Sparkle Showdown at the Scarborough Corral

This is a special gift for missmaj from Maelyn's niece, MiniMaj. This was supposed to be ready back in January, since January was BigMaj month...LOL.

Anyway, MiniMaj has an author's note at the end, too.

So, sit back and enjoy MiniMaj's gift to missmaj *winks at Maj* You still awake, sleepy head?

*****

Maj's POV

I laughed when Mae tweeted her last post: Maelyn_ @missmaj Mini You is here! SHUSH! 'Mini me' is Mae's niece, who's an awesome author, considering that she's only 13, as of today, actually. We call her 'MiniMaj' because she sounds just like me when she writes, and I had actually called her a 'mini me'. The name had caught on, and she even had a website that she uploaded her stories to.

Suddenly there was a rumble, and my entire house shook with it. There was a large explosion that followed and some of my windows shattered. I shrieked and ran towards the front door. My husband was out with the kids, and I had a sudden scary thought that they might be harmed in some way. I shoved my door open and practically fell through it. I stood up and brushed myself off, then looked around at the wreckage that was my neighborhood.

There were houses that were missing entire walls, cars that were completely destroyed, and debris strewn across peoples' lawns. I stared in awe at the damage that the explosion had caused. Another pang of fear passed through me for my family. I started walking towards the car before I realized that they had taken it to the park.

While I was standing in my driveway, little pieces of metal started falling in front of me. As they formed the shape of a person, I realized that they weren't pieces of metal, but little sparkling creatures.

"Majalyn Isip," it - or they, I'm not really sure - said. Its voice sounded like a whole bunch of chipmunks talking at once. "You have been chosen to help the Sparkles take over this world."

I almost burst out laughing, but the creepiness of the situation kept my mouth shut. "What? Who are you?"

"We are the Sparkles and we need your help, Majalyn, to recreate this world that the humans reside on. We need you to...take care of some people for us."

"Uh, you mean, like, kill people? Hell, no!" I turned around and started walking away, but the 'Sparkles' fluttered around me and reassembled in front of me again.

"You don't have a choice in the matter, Majalyn. If you won't come to us willingly, we will take you by force," it said, and a single sparkle separated from the rest. It flipped through the air a little bit, then fluttered into my nose. There was an incredibly weird feeling as the sparkle wiggled around inside my nose, and I sneezed. The sparkle came out again and it looked like it shook itself off. After it was finished, it shot into my nose at an alarming speed - a speed at which I wouldn't want small, glittery beings traveling inside my nose.

"Allyxandri'ah will assist you in any training that she finds necessary," it said, and then a slight breeze passed, and all of the sparkles fluttered away. I let out a breath, then turned around and headed back towards my house to call my family. I only took one step, though, because I abruptly turned around and started walking towards town. The weird thing was, I didn't want to go to town - I wasn't in control of my actions.

"I think that I find some training necessary," I heard a voice say. It sounded like they (I couldn't tell the gender of the voice; it sounded like a low hiss to me) were surrounding me. I tried to look around to find this person, but I still couldn't control my movements. "My name is Allyxandri'ah, and I am a Xchi'ari, or 'Sparkle', as you humans call us. Our ruler, Okibun'al, sent me to train you, Majalyn. Now, you need to learn how to fly."

A flurry of thoughts rushed through my head. Who was this 'Allyxandri'ah', and was she the Sparkle that flew into my nose? How was I supposed to talk to her if she was in my head? Think really, really hard? I think I can, I think I can... While I was thinking about this, I hardly noticed that I had run into a building and was running upstairs.

"Where are we going?" I said aloud because it felt kind of stupid to think to myself. Of course, talking to myself wasn't really any better.

"Like I said, you need to learn to fly". This terrified me. Heading up the stairs of a six-story tall building with a Sparkle in my brain just didn't sound like the safest thing that I could be doing on such a lovely Saturday afternoon. I tried to stop myself, but Allyxandri'ah was still in control. We were still running, and I was surprised at how fast I was moving, considering how I had just traveled at least a half a mile.

I stopped at a door briefly before opening it and running to one of the window rooms. I - or we - burst through the door and interrupted a meeting. Everyone was sitting around a big oak table and they all looked up at me.

"Uh, can I help you with something?" the man at the head of the table asked. I tried to respond, but I couldn't move. Allyxandri'ah was still in control. After a moment, we turned and jumped though the window, glass shattering all around my body. I could hear the people behind me screaming, and I let out an internal scream myself.

"Do you ever shut up?" Allyxandri'ah hissed from inside my head. "I haven't yet heard you stop rambling to yourself up here. You humans are so noisy!" I didn't think to respond because the ground was getting closer very quickly. I closed my eyes and realized that I had control of my body again. I tried to stop myself from falling, but I ended up just flopping around in mid-air. When I was facing down again, I realized that I was almost to the ground.

"Do I have to do everything?" Allyxandri'ah asked. I felt a sharp pain in my back, just below my shoulder blades. I tried to look back, but my body jerked upwards, and I heard the sound of great wings flapping. I looked around for a minute, trying to find this mysterious over-sized eagle, or dragon, or whatever it was. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was me making the noise.

There were two huge, black sparkling wings that had grown out from my back. They were easily the size of me and then some. I tried to flex them, but Allyxandri'ah was flying me somewhere.

"Where are we going?" I asked aloud, too startled by the fact that I had wings.

"Somewhere with less witnesses." She sounded angry, and considering the fact that she was in my head and could control my body if she so chose to, I didn't ask anymore questions.

We ended up flying into the woods somewhere. She landed us on a log and released whatever hold that she had on my body. I stumbled a bit, but I caught my balance before I fell. I looked back at my wings and stretched my newly formed muscles. 'That is so cool', I thought.

"Yes...yes, it is. The reason that I brought you here is so that I can show you your true form, and also to give you a bit of a history lesson." I sat down on the log because the fatigue from running so far had finally caught up with me. "Years and years ago, when the Beasts, which I believe you call 'dinosaurs', roamed the earth, humans were very different. They looked similar to how you will soon enough. They were merciless creatures, killing anyone who rebelled, killing for no reason at all sometimes. Then one of them, Archaius, proposed that they change their ways. He was a bright one - I was sad to see him go. Anyway, he came up with...something, and it changed the humans greatly. As you can see, they are a very different group now. Archaius became the new leader of the humans, and he led a group of humans into hiding when my brother, Haiiolu'ah, released his fury upon this world, killing almost everything on this planet, including the Beasts. We Sparkles have lived in hiding ever since. That is, until now."

"How were you hiding? I'm pretty sure that nearly every inch of the world has been explored since the dinosaurs."

"We Xchi'ari have the ability to change our size. We have disguised ourselves as stars. We were safe until recently, when your scientists started to investigate. Some of us were forced out of hiding."

"So," I started cautiously, "how long have the Sparkles been around?"

"I have been in existence for a little over 2 billion years. There are others who are much, much older than me. Like Okibun'al, our leader. He is older than Earth."

"You mentioned that humans looked similar to what I'd look like shortly. What exactly does that mean?" I felt my face to make sure that it felt the same.

"I will show you."

I had the odd experience of looking at myself from the front. I watched in both horror and fascination as large, black, sparkling horns sprouted out from my temples. My eyes grew larger and darkened until they were black. My fingernails grew longer and also turned black. My hair, which was already a dark, dark brown, also grew and darkened. All in all, I looked like one bad-ass demon thing.

Suddenly, I returned to my own body. I had an urge to fly somewhere, to try out my newly discovered awesomeness. I spread my wings and flew. Directly into a tree. I heard Allyx laughing at me. It took me two more tries before I actually managed to get out of the woods and fly around a little bit. I was still new at the whole flying thing, so I flopped around a bit. While I was flying, the sun had started to set, and I realized that I also had some pretty awesome night vision. I officially declared this whole demon experience to be the single most awesome thing to ever happen to me.

"Anyway, back to business." Allyx said, and she ruined my fun by bringing me back down to solid earth. "We have been studying you for a long time, Majalyn. We have seen who you like and dislike. You seem to have taken a certain disliking to your son's substitute teacher, Ms. Long. Your first assignment is to kill her."

"What?! Kill her?" I gasped in disbelief. "Look, she can be a bitch at times, but I don't want her dead! You Sparkles must have a different way of going about doing things than us. There are laws against this! I can't - "

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Would you like to return to your normal self, only to be killed later?" I stayed silent. "That's what I thought. Now, I know where she is right now. Would you like to go to her and make her death a quick and painless one? Or would you rather wait until you are in a 'better mood'?"

It was obviously a hypothetical question because Allyx flew us back towards town. She landed us in the middle of a crowded street, and many people ran off, screaming things about the world ending, and how the devil had come up to end them. I looked around and realized that the earthquake this morning hadn't affected this part of town because everything looked like it normally did - no debris lying around, no buildings in ruin. Strange.

"We came for you, and you only, Majalyn. That is why only your street was damaged." She walked us into a dentist's office, where several more people ran away, screaming. Some even jumped through the window. Allyx walked back to one of the rooms and let me take over. There, in the dentist's chair, was Ms. Isabella Long. She had always been cruel to my youngest son, making him work harder than she made the others in his class. He had always come home exhausted from a hard day at school.

The dentist was busy drilling in her mouth, and Isabella had her eyes closed tight. I walked in and I swallowed because my throat was suddenly dry. The thought of killing someone terrified me, but if I didn't do it, the Sparkles would probably kill me and my family. I tapped the dentist on the shoulder. He turned around, got one look at me, and fled the room. I looked back at Isabella.

She still had her eyes closed. She hadn't even noticed that the dentist had left. I wanted to make her death as quick and painless as possible, so I tried to remember how they did it in the movies. I didn't happen to have a gun or sword handy, so that was out of the question. I could drill through her skull, although I doubted that that would be either quick or painless.

"Your nails are nice and sharp," Allyx whispered. I looked down at my hands. My nails did have nice, sharp edges that came to very pointy tips. I could always decapitate her, I thought. That would leave a huge mess, though.

I settled for breaking her neck. I put one hand under her jaw, and the other on the side of her head. She opened her eyes just before I snapped her neck. Her eyes glossed over with what I assumed was death, and her neck made a sick, popping noise.

"Very good. Quick, painless, and clean. You have completed your first task as our assassin," Allyx said. She sounded fairly pleased with herself. "My job is complete. I'll go and tell Okibun'al of your success."

Allyx left my nose, and I sneezed again.

"That is so revolting!" she said, before she took off out of the room. I looked down at the dead body on the chair below me. In disgust at what I had done, I walked out of the office.

----------------------------

Two days later, I was sitting alone in the woods, where I had spent most of my time ever since I had become the Sparkles' assassin. I hadn't gone to see my family, and I was missing them terribly. I couldn't show my face in public because people ran away in terror. I wasn't loving my horns and wings as much as I had two days before.

Suddenly, the earth shook violently, and a tree fell somewhere near where I was. Instinctively, I flew into the air. I glanced towards town, and people were running and screaming. I headed towards civilization, worried about my family.

As I neared a street, I saw what the people were running from. There was a great horde of Sparkles slowly floating down the street, and the whole block glowed yellow. I almost flew towards it, but someone on the side of the road was trying to get my attention. I looked over, and I saw someone that looked vaguely familiar. I flew down and landed beside her.

"Maj? What are you doing here? The world is ending, don't you know?" It was the voice that gave it away.

"Lucy?" I asked, shocked at seeing my friend, who I knew from our blog. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She briefly scanned me, no doubt taking in my newest look, before she answered. "My boss sent me here to investigate a rumor about an earthquake." She looked over at the army of Sparkles. "Looks like you have a bit more trouble than an earthquake, though."

The Sparkles were getting pretty close to us now, so I grabbed Lucy by the waist and flew to somewhere safer. Somewhere where small, sparkling beings weren't threatening to trample us. I decided to land on the roof of a nearby building.

"Whoa. You can fly?" Lucy spun around as soon as her feet touched solid ground.

"Um, yeah. About that. You see, the Sparkles recruited me as their new assassin. They made me into what humans used to look like so that I could help them take over the world, or some shit. Anyway, Allyx abandoned me after I killed my son's substitute teacher, so I've been alone for the past two days."

Lucy's facial expression changed from shocked, to scared, to disgust, then back to shock. It was an odd experience. "Wait. You killed your son's substitute teacher?"

So, I told her the whole story, and by the time I was finished, Lucy was sitting on the edge of the roof. I considered warning her that she was atop a three-story building, but I thought that I would be able to catch her before she hit the ground. She stared straight ahead for a little bit, and I began to fidget. Suddenly, my cell - that I didn't even know that I had - rang. I flipped it open without even looking at the caller ID. I'm a frigging demon-human hybrid. Nobody could possibly talk me into buying the latest "lemon yellowizer".

"Hello?" I said.

"Maj? What the fuck is going on?" It was Tina, another one of my friends from my Fanfiction stuff. I recognized her voice from many, many times on Skype. "Some sparkling freaks just flew in my window and told me that I was the Queen of the Sparkles. They also said that you would perform any assassinations that I found necessary. Again I ask, what the fuck is going on here?"

"Uh, Tina! How nice to hear from you!" I glanced at Lucy, and she was glaring at me, so I sighed and repeated the story to Tina. About halfway through the story, Lucy's phone rang and she answered it. After I was finished telling Tina the story, I waited for her reply.

"Sweet! I am the Queen of the Sparkles! Wait, wasn't Mae's niece talking about Sparkles in one of her stories?" I thought about that, and I realized that she was right. But, before I could answer, Tina was saying how she was going to meet me as soon as possible. The next thing I knew, she had hung up, but not before she let out a squeal.

"Mae and her niece are on their way," Lucy said. "Amanda got a call, considering that, other than you, she's the only human that knows anything about the Sparkles."

There was a flash of light in front of my face, and I felt something wriggling around in my nose.

"Allyx?" I asked aloud. "I thought that you were done with me?"

"I was, but the world needs your help now, Majalyn. The others want to destroy this world and everyone in it. You need to leave. Now." It was strange how much I had missed that voice in my head.

"I can't just leave! I have family and friends here. And besides, where am I going to go? It's not like I can go and live on another planet or anything."

"Maj? Who are you talking to?" Lucy was giving me a very strange look.

"Oh, it's just Allyx. She's apparently one of the good Sparkles, now that they are trying to end the world." I tuned out Lucy so that I could concentrate on Allyx.

"Actually, you can go and live on another planet. Another benefit from being an early human. Anyway, we need to leave now, while we have the chance." Allyx sounded rushed.

"No. I'm not just abandoning my home. I'll die defending it, if that's what I have to do. I can't just give up."

"Very honorable. Now, let's go." I could feel Allyx try to control my body, but I pushed her out with all that I could. "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Is your honor really that important to you?"

"Stopping you from taking me away. Maybe. Yes. Now, can we go and save the world?" I didn't wait for an answer, I just grabbed Lucy around the waist and flew us back down to the street where we originally met. I put Lucy on the side of the road, and then I walked up to where the Sparkles were slowly making their way down the road.

'I can kill Sparkles, right?' I thought to Allyx.

"Yes. You will need to awaken further, though. Are you willing to be completely changed into what you truly are? There is no going back." I took a second to think. Literally, a second.

'I'm ready', I thought.

I saw myself from the front again, and I watched in shock as I changed even more. I grew spikes all along the sides of my arms. From my wrists sprouted long, sword-like things that were as black as my horns. My wings grew spikes. Now I looked like some bad-ass demon that was ready for battle.

"And one last thing. You will need this to ensure that the Sparkles that you kill stay dead." In my hand, a weapon appeared. It didn't look like your average sword. This thing was as big as me, and it was sparkling with black sparkles. The handle was very elegant, wrapping around my hand in silver spirals. It looked like it could do some serious damage. "This is the Daquir. It was what the best human warrior used so very long ago to kill us Sparkles. That is how I lost my parents, and that is why my brother exploded." She sounded sad, and I wanted to comfort her, but I had some business to attend to.

I cleared my throat, but the Sparkles didn't seem to notice. So, I just went up and whacked one of them with the sword. It exploded into a flurry of gold. Suddenly, all of the Sparkles turned on me at once, burning my skin, but I just spun around, waving the sword like I actually had an idea about what I was doing. A lot of them blew away in the wind, until one of them managed to get the sword away from me. I tried to grab at it, but they had flung it into the middle of the road, and then they ganged up on me. I tried to defend myself with my spikes and the weapons that had grown from my wrists, but there were too many.

I was falling, and my vision was filling with Sparkles, so much so that I couldn't see passed them. I felt myself giving into them, letting them win.

"Damn you! Let me in, Maj! You are the one that wanted to save the world! How are you going to do that if you're dead! Let me in!" It was Allyx, but I found myself unable to care anymore. I was almost going to close my eyes and let them win, but a huge group of them disappeared before me, and I could see that someone had picked up the sword and was attacking them. I tried to sit up, but there were some Sparkles that were holding me down. Soon enough, though, my hero had those taken care of, too. A hand popped into my field of vision. I grabbed it and it pulled me up off the ground.

I was astonished when I saw who it was. I saw a girl that couldn't be any older than fifteen standing in front of me. She had a wide smile on her face, and she was holding the Daquir. She handed it over to me, then hugged me tightly. When she pulled back, her grin hadn't shrunk at all.

"You must be Maj! I'm Amanda, and I'm here to save all your butts!" She grinned and looked around, and I realized that at some point while I was fighting, both Tina and Mae had arrived. Pretty sweet timing, huh? I saw Mae standing near Lucy, staring at me. Tina was busy clapping excitedly.

"Mae? It's so good to see you in real life!" I went over to her, and she gave me a flash of a smile. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said. "Just the fact that you have wings and spikes and horns and shit." She smiled a little bit wider.

"Anyway, if I understand the Sparkles correctly," Amanda was saying. "They should be headed for us right about now. In my opinion, if we're gonna have to fight them, we should be able to choose the location of the battle."

"She's right, you know. They won't enjoy finding out that we have turned on them. We should head somewhere more...private." Allyx's voice was barely above a whisper.

"What's wrong, Allyx?" I said.

"You have blocked me out. That's why I couldn't take control of your body and fight back. You need to let me in, Majalyn." Even as she spoke, her voice faded into the distance. I tried numerous times to open whatever 'doors' I had closed earlier. Before I could ask Allyx how to do that, I heard a loud, pulsing noise coming from behind me. I looked at my friends' faces, and I could guess what was behind me.

The Sparkles had arrived. All of them. I turned around, and was nearly blinded by the light that was radiating off of them. They were slowly making their way towards us. I noticed that the pulsing noise was actually all of the Sparkles humming simultaneously. It was actually quite creepy. None of the humans were saying anything, but I could feel them slowly backing away from me.

"It's time to die, turkeys!" I heard a voice shout from a nearby rooftop. I looked up and saw Kay, holding a compound bow. She was aiming it straight at the Sparkles. I smiled to myself as I got my sword ready.

Everything happened very suddenly. The Sparkles charged at me, and I was ready for them. I had a steady rhythm down, when I heard Kay's compound bow fire. Smiling, I swiped a few Sparkles in one blow.

In mid-swing, I heard a man's voice say, "Wait! Stop! What are you doing?" All of the Sparkles suddenly backed up, and they formed a circle around me. I looked around for the man who had interrupted my fighting.

"Who does he think he is to stop an epic battle between humans and Xchi'ari?" Allyx's voice was perfectly clear now, and she sounded kind of pissed. I finally found this man, and he looked exactly like Jackson Rathbone. "Never mind. He can interrupt any time. Maj, did you notice how good-looking he is? Maybe humans aren't so bad." All I could do was nod as I saw how much he looked like Jackson.

"There's no need for fighting. If the Sparkles have been living in space for all these years, then why can't they just go and find another planet to live on? Why do they have to have this one? They can have the entire universe, if you think about it." Jackson was slowly walking closer to us, and I swear I drooled. Just a little bit.

"He's right," the Sparkles said in unison. "We don't need oxygen like you puny humans. We can survive on another planet, where there is little or no oxygen."

"Wait, is that Jackson?" Amanda whispered to me.

"I think it is." I tried to whisper back, but it's amazing how the control that you think you have over your voice and body can disappear.

"Thank you, Monroe Jackson Rathbone. How can we repay you?" The Sparkles had backed up, and I could see the entire group. Tina was blushing bright pink, Mae was staring just a bit, Kay - who was still on the rooftop - was leaning over the edge to get a better look. Amanda was looking at everyone and laughing quietly to herself. Lucy was staring at the Sparkles, obviously a little weirded out about the whole talking-in-unison thing.

"I would like it very much if you returned this lovely woman back to what she used to look like," he smiled at me.

"Did you see that, Maj? He smiled at me!" Allyx was literally squealing with delight.


"No! He's mine!" I screamed at Allyx.

"What are you talking about? I am an all-powerful Xchi'ari! You have no right to order me around!"

"An all-powerful Xchi'ari? You're the size of a freaking snowflake! How in the world could I bow down to you?" Everyone around me was starting to give me odd looks.

"Is this what you wish, Majalyn?" The Sparkles were saying to me. I thought about that for a minute. I could be a freak to the general population, or I could be able to show my face in public.

"Yes, it is."

This time, I didn't have the out-of-body experience, I just felt my wings melt away from my back, and everything else go back to normal. I could still hear Allyx mumbling in my head about incompetent humans, though.

"Allyxandri'ah, do you wish to leave with us? Or do you feel an attachment to the humans?" I swear if the Sparkles had faces, they'd be sneering at the thought.

"I wish to stay. Goodbye, father." Allyx was talking, using my mouth. As soon as the words left my mouth, all of the Sparkles shot towards the sky.

"Wait, why was I named Queen if I didn't do anything?" Tina said.

"Oh, don't worry, Christina. They will find some use for you," Allyx said for me.

Everyone turned their gaze on Jackson, who gave a heart-melting smile. "Well, I suppose that this is cause for a celebration."

Out of nowhere, people - guitarists, a drummer, some other musicians and dancers - came out into the middle of the street, and Jackson and his 'band' began to just act strange...






THE END

I hope you enjoyed it! I apologize for the delay. I had some trouble with the storyline.

By the way...

February is . . . . . .

TINA'S MONTH!


(cue clapping and excitement)



THANKS TO:

BigMaj (aka missmaj) for being alive and stuff so that I could write this!

Tina for beta'ing and helping with some random questions!

Aunt Mae for being awesome and putting up with my constant babbling!

Uhh.... Lucy for showing up when Maj was feeling lonely?

Kay for having a compound bow!

Me for writing it?