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Chapter Five
“Alice, you have less than one minute until Overclock passes the point of no return.”
I jerked awake and sat upright. Blood had pooled around Overclock while I was out, forming a slick spot on the tiles, and her skin was pale and cold. The pain in my stomach and throat was a dull background roar to James’s posh voice as he continued. “There should be three items on the floor in front of you. The first is a hypercoagulant.”
“A what?”
“It makes blood clot fast. Pull your blazer off Overclock’s shoulder and spray it all in her wound! Quick!”
I grabbed the can and tore the lid off it. It looked like an Easy-Cheese can, with a nozzle on top and a picture of cartoon blood cells stopping for a traffic cop on the can. QuikClot Mk. 3, by CalWestTech, licensed to SHOCKS was written below the picture.
I tore the blood-soaked jacket off the unconscious Overclock’s shoulder and tapped the nozzle with my thumb. Easy-Cheese went everywhere. Pink Easy-Cheese. Wherever it touched blood, it expanded, quickly covering the shoulder wound. And my jacket. And my gown. And the floor.
“Okay, done. What do I do next?”
“Next is the small red tube on the right. It’s a bone marrow stimulator. Take the top off. There should be two spikes about half an inch long. You need to stab it as hard as you can into her thigh or stomach. Your choice. When you’ve done that, push the button on top and leave it in her for a few minutes.”
HemoTonic by CalWestTech, licensed to SHOCKS, was a plain red container that barely fit in my hand. When I pulled off the plastic lid, inside were two vicious-looking needles far too thick to be normal medical grade. Overclock jerked suddenly as I jammed the device into her thigh. I pushed the button and watched as a little timer popped up.
“How long ‘till it’s done?” James’s voice cut in.
“Two minutes, twenty four seconds.”
“Okay, the QuikClot should keep her stabilized as that kicks in. Last item. It’s a vapor spray for you. It’ll help your body adapt to your new organs. Take a puff every hour or so for the next day, and two sprays right now. Don’t wake up to puff, just puff when you wake up.”
I dutifully sprayed the inhaler into my mouth, then breathed deep. The pain started to subside, and I sat back down next to where Overclock lay with a sigh of relief.
“I imagine you have a lot of questions. Please save them for later. I need to bring you up to speed on the basics.” James’s voice in my ears reminded me that even though I’d saved Overclock for now, there was plenty of chance to ruin that before we got to the shelter.
Still, I had one burning question. “How did you shift from a western United States accent to an English one so fast and so well?”
James laughed. I could hear the stress bleeding off in his voice. “That’s the question I have to delay my explanation for? Okay, I pulled your profile as soon as I realized Overclock was out. It said you liked those cheesy 2020s British history dramas, so I downloaded an Oxford accent pack. Easy enough.”
I gave the air a look, eyes narrowed, and got back to my feet. “I have a profile, huh? And you used it to make sure I’d like you?” My voice raised in pitch and volume. Boys were so stupid!
“Alice, two things. First, the Sanctuary/Haven Operative Control and Knowledge School profiles every Operator and every Magical Girl. The profile was generated by AI a minute after you started talking to me. It’s standard protocol for Operators to help make their assigned Girls feel more comfortable, especially during an emergency enrollment.” James sounded nervous, and the posh accent slipped again for a word or two. “Second, we really don’t have time to argue about it right now.”
The HemoTonic pack chose that moment to ding at me. I reached down and grabbed the red tube, jerking it out of Overclock’s leg and tossing it into the trash. The whole school was going to need a serious cleaning, but some habits die hard. “Okay, we’ll table this for now, but I want to see my profile when all this is over, James.”
“Of course, of course.” I picked up the faint sound of typing. “Your whole profile will take time to go over, and Overclock should wake up soon, but I can show you your status block if you’d like?”
“Yes, you do that.” I put my hands on my hips and turned my nose up at the imagined James-spot. A moment later, a block of text popped into my left eye’s view.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Basics
Name: Pendleton, Alice (ALIAS UNCHOSEN)
Level: 1
Class: _____
Color: White
Mana: 3/50
HP: 11/35
Statistics
Str: 3
Agi: 3
Vit: 5
Will: 10
Soul: 9
Points: 0
Sigils: _
Rank: _
Skills
Perk: UNKNOWN
Mana Surge: UNKNOWN
Operator: James (Firefox)
“Huh. Weird.”
“We should cover just the basics for now,” James said. “But first… can I please keep the accent?”
“Whatever makes you happy.”
“If tone could kill, I’d be dead.” James chuckled. I flushed scarlet. As much as I hated to admit, hearing a laugh that wasn’t me breaking down was nice, even if it was a voice in my head. “So, name is obvious; that’s you. You’ll need to pick an Alias when you have some downtime, but that’s low priority. If anyone asks before you pick one, go with Maiden Voyage. It’s the default unnamed Alias for emergency enrollments.
“It’s helpful to think of this as a video game stat screen. Right now, you’re level one. The mana in your body and the Sanctuary will ‘level you up’ as you help people, destroy Macks, and stop Emergence events. You’ll get a class at level 10 based on what you’ve done up until that point, and that’s when girls usually get their colors too. It can happen earlier, though.”
“Okay.” I looked over the basics boxes. “Color? So there’s something to all the speculation Sora and I did online?” Thinking about Sora brought me to the verge of tears, and I blinked rapidly. The status box poofed out of existence. “Hey! James, bring back that box!”
“Of course!” A few keystrokes later, the box appeared again. “You can just subvocalize ‘status box’ at your augment. It’s been upgraded, courtesy of moi. Yeah, the colors are just about what the internet thinks they are. There’s a little more than that Yellows are supports or Reds are strikers, but it’s accurate enough for civilians and it doesn't give away the 'why' a Pink is a healer. Whites aren’t specialized yet - it’s pretty rare to be anything but a White before level 10.”
“My health is low because I broke my nose, cut my hands, and got some organs replaced, but why do I not have any mana?”
“Oh, uh, that’s my fault,” James said, and I glared at the spot I imagined he was at again. “You started at 0. Your stats give you better regeneration than I expected, and a nice total pool when you’re full, but I had to use a bit of your mana to buy healing items for you and Overclock. Speaking of which, you can ask me for any item you’d like, and it’ll appear next to you as long as you have the mana to create it.”
“That’s really cool! Get me a dark blue backpack, three zipper pouches and a waist strap. Padding on the back for comfort, please.”
“Uh, okay, but if you fall below 0 mana, exhaustion protocols kick in. It makes everything harder, and most of the toughness you get just for being a Magical Girl goes away. So maybe don’t spend mana on everything you want.”
The backpack shimmered into existence and a point of mana disappeared. I felt it as an empty feeling above my belly button. I picked the pack up, inspecting it, but it looked just like a standard school pack. Throwing it on, it was clear that all the straps had been adjusted perfectly for me and the pads were all in just the right places. “Maybe you using my profile isn’t all bad. Just don’t abuse it, okay?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it! Check on Overclock for me - she should be almost up.” James’s tone shifted, growing more worried and less teacherly. I nodded and turned toward the wounded Magical Girl.
Other than being virtually covered in pink Easy-Cheese, which wasn’t doing her hair any favors, Overclock looked a lot better than she had ten minutes ago. The jagged wound where her arm should have been was completely sealed in a several-inch-thick layer of foam, and her skin had some of its natural color back. I touched her side gently, making her flinch, and her eyes opened.
“Hey…kid. Alice. Help me up again. Gotta get you to…safety.” She rolled onto her back, wincing as her head bounced off the stall behind her.
“You have to tell her you enrolled. She needs to know so she doesn’t kill herself trying to save you.” James’s voice murmured in my ear, low and quiet.
I nodded, swallowed nervously, and put my arms on my hips. Then, I stared the other girl in the eye, shoulders squared off. “No ma’am. The tables have turned! I’m Magical Girl Maiden Voyage, and I’m going to save you!”
“Not like that!” James muttered in my ear. I could hear his second-hand embarrassment. “Definitely not like that.”
I stood there, cheeks burning and held my pose, waiting for Overclock to say something. Anything. She grinned, then snorted. Then, she took in the pink Easy-Cheese everywhere and the brand-new backpack. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and then widened in abject horror. I looked behind me, hoping there wasn’t a machine. My gaze jerked back to Overclock as she murmured, “He didn’t do accents for you, did he? That little shit!”