Chapter Text
Attention all citizens. The time is now 9:55pm. Please make sure you are back inside your homes with all doors and windows locked.
A message so repetitive many people of The City literally set their clocks to it. The death of the notion of a nightlife, now found only in ancient history texts. Unless, of course, you were a certain kind of teenage girl. One like Maeve, unassuming at first glance, standing only 131cm high, and if it wasn’t for her unnaturally gold hair it would have been easy to not see her at all.
At her size she looked like a child, or rather a younger child, sitting on the nearly deserted trolley car as it rumbled into the station. So small that her oversized red sweater threatened to swallow her up, but that was fine. Being overlooked was something she was more than used to at this point.
“Do you have any idea how late we are! You just had to dawdle outside the front gate didn’t you? You better hope there aren’t any monsters near our starting point cause we are gonna have’ta sprint FLAT OUT to get there on time.”
And frankly, not getting noticed by the other two people on the trolley was probably for the best. They, or at least the shouty blond one that was still in her Future’s Promise uniform, seemed… not in a great mood. And Maeve generally didn’t like interacting with people even at the best of times.
“Sprint? Why Mél, do I need to make you hit the gym more often, if a little run has you so worked up?” The other one, a tall girl with almost translucent white hair and a puffy white jacket, tittered. “Besides, you’re always complaining about getting passed over on the DU, if it matters to you that much you should really make more time for the fans.” Drawing out the last words as the trolley ground to a stop, the pair quickly made for the doors.
“Fans? If you really cared about that kinda thing you wouldn’t keep scheduling us out at the ass-end of the road over on the west side! Warehouses and factories, there’s no one around here…” Mercifully, the loud one faded away as they left the tram. Maeve waited a few moments before leaving herself, she was in no hurry. The West End’s lower population density did mean less monster attacks, but that was only a side benefit to why Maeve chose to patrol this area. Less monsters meant less magical girls, and fewer girls running around meant things were… neater. Fewer toes to step on.
Plus, Maeve thought to herself as she finally stepped off the tram into the cool autumn air, she needed a more open space to really shine, even if no one was around to see it.
From some distance away to the east, a bell started tolling, the Great Barrier pulsed and dimmed, and the Inner Barrier raced out from the centre of the city to cover everything. A dark green with seemingly random white triangles tonight. Showtime.
It was basically impossible to describe what transformation was really like to any average person. It wasn’t just quick changing your clothes, it was almost like shedding your skin to become something larger, tougher, becoming more, all in a femtosecond. Plain grey skirt lengthens in one of shimmering gold, her long flagpole materializing in her hand, red banner billowing in an invisible breeze, dorky oversized sweater melting into… an oversized greatcoat.
In a flash it’s all done, and now it’s time to get to work.
—————————————————————————————
Maeve’s patrols usually all began the same way. Head a bit north from the station, find a certain small shed that’s next to one of the factories to help her get up to rooftop level (shut up it’s not because she’s short, she just didn’t get a jumpy powerset, shut up), then start patrolling along the Great Barrier, slowly working her way inward. Most groups started closer to the city centre, where there were more people in need of protection, and worked outward, this route was just another little thing to keep her from stepping on any toes.
Reaching inside her pocket, she felt around for her real weapon, bopping heads with the heavy sphere at the end of the flagpole had never really been her style. She had twelve with her tonight, nowhere near the full squad, but nights hadn’t been too hectic lately. Plus, even if it was completely illogical, she liked to rotate her ‘soldiers’ out, giving them a break as it were, time for repairs and time away from the battlefield.
Hand guided by feel, it closed on one in particular. Proper tactics always began with scouting out the area. Throwing this particular mini, a small depiction of a sprightly women with wings, down on the ground a small flash of golden light erupted and there was now a small, fairy-like, women dressed in green standing, or rather fluttering next to Maeve.
“Alright Flick, you know your drills. One flash for all clear, two for monsters, three for A LOT of monsters. Let’s get started, 200m north, 100m east, then return.” The little fairy bobbed it’s head slightly, expression never changing, fluttering off into the night. Not that Flick meant that Maeve could just sit around though, her constructs were useful and they were what let her go solo with relative safety, but they weren’t very smart. If she tried to let them do all the work then there was a good chance some squishy little eye guys or spindly little spider freaks would slip away.
Couldn’t have that
—————————————————————————————
A few hours in, around 1am, and things were going pretty much as they always did. In fact, it had been a pretty quiet night, all things considered. Aside from some squishy eye-guys on 41st street, the roads were quiet and monster free, at least until she saw two quick flashes from Flick, over by some warehouse that held… boxes? It could have just been a box warehouse for all she knew.
What was important was that some weird raccoon-wolf looking thing the size of a truck was scratching at the barrier around it. Some of the slightly cleverer monsters in this area would try to break into buildings to hide, and surprise the morning workers. They were usually pretty shit at hiding, if Maeve was honest with herself, pretty hard to miss a hold busted right in the side of your building. But it would be neglectful to just let it, then make the city call in some girl during the day to dig it out, so it was time to send in the troops.
Out of the pocket, quick as a flash, two mini’s hit the ground. No reason to over commit your forces before you knew what the enemy was capable of. “Marde! Cassidy! Attention!” Commanding her troops was really the only time Maeve allowed herself to raise her voice. After all, what kind of soldier would obey a whispering general, not that her soldiers were able to disobey, but it made her feel good all the same.
With a flash, there were now three standing on the street where there had been only one before. Unlike with tiny Flick, it was much easier to see that the so named Marde and Cassidy (Maeve liked all of her units to have proper names, she told people it didn’t feel right if they were nameless) were not human. Their joints moved stiffly and their chests did not rise and fall with breath, their eyes were pure white voids with heavy shadows. Maeve had never gotten the hand of painting eyes.
“Target is the monster right in front of you. Marde, strafe counter clockwise and begin firing. Cassidy, hold for a five count then advance, spears forward.” With a jerk, the two started marching, Marde pulling a quarrel from her pouch as she moved to the right, Cassidy lowering his spear, his roughly painted face fixing on the Raccoon-wolf.
The monster took no notice, continuing to shred away at the inner barrier, until… TWANG! A bolt from Marde’s crossbow sank home, burring itself deep in the flank of the monster, a purplish ichor leaking from the wound. With a silent yell, Cassidy charged forward… only to collapse to the ground when his ankle gave in.
“Founder damn it.” Maeve resisted the urge to smack her own face. All of her units took damage eventually, but she’d thought she’d done a pretty good job reinforcing Cassidy’s pewter frame after he’d had his legs taken out by this swarm of ugly flying fish with beetle like pincers a few weeks back. Apparently she hadn’t, and now her spearman was taking even more abuse from the Racc-wolf, as the beast turned and charged the fallen soldier, teeth sinking into the soft metal of his body. Off to the side Marde continued to shoot away, but it wasn’t killing it fast enough.
“Damn it Cassidy, not sure I’m going to be able to patch you up this time. Well, no sense probing anymore.” Reaching back into her long greatcoats pocket, her fingers closed around a much heavier model. Throwing it to the ground, a majestic armoured rider on a pitch black horse took form, a long plume of crimson red hair flowing out the back of her helmeted head. “No time for a briefing Maria, couch lances, lets see if we can salvage Cassidy from fates wicked jaws. Charge!”
With a swing of her flagpole, sending her standard flapping, she pointed right at the monsters, Maria nearly, but not quite, bowling her over as she charged at top speed. The knights lance landed on the side of the beast with a sicking squelching sound as it sunk deep. No howls of agony came from the unnaturally silent creature as it turned, lance still embedded in its side, wrenching the weapon from the knights hands. Maria continued her charge past, unperturbed, before wheeling about to face the monster again, drawing a long axe from its position on her back.
While she loved all her creations, Maria had always been one of Maeve’s favourites. She was just so strong, and while still limited, she could preform more actions that the usual one that most of her soldiers could manage. Case in point, as she charged once again the axe spun in her hand before delivering a brutal sideways chop that sent the huge beast reeling before it started to dissolve, succumbing to its many wounds.
In only a few moments the battle was over. Giving Maria and Marde the order to watch for more monsters, Maeve strode over to inspect the fallen. Even having reverted to his miniature form, the damage was clear to see. A lot of his paint was just gone and the shiny metal underneath was heavily dented and warped. Fixing him this time was going to take some doing, possibly even a complete reforge.
Still, that was a matter for tomorrow. Pocketing the wounded she also shrunk the other two back down, to save on magic. Giving an order to Flick to resume patrol, Maeve headed back onto the street. With any luck this would be the worst thing to happen to her tonight.
At least until a few minutes later when she remembered that there was an English essay she’d forgot about due in class the next day. Unfortunately, none of her soldiers were smart enough to write and essay on their own, and apparently neither was she!