Hello! So here's a new chapter, I hope you enjoy it. I think I'm going to start taking a different approach to writing this, which will probably mean that it'll be longer than normal until the next chapter comes out, but hopefully after that the updates will start being closer together.
Also, I updated the summary The old one kind of sucked, and I feel like this one fits what I'm going for with this story more. Some of the stuff mentioned in it won't appear for a few more chapters, but whatever.
As always, reviews are greatly appreciated!
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Chapter 5 - Cure Spell
"So, will you be able to get together after school today?"
"Yeah, I don't have anything going on."
Alison smiled. Ever since Hannah had become a cure, become her friend, it felt like she'd been sent into a whole new life. It was so amazing, to have someone to talk to, to hang out with, to be able to call a friend.
Currently, they were in the middle of free period, sitting at their desks and talking. It was a nice day, with the sun shining through some open windows, accompanied by a nice breeze.
"Great! So, where do you want to get together?" Hannah asked.
"Maybe the park?" Alison said, "I'm not really sure, there's not a lot to do around here."
"The park sounds great! I mean, for being friends, we don't know a lot about each other." she said, looking around awkwardly, "It could give us a chance to get to know each other better!"
Alison nodded. They'd only met about a week ago, after all.
"And you can talk about precure stuff!" Alan added, popping out of Alison's bag.
The two girls immediately panicked, lunging down and blocking the familiar from view before anyone could spot him.
"Hey, what was that for?" he protested.
"You need to be more careful, someone could spot you!" Hannah hissed, worriedly looking around.
Biee floated out of the bag, "Yeah, but not with you two blocking us. Thanks for that, by the way. It was getting really stuffy in there."
"If it's so stuffy, then why did you come in the first place? You let Clin stay home!" Alison whisper-yelled.
Alan scoffed, "A precure or ghost could appear anywhere, anytime! We need to be there in case something happens! And Clin stayed up all night and needs sleep, there was no way we could bring them!"
She groaned. It made sense, but still! Why'd they have to be in her bag?
The sudden crack of the speaker coming on drew them away from the conversation, before being followed by a painful ring that rang through the school, causing everyone to cover their ears.
"We'd like to announce that the first student council meeting of the new semester will take place after school today at 3:15, and that all members and representatives are expected to attend. It will be held in the student council room, room 218 on the second floor. Thank you." A clammy voice said, before the loudspeaker turned off with a click.
Alison turned to Hannah, "Will it be okay if I go to the meeting? I'm our class's representative and all…" she started.
"It's not a big deal. I mean, we can still get together after, right?"
"Of course! Should I text you when it's over?"
Hannah nodded, just as the warning bell for the end of free period rang, causing everyone to bolt up, trying to get everything in order before arrived.
Alison grabbed the two familiars from her bag, and tossed them out the open window before quickly shutting it. "Stay out there until class ends!" she said, before returning to her seat.
The two familiars looked on with confusion. The people of this world were so weird sometimes.
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Alison puttered around the second floor, looking for room 218. This part of the school mostly held the 9th grade classrooms, so she'd seldom visited here.
She silently counted the room numbers as she walked along, waiting to find the right one.
'212, 214, 216- then it must be-'
She stopped as she gazed upon the doors, next to which was a sign, boldly reading 'Room 218 - Student Council'. They were auditorium-style, dark grey and made of metal, with the little windows above the handles blocked out.
"What do they need such large doors for?" she muttered, pulling one of them open.
As the room inside was revealed to her, she got her answer. It was massive, stretching at least down to the first floor, maybe even further. There were long desks, with chairs placed far apart in rows leading down to the bottom, where a large wooden stage sat, outfitted with a podium and several chairs.
She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but this was wilder than anything she could've imagined.
Around the desks a few students were puttering into chairs, blank expressions on their faces as if coming into this place was somehow completely normal.
She peeked back at the sign by the door, making sure it said 'Student Council' and not 'Theater'.
She noticed that there were signs in front of each chair, detailing grade and class. She looked around for hers, grade 8 cygnus, before finding it around the middle-right of the third row from the back. The seating seemed pretty sporadic, since there was a 10th grader on her left and a 7th grader in front of her.
She sat down and began taking out her stuff, before waiting as more and more students slowly poured in.
The whole aesthetic of everything made her feel like she was part of the government or something. And just the thought of something like that was enough to make her anxious. She'd always known that the student council was an unusually big deal in her school, but this was crazy!
Eventually, almost all of the desks had been filled, and people began to quiet down. Five students, all clearly upperclassmen, walked out onto the stage from a door in the back. They all had a look of intimidation and poise about them, but the standout was clearly the boy in the middle.
He had white-blond hair with dark eyes, and was radiating confidence. But there was an air of aloofness about him, and his smile didn't quite look genuine.
He put her on edge. That boy, who could only be the student council president.
"Hello, representatives of the Student Council!" he said, walking up to the podium, " I am Phillas, your Student Council President! And we, The Higher Student Council, would like to formally welcome you to the first meeting of the new semester!
"As usual, today we'll be going over procedures, and handing out schedules for the new semester." he stepped down, and was replaced at the podium by a girl on his left who looked remarkably like Katie. She vaguely remembered her saying something about an older sister, but at the time she hadn't cared enough to listen.
"Hello," she said, "I'm Kathleen, your Student Council Vice President, and I'm going to go over procedures and explain the functions of the student council, as is standard for the first meeting of a new semester. Meanwhile, Hailey, our secretary, will go around and take roll, to make sure that a representative from each class is present." she gestured to a girl that looked a little younger than the others, who promptly walked towards the desks, clipboard in hand.
She began to drone on about the student council, how it was a student-led program that led almost all of the school's social events, it was split into two groups, the higher council, which was the group on the stage and consisted of all the normal positions, and the representatives, one from each class. She made a big deal about it giving the students more independence and preparing them for the 'real world'.
To be honest, Alison had already read most of this stuff from the packet she'd gotten when she was elected, so she tuned the speech out. She noticed that most of the other students seemed to be doing the same thing. Hearing it once was bad enough, she could only imagine what it would be like to have to listen to it several times.
"Are you the representative for the cygnus class in grade 8?" she suddenly snapped to attention, looking up to see the secretary standing over her.
"Um, yes I-"
"Name?"
"Oh, uh, A-Alison Quinn."
Without skipping a beat she scribbled something on her clipboard, before slamming a paper in front of her and moving on to the next person.
She looked down at the sheet. It was a list of dates for what meetings she was supposed to attend, and what she was expected to do for each meeting. She slid it into her bag, she could just look at it later.
Alison drew her attention back to the stage, noticing that they seemed to be wrapping up.
"-Furthermore, all class suggestions shall be submitted in the box near the stage, and all personal suggestions are to be placed in the box outside the meeting room. Since the Student Council is here to help the school, you will occasionally be asked to perform tasks for the betterment of your teachers and peers. Any questions?" she stared blankly forward as several students raised their hands or waved them around.
"Great! Since there are no questions, you're all dismissed." she finished, straightening her papers as protests erupted from the audience, and a large number of students shuffled towards the stage and suggestion box. Strangely, the students who'd been ignoring the speech didn't seem surprised.
Alison hadn't actually received any suggestions yet, so she quickly slipped to the back, escaping out the double doors at the back of the room, away from the chaos and before the rest of the crowd.
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Hannah loitered around, just a hallway or two away from the student council room. There was a lot that still confused her about this school, but the student council was a particular mystery.
Namely, why was it so darn big?
There'd been a student council at her old school, sure, but it'd been a small, reasonable one. This one was huge, and was made out to be a really, really big deal.
She sighed. It might just be because this was a private school, and a rather prestigious one at that, but none of this stuff made sense to her, and she honestly doubted it ever would.
She was waiting there because she'd gotten a notice on her phone that there had been a car crash a little ways away from her house, and she didn't want to walk home until after it was all cleared up. She'd decided to hang out near the student council on the off-chance that she might be able to catch Alison when the meeting ended, and walk home with her. So now she was waiting.
She heard the sound of metal creaking, and curiously popped her head around the corner. Was the meeting done?
Alas, the door still remained firmly shut. However, a girl, who was about her age with dark hair pulled up in a bun, was leaning onto the door, trying to peek inside.
"Um, excuse me, do you know when the meeting ends?" she asked her. Maybe she was a member who'd shown up late?
After hearing her the girl turned around, looking at her like a deer caught in the headlights, before scampering off down the hall.
"Hey, wait!" she called. Why was she running?
She ran behind the corner, and Hannah stood there for a minute, unsure of what to do, before walking after, her curiosity peaked. Her athletic background allowed her to easily catch up to the girl, who had pressed her back against the wall behind a set of lockers.
"Why were you running?" Hannah calmly asked.
"Why should I tell you?" she exploded, brownish eyes with a rusty glint staring at her challengingly through bright red frames. Wait..
"Ah! You're the one who helped me find my class my first day!" she said, "Thank you for that, by the way. I really appreciated it."
Caught off-guard, the girl stammered an apology, "N-no problem. But why're you following me?"
"I just wanted to know what you were doing. Are you a member of the student council?"
She looked away, before muttering, "I wish I was."
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Nothing, I was just-" she paused, unsure if she should continue. "Nevermind. It's none of your business."
"I promise I won't tell anyone?" Hannah tried, squatting down to meet her eyes.
She huffed, "Fine. I was… listening in on the meeting."
Hannah was confused, "But why? It's just the student council."
The girl scoffed, "Just the student council? Are you kidding me? They practically control everything around here!"
"Everything? That sounds like a bit of an exaggeration."
"It's not." she assured, "Trust me. Nothing except schoolwork and exams gets done around here without their say-so."
"Huh." she said. That seemed a bit weird, didn't it? But it would also explain why this girl was listening in, if they really held so much power. She glanced down, and noticed that she was holding a clipboard with some scrambled notes on it. "Were you planning on submitting a suggestion?"
She moved the clipboard out of Hannah's view, before quickly saying, "I guess. I mean, I submit suggestions all the time, but they never go through. I'm pretty sure they don't even look at the ones from the outside box."
She was clenching her teeth, clipboard clattering slightly in her shaking hand. She took a deep breath, before saying, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be venting my problems to you."
"No, it's no big deal. But, if the suggestions from the outside box don't go through, then what about the inside box?"
"How should I know? I'm not a representative."
"I guess, but I have a friend who is! We're getting together today, so maybe you could tag along and tell her your ideas and then she could submit them?"
"But I'm not even in your class."
"So? It's not like you'll get in trouble for it." she smiled, extending a hand, "I'm Hannah, by the way."
"Petra." she said, ignoring it and getting up by herself.
"So, where are you and your friend meeting?" Petra asked.
"SilverScale Park, In about an hour."
She quickly scribbled this down on her clipboard, before bringing her eyes back up. "So, see you then, I guess?"
"See you then!"
Petra tucked her clipboard under her arm before walking off. Hannah smiled. She hoped that she'd be able to get her ideas through. Something about her just made Hannah confident that she was a good person.
She checked her phone, pleased to see that the crash had cleared up. She grabbed her stuff and started walking, she'd be able to see Alison later anyways.
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"You invited Petra, as in Petra Canva, to join us? Today?!" Alison looked at her friend in horror.
"I guess, what's the big deal? I figured that she had some good ideas she wanted to be expressed, and that you could help her get them across." Hannah said.
They were standing in SilverScale Park, next to one of the benches on a wide path with a fountain in the middle. It was a nice area, with lots of trees, and some vendors just a little ways away. And it would've been peaceful, had it not been for the tense discussion they were currently engaged in.
Alison shook her head. "Do you have even the slightest idea of who she is?"
"No, should I?"
Alison sat down with a sigh. "Great. This is just great. This was supposed to be our day to finally get to know each other better, but now she's coming. Like, out of all the people in the world, it's Petra." she sank into her seat, a deflated look on her face.
"What do you have against her? She's not a bad person!" Hannah said.
"And how would you know? You don't even know her."
"Well-" Hannah started, but couldn't finish. She didn't really know her after just two brief encounters, and she didn't want to say that it was just what her instincts were telling her, then she'd sound crazy. And Alison was speaking like she'd known her for a long time.
But no matter how much she tried to imagine Petra as a bad person, she just couldn't. She couldn't think of a single way that she seemed malicious. Not in the normal-person way, like a bully or politician, or even in the magical way, like that 'soul demon'.
"Look, if it's that big a deal to you that we get together while it's just us, then fine! We can get together tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after that, or whenever! It's not a big deal."
Alison sighed. "I don't know. I just-" she stopped, turning to glare at something over Hannah's shoulder.
She turned around to see what it was, and saw Petra approaching. She was holding a folder that was brimming with papers, which looked to have been gathered up quickly. "Hello, Hannah." she said as she walked up to them.
"Hi Petra!" she replied, earning a betrayed look from Alison.
"Is what I'm wearing okay?" she said, gesturing to the plaid flannel shirt and casual khakis she was wearing, along with a jacket tied around her waist and her ever-present bright red glasses.
"Of course, why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason, I'm just not very good with social events." she said, averting her eyes.
Alison tossed the girl a shady look, mumbling, "Yeah, of course she's 'not good with social events.'"
Hannah ignored her friend's comment, instead gesturing towards her, "and this is my friend Alison, she's a representative on the Student Council. And Alison, this is Petra." she had a sneaking suspicion that they both already knew each other, however.
The two girl's eyes met, and Petra's became a face not unlike the one Alison had displayed when Hannah had first told her of her coming. "I'm sorry Hannah. I just remembered that I have somewhere to be, so-"
Hannah grabbed her arm as she began to turn away. "Wait! can't you at least let us hear out your ideas first?"
Petra tried to escape her grip, but as a second hand joined the first, she huffed in acceptance. "Fine, but at least make this quick." she said, before muttering, "I don't want to be near her for any longer than I have to."
She sat down on the bench, as far away from Alison as possible without seeming too paranoid, and opened her folder.
"So, I guess I'll start out with this," she said, shuffling through her papers until she found the desired one. "My thoughts are that, first and foremost, we need to find a better way to make sure that suggestions get filtered through. Like, I understand that it's impractical for them to treat every single request with the same amount of attentiveness, but the way we have to going now it really unfair. Like-"
She went on, discussing her ideas on the suggestions, social events, power imbalance, and so on, with Hannah trying to pick up on what she was talking about but lacking a lot of the context to do so, and with Alison only pretending to listen, wanting it to be over as soon as possible.
That is, until a loud growl erupted from Alison's bag, causing them all to look at it in surprise.
"What the hell? Did that just come from your bag?" Petra questioned.
"N-no, it didn't. I-I'm just, hungry, that's all. I'm going to go get us some food, so I'll be back in a bit." Alison stuttered, before grabbing her bag and quickly walking towards the vendors.
Hannah fidgeted a bit, and Petra shuffled around her papers. There was an awkward silence.
What was she supposed to say? She knew that it had to have been one of the familiars, but they couldn't tell Petra that… she was glad, at least, that Alison had thought of something fast enough to not arouse too much suspicion.
But still...
This wasn't going anything like what Hannah had expected. Petra was rushing, trying to get it over with as quick as possible, and when she'd left to the vendors, Alison had seemed all too happy to go.
She'd just been trying to help them, what was she doing wrong?
Alison walked back over, carrying three jumbo-sized cookies, with steam still rising off them. She handed two to Hannah before sitting down, who passed one of them on to Petra.
She looked at the dessert in confusion, before setting it down on a napkin beside her and continuing.
"And I was thinking that they should also give more privileges to the lower grades. I understand that to some degree that's unreasonable, but in some aspects, such as checking out books with more complex subject matter is-"
"Say, um, I don't want to be rude, Petra, but why don't you take a short break to enjoy your cookie?" Hannah asked.
Petra huffed, before closing her folder and taking the cookie in her hands. She stared at it for a moment, like she didn't know what to do with it, before taking a hesitant bite.
"So, what sort of things do you like to do in your free time?" Alison asked Hannah.
"I like tennis, but I also sleep a lot. Actually, now that I think about it I've been sleeping more than usual lately-."
"What are you talking about?" Petra interjected, looking between them.
Hannah turned towards her, "we're just making small talk, getting to know each other, you know, normal friend stuff!"
"But, didn't you just transfer here a little while ago?" she pointed at Hannah, "How could you two be friends if you can't have known each other for more than a week?"
"It's not weird. We met and became fast friends, so what? That happens with lots of people." Alison said, "and besides, we decided to meet up in the first place so we could learn more about each other, it's not my fault this thing suddenly became about the student council."
Petra stiffened, looking away. "You do realize that that sort of thing never works out, right? You can't just decide to become friends with someone out of nowhere, especially if you don't even really know them."
She got up, shuffling her papers around as she got them into a concise stack. "And if you're the kind of people that believe in that sort of thing, then I'm afraid I'll have to leave." she said, glaring at Alison.
She then walked off at a quick pace, turning behind a line of trees and out of sight. The cookie she'd left behind sat discarded on the bench.
After she was gone, Alison scoffed, whispering, "gee, I knew she was mean, but I didn't know she was stuck-up too."
Hannah looked at her, having heard the comment. "What do you have against her? Look, I get it that she's not the most friendly person in the world, but that's no reason to be so mean to her!"
"I didn't- I just-" she looked down, "We just have a bit of a history together, and, yeah."
"Maybe you could tell me about it? I could help you get over whatever it is." Hannah calmed down, her tone completely changed.
"I really don't think it'll work like that. It was pretty bad."
"Please?"
Alison looked over at her friend, her only friend, who was looking at her, genuine concern in her eyes. She really didn't want to say anything, but maybe- maybe she could help?
"I guess it started in elementary school. We were in the same class, and-"
"AAAHHHHH!"
A scream rattled throughout the park, causing both of the girls to bolt up in confusion. The familiars also flew out of Alison's bag, looking around in fear.
"What was that?" Biee asked as Clin hugged her paw.
"I think it was Petra!" Hannah said, "Come on, we need to make sure she's okay!"
At the mention of Petra's name, Alison looked unsure, and her eyes became locked with the pavement.
"I also sense a ghost, from the direction of the scream!" Alan said, "you need to go investigate, as precure if nothing else!"
At the mention of her title Alison looked up, and clutched the necklace from which her transformation tools hung. "Okay, let's go."
The five of them then ran off, to confront the ghost and save Petra.
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They ran onto a wide road near the side of the park, with benches lined up on either side of the road and trees that stood behind them, leaves reflecting the coming sunset. There was no one around.
But none of them saw any of that, no, all of their attention was drawn to the center of the concrete road, where, just above the ground where a cacophony of papers were scattered across the ground, Selenium had Petra's neck between her hands.
They stopped as they took it in, horror on their faces.
"Petra!" Hannah finally yelled, gaining the ghost's attention.
"Dammit!" she cursed, releasing the girl's neck as she turned to them, "Precure, I swear I'll kill you this time!" she yelled, summoning a sphere of darkness in her hand.
Her eyes glowed as she scanned the area, before they landed on something and once again turned dim. She then began the incantation, "O soul of the weak, bounded to pathetic life, I summon thee, to take and do with as I please!"
A squeak could be heard from the trees as a squirrel fell down onto the grass, it's rather small soul gathered in the sphere of darkness within Selenium's hand.
The girls took stances, holding their pencases as the familiars backed up a little, ready to charge in and protect Petra, who was currently collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily and clutching her neck, the moment Selenium stepped away from where she was towering over her.
She threw the sphere to the side, never taking her eyes off the precures, as the distinct sound of the sphere resonating with something sounded, and a bulbous demon, crafted from white, silky fibers, arose. It had ears and a tail shaped like a squirrel's, and large arms that hung off it's frame.
After it finished forming it looked down upon the small group, prepared to attack.
"And while you're dealing with that," Selenium said, grabbing the scruff of Petra's shirt and lifting her back into the air, "I'll take care of this little problem." she moved her free hand towards her neck.
"Alison, Hannah, you need to transform! Quickly!" Alan yelled at the two.
They nodded, then yelled, distinctly out of sync, "Precure, Shining Power!"
There was a mighty flash of pink and green, and when it faded, Cure Heiress and Cure Mossy had risen.
Without hesitation, the two bolted forward. Mossy went towards the demon, hoping to subdue it quickly, while Heiress, without thinking, went straight for Selenium.
She bounded into the air, adjusting her stance so that she could attack. She smacked her arm in the air, causing the ghost to cry out and drop the girl in question.
Heiress then quickly grabbed Petra before she hit the pavement, her floaters safely returning them to the ground. She made sure to land behind the tree cover, decently safe from danger.
She suddenly realized what she was doing, saving Petra of all people and being happy about it, before her better senses grounded her. She was a precure. Petra had been attacked. It was her duty to make sure that she was safe from harm. Yeah.
She then looked her over to check for injuries. Her face was pale, but color was quickly returning, and her breaths were haggard, as she kept her hands by her neck. She was barely conscious, if even.
A little bit like a victim recovering from a soul demon… she thought idly, before the current situation returned to her.
The familiars flew over, and without her saying anything, nodded. "We'll take care of her while you fight the demon." Biee said.
Heiress smiled, before quickly setting Petra down on the grass and running out to join her teammate on the battlefield.
Petra let out a cough, and began to prop herself up. The familiars flew over to her, to try and make her rest. However, her eyes were on the battlefield, as she tried to make sense of what was going on.
"Is that- Hannah and Alison?" she made out.
Biee flew into her line of vision, "yes, but you need to stay here and rest! It's not safe!"
The flying, talking bunny thing only made her more confused.
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Mossy dodged to the side, just in time to avoid a punch from one of the demon's bulky arms.
The two girls had been darting around, both looking for some strategy, some crack in the demon's defences that they could expose, but so far they hadn't been able to do anything.
She probably would've attacked it head-on by now, except for the fact that they demon seemed to be very sticky, and whatever it touched was carried along with it. And hurling themselves at it- yeah, that wasn't happening.
But there had to be a way that they could beat it, Mossy knew. And even if there wasn't, she refused to be done in on her second fight.
But what could they do? She knew that her attack, 'Daffodil Disk', could either be used as a shield or as a frisbee, but it was too small to be effective against it's punches, and she wouldn't be able to fire it at anything unless the demon would stop moving around.
They needed a way to stop its movements, but how? Think, think, think…
"Heiress!" she called to her teammate, "Do you think you could use Crystal Catcher to trap it in place?"
"I can try!" she said, backing a ways away from the demon as she summoned her wand, before concentrating her energy into it. "Precure, Crystal Catcher!" she called, extending the ribbon around its skinny legs.
The ribbon snapped tightly, restricting its movements and causing the demon to falter. Mossy was already summoning her wand as the demon leaned onto its arms for support.
"Precure, Daffodil Disk!" she yelled, launching it towards the monster.
However, as it flew through the air, the demon turned, so that when the attack hit, it harmlessly stuck to its back before fading into sparkles.
The demon let out a roar in anger, and flung it's arms around as the cures tried desperately to evade.
Heiress tried to keep her attack going, but was unable to do so while dodging, and was forced to let it dissolve.
"We're going to have to find another way to beat it!" Heiress yelled at her.
She was right. They needed to find a way to subdue it, make it fall over, anything!
Wait, maybe if she…
She shook her head. No, that was a stupid plan. But, stupid didn't mean it wouldn't work, right?
She jumped towards her teammate, sliding under its flailing arms. "Do you think you could distract it for me? I'm going to try something."
She nodded, and Mossy stepped back out of the fight, trying to concentrate.
Heiress had told her about it a few days prior, and if she was able to do it, then this might just work. She didn't trust herself to be able to pull it off, but the worst that could come out of it was nothing, right?
So she closed her eyes and tried to imagine it. The wind blowing through her hair, the thrill of the takeoff, and the power of the skies.
Her wings extended, and she exhaled as she took it in.
Her wings, they felt so much more real than she'd imagined, actual tangible things that were connected to her body like extra limbs. They felt slightly awkward, she didn't know how to place them or what to do with them, but also natural, and she knew she could use them with ease.
So she lifted off the ground and into the sky, taking in the twilight.
For a second, she'd forgotten everything, the fight, the demon, the ghost, and it was just her and the sky, a relationship of wonder.
Unfortunately that was her mistake, as she felt a hand grasp her leg and pull her sharply downwards.
She stared straight at Selenium, who gave her a wicked smirk. "Aww, trying to fly away? But I think you're forgetting that I want to kill both of you, I can't have you running away, now can I?" she taunted, before hurling her downwards.
She was sent flying towards the demon, headfirst. It definitely wasn't what she planned, but she could work with this.
She flipped around, adjusting her position to a kick, so when she hit the demon she sent it into the ground, back hitting the concrete with a bang.
The demon struggled, managing to get one of its hands stuck on a wooden bench as it did.
Mossy backflipped off of it and near some bushes, before tripping over her own feet.
"Eww, what is this stuff?" she said, pointing to the spiderweb-like substance that now covered her boots.
Heiress bounded over to her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think. But I can't move my legs, this spiderweb stuff's got them all tangled up with the bushes!" she said, struggling. "I'm really sorry, but could you take over the fight until I can get out of this?"
Heiress looked grimly towards the monster, who had stood up again, bench now stuck to its arm.
She cursed under her breath, before saying, "Yeah. I've totally got this, take all the time you need." and running off to face it alone.
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Today hadn't been the best of days for Petra.
It had started out okay, sure. She didn't notice anyone talking behind her back, and she'd managed to stay pretty calm all day!
Then there was the student council meeting. She knew that it would be wrong to snoop, but she wanted to know what was going on, and submit her own ideas to make the school better, because she saw so many things that could be done so much better and couldn't just stand to do nothing about it.
But then she'd gotten caught snooping, yet even that had went well! Hannah had been really nice and even volunteered to introduce her to her friend to help get her ideas across.
And then that friend… had been Alison.
That's when things had rapidly gone downhill.
She'd wanted to run away, pretend this had never happened and be on with her life, but somehow she'd gotten roped into staying and actually discussing her ideas. What was she thinking?!
And then she'd found out the philosophy that Hannah and Alison shared about friendship- that you can just become friends with someone out of nowhere! It was stupid and insulting, but luckily she'd managed to walk off that time before they could stop her.
But then- she'd been so angry, and was just walking around without a purpose- and then this weird magic lady appeared out of nowhere and she couldn'tbreatheandtherewasalotoflightand-
The next thing she knew she'd been coming back into focus behind the bushes, with three weird flying things telling her about how she needed to stay put and about how the two other magic ladies who'd appeared were actually Alison and Hannah but she couldn't tell anybody.
Cut to now, as she was sitting next to them, trying to make sense of the situation. She'd already tried pinching herself, it wasn't too far off to think she'd passed out from the lack of oxygen, but she'd felt the pain, which either meant that she was dead or that this was actually happening. Logic pointed to the former, that this was some weird heaven world thing where nothing made sense, but everything else pointed to the latter.
And needless to say this was freaking her out a little.
"So again, they're fighting that demon thing, and I need to sit tight and wait here until they're done or I'll die or something?"
"Yeah, because a normal human like you won't be able to fight it." Alan confirmed.
"But they can?" she looked towards the fight, "because if I'm being honest, it doesn't look like they're doing too well."
"T-they're the precure, of course they can handle this!" Biee said from where she was keeping watch, not entirely sure of the words herself.
Suddenly, there was a large bang that shook the ground. They all peered over the bushes to try and see what it was.
Mossy had been knocked into the bushes opposite to them, and she looked to be stuck from the spiderwebs that covered her boots. Heiress went over to her, but as she went back into the fight alone their fears were confirmed; they were losing.
"Oh no, this is bad…" Alan panicked, before turning to his best friend and shaking her, "What're we going to do? If the precure are killed then we'll be-"
He cut himself off as Biee steadied him, "It'll be alright. There's no way that they could possibly lose to a wimpy soul demon like this!"
"But their powers aren't as strong as the old precures'! If something doesn't happen soon then the ghosts will have won!"
"C-calm down! We won't be able to do anything if we're not thinking clearly! And then- oh goodness you've gotten me all riled up too!"
The two familiars were both shaking now, neither sure of what to do.
"Maybe-" Clin said, breaking the silence, "-maybe you could try and find the third precure? If we can find them, then they could help us win the fight!"
Alan smiled wide and hugged the smaller familiar, "Clin you're amazing! Okay. I'm gonna look now. Yeah." he said, before taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and letting power flow through the four-point star marking on his head, causing it to glow.
Suddenly, there was another large bang and they looked out to see Heiress knocked into a tree, webs keeping her from escaping. Not that she could've escaped anyways, since she was reeling from pain.
The ghost lady laughed from her chair in the sky, looking down upon them. "Wow, Manganese was teasing me about not being able to defeat a single cure on my own, but I have to say that defeating two is so much easier!"
"Don't count me out yet!" Mossy called, having gotten herself free from the bushes. But the webbing was still stuck to her boots, and she seemed to be having some trouble moving around. With the demon approaching her, it didn't look like it would end well.
Unless somebody did something, then they'd be defeated. And if that happened-
Without thinking, Petra rushed out of the bushes and stood before the demon, holding her ground.
Selenium glared, "get out of the way, girl. I have no qualms with killing you, but I'd rather end the precures first."
"No, I refuse to back down!" she yelled. What was she saying? She was going to die!
"There's nothing you can do to beat me, you know. And trying will only get you killed faster."
"I know. I know, but-" she said, fear in her eyes as she faced the demon, "I can't just stand by and do nothing! Even if I know that nothing I do will end up making a difference, I still have to try!"
Suddenly, Alan's eyes flew open as he pointed towards Petra. "It's her! She's the third precure!"
Biee and Clin smiled proudly, as Heiress and Mossy starred in surprise. "I'm a what?" Petra asked, confusion replacing fear.
"There's no time to explain, just take this!" Alan said, grabbing a pencase from out of his bag and chucking it at her.
She moved to catch it, but it stopped before she could, hovering before her chest. A bright orange light emitted from her, and an orange-yellow charm was drawn out, shining with intensity.
It stopped right in front of the pencase, waiting expectantly.
"No!" Selenium screamed, moving the demon to attack before she could transform.
"Petra!" Mossy yelled at her, "say 'Precure Shining Power', quick!"
"Precure Shining Power? But what will that do?"
Upon saying those words, the charm and pencase clicked into place, and she was swallowed in the erupting light.
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Everything she could see was like a spectacular sunset, oranges and golds mixing with the darkness of the night. Her simple outfit had changed into a glowing orange dress, with long gloves and short shoes made from the same strange material.
She looked around in confusion. What happened? What was happening? What-
But somehow this all felt nostalgic, safe. Like something from a dream?
The pencase, which had been floating before her, attached to her dress, causing the material to flow and change, the glow fading into sparkes that burned off and flickered around.
What was revealed was an outfit that had an orange skirt and a dark brown vest, with long, puffy sleeves and short boots. A belt was loosely fixed around her waist.
A black, witch-like hat formed upon her hair, which had been tinted orange and let loose, flowing freely in two long curls.
Her rusty eyes brightened like renewed metal, and her glasses fused onto her face, becoming two ruby markings under her eyes.
The sparkles left flowing around the area gathered towards her, at the base of her back. They extended to form a short pair of wings with a jagged point, and two long, twisted floaters.
With this, the magic sunsets around her disappeared, and she returned to the park, coming face-to-face with the demon. She pointed at it threateningly, before flames escaped her clenched fist.
"The Fairy of Witchcraft and Burning emotions," she yelled, unfamiliar words which were ingrained into her memory as if she'd uttered them a thousand times. "Cure Spell!"
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She stood proudly before the demon, letting her new powers and clothes fuel her intimidation, before she realized what was going on.
What the hell just happened?
She looked down at her clothes. They seemed almost exactly like the ones that the other two were wearing, in terms of being a frilly, girly costume with a lot of addons that was as far from practical fighting gear as you could possibly get.
And she had to fight in them. She seriously hoped that they were more flexible than they looked, because if else she was screwed.
From behind her, Mossy beamed. Thank god, there was a new precure! And it was Petra! She wasn't worried about winning now, with a new ally by thier side, there was no way they could lose!
And from her place stuck to the tree, Heiress stared slack-jawed at her new teammate. Petra was a precure? Petra was a precure?! She couldn't believe it. Not someone like her. She couldn't be a precure, right? But then there was no way she could deny it, not with her standing right in front of her...
Suddenly, the demon moved in to punch Spell, and she jumped to avoid it, gaining a surprising amount of height. She managed to maneuver over the demon's arm as she landed, leaving her in the clear. Actually, this was a lot easier than she thought!
She moved in, delivering a punch to the demon's side, expecting it to make a great impact. However, the demon's body absorbed the force, leaving her hand covered in webbing.
The demon then uppercut her, sending her flying across the pavement. Oh god that hurt…
She shook off the pain, getting back up. That could've gone better, but it could've gone worse too. She just needed to find another opening or something, right?
She waited for the demon to approach her, trying to push away any dirt, litter, cups, leaves, some scribbled on papers, and other things strewn around with her foot, and as it lifted its paw without the bench, the cleanest of it's four limbs, she dodged to the side. It slammed it's fist onto the ground, getting it stuck to the concrete.
She smiled. Yes! Now all she had to do was-
Was, was…
Was what, exactly?
She knew that Heiress and Mossy, who were still both stuck to the trees, had used some kind of 'special powers' to fight the demon, but how was she supposed to do that?
"Spell!" Biee called to her from the bushes, "summon your wand! It'll give you a special power that can help you!"
"How?" she called back.
"Just focus really hard!"
Focus, she had to focus. Perfect, of course that was it. With a small huff she closed her eyes, keeping her arms down at her sides. Focus. She could feel something, but it was too intangible to grasp. What was she supposed to be focusing on?
She opened her eyes as she heard the demon moving, and she saw it lifting it's arm, the dirty one, into the air. Littler, dirt and leaves were embedded into it, it was disgusting. And there were also a lot of papers…
…
Almost without thinking she bounded over it to it's arm, and time seemed to slow as she realized what she was looking at.
A paper, her paper, was embedded into the demon's flesh. It was ripped, dirty, and covered in webs, but it was unmistakable.
She looked back over where she'd been standing, and saw the rest of them, crumpled and ripped on the ground.
The papers, all of the papers, which she'd worked so hard on, which she'd spent countless hours accumulating and refining, all to try and make the school a better place, had been taken by this demon and defiled like dirt, buried into its flesh or slammed upon the concrete.
Finally, she hit the ground, fists clenched and blood pounding in her ears.
She was furious.
Spell stared down the demon, stared down Selenium. They would pay. She would make them pay.
She felt her rage become tangible, and focused everything on it. Her power, her rage became clearer and clearer in her mind, until she could physically feel it.
And she did feel it, the magic wand, with an orange gem and witch-hat top, which now lay in her hands.
As the demon made another strike at her, she thrust the wand into its flesh, releasing a terrible searing noise as heat ate through the webs.
The demon reeled back, and Spell jumped backwards, standing near Heiress. As she positioned the wand close to the webs that restrained her, they shriveled up and lost their stick, causing her to fall to the ground.
"T-thank you." she hesitantly said. She then looked over at her new teammate in confusion. She'd gotten rid of the spiderwebs, but how? She'd also burned a hole in the demon, so was her wand, by chance...
Heiress curiously put a finger to the rod, only to extract it as quickly as she could, shaking her hand. Spell also recoiled as she realized that she'd been touching her weapon. "That thing's white-hot! How are you holding it?"
"Really? I don't feel a thing." she said, looking it over.
"Well I certainly did." she looked away, still soothing her finger.
There was a tense moment between them, as neither was sure what to say. What could you say, in a situation like this?
Finally, the silence was broken by the demon's pounding footsteps.
"Hey, could I ask you a favor?" Spell said. Heiress stayed silent, so she took it as a yes. "Some of my papers are trapped in the demon, and I was wondering if you could do that grapple-thing to get them out. I'm going to try something, and if it goes the way I think it will then I don't want them getting damaged."
She went over to free Mossy, and Heiress looked at her own wand. She hated that she was going to do this, but she didn't have much of a choice right now.
She summoned 'Crystal Catcher' and flung it forward, taking off bits of the skin where it looked like papers were caught. A few times she accidentally got a receipt or something, but she was right more often than not.
She put her wand away when she couldn't see any more papers, and picked up what she'd gathered. They were sticky, torn, and dirty, but she knew that at least some of it would come off with beating the demon.
She looked over and saw Spell standing her ground, holding her wand in front of her as she closed her eyes.
She felt power surging, gathering through her hands into the wand. The thought of destroying the demon filled her mind, and she felt heat flowing through her palms. As she re-opened her eyes, she knew what to do.
"Out of the way!" she yelled at the others, an order that they, and Selenium, fearful and curious, obeyed. Then, she yelled, "Precure, Enchanted Embers!"
Fire burst from the tip of her wand, and caught on to the dirt stuck to the demon. The bench, the dust, the litter, all burned, shriveling the monster in an inferno of rage.
The fires lit up the night, dancing into the skies. It worked its way through the layers of the demon until only the soul and sphere of darkness remained. The fires moved in on that too, ready to consume it.
Alan suddenly rushed forward through the bushes, flying into the wall of heat just in time to grab the soul before the fire reached it.
He brought it to the other familiars and the three cures, who all breathed a sigh of relief as they saw it was okay.
"That was stupid!" Biee said, hitting him on the head.
"Yeah, but it worked!" he smirked, "anyways, we need to get the soul back to that creature before-"
Suddenly, sirens rang out, and they all looked around in a panic. What happened? Why were there sirens?
That's when they collectively realized the situation around them. All the grass, trees, benches and so forth had gone up in flames, and they were calmly standing in the middle of the chaos, talking.
"We should run." Mossy said, to which everyone agreed.
As the precure ran off to safety, Selenium glared down at them from above. Stupid precures. They'd beaten her. Again!
And now some people from this world were coming to investigate because of the orange one's fires. She could probably take them all on easily, but they weren't worth her time. She had a mission, after all.
Deciding that was for the best, she dissipated away, silently swearing revenge.
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They wandered down the darkened streets of the city, finding refuge in an alley that allowed the three cures to safely release their transformations.
They were in a business district that was fairly close to the park, but that was also fairly desolate because of how late it was.
Once they were sure that no one followed them, a collective sigh of relief spread throughout the group, before they crouched down to see the familiars and soul, along with the empty body of the squirrel, which they'd made sure to grab.
"I'm glad we managed to get away in time." Hannah remarked. She then looked at the soul that Alan was carrying. It looked a bit strange, there was some grey stuff mixed in with the soul, and it didn't look like the standard corruption from a soul demon. "Hey, are you sure that the soul's really okay? There's some weird stuff in it."
Biee examined the soul for a minute, "It's just a bit burned, no big deal. Luckily these are really small, so the soul should be able to heal itself, given time."
Alan dipped the soul into the squirrel's body, watching as it re-entered. The squirrel then promptly woke up, sniffing around a bit before scurrying off into the night.
"Now that that's over," Petra said, standing up, "I demand that you tell me what happened! Who was that lady, that monster? And what're you? And these flying things," she gestured towards the familiars, "-and what am I?"
They all fidgeted a bit, trying to figure out how to answer all her questions without freaking her out too much, when Alan flew up to her, and in an unusually calm tone, spoke.
"That woman was named Selenium, and she's a ghost from our world. She's not dead, but is descended from that kind of ghost. The monster she summoned was a soul demon, a pseudo-demon made from using souls as energy in tandem with a sphere of darkness and an object to be used as a vessel.
"You, Alison and Hannah, are the legendary warriors, precure!"
She looked confused, "Precure, you say that but I still don't get it. Like, where do our powers come from? How do they work?"
Biee stepped in, "They come from the pencases and charms, artifacts from the previous precure, who fought in an ancient war! And, uh- it's just magic!"
Petra exhaled, "why did I expect that?"
Alan pushed her aside as he continued talking, "We- that is, Biee, Clin and me- are familiar spirits, bonded to different fairies from our world."
She paused, "So now that I have this power, what do you what me to do with it?"
Clin flew forward, paws pressed together, "you to help beat the ghosts! They came.. and…" the sentence broke off with a sob as Biee moved to hug them.
"They came to our home and invaded." she finished for them in a somber tone. "We- we really need your help."
Petra thought about it. This was crazy, and so far over her head.
But, she'd said it before, hadn't she? That she wouldn't back down if there was anything she
could do to help. That woman had been ruthless, and a whole army of people like her, attacking a city? She understood why the familiars needed help.
But, she looked over at the other two cures. Hannah seemed nice, and she had no problems working with her, but Alison? She didn't know if she could do this. She needed more time to think about everything. "Thanks for the explanation, I'd better get going."
She began to walk off, only to be stopped as Hannah reached out and grabbed her arm. "Wait! Are you going to help us? we're really going to need it."
"I'm not really sure. This is a whole lot, and-" she stopped. What would she do? Was it really worth risking the safety of who-knows how many people just to avoid one?
"Yeah. I'll help." she said. Hannah and the familiars smiled, while Alison sharply inhaled. What..?
"But I absolutely refuse to be your friend. Maybe we'll be friends in time, I don't know, but I refuse to be your 'friend', before I even know you." she rebutted.
Hannah laughed a little, "that's fine by me. What do you think, Alison?"
She stayed quiet, but grabbed Petra's papers, torn, dirty, and crumpled, yet there regardless, and stood up, handing them to the girl in question. "Here."
Petra took the papers, flipping through them with a deflated look before smiling a bit, turning around and walking off.
Alison and Hannah followed a ways behind, ready to get back to their homes as quickly as they could.
The familiars stayed behind, and Biee cheered as she pulled Clin closer, "We did it! We did it! The precure are up to three members!"
"And only one more before we've found them all!" Alan joined in with a bright smile on his face.
Things really were turning out okay.