The girl must have been trapped for over a week, or so she suspected. It was difficult to tell when she was alone and inside all the time now. Her only real clues were when people came in to give her food and said something like ‘mornin’ fishy.’ The so-called jokes they made at her expense were nearly as exhausting as simply being held captive like this. Her captors plucked her off the street like a stray cat and threw her inside here, defenseless and alone. Their boss would regularly come in to torment her, forcing her to sing. If it weren’t for this accursed enchanted choker, perhaps she could even escape.

She was surprised when the four girls showed up. They seemed angry and upset, just as she had been. She felt relief as they seemed to handle the situation. Maybe things would work out. Maybe she could go free. But just as her hopes began to build, a couple had been taken off guard as the two human henchmen revealed their magic, the other two occupied by the bulky beast men. Her heart wailed to help them, especially the red-haired girl as she lay pinned to the wall. Seeing her stuck trapped, of all of them, hurt her the most. She turned her attention to the two huddled against their ice barrier and hoped that she could help. Then a thought occurred to her, a mischievous grin laying claim to her lips.

“Wahaha,” the cloaked man laughed. It was quite entertaining watching the girls squirm and whimper below him. This was the perfect place to watch the world, standing above others and watching the fruits of his labor, and the defeat of those who would challenge him. “You see girls, this is what you get for trying to play hero against your betters. This humiliation is exactly what you deserve,” he cackled.

“Dammit,” Annie struggled beneath the hand of the tiger man. “If only I didn’t...” she felt tears come to her eyes as she watched Jackie and Ichika cower from the raining black flames. She remembered her promise to Jackie’s mom and the one she made to Vivi. She promised to keep the everyone safe. She was the adult, the one who was supposed to protect them, and she couldn’t even do that much. She felt crestfallen as the ice wall seemed on the verge of collapse. She wasn’t sure which would give out first, her body against the tiger man’s grappling her to the wall, or her spirit.

“Goodbye!” the blonde man shouted as he prepared to deliver the decisive fireball. His next thoughts were ones of agitation as he shivered, the flames being quenched, and himself being drenched. Annie looked on in awe as the large wave of water landed with a loud splash, looking up to where it emerged, the translucent tank.

“That girl, she’s...” Ichika marveled as she looked up at their savior. The girl leaned over the tank’s edge, her formerly obscured lower body revealed as her long blue fish tail waved from in the water. “She’s a mermaid!”

Ichika grinned as she reveled in this news. The distance between the tank and the henchmen wasn’t exactly close. And normal person would have to struggle to make any wave breach the thick edge of the tank, much less drench the men. But the girl’s strong tail was more than enough to do that and more.

“That’s what you get for keeping me in here!” the mermaid declared as she pulled back her hair, revealing her finlike ear as her hair tumbled around the fin on her arm.

Jackie’s gaze lingered on the proud mermaid, falling down towards her chest. “Magenta, what are you looking at?” Ichika gave a small frown.

“She’s wearing a pendant!” Jackie declared in amazement. “She’s got a pendant like we do!” she pointed to the small dangling white and blue pendant.

“Then that means,” Ichika blinked. “But then why hasn’t she transformed.”

“That must be what Mr. Cloak was talking about!” Jackie proposed. “We heard him say he put an enchanted choker on her to stop her from using magic, he must’ve been referring to her magic as a magical girl!”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ichika nodded. “And if we break it, maybe she can help us too. Way to go Magenta!” she cheered.

“Y-yeah,” he replied bashfully, a blush creeping upon his embarrassed cheeks. “Either way, one of us has to get to her, and I think it should be me. You’re more helpful down here,” he grinned.

“If you think so,” Ichika looked to the henchmen who glared at them finally beginning to collect themselves. “In fact, yeah, I have an idea,” she chuckled. “Sorry, boys, but I’m going to ask you to chill!” she winked as she sent a flurry of snow at them. Their stamina and motivation seemed to shatter as they huddled over, gripping their frosting jackets. “Go Magenta!”

“Dammit you guys,” the tiger man bellowed. “Get a grip and stop them!” he yelled.

“I won’t...” Annie bit her lip.

“Whazzat?” the tiger man looked to her again. He saw her hand flail, swiping towards his leg. He began to laugh as he watched her feebly squirm. “Hahaha. HAHA-AAAAAA!” his laugh exploded into a scream as he toppled backwards, releasing Annie to the ground. “MY LEG!” he reached for it to see his jeans had been not only slashed, but now burning around his upper left thigh. “YOU-!?” he looked at the magical girl.

Annie rose, catching herself as she plunged something downwards. She blinked as her senses seemed to return. She blinked more out of disbelief as she eyed the object in her hand. “Where did…?” she rose from the ground, removing the object from the home it clawed into the floor.

A red sword, enveloped in equally red flames glowed as its white hilt shimmered in her grasp. The marvelous blade was a simple light short sword, the kind that commonly appeared in popular media, especially by knights. Her eyes flickered with the embers. She felt some strange bond with the weapon. She wasn’t sure how, but she was compelled to believe that she not only summoned it but created it. She was uncertain where that impulse came from, but it was a growing certainty within her, much like the innate understanding of how to wield it that seemed to bubble in the back of her mind. She gave a confident smile at the tiger man who trembled before her.

“That is so COOL!” Carmen cheered in the distance, the fox man’s eye twitching as her impulsive fist landed a clean blow in his chest, causing him to fall over in pain. “Kick his ass Red!”

“Well, you heard her,” Annie chuckled as she slashed at her opponent. He dodged to the side, the heat percolating and singing his chest fur as it narrowly missed him. Her opponent flashed his claws and sought to tear into her with his claws. With a simple swipe, the blade melted through his the solid nails, leaving them to land upon the cold pavement. The tiger panicked as she spun the sword in her hand and swept it to her side with an elegant swish of flames trailing its path. She moved in for another slash and another, her enemy frightfully barely managing to dodge her at each step, each time the sword drawing all the nearer. The tiger clenched at cooking flesh of his arm and took a deep breath as he counted the singed slash marks on his body. He was certain he would not last much longer.

“You have got to be kidding me!” the tiger man grimaced at her, unrelenting. “Boss a little help here!?” The cloaked man rose from his seat, grumbling to himself. With a mighty leap he descended the bleachers and ran towards the tank. His eyes setting to the side of the tank. “Or, you, uh, could not, I guess… fuck, I’m screwed,” the tiger man face palmed, his clawless hand clutching his soot marked face.

On the side of the tank, Jackie eyed a ladder rising before him. He looked at it confidently psyching himself up for the climb. “Come on Jackie, you’ve got this,” he pumped his arms close to his chest.

“And where do you think you’re going, little miss?” the cloaked mage stared at him with contempt. His jovial demeanor had disapparated. Jackie gulped, but didn’t waver. That anger and fury, it could only mean one thing, that he was right. He placed his hand on the ladder and looked up, grabbing his way up with as great speed as he could. “Oh no you don’t!” the mage snapped leaping towards him and grabbing his leg.

“No, let me go,” his high voice squeaked as he meekly tried to kick the mage’s hand off of him, but to no avail.

“You’re not going, any...” he stopped short as an amount of water splashed him in the face, the current shocking him as he released Jackie’s leg. “Damn you!” he cursed the mermaid and Jackie with a furious glare.

“Screw you too!” the mermaid shouted as Jackie climbed up and over, before promptly slipping into the tank himself. “Are you okay?” the mermaid looked at him with her pink heartfelt eyes, shimmering with worry.

“I’m fine, but we need to get that choker off of you,” he tried to give a confident smile. The mermaid laughing as he instead instinctively made a pout. He felt so embarrassed. So much for a heroic moment.

“Thank you,” she smiled. “But how do you plan to remove it? I’ve tried physically taking it off, but I can’t,” she frowned.

“Let me see,” Jackie said as he swam around her. He eyed its back for some kind of clasp or seem, but it didn’t appear to have one. At least, not one that mattered. “I’m going to try pulling it off,” he told her as he tried grabbing it. He struggled to get his fingers around it, no matter how much he tried, it was as if it was bound directly to her skin. “Come on, please,” he panted as he tried, the mermaid only giving a sad face at his futile endeavors. “I have to...”

“It’s okay,” the mermaid lamented. “Like I said, I couldn’t remove it by force either.”

“Force?” Jackie repeated. That gave him an idea. He took a deep breath and tried to summon his magic to break it. He made a small bubble of pink energy and tried to blast the black band of leather. He tried again and again only to fail. “My magic, it’s not enough,” he said sorrowfully.

“Haha,” the mage laughed as he emerged from the edge, the mermaid swimming them away from the edge and closer to the center of the tank to get some distance. “Of course, girl. Did you really think that you could break the magic of Gunther the Great!?” he chided Jackie as his hood fell away, revealing a scruffy man with short, spiked navy blue hair.

“Really?” Jackie whined. “We’re struggling against some dweeby looking guy named Gunther!?”

“You have no idea how upset it makes me that I’ve been trapped by a man with such a lame name and huge ego,” the mermaid sighed.

“I’ll show you, you brat,” Gunther snarled as he readied a fire ball. It grew in size inflating from the size of a baseball to a basketball, a size quickly surpassing Annie’s own fireballs. “You’d better say your prayers kid!”

Prayers? Jackie’s head spun again. He didn’t feel particularly compelled to pray to a god or anything at the moment, but there was someone he wanted to make a plea for. “Please...” he whispered.

“Get wrecked kid!” Gunther threw the now watermelon sized fireball at them. The mermaid shirked back, only to see an arm waving beside her from of the person behind her. Suddenly a pink ball of energy collided with the fireball, causing it to rupture into cinders that fell into the water. “WHAT!?”

“You...” the mermaid turned to them. “You saved me.”

“Mhmm. I’m Vivi, it’s nice to meet you,” Vivi smiled. “You can relax, I’ve got things under control now,” she giggled.

“Got things under control? What are you talking about? I thought you just said that you were struggling? Did something change?”

“Just relax, it’ll all be okay,” Vivi said as she raised a short pink and white wand from the water, matching Annie’s sword in style. It twinkled much like a cute wand seen in the many shows that Jackie and Carmen had watched in grade school. “Just a little bit with this should...” she mumbled as she placed the wand’s tip against the choker.

The mermaid felt a flood of energy as the world around her seemed to fall away. “Wow,” she said in awe over the beauty of the space building around her, pink bubbles rising from the ground and floating like in the ocean. “What is all this.”

“It’s going to be okay now,” Vivi smiled, the mermaid turning to realize she was still there. She smiled as she looked at Vivi, shocking Vivi as she pulled her into a hug.

“Thank you for coming to save me,” she wept quietly. “I was so afraid and lonely. I was afraid I was going to be his pet forever,” she gently sobbed. “Trapped alone as a trophy for that insidious man.”

“We’ll be here for you,” Vivi hugged back. “We’ll protect you, I promise.”

The world seemed to return as they smiled at each other, the black choker fizzling and bubbling into nothingness. “No!” Gunther protested to the reality of what was happening. “How!? Why!? HOW!?”

“Gunther,” the mermaid turned to face him. “I’ve been waiting to do this since the first time I met you and you threw me into this tank!” she declared as she opened her pendant.

“No! Wait!”

Blue energy streamed out of her pendent bouncing around her like stones skipping on a pond. Her clothes bubbled away as a blue dress enveloped her like a swelling wave. Its skirt gained slim stripes of white through its shimmering aqua. Next the energy drizzled upon her shoulders, glassy blue capelets flowing down her back, with another set forming from her waist, tassels stretching from them. With their floaty bubbly form, the capelets appeared like jellyfish hovering around her shoulders and waist. Finally, a regal crown appeared on her head, winding like coral, with a pink jewel set in its center.

“She’s so pretty!” Carmen beamed as the fox man twitched behind her in pain, her voice echoing in the amazed expressions of all who were present.

“This ends now,” the mermaid said, as she raised her arms, the water of the tank floating up out of the tank and then then throwing her arms down, instructing the torrent to surge down. The villains had nary a moment to blink before the sweeping torrent of water caught them all, trapping the five neck deep in a bubble of water.

“You think this will stop us!” Gunther said, as he quickly readied a spell.

“Well, if not, this will,” Ichika giggled as she walked up to the bubble and tapped it, turning its outer shell into a hard layer of ice. “There, that should keep you all for a while,” she smiled.

“B-boss!” the fox man shivered.

“T-the hell!?” the brunette echoed his sentiment.

“T-this i-isn’t over-r,” Gunther threatened with a shiver. “You’ve n-not se-een the last o-of me.” he said before vanishing in a flash of light.

“What the hell boss!?” the tiger man cried realizing Gunther had abandoned them.

“Wow, what a jerk,” Annie scratched her head as she walked over to the ball of ice, noticing it was nice and anchored in place. “Leaving these guys behind so carelessly,” she frowned. “Well, I’m not so heartless to just leave you guys like this,” she chuckled, concentrating to twist the flames of her sword into a blazing crystal in her palm and tossing it into the hole Gunther left behind. “There that should keep you guys cozy enough till the ice melts or someone comes to save you,” she winked. The grunts gave a mix of thankful, embarrassed, and disappointed sentiments in their expressions.

“That was a job well done, right team?” Carmen grinned.

“I could do with being choked out less,” Annie shrugged.

“And I’d prefer not being shot at next time, with fireballs or bullets,” Ichika chuckled. “But I think we did pretty good all things considered,” she swayed, with her hands behind her back

“Now we just need to focus on getting those two down here,” Carmen said looking up. “Hey, are you two okay up there!?” she shouted.

“We’re fine,” Vivi waved. “It looks like it’s all over thanks to you,” she smiled at the mermaid.

“Uh, uh. If anything, it’s thanks to you. I wouldn’t have been able to use these powers without your help. Oh, uh, I guess I should try explaining this, huh?” the mermaid responded.

“Not at all,” Vivi laughed. “We’re all like you. We’re all magical girls,” the mermaid blinked at the term, “and I’m sure everyone would love to be your friend.”

“Yeah,” her face softened with a chuckle.

“Anyway, we should find a way to get you out of here, shouldn’t we?”

“Oh, no need to worry on that. Now that I have these powers, I think I can get us down,” she smiled, Vivi looking on in awe. The mermaid pulled her hands together and focused on them before raising them into the air, the water moving with her command, pulling herself and Vivi out of the water before slowly setting them down on the floor, Vivi landing on her butt, and the mermaid coiling her tail on the ground, her head reaching around Vivi’s waist.

“Well, that makes things easy,” Carmen laughed. “It’s nice to meet you, we’re the Prism Girls,” she made a toothy grin.

“Oh ho, I had no idea I was being rescued by such a cool team,” the mermaid teased causing the others to laugh. She looked at each of them giving a smile and a nod before reaching Annie, her eyes going wide with surprise. “Annie!?” Annie blinked in surprise, as the mermaid smiled in glee. “It really is you, isn’t it?” she said beginning to tear up.

“Do you two know each other?” Ichika asked as Annie looked at her closely. She traced the gentle figure of the mermaid as she looked up at her, watching the gentle way her hair bounced and the way shimmering pink eyes that looked at her gleefully.

“Oh, my goodness!” Annie brought her hand to her mouth in shock. “Melody? Is that you!?”

“It is,” the mermaid giggled. “I wouldn’t have ever expected you of all people to be the one to save me,” she smiled softly.

“Melody,” Annie leaned over her and hoisted her close for a tight hug. “I was so worried. You didn’t answer any of my texts or anything. Here I was just hoping you needed time to process with everything or were busy with all the changes. I had no idea you were kidnapped,” she wept as she held Melody.

“There, there, I’m safe now,” Melody comforted her, returning her hug with a tight embrace of her own. “I’m so happy that you came to save me, even if it was a coincidence. And thank you Vivi for helping me break that awful choker.”

“No problem,” she grinned as the others exchanged a look realizing Vivi had taken over.

The others shared an exchange of awkward looks as they struggled on what to say. Ichika and Vivi both being too shy to say anything on the matter left Carmen to only sigh.

“So, uh, who exactly is she?” Carmen asked.

“Oh, right,” Annie chuckled. “This is Melody, she’s someone I met in college. We met a couple years ago, and we became really fast friends. And, we, uh...”

“We were dating before everything happened,” Melody chuckled causing an innocent, but happy blush to ignite on Annie’s cheeks as she nodded.

“I didn’t know you were a lesbian, Red,” Ichika giggled.

“That’s not a problem, is it?” Annie asked hesitantly.

“Not at all. I’m in the same boat. Guess I have another thing to look up to you for,” she smiled.

“Heehee,” Melody giggled. “You’ve certainly found a nice group of friends while I’ve been away.”

“Yeah,” Annie nodded before hugging her again. “I’m so glad we found you. I was getting so worried when I didn’t hear from you after everything with the Magic Mist.”

“Magic Mist? Is that what people are calling it?”

“It’s what we’ve been calling it,” Carmen winked. “Accurate name, right? A wall of mist that granted magical powers? Sounds like the right name to me. All courtesy of our resident yuki-onna.”

“Oh, stop it,” Ichika giggled.

“Uh, everyone?” Vivi interrupted. “We should probably get out of here. That Gunther guy may have gone off to warn the guards or something.”

“Oh shoot, you’re right!” Carmen panicked. “Quick! We need to get out of here!”

“But what about Melody?” Ichika fussed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry her,” Annie said as she picked Melody up in a princess carry, bracing her back and supporting her tail. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“My heroine,” Melody leaned into her as they set off. The group retraced their steps through the building in mild quiet. Upon reaching the door, with a little support from the others and producing another rolling fog, they managed to escape as quietly as they had entered. Save the issue of hearing some yelling in the distance that sounded like a mighty angry Gunther, although there seemed to be a mention of a witch in the shouting. Carmen quietly fumed that they were magical girls, not witches, and insisting there was a difference. Fortunately, before long they were out of the industrial building and once more at their cars, fully avoiding detection.

“So, we’ll meet up at your place?” Ichika confirmed with Annie as they reached the cars.

“Right. I’ll take Melody and Vivi with me. I’m not too concerned about them chasing us at this point though.”

“Then we’ll see you there. Be safe out there,” Ichika said as she got in her car with Carmen. Meanwhile, Annie set melody in the front seat of her car.

“Sorry you have to ride in the back,” Annie said.

“No, no, it would be too much trouble to mess with her back here,” Vivi shook her head.

“You and Vivi certainly are friendly, huh?” Melody chuckled.

“I’d say we’ve gotten pretty close,” Annie chuckled.

“So, uh, I’ve been wondering something.”

“What’s that?”

“That one girl, the yellow clothed one.”

“That would be Carmen, and the yuki-onna is Ichika,” Vivi interjected.

“Right, Carmen, she mentioned something about you all being the Prism Girls, right? What’s that all about anyway?”

“Well, uh, we kinda came together and formed a magical girl group,” Annie’s voice shook from embarrassment.

“Magical girls? Vivi mentioned something like that too. Do you mean like that one anime with the girls named after the planets?”

“Yeah, exactly like that,” Vivi giggled. “Oh, but we fight villains not evil monsters. Although I’d put that Gunther guy into the evil monster category myself.”

“I see,” Melody said in awe. “To be honest I’m rather surprised you’d agree to that, especially with how they’re all kids Annie,” she frowned with a slight shiver.

“Well, I was initially against it. I don’t like endangering kids, and I still feel terrible about it if I’m being honest,” Vivi dropped her gaze as Annie said that. “But at the same time, things are in such disarray right now. And we managed to help Ichika by working together too. I mean we didn’t fight anything that time, but we helped her find a place to belong. And we helped people from a rampaging minotaur too.”

“Don’t forget about how we helped Bianca,” Vivi said softly with a shy tone.

“Right. We’ve managed to help some people. And right now, I think being able to do that is what’s really important,” she smiled. “And hey, doing this brought us back together too,” she said as she set her hand on the AC to turn up the heat to help keep Melody warm.

“Heehee, yeah,” Melody nodded.

“What are you laughing about?” Annie pouted.

“Oh nothing, you just seem even more radiant than you did before. Definitely hotter,” she bounced giddily as Annie blushed. “I’m just glad you came to save me,” she gave a serene smile.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Also, thanks for turning up the heat, I was getting cold,” she clapped her hands together

“I noticed,” Annie chuckled.

“Oh, Melody, I had a question,” Vivi perked up.

“What’s up Vivi?”

“Um, do you need to worry about your tail drying up? I’m concerned since the heat can dehydrate easily,” she frowned.

“That’s actually one of the weirder things I’ve noticed. It’s like no matter what, my tail and scales always feel a little damp, no matter what. I think if I don’t get wet for long enough it might hurt, but it seems to take a bit at the very least,” Melody explained.

“I see.”

“I think part of it is that my magic just naturally pulls moisture from the air. Gunther complained about how dry things near me got,” she chuckled. “Serves him right too.”

“Sounds kind of like Chi,” Vivi giggled. “No matter how hot it gets, she always seems cold and she always seems to chill the area around her.”

“That sounds nice. Especially with Summer coming up.”

“Don’t go exploiting her to get comfortable, okay?” Annie poked her.

“No promises,” Melody laughed.