CAUTION, the yellow sign in front of them shouted in foot-high capital letters. RADIOLOGICALLY CONTROLLED AREA. The familiar three-bladed radiation warning symbol placed below the words made the same statement in even blunter terms. ATTENTION, an even larger billboard warned from the other side of the tall, barbed-wire-topped fence. IF YOU HEAR A CONTINUOUS SIREN IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE AREA.
"Are we really going to go in there?" Cat asked uneasily from the back seat.
As they watched, a bored-looking security guard waved the nondescript blue sedan they were following through the checkpoint. Once it had passed, another pulled the rolling chain-link gate closed behind it.
"Well, we're not getting in this way, that's for sure," Ryan said after the tail lights had disappeared around a bend in the road.
"Could there be another entrance?" Amy wondered. "One that isn't guarded?"
"Why don't we just make our own?" Syd suggested, making no effort to keep the impatience she was feeling out of her voice.
It's just a fucking fence... what's the big deal? I've got laser claws.
When Ryan and Amy had first proposed the plan, it had sounded so exciting. Tracking an alien agent back to his secret base... that was the kind of adventure she'd signed up for!
Reality had been disappointing, like a certain big purple bad guy warned that it often was. After leaving the hotel at way-too-fucking-early-o'clock in the morning, the four of them spent the whole day crammed into a crappy rental car, tailing this lame-ass professor all over the lame-ass town he lived.
Picking him up had been easy. His class schedule was posted online, and the campus he worked on was tiny. It didn't seem like Professor Henson had taken any precautions at all to cover his tracks.
It also didn't seem like he was in any particular hurry.
They'd spent hours sitting in the college parking lot, waiting for him to finish up whatever it was he was doing inside the building, then they were back on the road... to the post office, where they continued to wait around.
Honestly, at that point she'd started to wonder if the guy was even working for the Zorvax.
Until now, anyway.
She wasn't wondering any longer. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation wasn't what she'd call a typical stop for a normal, innocent guy running normal, innocent errands on his way home from work.
Those big, scary warning signs were the first interesting development of the day. Could things finally be shaping up?
While Ryan turned the car around, taking them back the way they came, Syd pulled up some information about the place on her phone.
"The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex," she read out loud. "Huh. Apparently they used to make atomic bombs... says here that it's one of the most polluted places in the United States. There's fifty-six million gallons of radioactive waste buried in there."
"Radioactive waste? What would the Zorvax want with that?" Amy wondered.
"That's what we're here to find out," Ryan said.
"It doesn't look like the perimeter fence has any security, apart from those guards at the gate" Syd observed, staring out the passenger-side window. "I haven't seen any cameras so far, or anything else like that, either." She thought about it for a moment. "Pull us over somewhere, Ry. I'll go in and take a quick look around."
"That sounds dangerous," Amy immediately said, in predictable Amy fashion. "We don't have the slightest idea what could be waiting for us inside there."
"Um, yeah, no duh. That's why I'm offering to go first. I can turn invisible, remember?"
"It's way too risky! Ryan, tell her it's too risky."
Simultaneously, she and Amy both turned expectant stares on Ryan. He frowned, scratching his chin, then made a thoughtful noise.
"...Syd's got a point, Amy," he finally said. "Yes, it'll be dangerous, but we really do need to find out what they're doing in there, and with her ability to turn less visible," he placed extra emphasis on the last two words, "she's the best equipped to handle the risks. I think that she can do it."
His words sent a little thrill racing down her spine, and not just because she was nervous about the prospect of facing more alien monsters.
"I don't like this," Amy complained, crossing her arms grumpily. "If she gets into trouble, we're not going to be able to save her."
Ryan parked them on the side of the access road between two sections of guardrail.
"That's only a problem if I get caught," Syd pointed out, quickly and efficiently shimmying out of her clothes while she spoke. Her pleated black skirt dropped onto the seat, joined a moment later by the shirt she'd been wearing. Handing both to Ryan with a coy smile, she added, "I'm not planning to let them catch me."
She could sense that his eyes were following her as she hopped out of the car, now clad only in her underwear, and that awareness sent another ripple of excitement through her. It certainly wasn't the warm air outside causing the goosebumps she could feel rising on her arms.
"Guess I'd better take these off too, huh?"
He cleared his throat, glancing away, before finally responding, "I guess you'd better."
"Hey, Ames, you want to help me out with this?"
With a thumb, she indicated the clasp between her shoulderblades. The movement turned her to the side, which just so happened to give Ryan a better view of her ass at the same time. Her cute little butt, he'd called it, and in the high-cut panties she was wearing, it looked even cuter today.
Not that she was deliberately showing off for him.
"N-no, I'm... no," Amy replied. "I'm good."
"Suit yourself." Syd shrugged, unhooking the adorable purple satin bra with a deft flick of the wrist and letting it drop into her hands. She took her time stepping out of the matching panties, one leg at a time, then handed both items to Ryan as well. "Hold onto these for me, would you, big guy?"
Clearing his throat again, he nodded, his eyes silently promising that somehow he was going to get even with her later.
Which had been the goal all along, obviously. She couldn't wait to find out how he intended to punish her for teasing him. Maybe this time she'd be able to goad him into giving her a good spanking. Had she remembered to throw the pet collar into her luggage before they left the apartment? There was a matching pink leash that clipped onto it... she wasn't sure if he was ready for that yet.
You couldn't rush these things!
And that reminded her...
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Will Amy want to watch again, I wonder?
***
TEMPORAL FLOW ADJUSTED.
COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE!
Time stopped.
Her magical girl transformation was revealing enough that she didn't need to make any special effort to show herself off. The Changer took care of that for her, turning the whole process into a combination striptease-slash-special-effects-extravaganza. Ryan, of course, wasn't even trying to hide his interest, watching her from start to finish with an intensity that she strongly approved of, but she met Amy's gaze as the alien device whirled her around, too, and she even caught Cat staring once or twice.
Wasn't that interesting?
Idly, as her suit began to materialize in stages from the air around her, she found herself wondering why there was so much variation between the transformation sequences. Was it a function of the Changer's Class, or something that was unique to each user? Or possibly a little bit of both?
Amy had fought a male Juggernaut whose armored suit, aside from sharing the same color, looked totally different from hers...
TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE COMPLETE!
TEMPORAL FLOW RESTORED.
Syd landed lightly, her outline immediately blurring as Assassin Time activated.
Prowler Mode, she corrected herself. Even though Assassin Time sounded way cooler.
Okay, I'm off, she sent. Wish me luck!
The fence parted easily at the first touch of her Energy Claws, metal strands breaking like they were made of wet paper. She paused, listening for any alarms or other signs that her intrusion had been detected, then pushed her way through the gap and into the restricted area.
Emerging on the other side, she launched herself towards the treeline at top speed.
22 points of Agility is no joke! she thought to herself. I might not be able to fly like Amy, but this is pretty damn close.
Her transformed speed after the last round of performance enhancements was incredible, something that you simply had to see to believe. In their most recent training session, Ryan had clocked her going nearly forty miles an hour. That was way faster than an Olympic sprinter could manage, at least according to the internet. It was fast enough that she could compete in that big French bicycle race they do every year... on foot.
And she wasn't even breathing hard!
Positively inhuman. Superhuman, if you will.
Everything looks clear, Ryan's voice whispered directly into her head. No signs of trouble so far, but I'll be keeping an eye on your progress. If you see anything interesting, mark it on your display.
You got it, boss, she sent back. Um, I mean, roger that. Sir. Copy. Over... and out?
He laughed.
Stay focused, Syd. You're doing fine.
The sunset arrived quickly, almost as quickly as the number at the top-left corner of her visor was ticking steadily down.
Night coming early is a good thing, she told herself. The description for Prowler Mode said that it will help me hide in the shadows. This is a stealth mission. Everyone loves stealth missions.
Besides, I'm a magical girl ninja Assassin. How could I be afraid of the night?
She totally wasn't scared that she might stumble onto a giant alien monster in the darkness. Nope. No siree. Not even a little bit.
With a thought, she brought up the light amplification setting and activated it, instantly casting the darkening forest in stark, monochrome relief.
I am the night.
***
Alright, boss, I'm at the gate that we followed Henson to, Syd said. Haven't seen anything other than trees so far. I'll try following the road in and see where it leads.
Roger. A pause. Amy says to be careful.
I'm always careful! she protested.
Extra careful, then.
Syd ran, twisting and turning to bypass the worst of the densely-overgrown brush as she paralleled the road. Branches whipped past her head, appearing suddenly in her vision, each giving her only a split-second to dodge. Thanks to the sound-dampening effect of Prowler Mode, her pounding footsteps fell with barely a whisper.
Less than half of her total transformation time remained, and there was still no sign of the objective. Gritting her teeth, she sped up.
The dirt road curved, then curved again, snaking back and forth. Gradually, the terrain began to change, growing steeper, grassy clearings appearing with increasing frequency as the trees thinned out.
A second fence blocked her way, this one seemingly unguarded, and low enough that she was able to hurdle it without even slowing down.
Here and there, the broken outlines of long-abandoned concrete buildings flashed by, but there were no indications of activity within... human or otherwise. She marked each of them on her display as she passed anyway, in case they needed to be investigated further.
Cresting the hill, she skidded to a sudden stop when a reflected glint up ahead caught her eye.
What the fuck? she wondered, jogging closer so that she could examine the object. What am I looking at here?
At first, she thought that she'd nearly crashed into another line of security fencing. On closer inspection, however, the object proved to be something else entirely.
Sunk deep into the hard-packed ground, the shiny silver cylinder stood slightly taller than she was, large enough that she'd only be able to wrap her arms around it with difficulty. It had no markings, the metallic surface entirely smooth and unbroken save for a vertical row of quarter-sized holes along both sides – and each opening lined up with a matching twin on another pole positioned a few yards away. Whatever the things were, they emitted a deep, ominous hum that made her glad she hadn't tried to cross between them.
Bending down, she picked up a stick to toss through the gap, then thought better of it. What if it set off an alarm?
When she described the strange object to Ryan, he confirmed that her decision had been the correct one. It was, he informed her, a Zorvax defense grid emitter that she'd stumbled on, and that meant they were definitely on the right track. He also told her that it was lucky she'd stopped rather than continuing on past it.
Or trying to continue on past it, at any rate, because between each post, there was a hedge of invisible lasers waiting to slice and dice unwary intruders.
Prowler Mode comes with an infrared vision setting, Ryan reminded her.
Oh... right. I knew that.
Once she switched her visor's display over, the gap in front of her didn't look empty anymore. Blindingly-bright, hair-thin red beams of light stretched between each post, forming a barrier that extended off in both directions as far as the eye could see. Additional lasers emerged at angles from the top of each pillar, presumably to prevent a trespasser from simply climbing or jumping over it.
I can disable it. Ryan sent. Just hold tight, we're on our way.
How long will it take you to get here?
Twenty minutes.
That won't work. I only have five minutes left before my transformation ends. But don't worry, I've got a better idea.
A better idea? What kind of idea?
She stepped back so that she could take in the full pattern.
There was a gap between the glowing threads.
Syd, what kind of idea?
It wasn't a very big gap.
Nevertheless, there was a gap. Syd paced back and forth, considering. She wasn't a very big girl. If she got a running start, and pulled her arms in at the last second...
Easy.
And it was.
Sure, if she'd misjudged by an inch on either side, she probably would have ended up a bit singed, but she made it, and that was what counted.
Ha! I'm through, she crowed. No sweat.
Ahead of her, the road dead-ended, and beyond it...
Whoa. Ryan, I think I found something.
What is it? he asked.
You're gonna want to see this for yourself.