Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. There should be no way that these characters are like anyone else, but if that isn’t the case, it has definitely been unintentional. Also, if you happen to find that your life is represented in these pages, I’ll be impressed.

Summoning Tactics

By Heather O’Malley

Whateley Universe

Thursday 14 December 2006  Arena 99, Whateley Academy

Molly sat watching the matches, nervously awaiting her turn in the ring. She had been working hard at her training and hoped that it would be enough when it all came down to it. She fidgeted in her seat, worried about her combat final. She wasn’t a fighter, certainly not like Chou or Toni and her magical ability was only so-so, quite unlike Fey. She could summon some things, but nothing overly complex, just some shapes and form in basic elements and a few spiritual beings. She was going to loose her match, unless she got extremely lucky, which wasn’t one of her abilities. She was almost certain that she was going to fail.

Rythax was in his smaller cat sized form sitting on her lap, looking at the other students curiously. Foxfire had a similar situation going on with her familiar. Both animals smiled at each other and turned back to their own thoughts. Rythax looked across the seats at the Pack Hunter, wishing he knew why such an abomination was allowed to exist any more. He had seen first hand the results of one of those going after the poorly defended. He would not let that happen to Molly.

Molly fidgeted some more and looked over at her girlfriend. Chou had done an amazing job in the arena, beating the rampant asshat Nex in glorious fashion. Her girl. Her girl had done what no one else thought could be done. Molly had a fierce pride concerning the Asian girl. This was her love and Chou could kick anybody’s ass if it was needed, which was a great safety feature for her. She liked that. And what a kisser. That thought made her smile, blush and miss the announcement of her own name. When her MID came up on the screen, she eeped in surprise, hoping that she would have had more time. Chou rested a hand on her thigh to help calm her.

This meant that she was about to get really hurt, unless she followed her basic instinct, to hide. This certainly did not please her in any way shape or form as it would guarantee an F for the semester. She was in Mr. Anderson’s class, not one of the combat orientated classes, for what did she have to do with this kind of fighting? She was going to get hurt unless her opponent was one of the Underdogs. If only she were that lucky.

When the MID of her opponent came up she blanched.

Why did she have to face someone like that? Golden Girl was much more suited to fighting Bricks than someone like her. It looked like this was going to be an easy A for Golden Girl, while she was going to get stomped on. What the hell was she going to do?

She took a deep breath and centered herself like Chou had shown her. It worked better than the grounding method she had been taught in classes as it calmed her down wonderfully and made her feel really solid and real. She could do this if she fought smart not hard. Mr. Anderson kept harping on the fact that knowledge was power and now her ability to use that power would be put to the test.

The various Team Kimba girls and Lancer, gave her encouragement, with Chou holding her hand encouragingly. She smiled nervously at them and waved as she headed down to the arena. Ayla was actually restrained from heading down there with her by Chaka. The Goodkind had been giving her all sorts of tips about how Golden Girl thought. They had all given her advice and she ran over some of it, but honestly it was mostly overwhelming. First thing would be to change into her costume. Second would be to rush to the spindle and cast her misdirection/ hiding charm on it to keep Golden Girl from easily going and winning. After that she wasn’t too sure what she was going to do. But at least it was a start.

Rythax asked quietly, “How would you like me to handle this, my Lady?”

“Uh…erm…what if you used harassing attacks to keep her from getting to the spindle before I cast the misdirection spell? Could you do that without getting to badly hurt?” Molly was nervous, as she didn’t want her friend to get injured. He had really been her first friend and she cherished that.

“Rest assured, my Lady, I can deal with this. My people were spies and assassins when need be, just as much as we were ambassadors and messengers. I think I can strike this Golden Girl without too much of a threat to myself. I will only do so much however, as this is your Tournament to fight. You need to be careful much more than me.” stated Rythax, as he sat primly on her shoulder. Molly was very keen on his ability to alter his size, as it had allowed her to sneak him into her house just after he had appeared, along with her power. The fact that he wasn’t going to just wade in and smack her opponent around wasn’t very comforting.

Molly nodded. She wished that she had asked Ayla for gear, something she would have to correct as soon as she could. The tech gear would certainly help in this case. Now all she had was her costume, which was mostly clothes, and that was about it. A gun, or grenades or something would feel real comforting right about now. The door opened up and she stepped into the arena, with its simulated city. Rythax jumped from her shoulder and stayed kitten size. Soon the match would start and she would see just how hurt she got.

“Well sports fans, this looks like an easy shut out for Golden Girl. She’s hot, with a smoking body and all she has to fight is one scared little girl with a cat. Piece of cake.” Peeper was on a roll, having enjoyed providing the commentary to the whole match.

“Uhm…I don’t think that’s a cat…” remarked Greasy, trying to get a word in edgewise.

Peeper just ran over him. “The question here is just how fast will GiGi here win this match? It shouldn’t be all that long but we’ll see. Golden Girl versus this little girl should provide some nice levity to these matches, don’t you agree Greasy?”

“Uh..I guess.”

“There you have it folks. If you’re betting go with the sure bet on this one. And we have the buzzer, the match is under way.”

Rythax shifted to panther size and dove into a nearby shadow, vanishing from sight completely. Molly cast the quick spell that was one of the first incantations taught in the magic department, as protecting your identity was really pressed. Energy shimmered around her and she went from her school uniform to what she had decided to wear as a costume. She thought it made her look adult and impressive.

She was wearing a brown pants suit without the coat with a tie, looking professional, as her idea had been to have a costume that was not flashy and over the top, like most everyone else. She looked like she could be any business woman on the streets, except for her age of course. She also had a trench coat on over this, and the coat had been filled with several different charms, for safety. She didn’t wear a mask, as one of the features she had built into the coat had been a masking charm that altered her face to observers. With lots of help she had managed to make this one magical item. If only the coat worked as needed.

Once transformed, she took off at a full out sprint towards the spindle in order to put what passed as a plan into effect. It was all she could do.

“Oh, that’s gotta hurt! Where did that cat come from? Golden Girl has just been smacked by this cat and is tumbling. Her clock had to have been cleaned with that one. Is she down for the count? Did the little girl win? No! GiGi catches herself with her flight ability and is heading off to fight that cat. That’s really one tough chick, right Greasy?”

“Yes she is. It looks like she’s…”

“Oh, that blast just took off a chunk of the building and may have vaporized that cat completely, as its gone. Gateway has made it to the spindle but isn’t typing in her information. What is that girl doing?”

“Looks to me like some sort of spell.”

Molly knew this spell better than most others she had learned as she cast it daily, in order to have some private time with Chou in the library. She cast it quickly and once it took, she sprinted away down an alleyway across the street, as she could see Golden Girl above the edge of the buildings heading her way. She only hoped that the flying girl with her glowing Aura hadn’t seen her.

She wasn’t that lucky.

Golden Girl swooped down towards Molly, looking very determined and irritated. Molly peed herself as an energy blast just missed her head and blew up a trash bin near her. She had to get out of there and have the time to cast something else or she would fail completely. She had to trust that Rythax would be able to cover her if she took a stand and cast.

She rounded a corner at the end of the alley and went flat against the wall, near the corner, crouched down. Mr. Anderson had mentioned that if people rushed by such a spot, especially flyers, you could slip back around any corner you happened to hide behind and they would miss you completely. She hoped that was true, since she would then be able to hide and cast her next spell. It was her best hope at this point.

Golden Girl tumbled out of the alleyway, obviously hit from somewhere. Rythax followed out, coming after the girl roaring. Molly smiled, glad of the support, and she skittered back into the alleyway. After hiding behind a few boxes she summoned something to her. She shaped the spell to bring out a creature who could answer the questions on the spindle for her. Her entire focus was on making such a creature.

The creature that came out of the energy swirl looked a lot like a spider monkey, with silvery fur and golden eyes, only not quite. It scampered towards the spindle, chittering something as it went. Molly stood and turned to try and figure out what was going on with Golden Girl. If she knew what was going on she could figure out what to do.

“Oh, that hit has got to hurt. Who knew cats could fly? Check out the wingspan on that feline. Gateway seems to have cast for something which has run away and oh no…Golden Girl just spotted her! Could this be the end? Will the cat thing save her?”

Molly tried to dodge the energy blast and it struck across her left arm. She clutched her arm, hoping that the pressure would stop the pain as her body turned from the force of the energy. The Spindle chimed, letting everyone know that her information was being entered. If only the creature could do it before Golden Girl got a hold of her. Maybe she should have mentioned something about being able to type fast?

The dazzling lights coming from the other end of the alleyway blinded and disoriented her, making her stomach heave a little, and she wobbled. She just stood there as this energy blast hit her on the right side of her chest, driving her back into the same boxes that she had been hiding behind. She struggled to get up when another golden blast knocked her from consciousness.

“Golden Girl pulls off the win in the end. Gateway almost won, amazingly enough, but it looks like the girl with the firm ass and perky breasts beat the mousy little school girl. It was close, and the teachers will determine who did well and who failed! Golden Girl wins the match by a knockout!” Peeper was bouncing up and down, occasionally smacking Greasy with his flailing arms. Greasy gave the sigh of long suffering.

Golden Girl helped carry Molly out of the arena. She passed her to Dr. Tennent, who was supervising the treatment of the students in the finals, laying her down onto a gurney. “Doc, is she okay? I tried to keep the power low, since I know she’s not an Exemplar but I was really frustrated.”

After a quick cursory examination, Ophelia smiled at Jayne Scramble, aka Golden Girl. “She’ll be okay.”

The girl gave a sigh of relief, and walked off, waiting for her grade, everything forgotten.

Molly came to in the clinic, with Chou holding her hand. She saw the Asian girl and her heart swelled with joy. She said softly, “Hey there.”

Chou smiled up at her, the worry fading. “Hey there. I was worried after you got hit. They told me you would be fine, but I wanted to be here for you anyway.”

Molly leaned forward and kissed Chou softly. The move made her head spin a little but it was worth it. “Maybe I should lie back down.”

One by one the other members of Team Kimba came in and checked on her. Molly blushed from all of the attention. It was even worse when Foxfire, of the Literary Girls came in as well. They were acquainted from classes and from seeing each other in the library. It just surprised her, as she hadn’t thought that the girl would care about someone not on her team. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking. I guess I need to make my coat much more damage resistant. It didn’t absorb much at all, so far as I could tell.”

“Want some help doing the research?” Foxfire blushed a bit, embarrassed.

“That would be wonderful. Thank you very much.” gushed Molly.

Soon, the two were alone again. Chou hugged her girlfriend tight and whispered into her ear. “You did wonderfully Molly. I am so proud of you.”

The kiss was gentle and grew in heat as the two clutched each other tightly. They stopped the kiss, and Chou cupped Molly’s cheek softly. Smiles filled both their eyes.

As Chou was leaning in for another kiss, the sound of someone clearing their throat made both of them start in surprise. Dr. Tennet was standing there in the doorway staring at them. “Ms. Harrington, you have been cleared to leave. You can head off to dinner now with Ms. Lee. And ladies…”

Chou nervously said, “Yes?”

“Try to be more discrete. Not every one who catches you will be understanding.” She turned and left the doorway, but was acutely aware of how badly the two girls blushed at the advice. Maybe someone should keep an eye on them to keep them from doing something stupid. And maybe Ms. Harrington needed to be moved to Poe for safety reasons. If she was showing interest in same sex relationships then something had to be done. Should she have Chief Delarose talk to them about it? Or better yet, the House Mother for Poe. It was something she made note of and decided to bring up later.

Molly got out of the bed and found that she couldn’t look at Chou, as one look made her blush even harder. Chou was the same way, her face burning. They walked to Crystal Hall, got their trays and sat at the Team Kimba table without looking at each other. The other girls immediately noticed that something was up.

Toni cocked her head to the side and asked, “Did something happen?”

Both girls blushed brighter and looked down at their trays of food. Several of the other girls laughed at this, sure something really good happened. “Well? What happened?”

Molly shook her head, hiding her head under her long wavy hair. She couldn’t bear to say anything. Chou sighed, knowing it would be wormed out of her at some point, and said, “We got caught making out by Dr. Tennet. She told us to be more discrete.”

After the laughter ended, Fey paused. “Oh, Molly. I got your grade for you, as they knew I was a classmate of yours. Apparently you got an A, because you did better than expected against a stronger opponent. They have all the notes for you later, but yeah, you got an A.”

Molly glowed at that and looked up, embarrassment forgotten. “Really?”

“Really, really.” replied Fey, quoting Shrek, smirking.

Molly bounced in her seat excitedly. Today had been better than she had expected. Maybe she could get over the nervousness; after all she did get an A. That meant that the Judges thought she did fairly well, all things considered. Maybe she should ask for some extra help in both magic and from Mr. Anderson? It couldn’t hurt, could it?