Battle Vixens! - 59

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Episode 59: Doubting; Testing

The enemies disappeared, one and all, turning to dust and blowing away on the wind.

Corporal Samuel Langdon wasn't accustomed to such an abrupt ending to a battle, but she could very well accept it. The broken remains of the gun she'd used as a blunt instrument were left on the shattered, burned, torn ground an astoundingly short distance away, and the one she'd kept was itself significantly worse for wear despite only using the seemingly-invincible knife as a bayonet, never mind its ammo being completely gone.

She didn't feel particularly tired, but it was obvious that the same couldn't be said of the lightning-wielding vixen. No sooner did the plastic people disappear than she collapsed over to sit on the ground, panting in deep, audible gasps like she'd been holding her breath for an hour. Samuel took the couple of steps over to check on her. "You, alright there?"
"Fffh..will be...hhahh..one sec..." Her response was accompanied by a faint hissing sound, which appeared to be coming from some sort of white mist rising out of her body as she shrank back down to her original appearance. By the way she winced with her ears folded back it probably didn't feel particularly good, but no sooner was it over than her breathing stabilized and she opened her eyes, nodding. "Thanks for your concern." She hopped agilely back to her feet, but still seemed overall pretty winded.

"You don't just fight like it's your life on the line," Samuel said. "Guess you got someone to keep safe?" There was a flash of suspicion—uncertainty about a relative stranger—before Ning just nodded once, very slightly. "Me too. Bit farther afield than this, but—I know what it's like."

A short while later, they met up with the other two vixens assigned to the town. Both of them were exhausted, and Tora's clothes were torn and her skin scratched in places—which she reported was the result of cutting her way through a seemingly-endless torrent of blades and briars made out of the puppets' shadows.

"Sounded like they're arrangin' transport back to the city for us," the Corporal said.

"Good. I'm beat," Fay said.

"Pretty likely I'll be assigned to help y'all in coming days. Maybe bounce back and forth a bit, depending."

"Hope so. We work pretty well together," Ning said. "...I've gotta get home, myself."
"Sure."

---

"Sheesh, you look like you got ambushed by a tanning booth." Karis had waited longer than expected for her husband to return, only to be told she was being treated in medical.
"Is that all you have to say?" She sat up in the bed, leaning to face her. "I'm lucky I don't look like the sun punched me!"

"Heh, no. I was watching; you were great out there. Still, it's impressive just how much heat your skin can take. I know I could see some heat waves on that little platform up there."

"I had Nico's help then. This is from before that," she said, poking one of the redder bits of exposed skin.
"Hey don't pick at it!"
"I'm nooot!"

"So, do your injuries go away if you turn back?"

"I dunno, it..hasn't really come up before now. Let's see." Speaking her phrase, Petra returned to looking like Simon. The burns were gone, but he immediately fell onto his back. "Oof. Oh, okay. Not burned, but..feel like I ran a marathon."
"Can you run a marathon?"
"Not like this! That's the point," he said, raising a hand to wave it around. "I just want to go home and take a nap for about thirty-six hours or so."

"I'm sure you have to do some kind of debriefing first, right? Having participated in a military action?"
"Pff, who knows? I don't know how the army works."

"National guard," Karis corrected him.

"Whatever. I'm much too tired to use the right words. I sure hope those burns don't have to be present in order to heal..."

---

All of the puppeteer's former victims—who knew English—were in a room together in the VI, fully awake again. Clark was standing with his wife, and the other vixens from the college were in the back, where the door was. An organization official explained things to the amnesiacs as best she could:

"It is important that you understand your situation. Each of you were killed within the span of the last two weeks, and by means we are still working to understand, you were returned to life. However, this appears to have severely damaged your memory..."

Light's ears were folded way back, watching them all. "I can't do this," she whispered, and turned to quickly go outside, grabbing a folding chair leaning against the wall near the door in the process. Gemma looked at Amp for a second, who shrugged.

"I think she just needs some time."

"...There is reason to believe that anyone who knew you before you were killed might be able to help you regain your lost memories. We were able to contact such people for a few of you already, but for some we don't know your precise identity, which complicates the search significantly. While we search, or wait for someone to come for you, you are more than welcome to stay here."

Rowan was next to the podium, back in fox-form, and cleared her throat to interject. "All of you have unusual abilities which you gained not long before your deaths. Using them may feel natural to you, but be aware that most people do not possess such powers and may not be very durable in the face of them. We ask you to utilize those abilites responsibly, and particularly not to harm others."

"...Right. As for who 'we' are...you are missing some of the context, no doubt, but I'll try to explain the relevant information as best I can..."

Those who didn't know English were receiving much the same speech on a one-on-one basis from the VI's translators elsewhere. After the speech was over, the amnesiacs milled around talking briefly with each other—aside from Rory, who followed Clark to the front after Rowan waved him over.

"Dr. Quinn. I don't want to press the issue, but..."

"You want to know what happened," he said, and sighed. "She showed up. I'm not really sure..how to describe it, but she sort of just...casually stopped time in a complete defiance of basic physics to have a conversation with me. Said the puppeteer was 'her enemy' and she wanted to reward me for...killing her. And then gave me a choice of what the 'reward' would be."

Rowan nodded. "I suspected her involvement in this, and now she herself has publicly claimed responsibility for the resurrection."
"She said this was...'cheating death' more than undoing it," Clark continued. "I didn't really ask for many details. I just..."
"I understand," she said, cutting him off. "The basics will do for now. I'll reach out if there are any questions. For the moment, a van's waiting to take all of you home."

"Uh..before that. Is there anyone...badly hurt?" he asked, to which Rowan shook her head.
"No one's in critical condition from the battle. Some have injuries, but very little that won't heal on its own. Anyone...your powers might have been able to save died long before we got here."

"...Good, I suppose," he said in a sort of half-sigh. The way Rory just watched this conversation with a curious interest, as though she wasn't involved in its content, was vaguely unsettling, but Rowan chose not to comment. The two of them went toward the back, Clark making a gesture toward the door at Amp and Gemma.

As they left, Rowan went toward Dawn and Cynthia.

"Did you hear the way she said that? We're 'welcome to stay'. Like, you really think we're allowed to leave?"

"Uh, well, I dunno. This place seems pretty safe, right?" Dawn said.

"You may leave if you like, but it's unlikely you'd understand much out there right now," Rowan interjected. "It would be best to go with an escort who could explain things and keep you safe."

"Hmph. Make sure we come back, more like," said the redhead with her ears folded back.

The blue-haired vixen shrugged. "You heard what I said about your powers. It is as much for the safety of others as for yours." She didn't seem to like this response much, either.

"Hey, c'mon. These people're nice. They ain't done nothin' bad to us," said Dawn. "Anyway, maybe they can find someone you know, too."
"We know both of your identities," Rowan said, leaning into the change of subject. "You were both citizens of this city before. However, your immediate families are...not around anymore, and not much is known of either of your acquaintances otherwise..aside from each other."

"Aww, really?" Cynthia said, disappointed.

The taller vixen said, "How come I know you, then? And why do I feel like I recognize some of the other folks 'round here, but she don't?"

"...You met me after gaining your powers, but after she died," Rowan said, uncertain how much of the story it was a good idea to tell. Still, with Cynthia already in a distrustful mood, it seemed best to tell at least some of the truth. "We didn't know each other long, but it was during a...turbulent time, for both of us."

Over her time working with VI, Rowan felt as if she had learned the sound of someone walking on the building's floors—specifically what it sounded like for someone to come up behind her to get her attention for some task. Sensing such an approach now, she said, "I have to go for now. You had a room here before, Dawn, and I'm sure they can find one close by for your friend if you ask. We'll talk again soon."
"Oh, uh, sure. Hope so," the tall vixen said, shrugging, while Rowan turned around to face the approaching person—a woman from their recruitment office.

"Uh, hi."
"What is it?"
She hesitated for a moment before signalling toward a door leading to an adjacent room; it seemed this conversation wasn't particularly for the amnesiacs to hear. Rowan nodded and started out that way, not waiting for her to lead or follow.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, I know you've had a..." She shook her head. "I guess calling it a 'hard day' is a pretty bad understatement, huh?"

"We all have our jobs to do," Rowan replied, then repeated: "What is it?"

"Uh, right, yeah. So you..know about what the experimental branch is up to, more or less? I was told you went to some meetings involving their head researchers.." The vixen nodded. "Well—they put a bit of a rush on things in light of...recent events. Not a dangerous rush, just going out of their way to not drag their heels once they had a proper prototype put together. And, so, their 'test subject' wound up taking on a form not unlike a normal vixen, with powers of—I'm quoting here—'undetermined intensity but obvious potential'. So.."
"You want me to recruit," Rowan inferred aloud.

"Right," she nodded. "This guy is..well, I only met him today, but my impression is he's a huge fan of you all and a hundred percent behind our mission. If it's possible, I think you'd have an easier time convincing him to lend a helping hand than someone like me who he's never even heard of. Besides which, you've handled all of...this kind of interview before now. I could try to brief him on the risks, but I'm not confident I would cover everything."

"I'll talk to him," Rowan said. "I don't promise he'll say yes."
"Sure, of course not. And thank you. But, just in case—here are the usual forms," she said, offering over a small packet of pages. "I think he's still out in courtyard three right now."

"Got it."

---

The five exhausted vixens stepped into the van; there was more than enough room even if Gemma had split into two, but she didn't. After the doors shut and it began moving, they sat in silence for a short while.

"Are you..okay?" Gemma asked Light, breaking the quiet.

"Hmmh..yeah. I was just..I'm very tired, and..." She shook her head, unable to quite find words to explain what she'd felt in that moment. Then: "You know something? Someone said I was their 'hero', and my first reaction was to get angry. I didn't even know it was possible for someone to poison a word that badly before now."

"Anyone we know?" Amp asked, and she shook her head.

"He meant well by it. I know he did. After that..encounter, I just went invisible to avoid any others. Not sure why I didn't do that in the first place, aside from...tired."

Rory watched this conversation with an impassive expression, thinking. After a pause seemingly long enough to indicate the topic had been exhausted, she said "Hey," in a quiet, hesitant tone that seemed still uncertain if the interjection was appropriate—and which felt jarringly unfitting to her voice from the others. "Um...so, did I really die?"

"Yes," Clark said. "We...we all saw it." The others nodded.

"Did it..look like it hurt?"

"..I don't know," said her husband slowly. "It was..you were..." He chuckled in a distinctly uncomfortable, humorless and sad sort of way. "You certainly..didn't do it halfway." His voice cracked slightly saying this and some tears started streaming from his eyes.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry...I really, didn't mean to upset you," she said, folding her ears down in a display of worry. "I just...I don't, feel like I died? I just feel...lost. Like I don't know, where I am or what I'm doing. I guess...is that normal?"

"I would say your situation is way too far outside 'normal' to gauge that," Light deadpanned.

"It's...okay," Clark said, sniffing and wiping his eyes on a sleeve. "You don't..it isn't your fault in the first place. I've just..been through a lot the last hour or two. Too much, even."

Since Amp had been staring at Rory for the past minute or so, Gemma gave her a questioning look. "Oh..don't mind me," she said after a second. "I was wondering...or, I guess hoping really, if I could do anything here. But, this isn't like with the comas at all. I don't 'feel' like there's anything special I can do, and anyway—since my power comes from her and she did the reviving..it wouldn't make sense for me to be able to do something unless she'd left it out."

Rory regarded Amp with a confused look for a moment. "Uh...who's this 'her'?"

"The...person responsible for giving us our powers," Clark explained slowly. "And..had a part in bringing everyone back, more or less. She goes by a lot of names, but I think 'the Giver' has really caught on the most."

"Oh. She sounds...nice? With a name like that?"

"She really, really isn't," Light said. "I don't think it'd be a stretch to say it's her fault you or..any of those other people that got brought back died in the first place."

"That sounds rather..counterproductive. Why kill people if you plan to just bring them back afterward?"

"Complicated," Amp said. "But even if her plans needed some to die, I'm sure...way more did than really had to. Including you..." She trailed off quietly, looking down at the floor, and Rory seemed to take this as a cue to stop talking for a while more.

---

As they left, the two researchers told Marcus someone from recruitment was supposed to be 'on their way' soon so she should just sit tight. Well..since there was a perfectly good target present, she took the opportunity to try out a few other 'spell' ideas. She was able to make a flash of light from the tip of her blade (Flash) and a heavy gust of wind (Gust). She also tried to make some kind of acidic or poisonous attack, but couldn't quite think up the right way to make something like that work. She was still trying to think up some more things to test out when her ears picked up the sound of one of the courtyard doors opening up and she quickly turned that way.

Rowan Shepherd, of all people, came outside. She was about as intimidating in person as Marcus had perceived her to be on TV, and her cold-eyed stare being tempered with signs of clear exhaustion enhanced rather than mitigated this effect, so Marcus sheepishly dismissed her sword and just waited for the short, blue-haired vixen to come closer.

When she stopped just inside of conversational range, Rowan seemed to take a moment to stare directly into her soul. Then: "Marcus Rowe."
"Uh..y-yeah. That's me?"

"You know who I am." It didn't sound much like a question, but since she paused expectantly rather than continuing, Marcus quickly nodded.

"Sure I do. Rowan Shepherd. You're amazing! And..kinda scary in person, no offense."
"None taken," she said in an almost humorous monotone. "I am aware of your situation, and was asked to interview you, in order to gauge your interest and competence in working with the VI in a...combat role."

"Oh. Well, uh—as far as interest goes, I'm totally on board," she said. "I mean—what you guys do is just awesome, and I've..always wanted to do more to help out. Uh, getting to, um..."

Marcus trailed off again; Rowan's emotionless stare had a distinct way of making her feel stupider with every word that came out of her mouth. Nonetheless, she gave a subtle wave of a hand that seemed intended to encourage her to go on. "Uh, yeah. Anyway—I, um, 'this'," she waved at her current appearance, "came with a sword and I can kinda, do some magic stuff. The..Dr. Bridges, said it seemed pretty versatile."

Rowan nodded. "You should not take this offer lightly. It resembles the change in wartime from being a civilian under the army's protection to fighting on the front lines. Do you think you have what it takes to fight a life-or-death battle every day, sometimes twice or three times in the same day? To watch people you care about and fight alongside get hurt and die?"

"Um.." There was something cold and factual about the way this explanation was going, like an absolutely certain prophecy of the future from an oracle of Delphi—and she'd seemed terrifying before. Although Marcus wanted to put up a brave face, she felt her ears droop quite a bit.

"You look worried. Good. I know you want to help, but if you are unable to face the reality of the situation, then you could end up as a liability instead of an asset. Think about this: Thousands of people were essentially drafted into this war with little to no choice in the matter. Many died before even getting a chance to really fight. You can walk away now, leave it to us, and never have to face it head-on."

"I-I-I know that!" Marcus said, finally building up enough courage to interrupt her. "I know I don't have to, but even if I didn't, everyone keeps going out of their way to tell me! But that's why I wanna help. You guys are my heroes because you, you fight those things and protect people, and you try to use the powers you got to make this colossal disaster we're in the middle of as much of a, uh, less bad for everyone, that you can. I don't care if it's not much, anything I can do to help, I wanna do it!"

"..I see." Rowan nodded, and was silent for just long enough for Marcus to wonder if she was supposed to be saying something else. "You have a sword, right? Let's see it."

"Uh...okay?" She made it appear again, sheath and all, holding it loosely by the hilt in her left hand.

"..Here's mine." Some water condensed from the air and formed into a sword, which the shorter vixen took in her hand right away. "I want to know how well you can use that."

"Uh—"

Without further warning or clarification, the sword came swinging Marcus's way. It was a probing strike directly to the sheathed sword, not capable of actually hurting her, but certainly enough to knock it out of her hand. "Whoa! H-hey..!" It had come fast, and she hadn't been expecting it, but somehow it seemed obvious to Marcus where the follow-up was going to come from, so she dismissed and resummoned the weapon again sans sheath to block. Only Rowan's blade didn't go where she expected at all, instead turning to water and jumping into the opposite hand to swing in from the other way and force her to turn her hand all weird to awkwardly block it.

Rowan seemed to know exactly when and how to push just a little harder at the blocking blade to make its hilt slip out of her hand all over again, and followed this up with a stab; only after Marcus took a big, semi-stumbling step backwards did she see that it would have come very slightly short of her stomach if she'd stayed still. There wasn't much time to reflect on that since Rowan stepped forward, switching hands again for a diagonal strike. This time Marcus tried summoning her sheath in her right hand to block that and the sword in the other to strike back, but the blade just barely tapped her sheath before neatly dancing around it to catch its flat on her sword's blade and flip it up out of her hand again. It was bizarre and unsettling that none of Rowan's strikes were particularly powerful, yet the relatively small force behind them always seemed perfectly placed and timed to do the worst possible thing for her opponent.

With her weapon up in the air, Marcus swung back with the sheath just to try to buy a second, and completely whiffed—the sword turning back into water just long enough for the sheath to go through and then back again to swing at her. So she stumbled and leaned way back for the blade to go just over her (that one would've cut her for real otherwise!) and then fell the rest of the way over onto her butt, the combination of all the awkward, desperate movements having thrown her entirely off-balance.

Rowan took a small step back. "Disappointing. I'm completely exhausted and barely even trying."

"H-hey!" Marcus started to get up, resummoning the sword, which her assailant appeared to take as a cue to strike at her again. "B-b-block!" In a way that felt similar yet not identical to the 'throwing' spells before, Marcus's blade went to a horizontal position just in front of her chest and Rowan's blade bounced not off of the sword, but instead a translucent blue dome-shaped barrier just in front of it. She stepped back with the sword's momentum in a manner which seemed to help her maintain her immaculate balance, which bought Marcus enough time to scramble to her feet.

"St—uh—Flash!" Fighting some instinct that suggested she throw a heavy stone at this point, she quickly cast this spell to—obviously—blind Rowan, any reservations about taking hostile action against one of her heroes well and truly overriden by instincts that insisted she was presently aiming to kill. Thankfully the 'motion' for this one was extremely brief, and somehow the light from it was perceptible to Marcus without also blinding her, so she could see Rowan closing her eyes, forming a spinning blade of water out of the vapor in the air and sending it in an arcing path toward Marcus's right—and somehow heaving dead aim even with her eyes shut like that. "F-fire?" A smaller fireball than 'usual' (seemingly because of her uncertainty) hit the blade and turned it to steam, which—thankfully—Rowan didn't appear to still have control over The relief was short-lived since the short vixen immediately—with her eyes still closed—closed the gap between them and swung hard at Marcus's right.

"Ya-aah!" She blocked awkwardly with a sheath and didn't feel the attack hit—the feint chaining smoothly into a downward chop, which was another feint to get her sword out of the way so Rowan could smack her on the side with the flat of the blade, knocking her over again on her side. "Ow..ouch...ow." That stung like it was going to leave a bruise, and the unexpected suddenness of the pain more or less stunned her to uselessness for a moment. Thankfully the test or whatever seemed to be over at this point; Rowan let go of her own sword and knelt down toward her.

"...Sorry, that was harder than I intended. I am very tired," Rowan said, still deadpan.

Marcus rubbed the spot a bit. Even though it was sore, it seemed in some way like she'd felt more impact than the injury alone would suggest. "Uh..yeah...sorry. I guess, I'm not much compared to one of you guys." The physical pain wasn't much compared to feeling like this had been a test, and—furthermore—one which she had spectacularly failed.

"On the contrary. I know I caught you well off-guard, and you really didn't want to fight back. You're just barely getting used to your powers, or perhaps you would've used that shield a little more often."

"Oh...yeah. That'd be a good idea." Duh, why'd you fireball when you could do that, idiot? "I just sort of—just now came up with that because you were, right on top of me like that..."

Rowan went the rest of the way to sitting on the ground with her. "Calling your attacks makes it very easy to track you by sound. I thought for certain you would've moved after the flash."

"Well...I...didn't," Marcus said slowly. "Um, I don't really mean to do that, but it happens naturally unless I make myself not do it. It, uh, I don't really know how to explain it but it makes doing the 'spells' easier?"

Rowan nodded. "Most of us seem to have a hard time explaining our powers to others in detail."

"Um..." After a moment's pause, Marcus realized she wasn't really sure what Rowan was still doing here. She'd failed, right?

"I've been unusually hard on you," Rowan said. "Sorry. I've had a...very harsh reminder today of just what I've been getting people into. A combat test certainly isn't standard practice, and the VI as a whole probably wouldn't have approved of it."

"Y-yeah?" The confusion didn't really abate much from that.

"You go to the college, right? Same town as Light."
"Uh-huh..?"
"I wanted to see for myself how you'd react if you were suddenly, unexpectedly put into danger. You didn't want to fight back, but you didn't run away or panic, either."
"Um..You don't think that was panicking? I was scared outta my mind before you brought out the sword!"
"Then you channeled it well, at least," Rowan shrugged. "You reacted, thought on your feet, and fought with some strategy even in the heat of the moment."

"Today's events have left us..short-handed. As if we weren't already. Dr. Rory Quinn is unlikely to be able to fight for a while, and her husband may need time to take care of her. I don't want to speak for others, but I feel certain Light would appreciate any help she can get when those monsters inevitably show back up tomorrow."

"So...wait. You mean uh, I actually passed?"

Rowan nodded. "In as much as that qualified as a test, anyway. If you're still willing to work with us, I at least would be happy to have you on our side. You just need to make sure you understand as much of your power as you can and how best to apply it before getting into a real battle." It dawned on Marcus at this point that her almost signature monotone had been steadily fading out since she sat down, settling into a more normal, conversational tone. Her voice seemed to now display the exhaustion she'd professed before. "In short...I wish I didn't have to ask for your help, but the same is true of almost anyone who got powers the 'normal' way. We can't afford to turn it away if you're really ready to give it."

"Well...yeah. Like I said, I am."

"Good."

Rowan slowly and with visible reluctance pushed herself back to her feet, then offered Marcus a hand. "I left some forms just inside for you to sign."