Abyss, Stars, and Waves

The trio piles into Helen’s van and drives to the library. Helen provides a mild lecture about using their powers so openly, running themselves to her place without transforming.

They step into the library, and a tall woman stands behind the desk organizing books. She is about as tall as Helen, but slender and willowy. She wears modest clothes, a long grey skirt and a neutral brown turtleneck.

She has absurdly long black hair that waves down by her thighs and straightens out from her waist up. It covers the right half of her face, a pale face from a lack of sun. Only one of her violet-hued eyes is visible.

Despite her height, her reserved body language curls in and makes her feel small.

Pixel announces her to Eddy as Nellielle, the Maiden of the Abyss.

“Damn she got big,” Helen comments.

“You’re one to talk,” jabs Missy.

Helen smirks. “And you aren’t.”

Missy smacks her on the thigh and she chuckles.

Nellie spots them and gasps. “Helen? Missy? Um… sandwich… guy?” She seems a little confused. Eddy hands her the sandwich and she takes it. “W-what’s going on?”

Eddy speaks up. “Is there somewhere more private we can talk?” Nellie nods and steps aside with them.

They go to a quieter corner of the library. Nellie wrings her hands nervously as they gather. Helen takes hold of Nellie’s hands. “Nellie… the seal…” Helen hesitates, but Nellie quickly fills in the blanks. Her eyes well up and her face contorts with sadness. Helen tenderly pulls Nellie into a hug. “It’s alright… we’re here, we’ll get through this again… together… I know what this means for you especially…”

Eddy is told by Pixel that Nellie became a maiden after Lea freed her from a year under the Enchantress’s control.

Helen directs Nellie’s attention to Eddy. “This is Eddy. He’s… the new Pixel.”

Eddy nods. “You should… enjoy your lunch while it’s fresh.”

Helen holds Nellie’s hands again. “Let’s go get the others, you can eat in the van. Okay?”

Nellie takes a minute to compose herself again and agrees. They pile into the van again. Nellie has to lower her seat as low as it can go. She takes The front passenger seat. Eddy and Missy sit in the second row.

Missy leans forward to address the others. “Do we get Vickie or Mal first?”

Helen focuses on the road as Nellie nibbles at her lunch. Helen leans to the side slightly. “Vickie. Mal won’t budge unless we show up with everyone else. Stubborn mule…”

Nellie swallows a bite. “Well… Mal’s a nurse now…”

“And still as much of a stick in the mud as she always was.”

Missy sighs. “Vickie meanwhile will probably jump at the chance to get back in uniform.”

Helen shudders. “Right… the uniforms…”

Eddy has seen them in their magical costumes, at least what Pixel remembers of them. Fifteen years have passed since then, and he can only imagine what several grown women in frilly dresses and bows would look like.

They drive to the city center and enter an office building. They step inside. Helen approaches the receptionist. “Excuse me, I need to speak to Victoria Belle?”

The receptionist gives her a customer service smile. “Apologies, miss, Victoria isn’t accepting appointments right now.”

Helen’s eye twitches.

Eddy steps up. “I have lunch for a Victoria Belle, Samurai Subs.”

The woman turns her focus to him. “You can leave it on the table over there.”

Eddy, thinking quick, pulls an excuse from his ass. “Sorry, but Samurai Subs has a new policy, delivery recipients have to sign for their meals. It’s the Pixel Policy that Miss Belle agreed to.”

The others look at Eddy.

The woman sighs and rolls her eyes, immediately breaking her smile. She picks up the phone and dials into it, clearly annoyed. “…Hey, Vickie’s your lunch is here. …That’s what I told him, but he says there’s some new policy, the Pixel Policy? …Alright. Bye.” The woman hangs up.

“She’ll be down shortly.”

A minute passes and Vickie comes rushing down the stairs. She’s of a fairly average build with blue eyes and a strawberry blonde side ponytail. Pixel announces her as Victoria, Maiden of Starshower.

She’s in a gray suit jacket, pencil skirt, and pink flats. She has a pink tie and pink-framed glasses. She sees the group and rushes to them.

“Eve, I’m taking my lunch!” She doesn’t even look at the receptionist or anyone else. She grabs her sandwich from Eddy as she makes straight for the door. The others follow her out. “Is the seal broken? How long ago?”

Eddy catches up to her. “About an hour.”

Vickie scans over him, her eyes lock onto the star in his chest. “Then we have time before she makes a move.”

Missy runs a bit to keep up. “I told

You she’d be ready!”

Helen walks along side Vickie. “I’ve got the van, we’re gonna get Mal next.”

Vickie pushes the doors open. “And Howie?”

Helen groans.

“You’re the one that chose to have children with him, not me!”

“There’s no shot he’s still fit enough for this, have you seen him lately?”

“Have YOU seen him lately?”

“Look, that’s not the point!”

“You’re right, the point is that if we’re getting all hands on deck, that means Howie, too.”

Helen groans louder. “You call him, then, you’re the leader!”

“And you’re the mother of his children!”

Missy jumps up. “Hey! Maybe save this for later! We need to get Mal!”

Nellie strides along with them. “All these years later and they still butt heads…”

Everyone boards the van once more. Vickie rides in the back with Eddie and Missy, Missy takes the middle seat.

The hospital is a short ride away. Everyone gathers inside. They bounce back and forth figuring out where to find Malorie, or Nurse Wells as she’s known by the staff.

Unfortunately for the group, Nurse Wells is the OR tech for the busiest of three surgeons in the hospital, and they are in the middle of a procedure.

As they wait for the procedure to conclude, something ominous occurs back at the sub shop.

Vivian attends to the oddly quiet storefront. She leans on the counter with her back to the entrance. She thinks about the state Eddy was in, calls him an idiot in her head, and sighs. She should have sent him to the hospital.

She reaches down into her shirt and pulls up a necklace. It has a silver frame, and it has a large crimson teardrop gem. It’s heavy, but she’s worn it most of her life. It was a gift from her mother, one that she was told to wear always. And she did.

Vivian held the necklace to her chest and took a deep breath. It was always a calming feeling, as if the necklace pulled out all of her negative thoughts.

And then comes a warmth… not a comforting warmth, a heat that steadily grew to a searing sensation. It comes from the necklace. She clutches at it to pull it away, but it stings her fingers. She flinches, but claws away anyways. She struggles to breathe from the pain and her body curls in. The gem defies gravity stays glued to her chest.

All the metal framing dissolves and falls away, but the gem remains. She gasps for life as the pain subsides. She slowly claws her way back to standing, using the counter to support herself. Her limbs tremble.

Vivian can hear her heart beating in her head. She looks around at the store for a moment. She feels exhausted, and her head is pounding. She feels like she could pass out at any moment.

The door rings as someone enters the store. Vivian can’t bring herself to greet whoever it is.

A familiar woman’s voice calls to her. “It seems I’ve arrived a bit too late.” It was her mother’s voice. Vivian manages to snap back to focus and look at her. “M-mom? What are you doing here?”

The woman stepped into the store dressed in gothic reds and blacks. Her porcelain-toned complexion and flowing platinum blonde hair were shielded by a black parasol. Her eyes were fully covered by a set of dark lenses, but they did little to hide the sinister red glow of something inhuman behind them.

Vivian’s mother strides casually about the restaurant in her general direction. “My previous employer has recently returned. Some things will be changing, she’ll want me to come back and work for her again.”

Vivian was clearly confused. “Al…right… what does that have to do with… anything?”

Her mother runs a finger across the counter as if inspecting it. “Her return sets some things into motion. Unfortunately for you, it seems one of those things has already taken effect.”

Vivian rests a hand on her own chest.

Her mother tapped fingers on the counter impatiently. “You’re coming home now, you’re in no condition to be out and about.”

Vivian frowns. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m the only one that’s running the shop right now!”

Her mother’s patience is tested. “I don’t care about this shop or the scum you work with.”

Vivian feels a surge of anger and slams the counter. There’s a crack. “Shut your whore mouth! Eddy is not scum!”

Her mother is unamused. “Eddy… that name is familiar… it can’t be the little worm that you played with all those years ago. You still care about him?”

“Of course I do! He’s my best friend! I lo… lo… I…” The gem in Vivian’s chest swirls with dark hues. “I’d kill for him…”

“Wonderful, it’s already taking hold. This is not a request, and I am not asking. You are coming home.”

Vivian’s gem swirls again. “I’m not going anywhere with you, piss off and die!”

Her mother becomes annoyed. “Inching ever so close to doing this the hard way, Vivian…”

As they continue to argue, Eddy and company are waiting at the hospital. They are informed that Nurse Wells is out of surgery and where to find her. They reach the on-call quarters and find her slumped in a chair.

Malorie has a fairly slim build, her hair is short and straight, barely an inch of navy-black hair. Her tired eyes have a blue-gray hue, and her complexion is fairly pale, likely from several hours in the operating room away from the sun. Lines dig into her face from extended PPE usage. 

Still in her scrubs, Malorie glances over at them and sighs. She pushes herself up to her feet and looks them over. She leans in and speaks in a hushed tone. “Something tells me you aren’t all here to say hello…” pixel introduces her as Malorie, Maiden of the Waves.

Eddy hands her the last sandwich. She takes it. “Why is he with you?”

The situation is explained to Malorie as she scarfs down the sandwich as quickly as she can and chases it with the au jus.

She looks Eddie over. “So the delivery boy broke the seal. Great. Here’s hoping that Morona doesn’t make a move until my day off.”

There was a general sigh of agreement among Eddy and the other maidens.

“At the same time,” Malorie continued, “If she manages to end the world, there won’t be a job for me to get fired from…”

Eddy speaks up. “If she does pop up… I’ll get on it. I’m in this now, too. You can count on me.”

Helen pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t forget who you’re talking to. We’re not just some random gals.”

Nellie wrings a bit of her hair. “We haven’t done this in fifteen years…”

Vickie nods. “She’s right, and none of us have exactly gone into careers that keep us sharp.”

Missy scoffs. “Speak for yourself, I work out.”

Vickie claps. “Right!” Malorie shushes her. “Right, sorry. Right… Eddy, you have Pixel’s powers now, so you need to be the one to alert us if anything happens. Unless Morona summons something real big, we won’t know about it unless you ping us.”

Eddy nods, unsure of how to comply. “R-right.” Pixel reassures him in his head, it’s easier than he thinks.

Vickie continues. “I have a couple vacation days built up… I hate having to use them, but this is the fate of the world we’re talking about.

Malorie nods along. “Right, vacation days… I do have a few of those.”

Helen looks annoyed.

Missy raises a hand. “First real patrols this weekend, agreed?”

Everyone else nods. “Agreed” they say in unison.