Not Your Usual Magical Girl

Susan‘s eyes swept over the mass of people around her, counting perhaps fifty or sixty total. They held a mixture of weapons, mostly swords and clubs, though she spotted a few modern firearms slipped into pockets or holsters.

The sickly stench of eldritch mana hung heavy in the air. Every one of the weapons present glowing with it.

A bead of sweat dripped down Susan’s back even as she kept her cocksure smile firmly on her face. Her vague plan of attack against the mousekin assaulting Rawiyah’s home had fallen apart not even a second after she stepped through the door.

She had wanted to kite the group, make them chase her around while she picked them off one by one.

Instead, the mousekin had decided to surround her. Making a rough semicircle around her and the door that didn't leave much room for escape.

Now any attempt to run off would lead to her getting dogpiled and beaten with eldritch weapons until she got infected. And that wouldn’t go well for anybody.

There was a silver lining. Joseph hadn’t joined the attack group. Susan wasn’t sure why, it was probably something to do with politics and plausible deniability. But it meant his goons were left leaderless now that something had gone wrong.

So despite their numbers, the mousekin didn't want to press to the advantage. They shuffled in place, glancing between each other, but holding off against attacking without somebody to give the order.

Susan didn’t blame them. Watching people get thrown across a room left an impression. And the semiconscious battering ram crew that lay sprawled across the concrete floor around her seemed to be distracting many of the group.

Her main problem was that she was just as stuck as they were. The low ceiling meant that she couldn’t use her most powerful weapon, her true form. That left her with magic, which wouldn’t work against a group this large. A large wave of mana like that would just mean more surface area for the eldritch mana to infect.

The stuff was like poison. It would stick to any non magic surface it touched like glue until washed or burnt off. And the second it interacted with mana it would spread through it until and fester until all the mana present was completely corrupted.

If only she had a spell that would let her deal with this group physically, and then maybe comfort Elizabeth once she was done. Her sister had not taken the situation well, and she clearly needed something to help calm her down.

Maybe something she could hug…

Susan’s mouth twitched into a ghost of a smile as she realized she could kill two birds with one stone.

She just needed a distraction to cast her spell.

Her eyes scanned the crowd, flitting from face to face. Some of them stared directly at her in challenge, looking for weakness. Others glanced between each other, trying to find a leader. Some still gazed distractedly at the concussed mouskin lying on the floor. Then she found the right person. He was barely visible, almost hiding behind a larger group of mousekin off to her left.

“Oh, is that Timmy?” Susan shouted, hand blurring behind her back as she sketched a complex series of runes, “How ya doing, Timmy?”

“YOU?” Echoed a scream that made some of the mousekin jump.

“Shut up, Terry, now’s not the time,” someone from Susan’s other side shouted. It was a heavyset mousekin that stood almost bent in half below the low roof.

“That’s the psycho who kicked me across a room!” Terry shouted back.

“It was only a hallway,” Susan called back sweetly.

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Roared the man who had just spoken, “NOW GET HER!” He bellowed as she charged her. The standoff broken, the rest charged as well. The wall of faces drew in closer and closer until they were almost on top of her.

Susan cackled as her spell completed. Her neck extended, a tail erupted from her back. She fell forwards onto all fours, torso shrinking as she transformed into a miniature version of her dragon self. Now eight feet from head to tail tip she let out a screech, before jumping towards the man who had started the charge.

He was charging headfirst, torso almost horizontal to the floor, so Susan couldn’t go for his chest or stomach.

So she went for his legs.

The man let out a grunt of confusion as he found that instead of his legs, the only thing holding him off the ground was a very angry dragon.

Susan heaved up, smashing him into the ceiling before she threw him bodily backwards. The unfortunate mousekin behind him bowled over as the man went flying.

The crowd of mousekin stalled upon seeing the screaming eight foot dragoness. Susan picked out her next victim from them immediately. A short leap had her in close proximity to a very unfortunate mousekin, who suddenly found he couldn’t breath on account of the fisted dragon claw buried in his diaphragm.

Susan took a step back while he folded himself in half in his search for air. She took a wide stance, then pushed down with all four legs. Her claws buried themselves almost completely within the concrete.

The off white tail wrapped itself around the wheezing mousekin’s leg a moment later.

The mousekin man found his voice again as he was pulled off his feet and whipped through the air around Susan at lightning speeds. He and the other mousekin screamed as the improvised flail created a rapidly expanding circle of space around the crouched form of Susan.

When Susan decided she had enough space, she quickly looked around and found the largest clump of combatants. She lined up the shot and on the next rotation of her victim, she let go. The man was slung across the intervening space, crashing into the group and sending them tumbling like bowling pins.

Susan quietly tugged at her claws as she took a moment to swivel her head around, surveying the destruction she had caused. As she had expected, they were stuck. She wouldn’t normally go for a risky move like this, but she needed the shock and awe factor it brought with it.

She clenched her fist, crushing the concrete beneath them to pebbles before wrenching her claws out of the ground.

One of the mousekin behind her seemed to notice the action, causing Susan to silently curse.The woman charged, cocking her arm back and taking a wide swing at Susan’s back.

Susan’s tail met her wrist with a nasty crack, launching the club out of the woman’s hand. She screamed in pain, quickly grabbing her wrist in a vain attempt to fix the injury.

She didn’t have long as Susan quickly took the opportunity to get free. She quickly crushed the concrete beneath her, ripping out her arm and legs one at a time. Finished, she turned to face the woman.

Her eyes widened momentarily before Susan headbutted her. She collapsed to the ground unconscious.

A crack echoed through the parking garage as something impacted Susan’s side. Her head whipped around as she found the cause. A man holding a smoking gun aimed at her with shaking hands.

He fired again and again, some of the bullets going wide, but most hitting his target. Sparks erupted from her side as steel met scale.

The last of the bullets fired. The echoing boom fading away to be replaced by the desperate clicking of the trigger as the man kept trying to fire the empty gun.

The watching mousekin took the opportunity to ready themselves for another attack. Wising up slightly, this time they formed into three larger groups to keep Susan from picking off individual members.

Susan watched them carefully, waiting for the groups to ready themselves.

The second they started their charge, she let out a booming cackle. It echoed as loud as the gunshots, shocking the mousekin and turning their mass charge into a collective stumble.

She didn’t try to hide her smile as a collective terror settled over the group. All she would need is one more push, and their courage should finally break.

“Did you really think bullets would hurt me,” She said derisively, projecting her voice over the trembling mousekin, “My scales are made of bioceramic layered with graphene. They wouldn’t break if they were hit by a cruise missile.”

She turned her head, making eye contact with every mousekin still standing.

“Face it, your best weapons are wooden clubs and pointy metal sticks. Run now, and I might just let you live,” She finished.

The mousekin wavered for a second, some at the back of the groups even glancing around to see if they might run.

“EVERYBODY GET HER!” One of them screamed, and the mousekin charged.

Susan let out a scream of frustration. Seriously what had Joseph promised these people! Free trips to Disneyland?

The fight became a blur. Properly surrounded this time, she was forced to spend most of her time dodging. Her head and neck drew the most attention. It was only hard earned experience that kept it away from the sickly glow of the slashing blades.

The thunderous crack of her tail echoed over and over, cracking hands and heads as she once again used it as a bullwhip against her attackers.

She leapt around the small space she had, punching, kicking and head butting anyone that came into range. Her vision became a blur of screaming mousekin as she fought her away between them.

A voice nagged in her head as she punched one woman across the jaw, only for her to be pulled away and replaced with another.

She could just kill them.

It wouldn’t even be hard, she just had to use her claws or teeth. Let loose with them and teach these idiots a permanent lesson.

But she couldn’t– this was Earth, not Themus. These weren’t the hard faced soldiers of the Atlans, sent out to pillage and enslave entire continents. These were a bunch of misguided people that had bought into the easy power promised by Joseph.

And more importantly, she didn't want to let Elizabeth see her like that.

“CEASE,” A voice roared over the crowd.

Susan found herself standing on an unconscious man. Her fist was in the middle of slugging a woman in front of her, while her tail was wrapped around the wrist of another man as they wrestled for control of his knife.

At the word the group around her broke away. The dozen or so people left stumbling or running away from her and toward safety. She let the ones attacking her go and they fled as well.

Susan took in a shaky breath as she stepped down from her perch and looked around. Perhaps a dozen unconscious mousekin lay around her, while a new group of mousekin approached coming up from the lower levels to her left.

The person leading them stood out. He was tall, standing bent over beneath the ceiling, but he somehow managed to make it look heroic. Like most of the mousekin, he had brown hair and eyes, though his were flecked with purple.

A shirt and jacket stretched over bulging muscles and bronzed skin gave him the look of an action hero, though Susan recognized something in him. It was a vague instinct honed over centuries of conflict. A feeling that told her the person she was looking at was a bad egg.

So this was Joseph Seth.

The group behind him was odd. Shorter and slimmer than the people she had just fought, they clearly weren’t fighters. They stood clumped together, staring out over the battlefield with wide eyes. A few of them broke off from the larger group to run in and assist the remnants of the old group in hauling away their unconscious brethren.

Susan walked a few steps away from the groaning bodies to give the rescuers better access. A few of the mousekin looked worried, likely expecting another attack, but they still moved in to pull them away.

Susan looked on in confusion at their almost alien courage. These people weren't trained fighters. But despite knowing what she was capable of, they still continued to approach her.

Her eyes finally went back to the person behind the mousekin’s courage. Her eyes narrowed.

She would need to change her approach.

“Now, I think you’ve hurt my men enough!” Joseph proclaimed, the crowd moving back from him as he lifted a golden blade to point at Susan. The gentle curve of the blade gave it the classical leaf shape of a Bronze Age sword.

The scene was like something out of a medieval painting. The knight facing off against the dragon.

A glance at the awed expressions of the remaining mousekin told Susan that it was very intentional.

“Me too!” Susan replied in her cheeriest voice.

The proclamation shattered the dramatic air. The worshipful expressions on the mousekin quickly shifted to confusion. Even Joseph looked befuddled.

“Wha-”

“After all,” Susan cut him off, pitching her voice to ensure it reached the whole group, ”If you hadn’t sent your goons to attack an innocent teenager, I wouldn’t have had to beat them up.”

Joseph’s expression quickly turned serious. He clearly knew what she was planning.

Nobody brought noncombatants to this mini war zone without a reason. Joseph clearly needed to push some narrative among them. Convince them of his strength or something.

It also made things much easier for Susan. All she had to do to get rid of Joseph was threaten his little dragon slayer storyline.

“Don’t think stalling will save you from my blade, I have defeated dragons before. You will be no different” Joseph declared.

His dialogue could use some work. Susan had fought some downright elegant dragonslayers before. She had to give him credit, that was a good attempt at a save. But she couldn’t hold in a laugh at his response.

”Oh, that’s a good one,” She said, “Let me guess, you killed some drake didn't you.”

Joseph blinked in confusion. “Stop with your distractions, and fight me,” He said as he shifted into a low sword fighting stance.

“I’m not distracting you, I’m trying to tell you something. Not all that is big and scaly and mean is a dragon, genius,” Susan snarked, “It’s a tale as old as time, a sword wielding maniac attacks a flying lizard then calls themself a dragon slayer.”

Joseph gripped his blade, glowering at her. Susan grinned back, she had gotten her point across.

“Then I will add your blood to my sword,” He said, before charging Susan.

Susan didn’t move. Instead she flexed a specific set of muscles inside of her chest. Heat flowed out of her Dragon Heart, then into an array of thermoelectric generators.

She had told the mousekin about the carbon reinforcing her scales. She hadn’t told them that her claws were made of the same material. She had neglected to mention the metals that impregnated them as well.

As the electricity flowed into an intricate series of carbon conductors that spread through her body, she directed it into her claws. Once there, it flowed through the carbon and into an array of heat-conducting metal.

The concrete began to smoke beneath her as her claws glowed red, then white hot.

Joseph didn’t have the time to notice. Reaching Susan he let out a powerful battle cry, thrusting his blade forward toward the center of her chest.

Susan dodged to the left, letting the blade fly past before she swept up with her right arm.

Joseph’s cry was punctuated by a tinkling sound as the chunks of his former sword scattered over the ground.

He stood frozen, one leg forward and one back as he leaned into the thrust. His eyes were wide as he stared down at the miniature dragon he had just left himself wide open to. His entire body stood frozen in anticipation of her next strike.

He was left standing there, staring at the glowing claws only a few inches from his face.

Susan knew the feeling. She watched closely as his brain took a second to realize that she hadn’t actually attacked yet. The muscles of his arms and legs locked in place as he waited for the other shoe to drop.

Susan lazily waved her still raised claws back and forth in front of Joseph’s eyes. They followed the glowing digits with rapt attention.

“Careful there,” She whispered, letting her hand drift forward until it lightly tapped against his chest. There was a tiny sizzle and slight smell of burnt flesh.

“You wouldn’t want that pride of yours to bring Ruin.”

Joseph finally moved as he leapt back from her. His eyes wide as his chest finally started taking in air again. He looked like he had just watched a car streak by as he tried to cross an empty road.

He quickly calmed himself, before surreptitiously glancing around at the few mousekin remaining.

Every one of them stood frozen in horror, their eyes whipping back and forth between their beaten hero and the victorious dragon.

Susan didn't bother to hide her smile. Joseph may have built himself up as a hero, but the mousekin’s belief in him would only ever be as strong as he was.

“Run along now,” She called out, using her still glowing claws to wave them away.

She turned and walked back to the door. She curled up in front of it, laying her head over her back so that she could keep an eye on the group.

They fled, shoes squeaking underneath them as they scrambled to gather up their unconscious comrades before running. Joseph himself grabbed an unconscious mousekin under each arm as he called out orders. His shouted commands and encouragement to the mousekin echoed back to Susan even as the group drew further away.

But the halo the worshipful mousekin saw over his head had cracked slightly. Now there was an undercurrent of fear in their movement. A desperate speed that hadn’t been there before.

It took them a minute or two to fully clear out of the area. Susan didn't move in that time, taking the chance to finally think over the events of the night. The nonstop rush of the past few minutes had ensured that she’d never had the time to get any proper idea of the situation.

But as the last of the mousekin scurried away hauling the enormous bulk of the first man Susan had downed, she let out a heavy growl. The group screamed, abandoning any attempt at carefulness and sprinting away with the man’s body dragging along behind them.

Susan couldn’t help it, she was trying to hold in the roar of rage threatening to burst out of her.

Rawiyah had well and truly played her.

As it stood, she had just become the single greatest obstacle in all Joseph’s plans. Challenging his power had been a good idea to drive him away temporarily, but now if he wanted to reclaim that power he would need to kill or defeat Susan. Then add to that the fact that she was an ally of Rawiyah, and that she was keeping him from getting to Anne?

He was going to come after her. And the worst part was that she couldn’t kill him.

Not that she lacked the ability. Granting Darwin Awards to the terminally stupid was an integral part of being a dragon.

The problem came from his connection to the eldritch. Until the eldritch monster that fueled him was killed, Joseph would be a never ending font for its power and mana. And if he died that power wouldn’t go anywhere.

So unless she wanted to start poisoning the mana of entire regions, she needed to deal with the man carefully.

Rawiyah hadn’t just used her to defeat Joseph just this once. No, she was using the opportunity to squarely dump the entire problem of Joseph onto Susan’s shoulders.

Susan punched the ground as she stood up.

“I am never going to another seer. Ever. Again!” She said, punctuating her words with another two punches.

She had to shake her head to clear it out. She wasn't done yet, she still had a sister to comfort.

But first, she had to deal with the eldritch mana. Despite her dodging, there were still dozens of spots where her scales glowed with the stuff.

Moving further away from the door, she settled on the floor. She took a moment to check around herself for any remaining people. A glance showed nothing but a few spots of blood and empty concrete as far as she could see. The fight appeared to have driven off most of the market that had been in the area.

Susan flexed the muscles around her Dragonheart again. This time, instead of her claws, she directed the energy to her scales instead. Her entire body ignited into an incandescent glow as it heated to temperatures rivaling an industrial furnace.

Susan’s eyes swept back and forth over her body as she watched the eldritch mana burn off. She breathed out a sigh of relief as the last of the purple glow left her.

She gave it a few more seconds before cutting off the flow of electricity. Feeling the ground shift beneath her, she took a few steps from where she had been standing.

The concrete looked near molten, four perfect imprints of her claws left behind. Susan let out a sigh, the air in her breath igniting into a spurt of flame as she breathed out.

She really wished she could do this without destroying the local area every time, though it cleaned her scales wonderfully.

It took a long minute for her scales to cool down enough to touch. Once done Susan walked back to Rawiyah’s door. Putting her hand on the handle, she steeled herself.

Susan was pretty sure Elizabeth and Abana probably hadn’t gotten a good look at her dragon form so far. It had been dark for most of their interactions, so judging by her body shape they had probably assumed she resembled a Chinese dragon.

The thing was, Susan hadn’t actually used any reptiles as inspiration in designing her body. She had actually turned to a family of mammals called mustelids. A family that included weasels, otters, wolverines, and the ever-famous honey badger.

She had chosen them for their ferocious nature and physical abilities that allowed them to fight animals dozens of times their size. So her final body looked like a weasel with a lengthened neck and snake-like tail.

Then there was her head, in particular, her face.

One of her worries when designing her body had been staying as human as possible. Thankfully, dogs had already evolved the ability to show facial expressions humans could understand. And Susan being the scientist she was, stole their work wholesale.

So she had the small face and enormous eyes of the weasel, with the expressive eyes and face of a puppy.

The end result of this meant that despite her scales and snakelike neck and tail, her dragon form had ended up looking somewhat… well… she was stalling wasn't she?

Her hand turned the handle and pushed the door in.

Every eye in the room turned towards her as she stepped inside. There was a moment of collective confusion, then understanding as they took her new form.

Anne’s eyes widened in realization, Abana gave a wide grin, and Rawiyah simply nodded.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened.

“No way…’ She breathed in.

Susan held back a grimace in anticipation of what was coming.

Elizabeth loved animals. Animals did not love Elizabeth. This was because she approached them the same way she approached everything else. Like a freight train.

She crossed the room in an instant. Susan felt her vision blur as she was yanked into the air and pressed against Elizabeth’s body in a crushing hug. The fact that she was still currently the size of a horse made no difference.

“You’re ADORABLE!” Elizabeth screamed. Her voice was muffled as it pressed into the bulk of Susan’s body.

Susan spent the next thirty seconds discovering what it felt like to be a stuffed animal in the hands of an excited toddler. Her tail was played with. Her wings were examined and determined to be adorable as well.

An attempt to pet her was made, only to be fended off with a swipe of her tail.

It was probably the most embarrassing thing Susan had ever done. But any trace of Elizabeth’s former fear vanished in a deluge of joy at finally being able to play with an animal that didn’t run at first sight.

Once Elizabeth’s excitement faded, she shifted her grip on Susan so that she was carrying her like an enormous stuffed animal prize from a fair.

She turned to Abana, “Well, I’m ready to go,” She declared.

“Hold on,” Susan said, using her neck's length to curl her head around to face Elizabeth properly, “I still have to talk to Rawiyah.”

Elizabeth stared right back at her.

“Are you really going to talk?” She asked, “Or are you going to threaten each other nonstop until you storm out because everybody’s too mad to keep going?”

Susan opened her mouth, then closed it, “Well…”

“Rawiyah,” Abana stood up, “I have one last question.”

The mouse turned to her, “Yes?”

“Are they truly sisters?”

“You cannot possibly still be in doubt after that display,” Rawiyah waved a hand dismissively.

“Check anyway,” Abana snapped back.

Rawiyah seemed to realize she had pushed Abana too far as she quickly scurried over to her marble. It only took a glance at it for her to look back at Abana.

“They are,” She said quickly.

“Then is there any piece of information necessary for us to know?” It was phrased like a question, but Abana spoke with the uncompromising command of a drill instructor.

Rawiyah shook her head as she spoke, “No, the dragon should have all the information she needs.”

Abana didn't speak another word. She practically stomped out of the room with Elizabeth quickly following, still carrying Susan.

Once they were out in the softer lighting of the parking garage Abana stopped. As the door clicked behind them, she slowly breathed in, then let out a heavy sigh. She turned back to look at the sisters,

“I’m sorry things ended like this,” She said.

Susan looked at her and shrugged, “As encounters with seers go, that went pretty well.”

Elizabeth paused a moment before shrugging as well, bouncing Susan in the process.

“Eh, it worked out,” she said.

Abana paused, then rolled her eyes, “Rawiyah was right, I shouldn’t have bothered her.”

Susan chuckled, but paused as a flicker in Abana’s eyes alerted her to something behind her.

“Susan?” Anne’s voice trembled as she stepped out into the market..

Susan turned back to face her. She shot Elizabeth a look, who nodded and moved to set her down. She walked over to Abana before both magical girls moved further away toward the railing of the parking garage.

“So, same time tomorrow?” Susan asked.

Anne blinked in surprise, “You mean you still want to-”

“Your grandmother being who she is doesn’t change our friendship,” Susan said with finality.

Anne gave a sigh of both guilt and relief, “Thank you, and I’m sorry about her.”

“Don’t worry about it. Honestly, as seers go she’s not that bad.“

Anne raised an eyebrow at that.

Susan nodded back, “Seriously, remind me to tell you about the first seer I ever encountered tomorrow. That guy made Kelly look downright reasonable. Besides, if Rawiyah ever manages to find out where that eldritch monster is, we can kill it and be done with this whole thing.”

Anne paused, “Wait, you weren’t kidding about that?”

It was Susan who raised an eyebrow this time, “You thought I was kidding?”

Anne sputtered for a second and Susan couldn’t hold in a laugh.

“Alright, I'm going to go home and crash. Stay safe, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

That finally got a smile out of the girl, “Got it dragon girl,” She said back, before slipping back through the door behind her.

Susan turned and made her way over to the waiting magical girls. Moving closer to Abana to avoid the grasping hands of the other magical girl, Susan caught her eye.

“Please tell me we’re done for the night,” She asked.

“We had better be.”

The light of the moon came through the window of Susan’s bedroom, shining dimly over the empty bed and untouched bookshelves. It was deep into the night, the entire house silent except for the soft creaking of the walls.

There was a thump from the lawn outside, before the roof outside the window creaked with added weight. A second series of squeaks from the roof started soft but quickly grew louder as the person making them drew closer to the window.

Hushed voices began speaking, then grew louder.

Susan’s window squeaked as she pushed it open, before crawling through it. Human once again, her movements were much more awkward, contrasting the fluidity of her dragon form as she smacked her elbow on the sill.

Hissing, she moved further into the room to make way for her sister.

“Seriously,” Elizabeth hissed as she slid into the room, “Don’t jump from the lawn, Dad’s totally gonna ask about it when he next mows it.”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Susan whispered back.

“Really?” Elizabeth shot back as she stood and shot a glare at Susan, “Because I saw two sets of footprints already!”

“Look, I haven’t done the whole ‘sneaking out’ thing before!” Susan said, throwing up her hands.

“Fine, now shush. You’re gonna wake Mom and Dad!” Elizabeth whispered as she mimed for Susan to be quiet.

She turned and tiptoed over to the bathroom door. She opened it and went to go through but paused. Standing there for a second, she seemed to be considering something.

She turned back to Susan, her mouth pursed in thought, “By the way, am I crazy or did you see Grammy Hilda at the Garage Sale too?”

Susan stared at the wall for a moment, not turning to look back at her.

“I’m going to bed,” She said finally.

“Uh, ok,” Elizabeth whispered, before finally leaving.

Once the door clicked shut behind her, Susan moved to her bed, before stretching out to lay face down on it. Pressing her face into her pillow with both hands, she let out a long, hard scream.