Battle Vixens! - 48

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Episode 48: Fighting Blame

Rowan found Light sitting with Simon in the room the latter had commandeered for taking pictures in-headquarters—the photography equipment a fixture there since then as the space hadn't exactly been needed for anything else. As soon as he walked in with Gemma and Amory behind him, she stood up. "You look a little better," he commented. "What did you need to tell me?"
"I took a nap while you were gone, and she visited me and told me—well, a lot," Light said. "In fact I'm—" her head darted from looking at Simon to Gemma, "—not really sure who should know how much of it."

"I see. Would the three of you mind waiting outside, then?" Simon looked like he wanted to complain, but complied anyway; Amory nodded and led Gemma out. Rowan quietly shut the doors and took out a notepad and pen from his pockets; in response to a questioning look he replied, "You said 'a lot', right? My memory isn't exactly perfect."
"..Okay." She took a deep breath. "So...I thought I could 'show' you since otherwise anyone with fox ears can overhear us." She waved at the black screen opposite the photographic flasher, making a paragraph's worth of words appeared on it:

She said there wouldn't be a monster attack tomorrow; I'm not sure who else knows that, it makes sense from what happened yesterday but I thought it might be important to know as soon as possible.

And it continued on like that. Rowan scribbled some notes down, taking all of it in before asking any questions.

Outside, Simon made a visible effort to distract himself by examining Gemma's 'combined' appearance a little more closely. "Uh..." She leaned away from him slightly, aware he didn't mean any harm but still not entirely comfortable.
"Sorry," he said, taking a small step back. "It's just that—if someone had asked me what a combination of your 'two' bodies would hypothetically look like yesterday, I probably would've sketched something just like that. Your height, hair length, hair shade, all halfway between. One eye color-slash-style from each 'self'. It's fascinating. Do you feel inclined to use one side of your body for Plus's powers and the other for Minus's?"

"Um..somewhat?" she said, realizing this herself. When she had learned Nico's powers and the time powers, her right hand had been used for the 'original' and her left for the 'opposite'. There was no compulsion to do so, but absent any reason to prefer one side or the other that was what she had naturally gone for.

"Oh! Are your powers averaged out, or totaled together? Do you feel stronger or faster or anything?"
"A little..I think?" There was no obvious difference, so she definitely wasn't as much as twice as strong as..whichever of her bodies was actually physically the weakest.

"Would you please stop interrogating her?" Amory said. "She's been through enough today."

The slightly angry expression seemed very strange on her present form, but Emma's heart skipped a beat or so at being defended by Amory.

"Sorry, I don't mean to make things more difficult," he said. "I'm just excited to see something new. Besides which—I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to take a couple of pictures to complete your portraits, but this is my own awful way of restraining myself from asking just now."

"And, you're trying not to think about what's being said in there," Emma said, pointing toward the door they'd been shooed out of.

"Indeed. Say, can you two hear anything? Maybe I ought to be Petra," he said, obviously ready to say his phrase.
"She's telling him everything using illusory letters," Amory said, crossing her arms, "For that exact reason."

"Ah." He took in a large breath, and exhaled. "You know, in this sort of situation I'd normally be inclined to walk away and distract myself with something else, but as I've been asked to give the three of you a ride, I can't exactly do that. I just don't cope well with doing nothing at all."

Emma could pick up Rowan saying he had a few questions..given an earlier reference to poor memory, he had probably taken notes, and was now writing the questions down also. "I think they're almost through, anyway," she said.

"Oh? Good then!"

They came out into the hall not long after. "Even assuming it's reliable, I'm not sure how immediately useful that information is," he commented. "Still, I'm glad you told me; there may be value I just don't see yet. I would trust Simon with what you told me—on the way back, if you like. And I'll relay what I can upstairs, too. Now, I need to go check on someone, quickly."

"Okay. I'll be in touch," Light said; he was already taking off at a brisk walk by this point.

"Wonder what he's in a hurry about.." Simon commented. "Well, the sooner I get you all home, the sooner I can get back to painting, so...back to the parking lot!"

Since his car was not exactly built for the privacy of its occupants, Light took a moment to make it appear as if he only had one passenger—a human, dark-haired version of herself. At some insistence from the others she actually took the front seat, and on the way began going through most of what the Giver had explained to him during the brief nap—aside from the part about being Beryl. On reflection, she had essentially offered to help her in some way if the secret was kept, so at least for now, Light wanted to test that offer. Once she finished going through the conversation for the second time since waking up, the car was silent for a couple of minutes.

"So she can't fight at all," Amory said. "I guess that explains the way I feel about it. And I can't shake the feeling I 'knew' it deep, down too—like when we were asking ourselves why she didn't fight in the first place, and I suggested it was because she couldn't but didn't know why I thought that. But I'm still not exactly sure how invincible I am, from just having 'part' of that kinda power..."

"I'm impressed, at least," Simon said. "She knows how to do PR. If you asked me before this, I would say she just wasn't interested in really helping us, and could easily crush the whole world with the power I felt from her that night I received my powers. But with how successful it was, I wonder why she would give it up so quickly..."

"What do you mean?" Light asked.
"Well—for as long as people believe she can kill people, that's a negotiation tactic. Maybe she could claim her gift gives her a direct line to end someone's life if they do something she really dislikes. We don't know how magic works, so there's no way we could dispute that claim until someone was brave enough to test it, right?"
"I don't really get the impression she cares enough about what we do to need to threaten anyone," Amory said. "I mean—she wants you guys to kill each other, or at least fight each other anyway..."

"She's made a game of it all, with rules," Simon replied. "Rules imply to me she does want things to proceed a certain way. So what's she do if someone finds a loophole and plays the game in an unintended way? The fact that we know she can't hurt anyone now gives us the ability to call her bluff if she makes that sort of threat."

"...My powers were peaceful too, at first," Emma said, her mind on an entirely different train of thought.

"How so?" Amory asked quietly.
"Um..when I first got them, I couldn't make any weapons. I didn't feel strong, or brave, or—like I could fight at all. But once I started learning other people's powers, it..I could. Not just, fighting off those mist things, but—think about hurting someone else. Killing them..." She was looking down at her own hands.

"That makes sense, I guess?" Amory said, not immediately noticing her expression. "Your power's based on your mind and learning, which isn't really a violent action or desire. But you 'learn' how to fight from other people's 'violent' desires..?"

"So, anytime I learn how someone else fights, I turn into more of a soldier," she said quietly. Looking at her through the mirror, Light could see a sorrowful expression on her face, her ears folded back and her head leaning steadily downward. "Nngh..I wish I'd never learned anything," she said quietly—seemingly to herself.

"Hey.." Amory reached a hand over to run gently through her hair. "It's not bad to learn how to defend yourself, or other people. Right? You've done nothing but good with what you learned, not counting one time you were just..stressed, and under a lot of pressure. And even then..."

She looked up again, at Amory, with a few tears coming down her cheeks. "Anything I know how to do can be used by those..monsters, though. Or, if someone kills me, then...it's all theirs. I should, I wanted to stop learning new things to limit how much of what I know can be misused, but I can't even stop learning things right!" The outburst had her leaning away from Amory, and she pulled her hand back to herself cautiously in response.

After a long moment of mutual silence in the car, she took a slightly shaky deep breath and sat up again, wiping her face with a sleeve. "Sorry, I-I didn't mean to make a scene. I just...I need to think about some things, on my own, for a while, when we get back."

"Okay. Take as long as you need," Amory said, putting a hand on her shoulder for a second or two and fixing her with a long, encouraging-yet-concerned look before nodding and letting go.

"Th-thanks.." Emma was blushing ever so slightly, but at least not crying anymore.

Simon cleared his throat after waiting what he probably felt was an appropriate amount of time for the awkwardness to clear out. "Sooo, you can make people's powers stronger by petting them?" he asked.

"Right. Apparently that's how she does it, too," Amory said. "I um, I made up the other-name 'Amp' for myself in case I need to look like this in front of people who..shouldn't know who I really am."
"Clever. I guess I can attribute any unexpected power jumps we've seen in your town to you? Like Dr. Quinn suddenly being able to fly around?"
"Pretty much. Well—mostly, anyway. Like she suggested, sometimes people seem to 'grow' or 'learn' new things all on their own too."

"I just wonder what incredible new things I'd be able to do, as Petra, if you did that for me," he said with a slight grin. "I can almost imagine a thing or two, but there's probably some earthy things I've never even thought of before."

"More than likely. Maybe after the puppeteer's dealt with, I could try to um..help out in your city a little bit," she said.

"Oh, and the power boost makes people look different?" Simon asked, touching on the one subject Light had really hoped wouldn't come up around him. "I did notice a few inconsistencies in the Quinns' appearances over the last few days..."
"Mm-hm," Amory admitted. "It uh..yeah. I mean, it's an extension of the idea that your powers transform your appearance in the first place, I guess."

"I just wonder what Rowan would look like 'boosted'," he said with a slight grin. "Or myself, or anyone else, really."
"You're thinking of re-taking everyone's pictures, huh," she said.
"More to paint! I can't help being excited about that."

---

Rowan quietly knocked on the door and waited. After waiting a few seconds and not hearing anything, he said quietly, "Don?"

"Go away!" Something—probably the nightstand lamp—audibly crashed into the other side of the door.

"I'm not doing that. Not until I know you're alright."

"Well, I ain't alright and I ain't gonna be! What're you gonna do about it, huh!?"

"I'd appreciate it if you'd talk to me," he said back, calmly. "You don't have to open the door if you don't want to."

"...Fine. What about?"

Instead of giving him an opportunity to answer that, she just continued: "How you're right and I'm wrong? How she could've still been alive—and awake now, if it wasn't for me? 'S that it?!"

"You know I wouldn't say anything like that," Rowan said gently, retaining his calm. Somehow, even in his 'unempowered' state, this was easier than he thought he remembered it being before. He slowly turned around and leaned his back against the door.

"Yeah, but you're thinkin' it! I'm thinkin' it! What I done was wrong. And stupid."

"I've read the autopsy report," he replied. "It's not likely she would've survived in that state for very long regardless."

"You don't know!" she screamed back. "I don't know! She just—looked bad, an' even if her arm was still there I still woulda done it, 'cause I thought she was as good as dead anyway! Someone with powers coulda'—coulda' kept her alive." Dawn's voice cracked and sounded weak, fading off. "Maybe the arm wouldn't come back, but..if it wasn't for me an' that stupid promise..."

"SHE'D BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW!!!"

This came at the loudest volume she could manage, and was accompanied by the audible smashing of furniture. It was followed by more, wordless yelling and continued destruction, until probably the only thing fully intact in there was the reinforced walls. Rowan crossed his arms, listening, and shaking his head quietly at a few people who showed up to investigate the noise. When it was quiet in there again—except for the slow, audible panting in exhaustion—he said, "Are you done?"
"How can you just—"
"May I talk now?" he pressed, talking half-over her.
"Fff. Sure. Whatever."

"You're right—we don't really know," he said. "We also couldn't know this solution, or any solution, would present itself, or when—until today, nothing we tried seemed to have much promise of working. You made a decision, and whether it was the right one or not, we have to live with it."

"I don't have to," she said quietly. "I don't deserve to be the one who survived! I oughta just change back and die slowly, like I was gonna before all this. It's what I deserve."

"I know you won't do that," Rowan said.

"Yeah? How?"
"You're carrying her powers. Now that you're in this situation—regardless of how you got here—how would she want you to use them?"
"I know that...but I ain't her. I ain't as strong. I..I dunno how to just keep goin'..."

"Well, what would she say if she saw you like this?" he asked.

"I know what. I'm stupid. But I can't..." Dawn's voice trailed off into a sniffling-gasp noise, and she didn't say anything else for a minute or so.

"You still there?"
"Of course."

"Why do you even bother with me? Nobody else puts up with this."

"Because I know you're a good person," Rowan said patiently. "You want to protect people, whether someone else told you to or not. If I see someone like you in pain, I want to help make it better. And, like it or not, you're important. We're the only ones right now standing between those monsters and the people of this city, of this world. Every one of us is needed for this fight, but you can't fulfill that role in the state you're in now. So—I must do everything I can to help you make your way out of it."

"Yeah, you just need me 'cause I'm useful, huh?" she said weakly.
"That's not really my point," Rowan said. "You know something?"
"What?"
"I'd like to say I would try to help you even if you were powerless, but with the position I'm in now I'd probably have to get someone else to do it. I'm glad you have powers because it gives me a good excuse.

"You've really been doing better lately—eating regularly, getting at least some sleep, actually talking to the therapist a little bit—don't worry, I don't know what about. I'm sorry this turn of events hit you so hard, but I couldn't exactly ask them not to wake those people up once it was clear it was possible."
"Yeah, I—I know that. I'm glad, they oughta be awake."

"It still hasn't been very long. I can understand if you haven't had time to move past it. Or—if you still don't even want to. But you've got to at least stop beating yourself up over it, alright? You're already taking responsibility for your actions, above and beyond the call in my opinion. Guilt-tripping yourself into throwing a tantrum won't help anyone. I'll bet you don't even feel any better after smashing that stuff."

"Nah.."

"But you do sound a little calmer, at least. Not planning to harm yourself, are you?"
"Wasn't really. Jus'—I talked about it 'cause I thought of it, but...I jus', don't think I can, really."

"Good."

Rowan stood upright again, turning to face the door. "You take as long as you need, watch your step on your way out of there, and ask someone to find you a new room to move into; I'll get the mess taken care of later. I have some details I need to report right now, but you can talk to me again any time you need to. Okay?"

"Sure."

"Thanks, I guess..."

"Any help I can be," Rowan said, and started off down the hallway.

---

Emma finally entered her apartment, having accepted Light's help to stay 'empowered' since she had once again left her glasses inside. After briefly listening to ensure that her roommate wasn't home, she opened the door, stepped inside and slowly closed it, leaning her back against it and slowly sinking down onto the floor, pulling her feet up to her with her knees right in front of her face, and took several slow, deep breaths, listening to the others' footsteps heading off toward their apartment until she couldn't hear them any more. Then she allowed herself a slow, quiet, whining groan.

She felt embarrassed, ashamed, stupid...she'd been trying so hard to keep it together on the way back so she could just have her dumb little breakdown in private, but the more she thought about how the new powers she'd just allowed herself to learn could be used by one of those things against..everyone...the more she couldn't take it, and something just broke. Amory—bless him, or, her, or..whatever, she was nowhere close to having the headspace free to unpack that mess—was only trying to help, but knowing she'd seen her like that only made her feel worse. Emma was just feeling sorry for herself again, for no good reason. It was—

A sound came from her throat, the kind of almost hiccup-like gasp that comes in the middle of the particularly debilitating flavor of crying. She hadn't realized she was doing that until now. No matter how much anyone else told her otherwise, she couldn't fight the thought that it was her fault that her powers had been used by that thing—that she'd even had powers it could use at all. If this happened again, it would be worse, and it would be even more her fault if time and—probably space powers were used to just tear everyone apart effortlessly. The nightmare she'd lived through, the stinging, intangible pain of being inside of that thing, seemed to recur just from thinking about it too hard—only instead of an unfocused mess of a thought she felt like she could see the specifics, exactly how everything was going to be ruined and it was going to be her fault.

Emma took a slow, deep breath, and pushed herself off of the floor, moving slowly to where her glasses were. Picking them up, she spoke her phrase to change back and wiped her eyes fruitlessly on a sleeve before putting them on. An idiot like her didn't deserve that kind of power. Or—more to the point—she would only ever be irresponsible with it. It seemed like the first thing she'd thought to do when she felt confident in a fight was to hurt someone, and now...well, without really meaning to she'd almost succeeded at that a second time. Her presence in a fight against one of those things put everyone in danger; maybe against just the puppets, too, if their owner could kill her and learn all of those powers at once, or even gain the ability to learn powers seen through those puppets! The logical decision—the only one, she thought for a moment, was to stop fighting. Tell Light to just take her powers and keep them, because she at least knew what to do with them. Her first instinct had been to help people, and she'd just never stopped.

She wound up in the same posture as before, only on the couch. If she stopped fighting...she was still putting people in danger. There were all those times she had been somewhere Light wasn't—couldn't be—and had helped at least a little bit, one way or another. She'd saved Amory's life once! And Dr. Quinn had been in trouble when she'd found him—her, under attack by the plant-puppet. Light using her powers wasn't as good as her using her powers, and the price was—or at least could be—somebody's life. She couldn't..not do anything when people's lives were on the line! But she couldn't..do anything, either, because the cost was even higher if she screwed up again—and just now she just knew she would, no question about it.

Emma jerked in place, hearing the turning of a key in the lock. She scrambled to get her legs out from in front of her, her feet properly on the floor, and leaned back on the couch like she had just been..relaxing there. She couldn't stand the idea of anyone, including Beryl, seeing her in such a pathetic state, even though it seemed to be her default mode. Unfortunately there just wasn't time to clean up her face or retreat into her room and hide; she'd barely assumed a relatively normal posture before her roommate barged in and cheerfully said, "I'm ho~ome!"

"Hey, Beryl...welcome back," Emma said quietly, waving in the direction of the door without looking that way. She sniffed in spite of herself, the tears properly stoppered for now but their aftereffects still going strong.

"Hi there!" Her roommate came around to right in front of her, leaning sideways to look her in the face despite Emma's best attempts to turn aside and not show it. "You look like a wreck. What's wrong?"
"No-nothing. I-I'm fine," she said.

"Heey, did that guy do something?" she said, crossing her arms. "I can give him a stern talking-to if you point me in the right direction!"

"No! He..he didn't do anything wrong! He's..fine, great," she said, trying to make her voice cheerful and convincing on this point. "It's um..s-something else. Bothering me."
"Well, what then?" Beryl sat down across from her, leaning in a bit and giving a concerned look. "You can tell me, right?"
"I'm..not really sure how to explain it without sounding crazy."

"Hmm. Well, I can take a little bit of insanity for you," she said back.

"Um.." As usual, she wasn't getting out of this conversation. Well, it was possible to describe her emotional state and the source of it without really going into specifics.

"You ever, take a step forward, and then another one, and more..only to, eventually realize that you haven't really moved at all? Everything's, just the same, or even worse, than it was when you first started?"

Beryl had a thoughtful look throughout the question, but quickly nodded when Emma was through. "Oh, countless times! I think that just means you're on a treadmill," she said. Emma thought for a second that she was making a joke—pretending to take it literally—but she continued: "In other words, if you weren't taking those steps forward, then instead of staying where you are you would've gone backward. Sometimes, right where you are is simply the best you can do."

"Hmnh." It didn't particularly feel like where she was all that great. "I really hope not..."

"Maybe you just think things are worse than they really are. Anything else you can tell me?"

Emma sighed, feeling a bit like a fish on a hook—or maybe just a worm. "Maybe this doesn't make any sense, but..what would you do if...you could do something. And, if you did it, it might be good...but you think something horrible might happen instead. Just...really, really bad. But if you do nothing instead...then things will almost definitely be bad...just not, as bad maybe."

"Hmm. Well, you know what I had to say about asking someone you've barely met out, right?" Beryl said. "I think that, no matter what, you should chase after what you want and try your very hardest to take it. If you're holding the reins then at least you can try to steer, but if you're not doing anything then you have no control at all. And yeah, maybe you'll regret the risks you take on the way, but you'll definitely regret it if you don't even try, right?"

"Hmmhhh..." It was hard to dispute that logic, but Emma still wasn't entirely convinced. Well—it wasn't like Beryl really knew what she was talking about; admitting that people's lives could be at stake was impossible.

"Awwh, you're not convinced? I'm sure you'll come around if you take a little more time to think about it," her roommate said. "Like—are you sure that really bad thing is as horrible as you think, or is that just how it looks right now? How likely is it to happen, really? Can you do something to prevent it? Stuff like that.

"Hey, are you hungry?" she added, sitting upright again while abruptly changing the subject.

"Um.." Emma had had nothing to eat since breakfast. Being violently upset at herself for the past several minutes hadn't exactly improved the state of her stomach, either. "A little.."
"I'll make you something tasty to cheer you up, then!" Beryl said, hopping to her feet. "I'll even clean up after myself just this once, alright?"

"Okay..." The reply seemingly went unheard, as her roommate was already in the kitchen starting to get things ready. Well...maybe she'd be able to think a little straighter on a full stomach, Emma thought...if she could keep anything down, at least.

---

"Uuugh." Finally back to being himself again, Blake stretched for a minute before flopping down onto the couch. Amory sat on the opposite side from him. "Missed all my classes today. I had some projects coming due, too. Maybe I can email them and pretend I threw up today," he mused to himself. "Almost did."

"You think Emma's okay?" Amory asked.
"I don't know!" Blake threw up his hands. "She wanted to be left alone, so we left her alone. She's alive, and awake and—whatever." He gave a voiced sigh. "She's, probably not okay. She practically had a nervous breakdown on the way here! But I don't know, what else to do, if she just wants to be left alone."
"Sorry, I didn't mean in that way."
"Then how did you mean it?" he snapped.

Amory responded to this with a concerned look. "Uugh," Blake groaned. "I know, you're just concerned about her. Me too. Maybe worse. It's my fault she had to go through all that."
"How so?"
"I was there," he said, emphatically waving his hands forward. "I even noticed the puppets were leading the monster our way. I could've done, something to stop it!"

"Yeah, like what?"
"I—I don't know." Blake shook his head. "Something," he repeated unhelpfully.

"You do read a lot of comics, right?"

"Huh?" The change of subject confused his tired mind for a long moment; one could almost imagine him asking what is 'comics'? before his brain woke itself up again. "Oh, yeah. So?"

"Isn't 'you can't save everyone' like a major thing every superhero has to learn sooner or later? I mean, no matter how powerful you are, you just can't be everywhere doing everything at once. Sometimes not everything that has to happen to protect someone is within your control, y'know."

"I know that, it's just. It's a feeling, I guess," Blake said. "I feel like I wasn't good enough, so it's my fault. And it won't go away. So the more I see she's traumatized by, whatever it is you feel when you're in one of those things, the worse I think my failure is."

"Well, I don't really know what to say, then. It's not your fault, it's the puppeteer's," Amory said. "Or the mist monster. You know, the ones who were literally responsible for it all? You can't watch a car crash from the sidewalk and then get mad at yourself for not hitting the brakes fast enough."

"Maybe it's more magic stuff. Negative emotions to fuel me, and the part where it's supposed to wear off is broken..."
"Well—I know you just changed back, but we do have at least one way to arbitrarily improve your emotional state," Amory obliquely half-offered.
"Yeah, yeah..oh, right." Blake sat up slightly. "Actually, I thought of a couple things we should test out. Could you change for me, stand up?"
"Um—sure."

In a moment Amp was standing there again, and Blake stood up, moving just in front her. He carefully raised a foot and drew it back as if to kick her in the shins. He didn't feel—right—about doing it, but pushing back against that was enough; he still felt able to.
"Uh..?" She gave his foot a concerned look until he put it down again.
"Hmm." Blake reluctantly changed back into a superpowered fox-girl, and tried the same thing again. The results were identical to the dream.

"..Hold still. You said you thought you were 'magic immune', right?"

"Maybe, but it didn't seem smart to test how much..."
Light tried making a sunlight-level strobe in her eyes; she just tilted her head slightly, seeming to perceive the light but not the harshness of it. She tried actually making a laser to hit her in the wrist, which she raised to her head to watch with an expression of mild concern but didn't react in a manner resembling pain no matter how focused (therefore hot) Light tried to make it. After that, Light took a deep breath and let it out again.

"I can't hurt you when I'm like this—using her power. My magic can't hurt you, and..." Light made her sword appear, and moved it around in the air slightly. "..nope. I can't do anything to attack you. But when I was 'human', I did feel able to do it." She dismissed the sword again. "Just...wrong, somehow, like I really shouldn't. I mean—I dunno how to describe it exactly, a deeper sense of it being wrong than just that you're my friend and I don't actually wanna hit you in the first place."

Amp crossed her arms, thinking. "Sooo...I'm totally safe around vixens, and monsters. But humans can hurt me if they really want to."
"I think that's right," Light nodded. "Oh, there was one other thing she said...talking about her 'nature'..."

Amp watched quietly while she closed her eyes, thinking back to the dream and concentrating. "Oh...right. Yeah. Hey, try to slap me," she said.
Her head tilted further than before. "Uh—what?"

"Yeah. Like, if I was doing something really stupid, or acting crazy, and you wanted to hit some sense into me. Can you do that?"
"Oo..kaay..?" Slowly, Amp raised her hand, drew it back, and was able to make it hit Light square in the cheek, with just enough force to flinch her head to the side slightly. She winced and audibly gasped from the blow, not especially in pain, but—something else. Amp was able to feel it too, once she looked for it—the slap had done the opposite of her power's usual effect.

Light waved her right hand a bit. "No, yep. You, cut off my power with that," she reported. "Feels like it's coming back slowly, though." She held her hand palm-up at this point and was able to make a very faint orb of light appear over it. "Yeah.."

Amp was looking at her own hand, the one that had done the slapping. "I almost forgot..."

"Hmn?"
"She said, 'I give you the ability to reward or punish those who I've blessed as you see fit.' I never even thought about how the 'punish' part worked. So, I guess this is it?"

"Must be," Light nodded, "part of it at least. I had a hunch she mentioned slapping for some specific reason..."
"Hey," Amp gave an uncharacteristically mischievous grin. "What do you think would happen if I did that to a puppet?"

"Uh..hm. Well, it felt like my power was totally cut off for just a second. The puppet is nothing but an expression of a power, so..."
Amp put her hands together, her tail wagging back and forth eagerly like a puppy's. "Instant dust!"
Light sighed. "Yeah, but we can't really use it safely, knowing that you could be hurt—so, kidnapped—by someone who's human. Maybe she's permanent vixen right now, but she might have at least a few humans working for her, not to mention anyone else who might get the bright idea. You and your powers should still stay a secret."
"I agree," she said, nodding. "But it's a nice thought."

Then she smiled innocently up at the other vixen. "Well, since we're already girls again—you want some help relaxing?"
Light's ears folded back briefly, then upright again. "I guess...yeah," she sighed, limply moving back to sitting on the couch. "I should be able to deal with this myself, but.."
"Oh, hush with that." Amp gently knelt on the cushion next to her and leaned in, rubbing her ears. "I'm here to help you, so let me."

"Mrrh." The white-haired vixen leaned in quietly, letting her unwanted instincts take over yet again.