Of Capes, Cowls, and Cuddles (NEW Issue 3 Chapter 9 Up! 11/25/18)

[Selpharia]

Hello again everyone! We're back on for more, this time with a nearly double-length chapter that will hopefully excite, entertain, and put rumors of this story's demise to rest for at least a little while. Thank you all for reading, and putting up with my schedule. And once again, questions and comments are very welcome.

 

Chapter Four: Experimental Findings

Getting past security was easy enough. All it took was a quick jump over a turnstile and past a bored-looking guard, and she was in. A brief rustling in one of the perfectly-manicured hedges stopped her for a moment, but when she didn't see anything sinister lurking, she continued her stealthy approach.

It was also trivial to find a map of the city at the far side of the lobby. The six wings of Vector HQ were organized very pragmatically, each of them devoted to a general are of focus that the cartographer had helpfully labeled. The lower levels of the central hub was taken up by cafeterias, gyms, and other relaxation areas, below a gigantic area simply identified as “executive suites.”

<<Let's avoid that, shall we? There's no doubt good information to be had there, but since Aria and Sonata can detect us, there remains a substantial chance of discovery,>>

Bridget nodded affirmatively.

<<This northeastern wing, however, looks quite promising.>>

Bridget followed the shape of the building to a wing shaded in a pale blue, which upon closer inspection was devoted to research and development.

<<It's remarkable what a careless researcher will reveal if their thoughts are consumed by scientific conundrums.>>

Yeah, but would the Voidwalkers really do their most secret science where anyone could just walk in? I mean, what if someone like Isis or Overwatch got suspicious?

<<Certainly not. I'm sure that the information we'd really want is on the flagship, but there's plenty of things that require a more...material environment.>>

Right. We should get going.

Bridget set off toward R&D, just shy of a run, each step full of purpose, ready to face whatever challenges awaited her.

What she was unprepared for, however, was the frustration of searching for a needle in Vector's corporate research haystack. The research wing had looked so small on that very helpful diagram, but walking through the reality of the thing was another matter. There were so many labs and testing rooms, and even though her stealth kept her hidden from the researchers, waiting for one of them to open their electronically locked lab doors to exit was an exercise in tedium. To make matters worse, while the information she found about the computer chips, hyper-efficient batteries and high-tensile-strength materials that Vector was working on might have been valuable to a rival company, none of it had anything to do with a secret plan to conquer and devour the planet.

After an hour of investigating, she'd only searched three of the eight floors of the research wing, and Val's dismissals of everything they found as pedestrian and irrelevant was long past grating. On top of that, the strain of keeping up her gravitic stealth was beginning to take its toll. The effort was like holding a small weight in her outstretched hand; easy at first, and simple enough to maintain for a little while. But she hadn't had all that much practice, and before long she found herself needing to take breaks, ducking into restrooms or the occasional convenient alcove to recover.

And so she found herself trudging from testing room to testing room. Val theorized these were likely ballistics labs, and those were for material testing, with evident and undiminished contempt for science that dealt purely with the physical world. It had been a relief to discover a series of unlocked rooms, before it became apparent that the reason they were so easy to enter was because they contained nothing at all of interest. Bridget let out a frustrated sigh.

“Hey there! Need help findin' something?” A man's voice rang out cheerfully behind her.

Bridget let out a yelp of surprise, and very nearly took flight on the spot.

<<Stars take us!>> Val spat.

Bridget turned around to face the speaker, ready to throw him as far as she could and book it in the opposite direction at the first sign of danger.

“You must be newly attuned, huh?” The man continued, offering a friendly smile in response to Bridget's battle stance.

After a moment of confusion, Bridget realized that the Voidwalker in front of her had no idea who they were, and that they might just be able to use that to their advantage.

“Oh, um... yes. Right. That is indeed the case.” Bridget said haltingly, doing her best impression of Val's clipped, imperious manner.

“Thought so. It can be frustrating to get used to a vessel that has so little ability to orient itself in space-time. You have to remember that physical bodies make sound as they move. A generalized envelope like the one you got there won't match all the changes perfectly. That's how I could see ya, don'cha know.”

“Of course. Thank you.” Bridget did her best to suppress the blush that spread across her cheeks at having an enemy correct her technique.

“Oh, no trouble, miss...”

Bridget stared for a moment before she realized that he was waiting for her name.

“Sepulchral, um...Mezzopiano.”

<<What? That's nothing like a real Voidwaker name! Mezzopiano doesn't make the slightest bit of sense!>>

Give me a break! I had like a second to think of it and you weren't exactly brimming with suggestions.

<<Even for a male, he would have to be a credulous fool to believe for a second that->>

“Nice to meet you, Mezzopiano, I'm Empyrean Rondo-”

<<Incredible,>> Val spat, voice dripping with contempt.

“But my friends just call me Empy.”

<<This disrespectful little whelp! A Voidwalker's name is a description of what they are in every sense. It's not to be abridged with such careless irreverence.>>

I mean, it's his own name. And it doesn't seem to bother you when I do it.

<<You're barely more than a baby, it's not reasonable to expect you to understand etiquette rules that date back centuries. <<This...>> She fumbled about for a word sufficient to express her derision. <<...male, by contrast, is a miserable disgrace who ought to know better.>>

Oh...well, still, I'm sorry for giving you a nickname that you hate. I'll call you Cadenza from now on.

<<No, don't!>> Val blurted, before quickly regaining her usual composure. <<I...I mean, you really don't have to do that, little one. I've -well- grown fond of the appellation. Consider it a singular exception.>>

Okay. No problem space-mommy.

“Well, um, it is pleasant to meet you, Empy.” Bridget replied, turning her attention from one Voidwalker to another, “I, well, like you said, I'm not quite used to this frail, pathetic human body yet, and I seem to have gotten myself lost. Could you direct me to the lab?”

“Oh, it's not s'bad. I'm sure after a little experimentation, you'll find that a physical body comes with a few nice perks. Like touch, touch is great.”

“What exactly do you mean?” Bridget said, trying to make conversation, but dreading where it would lead.

“Look, just...” Empy was for a moment lost for words “If you encounter an earth tool called 'play-dough,' attempt to operate it for a few minutes. Anyways, which lab d'you mean? There's quite a few, as I'm sure you've noticed.”

“I meant the secret one.”

Please let there be a secret one, let there be a secret one, she thought to herself.

“Oh, the main test chamber? Dimensional block 1134?”

<<Ah, perfect. The 1100s are all reserved for special research projects; that's almost certain to be what we need. We should, it seems, be thankful the Warmistress employs such incompetents instead of jettisoning them into the nearest nebula.>>

“Indeed, Empy, that is the one I am searching for. Lead on.”

He seemed pretty nice though.

<<Which is exactly the problem. He's also directly contravening every security protocol in the book, just because we appear to be a friendly Voidwalker-aligned entity.>>

Well, hey, at least we got lucky for once. Not like we didn't need it.

Empyreal Rondo led them to an elevator, but instead of selecting a floor, he merely placed his hand on the Vector logo that sat above the buttons for the top floors. His hand and the logo both glowed purple for a moment, and they began moving upward. But midway between the fourth and fifth floors, the numeric display went blank, and the elevator lurched to a halt.

The door opened onto a hall that was in near total darkness, save for the green glow of an exit sign, by which Bridget could barely make out a paper note taped on a white door in front of them that read: UNDER RENNOVATION.

Their guide pushed past it, unbothered by both the sign and the low light, and Bridget hastened along after him, hoping she wouldn't give herself away by stumbling in darkness that the Voidwalker didn't even seem to notice. Bridget tried to keep track of the turnings they took so she could retrace her steps later, but she lost track after the seventh one.

Suddenly they turned a corner, and the darkness was broken by dim sunlight to filter through a large tinted window. Bridget halted for a moment while her eyes adjusted to the sudden change, and realized that her guide had stopped as well, in front of a large, plain metal door. He slid a card through a reader on the left side of the entrance, and waited for a reaction. The door began to whirr and click, then emit a strangely harmonic hum that built in a crescendo from a whisper to a full chorus.

“I really don't know what he sees in this whole production. Only a human would be impressed by something as simple as a solid door, and they can't even get here. But, well, scientists. Y'know how they are.”

<<Philistine,>> Val harrumphed indignantly as Empy turned to leave.

“1134's just through the far door, ring the buzzer if you need anything!” he said cheerfully, walking back the way they had come.

Bridget tried to think of a follow-up question, but before she got past “and what kind of-,” Empy had already rounded a corner and was gone.

Well, that was...Oh.

“Oh, no.”

The door guarding the entry had ceased making sound, save the creak of metal as it slowly lifted open, bathing the entryway in an all-too familiar purple glow.

Bridget took a few hesitant steps forward, then nearly leapt out of her skin at the clanging report of her footfalls on the metal floor. Fortunately for her, there were no Voidwalkers to detect her invasion into their sanctum, so the only sound that greeted her was her own echo, and the eerie chorus of machines whirring, buzzing and beeping. She looked toward the opposite end of the gigantic room, and saw a sight that made her stomach turn. Against the far wall stood a quintet of hospital beds, each illuminated by the same harsh glow under which she once awoke, and each accompanied by a tangled thicket of wires, and a ring of silver machines that gleamed under the alien illumination.

Bridget fought not to look directly at any of the beds for too long, resisting the horrible memory of her own attunement that desperately clawed at her mind and threatened to overwhelm her. But even so, she got a good enough look at the arrangements to see that while four of the beds were empty, the one closest to the door into the chamber beyond held a gown-clad humanoid figure.

This was enough to spur Bridget into action, her own nightmare forgotten at the prospect of saving another. Without even pausing to consult with Val or to think of a way to mask the sound of her approach, she ran toward the Voidwalkers' latest unfortunate victim, and after a few clanging seconds, she was at the bedside, looking down at the captive.

I know you probably think it's a waste of time, but we have to at least try to save the-huh?

Bridget's eyes widened in surprise. Someone had covered the form of the new Voidwalker host in a thin white sheet, thick enough to occlude their features, but too thin to conceal the lurid purple glow emanating from the subject beneath. It was like looking down at a mannequin, or a morbid parody of a small child reading by flashlight under the blankets in the dead of night.

<<Sweetie...>> Val said cautiously, <<I know you want to help, but I'm not sure->>

Bridget didn't respond. She just grabbed a big handful of the white sheet and threw it aside.

The Latina woman beneath was unassuming, wearing only a hospital gown in thin blue plaid, and appeared unhurt, save for the places where they'd put in the tubes and IV. She didn't move at all, even to open her eyes to look up at her rescuer. Two shining rivulets of tears ran down her face, saturated with the violet hue of the all-pervasive light. Bridget reached out gingerly with two fingers, and brushed the woman's bangs aside to wipe the tears away, hoping to offer whatever small comfort she could. But the moment she touched the liquid, it hissed and curled into vapor, its tendrils grasping weightlessly at Bridget's hand, like a last breath rising feebly into the frozen winter sky.

<<The Nocturne has already begun, little one. Without immediate expert help, there's nothing to be done.>>

Then we'll get her immediate expert help! If we can find Empy again, maybe we can convince him to bring a rescue team or something! She turned around to look back the way she had come, weighing how long it would take her to run for it, to find a paramedic. Her left hand traveled to the woman's wrist, looking for a pulse. At first, she couldn't feel anything but the cold of the woman's skin and her spirits fell. But then, after a few long moments, she felt a faint but unmistakable, beat against her fingers

“Okay,” she whispered to herself, calming her frazzled nerves. “She's still alive. If we hurry, we can probably make it in time.”

Bridget turned to leave, but before she'd had the chance to step back, she felt a clammy hand clutch at her wrist.

She screamed and yanked her hand away. The woman offered no resistance; her grip had no strength in it. Horrified, Bridget clapped her hand to her mouth, trying vainly to hold back the sound that had already erupted from her lips, and now echoed, seemingly endlessly, around the vast, nearly-empty chamber.

Whatthellwhatthehellwhatthehell, Bridget shrieked silently, looking down at the woman. Some part of her brain expected to see her slowly rising from the bed like a zombie. But there was no sudden reanimation under unholy power. The host's fingers twitched feebly as Bridget watched, but otherwise, she remained still.

<<Don't worry, little one. When a host dies, the Voidwalker de-couples themselves from their nervous system. They leave the host through an available orifice and resume their normal form, as you saw. But their passing can cause random nerve impulses in their wake.>>

So she's... Bridget didn't want to complete the sentence, as though saying it, even to herself, would be enough to make it so, collapsing even the small uncertainty that remained into a singular finality.

<<Quite dead.>> Bridget could tell that Val was trying to be sensitive, but her artifice was obvious.

<<I'm sorry, little one, but we have to get going. We've been fortunate so far, but that will not necessarily remain the case. Once whoever is in charge here realizes they've got uninvited guests, I suspect we'll receive a much more acrimonious welcome.>>

What would you even know about sorry, you, you-

Bridget wanted to say something truly awful, to force Val to feel some of the misery, to feel something of what it was like to know that if they had been quicker, bumbled around less, joked around less, this woman, who was once a person with her own hopes and dreams, her own life, would still be something more than a failed flesh-suit for a conquering alien. But her impotent fury consumed the part of her brain that could come up with something suitably cutting, and all she could think to do was swipe at the woman's lifeless tears, hoping that she could at least hurt the Voidwalker as it fled the corpse. If she could stop it from coalescing, make it suffer for what it had done, that would at least be something.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there, slashing at purple steam with her hand, until it finally stopped leaking from the woman's glassy eyes. Finally, chest heaving with exertion, she stopped her attack and pulled the sheet back over the body. Already the purple light had begun to fade, so that when the sheet was replaced, only the palest nimbus escaped.

Bridget stood for a moment, trying to think of something to say or do. She supposed that real heroines knew how to handle something like this, and would be able to soldier on, knowing that more remained to be done. But in that moment, all Bridget wanted to do was run and hide. Somewhere in the deeps of space or far beneath the earth, where she'd never have to see another Voidwalker, or any more of their awful work, ever again.

<<I know, sweetie. It's awful, and scary, but this is all the more reason why we've got to put a stop to them.>>

Yeah, but, but-

Bridget's response was interrupted by the hiss of the interior door as it suddenly opened, and the light from the operating room spilled into the newly-revealed room beyond.

A man stood on the other side, all harsh squares and steel-grey hair on his head and in the small goatee that clung to his sharp chin. His black boots clomped on the metal floor, and the matching black lab coat flowed like a cape around him as he swooped in.

“Intruding in my laboratory and interrupting my beautiful work of creation, just to play with the rubbish. What unusual behavior.” He rested his chin on his right hand and studied Bridget intensely. His voice was a rumbling basso, tinged with the sharpness of an un-placeable eastern European accent.

Bridget glared back and raised a hand, ready to fight. If this man was the one running all the attunement, and she killed him, maybe she could prevent anything like this from happening again. With a furious scream, she raised a hand, envisioning the purple void of her power reaching out to grab one of the empty beds, and a few of the free-standing machines. Her head pounded with the effort, but she heard the scrape of metal as her projectiles rose into the air and flew toward her target.

The man's confidence wavered for a second as he saw the sheer size of what Bridget had hurled at him, but after a moment, he raised his own arm in response. Purple tendrils of power swiftly wove themselves around the objects, slowing their flight until they simply floated harmlessly a few feet in front of him.

“That was quite uncalled-for,” he chided her. “Now, if you would cease this futile tantru-”

[[Assassin! I won't let you harm Master Forzare!]]

The psychic bellow was accompanied by a screeching roar, as a second figure emerged from the darkness behind Forzare and sailed through the air, crashing into and through the items Forzare and Bridget were levitating with a shriek of metal and a massive, slamming crash.

It hit the floor with a clang, followed by a rain of sliced up bits of metal casing and splinters of bed-frame. The sheer impossibility of the beast before her thing broke Bridget's concentration, and she stumbled back a few paces in instinctive fear.

The chimeric creature that now interposed itself between Bridget and Forzare could only be described as monstrous. At its most basic, it was something akin to a demented centaur. Its bottom half was a scorpion instead of a horse, and both its chitinous abdomen and its humanoid upper body were a bright blue. It stood almost twice as tall as Bridget and easily twice as wide on its six enormous insectoid legs. Its four-fingered hands ended in massive which were only surpassed by the gigantic sting arcing over its back, glistening with venom as the terrifying abomination swayed back and forth. Its neck and chest were armored with more chitin, but its head was like that of a hairless tiger.

The beast looked down at Bridget through yellow, slitted eyes, and let out another psychic bellow, this time accompanied by a clipped roar that might almost have been a bark, revealing the huge fangs that dominated its jaws.

Fozare seemed nearly as startled by the creature's sudden appearance as Bridget was, and he barely had time to collect himself and stammer out a hasty, “No, Mi'cha! Down, girl! You don't have to-” before the scorpion monster leapt straight at Bridget, claws, fangs and tail gleaming deadly in the eerie violet light.

 

 

 

[Wannatripbaby]

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is the Nopenopenope in its natural habitat.

Fantastic chapter. I will admit, I was having my doubts as to whether this story was ead or not. And, honestly, until we get back to something resembling a consistent upload schedule I will continue to think that. With a story as complex as this, ine chapter every few months just isn't enough and you can barely remember what's going on or what happened before.

Also this part:

9 hours ago, Selpharia said:

<<Okay. No problem space-mommy.>>

Shouldn't that have been in Bridget's italics rather than Val's... what would you call them? <<Thought Brackets>> mayhaps?

[Selpharia]

Fixed, thanks for pointing that out. I’ll do what I can, but part of the difficulty in *writing* something like this is that it takes time, especially when life gets hectic. 

[Wannatripbaby]

I know. And I totally understand. Life happens and sometimes you have to put your passions aside. I'm not blaming you or anything. But you wouldn't be the first person who had to abandon their story and I was beginning to wonder if C3 was the latest among the casualties of life.

[Guilend]

11 hours ago, Selpharia said:

Bridget stared for a moment before she realized that he was waiting for her name.

“Sepulchral, um...Mezzopiano.”

<<What? That's nothing like a real Voidwaker name! Mezzopiano doesn't make the slightest bit of sense!>>

Give me a break! I had like a second to think of it and you weren't exactly brimming with suggestions.

<<Even for a male, he would have to be a credulous fool to believe for a second that->>

“Nice to meet you, Mezzopiano, I'm Empyrean Rondo-”

<<Incredible,>> Val spat, voice dripping with contempt.

Ok, this has to be my favorite part so far. 

 

1 hour ago, Wannatripbaby said:

I know. And I totally understand. Life happens and sometimes you have to put your passions aside. I'm not blaming you or anything. But you wouldn't be the first person who had to abandon their story and I was beginning to wonder if C3 was the latest among the casualties of life.

I had actually forgotten about this story, sadly.

[ELLIE52]

3 hours ago, Aries said:

I had actually forgotten about this story, sadly.

Honestly, it's hard to forget this story:  While you may have to wait a little longer, Selphie always delivers.  She has some of the best descriptive writing I have seen on the site.

[Selpharia]

That was one of my favorite scenes to write as well  Bridget imitating Val is so precious.

[CDfm]

This continues to be a great story. Every time Bridget confronts a new foe I think there’s no way she can defeat this one and yet every time she comes out on top. This one is no different. Right now you think there’s no way she can win this time. I am really looking forward to finding out how things will work out. This was well worth a like. 

[LilPeaches]

This story is incredible!!  Ive read a couple alien ABDL stories, though this one is very original. I love the relationship between Val and Bridget. You can see it evolving as the story progresses and feels very natural. You have a beautiful imagination that's very fun getting to see posted into words. 

Thankies for posting!!! 

[YourFNF]

I'm loving this so far. I'm at about chapter ten. I find it strange yet hilarious that alien energy being has taken so naturally to the "Mommy" roll.

///////

Just got through chapter eleven interesting how Bridget is discovering her Little side along with her powers. Also fun and games with rich assholes

///////

On 12/25/2017 at 5:16 PM, Selpharia said:

Thank you so much for the compliment, kerry. We'll see how bad this really turns out to be for poor Bridget. Here's the second of the three parts, with one more that you'll get to read tomorrow. As always, questions and comments are wonderful.

Incidentally, I have the full speech that Leanne gave, but Bridget wasn't paying much attention to. I could post it, if anyone would be interested. For now, however, here's the next part

Issue 2: Chapter 12 Part 2: Unusual Suspects

<<Don't worry, little one. I'll think of something.>>

-

 

Ah the old dueling conspiracies

[YourFNF]

On 12/26/2017 at 5:32 PM, Selpharia said:

So, first, thank you both for your compliments, they mean so much to me! Seriously, I’m over the moon to make something that people enjoy enough to comment on. Also, yes, I noticed Angel Hunter’s similarity to Val.

I would like to be Faerie Princess, if you’re dispensing titles. I’ve little interest in ruling over humans, but blending cuteness and mischief in an upside-down, inscrutable way is my jam.

As Sophie hypothesized, I write mainly female characters because I am very gay, and want to do more of that girl love writing. But I also wanted to flip the gender dynamics of superhero genre stories. So not only making the female characters awesome, but also freeing them from the requirement that they fulfill male fantasies. Some still do, but a lot of them are intended to just be normal women and enbys with.extraordinary abilities. There will be male characters,  and I want them to be fully realized people, but the spotlight will always be on the female characters and their stories. I’ll spoil a bit and say that there will be a major antagonist in Issue 4 who is male, and we’ll certainly see other male characters besides dads and teachers, maybe in the next Interlude or two 

In universe, there was actuSlly a deliberate move to feminize law enforcement, especially meta human law enforcement. There were a lot of theories about how reducing the total amount of testosterone in law enforcement would reduce collateral damage, and improve community outreach.

Also, since Voidwalker gender came up, I figured I’d mention that they have “biological” sex after a fashion, and can reproduce. They have no childhood to speak of; knowledge is transferred during the process of procreation. But all of them begin their lives “male,” that is, unable to produce offspring, and switch to “females” who can reproduce with other females” after a year or two of life. Star Wardens operate similarly.

Also, that 2% AB figure might just increase soon

 

This really cool. Wish I had more likes

[Selpharia]

Thanks so much for all the comments, they mean a lot to me  I know updates have been  slow, but they are moving, and will be coming along soon, faerie promise!

[YourFNF]

53 minutes ago, Selpharia said:

Thanks so much for all the comments, they mean a lot to me  I know updates have been  slow, but they are moving, and will be coming along soon, faerie promise!

Glad to hear. I just go to interlude 2. All I can say is Hoyay!!

[one_screaming_kitten]

Hi! I really like your story.

After reading the whole thing, I wondered why Val was interested in encouraging Bridget to to embrace her Little side. Manipulation? A means to an end, in getting Bridget to use her abilities? Echo's influence and affection for flesh creatures? Genuine affection after hanging out in Bridget's head for so long? All of the above?

But, also, I re-read the first few chapters again and noticed something else:

(I am unfamiliar with this forum interface and I can't figure out how to elegantly quote anything without dealing with huge posts, so I'm going to use a cruder method.)

----
The pain kept coming, wave after wave after wave, and soon she lost all sense of time. In the few moments between the pulses of agony, she looked at her pale skin and received a renewed dose of terror. The veins beneath her arm had begun to glow purple, as though the blood they contained had been replaced by some horrible ichor.

As the shock of the sight overcame her pumping adrenaline, Bridget stopped struggling, and went limp, her body alternately wracked by pain and helpless sobbing. If she'd had the ability to produce sound, the only thing that anyone would have heard was a tiny, mewling cry, the sound of a terrified, defeated child.

“Please...I want my mommy”
-----

And a few moments later:

-----
But as she did, she felt a strange chill course through her body, and an unfamiliar finger touched her lips, gently but irresistibly shushing her.

Bridget craned her neck to try to look up at the head of the operating table and found herself gazing up at an upside down version of herself. 

Well, almost herself. Bridget had never, even in her goth phase, been a fan of all black or all that much leather, and her hair was certainly not a neon red. But the soft oval of her face was exactly the same down to the identical dimple in her chin and mole on the left side of her face, The girl's grey eyes were  identical to Bridget's, and they had the same skinny frame.

As Bridget looked up at her doppelganger, it spoke, and its voice too was like hers, except that it reverberated with an unearthly echo.

“It is done. With this, little flesh-thing, you and I shall both have exactly what we desire.”
----

Given that you've said that they don't have the concept of the childhood, was it just that Val was already acting as what she thought a mother should be, she just wasn't aware of how that differed for humans until Bridget demonstrated it?

[Selpharia]

14 hours ago, one_screaming_kitten said:

Hi! I really like your story.

After reading the whole thing, I wondered why Val was interested in encouraging Bridget to to embrace her Little side. Manipulation? A means to an end, in getting Bridget to use her abilities? Echo's influence and affection for flesh creatures? Genuine affection after hanging out in Bridget's head for so long? All of the above?

----

----

Given that you've said that they don't have the concept of the childhood, was it just that Val was already acting as what she thought a mother should be, she just wasn't aware of how that differed for humans until Bridget demonstrated it?

This is such a great question, thank you so much for asking it! I think you’re very correct that it’s “all of the above.” I don’t know if Val herself could figure out how much of each it is, and it’s definitely changed as she and Bridget spend more time together. I’d just add one more: Val likes being in charge, being important, and being needed. I dare say she has grown to enjoy the experience of being space mommy for its own sake. It’s a little funny, really. Val originally wanted to manipulate Bridget into being submissive, because she’s used to the Voidwalker interpretation of submission: pure obedience. But when she started doing that, she opened herself up to a dominant role that went further and was more fulfilling than the mere command she expected. She became, and continues to become, a caretaker.

Kudos also for picking up on the importance of Echo in opening Val up to the role of space-mommy. 

Regarding the last part of your question: we see Bridget’s dream version of this scene, so it’s very possible that Bridget was by this point starting to see the commanding, dominant, self-confident  Val as a bit of a mommy figure, and her subconscious was just trying to explain it to her. Val definitely did have some mommy traits before she was intentional about it!

Thank you again for reading so closely and carefully!

[Selpharia]

Wow! That’s so much reading! I’m glad you liked it so much, Hoppy!

[one_screaming_kitten]

On 9/5/2018 at 5:57 PM, Selpharia said:

This is such a great question, thank you so much for asking it! I think you’re very correct that it’s “all of the above.” I don’t know if Val herself could figure out how much of each it is, and it’s definitely changed as she and Bridget spend more time together. I’d just add one more: Val likes being in charge, being important, and being needed. I dare say she has grown to enjoy the experience of being space mommy for its own sake. It’s a little funny, really. Val originally wanted to manipulate Bridget into being submissive, because she’s used to the Voidwalker interpretation of submission: pure obedience. But when she started doing that, she opened herself up to a dominant role that went further and was more fulfilling than the mere command she expected. She became, and continues to become, a caretaker.

Kudos also for picking up on the importance of Echo in opening Val up to the role of space-mommy. 

Regarding the last part of your question: we see Bridget’s dream version of this scene, so it’s very possible that Bridget was by this point starting to see the commanding, dominant, self-confident  Val as a bit of a mommy figure, and her subconscious was just trying to explain it to her. Val definitely did have some mommy traits before she was intentional about it!

Thank you again for reading so closely and carefully!

I happened to read your story when I was having a bad day and it made me feel better. That's why.
That, and I like figuring out why people do things, and that includes characters.

[Selpharia]

I'm glad to hear that. I find that's an underrated virtue of superhero stories. I also very much enjoy puzzling over the whys of people and what they do.

[Selpharia]

What, an update? Those don't happen, there must be some mistake. Oh wait, you mean this? 

Chapter 5- Hunter and Hunted

Any Voidwalker, facing a frontal assault by a creature as massive as Mi'cha, would have called on her prodigious powers to alter her course or to hold her in place. But in this moment of primal fear, Bridget didn't think like a Voidwalker. Her very human brain went straight for the quickest means of escape from this terrifying alien predator.

This was the only reason that she did not die in the very next instant, impaled on Mi'cha's enormous stinger tail. She had instinctively jumped backward, amplifying the distance and speed of her leap with gravitic manipulation. The scream of metal blended with Mi'cha's furious roar as her claws struck the metal floor where Bridget had been standing merely a blink earlier.

The bestial sound made Bridget's teeth rattle, and she stumbled backward. The gigantic monstrosity seized the opening and whipped her tail toward the soft, vulnerable flesh of her prey.

<<I won't let you harm my little one, creature,>> Val snarled

Bridget felt the reservoir of power, brimming and eager. She frantically extended an arm to ward off the monster's strike, eyes closed instinctively in fear of the scything blow to come, even as she unleashed a desperate burst of energy in Mi'cha's direction.

<<I suspect that Forzare's simple-minded minion will find a close inspection of the laboratory's steel wall more suited to her capabilities, even if her first introduction to it might be more kinetic than she'd prefer. The unique sound that such a mass of chitin will make upon impact is->>

But that sound never came. Bridget had thought her attack would bowl over even something as massive as Micha. The only thing her attack managed to do, however, was knock the beast's strike slightly off course. Mi'cha's stinger clanged against the metallic floor again, giving Bridget the space to let out a pant of exertion. Unfortunately for her, Mi'cha, had expected this counter, and quickly swiped her tail laterally, striking Bridget full in the stomach with the armored cord of muscle.

A second massive outpouring of gravitic energy prevented her from crumpling and let her keep her balance despite the crushing impact. It took all of Bridget and Val's combined effort to counter enough of the force that Bridget was only knocked straight backwards toward the outer laboratory door. They avoided being smashed against it by inches, barely averting the fate that mere seconds ago Val had been sure Mi'cha would suffer.

<<Forzare is...full of surprises, it seems. I underestimated him; I...have no idea how he's done this.>> Val's psychic voice betrayed the same fatigue that Bridget felt in every fiber of her body.

“...How?” Bridget panted, repeating Val's question aloud in between large gulps of air. She barely contained her terror as Mi'cha skittered toward her with the meticulous inexorability of a wolf advancing on a wounded fawn.

Seeing his creation triumphant, Forzare began to gloat.

“Well, intruder, despite your earlier rudeness, I suppose I should thank you for the chance to demonstrate the pinnacle of my craft with a brief, simple exegesis of the brilliance that has laid low your ill-conceived sabotage.”

Forzare began to float lazily upward, his black lab coat billowing out behind him like a cape.

“You have no doubt observed that I have fully surmounted the square-cube law.” He swept his arm outward grandiosely, looking, Bridget thought, less like a horrifying alien mastermind and more like a member of the drama club warming up a well-practiced soliloquy.

Awesome.

Bridget took the opportunity to lean up against the door for a few precious seconds. If Forzare liked to hear himself talk as much as Val did, she might just have enough time to do something...

“This so-called law, like so many things in the physical universe, bends and twists around beings like ourselves, while its iron grip holds fast lesser creatures. The path to subverting it, therefore, lies in elevating those creatures to new and glorious heights! Behold!”

Suddenly, the purple light in the laboratory was extinguished, plunging the room into darkness. Bridget automatically reached for the energy sight that Val had taught her to use. When she did, she saw Forzare as she expected, glowing with the inner power of an attuned Voidwalker. But a similar glow also radiated from Mi'cha's massive form.

Well, that complicated things, Bridget thought to herself. She pressed her hands up against the door behind her, drawing out just enough Voidwalker energy that Forzare's own senses wouldn't detect what she was doing. Hopefully.

<<So he attuned someone to a war-thrall. How...pedestrian.>> Val sounded disappointed more than anything.

<<Wait...no, that's not it, the pattern's not right!>>

Once Val pointed it out, Bridget saw it too. Where Forzare's human vessel was entirely suffused with Voidwalker energy, a darker shade of Bridget's own power, Mi'cha looked different. She glowed with green life energy, but a constellation of purple orbs floated within her outline, so that she looked oddly like a 3-D connect-the-dots puzzle. There were spheres supporting her bulkier parts that it took a moment for Bridget's eyes to separate them. On top of that, individual spheres were fixed like bolts at every one of her insectile articulation points.

“This mere physical vessel has TRANSCENDED its former frailty, and become a truly SUPERIOR creation!” Forzare continued, unbothered by his own dramatic darkness. “It operates at far beyond the expected peak parameters, and renders futile any feeble attempts to use that same power to alter its motion!”

[[Be glad, assassin,]] Mi'cha added, in the same melodramatic cadence as her master, attempting and failing to conceal her eagerness. [[You will be slain by the great Stygian Forzare's true masterpiece!]]

But instead of the sound of groveling or the final, futile attack that Mi'cha expected, her mighty challenge was answered only by the clang of the laboratory door falling closed, just in time for a small human girl to perform a gravitically-enhanced leap through it.

Bridget ran as fast as she could past the laboratory entrance and into the darkness of the labyrinthine hallways beyond. She hurtled blindly onward looking desperately for an exit, guided only by the ghostly light of Voidwalker energy radiating from where the corridor walls and ceiling met. The screech of metal echoed and rebounded in the silence. The thuds of Mi'cha ramming herself against the barrier were the chimes of a nightmare clock, each one signifying that her hunt for Bridget was that much closer to bloody completion.

It took less than a minute for Bridget to lose sight of the laboratory, and of the window outside it which was the only place natural light could flow into the alien lair. After one more burst of speed she leaned up against a wall, taking a moment to catch her breath.

She'd expected hard tile, the same corporate design that the Voidwalkers had used in every other floor of the Vector building. As a result, she almost drew back her hand in surprise when it touched the wall and felt something like carpeting. But it was neither soft nor yielding, and offered no comfort. Like everything else here, she realized, it had been placed with calculated purpose. It made a fine insulator, allowing hundreds of normal human employees to proceed about their tasks, feet from a sprawling network of secret rooms and passageways, and remain blissfully oblivious. It also made escaping upwards or downwards a dicey proposition at best.

<<Our chances of locating the elevator are vanishingly small, especially given how little time we have,>> Val observed. << We might consider attempting to catch the creature in one of these shorter passages; it seems unlikely that she would be able to leverage her physical superiority in such confined spaces.>>

Val was clearly shaken, but had recovered her analytic faculties far faster than Bridget thought she herself would ever be able to. It took a few moments of deep breathing before she could form her thoughts into a coherent response.

But Forzare will come after us too, and he's normal-sized! The xenobiologist wasn't as scary as his chimeric creation, but Bridget had definitely gotten the worst of their previous exchange. He was, after all, a full-powered Voidwalker. She was maybe half of one, and a child on top of that.

<<Unlikely. Like me, he's a thinker, not a fighter. A display of power in his sanctuary is one thing, risking his own safety looking for a possible assassin is quite another. He'd suspect a trap.>>

Yeah, except I bet he has minions. Like, a bunch of attuned research assistants or something, who'd really love to impress their boss by catching us.

<<Indeed. Even if he's decided to give that creature the role of second in his demonstrations, he surely has other more conventional research staff. The Warmistress would tolerate much in search of results, but not an entire lab's worth of war-thralls wasted on research.>>

But fighting anything else is better than trying to fight that thing head-on.

<<That isn't strictly true. If Forzare were a disgrace like Empyrean Rondo, he'd go straight to the Warmistress. Thankfully, despite his questionable choice of discipline, he at least has a scientist's dignity.>>

Right.

Bridget supposed that if Val still felt secure enough to go on about ”a scientist's dignity,” things might not be as desperate as they seemed.

Let's see if we can dodge the blue beastie, then maybe we can overpower one of them and get them to lead us out or something.

The screeching and banging stopped. For a moment, Bridget thought she heard the sound of a claw scraping across the carpet and nearly jumped out of her skin, but realized it was only the scuff of her own sneaker.

Collecting herself, she continued walking for a little while, slower and more carefully than before, while Val counted and tracked their turns. As time passed without encountering any further monsters, Bridget even began to feel a bit more at ease. Soon enough, she heard the muffled sound of shouts and several pairs of feet, no doubt those of the emerging search party.

Val gave a smug, self-satisfied chuckle, and even Bridget cracked a small smile. When you got right down to it, this wasn't a whole lot different than evading Hellblood patrols; Sami and the rest of the Stalwart Six must have done that for weeks prior to their last mission, and none of them could turn invisible. Well, she wasn't sure that Isis couldn't, but she'd never bother anyway.

<<Little one, why don't you try floating us just a little bit off the ground? We don't want to go galumphing about as blatantly as these second-rate beaker fillers, do we?>>

Oh, right.

Bridget realized belatedly that in her headlong flight from Mi'cha, she hadn't done anything to conceal the noise of her passage, or her footprints. But, then again, maybe that didn't matter; if it did, Val surely would have scolded her much more forcefully.

Unfortunately, her new stealth tactic came a little too late. The sound of feet drew closer, along with the voices of her pursuers.

“Curse these miserable human eyes! I know she's barely meters away, but they can't even penetrate a simple solid wall! How in the void does any creature live like this?” The voices were seconds from rounding the last corner that stood between them and Bridget.

<<Little one, perhaps we should->>

Bridget barely listened. She knew there was only one way she was going to defeat two Voidwalkers in a contest of power.

She turned on her heel and ran toward her pursuers. Their eyes widened in surprise to see their quarry so abruptly appear in front of them. And in that moment, Val understood what Bridget wanted to do.

With a sickening crunch, their power rammed the two researchers headlong into one another. One of them let out a moan of pain and confusion as his comrade's elbow impacted his face.

The two suddenly-hunted hunters raised gravitic shields, trying to ward off the blows. Bridget watched purple spheres of power begin to form around them as they struggled to their feet. One fumbled at a bulge in the pocket of his black lab coat.

<<Well done sweetie, don't let up now!>>

Bridget obeyed and gritted her teeth as she focused everything she had into her outstretched hand. Pain burned every nerve in her body. She glowed so brightly with her own power that for a moment she was blinded by the lash of violet light that erupted from her palm and ensnared her targets.

It squeezed them, and their shields shattered like glass.

The next crash of bodies on walls was softened, the sound of impact muffled by the soundproofing. And so was the next, and the next after that; Bridget waved her hand back and forth, making enormous brushstrokes through the air. The two entrapped Voidwalkers careened from wall to wall, a pinball of confused and tangled limbs, before they finally collapsed in a heap, unmoving

“Did...did I kill them?” Bridget panted, suddenly worried as the adrenal lightning faded from her veins. She was bent almost double, barely managing to keep her feet, as though she'd run a marathon in a moment.

<<There's no need to worry, princess. Their nocturne hasn't yet begun.>>

“Good.” She didn't want to think about it would mean if she had.

One of the researchers had a pass like the one that Empy had dangling from a lanyard on his neck; Bridget quickly took possession of it.

Just in case, right?

<<Indeed.>>

But as she looked down at her defeated foes, her eyes fell on the bulge in the other's coat.

"What's this?” She said softly to herself, pulling the thing from the pocket where it lay.

It was hard to see in the dark hallway, but if she strained, Bridget could just make out the outline of a small pistol. But where the chamber would be, a deep blue crystal had been set, a tiny white light gleaming at its center like a miniature star in the surrounding darkness.

Bridget tightened her grip on the pistol, and as she did she heard a gross squishing sound, and felt the cold creep of strange slime oozing up her arm. It gripped her shoulder tightly, so that even though she screamed in disgust and did her best to shake it free, the weapon remained stuck.

“Eugh! What the hell is this thing? Get it off!”

The utter grossness of the strange device overrode any attempt at stealth.

<<It's a prism pistol, an old Star Warden weapon that Voidwalkers still use. If you clench and unclench your hand three times, the grip will release.>>

But why is it so slimy?

<<It's ideal for those attuned to weaker forms without natural weapons. The slime accommodates whatever appendage the vessel possesses.>>

Bridget did as she was told, and sure enough, the slime slurped its way back into the handle. Bridget held it gingerly between two fingers as though it might bite her, and carefully placed it in her own coat pocket.

Sweet! With this, we might just be able to beat them all and find our way out of here!

<<Be careful, princess. It's a useful tool, but you're not trained in its use. You can keep it for now, but I don't want you using it unless we absolutely must. I suspect that if you did, you'd be more of a danger to yourself than to our enemies.>>

Bridget started out again, buoyed the feeling of things finally starting to go right for her and Val. She could see the light of the laboratory window ahead. If she could get the drop on Forzare as she had his assistants, and if she could make her one shot count...

But as passed a particularly broad hallway, that little balloon of optimism was immediately punctured by the appearance of a familiar scorpion tail.

[[You make very easy prey, Assassin.]]

Shit.

-------

More updates as a reward for sticking with this for so long? That seems incredibly unlikely 

[Wannatripbaby]

*Obligatory crack about this story being dead.*

An excellent chapter. ?

I loved the almost self-aware part where Forzare started Monologuing. ?

And now Bridget has some kind of super laser pistol thingy! I look forward to seeing that in action.

You know, in like 3 years or so. ?

[Selpharia]

Monologuing is a proud Voidwalker institution. You’ve heard of performance art, but what Val and Forzare do? That’s performance science. 

For Voidwalkers, even anodyne things like white papers would be treated almost like beat poetry. A little in the weeds, too intimate for true spectacle, but still, a *performance*

[ELLIE52]

Very suspenseful chapter.  Of course, that ending....  leads us to want more.  Thanks, Selphie!

[YourFNF]

Excellent action scene. Why I do suspect there are going to be consequences for Bridget exerting herself like that. That pullup is starting to feel like checkhov's gun.

@Selpharia

[Wannatripbaby]

12 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Excellent action scene. Why I do suspect there are going to be consequences for Bridget exerting herself like that. That pullup is starting to feel like checkhov's gun.

Incontinence as a result of over-exerting your powers? Now where have I heard that before... ?

[Selpharia]

Yeah, I mean, who knows how long you'll have to wait for another update, given how slowly I write. oh wait, what's this right here?

Chapter 6: The Belly of the Beast

Bridget put her hands up in a fighting stance, readying herself for combat. Mi'cha skittered slowly forward with a low, rumbling growl. Muscles bulged beneath her skin as she tensed for a final pounce. The vastness of her eclipsed the tiny pinprick of sunlight from the laboratory ahead, so that for a moment, the whole world was chitin and rippling muscle bathed in pale purple light.

Mi'cha leaped, and Bridget feinted left then dove right. She floated herself a mere inch from the floor, ducking under one of Mi'cha's ripping claws. But there were just too many sharp, chitinous edges for her to dodge them all.

Bridget felt a burning in her side as one slicing leg ripped at her shirt, tearing open a gash in her clothes and the flesh beneath. She pushed through the pain, and fell onto her hands and knees on the other side of her opponent. A hand placed on her wound came away hot and slick with blood. The pain hit her a second later and she screamed.

No! nonononono! We're gonna die!

<<We will prevail, princess, I promise.>> Val didn't sound entirely sure herself, but Bridget wasn't in a state to argue.

<<We'll feed on some of Forzare's minions and be good as new. Remember how I showed you last time?>>

Y-yeah.

A great ripping sound from behind her told Bridget that at least one part of their plan had worked: They'd found a hallway narrow enough that Mi'cha was having difficulty turning around to finish the job. But the clacking of claws and legs didn't sound like the noises a monster makes when it's given up the chase.

<<Focus, little one. Find those two we defeated earlier. They don't have much energy, but it will be enough.>>

Bridget could almost feel Mi'cha's breath on her neck, and it shook her concentration. She tried to reach out to find life energy she could sap. But the only thing her mind could see was the overflowing vitality of the monster behind her.

Bridget reached out a tendril of her power, attempting to draw Mi'cha's life energy toward her. But it was like trying to suck water through the tiniest, narrowest straw. She pulled with all her might, but instead of the surge of power she'd felt after feeding off the Hellbloods, a mere trickle flowed around the wound in her side. And even as she got to her feet, Bridget heard the thud of four enormous forelegs hitting the ground.

But by the time Mi'cha had righted herself and was ready to pounce again, Bridget had sped all the way down the final hallway right up to the sealed entrance of Forzare's laboratory. She fished in her pocket for the prism pistol and felt it ooze up her arm again. Steel or not, she was pretty sure that the laser pistol could blow a hole in Forzare's front door.

Bridget had never shot a gun before, let alone a prism pistol before. She'd expected some recoil, but hadn't been prepared for the sheer brightness of it. The searing light stabbed at the darkness, and was answered an instant later by a violet shield thatthrummed to life around the entryway. It devoured the beam from her pistol, until all that remained of it was the imprint that floated in her vision.

[[I am grateful, assassin. Master Forzare will be able to see me defeat you on camera, and how good a servant I am, and I shall receive all of the ear-scratches I could ever want! I would thank you, but you will be dead!]]

“Yeah, okay, sure. I bet he'll love you get stuck when you try to stab me again.” Bridget took a step forward, making herself look as threatening as possible and trying to hide the pain still throbbing in her side.

Mi'cha let out a growl that sounded like a laugh.

[[No.]]

She brought her stinger down low in front of her, like a chitinous saber. But instead of lunging at Bridget, she tensed the muscles in her tail, sending the venomous tip hurtling toward her target like a spear.

Mi'cha's attack was too fast for Bridget to intercept with gravitic power, and she was only saved from the venom by a frantic tumble to the floor.

This, however, was exactly what Mi'cha had been waiting for. She scuttled forward, eager to impale the prone Bridget with the sharp claws at the tips of her legs.

<<A shift of priorities is in order, little one. I don't think his battle can be won.>>

Geez, you think? Bridget rolled out from under a pair of Mi'cha's forelimbs that nearly sliced straight through her head.

<<If we create a vacuum around that window and then shatter it, it could be an avenue of escape.>>

Or we could be cut to ribbons by broken glass!

<<It can't be that dangerous, surely, given our size and density->>

Hell no, that much glass at high speeds would cut through unprotected flesh instantly! We'd be dead even quicker than if Mi'cha-

And in that instant, contemplating the many and varied directions from which their doom could come, an idea blazed through Bridget's mind.

She descended one more time into the purple void, and wrapped herself in gravitic power. There was no point trying to shield herself from Mi'cha's blows or turn them aside, the creature simply had too much mass. So instead, Bridget floated herself just off the ground, and slid her way directly under Mi'cha's abdomen.

[[Wha-?]] Mi'cha's legs scrambled wildly, suddenly unable to find their target.

The respite wasn't long, however. In a moment, Mi'cha looked down, and raised her arachnoid abdomen with a snarl, preparing to crush the impudent assassin beneath her with sheer bulk. Bridget closed her eyes. She didn't want to see the final moment when the heavy shell smeared her across the floor

What the victorious Mi'cha had failed to notice, though, was the gravitic field wrapping itself around the great window Forzare had installed to overawe visitors with the grandeur of his demesne. Small cracks began to form and multiply in its surface. It creaked and groaned under the suddenly multiplied weight of the outside air pressed against it by an invisible, alien hand.

It shattered all at once into uncountable pieces,exploding into a slicing storm of shards, thousands of tiny missiles, the entire cloud aimed at the unsuspecting Mi'cha.

Bridget hadn't had time to be precise; many of the splinters bounced harmlessly off the organic armor covering Mi'cha's lower half. But even so, many more found their mark in the soft, unprotected flesh of her humanoid torso.

The creature roared in agony, reeling from the pain of a thousand tiny cuts. She staggered a few crablike steps, and Bridget could see the sun, its rays stabbing into the sullen darkness, illuminating a path for her escape.

[[H-help me...Master Forzare, please,]] she mewled, [[I-I- Everywhere...it hurts so much!]]

The telepathic sound of Mi'cha's cries vibrated through Bridget's entire being. It took all her willpower not to stop or look behind. She moved as quickly and carefully as she could, clearing a path through the debris with a swipe of her hand and dodging Mi'cha's flailing claws.

She ran to the base of the ruined window and,sailed thorough it into the daylight world outside. Only then, as she began her floating descent did she dare turn to look back at her wounded pursuer.

It was a gruesome sight.

Thin lines of violent crimson covered her face and chest, tracing from gaping wound to gaping wound. Her hands were folded together, in an almost meditative pose. Dark rivulets of blood ran across her claws, and when the sunlight hit her, Bridget barely kept from vomiting.

The slicing crisscross was the least of it. Torn muscle showed its raw pink meat through gaping rents in Mi’cha’s skin. Blood flowed from them, painting the wall scarlet as she crumpled against it. The glass gleamed in the pale light, broken but eerily placid amidst the carnage that it made.

Bridget hovered in the air for a moment, transfixed at the gargantuan ruin of her would-be killer. Her eyes refused to focus on any one part of the monster, rejecting the disgusting enormity of what she’d done. Mi’cha’s blue skin was rapidly being stained red, a red that darkened to the hue of rust as she lay there, mewling and twitching feebly.

The image stretched into a strangling eternity, as though the world itself had stopped with their battle. The silence was finally sundered by the mechanical grinding of the laboratory entrance. Time seemed to start again. A gaggle of Vector employees had heard the commotion. Most were wise enough to stay back, but a few were curious or foolish enough to approach.

Bridget drifted down toward the green plaza below. The landing was less gentle than she would have liked, but she kept firmly on her feet. She made herself invisible again, but it was obvious that the concealing cloak was more frayed and tattered than usual, weakened by her mounting fatigue.

<<Magnificently done, princess. That was truly ingenious.>>

Thanks, space mommy, she thought back, smiling weakly, but I...I don’t feel so good.

A searing flame still burned in her side, and the rest of her felt like dough that had just been squashed flat by a rolling pin. Her stomach continued to perform horrific gymnastics.Even so, she pushed the civilians away as gently as she could.

To her surprise, the next voice she heard did not come from the bewildered crowd, but instead faint and muffled from the shattered window above.

“Mi’cha! Oh, my poor, poor Mi’cha. What in the void happened to you? Don’t worry, we’ll have you in fighting shape in no time, I promise!”

Forzare’s frantic terror turned the rumbling baritone Bridget had heard before into a falsetto woodwind.

Oh, fantastic.

<<Don’t worry, little one. The Star Wardens might be able to heal such injuries quick enough that we'd need to worry. But the best Forzare is likely to do is let his pet hobble away>>

Well, we should probably do the same. My everything hurts.

Bridget turned, ready to make her escape. However, just as she did, she caught a flash of blue in the corner of her eye. She jumped, dreading to find that Forzare had been so enamored of Mi’cha that he made another. But instead, when she turned her head to follow the movement, what she saw was entirely unexpected.

A small, blue-clad humanoid figure ran along the roof of the Vector building, their teal top hat askew, matching cape fluttering in the breeze. Their destination was as obvious as it was ill-chosen; they halted their sprint above the smashed window that had drawn everyone’s attention.

Suddenly, an enormous bang exploded from the building entrance. The onlookers, already spooked, went into a full-blown panic. A few screamed, all of them scattered like ants.

Bridget, for her part, jumped what she thought must have been about a foot in the air, cursing under her breath.

“Dammit! What now?”

She instinctively turned to Val, hoping that she at least might have some idea what was going on. 

But instead of sage advice from decades spent voyaging the stars, what Bridget got  from Val was a peal of uproarious psychic laughter.

---

Incidentally, this also marks th opening of a new feature- The Fourth Wall Mailbox! 

You've asked questions of me for a while now, and I've so often answered cryptically. But now, you have the opportunity to ask your questions directly to the characters themselves! Some of them might even be less cagey than I am. Simply ask your question, specifying who it should be routed to, and you'll get an answer.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting!