An actress in our midst! (web version)

The high-powered laser beam disguised as an arrow closed in on her at blinding speeds. Luckily, she had already expected it. Just as the laser rocket arrow was about to send her flying like last time, the air in front of her rippled and crackled with a high-pitched sound as the projectile flew right into it, before shattering into glowing pieces, snuffing out, and vanishing.

She looked at the glowing girl in front of her who was stunned at the unexpected turn of events. Under her mask, a smirk formed. She slowly raised her hand, watching as the golden magical girl adjusted her stance, preparing for whatever magic was about to hit her.

And then, Jessica waved at her.

A moment of silence followed before Pretty Spark’s face twisted in fury. “You! It’s you again! That’s why you are so annoying to take out! You’re that jerk from last time!”

Well, dang. Jessica just wanted to tease a bit again. But she hadn’t expected Spark to be this mad. Honestly, Spark was overreacting. After all, all she had done last time was defend from their attacks and wave at them! She hadn’t even attacked them back!

“Huh. Trolling them again? You sure love doing that,” the familiar voice echoed in her head.

Well, whatever. At the moment, Salem was too preoccupied fighting the other three, and Spark had already taken out most of the other minions besides Jessica. Only Cody was by her side now. This was the perfect chance to discreetly drop off the encrypted letter. Nomed shouldn’t notice anything.

Unfortunately, that would still prove to be difficult now since Spark seemed to be in no mood for a peaceful resolution. She kept up her glare and obviously saw Jessica as a serious threat now. Blocking her attacks was no small feat, after all. Once was a lucky chance, but twice in a row demanded respect.

Honestly, even Jessica was surprised she had managed to do that. Maybe Nomed hadn’t just been trying to sweet-talk her back when he’d said she had more potential than even Pretty Flame?

Spark jumped back with a backflip, whilst pouring magic into her bow and making five arrows – or rather, yellow glowing solid laser things – appear.

“Thunderstorm!” she shouted as she released all of them.

The laser-guided laser missiles spread out in all directions before quickly changing course and converging on Jessica.

She did her best to block all of them with her sealing magic and only barely managed to do so. In the background, she heard Cody scream and probably get taken out. Meh.

“Behind you!” a voice rang in her head.

She had no time to pay attention to her fellow minion being downed. Even though she had managed to stand her ground, that attack had only been a distraction. Spark had somehow managed to get behind Jessica in that split second and simply punched her in the back.

“Gaaaah?!” she screamed as the magic-powered punch flung her into the air. She spun once, twice, and then landed on her back on the ground.

In an odd sense of deja vu, Jessica found herself lying on the ground, too banged up to properly move, looking up at Spark who was staring at her prone body, still refusing to drop her guard.

A moment of deliberation later, Jessica mentally shrugged and got to work. Once again, her right arm rose… and gave Spark a thumbs up. Which, of course, only further angered the golden heroine.

In the meantime, her other hand slipped off the piece of paper she had attached to her back and hidden with magic, before immediately pressing the teleport out button and finding herself right back in the hospital bed already recovering.

“I sure am glad that you are on our side. You would be an infuriating opponent,” Nomed remarked.

Jessica just snorted. He hadn’t seemed to notice her dropping off the message. Good.

“Is that a dare? Do you want me to turn on you?”

“What? No! Please don’t!”

Jessica just laughed, much to her overseer’s plight.

“Hey, leader,” a voice called out to her. Shifting her eyes toward the source revealed the ever-reliable Cody. “Everything alright? That last attack was kinda brutal…”

To everyone else, it seemed like he was asking about Jessica’s wellbeing – which he also was – but Jessica knew Cody also wanted to know whether she had managed to deliver the message.

“Eh, I think I’ll be fine.” She waved her hand, the pain already disappearing thanks to the enchanted bed. “I blocked the storm but then I got bitchslapped. Spark is way too fast, man.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Cody nodded.

It had been a bit of a roundabout way of contacting the magical girls, but with the encoded message left behind, the magical girls were bound to find it and decipher it.

And they did.

Back at the battlefield, Spark’s glare buried into the odd piece of paper the wretched bitch of a minion had left behind. Was this written in some kind of demon language? Some set of instructions? Or was it just some nonsense? A red herring? Yet another way to mock her?

“Hey! There you are!” Pretty Flame exclaimed as she flew down next to Spark. “Hmm? What’s that?”

“There was that annoying minion again,” Spark growled out. “She left this behind.”

That instantly got the attention of the others. Everyone clumped up around Spark and stared at the paper. It contained simple symbols like half-circles, lines, and squiggles of all kind.

“What language is that?” Flame wondered.

“Isn’t this some kind of code?” Bloom suggested.

“I bet it’s just nonsense to throw us off,” Spark said.

“Well, either way, we should probably try to decipher it. It might be important,” Frost finished.

A round of murmured agreements and one annoyed grunt later, the magical girls left.

They hadn’t managed to seal away Salem this time either. Maybe next time.