Battle Vixens! - 45

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Episode 45: Upend the Board

Clark, thankfully, proved able to bring along five bodies total (Rory carrying Gemma) with just a little extra effort. As they all floated into the air, Light spread out her hands, insisting on making everyone invisible over some objections from Clark about continuing to use her powers in her current state. Able to take a fairly straight-line path and not needing to deal with traffic, they arrived well ahead of Petra and touched down in the backyard, Clark opening the door for her wife to head in before following, Ning remaining behind Light out of some visible concern she might collapse or something at any moment—but she didn't.

Amory was waiting inside, and stood up from the living room sofa as they came in, a worried look on his face. He moved aside for Rory to set Gemma there, and turned to stare at her for a long moment. "I guess..everyone made it back alive," he said quietly.

"Yeah. I don't really know how else to put it positively," Rory said with a shrug while everyone else filtered in. He was leaning toward her a bit, his brows furrowing with some thought. "What, you notice something I didn't?"
"I dunno...just...hmm."

He knelt down next to the sleeping two-tailed vixen, putting a hand on her forehead. "Emma?" he said quietly. "It's me." She responded with a weak whimpering sound and a shudder or two, but otherwise remained prone, asleep.
"I suppose that's what it looks like when someone's family comes to talk," Clark said. "It's...too sad to watch," she said, shaking her head.

"It's just...I feel like..." Amory took a deep breath, and spoke his phrase, changing into a small, weak, and characteristically cute vixen. She gently lifted Emma's body, getting up and turning around until she could sit down on the couch with her head in her lap. Then she pulled her farther up and closer, into a gentle hug. Light, after looking down this entire time, slowly turned her head upward to watch this; Clark could see an 'aha' moment in her eyes before turning back toward Amory.

"Mnh..aah.." Emma whimpered and grunted softly, her body shuddering and then shaking a bit more violently. Amp ran a hand down her back, making a quiet shushing sound.

"Shh...it'll be okay.."
"Aah..aaaaah....aaaAAAAAH!" The shuddering terminated with one sudden, violent jolt, and she screamed for just a second as she awoke, then began panting heavily. "Wh..wha..Amory..?" she said slowly, pulling herself back to look in the other fox-girl's face—recognizing it despite never having seen her this way before.
"Hey..you came back to us," she said, smiling softly.

"I..how're you..?"

"Don't worry about that right now, okay?" Amp ran a hand through her hair slowly. "Just try to focus on feeling better."

"Mmh." She leaned forward into the hug, placing her head over a shoulder with tears starting to come streaming out of her eyes again.

"It...it hurt...it hurt so much. Not..physically, I mean when the spear went in and the teeth, but that was, I was numb to that before long. But..it..hurt," she squeaked. "It felt like I was watching, every horrible thing I could imagine happening, all at once..like there was nothing I could do about it, like just by still existing I was making it all worse..."

"You're here now, though. Everyone got together and helped get you out of that thing," Amp said quietly.

"I, I wanted to die...so bad....I've never..." Emma took in a slightly rough gasp of air, and then repeated more quietly: "It hurt..."

Light's expression was one of relief at first, mixed with a bit of satisfaction Clark wasn't sure of the origin of, before it darkened again. Clark and Amory could both see her move a hand up to her forehead slowly, just slightly touching it, before she whirled and quickly ran into the kitchen. Amory's eyes looked to Clark and then in that direction, and she nodded, following Light out to try and see what the problem was.

By the time she came in Light was roughly pulling a chair out, collapsing onto it, and pulling on her own ears. "Aauuuugh...!" she groaned hoarsly in frustration. "I am so stupid."

"What? What's wrong?" Clark said, coming up and more carefully getting a chair out to sit in front of her. "Apparently Amp can cure the coma thing. That's great news, isn't it?"
"It, it is but, I should've known it sooner! Why didn't we see this right away?!" she said, waving her hands forward in frustration. "It's so obvious!"
She crossed her arms. "It didn't seem all that obvious to me."

"No, you don't—uugh."

"She told me. She told me exactly everything I needed to know," Light said, glaring through Clark's eyes as if at something else beyond them. "She said people went into a coma because their powers were turned inside out. She told Amory her power was over powers. She told me that someone would have a power that could fix this, and that I would 'probably know them when I saw them'! Well guess who I know!" She was straining her voice trying and half-succeeding to achieve a volume that matched her visible frustration.

"Look Light, every puzzle seems obvious after you've already solved it. Besides, I bet she...worded everything in funny ways, and couched it all in a torrent of information so you couldn't sort out the meaning of one riddle from another. Right?" She nodded slowly. "Anyway, we know now. Isn't that good enough?"
"It's—it's not. No," she shook her head quickly. "Were you listening to her?" she said, pointing at the living room. "All those people..suffering like that for days...We could've been doing something about it the whole time. And, everyone else who got hurt or eaten because they couldn't help them, either..!"

"Well, you're presupposing Amory's okay with just running off to do that," Clark pointed out. "Who even knows how much of a drain that is on her? Besides the problem of secrecy regarding her, let's say, informationally sensitive power..."
"We had an opportunity. To help. And I was too stupid to think of it," she said.

"I think you're so tired you've stuck yourself in a mental rut," said Clark. "All that negativity is really unlike you, y'know. You really should get some rest."

"I know, I know I should, but I can't," she said, slowly shaking her head again. "I feel like, the adrenaline never wore off. Like any second now those, things are gonna show up again and I have to be ready to kill them all over again. I'm, frustrated, and angry and I can't listen to my own head right now."

She looked down, and back up again, some tears visible in her eyes. "I can't stop thinking about the look on her face, the way she screamed, when that thing finished eating her. I couldn't stop it, or fix it. I have to do something. Anything."

In the living room, Emma's body slowly calmed, her breathing becoming regular and her heart rate slowing to normal. Eventually Amp gently helped her up into a sitting position, still leaning over onto her but at least halfway vertical. "I'm really sorry I didn't say anything earlier," she said. "It's just...after everything, I wasn't sure how you'd feel about me having powers. Or um...seeing me as a girl just after we agreed to go on a date..."
"Mmn..I don't..really care. I'm just...happy to see you," she said slowly. Tears came back to her eyes, but much happier ones than before. "You saved me..I feel like I was drowning and you reached in and pulled me out of the water..." Then, Emma slowly sat up, her brain halfway turning on, just enough to realize something, and turned to face her. "Wait, th-that monster ate me, so I was..and you..so..!"

Amp nodded. "I only realized it just now, with you. We should plan to get me to the facility as soon as possible." Everyone's ears picked up the sound of a car pulling into the drive way, doors opening and closing.

Rory crossed her arms. "Well, you know what that means. Letting everyone from the city—or at least Petra and Rowan, know about your power. At least know that you have powers for sure. You're okay with that?"
"I have to be," Amp shrugged. "I can't just, leave all those people to stay in a coma until they die."

"Okay. Well, I'll break the news to her slowly, then." With that, Dr. Quinn headed toward the front door to intercept their final visitor.

It wasn't just Petra; another car, with densely-tinted windows, pulled into the driveway just as—well, Simon now actually—was getting out. He waved to the driver, who also got out after parking the car: Rowan. Rory waited, and opened the front door when they came close.
"How is she?" Rowan said, without further clarification.

"I'll say this much—she's alive," Dr. Quinn said, waving them both inside. "Shut the door, please, and keep quiet." Shrugging, Simon obeyed the latter command after following inside.

"The, situation has changed," she said slowly.
"What do you mean?" Rowan crossed his arms, getting an uncertain look.
"Well—there's a particular person we haven't told you about, out of concern for their safety. Said person has an, unusual power, that could put that person in serious danger if it got out," she said, glaring at Simon in particular.
"Whaat? I can keep secrets!" he said.

"He can," Rowan assured her. "And I have a guess who you mean..but how is it relevant?"
"Ah, let's say we just—discovered a new aspect to that person's powers. Which..may prove a little bit helpful to our whole, current situation..you know what, I'm terrible at this," she said, shaking her head. "Just—follow me and see for yourself." She waved toward the living room, and went that way herself, both of them following her.

Simon looked around, and noticed the pair on the couch. "Well, it's good to see you among the living," he said to Gemma, who just nodded quietly. "And..you..are far too cute for words," he continued, fully noticing the other one.

"She is," Rowan agreed. He paused, cleared his throat, uncertain why he'd said that. "—But that's really beside the point. You're..Amory?"
She nodded. "And I have that effect, for some reason. Anytime someone with powers sees me it's the first thing they say." She shrugged. "We figure it's a weird sort of power detection."

One explanation later, Rowan crossed his arms, visibly thinking. "This poses a difficult problem. I need to inform my superiors before any of us can approach that facility. For starters, I don't even know where it is."

"You trust your superiors when it comes to secrecy, don't you?" Amp said, a certain childlike innocence to her voice that Rowan wasn't sure was appropriate to the situation.

"The more people who know a secret, the easier it is for it to leak out. Nonetheless...it is well-known that you were eaten," he said to Gemma. "If you walk out of here the game is up before it begins. The first thing we need to do is make it look like you're still in a coma, and bring you toward the facility under that guise."

"I can help with that," Light said, appearing in the kitchen doorway.
"You don't sound like you're in any condition to use your powers," Rowan replied.
She took a deep breath and let it out again. "This much, I can do. And I can't, not do anything right now."
"...I understand," he nodded. "You'll need to come with us, then. My car has room for four, which is exactly enough."

"Hey, maybe once I wake some of those people up and they're feeling better you could take a look at some of their powers," Amp suggested. Gemma stared into space for a moment before shaking her head quickly. "What's wrong?"

"I..I can't. I shouldn't," she said. "Even if they're willing."
"Why not?"
"Because—because I'm dangerous!" she said. "I...since I woke up, I've been remembering what happened, what those things did with my powers while they had me. Every..every single thing I've learned, they turned against everyone I care about. If I learn more powers, it just makes me more dangerous if it happens again..."
"If you're strong enough, maybe you'll never get eaten again," Rory pointed out.

"I, I don't...I can't.." She shook her head. "No..i-it's a bad idea."
"Regardless, we need you to come along to keep up appearances for now, as well as to prove to my superiors that her power works," Rowan said. "There will be plenty of time to think about it along the way, and it seems to me like a reasonable request if you do reconsider."

"Well, let's get you up," Amp said, standing up herself and offering a hand to help Gemma. She still seemed a little unsteady on her feet.

"Hey." Light came slightly closer. "It's easier to fake someone carrying her if they actually are."
"Oh..alright then," Rory said, gently picking her up. "Maybe you'll get your land legs again in the car, eh?"

"Yeah, m-maybe."

"Are you coming back with us?" Rowan asked Simon before following the three of them oustide.

"I, left a little bit of unfinished business where the dragon was, actually," he said. "At the very least I'd like to thank those guys properly, I mean they sorta risked their lives to help me out there when I was in a tight spot."

"If you don't mind, I could use a lift too," Ning interjected.

"Ah, sure!" Simon said with a winning grin. "No problem."

"Alright, I'll debrief you later," he nodded. "We have a long conference call ahead of us on the way back anyway." With that, Rowan turned and strode out to the front door.

"So that's Light, huh," Simon said. "Seems pretty intense, if you ask me."

"That's one way to put it, yeah," Rory said. "She's not happy unless everyone's alive and well, seems like."

"Well—I know of one person she'd rather see dead now," Ning said. "Me too, honestly. Putting innocent people—a young girl through that kind of pain, just to make yourself more powerful..it's disgusting."

Simon looked at her, tilting his head slightly. "You're, older than you look, aren't you?"

"That's a sorta rude question," she said, putting hands on her hips.
"I just mean—more than a few of my neighbors are parents, and my wife is a teacher besides, so—I know the type. You sound like you've got somebody to look after yourself, is all. Maybe I could even hazard a guess that's why this secret identity stuff is so important to you personally?"

"..No comment," she said, turning her head away and crossing her arms.

"Okay, okay; it's not my place to pry, after all. Let's just get you back into town, then," he said, leading the way out to the door.

"...That one is sharper than he seems," Rory said once they were gone. "Well..this has been an eventful morning." She changed back to her original form. "But those classes aren't going to teach themselves. And I quote, 'we are not paying you to have assistants teach everything for you'," she said in a mocking faux-deep voice.
"Oh no, not responsibility," Clark teased. "I guess since we're both parked on campus I'll have to fly us back, huh?"
"If you've got enough in your tank to do it, I won't object. It beats the heck outta walking the distance, anyway," she said. "Lock the front and out the back, dear?"
"A sensible enough plan..."

---

After a long discussion, it was agreed to allow Amory and Gemma into the facility, with Rowan (as a distinctly trusted member of the VI) along to watch them. Light had to stay behind, and after quickly returning Rowan and Gemma's 'borrowed' powers back to them she was dropped off at their headquarters in the city and advised once again to try to get some rest while everyone else transferred cars, getting in the windowless back of an unmarked van for the more clandestine leg of the trip. It was no time at all before they arrived.

One after another, Amory came close to the comatose vixens, picked them up in a gentle, friendly hug, and they gasped or screamed awake as if from a nightmare. They all expressed deep gratitude to her—many not in English, but she seemed to understand all the same—and were quickly thereafter sworn to secrecy regarding the nature of their cure. Rowan expected at least a few of them to object to this, but not a single one did; they almost seemed to feel an instinctive desire to protect the girl who had awakened them from their nightmares, and if keeping her a secret would help achieve that, they were all for it. Gemma stayed in an unoccupied room by herself, away from them all—her resolve to learn nothing new still firm, especially when she realized someone with time powers was present.

As most of them left, taken off-site in whatever vehicles were available, a press release went out from the VI: They had found a cure for the comas. However, it was extremely difficult to make, and immensely fragile, therefore impossible to transport. Anyone who was brought to their headquarters would be awakened free of charge, just as all of those brought to the facility before had been. The details of the cure involved sensitive information, and would remain on a need-to-know basis until further notice.

Rowan had no idea what was going to happen next. The puppeteer's prime target was vanishing before her very eyes. At the very least, she was going to be angry. Maybe angry enough to make a direct assault on them all as soon as she was able. His first priority was to urge his superiors to pull strings in Light's town, get their police presence up to a similar level to the city for the time being. It had proven invaluable in stopping the attempted interruptions today, and for as great a story as unarmed civilians spontaneously volunteering to help Petra against her assailants made, it didn't sit at all well with him. After that, it was going to be a waiting game—like it or not, the ball was in her court. There was still no sign of the car, and Light was in no condition to track down the origin of the latest batch of puppets right now.

Their primary remaining advantage was that the investigators were very close to narrowing down the puppeteer's identity—as of the last report a couple of hours ago, it was between only four, maybe five possibilities, and they were working to find a way to eliminate those. Once they were sure who it was that person's assets could be seized, their ways out cut off—no government remaining on Earth would refuse, not after the amount of reckless hostility she had displayed, the loss of life she had caused and could and would continue to cause. Well...at least the US certainly wasn't going to let her out easy.

Amory, still a vixen, approached him while he was still deep in thought. "Well, they told me that's everyone," she said.

"Oh..good," he nodded. "Are you tired?"
"Nope. Funny thing about my power, it all just seems so...effortless," she said, shrugging. "As easy as breathing. I can feel the limits to everyone else's powers, but mine just seems bottomless. Or maybe everything I've done until now just happens to be super energy efficient. Either way...I feel great."

"You still look worried," she said after a second or two.
"Not about you. Well—somewhat about you, I guess." He shook his head. "I feel like we just lit a fuse, and I don't know where the bomb is."

"I can see that," she nodded. "Well, she's gotta be tired after going all-out today. There are exactly ten as far as we know, right?"
"As far as we know," he repeated.

"So we should at least have a few hours. Full day, if she wants to be fully rested before acting again. Even longer if she has to think about what to do next."

"I'm terrified she'll strike at any moment, but I'm even more worried she'll slip away without a trace," Rowan said. "This was the right thing to do, but now we have no bait. No motivation to keep her in sight or in range."

Amory nodded, but didn't have an answer for that. Instead she said, "I'm gonna check on Gemma. You get any word on how Light is doing?"
"..She finally let someone lead her into one of our guest rooms after pacing the halls for a while," he said. "No telling if she went to sleep or is still pacing in there."

"Well. Hopefully whatever happened to her wears off soon, so she can get back to normal," Amory said with a look of concern. "From what I can tell, it was...painful. Almost as much so as getting eaten herself."

"Let's hope that never happens," he said, shaking his head again. "With that much power, and command of three others...I shudder to think of it."
"...Me too, now that you mention it."

Emma was still sitting exactly where Amory had left her at lest half an hour ago, on one of the 'guest' chairs next to the hospital bed, leaning forward and looking down at the ground. One might have guessed she had dozed off if she didn't look up slightly, through her hair, at the door while she came in. "How're you feeling?" Amory said, coming to sit on the side of the bed opposite her.

"Mngh. 'Bout the same. I just...it sounds terrible, but I don't know. I don't know if I can fight anymore. If it's even the, right thing to do. I wonder if I should just tell Light to keep my powers, you know, if I can't even..."

"Come on, don't talk like that," Amory said. "It was a rough situation. Maybe there was nothing anyone could do. Anyway, everyone came out of it okay, and...if you get stronger, it'll be that much easier to prevent it from happening again."

"Hmmh." She seemed only slightly more responsive to the idea this time; it was best not to press the issue too hard.

Instead, she changed the subject. "So, there, is another reason I didn't really wanna tell you, what had happened to me right away."
"Hmn?" Emma headtilted slightly.

"Well—my power is sort of this meta-power thing: I can 'boost' other people's powers," she said slowly. "The 'waking people up' part is new, but...makes sense in retrospect. But uh, well the way my power works is, I have tooo, pet their ears to 'reach in' and improve their powers. And it's only temporary, so I have to do that every time."

"Oh." It was a neutral response that was difficult to interpret any emotion at all from.
"S-so uh. Well, it's a little bit," Amory stumbled awkwardly over her words. "I just thought it'd be awkward to tell you about a power like that before, or like, on our first date. And after that it didn't get any uh, less awkward, so, but...I just wasn't, sure, how you'd react. Is all."

"Hey, Amory..." She looked up a little more, enough for some of the hair to fall away from her face and just barely reveal her eyes. "Would you um...pet me, too? N-not uh..right now, I mean, but.."

"Uh." She hadn't been sure what reaction to expect, but it hadn't been this one. There was some red evident on Emma's cheeks, and the heat of a blush in Amory's own. "Sure. Of course. Whenever you want. I-I mean, yeah not here, but whenever we're somewhere more private, um..."

"Thanks."

"..Well, I think we've probably waited long enough for most everyone to leave," Amory said, getting up. She offered a hand toward Emma to help her up, too. "I'm sure they've got a ride waiting to get us back now, too. And, if anyone's left, you know, we could still ask..."
"Hmmh." She took the hand and slowly stood up.
"I really think you'd benefit from seeing one or two powers, at least. It's a funny thing, but I got sort of a glimpse into how your powers work, what they really 'are', when I woke you up. It's...more than anything else, your power is centered on the mind," she said, pointing to one side of her own head. "It's about learning and understanding. You 'recharge' and feel better every time you come to know something you didn't before—especially a new set of abilities. At least Nico, since we'll probably see a lot of her either way? I really think you'd benefit from her power just now."

"Mmnh." Gemma looked at her for a moment, and then turned toward the door, slowly walking toward it. "Okay." Amory followed.