What would you do if you were randomly granted godlike power?
Would you defend the world? Kill people you don't like? See the great sights of the universe?
When a bunch of random people gain the power to turn into magical girls, how will they use...
"Idiot. You added too much salt." Penny, Leilah's older sister reprimanded her, making a face at the pancakes.
"I think they're fine. Look, I can eat them." Leilah said, stuffing a pancake in her mouth.
"That's because yours are swimming in an ocean of maple syrup. I don't have a little girl's sugar obsessed tastebuds." Penny said disdainfully.
"Whatever. Are you gonna get me the candy you promised me for making you lunch?" Leilah said.
"Well, seeing as your pancakes suck and you're using up way too much maple syrup, I don't see why I should."
Leilah gritted her teeth and glared at her older sister.
"I'm never doing anything for you again." she said.
Penny ignored her, putting on her coat even though she was supposed to be with Leilah for another few hours.
Once the door shut behind her, Leilah was left in the silence of being home alone. It was such a familiar silence. She hated it.
She could turn into Red Diamond and go teleport somewhere cool. It was an amazing escape.
Leilah was scared by what happened to Torian, though. She'd heard about the whole thing on the news. He'd been outed as Jade protecting his family, and right after that he and his family had disappeared.
Leilah didn't want to imagine what Mom and Penny would do to her if they found out she'd been gallivanting around as Diamond.
But if she was caught in a situation like Torian had been in, of course she'd have to save them.
Trying to shut out the images of being hit and yelled at, Leilah stuffed her sister's portion of the pancakes in her mouth, without maple syrup.
They still tasted fine to her.
After she finished eating and put the leftovers away for later, cleaned everything up, and tried unsuccessfully to take a nap, Leilah looked at the clock.
There was still an hour and a half left. She was bored out of her mind.
Leilah reminded herself of what would happen if mom or Penny happened to come home early and discovered she wasn't there.
"Hah. They never come home early." she said, transforming and teleporting away.
Leilah practiced something they'd tried in the last Gem Squad meeting, trying to teleport herself to a sense of distress.
It was an old man desperately running his fingers through the grass.
"What's wrong?" Leilah asked.
"I lost my wallet! I just withdrew money to pay for Minnie's vet visit! I can't afford to lose this." he said, not seeming to really notice Leilah.
"I... don't know how to help you with that." she said, teleporting again.
This time it was a rabbit in the jaws of a fox. The rabbit was dead in the next instant.
"Um, humans only?" Leilah told her powers, irritated.
The next teleportation brought her to an empty field with a single tree, peaceful and quiet but laden with a sense of dread from heavy clouds in the sky above.
It took a moment for Leilah to notice the person leaned against the tree.
It was Amber.
She was asleep, but there were tears on her face. In her hand was some kind of big black sword.
Leilah was never sure what to do when people cried. She usually just left them alone.
Amber's breathing changed slightly and she opened her eyes, as if sensing Leilah's presence.
"Uh, are you okay?" Leilah asked, trying to think about what a superhero would say in this situation.
"What are you doing here?" Amber asked, getting to her feet.
"I just came here. I mean, what about you?" Leilah said nervously, trying unsuccessfully to get herself in the headspace of a superhero.
"I have nowhere left to go. All that's left for me is to destroy." Amber said cryptically, examining her sword.
"Um, I'm sure that's not true," Leilah tried, but it sounded fake.
Whatever, she could just be herself.
"I mean what the heck are you talking about?" she tried again, liking that better.
"I mean," Amber pointed the sword at Leilah, "I feel like killing you right now."
"What? I never did anything to you." Leilah took a step back.
"This isn't about revenge anymore." Amber insisted, taking a step forward.
Diamond should fight her, shouldn't she? But she was scared.
Without the other magical girls at her back, Leilah just felt like Leilah.
"Crystal!" she called, putting up a red shield just as Amber teleported up to her and swung the sword, sparks flying as it scraped her shield.
"Why are you doing this?" Diamond asked, trying to wrap her magic around Amber's limbs like shackles.
Amber broke through them like they were nothing, the strength of her malice stronger than Leilah's uncertain decision to fight her.
Amber just screamed wordlessly, her sword piercing Diamond's shield and almost slicing her in half as she dived to the side.
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Diamond teleported back home.
Panting, she fell to her knees on the living room floor. She couldn't fight that. She simply wasn't strong enough.
She had no resolve. Not like that. Not even like the rest of the Gem Squad had.
Diamond transformed back, her breath coming quickly as she walked unsteadily to the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, her vision blurring.
"What happened! Leilah, talk to me!"
Some amount of time had passed. She was lying on the floor and Mom was holding something to her side.
Leilah's shirt, soaked with blood, was pulled up.
So that last attack hadn't missed.
Leilah focused on the red gem in her chest, pulling its power toward the wound. She couldn't figure out how to heal herself completely, but she closed it enough that it shouldn't bleed any more even if she moved a lot.
Leilah tried to figure out how to get it to give her more blood, but somehow it seemed hard to figure out how to do things with her powers right now.
