Chapter Three

>> 2041

>> Continent: North America

>> Country: Old New York

>> City: Mega City New New York

>> 10:12am

I didn’t know what to think about the way the guys in Magic squad moved.

Titan took the lead, walking at a pace that was easy to keep up with, his rifle was butted up against his shoulder while pointing to the ground ahead of him. Mouse came in behind talking almost sideways so that she was facing his left, and C4 took up the rear. He had his big gun slung over his shoulder and was aiming a handgun to the right.

I was behind Mouse and in front of C4, feeling kind of awkwards with my Wand of .50cal in hand. I didn’t know where to point it, but it seemed like they were going through a lot of trouble not to point their guns at each other, so I tried to do the same.

The problem was, of course, that Magic squad moved like soldiers, all crouch-y and snappy movements and quick moves of their heads to look for trouble. I wasn’t a soldier though, I was a magical girl.

It felt wrong to skip after them though, and I was pretty sure my poofy dress was all wrong for the kind of movement they were doing, so I just walked behind them normally. Being shorter did mean that I was at about the same height with them, even as they walked at a crouch.

“Elevator,” Titan said with a quick forward swipe of his hand.

I blinked and leaned to the side to see ahead. The corridor we were in continued for a while, then stopped at the elevator. That was it. There wasn’t anything else to see, unless someone was really fascinated by overhead pipes and wires.

“This is the first level of the lock,” Mouse said as we came up to the elevator. Titan and C4 moved to the sides, pointing their guns towards the closed doors while Mouse crouched next to the panel with the up-down buttons.

“So, what’s the plan, then?” I asked.

“We, and my we I mean I, override the elevator controls. We drop down. This one only goes down to B4. We’ll have to cross over to a second elevator below to get to B6, which is our ultimate goal.”

I nodded along. This was supposed to be a simple walk in the park kind of mission.

Mouse undid some screws on the panel, then pulled it off and set it to the side. The backside was a dusty panel with a few wires and a small bus that Mouse rubbed with her thumb. She reached up to the big goggles she was wearing and pulled out a long cord that she plugged into it. The goggles lit up from within as she did some cool hacking stuff.

“Alright, elevator’s he--” Mouse began.

The doors slid open, and for a split second my heart leapt up into my throat.

There was a monster in the elevator. A model three! It was--

Titan and C4 opened up and the corridor filled with loud bangs. I flinched down and away, the noise was impossibly loud and there were flashes all over.

When I stopped flinching and opened one eye to see what was going on, I discovered a dead... no, not dead. It wasn’t alive to begin with.

What I’d taken as a model three was, in reality, a four-legged robot. It was... or had been before Titan and C4 opened up on it, a plastic and metal machine, about as tall as my hip. It lacked a head, but its back had a turret mounted onto it with several barrels sticking out of it.

“A security drone,” C4 said.

I noticed Titan looked at me. “Are you okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay,” I said.

“You sure?”

I nodded harder and tried to dampen down my blush. If that had been a model three, then I’d probably be a dead magical girl. I wasn’t prepared to fight it at all. I distracted myself by checking over my gear.

“I’m ready,” I said. I loosened my Ultra Kawaii Mark two personal flamethrower in its hidey spot, prepped my flying daggers, and then shifted my grip on my Wand of .50cal.

Titan nodded, and he turned back to the elevator. “Let’s turn this thing onto its side. It’ll give us some partial cover, at least. Mouse, do you think the AI knows we just took it out?”

“Very probable, but not guaranteed,” Mouse said. “The entire B2 to B8 area is one big faraday cage. It’s possible that it sent this one up autonomously.”

“Let’s not bet on it,” Titan said. “Chaff?”

“On it,” C4 said.

I watched as C4 started placing small square devices atop and alongside the interior of the elevator’s door. Titan, meanwhile, moved the drone onto its side and kicked it around some more, creating a sort of half-wall that we could use for cover.

Mouse slipped into the elevator last. We arranged ourselves facing the exit. C4 switched out his handgun for a big auto shotgun, and Titan took a moment to reload his rifle, then he laid it down atop the drone.

“One sec,” I said to the others before we could go on. I placed Chys onto the drone body where they turned around to face me. “Can I have ear protection? Something cute!”

‘Of course! Did you want something from your drawings?’ Chys asked.

“Yes please,” I said with a nod.

Chys spun around in another little circle, and between one spin and the next, a little box appeared. I grabbed it while glancing at a little display in the corner of my vision. My remaining points ticker was just under the time of day. I’d gone down six, which really wasn’t much.

Opening the box revealed a very cute little beret, done up in the same colours as my costume, with a floofy feather on it. It also had a headband of sorts, with two very discrete plugs on the end that were obviously meant to be shoved into my ears.

I put the beret and hair-band on, then plugged each earpiece in. I couldn’t hear a difference, but I imagined it would help with the loud bangs.

“Okay,” I said to the others. The entire squad was looking at me. My new hat must have been particularly fetching. “Let’s go kick that rogue AI’s butt!”

“Right,” Titan said. “Mouse, the elevator?”

“On it,” Mouse said.

A moment later the elevator clunked, the doors whispered shut, and we started down. I aimed my Wand of .50cal at the door, waiting with baited breath for it to open.

The elevator stopped. The doors opened. I knew, instantly, that there was trouble.

The hallway it opened up to was dark. Dark-dark, without even emergency lights on. The only light I picked up in that first split-second was a small green LED that moved to one side. Then C4 screamed. “Drones!”

There was a ‘bang’ from above as the little charges he’d placed around the door went off, and suddenly the dark was filled with small pieces of tinsel-like confetti raining out ahead of us.

The three soldiers opened fire, and this time their guns sounded no louder than someone saying ‘pow, pow’ at an elevated volume nearby.

In the muzzle flash, I was able to see what they were aiming at, then Chys came in, and my vision slowly improved as my AI companion did something with my Augs.

Three drones, same as the one we’d seen. Two turrets in the ceiling.

The soldiers were focusing fire on the nearest of the dog drones, so I pointed my wand at the one next to it. “Uwu! Uwu!” I shouted. The wand kicked in my hand a little, but it wasn’t so bad.

I turned my aim to the third dog, in the back. “Uwu!”

It folded, collapsing almost right away, so I brought my aim up towards the turrets even as one of them started firing our way. I felt movement whizzing by. “Uwu! Uwu!” I shouted, and the turret burst apart.

Then, with a final “Uwu!” I shot at the last turret, turning it into so much scrap.

We all paused for a moment after that. Mouse’s large-eyed helmet had a built in flashlight, and the boys had some lights on their rigging and guns too. It painted the image of a corridor filled with so much scrap.

“Nice... uh, shooting,” C4 said.

“Thanks!” I said.

I grabbed my wand by the middle, noting that it was warmer than usual, then I cracked it in half.

Six brass casings, each longer than my longest finger, clunked to the ground. “Once I reload, we should keep going,” I said.

***