We had three minutes to come up with a plan that beat the Third V, an unknown number of henchmen, and whatever else 3V1L’s lair had inside. Our resources were reset: I had Understudy, Rainy Day, Copy Cat, and Lucky Star, while Fursona was sticking with the Roo-sona fursuit.
We had options. But they weren’t great ones.
“Through the front door? I go first; you cover in Understudy? That might work,” Fursona suggested from our perch on the roof.
“Maybe. But I don’t want to get into a messy firefight when they’ve got a hostage. Remember my team’s battle plan during Combat Styles?” I asked. We’d tried splitting up as villains to pin down the heroes and beat them before they reached the hostage. It hadn’t worked. “I don’t think we’d get that lucky. This is a professional supervillain organization with experience in its own base. They won’t separate.”
“No, you’re right. That’d be too much luck to hope for. We could call for help.”
“Two minutes. Not enough time for help to get here, and Rocko would kill us. We’re all we’ve got.” I grinned. “How about we try stealth? We sneak in, take out the henches between us and Tractor-Beam-Girl, and sneak out.”
“It might work. Think Tractor-Beam-Girl would ever be stealthy?” Fursona asked. “I bet she starts complaining the moment we find her.”
“Maybe. Good with that plan?”
“Hell yes. Let’s find a back door.” Fursona hopped to the building’s edge, then slid down a ladder like it was nothing. I followed a little more sedately. The whole block didn’t have power—or at least, none of the buildings had working fans on their roofs, so they probably didn’t have cameras. We wouldn’t have to worry about that.
[Power War: Beyond Good and 3V1L: Act Three in Progress]
Fursona cracked a door open, peeked inside, and waved me forward. Together, we crept into 3V1L’s lair. Her fursuit’s footfalls were silent, but my boots clicked just slightly. “I almost want you in Copy Cat,” she murmured through our headset.
I shrugged. We’d never tried stealth before, and she was right; Copy Cat had the best set-up for quick, sneaky movement. But I didn’t think this would stay a stealth mission for long—not in Act Three. We crept through the store’s back rooms, avoiding the floppy plastic doors separating the stock rooms from the selling floor, and pushed through a transparent, hanging barrier between two sections.
Suddenly, Fursona sprang forward and slammed into something with a thump!
I held out my wand and hurried forward, but Fursona had already taken out the hench. He lay on the ground, unmoving except for a slight rise and fall in his chest. “Good job,” I murmured.
“Thanks!” Fursona didn’t need to be as quiet. Her modulator blocked out her regular voice when she used the Triad comm system, so I could feel her excitement. “One down, a bunch to go.”
“Yep.” We stepped over the unconscious henchman, and I took point for a moment. My wand glowed in the dark passageways, and the moment I saw something move ahead of me, I activated [Spotlight Strike]. The highlight marked a spot between the henchman’s shoulder blades, and a moment later, my fist connected. She dropped like a sack of potatoes.
[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point]
We kept pushing into the building, knocking out henches and trying to stay out of sight in the stacked cardboard boxes that had once held bottles of ketchup and mayonnaise but now probably hid something more nefarious. Past a trash compactor filled with recyclables, up a flight of stairs, and into a break room where an old, boxy TV had once played crappy daytime TV for the baggers and checkers on their breaks. I was starting to believe this whole place wasn’t a lair at all.
Then I opened the door to the manager’s old office, expecting more of the same.
Instead, I saw a circular steel door ajar on its massive hinges. It led into a space that wasn’t dark, and I hesitated, fidgeting. Had they seen us coming? If they had power inside, they could have a security system running.
Then Fursona pulled the door open, and all hell broke loose.
Bullets started flying, and Fursona tanked them on her [Fursonal Fursuit]. I pushed her forward to clear a shot for myself and fired a [Bit-Part Barrage] into the waiting henches, which took out three. Then, without needing to tell me, Fursona rushed into the gap I’d just cleared, bounding across the room and slamming a hench onto the floor hard enough that I felt it in my boots.
[Dramatic Damage! +3 Drama Points]
“This isn’t a stealth mission anymore, Understudy!” Fursona yelled. I nodded and rushed one of the remaining henches, ducking under his pistol’s barrel before he could fire it and using [Spotlight Strike] to punch him in the kidney.
[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point]
Another pair of henches rushed in with batons. One swung at Fursona, but she leveled him with a [Double Kick] to the chest. The other shouted into a headset. “Boss, it’s the Magical Girl! The Magical Girl and the—“
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WHAM!
My [Spotlight Strike] marked the side of his head, and a moment later, my kick followed it, crushing the headset and dropping him.
[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point]
“Okay, stealth’s done! Fast and hard!” I said. I rushed down the wide hall before more henches could fill it, then took a left. Fursona followed half a step behind me. We bowled over another henchman, not bothering to use a power and just shoving past. Wherever they were keeping Tractor-Beam-Girl, it couldn’t be too far—the building wasn’t that big.
A right, one more left, and I heard a familiar voice from inside a locked room. “What the hell? I told you I was following them, and you didn’t listen! Who are these guys, anyway? 3V1L? What kind of name is that?” Something slammed against the door from inside just as a pair of voices rang out on the store’s intercom.
“Third V, First V! We need a clean-up on Aisle Three!” The voice sounded synthesized but definitely male, and even through the static-fuzzed PA system, it oozed authority. I ran through my list of villains with that kind of power in their words before landing on the only suspect I felt confident in. Monologue. It had to be Monologue.
“Fursona, Monologue’s the One L,” I said. It explained everything—the leadership changes, the low-powered operation compared to before, and especially how he managed to avoid being pinned down. He didn’t have to be here. He didn’t have to attend Episodes to have an impact.
Fursona kicked the door, then kicked it again. It popped off its hinges, and she cracked her fursuit’s knuckles as Tractor-Beam-Girl’s pissed-off face popped into view. “That’s a great theory, babe, but maybe we put it on the back burner for now. Two Vs incoming!”
----------------------------------------
After seeing all the different Vs so far, I expected the First V to have some gimmick. We’d had a swordsman, a melee-only martial artist with ranged protection, a flier, and a vehicle genius with a remote control and rover. I guessed the most recent V—and the third this Episode—would be a ranged specialist.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
Fursona, Tractor-Beam-Girl, and I ran for the exit with everything we had, but as we reached the wide hall, we ran into the Third V setting up a new, neon-glowing rover. It wheeled toward us, a riot shield in one mechanical hand and an electric baton in the other. It’d be a menace wherever it went, and the Third V had hunkered down behind a plastic-and-steel barrier; she’d be a tough target to get to.
“Howdy,” the First V said, stepping through the round steel door and shutting it behind him. I cringed at the greeting, but it fit him; he was long and lanky and wearing a cowboy’s duster—red, of course. He held a pair of wide-barreled revolvers, one in each hand. His lips pressed into a smirk. “You’re kidnapping what we’ve rightfully stolen, rustlers.”
I didn’t waste any time, firing a [Starlance] at him; it slammed into his duster as he whirled, vanishing without seeming to hurt him, but I still got a Style System notification.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
“So it’s a shootout, then? Alright, partner.” The pistols went up, both muzzles flashed, and a moment later, the whole world started spinning as he threw himself into the air. Fursona, Tractor-Beam-Girl, and I tilted in a full circle along with the world as he jogged through the air in seeming slow motion, and bullets ripped through the air, leaving ripples behind.
Every shot hit home. Every. Single. One. They slammed into Fursona and me, leaving Tractor-Beam-Girl untouched for now. I rocked backward, falling dramatically to the floor as the cowboy-themed V’s power ended.
[HP 1/12]
[Debuff Acquired: Gun-Fu Fuzz: Speed reduced by 1%, stacking]
“Okay, new plan,” I muttered into my mic. “We need to get out of here!”
Fursona nodded. “I agree.”
But before we could escape, Tractor-Beam-Girl dove toward the cowboy, reaching out with her two gravity grips to disarm him. His guns flashed, she flew backward, and he dropped them—only to pull two more from nowhere as the first two vanished. “[Never Reload], ladies and gents. Now [Dance]!”
As bullets cracked from his barrels and ricocheted around the room, I ducked and leaped over them. Then I realized, in horror, that he was herding the three of us toward the robot. “We’re about to be caught between a rock and a bullet-filled place!” I said.
“Plan!?” Fursona shouted.
“Nope!” I didn’t have anything. None of my powers could get us all out of this.
Wait. None of my powers could get us all out of this. I [Quick-Time Changed], letting [I-Frame Transform] eat some shots until I was on the other side of the shooting and shifting into Lucky Star.
[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
“Get Tractor-Beam-Girl hit! Use her as cover!” I said through my mic, following the wave of bullets as the First V grabbed another gun, this one a hand-held submachine gun, and kept firing. Fursona looked at me, and even though she wore her helmet, I could see her thoughts; I’d clearly lost my mind.
But she did it. She ducked behind our sidekick.
A moment later, bullets started hitting her, and she dropped to the floor. I immediately activated [Noncombatant Teleport] before she could do something stupid like try to get back up. A portal opened under her, and she disappeared—safe and away from the fighting. A moment later, the bullets stopped.
[Dramatic Rescue! +1 Drama Point]
[Dangerous Idea! +1 Cunning Point, +1 Badass Point]
[Rescue Re-arm! +1 Noncombatant Teleport Use]
“What in tarnation?” The First V asked.
A moment later, the electro-baton-wielding rover slapped Fursona with it, and she screamed. I caught it through the modulator and my mic simultaneously, the two voices mixing as electricity coursed through her fursuit. Plushie fur singed and curled as it blackened, but after a moment, my partner disengaged and flopped onto the ground, panting.
I saw an opportunity and dashed forward, but a storm of lead cut me off as the First V opened fire. “No, little lady, can’t let you do that,” he said, dropping the submachine gun and pulling out a battle rifle. I’d seen those before, in history books about pre-Launch Day militaries, and as he pulled the trigger, its thunderous retort drowned out whatever else he’d been saying.
I threw myself into the air, trying to Gun-Fu my way across the battlefield to reach Fursona, but the bullets caught me and shoved me into a wall.
[HP 0/12]
Still, I was close. Close enough that I could get her out of here. I opened an [Emergency Teleport] under her. As the portal opened, she stared at me. Then she threw herself at me, away from safety. I had just enough time to swear under my breath. My girlfriend wasn’t taking our best way out. She was going to throw the whole Episode right here!
Then, the kangaroo fursuit crashed into me, pushing me up against the wall again. As we tried to untangle ourselves, the baton-wielding robot rolled forward, and the First V pulled out a rocket launcher.
I didn’t have anything left. Lucky Star was the right Costume to save Fursona and Tractor-Beam-Girl, but not to fight against two Vs. So I did the only thing I could. I pushed the emergency Triad button and asked for help.