Battle Vixens! - 123

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Episode 123: Identity (Reprise)

Light's phone rang. "..It's Amory," she reported before answering. "..Yeah?"
"Heeyy, Light. How are you doing?"
"Fine."
"That's not very reassuring. I can hear you're tired in your voice, you know."
"Yes, I'm a little tired, but I'll manage, okay? I know the weather right now's not ideal for me, and I know how to keep from overextending. Anyway, I can't exactly make Rory fight alone."
"That's what I was thinking, too: You guys are down one fighter. On the other hand, everyone on our end is still okay. So maybe we should send someone your way? I mean—not Clark, since we need a healer on both ends, but Magus? Ooorrr...one of Gemma, maybe?"

"Bad idea—Gemma always works best 'together'. I don't think we should shuffle the teams up right now. Look—Ning insisted on having me use her power for the rest of today, so I have like three actual swords I can lend Rory." Dr. Quinn—who, of course, could hear the whole conversation—gave Light a grin and thumbs-up at this. "Between that and shooting monsters with lightning, we'll be fine."

"...Well, maybe I can come. At least give you two a little bit of an advantage to make up for the missing person. Is that okay with you?"

"I guess..that makes sense, yeah. We're..at Ning's new store. Try not to be too conspicuous coming in here."
"Is there a back entrance I can use or something?"
"Yeah, uh.." Rory was waving at her. "..I think Rory wants to give you directions. Here." She handed the phone over.

---

"Well now...you left the action pretty quickly." Naturally, Ezekiel waited until they were engaged in practical work before starting this conversation. "People might get the impression that Hephaestus is a shy one," he continued, ignoring her withering stare like a pro. "Or at least camera-shy."

"You are fortunate that whatever nonsense operates the changing of one's physical form for another doesn't care to preserve things like the amount of moisture in one's fur," Dr. Brand replied first. "Otherwise the smell of wet dog would now permeate this room, and in future, all of the keys we are presently preparing."

"So—no comment on the matter of fame, then? I thought you were rather impressive out there, myself."

"Hmph."

The fox-girl gave an exasperated sigh. "I do not desire fame as a brute, for my capacity for violence. If I am to be famous, let it be for my mind. My insight, my discoveries, or at worst those who studied under me. Is it not the same for you?"

Dr. Bridges shrugged. "Me, I don't mind being seen as a cool superhero. Maybe it's a generational thing."
"Why, then, keep 'Zeno' separate from 'Ezekiel' still?"

"It's rather in the interest of our department here," he replied, gesturing. "We couldn't have newspeople following me to work and recording something clandestine."
"Is that all."

"Well—I admit it is convenient sometimes, for Zeno to be able to vanish. Everyone enjoys their privacy."

"Then surely you understand my position."

"Oh, I never said I didn't. I just wanted to know what you'd say about it specifically," Ezekiel said with a grin.
Hephaestus glared. "You are infurating."

He shrugged back. "Comes with the profession, from time to time. Honestly, I do intend to someday merge the two personas back into one. Just not today. I am grateful I have the option, unlike the boss."

"Which boss?"
"Oh, sorry—I meant Rowan. I guess calling him that really is getting to be a bad habit if I'm doing it while out-of-character."

---

By the time Amory arrived, Light had had lunch with Dr. Quinn, and was taking a nap. That was probably for the best. He came inside quietly and followed Rory to the opposite side of the back of the store.

"You think she'll be okay?" he asked quietly.
"Hey, give her some credit. She hasn't collapsed yet, like when I first met her."

"Fusing with Ning can't have helped, though..."
"It wasn't for very long. Besides, the most important thing is eating something, right? And I took care of that."

He nodded.

---

Cynthia sat in the front seat of Sam's car on its way back to VI's base. She crossed her arms and glared out the right-side window, feeling trapped; she could feel Dawn's eyes on her from the backseat.

It came after a couple of minutes of silence. "You okay, Cynth?"
"Yeah, of course I'm okay," she snapped. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"That, rat thing, came awful close..."

"It wasn't that bad."

"It was bad enough for you to nearly spout fire at someone!" Dawn's tone changed suddenly, from concern to anger. "And it would've still got you if Rowan hadn't told you to quit!"

"Well she did, and I ain't hurt, am I?" She twisted around to face her. "What's your problem?!"
"My problem is you're never careful, and always nearly gettin' yourself hurt!"
"I ain't careful?! What about you? Always jumpin' out in front of me so fast I near burn your tail off! You do that whether somethin's anywhere near hittin' me or not!"
"Well excuse me for carin'! I just don't—"

"Dawn. Cynthia," Sam interrupted, not loudly but firmly enough to get both of their attention. "You two can bicker later, right? I'd appreciate if ya'll don't melt my car in the process, is all."
Cynthia hadn't even noticed her power flooding out, raising the temperature around her higher and higher, before this point. She drew herself back to facing forward, taking a deep breath to make herself calm down and getting a grip on the fire in her before it could start burning the seat she was sitting in. "Sorry."
"Yeah, sorry..." Dawn said. And then, quietly: "I just, don't wanna see you get hurt no more..."

And now she felt awful again. But she couldn't think of the right thing to say back, and didn't want to start another fight, so she just stared out at the road in front of them.

---

Karis walked into her home, and headed for the stairs, her husband practically at her heels. "Soo..back to standing up my Stand."
"We're so close. And I did treat you to dinner, after all!"

"Pfft. Drive-through burgers do not count."
"Then I shall treat you to dinner tonight, in exchange for your infinite patience. How's that sound?"
"Better."

It took a few minutes to get Remedy back in the exact same pose as before—not having direct, 'fine control' over her limbs was a disadvantage in this case. But once Simon was satisfied and started back on his painting, she went and sat to one side to watch him work. Really, she'd seen him painting plenty of times before—interrupted it more than either of them could possibly count—but it had been a long time since she'd just watched him throughout an entire work's production. He was remarkably quick with his brush, for producing things that looked as good as they did. It came down to his decades of practice, no doubt, and—if she were to bring it up—he'd insist it was also because of his 'prodigious talent' or some other such nonsense.

"Out of curiosity..." He also had no trouble at all talking while he worked. If anything, it seemed to help his focus rather than hindering it. "Do you regret everyone already knowing who you are?"
"You mean, not having a 'secret identity' and whatever?"
"Indeed."
"It's kinda hard to regret something I never had an opportunity to choose. But you've put up a pretty stellar example of the 'famous vixen' life, and neither of us is really a stranger to media attention anyway."

"True, true.

"I had a conversation with Light once, about fame. Round the first time we met," he said. "She's one of many who seem pretty uncomfortable with it. Ning must've felt the same, at least at first, but still threw the mask off. I suppose it was worth it to live as a young woman rather than an old man."

"I think a part of it is—there's just so many of us. If there were like, ten...or even a hundred super-powered vixens around, there'd be millions of people per each one. Loads of opportunities to get a super-fan, which means at least a thousand excessively dedicated, loyal fans per vixen. But at our numbers, it's not nearly as bad. Millions of vixens divided by billions of people is just some thousands. There's bound to be a few rabid fans for each of us, but..."
"M'dear," Simon interrupted, "are you mathing at me?"
"Just a little bit," she shrugged. "And only about a topic which you brought up, if I recall."
"I did, didn't I?

"Still. It's not like you can just evenly divide vixens-per-capita, is it? Certain individuals stand out an awful lot more than others. Like me! Or our boss, for being seen as the leader of the initiative and all. Or Espadas, or of course Light herself. I feel like those three are famous among vixens, which in turn channels all the more attention of normal folks their way."
"I guess there is a certain risk of that," Karis agreed. "I'm just saying—on average, you know? I don't feel like I have too much to worry about. Anyway, if I did, it'd already be happening—but things seem about the same as they were yesterday for us, fame-wise."

"You can, and should, thank me for that!" Simon said, making a particularly dramatic gesture with his brush.

Well, she never would've married him if she didn't find his ego trips charming. "Pfft, fine." Or at least humorous, anyway. "Thanks, dear."

---

Light was awake by the time the alert went out for the next set of attacks. It was two hours since the last one had ended, practically on the dot. Amory got up and spoke the phrase to turn back into Amp, and went to work on Light while Rory glanced at her phone for details.

"Hmm...'Hazer'? Never heard of that kind before. Aaand, the link goes to a 404. Oh—but it says 'class 2'?"

"The VI and the wiki put out a new 'ranking system' for monsters today," Amory said. "That's the same 'level' as the ones you guys fought with Ning earlier. Stuff like the dragon or hydra are 'class 3', and the more common, weaker monsters are 'class 1'."
"Got it. Well, I think we can handle it boosted. Right?"
Light nodded. "Hope so."

While she went to briefly pet Rory's ears, Amp thought: Light still looked slightly tired, but more notably, her expression was grim. She was ready to see this through; she'd do whatever it took to make sure nobody got hurt. If anything, she'd become more determined lately, but also...so much more serious. Contrasting the way she looked now to the first time she'd been "boosted", right after Amp got her powers, was like night and day.

It just seemed like...being a hero wasn't fun to her anymore. Maybe that didn't matter so much, in the face of everything they were up against. But Amory couldn't help but worry.

She put on her best smile; it was always pretty easy to look cheerful and carefree in this form anyway. "Well, good luck out there, you two! I'll be rooting for you."
"Thanks. See you soon," Light said.
"Yeah, let's go bag us a Hazer!" Rory cheered. At least someone was still enjoying this.