Here it was, the big day. The day you and your partner would be sent out to protect the city in case of monster invasion.  For now though, you had school and you had ust arrived at the school gates. The rest of your colourful classmates swarming around you as well.
This message was last updated by the GM at 07:59, Mon 13 July 2020.

It felt weird, going to a school.  Any kind of school.  Meg wasn't sure how she'd fit in at all, and then there was the issue of her past... How would these students react to one of the Freed?  Probably not that well... Well, she'd see.  She was supposed to have a partner here.  Maybe that should work out.

She walked to where her locker ought to be, her shadow forming spiderwebs as she went.

Lori walked confidently into the school, saying hello to friends and acquaintances.

"Hey, Meg," she said.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:18, Tue 14 July 2020.

"Hey," said Meg.  She still wasn't entirely comfortable with her partner; it was too easy to think she was being judged, even when there was no reason to believe that.

"So, uh," she said.  "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Lori said. "I tried to get to sleep early last night so I'd be rested, but I was too keyed up."

"I hear you," said Meg.  "I have problems sleeping sometimes, too.  Uh.  I guess this is it,  huh?  The big time?  Do you have any goals for this year?"

"I guess I don't want things to change too much?" Lori said. "I'm hoping this will be like sports, and people will root for me to do well."

"Cool," said Meg.  "...that would be nice.  I hope I don't drag you down too much."

"Nah, it should be fine," Lori said. "People root for the team, after all."

"I hope you're right," said Meg.  "You deserve to be recognized."

Lori gave Meg a sideways look. "Don't you think you do, too?"

Meg gave a wry smile.

"...that's what my problem generally is.  Getting recognized."

"Ah," Lori said. "Well, let's say appreciated, then."

"I hope that happens," said Meg.  "...well, that's not why I'm doing this, though, so in the end, whatever.  I'll still be there helping."

The bell began to ring.

"And off we go," Lori said.

"Yep," said Meg.  Okay, Meg.  Keep it cool.  You can handle this.  It's going to be OK.

She ran off to class.

As you arrived in classroom, your teacher was waiting for you. She was a woman dressed in a pantsuit with her blonde hair in a bun.

"Take your seats, please," she said.

Lori took her seat by the window.

Meg sat next to her.  One side covered by a definite friend was good.

"Now class," the teacher said. "My name is Ms. Green and your morning class will be normal school classes and those in the afternoon will be focused on magical girl training. This is English class, please take out your assigned novel and we will begin readings..."

Eventually time passed and after math class was lunch.

"Well, let's get going," said Meg.  She was hoping that she could buy a lunch, or something-- she wasn't clear how it worked at this school.

"Sure," Lori said. "Hey, where's the cafeteria?" she asked the nearest student.

"Head left out of the class and keep going. It'll be on the right," a girl said.

She was right. It was a very large cafeteria with plenty of tables. Today it seems it was a variety of pasta and salads.

"That is a bizarre combo of no-carb and high-carb eating," Meg observed.  She set out to get both.  Live dangerously.  Eat different kinds of food.

Lori's meal was more restrained. "I don't know if I still need to keep up my training diet, but it can't hurt," she said.

Most of the tables were already taken. You can see one that is mostly open, just a pair of girls sitting at it.

Well, that was pretty obvious.  Meg went to sit down at it with her pasta and salad.

"Hey," Lori said to the girls, sitting next to Meg.

"Hi, I'm Mary and this is Shauna," the girl said indicating her friend. "Are you guys newbies too?"

"Well... I've got a little bit of experience," said Meg.  "Uh, I'm Meg, and this is Lori."

"That's cool," Mary said and looked over to Shauna who was signing something. "Oh, it seems we're really close in the areas we've been assigned. That's cool."

"Oh, cool," said Meg.  "We should work together when we can."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:48, Mon 10 Aug 2020.

"We're a couple areas over. i'd still like to be friends though, if we could," Mary said.

"Sounds good to me," Lori said. "We should exchange numbers."

"Sounds good," said Meg.  She hesitated, awkwardly.  "There's, uh, something that you should know about me, though.  I don't want it to be a surprise."

"What's that?" Mary asked.

"I've been doing this for a little while," said Meg.  "...but not on your side.  I used to follow the bloody full moon."

"Oh," Mary said and then Shauna signed something to her. "It's not a big deal, I mean, we're all following the same one now, right?"

"Oh, yeah," said Meg.  "Absolutely.  But, y'know... I couldn't hide that from you."

"So, any tips you can give us?" Lori asked.

"Oh no, we haven't gone out yet," Mary said.

"Oh, right, you mentioned," Lori said, knuckling herself in the forehead. "Well, we can trade tips once we've been out."

"I hope so, I'm really nervous, but Shauna is more confident," Mary said.

"The other lady doesn't have the exact same tactics, but I can give some pointers," said Meg.  "A big one is: Stick together.  Separating people from their support is a big part of their MO."

"Okay, that's useful, thanks," Mary said.

"Good to know," Lori said. "Keep up the team spirit.  Speaking of which, we should think about a team name."

"What kinds of names are popular?" Meg pondered.  "What other teams are big out there right now?"

"There's the Star Guardians,, but I mean, that's obvious," Mary said. "We haven't thought up one for ourselves yet."

"Not sure how Aqua Regia and Onyx Aranea fit together," Lori mused. "Aranea is a kind of spider, right?"

"Oh, yes," said Meg.  "Spiders are what I do."

Shauna signed something.

"Black and Blue?" Mary translated. "I don't have anything to offer. You only need to worry when you make it big, right?"

"I'd think so," said Meg.  "Something may come up after we've worked together a bit."

"Makes sense," Lori said.

"So do we want to meet up after school to practice together?" Meg asked.

"Sure, sounds good," Lori said.

"How about for you two?" Meg asked.

"Sure, if the alarm doesn't go," Mary said and Shauna nodded.

"That's a given," said Meg.  "If that happens, well, we get to practice anyway, but the hard way..."

"Sounds like an anxiety dream," Lori said. "Like taking the midterm before you've been to class."

"You have to do what you have to do," Mary said. "No one said it'd be easy, but I wish it was."

"Well, working together will make it easier," said Meg.  "Teamwork was always the greatest strength of the light, whoever that is."

"You're right about that," Mary said.

"We should plan to do other things together besides training," Lori said. "Doing activities with the track team did a lot to help us bond as a unit."

"That's a good idea," said Meg.  "I haven't really had a normal life... what kinds of things do people do?"

"Hang out at the shopping centre?" Mary offered.

"I can handle that," said Meg.

"Maybe this weekend, then," Lori said.

"Sure, that works," said Meg.

"Can we come?" Mary asked.

"Fine with me," Lori said, looking at Meg.

"Of course!" said Meg.  "We should be working together right away.  We might to plan around our strengths, though... I can use webs to create barriers, for example."

"I make bombs and Shaun can teleport people," Mary said.

"I control water, and slide into things," Lori said.

"We can probably use some of that," said Meg.  "Trapping enemies where bombs can go, for example."

"Yeah; the two of us should work on team maneuvers, too," Lori said. "I can herd into your webs with my powers, probably."

"I'm sure we could work something out," Mary said. "This is much better than working alone."

"Yes," said Meg.  "Let's practice as soon as we can.  Don't want to accidentally catch an ally with a web."

That was when an alarm began to sound.

"Guess that's our cue," said Meg.  "Let's go!"

Lori took off.

When you get outside the school, you see several girls lined up and getting in the emergency trolleys. Teachers were out there, helping to make sure girls got on the right ones.

Meg headed for whatever was nearest, trusting teachers to direct her as needed.

Lori followed.

You both got on the same trolley, followed by May and Shauna.

"So, excited? Nervous?" Lori asked Meg. "Both?"

"...Nervous, more than anything," said Meg.  "But it's about time that I did this, so there's not really time to let myself get slowed down by worry."

"It shouldn't be long now," May said, her and Shauna managed to get the seats behind you two.

Meg waited, tense and alert.

Eventually the trolley came to your stop and the four of you exited.

"We should probably transform before we head out," May said.

"Makes sense," Lori said.  She held up her right arm and exclaimed "Aqua Regia!" A wavy shimmer flowed down around her body, and when it disappeared she was wearing an athletic top, shorts, and headband in a light blue color.

"Onyx Aranea," said Meg, and spiders seemed to come from everywhere around her, crawling, leaving trails of light, and then scuttling into shadows and vanishing, leaving a spun costume around her.

May began to spin around in place like a ballet dancer and soon was in a green and red frilly costume that matched her hair and she paused as some bright golden bands appeared around her wrist and a large satchel around her shoulder.

Shauna pose with both her arms out and a leather jacket appeared around her, before moving to a different one and a punkish outfit appeared on the rest of her body, with the shirt having an Anarchy symbol on it.

"All right," said Meg, as spiders piled under her feet and rose her into the air.  "Let's go."

As the group went to their designated spot, it seems you had a small plateau and a small forest next to it.

"...all right," said Meg.  "Let's do this."

She slid forward, borne by spiders, and began to look around.

Lori shot forward as well, gliding as if on a water slide.

You can hear noises coming from the forest. They almost seemed animal-like, but there was something off about it.

"That's our trouble spot, probably," said Meg.  She slid in that direction.

Lori followed.

The others followed as well.

Inside the woods, you see several black birds sitting in the trees that go quiet when you approach.

"Any ideas?" Lori said. "Attack, or hold off?"

"Go forward, be watchful, but let them make the first move," said Meg.  "I can't tell where the real threat is, and this could be a lure."

As soon as you both moved closer, the birds took to the air, letting you see that there were places on their bodies that was missing flesh. They began to swoop.

(OOC: Initiative time)

5

In reply to Meg Wilson (msg # 105):

[OOC:  Lori Morris rolled 5 using d6+d6 ((3,2)).]

(OOC: Both of the PCs may go first.)

Meg slashed out with her arm, and a swarm of spiders formed of strange energy shot out at a bird!

21:07, Today: Meg Wilson rolled 9 using d8+d6 ((5,4)).

Lori propelled her baton from her hand with a jet of water, trying to hit a couple of the birds from the air.

[OOC:  Lori Morris rolled 2 using 2d6 ((1,1)).  Spending a hero point to reroll: Lori Morris rolled 8 using 2d6 ((2,6)).]

Two of the birds went down as your new partners attacked. The explosion caused a bunch of coloured smoke to stream out. The birds flew closer to attack.

(OOC: Two attacks at each of you, For UJ, defend against a 4 and 3 and for Doug, it's two 3's)

5 and 7

With sudden speed, Meg dodged the attacks.

[OOC: 5 and 8.]

Lori smoothly slid around the attacks.

May let out a cry as one of the birds scratched up her shoulder.

(OOC: Go)

Lori swung around, catching her baton and propelling it at another bird.

[OOC:  Lori Morris rolled 6 using 2d6 ((3,3)).]

Meg winced at May's cry, but for now, the best approach was to bring down the enemy, so again scuttling spiderwebs shot out!

12!

(OOC: Need some damage rolls now.)

9

9

The bird creatures fell to the ground and slowly dissolved into purple dust and disappeared.

"Are you okay, May?" Lori asked.

"Yeah, it's  not a deep cut," May said.

"Let's get it bandaged, and see what else is here," said Meg.

"Okay," May said as she waited for some help.

Meg bandaged her arm as best she could.

"I'll check the perimeter," Lori said, skating out to the edge of the clearing.

There was a dark figure off in the distance getting closer and closer.

"Incoming!" Lori shouted, pulling back to the group.

"On it," said Meg, getting up and getting ready to create a barrier to slow it down when it got close enough.

It appeared to be a massive, mutated deer.

Meg tried to create a barrier.  Letting it charge would clearly be a mistake.

The barrier was up.

Lori launched her baton at it.

[OOC:  Lori Morris rolled 5 using 2d6 ((1,4)).]

The deer-thing crashed into the barrier and then the attack connected.

(OOC: Roll damage.)

[OOC:  Lori Morris rolled 8 using d6+d8 ((6,2)).]