Chapter 15 – Cloudy with a Chance of Snakes
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“Actually, no,” Fox retorts, shaking her head with a shrug. “We haven’t had families for years. Even before then there wasn’t much there, at least for me.” 

The serpent woman ‘ahhhs’ and ‘ooos’ at my partner, smiling as she interlocks her fingers, the tip of her tail rattling lightly (though, she doesn’t appear to be a rattlesnake of any kind…).

“Ah ha! It’s about the found family, then… How delightful!” She giggles at us and taps her cheek with a finger. “That really brings me back, you know? I’ll try not to make this too difficult on you two then~” 

She chuckles and winks at both of us before spreading wide the wings around her hips: angelic wings that span what must be the same length as her tail, that being twice as long as I am tall!

Slouching forward, I whine, “Can’t you tone the difficulty down to zero and just let two cute girls have their treasure and go?” 

Fox blushes something fierce, her tail seeming to bristle and shoot straight out. Ah dammit, forgot she’s still not quite there yet. Although, she seems to enjoy it? This doesn’t go unnoticed by Niamh, who’s eyes go wide and her grin wider.

“Oh, you’re really appealing to my gentler side, aren’t you two?” Her two giant wings push her off the ground, her long tail trailing below her as she maintains a decent height over us. “I’m sure we can be friends after a little tussle, don’t you think~?” 

Dammit, so close to going the pacifist route. I sigh and stand up straight as Niamh crosses her forearms over her chest in an X shape, all three eyes glowing bright blue as an aura of radiant clouds begins to circle around her. 

“Hope you two brought umbrellas!”

The snake woman throws her arms wide with a grin, the clouds around her growing and spreading above the roof as a chill fills the air around us. We both keep our eyes on the skies, or what we can see of them now, and what we see is not any mere powder snow. Nope, how about a chunk of hail the size of a small car hurtling towards us with reckless abandon? Fox and I leap to either side and feel the impact of the hail shattering against the ground, sending shards of ice flying in all directions, including ours! I hiss as they begin to scratch and cut at my body, only to find about five more giant chunks of frozen pain falling every which way, the hailstorm only building in intensity! Dodging the large projectiles is as simple as a dance, but the constant assault of ice shards is the real kicker. Then I get an idea, a lightbulb literally materializing over my head for my tail to wrap around and hold up. I use it to turn the heat way up around me, melting any smaller projectiles that would attempt to lacerate me! Fox seems to be having a more difficult time, however, holding her tail in front of her. She steps from side to side, the sound of bullets hitting a steel wall as a barrier of wind protects her for a time before--

“FOX, LOOKOUT!!” I scream.

The massive block of hail seems to anticipate her movements as it collides with her shield. Unfortunately, a steel wall can’t stop a cannon ball, especially one of that size. It at least dampens the blow from what I can see but still sends her flying backward. She lands hard on her back, the pained girl groaning before rolling out of the way of more ice. A deep growl rumbles from my gut before turning into a mean hiss, my hind paws glowing once more as I make a running start towards our serpentine assaulter, reeling my foot back and kicking an orb of sun high into the air. Niamh dodges the large projectile with ease.

“Really, dear, you’ll have to do better than that~” she teases, only to begin sweating as the orb I’d launched remains floating behind her, burning with great intensity! It rebounds towards me but remains at the same altitude as the clouds, each being dissipated and melting any remaining inbound ice! 

“Oh, clever girl! I like you, truly~”

 

I hear Fox groan at my side. She is still staggered from her worst hit but the fight lives on in her, evident by the sharp-toothed grin on her muzzle. The two of us begin to dash in towards the snake, her wings reeling back and flapping a powerful gust of wind that stops just in front of her. As she flaps more and more the wind gathers into an orb of swirling gale and clouds, only for her to pull her tail back and SLAM it against said orb and launch it towards us. We dodge to each side once more, but the windy energy only begins to spread around us from the site of impact, whirling larger and larger as it forms into a tornado--no--a hurricane in the center of the roof! I lunge forward, all paws on the ground as my claws dig into the concrete roof, desperately trying to not get sucked into the storm! Looking to the side, I see Fox stomping down hard on the ground, the sound of iron boots crashing against the stone below as her own wind keeps her firmly planted and safe from the hurricane. 

Rain pelts our faces like hail and my claws struggle to stay in the ground as the force of the wind only grows with time. With Fox ahead drawing Niamh’s attention, I make one last ditch effort to attack, pulling one claw up before I’m thrown into the skies and shooting a heated laser pointer at the snake. It’s useless! A barrier of spinning clouds simply blocks the bolt with ease, and I’m left stranded in the air, spinning and completely out of control. I try to find Fox in the whirling movement when--slap! The…the sound of a sticky hand hits my leg? Immediately, I’m pulled back down to earth, revealing Fox’s grappling hook had saved me! She pulls and pulls ‘til I’m grounded, smiling at me before turning back to the boss.

“Give me a boost!” she shouts through the wind and rain.

Nodding, I dig my hind claws into the ground once more and lower my hands palms up. Fox hopping atop them with ease and I toss her towards Niamh before digging those claws into the ground too. The sound of a fighter plane tears through the air as not a single gust of wind impedes Fox. She holds her tail in front of her like a lance as a windy propeller forms at its tip and plane wings at its sides. The girl flies on, a determined grin on her face as the force of her windy machine clashes with the snake’s shield of clouds for but a second, only to tear through it and assault the winged woman with the whirling blades! A pained grunt is forced out of Niamh, her concentration disrupted just long enough to disperse the storm before she wraps her wings around Fox and, with a flick of her giant tail, pitches herself towards the ground. She forces me to throw myself out of her way by divebombing me and slamming Fox against the ground before ascending once more. I hurry to Fox’s side and pull her back onto her feet before we look up at the smirking serpent above.

“Oh, you girls are good! So interesting and curious…~” 

From far above the center of the arena, Niamh coils her tail around itself, arms crossed over her chest once more as clouds form not just above the roof, but high in the sky above even Niamh! She concentrates on those dark clouds, crackling and booming heard just beyond, before lightening begins crashing in rhythmic intervals in random places, sizzling and searing wherever it lands with bursts of light and energy! It’s another dance, but not one we can predict! Our hearts race as I leap from place to place, Fox backflipping and cartwheeling out of harm's way as best as she can, but the storm is too unpredictable! Over and over, the explosions of light zap and sear us, blowing us back with force as we desperately struggle to survive!

“Ghh…! What was that about making this not too difficult for us-- NYA--!!” I screech before being blasted back again. We need to do something, but how do you fight back against a lightning storm?! Lightning… “Fox, follow my lead!”

 

With a nod of confirmation as she continues to attempt dodging, I leap directly under where Niamh is flying, pointing my index fingers each to the sky and letting them glow with energy as I shout, “Lightning in a bottle!”.  Finally, as blasts of lightning sear my regenerating fur, I launch twin lasers of heated light into the sky, each intercepting and converging into a single, slower beam. The rod of light conducts Niamh’s lightning, drawing it all towards the point at which the lasers connect, welling into a pulsating mass of electrical energy, though strands of stray lightning trail down the two lasers shooting from my hands, making me wince, but I keep myself steady and my focus true. Fox catches on, though with a slight hesitation as to whether she’d even capable of this task, she leaps high, even swinging her tail down with the sound of flapping wings to give her a boost! She winds her arm back and swings her palm down, the sound of a cork entering the neck of a bottle echoing through the air, wind beginning to gather and force the electrical build up inwards, even as the contained lightning surges, the bottle of wind contains the immense force! Success! All while Niamh is completely focused on her protective clouds and maintaining the storm. Good. As Fox finds herself by my side, I catch the container, placing it down right below the snake woman as we both step back and each raise a foot high into the air!
“NOW!!” Fox shouts.

Both of us stomp our feet to the ground and Fox sends it flying with the sound of a spring sproinging to form a…well, windy spring, while my stomp lights a rocket fire under the bottle. We watch as the lightning bomb shoots straight up into Niamh with an earth shuddering BOOM!! An explosion that crackles like thunder and glows with the intensity of the sun overtakes the snake woman and completely evaporates the raging storm! The two of us step to the side and watch as Niamh falls all the way back down, slamming into the roof and creating a hole leading straight to the first floor! Leaping down to see the dazed serpent, we find her somehow still conscious, if a little out of it.

My goodness… You youngsters really know how to spice things up, huh…?” Somehow, after all of that, she laughs, pulling herself up onto her tail with a pained groan before dusting herself off with her hands and wings. “Give Yombroila my regards ladies~” 

She ruffles the hair on both our heads, Fox clearly avoiding eye contact and blushing before she spreads her wings and takes off to the skies, wherever they might take her. The two of us sigh and brush ourselves off, watching as the after image of the remaining building begins to shimmer, becoming more and more physical. 

“Crap.” 

We scramble as I curse, looking around for anything to grab when we notice something oddly…ethereal. In the crater where Niamh landed, inside what appears to be a cabinet full of goodies, lies a non-translucent brooch. In its center is a gem that shines and crackles like lightning while a gold and silver ouroboros keeps it in place. We look at each other and nod. This beauty should be enough. Yanking it off the ground, we break into a sprint and flee the fading magical area, watching as the destroyed remains of the building fade to smoke and it takes on its normal appearance. We don’t look for long as we quickly get as far away as we can. After running for some time, we take refuge in an alleyway, leaning our backs against the wall and catching our breaths. We look at one another's' faces, still panting before breaking into a smile, then laughter.

“I dunno what that was about, but that was SO FUN!!” I exclaim through exhausted breaths.

“We can’t go back to normal heists after that. Everything felt so right and real and…magical!” Fox adds, the two of us still smiling at one another before I move down to hug my partner, and she returns the favour.

“Well well well! Look what the cat dragged in!”

 

A voice echoes from the dark of the alleyway, and I move to get in front of Fox, but she’s already taken a defensive stance in front of me.

“Oh, relax! Don’t get your fresh panties in a twist…” 

The voice is…familiar, yet not at the same time. It’s only as I see a familiar flowing cloak that it clicks. The figure walks out of the shadow to reveal themselves as one of us, only instead of a fox or a cat, they’re a bluejay.

“Blue?!” Fox and I blurt out at the same time. 

They give us their usual flippant shrug and we know it’s them, but their body…well, we can’t exactly say it’s changed since it was always hiding under that cloak, but they are definitely different. They’re taller and I can see a decently bulky body, clearly toned under their tight fitting black dress shirt and pants, but not incredibly so.

“Blue is fine, wasn’t my deadname anyways, but I think I like the sound of ‘Jay’ better.” We just blink at them for a few moments. “He/him, by the way.”

“Y-yeah, but really? Blue-Jay?” Fox says before groaning. Jay snickers, and I can’t help but join in. “Oh, not you too!”

“Are you really ones to talk? Fox the fox and Cat the cat?” he jabs with a smirk on his beak. Fox just stands there before slouching forward, defeated. “Now, if the ruckus I heard was any indication, you’ve got business with me?” 

I nod, walking over and handing him the broach, his eyes gleaming as he snatches it and looks it over. 

“Hot DAMN!! Alright, you two really outdid yourselves this time with this alone. If all this magical shit means more beauties like these, I’m all for it!” 

He reaches into his cloak and pulls out double what we’d gotten last time, handing it to Fox before flipping his cloak as he turns and walks into the shadows again. “Pleasure doing business with you girls! You might be my only clients for a while with all that’s going on, so I better see you soon!” 

Fox huffs and shakes her head. “Girls this, ladies that…” 

She crosses her arms and I pat her head, immediately calming her down somewhat.

“It’ll feel right eventually, I promise.”

“It feels right! But… I guess not, at the same time? I don’t know…”

I stroke her hair some more before patting her back and ushering her out of the alley. It’s time to go home.

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