"So she can use crystal to detect other dragons walking around in human form?" The Time Dragon said.
"I knew something was off with that waiter after he brought me the water…" The serpentine dragon said.
"You're disguise was no better!" The left head shouted. "When you took the alias, you should have made sure there was no one else in ht city with the same name!"
"I'm sorry..." The serpentine dragon said.
"We must try a new approach..." The Time Dragon said.
Flare stood on the roof of the Dragon Pearl Inn. Some time had passed since the girls returned from Miami with Caren and Kaito. The entire trip home, Flare had felt something strange inside her, something that was related to Kaito. She knew it wasn't anything romantic, and even if it was, she cared about Lucia too much to interfere with their relationship. It was something more... Powerful, was the only word that came to her mind. But she'd dismissed it, and they'd settled into a pseudo-normalcy, without incident, for close to a month.
It's kind of nice... Flare thought. Having a normal life again... Snow was beginning to fall. It was winter in New York after all. From where she stood, Flare could see the shining lights of Manhattan to her left. At midnight, the Palisade Sills in front of her were just dark shadows, and to her right... For all of her brains, the minor details of Geography eluded Flare. To her right was probably Long Island. That would make sense... Flare thought. Manhattan is North, so South would be... She was interrupted when something hard hit her. The snow was turning into hail. Flare quickly ducked back inside.
The weather had only gotten worse by morning. News 12 was calling it the worst ice storm in the history of New York. The lights were all on, since the automated storm shield had gone up around twelve thirty.
"Wow..." Hanon said. The girls were all in the Hotel's dining room. Nikora had made hot chocolate. They could hear the hail hitting the metal plating covering the windows. "This is scary..."
"Remember that one snow storm back at the Pearl Piari?" Rina asked as Kaito walked in and took a seat next to Lucia. "It was so bad we couldn't see five feet in front of us, and we had hippo dragging us around on a sled."
"And Lucia and I both went out looking for each other." Kaito added. "I found her burried in the snow, but the visibility was so bad that we had no Idea we were in front of the hotel until the next day."
"It would have been a good day to stay home and watch TV." Rina said, almost wishfully.
"Instead Rina and I had to go fight Maria on our own," Hanon said, "While you two were cuddled up in a snow fort!" There was some laughter, but the name Maria seemed to kill the mood.
"Who's Maria?" Flare asked.
"An old enemy..."Rina said. "Several years ago, Kaito's older twin brother, Gackto, attempted to conquer the marine world by capturing us and summoning the sea goddess Aqua Regina. Maria was one of his underlings, and was able to manipulate ice."
"But he turned them back into sea creatures..." Hanon said, forcing a smile. "The last time we saw them they were... Spirits, I guess. One of them, Yuri, fell in love with Hippo's human form."
"It doesn't matter!" Hippo interjected, suddenly standing on the table. "They are long gone." Lucia grabbed Hippo.
"Shh! Don't attract any unnecessary attention!" She said.
"That thing talks?" Flare asked, somewhat surprised.
"That's Hippo." Hanon explained.
"The way things have gone since I met you guys, I really shouldn't be surprised." Flare said, leaning back in her chair.
"But as I said," Hippo whispered from Lucia's lap, "They're gone. All of them. We have new enemies to face."
The wind blew harder, and something cracked. Flare sat upright. "I don't know..." She said, suddenly serious. "We are fighting a Time Dragon, after all."
Another crack, and then they heard it. It was practically a whisper, but it was there; "Where are you? I know you're near by..." The voice was being carried by the wind. A car alarm went off.
"This can't be good..." Lucia said quietly.
"I haven't forgotten..." The voice whispered. "What you did to him... What he did to us... To me... All because of you... Hanon... Lucia... Rina... Caren..." The girls shivered at the sound of their names. "You broke my heart... Now I'm going to break yours!" An entire side of the building came down, letting in a rush of ice and frozen air. In the hole stood a giant, spider-like machine, covered in ice, and at its center was Maria.
"Oh, shit..." Caren swore.
"Oh, and look!" Maria said. "A new toy to play with, too!" She reached out a clawed leg at Flare, but she back flipped out of the way.
"Run!" Flare shouted. "I'll keep her busy!"
"Oh, no you don't!" Maria shouted. Walls of ice rose from the snow covered floor, blocking off the exits.
"We're trapped!" Caren shouted. Flare swore, sliding a massive revolver from a compartment in her mechanical arm.
"Play with this!" She shouted, firing six explosive rounds at the mechanized Maria. The blasts were deflected off of an energy shield. "Damn you!" Flare shouted. "I'm not giving up that easily!" Flare spread her wings and launched herself at Maria, firing and reloading the massive revolver.
Maria swatted her out the air like a fly.
"It's not working!" Rina shouted.
"Damn, I was hoping to have some fun..." Flare groaned, getting to her feet. "Well then, you know what to do!"
"Don't even try it!" Maria shouted, firing a volley of missiles at the girls. Flare shot all of the rockets out of the air. More of the building came down. "I'm not going to give you time to transform!"
"Wanna bet!" Flare shouted. She lunged at Maria again, changing into her full dragon form and knocking her out of the building.
"Green Pearl Voice!"
"Pink Pearl Voice!"
"Blue Pearl Voice!"
"Purple Pearl Voice!"
The four Mermaid Princesses transformed into their base Idol forms as Flare flew back into the building.
"Red Pearl Song!"
With Flare, the girls changed into their Rock Star forms. This time they were able to lift the stage through the frozen Hudson River.
"This is... New..." Maria said uneasily. With Caren part of the group now, Flare was left with just her headset as Lucia took guitar and Caren played bass.
"Let's get this over with." Flare said, grinning. The girls began to play, and Flare sang;
Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hell
Come attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell
Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell
Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
The song barely fazed Maria. "No way..." Hanon said in disbelief.
"Now what?" Lucia asked.
"Wait a second..." Flare said. "You said this was an old enemy, right?"
"She was among our first." Rina said.
"I have an idea!" Flare said. She took off her headset and ran to Lucia. "Give me the guitar!" She said, handing Lucia the headset. Suddenly, the girls reverted to their original Idol forms. Even Flare had one, a dress similar to Rina's but strapless with a skull and crossbones choker. "If we combine your songs of... Love..." Flare still found the idea mildly amusing. "And the power we have with Rock and Roll, maybe we can fight her off!" Flare began to play something that the other girls quickly picked up as a rock version of one of their old songs. Lucia, microphone in hand again, began to sing;
Arashi no umi ni utarete makesou na ima wo
Furiharae ai wo mitsumete kono mune ni
Tachiagaru yo nando demo yakusoku no tame ni
Shakunetsu no raito wo abite shibuki ga mau
Taiyou yori mo atsuku atsuku atsuku
Utagoe wa motto takaku takaku takaku
Ima koso, ima koso
Hageshii kodou afuredasu ai no MELODY
Takanaru kodou shinjitsu wa tatta hitotsu
Kumori no nai kagami ni utsushite
Tsutawaru kodou wakiagaru ai no chikara
Soshite umareru atsui pafekuto hamoni
Ude hirogete uketomeru anata no subete ga
Kurushikute hajimete shitta hontou no ai
Minamikaze yori hayaku hayaku hayaku
Sukooru koete tsuyoku tsuyoku tsuyoku
Ima koso, ima koso
Minna no kodou wo kasaneau iro no hamoni
Nari yamanai de kirameki wo tomenai de
Watashitachi ga torimodosu PARADISE
Kanjiru kodou wo wakiagaru ai no chikara
Soshite hirogaru yume no pafekuto hamoni
Hageshii kodou afuredasu ai no MELODY
Takanaru kodou shinjitsu wa tatta hitotsu
Kumori no nai kagami ni utsushite
Tsutawaru kodou wakiagaru ai no chikara
Minna no kodou wo kasaneau iro no hamoni
Nari yamanai de kirameki wo tomenai de
Watashitachi ga torimodosu PARADISE
Kanjiru kodou wo wakiagaru ai no chikara
Soshite hirogaru yume no pafekuto hamoni
Soshite umareru atsui pafekuto hamoni
The heavy machinery fell away from Maria's body. "You must be fucking kidding me!" She half screamed, half roared. A Mech Dragon tore itself from Maria's body and self destructed. The Dragon Pearl Inn was a wreck, and Flare was furious about it. But a rational part of Flare's mind knew it wasn't directly because of Maria. She dove off the stage and caught the unconscious sea monster before she hit the ground.
The next day, Flare was practically tearing out her hair over the estimated cost of repairs. "The combined cost of my arm and the weapons in it wasn't this high!" She shouted. "And go figure the insurance doesn't cover attacks by giant mechanical monsters!" Flare clamped the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "Mother... Son of a... GAAAAAH!"
Hanon, Lucia, Rina, Caren, Kaito, Hamasaki and Nagisa looked on in mild amusement. Maria, still unconscious, was locked in an empty room.
"Not to mention that after yesterday no one in the area is going to get much business." Flare groaned. "This sucks!"
"It's only going to hurt more if you make it the end of the world." Rina said.
Flare took a deep breath. "Okay... You're right. I can totally get through this. I mean, it could be worse. The Pier View got totally wrecked in that blizzard.
"Speaking of which..." Caren said. "How's that girl?"
"I'm sure she's fine." Flare said.
"I dunno." Caren said. "I've spent time in Antarctica. With what she was wearing, she may need medical attention."
"Don't worry, the redhead is right. I'm fine."
Everyone jumped as Maria walked into the room.
"Y-you're up..." Flare said.
"And... Out." Hanon added.
Maria looked at the guys sitting in the lobby before answering. "The door handle in my room was so frozen it shattered when I touched it." She said. "I'd need a new room, or a new door handle, if you expect me to stay here."
"Yeah. Most of the area was wrecked in that blizzard." Flare said slowly. Maria blushed and mouthed the word sorry.
Hippo and Nikora watched from a doorway. "I guess they aren't gone." Hippo said.
"But they aren't still evil." Nikora said.
"I don't know..." Hippo said. "Those girls can get careless."
"Flare seems to have good judgment. I'm sure we'll be fine, as long as this Time Dragon doesn't dig deeper into the past to bring back old enemies.