Moonbound

“Oh, come on,” Lupine groaned, dangling her legs from the railing of the balcony. “How did you guys even find me?”

Standing below her were Ensorcel and Spectra, both of whom looked very cross - although Spectra’s face held some amusement.

“You set a building on fire,” observed Ensorcel. “It wasn’t that hard.”

Lupine raised an eyebrow, even though he couldn’t see it - not with the distance between them (about twelve feet) or her mask. “That was ten blocks away.”

“Xelqua told me,” he admitted.

“Seriously? Traitor. I’ll have to have a talk with him later.” She inspected the sharp claws attached to the tips of her glove fingers, letting him know exactly what that meant. “I’m assuming he wanted payment. Your power?”

“Yup. Something about throwing Canary off a roof.”

“And why aren’t you helping bird-boy?”
“I probably should, but to be honest, he deserves it.”

Lupine shrugged. “Fair.” She grinned. “Well, it’s been nice talking to you.” She leaped off the railing just as Spectra struck, having teleported behind her while Ensorcel worked as a diversion. “Get some new tricks!” she called over her shoulder as she landed.

She saw Ensorcel out of the corner of her eye, summoning a glowing purple rope. “Like this?” he shot back, whipping it towards her. It wrapped around her bicep, yanking her towards him.

“Yeah,” Lupine panted, “that works.” she wrapped one hand around the bond and tugged, slicing through it. As far as she knew, her claws were the only things that could break Ensorcel’s ropes.

Stumbling to her feet, she surveyed the two self-proclaimed “heroes”: Ensorcel, covered head to toe in various colorful fabrics sewn together in what barely resembled a disguise - although maybe that was just her opinion - with a spray of cyan hair poking out above his mask, and Spectra, who had teleported back down from the balcony.

Lupine thought Spectra looked just a little hot in her silly costume.

Dark purple and form-fitting with silver accents, her outfit gleamed in the moonlight as she strode forward. Spectra’s mask covered the top half of her face, like Lupine’s partner Xelqua’s did, but unlike the mimic, hers showed her narrowed emerald eyes.

“Why are you like this?” The hero demanded. Lupine grinned charmingly at her.

“Why not?”

Ensorcel was suddenly behind her, grabbing one of her wrists. She spun and slashed her other hand toward his face. He ducked, getting a laugh.

“Quick tonight, eh, mate?” she wrenched her wrist out of his grasp and dove to the side as Spectra lunged for her.

Time for the show-stopper. Lupine whirled on them, a wolfish smile spreading across her face - quite literally, as she transformed into the creature she was named for. Tail high, Lupine threw her head back and howled.

All at once - although it actually took a few moments - the two heroes were surrounded by dogs of all sizes. Terriers, Pitt Bulls, a Great Dane or two… a fox had come as well.

“Oh, for-” Ensorcel cursed. “Since when can she do that? ”

Spectra sighed. “So that’s what you meant by ‘trick up your sleeve’,” she called to Lupine, who cocked her head innocently. Who? Me?

And then she ran.

Lupine was reckless, but she wasn’t stupid (most of the time. She was never going to be allowed to forget the Frog Incident, but in her defense, it had been 6AM at the time). She wasn’t going to risk anything more just to hang around and taunt her rivals.

She didn’t know how long she ran, but she knew when she had to stop. Panting, she returned to her human form and leaned against the wall of the alley she had ended up in.

“Where are you off to?”
Lupine cracked an eye open. Spectra was standing in front of her, arms crossed.

She yawned theatrically. “I dunno. Maybe my girlfriend’s place, if she’ll let me crash.”

The green-eyed woman’s eyes darted from side to side. Seeing if we’re alone.

“I’m sure she will. She might be a bit angry at you for blowing something up when she’s probably told you to stop several times.”

“I set something on fire. It’s different.”

“It’s definitely a choice.”

Lupine smirked. “See you.”

“In about twenty minutes,” Spectra muttered.

She got there before Gem did, and was sitting on the couch flipping through channels on the TV when the door slammed. Her girlfriend stalked into the room and flopped down on the couch beside Pearl, head in her lap.

“You’re a menace,” the redhead groaned. 

“You love me,” Pearl shot back, absentmindedly running her fingers through Gem’s ginger curls.

“I do. But you’re still a menace.”

“And you’re predictable,” Pearl informed her, setting down the remote and tapping her nose. “Having Sor distract me so you can sneak up? You’ve pulled that a dozen times over.”

“It works. ”

“It didn’t tonight.”

“...touche.”

Pearl laughed. “Popcorn?”

“It’s eleven o’clock at night, Pearl.”

“Yes. But do you want popcorn?”

“Yeah.”