Mix-Up

“Cool, I won.” Kaneko said, having only half paid attention to the game of go fish that she just finished.

“Congratulations!” Automaton said, quickly gathering up all the cards and reshuffling them before putting them back in their holder. “Looks like those two are getting along.”

Turning around, Kaneko saw Minny looking uncomfortable with Cardinal grabbing her hand.

“Really?” Kaneko asked.

Auto responded “Cardinal looks pretty comfortable at least.”
Cardinal heard him and rolled her eyes, yelling to the both of them, “Would you mind?”

Kaneko turned back to Auto and asked, in a softer voice, “So, what is she doing with her?”

Auto’s animated face looked back at the two of them for a few moments, before saying, “Well, I would assume that she’s tracking that spirit somehow. But you’d have to ask her. I’m not very good with any of that magic stuff.”
Kaneko thought about it before deciding, “I wouldn’t wanna intrude. Besides, you’re probably right.”

"Why don’t you tell me how 'Sukeban and Pastel Princess' came to be, while we wait for Cardinal to finish." Auto suggests.

Kaneko blushed at the mention of her persona’s name. "We uh… knew each other before I got my tape gun. I discovered her fighting a rabbit in her backyard."

Automaton gave a look of shock.

"A possessed rabbit!” Kaneko countered “She wasn't just whacking a wild animal for no reason. Anyways, the same Goddess that granted her powers, also offered me some. And I took them. It really wasn’t a complex thing."

Automaton nodded. "Interesting. So you became a superhero to help out your friend?."

“I’m not a superhero.” Kaneko said, thoughtfully.

"Sorry. I have a bad habit of projecting that title onto other people.” He says, sheepishly, his voice low and quiet. “I actually met Cardinal because my mentor, the one who’s ship this used to be, went missing. I went out looking for him, and I’m pretty booksmart but I didn’t know anything about how to actually find him. That’s when Cardinal found me and forced me to hire her. She’d never admit this, but I think she just wanted help me. I could probably sell some stuff to actually pay her, but we move around so much that isn’t feasible. And yet, she sticks with me anyways.”

Kaneko stayed silent for what felt like a full minute, just processing everything that Auto had laid out for her, as the hum of the hover engines leaked through the ship's hull. She can barely think though, so she says the first thing that comes to mind. “If you like her so much, then why call her a superhero?”

“She’s helped me out a lot. I think I just can’t separate her from that image in my mind. Besides, she has super powers.” He says, finishing with a mischievous grin.

Kaneko was pretty confused about the stranger in front of her. Every time she thought she had a read on him, he goes and shows off a completely new side of himself. And right after she realized that, she made another connection. “Wait, you’re not a robot?–”

“We’re almost there!” Across the room, Cardinal announced her surprise. “Hey, I found the spirit and we’re already basically above it! Start landing, Auto.”

〰

The ship landed in an abandoned parking lot for some derelict grocery store. The sun had set completely by then and twilight was rapidly fading. As Minny stepped off the jet, a blast of cool autumn air hit her face and chilled her skin once again. “I should start bringing a jacket to these things.” Minny thought.

“It should be inside there.” Cardinal Conjury said as she pointed toward the store to Minny’s left.

Automaton said, “So, how do you two usually deal with these things? What’s the right way?”

Kaneko answers, “We have to contain the animal, long enough for Pastel Princess to hit it on the head with her staff. Then it should be as simple as waiting for it to go back to normal.”

Automaton. "Okay, I have this sticky gel that I can use to trap whatever it is that's been possessed, assuming it has possessed something this time. How about Cardinal and I head in the Easternmost entrance while you two go in the westernmost.”

“Riiight…” Minny responded, totally knowing exactly which doors he was talking about.

“Uh, Cardinal and I will go on that side, and you two should go over there.” Auto repeated, genuinely trying to be helpful. "We'll search the entire floor from either side, until we meet in the middle. If either group finds the animal, we'll contact the other with these."

Automaton held out his hand to give something to Kaneko. Minny sidled up to her cousin's back, peering over her shoulder. In her open palm were 2 earpieces.

“Oooh! Gadgets!” Minny thought.

"You should be able to just put these in your ear and they should be connected. You’ll have to tap them on the side to unmute yourself.." Automaton explained. "Then, if we don’t find it in the front, we’ll all go to the back together! We should be done in a flash."

“You shouldn’t set off event flags like that!” Minny chided. “That’s like, rule #1 when you’re fighting something.”

Automaton gave an apologetic chuckle. “Sorry.”

Cardinal stepped in front of him, gently fist bumping him on the shoulder as she stepped forward. "Look. Keep your nerves steeled. We don't know what's going to be in there, so be prepared. For anything. Obviously we all have expertise in different things, so we’re gonna need to work together to make it out of this."

Minny thought she was so cool.

“Alright, let's go.” Kaneko said. And both pairs separated.

Minny started to feel a little anxiety pooling in her stomach as they walked towards the doors.. She would have blown it earlier, if the superheroes didn’t come and rescue them.

Eventually, this anxiety grew until Minny had to just say something to get her mind off of it. “So, what do you think about those guys? The superheroes!”

She tried to get her eyes to sparkle, the way cartoon characters do when they are entranced by something. She thought she probably pulled it off, although she couldn’t prove it. They were the real deal! Straight out of the tv!

“They’re fine. The uh… Robot one was uhh...” Kaneko said, clearly not sure what she wants to say.

“Was he cute?” Minny asked bluntly.

Kaneko almost flinched as she blurted, “What the– Who said anything about him being cute?” In a voice well above a whisper.

Minny snickered at her cousin’s reaction. Kaneko was embarrassed and Minny would definitely try to get her cousin’s true feelings out of her eventually. She decided against prodding right now because of the imminent threat of danger.

Distantly, from across the empty building, the pair heard Cardinal’s distinct voice. “Stop blushing, you’re supposed to be a professional!”

The timing was just too perfect. Minny was getting giddy, thinking of ways to force the two together. Maybe Cardinal could even help stage something.

Before she knew it, the pair had worked through the rows of empty store shelves and reached the door to the back rooms. She could feel the animal now, but they hadn’t run into it yet. Maybe they had scared the animal away while they were yelling, but Minny was pretty certain that they would have heard something if that were true.

“I guess we only have one more place to look.” Automaton said as he walked up to Kaneko and Minny from one of the other empty aisles.

Cardinal came from behind him. “This is where we corner it guys, hopefully it‘s just sealed its own tomb, but we really don’t know what’s going to be in there. Just remember what I said before we got in.”

“Be prepared, right?” Minny answered with a lingering smirk. “We got this.”

The four stepped in through the wide swinging double doors, walking side by side. Minny got the feeling they’d look pretty cool all together like that. The room they entered was very large. At least 20 feet high, with empty shelves that were meant to hold extra stock for the floor. The back wall was a gargantuan vertical gate, meant for receiving trucks and in the right hand corner was a stack of some kind of boxes that was about Minny’s height, although it was too dark to really make out what kind, or if they were full.

The group stepped forward quietly, making sure to spread out to find their target quicker, but it didn’t take long for them to stop completely.

A noise had frozen everyone where they stood, inhuman and unnatural It sounded like a gasoline engine, sputtering and stammering as if it were trying to speak.

“I… I’ve been waiting for someone. I need to conquer! I- must… RULE!”

Automaton was able to turn some light onto where the unearthly voice seemed to originate. On top of the boxes in the back corner, was a bipedal creature. It stood at least 7 feet tall with a massive hunch. Blood red feathers with an improper sheen grew out of several parts on the creature's body in malformed tufts. Although calling it a creature at all seemed premature. It was human. At least it had been.

It was a violent symphony of sapient and avian parts, cobbled together to create something new and horrifying. Before anyone had the chance to even process it, the abomination jumped into the air, almost reaching the ceiling, before it dropped right in front of Kaneko and Cardinal. It swiped one of its large talon-ended arms at Cardinal, and a large bronze-golden arm emerged from Automaton’s backpack to pull her out of danger.

“It- It’s human!?” Kaneko was able to say before she regained her motor functions and jumped away.

“Has that ever happened before?” Automaton asked.

“No, of course not!” Minny exclaimed.

Automaton said something to Cardinal that Minny couldn’t quite make out, before they jumped up onto one of the high shelves, out of sight of Minny, and probably the monster too.

The monster was chaotically waving its arms, forcing Kaneko and Minny to keep their distance. It didn’t seem to be targeting either one of them though, it simply attacked whichever happened to be in its line of sight.

After only a few minutes of this back and forth, no progress had been made in actually capturing the monster. Kaneko had tried to throw out strands of tape, but the bird monster would either move out of the way or use its claws to cut off the ends before it was incapacitated and Minny could only attempt to draw its attention when she was able to bury her instinct to run away.

In her manic state, Minny had nearly forgotten about Automaton and Cardinal until a whisper came from her earpiece. “I have a plan. I need you two to stay away on 3. I’m going to jump out and spray it with the gel stuff. I’m aiming for its arms, so I need Sukeban to trap its legs with her tape gun. Ok, 1, 2, 3!”

Minny didn’t have time to process what she heard, only backing off as he said to. In the next instant, Automaton used his mechanical arms to soar above our duo, spraying precise streams of sticky gel onto the monster's arms. A moment later, Kaneko was wrapping the length of it with her tape.

And then things were still. The monster was struggling helplessly, giving everyone time to breathe. Automaton landed gracefully on his robot arms while Minny was finally able to think. She saw Cardinal stand up over by the wall, as she walked straight towards the thing. Minny didn’t know why but her staff was shaking in her hands.

Then, when Minny was only a few feet away, the chimera ripped straight through the tape. The abrupt shock knocked Minny on her butt. And then she heard the other’s reactions.

To Minny’s left, she could hear Kaneko’s ,“Argh!”

“Okay, what now?!” Automaton exclaimed.

Cardinal spoke into her earpiece. “New plan guys! We’re hitting it with all our might.”

“Woah, woah, woah! That’s not a plan!” Automaton protested in vain.

Cardinal was already in the air above the monster. The same dull green flame sprang from her fists as before, but this time they looked much hotter and more focused, like a gas stove. It reached about a forearm’s length from her, forming a kind of blade that ran from her fists.

As she descended, Minny saw Automaton give a small shrug with his head before he too jumped towards the monster with his mechanical arms. Kaneko also charged in, creating some lattice of tape to both shield herself and possibly to encumber the creature in some way.

Minny was stuck to the floor.

It happened so quickly. The monster saw Cardinal and leaped up to attack her. Automaton was able to keep it down with two of his arms grabbing it like the start of a suplex, while his third dug into the ground behind him. It was enough to keep the monster in place. Kaneko tackled its legs, sending it spinning horizontally. She was carried up on its legs as Cardinal stabbed it straight in the stomach with both flames. It gurgled a cry in its last moments airborne.

When it fell, it let out a fractured groan and seemed to pass out. It didn’t flail or swing its limbs. Its only movement was the shallow rise and fall of its breath. Cardinal shuffled off of it quickly, making sure to keep up her defense. Kaneko tried to wrap it’s legs as she got off of it, making good use of the unlimited tape from the tape gun. Automaton had to use his back arm to drag himself out from under it and then immediately attempted to check its vitals with one of his suit’s instruments.

But Minny’s bottom was still planted on the ground. Something had kept her there, but she needed to get up. Using all of her will, she was able to stand. She had a hard time walking closer, but she steeled her resolve. She needed to do this. And she would.

A gentle rap on the chimera’s forehead from Minny’s staff began its restoration to its original self. Minny collapsed on the floor next to its slowly shrinking but still massive head, as the tension in her hands and legs blew out of her in a desperate sigh of relief. Its tufts of deep red grew smaller as pale white skin spread over its whole body. Slowly, a feminine figure emerged from the terrible withering growth.

A familiar face uncovered, with bright blonde hair.

“Sylvia?” Kaneko jumped when she realized who it was.

Automaton looked up from his scans, “What. Do you know her?”

“Yeah… I guess you could call her our one and only fan…” Kaneko said carefully.

Minny had been shocked too much today for anything else to bother her. She felt her nerves were frayed, so she just sat there and watched Sylvia breath softly in her sleep.

Slowly, Sylvia’s eyes opened, like it was nothing at all.

〰

“We’ll probably be in the area for a few months, so if you ever need help, just put in the earpiece and ask.” Automaton said, waving goodbye.

“And sorry.” Cardinal added shamefully. “I’ll be more careful with my magic next time.”

And then the two of them blasted off in their ship. Gone, like shooting stars.
Kaneko let out a sigh. “I guess it’s over. I can finally sleep!”
“So,” Sylvia said, sitting on a small bench outside the grocery store, covered in a thermal blanket and holding a paper cup of hot cocoa, both of which the superheroes gave her. “Sorry, who were those guys?”

“They were superheroes.” Minny replied, back to her usual self. “Anyways, why are you even here?”

Sylvia thought about it.

“I don’t know. I was just sleeping with my cat and… Well, I don’t really remember anything after that. There wasn’t some secret monster sneaking into my room and bugging me with something, was there?” She said.

“No. Nothing like that.” Kaneko told her. “I don’t know why you were possessed specifically, but I know that it wasn’t because anything was in your room.”

“Come on, we’ll walk you home. Thankfully, we already know your neighborhood.” Minny said.
“Really?” Sylvia responded, excitedly. “Can I ask you probing personal questions?”

“No!” Kaneko exclaimed. “You’re joking, right?”

“What if we just said generic stuff?” Minny asked. “Like, Sukeban, do you have any hobbies?”
“Uh… I guess I’ve wanted to learn how to play the bass for a while now.” She says, apprehensively.