Stacy Ellington was nervous. She was a magical girl. Valkyrie Stormbreaker was her name. Well, her magical girl name. She was part of a team of magical girls called the Storm Valkyries. All but two of them had storm in their names. She didn’t like her name. It was too war-like for her. Even if their group fought a lot. It was in defense of the innocent and defenseless. That was different.

In the beginning, it was fun. A little scary, but fun. The monster would show up, cause some trouble and they’d swoop in and destroy it. Sometimes, one of their group would get hurt. But it was never anything serious. And they healed when they changed back to normal. After the fight, they’d either return to what they were doing. Or, go someplace to eat and hang out.

Then things began to change.

At first, she didn’t notice. But then she gradually began to notice that the others were becoming more violent toward the monsters. That they were becoming dismissive of them. They even seemed to be enjoying hurting the monsters. Then they started running into other magical girls. What should have been an easy friendship turned into a bitter rivalry. Mary, or, as she preferred to be called, Stormbringer, encouraged the others to compete with the other magical girls. Only Chelsea and another of the group, named Rose, showed any reluctance.

As time went on, they met more and more magical girls. Each time, Mary was more aggressive than the last. Lately, she has started challenging the other magical girls as soon as she saw them. It was getting to be too much for Stacy. She was starting to think about quitting. The only reason she was still doing this was Kyubi, their magical guide. The strange stuffed toy wolf kept encouraging her. Making sure she kept her spirits up. He was spending more time with her than with any of the others. So much in fact, that Kyubi was living in Stacy’s house instead of Mary’s.

Then things changed.

Kyubi had been warning them, the elders sent someone to correct their behavior. Mary didn’t believe him. And she convinced Denise and Bethica to go along with her. Chelsea was on the fence. Mary was pressuring Rose to side with her. It was looking less likely now that Hollow Point appeared. Stacy hoped that the others would start doing what Kyubi wanted them to. She liked being a magical girl and didn’t want to stop.

Now, she and her team had chasing a monster. It was one that had been giving them some problems lately. Every time they got close to killing him, he somehow slipped away. Mary had decided that this time was going to be the last time that monster attacked anybody. And she didn’t seem to care who got in her way.

Stacy normally wouldn’t have a problem with this. But they had chased the monster into the mall and now innocent people were in danger. To make matters worse, they ran into another team of magical girls. Mary immediately accused them of helping the monster. Of course, they denied it. That was all Mary needed to start a fight. Before she could start, things changed.

There was an extremely bright flash of light along with an ear shattering bang. When she could finally see and hear again, Stacy saw Hollow Point. She was standing between the two groups, but off to one side. She was dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl. She was wearing a black jacket over a white button shirt. She had a dark purple tie and her skirt was pleated with a purple and black plaid pattern. On her feet were penny loafers and knee-high white socks. She had a black backpack with skeletons wearing ribbons on it. Her black hair was in two braids that reached her knees. The braids had three ribbons each. One where they met her skull, one in the middle and one on the ends. In her hands were two very large handguns. They were pointing at the two groups.

“You will not fight,” she said with an angry look on her face. Stacy wanted to agree with her. But she knew Mary wouldn’t.

“Psst, Stacy.”

Stacy looked around to see who whispered her name. After a moment’s search, she found Kyubi standing by a large planter. As soon as he saw that she was looking at him, he waved her over. With a quick glance at her teammates, she eased her way over to their guide.

“Kyubi, what are you doing here,” Stacy whispered once she got to him.

“Saving you,” he replied. Stacy blinked in surprise.

“Listen,” Kyubi continued. “No matter what happens, you need to stay here. Hollow Point has arrived to pass judgement on the team. If you want to stay a magical girl, you will do what I say.”

Stacy looked over her shoulder at her teammates. “What about the others?”

“Unfortunately, they’re on their own,” Kyubi sadly answered. “If they make the right decision, they’ll survive this. If not, well, you saw the news about Blazing Heart and Lily Jade.”

Stacy could only nod at that. The story about those two had spread faster than she had believed possible. No one wanted to believe that it was true, but the evidence couldn’t be denied. She didn’t want to imagine suddenly not being a magical girl. The only good thing about it was that they seemed to not remember being one.

Stacy jerked her had up as she suddenly heard quiet footsteps approaching. Two magical girls from the other team was approaching. She tensed. She didn’t know why they were coming to her. She started to relax when she noticed that they were looking nervous. Above them flew a winged cat girl.

“Ah, Subiya,” Kyubi called out. “Are these the only ones?”

“Unfortunately, so,” the cat girl replied. “Do you think they’ll be safe here?”

“They should be,” was Kyubi’s answer. “The council did say she would only attack those we don’t vouch for.”

“Either way,” Subiya said. “Don’t provoke her. Those weapon things she is carrying are bigger than I am.”

“I’m sorry, but what are you two dressed as,” Stacy suddenly blurted. She had been studying the two girls ever since they had arrived. For the life of her, she couldn’t tell what they were dressed as. Both of the teen girls were wearing bikinis under gauzy cloth. One was a light pink while the other was blue. While it covered most of their bodies, the cloth didn’t leave anything to the imagination. Like her, both girls were wearing heeled boots. But theirs were stiletto heels.

Not that Stacy had room to talk. She and the other Valkyries were dressed in tight leather clothes. They showed off the curves of their hips and butts. The lengths of their legs and cleavage as well were displayed. Stacy took a quick peak at her chest. Not so much cleavage for her. She had only Bs, but the shirt did its best.

The teen girls blushed. “It wasn’t our idea to dress like this,” the one in pink said. “Subiya said it was our uniforms.”

By this time Subiya had landed on the planter. “It is the honored uniform of the dream warriors,” she said proudly as she stood as tall as she could. “They have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“They look like strippers,” Stacy said.

The cat girl tilted her head. “What are strippers?”

“Erotic or exotic dancers,” Kyubi answered.

Everybody stared at the plushie wolf.

“What,” Kyubi said. “I have a life between assignments.”

“We know exactly what we look like,” the one in blue said. “We’re happy that we only appear in their dreams. And even then, it’s only when they’re attacked by monsters.”

“But couldn’t your uniforms cover more skin,” Stacy asked. “I’d be embarrassed to be seen dressed like that.”

“There are others who wear less than we do,” the one in pink said defensively. “We’ve seen them. Besides, it’s not like we had a choice.”

Stacy had to admit, they had a point. She knew she didn’t choose what her uniform looked like. If she had, it wouldn’t be showing as much cleavage or clinging so tightly to her butt and legs. “Oh, what are your names? I can’t keep thinking of you by your colors.”

“I’m Dream Warrior Pink Ice and she’s Dream Warrior Blue Fire. We’re supposed to protect people’s dreams. Lately though, it’s been more about fighting other magical girls.”

“I like it better when we first started,” Blue Fire said. “It was fun then. And I felt like we were doing something important.

“Yeah,” Stacy agreed. “I never thought it would get this bad. The elders actually sent somebody to stop us.”

“Only the ones not doing their jobs,” Kyubi said. “The rest of you will be safe.”

“We think,” Subiya said. Kyubi gave her a look. “What? It’s better to be honest about this. The elders have never done anything like this before.”

Before anybody could say anything else, there were six rapid gunshots. Everybody snapped their heads around to look at their respective teams. Six girls were lying on the ground. Bright lights were flowing from them as they transformed back into normal girls. A seventh was standing by herself, trembling in fright.

“That’s Chelsea,” Stacy gasped. “Why is she still standing?”

The group watched in horror as Hollow Point pointed a gun toward the lone standing girl.