Berro was right about one thing: I’m much faster when I don’t have to worry about anyone else keeping up with me. The late afternoon wind whistled through my hair as I rapidly approached the center of the hazard zone. I was going north; basically in the opposite direction of Cambridge Common, relative to home.

  Soon enough, I reached the baseball diamonds of Danehy Park. There was currently a little league game going on, and I swerved to avoid it as I headed further towards the park’s center, where the magic was thickest. Still, when I got there, I didn’t find any monster.

  I asked Berro,

  “So, when does the monster show up?”

  Berro projected an image of a smiley stick figure very abruptly starting to scream.

  “Just raw magic is not enough, a sudden emotional change is trigger of formation of a monster.”

  “So what, we just wait around until someone stubs their toe or something?”

  “Yes.”

  So we waited around for a few minutes, until someone called out

  “Hey, are you the Autumn Knight?”

  I turned around, and was immediately confronted by roughly twelve people, all of whom had their phones out and recording. I was about to answer, when Berro abruptly screamed,

  “AHHHDON’TLETTHEMGETME!”

  I felt the change in the air a split second before I saw it, a shimmer of every possible color collapsing into a single point between me and the crowd. The monster’s form revealed itself, a grinning sharp-toothed humanoid with enormous camera-lens eyes and the body of a snake replacing its legs.

  I’d barely started drawing my weapons when Berro leaped off my shoulders, and the monster set off a camera flash right in my eyes. As I tried to clear my vision, I heard a voice I didn’t recognize,

  “Cutething Sponsor come here!”

  I managed to regain clarity of sight just in time to shoulder-check the paparazzi-snake away from Berro, drawing its attention again.

  “AutumnKnight? Bigfan Bigfan!”

  Another camera flash as I tried to get my gun lined up for a shot, but this time I was ready for it. A carefully timed blink preserved my vision, and I saw that there was now an image of me in midair between us. I’d barely processed that fact before firing; the image shattered and-

  My belly erupted in pain, my armored skirt abruptly sporting a significant dent. The paparazzi snake hadn’t managed to physically hit me, but the instant I hit the image of myself-

  Understanding dawned.

  I leapt forwards at full speed, sword extended in a lunge. The camera-eyed snake dodged back, trying to get its eyes lined up for another picture of me. And in the process, the monster gave me just enough time to line up a shot on its right eye.

  Bang

  What looked like rapidly-vanishing glass shattered out of the paparazzi-snake’s right camera eye as it recoiled backwards in pain, still managing to avoid my sword lunge.

  “Bigfan! Whykill!?”

  I answered as I dodged to the side, trying to stay out of the snake’s sight,

  “You scared Berro!”

  “Cutething Sponsor? Want bringhome, take lotsa pics!”

  My weapons were still at the ready, but this sparked a thought about the possibility of a nonviolent resolution.

  “Did you even think to ask Berro whether he was fine with that?”

  “Ask cutething? Coursenot! Cutething Sponsor not for asking, is mine!”

  I jinked to the side to throw off the snake’s focus for a moment, my hopes already fading as I stated,

  “Berro is a person, people aren’t property!”

  “Ah thereis cutething! Comehere!”

  And now the Paparazzi-snake was apparently done humoring attempts at negotiation. It lunged right past me, towards Berro. I responded by driving my sword into the snake’s tail as it went by, opening a ragged gash that slowly leaked every-color fog. The paparazzi-snake recoiled in pain even as it took a picture of Berro, making a massive image of the Sponsor between itself and me.

  “Can’tkill! Attack, youkill cutething Sponsor!”

  That snake was right. This was now a hostage situation. As for Berro-

  “LET GO OF ME!”

  - he clearly wasn’t happy with the situation either, now being held in one of the paparazzi-snake’s hands as it took picture after picture, creating a solid bubble of Berro images around itself.

  In summary, we were at an impasse. I couldn’t let the camera-snake hold onto Berro, but attempting to force the issue would result in Berro’s death. Meanwhile, the camera-snake needed to hold onto Berro to keep me at bay, but couldn’t keep Berro alive in there forever, and wasn’t fast enough to escape me while I was transformed.

  But that would only hold true until my medal ran out of power. When that happened, the paparazzi snake would hold all the leverage. I needed a way to get past or break those Berro images without significantly injuring him. And the simple fact that Berro was so small compared to a human meant that even something like a regular punch could possibly cause serious damage.

  The first thing I tried was seeing if I could just walk through, but the paparazzi snake evidently noticed I was trying that, as the bubble began moving so erratically that any serious attempt I made to move through would hit Berro like I was kicking him full force.

  Then I noticed something: I was currently standing on loose dirt, courtesy one of the park’s sports pitches. For lack of better ideas, I scooped up a handful of dirt, and threw it directly at the dome of images. For half a second, I had a clear view of Berro as countless images winked out. And while the real Berro certainly didn’t look happy, he also didn’t look to be seriously injured.

  I quickly whipped my gun back up, but before I could fire, the snake shoved its remaining Berro-images between us and started slithering away at top speed. I quickly gave chase to the east, kicking up more dust to break images of Berro as I went.

  In just three seconds I had a clear shot, sending a bullet right into the snake’s spine. Berro went flying as the paparazzi-snake jolted in pain, then turned towards me.

  “Leavebe! Let take!”

  I fired again, putting a bullet directly into the paparazzi-snake’s remaining camera eye as I shouted,

  “NEVER!”

  The lens of the snake’s camera eye shattered. Then the whole snake shattered, collapsing inwards on itself in a flash of every color I knew.

  Before I could process anything else, I heard cheering, and abruptly remembered that the whole fight had been caught on camera.

  If there were enough loose magic floating around, I would have absolutely made a whole second monster from the resurgence of my stage fright. Fortunately, all of it had been sucked up making the snake I’d just killed.

  Right, the snake. First, check on Berro. I took two seconds to reach the place the cono had fallen, crouching down to get a good look at him.

  Berro was definitely breathing. He was also bleeding a little from a few scratches here and there.

  “Berro, are you awake?”

  Berro groaned in response.

  “Get pearl, then take doctor…”

  Right, that seemed like a decent enough plan. I quickly trotted back over to the spot where the snake monster had died, and found the shining little pearl with only a couple seconds of work. Then I tried to reach for my pocket… and my armor was in the way.

  I quickly de-transformed to get at my phone, and called 911 for the second time today.

  “911, what’s your emergency?”

  That voice wasn’t the same operator I’d spoken to this morning, which wasn’t really surprising.

  “My name is Autumn Knight, I’m at Danehy park, and one of my friends has been injured.”

  “Right, I’ll get an ambulance on the way immediately. What’s your friend’s situation?”

  “He was grabbed by a big snake, shaken around a lot, then thrown something like twenty feet? Berro’s conscious, but really roughed up and bleeding a bit.”

  “Grabbed by a big snake?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Really, I’m serious.”

  “Do you honestly expect me to believe that giant snakes just come out of nowhere and throw people around?”

  “Yes! There’s like eight people here who also all saw it! They took video even!”

  “Really.”

  “Really! Please, you’ve got to believe me!”

  That’s when I noticed a tap on my shoulder. I turned to look, and saw a teenage boy who’d been watching earlier. He spoke up,

  “Autumn, turn on speakerphone.”

  I did so, and he spoke up.

  “My name is Mark Smith, and I’m telling you right now that Autumn’s entire story is true. There really was a giant snake that came out of nowhere with camera lenses for eyes, and it really did attack Autumn’s friend.”

  There was an ominous silence from the other end of the phone line, before the operator spoke up again.

  “Right. And the friend? What does he look like?”

  I answered again, Mark’s backup giving me some extra confidence,

  “Berro is an alien. He looks a bit like a white-furred squirrel that comes up to a human’s knee, and he’s in bad shape.”

  “Bullshit. You think a couple teenagers with some made up story about aliens-”

  Then someone else on the other end of the line interjected, but I couldn’t clearly hear what they were saying. The argument in the 911 call center went on for two minutes before the operator was clearly talking to me again.

  “I still don’t believe you, but I have just been informed that apparently contact with aliens matching your description was made earlier today. I am therefore treating your call as tentatively real, but also sending a police car to arrest you if you were making a false report.”

  I responded,

  “Thank you.”

  Then the call ended. Berro had just barely hobbled to his feet by now. Staring at my smartphone, he asked a rather pertinent question.

  “What is device?”

  I shrugged,

  “It’s a phone. It can be used for calling people, sending texts, taking pictures, playing games, loads of stuff. Basically everyone has one.”

  “Did call?”

  “Yes Berro, I called for an ambulance to come help you.”

  “Thank you, Autumn. Thank you.”

  Three minutes later, we heard the sirens we were expecting. Sure enough, a team of paramedics and a couple cops showed up. One of the cops asked,

  “Are you Autumn Knight?”

  I nodded, then pointed to Berro.

  “Yes, I’m Autumn. This is Berro. He got thrown really hard and I’m worried about him.”

  “Anything else?”

  I nodded, and tapped my transformation medal. Both cops stumbled back a step, while the paramedics basically just rolled their eyes and got on with fussing over Berro. After a moment, I spoke up,

  “So, I’m also a magical girl. Surprise?”

  Berro facepawed, then whined in pain from the motion. A moment later, one of the paramedics asked me a question,

  “Autumn, how much do you know about Berro’s biology?”

  “Basically nothing.”

  “Damn. That’s going to make taking care of him really hard. We don’t even know if it’s safe to use standard disinfectants for his wounds!”

  That’s when Berro spoke up,

  “Alcohol safe, but painful.”

  “Got it, pretty sure we have some of that in the ambulance. May I carry you?”

  “Yes.”

  A few moments later, Berro was bundled off in the ambulance. The two cops also left, leaving just me and Mark. I de-transformed.

  “Mark, thank you so much for the help there.”

  My fellow acne-faced teenager nodded.

  “It wasn’t a problem at all.”

  I took out my phone,

  “So, my sister’s running a chat server for magi stuff. Want an invite?”

  “Sure.”

  Seconds later, Mark was on the server under the name “Red Hot Hammer”. That done, we went our separate ways. I opted to save a bit of power on my medal, and just trudged home at normal speed. I got in around five, and was immediately hugged by Rachel.

  “I’m glad you’re back in one piece, Autumn. I saw the video that Red posted of that fight, is Berro okay?”

  I sighed,

  “He’ll probably live, but he had to go to the hospital. No idea how the doctors are handling their first alien patient.”

  “Hopefully they manage to get in touch with some other cono who know more.”

  As Rachel released the hug, something occurred to me.

  “By the way, where’s mom one?”

  “Went to the grocery store; she should be back around seven.”

  I nodded,

  “Guess that means it’s another late supper for all of us, then. It’s only fair given how late mom two is out, though.”

  Rachel nodded,

  “Yeah, and as usual I’m going to need to head out for my shift right after eating. I like maintaining pinball machines, but those hours suck massively.”

  A few moments passed in silence as I plunked myself on the couch.

  “By the way Autumn, a lot of the people on the chat server want to talk to you.”

  Yeah ok. I pulled out my phone, opened up the chat program, and got typing.

  [RealAutumnKnight: Hey, so I finally got home from that recent monster fight. I’ve got a couple hours free and nothing better to do, so ask away.]

  [Protractor666: OMG hi! How did you come up with “Autumn Knight” as your superhero identity it’s such a cool name!]

  [RealAutumnKnight: I... didn’t? Autumn Knight is just my actual name.]

  [KnightSisters: Pffffft]

  Sure enough, I heard Rachel giggling.

  [PrincessBEEEEES: Told you so.]

  [RealAutumnKnight: So, aside from that, are there any other questions?]

  [PrincessBEEEEES: Were you scared during that fight?]

  [RealAutumnKnight: Absolutely. Though mainly for Berro’s safety, especially after that snake took him hostage.]

  [SpottyCal: Is there anything Berro told you that didn’t come up in the interview you did?]

  [RealAutumnKnight: Oh right; Berro told me the address for an office the Sponsors are setting up for recruiting magi, recharging medals, and collecting monster pearls.]

  I got out the business card Berro gave me earlier, took a picture, and posted it.

  [RealAutumnKnight: I’ll be stopping by there tomorrow; I need my medal recharged, and I want to find out how Berro’s recovering from his injuries.

  As for why I didn’t share the address during the interview, I didn’t have the business card yet.]

  [Red Hot Hammer: I’m definitely going. I also want to know how Berro is doing, and I want to see about snagging a medal.]

  [SpottyCal: Yep, I’m also going to show up there.]

  [PrincessBEEEEES: Superpowers and a cute transformed state? Sign me up! And if monsters are probably going to turn up randomly anyway, I’d rather be equipped to do something about them.]

  An hour or so of joking around and general chatter later, I was suddenly jolted from the conversation by mom one opening the door to the apartment.

  “Autumn, Rachel? I’ve brought home the groceries. Please help put them away.”

  I hopped to my feet, even as Ruby pushed the family shopping dolly through the apartment’s door. About ten minutes of putting away later, mom one commented,

  “Well that’s all the groceries put away, thanks for the help. Pretty sure it’s Rachel’s turn to cook tonight?”

  My sister nodded,

  “Yes it is! One lasagne, coming right up. Should be done just in time for mom two getting home.”

  While Rachel cooked, I filled in mom one on the whole debacle with the paparazzi snake and Berro needing to go to the hospital. Mom two arrived a few minutes before the food was ready, and I summarized the whole affair to her as well.

  Anne nodded thoughtfully as she swallowed her bite of lasgane.

  “So, you’ll be going to visit the Sponsors tomorrow?”

  I nodded,

  “Yeah, classes are still closed until Wednesday and-”

  I paused for a moment as something clicked in my brain.

  “Holy shit all of this happened today what the hell!? BFIT getting trashed, the incident on the bus, getting my medal, then that fight has all been in less than a day! I only met Berro around noon, and now I’m talking about him like some kind of friend when he directly roped me into a dangerous monster fight!? What the hell is wrong with me!?”

  Everyone blinked. Rachel opened her mouth to say something, before apparently thinking better of it. Several awkward moments passed, before mom one managed to come up with something to say.

  “If I had to guess, you’re probably trying to cope with shock. We all are, really. The whole way we thought the world worked has been turned on its head, and we’re all trying to make sense of it. When that sort of thing happens, it’s easy to get suckered in by the first person who gives you something resembling answers.”

  I nodded slowly,

  “So the Sponsors are pretty clearly just trying to use me somehow, right?”

  Mom two nodded,

  “Absolutely. There’s a reason we want you and any other Magi they hire to absolutely insist on being paid. In real money, not just medal recharges.”

  That’s when Rachel spoke up,

  “So, should Autumn not go to see the Sponsors at their office tomorrow?”

  Mom two shook her head,

  “No, Autumn should definitely go. What she shouldn’t do is trust the Sponsors in the slightest. Showing up there is still the best possible way we’ve got to wring more information from those fluffy bastards, and also put the screws to them about properly paying their hires.”

  Mom one spoke up,

  “I agree with Anne on this one. You should definitely go to get your medal charged and hammer out proper pay contracts.”

  Then an alarm in Rachel’s phone went off, prompting her to check the time.

  “I’ve got to leave for my shift at the arcade now. Night.”

  I replied,

  “See you tomorrow, Rachel.”

  My sister left the apartment, and I made my way to bed a bit earlier than usual. I had a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow, and I wanted to be well-rested for it.

  As I slept, I dreamed of cats and gunfire.

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  February 28, 2026