Chapter Thirty-One

Glasir One and Goofy Two hovered above, throwing down enough wind that Amber ducked her head down even as loosened leaves were sprayed all over. Ropes came whizzing down to clatter on the ground below the helicopters, and soon Cecilia and her team were directing everyone to one helicopter or another.

This time neither team Svalinn or Helskor were split.

Amber watched Morgan step up to one of the ropes and slide her feet into the loop at the bottom. She grabbed onto a little handle dangling out of the side of it, then waved at the helicopter. Her rope went taut, then started pulling her up.

Amber nodded and moved to the other rope, then turned to see where her teammates were. Jade was nearby, hands together, eyes wide, and knees knocking together. “Ah, I don’t know if I can do that,” she said.

Right, afraid of heights. “We could go together,” Amber said. “Or you go before. If you fall, I’ll loop back in time, stop you from ever going up.”

“Um, that’s somewhat reassuring, but what if the time I do fall is the first time, and you don’t know that it’ll mess up?”

She didn’t know how to reply to that, exactly.

Then Cassy swooped up behind Jade and scooped her up in a princess carry. “Come on,” she said a moment before falling back onto her broom. Jade screamed as Cassy shot up into the air and into the open door on the helicopter’s side.

Amber blinked. Well, alright. She placed her foot in the loop, then waved at the helicopter while grabbing the handle.

The rope tugged her up, smoothing off to a gentle glide that ended just as she came level with the open cabin.

Morgan was sitting within a headset in her hands already extended for Amber to grab, and Cassy was cringing back from where a red-faced Jade was smacking her with the end of her scarf.

“You okay?” Amber asked as she grabbed one of the handles by the ceiling. The ropes lowered again, presumably to pick up some of team Glasir.

Jade huffed, moved to the side, and plopped herself down next to Morgan. “I’m fine,” she said. “If Cassy here had warned me, just a little, then maybe I wouldn’t be quite so angry.”

“Hey! I kinda warned you. Scooping you up should have been plenty of head’s up,” Cassy defended herself.

Morgan just shook her head. “Be a bit more considerate.”

“Yeah, sorry, sorry,” Cassy said.

Amber sat on Morgan’s side, opposite Jade, and Cassy leaned against the far wall and let herself fall onto the floor so that she was sitting with her legs outstretched. The ropes on either side of the cabin hummed, and soon Cecilia and Jess were back aboard. The older magical girl picked a headset from the racks at the front and slid it on. “Okay, Glasir One, we’re full. Get us to base ASAP. Have you transmitted the coordinates? Right, nice. Glasir lead out.”

“That was kind of thrilling,” Cassy said. “But I’m dead tired.”

“Really?” Jade asked. “I didn’t enjoy the fight, but I feel wired. Like I just drank a few energy drinks or something.”

“That’s usually how you feel post-fight,” Jess said. She poked Cassy’s leg. “How tired are you feeling?”

“Uh? Very, I guess?” Cassy asked.

“You use up a lot of magic?” the older magical girl asked.

Cassy nodded. “Yeah, a good chunk. I’m a bit better now, but I was nearly out in the fight.”

“Hmm, newbies,” Jess said.

“Hey!”

Cecilia shook her head. “Jess is right. You’re all new. Shouldn’t have been anywhere near that intense a fight yet. You’ll probably be using a lot more magic than you need to until you get more experience and become a bit more efficient. Just keep up your practice and it’ll get better. Oh, and eat a big meal tonight.”

“Who were they?” Amber asked.

“I have no idea,” Cecilia said. “Hostiles, with magic and their own weapons. They seemed human to me, but it’s not impossible that they weren’t.”

“Did we piss off some forest elves or something?” Cassy asked.

“Hah!” Jess barked. “No, elves around here are a lot more... Santa Clause, a lot less Tolkein.”

“Wait, is Santa Claus real?” Jade asked.

“You'll just have to be a good girl and wait until Christmas to find out, won’t you?” Jess asked with a shit eating grin.

“They had magic,” Morgan said. “Those chains our opponent had, they were similar to Jade’s scarf. I didn’t see if the others you fought had powers, but I suspect they did.”

“Yeah,” Cecilia said. “One had a pocket dimension thing. Not sure about the other two, but it’s likely.”

“So they were magicals like us,” Morgan said.

“Maybe not like us,” Cecilia said.

Morgan leaned back, arms crossing. “Close enough that we should treat them the same way. We had a very clear numerical advantage there and they still held their own. Had they not retreated, we might have had some injuries on our side.”

“We did alright,” Jess said. “Nailed one of them pretty hard.”

Morgan gestured to Cassy, then to Amber. “Cassy was nearly out of the fight, and Amber was nearing exhaustion. I didn’t pay as much attention to team Helskor, but at least one of their members was entirely unready to fight. Cassy was saved by Jade, and Amber was running interference. I don’t know if I could have taken on our opponent solo.”

“You were holding your own,” Jade said.

“Better than any of us,” Amber added.

Morgan shrugged. She didn’t look at the girls on either side though. Is she blushing, just a little?

“I’m good enough to know that I was out-matched,” Morgan continued. “My point is, they had training, or at least some experience fighting. Maybe not from an academy, but that wouldn’t surprise me either. I’d put them on the level of a second or third year, at least.”

Cecilia bit her lower lip. “Damn. Okay, we need to report all of this as soon as we land.”

A glance out the side revealed that the sun was starting to set. It was just a bit past seven o’clock, according to Amber’s time-sense. Soon, they were flying past the rows of fencing around Norumbega, and finally over the city proper.

The two helicopters swung around and slowed until they could come in for a gentle landing atop some waiting platforms.

Last time, when Amber had arrived, there had been mechanics waiting, and a few soldiers in the distance watching. Now there were also entire teams of magicals. At least a dozen in all, most of them looking to be about Amber’s own age, but they held themselves with the kind of poise that she’d expect to see in a hunting tiger, instead of just a bunch of bored teens.

The rotors spun down with a whine and everyone jumped out of the helicopters even as maintenance people rushed closer.

The three magical girl teams met on one side, where the woman that had introduced the principal the other day, the principal himself, lieutenant Garnt and a single very small girl were waiting. “Welcome back,” the principal said.

“Sir,” Cecilia said. “We’re all back, and in decent form.”

The principal’s assistant nodded. “We need you to debrief.”

“If you feel like it,” the principal added. “The army and the Academy would appreciate it, but it’s up to you. You can do it here or in the Academy proper too.”

Cecilia glanced at her team, and the two others. “The Academy, sir,” she said. “At least for team Glasir.”

Amber blinked when all three of her teammates looked to her. “Uh, the Academy for us too,” she said.

Evalyn nodded. “Likewise for team Helskor.”

“Wonderful!” the principal said. “Now, follow Professor Ploof here, and she’ll bring you over to somewhere where you can relax for a moment before we bother you with a bunch of questions.”

Professor Ploof, as it turned out, was the small girl standing in the group. She nodded and took off towards the Academy, as if expecting them all to follow.

Amber and the others hesitated, but they soon trailed after the girl. “Is she really?” Amber began to ask.

“Yes, I am,” the girl snapped. She sighed a moment later. “Forgive me, I was woken up for all of this. I don’t like kerfuffles like this.”

“Oh, sorry,” Amber said. She eyed the girl from behind. She was wearing a magical girl costume, a big dress that looked normal until mid-waist, which then poofed out and became a sort of round ball that ended by the girl’s knees. It was covered in ribbons and tassels, and done up in a soft, pastel pink with baby-blue highlights. It was the least-threatening dress Amber had ever seen.

“We’ll be splitting you up by teams,” Professor Ploof said as she pulled out a phone from the folds of her dress and started tapping away at it. The phone was just a bit too big for her, so she had to shift it around whenever she wanted to press a button in the middle of its screen.

‘Right,” Cecilia said. “The others over there, they look like vets.”

“They are,” the professor said. “One team tied to the base, another team of veterans tied to the Academy, and one of the five teams from Norumbega. All alumni teams. You probably don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Neat,” Cassy said. “Anyone we know?” She looked at the others who were looking at her. “What? I had posters back home. Which girl doesn’t?”

They moved through one of the little doors next to the Academy gates, then up a staircase and into the Academy proper. It was a little strange moving around the Academy when the sun was well on its way to setting, and the only illumination was from the streetlights all along the roadways. Amber had been out this late the day she’d first come, but that felt like forever ago.

A few of the students still out watched them all moving past, but it was probably not too bizarre to see a bunch of magical girls with a professor, even if the professor didn’t look like one, and they were all in-costume.

They arrived at the Administration building, and Amber looked around for any signs of damage left over from the explosion. There was a large dumpster nearby, and some construction equipment on pallets with tarps above them off to the side, but the building itself looked fine.

Professor Ploof brought them across the lobby and to some rooms at the back. “Right, your team here. Your team there. And you guys there,” the girl said as she pointed them to different rooms. “We only have one room for interrogations and such, so it’ll have to be one group at a time. I’ll have someone bring over lunch in a few minutes. You kids must be starving.”

Cassy snorted, but a deadpan look from the professor had her clamping up.

Soon, team Svalinn gathered in a little waiting room. Just a few sofas, some chairs, and a vending machine in the corner. It wasn’t so much a waiting room, Amber realized, as it was one of the Admin building’s break rooms. There was even a little window overlooking the walls behind the building.

“Snacks, anyone?” Jade asked as she moved over to the vending machine. She poked at it with her phone, and soon a candy bar fell to the tray at the bottom.

“I could use something, yeah,” Amber said.

“Likewise,” Morgan said.

“I’m good, thanks.”

Amber looked at Cassy. “No, eat something,” she said. “You were out of magic earlier, and we moved a lot.”

“I’m fine,” Cassy replied.

“I think Amber’s right,” Morgan said. She stood and moved to the machine. “There’s... nothing healthy here. Well, whatever. What do you want?”

“I said I’m good,” Cassy replied.

Amber bit her lip. Now’s not the time, but then... we might be waiting for a while, and there’s no leaving this room until then. Maybe now’s the best time. On the other hand, this is trapping her.

She sighed. “Cassy,” she began. Maybe just a small push.

***