Announcementspan>CW: violence, mention of an injury, mention of alcohol

  ~ Amber ~

  I arrived an hour early at Brightstar Mall. Parking was hell, which doesn’t surprise me as I’d expect the central pza of the town to be packed with people. Checking once more to ensure sure my makeup was fine on the sunshade mirror, I exited my car and embraced the chilly breeze of a windy summer afternoon.

  I took a deep breath, and let it out.

  Ok so. Game pn. I really needed those two girls on my team. Our superiors refuse to invest any more time or resources into fighting this rising shitshow from hell simply because oh, what were the excuses again? It’s happening in a small apparently worthless town and it’s just “a small detachment of monsters controlled by an insignificant and powerless hive mind,” quote our defense advisor. Well you are most certainly very very wrong. I giggled at that thought. All the higher up’s do these days is drink their alcohol in their offices sitting on leather couches in an air conditioned room, not like back then fifty years ago when they were by our sides at the front lines. If only they were here to see this for themselves, maybe they’d change their minds.

  Right. Anyway. Enough of my rambling. Why would I be stupid enough to hire some random two trainees from a local magic secondary academy? Because you make stupid decisions when you’re desperate. Yes Emotions Management 301, you’re absolutely right!

  I made it inside the double sliding doors of the mall and embraced the cool air conditioning briefly bsting my hair in all directions. Heading towards a seating area in front of a couple of artificial bushes and greenery, I found myself an empty bench and sat down on the moderately comfortable wooden surface. Pulling out my tablet, I looked around, seeing that I was alone. “System, situation report,” I said. My tablet lit up and switched to a map mode, where a bunch of red, orange, and yellow dots on the holographic 3d render of Applewood came into view. I scrolled down on the hotspots menu, taking note of recent activity of demonic magical energy around the area. The AI assistant told me that there was a 12% increase in demonic energy compared to the past day, which got added as another point at the slope of the graph of demonic energy percent vs. days of this month, growing increasingly positive.

  “They are mobilizing.” I thought out loud. Preparing for something. A something of which I do not know anything about nor know of any strategies to counter it with, which concerns me.

  Just then, a notification popped up on my tablet informing me of a new dot growing around the zone known as Brightstar Mall. My current location. The intensity has been increasing for the past five minutes from a faint shade of pink to become noticeable enough to be marked bright yellow. Now it’s slowly shifting to orange.

  I made a mental note to watch that blip as I zoomed into the floor pn of the mall. I need to keep tabs on that orange blip regurly for today. Who knows, what if a monster from down under decides to ruin my day?

  I heard a notification ping from my phone. It was a text from Joanna, letting me know they’d just parked and are entering the mall now, along with a selfie of the two of them in front of a mini statue water fountain at one of the entrances. I liked the photo and replied with a “cool, im heading to the cafe rn!” and gathered my things, taking a gnce at the map on my tablet to locate the cafe.

  —

  Brea Cafe was packed at this hour. The warm, jazzy piano music harmonically rang throughout the warmly lit environment as I walked towards the register.

  “One rge iced matcha milk tea please.” I swiped my credit card and looked around for an empty table. I picked a table of four next to a window overlooking a centrally located outdoor park pnted at the middle of the mall. There were kids pying on the pyground, couples holding hands romantically while walking across the small stone bridge, and a family was enjoying a nice fast food picnic under a tree next to the artificial river.

  Well they certainly have things in life to enjoy about and seemly no worries at all. I thought. I gotta request a paid leave or vacation or something from our advisory council board once this shit is all over and done with.

  “Hey Amber!” I looked around to see Zoey and Joanna walking over to me with cheerful expressions on their face. “Look at this cute cat plushie I got from a cw machineee!” Joanna said excitedly.

  “Also we got your drink for you.” Zoey said calmly, handing me my iced matcha milk tea.

  Well, they were literally exact opposites, I thought as I pyed with the plushie, and took my drink. Cheerful and bright on one end, calm and rational on the other; yet so they express so much synergy as though they were besties (which they probably are.) Which is something I could work with if they are willing to help.

  The two girls sat across from me, complimenting the bright and sunny weather outside. “Alright. Let’s get down to business.” I said.

  They both looked at me, one wearing a half-smile as if she was a frozen frame and the other looking on with curiosity.

  I decided that there was no easy way to expin this without raising some eyebrows from the people around us. I hoped for the best case where people would think that I’m talking about a video game and not some crazy lunatic college drop out. I took a deep breath, leaned in, and pulled out my tablet, gently pcing it on the table.

  “To start, the real reason to why I’m here. As you know from our st meeting, I’m Amber-or well, more formally known as Lieutenant Amber of Crimson Task Force in Phantom Defense Group. In magical girl uniform, I’m known as Autumn, by my code name. We specialize in eliminating magical threats and extrapnar anomalies that shouldn’t exist in this world. Our squad comprises of four magical girls, including me, and twelve weapon ops, which are magic users who can operate magical weapons and tools but can’t cast spells nor have any special abilities. We take orders from an advisory board with military generals and defense specialists. Now why am I telling you all this? Because after a major battle st week we’re down most of our weapon ops members and a magical girl was injured and had to be taken off the field for treatment. And also the advisory board, they don’t see what’s happening in this town as a big threat. They’ve already ordered a recall of all our forces and I’ve only managed to convince two weapon ops and a magical girl to stay, even if it meant defying our contract. And I’ve already vioted the NDA I signed to keep this cssified, so I really don’t have much else to lose here.” I paused to take a deep breath after spewing that all out in one go.

  “And what’s happening, you might ask? Well.” I opened my tables and shows them the screen of hotspots that I pulled up earlier. “These hotspots show demonic activity, and look here.” I pulled a map of the town and activated a 30-day timeline repy mode.

  “It’s growing.” Joanna said softly.

  “What did the board order you guys to do?” Zoey said.

  “Initially it was to eliminate the threat but after seeing the losses we have accumuted, they've been telling us to retreat further after every lost battle. They’re not giving us reinforcements and there’s really no telling what might be brewing in this witch’s pot.” I made eye contact with each girl separately. who were both listening tentatively. “That’s why I need your help. We’re pnning to go ghost and eliminate all contact with the board. Pretend that we went MIA during a battle.”

  “What’s in it for us?” Zoey questioned.

  “Well, your town doesn’t get obliterated, and you’ll gain a lot of combat experience. Not to mention I can supply high-grade weapons and armor and maybe you’ll learn a thing or two from the trained elite. Oh and also it’ll look really good on your resume. Magical Girl - Elite Unit for Phantom Defense Group.” I visualized, expressing my hands outward, signifying the title.

  “I think Zoey and I will need a minute to think this over.” Joanna said, grabbing Zoey’s arm and heading to the bathroom.

  I sipped on my drink nervously while I awaited their return, and noticed the cold sweat forming on my face. Looking at my tablet, the situation wasn’t improving. Rather, it was getting worse. A sudden spike of demonic energy, or “evil magic,” as some may call it, has been detected in one of the mall’s commercial districts around 30 seconds ago. I asked the tablet voice assistant for a new status report.

  Threat Level Estimate Increased to 4. The pop-up that followed my request read. Possible demonic being detected within vicinity. Proceed with caution. Report to HQ?

  I pressed “No” on the tablet to deny its request and stood up to gather my things to check in on them when I saw the two girls walk back to our table.

  “Sooo we will help as long as you can guarantee our safety and anonymity. We’d rather not draw attention to ourselves, especially the attention of those demonic beings when we’re in our civilian life.” Zoey expined.

  “Okay, great!” I said nervously. “I can guarantee that your identities will be completely secret. You’ll need to pick out code names and battle gear. As of now, the situation has changed. We need to go investigate a possible spike of demonic energy and hopefully conduct a preemptive strike to prevent an attack.”

  “Zoey, what names should we come up with?”

  “Well, something simple and easy to remember. Like for example, colors.”

  “I don’t know, colors might be too simple. What if we picked names that began with the first letter of our real name?”

  “Hmm.. that could work!” Zoey pondered. “Let me know when you think of something, k?”

  The two girls scoured a variety of code names for each other as we walked to the coordinates listed on my tablet. We were passing by in the clothing section near the hotspot’s location when my eyes met the gaze of a girl I could have sworn I’d met before. She had a bright look on her face, but that brightness quickly faded as soon as we’d made eye contact. That’s strange, why does she look scared all of a sudden? Then she proceeded to move behind her friend, then her friend turned around and gave her a hug.

  Okay focus Amber. You have bigger worries right now. Stop indulging yourself into other peoples lives.

  —

  We got to the energy’s source before it finished mobilizing. My tablet’s AI calcuted it at 82% and counting.

  “Okay. You two, search the surrounding area for any suspicious people. And stay in pinclothes for now. We don’t wanna attract attention, yet. I’ll sit here and watch the hotspot so if anything happens in this atrium I can immediately jump into the fight.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Zoey and Joanna said. Each headed down one side of the hallway connecting to the atrium we just came from.

  ~ Maddie ~

  I kept thinking back to the scene I’d just had moments earlier with Zoey, Joanna, and the other girl. Speaking of which, the more I think about it the more that other girl looked kind of familiar somehow. Although in the moment of panic and fear I freaked out and had a brain fart, I could have sworn she was like a cssmate or something.

  We walked to the ice cream shop adjacent to the food court as I racked my brain with these thoughts. The shop had a very floral vibe, with small table pnts and warm lighting giving the small shop a cozy and quiet vibe, especially since we entered during off-peak hours. Ellie ordered a matcha sundae while I ordered a mango one, then we both sat down at one of the tables near the window. Suddenly I felt like as if I were on a date and I blushed, looking away from Ellie and looked down at my ice cream.

  “Feeling better?” Ellie asked from across the table.

  I nodded and took a bite of my mango ice cream. The mango cubes were chewy, combined with the smoothness and creaminess of the ice cream made it one of my favorite desserts to have.

  I looked out of the window, towards the interior of the mall. People were brushing by, and the sun was just beginning to set as the light rays entering from the skylights turned golden orange. The world goes by and I observed until I heard the sound of a chair screeching against the floor.

  Ellie suddenly stood up and looked… feverish?

  I suddenly stood up as well, unsure of what was going on. “Ellie, what’s wrong?” I ask, my voice wavering.

  Ellie forced a smile. “I’m good, I just feel a little sick or something. I’m gonna go use the bathroom.”

  With that, she scurried off, without waiting for a response.

  I turned to follow her but she was already lost in the sea of people in the hallways and atriums. Feeling a sense of uncertainty, I headed in the general direction of which I thought she left in.

  Did I do something wrong? I can’t help but feel like I did, like maybe I made her uncomfortable somehow?

  I thought back to the interaction I had with her earlier. Ugh I just realized what a scene I’d made breaking down in front of strangers in public and dragged Ellie along with it. She probably feels embarrassed right now and that’s why she headed to the bathroom.

  In my midst of concern for Ellie, I only just now realized that I was, a girl, all alone in an ocean of strangers in a public mall. That doesn’t sound so bad unless you’re me, when you start stressing about how imperfect you are and become hypersensitive to how other people perceive you as you make eye contact with them.

  I felt a cold breeze hit my face and body, and shivered in response. My heart rate increased and I heard shaky breaths enter and leave me. I’m like a silver two pying ranked matches in a diamond lobby. I like have zero experience being a girl, let alone in public like this, all dressed up in vibrant colors for the world to see.

  With self preservation and comfort zones out of the window, all I could do was to just keep walking, wandering the hallways, trying my best to act like everything was normal by straightening my back and occasionally looking at stuff in the window dispys. Think of it like trying to be undercover, conducting a covert operation in pinclothes.

  One thing I’ve noticed is that barely anyone was here alone. The only ones who are, were staff members and people cutting into the parking lot on their afternoon run. Most people were either in duos or groups of three.

  As I looked and observed my surroundings, I spotted a bathroom sign. Finally! Ellie might be in there and all I had to do was go in and try to telepathically communicate with her through the neckce.

  I barely turned into the narrow corridor with the rge “bathroom” text in bold on the wall before I bumped into someone.

  “Ohmy gosh I’m so sorry!” I excimed, stepping back as I did so. The person I’d bumped into didn’t even turn back nor notice me, and kept running away from the bathroom area. I turned around and peered into the avenue of shops where I’d come from, and was not expecting the sight I saw. The sea of shoppers running towards, then past me, as if they were a school of fish being chased by a predatory shark.

  Then I heard a scream. And then another. What was going on? Was this pce being robbed? Whatever it was I need to find Ellie, and get us out of here, fast.

  “Kid you need to get the hell outta here!” A gruff security guard holding a gun barked at me. “Just run as fast as you can!”

  “What the fuck is going on?” I asked, raising my voice.

  “I don’t know, just go!” He excimed before speaking into his radio and sprinting towards the source of the people running.

  I darted to another hallway with less people to be trampled by. The area it connected to was wider and had skylights, where I jogged towards the screams and shouting, almost dropping my crossbody plushie bag in the process.

  Whatever was going on, I can help. I’m a fucking magical girl after all, for heavens sake! I’ll kick their asses.

  Then it came to me that I didn’t have any sort of weapon. Well fine then, I guess I can find something and make do with a metal pipe or chair. I zipped up my jacket and entered another atrium where yet another scene was unfolding right in front of me.

  A bunch of rubble raced towards my direction and I dive-bombed to the right, narrowly avoiding an injury and flinched as the pile of objects crashed into a storefront window, shattering it into a million pieces. I looked around and spotted a metal piece of plumbing sticking out from a wall. I pulled it out and wielded it like a sword, awkwardly holding it with both hands.

  Looking forwards, my eyes met the entity causing all of this chaos. The first thing I noticed were her wings: they were white and fully extended, lifting the wielder a good two stories above the ground, and had a wingspan of around 6 feet or so. Then I noticed her hair. It was long and silver, but neither of these two features matched her risqué bck frilly dress, complimented by stockings, arm warmers, and stainless steel staff with dark energy emanating from the spherical tip.

  Then she turned to face me. Our eyes met, and her expression changed from one of anger and madness to neutral, almost sad and afraid for a brief moment before her eyes turned fully bck and dived toward me with her weapon fully extended.

  lunamidnight