Pink Gold - Ch.57 - Loose Ends (Patreon)

"This is delicious," Harper commented after finishing another BBQ rib.

Ellie grimaced, "It better be, considering how much this meal cost."

I just nodded quietly as I munched on a bite of my sandwich.

"I'm going to charge the whole thing to Cel anyways, so we may as well enjoy it," Fiona grinned, before having another bite of her rib-eye steak.

It was about half past one in the afternoon, and the four of us were enjoying what felt like a small gourmet feast. Harper had a half rack of ribs, Ellie had a buffalo chicken sandwich, I had a pulled BBQ beef sandwich, and Fiona got a twelve-ounce steak. The Welsh girl also got herself a pint of beer, while my friends and I stuck with cola.

The meal felt a little strange and decadent though, because none of us had bothered dressing since we got cleaned up earlier. We were sitting around the little table in our hotel room wearing nothing but our bed clothes. We'd all come to an unspoken agreement that we deserved a quiet lazy afternoon after dealing with that Outsider attack this morning. So when we started to get hungry around mid-day Fiona was the one who suggested taking advantage of the hotel's room service.

"What do you know about Cel?" Ellie suddenly asked the tall redhead. "My guess is they're some sort of celestial being, but they didn't look too happy when I asked them about that."

Fiona shrugged, "No idea. That's a good guess though."

"According to my ma they don't age or change at all," she continued after a gulp of her beer. "And I'm sure you've noticed they're not much for smalltalk? I don't know if that's because they're some sort of alien or otherworldly being? Or maybe they're just neurodivergent."

That put a thoughtful frown on my girlfriend's face, but before any of us could continue that conversation we were all distracted when our phones started buzzing. The fact that they all went off at once made me think there was something up on the magical girl group chat.

A few more notification alerts came in as we reached for our phones, and when I finally got mine I saw I was right. There were some messages on the chat, and I grimaced at the first one.

"It's from Peri," I said as I sat back down in front of my lunch. "This morning's Outsider attack is all over the news and social media."

We'd been avoiding that since we got back to the hotel, none of us had been in any hurry to find out what they were saying on the news, or what the public was talking about online.

Ellie sighed, "I guess we may as well see what everyone's saying about this morning's attack."

"I'd prefer to finish my lunch first, if it's all the same to you?" Fiona responded.

"Good point," Harper agreed. "I'd rather enjoy the rest of these ribs than worry about the news, or what a bunch of uninformed social media lurkers have to say about anything."

So we all put our phones aside and focused on our lunch again. Although it was hard not to think about that other stuff, now that it was on our minds. On the other hand the food was really good, and knowing how much it cost I didn't want to waste any of it.

So we all tried to talk about other things while we ate, like our meals and the weather. We also talked a bit about Saskatoon, and whether or not there was any touristy stuff around we'd like to see while we were in town. Or if there was anything else any of us wanted to do before we had to head back home again.

Eventually we'd all had enough to eat, and we ran out of inane conversation topics around the same time. Then the tall redhead found the remote and finally turned on the big TV. She navigated through the menus for a few seconds, before setting it to a world news channel from the UK.

"Ah damn," Harper sighed as soon as we saw the headline scroll across the top of the screen. According to the news there were over thirty people missing from that small Irish village, with nearly a dozen already confirmed dead.

Our Welsh friend gave him a compassionate look as she said, "All those deaths must have happened before we got there. And look, it says twenty-three people were saved. That's what you need to focus on."

My boyfriend sounded sad as he responded, "I know that. And I helped save more than half of those people. I even healed some of them. Plus who knows how many more would have died if we never showed up at all. But I still feel bad about the folks we were too late to help."

"Holy shit!" Ellie gasped as she pointed at the screen. "What the hell, Blake? Where was that, when did that happen!?"

I looked over at the TV again in time to see a dark shaky cellphone video from the small cafeteria where we found that group of survivors. The camera was focused on the huge eight-legged wolf-like Outsider as its jaw clamped down on my halberd, then it swiped its claws across my right hip. Fiona and my girlfriend both cringed when they saw how the force of the blow flung me across the lunch room. The recording followed me as I smashed into the solid wood table, then swung back to the Outsider in time to catch it charging at me with its maw wide open.

"That thing was the size of a pony," Harper sighed as we all stared at the screen. Then he gave me a serious look and added, "That scared the hell out of me Blake. When it tossed you across the room I thought you were a goner. And even if you survived I was sure you'd never walk again. You need to be way more careful."

I grimaced, "I had to try and stop it. I couldn't let it get at the civilians."

The video was still playing, it showed how I had the abomination pinned on the end of my halberd while it ran me backwards into the wall. Then the angle shifted to include Peri as she fired off a few of her magical arrows, to finally finish it off. The video skipped a few seconds to show Ruby as she used her sceptre to heal my hip, before she rushed back to rejoin the civilians. And finally the recording showed the red magical girl healing some of the survivors' injuries as well.

"I didn't realize one of them was recording all that," my boyfriend commented quietly. "Good thing nobody can recognize us in our magical girl forms."

Fiona nodded, "That's why it's vital nobody catches us transforming. And why it's important to stick to our code names when we're transformed."

I couldn't help thinking back to Judith's thugs again. The two who confronted us the day Violet and I first met both saw me transform into Rosa. I wasn't sure if the guy who attacked me at work the day before saw too, or if he'd even remember. Either way there were at least two strangers who knew my secret identity. I could only hope they'd keep it to themselves, but with all this stuff on the news I had a sinking feeling it was only a matter of time before someone talked.

Then a darker thought crossed my mind. We all knew Judith took some henchmen up north with her, and none of those guys survived the rift and the Outsiders attack. I felt guilty about it, but there was a chance the guys who knew my secret were part of that group. And if so, then my identity was probably safe after all.

Except there were two more people who knew all our identities. We couldn't exactly hide that from Tina and Glen, not after saving them from being sacrificed as magical girls then spending two days waiting for rescue with them in our normal forms. They swore to keep all that a secret, but now they'd both disappeared. And if someone was trying to get that information out of them...

"Social media's going crazy again," Ellie commented, distracting me from those dark thoughts. She was looking at her phone as she frowned, "Loads more talk about how it's all a hoax or a publicity stunt or something."

Harper scowled, "Thirty people dead or missing is no hoax."

Fiona agreed, "They're making that point on the news. And it looks like the survivors they've interviewed on the news are singing our praises too."

"The Irish authorities are taking the whole thing very seriously," she added a moment later. "As they should."

According to the news, some Irish officials were talking about reaching out to the Canadian government and law enforcement agencies, so they could share information about the two attacks. The fact that the same 'mysteriously dressed young women' were involved in both events made it clear that the two attacks were related in some way.

"Great," I groaned. "On top of everything else we're going to wind up being wanted by the government."

My girlfriend reminded me, "That's pretty much how it played out in the fifties too, at first."

"That's right," Fiona nodded. "According to my ma they were pestered and chased by the American soldiers at first. It took a long time before the military leadership were ready to accept that the magical girls were there to help. Or that they were actually useful."

"I sure hope this doesn't drag on for years," Harper sighed. "There can't be that many more Outsiders lurking out there in the ocean, can there? The rift wasn't open that long, right?"

I shook my head, "No idea. I'm with you though. I hope we've already seen the last of them."

"There's still one more loose end to tie up," Ellie reminded us. "Are we planning on taking care of that today?"

Fiona made a face for a second or two, then she sighed. "Let's wait until tonight? We'll go after dark. Say, ten PM local time. I'll text Peri and let her know, I'm pretty sure that's nine o'clock for her."

"That gives us plenty of time to rest up after this morning's action," she added as she picked up her phone and started composing a message to the green magical girl.

I asked, "So we've picked a time, what about the plan? How are we going to do this?"

The tall redhead shrugged, "We'll stick with what we discussed at breakfast this morning. Forget the SUV, we'll magic-up here in the hotel room then take the Onyx Express straight to the front lawn of the house. Fuck subtlety, we just kick down the door then go in and do what needs to be done."

My boyfriend and I exchanged an uneasy look. Then I asked, "What does that mean exactly? Even if someone's using dark magic there, they're still human. We're not just going to go in and kill them, right?"

"We might also be dealing with hostages," Harper pointed out. "So we need to be extra careful, and make sure we don't go attacking the wrong people."

Fiona nodded, "Don't worry I haven't forgotten. Rosa and Peri and I will be going in unarmed, so we won't be using deadly weapons on humans. If we have to fight we can do it bare handed."

"Onyx and Ruby will have their weapons with them since they're non-lethal," the Welsh woman continued. Then she gave Ellie a look and added, "Or at least, they're mostly non-lethal. Anyways we'll need their magic to find the occupants, and to identify which ones are using the dark magic. We need to make sure we don't get them confused with anyone that's being held captive."

Harper grimaced slightly as he asked, "What if we run into more Outsiders there?"

The redhead shook her head, "I honestly can't see that happening. For one thing how would they get there? We're nowhere near the sea."

"Whoever's using dark magic might be able to communicate with them though," Ellie pointed out. "It's possible they could even have some sort of control over Outsiders."

She frowned as she added, "What if this morning's attack was meant to distract us? Like what if they noticed us driving by Judith's house yesterday? Maybe they arranged the attack in Ireland to draw us away from here? Or to try and tire us out, or weaken the team or something?"

"It only takes us a second to summon our weapons," I stated softly. "If we do run into more Outsiders then Violet and Peri and I will deal with them."

Fiona nodded, "Blake's right. I doubt it'll happen, but if we run into more we'll handle them. Business as usual."

"If this morning's attack was a diversion then maybe we shouldn't wait until tonight?" our boyfriend suggested. "If someone can control and direct Outsiders, then we're just giving them more time to set up another attack. That'll put even more innocent lives at risk."

I sighed, "If we go much earlier it'll still be daylight out. Neighbours will see us, someone will probably call the cops. Or the local news teams. We'll have to deal with the authorities getting in our way, ontop of whatever dark magic that's already waiting for us. I think after dark is better."

"I agree," Fiona stated. "Let's stick to the plan. We've got about eight hours until go time, that's plenty of time for all of us to get a bit more rest."

She drained the last of her beer then teased, "Unless you kids feel like doing a bit of sight-seeing while we're here? Or maybe we could go shopping instead? There must be somewhere around here we can pick up some swim suits. Then maybe we can hit the hot tub after all? Or at least we could visit the hotel's indoor pool."

Harper chuckled, but the thought of sharing a hot tub with my boyfriend, my girlfriend, and Fiona made me blush. And knowing there could be other hotel guests in there too made me feel even more self-conscious about the idea. Meanwhile Ellie stayed quiet, but she actually looked like she was considering it.