Chapter Text
"WHOOOOO NO MORE LEARNING EVER!" Maria symbolically threw her backpack off her shoulders as she left Future Promise for the last time as a student. She'd have to come back for test results, graduation rehearsal, graduation itself and maybe, maybe prom but she was done with classwork.
"Maria pick up your bag before somebody trips over it." Alexis's spirits were not nearly as high as her friends'.
"I was gonna. Did you become ma when I wasn't looking. You're about the right height."
"Be nice to your mom!" Lily was always the first to speak up when Maria started talking about her mother.
"I'm always nice to my mom!" Maria said, picking up her bag as other students filed out, eagerly awaiting Summer Break. "Where would she be without me around to clean up after?"
"I guess we'll all find out soon enough right?" Alexis quipped.
"I'm not gonna move out right away. I mean I can but there are no apartments open in the complex. My gym is a 5 second commute and a Denby's 2 minutes away? I'm not giving that up."
The conversation between the Team Victory girls was cut short as they entered the tangle, the sidewalk in front of Future's Promise where magical girl fans congregated after school. The tangle was generally something only popular magical girls had to worry about. But Team Victory was pretty popular these days.
"Whoa Power? Did you lose your powers?"
"Any luck finding a replacement for Power yet?"
"Those auras are so cool Pixel, how long have you been able to use them?"
"Is it true you and Team Witch are teaming up?"
"Is Magnificent Edge going to be the new Team Victory member?"
The girls knew their job (and in Lily and Maria's cases, reveled in it) so the fans got their answers.
"Yes I lost my powers last week. It's been a trying time in Team Victory but I know my girls can rebound and come back better than ever"
"You can't really replace what Power Victory brings to the team, but we've wrapped up our search and will be letting the media know who the newest member will be in the next day or two."
"The auras are an emergent power I learned the night before that taping."
"We can't really talk about that right now, we're still working things out."
"We'll be letting the applicants and the media know in the next day or two."
From her perspective Maria thought she saw somebody out of place in the mass of fans but didn't put too much thought into it as they slowly escaped the tangle.
"It's not going to be Magnificent Edge is it?" Maria asked once they were out of earshot of the tangle.
"Hell no. She's full of herself and is trying to bail from her team because we're more popular. Fuck her." Alexis' feelings on Magnificent Edge were very blunt.
"Lexi, do you have any idea who you DO want to be the replacement? We're gone on runs with all the applicants now." Lily replied. "Also I agree I don't like Magnificent Edge."
"Shame, she's pretty strong." Maria pondered out loud. She wasn't really presenting a counterargument though. her mind was elsewhere.
"Don't care. Do not care." Alexis remained dismissive.
"Why can't we just team with Team Witch again? They're nice, they're strong and they're our friends?" Lily wondered.
"We want to make it happen but there's still a bunch of logistics in the way. Is it going to be a crossover or a merger? I mean I don't personally mind being Pixel Witch but I think Boris might have problems with that. Our patrol routes are way far away from each other. And if it's just a crossover there's a bunch of business stuff all our rep has to go through. So like we can team up unofficially but once cameras and the media becomes involved it's a big boondoggle at the moment." Alexis frankly agreed with Lily and found the business side of being a magical girl exasperating in this particular circumstance.
"Worst comes to worst we'll just have to tell Boris 'no cameras until you guys get this sorted out'. It's our necks on the line and...I wanna team with our witch friends!" Lily grew indignant.
"Yeah. I think we still need a 3rd in Team Victory regardless." Alexis sounded frustrated "But ugh, everybody who applied either doesn't have the right powers or doesn't fit in with us on a social level."
Maria had drifted out of the conversation. Rather than talk to her friends she spun around 180 degrees and addressed somebody else.
"Hi! What can we do for you?"
Alexis and Lily were shocked at Maria's sudden outburst and turned around themselves. There they saw who Maria was talking to. She was a magical girl, very small, smaller than Lily. She had long lavender hair and for some reason was wearing civilian clothes rather than her Future's Promise uniform. Most noticeably she had a tan leather belt around her waist with a rectangular satchel hanging from her right hip. Despite Maria's polite tone the girl seemed very, very intimidated.
"N...nothing." she turned around to run away but she had no chance. Even in her school duds Maria was much, much faster.
"Please don't run." Maria said, clasping her hand gently on the girl's shoulder. "If there's something you need to talk to us about, you can you know. We don't bite."
Alexis decided now wasn't the time for a snarky reply.
"Oh...ok. Um...you're Team Victory right?"
"We sure are." Lily replied with glowing pride.
The girl took several deep breaths.
"Are you still taking applications or whatever because...because...I think I want to join you. Maybe. If that's ok." The girl yelled out the request in a single breath then had to stop to catch her breath. "If it's not I'm sorry for bothering you. Please don't mind me. I'm stupid."
Alexis was perplexed at this small child. Did she seriously want to join Team Victory? Was she actually a magical girl? She seemed scared of her own shadow.
"I think we can take one more, what do you think Alexis." Alexis looked over to see Lily, who suddenly had a spring in her step.
"Um...sure. but we're kinda under the wire so do you have time to do this now or..." Alexis remained doubted of this shrinking violet.
"Uh...do what?" The girl remained exasperated.
"The formal interview process is two steps. One, the interview. This is where we get to know you and your powers. Second, the field test. We take you out with us for the night and fight monsters." Alexis secretly wondered if this timid girl would run away the second the idea of actually fighting monsters came up.
"It all sounds stuffy and dull but we just really want to get to know somebody before we decide we want to hang out with them every night for the next 2 years." In contrast to Alexis's detached tone, Lily was casual, warm and enthusiastic.
"Don't mind me. I'm not even in Team Victory anymore. Sorry if I scared you." Maria spoke up to again try to calm the nerves of this girl.
"Oh..ok I can do that." The girl replied. "Do we just do it here or..."
"I think we're close enough to the track that we can just skip over and do it there." Alexis said.
"Am i allowed? I'm not enrolled yet."
"It's the last day of school, you're with three other students and you're still a magical girl. Nobody will care." Lily tried to put the girl's fears to rest.
"Two other students. I'm gonna head home. This is magical girl business which..." Maria embellished the point by grabbing several strands of her now auburn hair.
"You're not gonna be here for this?" Alexis sounded confused.
"This is something you two gotta figure out for yourselves. So have fun and call me about it later." Maria walked away from the girl, past Lily and Alexis, towards the tram station. As she walked past Alexis she bent over and whispered something.
"Don't ask me why but I think this girl is a winner."
"Seriously? Also you arn't smooth at all, she's staring right at us."
Maria looked up to see the girl staring at them quizzically.
"You'll do great. Knock it out of the park kid." Maria awkwardly backed away from the situation and almost broke out into a run.
"What was that about?" The girl looked on as Maria vanished over the horizon.
"She's a huge nerd." Lily said with an air of authority. "Alright. To the field!"