“How many places did you break into on monday night?” Laithe growled, backing me up against the wall.

“Um… five?” I said, phrasing it as a question.

“You broke into five different research facilities and stole Emerged tech?” she asked incredulously, “What about that little promise you made to me?”

Gulping I told her, “I mean, I checked them out beforehand! No one got hurt! I just stole the stuff and ran away! Didn’t even break anything, so technically I only entered!”

“You little… you can’t just break into places and steal what you need with no reasoning! I mean, who knows what good those places might have done if they still had the tech!” she said angrily, running her hand through her hair in frustration even as she stepped closer again.

“Look, I know you’re like, really angry and stuff, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But this whole angry goth chick backing me up against a wall thing is really turning me on right now!” I said breathlessly, biting my lip and trailing my eyes over her casually dressed body. God the tantalizing hints of curve I got through the baggy clothing was just as bad as any set of lingerie.

“I’m turning you on…” she chuckled, her anger deflating slightly as she looked at me. Her eyes held a mixture of caring and consternation in them as she asked, “So you checked them out. How? Explain please?”

“Well, most of the places I hit were Yelmorn or DRF weapons development labs. The one that wasn’t was an independent lab receiving funding from the military. All of it was weapons development. Yelmorn are obviously assholes, and from what you’ve discovered over the past few days, I’m willing to bet you don’t mind me hitting DRF. Not sure about the morality of the independent place though…” I said quietly.

She sighed and leaned forward to pull me into a hug, nestling my head in the crook of her shoulder. My ear was bent weirdly against her neck, but I didn’t mind. She was so warm and I felt so happy and safe in her arms I’d suffer any small discomfort.

“Please, please, please tell me about this shit. You’re not flying solo anymore little vixen. You’re my girlfriend and I’d hate to lose you before we get to explore our lives together okay?” she pleaded quietly.

I mumbled assent and burrowed closer against her, trying to feel every small inch of contact that I could get. It was odd really, thinking back on our encounters. We’d run into each other a few times as our super alter egos, and each time I’d felt an attraction to both her mind and her body. She’d been joking and cute when we first met, even as she’d laid out a bunch of racist thugs. Then there was the first time I really felt something for her, the night of the second Emergence. We’d worked side by side to help a confused scared little kid. She was so rough and cocky on the outside, but just under the surface was an absolute heart of gold.

“Your ear is so tickly and warm,” she giggled softly.

I flicked it in response, earning a happy squeak from her.

“You’re so cute. I can’t believe I get to date an actual fox girl!” she exclaimed, pushing me gently back to get a look at me.

“You’re not going weeb on me are you?” I asked with mock suspicion.

“No, I’m not going weeb on you! You’re just super cute!” she exclaimed, trying to hide her blush with a teasing lick to the tip of my nose.

“Don’t go whipping that thing out unless you intend to use it properly,” I smiled slyly.

“Easy there little vixen, that comes after the date,” she winked, releasing me and going back to staring at the random assortment of clothing she had thrown on her bed.

We were at her house today, and we’d decided to go on a date once again, hopefully this time without angry robots interrupting us.

Watching Laithe bustle around her room trying to figure out what to wear was so cute. I loved seeing the silly human aspects to her personality that were made all the more endearing by the knowledge of the badass she became at night.

I’d already picked out what I was going to wear, and had put it on ahead of time. I was dressed in a little black skater dress, with a dark green jacket and dark grey thigh high socks. Underneath… I had matching black lace underwear. It wasn’t just any underwear though, it was actually my super suit. I had no idea how they’d done it, but tinker had made something truly awe inspiring. It was apparently one of the first in a line of morphing, transforming suits that could be worn under clothing and change from one shape to another. Either way, right now it was a silky bra and panties set and I felt naughty just wearing it. I didn’t really mind that someone might get a look though, after all, that someone would probably be Laithe. I wanted her to stare, which she had when I’d returned from her bathroom.

I grinned as I remembered the hungry look in her eyes when she’d seen me step back into her room. I loved stoking the idle coals of her arousal into a burning flame that sent her wild for me. It was like a game, see how long it would take before she pressed me against something with her lips. I was hoping to get her to that point out there on the date, where she couldn’t do anything too drastic about it. Then I might get her to new heights. I was evil.

“Alright, what about this?” Laithe asked, whirling to show me what she’d picked.

I raised my eyebrows, that was a surprise. I’d expected her to choose something more butch to be honest, but she was pulling from her goth repertoire tonight. The dress she held up was fairly simple, ending just above the knees. The whole thing was a burgundy colour that seemed to go well with her purple accented hair while still being a different colour. The nod the dress took to a more goth style were the alternating black and burgundy ruffled layers that made up the skirt portion.

I nodded agreement, “Yeah, chuck some black tights on or something as well for the chill. You’re the fashion girl after all. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

She snorted and gave me a frank once over, “Yeah, I don’t believe that.”

“Come on, let’s get out there already,” I smiled.

“You have no idea where we’re going, so hold your horses. We have time,” she said distractedly, searching for some tights.

“For the date maybe, but I’m bored,” I pouted.

She looked up with a smirk, “Awh, the bouncy fox is bored? Go zoomies under the bed or something.”

“You say that, but if I actually do that then you’re going to be sorry,” I told her, poking my tongue out.

“True, let me throw this on,” she said, stripping down.

I felt my cheeks flush as I watched her get changed. She was a goddess.

****

“Wait, what is this?” I asked, slowing to a stop next to Laithe.

Our hands were intertwined and so she was forced to stop with me.

“This, my little vixen, is the first Penrith Emerged festival!” she said, grinning at me.

“The what?” I repeated, looking into her beautiful violet eyes, while my own filled with confusion.

“Just come and see silly,” she teased, dragging me along by the hand.

We turned the street corner and found… chaos. There were people everywhere, converging on the Innes Haley Park that was covered in tents and stalls and stages. The place was packed, Emerged of all sorts bustling around, while others sold things they had created with their powers. The whole place was brightly coloured and full of life. The day was bright, the sunlight banishing the chill at least while you were in it.

I saw a man shaping water into little statues of people in his audience, then freezing it with liquid nitrogen and giving it to the audience member. Another girl was shaping cotton candy into wild shapes with her mind. Everywhere I could see there were wild and bizarre feats of supernatural power being performed for everyone’s entertainment. The whole affair had the air of something that had been organised spontaneously and on short notice, but somehow that added to the charm rather than detracted from it.

I moved closer to Laithe as we neared one of the many entrances and pulled her arm to my chest. She wasn’t going to get away from me, and I certainly wasn’t going to let myself get lost either.

“See anything you want to do or are you content to hold onto my arm and let me lead you around?” Laithe asked, extracting her arm from my grasp and slipping it around my waist.

I hummed happily and leaned into her, wrapping my own arm around her waist in turn, “Whatever you want to do.”

“Well in that case, lets go and get some food! Because I am hungry!” she exclaimed happily, leaning me into the festival.

We didn’t get too far before I derailed things a little. Tugging on Laithe’s arm, I used my free hand to indicate a person I’d just seen.

“Laithe! Laithe! Look!” I whispered in hushed excitement.

Making a questioning noise, Laithe turned in the direction I’d indicated, and saw the girl I’d pointed out. She was drop dead gorgeous. She was tall, if I had to guess she was almost six foot of willowy grace. She had blond hair and dark eyes that she idly scanned the crowd with as she spoke to the man on her arm.

That wasn’t her distinguishing feature though. The reason I had pointed her out was obvious, she had two large blond fox ears, and three big fluffy tails. She was a fox girl like me! Sure, she was taller and hotter than me, but she was still my kind!

“Well look at that!” laughed Laithe softly.

“She’s like me!” I said in hushed excitement. She was the first other fox girl I’d seen, and I felt so damn happy to not be alone.

Raising an eyebrow, Laithe asked teasingly, “Want to go and talk to her?”

“No way!” I said, shaking my head in an emphatic negative.

Laithe cocked her head to the side, “Why not?”

“Because…? I don’t know, I just think it would be weird,” I shrugged.

“Suit yourself,” Laithe smiled, leaning over with her other hand to ruffle my hair between my ears.

As we continued onwards into the grounds, we eventually found a little open air cafe that had been set up. It had a little while picket fence around it, and a bunch of picnic tables were set out for patrons to use. By mutual agreement we headed for it, beginning our wait in the long line for a table. Just ahead of us in the line, three people were having a hushed conversation that my fox ears couldn’t help but pick up.

The loudest was a tall lanky guy was saying, ”So, did you hear that you won’t be alone in the sponsored superhero business anymore?”

The smallest member of the group, who was only just taller than me looked up at the dude and asked, “Huh, what are you talking about now?”

I realised after she had spoken that she was a catgirl, her hair dark and her ears focused on the guy talking. Her tail was swishing slowly back and forth as she asked the question while her big blue eyes were blinking attentively at him. She was absolutely adorable! She seemed vaguely familiar, in that way you feel when you’ve seen someone on the street once or twice.

The third member of the group, a shortish girl with dark hair and big glasses blurted, “OH! YOU DIDN’T HEAR?!”

Both the other two made hurried shushing noises in an attempt to get their excitable companion to lower her volume.

The guy leaned forward, his voice low, “Yelmorn is setting up a new superhero team. The execs are going nuts!”

The nerdy girl excitedly whispered in a voice that hadn’t really lowered in volume, “I heard you're going to be captain Bastet now.”

No way, this catgirl was the one I’d fought at that DRF convoy? Oh my god! Looking at her, I could definitely make it out now that I knew what to look for. She just looked… normal without her extravagant costume. Kinda super cute. Looking her up, I’d figured out she was a sort of sponsored superhero paid for by DRF. No wonder she was at the convoy.

The bespectacled girl’s comment earned a confused, “Huh?” from both the other two friends.

Nodding, the nerdy girl continued, “DRF are going to make their own team! They want to make sure everyone knows it was their idea first!”

“Huh… yeah that sounds about right now that you mention it… Ugh, it’s hard enough to do the hero thing in the first place. I hope I’m not actually in charge…” the catgirl sighed, looking worried.

Ouch, sounded like someone didn’t want to be in the hero business. I wonder what the story was there.

“OH, I wonder if you’ll get into turf wars with the Yelmorn team,” the guy mused excitedly.

“Matt, no. Just no. You’re starting to sound like the marketing people,” the catgirl groaned.

“I’m so starting a pool,” the guy who’s name was apparently Matt said, rubbing his hands together with glee.

Patting the catgirl on the shoulder, the nerdy girl attempted to comfort her friend, “All my money’s on you Maya!”

Maya the catgirl cringed, her tail flicking back and forth in agitation, “Oh my god, no. Jess, please no. You don’t think they’ll actually put me in charge do you? I mean my track record is terrible so far.”

“Hey, don’t let the fact that you got out-foxed get to you OK?” Matt said slyly.

Oh wow, that was bad mister Matt, even by my standards. I tried to ignore the ego boost as I kept listening in.

“Not you too…” Maya groaned, swatting him on the arm.

“Yea, so what was she like anyways?” Jess, the girl with the glasses asked.

Maya blushed and grabbed her tail, mumbling, “Oh… well super cute to begin with… And… other things...”

No way, cute? Me? I guess… but Maya was definitely cuter. Neither of us were as cute as Laithe though. Well actually, Laithe was more the stunningly beautiful type, but she could be cute when she cute in her actions from day to day.

Before the group in front of us could speak any more, they were up to the front of the line and being assigned a table. Laithe, who’s hearing wasn’t supernaturally good like mine, hadn’t heard anything of the conversation in front of us, and just smiled down at me when it was our turn.

As Laithe got us a table, I whispered, “Hey I need to use the bathroom to do something crazy, I’ll be right back!”

“What? Oh no, Kalia!” she exclaimed, but I was already bounding off.

When I got to the toilets, which were your standard disgusting porta potty setup, I slunk into a little alleyway between two stalls and activated my underwear - I mean supersuit.

The suit flowed over me, its strange armour mesh fabric sliding over me as though it was part liquid. The second layer followed, materialising as if from nothing and unravelling. The second layer was where the magic happened. It was a combination of a strange composite material that was woven into strands that augmentent my strength and speed. It was a definite upgrade from the exoskeletal legs I had been using until now, and it used the power cores from them to power everything. A third protective layer flowed over the top to give a seamless look to the whole thing.

When it was done, I looked far more badass than the old Vulptrix. For one, the legs of my new suit turned my feet into digitigrade ones, as though I now had fox legs. On top of that, there were small pieces of harder armour over spots that needed the extra protection. Over the whole setup was a replica of my now infamous hoodie, which was far more resistant to the wear and tear of Emerged combat. It was awesome, Tinker had done an amazing job on it.

One of the most important components of the suit was invisible. The necklace had been incorporated into the suit. I didn’t have to clumsily throw the thing off and on again now, I just had to let the suit activate and I was protected. I still needed to find someone to fix the overbearing nature of it though. Causing people to have blinding headaches wasn’t ideal.

Now, I just needed… aha! I saw it, a pen and paper lying on the counter of a stall not far away. I teleported over and snatched them both up. Scribbling quickly, I drew a bad cartoon fox blowing a kiss and the words, “You’re cute too, Vulptrix,” along with a little heart next to it, then signed my villain name below.

Sneaking back to the cafe with an illusion protecting me, I spotted the trio sitting at one of the tables and grinned. Here goes nothing!

Dropping my illusion and teleporting forward directly next to maya, I leaned down and gave her a little peck on the cheek. She looked up in alarm, her mouth dropping open.

“Here you go cutie, I believe I owe you this?” I grinned, placing the paper in front of her.

She didn’t move, except to make a small strained squeaking noise, and I took that moment to teleport away again before anyone at the table could react.

By the time I returned to Laithe, she had the table ready and gave me a wry grin.

“What was that huh?” she asked teasingly.

Leaning forward, I told her in a hushed whisper everything that I had overheard, and what I had just done. By the end of it, she was struggling to hold in her mirth.

“You are such a cheeky little shit, you know that?”

“Oh, I am very much aware,” I grinned, licking my lips and giving her a sultry wink.

“Ohhh do that again, it’s hot as fuck,” Laithe said, biting her lip and wiggling her eyebrows at me suggestively.

Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh, “You’re so bad!”

“Just for you.”