Sofia twirled around in her new uniform: a white bustier and diagonally cut skirt with red and blue highlights, brown boots, white opera gloves and a flowing white cape attached to her shoulders. "This is just like I imagined it! Should I show this to Wolfie? Maybe I-wait, Marie?" She suddenly stopped, and looked at the pink-haired girl, who was even more quiet than before. "Hey Marie, are you still thinking about that stuff that creep Julia said? You don't have any reason to be afraid about becoming one of us, you know." Marie's eyes shifted around a bit. "I know, but-" "I promise I'll protect you and everyone you care about. Knight's honor!" She boisterously said with a finger pointing at the air, and giggled. [quote=WanderingSpirit] "U-u-uh hi, I'm guessing i'm late then?" He said nervously with his arm holding his side. "Im guessing I am suppose to um... talk to you?" He asked nervously to the white creature. It wasn't that awkward, in fact he found himself more relateable to the white creature, which was a weird thing to say but he got that thought out of his head. He didn't know what to expect from this rooftop meeting, as the only thing he knew what that he was suppose to have a wish ready. He knew what he was going to wish and hoped that it would be okay. [/quote] Qubus turned her head to your direction, and stared at you with her red eyes. "Yes, but it is not too late for your wish to be granted..." You heard the white creature's feminine voice in your head. [quote=TheHangedMan] "Aw geez, I guess this means I'm late then?" she said. Of course, the question was rhetoric; she already knew the answer to that. "Well, so much for being early. Aaaanyway, where's the magic ferret that's supposed to give me a magical bauble so I can fight monsters that take the form of seeds when defeated? Your name sure as hell better not be Kyubey or I'm backing out of this shindig." The girl continued with her deliberately unsubtle reference to pop-culture shows as she walked towards the group, still grinning by the way. "If I do join anyway, remind me to take the advice of any mysterious girls that show up out of nowhere and hog-tie me; I'm ending up like Mami and - Ah crap" she said before looking at the boys in realization, and audibly mumbling the rest. "Wait, there are boys here. So does that make this Nanoha instead of Madoka? Well, getting Raising Heart would be cool . . ."She shook her head, erasing the thoughts from her head. "Ah what the heck, it's not like any of that matters! Anyway, nice to meet you guys! I'm Tracy Robertman! Nice to meetcha!" she said stuffing her hands in her jackets pockets and grinning expectantly at them. "I take you guys are Magic Knights too? Well, I'm not yet one but that's a minor thing." [/quote] "...or yours," Qubus said, not really minding the rude introduction of the other latecomer. Dora however sighed. Sofia started laughing. "Oh man, you're a riot!" Qubus continued. "Now, close your eyes, give your hands to me, and make a wish." You did as instructed, and you fell unconscious as you were consumed by unimaginable power and bright light. The others saw a glimpse of them levitating for a bit on their backs before they gently fell on the roof, and soon rose back up, wearing Magic Knight uniforms of their own design. "Here are your Soul Gems," Qubus said. A bronze and an ashy silver-colored Faberge-egg-like object descended and landed on your hands. The mysterious creature then spoke to each of you in turn. "Ryuu Wantanabe, your wish has been granted: an attractive human with a biological gender of your interest will become emotionally attached and forever loyal to you. Your desire for company has awakened the Arcana of Conjuration: you may use your magic to create a magic circle, and perform a summoning ritual. This ritual may be used to summon entities such as spirits and mythical monsters from another realm, and give them commands. However, the greater a summoned being's power is, the less likely they are to obey your commands, and may even turn upon you instead of your enemies. Greater beings also require more time and magic to summon. This power is also imbued into your weapon, allowing you to generate ammunition for it for no magic cost. In addition, you can also focus this magic into your ammunition, and shoot small summoning circles from which you can summon tiny beings from a distance. However, in addition to regular costs for summoning, the magic cost for this ability increases with the distance you summon from." "So you can summon a dragon or something? AWESOME!" Sofia shouted. "That was a pretty forward wish from what I gathered from Qubus's words, though. I couldn't have done so with my Wolfie...i think..." she slunk back into being silent. "Tracy Povis Robertman, your wish has been granted: your agility has been increased to twice it previously was, and by training, you can achieve reaction times above human limits. Your desire to be swift has awakened the Arcana of Teleportation in your Soul Gem: you may use your magic to instantly move yourself and anything you touch into any other location in your line of sight. The magic cost of this power increases exponentially with the number of objects and the difference of mass between yourself and the target or targets of the power." "Not bad," Dora said as she kept a neutral expression. "So I guess that's all you've invited this time, Qubus?" The ferret-like creature scratched its ear. "Yes. Only one has declined the contract," she said, and looked at Marie. [quote=rusty4297] He looked directly to Qubus now, only curious about the cost and hopefully the regeneration of whatever they use to use this magic. "When we use our abilities, you said something about cost of magic, right? About how much do we actually have, or is that dependent on the user? And will it regenerate over time, or do we have to get you to regenerate it or something?" [/quote] "I'll answer this one," Dora said. "You see, we don't regenerate our magic, we actually lose it over time. Costume upkeep and all that," she waved her hand around. "How much we have left is tied into the brightness of our Soul Gems. Once it runs out we lose our ability to fight as Magic Knights, so we have to keep on vanquishing monsters and take Grief Seeds they leave behind. I'll explain those later when we get one. The magic drain is fortunately slow: it takes about a month or so for our Soul Gems to dim from full brightness. As long as you think about your use of magic you will be fine, don't worry about it." The blonde Magic Knight said with a smile. [quote=Gisk] "I have to admit, I didn't really believe you until just now. So how do I summon my, uh, my weapon? And... what now?" [/quote] [quote=onenote] "So you're going to teach us about weapons now, right? Let's get started!" She smiled. [/quote] Dora nodded. "So about our weapons-" "All right, now we're getting to the good stuff!" Sofia jumped in the air due to sheer excitement. Dora smiled awkwardly. "Our most important magical ability is the generation of weaponry. Each of us has a signature weapon we can visualize in a heartbeat and use like a master thanks to our magical intuition. You know the one, the one weapon you always imagined using. You just picture it in your mind," she said as she closed her eyes and spread her hands. "Then you focus magic to the palms of your hands...and release." And just like that, a mass of yellow ribbons burst from Dora's hands and instantly took the form of a pair of exquisitely crafted golden crossbows. They seemed to faintly shine in the waning light of sun. She pointed one of them at the sky, and took a quick peek through the iron sights. "Now you try it. Remember: focus magic, then release."