Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Storm Front on the Horizon

It was weird knocking on Marisol’s door after how much time Emery had spent there recently. Coraline opened the door, but cocked her head to see Keaton there with Emery. The two slipped inside where all the other magical girls and their pixie companions were waiting.

Liv sighed and signed, “Emery, as much as I’m sure it’s comforting to have your friend here, this is official magical girl business.”

“It’ll be fine,” Marisol said, though she sounded weary.

Amira replied, “With all due respect, I don’t really want a boy here.”

“Maybe it’s time…?” Emery whispered.

Keaton nodded and stepped away from her, holding out his arm and declaring, “Magical boy power, activate.”

There was a bright burst of light and Keaton was standing in his uniform with his buckler. Everyone was silent. Jada’s jaw had dropped. Coraline was rubbing her eyes. Liv looked Keaton up and down. Amira flared her nostrils, eye twitching. Marisol just sighed.

“Wait…” Jada began, “is he a trans girl too?”

Keaton, cringing a little at the way everyone was looking at him, replied quietly, “My name is Keaton, and no, I’m not.”

“Keaton is a real magical boy!” Wolf cried, bouncing excitedly in the air. “No offense, Emery.”

“None taken.”

“Of course he’s a magical boy,” Amira muttered, rubbing her temples. “Of course. That’s just what I needed right now.” She groaned and said, “Whatever. We’ll deal with this later. For now, we need to focus on what’s important.”

“Did any of you see Cynthia in that interview?” Jada asked.

“Yeah, we did,” Emery replied, rolling her eyes.

Liv said, “She could not have been calling us out any harder if she tried.” Though Linette added, “You realize that this means she’s probably setting up a trap for us, right?”

“Almost certainly,” Amira replied. “But we outnumber her and therefore can overpower her. We need to team up.”

Emery grinned, but the rest of the girls gave a collective groan.

“We’ve been over this,” Liv said.

“A big team up just doesn’t seem feasible,” Coraline agreed.

Marisol shook her head, though, and said, “Listen to yourselves, girls. You’ve already been working together for weeks now. You can’t pretend like you can’t rely on each other.

“Even though each of you comes from a different difficult situation, you have the responsibility and the power to help other people. As much as I don’t like that it falls on the shoulders of vulnerable girls, we’re here, together, and we should work together for the greater good.”

“She’s right,” Thunder said from Jada’s shoulder. “I spent my entire training period daydreaming about what it would be like to see my magical girl working alongside others like in the old stories.”

Birch added, “If Amira couldn’t handle it on her own, then Cynthia must be really tough. As much as I want to see Coraline take her down on her own, I’d hate for her to get hurt like Emery did.”

“I’ll do whatever Amira thinks is best,” Nellie declared.

“Teaming up is the only chance we really have,” Carina insisted.

Coraline and Jada shared a look, then Coraline asked, “Linette? Wolf? What do you think?”

“We’re strong enough on our own,” Linette insisted, folding her arms.

“I wasn’t,” Amira retorted.

“Popular doesn’t mean capable,” Linette retorted.

“Linette!” Wolf cried. “Act like a professional!”

“You’re one to talk! You’re not even qualified for this job!”

“Enough!” Emery cried. “We’re not getting anywhere like this.”

“Wolf, what do you have to say?” Birch asked.

Wolf puffed out his chest and said, “For as long as I have worked for Marisol, none of the magical girls of Cadence have ever had the respect for each other that you all deserve. You’re all amazing. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.”

“Only magical defenders know what the experience of being a magical defender is like,” Marisol reminded them. “We should like each other more than we do. We don’t have to compete. We don’t have to rank ourselves among each other. We’re more than bread and circuses for the masses, and we should act like it.”

Amira nodded, adding, “I still don’t particularly like the idea of being part of a permanent magical girl team. It’s not what I agreed to. The thought of being responsible for other people and having an additional set of rules I have to follow doesn’t work for me. We’re lucky that the bureau gives us so much freedom to act how we want and doesn’t penalize us for collateral damage or—Allah forbid—bystanders getting hurt. But working together is the only way that we’ll be sure to have what it takes to stand up to and deal with Cynthia.”

Jada and Coraline were whispering quietly among themselves. Once Amira had finished, Jada admitted, “Coraline and I have been working together as a team more often since Emery got admitted to the hospital.” She was blushing a little. Coraline was too. “It started as just trying to pick up the slack and coordinating with each other, but after a while we started calling each other whenever something was close enough for both of us to respond to.”

“And it’s all your fault,” Coraline accused Emery.

“So… are you a couple now?” Emery asked.

The two blushed harder and Jada stammered, “What? No, of course not! Why… Why would you think that?”

“Anyway,” Coraline said quickly. “Yeah, I guess as long as it’s not permanent, I’d be alright with teaming up with everyone.”

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“Me too,” Jada said. “That’s what’s important here. We don’t have to think too hard about other stuff.”

“Liv? What about you?” Amira asked.

“Absolutely not,” Linette said without waiting for a response to translate. “We can handle this ourselves. Even if none of you have confidence in your magical girls, I do. Liv can handle herself. And she deserves to—”

Liv tugged on Linette’s arm to get her attention, then started signing something to her.

“But—” Linette tried to interrupt. Liv just kept signing. “Come on, Liv— You can’t mean that! No, I— That’s not fair! Ugh, fine!” She folded her arms and mumbled, “We’ll do it your way. For now.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Amira asked.

There was a round of agreement and nodding.

“Alright,” Marisol said, grinning. “If you’re going to work together, then there are a few things you’ll need to know about being part of a team. First, you’ll need a leader, someone to make decisions in the heat of the moment. They need to be good at multitasking and won’t do as much of the fighting themselves.

“Next, you’ll need a plan to switch people in and out. Not only will that prevent people from getting too tired if the fight drags on, but it also means that there’s not so much chaos that you can’t work with each other. I’d suggest no more than three magical girls fighting at a time.”

Amira nodded and agreed, “We can do both of those.”

Emery squealed and clasped her hands together. It was finally all coming together. She was finally getting the magical girl team that she wanted this entire time. They were going to confront Cynthia and take her down! Night Terror, too!

“I think I should be the leader,” Amira said.

“Hang on,” Emery replied, frowning. “Why you? I’m the one with the most experience working with a variety of different people here, and I know more about Cynthia’s abilities than anyone.”

Amira shook her head and insisted, “This is for the best. I have more experience fighting and would be better in the heat of the moment. And I fought Cynthia, too. Night Terror also wasn’t in my head and doesn’t have the same intimate knowledge of how I fight.”

“No. Nobody else will agree to that. Right?”

Nobody else seemed to want to look at her.

“Emery,” Keaton said, placing his hands on her shoulders. “She’s just a lot more experienced than you are.”

“That’s not fair!” Emery protested.

“It’s not about fair,” Liv signed. “It’s about what’s practical. In an ideal world, maybe you’d be able to lead the team, but we have to think of the reality of the situation.”

“It doesn’t make sense for the least-experienced person to lead the group,” Coraline admitted.

Amira assured her, “Your knowledge can still be useful, even if you’re not participating.”

“Not participating?” Emery’s flinched. “Hold on. A second ago, you just said I couldn’t be the leader. What do you mean ‘not participating?’ I’m coming too.”

“You’re not strong enough,” Birch insisted. “You’d just be a liability.”

“No she wouldn’t!” Carina cried.

“I hate to agree,” Jada said, rubbing the back of her neck, “but I think Birch is right about this, at least. You are weaker than anyone here. We’ve all seen you fight, Emery. You’ve got the skill, but not the strength.”

Emery reminded them, “I’m the most experienced with working on a team. Keaton, tell them about the guilty talon.”

“Emery…”

“You can’t agree with them!”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said softly. “You can’t imagine how scared I was when I heard you were in the hospital.”

Her heart ached a little.

Amira added, “While we’re at it, Keaton is untested in combat. He should stay back as well.”

“You’re just saying that because you don’t like the idea of a magical boy,” Emery hissed.

“No,” she said. “I think it would serve the team better if he stayed close to you in case Night Terror targets you while we’re distracted. He can help you fight in that case, or call us in. If we are walking into a trap, then we need to have every possible angle covered. No chances.”

“It’s smart,” Marisol agreed.

“I hate this,” Emery mumbled.

Carina said, “I’m not keen on it, either, but I understand where they’re coming from.”

Emery just grumbled. She genuinely couldn’t believe that this was how things were turning out for her. This had been her mission from the very beginning. Cynthia had been her discovery. Night Terror had targeted her. Emery deserved to be on the front lines.

“At least Cynthia is going to be dealt with,” she said. “That’s what’s important, I guess.”

“You’ll see,” Amira told her. “This is for the best.”