[Free Agency: Act Three in Progress]
Fursona was just kidding. I hoped. If her power really relied on sugar like Kaiju-Kid’s, that could be a challenge to work around. Hopefully, she’d packed some of her own. “Did you bring enough for everyone?” I asked hopefully.
“No. Rocko said the suit would need a fuel source, so until I know how much it’ll burn, they’re all mine,” she said. "Delicious, nutritious Hi-C!”
I winced. Damn, she was serious. Then I composed myself, looking at the door to what I hoped would be The Agent’s lair. This was it. The big win. “Ready?”
“Battle plan?”
“No. We’ll call it when we see what’s inside the room.” I didn’t want to commit to something that wouldn’t work—flexibility was a virtue.
“Got it.”
My hand snaked out to the door, and Fursona coiled her considerable bulk into a sprinter’s pose. I nodded. She nodded back. The handle turned, and I jerked the door open.
As the Kaiju-Sona suit filled the door, I got a quick glimpse into the room. And I was thrilled.
The room was round, lined in futuristic chrome and potted ferns like the hallway. In the middle, a half-dozen Vs—looking newly empowered—milled around a smarmy, oily-looking man in a three-piece suit. The Agent took one look at the fursuit-clad hero filling his entryway, flipped his wallet open, and smiled winningly. The grin didn’t reach his eyes. “Hello, Fursona. I’m assuming you’re here to license that fantastic suit? I’m willing to offer you twice what I did at the job fair.”
I pushed past her, wand out. My eyes scanned him; he didn’t have a briefcase, and I couldn’t see a gun in plain sight—but he could be wearing a harness under his suit. If he didn’t have one, we could end this right here. “Agent, surrender, and I’ll make sure you get to Almhurst Penitentiary safely. You’re hurting people, and it has to stop.”
The Agent laughed. His nametag—I couldn’t read it from here—glowed slightly even in the well-lit room. Had his facade slipped at all? Maybe a touch, but I couldn’t tell. He pointed at me. “Vs, this is Magical Girl Understudy. She’s a problem for us. Get rid of her.”
Before any of them could move, I used [Power Weaving] and fired a [Limelight Barrage] into the crowd. Right away, I could tell not being in Spotlight Star would always be a letdown—a half-dozen [Starlances] scattered across the Vs, but they didn’t pack the same punch Stella-Lunar’s empowered ones did. Still, I got some hits in; a couple of Vs staggered back.
[Dramatic Damage! +4 Drama Points]
Fursona crashed into the temp villains a moment later; they scattered like bowling pins—except for one guy in a 3V1L mask whose muscles rippled as he grabbed my partner in a wrestling hold. He slid back a few feet, stopped, and dug in his heels.
And the whole time, The Agent backed away, keeping his temp vils between him and me.
I needed a breech—a big one. So I used [Quick Time Change] and [Freeze Frame], building my combo and getting ready to shred some temp vils. The Itsy Bitsy Spider played, and I spent my couple of free seconds rotating around the pile of vils.
[Flashy Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
[Floating Points: 3 Drama, 1 Flamboyance]
There. I had a line directly to The Agent! I used [Thunderhead], letting the shockwave component knock a hammer-wielding V who looked a lot like Candi Crush aside.
[Pause for Effect! +1 Drama Point]
[Power-Weaving! +6 Drama, 3 Flamboyance, and 1 Grit Point]
The storm cloud overhead filled the entire top half of the room. I ducked under a laser beam as it reflected against the chrome walls, sawing ferns into pieces. Fursona’s roar filled the room; it echoed off the round walls, giving the impression of a hundred Kaiju-Sonas.
I used [Ride the Lightning]. Surely, The Agent wouldn’t survive an empowered-[Thunderhead]-boosted [Ride the Lightning]. The tendril of electricity arced into him, splitting to zap a couple of nearby vils.
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
And he shimmered for a moment as the lightning broke on him. His body glowed for half a second, then flicked red. “Wow, you hit hard nowadays. You’re sure you don’t want to let bygones be bygones? I’d offer you a new deal if I could license your Rainy Day set-up. It’d be a real shocker for the Mutual Assistance League.”
“You don’t…you don’t even care that I’m here to fight you, do you?” I asked. My fists clenched. My heart pounded—I could feel it in my temples, under my domino mask.
“I’ll be honest with you,” The Agent said, lying, “there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
Kaiju-Sona smashed the muscle-bound temp villain into the tile floor. He bounced awkwardly, half-stood, and took a T-Rex tail to the chest for his trouble. I grinned. “I bet Kaiju-Sona can, though.”
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“I don’t think so.” The Agent put his hands behind his head and smiled winningly. His white teeth flashed in the fluorescent lights, and I grimaced. He was such a douchebag! And I knew just how to wipe the smile off his face.
“Want to bet? Fursona, have a juice box!”
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A lot can happen in ten seconds.
Fursona started laughing. She’d sounded a little scary while fighting the cloning V in the hall, but this sounded downright uncontrollable. She managed to stop for a second, then another a moment later.
Then, her fursuit started to grow. She rose quickly, towering over the three Vs who’d been trying to fight her. The muscle-bound grappler fell off her as her eye stalks swung around her head like morning stars. They touched the ceiling.
And she didn’t stop there. As her laughs grew more and more roar-like, the plaster cracked under her plushie pressure. Then it gave, buckling and folding like an upside-down taco. Plaster and chrome showered down around us, then beams splintered and tumbled to the ground. I dodged left.
The Agent ducked right.
“Emergency Teleport, Thornberry, now,” The Agent said, staring at the fifty-foot-tall and growing Kaiju-Sona. He shimmered and vanished as I tried to [Wind Front] him off his feet. The hurricane-force wind passed through the spot he’d just been and knocked a temp V onto the cracked, sharp tiles.
[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]
Fursona’s tail thrashed. Ferns and chrome plating flew everywhere. The setting sun over North Poudre silhouetted her perfectly as she roared over the remains of Fred Callahan’s house—one thing was for sure: we didn’t need to worry about this base anymore.
One tree trunk of a leg slammed into the tile, buckling it as water poured down in a torrent from broken pipes. The air smelled like electricity and smoke as Fursona waded through the rubble and erupted toward the sky.
Five Vs remained; the super-strength one had gotten back up, but another—the laser-beamer, maybe?—was down for the count. I watched as she stomped another into the tile before he could so much as use a power. Then her tail split the air as it whistled toward me.
I used [Quick-Time Change] and [Freeze Framed], switching back to Understudy and dodging her accidental attack. “Watch where you’re aiming, Fursona!”
She didn’t say anything. She roared, a long, guttural half-shriek that I swore people could hear in Mid-Town. Then, her flame breath washed over Fred Callahan’s former house, setting the wooden frame ablaze.
As she stomped out of the wreckage, four Vs arrayed in front of her, I used [Solar Wing] and got into the air around her head. “You lead, I’ll cover,” I said.
The massive head nodded, eye-stalks flopping through the air like boulders, and I pulled up a little higher. The Agent was gone—we didn’t know where he’d gone, and as far as I could tell, neither did the Vs. So, we couldn’t win, not really.
But Fursona seemed determined to make sure 3V1L paid the price. A gout of pinkish-red fire burst from her mouth toward one of the Vs. As it engulfed her and her superhero damage ticked down, I fired a [Starlance] toward the laser V, trying to suppress him.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
It hit. He hit the ground a moment later, holding his hands up. “Glass cannons, they’re all the same,” I said.
Fursona laughed a gravelly, roared laugh as she knocked yet another V to the side. Her movements looked sloppier than they had just a few seconds ago; her timer had to be running low, too. But we only had one V left. I zipped toward the plant-conjuring V—who hadn’t accomplished anything in the fight. “You want to just not?”
He glared at me, face turned up toward the sunset. His mouth opened to say something, but before he could, something massive eclipsed the pale yellow winter sun. Fursona loomed behind me—I couldn’t turn to see her, but it couldn’t be anyone else. Her roar split the air, and the flames leaking from her plushie mouth lit up the evening sky in pink.
The V’s mouth snapped closed, and he raised his hands.
“Good choice.”
[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Investigative Episode: Free Agency - R]
[Penalties: 0x Rating Warnings - No Penalty]
[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]
[We’ll Call It A Draw! +2 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Drama + Flamboyance - Goal Met: +10 to Focused Styles]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 155/523]
[HP 14/14]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (19)
►Cunning (24)
►Drama (58 (Skill Roll Available)
► Limelight Barrage 2
► Starlance 2
►Flamboyance (39)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Solar Wing 2
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Improvised Ovation 1
►Grit (19)
► Freeze Frame 2
[Rank-Up! Starlance 3: Starlance fires a Stellar Ray at a secondary target 10% of the time]
----------------------------------------
Bee held it together inside the Kaiju-Sona suit until we got back to the Green Room. She shrank down—thank God—after the Episode ended, and I loaded her onto my [Solar Wing] sailboard. I could feel her shivering the whole time, but that was pretty normal. If she didn’t have control, flight was still rough for her.
But then she didn’t stop when we landed, either. That was worrying; she usually pulled it together pretty quickly. But this time, she didn’t stop as we worked our way down the stairs or when I unzipped the Kaiju-Sona suit. Her lips chattered as she stuttered a quick “Sorry” my way, but I ignored her. She looked pale, and while she didn’t feel cold, something was definitely off.
“We’re okay.” I tried to make myself seem as peppy as possible because she looked so defeated. She’d been crushed after losses before, but we’d at least tied. I tried to give her a warm hug, but she shrugged it off and flopped onto the conversation pit’s sofa.
“We’re not. Rocko didn’t…didn’t tell me that it’d take that much out of me. I need…”
“Need what?” I stood up, ready to get my girlfriend whatever she needed.
“Citrus. Do we have any oranges? It worked for other size-increasing heroes in the movies.”
Oh. Oh! It wasn’t a problem with the fight. It was just…she’d said the fur-zilla mode or whatever needed fuel. It had probably burned through the juice box in a matter of seconds. I stood up and headed to the kitchen. There had to be oranges there. How could there not be oranges there?
I checked the fridge, the pantry, and everywhere else, but couldn’t track any down. Had we been to the store recently? Or had I just forgotten to buy them the last couple of trips? I couldn’t remember. But I did have one ace up my sleeve.
I grabbed the tube of concentrated juice from the freezer and put it in the microwave. Deep inside me, Ramsey Fierri was rolling in her metaphorical grave, but I didn’t care. Bee was going to hate the flavor, but sometimes, it wasn’t really about whether you liked it. It was about taking your medicine.
The microwave beeped, and I poured the melted pinkish-orange concentrate into a pitcher, filled it with water, and stirred. When it looked mixed enough, I poured a single glass—I wanted nothing to do with the sour abomination I’d created—and brought it to Bee.
She stared at it, blinked, and then gulped it down. The shaking slowed down over the next minute or two, and she looked up at me from the couch, a mix of revulsion and gratefulness on her face. “Really? Grapefruit juice?”