Chapter 2 finally! Hopefully the third chapter will be out sooner!

Chapter 2: Helping Friends out of a Stitch Bind! Cure Crescent Appears!

Iris woke up to a pair of green eyes staring down at her. She almost fell out of her bed. Iris sighed and sat up, pushing the small creature back slightly. "Amaru…" she whispered.

"You said first thing, maru."

Iris let out a soft sigh but nodded; she had promised him. "Okay," she said, "but we have to whisper. Lily's still sleeping."

Amaru nodded and wiggled out of Iris's hold. He sat in front of her, his head held high. "I am from a far away land called Ephedia, maru. There are five lands of Ephedia and you," he pointed at her, "are a princess of one of those lands, maru. We were attacked by an evil sorcerer Gramorr and his forces; you met two of them the other day, maru."

"Those kids?"

"Mhm, they're called Praxina and Mephisto, maru They're going to try to stop us from finding the other four princesses and destroy us, maru" Amaru frowned, his ears pointing back. "I think they may have another motive as well but…I don't know what it is yet, maru That's why we must move fast, maru!"

Iris sat quietly as she listened to Amaru talk. It was a lot to take in, if it hadn't been for the fight yesterday she would find it hard to believe. Plus, if those two were still hanging around they could hurt more people. She couldn't let that happen.

She took a deep breath. "Okay…we'll keep a look out for those two. But…how do we find the other princesses?"

"I…I don't know, maur…I was lucky to find you, maru."

"Ooooh…this is going to be tough."

~ X ~ X ~

"Ugh! That stupid purple rat!"

"He's not really a rat…more of a cat or a dog I guess."

Praxina glared at her brother. "It doesn't matter! The point is that he's found a princess. We have to stop him from finding the other princesses."

"But how, he'll probably be that Cure Heart girl and she whooped us last time."

Praxina folded her arms and thought. "Well…" a devious smile spread across her lips, "the more dark energy we gather the stronger we and our master grows. If we catch enough then even that Cure Heart won't be able to beat us."

Mephisto's eyes lit up. "That's great! Gramorr will so be impressed with us!"

Praxina and Mephisto let out evil laughed, and then flew up in the sky toward the school.

~ X ~ X ~

Both Iris and Lily decided to finish their tour of the school grounds while the rest of the new student s started to move in. Today they were planning on checking out the science wings. Iris had convinced Amaru to hide out in the dorm room for a while, until she came back. They had just finished breakfast and were headed down the hall when they heard a little yell. Both girls turned and saw a trio down the hall pointing at them.

"Uh-oh," Lily took a small step back.

The trio ran down the hall toward them, knocking down a different pair of people walking in the opposite direction.

"You're Lily Bowman," one of the crowd yelled, "I love you!"

"You guys," Lily stomped her foot at the trio. "You just knock these two over." She moved around the group to the two who had been hit. Iris followed after her.

"Hey," she said and knelt down along with Lily to help them up. "We're really sorry about that."

The pair on the ground were trying to pick up various sewing supplies and fabric samples. One was a boy with dark brown skin and two toned hair, blond on the top and black underneath. He had green rimmed glasses and wore a red and white striped t-shirt, a bowtie, and pants with suspenders.

Next to him was a redheaded girl with her hair in a long side ponytail, lightly tanned skin, an orange shirt and white skirt combo.

The boy looked up at them. "It's okay, I know it wasn't your fault and people can be excitable."

Iris and Lily shared a small smile.

"I'm Iris by the way and this is Lily…though I guess you would know that."

"I'm Carlos and this is my friend Auriana. I'm here to learn design."

"Ooh, you want to be like a fashion designer, that's amazing!"

Auriana giggled and hooked an arm around Carlos's shoulders. "Isn't it? You guys should come and see some of his designs that he's working on. He super talented."

"I'd like that," Lily said, handing Carlos back his box of materials. Just then her phone rang. She quickly picked up her phone, "Excuse me."

"So…Auriana what are you here studying?" Iris asked.

"I dunno yet!" She smiled. "There's just so much I like and wanna do, y'know? Like…I like designs too, and singing…and dancing…and modeling and just a bunch more stuff. So I'm trying to figure it out."

"Hey," Lily said, coming back to the group. "Turns out I gotta meet with my agent and do some photos. Sorry…but I can see your designs another time."

"The invitation is always there."

Then Lily headed off, waving goodbye to them.

"Alright, Iris and Auriana, let's go."

~ X ~ X ~

Praxina and Mephisto landed near the back of the school, keeping their eyes peeled for the Princess Precure.

"Alright…now to find someone who we can steal a lot of dark energy from." Mephisto rubbed his hands together. "How do we do that?"

Praxina elbowed her brother. "That's simple! We just- uh," she snapped her fingers. "We just have to find someone with a strong enough dream."

"Oooh," he said with a mischievous grin. "But, wait, Prax. How can we tell? All these humans look the same!"

"We'll just…We'll just listen around. These humans love to talk." Praxina snapped her fingers and in a flash of red light she was dressed in more causal earthling clothing

"I get it!" Mephisto snapped his fingers as well, changing his clothing. "We just have to get them talking!"

Both twins laughed as they walked into the school through a back door.

~ X ~ X ~

Carlos, Iris, and Auriana walked to one of the empty classrooms in the Arts Building. Iris could tell that this particular class room was made for clothing design with all the mannequins around the room and the rolls of fabric on the wall. It looked like a there were a few other students had been down here already since some of the other tables had papers and other materials on them.

"My sketchbook is over here," Carlos said and sat his box of materials down. He sat down and reached into the desk and pulled out a black covered book, handing it over to Iris.

Iris flipped through the book, her eyes scanning over the hundreds of sketches in the book. Some were unfinished but, for her money, she thought they looked amazing. She paused on one particular sketch; it was a long flowing dress with straps hanging just off the shoulders. It was designed with a crescent moon and many, many stars. There were smaller sketches surrounding it, some of certain kinds of what she thought were jewelry, one was a view of the dress from the back and so on.

"Carlos these are amazing!"

"See," Auriana giggled and hugged Carlos from behind. "I told you he was crazy talented!"

"I especially like this one." Iris flipped the book around and pointed to sketch of the moon and star dress.

Carlos hummed with an easy smile on his lips. "Ah, yes…this is my favorite too, though I wouldn't have been able to come up with it without Auriana."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, let me show you," Auriana dug into her skirt pocket and pulled out… Dress-Up Key!

Iris was sure of it. This one was orange with two crescent moons on the front. There were three white layers showing underneath the orange dress. On top of the key looked like a small crown with another crescent moon adorned on top.

"It's a cute little thing," Auriana said, setting the key down on the table. "I found in my luggage while I was unpacking."

"I wasn't crazy about the colors, but I do really like the idea of a moon dress."

Both Auriana and Carlos started talking about…something, Iris wasn't paying attention. If Auriana had a key then that must mean that she's a Precure, and if that were true then she was going to be in danger from Mephisto and Praxina.

"Um," Iris cut in, her new friends shooting her a slightly concerned look. Iris cleared her throat. "I…just remembered that there is something…that I have to take care of in my room! Auriana, would you mind helping me?"

Auriana blinked a couple of times. "Oh, sure. Carlos will you be okay while I go help Iris?"

"Yeah I'll be here for when you get back."

"Great, it was nice to meet you Carlos," she waited for Auriana to place her key back into her pocket before taking a hold of her wrist. "Bye!"

~ X ~ X ~

Praxina and Mephisto had been at this for what seemed like hours, starting pointless chit-chat with this human and that, in an effort to find a suitable human. They had listened to inane chatter about bands, movies, tv shows but nothing that really would be sufficient.

"This is gonna take forever," Mephisto whined as they walked down the hall.

"Well you should pick better humans."

"You picked half of them!"

"Hush!" Praxina stopped her brother. "Listen."

The twins fell silent and heard a very soft tune being sung from down the hall. The twins grinned at each other. They moved quickly down the hall toward the sound and found a young man with blond and black hair.

"Oh excuse us," Praxina said. "We didn't know anyone else would be in here."

"Oh that's okay. I was simply working on some sketches."

Mephisto stepped forward. "Oooh sketches? Of what? A great Ephedian Xarcath— oof!" He had been elbowed by his sister.

Carlos gave the two a confused look. "Um, no. They're sketches of clothes. I dream of being a fashion designer."

"That's your dream, huh," Praxina moved closer to Carlos, peaking over his shoulder. "Tell me more."

"Well," Carlos began, "it's been something I have been interested in this ever since I was little. My grandmother is the one who taught me when I was little. We worked on it every time I went over to her house for a visit."

As Carlos continued to talk both Praxina and Mephisto could see a kind of light starting to glow around the young man. They shared a look.

"Prax!" Mephisto whispered.

She waved a hand at him before turning back to Carlos. "Well…all of that is very interesting," she said, "how about we go for short walk outside and you can tell us even more about this dream of yours."

"I'm actually waiting for a friend of mine to come back."

"Oh come on," Mephisto came up and patted Carlos on the shoulder. "It's a quick walk. We'll be back before your friend even shows up!"

Carlos thought a moment before he nodded. "Okay…I'm sure it couldn't hurt. Let's go."

"Excellent."

~ X ~ X ~

"Ooooh Iris, I didn't know you had a cat!"

Auriana nearly pounced on Amaru as soon as she saw him. But Iris stepped between them.

"Auriana can I as you again how you got your key?"

"They gave it out at orientation yesterday."

"No, no, the one in your pocket."

Auriana thought a moment, "Oh you mean this," she dug around and pulled it out again. "I found while I was unpacking."

Amaru jumped onto her lap. "You're another Precure, maru!"

Auriana's eyes went wide and she dropped her key, picking up Amaru in her hands. "A talking cat!"

"I'm not a cat, maru!"

"Auriana, listen please," Iris sat down next to her. "That key you have…it's called a Dress-Up Key. I have one too," she pulled out her own, "and it means that…um, well it's hard to explain really."

"You're a princess from the magical land Ephedia and you have to turn into a Precure to stop the evil Gramorr, maru!"

"Amaru, you can't just blurt it all out like that."

Auriana looked between the two, completely confused. The talking cat was crazy enough, but she still didn't understand the rest of what was being said. A magical princess? Gramorr? "Um…"

Amaru squirmed out of Auriana's grasp and slipped under the bed. He soon backed out, pulling a red case out along with him. Once it was completely out he opened it, showing off the other four perfumes he had.

"We can show you that all of this is true, all you have to do is take a perfume, maru."

"I'm not gonna lie," Auriana spoke slowly. "All of this sounds kinda strange…but you are a talking cat…"

"I'm not a cat, maru!"

"I know this is weird, believe me," Iris said. "I wouldn't tell you if I didn't think this was important."

Auriana gave her a new friend a small smile before reaching to pick up a perfume. She reached for her little key and just before he placed it in the keyhole something caught her eye.

"What's that," she asked and pointed out the nearby window.

Both Amaru and Iris looked and could see, out in the distance of the woods, appeared to be a small black vortex in the sky.

"Oh no…" Both Iris and Amaru shared a look before grabbing her perfume and key and running out of the door. They quickly ran outside to where they had seen the small vortex and Iris could already hear a kind of echo; an echo of Carlos's voice. Iris quickly transforms into her Cure Heart mode and ran up to the duo.

"Enough you two!" She called, noticing Carlos encased in red crystal, just like Lily had been. But this time this dark energy seeped off of the crystal and into the sky. "Release him!"

Praxina and Mephisto were standing in front of Carlos and evil gleam in their eyes.

"Oh, poor little Princess," Mephisto laughed. "Do you really think that would work? You might have beaten us last time, but we're more prepared this time around."

"We'll see about that."

"Ateruina!" Praxina attacked first, shooting a large red crystal at Cure Heart. She dodges, but just barely; her attack had seemed faster than before.

Cure Heart didn't have much time to think about it really because Mephisto moved to attack her next. They traded blows, punches and kicks before Mephisto tossed her into a tree. Cure Heart hissed, grabbing at her left arm, and looked back at the pair. She could see a skin of black aura surrounding both of them.

Mephisto laughed and held up a hand, his green circle appearing in front of it. "This had been fun Princess, but it's time to say goodbye. Telanoc!"

Cure Heart braced herself for the attack, but she was hit from the side, and knocked to the ground, the green shards hitting the tree behind her. Cure Heart groaned, looking up to see Auriana on top of her.

"What are you doing here!?"

Auriana sat up. "You and Amaru left so quickly I couldn't ask you any questions. Are you alright?"

"You got lucky that time Princess. But not this time." Both Praxina and Mephisto raised their hands, a dark purple mass starting to gather in front of them.

"Auriana—" Cure Heart winched, "you have to get out of here…"

"No way," she said, moving to stand in front of her friend. She raised her key and perfume. "I'm one of these precures too, right? So let me help you and Carlos."

"It won't matter soon enough," Praxina yelled.

Cure Heart closed her eyes and nodded. "We'll see about that. Quick Auriana, turn the key and say 'Pretty Cure, Princess engage'!"

"Truncolus!"

"Pretty Cure, Princess engage!"

Auriana sprayed her perfume just as the twins shot off their attack. But the light and energy of her transformation pushed the dark energy back. Auriana's clothes had changed, much like Cure Heart's did when she first transformed.

Her dress was a light orange color with straps just off her shoulders that fell down into two rounded tassels; underneath was a white and orange skirt and petticoat. She had a pair of orange shorts on under her skirt and orange, white, and yellow boots. She wore armbands on her forearms and had a crescent decoration on the front of her dress. Her hair hand grown longer and turned a light orange as well with deep red tips, with her moon crown on top of her head.

"I am the princess of the changing phases! Cure Crescent!" She pointed a finger at the twins. "I will not let this attack go unpunished! Prepare yourselves!"

The twins clenched their fist.

"Curses! Mephisto quick!"

Mephisto moved quickly, attacking Cure Crescent head on while Praxina jumped back toward Carlos. She hopped up on top of the crystal encasing the young man. Praxina raised both arms and summoned a monster.

This monster was black and red, with similar sharp and pointy legs to the monster that Cure Heart had fought the day before. Its body, however, looked more like a sewing machine than the box-y body of the other monster.

"Crescent," Heart called out, moving to stand. Her arm may be hurt, but she was sure she could still be of some use. "Watch your back!"

Mephisto knocked Crescent to the ground.

"Oooh, this guy is strong…" she groaned.

"We have to free Carlos." Cure Heart and Amaru moved next to her. "They seem to be getting power from him somehow."

"Crescent," Amaru said, "you're going to have to purify the monster, Heart's too weak, maru!"

The Sewing Machine monster stalked toward them and Praxina rejoined her brother. She laughed.

"You're certainly welcome to try, Princess. Attack!"

The monster moved closer and shot needle-like shards at the trio.

Crescent helped Amaru and the injured Cure Heart dodge."How?"

"Use your key and perfume, maru!"

"Don't worry, Amaru and I will distract them, you just get into place."

With a final nod the trio broke off from each other. Amaru jumped onto Mephisto and bit down on his arm, causing him to cry out in pain. Amaru quickly jumped off scampering away.

"Get back here you little rodent," Mephisto hollered after Amaru.

Praxina took to shooting crystals at Cure Heart while the monster went after Crescent. Heart dodged this way and that, ignoring the pain in her arm as she moved. Cure Heart slid along the ground, ducking under another shot, hitting Praxina in her feet, knocking her over. Praxina growled and swung back, hitting Cure Heart in her wounded arm, forcing a cry out of her.

The monster scuttled quickly after Cure Crescent. She had small nick, mostly along her legs, from the monster's needle attacks but she was still okay. She looked to Carlos, still trapped in his crystal prison. There was pain etched on his face and she knew she needed to act quickly. She jumped backward, landing on the side of a tree and launched herself forward, shoulder checking the monster, hitting it hard enough to knock it off balance.

"Do it now, maru!"

"Right," she said and pulled out her key and perfume, clicking her key into place and turned it. "Exchange, elegant mode!"

She gave a little spin, she dress extending to the ground with layered white ruffles and light orange trim at the end. "Oh, Orbit of the Moon!" She held her hand up near her shoulders, palms facing up as two orange crescent shaped moons appeared above them. "Pretty Cure, Waning Gala!"

Her hands came down, crossing over one another as the crescent moons shot toward the monster like a pair of boomerangs. The monster was hit by the moons, slicing it to pieces and causing it to crumble to the ground. But instead of the moons disappearing, Crescent pulled her hands back up, revealing a nearly invisible ribbon connected to each moon. Her movements made the moons change directions, now aiming for the twins. One nearly hit Mephisto.

"Whoa, how is she doing that!?"

"Quit fooling round Mephis— aah!" Praxina dodged the next one. "Ugh, let's get out of here and re-group. We have enough energy for now."

In a flash they both were gone. Crescent and Heart both let out a sigh of relief.

Cure Heart motioned to Carlos. "You do the honors."

Crescent nodded and moved over to Carlos. "Crystal recludo!" Carlos fell forward once the crystal had disappeared around him; Cure Crescent caught him and laid him gently on the ground.

"Come on, let's get him to the infirmary."

~ X ~ X ~

Auriana flopped back on Iris's bed, letting out a deep sigh. Carlos would be okay; he was simply really confused and dehydrated. Once they turned back, Auriana's wounds on her legs healed up, but Iris was still left with a bruise on her arm.

"That was a close one, huh?"

"Tell me about it," Auriana sighed. "We'll to be on our toes for those two."

"And find the rest of the Princesses, maru! We have three more, maru!"

"Maybe we should put up flyers asking if anyone has a cute little key?"

Iris chuckled softly. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Auriana."

"Hm…I guess you're right."

"Don't worry…we'll just keep a keen eye out. Who knows who else is a secret princess!"