japan, Mexico. Calls to people all over the country, Canada, Europe; Light.

"Well, to put it bluntly, you are the news. You and every other 'empowered'—which I think is a terrible word for it, something pithier will stick much better. Including me, pretty soon! Why not 'vixens'? I mean, you already named your organization that and then called the people in it something else?"

"It's out of consideration for people who don't like being referred to as animals. Or female." This drive had felt a lot shorter on the way there...but then Rowan remembered that that had been with the sirens on and a lead foot.

"Hmph. I don't mind the word; do you? We should take a poll or something."

There was silence for a good few seconds, and then..."Oh! But I got off track. Look, I don't understand how you and the other vixens are acting, at all. Do none of you realize you're celebrities? In the public eye more every day? Especially the ones like you who, everyone knows your 'real' identity so it's super easy to follow you around or see what you're doing all the time. Why does everyone refuse to take interviews? Why was a normal guy up there explaining what the Initiative is and what it's trying to accomplish instead of you? I mean, you've already been on the news once, right?"

"I wouldn't have been able to answer all of their questions," he explained patiently. "I had barely started working with them myself at the time. And I don't really enjoy being asked a lot of questions with a mike in my face. Comes with being a cop."

"People want to know about us, though. You could show off some of your water powers on the air, probably millions of people would like to get a closer view of that!"
"What, like do a magic show on TV?" he said sarcastically.
"Yeah, but the magic is real! I dunno how to emphasize how important a difference that is!"

"Is this why you want to join us? To be famous?" Rowan tried to channel his other form and keep his voice calm, but that was not entirely doable.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an attraction, but it's certainly not the only reason. It's increasingly clear you need my help! Plural you."

"And why is that."

"Rowan. Rowan. The world at large, is a mob with a mob's mentality. You've been with the police and you know what happens: The public gets angry at all police because of a few bad cops. That mob, right now, is feeling extremely charitable. They're curious and grateful, they like the Initiative and its allies for what it's done and what it's doing—but you know, everyone also knows what kind of power we have. I don't know about you, but I want to take all the advantage I can of that before the novelty wears off. I'd rather work now to become known and loved than wait around to be hated and feared. If the world turns against us then we can't even defend them. But if we ride this wave of positivity hard enough then we'll be America's personal friends before they can even start thinking of us as potential enemies."

They pulled up to Simon's house just then, and after pulling the parking brakes Rowan took a moment to put a hand to his face, shaking it slightly. She was...right. Well, at the least he couldn't think of any argument against what she'd just said. He hated the idea of being yet another troupe member of the public circus more than almost anything else, but among those more hated things was the possibility of the country or the world destroying itself by turning against all of them.

She didn't let up: "You can help your old coworkers out a lot too, you know. A famous person with the perspective of a police officer—a really good cop? I bet you could do a lot to fix the damage that's been done to the reputation of law enforcement as a whole."

He sighed. "I'm...not really the person to decide this," he said, and picked his elbow up off of the forms on the armrest. "Sign those, I'm going to make a call. You have plans for lunch?"

"Nope nope." She shook her head. "I should tell my lovely wife if I make some, though."
"I think you will be."

Rowan got out of the car, taking out his phone. Almost as soon as he did, it went off with a text. Light was responding, finally. Rowan took a moment to deal with that before making the call, figuring Simon would probably take the time to actually read those forms before signing, so there was no real hurry.

Battle Vixens! - 26

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---

Episode 26: The Second Round

Fear.

Raw, pure, paralyzing shock. That was what it was that burned the moment, the vision in his mind. To see one of them up close and personal, not six feet away, simply appear out of nowhere and be stuck in place, the mind caught in a race condition between running away and the knowledge that his wife was right there beside him, and if that thing was going to charge them then he was going to be the one who stood there for it to take rather than let her die. It was a frozen moment, an eidetic flash in his mind—so why was it so hard to draw?

The obvious answers were there, of course. Most of his supplies were back at home; there was no natural light to be found in an interior room, and though he had his sketchbook and plenty of pencils to burn through, their nature was just so..alien. It was like a boar, or a bull, but trying to draw it from that frame of reference resulted in a black-feathered mammal—fantastical, yes, but lacking in that indistinct quality that gave them their unique look. Part of him, the same mad part unconcerned with his own survival that had led him to a career as an artist, thought he just needed to study one for a little longer; if only another were to appear today, close enough to examine, and yet somehow far enough away to not kill him before he could get it all down on paper.

The next two seconds were blurry: a jet of water in front of him, hands like ice picking him up, a blur knocking his wife aside out of the way just before the monster ran past. At the time it had mattered that he was okay and she was okay, and a brief few moments later when it was dissipating into black dust it mattered that now they knew he was a target and had a way to protect him. Two nights later and he was feeling far less appreciative than he knew to really be appropriate. Rowan Shepherd had saved his life, and to go home was to put her and possibly everything else in his house in danger—but if he could just see her in person again instead of speaking over the phone, or reach his studio and paint, it would readily quell the storm in his mind and end the ceaseless pacing around in his room. He could go places only at the inconvenience of one of those protectors, and while home was among the possibilities, the idea of putting her in danger again was simply too much to bear.

He was getting melodramatic again. That was what she'd said on the phone just before going to bed. But Simon couldn't help but be melodramatic; it was an important part of his talent, he would say in response. Anyway, if there was a situation apropos to melodrama then surely it was this one: Monsters appearing in the streets, people blessed by some kind of superpowerful magic entity with powers to fight them—like a Greek legend, or a comic book, or perhaps an anime. All very common purveryors of melodrama at any rate.

He had also had the idea to paint them—the fox girls. Respectful portraits, of course; personal presents for them to have, and maybe pass on to whoever they liked should they fall in battle. They might even appreciate them enough to model for one he could sell afterward. Rowan seemed nonplussed by the idea, and that cold-handed girl looked annoyed, but that was how she always looked, wasn't it? But the best he could do for the moment was some sketches from memory and news pictures off the internet, because again—his paints were at home. If he could just get his paints again—!

Simon only knew of his habit of falling asleep atop his bed with a sketchbook open on top of him and a half-finished sketch with several scribbles of notes that looked like a lunatic's ravings from the evidence after the fact, of course. With what the continuity of his mind was able to recall, however, he was sure he must have done that and maybe passed into a dream when he found himself in a place that seemed oddly familiar despite looking literally foreign: An audience chamber of some kind, with a stage in front. There were people here, but he couldn't quite make them out—which for visual thinker was absurd, so clearly this was a dream. He could make out the decorations on the walls, the overall architecture of the building, and set to work memorizing as much of it as he could. Lucid dreams were honestly quite uncharacteristic for him, but if he was going to have one then he certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to say that his latest work came to him in a dream, with a mystic tone of voice that was sure to sell the painting for a marginally higher price than usual.

The star of the would-be painting appeared only a moment later on the stage—a woman clear and beautiful among a congregation of blurry figures, standing on stage where someone like that clearly belonged. It finally occurred to Simon what kind of dream this really was, and he was excited for a number of reasons not the least of which was the opportunity to give a firsthand visual account of a genuinely supernatural event.

She gave the all-knowing smirk he might have expected from a trickster goddess, the one that says "I know exactly how to save them but I'll misinform you just enough for you to watch them die right in front of you" or something else suitably tragicomic like that. His attention was uncharacteristically drawn to her words afterward, despite the veritable ocean of novel visual experience.

"All of you already know what your world is up against. And now, perhaps, you can guess why you were attacked." She frowned slightly, disapprovingly. "The enemy thought to eliminate those with...potential. Many have already died with no one to inherit their gift, thereby returning them to me. I decided to give those gifts another chance at finding a home. So if you want to be an active participant in this little game rather than a bystander or a victim, you will know what to say to accept my gift for you." A blur of voices; Simon heard something like and not-like his own, and instinctively repeated what it said.

"Now, I'll tell you what I told the first to receive my gift. I will be watching, and if you want to make me happy in return..." She pointed vaguely forward, but there was an impression of her pointing right at him that was difficult to place. "Don't. Be. Boring."

"If you survive, perhaps I will see you again soon," she said with a more mischievous smile. "For the moment, I think it is time for you to wake up."

That was the point at which Simon instantly woke with a start, and found himself in the state he'd have expected to wake up in in the first place.

After a second or two to process everything he'd just experienced, some mental noting down of all he'd seen although it didn't seem the memory was quickly fading the way a dream was normally supposed to, it occurred to Simon that he had some very important information all of a sudden, and he went scrambling for his phone.

Within ten minutes Rowan knocked on his door: the stern, loud kind of knock he associated with police telling him that was who was doing it. That, and Rowan was who he'd called anyway. Simon opened up, and the first thing he said was, "Show me."
"Show you?" with an implicit what exactly?
He sighed as if having expected this much to be obvious. "I believe you, but they're gonna want proof of this claim before taking any action. She should have..taught you a phrase to say or something?"

"Oh! I see." Simon scratched his head. "It's just that I haven't tried saying it myself yet. Oh, I hope I haven't called you over for nothing."
Rowan nodded. "Just, give it a shot."

"Alright then. Here goes?"

It felt so familiar...like a nursery rhyme he known all his life, maybe. The complicated mess of nonesense syllables rolled off of Simon's tongue like an order of his favorite form of vaguely coffee-esque mixture. And that sense of familiarity was joined by an exciting feeling, a rush of—well, something anyway, and it felt pretty good at that.

Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, Simon understood his body differently. It was a collection of former- and would-be dust, a clump of dirt soaked in water and shaped a certain way—like clay. It was clay, and in someone else's hands, perhaps. He felt briefly soft and malleable, and that was seemingly taken advantage of, his body squeezed and compressed down by an invisible potter. His ears were molded up and out, the air pleasantly tickling them as fur appeared there. His hair was teased out longer and longer as he himself grew shorter, until it fell all across his back, some locks finding their way onto his shoulders.

His body was gently but insistently pressed inward, growing slim and small and yet increasingly solid at the same time. One tail, then another, was shaped outward from his back, twisting around each other at first before gently untangling and falling to either side. He felt an inward press between his legs, a gentle change of sex, just before her clothes were torn up and pasted back together as a kind of battle dress: Boots, stockings, a skirt and a robe with detached puffy sleeves over the arms. Her chest was gingerly shaped outward, a modest bust for a modest figure in general. She had a sense of her body possessing the softness of clay and fur merged with rigidity of rock and steel. It seemed seemed to fully solidify after that, a feeling of toughness settling over her that seemed to do away with all kinds of fear.

Simon's hand reached out reflexively, and rock from the building's foundation pulled itself up, tearing through some of the floorboards onto her right hand. A gauntlet it became, and a sword and its sheath, all feeling quite natural to her; the metal felt heavy and solid, yet at the same time light and easy to move by her newfound strength.

She smiled for a second at the way it felt before realizing she'd just destroyed some of the room's floor, and also that Rowan now more or less towered over her. "Ack! Uh, sorry, I don't really know why I did that.." She dropped the sword and the gauntlet, but they just turned into a bunch of loose dirt on the way down. "Aand I guess I don't exactly know how to put it back, either."
"Uh, we'll get it fixed. I think this should be more than enough proof, anyway," said Rowan. "Can you come with me to tell them about the dream?"
"Hmn? Sure." He started moving right away, and she followed, initially thinking that having such a short body—hence a short stride—would have her falling behind but instead feeling like he was going a little slow even with what was clearly a soldieresque quick-march.

"What do you think? I could go home, see my wife and my paints again?" she said.

"Well, you could always do that."
"Right, but there wouldn't be danger from it now. One of those things comes after me again, I could just smash it." She put a fist in the opposite palm. "I feel like I could keep anyone safe!"

"Keep in mind how dangerous those things are, even to us with powers," he said.

"I know I know. But—"
"What you do is your decision, always has been. In your shoes I'd be just as eager to get home," said Rowan. "You would certainly be in less danger leaving here, having powers of your own, if that's what you're asking."

"Ohh, great! I can't wait to see my paints again..."
"Your—"
"I mean my wife. Both! Not, equally. Favor to the lady." Rowan was unable to restrain a small chuckle at her antics.

"Listen...as soon as they see this they'll want to recruit you."

"Recruit?"
"To work with the Initiative. Fight those things. You shouldn't feel that you have to. You should take time to really think about it first."
"Well, sure."
"Don't forget that it means risking your life," he said. "We've tried our best, but people are still getting killed or—eaten by those things even with the largest groups we've seen."

"Right right." But if she fought them, she could see them again. Up close, for extended periods! Nobody was drawing those things and really capturing their essence, the fear they really embioded to those nearby. No camera footage or news interview could get to the heart of the matter, not the way Simon could.

The thinking was done. Well, Simon's part of the thinking was done and the answer was yes yes yes! But obviously there was somebody else affected if she did decide to turn into a serious for-real monster fighter. The better half would have to agree with her, so she needed a better reason than 'I want to paint them'. It was time to start thinking about that...Well, Rowan was leading her into an office now, so it would be time to think about that after telling them about the dream last night and what that gorgeous woman had told her—told them all.

---

The tiredness just after changing back faded as they walked around, easing some of Light's worry about the meeting she'd arranged later that afternoon. Changing back to 'normal' was an awful feeling, like going...dim. As weird as the 'bigger' body had felt at first compared to her usual appearance like this, it just felt good to be that strong and fast and capable. It was almost an...addictive quality. And now that the feeling that came with that form had worn off she realized just how strong a compulsion to go out and fight something—and be a hero—it had come with. That was...undoubtedly something to be cautious of.

Ning sighed. "I think it might be over for me."
"It?"
"Secrecy. Privacy. I was reckless on the way out of my house, tore the door up, and anyone could've seen me doing it too. It was just—it was right there. I couldn't—I couldn't let it get any closer to her." She paused, looking at Light. "At least you'll still be safe. There's no real connection known between our 'real' selves."

"I dunno if we should give up just yet. Maybe you got lucky, hmm? I mean, the door was broken so early in the fight that the cameras probably weren't looking this way at all yet. So, it could've been me or 'you' getting thrown into it by the tail or something."

"The direction of the damage wouldn't match."
"Maybe not, but only whoever repairs it needs to know that. And one repairman can spread a rumor, at worst. Even if he knows, or suspects—I think anyone could understand your need for privacy in this situation. Especially if he sees Nadia's around."

Ning looked slightly insulted. "I won't—"

"You won't what? Use her as a shield? To protect herself?" Light said, feeling like she was pointing out the obvious. "The reason you don't want anyone to know is to keep her safe, right?"
"Yes..." She nodded slowly.

"Then there's nothing wrong with subtly communicating that. I'm not talking about parading your little girl around, okay? Just happening to see her, long enough to understand that you're the only one taking care of her, would be enough. For that matter—your neighbors know about your, uh, family situation?"

"They do. The ones just nearby, at least." She looked around; they were getting close to her backyard at this point. "This is an old neighborhood, Light. Generations live here. We get a few new ones moving in every now and then, and welcome them, but...mostly, everyone knows each other."

"In that case, I'm not sure you have anything to worry about. Any of them who saw you, just upgraded you to 'neighborhood hero'. And if they know your situation then the last thing they'd want to do is betray their new hero, right?"

"Maybe you're right. But, Light, you make it sound so...I don't know...cold. Calculating?"

"I'm just thinking logically, and taking other people's perspectives into account. You can't fully understand any situation if you only look out from your own head, but you have to keep your own goals in mind to make a good plan. I mean—honestly I am being really hopeful in humanity here, that one of them won't value getting to be on TV for five seconds over protecting you out of gratitude for protecting them. But there's at least some reasons you could still be safe here even if someone saw you."

Ning nodded, considering it. Then she ducked inside the back door, looking around. "Nadia?"

"Here!" She popped out from a nearby closet. "Ooh, hi Light!" she waved.

"Hiya."
Ning picked her up in a brief whirl of a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
"Mhm! I hid just like you said." And after she was put down: "Did you beat up the bad guys?"
"Yes...we did," she nodded. "I bet you're hungry by now, too."

"A little." She said it with a bit of a playful tone—child sarcasm, Light thought.

Ning turned back around. "I guess you haven't eaten either, have you?"
"Nnope." Light instinctively brought a finger to the tip of an ear, twiddling it slightly. "To be honest I got some, uh, advice that I should probably eat to keep my powers from burning out as quick, and was on my way here to see if I could get a sandwich or something, pay you back later?"
"Hmph. You don't ever need to worry about paying me back, Light. Come on, let's see what there is in the kitchen."

Nadia hopped down off her chair and marched off to the bathroom in the middle of the meal. This was as private a time as they were going to get, Light thought. "Okay, listen," she said quietly. "What happened earlier—everyone who was being targeted by those things got powers, apparently."
"Everyone? So—"
"Right. Amory's power is like...a meta-power. It can strengthen anyone else's powers. So, doing that to me made me look like...that, and have some better powers than usual. But it's temporary. And she can't fight."
Ning looked surprised. "She can't—"
"Not at all. The—that woman told Amory that he's completely immune to the mist things while changed, but..this needs to stay as secret as it can. Without any ability to fight, Amory could get kidnapped and forced to use it on someone he doesn't want to."

"I see.." Ning nodded. "Thank you for trusting me with this. I would've bought that you'd found some way to 'absorb more light' or something, but then I'd ask you to teach me to do something like it..."
"Yeah. I kept an image of my usual look up for any cameras there were, but I can't really disguise my voice. As soon as I saw you fighting that thing I knew I was gonna have to decide what to tell you. It didn't take me all that long. After all, we're partners, right?" She held out a hand.
"Heheh, yeah." Ning took the hand gently for a second or two before they both dropped it. "Although this marks only the second time we've actually fought as a team."

"I would say we should fix that, but honestly the less fights are necessary, the better," said Light.

---

The first thing Simon did when his wife came to the door and opened it, saying his name in a tone composed equally of surprise and delight, was step forward, take her in his arms, and kiss her for the first time in three or four days, with enough passion to make up for the lost time. She returned it just fine, hugging him lightly back past the end of it. "Well, I'm happy to see you again, too."
"I'll bet. Your wounds have healed, I see?"

"What, those scratches? I get worse than that in fourth period every weekday. So what're you doing here, huh?"

"I have good news and better news, my dear," he said with a grin. "The good news is those things are probably not hunting me anymore."

She raised an eyebrow and stepped back slightly. "Probably."
"The better news is that if they are then I can do something about it myself!"

She put a hand on one of her own hips. "What, did the scary new government agency give you experimental monster repellent or something?"

"No no no. Karis, this is far too amazing to share with the door open." She rolled her eyes, but indulged him by stepping back enough that he could come inside and close the door behind him. "You know the weird dream a lot of people had a week ago that started this whole mess?"
"More or less. Not personally."
"Well, I got to have one of those last night. Evidently the reason I and everyone else was attacked was because we had 'potential' of some sort, to have powers like that."

"Are you telling me that you got turned into a furry?"

Simon opened his mouth and stayed quiet for about ten seconds, which seemed to have been the intended effect based on that 'trying very hard not to laugh out loud' expression on her face. "Okay, first of all that is not what a furry is, and secondly the more salient point here is—"

"You get superpowers, right? What kind? What do you look like as a kemonomimi, huh?"

"It's no fair when you put out my fire and steal my thunder. Well, maybe I should just show you."

It had, fortunately, been established for him that for some reason the weapon automatically gets summoned with the first time, but after that you can decide whether to bring it out or not. Paying for some new floor just for the sake of this would be worth it, but not needing to was even more so. Simon spoke the word (or words? hard to tell), turned again to clay and reshaped into the two-tailed form from before, everything there save the gauntlets, sword and sheath. "..And there we are," she said, sweeping a hand over her appearance. "Cute, right?"

"Yeah, but..that's, not the first thing I imagined you'd say."

"Hmmn, me either. I guess I must like it, though. This is supposed to mess with your head a little bit." She flicked her ear once or twice, considering it.

"You're nice and flat, too. I can't imagine how you'd handle having real jugs," said Karis. This sparked a mild fit of annoyance in Simon that didn't feel entirely characteristic; after all, she was basically right. Having less weight and volume there made it easier to get used to the body, even with all the other strangeness. But she still pouted long enough for her wife to get a laugh out of it.

"Hahahah, that expression is hilarious. Cheer up, you do have a nice pair..of tails!"

"Oh yeah, that is pretty unusual I think," she said, picking one of them up in a hand. "I'm not sure if it really means anything though, a lot of people seem to get weird extra traits like horns or multicolored eyes or whatever." It slid off again more or less on its own. Her fur was...very soft, actually.

"Mm-hm." Karis crossed her arms. "So what kind of powers did you get?"

"Um, earth powers I think? Pretty sure. I can grab the ground and throw it around, or stomp and make it jump up. I don't look it but I feel super strong like this, too."

"Show me!" she said excitedly.

"Uhh...I don't really wanna tear up our floor, dearest."
"What about pottery? That's made of dirt, right?" She pointed to one of Simon's own works decorating a small table in the entryway.

"I can generally tell when you're trolling, you know. But that seems like it should be close enough, let's see..."

Simon carefully lifted the pottery up off of the table, instinctively holding out both of her hands and waving them around with the intended motion of it. She was able to turn it a full 180 in the air before setting it gently back down again, clapping her hands a bit. "That was harder than I thought it'd be..I don't think it's so well tuned for picking up priceless works of art."
"It just looks like you're using the force," said Karis. "Still, that's at least a little impressive."

"Anyway. I was thinking since I can do all this, I should put it to good use," said Simon.
"You going to stomp out a sculpture in central park?"

"...That's, not a bad idea actually. If I can figure out the precision for it...but! Not what I meant. I mean I can actually fight those things like this. Obviously I would do so if they dared encroach upon our house, but more importantly, I thought it might be good to help out the defense of the city in general."

"What, you? Have you been using a time chamber and not telling me? I mean—you're wonderful in all kinds of other ways, but you've lost a fight with a paper bag before."

"That was the staples," Simon protested. "Anyway, expert fighting skills come free with the powers. You didn't honestly think every person who got powers before me was some kind of expert martial artist or swordsman or...marksman or whatever, did you?"
"I guess I didn't really think about it. So you're thinking of going out and risking your life for the greater good?"

"Right right!" she nodded.
"...What's in it for you?"

Simon pretended to be taken aback by it. "You wound me, my darling," she said, putting a hand close to her own chest. After giving Karis long enough to give a skeptical glare she said, "Just think about it. I can get so close to these world-changing people if I am one. They'll trust me after I fight alongside them, maybe save some lives back and forth. I could draw portraits of them—I could draw those monsters themselves, give people who never had the misfortune of coming near one the idea of what it's like to see it up close, all without the risk!

"This is a major turning point, and I can make works that historians will refer to for centuries! That's not even beginning with the fact that everyone who gets powers like this is more or less an instant celebrity. I don't know why everyone else is so averse to talking on the news, you know—give me five or six days and I can have this Initiative thing funded solely by merchandise, turning whoever's in charge a massive profit and obviously taking a modest gain in exchange."

"I think there are literally dollar bills in your eyes," Karis observed. Simon also noticed that she had started leaning forward slightly and clutching her hands up in the air during all of that. Her wife just sighed slightly, "Well, at least I know you haven't been replaced by someone else."

"I really didn't mean to go quite that into it, eheh."
"I suppose, even with motives like that at least you'll be doing some good." She patted Simon's head a couple of times and rubbed her ears, which felt rather nice, causing the fox-girl to lean forward into it. "Just remember you're in more danger than the monsters. There was a lot of death near the beginning, you remember. Anyone else with powers might come running to kill you, and more of them the more well-known you become."

"Mrrr..let 'em come. Fame is a far better shield than anonymity, and comes with barbs—people don't like their favorite celebrity getting killed, you know. And it's so easy to get revealed and stay revealed forever, but a famous person is always famous—or at worst turns infamous."

Karis said, "So are you sure you're not a furry? You do seem to like the ear rubbing."

"Bwaauh!" Simon hopped back and away a few steps, blushing furiously. "I told you what a furry is and isn't. You even used the right word earlier! A-and I can't help what feels good to this body."

Her wife just laughed out loud again. "I would ask 'can we keep her?', but you're already kept. Are you planning to use a superhero name or just stick with the real one?"
"I hadn't thought of that! An alter ego name would be way easier to brand..."

"What about Petra? Roughly similar to the Greek for rock?"

"That's perfect!" She pounded a fist onto her other hand. "You might have a real talent for this. Maybe you can come up with something for that water-girl who saved us, or those professors at the university..."

She crossed her arms. "I insist that whoever I come up with names for actually approves the name themselves. So I'll be keeping it to myself unless we meet in person about it."

"Aww..."