Wednesday, February 10
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Tonight was our turn on Council of Heroes Tower Defense. We—Honeycomb, Vigilant Vow, Mrs. N, Bee, and I—were supposed to take the shift until eleven, when a couple of heavy hitters would relieve us.
Bee and I were here. But we couldn’t see the other three anywhere.
Classes had been going…honestly, I had no idea how classes had been the last week. Bee and I hadn’t attended anything, and as far as we could tell, neither had most of the other super-students. I wasn’t sure the professors were even hosting classes anymore.
So, yeah. Classes had been going. End of sentence. Moving on.
Most of my focus had been on the rebellion, on playing games with Su-Bin as much as I could, and on slowly…delicately…guiding her toward the understanding that some supers were on her side. After the dozenth time playing a spatial tile game and watching her dominate, I thought we were close to that breakthrough. But if Mindstorm needed the local chapter on her side, we’d need a big win—something that showed we cared.
That was why Mindstorm’s strategy of repeating our win in other cities was slowly driving me crazy. As far as I could see, it was just getting supers—and Extras—hurt. If it wasn’t buying us anything, why was the Pro-Earth League wasting its time with battles in Yorkston, the west coast, or even freaking Tortuga West?
It didn’t make any sense. In fact, it seemed counterproductive to our goal.
The only advantage I could see, other than that we had five similar buildings under our control now, was that it wasn’t hard to defend them. Warp Tennyson and the teleporting villain from last semester’s run-in with the Student Supervillain Society had both joined the Pro-Earth League, giving us a ton of mobility. That was why, in theory, the five of us could defend the Council of Heroes Building by ourselves until help arrived.
In practice, The Narrator should be able to do it herself. But she wasn’t here.
“What do you think is taking them so long?” I asked Fursona as we sat in the first-floor lobby, watching the door.
She shrugged. “No idea, but I’m starting to get—
[Casting Call]
[Episode: Power War: Short: Tower Defense - R]
[Role: Turret! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Grit + Drama]
[Tower Defense: Act One in Progress]
“Lemme guess? A bad feeling?” I quipped.
“Yeah. That.”
I was definitely getting one, too, especially when a pair of familiar faces stalked out of the evening darkness toward us. One wore a nun’s habit over power armor, and the other black robes with a staff. “Sister Sly,” Fursona muttered.
“And Quick…something. Silver, maybe? Remember him from last semester?” I pointed. “He’s fast, with those martial arts powers.
“It was Quickstrike. Quicksilver’s different. Still.” Fursona cracked her knuckles. “Think you can take him? She’s gotta be here for me.”
“Yeah, I got you.” I waved my wand and fired a [Starlance] toward the villain—who backflipped over it! I backpedaled as the robed figure kicked off mid-air, spiraling toward me around his bo staff. He was coming in too fast; I wouldn’t have time for another power.
But I didn’t need one. I just needed to—there! As I stepped across an invisible line in the floor, a wall of yellowish-white plasma cut down from the ceiling, blocking Quickstrike’s progress. He bounced off another invisible patch of air, legs churning in the air like he was running on nothing, and I fired another [Starlance]. This one hit, knocking him to the floor.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
He sprang up, but I was already moving to block the stairs. Across the lobby, Kaiju-Sona and Sister Sly were wrecking the few pieces of furniture and corporate art that hadn’t been destroyed in the battle last week. The villainous fox-nun’s gizmos, power armor, and laser weapons were holding their own—for now—but I didn’t see any way Kaiju-Sona could lose; even Mindstorm’s orders not to go Full Kaiju wouldn’t cost her this fight.
The plasma barrier dropped, and Quickstrike rushed me again. This time, he lashed out with his staff, firing a wave of compressed air my way. I’d been hit by those before—my ex, Professor Panic, had used them all the time—but I wasn’t ready for it. It knocked me onto the stairs; my elbows sent the funny-bone fuzzy feeling up my arms.
[HP 13/14]
But it wasn’t like he’d actually managed to hurt me. Not really. I could handle this guy.
Even as I picked myself up, he was already rushing me. I had to use [Quick-Time Change] to stall out the bo-staff inches from my forehead, and I reevaluated whether I could handle this guy. Then, I switched to Copy Cat, used the [Freeze Frame] time-stop to position behind him, and hit him with a [Pouncing Panthers] the moment time started again.
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[Flashy Fitting-Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
[Badass Damage! +1 Badass Point]
In this form, I could 100% hold my own against him in melee; Tails’s catlike reflexes gave me the edge, or at least evened it out. As the staff ripped through the air toward me, I ducked it, then landed a [Cat-Stratch Fever] into the villain’s stomach. He took two steps back, swinging his staff to ward me off, and took a deep, centering breath as his eyes swelled shut.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
Then, suddenly, the swelling reversed. “New power?” I asked.
“I have mastered my own body. Every inch of it,” Quickstrike said.
I rolled my eyes. “So, no debuffs. Got it.” I [Pouncing Panthers’d] again, this time missing on my first bound and getting a staff strike for my trouble. He’d stepped effortlessly out of the first pounce, but my second leap caught the villain by surprise. Even better, [Fursonal Furcefield] had taken the blow just fine!
[Tough Kitty! +1 Grit Point]
[Badass Damage! +1 Badass Point]
Before I could follow up with a [Doom Ball], though, Quickstrike spun, swinging his staff like a helicopter blade. I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and a dozen blows hit me before I got breathing room. None of them individually hurt, but there were so many of them! He landed, eyes closed, and flex-breathed, staff pointing my way as I recovered on the landing. He was pushing me back, and I needed to change the flow of battle.
[HP 9/14]
Instead, before Tails and I could devise a battle plan, Quickstrike pushed again. This time, I focused on blocking or dodging blows; another trap was just around the corner, and if I timed it right, I’d be able to follow up and swing the whole fight. But I couldn’t make it obvious. He knew the defenses existed, and he’d be cautious.
I needed him to commit.
Tails counted the steps as I delicately backpedaled up the stairs, dodging his pokes and prods and trying to bait him into an all-out attack. We had three to go. Two. One. I lunged toward the villain again, feigning another [Pouncing Panthers].
He took the bait, and as he leaped under my abortive jump, I slammed down on top of him. It didn’t do much damage, but it pinned him in place while Mrs. N’s next piece of narrated-up defenses fired.
[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]
I found myself thrown up toward the ceiling as Quickstrike’s body was encased in a forcefield. I couldn’t hit him, and that was…inconvenient. But he couldn’t move a muscle except to breathe. I had a minute. Maybe a little less. But that’d be enough time to shift and start setting up a combo.
I slow-transformed into Rainy Day, starting up a [Power-Weaving] combo and using [Thunderhead] to start it off. It’d mean finishing on [Thunderhead] or transforming, but the set-up was potentially really—
WHAM!
Something hit me in the back of my head. It felt like every white van I’d ever encountered. It felt like getting hit by Stella-Lunar’s [Maximum Starlance].
It felt like getting hit in the back of the head.
[HP 7/14]
As I blinked the stars out of my eyes and whirled, I saw a familiar-looking hero. He stood in a boxer’s stance, muscles rippling against a magenta-and-green costume. “Hi, Punch,” I mumbled.
He didn’t say anything, instead throwing another rocket-powered punch my way. I rolled, and it hit the stairs. I half-expected the concrete to explode, but instead, his fist seemed to bounce off of them.
“You know, you really suck,” he said, glaring at me.
“I know.” I used [Wind Front] and threw him down the stairs; I didn’t have time to deal with him. Quickstrike would be up any second now, and I wasn’t sure I could handle two melee supers working together without using Spotlight Star.
[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]
[Floating Points: 1 Drama]
I needed to save her for later, especially if it was just Fursona and me defending. I took a quick glance down; she had Sister Sly in a headlock and was breathing ineffectual-looking fire across the fox-nun’s power armor. So, yeah, she was probably fine.
That left me and the two-on-one I was facing.
I quickly used [Virga] before Quickstrike could struggle free from the forcefield; healing one vil was preferable to healing two, after all. As the rain poured down on me, I felt myself toughening up. Yeah, I could handle these two. Water poured down the stairwell as I backed up it.
[Medic! +1 Cunning Point]
[HP 9/14]
[Doctors Without Borders! -1 Cunning Point]
[Floating Points: 3 Drama, 1 Badass]
I was working my way back toward the start of the combo, and even better, [Thunderhead] had finished. I had no idea what would happen if I empowered a [Thunderhead] with another [Thunderhead] and a [Power-Weaving]. The situation had never come up, but I assumed it’d either fizzle or be disgustingly powerful.
Either way, I was about to find out. I used [Thunderhead], pouring the finished one into it and finishing my combo.
[Environmental Combo! +1 Cunning Point]
[Thunderstruck! +1 Drama Point]
[Power-Weaving! +6 Drama, 3 Badass, and 1 Cunning Point]
[Feedback 1]
[HP 7/14]
[Confirm Combo Continuation?]
I blinked, mind racing. I’d created a feedback loop somehow; the [Thunderhead] was feeding off itself, acting as an environmental piece. How long could I sustain the storm overhead, and what would the [Ride the Lightning] look like at the end of it? I did a quick head-check. Punch was still at the bottom of the stairs, and while the forcefield around Quickstrike had definitely weakened, I had a few seconds there.
I quickly continued the combo, letting the damage pile up until I sat at an unhealthy-looking 1/14. Then, both because I didn’t have a choice and because Quickstrike was free, I stopped the loop. The raging storm overhead howled and spun, with me at the center of the growing tornado that, by now, filled the stairwell. I doubted Punch could get to me if he wanted to.
But I had other plans in mind. As my 6th-grade form braced herself against the raging winds, I used [Ride the Lightning].
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Thunderstruck x4! +4 Drama Points]
The building’s power went out a split second before the biggest lightning bold I’d ever created hammered its way down the stairs. Quickstrike, even just out of his forcefield prison, was fast enough to dodge somehow.
Punch wasn’t so lucky. The electrical attack slammed into him, throwing him all the way across the lobby. I could smell the burning hair as he hit the glass wall on the far side. He tried to get back up, but collapsed in a heap.
Even so, we had other problems. Another pair of supers ran through the door, setting us up for a two-on-four fight. Even with the tower’s defenses, I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
I pushed my watch button. A moment later, a message appeared on it.