I lay on the sofa and scrolled on CirNet with my fancy new professional account and I frowned. I was seeing so, so many photos tagged with "Lorgiaia's Angels", but almost no actual discussion. The ones that did have comments were almost always from the relatives of the child in the photos talking about how cute they were, or how they were 'so grown up now'. I gave each of the posts and comments a sparkle though, I needed to make my presence online known, and from what I could tell, Alele had already sparkled the posts herself with her account. I was even seeing her leave comments on some of the photos, making comments about having fun, or being happy to meet the kid. I was falling behind in the social world already and it was only a day after our debut.
I needed to fix that, with my lack of powers, popularity was the only way to stay relevant. I bookmarked my place in the chronological scroll, and tapped in the search bar. What was it... Magical-something, I knew that much, it had numbers in it... I looked through the results for 'magical' and recognized the green and orange leaves of the dryad who had my photo, this had to be her, MagicalCl0ut. I opened her page, and sure enough, pinned at the top was the group photo of us, posted last night just before dinner time. I gave it a sparkle, and scrolled down. Below it, was a two photo post, one picture was a cropped one of the group one, zoomed in on me and her, and the other was the picture the girl had taken with her friends last week, the day we went shopping. The post read:
"Angel Rouge is dedicated to her job! I got an exclusive photo with her last weekend, before she finished getting into her role, and you can tell she gave up a LOT to be the best magical girl she can be! I'm impressed, what do you guys think, is that much dedication a good sign?"
I sparkled that post too, and opened the comments section, nervous about what I might find. They were about what I expected, with most of the users talking about how I haven't seen action yet, so it was impossible to tell if I was any good at my job or not, with a couple comments about how 'it looked like I'd lost weight' since the older picture was taken. One comment though stood out to me, it was of an account without a profile picture and just a bunch of numbers for the name. It stated:
"I think she's going to be very, very interesting to watch. I heard she's already been out 'practicing' unofficially..."
I frowned and wondered if there was any leaked info of my first mission, or if anyone had gone to the press about it... I couldn't imagine any of the girls would, and everyone else who knew was either in the church, or working for the GGDS. I tried to shrug it off and scrolled up to the top to friend Magicalcl0ut, and my eyes widened in surprise. She had over 100,000 followers on this account... I looked back at the pictures and saw each of them had tens of thousands of sparkles. This was an amazing platform for my popularity, I'd beat Alele in no time. I went back to the post about me, and commented:
"It was so nice to see you again! I'm going to do my best and work hard to keep everyone safe! Fun fact about the hair; I actually cut it because it was slowing me down! My skill is flying extra fast, so I wanted to streamline my form to get even faster!"
I bit my lip. Was that too much?... It needed to come off as genuine... I couldn't take it back now, though. I went back to the chronological scroll and kept going through photos. Most of the kids hadn't interacted with me too much, Alele had been the most vocal one of the group, so I wasn't seeing many that I recognized well enough to comment on... Aside from one guy who went for a side hug right before the picture took, but I was NOT about to give him the satisfaction of interacting. He was lucky I ducked away before he actually touched me...
A notification popped up, and I opened it. It was a reply to my comment on the picture, from MagicalCl0ut herself:
"It was nice seeing you too! I look forward to seeing more of you more in the future, we should get brunch some time! I know this great place not too far from your headquarters, maybe Saturday?"
I raised my eyebrows, that was... a lot of interaction to give just a random fan. Was I going to go have a meal with this girl I'd only spoken to for a couple seconds? Would that set a precedent? Saturday was out anyway, we had our first patrol... I got a personal message popup and a new follower notification at the same time, both from her. I opened the message.
"Hey, so like, I want to meet up again, for one to get more pics of you, but for another, I want to talk strategy. I think we can do something here, build each other up, I've done it before, it's where my followers came from. If we're 'friends', then it makes you human, and me seem cooler, so I want to talk about how that looks when we meet up."
I thought for a moment, I should really talk to Debbie about this, but... I typed out a reply. "Well, I can't do Saturday, but maybe some time during the week? And just you, if I see a crowd, I'm leaving."
"Ok, chill, no problem, Wednesday at 10 ok for you?"
"It should be, yeah. I'll let you know if anything changes."
"Perfect, and hey, try to be more human when you reply to the message on the post, ok? You kinda sound 'corporate' in your first one."
She sent me the address and I marked it in my maps app. It wasn't too far away, about a 20 minute walk, or a 2-3 minute fly, I could do that. I went back to her post and replied:
"I'd love that! My week is up in the air though, let's chat, and try to work out an earlier date, I look forward to it!"
I nodded, and closed my phone. My first comment already had six likes, and I had two new followers. This was going to work out great, I could tell.
~~~
"Candy, I'm just saying, you might be all super powered, but you're still human..." Galorna said as I put my satchel on the ground and stepped away from it.
"Relax, she's a kid, and I'm transforming now, so even if she is trying to trick me, I'll already be powered up." I said shaking my head.
"Honestly? I think this is stupid of you." Debbie snapped at me. "PR is my JOB, and you're teaming up with some fan instead? Give me time, your follower count will dwarf hers."
"Hey, if she thinks cheating will help her, I say let her do it." Alele said, shaking her head.
"Gods, it's one brunch with a fan, just relax, ok?" I said, starting my transformation. Once the glow faded, I pulled my gloves out of my bag and slid them on "I'll be fine, and I won't do anything to jeopardize the team."
"Just be careful..." Drizti said.
"I don't know why me going out needed everyone to come see me off..." I grumbled "I'm a grown woman."
"Yeah, but you're our grown woman." Lucy said pointedly. "Or- wait, that sounds creepy... uhh..."
"What she meant is that after what happened last time we 'just went out', people died, and we're public now, so we have a lot more on the line." Galorna said firmly.
"Ok, well... Thank you, I appreciate your concern, but I looked this place up, I even went there yesterday to scope it out, I'm fine." I said
"Just... please be careful about getting close to anyone." Galorna said "Try and stay away from the other customers."
So that's what this was... They were worried about me using my powers accidentally or something. I fought back a feeling of anger and frustration and gave a wry smile instead, pretending to be unhurt.
"Hey, it's ok, I gotta get used to living a normal life sometime, right?" I said, trying to look wistful and slightly sad. The other's faces fell at that, even Alele's, and I turned away to lock in that emotion.
"I'll be back soon, I'll be safe, I promise."
The other girls and Debbie stayed in the lobby as I walked out. I wasn't doing anything wrong, I was pretty sure I wouldn't endanger anyone, I wish they'd leave me alone. Once I was clear of the building, I pumped my wings and shot into the sky, letting the world fall away from me. The people all dwindled to dots, and the buildings just looked like grey squares on a chess board. I tilted my angle, and dropped facefirst, letting my wings guide and slow me as I neared my target, a small diner on a street corner with a view of a major intersection.
As I approached, I saw MagicalCl0ut on the sidewalk, looking around. I whistled to let her know I was coming, and she looked up, stumbling back. She quickly pulled her phone out and started snapping pictures as I fluttered to the ground, landing a couple feet in front of her.
"Holy shit" She said "You look way more impressive than you did before, are you glowing?"
I nodded "Yeah, just a bit. And thanks, this is the 'full transformation', or that's what PR is calling it."
"Ok, so you have different tiers of transformations?" She asked, putting her phone away and pulling out a notebook.
I wasn't supposed to let on that the fake costumes were just us untransformed or we'd be targeted in them... I hated to start our relationship off on a lie, but I needed to keep me and the other girls safe.
"Yeah, We have a base form, then one where we have powers and outfits, and then one where we get wings and glow-y." I think that was what we were supposed to tell people at least... Debbie's meetings were boring and I had a hard time keeping track of anything that wasn't a direct order.
"Ok, wow, so... You wanted to go full on magical girl for this?" She asked, looking up from her writing
"...I didn't want to walk for 20 minutes or ride the bus." I said honestly.
"Cool, cool, relatable... Hey, my name is Forica, do I just call you Angel Rouge? Or...?" She said, opening the door for me. I folded my wings and stepped inside.
"My name is publicly listed in the public hero registry, you can call me Candy, but I'd prefer it if you used my actual hero name in the posts, for branding."
She nodded, making a note. "Ok, ok... I may wanna drop your real name in there, after a few months, just to like, humanize you, make it look like an accident..."
We took our seat, and I tried to ignore the looks and stares I was getting from the other patrons. I ordered a breakfast sandwich and a glass of OJ, and Forica ordered mineral water and some eggs. As I waited for my food, I asked her something I'd been wondering about since she agreed to meet me at this time of morning.
"So... How old are you? You don't look old enough to be graduated, but you're here on a weekday, so..."
She nodded "Yeah, I'm 16. I dropped out to be a full time social media star. I have an account that's just pics of me, and the one where it's magical girls. I get a good amount of money, people donate to me on my main one, and news outlets buy the rights to the pics on the MG one."
"Oh, ah, well..." I felt bad, this girl dropped out of high school just to take pictures of people like me? "Maybe you should still get a certificate... I had to do that because I had to be on the farm most of my high school years, but it wasn't too hard to get."
She shrugged "I make more than my parents, I think I'm ok." She put her notebook on the table "So... farm, huh? Rags to riches story?"
"Nnnno, we were doing ok, we had ok sales, and our stuff grew well, it was just a lot of work. I had brothers though, so the work got split up."
She asked me more questions about my 'backstory' until our food arrived, and I dug in, cutting the sandwich into bites and eating it with a fork. I glanced at Forica to see her giving me a funny look.
"What?" I asked, patting my face with a napkin "Did I smear my makeup? I didn't think magical makeup could smear..."
"No, it's..." She said "Your gloves, they'll get all greasy, why not take them off?"
I looked at my gloved hands. Was it really that odd?
"Oh, it's a branding thing, I need to be seen with them so they're a part of my character design." I said smoothly "I never take them off!"
"Ok... Well, it's weird to eat with gloves on is all. Anyway, I was going to post some pics this afternoon, one of us, maybe one of you alone, and then drop the ones of you flying in over the next couple days, get extended engagement, is that ok?"
"Oh, yeah, I suppose so?" I finished my sandwich "I'm not the one who knows this stuff, before I joined the team I only used CirNet to look at memes and catch up with family."
"Ok, I'll get those scheduled later then, great." She made a mark on a checklist in her notebook. "Ok, so... What's a good opportunity to get more pics?"
I thought about how to say it. Just telling her we'd be on patrol Saturday could be bad, and could trigger an attack from fallen who saw the area as an easy target due to our low experience if she talked, but it would be a good spot, and we were supposed to be seen while there...
"Ok, so it's a secret, buuut..." I looked around dramatically and leaned in. She leaned in closer, and I whispered "We'll be making a public appearance this Saturday in city square, but don't tell anyone!"
She narrowed her eyes at me. "Okayyy... 'Don't tell anyone' don't tell anyone? Or 'Don't tell anyone' don't tell anyone?"
"No, like, actually don't tell anyone." I clarified.
"Ok, damn, thanks for the tip then, I'll be there! She said, smiling. "I can tell this team up is going to go very well."
We finished up, and left the diner, with her taking a few selfies with me as we left. I tried to pay for hers, but she said it would 'look like a bribe', and refused. I waved goodbye to her, and took off to the sky at top speed as she snapped pictures of me flying away. I flew around a building out of sight and slowed down to a stop. I needed to take it easy, that much grease in me was making me feel sluggish... I stretched, and lazily headed back to headquarters, I'd check in with the girls, get a little training in, and relax with-
A powerful force slammed into me from behind, knocking me out of the sky and onto a nearby rooftop. I clambered to my feet and spun around to see my attacker thud into the roof behind me, her own wings flared. She was tall, a foot taller than me, and her head was... it almost reminded me of Lorgiaia's except where her head had been a series of flowers, this woman's was a series of glowing rings, covered in darting eyes and spinning slowly, a golden light inside them. She was dressed in white robes, and her six white wings curled around her body like the legs of a spider, making her even more imposing as she walked towards me drawing a long white and gold sword.
"Where do your wings come from, red one? Have you been granted the power of the heretics?" Her voice slid out of the rings in echos and waves, and I fell to my knees, shaking.
I thought fast, was this a fight? Was I going to have to use my power on this bitch? I thought of any other solutions, and remembered I'd never taken the gun I took from Homicide out of my pocket. It wasn't much better than using my power, but if came down to it, a gunshot was slightly less fatal than being turned into an inanimate object...
"I- I'm a chosen!" I said waving my hand "I'm not a heretic, I work for a goddess!"
Her sword came to rest under my chin, and she tilted my head up to look her in the face as the rings where her head should be slid back in on themselves, showing her actual face behind them, golden wavy hair, amber eyes, and her forehead and mouth wrapped up in bandages. What was left of the rings wove themselves into an upside down crown, floating over her head, the eyes still looking every way at once.
"What goddess do you serve?" She said, her mouth unmoving under the wrappings.
"Lorgiaia! I serve the church of Lorgiaia!" I said, my mind racing. Was this woman a fallen? A sorceress? Or... she had more presence than any hero or fallen I'd ever seen...
"Are..." I said, leaning back from the sword slightly "Are you a new goddess?"
She looked me over, surprised, and lowered her sword, keeping it between us. She stepped closer, the eyes on the joints of her wings following me as she moved, and pulled at one of my own wings, causing me to flinch. I tried to reach out to her spark as she touched me, but there was no connection through the wing, the feathers must block the power...
"I am not a goddess, I am sent by my master to hunt down what is rightfully his... Hm, how many wings does the goddess 'Lorgiaia' have?"
"Uh, j-just the normal amount, two..." I said standing up and slowly reaching into my pocket for the gun.
"...Unfortunate. Do you know of any goddesses who have more?" She asked, turning away from me.
I stopped going for the gun. Was she not actually after me? Was I just knocked out of the air by mistake? Who was this lady?
"No, I don't think so? I think most goddesses just have two, if any... most don't have any, thinking about it."
"I see..." She mused "This will not be as straightforward as I'd though it would be upon seeing you, red one."
I could regain control of this, she seemed less intimidating now, and she wasn't as sure of herself... I held my hands out and gave her my best magical girl smile "Let me see if I can help you... Um, who are you exactly?"
She looked at me with golden eyes, open but harsh and cold.
"I am a sister following the only true god in existence. That is all."
"So..." I rubbed the stinging place on my chin where the sword had pricked me "No name? Try to attack me, ask me weird questions, and not give me anything?"
"...I gave up my name when I took on the task of tracking down the heretics. I am nameless until re-named." She said, drawing herself up to her full height.
"If... If I give you a new name, will you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
She looked at me, then around at the city. "Are you native to this place?"
"Well, I lived on the outskirts, but yeah a little, why?"
"...Very well, you may name me according to your customs."
According to my customs? Like, as a hero? Or as a magical girl?
"Ok, well, you're obviously some kind of chosen, so it'd need to be a hero name..." I thought out loud "Uhh, We can go with something old school, back when the gods used created constructs to talk to people? You look like some of those things, kinda. You could be... Throne? No that's stupid, uhh, Seraphim? How about that?"
She sneered and laughed. "My kind devoured the last of the seraphim ages ago in my homeland, but I can see that it may fit well. I shall adopt it. Thank you, red one."
"Angel Rouge" I corrected her "Or Candy, if it's just us."
She walked to the edge of the roof and looked down, arms folded. "Very well then, Candy, I will tell you what I can, and in exchange, I expect you to provide me with an understanding of this place I find myself in."
"An... understanding?" I asked. Of what, the city? Was she really that out of her element? She must be from the northern wastes. "Yeah, ok, whatever I guess."
"I am from a far off land, beyond even the veil of time itself." She said dramatically "My lord has sent me to track down and find those that stole his power, and to slay them. One fled here, and I will find her and reclaim what was lost. I am at a loss as to what I should do however, I have never seen the wonders that fill this city; the lights, the carriages, the foods... Cursed ones still walk the streets here, and monsters mix with people as if they belonged together..."
"Uh, we don't call anyone 'monsters' anymore. If they can talk or communicate somehow, they're all just people..." I said, frowning. So not the northern wastes; even they had accepted the un-humans as people by now. 'beyond the veil of time' made me think of the folded lands. Could she be from so deep in a fold that they hadn't seen the outside world in the past 75 years? That seemed unlikely, given how many rescue efforts went into getting people out. And what was a 'cursed one?'
"This land is very different than mine," She said, placing her hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch "and I would ally myself to one such as yourself, who would name me and provide me with information, would you be amenable to that?"
"Like... help me do hero stuff and stuff?" I asked. "I mean, yeah, we can be in an alliance, as long as your god isn't enemies with Lorgiaia."
She laughed at that, her mouth stretching the cloth over it. "My dear Candy, my god is at constant war with everyone. I do not believe your goddess knows of his existence yet though. He is starkly absent from this place..."
"Ok..." I said. I didn't get it, but if she wasn't going to tell me her god, then I wasn't going to push it. There were a couple chosen who had 'mystery gods', Homicide had been one, and if she wanted to be one too, then so be it. It'd be on her when she ran out of funds and couldn't get any marketing deals.
"I need to get home... Can I have your phone number? Or your CirNet name?" I asked her, pulling my phone out.
She looked at it without recognition. "My name is Seraphim, Candy, you know this."
"Ok... Well... I guess I'll see you in the sky then." I muttered. If she was going to be like that, I didn't need her alliance anyway. She was weird, and the way she moved and spoke made me think she was used to being treated like a princess, even more so than Alele was. I didn't need that in my life right now. I waved goodbye, and her crown split into rings again as she watched me leave, her face once again obscured.
As I flew back home, I tried to figure out what that was all about, was she trying to shake me up? Was she a mentally unstable chosen? Could her powers have messed her up when she got them? That wasn't unheard of, most people claimed to notice a difference in people's personalities after they were chosen, and some were fully different people, but psychologists claimed it was just because of 'lifted inhibitions', and not actual changes to the brain. Still, seeing her made me think they might be wrong...
~~~
I shifted uncomfortably in the thinly padded seat and leaned forward, looking out the front window to see if traffic was letting up.
"We're not there yet, if you were wondering." Lucy said from her seat across from me in the van.
"No, I was just wondering if we'd be moving soon, we're supposed to be at Queen Tower in less than twenty minutes, we should have just flown..." I said
"Even if you all flew, me and Debbie would still have to take the vans." Oori pointed out from his seat up front next to the driver. "We still need to get the t-shirt and info booths set up, so we'd need the equipment, and in case you forgot, Candy, me and Debbie can't fly."
I sighed and leaned back. I hated long car rides, I always felt like I was wasting time I could be using for something interesting. The windows in the van were blacked out too, so I couldn't even see out of them to people watch or to see landmarks. We were only an hour walk from city square, but in a car on a Saturday, it was a 45 minute drive. I started to pull off my right glove to grab my phone to look at so I could at least pass the time that way, but Alele slapped my hand.
"Candy, I am literally almost touching you as it is, one bump and our arms rub, I am NOT going to let you risk my life so you can add sparkles to posts about you." She said, scooting further away.
I groaned "I need to at least let my person know I'm going to be there setting up in a few minutes, she wanted to do photos..."
"Now, we're not going there just for photos." Oori said. "This is an actual mission as much as it is a publicity stunt, and we need to take it seriously. the city square is the safest area to patrol, yes, but that's ONLY because the Downtown Queens are stationed there full time."
He rotated his seat to face us.
"Actually, this is a good time to go over what we need you to do and what to expect today."
"Didn't we go over that like, twice already? And we have so much public relations training now that Debbie made us work with her every day..." Drizti said, looking up from her phone. She'd been talking to a lot of fans herself since she'd been taught how to use CirNet, and she was slowly getting known online as a chosen who would respond to any and all mentions of her. I'd tried to explain that people would abuse her interactions, but she needed to learn for herself it seemed.
"We can always use a touch up on mission specifics, Oori, go ahead." Galorna said, patting Drizti on the knee.
"Today, our mission is to be seen in the area, and show that you're actual heroes and not just mascots for the church. Lorgiaia wants you to fight crime in her name, this is how we build up to that." Oori said. "Alele, you're on point, you'll rewind time to let us know if something happens, Galorna, you need to be seen chatting with kids, seem approachable. Lucy, like you requested, you can stay transformed the whole time, but please don't act too 'edgy' with the civilians. Candy, you need to stay in open areas, and do fly overs of the area every few minutes, be seen, fly fast, and do tricks if you can. Sell the idea that you're the best flyer on the team, like you and Debbie talked about, ok?"
I nodded.
"And lastly, Drizti," He continued "I heard you'll be doing tricks for people?"
"Yeah!" She said, smiling "I'm getting good with my power, I can connect the lines into 3d shapes if I combine them the right way! I thought I'd do that, maybe take requests, or let people help me design shapes, since I'll be over by the support team most of the time anyway."
"That sounds good, just don't let anyone touch your power." Oori reminded her "If you accidentally transfer someone's terminal illness or chronic ailment to someone else, trying to fix it would destroy our reputation."
"So you do know about PR. And here I thought Debbie was the only one." Alele said, smirking.
"I know enough, and I have common sense." He said firmly "Now, as for the support team, you'll be working with the Valley Nurses, they are pure support, and they'll be offering a walk up clinic during your patrol, but they're working for you as well. If you need them, let them know, and they'll be there."
"This sounds like it'll be boring and a pain..." Lucy complained "I want to go somewhere with actual crime and stuff, like, the area around our base?"
"Wait, there's crime around our headquarters?" Drizti asked, alarmed
"No, she's being dramatic," Galorna said "there's just currently no overlapping hero teams that patrol it, so there's random gaps in the day that are un-patrolled. It's still pretty safe."
"Is that why we built our building where we did?" Alele asked
"As far as I know, yes. Once we are finished with all the paperwork, we'll apply for patrol rights for an 8 block radius." Galorna confirmed.
"So..." I asked "Why haven't we applied yet? We've been an official team for like, a week."
"Well, Miss Candy," Oori said "As a full team, we need at least one documented group mission under our belt before we can apply. I'll actually be taking the paperwork over to the GGDS office while you patrol, to get a head start on it."
"I just want to be pointed at what I need to do, and let go." grumbled Lucy "I'm tired of like, all this dumb stuff about rights and PR and stuff, I just want to go off, you know?"
I couldn't relate. I wanted to do as little fighting as I could, but I knew I was mostly alone in that. I leaned back and tried to think of cool poses to do at me and Forica's photoshoot, I wanted to make them look natural, and she did say she'd be following me around and trying to get candid shots too, so I didn't need to think too hard, but since she posted her pics of me in the air, I'd gotten just over 11,000 new followers, bringing me up to a grand total of... around 11,000 total followers. She really was the main force growing my presence online, I needed to find a way to thank her somehow...
Lost in thought, I blinked back to the present when the van parked and the back doors opened. I looked up and saw a slightly disgruntled and off looking Debbie on the other side. She waved her hands at us and motioned for us to get out. From the looks of where we were, we were parked right next to the square in the 'no parking' zone. The vans would move once we unloaded I was sure, but it was still a nice perk to have.
"Gosh, Miss Debbie, are you ok? You look rough..." Drizti said, as she got out.
"I get carsick, I'll be fine." Debbie said, glaring at her. "You girls are officially on patrol in 15, that gives us 10 minutes to let up the booths and introduce ourselves to the support team, if you let the workers get started on the booths, I'll bring you five over to them."
As I watched a couple people from the office climb out of the other van with bags, I felt guilty I wasn't helping them. I'd set up my family's booth for the yearly fair over and over, I could help, but... the way I was dressed and the publicity of one of Lorgiaia's Angels 'having to do manual labor' stopped me from helping them at all. I sighed and hopped out, following the others to a closed tent on the other side of the square. It was sealed up, but I assumed it'd be opened up with signs out around it once the time hit.
I ducked inside, and saw the other girls sitting around a small table. They glanced up at us when we walked in, and one waved. She was wearing pink scrubs with a white domino mask and matching medical face mask. She had a pillbox hat on her head with a large pink and white cartoon pill busting open on it, the Valley Nurses logo.
"I'm guessing you're the Angels?" She said "I'm Trauma Response, this is my team."
"Yep, we just wanted to get to know you before we broke out and started the patrol, it's nice to meet you." Galorna said, shaking her hand.
"I can't believe you guys are calling yourselves 'angels' already..." said one of the girls at the table. She was wearing a white plague doctor's uniform that had a corset and skirt attached, with a pink cape over her shoulders down to her knees. Her logo was on the side of her 'beak', and she was holding a rod with flowers on one end. "I had to work for like 6 years before I made angel, do you know how many lives I saved? How many nights I slept in a hospital chair to earn that title?"
"I- I'm so sorry..." I said "I asked Lorgiaia about it, but she said she wanted the name, I'm not trying to steal any glory or anything..."
"Don't mind her, that's Field Dress, she's been bragging about her title since she got it, she's the only one of us who cares." Trauma Response said dismissively.
"And who are the rest of your team?" Alele asked "I didn't read the file thingy."
"My name is Sterile, and this is Ice Pack." one of the remaining two said, pointing at the other one. She had an open shoulder cropped blouse and her hair up in a bun. Her logo was pinned to her top, and from what I could see under the table, she was wearing something very short that showed her whole legs. Ice Pack, on the other hand, was bundled up, with a blue and pink parka, white fur trim hiding most of her face. Her logo was on her right shoulder, and she had some kind of white padded leggings on.
"That's an unfortunate name," Lucy pointed out "It makes it sound like your power is not being able to have children."
"Well, no foreign microscopic life can survive in or around my body, so... I can't get pregnant. I thought it fit." Sterile said, shrugging.
I glared at Lucy for her stupid comment, but she didn't notice.
"I'm going to be hanging out with you guys!" Drizti said "I look forward to working with you, I'm a healer too! Kinda."
Ice Pack laughed, the sound muffled by her parka "Yeah, 'kinda' a healer is about the closest anyone gets to being a healer these days, all the good powers are gone by now, welcome to the club, kid."
I smiled politely at the other group "I have to step out for a second and meet someone before we're on duty, so it was nice meeting you, but I'll have to catch up later!"
I ducked out as Drizti asked them what their powers were and scanned the area for Forica. I wanted to get some shots in while we were in the main square, but I also planned on heading over to 'patrol' the park the next street over for some pics by the water, maybe in a tree? I had an idea for a low angle shot I saw in a magazine once, with my leg blocking anything important, but in a tree or on top of a building, crouching down? I saw her on the other side of the square, talking to Debbie. I jogged over just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation.
"...and if I see so much as a piece of trash with an unapproved brand on it, we're suing your ass, do you understand?"
"...it's just going on CirNet, it's not a big deal, but fine, no branded anything, no panty shots, and nothing with fighting in it. I got it."
"Um, wait" I said, jumping in "Were you going to be taking...?"
Forica shook her head "No, I wouldn't do that, she's just being dramatic."
"I'm not being 'dramatic', Candy, this is my job." said Debbie firmly "I need you to be on top of this, I don't like this, but if you insist on going outside the church's resources, then we need rules."
"Well it sounds like it's all set up then, and I have two minutes to go before we start, can I have her now?" I said
"It's your funeral, but get out of here." Debbie said, waving me away.
We walked away and Forica looked at me nervously "So, should I be worried? She mentioned suing me..."
I rolled my eyes "I'll deal with her, just... Let's go get some photos by the statue of Lady Guillotine, we can use her blade for me to stand on and look off into the distance or something."
As we walked over to the statue in question, I scanned the square for any danger; a quick once over to make sure that I could at least claim I was doing my job. The booth for checking and healing minor ailments was open, Drizti was trying to build a replica of Queen Tower, Alele was actively chasing a group of teens down, waving at them, and Galorna and Lucy were in the sky, doing circles around the center of the square. They were all getting attention in their own way, so I couldn't feel too bad, right?