Over the next few weeks, Jenny continued to fight as a magic girl. Sometimes she would have to leave the school with special leave, or she would do it after school. Fortunately, being in magic girl mode didn't seem to exhaust her. Artemis would follow her and observe, occasionally helping out in the most indirect ways. A flash of strange moonlight here, a scattering of cosmic dust there... all very simple tricks, that seemed to be at just right right moment to confuse any monster for the magic girl to attack. The two became very good at working together and using the talents of the other to mutual advantage.
The monsters they fought were silhouettes, usually small animal-like things, or just things spawned of a strange unreal nightmare. but at times they would become something more distinct. Sometimes even a little colour would flow into their being. At one point Jenny was almost sure she recognised them as being very strange reflections of the the transformations that had occurred to humans. But when they looked at these creatures, it was easy to see they were just not human. Not even an animal, with a conscious thought... they didn't have faces...
Jenny wasn't sure what to make of the things they fought, she wasn't even sure what they did was actually kill more then simply sending them away. It didn't make them any less dangerous though, and they were always hungry for magic.
Then there was Lilly. Through some superhuman effort, she would somehow find them. She assumed the animal-girl followed their scent, something she was becoming very good at. Lilly would rarely use her magic stick though as anything more then... bait. The creatures were heavily attracted to it. She once just pushed one of the animal monsters, to send it back into the portal created by magic girl four. It was such a close call that Lilly herself was not thrown in, and if that had happened, Jenny had no idea what she would have done.
This became a crucial point in the meeting of the magic girls, when they all got together at their weekly meeting. In particular came the case of who knew their secret, and what impact that would have. Magic girl One explained that her parents knew, but allowed her to do her own work. Government agents also knew- a point that completely distressed magic girl Two, Morgan. It came to light that the government knew of all the magic girls..including her.
Morgan explained that she told nobody. She was the only one that kept it a complete secret. She was a girl used to keeping secrets, and was distressed to the point of paranoia that the other girls had even dared to allow others in on it, especially the government. The fact that Artemis was in the meeting in particular, was quite unsettling as she was not 'one of them'. She wanted to promote change and use the magic for the benefit of the entire world. The government.. would just want to maintain the status quo. She wondered if they still could change the world.
Becca, Magic girl Three, said that she had allowed only one other girl (besides Morgan) to know, a Gynoid named Mikey. She also explained about the teacher Miss Crawford, who seemed aware of her too. She was very apologetic, but she explained how she felt she just... had to tell someone. Given her age, the other girls looked with understanding, even Morgan. It was a major turning point for her to realise, that she was no longer alone. She explained that the Mikey could be trusted. Becca also said that her parents were too... busy to really worry about her, so she had a lot more freedom then most. But when pressed to ask 'why', she would only blush and stay silent on the matter. However it was still good that she was so easily available, and that her raw talent made her very useful.
Then there was Jenny, magic girl four... who had the most direct fighting experience against the Enemy, even if she did not have quite the same raw power as magic girl three. Three and Four were very evenly matched, with possibly experience winning out just a bit. However they were more distressed by Jenny sharing her secret with not only her mother, but two other people: Artemis, who was actually in their meetings, and another. The squirrel girl known as Lilly. The more she explained, the more concerned they became. Lilly, who was not only a 'civilian' by most terms, was extraordinary under age (much as Becca).
This was actually quite a contentious issue when they debated it. When the incident of how she nearly came close to being sent through a monster portal though came up, they had to accept she just wasn't allowed to be in a magic fight. Jenny did object, saying that Lilly had done quite well despite her lack of power, but the risk still remained. If any of them were stuck in a monster world, they could in theory fight and get back. Lilly would have been eaten. Something had to be done if Lilly would not stay away of her own accord.
In the end, Lilly was kept back by the school personally by Ms Violet, Artemis's Aunt, as Jenny and Artemis did their rounds. Lilly was... not too happy when this happened, and it only made her more determined to find them 'after' school, when her mother and father took jurisdiction of her (And even then... she never told her parents where she went or why. Because she knew they would also stop her.)
The magic girls never realised, just what lay behind that determined little animal girl... the more they tried to stop her, the more determined she became, the more inventive, and cunning.
