I had just enough time to curse under my breath as the nanometal slime surged toward us like a wave of red-gray mercury, eating away at whatever metal it could find. I [Quick-Time Changed] into Understudy and fired a [Bit-Part Barrage] into the oozing steel, stunning it and getting a new message from the Style System.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
[Resisted!]
[Rejuvenation Activated: HP 12/13]
Resisted? What did that even mean? Was I not doing damage? I took a few steps back as Fursona’s feet flashed out and slammed into the metal with a crunch. Then she pulled back suddenly, hissing in breath through her modulator. “I can’t get in close,” she said. “It’s munching my superhero damage.”
“Okay, battle plan. We can’t let it eat the building, and we can’t get in melee. Fursona, watch our backs. Vicegrip, slow it down. Waterspout, can you keep water between it and whatever it’s trying to eat?” I whipped [Starlances] at it the whole time I talked, but almost all of them just read [Resisted!] in the System.
“Sure, I’ll try. Maybe it’ll slip and get stuck,” Waterspout said. He formed another watery barrier and projected it in front of the gray goo traversing the room and oozing out into the hallway. “I can’t cover all the sides, though.”
“Just herd it away from the building’s supports!” I shouted. What the hell had Anima created? I fired another [Starlance], this time at the Dark Girl, and got a hit that knocked her off-balance just as Grapple got a hold of her. Then, the ooze pushed up against the wall of water in front of it, and we had to step back into the hallway.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
The ooze pressed against its watery confines, trying to reach Tractor-Beam-Girl, who pushed back with all her might. Her emitters hummed and whined, but the nanometal mass gained against both her and Waterspout’s best efforts, gaining ground and leaving the walls pitted and scoured as it consumed electric wire. It shuddered and jerked to a halt periodically as tiny shocks rippled through it, but didn’t seem to be falling apart. If anything, its growth from the metal outpaced its damage from the sparks.
I fired another [Starlance], not expecting anything, but this time, instead of the [Resisted!] message, I got an actual, physical result: a small piece of the metal mass peeled off and slopped into a dull gray puddle. The rest of the nanometal oozed around it, carefully not touching it, and found a couch, which it consumed, leaving behind a trail of faux leather and plastics.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
Buoyed with a tiny victory, I kept unloading, firing off [Starlance] after [Starlance] as I backpedaled. But even though I occasionally knocked a chunk off the thing, and the sparking electricity surging through it left behind thin trails of dull metal, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
We weren’t winning this.
Not with the current plan.
So we needed to change it up.
Fursona had disappeared, and I heard the sounds of fighting coming from behind us. I had no idea how to beat this thing, but whoever she’d picked a fight with, she’d probably need help. “Waterspout, go!” I said.
Then I had an idea. It wasn’t a good idea, but it was the best one I had. “Actually, Tractor-Beam-Girl, you go! Waterspout, fall back but keep your barriers up. Slow it down.”
While Vicegrip scowled and ran off to help Fursona with whatever she was up to, I filled Waterspout in on the new plan. He started out unsure, but by the end, he’d cracked a smile and looked like he was trying not to laugh. “That’s really stupid, Understudy.”
“Yeah, but it’s what we’ve got. Now, let’s give it a go.”
I waited as Waterspout reinforced the liquid barriers holding the nanometal ooze back. He gave it everything he had, and after a moment, the thing stopped pushing forward. We’d successfully frozen it in place!
But that wasn’t my goal—not really. I wanted to win, and I had an idea of how to do it. I slow-transformed into Lucky Star. I wouldn’t have any offensive powers, but I needed access to something only she could do. As soon as I finished the slow transformation, I reached out with [Jinx-Bearer] and touched the slime.
[HP 10/13]
[True Grit! +1 Grit Point]
[Debuff Acquired: Shocked: Complex movement is much harder, and overall speed is reduced]
The sparks that’d been dancing across the nanometal slime’s body hopped over to me, and I gritted my teeth as they coursed through my nerves and tears welled in my eyes. My water walls collapsed, and the slime started pushing Waterspout’s back.
I took three pained steps back and used [Power-Weaving] and [Hog the Limelight] to draw the slime’s attention, then started another slow transformation. I was still halfway through when its mass oozed up my foot, tearing at my boot and chewing into my superhero damage. Had I miscalculated?
[HP 8/13]
No. I finished my transformation, spark still dancing, and hurried as fast as my shocked sixth-grade legs would carry me. As I ran, I used [Virga] and rained down even more water—and healing—into the hall.
[Medic! +2 Cunning Points]
[HP 7/13]
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[Doctors Without Borders! -1 Cunning Point]
[Floating Points: 1 Flamboyance]
The plan was coming together; I could feel Waterspout working on his own [Power-Weaving] next to me, though his probably focused on Badass or Grit. Either way, I didn’t have time to waste. I used [Thunderhead], sending sparks rippling up my arm, into my wand, and toward the cloud with a sigh of relief as the shocked feeling in my limbs stopped. I hadn’t been sure that’d work, but the storm overhead looked way bigger than usual.
[Pause for Effect! +1 Drama Point]
[Floating Points: +3 Flamboyance, +1 Cunning]
Waterspout’s control broke, and the slime surged forward into a lake of water, leaving a wake as it sunk deeper and deeper into it. I backpedaled, and Waterspout ran alongside me. Then, when the storm overhead peaked, I [Rode the Lightning].
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Environmental Combo! +1 Cunning Point]
[Thunderstruck! +1 Drama Point]
[Power-Weaving! +6 Flamboyance, 3 Cunning, and 1 Drama Point]
[Feedback 1]
[HP 5/13]
[Continue Combo?]
Chunks of nanometals flew off the ooze as the massive tendril of lightning arced up into the [Thunderhead] and then hammered down onto it. The boom was deafening; it threw Waterspout and me back toward the room where Fursona and Tractor-Beam-Girl fought. But I had the option to keep the combo rolling, and I was determined to do everything I could to the slime right here, right now.
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Environmental Combo! +1 Cunning Point]
[Thunderstruck! +1 Drama Point]
[Feedback 2]
[HP 3/13]
[Combo Collapse]
I’d given what I could, and as I watched the nanometal ooze disintegrate faster and faster, I crossed my fingers that it’d be enough because if it wasn’t, I didn’t know what else I could do. It fell apart in huge slabs that melted away into the puddle until the water was a filthy gray color, and I watched as Waterspout’s power swirled it around, keeping what was left of the ooze from fighting its way free.
It stopped moving, and even its core went the dull gray of broken nanometals. And a few moments later, I got a welcome message from the Style System.
[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Power War, Sayonara, Student Supervillains! - PG-13]
[Penalties: 0x Rating Warnings - No Penalty]
[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]
[Winner Winner! +3 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Drama+Flamboyance - Goal Met Met: +10 to Focused Skills]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 180/523]
[HP 3/13]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (39)
►Cunning (64) (New Skill Roll Available)
►Drama (75) (New Skill Roll Available)
► Bit-Part Barrage 2
► Starlance 2
►Flamboyance (92) (New Skill Roll Available)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Solar Wing 1
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Spotlight Strike 2
►Grit (8)
► Freeze Frame 1
----------------------------------------
Sara had her work cut out for her.
As Punch and Grapple escorted the furious, cursing Dark Girl Anima out of the lair and into the waiting arms of the TU Campus Police, she was already striding toward me, looking remorseful. “Sorry about that. I only calculated a 32% probability of a new Anima trick, and a 78% chance we’d get there in time to stop it, so I figured you’d be a solid enough backstop—and I was right, wasn’t I?”
“Yeah, that was pretty lucky,” Waterspout said. Sara glared at him, and he smirked. “Oops.”
“Anyway,” Sara said, trying to recover. “I have a meeting with the TU president to explain all this. I’m pretty sure I can talk my way out of it, but Springlock’s in charge of the clean-up while I’m at Beaumont. Don’t touch anything that looks like it could give us an idea of the SSS’s plans.”
“Did we win?” Fursona asked. She’d been fighting two of Anima’s cat-bots when the Episode ended. “I mean, we won, but did we meet your goal?”
Sara paused, unsure. She reached for a coin and flipped it absent-mindedly; it landed on its edge in her palm, and she glared at it for a moment before putting it back in her breast pocket. “I don’t know. I don’t think they’ll be a threat, but we’ll have to see how this week plays out. Anyone with SSS members in their classes, let me know if they show up or if they’re online only. I’ll get enough information to make a good prediction based on that.”
I nodded, and Sara disappeared, jogging toward the Beaumont Administrative Building. For a moment, I thought about going back into the SSS’s lair, but my part in it was done. Springlock and her team had the investigation, and Sara would take it over; whatever help they needed, it wasn’t from me. Instead, I rolled my skills.
[50 Cunning Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[50 Drama Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[50 Grit Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[Rank-Up! Speed-Hacker 2: Defeat complex systems and shut down major-league heroes’ inventions if unprotected]
[Skill Upgrade! Bit-Part Barrage to Limelight Barrage: An upgraded version of Bit Part Barrage, this one fires a half-dozen Starlances]
[New Skill! Improvised Ovation 1: Replicate a power another hero or villain has used in the last minute, gaining Flamboyance points instead of its original point type]
The campus police had finished arresting most of the villains, And I didn’t feel like signing autographs, so I walked over to Gourmet’s car. She grinned up at me. “Hey, Snack!”
“Hi, Gourmet. I hope you learned something here,” I said.
“About justice and morality? Nah. But I do have some good news for you. Charlene and I are the best-rated cooking show in North America. And even better, Mom’s getting out of the hospital next week. I’ve gotta get permission from my professors to take finals early, but it’s a huge step for her, and I’m so excited I went and bought an apartment for her so she can be close by.”
Gourmet’s excitement, and earnest happiness, were contagious, and I spent a good five minutes talking with her as the officer whose car I was holding up grew more and more frustrated. Eventually, after the eighth or so throat-clear, I took the hint. “Alright, Gorgonzola, I’ve gotta get going, but I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“Yep, the lawyers are already working on it. See you later, Snack.” Her window went up, and the police car gunned it out of the SUB’s parking lot.
I turned and started walking toward Roth Arena. Fursona caught up to me after a moment, and I slipped my hand into her paw almost without thinking about it. My mind was thinking about the implications of [Freeze Frame]. It had felt almost like a cheat code; I could dodge anything? There had to be a catch somewhere; had I lost anything by switching?
As we walked through the tunnels, Fursona popped my thought-bubble. “I have a bad feeling about all this, Understudy. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of the SSS.”
“I think you’re right. But there’s not much we can do about it right now. We’ll just have to wait for Sara to give us new targets after she pores through their base. In the meantime, finals week is coming, and we’ve got to hit the books.”