Miraculous World: Georgia Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Dazzle

In the daytime? I’m Anna. Just a normal girl with a normal life…

It was Sunday afternoon, and the family was out grocery shopping for the week. At least, most of the family. Anna Fischer apologized and told the others she had homework, and so she had the house to herself for the next hour or so. The living room furniture was light enough to push around, thankfully, so it was now all against the walls as she pulled out something to cheer with. A short baton, strung with a bright pink ribbon with a small weight on the end. The blank screen of the television reflected her, showing her skinny build and brown hair, but even that couldn’t keep it from looking faintly ridiculous. She bowed towards the relocated couch, where a flamingo that looked like if a plush toy and a lawn ornament had a child was sitting on some cushions. “Time to get some practice. What do you think, Varod?”

“I think I’m not sure what you think you’re going to accomplish.” It was still odd hearing the woman’s voice come from what amounted to a floating pink ball of fluff, but Anna was getting used to it.

“Simple! When I transform, I get something a lot like this ribbon stick. Last time around, I got so tangled up in it I was only able to escape by turning back into me, so I don’t want THAT to happen again. I figure if I do some practice NOW, then next time I become the Present Feather it might go better.”

Varod sighed slightly. “And on that topic, we really need to work on that superhero name. Seriously, Anna, who’s going to listen to you when you’re calling yourself that?”

“Later! For now, let’s see if I can manage… this!” Anna tried to whip the ribbon forward, aimed at a water bottle she had standing up on the couch next to Varod. She even leaned into it, trying for some force and to maybe do some cool movement afterwards. What resulted wasn’t exactly that. The weight flew forward, ribbon with it, but it didn’t make it past Anna herself due to colliding with the back of her head. She did manage to roll forward after that, though, as it knocked her forward resulting in a tumble into a heap at the foot of the couch. Somehow, she managed to get tangled up in the ribbon anyway.

Varod’s laughter didn’t help her get herself extracted from it, but she got control of herself pretty quickly. “So, first thing’s first. When you’re transformed, you have better reflexes and control. Plus, THAT ribbon responds to what you need it to do. So… need a hand?”

Anna had a grumpy face, but responded “yes.”

The flamingo-looking Kwamii hopped down off the couch and started fiddling with the improbably-complex knots encasing her partner. “Stop struggling so much, you’re making it harder. One second… there!” The ribbon fell off of the awkwardly-crumpled girl, letting her stand up and shake herself out. “Are you going to try that again, or should we push the couch back?”

“Just… push it back. This hero thing is hard.”

“Thankfully, you’re tough. Brave, too, but you do have that homework and your family’s going to get back soon. Plus actually studying for the hero exam if you want to do this full-time.”

“Did you have to remind me?” Anna was already on her feet, the tumble a thing of the past. Much like the various other collisions she tended to get into every day. It was only a few minutes of work to get the living room rearranged. One textbook in hand, one pencil and notebook on the table, and she turned on the television for some background noise. Perfect homework environment, and it even worked for about twelve minutes. Right up until the calm show about home renovations suddenly swapped to a monster alert.

The thing was about twice the size of a person, seemingly made of water as it stomped along. It was heading the opposite direction from the last couple that showed up. South, towards the military base. Whatever it wanted to do there, it couldn’t be good. “Varod, looks like we have to hurry. I don’t see any heroes on that screen and I don’t think bullets will work on this one.”

Varod looked at the screen, concerned. “You don’t have long if you want to keep me a secret. Better hurry.”

Anna took a deep breath. She had only done this twice before, and never to go and fight monsters directly. It was time to get to it for real. “Varod, STAND TALL!” Her bright pink bracelet shone with a brilliant light as the flamingo sailed into it, and her transformation began. The comfy shorts and tee shirt became armor, bright pink and covering her torso, upper arms, and thighs. It also thankfully didn’t weigh anything near what it looked like it should. Feathers ruffled at the end of the sleeves and at the hip, and a pink mask formed on her face. Anna could take a break, the Present Feather was here!

No matter how much she’d refuse to admit it, she thought she needed a better name, too.

Enough about that for now. The news showed enough for her to know where the monster was and which way it was going, which meant that she could be there in a matter of minutes if she got moving right away. Which she did. The woods were not exactly friendly to people trying to move fast, though, and since that was what the new superheroine was trying to do, it wasn’t exactly friendly to her. It seemed like every ten steps or so she’d bounce off a tree trunk. It slowed her down for a couple of minutes until she found a trail going roughly the direction she wanted. That let her make up some time as she ran.

It was pretty obvious when she was getting close. The sound of rushing water couldn’t be explained by the tiny and trickling rivers around here. The explosions were definitely way too far away from the base to be anything but suspicious. One of those booms resulted in flying debris, rocks bouncing off of her pink armor. Another few moments, and she found a clearing.

In the sky above, a news helicopter was hovering and obviously keeping an eye on the action. To one side of the field was the towering figure of the watery monster, ten feet tall and vaguely human-shaped. This close, Feather could see that it had a dark shape at its core, looking like a sphere of metal or rock. Facing it, on the other side of the field, was a young man looking about her age. His hair was blonde and spiky, his bodysuit and light armor a bright and clashing blue and orange pattern. His hands were glowing, and why that was became clear quickly.

With a shout, the young man aimed one hand forward and let loose a giant blast of orange light. The water monster dodged, and the attack ended up reducing a nearby tree to splinters instead of anything useful. He yelled out at his opponent in a slightly rough voice. “Elemental! Surrender at once, you’ve seen what will happen if I hit you. Only one of these needs to connect!”

The water monster undulated a bit, like it was laughing. A man’s voice emerged from it. “That would require that you actually hit me, Blaster. Like this!” He lashed out, throwing a blast of water at the teenaged hero, who dodged to the side. The attack also missed, narrowly, and splashed into the woods behind him. Blaster’s dodge looked kind of cool, actually. It would be a lot cooler if it didn’t have the risk of mayhem involved.

This could get out of hand fast, so it was time to jump in. If Blaster was holding even on his own, then two against one should end fast. Leaping out into the clearing like a pink comet, Present Feather Faced down the giant monster. “Halt! Elemental, it’s two against one now, the Present Feather is here!”

It was hard to tell where the head was pointing, but the monster definitely gave the impression of looking over at her. “First orange and blue, now neon pink? Can any of you stinking heroes pick a NORMAL color scheme? Or a decent name? Fine, let’s see if you can handle THIS!”

Suddenly, the monster shot a huge ball of water at Feather. She saw it coming? Of course, but doing something about that was another matter. Feather ALMOST managed to get out of the way, but it was moving just a bit too fast. It clipped her, sending her spinning. Feather landed on her feet, though.

That didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Looks like this armor isn’t just for decoration! Okay, it’s my turn, now.

There could only be one weak point on this monster, one place that her ribbon could latch on. That dark orb in its chest! Dashing forward, Present Feather tried the move she had been practicing a couple of minutes earlier. The weighted ribbon on her baton flew forward, and this time it did not hit her own head. The tip slapped the water monster’s surface, going deep but not quite making it to the core. Feather tumbled forward, coming up ready and striking again. The second one hit right where the first one had, and with half the defending water gone THIS one slapped the sphere she had been aiming at.

The monster, Elemental, roared. The next blast of water came out much faster, hitting Feather in the face and sending her flying backwards. This one hurt exactly as much as she expected: a lot. So did hitting the tree. As she crawled back up onto her feet, ribs and back aching, Feather could see the other hero dive in to attack. Even at short range, though, both were moving fast and neither could seem to hit the other with their attacks. A lot of trees fell over, but nothing else.

There wasn’t any help for it. Present Feather would have to use her special move. Hopefully, she could finish this fight once she did. The monster was distracted, so she could aim carefully before yelling the magic word: “DAZZLE!” The spell to blind her enemies activated instantly, and traveled at the speed of light with a giant explosion. Thankfully, it was light and sound but nothing else.

Both of the others yelled in sudden surprise, staggering around. They even bumped into each other, which sent Blaster flying away from the much larger monster they were fighting. Before she could follow up, though, the monster sank into the ground like the water that it was made of, fleeing to the north and away from his target.

Blaster blinked a few times more, his vision coming back painfully slowly. “Why would you do that? I can barely see!” Tilting his head, Blaster’s not-quite-working eyes widened. “Sounds like we’ve got company. I’m out!” He, too, ran off into the treeline, this time to the East.

He turned out to be right. Seconds later, a woman landed in the middle of the clearing. She was wearing a tan wetsuit, lined with fur, tail at her back and whip at her side. Around her neck was a necklace, a smooth stone hanging from it. Tidal, one of the daring duo of heroes who usually protected the area. Her eyes landed on the one person present: Present Feather. “Well, at least you aren’t trying to hide. Guess that would be difficult in that color. I am Tidal, what is your name?”

“Do- uh, I’m the Present Feather.”

The superheroine’s lips smirked a bit. “Another newbie. You all seem to be falling from the sky these days, aren’t you?”

“Uh, for what it’s worth, I wasn’t the only one out here. Guy about my age in blue and orange who calls himself…”

“Master Blaster, yeah, Slipstream and I have met him. Still no new registrations, though, which means you haven’t yet become official. I assume you ran into something out here or I wouldn’t have seen that flash bomb of yours. Elemental’s been running around a lot this week, you meet him?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The smile got a lot more genuine. “And polite, too. Your mother must have taught you well. Okay, so here’s the deal. This is your one. Get licensed the right way and we’ll talk about the rest afterwards. I’ll find you. Oh, and your superhero name… Present Feather doesn’t really work. Maybe try Bright Feather?”

The pink heroine’s eyes widened. “That sounds WAY better! Thank you!” A faint beeping sound from her bracelet reminded her that she didn’t have forever. “I’m sorry, Ms. Tidal, I really have to run.” At her nod, Feather ran back into the woods and onto the path towards her house. Tidal’s eyes followed her until she no longer had line of sight. The trees seemed to blur by until, with a tired-sounding beep, the transformation gave way. She was Anna again, but with a mile left to get home and no time to do it in. Her family would be home any second. So, she kept running. Varod hovered beside her as she did, occasionally calling out a warning if Anna was about to run into something.

They eventually got home. Maybe not completely safely, Anna could still feel where she had bounced off the occasional tree or got hit by a water cannon. Not exactly in time, either, the family car was already in the driveway. She’d have to get creative. Stooping down, she plucked a few strands of autumn grass and walked in the back door. “Hey everyone, I’m back!”

“And you’re late, too. Where were you?” Her mother was unpacking some of the groceries into the refrigerator. Anna could hear that her dad had both of her sisters upstairs putting something away.

“Oh, I just remembered I needed to grab a sample for biology, so I went for a walk. Kind of lost track of time, it’s nice outside now that it cooled off a bit, Mom!”

Leigh Fischer looked at the bits of grass her youngest daughter was holding out, unimpressed. “I’m not sure what you need a sample for, but you could have grabbed that without leaving the backyard. And what happened to you? I can see the bruises forming from here!”

Ah. Right. The arms, chest, back, and at this rate her soul. “I… ah, I kind of walked into a tree.”

“Let me guess. You felt good and started running again, didn’t watch where you were going, and hit it going way too fast?”

Anna nodded. After all, she had in fact hit a tree while going way too fast. Flying backwards, too, so it counted as not watching where she was going.

“I guess it’s not the first time, is it? You can get some medicine from the cabinet, but then I need your help to finish putting this all away and you need to finish your homework. I see the blank sheets you left here, and none of those were for biology.”

“Yes, momma.” As Anna walked over to the pantry to get some painkillers, she could practically feel her mother looking at her. Still, she couldn’t help but smile, despite the soreness.

I have a secret that nobody knows about me. I’m Bright Feather!