Tails crossed

Prologue // Double Trouble's dilemma

"I've got better things to do. It was fun distracting you, though." She-ra winked, then she was gone.

Double Trouble was left alone in their makeshift cage. The eight foot warrior, which Catra had failed to mention could lift giant metal grates, had trapped the disguised shapeshifter in a giant metal grate. Captured between the steel bars and an unpleasantly rocky cliff face, Double Trouble could only watch the rest of the battle take place in front of them. She-ra lunged on top of the falling First Ones ship, obliterating the boulders that weighed it down.

"Yikes. Time to make my escape before scary lady comes back." Double Trouble muttered.

Double Trouble had come here on a sort of test run from their potential new boss, the Horde Captain Catra. After a rather outstanding performance by theirs truly, Catra had decided to brief Double Trouble on the current situation, even giving them some backstory to help them get into character. It was mostly Adora this, She-ra that. Then Sparkles, Bow, and a bunch of unkind expletives to describe the other friends of Adora that Catra was clearly jealous of.

Sure that every eye was distracted, they felt the change begin, their body growing smaller and more lithe. They took the form of an Etherian creature small enough to slip through one of the square gaps in the grate. As soon as they were free, that's when they made their fatal error. Double Trouble again shifted into the form of Catra. They slunk along the rickety wooden outposts that lined the giant crater under the First One's ship, keeping an eye on the raging battle. She-ra was suddenly gone, but they could see the flower Princess and former Waste champion Huntara well below, guiding the roots that lifted the ship out of the hole. Horde Soldiers fled all around as the system of roots attacked.

Double Trouble was keeping such a good eye on the crater, that they did not see She-ra until her strong hands had snatched them up.

"Nope. You're not running back to the Frightzone." She-ra asserted firmly, holding Double Trouble in an impossibly tight grasp.

"Let me go!" Double Trouble snapped, forcing the kind of bratty venom into their voice that they had seen just from silently observing Catra for days.

She-ra tutted, a condescending sound that made Double Trouble inwardly roll their eyes.
These girls are obsessed with each other. They would flirt while the world was ending, I bet.

"You won't be as much of a threat when fifty Brightmoon guards have spears pointed at you every second of the day. How does that sound, Catra?" She-ra retorted.

I like audiences, but sheesh.
Double Trouble feigned a cocky grin.
"I'm a threat wherever I am."
That sounded weird. I should have spent more time watching kitty before agreeing to this.

She-ra scoffed and cradled Double Trouble close to her chest.
"Hang on, or don't."

"What do you-" Double Trouble had to bite their tongue to stifle a very out-of-character scream as the blonde warrior leapt down from the shabby wooden railing- straight down, about 100 feet- and landed with a booming thud below the ship.

Double Trouble found that their fabricated claws were digging into She-ra's shoulders, but the woman seemed unaffected. She carried Double Trouble to the underside of the ship, where treelike roots clustered thickly and held up the massive First One's artifact. Princess Flowers and Huntara stood side by side, waving cheerfully at their friend. The boy with the bow was also there, and from what Catra had told them, his name was pretty on the nose.
Bow had begun to make his way to She-ra, when something just appeared in a flash of bright, glittering light between him and the blonde warrior.

"I'm here!" The thing said as it materialized into a pink girl, who Double Trouble recognized as the current ruler of Brightmoon.

I already knew who you were, Queen Glimmer. Double Trouble thought, secretly impressed with her kind of power.

"You didn't save any bad guys for me." Glimmer said disappointedly, when her eyes then locked onto Double Trouble being carried like an unwilling cat.
"Nevermind, you totally did!"

Double Trouble let out a sharp yelp of alarm as Glimmer raised a fistful of dangerous sparkles, aiming a punch for their face. She-ra held out a hand to block them from harm, shooing Glimmer away.

The also very blatantly named rebel crossed her arms in a huff.
"I owe her a punch to the face!"

"No, don't hurt her. She's being strangely complacent right now." She-ra said, peering down at her prisoner curiously.
"I think we should take her back to the prison."

"You mean the only spare room without cushions?" Glimmer asked, looking dubious. "We can't have her in the castle. That's my house!"

"I can't let her run back to the Horde. I know this will weaken their forces." She-ra told her friend eagerly.
"I'll watch her myself if I have to. She won't get away."

Glimmer seemed unconvinced.
"I don't want her anywhere near the new murals of my mother."

What's that about? Double Trouble wondered what Catra would have to do with Princess Glimmer's late mother.

"I'll find somewhere else for her eventually then, but please, you can't stand here and tell me to let her go." She-ra stared down her friend, who reluctantly looked away.

"This is a bad idea." Glimmer muttered. "Whatever. Let's just get back to Brightmoon."

"Talk about me like I'm not here." Double Trouble piped up. "Yeah, that's fine. Oh, and be sure to argue in front of your prisoner, too. That'll really sell that you know what you're doing."

"Well, she was being quiet." She-ra sighed.
"Bow, can I borrow some of the rope from your arrow?"

A rope? How old fashioned. Double Trouble thought pompously. I could slip out of it if I changed now, but...

An idea crossed their mind. How fun would it be to put on Double Trouble's biggest performance yet? If they could convince Adora- and hopefully by extent, her friends- that they were Catra, they could easily use that to the Horde's advantage and get a nice fat bonus on their first payday. This would impress their new boss and cement their status in the Horde. Not to mention the personal drama that they could create just for the hell of it. It shouldn't be too hard to get under Adora's skin, at least...

"I guess you got me." Double Trouble remarked.

Glimmer did not look convinced.
"See? She's plotting something already."

"She won't be able to do anything if she's locked in that barrier you can create!" She-ra reasoned as she took a handful of rope from Bow and wrapped it around DT's arms, pinning them to their sides.

"Sparkles is right, I'm never not plotting something." Double Trouble offered, to which they were ignored as Glimmer and the now de-transformed Adora bickered on and on.

Perfect. They have no idea. That cat will thank me when I finally free myself and come back with more intel than she could have ever hoped for.

(The prologue is rather short but my normal chapters will be about as long as the ones in Codependency. I had this idea while smoking a bunch of fucking weed.)