Skimming

Nessa woke up feeling somehow both groggy and fantastic. It was as if she’d woken up from a refreshing nap in the middle of a light workout, with her muscles feeling invigorated and fully engaged. She hopped to her feet, her tail providing leverage and an additional limb to push against the ground with. She landed in a comfortable crouch.

Wait. Tail?

She looked at her backside, and she indeed had a new tail made of segmented light grey diamonds chained together. Her whole body was encased in the same material, but she felt as if she were practically naked. Her spear and her sister’s shield were missing, and she appeared to be in some kind of back alley. She could hear gunfire nearby.

“Good, you’re awake.” Someone said, “I was worried.”

A woman looked over her shoulder from the end of the alley. She was white, with dark hair, form fitting red armor, and a tiara made of black metal. Between the exotic dress and her undeniable beauty, the woman was likely a cape. She had a bracer studded with four crystalline green spheres covering her left forearm and both a blade and revolver at her hip.

“Identify yourself.” Nessa demanded, “Where am I?”

“You may call me Silky.” The woman said, “There was an attack upon your base in the middle of a process meant to assist you, and I was assigned to watch over you until you woke. You may have had some unusual dreams and memory loss.”

Menja’s eyes widened, barely processing anything after the mention of an ****. She leapt to the end of the alley, landing lightly on all fours and looking around the corner. She saw a massive blob of blackness enveloping half of the complex, which cleared things up immediately.

Grue, the street trash who led the Undersiders, was here. If he thought he could make a meaningful ****, that probably meant that his whole team was present. His team were a bunch of little sneaks, they wouldn’t do something this stupid without a plan. They weren’t the Merchants.

“Do you intend to join the battle?” Silky asked.

She reached out and placed a gentle hand upon Nessa’s shoulder. She could feel the hand through the grey armor, and it felt nice. Familiar, somehow, like her sister was back for a moment. She twisted away; “Silky” might have any power at all.

“Of course!” Nessa said, “My comrades are under attack. Will you join me?”

“Yes,” Silky said, “once we meet up with my compatriots, we should be able to attack those men from behind.”

“Those two don’t need anything special.” Nessa said, already flexing her power. “I’ll scare them off.”

The world seemed to shrink for Nessa as she grew to nearly double her height. Without thinking about it, she bunched up her legs like a hunting cat. Her clawed hands easily bit into the broken concrete as she prepared to spring.

“I hope so.” Silky said, “You’ll need to speak to Nomad when possible, to make sure you’re healthy.”

“That can wait.” Nessa said, and sprang out of the alleyway.

Grue’s darkness enveloped her, but that was hardly even a problem. Even when she was blind, he could hardly maintain an **** while dodging Nessa’s claws. This base was compromised; collateral damage was no great issue. She continued to grow, topping out at 20 feet tall not because she couldn’t get bigger, but because maneuvering became harder when she did. She briefly felt mild irritation as hundreds of bugs went for her exposed face, which stopped as a smooth, faceless plane of living stone encased her head without impeding her vision.

The Undersiders were as gnats before her, but she was blind. She didn’t strike any of them, nor could she reasonably keep swinging when she couldn’t see her own allies either. Even growing to nearly her maximum size, so tall that Grue’s darkness could not block her vision as she stood taller than most of the skyline, simply left her waist deep in blackness as the gunfire petered off and her enemies fled.

All the while, two questions burned within her: Why had the Undersiders attacked a superior enemy, and who, exactly, was Nomad?

••••••••••

Once Othala was firmly on his back, Gil popped a magic leaf into his mouth. This inadvertently let two flies in as well. He crunched them, thankful that body defense probably meant he wouldn’t get any diseases. He activated aspect of the monkey, and became keenly aware of every inch of his body. He knew from experience that he’d be able to process incoming information faster as well, which would help because he was mostly blind at the moment.

“Strength.” He said, and Othala obliged.

She was as light as a feather to him now, which was good. He didn’t need any more handicaps. The blindfold of bugs deliberately gathering over his eyes was more than bad enough on its own.

Gil rushed for the door, hitting the latch and turning to the right. He’d noted any potentially useful landmarks on his way to the room, and it was time to see if his memory would serve him well. He was near literally betting his life on his memory of a boarded up window being accurate. He ran his finger along the wall, and was rewarded with a plywood shrouded evac point.

As he ran, he felt Othala clinging to his back, one arm around his neck. It was not exactly an optimal way to carry someone, especially someone barely suppressing panic. She squeezed harder when he lifted one leg to kick through the flimsy wooden barrier.

He braced one hand against the wall, then extended his leg through the board. Unfortunately, he was so strong that he simply punched holes in the water damaged wood. It took five or six kicks to get a hole big enough to escape through, and by the last one Othala’s full weight settled upon his shoulders.

He would have liked to open up the hole a bit more, but he heard a chorus of barks coming around the corner. Gil’s heart sped up, and he tried to remember what powers Othala could bestow.

Fuck it.

“I’m jumping out!” He said, and leapt out of a third story window with no clear plan.

The air rushed past him for just a second before he felt another new muscle. An active ability, presumably. He pulled hard on it, and his descent slowed and reversed.

Flight? It’ll work.

He swiped the bugs away from his eyes, giving him a glance at the brick wall he was hurtling towards. He relaxed his body, shifting his legs forward and bending at the knees. The “landing” was jarring, but he was able to transition into running up the wall. He kept the flight power focused on moving upwards, and rushed to the top of the building. The two tumbled onto the roof.

Gil scrambled to his feet, looking back at the window they’d just exited from. He caught just a glimpse of two women looking out at him, then vanishing down the hallway. He’d bought himself some time, but from what he’d heard of the Undersiders only the time it would take those girls to get down to the ground floor.

Silky’s empty capture sphere sat heavily upon his hip, but he didn’t have time to go looking for her. Even searching from a high vantage was almost useless with Skitter’s bugs climbing all over him. Instead, he called out Boco and slung Othala onto the chocobo’s back.

“Make the bird tougher if you can,” Gil said, hopping up, “and hold on. He’s a bit bouncy.”