Charm Cafe-Chapter 8

Charmer Ruby looked around her, it was like a nightmare. One minute she'd been happily enjoying a dance with her...crush...Jack at the schools dance when the next thing she knew she was being held tightly by that same guy. From what she had worked out so far, he seemed to be mind-controlled by a girl that had declared herself Storm who at that point in time held her arms above and held a white flickering lightning bolt above her head, ever few seconds the tips would spark reminding Charmer Ruby of their power.  She'd already received one strike earlier and since then it felt almost as if she was losing energy by the second. To make matters worse,  she couldn't get to her butterfly ring, her own source of power and the friends and teammates that could at least try and help her were nowhere to be found.

She closed her eyes hoping to think of something she could do she decided to try wiggling and kicking once more, hoping that she'd just be let go all of a sudden. Nothing came to hand so she gave up just letting herself sink lifelessly into Jacks arms.

Why hasn't Storm just attacked me yet? She wondered, realising that before she had closed her eyes it still looked as though Storm was about to deliver some kind of final blow.

Charmer Ruby opened her eyes to see the girl hesitating, the lightning bolt still held mid-air.

"It would be a waste to kill her....I was told to bring her..." She muttered, "ugh, why I should just do this...."

A flash went off in Charmer Ruby's head, the girl seemed to be having conflicting emotions, this was her chance!

"You know you probably don't have to kill me you know..."

Storm blinked at her, "What?"

"What I mean is I guess, we could come to some sort of agreement?" She asked, which came out slightly raspy and out of breath. She knew this was a stupid idea but it might provide her an opportunity or at least stall her long enough for the girls to find her.

Storm paused, the lightning bolt in her hand dispersing seconds later, "Like what? If you're trying to be clever cut it out or I won't be so kind to you."

Wow this was her being kind? What was being awful then? She needed to come up with something and quick, she hadn't exactly expected Storm to stop like she did. Charmer Ruby nodded, clearing her throat. She thought back to the way they had tried to sort things out with Zara when she wouldn't agree to join them. Perhaps if she tried something like that she might be able to at least get somewhere.

"How about we have a duel? You know one on one? You win, I'll join whatever it was that you wanted in the first place and if I win you let me go free and we can sort this out some other time. Winner is the one who...."

"strikes the other?" Storm finished for her.

Charmer Ruby paused, It hadn't been her initial idea but it seemed as though that would be the only way she'd have a chance of getting through this. She nodded.

Storm raised an eyebrow before relaxing them as if considering it.

"Put her down." Storm spoke, Ruby was amazed, had this actually worked?

Moments later she fell straight to the ground, she breathed a sigh of relief she'd been released! She watched as the guys that had been standing around them moved away to the other side of the room. Instantly she grabbed her ring from her finger and watched as it transformed into her Ruby Butterfly Wand. She knew this might be her only chance to strike, they hadn't exactly agreed on a starting time and she didn't trust Storm to wait.

She quickly spun to point at her, but Storm already had her arm out and a jet of greyish black light streamed from her finger tips, "but no weapons."

 Charmer Ruby froze as her Butterfly wand flew from her grasp and snapped into two with a flurry of bright sparks.

My wand!

She thought as it landed to the ground with two loud thuds. She knew she was going to be at a disadvantage without it.

From what she'd seen so far, unlike her Storm seemed to have no weapons that she needed, all her magic was purely her own. She was sure that Storm knew that as well. For whatever reason she wanted Charmer Ruby to help her she must have wanted it pretty bad. She didn't want to think about else she'd just agreed to, because she had a feeling if this girl really was an enemy if she lost it wasn't going to be good. With no weapon and an injury her chances weren't looking too good. Whilst she had managed to use her powers once when she'd first transformed into Charmer Ruby without her wand she still had no clue how she had actually done so. She'd just done it automatically she supposed. She realised that she was just going to have to improvise like she had that day.

Storm smiled her expression filled with malice.

Charmer Ruby had an idea, she quickly raced towards the back of the room, she pushed between all the stunned guys, she knew that Storm was following her as she could feel large bolts of lightning that were just catching her heels. She was thankful that her boots were made of good material, that the bolts were only slightly marking them.  

She wondered if possibly she could use her powers the way Storm was so she tried moving her hands making palms in front of her, outstretching her hands yet found that nothing seemed to be working. She shook her hands hoping that something might at least start happening. She tried stomping her feet as she ran, willing herself to turn invisible, all things she had seen in movies. There seemed like no hope, without her wand it seemed that there was simply nothing she could do. She knew Storm would catch up with her soon and the game would be over and she'd have to give into whatever Storm had planned for her in the first place.

She spotted a back storage room that led back out into the  hallway, She slammed the door behind her, hoping to get it to hit Storm in the face or at least slow her down. She trailed through the prep room trying to ignore the turning of a door handle that she could hear behind her. She found another door and raced through it before promptly shuting it behind her. She raced into the hallway, with little clue what to do. She spotted a door, with the words "cleaner" clearly engraved on a golden plaque on the front, she knew that lock on that door was broken and was in need of replacing because she always heard the schools cleaner complaining about it. Seeing an opportunity, she wiggled the door way, lifted the door latch and slipped inside the cleaners closet. She held her breath knowing that Storm would reach her any moment and declare herself the winner.

She slid down to the floor, feeling hopeless.

Don't give up now, your journey has only just begun...

Huh? What was that voice? Charmer Ruby wondered, It didn't sound like Storm.

"I know you're in here..."

You have the power to get out of this, you just have to believe...

The power to get out of this? Charmer Ruby thought to herself, Yeah right, the only power I seem to have today is the power to run away...

"I'm coming..." Called a voice from outside the door.

Her heart was racing, and she could feel beads of sweat streaming down her face, she'd clearly run fast to stay away from her. As she waited in the silence she considered what would Lani say to her if she was here. She was the magical girl expert after all. Normally in times like these she would end up saying something Magical girl related that she knew from her comics and shows that would turn out to be correct. After all, she had helped her transform that second time when it seemed like there was no way that she could do it again, she'd told her something that day but what was it?

"You can't hide forever you know..."

Try looking for the thing you seek...

That was it! She closed her eyes, concentrating as much as she could. She felt an odd tingling in her fingertips.

The door creaked open....but she was ready.

"RUBY BUTTERFLY FLUTTER WAVE!!!" She yelled watching as hundreds of butterflies seemingly streamed from her finger tips.

She heard a shriek of terror and watched as the butterflies engulfed the hooded girl. She seemed to put her coat over her and disappeared into thin air.

"Fine you win, Miss Ruby but you won't be so lucky next time." A voice echoed, sending shivers down Charmer Ruby's spine.

Charmer Ruby stood back up again and walked back into the hallway. She could feel her head spinning and soon she felt the ground growing closer. Her eyes closed and the world faded to black.

**********

 "Ruby!" A chorus of voices called from above her head. Sure enough when she opened her eyes, her four friends and teammates were there smiling at her. It seemed Lissa had managed to track the other girls down after all.

"Thank goodness you're okay." Charmer Amethyst sighed, racing to wrap her arms around her friend.

“Hey, what’s happening? Who are you and why do you girls have such weird outfits?”

“Excuse me, but their actually quite fashionable,” Charmer Topaz bit back, just as she turned back to look at who it was.

The girls froze, standing at the doorway was Jack. All the other guys who had been in the room seemed to have left, but he stood there waiting for a response. Charmer Ruby could feel her heart racing at how exactly they could answer all these questions. What was she supposed to say to him? She couldn't exactly tell him that she was actually Chloe and some deranged girl had just made them come here to lure her there. Nina had never really run through any of this kind of thing with them, so Charmer Ruby was a bit stuck on what to say to them all.

“C-“ He started, “Okay, Nevermind…”

With that he walked away.

“That was a close one.” Charmer Emerald sighed, “Topaz, you didn’t have to go shooting him off like that.”

“I’m sorry but no one picks on my magical girl outfit.” Charmer Topaz teased, “Not even Jack.”

“Anyway…Charmer Ruby I think you should see this,” Charmer Emerald changed the subject opening up her palms and showing her the contents.

Her heart sank when she saw her poor Ruby wand smashed in Charmer Emeralds’s hands. A small piece of the wands wing that had smashed off in the fall still looked as though it fluttered slightly as the moonlight streamed through the hallway window onto it.

"Darn Ruby-girl what happened to your wand?" Charmer Topaz gasped, picking up one half of it from Charmer Emeralds hands.

"Uh....about that, Storm um...kind of broke it on me..."

"Storm?" Charmer Emerald  questioned, "Who the heck is Storm."

Charmer Ruby frowned, as she relieved the past ten minutes. She wondered how could she explain to them that they had a new enemy who just happened to know that Chloe was Charmer Ruby.

"She's our enemy...she knows who I am...she has..."

Charmer Sapphire put her hand up, "Whoa, wait one second...knows who you are? You don't mean to say she knows who you are when your not a charmer."

"Yeah." Charmer Ruby nodded, "I don't know about you four but she certainly knows who I am. She's still around too...she just disappeared when things got tough."

"That's terrible! We'll have to tell Nina!" Charmer Amethyst cried, "And she broke your wand too...what a...oh dear I simply can't say that word but you know what I mean."

Charmer Emerald flashed her friend a cheeky grin, "You know you can say it right?"

Charmer Amethyst shook her head and looked around at them in dismay.

"But if she broke your wand then how did you escape without us?" Charmer Topaz butted in ending Emeralds teasing entirely, "I didn't think we could use our powers without them."

Charmer Ruby nodded, that was exactly what she'd almost thought too, "It's true she did break my wand. It seems it's not quite true that we can't use our powers with them.  I don't know how I did it but it seems I can now, but I fainted afterwards. It's hard to explain..."

"Maybe it's that thing?" Charmer Sapphire gasped, pointing at Ruby's hip.

Chloe looked down at her sash and saw that there was now a small ruby gem like red butterfly perched upon it with what looked like a key on the end of it.

"I really think Nina's got a lot of explaining to do..."

***********

The next morning was Saturday and the five charmer girls were at the front door of the café at 6am. The sky was only just waking up and most sixteen year olds would probably still be in bed, but they needed to talk to Nina.

Chloe looked around at her friends, Lissa was rubbing her eyes drowsily, Lani still looked half asleep and was onto her second cup of Tea for the morning, an exhausted looking Zara was contemplating her appearance in a compact mirror and Tiffany on the other hand was he only one bouncing around like an energetic bunny. It surprised Chloe out of everyone that Tiffany was in fact a morning person.

Five minutes past six, a slim figure came to the door way to change the closed sign to open. They peeked there head out the window and looked rather shocked. The door soon opened and Nina stood there.

"Girls? What are you all doing here? I didn't think any of you started until at least nine o'clock..."

"Nina, it's important.... We have to talk." Chloe sighed.

Nina nodded, "Okay then, come in. We will have to be quiet though, Kristal's still asleep."

The five girls, filed into the Café. Chloe noticed as they entered that the woman changed the sign back over to "closed". They girls sat at one of the larger tables over to the side of the room. Chloe sat next to Tiffany and was then followed in by Lissa, Lani and Zara sat on the other side of the table, Nina sat at the head of the table.

"Okay girls, what's up?"

The five girls began tell Nina about what had happened the night before, as the story continued Nina's face grew more and more worried, particularly when she found out Storm knew who Charmer Ruby was. She clapped when Chloe told her how she'd managed to attack Storm.

Chloe placed her broken butterfly wand on the table, she wasn't sure what to say and it appeared that neither did anyone else.

"Is there anyway you can fix it?" Lissa asked, her voice quiet and mousey.

Nina immediately shook her head, "No not at the moment, there are ways...but I can't access any of them right now. Sorry girls."

A few annoyed sighs broke out across the room. Each girl wondering how Chloe was supposed to fight easily now. Chloe didn't know if she would be able to pull of what she did last time again.

"And then there's this..." Chloe sighed placing her new butterfly key on the table, it had stayed attatched to her dress even after she’d transformed. She figured she could wear it as a key-chain, "Nina, what does this mean?"

Nina's face brightened at the sight of it, she grabbed it from the table, examining it for a few moments. "Well done, Chloe! This is just what we need! How on earth did I forget about this!"

The girls exchanged glances at their mentors sudden enthusiasm. "Huh?"

Nina blushed, "Sorry girls, the thing is these are special keys called the Crystal Charms. We need these if we are going to defeat our enemy and restore the Crystal Realm..."

"The Crystal Realm? What is that?" Zara caught on.

"We'll worry about it later...just let me finish..." Nina sighed. " You see Chloe was in a bit of a bind. She didn't have her weapon and the rest of you to help her out, so her pendant reacted to this and created one of these. I guess you can say it's more of an instinct than anything else. Though girls I wouldn't recommend trying to put yourself in that situation. So don't get any ideas...especially you Tiffany."

Tiffany gave a guilty smile.

"If we need them, then how do we find them?" Zara asked.

Nina shook her head, "Don't you girls worry about that, they'll come to you when you're ready and when you need them most."

"Hmmmph, this could take forever, " Tiffany groaned, flailing onto the table in annoyance.

Lani rolled her eyes, before turning to Nina, "Anyway, what is that Crystal Realm you were talking about."

Nina sighed, "The Crystal Realm is...was...a beautiful place. But things well changed...a long forgotten enemy invaded and that was that. Look I can't tell you girls too much about it yet, the less you know the better."

"Why?" Chloe asked confused that they suddenly weren't allowed to know about it.

Nina however shook her head, "I think that ends our conversation for today."

There were a few awws and whys but still Nina refused to tell them anymore, she quickly shuffled them out of the café claiming she had work to do.

"Geez she tells us we need to find things to fix something but then won't tell us anything about what were trying to fix. " Tiffany huffed, arms across her chest.

Zara nodded, "I'm still trying to work out whether I'm wasting my time here or not."

Lani gave her a look "You're not going to try that again are you? I thought you'd gotten over that."

"I'm serious, I've had to drop a few of my dance classes, mum's kinda mad at me."

"What the ice queen's not fulfilling her mothers orders?" Tiffany laughed. "She's not the perfect princess anymore?

"What did you just call me?" Zara snarled her tone rather icy.

"Seriously, I mean..."

Lissa had covered her ears and had her eyes closed, she clearly didn't want to hear them fight any longer. Chloe crossed her arms she'd had just about enough o everyone's bickering.

"STOP IT! All of you!" Chloe snapped, before her tone became more subdued, "Aren't we supposed to be a team? We can't go on like this if we're going to defeat Storm, she'll be back again whether we want to be involved or not."

Lani nodded, "In all my magical girl series' the villains always come back if they haven't finished their job and if the magical girls aren't ready then well all sorts of bad stuff happens, people get taken away by the enemy as captives,  injured and there' much worse things that have happened like...d-"

"Okay, okay, I think we get your point," Tiffany butted in, "We'll be friends, won't we Zara?"

Zara shrugged, "If we must."

Lani was soon suggesting the girls put their hands in together in a circle and create some kind of team high five. Lissa, Tiffany, Lani and Chloe were quick to put their hands in, but one member of e team was less then enthusiastic....

"This all feels a little childish doesn't it?" Zara muttered, "Do we really have to do this to say we're a team?"

Lani elbowed her, "Come on. Be more positive Zara. You promised."

On that note, Zara shrugged and added her hand to the pile.

In a flurry of hands they raised their arms and let out a loud squeal. Leaving them in a fit of giggles.

"Much better," Lissa nodded.

Tiffany looked down at her watch, "Oh man, is that the time I'm due at the pitch for my soccer game in half an hour. I told mum and dad I'd met them there. See you girls later."

Pretty soon all of the girls realised that they had somewhere to be..

As Chloe watched her friends leave she  puzzled over Nina's sudden refusal over telling them about the Crystal Realm what was so dangerous about knowing the place that they were supposed to protect. She could almost feel Storm standing behind her , breathing down her neck and laughing. She shivered at the thought of facing her again.

**************

Meanwhile from the trees Storm was indeed watching them, a second much taller cloaked figure stood behind her his face covered in darkness, he had his hand around her shoulder in a sort of couples embrace.

"So that's them?" He questioned watching them with intent, "Kind of an odd bunch that woman's assembled don't you think?"

"Perhaps..."

"Do you think they've worked it out?

"Not a chance, the blonde was the only one who saw me."

There was silence, "Well we'll need to make sure that they do. I think a little meet and greet is in order. Perhaps a little persuasion while your there?"

Storm grinned up at the figure, "Sounds positively electrifying."