Episode 4

[Opening Theme: “Violet Skies” by In This Moment] <https://youtu.be/WsS5yzkgui0>

“Flashback! A New Weapon Against the Chains! Cheerleaders Have Fun in the Showers!”

Jennifer did her best to take notes while the history teacher droned on about some old war. She glanced around the classroom and decided most everyone else looked as bored as she was. Suddenly, a familiar squeaky voice sounded in her head. “Jennifer!”

“What?” she mumbled under her breath. “I’m in class.”

“Another monster is attacking the town. You need to change into Cheer Raider and defeat it,” Sugarshine commanded.

“I said I’m in school,” Jennifer replied. “It’s last period, I can go soon.”

“Go now. Your town needs you. There isn’t a moment to waste.”

“It’s not that easy to just...” Jennifer sighed in defeat, and added, “Goddammit. Fine. I’ll be right there.” She raised her hand.

“Yes, Jennifer?” the teacher said.

“May I go to the bathroom?” she asked.

“Can’t it wait? Class is almost over,” he pointed out.

“It really can’t,” she said.

The teacher shook his head, but relented. “Go.”

“Thank you,” Jennifer said, grabbing her things and hurrying out the door. She rushed to her locker and put everything inside. She then made her way to the school’s little-used rear door, looked around to make sure there wasn’t anybody else in the hall, and slipped out.

Once outside, she called out, “Gimme a V! I! C! T! O! R! Y! What’s that spell? Victory!” On the final word she thrust her fist into the air, and the charms flew off her bracelet and circled around her, turning into a swirling cloud of golden sparkles. She levitated off the ground, and all her clothes vanished, leaving her completely naked. The rush of sparkles tickled against her skin, especially her tits and pussy. A sports bra and thong formed around her body. The striped braid appeared, starting from her shoulders and meeting in the middle, then the shell formed moving downward over her breasts, stopping with the lower braid. Bloomers formed over her thong, and the skirt pleats appeared, spinning around her body, drawing closer to her until they attached at her waist. Ankle socks and boots formed around her feet. Her hair blew wildly behind her, then came together and wove itself into a single braid down her back, secured with a red hair tie. A yellow glow appeared over her nose, then split into two that moved up and back, creating the visor. From the top of the visor and around to the back of her head, the helmet formed. A final flurry of sparkles moved over her chest, leaving behind block letters that spelled out “Cheer”. Then the sparkles lowered her to the ground and dissipated.

“I’d better be back in time for cheer practice,” she said. Then she performed a round off back handspring full twist layout and vanished. She landed not far from downtown, in the supermarket parking lot. Housewives were screaming and fleeing with their small children. Several cars had already been severely damaged. At the center of the chaos stood the creature. It looked very similar to the first one, but lacking the pincers and tail. Instead, this one had overdeveloped forearms with long chains hanging out from openings at its wrists. Each link in the chains had small spikes sticking out to both sides, and at the end of both was a spiked flail. It was making good use of them, and brought them down on another car, denting the roof and smashing the windshield glass.

“Oh, I know how to deal with the likes of you. Pom-poms!” she called out. They appeared in her hands, and she thrust them forward while yelling, “Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!” That first fireball caught the monster off guard. It stumbled, then turned its attention towards her. She sent another. “Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!” This time the creature retracted the chains almost all the way back into its arms, and spun the remainder of one of them around in front of itself. Amazingly, it deflected the oncoming fireball. She tried again. “Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!” It blocked that one as well, then launched the other chain straight at her, its length extending out from its arm.

“Shit!” she hissed as she just barely dodged it, then yelped in pain as the flail of the first chain caught her off guard, impacting her shoulder and knocking her down. She got to her feet quickly and ran straight at the monster over the chains lying on the ground. “Take this! Pom-pom Flaming Punch!” She aimed a burning pom fist at the creature’s head, but was cut short when it yanked the chains upward, hitting across her body with both of them. She dropped the pom-poms, which promptly vanished, and stumbled away to the side.

“This isn’t working, Sugarshine,” said Jennifer. “I need something else.”

“What else have you got?” Sugarshine asked in return.

“Right, right, use my instincts,” Jennifer said. “You have no idea how little help that actually— Oh, wait. Duh. How could I forget that? Alright you motherfucker, I can spin shit around too. Watch my baton!” She clenched her hands into fists, put them together and then drew them apart. In the space between them appeared a twirling baton. Once the entire length was there, she transferred it to one hand and started twirling it, saying “Baton Twirl Blazing Shield!” A stream of white hot sparks flowed out from both ends of the baton, and a glowing energy barrier formed in front of it. None too soon, in fact, as the creature’s flails bounced off it right away.

It retracted its chains and tried again. This time only one flail struck the shield. The other chain wrapped around a nearby lamppost. Jennifer noticed it in time and got out of the way as the monster pulled it down in her direction. “Time to be aggressive. B, E, aggressive. Punching and throwing doesn’t work, how about we split the difference. Something with some reach,” Jennifer said. She twirled the baton again and threw it into the air. “Spinning...” She caught it on the way down and kept the twirl going. “Ignition...” It was noticeably longer. She threw it up again. “Burning...” She quickly reached up and caught it in one hand. “Pike!” The baton was much longer than before, and the end burst into a shower of sparks as a long and flat spike appeared there.

She grasped the pike in two hands and charged at the monster as it reeled its chains back in. It shook its arms to send waves down the length of the chain, but Jennifer deflected them away from herself at a safe distance with the pike. “Take this!” she shouted as she drove the pike into the creature’s chest and out its backside, running it entirely through. The beast fell to the ground, and the baton pike vanished as Jennifer jumped back. “Now the megaphone!” she called, and it appeared. As the injured creature staggered to its feet, she shouted through the megaphone, “Roar of the Crowd Scorching Sonic Blast!” The burning wave obliterated it.

She heard scattered applause as the shoppers that had taken cover behind cars started to reemerge. She gave a quick wave to the crowd, then ran into a round off back handspring full twist and disappeared.

“Miss Monroe, it’s good of you to finally join us,” said the cheer coach.

“Sorry Coach, I got held up,” Jennifer said.

“You’ll be joining Fawcett for ten laps after practice. Now get in formation!” he shouted. Jennifer winced. Running laps was a standard punishment in athletics, and ten was going to be unpleasant. It could have been worse, though, and at least she was going to have company.