[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Short: The Hand of Fate - PG-13]
[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: Cunning + Flamboyance - Goal Met: +10 to Focused Styles]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 155/523]
[HP 0/14]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (32)
►Cunning (29)
►Drama (24)
► Limelight Barrage 2
► Starlance 2
►Flamboyance (49)
►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 (25)
► Freeze Frame 2
Kaiju-Sona had lugged me all the way from Mile Tall Arena to Walnut Tower via the secret tunnel below campus, but it had taxed the hell out of her, so now we had a choice to make. She was exhausted, I probably had a minor concussion, and that wasn’t ideal for either of us.
Worse, through my headache, I had to listen to her excited yet exhausted babble about how she’d beaten Theseus and stopped him from getting the…whatever he was after. I nodded along, a bit unfocused, and concentrated on pulling myself together as she rambled on and on. But eventually, we got to my bedroom, and I tucked her in. It wouldn’t be a good idea for me to sleep, but she needed the rest.
Plus, The Diary of Golden Goose was strategically placed nearby.
“I want my phone,” Bee whined. “And citrus. So much citrus. Please.”
I nodded. “I’ll go find it. Where did you leave it?”
“My pocket in the Kaiju suit. Thanks.”
“No problem. While I’m looking, here. It’ll keep you occupied.” I handed her the diary and disappeared from the bedroom before she could protest or give me any more whined orders. Not that I minded doing things for her. I’d gladly find all the orange juice and buy her a new phone if I had to. But Phase Two of the plan was in progress, and now, I needed to stall. And also, my head felt fuzzy.
So, the first thing I did was head to the Green Room. Sure enough, Bee’s phone was right where she’d said it was. I pocketed it myself before stomping around for a while, burning time and—hopefully—giving her a chance to read a little of Jasmine Saxton’s book before I got back. By then, also hopefully, she’d be hooked, and I could pretty much let her go.
So I stalled for a few crucial minutes during the orange juice pour, then went to the bathroom before delivering the drink and phone.
By the time I got back, Bee’s nose was buried in the book. I set the drink and phone down on her table, letting her ignore them as she flipped a page, and climbed across her to my side of the bed. My head rested on her stomach, and I closed my eyes, but she brought one hand down and started playing with my hair.
Perfect, I thought, as she twirled it around one finger mindlessly, eyes glued to the page. I didn’t want to sleep anyway.
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I woke up to Bee shaking.
Not shaking me. Just shaking.
That got my eyes open, and I sat upright. She looked pale, but at first, I couldn’t figure out if she was shaking from crying or from the lack of sugar in her system. Eventually, I looked at the still-full orange juice and the dent on our comforter where my head had been. “You didn’t drink anything,” I accused.
“Guilty,” she whispered back. “Sorry.”
I stood up and handed her the orange juice. It wasn’t cold anymore, but she sucked it down through the straw, looking grateful. Her eyes were red, though. She had been crying.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Which meant the plan was working. “How’s the book? “Did you really read the whole thing?” I asked.
“It’s so sad. And I keep thinking back to your mom and Vigilant Vow while I’m reading it. I’m almost done, so give me a few minutes.”
“Got it.” I curled up next to her and let myself zone out. Not sleep. The moment was too important for sleeping, but letting my mind drift to all the other things happening felt right.
I couldn’t focus on anything, though, and after a few minutes, I gave up and let Bee return to playing with my hair.
Eventually, the book snapped shut.
I waited while Bianca composed herself. When she stood up and wandered down the hall with her empty cup, I kept waiting. And I was still waiting when she came back. “We need to do something about this,” she said.
“Us?”
“Yeah. Us. There has to be something we can do. This feels way more important than The Agent. So what do we do?” Bianca still looked distraught as she sat on the foot of the bed.
I cleared my throat. “I have an idea. But you’ve got to trust me. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot.”
“Okay. I trust you.”
“Great. Follow me.” I headed for the door. “Oh, and, uh…don’t get mad.”
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“You broke into my apartment?” Bee asked, eyes narrowing just the slightest bit.
I shrugged. “No. I used the key you gave me to get into your apartment and then the other key to get into the Outback Stakeout House. I was busy last night, but I didn’t break in.”
Bee rolled her eyes. She still looked a little annoyed, but she had given me the keys and told me her place was mine. The painted walls were covered with my red strings and notes, and she strolled up to them. “You did all this last night?”
“You were gone for a long time,” I said.
She was quiet for a while, reading all my notes and seeing how they connected. I watched her brow furrow as she read the section on doing the first-ever Episode in the Hot Zone. I thought it was pretty clever to start something next to the Ilneat enclave, but I’d modified the plan a little since my initial ideas. Now, it relied on getting a hero who’d be willing to not pull punches—or one who knew what was going on.
Finding someone willing to crush an upstart, independent villain like Dark Girl Shock and Awe would be easy. It’d be a lot harder to find one who’d do the kind of collateral damage I needed during the fight, and I couldn’t toy with most of the heroes who’d respond to my threat.
So, Fursona would be ideal as the good guy to my bad.
But she shook her head. “Annie, this isn’t going to work.”
My face fell as I stared at my hour and a half of work. She wasn’t in. I’d have to rely on some other hero to help, and worse, if she could see weak spots in my strategy, so could Stella-Lunar, the Triad, or any other heroes who responded. “What’s wrong with it?”
“A couple of things. First, I assume your goal is to make the Ilneats pay a little for what’s in that book?”
“And Mom, and Vigilant Vow, and…yeah.”
“Okay. Do you actually know where their studio buildings are? I’d be willing to bet that most of the Hot Zone’s full of utility for the Ilneats who work there, and as great as it’d be to knock out a costuming building, I don’t think Pataki’s the real problem, are they?”
I shook my head. The Ilneat costume designer hadn’t ever been anything but business-focused, but they hadn’t pushed like Rocko had. If I had to guess, they were probably an employee, not part of the Network’s decision-making. So, no, Pataki wasn’t my target, and neither were the Ilneats like them.
“So, you want your chaotic spill-over to hit the Ilneats’ studios, not the support buildings. That means you don’t want to start near Mid-Town. There’s no way they’d put their studios that close to the Tokyexico Council of Heroes Building. It’s a lamp to heroes’ and villains’ moths, and they’d want some space between a place where open fighting happens a lot and their studio buildings. So, you need to start from somewhere with no value.” Bianca glanced around the room quickly. “No whiteboard, huh?”
“No. So, I need to start the Episode from…” I looked at the map of Tokyexico I’d tacked to the wall over a painting of some koalas. “Thornton? It’s close.”
“Yeah. I’d go with Thornton. It’s low-population, too, so you can get some big destruction without putting anyone in danger. We’ll check and find a completely abandoned block or two. If we start on the outskirts, we can spill over into the Hot Zone quickly. There’s just one problem.”
“The In-Your-Endos?”
“Okay, there’s just two problems.” Bianca sighed. “The In-Your-Endos might be easier to deal with than you’d expect. I’ll work on that. But the bigger issue is that you’re going to get big-shot heroes on you the second you cross into the Hot Zone. They’ll call in any available major leaguers to mop you up, then stick you in Almhurst. Do you have a plan for that?”
I had to admit that I didn’t.
“Okay. There’s a way to handle it. It should peel the In-Your-Endos off, too. Let me make a phone call or two real quick.” Bianca stepped out into her dorm room, and I waited anxiously. Now that I had new eyes on my plan, it was obvious how many issues there were. The minutes ticked by, and I had to resist the urge to check on Bee—or to find a red marker to cross out parts of the plan and add others.
By the time Bee finished her phone call and returned, I’d given up resisting, and I was already making changes. She cleared her throat. “Hey, Annie. Check this out. And give me the marker.”
I handed it over, and she grinned. “I’ve put together a strike force to deal with Madame Shock’s—“
“Dark Girl Shock and Awe,” I interrupted.
“Sure. With Dark Girl Shock and Awe’s bold attack. You’ll love your enemies for this Episode. I think it’ll be a fun time.”
“Who?”
“Me, plus a couple of surprises. If I tell you, it’ll look too artificial. So, that takes care of who you’re fighting. I have an idea for dealing with the major leaguers, possibly including the In-Your-Endos. But it’s risky. I’ve never contacted them before, and they’re not exactly a controllable variable, if you know what I mean.”
“No. I barely passed math.” I laughed. “But seriously, who are you thinking?”
“Fanfic. We used them once to set up the major leaguers on campus so we could do your series finale.” Bianca started fiddling on her phone. I got behind her so I could watch, and she went through the complicated login process for the Super Watch site, involving visiting an online storefront, clicking on an out-of-stock model, and navigating a complicated portal. But then she was in.
“So you’re going to try to find Fanfic on Super Watch?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“No. I’m going to make a bait post, and they’re going to fall right into my trap. It’ll be easy. I hope.” Bee got to work while I watched on her phone. When she’d finished, she handed me the phone.
Possible Sighting: Is FanFic active in Parker?
Hello, superhero watchers. I heard a rumor that Fanfic was planning on making a move in the Parker district. Something about a horror episode? Does anyone know much about that? I’ve always wanted to get involved in one of their episodes as an Extra, and this would fulfill that dream, but I’ve never heard of them advertising their location. Still, it’d be so exciting! I’m thinking about heading there, just in case.
Thoughts?
“That’ll never work,” I said.
“It doesn’t have to. Not perfectly, at least. If I can get four or five people to roll with it, the major leaguers will have to at least pay attention to it. That’d be enough to keep them off our backs—and Fanfic’s weird. They sometimes strike right where the major leaguers are, and in a Power War, there’s a chance that the vils won’t help the heroes deal with them.”
“So, you set a false flag, hope the heroes go for it, and then hope that Fanfic decides to challenge themselves?” I nodded appreciatively. “It could work. When do we launch this Episode?”
“Tomorrow morning.” Bee paused. “Actually, maybe tonight, right after soccer.”
“Oh, shit. Who are you playing?” I asked.
“You.” Bianca smiled evilly.