Battle Vixens! - 75

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Episode 75: Boiling Over

Rowan tried to call Light first. When she didn't pick up, Amp was the fallback. That didn't get a response either, so he just picked Dr. Quinn as the next one to try more or less at random. Fortunately, Clark actually answered. "Hello?" A female voice came on the line, which probably meant she had been fighting something within the past few minutes—but wasn't fighting it now, or wouldn't have been able to answer the phone.

"Dr. Quinn. Is Light anywhere near you?"
"Uh, yeah actually. We just got through killing a giant worm that ate Ning." Oh...it sounded like they'd had a rough fight today, too. "I was just about to call you, about maybe arranging some transportation for her, to go to the VI so you can 'wake her up'."

"I'll take care of that, but first, can you hand the phone to Light for a minute?"
"Certainly." And then, more distantly: "Here, it's for you."

---

There was about enough time for everyone to catch their breath before Cynthia turned and stormed toward Rowan, looking positively enraged. "You!!!" she pointed. "How did you ever get picked to boss people around!? What kind of moronic plan was it to try to fight that thing alone?!"

"Hey now, it did work..." Petra started, but trailed off as Rowan put up a hand just slightly in her direction.

"You're right; that was a very poor plan. I chose to test out a theory in an environment where it might have cost my life, or others. I...attempted to harness something which proved to be extremely powerful, but ultimately impossible to fully control." By now the redheaded vixen had stopped a few steps in front of Rowan, and—being a bit taller—glared down at her. Agreeing with her hadn't calmed her down in the slightest, but Rowan was feeling quite calm herself now.

"And there were like ten other people in there who would've gladly come out and helped you," she said, gesturing toward the VI's front doors. "Instead you just try to keep us all locked inside like prisoners, and say it's for 'our own safety' to not even know it's out here, ready to bring the whole place down over our heads!"

Dawn had made her way to just behind Cynthia, and wore an apologetic expression, appearing ready to try and pull her back. Rowan fixed her with a look during this rant that said Let me handle it this time, which she seemed to understand well enough to not intervene. "I don't know about 'gladly'. I think some of those you speak of don't understand the scope of the situation as well as you do, and might have followed you out anyway because you made it seem like the right thing to do in the moment. Many of them have families or loved ones elsewhere who they don't even know they would risk never seeing again by choosing to fight here. Nonetheless, I agree that you and Dawn have recovered enough to make your own decisions. I am sorry I didn't recognize that sooner."

Cynthia growled, and returned to her original point: "How are you in charge here?! Who made you—who even are you!?"

"...My name is Rowan Shepherd. I was a police officer for around ten years. When this all began, I recieved no powers; there was nothing that I wanted badly enough to get one. But someone who had seen injustice at the hands of my coworkers wanted revenge, and their power passed to me when I fought back in self-defense." She crossed her arms. "I've never been anyone's 'boss' before. I was a beat cop, not a captain. Not even sergeant, or detective. But, somehow I was chosen to coordinate things, possibly just because I was the first of us to join the Initiative.

"Whatever the reason, I don't lead because I want power over others. I do it because everyone keeps looking at me like I know what I'm doing, and I don't want to let them down. I made mistakes today, and yesterday, and especially the day before that. I will likely make more mistakes in the future, but I intend to continue to learn from them. And, I will do all I can to prove to you that I am worthy of this post also, should you choose to continue working with the VI after today."

---

"Uhh..am I the only one in the dark here?" Magus looked around at the others; Rory, at least, seemed to not quite know what the big deal was. "What's goin' on?"
"It's, sort of another secret," Amp said. "Basically, if one vixen beats another one in 'honorable combat', she learns the loser's key phrase. It gives her power over that vixen, like: The ability to change her back and forth, make her powers work or not, and also the phrase can be used to 'command' the loser's powers even when they're not nearby."

"Oh." It took her a second to realize. "So, wait, Light's done that before?"

"Three times by now," Gemma said, nodding. "She uh, has kinda a habit of not killing people who attack her, is all." Well, that at least sounded right. But—wait, then who...?

"What do you mean accidentally?!" Light replied to the person on the other end of the line, interrupting this conversation. "How do you even—?"

Magus hadn't been trying to eavesdrop before, but couldn't help it now...and her ears were more than capable of picking up Rowan's voice on the other end of the line. "She challenged me to a duel. We weren't seriously trying to kill each other, and it wasn't expressly for the purpose of one of us gaining 'command' over the other, so it didn't occur to me that it would 'count' for this."

---

Rowan could see it in her eyes: Cynthia felt that she was right—and she was, for the most part. But the calm responses, the interrupted attempt to defend Rowan, and the fact that they now seemed about half-ready to applaud that most recent speech, all had her feeling that everyone else was "against" her, as though they were really even enemies in the first place. Most importantly, she was still very, very angry. However, knowing all of that still wasn't enough to successfully predict her next action.

"O-oh, yeah?! Then...then fight me!" Cynthia took a small step back and drew her sword. "Show me what you can do firsthand! R-right here, right now, huh? Think you can do it?"

The sudden shift to violence surprised Rowan, but she let her fox form's characteristic calm hide that for her. Some of the other vixens present looked worried after their own surprise, knowing that she was injured and tired from the fight just barely concluded, but Zeno facepalmed and shook her head grinning, recognizing right away how poorly the fight was likely to go for Ms. Hargrove.

"..Very well." For her own part, Rowan was actually feeling pretty good, even with those injuries. After a brief moment of losing control, she had been well-grounded again by seeing the others fight. It was difficult to put into words, but...it was something about knowing that she wasn't alone in her goals. Nico's trees helping her recuperate for a bit certainly hadn't hurt, either.

"You may wish to reconsider 'right here', however. I have something of an unfair advantage in this location." She pointed behind Cynthia, who looked and saw a wall of water rising up behind her as a demonstration. Rowan gently set the water down again once she was facing forward again, flowing much of it back toward the pipes it had come from. "May I suggest instead, one of our sparring grounds inside?"

"...Fine."

Rowan turned and led the way, patching up her wounds a little more as she went. Everyone followed, even those who probably had other places to be. Well—there hadn't been time to formally debrief them before this, so hopefully it wouldn't take too long. "Some rules," she said as they went. "We will not risk seriously injuring each other. To that end, whoever can disarm her opponent earns a point. Three points is a win. Powers are fine, but only in service of disarming, not aimed to kill. Does that seem fair?" She didn't want to get killed, obviously, and also didn't want to really harm Cynthia either. Thinking back on the 'duel' with Light, she reasoned that their powers would actually help to enforce any rules given for a "formal challenge" like this, so it seemed like a good way to keep them both relatively safe.

"Yeah, sure."

"C'mon guys, there's plenty of window seating. Don't crowd the courtyard..." Petra kept everyone else inside as Rowan and Cynthia went out, Dawn right behind her, and then proceeded to stay outside, just in front of the door, herself. Dawn went over to an opposite corner, still wearing a very worried expression, but Rowan briefly caught her eyes as the two of them stood apart, readying to fight, and managed to reassure her some.

"Okay, let's have a clean fight," Petra said, "Uh—you both know the rules already, so. Swords out?" Whether Cynthia accepted her as an impartial referree or not, she didn't seem to care too much; she drew her weapon, and Rowan did the same, standing in a loose, ready position. "Aand, start on the count of three: One, two, three!"

The redhead rushed in swinging as soon as she heard the word 'three'. Her motions were swift but sloppy, not planned out, and made even worse by her reckless attitude. Rowan simply backed just out of range of a few sideways slashes, sidestepped a chop, and then hit the back of the blade, up near the hilt, with her sword before raising her foot and stomping hard on the center, pushing it down out of her opponent's grip. It dropped to the ground and audibly clattered, Rowan taking a couple of steps back while Cynthia looked on in shock.

"Stop! Point to Rowan," Petra said. Round one had lasted a grand total of maybe ten seconds. Cynthia backed up, audibly growling, and when she reformed her sword again it was visibly wreathed in flames, which continued up past her hands to her upper wrists. Rowan simply took up her original position again and waited for the count to begin.

"One, two, three!"

She didn't go to attack right away this time, instead holding the blade up in front of her and slowly circling, which Rowan mirrored, maintaining the distance between them. Her grip and placement were awful; there were plenty of openings for her to be stabbed or cut through. But since knocking that sword away was Rowan's target, she didn't take any of those opportunities. Instead she concentrated on slowly gathering water vapor behind her, out of Cynthia's sight, until she had enough for her plan.

Once she was ready—about halfway through their rotation, and now standing where Cynthia had begun—Rowan feinted forward with her sword, letting Cynthia try to block and counter and backing well away to avoid all of that. With the hand not holding onto the hilt of her weapon she directed all of the water into an especially thick tentacle, slamming it into the back of the burning sword near the end of its sideways swing so that the hit pushed the sword even farther in the same direction as it was already moving. Most of the water steamed off before it hit the sword, of course, but enough was still there at the end to impart the momentum. The redheaded vixen stumbled, her grip terribly loosened by the unexpected motion, and Rowan only had to dart in and tap the tip of her weapon on the blade near the hilt to get it out of her hands.

"Rowan two, Pheonix aught," Simon said cheerfully, which only served to make Cynthia even angrier. She remade the sword, this time extending the blazing aura across her entire body and beyond, and didn't wait for the count to come charging at Rowan, sending arms of fire out on either side of her to limit her movement. Rowan narrowly ducked or sidestepped each attack, waiting patiently for an opening to present itself.

The air around her was surprisingly cold for being so close to all that fire. A quick test with one hand behind her back confirmed that Rowan was more than capable of condensing some water into existence too; in fact it was easier than before. There was only one explanation for this: Dawn was helping her. And...come to think of it, getting help from another vixen wasn't against the rules. It was somewhat unsportsmanlike, but so was ignoring the count of three for an ambush—which was also not part of the stated rules, to be fair.

Cynthia was striking in a very predictable pattern, and every fifth strike of that pattern was angled and placed in a way that seemed intended to try and catch her from an unexpected direction, but instead only succeeded in producing an especially weak force behind the swing. Rowan extended water into a shield around herself, just about strong enough to take that amount of force, and when that fifth hit came again she stepped forward into it instead of dodging. Its placement would've landed the blade and encompassing fire into her shoulder if not blocked, and Cynthia's eyes widened in the instant she was able to see where the strike was going, her realization that she was (seemingly) about to seriously injure or kill her target weakening her strike further. Thus she was even less prepared for it to bounce, and her doubt made the blaze around her flicker out. This probably would've been very temporary, the fire all coming right back in an instant, if not for what happened next.

Rowan struck the flat of her blade up into the edge of Cynthia's, going along with her weakened grip to knock the sword up into the air, out of her hands again. It turned to fire and fizzled out of existence before gravity could begin to pull it down, and a bright red glow surrounded the redhead for a moment before seeming to pull forward, coalsecing into a cloud which rushed into Rowan's body right after.

Petra raised her hand. "Thaat's three—....huh?" She paused, seeing the cloud of Cynthia's power going into Rowan.
It was easy enough to make sense of after the fact; it took Rowan only a couple of seconds. A vixen could gain "ownership" of another, including knowledge of their phrase, by winning a fight to the death without killing the loser. Rowan and Light had already established that a formal "duel" with the express purpose of the winner gaining "ownership" of the loser would also do the trick. And this...was a duel too, a formal challenge with the express purpose of proving that Rowan was worthy to command her. Of course their powers interpreted "command" and "ownership" as the same thing; it was hard to see how the Giver wouldn't be capricious enough to set the rules up that way.

The only problem now was explaining what had just happened—not just to Cynthia, or to Dawn, but to all of the other vixens watching who didn't know about this aspect of everyone's powers. Not to mention, there were a number of VI staffers watching this duel through the windows who probably should've been doing their jobs elsewhere at the moment.

...Cynthia first. She was panting slightly, and looked to be somewhat in shock. Rowan whispered her phrase under her breath, ordering her power right back where it belonged. She wasn't going to use it to hurt Rowan, even in revenge for this; that much was clear from her expression during those microseconds where she thought her strike was going to actually catch her in the shoulder.

"What the—what was that?!" she said, backing up several steps. The anger was extinguished, but there was definitely some fear present now. "That was—I felt like—"
"Something unexpected happened when I won our duel," Rowan stated calmly. "Sorry. I..believe it is more than you that I need to explain it to." She held out a hand toward the redhead briefly, and then gestured toward the door, and Petra. "Let's go inside, please."
"Um..okaay...?" While the unshakable calm had made her angrier when she was angry, it served to reassure her just a little bit now that she was afraid. It was probably still a bit unsettling, given that Rowan showed none of the surprise she had felt at these results.

---

Light exhaled slowly, remembering to direct her frustration properly. "Okay. Fine, that...makes sense, I guess. Who was..?"
"Ms. Cynthia Hargrove," Rowan said. "You would know her as Dawn's friend, the one with power over fire." Fire...right, that somehow sounded 'correct'. "I've explained the situation to her as best I could, although this 'inheriting' aspect wasn't pointed out to us until after I did so..."

Ning came out from the shop, with Nadia in tow. Still listening (and maintaining an illusion of a sleeping Ning), Light set things up so it looked like the little girl was coming out all on her own, and had...oh, how about Clark going over to comfort her or whatever. It would've been Amp, but she was invisible right now—as far as anyone looking on from outside would be concerned, there was no blond-haired vixen present. She'd have to explain this in a minute to keep everyone's stories consistent, but it looked like a believable situation for now.

"Power's out," Ning said. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised, really. I went on and started the backup generator to run my refrigeration, but don't wanna waste that energy on the TV. Got no signal anyhow. Think some'a you could help get Nadia to our house?" The little girl was looking around at everyone wide-eyed, waving cheerfully if a bit shyly at the group of mostly strangers.

---

Once the explanation was given and they were sworn to secrecy, the staffers left, leaving behind just the vixens. Rowan took a deep breath and spoke her own phrase to finally turn back to an uninjured human, feeling very happy that those wounds could heal without being physically present.

"..I'll keep this as brief as I can, but I do have some major announcements to make, I think," he said. "First of all, everyone but me did an excellent job today, including you two," he indicated Dawn and Cynthia. "Any specific criticism I might have can wait for later, and is by and large drowned out by how well you all worked together to take out that dragon, and—I assume—the turtles, too?" A few of them nodded in response to this.

"Now. Today's events reminded me that, even in 'empowered' form, no matter how strong we feel...most of us, me included, are just as fragile as any ordinary human. I'd say even Corporal Langdon is far from invincible. For that reason, I'm going to suggest the development of some kind of lightweight armor for our vixen forms, myself especially; if any one of you want to request some, there'll be a way to do it if my suggestion is approved.

"..Secondly, as if I needed to learn this again, my plans aren't perfect. I intend to take your feedback on board from now on, and actually explain my intentions ahead of time instead of going ahead with boneheaded ideas like I did today. If you think I'm about to do something stupid, tell me, and I'll try my best to actually listen from now on. My specific mistake today was...well, many of you are aware by now that we can become temporarily stronger if something makes us angry enough. As it turns out, anger isn't the only emotion that can have that effect if the situation is desperate enough...but, as I also said earlier, it's not a reliable tool. It...controlled me, just as much as it empowered me. I'd advise that we try to keep from doing that at all in the future, unless there is no other option.

"Third, again, I'm extremely vulnerable and fallible. There may be situations, like today, when I'm taken out of commission, even if I'm not dead. I would like to appoint someone as a 'lieutenant', who you can look to first for command if I'm not available. I don't know that we need a very strict chain of command, but at least one backup seems pretty wise. For this decision, I have been paying attention to our battles so far: Recordings, your reports, and those of other witnesses. I would like to nominate Simon for this position," he said, turning toward Petra.

She appeared very nonplussed. "Uh, really? I mean, you don't wanna go with the literal military guy or something?"

"Corporal Langdon is not very experienced with our team yet, or the unusual tactics involved in fighting those monsters, nor in using our powers to do so," he said; the gray-haired vixen quietly nodded her agreement to this. "And really, you're much better at improvising than I am. But: Abuse this power, and you will pay for it," he said seriously.
"H-heh, yeah, I mighta guessed," she chuckled nervously. "I gotta say I'm flattered by the vote of confidence. I'll, y'know, do my best to live up to it."

"Finally: Dawn, Cynthia. You have the right to join us, if you want, but you have to accept the situation as it is. My authority has a purpose here, and I will do my best not to go beyond that purpose. Understand that if you accept this offer, I'll probably be criticizing how you fight, to try to help you and everyone else survive. If not, you're free to stay here, or to go wherever you like. There are some...legal issues involving events neither of you remember, but I could at least try to see if anything can be done about that in light of everything you've been through and done."

"Are you kidding? This is our town, and we wanna defend it! Right?" She looked at Dawn, who nodded seriously.

"Yeah. We're with ya'll."

"All right. Of course, you're not signing your life away here, either. Like everyone else, you're essentially volunteers, free to leave if you wish.

"...That should be all for now. Well—let me know if you have anything to say, but if you've got somewhere to go, go ahead and leave," Rowan said. Everyone began filtering out.

"Heyy, soo," Zeno stepped up toward Rowan. "Quick question."
"Yes?"
"You said Light has 'access' to your power, and now you have access to hers," she said, pointing to Cynthia; Rowan nodded that this was correct. "Soooo...is this a transitive relation? Can Light use fire now, too?"
"...Oh."

"...Excuse me, I need to make a call."

Rowan rushed into the nearest soundproofed room (the VI, of course, having had the foresight to build several of those into their headquarters), and pulled out his phone. He tried to call Light first. When she didn't pick up, Amp was the fallback. That didn't get a response either, so he just picked Dr. Quinn as the next one to try more or less at random.

---

"Alright, so we think we've got the logistics worked out here," Clark said after Light handed the phone back to him. "You send someone to pick up Ning, plus Light and Gemma. I'll follow you in my car, with Magus, Amp and our..'guest' also hitching a ride. We stop by said guest's house and certain people get out, Light hiding one of them. Then we split off, I take Magus home—or wherever—" she added, looking at the vixen in the hat briefly, "—while they go on to you. Good plan?"

"Seems sensible enough to me," Rowan said. "I'll make sure to send drivers who can keep a few secrets."

They all went into Mr. Nelson's store, pretending it was a random place of shelter and relatively even ground that happened to have its door unlocked, to wait for transport to arrive—Rory appearing to pick Ning up and carry her inside, of course. It didn't take as long as expected, since the VI had someone already in town for just this purpose, and they all went out to where Amp and Dr. Quinn's cars had been parked.

"...Shoot, I forgot I drove here," Amp said. "Maybe this can get moved somewhere and I pick it up later?" After some brief negotiations, the VI's backup driver took her keys to drive it into a parking garage nearby, and they picked her back up after a brief wait in front of it.

Nadia and Amp bailed out of the Quinns' car, leaving just Magus and the two college professors inside as it headed off toward the apartment complex. "Hey, uh...this is maybe kinda personal, buuut..."
"What is it?" Clark said.

"Are Gemma and Amp, uh, you know...together?" She poked her index fingers against each other to illustrate the word. Since, she accidentally knew now that Amp's human form was male, plus the way they acted around each other...
"Well, they're dating. Dated...once so far, I think? More importantly, Gemma might have gotten powers in the first place largely based on having a crush on him."

"Oh. Ohhh man. So, did you warn them?"
"...About what?"

"Well, you know...inappropriate relationships and stuff? 'Cause, like, Gemma's a..?"

"A what?" He didn't get the implication and didn't even see her vague gesturing from the backseat.

"A professor, or teacher, or...something like that, right?"
"Pfffhaahahah!" Clark slowed the car down some so he wouldn't run into something from laughing. It didn't seem cruel or anything, just that he hadn't expected her to think that at all. "Heh, aah...no. I'm certain she'd be flattered to hear you thought that, though!"