Be Careful What You Wish For | Hey Arnold! x Puella Magi Madoka Magica Crossover

Chapter 11

"Phoebe...Phoebe, wake up..."

Helga gently nudged Phoebe, who was slumbering in her bed. Phoebe looked as though she was having a fitful sleep, and initially refused to awake.

"Come on, Phoebe..." Helga whispered, nudging her again. "You have to get up. Gloria..."

This time Phoebe's shot open. There she saw Helga in front of her, but also, standing against her bedroom wall, she saw Gloria and Lila, standing in silence.

"It's time," said Gloria, gravely.

---

Phoebe stood alone in the witch's labyrinth, a literal maze of long winding corridors. She knelt against a corner, panting heavily, fencing blade in hand, and waited. Waited until...

Every night when I get home

The monkey's on the table,

Take a stick and knock it off,

At the third verse of the song, Phoebe leapt high in the air, revealing that the maze in fact consisted of thousands upon thousands of gigantic Jack-in-the-box. A single box had opened and Phoebe made a beeline for its core.

URR! URR!

Wrong again. A barrage of dodgeballs escaped from the box's opening, assailing a dummy version of Phoebe. Phoebe wound up back at the base of the labyrinth, kneeling on her blade, and attempted to catch her breath.

Helga, Gloria and Lila waited several yards away outside the witch's labyrinth. Both Gloria and Lila sat patiently in silence, but Helga fidgeted as she sat, wringing the bow from her head and wrestling with it in her hand.

Phoebe walked earnestly through the corridors, awaiting for her next opportunity.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,

Half a pound of treacle.

That's the way the money goes,

Phoebe leapt again, this time summoning several blades to rain down upon the opening of another Jack-in-the-box.

URR! URR!

At first, there was nothing. Then, several giant darts fired out of the box at breakneck speed, almost faster than Phoebe could react. The dummy self that she left in her place was transformed into a veritable pincushion. But Phoebe didn't fare much better; she reappeared crumbled on the ground, a pool of blood slowly growing around her. A giant dart found itself lodged deep in her abdomen.

---

Helga began to pace back and forth, both frustrated and annoyed that the other two Puella Magi could remain so calm.

"She's taking too long...why is she taking so long...?"

Lila gave Helga a bemused smirk. "Relax, Helga."

Helga shot Lila a nasty glare. "I don't see why you couldn't go in and check up on her."

"You wanted us to train her," spoke Gloria, breaking her silence. "So we trained her. But she won't always have the luxury of a back-up squad when encountering a witch. This is the ultimate test: if she isn't ready now, then she never will be. Trust me when I say at this stage, failure is a much more merciful outcome."

Helga bristled. She clenched her fist and was about to storm over to Gloria, when Lila unexpectedly took her by the arm.

"Have faith in your best friend, Helga. She'll be alright. I promise."