Sunday, August 30
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[Flight Delay: Act Three in Progress]
A pink-and-blue streak followed my sailboard through the air as I dove toward Tokyexico International Airport’s white cloth towers. If I was right, the plane carrying my girlfriend/sidekick Bianca had just touched down, so I only had a few minutes to finish this ridiculous Episode. I gritted my teeth, slid through the gap in TIA’s false roof, and crashed through the glass below it.
I’d been fighting this little leaguer for almost an hour. He wasn’t particularly tough; I’d only had to shift forms for defense twice, and once to get a [Rejuvenation] charge. But Solarbeam just wouldn’t give up, and he wouldn’t stay still.
Right now, he was sprinting toward the duty-free shop with flaming feet. I rolled my eyes, [Quick-Time Changed] into Copy-Cat, and [Leaping Leapords’d] to close the gap, but as I jumped, he disintegrated into a pool of light, then reappeared a few feet away, still running.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
“Come on!” I shouted, gritting my teeth in frustration. I didn’t even know what the guy wanted at the airport, just that when my ride dropped me off, the first thing I saw was a [Casting Call]. At this point, it was just personal. I shifted back to Magical Girl Undergrad, taking the extra time. I’d be able to catch up in seconds, but if Solarbeam just dodged all my gap closers, I’d be better off with solid ranged damage.
I needed to move fast, though, so as I finished spinning and summoned [Starwave Sail], I plotted a course that’d catch me up to him. Then, the magical windsurfer shimmered into being below me, and I took off.
I wove through the old, pre-Launch Day planes hanging in the airport, ducked through a biplane’s wings, and narrowly avoided a fighter jet’s pointed nose. Then, as I closed in, I lowered my wand and said, “[Starlance]!”
I’d gotten the upgraded version of [Stellar Ray] from my signing bonus for the minor leagues. Instead of a bright white beam, [Starlance] was a bolt of pinkish-white light about eight feet long. Its main advantages weren’t helpful here, but I’d discovered that in addition to hitting harder against armor and high-HP supers, it had a little guidance built in.
So, as Solarbeam shifted places again and started his own attack, my lance turned just enough to clip him. He spun in place, and his beam went wide, bouncing off a silvery aluminum airplane fuselage and fizzling out mid-air.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
I winced. Part of me felt bad for the villain. He hadn’t expected a minor league hero like me at the airport. Then again, I hadn’t expected a little league villain. Unlike him, though, I was ready. Also unlike him, I was on a time crunch.
He started running again, blinking from spot to spot. In another couple of years, he’d be a threat. But right now…
“Solarbeam, this is Magical Girl Understudy. For the last time, this mess is interrupting my personal life, so if you surrender now, I’ll drop you off somewhere. We can forget this ever happened,” I said.
“[Beep!] you!” The villain shouted, raising a red-gloved finger at me. He kept running. “I just wanted a jet, but you can’t let me have that, can you?”
“No. You’re endangering people.” I fired another [Starlance] his way. This time, he waited to blink until the last possible second, and I missed.
I grimaced. I’d been bullying him all day, and only some crazy grit powers were keeping him in the fight. I did not want to fight this guy in two or three years.
Heck, I didn’t want to be fighting him in two or three minutes.
He kept running, and I kept chasing him, watching the digital clocks change. The concourses had emptied out as Extras fled the fighting, and I didn’t have to worry too much about collateral damage, but I didn’t want to break up any planes if I could help it. As another of Solarbeam’s attacks scorched the floor below me, I let [Starwave Sail] go, quickly found the flights from Tortuga West, and cursed mentally.
She’d landed. The plane was offloading passengers already. If I didn’t wrap this up, I’d be too late to meet her at baggage claim, too.
It was time to take the kid gloves off. I spun, aiming at Solarbeam’s retreating back, and used [Bit-Part Barrage]. It still fired the classic [Stellar Ray] barrage, but I hit the first shot and stunned the villain. The rest of the rays thudded into him one after another, and I smiled as he collapsed.
[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Pilot: Flight Delay - PG]
[Penalties: N/A]
[Episode Finished! +5 of each Style Point]
[Winner Winner! +3 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Drama+ Flamboyance - Goal Met! +10]
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[Power Creep Penalty: -5 to all Styles]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 219/523]
[HP 11/11]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (27)
►Cunning (24)
►Drama (55) (Skill Roll Available)
► Starlance 1
► Bit-Part Barrage 2
►Flamboyance (53) (Skill Roll Available)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Starwave Sail 1
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Hog the Limelight 1
►Grit (17)
► I-Frame Transform 3
[50 Drama Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[50 Flamboyance Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
I rolled my skills even as I stared into the camera. “Day or night, justice is watching!” Honestly, I was going through the motions to get the whole process over before—
Something hit me from behind like a tsunami, wrapping around me in a gigantic embrace. I struggled and turned toward a head of black, curly hair. For once, Bianca Marino didn’t smell like green apples; I got the whiff of stale airplane air and deodorant. She looked comfortable in her shorts and spaghetti-strap tank top, though. “Thank you so much for saving the airport, Magical Girl Understudy. I was so scared!”
I struggled not to roll my eyes since the camera was still watching. The overly thankful college girl didn’t have to worry—she wasn’t facing it, and she gave me a big, painfully obvious wink as my skills came in.
[Skill Upgrade! Starwave Sail 1 -> Solar Wing: Choose between a rideable vehicle and highly-maneuverable personal flight]
[Rank-Up! Thunderhead 1: Storm builds faster for quicker combos]
“Uh, no problem, citizen. Now, it’s curtain call for this Episode,” I said, extricating myself from Bianca’s embrace. She let me go, and I fled the cameras and still-emerging onlookers. My phone buzzed three times before I finally found a place to untransform in private, and I popped out of the bathroom stall in a pink T-shirt and jeans.
I rolled my eyes and shot back a pair of texts.
----------------------------------------
“You should have seen it, Annie,” Bee said as I dragged two oversized rolling duffels along the sidewalk. I didn’t have a superpower to carry lots of stuff, and I was out of my costume, so that was the best I could do. “Understudy whooshed out of the sky and fired all these wimpy-looking magical rays at Solarbeam, and then he was like ‘whoa’ when the first one hit, and the others all flattened him. It was amazing!”
I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed that Bianca was doing this to me, thankful she wasn’t giving up my secret identity, or relieved that we’d almost made it to our waiting ride. Either way, she seemed like her old self—bubbly, goofy, and ill-mannered. As if to prove the last thought, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve to clean the pretzel oil off.
I jostled and shoved until all my girlfriend’s bags were safely in the car’s trunk, then hopped in, activated the privacy screen, and shut the door.
“I’m sure it was. What classes did you end up signing up for?” I asked.
“Well, I tried to get English 201, Ilneat Culture, and a few science ones, but there’s a hold on my profile. They won’t say what it is, but I know I passed everything with flying colors. What about you?” Bee pulled out her phone and started texting.
“Same. That’s weird. I wanted some more theater, and I’m supposed to take another couple of history courses to set myself up for the pre-law stuff, but I’ll have to talk to my advisor and figure out what’s up. Either way, I’m glad to see you. It’s been way too long.”
“So, no classes. Still got your Walnut Tower place?” Bianca asked.
“Yeah. You going to move in?”
“I’ll think about it,” Bianca said. “I’ve got a lot to do in my own space, though. They upgraded me, it sounds like. Hickory Hall.”
“Oh, that’s pretty nice. Well, you’re welcome any time,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment, and probably failing. “I’ve got plenty of space for all your stuff.”
I did, too. I’d just loaded it all in the trunk. Unlike me, Bianca had moved out of her ground-floor room at the end of the year. They had an up-and-comer moving in, and conveniently, an opening at the top of Hickory Hall offered near-Walnut Tower levels of roominess. If she had offered, I’d have been tempted to move in with her. She hadn’t, though. And the place in Hickory Hall had other implications. It meant Ikenga had graduated. That was a blow to the Tokyexico University Student Superhero Association, for sure. I texted Fursona back.
“Su-Bin’s been texting. She wants us to go to another of those weird APPEAL meetings. I guess she’s president now, or running, or something,” I said.
Bianca made a face. “As long as Avan’s not there, I can tolerate one more meeting.”
“Good, because I was thinking about superheroes over the summer, and I’m a lot more curious about what’s going on with other people’s lives. Superheroes are cool, but what about the people they end up displacing?”
“Don’t tell me you see the appeal of APPEAL,” Bianca said. “I couldn’t stand it if you went and joined their club—and bought their merch. Ugh.”
“No, I’m not thinking about that. But I do want to know more and be more open-minded about them this time,” I said.
“Hey, let’s swing by your place,” Bianca said. I looked at her questioningly. “I want to pick up your keys again.”
I rolled my eyes at her.
Bianca blushed. “Uh, if that’s cool, I mean. If not, I get it. Maybe you want some space or something—“
“No, no. I only just invited you to move in. Of course you can have the keys.”
We chatted for a while longer, in person for regular stuff and through text for the superheroics. Then, as we pulled up outside Walnut Tower and told the driver to wait, Bianca slipped her hand into mine. We rode the elevator—the public one, not my super-secret superhero one—up to the thirteenth floor, and stepped into 1301 Walnut. My apartment hadn’t changed much, and Bee flopped onto the couch. “It’s good to be back at TU.”