Magical Girl Rending Nightmare - Epilogue

Epilogue

“I’ve had worse,” Crystal said, then she groaned as she tried to sit up. Glass and loose metal crunched under her, and she quickly recognized where she was... more or less. 

This wasn’t the first time she’d been thrown into a car. There was a very distinct feel to being embedded in someone’s sedan or... in this case, someone’s mid-2010s SUV? She glanced up to the front of the car, making sure there wasn’t anyone there. The car’s centre-consol had a digital radio, with some USB ports and stuff. 

Crystal shifted her legs, making sure they were still connected, then she twisted herself free from the her-shaped hole she’d punched into the car. 

It had crumpled, as it was meant to, so that was nice, and she didn’t see anyone in the car, which was doubly nice. No one had been hurt.

Reaching up, she grabbed onto the edge of the roof and pulled herself up. Metal NOISEd in protest and glass tinkled as it fell off her magical girl outfit.

She was... in a city. She didn’t know which one yet, but it was relatively modern. The nearest building was all stone and old brick, but there were some that were taller, made of glass and steel, and glancing up, she could make out a few skyscrapers poking out above as well.

There were people around, of course, a few bystanders who were staring, and a few who were doing more than that. “Are you okay?” a man asked as he ran over. “Holy shit, you just dropped. Hey! Someone call an ambulance!”

Then the helpful man was grabbed by someone else and pulled back. “Hey! Don’t touch her, she’s a freak.”

That had the entire crowd of people backing up a bit, though Crystal felt like some people still wanted to help. Still, smartphones were coming up already.

“Sorry about that,” she said as she untangled herself from the car and landed on her feet. She brushed her dress clean of bits of car, then took a moment to suck in a deep breath of fresh air. 

Her magic twisted within herself, a gem with a million facets catching the light. It felt whole, uncracked. She felt fine. 

“Has anyone seen another girl around here? Uh, two of them? A cute black-haired girl and a cute white-haired one?” she asked.

“Hey, you a freak?” one guy asked.

“I don’t think I am,” she said. “I’m just looking for my friends.”

“She needs an ambulance. She might be in shock,” the more helpful of the men said. He came over and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, let's sit you down. Did someone call the police yet?”

Crystal pouted. She didn’t need the police. “I’m fine,” she said. “I can take a little knock, I’m okay.”

“Christ, she is a freak!” 

Crystal glared at the man. He was dressed in a nice-enough suit. “Where are we?” she asked.

“She’s concussed,” the other man said. He was wearing joggers and looked a bit sweaty, as if he’d been on a run just moments before. He looked up as sirens sounded in the distance. “That might be the ambulance. Come on, let’s sit you down. Stay calm, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Crystal said.

She shook his hand off, then took a couple of steps up and out of people’s reach. Civilians that were trying to be nice was always cool to see, but it wasn’t less fun with they were getting in the way.

Crystal almost took off, she could feel something off in one direction that might well be her friends, but then a black van came rushing down the street, lights flashing and sirens blaring. It came to a dead stop with wheels that screeched, then the side door opened and half a dozen men in SWAT gear stumbled out of the van.

“Hands behind head and get on your knees!” came a loud voice from the van.

Everywhere she looked, Crystal saw people quickly complying, though those way further back were still just watching and filming.

“Weird,” she muttered.

Then the SWAT sorts were pointing guns at her and repeating themselves. 

“Hi! Look, I’m a bit lost, could you just point me towa--”

Crystal flinched as a bullet struck her mid-chest.

She looked down to see an expanding ball of goop spreading out across the front of her dress. It stopped expanding when it was almost as large as a dinner plate, then instantly hardened like a cast. “Weird,” she muttered before reaching down to it.

She was shot at three more times, but... well, she liked that old adage about being fooled twice, so those rounds struck small panes of clear crystal. She tugged the goop off and tossed it aside. She wasn’t going to let something like that stick to her costume. 

“Hands up!” 

“You’re under arrest!” 

One of the SWAT sorts replaced his rifle for a very normal looking handgun and fired three much louder rounds.

“Huh... I must be in America, then,” Crystal muttered.

“Unidentified power-user, you are resisting arrest! Lay down on the ground with your hands behind your back and--”

Crystal stopped paying attention and instead started walking in the general direction where she could feel her friends. One of the cops or whatever tossed something that looked like a grenade by her feet, so she pieced it through with some crystal spikes and kept going. 

Then she paused mid-step when a wave of magic washed over her. It was soothingly familiar, a comfortable hug that pressed in all around.

She turned. “Happy?” she asked.

The SWAT team was spreading out, and one of them was holding out a large, mechanical pad, like a defibrillator on steroids, and pointing it towards her. “Subject suppressed!” he shouted.

Crystal frowned. “What is that?” she asked.

Instead of an answer, they shot her some more.

Obviously that did nothing except annoy her. “Okay, fine then,” she muttered. The equipment was ripped out of the cop’s hands by means of a few small crystalline growths that appeared on its sides. Then Crystal set her feet and launched herself skywards, the machine trailing after her. 

From the air, it wasn’t hard to find her friends. An entire street just a block down was covered in a thick black fog, impossible to see through. SWAT and normal police were gathered around the space, lighting up the streets with flashing lights and herding civilians away.

She bounced off a rooftop and rushed into the dark, summoning a wave of tiny crystals ahead of her to better feel the space that she couldn’t see. It didn’t take long before she was through the outer darkness and landing on a street next to the demolished front of what might have been a sport’s store.

Rending Nightmare was there, down on one knee next to...

“Fractured Time!” Crystal shouted as she ran over. The Phillipino girl was laid out on her back, white hair spilling out of her beret. Her skin had a faint greenish tint to it, as if she was on the verge of being sick.

“Found her lying here being harassed by some cops,” Alice said. “I think we’re definitely in some other world.”

“In America,” Crystal said. “They’re very shoot-y here. Is she okay?”

“I think it’s just magical backlash, same as what I had,but maybe a little worse,” Alice said. She glanced up. “We should probably move her to somewhere where she can heal in quiet, and in more comfort.”

“Right... a hospital or a hotel?” Crystal asked.

“Hotel,” Alice confirmed. “I don’t know what kind of world this is, but they seemed ready for trouble.”

“I don’t know. But... I think maybe it’s a world where Happy Sparkles left a mark.”

Crystal and Alice eyed each other. Magical Girl Happy Sparkles’ magic was... dangerous, at times.

Maybe that was because there was no Magical Girl Happy Sparkles to begin with. Rosa, the girl known in their world as Happy Sparkles, had made the choice to change her public-facing name to something a little more friendly. Her true name, Magical Girl Hysterical Slaughterfest, always made people kind of nervous.

“Yeah, let’s find a place to rest, then we can see what’s up,” Crystal said.

Maybe hurrying up and finding this missing friend was going to be a little more urgent.

***