Battle Vixens! - 51

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Episode 51: Knight Sacrifice

At 9:17 AM, a young woman walked into a small clearing in a certain forest. She was tall, dark-haired, her eyes lit by a fiery blue glow which blazed brighter than usual just now. Her cheeks were stained by some recent tears, since evaporated by the morning sun, her present expression a complex mixture of doubt, regret, and determination. She stopped at the edge of the clearing, drew herself up, sighed, and then walked to the center. Nothing happened right away, and she put up her arms in an irritated gesture.

"Ya gonna make me wait all day?"

The first reply was a crossbow bolt from her right, which a quick puff of fire from the already-outstretched arm burned out of existence before it could reach her. Then a stilted voice from behind said, "Not, planning to make, this easy?"

"Naw. Ya want some a' this?" Dawn dropped her left hand, holding a blue flame above her right and drawing it back, like the first move of a windup to a baseball pitch. "Come on out. Real you."

"Oh, very well." The light, airy voice that said this spoke at a natural cadence, and would only have been familiar to two people alive—including its owner. "...Not that you would accomplish much." Its owner stepped out, one particular puppet—known to be able to teleport—flanking her with its hand firmly placed on her shoulder. At about the same time, nine more puppets stepped out from all around.

The second living person to step into the clearing was tall—taller than Dawn, even—with flowing dark blonde hair, black tips to the golden fur of her ears and tail. She had a somewhat thin, almost wispy build, which hardly looked suited for comabat, and her clothes were far from practical—a long, flowing kimono cast in white and red. Her grin seemed almost innocent, but there was a certain cruel gleam to her eyes. A thin red string hung between her hands, bits of it wrapped around each of her fingers—each of which made constant complex, delicate movements which somehow seemed to relate to those of the puppets around them.

"What is it?" the puppeteer asked. "You must know how this ends."
"Sure." Dawn slowly lowered her hand to the side, dismissing the fire. "D'you?"

"Now that's a silly question."

"Don't mean this," she clarified, waving to their present surroundings. "Y'know, I ain't never been so good with words. But, you were right about one thing.

"M-hm?" While she remained in place herself, the puppeteer had her nine soldiers who weren't occupied protecting her close in toward Dawn, slowly.

"I'm a murderer, jus' like you. Even if you wanna chalk—" she visibly choked for just a second, but pressed on: "—Cynth—down as a mercy kill or already dead or whatever, I still killed somebody. I been hangin' out with a former police officer for a little while, y'know. 'Cause, like all murderers, I got caught. It's where folks like us are headed."

The puppeteer's smirk grew just a bit. "You really think you can 'catch' me all by yourself, little one?"

"'Course not. Won't be me. But murderers get caught anyhow. In the end, we'll die for what we done."

"Interesting theory." The puppets surrounding Dawn couldn't get much closer without crowding each other. "You first."

---

Clark had a break starting at 9:30, after his earliest class. Officially, his office hours were later in the day, but he tended to sit around in his office anyway; occasionally a student would knock, and he could answer. He sat for around fifteen minutes before deciding to make a particular call, fussing with the VI app for a bit before remembering the correct name.

"..Yello?"
"Is this Simon?"
"It is! Dr. Quinn, I presume? Don't actually know your 'real' voice, after all, but that's what the ID says anyway."
"That's right."
"Well, ah, how can I help you then?"

Clark cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sure you've seen my wife and I on the news..or, at least heard about it."
"Mm-hmm?"
"It's just that—she's very straightforward with her opinions. I love her for that, but...I'm concerned. It's sunk in for me lately that we're quickly turning into some sort of public figures."
"When did that hit ya, eh?"
"Let's, just say I've got some people auditing my class...who don't seem very interested in the material." Simon chuckled to that. "Anyway, since you seem pretty comfortable in the spotlight, so to speak, I wondered whether you might..know some people? Look, neither of us took the sort of career path that usually lands you with fame, is all. I feel like I could handle it alright, but—just privately speaking, I'm worried she could say something..bad enough to get us both in trouble. What I'm saying is, I don't really even know what sort of person we're looking for, much less where to look for a good one. A public image consultant? Something like that?"
"Well, I know me. But I am rather busy as of late."
"Of course. "
"Just messing with ya a little. I can point you in a few directions, give you some numbers—but nobody like that works for free, of course. You should consult with your wife on whether you're willing to sell some rights to the VI for royalties or something, or come up with something else on your own of course. No pressure there."

"I see. Thank you."

"Er, I'm not kidding about being busy, though. Have to look that stuff up, I can text it to you a little later."

"Is everything alright?"
He sighed over the line. "Ah, well, we've had somebody fly the coop, is all. Rowan's...not happy. I fled to my humble abode, but I don't think they've turned her up yet."
"...Not to volunteer somebody else, but has he contacted Light?"
"Light?"
"She can track people."

"Oh, riiight! I forgot about that. Well, I don't really know who all he has asked for help—seemed like everyone he knows—but there's no harm in checking. Since I need to do that now, I'll text you some numbers afterward. Ciao!"

"Goodbye."

---

A thin blade of ice pierced through the chest of the shadow puppet. She dropped her scythes, making a pained, choking noise, and turned to dust. Dawn took a small step back and hunched over, dropping the weapon and panting heavily, her body covered in frozen sweat. Parts of the forest around her were on fire, other parts cut or pierced with partially-molten weapons of ice stuck into tree trunks fallen or standing. The puppeteer stood a few yards in front of her, the last of the ten puppets still with her. Her expression was one of mild displeasure, or maybe just annoyance—not fear, defeat, or even real anger.
Forcing herself to her feet, the dark-haired vixen shouted, "C'mooon!" After another gasp of air: "That all you got, or you gonna fight me yourself?"

She glanced to the side slightly, and with a small flick of her fingers the teleporting puppet let go and took a small step back, away from her. "Oh, very well. You've fought so hard; who am I to deny you a taste?" The puppeteer put her hands palm up and raised them slightly in the air, before curling her fingers. "I'll show you my power." All around them, porcelain arms struck up out of the ground, placing their hands to either side and pushing up. Dozens of featureless, clothesless puppets raised themselves up from the ground, pulling onto their feet in jerky, stilted motions and turning their faceless heads toward her opponent.

"You like it? I've been sowing them for just a few days now," the puppeteer said. Dawn looked left and right, still huffing in air and trying to draw forth the strength to do anything. She was ready to die, but her body refused to stop trying to fight—even now. "There's plenty more where these came from, naturally." The puppets made their way to Dawn, and jumped on her, throwing their arms around her. She remained standing through the first few, thrashing to try and get them off, but by the time five of them were on top of her she fell to her knees, and the next few threatened to make even that impossible. Before falling to the ground, she took in one last sharp intake of breath, and with it screamed—a pained, enraged yell that brought with it her final act.

At 10:38 AM, there was an explosion in the forest—a sudden, bright flash of blue fire piercing past the treetops which a few passing on the roads nearby, and some park rangers and highway patrolmen, took note of. There was concern at first that it was the start of a forest fire, but almost as soon as it began, the smoke stopped coming—the fire responsible for it having promptly been put out somehow.

---

"Rowan! Hey! I've been trying to call you for like ten minutes, man!"

"What is it Simon." His voice was stiff, clearly very much on edge.

"I, ah—I assume you haven't found her yet."

"No." The 'hurry up and get on with it' was understood.
"Well—did you ask Light for help? I mean, I know she might be busy with school today and all, but—"

"She can track her." Simon could hear Rowan's eyes widening on the other end of the line. "..I have to go."
"Su—" The beep of the other end hanging up. "..err." Simon leaned back in his chair and sighed to himself, before slowly standing up. He probably wasn't going to have any more time to paint today. Then he looked down at his phone, remembering he was supposed to send something to Clark. That was probably a good use of the bit of time left before something happened.

---

The science building's graduate lounge was empty, except for Clark Quinn. He was pacing up until his phone rang, and he quickly picked it up. "Rowan. Light's almost to me; we should be on our way soon."

"Never mind."
"..Come again?"
"Don't bother. Tell her...tell them I'm sorry I wasted your time." There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "They found her. She's already...we were too late."

"Hold on. There was nobody else there?" Clark asked.
"No. I don't know why but it's obvious now the plan was to send her to her death, and give the enemy two more powers to play with."
"Well—in that case...Is it true, you think, that she can't take a power without being there herself? Or at least, that she believes that?"
"That is our prevailing theory, yes."

The door opened, slowly and carefully, and then shut again, before Light and Amory appeared just inside of it.

"..Then we should still come. We can find out where she's been hiding." There were some questioning looks from the young people; Clark held up his free hand just slightly—he would explain soon.
"You're right. It was out in the woods...plenty of hiding places there. Probably far enough away, and she'd take other measures to prevent conventional tracking. But no car to stall us like last time, if that's the case."
"Right. It's worth a shot."
"Just—don't confront her. Either of you. Finding out where she's hiding is important, but we need a plan before taking her on."
"Of course."

"So, what's going on?" Amory asked first. Clark began his reply with the kind of sigh that indicates impending bad news.
"Early this morning, Dawn left the VI headquarters, apparently to confront the puppeteer by herself. Rowan is convinced that she was..talked into it somehow, last night."

"Why?" Light said, looking agitated. "Wait, is she—?"
"The idea was for you and I to track her down. But she's already.." Clark shook his head.
"But she can still track the puppeteer from that spot, I gather?" Amory said, to which he nodded.

"I'm going to drive my sword through her throat," Light said quietly, with the sort of calm rage that manages to far more terrifying than shouting.
"Not now, though," Dr. Quinn said, holding out a hand. "Please. We have to do this sanely or we'll just lose more people."
"I know that. I just—rrgh. Wish I could punch her in the face." He gave her a look of confusion just briefly, before realizing that her antecedent had shifted. "What is she doing? Whose side is she on, anyway?" Both of her fists were clenched and shaking just slightly.

"..I think, ours," Amory said after just a second, which led to her snapping her head his direction with a questioning look.

"Just—think about it. The puppeteer probably doesn't know you can track her, but she would never come out into the open like this anyway, not with everyone looking for her. And—the one thing she was here for, is gone now, so there was a huge flight risk. But now...baiting her out by promising her two more powers, gives us an opportunity to find her, and keeps her here a little bit longer. It's just..."

Light shook her head. "Using someone as bait is one thing. Doing it this way, letting her actually die..."
"Because our enemy doesn't know we have a good way of tracking her, it convinces her that she's on her side," Amory countered. "I don't like it either, but...we can't let it go to waste. Right?"

"I guess not."

"Well, I suppose we should get this over with, then," Clark said, followed by the phrase to change forms. Amory did the same, and quickly brought both of them to full power.

"Please be careful," she said, stepping back slightly to give both of them a look of concern. "I don't think—it's probably not gonna come up, but if you're getting close to running out of energy get away from there. And, don't talk aloud—some of her puppets can sense past illusions but we're banking on her not 'looking' up with them. That's ruined if she hears something from above."

"Yeah. I can make it look like some birds are where we are when we get close, just in case," Light said. "And..I'll make text for you to read. I guess you can just gesture, nod and shake your head?"
Clark produced her phone. "I can make text for you to read without using any magic," she said. The phone was open to a global positioning app. "Rowan's sent me the coordinates Dawn was..last seen at. Once we find where she's hiding out, I'll record that location and send it after we're far away from there again."

"Good plan," Amory agreed, and then changed back. "I guess—I'll get on to my next class, then. Good luck."

Floating above the site of the battle, Light looked down, tuning her vision to the approximate time of the explosion. Dawn's body had already been moved, but she got a look of where it had been lying, face-up, with a hole in her chest straight through the heart. She traced the time back, getting a quick view of the fight. She took out nine of the ten puppets by herself...

Looking back up, she returned her vision to normal long enough to read Clark's reply on the phone. Deliberate? Forced her to spend resources better put elsewhere.

Maybe. Light looked back down, and found the moment of death. A trick up her sleeve we haven't seen before. Faceless puppets—maybe her original power? Over twenty of them just popped out of the ground and piled onto her.

Does one's own power grow as other powers are taken?

Probably.

Clark shook her head. That number's not a good sign.

Light looked back down one more time. Got her. Follow me. To this Clark nodded, and the two of them floated in silence while she tracked the puppeteer's image through the woods, occasionally stopping to pick her back up when she disappeared due to teleporting.

After a while, Clark made a winding sort of gesture with the index finger of her free hand. Light nodded. She put lots of effort into making her trail hard to follow. Went over several rivers, teleported a lot.

No match for you, Clark offered. Light just shook her head and continued.

Eventually Light stopped. The canopy between them and the forest floor was thick here, but her vision was able to filter that out and focus on what was beneath it. This is it. Big cabin below those trees. The car from before is parked by it, and there's a path cut for it going that way, along with an arrow indicating which way she meant.

Clark looked down at the trees briefly, then back up at Light—and her own phone. Hear talking, she typed quickly; Light nodded.

"You idiot! How could you do this to us?!" They both exchanged a look; neither of them knew this voice—a girl's. After a pause long enough to have accommodated a response, it continued: "You were supposed to use my power to help people, Donny! Not—turn us both into monsters!"
"Well?" Another voice neither of them knew. This one had a teasing tone; she was clearly enjoying the conversation. "Won't you answer her?"

Dawn's voice could be heard mumbling something not quite intelligible at their distance, even with fox ears.
"What was that?" the teasing voice said, a slight chuckle in her voice.
"I just wanted to see you again."

"Wh—really? No way, not like this! You're better than that, Donny! How—" The angry voice choked on tears. "How could you..?"

Light shook her head, her ears folded back against her head. It's her all right. No more, please let's get out of here.

Clark, busy for the past several seconds recording their location, looked up from her phone to see this message, then nodded agreement.

---

Phew...tough to write, as usual, due to all the logistics involved. 

Well, maybe this is a turn some people weren't expecting. I certainly don't take major character death lightly; I agree with the idea that they should at least do something cool on the way out. Just wait and see, I say.

Also, there is a fairly obvious objection to Amory's theory which maybe you can pick out.