Luna Star, Part 6

“Ouroboros awaken” Luna heard the voice speak from nearby. She turned to look when suddenly green feather-less arrows sprouted from the mannequins surrounding her. Across the hallway surrounded by her pink glow was Joy. In her hands was a long green bow and in a single motion she pulled it back and drew an arrow out of the quiver on her back then in what seemed like no time the arrow was sailing through the air and into one of the mannequins who collapsed.

The arrows continued one after another in one continuous fluid motion on Joy’s part. Once the four arrow in the sequence hit one of the mannequins Luna had reached an understanding of what was happening. By the time the fifth arrow hit its target Luna was already in action. He bat swung out and crashed into the nearest enemy knocking it back into the team of them. Several more swings of the bat and an equal amount of arrow managed to push the mannequins back into a circle giving Luna a bit of space.

Then half of the broke off and began running down the hallway toward Joy. Luna broke into a run after them but the remaining one blocked her path. Several arrows took down the mannequins that were heading toward Joy but when they reached her there was a flicker of motion and instead of a bow and quiver she was holding a sword with that same green color.

The sword flicked back and forth in swift waste-less motions. It danced across the mannequins that approached Joy and in moments all of the were in pieces across the floor. The distraction and the splitting of resources had been all the advantage that Luna had needed. Her strength broke across the mannequins in switch brutal efficiency leaving tangled piles of limbs twitching on the floor.

There was a moment of silence as Joy and Luna stood on opposite sides of the hall looking at each other. Then the sword rippled and returned to the form of the bracelet around Joy’s arm.

“No bad Joy. Glad you could join me.” Luna smiled a little. She then staggered a couple of feet and sat down on one of the shopping mall benches.

“Um, thanks. I’m happy that I managed to get here in time.”

“You handled yourself great. You were like a pro back there.”

“I..” Joy stammered, “I don’t know. When I hold Ouroboros everything just seems to happen. It is like I am on autopilot or something.”

“Well that certainly sounds more convenient then the way that I do things.” Luna stayed seated for a couple of minutes before stretching and standing back up. Her wounds were healed again and even the cut in her clothes had vanished. She still was running close to empty but the short rest was enough to get everything back together. “Alright, we can talk about Ouroboros later. Let’s find that doll and make sure it never bothers us again.”

Luna turned to Blackberry and asked, “Do you know where it is?”

It was Joy that answered instead of Blackkberry, “It is on the roof. It moved there shortly after the fighting ended and hasn’t moved since then.”

Luna flickered her gaze between Joy and Blackberry a couple of times before she seemed to accept what Joy said, “It is waiting for us then. It is still many hours before dawn so it knows that it won’t be able to avoid us for that long. Considering how many mannequins we defeated here it can’t still have an army. Otherwise they would still be attacking us.”

“Now is the best time to hit it then.” Said Blackberry.

“Exactly. It probably still has some mannequins left but those we can deal with. The only real problem that we need to deal with is its trump card.”

“Trump Card?” Asked Joy

“Right, how it plans to beat us. Since it hasn’t fled it must still believe that it can beat us and that means it still has something we haven’t seen. An ability would be the most likely option but a super powered mannequin also wouldn’t be out of the question.”

Blackberry nodded, “Yes that seems to be most likely. Do you have a plan for dealing with it.”

Luna shook her head, “Not really. If we are lucky it is something that Joy and Ouroboros will be able to deal with. My plan is to get as close to the doll as I can and then use the black-light beam. I plan to pump it with everything I have left and take the doll down in a single hit. I only have one shot with it and I have to make sure that it counts. With the Elder Darkness defeated its trump card should be void. In the case that it is not then we should be prepared to escape from it.”

“That certainly sounds like a plan.” Said Joy. “Certainly a lot better of a plan then I could come up with.”

“A plan requires information. I’m really just deciding on a contingency. There is a second contingency that needs to be in place. Once the doll reveals its trump card, if we don’t think we can defeat it then we leave then.” Luna paused, “However we can not leave until then. If we don’t defeat it today then we must be prepared to beat it the next time otherwise everything we have done today will be wasted.”

“That…” Joy sounded a bit horrified, “Your just really willing to leave? To escape? What about the people.”

Luna sighed, “They will probably die. However if we can’t beat the Elder Darkness tonight we will need to be able to come back tomorrow and defeat it then. We won’t be able to do that if we are dead. I hope it won’t have to come to that but you need to be prepared if that is the case.”

Joy swallowed and looked up at the ceiling, “Do you think it will come to that?”

Luna began walking toward the stairs. Joy and Blackberry followed her. When they reached the bottom of the stairs Luna finally said, “I hope not. I think we will be able to deal with it. After seeing you and Ouroboros in action I knew that we should have a chance against whatever the doll can throw at us. Your versatility will be an asset when faced with the unknown. Jump make sure to call upon Ouroboros as soon as you see anything strange. Hopefully we will have enough time to deal with it.”

The slowed walked up the stairs. Joy tried calming her nerves by breathing deeply in and out. The suspense was making it difficult for her to continue walking up the stairs. When they reached the third story Luna reached out and grabbed her shoulder, “Relax. You won’t be able to do anything if you are like that. You don’t need to worry too much, if things get too rough get out of here and I will finish things on my own.”

“But..” Joy began to say but Luna just continued up the stairs away from her.

“Like I said relax.”

Despite those few words Joy felt better. It wasn’t the relief from knowing that she could escape, she had not plans to leave Luna alone, but instead it was the feeling of fellowship that somebody would be there for her if things went badly. Somehow that made things feel better.

Blackberry watched the two of the walk up the stairs surrounded by a glow of white and pink light. He didn’t know what to think. Luna had changed since they encountered Joy, before Luna had been more uncertain. Luna seemed to take comfort in there being another person around, somebody that fought beside her. She was acting more like a leader, being tough for those around her. Blackberry felt a little bit miffed that it seemed that he didn’t count.

They reached the door to the roof after a few more minutes of climbing stairs. They stood on that side of the door for a little bit.

“Is the Elder Darkness still out there?” Asked Luna

“Yes. It is still out there” replied Joy

“Are you read?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. What about you.”

“Sure, not much else I can be at this point.” Said Luna.

Then they pushed open the door to the roof and stepped through.

---

When we talk after fighting the mannequins I felt something from Joy

Blackberry said it was something he called resonance

The feeling that one magical girl gets from another

I think it was something else

When I saw Joy as a magical girl I think I felt a kind of jealousy

It felt like she was the kind of person that I had always wished that I was

The life where you had a happy family and looked forward to coming home

The life where doing your homework felt like a major hassle

It was the life I had dreamed of late at night back at the Star household

I think that it why I felt like I should protect Joy

That as long as she lived a happy life that I would be happy because of that

I felt that this must be what being a sister might sometimes feel like

Or maybe I feel responsible

Like I do with the members of the gang

Showing real fear or uncertainty in front of her felt like I was betraying myself

Chapter 6 - Doll

The good news was that figuring out what the doll’s trump card was easy. The bad news was that the roof was crowded. It was full of frozen people. All of the cops who had been in the building were up here. Across the roof Luna could see the porcelain doll. It was floating, holding motionless in the air waiting. Then the meaning of the trump card hit Luna and she dropped, pulling Joy along with her.

In staggered jerky motions the cop fired, their guns going off in an explosion of sound. She pushed Joy to the side as she staggered up. There was more jerking motions and she was forced to dive out of the way of another volley of gunfire. Had she just been a regular girl she would have certainly been dead by now. However the magical power she now had allowed her to perceive and react faster then normal, especially in stressful situations.

Luna heard from nearby Joy saying, “Ouroboros awaken” but she didn’t have time to look. Instead she ran forward avoiding the police officers in the best methods that she could. Had these been mannequins she would have had no problem destroying them but these were regular people, real live humans who would certainly die if she attacked them.

Instead she needed to dodge not just the bullets but the officers. Their jerky motions kept placing them directly between her and the doll. If she could just get past them for a few moments then she would be able to use the black-light beam on the doll but while they were in the way she couldn’t do anything against it.

There there was the grate of metal against metal and long green chains wrapped around several of the police officers in from of Luna. The chain tightened and they were pulled away from her and toward Joy. Joy was standing there with chains wrapped around both hands. The chains were spread out restraining more then a dozen of the police officers.

“Go” shouted Joy, “I can’t hold all of them off.”

Luna didn’t wait for any time before agreeing. She sprinted past the police officers. There were two more in front of her between her and the doll. She whispered, “Sorry” before spinning and knocking both of them to the ground with a long hard kick. She thought she heard the crack of bones breaking and hoped it wasn’t anything too serious for them.