Naughty Magic - Chapter 23 - Marty Mart

Olivia

Eventually, classes ended - completely this time, and without any further run-ins with the magical girls. Hopefully they’d take that to mean the ‘Violet Queen’ wasn’t actually stationed there. Considering my luck, though? They were probably coming back.

Maybe I could convince Clarissa to collect some autographs for me…?

Are you paying attention to me?

“No, I’m not,” I grumbled.

I’m trying to come up with a plan for you!

“I thought the plan was for me to put on a big show as the Violet Queen, and then run away?”

Yeah, well, knowing the layout of the place will help you know how to escape if shit hits the fan!

“Why? You’re going to be quicker at figuring out where we need to go, either way. Are you saying I shouldn’t just rely on you?”

That’s not… I mean, you’re free to follow me, but I thought all of you were against blindly trusting me.

“I am. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate you being a literal supercomputer who can track viable escape routes way better than I ever could.”

That’s… fair, I suppose, but I still wish you’d put in a little effort!

“Can you please do the thing where you let Chrys talk?” Rachel pleaded. “The only thing worse than listening to you two bicker is not being able to follow said bickering because I can only hear one side.”\

“S-sorry,” I muttered, sheepishly.

“Don’t look at me for an apology - I’d talk out loud nonstop if Olivia actually let me!”

“Yeah, well, maybe… Alright, maybe I should let you talk more…”

“Wait, really?” Chrys asked.

“I mean, I do feel kinda bad about cutting you off from the world, now that you bring it up like that… You should be able to talk if you want to. As long as you keep quiet and don’t get me in trouble when there’s anybody else around.”

“You got it!” Chrys replied. There was a happiness in her voice I wasn’t used to hearing. Which… actually made me feel a little worse. I probably should have done this sooner.

“Can you stop getting lost in your head for two seconds?” Rachel asked, exasperated. “We’re already here…”

I blinked, then looked around. I hadn’t even noticed the car had stopped, but… here we were, parked in front of the big Marty Mart’s downtown. Which…

“Why are we at a supermarket?” I asked. “Isn’t that liable to attract a lot of civilians?”

“It’s not like your goo actually hurts organics,” Rachel reminded me. “Just… make sure to keep all the damage restricted to store property, okay?”

“That’s… a really weird thing to say, but I think I get what you mean?” I replied, admittedly uncertain. “Couldn’t we just do this in front of a bunch of skyscrapers, filled with CEOs?”

“And potentially bring a whole skyscraper down because you ate the base of the building?” Rachel countered. “I mean, you just know some corpo or another cheaped out on the coating of at least some of the buildings we have. Not to mention the fact that Violet can get pretty blasty with her wand, and it’s not as easy to block  her magic as your ooze…”

“Right… but a supermarket? Doesn’t that sort of seem…”

“Villainous?” Rachel asked. “You’re the villain, ‘Violet Queen.’”

“Wow… She’s harsher than me,” Chrys murmured.

“I just think you need to actually consider things a bit more,” Rachel huffed.

“Or you’re jealous because you noticed Olivia hanging out with another girl.”

“That’s…” I saw Rachel’s cheeks tinge. “It’s not like we’re going out or anything, okay? So what do I even have to be jealous about? Plus, I’m poly, so… anyways, just… Go out and do the thing, okay? Make a ruckus.”

“A-alright,” I stuttered out, still a little dazed by the implication that Rachel might actually be into me… No way, right?

What did she mean by ‘poly’ anyway?

Focus, Olivia! Chrys chided me. You can worry about Rachel’s feelings later. Right now, you need to duck down between the cars and change. I’ll black out all the cameras around here, as a little precursor.

“R-Right… Thanks,” I managed to mutter, ducking down. My clothes dissolved into ooze as my skin shifted to violet, only to resolidify as a dark purple gown that flowed around my legs. It wasn’t exactly practical for combat, and I’d probably have to change it out later, but when I thought about how the intent was to create an impression… Well, that’s just what came to mind.

“Should I just start… I don’t know, dissolving people’s cars?” I asked, sliding under one to rise between two others. If anyone was recording the area they’d likely be able to piece my identity together, still, but that didn’t mean I needed to make it easy for them.

Not unless you see a particularly rich looking one Chrys replied, back to speaking in my head now that nobody else was around to hear her. Otherwise you’ll just stay up all night wondering if they had ooze insurance, right?

“Well… Yeah. But  I am supposed to be the villain…”

Just go into the store and make a mess of things there, then. People will probably freak out, but it’s not like you’ll be causing any actual harm.

“I guess that works…” Marty Mart was part of a huge chain, so they could probably afford the damage? They’d definitely have ooze insurance, at the very least. Though usually ooze was too dumb to enter buildings, to begin with. Not to mention that most people were smart enough to lock the doors when they saw an ooze rain coming…

Thankfully, that didn’t seem like it would be a problem for me all considering. The parking lot wasn’t entirely abandoned, but most of the people who saw me were content to just whisper amongst themselves and point over creating a proper alarm.

‘Why aren’t they screaming, anyhow?’ I asked Chrys, going for the mental approach now that I was more aware of all the eyes on me. Didn’t need anyone taking a recording of the big bad Violet Queen talking to herself.

Word of you hasn’t spread that far, she replied. Most of them seem to think you’re just doing some sort of distasteful cosplay. A few are mocking you for thinking it's Halloween… and the few who are trying to look you up have found that their phones aren’t working quite right.

‘You’re messing with their phones?’ I asked. ‘Don’t we want people to know I’m here?’

Well, sure, but not until you’ve made your big entrance! I mean, you do realize the other crystals are online, like, all the time, right? The moment someone posts a picture of you the Hearts will be alerted - and if they’re too close… Well, they could completely ruin your big entrance!

‘…Right…’ My big entrance. That was… important, I guess, even if it wasn’t something I was particularly looking forward to. I mean, sure, it wasn’t my first public appearance, but my brief showing in the night club hadn’t caused much of a splash.

Except for in some conspiracy forums. Also the local art community - a local artist drew up a horny version of the town horror, and it’s been spreading pretty quickly.

“Wait, what?” I demanded, forgetting to keep to mental communication. “Also, can you stop reading my mind like that? Like, outside of when I’m sending you shit? It’s creepy.”

How am I supposed to know when to read your mind if I’m not already reading it? Chrys countered. Not to mention the fact that it’s my only entertainment while you sit through class.

‘…And the art? How come you never told me about that?’

Because you’d freak for no reason, of course! And because it’s good passive income.

‘Wait, you mean I’m getting powered up by it?’

Sorta? You’re not really strong enough to be collecting tribute at any sort of distance, but sometimes you wander near a bored classmate who’s looking things up on their phone, and…. Well, let’s just say every little bit helps, yeah?

‘…Right…” I… probably didn’t wanna know who was looking me up, did I?

Probably not. But come on! The doors are right in front of us! It’s time for our big show!

I blinked, then realized I’d still been walking while thinking, and was now directly in front of the glass doors. ‘Right. Time to put on a show…’

***

Rachel

***

Watching Olivia walk through the parking lot was surprisingly entertaining. She was obviously talking to Chrys - not that I could see her mouth moving, but the way she shifted her posture and occasionally faltered mid-step said a lot. I hoped she wasn’t actually moving her mouth, as well, but… honestly, just her expressions were going to give it away for most people.

Thankfully, the few people scattered in the parking lot weren’t really the ones Olivia needed to impress. Not if she did the obvious thing, and actually went inside the store, anyway. I just hoped she was up to doing something big enough to seize the shopper’s intentions. Otherwise she’d just end up a minor distraction to the coupon clutching grannies and the bargain hunting moms and such.

If things went well, though, it was only a matter of time before the Hearts showed up. Violet, Red, and White…

I didn’t want to admit it, but I sort of missed them. Violet was always picking fights, but it was obvious that she cared about her teammates. Red often had something freshly baked to share, and White… White tried her hardest to make us act like a proper team, but really we were just a ragtag group of loosely strung together individuals, only bound together by our desire to make the world a better place.

…Their desire. I… wasn’t one of them anymore. Which was probably for the best, if even half of what Chrys claimed was true… I mean, I still didn’t know what sort of mental blocks she’d put on me, or if any of them were still active. Honestly? I was scared to ask. Knowing what Red got up to when hers were shattered, was… Yeah. I wasn’t in a hurry to find out if I had a side like that hidden away.

Then again, if Chrys and Olivia had their way, all those mental blocks would probably end up shattered… Which was probably for the best? I mean, Red definitely needed some serious therapy she wasn’t getting right now, but… well, hopefully Olivia had some sort of plan for how to get her into therapy after she succeeded in breaking her free or whatever.

…She probably didn’t have a plan, did she? She’d probably never even thought of figuring up a plan. Not because she was a bad person, but… she didn’t have a personal connection to the others. To her, Red was just the one who’d locked her up. To me, she was the one who provided fresh baked cookies and comforted me when I wanted to cry… The team mom, who was always there for you when things got bad.

The fact that some part of her maybe wanted to lock me up in a basement and force that care on me - at best - was… scary to think about… but someone had to think about it.

Someone had to plot what would come next…

Maybe I could talk to Chrys about it?

~~~

Author's Notes

It's a bit shorter than I'd like, but considering the fact that I had to blast my way through some serious writer's block to get here I'm pretty happy with it?

I wasn't expecting to do Rachel's PoV - it mostly came about because I wanted to do a scene change for Olivia's big entrance, and it didn't make sense to do so unless I had something in between.... I'm glad I did it, though? I learned some things about Rachel through it, and was able to lay a few plans for the future as a result...

Not that many plans, mind you. This started as a series for me to turn my brain off and write, and I'd prefer to keep to that for the most part... but still! PLANS! KINDA! (...Actually, it's mostly just 'now I know more about what role Rachel will play.')

Either way, I do hope you enjoy! Gonna try to work on Double Trouble next so I can finish a chapter before Weds.