Tuesday, January 5

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[Welcome to Rocko’s Studio. System Disabled. Now arriving Backstage]

I hadn’t seen heads or tails of Rocko since Golden Goose’s death and had only talked to them a couple of times in the months following it; in a way, it had been nice, but having some idea of what the studio wanted from me helped. Rocko was always there, ready to greet us with a big, gorilla-toothed smile and a lack of personal space. So, as Bianca and I stepped into the Hot Zone and Rocko’s Studio, only to be greeted by an empty heat, I could only look around in confusion.

There weren’t even any water bottles for us.

“Rocko? Rocko, you there?” Bee called into the office.

It felt…off. They’d always greeted us, and now they were nowhere to be seen. I sat in an uncomfortably warm plastic chair and waited for the gorilla/otter alien to show up. I sort of regretted hanging up on them over winter break; were they pissed at me, or was this something else?

Eventually, though, a door opened, and a harried-looking Rocko appeared. I could usually tell how stressed the four-armed Ilneat was by how many cigars they were smoking. Today was the first four-alarm day I’d ever seen.

It took the Ilneat almost three seconds to notice us. When they did, they blinked, put one cigar out on their desk ashtray, and grinned a toothy grin. “DuPont! Marino! What are you doing here?”

“You…asked us to come half an hour ago?” Bee answered. “You said you and Pataki had something for—“

“Oh! Oh, yes, we definitely have something for you.” They sat down heavily at their desk, rubbing their black eyes. “Pataki. They’re here.”

The second Ilneat shouted something from Costuming. Rocko grumbled, pushed themselves out of their chair, and stomped away. “You two stay here. Don’t move.”

The moment the door slammed shut behind my producer, I looked at Bee. “Something’s funny here.”

“Agreed. Should we investigate?”

I thought about it. I really did. But in the end, Rocko’s business was their business, not mine. They’d made it pretty clear that I kicked butt for the camera drones and they did the business side of things. Right now, that meant my priority was on beating 3V1L, tracking down The Agent, and ending his plotting—not on figuring out what had Rocko’s nonexistent underwear in a twist.

Instead, I let myself be excited for a moment. Whatever Pataki had been working on, it had required some of Vigilant Vow’s costume, plus a costume scrap they wouldn’t even tell me about, it was so high-secrecy. It had to be cool. Really cool!

A mannequin on wheels rolled out into the lobby. Even covered by a sheet, I could see it was massive; Rocko pushed it with all four arms, huffing and puffing. “Marino, you’re out here. Yours is easy to adjust with straps. DuPont, you’re with Pataki in Costuming. Let’s get going, girls!”

----------------------------------------

“Alright, DuPont, let’s talk shop. I’ve been watching your Episodes, and you’ve got all the powers you’ll ever need to dominate. Anything else you get is just an added bonus.”

I didn’t agree with Pataki at all. Compared to someone like Stella-Lunar, I was hopelessly outmatched. I opened my mouth to say as much, but the Ilneat pulled the cigarette out of their mouth and held up their hand. Their raspy drawl continued almost without pause. “What you need is raw numerical power. Unfortunately, most heroes can only get that by spending time in Episodes. But you—and Marino—are special, and I’ve been working on a way around that little problem.

“So, let me start by getting you in the machine. Feet on the Xs, hands out from your body, and so on. We’ll start with the dummy costume, then give you an explanation once I’ve introduced it.”

“Got it,” I said, climbing onto the scanning machine, where the hard light me appeared after a long, drawn-out process.

“Your biggest problem is that, yeah, you’re flexible, and that lets you win fights against equally-powered enemies. That’s a good thing, but you’re not dealing with an equally-powered enemy, are you? You’re dealing with major league vils more and more frequently, and you remember what happened with Stella-Lunar, right?”

“Yeah, I remember I survived for a few minutes.”

“Sure, sure. That’s not gonna cut it against The Agent. That’s barely cutting it against his minions, and he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve that he hasn’t revealed yet. So.”

“So?”

Pataki didn’t say much more, just mumbled and fiddled with the controls. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, an outfit appeared over my body. It fit the mannequin me perfectly, but it felt completely off at the same time. Like Pataki was trying to hide something about it. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and stared.

“Introducing Super Girl Spotlight Star,” Pataki drawled. They smiled predatorily—an odd look with their gorilla teeth, and ran their free hand through their fur. “This one was my magnum opus until Marino’s costume. Might still be, in fact. It combines powers from your former rival, Vigilant Vow, and a top-ranked superhero who will remain anonymous but doesn’t need her costume anymore. Don’t ask how I got that costume fragment, by the way. It’s complicated.”

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I wasn’t about to ask. I was too busy staring.

The Spotlight Star Costume wasn’t like anything I’d worn before. I was used to showing a little leg, and to having a lightweight outfit, but the skirts on this thing felt more Victorian than ballet. They poofed out and then draped down to my calves. I couldn’t decide whether they were armored or just ridiculous, though the gauntlets and vambraces made me think armor. Not the sleek, futuristic armor of Stella-Lunar, though; no, this felt positively medieval.

The hood was more proof that Pataki had been inspired by a faux-middle-ages aesthetic. It, like the whole dress, was white with red-pink and sky-blue highlights, comedy and tragedy masks, and entirely too many stars. It looked a lot like my little league outfit—if someone had decided to armor it, add even more bows and frills, and give it an ominous-looking hood.

I reached out to touch it, but Pataki cleared their throat. “Powers first. You need to understand its restrictions. I had to bend a lot of rules to get the Style System to even acknowledge what we wanted the costume to do.” They tapped on their computer screen for a moment, and a system message popped up. “Come look.”

I looked. The Costume was nothing like anything I’d seen before, with the possible exception of Rescue Girl Lucky Star, which had two Signature Skills. But instead of two, this one had four—and no powers I could see. “Okay, you’ve got me. How does this work?”

[Costume - Super Girl Spotlight Star]

[HP X/X]

[Styles and Skills]

►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence

►Badass

►Cunning

►Signature Skill - Advanced Accessories

►Signature Skill - Style Siphon

►Drama

►Signature Skill - Meter’s Running (8/8)

►Flamboyance

►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 1

►Stored Costumes: (Understudy)

►Grit

“Well, that’s where I came in,” Pataki said proudly. “Rocko wanted this done last year, but it wasn’t a realistic timeline. But with the right combination of system prompts, a good box of costume scraps, and some time, I came up with three Signature Skills that, together, did the jobs we were looking for. First up is [Advanced Accessories].”

The screen shifted, the words flipping like a skill roll until the first of three Signature Skills’ descriptions appeared.

[Signature Skill: Advanced Accessories: Gain access to all equipped Costumes’ non-Signature powers at maximum power. Reset all uses/Act]

I cracked my knuckles, smiling. If I had my way, I’d spend the rest of my career in this suit, just based on this one power. It completely neutralized every weakness I had, like a dream come true. In fact…

“Could I stand up to Stella-Lunar with this power?” I asked, dreams of the fight in Vigilant Vow’s lair filling my mind. It wouldn’t ever end that way again. If we ran into each other, and she wanted to fight me, I’d show her. Maybe a friendly spar?

“No. If this was the only power Spotlight Star had, you could probably beat her.” Pataki let me fantasize for another three seconds before crushing my dreams. “This was the initial power I designed the Costume around, but the Style System refused to allow it. Didn’t give me a reason for the refusal. Just wouldn’t let it happen. It worked perfectly on the basic sims, but actually putting it together? No way!”

The computer screen changed again.

[Signature Skill: Style Siphon: Using powers in this costume does not generate Style Points]

“So, I had to slap a couple of restrictions on its power level. Sorry.”

I winced. “So, using this Costume slows down my growth?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. What’s the last Signature Skill?” I asked.

[Signature Skill: Meter’s Running: Only eight power-uses per use of the Spotlight Star costume. Can only use 1/Episode]

“Ouch,” I said. “That’s pretty bad.”

“Honestly, it’s not,” Pataki said. “After the first restriction, I spent some time tinkering with restrictions that the Style System would see as keeping its power in line with a minor league hero’s power, but that wouldn’t play out that way in reality. This was the best option because it negates the first drawback. You don’t gain Style Points, but since you only get eight powers as Spotlight Star in an Episode, you’ll still use your regular Costumes enough that you won’t fall behind too much.”

“No, I get it,” I said, rubbing my eyes and stepping off the machine’s X. “But look, you sold this as the solution to my Agent problem. I’m not seeing it.”

Pataki glanced away for a moment, then looked back, but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “How about this, then? You’ve got a lead on The Agent. Follow up on it, take Spotlight Star with you, and give it a test run. Then decide how you feel about my super suit.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but held my tongue. Instead, I nodded slowly. “Thanks, Pataki. I’m sure it’s a good Costume. I’m just trying to work through the restrictions and figure out how to use it.”

“That’s what test drives are for.”

“DuPont, get out here! Time for you two to go,” Rocko’s voice pushed into the room, followed by Rocko themselves. They looked over me and the virtual costume. “Well? Will it work?”

“Yes,” I said. And it would. It’d give me a huge power spike on demand, and if I could use it against The Agent before he knew about it, maybe I could catch him off guard. The restrictions were rough, though. Still, I plastered a smile on my face. “It’s great.”

“Don’t sound so enthusiastic. Marino’s done packing her new suit up, so you two need to get out there and get to work. You’ve wasted enough time playing around with 3V1L. We need a decisive victory that forces The Agent out of hiding and into a battle you two can win, and these costumes are your key to that.”

“Thanks, Rocko. Thanks, Pataki,” I said and headed for the door.

[System Enabled]

The moment the door to the Green Room closed, Bianca sat in the conversation pit, bouncing on the sofa. Her backpack was absolutely stuffed full, and I raised an eyebrow at the yellow-green croc tail sticking out of it. But her question hit first. “So, what’d you get?”

“Super Girl Spotlight Star.” I ran through the description, and Bianca grinned the whole time. She nodded as I explained the restrictions, asking questions the whole time.

Then she dropped one I wasn’t expecting. “What’s the definition of maximum power?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, if maximum power is the biggest anyone’s ever gotten that power, that’s one thing. But if it’s the biggest the System’s capable of granting, that could be a very, very different scale. I’m honestly scared if it’s that, so hopefully, it’s not.”

“Yeah, I bet it’s max anyone’s gotten my powers, or the biggest anyone’s gotten a power. Something like that. Otherwise, it would be broken.” I stretched and pointed at the backpack. “What’d you get?”

Bianca’s smile grew wider until it looked like her face was about to split in two. “Remember the Playpen Patrol’s new kid last Christmas?”

“Yeah. Why?”

If anything, her smile was even brighter. I shivered as she pulled the green and yellow plushie monster costume out of her backpack, taking her time to stand up and hold it upright. Then she said one word. “Kaiju-Sona.”

I couldn’t stop laughing—a little of the funny kind, but mostly the kind villains did when they went mad with power. That was a bad sign, but all the same. Between bursts of giggles, I thought about The Agent. He wouldn’t know what hit him.