Rainbow Phoenix

Friday at 4 pm in San Diego, California.

Lorona Alegria, or for the public knowledge, Esmeralda Cruz. She's wearing a crop top shirt with an open green and black flannel shirt. Skirt with leggings. Sneakers. Her Magical Girl Locket: Mythology, is hanging on from her skirt.

Esmeralda is thinking to herself in Spanish, as she walks around the streets, noticing who's a Witch and a Vigilante.

'Dorothy, Olivia, and Makayla are in Colorado for the Catch-Up Cabin. Becky is staying put in Oztown, but what the hell am I even doing here?!'

She entered the private saloon.

'Going to school is completely pointless if I'm being accepted in the Magical Girl Academia.'

'Ah, Ms. Cruz! Congratulations on making the Top 300.' The saloon folk are congratulating Esmeralda.

Replying in Spanish. 'Oh, thank you. I won't let you all down.'

Another girl, another teen, who was waiting in her chair, she's a preppy girl with curly blonde hair, and wearing the latest trend. She's abnormally tall by standing 6' tall.

Esmeralda noticed her, called her out in English, 'Brittany? You're here to do your hair too?'

'Hopefully.' Brittany replies with a snobby tone.

The saloon worker spoke up, 'Since you're here, I can bump you up next.'

'Wait, what?!' Brittany spoke against this. 'But madam, I had been waiting here for ten minutes.'

'Well, we got ourselves perhaps a real Magical Girl soon. She'll be getting the VIP treatment.'

Esmeralda tries to speak up. 'Don't worry, I can wait.'

'Don't bother.' Brittany stood up, then her shoulder pushed Esmeralda hard. 'I can reschedule for another time.' She leaves the saloon then transforms into a Fairy, from her Mythology Locket.

Her form has four wings, a short scaly dress with scaly knee high boots, and arm length scaly armbands. Tiara with flower hair. And her form shrinks her down, now standing at 5' tall.

Using her wings to fly away from the building.

Esmeralda looks sad towards Brittany as she watches her leave.

'Sadly, to those who did get into the Top 300, the other Vigilantes that didn't make the cut are holding resentment towards us. They have two options now; give up their Lockets on the anniversary of their purchase, or continue on holding onto it but have to pay additional taxes and any damages fees which doubles.'

'Sorry for Brittany, she's always been here trying to get her hair done, but another Magical Girl has taken her appointment slot.'

'It's alright. I can wait till it's my turn.'

Esmeralda sat at the saloon, alone in her thoughts.

'But mama hasn't come back ever since she went with Ms. Mira, and she texted me that she'll be back on Sunday and look over our house here. So I'm pretty much spent here. And I don't have any money for Tokyo, and I can't convince mama to go with me.'

Esmeralda is leaning back out of frustration.

'But what's worse? I can't even fly in my Vigilante form. Only that one time, but, why did the memories of my mom killing the bullies made me convicted enough to use my abilities?'

Memories of Maria Alegria walking out of the small river, after killing kids. Offering her hand towards Maria, and speaking in Spanish. 'Let's go home, Lorona.'

Esmeralda held herself out of fear then shook it off.

'You're next.'

'Thank you!' Esmeralda smiles as she gets up to her chair.

She did her hair up to have some emerald highlights to match the name, then after paying her bill.

'Thank you.'

Esmeralda then walks around till she finds herself in a lonely place to transform into her Vigilante uniform of a Phoenix. Phoenix crown with fiery hair. Feathery outfit with arms and thighs exposed. Feathered boots with talons. Feather wrist gauntlets. Her feathers, hair, and eyes work as a mood ring, turning blue.

'Alright then. Remember what Becky said about conviction.'

Her feathers then turned green to calm herself down then yellow for determination.

'Protect the beans. Protect all of the beans around the world. And remember the hardship of my time at Vinyard.'

Remembering the start of the operations but then slowly turned into a horror show of seeing Vigilantes and Anti-Witch Militia soldiers dying from the wrath of the Neo Brauns Army, which resulted in her yellow color turning purple as she's showing fear and concern. Everything turned into black ash as she saw Dorothy nearly dying then drowning herself.

Turns back to normal then hyperventilating as she's down on all four.

Screams out of frustration while speaking in Spanish. 'How the hell did Dorothy, and the rest of them do it?! I can't even fly!'

She reactivated her Locket again.

'This time, I'm flying.'

Her yellow flames are high as she's slowly levitating. Esmeralda is excited.

'It's working! It's finally…'

Esmeralda looks down to see that perhaps it's her shoes that made her float, and remember she put some wood soles that doubled as her broom. Quickly turns back to take off her shoes, and then puts on her uniform.

'Well, it's time to fly without my shoes. I'm not Dorothy, since she could make it look natural. And she has wings, something I can't do.'

Esmeralda is trying to fly without her shoes, and trying to jump up to get a boost. Then after a short while, she dusted herself off, then calmed herself down.

'Alright then, I should do simple spells, since the rest can do them in uniform.'

Esmeralda then goes for the Glyph Shot. A small flame took the form of a talon. She quickly came up with a name.

'Talon Shot!'

Fires it at the nearby tree. Looking happy at first, but felt drained.

'Now why do I feel like I'm pulling a muscle or something? Plus,' Esmeralda walks up to the tree to see that the tree did more damage to the Talon Shot than the opposite. 'This won't be due. My shot doesn't even make a dent on a tree. Plus feeling drained and all, so exhausting.'

Leaning back onto the tree, and remembering the others when they use their Magical Girl abilities while comparing their Wands choice.

'Now let's see, how can I match the others? I don't know much about Abigail, so I can't look for a reference there but she can use two Lockets, back-to-back without a problem. Could it be that Wand? No, she didn't have her Wand with her, I think didn't? But what does a Lantern Wand do for a Dwarf and a Valkyrie? Olivia is more of a hack and slash from her Wand choice. Makayla can use guns, and she seems to rely on her smarts. Becky is straight up brute, and a natural when it comes to combat. So I doubt she can use magic at all. As for Dorothy? She seems to be a natural on both fields, but seeing her combat against Emma where she struggles, and I had beaten her already. From what they all said, and even Dorothy admits, Becky can outmatch her when it comes to combat and that's just her Magical Girl ability, while Dorothy struggles when she can use both. So what am I missing?'

She sat down while tapping her talon, trying to think.

'I'm a natural when it comes to magic, and whenever I activate my Locket, I have a goal. But why isn't that enough?'

Esmeralda continues to be frustrated.

'Let see what my other spells would look like.'

Esmeralda stood up and tried to do her Ghost Walk ability but it feels something is holding her back as she only engulf herself in flames that aren't affecting her.

She then tries with her Pride Parade that makes her feathers harden up, which she's quite surprised that it works. Going up on the tree then leaps off to test out the strength of it. Leaps off but the feathers immediately broke like autumn leaves, and she's rolling around to complain about the point of body protection.

'What the hell? Why are my Witch powers not working fully? They work for Dorothy, how am I able to use these uniforms?!'

She sat up and realised something.

'If Dorothy did use her uniform against me when we first fought, she would've won easily. She was only battling me as a Witch, because she knows that I can't match her in her Magical Girl form. Wait! I can use Dimensional Fissure!'

Esmeralda is looking around and keeping a sky check on the sun position, then looking around to see a safe location to use her 5 Star Spell. Sees a fence and tries to open up a portal, but to her surprise it looks watery, like a mirror-like portal with a clear image through it.

'Well, let's see what this planet has!'

Esmeralda goes through the portal but she only goes through the fence, and to her surprise, she quickly turns to see that she couldn't go through the portal and enter the new planet.

'Wait? What?!'

Esmeralda jumps back and forth, trying to go through the portal but couldn't.

'God damn it! Nothing isn't working!'

She tries her Pride Meteora Shower which normally has celestial stars around her, but they turn into feathers with talon tips flying down, but they have no impact.

'Shit! Shit! Shit!'

Kicking the dirt after each word.

'This is so embarrassing! A Magical Girl applicant that can't even fight back! And I won't be able to make it into Academia.'

Esmeralda is sitting down again, trying to think about her goal. Protecting every bean in the world. She had been practising till nine o'clock till she saw some flashes above her.

Brittany came flying by, knocking down what seems to be a Witch.

Hovering above her, Esmeralda is watching from the shadows, listening.

'Wait!' The Witch pleads. 'Please just calm down, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!'

Slowly gliding down towards her till she leans down at her. 'Listen here! I'm not in a good mood today. I had to cancel a few appointments, and it had been eating at me for months about this whole Magical Girl Academia situation. Being overlooked, again!' She paced back and forth. 'I had been waiting for months to hear from you, and now you decided to come back?! Not even a text?!'

'I had been catching up with some trouble in the midwest! I nearly got caught in the Vinyard battle…'

'A battle that I wanted to be part of, but you said no, and want me to stay here to knock out some of the lesser Witches! We had a deal, Billie!'

Esmeralda trying to recognise the name while muttering, 'Billie? The only Billie I know is…'

'The Grand Wizard had promised to send some lesser Witches here to knock out!' Billie stood up.

Esmeralda realised who it was, and spoke in Spanish and was still muttering. 'Oh, shit!'

'You can't knock me around! Just because you're one of the few Vigilantes that the Grand Wizard recognised as a powerful ally, hell, even as an equal to him. We didn't want you to be part of Vinyard, because that would have wiped out some of your competition, but it's a crazy ploy from some gal from Kansas. You would get killed from it!'

Brittany kicks a rock across town. 'It wasn't supposed to be like this, Billy.' She sat down. 'We had a goal together.'

Billy sat next to her. 'I know. We couldn't hold up our end of the deal. Ever since the Oztown incident, the Grand Wizard was pissed about the death of Bloody Mary. And then the Oztown incident, again with that Kansas girl, the Wicked Magical Girl that she calls herself. Everything has been set back ever since June. But my offer still stands.'

'I'm not interested in becoming a Witch, and interested in being Trans. Love you guys, but I can't.'

'You forgot what unit I'm in. I'm the High Wizard of the AllTrans, but soon to be the Grand Wizard of the Wizards. Hell, I was expecting us to have a romantic date in Tokyo.'

'We'll figure it out. If we could knock out some of those brats out of the Top 300, I could sneak my way back into it. And I just saw Cruz here too. She wasn't even up for debate, and since she was part of the Vinyard battle, now she made it in the Billboards at the last minute.'

'Then what can we do? Your only option right now is to be a Witch, or join up with their newly programmed Magical Officers, but sounds like a Magical Girls version of police officers which I would rather let you be an actual police officer than a magical one.'

Esmeralda then takes a few deep breaths then acts like she's walking around, walking up to them. 'Hey, Brittany!'

Both of them got up.

'Sorry, to interrupt, but I've been practising here and I saw you flying around. So I assume that you might need some help?' Esmeralda is trying to act natural.

'Friend of yours?'

'No. Just a schoolmate, but that's Cruz I had mentioned.'

'Oh! So you're Esmeralda Cruz. Congratulations on reaching the American 300 Billboard.' Billy cuts his palm behind Brittany then reaches out for the handshake.

'Thank you.' Esmeralda quickly noticed the blood and made a small comment. 'You have a cut on your palm.'

'Oh, sorry! Brit's uniform is quite sharp. I must had accidentally cut myself.'

'Big spill then. So what brought you two here, and what's her name?'

'Him.' Billy corrects Esmeralda.

'Oh! Sorry!' Esmeralda placed her palm together as an apology.

'It's alright. Billy Knight. Trying to cheer up my girlfriend here, hoping we can still take that Tokyo trip this October.'

'You're going to Tokyo, right Cruz?'

'Yeah. But before I go next month, I was gonna do some practising, maybe find a Witch to fight. I was gonna go to the midwest to join up with Becky to take down this good witch.'

'Glinda the Northern Good Witch.' Billie said. 'Yeah, I heard about her. Only seen the reports, but she seems too cheery as a Witch.'

'Well, Becky said to me that there might be a little meetup in Colorado, but it was a rumour, but a good excuse to go up there though.' Esmeralda gives out an awkward laugh while both Brittany and Billy just give her a blank expression.

Brittany got an idea. 'How about this!' Placed her arm around Esmeralda, Billy is giving off a death glare at them. 'I need to vent out for a bit, and there are two to three Vigilantes here that are going to the MGA, so maybe your friend Becky can join up together? Some little Witch raid.'

Billy got in between them, replacing Esmeralda arm placement. 'I never went to Colorado, but I don't want Brit to get hurt.'

'Well, it's only a rumour. But I don't know if Becky and I can join, since she's from Oztown.'

Both Brittany and Billy said together. 'Right.'

'And it would be a good workout though, but I have to wait for my mama to come home from work.'

'Yes. Your mom works down in Mexico?' Brittany asks.

Billy's eyes are shifting to put some pieces together. 'What does your mama do? Because I'm curious. I used to live in an abusive household where my mom was trying to prim me up as her little princess, but I prefer doing field work like a guy.'

'Hence the transaction?'

'Correct.'

'She's an astrologist?'

Billy is nodding then smiles. 'Alright then.' Arm pat her. 'Anyways, Brit. Can you take me home, it's getting late.'

'Alright then.' Brittany grabs Billy then starts flying up. Turning around to face Esmeralda. 'Cruz, I might take that idea of Witch hunting up in Colorado. I know a couple of advancing Vigilantes that can do some work. You're free to join.'

'I'll be fine here. Bye, Brittany!'

They flew away while Esmeralda was walking, talking to herself. 'Oh shit! I got to send a warning to Dorothy!' She starts running away.

Meanwhile, both Brittany and Billy are flying to an abandoned house, sitting on the rooftop.

'She seems odd, and she seem to be a weakling to be in the Top 300.'

'Is that before or after you inject yourself between us?'

Billy is embarrassed but shakes it off. 'But she heard a bit too much, you don't just interrupt a talk unless you want to know something. She might be a problem. I would whack her but Danny would die from it.'

'Enough with Cruz.'

'You're right. Attacking a bunch of lesser Witches in Colorado could wipe out some of your competitions or they might not take it. There is a rule placed among us Witches, or at least that's what Danny said, but Top 300 Vigilantes are off limits to kill. Or else face dire consequences.'

'But we don't know about that rule itself, nor we won't know anything about it. So, I could lead a small attack with some of the Top 300 Vigilantes, then what they'll do is gonna be self-defence. So self-defence killing will launch me up to their replacement.'

'That seems like a good plan, in theory, but I can't get involved with that or else Danny will die and every other Witch will come after our turfs across North America, the UK, and Australia if you believe it or not.'

'Well what Witches are up there? They possibly don't know about that rule.'

'That is true, but Glinda the Northern Good Witch, she might be a bit too dangerous.'

'Explain, please.'

'She got a former MGK, the daughter of La Llorona, and the She-Wolf's niece. So far, only the MGK and her greaser friend that's her right hand, but the MGK is dangerous enough.'

'Then that means she's perfect for self-defence killing. So who else is up there?'

'Some weakling goth girl, a group therapist of abused women, and some poser. Easy pickings.'

'And how big is this group?'

'Around at least, maybe 15 best. There was an Indian girl, but she left after we beat Glinda together. Call it a draw.'

'Still good enough for me! I should start planning to go there tonight.'

'I can book you a room somewhere in Aspen, but that is as far as I can go.'

'It's a romantic getaway for us then.' Brittany holds Billy tightly.

'Watch it, Brit. You weren't exactly romantic last year when we first met. But you were a great fighter, and know how to give it to it hard.' He gives out a cackle.

'You were quite charming throughout our first meeting, you managed to get me in bed after that fight. But you're not exactly a good pegger to begin with. So I had to take that role from you.'

'That's why I'm trying to get you to join me and become a Witch. Make a guy or a futa. Your choice.' Billy gives her a soft kiss.

'Nah. I like keeping my girls, and besides, someone has to teach you on how to thrust well, and I'm not an anal girl.'

'We can try that again.' Billy giggled which results in Brittany smacking him.

'No thank you! Last time you tried that, I couldn't sit properly for a week.'

Billy held Brittany tightly. 'And I said I'm sorry.'

Brittany smiles at Billy. 'Book that Aspen trip, I'll call a couple girls to bring down some Witches.'

'There's only two Vigilantes across the country that could rival the Wizards' strength; Katherine Fitzgerald from Chicago, and Patricia Parker from New York. You are clearly number three.'

'Then I'm perfect for you. The third High Wizard leader for the third strongest Vigilante.'