[The cover shows the four magical girls walking down a dimly lit
tunnel with harsh shadows tinged with their colors.]

____________________________________________________________________________
.|, COHERENT COMICS PRESENTS An ASH Universe Story
--+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
'|` SHADOW GIRLS #4 - Into The Underworld
copyright 2022 by Dave Van Domelen
____________________________________________________________________________

[April 30, 2027 - West Village]

Tammy retrieved a backpack from the shadows of the rooftop where the
four "magical girls" were meeting their potential mentor, and withdrew a
laptop computer from it. "I copied all of the files directly to this
computer, so your passcode should unlock the extra information," she held the
laptop out to Maddie.
Maddie started to take it, then paused. "You do realize that I won't
just unlock the new information, I'll have access to everything Professor
Shade gave to each of you? If I don't already have enough to figure out all
of your secret identities...other than Julie, who I already know...this will
clinch it. Do you trust me enough?"
"I am SO bad at secret identities," Tetra Red, aka Julie Li sighed,
resting her face in her hands.
"As you say, you likely already could figure it out if you wanted to,"
Tammy shrugged. "There are not that many high school students in Manhattan,
and since ONE of us started dyeing her hair pink when out of costume it
wouldn't even take that long," she gave Icosa-Pink the side-eye.
"But when the shadows cover my hair it's a darker pink," she rebutted.
Octa-Green just rolled her eyes. "Go ahead. Shade already knows who we
are, so it's only a matter of time. He might get impatient and tell you
anyway."
The other two nodded, and Maddie took the laptop.
"Wow, Julie wasn't kidding about getting a junker old laptop. I'm
surprised it still turns on," Maddie waited for it to boot up.
"Hey, I don't remember any Greek gods named Inanna. At least, none in
my TwenCen history class," Julie noted, thinking back on what Maddie had told
them was on the hardcopy letter she got earlier that night.
"She's not Greek," Tammy replied as the laptop slooooowly booted up.
"Mesopotamian. Syncretic with Ishtar, although it is unknown if she was a
separate entity or not...even when the gods were on television in the 90s,
they generally declined to clarify such matters. That does raise the
question of why she'd use Platonic solids, although I suppose if the concept
of Forms that Plato espoused is true, the gods would be aware of it as well.
And that's also assuming Plato himself didn't appropriate the idea from a
still older and uncredited Babylonian philosopher whose name has been lost to
posterity."
"Thanks, I had no idea, myself," Maddie admitted. "Inanna definitely
didn't mess with New York, so I never really had reason to learn about her.
I'll go ahead and check online later, though. Ah, finally, it's on. Lemme
just try typing MORNING STARS into the command line...since none of you
actually knew about hidden folders there can't have been an obvious login or
anything. Clicking on Julie's folder first...ah, I guess the 'MENTOR' folder
wasn't there before, right?"
Tetra-Red nodded.
"Okay, I'm going to copy everything onto this," Maddie pulled a data
dongle out of her pocket, "and take the time to read it over the weekend
after I run it through every virus check and safety scan I can find. You'll
want to read the extra files too, and we can compare notes on Monday after
school. I don't want to trust this thing's battery to not die in the middle
of things tonight, and it's too cold to want to type much anyway."
"So, that's it?" Octa-Green frowned.
"Well, it looks like I'm going to be helping you four out, even if I'm
not willing to be the mentor Professor Shade wants...that depends on what he
has to say in these files," she inserted the dongle and dragged the folders
onto its icon. "And I think I'm ready to trust you four with some of my
secrets, but I need some time to clean up...there's secrets that aren't mine
alone to give up, and I need to sanitize some data and do a little light
housecleaning before I let you see it. Oh, and I should talk to one of those
people whose secrets are involved, since they're still available. Yeesh, it
even copies slowly. Anyway, at the very least I should have something to
help you with the secret ID thing come Monday, even if I decide to decline
the whole mentor gig."

* * * *

[May 2, 2027 - Financial District]

The World Trade Center "Twin Towers" rose like ghosts above Manhattan,
even after many of the older skyscrapers had been deliberately deconstructed
to keep them from collapsing from neglect. There simply wasn't the need for
hundred story towers in modern New York City, and the Twin Towers were an
echo of the dead past. Even now, they were mostly empty, despite being a
major MetaPsych research center...their dark and bloody history meant no one
else even wanted them, but no one dared let them collapse either. So they
got regular maintenance, even the parts no one used. No one *wanted* to use
them, rightly considering the buildings haunted after Odin packed them with
the corpses of his believers in 1998. The fact that many MetaPsych employees
did live there just confirmed the popular opinion that MetaPsych was a bunch
of weirdos.
The haunted reputation also made them useful places to hide things. And
people. And things that might be people.
"Any progress on the babysitting?" Maddie asked as Jessa Dumont engaged
the privacy screens on her office, psionic and otherwise.
The former Hellhound collaborator shook her head. "Whatever the Santari
did to force-grow that Anchor clone that Marx bought gave it the poor neural
plasticity of an adult as well. The data I transferred is still in there,
but it's not really making any connections. I suspect that Santari don't
even bother trying to make thinking clones this way, they just slap in
computer brains to run the higher processes. The autonomous stuff is still
working, he breathes on his own."
Maddie nodded. Devlin Marx, once a powerful and wealthy man, one of the
strongest of the reality-reinforcing Anchors, had been dying, and gambled
everything on a plan to transfer his brain into a cloned body. It hadn't
worked, but in the process Jessa had attracted way more official attention
than anyone in the Hellhound troika was comfortable with. On the plus side,
the former manager of a free clinic was now highly placed in MetaPsych, the
premiere telepathic research and training organization, so she had access to
a great many more resources. On the minus side, that came with
accountability and an inability to just vanish every so often to beat up
paragangers. Combined with Beth Willot getting more duties as a NAC
Marshall, only Maddie had been available to run the Hellhound identity, and
she had never really been the main person in the suit.
Well, *a* suit. The three women were similar in build, but there were
three suits, each padded and armored to bring them closer to each other in
appearance. Three suit designs, that is, and lots of backups and spare
parts. Maddie's main job was armorer, Beth was the usual ass-kicker, and
Jessa was intel and later on funnelled more money secretly into the accounts
Maddie had inherited from her grandfather.
"I don't need telepathy to know you didn't ask to see me on a Sunday
just to check up on the baby, though," Jessa frowned. "Did that woman
approach you again, about restarting Hellhound?"
Maddie shook her head. "No, although I wouldn't rule out the same
person being behind that and my current issue. I don't suppose you've
noticed that Manhattan has developed a case of Magical Girls?"
Jessa blinked. "Like in the old Japanese cartoons? No, I can't say I
have, but I've mostly been focusing on the current psychic resonance project
here. The paragangs have been quiet enough that I haven't been checking in
as much as maybe I should have been?"
"Someone claiming to be the Third Age hero Professor Shade has been
setting up high school girls with magical gems and pointing them at Bathory."
"How many dead so far?" Jessa looked vaguely horrified.
"None, thank GOD," Maddie sighed. "They had just enough sense to train
up first, and Shade manipulated them into meeting me before they could go off
half-cocked. Jessa, Shade knows I was part of Hellhound, although he's being
clever about hinting at it. And I think he knows about grandpa, although if
he really is Professor Shade there was probably a teamup or two. He got some
Snow Leopards to go after me search of a magic black opal...oh, he didn't
admit to it, but that was a clear setup. While they were keeping me and one
of the magical girls distracted, he dropped off a package in my *highly
secure* apartment."
Maddie opened up her messenger bag, which to all but the most invasive
scans would have not revealed anything unusual, and pulled out two objects
that would not have shown up on scans. One was a data chip, of a more modern
and secure design than the consumer dongles, and the other was a large
pendant with five empty sockets.
"Professor Shade provided this data to the girls, including hidden
folders unlocked with a passcode he gave me. I've checked all of this and
it's as clean as I can confirm, but check it yourself before trusting it to
anything networked. I'm mostly curious if there seem to be any potentially
malicious omissions or false data. Like I said, I think Shade wants them
going after Bathory, and even if he's who he says he is I don't entirely
trust his motives. He might have left out something important."
"I'll get on that," Jessa took the chip. "And the jewelry?"
"Supposedly held the gems that empowered the girls. Shade's letter
claimed it was an artifact of the goddess Inanna, and that comes back to your
psychic resonance project. Could you run this past your experts and see if
it pings on whatever standards you have for deific power?"
"Luckily for you, our sensitives live in the towers, I'm sure I can find
one willing to take a read on this while I check the data out. If you want
to hang out in the lobby or even the memorial park for an hour or so, I can
get you at least a preliminary take on this all."
"Thanks. One more thing, in case you weren't already planning on it...
see if you can find out if anyone reported Professor Shade dead? He was a
Boston hero, but he did come to New York occasionally, and there might be at
least some mention. My grandfather's files did have a couple of entries, but
the most recent was in 1997," Maddie zipped up her bag.

On 1/2/22 10:35 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> [The cover shows the four magical girls walking down a dimly lit
> tunnel with harsh shadows tinged with their colors.]

ooooooh I love it

> Maddie started to take it, then paused. "You do realize that I won't
> just unlock the new information, I'll have access to everything Professor
> Shade gave to each of you? If I don't already have enough to figure out all
> of your secret identities...other than Julie, who I already know...this will
> clinch it. Do you trust me enough?"
> "I am SO bad at secret identities," Tetra Red, aka Julie Li sighed,
> resting her face in her hands.

heeheehee

> "As you say, you likely already could figure it out if you wanted to,"
> Tammy shrugged. "There are not that many high school students in Manhattan,
> and since ONE of us started dyeing her hair pink when out of costume it
> wouldn't even take that long," she gave Icosa-Pink the side-eye.

XD <3

> "But when the shadows cover my hair it's a darker pink," she rebutted.

X3

> "Hey, I don't remember any Greek gods named Inanna. At least, none in
> my TwenCen history class," Julie noted, thinking back on what Maddie had told
> them was on the hardcopy letter she got earlier that night.
> "She's not Greek," Tammy replied as the laptop slooooowly booted up.
> "Mesopotamian. Syncretic with Ishtar, although it is unknown if she was a
> separate entity or not...even when the gods were on television in the 90s,
> they generally declined to clarify such matters.

Hmmmmm. *nodnods*

> That does raise the
> question of why she'd use Platonic solids, although I suppose if the concept
> of Forms that Plato espoused is true, the gods would be aware of it as well.
> And that's also assuming Plato himself didn't appropriate the idea from a
> still older and uncredited Babylonian philosopher whose name has been lost to
> posterity."

Hmmmmmm! *nodnodnods*

> "Well, it looks like I'm going to be helping you four out, even if I'm
> not willing to be the mentor Professor Shade wants...that depends on what he
> has to say in these files," she inserted the dongle and dragged the folders
> onto its icon. "And I think I'm ready to trust you four with some of my
> secrets, but I need some time to clean up...there's secrets that aren't mine
> alone to give up, and I need to sanitize some data and do a little light
> housecleaning before I let you see it.

You know, reasonable.

> The World Trade Center "Twin Towers" rose like ghosts above Manhattan,
> even after many of the older skyscrapers had been deliberately deconstructed
> to keep them from collapsing from neglect. There simply wasn't the need for
> hundred story towers in modern New York City, and the Twin Towers were an
> echo of the dead past.

yesssssss nice. Powerful resonance.

> Even now, they were mostly empty, despite being a
> major MetaPsych research center...their dark and bloody history meant no one
> else even wanted them, but no one dared let them collapse either. So they
> got regular maintenance, even the parts no one used. No one *wanted* to use
> them, rightly considering the buildings haunted after Odin packed them with
> the corpses of his believers in 1998.

Daaaaaaaamn. :o That's a hell of a thing! I love/hate it!

> The fact that many MetaPsych employees
> did live there just confirmed the popular opinion that MetaPsych was a bunch
> of weirdos.

heeheehee
> The former Hellhound collaborator shook her head. "Whatever the Santari
> did to force-grow that Anchor clone that Marx bought gave it the poor neural
> plasticity of an adult as well. The data I transferred is still in there,
> but it's not really making any connections. I suspect that Santari don't
> even bother trying to make thinking clones this way, they just slap in
> computer brains to run the higher processes.

Ewgh. Cyberpunk bullshit.

> Jessa had attracted way more official attention
> than anyone in the Hellhound troika was comfortable with. On the plus side,
> the former manager of a free clinic was now highly placed in MetaPsych, the
> premiere telepathic research and training organization, so she had access to
> a great many more resources. On the minus side, that came with
> accountability and an inability to just vanish every so often to beat up
> paragangers. Combined with Beth Willot getting more duties as a NAC
> Marshall, only Maddie had been available to run the Hellhound identity, and
> she had never really been the main person in the suit.

Well, entirely reasonable. X>

> Well, *a* suit. The three women were similar in build, but there were
> three suits, each padded and armored to bring them closer to each other in
> appearance. Three suit designs, that is, and lots of backups and spare
> parts.

Also very intelligent!

> I don't suppose you've
> noticed that Manhattan has developed a case of Magical Girls?"

"A Case of Magical Girls" would make a good title.

> "Someone claiming to be the Third Age hero Professor Shade has been
> setting up high school girls with magical gems and pointing them at Bathory."
> "How many dead so far?" Jessa looked vaguely horrified.

X3; A useful reaction

> I'm mostly curious if there seem to be any potentially
> malicious omissions or false data. Like I said, I think Shade wants them
> going after Bathory, and even if he's who he says he is I don't entirely
> trust his motives. He might have left out something important."

Mmmmmm, indeed. >:/

> Could you run this past your experts and see if
> it pings on whatever standards you have for deific power?"
> "Luckily for you, our sensitives live in the towers, I'm sure I can find
> one willing to take a read on this while I check the data out. If you want
> to hang out in the lobby or even the memorial park for an hour or so, I can
> get you at least a preliminary take on this all."

Finally, a lucky break~

> "Thanks. One more thing, in case you weren't already planning on it...
> see if you can find out if anyone reported Professor Shade dead?

Ohohoho.

> Where
> Seven World Trade Center had once stood was now a memorial park dedicated to
> the victims of the Ride of the Valkyries. Many names were engraved in a wall
> similar to that of the Vietnam War Memorial, but too many of the dead were
> unknown and unclaimed, and for all their horrific numbers they were merely a
> tiny fraction of all those the gods took on July 6, 1998. The world had
> barely had time to realize what had happened in New York when that news was
> overtaken by the vanishing of two thirds of the human race, including
> everyone with paranormal powers.

Holy crap that's intense. Not something I remembered :o

> Still, it was a peaceful place, and had never been touched by paragang
> violence even at the worst of the early 20s.

#mood

> It wasn't unusual for someone
> to spend part of a Sunday afternoon contemplating the dead, so Maddie didn't
> stand out as she waited.

What a world to live in, huh.

> On a purely mundane
> archaeological level, it doesn't seem to be Mesopotamian, but a lot of divine
> artifacts don't resemble anything historical in particular. Godly art wasn't
> always tied to the art of their mortal worshippers.--

Fancy-asses

> --Right. So whatever it is, it's not strongly linked to any god or
> goddess right now. Residual power, but you're not going to call down Berlin
> part two by using this or the gems that were pried out of it. Probably.

Good o3o;v

> If he had powers, he obviously wouldn't still be around,
> but we don't have enough data to tell if his claims of being artifact
> empowered would actually protect someone from being swept up in the great
> vanishing.--

Hmmmmm. You'd think, considering how it actually happened, but of course they
don't know that.

> Maddie got the impression of a shaking head. --I'll have a courier drop
> it at dead drop fifteen, so you don't have to risk suspicion coming inside
> again. Once is touristy, twice is weird.--

Heeheehee

> ++Yeah, I think I might be reactivating the network in general, so might
> as well start making use of it again.++

:D

> We decided all coming in would draw
> too much attention, but I'm enough of a regular."
> "Good, that's one less lesson you need," Maddie smiled,

Awwwww. <3

> Julie did so. "Now wha...is that my voice? This is a voice changer?"
> Maddie nodded. "Might need some tweaking, the original goal was to
> sound scary and inhuman, but I figured you wouldn't want that.