the thmgau rewrite

Explanations

"Why do we always end up at this abandoned Pizza Hut?"
"It's a good place to hang out! Plus, nobody else is gonna be at an abandoned Pizza Hut anyway, soooo.."
"They've got a point."

The group was now at the abandoned Pizza Hut. There was an old pickup truck there that hadn't been used in at least a few years. Juniper & Kalani were sitting in the back of that pickup truck. Leslie was leaning against the side of the truck, while Cherry leaned against the hood of their van. Nora had brought out a table from inside the abandoned Pizza Hut & had set the book on top of it.

"Alright," she stretched her arms. "Let's see what's in this thing!"

Nora opened the book. "If you're reading this, you're most likely the heroes of the prophecy, chosen by Fate itself, yada yada yada.." She flipped through a couple pages, skimming through its contents. "..must maintain balance between the forces of Good & Evil.. oh!"

She had stopped on a specific page, with some writing & a couple of drawings on it.

"What's up?"
"Hold on, let me read.. 'To maintain balance, you must fight various villains both inside & outside of this world-' Menacing. '-& to do this, you will all need weapons.'"

The group all looked up at each other.

"Weapons..?"
"Do we, like, find our OWN weapons, or what happens here?"
"This sounds like bullshit."
"Oh, c'mon. Let me see what it says."

Nora continued reading. "You can summon your weapons by simply thinking about summoning it. Remember you can only summon your weapon in Hero Mode."
"Ok. What the fuck is Hero Mode."
"You'd think by supposedly being prophetic heroes, we'd already be in Hero Mode, but I guess not."
"'To enter Hero Mode, tug on your necklace a little bit.' Alright. Sounds simple enough."

The group pulled on their necklaces. There was a flash of light. When their vision returned after the one-second long flash of light, one glance around the area would soon reveal to them that their outfits had changed.

"Oh. My. God."

To their surprise, they were now wearing magical girl outfits! Their tie necklaces were now replaced with ACTUAL ties, color-coded depending on which color necklace they were wearing. They also wore gloves, skirts, & shoes which were also the same color as their ties. Cherry's hair was now tied up in a ponytail with a bow, & Nora's hair was tied up into pigtails with two bows. Kalani's hair was tied up into a small ponytail as well, but it was so short that there was no bow.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"Ooh, skirt! Fun!"
"Wow, even in a skirt I still look better than you all."
"Oh, whatever."
"What? Mad you can't pull it off like I can, Cherry?"
"I'm mad because these outfits look stupid!"

"Alright, alright. Enough about the outfits." Nora said. "The book says we just need to think about summoning our weapons to summon them, so.. like... let's just do that."

It went quiet for a second as they all thought about summoning their weapons. Before they knew it, various weapons had appeared in their hands! Cherry had a sword, Nora had a whip, Leslie had two mini-scythes, Juniper had a spear, & Kalani had a magic wand. Of course, all of these weapons were color-coded.

"A WAND?! I GET A WAND?!"
"Where did these even COME from?"
"This RULES!"

Cherry seemed to have a little trouble handling their sword.

"You havin' a bit of trouble, Cherry-pop?"
"Me? Of course not-" she waved her sword around, but then instantly dropped it on the ground. She groaned. "This is embarrassing."
"I just don't get how we're supposed to fight people in these outfits." Juniper mentioned.
"I mean, Sailor Moon does it all the time."
"Well, Sailor Moon's an anime character! We're real people!"

"Whatever." Cherry rolled her eyes. "How do we get out of 'Hero Mode'?"
"Uh.. let me see.." Nora flipped through the book. "It says here we just have to tug on our ties again. The weapons will just disappear on their own."
"Where do the weapons go?"
"I guess just to some.. magic void."
"Magic isn't-"
"You literally just got transformed into a magical girl outfit & summoned a sword, Cherry."
"Fair. Let's get out of these stupid outfits."

They all pulled on their ties, & just like that: they were back in the clothes they were wearing before.

"Well, that certainly was an experience."
"Let's hope we never have to do that ever again."
"So, uh.. what do we do now?"

The group shrugged, unsure of what to do now.

"How about we go back to my apartment?" Juniper suggested. "All of your stuff is there anyway. It'd just be convenient."
"Yea, that sounds good."
"Alright! To Juni's apartment it is!"

They all piled back into Cherry's van & drove off.

"Do you think we're forgetting something?"
"Eh. Probably not."

Unbeknownst to them, they had forgotten something: the book, left out there in the open. A girl hopped out from inside of the old pickup truck, approaching the book.

"Hm.." she hummed, taking a step toward the book. She flipped through some of the pages. "I can't believe they're in a magical girl group & I wasn't invited!"

The girl shut the book & picked it up. "Oh, they'll pay for this. They'll pay.."