Chapter Text
Sandra stopped at the door and took in the sight of the Team Courier headquarters.
There were eleven of them there, not counting Sandra, all in different colors and ages and going about their evening. Sandra knew most of the girls rather well by now, having spent the last seven months working alongside them in the team, and even in her usual grumpy disposition she couldn’t really deny it brought her some measure of happiness to see almost everyone here together.
Herself, Sandra was 14, although she was small enough one could believe her to be younger. Her hair was blue these days, courtesy of being a magical girl, and worn in a bun tonight for the sake of convenience. It wasn’t like she needed to impress anyone in particular; who here was going to judge?
Nearby to the door were Phoebe and Helen, looking over a box of Fright Night decorations they’d brought over recently. Phoebe took a moment to wave hello and offered to take Sandra’s jacket to hang it with the others, whereas Helen simply nodded respectfully without a word as usual. Farther to the side and closer to the desk where the team’s message box lived was Chris, discussing some manner of sports thing with Jasmine, who was placing the message box on it’s desk. It briefly occurred to Sandra that today wasn’t Jasmine’s day to bring the box from the school, where it spent the day so girls could leave their messages in for delivery, but then Jasmine enjoyed being useful, and nobody was about to deny her that.
The rest of the girls were a bit more scattered around. Dawn and Ellie sat in their chairs by the team’s meeting area already, comparing notes on homework as they usually did, while Melissa spoke nervously with Cyrus on the stairs to the second floor. The others-
-Would you close the damn door already and stop this cold wind from coming in?
That delightfully polite voice was Sandra’s best friend and team partner, Tamara, displaying her kind and gentle personality by shouting from the second floor balcony, flipping Sandra the bird, and then going back to reading a comic book. Sandra appreciated Tamara’s honesty almost as much as she was amazed that it hadn’t gotten her lynched yet.
Sandra closed the door to avoid being yelled at further, handed Phoebe her jacket, and walked in, stopping ever so quickly to acknowledge the memorial they’d built for Maddie near the entrance.
Eventually, someday, they planned on converting this little area into a little memorial for all the girls who retired from the team as they aged out, but at the moment there was only one picture there: Maddie, a member of the team who had recently died. They didn’t speak much of this anymore, it had been almost two weeks since after all, but her passing and the circumstances around it still weighed heavily on the team. Jasmine, who Maddie was paired up with, was still a bit closed off from the others, while Phoebe and Helen, Maddie’s closest friends, had taken to focusing on other things while they recovered from the blow. Herself, Sandra hadn’t ever interacted with Maddie personally all that much, but she felt Maddie’s absence all the same as she quietly nodded at the picture of the smiling girl with bright pink hair and eyes.
Having done that, Sandra moved to the lockers, where her current hangout buddies were: the three newest members of the team, affectionately dubbed “the newbies”, who had joined almost right after the whole mess a week and a half ago and whom Sandra had taken upon herself to keep an eye on for the time being.
-Oh, Sandra! Hello! - Mariama chirped in first, waving energetically from where she’d parked her wheelchair. She had silver hair and eyes, and wore a scarf with more colors than Sandra knew existed draped over a long dress. - You’re so late today, is everything alright?
-Hm? Oh yeah, it’s wednesday. Me and my sister go to the movies on those. - Sandra answered, opening her locker and picking up the notepad she’d left in there.
-We were worried you were going to miss the Night Courier’s meeting. - Said Giovanna, a far more meek orange-haired girl in a parka and a pair of jeans that, on basically anyone else, would have been very form-hugging. A week ago Sandra would have asked her to speak up, but she was starting to get used to how low the girl’s voice was.
-You can just call her by her name, you know, she’s not going to bite you or anything. Even the folks at school don’t use her title, I don’t think. - Giovanna shook her head in a negative at Sandra’s reassurance. There was a looong path for her confidence to grow still. - Well, what about you, Rust?
The girl furthest in the back made some indistinct sound. Of the three, she’d been the hardest to get through so far: Mariama was a ball of friendliness, and Giovanna was if anything too nice once you got through her nervousness, but this girl was completely closed off. She was, for one, already transformed into her faded red outfit, and she stood off to the side with her back on the wall, trying her best not to talk to anyone. She’d been titled, at her own request, as Rust Courier; but over the last week and a lot of persuasion, Sandra had managed to coax a name out of her.
-Gabriela? Are you ok?
The girl turned her head towards them, however slightly.
-Yeah. Had an argument with my mom. Don’t want to talk about it.
-Fair enough. - Sandra nodded. She had to give the girl credit for trying, at least. She’d opened up very little so far, and it had been just this monday when they finally convinced her to admit that she was, in fact, not registered. First unregistered member of the team, according to Ryder. At least since then Gabriela had seemed to warm up to them a bit, since her secret had stayed between Sandra, Ryder and Cyrus, the latter of whom had done everything in his power to accommodate her as a team member without forcing her to register. Sandra meanwhile had put herself to work trying to get to know the girl better without pushing her too much. - School giving any of you too much work?
Gabriela shook her head subtly in the background.
-Oh, I’m having a great time! It was a bit weird transferring to Future’s Promise, but I’m making friends already! - Said Mariama. Sandra was aware, or rather she’d witnessed Mariama “making friends” by very enthusiastically joining random conversations. She would probably be fine.
-I... - Giovanna stuttered. - I was actually having some issues with the, with the classes...
-Oh? What classes are you on, maybe I can help you with them.
-We can help too, if you want! - Came a voice from the other side of the lockers.
Sandra’s mood immediately soured, as Ellie and Dawn’s heads poked up from the side of the lockers. Ellie was a... childhood friend, of sorts. She had silver hair as well, normally worn in a braid whenever Sandra’s sister was around to get her hands on it, and somehow had grown much taller than Sandra despite being one year younger.
-We were just discussing homework, if you have any questions. - Added Dawn in her soft-spoken monotone. She was Ellie’s partner in the team, a red-haired girl and one of the tallest people Sandra had ever met. A somewhat childish part of her kind of wanted to ride on Dawn’s shoulders someday, our of curiosity, but she would never ever ask.
-Well, Dawn was helping me, anyway. I’m not that good of a student. - Added Ellie. Sandra raised an eyebrow at that.
-Last I saw your grades were doing pretty well.
-Eh, I still struggle quite a bit. Been needing Katia’s help quite often. - Ellie said with a sheepish smile, before turning to the newbies. - Oh, that’s Sandra’s sister, if you girls don’t know.
-You mean your girlfriend. - Said Dawn, poking Ellie with an elbow to tease her. Sandra could feel a vein pulsing on her forehead at that mention, and, to her chagrin, all three girls picked up on it. Both Giovanna and Gabriela raised their heads, and Mariama chirped in:
-Wait, your sister is dating Ellie?
-Yeah it’s, it’s a whole thing. - Sandra squeezed the words through clenched teeth, although Mariama missed it completely. So did Ellie:
-We started dating officially, like, a week or so ago, but we were already hanging out for a while before. Took us a while to get there, Sandra can confirm, but we got together in the end.
-I can see why, you’re very pretty! Uh, I mean, nevermind. - Mariama blushed at the unintentional flirt. Sandra, preferring to focus on anything, else, took notice of Ellie properly for the first time tonight.
Ellie wore... a shirt, yes, some kind of fancy long-sleeved blouse with a necklace on top and a knee-length skirt that Sandra could swear Ellie had told her the name for once, as well as stockings and these tiny, fancy-ass delicate-looking shoes with a slight heel to them. Sandra looked down to her combination of dark blue turtleneck sweater, grey jeans and sneakers, and wondered if Ellie felt anywhere near as comfortable as she did in her fancy whatevers. No, she didn’t really see how Ellie was all that pretty; fancy, certainly, but not pretty. She could definitely think of some prettier g-
-Anyways! Yes, Ellie is dating my sister, if it makes you all happy to know. They’ve known each other since we were kids and started dating now. - Said Sandra, prying her mind from that frying pan of a thought by hurling herself into the fire instead.
-Aw, that’s so sweet though! - Said Mariama, and even Giovanna nodded along.
-Well, really, I was friends with Sandra and Katia since-
-You’re annoyed at her. - Muttered Gabriela from her corner. Sandra flinched; Gabriela had just caught on to something, and Sandra immediately moved to correct her. She wasn’t the first, though:
-Wait, what, why would Sandra be annoyed at Katia for it?
-Katia? - Asked Sandra, caught off-guard a second time. - Why would I be mad at her?
-Who else would you be... wait, you’re mad at me?
-What? No! I’m not... - Behind them, the door to the HQ opened to let in Ryder, the team’s leader, accompanied by two other girls that Sandra recognized as being from Team Rescue. Sandra seized the opportunity. - Look, it’s nothing, ok? We’ll chat about this later, I need to talk to Ryder about something.
Barely had Sandra finished talking about this and she’d already left, hurrying her way toward Ryder like a drowning person at a lifeboat. Ryder had long black hair with some kind of starry effect, a result of magic deciding to go for the dramatic when giving her her powers. She was their leader and the oldest member of the team, which usually made her a pretty trustworthy person, provided one had something to talk to her about in the first place.
Sandra, however, had neglected that part when rushing out of the previous conversation.
-Oh hey, Sandra. Everything alright?
-Yeah, just... - She poked her brain for words. Soon enough, it returned with three different lines of thought: “Did you watch Mardi’s new movie Ivory”, “Are you dating Phoebe yet”, and “How was the weather outside”. Sandra flipped the bird at her brain. - Yeah sorry I don’t really have anything to say, I just wanted to back out of there.
Ryder looked over Sandra’s shoulder (not a particularly difficult task in and of itself) and a look of recognition came over her.
-Ah, Ellie. You two still having issues?
-Well, not issues, just... agh, I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong. It’s stupid.
Ryder raised an eyebrow. Her friend, a shorter but much wider and bulkier-looking girl Sandra couldn’t recall the name of, studied Sandra’s expression, which made her self-conscious of both her issues and her appearance. Suddenly she wondered if she’d set her hairbun properly earlier that day.
-Hey Logan, get yourself and Suzume a seat real quick, I’ll be with you in a bit. - Ryder motioned for Sandra to follow her and the two went up the stairs. - Tamara, go get yourself ready, I need to talk to Sandra about something personal.
-I don’t give two shits about her thing with Ellie. - Was the response, without even lifting her eyes from her comic book. - Y’all can talk about it however much you want, I won’t get involved.
Ryder looked back to Sandra, wordlessly asking if she was alright with this.
-Hey Tamara, do you want to keep a secret or would you rather not have to bother knowing it?
The gears inside Tamara’s head turned, weighing her desire to not be involved in drama against her curiosity, and immediately the former won out and Tamara stood up to leave.
-Impressive. - Chuckled Ryder.
-She’s not a complicated person once you work out what she’s like.
-Less complicated than Ellie, apparently. - She retorted.
-Agh, it’s just... I dunno, it’s weird. She’s weird. Whole situation is weird.
Sandra stopped, expecting Ryder to say something, but only got silence back.
-We just don’t get along, you know? I mean we try, politeness and all, but she just... bleh, I dunno.
-Do you want to get along?
-Yeah... maybe. I don’t know at this point. We haven’t talked properly for like two years now. And before you ask again, I already said, I don’t get why we stopped. - She lied. - It’s just complicated.
-A lot of things seem complicated right until they aren’t.
-You thanked the fortune cookie that told you that? - Sandra retorted. - Uh, sorry.
-Don’t worry about it. What about just now, why did you just leave the chat like that?
Sandra sighed.
-I suppose it’s like, Ellie’s acting as if we’re just back? Like we didn’t just spend two years without talking.
-Maybe she feels like it’s better to pretend you didn’t?
-Well I can’t just do that! Act like nothing’s wrong!
-Is something wrong?
Sandra stopped. She’d said too much, and clammed up in response, crossing her arms and propping herself up against the wall. After a moment, Ryder walked over and propped herself by Sandra’s side.
-Look, I’m not gonna pry into it or anything. If it’s not something you’re comfortable talking about that’s ok. But if you do have an issue, it’s definitely not gonna go away by pretending it’s not there, but it’s not gonna do that if you don’t talk about it either, you know? With her, I mean.
Sandra allowed herself to stew on that topic.
-Tell you what. - Said Ryder, after a minute of neither girl talking. - Why don’t I give you all something to distract yourselves with? Logan and I got involved in a thing and we could use the team’s help in sorting it out. Probably need the whole team for it. What do you say?
Hesitantly, Sandra dislodged herself from the wall and from her concerns.
-Alright, I’ll go get ready. Put my stuff away. - She said, pointing to the notepad she’d just realized she still held in her hand.
-You do that, I’m gonna bother Cyrus real quick and then put the team together for our meeting. See you in a bit?
Sandra nodded and proceeded down the stairs. Ellie and Dawn were still there talking to the newbies, helping Giovanna out with her homework while Mariama did her best to explain to a very uninterested Gabriela something about fish stomachs. With a sigh, Sandra walked past them and put her notepad, back inside her locker. She had been in a good mood earlier, and there was no reason to let anything spoil it. Things would work themselves out in time.
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She heard a noise outside.
This didn’t wake her up; for reasons she wasn’t fully sure about, she was unable to fall asleep while the Barrier was up outside. She’d been like this since... well, since she could remember. She’d spend most of the night sitting by the window, looking outside and letting her mind wander free, hoping this would bring her some sort of clarity before heading to bed when the Barrier lifted. Most nights, things would be quiet; occasionally a monster, magical girls walking the streets or jumping the rooftops, sometimes even a fight or two.
Never a noise, though.
Noises were bad; if there was a noise, then something wasn’t being covered by the Barrier, which meant either a Breach or just someone who forgot to lock a window. That’s what Sybil had said. What worried her more was that she couldn’t see the source of the noise from her window. She did have an idea of the direction, however.
As quietly as she could manage in her pjs and slippers, she walked out of her room and checked the windows on the lower floor. They all seemed fine and covered by the Barrier, though it was admittedly hard to tell for sure in the dark. Still, she was pretty sure the sound wasn’t coming from there, so she went down the stairs and into the kitchen.
There. A window at the back, by the door that lead to the backyard, was open by just a small bit, barely enough to be noticed but just enough to stop the Barrier from covering it. It’d gotten stuck again, but this time they’d missed it when closing everything for the night. Maybe this would finally convince Steve to fix that window already; she could probably convince him by asking him to show her how to do it.
Regardless, this was easily fixed... mostly. Unstucking the window was easy, she’d done it before. Just put your fingers in the gap, pull the window up just enough to get it moving again, then yank it to the side, and...
Immediately, the window moved, and she allowed it to slot back into place, closing it. But by then the damage was done. This was the problematic part: the Barrier simply wouldn’t cover the window now. It’d been open for too long. Which was a massive oversight on the part of whatever managed the Barrier, but it’s not like she knew what it was so she couldn’t exactly send a letter to complain.
Either way, she had an issue on her hands now. A window not covered by the Barrier would be like honey to monsters, and she wasn’t eager to find out what happened when a monster got to her. She definitely wasn’t intending on risking Sybil and Steve to find out. But this meant she had to wake both of them up, tell them what was going, find and fire the flare. Something about this churned her stomach and she couldn’t quite tell why.
Her hands ran over the now closed window as her brain probed itself, asking questions it didn’t know how to answer by searching for words it couldn’t quite find. There was something... a feeling, she was pretty sure. It was like... like chocolate. Like eating chocolate. When you eat a new bar of chocolate you never quite know what it tastes like, and yet you know exactly what it tastes like, because it’s chocolate. Made no sense in her head and yet it felt like the right simile: she hadn’t known before she opened the window and she hadn’t noticed until she’d closed it again, but there was a very weird feeling, this thing buzzing at the back of her skull. It might have been the thing that had been keeping her awake during Barrier hours all this time? No, no, that felt like something else. The thing with the window and the thing about the Barrier, the same thing as with waking Sybil and Steve up, they were different somehow. And yet she could swear they were connected...
She was distracted from her thoughts by another noise, and then a sight. Something flew past the window outside, quickly followed by a girl clad in yellow. This was perfect! If she could warn a magical girl then there was no need for a flare, and she could wake her- Sybil and Steve, she could wake them up without alarm. She just needed to get the girl’s attention.
So she moved towards the backyard door. She didn’t stop to analyze why she did that until she’d already done it, and by then the only thing she could do was follow her instinct and slam the door shut before she could be overcome.
Something, an absolutely massive and overpowering thing, overcame her senses to the point she shut down entirely while her brain processed this. It wasn’t pressing down on her, whatever it was, but it was certainly overwhelming. She felt... something? Somewhere? She’d never felt like this before, of this she was sure. There was no recognition, no muscle memory, nothing.
It was a large and vague feeling, a sense of... unease? No, it was like a need. Hunger was the first word to pop in her head, though it didn’t feel exactly like that either. Unable to reconcile reality with itself, her brain started throwing random ideas at the wall: was this what she’d been feeling when she looked out the window? It was definitely unsettling, she could tell you that much. She could barely tell if she was still outside her house right now, and yet...
Huh. She knew where she... wasn’t? There was something, a sense of... a location? It was like something was pulling...
-Hey, are you ok?
The voice snapped her out of it. It was the magical girl, now standing beside her and clearly worried. Right, yes, the magical girl. The whole reason she’d left the house just now. She tried mentioning the window but couldn’t find her words just yet, so she just pointed to it instead, realizing that she was both doubled over and also had her hair covering her whole face right now.
-Oh shoot, I see it. That’s going to need someone to keep an eye on it, definitely. - The girl said. - But listen, are you ok? My name’s Phoebe, I’m with Team Courier. I was taking care of a monster nearby and spotted you here, are you on your own or is your team nearby?
Her team? Oh right, the hair. Yeah, that made sense. She readjusted herself, propping her back on the house wall and brushing the hair off of her face to see the magical girl for the first time. “Phoebe of Team Courier” was a portly girl with dark skin and yellow hair, wearing a dress of whites and yellows with frills here and there. She seemed friendly enough, if clearly worried. Right now she was looking aside, calling out for someone else.
-Helen? I’m over here, there’s a house with a window that’s not covered by the Barrier! Could you get word to that team we were just talking with, they can probably keep an eye on this! - She said, to which Helen, wherever she was, shouted back an ok. - Alright cool, I can keep you company while...
She stopped.
For a moment their eyes met, and the girl could see herself reflected in Phoebe’s eyes; her baggy, second-hand pjs, her small and somewhat round face, her curling hair that had been growing to reach her shoulders lately, both it and her eyes in a bright and very obvious pink reflected off of the magical girl’s eyes as they grew almost twice their size in... no, not shock. Recognition.
-...Maddie?