Monday, December 7
- - - - -
A lot can change in ten days.
Ten days ago, Bianca and I had been on our date. We’d rejected Su-Bin’s request to talk; surprisingly, she was playing ball so far. So that was good. The rest of the news out of Tokyexico was…less so.
We hadn’t won our campaign against 3V1L like I’d thought we could. Every time we took out a V, someone else rose up to take their place, and in the last ten days, the organization had all but disappeared. The One L seemed to have no interest in fighting us. Worse, our auxiliary work with the Triad had gotten a lot more dangerous. With Stella-Lunar in Yorkston trying to get a handle on all the villains Golden Goose had been keeping down, the Triad was up against the best Tokyexico had to offer—and usually in greater numbers. We’d been doing a lot of crowd control and not much Episode work, which meant no style points.
It’d gotten to the point where I wanted to ask Sara to delay her assault on the SSS by just a couple more days, on the off-chance that we could get a meaningful win against 3V1L. But no. Sara’s plan required a big strike a week before finals, and this was as close as we could cut it.
So, instead of sneaking off-campus to fight 3V1L or patrolling for the Triad, Fursona and I were in our assigned positions, ready to clear out the Student Union Building. And we weren’t alone—which was good news, in a way. Our team of four was optimized for Team Composition class.
With Fursona as a bruiser and me filling…every other role…we didn’t really need an entire team, but Sara thought groups of four made the most sense, so we’d deployed with Waterspout—the Elementalist/Tank hybrid Candi Crush and I couldn’t beat last year—and Vicegrip. Neither had made the minor leagues yet, so officially, I was supposed to be giving the orders.
In reality, all I had to do was stick to my part of the script.
“Why didn’t we do this earlier?” Tractor-Beam-Girl asked. She pointed at the building. “We should have attacked right away, not twiddled our thumbs outside and waited for their lair to be defended.”
“Shhh,” Fursona said.
“Sara-N-Dipity has a plan, and it’s calculated out. We’re probably trying to get the villains all in one place and surrounded so we can shut them all down at once,” I added.
“Actually, I agree with Tiny here—” Waterspout said.
“Hey!” Tractor-Beam-Girl whirled on him, but he held up a massive, watery hand.
“—but I think the opposite. We should have waited until Sunday. If we win here, we’re just giving the SSS time to regroup.”
[Casting Call]
[Episode: Power War: Sayonara, Student Supervillains! - PG-13]
[Role: Heroine Herald! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Drama+Flamboyance]
I accepted the Casting Call. “That’s our cue. Move in!”
[Power War: Sayonara, Student Supervillains!: Act One in Progress]
Fursona's voice came in over my headset as we pushed through the double doors into the Student Union Building’s main hall. “Hey, it’s weird that this is a Power War Episode. I wouldn’t have expected it since there shouldn’t be any major leaguers on campus.”
“Yeah. Just keep it cool. No need to panic anyone,” I muttered, jerking my head at Tractor-Beam-Girl. “We’ll just do our part and hope there’s no interference.”
We hadn’t made it two steps in when Tearjerker’s battle cry echoed through the atrium. “Waterspout, [Cry For Me]! You had a pet cat once, right? What was her name?”
“Wrong move, Tearjerker,” Waterspout said, already blubbering. “Her name was Cindy, and she was great!”
I ducked around him as Fursona dashed toward the villain, but a massive jet of water slammed into her before she could get there. Waterspout’s eyes streamed tears with the pressure of a firehose, and I couldn’t believe the recoil wasn’t hurting him, but not as much as it hurt Tearjerker, who slid across the SUB’s floor into a wall.
I followed up his attack with a [Starlance] that hit the villain, but as the attack punched into her, two more SSS members and a handful of henches appeared. Fursona shouted, “Flare!” and raced off to fight the speedster, while Waterspout whirled to face his attacker, only to eat a cane to the face. A moment later, he vanished, trapped inside Lady Lockless’s [Escape Room].
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
I had tricks of my own, though, and instead of fighting the ballroom-dressed supervillain, I used [Spotlight Strike] and a spotlight highlighted Lady Lockless. A moment later, I tapped Lady Lockless’s head and she fell to the floor.
[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point]
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If she wanted to use her power to get out, she’d have to free Waterspout, too. And having both of them out of the fight suited TUSSA’s plans more than the SSS’s defense. As for Flare, he kept up a game of keepaway with Fursona’s Roo-sona suit, but it couldn’t last forever. He couldn’t counterattack her without trading poorly, so all he could do was—
“Stop!” Tractor-Beam-Girl yelled, grabbing him out of his sprint and pinning him to the wall with her power. A moment later, Fursona hit him feet-first and knocked him off the stairs to the second floor, then leaped into the air to hit him again.
I whirled to find Tearjerker, but she’d disappeared. A moment later, a red-hot blur zipped past me toward the club offices—where the unpowered students could rent club space from the campus. “They’re on the retreat! Stick to the script!” I shouted and stared at Lady Lockless’s glass-headed cane. Sure enough, moving inside at a crazy speed, were Lady Lockless and Waterspout. Every time he solved a puzzle, she built a new one to slow him down; it remained to be seen who’d win the race.
Either way, they wouldn’t be around for the next step in the plan. That was fine. Everything had happened pretty much like Sara had said it would, and her team had almost certainly hit the SSS’s base from the service door outside. We just had to keep the bigs from running now, and that’d be easy enough to do.
So, of course, the moment I thought that, something went wrong.
Three villains appeared in the center of the room. The first looked familiar, but he vanished into the offices before I could get a good look. “Was that Monologue? What’s he doing back here?” I asked Fursona.
“No idea.” She balled her fists and watched as the other two villains turned toward us. They clasped hands, and then the first one disappeared again while the other turned to face us.
He wore black robes, and an SSS henchman’s helmet covered the top half of his face. The bottom half was painted pale white, and his lips were curled in a sneer. A bo staff hung loosely from one hand, and he bounced on the balls of his feet. “It seems I had perfect timing,” he muttered. “Again.”
I didn’t wait for more. “[Bit-Part Barrage]!” I shouted, spinning and aiming my wand at him. The [Stellar Rays] surged toward him, but he held out a hand and caught the first one, which fizzled out, then flipped over the rest of the volley. The last one caught him in the shoulder, but he landed smoothly.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
“Okay. Is that it? Yes? Great. Then let’s begin.” The villain lunged toward Fursona, who ducked back, but he kept lunging even after he should have stopped, his feet moving flawlessly under him. The tip of his staff caught her in the pouch, and she slammed into a wall, cracking the drywall.
I hit him and sent him flying, but he seemed to run mid-air and got his feet under him—all without touching the ground! He wasn’t flying; instead, he appeared to be hovering on the strength of his pumping legs.
Then, suddenly, he was running right at me!
I used [Quick-Time Change] to change to Rainy Day and dodge his attack with [Freeze Frame], and when I turned, his staff was lashing out against Tractor-Beam-Girl’s grip as she tried to wrest the weapon from his grip. “He’s a bruiser!” She shouted.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
“Agreed,” I said. “Keep your distance if you can. He’ll take you apart up close!”
“I know that!”
“Great!”
“It is great!” Tractor-Beam-Girl hadn’t gotten less snarky, that was for sure. She flipped the villain around in the air, but he landed on his feet, jerked the staff away from her beams, and whipped it right at my head.
“Two minutes ‘till Phase Three,” I said, starting up a [Thunderhead] and shockwaving the robed villain away from me before his blow could land. That was when Sara and her team had to be past all the defenses and only have supervillains to deal with. The villain was fast, but could he dodge—lightning? I was going to find out!
[Pause for Effect! +1 Drama Point]
Then, before I could finish the [Thunderhead] charge, he was on me. The staff lashed out like a snake—the big megafauna kind, not a little yard snake—and crashed into my ribs on either side of my body, then down. I barely got my head out of the way, and the blow drove into my shoulder and forced me to the ground.
[HP 10/13]
But for all that he’d driven the air from my lungs and knocked me around, he hadn’t done much actual damage—and he’d gotten into the perfect position. I used [Ride the Lightning].
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Thunderstruck! +1 Drama Point]
The electricity surged toward him, and the lights in the SUB flickered wildly for a moment as a shockwave ripped out ahead of the blast. He tried to dodge, but the tremor knocked him off balance, and the lightning punched into him, dancing across his black robes and arcing off the metal tips of his staff.
Fursona lunged toward him and kicked him hard enough to send him catapulting back into the club office hall, but he rolled with the landing and somersaulted over his staff. I slow-shifted toward Understudy while Fursona and Tractor-Beam-Girl kept up the pressure; I wasn’t the frontliner in this team, even with Waterspout out.
And speaking of Waterspout…there was fighting behind us, too. If you could call it a fight.
I turned to see Waterspout grappling with Lady Lockless, who kept trying to reach her cane. She screamed as he bent her arm backward, then went limp in his watery arms. “Alright, fuck! I surrender! Jesus [Beep!]. Shit!”
Part of me worried as Waterspout lowered her to the ground, but another part was happy for the win—and for our tank to be back in the fight. I pointed down the hall. “I’ve got her. You get him.”
“Got it.” Waterspout surged down the hall just as Fursona flew backward, propelled by the bow-staff.
She rolled, tail and legs flailing, then got back to her feet and rushed the supervillain. “Who is this guy?”
“No idea. Maybe the new kid Mindstorm mentioned at the beginning of the year?”
“He’s a freshman? Holy crap, he’s strong!” Fursona took off toward the fighting again, and I [Quick-Time Changed] again, this time into Rescue Girl Lucky Star.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
I hurried over to Lady Lockless, whose arm looked jarred horribly. I frowned; Waterspout shouldn’t have been able to do that to her, not through superhero damage. Something seemed wrong, and I looked for her cane, but it wasn’t anywhere near her. Her face looked contorted in pain—the kind of grimace someone used to pain made.
“Do you need help?” I asked, standing back far enough that she couldn’t use a power on me. She’d surrendered, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try something.
“Shit yeah, I need help.” Lady Lockless’s Roaring Twenties persona had disintegrated entirely. “I promise not to betray you, blah blah blah.”
“Okay. Stay still.” I walked over to her and used [Jinx-Bearer]. Immediately, my right shoulder started to ache, and when I moved it, it popped and ground painfully. “What did you do?”
[Tough Cookie! +1 Grit Point]
[HP 7/11 (temporarily reduced from 13)]
“Nothing I haven’t done before. Thanks, though. I’m done here,” Lady Lockless said. “I’m not participating in Monologue’s plan for post-graduate glory.”