Chapter 23: The Mask, The Monsters, and The Magical Girl

  Iron Mask sat down in front of me, stared at me, mask concealing all emotion. Her dark eyes were searching mine, and her movements were deliberate. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, as she looked over my umbrella, weighing it in her hands, looking for a hidden mechanism. She pressed the gem, but nothing happened. She tossed it aside casually. She had a wireless speaker, and she turned on a song, some rap song. I wasn’t paying attention.

  “In another life, I might have been impressed. Not a lot of people would’ve decided to try and chase me down. Pity you chose the wrong employer. But we ain’t gotta lotta time left, Mary Poppins. It’s been fun and all, but why don’t you tell me what I want to know?”

  I stared her down, eyes itching and voice hoarse from crying. “Why would I do that? You fucking killed Elias, you murderous terrorist bitch! He was innocent! He wasn’t a threat! Why did he deserve to die!?”

  “He wasn’t innocent. He helped the ambitions of wicked and decadent politicians as they covered up their lies and corruption. As far as I’m concerned, Staaldier was the product of an oppresive regime, a weapon for injustice. Your boss has a lot of blood on her hands.”

  “Listen, I don’t know what radical bull-crap you’re on, but Elias was a child defending his country from fucking invading aliens and monsters! He was a teenager when Staaldier was operating! A teenager! You killed a man, because he defended his home city, when he was a teenager? Because he wouldn't let you destroy Port Moonstone?”

  She back-handed me with the metal hand and grabbed a spray can, pointing it right at my eye. She sounded measured, composed even. “You oughtta thank me for that one. Even you knew he was a child soldier, and yet you sat by and did nothing about this. At least I ended his suffering. Besides, nobody’s innocent. Especially not the Initiative, and definitely not Port Moonstone. So let’s converse rationally. Choose your words carefully.”

  I racked my brain, trying to think of what to do, but I’d never actually been captured by any of my enemies before. I couldn’t overpower Iron Mask, not yet anyway, but I couldn’t just give up, either. Outsmarting her was also probably out of the question. As painful as it was, I’d have to play along for now, force myself to stay calm and play the psychological game. I could fall apart later.

  The mask concealed a lot, and it was difficult to tell with the accent and the clothes, but I did notice something with Iron Mask’s good hand: no wrinkles, very smooth and well cared for, the product of youth, or a dilligent skincare routine. When I’d encountered the first Iron Mask when I was a teenager, he’d been middle aged. But something in this one’s pitch made me wonder. It was my only real angle to force her to make a mistake. It was a desperate gamble, but I didn’t have a lot of options.

  “How old are you, really, Iron Mask?”

  “I’m the one asking the questions here, Mary Poppins.”

  I laughed, bitterly. “You sound young. Real young. 18 maybe? God, I remember being young. World seemed so full of potential when I was a teenager. Enjoy it while it lasts, kiddo. You blink, and then one day you wake up, you’re almost thirty, and the world’s moved on, like you and your friends had never even been there. What the hell went wrong in your life that you decided this was the way you wanted to live?”

  Iron Mask paused for a moment. Had I struck a nerve? I looked into her eyes: black eyes, but not soulless. What kind of face was she making under that mask? And for that matter, what did she even look like under it? She slowly pulled a bunch of photos I didn’t recognise: boring-looking buildings in a forest I’d never been to, a picture of an African-American man, and two women who looked a bit like The Major dressed for a wedding, suit-wearing men I didn’t recognise, what looked like a burned-out science lab, nothing I actually understood. I looked over them briefly. “Are these actually meant to mean something to me? I’ve never seen any of this in my life.”

  “Bullshit. You’re bluffing.”

  “It’s true. Nobody told me anything. One day when I was about twelve or thirteen, I got chased by a slug monster, met a magic bird, now I’m a magical girl. To this day, I still don’t know why that bird chose me. I wasn’t a soldier like Elias was. I was just a girl who wanted to protect her city, and now I’m just a woman who wanted to be a hero again. Sorry to be a disappointment. How long have you been waiting for answers?”

  Iron Mask said nothing. Maybe I had an angle, and I needed to press for all it was worth. I laughed bitterly. “I’m not the only one who fell for lies, am I? Wake up! They’re just using you, same way that they used me. As soon as you’re no longer useful, they’ll kill you too.”

  Iron Mask clapped slowly, before pulling a set of keys out of a cardboard box, and grabbing a life-jacket. “Oh my God, you’re actually even dumber than I thought. You deadass believed that I actually believe in this bullshit? This is a temporary alliance of convenience. I’m looking for information, and to spread a message, all while I test out some of my prototypes. This lets me pay my bills, while I pursue my own goals. And did you really believe I hadn’t planned for them to betray me? After all we’ve been through, Mary Poppins? Let me put you up on game for a minute: I don’t give a fuck if those two manage to destroy Port Moonstone or not. Their goals are not my goals. If you don’t understand what I was showing you, you can’t hope to understand my agenda.”

  I heard a banging from upstairs, before Sebastian opened the door. “Turn down that racket! You’re disrupting the ceremony!”

  Iron Mask did so, slowly, deliberately, before shrugging. “And you’re late with the payment, voiding our agreement. You were made aware of the contract. What’s taking so long?”

  “Oh, piss off, you metal-faced bitch. You’ll get your payment when you get it. I thought I told you to break the umbrella?”

  “And I thought I told your punk-ass to pay on time, but we can’t all get what we want.”

  I continued to struggle, but Sebastian stepped down, “Don’t even think about it, Amy. Just relax. It’s not like you can change any of what’s about to come. Why bother? What do you think struggling will even achieve?”

  The words stung, and only made me struggle harder. If I could’ve just reached my umbrella, I would have grabbed it, made my transformation and blasted them all to kingdom come. I would have made them hurt for everything that they had inflicted on me. Sebastian didn’t even bother to touch me, just looked at me with those baby-blue eyes. I could feel something building behind my eyes, but what?

  “Tell me something, Sebastian: What’s this all really about? What the hell do you think he’s going to do?”

  “Iron Mask, gag her.”

  Iron Mask didn’t do anything, just checked the life jacket. “No. You’re an asshole who can’t even pay on time. I’ll get my money the hard way. Peace.”

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  She sauntered off, leaving Sebastian agog. I still struggled. “You didn’t answer me, Sebastian. What’s this about? Did he promise you power? Money? Answer me, goddammit! You owe me that much!”

  Sebastian turned to me. “He didn’t have to promise me any of that. I offered it to him. It’s simple. I love him, Amy. I love him more deeply than I love life itself. You never knew me, Amy, not the real me. Being with him, it’s like a dream, isn’t it? It’s like the world itself doesn’t feel real anymore. Being with him made everything else seem so hollow and pointless. So I decided, I wanted to give him something, as my way of saying thanks, and what better a gift than Port Moonstone itself? It’s like a bouquet of flowers, or a fancy dinner, a gift to demonstrate my love and devotion. I want to give him Port Moonstone to destroy, because I love him. And it’s not like you have anything to live for, not really. You never had a future. So just relax. It’ll all be over soon.”

  Behind my eyes, I felt something building, deep within myself, but what? Energy? Rage? Something else entirely? Something was bubbling, roiling underneath my skin, in my heart and in my soul.

  Manannán followed, shirtless, still speaking in that cold, raspy voice. His body was covered in the same bluey scales that Rahab had been, and I could see a hint of the same whiskers growing from his face. “The time draws closer, my love. You don’t need to spend any more time with this pathetic creature.”

  Sebastian kissed Manannán on the cheek. “Look at her. Still struggling like she could actually prevent this. How na?ve.”

  “Like a fish caught on a hook. Head down to the beach. I’ll be there shortly. As for you, Crystal Guardian Amethyst, cease your struggling. I don’t like my food to resist.”

  I tried to find and undo the knots binding me, but it was no use. With the defiance I had left in me, I asked “So what is your real name then? Is it Manannán? Dagon, maybe? The Initiative still calls you Rahab, maybe I should go with that?”

  Manannán shrugged. “Why this obsession with names? Your species has given me thousands of names in my time on this planet. It won’t matter. The ocean that sustains me will kill you without mercy or care. So why do you struggle? Why do you believe you can stop me? Take a look at yourself: strapped to a chair, staring death in the face, and yet you still struggle? Why? I’ve killed stronger warriors than you: I’ve sunk empire’s worth of ships over the years, slaughtered powerful beasts in sunken places, made civilizations kneel before me, and dragged your mighty heroes to their deaths in the depths! What chance could you possibly stand!? Why do you bother? What do you even have to live for? I didn’t even like you, let alone love you. Nobody does! Nobody cares whether the Crystal Guardians live or die! When will you realize that your struggle is pointless?”

  Manannan finished stripping and left with Sebastian as Iron Mask stood motionless in the corner. I looked over at her, looking for an answer, but her expression was as impenetrable as ever. I coughed.

  “I’ve got a budgie at home, you know. She’ll need feeding.”

  It’s strange, but that thought of Feather Locklear was the start of an epiphany. Maybe I did have something to live for, after all, even outside of being a magical girl. I had my budgie. I had my succulents at home. I had Emma, and if I could only reach out, I had the rest of the Crystalline Sisters. I had a family, even if we weren’t as close as I wanted us to be. I had a home city that I loved living in, and a restaurant that I loved to visit, even if nobody else cared about Maltese cuisine. For the first time in a decade, I had a job that I actually liked. And even though it took his death, I’d finally come to understand Elias in some way. I understood how Elias must have felt about Rahab. I wanted blood and fire and vengeance. And I wasn’t about to let a couple of pretty-boys and a Doctor Doom rip-off let them take away the life that I wanted to live.

  I focused on my umbrella. I could feel the power bubbling away under my skin as Iron Mask checked her phone. She shrugged. “Past due. Contract officially expired. Teaches me to offer the recipe before the check and the collection fee. Unfortunately, that means our time together is up, Mary Poppins.”

  As the door above me opened once more, I deliberately pushed myself backwards, breaking the chair underneath me as I hit the ground. As Emma began trying to fight Iron Mask, I rolled to my umbrella, grabbing the hilt and pressing the crystal. As I transformed though, things were different. I felt even stronger, way more powerful than I did in my normal magical girl form. My body felt different: everything below my neck felt powerful and hard and strong. The ropes that had bound me burned away as my body shone, in a way that even I hadn’t before. When my transformation finished, Emma was lying on the floor, as Iron Mask scrambled up the stairs. When I stood, I didn’t feel angry. I felt like I had passed anger in a way. I felt alive, in a way I hadn’t felt since I’d encountered Detritus in that back alley. I felt a sense of clarity and terrible purpose. I helped Emma to her feet, as she handed me a communication headset. I began walking up the stairs, unflinchingly, staring ahead, pointing my umbrella like a rifle. Emma tried to tug on my clothing, but instead of purple fabric, she was grabbing onto some sort of armour, not quite glass, not quite metal, not quite plastic or crystal. I barely got to look at myself, but what little I saw in a mirror resembled less a witch, and more a cyberpunk angel of battle. I smiled.

  “Amy, we’ve got to get you out of here! You- Mannanán’s really Rahab!”

  “I know. Why do you think I’m going to kill them?”

  “You can’t be serious, Amy! This- I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but-“

  I didn’t bother responding to Emma, but when I heard Elias’ voice on the radio, I paused. “Crystal Guardian Amethyst, this is Silverback. Follow Emerald to the evac point. I’ll cover you if need be, but we need to move!”

  As I paused, I saw Manannán sink into the waters, naked, as Sebastian began to cry out, in a language I didn’t even think that human mouths could make. As Manannán sank, he began to grow. His blonde locks fell out of his scalp in tufts, as his skin turned that sickly blue. As he grew larger, his eyes turned darker and darker. Now I understood what the plan had been. Keep us separated, drive a wedge between us, stop us from being able to work together, and maybe pick us off one by one. I felt sick, furious that I could have been so easily outplayed by those bastards. Iron Mask was loading a few things into a speedboat. She was wearing a life jacket and carried a long, thin box, I couldn't tell what.

  Aiming my umbrellla, I radioed through. “Major, Silverback, Emerald, this is Crystal Guardian Amethyst. Thanks for the rescue. I have visual on Rahab, Iron Mask and Sebastian Giallo. I’m going to engage.”

  The Major’s voice had never sounded more welcome in my life. “Break, Amethyst, you need to get out of here! You have multiple wounded-”

  I stretched my limbs, stared ahead at the horror that was growing before me. “Major, that’s an order I can’t follow. We’re all here now, and if we evacuate, innocent people will die. I- This is all my fault, Major. Rahab’s here because of me. I have to stop this! It’s my responsibility!”

  “?ojjell-“

  “Emma, Elias, you two can back out if you want.”

  Emma gulped. “I- I’m not backing out. I’ll back you up. Somehow.”

  “Elias? What about you? Ready to finish this?”

  A pause. Then Elias’ voice came crackling through. “Loud and clear, Crystal Guardian Amethyst. Let’s gut this fucking catfish.”

  I began charging up an attack as Rahab began his climb out of the ocean, continuing to grow, staring at the three of us. I levelled my umbrella at his skull. Even my umbrella’s fabric had changed: it looked like it was made out of electric thread, with crystalline designs woven throughout. It looked technologically advanced, but there was something magical about it at the same time. It was time to test my new abilities.

  “Roger that. No time for speeches, let's save this city!"