I didn’t love our odds.

Fursona was still downstairs, destroying the already-wrecked lobby with Sister Sly. I had a solid position on the main stairwell, but if any of the pro-galaxy supers headed for the fire stairs, I wouldn’t be able to hold here. And worse, all three other supers—Quickstrike, Punch, and, of course, Iron Fist—seemed intent not on finding another way up, but on going right through me.

This wasn’t going to work. Where was Mindstorm? More importantly, where was Mrs. N? We could hold this tower forever with her and the other Tottergarden heroes. Without them?

I didn’t have time to think more about it. Quickstrike and Punch, who’d picked himself up from my massive [Ride the Lightning], rushed the stairs, and I spun in place, shifting to Magical Girl Understudy. As the [Quick-Time Change] finished, I sprinted up the next flight, abandoning the second floor to the attacking supers. Quickstrike came around the corner, followed by Punch, and I fired a [Limelight Barrage] into them from the top of the stairs.

[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]

[Rejuvenation Activated: HP 6/14]

[Dramatic Damage! +4 Drama Points]

Quickstrike ducked the first shot, which caught Punch in the face. As the others homed in on the temporarily stunned hero, Quickstrike zipped left and right, eating damage and blocking with his staff where he could. When the dust cleared, he looked a little worse for wear, but Punch was still in the fight.

“God dammit,” I swore as the gap closed far too quickly. Quickstrike’s staff lunged out, but even as I dodged it, a second, spectral one hit me and knocked me back—right out of range of Punch, whose fist slammed through the white drywall and ripped out, filling the third-floor hall with dust.

[HP 4/14]

As I tried to figure out how to counter my two opponents, Iron Fist ran past. I cursed under my breath—he was heading further up. “Fursona, I need your help up here!” I yelled.

“I’m a little busy,” Bee said over my headset. “She came ready to deal with me, so it’s a fair fight!”

“Fine! I’ll do it myself!” I threw myself out the window and used [Solar Wing], then angled straight up. As the shattering glass rained down on the street, I headed toward the still-massive gap in the Council of Heroes building where Full Kaiju Fursona had ripped the facade off when she’d transformed.

I slid into the Council of Heroes room. If I was right, neither Punch, Quickstrike, or Iron Fist could get up here before I finished what I had to do. I started slow-transforming into Copy Cat, then began a second slow transformation from the cat form into Super Girl Spotlight Star. With enough planning, I’d get all eight of my moves, and since I had time—not to mention a three-on-one fight to look forward to—I was going to take every advantage I could.

“Is it the fuzz?” Lady Lockless asked from the corner, making me jump.

“Oh, shit, I forgot you were in here,” I said as the transformation finished. “Yeah, it’s a bunch of pro-galaxy supers. Think you can help?”

[Advanced Accessories: Magical Girl Understudy, Magical Girl Rainy Day, Copy Cat]

[Skill Siphon Activated: Style Points Disabled]

[Meter’s Running: 8/8]

“I’m no good in a fight,” the ballgown-clad supervillain said, leaning on her cane a little. “But I know something you don’t about the plan. They’re not here for the tower. They’re probably here for me.”

I rolled my eyes under my hood. “Really?”

“Yeah. Remember, I can pop any lock, right? That means opening a door to the Hot Zone. They barricaded most of them, but the Council of Heroes tower and a few others are still only locked. That means I could open the Hot Zone whenever I wanted to.”

This time, there was no eye roll. Instead, I blinked, my jaw practically on the floor. It was a good thing there weren’t any cameras around, because suddenly, the plan would make sense to anyone who’d heard what she just said. Mindstorm attacked other towers because she needed to spread out the pro-Ilneat supers. If all we had was the Tokyexico City door, they could just defend there. The more towers we had, the better our odds were.

But only if we still had Lady Lockless. And someone on their side knew she was important.

I sent another quick message on my watch.

“Hopefully, that’ll get her moving,” I muttered. “So, any panic rooms or anything like that?”

"You’re going to need a panic room when I’m done with you!” Iron Fist shouted from the door.

I whirled. All three stood on the far side of the room, looking ready for a fight. Iron Fist, however, seemed to want to banter. The right thing to do here was stall. To take him up on it and taunt back. But the reality on the ground was that I had a disgustingly strong advantage, and they didn’t seem to realize it yet.

The fight from here had three priorities.

First, I couldn’t let them get Lady Lockless. If she was really as important as she seemed to think, keeping her safe—and, more importantly, un-kidnapped—had to be my main goal. If I had to abandon the tower to protect her, so be it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Second, I needed to keep the tower under Pro-Earth control. That meant beating the three toughs they’d sent to fight me, getting downstairs, and dealing with Sister Sly—assuming Fursona hadn’t won by then. If I could pull off that win, I could probably let Mindstorm know the place was safe.

And last, and least immediately pressing, I needed to figure out why my damn backup wasn’t here.

With a rough plan—or at least a priority list—in place, I let loose with a [Limelight Barrage]. The [Maximum Starlances] slammed into Punch and Quickstrike, driving them back toward the shattered steel door, but Iron Fist tanked the one that had hit him just fine. He was still fresh—and a full bruiser on top of that.

[Dramatic Damage!]

[Meter’s Running 7/8]

But even with a somewhat disappointing opener, I’d shifted the whole balance of the fight. All three supers split up, unwilling to clump up in case I could do that again. That was fine with me. As Punch and Quickstrike dove in from the sides, I whirled in place. Iron Fist was heading straight in, and all three would hit me at the same time.

Unless…

I used [Wind Front].

The hurricane-force blast threw everyone, including Lady Lockless, against the walls. Quickstrike ran against it, ending up outside the building as a few steel plates gave way. Punch slammed into a wall and slumped down. But Iron Fist recovered quickly, charging up his fist and slamming it into Lady Lockless. I winced as she hit the wall a second time, then started convulsing as Iron Fist’s…iron fist slammed into her repeatedly.

[Badass Move!]

[Meter’s Running! 6/8]

I sprinted toward him, readying a [Pouncing Panther], but he grabbed the unconscious supervillainess and whirled her around like a shield. “Game over, Understudy! We win!”

“Nah,” I said and used [Stage Dressing]. As I vanished more completely than ever, I leaped to the side with [Pouncing Panthers], then ran toward the hostage-holding bruiser.

[Dastardly Plan!]

[Badass Move!]

[Meter’s Running! 4/8]

He whirled, flipping Lady Lockless through the air, and I grinned ferally. He’d spun the wrong way! I closed the gap and used [Doom Ball], opening wounds across his back, then followed it up with [Cat-Scratch Fever]. The damage over time and blind hit almost immediately, and I backed off as he quickly fell to the ground.

[Badass Move!]

[Dramatic Damage!]

[Meter’s Running! 2/8]

From here, it should have been easy. But when I turned around to deal with Quickstrike, I got a face-full of bo staff instead. It caught me in the left cheek, and I felt my whole head spin right. My body followed it a moment later, and I tried to roll with it and turn the fall into a graceful spin.

[HP 2/14]

As I recovered into a three-point superhero stance, I looked at my last opponent. He wasn’t done—not by a long shot—and I didn’t have that many moves left. I needed to play a long game, too; with Lady Lockless already out of superhero damage, getting her really hurt wasn’t a risk I could take.

So, instead of going with [Ride the Lightning], I used [Virga]. Sure, it’d pick up Iron Fist and Punch, but I needed the HP, and so did Lady L.

[Medic!]

[HP 9/14]

[Doctors Without Borders]

[Meter’s Running! 1/8]

Then, before Iron Fist could get too comfortable, I fired a [Ride the Lightning] his way. He went right back down, electricity coursing through him. That left me with an almost-out Punch, plus whatever Quickstrike had left in the tank.

Easy.

I stood between the two melee supers and Lady Lockless as I transformed back into Understudy; this was a winnable fight now, and that meant Priority Three might be on the table. As Quickstrike split into four colored versions of himself. The four Quickstrikes started swinging toward me, and I [Quick-Time Changed] back to Rainy Day.

[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]

[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]

I could have used my [Freeze Frame] time to dodge, but I couldn’t risk getting out of the way and exposing Lady Lockless more. So, I tried something else instead. A [Thunderhead] into [Wind Front] knocked all four away, with only a handful of hits taken.

[Pause for Effect! +1 Drama Point]

[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]

That left me with a problem, though; Rainy Day was out of juice. Sure, I could stall all day, but I only had to mess up once to—

Something roared into the room, breathing fire and trailing bits of shredded, flaming plush. Fursona’s Kaiju-Sona suit slammed into Quickstrike before he could react, and the green, red, and blue extra copies disappeared as she wrapped him in a massive hug and vomited flames onto him.

In just a second, the fight was over. All three pro-galaxy supers lay defeated on the ground. And more importantly, Lady Lockless was alive, un-kidnapped, and—if a little grumpy about pain—at least a little grateful for the bail-out.

[Episode Finished!]

[Episode: Power War: The Battle of Mid-Town - R]

[Penalties: 0x Rating Warnings - No Penalty]

[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]

[Winner, Winner! +3 of each Style Point]

[Role Focus: Grit + Drama - Goal Met: +10 to Focused Styles]

[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 98/523]

[HP 1/14]

[Styles and Skills]

►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence

►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving

►Badass (42)

►Cunning (34)

►Drama (31)

► Limelight Barrage 2

► Starlance 2

►Flamboyance (16)

►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 (28)

► Freeze Frame 2

[50 Cunning Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]

[50 Drama Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]

[50 Grit Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]

[Rank-Up! Stage Dressing 1 > Stage Dressing 2: Camouflage is significantly stronger, beating some detection devices and powers.]

[Rank-Up! Science has Rules? 0> Science has Rules? 1: +1 active device.]

[Skill Upgrade! Fursonal Furcefield > Nine Lives: Chance to heal damage back on negating damage.]

With the fight wrapped up, Fursona and I dragged the semiconscious supers back downstairs and deposited them outside of the Council of Heroes building. Lady Lockless tagged along, breathing hard on the way back up the first flight of stairs, and I raised an eyebrow at her. “I think he dislocated something during the pummeling. I’ll be okay—it happens all the time.”

“You’re sure? I could give you a ride back up to the top,” I said. She didn’t look good at all; she was pale, with a tight, drawn-looking face. Her ballgown was a little askew, too, but that seemed pretty minor.

For a second, I thought she’d agree. But then she shook her head. “No, I’m fine. After all, I’m going to have to be tough enough for Phase Two.”