Chapter 27 - Rebellious Meeting_Magical Girl Platinum

Hi readers. So that we’re on the same page, I’m time jumping over all the monotony and work. Instead, I’m skipping to when we started making real moves. That’s what prompted me to write this.

To that end, we’re skipping to when I was nearly fourteen years old. For all the number crunchers out there, I’m going to tell you that I hit level ten and got boosts on some of my stuff.

Current Level 10 Current XP 79.43% Current Max Mana 7341.48 Regen per minute 12.24 Reputation 1000

Tier Skill Cost Tier 10 User Time Dilation (Haste)

- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.

- Force transference limited to 12.5%. 2 mana per earth second. Tier 6 Pocket Dimension

- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.

- Rapid stash and rapid draw.

- You may tether objects to your pocket space.

- Your pocket space preserves items inside. 32 mana Tier 6 Time Stop

- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.

- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.

- You may summon in willing living creatures.

- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage. 200 mana to cast.

Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 6 Teleport.

- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.

- You may cast this on an unwilling creature if they are within ten meters.

- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.

200 mana for the caster.

400 mana for a willing creature.

1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.

- Short range casts cost less mana.

Tier 3 Attire Swap

- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.

- Attire cleaned on swap.

- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body

-Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.

- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.

- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 1 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana. Tier 1 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast. 1 mana for each additional minute.

Now, let’s journey back to this summer…

~~~

June 17, 493 U.C.

Rain drizzled on the windows outside. I looked out into the night. Glancing back at my desk, I sighed at it and all the work. I picked up my buzzing phone. The desire to chuck it out the window was growing.

Raptor: Possible impromptu Seeding within twenty-four hours.

With a huff of annoyance, I sent my hair flying. Then I straightened my dress and sniffed my hands. Yuck! I raced to the bathroom and rinsed off the smell of fish.

After a nice scrub, I darted to the kitchen and looked at Dad. “Ready?”

Dad adjusted his mask. “Ready.”

I teleported him. Then I did the same for myself, appearing in a cement basement. The basement was dim and gross. A funk lingered in the air. There were rusty pipes on the walls; grime, slime, and mold decorated the pipes.

A ring of chairs sat in the center of it all. I huffed at my old metal thing. “Can we swap seats?” I asked, prodding it with my foot.

“Quiet,” Dad said irritably and took his seat.

Like some vampire fan club, our goth group gathered in a circle. Everyone had a code name. Since Dad didn’t trust me with them, I made up my own.

A man lit a cigarette while a rat squeaked. That needs to go. I used Haste. Everything around me struggled to move. Walking forward, I ripped the cigarette out of his hand, dropped it, and ground it out. Then I returned to my seat and dropped Haste.

“What the hell, Viper?” Cigarette asked as he looked at the smoldering, stomped cigarette remains on the floor.

I smiled at him. “Some of us value our health.”

“Does she need to be here?” Worm asked.

Dad took a deep breath and massaged his brow. I assumed he was red with anger, but I couldn’t see it given the mask.

“Quiet down,” Raptor said. He turned to me. “Progress report. Let’s start with Viper.”

Dad looked up. “She’s level eight. She delivered the last batch of enchanted gear. We made a few alterations to the potion to try to reduce fae side effects, but they weren’t effective. That was apparent.”

“Still eight?” Raptor frowned at me. “That’s very slow.”

I nodded. “Yes, sorry. I’m focused on the supplies,” I lied and looked away. Like I’m telling them my real level.

“Exposure is still needed, correct?” Slug asked. Like her namesake, she was slow on the uptake.

Dad sighed. “Yes. That is needed.”

Raptor coughed, drawing attention back to him. It went quiet. Then he continued. “What about new spells, Viper?”

“Nope,” I replied. “I’m hoping to get new ones.”

“Political progress?” Raptor asked, turning to the person next to him.

“A few are at war again,” the noble, Pony, replied. “We managed to pull in an ally on Starb. We are trying to get Vuln.”

“Lean on it,” Raptor said. “What of fae relations?”

“They are very strained,” Pony replied. “Most dislike how the guardians remain under their control. Several are trying to win favorites. Viper, be ready in case we need you for defense. I’ll admit that we’ve said it for months, but we will cease paying the guardians soon.”

I shook my head and threw up my hands in exasperation at that request. “I have to use my mana for the other projects. There is a real chance I don’t have mana. I mean that. I am spending it constantly to awaken people and make things. You have awakened soldiers. Use them.”

“True,” Raptor said. “Keep her in the loop if you think she’ll need to help with something large. Are the fae pushing back?”

“Not currently. Now is the ideal time,” Pony replied. He flicked his long mane of black hair.

“Push that too,” Raptor said with a nod. “Viper, we’ll need more armaments for them.”

I sighed and stopped myself from yelling. That had been the expectation for months. It was a lot of work. The pay wasn’t good either. I decided to bring that up. “There is the matter of pay-”

“Viper!” Dad barked. “Don’t. I trusted you to behave.”

“What? I’m doing so much work! I need some spending money!” I scowled at Dad.

“Behave!” Dad snapped back.

“You will be compensated when we have taken over. It will be more than sufficient,” Raptor said sternly. “Now, what other details do we need to know?”

Starfish spoke up, pushing her white wig back. “Do we have additional plans for advancing? My progress is slower than I’d like.”

Worm nodded. “Viper could -”

“No!” I exclaimed, launching out of my chair. “I’m not being a babysitter for hundreds or thousands of people. I cannot help that many. Stop bringing it up. Defend things, move to Vuln, join the military, or sneak into a tower. I cannot spend mana on that.” Huffing, I crossed my arms and sat again.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Raptor sighed and looked at me. “Viper, I expect progress on that by the end of the year. We need it sped up.”

That’s impossible, I thought. That demand annoyed me greatly. I had nothing to go on. How was I supposed to do that? I hadn’t made a spell, potion, or enchantment without some help. And I was certain that I wouldn’t find some secret fae recipe on it.

My annoyance grew while they went into detail about supplies, progress, potential allies, and anything else they wanted. It was like watching my chore list grow in real-time. Lousy ingrates. They’ve had magic for a year! Why can’t they do it? In growing fury, I enacted my plan to distance myself from Platinum.

Using Time Stop, everything around me stopped moving. The rat was in the corner listening to us. The smoker was reaching for another cigarette. The rest were focused on the task at hand. Of course, now they were all just frozen there.

While they were busy being a painting, I began looking through my pocket dimension. It was a bit of a mess. Cleaning takes time. You know how it goes. I reached down and got blood on my hands.

Ew! Need to clean. Where’s my holo-drone? I know it’s in here. Not that. Not that. No, that’s the weapon box. Ah ha!

I pulled out a small drone with some high-tech baked-in. Then I began hitting buttons, swapping holograms to one with bleached-blonde hair, blue eyes, a small nose, and my current outfit. With that selected, I placed it back into spacetime. My image flickered into existence. With my double in place, I smiled. That would buy me the time I needed.

With a bit of focus, I moved myself into a library on Earth. Pulling off my current necklace, my body shifted back to normal. I didn’t stay in it long, placing my fake Platinum amulet on.

I shifted again. My nose grew, my ears shrunk, and I got some human curves. Then I used a spell. My attire swapped, changing to the black, white, and silver outfit.

Grabbing a mirror, I removed my goth makeup. After verifying my appearance in a little mirror, I glanced back to spacetime. It was fuzzy due to the distance. I didn’t see a lot of detail. Ensuring I wasn’t inside of something, I released the spell, popping into the library next to a distinguished-looking man with silver hair.

The older gentleman next to me did not take my sudden appearance in stride. “What?” he yelped, staggering away with his hand on his chest.

My fingers began dancing on the desk in front of me while everyone nearby looked up. Several stared. Some pulled out phones. A twelve-year-old girl in jeans and a pink shirt squealed, reaching an octave reserved for annoying Dad. Given that we were in a library, that got the attention of everyone.

“Quiet,” a librarian said sternly in response. Then she stared at me.

“Platinum Princess!” the girl gushed with a giddy bounce. Her ponytail trembled as excitement rippled through her body.

“Hello,” I replied while looking back at the desk. Then I saw the perfect target. It was in some state called Montana. It appeared some coyotes had set up some territory. Then they’d managed to get enough mana to mutate. Now there were fifty of the things and they were big. Several were more like glowing wolves. It was perfect.

The girl approached me with an outstretched paper and an open-mouthed smile. “Can I get your autograph, Platinum? Please?”

I pulled out a stamp and stamped it. Then I smiled at her. You have to smile if you are being heroic. “Have a great day!”

“No. You aren’t…” someone started to say as they called the police.

With a twirl, my skirt flared. I used Teleport and appeared in the middle of nowhere. Using Haste, I surveyed the area. There was sagebrush all around. The grass was dead. It did smell nice. Then I frowned at the weed floating in the air. Oh, wind.

Ignoring the high-speed wind and debris, I jogged up the small foothill while considering using Time Stop again. It would speed this up. Luckily for me, I saw them from the top of the hill.

Teleporting, I jogged up to the nearest coyote. It was drooling in a rather gross manner. The liquid was hanging there, slowly oozing down. It had a strange look on its face like it was going to sneeze. Reaching into my pocket dimension, I pulled out two hatchets. Wielding one in each hand, I fed magic into them. They began glowing. Then I moved forward to the coyote that still hadn’t finished its sneeze.

I used a hatchet to deliver a strong blow to its head. It crumpled while blood splashed out. With the grace and reflexes of a cat, I leapt back to avoid the splash-zone. Then I turned to my next target.

Chopping, I smashed into the next. It broke through bone, sending out gory shrapnel. Dodging, I avoided the mess and headed to the next.

I’ll be honest, the poor animals struggled greatly to deal with me. Most animals don’t get speed boosts. It destroyed any sense of real danger. My biggest concern was ensuring that I didn’t get blood on myself. That would ruin the doppelgänger plan.

A coyote started howling. I chopped it. Then I made my way through the pack while the boredom built. It took seven earth seconds to finish my work. After collecting mana crystals, I stood there and willed the mana into myself. It usually took ten seconds to make its way to me. Having a torrent of it stream into me in the basement would have been a giveaway.

Finishing that, I used Time Stop and reverted my appearance to my villainous look. Then I had to put on my makeup which was a real pain. Finally, I pulled the holo-drone out of normal spacetime and put myself back in it, appearing on my hard chair.

“- and we need to ensure that the Walton family falls out of power.”

I crossed my legs and feigned knowing what they were talking about. It was probably boring anyway. Seeing the smoker lift the cigarette for his first drag, I scowled. Then I used haste, walked over, and stomped the cigarette, turning it into a ground mess on the floor.

Returning to my seat, I sighed and dropped Haste.

“God damn it, Viper,” Cigarette muttered.

“I’m not breathing that,” I replied. “And you are supposed to have your mask on.”

A phone buzzed. “There is another Platinum sighting,” Worm said.

“You have an internet device in here?” another replied.

Porcupine poked me, jabbing a gnarled finger into my side.

“Don’t poke me!” I poked them back.

“I did tell you that she wasn’t Platinum,” Dad said.

“We need to hunt her down,” Raptor said. “She could give additional data. We need to know about any who self-awaken.” He frowned and turned back. “What other lords are going to cause problems?”

That was when I tuned out again. I was tempted to go make another experience run. Instead, I pulled out a book and started reading. That got interrupted since someone wanted to check. Their bony finger hit my ribs.

“Poke me again, and you’ll regret it,” I hissed at my neighbor. They responded by reaching forward with their horrible finger.

“That’s it.” I used Haste, raced over, and grabbed the rat. Then I raced back and dumped it on their lap. They screamed and jumped up. The rat ran off back towards the corner.

“Go home, Viper. I’ll update you,” Dad said in a nasty tone.

I scowled at Porcupine. They’d started it.

Raptor nodded. “Viper, focus on supplies. We’ll get you the list. You are dismissed.”

I teleported back to my room. It was largely occupied by things for the aforementioned requests. I ignored all of it, walking to my closet.

After swapping amulets, I changed and put in my ocular computer. Then I meandered to the kitchen and raided the fridge. I made myself a sandwich heavy with mustard and started eating while looking out the windows. That’s when I noticed people outside. I poked my head out and saw a girl who looked my age. A massive grin spread across my face.

I walked outside and into the shared corridor between houses and waved at her. She had tight black curls and brown eyes. She was also tall and looked my age.

I waved at her. “Hi.”

“Hi, I’m Daniele,” the girl said with a smile.

“I’m Casey. We live in building five. That’s my dad and me. It’s nice to meet you. Are you enjoying it? Are you moving here? Why?” Then I slapped my hand over my mouth to force myself to stop talking.

Daniele giggled. “We want to acclimate. There are also rumors that Platinum got her power by living here.”

“I see. I hope you get magic.”

“Thanks. How do you like it here? It burns a lot,” Daniele said sadly.

“Sorry. You’ll get used to it. I promise you that. – Oh! Hi. I didn’t see you.” I waved at a woman behind Daniele. You could see the family resemblance. She was hauling in something.

“That’s my mom, Denise Drake,” Daniele said. “They’re doctors.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Drake. I’m Casey Erikson.”

“Hello.” The doctor smiled and headed inside.

“It’s nice to meet you. I need to go help,” Daniele said.

“You too. May - Maybe we could hang out sometime?” I rapidly spewed out.

“Sounds fun. See you, Casey.”

I waved and then walked home. That was promising. I could make a friend. I shut the door and glanced around the room. We had the standard furniture and computer on the wall. That was it. Dad still hadn’t put up decorations. I thought about doing it but opted to get some me time instead. I headed to my room. At least I could have a few minutes before Dad put me back to work on all the chores.