The waves calmly crested onto the shore; a beach that was also unusually devoid of people for a late summer afternoon in San Diego. However, there was a reason for that.
"I can't freaking believe this!"
And it wasn't the irate girl, attempting to take out her fury on the sand. No, instead it was the same reason why she was dressed for a routine shopping trip with her besties and instead was left to wander alone on the beach, stewing in her fury.
"Everything was fine! Then, another stupid monster just had to show up!" The blonde girl seethed, rolling her blue eyes at an imaginary conversation partner. "Like, I had the perfect gift for Cass picked out and just the time to surprise her and then those freaky things showed up to get the city locked down!"
The girl, Brittany Trinity Greene, had been out at the mall with her bff when the attacks started; creatures from a place outside ordered reality that had been attacking the world under the orders of an inter-dimensional conqueror that wanted to take over Earth.
That knowledge had been given by the three girls that had apparently been tasked with defending the city of San Diego: The Starlights. Girls with magical powers that flew around and saved the day; protecting people, destroying the invading monsters, healing the wounded and generally being the protectors of peace.
Real life Magical Girls, as if Sailor Moon had gotten out of the TV and into the world. Only instead of being somewhere important in Japan, they were in San Diego, because real life hardly ever matched fiction when it came to things like this.
“It should’ve been me, damn it!” Brittany irately vented to the beach, pausing to look towards the city in the distance, where a plume of smoke could be seen rising into the air. Probably one of the girls hitting something important, or the monsters finally targeting something specific other than whatever they could get their stupid teeth on. “I’m the pretty one! I’m the rich one! I got all the talent but those nobodies get all the attention!”
Brittany was a nice girl, really.
“Christ, this is so unfair!” She stomped a foot on the sand, nearly losing her footing as a result. “And the stupid driver just had to get caught in it, so now there’s no more car! And we already had to replace one damn limo!”
Stress brought out the worst in her, however.
Brittany was the heir to Greene Industries, Gerald Greene’s only child, and as the daughter of such a prominent figure, the young girl had everything growing up. All the best toys, all the books she could want, every luxury she craved or whim that guided her, she could have.
All but one thing.
“And daddy won’t pick up the phone!” Brittany nearly wailed, worry overtaking anger in an instant. She had lost her mother at a young age, a car accident when the woman was going to a reunion on her father’s behalf. Someone had rammed into the limo with such force that it caused the death of all involved.
The Greene girl had been too young to truly remember much, and the few memories she had of her mother were already fading at age fifteen. After the untimely demise of Lê Mai Greene, Brittany was partially raised by the mansion’s head-maid, Claire Laurent, while her barely-present father threw himself into his work.
“I-it’s okay—!” Brittany shuddered out as she grabbed at her hair, shivering on the spot whilst forcing herself to look at the sea. “S-signal’s probably down b-because of the attack, a-and towers g-got damaged—And Beth’s fine too, and so’s the nerd…”
Bethany Azalea, Brittany’s best friend, and ‘the nerd’ that followed Beth everywhere; Two of the people closest to Brittany. They had all been in the mall when the creatures attacked, beings similar to winged rats with mouths that opened far too wide swarming in through the mall’s skylight and wreaking havoc everywhere, which led to Brittany getting separated from her best friend and the other girl.
Brittany had run, calling her driver to make sure he was at the front of the mall, only for him to tell her to run the other way as soon as the call connected.
“Jarvis…” The blonde girl whimpered as she heavily sat down on the sand, uncaring of how it would ruin her dress. “Please be okay…” She half-sobbed into her knees, clenching her eyes shut as a loud explosion sounded out in the distance.
She had run from the mall all the way to the beach, where she finally allowed herself to vent, and when her emotions finally caught up to her…
“Stupid cartoons making this shit look funny. This isn’t funny!” She wailed. “I freaking hate this!”
The uncaring universe showed its sheer apathy by making a particularly large wave crash against the sand of the beach, the water rising until it hit Brittany’s shoes.
“You want them?!” The girl’s newly reignited rage rushed to the surface as she scrambled to rip the short heels from her feet. “Take them!” And then she flung her shoes to the sea. “W-wait!” Brittany called, having immediately regretted her actions once her feet touched the wet sand. “Give them back! I hate sand!”
But the universe, currently manifested as the sea, cared not.
“...Fine!” The half-Vietnamese girl screeched at the waters, angrily kicking up sand as she made her frustration known to the world. “Keep them! I hope a dolphin chokes on them!”
It was them that a splash of water fully soaked her, making her stop in wide-eyed horror for a few seconds before her rage manifested itself once more, this time much more incoherent.
This went on for several seconds, until Brittany wore herself out, and once more sank to the ground in despair, sobbing in worry about her friends and family. “Please be okay…” She whispered into her knees, keeping her eyes clenched shut for a few moments before dully looking down at her feet, noticing an odd green glint right in front of her toes.
Curious, the girl reached down to brush some of the sand off, blinking in surprise once she noticed it was a bracelet. A silvery bracelet with some sort of green gem embedded in the middle, coupled with some sparkly green writing surrounding the precious rock.
“At least today wasn’t a total loss…” Brittany muttered under her breath as she slipped the bracelet onto her wrist. Normally she wouldn’t take stuff she’d just found in the sand, but this was the lowest point she’d ever been faced with, so her mind wasn’t exactly in a place to care about appearances.
Gently shaking her wrist, she took note of how the bracelet perfectly fit her. It was almost scary, if she was being honest with herself. “I think I have a necklace that’ll go with this…” Brittany muttered, thinking over the many articles of clothing and jewelry she owned.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden flash from the bracelet momentarily blinding her. And just when Brittany was ready to curse out the sun, she found herself in another place altogether.
A star-filled expanse, whereupon she sat on what appeared to be a galaxy. All around her the dots of light twinkled seemingly at random, making the space resemble a Christmas attraction.
Brittany’s already frazzled mind momentarily shorted out, making her blankly stare ahead for a few seconds until her brain caught up with the situation. “What is this?!” She yelled, looking around with wide eyes, trying to discern how she got there in the first place.
“Brittany Greene…” A low, booming voice called from all directions.
The girl in question made a noise of abject confusion as she looked around for the owner of the voice. As she looked, she took note of a green mist slowly appearing as if from thin air, eventually coalescing into the vague shape of what the girl assumed to be some type of bird.
“I… am Verdonia,” the shapeless mass of energy spoke in a male voice, tone raspy and tired. “You have found my Star Bracelet; it will grant you access to powers unimaginable…” The green cloud breathed out, almost a wheeze. “Your world is in danger, and now you have the power to defend it.” The creature continued speaking, yellow eyes forming amidst the green mist. “But beware, you are—” The being abruptly cut itself off, the yellow eyes flashing red for a brief second. “Go now…” It spoke again, sounding even more tired than before. “Save the world…”
Brittany tried to form words, but only mute shock was present in her at what just unfolded. She watched as the mist began to lose whatever form it had, all of it floating over towards her at a slow pace.
It began to circle the girl, boiling around her and seeping into her body until there was a bright flash of light.
Once the flash-blindness wore off, Brittany noticed she was back on the beach. Another thing she noticed was that she was flying. Literally flying; just a few inches above the sand. The shock of the situation made the teenager yelp in surprise, and much like some people only feel pain when they see an injury, once Brittany became aware of her own violation of physics, she fell to the sand with another starlet yelp.
“Oh my God!” The girl yelled in both shock and outrage. “What the hell?!” She demanded, looking down at her body and pulling at the clothes that had been magicked onto her body; What appeared to be a knee-length green maid-like dress with a golden apron-like thing that went up and melded into vest made up the main part of the outfit, glimmering with golden dust that kept floating back into the X-shaped gem in the middle of her chest. Looking further down, she took in the appearance of her boots. knee-high golden boots with green gems making up a knee guard. Her gloves were no different, shining with their golden color all the way up to her elbows, and the gems on the back of her hands sparkled with unused energy. “This is…” Brittany trailed off, noticing a weight on her head; a crown of some sort she had no way of seeing. It had three prongs and some gems at the base.
An explosion in the distance caught her attention.
She watched in horror as a building began to bend; obviously slowly toppling over, on its way to crush who knows how many.
In a moment of desperation, Brittany suddenly found herself blasting towards the falling building, faster than anything she’s ever seen before. In a matter of seconds, she was already there, right on the path of the structure’s descent. She barely had time to take stock of just what she did before needing to lift her hands in an attempt to stop the mass of metal, glass and concrete. She was surprised to find that the building wasn’t as heavy as she thought it would be. Yes, it was very heavy, but it was something she could hold up if she really put her mind to it.
Which was exactly what she did; slowly descending while the weight of the highrise pressed down on her, all the way down to the street, where she could properly plant her feet on something. With a sigh of relief, she adjusted her hold on the giant slab of rebar and sand derivatives.
‘Now what?’ She thought to herself, looking around at all the people just… looking up in shock, some even staring at her in awe. Any other day, she’d be glad for the attention, but now… “Move it, you idiots!” She snarled, appalled at how stupid people could be. “Go! Go now!”
Some were startled into movement, others cowered away from her, remaining under the fallen building, and others even had the gall to get mad at her. But before Brittany could reprimand the ones that stuck around, several flashes of blue firing off in quick succession made everyone disappear, and then, Starlight Blue appeared in front of the new Magical Girl.
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“I got everyone out, it’s only you!” She yelled.
And before Brittany could say anything to that, she was teleported above the building she was holding up, making a noise of surprise once it crashed with the loud noises of glass shattering and concrete cracking, but remaining otherwise whole.
“Good going.” The other girl’s voice startled the rich girl from her chaotic thoughts. “What’s your name?”
Brittany stared at Starlight Blue for a moment, just taking in her appearance. The blue Magical girl was blonde and blue-eyed, much like Brittany herself, but that was where the similarities ended. She was taller than Brittany, and her hair was much shorter, barely reaching her shoulders, and her clothes were vastly different. She wore an open front skirt navy blue dress that had shimmering silver armor fitted over the mid-section and waistline, with a pair of flaps that went all the way down the thigh. Her legs were covered up to the thigh by socks the same color of her dress, with her feet being further covered by the same silvery armor her body was. The most noticeable part were the gauntlets she wore, which had dark blue gems embedded in the back of the hands. Her chest, upper arms and half of the blue X-shaped gem in her chest were covered by a short cape in a lighter blue than the rest of her outfit, and, much like Brittany, she wore a crown of some sort, only Starlight Blue’s was framing her forehead, with two points going up and above her head, almost like horns.
“It’s…” Brittany hesitated. “I haven’t come up with any.”
“Well, you can joy the team and be Starlight Green!” Blue offered. “But we can talk about that later, there’s a monster to kill and people to keep safe!”
“Where’s the monster?” The green and golden Magical Girl growled out her demand. She had a bone to pick with whatever this thing was. Her father worked in a big building, and if one went down, so could others and… “I’ll deal with it.” Brittany hissed out, clenched fists trembling with fury.
“Uh… okay.” Starlight Blue hesitated for a moment. “Okay, I’ll go help the civilians. The monster’s right—” That was as far as Blue got before she was taken away by a red blur.
Brittany was able to see that it was another Magical Girl, Starlight Red, but before she could really get a good look, Red and Blue went flying off, crashing down on the toppled over building.
The green Magical Girl then turned her attention towards the culprit; a hydra-like creature clumsily flying around while trying to grab Starlight Yellow in its jaws, the still operation Magical Girl firing her bow wildly, only making slight progress in dealing with the creature.
It reminded Brittany of her best friend, Beth, and how the perverted girl loved archery so much. It made the newly transformed girl think about her friends and family, and the danger they were in, the danger this creature was causing.
There was the brief sensation of something inside her giving way to a flood of power, and Brittany suddenly found herself crashing feet-first into the hydra-like monstrosity, kicking one of its five heads clean off.
Right after that surge of power, came a wave of lethargy, a bone-deep tiredness that made her too late to evade one of the remaining heads; Brittany ended up in the mouth of the beast, struggling to keep the jaws from closing over her. Keeping the creature’s mouth open, she adjusted her footing, basing herself on the monster’s lower jaw while pushing the upper one up with her hands.
“Head’s up!” A voice called, Starlight Yellow, Brittany assumed. Soon after, a bright flash of yellow light shone from behind the green-colored Magical Girl. And whatever it did, made the mouth trapping Brittany open wider, accompanied by a screech. The new magic warrior took the chance to escape the jaws, floating a few paces away to take stock of the situation.
Just ahead of her was Starlight Yellow, her hair a much paler blonde than Brittany’s, green eyes shining with worry while she looked over her own shoulder to gaze back at the new magical girl. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” Brittany nodded, watching as the other girl’s one-shoulder yellow dress billowed in the wind, the petal-like flared skirt moving somewhat erratically, with the torn bits flapping wildly. “Our clothes can get damaged?”
“Oh yeah.” Starlight Yellow chuckled as she rolled her right shoulder, the white armor protecting only her right arm clinking as she did so. The white and yellow bow in her right hand sparkled in the sunlight, glimmering with power. “Welcome to the team, newbie. If you’re a prude, I suggest you don’t look us up on the internet.”
Brittany had gotten enough of that from her BFF, she didn’t want to think about herself in such situations. “Sure.”
Starlight Yellow laughed out loud. “Don’t worry, it comes with fame!” She said, kicking through and destroying a ball of energy that the hydra-like monster had fired from its mouth while the two girls were conversing.
The movement allowed Brittany to see that she and the other girl had similar boots, only Yellow’s were white instead of gold.
Directing her attention back to the creature, the new magical warrior took note of something. “Aren’t hydras supposed to grow two heads for each one that’s cut off?”
“Oh, that’s good…!” Starlight Yellow breathed out, the gem in her chest flashing a couple of times before she straightened her back. “If the heads aren’t growing back, then it’s not a real hydra.”
“That is good, then.” Brittany said as she glared at the beast stumbling through the air, three heads looking around wildly while the two neck stumps twitched every so often.
“Oh yeah, but it took most of what’s left of my power to blow that head up—You, how long have you been transformed for?” Yellow demanded, looking at the new Magical Girl with a worried intensity.
Brittany felt her eyes narrow at the other girl’s tone of voice, but answered anyway. “Like, five minutes? I haven’t been keeping track.”
“Okay, then even after taking out the first head, you should be almost at full strength.” Yellow nodded, readying her bow once one of the hydra’s heads locked onto her. “I can’t do another attack like that one without dropping out of the sky, so you’ll have to be careful.”
“What about the other two?” Brittany asked, looking over in the direction of where Starlight Red and Blue had crashed in. Once it was clear they were no longer there, she began looking around, eventually finding the two girls in the distance fighting against a cloud of purple bat-like creatures. “Nevermind.” She sighed, returning her attention to the hydra, which by now had all three remaining heads locked onto Brittany and Starlight Yellow.
“Okay, new girl, I’m a ranged fighter, so you’re gonna have to be the frontline. What’s your weapon?” The more experienced Magical Girl asked as she took aim.
“I don’t know!” Brittany hissed as she floated over to stand ahead of her partner for this fight. “Like I told you, I’ve been transformed for less than ten minutes!”
“That’s—Okay!” Yellow cut herself off once the beast advanced. “There’s a feeling connected to how you want to fight! Something you know how to use, maybe, or something you think about when you think of strength and power—Just something!”
“That’s an awful explanation!” Brittany yelled, kicking upwards with all her might once the hydra got close enough. It only served to divert the one head, though; the rest of the body kept going, and thus Brittany found herself on the receiving end of what she assumed was a deer getting rammed by a car.
It hurt.
With a strangled cry of pain, the recently transformed magical warrior felt her body rolling over the monster’s back like a soda can rolling down a windy street. Once she got a hold of herself, she noticed Starlight Yellow frantically flying around the hydra-like creature, narrowly dodging its bites while firing a few arrows every so often.
The attacks affected the creature for sure, and they were definitely adding up, but the monster was winning the battle of attrition; Starlight Yellow didn’t look to be doing very well, there was a peculiar yellow mist emanating from her suit, while the gem on her chest began flashing faster with each arrow fired.
Britttany gulped down her fear, feeling a surge of indignant rage take over her. How dare this thing hurt her? How dare it show up and ruin her day? How dare it put all those people in danger?!
With each outraged thought, the green-colored magical warrior felt a burning sensation inside her grow stronger and stronger until, much like when she first attacked the hydra-like creature, something gave way to a flood of power.
This time, Brittany was more aware of her actions; a snarl of pure rage left her before she rushed forward, landing a devastating double-kick to the creature’s torso. She sunk in with a sickening noise of flesh tearing, a purple ooze escaping the monster's body, its version of blood, Brittany’s hazy mind assumed.
She had no real time to get her bearings, though, thinking had become harder once again, and her reaction time suffered greatly for it as she failed to remove herself from the creature before it clamped one of its jaws around her body, the girl barely having time to lift her arms to keep the monster from chopping her legs off with its teeth. The suffocatingly moist air inside the hydra’s mouth made Brittany want to vomit, but any thoughts about the horror of the situation began to quickly drown in an ever-growing fury that made the new magical warrior’s body literally steam.
“Get the fuck off me!” Brittany screeched, a powerful blast of green energy leaving her body in an instant, even blinding the caster for a few seconds. With her ears ringing, the rich girl tried to orient herself, but her blurry vision wasn’t any help, either. All she could make out was the creature’s body under her, and the world spinning all around.
Her brain entirely shut down for a few seconds once agonizing pain suddenly shot from her torso, and she only came back to awareness inside an office building, a ditch on the floor that led straight to her. As sensation returned to her body, she became aware of the fact she had been stopped by a large printer, and her body was now covered in ink as the broken machine spewed its contents out. Not only that, but the plate of armor that covered her body had been broken, the apron piece in the front had gone completely missing, while the vest itself was now torn and bent.
With a pained groan, Brittany slipped the broken armor off of her body, cringing at the loud crash it made once it hit the floor. She slowly stood up, grimacing as she stumbled forward and fell to her hands and knees, heavily panting. “Ow…” She whimpered, crawling forward until she was at the entrance hole in the side of the building, looking over the city with quick eyes until she found her target.
Starlight Yellow could be seen on a rooftop all the way down on the street, a thick yellow mist emanating from her body. From her position, Brittany couldn’t see many details, but it seemed as if a good part of the other girl’s outfit was missing; mainly the armor on her arm.
There was a roar to her right, and with an angered growl, Brittany directed her attention to the hydra-like thing, apparently now busy fighting Blue and Red, who didn’t seem to be handing things too well; the gems in their chests were blinking at odd intervals, and Starlight Red’s outfit was falling apart as she flew around, bits and pieces of armor flying out of place and dissolving halfway down to the ground.
The creature itself seemed to be missing another head, the mangled and limp lump one of the next had become told Brittany enough. Whatever she had done ended up ripping apart the hydra’s third head, not that it stopped the creature in the end.
While the newly created magical warrior got a hold of herself, she was forced to watch as the creature seemingly got the best of Starlight red, one set of jaws inches away from chomping down on the girl. But then, in a blue flash of light, Starlight Blue switched places with her teammate, ending up as the one getting grabbed instead. And then, the creature flung the girl into a news helicopter that was a little ways off.
Brittany watched in horror as the vehicle exploded.
“Blue!” Starlight Red screamed as she rushed towards the falling debris, where Blue could be seen sailing downwards alongside the wreckage.
Thankfully, the leader of the Starlights managed to rescue her friend, but that left the hydra-like monster free.
“How… dare you…?” Brittany rasped, the rage that had been burning inside her through this whole fighting coming back with a vengeance; no longer a warm feeling, like a blanket on a cold day, but well and truly a furnace that filled Brittany’s tired body with wrathful vigor. “How dare you?!” She outright roared, green energy coalescing around her as she flew forward. The energy quickly separated into six different parts; swords that were primed in the direction of the monster.
Brittany slammed into the creature with all the power she could muster, the world around her becoming a blur as she pushed forward, the six blades she had created digging deeper and deeper into the creature’s flesh. On and on she went, pushing the creature until they crashed into the side of a mountain.
The abrupt stop made Brittany’s very bones hurt, but the cushioning of the hydra, as well as the magic protecting her, were enough to keep the girl together under the strain of hitting a mountainside at half the speed of sound.
With an angry groan, Brittany righted herself, feeling like something was stuck inside the monster, something that belonged to her. So with a snarl, she began to pull, and a few seconds later, with a sickening ‘skelch’, six blades were ripped out of the creature’s body.
The teenager was left panting, glaring at the creature as it began to emanate a thin purple mist, slowly shrinking, entirely still. As she began to calm down, her mind began to come back into focus; wrath giving way into shock, the fury that powered her simmering down further and further until it left nothing but a cold sensation behind.
It was then that the weight of the situation caught up to Brittany, and she broke down crying. She had seen people get killed, she had horribly mutilated a creature, there were people injured and who knew if she had hit anyone when she got tossed into the building?
All these thoughts of worst case scenarios, possible casualties, the number of injured… all of them pressed down on her mind, almost making her choke in her own fears.
“B-Brittan-ny…”
The teenager’s eyes snapped open in shock; in front of her was no longer the melting remains of a hydra, or some goop trying to get to her, no…
“B-Beatrice?” Brittany choked out in horror, looking upon the form of her classmate; the goth girl with her dyed black hair, deep eyeshadow and black lipstick… completely devoid of clothes—Though the purple goop that made up the hydra’s body did a wonderful job of covering her up.
“Don’t trust… the witch…” The dying girl’s artificially yellow eyes shone with desperation; begging Brittany to heed her words…
And then, Beatrice vanished.