Chapter 42: Prelims Day 2 (Part 4)

[Contain the monster threat! Shoot to kill! SHOOT TO KILL!!!] - Commander Jean

The day had started out great for him, this morning he'd finally succeeded in obtaining some precious time off and even made it in to see the Preliminary matches that day. He'd spent some time with his children and even got in a little writing on the book he'd been working on for the last few years. Guardsmen salaries weren't exactly the greatest but after saving a few years worth of extra income he'd been able to afford one of those new fangled typewriter machine's. Goddess knows that he couldn't write legibly enough to handwrite a book in any understandable way. It had certainly started out well, which is why the hell in front of him was so shocking.

His Commander, someone he normally looked up to, had gotten the report of an apparent assault on some Demi citizen's nearly half an hour ago. He'd heard the witnesses himself before they'd been brought into the back office for a statement. Thinking that he'd be deployed imminently he'd immediately prepared his heavy combat gear only for no order to arrive. It had taken another 20 minute's before they'd finally received the order to go and keep the peace and while normally he'd have just assumed that it was a symptom of bureaucracy and forgotten it. His next order however had wiped that idea from his mind when it had filtered down through the ranks that the upper elite were going to be participating dressed as if the city was under siege.

Even this would have been strange but not damning if it wasn't for the presence of the one that they'd apparently been coming to save being immediately targeted by his commanding officer as if he'd been expecting such an outcome. Even worse was that he was most likely the only one that knew what was happening as no one else outside of upper management had heard the witness testimony. On top of that was the fact that he recognized the person that was currently tossing guard's around like they were ragdolls. He'd seen her on stage during his brief glimpse at the Prelims. Lightning Flash Karen the Slime. Hell he'd rooted for her.

Glancing around at the panicked faces of his friends and comrade's he only saw fear and anger at what was happening. He was the only one that seemed to recognize the now gigantic slime girl. Hardening his heart for what he was about to do he resolved to do the right thing rather than blindly follow through with something that was clearly wrong. He only hoped that his actions would have some kind of effect before their consequences caught up to him.

[Quick stop her! Shade you deal with the right side, Ver the left! I'll go stop the Commander before they lose anyone!] - Malaise

The seconds following their near assassination had been a relief, they had survived and everyone had seemed to be okay. Except that relief had instantly turned into horror when she saw what had happened to Karen. Malaise didn't know much about humanoid slime physiology, no one did to be honest, but something had happened that made Karen unable to do anything besides react. Luckily she seemed to recognize the 3 of them but that was only mildly reassuring as the guards that they'd been waiting for the entire assault had arrived at the worst time possible, immediately going into battle with what they probably saw as a out-of-control monster. She needed to stop them before anything happened.

Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately the situation was far worse than it looked and not only did she not reach the Commander she was attacked by their supposed saviors as well. Narrowly avoiding a swing from a maliciously grinning guardsman the man was struck seconds before he could take advantage of her surprise by an enormous fist made of slime. Stumbling back to her feet she watched as the efforts of her two friends were similarly rebuffed on their own sides, forcing them to defend themselves from what she was starting to realize was a set-up.

[Quick stop her! Shade you deal with the right side, Ver the left! I'll go stop the Commander before they lose anyone!] - Malaise

Veronica, realizing the seriousness of the situation, immediately did exactly what her little foxy friend told her, even forgoing her normal lewd comments that would have followed such an easy set-up. She'd been friends with Mal for nearly her entire life, she'd seen her on all ranges of the spectrum from devastated when her grandparents passed away to even catching her while she experienced her first heat, something she'd never stopped teasing her about privately actually. In all that time however she'd never seen the look of sheer determination mixed with helplessness in her friends eyes, the eyes that first drew her in despite the shy foxgirl using her glasses to hide them. Given her family she'd been used to people attempting to get close to her, it had been so bad that even at a young age she'd become completely jaded to new people approaching her for any reason.

The first one to break her out of the shell she'd erected around herself had been a shy bookworm that only wanted to read on the bench next to her. That one interaction had soon become two, then three and before she knew it she had started to warm up to the nerdy foxgirl, opening herself up for the first time. Years later, when the two of them had come to the Academy together she'd assumed that she'd have to hide herself again only to have one more join their little group. A shapeshifter by the name of Shade.

The quiet girl, who she had initially thought was sent to spy on them, had wormed her way into their duo and had made it into a trio. Even this hadn't been enough to make her come out of her shell, preferring to hide behind a wall of lewd and inappropriate comments instead of actually having a deep relationship, with the only Mal knowing her true self. Now that's not to say that she wasn't a lewd and sexually aggressive girl normally but with her loved ones it went much deeper than the shallow comments she used to keep other's at arm's length. What had finally started to crack her shell had been a easily embarrassed, innocent and pure lamia. Rose.

At first she'd treated the red-faced snek with the same lewd cover she used for anyone that got close to her little circle of friends. Teasing her had been fresh, Shade was nearly unresponsive to move lewd actions and Malaise, while still embarrassed by her conduct, had gotten used to it for the most part. It wasn't until she'd lost the cute lamia girl that she'd realized that she wanted her to be her family, the same as Malaise and Shade. And then the slime had taken her place. Barreling into the spot that Rose had once occupied the slime girl had been an unwelcome addition to her little family, upset at losing Rose and even a little jealous of her closeness with Rose she had initially taken a more standoffish attitude with the girl.

Even her frequent training bouts as a part of the group had not really opened her heart to allowing one more in, the pain from potentially losing one of her little family too hard to bear with. And then, once again, she'd started to feel herself growing closer with another. Opening up to another family member. And that was about to get taken away once more! She wouldn't let it! They were her's HER'S!!!

[Quick stop her! Shade you deal with the right side, Ver the left! I'll go stop the Commander before they lose anyone!] - Malaise

Shade nodded slightly at the fox girl's instruction, knowing that something was wrong but not realizing what it was. The guardsmen seemed too prepared, too well-armed and too large a number for what should have been a response team for a small number of combatant's. Cautiously approaching the nearest armed figure she was rewarded for her diligence with plenty of time to react when the man immediately swung at her without letting out a hint of his intention before he did so.

[It's a trap!] - Malaise

Hearing the bookish demi yelling in the distance Shade immediately reacted, transforming her arms into blades with blunted edges. Knocking out the person in front of her before she started heading for her two friends. Someone had dropped the ball big time! As a spy for her mother she was well-informed about the inner workings of the various factions in Academy City. The interplay between the biggest factions were like an open book ready for her to view. Except this particular event had completely escaped her mother's notice. Both the assassin's and the attack from the guard's. The fact that the both of these had gone completely under the notice of her mother's web meant only 1 thing. A new player had been added to the board.

Feeling a crack as she hit another armored man Shade considered what had happened so far; the assassin attack, the guard's late arrival and subsequent attack of both Karen and themselves. There was no way the two weren't related. In fact it was completely likely that they were using this event to stir up some kind of military action. Perhaps a coup?

Putting aside the reason for now Shade focused on making her way to her two charges, planning to save them from the already escalating situation no matter what. Even if she needed to reveal her true self in the process.

Malaise was in shock, this entire situation was a trap, probably even a plan to get rid of Karen and use her to pin the blame on all Demi's. The arrival of the guard's and them immediately becoming hostile to not only Karen but them as well could only be explained by the entire thing being an elaborate plan. The only problem was the reason, it couldn't possibly be only about racism against Demi's could it? Something like this?

Distracted by her thoughts she wasn't able to react to a downward swinging blade, noticing it far too late to properly dodge. Seeing the coming death she was only able to turn her face slightly so she could see Ver once more before she died. Lamenting her lack of focus she kept her vision focused on the person that meant the most to her in the world and waited. And waited. Waited?

[Huh? I'm still alive?] - Malaise

[Hey guys. Seems you're in a spot of trouble. What exactly is going on anyway? And is that Karen? What the heck happened to her?] - Familiar Voice

Slowly turning her head at the familiar voice that broke through her shock she saw a familiar figure, her back to them as she lightly held the blade of the man in her grip who, contrary to her relaxed expression was visibly straining to move his completely still blade.

[Rose!] - Malaise, Veronica and Shade