I am SO excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the Kammiverse! I, of course, give credit to QuietValerie and Trashlyn for creating such an awesome universe! And this chapter was proofread by the equally awesome Trismegistus Shandy! I hope that you enjoy it! (In addition to posting it here on Royal Road, I have posted this story on SoFurry.com under the name Shadow Lion, on Fictionpress.com under Elite Shade, and on TGStorytime.com under the name Shadow Dragon.)

A Bunnerfly in the Desert - A Kammiverse Story (Chapter 1)

by

Shadow Bunny Dragon

Las Vegas. America's Playground. The kind of place people flock to in droves every year, drawn in by the glamour. The bright lights blinding them to the uglier truth all around them. The day-to-day truths that the working class people who live there year round are all too familiar with. People like Brittney Adams, who was just waking up to the sound of her blaring alarm clock.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-EEP, BEEP-EEP

"C'mon," she murmured as she fumbled around for the obnoxious device on her bedside table. Her head was underneath a pillow, attempting to drown out the incessant beeping, thus muffling several obscenities she muttered before finally finding it with her extended appendage, silencing the noise. The clock had done its job, however, as Brittney was now up for the day. With a groan, she crawled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She paused and looked at her reflection in the mirror. What she saw was a stretching anthropomorphic grey bunny girl, wearing a white t-shirt with a flaming skull on it, and a pair of giant emerald green butterfly wings on her back, flapping a little, looking back at her. She was just a little over five feet, and weighed around one hundred and ten pounds. Looking at her reflection sparked a memory of when she had been a six foot eight, two hundred and ten pound hulking figure of a man. Back before she had become one of the Emerged.

Brittney shook her head to dispel the memories, not having any time to waste reminiscing. She took one last look at her reflection, the bright amethyst eyes staring back at her from the bunny face, her pink nose twitching as her long ears brushed against the ceiling, before she reached back over her wings to undo the zipper on the back of her modified shirt, and stripped to hop into the shower. She had very quickly found that the best way to clean her fur, which encompassed her entire body, not including her wings; was to use two-in-one body wash/shampoo. She scrubbed as she let the water run over her. Her fur was mostly grey, but her belly and chest and chin were all white, just like her cottontail.

She rinsed off after finishing by gently scrubbing her wings with the wash cloth; the thin yet oddly strong membranous appendages felt rubbery to her hand-paws, but were thankfully quicker to dry than her fur was. Once dry, she then grabbed a brush to tackle the newfound fluffiness of her fur, another new aspect of her morning ritual that Brittney had long since learned to become accustomed to. She strode out back into her bedroom, rumpled pj's in hand to be deposited into the hamper, and started to get dressed.

Dressing in a pair of jeans, all that was left was the slipping on of a modified green t-shirt, doing up the buttons in the back, and buckling her sandals on. Her feet, while furry, were still largely the same, aside from being much more petite. But still, the fur made shoes somewhat uncomfortable after long periods of time, especially when the weather warmed up. And May weather in the Mojave Desert most certainly counted as being warm. Ready for the day, checking to make sure that she had her wallet and her name badge in her jean pockets, she made her way out the door. She grabbed her keys and checked that she had locked her apartment door before making her way downstairs and towards the sidewalk. As she started to head in the direction of the library, she passed by a chain link fence. A large German shepherd snarled and ran up, barking his head off, startling Brittney.

A few fellow pedestrians looked in her direction as she let out a yelp, and suddenly found herself hovering three feet off the ground, her wings fluttering. She blushed, having to concentrate for a moment to flutter back down to the ground, and kept on her way. In addition to her new appearance, the Emergence had also bestowed onto Brittney some abilities of her own. In this case, it was her levitation, which more often than not was an involuntary reaction whenever she was surprised, nervous, or in some rare cases, excited. Her ears, which were perked up, took in sounds and the mutterings of some people on the sidewalk across the street.

"More and more damn freaks showing up here every damn day," she heard a gruff voice say, which she tuned out. She had considered "fluttering" to work, but didn't really want to go through the hassle of getting the permit for it down at the DMV. It had been a massive headache just to get her license and other information updated after her transformation. As if on cue, she spotted Lustre, soaring up above on his usual patrol. After the Emergence happened, some of the more powerful Emerged, as they had come to be known, had taken it upon themselves to don the mantle of superhero, while some others became notorious as villains. Brittney looked up at the self-proclaimed hero, surrounded by his shining gold aura that trailed behind him as he flew, matching his gold spandex costume, and rolled her eyes. Eyes which did linger a little on the well-defined abs visible from the tight outfit.

I wonder how many people that idiot has put in the hospital this week? Brittney wondered. She vaguely remembered hearing about a lawsuit that had been filed against Lustre and the LVPD, whom he was known to work closely with. Checking her watch, Brittney started to walk at a much more brisk pace. She had to hurry if she wanted to stop and grab breakfast before her shift started. She had made it to the crosswalk when her sharp hearing started to pick up on a set of fast-approaching footsteps. She internally groaned as she recognized the heavy panting that was accompanying the footsteps of her friend Benjamin.

"Brittney!" he called out, from three feet away, wheezing a little. She winced a bit, but said nothing as the signal changed and she started to cross.

"What do you want, Ben?" Brittney asked, slightly irritated.

"Phew! I had to jog three blocks to get here before you left for work!" He wheezed some more, rubbing a stitch in his side. Brittney looked sidelong at her lanky friend. Ben was of Japanese descent, with short-cropped hair, and a nose that had been visibly broken once before. He looked at her, wiping away some sweat and smiling, a sparkle in his bright hazel eyes that brought a sense of dread to Brittney.

Oh god, please don't have another one of your idiot ideas, she thought.

"I came up with an awesome idea!" he said as he started to keep pace with her as they stepped onto the curb across the street. "We'll purchase some ad space!"

"Ben, why would I ever want to buy ad space?" Brittney asked what she knew was a rhetorical question at this point, but still asked anyway.

"Well, most of the other heroes in town are already pretty well known, and have more or less gotten the market cornered. So you just appearing on the scene, in costume, will probably not really go over too well. But if we get ad space, maybe some billboards or something in the newspapers, we can get started garnering you a reputation!"

"Ben," Brittney said with a sigh. Ben continued, not listening.

"I mean, it will really just be a foot in the door for you, because, y'know, what superhero goes around buying up ad space? Aside from Mr. Miraculous, I mean. But he's a healer, so that doesn't really count as a superhero," Ben said, speaking rapidly.

"Ben!" Brittney snapped at him, silencing his newest spiel, just in front of the convenience store that Brittney was hoping to grab her breakfast from. "No. The answer is no, okay?"

"Oh come on!" Ben whined, despite being twenty-one, sounding very much like the whiny teenager she had gone to school with. "Why not? Every time I come up with an idea, you always say no?"

"You mean aside from those ideas usually blowing up in your, and sometimes my, face? How about the tiny fact that I've told you before, I'm not going to be a superhero!"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Why don't you want to be one though? That is literally the most awesome job anyone can have now!"

Brittney sighed and stopped just outside the doors of the store, turning to face her friend. "Look, Ben. It sounds cool, but it's just not something that I have any interest in doing."

"But your potential, though! You can fly, you've got super hearing, plus that thing you can do with your shadow! You'd be great at it! And I'd be great as your manager!" Ben argued.

"Ben, it's my potential to do with as I please. And I do not want to be a superhero. Besides, waking up one day with powers doesn't mean that I'm automatically qualified to go around as a pseudo law-enforcement official!" Brittney said. "And it also doesn't qualify me to interfere with any other kind of emergency, like a fire for instance, since I'm not a trained professional!"

Ben looked a little disappointed as he turned away. He turned back, opening his mouth to speak, when he was cut off by a deep throaty voice.

"Excuse me?" Ben and Brittney both looked around confused, before they heard a throat being cleared, and thought to look up. Right there, looking down at them was Lustre himself, slowly descending, his golden aura fading. His tight gold costume was complete with golden boots and gloves and a shimmering gold cape, making him look like something out of a comic book. His perfectly tanned face, framed by honey-blonde locks, was frowning in disapproval.

"Woah, Lustre!" Ben excitedly whispered to Brittney, who herself was checking her watch, wishing she hadn't cut it so damn close this morning.

"Young lady, were you just disparaging my profession?" he asked. Brittney was a little caught off guard by this whole situation, as well as the fact that he called her a young lady when he seemed to be around the same age as her, and started to feel nervous.

Oh hell, she thought.

"Well, no. I was just explaining to my friend here that I don't want to be a superhero," she said, motioning to Ben, who was looking starstruck. Lustre took a moment to look her up and down.

"So instead you would choose to take the path of the villain?" he said, making Brittney facepalm on the inside.

"No! Look, I just want to keep going to school, go to work, get my degree, and just live as normal as a life as anyone can feasibly have. That's all! No hero or villain paths for me."

"That's funny. You know, you have heroes like myself to thank for the opportunity to live a normal life. We're the ones who clean up the streets, save lives, and generally make the world a safer place, no matter what some attorneys say." The last bit he mumbled under his breath.

"Safer place? What about that tour bus you flipped over last month?" a scratchy voice cut in. All three turned to find the notorious villain, Gatekeeper, exiting the store, holding a blue raspberry slush drink. He was a large black man with a shaved head and a goatee, wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and a pair of jean shorts. His sunglasses shifted as he looked over Brittney, and she could see the multicolored light shining from his eyes. There was a tattoo in the very center of his forehead of an eye that seemed to blink on its own.

"Gatekeeper," Lustre said, his voice filled with malice, "and so we meet again. And that was your fault! Luckily, I was there to save those people!"

"I'm the one who saved them, dumbass!" Gatekeeper said. "You're the one who endangered them!"

"I was attempting to apprehend you!" Lustre said, his aura starting to shimmer back into existence. Brittney was slowly starting to back up, considering that breakfast was not going to be worth hanging around for this. "Don't you dare move!"

Brittney froze, realizing that Lustre was pointing a finger right at her. "Are you in league with this villain?"

"What? NO!" Brittney sputtered, her wings fluttering indignantly. "I just told you that I don't want any part of any of this crap! I'm just trying not to be late to work!"

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were telling your friend, and yeah, I agree wholeheartedly." Gatekeeper said, addressing the bunny girl with the butterfly wings.

"Well, of course you would," Lustre added disdainfully.

"Oh come on, Larry," Gatekeeper said, "you have to admit that she makes a pretty good point. Just because you've got powers, that doesn't mean that you have any idea what you're doing."

"I was actually just referring to mysel--" Brittney tried, before being cut off by Lustre.

"I am helping, which is more than you can say!"

"Oh please! You were just a weed-smoking dumbass until you emerged and decided to start living a comic book fantasy. And considering how many people are suing you for all the harm that you've caused, it's really more than you yourself can say, actually."

"I was only talking about myself and how I'm not a professional trained for an emergency situation, nor do I know anything about proper procedures!" Brittney interjected, hoping to use that to bow out of the debate.

"And there are plenty of procedures in place that are there for a reason," came a new female voice. All eyes turned to a man and a woman both wearing shirts that advertised that they were members of the Las Vegas Fire Department. The man was tall and broad-shouldered, standing there with his arms crossed, while the woman, her brown hair cut short in a pixie cut, confidently strode forward. "The reason usually being that, before such and such procedure was added, someone tended to end up dead."

You have got to be kidding me, Brittney thought to herself.

"Okay, well, you all seem to have this... whatever, scene all under control, so I'm just going to go to work, bye!" she said, turning to walk away, breathing a sigh of relief as the bickering continued in her absence. Ben was soon jogging up beside her, still looking starstruck.

"Oh my god! We just met Lustre himself! And Gatekeeper!"

Brittney let out a frustrated sigh before reaching over and punching Ben in the shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Ben said, rubbing the spot.

"I just wanted to stop in, grab something to eat, and then get to work before I was late. But now, thanks to you, not only am I skipping breakfast, but I might not make it there in time to not be late! And you know how much of a stickler my boss is!"

"Uh... isn't that a little specist? Or... uhm.. Emergenced-ist?" Ben asked, now looking uncomfortable as Brittney looked over to him in confusion.

"Y'know, because he's a cactus-man?"

Brittney let out a sigh. After a few more minutes of walking, and Ben trying to float the idea to reconsider becoming a superheroine, her place of work started to come into sight. The Las Vegas Public Library. Like many things in Vegas, it was grand and ornate, if not a little gaudy. Three stories tall, large polished windows, well-kept and manicured front lawn and hedges, marble stairs leading up to the large oak double-doors. At the base of the stairs, on either side, were two polished brass lions. Brittney had never understood why they were chosen as ornaments. She recalled first seeing them and wondering Are they defending the library? From what? Brass gazelles from a brass African Savannah?

As they approached the marble building, Ben was still subtly pushing his superhero agenda.

"You could get famous," Ben said.

"I don't want to be famous, Ben," Brittney said, checking her watch. "I just want to clock in a few minutes early. And I'm pretty sure that your boss wants you to do the same."

"But Britt--..." Ben stopped and looked confused for a moment, before his eyes went wide. He looked at his own watch, and started to take off running. "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" he said as he sprinted, calling back over his shoulder. "Later, Brittney!"

The bunny girl stared at her friend as he ran down the sidewalk, almost barreling into an elderly woman.

"Idiot," Brittney said, no true malice in her voice. She then took a breath and made her way up the steps. She fished out her keys and unlocked the front door, closing and locking it behind herself. The interior was well-lit, allowing her eyes to adjust quickly and take in the immaculate light grey tiles, and the oak walls. She then clipped her name tag on, and walked by the front desk, which was empty. She headed past several paintings of ships in stormy seas, straight towards the employee lounge. She entered and immediately spotted Mr. Penn. He stood at easily over seven feet tall, with the waxy green skin and needles of a cactus being the only visible exposed flesh, more curled and longer yellow needles making up the hair on his head. He turned to regard her with his glowing red eyes, and nodded.

"Miss, Adams," he said in a voice as crisp and proper as his brown sweater-vest.

He must clip the spikes so he can wear clothes, Brittney thought to herself as she nodded back to her boss.

"Morning, Mr. Penn."

"Gabriel will be handling the front desk," he said, as usual not wasting time, "so you'll be walking the floor."

Brittney took his nod as a dismissal, and turned to leave. She knew that there were other, less strict and formal librarian positions available, especially for someone still in school. But they didn't pay as well. She started to head upstairs to walk the floor, spotting Gabriel heading to the front door to unlock it for the public. He smiled and nodded to her. He was in his fifties and of Latin descent, and had always been friendly towards the bunny-butterfly girl. Brittney nodded back and continued on, already wishing she had gotten her quick breakfast.

Despite what some people believe, people still regularly go to libraries, and not just for the free wifi. She assisted in helping a few people locate books they were looking for as she walked through the tall shelves of neatly stacked literature. She did get some rude glares and comments from people uncomfortable with an Emerged librarian, but Brittney let it roll off her back. There was, however, one encounter that didn't so much as surprise her, as it had become a semi-regular occurrence, as much as it aggravated her, especially since she had such a large stack of books to restock.

She could smell his cologne, with its weird citrus tang, just before she heard his polished leather shoes on the tile, which is saying something due to her enhanced hearing. Eyes already prepped and ready for rolling, Brittney turned to see the sly, and predatory, grin of Cheshire. Brittney didn't know his full name, or if that was the name he took after he had emerged. All she knew was that the Indian man in the navy blue pinstripe suit, complete with fedora, was someone she did not want to have anything to do with.

"Brittney," he said, arms wide as he came to a stop before her, "it's so good to see you again."

"Hello, Cheshire," Brittney greeted, keeping her voice low as it was a library.

"Have you given any more thought about my offer?" he asked, his blood-red eyes glinting as he continued to sport his self-satisfied grin, baring his slightly too-long incisors.

"I have and subsequently dismissed it," Brittney curtly said, turning away from him with the stack of books, double-checking the authors' last names before putting them on the shelves.

"Oh, come now," he said, suddenly in front of her when she had turned away. "It's a sweet gig."

Brittney engaged the eyeroll. "I have no interest in becoming a cocktail waitress. I get enough drunks feeling up my puffball tail as it is, I don't need to be serving them in a skimpy outfit as well."

"That's only part of the job," Cheshire said, once more going into sales pitch mode, "it's really more like security, just more aesthetically pleasing with a pretty girl like yourself." Cheshire said this with a wink, which caused Brittney to internally shudder.

"As you have explained to me before, and my answer is still no. Besides, there are plenty of other Emerged around that you can use."

"True... but..." Cheshire said, removing his fedora, his gold watch in plain sight on his wrist, "part of my abilities is the ability to see someone's... potential. And you are most definitely someone my boss would be interested in having on the payroll. And the pay is very nice."

"No, Cheshire. The answer is no, and it's always going to be no," Brittney politely, but firmly, said.

"Alright, I can take a hint," he said with a wink that suggested he didn't, and left with a wave. After he turned a corner, Brittney knew that he would be back again to float the offer by her again. In Vegas, any Emerged with enhanced senses were considered valuable to casinos, to help in spotting cheaters, which after the Emergence had become a bigger problem. Of course, it was her other ability that Cheshire seemed interested in. With a huff of annoyance, Brittney focused for a second. When she opened her eyes, there was an exact duplicate of herself, but completely black, like a silhouette, with two white eyes, standing before her. Her Shade, being an extension of her will like an extra arm, took half of the books and started to put them away.

While weak in sunlight, the Shade was stronger and faster than herself. When not in sunlight, any kind of artificial light did nothing; The Shade would grow to five times its size, and become even stronger and faster yet. Her own personal supernatural bodyguard. She made it disappear after putting away the books, and continued to work the floor. Clearing the frustration that was Cheshire from her mind, Brittney continued her work day, focusing on the tasks at hand/paw.

Just another day, she told herself.

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