Maho Shojo no Yoso!

Becky was shaking a little as the last of the electrical current left her body and water dripped off, fortunately when she ended her transformation she was dry and clean, a convenient feature to be sure.
"Heh... Yeah, and this one was way worse too!"
She replied with a grin, apparently not hurt.

Fenn seemed vaguely confused now that she had a moment to think, then slightly angry.
"That creep..."
She mumbled.
"Ahh... Well I guess... I've got the power... I should use it, but we clearly need practice".
 
Kelly dropped her transformation, too, as the adrenaline of a fight wore off and she started breathing heavily. "That's one thing about your powers that I wish I had, Beck. You take a licking and keep right on ticking. And as for you, Fenn, that had to be rough, but at least we've got you on our team now. I can already see some ways in which we can get our powers to work together, and once we spend enough time training, we should be able to pick up on each other's tells and plan off that."

"The way I see things, right now we can either go back to the café and ask some more questions, or we can try to find this magic market that Crystal was talking about. Up to you."
 
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Becky grinned proudly at she at least saw as praise.
"Heh... Yup! Though I could already do that... Well maybe not with lightning, but even before magic I was no pushover".
She boasted.

Fenn herself nodded.
"Yeah... That was pretty crazy... I thought my family's magic stopped at grandpa... But I guess that creepy boy knew somehow..."
She didn't elaborate beyond that until the magic market was mentioned.
"If that's what it sounds like it could be crawling with guys like that who wanna take that crystal right?".
 
Kelly almost missed what Fenn had said. Almost. "Wait... your grandfather has magic? What kind? Is he still alive? Forget the market- if we can talk to him, we definitely should." That was the best lead she had so far; it would be stupid not to take advantage.
 
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Fenn shook her head sadly.
"He... Vanished, over a month ago, I was trying to find him when I ran into that creep, he said he knew my grandfather and I believed him, next thing I know I'm hanging on his every word... He was weirdly interested in my clothes".
She explained.
"And as for his magic... It was all complicated rituals and things... He always promised to teach me one day..."
 
"Okay, that's going to make it a lot harder to talk to him." Kelly groaned- why on Earth couldn't anything about this magic business be easy? "Fenn, I think you should take over the lead for us. You probably know more about magic than both Becky and I combined- we just thought it was something for fantasy novels this time last week. Our choices look the same to me- the café or the market."

"Oh, and don't worry about that creep- next time he shows up, we'll clean his clock."
 
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Fenn seemed surprised by that suggestion, after all they'd just met her, well sort of, Becky knew her as the school's best swimmer or the quiet kid who hung out at the school's small pond.
"Hey I'm not exactly an expert! I just know what grandpa told me... Like how dangerous the market is... If we did go there though, you'd best leave that behind, people seem to want it".
She pointed at the crystal.
 
"I'm sorry, Fenn. I didn't mean to pressure you." Kelly thought for a minute. "How about this- we try to use Crystal here like a radar dish to pinpoint the entrance to the market. When she's able to tell us, we leave her at one of our houses and go in. From there, well, we play it by ear. We at least have some numbers, if nothing else. You two good with that?"
 
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"That sounds like a reasonable plan".
The crystal spoke up first, apparently pleased at their decision.
"If you want to know the location of a market... Hmm, I think I can remember now... The used book store down reddington alley, go to the shelf against the east wall and swap around the top left and bottom right books".
Well, that was precise... So they knew where to go at least.

Fenn and Becky both nodded their agreement, with Becky offering to hide it in her house, with two brothers and her the only girl, she had a strong lock on the door.
 
"And we have our plan. Let's put it into action."

The trio continued down to the used book store. It was a real dump, the kind of place one would look at and wonder how the hell it stayed in business. Then again, if the market was indeed there, they probably had a fair few customers from the other side. Kelly looked at the bookshelf Crystal had mentioned, feeling a bizarre sort of energy. "We're here- is this the place?"
 
"Yes... I can sense the doorway from here... They're not even trying to hide it, though I suppose you would need magic to find it so no normal people would know..."
Well it looked like it was the right place at least!
"Make sure to hide me before opening it... I think you already have the gate keeper's curiosity..."
If they looked they would catch the old man at the counter staring at them, and not in a normal curious way.
 
Kelly nodded, then stepped out with her new friends and looked at Becky, noting the fact that the man at the counter was giving them a more than creepy stare. "Alright, step one done. Now to drop off Crystal. Becky, your house is close by, right?"
 
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Becky nodded and pulled a lazy salute.
"Yup! Just down the road".
She answered, accepting the crystal to run it home, heading off at a sprint.
While waiting Fenn spoke up.
"I can't believe you two have magic... Uhh, no offense, but you never showed any signs, and I thought I was pretty good at sensing magic..."
A little later Becky would return, having changed into a dress.
"Uhh... Sorry for the wait... I told mom I was hanging with some friends and she insisted I change..."
 
"I only found out when I bumped into Crystal yesterday, so maybe that did something." At that moment, Becky returned, and Kelly's eyebrows looked like they were trying to escape her forehead.

"Oh my god. She really thought you needed a dress?" Shaking her head, Kelly returned to the bookshelf with the gate. Switching the books as Crystal had told her to, the magical girl waited for something to happen, keeping an eye on the store owner the whole time.
 
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Fenn merely raised an eyebrow at Becky's appearance, after a tantrum on the first day of school, Becky had let it be known she hated skirts and dresses, and would much rather run around in shorts and a tee, still though, with there likely being no other option, she had made the great sacrifice of wearing a pretty floral dress to aid her friends.
"Yeah... My mom's cool and all but... Got kinda excited that I have female friends..."
Upon switching the books nothing happened for a moment, until the man at the counter walked to the door and locked it, and the bookcase slid away to reveal a narrow winding passage.
"Knock four times and I'll let you back out".
The old man declared, before deciding to ignore them.

The passage would go on nearly five minutes before it came out into a bustling street filled with people of all sizes and shapes, and was that the history teacher that just vanished?
The whole place was clearly underground, lit up by lamps and lights hanging from the buildings, as well as many small lights floating in the air above them.
 
Kelly and the rest of the group continued down a hall that seemed like it went forever, before finally opening up to the market proper. The magical girl looked around at all the people, some of whom were clearly not even human. She tried to pick out someplace to go, but it was all so new, and so overwhelming. Becky and Fenn were going to have to take the lead, and Kelly would just need to adapt to the situation.
 
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Becky was equally stunned trying to take it all in, there was so much to see and it was so COOL! Not to mention she had no idea where to go, though after a rather large man nearly bowled her over it became obvious that just standing around was no good.
Fortunately Fenn managed to recover and led them down a small, mostly empty alleyway to talk.
"Wow... Grandfather always described it as busy and exotic... But this is amazing... Though uhh, I figure we need a plan of attack so to speak? What exactly should we do here?..."
 
Kelly thought for a minute. "I've got a couple of ideas. First is potions. Stuff we can carry and take quick, in case we're trying to set up an ambush or something. Second thing is any sort of power amplifiers. Keep an eye out for something that can make Becky even stronger and faster, or with elemental connections for Fenn and I. But the one thing we need first... is directions."

She went up to a blue-skinned woman. "Excuse me, ma'am, but I'm lost. Can you direct me to a potion seller?"
 
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"Umm... I have no idea what any of that would look like... And I highly doubt we could actually afford any of it..."
Fenn admitted, her grandfather had never taught her about anything like that! Or how to recognize artefacts and potions... The best she could do was vaguely say if something was magical or not.

The woman snorted before answering.
"You girls really wanna take a chance on something like that? Well, your life I guess but good luck finding anyone selling openly..."
She told them before wandering off... Just in time to show the boy from before heading down a side street.
 
Kelly pointed out the boy who had done the enthralling spell on Fenn. This situation just went from awkward to flat-out deadly. "There's our old friend," she said in a low whisper. "I don't want to fight him with all these people around, especially if we're going to be the ones to throw the first punch. We'll look like the bad guys. But it only reinforces the fact that we need to stay alert and ready to turn on our powers in a split second." With that, Kelly headed down the main thoroughfare, pointedly avoiding their adversary as she took a closer look at the wares for sale.
 
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