Another Way

Chapter 8: Shadows

"Sue?"

The former student's mouth was left slightly agape as she processed the show that had just happened in front of her, the sheer power so casually displayed making her feel somewhat on edge. Were those... fighters? actors? performers? the exception, or was that how strong just everyone in here was? Was there anyone around here that couldn't break her body in half in one way or another-

"Sue?"

Another go was finally successful at snapping her out of her shock, Sue blinking a couple times before looking over to the side, Solstice eying her with a bit of concern.

"Are you okay?"

"I... yeah, I think sho. Just... didn't expect that."

Solstice nodded slowly and have her a light smile, reaching up to lightly pat her shoulder.

"Yeah, that's very understandable."

"It was sooooo cool!"

Spark's interjection made it hard for Sue to worry anywhere near as much, a shaky hand reaching down to continue stroking the kit's head after setting the other little one back down, sixth sense letting the once student know that Joy's reactions were somewhat similar to her own- though with less existential dread and more awe.

"Yeah, it was. M-makesh me wonder how did nobody get hurt."

"Practice, practice, practice. I'm sure they've rehearsed their entire routine in full over a dozen times before tonight, and if I know anything about Snowdrop, she made sure they had a plan for every single thing possibly going wrong."

Sue slowly nodded in response to Sundance's comment, the apparent precautions calming her down a bit, guess it wasn't as insane as it looked at a glance. Still, with the amount of flashy and extremely dangerous looking things suddenly happening in quick succession, she couldn't help but wonder just what would've happened if something did go wrong.

"I-I can imagine. Wouldn't it end horribly if someone did shlip up regardless though? That all looked really scary."

"It wouldn't be pretty and they'd need medical care, but there's no way they'd risk lethal injury like that in the first place."

"Plus- as Snowdrop told me outright a couple times, they're pulling their punches the entire time, they just know how to hide it."

Sue wasn't sure which of these responses confounded her further- the apparent fact that most of the creatures here could survive a burning kick, a thunderbolt, a literal stone spike erupting from the ground, or whatever the hell that laser was, or the casually admitted truth that this wasn't even the worst any of them could do and that presumably if they did put in their worst the results would be even flashier and more intimidating than that.

Plop literally anyone from here on Earth in medieval times and they'd be worshiped as a god.

"And I'm sure she won't mind chatting with you about that either Sue, if we can manage to find her in the crowd at least- but until then, let's not get this cooking get any colder now, eh~?"

As awestruck as everyone still might've been, Sundance's comment did a good job in snapping them back to the reality of having a delicious feast right in front of their faces. Comet tried to excitedly reach out towards the portion of small dumplings on the plate closest to him and his mom, even levitating a couple of them up in the air with his psychic magic before Solstice responded with her own glow, putting one back down.

"One at a time sweetie~. Oh, Spark, do you need help with getting things in reach?"

In her pondering, Sue hadn't even noticed how Spark was trying to reach for things on the table while on her lap, having to stand up on her hind legs and just barely reaching over onto the table with her front paws, ineffectually swatting at the nearby plates and bowls in lieu of asking for help. Or at least, until now when her mom's best friend brought attention to it.