Fox-Zee

 

And then we told the guy, all aboooard! Actually, shit, maybe something like, ‘Rail-Sentence’ would be cooler...

Wait, what?

Oh, Fox! Wait, holy crap, what?!

I…we shake our head. Something weird is going on

I-it’s not that weird, honestly.

Sue?!

G-gah?! Yes?!

Don’t worry, Sue’s just co-fronting. Though, technically we are too? Man, this is FUNKY!

We blink, sort of, our eyes more like bright green lights in the shape of sharp, wide eyes behind a blue monitor that takes up most of the top half of our now more rounded muzzle.

“Voila! You wanted a challenge, worm?” Niamh shouts with the bombasity of a stage villain, “I present to you…a duet! In the flesh!”

A duet? Wait, something about that…it doesn’t sound familiar, but it feels familiar, like our heart should know. Wait. Oh my god

You figure something out, Fox?

We…

“...Hahaha… HAHAHA!! YES!!” we exclaim, throwing our robotic arms into the air enthusiastically. “We’ve FUSED!! We’re a DUET!!”

Our new voice blares out of our...mouth? It’s more like a blue glowing speaker fixed into the shape of a wide, playful grin. And it sounds like an enthusiastic radio show host, its tone shifting at times almost like our voice is changing channels. Our healer claps for us while Cat stares at us in awe, along with Minhocão.

Just like when, err, I ascended, we can feel exactly what our body has become, a white and dark blue mechanical fox, looking slick and brand new. Where there would be hair and ears, and even the spiky fur sticking off the sides of our face, there are instead speakers that emit constant sound waves that vibrate and move the air with it, creating wispy green illusions of everything previously mentioned in their place. It’s even the same for the tip of our tail! There’s a speaker in the middle of each of our palms, and another pair replace our feet, constantly pulsating vibrations that allow us to float. Those vibrations even replace our neck, the mid section between our upper and lower torso, and a segment of our tail, holding everything in place with sound alone! Last but not least, upon our chest is a monitor displaying a little green heart that glows and beats.

This is us, huh?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, baby!

And what’s our name?

We chuckle before spinning on our feet, the vibrations letting us slide about like we’re on all-direction skates.

“It’s time to get Fox-Zee!”

A hearty laugh escapes Minhocão’s helm as he stands up straight, stowing his blade and shield to grab his partisan.

“Fox-Zee! Finally, the challenge I seek! Come, have at you!”

“Have at us?” we quip. “Why don’t you come and get us!”

Our hips swing from side to side as a sound begins to fill the air. Our sound. From the speaker on our tail, music begins to play, a speedy beat bouncing along with our electronic guitar, forming the sound of ska and funk into a hopping rhythm!

“You don’t stop, you proceed! C’mon! This is What U Need!”

We bounce from side to side, here and there, our body so full of energy! Even the knight’s own rhythmic movements can’t help but move along to our funky tune, each thrust of his spear so easily dodged, our lithe body swaying and bouncing every which way! Somehow, we can sense both his frustration and joy, his emotions turning his music back up, but even his thralls can’t help but chant to our music! It’d seem this isn’t to the favour of some, borbs-- 

Wait, I thought they were called ponpa? 

Nah, don’t worry about it. Borbs. 

The borbs begin climbing up to the arena, some launching each other up with their bows and cannons! Thankfully, our fast friends are on the job! We continue to dance around the arena, pulling Minhocão along with our movements. Niamh knocks borbs back before they can even land, and Cat handles the ones that do, from her blasting, to her bombs, to the swinging of her mace-- Oh! She even summons another streetlamp, but kicks it over and wields it, smashing its glass and having it spew flames all around like a flamethrower! You get ‘em, girl!

Circling the edge of the arena, the knight shows no signs of slowing, which is just what we want! We slow the tune down and bounce, up and over Minhocão, splitting our legs just in time to dodge an upwards thrust, only to reel those legs in once we’re behind him and bop! A drop kick and a blast of windy vibrations from our feet send him flying forward, the knight lodging his spear’s tip into the ground to keep him in place, only for our plan to go into action~ The windy image of a pulsing speaker forms right where his spear is, the traps we’d laid around the arena taking effect and keeping him bouncing along to the music! Vibrations intensify before musical blasts of wind send Minhocão flying into speaker after speaker, each faster than the last! A few dozen hits later, he lands a distance away, and we pull his spear out of the ground. Not bad looking! Not our thing. We toss it over the edge of the arena without a second thought.

“Hoh… Disarm me, will you? But you know there is much more to go!”

“Oh, we count on it~”

 

Our robotic tail spins mechanically as static takes over our sound for a second, making way for our next song, one that bounces. As Minhocão arms himself with his bow, the tune changes to some real rocking funk, with a bass that makes you move and trumpets that make you jump, all wrapped together with our signature electric guitar. We can even see the knight’s body bopping ever so slightly to its rhythm, throwing ‘em just off enough for the drawing of their bow to be disrupted by Niamh punting a borb straight into the back of his head!

Minhocão spins and aims at the flying serpent, only for Cat to bat one of his thralls at the side of his head! His aim is much less true, completely missing Niamh, frustrating the knight into taking one of his huge arrows and leaping at Cat in an attempt to drive it into her. Unfortunately for him, we’re able to boost under him midair, rolling forward and sliding onto our back with our legs straight up and feet pointed at the knight.

“High and a winner~”

Boom! Our soundwaves, resembling volume bars blowing way the hell up, send Minhocão rocketing up to the ceiling, crashing against it and falling back down as we spin on our back before leaping to our feet, a single hand reaching to the sky.

“Got a hot hand~”

The volume bars amp themselves up in our palm, forming into an intensely vibrating baseball bat so we can hop back and SMASH!! A pixelated explosion echoes through the cavern as Minhocão is sent careening towards our healer, surprising her at first. She adapts quickly and rears her tail behind her, then swinging it forward to smack him back at us! We hit him back and forth until his grip on his bow is lost, the weapon spinning out and away for Cat to catch.

“Ough-- A bit big, but I can make it work.”

Cat grabs the bowstring and pulls back, light swirling and gathering where an arrow would be, forming into a comet whose glow pulses to our rhythm, growing in power with each pulse! Our partner’s foot taps to the rhythm, timing her attack just right as the knight is flung right in the middle of us, and pchooooo BANG!! The knight’s body is launched far into the distance as the comet explodes into a galactic spectacle. Even after all that, Minhocão flaps his wings and recovers, hovering a distance away

“It would seem the odds have been forced out of my favour… So be it! My comrades, warriors of fever, to me and my melody!”

Minhocão grabs his sword and points it in our direction as three orbs of lights from different sides of the room begin to shine in rainbow gradients, rising from the crowd below and flying swiftly to find themselves each in a different corner of the arena. The light bursts from their forms, revealing borbs clearly much stronger than the others, adorned in ancient looking relics: an ornate helm, a brilliant crown, and...bunny ears? Their weapons look similarly powerful, like the knights, only instead of a sword, shield, spear, and bow, they carry a pair of clawed gauntlets, a giant scythe, and a jousting lance for the one riding a spectral horse.

“Heroes! Weather the storm, for I shall bring hell and high waters!”

The flying knight pulls his blade back as if to prepare an attack, particles of light gathering and spinning around his body, clearly aiding him in charging whatever hellish attack he plans to execute. There’s no time to interrupt it, however, as the warrior borbs are already upon us!

The crowned one slashes in Niamh’s direction, a sudden tornado building towards her with a growing intensity! She flaps her wings in response, winds and clouds of hail gathering in front of her as she combats their winds with her own.

At the same time, the helmed fighter has Cat dancing on her feet, dashing and slashing every which way with a furious speed, each attack our partner manages to fit in being parried by her opponent’s swiftness!

And on our end, the horse riding bunny charges at us with impossible speeds. Our music thankfully gives us the timing to leap over them, but they turn on a dime and charge back! We hop, skip, and jump, taking our air time to change the pace just a bit, static filling the air once again before changing the channel.

The cry of metal sends shivers through all upon this battle ground, the heavy and melodic screeching of guitars shredding the air!

“Are you ready to wake the metal?!”

Suddenly, our heart feels so much more intense, a feral recklessness filling me as the speakers on our hands vibrate and shape the air around our hands into huge, vibrating claws! Landing on our feet, we extend our palm forward, the pain from our foe’s lance being thrust into our arm meaning nothing besides the fact that they’re close enough now! We push forward, grabbing the entire borb in our giant claw while spinning and slashing to dispel their mount. Tossing them down to the ground, we find them bouncing back up like a basketball, catching and throwing them again and again before we summon volume bars beneath the dashing helmed borb. Up they go, quickly finding themselves trapped in the net of a basketball hoop, at which point we leap forward and dunk their friend onto them! The two foes look dazed, but not out of the fight just yet… Yet being the key word here~

Cat stands back, blinking at the display before her. Then she smiles. She grabs the base of the basketball net and breaks it off, looking to where Niamh and the crowned borb are pushing the building tornado back and forth. Thankfully, with the help of metal, our healer appears to be winning out, the static from her clouds growing even stronger in this intensity.

“Finish the job already, you bimbo of a boa!” Cat jeers.

Niamh laughs heartily in response. “Oh, if you insist~”

 

There’s a glow in Niamh’s eyes as she grabs a smaller thundercloud in her palm, grasping it and whipping it forward, a lash of lightning splitting forth like a whip and cracking against the tornado, pushing it further and further forward. The scythe wielding borb sweats and steps back as they slash, but they cannot escape the storm’s pull, leaving them clawing at the ground before being pulled right into its eye!

Cat grins with malicious intent, paws burning bright as she begins dashing towards the tornado, reeling the basketball net back as she screams, “LIVE FOR THE METAAAAALLLLLL!!”.

Swinging all the borbs together and letting go of her makeshift weapon, she sends each and every one of them flying right towards the knight. We all watch as the impact has his allies bursting into swarms of bugs and dispersing, staggering Minhocão and leaving him open for attack. We begin skating in the direction of the boss, when Niamh places her hand on our shoulder.

“Please, allow me. I’m the one who's got a bone to pick with this knight in tacky armour…~ Just tear down the roof for me, would you darlings~?”

Cat and us look at each other and shrug, bouncing back as I turn up the volume, watching its power fill our partner. Orbs of sunny fire whirl around her and grow in size, and the moment one is big enough and in front of her, she pulls her foot back and launches it up into the ceiling with a powerful kick. As soon as it makes impact, we take control of the vibrations, the metal tearing the explosion apart and spreading it further with pixely distortion, only to do the same with the next bomb, and the one after! The rocky ceiling above quickly begins cracking and crumbling, Niamh putting on a serious face for once as she waves her hands over her head like she’s casting a spell. Storm clouds form around and strike the falling debris with lightning before it can fall on us. Soon enough, just as Minhocão seems to have finished charging his attack, the sky reveals itself once more, only to be consumed as Niamh soars skyward and coats it in dark clouds.

“By the light of the desert sun,” Minhocão begins, glowing with power, “Upon my honour to protect all it bathes, may the rhythm of my heart shudder your soul and the strength of my arms be true!”

“Oh~?” Niamh’s voice echoes from above the clouds, the snake having flown out of sight, yet her laughter is as clear as day. “Having fun now that you’ve got a mouth that can utter more than a screech? I’ll show you fun…~”

Her voice seems to shake even Minhocão as the clouds above somehow get even darker, matching the colour of Niamh’s hide as they begin to shift and move, spiraling down and taking shape as our snake friend speaks.

“I, who soar in the full lights of the heavens command thee who opens the gates of hell…”

The giant serpent-like cloud extends further, reaching down to get closer and closer to the knight as a draconic face forms upon it, wings burst forth from its back.

“Come forth, divine lightning…!”

The cloud dragon opens its giant maw as it faces the knight head on, eyes glowing a brilliant violet along with the magical circles that conjure lightning into a billowing ring of energy.

“This ends now, dearie…~”

Niamh sticks her head out of the dragon’s maw just before the attack, blowing Minhocão a kiss.

“Indignation!!” roars out from the dragon, while the knight declares his own attack.

“Deific Storm!!”

Minhocão thrusts his sword forward as an army of brilliant lances rise from the earth below, soaring at light speed to pierce through Niamh’s dragon, parting the clouds above and revealing a godly radiance that makes our souls shudder…

But Niamh seems unphased, the building magic forming something of a cage of lightning around the knight before her giggle rings through the air, a gigantic surge of electricity flowing down the entire length of the dragon before condemning Minhocão to a fate of a hundred thousand volts.

With all that power spent in a single moment, the entire space feels silent for seconds that take up an eternity, nothing moving sans the clouds and spears fading up and into the sky. Eventually, Niamh’s form can be seen again, carrying Minhocão’s weakened body as she flies towards us, laying the knight on the ground.

“You’re lucky I don’t believe in ‘an eye for an eye,’ worm,” Niamh sneers, poofing back into her smaller form and flying up around Cat’s neck.

“Hah…!” Minhocão laughs weakly, the bombasity in his voice drained. “I would much prefer to leave this place with my legs… Thank you, honourable Niamh…”

The serpent scoffs and looks away, the tip of her tail rattling gently.

“Get out of here before I change my mind. Yombroila sends her regards, by the way.”

The knight laughs some more as his body is consumed by light, bursting gently into an explosion of butterflies. In the wake of his disappearance, we find a jeweled tiara laying upon the ground. Its front is designed to resemble a butterfly, while the ring it forms around that has the steel bending to take the shape of a forest. As Cat picks up the treasure, the space around us warps and shifts, sand rising and taking the shape of the room we would have entered were it not for Minhocão’s magical space.

 

What materializes around us is a very small but homey looking living space. It’s like a modest little apartment and inside this apartment we see a deer person. She appears to have not noticed us yet as she dances awkwardly with some borbs who had apparently stayed behind. She’s dressed in a simple but elegant black dress and her long, curly hair bobs up and down as she bounces atop her bed. As she finally spots us, she turns and opens her eyes that swirl both blue and pink.

“Oh! O-oh my gosh, uhm… Hi…? Did these funny little folk bring you all…?”

We all look at each other, then back to the deer lady.

“Kinda?” Cat says with a tilt of her head. “We’re here because of them, at least. Oh, uhm. I’m Cat, by the way. This…”

Our partner struggles to find the right words as she gestures to us.

“...This is Fox and Sue-Zee. Don’t ask. And our pet snake, Niamh.”

The snake sticks her tongue out at Cat playfully as the deer girl ahead of us nods.

“Ah, well, I’m Caramel. Welcome to my home, it’s a pleasure to meet you all…?”

“The pleasure is all ours, babe!” we blurt out, getting a light blush out of Caramel before Cat begins pushing us out of the room.

“Well Caramel, hopefully we see you again under less awkward circumstances, but we gotta be going now. Busy night ‘n all.”

The deer smiles lightly and nods, looking back down at the borbs around her and sighing. “Yes, it’s been quite busy. Small little folks can stay, just don’t make too much noise!”

The borbs each let out a cheer, running about and rushing around us to get out the door Cat had just opened. Once the borbs are out, we all stand there for a moment and look at Niamh, who seems to be minding her own business.

“Ma’am,” Cat begins, yanking the snake off of her shoulders and holding her in her palms with a stern look shooting down at her, “you’ve got a lot to answer for!”

“Can we start with the sick as fuck robot fox in the room?” we ask with our hand raised as if we’re still in school. 

Niamh chuckles jovially and nods, flapping her wings and wiggling her tail playfully. “Oh, alright. As you heard, this is called a Duet. I haven’t seen one in many millennia. Basically Yombroila sought a way to form a bond closer than any other, yet different, in her quest to found the Ascended folk. It’s all about emotional resonance or some crap like that, and it allows an Ascended to, in essence, fuse with another willing living being. Sometimes accidentally if the bonds allow it.”

“Even humans in this case, huh?” we ask, the snake nodding in response.

“Indeed! Now, that is a conversation for another time, but to put it simply, think about, say, Fox’s Wind and Sound. Radiants carry the former magical essence, the end, and those from the world of shade carry the latter, the means, while Ascended carry both. Your duet with Zee simply combined Fox’s Sound and Zee’s… I had a feeling it was something along the lines of ‘technology’ or’ machinery’, and that created Wind by Music~ Perfect for besting the worm’s song!”

“That’s fucking cool…” we mumble, getting a giggle out of our serpent friend.

“Now, he was simply more susceptible to your magic, making you something of a hard counter to him, I doubt it’d be as effective against others. Also it’s rather taxing, so I’d recommend splitting soon. Just will yourselves apart~”

“In a bit, this feels pretty alright,” we say, though it feels like that came more from me than it did Sue or Zee

That’s alright, this is pretty cool!

I-I don’t mind at all.

Sweet.

“Alright, we can fuse, as if this wasn’t an anime-like adventure enough as is. Now riddle me this: What the FRICK did you just do to Minhocão?!” Cat asks, resulting in a sigh from the snake.

“Look, it’s not something I can do on the fly. Every Radiant works differently, and my magic tends to be very based in my emotions. My vendetta against the worm and the way he knocked you all around simply gave me the gusto to perform an old, old spell of mine.”

“Well, that works for us,” we say, everybody nodding at one another as Niamh coils her way around Cat once again, the group of us now making our way out of the greenhouse.

So…is it always like this for you two?

Hmm, kinda not really? Usually whoever is fronting has the most thoughts, and we just switch on command. Though, sometimes we jump out to the front when something the other of us is really interested in is happening. Or when Sue gets really mad, usually for my sake.

H-hey, don’t just say things like that!

Sorry! Sorry, it’s just flattering.

That is really sweet, honestly, jumping out to fight for your friend.

Mmm… Th…thanks… I guess…

How about you, Fox, you feeling alright?

Yeah. Honestly, this doesn’t feel too alien even.

Hey, that’s awesome! Maybe that’s because of that shadowy figure behind you?

What?

I… turn around inside our own head somehow, but I don’t see anybody there. 

Zee, don’t joke around like that…

I’m not, promise! They just kinda vanished. Wonder if they’re shy.

...Alright, maybe it’s time we split for now.

Sounds good to me!

Yeah… We’ll see you later, Fox…

And with that, we take a deep breath, and I begin to feel only slightly less close to these two.

 

Fox

When I open my eyes, I find myself somewhere pretty cozy: Sue-Zee’s arms. Ah. I blush and look up at the two of them smiling down at me.

“Heya, Fox.”

“H-hey, Sue-Zee…”

They let go of me with a laugh, and I look around to see all of us at the entrance of the greenhouse, having magically patched itself up. It’s only a moment later that I notice Cat and Niamh staring at our navigators, and turning to look at them ourselves, we suddenly realize why.

“...Sue-Zee. You’re here,” Cat says. “Like, physically here!”

“...Huh?” The duo looks over themselves, eyes going wide with shock and...terror…?

“Oh god. Oh fuck. Oh SHIT. Okay. Okay! We gotta go. We gotta go NOW.”

We’re all surprised to see Sue-Zee so panicked, but we don’t question it, simply following alongside the two of them as they skate on out of the building.

“Is everything alright, darling?” Niamh asks, swooping over from Cat to Sue-Zee.

“Yeah! Yeah, great, everything’s great, just-- Look don’t worry about it, we’d just really rather not be here right now!”

We all start moving faster, quickly working our way out of the gardens and mentally apologizing for the scrap left by Sue-Zee’s scrap bombs. It’s not long before we’re out of the entrance gate and back on the streets.

“Alright, alright alright alright, just gotta get back to Railsent and we’ll be safe, no biggie--”

“Sue-Zee, what is going on?” I ask, jogging over and placing a claw on their shoulder. “If you tell us, we can help with whatever it is you’re worried about!”

They stand there silently for a time before sighing and hanging their head.

“...Alright. Alright…just, please take us seriously?”

We all give them affirming nods, our navigators clearing their throats and opening their mouth.

Wee-woo-wee-woo-weE-WOO-WEE-WOO--

Of course. Before they even have a chance to speak, we’re interrupted once again, this time by folks Cat and I haven’t been bothered by in a long while.

“Oh shit-- Wait, police?” Sue-Zee thinks aloud. “Oh, okay, that’s not what we were worried about.”

Unfortunately, as is always the case with pigs, it looks like we will have to worry about it as dozens of cop cars suddenly turn the corners of the streets to face us, speeding closer before all skidding to a halt, surrounding our group from both sides. Before any of us have a chance to say anything more, a megaphone begins blaring from one of the vehicles.

“Fox and Cat, you’ve been charged with serial cat burglary and…crimes against nature? Is that what she said? Ahem. Put your hands up, release your hostage, and come down without a fight.”

Pff. I can’t help but snicker at that. Do they even know who they’re dealing with?