Friday, September 25
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Mindstorm was on fire.
So was the Tottergarten playground as she stood atop a slide, dressed like Felicia Fire in her smoke-grey and red costume. We’d been teaching a lesson on fire safety, so naturally, Mindstorm’s retired persona was the only choice for a villain. At the moment, she was lighting the playground on fire with jets of flame that shot from her hands.
This had to be a safety violation. Or twenty.
The Narrator would fix it all up when she was done, and the kids knew they’d be totally fine, so in a way, managing them was harder than dealing with the villain herself. Felicia had filled the entire playground with low-hanging smog, pinning us close to the ground where, according to Milkbar, the ‘good air’ was. The trouble was that The Cloud wanted to fly, and I had his leash. I had to keep dragging him down, and every time I did, Milkbar grabbed my hand and pulled me back into an almost painful crouch.
To make matters worse, Felicia Fire kept throwing illusory fireballs across the sandbox at us, and Fursona had her hands full with Kaiju Kid and Kid Zoomies, who were both trying to catch the darned things. The fact that they were illusory was the only reason I hadn’t freaked out.
Still, it was time to rain on Mindstorm’s parade! “[Virga],” I said, waving my blue wand. The Rainy Day outfit was a massive hit with The Cloud, though he still wouldn’t call me anything but Understuffy. I’d also learned in ‘The Root of all 3V1L’ that it countered fire pretty well, and against G-rated flames, I wouldn’t even have to combo.
[Medic! +7 Cunning Points]
[HP 8/11]
[Doctors Without Borders! -4 Cunning Points]
The rain cascaded down, punching through the smoke and stifling the flames, but just as it did, Magical Girl Honeycomb screamed theatrically. A fireball had caught her, and her gossamer skirt and wings were engulfed in flames.
“What do I do?!” She shouted, looking back and forth between the kids.
“Stop! Drop! And Roll!” The Playpen Patrol shouted back, almost in unison, with Kaiju Kid a beat behind the rest. Honeycomb did it, and the flames went out after just a moment, but in the chaos of five pre-schoolers swarming toward the superhero to make sure she was okay, Felicia Fire had vanished.
“Ugh, she got away again,” Honeycomb said. She looked at her somewhat charred costume, crestfallen.
Mindstorm had been running circles around us all Episode, making small fires and forcing half a dozen lessons on handling different blazes. Almost all of them ended with, “And always get an adult until you’re a Little League hero. Then you can handle them yourself.” None of us wanted Kid Zoomies or Outlet trying to stop a house fire on their own, although The Cloud had learned a water gun attack where he sprayed it out of his nose. It was super gross but really effective at putting out fires.
The two of us cleaned up the playground, pushing back the illusory fires until they weren’t a ‘threat’ to anyone. Then we joined up with Honeycomb, who’d rallied the Playpen Patrol and was giving a lesson about touching hot stuff and why you shouldn’t do it. While she taught the kids how to use the back of their hands to feel hot things by holding them near, but not on, the object, I leaned over toward Fursona. “We should scout stuff out.”
“Think so? But what about the kids?”
“Well, the kids are all busy, and these lessons usually take two to three minutes, which is long enough for Minds—er, Felicia Fire—to get set up for her next gimmick. And to be honest, I’m not sure how much longer this one has to go. It seems way less engaging than the ‘How Bees Work’ or ‘Why We Share At Christmas’ lessons Honeycomb’s done in the past.” I gestured at the bee-themed Magical Girl, who kept having to stop to redirect Kaiju Kid back to the group, all while wrestling to keep Kid Zoomies pinned down.
Fursona nodded. “Okay, fair. So you think we scout it out and wrap up the Episode?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
She stood up from her crouch, bounced on her heels—she was a kangaroo again for this one—and started heading for the door to the building. “Okay, we’ll go fast, and we won’t engage with Felicia Fire without the kids. I’ve got a feeling she’s holding back.”
“Agreed.” I followed her to the door, and we slipped inside.
The whole building smelled like smoke; Mindstorm was a top-tier illusionist, in addition to her mind control gimmick, and she’d made it so real I’d thought I was back in the church—or the burning bank back in Riverside. But as I rubbed my finger through the soot, I could feel the intact wooden walls and tile floors. It wasn’t real. None of it was real.
“Let’s check the offices,” I said.
“Sure, why not? Think The Narrator is in there with them?”
“Probably. They’re having a quick coffee break or something.”
The camera drone bobbed along behind me as we walked down the hallway and opened the door. Sure enough, The Narrator sat at her desk with not one member, or even two, but the entire Anti-Nap League assembled around it. Felicia Fire said, “So yeah, we’re all resigning, effective as soon as this Episode’s over. We know that’s…inconvenient for you, and that you could make us finish out our years, but…I don’t think you…”
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She trailed off as a half-dozen supervillains and The Narrator turned to look at us. The meta-powered superhero blinked once, then looked at the assembled villains. “We’ll finish this conversation later—after the Episode. It’s time for the final fight, correct?”
“Yes,” Felicia Fire said, gritting her teeth. “We’ll go get ready. You two should get back to the kids. We’ve got a doozy coming their way for our last show. I got a real fire truck for them to fight me on.”
I nodded, gulping as the Anti-Nap League stared me down. “Got it. See you there.”
“Wait a moment,” The Narrator said. “I’ll be seeing you two after the Episode. Please wait out in the hall until I’m done with the League. I’ll need a favor.”
The Narrator needed a favor? The hands-down most high-potential super in the world, who’d chosen to run a day-care instead of fighting, needed something from us other than entertaining her swarm of toddlers? For a moment, I couldn’t believe it. Then, I slowly nodded and retreated from the office. Something was happening—something big, if the entire Anti-Nap League had resigned the same day. So, if The Narrator needed something, and she couldn’t rely on her power or the half-dozen retired villains to do it, the least we could do was hear her out.
The lesson on how to tell if something was hot had just finished up, and I grabbed The Cloud and pointed at the parking lot. “Do you like fire engines?” I asked and immediately regretted it.
“Fire Truck! Fire Truck!”
“I wanna use the hose!”
“Can we run the sirens really loud?”
The Playpen Patrol went nuts. They rushed the door, with Fursona, Honeycomb, and me all trying to contain the rush. We failed when Milkbar opened a gap in our line big enough for Kid Zoomies to rush through, and by the time we caught up, the entire Patrol was at the front door, staring out the window.
I grinned despite myself. The Anti-Nap League had been busy; The Narrator was going to miss them.
They’d fenced off the whole parking lot in orange construction fencing, with flashing barrels and everything. Then they’d covered that with police line tape to complete the fire scene illusion. Two fire hydrants leaked water into the hot afternoon air, and in the center, manned by Felicia Fire and Jungle Jim, was a brand new Tokyexico Fire Department fire truck.
It glowed red in the sun, and its lights flashed. Then, over the loudspeaker, came Felicia Fire’s voice. “Attention, Playpen Patrol! It’s time to turn up the heat!”
The doors jerked open, and we rushed onto the asphalt—which someone had padded. The Anti-Nap League really thought of everything! Kid Zoomies and Milkbar went straight for the truck, and a moment later, so did Outlet, hitting it with a burst of static that made its siren ‘WHOOOP!’ for a moment.
Then, before The Cloud and I could react, Mister Twi—no, Pranky Jones—leaped from behind the door, throwing a grenade right at us. It exploded, filling the air with reddish-black smoke. “It’s time to get pranky!”
[HP 7/11]
“[Starlance]!” I shouted. At the exact same time, The Cloud blew water from his nose like a whale spouting. The water cut through the smoke, splashing harmlessly across Pranky Jones’s suit, but my bolt of starlight slammed into him a moment later, and that wasn’t harmless—not at all. Even a major-league villain couldn’t ignore it, and he rocked to the side from the impact.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
We were on the scoreboard, and Pranky Jones was on the run! He threw a few traps, but The Cloud hovered up and down, avoiding them as we chased the villain down. A gust of wind from The Cloud smashed into him, pushing him against the orange construction fencing. A moment later, my [Bit-Part Barrage] punched through his supervillain damage, the first beam pinning him down as more and more zipped from my wand to him.
[Dramatic Damage! +5 Drama Points]
I landed, half-expecting him to surrender, only to catch a fully pressurized burst of water to the face. It shoved me across the battlefield and into the Tottergarten building’s walls. I watched as, a moment later, the water beam cut into the air, aiming for a desperately flapping Honeycomb, but before she could finish bringing its firepower—or waterpower?—to bear, Felicia Fire found herself attacked by Milkbar and Kid Zoomies.
The hose started wavering, then thrashing around on the ground as she dropped it. Fursona leaped on it, grappled it under control, and aimed it—but not toward the truck or the villains. Instead, she hosed down The Cloud.
He redirected the water, sending a torrential downpour at Felicia Fire and Jungle Jim.
“And then the Episode was over!” The Narrator’s voice echoed from the intercom. “The Playpen Patrol went to take a nap, and the Anti-Nap League, Honeycomb, and guest stars reported to the Tottergarten office.”
= = = = =
[Episode Finished!]
[Investigative Episode: On Fire - G]
[Penalties: N/A]
[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]
[Winner Winner! +3 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Cunning+Flamboyance - Goal Unmet]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 215/523]
[HP 11/11]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (23)
►Cunning (42)
► Check the Script 1
► Audition Notes 1
►Drama (49)
► Bit-Part Barrage 2
►Flamboyance (30)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Solar Wing 1
► Quick-Time Change 3
►Grit (53) (Skill Roll Available}
► I-Frame Transform 3
As I, following The Narrator’s script, walked through Tottergarten’s main room and watched the Playpen Patrol fall asleep, I rolled my skill. It was the only thing I could do, and I had mixed feelings about the Episode’s ending. On the one hand, it was over, and Rated-G Episodes were my least favorite. But on the other hand, I’d wanted to check out the fire truck.
[50 Grit Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[New Skill! Stage Presence: Inspire your allies to more incredible heroics through your sacrifice. After taking damage, turn that injury into a temporary group buff]
What a strange skill; it didn’t offer any sort of defense or healing; as a Grit power, it worked a lot differently than anything I’d seen before. In fact, the closest power I’d seen to it was [Hometown Heroine], but that buffed me. This seemed reasonably strong for Fursona if I could develop a decent support build.
The Narrator’s control broke suddenly about halfway down the hall toward her office. The villains were already inside, so for a moment, I thought that was why. But then my Style System popped up a message that sent a shiver down my spine.
[All Episodes Canceled. New Episodes Initiated]
[Welcome to Power War Three]