Delivery Gone Wrong

This… is where the story ends.

Six shimmering maidens stand against the Evil Enchantress. The heroines strike the final blow, sealing away the dark sorceress. Despite the great cost… the five girls must resume their everyday lives… for the magic is gone.

Fifteen years pass.

Eddy stands behind the counter of the Samurai Subs, wrapping a sandwich for delivery. Eddy is an all-around average guy, sandy-blonde waves, brown eyes, fair complexion with a faint tan around his neck and arms lined up with his work uniform.

Vivian, friend and co-worker, wraps another sandwich. Vivian has long black hair, brown-red eyes, and an ivory complexion. She raises it overhead and calls out. “One ham and egg footlong! Extra mayo!”

Eddy finishes his sandwich preparations. “Hey Viv, hold down the shop, I got another delivery to make. It’s that lady from the University again, footlong with the works!”

“Why is that not a menu item yet? I mean, it's no liver and onion on rye, but it's an okay sandwich.”

He drops the wrapped sandwich in a bag. “Because sometimes i make it differently to see if i can get a response out of her instead of the door in my face.”

“Some people just don't appreciate what's right in front of them.” She smiles at him. He returns a smile and pushes past the lunch rush line. The traffic is crazy, but nothing someone on a bike can't handle. That is, of course, until he reaches the bumper to bumper traffic of Mainstreet.

“Christ!” Eddy growls. “Yeah, im not getting through this in decent time...” He spots a clear path through the construction site where the restoration of Halflight Towers is being done. None of the workers are looking. “...and lady luck smiles on me again!”

He gets off the road and starts through the construction sight as quick as he can. He whizzes through cracks and between pillars, and crosses the zone… then the floor collapses, sending him hurdling forward. He yelps as he is thrown into the pit. An unsettling warmth spreads from the sharp pain in his chest.

Shakily, Eddy rolls over. “Ogh,” he gasps, “That don’t look good…” he grips at the iridescent star-shaped gem that protrudes from his bleeding, likely broken sternum. He hears cracking sounds all about him as a crimson flow blooms from his chest. “Ooooh please not another fall!”

From the depression the star once occupied in the ground, a dark fissure forms, and from it crawls inky black tendrils of tangled and knotted hair. His staggered, labored breathing rings loud in his ears as the tendrils amass towards him. “Whaaaat the fuuuuck is that!?” He screams.

The tendrils take shape to form what looks like a decomposing hag. It’s horrible voice rasps into the air like ancient radio static as he crawls to the opposite wall, leaving a red trail behind. “GiiiiIIIvvVvE IIiittT tTooooOooo MMEEeeeeeeEeee..” Eddy’s hair stands on end as he slides along the wall to keep distance. “Oh, HELL no!”

“Oh my,” calls a warm woman’s voice, “It seems there is little choice now.” The star at Eddy’s chest glows with a bright, glittering light. All manner of colors burst forth as the the gem rights itself and aligns to his chest. A warm glow and many pearlescent ribbons swaddle him, and when the light pops like a sparkling bubble, he stands there in an… Ill-fitting partial body-suit of those ribbons. His eyes take on a rainbow sheen, his hair became a prismatic white, and he now sports a pair of bunny ears. The star shines prominently at his chest. He looks at his basically naked form flustered and confused, but the pain was entirely gone.

As if anticipating his many questions, the warm voice calls out once more. “No time for that now, you need to focus on the dark entity if you want to stay not bleeding!”

Eddy snaps back to attention. “Okay, but… how!?”

A wand appears in his grip, one with a star at the end. He takes an unsure stance and waves it at the hag. The warm voice calls once more. “You can wield the light, use it to manifest a weapon or cast magic!”

Eddy focuses on the wand, and it reshapes into a double-edged broadsword of light with the star as its cross guard. The hag lunges at him, and he swipes sideways at it. The hag recoils. It crawls away and out of sight.”

He falls to his knees and relaxes. “Thank… fuhuhahuh… It’s gone…”

The warm voice chides him. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into to, young man.”

Eddy growls. “You’re right, so… strange… disembodied voice in my head… care to explain?”

“Fifteen years ago, the Maidens of Justice fought and sealed away the Evil Enchantress. You have just broken that seal, and now you must gather the maidens once more.”

“O…Kay? And who are these maidens?”

“I know not who they have become these fifteen years, only that all but one of them still lives.”

“Alright... but can this wait a bit? I’m still alive so that means I still have a job... and that means I got to make my delivery if I’m to keep that job.”

“Oh, sure, the fate of the world can wait for you to deliver a sandwich to-“

“Yeah, I’m not waiting. Hey, uh, how do I turn this off?” Eddy looks at his new form.

He can feel the voice sighing. “Touch the gem…you can do the same to ‘turn it back on’ again.”

Eddy does so, and the ribbons retreat back into the star. His wand vanishes, his appearance reverts, and he stands there in the torn and bloodied remains of his work uniform.

A wave of realization smacks Eddy’s head. “My bike!!” He goes to inspect the last known location… and finds his bike mangled under rubble. He groans out… but the delivery bag is miraculously intact. “That’s… gonna make my job a lot harder…” He swipes it and leaps an absurd distance out of the hole without realizing it. “And the lady will tear my head off if I’m late with her lunch!”

He runs for the college at an inhuman pace, arriving in mere minutes. Eddy approaches the dorm.

Missy Allen waits impatiently within. She’s fair, has green eyes, a loose light-brown ponytail with shoulder-length bangs swept to the side, and short stature. 

She taps away at her laptop, annoyed by the paper in front of her refusing to write itself.

There is a knock at the door. She grumbles and hops from her chair. She grabs her phone and checks through the messages as she opens the door.

Eddy stands with her lunch on the other side. The warm voice announces in his head, “Missy Allen, Maiden of the Storm.” Eve goes wide eyed. “Footlong with the works is one of them!?” He says aloud.

Missy sighs. “It’s the ONLY one.” She glares up at him, at least two heads of height between them. “Now do you want your pay or naaaaaa…” she trails off as she stares directly at the gem in his chest. Her grip on the phone fails and it clatters to the ground. “Are you… Pixel?”

Eddy’s head tilts. “Uh…”

The warm voice chimes in. “She is talking about me. That is what I told them to call me.”

Eddy speaks aloud. “Oh now you tell me…” He clears his throat. “I guess I am Pixel.”

“But… if you’re here…” Dread creeps across Missy’s face.

Eddy raises his hands. “Okay, let’s get this straight… I’m Eddy, and I’m this Pixel’s uh… Avatar… and I’m still very much my own person.”

Missy scrambles around grabbing things. “We have to tell the others!”

Eddy steps into the dorm. “Easy, you don’t need to panic!”

Missy snatches the sandwich, which is about as big as her arm, and tries to eat it with one hand as she talks with her mouth full and searches around with the other. “Ith you hewe, yen da ho wood ish ih shuh deeh shih!”

Eddy closes the door so on one is disturbed by the shouting.

Okay, sorry but I have no idea whats going on. I was impaled by this star, then this... haggish looking thing attacked me....or tried to at any rate.”

Missy nearly chokes, Eddy tenses and moves behind her and bends down, about to put his arms around her torso, but she pounds her chest twice, swallows hard, and gags a bit. She turns back to him. “So she escaped?!”

Eddy’s hands rise up by his head in confusion and frustration. “I think?”

Missy runs for the door. “This is really bad!”

Eddy’s hands go up higher. “I Guess!?”

Missy opens the door and scoops her phone off the ground. “This could mean the end of the world, okay!? Is that clear enough!?”

Eddy holds his hands forward. “Alright, alright I get it! Jeez… the storm is right…”

Missy starts dialing her phone. “Oh, if you think I’m mad, you do NOT want to see Helen.”