My First Mission

I awaken in the early morning to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I assume it has to be Miss Gretchen coming to get me for the mission, but that wouldn't make much sense as she said we'd leave after the morning mission.
I climb out of bed and make my way over to my door. Opening it I see it isn't Miss Gretchen but actually a newly bandaged Tikki. I haven't seen her since she was taken away for medical treatment two days ago, I'm happy to see she's already back up and walking. She honestly doesn't even appear that much more bandaged than how I remember, perhaps that's sad to think she was so badly injured already that any more battle damage leaves her looking relatively the same.
I wave a hello to her, she smiles and holds something out towards me. "Morning Sophia! Sorry if I woke you but I wanted to bring you this right away!" She places a skinny cardboard tube out towards me, placing it into my hands. "Open it up, I think you're going to be quite excited to see it!"
I do as she asks and pop the top off the tube, I slide out a small rolled up poster and begin unrolling it in my hands. I'm taken aback as the image flattens to see our faces are on the poster! I'm right there next to Claire, Marcia, and Tikki with big letters below us reading The Coven Bred Guardians.
"Can you believe it!?" Tikki grins, "Bet you didn't think there would be any merch of us so quickly, did ya!"
Looking at the image of us I am hit with the realization I don't recognize the photo. As in I don't recall when this possibly could have been taken? I want to ask Tikki about it but I need my whiteboard. I hold up a finger to ask her to wait and I retrieve my whiteboard, writing down my concern. "WHEN DID WE TAKE THIS PHOTO?"
She looks at the image again, "We might not have? MGI could have used some editing and made this group shot out of multiple photos of each of us." She looked back at the image, "Yeah, that's totally gotta be what it is. Like look at Clarice's body, her shoulders and arms at least aren't hers." She pointed at Clarice who was pictured next to me with her hands resting behind her back, King barely poking out on the other side next to her thigh "No way King would ever let her put him upside down and in such an undignified position. Totally gotta be someone else's arms and hands with a photo edited King slapped on."
I scribble onto my white board, "WOW THE MANAGEMENT TEAM OF MGI IS RUTHLESS."
Tikki shrugged, "They're professionals after all, they probably have a few team members dedicated to making each group look good. But they can go way overboard way too often if you ask me."
I tilt my head acquiescently. Tikki fidgets with a bandage on her left hand picking at it. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring up random beef I've got with the marketing team, I'm sure they're all good folks just doing their best." I felt slightly disappointed she wasn't going to tell me what she was alluding to. "But-" I couldn't contain a grin at that word. She noticed and paused, fidgeting more than suddenly stopping with a deep breath. "Basically I'm a little annoyed that management allowed the marketing team to do this uh- well a calendar but a sexy one! Sorta, kinda."
She seems energetic and I nod along. "Basically Holly just turned 16 as far as public persona is concerned and suddenly everyone on Elemental Guardian Vontavia is over 16 so marketing decides to do this beach calendar! twelve months, two solo pages each plus four group shots of everyone in skimpy swimsuits and practically frolicking on the beach. What sort of people are they trying to appeal to? I have a hard time believing their core audience of middle school and high school girls are demanding to see the team like that! It's gotta be a disgusting bid at appealing to male teens through middle aged!"
I hold up my board with "Lesbians?" written on it.
"They're a minority! And still that would be them trying to appeal to a sexual attraction angle! I just don't like it! The group defends our homes from the forces of evil Spawn, not some sort of idol to place sexual fantasies on!
"WOULDN'T ALL THE GIRLS HAVE HAD TO AGREE FOR THE CALENDER TO GO THROUGH?" I write on my board.
Tikki huffed. "Yeah they might have agreed to it, but that doesn't mean they completely understood what sort of people would be buying this sort of thing!"
"DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD TRUST THEM TO MANAGE THEIR OWN IMAGES? SURELY THEY UNDERSTOOD WHEN THEY PUT SWIMSUITS ON THAT THESE IMAGES WOULD BE SEEN BY ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE?"
Tikki clicked her tongue, "I mean, sure. But I just don't feel like they understand the severity of their choices." She sighed again, "I'll probably end up writing my old teammates a letter letting them know about my concerns."
"THAT SOUNDS QUITE NICE OF YOU. HAPPY YOU KEEP IN TOUCH."
"Mhm." Tikki nodded. "Any who, I'll catch you at the morning meeting in a few." With that she walked off leaving me to get ready for the day. I go into my closet and select the day's jumper skirt. I pull off my pajamas and toss them onto my bed, then I locate where I tossed my bra from yesterday and put it back on. Once I had everything on I just needed socks, I decided on some black stockings for the day. I made sure to take my pill from my vanity, then I slipped on my flats and was officially ready to start the day! Before heading out the door I grabbed my bag with my whiteboard, can't ever forget that! 
I headed down the hall and pressed the button for the elevator. The elevator arrived and I stepped inside as the doors parted. Being in the elevator again brings back memories of yesterday and meeting D'Claire-na. What an odd series of events, it left me with a good number of things to think about. She seemed to have control of the elevator, and claims to know everything that goes on in our office, I wonder if she can see me now? The doors open again and I shake my head forgetting it. Entering back into the meeting area I can see everyone but Clarice is here.
"Morning Soph! Excited for today?" Marcia greeted, grinning ear to ear in high spirits.
I nod giving her a smile of my own as I take a seat beside her. I wave a greeting to Tikki again as well, she smiles and greets me in return. Miss Gretchen seems as uninterested in our small talk as usual. Clarice with King on her hand arrives a few minutes later, they enter the room already having a discussion of their own. From what I catch of the tail end of their conversation it would seem it's topic was the poster from this morning, mostly Clarice giving excuses for why King was so hidden. They seem to drop it or put the conversation on pause when Clarice takes her seat among us, focusing their attention on Miss Gretchen for the morning meeting.
Miss Gretchen rises from her seat and addresses us, "Morning girls, I hope you slept well because some of us here have some work to be doing today." She looked at me and Marcia. "And others of us got a whole plate full of nothing to enjoy for today's activity, though I don't imagine I'll hear any complaints." She looked at Tikki and Clarice. "Does anyone have anything they feel they need to report to the group?"
We all glance at one another, it would seem the group has no topics to discuss today. "Very well then." Miss Gretchen clasped her hands together, stretching them. "Sophia, Marcia, let's roll."
Miss Gretchen leads us back onto the elevator, taking us to the garage. We climb into the back of her car and head off to wherever it is she is taking us. I had wondered if Marcia would take the passenger seat and was pleasantly surprised to see her choose to sit with me in the back seat instead. We drive along twisting roads, leaving the town and entering onto the larger highway. Marcia hand lowers on to mine, I look over at her to see if she wants something but she doesn't say anything. Her hand rests on top of mine as the drive continues, I don't have a reason to pull away, but I do wonder what was going on in her mind. I'm happy to provide any comfort to her if that's why she took my hand.
We eventually enter another town and before we know it we are pulling into a very similar parking garage to the one in our office. It becomes pretty clear right away whatever this mission entails it will be happening at another MGI office. Gretchen pulls the car into a parking spot and puts the car in park. Marcia climbs up to her feet letting go of my hand with a yawn, climbing out of the car as I follow her. Gretchen doesn't say anything to us as she leads us into a familiar type of elevator, I begin to wonder at what point are we going to find out why we are here. Perhaps the moment we run into someone more caring who isn't Miss Gretchen.
The elevator doors part and we step out into a hall just like the one in our building leading to the dorm rooms. We follow Gretchen down the hall and reach the center of the commons area between the rooms, it is clear this building is still under construction as we can see missing doors on three of the four rooms. I hadn't really noticed till now but the carpet was also missing, as well as any decor. Someone steps out from one of the incomplete rooms, "Ah, you've arrived!"
A man approached us wearing the familiar white coat that adorns a MGI doctor. He had hair a bit longer than I would expect for a doctor, a hint of purple tones to it as well. He greeted Miss Gretchen first, shaking her hand and introducing himself. Then he turned to Marcia and I, "And you two must be my helpful Magical Helpers today!" He held his hand out for a handshake but then seemed to take that back returning his hand to his pocket before I could even try to meet it. "I'm Doctor Tret, and I welcome you to the future home of the Magical Girl protectors for Magnolia County." He spun his free hand around in the air, "And please pardon our dust, construction is unfortunately not quite complete yet."
"It's nice to meet you." Marcia spoke up, "I'm Marcia, and this here is Soph. She's a mute so I do hope you can pardon her needing you to read her whiteboard when she has things to say." I was happy to be introduced, it is nice to be included.
"Wonderful." He smiled. "Glad to make both of your acquaintances. Now, for today's task which we called you here for, have you had any briefing?"
I shook my head. "We haven't heard a thing actually." Marcia said. Doctor Tret looked to see Gretchen and cast a judging glance, but she had snuck away for a smoke at some point while we were all distracted. "That's totally fine then, let me catch you up to speed with our current situation."
He guided us over to the only room with a door on it. "In here is this office's first and so far only Magical Girl at the moment, Madeline. She is notably one of the youngest Magical Girls ever recorded since MGI began their operations at only eight years old." Marcia seemed quite surprised to hear this giving a visual reaction, I don't know enough to really judge how crazy her age is. Doctor Tret continues, "She was moved here to the office ahead of schedule due to some issues she was having back at the lab."
"What sorts of issues?" Marcia asked. "It would probably be adjustment issues, yeah?" She asked.
Doctor Tret scratched at his neck, "So you are familiar with this sort of issue, I can see why they picked you to come. Ah, yes, Madeline has severe issues with adjusting to her new self and life."
Marcia sighed with an almost annoyed look on her face. "That's not uncommon with Magical Girls created at too young of an age, that's practically common knowledge at this point. So the question is why did they make this girl a Magical Girl? Most experts are gonna tell you to burn the cocoon and forget about any sort of fantasy of this child being anything different from the past ones, so what happened here?"
 Doctor Tret flinched, he didn't seem so prepared to have to deal with someone who had knowledge on this niche topic of interest. "Well, there were a number of factors which led to the decision to go forward with providing the Magical Girl formula to this particular cocoon, I wouldn't be able to list all of them here. Perhaps-"
"Am I right in assuming this area has had a new Elementary school built in the last two years or so?" Marcia interrupted.
"Ah uh, what? I don't think I know what you mean, uh-"
Marcia pinched her nose, "Sorry let me ask more directly then, this town has a huge influx of upcoming elementary school aged children who would provide a valuable market share for MGI if they could hook them with a girl appealing closer to their age range?"
I was surprised to hear something so cold sounding coming from Marcia, surely MGI wasn't going against their own findings just in the hope of making more money off a new town! "That is correct.. But there are other factors besides that!" Doctor Tret croaked.
Marica let out a big sigh, "It's cool, I've seen it before. You get a cute Magical Girl who feels relatable to the youngest demographic, hook them on Magical Girls real young. Heck, even have your young Magical Girl be invested in revitalizing the town which MGI just happens to hold significant land rights in which will shoot up in value as the town becomes cleaner and more families want to live there. I know how this sort of gamble MGI tries to play, only problem is I wanna guess your darling Magical Girl isn't so ready to play ball?"
Doctor Tret squirmed slightly, "Right again. That's why we asked for some Magical Girls to come out and talk to her, help her adjust to her new life and help put an end to any self destructive tendencies."
I raise an eyebrow but Marcia is still right on top of him with questioning. "Destructive tendencies? Has she harmed anyone, or is she only hurting herself?"
"...Both." Doctor Tret sighs. "Just one doctor who tried to comfort her, that's what got her moved out here to the office early. Well, that and she was pretty fixated on breaking out of her room at the lab building and some people were concerned about what she would do once free."
"Hm." Marcia nodded, "Yeah I think I got the picture, let us see what we can do." She grabbed my hand pulling me, "Come on Soph, we've got a new friend to make." She smiled at me in a way that gave me some hope she knew what we needed to do. Doctor Tret seemed happy to be free from Marcia's interrogation. Before we enter Madeline's bedroom I stop Marcia and quickly write down my remaining questions. "SO WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH YOUNG KIDS NOT ADJUSTING? I FELT PANICKED AT FIRST BUT THAT WENT AWAY AS I ADJUSTED AND KEPT TAKING MY PILLS, IS IT NOT THE SAME?"
Marcia read my question over. "Unfortunately there is something different in the brain chemistry of kids prior to becoming teens. Something in there resists our meds and is able to cling to former memories better than we can. They say kids' minds are like sponges so maybe that? Or perhaps with less life experience brings a deeper grip on what they do have. Point is they really fight to resist accepting this new life, so we gotta smooth things over in a way doctors just can't do. We are the same mostly, MGI clearly hopes we can relate enough for Madeline to give up on ever returning to who they were before."
"WHAT A SAD JOB TO GIVE US.." I hold up. She gives me a pained smirk, "Yeah no kidding. But if she's self harming then convincing her is really what is best for her then." I nod, at the very least we can help them not despair so much that they try to hurt themself.
We approach the door ready to do our best to help however we can.