As two more SUVs pulled up and disgorged another pair of caped, helmeted villains and a half-dozen more henches, I realized that the villain in the power armor probably wasn’t a V. For one thing, the V we’d chased earlier, with the sound powers, wasn’t here. For another, the two supervillains stood in front of the power armor wearer, almost as if protecting him. One wielded a familiar-looking hammer, though I couldn’t quite place it, and the other sparked yellow lightning between his fingers. Both men were dwarfed by the power armor, though.
In a way, it reminded me of the FEAR armor Professor Panic had used.
His voice was heavily modulated when he spoke, to the point where it almost sounded mechanical. “Hello, Magical Girl Understudy. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I propose an immediate Neutral Field so I can explain how I’m going to kill—“
BOOM!
A bomb went off, and as the explosion echoed in the street, Sister Sly’s voice boomed out almost as loudly. “No! I came here to do two things: beat all the Vs and you, and take out Fursona! And I’m not going to stand here and listen to the five of you talk! That’s all you ever do!”
This wasn’t a V, then. And if he wasn’t a V, he had to be the One L, in which case, we had the chance to deal not only a blow to 3V1L but to take out its head. Before I could move, though, the street burst into flames as the second stage of the bomb activated.
I used [Quick-Time Change] to switch into Rainy Day and avoid the worst of the damage while Fursona flew straight at the supposed One L, but the V with the yellow lightning moved and stepped in between the eagle and his boss. “Speedster,” Fursona said over her mic. “I’ve got this.”
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
She started trading blows with the speedster, keeping the fight away from the power armor and the hammer-wielding man, who swung awkwardly and missed my eagle-formed partner. I had other problems, though.
Sister Sly leaped from the roof, grapple snaking out, and hooked onto a telephone pole. Then, slingshotting around, she led with both feet, and I realized she’d built metal boots that oscillated back and forth like Iron Fist’s…fists. I ducked her attack, but her follow-up smoke bomb choked the street and blinded me with acrid yellow fumes. I used [Virga] to quell the smog.
[Medic! +2 Cunning Points]
[HP 4/12]
[Doctors Without Borders! -13 Cunning Points]
[Adjustment: Not Enough Cunning Points. -2 Cunning Points]
I winced at the lost points, glad I hadn’t built up more this Episode. Virga had the potential to be really dangerous, but in this situation, it—
Wait. Thirteen?
I disengaged from Sister Sly and dashed toward Fursona, who’d managed to keep airborne against the combined efforts of two Vs, the One L, and nine henches, but couldn’t accomplish much besides an occasional screech.
I used [Ride the Lightning] to blast a minion, then squared off against one of the Vs, trying to take the pressure off. [Power-Weaving] into [Wind Front] shoved him back but locked me into a less-than-great shift to finish the combo.
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]
Then Sister Sly hit from behind. Her bombs arced over my head, glittering crosses shining in the streetlights just before they detonated. 3V1L minions scattered like bowling pins, and I took advantage of the interruption to [Quick-Time Change] to Understudy. The combo wasn’t worth saving compared to that form’s versatility.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Rejuvenation Activated! HP 9/12]
[Combo Lost!]
Then, almost as one, the battlefield ground to a halt as our phones went off, one after another. At first, we ignored them, but when even minions started ringing with text messages, I grabbed mine.
All three messages came in within five seconds of each other; they had to be pre-programmed. I glanced at Fursona. “How about Running Retreat?” I asked over our comms.
“Sounds great,” Fursona said. Her unmodulated voice sounded uncertain, and I couldn’t blame her. I’d never gotten a message like this. Not ever. My stomach, which had been roiling at the fight we had in front of us, practically tied itself in knots as I glanced at each of the four villains.
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They all looked hungry, like they’d just been handed the keys to an all-you-can-eat buffet after-hours. “Fursona? Let’s do it now!”
----------------------------------------
Thirty seconds ago, our goal had been to decapitate 3V1L and maybe take Sister Sly down with them.
Now, we were fleeing for our lives, flying through the air as the speedster V dashed below us, Sister Sly swung from stoplight to stoplight, and the hammer V and One L stomped behind.
Worse, my phone wouldn’t stop going off. The push notifications were out of control, and I couldn’t stop to check any of them. What was going on? Why the hell had the Council of Heroes told us to retreat? And why did it have to happen now?
I didn’t have time to find a single answer. All I could do was fire a [Starlance] back toward the pursuing Vs while Fursona shrieked at Sister Sly, then dodged a net missile. The brilliant pink energy bolt slammed into the hammer V, who took it and kept coming.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
I wished I had access to some heavier-hitting moves, but this Act One had gone on way too long, and Fursona and I were running on fumes. I ducked under a telephone line just as the speedster V got ahead of us, activated [Spotlight Strike], and kicked him as we sped toward each other. He bounced off onto the sidewalk, and I stopped for a half-second to wonder why he hadn’t dodged.
[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point]
That was enough for a henchman’s bullet to find my back, and I rolled onto the asphalt with the 3V1L supers closing in. I leaped into the air and back into my [Solar Wings] as Fursona shrieked at them, forcing them back, but we couldn’t shake the villains—not with Sister Sly and the speedster around. “We need to knock out their chasers!” I shouted.
[HP 6/12]
“Yep!” Fursona flipped around in the air, stalling herself out, and slashed at Sister Sly as one of her swings got too close. She missed—or at least I thought she did—but the grappling hook’s cord snapped, and the villain plummetted toward the street below. She hit with a crunch, took one look at the hammer V and One L, and reached into her bag. A moment later, she vanished.
“Did you get her? Is she out?” I wasn’t sure, but maybe we’d shaken one of the worst hounds. At the same time, I fired a [Starlance] at the speedster V. This time, he got out of the way, but only just barely. The beam singed his helmet as he ducked.
“I think so!”
“Good! Idea! Up!” With Sister Sly—hopefully—out of the picture, I catapulted myself straight up into the air, Fursona flapping for all she was worth to follow. We zoomed past windows—some lit up, others darkened for the night, and quickly passed the tops of the skyscrapers. “North!”
“North?” Fursona asked.
I nodded and surged toward the industrial maze we’d fought in a few weeks ago. The moment we hit the yellow-brown smog, I dove into it, coughing; my pink-and-blue trail would mark our passage, but the smog would do a great job of hiding it. Then we turned into a nearby street, keeping low so 3V1L couldn’t see us dash away, and headed south toward Tokyexico University’s safety.
[Good Thinking! +1 Cunning Point]
----------------------------------------
It took nearly thirty minutes to escape 3V1L.
They kept chasing us, and their henches were everywhere. Fursona and I ended up over in Evergreen before they finally broke off their pursuit, and the moment they did, I got a new message.
[Episode Canceled! No Longer Cast in Prayers for the 3V1L]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 196/523]
[HP 6/12]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (21)
►Cunning (32)
►Drama (18)
► Bit-Part Barrage 2
► Starlance 1
►Flamboyance (37)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Solar Wing 1
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Spotlight Strike 1
►Grit (44)
► I-Frame Transform 3
Walnut Tower’s roof was clear, and Fursona and I landed and quickly went inside. Her helmet lay in the corner, eagle eyes staring at me almost as intensely as Bianca’s did at the Green Room’s info screens. Where the map had once shown the positions of our four rogues, now it simply showed a red-tinged blob shaped like Tokyexico City, with the words ‘Danger: Approach Episodes with Caution’ across it.
There was no mention of 3V1L, Theseus, or any of our rogues. They’d seemingly disappeared as far as our information screens showed.
Before I could check my notifications, my phone rang. I looked down at it and sighed. Then I picked it up. “Hello, Rocko. Sorry about the Ep—“
“Screw that Episode, DuPont. Is Marino there? Put me on speaker. We’ve got problems. Big ones.”
I dutifully pressed the speaker button, sighing. “Okay, you’re on speaker with Bianca and me.”
“Great. Listen up. You’re gonna be on your own for a bit. The studio’s going dark. All the studios are going dark. So here’s the plan. I’m sending a couple of camera drones to the Green Room and one to the Outback Stake-Out House. You keep them running—find a Genius if you have to—and shoot your own Episodes for a couple weeks. Got it?”
“Rocko, what’s going o—“
The Ilneat interrupted me before I could finish the sentence. “No time. Drones and charging systems are heading over. Keep them running, keep the Episodes flowing, and we’ll all be happy, okay?”
“Okay,” I mumbled.
“Rocko, it’s not okay. What’s going on?” Bianca asked, an edge of panic in her voice. “You need to tell us what’s happening.”
“You don’t know? You really don’t know?” Rocko said, voice incredulous. “The whole balance of power just shifted. Check the news.”
They hung up before we could keep questioning them, leaving Bianca and me in total silence. I had a bad feeling about this in my gut; whatever had Rocko and the Council of Heroes spooked, it couldn’t be a good thing. Not. At. All.
Bianca headed for the door to my dorm room. “I’ll check the news. You get the drones in order.”
I nodded slowly, waited until a pair of chrome camera drones hovered into the room, then accepted the charging systems from a panicked-looking—though it was hard to tell with Ilneats sometimes—Pataki. As I plugged in the drones, I couldn’t help but remember how much of a stink Rocko had made when Peter had gotten a hold of an old, half-destroyed camera drone. And now, the Ilneats had just handed three of them to Fursona and me, fully operational.
I finished fiddling with them and joined Bianca in the living room. I expected her to be out of her eagle suit, but instead, she sat perched on the sofa’s back, costume half-off, glued to the TV. Her face was ashen, and her mouth hung half-open as she watched, unmoving. A talking head kept going on and on about something that’d happened in Yorkston, but it took almost a minute before he looped back to the story’s headline. On the screen, police tape and officers—along with a few of the highest-powered Yorkston heroes—surrounded a building.
The voice kept talking. “And for those just joining us, we’re following the most important breaking story across the globe—and perhaps in all of Ilneat space: the death of Golden Goose.”