The seconds ticked by. The First V’s rocket launcher rose as he pulled it toward his shoulder. The Third V’s electro-baton robot clattered toward Fursona and me. Would the Triad accept our call for help? Would they show up in time?
My heart pounded as I squeezed Fursona and activated [Emergency Teleport] again. The kangaroo heroine broke my embrace and rolled out of it. “No! I’m sticking it out with you!” She held up her own Triad button, which blinked a dull green.
Green. Green had to be good, right? Green was good everywhere else. My [Emergency Teleport] fizzled out, and the First V pulled the rocket launcher’s trigger. The cone-shaped explosive zoomed toward me just as a portal opened, and three identical figures stepped through.
They’d responded. Bud Lightbeam was here to help.
One clone tanked the rocket, which vanished just like Polar Vortex’s ice-missile had. The other leaped toward the baton-bot and grappled with it, firing an energy beam into it even as the baton crashed into his side repeatedly. And the third—the real Lightbeam—stood over us heroically. “Understudy, we have got to stop meeting like this!”
I could have hugged him. Instead, I pointed and shouted, “Behind you!”
He whirled as the First V activated his [Gun Fu] power and opened up. Lightbeam took the shots on his back and chest, and I winced as the debuff stacked up and he slowed down. I only had seconds—maybe not even that long—before Tele-Portal grabbed me and yanked me out to the Triad’s base, so I lunged at the hero, grabbed his wrist, and activated [Jinx-Bearer].
[Debuff Acquired: Gun-Fu Fuzz x12: Speed reduced by 1%, stacking]
[Gritty Sacrifice! +1 Grit Point]
He nodded at me. “Get out of here. I’ll take care of this.” Then he turned and zipped into the air, ignoring the First V and rocketing straight for the Third. As he attacked the suddenly panicking Vs, a portal opened, and Tele-Portal pulled the two of us out.
We didn’t land at the Triad’s base, though.
Instead, we arrived on a battlefield—one the Triad had won. Smoke poured from Underdelver’s mech as he loomed over a villain being escorted away by the police. The field they’d fought in was scorched and pocked with craters from explosions and holes from where his mech had dug in and out of the earth. A few buildings nearby burned as fire crews struggled with the blazes, and somewhere between me and the mountains, the Triad’s base loomed over us.
“Kid, you’re lucky we finished this when we did,” Tele-Portal said. She leaned against the remnants of a wall, breathing heavily and half-closing her eyes. What’d you run into?”
I told her everything in a long, breathless sentence, and when I finished, she nodded slowly. “Do you have anything left in the tank? You’re not done with that Episode yet.”
I nodded slowly; I had Rainy Day, and I could get us both into…not exactly fighting shape, but something. “What else do we need to do?”
“You’ve left a teammate back there. You need to go get her,” Tele-Portal said slowly. She yawned. “I’ll give you a minute, then port you back in. Once you land, you’re on your own, though. I’ll put you at your sidekick’s last known location.”
Fursona stretched and popped her neck. “Okay, okay, we’ve got this. It’s just a rescue and extraction, not a full-on fight.”
But Tele-Portal held up a hand. “No, you’re out of it. If you go in, you’ll just be putting pressure on Understudy. All she has to do is get the little league heroine—Vicegrip, right?—out.”
I shifted into Rainy Day and used [Virga], then immediately shifted again, this time into Understudy. Then I hugged Fursona; even inside her suit, she looked dejected—or maybe furious. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to cry or fight Tele-Portal. Maybe both. “Hey, babe, it’s going to be okay. I’ll meet you back at the Green Room in half an hour. You’ll know I’m safe when you get the victory message.”
[Medic! +3 Cunning Points]
[HP 2/12]
[Rejuvvenation Activated: HP 6/12]
She nodded slowly. I could see her arm through the fursuit. “If you get in trouble, say something. I’ll see if Tele-Portal can get me into the fight again.”
I smiled back. “You’ve got it.” But even as I said it, I knew Tele-Portal was right. Having a nearly depleted Fursona on the battlefield took away my options, and I’d need them all if Lightbeam couldn’t stop both Vs or if 3V1L had more henchmen nearby.
And 3V1L always had more henches nearby.
----------------------------------------
I landed on a street corner near the North Poudre box store—far enough from the fighting inside that Lightbeam’s weapons couldn’t hit me but close enough to hear the sounds of gunfire and energy beams going off. The moment my feet were under me, I threw myself into the air, a camera drone following me. I already knew exactly where I needed to go; over the constant fire of the First V’s guns, I could hear a second set of pops and an occasional shout. I flew that way as fast as I could, using [Solar Wing] to duck between buildings and under street lights.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
I turned a corner to see a terrified-looking Tractor-Beam-Girl holding a car door over herself as a half-dozen henches fired at her and three more ran forward with baseball bats and crowbars. She looked terrible; she’d run out of superhero damage back in the grocery store and had been fighting since then. A handful of other henches lay on the street, slumped over the curbs or tossed aside.
She’d been doing well, but she was out-gunned, and if nothing changed, she’d be overwhelmed soon. One of her gauntlets had shattered, and she held the car door one-handed.
I used [Starlance] and took out one gunman, then another. As I went for a third, someone shouted, and a trio of shooters switched toward me.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
I ducked as they opened fire, but I was a beat too slow. A bullet caught me, then another, and I dove behind a bus stop for shelter. The impacts stung, but I had superhero damage to spare—unlike Tractor-Beam-Girl.
[HP 2/12]
Not much superhero damage, but some.
I ducked out, blasting away and trying to close the gap. As I did, the car door flew by, smashing a henchman into a nearby building’s wall. I waved at Tractor-Beam-Girl, who…flipped me off.
Whatever. The drones and Rocko would edit it out later.
As I got in close, I used [Quick-Time Change] to dodge a pair of bullets with [I-Frame Transform], became Copy Cat, and activated [Hometown Heroine] to close the gap even faster. I’d committed myself, but the Copy Cat Costume had the speed, toughness, and firepower to clear the henches, and nothing else did right now.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
Bullets bounced off my [Fursonal Furcefield]. I dashed through them, trusting Tails to keep me safe and the blue halo around me to speed me along. A hench flew out of my way as Tractor-Beam-Girl grabbed him and tossed him aside. Then, I was in the middle of the group.
I [Doom-Balled] the first hench, claws ripping razor-thin gashes in his outfit, then used [Leaping Leopards] to gap-close the remaining gunman. A moment later, he went down screaming as I pulled back and hissed.
[Badass Damage! +3 Badass Points]
[Badass Damage! +1 Badass Point]
A few henches remained, most with melee weapons, but as I whirled to face them, Tractor-Beam-Girl pulled one off her feet and slammed her into a building. The remaining ones broke and ran, fleeing down the street. Tractor-Beam-Girl took three steps toward them. “Get your asses back here! I wasn’t done! I wasn’t done!”
I grabbed her before she could keep going. “Vicegrip, you’re done. We’re done. The Triad’s Lightbeam is mopping up the Vs, and I’m only here to get you out. Can you fly?”
“No,” Tractor-Beam-Girl said, deflating. “They knocked the stabilizers around.”
“Great.” I shifted back to Understudy—every second felt too long, like the henches would be back with friends or the One L—and grabbed her. “Hang on.”
“Wha—“
I didn’t let her finish. Instead, I summoned my sailboard and tossed us both into the air. “We’re getting out of here.”
“But we hadn’t won yet,” she protested.
I grabbed her arm with one steely grip and the steering bar with the other, then squeezed both. I doubted she felt it through her armor. “Listen. Right now, the win is that we get out. We’re going to walk away from this one, and if the System gives us a draw or even a loss, we’re going to take it. We underestimated 3V1L, and that won’t happen again.”
She sniffled, then started sobbing. I glared at her. “What?”
“I’ve never lost an Episode before. I’ve never even tied an Episode before.”
I struggled against the groan building inside of me with every ounce of my will and, somehow, grappled it down. Then I took a deep breath. I didn’t care if this counted as a loss. I didn’t care if I won. Right now, I just wanted to get back to TU and finish the Episode. We whipped through the streets silently, leaving pink and blue streaks in the air behind us.
I cleared my throat as we crossed the border between South Poudre and University. “I’ll drop you off at the SUB. We’ll debrief this Episode some other time.” I didn’t want to deal with her anymore. Vicegrip’s decisions had ruined our patrol, set up the Episode after it, and forced us to ask the Triad for help with something we could have handled.
[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Power War: Beyond Good and 3V1L - PG-13]
[Penalties: 0x Rating Warnings - No Penalty]
[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]
[Winner Winner! +3 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Cunning+Grit - Goal Unmet]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 196/523]
[HP 2/12]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (16)
►Cunning (31)
►Drama (63)(New Skill Roll Available)
► Bit-Part Barrage 2
► Starlance 1
►Flamboyance (30)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lucky Star)
►Solar Wing 1
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Spotlight Strike 1
►Grit (43)
► I-Frame Transform 3
[Rank-Up! Thunderhead 1: A thunderburst after the empowered power adds a shockwave and crowd control]
Overall, it didn’t feel like a win. But the System disagreed, which meant we’d done something right. So, what had we learned about 3V1L? I pondered it as I zipped back to Walnut Tower and landed on the roof.
By the time I landed and stomped down the stairs into the Green Room, I was in a foul mood. I couldn’t figure out why we’d gotten the win. Had we shut down the Triad? No. If we were lucky, Lightbeam had gotten one of the Vs arrested, but that setback was the best we could hope for. Had we struck a blow to their operation? Maybe, but not a permanent one. At best, we should have gotten a draw. Not a full-on win.
So, when I saw the whiteboard, I groaned. Bianca grinned, half out of the kangaroo suit, and waved. “Hey, about time you got here! I know something you don’t know!”
“What?” I untransformed slowly, ignoring her teasing face, and slumped into the couch’s warm embrace. I needed a snuggle. I needed a nap. What I didn’t need was a lecture from my girlfriend, or her holding out information on me.
She spun the whiteboard around. It was covered in lines, crossed-out words, and scribbles. She couldn’t have been working on this for more than five minutes—maybe ten—but it looked like she’d been at it for hours. “I have a theory about how 3V1L is structured. If I’m right, it means that no amount of Golden Goose pruning could stop it. I think that as long as the One L is in charge, they’ll have three Vs, even if they’re not the originals.”
“How so?” I asked.
“I haven’t figured that out yet, but all my theories point to the One L as the root of all 3V1L!”
I laughed, then groaned. My bruises hurt way too much for this. “Okay. Let’s call it a day and start working out who he is later.”