Endothermic Thaumaturgy (Patreon)

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Endothermic Thaumaturgy

Written by HarmonyMotion with Au Goose and Wizalex
Edited by Au Goose
Commissioned by Wizalex

Prologue - Late to the Party

“Come on, come on,” Zelena tugged at her skirt as her bobby pins proved unable to hold them in place. She sighed in frustration and paused in the pavement as the bus driver that had dropped her off at the stop moved the vehicle back into drive—but not before slowing down to get one last appreciative leer.

Zelena shrugged off the only slightly unwarranted leer. She was used to drawing stares. Partly because of her unbelievable proportions, sure—her breasts just never seemed to quit, growing larger and riper for years long after most girls had finished developing until the pair of swells on her chest were large enough to come up to her neck and fall down to her soft abdomen... but she was also dressed quite particularly in an outfit of her own making. She had to make her own clothes after all. Large chain clothing retailers didn’t carry clothing in a Z cup.

That was a joke that she and her friends had come up with.

So it was either custom ordered clothing or learn to sew. Good thing Zelena loved cosplay. She loved the Golden Guard. She followed all the mainstream news, their official social media Chirpers (at least, those of them who owned one; Surgeon, quite predictably, seemed to have no use for such frivolous things.) There was an internet forum called G3 by those in the community: the Gateway to the Golden Guard. She went by alenez00 there.

Some of the G3 members were famous for their fanfiction writing. Others for paparazzi-like photo snaps of the GG members flying into their headquarters, coming out of their headquarters, getting signed paraphernalia and reselling them, other things of that sort. Pictures of Surgeon were unpopular because he just dressed like a civilian. And not just that, he always seemed to be wearing the same clothes, so day in and day out, no one could actually tell if they were new pictures or not.

Zelena thought it was a hoot and a half.

It had to be Surgeon’s plan, but the plot backfired. The G3 continued to snap pictures of Surgeon (or not; who could really know?) and turned it into a meme. The sarcasm of users asking “Where’s the new Surgeon pic?” quickly got lost in the context, and the whole thing turned into a... thing. Once in a while, a new member would come in confused and ask what the hullabaloo over these identical-looking pictures was about. They would get a picture of Surgeon with meme block font text attached: Imagine not knowing about... THIS

Raceway, when she was more than a blur, often chastised these paparazzi. So naturally, her angry, scolding face as she lectured some of the members quickly turned into its own meme. The same image got recycled over and over, her brows furrowed, captioned with something in her deep Slavic accent. She never stopped to lecture the peanut gallery again, though Legend had it that she secretly enjoyed the attention and loved seeing a new meme of herself come out.

Legend was the resident G3 self-styled author. Someone who wrote trashy fanfiction of the GG members in a “heightened reality,” they called it. Board members would propose plotlines and various ships, and Legend would write the one they preferred—usually lesbian and erotic. Marathon slash Surgeon was a ship that Legend tried to cannonball, so people requested it constantly. Zelena enjoyed reading Legend’s fictions, but L aspired to become a real published author. Judging by L’s trashy taste and mostly unrefined writing, Z figured they had a long, long way to go.

Pictures of Titaness, or more specifically, Titaness’s calves and thighs, were a hot commodity. Some days she’d come out, seven feet tall and all smiles. Other days, she’d arrive while being twelve stories high. And some days, when TitanessLargestFan was lucky enough, the Indian-American giantess would actually grow her size before his very eyes. TLF turned it into a gif, slapped a throbbing heart in the corner of it, and made it their avatar. He was apoplectic to hear that Titaness was MIA after a huge incident in San Diego, and then manic when the news broke that Titaness would be returning to duty. The moderators considered banning TLF while they continued to post “TITANESS LIVES” in every forum thread, but the sentiment was understandable. So the TLFpostsTL event passed without incident after two spammy, slightly annoying days.

Lately, there was a new girl showing up to the GG headquarters without any regularity. Asian heritage, shockingly white hair with purple tips, always dressed smartly in business slacks and a blouse. And gorgeously long-limbed with the face of a supermodel. She had to be a trace, at least. And she seemed to have Marathon’s ear. But nobody had witnessed her displaying any powers. Rumors about the mysterious woman were often the subject of Legend’s fanfiction.

But all of that was old hat. The shocking announcement of a new, official GG member had taken G3 by storm. The GG’s newest member, Thermia, was a fan favorite for obvious reasons. Two of them, actually. The short, insanely busty Apex blonde with her juxtaposed powers of pyro and cryokinesis was all the rage. And that happened to be the costume that Zelena was sporting today.

Zelena had her “rogue’s gallery” of personal, handmade GG costumes. But she loved this new Thermia one the most. Her own bust still dwarfed Thermia’s, but it was the Golden Guard heroine that she looked most like. Her own silver hair with red tips were covered up in a golden blonde wig, her legs clad in pearl white knee-high boots. A tight white leotard clung to her torso and supported her tremendous bust, exposing a wide swath of creamy cleavage just like the southern belle heroine herself. And right now, the only thing that was giving Zelena trouble was the darned skirt. It was a separate piece that attached to her hips, rigid like a cone as it flared down her lower body.

Oh well. Her best friend Athena was already inside The Final Call, and she was awfully impatient when Zelena was late. This discount Thermia had better get a move on.

As her boots echoed along the pavement in the chilly San Francisco air, Zelena turned a corner only to find an awful lot of police cars parked outside. And screams, genuine screams of horror, coming from inside. Not the usual fake debauchery of the blood-soaked abattoir facade that The Final Call marketed itself on.

Zelena began to run toward the tavern. Her heart raced in panic while the adrenaline pumped through her veins. Please don’t be in there, Athena. Even though her friend had texted her no more than 20 minutes ago. If only these fire and ice props around my hands were real...

Just as she got to the entrance, the door violently detached from its hinges as the body of a policeman slammed right through it. Followed by a crimson red whip that looked like it was made of glistening blood. Zelena had a moment where time stood still; the policeman’s body looked withered and shrunken, its skin wrinkled and sagging. All across his face and arms were covered by large gashes. As if he’d been cut deeply a million times.

That crimson whip ebbed and flowed. It truly was liquid. Its crack made a wet, slapping sound, spraying globules of blood all over the place. Some of it splattered Zelena’s face.

Then time resumed. Zelena could hardly believe it. The bravado left her body, but even gripped with fear, she felt compelled to look inside. She walked up to the door and turned her head around the corner.

The bartender, Hector, was floating in the air. A thick stream of blood was streaming out of his mouth in a controlled flow even as he struggled to cover his mouth with his hands and keep it inside. His struggles were waning.

And that blood was flowing to a tall, pale-skinned, red-eyed woman. A vampire.

“This is what you get for cheating on me, you piece of shit!” she yelled at him with a noticeable Latino accent. With a clench of her fist, all of the remaining blood burst from Hector’s body, and he fell across the bartop, dead. The entire tavern was full of bodies that seemed to have met similar fates.

The sound of loud wailing sirens and skidding tires brought Zelena out of her trance. Policemen rushed through the tavern door, guns drawn and firing.

The vampiress turned to face the door, bared her fangs with a loud hiss, and then fled.

“T-Thermia?” one of them yelled at Zelena as she began to run into the tavern herself. “Thank god you’re here! Do you know who that was?”

“I’m not Thermia!” Zelena shouted helplessly. If she weren’t so helpless, maybe Athena wouldn’t be dead right now... “My friend! My friend was in here!” She charged into the tavern.

“What? Not Therm... ma’am! Come back! You can’t be here right now!” The officer’s disappointment was palpable. Even in San Francisco, they occasionally had the Golden Guard show up when a para-villian was running amok.

Zelena traipsed across the blood-soaked room quickly as the sticky crimson liquid stuck to her boots and splashed over her costume. They’d complained about the abattoir’s decor looking too fake in the past, but now that she was looking at the horror of the real thing, she’d had a change of mind. Fake was so much better.

The corpses were gray with a look of absolute anguish on their faces. But none of them, even in their mutilated state, looked like Athena.

As she approached their usual booth, now shattered and covered with broken wood and ceiling plaster, Zelena heard a weak moan.

“Ma’am! You can’t be here!” The surviving police on the scene held Zelena back.

“My friend! She’s a Trace! She might be alive! Over there!” Zelena pointed.

With a look of sympathy, the apparent officer in charge nodded to two of his underlings. They went to shuffle the wreckage when they saw the twitch of a gray, but still alive, hand weakly clawing at the floor.

“Hey! There’s someone in here!” one of them yelled back.

“Athenaaaa!” Zelena called out.

The police unearthed Athena, soaked in her own blood and the blood of others. She was covered in lacerations, and whatever shameful twinge of jealousy that Zelena harbored at her friend’s luck with a Shard Strike transformation... that emotion was exsanguinated. She just wanted her friend back, as pretty and full of life as ever.

The police escorted Zelena back outside while the medics worked to extract Athena.

An ambulance arrived on the scene shortly after. Zelena sat on the curb, sobbing into her hands as the emergency vehicle wheeled away with Athena in tow. One survivor. The only one to come out of this nightmare.

Why wasn’t Zelena there for her friend on time? Why didn’t she actually have powers to do anything? Why was she so helpless?!

Chapter 1 - Not Your Typical Shard-Strike

“A coming blow, you shall not know,

Back into battle, you shall go.

I shall preempt your next mistake,

And your next wound, it shall not take.”

“A useful boon, sorceress. Are you ready to begin the ritual?”

“The fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance. I’m ready as I’ll ever be.”

The band of five had ventured far, arriving at the ritual site just before dusk. The windswept cliff top sent their garments billowing in the breeze, though none more so than the busty sorceress’ long flowing dress. Their campaign had continued for longer than she expected, and unsurprisingly, her corset was no longer as fitting as it had been almost a year ago. She rather unsubtly rearranged her overflowing outfit, catching the rolled eyes of the rogue as she did so.

Zelena couldn’t help but smile at Athena’s blatant jealousy of her assets.

Then the armies of the damned arrived. Zelena needed five minutes, that was all, but five minutes of uninterrupted incantation was a hard ask on an active battlefield. They had all agreed to protect the sorceress at all costs, her ritual being the last hope to prevent the return of their fiendish foes.

Demons ran up the hillside, red painted faces ready to terrify and an array of weapons poised to mutilate. The fighter and barbarian formed the front line of defense, as the rogue drew her bow and the healer prepared to cast.

Zelena was under a lot of pressure here. Sure, she’d written far more couplets than necessary, but could she remember them? She might have to make some up as she went along, her friends were counting on her.

She began her casting and the forces of good and evil clashed.

Shields deflected the slashing of swords, arrows targeted quickly approaching demons and a heavy axe swung around, taking out the hordes that dared venture too close. Cries of battle rang out.

“Cleaving Blow!”

“Demonbane!”

“Sweeping Strike!”

I’m going to level up so much! Zelena thought to herself, careful not to speak out of character. She looked around as she continued her flurry of attacks that should’ve been cutting down hordes of demons like a threshing machine.

All of her friends were looking at her in total stillness.

“Athena?” Zelena asked, calling out her friend’s true name. “Bradley?”

Blood began to leak from their bodies outlining thin, invisible cuts. Bloody tears ran out of Athena’s eye sockets.

“Why didn’t you... save me...?” Athena asked as every living person suddenly collapsed like a withered husk while an ocean of blood roared toward Zelena like a tidal wave.

---

Zelena lay in bed, shivering in a cold sweat under her covers. Darn this dream! She checked her phone and looked at her texts. Athena and she had corresponded just last night. Nothing about waiting for Zelena at The Final Call. Of course; it was just a nightmare. Still, it comforted her.

She climbed out of bed, the chill still afflicting her arms and legs. Zelena sat there for a while and rubbed her groggy eyes while she regained control of her body. After more than a few deep breaths and some mental fortitude, she slid on an extra large robe and tied the ribbons around her waist to cover her dramatic chest, sprinkled some flakes into her fish bowl for Finn—the one fish who was always on her side—and went to the kitchen of her cozy studio apartment. A tap of her mounted tablet turned it on. She scrolled through all of her feeds of paranatural news.

Cracking open a can of beans and popping some bread into the toaster, Zelena poured hot water over some flash frozen coffee flakes and drank deeply. On her kitchen table was her thick notebook with all the scant details of every well-known Apex, including one blood-manipulating, fiery haired Latina vampire. Her entry in particular was augmented with tons of loose leaves of paper.

She never thought her experience with live action roleplay would actually come in handy in her real life, though of course as any true nerd she’d always hoped it would. What a wild fantasy it would be if she could perform the things that her characters could do! God knows she put enough effort into her rhyming spells. Just like her costumes, she took that aspect of her life far more seriously than other players of the game. And she was proud to note that her recall was borderline photographic, meaning that she remembered pretty much every “spell” she’d ever invented.

It had all started innocently. Zelena practiced reciting her spells, making sure that the meter and rhyme were adequate for her characters. And who couldn’t resist actually incanting them once in a while, hoping against hope to conjure up billions of dollars, or a cute one night stand, or being able to light a cigarette with the tip of an index finger? Not that Zelena smoked. But if she could spark a flame with a finger, then she’d definitely consider it. Rule of cool.

But after the first recorded Shard Strike, things went a little wonky. Not that she’d figured out that the Shard Strike was the cause. It was months after the initial event, the world was in turmoil with chaos everywhere in the form of petty robbery, accidental maiming, friends and families being incinerated in strikes. And that didn’t even include the hubbub of the short-lived Paranatural Registration Act that San Francisco had tried to pass, which culminated in the result of Leila Electric forming (or taking over, as some called it) the commonwealth of New Ireland as a safe haven for all persecuted paranaturals.

On one nondescript day, Zelena had dropped and broken her favorite mug. It read, “My other car is a dragon” with a great flying lizard decal. And it lay on the floor in large pieces. Out of pure frustration and prompted by the fantasy theme, Zelena tried one of her spells in despair.

Ravel around a wound once struck,

The tears repaired with any luck.

Restored to form for all to see,

What you once were is what you’ll be.

And the pieces wobbled. Two of the biggest shards actually seemed to reform before her eyes. She went to pick it up and cradled it in the palm of her hands, expecting it to fall apart at any moment. There was a slight glow as the crack came back into appearance... and indeed it fell back into two pieces. But not before confirming the impossible to Zelena.

There were stories of witches being burned alive in places that were far less progressive than San Francisco. Zelena had just thought that it was... well... witch-hunting. But what if witches were real!? What if she were a witch now!?

So she played with it, incanting existing spells and coming up with new ones, bolstering their rhymes, trying to find shorter incantations that wouldn’t take as long, making their semantic meaning clear, and invoking them with more conviction. And as it proved more and more successful, she discovered that she needed more magical guidance.

So she started buying magical tomes. Or trying to. Most of them seemed, uh, kind of fake.

And with Athena suffering a near death experience at the hands of an Apex, Zelena’s life had come into full focus. Page after page of magic, specifically invented to counter Bloodburst (that’s what she named that psycho villainess) were written in neatly scrawled calligraphy, organized by speed to incant, category of magic (defensive, offensive, other), and potency.

Not only that, she’d gotten a position at AyersTech as a researcher. They were on the cutting edge in all things paranatural. Even Thermia had ties to them! Zelena felt as if she were following in the footsteps of greatness.

Zelena conducted research on paranatural power suppression in particular. If she wasn’t going to be an Apex or a Trace, then she’d need to even the playing field somehow. Nulls were the go to option for the government and other folks with unlimited money. But she was certain there had to be opportunities for those with a more modest budget. Like her.

She looked at her sewing machine, gathering dust underneath a little shrine she’d built to the GG. More than just a shrine. More like a corkboard of a conspiracy theorist, detailing each members’ powers and connections to the powers and organizations in the world at large. She missed the days of making costumes of her favorite heroes. Maybe one day, when she gave up her rather bloody oath of vengeance against Bloodburst. But Bloodburst had kept a low profile since then. Things happened that could have been her, but nothing nearly as public as that first traumatic incident, so Zelena had no timeline.

In sync with a notification bell from her newsfeed, her toast popped, nice and almost blackened. Zelena poured her small tin of sweet beans over it and munched. Apparently G-Lex, the famed camgirl, had been featured on another camgirl’s stream, and people were speculating that the probably-Apex level mind controlling blonde had herself been taken advantage of.

Served her right.

Zelena took her now fully-drained (and cheap!) mug of coffee and dropped it on the floor as she finished reading. A toast to G-Lex and her selfish ways. Once again, she recited:

Ravel around a wound once struck,

The tears repaired with any luck.

Restored to form for all to see,

What you once were is what you’ll be.

The pieces glued themselves back together as time rewinded for the mug. But it took Zelena four casts before she was convinced that the mug wasn’t about to explode into pieces again. And even then, it appeared to wobble as a bunch of separate pieces... She’d have to buy another two dollar mug to practice on soon. Witchcraft seemed to have so many hidden variables. She needed more books. Or someone who knew what they were doing. A mentor? A coven? She wasn’t sure how these things worked in the past or now.

It was time to get to work. Zelena got dressed in a business suit with her personally made office blouse to accommodate her enormous bust, grabbed her badge and keys hanging on the hook, and headed out the door.

---

From: samherst@ayerstech.com

To: zromero@ayerstech.com

Subject: See me”

was the first thing Zelena saw in her email from her boss, Stacy. She clicked it with a bit of trepidation.

Zelena, come to my office when you get in. Big confidential project. Plus I have a shard artifact you’d be interested to see.

-S

Well at least she wasn’t in trouble! Not that she should be... she’d already surpassed expectations with her flawless memory, which was a bit superfluous given her meticulous notetaking when researching. And now it looked like she was going to reap some benefits from her hard work! Rumors had it that Thermia and her partner had been at the Phoenix Egg courtesy of AyersTech when it all happened for the southern belle. But first... those new 108 unread emails couldn't go unexamined.

After a few minutes, she made a beeline for her boss's door.

"Stacy?" Zelena knocked.

"Zelena! Come in, come in. You saw my email?"

"Yes, of course! A confidential..." she trailed off to let Stacy confirm that it was true.

"Yes, isn't it exciting? As soon as it came in, I knew you would be perfect for the job. I fought tooth and nail to own this project. ...You do want it, don't you?"

"Yes, yes!" Zelena confirmed. Stacy had not so subtly prodded Zelena about it in the past. Or maybe it had been subtle but Zelena hadn't picked up the cues so Stacy ramped it up for the befuddled Zelena, she thought in hindsight. It was hard to say.

"Great! Follow me."

"What, now!?"

"I said it was a highly visible project right?"

"But what about my research on null effectiveness and limitations?"

"After all of the details and next steps you outlined so carefully, even our interns could pick up the work. I'll give it to Carl."

Zelena grimaced, but said nothing.

She followed Stacy through some clearance gates she'd been through before, and then one she hadn't. Then two. Then three.

Finally, they reached a room with what appeared to be a handful of other researchers Zelena hadn't worked with before. And they all had some sort of ornate bauble on. Some around their neck, others around their wrists, and a select few who did not seem to be adorned at first glance.

Stacy went to a locked and password secured vault, looked at Zelena with clear instructions for her to avert her gaze, punched in the code, and opened the silvery steel door with a loud clunk. Out came another unreasonably exquisite artifact-looking necklace.

Zelena’s eyes lit up. What was this?! It looked completely unique, like no trinket she’d ever seen in a game shop before. She’d love to be able to wear something like this in her cosplays, but smithing and metalworking wasn’t in her wheelhouse...

“Like it?” Stacy asked, seeing the glint in Zelena’s eyes.

“What is it?” Zelena tried to play it cool, but her hands were trembling.

“A protection charm. This is your personal one. Everyone who works in the vicinity of the depleted shard has to wear it.”

Zelena turned her focus to the main trophy atop the pedestal with a protective cover—not that there was any real substance that had been found to absorb Shard Strike energy yet. Another AyersTech project happening somewhere in the company, to be sure...

“It looks like...” How was Zelena supposed to tell her boss that it looked like a role-playing game trinket?

“Mysticism? Superstition? The world is far more different than we know. And that goes beyond even paranaturals. Now, are you interested in working on this? And of course, you’ll have to sign some NDAs.”

Zelena couldn’t agree quickly enough. She nearly snatched the necklace out of Stacy’s hand and put it around her neck.

“Great!” Stacy beamed. “We’ll transfer all of your old responsibilities immediately. You’re still reporting directly to me, but someone else is overseeing the whole project. Lots of hands looking to pick up a piece of this pie, you understand?”

Zelena nodded. “I won’t let you down!”

“I know you won’t,” Stacy smiled.

---

By the end of the first week, a few of the burnt out Shard researchers had set themselves apart from the rest. Zelena, Howard, and Todd spent an extra 30-40 hours a week working on the depleted shard out of pure curiosity and intellectual pursuit.

“Nice ring, Todd,” Zelena commented.

“You wanna trade?” he offered.

“Stacy told me the necklace was meant just for me...” Zelena was hesitant. But she did want to try out Todd’s gnarled wooden-looking brown ring.

“You think these things even matter? What crazy hypothesis do you think AyersTech is running now?” Howard chimed in, turning his own bracelet as he stared at the white shard and the wires hooked up to the box.

“Has to be, right? Do you know AyersTech to not do anything seriously?” Todd asked.

Howard shrugged. He rubbed his eyes and moaned. “It’s getting late. Why am I here on a Friday night?”

“Cuz you loooove it,” Zelena sing-songed.

“Don’t remind me.”

The two men went back to their laptops to take whatever notes and view the readings coming off of their most recent electrical jolts. Thermia’s revelational hypothesis about people having a reaction to Shard materials was sadly hard to test. And not convenient, either.

Zelena looked over her own notes. She slid her left arm along the table to pick up her mug of water, but knocked it over. It was mostly intact, but a piece chipped off of the top lip.

“Oh hell!” Zelena groaned.

Howard sighed. “Here.” He threw the rest of his napkins from the AyersTech-provided dinner to her.

“Thaaaaanks.”

She swished the water around with the adequately absorbent napkins. When she thought neither of the boys were looking, she leaned forward to rest her breasts on the table and cast her little mend spell.

“What you once were is what you’ll be!” she whispered proudly, watching the little chipped portion reattach to the mug.

She peeked over her shoulder. Howard was still working. Todd looked at her and gave her a little wink and a wiggle of his fingers.

Oh god! Had he seen? And moreover... did he know about magic?

Before Zelena could worry about it further, her concerns were upended when a very uncertain Howard spoke.

“Whoa... guys...? Something... something’s happening!”

They all turned to see it simultaneously. A loud, jarring snap caused all three to jump in their seats as an enormous crack appeared in the safety glass. The previously thought to be inert shard was cackling and glowing, bolts of white lightning shooting out and rebounding off of its case as another loud snap slammed the room.

“Get out! Get out!” Todd instructed.

But the safety mechanism for the entire lab had been activated. The door was barred shut; large, heavy barriers were lowering over the windows.

“Hey! Hey! Somebody, let us out!!!” Howard ran to the window and lowered his head to peek through the window before the shutter slammed shut.

The glass case crumbled to pieces. Its energy tendrils lashed out and made a beeline straight for Zelena’s throat.

“Aaaaah!” Zelena screamed as the lightning bolt struck her right in the throat.

Or so she thought. Her arms were up, reflexively covering herself as if that would help against a speeding bullet, much less an ethereal wisp of incinerating energy. But the shard strike snaked through her arms and began to infuse its energies into the necklace that AyersTech had assigned her.

The effect was no less dramatic, however. The atypical cold, white energy began to envelop her body even as it continued to funnel itself into Zelena’s necklace, overflowing it like a tidal wave trying to force all of its raging fury into a small bucket.

Zelena looked at her colleagues, mouth moving soundlessly as the rest of her body seized up. The glowing silhouette of her body became almost too bright to bear, and her hair began to stand straight up as her body floated into the air.

“It’s... it’s after the jewelry! Take it off, take it off!” one of the boys shouted.

Zelena tried to move her arms, but couldn’t. Her squeal was swallowed by the reverberating echoes of the shard discharging its profound energies. Her eyes darted around helplessly, seeking any assistance from both Howard and Todd.

As if on cue, a new bolt of lightning seemed to be emerging from the shard. And this one was headed toward Todd. He reacted quickly and took off his ring. He was about to throw it into the far corner of the room before Howard guided him.

“To Zelena! Maybe it’ll shield her!” He threw his bracelet toward their brilliant female colleague.

The energy bolt redirected in midair on a whim, following Howard’s bracelet. And then Todd’s ring as well.

The two objects took on the brunt of the shard’s new energies, frozen in midair and orbiting Zelena. Brighter and brighter all three artifacts glowed, and with them, Zelena.

She could feel the shard’s energy reflecting off of all three artifacts, infusing her with power. Endless, frigid power. As if on cue, she could feel her body beginning to expand as well! Her unwieldy, jutting breasts perked and filled out even further beyond her—or anyone’s—wildest dreams as the rest of her body developed to support her new double beachballs.

Her hair began to change from the roots, turning jet black yet still sporting a bright, almost blinding silver sheen that matched the glow of the white shard. From her roots, all the way down to her tips where they retained just a slight red tint of her former color, her strands looked and felt long, luscious, and rested just beneath her shoulder blades. Her torso grew more voluptuous as well, her shoulders widening and arms lengthening, giving her a broader frame to support those new, growing bosoms of hers.

But try as her body might, it could not keep up with the meteoric rise of her gravity-defying tits. Outward and outward they swelled, twice as wide as her profile, twin orbs of mouth-watering perfection, covering her from neck to hips, unrelenting, unforgiving, and incorrigible.

This is the level up I’ve always dreamed of! She thought to herself, thinking of all of her larping sessions.

And then the streams intensified in one final burst of energy that sent Zelena’s already frost burned body into orgasmic conniptions. She screamed in pleasure; the first sound she’d made ever since the shard had suddenly become active. In the background of her cries of ecstasy came a few other screams of pain and shock, but she couldn’t hear it.

When all was said and done, Zelena stood at about average female height from her previous short stature, most of it located in her svelte legs and wonderfully filled out thighs.

Her eyes ceased glowing silver as she fell back to earth gently, somehow adorned by all three artifacts now. Her skin was pale as porcelain and soft as silk.

She lost consciousness.

Chapter 2 - The Ice is Not Nice

Zelena woke up in her own bed. Sort of. Pillars of ice and little swirling gusts of frost decorated the corners of her bed and dripped off the edges of her pillows and sheets.

It was just like her dream! She tried to recall it.

She felt cold. Frozen. And not just cold temperature wise, but almost... soulless. Evil. Like there was some sort of dark entity inside of her. Weird!

Zelena rubbed her eyes and tried to recall more of her dream. But the more she tried, the more it faded. She needed to write it down!

She scooted along her twin bed, but her body felt heavy. Really heavy. Especially...

Zelena looked down at herself and gasped. Her breasts were so large, she literally couldn’t see her thighs! Her entire torso was engulfed and swallowed by her womanly mounds! In fact, sitting with her legs straight out, the only part of her that she could see was her toes! And even then, just barely... like tiny little specks on the horizon of her mammoth breasts.

Could it be? Was the dream real!?

With all thoughts of notetaking gone, Zelena ran shockingly gracefully to her bathroom mirror to check herself out. Her hair was pure, reflective ebony with red endings, to match her blood red eyes. She smiled, almost expecting to see a pair of sharp fangs, but no; it was just her perfectly white, beautifully aligned teeth.

“Yes! Yes! Yessss!” Zelena cheered. Now she didn’t have to bear and hide the shame of being jealous of her friend Athena after she’d fully and genuinely transitioned into a female and got all the perks of being a trace!

And looking like a hot evil sorceress... she couldn’t wait to cosplay as one for real! Even if she really was a hero at heart.

Did she have powers too? She must! She’d woken up on a freaking ice cube and the cold didn’t bother her at all! Zelena reached for the faucet handle and twisted, summoning a stream of water to splash her face and confirm that this was really real. Except when her single finger touched the stream, the water immediately froze upwards, coated the brass piping, and echoed through the walls of her home.

“Oh blast!” Zelena screamed. She gingerly twisted the handle to off.

She tiptoed as best she could back through her apartment. Her heavy boobs jiggled, far too large for her to support with her arms. They simply weren’t long enough! She grabbed a mug from her table. It froze and turned brittle before the extreme temperature shift caused it to shatter far worse than any of her clumsy drops ever did.

“Ughh!” Zelena moaned, rubbing her temples before freaking out for a moment and flinching, thinking she’d freeze her head solid. But nothing happened. Might as well try her mend spell.

Zelena focused, feeling an unfamiliar well of magical energy surge within her. She recited confidently:

Ravel around a wound once struck,

The tears repaired with any luck.

Restored to form for all to see,

What you once were is what you’ll be.

Not only did the entire mug restore, all of the ice disappeared from its pieces, and there was no hint of wobble or instability on her little repair object! Zelena really had leveled up!

Suddenly, a huge blast of ice burst from her side and struck her fish tank.

“What? No! Finn!!” Zelena ran over to the frosted glass with bloody streaks in it.

But her poor fish was dead, eyes bulging pathetically. Zelena’s own eyes began to tear up. Perhaps she could fix the tank, but she wasn’t about to dabble in necromancy.

She’d killed Finn!

---

“Athena! Athena! Come over, quick!” Zelena called her friend.

“Hey Z, what’s up?”

“I have something amazing to show you! And I need your help!”

“What, like now? It’s 9:00 in the morning!”

“I’ll make you a mimosa?” Zelena offered.

Athena sighed. “Okay, I’m on the way.”

Fifteen minutes later, Athena jumped off of the muni and made her way to Zelena’s apartment. A wave of cold wafted over her from Zelena’s front door. It was uncharacteristically cold... and Zelena had never run air conditioning before. Did she even have it?

Athena knocked.

“Izzat you? Come in, come in!” Zelena called from inside.

Athena grabbed the doorknob for as short as possible and pushed her way in.

“Z, it’s cold af! Is this urgent thing you wanted to show me some new AC system!?”

Zelena strutted around the corner dressed in a black robe that covered the outer curves of her enormous chest and just barely made her decent.

“Tada!” she posed as that scant robe slid off.

“Zelena?! Are you growing bigger again?”

“No! Well, I dunno! Yes? But this time, I was hit by a Shard-Strike!”

“What!? There was no news of one! But... you’re taller too!”

“Well... I sorta had a dream of one. And I have powers now. Actually, that’s what I need your help with.”

“Powers!? Like what?” The shoe was on the other foot now. Athena was getting quite jealous. Having an authentic Shard-Stricken bottom surgery and full biological transition was pretty fucking cool... but it didn’t come close to a superpower!

“I seem to be really cold. Like, frozen. Just chilling?” Zelena joked lamely.

“Is that why it’s frigid in here? I swear, if I didn’t get hit by a shard myself, I’d probably be shivering!”

“Yeah... I think I need to have my powers contained somehow. It’s too much, Athena! Do you know anyone like that in your little shard support group? I want to maybe make a costume with nulling properties...”

“We’re not supposed to give out other people’s information without their consent, but I can ask. You certainly qualify as one of us now...” Athena took another up and down journey of Zelena’s body, noting that at least half of it was breast. The most perfect breast that she’d ever seen. Despite the cold, Athena was getting a little heated.

“So about that mimosa?” Athena asked.

“In the fridge. Sorry, I can’t actually make it for you myself...” Zelena brought her hands into the air and twirled them. A swirl of mist exuded from them.

“Sure, sure. I’ll get it.”

As Athena moved past Zelena, another stream of cold shot from Zelena’s nipple and flash froze her best friend right on the spot.

“Athena?!” Zelena looked on in horror, barely stopping herself in time before she touched the red-streaked ice sculpture of her friend. “Oh god! What if I...” she couldn’t help but picture in her mind’s eye her friend’s frozen statue, shattering into a million pieces of frozen flesh and bone, never to be put back together again.

“I can... I can fix this!!” Zelena cried as she fled her house, seeking to take herself away from every living being. Hopefully Athena would thaw out and be okay by the time she made it to her AyersTech office...

Chapter 3 - Never Meet Your Heroes When You’re Afflicted

“Thanks for coming along, Melody!” Thermia, dressed in her superhero outfit, chirped in her native southern accent proudly.

“Of course. I’m the magical consultant and all,” Melody answered.

“Detective Shi mentioned a cold wave originating at this department during this heat wave. And random surges of ice cold. So he thought you and me would be a good pair to check it out! He’s still busy dilly-dallying over Titaness and all. Oh, I’m so glad they can be back together now!”

“Uh huh.”

“Melody? Are you upset at me?”

“What?” The Korean-American looked at Thermia. Then shook her head. “Oh no, sorry I’ve been so rude. I’m a little distracted lately?”

“Ah was just saying, it’s great Markus and Titaness are together again. They look so happy!”

“Oh, yes! Of course! I wish I could have done more for Titaness, but that was some dark, dark magic...”

“They always say never to mix business with pleasure, but those two seem to be doing okay, ah reckon.”

“I’m glad it worked out for them.”

The pair traveled (Thermia flying, Melody walking) toward Zelena’s apartment in silence. Melody decided to take Thermia up on the topic of work relationships while it was still on their minds.

“Thermia, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Of course!”

“How are you and Victor doing? You’re both still working for AyersTech right? Even though you’re with the GG.”

“Yeah, I still report to them. It was part of the deal. I know it’s prickly for everyone, but they did save Titaness’s life, so that has to count for something, right?” It had been a very sore spot ever since its inception.

“No, no, that doesn’t bother me. I’m not really a member after all... do you and Victor have any relationship issues? Like... intimately?”

“Oh! Oh no! His power actually makes him the perfect lover! ...Oh sorry honey, I didn’t mean to brag.”

“And he likes that you’re more powerful than him? Like, by a lot?”

“Oh sweetie, he loves it. He’s so encouraging all the time, outside of bed too. In fact, I can’t remember the last time he said anything critical of...”

Thermia paused. Was that really true? That wasn’t normal, was it?

“Everything okay?” Melody asked pointedly.

“Ah... yeah. Yeah. Relationships sure are complicated, huh?” Thermia chuckled nervously.

“You could say that again.”

“So are you and...” Thermia wanted to hear the gossip from the witch herself.

“Marathon. Yes. Like you said, it’s complicated.”

“Ah see.” She really didn’t, and she wanted more, but Melody was not forthcoming.

They reached Zelena’s apartment. It was still distinctly cool. The pair of women moved in slowly and cautiously.

“Eep!” Thermia gasped as she turned the corner first.

“Thermia! Are you okay?!” Melody came running up, making sure to keep a normal human pace.

“Hang on! She’s alive! Let me just...” Thermia put her hands on the ice sculpture of the unknown woman.

“I’ll keep looking,” Melody navigated Zelena’s living space. “Geez, look at this poor fish. Who’d want to do that? It just seems petty.”

Before long, Melody found a black book bound in leather straps. She began to flip through the pages. Long, long incantations elegantly printed in beautiful calligraphy. Melody began to incant them to herself slowly, feeling the weight of the words and the magic potential behind them. This person was potentially very powerful!

“Thermia? Any luck?” Melody called out as she continued to study the book of her own personal interest. “This girl is a witch.”

“She’s a witch? Detective Shi told me she was working for A-Tech. It makes sense I guess... that’s probably why they were able to heal Titaness. I never heard tell of no magic department, but I was just researching shards...”

“A-Tech does seem to have their fingers in a lot of things, don’t they?” Melody asked. The barb did not go unnoticed.

“Ah, yeah...”

“Any luck with the girl?”

“It’s weird! The ice is... hang on.”

Thermia backed off and raised her hands. Flames flickered to life in her palms, and she let the radiating heat defrost the unidentified girl.

Finally, with frost still covering her lips, Athena’s teeth began to chatter.

“M-m-m-mm....” her lips froze shut.

“Don’t try to speak, darlin’,” Thermia raised her hands and brought it up near her lips to give her some relief. “We’ll call for some help.”

“Thermia. Look at this,” Melody commanded in her most authoritative tone yet.

Melody pointed at the shrine dedicated to the GG. Every member, all their powers, countermeasures, strings of yarn connecting people to other people and corporations...

“Oh hell. Shoot. We gotta find her. Fast. How fast can you move?” Thermia asked.

“I’ll try to keep up with you.”

Melody unbuttoned her tight cardigan which only covered from above her bellybutton to her chest. Reaching into the fabric, she pulled out a pink plastic broomstick that couldn’t have possibly fit in there. And then turned it invisible lest some witch-haters saw her in flight.

“Shiny!” Thermia admired.

---

The two women flew, Thermia posed like a superheroine rocket and Melody looked as if seated with her legs crossed in some sort of invisible bus, over the San Francisco neighborhoods. Thermia followed the cold trail with her powers and engaged in some more idle conversation.

“So ah guess me and Victor are good. What you said made me think. Maybe ah should ask him what he wants. Though usually he just says he wants to make me happy, y’know? Sorry, ah don’t mean to seem like I’m bragging again. Are things okay with you and Marathon?”

“Yes. He’s nice. Really. As goody two shoes as they come. He just wants me to be... safe,” Melody chose her words carefully. Marathon always wanted her to be stronger, faster, more powerful than he could ever be, limitless and unmatched. And if Melody’s senses didn’t fool her, she really was becoming more powerful. Perhaps the potion she’d taken for her perfect date still had some potency left within it. But she wasn’t about to reveal her uncommon powerup, let alone her apex-seeming powers, to Thermia. AyersTech was not to be trusted.

“He’s... too nice? Is that why you were asking?” Thermia picked up the thread.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Melody went along with it. That had been convenient. “So I was wondering how it was with you and Victor.”

“I’m happy! You’ve made me more aware that I should think of his needs, though. So thanks for the girl talk,” Thermia giggled. “So is Marathon too nice for you? You want him to be a little rougher with you? Too much of a gentleman?”

“Thermia!” Melody conjured a blush.

“You can just tell him, ah reckon. If he’s so nice, he should be able to indulge you!”

“Ahh! I never should have said anything!”

“You can tell me anything!” Thermia laughed. “Who else is gonna look out for us but us girls?”

“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no!” Melody zoomed down toward the sidewalk.

“You can’t run away from me, Melody!” Thermia shot after her like a bolt of lightning.

But Melody was poking at a frozen stray dog. Its shaggy, dirty, mop-like fur was completely brittle, the icicles on its nose dripping wet. Melody prodded it with one of her long fingers, and the dog’s fur shattered like glass.

“Oh no,” Melody sobbed.

“I’m sorry dearie. You love animals, huh?”

Melody nodded.

“Hey, do you... feel anything when you touch the ice?” Thermia asked.

“You mean besides the fact that it’s cold? Like magic? It’s hard to say. I don’t personally detect anything, but there are so many strata of magic, so many classifications, and you have to be quite highly attuned to be able to trace it after the fact. Plus, there’s concealment magic, and from what I saw in that apartment, this girl knows what she’s doing. I have no doubt that the stalker we’re chasing has that kind of potential.”

“No, not that... I guess your magic doesn’t feel nulling effects.”

“This ice nulls!?” Melody exclaimed.

“Yeah... I think so. Back in the apartment, when ah was touching the ice, I couldn’t use mah powers.”

“A witch, a null, and possibly an apex!?” Melody stewed in her thoughts. That was even more labels than she could muster for herself, though she wasn’t truly an Apex through normal means. She didn’t feel any of her super strength dissipate when she prodded the ice. In fact, she had been careful to hold back her newly granted Marathon-wished super strength so as not to shatter the entire dog. If worse came to worse, if she had to reveal her powers to Thermia...

“I can still use it while not touching the ice though. Let me test. Ah... sorry about the dog, by the way.”

“It’s okay,” Melody sniffed as she took a stride back.

Thermia’s hands glowed with heat as she crouched and approached the dog. Not enough to melt the ice, just enough to demonstrate her power. And the closer she got, the more it faded, until she was touching the ice itself.

“Nuthin’,” Thermia shook her head in disbelief. She took a few steps back and stood up straight, smoothing out her costume. “Ah... I think it might be best for me to cremate this dog. If you don’t mind. Could you look away?”

Melody nodded and turned her back. A huge burst of heat, and yellow orange glow, and it was all over.

“Okay,” Thermia confirmed.

When Melody turned back around, Thermia was blowing ice over that dark stain in the pavement to cool it back down.

“Let’s go get that monster,” Melody clenched a fist.

“Okay, enough investigating! I don’t think she’s far!” Thermia narrowed her eyes.

The two women stayed low to the ground as they traveled, feeling themselves moving deeper into the sphere of traveling cold. They were catching up.

“Ah have an idea! Let me call my contact at A-Tech! Or maybe Victor will know something!”

They passed some frosted over cars and chilled trees on the little grassy island in the middle of the hilly San Francisco streets.

“Yes! Yes, this is Thermia! Do you know if there were any... uh... huh... no shard strikes in A-Tech last night? Ahm, no, I didn’t have any other questions. Okay, thanks. Bye.”

Melody looked at Thermia and raised her sculpted eyebrows.

“Uh... I hadn’t even asked yet. Let me try Victor...”

She quickdialed him and got an immediate answer.

“Hey! Hey love! Yes, I love you too! Love you, love you! Victor, wait! I had a business question for you. Do you know if there was some sort of incident at A-Tech last night? Like... no, no shard strike, huh? Okay. Thanks. Wait! One more question! What about magic? Is there a big mage division working at A-Tech? You don’t know either... no, of course not! Love you too. Bye Vic!”

“Sounds like the cavalry’s on its way?” Melody asked with a nice dash of sarcasm.

“The path we’re following is heading toward an A-Tech office... that must be where she’s going!”

“I’m sure they know nothing.”

“Not now, Melody!” Thermia tried to deny the doubt that was creeping into her mind.

More and more swaths of frozen path greeted the pair of women as they sped along. It was becoming more severe. Snowflakes in the air, people shivering from hypothermia (but thankfully still alive)... it wasn’t just focused freezings now. The whole area’s climate was changing, and presumably new San Francisco would become a tundra of permafrost if this continued.

Thermia heated up as they approached the epicenter. There, they saw a ridiculously buxom woman dressed in a black robe with even darker sheets of hair and eyes as crimson red as blood.

“You’re... Golden Guard!?” she looked at them with genuine hope in her eyes. “Thermia! Please, you have to help me!”

She lunged forward at them, but an enormous, fast moving glacier of bloody ice burst from her chest and ripped the sidewalk into pieces as it blazed its frozen path right toward the blonde superheroine. Thermia melted the worst of the assault, but it still surrounded and slowly encased the temperature goddess in a shroud of nulling, sanguine ice.

“You... witch!” Melody’s eyes glowed violet as she dodged aside. She began to chant.

By righteous fury and coven’s light,

Rid this evil from my sight!

Two searing beams of energy burst forth from Melody’s beautiful eyes, shattering a large portion of the ice prison surrounding Thermia. Then she directed her beautiful, deadly gaze across the ice bridge and aimed for Zelena herself.

Zelena panicked and improvised her own amateurish spell. And then grimaced at the sound of it.

Members of the Golden Guard,

Please don’t hurt me very hard?

Melody gasped as the buxom witch’s clumsy spell managed to inhibit her own. The furious beams of magical energy directed from her eyes totally dissipated! The villainess’s magic was frighteningly powerful! Melody thought she would have to invoke her even more powerful Apex heat vision and give up the charade, perhaps even knock out the enemy with one solid punch like Marathon had so often done...

But a huge burst of cold blew back the evil woman’s robe. The backblast froze the paved asphalt solid as it expanded and cracked, leaving an unusable path for vehicles. And worse than that, it hit the entire bottom floor of an apartment complex behind Melody and Thermia. The whole base began to crumble and fall.

“No!” Melody screamed. “YOU!” The Korean-American witch didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t a hero like the GG! Should she focus all of her attention on saving that building and its inhabitants at the potential risk of her own life!?

“No no no!” the mysterious woman screamed in unison. She herself turned her back on Melody and recited her well-practiced mending magic at the entire building.

Ravel around a wound once struck,

The tears repaired with any luck.

Restored to form for all to see,

What you once were is what you’ll be.

Melody gasped as she watched the building, the road... nay, the entire block unfreeze as everything put itself back together. Black tarmac and the broken sidewalk pavement seemed to move backwards in time as they melted, contracted, and then pieced themselves back together like a perfectly aligned jigsaw puzzle.

The shattered windows of the collapsing building, the brick and mortar and plaster, all rose smoothly into the air, “falling” back into place as people screamed and struggled to retain their footing. Their erratic movements hindered Zelena’s magic and it began to collapse once more.

“Try this!” Melody instructed, still unwilling to take her eyes off of the witch.

“Deepest regret and endless remorse,” Melody began.

“Deepest regret and endless remorse...” Zelena repeated.

“A soulful pact, I dare not break,” Melody continued.

“A soulful pact, I dare not break...” Zelena could feel the compelling intention and dedication behind these words.

“Let me repent and reverse this course,” Melody instructed.

“Let me repent and reverse this course...” Zelena understood.

“Take all my magic and undo this mistake!” the two witches completed together.

Time froze for the small locale. Melody and Zelena watched as the clouds ceased moving, the birds stopped chirping, and everyone in the building began to rewind in time along with its material. After a tense recitation, everyone found themselves back in their apartment home, no worse for wear. Even their belongings had gone back to their original places.

The only unfortunate ones were the ones who had been flash frozen to death.

Time resumed once more.

“You’re... you’re not trying to kill us?” Melody asked, realizing that she’d taken her eyes off Zelena at the sight of one of her own spells being performed. One that she never had the power to get to work properly. And one that, if it did work, should be so taxing on the caster as to render them useless for a while.

“I think I’m cursed! Please... help me...!” Zelena begged as another wave of frozen air blew toward Melody.

The well-practiced beauty waved her arm in a circle and dissipated Zelena’s gust.

“Arrrrgh!” Thermia broke free of Zelena’s ice prison. She charged at the cold witch, a blaze of heated fury.

“Thermia, wait! She’s a victim too! Stop!”

Zelena squirmed in fear as Thermia grabbed both of her breasts with her conducting hands. Then, she blasted Zelena with enough heat to cause steam to emit from her body before the cursed witch fainted gently as a sweaty mess into Thermia’s arms.

Chapter 4 - A New Harmony to a Moving Melody

“Your mend spell is very good,” Melody commented to her newest and first ever student as she perused the pages of Zelena, or Zeromancer’s spellbook, complete with its loose leaf inserts and taped notes. “Better than mine. I always just make one up on the spot. Sometimes it takes me a few minutes...”

“Before I got shard struck, I could barely repair a mug. So I don’t know how good it really was...” Zelena chuckled humbly.

“It’s good. We just needed something extreme for what you did out there. Sorry I manipulated you a little bit.”

“Of course not!” Zelena shook her head vigorously. “If you didn’t do what you did back there, who knows what would’ve happened? I’m so lucky everything worked out. I’m such a big big big fan of the Golden Guard, really! And to be knocked out by Thermia... what an honor!”

“And your curse? Is the costume working?” Melody asked, not wanting to get into GG affairs.

Zelena—nay, Zeromancer—spun on the spot, twirling her heavy robe. Studded to it were cutouts zeroes made from depleted sea stars that helped to siphon off the curse’s cold power. Her outfit hugged her front tightly, leaving a wide swath of creamy cleavage visible as one large zero clasp held its front molded to her curves as the fabric met beneath her bellybutton and hung loose at her lower body.

“I feel a lot better. No serious outbursts! Plus, Thermia is teaching me how to control the cold way better than when I was panicking. Man, if only I had her fire powers too!”

“Good, good. So... you’re with the GG now then?”

“Yeah!” Zeromancer clapped her small hands together excitedly. And then less so. “...Yeah. I guess A-Tech is... denying my existence?”

“You really can’t remember too much about what happened?”

“It’s all so hazy. Just a dream. I worked for them for a few months, but it was nothing magic related. But I definitely wasn’t a null, and my magic was nothing as powerful as this. I’m sorry I can’t remember more, Melody!”

“Well, I’m sure the GG and Detective Shi will do their best to get to the bottom of this.”

“I know! I owe you guys so much! I’ve been a huge fan for so long!”

“So that’s what this is about?” Melody raised her open palm toward the sky. A misty, smoky vision of Zeromancer’s little GG shrine wavered in the air directly above her hand.

“Heh heh...” Zelena blushed, which was quite an effect given her milky white, bordering on light blue skin tone. “I’ll make costumes for all of them! I have so many ideas that I could try. Maybe enhance their powers. I can’t wait to try and design one for Surgeon. I couldn’t really pull off his costume, if you wanna call it that. I was kinda just ‘sexy nurse.’ Hey, Melody, what about you? Do you want one?” Zelena belted out rapidly without pause for breath.

“That... won’t be necessary,” Melody demurred.

“Oh oh and I won’t stop working on devising countermeasures. Sorry about the shrine, really! It’s just that the GG are so powerful so it was good for me to practice. Imagine me thinking I could actually counter them, haha!” Zelena blushed as red as a tomato once more as she nervously traced her hand through her silken hair. “But I do need to keep hunting that vampire girl that almost killed Athena. And I’ll do research on anything and anyone the GG asks me to!”

“I’m sure they’ll be glad to have you,” Melody smiled.

“Wait, you don’t want a costume? They’ll be glad to have me?” Zelena’s eyes opened wide at Melody’s carefully chosen words when she finally processed them.

“I’m just a consultant. Actually, I don’t think I’m going to be a liaison for much longer...” Melody broke the truth to Zelena.

“Oh. Oh no. Melody, please don’t leave me! I need you! I want to be your student, but, but... the GG has to oversee my parole...” Zelena fidgeted with her fingers.

“I’ll still be around, Zelena. I just won’t be associated with the GG so much anymore. You can see me in LA when I’m not here.”

“So you’ll still teach me?” Zelena asked with hopeful eyes.

“Of course.”

Zelena rushed forward and embraced Melody in a hug. Her breasts flattened against Melody’s far firmer form, the Korean sporting a much tighter abdomen and her own unforgiving breasts.

“Ooof... you really work out, huh?” Zelena spoke with a tinge of jealousy.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Thank you, Melody. I’d follow you wherever,” she squeezed her mentor even tighter.

“Okay, okaaaay!” Melody effortlessly broke Zelena’s hug with a pry of her fingers. “We witches gotta stick together. And you could be the most powerful of us all.”

And just in time too. Thermia and Athena came into the large gymnasium where Zelena did her training and lessons.

“Double Z! Are you okay now?”

“Athena!! I’m sooooo sorry!”

The two old friends were excited to greet another without fear of mortality.

“Why do we always get into the weirdest shit?” Athena asked.

“Don’t know. But I’m gonna get revenge on that Bloodburst!” Zelena swore.

“We’ll help, y’all! She sounds too dangerous to be left alone. You don’t get too gung ho now, y’hear?” Thermia warned Zelena.

“Of course, of course. I’m your trusty research assistant!” Zelena saluted. “Hey A, check this out!”

Zelena reached into the Zero styled utility belt she wore around her waist. Reaching into one of the compartments, she brought out a long, wooden handle. Far too long to be held in that little pocket. It continued to extend until the bristles were barely visible. And then got stuck.

“Come on, come on!” Zelena tugged on the handle as the broom head caught on the edges of the pocket.

“I told you to start with something easier,” Melody chuckled as she extended a single finger at Zelena’s pocket and swirled it.

“Whoaaaa!” Zelena pulled the whole broom out smoothly.

“Looking good! Can you keep a little girlfriend in there for me?” Athena smirked.

“Hey, uh... I don’t know. Melody?” Zelena asked.

“Don’t even think about it.”

The four women had a good laugh.

“Well, things are looking up!” Zelena declared.

A burst of cold emanated from between her exposed cleavage, lashing out for Athena. But the depleted shards on her costume glowed, and all that hit Athena was a bit of frost in her hair.

They all looked at Zelena nervously as Thermia waved her hand over Athena to warm her back up.

“Ah... heh heh...” Zelena fidgeted.