Chapter 3

The helicopters blare down on the girls, they swing erratically between them and over the load of destruction and dead monster carcass. Cars start pulling up and people rush out, grabbing cameras and mics from the back of their vans. Officers arrive and set up barricades, trying to keep them away from the massive squid-like body.

“Reporters! Please smile this time, Iris!” Ember smiles brightly at the purple girl.

Iris looks at the taller girl and raises her brows, frowning. Ember drops the smile.

“I’ll deal with any of the bigger questions, don’t say anything Iris, last time you made it such a problem.” Ember pleads.

Iris shrugs “I was just being truthful.”

“Telling people that we don’t know why a massive bird decided to swoop down and eat a random kid caused them all to panic.” Ember says sharply.

“Well we didn’t know how.” she crosses her arms.

“UGH!” Ember's face grows red with anger “We don’t need to cause massive panic! And if you’re going to do something like that again today, then leave.”

In a swish of purple, Iris was gone.

“Freaking Iris.” Ember clenches her teeth and fists.

“You know she does that to get out of the interviews, right?” Star points out.

Ember takes a deep breath, and breathes out “I know…” she rubs her eyes.

“What's happening?” Clover asks.

“Oh um… you’re new that’s right. Just remember your PR training, and let me answer most of the questions.” Ember waves her off, “actually, you can just head out if you want, report back to OC.”

“....OC?”

“Work, you know, OC, we just abbreviate the name”

Clover continues to look at her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What do you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about?” Ember asks.

“I don't work anywhere, I don’t know what OC is.”

Both Star and Ember are stock still looking at her, they look at eachother, and back and Clover.

Ember looks at the whip at Clover's hip “Where did you get that whip?”

“HEY! Ember! Can we get an interview?!” A team of people are running up, lights and cameras in their faces. Suddenly they’re surrounded by news reporters and journalists.

“Why was the Kraken attacking?”

“We’re not sure.” Ember responds easily.

“Where did it come from? We’re miles from the nearest body of water!”

“The sewers are most likely.” She replies.

“How could it? It’s huge?”

“It was a squid type kraken, they don’t have bones and can snake through fairly small spaces,” she explains.

“Do you think there’s a chance more will be coming?”

“Kraken type Kaiju are solitary creatures, there's no chance of another coming by.” She says confidently.

Suddenly there's a mic in Clover's face.

“Channel 101 the Monster and Magical girl highlights, who are you?”

“...Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh” There's so many people looking at her.

She stares at the person's face, no answer coming to her mind. Mouth gaping.

“I…I’m…”

Suddenly there’s an arm around her shoulder “She’s new!” Ember fills in “Still getting the hang of things, you should be nicer about shoving those mics in people’s faces!” She uses a finger and a bright smile to push it away. “Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

Clover just stares with wide eyes.

“We should get out of here.”

The familiar voice causes her to look over. Instead of no one being there… There's now A something. A see-through floating girl sort of something… smiling at her.

“What?” The faded girl raises a brow.

“Hello?” The reporter waves the mic in her face. “ New girl?”

Ember nudges her just a little bit “Hey are you okay? You didn’t hit your head did you?”

“Ummm…”

“Did you?” The ghost asks.

In a flash of light Clover flies out of there. The power sending the reporters back and Ember stumbling just a bit. Even more confused than earlier.

Hours later, Ember is still standing next to the smelly corpse of the kaiju, talking to never-tiring news reporters. Star had flown off at some point, with an awkward goodbye.

“I know you all have a lot more questions, but I have to head out.” Ember takes a step back, and all of them reach out their mics.

“But we have more questions!”

“Why, is there another attack?!”

“What about the monster body?!”

“I’ve answered all of the necessary questions, there’s no other attack, and you’ll have to ask those very nice people over there cleaning up the body what they’re doing.” She smiles, giving them a peace sign “Love and light, have a good night!”

She shoots off the ground, a red stream of light and glitter behind her.

Ember lands in a dark alleyway behind a tall building. In a flash of bright light she’s back in her jeans and puffy jacket. She stretches her arms above her head and takes a deep breath. She then grabs her box of cigarettes and lighter from her back pocket.

She leans against the brick wall and closes her eyes, taking a long drag of the cigarette.

With the power out, and it being the middle of the night, everything is quiet. Back in the far distance she can make out the sounds of the helicopters and sirens. Her phone buzzes in her other pocket.

She groans, takes another breath of smoke, and answers it.

“Hello.”

“Ember! Where are you?” The woman on the other end asks.

“Just finishing up with the reporters.” She says.

“I need to know what happened before you leave for the night, come back here quickly.” They hang up before Ember can say another word.

She puts the cigarette out on the damp brick wall, and walks out of the alley, popping the rest of it into the garbage. The sidewalk is dark as she walks to the fully lit building. It’s like a beacon in the night.

She walks up to the gate of the large factory and parking lot.

“Hello.” She waves to the gate attendant, who barely looks up from his phone.

“Hey.” He mutters.

She walks across the parking lot, and dreads walking in through the door. The AC hits her in the face! Making her nose and ears hurt! The lobby lights reflect off the white floor tiles, and she squints to see.

“Hi Amber!” The girl at the front desk waves rapidly.

Amber smiles, “Hi Tambra.”

“How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in awhile.”

“I’m good, I’ve just been busy with work” Amber slouches over Tam’s desk “how's college going?”

“UGH!” She groans, spinning in her chair. “So much work, why do I have to take so many math classes?”

“Aren’t you going for pharmaceuticals? Shouldn’t you be taking math?”

“But why so muuuuch?” She complains then looks at Amber, her blonde hair a tangled damp mess, and bags under her eyes “You really look like you could use a day off.”

“I wish.” She sighs.

“Why are you here so late?” She asks, "did Ms. fire you if you call out, call you in?"

“You know her, always needing something.” Amber says.

“Right. I’m sure she needs someone to copy papers, and deliver files, in the middle of the night.”

Amber's phone buzzes in her pocket, and she sighs. “I have to get going.”

“Hey, we should get drinks sometime soon.”

“YES! I would love that!” Amber smiles “We will the next time we both get a day off together.”

“Can’t wait! Good luck up there!”

“Thanks.”

Amber takes the elevator up to the top floor. The offices.

This floor is just as cold as all the others, but this one has stuffy carpets, all the offices have windows, but all the blinds are shut. At the end of the hall is a door with a bronze name plate, with a gold name scrawled into it. Juliet “Flame” Pierce.

She takes a deep breath and knocks.

“Come in, Ember!”

Juliet sits at her desk, she looks up from her computer screen. “Why is there a city wide blackout, Ember?”

“It was an accident,” Ember states.

“Who did it?”

“There was a new girl,” Ember says.

“A new girl?” Juliet stands up “What do you mean a new girl?”

“A new magical girl showed up.”

Juliet taps her fingers on her desk and glances out the large window “New magical girl?”

She says it mostly to herself, so Ember decides not to answer.

“Tell me about this girl.” She puts her hands on her hips.

“She seemed really nervous, she said it was her first time in a battle, but she did great! She even took out the monster.” Ember explains.

“And that led to-” Juliet motions to the window , giving Ember a stern look “...this.”

“Well… yeah, but the monster’s dead.”

Juliet sighs, pinching her temples.

“Um…” Ember shifts on her feet.

Juliet sits down again, quickly typing on her computer. “What kind of magic does she have? What did her outfit look like? What name did she go by? And what else can you tell me about her?” She looks at Ember expectantly.

“Oh. She had fast flying abilities, faster than some of us, and then she had a whip, and the whip conducts electricity it seems, it was very strong, but I assume all the water in the area made her a bit too strong, and she accidentally caused the power outage, she had bright orange hair, and a blue green ruffly outfit, with a bow on her chest, and she said her name was Clover, she seemed extremely nervous.”

Juliet types this all down. “I’ll have to see if we’re missing anything from the warehouse.” She sighs and leans back in her chair. “I can’t deal with a theft right now.”

Ember doesn’t comment on this.

“We CAN’T have another magical girl flying around.”

“She’ll be helpful, she just needs a little guidance.”

“She’s unpredictable, and has strong magic.”

“We can help her.”

“Ember, I need you to do something for me.” Juliet looks at her.

Ember nods.

“I need you to find out more about this girl, keep close tabs on her, and make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”