As we walked back to the base, I felt the napkin in my pocket and thought about what Gianna had said. If my power really was hurting me, I needed the help, but was it really hurting me? I didn't mind eating candy, I preferred eating candy to anything else, it was my name after all, why shouldn't I like it? Gloves weren't so bad, yeah I couldn't have a physical relationship, but I'm sure there were other fulfilling ways I could have fun with any partner I had that didn't involve skin to skin contact. I might check them out if I ran into any problems, but for now, I was going to focus on Comfit.
A loud crashing noise sounded out, jarring me from my thoughts and my head snapped towards the sound. It was coming from the direction of our section, wasn't it? We were almost there, should we wait and see if the people on patrol would take care of it, or should we-?
"Candy, transform already, we gotta go see what that was!" Alele yelled, smacking my arm and deciding for me
I glanced at her, she'd already transformed, her navy blue dress flapping as she kicked her legs in the air impatiently. I nodded and let myself feel the pull, the lights covering me, and my clothes and body shifting to my magical girl outfit. I followed her to the sky, looking around for the noise. I really didn't want to fight right now, I was still feeling sick from that burger, and I just wanted to go home and curl up until later this afternoon when my next patrol was scheduled... I saw a cloud of dust billowing up from an area of the city that was well inside our section and I groaned. This was my responsibility after all...
I zipped forward, using my speed to get ahead of Alele and cut around to the dust-free area on the street next to the commotion and landed hard. I looked around, Driz, Lucy, and Mourner were already here, Driz behind everyone, holding her hands out like she was bracing something, with the other two in battle ready poses. There were a few onlookers, but most of the civilians, the smart ones, had run off already.
"What's the situation?" I asked Mourner
"This fucker just busted out of the ground and started attacking us..." she said grimly "He's all wound up, and he's not in a 'talking' mood."
The dust cleared enough for me to get a glimpse of the man in question, a shorter, white bearded man with a white leather full-body coat and a golden helmet on his head, spikes shaped like pincers cutting just in front of his eyes. Beside him was a young woman not much older than me, dirty blonde with green pants and a top that had the 'pincers' from the man's helmet printed on it. She was wearing a cheap green domino mask and a headband with childish green antenna on it, and crying as she tried to make herself small behind the much shorter man.
I could have sworn I'd seen the old man before, I just couldn't place it. He had that look though... His eyes met mine, and his face turned from determination to rage.
"You!" He roared "Give her back!"
He held up a hand and huge, spiny shaped rose into the air behind him, snaking forward, each as long as a bus. I realized with horror that they were the giant centipedes from the basement room, and this man must be the old halfling who lived with them.
"Give who back?" Mourner yelled "We haven't taken anyone!"
"You stole my daughter!" the young woman said, her voice rough and raw "I just need to know she's ok, please!"
"Who is 'we?" Drizti said nervously as the massive centipedes encircled us "I've never seen you people before!"
"Her!" the old man barked, pointing at me "She took my progeny! She broke into my home and took the child I was raising!"
Lucy glanced at me, her eyes widening in realization "Oh, shit, you totally did that..."
"That's not helping, Sable." I growled "Old man, look, I saw your daughter-"
"My daughter!" The woman corrected me, "My fucking child!"
"Ok, the- the whatever, the child, I saw it- her, like, one time, I kicked her, and never saw her again, I don't have her!" I said, holding my hands up
"I saw her run off into the streets, actually." Lucy said
"Then I will tear the streets apart until I find her!" the old man said, waving his hand.
There was a hiss, and the centipedes thrashed, tearing into the surrounding buildings, smashing a small doctor's office and a long-closed bakery, glass exploding into the streets. Mourner yelled, and lashed out, the vines on her arms snapping forward and catching one of the centipedes around the 'neck', slamming it into the ground. Lucy flickered, and appeared in front of the other one, driving her fist into an eye, a spray of goo bursting out of it. I dashed for the lady, raising my fist to put her out of the fight. I could leave the others to the rest of the girls, I wanted the easy target... Alele landed in front of me, catching my blow in a hand and pushing me back, putting herself between me and the lady like a wall.
"No!" she yelled "She's a minion, a non-combatant, focus on the other one!"
I gritted my teeth, technically I could get in serious trouble if I fought a non-combatant, but she was right there. Why couldn't Alele focus on him? It wasn't like I had a more useful power than her, I couldn't even use mine. I bit back my argument, and charged the old man, swinging my foot at his head. He blocked with a gauntlet, then switched to a grab, and punched my inner thigh with his free hand. I grunted, and he swung me around, slamming me into the ground stomach first, hard.
The air shot out of me and I struggled to breathe, I looked up to see Mourner twist her body, landing on the back of the centipede she was fighting and turn, so the vines around the neck tightened. She screamed, and flexed her arms, and with a snap, there was a spray of fluids, and the head of the centipede was ripped off by the noose she'd made.
I made a mental note to never underestimate dryads again, and rolled over just in time to see the old man head butt me, the pincers on his helmet driving into my torso, cutting deep. One went into a kidney, and the other in my intestines, the pain lancing though my body. He pulled back sharply, and the teeth on the pincers cut and tore as he wrenched himself free of me, my insides hanging off of his helmet.
I writhed, screaming as blood pooled under me, the pain was more than anything I'd ever felt, why hadn't Alele rewound that? Was I in the 'bad' timeline? Could that happen? Every time I died, was there a timeline she'd failed to save me? Another me that had to suffer?
I tried to tighten my muscles to stop the bleeding, to stop the oozing guts from leaking out, but I couldn't. I was feeling cold, and I gasped for air, I hadn't been hit in the lungs, why was it so hard to breathe? I tried to sit up, but my gloved hand slipped in my own blood and I went back down. The old man stood over me, what I could see of his face twisted in rage, and he lifted his gauntlet to hit me again.
A green light shone over my face, and another joined it, connecting together into a bar. The bar stretched, one end touching my stomach, the light hurting and causing pressure on my wounds, and the other end shot forward with a speed I wasn't expecting, hitting the old man on the mouth as he swung, the only exposed skin on his body. He roared and collapsed, and my world came into focus. I sucked in air, my body shaking. I looked down, the guts weren't hanging out anymore, there was a lot of blood still, but no wounds, and there was barely any lingering pain. I backed away quickly, crawling out of the sticky pool of blood and scrambling to my feet. The man was holding his own stomach, curled up in a ball and moaning, blood staining his white coat, seeping out of the button holes and seams.
I looked around, still shaking and dizzy. Was it over? Mourner and Lucy were smashing the last centipede into a pulp, twitching but not thrashing anymore, and Alele was on her phone, looking around the fight scene and describing it to someone. It should be over, right? The two combatants stopped their punches, the sound came back to my ears, and the scene felt tired, like all the urgency had rushed out of it at once. It was over. I rubbed my stomach and staggered over to a side rail on the sidewalk, leaning against it. I hated fighting, I'd tried to take the easy path and still gotten hurt. I'd need to be sure and avoid any power or super science enhanced crime as Comfit, unchosen criminals only...
"Sorry about that..." Drizti said, coming up beside me "I wanted to do it faster, but I needed him clear of you first, or he'd just attack again."
"N-no, you're- I- no, it's ok..." I said shakily. It was a weird feeling, being disemboweled and standing up just fine a few seconds later.
"I was surprised when I saw you take the hit, I thought Alele was getting better about that..." she said, looking over at her, still on the phone
"I think Alele was planing on you doing what you did, making him take his own hit." I said, pointing at the old man.
"That's a good strategy, I guess..." Drizti said, frowning
"I guess..." I said "I'd rather not get my guts pulled out again though..."
I could still feel them, like lumps of wrongness sticking out of me, an emptiness inside that felt final. I knew I was healed, but I kept finding my hand reaching for my stomach, like I needed to try and push them back in.
The young woman was on her knees over him, crying harder now, her hands hovering over him but not touching him. "Please, he needs healing, are any of you a healer?" she said, looking at the group, her eyes scared
"Um, my healing made him like that..." Drizti said "I think my teammate is calling medical care, though?"
"He did that to me, and he didn't have a healer handy..." I muttered, feeling guilty and annoyed all at once
"I just wanted my daughter back..." the woman sobbed "I need her, I love her so much..."
"You keep talking about a daughter, is this guy the dad?" I asked, pointing to the now-unconscious man bleeding out on the cracked pavement
"No, he's- he helped make her, I gave the genetics, he made her in a tube..." the woman sniffed "I was trying to get him to let me adopt her from the lab, I just-" she broke down into tears again
"I'll... keep an eye out for her?" I said "I did see her at the lab, she didn't look, uh, humanoid? She honestly might get picked up by the monster crew and taken to the wilds..."
That made the woman cry harder and I bit my lip. Not the right thing to say, obviously. Imagining your baby daughter trying to survive the wilderness full of slimes and gryphons and skeletons and worse was enough to scare any mother.
"Um... look, are you a fallen chosen?"
She shook her head.
"Are you a super scientist?" I asked
"No, I'm- I'm nothing, I'm an intern who donated genetic material, that's it, and now my life is ruined..." she said, holding her head "I just need to know she's ok..."
I looked around at the others. They'd gathered close enough to hear our conversation, and I was feeling a little on the spot.
"Well- ok, look, um." I tried to plan my words carefully. This woman didn't need this mess. I got the feeling if we let her go, she'd quit forever, and I really didn't feel like locking up a young mother as one of my first arrests. "If you're not a real, paid, minion, and you aren't any kind of villain, then... we can't hold you here as anything more than a witness. How about you... leave and go look for her, before anyone shows up?"
"We're letting her go?" Mourner asked "But-"
"She didn't actually break any laws." Alele said, hanging up her phone "It's fine, but the GGDS will be here in a few minutes to collect the bodies and the old man, soooo..."
The woman looked at us, her face confused and stressed. Without saying anything, she stood up, and dashed away, her shoes slapping on the pavement as she tore off down the street. I watched her go. It was the kind of thing that either could end in a returning threat, or a grounding moment that I'd look at to remind myself that I was a good guy in a moment of self doubt. I was hoping it was the latter. Not that I wanted to have a moment of self doubt, but that was the kind of things chosen just seemed to have, according to the movies, so it'd be nice if I could look back on this when it happened.
"I don't feel good about that." Mourner said "She was obviously a minion, just because she was unpaid doesn't mean she's not going to go back to his lair and gear up to bust him out of the GGDS lockup."
"Honestly, if we took her in it'd just be the GGDS trying to intimidate her into confessing to a crime. We didn't see her do anything but cry and ask about her kid." Alele pointed out "The GGDS could get a goddess of childcare to confess to tossing a baby off a building though, so... it's better that she's free, for her sake. If she breaks the law for real, we'll get her."
"Well..." Drizti said "I just hope she's smart enough to quit the business after this. Being a minion sounds so dangerous..."
"I considered being a minion for a while, actually." Lucy said "There's a super scientist in what's left of Arena City, goes by Pressure Cooker. She's a feminist type, super into queer rights. If you go join up with her, she pays for all your transition stuff as long as you're on the payroll. Even does top surgeries for her minions herself."
"So... there's a super villain who is specifically recruiting trans people?" I asked "That seems like bad optics for trans people."
Lucy shrugged "The optics aren't great from the good guys either, and at least she helps people transition. Rotten Fruit is still trying to get their team to let them present more masc and promote trans visibility, most people don't even know they're enby."
"I didn't know that..." Alele admitted "I'd never consider being a minion, but... if you need help, sometimes you turn to bad people I guess."
"Is this a common thing?" Mourner asked "Last time I was on patrol with Angel Sable all our conversations turned queer, is that just... a thing with her?"
"Yeah, pretty much." I said "It's her favorite topic."
"No, it's not every time!" Lucy protested "I talk about a lot of stuff, this is just the biggest part of my life right now... Fuck you, whatever..."
"I'm not saying it's bad, I just noticed it." Mourner said "There's a guy bleeding out, we just tore up two huge bugs, we should be talking about the action, the fighting, how we did, not... politics."
"My identity isn't politics..." Lucy said dejectedly
"How the world reacts to it is, though, and that's what you're talking about." Mourner said "Look, I'll talk about it all you want, but like, the fight? That just happened? Can we talk about that please?"
"I liked how you used your vines as lassos!" Drizti said, trying to move the conversation along "I thought that was really clever."
"Branches, actually." Mourner said, waving the tendrils on her arms in the air "I like to keep 'em long for that reason, down to my feet. I can extend them about four times the resting length, which is great for takedowns."
"I thought dryad's limbs were their branches?" I asked
"No- well, I mean,- we have lots of branches." Mourner said, giving me a look "My fucking hair is branches."
"I was pretty impressed with how I punched straight through that one's eye, and then I just like, went nuts, My fists tore through the shell like paper. It was pretty great!" Lucy said
"Yeah, I can't help but think of you doing that to a person, next time..." Drizti said "If you hit a person that hard, I'm giving you the injuries and making you deal with it."
"Ooh, harsh..." Mourner said, grinning "I'm guessing you guys don't have regen?"
"Nah, barely any, enough to heal bruises and scrapes in a day or two, nothing more. We mostly just have Angel Verdant here." Alele said "We're strong, but as you saw, just a guy with knives strapped to his head can still hurt us. We're trying to get a contract with the Valley Nurses though, for when we don't have a handy bad guy to send our injuries to."
I heard a noise and glanced up to see the GGDS cars pulling up to the other side of the hole the centipedes had crawled out of. I had to act fast...
"Ah, shit, quick, Angel Cobalt, get a picture of me next to the centipede missing the head before they dissolve it!" I said, holding my phone out to her
She glared at it disdainfully "Do a selfie, I'm not helping you boost your follower count any higher, miss 'target demographic'. You're already beating me by twenty three percent, by cheating I might add."
I looked at the others "Come on, I need a picture, please?"
Lucy sighed "Fine, do it quick..."
"Can I join?" Driz asked "I'm doing super well on my social media, I'm getting so many sparkles!"
"Sure, just look cool and do pose... 5b, ok?" I said, rushing to the best spot and getting into pose 2c. Driz floated over and joined me, doing a cute pose as the picture took. I relaxed and flew back over to Lucy, taking my phone back. The GGDS troops finally got to us as I did, and began work on melting the corpses with their acid sprays and blocking off the streets.
"Thanks, do we look good?" I asked
"I mean, you're covered in blood, so... yeah. You look great" she said sincerely
I winced, I'd almost forgotten about that... I checked the picture. It was... bloodier than most magical girl pics, yes, but that's what made it real, right? Fans liked real, I'm sure it'd be fine.
"It'll be nice to have an action picture to share for once!" Driz said as I sent her the picture "I keep having to take pictures of myself for the fans, and they keep asking for really weird ones..."
"Verdant, no!" Alele gasped "Never do photo requests! What kinds of pictures?"
Drizti looked surprised at Alele's outburst "Um, silly ones?" she said, unsure
"Let me see." Alele demanded, stepping out of the way of a medical team moving to check the old man.
Drizti handed her her phone, and Alele flipped through, her expression getting darker and darker as she went through the photos.
"Oh, Driz..." she said "Almost all of these are fetish pictures..."
Drizti gasped, shaking her head "No, it- they're not! I made sure it was nothing sexual, I ignored all those requests!"
"Uh, sometimes it's hard to tell..." Lucy said "I've absolutely seen one of your pictures on- uh, a website for specific stuff..."
"And you didn't tell me!?" she shrieked, drawing the attention of a few troopers
"I thought you knew?" Lucy said shrugging "It was such a specific picture, I figured it was your thing. It was the one with the high heels and the balloon, and you're-"
"I'm not into that!" Drizti said "I'm into- into- hugs, and snuggles, and blankets, and sharing cookies and milk!"
"Is that a fetish?" Mourner asked "Shit, I might have that one too, then."
"It's not a-" Driz looked like she was going to cry
"Hey, look, let's... go to my social media friend, ok?" I said "I can call her right now, and she can help get all this under control."
"I think we need to call Debbie about this, really." Alele said "This is really serious, it could hurt the whole team, I'm shocked there's not a trashy magazine already talking about a 'child friendly magical girl doing adult photoshoots!' with how the media likes to jump all over this stuff."
"Well, we're not big yet, so, maybe they aren't following her?" Mourner pointed out
"We're on different teams, there's no 'we'." I reminded her "'We', as in, Lorgiaia's Angels, actually are kinda big thank you very much."
"We sleep in different buildings, yeah, but I mean, we patrol together, we get the same GGDS documents, we're in the same section, we're all magical girls..." Mourner said "I think it's fair to say we're all one big team."
"I think you're stretching that word, 'team'." Lucy said "We do team-ups, we're not one team."
"So I'll need to talk to two of you then?" a GGDS agent cut in, holding up a recording mic and a notepad.
"Yeah, those two." Alele said, pointing at Lucy and Mourner "They'll debrief you, we have to be somewhere. We'll be back when the news vans show up."
She grabbed me and Drizti's arms and pulled us down the street to a side road with no noise or people. I was getting used to her pulling me, but I had to wonder why she kept doing it so much, it's not like we were going to willingly sit in on a debrief we didn't need to.
"Cobalt, I'm on patrol, I really should be helping, what are we doing?" Drizti asked
"We're going to call Angel Rouge's friend, get her opinion, and then go to Debbie." Alele said "And we're doing it as soon as we can, because the longer we don't get ahead of this, the worse it could be."
"Oh..." Driz said sadly "I just- I was just trying to make my fans happy, they were all so nice and sweet to me, and some sent gross stuff, but I blocked those like you showed me, and... I just don't know how those pictures could be anything like that..."
"People like people with powers." I said "It's a thing, anything you do will be seen by someone as sexual because of that. A lot of people like gnomes, too, most for... not great reasons, but that's something to consider as well. And like, you're attractive, you're adorable, all those things come together into a perfect storm of 'there's going to be a lot of creeps who are interested' and you'd never even seen a smartphone before, so they can take advantage of you easily."
"I did kind of wonder if maybe we should be like, helping you more with it..." Alele said "I just don't know how I didn't see any of these pictures come up on my feed."
"Well, I didn't post most of them to my page." Alele said "I usually sent them directly to the people that asked for them."
"Oh? That's good! That's a good thing!" Alele said "That means that there's no public evidence, just DMs, right?"
"I did post a few I thought were extra cute, but yeah..." Drizti said
"Can we see what you shared publicly?" I asked "Or- no, wait, here, let's see what Forica says first, hang on..."
I reached into my own pocket for my phone, and only found the gun. I sighed, I'd forgotten to keep my phone out when I transformed... I un-transformed, and got my phone out of my jeans pocket where I'd left it, and dialed Forica
"Hey boss, what's up?" She asked, answering on the first ring
"We have a bit of a social media situation..." I said carefully
"Oh, shit, is it the video of your flyover? I was trying to edit it to look faster like you wanted, but I think I over-did it. The comments are turned off now though, so we should be-"
"No, no, it's my teammate, Angel Verdant..." I explained
"Mm... yeah, there's been some rumors about her..." Forica hissed "Something about photo requests?"
"Yeah, that's- that's what I'm calling about. She's been doing photos for fans not realizing they were fetishes." I said "We're concerned it'll hurt her image and we need to get ahead of it and end the rumors and scrub the evidence."
"...and you're concerned it'll hurt your numbers by association, I'm guessing." she extrapolated
I glanced over at the other two to make sure they hadn't heard "Yeah, that's part of it."
"Ok, have you talked to the lady running your PR? The rude one who yelled at me in the square?"
I shook my head, then remembered she couldn't see that "No, we haven't. She's the last line of defense, I don't want to go to her just yet."
"I do not blame you..." Forica agreed "Ok, I can help damage control, and I'll help spread counter rumors too. I'll need extra though, this isn't included in our deal."
I wrinkled my nose "How much extra?"
"This is a career changing mistake, and I'll need to call in favors to make enough noise to drown out the current discussion over it, so... Two thousand blessings?"
"Oh, for- that's two months of what I'm paying you!" I said, frustrated
"Yeah, I know, you're getting a great deal because you boost my pages. She gets the regular rates."
I sighed and turned to Drizti "She said it'll be two thousand blessings to do what she needs to do. Is that ok?"
"Yeah, whatever, that's- I don't care..." Drizti said flapping her hands "I just want to fix this..."
I turned away and spoke to Forica "She said it's fine, can we meet you at the diner we ate at the one time?"
"Sure, I can come over now, or?..."
I thought about it "Uhh, we're expecting a news crew soon, give us thirty minutes? It'll be me, Alele, Driz, and... I guess our team leader, if she's free..."
"Ok, cool, I'll be there."
She hung up, and I looked at the phone for a moment before dialing Galorna's number.
"Hey, what's up Candy? Everything ok?" she picked up on the third ring, out of breath and panting
"Hi, uh, nnnnot really?" I said "We're in emergency mode here..."
"Was there a fight? Did anyone get hurt?" she said, snapping into leader mode
"Oh, uh, yeah? We fought big bugs, I got stabbed a little, but that's not why I'm calling..."
"You getting stabbed isn't the emergency?" she asked, her voice hard and urgent "Where do I need to be? I'm leaving right now."
"Well, I wanted us to meet at the diner on the main road, the one I met my social media friend at? We need to talk about Drizti's social media."
"The emergency that's more important that you getting stabbed- is Drizti's social media?" Galora asked incredulously
"Well I'm not stabbed anymore..." I said "And yeah, she's been sending almost any picture of herself to anyone who asks for it."
"Candy, sometimes I- I don't- We're supposed to-..." Galorna tried and failed several times to start what she wanted to say before she gave up "...Fine, this is something we need to address. Are we meeting alone?"
"No, Forica is helping us, and we're gonna get ahead of this quickly, I hope."
"...Transformed or untransformed?" she asked tiredly
"I'll be transformed, it's up to you." I said "We've got the news vans coming soon, so you've got time."
"Ok, I'll see you there, bye, Candy." Galorna said, and hung up.
I glared at my phone. What was with people not giving me a chance to say goodbye to them? I peeked around the corner to see a couple news vans on the other side of the hole in the ground, but they were still setting up.
I turned to the other girls "Ok, let's get this interview done. Drizti, everything is normal, do not act weird, ok?"
"This is my first interview, how do I not act weird?" she asked, looking panicked
"Just pretend it's your hundredth interview." Alele said "You'd be really good at them if you had a hundred of them, so just act like you have, got it?"
"Uh, I guess?" Drizti said
I finished transforming and noticed with a little annoyance that the blood and tearing had already started to fade and repair. I'd wanted to look battle-worn on the news, make myself look like I was doing more physical work than I really was. Still, the bloodstains were there, faded as they were, so it was something. Lucy and Mourner were covered in brown and green bug guts, so I was the coolest looking one of our group by far. We walked over and made it to the other two as they finished talking to the GGDS officer, and they turned to greet us.
"Oh look, Angel Rouge showed up just in time to be on the news, what a coincidence." Lucy said dryly
"We told you we'd be back." Alele said "We needed to set up the meeting to take care of-" she glanced at the two news crews coming towards us "-normal business."
"Hi, we're the Valley City Anchor," the first new man said, stepping up "We'd like an interview?"
"I'd like to do both at once, please." Alele said "I have an important date."
"Not a problem, hi, Stew with the Local 12." the other man said, waving the crews over "Now, some of you are a mess, do you want to do a shoulders up interview? Or do you mind the mess being in frame?"
"We can't do a 'shoulders up' interview..." Drizti said "I'm only waist high to the rest of them."
"Yeah, I'm ok with the blood on me being seen." I said "We fought hard, no reason to hide that."
Mourner nodded, and Lucy frowned, but nodded too.
"Perfect!" The VCA man said " Just get in position, and we'll get rolling, we already got shots of the hole, and we'll explain through voice over, just answer the questions, ok?"
We set up, and the cameras started rolling. The VCA man nodded at Stew, a signal of who would start, and Stew stepped forward, holding his mic parallel with the other.
"Hi, I'm Stew with Local 12, would you mind introducing yourselves?"
We took turns telling him our names and team affiliation, and he smiled like he already knew. I guessed he didn't but it was nice of him to at least act like we were worth knowing about on a larger scale.
"Can you tell us about the villain? He seemed to have a goal in mind, what was it?" he followed up with after we were finished.
"He was looking for his baby, it went missing." Mourner said plainly
"And he thought the best way to find it was to tear through the streets of section 247?" the other man asked with a fake laugh in his voice
"I'd met him and the... child before, while in costume." I explained "The child went missing shortly after, he attributed the disappearance to me."
"And is there any truth to that claim?" Stew asked pointedly
"No, none." I said "I was investigating another incident, and the child became afraid of me, I'm assuming it must have run off shortly after I first saw it."
"Do you feel any responsibility for the missing child?" the VCA man was being neutral in his tone, but jabbing in his questions
I kinda was responsible, I'd scared it, I'd kicked it, I'd left the door open... But I couldn't say that.
"No, I don't believe so." I said. Was that too harsh? "...But I will be searching the area to make sure the child is safe and gets to a secure location."
That's better, less cold.
"And the giant bugs that were used against you, has the team seen them before?" Stew cut in
"We've been aware of them for a while, a few days at least." Alele said "Unfortunately, due to legal restrictions on the actions of chosen, we were unable to help keep the city safe until they acted first."
Now that was harsh... She wasn't wrong, but straight up blaming the regulations like that made it sound like we were standing up for... less restrictions on chosen? I didn't know if that was a stance we wanted to take. After what Miss Missile had said, having 'a lot of blood on her hands' while getting used to her powers, was that really a good idea? New chosen were made every day, and not all of them could be as good at their jobs as us.
"I see, well, I have no further questions, Stew?" the VCA man said
"Just one, the two quiet ones, what are your thoughts one the fight? We've heard from the other three, do you have any comments?"
Drizti looked up at the camera and I saw her shake slightly as she nodded "Yyyes, I was very happy to be able to help the community and see my first live combat. I was able to use my healing powers in ways I'd only imagined, and I look forward to helping protect others more in the future."
She said it clearly and without any hesitations, except for the very start. It sounded planned, rehearsed almost, but it was still very polite and well mannered. Very 'Drizti'. It was hard to imagine the little professional getting up to the stuff we'd seen on her phone just minutes before, hopefully that'd help the plan as we moved forward.
"And you?" the cameras focused more on Lucy
She gave a throwaway smile and shook her head, the fluffy blonde hair waving as she did "Hey, I'm just glad I got to save the day, fight some monsters, and keep my friends safe, y'know?"
Was... was she going for 'teen heartthrob'? It worked, a little, but she was acting less like the angry bitch she usually was at events and more like she was trying to impress a girl at her first high school party. I cringed, and tried not to look.
"Fascinating, ok, well thank you all for joining us! I hope we see many more wins from your teams!" the VCA man said
"Great getting to chat, thank you!" Stew said, and with that, the cameras shut off and the crews turned to go.
"That was fast..." Drizti said "I thought they'd want makeup and lights and all kinds of stuff..."
"That's for staged TV." Lucy said "This was a street interview, so they want it to look natural."
"Plus, like, they gotta do like, thirty of these today, right? There's like thirty chosen fights a day on average here, right?" Alele pointed out
I checked my phone and cut their conversation short "Ok, looks like Forica is already at the diner, I'll be by in a few minutes, I need to walk part way there so my clothes aren't all bloody when I get there, see you then?"
"Sounds good, we'll wait on you to start." Alele said
"You know what she looks like?" I asked
"Yeah, dryad, orange and yellow leaves, kinda bored, I got it." Alele snapped
"Close enough, now go!" I said, un-transforming so my clothes would continue the self-repair.
This was fine, I was getting on top of the problem, it'd be fixed, I'd have another stream of fans soon, it'd all be fine. I kept telling myself that as I thought about the pictures I'd seen, and tried not to imagine them leaking...