Not Your Usual Magical Girl

His brown eyes and blond stubbled face hidden behind one of the plexiglass fronted helmets.

The wood creaked softly in Rana’s grip as she pulled herself onto the roof of the covered porch. Getting to her feet, she turned to help the other members of Team One.

First Augusta, a short goblin woman with leaf green skin who barely fit in the provided Kevlar armor. She was thankfully light, not carrying much equipment besides a thin wooden wand she kept in a holster by her side.

Then Gerald, a squat, muscular man with a speckled gray beard. He wore heavy kevlar, thick and covered in so many enchantments it made him a one man wall. Rana and Augusta had to work together to help him up, heaving up on his enormous iron studded metal gauntlets.

Her ears managed to pick up the sounds of team 2 getting into position below them, directly in front of the door.

Rana took in a heavy sniff, air rushing into her snout, then frowned at the information it fed her. She still followed procedure though, and pointed out the only occupied room to the others.

Getting down, they carefully crawled below the windows of the second floor and settled with their backs to the wall. All carefully positioned so that they would be invisible from the room within.

With a moment to breath, she turned toward her companions on the other side of one of the windows and began making hand signs.

‘4 occupants, all human. Male, old, strong magic. Female, old, strong. Female, teen, reptilian, extremely strong magic, target. Female, young, magic.’

She saw the frowns that covered their faces through the heavy plexiglass of their helmets. There should only have only been three occupants, and now her nose was telling her the dragon had a human form as well.

That meant the dragon had access to magic. Which meant the dragon was much more dangerous than HQ had projected.

Which was just another nail in the coffin of the disaster that was this mission. It had started out weird, a total rush job that got even weirder when Chay had revealed that the people housing the dragon were her parents.

Experienced, powerful, and owners of a Tier 4 magical weapon, they weren’t people to piss off lightly.

So the team had made the decision to break from procedure

The sound of a fist hammering on heavy wood echoed up from the porch below as Chay began the operation.

Augusta had divined that the dragon was on the second floor. The plan was to attempt negotiating with her occupants to turn over the dragon. If that failed, the former adventurers would hopefully be split up so that the team could overpower them and flush out the dragon.

The smell of the old woman vanished from the room. A minute later the latch clicked, followed by the squeak of the door opening.

“Oh, hello Chay. Weren’t expecting you today. What's the occasion?” Came a voice that was an odd mix of raspy and powerful.

“Mom, why is there a dragon in your house?” Chay asked with a heat in her voice that Rana had only heard her use when she was seriously angry.

A befuddled, “Huh?” Echoed up.

Forman cleared his throat, “Ma’am we’ve been sent here to bring in a dragon that we believe is currently in your home. Please allow us in, or we will have to use force.”

There was a long pause. A series of knocks, so quiet none of the humans would have normally noticed, echoed up from below.

So subtly she barely noticed it, one of the smells in the room behind them changed. A scent of adrenaline wafting through. She couldn't hear if they spoke, but the teen’s smell began to change as well.

It lost the wafting scent of hormones and gained a taste of heat and ash. The dragon had resumed its true form.

Rana frowned, then sent her own message, ‘Occupants alerted. Dragon in true form.’

The grimaces on the other two mirrored her own.

From below, Hilda spoke again, her voice guarded.

“Chay, we’ll talk later. As for the rest of you…” She trailed off, and when she spoke again it was a cheer that froze Rana to the core, “Come on in, it’s been a while since I’ve had fun.”

The door slammed shut.

Rana could only shake her head.

“That answers that, I guess,” Forman said.

“Forman…” Chay said slowly, “You really don’t want to go through that door.”

“She didn't have the blade on her,” He said, “We’re good to go, now stand back.”

On the roof, the team got into position around the window. Augusta slipped her wand out of its holster. Holding it to her lips, she whispered an incantation and the wand began to glow with power.

Rana slipped an air pistol out of its holster on her belt. The barrel on the thing was enormous, making it resemble a blunderbuss in design. Reaching into a protected pocket, she removed a small crystal.

She loaded it with careful hands into the gun, not even breathing until the breach finally closed around it.

Gerald took a deep breath. His fists clenched within the gauntlets to the faint squeak of leather..

Then he was through the window in a cacophony of shattering glass. A simultaneous roar of splintering wood echoed from below as Forman charged through the door.

Rana was the last to go through, quickly checking behind the group to ensure they weren’t being flanked. That was the only reason she saw Forman clip the edge of the porch’s roof as he was sent cartwheeling backwards over the lawn.

Instinct and training had her ducking through the window before her mind could catch up and stop her.

She stepped into a small bedroom, though her mind didn't take that in. Instead she laser focused on the gray scaled creature in the middle of the room. Maybe ten feet long and three tall at the shoulder with a triangular head like a weasel, it was a strange mix of cute and terrifying; its large blue eyes uncannily human.

It stood crouched protectively in front of a white haired old man and a girl with blond hair and blue eyes, both strangely calm despite the situation.

Gerald had already hunkered down, making a barrier for Rana and Augusta to hide behind. Augusta’s wand was already pointed toward the target, the heavy glow shooting forward as a bolt of energy.

The glowing bolt winked out midair.

Augusta let out a quiet wheeze of disbelief, even as Rana raised the gun and fired.

With a whoosh of compressed air, the crystal blurred across the room so fast it was invisible before shattering on the dragon’s hide.

The dragon looked down at its hide and frowned. It only seemed to realize what was happening when the team abandoned their position, diving out of the way of the window.

An instant later the dragon found itself yanked off its feet and launched out the window. Its offended screech trailed off as it flew away over the lawn while the old man and the girl gave yells of protest.

The second before it hit the ground, it expanded.

Rana gaped as it went from a ten foot lizard to a one hundred and fifty foot monstrosity in a split second. Wings that could have covered entire houses unfurled, catching the air and settling it gently on the ground below.

Then it was sent sprawling as a giant form charged across the lawn and gave it a flying tackle.

Rana wasn’t idle while this was happening, she and the others began extraction the moment the dragon left the house. She was halfway out the window, one leg in the air when something caught her around the middle and yanked her back into the room.

Even as she hit the floor, whatever had caught her continued to tighten. A glance showed a vine wrapped around her stomach and holding her to the ground.

Her fingers scrabbled at the vine, but it had no give. To her left, Augusta was in the same position, her spells bouncing uselessly off the conjured creeper.

“You think you can walk away from Cathasach Olbrecht after attacking his granddaughter in his own home?” The old man snarled.

Rana blinked, then her eyes widened. If he was Chay’s father then-

“That was a mistake, old man,” Gerald said as he tore his bindings off himself and stood, “Now release my teammates or things are going to get messy.”

The girl stepped forward before anyone else could speak. She hadn’t moved much so far, but now there was a fiery gleam in her eye.

“Move kid,” Gerald commanded with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Her head tilted and a snarlish smile came over her face.

“Sure,” She said in a falsetto.

She vanished.

A moment later she appeared behind Gerald. Her arms wrapped around his waist, then heaved him backward into a German suplex. He hit the ground with a thud that made the floor shake.

He didn't move afterwards, out cold.

The girl got to her feet, then turned to consider Rana and Augusta.

“Waiwaitwait!” Rana finally got out, voice stumbling over the words, “There’s been a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?” The girl asked with a twisting frown, while Augusta shot her a look.

“Yes!” Rana continued, “We work for Thunderbird Securities, a… an asset retrieval company. The BSMP got a report of a rogue dragon and contracted us to bring it in. But we didn't know that it was a team member’s daughter. If we had known we would have turned them down immediately!”

Beside her Augusta turned a shade of lime green. The girl looked at her, confused. Meanwhile the old man just frowned.

“Interesting, but it doesn’t exactly solve the problem we have right now,” He said, “I think it’s time to get serious.”

He held out an arm, palm facing upwards and uttered a word. It wasn't any word Rana understood, but each syllable echoed with a power that shook air around him.

A circular pane of energy, perhaps a foot wide and completely flat, appeared above his palm. Then around the edges, color began to appear. A border of first green, then reds, blues and every other color began to appear as the circle of color crept inward. Patterns slowly became apparent, strangely familiar patterns… Rana blinked and realized that it was the flower gardens outside being copied onto the image above his palm.

“Oh noooo… That's an archmage…” Augusta whimpered under her breath, “We attacked an archmage…”

Rana held in a scream of frustration. Only Chay could spend ten minutes explaining how dangerous her parents were, and then just forget to mention that her father was a damn archmage. Rana was going to slap that woman.

Although that would have to wait until after Chay had finished murdering the entire team for attacking her daughter.

The pattern finally reached the center and a perfect copy of the cabin rose up from the center of the circle. Around it the illusory form of the dragon and Gamma team appeared, fighting among the flower fields.

“Well now,” The ‘former adventurer’ said, his gaze narrowing as he stared down at the image in his hand, “This is interesting.”

-

Susan was not expecting a movement spell. Spell crystals were expensive to make and difficult to use, so most people on Themus never bothered with them outside of specific cases.

Using it with an air gun was actually a brilliant move. Using compressed gas as a propellant wouldn’t damage the crystal, effectively negating its biggest problem and allowing for incredible utility.

Though the fascinating uses of spell crystals weren’t exactly her focus as she grew to her natural size and touched down on the flowers.

She could go crazy over the new magic later. For now, she had to be wary. The attackers wanted her outside for a reason.

Then a T-Rex exploded from the trees, leaping directly at her. It must have been fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, and it was covered in brilliant blue feathers like a peacock.

It was wearing a Kevlar vest the size of a shed, THUNDERBIRD emblazoned on the front.

Sheer disbelief gave the T-Rex the time it needed to cross the distance and catch her in the jaw with a flying kick, sending her sprawling to the side.

Experience was still stronger than confusion, and she was rolling to her feet in an instant. Then she found herself ducking under a flying javelin the size of a telephone pole.

A moment later her vision was filled with flying T-Rex again and she had to jump to the right away from its attack.

She leapt forward to get distance from it, then spotted the source of the javelin. It was a fifty foot tall Cyclops, decked out in an oversized version of the Kevlar armor. Golden haired and stern faced, she protected herself with a shield the size of an oil tanker.

The cyclopes free hand reached out toward an additional dozen javelins stabbed point down into the ground next to her.

Ripping one out, she reared back and threw. The javelin flew toward Susan’s head like a bullet.

She ducked underneath it. A leap took her toward the treeline, where she reached out and with her tail and wrapped it around a squat conifer. A single pull was enough to wrench it from the ground.

With a whip of her tail she sent it flying toward the Cyclops, the branches hissing through the air as the tree flew like an arrow.

Then a brown form appeared in front of the Cyclops and Susan’s impromptu projectile was caught midair.

It took Susan a moment to identify it as a Treant. The bottom half of its trunk split into two halves, forming legs. In the upper part of the trunk a series of knots and whorls formed something like a face.

The tree was caught in one of the two enormous branches that curved down from above the tree’s face to act as arms.

Then there was a flash of light and a roar of noise in front of her face as lightning struck the ground in front of her. Susan reared back in surprise, before the beating of heavy wings in front of her told of a new arrival.

“SURRENDER YOURSELF, DRAGON,” An eagle the size of a small passenger plane bellowed.

Susan laughed in response.

Muscles twitched within her heart, and energy began to flow through her body. It reached her arms and legs, then flowed into the muscles waiting there and overcharging them.

For any normal animal this would be a death sentence, but for Susan’s overengineered body the only problem was coordination.

Her next leap had her meet the Giant Eagle midair.

It squawked in protest, flapping its wings and summoning a gale of wind to push her away. The attack came too late though, and she managed to bring her head down in a devastating headbutt that sent the eagle reeling.

She landed on the ground still laughing. Even as the T-Rex and the Cyclops both charged toward her. A second twitch of her heart sent energy flowing through her again, and a moment later she was leaping toward the Cyclops with the speed of a bullet train.

The Cyclops’ reflexes were much better than the giant eagles, however. She had her massive tower shield up and ready to block Susan’s charge in the split second it took her to cross the distance between them.

Susan felt her head smack against the bulk of the shield, then bounce up, followed by the rest of her body. She found herself deflected upward, launched higher in the air uncontrollably.

An instant later the air around her turned scorching hot as a bolt of lightning hit her. Her muscles seized, throwing her into a messy tumble.

A row of trees on the edge of the yard were reduced to splinters as she crashed back down to earth.

For a moment, she was locked in place. Then the energy wracking her muscles vanished, sucked into the conduits that filled her body. Her scales heated infinitesimally as she dumped the energy into them.

She was on her feet in moments, taking in the enemy.

Her mistake had cost her.

The team had pulled back to the other side of the yard, gathered around the Treant who was in the middle of casting a spell.

Each of its branches weaved independently, tracing circles and runes in the air as it roared out booming syllables that shook the air around it. Around it the rest of the group stood crouched, guarding it as well as helping to fuel the spell. A final word echoed from its whorled mouth as it brought its limbs together.

The glowing signals surrounding it winked out as power flowed from the Treant and into the T-Rex in front of it. Then the peacock colored reptile began to grow. Slowly, then growing faster and faster.

Susan’s head went front looking down at it to almost looking up as it reached eye level.

The T-Rex let out a roar as it reached its final height, now reaching nearly sixty feet tall.

“CEASE YOUR RESISTANCE,” The booming voice of the eagle came again, “YOU ARE OUTMATCHED, OPERATIVE BARBADOS IS NOW FULLY EMPOWERED.”

It continued speaking, but Susan ignored it. She took a moment to look over at the cabin that lay amid the destruction of their fight. She blinked in surprise.

It was immaculate. Not even a speck of dust marred the exterior. And despite the titanic impacts that had occurred so far, the only damage was the window and the door.

A quick look over the rest of the yard showed the flowers growing at an incredible pace as they filled in the channels and divots dug by gargantuan feet. Susan smiled.

She and the T-Rex, Barbados apparently, met each other’s gazes. The echoing drone of the Eagle’s pontificating continued as they gauged each other.

There was a calm in his eyes that matched her own. Neither of them expected to lose the coming fight.

They charged each other without another word, meeting in the middle with a titanic impact that made the earth tremble. Ducking under the gnashing teeth of the tank-sized head, Susan smashed her head into Barbados's chest like a battering ram.

Moving forward, her arms caught him around the chest. She heaved the T-Rex skyward, before throwing him back down in a thunderous impact that sent dirt flying.

The noise and debris seemed oddly muted, the ground seeming to flow around the impact instead of being blown away.

Then Barbados kicked up, clawed feet catching her in the torso and knocking her back.

The T-Rex took a moment to get to his feet. First he rolled belly down, then crouched his legs beneath him and stood. It gave Susan enough time to settle herself and examine her torso.

A lazy eye looked over the heavy gash now crossing her chest just above her arms. Red blood welled from it, then just as it began to spill over it stopped. In front of the group’s widening eyes, the wound began to close.

Susan shot Barbados a smug smile as the gash sealed shut. The only evidence left being split scales that even before their eyes began to fuse back together.

His mouth fell open, a surprisingly human gesture for the dinosaur. The group behind him shuffled closer together as they took the sight in. Then his eyes narrowed.

He crouched low, then leapt.

He and Susan stood perhaps two hundred feet away from each other. Barbados crossed the distance in a single bound.

Susan dove to the side as he crashed down where she had been standing.

Barbados turned to face her in an instant, only to catch Susan’s tail as it whipped across his face.

His head was sent snapping to the side, but the T-Rex still managed to retaliate. Turning his entire body into the blow, he turned full circle so that his tail whipped around to catch Susan along the full length of her body.

Her world turned upside down as she was sent tumbling. Catching herself, she whipped her head around to spot the T-Rex but found nothing.

Then two enormous feet impacted the ground behind her as Barbados landed in a crouch. Something caught Susan around the middle and she found herself hoisted into the air.

She twisted her head around to see her torso caught firmly between Barbados’s jaws. His eyes glittered smugly as he took in her captured form.

Then they widened when she turned around in her skin.

Susan didn’t know why people were surprised when she did this. She was clearly a weasel in shape, why wouldn’t she have the loose skin that made mustelids such dangerous fighters.

But despite his surprise Barbados didn't flinch even as he saw her claws coming straight for his head. Instead of dropping her he whipped his head, forcing her arms and legs out and away. Then, continuing the motion, he turned in a full circle like a discus thrower and released her mid turn.

Susan found herself flying again, this time toward a well entrenched group.

The Cyclops had her shield up, protecting the Treant who was bracing her. The Giant Eagle hovered above, feathers crackling with electricity.

Susan couldn't help but laugh as she aligned herself midair. Did they really think she couldn't learn their tricks?

She hit the group like a cannonball, entirely ignoring the Eagle’s lightning bolt as it struck her.

A magically empowered tailwhip took the Cyclops’ shield from the side, bashing her out of the way. Susan’s hind claws grabbed the Treant and smashed him into the ground, while her head reached up to snag the giant eagle between her teeth.

She whipped its body back and forth with a vengeance. Then finished by tossing the now unconscious eagle away to crash down on the lawn next to her.

There was another roar and the explosive thuds of gargantuan footfalls as the T-Rex charged her from across the lawn.

His jaw opened wide to catch her, then snapped shut as it hit the ground. An enormous root had tripped him. Within seconds more joined them, wrapping around his thrashing legs and head.

His movement stilled as the roots continued to thicken, then began to sprout enormous colorful flowers. Slowly but surely, Barbados was reduced from a threat to a very strange lawn ornament.

The cracking of limbs around her made her look back to the insensate bodies around her. The flowery vines growing up and around to entrap them as well.

Then a small weight settled on her head.

“That was awesome!” Elizabeth yelled happily, dancing a jig just above Susan’s eyes.

Susan had to bite her tongue. She shouldn’t have mentioned Hadwigis’s old choice of seating.

“An impressive fight,” A soft voice came from her left.

She turned her head to see a flowering rose the size of a room, set precariously atop a flagpole-like stem that raised it almost fifty feet in the air. Grandpa Zach sat serenely among the petals, looking down at the entrapped giants.

“Thanks for the help,” She said somewhat sourly.

“Sorry,” He said, “But I thought the simplest way to stop them from attacking again was to simply show them they couldn’t defeat you.”

She shot him a glare, then decided to change tactics “By the way, where’s Grandma?”

Zach did a little jump and gave a small cough.

“She’s finishing up with the rest of the raiders,” He said, “Oh, and also explaining things to your mother.”

Susan felt herself freeze in place. From atop her head Elizabeth quietly crept forward until she could stare down at one of Susan’s enormous eyes.

They locked gazes for a moment. It didn’t take much effort to translate Elizabeth’s look.

Susan swallowed heavily. Despite the fact she was a thousand years old, and technically not even guilty of hiding her status as a dragon from her parents. She still felt a familiar twinge of fear at the thought of them finding out like this.

Then the rest of the implications hit her and her gaze turned back to Zach.

“Yes,” He said, “Chay is a part of the group that assaulted us. Apparently this whole fiasco is the result of a great deal of miscommunication among them.”

He looked at Susan again, “And us.”

She mulled that over for a few moments

“So everybody in our family is magic, and I was just the last to know?” She finally asked.

“I don’t believe Martin’s extended family does, but otherwise yes,” Zach said with a shrug, “When you were born and we discovered you were mana blind, Chay decided that she would raise her children without magic.”

They sat silently for a second as Susan joined Zach in staring down at the carnage laid out beneath them.

“Well that backfired spectacularly.”

“Indeed.”

Movement finally came from the house as Hilda walked through the empty doorframe followed by Chay, who was speaking into a small black phone..

“Hey,” Hilda called to them, “Their boss is coming!”

-

It took a few minutes for a slate black jeep to roar up the road and park on the edge of the field.

By the time it had arrived the door and window were fixed, and the two assault teams were trussed up and carted out to wait next to the road. They had largely mellowed out after the situation was explained to them. Going from hostile to mostly resigned as they settled down to wait for the situation to resolve itself.

The two older generations of Olbrechts stood together on the cabin’s porch. Susan hadn’t quite believed her grandfather when he said that her number obsessed father was involved with magic.

But a minute into their repairs a SWAT van roared into the field, skidding to a stop before releasing their father onto the scene. He now loomed next to Chay, the second tallest within the group behind Hilda. His brown eyes and blond stubbled face hidden behind one of the plexiglass fronted helmets.

Susan herself lay curled around the cabin like the world’s most dangerous fence, desperately dodging looks from her mother. Elizabeth had chosen to remain atop her head, as far away from her parents as reasonably possible.

It was almost a relief when the door to the jeep opened, and a Native American man dressed in a suit stepped out. Even from where she sat Susan could see he looked ready to explode.

Though interestingly, his ire wasn't directed at his subordinates or the people who had subdued them. Instead he was staring down at a tablet in his hands.

Martin was already jogging across the lawn toward him. With the gentle violence reserved for frustrating yet valuable electronics, the man pressed a button on the tablet and turned to greet him.

They conferred quietly for a bit. Susan surreptitiously tried to listen in, but was distracted when she felt someone land on her head next to Elizabeth.

An ‘eep’ from Elizabeth and a glance toward the porch told Susan it was her mother.

“Hello girls,” Chay said quietly.

“Hi, Mom,” Susan and Elizabeth squeaked out together.

The weight of her mother on her head felt like the blade of a guillotine waiting to fall. Susan didn’t know what to say to her, didn't know where to begin with the mess of secrets that had been revealed.

Then the two weights vanished from her head, Chay and Elizabeth landing in front of her eyes a moment later.

Their mother looked between them for a moment before shaking her head.

“So you two learned about magic,” She said with a sigh.

“Uh…”

“Only recently…” They mumbled at the same time. Both examined the treeline, quietly hoping for another T-Rex to attack

Chay gave another heavy sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Susan stared at her in equal parts hope and terror as she continued.

“I thought magic was fading, most people do these days. Even the group I work for is dealing with less and less serious problems. So when you were born mana blind I thought we could just go without magic,” Chay finished with a shrug, looking down.

They stood there for a little bit, the distant babble of Martin and his boss filling the background. Susan wasn’t sure what to say. This mess wasn’t technically her or Elizabeth’s fault.

But it did occur to her that the thought of telling her parents about magic had never even crossed her mind. She had made plans for how to hide her agelessness, but there was simply an enormous blind spot when it came to communicating with her family.

“Sorry…,” She mumbled, then amended it when Chay looked confused, “For hiding it, I mean.

Elizabeth followed a moment later with her own quiet apology, then frowned

“Though, about the magic thing,” She said slowly, “It’s not really vanishing.”

Chay’s head whipped toward her.

“What?” She asked instantly, making her daughter jump.

“The government guys just swept all the problems under the rug,” Elizabeth spoke quickly with a frantic wave of her arms, “All the big stuff is just hiding or sleeping.”

Chay stood stock still, Elizabeth wilting under the intensity of her gaze.

“John is going to need to hear about this,” She said, finally looking away.

“Speaking of,” Susan said, happy to spare her sister her mother’s attention.

“So you’re the dragon,” The man shouted as he walked over to her.

Susan picked herself up off the ground and moved forward to loom over him.

“Yes.”

His steps slowed as he took in her true size. He shook himself, then narrowed his gaze on her face.

“Hello, my name is John and I’m the manager of this group. I’d like to begin by apologizing on behalf of Thunderbird Securities for the misunderstandings that led to this,” He said, taking a moment to shoot a meaningful glance at Chay.

Susan considered it for a moment, then shrugged, “Eh, it’s whatever.”

John nodded, then held up his tablet again. Pressing a few buttons, he turned his attention back to Susan.

“Thank you for that,” He said, “But I do have a few questions I would like you to answer,” He said.

Susan just shrugged again.

“Alright then,” John looked down at the page and began reading off of it in a monotone, “Do you have any plans involving mass destruction or overthrowing governments?”

“Not anymore.”

John stared unblinking down at the tablet for a few seconds.

“I’m… going to mark that down as a ‘no’ then,” He said finally.

The questions continued, mainly focused on whether or not Susan had any plans to maim, kill or destroy anyone or anything. Slowly but surely the conversation slowly turned to focus on Susan’s biggest source of grief, Joseph and the mousekin.

It didn’t take long to piece together what had happened. Joseph’s follower must have tracked her and Elizabeth off the bus, then reported them to the BSMP who probably had a bone to pick with her because of yesterday.

Susan probably shouldn’t have blown them off. Though to be fair, she hadn’t been planning to fight a vampire and a small army of mousekin at the time.

“This is very interesting,” John said with a smile that didn't go past his lips as Susan finished a rundown of the situation.

“So… are we good?” Susan asked, hoping that the smile would go and point at someone else.

“Yes, it appears I have a few questions for my namesake at the BSMP concerning who’s reports he’s vetting.”

Susan nodded along. She could understand where his anger was coming from. Joseph had taken a cheap shot at with his report to the BSMP, who had taken their own cheap shot by vetting the it.

Now the Thunderbirds were stuck between a dragon and a bureaucratic hellscape, and there wasn’t much they could do about it.

Susan herself wasn't happy with the situation either, but no one she cared about was hurt, and she wasn't going to get in a fight with the chosen representative for an unholy entity of pure suffering and madness over nothing.

And also Joseph, who was a pain, but currently not worth the trouble of going after.

The conversation for a little longer, then finished with Zach finally releasing the Thunderbird team from their restraints. They stood, then gathered themselves quietly and began to leave.

The human sized group, minus Chay and Martin, returned to the van along with Barbados. He gave Susan a nod before shrinking down to the size of a horse and climbing inside to the audible complaints of the vans occupants.

The Giant Eagle flapped a few times to get in the air. Then its talons grabbed onto a hook on the back of the Cyclops’s vest and it began ferrying her away. Meanwhile the Treant walked into the woods, vanishing among the trees.

Susan watched as the van finally peeled away, then vanished as it turned a corner down the road, leaving the flower fields quiet once again.

“By the way girls,” Chay said.

“Yes?” They chorused.

“You’re still totally grounded.”