Saturday, September 26
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I bounced on the Green Room’s couch excitedly; Tele-Portal and her lawyer, Braningham, would be here to talk about auxiliary work in less than two minutes. Fursona sat much more calmly, sprawled across the chaise lounge in her Eagle-sona costume. We’d decided to put our best foot forward, which meant Fursona’s more scout-oriented build.
As for me, I hadn’t changed my builds around or anything. Tele-Portal already knew what I could do from our Patrols last semester, and from all of our training time in The Triad’s practice room.
“Anything we missed?” Fursona asked. She was not moving from that spot, no matter how tired Tele-Portal looked. None of the other chairs worked with her tail feathers; in fact, it was even worse than the Roo-sona’s tail had been. But that hadn’t stopped her from bossing me around—getting the room ready, moving furniture, and making it look like we’d become a serious team, not some jumped-up little league heroes.
I shook my head. “No. We’re good. We’ve got this.”
The elevator buzzed, and I ok’d it to come up. A moment later, an exhausted-looking Tele-Portal walked into the room. She looked rough, but not as bad as when she’d been on wall duty during the Man vs. Nature. Her lawyer followed, holding his hand out to shake mine; he wasn’t as shark-like as the ones Professor Panic kept on retainer, but there was still something off about him.
Once we’d all said hello, Tele-Portal yawned and said, “We’re here to discuss the secondary team role for Understudy and Fursona. You two need a team name eventually. You’ll work with The Triad, helping us keep Tokyexico safe during Power War Three, blah blah blah, Braningham, you’ve got this?”
“Indeed I do, Tele-Portal.” The lawyer cleared his throat. “Today, we’ll review the job description, figure out a list of responsibilities you can handle, and formally contract you with The Triad.
“Understood.” I’d expected Braningham to take over, to be honest. “I talked with Tele-Portal briefly last night. You want us in a support role, right?”
“Move,” Tele-Portal said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder and standing beside the chaise lounge. Fursona stood up slowly, and I could practically feel her scowl.
“Yes. You’ve both got flight powers, which is rare on a single team. That makes you optimal for scout Patrols, and in that role, you’d be able to keep out of the fighting, cover lots of ground, and be ready to step into a secondary task as assigned—or as it becomes obvious you need to engage. Those would be easier tasks, like pinning down a lieutenant so they couldn’t support a villain or removing Extras from the battlefield.”
“Got it. We can definitely do that.”
Braningham nodded. “Excellent. Now, legally, there’s no restriction on how frequently we work minor league heroes during a Power War. However, Tele-Portal has said—“
“No more than three times a week,” Tele-Portal interrupted. “Preferably less. You’ve got classes, and your studio will want you fighting your own battles, too.”
“Quite right,” Braningham said. “Next, Tele-Portal and The Triad have a few questions about how your Signature Skill works. You can take a part of another super’s costume, correct?”
“No, it has to be given. Otherwise, I’d be a great villain, just ripping apart other supers’ costumes. Once I have a costume part, I take it to Pataki, and they make me a Costume I can use,” I said. “It takes some time, though.”
“Great. Braningham, can you go get it from the car?” Tele-Portal asked.
The lawyer nodded. “I’ll gather the paperwork as well.” He disappeared down the elevator.
“I’m giving you an old model of Portal Cannon. It’s not as svelte as this one, and it wore me out more, but it’s a solid part of an older Tele-Portal build,” Tele-Portal said as soon as the door closed. “I’ll be honest, I was about ready to be done with you last January, but you’ve pulled yourself together, Understudy. You and Fursona will be high-end heroes in no time if you keep it up.”
“Thanks. I don’t know what to say,” I said, stunned. I hadn’t expected a gift like this. I hadn’t expected a gift at all. If it gave the right powers, a Tele-Portal Costume could change everything. It could make a full-rescue build possible; I had the powers—and the slots—to make it happen. I’d ditch Lab Assistant Panic and never look back if that was the case.
“Say you’ll get a proper support build by the end of the week. You do that, and it’s yours to keep.”
“You’ve got it, Tele-Portal,” I said excitedly. “Let’s get that paperwork dealt with. I need to see Rocko and Pataki!”
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[Welcome to Rocko’s Studio. System Disabled. Now arriving Backstage]
“What the hell is that?” Rocko asked as I dragged Tele-Portal’s portal gun through the door. They dropped their cigar on the floor, wringing their grasping hands and glaring at the chrome-and-white cannon like it’d go off at any second. “That’s not…no. No. Get it out of here before—“
“DuPont! What’d you bring me?” Pataki rasped. They did not drop their cigarette. Instead, they stared raptly at the cannon. “Bring it here!”
“—Before that happens. Pataki, you know what this’ll do to the bottom line, right? DuPont’s no support hero. She’d be wasted in that role!”
“Rocko, I want a support Costume, not to be a support hero,” I interrupted.
“Yeah, she wants a support Costume. Besides, I’ve got an experiment to run, and this is the perfect opportunity to figure out the Ultima hybridization issue.”
“Ultima? What’s that?” I asked.
“Fine,” Rocko snapped, ignoring me. “You want to build Understudy some crappy support Costume as an experiment, be my guest! Just don’t involve me in it, and don’t blame me when it doesn’t work. It’ll be coming out of your pay!”
They turned on their heel, picked up their cigar, and climbed into their chair. “I’ll be editing last night’s Power Wars Episode. Get her into Costuming.”
As Pataki escorted me into the Costuming room, where hundreds of supers’ costumes sat on hangars and mannequins, I tried to understand what had just happened. Weren’t we meeting Rocko’s goals? We’d run the correct Episodes at the right times, and as far as I could tell, the studio was doing fine. I walked toward the table, set the portal gun down, and started climbing into the Costume-design machine, but Pataki waved me off in a cloud of smoke.
“We’re not building anything today, DuPont.”
“No?” I asked, confused. Wasn’t that Pataki’s job?
“No. Instead, I’m going to brief you in on something. But it’s a secret. Only Rocko and I know about it. We’re working on a new suit for you, but it’s still in the prototype stage. I can’t tell you what it’ll do, but we’re hoping for a big power spike if we get it to the point where you can use it.”
That got my attention. “Like, extra power slots?”
“No. Like, all the power slots. But we’re months out, and that’s only if you help with the research and development side of things,” Pataki said, puffing on their cigarette. “So, with that in mind, let’s talk about your support suit.”
“What about it?”
“Right now, I could build the Tele-Portal suit. It’d be a good Costume, with the right powers to play a direct support role. And that’d be the end of it. Or…”
“Or…?”
“We could grab another costume piece from another great support hero and try a hybrid Costume. It’s an important step in developing Project Ultima. The other option is to try getting a piece to match with Madame Shockwave’s outfit.”
“No, that’s not an option.” My mom had said not until I was a minor leaguer, and I was one now, so the Shockwave costume was a possibility, but I wasn’t sure I wanted it. It could be super-dangerous if it acted like Lab Assistant Panic but with the added power of Mom’s voice. It still sat in my closet, and if I ever had it built, it definitely wouldn’t be spliced with some other super.
“Okay. That’s fine,” Pataki said. They puffed on their cigarette. “I’ll work on breaking down the portal gun into something more…Magical Girl. You get a strong support’s costume piece. Come here the second you have it, and we’ll get rolling. Oh, and don’t tell anyone what’s going on here. This is super-secret, Cartman-and-Vigilant Vow-level stuff. But legal, both according to your laws and our regulations.”
“Got it,” I said, and left, excited about the possibilities. I barely saw Rocko shoot a glare Pataki’s way as the door opened, then ignore both me and them until the door to the Green Room closed behind me. The support possibilities were endless. Warp Tennyson probably had a ton of synergies with Tele-Portal’s powers. I could grab Res-Cute, too; the minor league Magical Girl had made a career not of fighting villains but of saving people from disasters.
The possibilities were endless. I could even grab Lady Lockless’s power if I could convince her to give it up, though Tearjerker was probably a no-go.
But in the end, most of those heroes and villains were out. I couldn’t convince them to help me fast enough, and some villains had real reasons to hate me on top of the whole ‘don’t ask another super for their costume’ thing. There was only one person I could talk to about this.
As soon as I got back to the Green Room, I started typing.
RE: Personal Thank-You
Sara-N-Dipity,
Can I take you up on that offer? I won’t have time to meet since the Power War, classes, and studio obligations are taking up most of my time, but I have a request for that gift.
I’m signed up to work as an auxiliary for The Triad with my partner, Fursona. My power allows me to adopt other heroes’ costumes, as you know. But to do that, I need part of their costume gifted to me. To fill that role as an auxiliary, I need a solid support Costume, and picking up your power would fill that requirement.
I know it’s not usually okay to ask for another super’s costume, but in this case, you want to give me a gift anyway. Could I have something to base my support Costume on?
Thanks,
Magical Girl Understudy
Bee, out of her fursuit, looked over my shoulder. I could see her reflected eyes narrow on my laptop’s screen. “Didn’t you just get a support Costume?”
“Kind of. It’s a super-secret Pataki experiment, just like yours.” I pressed ‘send’ and stood up. “How about we order dinner in? I’m tired of cooking, and we both need to focus on classwork for a bit.”
“Sure. Thai?”
“Thai sounds great.” While she ordered, I paced the room, waiting for a response from Sara-N-Dipity.
Instead, my elevator door buzzed. I beckoned it up, but when it opened, it was empty. Instead, a single poker chip sat in the middle, along with a note.
Thought so,
Sara.
PS: We need you on the battlefield tomorrow. 72% chance of Theseus making a move in Mid-Town, and a 54% that whatever he does will splash to University. Deal with him before he becomes our problem.
I grinned and picked up the chip, already heading back toward Rocko’s Studio. As I went, I looked over my shoulder. “Bianca, it’s time for a re-rematch with Theseus!”
“Great! I’m ready to throw hands!”