Battle Vixens! - 141

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Episode 141: Training Montage

Emma said, "So, um..."

"Yeah?"

Her face flushed a little bit, but she was also smiling. "Y-you wanna come to my place for a while?"

With that expression, she probably had more petting in mind. Not that Amory was opposed to the idea. "Sure. I'll just let Blake know I'll be gone a little longer," he added, getting his phone out.
"O-okay."

On the way out of the city, Marcus and the catgirl picked up some drive-through, and they ate it on the drive back. After he pulled his car into a parking spot in the apartment building's garage, Thalia hopped out and briefly popped the cat mask on to turn back into Thad. Then he said, "Welp. I'm 'onna go work on my car for a bit."
"'Kay. See you later," Marcus said, and his roommate nodded before heading off. He then started toward their apartment, taking several steps before stopping. "Hmm." He got out his phone, acting on an idea he'd just had—or at least hoping to.

Blake finished his lunch, got up and stretched for a moment, and then his phone started buzzing with texts. Going over to check, there was one from Amory saying the meeting with Emma's sister had gone well, and that he'd be hanging out with Emma for some more of the afternoon. The rest were several in succession from 'Magus'. Marcus didn't quite send messages in the extreme-rapid-fire way Emma did, but apparently he did have a similar habit of needing several texts to finish a single thought:

you want to like

since there's no monsters to fight today i mean

and they just opened a place for us in town

i could use maybe some training to not be

to do a little better up close

when not borrowing someone else's

if you're not busy i mean

After digesting the contents of that entire paragraph, he shrugged. It beat the tedious work of debugging a program, which he'd been at for the entire hour or so before taking a break for lunch. And...they really needed to be as ready as possible, before tomorrow. Sure. I'll meet you there.

The VI had a few staffers watching the entrances to the new "outdoor training area". It wasn't a bunch of armed guards making the place super-secure like the actual base in the city; their job was more or less to wave off bystanders and media (unless whoever was using the area wanted an audience). At any rate, when they saw Light and Magus walking up, they just waved hello to the two of them and let them through. A short walk later (around/away from some construction workers still making repairs to the recently-damaged underground infrastructure), they were in the section of former street which had been destroyed a couple of days ago by an electric shadow worm.

Light got out her sword. "I have to admit, I don't really know how to teach swordfighting. I mean—my powers just come with knowing how to do it, so it's not like I ever actually learned it. So maybe, if we just spar really slowly, you'll..pick something useful up?"

"Yeah," the girl in the hat nodded, getting her own weapon ready. "If I can at least know how to defend myself a little bit, that'd be sweet."

"Okay."

It turned out that what felt 'really slow' to Light was still a little bit too fast. She had to pull back even more before Magus could properly keep up using only her sword. They went several rounds after that, and there was some improvement; Magus was starting to hold her sword in a little less of a clumsy, loose way, and seemed to be picking up on some useful stances and movements even if she couldn't do them very fast. When it seemed like she'd made some progress, Light deliberately sped up just a tiny bit. This clearly made things more difficult, but Magus toughed it out, and started to get somewhat better.

Light stepped back, and let go of her sword, unsummoning it. "Let's take a break." The other vixen was out of breath and barely holding her hilt at this point, and she let in and out a loud breath in response to this suggestion, dropping the weapon to loudly clatter on the ground and doubling over to pant for a moment.

"You should uh..sit down or something. Want some water? I think I saw they had some bottles back where we came in."
"Yffh...yeah..hff.." Magus managed the presence of mind to dismiss her sword before collapsing over onto her back on the ground. Light ran off and was back in under a minute with a few water bottles, squatting to hand one to Magus (who was now sitting up and no longer completely out of breath) before sitting cross-legged in front of her.

After chugging around a third of the bottle's volume, she said, "Maaan. It was so easy to fight when I was borrowing Emma's powers. Like, everything was just a reflex."

"I know what you mean. But..those 'reflexes' can get in the way sometimes, too. It's not hard to fool someone who's relying entirely on them, into making a mistake."

"It felt really awesome too! Super exciting. But, uh, terrifying at the same time. Or—maybe that was just after it happened, and I really thought about how many times I was this close to getting cut up into itty bitty pieces."

"Well, that's what you have defensive spells for, right? Blocking things with your sword is nowhere near as effective."

"Yeah, I know. It's more like—I just don't wanna be in that position and have nothing I can do. Just, enough to fight back a second, get some space to cast a spell to get away—that'd be enough."

Light remembered something from reviwing some of Monday's news footage. "By the way..."

"Yeah?"

"Think you can stand up and cast the block spell for me? I wanna test something."
"Uh, sure. I think I'm better now." Magus hopped up to her feet. "Hah. My uh..'human form', would still be in bad shape after that workout, but I feel totally fine already. Guess it helps to start from being fit."
Light just nodded, getting her sword out.

"Uh—right!" Magus got her own weapon out, and cast the spell. "Block!"

"Keep it up." The other vixen advanced on her, striking the barrier several times with her sword, then stepped back and threw the sword into it; the weapon bounced off, and she dismissed it. Then she jump-kicked the barrier herself, kicking off of it into a backwards leap, flipping in the air and landing back on her feet a short ways away.

"Hm."

Magus leaned her head out sideways a little bit, trying to look at Light's face. "So, uh...what're we testing for here, exactly?"

"You didn't feel any of that, right? Didn't get pushed back at all?"
"Nnnope. Pretty sure I'm still in the same place."
"Uh, you can drop the shield." She did, and also dismissed her sword again. "It's just—when the hecatoncheries hit you, you got thrown into the air, and backwards."

"Oh. Yeah." Magus's ears folded back a little bit, remembering the experience.

"But that spell usually doesn't carry any momentum into you. Why'd it do it that time?"
"W-well, maybe...I was super tired then, and barely managed to cast it at all. And that thing hit the shield ultra hard. It totally shattered!"
"So, it hit harder than any of what I just did...I guess we'd get a better test if we had Rory punch it or something. But I have a guess anyway."

"Yeah?"

Light paced back and forth a little as she spoke: "The spell's supposed to make an impenetrable barrier—at least, that's what it'd do ideally. But it can only block so much. Still—it's supposed to protect you. So if it gets hit by something it can't handle, it shatters to spend up as much of the hit's energy as it can...and if there's still more, then it turns the energy into momentum and transfers that to you, instead of letting you get hit. If it didn't do that...the hecatoncheries's hand would've gone right through the shield and made a direct hit."

"Oh. Oof," she winced, "I hadn't thought of that."

Light stopped pacing, turning to face Magus again. "Sorry, I'm not trying to bring up something painful. It's just—did you design the spell to do all of that?"
"No way! I made up the spell in like half a second—when Rowan came at me with a sword!"
Light nodded. "You just wanted to block an attack. But the spell carries that intent to its logical conclusion without you having to tell it to."

"Uh...yeah, I guess so."
"I don't think it's likely that only your block spell does something like that," Light said, trying to finally make her point clear.

"Oh. Oooh! Okay," Magus nodded. "So, like, some of my other spells might have hidden benefits!"
"Right. And, if you make a spell with a certain intent...you don't need to understand everything, or maybe not even much at all, about what that intent requires, for the spell to do it anyway."

"Ooh! We could also like—if I wanted to get away from something fast, maybe I could make an impact wave that reflects back at me and block it, or like use a modified block that's super easy to break, and I could go flying! And if I block the ground or do like a featherfall spell then I can land without getting hurt. Or I could just make a fly spell in the first place, like the way Doc Quinn can make us all fly around!"

"Uh, yeah. That also works," Light said.
"You, were thinking of something specific?"

"It's just—you've done a 'haste' spell before. You can do buffs."
Magus nodded, "Yeah, totally."
"So, if you really need the kind of instinct that 'normal' vixens have—which is obviously something magically granted to us by our powers—then you don't need to actually understand anything about how to fight with a sword..." she said with a 'continue the thought' gesture.
"...to do a buff that lets me fight better with a sword! Oooh!"

"But maintining a buff requires you to keep concentrating on it, right?"

"Yeah. Or a summon, or anything else that's supposed to stick around."

"So you'd just need to be careful. Practicing with that might help."

"Yeah! Totally!"

"You want to try that now? Have an idea for how the spell should go?"
"Uh-huh!" Magus nodded. "I think I've got it. Uh..." She drew her sword again, and moved herself into a reasonable sort of 'ready' stance, with both hands on the hilt. This was, apparently, the motion necessary for the spell, because she then recited its name to cast it: "Martial Mastery!" The effect of the spell presented visually as a faint blue glow around her, swirling around and upward as if carried by some invisible wind—which also seemed to pick up her hair and the brim of her hat, making them flutter around.

Naturally, they sparred for a couple of minutes after that. Light still didn't get up to her full speed, but it felt like she was at least dealing with a genuinely competent opponent this time. Magus was effortlessly finding some false openings she left, but didn't seem to pick up on the fact that they were false even after she blocked the fifth or so attempt at taking advantage of them. She was also doing a pretty good job of not leaving any obvious openings herself. However, they had to stop after those couple of minutes because Magus's breath started to come a little loudly, and not long after that she dropped her sword loudly to the ground and staggered back a couple of steps, putting out a hand palm-forward before doubling over, both hands on her knees, and heaving for breath.

Light just dismissed her own weapon, picked up the water bottle Magus had partially drained before, and offered it to her after she sat down again. This time she chugged maybe half its original volume, leaving it almost empty when she capped it again and set it down.

"Haffh...nearly forgot, doing magic costs stamina. And fighting, hff, costs stamina too. And my stamina, iiisn't super great in the first place!" she said, the last clause coming out at a higher pitch than the rest.

Light sat across from her. "Still, it worked. And stamina is something you can build up, over time, right?"
"Y-yeah...it was pretty awesome...actually doing that myself...fffffh...with just my own powers."

"Just don't let it carry you completely. It's easy for someone to fool that 'instinct' if they've got some practice."

"Haah...that's the second time you said something like that, you know? I guess it's pretty important."
"I've..fought more vixens than I'd like to," Light said, folding her ears down for a second. "You come to realize pretty quick, it's a battle of your minds just as much as your bodies."

Magus grinned. "Cooool. I mean—not you having to fight people, but, what you said just now. Was pretty cool!"

"Uh, thanks, I guess..."

Sensing Light's slight bashfulness, Magus just moved on to a different topic: "You think—we should try to make some kind of plans ahead of time? Like, coordinated attacks and stuff?" She was probably thinking of how the city's vixens, and several other teams, did things, sparring and training together during 'off hours' to be more ready for the real fights...which was admittedly very effective.
"We could try. Although..one of your big advantages is improvising, making up a new spell on the spot to deal with whatever the situation is. Trying to plan around that feels like...trying to compose melodies for a jazz band."

"Well—I haven't done much jazz, but that's still not too bad. It's way easier to improvise if everyone already knows what the key, and time signature, and tempo are. And having a base melody to work off of is pretty helpful too!"

"That...makes sense." She'd almost forgotten Marcus was a music major. Not that that made her interpretation of the melody automatically correct, but she absolutely had a good point.

"You okay to stand up again?"

"Yeah, I'm good!" Magus hopped to her feet, so Light followed suit.

"Hmm..can you use 'material components' for your spells? Like last night...it seemed like you had an easier time doing things with water since there was so much of it around. I'm not clear how much of it was Emma's power, or if that's just something you can always do."
"Hmm..I'm pretty sure I can! I mean, it's easier to pick up a chunk of concrete and throw it than it is to 'summon' a rock outta nowhere. Or, yeah, the rain definitely helped back then."
"So, if you have a good catalogue of spells that use a specific element, and there's someone around who uses it all the time—like me with light—then you can have them lend you some of it in concentration to cast with. And, either make those spells cheaper, or more effective."

Light spread her arm out to her right, that han'ds palm facing outward, and gathered an orb of light just past her hand. "There's a limit to how much I can concentrate light into 'lasers' to burn things with. I usually have to stetch to even do it at all. I bet a spell can do better."
"Oh? Yeah, maybe! I'll try." Magus quietly cleared her throat once, getting her weapon out. As she spoke and motioned for a spell, Light could feel a slight 'pull' from her trying to 'take hold' of the orb of light, and gave it over to her to cast with. "Rays of light, sear and burn. Laser Lance!" The orb formed itself into a thin spike, turning bright red, then shot off to one side, disappearing as it hit the ground. Right before the point of impact, Light could sort of feel that bit of light's wavelength shifting out of her control, past red and into infrared so it would convey as much heat as possible. The bit of concrete the spell hit briefly gave off visible heat waves; it was hard to be absolutely certain how hot it had gotten since it was concerete, but the effect definitely seemed stronger than what she could have done alone.

Magus was grinning. "Awesome! What about hard light? Like Zeno's arrows and stuff?"

"I can't seem to do it on my own...somehow Wave was able to, though. But it does still feel like 'light'." Light gathered another orb of light and floated it over into the space between them; Magus came up with another spell.

"Luminal Volley!" The orb exploded into a lot of short, thin pieces, each one pointed at both ends, and they went out one-after-another in the direction Magus pointed the tip of her sword. She even seemed able to adjust the aim as the shots continued, and the little spikes buried themselves into the ground where they landed deeply enough to make it obvious they'd become solid and carried quite a lot of momentum with them. "Ah, man, this is too sweet!" As the spell ended, all of the 'hard-light' projectiles disappeared again, returning to normal, physical light.

Light nodded. "This is just with light, too. You should figure out some signal with Gemma to ask for a little of whatever element you need."

"Yeah!"

They spent a few more minutes of Magus coming up with spells using light for material, including making a hard-light shield she could hold in her free hand to block with, until the excitable mage started to get winded again.

"Ha~aah...hoof. Phew."
"You okay?"
"Yh, yeah. Just, gonna need another little break." They both sat down again. "Using a 'material' like that totally makes the spells cheaper to cast, but it's still not free," she said.

"It seems like that's just the way it always is. Everything has a cost, when it comes to magic."

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

"...I don't know if I ever really thanked you."
"Huh? What for?"

"Last night. The, 'Sunblaze' spell."

"Oh, that? I mean, that was just as much so I'd survive as for you. I was way too tired to really fight anymore at that point, so I thought I'd spend everything I had left to keep you going."

"I don't just mean the spell itself. It...there was. It's, gonna sound pretty strange, but—I could feel your emotions, through the light itself. It, helped kick me out of a funk I'd been in lately."
"Really?" she seemed surprised at the idea of Light, of all people, being in any kind of 'funk'.
"Yeah. I'd been...trying a little too hard to do everything on my own. Heroes are supposed to work together, and pick up after each other. When one can't do it, another's supposed to take over. I didn't have any problem with being the one to take over...but, accepting help—it's a little harder for me than it should be sometimes."

"Hahah, you got all that from me? I don't think I was thinking anywhere near that deep. I just wanted to help out, you know?"

"That's just it. I get lost in my own head way too easily sometimes, and, I guess—you don't, so much. Or at least didn't right then, when it really mattered. So, I really appreciate it."

"Awwh..um...h-heheh." Magus blushed slightly and looked away for a second—apparently it was her turn to be a little bashful. "You're welcome, I guess? Anytime!"

"Uh, you know—" Magus picked herself up to her feet, a little more slowly than the last few times. "I can still feel a little bit, uh, starstruck around you guys. Like, I still feel like—when I go out to fight monsters, I think: 'I get to fight with heroes!'

"...But I guess, that could be kinda awkward on your end. A-and it makes me really want to do something impressive all the time, to try to keep up."

"You don't have to worry about that," Light said, standing up herself and then reaching her arms up to stretch briefly in the pause between sentences. "You're one of us. Fight just as hard, and deal with all the same risks. Besides, some things like 'channeling', that came from you, have helped vixens the world over."

"Y-yeah...thanks."

"..I feel like we got off-track from what you wanted to train for," Light said. "I guess I started having ideas, and we didn't stop."
"That's okay—maybe the problem of me fighting up-close is kinda solved now. And like, anything that'll help us out later is good. And you have really good ideas, too!"

"I guess you were right about it being helpful to 'play' with our powers sometimes. But, you do seem a little tired. We shouldn't overdo it."

"Uh, yeah, I'm feeling it a little from all the fighting and casting and stuff so far. But I can keep going! Build up that stamina some, you know, for a tiiiiny bit longer?"

"Okay," Light nodded, trusting her to know her own limits. "Then—you should be able to cast healing spells, right? Have you ever tried?"
"I..uh, haven't, no. I'm usually around someone else who can do healing, I guess. But, like, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to, right?"
"Right. Do you need someone to be injured to cast one?"
"I..dunno why I would."
"Then, let's try and come up with a few. Quick and weak, slower but stronger...maybe a regen, or something to help people feel less exhausted?"
"Oh, yeah," Magus nodded, "like what some of Nico's trees can do!

"Let's try it out!"

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One of Light's big advantages has always been the ability to think up creative uses for even very limited-seeming powersets. Magus, on the other hand, has an insanely versatile powerset. Putting those two together...might be an overpowered combination.

Battle Vixens! - 140

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Episode 140: Remission

"Psst. Hey. Hey."
In response to his wife pestering and poking at him, Clark just groaned annoyedly and turned over in bed.

"You do know the sun's been up a couple of hours by now, right?"
He turned over slowly, then propped himself up on an elbow to face the side of hte bed Rory was standing on. "How on Earth do you have so much energy, after all of yesterday?"
"I can only sleep so long! Anyway, you asked me the same thing last night~. Are you getting up now?"
"I suppose so." He shuffled around to sit on that side of the bed. "If we have kids, we'll have to see whether you're still so chipper after dealing with them all night."
"Whaaat, 'if'?" she said with her arms crossed—implying 'not when?'

"I only mean...we've been," he cleared his throat meaningfully, "trying...for some time now. It may be that one of us isn't actually, 'capable'?"
"It's only a convenience if so. I mean, we've had time to build successful careers and then be superheroes! And we can just adopt someone if we have to—after we kick the monsters off our world! Anyway, since you're up, I'll get some breakfast ready for you. And coffee!"
"Coffee. Yes. That should help..." With that, she bounded off toward the kitchen.

---

Simon knocked on the door (even though it was ajar), and after a long moment heard, "Come in." So he pushed it the rest of the way open and strode inside.

Cynthia was still in the process of slowly sitting up and turning around, having evidently been hunched over her sketchpad on her desk. "Oh, it's you."
"Hey now. You're really gonna hurt my ego with a response like that!" he said, coming to look at what she was working on.

"Ain't like I've had time to miss you; I've seen you every day since comin' back to life or whatever."

The sketch was another moody, shadow, scribbly work, mostly or entirely in pencil. Simon could make out two humanoid figures on opposite sides of a chasm, whose sides had a jagged and angular shape—as if it had just recently been torn open by an earthquake. "Is this one new? It looks like it's coming along well," he said.

"Hmmh. Doc said it might help me to 'draw my emotions' or whatever, when I told her 'bout the sketchbook. It's somethin' to do, at least. What'd you want again?"

He snapped a finger. "Oh, yes, right!" (Not that he'd really forgotten.) "Serra—you remember Serra right?—called me because apparently you and Dawn haven't been issued phones yet. She and Braille and some of the other amnesiacs—or, former amnesiacs, whatever—are setting up a little conference call to 'catch up on things'. I guess some of them have some good news to share. If you're at all interested?"
Cynthia shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Where's Dawn?"

He'd heard about their 'breakup' from Rowan, but it still felt a little weird for her to ask him that. Regardless, he shrugged, "Dunno, but Warp went off to find her. We agreed to meet back up in one of the lounges, and then maybe I can just put my phone on speaker for you."

"Alright." She hopped to her feet. "Lead the way, then."

"Will do!"

---

Sam was trying, once again, to hit a series of clay pidgeons out in the VI's courtyard. The latest attempt went...somewhat well.

"Alright! You got more than half of 'em!" Tora applauded.

Sam shrugged, frowning slightly. "You say that after swipin' those claws at every single one. And that still don't hold a candle to what Zeno said she does every mornin'."
"Well, we've all got different talents. I can't weave traps like you. Anyway, you're still getting used to the whole 'adjustable-length knife-flail' thing."

Their conversation was interrupted by the nearest door into the building opening, and...a plastic bag floating out through it? Tora gave Sam a confused look, and she returned a shrug. The situation made a bit more sense when a blond-haired, orange-furred vixen followed that bag outside after a few seconds, holding her right hand up as if it was carrying an invisible weight. "Hey there!" she said, waving with her 'free' hand.

"Oh, it's one of the No Evil gals. Lift, right?" Tora said, heading over toward her. "Or do you prefer Lucy?" Sam followed while they continued talking.

"Either way." She offered out a hand, and Tora grabbed it.

"Pretty sweet to meet you in person. Maaan, I felt personally cheated when they announced your diagnosis on the news, and then just—nothing. So glad you stuck it out after all!"

Lift tilted her head slightly. "You mean you knew me from before? Whenever I mention I was training for the olympics, most people just stare like, 'whaaaaat?'"

"Yeah, well, I do follow that stuff a little more closely."

"Not to be rude, but—is there somethin' we owe your visit to, miss?" Sam asked.

"Oh, right! Yes, I've got a little bit of business with your boss. But also—" she waved her right hand around a bit, and the bag floated up to right in front of Sam, where she could see some dark gray cloth inside. "—I thought I'd go on and make a little delivery along the way. That's for you!"

"Alright." Reaching inside and picking it up, Sam was faced with a similarly-designed t-shirt to the one Lift was wearing. This one's front had a 'footprint' kind of symbol with the usual red-circle-with-a-line-through-it over it, and the back said "Tread no Evil". It looked to be exactly her size.

"Don't feel like you have to wear it, but Void was dead-set on this 'honorary member' business. Not that I disagree." Lift said this while casually floating the now-empty bag back to herself.
"Well, I think I'll wear it at least once just out of appreciation," Sam said, slinging the shirt across her shoulder for now. "Thank you kindly. You sure got it made quick."
"I know a guy; printing a pattern on an already-made shirt isn't all that hard. So, going the other way, if you want spares we can do that too."

"I'll think on it.

"Say—you ever feel guilty?"
"Uh, about what?"
"Plenty of folks in the same position you were. Most of 'em didn't get...fixed, you could say."

Lucy's expression turned a little severe. "I don't have time for guilt. I'm too busy trying to help folks in that 'position'. You know, as a side gig next to fighting monsters."

"Pardon," Sam said, "Didn't mean to offend you."

"Oh, don't take me the wrong way. I know what you mean; some of our 'proper' members have dealt with similar feelings. But I've always had this belief, you know: Whatever life hands you, whether it's good or bad—wherever it comes from, for whatever reason—you use it to the fullest. So we won the Giver's dumb 'lottery' and got back our 'missing pieces', and other people didn't—so what? I used what little fame I had back then to encourage people to fund research into a cure for my condition, and I'm doing the same thing now that that fame's a lot bigger. Folks with several kinds of disabilities had less of a voice before our team formed than they do now. So if you feel bad about 'getting lucky', why not give what you can to make it so what you got isn't up to 'luck' anymore at all?"
Sam nodded. "I see what you're saying. Thanks."
Lift smiled again. "Yeah, no problem. Anyway, I really shouldn't keep a busy man like Rowan waiting, so—take care!" She turned on her heel with a gentle wave and headed straight back toward the door, raising a hand to make the door open itself for her on her way back inside.

"Yeah, so—that?" Tora said with a slight gesture toward the door. "That is why I was hoping to see that woman win the gold in gymnastics."

"You think they'll let vixens enter?"

"Hmm...I feel like 'performance-enhancing magic' is a real concern there. Maybe we'll have to have our own classification."

---

Simon sat on the opposite side of the couch from Cynthia; Dawn had taken up residence on a chair as far as possible from her, and Warp chose to remain standing. He set his phone down on the coffee table in front of him after answering the call and putting it on speakerphone. "Heeey! Okay, everyone able to hear me alright?" That was...Serra's voice, Cynthia worked out after a moment. A bunch of other voices chimed in afterward, too many to distinguish much of what any of them was saying.

"We're good on this end, too," Simon said, just when they had quieted enough for him to be understood.

"Okay—so. Nearly everyone who came back to life is in on this call. We've got a few holdouts still, but anyway. For one thing, I think we oughta have some kind of pithy, one-word name for ourselves. Not exactly an original idea—people online and on the news have used a bunch of different names, and it's only a matter of time before they agree on something we don't like. Unless, y'know, we tell them one we do."

"Well, I don't like 'former puppets'," said..that was Dr. Quinn, wasn't it? First name Rory. "For one thing, I wasn't one, and for another, it casts us as some kind of victims. We're better than that, and deserve better than that."

"Agreed, yeah," Serra said, alongside maybe three or four other voices giving similar assent at the same time. "Guess 'amnesiacs' is out too, for similar reasons. So like..'the comeback crew'?"

"That sounds really lame." Cynthia wasn't sure who'd said that.

"Well, I'm just spitballing here! You got any better ideas, Braille?"

"We were basically resurrected, right? So..?"

"Too many syllables!" That one...Cynthia didn't quite recognize either. "Hard to say without tripping over it." But whoever it was had a moderately strong accent...Asian of some sort...?

"We've been 'Reborn', then," Warp said. "That pithy enough for you?" She mostly seemed motivated by irritation at this topic and a desire to put an end to it as quickly as possible. But some scattered chatter that followed seemed to be mostly in favor of this nickname.

"I guess that'll do, for now at least," Serra concluded.

"This conversation had another point, didn't it? Some sort of good news?" Warp pressed.

"Oh, yeah—well I mean. It's more just—wanting to keep up with you all. But there's definitely some good news to go around—like how we all made it through yesterday's monster battles, and how far along we are with memory recovery...plus one other thing I can share, and I'm sure at least a couple of others of you guys can too."

Warp said: "Which is?"

"Well, I know Doc Quinn was the first, but some more of us have managed to get our human forms back! Me included."
"Yeah, me too," Braille pitched in. "Get this—I was born without sight, hence my whole name and theming...but even though this 'new' human form looks and feels just the same as it ever did—I mean, I have to take other people's word on it looking the same, but—I digress, I guess. Point is—I can see now. So I guess, 'rebuilding our bodies' or whatever, kinda fixed whatever was 'wrong' before."

"Well that's great news!" Serra said, then backpedaled slightly: "Right? Uh, I mean guess I don't know whether you wanted to be able to see or not necessarily, but..."

"No, it's pretty nice, actually. This form has an extra sense that adds on to normal sight into an annoying sensory overload, so having a body without that, but with working eyes, is great."

"I probably could, if I wanted," Warp said. "Not interested, though."
"You're not?"

"You remember what I said about my background? A clean break from my 'old self' is what I wanted in the first place. Rather not go back to where I could get...recognized," she said.

"I guess I can appreciate that," Braille said. "But, uh, weren't you also a guy before? Isn't that part at least kinda weird?"
Warp just returned a noncommital "Eh" alongside a shrug.

"I am not so far along," the one with the accent said. "Eeto...Kagee-Shibai here. I have some of my memories back, enough to identify...I am actually a teacher of English. So, it is a little embarrassing that I could not speak it before. But, may explain why I could understand it. I am still some way from feeling confident to, teach again."

"Yeah, I feel that," Rory said. "I think I've remembered or re-learend up to maybe a master's degree in my subject, so still got doctorate, post-doc, and actual professorship to go..."

"We get it, you're a genius," Serra said with some friendly sarcasm. "As for me—I'm mostly there memory-wise, in a certain sense. For me it's been almost entirely in backwards chronlogical order, so I remember most of my adult life now but not being a teenager or a kid. Kinda weird."

Cynthia spoke up for the first time: "I dunno, if remembering our past was all that great. But Dawn an' me did it anyway."

"I'm sure it wasn't pleasant, but it's better than not knowing," Rory said, her tone one of reassuring certainty.

"Yeah, you seemed pretty suspicious of basically everyone at first. 'Cept for Dawn," Serra pointed out. "You feeling a little better now?"
"I dunno. I guess I know why I wasn't feeling too trusting, but that don't make me feel a whole lot better."

"We've been hurt. All our lives," Dawn said, kind of suddenly. "Ain't no good to just bury it. Hurts bad to dig it up, but I think we had to. Can't get better without knowin' you're sick."

"It at least increases the difficulty of treatment an awful lot," Rory agreed.

"You have dealt with...more than is fair," Kagee-Shibai added. "Take your time to process. I would say, if we were not forced to fight."

"Hey now—they don't have to," Simon interjected. "Both of them continue to insist, is all."

"Eeto..sorry. I do not mean individually, but 'we' as...everyone, must fight."

"Right," Cynthia said.

"So—did you two get human forms back?" Serra asked, returning to the start of the conversation. "Just out of curiosity."

"Uh...we ain't tried, actually. In a while."

"Can't remember doin' it even once, really," Dawn said. "Guess it didn't occur to me."
"Me either."

Rory said: "Well, it's fine if you don't want to like Warp, but otherwise—why not give it a shot?"

Several of the others on the call agreed with this, using words like 'yeah' and 'go for it!'.

"Uh, you mean, right now?" Cynthia said.
"No better time than the present!" Serra answered first. "But like, no pressure or anything if you don't feel like it."

"No, I guess it's fine..."

How did that weird phrase go again? Cynthia hadn't actually said it since 'coming back to life'. But, she was able to remember: The house on fire all around her, and the pain of the night before. And right in between the two, when she had finally slept, being taught something. Which had then led to...that fire. She took a brief, sharp breath, remembering the way Donny had looked. Like she thought she'd helped—had done her a favor, by killing him.

The phrase came out easily enough, thinking about that. And it was successful in turning her back to 'normal'. She looked down at herself, and around briefly, before noticing a few tears coming out of her eyes and wiping them on a hand.

"Uh...guess it worked. Donny?"

"I dunno if uh.."
"What? You afraid to try for some reason? It worked for me."

"It's just uh..you know, before I got killed and all. My 'human form' was dyin'. You remember how I was always tired or hurtin'? They found out it was, pretty bad cancer..."

"You got rocks in your ears or somethin'? The Giver or wheover prolly fixed that, like Braille's eyes. Just do it!"

"Okay, okay.."

With that, Dawn spoke her phrase, seeming to remember it much more easily than Cynthia had. And, in a flash of blue light, she shifted back into Donald Keller—Donny. He looked...well-rested, for the first time Cynthia could remember. Not quite as gaunt, either, like he'd actually been eating properly. It wasn't too bad of a look.

Besides that, he had a nervous expression on at first, but paused, taking a deep breath, and then laughed. "H..hahah...I don't hurt. I can't remember the last time, like this, I didn't hurt. Hahaha!"

It was also, possibly, the first time in a long while that he'd actually smiled, or laughed. And it was quite real, even if it was tinged with some tears. Cynthia had...sorely missed the sight of that expression on his face.

---

Mid-explanation, Lucy suddenly interrupted herself: "...aaannd I can tell by your expression the answer's no. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed."

Rowan, sitting across from her, sighed. "Look, it's not like I don't understand what you want, and I agree with your goals, at least in spirit. But..there are a lot of problems."

"Okay, name one."

"Well first of all, it wouldn't even be my decision. You do realize I'm not in charge here, right?"

"It sure seems like you are! Literally everyone I've talked to around here calls you 'boss'."

"That's a nickname, coined specifically because I don't like it. I'm a public-facing figurehead, alright? My job is in recruitment, tactics, deployment, and...diplomacy. And that last one was not in my original contract, and I still feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark with it. The bottom line is that a large-scale organizational decision like this isn't mine to make. I'd be happy to pass your suggestion up the chain of command, along with my own positive opinion of at least the end goal."

"Uh-huh, so do that then. Or get me in touch with the decision-maker himself! But you said 'first of all', too, didn't ya?"

"Right. There are practical considerations. At this very moment, the entirety of the VI's research department, as well as most of the staffers sworn-in enough to help, are busy producing and packing up masks and other similar items to be sent throughout the world, just to give humanity as a whole a slight additional edge against our common enemy. Our 'quality control' consists of one person who can tell by looking whether or not they'll work; the only other reliable test we have is putting it on someone, which uses it up. So even if I had the authority to, what would I tell them? 'Just make a billion more, please'?"

"The VI has some notoriously deep pockets behind it, and has started turning a profit in under a month. You can hire more people."

"That has the small problem of making sure every single person is trustworthy and passes a background check, but also, again: One person. Looking at every mask. A thousand is likely to make her vision blurry. I'm not that good with numbers, Lucy, but I think the quality of her work might slip a little bit if we multiply that by an extra million? That's not even the worst objection I have, anyway."

"Okay, hit me with it."

"The VI and our partner organizations are not giving out these items to just anyone and everyone. We want people who are likely to use the power they grant for good—or, least, not for evil. What you're asking would give out powers to an essentially random population. Do you not remember how things went when the Giver did exactly that, barely a few weeks ago?"

"The world's a different place now! Plenty of more powerful people to keep them in check, right?"
"Alongside trying to defend our world from shadow monsters..."

"We can't expect to restrict who 'gets to have magic' forever, Rowan. I think within a decade—strike that, a year at this rate—having your own personal powerset will be more common than having a smartphone."

"Then what are we arguing about? You just want it done sooner?"
She leaned up and forward, halfway standing in the process and placing her hands on the desk between them to support herself—winding up looming over him. "I want to guarantee alternate forms. Healthy ones. Before the way things work shift, and the 'common' way of getting magic doesn't do that anymore!" This came with a dramatic waving-forward of her hands, then a slump back into the chair behind her. "And, you know, maybe people who are probably gonna die before that happens. Could use the help now-ish."

"Look—we don't even know how 'healthy' these alternate forms really are," Rowan said. "How much, in terms of injuries and other problems, really carries over from the 'original self' to the new one. Or whether there could be any long-term side effects. If a pharm company shoved out a 'cure' for ALS without enough testing, and then it killed people or gave them seizures for the rest of their lives or something..."
"Yeah, I'd want the execs to face a firing squad. But—this is magic we're talking about," she said, spreading her arms wide. "Not some drug."
"Going by everything I've heard the research department folks saying, that makes it more unpredictable, not less."

She exhaled a slight sigh. "I think you and I are just gonna disagree about this one forever. So, fine. Anything else?"

"There...is the fact that around, I think, eighty percent of men who use these masks gain female alternate forms? And women who use them only very rarely go the other way. I guess that isn't the worst thing, but it might have some kind of meaningful effect on entire populations if we use them in the numbers you're talking about."

"Pfft."
Rowan sighed slightly. "I'll admit, that one's pretty weak. But since you asked." His mentioning that seemed to have calmed the temper of the room somewhat; it was something they more or less could agree on.

"Look," he said, "I'll pass it up. Mention the obvious arguments about how much good it could do. Bring up my own reservations, if they want my opinion. It's all I could do anyway. I just, want you to temper your expectations a little."
"Aah, you don't have to worry about my expectations," Lucy said. "I'm just the kind of gal who thinks anything, however unlikely, is worth trying if it might help people."

"Fair enough.

"While you're here, mabye we can also talk a little bit about tactics? Make arrangements for mutual support tomorrow? Something I do have some experience with and authority over—if you don't mind helping me feel a little more useful?"
"Sure, alright," she said with a nod. "Might put me in a better mood for the drive home, at least."

Lucy thought: And yet this guy doesn't think he's any good at diplomacy...

---

Clark had, of course, been on hand to listen in on Rory's phone conversation with the others who'd come back to life. He just didn't feel it was his place to actually participate in the conversation. Considering that Simon of all people was on another end, and yet also mangaed to be relatively quiet, he felt pretty content that this was the right decision. He could comment as much as he wanted to once she hung up.

"So...the 'Reborn', huh?"
"Yep!" Rory said. "I'm glad we could all make that happen, however it did." She flopped over toward his side of the couch to pull herself over him in a hug. "I'm proud of you, by the way—did I ever tell you that? Not too many people would give up godlike powers just to bring some strangers plus one loved one back to life."

"That was..hardly even a decision," he said. "I would have given up anything and everything I ever had before that point, to get just you back."
"Awwh." His wife punctuated this with a long, impassioned kiss, before finally getting off of him again and hopping onto her feet, stepping a short way away from the couch.
"Not that I minded helping everyone else. It's just..."

"Are you still feeling bad about killing that woman?" she said.
"I really can't help it. Taking another person's life..."
"Okay, listen." she turned around. "You shouldn't feel that responsible. You reacted, more than acted. Right?"
"I suppose...but it's not as if that absolves me of responsibility. Someone died all the same."
"So you need someone to blame? What about me?" she said, gesturing to herself.

"You? She killed you."

Rory sighed. "Look—I didn't really want to bring this up, buuut. Once I started getting more of my memory back, and feeling more like myself again...I'm not really sure whether I 'remembered' or 'realized', to be honest. But I do think I understand what I was thinking when all that went down. Before the fight, when we were making plans and everything. You must know, I wouldn't make a plan that risked my life if I didn't really want to accomplish something—and didn't feel confident that I would."

"...Okay. So, what did you want to accomplish?"

"I think Light wanted revenge, and Rowan probably wanted justice. You, like poor Emma, just wanted to protect everyone. But I wasn't thinking in moral terms like that. It's simple pragmatism: A mad dog has to be put down. Because it's hurting itself, and it's hurting everyone else, and it can't be made to stop in any other way."

Clark just stared up at her quietly for a second or two. She spread out her hands. "Think about it! Tobias had some ridiculous delusion of becoming powerful enough to protect the world, all by herself. She was willing to knowingly, intentionally, hurt our current chances of survival for that. She was already at least as powerful as Espadas, which is apparently enough to keep a whole country safe alone! What more did she want? My invincibility? Why, when she could already fight very effectively from as far away from the danger as she wanted?! And after that, then what? No, she wasn't going to stop unless someone stopped her. And, I'm not optimistic enough—I guess you could say, I don't have Blake's faith in other people enough—to imagine that someone 'capturing' and 'owning' her could ever really 'redeem' that deluded person. She'd tear down the whole world if we let her. Allowing her to win wasn't an option. Letting her get away wasn't an option.

"I think—and it's not like I remember doing this, but it's the only logical conclusion, the only way things could have wound up the way they did—I must have weighed the cost, and decided that my life, and making you do the killing, was worth it, to guarantee our success. She wanted me, so I was the bait. And I knew you loved me enough to really hate anyone who hurt or especially killed me—maybe not for long, given your kind and caring nature...but long enough. So, once I felt like things were going south—like nobody else who really wanted to was gonna get to her in time before she killed someone important or got antsy and ran away—I put that plan into action.

"So, you know." Rory shrugged. "If you need to feel like someone's responsible for her death, how 'bout me? I pretty much used her, used you, and maybe used everyone else—definitely Light, at least—to make sure that she died right then, and right there. That's what they call 'premeditated', isn't it?"

He thought about it for a moment, then sighed, standing up. "You don't sound like you feel at all guilty about it."
"That's because I don't. On reflection, it seems just as necessary to me now as it would ever have to, to convince me to go through with it."
Clark took a couple of slow steps his wife's way. "And you are quite a stubborn person. I suppose, then...this is a 'greater good' situation. I definitely couldn't have made a decision like that myself. So, forcing me into it—maybe you were thinking about me, too."

"What, like I wanted to keep you from feeling guilty? Great job I did of that—if I hadn't 'come back' and explained all that to you, you'd probably never figure it out!"

He reached her, and pulled her into another hug. "Well, I appreciate it all the same. If that was the worst-thought-out part of your plan, then...you're pretty good at planning."

"Pffhaha! Just 'pretty good!?"

---

So, Lucy kind of barged her way into this episode unexpectedly. I thought first that it'd be nice to have a scene of Sam receiving the shirt, but then it probably wouldn't arrive so quickly if it was shipped, so someone should bring it in person...but then Lucy wouldn't come visit just to deliver the shirt, and the idea of what her actual business was became kind of obvious when thinking about the 'theme' of this particular episode overall. I think she's a good person, but also kind of intense, which results in her also being overall fairly abrasive.

I'm also dropping some subtle hints here about something by having the Quinns' scenes bookending this particular episode, by the way...but that 'something' will take a while in-universe to be important. So, I guess, see you in like 50 episodes for that?

Battle Vixens! - 139

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---

Episode 139: Needle and Thread

"Why aren't you driving? You're the one who likes driving."

"Yeah, but I had my fun last night. Anywho, it might turn a few heads to see a catgirl in the driver's seat."

"You can't just, like, turn back?"

"..Nah. I ain't comfortable giving away my identity just yet. Speakin' of which—Thalia. Let's try that with the VI guys for now, huh?"

"Well uh..sure, fine, I guess. But—you really think a catgirl in the passenger seat is any less weird?"

'Thalia' shrugged. "You got tinted windows."

One drive later, they pulled up and walked inside. Thad was right about turning heads: Even with a raincoat hood pulled up over her head to hide the ears, some of the 'research department' people paused at the sight of someone who clearly had a slim, feline tail coming from her back, never mind the fact her folded-down ears made a pair of obvious lumps in the hood's material. Maybe she wasn't wearing it to hide her looks at all in the first place; the light drizzle they walked through to get to the door would've been enough to dampen her fur. Marcus at least knew how inconvenient that could be.

Dr. Bridges greeted them once they arrived at the appropriate office. "Hello again, Marcus. And—this is the person you wanted to introduce?"
"Yeah," he nodded while she pulled the hood off. "This is uh.." What was that name again? His brain just kept saying 'Thad' still.

"Thalia. Nice to meet ya, doc." She offered him a hand, and he shook it graciously.

"Likewise. Now—I don't want to be rude, but we don't have a lot of time here, so let's get to it. You brought the mask the Giver gave you?"
"Yeah, here." She pulled it out and waved it in front of him. "But—hope you'll get it if I don't want to hand it over. Only way I know how to change back."

"Sure, sure—hm." He leaned forward to examine it for a moment, then quietly nodded.

"It's—well, I should say it was, one of ours. We were under the impression it wasn't functional, but either it was after all, or she 'fixed' it. Regardless, it would be of no use to us now, and I'd have no intention of demanding it back anyway. Now—" He made a 'follow me' gesture, and led the way into an adjacent room, where a familiar, short vixen was waiting with her arms crossed and her face fixed in a bit of an impatient glare.

"This is Hephaestus; her unique powerset has her working with us for the moment. You brought the knives you said you enchanted before?" Dr. Bridges had misunderstood what Marcus said over the phone and asked them to bring 'both knives', so Thad had simply grabbed another of their (then-normal) butter knives and enchanted it to be like Magus's sword in barely any time at all.

"Yeah! Here," Marcus said, hurrying to get them out of his pocket and offer them to him. The fox-girl snatched them from him instead, and Thalia gave her a bit of a look.

"You'll get them back," she said curtly, holding one of them up in front of her face. Her eyes glowed a little bit brighter for a moment. "...Complicated. How did you make this?"

"I dunno, I just—tried to make it like Magus's sword, I guess?" Marcus hadn't really known which knife was which, but the catgirl and the foxgirl could both apparently tell at a glance.
Not really seeming to listen to the catgirl's response, Heph moved on to staring at the other one in the same way. "This one...barely has anything to it." She 'clicked' it on, its glow just barely visible under the room's overhead lights. "And yet it's functional." Turning it 'off' again, she thrust both back Marcus's way. So he took them back and pocketed them again.

"Not like my dude would lie about that," Thalia said.

Heph and Dr. Bridges briefly looked at each other, seeming to nonverbally communicate something. Then she undid the mask hanging off the side of her face, and held it out in front of the catgirl. "..This mask. Do you see anything in it?"
"'See'? I mean, it's cute and all, I guess..?"
"Like Magus' sword?" she said impatiently.
"Huh? Uh, no—it just feels, normal I guess? Like...there's nothing even tangled there."

"'Tangled'," she repeated flatly.
"People's powers are often quite individualized," Dr. Bridges said gently, turning and hurrying toward a nearby desk, rifling through a pile of objects. "So you two might perceive magic very differently, which may give you each a unique kind of insight into it. Here—is this what you'd call 'tangled'?" he asked, coming over and offering the catgirl a different-looking mask. This one she regarded with obvious interest, narrowing her eyes a bit and reaching out to take it and look more closely—which he gladly let her do.

"Uuh..dude, I dunno what to say. It's like..kinda..wound up. You know, how a spring is?"

Heph said: "Meaning?"

"Meaning—if I just, pull one thing, it'll snap back to..'normal', I guess? About right..here," she said, pointing at a spot close to the fox mask's forehead.

Dr. Bridges exchanged another brief, meaningful glance with the fox-girl. "Do you suppose you'd be able to..recreate that?" he asked, taking the mask back from her when she offered it his way. "With a 'normal' item, such as Heph's mask. Or a ring, or glove?"
"I mean...I dunno? It's pretty complicated. Feels like it'd be real tough to make something like this without it, uh, snapping back apart halfway through. I'd need like, five hands to hold it all."

"Could you alter a piece of paper that way? Provided the extra hands," Heph clarified.
"Hmm...nah? I don't think that'd work. Like, how do you even wear a piece of paper?"

"As a hat?" Magus interjected. "Like, folded up?"
Thalia seemed to take a moment to really consider that, then gently shook her head. "..No way. I still couldn't make it work."

"What else can you do, then?" Heph said. "You were able to recreate the effect of Magus's weapon. What about mine?" With this, she produced her own pair of swords. The catgirl squinted at them for a long moment.
"Uh...maybe? I'd need something super sharp to be able to, do that."
"Do you understand what they're capable of by looking at them?"
"Yeah, they like..cut stuff to make a path."
"They're swords," Marcus said.
"No—I don't mean like, paper or wood. I mean stuff," she said, gesturing emphatically yet incoherently.

"They indeed allow the temporary construction of portals between distant locations," Heph said, dismissing the blades again. "Testing has suggested a limit of no less than fifteen meters, but line-of-sight is necessary for accurate targeting. But—you claim that, given two similar, ordinary swords, you could enable them to achieve the same result?"
"I mean—man, I can't know that unless I tried. But, I'm sayin', to even try I'd need something like that to begin with. Magus's sword isn't as hard to copy, 'cause she kinda does all the work, you know?"

Dr. Bridges nodded, a satisfied sort of expression on his face. "It's a conduit for channeling magic, as opposed to needing to hold magic of its own. But you are able to give an object magic of its own—like that other knife. Do you think you could, say, enchant a ring so its wearer is stronger? Or faster?"

Thalia shrugged uncertainly. "Never done anything like that before, so I don't really know what it's supposed to feel like."
"Let's talk practicality," Heph said. "The armor developed for vixens so far has shown insufficient effectiveness in actual combat situations. Some," (the way she emphasized this word and paused seemed to imply that she had someone specific in mind—maybe even someone in earshot?) "have already ceased using theirs, deeming the protection not worth the loss of mobility. Perhaps you could attempt to enhance the durability of such armor, or else at least make it less of a burden to carry?"
"Uh—yeah, I guess that makes sense. Would be pretty sweet if it worked," she said.

Hephaestus nodded. "We happen to have a set here, 'donated' by a vixen after it was damaged in combat. Not mine—I am a non-combatant. I want to see you try."

Thalia glanced at Marcus, who gave a very exaggerated 'go for it!' gesture. Then she shrugged. "Alright. Fair warning, though, it took me a couple minutes just to get the knife to light up last night..."

---

Amory knew full well: Emma was the kind of person who, in a setting with others more eager to talk than her, preferred to stay quiet. For a while, he and April held a conversation without very much comment from her. However, April seemed to know this too—and, apparently tired of her younger sister's silence, eventually started trying to pull her into the conversation. About the third time this happened, Amory decided to try and help.

"Um, yeah, it's weird how..not-confusing it is. Like, I'm here and I'm over there, I can see myself from outside on both sides, but it just feels...normal? And, concentrating on doing two things at once is really easy somehow." All it really took was a gentle prompt from him for April to ask what the experience of having Emma's powers was like. "Um...o-one of the first things I did was...this is kinda dumb, but I played a game together, alone?" She was clearly still a little nervous about being the center of attention, even as one of only three people, but was holding up reasonably well.

"What about food?" April asked. "What's it like to taste two things at once?"
"Uh—pretty awful, actually. Or, at least, weird enough to not be pleasant. I guess if it was two of the same thing it wouldn't be so bad, but different stuff is still like having all of it in one mouth at the same time."

"Yet, you'd be able to hold two independent conversations. Or watch two movies at once?"
"Yes, and—probably? I mean, I've actually done that first one, and I can definitely read while doing something else. I-I guess it is weird that taste isn't like that, now that I think about it..."

While Emma continued on, April gave Amory a brief, appreciative smile. So, it seemed like his first 'meet the family' test was going pretty well.

---

"Hmm.." Thalia leaned over the recently-repaired armor sitting on the table for a moment, took a couple of steps to this side and that to view it from different angles.

Dr. Brand—or rather 'Hephaestus'—watched impatiently. Eventually, the feline girl actually put her hands out to just a few inches above it and got to work.

To someone with 'ordinary' vision, it seemed like she was pantomiming the process of pulling and moving around some thread, which matched the ideas of 'tangling' and 'winding up' she'd expressed earlier. But Heph's eyes could pick up the kind of faint glow she perceived from all magic appearing, then slowly rearranging itself and changing hue as she worked. For at least thirty seconds, the changes seemed undirected, and no sooner would she let go of a 'part' of what she was working on than its glow would fade to nothing. After a while, she 'let go', standing up straight and taking in and out a brief sigh, clearly wanting a break.

"Hey, quick question. This thing Zeno's?"

It was a good thing that Dr. Brand was reasonably practiced at not overreacting. "I don't know," she lied, and then said: "Why do you ask?"

"Uh, I dunno, it's just like—her powers are all like: light walls, shooting arrows, and stuff? Something just feels, kinda like that?" That didn't make any sense—the armor was demonstrably unenchanted, and nothing magical had even been done to it before; there should be nothing to feel. But then Thalia added: "Anyway, it's the right size, isn't it?"

Heph nodded. "I suppose so."

While the catgirl went back to work, she thought: The right size...of course! There actually was one bit of magic done to the armor, which was usually done to any 'natural' vixen's armor. Just as with ordinary clothing, they could use a certain part of their keyphrase to resize it into something that fit their bodies. This was a somewhat understudied part of their powers, considering it was something they all had in common..but even to Dr. Brand's enhanced perception, it left no trace of magic on the affected item. Then again...they could also return clothes to their original appearance. Which implied that 'altered' clothes somehow 'remembered' how they previously looked. It could be some kind of trace too small to register to her sight, or something residual...

Meanwhile, Thalia seemed to be having a little more success. Standing up straight again, she said, "Okay uh...I think this oughta be a little harder to tear up now? I dunno how to be sure without, like, testing it or something."
Looking closely, Hephaestus could see that something had actually taken. Similar to the glowing knife, the effect seemed relatively simple; in this case it was just 'do what you're supposed to do, but better'. But an enchantment like that could apply to just about anything, with varying effects...

"I believe it was successful. Could you recreate that on a different object?"
"I guess? Prolly a little quicker, too, since I've done it once."

Looking around quickly, Heph settled on a nearby coffee cup, going to pick it up and hand it over. "Try this."
"Um...okay?"

With only a brief bit of effort, Thalia was able to recreate the same effect. She said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's annoying to lose a cup, but you ain't got anything more important around here to fortify?"
"This is an experiment," Dr. Brand informed her bluntly, taking the cup back. "What would you say is a cup's primary task?"
"Uh..holding your drink? Hot stuff, in that mug's case?"

"Precisely." She headed out into the hallway for the nearest source of water—a fountain next to the bathrooms. Thalia followed her after a brief, confused pause.

There was no obvious difference while filling the cup—it couldn't hold more water, and its enchantment didn't appear to be doing anything. So Heph tried shaking the cup around a little bit. The effect was subtle, but the water at the very top seemed to have just slightly more surface tension, enough to hold it together so that less of it spilled out than expected. Heph's own vision was able to verify two things: The enchantment was now doing something, and it was, ever so slightly, fading from the 'effort'. She turned the cup upside down over the fountain, and it dumped its contents out into the drain without any interference from its enchantment. Naturally, drinking from or intentionally pouring out the contents of a cup were parts of its function...

"Was there uh...a point to all that?" Evidently, Thalia hadn't noticed anything special happening.

"The effect you've created is more general than 'toughening'," she said. "My hypothesis is that any object's usual use can be enhanced by it, if only slightly. However, the effect will wear out over time, and especially with actual use. Requiring further effort to maintain or reapply."

By this point, Dr. Bridges had caught up with the two of them, with Marcus also in tow. He concluded aloud: "So, incredibly useful, and that's only one of many kinds of enchantments you must be capable of! But, sadly, not very practical to try to have you enchant everyone's armor if you're just going to have to do it all over again as soon as they've been in one fight."

"Correct," Heph agreed, punctuating this with a slight sigh. "If you are willing to work with us, we will have to think of more efficient uses of your abilities. But it is probably better that you develop them on your own for now—as we are quite busy ourselves, for the moment."

"I...can't quite disagree," Ezekiel said. "As disappointed as I am we can't play around with enchantments all day. Maybe things will quiet down enough to properly experiment with this after tomorrow."
"One can only hope," Heph said.

With that, they were out of time for this particular meeting. Ezekiel began politely ushering them out, saying to Thalia: "Please, if you don't mind—have Marcus share the 'in-house' version of the VI app with you. It's a bit more secure than normal texts and calls, I'm told. So we can contact you that way, or vise versa, if you have any insights you'd particularly like to share."

"Yeah, alright."

---

After a reasonably long time talking, everyone ordered lunch. Amory was the last to finish his lunch, around the time April received and paid the bill. After someone came and cleared the empty plates and cups off the table, Amory said, "So, I've got a kinda weird question for you. Just something I'm curious about."

"What would that be?"
"It's, uuh..hm. Well, I don't mean it's bad or that I dislike it, but you've got a..unique way of talking? I guess?"
"Ah, well. I would hardly expect that to escape your notice," she said, nodding.

"But Emma doesn't talk that way, so I'm sure it's not like a, family or regional thing? So, I'm just curious whether there is a reason."

April nodded cheerfully. "I appreciate your interest—I don't get too many opportunities to say. Old movies, my dear."
"Old movies?"

"Very old ones, these days. When I was younger, I used to watch them all the time. Not that I don't still, but my free time is stretched rather thinner these days. I always adored the picture of opulence and order they depicted—the fashions, the sense of politeness and propriety. It always seemed to me a world of picturesque, pristine beauty, where most conflicts are resolved through wit and conversation, and only the nastiest of villains dare threaten to hurt others—only to be foiled not long afterward.

"Of course I grew up and learned that it all was a false veneer hiding no less ugliness than lies in our modern world, but the 'ideal' of it all has always stuck with me: If only the world could truly be so kind and just. And so...adopting a somewhat old-fashioned manner of speech based upon them has always helped me stand out a bit, and somehow I usually manage to make that a positive. You would think it'd be hard to keep it up, but for me the years of practice have made it a habit more difficult to break than to maintain. Not to mention, of course, that regularly taking inspiration from what many might call 'ancient' dress for my designs lends them a kind of timelessness...or at least I certainly hope so, and some of my clients appear to agree."

At this point, a slight rhythmic buzzing sound came from her purse: Her phone, on vibrate, giving some kind of notifiaction. She retrieved it for a brief glance and put it back in again, saying: "Oh, dear, just look at the time. This has been a wonderful chat, but if I don't head off in the next few minutes, I'll be late for that meeting."

The three of them got up and went back to the apartment complex together, talking a little more along the way. Once they arrived and it was time to separate, April grabbed her sister in a big, tight hug—which Emma evidently didn't mind, since she returned it with a big smile. "You be careful, love. Don't forget you have seven more people to introduce your beau to."

"I won't."

After the hug, she turned toward Amory. "As for you—treat her well. Not that I doubt you shall."
"Uh, well, I'll do my best," he said.

"That's all anyone really can ask. Ring me if you two need any advice—although, perhaps, our married siblings and in-laws will have the benefit of experience if that's what's needed."

Amory waved for a moment, watching her go. Once she had turned a corner out of sight, Emma said: "So..what'd you think of her?"
"She's really nice. I get what you meant about her being 'cool'—like she knows who she wants to be and is that person, regardless of what anyone else thinks. But—don't take this the wrong way—she's also a little weird."
"Um...try to get used to that. Most of them are. Carrie's the uh...normal one."

"What, not you?"
Emma gave him a brief, are you serious!?, kind of look. "You've met me."