Establishing shot: Outdoors, night time. A deserted stretch of country highway. Well maintained, avenue lined with trees and blossoming mountain flowers. Standing stones are draped in late summer ivy. A large orange sign dominates the scene, illegible in the dark. Gradually light begins to fall upon the sign until it becomes readable.

[center]WARNING
HITCHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPING FOXGIRLS[/center]

And then an 18 wheeled truck smashes through the sign as it lurches chaotically down the highway. 

[i]"Lao tian ye!"[/i] shrieked [b]Katherine Isabelle Fluffybiscuits[/b]. She's the newly minted and minty-haired foxgirl, two huge fluffy tails providing her with the bulk to fill out the driver's seat her slender body wouldn't otherwise occupy. She twists around in her seat, putting her head out the window to stare behind her, causing the truck to lurch wildly. "I think I hit someone! Oh no! Oh no!"

She doesn't see anything, of course, except for the attack helicopters.

Leaning over and grabbing the steering wheel is [b]Cyanis[/b], the frosty cool and smoking hot white-and-black haired foxgirl. Her bright teal eyes are hidden behind her night-time sunglasses - because she's cool - and her three magnificent tails have an array of chains, wealth-attracting charms, and spiked leather collars decorating them. She isn't panicking a little bit because she's a confident three-tailed big sister foxgirl now, as you can tell from her leather jacket and other accessories. "It's okay, it's okay," she said, in a cool way, as she fought to keep the truck from flipping. "Listen. Calm down. Have you ever heard of affluenza?"

A helicopter fired a missile. It obliterated a nearby tree, causing both foxgirls to shriek and duck under the dashboard. This did more than anything else to stop the truck from spinning out of control, especially because they were no longer fighting against the truck's built in safety computer. 

"Oh no! Missiles!" said Katherine for short - or Kat for shorter. "Those can turn into hittles at any second! What have we done to deserve this!?"

"We did allegedly steal one of Princess Qiu's Sunshards," Cyanis said in tones of gentle reminder.

"Doesn't she have like a [i]thousand [/i]of those?" cried Kat. "And she just finished conquering Ys and taking that one too! So ten thousand!"

"Four," said a new voice. Calm. Patient. Professional. "She had four shards. And now she's back down to three. Which is all well and good because this way everyone can keep calling her the Threeshard Princess."

Both Kat and Cyanis looked around in shock and awe. There was something about the way that [b]Actia[/b], the four-tailed third foxgirl, used numbers that was [i]deeply [/i]intimidating.

It wasn't that foxgirls were [i]incapable [/i]of learning numbers - Actia was proof that they could. But foxgirls had a system of mathematics already: there was this, which was what they had in front of them, and there was [i]next[/i], which was the thing they didn't have yet but were about to. Between those the entire foxgirl experience could be adequately contained; it didn't matter how much money was in that wallet, only that it was [i]next[/i]. 

But... the conceptual framework to not only assign a value to that wallet, but to decide that it wasn't [i]next [/i]because something with even more value was [i]next[/i]? That was [i]frightening[/i]. That was Burrower Magic. Learning to think that way changed a foxgirl from a carefree nature spirit into something like...

Actia wore a cold blue sleeveless suit, glittering with shifting lights. They moved like incorrect reflections, capturing the eye, captivating the mind, shifting to emphasize her otherwise unnoticeable curves. She wore a cold violet digital tattoo sequence around her eyes, glowing softly to illuminate her eyes with sparkling purple lights like she was always staring directly into a set of studio lights. She had a long, heavy metal Burrower Mask on a quickdraw holster by her hip, cold red nail polish on her claws, and a cold 3 on her mouth. 

[i]Four [/i]tails. It was natural that the other two were a little bit in awe of her. It was like meeting a celebrity. Or a crime boss. Enough of both to get them both into this scrape.

"Now, calm down," said Actia. "Think. We've got Princess Qiu's Sunshard in the back. We know how she's attuned it. That's all the weapon," the way she said 'weapon' made them both shiver, "we need. Katherine," Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits sat up straight when her name was called. "What is Princess Qiu known for?"

There was only one answer. That made her think it was a trick, but she couldn't figure it out. That was the power of a four tailed fox. "S-swords?" she blurted.

"Correct," said Actia. "Which means that, this close to her Sunshard, swords can defeat helicopters."

Both kitsune stared at her blankly.

"... and you, Katherine, know how to use a sword," finished Actia patiently.

"Me!?" squeaked Kat.

"Of course you," said Actia expansively. "You traveled with the anime Yue, did you not? And the wolfgirl Hyra? You watched her swordfight with Qiu herself, didn't you? That makes you a fully qualified swordmaster."

"But!" Squeaked Kat. "But I've never! I've never actually - I mean, I don't even have a sword -!!"

"I picked one up for you," said Actia, pushing a dragon-hilted katana into Kat's hands. "Now be a good girl and go up there and destroy some helicopters."

*

She clambered with trembling legs up out of the truck cabinet as it raced down the highway. She flopped, face first, down onto the roof and gasped for air, clutching her sword in one hand and both her tails in the others. She shrieked a little as the truck lurched around a corner, and shrieked a lot when another missile lived up to its name. But she was a good girl, and besides... if Yue could do it, then she could too! 

On shaking legs, she stood up on the back of the truck. She gripped her sword in both hands, holding so tightly that she couldn't even unclench her fists when she noticed she hadn't taken the scabbard off yet. She had to do that with her teeth and her feet. But then she was ready! She'd seen Yue do this stupid technique a million times, she could do it!

"This!" she squeaked, going through the first cut.

"Then this!" she had no idea how she was doing. She had no idea what she was doing.

"Ending like this!" she cried. And in that moment she panicked and threw the sword as hard as she could.

But Actia was correct.

This close to a Sunshard, swords [i]definitely [/i]beat helicopters.

Kat only opened her eyes in time to see the parachutes lighting up in the distance, illuminated by the burning wrecks of two neatly bisected helicopters. 

The truck sped off towards safety.

*

You might have noticed from the earlier descriptions that all three foxgirls were relatively thin, definitely pampered, and generally physically and psychologically unprepared for the hard work of moving a glittering magical rock the size of a pool table out of the back of a truck. They originally propose a solution of opening one of the windows of their hideout, opening the back door of the truck, and then reversing as fast as they can so when the back of the truck brakes hard the Sunshard will go flying out through the back of the truck and neatly into the house. This does not work. They settle for flagging down a passing car who hadn't read the warning about hitchhikers, enchanting the driver, and sitting on the lawn drinking pink lemonade while she sweats and huffs and hauls the giant rock into the house.

Finally, all three foxgirls gather around it. Cyanis, eyes ablaze, fierce, greedy. Actia, eyes calm, restrained, poised. Katherine, eyes nervous, still wondering if Actia is going to be mad that she lost her sword.

A Sunshard.

"Hell yeah! Good work girls!" said Cyanis, punching the air. "We're going to get our next tails for sure!"
"A-already?!" said Kat in shock.
"Definitely!" said Cyanis. She'd been checking her butt constantly since they'd escaped. "A crime like this? That'll do it for sure! But maybe we have to finish selling it first..." her eyes narrowed. "Or... or maybe only one of us can get the credit."
"But it was a team effort!" squeaked Kat. 
"Yeah," said Cyanis, tossing her hair to reveal her very menacing and cool big sister spiked collar. "It [i]was[/i]. Time for another lesson in Fox Law, cutiebiscuit~"
"Stop that," said Actia. "We're not done working as a team yet."
Eyes filled with confusion and relief turned to stare at her.
"But... why not?" said Cyanis. "We've got the loot. We're [i]done[/i]."
"Sunshards are treasures," agreed Actia slowly. "That's their greatest disguise. They're so magical, so valuable that nobody looks at them and thinks... what's [i]next[/i]?"
Now she had their absolute attention.
"The Sunshards have another feature," said Actia. "They are secretly [i]keys[/i]. Keys to the greatest buried treasure of the Ancient World. Specifically, they're the batteries that power the guardians of that treasure."
"So we need to steal all of the Sunshards to get this treasure?" said Cyanis dubiously. That was a lot of Next. "Even Qiu couldn't do [i]that[/i]."
"No," said Actia, gently brushing the Sunshard. "There's another way. A way only available to a nine tailed fox."
"Um, do you really think Damn Fox will help us, because I think she's got her next fifty years booked out -" said Kat, but Actia cut her off.
"We don't need [i]her[/i]," she said dismissively. "I count nine tails right here."
Cyanis and Kat both shivered. That... wasn't right. That wasn't how it worked. Two and three and four didn't just equal... [i]nine[/i], did they? There were hundreds of two and three tailed foxes, but almost nobody ever saw a nine tailed fox. They couldn't just... do nine tailed things, right?

Actia smirked. "You doubt," she drawled. "Isolated and divided, you don't understand the concept of the cartel, the danger of collective bargaining. Techniques driven from consciousness and hidden in Burrower vaults where they could be wielded from positions of secrecy. But I know their techniques, and I know more than that. I know how we can use this one Shard to corrupt all the others."

She laid out her Technomancer's instruments. Masks of steel, rectangles of glass, wires of rubber. Treasures enough to tempt the lesser foxes to snatch, terrors from so deep they couldn't bring themselves to.

"The guardians are too powerful for us to fight," said Actia. "But we can make them fight each other. We can corrupt their memories and their hearts, twist their purposes, bind them to mortals and have them do battle to protect their mortals. From this Sunshard we can twist the entire system's information flow, and in the absence of accurate information even heroes will fall to chaos and butchery. And then..." she smiled wider, showing her fangs. "And then, rather than the energy of those guardians returning to their native Sunshard, we will collect them all here, in this one. This will give us the power to grant wishes, the power to breach the lowest level of the vault and claim the greatest treasure of the world for ourselves."

"A... a heist like that..." said Cyanis, trying to work herself up for it. It was hard. This felt wrong.
"A heist like this?" said Actia, examining her nails. "Why, I think it's not much to say that we could [i]all [/i]be nine tailed by the end of it. It's hardly more to say we could demote every other fox back down to two, even Damn Fox, if we felt like it. Why steal casino chips when you can conduct a leveraged buyout?"

"Do... we really have to kill them?" said Kat in a small voice.
"They'll kill each other," said Actia. "There's no way that's our fault."
"But we're corrupting them!" Kat protested. "We're making them do it!"
"That's no different to an ordinary fox enchantment," said Actia. "Like we did with that lady earlier who pulled this thing in here. If she really didn't want to do it she wouldn't have. We're just... loosening them up."
"And besides," said Cyanis, trying to rationalize it. "They're not people, right?"
"Correct," said Actia. "They're guardian ghosts, bound in eternal stasis, unable to return to the underworld or on to the next life. Either they'd be delighted to be set free, in which case we're practically rescuing them, or they don't care either way because they're already dead and ghosts."

She held up a hand. "But if it makes you feel any better, I [i]promise [/i]we won't hurt a single living person," she smiled. "We'll claim some of the guardians for ourselves, and we'll use our mystic seals to bind them all so they can only fight each other. What could be fairer than that? It'll only be ghosts fighting, and they're barely more than robots anyway."

Kat couldn't argue with that logic. Actia really had thought of everything, and... you know, how bad could it be to have ghosts fight? Yue had met a ghost dress and all it had wanted to do was fight so... you know... maybe... give her five minutes to think!

But she didn't have five minutes. Actia was already laying out the circuit wire and the microchips and the scales and balances and drawing the glyphs and codes onto the surface of the Sunshard in cold black. It stained the warm glow, pinks and teals radiating haphazardly through the ant tracks of sigils and glyphs. And then they were all holding hands around the twisted artifact, feeling energy rise and crackle along their tails.

Cyanis went first, straining against her own leash. She poured forth into the Shard her hunger - the twisting, relentless, predatory, snapping of jaws. What's [i]next[/i]? What's [i]next[/i]? Her curse, her corruption, soaked [i]insatiability [/i]into the fabric of the guardians.

And then Kat felt Actia's stare turn onto her. She flinched, and when she looked at the Sunshard she flinched again. This... wasn't right. Yue wouldn't like this. But -

"Are you not brave enough?" asked Actia.
"I'm -" she squeaked.
"Are you not clever enough?" asked Actia, more darkly.
"It's all so fast -" she said.
"Ah," said Actia. "You're not [i]quick witted[/i] enough." She wasn't being mean, just... disappointed. Like she was talking to a dog. "It's okay. I'll explain it all again from the beginning, so you can keep up this time -"
"No!" cried Katherine. "I can do it! I can -"

She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to be as [i]hungry [/i]as Cyanis. She was a house fox! She'd always had breakfast and, and, - she even had [i]fluffybiscuits [/i]in her [i]name[/i]! Actia was right, she was basically a dog, a slow witted, well fed puppygirl who couldn't even figure out how to be mean enough to do a simple ghost curse! 

So she screwed up her face and her courage and sent sloth instead. Two of the nine would just... sleep. They didn't have to fight. They'd just never show up. Which they were already basically doing. That was enough from her, right? She only had two tails after all, she should watch Actia and see what she could learn from her. It was her turn next, and her chance to see how a four tailed fox dealt with things!

Actia walked up to the Sunshard and poured the most horrible emotion Katherine had ever seen into it. Like it was nothing. Like she was opening up a bottle and letting something already packaged and ready out. It was apathy. It was despair. It was cruelty. It was smug satisfaction. It was... it was the feeling of the world burning down all around you and being amused and a little bored. It was the spite of having lit the spark and the indolence of not sticking around to watch the fire. It was [i]chaos[/i].

"No!" said Katherine. "You [i]can't[/i] -"
But Actia turned to her and her eyes were the same blank professionalism of a colon followed by a three, the stare of someone who has genuinely never done anything wrong in her entire life, the blamelessness of a cat - but of course, foxes weren't cats, were they? Foxes had to do better! Vixies had to be good girls, they couldn't just be...

The Sunshard erupted in twisted light and that was all she saw.

[center]CHAPTER ONE: 
KATHERINE ISABELLA FLUFFYBISCUITS DOOMS THE PLANET[/center]