Starlight Chapter 24

Chapter 24
The scene that Hectorephes and Trixie found themselves was one at the tail end of a battle. Ingrid and Chouko sat off in the corner, looking over Elise. Mbali stood in the center, clutching her arm. She was untransformed, and her uniform was torn in various places. Blood dripped to the ground from the injury on her arm.
“Omygosh I’m so sorry!” Trixie called out as Hectoraphes lands her on the floor of the chamber. “I should have gotten here faster. Is everyone alright?”
“Does it look like it?” Mbali shouted to her, shaking her head with a frustrated sigh. “But, thanks for coming in. When your portal opened, Strablight left. You gave us a chance to regroup.”
“Crap. We’ll need to get Sarah or someone to look at that,”
“I’ll be fine,” Mbali said. “I’m worried about the others.”
Hectorephes stepped slowly away from the girls and stood in front of the gaping darkness beyond the opened door. He stared straight ahead while Trixie led Mbali off to the side with the other girls.
“Look,” Trixie said, “We got ourselves a trump card now. Trick—Hectorephes here has dealt with this monster before. I’m sure he could take on Starblight, no problem.
“No, I cannot,” the dragon replied.
“Aw, come on!” Trixie slapped her hand against her forehead. “You gotta be kidding me. We went through all that trouble, and you can’t take care of her?”
“I can sense what the void has done to her,” He started. “He infused her with the power of Starnight, overloading her with star power.”
“So? I have star power, too, and I get my butt handed to me all the time. What’s different now?”
She has not used the powers to transform, but the transformation was caused by her absorption of the power. Only the power of a star can nullify a star, I’m afraid.”
“So, what? You mean to tell me that its pointless? She’s just going to be running around the school, terrorizing us all forever? What kind of ending is that? Well, I don’t buy it. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to distract her, while I’ll give her a taste of her boss’s medicine.” She said this, pointing to her ear. “How’s that for nullifying a star?
“That’s extremely risky, dangerous even, Mbali responded. “Even I couldn’t defeat her on my own.”
“That’s just the thing,” Trixie said. “I won’t be on my own, and I won’t be calling the shots.”
Hectorephes snorted at that. “Then who would be in charge? You are not one who likes to follow.”
“I was thinking you could coordinate us. After all, you know everything about this… thing.”
He shook his head. “I am afraid that I do not,” he admitted. “But me must not tarry,”
“yeeesh! No one can make up their mind!” Trixie stepped up. “Fine, screw that. I’m not losing my edge. If what I do is jump in with no other thought, then let me do that well. Come on!” She ran forward into the void chamber, even past Hectorephes, who followed shortly behind.
Chouko nodded to Ingrid and hopped up herself, running in with the other two. Once the three made their way inside, the doors slammed shut.
“Activating light source,” the butterfly soldier said. The visor of her helmet glowed, illuminating a tiny patch around the three. Not enough to light up the room around them, but it helped them see each other.
“Look out!” Hectorephes jumped in front of the girls, unfurling his wings and shielding the two as sickly green goop struck up against him. He winced as he stood in the way, smoke rising from his wings.
“Trickstar!” Trixie looked underneath him and saw a tall figure standing before him with long, sickly arms, and claw-like fingers. The figure before them was once Dolores and now a hag with gaunt skin and long frayed hair with her magical girl uniform tightly clinging to her elongated frame.
“Hey, ugly! Why don’t you come out to the light and face us fair and square?”
The monster hissed and leapt forward. Trixie wrapped her arms around Hectorephes and dove out of the way. “Now, Chouko!”
The hyper soldier pulled her fan out and gave it a slash across the air, sending a blade of wind straight at the hag monster. Dolores reeled back, but quickly hopped up. It was all Trixie needed to get up on her feet herself.
The creature did not retaliate, and instead rose her claws up toward Trixie. Green energy congealed around her fingertips as she charged her acid attack, but a firing from a laser pistol at her face caused her to grab at it and stumble back.
Trixie saw this as an opportunity and ran up to the creature. She reached for her remaining star jewel and pulled it out. “Alright, Starbright. I don’t know what’s gonna happen if I use you alone, but here it goes!”
A brilliant flash of light shone around her as she ran forward. The girl became enveloped in a bright halo that trailed off as she ran, making her look much like a comet. Her form became indistinct, with only her silhouette shining through as a glowing form. She jumped up into the air, pulling the arm holding Starbright back. She then connected, striking the creature against the skull.
Another flash caused her two allies to flinch. When it subsided, Trixie had fallen to her knees, panting hard as sweat dripped off of her forehead. “W… what’s happening, to me…? I’m… I’m burning up…”
The hag-like Dolores pushed herself up slowly, cackling under her breath. “Starbright…” she spoke, in a sinister whisper. “Is too bright to handle without darkness to tone down its shine…” she pulled her hand away from her face, showing a burn mark where Trixie’s fist had collided with her. “You can’t hold onto that power for long, or it will destroy you.”
“Yeah, well, what about you?” Trixie asked, but the hag was not interested in talking anymore. She faded into the darkness, reappearing behind Trixie. She swiped at her, but another blast from Chouko’s laser pistol sent her hiding back into the shadows.
Trixie spun around and yelled. “You coward. What are you doing in here, anyway? You’re scared of me, because you know I can turn you back into a person again. Why would you want to be an ugly monster? Don’t give me any bullcrap about not knowing any better, either, because I know for a fact that the star jewels don’t warp your mind.”
The hag cackled again, and an orb of acid shot out from the darkness staright at Trixie. Chouko swung her fan, causing both the student and the ball to fly off to the side. Trixie fell onto her side, and immediately saw the hag crawling up to her with an incredible speed! She threw her arms forward and shouted “Take this!”
A burst of light shot out of her hands, washing over the hag, and causing the being to screech in pain. Trixie pushed herself up by her elbow, working her way up to a kneeling position. She grit her teeth as she hammered the spirit with the burst of light, the burning sensation from the intense heat got worse and worse.
Hectorephes sat back, watching with his wings around his shoulders once more. “Come on, Trixie,” he whispered.
Chouko checked the energy usage of her pistol and then trained it on the hag.
“Wait,” Hectorephes said, holding his hand out toward her. Chouko paused, waiting for a reason. “She has to do this alone. It’s the only way to prove herself worthy.
“How long?” Chouko said, the light reflecting off of her visor, filling the room more nad more.
“I don’t know,” Hectorephes said, with a frown. But at least—his eyes widened as he spun around. “No… not now.”
Chouko’s sensors flashed warning signs through her HUD. She, too, spun around, facing the doorway, which slowly opened up
Darkness greeted them, with piercing crimson eyes floating in the middle of it all. Hectorephes bared his sharp teeth, spread his wings wide, and readied his claws. “You… you’ve come to ruin all that Beatrix loves. I cannot allow you to do to her what you’ve done to me!”
He flew forward, taking in a deep breath, but as he was about to exhale, the dark eyes disappeared and reappeared right in front of him. A hand emerged from the darkness and pressed up against his mouth, clutching his cheeks.
Hectorephes slashed at the shadows, but nothing would make it through. He was just swiping at air. Purple flame spewed out of his nose, unable to escape through his mouth, yet even with the violet light showing off the form of the being before him, the shadow did not move.
“I have no information on this being,” Chouko said. She then activated on her communicator “Ingrid… Ingrid, are you alright?”
The thing disappeared from in front of the dragon, causing him to fall to his knees, shaking and in a cold sweat. It reappeared in front of Chouko, taller than her, it stared down into her visor, past that, past her eyes, and into her very soul. It said nothing, but she saw something within her very being. The pain and suffering her friends had endured at the hands of this thing, and the worst part was she knew, somehow knew, deep down that they deserved it.
“No…” she fell to  her knees, pulling off her helmet. “Beatrix, we can’t… we can’t stop it.” Tears rolled down her eyes. “This is how its supposed to be!” She raised the arm holding her blaster and pointed it toward Trixie. “You need to stop now… you’ll only cause more pain if you don’t.
Before she could respond, Chouko pulled the trigger.