"Mr. Shortman, I can understand how receiving a gift from a hero of Hillwood may be an extraordinary thing, but I cannot have you constantly being distracted in my lessons, if I find you playing with that necklace again I will have to confiscate it"
Arnold bit back the urge to say 'actually, it's a pendant' as his classmates giggled at his predicament. It had been a few days since the Bow Princess incident had happened, and it was beginning to die down; Arnold was no longer being hounded by reporters 24/7, and the most he had to deal with was the odd DM online from a blog page. He'd been wearing the pendant since Bow Princess had given it to him, and often found himself fiddling with it and staring at it in class. Could you really blame him? It was a gorgeous piece of jewellery, the type that seemed to emit a holy glow in the light.
He knew deep down that she had only given it to him because she didn't know how else to thank him for taking down that whatever-it-was the other day, but it still felt special. She had probably forgotten about him now, too busy focused on whatever magical girls did in their spare time to care about little Arnold Shortman. Still, he wondered how she was doing, was she going about her regular day, unknown to those around her that she was a national hero? Or was she in some other dimension, training? He did remember the creature talking about other 'Princess Defenders', perhaps she was with them.
Speaking of the creature, Arnold grimaced. Never had Bow Princess gone against anything like that before, and he wondered why no one else saw it as the big deal it clearly was. Maybe it was because they had all gotten so used to a super powered girl running the streets that a dark creature from another dimension didn't phase them, but it should have. Instead of petty crooks and criminals, Bow Princess was now battling what could very well be dangers to their world, and yet nobody saw it as a big enough deal to be worried?
Though, she seemed to handle it very well yesterday, so hopefully if push came to shove, they could rely on her.
Like clockwork, the second he said that, the door swung open to reveal Helga Pataki, strangely enough looking a lot more dishevelled than she usually did. When the teacher began berating her for being late again, she didn't even bother with a clever comeback, and just slumped into her seat with a frown. Arnold furrowed his brows in worry, had something happened at home again? Usually when Helga came to school moody, it was because Bob had done something to get on her nerves, hopefully the old man hadn't heckled her again, even Arnold could tell she was at her breaking point when it came to him.
Class went smoothly, and Arnold was even planning to ask Helga what was up after class, but she quickly shot her hand up when she checked something on her phone, "yo teach, can I go to the bathroom? It's a girl thing"
The teacher nodded, "yes, just be qui—" she didn't even let her finish her sentence before she got up and zoomed out of class, which Arnold also felt was strange. Was she okay? It seemed for the past few days Helga had been sick with something, she kept being sent home from school and kept taking breaks during classes, and even got herself one of those permanent bathroom passes that let you leave whenever you wanted, and it worried Arnold. He knew that despite trying her best to eat healthy and stay in shape, considering her parents' inability to save money and her sister's inability to actually help them that she sometimes struggled when it came to her diet, what if it was starting to mess with her health severely?
Helga was gone for the rest of the class, he didn't actually see her until after gym, but that wasn't the wildest thing to happen that day.
It seemed that, for whatever reason, Arnold had now become a target for these weird magical creatures. Gym started like every class did, the boys were outside running laps, Gerald and the other jocks were being tryhards and Arnold — who was athletic, but not athletic enough to run laps for an hour and a half — tried his best to keep up, the girls were playing basketball, which made him frown. Helga always hated missing gym, it was one of the few classes she didn't hate aside from English and Drama, especially when they were playing sports like soccer or basketball.
Eventually, Arnold relented, knowing he simply couldn't keep running in circles. He sat on the grass, near a few other boys who were discussing some popular TV show. He tried to catch his breath and relax his now aching legs, but Arnold's thoughts kept circling back to Helga, where was she, how was she, and was she okay?
The more he thought of Helga, the more he realized how odd she'd been acting for... a while now actually. Her punctuality had been abysmal, often missing weeks of school all together, her health seemed to be deteriorating considering how ill she claimed to be the few times she did come to school, she never seemed to have time to hang out with her friends, even Phoebe struggling to socialize with her now. All of this worried Arnold.
Something was going on and she wasn't telling anyone.
Either this was all her rebelling, something was going on at home or she was genuinely in a very bad place when it came to her health, neither of which made the teen happy. However, he didn't have the time to worry over his blonde frenemy, as his attention was quickly stolen by the grey clouds that overtook the sky within seconds. At firsr, Arnold thought the weather just got bad, but it was clear that wasn't the case when what looked like a tornado of dark energy descended from the sky and plopped itself right in the middle of the field. Naturally, everyone was worried, confused, and it even felt a little cold. Arnold stood up, immediately getting on the defence when the tornado began to dissipate.
In about a minutes time, the obscuring dark energy was gone, and its place stood what looked to be a young woman. No older than eighteen max, she wore a relatively skimpy outfit consisting of a black one-piece with short frills held to the edges by pearls, her hair was long and a deep black, she had incredibly pale skin and pure black eyes. In her hands, she held a long black staff with a large pearl at the tip. The woman had a sinister grin on her face, and she scanned the field before placing a dainty hand to her chest and belting:
"I am Royal Noir! I mean no harm, if you give me what I want of course!" she said through a cackle; Royal Noir lifted her staff and scanned over the students once more, almost like a metal detector, before she landed on... Arnold.
Of course.
Arnold for whatever reason instinctually grabbed the pendant, he knew it was just a glorified necklace, but he had a feeling there wasn't much he could do about this clearly superpowered lady that was walking towards him. It was odd, despite not behaving threateningly at all, something about Royal Noir struck a fear within him that he couldn't really explain, perhaps it was her deep black eyes, or maybe it was the way her voice sounded, like an audible shadow. She made her way over to him, her heels still managing to clack across the ground on grass, once she was at a good distance near him, she brought out a hand, "the pendant, give it here"
Seeing his confused expression, Royal Noir chuckled, "that pendant harbors incredibly powerful energy, y'know" she said in an almost cutesy manner, "energy that a small fry like you clearly wouldn't know how to handle! So, it would be best if you just hand it over here, okay?"
Arnold glared at her, maybe he was stereotyping here, but perhaps he shouldn't give Bow Princess' pendant to some gothic looking, stripper dressed magical woman — she was so generically evil looking that it was somewhat insulting that she thought she could fool him.
Knowing that he was probably going to be attacked by an array of dark magic, Arnold still stood his ground, "n-no"
Okay, he stuttered a bit, so? You would too in the same situation!
Royal Noir scoffed, "look kid, don't make this anymore difficult than it has to be, just give me the pendant and I'll go"
"Arnold!" he could hear Gerald yelling from behind her, "give her the pendant!"
"No!" he snapped back, "Bow Princess gave it to me, I'm not gonna let her take it from me!"
Gerald would have snapped back angrily, probably asking why on earth Arnold was being so thickheaded, but was cut off by Royal Noir's cackling, "oh, I get it! Your precious little Bow Princess gave you that necklace and now you think it's a symbol of her feelings for you?" Royal Noir stepped closer to Arnold, who admittedly began cowering below her, "you're nothing but a civilian to her, she doesn't care about you, she probably doesn't even remember your name, so it's best if you just give the pendant to me, Arnold"
The sound of his name coming from Royal Noir's voice sent a chill down his spine, the all powerful woman brought her staff up and aimed it at Arnold; the young blond shuddered, this was how he was going to die wasn't it? He was going to die protecting a pendant from someone who, like Royal Noir said, probably didn't even remember his name. He shut his eyes, bracing himself for whatever attack the other was going to lay upon him when he heard a shriek coming from her. He looked up, only to see Royal Noir had dropped her staff to the floor, looking back in rage.
Arnold prepared himself to see Bow Princess standing there all heroically, ready to beat the living daylights out of this gothic freak, but instead he saw someone... completely different. She had long blonde hair like Bow, but hers consisted of neatly put together braids, all held in a high ponytail. The girl's skin was of a darker complexion, with light hazel eyes and long lashes; she had wings and wore a dress similar to Bow's, except hers was moss colored, with the bow on her chest being a dark blue, and the green crystal in the middle being shaped like a flower. In her hands, she held a golden bow and arrow, and on her back she wore a carrier that looked to contain an endless amount of refill.
With her bow and arrow pointed at the villain, the girl scoffed, "I never took you for a bully Noir, really? Harassing a civilian? How the mighty have fallen..."
"You..." Royal Noir scoffed, "I thought you'd get tired of being Bow's sidekick, I see a few months in Celiana did nothing to break your spirits, aye Plant?"
The girl — who Arnold assumed was the 'Plant Princess' the creature had mentioned a few days back, considering what Noir just said — simply smirked, "I've been training Noir, hopefully the same can be said for you, as a Hillwood hero it's my duty to kick your ass,"
"Bring it Grassy, I'll kick you to the curb and take that damn pendant!"
Royal Noir hastily picked up her staff and ran towards Plant Princess, who was quick to shoot and arrow straight at her, the other was able to deflect it rather quickly however. Plant wasted no time in soaring into the sky, with Noir following close behind; the magical girl soon swooped down onto the ground, placing her hand atop the grassy field, Arnold was going to question why until he saw a large vine spurt out of the ground, aiming straight at Noir.
So the name makes sense.
If Arnold were to be completely honest, he sort of lost track of what was happening fairly quickly in, all he really processed was a lot of arrows, florakinesis, shadow boom boom attacks and a whole lot of flying. He wondered how these magical girls didn't become dizzy and confused mid battle, then again they constantly mentioned trainingh so that was probably only took a few minutes of barely visible combat before the two came crashing back onto the ground. Plant Princess was quick to stand up, pointing her glowing arrows at the dark villainess, the heroine looked rather banged up, with scratches all over herself. Her breathing was heavy, and her hold on her bow and arrow was shaky. She didn't look nearly as confident fighting off this villainess as Bow Princess had looked the other day.
Yet, even with her uncertaintly Plant Princess was sure to glare at the villainess, "I cannot have you and the Royal Syndicate attacking Earth, you may have done your damage to Celiana, but we will not allow your megalomania to go any further!"
Royal Noir then stood up, cracking her neck with a deep cackle, "I want that pendant Grassy, and I won't let you get in the way, in fact–"
Arnold's eyes widened to the size of soccer balls when he realized he was being lifted from the ground, surrounding him was a dark purple aura, yet when he tried to hit it, he realized that he was trapped inside. Plant Princess noticed this, before glaring at the villainess, "release him!"
"No! Since he doesn't want to give me this pendant, I suppose I'll be taking the pendant and the boy!"
"Taking them where exactly?"
Plant, Noir, and everyone else who bore witness to the conflict simply turned to face the newcomer. The heroine's face donned a look of relief when none other than Bow Princess herself fluttered down from the sky, wand in hand, with a determined glare aimed at Royal Noir. Arnold felt a sense of relief overcome his entire body, she was here! His savior – who was sort of the reason he was in this position anyway – was here!
All it took was for Bow to step forward for Arnold to notice how... different she was from Plant Princess. Bow Princess walked with confidence, as if she knew how powerful she was and knew she was absolutely beating Royal Noir into the dirt. Every move she made was calculated, and her cold stare didn't falter not one bit.
It was fascinating, how she managed to look so intimidating despite the cutesy get up.
Royal Noir huffed angrily, "Oh, you. Couldn't handle your little sidekick getting her ass handed to her?"
"No, Plant would've beat your ass, you're not all that strong." Bow scoffed, before then smirking, "but then I'd have to let her have all the fun, and that would just be lame."
Royal Noir had no time to react when a glowing arrow came zooming towards her, piercing her on the forearm. A loud screech escaped the villainess as she dropped her staff, and whatever spell she was using to keep Arnold trapped suddenly dissipated, causing the teen to fall roughly onto the grass below.
A confident grin came over Plant Princess, who was quick to begin firing more at her. Royal Noir stood up, ripping the arrow from out of her before then grabbing her staff once more. Bow Princess, once she had given her ally a proud thumbs up, aimed her wand at the villainess, shooting pink projectiles at Royal Noir. That seemed to be their current plan, shooting many projectile attacks at the other to keep her overwhelmed.
Royal Noir picked up on this, using her staff to summon dark purple matter, which she threw at the Princess Defenders with a circular wave of her staff. Bow was able to dodge it, but Plant was hit in the chest, where her bow crystal was situated. Bow gasped, wanting to go and help her ally, but stopped when she noticed the villainess begin to quickly approach a now frozen Arnold.
"ARNOLD!" Bow yelled, "USE THE PENDANT TO DRAW A HEART IN THE AIR!"
"Huh!?" He replied, rather shocked that she remembered his name.
"JUST DO IT, I CAN'T GET THERE IN TIME!"
Arnold looked forward as the dark lady began practically running to him. Realizing how little time he had, he lifted the bow shaped pendant, and – like he was instructed – used it to draw a heart shape in the air as if it were a Harry Potter wand.
At first, nothing happened, and the teen began to frantically make the same shape again and again, not wanting to be captured and taken to where ever the generic villainess was from. Just when he thought it was hopeless, suddenly a large, heart shaped dome surrounded him. Royal Noir hadn't noticed the sparkling protection that now surrounded her target, and found herself being slammed face first into it.
"What the– oh for fuck's sake!" She yelled. She used her staff to hit it, shooting attacks and doing anything she can to break it, but the dome simply wouldn't break, "just give me the damn necklace, I'd have left ages ago if you did you stubborn, football headed loser!"
By the time Royal Noir had began hurling physical and verbal attacks at the dome, Bow Princess had managed to help Plant Princess up, as well as recuperate from the attack, "sorry Bow," the green heroine sighed, "I should've taken her out by now..."
"We can talk about this later, right now we need to focus on sending that slut back to evil shit town!" Bow quickly retorted, "get you nature shit ready and follow my lead, I got a plan!"
Arnold could only stand there, mortified as the dark lady continued trying to break the protective dome, the angry villainess was so focused on breaking his shield and attacking him that she didn't even noticed the giant vines shooting in her direction. It was only when it was too late that Royal Noir looked back and saw them, he instincts allowed her to destroy at least two, but the rest wrapped around her arms and legs, pulling her up into the air, "ack– let me go!"
She then attempted to use her staff, but was stopped when she saw one of Plant's vines snap the magical device in two, "NO– YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"
"Eh, not our property, not our problem." Royal Noir's eyes flashed in fury as a glowing Bow Princess flew ahead of her, her eyes white and pupil-less, and her hair floating even more so than usual.
Royal Noir glowered at the heroine, "whatever, get on with it, don't even bother with your stupid speech – I'll be back, and when I return I'll take that pendant and snap that isolent boy's fucking neck–"
"Righteous Ribbon Blast!"
Bow Princess didn't even let the villainess finishe, as a golden shot of ribbons zapped out of her wand and wrapped around the woman, glowing for a few seconds before the villainess disintegrated into nothing. Bow then fluttered back onto the ground, rolling her eyes, "God, I can't stand that bitch."
"Yeah..." Plant muttered, retracting her summoned vines back into the earth below, only to then try and catch her breath.
Bow shook her head, a barely noticeable look of contempt being shot at her ally before she turned around and made her way over to Arnold. Still stuck in the dome, he placed her hand over it delicately. Her hand began to glow, before the dome soon slowly disappeared, freeing the shell shocked teenager from his entrapment.
"... So, uh, nice to see ya again?" Arnold awkwardly greeted.
Bow giggled at his attempt at small talk, "you love to be attacked, I'm starting to think you do it on purpose." Seeing as he wasn't standing up, she sat down on the grass in front of him, "though, I suppose it's my fault this time..."
"What do you mean? Is this about the pendant?"
"Yes," she sighed, "the pendant always had a bit of magic in it, but was only supposed to have enough for it to naturally glow, if I had known it would put you in such danger, I wouldn't have given it to you at all... if you want I can take it ba–"
"NO!" Arnold suddenly snapped, before stuttering when he noticed her shocked expression, "I mean, uh, now that I know how to protect myself with it, y-you don't, um, need to! I'll‐ I'll be just fine!"
Bow raised an eyebrow at him, clearly taken by surprise at the blushing boy's proclamation. Still, perhaps she was too tired to argue, because she simply gave him a dazzling smile, before then placing a hand to his burning cheek, "well, if you insist, be sure to take good care of it," she then leaned in, whispering, "you've got some powerful magic in your hands."
Arnold was speechless, this absolutely beautiful angel was inches away from his face, her heavenly glow was near blinding, and yet, he could still make out her beauty, the way her ivory skin shimmered in the light of the golden hue, her stunning eyes and long, curly eyelashes, her soft, plush and pink lips. He could feel his pulse speeding up, and all he could do was place his own hand atop the one on his cheek.
The moment, tragically enough, only lasted for a few seconds, for Bow Princess soon pulled back, standing with a stretch, "so, Plant Princess we– huh? The hell is she?"
The heroine was left bewildered as her ally was nowhere to be found, a random male student, who looked just as mind-blown was everyone else, simply said, "she flew off that way a few seconds ago!"
Clearly ticked off, Bow Princess scowled, "oh, so now she wants to run and hide? Sorry y'all, I got a Princess Defender to yell at, see ya later!"
With that, Bow Princess was gone, leaving the entire gym class to wonder what on earth just happened.
"For the last time Sid I'm not banging Bow Princess!"
Being in the boy's locker room was far from ideal, as expected occasional attacks from Bow Princess and whoever she was combating had become so common in Hillwood that the school didn't deem it to be serious enough for there to be any missed days. Meaning despite the oddly traumatic situation, Arnold was expected to get his butt into the locker room, change out of his gym uniform and then go to whatever he had next, which was lunch in this case. However, instead of swiftly getting dressed and leaving, Arnold was cornered by his entire class and interrogated about what happened. They asked a multitude of questions, how it felt being inside two different magical encasings, how the pendant worked, if they could try the pendant (he always said no) and, of course, if he and Bow Princess had anything going on.
Sid snorted, "dude, she was basically caressing you all gently, and she remembered your damn name! Just admit it brother, I for one am proud of ya, she's a grade A HOTTIE!"
"Arnold's banging a hot magical superhero? I gotta give tens, she's something special," one of the gruff jocks Arnold didn't know laughed, "bet her pussy feels otherworldy—"
"ALRIGHT LET'S MOVE ON!" Arnold quickly snapped, "I'm not banging her or doing her or whatever! I wouldn't even say we're friends, this time and the other attack in the cafeteria are the ONLY times I've ever spoken to her!"
"Suuuuure," Sid sneered, "but hey, get me in good with the other one, will ya? I'd love me an exotic nature goddess."
It was then Gerald's turn to sneer, "lay off the porn a little Sidcreep, and y'all leave Arnold alone! If he says he don't know her then he don't know her! Now hurry up Arnold, we gotta get to the cafeteria quick or we gon' be left with all the leftovers."
"Alright, keep your secrets," Sid snorted, "but hey, that evil chick? I'm trynna get stuck in her traps if you catch my drift!"
Arnold was quick to grab his school bag and slide out of the sausage fest of a locker room as Sid and the boys began fawning how apparently attractive Royal Noir was. Maybe he was being biased because she had directly attacked him, but Arnold personally couldn't see the hype around her.
As the two boys made their way into the cafeteria, Arnold's eyes widened when he saw Helga sitting with Phoebe. The blonde was eating what looked to be a chicken salad, though she had an annoyed expression as she ranted about something to her best friend. Remembering his worry from earlier that day, Arnold walked over, hoping to quickly check on Helga.
"Now I can't find her! I can't believe she's avoiding me! I had to clean up a mess she started and now she wants to run and hide because she's too scared to explain herself to m— oh, Football Head, what it do?"
She waved with two fingers as he plopped beside her, "my bad, didn't mean to interrupt Helga."
"No, it's cool, I was just venting about..." she trailed off for a few seconds, before blurting, "Olga! Yeah, Olga pissed me off today."
"She's visiting?"
"Uh... totally? Anyway, what do ya want Football Head?"
Arnold chuckled nervously, "um, I wanted to check on you, since you seemed super sick during class today... you've been sick a lot lately, is everything okay?"
Helga blunked, "oh... that... I'm chillin'! I just had a bad stomach bug, I'm good now though Arnold, nothing to worry about! Ain't that right Pheebs?"
Her friend nodded, "yes, Helga just needed some time to recover in the nurses office—"
"SHIT!" Helga then snapped, "uh, sorry! Gotta go! Um... Bob! Yeah, Bob is in some shit, might miss math, see ya later!"
"Wait Helga—" Yet it was too late, Helga had already ran out of the cafeteria. Phoebe simply shook her head, though she didn't seem offended by her best friend suddenly ditching her, as her focus went right back into the book she was reading. Realizing how awkward this was, Arnold just sighed, going to get himself some lunch before sitting with Gerald and a few of his friends, choosing not to dwell over Helga's strange circumstances.
Coincidentally enough, just a half hour after Helga left, Bow Princess was reported to have helped bust a hostage situation.
Heyyyy lol—
Forgive me, life has been whooping my ass haha, but chap 3 should be out within the next few days, don't ask about Bermuda chile idk-
