Foxglove in Love
(Possible) Deleted scene from ‘Good times, Bat times’
By: Stainless Steel
Rat
Authors Note: Why did Foxglove fall so quickly and so hard for Dale? Actually he was doing the falling... Hmmm...
Winifred (never Freddie) was more peeved than usual. Considering her normal attitude was that of a Tyransaurus with a sore tooth, this boded less that well.
"Mouldering mopheads! Where is that flying dishcloth?" she grumped. Her voice rang around the dimly lit laundrette, "Foxglove!"
She stomped over to the table where her magic book lay open on the Potestas Summus spell. It wasn't supposed to be like this. When she'd originally done her familiar summoning, she'd gotten Lou. Not being satisfied with a bug, (and not a bright one at that) she tried again and got Bud. Better, but she was still less than happy (as noted before this was practically a profession for her).
Then Foxglove had arrived. Not only had she appeared of her own accord, but she'd been able to talk to Winifred without the familiarisation spell (just as well, because she'd spilled one of her early potions on the book with it in, and turned it into a cheese sandwich). From what she'd read, a bat ran second only to a black cat in witchyness level.
The creature had seemed eager to help, but tended to come up short on results. She didn't show the proper respect, i.e. naked terror at Winifred's powers like the others. She seemed to treat the whole thing as a big game, and her always upbeat and cheery demeanour always grated on Winifred's nerves. However Winifred had kept her around purely for the cachet. She wasn't exactly sure what that was, but she felt she needed some.
"Grrr! You'd think something with such big ears would have better hearing!" she said, rather unfairly. "If only there was some way to make her obey me to the letter, an utter slave to my will..." She started riffling through the pages of the Librum Centum et Unum Veneficus Incantari, looking for mind control spells. Her understanding of the language used was spotty at best, but with the help of an English/Latin dictionary she could usually figure out the general intent of a spell.
This would do the trick. One of the bits she could translate said it would make the target (or possibly bowl of flowers, but target fitted the context better) beholden to no-one but the first person they saw after the spell was cast, and utterly obedient to their will. If she'd actually been able to read the whole thing, she might have found out it was not actually what she thought. She practiced the incantation several times, ready to cast it without referring to the book, possibly not the wisest idea.
&&&
Foxglove came flying in through the ventilator shaft, humming an ultrasonic tune and enjoying the ripples that bounced back off the flat surface. Winifred would be really pleased with her. She'd found the lobster lips the witch had told her to get. Admittedly it had taken a lot longer than expected because she'd had to hunt through the trash cans of every seafood restaurant and fishmongers in three districts to find them. But by hunting high and low, even fending off a hungry cat with a wing full of garbage, she'd finally managed to get enough. However she was just so happy to be with someone who actually wanted her, she'd do it again in a moment.
"So there you are!" Winifred growled at the cute chiropterid. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to get back? What kept you?"
As Foxglove dropped the lobster lips on the stand by the cauldron, and started to explain the witch cut her off. "No, forget it! I don't want to hear more lame excuses... Just land over there! Maybe you can make yourself useful by helping me with a spell."
"Oh my, really?" the bat was overjoyed. "I'd love to help. What do I do?"
"Just sit down and shut up." Foxglove did as she was told, and watched with alert interest, rather than fear as the head of the scrubbing brush that served as a wand pointed at her.
"Apogee, Apology, Pedigree, Perigee!" A zappy flash of magic shot out and enveloped the bishojo bat, surrounding her in a radiant aura. It faded to reveal... well exactly what was there before.
"Ohhhh... That was pretty. Can we do it again?" Foxglove said, looking right at the witch.
Winifred pursed her lips. If it had worked. "No. Fly up and circle the room." The bat immediately did so, and Winifred gave a grin that would have scared children, if any had been there to see it. Of course any children present would have had enough other troubles that a grin, even one as nasty as Winifred's would be the least of them. "Right. Fly back the other way." Once again the bat did as she was told. Winifred laid out and lit a a stub that had been one of her biggest and most dribbly candles.
"Now come down here and stick your wing in the candle flame."
The bat stopped, hovering in mid-air. "But won't it burn me?"
Winifred cursed. If the spell was doing what it was supposed to, she should have come straight down and done it, no questions, no argument. "Arrgh! Never mind. Just... Oh, go help Bud and Lou over at the drive-in."
Clearly she still wasn't powerful enough to make spells like that work. Even though it had appeared to be an easy one. But just wait... as soon as she finished the Potestas Summus potion, she would be an all powerful sorceress and the world would tremble at her feet! (of course, most creatures upon seeing her feet would tremble anyway, for they were no more appealing than any other part of her.)
"I will destroy the fools who fired me from the library and rule the world with a scrubbing brush of iron and... get people to bring me tributes of chocolate, you just wait and _see_!" Evil laugh #43, 'the world will tremble at my feet.' echoed through the laundromat and the night outside.
&&&
Foxglove fluttered through the sky towards the laundromat. She felt a bit odd, but decided it was nothing, maybe a bad luna moth from last night. If she'd been privy to what had actually been meant to happen, she might have had a different opinion. The spell Winifred had cast was actually a powerful love spell, making the target fall in love with the first person they saw, regardless of race, species or gender. What's more she'd cast it successfully. Unfortunately she'd scrambled the incantation. The spell would now make the target in love with the first person they saw falling.
Because she was feeling strange, she wasn't making half her normal speed, and it took her far too long to get to the drive-in. As she approached, she saw Bud entangled around a light pole. He appeared to be attached to some sort of miniature plane with a bunch of chipmunks and mice in. Lou managed to pull him free, leaving the plane stuck somehow to the top. Her sonar song pinged a large flying object and modulating the outgoing sound into a chirp gave a positive confirmation, as did the faint vacuuming sound.
Winifred came in and made pick-up on the others, leaving her to cover the remaining distance alone. She was about to turn and go back when one of the chipmunks fell out of the plane, to plummet. Without realising it, she suddenly knew she had to save him. Stooping like a hawk, she closed her eyes and hummed a targeting melody, processing Doppler shifts and vectors with a precision that would make a homing missile sulk in it's weapons bay, knowing it had been hopelessly outmatched.
Bite! She caught the chipmunk by the scruff of his shirt, and lowered him onto her feet as she flew. This allowed the saviour to get the first good look at her savee. He was adorable! That cute little red nose, the round, friendly face, his taste in shirts, for some reason it all added up to a major hunk. She was normally reserved around other animals, but for some reason she didn't feel that way about this one. She just knew he was the one for her, her true love, and always would be.
He thanked her, and his voice was that of a young god come to earth (if the aforementioned voice had been speeded up half a dozen times, but let's not be picky.)
"You're very welcome." she replied, trying to be as cute and enticing as possible.
"Uh... did you get something in your eye?", he asked.
"Only you big boy." she replied, thinking that that puzzled look he wore only made him cuter.
"You know, I didn't think bats could do this." he said.
"Do what, darling?" she asked playfully.
"Hang in mid-air carrying this much weight."
Up until that moment she wouldn't have cared if she was carrying a mail sack, but sudden realisation forced her to notice gravity, which had figuratively been standing around looking pointedly at it's watch.
"Uh oh!" she said with a worried expression.
"What's the matter?"
"We can't!"
She wrapped her wings around him as they dropped out of the sky, not caring much what they were going to land in. She had her cutie, and somehow, everything was going to be okay.
Disclaimer: No bats or chipmunks were hurt in the making of this fanfic.