Plans and Revelations

"I think I saw a few computers somewhere in one of da rooms of da castle." Tabitha said, scratching her chin in thought. "If i fiddle with it a bit, I might be able to send a message out to da nearest ship dat comes by."

"Assuming that backstabber hasn't already destroyed any ships that came close enough." Stryker commented.

"Are you sure that you could even work with that thing?" Kiyoshi asked, tilting his head.

"Awrite! Dat bitch may have taken away my muscles, but in return, she gave me back da one muscle i haven't used in years: My brain!"

"Be careful you you're referring to as 'bitch', Missy!" Mrs. Kishi barked, "And try to at least cover your shame like my daughter, her friends, and the crazy bug lady are."

"Hey!" Moth Queen barked.

"Oops." Tabitha said sheepishly, placing her hands over her breasts, "Sorry. I've been butt ass nude for so long, da idea of putting on clothes didn't cross my mind. Ryu, mind giving me a hand with da computer, Dawlin?"

"Sure!" Ryu said as he and Tabitha made their way towards the computer room.

"Aren't you going to help them?" Kitty asked Mufette in confusion.

"I would," Mufette commented with a shrug, "but I can't evén figure oot deux plus deux at ze momont, Monsieur Flyeng Rat Theng."

"Quokka! I'm a quokka! It's like a kangaroo!"

"Yeah," Stryker said with a laugh, "a runty, annoying kangaroo."

"Don't you start with me!" Kitty snapped.

"Ladies! You're both beautiful! Now play nice for, like, five seconds." Osaka said in annoyance. She then turned to Moth Queen and said, "Moth Queen, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but some of us are in **** need of clothes right now, so we -"

"Way ahead of you!" Moth Queen said with a nod. She then chuckled a bit as she said, "You know, I would probably would've gloated and laughed that I was right about my designs being wanted now that they're the only thing to wear under different circumstances. But with me naked as well -"

"Clothes, please!" Selkie cried out, still embarrassed.

"Right! Right, sorry." Moth Queen said sheepishly as she turned and ran towards her room, briefly exposing her plump ass to the room.

"Now that that's settled, two more things to take care of." Osaka said. "Firstly, I would greatly appreciate it if Kumiko's brother would stop staring at my ass! Seriously, you've been staring at it since we were all locked up here!"

"Sorry." Kiyoshi muttered, red in the face as he looked away awkwardly.

"Second," Osaka said as she turned to Stryker, "Stryker. Before we learned the truth about Goddess of Shadow, you were saying something about her staff."

"Oh, right! The jeweled tip of her staff!" Stryker said. "Apparently, Goddess said that that was how she siphoned the powers of her enemies and absorbed it for herself. If we destroy that, we should get our powers back."

"Gwut Gwow Gwo Gwe Gwo Gwhat?" Gwuck asked.

"I hate to say it, but the intergalactic snot ball has a point." Curb Stomper said.

"Gwhy Gwoes Gweveryone Gwace Gwo Gwe Gwooking Gwike Gwnot?"

"That's the problem." Stryker admitted, "With Kumi- Godd- Whoever she is being so powerful now, there's no way we can get that thing away from her and destroy it!"

"What if we ask hair nicely?" Mufette suggested. After getting some looks from everyone in the room, the skunk woman blushed and sighed. "Mon Deiu! I am an idiot now, and éven I knu zat was a stupid idéa. And I steehl said eet!"

"It's okay, Mufette." Selkie said, placing a hand on the skunk woman's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "We'll get your brains back."

Noticing that Kumiko was being rather quiet, Kitty looked over to the heroine as she hung her head. "Kumiko? Is something - "

"Gator Gal! Computer! Now! Goddess!"

Everyone looked up in surprise to see Moth Queen, now dressed in one of her ugly designs with three under her arm. The woman looked out of breath and anxious about something.

"Turns out our 'good friend', Goddess of Shadow, has been lying through da skin of her teeth again." Tabitha said as she sat at the super computer, dressed in one of Lord of Lobster's T-shirts. Though, given her new size, it now looked like a baggy dress. The short, former alligator woman shrugged as she added, "Well, partially."

"How so?" Osaka asked, now dressed in one of Moth Queen's designs.

"You know, the design and color is ugly, but this actually feels really nice." Selkie said, feeling the outfit she was currently wearing. Turning to Mufette she asked, "What do you think?"

"On its own, its 'ideous. But on you, eet looks prettay girl." Mufette commented. The skunk woman then gulped and blushed as she realized her slip up. "GOOD! I mean eet looks 'préttay good'!"

Selkie actually found herself blushing at that.

"Can we focus please?!" Kitty snapped before turning his attention to Tabitha. "What does that mean, Gator Gal? Does that mean Goddess of Shadow isn't Kumiko?!"

"Now, see, dat's where things get a little complicated. Goddess of Shadow is a future Kumiko from another timeline, und dere was a villain named Centurion, both of dose were f'true."

"But..."

"However, it seems dat da temporal breakaway point was beauxcoup more later than what she implied." Tabitha replied.

"How much later?" Mr. Kishi asked, trying to make sense of all this.

"According to her diary dat Ryu und I stumbled upon when trying to looka for some kind of communication function..." Tabitha replied as she read through the files, "Today."

"Today?!"

"Yeah." Tabitha replied. "Apparently, Kumiko was supposed to fight some upstart villain named Da Wacko und his gang. However, they kept bringing up Kumiko's humiliating Monday, saying dat they already shipped out over a thousand Magical Girl Kumiko hentai parodies und sex dolls on da black market. Dis was apparently enough to send Kumiko over da edge und she..." Her eyes went wide in shock, "Yikes!"

"What?! What happened?!" Kumiko asked fearfully, "What did I do?!"

"You vaporized dem. In full view of police und civilians!" Tabitha explained as she read on, "Dis was when da populace turned their backs on you. When they called for your arrest, you tried to flee Calamity City with Kitty before being washed ashore on dis very island. It was here you und Kitty met Centurion. He was fixin' to kill you, but Kitty got in da way und blocked da blast. It says here dat you broke down on da beach, having had enough of all da **** und of having gone from "Calamity City's biggest heroine" to it's biggest joke."

"Oh, Kumiko..." Kitty said softly, seeing the frozen and horrified look on the heroine's face as he and Mr. & Mrs. Kishi hugged her.

"There has to be more than that!" Kiyoshi snapped, "What happened next?!"

"Centurion, in a rare act of kindness for him, took Kumiko under his wing, teaching her in da ways of shadow magic." Tabitha continued, "Over time, Kumiko started to lose her mind und gain a lust for power. On da eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Centurion trusted her with showing her his sceptre und teaching her power stealing. Surprise, surprise! She betrayed him und stole his power. With dis new power, she traveled back to Calamity City to punish dose dat wronged her. However, a new heroine arrived in da city by now. Someone named Glorious Victory. She lost after a five hour battle, und lost her original magical girl powers, but she managed to escape back to da island were she hid away for another five years. After finding a gris-gris dat allowed her to travel through time, she resurrected und brainwashed Kitty into a loyal servant named..." Her eyes widened again, "Stryker?!"

"Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!" Stryker snapped, pointing to an equally shocked Kitty. "I was supposed to be this pathetic runt?!"

"I can't even shape shift!" Kitty exclaimed. Half a second later, he admitted, "At least, I don't think I can..."

"Dere's more." Tabitha said before continuing. "She und Stryker traveled back to da end of dat Monday, killing Centurion so they could claim da island. After tracking her past self down, she roped us into helping her, kidnapped her own loved ones, und... Well, i don't think I need to explain anymore."

"Wait, I'm lost!" Moth Queen said, rubbing her temples in confusion. "If she stopped herself from meeting and killing The Wacko, then shouldn't she not exist anymore?!"

"Yeah!" Osaka stated in agreement, "She should've disappeared the second she killed this Centurion guy!"

"Time travel don't work like that." Tabitha said, shaking her head.

"Of course it does!" Osaka argued, "That's how it happens in every time travel movie ever made! The Time Machine, Back to The Future, Time After Time..."

"Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted, Terminator, Star Trek..." Ken chimed in.

"Superman." Moth Queen added, "Even if that scene was -"

"Looka! I know what da movies say, but dat ain't how time travel works!" Tabitha snapped. "Once you go back to da past, dat past becomes your new future. Dat, in turn, makes da former present your new past. Und da new past can't be changed by altering da new future!"

"Mon brain 'urts." Mufette muttered.

"So, the odds of defeating Goddess of Shadow by just having Kumiko say that she would never become the former would be...?" Curb Stomper asked.

"About at likely at a blizzard in New Orleans."

"What's the point?!" Kumiko sighed in defeat, catching everyone in the room off guard as a few even gasped in shock. "She already won! We're doomed! And it's all because I didn't keep better track of my costume and fought crime in the buff!"

"So..." Curb Stomper began, disappoinment in his voice as he folded his arms over his chest. "This is what happens when Magical Girl Kumiko, Guardian of Justice, Keeper of peace, the selfless Humanitarian, and Vanquisher of Evil does when faced with a challenging obstacle? Run away like a scared pup with her tail between her legs?"

"Oh, shut up!" Kumiko snapped. "I just found out that I became a complete monster after one bad day! Unlike you idiots who became villains for the thrill!"

Much to the shock of Kumiko and the other heroes, the villains all glared at the magic girl in a mixture of disgust and anger.

"You think we became villains by choice?" Moth Queen spat, "That between an honest career with a happy life and constant criminal records with endless humiliation, we would happily have chosen the latter?"

"Gwhat Gwne Gwad Gway Gwidn't Gwake Gws Gwo Gwe Gwre Gwoday?"

"Well, I..."

"I think that it's time you got to learn a little more about those you've been fighting, Kumiko." Curb Stomper said with a frown. "The truth about us just might surprise you..."