Battle Vixens! - 50

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Episode 50: The Missing Morning

Around 7 AM, Rowan found Simon standing at an intersection of hallways in the VI headquarters, holding a canvas wrapped up in paper under his left arm and looking uncertain. "You're here early," he commented, moving closer.

"I am! My dear wife told me to sleep in, and believe me, I agreed, but my body revolted and decided to wake up anyway. Have you seen Dawn around?"

"She moved rooms recently," Rowan started.
"Oh, I know about that. But—well, her door was ajar and she wasn't in there. Or the dining area, or the gym. I was just wondering where else she could be here. Especially if not with you..."

Crossing his arms, Rowan said, "I thought she was still asleep. She isn't normally up this early, either. Come with me."

"Oo-kay."

There was, perhaps, no objective reason to worry—the headquarters were fairly big, and Rowan could himself think of a few different reasons for Dawn to get up early and go somewhere she usually didn't. But from the intsant Simon had said her name, Rowan's instincts as a police officer kicked off with a fluttering edge of panic in the back of his mind—something is wrong, something is very wrong. He took off at a brisk walk to the security room, not bothering to check whether Simon was keeping up with the load he was carrying. Nonetheless, the artist did catch up to him at a run once he'd stopped to open the door, and, panting, followed him inside.

A few swift orders had one of the monitors set to show the view of the camera pointed in the direction of Dawn's door, and Rowan leaned over so his face was level with it and began tracking back the view hour by hour. "Did you have a camera on me while I was here?" Simon asked, leaning over his shoulder to watch.

"You had the cameras pointed out to you on your way in," Rowan said, sparing only a shred of his concentration on answering. "There are no cameras in the bedrooms or bathrooms."
"Oh. Right. I suppose I wasn't paying that much attention...hey! Door's shut now."
"..Five AM." Rowan moved a half-hour forward; it was open again. Then he went back minute-by- minute, and forward slowly after crossing back to the door being open. "..There."

The door was carefully cracked open, and Dawn leaned her head out, looking in either direction. She stepped out into the hallway, and paused, appearing to notice the camera. They were clearly visible, no effort having been made to hide them, and she was probably more aware they existed than Simon had until a moment ago been. Facing it as head-on as she could, her ears folded back and she said something, before turning and starting to walk quickly down the hall, away from it.
"Are you any good at lip reading?" Rowan asked.
"Little bit. I think that was...'I'm sorry. I have to.'"
"'Have to' what?"

Tracing through a few more cameras, Rowan watched her route with a sinking feeling of what he was inevitably going to see. When a person was crossing a hall in front of her she took care to back up and press against a wall, waiting patiently until they were completely gone to continue. Once or twice she stopped, her ears turning a certain way, and made a more circuitous path than would normally be necessary—to avoid whoever she'd heard. And, eventually, she came to one of the building's exits. It was locked, but only from the inside—people went out that way all the time. Outside, she moved along the wall until she was out of view of the camera, and could be seen on another raising a small pillar of ice and using it to help jump over the fence.

"..Leaving?" Simon said, confused. "Where'd she go?"
"I need to report this," Rowan said, standing up abruptly and going around Simon somewhat roughly on his way out.

"Whooaa, hey! Is—is something wrong here?"

---

Emma woke up to the thoroughly unfamiliar sensation of her legs hanging out past the foot of her bed. She had a brief moment of disorientation toward this, quickly sitting up in the process, before remembering what had just happened in the dream. Looking down to examine herself, she found she was still in the tall, voluptuous, strong two-tailed form, with the very same clothes. It had felt..normal, somehow, in the midst of the dream, but her face turned entirely red as she realized Amory had seen her in—well, like this and in this little clothing. Still—a small smile played across her face at the same time. It had been very...nice.

She stood up, looking around the room. It was one thing to find herself taller in a relatively unfamiliar dream-bedroom, and another entirely to see the place she woke up to every morning from the new perspective. Her ears twitched, listening for her roommate, and didn't hear anything to indicate her presence. That ruled out Beryl being awake and doing stuff in the apartment—and she was a pretty early riser, usually—but maybe she was still asleep? Thinking about some of the things Light had been able to pull off, Emma made an illusion of her usual self and quietly leaned her head out of her bedroom door, moving over to her roommate's and pressing one of her ears right against it. No breathing inside—which meant Beryl had left before she awoke. Good! Well—only in that she could stay like this a little longer and test a few things out, Emma told herself.

Running back to her room to look in a mirror, Emma realized two things: First, she still had the illusion of her 'human self' running—and second, she'd never been capable of something quite this convincing before, much less without constant, conscious effort. She dispelled the illusion, wondering just how close to the 'real' powers of people her imitations could get like this. Well, there was no all-encompassing sense of control over all the light—or sound, water, electricity, rocks, etcetera—around her the way they had. But, in addition to making relatively small, yet quite convincing, illusions with light, she was able to make a very close approximation of one of Zeno's shields, not quite as tough as hers really were yet just as tall as Emma was right now, which was quite a lot bigger than before. And a dark ball of energy-absorption could be made in sizes ranging from her usual limit to maybe two and a half feet in diameter. Overall, her use of imitated powers was greatly expanded.

What about weapons, she thought. Anything different there? She made her usual sort of knives out of light, shadow, and electricity first, then dismissed them and decided to try really imitating Light's usual way of making her weapon appear instead of just what she was used to doing by now. In this way, Emma was able to produce a short sword out of light, maybe three-quarters the length of Light's actual weapon. The other elements she was able to make weapons with had similar extensions, and as it turned out she could even 'customize' the weapon's size anywhere between her original knives and this larger one. Beyond that...

Clark wasn't just able to heal; he had those string things, right? Emma had never really tried imitating those, since it seemed like they 'came from' the needle and she couldn't make a needle either. But actually—it seemed like it really came from Clark's wrists sometimes, or at least it was tied closely to them. She tried using that instead, holding one hand palm-up and then carefully grasping near the spot it came from for Clark with the other, and was able to produce some of the same kind of glowing string—only hers wasn't blue, it was—white...green...red...then blue...? As she pulled more out, she found a continual striped pattern of one color after another, each one possibly representing one of the powers she'd imitated. Well, at least she could do this if it was ever somehow useful, she thought, dropping the effort of keeping the string around to dissipate it.

Rory's power, predictably, was able to reinforce her physical strength, toughness, agility at a whim—and on the opposite side, she felt able to enhance not only her resilience against others' "magical" attacks but her own use of imitation powers to be either stronger, or under finer control. It seemed like if she tried to push a power past what she was currently 'normally' capable of then this 'magic boosting' would kick in instinctively, too. So...

Pulling herself apart again, Emma took stock of how each body felt in its enhanced state, now that her powers were 'working'. Plus didn't feel any stronger than before, but could use Rory's power to make herself much moreso than usual. Minus was indeed super-strong, able to pick up the other body, and then Emma's bed, both relatively effortlessly. On the other hand, she discovered Plus could move almost faster than Minus's eyes could track, while Minus was no faster than before. Maybe they'd always had this as a slight difference, and the increase had just emphasized it a bit more? Both of them were, of course, able to 'customize' weapons as much as she could while combined.

Another idea hit her after this. When she'd shown her imitation of Zeno's light-shields, Light had proven able to move them around. Which meant...Plus made a shield, and was also able to freely move it around, of course. She could also make water and then use Dawn's trick to freeze it, or Minus's version of the same to rapidly heat it into steam. Shadow bullets could be propelled faster, or slightly redirected mid-flight, using Minus's shadow-control. If she threw something—a weapon, a big rock, whatever—Minus could adjust its 'gravity' using Tora's trick to speed it up and make it hit a little harder. If there was enough metal in the ground—and there usually was—she could use 'earth' powers to throw bits of it into the air between herself and an enemy to make it easier to conduct electricity to them; maybe bits of water could be similarly useful. Fay's explosions produced light that could be turned into lasers, and heat that fire could be drawn out of. And so on...somehow it had just never exactly occurred to her before the degree to which she use different powers to enhance the effects of each other, but it seemed really obvious now. Some of those ideas could even work at her original level of power, although many required her to be 'boosted' as she was now to either work at all or be meaningfully effective.

She excitedly tried out and thought of things, one after another, for an entire hour before happening to glance at a clock, and realizing it was getting late into the morning and she hadn't had anything for breakfast. Her two bodies looked at each other with a slightly sad expression and a mutual sigh, before realizing that she could eat just one meal in one body without changing back, now. Duh! Stepping back together, Emma hurried to the kitchen to make herself something, being thankful once again for taking afternoon classes. Even though this was temporary, and would wear off one way or another...she wanted to savor this confident feeling, this sense of actually being strong, and powerful, and clever for once, as long as she could. And anyway...knowing more about it was good; it would help for anytime Amory gave her a 'boost' again and her powers were needed to fight something.

---

Half an hour went by entirely too quickly. Rowan had a meeting scheduled which he could not put off, and anyway it wouldn't do any good to. He had already contacted every relevant person that he could, and of course not one of them had any idea of Dawn's whereabouts. She had wanted to disappear, and so she had disappeared; he got the sense that her "previous" life had trained her well for evading the exact kind of people he had available to look for her. And she had nearly a two-hour head start. It was almost pointless to keep trying.

It took him a moment after cranking the car to realize that he was physically shaking. He took a deep breath, and let it out; this wasn't a good state to be trying to drive in. Somewhat reluctantly, he spoke his phrase, shrinking and shifting like water, and then scooted forward slightly to make room for the tail, readjusted the seat and mirrors, and finally set out, relying on the fox-form's natural calm to keep herself focused on the most immediate task. After arriving and stepping out, she changed back, and some approximation of the calm remained. Good—he was going to need it.

Very few people involved directly in the VI's operations had any idea who their main benefactor really was. Rowan had, despite some protest, been treated as effectively the leader of the vixens working directly with them, which came with the responsibility of not only knowing his name but meeting on a regular basis, participating in any discussion that could lead to major or important decisions set to affect the organization as a whole. As he was more or less the creator of the organization, and had some experience in such matters, that benefactor was also closely involved with the higher-level tactical and research portions of the VI. Today's meeting was primarily to discuss the identity of the puppeteer.

So Rowan walked into an average-looking office building, went up an elevator and entered the door to the secretary's office. A nameplate on the bespectacled, tall, blond-haired woman's desk said "Opal Smith". She turned her head up from the computer at the sound of the door opening and nodded. "Mr. Shepherd. Right on time, as usual. Frank is ready for you now." It was the name he generally insisted on everyone using, despite a number of more "honorary" titles being applicable. Rowan nodded, and made his way inside.

Already seated in the office were a couple of the research leads for the program of "making magic work", as well as the woman—a private eye, and FBI agent before that—who was more or less the head of the VI's "intelligence division" (which was more like a coordination team that worked with actual law enforcement and intelligence agencies). Behind the large desk in front, of course, was Frank himself. He was in his forties, with bifocals and some gray hairs showing, but he had a build that might have belonged to a star football player in another life. He had a tic of frequently readjusting those glasses, or taking them off to wipe the lens with a cleaning cloth, tissue, or whatever else was available.

"Rowan," Frank nodded, subtly indicating the remaining empty seat in the room. "I've just been informed of the situation with Dawn. Sorry to hear about that."
"Everyone is already doing what they can," Rowan said, sitting down. "I take full responsibility for this. Nobody was guarding her."

"Well, she wasn't a flight risk before today," Frank pointed out. "She was very stressed, but seemed entirely cooperative."

"I would have done the same," the former-FBI woman said. "Having a guard posted outside her door might have spooked or upset her. Looking at the footage, it's like she just woke up this morning and suddenly decided she wanted out."

"...She might have made that decision before this morning," Rowan realized aloud. "We know someone who can speak to us in our dreams."

"The Giver?" one of the research leads said (stating the obvious).

"What could she have said to cause Dawn to leave?" Frank wondered aloud.

"..I can only think of one thing," Rowan said. "But there is no way she could have promised that."
"Excuse me for saying, but Dawn wasn't exactly very stable," the private eye said. "Even if you buy into the Giver's claim to never lie, she wouldn't exactly need to promise anything to make it sound like Dawn could have whatever it was she wanted."

Rowan nodded slowly, agreeing.

"The next thing to question," she continued, "is the Giver's motive for provoking her to leave. Especially in light of what you relayed from Light yesterday, it's hard to say how this could line up with her overall goals. Then again, I wouldn't put it past her to simply torment someone on a whim."

"Well, either way, I hope they find her," Frank said. "Now—the main reason for this meeting. Chandra?"
The "intelligence" lead nodded. "Right. We have finally pinned down the puppeteer's identity." She withdrew some printed photos from a folder in her hand, placing them on Frank's desk where everyone could see them—though upside-down to the desk's owner. It was a smiling headshot—maybe from a college yearbook—of a young man. "Tobias Mond. Son and, more or less, heir to an oil tycoon. The only candidate who was in all of the right places at the right times, and hasn't been seen anywhere else. In fact, he was last seen in an airport several miles west of here, not long before she made her first move."

She produced another photo. "This also gives us a good guess as to who his first victim was—the vixen we couldn't identify before now." That was—Rowan knew—the teleporting one with the knives. The photo was a considerably less-high-definition shot from a street camera outside of a nightclub, with a pair of figures circled on their way out the door. "Wesley Brand. Disappeared not long before Tobias started his 'tour'. Not a known vixen, but then, neither was Tobias until now. Our friends in the UK found slight traces of blood near his place of residence, but no evidence of a struggle."

"Needless to say, Tobias's assets have been seized, and his appearance and ID's are on all the watch lists," Frank continued. "Even if he gets out of the US, he's now wanted for murder in most countries that are still stable enough to have law enforcement. None of the powers he's taken through those murders include convincing illusions, either, so he won't be able to slip out with those."

Rowan shook his head. "He can teleport through any fence or wall. If he wants to leave, I'm not sure of a way to stop him."

Chandra said, "Tobias has been described as having an extremely vindictive personality. In my opinion, he's likely to look for some way to get revenge before trying to leave. Not that I think that's good news, but..."

"Everyone's on high alert again today," Frank said. "But no news yet. Rest assured, whatever retaliation she has planned, we still have a trump card or two up our sleeves."

"Speaking of.." Frank waved to the researchers. "You said you've been making significant progress?"
"Indeed," one of them replied. "We have a prototype nearly built, and have been screening volunteers for a compatible test subject."

"Naturally, we're looking for someone with a good psych profile," said the other one, "who will willingly cooperate with the aims of the VI as a whole."

"What does a 'compatible' person look like?" Rowan asked.

"Well—there seem to be certain personality traits, or at least a small set of them, common to nearly every vixen our evaluators have had a chance to interview. And, even the ones they haven't show signs of the same."
"Since our work is based on what the Giver gave you all, it seems more likely to actually, work, with someone who she could've given powers to, but didn't. If we can make this prototype functional, then since we understand what actually went into it, we can begin to work out adjustments to remove those kinds of requirements—at least in theory."

"A prototype what, exactly?" Chandra asked, her tone largely one of curiosity.
One of them hesitated. "It's, well..ah.."
"A hat," the other researcher. "Wizard hat."

The first cleared his throat, forestalling any verbal reaction to that. "While the ideal—from certain perspectives—would be to produce something which anyone can put on or wield in order to be capable of atypical—"
"—magical—"
"—offense against our common enemy, it simply does not work that way. As the Giver strongly suggested to Light, this sort of power is closely tied to an individual's personality and psychology. What we are hoping to develop is a 'key', similar to the phrases vixens invoke, which amplifies one's inherent potential. The only sort of 'key' that seems feasible for us is a physical one—something you can put on to 'activate' and take off to 'deactivate'. We believe that the abilites activated by our prototype will be significantly weaker than even the 'stolen' powers vixens display, at least at first."

"From what we can tell," the second one continued, "each 'key' made will become intrinsically linked on its first use, and only work for that person afterward. But, we're more prototyping the creation and linking process. Fortunately none of the physical materials needed are expensive or difficult to make, but because we are dealing with magic here, the actual process of creation has many arbitrary, nonsensical-looking steps. Which is why it hasn't been discovered by accident before now—we assume—and why it's taken so long to even make one."
"But again—once we have a process that works, we can begin to understand how to tweak it. And hopefully make it work for personality traits which the Giver was not interested in."

---

"So you can just visit any of us in your dreams?" Blake said. "And, just like for her, it makes us change, too?"
"Well—anyone I've actually met before," Amory (back in human form) clarified. "Which does include everyone I woke up yesterday."
"What if they don't speak English? Does the dream translate for us?"
"I..don't know. Maybe. It would make sense, but I haven't tested it yet," he shrugged.

"Who'd you visit, then?"

"Uh..just Emma."

Blake gave him a bit of a look. "I just, wanted to know if she was okay! After all what happened yesterday, you know? And..I was testing this thing out for the first time. I didn't want to go to a relative stranger, or make you change, and..."
"So you had a dream date with her?"

"No, we just..talked. And um," Amory looked away, blushing, "She wanted me to pet her," he muttered quietly.
"What was that? I don't have fox ears right now," Blake said, tapping a finger on one of his human ears with a slight hint of teasing to his voice.

"W-well, it was a good time to pet her for the 'first' time so that if I need to 'power her up', you know like everyone else, then I can do it quick. And she wanted me to, and I thought it could make her feel even better. Y-you know how that feels," Amory said.
"I guess I do, huh." He looked straight down at his breakfast for a moment.

After contemplating that with some visible discomfort, he looked back up again. "Still though—all night?"

"W-well, it was just. We...and.." Amory stammered incoherently, gesturing just as unhelpfully. "So..I, I wanted, too. And just..gave in to it. You—you know?"

Blake gave a small sigh. "I guess I do, more than I'd really like to. But you felt that way? You always seem really in control, when I'm...not."
"I..I guess I gave in to it on purpose. Must have. Or...I dunno. Maybe she 'learned' enough of my power to put me in that state and neither of us even realized it." Amory thought for a second before shaking his head. "No, no. I just..I wanted to...it's really weird to think about now that I'm awake, and not..you know, foxy. It feels almost normal when I'm, a girl."

"Are you telling me you wouldn't want to pet her as you are now?" Blake teased again.
"Well—no? Maybe. Um, I think it would have different connotations, then. But—well, I mean.." he waved vaguely. "We—you and I—already...before I even, so..."

"Yeah, exactly," he nodded. "She even said she picked you basically because of that, right?"
"I guess so."

Amory crossed his arms. "I guess I just never realized I was that much of a pervert. Or..whatever it is..."
"I really don't care. I doubt Emma minds, either," Blake said. "If you help save the world by being a big enough pervert for her to see you as some kinda 'kindred spirit' then—fine. At least you're a good person otherwise."

"Heheh. Okay, this conversation got too weird, seriously." Amory shook his head, still blushing. All the same, looking back he didn't feel quite the same way about petting the other vixens, Light included, that he had about Gem—Emma, rather. Maybe it was just his imagination, or he'd enjoyed having two bodies holding onto him more than he was willing to admit, but...with each person there was a kind of 'flavor' of the relationship he shared with them. And...hers was...maybe his favorite already, knocking Light out of the lead in a single go.

Well, one more thing to forcefully bury in the back of his mind so he could focus on lab today, he thought, shuddering his head slightly to try and clear the 'bad thoughts' out as soon as his mind moved on to remembering her 'improved' appearances' figures, and how they'd felt pressed close against his (at the time, hers, but that made little difference to the 'dumb boy' part of his brain).

---

After watching Rowan run off in the closest thing he seemed to have to a panic, Simon wandered back outside and hefted the wrapped painting face-up, flat over his arms. "Hmn. Well, what shall I do with you, then?" he mused. "...Surely she plans on coming back, whatever's happening." He'd watched conversations between Dawn and Rowan a few times, and certainly seen them work together. It was obvious to anyone that he cared about her, to an almost fatherly (or motherly) degree, but it was no less clear to Simon, at least, that she had a sense of security and sanity from him that was otherwise missing from her life, and perhaps had been for quite some time. And, well—not that he had a lot of experience being unstable himself, but generally he got the impression that one does not simply abandon one's rock suddenly and forever.

After a moment more of thought, he pulled it back under his arm and started back toward the bedroom he'd begun from, and then—since the door was still ajar—let himself in. He carefully unwrapped the painting of a sunrise that didn't exist and placed it on the bed's pillow, leaning against the wall just behind it to be at a forward-facing angle toward the door. Then Simon left the room, carefully shut the door, and dusted off his hands, expressing mostly to himself that his job here as an artist was well done. If—when she returned, at least one thing of beauty would be there waiting for her.

---

I imagine Frank being played by Tom Selleck. He's used to being called "Frank", right?

Battle Vixens! - 49

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Episode 49: Somewhere More Private

When Light regained the presence of mind to think again, she was already in her squishy, curvy form, lying on her back on the couch with Amp on top of her, generous chests pressed together, each of them with a leg between two of the other's and their tails tightly wound together running down the front end of the cushions. "Mrrnh.." She brought a hand down from an ear and gently pawed at the other girl's face with it.
"Yees?" Amp asked, lifting her head just enough to be able to look her in the face.
"Uh..I almost forgot a couple of other things she said. Didn't, mention them to anyone else 'cause.."
Rather than waiting for her to put the reason into words, she said, "What's that?"

"Well—she admitted to being Beryl. I guess there's no surprise there for us, but...she sorta promised something good might happen if I don't tell Emma about it, so I didn't..."

"'Something good'?"

"Aah..her exact words were 'guarantee it'll be to her advantage, and so to yours as well'," Light clarified.
"Hmnh. I guess that means she had something already planned that she thinks we'll happen to like," Amp replied. "Well—like we already said, annoying her by giving it away too soon is like poking a hornet's nest." She rubbed Light's ears gently again. "Fine with me."

"Mrrh—s-something else too!" Light flicked her ears away from the delicate fingers, putting all of her will into resisting the irresistible. She felt a bit like Amp had said 'good girl' instead, and maybe worst of all like she'd enjoyed such praise.
"Oh, right, sorry."

"Um..s-she said she'd been saving a 'surprise' for you and you should sleep looking like that instead of..human form," Light said. "I guess she was hoping it would just happen by accident before now."
"Hmn. I guess I can try it," Amp said. "Thank you," she added with a bright smile.
"Uhh, n-no problem." The combination of a bright 'thank you' and that expression flustered Light a bit, which wasn't helped when it was followed up by leaning in, gently nuzzling and petting her again. "Mnn—mrr~rrh.." Light's awareness drifted back into a pleasant daze, focusing only on the soft girl in her arms once again.

---

Karis arrived home not long after Simon did, and found him slumped over on the couch, head facing the ceiling and eyes closed. "Long day, dear?"
"Aah, you know it," he said, opening his eyes and moving just his head to face her. "Maybe you heard a little of it, but things didn't go too well over there. And after that they've had me driving back and forth, uugh. I don't even want to see a wheel or a dash for the next day or three."
"That is, unless it's going out to eat," she said, putting her hands on her hips briefly.
"Well, naturally."
"Anything positive to report?" she asked, moving over to an opposing chair to sit down while facing him. "Aside from that everyone woke up?"
"Ah—yes, one or two things actually! I finally learned something I'm really not allowed to tell you," Simon grinned. "That means I'm moving up in the ranks!"

"Or that you were lucky and stumbled into it."
"That's more likely what it is," he said. "I can't tell you, though!"
"So stop talking about it. Anything else?"

"Weeelll. My trip there and back again and, and there again and back again..entailed meeting the rest of the vixens from there. Particularly, I got a chance to talk with Light—and even got her to let me take some pictures!" He withdrew a memory card from his pockets and waved it proudly.

"Congrats, I guess. What's she like?" Karis leaned in slightly.

"You'd like her, I think. Bit of a, hero complex," he said, sweeping his hand vaguely. "Even though she was totally exhausted, she never wanted to stop just going and going..." He twirled a finger around in the air to illustrate this point.
"Just like someone else I know," his wife said teasingly. "Really, was it worth being tired all day just to work on another painting this morning?"

"Oh, absolutely. I think, with some finishing touches this evening, I will have that gift ready to present to Dawn tomorrow morning," he said, giving a thumbs up. "I really didn't even feel all that tired until I sat down. Tried to have lunch at the base—knew that was a mistake, but there's no better place to befriend someone than over food, you know."

"So, how close are you guys to catching the puppeteer?" she asked.

"You know I'm not privy to the details. But—rumors here and there say they're pretty sure of who she is. Just double-checking a couple of facts. The two biggest problems are that we don't know where exactly she's hiding, and after what happened today there's a concern she might just bolt. We really do not want to be the sort of superheroes who get recurring villains, you know."
"Seems like—at least according to some of my kids—the news sites think the V.I. has a lot of clout below the board, so to speak?"

"Well, it's no secret the police are willingly cooperating with us," Simon said. "Besides which, we have friends in the military somehow or other—especially in that base near here. Ever since forming the V.I. has been exceptionally forthright about the purpose of its every action it takes—to protect people from the monsters and prevent the world from descending into chaos—and it seems only natural to me that people want to help save the world. Plus, maybe whoever's at the top of the food chain already had enough clout to 'encourage' those connections."
"So—I suppose someone must've already thought of making all the prime suspects' ID's, saay, not quite work correctly? You know, so if they try to use them for something they'll be briefly detained, and apologized to later for the 'error' if they're not really her? At the very least, none of those people should be able to make it through the security to get on a flight out of the US."

"I don't doubt they're keeping an eye out for all of their whereabouts, at least," he said. "I could suggest your idea to Rowan, but I don't really know how well it'd go over."

While he was busy writing out the text, Karis said, "Well, are you already hungry after a 'meager' lunch? Because I didn't get time for any lunch at all. Had to help proctor an exam for one of my sick colleagues instead."

"Oh, absolutely!" Simon stood up and flourished his phone back into his pocket. "Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"You know it."

---

Amp stopped when her stomach audibly growled, and she realized it probably was pretty close to suppertime by now. Light was sufficiently stunned for her to just peel herself off and stand up fully before her absence was even noticed. She pushed herself slightly more upright with an arm. "Hmmn?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Um.." Light sat up, swinging her legs over in front of her, and looked vaguely down and then back up at Amp again. "Yeah, now that I think of it. How..what time is it, anyway?"
"Hmmn," Amp referred to her phone on an end table to one side of the couch. "Quarter past five. So, suppertime! I'll make you something." She started off toward the kitchen.

"Hey, you don't..I can get something myself, you know."
"I insist! You've had a hard day, right?"

"And you haven't?" Light stood up, following.
"Not really." She shrugged. "Using my power is effortless. I don't feel like I'm 'using anything up' the way you do to control light."

"At least let me help, then."

While they were getting things together, Light said, "I've..decided I want to try and talk to someone soon. Like, give an interview."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Um. Simon—that guy with the earth powers, convinced me it's probably a good idea. I mean, I knew, I felt like I had to eventually, but I was just putting it off forever, so.."
"You still sound pretty nervous," Amp said with a mildly concerned look.

"I-I am, yeah."
"You stare down giant six-armed horrors, run into danger all the time instead of out, and this is what you're scared of?"
"I can't help it! I'm not a good public speaker," Light protested. "Anyway, he suggested it might help to practice. You might, um, know what they'd be likely to ask."
"Hm. I do watch a lot of news. So, we could give it a shot at least."

They sat down to eat, and Amp said, "All right. I'll ask you what I think they would ask, and you give me your best answers—or your best 'I don't want to answer'-s. If I say 'time out' then I'm stepping out of the role to tell you something, or ask something, or whatever," Amp said.
"Okay," Light nodded.

"Then, let's begin."

"Why don't you introduce yourself first?"
"Okay, uh, my name is Light. I'm..one of the people who got powers, I guess."
Amp nodded. "So, everyone has been wondering, why the big mystery? Why not speak publicly about yourself before now?"

"To be honest, I've just been worried I would say something stupid and embarrass myself. Or, much worse, I might say something that revealed who I really am. I'm worried that would put my friends or family in danger."

"And, why is it you've chosen to talk to us now?"

"Well—I realized I would need to eventually, one way or another. I thought it was better to go ahead and get it over with."

"Are you 'really' male or female?"

"Um, I can't answer that," Light said. "It could give away who I am. It doesn't seem like much, but it cuts the sample space in half."

"Hmm, time out," Amp said. "'Sample space' is kinda computer science jargon, isn't it?"
"It's from probability, actually.."
"Still. You probably shouldn't put it that way," she said. "If people already think you're a student then it sorta narrows your major down a lot. Maybe you're an art or music major or something, but not if you're using words like that."
"Yeah, you're right. I guess I should say something like 'it makes it twice as easy to identify me'."
"That should work. So..

"You obviously aren't interested in fame, and seemingly not in fortune. What motivates you to risk your life?"
"I see people in danger, and I want to help them," Light said. "Those things are a constant danger to everyone. Knowing I can do something about them, I can't just stand back and do nothing."

"What is your relationship with the Vixen Initiative? And with the other vixens here? Are you their leader?"

"No, I'm not," she said, shaking her head lightly. "I'm not anyone's boss. We just work together—all of us. The V.I. are our allies."

"What would you say if the Initiative wanted more direct command of your group?"

"Just speaking for myself, I wouldn't mind. I don't care, as long as we're protecting people."

"How do you use the powers of other vixens? Such as Mr. Shepherd and Ning?"
"I can't really explain it, but there is a way for us to willingly lend each other our powers. I use theirs, with their express permission, in emergency situations only."

"Can you tell us anything about Ning?"

"If you mean her identity, there's really nothing I can tell you," Light said. "I do think she's a good person. I would—I have trusted her with my life at least few times."

"Time out. I can't help but feel you've learned a little bit from her," Amp said.
Light looked not entirely happy about that assessment. "What do you mean?"
"Saying you 'can't say' something is a nice ambiguous description that avoids needing to explain why by implying you don't actually know, while still allowing for the possibility that there's some other reason why you can't. I think it's good," she nodded, "After all, this is stuff you can't easily explain the reason for without giving some of it away. But you're not lying, either."

"I guess you're right..."

"Well, anyway—

"What is your opinion of the Giver?" Amp asked, back in character again.

"I don't trust her," Light said immediately. "I think any of us using power from her should be careful. She's helping us right now, but I believe she has her own agenda, and is more than happy to manipulate people to get whatever she wants."

"Time out..interesting response. After she's told us exactly what her motivation is?" Amp said.
"She claims she never lies," Light replied, "but I don't know that's true. I consider what she told me today to be mostly confidential stuff I shouldn't just say on live television, but if I admit she's spoken to me then there will be follow-up questions. Anyway, it's true. I don't trust her, even if she is telling the truth."
"Well, I certainly believe that," Amp said. "Fair enough."

---

She didn't untransform for the rest of the evening, staying in the apartment as 'Amp' even after they finished supper (and the mock interview) and Light went to her room to change back and let off some steam in other, more normal ways before going to bed. It was perfectly comfortable being a fluffy fox-girl, maybe too comfortable if she really thought about it. But there was a certain security to knowing how difficult it was to hurt her, despite how fragile she felt like this. Eventually she got into bed and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

It didn't take long for her to open them again and sit up, finding herself back in the room where her powers had first been given. Her clothes were the exact same as those she had fallen asleep in—one of "Amory's" shirts draped loosely over her, and a pair of panties beneath that. While it seemed that the person responsible for those powers was in some sense ever-present, it was increasingly clear as she stood up, wandered around and waited that this wasn't actually an 'appointed meeting' for Amp. Rather...it felt like she was in control of this space. Not that she could redecorate it at will or anything, but there was a pervasive sense of ownership present, like it was all...hers.

Eventually she went to the door. In everyone else's dreams, it seemed, these doors only ever opened to let her in. But, reaching her hand out, Amp found the doorknob turned just fine—it was unlocked. Trying to pull it open, however, met with some resistance as if the door was stuck, and brought up a strange, seemingly unprompted thought in her mind: Who did she want to see?

Mulling it over, the list of those available included every vixen she had personally met: Light, of course, Ning, the Quinns, Rowan, Simon, Nico—along with everyone else she'd woken up that day, whether she remembered their names or not...including Gemma. The puppeteer, and other vixens she was aware of only from seeing them on the news or online, were conspicuously absent. She hadn't met them, so she couldn't see them this way.

So, Amp hypothesized, she could do some approximation of the Giver's trick, and 'command' somebody to appear here in their dream, then visit them. If true, it provided a uniquely private, possibly instantaneous, channel of communication. Presumably, she could even 'visit' multiple people at once, and it didn't seem like there was an actual time limit here either, in the funny kind of way that dreams simply take as long as they do regardless of how long one is asleep. Of course, there was no better way to confirm or deny that hypothesis than to test it.

She considered who to speak to for a moment. The obvious answer was Light, but...Blake had probably just gone to sleep as himself. He might appreciate not waking up as a girl for once. So...Rowan? There was no telling how he would react to an unexpected visit; he'd had no hint this sort of thing was possible and might even be cautious enough to think she was actually the Giver in disguise. So, who...

Well, there was one person she really did want to check in on. She'd given her space, but making sure she was okay before a new day came around with its own troubles was..a deeply tempting prospect. Anyway, if she didn't want the visit, then Amp could presumably send her back to regular sleep right away. Besides, there was no danger of an unplanned transformation exposing her secret thanks to who her roommate 'actually' was.

Amp pulled on the door again, this time picturing Gemma. Was that who she wished to meet, something asked; yes, it was, she answered. The door came open, and a room similar to the one Light had described to Amory after her own first "personal" visit was behind it—no intervening hallway or anything. Well, what was the point of such things when you could just make doors connect to each other arbitrarily, after all? And in the bed just across from the door were Gemma's two bodies, one lying on each side facing outward. As soon as Amp walked into the room, both of them jerked slightly, stirring, and they slowly, synchronously, sat up, opening their eyes and blinking confusedly at the room they were in. It didn't take her long to notice another person present.

"Wha—" "—Amory?"

"Yeah, um, it's me," she said, gently pressing the door shut behind her. "Apparently if I fall asleep like this then, I can meet people 'here'. Whatever 'here' actually is."

"Oh. So um,—" "—you came to see me?" she asked, both standing up. Plus was in a long, light--colored nightgown, while Minus was wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt.

"Yeah. I mean, I wanted to test if this works how I thought it did, and..was wondering if you're okay? Or, uh, feeling any better?" she said, stepping slightly closer.

Plus looked thoughtful. "I do, a little," Minus started. "—Um, l-like I said, I just needed some time to think about stuff on my own.—" "—Sort of. Beryl showed up."

Amp responded to this with a concerned look in spite of herself—and of that person's assurances through Light.

"Oh, uh, don't worry! She was nice.—" "—Having to deal with her whether I wanted to or not, kinda snapped me out of it a little."

"Hey, um...d'you want a seat?" Minus looked around and located a chair in front of a little desk on one side of the room, Plus going to get it and pull it close to the side of the bed, which both bodies sat down on themselves.

"Sure." Amp took the offered chair. "Thank you."
"This..isn't really the first time this has happened. I mean—" "—it's not usually, I'm not used to dealing with stuff this serious, but...—" "—sometimes I get into this awful cycle of self-pity and self-flagellation and I just wanna curl into a ball and die for a while.—" "—I was trying, mostly um trying to not do it in front of anyone else so it won't upset them, and save it for when I was alone.—" "—But, I know it's no good for me, so I should just not do it at all.—" "—I can't help it, though!"

It was a bit like her two bodies were arguing with each other—although she was really just arguing with herself. Returning to a concerned expression, Amp said, "It only upset me because I was worried about you," she said. "It's okay if you don't feel great after what happened. And, letting it out is fine if it makes you feel better."

"It doesn't really, though. I just feel like I'm bringing everyone else down with me.—" "—I already feel like getting eaten, and putting everyone in danger, was my fault in the first place."

"Heheh," Amp giggled slightly in spite of herself, drawing a look of surprise from both of Gemma's faces.

"Sorry. It's just. Once we were in our apartment, Light talked about how she felt like it was all her fault," she said. "Seems to me like the people most eager to shoulder the blame tend to be the least responsible. Sometimes you get put into an unwinnable situation, even if you do make all the best available moves, and once you're there...you can't really blame yourself for picking wrong when there is no right choice. Right?"
"I-I guess so," Plus said. "—I still, feel like I put everyone in more danger," Minus said, "learning even more powers that could be used if I get eaten or, k-killed."

"Well, sure. But, growing more powerful gives you more tools to keep that from happening, too," Amp said. "I'm not the expert when it comes to determining the risk-reward on that, though, I admit."

Looking into...she picked Plus's eyes, more or less at random...Amp said, "You know—and I think everyone else would agree with me on this. You..don't have to keep fighting those things if you don't want to. If this, if today made you feel like you can't, or like you shouldn't..."

"I know that. Um...—" "—to tell the truth, I was seriously thinking about it today. Telling Light to just take my power and keep it. But—" "—If I'm not doing anything...I don't have any control at all. Which is worse than just having, even a little.—" "—If I want those things to not, k-kill or eat, everyone I care about, then I have to do what I can to stop them. And—" "—if I want to keep people like the puppeteer from getting their way, then I can't just sit by and let them do what they like." "Right?" both of her asked at once.
"It's how I feel, at least," Amp said, nodding.

They were quiet for a long moment, until suddenly both of Gemma talked at once: A "Hey, um" and a "Do you, uh" coming out at the same time. The two bodies looked at each other before Plus said, "Uh, I-I'm not really sure how to ask this, actually.—" "—But this is um. Ab-about as private as things could get, isn't it?"

"I think you're right about that," Amp said with a gentle smile. "You want me to try petting you here?"

"Yes, um. I-if that's okay.—" "—I'm not sure whether 'merging' works here since most of my powers don't, but maybe it does?"
"You can try if you want to. I'm fine with you staying like that, though," she said, pulling herself back up onto her feet. Both of Gemma visibly blushed.
"Oh, um—" "—okay..."

Amp sat in the convenient bit of space between the two of them, and first reached a hand over Plus's head, giving the ears there her gentlest touch. "How's that?" she asked.

"Mrr." Plus leaned over onto Amp's shoulder. "Uh, it's r-really nice..but weird," Minus said. "I've never felt anything like that."

"Let me know if you want me to stop," she said, turning her head to face the latter, finding a moderate blush on her face.
"N-no, um...I...I want, more, actually," she admitted slowly, and half to herself.

"Okay," Amp said cheerfully, going for Minus's ears with her other hand. It did not take long to find a head leaning on her other shoulder, too. Plus had pulled herself steadily closer during this time, and turned around in place until she could get her arms around Amp and press her nose into her right cheek. That body's tail made its way across her waist, too, lying hesitantly close but not quite against Amp's own.

"Th-this is, rrr...really embarrassing," Minus said quietly.
"It's just us here. And I won't tell anyone," Amp replied, gently wrapping the arm she'd been petting Plus with around her waist and reaching it up to her ears from there. Her tail flicked gently across the white-haired body's tail, drawing a soft, high yipping sound from her throat followed by the tail twisting itself once around Amp's, near the base.

Minus leaned over, holding herself against Amp's back and leaning her head across her left shoulder to join in the nuzzling. The darker tail curled around the rest of Amp's, and one hand from each of Gemma's bodies made its way to each of her ears to start eagerly returning the petting. She giggled slightly in reply before joining the chorus of pleased animal churring noises, wordlessly communicating a deep mutual affection built up over only the past few days.

In this place, people didn't usually have access to their powers, but Amp's was working just fine—and she could 'feel' Gemma's as well. It consisted more than anything of an enhanced mind, twice as coordinated as a normal one and dense with understanding, deep with potential. Amp could sense an insatiable curiosity, a hunger for learning and understanding which mostly displayed itself when encountering a new power to learn. As well, that mind contained a comprehension of each power she had learned that ran almost as deep as Amp's did for any individual—only turned to the purpose of imitation rather than improvement.

That curiosity, now that she perceived it in full, was sort of infectious. Amp wondered how this power would grow and improve with her help. She wondered what Gemma's twin bodies, and the combined one, would look like as a result of the usual physical changes—whether she would wind up with a third body somehow, or something like that, and if she could, despite all likelihood, 'learn' Amp's own power too. After all, she had only been told that it couldn't be taken or owned by another, not that it couldn't be imitated. Before she really thought to pause things and ask for permission to take this step, she was already trying it, drawing the full potential of the twins wrapped around her outward.

Both of them grew, but in different ways. Minus shot upward behind her, needing to lean her head farther downward to keep nuzzling her cheek instead of the top of her head, and her arms grew tangibly more solid and strong. Plus gained height much more slowly, but her chest puffed out immediately, and the rest of her figure followed. The dark-haired body's voice rapidly deepened and matured, while the other's stayed mostly the same. The nightgown shortened only slightly—or perhaps just retained its original length but became less covering as a result of more area to cover—but Minus's shirt shrank around her slowly growing bust into a low-cut tank top sized for a considerably shorter person, sliding it up off of her belly while she grew a nice, solid set of abs there.

It wasn't long at all before the growth slowed to a halt, and Amp could feel that she'd made Gemma as powerful as she could. She enjoyed the mutual petting for a moment or so more before lowering her hands from the two bodies' ears, willing that further enhanced mind out of the haze of animal instinct. Slowly but surely, Gemma woke up—so to speak.

"Hmmnh..—" "—Rrf..?" Both heads leaned away at once, Plus's looking up toward Minus behind her. "W-wha?—" "—Wha..m-my voice..?" Minus said.

"Erm..I-I tried using my power on you," Amp said sheepishly. "Sorry, I should've um, asked first.."
Plus headtilted. "Oh?—" "—Hey..." Gently peeling herself off, Gemma's two bodies got off of the bed, standing up and looking at each other—up and down, slowly. Now that she wasn't sandwiched between them, Amp got a clear view of them too. Plus had gained about a half a head of height, and sported a generous figure with breasts at least as big as Amp's; the hem of her nightgown, once down to her ankles, now just barely trailed at the upper edge of her thighs. She looked soft, but somehow not at all weak. Minus, on the other hand, seemed to be as much as six feet tall, with a slim, extremely athletic build—no bodybuilder, but sporting clearly visible muscle in her arms, legs, and rock-solid abs. Nonetheless, she had deeper curves than before too, about a mid-sized chest with hips to match. Amp watched them both apprehensively for some sort of reaction.

"Oh wooow!" they yelled finally, in chorus. "That's amazing! I've always wanted a body like that—" Minus said, pointing, "—or that!" Plus said, pointing back. "Just something besides tiny, scrawny and flat!—" "—Is this real? Am I like super strong now?" Minus continued on a tangent, patting her abs as if expecting them to be drawn on with marker. "—I can't even use my powers and I can still feel how much better they are," Plus rambled as soon as her counterpart's mouth closed. "I know it's just temporary, but this is great!" Minus said, turning her head Amp's way and giving a thumbs-up. "—Wish I could take some of this to my 'human' form," Plus added. "I mean, it's not just my body—bodies, I feel like, confident and smart, and, I dunno. Good!—" "—Great! Like, 'come at me world, I can take it!'"

"Heheh..that seems to be the usual reaction," Amp said. "I dunno exactly how this affects your abilities. Um, now that I've done it once I can 'boost' you again much quicker later, if we find a good time to try things out. Did you um, 'learn' my power by seeing it, too?"
"Oh, good question!—" Plus said. "—Um..." Both faces visibly thought back to what had happened to her while she was too busy being petted to pay much attention to anything. "..Yes! Yeah. I get it." Minus nodded. "...sort of.—" "—You just. Look in and 'see'.—" "—Reach in and 'feel'?—" "—Like, I can see what someone does and how they do it, but not the 'why'? Or like a deeper, 'how'?—" "—But you can perceive that, and sort of tug at it.—" "—I'm not sure whether I can actually do that, but I do..get it? I think?—" "—I could try, maybe. Sometime. If we ever find anyone willing to help test it out.—" "—I know it won't work on you without even trying. You're already as...'strong' as you can get. Right?"
"Seems so," Amp nodded.

Now that both of her was turned toward Amp, Plus shuffled her feet nervously for a second. "Hey, um..—" "—Amory..do you uh...like..this?" she asked, each body pointing at the other one.
"Err. Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't," she said with a small nod. "But you know it's you I really like. A good body doesn't compete with a good person."

This drew a brief chorus of "Awwh~", each of them blushing equally before looking bashfully away to either side for a moment.

Gemma's bodies glanced Amp's direction for a second, then looked back at each other. "Hey, um—" "—if I can combine,—" "—wonder what that looks like..." They stepped slightly closer, and then 'into' each other, proving just as capable of combining in the dream-world as while awake. The resulting form had the same dual tails, mismatched eyes and gray hair as her 'unenhanced' combined appearance. However, she was the same height Minus had achieved, in puffy, frilly shorts and an only slightly longer tank top, with Plus's figure and Minus's muscle both clearly visible. She blinked a couple of times as if disoriented from being entirely such a tall person, and then looked around the room excitedly for a second, muttering, "Mirror, mirror..." before locating one and quickly bouncing over to it to get a good look at herself. Her voice—as may be expected—was about halfway between the two, very mature but not nearly as deep as Minus's.

While she ran a hand through her hair, prodded at an ear a bit and poked her chest once or twice, Amp stood up and slowly moved over next to her. "It's um, really hard to believe this is 'me'," she said. "I dunno, Plus usually looks like, I think I do, mostly. This is, really something else."

"In a way, that was 'inside' you this whole time," Amp said.

"Heheh..that's super corny, you know."
"I know. But my power doesn't exactly 'invent' things, it just draws out what's there? So..basically true."

"Heeheh." Gemma's eyes glanced between her current appearance and Amp's reflection in the same mirror briefly. "Hey, um..a-are we almost outta time, or something?"
"It's a dream. I don't think we can run out, technically. Or anyway, not that I can tell."
"Oh. Um. Then..could we um..would you m-mind petting me a, a little more before we have to wake up?" she said, blushing brightly again.

"Not at all," Amp said with a peaceful, friendly smile. She reached over and took one of Gemma's hands, gently leading her back to the bed and sitting down next to her. "There we are. Ready?"
"Um..a-as I'll ever be."

Amp reached over and prodded each of her ears with one hand, drawing a loud chur and then making a small surprised "wah!" herself as Gemma picked her up effortlessly into a close hug.

"Err, sorry..um. T-they seem more sensitive or s, something.."

"Maybe just that I don't have to 'split' my attention between two bodies?" Amp said. "Or it seems duller when one body feels and the other doesn't? Either way..if you're enjoying yourself, I'm happy."
"Eheheh," the two-tailed girl giggled nervously. Then she leaned in, pulling Amp a little closer, and nuzzled her cheek unprompted, churring softly again. This was taken as a sign to resume the ear-petting, and for Amp's tail to draw itself around her waist and tease both of Gemma's, drawing some slightly louder yips and other vulpine noises from her lips. It did not take long for her to collapse over onto her back with Amp on top of her, their tails mostly off to one side and each of them petting the other affectionately.

Rather than the 'meeting' ending by either of them interrupting this to have Amp get up and leave, their relaxed bodies and dazed minds simply drifted out of consciousness after a while, seemingly falling asleep in the dream world—which woke them up in the real one, each feeling more relaxed and rested than she had in over a week. There was no disappointment that the dream was over, only a sort of satisfied bliss and a mild, yet perceptible, desire to do it again sometime soon.

---

Just the usual mid-summer writer's block for me. Glad to get something out at all this month, but hopefully this won't be all there is.