Lemmy didn't think. She moved.
Her enlarged foot planted, claws gripping the cage floor for purchase. Her body coiled—new muscles she didn't know she had tensing with predatory precision—and she lunged.
SLASH.
Her obsidian talons raked across Gilderoy's bars.
The reaction was immediate.
CRACK-SPARKLE-BOOM!
A cascade of magical sparks erupted from the point of contact—gold and silver starbursts exploding outward like festival fireworks. The bars screamed, a metallic shriek that echoed through the room as arcane energy bled from fresh gouges in the enchanted metal.
"AAAAGH!" Gilderoy wailed, his theatrical voice cracking with genuine pain. "WHAT SAVAGERY IS THIS?!"
The Love Toys had been lounging at their posts—bored, complacent, certain their prisoner was thoroughly broken after the feeding session.
Now they scrambled into formation.
"WHAT IN THE QUEEN'S CORSET—" Sir Welton snapped to attention, his riding crop form quivering with alarm. "The prisoner is attacking!"
"She has claws now!" the silk blind fold shrieked, as it paced along the drawer top.
"We can see that!" Shouted another toy.
"Her aura... It's changed. Something ancient has awakened within her."
Lemmy didn't stop.
Her tail lashed for balance as she pivoted, bringing her other hand around in a vicious backhand swipe.
SLASH-SLASH.
Two more gouges. Two more explosions of magical discharge. Emerald sparks this time, mixed with crackling violet—Gilderoy's defensive enchantments flaring desperately.
"She's STRONG!" Gilderoy's bars rattled, his entire structure shuddering. "I may not be—able to con-TAIN—her!"
"Nonsense!" Sir Welton barked. "You are an enchanted cage! Containing is literally your one job!"
"WELL SHE'S LITERALLY SHREDDING ME, WELTON!"
Twister zipped around in frantic spirals. "Ohnoohnoohno she's got a TAIL now too and it's GLOWING and I don't like this I don't like this at ALL—"
"Steady," Girtholomew rumbled. His massive presence hadn't moved. His voice was calm. Philosophical. "All prisons break eventually. It is the nature of confinement to be temporary."
"NOT HELPFUL, GIRTH!" Finneus squeaked.
Lemmy's lips peeled back from her teeth—her canines were definitely sharper now—and a sound rumbled up from her chest.
A growl.
Low. Dangerous. Satisfied.
"You kept me in here," she snarled, her voice carried a new rough-edge that felt right. "You let that witch use me."
SLASH.
BOOM!
An entire section of bars buckled, warping inward. Rainbow-colored magic hemorrhaged from the wounds like blood from a cut artery.
"I-I was ORDERED!" Gilderoy shrieked, his theatrical composure shattered. "I embrace! I protect! I don't get to CHOOSE who—"
"Excuses."
SLASH-SLASH-SLASH.
Lemmy's arms were a blur—obsidian death raining down on enchanted metal. Each impact birthed a new constellation of sparks. The air filled with the smell of ozone and burning magic.
The Love Toys watched in stunned silence.
Every strike painted the air with color—starbursts of gold, silver, crimson, azure. It was like watching fireworks detonate point-blank against metal. Beautiful and violent.
"...magnificent," Plume breathed, her feathery form shivering with something between terror and arousal. "Absolutely magnificent."
"Should we... stop her?" Finneus asked uncertainly. "I mean, we're guards, right? We should guard?"
"YOU stop her!" another wand snapped. "I'll watch from back here. Way back here."
Sable drifted closer, her silk form rippling like shadow. When she spoke, it was barely a whisper.
"I knew this would happen. I saw it in her dreams. The seal was cracking. The beast was waking." Her voice dropped even lower. "Six should have killed her when she had the chance."
Lord Paddington stepped forward, stern and resolute. "Someone must alert the Mistress. This prisoner is no longer—"
CRACK-BOOM!
Another bar shattered completely, clattering to the floor in a shower of sparks.
"—contained," he finished weakly.
Gilderoy was sobbing now.
"PLEASE! I'll let you out! I'll OPEN! Just stop HITTING ME!"
Lemmy paused mid-swing, obsidian talons hovering inches from another cluster of bars. Her chest heaved. Her new ears swiveled toward the cage's voice.
"You'll open," she repeated flatly.
"YES! Yes, I'll open! I was never loyal to Six anyway, I SWEAR! I just contain what I'm told to contain! But you—you're different now—I can feel it—you're not just some captured fairy anymore, you're—"
"Gilderoy, DON'T—" Sir Welton started.
"I'm what?" Lemmy's tail crackled.
Gilderoy's voice dropped to an awed whisper.
"...you're something that shouldn't be caged at all."
There was a beat of silence.
Lemmy slowly lowered her claws.
"Smart cage."
Her tail swished once—a predator deciding not to kill.
"Then open."
CLICK.
CREEEEEAK.
The damaged door swung wide, hanging crooked on half-melted hinges.
"GILDEROY!" Sir Welton's voice was pure outrage. "You TRAITOR!"
"I'm a SURVIVOR, Welton! Look at what she DID to me!"
Lemmy Wink—Feral Lemmy Wink—stepped out of Gilderoy walking tall.
She was smaller than all of them.
She had never been more terrifying.
The Love Toys held their positions in a loose semicircle—guards facing a prisoner who no longer looked like prey.
Her ears rotated, tracking each of them. Her nose twitched. Her tail swayed with slow menace, plasma charge building at the tip. Her obsidian claws gleamed in the chamber's dim light.
Tiger stripes rippled across her skin like living armor.
"So," she growled. "Who wants to run and tell the witch?"