Gotta run around a lot today, so today's update is early. Enjoy!

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“Spitz! You’re over five minutes late!”

“Um…” I glanced over at the time on the register as I stepped behind the counter of my store, grabbing the lanyard with my name on that identified me as the assistant manager of the store as I did. “Actually, Eric, I’m five minutes early.”

“Whatever.” My human manager sighed as I punched in, noting a few of our regulars were hanging out in the store. There was Steve, a blacked furred bear morph who looked like the stereotypical guy who you’d think spent most of his time hanging out in a comic book store. He was pretty heavy, always wearing something comic or fantasy related, and met up with his weekly RPG in our store. He was a good guy overall, though, and a steady customer.

There was Jenny, a quiet little girl who was a mouse in more ways than one. Not even five feet tall, I remembered when I saw her tiny green eyes darting back and forth as she wandered in about a year ago, looking for a Mighty Mousette comic. We happened to have despite it not being a very popular series, and I thought she was about to collapse with joy or shock when I presented it to her. Ever since then I’d see her in a few times each month. She was a nice girl, though painfully shy; more than once I have to ask her to repeat what she was looking for in something a little louder than, “faint whisper”.

Then there was Mark, probably the oddest customer we had(and that’s saying something). He always came in a suit and tie, and by all appearances seemed to be an average, run of the mill businessman or lawyer. The fact that he was a rhino morph who always bought the latest Pretty Princess Pony comics and collectables as soon as we got them in is what made him stand out. I just prayed they were for his daughters and tried not to think about the alternatives when I had to ring him out.

“Oh; hey, Eric, is that the deposit bag?” I knelt down behind the counter next to the safe, grabbing the blue bag lying next to it. A quick glance inside showed there was some money and a deposit slip all set to go. I had to stick to Katie’s plan; that rat could be showing up at any second. “Want me to go run it to the bank?”

“Meh; go ahead.” In case you couldn’t tell, Eric wasn’t exactly thrilled with his job. The only reason he was even the manager was because his father who owned the store hired him after Eric’s financial firm went belly up. Given many of Eric’s management decisions had nearly tanked the store before Katie showed up to consult, I sometimes wondered how much he personally contributed to the firm’s meltdown.

As I picked up the bag, I clipped my wireless earpiece on and dialed up Katie. A quick message from Clara flashed across the screen, saying the rat was about a minute away from reaching the store. I gulped and hoped I didn’t look as nervous as I felt.

“O.K, Puppy; we don’t have much time, so listen carefully and follow my directions.” Katie spoke in my ear as I stepped out from behind the counter slowly. “First; don’t talk, just listen. Open up EmerScroll; you’ll see what looks like an old fashioned tome. Then tap the red bookmark.”

I did as Katie instructed, watching as the book opened and began flipping pages on its own. When it stopped, the left side of the page looked like it was covered in some ancient language. The other hand a pentagram in a circle with more strange writing around the outer circle.

“Once it’s open, place your finger in the middle of the circle. Then, just relax, and listen to me as you walk out the store. When I finish talking, take him out.”

Easier said than done, I thought as I held my thumb down on the circle. As I continued outside, Katie began to mutter strange, archaic words. As if in response, the phone in my hand began to grow warm. At first I just felt it on the finger touching the screen, but soon it the heat began to leave the phone and flow up through my finger and into my arm. Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could’ve removed my finger or dropped the phone at this point.

The heat flowed quickly, so much so that my whole body was beginning to feel hot just as I reached the entrance to the store. Maybe the guy with the gun wasn’t going to kill me, because whatever Katie was doing might just beat him to it.

Several things happened simultaneously in the next moment. The rat made eye contact with me and began to reach into his jacket, presumably for his gun. At the same moment, Katie’s strange murmuring ended with a sudden yell of something that sounded like, “Expedtius!”. The heat that had infused every of my body at this point suddenly dissipated… and everything just stopped.

No, not stopped, I realized after a moment. Things just seemed really, REALLY slow. The rat was still reaching for his gun, but something that should’ve taken him only a second or two was still happening almost ten seconds later. I noticed someone walking by over his shoulder, and a single footstep seemed to be taking them an eon to complete. Time had slowed to a crawl for everyone but me.

The gun was starting to come out into view, reminding me I still had a job to do. One of the first aikido moves I’d been taught involved side stepping an attackers punch so your body was parallel to their arm, then grabbing said arm around the wrists, with your thumbs crossing over the back of their hand. Afterwards, you’d immediately pivot and rotate your body, pulling their arm along with you. Done properly, the sudden change in direction and rotation of their arm would end up with them flat on their back.

The rat wasn’t throwing a punch, but with how slow he(or how fast I) was moving, it was easy for me to drop the bag and phone and grab his wrist to simply pull his arm out until it was fully extended. I just noticed a look of surprise begin to crawl across his face as I pivoted and rotated his wrist, careful to make sure the barrel of the semi-automatic never pointed too close to me. His trip to the ground seemed equally slow, but I made sure to pounce on him as soon as his shoulders touched the tile floor, driving a knee into his chest to keep him pinned while still holding his arm tightly. I have to admit, the slow motion look of pain on his face when I did that almost made the entire ordeal worth it.

A sense of nausea and vertigo hit me soon after as time seemed to suddenly catch up with me. I nearly collapsed on top of the rat, and only barely managed to catch myself in time. The rat thrashed under me, screaming about how I’d broken his arm and he was going to sue. I responded in what seemed like an appropriate gesture of my concern for his well being and pulled his arm as hard as I could. You don’t get to pull a gun on someone and then whine about getting hurt.

“Spitz! What the hell are you doing?!” Drawn by the screaming, Eric quickly went into angry manager mode. That quickly went away when he noticed the gun, which had dropped and was now lying beside the rat’s shoulder. “Holy crap! Is that a gun?!”

“Yes it is, Eric. Mind doing me a favor and calling the police, please?” I called back to him, not daring to take my eyes off my would be assailant for a second. Steve had apparently decided that with great weight comes great responsibility, because after a few moments he came out and simple sat atop the rat’s chest, leaving the rat little option but to simply breathe and hope he didn’t get crushed.

I thanked Steve for the relief as I picked up the gun. While the only guns I’ve ever handled shot either water or foam darts, I’d played enough video games and seen enough action movies to have a basic understanding of how handguns worked. I noticed the clip was missing, and the chamber was empty as well. Damn, Katie’s girls were good.

“My girls reported in that everything went fine. Good job, Puppy.” I could hear a slight purr escaping Katie’s lips. “That’s twice now since we’ve met you’ve stopped a would be criminal in his tracks.”

“That was a haste spell, by the way.” Katie continued as I recovered my phone and the bag. “Don’t get used to it, though; inscribing magic into technology is a serious pain in the tail. The six… well, five now… spells that are on there took me almost a full week to do, and even then I need to be on the line to finish off the final parts.”

“So that was what magic feels like, huh?” Everyone seemed to have either vanished or was distracted, so I was able to speak a little more freely. “Felt kinda weird, not gonna lie.”

“Yes, the first time does take some getting used to.” Katie purred again, and for a moment I pictured her lying across the heart shaped bed in her secret lair in her panther form, her tail flicking back and forth as she spoke. “Still, maybe we could make some more magic happen later…”

Man, did she HAVE to make that sound so seductive?...