Mahou Madness!

"Hehe... Yeah! It was mostly desert and rain forest there, though we did have cities too ya know..."
She declared, defending her country of origin, even if she DID like Japan vastly more than Australia.

"Uwahh... I get REALLY Air sick... We had to take a boat here because I couldn't handle the plane... Well, maybe a jet will be better!"
Luca sounded hopeful as they boarded, once they were strapped in the craft would begin take off, they didn't want to waste any time it seemed.
 
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Namiko raised her brow. Well, that would be quite a problem. These were, after all, jets, and extremely fast ones at that, even though they didn't feel quite their speed. "Well, perhaps they have some Dramamine on board. Don't worry; like I said, it's not as bad as it seems, and definitely not as much as it should be."

They were seated in two small seats in the center of the jet. They had few luxuries, but anyways they wouldn't need them; they'd brought their own devices. And anyhow they'd be there before they could really settle in. Namiko looked outside until, finally, the jet started to move - slowly at first, gaining speed, and then the pavement seemed to melt away under them and they found themselves zooming through and past clouds, out above the open sea.
 
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The trip seemed to be going well at first, with Luca focusing on reading some novel or other on a kindle, but soon she started looking very clearly sick, and looking out the window only worsened things, quite drastically in fact!
Though just as it seemed like time to get the barf bags, she seemed to get an idea, and Namiko would feel a sudden small flow of energy before Luca seemed alright again, and very proud of herself right then.

"Hehe!~ Magic is so great! I didn't think that weird enactment stuff would work for this... But It was worth a shot anyway, and it DID work!"
She seemed unwilling, or maybe unable, to explain exactly how she had used magic to combat motion sickness.
 
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Luca's initial reaction was quite worrying. She was about to raid the plane for medication, but when she looked back Luca seemed...fine. She'd apparently used magic. Exactly how she went about this was unclear. Magic worked in mysterious ways.

"Well, I'm glad it won't be a problem," she said genially. She leaned back in her chair and grabbed her DS. "What else did you bring, by the way? Didn't bring much myself."
 
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"Umm... Well I brought my kindle... And my phone... And my wallet... Uhh, should I have brought more?"
She asked, sounding worried, they were going to be there for at least a day, possibly two or more! And while she was certainly happy to wear her uniform, it was possible it might get dirty, or even worse... Torn!

The plane would arrival in a few more hours, having already gained permission to land in a far less private airport than they had taken off from, they would need to go through regular checks, since they were there as a normal couple on a trip after all... Their pilot also had to leave right away, Orphan didn't have many of those jets so he likely had to go on another run as soon as the tank was full.
 
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"No, that's all good," Namiko said. "We won't be there for very long, anyways."

After a couple hours the plane landed in a public airport. After bidding farewell to the pilot they were immediately herded into the prerequisite fascistic bovine lines of airports all around, though truncated due to the lack of luggage to pick up. Namiko glanced with pity at the people waiting around the conveyors and looking for their bags as they passed.

After going through metal detectors and such a scrawny, swarthy man checked their passports. They had their real names, though they were aged up to twenty and nineteen, respectively. Namiko stood calmly as he compared faces and logged stuff. He raised his eyebrows a bit when she told them they were there as a couple, but didn't say anything otherwise. Soon enough they were stamped and free to go.

They stepped out into the cool air of a Brazilian midnight.
 
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Luca became increasingly nervous as they went through customs, she was worried about strip searches, blood tests, maybe even interrogation, what if the local government was on to them?!
In short, she watched far too much TV and was panicking over nothing, the fact that her pre prepared ID listed her as Lucas: Male drew a couple looks but she was left unbothered.

When they were finally out she released a sigh of relief, taking a moment to get her bearings, they had to make their way to the meeting spot themselves, a park near the hotel chosen for them where the other girls would find them, having arrived earlier as they were closer to the mission area.
"This place is so... Different".
Luca commented.
 
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Namiko concurred; it was a wholly different atmosphere. It was nighttime and visibility was severely limited, but simply being in a different place made her feel off. Call it the jetlag. "Just wait until morning," she said. "Then things will really seem different." She honestly had mental images of parrots, for some reason.

After following the directions given to them, they arrived in the park. It looked relatively like a Japanese park, or for that matter an American park or an Indian park. Parks tend to be alike. Namiko searched for the other girls, but failed to see them in the sparse light, the park being lit only by intermittent lamps by the concrete paths. "Do you see anyone?" she asked Luca.
 
"Umm... I'm not sure... It's kinda hard to tell who a magical girl is at a glance..."
She replied, looking around before jumping as someone tapped her shoulder, nearly letting out a shriek but managing to bite her tongue, though fortunately not hard enough to make it bleed.

"Pffft... I was told a newbie would be coming along but come on, I only tapped you silly!"
A girl declared, seemingly amused by Luca's antics.
That was... Dulce! She was the magical girl who had been in Orphan the longest, and while unranked, she was basically Blair's right hand woman! Though there were rumors that she tended to retreat quite often, she was still undoubtedly a powerhouse.
"Don't suppose you two have seen Sara yet? If they are going to assign me a development team reject they can at least arrive on time..."
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Namiko's eyes locked with some surprise at the newcomer. She wasn't quite expecting Dulce - basically one of Orphan's cornerstones - to be one of their teammates on this one, though she'd only heard of her. Must be important. "No, I'm afraid not. We only just arrived, after all. Hello by the way, Dulce, I don't believe we've met. This -" she gestured towards her jumpy companion "- is Luca." She looked around. "Anyways - development team reject?" she questioned.
 
"Yeah, not in person but I read your files of course... I read most of Orphan's files".
She revealed, though that made sense, someone in her position would have to know about Orphan's members.
"Including yours... Luca..."
She seemed shocked at her appearance, but seemed to adapt pretty quickly and turned back to more important things.

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't know... We were working on a way to activate transformations in girls who had the correct souls but could not normally control magical powers, of course it was prohibitively expensive, and mostly a failure, only one person came out combat capable and yet they..."
She stopped talking as someone approached, a girl carrying a large bag of what was likely clothing, it seemed she had been on a shopping trip... She also seemed Familiar... Then it clicked, that was Sara Magdelaine! A performer from Arcade who had exploded onto the world stage with their Japanese Idol styled persona.
"Sara! You are late! And for what? Shopping?!"
This caused the girl to pout.
"Hey... I had to cancel a performance to come here... So I needed some retail therapy!"
 
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The fact that she knew about Luca's name was rather surprising; though Namiko supposed she wasn't exactly subtle with its usage. And the whole activation thing rubbed her the wrong way. It sounded suspiciously like human experimentation, though she kept silent about her misgivings.

When the newcomer came - Sara, apparently - Namiko took pause. She looked sort of familiar...but from where? She'd seen her, or someone like her, on the news, on some electronic billboards...somewhere. Hard to say. "Retail therapy, huh..." she muttered, before greeting Sara like she did with Dulce and introducing Luca, who was surely feeling a bit out-of-place.

"Anyways," she said, all business as usual, "will we be starting work immediately? There are worse times to work than midnight." It was actually quite impressive that Sara had managed to find high-end stores that were open at this time; though she was, after all, a celebrity (though Namiko did not know this for sure).
 
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Luca certainly knew about her, and seemed positively starstruck, she really was such a nerd about some things.
"OH my gosh! You're... You... Sara Magdelaine!"
Luca declared, full on fangirling and earning a grin in response.
"Ooh!~ A fan! And a cute one too!"
She greeted, causing a notable blush on Luca's face.

"Yes, for now we are just scoping things out though, tomorrow is when we attack, we should be careful though because security is at it's highest at night, too many night time raids it would seem".
Dulce seemed a little annoyed at that.
"Anyway, they are only a short way from the city, so it should only be an hour's trip at most, we can't use a car though, too obvious".
 
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Well, it seemed Namiko was correct in thinking that she seemed familiar. In the midst of Luca's babble she heard her mention that she was an idol of sorts, which explained a lot. She must be a useful person to have around, she thought. Namiko felt a little tinge of jealousy at Luca's agog, but not much; mostly she was happy that she was happy.

Namiko nodded. "Sounds good. I'm too tired to attack much, anyways." The sudden change from day to night threw her off a lot, not to mention she was normally tired anyways. "So how are we planning on getting there? Magic?" It would probably take less time - their agility and the fact that they wouldn't be restricted by roads would likely make it a lot faster - but she thought her tone was more insinuative than that.
 
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"Well that would be the most obvious choice, there is so much magic at that site that they cannot detect any approaching magical signatures while we are not transformed... I am sure you all know about enhancement?"
She asked, earning a nod from Luca and a thumbs up from Sera, who quickly removed an odd set of mechanical looking equipment from her bag and began clipping it on, it looked like some sort of idol costume accessories, though was clearly far more than that.

"Now... Keep up please?"
She asked, starting to run at a speed that would make professional runners balk.
"And don't forget balance!"
She shouted back.
 
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Seemed like they would be hoofing it. Namiko wasn't too keen about it, but that was the most rational decision at the moment. She nodded. "Alright. Just...don't expect me to be able to keep up."

Namiko watched Sara dress up with some interest. She suited up in some mechanical-looking accoutrements, presumably to help her out with magic. She hoped they were sturdy; she'd loathe to see what happened if they broke.

Namiko enhanced herself, making a rush of warmth and vitality course through her, and followed after them as they hopped buildings and awnings and climbed over fences. The drip of their feet on the sidewalk filled the silent spaces of alleys. Though Namiko didn't get tired, owing to her enhancement, she fell quite a bit behind - not enough to lose sight of them, but enough to keep them a good distance out of reach, so that should she have wanted to communicate she'd have to shout. The trip went along uneventfully.

Namiko arrived last at the site, panting slightly as she drifted to a stop alongside her waiting companions.
 
As they ran it seemed while Dulce was taking the lead, Luca and Sara were talking as they went, quite close to avoid shouting... Well they had gotten close quite fast, and it seemed there was more than just Luca being a massive fan girl of her.
It did seem at least they were trying not to get TOO far ahead of Namiko, Dulce of course knew she was a tad on the slow side, as did Luca, and Sara seemed to be sticking at Luca's pace.

The site was set at some sort of old strip mine, the massive, empty hole having several tents set up, it appeared they were worried about things going bad, as they also had a large force of regular infantry standing guard... And one magical girl in sight.
"Use these... You have the best eyes".
Dulce handed Namiko a pair of binoculars, since summoning a rifle or scope might get them caught.
The girl on guard was another known girl... Anna, one of a few who had for some reason gone rogue after the war, abandoning Orphan to side with the AAD, or rather the city of Arcade, though it was questionable whether she was loyal to Orphan in the first place...
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Namiko accepted the binoculars and stared through them at the camp, crouching. The structure was fascistic, with little tents set up all around the tiered dirt, soldiers standing vigilant on each step and walking around, all armed. Mercenary or military; hard to tell. What she did see for sure was one magical girl, dressed in black army clothes and a Gestapo-esque cap. She knew this girl. Anna. Not personally, but she'd heard of her betrayal. In a company called Orphan, named for a group of people known for being tight-knit, word of disloyalty spread fast and was - to put it lightly - highly stigmatized. She frowned.

"Lots of troops, probably more in the tents," she muttered, almost to herself. "Not a lot of cover. Some sandbags. Only one magical girl in view," she said. "Heard of Anna?"
 
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"I expected the troops... They are more for show against us but can still be dangerous... At least the bastards don't have any tanks out here, they are so annoying to blow up, especially ones made for fighting us..."
She replied before nodding, looking genuinely furious right that moment.
"My head certainly does... Do not take her kicks lightly, she's a brawler, and a damned good one at that..."
Dulce warned.

"Ooh!~ I remember HER~ I wonder how SHE would like an attack from behind?!"
Alright, seemed Sara had some more hands on experience with that girl.
"Don't worry Sara, that's the plan, we can take her out first, before backup arrives tomorrow".
 
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Namiko winced at the mention of brawlers. As someone who liked her personal space when it came to fighting, hand-to-handers were always her biggest bane. She could almost feel her foot slamming against Dulce's feet. "We'll have to be careful, then. I know I'd like to take some potshots at her as well." She lowered the binoculars. "Is that all we need?"
 
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