FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Something about this doesn't feel right, S.A.R.A."

I held my Sentella-phone in one hand as I raced through the mall toward the blaring alarms on the other end of the mall. My holographic helper was busy scanning the mall blueprint. Judging from where the noise was coming from and the stores in that area, she was fairly certain the Gales Jewelry store was the source of the noise.

"Are you speaking of a general feeling of unease from an imposter committing crimes in your name?" S.A.R.A. asked, the golden kitsune looking up at me from the blueprint. "Or are you referring to the apparent lack of planning put into the Shadow's deception?"

"Well, both, I guess." I paused for a moment while I thought about the best route to the store. "It seems like they want set me up as a criminal to my team-mates, but it feels like there's pieces missing to their plan. Sentella members can't be traced by magical means, right?"

"Indeed, they can not." S.A.R.A. nodded as moved aside the blueprints before summoning the sphere where she quarantined a sample of the spider virus that had damaged her earlier. "And this virus is designed to lay dormant and attack only when triggered from an outside source. There's no connection to any tracking programs or suspicious outside networks. As the newest member of the Sentella and the only one who's male outside her Sentella form, one would also think you would be the hardest member of anyone to track."

"Exactly. Maybe they figured it out, but if they did, why not just grab me up, or at the very least have someone following me? If there was, someone should be trying to stop me now." The store was just a floor up and down the hall, but there were no stairs or escalators nearby. There was, however, a soda machine nearby. That would do.

With a slight bend of the knees, I leapt almost effortlessly from the ground to the soda machine, and followed it up with another leap up the second floor railing. I was able to grab it with my free hand and swing myself over to the second floor. I giggled a little at how easy it had been to leap the almost twenty feet between floors. As weird as being a magical catgirl can be at times, it certainly does have its benefits.

If the blaring alarm bells weren't proof enough that something was wrong, the crowd of screaming people running away from the jewelry store made it crystal clear there was trouble. Some of the people running by stopped and did a double-take when they saw me, glancing back in the direction of the jewelry store.

"Hold on, S.A.R.A. I gotta get a picture of this." Through the camera of the Sentella-phone, I could see how easily someone could have mistaken the clone for the real me. The pink uniform and boots, the long, flowing blond hair, the orange ears and tail... she really did look like my twin. Her back was to me as she slammed her hands together, sending a pink wave of energy smashing into the glass display cases.

"Such shiny things, all for me!" Even my voice was perfectly mimicked as she ran her hands over the expensive items in the case before stuffing them into a nearby white sack. She didn't seem to notice me as I snapped a quick picture. "All for me, Aerilla of the Sentella!"

"Alright, time to get my good name back. Will you be alright if I leave you here, S.A.R.A?" I asked as I set my phone down on a nearby bench.

"Yes. I will activate my theft deterrent systems. Only someone you trust or a member of the Sentella will be able to pick me up. All others will be shocked when trying to handle me."

"Shocked?" I tilted my head in confusion. "Well, wouldn't anybody be shocked seeing a strange phone?"

S.A.R.A. shook her head. "You misunderstand. I mean they will literally be shocked. It's an effect very similar to your Earth stun guns."

"Ah. Well, alright then." Taking a couple of deep breaths, I started to walk toward my distracted clone.

I slipped out of my heels so the sound of them clicking on the tile floor wouldn't give me away as I prepared for a sneak attack. An ambush may not be the kind of thing you'd expect to be a part of a magical girl's bag of tricks, but Regina had made it clear that I need to take every advantage I can get.

In addition to teaching me martial arts and showing me how to focus my magical energy, we also spent a lot of time going over combat tactics. Her first lesson was simple; win. The Shadow's have tons of servants and monsters at their disposal, all against us six girls. While she made it clear there are some lines we should never cross, we also needed to be prepared to fight dirty.

Still, it was not to feel a little bad about a sneak attack as I stepped up behind the clone. Sure, she had taken my image, caused a whole lot of property damage, and probably hurt some people all while trying to make me look bad, but she... um... huh. Actually, I don't feel bad about this at all.

I placed a hand on her shoulder and turned Anti-Aerilla around. The look of shock and confusion on her face made it clear that she was surprised to see me. I thought about what I could do in this brief moment while my opponent was off guard. Introduce myself nicely? Ask her what the hell she thought she was doing? Say something witty about diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but unlike real best friends you have to pay for them?

Nah. I'll just deck her.

KA-POW!

The blow was enough to make her drop the bag, which spilled its contents as it fell to the floor. Anti-Aerilla stumbled backwards as she held her jaw with one hand, her other arm circling wildly as she fought to maintain her balance. She steadied herself fairly quickly and looked downright pissed as she stared me down coldly.

"How in the Queen's name..." Her voice changed for a brief moment as she regained her composure. Though still feminine, it was much colder and sounded very annoyed at the turn of events. She recovered and returned to sounding like me again when she spoke. "Hey! Who are you?!"

"Me?! I'm the real Aerilla, you evil clone!" I slipped my heels back on before striking a defensive pose, getting ready for another attack. "I know what you've been up to, and I'm here to stop you!"

"You're the clone! See?" She tugged at her uniform. "Only real Sentella members wear these! And only Sentella members have Crystal Stars like this." She patted the heart shaped pendant on her collar. "That means I'm the real Aerilla, not you!"

"Yeah, right. If you're so confident about your Crystal Star, why don't you let me touch it? Or better yet, why don't you touch mine and see how real it is?"

"No way! You're just gonna try and take it from me or do something weird. I won't let you!" Nice try, honey, but I know the truth. Shadowed One's can't handle our Crystal Stars without taking special precautions; otherwise the pure starlight burns them. It was very unlikely that she had a real Crystal Star, and I bet if I could get my hands on it I could destroy it with some of my own magic.

She shifted her body to try and hide it, but she couldn't fully conceal the purple glow of the energy attack she was preparing. I bought my hands up in front of me and started to focus my own energy into a shield. The air in front of me started to shimmer as a semi-translucent disc of pink energy formed.

"Take this!" Anti-Aerilla hurled a sphere of blackish-purple energy at me, no bigger than a baseball. It took a bit of effort to stifle a laugh when I saw the little thing coming at my shield. My defensive magic is pretty strong, and I've been able to block blasts at least three times that size and hold my ground. That little thing would just hit the shield and fizzle into nothing.

CRASH!

"Whaaa!" The blast hit the shield, but sent a concussive blast that blasted my entire shield to pieces and knocked me back a couple of steps instead of fizzling out like I expected. I hurriedly threw up another shield as a second blast followed up the first, but with less time to prepare for it the new shield shattered as well. Some dark energy got through that time, and I had to bite back an instinctive cry of pain as it coursed through my body.

"You silly girls are so predictable." Anti-Aerilla smiled as I struggled to keep my feet, my Crystal Star glowing brightly as it suppressed the dark energy. "Your big shields are great for big blasts, but against a smaller, concentrated shot they're next to useless, as you can see."

"T-Thanks for the news flash..." Crud, this is bad. Maybe I could make more condensed shields, but then she could just use big blasts to get around them. If she mixes up the two different types of attacks, I'll be too worried about guessing to make any kind of counter-attack.

It was time to go to the second part of Regina's battle plan; minimize your weaknesses and push your strengths. She started charging up for another magic attack, but was forced to cancel it and defend herself when I leapt in and threw a straight right punch directly at her head. It's hard to focus on charging an attack when somebody's trying to beat the daylights out of you, and the flurry of punches and kicks I threw at her forced her onto the defensive.

"Take this, and this!" Roundhouse kicks, jabs and crosses all flew at Anti-Aerilla's direction. I kept pressing my attack hard as I searched for an opening in her defenses. No matter how hard I kicked or how I varied my punches, she blocked and parried every blow. Judging by the satisfied smirk on her face, she didn't even feel threatened by my assault.

"I think I've let you have enough fun." Anti-Aerilla blocked another punch, this time responding with one of her own. A quick shot to my stomach knocked the wind out of me and sent me stumbling back a few steps.

"AH!" I recovered quickly, but Anti-Aerilla had taken advantage of the opening. She grabbed me by the wrists and held tight to keep me from breaking away. I twisted and squirmed, but her hands were like a vice. "Let me go!"

"Oh, I'll let you go." She smiled wickedly as her hands started to glow again. When I bought up a leg to try and kick my way free, she kicked at my other leg hard. I had to put my foot back down to keep from falling to my knees. "After I turn your body to dust, there won't be anything left for me to hold!"

Crap, crap, crap! I could feel the tingle of dark energy on my wrists as I fought desperately. Anti-Aerilla pressed her face close to mine, clearly enjoying every moment of my struggle. Her face was practically touching mine as her grip tightened, leaving no way for me to escape. I had to do something fast!

I wish I could say what came next was an inspired moment of genius in a time of crisis, but that'd be a lie. I had done this once before, when Regina had me in a similar hold during training. She had just outlined the third lesson of her battle strategy; do something unexpected. Whatever might make your opponent stop their attack, flinch or hesitate even for just a moment, it can give you the opening you need to regain control.

"This is gonna hurt..." I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning my head back as I resigned myself to my fate.

"I know, that's what makes it so great!" She didn't realize I wasn't talking about her attack, but the one I was about to launch.

When Regina held me in this grip, she told me to do something, anything that would let me break free. Since I couldn't move my arms or legs, I used the only thing left I could still move freely to strike her with. I think being a guy helped make the final decision to launch the attack I did. After all, I don't think many girls would think about going for a head butt.

CRUNCH!

"MEOW!" We cried out in perfect unison I slammed my head as hard as I could into hers. I had prepared myself for it mentally, but that didn't change the fact that it hurt like hell. The splitting headache was worth it, though. Exactly like when I had done it to Regina, it sent my clone reeling backwards as she instinctively let go of me to bring her hands to her head.

"MYYYYAAAAHHHHH!!!" It turned out my attack had worked out better than I had originally planned. She tried to shield herself with the same hand that was still charging the magical attack, and ended up discharging it on herself. Her limbs and tail stood on end like she'd been plugged into a live wire of energy, and the air started to stink of burnt hair after a few seconds. She was eventually able to stop her attack as she collapsed to the floor.

My brain scrambled to recover and come up with a plan as I shook the stars out of my eyes. This moment of respite wouldn't last long, and she was still light years ahead of me in martial and magical strength. I quickly glanced around to the various stores to see if there was anything I could use to give me an edge. The Ribbon Whip's a great weapon for controlling giant monsters, but I wouldn't mind having something else for a one on one encounter.

"Whenever you're ready, I'll be over there." I pointed over to the End Zone sporting goods store before running over to it. Being a geek meant I didn't have a ton of sports experience, but I could do worse if I needed an improvised weapon. The few people that hadn't already evacuated the store were making their way toward the exits as I scanned the aisles, looking for something that I could use to give me an edge.

"Baseball?" I spoke to myself as I passed through each aisle dedicated to a particular sport, weighing the pros and cons of my options. "As much as I like the idea of bashing her upside the head with a bat, I don't want to get too close if I can avoid it."

"Soccer? Kicking a ball at her could definitely do some serious damage..." I glanced down at my current outfit. "But in this skirt? I'll be flashing the whole mall with a good kick." (Besides, I already made a Case Closed/Detective Conan reference last chapter)

Football armor? No, too bulky. Archery? No, I'm a catgirl, not Katniss. Lacrosse, no, badminton, no...

"Ah-hah! Perfect!" I spotted my weapon of choice just as Anti-Aerilla entered the store. It was light, I had experience with it, and could keep her at a distance AND give me an answer to her magic if I use a bit of my own. I grabbed it and a few cans of ammunition, keeping out of sight as I prepared my ambush.

"Come on, clone!" Anti-Aerilla taunted me as she started to search the store. "Come on out and face me, the true Aerilla, like a real girl, which you are not!"

Man, enough with me being the clone, already. With my preparations set, I started to lure her into my trap.

BOP-BOP! BOP-BOP!

"Huh?" Anti-Aerilla certainly sounded confused by the noise my bouncing projectile made. She certainly seemed on edge and confused as she stepped out into the aisle where I waited. She had her hand up and charging another magical attack, probably hoping to catch me by surprise with a quick attack. Unfortunately for her, I still got my attack off first.

"Love, all!"

WHAM!

"WHA!" Anti-Aerilla cried out as my magical charged projectile hit her square in the shoulder. She grimaced as he regarded the spent projectile, which had returned to its normal lime-green color as it rolled on the floor. "What is this?!"

"It's called a tennis ball." I informed her as I grabbed another ball from the small pile near my feet. "And the score is now 15-love."

Anti-Aerilla rubbed her bruised shoulder as she watched me twirled the pink tennis racket (seemed like an appropriate choice) in one hand while holding another tennis ball in the other. While I've never been much of one for playing sports, in high school I was kind of forced into taking on an after-school sport as part of a diet program I was on at the time. After getting dropped my on head a lot during wrestling in the fall, I decided to look for something with a little less direct contact with my opponent in the spring. Tennis seemed like the best option in that department, and I found I was actually pretty decent at it. While I was never the star of the team, I could definitely hold my own and enjoyed playing the game. I got moved from the junior varsity squad to the varsity squad the following year, and kept playing till I graduated high school. My college didn't have a tennis team or club for me to really continue playing, but it seems like my serve still worked pretty well.

She dodged to the side just in time to avoid the next ball, but the third caught her in the thigh when she tried to close the distance between us. There hadn't been time to charge them with any magic, but getting hit with anything going over a hundred MPH is gonna leave a mark.

"30-love!" Anti-Aerilla seemed annoyed that I was keeping score. (That's one of the things I find amusing about tennis; using the ball as a projectile isn't exactly good sportsmanship, but if you hit someone with the ball they still have to get it back over the net or it's your point.)She hurled the ball back at me with a frustrated look on her face, but a quick backhand swing sent the ball back into her chest. "40-love!"

"How does hitting me mean love?!" I wasn't gonna tell her that love means zero in tennis. I prepared to defend myself when she threw the ball back again, but this time she aimed at the pile of balls near my feet. It crashed into my stockpile and sent them scattering all over the store. "I've got you now!"

She started to charge another blast, much like the ones that broke my shield earlier. I started to run further down the aisle away from her, but not because I was scared. When she threw the condensed shot at me, I needed the extra distance to cast the spell I had been holding in my head.

From how Sera explained it to me, magic is a very fluid and flexible thing. If I think its magic, then it is magic. Sure, throwing around energy blasts is a kind of magic, but I needed something a little more complex this time. I needed a spell, and most spells tend to rhyme. I could feel the racket starting to charge with energy as I began to chant.

"I bless this racket, to serve up an ace..." I chanted, trying to ignore the ball of darkness making its way toward me. "...send that blast, back to her face!"

The racket was radiant with my magical energy as Anti-Aerilla's rapidly grew closer to me. With a quick shift of my feet, I sidestepped and swung as hard as I could at the crackling ball of energy. A faint tingle of energy ran up my arm as I made contact, but it was nothing compared to what would have happened if it had made direct contact.

"Try some of your own medicine!" The blast rested on the racket for a second, taking on a pinkish outline before flying back toward Anti-Aerilla.

"No thank you!" Anti-Aerilla made a break for the exit to try and get away from her reflected blast. She must have thought she was safe as she moved out of the direct path of the reflected energy, because I could hear her starting to slow down as she moved out of the aisle. As the blast started to curve to follow her, she cried out and continued to run.

I followed behind in time to see Anti-Aerilla making her way back into the mall. Despite her desperate flight, the energy continued to follow her and was slowly closing the distance. She threw up a shield just before the blast made contact, resulting in an explosion of pink and purple as the combined energies met each other. I could hear Anti-Aerilla crying out as she was thrown by the resulting blast. Judging from the direction of her flying voice, she must have landed in the Fashion Lady store Rachel and I had visited earlier.

"Game, set and match!" I giggled a little before following after my clone, leaving the racket behind. The Fashion Lady was a wreck of mannequins, display tables and clothing strewn about all over the place. "Where did she go?!"

A pile of dresses and mannequins started to shift and moan, and I started to move toward it. My worries that an innocent bystander had been caught in the cross-fire we're replaced by alarm and concern when a sudden blast of purple energy suddenly burst out of the pile. I barely had time to realize that she was wearing the same outfit I was before she started to bolt toward the emergency exit at the back.

"Oh no, you don't!" I pulled at the edge of the Ribbon Whip tying back my hair, feeling my hair falling against my shoulders as I swung it toward my clone. The whip grew in length and thickness as it and Anti-Aerilla raced for the exit. A smile of satisfaction crossed her lips as her hand reached the handle of the door, a smile that moved to my face as the Ribbon Whip wrapped tight around her ankle a split second later. I pulled her back hard, bringing her back to me as her nails scrabbled for traction on the tile floor.

"Alright, fess up! Who are you, really? What do you think you're trying to do?!" I demanded of her as I reeled her in.

"I told you, I'm Aerilla!" She continued to mimic my voice as she grabbed at a display table to anchor herself. As she started to get within arms reach, it changed to the cold, evil voice she had when I first caught her by surprise. "Or at least that's what I'll tell your team-mates when they catch up to us. I'll tell them you're the clone, and let them finish you off for me!"

"What?!" I shook my head furiously as I gave the whip a good, hard yank to pull her loose. "You're crazy! They'd never do anything like that!"

"You think so? Who do you think they're gonna believe? You..." She turned away from me for a brief moment, running one of her hands across her face. I felt the tingle of magic before she turned back to face me. "... or me?"

A gasp of shock escaped from me when I saw the clone's changed appearance. She still had my face, if someone had been beating it with a meat mallet. Big, ugly purple bruises covered her face, and included a eye that look so swollen it looked like it was about to pop out of its socket. She smiled at my surprise, showing a mouth that was missing some teeth and had a little trickle of blood flowing out of the corner of it. If she went up to the Sentella looking like that, there's a good chance they'd be willing to believe her in the heat of the moment. Nothing sells innocence like injury.

"Yah!" The surprise of seeing my own face looking so mangled and damaged caused me to loosen my grip on the Ribbon Whip. Anti-Aerilla took advantage of that and pulled the whip free of my hand before springing up and lunging at me.

We entered another physical battle as we moved outside the store. Unlike our first physical confrontation, though, this fight was less martial arts theater and looked more like something someone would catch on their cell phone and post online. It turns out being in a catfight is not nearly as exciting/fun/sexy as it is to watch one.

It's hard to remember all the exact details of it, but I remember a lot of hissing, scratching and grappling. At one point she broke free and threw me to the ground, but her attempt to flee was cut short as I grabbed her by her tail and yanked her down onto the floor with me. I leapt atop her and tried to pin her, but she was able to get her arms on my shoulders before I could pin hers down, and we ended up rolling around on the floor for a while as we continued our desperate and somewhat pathetic struggle.

The sound of rushing water started to fill my ears over the hissing and cries of pain as I noticed that our fight had carried us to the big fountain near one of the second floor entrances. A small crowd of onlookers had gathered on the third and fourth floor balconies overlooking the entrance, keeping a safe distance from the strange looking fighting girls one of Anti-Aerilla's scratches drew blood on my arm and I recoiled briefly in pain. When she tried to stand up, I quickly grabbed her by her hair and yanked as hard as I could. She cried out and fell to the floor, and I tried to take the chance to get back to my feet. Anti-Aerilla was just too quick; before I could fully get my footing, she leapt up and tackled me, tipping us both into the fountain.

SPLOOSH!

A shiver ran through my spine as we entered the icy cold water of the fountain. Anti-Aerilla had me pinned for a moment under the water, but I managed to get her off with a hard shove. I tried to get back to my feet, but only made it to my knees before her hands went back on my shoulders to keep me from getting up.

"Stay down!" I dug myself in as best as I could, but she was slowly forcing my body backwards. If she managed to push me down now, I had no doubt she would probably try to drown me in the fountain. My brain quickly ran back through all my training as I fought to stay alive. Was there any move, any magic that would help me here? No, there wasn't anything like that... wait; wasn't there a fourth part to Regina's battle strategy? Win, use your strengths, do something unexpected... oh, now I remember!

When all else fails, cheat.

"Oh my God..." A look of pure terror and surprise slowly crept across my face as I briefly let go of my clone to point at something behind her. "WHAT IS THAT?!"

"What?! Where?!" Anti-Aerilla looked frantically behind her, trying to figure out what had gotten me so startled. She seemed puzzled when she saw nothing there, which is exactly what I aimed for. I delivered a quick chop to her leg as she was distracted, making her cry out and grip her wounded leg, and I leapt to my feet when she let go.

"Hey! You lied!" Yeah, yeah I did. You might be surprised that worked, but you also have to remember that I'm battling aliens. Most Earthling's probably wouldn't fall for that move, but I guessed an alien might be caught totally off guard if they've never experienced it before. Turns out I was right.

I grabbed Anti-Aerilla by her shoulders and forced her to her knees. She grabbed my arms and tried to fight her way back up, her unpainted nails digging into my arm as she tried to get free. My grip held firm as I tried to figure out what to do now. Should I try and secure her somehow and show the girls that I really do have an evil clone? Maybe I should finish her off? She doesn't look like the ugly beasts we've fought before, though. This was a sentient being; evil as hell, sure, but I don't think I could kill her. Maybe I should just knock her out? Regina was telling me about this one move that'll knock a helpless opponent out like a li...

"Silver Wolf! Help! The clone's got me!"

"Huh?!" Anti-Aerilla mimicked my voice again as she called out to someone behind me. I followed her gaze upwards to see Silver Wolf leaping off the 4th floor balcony overlooking the fountain. His sword slid out of his sheath as he seemed to descend in slow motion toward us.

"Let her go, you vile fiend!" Silver warned us as he bought his sword back, preparing for what would no doubt be a fatal strike.

"Silver, no! I'm the..." No, it's too late! Silver's already got his sword out and is ready to strike. There's no time to explain, to tell him I'm the real Aerilla!

I leapt away from Anti-Aerilla, hoping against hope that Silver would miss. In some ways this hurt even worse than Sera or one of the other girls finishing me off. Silver's the first Earthling in a long time that's shown any kind of affection or care for me beyond friendship, and now he's about to slice me in two based off the word of a lookalike.

Time seemed to slow down as Silver grew closer and closer. I turned away from him, unable to face my impending doom. The clone flashed me an evil smile, clearly enjoying my fear and distress. She was barely able to keep herself under control as she started to laugh, ecstatic that her plan seemed to be working perfectly.

Her look of joy continued even as Silver's sword started to split her right between the ears.

I barely even heard Silver land as his sword started to cleave the clone in two. The blade just fully entered her head before she cried out, her body starting to turn all black around the wound. It quickly spread from there, her body quickly disintegrating and turning to black dust like all the other Shadowed One's we've fought. Silver smiled as he offered his hand to me, helping me out of the fountain as the black dust started to disperse.

"Milady, are you well?" He asked as I pushed the sopping wet hair out of my eyes with my free hand.

"Y-Yes, I'm O.K..." I blushed a little, partly from being soaking wet in front of Silver and partly because he was still holding my hand. "I was with my friend Rachel, and then I heard the clone was in the mall, and..."

"Aerilla!"

I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I heard Sera's voice. She and the rest of the Sentella came running through the nearby entrance.

"What's going on?! We just felt a huge burst of Shadow energy, and we see you on television running around and committing all sorts of crimes!" Sera's voice was torn between questioning and accusing as surveyed the scene before her.

"It was not her." Silver shook his head before pointing upwards toward the balcony he'd leapt from. Rachel was standing there, looking just as surprised and shocked as anyone. "I saw Milady running out of the spa, followed shortly by her young friend. She explained that she had been shopping with her new friend for a while when she suddenly ran out. When I saw the news report at a nearby restaurant talking about the cat burglar who'd be running all over town causing mischief, I realized something was very strange."

I confirmed Silver's statement with a nod. "I bought a bunch of stuff while the clone was running around, and my friend Rachel can tell you that too. I tried to tell you girls, but... I'll explain in a bit, I promise."

I breathed a little sigh of relief as the girls nodded, seemingly buying my story. Vixie ran to grab my Sentella-phone while Sera addressed the crowd that had gathered. She thanked everyone for watching the stunt show we had put on. She wasn't just making up a story; her voice was changing into a hypnotic, magical tone. Everyone was slowly being lured into a trance, believing that Sera's story was the bona fide truth.

"Such an interesting pattern you have here, Milady." Silver's thumb gently ran over my fingers as he held my hand, noting the lone two nails that were painted pink.

"Oh! Yes, I had to run out in the middle of my nail appointment with my friend Rachel when the clone showed up." I blushed heavily, feeling so silly and vulnerable looking so disheveled in front of Silver. His hand felt so strong, so soft... "Wait, how did you know that I wasn't the clone? She looked and sounded just like me."

Silver smiled as he shook his head gently. "No clone could every hope to duplicate the kindness and purity of your soul I felt when we first met, Milady. That feeling has stayed with me and made it simple to tell that you were the true Aerilla."

"O-Oh..." I don't know if I could blush any harder if I tried. Silver must have noticed how awkward I felt, as he gently let go of my hand soon after.

"Do not worry about your young friend; I'll make sure she gets home safely. She also asked me to give you this." Silver handed me a folded up piece of paper. It was a receipt for the spa, but when I opened it up there was a phone number written on the back. I recognized it right away; it was Rachel's cell phone number. "It seems you've made quite an impression on her."

"Yeah, I guess I did..." Sera finished up with her work, calling for all of us to make our exit. "We'd better go before we cause anymore trouble."

"Indeed. I will see you again soon, Milady." Silver smiled as I joined the rest of the Sentella. He waved gently as we made our exit, glancing back toward Rachel as we moved out of sight.

Sera used her magic to start a fire for me to dry out over as I explained everything that happened. Merit handed me back the Ribbon Whip she had retrieved while Vixie confirmed the damage to my Sentella phone and asked me to take a quick picture of her and the rest of the girls with it. I was confused about why she asked me to do that, until I saw what the resulting picture revealed.

"Gah! Gross!" Spider webs, invisible to the naked eye covered my team-mates. They seemed as disturbed as I was, but Vixie explained that she had a magical body wash that would clear that right up when we got back to her lab.

"Great. Now, perhaps you can clear something else up for us." Sera had been looking over her own Sentella-phone as her S.A.R.A. showed her the list of charges I had made on the teams credit card. Her red-haired personal assistant had an orange-red uniform like our own, with fox ears and a red tail with a tip of white at the end of it. "I know you were trying to prove you innocence, but you'll be able to repay this, right?"

"Repay? Um..." I quickly looked over the list of charges. I hadn't really thought about how much money I spent while I was with Rachel, but in the end I'd racked up almost two thousand dollars in clothes, spa treatments and other charges. "That's a lot of money, and I can barely make my own bills..."

Sera didn't look too pleased with that response, but her face suddenly brightened after a moment. She called the other girls into a huddle for a moment, whispering and discussing something I couldn't hear. When they broke, Sera offered a proposal.

"We'll cover the debt for you. In return, you can do some favors for each of us, O.K?" She offered with an innocent smile.

"Sure! That sounds great!" I smiled, feeling relieved that I was able to work something out with them. Each of them started to match Sera's smile. Some of them giggled, and Sera's smile started to look almost evil as I started to worry about what I had just agreed to. "Um, girls? What exactly did you have in mind?..."

Maybe I should have let the clone take my place after all...