A Charmy Meal

Fourside

"Hey guys, don't run so fast!" Lucas yelled, struggling to keep up with his friends.

"It's your fault for mentioning the meat!" Veronica shouted back at him.

"I sure hope Karma made it in time!" Aria yelled, dashing ahead with the speed of wind. "Hold on, we're coming to back you up!"

"It's really gonna eat up our wallets if she eats too much!" Ness followed.

Let's start from the beginning: this lively group is Sector MG. Aria Conbolt was the leader, 12 years old and tall, a wind mage with short purple hair, an orange scarf, a green sleeveless shirt under a dark-red vest, and khaki pants with purple shoes. Aria possessed a brave heart and was always ready for any challenge, and her Rainbow Wind was nothing to scoff at in battle.

Behind her was Don Quixote Veronica. She had violet eyes and long blonde hair worn in two braids. She wore a red hood, a red dress over a white smock, blue bracelets, and leather shoes with orange socks. She was quite short at 10 years old, but carried a scepter topped with a red orb that was twice her own height. She possessed a rather brash accent, a very strict girl who wouldn't hesitate to berate her team. She was certainly a spitting image of her mother, minus the mustache.

Following her was Ninten Ness Blakely, usually known as just Ness. He wore a red cap over his trim black hair, a T-shirt of yellow and blue stripes, blue shorts, and red shoes. His magic backpack was filled with a baseball bat, yo-yo, and wand, but he otherwise looked the part of an average, eager elementary school boy.

Falling behind was Lucas Orson, a blonde boy with a yellow- and red-striped shirt, blue shorts, and red shoes. He was the same height as Ness and the two could be mistaken for brothers, but they weren't related at all. He had magic potential just the same, but compared to Ness, he was a meeker, shy child. Both were 11 years old and a few inches taller than Veronica.

Fourside was a small, peaceful city with tall buildings, but the gang was in a desperate hurry as they raced the valley and toward the town. It seemed like some cars and signs were torn down in the midst of their friend's rampage. The entrance to the Meat King restaurant was smashed clean open.

When they stepped in, fear coursed through their hearts: there were masses of cotton, large and small, around the restaurant. The other customers had already fled. "These are her Sheep Cotton." Aria said. "I think we're too late."

"Oh, man." Lucas whimpered, stepping forward. "How much could she have eaten already?" He stepped on a small cotton.

"Yow! Lucas, watch where you're stepping!"

"Yah!" He faced down. "I'm sorry, Mr. Cotton!"

"I'm not Cotton, I'm Karma!" After moving his foot, Lucas saw Karma Shiota's tiny head sticking out of the cotton. "Charmy freakin' trapped me in here when I tried to stop her."

"Ugh, how useless can you be?!" Veronica stomped over the shrunken boy. "Do those legs of yours even work?"

"Excuse me for going easy on my own friend! Besides, last time something like this happened, she frickin' bit my nipple! That's why I started wearing a shirt!"

"Nuh-uh." Ness said. "You started wearing one because everyone kept looking at you funny. You were practically naked."

"Shut up and get me outta here!"

"Not yet! We have to stop her!" Aria said, rushing to the kitchen.

The wind mage kicked open the door and saw a short girl digging into a hunk of cooked meat shaped like a three-layer cake. She had black hair tied in an upside-down bun and green eyes under a big forehead. She wore a white tunic with dark shorts and yellow flats on her tiny feet. "Charmy, how much have you eaten?!" Aria asked.

Charmy's eyes watered with euphoria as the royal sirloin coursed through her mouth, the flush on her cheeks brimming more red. She had stuffed her little mouth with a wide, luscious piece, but it traveled down her tiny throat smoothly. Afterwards, she fell back in her seat, hanging upside-down and facing her teammates with a bubbly smile. "I love cake and I love meat. So, when someone makes a cake out of meat, my nose, belly, and taste buds go into a frenzy."

"You didn't hurt too many people, did you?" Ness asked.

"Don't worry, they're all safe and snug in my fluffy cotton~"

"'ey, are you kids her friends?!" They looked down as a cotton ball bounced toward them, a cook's head poking out. "This kid owes us $500 and one cent! All the customers ran away in the middle of their meals! They didn't have a chance to pay!"

"Well, someone's a money grubber." Veronica remarked.

"But you have a lot of money, Veronica." Lucas inferred.

"So do you!" She bonked his head. "Why don't YOU pay them?!"

"Awww…"

…

With Charmy strapped to Aria's back, her tummy hefty and happy, the team went for a relaxing walk through town. "It got pretty tense, but I'd say that was a good mission accomplished!" Aria beamed.

"Karma, maybe next time you'll call me before going to hog tasty food for yourself." Charmy cooed, hugging the cotton which bound her friend.

"You're the one who hogs all the food!" The magenta-haired boy shook frantically. "Can one of you get me out of here?!"

"Shake out of there yourself, Mr. Strong Legs!" Veronica snapped.

Charmy Pappitson was an inch shorter than Veronica, but her little belly could hold a lot of food. Her mother was a Linlin descendant, so she developed strong cravings and would go on rampages until she got her fill. On the plus side, she wouldn't grow sick from eating so much. Meanwhile, her father was a dwarf, and this resulted in her rather short stature.

"Seriously, you're 19 years old." Karma said. "Learn to control your appetite."

"I wouldn't be such a well-grown witch if I didn't value every meal that entered my tummy."

"Please, Veronica looks like she had a growth spurt compared to you."

"Charmy, just leave him in there for the rest of the day." Veronica requested.

"Up yours, Red Riding Hood."

Karma, meanwhile, was the only non-mage of the group, but he made up for it with his powerful legs, inherited from his Fanalis mother. He simply wore a white T-shirt with shorts, preferring little and light clothing, but he wasn't quite as tribal as his mother. He mostly gave off the air of a school delinquent, the kind that would prop his feet on the desk and chill in class like it were his home away from home. He was 13 years old.

"Kids! Kids, waaaiiit!" They turned to find the fry cook rushing toward them.

"He's back?" Ness asked. "Lucas, did you remember to give him that one cent?"

"I did! It was the only penny I had…" Lucas bowed his head in sadness.

"Did we forget something?" Aria asked the cook.

"No! The restaurant is under attack! The Happyists are painting everything blue!"

"Not the Happyists!" Aria exclaimed, her eyes furrowing. "Come on, team, we gotta make a U-turn!" She was quick to dash the opposite way, leaving a gust of wind as Ness, Lucas, and Veronica scrambled to run after.

The Meat King had a reddish-brown color scheme, but just as quickly as Sector MG had left, it was being painted in blue thanks to the cultists in blue robes and masks. "HEY! What do you overgrown teardrops think you're doing?!" Aria yelled.

"Well, if it isn't the Kids Next Door!" The leader of the cultists marched up: he had a blue yarmulke on his bald scalp, blue hair around the edges with a matching goatee, along with a blue suit. "I should've known you miscolored miscreants would be onto my scheme! I see you've already evacuated the restaurant!"

Charmy broke free of Aria's back and faced him with determination. "It was all part of my brilliant plan! Laaaaa!"

"Wow, Charmy, you had me completely fooled!" Aria praised.

"Hang on, that can't be right!" Ness yelled. "Why didn't we wait at the restaurant for them?"

"There's no time for questions!" Charmy stated. "Carpainter, face the might of my Karma Ball!" She threw the cotton toward the cultist, and it burst as Karma blew to normal size. The half-Fanalis slammed his strong, bare leg into Carpainter, blasting him through the wall.

"You guys like blue?!" Aria asked. "Then try my GLACIUS WIND!" She took a breath and blew a gust of freezing air. The Happyists in the front felt a chill, but those behind survived. They came out and shot blue paint globs at the airbender. Ness ran around and lashed his yo-yo to wrap one's neck, hoisting and swinging him into others.

Lucas grabbed a light-red snake from his pocket. "Rope Snake, get 'em!" But the snake began jabbing at Lucas's face. "Ahh! Rope Snake, stop! I promise I'll feed you! Hey, I heard those guys like to keep rats!" Rope Snake perked up and lashed toward the cultists, nipping them through the robes. Veronica mustered a fireball with her scepter and launched it at a group of Happyists. It burst into a flaming spire.

"Aria, help me with a Tornado Spin!" Karma requested.

"I got ya covered!" Aria focused her bending around her friend as Karma whirled around with a leg stretched. He twirled and struck the cultists with a gust of wind to give his kicks some extra gusto.

"PK Fire!" Ness cast a flame bullet from his wand that burst upon hitting a cultist.

"PK Thunder!" Lucas cast an electric orb from his wand, directing it to fly around and shock multiple cultists.

"Hey, where did Charmy go?!" Veronica asked, casting a spell to make flowers grow from three's robes.

"WAAAAAAAH!" They heard a cry from the kitchen. "What have you done to the MEAT?!" She cried before the sight of several hunks of blue meat.

"Blue meat is happy meat!" Carpainter claimed. "Why don't you try it? It's painted with edible paint~"

"You… you do not treat food that way." A dark aura brimmed around Charmy, turning toward the mastermind with eerie white eyes. "I'll show you how vicious my sheep can BE!" A gigantic mass of cotton emerged from her chi, shaping like a giant sheep with looming white eyes. "LALALALALALALALALALA…" The sheep thrusted its hooves at Carpainter like a boxer. "SHEEP, crush them all, laaaaaa!"

"No, Charmy!" Lucas cried. "We already defeated them all, we—aaaaahhhh!"

The sheep plowed down all the cultists, crushed all the tables, and burst through the entrance of the restaurant. The workers stood outside with mouths agape: the Happy Happyists and Sector MG were wedged in the cotton that had flooded their restaurant.

"AAAAH! You crazy kids!" the manager yelled. "Do you know how much it'll cost to fix everything?!"

"You better ask your dad for more pennies, Lucas." Ness suggested.

"Oh, man…"

"Phew! This battle sure made me hungry!" Charmy beamed, sitting next to Carpainter's dizzy head. "Let's see what the bakery's cooking today! I hope they still have those delicious White Valley Pancakes. Laaaaa~"