Chapter 1:

Magnetic Moon

Moonspells


Morgan loved the moonlit nights best. It was as if she was on stage and the moon was lit just to shine on her as she transformed.

When other magical girls gave interviews they compared the way transformations felt to numerous mortal activities - but that was exactly it, she was anything but mortal during those moments. It was as if her heart beat in synch with the universe, she was invincible. Nothing could touch her. And she could have had the power to change anything about herself except these were the only moments she was sure nothing needed to be changed - she was the best version of herself already. When she would later transform back to her regular self and come down from the high she would force her brain to cling to this feeling as long as she could, to store it for the bad days.

As her shining purple hair fell on her back, Morgan allowed herself a moment of peace. She felt her bond with Luna pulsating in the background, as strong as ever. People got this wrong too, a familiar was not a pet you brought on missions with you for emotional support; the bond you had felt like a second heartbeat. On some days it was the only thing keeping her going, the only thing that got her out of bed at all. And she would never risk her health by bringing her out on missions.

Her serene moment was rudely interrupted by the static voice crackling in her bluetooth headset - magical girls could alter their appearance and their wardrobe as they pleased but unfortunaly it did not expand to technology. That’s where their sponsors came in. Things were not always this smooth, she remembered the first time they ever attempted to go out and fight - Another crackle cut in.

- Is everyone up and running?

Fine, if she can’t even monologue about the good old times, she might as well get to work and earn her paycheck. She stepped forward in her high heeled stiletto shoes and headed for the others.

- Morganite, checking in.

Magical girls never went out alone. Ever since the monsters appeared two years ago, there was no set rule to the attacks or any system to how new magical girls were chosen. Except for the groups - whenever someone awakened to their powers the others found their way to them. Some rare times, these were people who were friends and already knew each other, more often than that they were complete strangers. It wasn’t unheard of people being pulled together by the magic from different countries either. There were countless theories on how the groups were assigned, but in the end only one thing mattered: their desire to fight allowed each of them to awaken new powers.

Powers that came in handy in situations such as these: Morgan used a small bit of her magic and reached out to sense each of her teammate. She decided to join them by running through the rooftoops of the surrounding neighborhood. They were in the outskirts of town, lots of family houses lined by gardens.

- All right fam, the cameras are live in five. Let’s get this party started. - Melodie’s sirene voice chimed in her ears.

As Morgan jumped off from the last roof she turned her attention to the people already gathered in a small circle. Neil spotted her first, he saw Morgan’s entrance and rolled his eyes, turning his head away. It didn’t matter, it wasn’t his attention she tried to grab either way.

The group stood in a badly lit parking lot, but they didn’t notice the dark all that much. They were all glowing thanks to their magic as if they had their own personal suns. The three girls and Neil gathered around a tiny tablet.

Technically, they were all called magical girls. It didn’t mean they all had to be girls though. This was mainly thanks to the groups who first garnered the attention of media and some very early misinterpretations on who could receive the powers. Later on as groups emerged with several male, nonbinary or gender queer members some tried to lobby for a change but no one would have it. Morgan herself lobbied against the change. After all feminism was also built on the sacrafice of the first suffragettes and it stood for everyone’s equality - you wouldn’t be able to change the name without erasing their history either.

Melodie didn’t raise her head as Morgan walked to them, she was busy furiously swiping through her tablet as she went through the attack plan for the last time.

- Neil, you’re first in. The monsters are hiding out near the copse of trees. Tania, Devorah you’re next. There’s two for everyone to clean out. Make it look good. Morgan - oh, good you’re here. After you’re done you’re free to grab as many screen time. The cameras will focus on you and you can be as flashy as you want. Please keep the glitter to a minimum for the clean up group’s sake.

Morgan blushed slightly as their eyes briefly met and nodded with as much confidence as she could fake. She couldn’t focus too long on Melodie’s briefing - she wore her pink dress again, her hair was up in her signature double ponytail. It would have looked childish on anyone else, but she managed to make it attractive. She looked so good it physically hurt Morgan to look anywhere else. She glanced towards her hair - still wore her matching ribbons that Morgan brought her after their first mission. Maybe there was still hope for her.

Neil was never one for theatrics, he teleported for the first monster and sucker punched it. Before it even realized there was a threat it was nothing more than a crumble of dust. Two more turned towards him but Tania and Devorah were already there.

The monsters came first. It was barely spring, Morgan remembered she still shuffled around in her new winter jacket and wore the Martens boots she had been saving up for. She just headed out for work when the sun started to set, except it was still barely morning. The sun had no business disappearing when it barely just set over the horizin a few hours ago. Of course there were people who knew about the asteroids. Nasa tweeted it. People made memes and laughed and retweeted. No one expected this time we would be in any danger, just like we were in no danger the last hundred times an asteroid passed. There were so many meteors that headed towards Earth until changing course last minute, small ones that burned up when coming in contact with the athosmphere. Until this one, didn’t. The asteroids itself didn’t make a whole lot of damage. A few casualties, some buildings destroyed. It was not as bad as people feared. But then the monsters appeared. The people were helpless. No human was trained to fight beings that thinked like them, that were indesctructible by weapons. They looked a lot like earth animals and to this day, no one was fully able to say if they were animals changed by the meteorite or if they came with them. People were falling to prey to them and everyone grew desperate.

Desperate enough to change and the world celebrated them. Something awakened them. Maybe it was the meteorites, maybe it was the need to fight and protect others. First they were just local heroes then suddenly they were revered globally and the more the media turned to them like moths there was bigger and bigger need for them to appear more on screen. Now a lot of them were sponsored, civil agents. It was a thin line to navigate but their paychecks actually let them focus on training and fighting full time instead of slowly burning out next to their day jobs.

Using their powers was a lot like running a marathon. You had to train to have a stamina and you had to know your limits to actually hit your goal. Once you found the right balance though it left you feeling energized. Morgan has never been told before that she glowed, now it is was quite literal.

As the last monsters were dealt with Morgan swooped in, sparkling and magnificent and did some stunt for the camera. The others disliked this kind of attention but she didn’t mind, especially if she was getting paid for it.

-june-
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Taylor Victoria
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Joe Gold
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A.A.Androun
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Verson
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Moonspells


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