"Hit," I said. "I tear the formori into tiny quievering bits of putrid, rotten flesh." Duma nosed the d10 and sent it rolling. It rolled straight across my tail and landed on a ten. Damn. What happened over there? I queried. It had been maybe twenty minutes as Duma reckoned it, but I had just come out of my faint. My other half had barely told me anything.

"You are suddenly beset upon by three black spiral dancers, as well as..." his gaze moved over to the opening pages of the Bastet breed book, and my heart sank. "As well as a giant ugly pale white thing with giant saws for fingers." I told you. Nikki's full raven. I scanned her. Strictly accidently, of course.

Nosey cat. Remember the old adage. "I call in an air strike." My counterpart's fur went straight up.

"That isn't in the rules!" I tapped a black claw on an item on my equipment sheet- radio. Old adage my ta-

Now, now, don't be vulgar, I scolded. "I have a radio. I use the radio to call in an airstrike. The rules can go to hell."

How'd I end up with you? my other side lamented. A hypocritical power-gamer. Are you always like this? Well, it was a valid complaint, but I wasn't. No way would you see black spiral dancers, a giant saw-thing, and fomori all in a remote, strategically insignificant place like a public restroom. They had just had a long car trip, he protested, hearing what I was thinking even though I hadn't meant him too.

A, knock that off. B, that's bull and you know it because C, black spiral dancers don't drive. You're only trying to avoid my question. What happened?

I don't know, he admitted finally. Doesn't make much sense. She had electrophytokinesis, which is kind of ridiculous, but, I suppose, no more ridiculous than having little pop-up windows in your mind telling you what someone's DNA says. Useful, certainly. But more puzzling is the behavior of her mother. She was horrified to see me, like I was a freak or something as opposed to a perfectly normal manifestation of your detached animalistic behaviors. I scratched him behind the ears.

Well, we'd better grab Complications of the Change and Encyclopedia of Powers and go and meet her. I looked at the locked door. Though first we have to get out. I yawned, revealing pointy teeth, but refused to let myself doze off. I needed to plan.
----

I activated the Network and started combing through any newspaper articles, blogs, etc, looking for any mention of what had happened to Nikki. Tobias had put a lot of time into making some special search algorithims, and that would be useful for this. The search would proceed automatically, and in the meantime I could finish my game. "I lob a grenade in the ugly pale thing's mouth," I said. I rolled the die. Seven. A hit. Duma nosed the die. A three.

"He blows up. A flying saw blade takes a nick out of your left ear. It's too fast for even a Swara to dodge."

"I shift to crinos form and dive into battle..."