Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown
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The merge opens almost instantly—I can see the gateway into another world looming over me, and air howls through. It’s cold, stinging my skin even through the hoodie. The airlock I’ve found myself in crackles with electricity, and the lights dim. Then, just as suddenly, it’s cut off, the wind’s screaming replaced with an equally loud alarm and a tingling feeling in my bones. But the ...
2024-05-17 14:01:13 +0000 UTC
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My sister and I went different ways after Mom died.
She became Miss Perfect, Miss Valedictorian, Miss Whoever-I-Have-To-Be-For-Approval. Miss Liar.
I built myself a box.
And you know what? I’m safer in the box than Alice is in all the different masks she wears. I can keep the Truth to myself, and I don’t have to worry about whether other people believe me. I’ve got the Truth Club, and I don’t need anyone else.
It’s safer with Dad, too. And even though SHOCKS ...
2024-05-15 13:57:13 +0000 UTC
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I used to be a heavy sleeper.
I thought Alice fixed that.
I’m a late riser. If there’s no alarm, I’ll sleep until ten or eleven. But Alice was the worst alarm clock ever. She used to do this thing where she’d hang upside down from the top bunk so her not-so-perfect blonde hair covered her face. Then she’d start screeching, and I’d wake up screaming, with this mass of tangled yellow hair howling at me. Then Dad would wake up and start yelling at us both, cursing and slu...
2024-05-15 13:55:33 +0000 UTC
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[Internal Communications Log] VVI Control Zone, May 28, 2043
Lieutenant Roger Garrett, A3-1; Director Adam Smith; Head Researcher Andre LeClerque
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Smith: We’ll lose control of Victoria within forty-eight hours. I want an evacuation plan on my desk in six.
LeClerque: I have one now. Sending it over.
Silence for a few moments.
Garrett: Leaves a lot of people behind, and a ...
2024-05-15 13:53:31 +0000 UTC
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[Anomalous Message, May 23, 2043]
At 11:49 AM, May 23, 2043, televisions, cellular phones, and both optic and aural augments worldwide received the following message:
{Halcyon System Enabled}
{Sol-Three has been infected. Initiating self-defense protocols. Enabling System interfaces. Allowing Anomalous/Sapient interactions with System approval. If bonded with an anomaly, please enter a resting state to enable System/Sapient interacti...
2024-05-15 13:48:54 +0000 UTC
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[VVI 5389-4 Profile]
Person of interest (Victoria/Vancouver Island) 5389-4, also known as Clarice Alora Pendleton, was born at Saxe Point Hospital on January 12, 2028. The youngest of two daughters of Robert Pendleton and Isabelle Renault, Clarice became a person of interest along with her family in 2033 when they found themselves in the middle of a merge event with R-091. Her mother and father were designated 5389-1 and -2, respectively, while her sister, Alice Marie P...
2024-05-15 13:47:42 +0000 UTC
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[Interview: L4-5]
Background: Arnold Strauss was the technical support specialist for RST Lambda-Four, which was present at Ground Zero of Merge Prime. He and his team scrambled from Victoria Headquarters and arrived at West End High School in Albert Head within fifteen minutes of the merge triplet’s detection.
Interview Subject: Sergeant Arnold Strauss
Interviewer: Researcher Francine Barnes
Resear...
2024-05-15 13:46:10 +0000 UTC
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[Internal Communications Log] VVI Control Zone, May 26, 2043
Researcher Catherine Edwards; Director Adam Smith; Head Researcher Andre LeClerque
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Smith: Cutting the formalities, because time is ticking. With me are Catherine Edwards from Digital Anomalous Warfare and Andre LeClerque from Stabilization and Field Containment. Estimated times until failure?
Edwards: As far as digital warfare is concerned, failure ...
2024-05-15 13:44:42 +0000 UTC
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Two notes here:
First, my editing might be weaker on these two chapters. I typically edit before posting, but I've had a massive migraine for a couple of days now, and my head's just not in the game here.
Second, I'll be taking next week off to build backlog and take a breather after working on this story nonstop for five and a half months. I've been burning out for the last couple of weeks, and now that Book One is finished on Royal Road, I feel like a...
2023-11-17 15:16:29 +0000 UTC
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Here's the 'Oops I messed up' chapters from last week. I'll post more on Friday, and we'll be all caught up!
23 - Chef Ramsey Fieri
Tuesday, February 10
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“We have options,” I announced after reading the physical sign-up posted on the Student Union Building’s wall. “But they’re not all great ones. We can leave on March 21. That’s Saturday, but the driver’s only going halfway. He’s got a girlfriend in some tiny town between here ...
2023-11-15 14:50:06 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone! I think I accidentally forgot to post these chapter on Thursday of last week. To make it up to you, expect chapters on Wednesday and Friday this week. My bad.
I'll be taking a one-week break next week to relax a little, allow myself to write a little more slowly, and generally take a breath. I've been writing, on average, 4 to 5 chapters a week for the last five months, and that pace is starting to wear on me, especially because of the other thing I've been working ...
2023-11-13 14:54:23 +0000 UTC
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19 - Time's Up
Friday, January 16
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“And then he kicked in my fursuit’s teeth and pulled my arm out of its socket!” Bianca grinned from a cushion inside her secret lair. “It was awesome!”
“I saw.” I didn’t think it was awesome. She’d gotten her ass handed to her in the final thirty seconds of the fight, and while her arm wasn’t broken, she’d be in a sling for a couple of days. Luckily, according to Rocko, supers h...
2023-11-06 13:09:58 +0000 UTC
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17 - Stick to the Script
Back in the green room, when Bianca gave me my script, she’d been very, very clear about this part. The small talk was the highest risk because I’d have to talk, but the meeting might be the most usefulfor figuring out APPEAL’s plans. Sure enough, everything Su-Bin said qualified as either important, very important, or critical. So I gritted my teeth behind a—hopefully—bored expression and stuck to the script.
T...
2023-11-02 12:51:06 +0000 UTC
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15 - Clubbing
Monday, January 12
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“I’m not sure why I’m even in this class,” Su-Bin muttered as we pored over the Child Psychology notes from Doctor Roberts’s lecture. The professor wasn’t boring, that was for sure. She scared us too much to be boring. She said everything with such seriousness that I couldn’t believe she’d been an elementary counselor for a decade before teaching. And worse, she did weekly quizzes on Tuesdays about t...
2023-10-30 13:08:36 +0000 UTC
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13 - Power Plant
“You know more than you’re saying,” Tele-Portal glared at Black Ice. “People’s lives are in danger. Talk.”
“People’s lives are always in danger, but the only time you heroes ever notice is if the threat’s costumed and cowled. An Extra could get hit by a bus in the next five minutes, and you two wouldn’t even blink. It’s not until someone tries to better themselves that you get involved. But that changes soon. Soon, T...
2023-10-26 12:45:22 +0000 UTC
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11 - The Winter Festival
As we followed the tracks back toward the winter festival, I felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest. I’d done a lot of superheroics over the last few months, but I couldn’t remember if I’d saved anyone since Riverside. If you didn’t count sending Fursona to rescue TUSSA from the villains’ clutches or telling Avan and his friends to leave before Professor Panic’s TERROR Mech arrived, I didn’t think I’d done any good old-f...
2023-10-23 13:30:09 +0000 UTC
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9 - Combat Style Practicum
Friday, January 9
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“This is…the TU Practice Room.” Doctor Mindstorm pointed through the plexiglass at a small arena—perhaps seventy feet to a side, with a roof thirty feet up—below us. We were once again somewhere below the ruins of the Mister Felsic Statue. This time, the professors and Underdelver had led us down three flights of stairs and into the hidden arena. We stood around near a few seats overlooking the...
2023-10-19 12:22:22 +0000 UTC
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7 - Power Weaving
Monday, January 5
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Subject: Conditions of Future Enrollment
To Anika DuPont, aka Magical Girl Understudy
Due to your actions in the last month of the fall semester, the Tokyexico University Campus Administration has placed you under a behavioral hold. The destruction levels from the two Episodes you were involved in, ‘TUEAS Dogpile’ and ‘Absent-Hearted Professor Parts One and Two,’ represen...
2023-10-16 13:43:00 +0000 UTC
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Hello Little Leaguers! I think I accidentally forgot to post these chapter on Thursday of last week. To make it up to you, expect chapters on Wednesday and Friday this week. My bad.
I'll be taking a one-week break next week to relax a little, allow myself to write a little more slowly, and generally take a breath. I've been writing, on average, 4 to 5 chapters a week for the last five months, and that pace is starting to wear on me, especially because of the other thing I've been w...
2023-10-12 16:03:54 +0000 UTC
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3- That's Gotta Change
Bianca looked happy, but Rocko was pissed.
Somehow, my new outfit had even more frills on the skirts than the previous one. The blue had almost disappeared, replaced by a pastel purple, and in contrast to Magical Girl Stella-Lunar’s Star Form battle dress, it seemed even less armored than my old outfit. Not that armor mattered; I had superhero damage to mitigate injuries.
The two big changes, however, were the tiara...
2023-10-09 13:23:08 +0000 UTC
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1 - Green Christmas
Thursday, December 25
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Even superheroes have to work holidays sometimes.
I dashed through Tottargarten’s halls, The Cloud bobbing behind me like a Christmas-themed balloon on his leash. “Hurry, Understuffy! The Present Pilferer is getting away!”
The Present Pilferer was fast, but I was faster. Hopefully. “I’m running as fast as I can!” I shouted back. The chrome camera drone followed us around a corner, fi...
2023-10-05 13:56:45 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to the end of Book One, Little Leaguers!
75 Our Final(s) Fight
“I’ve got more than just one mech! Panic Pal Platoon, get her,” Professor Panic’s voice boomed from the loudspeakers. A hatch opened on the TERROR Mech’s chest. Four Panic Pals surged out, flying straight for me.
I relaxed just a touch; I’d dealt with dozens of these flying wastes of metal. The first one zoomed at me, jaw opening and closing, and I ducked. Before I could recov...
2023-10-02 13:30:16 +0000 UTC
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73 - Eight Hours
Thursday, December 4
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“Aaaaaaaayyy! DuPont, good news! I pulled some strings for you and got the major leaguers out of your hair for an hour—maybe two—this afternoon!”
I groaned. It was too early for this shit, but Rocko had said eight hours, and his call was right on time. “That’s great. What’d you have to do?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing. I owe favors to Phil and Lil, Zim, and Otto. You ha...
2023-09-28 13:53:00 +0000 UTC
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71 - Patiently
Wednesday, December 3
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Collidus was not true to his word, and it was pissing me off.
It’d been four days, and we were deep in finals week. I’d texted him daily asking for updates, but he kept putting me off. Apparently—and uncharacteristically—he kept saying he was ‘scouting’ or ‘planning.’
<Who are you and what did you do with Collidus? - Understudy 5:24>
Whatever he had plann...
2023-09-25 13:24:12 +0000 UTC
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69 - There's a Part Two?
Bianca lay sprawled out on the chaise lounge in a pair of shorts—mine—and a T-shirt—also mine. Neither of us was talking much. We both had skills to figure out. Mine had rolled well. Really, really well.
[Rank Up! Adaptive Armoire 2: Store a second costume for your Adaptive Armoire]
[New Power! Science Has Rules?: Experiments don’t need proper planning or procedure. They just...
2023-09-21 13:21:35 +0000 UTC
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Hey, welcome to the new upload schedule. I'll be doing double chapters 2/week, with an occasional single chapter 1/week as well. If my output stays consistent, I may move to 5 total chapters a week consistently as well.
67 - Quit Breaking My Bots!
“I had to spend half my lifetime earnings on the power converters and solar rechargers. Then, it took two days to fly them here, and you’re just…breaking them!” Professor Panic continued. This...
2023-09-18 17:15:00 +0000 UTC
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“…and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again!”
Fursona laughed as I transformed into my Rainy Day Costume. “You ready, Squirt?”
“Yeah, yeah, make fun of the kid,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Fursona led the way down the stairs into the Tokyexico University Engineering and Applied Sciences building. We’d agreed that having two melee-focused superheroes in such tight quarters didn’t make sense, and even though [Bit-Part Barrage] was extr...
2023-09-15 17:15:01 +0000 UTC
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[End of Act One! Act Two in Five Minutes! No Skill Rolls Available!]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 432/523]
[HP 5/7]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Badass (lvl 0; 14)
►Cunning (lvl 2; 12)
► Inkling 1
►Drama (lvl 4; 49...
2023-09-14 17:15:01 +0000 UTC
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Bianca kept screaming as I burst out the bedroom door into my living room. She’d dropped the pan, and half-cooked eggs covered my kitchen. The window had blown in, covering my couch with glass shards, and the coffee table was crushed. As I took in the scene, I saw another green flash. This one kept glowing as LABRAT—freaking LABRAT!— stood to its full height, almost hitting my ceiling.
“I told you I hated you, Understudy,” it monotoned at me, leveling its [Hyp...
2023-09-13 17:15:00 +0000 UTC
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“You’ll like this place. Trust me,” I said as Bianca drove her two-door beater through Tokyexico’s streets and parked outside No More Mr. Rice Guy Kaiten-Zushi. The building’s obviously fake facade was covered in blown snow, and I had to pull hard to open the door. The moment I did, snow started eddying in the entryway, and Bianca and I hurried inside.
“Yeah. Probably.” Bianca looked more like her normally-nervous self. I chalked it up to the weather; she’d had ...
2023-09-12 17:15:00 +0000 UTC
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