It was time for Masha to get into the zone. They had just gotten their hands on Fayrune Legacy IV, the game currently installing on their gaming PC rig. It was nearly done, and they could barely wait a second longer to launch the title. Under normal circumstances, they probably wouldn't have splurged and paid full price for the game, but these weren't normal circumstances. Both Oma and Opa had flown down to California for some important church meeting, and that left Masha home alone with nothing but free time. Translation: Time for an hours-long FL IV session with optional food/bathroom breaks. Though, they had to admit that it did feel a little odd being alone in such a big house. Well, they weren't alone alone, strictly speaking.

Turning to Terry, their pet tarantula, Masha couldn't help but smile, spinning around in their chair and putting their face right up against the enclosure. "Can you believe it, Ter-Bear? Just you, me, and FL IV for the weekend." Terry responded like he normally did: nothing.

"Good chat," Masha said, before spinning around once again to face their monitor. As the installation progress bar finally filled all the way up, the enby drummed their fingers against their desk in anticipation.

Ding!

Clicking the "Launch Game" button, Masha imagined all the awesome stuff they were gonna find in the game. The devs had hyped it up to no end. Exploration, combat, drama, romance, it was all there (supposedly).

And then the enby's phone rang.

Letting out a growl at their gaming sesh being interrupted before it could even begin, they looked at the caller ID to see who was deadest on ruining their fun.

INCOMING CALL: Vee Mom 1

Well, at least it wasn't a spammer. Pressing the "Accept Call" button, they raised their phone to their ear.

"Hey, Miss N-C-Dub. What's up?" Masha greeted.

"Hi, Masha," the voice of Camila Noceda-Clawthorne-Whispers responded. "I know this might seem a little… odd, but do you think you could come over to our house sometime today? It's very important."

That wasn't at all what Masha was expecting. They faltered for a second before answering. "Oh, uh, sure. What time?"

"Would you be able to come over in, say, 30 minutes?" Camila asked. She hoped the kids would be ready by then.

Masha's eyes flitted to the system clock in the bottom right corner of their monitor, which read 9: 32 AM. If they ate some breakfast now, they could probably get themselves cleaned up for… whatever this is. "Sure, that'll work."

"Do you need me to pick you up, or can you walk over?" Camila asked as a follow-up.

"I can walk," Masha replied. The NCW house wasn't too far away from their own humble abode, barely taking 10 minutes by foot. They needed the steps, anyways.

"Great, see you soon," Camila said before quickly ending the call.

Masha looked at their phone, now displaying their lock screen of themselves and Vee at the giraffe exhibit of the local zoo. Shrugging their shoulders at the abrupt ending of the call, they pocketed their phone. Emerging from their den to whip up a quick breakfast, the goth eventually picked out a bowl of instant maple and ginger oatmeal. After adding a little bit of water to the bowl and placing it on the rotating plate, they set the microwave for 90 seconds, as the steps on the bowl recommended.

As the bowl spun and the microwave emitted a tinny HMMMM, Masha wondered what could be so important that Miss Camila needed them to come over so urgently. Hopefully it had nothing to do with the date that they had gone on with Vee. Masha thought that it had gone well, but maybe they had done something to inadvertently upset Vee? Thinking back to the previous night, the only interaction they had with anyone in the NCW family other than Vee was waving to Hunter, who was doing something in the backyard. Masha had to admit that they weren't exactly sure why the 16-year-old was running around in a red-winged angel cosplay, but they weren't one to judge. They themselves did plenty of stuff that would be considered "weird" by others. Maybe Hunter was embarrassed that someone had seen his cosplay and Camila had invited them over so that Hunter could pay them off to keep quiet? Eh, that might be a stretch.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Opening the microwave and grabbing the bowl with a hand towel to not burn themselves, Masha waited for the oatmeal to cool down before digging in.

Walking up the front steps of the Noceda-Clawthorne-Whispers household, Masha rapped on the door three times before stepping back. Running their hand down their Galactic Voyage shirt (Yes, they were a Voyager. Cosmic Frontier elitists could suck an egg.) to smooth out the wrinkles, they checked their appearance in the reflection of the windows surrounding the door. Looking good, Pitt, they thought to themselves. Stealing a glance down at their wrist, their watch read 10:00 AM, indicating they were right on time.

Within seconds, the front door was opened, but not by Camila. Instead, Vee, who was dressed particularly fancy for some unknown reason, was the one who welcomed Masha into the house. "Hey, Mash. Thanks for coming by on such quick notice."

"Yeah, no worries," they replied. "Though, I'm still not totally sure why you invited me over. Is this about the date last night?"

"What? No, not at all. Last night was amazing!" Vee said quickly, hoping to assuage Masha's fear about potentially being a bad partner.

"That's a relief. So, is this about Hunter's cosplay?" the goth asked.

Vee looked puzzled at the suggestion. Since when did Hunter cosplay? Oh wait, that must be how they justified what they saw. (If Hunter really did cosplay, though, then Vee suddenly had a wealth of blackmail at her disposal.) "Just, follow me." The skin shifter then turned and lead the two of them into the living room, where the others were waiting.

As Masha walked into the living room, they met eyes with every member of the NCW family, all of whom were dressed in their Sunday's finest. Well, except for Hunter. He was wearing a tank top and jeans. The group stood roughly in an arc, with Vee moving to fill the doorway, blocking Masha off from their closest exit. Camila and Raine served as the bookends with Eda in the center, baby King sleeping gently in her arms. Hunter and Gus were sandwiched between Camila and Eda. Masha noticed that the blond looked oddly sad, while the younger boy, in stark contrast, had a huge smile on his face. On the other side of Eda stood Luz, Willow, and Amity. Luz wore a neutral expression, but she was gently rocking back and forth on her heels, betraying her nervousness. Willow, conversely, had her arms folded and was doing her best to look intimidating. Finally, Amity was alternating between wringing her hands and grasping at the hem of her mauve dress.

"Hello, Masha," Camila said, finally breaking the silence.

"I'm guessing this isn't about Hunter's angel cosplay, is it?" Masha asked, gauging the group's reaction.

The boy in question cocked an eyebrow at the suggestion. "I've never cosplayed in my life," he stated flatly. (From behind Masha, Vee pouted. Dang, no blackmail.)

"What." That threw Masha for a loop. If that wasn't a cosplay, then what did they see when they were picking up Vee?

"That was just me," Hunter replied. "No costume, no fur suit, nothing special. Just me."

Vee was pretty sure she could hear the wheels turning in Masha's head as they processed what Hunter had just said.

"Wait, so…" Masha started.

"Yes, I do actually have wings," Hunter finished for them.

Masha's jaw fell to the floor at the confirmation, not being able to put into words what they were thinking.

The blond then turned around, his back now facing Masha. Taking a few backwards steps towards the stunned enby, he got within arm's reach of them. Slowly spreading his cardinal-red wings until they were fully out, he made sure to not bonk them against anything fragile. He didn't want to get an earful from any of his parents since he was probably on pretty thin ice with them right now.

"Go ahead. Check for yourself," he said.

Masha slowly reached out their left hand and gingerly brushed it against a primary feather near the tip of Hunter's left wing. As their fingers made contact, they could barely believe their eyes. Was Hunter actually an angel? Oh crud, did they have to start going to church again?

After retracting their hand, Masha stared at it for a solid 3 seconds before looking back up at Hunter, who had folded his wings back under his tank top and turned back around to face the enby. "Also, I'm not an angel. Sorry to burst your bubble. Now that I think about it, though, I could probably pull of a killer Raptorman cosplay. Thanks for the idea." He then disappeared in a golden flash and reappeared back by Camila's side.

Not really sure how to react to that sudden wealth of information, Masha responded with, "Oh, uh, you're welcome."

Looking around at the rest of the NCW family, Masha noticed that Gus was practically vibrating with excitement for some reason. He tugged at Eda's arm. "Can I show them? Please, please, please."

Eda let out a chuckle. "Go crazy."

The 12-year-old boy suddenly ran up to Masha and stood on his tiptoes to boop them on the nose, causing them to blink out of reflex. When Masha opened their eyes back up, though, Gus was gone, and they were suddenly staring at a mirror image of themselves.

"Goddess below!" Masha screamed, jumping back, causing everyone else to burst out laughing. As they tried to collect their wits, they watched as Fake-Masha's form twisted and warped before their eyes. Within seconds, Gus was back in his normal body.

The young boy laughed once again. "Isn't that so cool! I'm like the ultimate spy!"

Deciding that they needed to sit down, Masha collapsed into the nearest recliner and buried their head in their palms. What the HOOT was going on? So, Hunter is some kind of… bird-human thing who can teleport, and Gus can, what, copy people? Sighing and getting back to their feet, Masha decided that the best course of plan was to just roll with the craziness. How much weirder could it get?

"Alright, who's next?" They asked, seeing which member of the family would step forward and melt their brain even more.

Apparently, Willow was next up. The captain of Gravesfield High's rugby team approached Masha, but with far less zeal compared to Gus. Holding out her right-hand face up, she looked Masha in the eye. "What's your favorite plant?"

Caught off-guard by the questions topic, Masha's mind first went to a very certain plant before they remembered that there was both a young child and numerous adults present, so they went with a backup. "I… uh… a sunflower?"

"Hmm," Willow responded. "A little generic, but okay." As Willow concentrated, a bud sprouted from the palm of her hand before growing and blooming into a full-fledged adult sunflower in mere seconds. Picking the newly formed flower off her palm, Willow handed it over to Masha.

"Woah, that's cool." In the back of their mind, Masha was cooking up money-making schemes now that they knew about Willow's power. They were very family-friendly schemes that definitely did not involve selling Masha's actual favorite plant.

As Willow stepped back, her demonstration done, Amity stepped forward, finally loosening her death grip on her dress. The girl took a deep breath before slowly exhaling.

"Punch me," she instructed.

"What? No! Why would I do that?" Masha responded immediately.

"My… ability is very hard to explain in words. It will be far easier for both of us if you just see what happens. Punch me in the stomach, though, please. I like having my face intact."

"Are you sure? Will this hurt you? Will it hurt me?" Masha still wasn't sure about this. What would happen when they punched Amity?

"We'll both be fine. Oh, and do it as hard as you can," Amity said calmly.

"If you say so," Masha said. Cocking back their first, they aimed at Amity's solar plexus and punched it with all their might. While they weren't sure what exactly to expect, they definitely weren't expecting their fist to go right through Amity's stomach with little resistance and to emerge out the other side covered in a strange purple goop. If Amity was in any sort of pain, she showed no reaction to it, a look of boredom on her face.

Masha slowly retracted their hand, watching as the light streaming in from the window reflected off the goop. A few droplets fell to the floor, and they were pretty sure they could hear Raine grumble about having to clean the carpet again.

"See, I'm fine," Amity said. Masha watched as the hole they had just punched in their girlfriend's sister's stomach began to heal itself, the cavity slowly filling with more purple goop. Eventually, the hole was entirely filled, and the only evidence that Masha had ever punched Amity was the goop covering their hand.

"So, you're some kind of… sludge monster?" Masha wanted to make sure they got their terminology right.

"I prefer the term Abomination, but yes," Amity replied.

"Huh," was all Masha could reply with. Giving the goop on their hand one last look, they resorted to wiping it on their jeans. Hopefully the Abomination stuff will wash out.

"What about you, Luz? What's your epic superpower?" Masha asked.

"I don't have any," the girl replied.

"Wait, really?" Masha was surprised by the answer.

"Yup, I'm just a regular old human," Luz reiterated. "Though, if I did have a power, I think the ability to cast magic spells would be pretty cool."

Masha had to agree there. "Yeah, that would be pretty awesome."

While the enby was almost going to thank everyone for the cool show and head home after promising never to tell a soul about what they had seen, they suddenly remembered there was one person still unaccounted for. Turning to their girlfriend, Masha flashed a smirk. "So, what's your special ability, Vee?"

"My skin can be any material I want," Vee explained. She then lifted the hem of her shirt, and Masha did their best not to stare at their girlfriends abs. "Here, feel." Pressing their hand against her stomach, instead of finding warm fleshy skin, Masha's fingers were met with a cool metal.

"Dang, girl. You take abs of steel to a whole new level!"