Chapter 3: A Claws for Alarm

It’s a relatively normal day for the Royal Elements so far. Each of them, except for Royal Aether, is lounging about on their living room’s couches after a hard day of work.

Tierra, in particular, looks satisfied. “You know, I made a decent amount of sales at the market today,” She begins, her chill gaze going across her friends. “Guess making produce out of magic can be beneficial."

Fiamma looks at her brown-haired friend with a slow blink. “You know, why do you still have a garden, anyway?”

“Well, just making it out of magic just ruins the fun,” Tierra explains. “Though admittedly, magic produce is a million times faster. Magic plants can’t compare to the homegrown stuff, still.”

 Celeste enters the room, her silver eyes gaining the attention of her crew. “Alright, it’s about time to train, girls. Is everyone ready?”

“We have training today?” Aria asks with surprise. “I didn’t realize!”

“You always pick some weird schedules, Celeste.” Fiamma comments.

Celeste puts a hand on her hip. “Well, our work times aren’t in line with one another.” The space queen explains. “And anyway, I know we deserve rest on our break days, despite the amount of free time.”

“You have a point there,” Fiamma says. “I get exhausted from work alone.”

“Let’s get this over with,” Marina mumbles.

The five magical girls leave the warm comfort of the living room and head into the large field that serves as their backyard. The backyard is gated off with a simple wood fence, and Tierra’s Garden is tucked away in one of the corners. Royal Aether has already set up some small asteroids to use as targets.

“Remember, everyone, speed and focus are key,” Celeste reminds everyone. “Now… attack!”

Within a second of Celeste’s command, the five Royal Elements sent a series of attacks at the rocks. A jet of flames from Royal Fire and a solar flare from Royal Aether give a couple of the targets a thick layer of soot. A lightning bolt from Royal Air and a stone from Royal Earth chip a piece of rock on another pair of targets. Lastly, Royal Water’s wave dampens the last of the targets.

“Alright, good,” Celeste judges. “Now… again!”

The five queens throw out a second barrage, this time making the asteroids more withered. Despite the noise of the attacks hitting each target, the five begin to notice the sound of something metallic reverberating through the air.

“Okay… one more time!”

During the third attack, however, the blonde Royal Air’s thunderbolt misses the asteroid. It soars through the air before disintegrating. “Oops, sorry!” She says.

“You missed, Aria.” Celeste comments.

“I know. It’s just… is there something rattling in our garbage?” Royal Air mentions.

Now that it’s been pointed out, the Royal Elements notice the sound of clanging metal mixed with what seems to be the ruffling of paper. “Eh, it’s probably just a raccoon,” Royal Fire brushes off.

“Whatever it is, it’s making me lose attention,” Royal Air explains.

“Focus, Aria,” Royal Aether tells her. “You’ll need to be precise to battle.”

“Yeah, I know,” the blonde responds.

Royal Aether starts to speak again. “You’ll never know when you have to… dodge!”

Within a split second, the purple-haired leader sprays a beam of galactic dust from her hand. The other Royal Elements manage to barely dodge it in time, with the nebula gently grazing Royal Air’s fluffy dress. “Hey!” She snaps in shock. “Yes, I’ll pay more attention, leader…”

Royal Aether gives a slight smirk. “Good, because you’ll need it for stunts like that.”

“Well, two can play that game!” Royal Air declares before firing a lightning bolt at her leader. Royal Aether teleports out of the way right before it can hit her.

“Heh, not bad,” Royal Aether says with a bit of mischief. “Now try this for size.”

Another blast of cosmic dust comes out of the purple-haired leader, which everyone manages to dodge in time. “Good job, ladies. Let’s do this once again on three.”

The Royal Elements prepare for another attack to dodge, but something distracting happens again.

BANG!

Royal Air’s head snaps in the general direction from which she heard the sound. It distracts her enough that she gets fully hit by the blast of cosmic dust. “W-whoa!” She yelps.

While harmless, Aria can still feel the nebula-like substance hitting her like a fan’s wind. “You lost your focus again, Aria.” Royal Aether scolds.

The blonde princess looked a bit guilty at messing up again. “Sorry! I… uh… guys? I think our trash can just fell over.”

Royal Aether raises an eyebrow while crossing her arms. “What do you mean?”

“Yeah, I think I heard something like that, too,” Royal Earth adds. “Should one of us check?”

The five stay silent for a moment. “I-I’ll go check,” Royal Water says, since no one else is responding.

The watery queen leaps into the air and floats above the fence to swiftly check any activity at the Royal Elements’ garbage cans. Indeed, one of the trash cans has fallen over, pouring some discarded objects across the concrete. But Marina’s eyes especially widen as she notices something large digging through the trash.

Amongst the discarded papers and rotting food being tossed out, there is a pair of legs popping out of a fallen trash can. They appear to have legs colored in gray, have the texture of fur, and have paws for feet. A gray tail swishes above the garbage can.

Soon enough, the mysterious thing pops out of the trash, fully unveiling itself. It appears to be a gray, humanoid cat with a purple shirt with a yellow rim and a skirt of the same grape-like color. The cat has a pointy, purple witch hat that has its ears sticking out of it. It also has short, black hair on the sides of its face. Its big, green eyes notice and stare at Royal Water.

“What the-”

The moment Royal Water speaks, the cat-human skittishly dashes off. She looks back at her fellow Royal Elements. “Did you see something?” Royal Fire asks loudly.

“Uh… guys, th-there was like some sort of cat thing in our trash,” Royal Water explains. “It looked like some sort of human… witchy cat.”

Confused looks spread amongst the other Royal Elements. “A human witch cat?” Royal Earth says. “Digging through our trash?”

“Y-yeah,” The watery queen confirms. “It looked at me and ran off.”

Royal Aether sighs. “Great, first a strange rabbit man and now a human cat thing.”

“Hey, at least it’s not doing any harm!” Royal Air reassures her header.

As if on cue, Royal Aether’s phone begins ringing. She pulls it out and picks up the call. “Hello?”

A male voice comes out of the phone. “Is this the Royal Elements?”

“Yeah?” Royal Aether answers.

“Did you guys see a humanoid cat running across the street?” The voice asks.

The cosmic queen raises an eyebrow. “Yes…? I heard it just now. My colleague even saw it digging through our trash.”

The man lets out a sigh. “Okay, good. I’m not crazy. I’ve heard that the cat’s been causing a lot of trouble lately. It’s been going around the neighborhood and stealing everyone’s trash!”

“Yeah, that seems to be the case, but we’re not exactly the pest control crew. We’re protectors of the city,” Royal Aether explains.

The man on the phone begins to argue back. “Alright, I understand that, but that cat hasn’t just been stealing trash. It’s been taking over alleyways and backyards, and anyone who gets nearby will get either scratched or cursed by it!”

Royal Aether pauses for a moment. “Cursed?”

The leader of the Royal Elements takes a moment to think. Greedily taking territory that doesn’t belong to it… hurting and cursing people… I suppose that’s a job we need to address.

“Fine, we’ll take care of it.” Royal Aether tells the man before hanging up. She looks at the rest of her team. “Ladies, we have work to deal with.”

“Right now? But aren’t we in the middle of training?” Royal Air asks.

“Consider this job of ours to be today’s training,” Royal Aether returns. “That cat thing Marina saw just now is drumming up trouble.”

Royal Fire scoffs at her leader. “So it’s doing more than eating our trash?”

“Yes, it is, Fiamma,” Celeste confirms. “Let’s stop it before it hurts anyone else.”

“Heh, and I thought it just liked Fiamma’s cooking that much,” Royal Air cracks, causing her fiery colleague to scoff at the joke and smirk from the ego stroke.

“Focus, team!” Royal Aether commands, gaining everyone’s attention. “Let’s hurry and catch up to that cat, it’ll only get farther away the more we doddle!”

With a silent nod from everybody else, the Royal Elements fly up and leave their house with quick haste. Up in the sky, the neighborhood seems to be fine, but of course, with how sneaky something like a cat could be, the quietness may simply be a surface-level thing. The sun is starting to set, too, causing the view to be obscured in darkness.

“Does anyone see that cat thing?” Royal Earth asks the bunch, having trouble looking.

Royal Fire looks at her gem-like friend. “I’d say we split and search for it,” She suggests.

“That should be a good move. Let’s look for that cat,” Royal Aether approves.

The Royal Elements begin to float away from each other in hopes of getting a sight of the witch-like cat. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for one of them to locate the cat. A few houses away, Royal Water notices the creature digging through another trash can.

The black-haired lady’s eyes widened at the hungry cat. “G-guys!” She yells. “It’s over here!”

The gray beast cocks its face towards Marina, freezing for a moment as it witnesses the other heroines approaching. It attempts to make a run for it, but Royal Fire lands right in front of the cat. “End of the line, you feline freak!” The fiery queen growls at it.

The other Royal Elements are now encircling the witch cat. It lets out a weary meow in response. “Just what do you think you’re doing, digging into trash and unfairly claiming alleyways?” Royal Aether asks the cat sternly.

All the creature does is let out another meow as its tail begins to flick around. “Uh… can it understand English?” Royal Air asks, confused by its lack of response.

Despite this, the cat begins to make an angrier sound, realizing that it's cornered by the five queens. It gives out a hiss before lunging at Royal Fire! It attempts to claw at her, but Royal Fires leaps out of the cat’s paw’s way in time.

 “Alright, you asked for it! Time for some witch burning!” The brunette yells. She attempts to shoot fire at the feline, but it too dodges.

“C-cats hate water, r-right?” Royal Water says sheepishly. “Then let me take it down.”

Royal Water hits the witch cat with a spray of water, coating it in the cold liquid. The beast meows with discomfort, its movements now a bit more sluggish.

“Sweet, Marina! Now let me synergize with you!” Royal Air cheerfully responds before she zaps the cat with a strong electrical attack. The feline winces loudly as the supercharged electrons rush through its body.

“G-geez!” Royal Water yelps in shock. “G-guys… isn’t this thing just an animal? W-we should be more gentle with it.”

“Didn’t you just spray it with water?” Royal Earth asks.

“Water is a lot less aggressive than lightning, you kn-know,” Marina defends.

After recovering from the Air Queen’s attack, the witch cat suddenly pulls a strange, orange drink in a bottle from its pocket, alarming most of the Royal Elements. “Do animals just pull out random potions like that?!” Royal Fire retorts Royal Water.

The gray feline proceeds to toss the potion at Royal Earth with great force. Royal Earth doesn’t have time to dodge before the bottle shatters all over her, spreading the orange liquid all over her dress. The earthy queen screams and kneels, suddenly being met with an intense feeling of stinging pain all over her body.

“Oh god, are you okay, Tierra?” Royal Air asks her friend.

“Y-y-yeah…” Royal Earth grits through her teeth. “It j-just… b-burns.”

“You want to play dirty, huh?” Royal Aether asks the cat. “Then eat this!”

The space queen fires a hot jet of stardust at the witch cat, but the feline jumps out of the way in time. It aims itself towards Royal Aether and claws at her right arm.

“AH, FUCK!” Royal Aether cries, grabbing her now scratchmarked arm.

Now with two crippled Royal Elements, the cat witch attempts to dash away. “G-get her!” Royal Aether commands her team.

Royal Air, Fire, and Water all begin to chase after the creature, with the other two Royal Elements unable to do much else. Royal Air is the first to try and strike down the cat, this time using another thunderbolt. The cat leaps out of the way, however, having learned what the cloudy queen can do from the first shock.

“Ugh, this thing’s too damn fast!” Royal Fire complains. “Aria, you’re the fastest of all of us. Let’s try to pincer that cat!”

“On it!” Royal Air replies.

Royal Air stops the witch cat dead in its tracks by flying above, then landing in front of it. Without much time, Royal Fire swiftly hits the cat with a fireball, making it screech a second time! “Take that!” She teases.

Still having some endurance left, the cat takes out another potion, this time a blue one, and throws it at Royal Fire!

“OW!” Royal Fire screeches. “What did that… do…”

The fiery princess yawns before suddenly collapsing, alarming Royal Water and Royal Air. “F-Fiamma, a-are you okay?!” Royal Water asks, approaching her fallen friend.

Upon closer inspection of Royal Fire, she appears to be sound asleep, snoring like an old man. “Huh… a sleeping potion,” Royal Water murmurs.

As the last two Royal Elements are distracted, the gray cat witch attempts to bolt again. Royal Air notices this. “Oh snap! She’s getting away!” She shouts.

“I-I got it!” Royal Water says. She floats up into the sky and fires some ice towards the ground in front of the cat. The resulting slippery patch makes the cat fall over, stopping it in its tracks for a moment.

“Sweet! Let me dish out more pain!” Royal Air adds, soon giving the feline a second zap. Despite the double whammy, the cat manages to get up weakly. It dishes out a third, green potion, this time at Royal Air.

“Eep!”

Royal Air attempts to dodge, but she, too, gets hit. The queen groans, beginning to stumble around. “Ugh… my vision,” She croaks. “And my stomach!”

Unable to focus, Royal Air tries to fire another lightning bolt at the witch cat, but just hits the sky instead. “U-uh oh… I gotta do this on my own!” Royal Water realizes.

The black-haired queen attempts to go after the cat, but it has already recovered enough to continue running. Royal Water attempts to shoot another patch of ice to slow the cat down, but it avoids the second trap. Seeing that the ice patch failed, Royal Water switches to a faster splash of water, which momentarily stuns the feline. This gives Royal Water enough time to grab the witch cat by the leg.

“St-stop!” Royal Water commands the cat. The gray animal struggles a bit within her grasp. It slashes at Marina’s face, making her wince, but not let go. As the cuts on her cheek radiate with pain, Royal Water finds herself unsure what to do next, until…

“Marina, get out of the way!”

Royal Water’s recognition of the voice makes her let go of the cat and back up. Before the cat can react, a large asteroid pummels it into the road, knocking it out! Royal Aether approaches the watery princess with her solar rod in her hand.

“Th-thanks, Celeste.” Royal Water says. She gazes at the fallen witch cat. “Looks like we finally took care of it.”

Royal Earth approaches the two. “Yeah. That thing did a number on us, heh. I still feel some of the effects of that potion.”

“Me too,” Royal Air mentions, stumbling towards the group.

“Don’t worry, team. Unlike most people, we should be able to heal these injuries a lot faster than usual.” Royal Aether explains.

“Well, except for Ms. Sleepy over there,” Royal Earth jokes, pointing to Royal Fire, who’s still out cold on the ground.

“Someone should carry her to bed,” Royal Aether mentions, before getting her attention back to the witch cat. “Now, what do we do with this thing?”

“I mean, we can’t keep containing bad guys in our basement,” Royal Earth says. “It’ll get filled up, and one of them might eventually escape. That damn hare is already taking up a lot of room.”

“Hmm, you have a point,” Royal Aether comments. “But I’m still unsure how the police would react to something as unusual as this. At least a cat person looks more human and can speak.”

Royal Water gets an idea. “Uh, maybe w-we can just send her to a pound? She isn’t exactly as sapient as that bunny guy. A-and besides, pounds are kinda a prison for animals if you think about it.”

The group hums at the suggestion for a moment. “I suppose that could work,” Royal Earth answers. “But that is a pretty human-like being. Was it even a cat to begin with?”

“Honestly… I’m like fifty-fifty on whether or not that thing’s a witch who turned herself into a cat or a cat who’s turned herself into a witch.” Royal Air explains. “Ah, whatever! I’m sure we can give this kitty a nice home, even if she’s humanoid and malevolent! She’s just a witchy cat! Ooh, that should be her name!”

“Alright, team, then it's settled,” Royal Aether concludes. “We’ll bring this cat thing to a pound. Let’s rest for the day, since I say we did pretty well despite the injuries.”

Royal Water rubs her bloody cheek, having been reminded of her scratch mark. “Y-yeah… Hey, Tierra, c-can you be the one to take the cat… er… Witchy Cat?”

“Sure thing,” Royal Earth replies. “I guess that means Aria has to carry Fiamma to her bed.”

Royal Air answers her friend gleefully. “Ah, I can do that! Hope Fiamma’s sleep schedule isn’t ruined by this.”

And so, the Royal Elements begin to wind down for the day. Royal Earth picks up the newly named Witchy Cat while Royal Air puts Royal Fire over her shoulder. The two begin their paths, with Royal Aether and Water following the cloudy queen. Today was a hard day of work for the bunch, but the Royal Elements tried their best to keep up with threats, even one as small as a magical cat. The question is what they’ll do next.

Back to Chapter Selection