Memories of a Broken Timeline

Training

The girls were sitting in a cafe. Mami was eating a crepe; Homura's fingers were laced around a cup of tea. Spread in front of Kyoko was several slices of cake, a crepe, three plates of dumplings, and a cup of coffee, which she was rapidly devouring. The bell over the door rang. Doctor Strange slid into the booth. Homura noted that he was not wearing his weird wizard cosplay costume, but just jeans and a t-shirt. The girls themselves weren't wearing their school or magical girl uniforms, but she was still somehow surprised.

"First things first, Mami, this is Doctor Strange. He's going to be helping us." She nodded, blonde curls shaking over her shoulders. He smiled. "Today he offered to help us practice." Kyoko looked up from the pile of crumbs and coffee-soaked napkins in front of her. "I will provide grief seeds afterward." Kyoko flashed her a thumbs up and stuffed a dumpling into her mouth.

"Well, we should go," he said. Kyoko shot him a look as he moved to get up. She rapidly shoved several dumplings and half of a slice of cake down her throat, gulped, and stood up. The others followed. As he led them out of the cafe, he turned to Homura. "Where's Madoka?"

"With her family. Kyubey won't approach her with them around, and I imagine her parents will make her stay with them," she responded. They turned around a corner into another back alley. He raised his hands and opened a portal, surreptitiously opening an entrance to the mirror dimension on the other side. Kyoko and Mami watched him fearfully, but Homura stepped right through. Mami gasped as she disappeared. With a swipe, he brought the portal and gateway around all of them.

"Are you sure our practice won't damage your house?" Mami asked. Homura almost smiled; Mami never changed.

"I'm quite sure; this is an alternate dimension, a little bit like a labyrinth. Nothing you do here with affect our world." Kyoko grinned. A spear appeared in her hand, and she hurled it at a wall. It landed with a thwack into it. Mami nodded, concerns abated.

"So, how're we doing this?" Kyoko pried. In response, he slammed his hands together, slid them around and planted them on the ground. Purple and blue sparks flew across the ground and through the air. They began to collect in front of them. The girls transformed, casting a kaleidoscope of purple, red, and yellow against the wall along with the glow of the sparks, which by then had gathered into an orb. The orb glowed harsher and brighter until it exploded, raining down on them, When the light cleared, the space was now occupied by a large creature. It was almost entirely covered in eyes, connected by a glowing purple goo, as well as several smaller ones, each a sphere of goo with one large navy eye with a slit pupil.

The spheres soared toward them, gurgling, leaping off the ground. Mami smiled and spun around. Her signature white rifles fell from her skirt in a circle. She picked one up and fire it at one of the spherical blobs. It exploded, spraying goo everywhere. A huge clump splattered against Kyoko's shoulder. She winced as it burned her uniform away and began to eat away at her skin. Homura lept into action. She pulled a knife from her shield and ran to Kyoko. Gently, she used the blade to push the gunk off of her shoulder. It landed on the ground. She raised the knife to eye level; the blade was corroded and pockmarked. Kyoko's skin was bright red, covered in boils.

"Thank you." Kyoko's soul gem glowed as the flesh returned to its pale color and the scarlet cloth stretched across the hole until there was no evidence it had ever happened. "So the goo hurts."

Mami slammed a creature with the but of another rifle. It splattered against the wall. Kyoko grinned, expanding her spear to its longer chain form. She flailed it gleefully, smacking the creatures around all over the place, surrounded by a red forcefield. Homura grabbed Doctor Strange and flipped her shield back. "What are these things?"

"I found them in the same book I got my information on Kyubey; they're minor monsters from another dimension." She nodded and pulled out her gun. Her bullets rocketed around the room, each poised to strike a small spherical monster. She darted forward and grabbed Mami's hand.

Mami blinked and looked around at the frozen world. "Homura?" Homura pulled her back towards Doctor Strange. She raised her shield, projected her violet forcefield, and let time resume. Gunk exploded everywhere. At that point, and that remained was the large one. The girls poised to attack. Doctor Strange flipped his hands and revealed a large red whip. The creature gurgled. From within the creature, a spine shot out toward him. He flashed his whip and cut in in half. With a squelch, it grew back, now a long whip of its own. It wrapped around him before any of them could react.

Mami was the first to move. She summoned a yellow ribbon that spiralled around her. With a flick, it wrapped around the tentacle. "Kyoko!" she yelled. She leapt into action. The creature spat out two more arms that soared toward both of them. Homura grabbed Kyoko's arm and flipped her shield. The creature froze. Kyoko looked around in shock.

"What did you do, freak girl?"

"It doesn't matter. Kyoko, do what you have to do. Don't let go or you'll be frozen too." Kyoko nodded and extended her spear. Two quick flicks and the tentacles hung severed in the air. Homura let go and stepped back. She fired several forms of explosives into the creature before letting her shield slide back into position and motion resumed. Mami blinked as the tentacles fell to the floor. Kyoko cut the other one off, and Mami pulled it away. Doctor Strange struggled to free himself. When the coils fell to the floor, Homura saw his clothes had mostly been burned away, and the skin underneath was burned red and covered with boils.

The rest of the creature exploded, spraying purple goo onto all of them. Doctor Strange had preemptively raised his shield, but the girls were all covered. Mami hissed, and Kyoko winced. Homura froze time once more. As she had done with Kyoko, she went around to the other girls and scrapped off the goo, before finally stopping to get it off of herself. She dropped the sliver of metal left from her knife as time resumed.

Mami smiled. "Well, that went well."