Announcementcontent warning: violence; injury; gore; deathIt only took Ellie, or Onyx after she used her ring, a few seconds to learn some valuable lessons about her staff and its magic. The most important of which was she couldn't transport other people on their own.

  Her teleportation only worked if she transported herself. She could bring passengers with her, but it didn't work at all unless she went along for the ride. Which irritated the bck magical girl to no end, since it meant she couldn't port Outsiders to their doom like she'd originally hoped. On the plus side she didn't seem to have any trouble moving multiple people at once. The only limit seemed to be how many could fit inside the circle as she twirled her staff over our heads.

  Another benefit she discovered very quickly was her staff let her home in on certain kinds of magic. So once the rest of the team used their rings, Onyx was able to teleport directly to them, regardless of where on Earth they were.

  From my living-room in Ontario the three of us jumped to California where we collected Peri. Then Onyx ported us to New Zeand where we met a very grumpy Lily. Our next stop was Germany, where a weary-looking Azura joined the gang. And finally we poofed to Wales, where a still-limping but eager Violet greeted us.

  Then my girlfriend took all seven of us to our ultimate destination, the pce where Cel said Outsiders had attacked. That was back in Canada again, on the east coast of Newfoundnd about a dozen kilometres north of St. John's.

  Traveling with the bck magical girl was a strange experience, and even after a handful of jumps I still wasn't used to it. I doubted any of us were, other than Onyx herself. When she activated her magic it seemed like all the light in the world was sucked away, leaving us in complete and utter darkness. That was followed by a lurching sensation, like when you're in an elevator and it unexpectedly drops a half dozen centimetres. Then the darkness would fade and we'd be somepce else.

  After the final jump we found ourselves in the middle of a baseball diamond, surrounded by grass and some scattered trees and bushes. The Atntic ocean was barely a hundred meters behind us to the east. A parking lot was directly to the north on our right. Ahead of us to the west was a quiet country road lined with small houses and other structures. And to the south on our left was more grass, trees, and a few more buildings visible beyond.

  In all the location seemed a lot like any small-town rural area. Apart from the ocean it could have been just outside the vilge Ellie and Harper and I called home. And that left me wondering what the locals would be thinking if they looked out their windows and saw us. Especially if they saw us arrive, considering we'd have appeared out of nowhere in a 'fsh' of darkness.

  Even if they didn't see our magical arrival we were still quite a sight. White, Red, Pink, Green, Blue, Violet, and Bck, we were seven young women all dressed in matching mini-skirts and bustiers, with colourful hair that matched our outfits. And each of us was carrying a unique weapon that was just as colourful as everything else about us.

  I figured even if people didn't know anything about magical girls they'd know there was something weird going on. I expected to see folks taking pictures with their phones, or maybe coming to ask what the heck we were up to.

  Except there was nobody around, and no cars on the road either. If anyone was watching, they were doing it well out of sight, hidden away safely inside their homes.

  In fact the whole area seemed oddly quiet and still. The only sign of life or movement came from the parking lot, where a police car sat with the doors open and the emergency lights blinking. I didn't see any cops around though, which left me with a bad feeling.

  The sun was low in the sky ahead of us, and behind us some dark clouds hung low over the ocean. With less than an hour of daylight left the scene had a sort of spooky twilight feeling.

  "Azura, Violet, Rosa, you're with me," Lily ordered. "Spread out, but not too far. We'll check the police car, then try and figure out which way to go from there."

  She frowned as she added, "Onyx, Ruby, you two stay with Peri. Watch our backs, keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual."

  All of us had our weapons ready. I gripped my halberd tightly in both hands as I started to walk towards the parking lot with half the team. I moved out a little ways to the right, with Violet about five or six meters to my left. She held her big two-headed axe raised, and despite her limp she looked like she was ready for battle. Lily was a little further to the left, and had her diamond-bded sword in hand. And finally on the far left, Azura held her big sapphire war-hammer resting on her shoulder.

  "Careful," Lily added in a quieter voice as we neared the cop car. She gestured, "Violet, Rosa, circle right. Azura and I will go left."

  There were a few other cars in the small lot, but they were parked and had the doors and windows closed. The police vehicle looked more like it had just been abandoned, with both the front doors wide open. And the fact that the blue and red lights were all fshing made it clear they'd been responding to an emergency. It wasn't hard to guess what that meant.

  "Damn it," Violet sighed as we made our way around the car.

  A moment ter I saw it too, and fought down a wave of nausea. It was human remains, but just like up north there wasn't much left. Some scraps of cloth and bits of bone, along with a badge, a gun, and handcuffs. So we knew it was a cop.

  "What now?" Azura asked as she looked around. "It has to be around here somewhere, but where?"

  Lily added grimly, "We have to find the damned thing, before it can consume any more people."

  "Hey!" my girlfriend suddenly called out from behind us. "This way! There's something over there!"

  She was still standing in the middle of the baseball diamond with Ruby and Peri. She was pointing with her staff though, sort of south-east towards a line of trees and bushes about twenty meters away.

  "What did you see?" Lily asked as the four of us headed back towards the others.

  Onyx shook her head, "I didn't see anything, but I can feel it? Through my staff. It feels unnatural."

  The white magical girl made a face, like she wasn't happy to be relying so much on another brand new magical girl. She kept her feelings to herself though, and instead just nodded.

  "Alright let's check it out," she sighed. "Azura, Violet, Rosa, and I up front. Peri, Ruby, Onyx hold back a half dozen meters. Same as before, watch our backs and call out if you see something."

  We were all on guard as we approached then entered the trees. My eyes kept darting around, left and right, up and down as I searched for any sign of danger. It turned out to be a very narrow copse though, and only a few seconds ter we emerged out the other side without running into any trouble.

  "There is nothing here," Azura stated as she turned and gave my girlfriend an accusing look.

  Onyx ignored the blue magical girl's tone and pointed further ahead, "It's coming from those buildings. I can't tell which one yet, but maybe when we get closer?"

  The buildings in question were another hundred meters away, across more grass and some bushes. It looked like a farmhouse, a barn, and a couple other outbuildings. There were two more smaller houses to either side, and it looked like all the structures were at the end of a short dead-end road that connected to the country ne.

  "Are you sure about this?" Lily half-demanded as she gave the bck magical girl a look.

  Azura grumped, "How do we know this isn't a wild goose chase? We could be following shadows, while the Outsider roams free somewhere else."

  I was about to point out we didn't have any other leads, when Peri beat me to it.

  "Enough with the bickering already," the green magical girl stated. She sounded as annoyed as me when she pointed out, "If you two would spend less time bitching about our new teammates, you might have noticed the trail. That's leading in the same direction Onyx says she senses something."

  I'd missed it too, but sure enough there were marks in the ground, dead patches where bare dirt was free of any grass or weeds. The narrow oval marks were each about thirty or forty centimetres long and maybe ten across. Individually they didn't look like anything special, but together they formed a fairly obvious line. And like Peri said, they were heading straight for the group of buildings my girlfriend indicated.

  In fact looking back the way we'd come I realized there was a fairly obvious gap through the trees too. We'd missed it by a half dozen meters, but from this angle I could tell something had passed through there and left a hole in the vegetation. That actually gave us a good idea of how big the Outsider was. The dead space was about seventy-five centimetres high, and maybe a meter wide.

  Lily and Azura were both quiet for a couple seconds as they stared at the trail. Then the white magical girl gestured with her sword, "Move out girls, follow the tracks."

  I gave both Onyx and Ruby an apologetic look, then gnced at Peri with a grateful smile before I got moving with everyone else. The little patches of death made it easy to follow the Outsider, and led us right up to the open door at the lowest level of a barn built into a bit of a slope in the ground.

  "I think it's still in there," my girlfriend whispered as we all stared at the structure. "It feels close anyways."

  Lily gestured for Peri and Onyx to wait outside and guard this door, then motioned for Ruby and Violet to circle around and keep watch on the other side of the structure. Then she and Azura moved inside first, while I followed a few paces behind them.

  The interior was pretty dark, thanks to the setting sun outside and the ck of any artificial lighting, so it took us a moment for our eyes to adjust. The lowest level was set up with some animal pens, but they were all empty. Some of them had been broken open though, which left me with the unpleasant thought that at least a few may have been occupied before the Outsider got here. And unfortunately there weren't any convenient tracks to follow, the floor here was just hard-packed dirt.

  "Careful girls," Lily whispered as the three of us spread out.

  It only took a half minute to cross from one end of the barn to the other without coming across any trace of our quarry. We ended up at the foot of a rough wood staircase that led up to the next level. Lily raised her sword then led the way, with Azura right behind her. I let them get halfway up before I started to follow, so I wouldn't be too close behind them with my halberd.

  The second level was wide open, with a thick wooden floor mostly hidden under a yer of loose straw. The side where we stood was open right up to the ceiling several meters above us, although there were a bunch of shelves along the walls that were full of old cardboard and wooden boxes, plus lots of loose equipment. Across from us, the other side of the structure had another level part-way up that was home to a handful of hay bales, some wooden barrels, and a bunch of old junk. Like they'd just stuffed everything up there for storage. A simple wooden dder seemed to be the only way up to that level.

  The only exit apart from the way we came in appeared to be a rge sliding door to our left, that was open just wide enough that we could see Violet and Ruby guarding that exit. We didn't have to ask to know they hadn't seen the Outsider, and there weren't any more tracks out there either. Which meant it was hiding in the barn somewhere.

  After a few seconds of looking around, the white magical girl sighed and gestured towards that upper level with all the junk. She whispered, "It must be up there, but be ready for anything."

  Azura and I both nodded, then followed as Lily led the way. She held her sword at the ready above her as she began carefully climbing up, while I took up a position behind and to the left and the blue magical girl waited near the base of the dder.

  It felt like both Azura and I were holding our breath as we watched for any sign of the Outsider. I was almost positive the thing was lurking somewhere, the whole situation felt too much like a trap. Even so, when it struck it still caught all three of us off-guard.

  Instead of coming at Lily from behind some of the junk in the storage area on that upper level, it shed out from where it was clinging upside-down between some joists supporting the top floor. Lily was almost at the top of the dder holding her sword up over her head, so she wasn't prepared to defend against something attacking at chest level.

  She let out a scream as the Outsider struck her on the right side just under her arm, and magical girl or not, I was sure she was about to lose the arm. She screamed again as she struggled to pull herself free of the monster's grasp, and a moment ter her sword fell from her hand to nd on the barn floor by Azura's feet.

  The Outsider turned out to be some kind of insectoid thing, like the top half of a huge praying mantis grafted onto the body of a giant millipede. Its body was dark brown and bck, which helped it blend in with the joists and rafters where it had been hiding. It was standing upside-down so half its mass was still hidden, but its head and long vicious-looking forelimbs were visible. One of them was still hooked deep into Lily's side, while it brought the other one around at her head.

  I was already moving by that point, I lunged forward beneath the dder then thrust my halberd upward and drove the long pointed tip into Outsider's body. Meanwhile Azura practically jumped up the dder and grabbed the white magical girl by the back of her bustier, then yanked her backwards and free of the abomination's grasp.

  The two of them hit the floor with a loud thud a couple meters behind me, while I kept the Outsider pinned to the ceiling over my head.

  "Don't let it get free!" Violet shouted as she dashed past me with her axe raised and ready. "Ok now try and bring it down in between us!"

  "Here it comes!" I warned as I gave my weapon a twist, then sort of thrust sideways as I yanked and swung it downwards.

  The monster was struggling and thrashing, and if not for my magical girl strength it would have wrenched the halberd right out of my hands. Instead I was able to keep it under control it as I smashed it down onto wooden floor. The impact was hard enough that both its carapace and the heavy wood pnks beneath it cracked under the force.

  It was still impaled on the end of my halberd, but immediately started struggling to pull itself free. That's when Violet brought her big two-headed axe down, and neatly chopped the thing in half. Both parts kept squirming though, so the two of us delivered a few more chops, until the chunks finally began to harden then crumble to dust.

  "That's it," I sighed. "It's dead."

  "Good riddance," the purple magical girl stated with a scowl.

  Then both of us turned around, to find Azura and Ruby kneeling on either side of the fallen magical girl. Lily's face looked as pale as her outfit, while my boyfriend held her sceptre above the white magical girl's side. And both the rge red gemstone and Lily's horrific injuries were glowing a soft warm red.

  PurpleCatGirl