I stood in front of the building, looking up. It wasn't super grand, but it was four stories, and it had our names on the front. We weren't one of the stronger teams, at least not yet (from what I heard, one of the other girls aside from me didn't even know her powers yet either), so the GGDS couldn't give us a full skyscraper like the Downtown Queens, or a secret lair like the Rogue Hunters, but our deity was well know and widely worshiped, and her worshipers had made sure we at least got something worthy of her name. A lot of teams with lesser gods had to use office space, and a lot of solo chosen were operating out of their apartments even after years of being heroes.
The top floor was supposed to be our rooms, where we'd live. I'd never lived on my own before; even when I was in college I was still living at home, and it would be a new experience I was looking forward to. 'Crime never slept', so we needed to be ready for it any time, on call, and being able to live in the building was important. I would miss my family, but I was only 30 minutes away from my mom's house, so I'd planned to go see her and my brothers sometimes when our team was on reserve call.
The second from the top floor was a training room, a giant room full of all kinds of fun gadgets and traning tools we were going to use to get stronger. That whole floor was windowless to hide our strategies, and jutted out from the other floors, making the building look slightly like a concrete mushroom. We'd get to help design the paint job on the outside walls of that floor once our team was more set in stone and had a 'brand' to put on there, but for now only the front wall of the building was decorated. It had tall silver script, flourished and pretty, reading "The Angels of Lorgiaia". I wasn't happy about being called an "angel" already; we were just chosen last month and hadn't earned the title yet, but our wings and glow made the name at least kind of make sense in a historical sense, if not a rank one. It was a minor frustration for me all the same, I needed to earn the rank of angel, and soon, so the building wouldn't be lying.
The next floor was more boring, it was a meeting room, a public area with inset sofas in a conversation pit, a kitchen, the rec room, things like that. I tended to spend most of my free time in my room at home, so I didn't see myself going there much unless it was for meetings or food.
The bottom floor was the public area. Our receptionist, our agents, and our marketing team would stay down there and make sure we were getting screen time in the talk shows and photo shoots if we wanted to do that kind of thing. It was open to the public, so there was a whole area for meet and greets for our fans (well, when we got any, at least), and a small cafe that was going to sell us-themed drinks and snacks in the lobby.
All that said, I hadn't actually been inside the building yet. I'd seen the blueprints and concept art, I even got a bit of input on the layout and amenities, but I'd never actually been to this part of Valley City before. I'd never even met my other teammates before for that matter; Lorgiaia had chosen us from all over, plucked us out of the crowds across over a hundred kilometers to join her team. I had seen their emails over the last month, of course, as we discussed the team dynamics and helped plan the building, but I didn't have any faces to put to the names.
I stepped up the the double glass doors and took a breath. I was still a little early, but I wanted time to settle into my new room before our first meeting this afternoon. I reached out for the clean white set of double doors, and one swung open in front of me. A short elven girl with dark skin and a round ball of black tightly curled hair held off her forehead with a black headband was holding one of the double doors. She wore a small blue dress with silver accents in lines around the edges, and black leggings. She looked cute, in a prim way. She smiled at me and stuck out her hand.
"Hello! My name is Alele! I'm an Angel of Lorgiaia! Are you one of my team members?"
I smiled and took her hand in mine. "Oh, hello! My name is Candy! I'm on the team too, looks like you're here early too!"
She nodded. "I have a lot of fragile things to unpack, so I showed up when the agents arrived at 8 to unlock the door for the movers. I saw you across the street from my window and thought I should head down to meet you. Come in?"
We stepped into the lobby and I was hit with the dry smell of plaster and slightly fresh paint. The walls were light pink with white deco designs on them, and the floor was white and grey marble. The big reception desk in the middle of the room was made of a white stone, with black streaks. The whole place looked like someone was trying to design a traditional temple, but with more modern sensibilities, which, I supposed based on what I knew of Lorgiaia, was probably what had happened.
I saw the cafe and photo area to my right, with everything still covered in plastic, and to the left, the offices, where I could hear talking and laughter from the team of people that were going to manage us.
We walked around the desk to the elevator and got in, with Alele motioning for me swiping my access card to open the door. It pinged a dark red, but opened anyway, meaning it was most likely colored to match my color theme, which was a nice touch. I thought for a second about if they would be using these to track our comings and goings, but I brushed the thought aside. If we got as popular as my mom seemed to think we would, the whole world would be tracking our comings and goings.
"Sooooo..." Alele said, leaning against the wall as we went up. "What's your power? Mine is time travel."
I blinked in shock. "Your power is WHAT?! Gods, that's an S tier power, I'm so jealous... I haven't even found mine yet."
She laughed, proud of herself. "It's not that cool, it's a B tier power actually, according to the assessment. I can send my mind back in time a couple seconds, that's all. I just skip back to where I was then, but with the memories from the next three seconds, relatively speaking."
I shook my head. "Anything with time manipulation is a good power, that's like, a boss tier power if you could use it right I bet. You'd never get caught off guard or hit by an attack or anything..."
She tapped her lips with a slender finger. "Well, if I could use it on the fly it would make me basically immortal, but it still takes me a split second to remember I can do it in the first place, so it's not that handy. Anyway, you don't have a power yet? Have you been practicing your transformations?"
The door slid open on the top floor revealing a sitting area with a couple chairs and a short table and vending machines along one wall. There were two rooms in each corner on either side of the sitting area, with walkways to the sides leading back to the area behind the elevator in the center of the building.
"Oh, uhh, yeah, I can transform pretty well, I'm getting pretty good at flying too, I live on the outskirts, so I had room to try it out. I couldn't figure out what my power was though, I might have to find out in combat."
"Ah, no, you lived on the outskirts, now you live next to me. I'm in the north-west room, you're in the north-east. That's you over there." She pointed at the room to the right of the sitting room.
"Oh, that's- ok! Is my stuff in there?"
"Yeah, they delivered it already, this morning. We got lucky, the three girls in the back have touching rooms, all in a row on the south wall. Ours are only touching the hallways and the outside, so no one can hear you if you get freaky."
I stumbled as we walked to the sitting area. "I thought this was like a special clearance only area or something, how would I even get someone up here to get 'freaky' with?"
She laughed demurely. "Well, you know according to studies, there's a 40% chance of teammates fucking in any team larger than 2 members, and that number goes up exponentially for each member you add. With four members, it's 60%, and with five, it's almost a certainty, and we have five and we all share a goddess..."
I suddenly felt a lot more nervous about being on this team. I wanted to be a hero of course, and a magical girl especially, but that...? Within the team? It just reeked of teenage drama. Speaking of...
"Um, how old are you, Alele?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Ok, wow, trying to see if I'm in your age range already, huh? What's the matter, can't you tell?"
I looked at her for a moment. Elves were... tricky to age correctly. They didn't really age in the same way most other people did, and they usually looked ageless to some degree, somehow both old and wise and young and innocent at the same time. That, mixed with their long lifespans meant I could be looking at a 20 year old or a 120 year old, with no real way to tell.
"I-I'm sorry, I can't tell..." I mumbled, blushing.
"Aw, that's ok, you'll learn. I'm 22, I just graduated college. I got my degree in architecture, then while I was job-hunting, bam, chosen by Lorgiaia. Waste of 4 years, by the gods... They didn't even let me design the building." She muttered.
"Oh, ok. I'm 23, my degree is in agriculture..."
She raised an eyebrow and put on a country accent. "So I rekkon y'all were a farmer, then, hun?"
I blushed again. "Well, yeah. We raised cows, and we grew peaches. Me and my family, I mean. Kind of a small farm. Like I said, we're on the outskirts."
She opened the door to her room. "I take it you don't mind being teased, huh? That's good, Thin skinned heroes have bad PR."
"Well, I have 3 older brothers, so it doesn't bother me that much."
She turned back. "Oh yeah?" She said. "I have 5 older siblings, but they had already all moved out long before I was born, I don't even know them, really. One of the downsides of being long lived, your childhood ends up being like a tiny fraction of your life, so your birth family means less to you in the long term than it does to people who speedrun death like humans do. How was it, living with siblings?"
I thought about it. "Well, it wasn't bad. I had lots of protection growing up, and even though I got teased a lot, and we had fights, they were never mean. There wasn't any bullying, so I'd say it was pretty good. They showed me how to do fun stuff, and helped me with my chores."
I smiled smugly, remembering something from a couple weeks ago.
"I got them back for the teasing though. Before I decided to go public with my identity, I hadn't told anyone, so I challenged them to arm wrestling, and I beat all three of them, back to back, in my base form, too. I let them think I'd been lifting weights for months to beat them for almost a full week before I told them I was a chosen, you should have seen their faces! I think Jerry was trying to decide if he wanted to be proud or flip me off, and Henry just turned and walked off shaking his head, I was really proud of that..."
"Wait, you're public with your identity? Why did you give me a fake name then?"
I frowned, I took it my story hadn't landed if that was her take-away. "I didn't? I told you my name, Candy. Candy Clenson"
"...Huh, ok, I'm not judging, sorry. Listen, I have a lot to do, but it was nice to meet you, see you at the meeting later, Candy Clenson the farm girl."
She gave a small wave and closed her door. She was... Kinda rude, but still fun. I hoped all my team mates were as fun as her.
I turned to go to my own room when the elevator dinged and slid open. I looked to see a blonde girl wearing a black a-line dress over a full fishnet bodysuit step out. I stepped over to her, and noticed with slight surprise that she was visibly trans, seemingly early into her transition. I offered my hand.
"Hello, I'm Candy, I'm one of your teammates, what's your name?"
She flinched when I spoke, but relaxed after I asked her name. She reached out a fishnet covered arm and limply shook my hand.
"Uh, I'm Lucy, I just wanted to see if I could get my room set up before the meeting. My agent said that my stuff should be here already, so..."
Her voice was raspy, she was trying, but still not quite 'fem' yet. I felt bad for noticing, but I was still surprised that Lorgiaia was progressive enough to include a trans girl on a magical girl team. She was such an old goddess that she'd been around before champions were a thing, much less the chosen, and we were her first ever chosen after over 50 years of her refusing to pick anyone. I guess you can't judge someone's understanding of the world as a whole based on one or two old-timey preferences though.
"Well your room is on the south wall, around the elevator to the back, I'm not sure which one though. Mine is there-" I pointed "And our teammate Alele's is that one over there." I pointed again. "So, what's your power?"
She looked at her platform boots and shook her head. "Honestly, I have no idea. I haven't even tried to find out yet, I've just been enjoying the transformation. When I transform, I'm a real girl, so I just try to stay in my magical girl form as long as I can. I'm up to three hours a day so far."
"Ah..." I tried to find the right words. "I don't- I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't know that 'real girl' is the right way to say it? Um, if Lorgiaia chose you for a magical girl team, you're already a real girl; the gods say so right?"
Hopefully she wouldn't take it the wrong way, but if she had said that in an interview... I thought about what I had actually said and winced. "Oh, um, no, even if she hadn't chosen you, you'd still be a girl, I'm just saying-"
"No, I get it." Lucy cut me off. She sounded like she'd heard this over and over by now. "I was just saying it's nice to be- I don't know, not cis, I guess, but. To have the right body." She crossed her arms.
"Damnit, I was going to try to not bring this shit up..."
"I don't mind, it's ok, really." I said, awkwardly. "I asked about powers, it went from there."
We were quiet for a couple moments. Then she glanced up from her shoes. "Well, just- Thanks, I gotta go. Don't bring this up, got it?" She said, trying to make her voice sound fem and forceful at the same time. She seemed to be going for the 'tough goth bitch' vibe, but her insecurities were getting in the way. I smiled at her, and nodded.
"Oh, whatever, do what you want." She said, giving up and stomping off.
She seemed like she could be fun, she just needed to come out of her shell more... I wasn't going to push her though. I hoped our other team members treated her well. It was usually traditional for genderqueer chosen to form their own teams in order to better support each other emotionally. It was only recently, the past 5 years or so, that trans heroes were starting to find their way onto more general teams, as public acceptance and understanding of them grew. Would her being on our team mean we'd be doing the stuff the queer teams did, like speak on diversity at schools and stuff? I hoped not.
I remembered back when I was a kid and the last wave of groups formerly know as "un-humans" or "monsters" were re-classified as just people groups, and I'd had to go to at least six after-school assemblies in one year, hosted by dryads, creeping ones, uruks, banshees, yokai, and faceless ones all telling us how they were 'just people like everyone else, and the horror movies we'd seen, and the names we'd heard them been called, the laws that used to separate them from us, it was all just the result of misunderstandings and past mistakes'. I respected the people who could get on stage and say "look at me, I'm different, and that's ok!" but that person was not me.
I made a note in my commonplace book to ask my agent about it later, and finally headed to my room. There were 6 boxes stacked up in the middle of the room, with a kitchenette, a small couch in front of a tv, and two doors leading to a bedroom and bathroom, no shower, I supposed we'd be expected to use the ones in the training hall then? There were a couple bookshelves in between the two doors, and a big window on the north wall that had a tall houseplant in front of it. The bedroom had a nice queen bed with red sheets and duvet that kind of matched my transformed self's dress, and had a desk in one corner with shelves above it.
It wasn't quite as small as a studio, but it was just big enough for one person. I was very happy for the kitchenette; I'd had to argue for them to be added to our rooms. It meant I'd be spending even more time in my room when we weren't on call, hopefully away from the noise and drama that I'm sure would pop up. Although... if my other two partners turned out to be mature, reasonable adults... It might not be so bad. I did like the two I'd met so far after all.
I rolled up the sleeves on my sweater and pulled my jeans up tighter. I had a lot to do, and the meeting was in less than 3 hours. There was no telling how long it'd go, and it'd be better to get as much unpacking done as I could now.
~~~
I sat in the dark room, Alele to my right, Lucy to my left, the other two girls to Lucy's left. They'd been in the briefing room when the three of us came down, so I hadn't had the opportunity to get their names yet. Across from us were our agents; the two people who were 'in charge'. Or at least, they had been hired to field the more tedious parts of being a chosen; like paperwork, settling contract disputes, getting us territories and patrol/on call slots in those territories, things like that. The first was a dwarf, bald, bearded, and wearing sunglasses indoors. His suit was pressed, and jet black. On his left was a brunette human woman, in an office skirt and white blouse. She had red framed cat eye glasses and a giant smile on her face.
The table in front of us glowed blue, lighting up the room, and a message popped up in front of me on the glass of the table reading 'PLEASE PRESENT SECURITY CLEARANCE'. I tapped my card to the table, and a small desktop opened in its place. I tapped around on the screen, finding files on myself, basic info on my team members and other notable chosen, and some programs for taking notes. It turned out the other two girls were named "Galorna" and "Drizti", but there was nothing useful past that in their files, unless I needed to know factoids like Galorna's favorite food being hunan chicken for some reason.
The dwarf checked his watch and cleared his throat. We all looked up, and the other agent stepped forward.
"Hi! Gosh, we are SO excited to get to represent and support you girls, I just know we're going to have a wonderful time fighting crime and making fans!" she said, her voice high and chipper like a newscaster's.
The dwarf spoke up, his voice rich and full. "We will be taking care of everything behind the scenes, if you need something, let us know. If a fan is bothering you, let ME know. If you need to talk to someone about a personal matter, let her know. We'll keep you up to date with everything you need to know about who you're fighting and where, what your patrols look like, and what's on your schedule in terms of public relations and outreach."
The lady picked up where he dropped off. "My name is Willa, and the tough guy is called Oori. Because Lorgiaia is very busy with her worshipers, and she's not used to having chosen yet, we will be directly communicating with her for you, to save her time."
I heard Lucy grumble at that, and I couldn't help but echo her frustration. I know the more popular gods couldn't be expected to drop everything to talk to their chosen, but... we WERE still her chosen, it stung that she was pushing us off onto someone else.
"That said..." Oori said. "Because it's your first day, she did want to see you and meet you again to show you that you have her full support."
He walked to the side of the room and knelt. An altar slid out of the wall, and torches lit alongside it. He held his hands out, and the markings on the altar glowed light blue.
"Oh goddess Lorgiaia, I call upon you to join us, and to give your blessings to these who are your chosen." He quoted solemnly.
A glowing ball of light spiraled out of the center of a bowl on the altar, and shaped itself into solid form in front of him; a tall woman, stocky with six arms. She had white wings and a flowing white dress. There were a series of floating flowers where her face should be, golden hair flowing around her head from nowhere, and a light that filled the dark room like a sunrise.
"Hello, my chosen." Lorgiaia said, her voice in layers and with a great power behind them. I bowed my head to her as Oori stepped off to the side, letting her walk up to the table.
"I have not seen you girls since I chose you, I take it you are finding your powers well? I had tried to fit the power to the girl, I think they should suit you all according to your strengths."
I stayed quiet, I didn't want her to know I hadn't found mine yet. I felt her presence intensify, and I knew she was looking into me, that she already knew.
"I see some of you have yet to bloom. No matter, you all shall be the seeds of my great garden. Your feats and deeds shall be great in number, and my followers shall sing your praises for generations. Tell me, do any of you wish to ask me a boon? Or to ask a question? I will attempt be here for you if need me, but my times here in the waking world are short. I would ask that you present me your needs now, as I do know know when we will meet again."
I thought about it, a boon? Who could ask a goddess a boon the second time you met them? Was this a test? No one else was speaking either, so either they were as overwhelmed by her as I was, or they thought it was a test as well. A question though... I lifted my head, not quite looking at where her face would be, and spoke, trying to match her tone.
"My lady, I wanted to ask about our name. We are called The Angels of Lorgiaia, and I think it is a lovely name, but none of us have earned the title of angel yet. What is the reasoning behind naming us that? I don't wish to steal glory from those that have worked so hard to earn it."
I felt her awareness caress me, and a chime sounded through the air, as if she was laughing.
"You are both brave and honorable, Angel Rouge." She said, her voice echoing around the room. "I named you that because I think you will rise to the title, I believe you will all become angels soon. In addition, for five chosen, it cost me as much power to empower you as it would have taken to bless a single angel, so when the five of you are as one, you are as strong as an angel. Do you understand?"
I did, but it wasn't a good answer. It almost sounded like she just wanted us to sound more impressive to the other gods, but I couldn't say that, of course.
"I understand, my lady."
"Well, if that is all, then I shall leave you to your-"
"Hey, um, I have one too. A question." Lucy said. I suppressed a gasp, interrupting one of the gods? OUR goddess at that?
"Yes, my child?"
Lucy took a deep breath and spoke, her voice shaking as she did. "So, I wanted to know what you expected from me. I know I'm- not a traditional girl, and I'm the first trans girl to ever be on a magical girl team- which is huge for me, thank you- but I didn't know if you wanted me to use that? Am I supposed to be fighting for my rights and for trans visibility? Or am I just supposed to like, be token representation? Did you choose me to make a statement? To achieve a goal? I just... I don't understand my role as the first trans magical girl..."
Lorgiaia spoke softly and seriously, her echo almost gone. "Angel Sable, I chose you because you best fit what I was looking for. A chosen that would reflect the colors of who I am. I chose you for the same reason I chose any of the girls, because I felt you were the best fit among all the people I considered. You being a traditional girl or not had no bearing or influence on my choice in any way, I chose you for you. As for what you should do with your position, that is your choice. You can forge your future in any way you want."
Lucy was crying, but she nodded. I couldn't tell if she was happy or sad, but the answer had been what she was looking for at least.
Lorgiaia looked at the other girls. "Anyone else?"
One of the other two, a very short girl in an ankle length robe, half gnomish from the looks of it, raised her hand. "I- I wanted to know if we'll be getting m-more powers? I-I found m-mine, but it's, well, I don't understand how it'll help the team..."
"Ah, Angel Verdant. You are stronger than you know, put faith in your power, and remember that not all battles are won through brute force. I have put my trust in you. As for more powers... You will all find great utility in the powers you have. Master those, and when you receive your next blessings as full angels, we shall see if you still need any more."
She turned to the altar.
"I must go now, I am needed for a miracle in another part of the city. Be safe, and be blessed, my children."
With that, she streamed into mist, and snaked into the bowl, the glow fading and the altar sliding back into the wall. Willa stepped forward into the light and smiled again.
"Wow, the power of a god in the room with us, it never gets old! I'm so glad you all seemed at ease around her. Ah, I think now is a good time for introductions, clockwise if you please!" She pointed at Alele.
Alele stood and lifted her head.
"My name is Alele, I am know as Angel Cobalt, like the color not the rock, and I have the power to send my mind back in time a few seconds. I like to play the mandolin, and my hobby is drying flowers." She sat and looked at me expectantly. I stood and swallowed. I hated public speaking; when everyone was focused on me, it was oppressive and stressful.
"I'm Candy, my magical girl name is- um, Angel Rouge, and I'm still looking for my power, but I'm pretty good at flying so far? I used to be into life photography, but these days I really just like to make dioramas to photograph instead..." I nodded at Lucy as I sat. She didn't stand and rushed through her introduction.
"I'm Lucy, Angel Sable, no powers yet. I like to read." She was quiet for a moment before the girl next to her, the one who had asked about powers, realized she was done, and stood up on her chair so we could see her.
"U-um, I'm Drizti, My codename is Angel Verdant, and my power is... Well, I don't know, I can make little shiny lights, but they don't hurt anyone, they just feel warm and they tingle? I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with them... Um, I like to go on walks, but I can't do it alone because I'm scared I'll get kidnapped, so hopefully..."
She trailed off, leaving her request for one of us to join her unsaid. She looked down and sat, crossing her arms across her chest in embarrassment.
The final girl stood up; an ork-infernal mix? Or maybe a half ogre, I couldn't tell which. She had red skin and dark black hair.
"And my name is Galorna, or Angel Saffron in the field. My power allows me to use physical attacks at a range. In other words, I can punch the air in front of me, and still hit a guy 20 feet away. I'm still getting used to the quirks, but I really enjoy it so far."
She looked at me and Lucy.
"I'll help you two find your powers, I've been training my body for years, I know a couple tricks. I'm into martial arts." She started to sit, the remembered something. "Oh, and I can make a mean meal if you don't mind spicy foods. I look forward to cooking for all you soon!"
Willa clapped her hands. "That was so great! I can tell we have such a great team of wonderful girls here, I think you all will get along so well!"
She tapped on the table in front of her. My display changed to a calendar with dates circled.
"Sooooo, this is what the next few weeks look like for us. The Angel Cafe officially opens next Wednesday, so that's the day we'll be having our first meet and greet for the fans! We'll need you signing pictures, shaking hands, and being your best self!"
She glanced at Lucy before continuing.
"Now... that doesn't mean you have to be someone you're not, if you're not a smiley person, you don't have to smile! Just don't be mean or rude, and the rest is up to you!"
Lucy raised her hand. Willa slumped slightly, like she'd expected this, and pointed to her, nodding.
"What if I want my brand to be 'the mean and rude one'? Can I be mean and rude then?"
Willa nodded slowly. "Yyyyes? But please tone it down until people like you, I understand a lot of teams will have a darker, moodier member for the... less chipper fans, but we are at our core a magical girl team! So... Just don't overdo it, ok? Anyway, that's the first thing we have planned, that gives you almost a week to get your team dynamics and presentation ready for your first public appearance, so-"
"Hey, Listen." Galorna said bluntly. "This is interesting, but what about the other stuff, the stuff we were chosen to do? You know, fight crime? Battle the chosen who went evil? Catch the bad guys and all that? The actually useful stuff."
Willa's smile grew a bit more tight. "I understand you want to get into that, but PR is 50% of being a chosen these days, and the more popular you are, the more worshipers Lorgiaia gets! So this is every bit as important as fighting I assure you."
"Willa, I'll take this." Oori said, moving up to the table. "Girls, you've never fought before. A normal human with a gun can take out the average untrained chosen, and aside from Galorna, none of you know what you're doing yet."
He pointed at the table.
"Now, that said, if you'll look at the calendar, you'll see that in just over two weeks, you have your first patrol. This is an underhand toss. It's in the main city square and the surrounding neighborhoods. It goes from noon sharp to around five. You will be in your base forms most of the time, but dressed in uniform. We're making replicas of your transformed outfits for you to use while on patrol until you can all hold your transformations indefinitely. You will be covered by two other teams on standby; a smaller support team called the Valley Nurses will be on location, out of costume, and the Downtown Queens themselves have agreed to be on call for the area between those times."
He pointed at Alele.
"You are our early warning system on this patrol, you will use your power to press the call button on your belt before anything goes wrong, if it does go wrong. We don't expect to see any combat or any kind of action on this mission. If all goes well, your job will be to spread out, be seen, make sure you're interacting with people, and be seen in your transformed state with your wings out at least once, preferably on camera. After, you will meet up with me and Willa at Lorgiaia's main temple off the main road for a charity dinner where your team leader will give a small speech."
He folded his hands behind his back.
"If, and only if, this goes smoothly, will we start easing you into actual patrols with actual danger. As far as I'm concerned, you're all still civilians for now and will be treated as such. Do any of you have any questions?"
I didn't, I was more than happy to let the PR side of things take over for us for now We could still make it to angel if we got enough public attention and thought energy focused on us. We were a magical girl team for gods' sakes, we were supposed to sell merch and inspire little girls to work hard so they could have a chance to be chosen one day too. If we could leave the actual fighting to the serious heroes, I'd be perfectly ok to just trip purse snatchers and resolve civilian fights.
"Well, I think we have our game plan then girls!" Willa said. "Let's say we break up the meeting and meet back here same time Saturday? I'll be reaching out to you individually to go over some more specific details, so keep your phones on!" With that, she flipped on the lights.
I winced at the sudden florescent glow, and got up, following the other girls out of the room. As we approached the elevators, Galorna turned to the rest of us.
"Hey, I know why they're doing it the way they are, I understand, I do. All of you are weak and need to learn, none of you could hold yourselves in a fight right now."
She eyed Drizti, who barely came up to her hip.
"Some of you could be beaten by a kid with a stick, if I'm being honest. But I can help. I know my stuff. I'm going up to the training room now to practice, and if any of you are serious about being a hero and not just a mascot for Lorgiaia's church, you'll meet me there."
Well... I looked around at the other girls and saw each of them had a look of determination, some more than others, but each of them clearly wanted to be more than a mascot. I wasn't sold on the idea of throwing ourselves into training this soon after our first meeting, but... I'd unpacked my gym clothes already, so I supposed I'd get a good workout in with them at the very least.