Chapter 28 Melodia

I sat on the couch staring at my phone with a big smile on my face. Ray had given me his number to let him know if I could make it to his football match. After a full year of having a contact list, I finally had someone on it who wasn’t a family member. Off to the side, Pickati was teaching Arturo Internal Stabilization. I would have joined in, but most of the spells I needed to practice were pretty costly and I needed to save my mana for the fight with the doll. Friday attacks were rare, but they still happened.

So instead of doing any big spells. I sat on the couch. Well, I was sitting on the back of the couch with my gravity shifted. I had to be careful not to fall of the couch, because at this angle, I would fall right into the TV. Just because I couldn’t cast any big spells, didn’t mean I couldn’t use one of the smaller ones for the fun of it.

“I think you have it this time,” my eyes flew down as Pickati evaluated Arturo with a careful eye. After a few second, he gave a proud smile.

“Yes, you did it, what did you use for the stabilization concept?”

“I used a tall tower supported by a bunch of beams,” he admitted. “Honestly feels like I should have picked that one first.”

“And on your second try for the night,” Pickati grinned, “quick, cast it on yourself and test it out.”

My brother nodded as he closed his eyes. He opened them again and looked down at his hands.

“Am I supposed to feel different?” Oh here was the fun part.

“Not yet,” Pickati motioned for my brother to stand up. Arturo did as directed as he flew over and tapped his shoulder.

“Pickati did you…” He paused as he took a single step and the world moved. I couldn’t help but smirk at the wide-eyed look on his face. If he’d done the same thing he had done to me, then my brother currently had no gravity.

He quickly explained to him that he wouldn’t feel any dizziness or nausea from losing all gravity. I was pretty sure my brother was listening to him, but with how he was aimlessly floating around, it was hard to tell.

“Hey guys…” he finally said as he clenched his stomach. He must have been feeling the start of mana exhaustion from keeping up Internal Stabilization. “How do I… stop floating?”

“You don’t,” I took the chance to play teacher myself, “since Pickati was the one to cast the spell on you, he needs to be the one to ‘drop’ the spell. There is a way to break spells cast on you, but he hasn’t taught it to me yet.”

“It hadn’t come up because the dolls don’t have any spells to cast. But now that we’re dealing with other magi, I should probably get around to teaching you,” Pickati flew up to my brother and gripped him by the paws, slowly adjusting him so his feet were pointed downwards. “And I’ll drop the spell once I’m sure you’ll land safely.”

About a second later, my brother dropped to the ground as Pickati told him how to drop the stability spell before he starved himself from mana exhaustion.

“You alright?” I asked as Arturo stumbled around a bit.

“I think I’m okay,” he said as he gripped the table and took a deep breath, “but I think I am going to make myself a quick sandwich. Any of you guys want anything?”

“No I’m good,” I said as Pickati’s ears twitched. He flew over to the window and started looking outside. I knew the look on his face all too well. “You might want to make it fast.”

Arturo took one look at Pickati before running into the kitchen. I didn’t blame him. I’d only been hit with mana exhaustion a few times, but once it hit, the only thing you could think of is filling your stomach to make it go away.

He walked back a minute later holding a sandwich in his hand as Pickati kept staring out the window. We both watched him for a little longer before he blinked and turned back to us.

“Is it time?” he nodded at my question.

“It’s the abandoned construction yard by the train station,” I winced at how far that was. There was no way I was going to make it all the way over there.

“How are you going to get there?” Arturo asked as I shook my head.

“I have no clue, the train station’s pretty far,” I frowned.

“I may have an idea,” he told me before digging out his phone and tossing it over to him. “Text Marvin and Tina and tell them where the doll attack is going to be. I’ll be working on my idea.”

He ran into the hallway, leaving me with the phone. I did as he asked, sending the messages out as he came running back into the living room holding something behind his back.

“Okay first off, I need you to promise to not tell Mom,” well this could go several ways.

“Okay I won’t tell Mom, now what’s the plan?”

“You remember Uncle Carlos’s cool motorcycle?” I nodded. Mom hated the thing, but growing up, getting Uncle Carlos to drive us around on it was the best thing ever. He hadn’t done it recently though…

Oh was this going where I thought it was?

“Well he’s getting a new one, and instead of selling the old one, he left it here,” he took his arms out from behind his arms to reveal a purple motorcycle helmet. He tossed it over to me and I snatched it out of the air.

Yes, this was going where I thought it was.

“You ready to head out?” He lifted up the other helmet he had behind his back and put it on himself.

I looked down at the helmet and smiled. I put the helmet on and saw the world through a sheet of plastic. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world with my long hair, but I managed it somehow.

“What happens if I transform while wearing this thing?” I asked Pickati who raised an eyebrow.

“Good question, I have no idea,” he shrugged his shoulders. “Might be a good idea to try it out now. And with a faster form of transportation, it also might be better to transform here instead of at the scene.”

I nodded as Arturo left the room and headed back into the garage, probably to get the motorcycle ready.

I took a deep breath as the plastic smell of the helmet filled my nose. It wasn’t as bad as Uncle Carlos had told us a new helmet usually was. Maybe he’d cleaned the smell out beforehand?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I was stalling. No more distractions.

“Power of the stars, guide me through the deepest wells.”

The world around me faded into a void of purple with white stars. The under-shirt and shorts appeared on me like they always had, followed by the long jacket and boots. The gloves came to me next, my hand tightening into a fist as they fit around me. The four-starred belt buckle clicked around my waist, completing the clothes. Normally my hair would have then pulled back to form a single long ponytail.

Instead the helmet shone as I felt it change. When the light cleared, I glanced over to the window. It was no mirror, but the reflection would be enough for what I wanted. The once solid purple helmet now had two black four-pointed stars on the sides and a pair of purple fox ears sticking out from the top.

“Kind of like it,” I tilted my head as I looked back at my reflection, “but I wonder what my hair will look like when I take it off?”

“Well no time to find out,” Arturo said as he marched back into the living room, his own purple helmet on his head. “I have everything ready, we’re heading out now.”

I nodded as I Pickati flew into my bag which I grabbed on the way to the garage. Standing in front of the garage entrance was Uncle Carlos’s old motorcycle, exactly how I remembered it. Next to was a huge tarp which had kept it hidden from Mom so far. With any luck we’d be back before they came back from their ‘date night’ and it would stay that way.

We both got onto the motorcycle as Arturo revved the engine and started leaving the garage. He kept one hand stable as he pointed back with one other one and the screen door closed. I wrapped my arms around his waist as I felt the wind start to pick up.

The route to the abandoned construction yard was mostly empty, we only saw a few cars on the way there, and most of them were heading the other way. The whole trip was just the three of us, the full moon above our head, and the worry for what was to come.

We arrived at the abandoned train station with plenty of time to spare. At least, that’s what Pickati said. I shuddered as I got off the motorcycle and looked around. It was a mostly empty field with some half-finished steel buildings scattered around, and a huge hole in the center, probably the unfinished foundation of the main building of whatever this place was meant to be. I remember hearing a rumor that it had been meant to be a shopping mall, but it had been canceled when one of the investors came to inspect it.

Apparently having loud trains passing by every half an hour didn’t make people feel like shopping. So they left the whole thing like this, abandoned until the fateful day someone decided to buy it. Which may end up being never depending on how this fight went.

“You okay?” My brother asked as Pickati flew out of the bag and started working on the spell to keep people away. It might not have been needed here, but better safe than sorry.

“I don’t like fighting in places like this,” I admitted as I held my wrist and tried to calm myself down. “Always makes me feel like I’m not supposed to be here. Like as soon as the doll fight ends, someone’s going to come out and yell at me for trespassing.”

“Well… I guess that is a thing that could happen,” my brother gave me an odd look, “but I feel as though your priorities are a bit skewed there.”

“If a doll yells at me, I can cast magic at it until it’s gone. Can’t exactly do the same with people,” I presented my ironclad argument with no counters.

“Well you could, it would just be illegal,” oh right. The only thing stopping me from using my magic on people was me. My brother must have seen something on my face, because his eyes widened and he held his hands up. “This is not me telling you to commit magic crimes Melodia. Whatever it is you’re thinking about, stop it.”

I crossed my arms and pouted at him from behind my helmet. It wasn’t like I was going to do it anyway. I took my helmet off and felt my hair form into the ponytail as I took it off. Neat.

“Oh, you’re here,” I knew that voice. My arms dropped to the side as my helmet changed back to normal once I was no longer wearing it.

I turned around and saw the three girls walking up to us, alternating between looking at me and Arturo.

“You have a lot of nerve showing up here after what you did the other day,” Anna crossed her arms and started glaring at me.

“Yeah you big meanie,” Rashell added from behind her, “turning Ray against Anna was so messed up.”

“Is that a motorcycle?”

We all stopped and turned to look at Claire who was staring at our ride here.

“Yes, used to belong to our Uncle actually,” he quickly explained as he leaned in to take a closer look at her. “Do I know you? You look a little familiar.”

“Claire focus,” Anna yelled before pointing right at my brother, “and you, get out of here already. There’s things going on around here that doesn’t concern you.”

“Yeah, girl’s business only,” Rashell proudly stated as a small part of me smiled on the inside. Wonder how she’d react if I told her about Pickati’s back up choice.

“They got to ride in on a motorcycle,” we all stopped again to glance over at Claire. She was staring at Uncle Carlos’s old motorcycle with a hungry look in her eyes.

“I would say it’s my business to make sure my sister is doing all right,” he explained before taking off his helmet. They flinched back when they saw his face. Did they not realize he was my brother until the resemblance was right in front of them?

“You told your family about this?” Anna screamed as she started marching towards me. She grew with every step, until she towered over me with flames in her eyes. “Why would you tell other people about this? Do you not get we’re supposed to be keeping this secret?”

“Hey calm down,” Arturo placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I blinked as Anna went back to her normal size. “She didn’t tell anyone in our family. I found out by chance and my parents still don’t know. Now back off.”

“Or what?” She demanded with a glare that was not aimed my way for once. “It’s no surprise that the Princess’s older brother is as much a jerk as she is.”

We all stared at each other for a second before a loud revving sound filled the air. We all jumped before frantically searching for the source of the noise. Right at the entrance of the yard was Claire standing next to the motorcycle, her face as red as a beet.

“Sorry,” she squeaked as we heard the sound of an oncoming car. It was probably our magical backup. With Pickati’s spell up, there’s weren’t a lot of other people it could have been.

Sure enough, a white van with huge windows in the back drove through the entrance. It parked so that the back of the van was pointed towards us. The front door flew open as Tina and Marvin jumped out.

Tina was wearing normal day clothes, looking more ready to go to the mall than fight against a doll. She was walking towards us with a goofy look on her face. The kind of face that made me feel I was about to get another lecture on the way of magical girls. As for Marvin, he was wearing a black cloak with a hood. On his back was a gigantic wooden box bigger than him.

“And who the heck are you guys?” Anna demanded as Claire quickly made her way back to her group.

“How the heck are you carrying that?” My brother asked as he walked up to Marvin. I glanced between him and the rest of the girls and quickly followed his lead.

“It’s not that hard, I could carry two of these things if my arm wasn’t broken,” he moved his arm out from under the cloak to reveal a shiny white cast on the arm he landed on back in the café. It went from his elbow to his hand, leaving his fingers free.

I felt a bit of guilt at his injury, but managed to push it down. He had it coming for putting a blade to Arturo’s neck. Even if we were on the same side, I could still be annoyed with him. At least until the fighting started.

“I can’t believe you managed to get all that together in one day,” Tina added as she tapped the side of the box. “Did you already have something like this ready to go?”

“A bit of column A, a bit of column B. I had the configuration already set up, so it was just a matter of filling it up,” he admitted as he set the box down on the ground. “So this is our battleground. Fitting, I return to the spot of my greatest victory to claim another.”

“Stop ignoring us and tell us who you are!” Anna stomped her foot getting all of our attention’s. “Listen, I don’t really care who you all are, but you have to get out here. Something really dangerous is coming and if you don’t get out of here soon, you could get hurt.”

“Oh don’t worry about me. I’ll be the one doing the hurting today,” he explained as a doll emerged from his cloak and stood on his shoulders.

“I’m a doll mage. I’m here to destroy those who would dare give dolls a bad name,” he explained as a haughty laugh filled the air. We all looked around, but it was Tina who found him first.

“Look over there,” she pointed towards the closest half-built building. Standing on top of the naked steel beams was a figure. I had been expecting to see Break again, but it wasn’t him this time.

Instead the figure standing on top of the beam was a tall man with long blond hair and narrow jaw. He was wearing an old green military uniform, the kind an officer would have worn two hundred years ago. At his belt was a single sword. He jumped off the beam as I ran forward to meet the rest of the girls.

“So these are the ones who gave that fool Break so much trouble?” He smirked as reached for his sword.

I intended to never give him the chance. I ran right past the rest of the girls, intending to finish the doll commander off before he could start anything. I got in range to cast a spell when I felt something impacting my side.

I glanced to my right to see a black blur. I went flying off to the side into a different building. I closed my eyes as I crashed through the steel beams. When I opened them again I was at the end of a tunnel made of bent metal. A tunnel which was already starting to shake. I started running through it before it had the chance to collapse.