137: The Fated Chase Scene

Each night, Nyssa returned to the Wildheart Sentinels guild compound with a new batch of clothes. Half for her, half for Celeste. By the second day, Celeste even began requesting clothes. She’d go on the store websites, catalogue a list, and send it to Nyssa to purchase the next day.

After one exchange where Nyssa couldn’t help but grumble “am I just your errand girl?,” Celeste just wrapped her arms around Nyssa with a smile before leaning in and whispering, “Yep, and what are you gonna do about it?”

A flustered jumble of words later, and Nyssa retreated back to her bed. Transforming into a cat and burrowing deep under the covers as Celeste just laughed in the middle of the room.

“Maybe I should start doing this more often. What do they call it? Making use of my womanly charms?” Celeste raised her hands with a shrug. “I seem to have a natural talent.”

“A bit too much talent...” A muffled voice came in return from under the blankets.

“No such thing,” Celeste dug Nyssa out from under the covers. Hoisting the white cat up into her arms, she booped it on the nose before putting on a fake scowl. “Now, now, little kitty. You can’t get too much fur into the blankets, okay? My girlfriend and I still have to sleep in them later tonight.”

Getting a wet meow in reply, Celeste put the cat down on a chair before sorting through the clothes Nyssa had left out on the extra bed in their room.

And like that, they spent their evening holed up in their own room. Ignoring Conrad, Albion, and Titus who came to bother them at one point, they played a video game together until Nyssa fell asleep in Celeste’s arms. Closing the game, and tucking the two of them in, Celeste checked the time before plugging in both her and Nyssa’s phones.

---

Days passed. Some people in the guild had begun doubting the point of the mission. The voices of dissent, though, still only came from some lower-level guild members who didn’t participate in the missions.

Was it not just a waste of money? Was this not just an excuse to let the guild leader’s younger sister shop on company dime? This was nepotism at its finest!

On the fifth day, as even Nyssa began to tire of shopping, the action they had anticipated had arrived though. Nyssa, having just finished browsing for a set of matching bracelets, walked along a sky bridge with Titus and Gideon in the opposite direction of a crowd. As the crowd separated them though, Nyssa took a shoulder to the chest. Stumbling, her eyes sharpened.

Is something happening? Time for action?

A second later, she tumbled to the ground as a person swept her legs out from beneath her. Clicking her tongue, she transformed into a bird and soared forward while abandoning her bags.

I literally just bought the ‘couple’ bracelets for Celeste and I. I liked them too...

Her thoughts though, were quickly pushed out of mind as pursuers appeared in the corners of her vision. Dressed in all-white—which she couldn’t help but find ironic—they traveled with mech suits in hot pursuit as her all-black protectors came streaming forth.

Shifting from bird to snake to panther to falcon, she flowed through the upper levels of the shopping mall. She searched for the nearest exit into open air, as agreed upon by their previous meetings.

As she rounded the corner though, to the one she had scouted out earlier in the day, she found a group of five mech-suited warriors in wait.

... man what the hell.

Coming to a skidding stop, she scanned the formation they stood in. No gaps. Another click of the tongue later, she transformed into a beetle and flew backward, dodging the two warriors on her tail.

As she flew by one of the warriors—who tried to grab her out of midair—she noticed an overlay on their mask.

Ah, a tracker. Well that eliminates the hideaway option.

How are they even tracking me? Did I buy something? No, I already left all my bags behind... Is it the ‘transformation energy’ the guild was thinking about?

Zipping through a store, the still-airborne Nyssa found an open window. Slipping out through the hand-sized crack, she transformed into a human with feathery wings. Flying upward, she breathed out a sigh of relief only to have her eyes land on a... battalion.

Now this is just unfair.

She swept her eyes around as the battalion began converging onto her position. Her mind raced as she looked for anyone wearing black. The decision for allies to like villains, for once, seemed to have paid off.

There’s Celeste.

After spotting a starry laser beam tear through the sky, Nyssa transformed back into a falcon, diving towards the ground where Celeste now stood. Behind her whistled tranquilizer darts. They tore little streams through the air as their payloads cracked open against the ground.

Nyssa, spiraling, then zig-zagging through the air, crashed into Celeste’s chest. Before transforming into a small cat.

“Aw, what do we have here,” Celeste patted Nyssa on the head as she leapt backward. Her entire body heated up as her eyes began glowing. Her heartbeat began inching into the audible range as her hair shifted from its usual brown into a starry sky. Without the time to say more, she used one hand to steady Nyssa while shooting lasers from her eyes and other hand. They cut through the air, clearing out a path through the apprehensive mech warriors.

Before they could move though, an explosion rocked the scene.

A half-second later, Electra appeared beside them, her entire body crackling as she discharged electricity. Ryker, not to be outdone, reformed from the neck down, walking over with a casual wave.

“What’s the plan?” Electra calmed down her electricity as Celeste floated in the air, letting out lasers like a sentry. “Obviously beyond protecting Nyssa.”

“I believe the goal is to just destroy them all,” Ryker shrugged. “Very few of these are human, most are actually autonomous.”

“Oh really?” Electra raised an eyebrow, looking over towards the wreckage Ryker had just created. “Oh. Seems like it. I guess I was too busy looking for our protection targets to destroy any.”

“They’re so well made though. They all have the fighting capability of an actual fighter,” Ryker shook his head. “So don’t underestimate them. They’re probably not as individually powerful as the weird experimental droids we found in the underground lab, but they’re much more refined.”

“Good to know,” Celeste murmured as she continued her sentry work.

Nyssa, having recharged some energy, let loose a laser blast from her new cat mouth before getting a harsh pat on the head from Celeste. Whimpering, as the mech she sniped fell from the sky with a new decorative hole in its chest, she looked up at Celeste.

“You know you’re not allowed to attack. You might be different from other people with transformation powers because you can use your transformation ability to give yourself offensive stuff, but that doesn’t mean you can waste your energy here,” Celeste reminded with a gentle rub. “We have Ryker too, so don’t stress, I know you want to help.”

“Oh, don’t worry, for sure. I gotchu Nyssa,” Ryker laughed, jogging off towards the new approaching tide of opponents. “This next one is for you!”