Battle Vixens! - 29

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Episode 29: Satisfy

"Stop tearing yourself apart!"

"Donny...you can't just keep beating yourself up like this. Yes, you did something wrong, real wrong, but you've gotta forgive yourself and move on. If you don't, it's gonna kill you."
"And who cares if it does, huh? Who?"

"Well, I would for one thing."

But you're not...

"You don't think anyone cares about you now? People you've saved this past week, even if they have no idea who you are, where you came from, what you've done? They care about you not because you have power, but because of what you chose to do with it."

...

"You always try to do the right thing Donny, even when you're a total idiot about it. Promise me, even if I'm gone, that won't ever change."
"Cynth.."
"Promise!"

"Alright, alright."

Dawn was leaning forward in the carseat, with her head in her hands. There was engine noise, and besides that, quiet. There was a flood of tears in there that she really didn't want to let out, and was to some extent trying to physically prevent. Rowan waited patiently for her to sniff a few times, lean back, and take a deep breath, letting out through the nose.

"...Since we're alone, I thought I should ask you again. Are you alright?"

"Not really, nah."

Another period of silence. "That girl, with the twin power or whatever. She's, got more fire than it looks like," Dawn said. "She said somethin' that just...I felt like I was talkin' to Cynth again for a minute. Couldn't take it."

"What did she say, if you don't mind me asking?"
"...I might need to take a day off tomorrow. Once one doctor gets a look at me they'll probably want a lot more looks."
"Hm. Well, someone has already volunteered to fill in," said Rowan. "I doubt there will be any problem with that."

She tried to look over at him for a second. His expression was neutral, unreadable, aimed straight at the road ahead. Still, Dawn couldn't help but feel like he'd gotten something he wanted out of this trip, even beyond the full use of those water powers.

---

They had missed the monster of the day. Rory was disappointed, but Clark was just relieved that everyone seemed to be okay. Well, that and satisfied to have proof that at least some of his ideas on creative uses for Light and Ning's powers held water—particularly turning a sheath into an electromagnetic cannon was impressive and fascinating to see. Maybe he could move her on to getting a functional railgun going, or else a coilgun. Then again, Light was also displaying some new abilities—ones Clark hadn't suggested and wasn't quite sure of the origin of.

In the midafternoon, Amory called Rory's phone. Clark was busy catching up on some grading at his desk, and mostly just overheard a series of "yeah" and "uh-huh" sounds until she hung up and came to him. "Amory wants to show us something he can't talk about over the phone," she announced. "He'll be here in the next ten minutes or so."

"Alone? What's uh, Light doing?"
"I don't know. I guess we can ask about that when he gets here."

"..You know, it's occurred to me. How is our house at all private anymore?" said Clark. "We announced that we have superpowers days ago. But I'm looking out my window right now and not seeing a bunch of paparazzi," he waved.
"Oh, uh..that might be my doing."
His eyes narrowed a bit. "What did you do?"

"Wh—I didn't hurt anyone or anything. Just, Wednesday morning I woke up really early and there was a bunch of people out on the front lawn. And I yelled at them, a lot. I don't even know exactly what I said 'cause I was half asleep, but I'm sure I remember something like 'we work at the college! Our numbers are publicly available if you want to talk, but we've got jobs to do and can't do them with a bunch of idiots harassing us.' And I think I wrapped it up with 'now get off my lawn before I throw you off', and then slammed the door and went back to bed. So...maybe that spread a rumor that I would literally throw people off our lawn if they bugged us. Not that I actually would, but it's understandable since I actually could—purely physically speaking."

Clark put a hand to his forehead, shaking his head a bit. "I feel exceedingly lucky that nobody's sued you at this point."

"That isn't even the fifth time you've said that about something I did," she said. "I was tired and they were making noise. Anyway, maybe someone's watching from a long-distance camera or something, but as long as our blinds are shut when we don't want them to know what's going on we should be fine."

Clark just went back to grading. A little later, Amory arrived, with Rory opening the door. "Hi stranger, come on in." He stood up and went to the living room to meet them. They stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds or so after arriving.

"So...what's this about?" said Clark first. "And where's Light?"
"She's...meeting with Rowan. That—policeman from last Monday. Emma's there too."
"And they just left you on your own?" said Rory, crossing her arms.

"Yes. I'm perfectly fine on my own now, because of what I wanted to talk about." He seemed to think on it for a second or two. "Or...maybe I'll just show you first and then explain."
"Well, don't let me stop you," Rory waved.

Amory nodded, and then said...a phrase. Evidently his phrase, which everyone present was reasonably sure hadn't been a thing the day before. And changed into a short, pretty fox-girl in pink clothes. Clark's wife gave a small gasp. "Oh wow, you're adorable! Isn't she?"
"Yeah, she is very cute," he nodded. "...Uh, wait." He scratched his head. "When and how did you get powers, though?"

"Last night. Um, it's not exactly a normal power though," she said, tapping index her fingers together. "I'm supposed to be immune to the mist monsters, but I can't actually fight myself. Just...I can make other people's powers stronger."

"I see...did you do that for Light today, then?" said Clark.

She nodded, "Mm-hm! By the way...why was that the first thing you said when you saw this form?"

Rory and Clark exchanged a brief glance. "...I don't know. I mean, you are, but that isn't really the kind of thing I would blurt out normally," she said.

"Light did the same thing," said Amory.

"I wonder if it's somehow one of your powers..." Clark suggested

Amory frowned. "How would people announcing that I look cute be useful at all?"

"Have you shown that form to anyone without powers?" said Rory. "It might be a test you can use to tell someone has them, whether they want you to know about it or not."

"I haven't, so I guess that's on the table. I really...don't want to, though. I feel really weak and vulnerable like this, and I'm not immune to like, being stabbed or knocked out and carried away or tied up and kidnapped..."

"That sounds horrible," said Rory.
"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. This is just, something that needs to stay as much of a secret as it possibly can."

"So, you can make people's powers stronger," Clark repeated.

"Right," she nodded. "If a bad person with powers finds out about me then I'm a huge kidnapping risk."

"How's it work, anyway? Do you just wave your hand at a fox-girl and they're stronger than before?" said Rory.
"Oh, no. It's nothing convenient like that." Amory wrung her hands a little bit, nervously. "Uhh...I have to, pet the target a little. Orr, a lot."

"Pet?" Rory said. "Like...ear rubbing? Tail brushing?"

"Mm-hm."

"That is super awkward."
"You don't have to tell me. But, that's the only way they work. And it's a temporary effect that wears off after a while, so..."

"You can't just do it once," Clark finished. "I don't know whether it's worse news that your powers work like that, or that they make you an even bigger target."

"Okay!" Rory clapped suddenly, making both of the others jump. "I want to see it at work. Try it on Clark."
"Wh—me?"

"Of course you. I can't see it if I'm in it. Anyway, if I did it then you might get jealous, since Amory is sort of a guy."

"And you won't get jealous even though she's literally a girl right now."
"I'm not the jealous type, especially of someone a decade younger."

"And you think I am?"

"Uh..do I have a say in this or anything?" Amory interrupted, looking slightly perturbed. "Not that I actually mind, but..."

"Oh, sorry. Once we start arguing it's easy for me to lose track of other people."
"We weren't arguing," said Clark, "just.."

"Arguing," Rory said. "Anyway, you must agree this is important. We need to understand everything we can about these powers, after all. That makes this valuable research!"

Amory twiddled the tip of one of her ears. "I haven't even mentioned thaaat..I have to 'fully' power someone up first and then I can do minor power-ups that don't take five minutes."

"This makes it difficult for me to say no," said Clark. "I was going to lose that discussion eventually anyway, I guess."
"Argument~!" Rory half-sang.

He went ahead and spoke his phrase, changing into the third girl in the room.

"But!" Amory said. "Doing this also seems to amplify a person's 'price', or..certainly something like that. Light was reeaally eager to go out and find a monster to fight. Changing back undoes the power-up, so we'll be safest if you agree ahead of time to do that if you feel tempted to leave the house."

"I'd like to think I'm rational enough to keep it together anyway, but alright. Now what?"

"Uuuhhm..." She looked around the room briefly, and waved to the couch. "This is much easier sitting down, I think. There's some risk of falling over otherwise." Clark followed, sitting on the opposite side. This still felt really awkward, especially with Rory there watching, and her first instinct was not to get very close to the blonde-haired girl.

Amory looked a little worried. "Are you ready? Sure you're okay with this?"
"It's fine. Just, a little weird, still."
"Okay then, just...stay there."

Amory leaned over and Clark found that it required physical effort not to draw back. But when she did make herself hold still, she soon felt the other girl's hands on her ears and immediately began to relax. It was a very calming, pleasant feeling somehow, and made her eyes cloes and her tail start to swish back and forth behind her as she leaned slowly into it. Eventually Clark's head just fell into Amory's lap, churring softly at the nice feeling. Then the other girl took a small break to gently pick her head up and pull her closer, and she found herself helping out by crawling forward on the couch a bit until finally their arms were around each other and their faces really close.

"M-mrrn? Rrrrh~!" Clark was startled slightly by the feeling of something warm and fluffy on her tail. It was...Amory's tail! And it was...slowly curling its way around hers. If having her ears rubbed had felt good, this felt amazing. There was so much more surface to feel it with, and so much more to feel of the tail than the hands. She collapsed forward, her arms tightening their grip, her nose finding the other girl's cheek and her throat repeating the pleasant churring from before. She began rubbing slowly as the hands returned to her ears again, and found it difficult to think of anything but continuing to hold Amory as close as she could so she wouldn't stop doing this.

Clark began to feel something deeper than the body pressed against hers, the warmth-like feeling her powe usually sensed, but particularly the one unique to Amory. It was so much more than a warmth, though, closer to a fiery blaze in comparison to the usual, and with their bodies entangled this way it felt like it was fully surrounding her, and beginning to kindle something. She felt the glow that represented her power when borrowed by her wife expanding, growing too large and hot to fit inside of her and therefore flaring out into a bright blue aura. Along with that, her body grew slightly taller, her chest slowly pushing forward slightly. The feeling of lightness she always had in this form grew stronger as well, becoming a feeling of total weightlessness, the capability of movement untethered to the Earth below. Without really thinking about it she enveloped Amory with her aura and lifted them both off of the couch into the air, their legs dangling just over it.

Eventually Clark's warmth came to feel equal to Amory's, and the changes eased off. Her clothes seemed to shuffle around on her slightly, and then Amory let go of her ears to return the hug with a tiny bit of urgency, seemingly only noticing they were off the ground just now. She let out a soft, comforting churr and gently set them down on their feet in front of the couch before slowly disengaging the embrace, her tail still reluctant to let go of the other girl's.

She opened her eyes, taking a deep breath and examining her appearance. Her body had grown maybe an inch or two taller, with a mid-sized bust replacing the usual small one; her clothes had changed to something like a shrine maiden kind of outfit, but the skirt was still blue. The aura she had felt during the change was still visibly blazing around her body like a fire. Then she looked to Rory, who was..in fox-form now, and seemed very pleased.

"That was adorable to watch, and now I really want a turn," she said. "But first—how do you feel?"
"Amazing! I think I can just..." Clark pulled herself upward with a small flex of the will, floating a foot into the air. Amory stepped aside, the tip of her tail finally leaving Clark's with one final brush. "...Pretty much I can superman-fly. I don't think it has to be just me, either."
"Oh? Can you pick me up too?"
Clark tried holding her hand out to Rory, and some of the aura surrounding her went over to her wife. Then with a small upward wave, she was lifted up as well. "I think I can only do this for someone willing. No good as an attack."

"Not directly, maybe, but gravity exists," said Rory with a slightly vicious grin.

"Well, any strange, overstrong urges showing up?" said Amory.

"Um.." Clark dropped both of them to the ground (gently) before facing her. "Not really?" She held a hand up before her face. "I feel certain I could heal a lot more people like this, more quickly and with less breaks. But I know better than to go flying out to the hospital like an idiot. We'll just have to bring you along next time I'm doing that. If you're okay with it, I mean."
"I can't argue with saving lives..."

"What about the string-stuff? Anything different with that?" said Rory.

"Hmm.." The needle was still in her ear at the moment, but Clark didn't feel the need to reach out and take it. Without even moving her hands the needle pulled itself out and threaded into the air in front of her, flying around in a complicated arc trailing string that not only glowed, but appeared to have caught the same fire as the aura around her own body. Then it returned to its usual place, and the big knot of string was easily drawn back to her aura, where it seemed to melt back out of string-form. "I guess this makes me even more of a mage than usual. I don't feel any tougher or anything."

"I bet you could just throw that aura itself around as an attack," Amory suggested. "At least against the mist monsters."

"Oh, probably!" Clark smiled and put her hands together, the latter a slightly unusual expression for her, but one that somehow felt natural at the moment.

"So, my turn, right?" said Rory. "If you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind," said Amory. "Using my power doesn't seem to tire me out at all like other people's powers do..."

"All this after talk of worrying about me being jealous..."

"Actually, I want you to watch very carefully. Then we'll discuss what we both saw. I want to know if you'll see what I saw."

"Ooh, kaay?"

"To the couch then!" She grabbed one of Amory's arms and led her back to it, setting her on one side and sitting on the other side herself. "Whenever you're ready?"

---

"So..what was wrong exactly?" Light and Gemma were taking a slower walk back to the apartment complex for now, covered by the usual invisibility.
"She looked—" "—...starved, just like it sounded. Her stomach was...—" Minus waved incoherently. "When I looked at her body was doing,—" "—the thing I really noticed was that her power was pumping heat in from the air to use as energy.—" "—That's why her skin is so cold all the time. She should be getting that from food and isn't. I don't know if—" "—I think something worse might be wrong with Don's normal body, to cause him to not eat and then...—" "—but surviving off of only the heat like that is messing her up too. It, technically works kinda, but it'd be like surviving on a diet of exactly as much sugar as the energy you use up. And—" "—stress! So much stress. I don't know about mental, but it looked like a general,—" "—overall physical problem that registered to me right away as a massive ball of stress. I wouldn't be surprised if there's sleep deprivation in there, too."

"I guess in that situation, anyone would be stressed, maybe have nightmares and trouble sleeping in general. Wonder if we should've asked them to stay a little longer and had Clark take a look.."

"No, Clark's power only heals wounds.—" "—this was all other problems. He might be able to, um,—" "—say more about exactly what was wrong but the vague gist I saw is enough to know we need a real doctor here.—" "—Anyway, I think I struck a nerve or something. She didn't even want to look at me after I said that."

Light nodded.

A little later: "...I guess you successfully 'copied' Rowan's power?"
"Oh—" "—yeah." Plus tried pulling a little of the water vapor out of the air; she waved it around a bit, and then briefly formed a third knife for that body out of it. "It's a little harder to 'make' fire...—" "—my best bet is probably using electricity to spark a bit of grass or something."

"So it is fire? How do you know without trying it out?"

"Umm...—" Both of her scratched their heads. "—I don't know. It just feels like it makes sense."

"Anyway, if it is fire you'll be really good at putting out any fires we don't want—even if water won't work. Just tear small pieces off and throw them into the air away from the fuel source so they go out."

"Oh—" "—I hadn't thought of that!"

"So what do you do with more weapons than hands? Assuming you're not letting Rory borrow one."
"Um...—" "—I could probably throw the ones that're easy to get back. Or—" "—if one element is more useful than another for some reason I can use that one specifically."

"Err...—" "—I just realized, we didn't really work out the details of how I was gonna get to the city. I mean—" "—I could drive, but then it'd obviously be me."

"I got the impression that Rowan wants to check with his superiors for a moment before making it absolute. And then he'll probably call or text Amory about it. I could call one of you up when he does that?"
"That'll work," Minus nodded.

---

Despite verbal claims to the contrary, Rory actually had experienced a small pang of jealousy. Not "romantic partner" jealousy, but "watching another kid eat a piece of candy" jealosy. Even though she was sure she ought to find it at least a little wierd, one of the most dominant thoughts she had while watching Amory 'power up' Clark was how much fun it looked like and how soon could she do it, too. That anticipation of getting a turn had caused her to nearly-unconsciously say her phrase and shift to her own fox-form right near the beginning of it all. On top of that, her husband had seemed visibly hesitant about it, tensed and almost ready to literally run away, up until the newly-powered girl actually touched her ears. It was like night and day from there, with her falling forward into Amory's arms and practically begging for it to continue.

Rory had had her ears and tail touched by Clark both while he was male and while they were both foxes. It felt...nice, but not quite to that level. The conclusion was that there must be something supernatural about Amory's touch when it came to other fox-girls—which did make sense considering it was already the channel for her amplification of their powers. She hoped that Clark would come to a similar conclusion or maybe have a useful theory she hadn't thought of, distracted as she had been with wanting a turn; since her husband had had a turn already, she might be a little more focused.

Finally, of course, she was deeply curious how her powers might be enhanced by this. Light seemed to have gained some more light-ish powers, like teleportation and somehow dual-wielding one sword, and definitely had more energy for illusions. Clark's "magic power" had expanded into a beautiful blazing aura that let her fly and even help others fly with her. Rory's powers were all body-based, but she wasn't sure it was possible to get much stronger or tougher; maybe she was wrong about that, but perhaps there would be some exciting new aspect to them she could play around with this way.

"Whenever you're ready?"
"Um, okay." Amory gave a slightly nervous smile, which was just amazingly adorable. Nearly every movement or expression she made since changing to this form was mercilessly cute and just made Rory want to pat her on the head and give her candy or something. It wasn't like there weren't other cute fox-girls—Light, her husband of course, that cop-turned-Initative agent (or whatever the right term for someone working directly with them was)—but Amory had managed to top all of them in just the past few minutes. It was something in her mannerisms while like this, maybe her voice?

The internal attempt to quantify or at least find the source of the cuteness was interrpted abruptly by the feeling of some small, soft, delicate hands on her ears. "MnnnNNnnh~!" Rory responded by immediately pouncing the other end of the couch, grabbing the smaller girl halfway through it so they wound up both lying down, Amory on her back with her head on the armrest and Rory directly on top of her. "Eheheheh!" Realizing she'd had such a violent reaction, Rory couldn't help but giggle briefly, a blush heating up her cheeks. Amory actually giggled back before gently wrapping her arms around the taller girl, and then running her hands up through Rory's absurdly-long hair back to the ears again.

"Mmnh..mmrrrrh.." Rory pulled the embrace a little tighter, enjoying the feeling of Amory's sizable chest against her own. She'd always had perfect control over her strength, and felt especially capable of keeping her handling of the small, fragile-feeling girl more than gentle enough to be safe just now. Her eyes fluttered closed as she began to gently rub her nose against Amory's cheek, her own hands running up through the smaller girl's hair to begin rubbing those soft yellow ears right back.

Amory returned the nuzzling quietly...and then there were the tails. Amory's tail curled around in front of her, along the side of Rory's hips to brush up against her tail. As soon as she felt it Rory let out an actual yip, followed by a calmer "Rrrrh~" while her own tail lay itself down the same side and helped tangle itself up in the smaller girl's fluffy fur. Rory found her noises and movements steadily slowing and calming in response to Amory's continued touch, feeling no less excited but somehow much more satisfied as it went on. She let out a slow, softer "Mrrrrh~" which Amory echoed back.

Now Rory could feel a gentle tingling all across her body, spreading down from her ears and in from the tail. She felt as if Amory's hands, though they were only on her ears, were starting to remold her body slightly. Rory found herself stretching out inch by inch even taller than she already was, her bust expanding yet more, her figure growing steadily more voluptuous. At the same time, her muscles gently tightened up, indeed gaining strength beyond what she'd felt possible before; she felt more flexible too, and more agile and energetic and even more invincible than usual like this. But that wasn't all, either; as Amory continued to mold and reshape her body, Rory couldn't help but feel that she was coming to understand more and more just how that was being done, and how to do something just like it herself.

"Mrrh..rrnn..rrf.." The changes continued for what felt like such a long, pleasant time but surely couldn't have been more than a minute or two. Eventually Rory could hear a slight ripping and shuffling noise from her clothes; her first thought was that she had grossly outgrown them before realizing they were actually changing shape significantly. And soon after that, the changes slowed to a halt. She remained there, petting and nuzzling the smaller girl, for a long moment before finally getting a hold of herself and pushing herself up off of Amory, swinging up onto her feet in a single rapid motion.

"Hahah, wow..." Her heart was racing and her face still felt pretty red; she looked around the room, trying to figure out how tall she was/process being so tall.

"I know, yeah?" said Clark, coming a little closer. The top of her head barely reached Rory's chest; bearing in mind that her husband had gained a little bit of height too, she must be the size of a slightly taller-than-average man at this point.

Amory sat up on the couch, rubbing the back of her head a bit. "Umh, how do you feel?"

"Amazing! Great! I don't have words for it. Like I could pick up the whole planet and throw it into the sun!"
"Please don't actually attempt that," said her husband with a slightly concerned look.

"Well, obviously not. I mean, my house is here. Anyway—uh."

Since she was looking down into Clark's face, it was only a small shift in view to get a better look at what her clothes had turned into. The skirt, tights and boots had reduced to some black denim short shorts and some sneakers, with the top converted into a halter top that barely even covered her resized chest, let alone the slim, muscular midriff below that. "Uhh, you don't pick what your vic—uh, target's clothes turn into, do you?"
"N-not that I can tell, nope." Having had attention called to that outfit, Amory was blushing and looking away—still impossibly adorable.

"Oh well. So my usual powers are a whole lot stronger, but I think I got a new trick too."

"What's that?" said Clark.

"Watch this!"

Rory put her hands together, trying to mold her body the same way it had felt like Amory had. Right away she shrank down, her figure reducing to something more moderate, until she was the same height as Clark. Her clothes seemed to keep themselves fitting about the same way as she changed, which was a somewhat welcome feature. Then she released her hands, holding them out to either side. "Nice, right?"
"Hm. Do you keep all of your strength when you're smaller?"
"Feels like it to me!" Without putting her hands together, Rory was able to pull her height and appearance back to the 'normal fox-form' one. "I could probably get away with being seen powered up and folks would have a hard time telling the difference if I don't shapeshift openly."
"That's pretty good news," said Amory. "I wonder just how different you can make yourself look..."
"Yeah, as long as we're violating the conservation of matter," said Clark.

"Me too! Let's try something really drastic." Rory took a deep breath first, changing back to the form she'd started out in upon being 'powered up'. This felt a little like releasing a hold on something, but not a hold that was too difficult to maintain. Then she planted her feet, her arms to the side and hands slowly clenching into fists as she tried to achieve the desired result. "Rrrrrrr..." She found herself vocalizing without really meaning to, like a long grunt of effort. The change began to take effect: Her body grew slightly taller still, but her chest and hips faded inward, her stomach pushing out slowly. The slim, feminine musclature to her arms and legs pushed outward, bulking up slightly. Her voice, still letting out that slow, long growl, audibly depeened farther and farther down as it continued. Her clothes began to adapt more drastically to the change: The shorts growing slightly longer, panties gaining leggings and loosening up in the middle, the top losing its low cut and growing slightly longer. Eventually she felt very, very close: Flat-chested, tall, broad-shouldered and all, and then breathed in before letting out a sharp "Rrraah!"

With that, Rory successfully changed sex, becoming quite possibly the first fox-man of the world (however temporary the ability to do this or stay this way was); the change completed in the one single burst. He huffed, feeling a little winded from the effort, but grinned seeing Clark blush up at him. "Impressive, right?" It was a little weird having a voice this low, but at the same time..he was already starting to appreciate the husband's other form in a whole new way.
"Y-yeah."
"Um..I get the feeling I should leave?" said Amory, standing up.
"Oh, sit down," he waved. "This is a very nice option but we'll save it for after some more discussion." Rory did feel some effort was necessary to keep this up; it was pretty clear that something about these powers' nature didn't really 'take' to a male body very well in general. He relaxed again and instantly felt the new equipment slip away, just before the rest of Rory shrank and grew back to the deeply female form again. "Phew. Are you able to 'top off' our timers, though, just out of curiosity?"
"Uhh, y-yeah. It's not exactly a timer, more like 'power usage' meter. I can just..." She held out a hand and wiggled her fingers to express, "a little bit and fill it back up. But I have been told it doesn't feel great when it does eventually wear off, if you don't change back yourself before then."

"We'll keep that in mind..."

---

"Flight and shapeshifting, huh? I almost feel envious." They were both back in the apartment for supper; Amory had sent off a text to let him know about what Emma should do tomorrow (posing as Light and saying 'Gemma' instead, of course).

"You can effectively teleport, without any fear of telefragging."

"I did say 'almost'. How far does the shapeshifting go?"
"Uh...it's mostly focused on body-shape in particular. She can't change her hair, skin, or or eye color, or really alter the fox-parts at all. But when it comes to the rest, it's pretty powerful. She even managed to go as far as turning into a guy."

"That's pretty far. I wasn't under the impression anyone could be male with fox parts under her 'rules'."

"I would guess this qualifies as bending rather than breaking. A girl temporarily shapeshifted into a guy. More importantly, it's useful for taking advantage of the boost without it necessarily being obvious it happened. Just look like her 'usual' self, and Dr. Quinn can fight at enhanced strength just fine."

Blake nodded. "So after all of that 'research' did they have any brilliant ideas about your power or how it works?"
"Uh..Rory suggested I have 'magic fingers' when it comes to foxes. It sorta makes sense with how my powers work in general, I guess."

"Hmn..." After a short pause, he said, "I don't really know how to describe it, but it felt like my uh, reaction this morning was at least as much emotional as it was physical. With how our powers are supposed to be tied to mentality or whatever, it sort of makes sense. If someone really didn't trust you, you might not have that effect on them, or be able to keep them still at all."

Amory nodded, seeming to agree. "At this point I guess Ning is the only one who knows that we haven't 'tried'. Did she express any, uh..?"
"Not particularly. It might be good information to find out, if it's not too strange to ask about. I guess Emma doesn't know, then."
He shook his head. "Unless you told her."

"It's your secret to tell or not. I'm a little sorry I told Ning, but she deserved some kind of explanation and I...I couldn't lie."

"Don't be sorry, I understand. Don't have any problem with her knowing, anyway. Did Rowan ask about your 'new' powers?"

"Not a word. There seems to be a lot on his plate, and if it was on his mind at all he must've decided not to ask. Do you...think we should tell Emma?"

"I don't know...we literally just stated dating. It feels like something really strange to bring up, and I'm not sure how she would react to...you know, stuff like this morning. After almost killing you over.."
"I see. Well, I won't say anything either, then."

A little later, the response came: "Approved. We have a volunteer to drive her. Name a location for pickup." So it was time to summon one of Emma and get things rolling for the next day.