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Lisa’s flying spider soared through the stars, and the neon lights shined against the underbelly. However, the creature's wings were loud, making it difficult to communicate. Lisa pointed her finger at something, and the flying mount drifted in that direction. As they got closer, Lisa directed them toward a store called The Supernatural Rummage Boutiques. Lisa safely landed the spider; its wings stopped fluttering and awkwardly laughed.
“... I forgot how loud that was, sorry,” Lisa stammered. She then climbed off the spider and put her hands on her hips with a wide smile on her face, “I’m going to do what I used to do to get Greta her ingredients!” She raised a finger in the air, face looking seriously.
“As in! I will send my spiders in and grab some clothes for us! So what… are… your… sizes…” Lisa’s eyes landed on Ella, jaw-dropping, face blushing again.
“... Out of all of us, why did you have to grow?!” Lisa said, laughing.
"It’s because I’m the center of our magical girl formation, of course!" Ella grinned… though she honestly had no idea why she’d grown more. Probably her magical girl spirit. "It makes it like an arrow… or something. I was size 8… but that doesn’t fit anymore. Uh, try 10 or 12!"
"I’m size four,” Saskia said, very boringly.
Lisa paused for a moment.
“... I’ll just have them grab random clothes, and we’ll see what fits, okay?” Lisa said, then she raised her hands in the air. The concrete they stood on rumbled, and out came tarantulas spouting out like a macabre fountain. After a moment, it ceased, and all the spiders lined up in a neat row-by-row formation. With a wave of her hand, they were surrounded by a glowing magical cocoon. After a few moments, they popped, and then they had ant-mandibles.
After a moment, they were commanded to enter the building in a neat row and crawled out of sight. Lisa shook her head and leaned up against an air conditioning unit. She put her hands together and said,
“So, um, where do we go from here? I have no clue where to even start!” Lisa awkwardly laughed, then sighed.
"Maybe we can find his address in a phonebook,” Saskia suggested drily.
Ella furrowed her brow, starting to pace back and forth as the thought. Obviously, Saskia was joking… but maybe there was some kind of paranormal network? Or- "Maybe if we make a really big scene somewhere and yell that we’re looking for Morningstar he’ll come? Ooo, or you send spiders around with little notes to Morningstar?"
Lisa stepped off the AC, “... You know, the second idea isn’t that bad!”
"Right?" Ella grinned, stopping her pacing. "Once we get clothes, we should write the notes… Wait, should we wait till tomorrow? I’m not tired, but maybe Morningstar’s asleep right now. Or he’s enacting his evil plans at night… We should start writing the notes now, while we wait! Either of you have a pen and paper?"
Lisa pulled out the pockets of her robe.
"Of course not,” Saskia said. "We’ll need to steal that too.”
"Oh- alright we can steal some stationary after the clothes then."
“At this rate, we’re going to be looting the whole city!” Lisa put her hands together and laughed. Then she glanced over the edge, that smile came off her face. “... They should have been back by now.” She mused out loud.
Then eight long-black spider legs burst out of Lisa’s back - and out the robe. “I’m going to go check on them! Be right back!”
Lisa climbed off the side of the building, towards the entrance, and out of sight.
“Stay safe!” Ella yelled after Lisa, having just about stopped herself from recoiling at the whole spider leg growth thing… she just still wasn’t used to it! She then turned to Saskia. “You think they just got lost or something?”
Saskia shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? They probably got eaten by a bird.”
“Saskia! You’ll upset Lisa!”
“Lisa’s not within earshot- I’m sure it’s fine.”
Saskia’s tone wasn’t very convincing - but then again, Ella knew that Saskia rarely used a convincing tone. So it was probably fine! The spider’s had just gotten lost or something. Not seeing the point in continuing to talk about something they couldn’t control, she changed the subject. “Soooo, if you died after me… did you watch the latest episode of-”
“No way, are you seriously asking if I watched anime after you died?” Saskia interrupted. “Of course not. We were fighting apparitions every night, there wasn’t time… And I just couldn’t.”
“So we’ll never know how it ended…” Ella sighed. They’d only had one more episode to go. Now she’d never see the conclusion! How terrible.
“We can literally watch it. It's not like we’ve been sent to a different world.”
“Oh yeah! Do you think the hound will give us an anime-watching break once we finish this, before the next task?”
“I doubt it.”
“Awwww… well maybe we can find time to watch it while here, then! Not like it’ll take long. Just need a computer and the internet. Oh, but if we’re going to watch with Lisa we’d need to start from the beginning. Ah, that’ll take six hours!”
“We can think about that later. But,” Saskia frowned - an actual frown, as opposed to a minute change in expression. “Isn’t she taking quite a while too?”
“Yeahhh,” Ella looked around. She was worried now, too, hand slipping into her robes to find her channeler - just in case! “She should be back by now… Should we go after her?”
“... Hi there,”
A voice appeared behind them, and when they turned around… they saw two people standing on top of the AC unit that Lisa had previously been leaning against. One was an average-height caucasian girl with a head of brown hair and glasses. What stood out about her was that she had a utility belt with several magical artifacts hanging from it… several magical orbs, a magical cube, the hilt of a sword, and even a revolver? She held a weird camera in her hands as she wore blue Rodeo jeans tucked into black combat boots and a tank top. She had a sly half-smile on her face that implied that she had full control of the situation.
The second person was a slightly shorter than the average black girl with her hair in a bun. Unlike her companion, she didn’t have any artifacts on her, but two swirling masses of coral-pink energy glowed with magic in her hands. She didn’t look as approachable as her friend, and she had a scowl. She wore a black hoodie and some blue jeans, not tucked into her combat boots.
The white girl with the camera stepped forward and said, “Soooo…of all the places you all choose to rob with magic, you chose a thrift store?” The girl laughed.
“That’s crazy,” The other girl with the magic laughed. She had a very gruff, deep voice for her size and appearance.
“So, we have your friend,” The girl with the camera said.
“And her pets,” The other girl noted.
“... Yeah, and her pets!” The girl with the camera laughed, “So, calmly get on the ground, and let’s settle this peacefully, alright?”
“What… What did you do with Lisa?!” Ella pulled out her channeler - a very unthreatening looking Sailor Moon wand. “And her spiders?! Did you hurt them?!”
“Hey, Ella, let’s calm down a minute,” Saskia sighed, even as she pulled a small knife out from under her robes. Good. They were one magical girl down, Ella needed her backup!
“But they hurt Lisa!” Ella shook her head, instantly jumping to conclusions… But how couldn’t she?! There was no proof Lisa was okay… Not when they clearly had magic. What if they were like all those other magical people who wanted to hurt Lisa? All those bullies? Ella wouldn’t stand for it. “I won’t let them get away with it! Light Prism Power Transform!”
An incandescent, rainbow light bathed Ella as she dramatically posed with one hand on her hip, and her channeller raised high in the air. Her pastel pink braids lengthened, turning into a brighter pink that turned to vivid purple at the tips. She pulled up one leg and spun around on the other as her undersized robes glowed. They shimmered and changed, shortening into a purple miniskirt over a white leotard. The brightly colored jewelry adorning her wrists, neck, ears, and hair remained. After a full, shakily done spin she had two feet back on the ground, one hand swiping across her forehead as a tiara appeared as if out of magic (it was out of magic). The shining purple gem in the center glinted. Ella threw out one arm and held her channeler against her chest.
“Give us back our friend!” Ella yelled, holding out the wand towards the two girls. “Or I’ll be forced to fight my way through you!”
The two girls looked at each other for a moment.
“... Nice little transformation you got there,” The black girl with the magic said, laughing.
“This is like out of some weird anime, I know!” The girl with the camera said, barely holding in her laughter. Before turning back to Ella, “She’s fine, relax… Jordan.”
The other girl - Jordan - raised her hand, and a glowing coral-colored orb of magic appeared. However, inside of the orb was Lisa Turner, floating helplessly while she was bound with ropes that covered her torso, mouth, and legs. Lisa thrashed.
“Let’s all take a step back here… Get on the ground. And maybe we can just… talk this out, okay?” The girl with the camera said.
“Alright.” Saskia put her knife back in her robes and got down on her knees.
In that moment, Ella felt a betrayal. A betrayal towards backing up, and towards the most sacred thing… Anime! The camera girl had called it weird. How could Saskia not be upset? And Lisa didn’t exactly seem fine! She was cruelly tied up in a magical bubble!
“Let Lisa go first, then we can talk.” Ella pointed to Lisa, staying on her feet. No way was she surrendering. At the same time, she started to absorb the colour from one of her bright pink rings. “You did attack first.”
“You were robbing a store, you know,” The girl with the camera smiled cattily.
With a snap of Jordan’s fingers, Lisa had disappeared.
“Last warning, power down, then get down,” The girl with the camera said.
“Lisa!” Ella shouted as her friend disappeared. At the same time, the ring she’d been absorbing from became a dull grey. It wasn’t much of a boost, but it was better than nothing. “I won’t let you get away with this! Magical girl power: Prismatic Sun Beam!”
Ella’s held-out channeler lit up, shooting out a constant beam of damaging light, aimed at the girl with the camera’s hand. The girl with the camera dodged, stepping out of the way as the beam shot past her. However, she was singed as her skin turned red, and her tank top was burnt. She fell onto her back and flipped back onto her feet as she faced the girls. She nodded her head at Jordan, then Jordan turned towards the girls.
“Alright, have it your way!” Jordan shouted as she stuck her hands out and fired two balls of coral-pink energy at each of them to launch the two backward.
“I surrendered,” Saskia said with absolutely no emotion in their voice as the ball of energy hit them, knocking them backward. As they were launched they pulled back out their knife, sliced across the palm of their hand, and had their blood coat their back before they slammed back down onto the ground. She then picked herself up, manipulating her blood to form a blade from her hand.
“Super Prism Kick!” Ella yelled out very weebily, iridescent light coating her right leg. She lifted it up and straight up kicked the ball of energy out of the way. Her attention shifted from the camera girl to Jordan - she was the immediate threat. “Drawing on the bright colours shining through the darkness, I’ll defeat you - Vivid Sphere!”
The bright pink and purple of her bracelets faded to grey and a sphere double the size of a tennis ball appeared in her hands. She launched it towards Jordan - if it hit, it would feel like being hit by a brick. Jordan raised her hands as she shouted,
“TIME STANDS STILL!” A dome of coral-pink magic formed around herself, Kimberly, and the two girls, stopping all time within it. The four could still move freely, but the magic sphere that Ella launched was frozen. The girl with the camera nodded as Jordan raised her hands again, floating off the AC unit onto the ground. At the same time, the girl with the camera reached down to her utility belt and pulled out two magical orbs and hopped off the AC Unit towards Saskia. She threw the orbs, they traveled a distance, and then they came to a standstill. The girl landed on her knee while Jordan pointed a hand at the ground, ripped a chunk of the rooftop out of the ground, and aimed it at Ella.
The dome Jordan created disappeared, and the two magical orbs launched themselves at Saskia; they struck with explosive force and then teleported back into the girl with the camera’s hands. At the same time, the chunk of rooftop went flying towards Ella.
“Superprismkick!” Ella just about shouted out, using her right leg again to kick through the rooftop and stop it from smacking her entire body. Pain shot through it from the impact, and it buckled underneath her as soon as it landed back on the floor. Saskia managed to coat her body in a thin layer of solid blood, which shattered as soon as the orbs hit her and sent her flying. She landed with a thud, wrist cracking painfully underneath her.
Appearing unbothered, Saskia stood up and held up her hand, more blood leaking from her palm and forming a blood bullet that shot towards Kimberley incredibly quickly. Which penetrated Kimberly through the leg.
Ella looked at Saskia, then back at their two attackers. She was down on one knee, ironically where they’d told her to be earlier, but she could still fight! She held up her hands in front of her and closed her eyes. “Aurora Flash!”
Her hands lit up with a blinding, colourful light that shone across the whole area. She could hear Saskia let out an annoyed groan as they were hit by it too.
“Stop calling your attacks, dumbass!” Jordan shouted through the flash.
When it faded, Jordan surrounded herself in a coral-pink veil and it seemed that she moved faster relative to everyone else. She quickly closed the distance between herself and Ella and reached for that stupid wand.
While Kimberly jumped in the air, still bleeding out of her leg, and pulled out that revolver. She seemed to float down as she pulled the trigger. the cylinder turned and a fireball came out the barrel directly at Saskia.ia.
“I have to call my attacks! Super prism kick!” Ella’s left, undamaged leg glowed and she awkwardly kicked it up towards the hand aiming for her channeler, putting all her weight on her very painful right leg. It hurt like hell and she was incredibly unstable, but she wasn’t letting some normie touch her Sailor Moon wand! Absolutely not! Jordan’s hand broke on contact, and she winced in pain.
“Who the hell are you!?” Jordan seethed.
“It is dumb,” Saskia groaned, rapidly forming her blood into a large tendril at her back. She threw it in front of her to block the fireball, blood boiling and dripping to the ground. With a loud wince, Saskia also fell towards the ground, one hand on it to steady herself. She held the other one up. “Ella, please, surrender.”
“But she’s trying to take my wand!”
“Just so we can stop this!” Jordan grabbed her broken hand… it was surrounded by a coral-pink sphere and it reverted back in time until it was good as new. She flicked her hand and walked backwards. “Kim! They are clearly not apart of The Society! Let’s chill.”
The girl with the camera holstered the revolver and raised her hands in the air. She said, “Yeah, let’s just stop and talk this out!”
“What’s the Society?” Ella tilted her head, lowering the arm holding her channeller now that it was safe. She moved to a sitting position to take the weight off her hurt leg, clearly deciding not to fight anymore. “Are they a thrift store theft group?”
Jordan facepalmed.
“Doubtful,” Saskia groaned. Her face was paling than normal, sweat forming on her forehead and lips twisting down in pain as she started to heal her broken wrist. “We’re not from around here. We’re here to… help someone.”
“Yeah, and we just needed clothes!” Ella nodded furiously. Then she pointed at Jordan. “Wait, bring Lisa back!”
Jordan snapped her fingers and Lisa appeared in a coral-pink orb. Still bound and gagged. With a wave of Jordan’s hands, the threads that bind Lisa were undone and she quickly climbed to her feet. She went over to Ella and Saskia and said,
“Are you two alright?” Lisa asked.
“Look there are better ways to get clothes than steal them!” The girl with the camera snorted, laughing afterwards. “Who are you here to help… wait, who are you all?”
"Lisa!" Ella immediately hugged Lisa, completely ignoring her hurt leg to launch herself at her friend. "Are you alright? Do you need any healing?!"
“I’m alright! I’m alright!” Lisa chuckled.
"Hey, if anyone needs it, it's me," Saskia protested weakly. They then looked over at their two would be captors. "We don't have any money. How else do we get clothes?"
"Yeah!" Ella twisted her head, refusing to let Lisa go in case she disappeared. "And we're the magical girls! I'm magical girl aurora- or Ella!"
"Actually, we're Agents of Death now," Saskia rolled their eyes. "I'm Saskia."
“Y-yeah, I’m Lisa…” Lisa ran a hand through her hair.
“… Agents of Death?” Jordan tilted her head. “What kind of corny ass… okay, okay! My name is Jordan Nichols.”
“I am Kimberly Walton! Paranormal investigator and internet sensation!” She introduced herself, extending a hand. “I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot! We just caught you all robbing a place..” She shrugged and rolled her eyes.
"That's fair, honestly…" Saskia shrugged.
"Are you famous, then?" Ella tilted her head. She then looked at the hand, then back at Kimberley. And then at the hand. Eventually she reached out and shook it. "I've never heard of an online paranormal investigator, that's cool! Sorry I attacked you, I was just worried about my friend. And you called anime weird."
Jordan looked at Kimberly - who smiled - then shook her head.
“I’m something of a celebrity,” Kimberly laughed. “But, ummm… what are you three doing here? Why are you three wearing robes?”
“… And why are you calling yourselves crazy shit like magical girls and… Agents of death?” Jordan raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. “Like the fuck?”
"Uhmmmmm…" Ella trailed off, looking at Lisa, then Saskia. How did they explain it? The hound hadn't told them whether they could tell others or not! How did they even explain it without looking crazy?!
"We died," Saskia began, as if they were just talking about what they had for breakfast. "These are the clothes we died in. We then got brought back to life, and have to do something for what did that. Thus Agents of Death."
"Yeah! And we're magical girls because… we're magical girls! Obviously!" Ella gestured to the three of them… even though it really wasn't obvious. "We were the magical girl group when fighting the Stygian Snake!"
Jordan tilted her head back, the corner of her mouth tilting upwards. “I, uh, what? Um, like—what the f—” However, Kimberly ran over and put a finger to Jordan’s lips.
“Ssssssssh! Come mere!” Kimberly leaned into Jordan’s ear and whispered a few things. Then she stopped, looking over at the girls. "None of you have super hearing, right?”
Lisa looked between them all, then answered, “Not yet!”
“Okay, good!” Kimberly said to them before she whispered more things into Jordan’s ear… who rolled her eyes and said,
“... Fine.”
Then Kimberly faced them with a wide, discerning smile! As she said, “Alright, we’re going to buy you all a room for the night, then when morning hits, we’re going to a store to buy you clothes. On us. How’s that sound?”
"Seriously?" Ella grinned and jumped to her feet… let out a yelp of pain when she put too much weight on the leg she'd hurt. Still, better than getting hit by a ceiling in the head! "That sounds great! Will the room come with anything to sleep in, cause I'm pretty sure I've grown like two sizes overnight and my clothes are really tight."
"Wait," Saskia shook their head. "What's the catch? Why would you do that for us?"
“The catch is that you two stay out of trouble!” Jordan laughed.
“Look, you three clearly need some help… and that’s what we do, we help people,” Kimberly put a hand on her chest. “... And all you are going to do when we leave is try and rob a different store.” She snorted.
“We don’t got time to follow you around Mirage Springs all day,” Jordan shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"You’d rob a store too if you had only robes and no money," Saskia replied drily, shrugging. "But-"
"Not buts, we’ll take your help! Thank you very much!" Ella interrupted with a wide grin. They hadn’t even had a chance to consider where they’d stay, so they shouldn’t turn down this offer. Plus, Saskia looked like she was about to pass out. She really needed a bed. "Let’s go, let’s go, I need to get outta these too small clothes."
“I like them…” Lisa mused out loud.
Kimberly turned her head towards the sedan sized spider. “… Could one of you get rid of that first?”
“Oh! Lemme take care of that!” Lisa stuck her hand out, and the jumping spider shrunk back to normal after cracking and popping. Then, after dispelled it, it hurried off.
Saskia watched the spider disappear, then fixed Kimberley with a deadpan stare.
"... Now how do we get down?"
The nearest Walmart wasn’t too far away, fortunately. Unfortunately, walking into a Walmart wearing robes, even at nine at night, drew a lot of idle eyes. Kimberly and Jordan walked in front of the three, then the former turned on her heel and put her hands together. She smiled as she said,
“Buy as much as you need!” Kimberly began, “My bank account can survive a shopping spree or two.”
“… Whatever will stop you three from robbing places,” Jordan put a hand on her hip, then rolled her eyes. “Then we can book ya’ll into the hotel we’re staying in.”
“In the morning, we can get breakfast and try to figure this all out!” Kimberly chipperly said. “Okay!?”
Lisa nodded her head, “Okay!” Then she looked at the others…
"Okay!" Ella repeated, glancing around the store. Walmart wasn't really her choice for clothes, but they couldn't really be fussy when it wasn't their money. And at this time of night. Maybe they could go on another, more specialised shopping trip tomorrow. With that in mind Ella grinned, looking over at her friends. "Let's go!"
Before either could say anything, Ella grabbed Lisa and Saskia's hand and practically dragged them over to the clothing section.
"Hey," Saskia weakly protested, but they offered no resistance.
Ella let go of their hands when they reached the women's section and immediately started perusing the clothing. It wasn't the best selection, but there were some things she could wear! She first picked out a bunch of skirts in various sizes, ranging from white to florals, and then some jeans. Then she grabbed pretty much every pink or purple shirt she could see.
"How are you planning to carry all that?" Saskia commented, eyeing the teetering pile. They'd only picked out a few baggy, dark coloured jeans and long sleeved tops. Not a single colour in sight.
"I've grown, I don't know what will fit!" Ella then craned her neck, looking around. "Is there anywhere I can change here?"
Lisa looked at Ella.
Then at the big sign that said CHANGING ROOM.
Then she looked at Ella again.
Then back to the sign.
Then at Saskia.
Then back to Ella.
Then the sign again.
Then at Kimberly who looked confused.
Then back to the sign.
Then at Ella.
“... I don't know,”
"How are we supposed to do anything if you can't notice an obvious sign?" Saskia raised a hand to her forehead.
”Hey! Don’t be so rough on her! We all probably lost a few brain cells in the whole process!” Lisa laughed.
"Ohhhhh," Ella spotted the sign after Lisa looked at it multiple times. She really was exceptionally bad at finding things! "I'm gonna go get changed!"
She scurried off, arms laden with clothing.
Lisa waved and cupped her hands together to shouted at her, ”Okay! Scream if you’re getting eaten by a monster or something!”
Saskia sighed, holding up the stuff they'd picked. "I'm good, this'll fit me. I'll grab some stuff from the men's section as well… Do you need to try stuff on too, Lisa? Ella will take a while."
Lisa smiled at Saskia, then chipperly said,
”Well, it wouldn’t hurt, would it?”
