Chapter 25: 25: Shard

We were lucky we finished our afternoon tea when we did, because a load of corporate types showed up to harass poor Maya and her friends. What the hell were they even doing here? They were doing nothing for the Emerged cause, instead either exploiting us or remaining carefully neutral until they saw where the political side ended up. I had yet to hear of a company going full force behind backing the minority that had sprung up that fateful night last autumn.

I had to find Robin in this crowd at some point too, we’d briefly messaged with each other and agreed to meet up at the festival. What we didn’t count on was how vibrant and chaotic the whole affair would be. It was going to be a pain. Finding her I mean, not seeing her. Seeing Robin would never be a pain, no matter how far into her social defences she retreated.

I was grumpy when Laithe led me away from the cafe, and I knew she could tell. She was rubbing my side where she held me with her thumb. I wanted to stay pissed off, I really did, so I tried to ignore it, because I am nothing more than a grown up petulant child sometimes.

“Follow me little grumpy fox, I know what will get you out of this mood,” Laithe whispered in my ear.

Oh gosh, her voice… that husky quality to it combined with the wide range in pitch that it normally employed. Her voice could get low and dangerous one moment, high and cute the next, and was always some degree of sexual. Her wielding it against me with a whispered word in my ear sent a spark down into me and goosebumps to shiver across my skin.

Lost in my reaction to her seductive voice as I was, I didn’t notice where she’d taken me. When I came back to reality, I saw our destination. It was an Emerged clothing stall. Actually, it was more like a full on store. The roof was still open, and the front was marked with a rope fence, but the walls were made of a strange dark granite that seemed to have risen from the ground. It was clearly the work of an emerged and I loved it. The dark stone had bright flecks that reflected the light, giving it a sparkling appearance.

The clothing itself came in various shapes and sizes, and I was in awe of all the different accommodations that were being made for all the different shapes and sizes that emerged people came in.

“Welcome!” a male Emerged around our age said enthusiastically, “This is our pop up store for clothing that caters to Emerged clients! Every purchase you make gets Variant Clothing closer to having a brick and mortar location. How can I help you today?”

He was wearing a shirt that had a stylised feather and the name of the store stitched into it. What caused both Laithe and I to stand there momentarily stunned, were his Emerged features. He was an avian Emerged, that much was blatantly obvious. He was slight of build and of middling height, and was rather unimposing if you took only the baseline human elements into consideration.

It was very difficult not to take his Emerged traits into consideration though. Instead of hair, he had a huge green, red and orange feathered plume that flared out around the edges of his face, then trailed down the back of his head like a mohawk. I couldn’t see any wings, but sticking out above the waist of his pants was a huge feathered fan shaped tail in the same gloriously vibrant colours as the plume on his head.

Laithe recovered first, saying “Oh uh, we’re just here to see if we can find anything that fits my foxy girlfriend here. Maybe something backless for when I want to use my wings too?”

“Oh good good! Nice to see another feathered comrade around! As for finding something that fits, no need to worry! It’s a bit of a useless power in most ways, but I am able to resize anything you might want to fit you perfectly. I can’t alter the actual stitching of the clothing, but the size is not a problem!” he grinned, his feathers puffing up proudly.

“That is actually so damn cool!” I blurted excitedly, “It’s been so hard finding shit that works with my tail and ears and stuff!”

“Too right sister!” the vibrant bird dude nodded, “I started this whole thing because my tail is a nightmare to shop for!”

Spontaneously I offered him a fist bump which he accepted with a gentle bump of our knuckles.

“Alright ladies, I have to go help others, but if you need anything at all, let me know and I’ll get you covered,” he said with an easy smile, then loped off to help some other customers.

“He was cool,” I said, grinning up at Laithe.

“Uh huh, I could tell you like him,” she smirked.

“What?” I asked, eyes wide.

“Nothing much, I can see you have a body type you find attractive though,” she laughed, motioning between herself and the bird dude.

She was right, they both had that thin lithe appearance going on. Laithe was definitely womanly, while the guy was more masculine.

“What can I say? Bi girl likey. No touchy of course, I’m all yours,” I grinned.

In answer, Laithe leaned down and pressed a soft but compelling kiss to my lips. She briefly flicked her tongue across my lips before drawing back and a cheeky little smile. I felt myself tilt towards her a bit as my body tried to regain the contact it desired.

“Let’s go find some cute clothing hey?” she chuckled, her voice adopting that husky tone that drove me mad.

There were sections for the more common traits that emerged people might have. Tail holes were relatively common, so I was in luck. Open backed clothing for guys and girls were everywhere as well. All sorts of fun other accommodations had been made for various types of Emerged, with a few signs up saying they would work to get more designs in as they got info on what was needed. It wasn’t anything like Tinker’s stuff where the clothing was made of super durable crazy materials. This was just regular old clothing for regular emerged.

Straight away I had rushed around and picked up a ton of clothing that I liked, and a lot of clothing that I just plain needed. As much as I enjoyed dresses and skirts, I had missed jeans so freaking much since I emerged. Also… I found a hat! It was a little paperboy hat with holes for my ears, and I was instantly in love with it. It didn’t fit right away, but I bounded over to the attractive bird of paradise and had him resize it straight away.

We had him resize the rest of the clothes to fit us, which he did by of all things, booping our noses and then touching the clothing. The piece of clothing would shift and writhe like it was alive for a moment as it changed shape, then lay still when it was done. The process was repeated for each article of clothing. I would have been entirely speechless when I followed Laithe to the changing room, except for the entirely put out look she had on her face. I had some real trouble keeping my giggles in.

The changing room was moderately sized and bounded on three sides by the same stone that the store was made out of. The entrance was a thick curtain that was weighted at the bottom, and one wall had a large mirror hung on it for us to see ourselves in. I hung my clothing up on a hook made of stone and turned to see my girlfriend beginning to undress.

*

I knew I was meant to be trying on all the stuff we had picked out, but I stood enthralled as Laithe took her top off to try on the blouse she had been keen on. I moved forward breathlessly, she was just divine… gorgeous in a way that defied the mortal version of the word. When I reached out and traced a few fingers down the center of her back, she twitched slightly, then leaned into it.

“Hey there little vixen, we’re getting changed. If you do that I might get distracted,” she said huskily, her voice lowered so we wouldn’t be heard through the thick curtain that separated us from the rest of the store.

“I can’t help myself,” I mumbled, my voice coming out far more breathlessly than I had intended, “You’ve been teasing me this whole time…”

She turned to get a look at me, and I saw raw desire in her eyes that probably matched my own. She started to move forward, a smirk spreading across her lips, but I halted her with a slow caress the top of her breasts. She shivered and gasped, her face flushing even as her eyes widened.

“Whoa, that was ticklish,” she murmured.

I didn’t reply, unable to form words around my intermixing love and lust for this beautiful woman before me. She tried again to get the upper hand over me, her hands snaking up under the short dress I was wearing.

I replied by gently pressing her back against the rock wall of the changing room, my lips descending onto the bare skin of her collarbone. I kissed slowly along it, following the line of it to the center of her chest, then descended. My hand slipped behind her arched back, finding and unhooking her red lace bra with a flick of finger and thumb and earning a breathy laugh in response.

I paused for a moment, pinning her to the wall with my eager eyes. Her’s were wide with excitement and need. I could see the way she was surprised by my taking charge in the almost shocked expression she wore. I loved it. She was so used to being confident and in control… time to change that.

I returned to the task at hand, my tongue giving her left nipple a slow deliberate lick that ended up curling slightly around the hardening bud. I could do quite a bit with my tongue. I closed my mouth around it, flicking and sucking lightly at it, until I used by teeth to oh so gently nipple for a moment. I lost my rhythm when I grinned at the quiet breathless squeak that my actions had earned from the girl I had against the wall. I felt her fingers twine themselves in my hair and then cup the base of my ears. Oh lady that felt good…

I moved to the right nipple, starting again on it with my gentle lapping and sucking, feeling it harden with arousal. I wasn’t content with just her perfect breasts though, and my hands moved to fill the need to make my love feel something incredible.

I flicked the button of her jeans open and wrapped my fingers around the zipper, releasing it one slow click at a time. When I had somewhat freed her, I moved my hand unhurriedly beneath the red lace of her underwear. I was greeted by a warm wetness that spoke volumes of her reaction to my playful and continued attention to her nipples.

She gasped out a giggle when I briefly brushed her down there, and once again my mouth curved in a grin. I couldn’t help but lean back to gaze into her eyes with affection. They were so beautiful, the lambent violet glow just peeking through behind the more natural flecked purple of the iris.

Keeping our gazes locked I moved a single finger down between her wet folds. I massaged gently but firmly, flirting with but not touching the aching bud within. I knew her by now, using that intimate knowledge to touch on all the right spots to coax her heartbeat and breathing into a desire filled fever. She was putty beneath my hands now, her eyes lidded and heavy while her curved lips parted with each eager sound of encouragement.

“Kalia,” she moaned.

I smiled, moving my free hand to cover her mouth, “Shhh Lai Lai… There’s people all around.”

I felt her lips press into a kiss against my delicate fingers, and then her own fingers remembered where they were and began exploring further under my dress. My super suit turned lacy underwear was pushed aside to allow my lover’s slender fingers to probe within.

I lost concentration when she softly pushed two fingers into me and my sex was overwhelmed with sparking pleasure. Oh gosh. I couldn’t help myself, I let out a soft moan of approval. Needed to fix that. I released her mouth, only to capture it again with my own, pressing her head against the wall with my fervor to feel her. If she was going to pull that, I was too. I slipped a finger inside her and began to gently caress inside her. 

We used our inquiring fingers to build each other’s pleasure to greater and greater heights. It felt like a dance, when I made a silky move that sent appreciative shudders through her body, she moved with me to send tingling warmth careening around with me.

As our erotic dance filled us both with delight, we made sure to keep the other from crying out or giving up the game. The fact we were doing this in a changing room with hundreds of people within shouting distance of our elicit act made it feel forbidden, exciting and deeply sensual.

I could feel when she came, her body losing some of it’s control and she moaned into our kiss. Her fingers clenched inside me, and that was all I needed for my own climax to blaze through me, and I clung to a tiny shred of consciousness in an attempt to keep myself from making noise.

As we came down from the waves of pleasure we had brought to each other, it was difficult to stand, and I collapsed against her even as she used the wall to steady us both. Wow.

I giggled and nuzzled into her chest, “So… do we try the clothes on now?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, “That thing.”

*

The clothing all fit us when we tried them on, but that hadn’t really been in any doubt. The reason we tried everything on was to see if it looked good on us, and we both got mixed results. At least according to ourselves. I personally felt that Laithe looked good in anything, and she was adamant that the same was true for me, but not for her. We had a joking little argument as we tried everything on. I settled on a few pairs of jeans, a few dresses and the hat. I loved the hat.

Paying for our purchases, it was sadly time for a little bit of business. Robin and I had agreed to meet each other at the festival, so I dragged Laithe along towards where we were going to meet up.

****

The place Robin and I had agreed to meet turned out to be a bit of a shitshow. Actually, that would be an insult to shitshows. In front of me was an angry collection of emerged folk all jeering and shouting. Although there was anger seething through the crowd, there was an undercurrent of fear that I could almost smell.

The reason for this? A mob of people stood across from us in an unused area of grass near the festival. They were dressed in various mismatched pieces of faux military gear. Many wore helmets modelled after the stahlhelm that Nazi Germany had used for their military. Almost all of them carried weapons of various sorts, from baseball bats to guns. My eyes widened in honest surprise when I saw the flag being waved proudly above the group. There was no subtlety, no beating around the bush. It was a Nazi flag in all it’s awful infamy.

What the fuck? I knew that neo nazis were a thing, how could I not given the past few months I had lived through, but this was something else. I couldn’t get my head around it. These people… americans, were proudly flying a Nazi flag above themselves.

When I was in high school, I had taken history as one of my classes. We were taught all about the build up to the second world war. The actions everyone had taken and the underlying reasons for those actions. The awful things that had been done by the Nazi regime still haunted me to this day. The pictures had been bad sure… but it was the almost matter of fact descriptions that had really gotten to me. The sheer scale of human misery that they had caused was enough to cause nightmares even this far down the line.

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So to me, seeing that flag waved on the soil of a country that had fought so hard to put those bastards down was just mind boggling. Not only that, they stood there, glaring and shouting hate over at the poor people who were just trying to live their lives and celebrate who they were… it was enough to make my blood boil.

The thing that galvanised me into action was not the Nazis themselves, but the police guard they had. The police were protecting these awful people. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the police be standing with the Emerged who were there to have fun, rather than the evil hate group that was there to sow fear among us.

The crowd was getting more and more pissed off my the moment, and I saw one frat boy looking Emerged crackling with lightning as he stared daggers over at the other group. Damn right frat boy, be pissed. The fuckers even had guns. Who did they think they were? Were they going to use them on us?

I think my eyes almost rolled out of my head when the one and only Seraph descended from the sky before the cops, facing the crowd of angry emerged.

“People! Please! Be calm, this is meant to be a peaceful festival, but that does not mean that any and all can come if they please. These folk are more than allowed to gather here,” she called, trying and failing to sound gentle.

“So we’re meant to sit here and do what? Ignore the group of Nazis with fucking guns right next to us?” I heard a voice call out in frustration.

“They are citizens under the law, just as you are! It is not your place to question their right to be here, they have their amendment rights to bear arms and assemble” she scowled back.

I heard a familiar wolfy voice howl over to Seraph, “Right, I forgot that Nazis were just chill people who want to go out to the park for a picnic. Nothing to see here eh? Fucking overgrown chicken.”

“You! All of you! Disperse and go back to what you were doing!” the irate angel growled, ignoring Redd’s comment.

While this had been going on, my keen eyes picked out some strange movement among the group of Nazis. My heart instantly dropped in my chest and I opened my mouth in shock. Unseen by the officers of the law who had their backs turned, I saw a rifle raise and level at Seraph. The man behind the gun looked calm and I had just enough time to see the eight armed swastika patch on his shoulder before the gun erupted in a controlled burst.

The air around me sparked and crackled with my sudden shift from here to there, and I felt my arm jerk sideways as one of the bullets impacted the armour plate that ran along my shoulder even as I tackled Seraph to the ground. Shit I was glad I had listened to milk dad and bought this suit, that fast deployment thing was incredible.

There was silence as everyone paused in startled realisation over what had just happened. I could see the cops looking back in confusion, and even some of the Nazis looked scared as they eyed their brethren. I saw another gun raise, pointed at me this time. Shit.

I wrapped my arms around Seraph and prepared to teleport, only to be hurled with a guttural howl of rage into the air.

“You dare attack me out in the open?!” she cried as I sailed through the air.

I felt fear momentarily grip me before I remembered my suit could handle this. I reoriented myself in flight, landing on my artificial fox legs with far more grace than I had expected.

The situation took that moment to melt down into an event that would go down in the history books. A shot rang out and struck someone in the crowd of Emerged, followed by a scream of pain. Then there was an eardrum shattering boom as a bolt of lighting slammed into the Nazis and the cops who still stood in confusion before them.

Chunks of earth and fire rained down around everyone as hell was let loose. In panic, some of the cops leveled their weapons at the crowd of emerged and opened fire along with the Nazis. A man among the Emerged leapt forward and his form shifted into some large insect the size of a car that was covered in dense interlocking plates of chitin. He used his large mass to block many of the shots that lashed out from the gun toting crowd.

I didn’t have time to observe the rest of the battle as Seraph launched herself at me in a rage.

“You started this! The dead today will be on your head!” she screamed.

“There was a guy who shot at you!” I yelled in disbelief. Had she really not realised I had just saved her? As far as I knew she wasn’t bullet proof.

She said nothing, a lance of energy surging from her eyes towards me. Teleporting to the side, I realised I wasn’t going to be able to use my foxy wiles to talk my way out of this. I liked my angel better.

Baring her teeth, she lunged at me with her golden sword in an attempt to skewer me, but I was gone, illusionary clones of me darting in all directions even as I rushed forward past her vicious swing. What the hell was I going to do here?

I didn’t have time to formulate a plan though, when she started to blast each Vulptrix clone separately while lashing out with her weapon at any that got within her reach. She moved fast, her movements almost mechanical in the bursts of speed she used. When her face turned to me, I dropped to the ground just in time to dodge a lethal blast of radiant energy. Even as it missed I felt the superheated air warm my back.

I growled in frustration and launched myself forward, teleporting within her reach and slamming my crackling fist into her chest. The energy discharged into her and sent her stumbling backwards with a gasp. Shit. Just like Bastion she didn’t feel the full brunt of my stun and recovered quickly.

I was unable to move in time and watched in horror as her blade of golden energy cut through my right arm just above my elbow. I watched with a raw throated scream of pain as the arm tumbled through the air, bouncing slightly as it hit the ground.

We both stared in shock for a moment, and I saw Laithe, now as Nightbinder standing several yards away in shock.

Seraph’s face was grim as she stepped forward, her sword raised above her head to strike me down. I had no time to react. I was in shock, my eyes staring at the stump where my arm had been.

She swung.

I blocked.

Something within me boiled, a terrible energy that rose from deep within and lashed out. My arm was there again, only it was different. Shaped vaguely like my old one, the surface of my arm no longer had the texture of skin, but that of glass and it bubbled and shifted with fractal patterns as though a graphics card was dying in the process of rendering it. My eyes had trouble concentrating on it as my mind rebelled at what they reported.

Held in the palm of my hand, Seraph’s blade spat frustrated little bolts of energy around us. I felt a coldness within me that urged my hand to close around the blade. My fingers sank into the blade as though it were made of putty, and then it changed. It too began to roil with geometric absurdity, that defied the mind.

Seraph let go with a yelp, backing away from me with wide eyes. Her anger was gone, replaced by a confused fear that broke the normally stony expression she wore.

Moving my grip to the hilt of the blade, I allowed the terrible calm within me to corrupt the blade. The shining golden colour darkened to a smoky black glass that still shifted in unsettling fractal strangeness. I felt like I should be feeling fear, anger or literally any emotion… but there was nothing. Just calm. I needed Seraph to stop trying to hurt me, so I was going to make her stop.

The strange arm that held the blade lunged forward, taking me with it as though the rest of my body was an afterthought. Seraph barely dodged my blazingly quick strike, and was suddenly backpedalling further, beams of energy lancing out from her eyes towards me. I flicked the awful blade up and blocked them, the energy being absorbed harmlessly.

Seraph took to the air then, rushing towards the safety of the urban jungle. I sprang forward after her, racing to catch up using my enhanced legs. I heard someone shout my name from behind, but I didn’t pay attention. Seraph was my target. She’d been hounding me for a long time, constantly trying to hurt me. I finally had the means to properly turn it all against her.

When she flew over a building, I tore a brief hole in space and swept through it onto the rooftop. She was in front of me, leaning on her knees and gasping for breath. She must have heard my feet on the concrete of the roof, because she whirled around and whimpered, backing away from me.

I took a step towards her, then tried for another... only I couldn’t. Ethereal purple chains clanked as they wrapped around me, holding me fast to the ground. Nightbinder landed on the rooftop along with us, staring at me with pleading concern.

“Ka- Vulptrix?” she asked tentatively.

I regarded her, feeling the slightest tinge of alarm at the lack of feeling I felt for her.

“Nightbinder!” Seraph cried out, moving towards my girlfriend.

“Get the fuck out of here you stuck up stinking cunt,” Nightbinder growled, her voice shaking with emotion.

“But…” Seraph started.

“Leave!” the dark angel roared.

Seraph didn’t say anything more, she turned a fearful glance in my direction and then took to the air. Damn. I narrowed my eyes at my fleeing prey.

“Let me go,” my cold dead voice said.

“No. K-kalia… please. What’s wrong? Why are you…?” my girlfriend begged, her Nightbinder persona falling away to reveal the much more vulnerable Laithe.

“I need to stop her from ever attacking me again. Please let me go,” I asked again in that emotionless voice.

“No. I’m not letting you go!” Laithe cried, her voice cracking with feeling.

Well then. It would be harder this way, but Seraph getting a few minutes head start wasn’t the end of this. I could feel her through the stolen sword. She wouldn’t get away. Time to try teleporting while I was chained again.

I formed the colour coordinates in my mind and activated my ability.

The pain hit me like a truck, and I gasped and fell to the ground. My head shot with pain, protesting the abuse and jostling of my fall. I curled up in a ball, my tail protectively covering me. My mind was awash with confused emotions and I shuddered as I lay there on the cold concrete. What had just happened? I peeked out through pain lidded eyes at my corrupted arm, only to find it whole. The smooth skin of my arm was unblemished, bar a thin white scar where my arm had been cut.

Something scraped nearby on the roof top, but I couldn’t move to see what it was. I just shivered as the pain pulsed through me. I felt tears pouring from my eyes, and I couldn’t figure out if it was the emotions or the pain that was causing them. Maybe a little of both.

Carefully, a hand shifted my tail off my face and I saw my love, my Laithe had dragged herself over to me through the pain.

“Kalia?” she whispered, her voice wracked by pain.

“L-Laithe,” I breathed, barely able to get the word out.

“It’s you?” she whimpered, a shaking hand cupping my cheek.

“Yeah…” I said, heaving my eyelids open and giving her a look that I hoped conveyed my returned emotions.

“I love you,” she told me, her voice heavy with affection that seemed to eject the pain from her voice.

“I love you too,” I cried softly, reaching for her with my newly reborn hand.

She shuffled closer, wrapping her body around mine and laying a protective arm over me. The other hand finding my reaching one and intertwined our fingers. We lay on that rooftop and rode out the pain that had returned me to myself. I didn’t want to think about what had just happened. I pushed those feelings aside to be dealt with later, and breathed in the scent of the woman I loved instead.

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