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Chapter 24 by shamefulhornytrash shamefulhornytrash

Let’s talk.”

Cat's got a tongue

She gave me a quick nod. "Good idea. First things first, I know what you're going to ask, but I have no idea of who is pulling the strings here." I sighed, and asked her to continue. "Last thing I remember, we were celebrating at the HQ. Everyone was there: all members of the 12, Professor Gears and the other support heroes, the building staff. We were all throwing ourselves a party over finally closing the chapter on the Masters. We had finally found the Baron of Darkness and thrown his ass on the clinker." I stopped her, worried over what I was hearing. The last thing I had expected Friendly to tell me was that she had unheard info about the Mid-May Madness.

"Friendly, I have to let you know for long you've been out for. I know exactly when the stuff you're talking about happened. And there are a lot of problems that happened afterwards. Are you really about to tell me that the whole of Legendary has been under some villain's control for nearly a whole year?" I prayed that I was jumping to conclusions, but her face showed me that my message was received by the devil himself. Heavens help us.

"I had no idea that its been so long." She shook her head. "Well, I guess I now know how things could get even more depressing. But yes, it happened that night. Things had slowed down and I was feeling tired. I normally try to stay up for longer than everyone else whenever we're together for a night, because I feel like, as the only one who lives in this city, I'm the host. You get what I'm saying?" I would have said that I did, but she kept going. "I'm getting sidetracked. Point was, I didn't think much of it. I was really involved in the fight, so I thought it was just my body begging me for a break. I walk down the hall to the bedrooms, I collapse on my bed, and I feel like that's it for me."

"And this was before three AM, right?" I asked, fearing that I knew the answer already.

"Yes. I got maybe an hour of sleep or so before I hear some yelling and stuff breaking withing the base. I try to run towards the danger, but I'm still really fucking tired. I think it was then that I started to think 'Shit, did someone **** me?' I didn't get to enter the main room again, Serenity was already under the control of whoever did this to us. I fainted in the middle of the hall, and that's the last thing I remember doing in the real world." She looked down, her eyes forcefully closed. It was obvious that she wanted to cry.

I offered her a hug. She accepted it, pushing herself towards my arms, but didn't hug me back. "I'm so pathetic. People really used to tell me that I was the best heroine around. Everyone adored me. I was the face, the mascot, the icon of the group. And I was bought into it, you know? At the start, we used to say that Serenity was the unofficial leader, even if she wanted to insist all of us were fighting as equals. But once I grew an ego, I started to nag the professor over if we could make leadership an official position. So I could make a claim for it." She laughed as the tears fell down my back. "Can you believe that? A grown woman begging the president of her organization to make up a position she doesn't deserve so she can feel less insecure. Because the people around her are trying to make see her reason and remind her she's not above them. I've seen dying kids act more mature than I did." I couldn't let her continue like this. Friendly Paws deserved better.

"Felicia, listen to me. I beg you to listen to me." I turned her over so we could look at each other eye to eyes. Her eyes were red and watery, her lips were trembling, and she looked like she just wanted to be thrown away like garbage. Not under my watch. "You cannot blame yourself for what happened that day. You can't say that you were wrong for thinking you were the only one who mattered in all of Legendary, while also beating yourself up over not being there at the room when the attacked happened. You said it yourself, you were ****. This means that the villain had already infiltrated themselves inside your group, and they carefully planned on how to deal with all of you. Do you follow me so far?" I gently rubbed her behind those feline ears of hers, doing my best to keep her calm. I might have imagined at the moment, but it looked to me as if she was looking at me with admiration.

"Yes. I think I do." She blurted out once she realized she owed me an answer.

"Good. So, in the same way you can't put all the blame on yourself for not being there, you shouldn't feel like the ego thing was all your fault either." She wanted to protest that, but she kept quiet once I shushed her. "Let me explain, please." After a little bit of consideration, she nodded. "Great, thank you. Now, like you said, this didn't appear out of nowhere. You had everyone around you talking you up. Media people, PR people, folks on the street. When enough people are calling you the goat, you'll eventually start eating grass and polishing your horns."

I got a laugh out of her, even if she immediately shook her head and wagged her finger from side to side. "That's such a lame metaphor!" Still, better for her to laugh at it than to feel sad.

"Sorry, not all of us can be a cool cat like you" Leaning into the cheesiness was the right play. It lifted up her spirits enough for her to initiate a new hug, and to my own surprise, it even earned me a peck on the lips. The blush on her face told everything, she didn't know she was going to do that until the moment she did it.

We just stared at each other like a couple of fresh tomatoes, neither one knowing quite how to justify what had just happened. The silence seemingly irritated one of more leecherous audience members. "Come on, ask her if the cat's got her tongue! This is basic stuff, Catgirl! Is this amateur hour or something? The other you seemed to know how to flirt!"

Friendly coughed into a closed fist, probably only remembering now about the audience in general. More importantly for a cocky lady like her, she had to come up with a good comeback for Regina's teasing. "Well, before I was rudely reminded that we're not somewhere private, this cat was about to offer the services of her own tongue to lick lady's kitten" She sighed. "Agh, a year out of commission and all of my wit is gone now!" She lamented.

"I thought that was pretty clever and cute." I put a hand on her shoulder.

"You would be the kind of person to do so." She replied mindlessly, before realizing that what she said was demeaning towards me. "But it's charming when you do it! I swear!"

Her nervous backtracking made me laugh, which made her laugh again in response. Sadly, her laughter slowly died down, and I could see the shift on her eyes. We likely had been at it for five minutes, maybe longer. I wished I had spent that time more productively, either asking questions or getting to know her better. It was too late now, the silent treatment meant for sure that the faker was back on the driver seat. I bowed after I stood up so I could show my respects for the real Friendly Paws ,who was trapped once again, and fixed myself up before leaving the cell and fixing it closed. The traitor paid me no mind. Hopefully, we'll find a permanent solution soon enough.

The expressions of the crew were mixed. Regina understood my feeling of loss, and reassured me that Felicia would be able to do good on her promise towards me in no time. Rose was weirdly distant at the moment, giving me words of encouragement but clearly having her mind on other matters. I can't blame her, things were taking a frightening turn and she lacked the arms or the magic the rest of us could use to defend ourselves.

Speaking of the armed ones, Shayna and Mark were looking quite friendlier than they have done so until now. As strange as it might sound, it seemed like they were possibly thinking about offering me a hug. The route they went with was more reserved in comparison, but still novel for them (from my meager experience). "Ah guess we're a group naw." Mark said casually, hands against the back of his neck. "It is us against Legendary, want it or not. Personally? Ah side with us."

Shayna playfully shoved her.... Husband? Boyfriend? Kissing cousin? They certainly fucked, but I didn't quite yet understand what the relationship between them was. "Amazing team spirit Mark, didn't know ya were a cheerleader in ya youth." She shook her head, before turning back to me. "But he's right. I'm not happy about it, because the last year had been pretty good to us in terms of peace and quiet. That's outta the window now, though. Looks like it's five against twelve now." She put her hand down, encouraging the rest of us to lay our own on top of hers. Mark did so instantaneously, and Regina joined after me. Rose walked over but traded distrustful looks with her former friends. "Ah said five." Shayna insisted, and out big breasted babe obliged.

A count to three was had and everyone yelled a different name with which they wanted to christen the group. I had the feeling that it would take us a long time to find one that we'll all agree with, and feared we might be stuck with a generic 'The team' by the time this was all over. It felt relaxing to have such minor fears, made me feel like my life hadn't entirely changed over a weekend.

Is this the new normal?

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