“MĀRA!”
*CRASH!!!*
When the vibrations stop and Iris opens her eyes, she wants to shut them again. She’d watched the videos of the monsters the Apostles had been fighting, but seeing one in person is another experience entirely. This monster looks to be a grotesque combination bull and tiger with a scorpion’s tail and humongous, curved claws.
‘They’ve been fighting these things all this time?’
Rubble falls from the barrier Māra had erected in the split second between when Elen shouted and the café’s wall was demolished. Elen stands protectively in front of both her and Zephyr as Áine and Salacia are posted in the front of the entire group.
There’s only a moment of inaction before they each take out their Brooches and hold them to their chests.
“By My Will, So Mote It Be!”
They transform in flashes of light and Māra pulls the barrier down just enough to let them fly off towards the beast. She seals it back, leaving Elen to defend herself, Iris, and Zephyr. She quickly glances to see the barista has passed out behind the counter.
She wants to check on the barista and join the fight, but she can’t do that while Iris hasn’t made her decision. “Iris!” There’s desperation in her eyes. Her jaw is clenched so hard that her teeth may very well crack, and her voice wavers like when she overuses it during practice. “Please!”
Iris grips her Brooch tighter. ‘She said it’s my decision. But if I don’t—’
“I forbid it!” Zephyr seizes Iris' hand, apparently not having learned her lesson from when she tried to take the Brooch before and her skin begins smoking. She doesn’t let up, instead partaking in a tug-of-war. Iris doesn’t relent like she usually would, and yanks her hands away like she’s protecting gold. “Iris! If your father hears of this, what do you think would happen to you? To me?! And what can you do when you can’t even stand on your own anyways? You’d just slow them down! Don’t be so stubborn!”
*SLAP*
There’s a pause between the three. Elen had slapped Zephyr hard enough that she must’ve cut the inside of her cheek because there’s a couple drops of blood dripping from her lips.
Elen takes a deep, shaky breath before catching Zephyr’s shirt and slamming her against the wall. “I’M SICK OF YOUR SHIT! Who the hell do you think you are, dictating what Iris can or cannot do?! Who are you to control her like she’s some kind of doll?! Iris is a fucking human being and deserves to decide for herself!” She drops a stunned Zephyr and turns to Iris, holding out her hand. “What do you want to do?”
It’s a question. If she refuses, Iris is certain that Elen would respect it. She wouldn’t push the issue and leave her alone. Iris can leave this behind and forget about this all happening is she wanted to.
This isn’t a question.
Iris takes Elen’s hand.
“By My Will, So Mote It Be!”
There’s a light brighter than what Elen has seen before. She pulls Iris up, and it dies down when there’s a click of her yellow ankle-length boots on the floor. Iris is standing tall in her short-sleeved yellow dress with white Slavic embroidery around the hems and white overskirt. There are white cuffs on her wrists, the Brooch pinned to her right wrist and a yellow octahedron ring on her finger. There’s a white garter with a yellow ribbon on her left leg, and a yellow choker with a hexafoil pendant on an octahedron bail.
Iris opens her eyes, showing off her bright yellow eyes that have a newly revived determination. Her long hair now falls down her back in a platinum blonde shade with a gold braided circlet on her forehead. Elen smiles as she hands her the other card which turns into a white wand with a yellow octahedron topping it.
“Go help out the others. I’ll make sure the civilians are okay.”
They nod in agreement, and Iris flies into the battle.
There are more casualties than Elen expected. Not only the barista, but there are many others on the street. She jumps here and there, healing various wounds while batting away the beast when it tries coming after her. Áine, Salacia, and Māra are holding their own in the battle, and Iris is doing phenomenal. Her magick, in the shape of birds, is keeping it at bay from the crowd and doing some actual damage.
There’s a screech from down the street that catches Elen’s attention and she cusses under her breath. There’s a fucking news van parked and a reporter with her cameraman quickly setting up their equipment.
She breathes deeply. ‘That’s not what’s important right now.’ After making sure the last injured person is alright, Elen leaps into the air and lands a flying dropkick on the beast’s head. It breaks one of its gnarled horns in half and she flips backwards to land on the street.
The ground shakes when Māra slams her wand down, causing the beast to fall over. Salacia takes the opportunity to flood and freeze it to the ground but is stopped when the scorpion tail jabs her in the shoulder. Áine scoops her up and brings her to the side to give her the time to heal.
Iris lands next to Elen. She’s winded and trembling, but she’s smiling. Smiling proudly and widely and looking for all the world like she was born to fight. Elen reaches out to take her hand and they nod again as they charge their magick. They release it in a sweeping motion and the result is one of the incoming paws being severed and disappearing into smoke.
“Let’s finish this!”
Without needing to be told, each of them vault over to fully surround the beast and shoot their magick at it. The beast cries and bays and Elen’s birthmarks twitch painfully again, but she doesn’t let up. She pushes though the pain and the attacks grow stronger. Burning, freezing, crushing, and cutting at it in an admittedly beautiful blitzkrieg. Perhaps it’s because they’d found the fifth member, but the magick is more intense than what they’d had before. The beast’s chest rips open more easily, and the object shatters in no time at all.
The beast howls as it evaporates. As soon as it completely disappears, Salacia whoops so loudly that it echoes through the street. “That was awesome!” She runs to Iris, holding up a hand in a high-five. “You were great, Ventus!”
While awkwardly giving her the high-five, Iris asks, “‘Ventus’?”
Áine steps up. “Going by the theme, that’s your Apostle name. Welcome to the Apostles.”
Iris smiles again, more broad than what they’d seen before. It makes Elen smile as well as she puts an encouraging hand on her shoulder and Māra shakes her hand.
“Amazing!”
The moment of camaraderie is broken when the news reporter sticks her face close to the group, her cameraman right behind her. ‘Right. They were here. Can we avoid them?’
Elen decides “evidently not” when the woman sticks her microphone close to their faces. “Terra has been gripped with fear because of these monsters, and every time you have been there to fight them. Can you tell us what they are? And who you are?”
Elen doesn’t know how to answer without sounding crazy or cheesy, and invisibility is apparently impossible.
A tug on her cape turns her attention to Salacia and her stomach drops. ‘Oh, hell no! Sal has that puppy-dog look again!’ Elen turns to the others for some kind of help, only to be met with the same expressions. Even Iris, who’s been more of a shrinking violet this entire time, is looking at her with stars in her eyes.
She lets out a huff. “Fine! But only once.” The girls beam and she gives a hop before jumping to the top of the building behind her. The others follow suit, and once they all land, Elen shouts, “I am Apostle Psyche!”
“Apostle Aqua!”
“Apostle Ignis!”
“Apostle Tellus!”
“Apostle Ventus!”
“Sent by the gods, we are ones charged to protect Earth from evil forces! We carry out Their will and shall faithfully do our duty!
“By our will, so mote it be!”
“What the fuck did I do?”
“Only deliver the most epic magical girl declaration I’ve heard!”
Elen lets out a muffled shout and tightens her hold on the pillow covering her head. The TV is playing the newsreel on loop, from when the news crew came up to when they all displayed their magick to the spectators and disappearing.
She feels Áine rubbing her back soothingly, then hears a low clunk on the coffee table. Elen lifts the pillow to see Fredrick placing a plate of apple pie and scoop of vanilla ice cream before taking a seat on the floor. “It’s not that bad. It was bound to happen sooner or later now that the beasts are attacking the public.”
With a sigh, Elen sits up and takes a bite of the pie. “I just hope nobody at school recognizes me. It’d be so embarrassing.”
Wheeling up, Iris, freshly initiated, places a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure everything will be alright.”
Māra nods and Elen stops to stare at everyone. “You know, you guys don’t actually have any reason to be Apostles. So why did you?”
Everyone glances at each other, deliberating with what seems to be some telepathic powers (at this point, Elen wouldn’t be surprised if they did somehow have telepathy) before turning back to her.
“Because you’re the one who found us.” Elen must look confused, because Áine elaborates, “I’ve always believed that my visions were set in stone and will never change. But when you said you’d rather choose your own fate, I whole-heartedly believed that if anyone could, it would be you.”
Iris squeezes Elen’s shoulder. “You gave me a choice whether I wanted to be an Apostle or not. I doubt that if any of the others asked me, I wouldn’t have been so confident in it.”
“I always wanted to be a magical girl so I was probably the easiest to convince. But you being so cool definitely helped.”
“I know I was a child, but I’ve always felt so weak because I wasn’t able to help my mother,” Māra tells her. “That’s why I wanted to bring attention to what’s been happening. You made me feel like I can do so much more with these powers. If it was Rick, Mystia, or David telling us, none of us would be able to accept this like we did.”
Elen sets her fork on the plate, not caring that the ice cream is quickly melting. ‘They trust me that much?’ Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose, and harder to earn again. She’s operated on this thought process ever since she was a child, and more so after what happened back in Oregon. For them to give it to her so easily…
“By the way, what are we going to do with Zephyr?”
They all look to Zephyr, who’s been sulking and pouting on the floor in the corner since she came here, and glares at them with as much vitriol as she possibly can. “I can’t believe you freaks actually convinced Iris to join you. How am I going to explain this to your father? And how are you going to go around ‘saving the world’ when you’re wheelchair-bound and can’t get around without someone?”
“Why do you even care? Iris is more than capable to wheel herself around and Terra is one of the most disabled-friendly cities in the world. And like I said, it’s Iris' choice.”
With a huff, Zephyr says, “We’re Rodnovery and Romani and the elders are really conservative. None of us are allowed to go out without someone, and definitely not hang out with the opposite sex. Especially when Iris is due to marry in a couple of years. Not like anyone else would want her anyways because she’s so dull.”
Iris shrinks at the words and Zephyr curls up more under everyone else’s dirty looks.
Mystia, who had been sitting at the kitchen bar taking notes for her homework, turns around in her chair. “The real problem is making sure this one doesn’t talk. There’s a spell I know that can make sure she keeps her mouth shut.”
“I can also give her a charm that can make a copy of Iris whenever she’s fighting and is needed somewhere else.” Despite how soft his voice is, Elen is amazed once again at how David could be heard through the room. “It’ll transfer her the memories when it disappears.”
‘These people could overthrow any government if given half a chance with their powers.’ After polishing the last of the pie, Elen steps to stand in front of Zephyr with her arms crossed. “I don’t like being an Apostle myself, but we need Iris for this or we won’t be able to fight. So, are you going to agree to our terms or not?”
Zephyr gives Elen another silent glare while simultaneously wondering what she saw in her and debating the options. On the one hand, if this fails and the elders hear about this, she’ll be the one in trouble. On the other, she’s seen firsthand what’s going on and she can’t let any pain or destruction weigh on her conscience. If someone got hurt because she didn’t allow Iris to help…
Through gritted teeth, Zephyr snarls, “Fine.”
His shoulders burn and knot after setting down the bags of cement. He rubs at them, attempting to loosen the muscles and alleviate the pain while reminding himself that the day is almost done. He takes a swig of warmed water and looks at his foreman.
The foreman is old and has plans to retire at the end of the month. He’ll be sad that his mentor won’t be lording over him and the rest of the crew, but he was promised to be the next foreman as soon as the farewell party is done and that’s something to look forward to.
The bell rings to let the workers know that their shift is done. He wipes his brow of the sweat dripping in his eyes before grabbing his stuff to finally go home.
He’s going to need to get to work early tomorrow. His boss’s boss is going to be in to discuss his new contract for his promotion. The pay raise is going to be an enormous help in saving up for the down payment for a house.
When he drops to the bus bench, he cracks his knuckles and neck before melting into his seat. Just a little longer, he tells himself. Just a little longer and he’ll be able to afford that nice little cottage just outside of town. It’ll be a bit of a commute, but it’ll be his. Just the thought makes him smile.
Giggling makes him snap his head up. That doesn’t sound like the laughter of children and there’s nobody else at the stop. It’s something ominous. Sinister. Like something from a horror film.
His father had a heart-attack a while back and told him what the pain was like. His chest feels like how he’d described, and he clutches his shirt and crumbles on the bench. He can’t scream or breathe and there’s a light coming out of his body. A shadow falls over him, and he has just enough strength to look up at the cloaked figure.
“How nice. Do give my regards to them.”
All strength leaves his body as the world around him turns dark.
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