Thursday, February 4
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“Thank you for rejoining me,” Mindstorm said. Fursona, Lady Lockless, and a few other college heroes and villains, along with me, had reconvened in Mindstorm’s lair. The complete absence of any super more powerful than mid-minor league was glaringly obvious, though; only Mindstorm and McHammer were still here. “I have come up with…a plan.
Sara-N-Dipity stared at her professor stonily. Mindstorm’s lip lifted just slightly in what might be interpreted as a smile, or maybe a sneer. I shivered a little. We’d entered a new room—a dark one with two digital maps covered in red and green dots. As I watched, two more green dots crossed North America and arrived in Yorkston. It was the only city where the numbers were even close.
Everywhere else, red outnumbered green two to one, three to one, or by even more.
“You think this plan will work?” Sara-N-Dipity asked.
“I…don’t know,” Mindstorm admitted. “That’s the only reason you’re still here, Sara. Otherwise, I’d have moved you to Yorkston. If you’re still…in this room, you’re essential to the plan. Everyone else is in Yorkston, trying to put pressure on the pro-Ilneat supers and force them to defend there. Or…they’re The Narrator and cannot be moved. Regardless, that is a feint. The real battle will happen here, in Tokyexico City.”
“Really?” I asked.
Mindstorm nodded. “We’ve learned a few things in the last couple of days. One is that every connecting point between the Ilneats’ Hot Zone and the rest of Earth has been severed, with no…exceptions. They have holed up in their Hot Zones, and normally, that would be the end of it. If we cannot reach them, we cannot hurt them. However…we have an ace in the hole.”
“Who?” Fursona asked.
Lady Lockless cleared her throat. “I’ve been trying like you asked, Mindstorm, but the Ilneats have their base blockaded, not just locked up, and every time I try to break in, the fuzz shows up out of nowhere. I can’t jimmy those locks.”
“That’s not…surprising. It does tell us what we need to know, though. I still believe you can do this.” Mindstorm told her, staring at the ballgown-clad woman. “We simply need to find the correct door. I believe I…know where one is. Now, as for the public support, what I’m about to…lay out for you must be executed cleanly, in such a way that no Extras are hurt. Do you understand, everyone? It must be done perfectly, or I fear the…APPEAL-oriented Extras won’t come around.”
She took a bite of delivery noodles—cold, and obviously from the night before—while we nodded slowly.
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Things were moving fast all of a sudden. I didn’t like it.
I had no idea what our odds were. Sara said we had a thirty percent chance of success, and as Fursona, the rest of the Pro-Earth League’s minor and little league ladies, and I changed into our costumes in a bathroom we’d conveniently blocked off with Lady Lockless’s power for just that purpose, I was shocked it was that high. To make this work, even Mindstorm had left for Yorkston, making it super-obvious she was going.
I shivered and finished my transformation. Without her, our only backup with any firepower was McHammer—well, him, Kaiju-Sona, and Super Girl Spotlight Star. But our major league modes were limited, and I wasn’t sure how well we’d be able to do against heroes like Stella-Lunar or the Triad, who hadn’t left. We had a plan for them, but Stella was… powerful.
“Bee, you ready for this?” I asked.
“No. You?”
I hesitated, because the truth was that even though the odds were not in our favor no matter who was calling it, I was. This was a better plan than trying to crash the Hot Zone with a giant lizard and a walking demolition crew. It had subtlety, forethought, and, most importantly, speed. The only part I didn’t like was our first target, but Mindstorm had insisted, and Sara agreed.
The Tokyexico Council of Heroes building gave us our best shot at a door into a Hot Zone.
So, once Gourmet, Tractor Beam Girl, and the four other Magical Girls had finished in their stalls, I put my hand on the door. Sara sent a quick text to the boys across the street, and we waited. Things had to be executed perfectly for this to work.
“Three,” Sara said.
My eyes narrowed. Who knew what we’d be fighting when that door opened? It depended on how quickly we could take the tower and turn its defenses toward keeping the pro-Ilneat supers out, but one thing was certain. Without the tower, we couldn’t execute any further phases of the plan.
“Two.”
I could feel sweat below my impeccably clean glove. Behind me, Kaiju-Sona smacked one clawed fist into the other, ready for battle. Magical Girls Candi Crush, Foamy Flash, Sugar, and Chili Powder had formed an impromptu team, and they’d be the first out, since they had the most challenging job. We’d move out behind a shield of bubbles and spice, but after that, it’d be mayhem. But all we had to do was get McHammer to the Council of Heroes. He was pretty confident he could do the rest.
“One.”
I opened the door and, as the rest of the Pro-Earth League rushed out into the street, accepted a Casting Call without thinking about it.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
[Casting Call]
[Episode: Power War: The Battle of Mid-Town - R]
[Role: Rebellious Raider! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Drama + Flamboyance]
[The Battle of Mid-Town: Act One in Progress]
Things went wrong almost immediately.
“Attention, villains,” A familiar voice shouted out. I recognized it immediately; I’d first heard it in an Episode, and I had her poster on my wall back at home, but more importantly, Stella-Lunar had clobbered me last year when I tried to defend a wrecked, helpless Vigilant Vow. “I swore to defend Tokyexico in starlight and under new moon. To stand against evil and corruption. And, above all, to remain true to what’s right and just. So witness star, so witness moon.”
I shivered, getting ready to [Quick-Time Change] into Super Girl Spotlight Star just to try to have a chance. But before I could, the other Magical Girls stepped up. “Mindstorm said this might happen. The four of us can take her,” Foamy Flash said. Her voice wasn’t exactly filled with confidence.
“Okay,” I nodded. “You’ve got this.”
As the four little and minor league Magical Girls squared off against Earth’s mightiest hero, I took a deep breath and tried to put that fight behind me. All around, other supers were already fighting with each other. Lord Destructo stood in the middle of the street, with Theseus, Gourmet, and The Crumb all engaging him. Despite hating each other, Tractor Beam Girl and Flare were fighting with Grapple and Tearjerker.
As Fursona and I headed toward the Council of Heroes building, every step we took unattacked felt both nervewracking and exhilarating. Could we really make it? The door was fifty feet away. Thirty. Ten. We crashed through the glass, sending shattered shards across the first floor’s tile as a super caromed off the asphalt behind us.
Three heroes stood in the lobby, and I cursed. “Shit. Hi, Tele-Portal.”
“Hi. Guess this is happening.” My old mentor stood on her stilts, bouncing slightly. Slightly ahead of her and to the left, The Underdelver revved his mech’s drills. And hovering slightly behind both, I could see Bud Lightbeam, Bud Lightbeam, and Bud Lightbeam, ready for battle.
I decided to fire first. [Limelight Barrage] picked me up, spun me around, and sent a volley of beams across the hall toward Tele-Portal. Fursona had declared her the team’s leader—or as close to one as they had. She was a force multiplier, and if we could take her—
“Oh shit!” I said, throwing myself to the floor as the hero’s portal cannon opened a gate in front of her and another next to me. All five [Starlances] ripped out of the portal and surged toward me, then, at the last second, swerved back toward The Triad. Tele-Portal shifted her portal, and I hit the tile again. I’d just gotten up!
Kaiju-Sona roared, her fursuit’s arms over her head, and vomited flame toward The Underdelver as she rushed him. They clashed like a pair of titans, the shockwave almost visible. And Bud Lightbeam fired a trio of lasers across the room—which I dodged. Barely.
“[Starlance]! [Starlance]!” I shouted, adding two more beams to Tele-Portal’s portal juggling. The improved handling on them was keeping a ton of lances in play, and if I could just add a few more, maybe Tele-Portal would be too busy keeping them out of the fight to help her teammates.
It was the best plan I had. From what I could hear outside, we weren’t getting any help in here. Beams, bubbles, and explosions had filled the air even before we made it in.
It took almost twenty seconds of dodging and overloading Tele-Portal, and I ate a Bud Lightbeam laser trying, but eventually, I thought I’d gotten Tele-Portal out of the fight. She was spawning new portals faster than I could see, and the incredible lightshow in the Council of Heroes’ lobby almost felt like a strobe light. One of my rays hit The Underdelver, then another. His mech hardly seemed to notice, though.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
“Attack pattern three!” Tele-Portal shouted, and The Triad disengaged. As she juggled my [Starlances], they formed up differently; this time, with Bud Lightbeam and his clones in the lead.
“Tele-Portal, you can’t really think you’re on the right side, here?” I asked, getting ready to fire another [Starlance].
She didn’t reply. Instead, she yawned and snapped a finger, opening a massive portal in front of her team. Another opened above us, and it was all I could do to avoid the three lasers that cut across us from overhead. But at the same time, all the [Starlances] I’d launched started—finally—hitting things.
[Dramatic Damage! +9 Drama Points]
Tele-Portal staggered, and even The Underdelver’s mech seemed to rock slightly from the barrage that hit him as he covered her. For a moment, I let myself hope that I’d done some meaningful damage.
But another portal opened, and another, and suddenly, Fursona and I were cut off by a constant line of lasers. I’d said Tele-Portal was a force multiplier before. But I’d never seen her do anything like this. As she and Bud Lightbeam sliced the lobby’s tile and fake plants to pieces, their barrage pushed Fursona into a smaller and smaller space for her continued duel with The Underdelver.
At the same time, I realized Tele-Portal wasn’t grabbing all the lasers. The three Bud Lightbeams were pressuring me, and she was only redirecting the attacks that threatened her team. As another beam sliced across my superhero damage shield and left my shoulder blade burning, I realized that something had to change.
[HP 8/14]
Actually, one thing specifically had to change. Me.
Otherwise, we were going to lose.
So I started up a [Power-Weaving] combo and used [Quick-Time Change], freezing the lasers. We had to take out someone, and I had an idea for beating the Genius piloting the mech suit. I couldn’t beat him as a Genius, but I could overload his systems. So, with an Itsy Bitsy Spider and a quick dodge through the lasers during [Freeze Frame], I ducked toward my girlfriend and her opponent.
[Flash Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
[Floating Points: 1 Flamboyance]
If I could overload his mech, The Underdelver wouldn’t be a threat anymore. It was the fastest way to even the odds. So, as I rushed forward and used [Thunderhead] to knock the Bud Lightbeams away and start powering up my attack, all my focus was on the Genius.
[Pause for Effect! +1 Drama Point]
[Floating Points: 3 Flamboyance, 1 Grit]
And that’s why I didn’t see another portal open right behind me. As the storm cloud overhead darkened, I started using [Ride the Lightning]. But even as the storm charged around me, a fist reached out and slammed into my back. My lightning burst stopped charging and melted away. The blow itself hadn’t hurt, but Tele-Portal had turned the tables on me. “You broke my combo!”
[Combo Broken! Floating Points Lost. Power Lost.]