Max turns to Femtite. "She said stop the ship. I think you should do it. It doesn't look like she needs the medical facility anymore."
|
Indy winced and his spell shattered as Diva came crashing through the black ice. The feedback from the wreckingball of a demoness going through the ice sent Indy slipping and falling onto his back at the edge of the leyline. With a snap of his finger the music box device that she was keeping, clipped to her leotard removed itself just before she dashed herself into the rubble and into his hands as the leycircle faded.
Then he watched in mild horror as everyone boarded Love Bug, The and absconded from the place leaving him and Conflux to deal with a raging Caio who was in the now destroyed ice arena. With a frustrated sigh he pulled himself up and began walking towards the pit holding the music player up with his thumb on the play button.
"Caio, you back with us man? You did good f~~+in'em up but I think they've learned their lesson."
The sight of Caio and the Wolf struggling against one another as the youngman started to shift down back into Caio proper filled him with hope. He tucked the device into his robe and continued forward with more confidence. "Caio, are you okay." Briefly surveying the others he cringed slightly, "Look, the group has SG safe, I know you're probably tired, so rest up. Me and Conflux'll handle rounding them up.. but I think Terrier got away." Fuzzbat landed alight next to Caio shaking some frost off it's pelt and clinging to his shirt with it's adorable little bat claws, making an attempt to show him comfort and warmth.
Fem replies, “We’ve been in hover since you woke up, Grace.
“Where would you like me to take you.” Realizing the magenta dome is on mirror display, and otherwise opaque, she explains, ”We’re very high up. So I have to land, anyway. Pick a place.”
Femtite displays a map of Halcyon City. A pink heart-shaped bug with the words YOU ARE HERE under it is over a park. (And not moving because hover.)
”It…doesn’t matter,” she mumbles. ”…let’s just go to base.”
She sits quietly a bit, and then adds ”Mom can’t know about this. Whatever happens…Grace DID die today,” as she gives Femtite a serious look.
Shin is still shook, but at the moment, despite Grace's transformation, she's alive and breathing and that's enough for him to snap some attention to the details that had been fully unimportant when he was worried she was going to die.
"Indarius, Conflux," He calls out on comms, his voice a bit weak but still putting in some element of command while they zoomed off where Grace wanted to go. "I need your help, and discretion. The Guardian suit is still half-buried. If you have a way to get it out and bring it to Unity Station, I would appreciate it. If you can't, make sure no one else can get to it for the moment."
His next call is to Whippoorwill. "We ran straight into the Mongrels. I think we've managed to catch or subdue almost all of them. But we suffered some critical injuries on Steel Guardian. I'm bringing them to Unity Station - we could use some containment at the warehouse for the Mongrels. And possibly for Wolf as well if he hasn't managed to calm down."
He's downplaying his own injuries a lot right now - everyone else in the craft can see that he's very hurt. Yet he keeps powering on as they head back to Unity Station.
Femtite asks everyone to brace themselves as she adjusts the seats to actual bench seats. She then asks Grace to sit up front with her.
“During the Halloween Dance, Connie and I left. We went to the fairy realm and… my mother was there, in fairy form as I was. Connie too!”
Femtite has a point. She resists the urge to go on a wild tangent.
“Can I tell you a few things about my mother, Grace?”
Grace doesn’t appear to object, as she sits silently in the passenger seat, looking down at her new body.
"Easy enough, oh Fearless Leader. Should be able to 'golem' it out of there at least as intact as it is now if time's not a factor."
With wards giving her a bubble of safety, Connie heads down to the suit and begins adorning it with foci and sigils that should make it easier to animate. Just gotta help the suit think of itself as a whole instead of as a pile of components, otherwise we'll definitely leave some stuff behind.
“She’s queen of the Lavender Spire, best known for its pleasure dome. She’s had sex with more pixites than anyone on the Nanometeor. Her harems are always young, and the pixite who helped conceived me is a lonely mechanic who, as far as I know, has only been with my mother. She refers to Connie as my ‘harem of one,’ and my ability to become a femtometric particle is touted as evolutionary perfection. I fear she sees my power as her greatest achievement and opportunity, and I’ve felt so strongly about my suspicions that I’d been avoiding her for my last two home visits.
“But… when I saw her at the fey ball, I almost ran up and hugged her right in front of the fairy queen and all her fey court.”
She looks at Grace.
“I don’t know if your mother is as strange as mine, but please don’t tell her you’re dead when you’re not. It won’t make this better. You’ll make things considerably worse, and while this change is not your fault, the lie would be.
“We could help you tell the truth, Grace. It won’t lessen the shock to your mother, but… don’t face this challenge alone.” She looks Grace right in the feline eyes. “You’re not dead, Grace. I’ve never seen you more alive in the entire time I’ve known you.”
”My mother isn’t like that. But,” she sighs and says ”Her and dad were always obsessed with heroes. To the point that dad tried to become one. And died trying. I…I’d rather her think I died being a hero rather than a mutated drug user…” sadly.
”We’ll explain the situation to her. We will make her understand what happened. You don’t have to be afraid of what she will think,” Max says reassuringly.
”Yes I will!” Grace snaps back! ”Every time she looks at me, I’ll see that look in her eye. That disappointed…look! She’ll always see me as this…thing…that stole her girl away!” she sobs.
Max reaches out and takes Grace’s hand. ”She won’t be disappointed. Just because you look different, that doesn’t make you any less of a hero. Take it from me.”
Femtite says, “I know that disappointed look all too well. It’s a package deal you get with a mother’s love.
“Trust us, Grace. Max and I both know some of what you’re going through.”
Grace continues to sob. ”Why is this happening to me? I…I…I shouldn’t be going through this…be putting my family here in this situation…”
"I'm back, Indarius, no worries, and I'm not completely out yet." He knees besides the unconscious and bleeding forms of Warthog and Chiros. His feelings were conflicted, for while he was still angry at them, he was also feeling guilty for their extensive wounds.
"This has never happened before... the wolf being completely out." He says, looking at this wards, completely dormant. "He is getting stronger... I need to find a way out, for I know I won't be able to hold him much longer." At the mention of Terrier, Caio shudders. "I'm glad she escaped... she is a she-wolf and I... Jesus, it is sickening just to think what the Wolf wanted to do with her..."
Once Horizon sends them the message, he replies. "Horizon, I'm back. Chiros, Warthog, Joro and Harpy are really wounded... could you ask Whippoorwill to send a medical team? Otherwise I'll think of a way to help them... they can't die!" He says, worried. "I don't know where Terrier is, but I can't risk look for her now."
As he turns the comms off, he walks towards Indarius and Connie. Moving boulders around and helping to dig SG's armor. He picks again the unmistakable female scent on the armor. "Did I hear it right? Grace was Steel Guardian?"
”You’re where you’re supposed to be, Grace. Among fellow heroes. Among friends. We will help you every step of the way.”
Shin finishes with his calls, and goes over to Grace's side. "...No good mother would ever want the death of their child over any other outcome. I know your mother well enough to know that if you were to 'die', it would destroy her. If you need time to get settled, though, I can put word to her through the Alliance that you're under quarantine for an indeterminate amount of time. If this is permanent, it will take time to adjust. Ease her into what you'll look like...just have to...keep our...heads...cool..."
He was suddenly very lightheaded. Which might have to do with all of the blood that's slicked across the back of his head. He falls forward, on the edge of consciousness and about to crack his skull into the seats!
Max quickly moves to catch Horizon before he can bang his head. She looks over her shoulder to Femtite. ”Better step on it! He needs the med bay!”
***
Max gently places Shin on the bed to allow the devices in the medical bay to start healing his injuries. She steps back beside Femtite and Grace. ”He should be okay with enough time and rest. Somebody should stay with him tonight, though, just to be safe.”
Femtite looks at Grace. “You’ll stay with him, won’t you? I know you’re going through a shock, but Shin’s hurt… you two can go through this without Max and I in the way.”
As far as Femtite knows, Shin and Grace are a couple. And now they can stop pretending not to be heroes for each other.
”I don’t mind staying here with you, too, Grace,” Max offers. ”You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
|
|
Indarius breaths a sigh of relief as Caio, actually Caio answers him. "Good good, uh well we will deal with that later. Right now we have to deal with this. One thing at a time, get the suit if you can but don't bury yourselves in the process please."
Looking over the assorted animal people, keying his comms. "Hey SG, if you can hear through the other's comms Conflux n' Caio are trying to recover the suit. I'm gonna work on stabilizing the Mongrels till the Alliance shows. Rest up and we'll figure things out."
Indarius goes around to the various mongrels, conjuring small bricks of ice that he holds to the wounds that aren't exposed or broken tissue. Namely those of Harpy's broken wings and the like.
Grace nods to Femtite and Max, and takes a seat beside Shin, letting one of his hands rest in hers. When someone calls out to SG on comms, the pinnae that are now her ears twist and listen, but she doesn’t speak up with an answer.
She just sits there quietly, her tail occasionally flicking.
Femtite listens to what Percy is saying over the comm. “Are you still going to wear all that metal, Grace?”
She looks down at her long legs and longer torso, and shakes her head. ”I wouldn’t even fit! And, I…I don’t think I could stand the thought of it now…” she was, her tail shifting faster and the short fur on the back of her neck and shoulders standing on end.
Femtite is relieved, but also notes Grace’s body language.
“I should fly to the others. Caio really hurt that bird woman, so… more medical emergencies for me to deal with.”
She hops in the Bug, and unless told to wait, she takes off to join Connie and the others.
Connie gets a call from Femtite that she’s on her way back. And five minutes later, the Bug pulls up.
The magenta dome opens, and a billowing cloud of steam rises from the immense temperature difference. (The Bug’s incinerator was just on to cleanse the blood and fur. As for the shed fingernails and toe nails…)
A leg extends over the side of the bug, seen through the steam. A short-skirted silhouette approaches Connie.
Femtite steps out of the steam wearing a candy-striper’s outfit: a red-and-off-white-striped miniskirt, a matching crop-top with puffy shoulders, a revealing neck line held together with criss-crossing laces like red liquorice to somewhat conceal cleavage. Her heeled sandals similarly are held on with liquorice lace, all the way to mid-thigh, which is more than necessary to keep one’s shoes on. Her hat has a red + on it, and is tilted at a slight angle. It only stays on because Femtite’s hats are always attached to her glowing hair.
“I’m here to help the wounded,” she says to Connie, ”or assist you in any way you desire.”
Once Femtite leaves, Max finds a comfortable place to sit near Grace. Now that the adrenaline of the battle and its aftermath has begun to wear off, she begins to replay the fight in her mind. She shudders as she recalls the savagery with which she flung herself at Terrier, how even Caio had recoiled from her. She wrapped her arms around her knees as she remembered what it felt like to lose control and succumb to the rage and fury she had absorbed from the Wolf.
Max thought she had been making good strides in fighting against her monstrous nature, but today had been a stark reminder that no matter how hard she fought, she would never be human enough. She was still a demon at the end of the day.
After a couple hours for the med lab's automated medic to administer first aid and a pint of blood given to Shin (Donated by himself in fact for this very circumstance), the young man finally stirs back into consciousness. he squeezes the hand in his, blinking awake and looking over at Grace. There's a brief moment of confusion before he manages to smile. He looks at Max sitting next to her as well, giving her a nod of recognition.
"...Sorry if I made you worry," He apologizes, grunting as he scoots up in his seat. His hand has his dislocated fingers straightened in splints now, so he fumbles a bit as he feels his comm and phone blowing up against him.
He ignores that for now, focusing on Grace. "...I may have gotten a little reckless trying to get you out. Are you okay?" He asks, downplaying the fact he was more physically wrecked than she was.
Grace shrugs, emotionally and mentally numb at this point. ”I guess. Could be worse, right?” she mutters.
Max returns Shin's nod. She is quiet as he goes to Grace, but her yellow eyes gleam in the brightly lit med bay, seeming to bore into him...
Shin is someone who has learned from months of being with a powerful psychic how to compartmentalize and set boundaries for himself depending on the situation. That makes it difficult for others to pin down his desires and needs at any given time without supernatural insight. You didn't need that to see that his full attention was currently on Grace.
"It doesn't mean that it's not a s#%!ty situation for you. I wish that I had been able to get you out of there more effectively. I almost made things worse. You have no idea how glad I am that you're still alive," He tells her. "But, what do you want to do now?"
Max's tail begins to lash back and forth behind her.
I'm the one that actually saved her, she thinks, but she bites her tongue and remains silent.
Max’s tail thumps against Grace’s, causing her to jump a bit. She looks between the two of them and says ”I…I don’t know. I know nothing anymore…”
She sighs and says ”There’s…something you need to know. A while back, before the dance, we had a bad day. I needed to escape. So…I went and played some video games with Max. One thing led to another…” she pauses. The whole time, her hand had never left his.
”I had planned to tell you about it, and apologize. And then, at the dance, you…well…all that happened,” she says. She looks between the two of them, tears in her amber eyes. ”And now all this has happened, and I…I don’t know what my life is now.”
She then looks at them both and says ”But this is on me. Neither of you are to be mad at the other. I…it’s my fault. So…if either of you wanna be mad, be mad at me.”
"Grace... I'm not mad at you," Max says, offering her a smile. "It's like I've been saying. I just want you to be happy."
She takes a deep breath, and her smile fades as she turns to Shin to await his reaction...
"...I am mad," Shin tells Grace. There's no heat to it though. "I'm mad because it's something that we could absolutely have worked on together. The other team, I was in a relationship with Psyche. She was also in a relationship with another teammate, Scorch. We made that work because we were able to talk it out and be open. It was weird for me at first, something that I had to really think about. But I realized that love isn't finite. It can ebb and flow towards all different directions. Denying someone I cared about the ability to create other relationships would be like putting them in a prison, and I won't do that."
He pulls her hand up and kisses Grace's knuckles. "...you don't belong to me. I still want to be with you, but if you want to pursue someone else too, all I ask is you keep me in the loop."
Max slowly lets out the breath she had been holding. She is pleasantly surprised by Shin's mature, measured response to the revelation. Her tail becomes still again as most of the tension she'd been carrying drains away.
Grace hangs her head and sobs. But these seem to be somewhat relieved tears. Despite everything she was going through, the realization that this…strange triangle of a relationship could actually work, took a massive weight off her shoulders.
She then leans over and places a gentle kiss on Shin’s lips before turning and doing the same with Max.
Max returns Grace's kiss. She then looks at Shin, raising a questioning eyebrow. The faint whiff of pheromones fills the air...
Rendezvous teleports in with several duplicates of Tenfold as well as Foray of the Alliance. They're clearly relieved that Caio is under control and that Femtite's alien tech has prevented any of the Mongrels' wounds from becoming fatal. They secure the scene and turn it over to agents of A.E.G.I.S., letting the remaining members of the team finally take their leave and go back to base.
Whippoorwill arrives at Unity Base, showing a number of scratches but a concerned expression. She checks on the injured and inquires after Steel Guardian. If asked about her own injuries, she gets an annoyed expression.
"Ne'veah didn't come quietly, but she's safe," she explains. "Those mutations are no joke. And she didn't seem interested in a cure. I wish I knew if that's coming from her or the change.
"But enough about that. How's Steel Guardian?" she asks.
Grace looks up, and lets out a breath before standing and saying ”They are gone. I am what is left.” In her new body, she is easily taller than Whiporwill and she doesn’t even realize that she is accidentally striking a pose as she puts a hand on her hip.
Shin just gives Max a tilted and confused look at to what she's doing, before his mentor steps in and addresses them. He's immediately straight-backed even lying on the med lab exam table, giving Grace's hand a quick squeeze before letting go. "If the Mongrels are involved, and its a Teratogen derived formula, it'll be difficult to find a cure. Steel Guardian is..."
He pauses. "Well, you should probably speak to them. I'm sorry I didn't back to any of your messages, I might have lost consciousness for a short time," He adds as he pulls out his comm, glancing at it and the linked messages from his phone. His eyes widen a bit as he reads.
"Aw, hell," Whippoorwill tilts her head in shock and what Grace can tell is immediate combat appraisal when she sees the transformed teen.
"Details. Now."
Grace explains ”I was the pilot of the suit, and had been taking the supplements. I lost consciousness during the fight with the Mongrels, and when I woke up…” she pauses, gesturing to herself.
Grace having spilled the beans, Shin is entirely quick to rattle off everything that he knows.
"Grace informed me shortly before the hero classes started of her identity, and I did in kind while keeping her confidence. Her current transformation appears to be related to the same as Ne'veah's, but as she suffered life-threatening critical trauma that required Max to cut her out of the suit, and Femtite using her technology to help save her life, it seems that triggered this form."
He holds up his splinted hand. "The suit itself is coming back to Unity Station, Conflux recovered it and is bringing it back. I'm not sure how much of it is salvageable, but at least it won't end up on some black market. As for the Mongrels, Wolf seemed to have managed to take care of nearly all of them almost single-handedly. It was particularly heavy-handed but there were no fatalities, at least when I was rushing Grace to get here for medical help."
He pauses to glance down at his stitched up chest, the sutures visible in his hairline where it had closed up the two inch gash there. "I suffered some...moderate injuries in attempting to clear the rubble off of Guardian to prevent it from crushing them- er, her."
Whippoorwill looks less than pleased, but she gives Grace a sympathetic look. You're Grace? Nice to meet you, but sorry for the circumstances."
She rubs her face and takes a moment. Then the Allia member becomes ver serious. "I'm sorry that this happened to you. I can assure you that there are very talented scientists who will be working to figure out what the supplements are and how they changed you -- and how to reverse it." Her tone becomes cautiously insistent. "Please allow us to study this change in you, okay?"
She quickly looks to Shin when an idea comes to her. "You were the young lady brought to Alliance HQ, right? We need to compare that data with Ne'veah and Grace here." She gestures at Grace. "You're our best bet to figure out how the supplements work."
Grace shakes her head and steps away. ”N-no! I’m not some test rat! Cat…whatever! Plus, both Diva and Femtite said they did stuff too! My results are going to be messed up anyway!” she says apprehensively.
Whippoorwill winces like she's had this conversation already and it didn't end well. "Grace, you're Steel Guardian. A hero. Your cooperation now can help hundreds of students who have been taking a mutagenic poison for months. Please."
”Aren’t you listening!?!? I told you, Steel Guardian ” she roars before she takes a step and leaps towards the wall to her right, kicking up and off of it with one foot to lunge over top of Whiporwill! Once past everyone, she takes off running, eventually transitioning to all fours!
"Grace, I know it's scary. But it would be the most heroic act you could perform today," Shin tells her. "Right now, without action and having dismantled their operation, hundreds of kids will soon run out of their supplements. It's not a coincidence this transformation happened to Ne'veah and to you after you stopped taking the pills. I'll be without every step of the way if you want," He says - right as she starts to push back.
"Grace! Come back!"