How Many People Can We Fit Into Two Bodies?

Big Team Base, Training Room. August 10th

Fearless was trying out the facilities trying to see what it might offer her.  The woman’s twin blades twirling keeping it simple for now to warm herself up. They weren’t used to fighting as a pair yet, Maria was the person who was hardened in combat, Elena had just in theory self defense training from her dad. Fearless was their relationship, them combined so she was good naturally, theory put into practice, a touch of kindness to remind them they aren’t slashing people to hurt them anymore.

Fearless twirled their blades around  just hitting a dummy, working to hone speedy moves with enough power to stop whatever comes at them. Still this was a warm up for them. They were just getting started focused in like it was a mission for EliZe.

Fearless stops for a minute, splitting up to the two who comprised her.

Maria asks smiling at Elena, “Think we can crank up the difficulty?.”

Elena nods her head “Ya, I feel amazing, let’s do this!”

Fearless stretches “Alright, I’m so ready for this.”

Just then, Solae slips into the room, distracted by thoughts of her combat scenario and restraint. She freezes when she sees the two strangers in the room, and makes to leave, when the strangers’ scenario starts up around her. She presses herself back into one of the room corners and gets ready to catch any wayward projectiles telepathically. She doesn’t want to intrude on someone else’s practice time, but getting hurt before she can introduce herself, or more importantly, toss some robots around wouldn’t be great either, so this seems like the best compromise.

Fearless grins saying to themself “Okay, got it set to Wolfe Island, treasure raid, that was a fun fight.”

She draws her swords again combining them into one. Two lizard men, a golem gal and a harpy were surrounding her. It will be just like then, gotta make sure that they could hit peak Maria levels of combat.

Fearless jumped in the air dodging a tail sweet from Lizard one, but instead of going for her balde she punched the Lizard in the face forcing her weight on him. She slashed her sword at the other lizard, grinning. It seemed like Elena’s boxing training would be useful after all.  The lizard moves back the Golem thrusting her rocky fists at them. The hero dodges them, splits the two in two again to trust one end inside of the rocky arm and holds on as the golem raises back her fist. Fearless jumped off the blade using the remaining one to stan the golem’s shoulder blade. The sword glows a bit as the pair focus on an enchanting spell and as she pulls it out and slashes at the head the golem is taken down.

The remaining Lizard and Harpy have teamed up, the harpy holding the Lizard in her talons before throwing him at them. Fearless is grabbed and slashed by the Lizards claws. She teases “Egar aren’t we.”

Before wrapping her legs around the Lizard using her upper body strength to lift her body up only to flip them around and slam the Lizard on the ground, knocking him out with a punch. The harpy looks around and Fearless waves “So, do you really want to do this?”

The harpy flies off and  Fearless shouts “later cutie”

The hologram fades and Maria collects her other sword from the ground joining them as one again. The pair pants “I got beat up way less this time, good job us, me, them, we? Me ya, go me, go Fearless.”

Solae peels away from her hiding spot and walks up to Fearless. “Um, h-hi! I’m Solae. Uh, sorry for interrupting your practice time! I uh, didn’t really notice you when I walked in? I was lost in thought, and got stuck. Your fighting style was really cool though! And I think I heard you say “we” just now?” She doesn’t make eye contact--looking more at the side of Fearless’s face than dead center.

Fearless smiled at Solae, she waved cheerfully “No problem, you're on a big team, I saw you on the database and you're in here so like, We’re good.”

Fearless smiles at Solae’s question and says “Oh yes, we’re Fearless but we’re also”

 The girl splits into two again Elena waving excitedly, Maria giving a nod.

“Hiya, I’m Elena, one half of Fearless, and I got a web show about baking sweets.”

“Elena, I don’t think you needed that part, I’m Maria, Kicker of asses.”

Maria grabs her other halves hand “We’re bound to each other but we can split for a while.”

 Elena nods “Maria’s a demigirl, They/She, I’m a trans lady, she/her. Gosh I love saying that stuff in the open, and I can get as dame dazed as I like too.”

Maria let’s go of Elena’s hand and pats her fusion partner on the back “Nice to meet you, why were you curious?”

Solae does a double blink at the sight of these two splitting so seamlessly, but can’t help the wide grin that spreads across her face. “Oh my God Luna was right. Wait, don’t tell her I said that. She cannot know I said that. But, uh...” She screws up her face in concentration. “I’m sorry, just give me a second, we haven’t done this in a while.” A new figure flickers into view.

Where Solae is all warm colors and heat, this new person is swathed in cool blues and whites. They look almost like a photonegative of a human being, and if Maria or Elena were to look closely they’d see she has no shadow.

“Whoa, Solae you let me out? Thank you God I was starting to lose feeling in my limbs! But why--” They freeze when they see Maria and Elena. “Oh my God it’s the other fusion. You met the other fusion without me???”

“It was an accident! I didn’t notice them when I came in. And I brought you out once I did, so you can’t complain.”

“Fiiine,” the figure whines. “Anyway, you know Solae, demi girl, she/they. I’m Luna, and pronouns are for people who have a firm presence on this mortal coil. Together, we make up.” They start to say something, but Solae talks over them. “Two different sets of superpowers, personified.”

“Solae! We’ve been over this! We were supposed to say ‘Celestial Siblings’! It was gonna look super cool!”

“No, it was gonna look super dumb.”

They start to bicker, but flicker out of existence before things can get heated. In their place stands a teen wearing just plain jeans and a t-shirt--a stark contrast to the others, who were wearing super suits. “That’s enough of that. Hi, I’m Dawn, she/they, and those two hijacked my body a couple months ago. Nice to meet you.” They extend a hand first to Elena then to Maria.

Maria and Elena hold back any giggling, these three were so cute. Who would have guessed there would be another fusion around?  Maria teased with a playful shove on Elena "I'd know a thing or two about body hijackers."

Elena nods her head smiling "got right in there and bam we became something new."

She goes on to properly greet Dawn with a bit of a courtesy saying "Pleasure to meet you Dawn. As well as Solae and Luna. Nice to meet another Trio."

Maria nods her head "Ya, It's cool meeting someone else like us. We didn't think we would meet one."

The fusion combines again introducing herself "and I'm Fearless, she/they.  You all have some swell looks."

Dawn grins uncharacteristically widely. “Right back atcha! This memory of seeing you two fight is amazing. I’m actually totally mundane if you can believe it—those two stole my legacy. Well, technically they ARE my legacy. It’s complicated. But I’d rather have siblings than powers anyway so it all works out. We’re working on getting ourselves permanently split so I can slap Luna for flirting with my celebrity idol. I take it things work a little differently for you two?”

Fearless nods their head listening intently to Dawn, they were really interesting. She says “Don’t worry about being mundane. Collectively between us we just have Maria’s slight supernatural sense as a power. Everything else is crafted skills. Maybe a bit of demon magic, we’re not totally sure about that.”

She giggles a bit moving from where she was to a bench to sit down and keep this conversation going . Fearless explains we’re actually locked into each other. Our friend EliZe made herself a human body, at the time Maria made herself a demon. Anyway, we aren’t sure that it has anything to do with it but what we do know is we were standing in the same place at the same time but years apart and when EliZe made her body it messed up time and I slowly came into being.”

Fearless polishes her sword a bit while keeping the story going just a tiny bit longer “So they can unfuse using a spell they refined from a friend, but because Maria and Elena are magically linked it actually removes their individual fighting ability. The bodies kind of naturally move back to being mine but they can out in this body without splitting too. ”

Maria smiled saying “Like right now, we just switched over to me, Maria.”

Dawn laughs. “Ok, to clarify, I like being mundane. It’s a great way to circumvent my parents’ expectations, and I have an excuse not to go fight monsters, even if my dumb siblings keep dragging me into messes.”

They sit down on the bench next to Fearless, not too far apart, and lean back a bit, using their hands to keep them from falling over. “That being said, you’re really cool,” they say, turning to face them. “Though are you two all right after time fusing? How far apart were you?”

“65 Years” Elena’s voice answers the last part.

She leans back, the posture changing as her legs go across and everything fits a more ‘proper’ vibe. Elena says “Being Mundane is nice for sure, glad you can avoid doing that often.”

Fearless goes onto finish explaining the posture loosening up a bit “We’re fine, there is little quirks but we were both super gay, so we didn’t need to worry about relationships being an issue and everything else we’ve worked out with time.”

If Fearless chooses to watch, they’ll notice Dawn unconsciously mirroring their posture choices. They seem eerily comfy-yet-uncomfy when sitting Properly and Casually, and seem most settled somewhere in between, which is where they end up once Fearless finishes speaking. “Well, welcome to the 21st century! I hope you like it here. Definitely super open about identity, which is really nice. Let me know if you ever want to catch up on pop culture? I’m way behind on normal people movies and music, and it can sometimes feel weird to ask people who’ve watched stuff already a bunch of times to do it again with you. If it’s not something I can watch or listen to for whatever reason, one of the other two will definitely be down.”

Elena let’s out the happiest “I LOVE IT HERE!”

She was a big fan of the modern era, it wasn’t perfect but it was far better than it was back then. Elena chirps the cheerful mood not leaving her “I mostly just watch gay stuff with Maria and EliZe now adays but I am always happy to check out new art.”

Maria leans in and teases Dawn “Are you asking out Elena, Fearless, all  three of us? Or is this just a friend thing?”

“Oh, all three of you, definitely. Whoever you want, whenever you want. And uh...whether it’s a friend thing is up to you, I guess? Romance is...complicated, for me.” She scoots a bit closer to Fearless. “Definitely open to more though,” she says with a wink. “What’s next on your list? I haven’t seen a lot of gay stuff.”

They smiled wide, Dawn was such a cutie, she didn’t want to know the whole trio better.  Fearless says “I am good with it being whatever it feels like with whoever feels like being there.”

She moves a bit closer and says after a moment of thought “There is this new magical girl anime that is supposed to be really gay and good.”

Fearless adds “if that’s too long, we could watch a movie, ummm I am sure we can find a good one or play some game together, Maria stol...reappropriated some consoles recently so Elena is trying to learn video games.

“Whatever it feels like with whoever feels like being there seems perfect,” says Dawn, nodding. “And I like most things as long as you’re ok with me being a movie talker, but if anime’s next, well.” A wave of shadow washes over Dawn’s body, and she’s replaced by Luna wearing the Sailor Mercury uniform. “That’s my division.” She pauses for a moment, tilts her head as though trying to listen to someone a bit out of range. “Dawn is cool with video games, she says you guys can be bad at them together. Solae likes movies and Zelda.”

Fearless smirked a bit, gosh these cuties were cute. Elena was bubbling inside happy to have someone who wanted to watch and try new things with her. After all it was a core bond in their household between herself and EliZe so many things were new for them. Maria liked watching them find new things to love so she was excited too. Maria missed out in a ton of stuff being a professional criminal and warrior since she was like 15 so it was weird being the person who knew things.

Fearless says “Great, sounds like we have multiple dates we can do. We’ll just have to try them all and get to know each other, there is a lot of us and different combos of us right. So we’ll figure out what works. Elena’s the one look for serious relationships the most, I am down for them...Maria is open to it but...”

The arms of their body move behind their own head and maria says “I am not sure how serious I want to be but, I want to get to know y’all better so if we wind up friends, people who vaguely dislike each other, partners, whatever, I am just happy to try something new too. Plus it’s kinda like, wow we got a lot in common so, let’s see what works.”

Fearless’s face is covered in blush, Maria seemingly has tapped out to hide that emotion that still showed up visually. Fearless finishes their collective thoughts with “That sounds good anyway? We’re all good with being friends, we can talk about fusion stuff and all that.”

Luna smiles. “Yeah, no matter what happens, it’s just cool to know there’s someone else out there who really gets it. And who actually wants to watch anime with me, cause that never happens. Do you listen to KPOP too? Has anyone introduced you guys to social media?”

Fearless nods her head agreeing and answers the questions gleefully “Maria loves anime, she was a big fan when her life was pretty normal, she got a bit behind when she lived on the road. I don’t think any of us have listened to KPOP but we’re always down for something new.  We all have Chitters although I haven’t really posted on mine much. Also Elena has a BeTube channel called Sappho’s Sweets, it;s a queer cooking show. It’s super fun.”

She pulls out her phone and says “Here, put your number in this phone, we’ll put it to all of our others and send you all our stuff so you can add us. We’ll have our date soon, next time we’re both free?”

“OK, I will trade you personalized playlists every week in exchange for cooking lessons. If you want more, Solae can teach you some of Dawn’s Armenian desserts--but she only knows how to make those. Just please. Teach me how to cheesecake,” the look on their face is one of intense, nearly comical focus.

Then they visibly shake themselves. “Wait. You’re handing me something. Phone! Sweet. Do you want me to put each of us in individually? Or lump us together as one contact? We do have different proxy numbers, but it all goes to the same phone so if you want to just indicate which one you want by emoji, or if you want to write “THAT MOON ONE” in all caps in a language I can’t understand like Dawn’s dad, you can do that too. Your pick.”

“It’s a deal, you shall learn the way of the cupcake and more  from a girl from the 50s and I’ll bake while listening to your music. Armenian desserts sound interesting, I’d love to hear about them some time.”

Elena smiled, Luna was just so adorable, what luck that they ran into each other in this base! Perhaps it was fate like fusing with Maria, it could have been anyone else but instead she found someone she wanted to be bound to. She rubs her head a bit “I am not very good at tech yet but I think the one that gives you each a different number is the best, after all you are all your own person! Just like us three are!”

Luna grins. “You really do get it! I’m so glad.” She pushes a few buttons on the phone and then hands it back. “OK, we’re all in there separately--I’m “The Cool One,” Solae is “The Warm One,” and Dawn is “The One That Has The Birth Certificate” You can just text once though, and if you want, I can help you set up your own proxies. Later though. For now...” A flash of light illuminates the room and leaves Solae standing in Luna’s place. “If I came here to punch stuff, and you came here to punch stuff, maybe we can punch stuff together? I’ll show you my favorite programs if you show me yours?”

Maria shifted in taking her turn to speak  “Luna seems nice, and y’all don’t need to worry our phones are all protected and private, I have done a crime or two for money, best to know how to spoof stuff and all that. We have two phones but ya it might be best to be able to all talk on one number. Thanks.”

And grinned at Solae saying “I am down to punch some shit if you are. I am new so I don’t really have favorites yet, that one was from my memories, I set it up. It was a fight I had a few months ago.  I am down to fight side by side with you, I gotta get used to teamwork with someone who isn’t Elena, Fearless or EliZe. ”

“Oh, it’s not the privacy we’re worried about. It’s i-individual autonomy. Not everyone respects that, you know?” she says, rubbing her neck with one hand.

"Ya, that sucks, We're still new to this, thanks for helping us out Solae."

She put a hand on her shoulder "We'll you got 3 fused cuties who will respect the three of you. We can all have each other's back."

“T-that’s good to hear,” Solae said. She has a bit of an ambient glow most of the time, but Maria can see it deepen in hue, rather like a blush. “Anyway. Let’s punch some people, yeah? I put in a more generic program so we have room to figure out how well we can work together. I’m j-just gonna go set it up then.” Their blush deepens to a darker red as they scurry over to the control panel.

Elena internally teases Maria "someone's got another crush."

Fearless joins in but more assuring "I think we all do."

Maria watches Solae head off and stands up saying out loud "Let's kick ass Solae!!"

The girl runs after her ready for a fun evening of training with some nice cuties.