Amy blinked awake, her face smushed up against her pillow with the uncomfortable impression that she had fallen asleep in her clothes. A quick shimmy of her hips said that that was exactly the case.

She wasn’t feeling bad, in fact she was feeling downright wonderful, as if she just had the most wonderful dream--

Amy shot out of the bed and scoured around the room with wide eyes, looking for Vicky or anyone else that might have been in the room with her. It was empty, but her drawers were still opened and, as the memories trickled in, she realised that someone had to carry her to her bed.

“Okay Amy, you just fainted,” she muttered. “Because Vicky has cat ears. And a tail.” She was hyperventilating.

She slapped herself, a quick strike against the cheek that had her wincing as pain flashed across her face. But it was okay, it got her focused again.

“Amy fainted!” came a cry from the floor below, Vicky’s voice, filled to the brim with panic.

She flushed again, patted down her pants and straightened a little. She had been working lots of hours, maybe she could blame that and the sudden surprise?

“I’m okay!” she called out even as she stepped out of her room and started making her way downstairs. She really was fine, it had only been a sudden dizzy spell and a bit of a nap. Certainly her power wouldn’t let her get sick or anything.

“Ames!” Vicky said before colliding with her mid-way down the stairs.

Amy would have protested the impact as she was walking downstairs, but she was too busy being smothered in Vicky’s “Glory Girls.”

She was pushed away and held at arm’s length as Vicky inspected her up and down with worried, slitted eyes. “You’re okay?” she asked, and her ears twitched forwards to listen to Amy’s answer.

She was, for a moment, distracted by the contact around her arms and what she could feel of Vicky’s biology. It was, to her power, as if the cat bits were grafted on, but also grown out of Vicky’s own body. An interesting, if simplistic way of giving someone extra appendages. All of it wired to their equivalent parts in the brain. The tail was like an extra toe, the ears were connected to the auditory cortex.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Amy said.

Vicky’s face shone as she smiled up at her with wet eyes. Then she started purring. “I was so worried, nya!”

Amy’s eyes rolled up into her head.

***

Vicky had to scoop low to pick up Amy as she dropped like a sack of potatoes. Her purring, which had been somewhat unexpected but not awful, stopped all at once as she held Amy up in midair, then floated around uncertain what to do.

“Bring her here. Girls, off the couch, quick,” Taylor said as she immediately took charge.

Then her mom and Aunt Sarah were up and moving too. “I’ll get the first aid kit,” her aunt said as she speed into the kitchen. Her mom just kind of stood around while Vicky rushed to the couch and gently placed Amy on it.

“Is she okay? Should we call an ambulance?” Vicky asked.

“Remedy, can you check?” Taylor asked.

The little girl looked ready to reach out and touch Amy when she was stopped by Carol grabbing her by the shoulder. “Maybe it would be best that we get someone else’s opinion?” she said. “After all, Amy didn’t start fainting until she was in the room with your sisters.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Vicky saw the confusion on Taylor’s face quickly morph into anger then, with some obvious effort, be hidden behind a neutral mask. “Sure, Missus Dallon,” Taylor said. “Remedy, let her be.”

“Lemme be?” Amy asked.

Vicky gasped and spun back towards her sister who was blinking away. “Amy, you’re back!”

“I am?” Amy asked as she shook her head and tried to sit up. Vicky gently pushed her back down. If she fainted again it would be best if she was laying down already. “Sorry, I just, your ears surprised me?”

Vicky smiled at Amy. If that really was all there was to it, then that was a huge relief. She was still going to drag Amy to the hospital later, but it settled the panic in her gut to see Amy okay.

“Speaking of ears,” came her mom’s ‘what kind of bullcrap is this’ tone from just behind Victoria. She turned and looked up to find her mom, hands on hips, glaring at her ears and her tail in turn.

“Ah, I can explain?” she said.

“I certainly hope you can,” Carol said. She was using her Brandish voice, which was never a good sign. “Is this... Remedy’s work?” she asked.

Remedy, who was currently hiding behind Taylor’s legs, waved shyly at Victoria. “Um, maybe?”

“Victoria Dallon,” her mom hissed. “Don’t you know the first thing about allowing unknown parahumans to use their powers on you? It doesn’t matter if she looks like a child, she’s still dangerous.”

Victoria snorted and stood up so that she could face down her mom properly. “Come on, don’t be silly. Remedy is a clone of Amy and they have the same power. Amy could have given me these ears but she’s too... restrained to do stuff like that. It was just for fun.” She felt her tail writhing behind her.

“Um, maybe we should go?” Taylor said.

Carol glared at her, then at Victoria. “Fine then, perhaps keeping the ears untill you learn your lesson about taking stupid risks will teach you a lesson.”

“What?!” Victoria and Amy said at the same time.

“I can’t go to school with these. Do you know the kinds of things they say about me online already?” she said.

“Yes,” Remedy said, smushing her face against the back of Taylor’s leg to hide when Carol looked her way.

“I’m really thinking we should go,” Taylor said. She began herding her sisters with little shooing gestures.

“Good. Maybe being a laughingstock will help the lesson sink in,” Carol said.

“But what if Ames can’t remove them?” Victoria said. She could already imagine all the comments online. And the fanart. Rule 34 was a disgusting, disgusting thing that she knew far too well.

“Well, you should have thought of that before. And what of your unsubstantiated claims that that girl can undo everything?” Carol pointed towards Remedy, then blanked.

The living room was now short five girls, the door in the hall clicking shut with a noise so loud in the sudden silence that it might as well have been a gunshot.

“I found it!” Aunt Sarah said as she walked in with the first aid kit. She took in the room at a glance then turned to her sister. “Dammit, Carol.”