A blue swirling portal opened up in the middle of Meryton. It was a magnificent portal. Filled with light, swirling colors, and lots of sparklies. Out came four teenage girls…
“Okay. I think this is where I got the distress call from.” I say looking around. There’s a large house behind us, and a couple houses further away, but theres no people in sight.
“Imogen, what Shakespeare play is this?” Paulina asks. “It looks too tranquil to be Shakespeare.”
“I don’t think it is Shakespeare.” I say. “The distress call mentioned something about Jane Austin and a proposal.”
“We must be in Pride and Prejudice.” Rosalind says with a self satisfied smile. “The proposal in pride and Prejudice is infamous. This could be Longbourn, where Elizabeth lives.”
“Wow. That’s a weird name.” Miranda says. “Long-born?”
“Yes. You’ve got it right.” Rosalind says. “Have any of you read pride and Prejudice?”
“Well, I started it. But with all the magical girl stuff I never finished it.” I say.
“Imogen…” Rosalind says shaking her head.
“I read it, but didn’t understand most of it.” Pauline admits.
“I can’t stand books with no pictures that have more then two hundred pages.” Miranda says.
“There are manga versions.” Rosalind says.
“Oooh! Manga!” Miranda says. “Wait, are they still hard to understand?”
“I don’t know. The original book is so good I never bothered with the manga.” Rosalind says. “Anyway, why are we here?”
“Well, apparently Mr Darcy’s proposal was ruined, and we need to help.” I say, specifically holding some things back.
“It was ruined by Mr Darcy’s own stupidity.” Rosalind says.
“They’ll get back together eventually. But what do we need to help with?” Paulina asks.
“Well…” I start with a smile. “In the book, I bet it wasn’t ruined by giant robots with laser blasters.”
“I do not think it was.” Paulina says.
“If it was I’d read the book!” Miranda says. “Well… Manga.”
“Wait, if the proposal was ruined by giant robots then we’re in the wrong place.” Rosalind says. “He proposed while they were in Kent. Not in Longbourn.”
“Oh. I, uh, didn’t know where to go exactly. Never finished the book.” I say, sort of embarrassed. “I set the magic portal thingy to default.”
“It’ll be a long walk.” Rosalind warns.
“I bet there are some horse carriages around here.” Paulina says. “We could use those.”
“And there are not seven of us, so it should go well.” I say.
We laugh and then look around for horses.
“It looks like everyone must’ve left after the robot invasion.” I say. “And they used their horse carriages.”
“That’s A bummer!” Miranda says.
“I guess… We might as well start walking.” Paulina says. She is very cleared upset and kinda scared.
“Can you just open another portal?” Rosalind asks. “You know where to go now.”
“I don’t think so.” I say. “I mean, I’ve never tried before. Maybe…”
A giant robot drops down in front of us. It starts shooting lasers and has a sword for an arm!
“Quick! Stratford upon Avon high drama club, transform!”
We all transform in a flash of sparkles!
Now we aren’t just the Stratford upon Avon drama club. We’re Magical girls! And we have new names too!
“You’ve already lost! I’m Ingenue Emerald!” Rosalind says.
“Its time to see what I can do! I’m Ingenue Aquamarine!” Paulina says.
“I’m Ingenue Citrine. In the name of the… Cosmos I’ll punish you.” Miranda giggles after saying it like she always does.
“And I’m Ingenue Garnet, and we are the Stratford upo… Ahhhh!” The robot fills the air with red lasers. We all jump out of the way.
“I guess robots don’t care about our introductions.” Paulina says, she uses her sceptre to throw ice at the robot. It makes a small dent, but the attack it manages to slow it down.
“How rude!” Miranda says. “In anime, the villains always wait through the introductions.”
“We’ll we aren’t in anime. We’re in modern classic literature!” Rosalind shoots fire at robot. The robot uses its blade arm to shield itself. The fire bends the blade. Then the mech knocks Rosalind into a stable.
“Rosalind!” Paulina calls. “Are you okay!” Miranda runs to Rosalind and uses some healing magic.
The robot turns on me. I manage to dodge. I try using balancing act on it but it does nothing. The people who managed to do the most damage on the mesh were Paulina and Rosalind, so…
“Paulina! Rosalind! You have to unite!” I say.
“We’ll try it!” Rosalind calls.
Rosalind and Paulina both sync their powers.
“Unite!”
Ice envelops the giant robot. The ice dramatically shatters and the robot falls to the ground.
“Did that do it?” I hesitantly ask.
“I’m not sure.” Paulina says. “Everyone stay away until we make sure…”
“Cool!” Miranda runs over to the robot. “Its just like an anime robot!”
“Be careful!” Paulina yells. “We don’t know if it’s safe!”
“If anime has taught me anything,” Miranda says climbing inside of the robot. “Then you flick this switch, and turn this knob, and if you move these two levers, it’ll…”
The robot springs up.
“Cool!” Miranda begins walking around in the giant robot mech.
“That is cool!” I say. “Miranda, pick us all up. Then we won’t have to walk to Kent!’
“I got it!” Miranda lowers an arm Rosalind and I climb on. Paulina is a little hesitant.
“Uh, I get car sick easily.” Paulina says. “Do you think this’ll be stable.”
“It totally isn’t!” Miranda says. “But if anime characters can hold onto the shoulders of giant mechanics while the maths are running, why can’t you!”
I quickly climb up to the shoulder and find a grip. Miranda is gonna start trying out the mech’s capabilities, and I don’t want to fall off.
Rosalind claims the other shoulder. Paulina stands on my shoulder. She braces herself with one arm and I hold her hand.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure Miranda won’t try to kill u…” But before I can finish, Miranda makes the robot take off.
…
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Paulina says when we finally get to climb down off the robot.
“I’m keeping the robot!” Miranda says. “This is so cool! I can do this to fire lasers and this to wave my sword arm!”
A swarm of lasers comes flying at us. I duck. Paulina puts up a shield, deflecting them.
“Be careful!” Rosalind says. “We don’t want to cause any unnecessary issues.”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it!”
The streets are covered in evil robots. The robots are destroying everything they can. People are running around and screaming.
“Come on! We have to fight the boss robot before its too late!” I say. “Stratford upon Avon high school theater club, lets go!”
We run down the streets, fighting robots and saving people. The sword arms really aren’t that hard to dodge or block, but the lasers and beams really get you. They can shoot so many at once that it gets hard to dodge A full swarm. But Miranda’s mech helps with that. The mech are immune to lasers so she can cover for us.
“So, the plan.” I say. “Defeat the boss robot. Wherever it is.”
“And then we have to make sure Mr Darcy properly badly proposes to Elizabeth.” Rosalind says. “Without it, the whole story is ruined!”
“Uh, right. Properly, propose, badly.” I say.
There’s A loud thud right behind us. I whirl around. Theres a giant robot.
“Could that be the boss robot?” I ask.
“Possibly.” Rosalind says.
“Stay focused everyone.”
“Do we have to introduce ourselves again?” Miranda says.
“No. I don’t think so. Come on, lets go..”
The robot opens up, revealing A young woman.
“I’m not here for a fight.” She says. “I believe I heard you utter my name.”
Elizabeth!
The spunky heroine of Pride and prejudice. Of course she’d be the one to pilot a mech.
“Uh, yeah! We did!” I say.
“How knowest thou my name?”
“We’re here to fight the robots.” I say.
“We’re all knowing!” Miranda adds.
“Elizabeth, you’ve been here since the invasion. Did you notice a robot bigger then the others, with some more attacks?”
“I believe one matched your description, over near the parsonage.” Elizabeth says.
“Uh…” I say, I lean over to Rosalind. “Do you know what a parsonage is?”
“It’s A house, for a member of the clergy.” Rosalind says.
“Can you give us a general direction.” I ask Elizabeth.
“I’ll gladly show you.” Elizabeth says. “I’d like to know more about what has been occurring.”
“Well, there are, like, robots.” Miranda says.
Elizabeth runs off. Miranda manages to keep up in her mech, the rest of us have to run to keep up.
We arrive at the house panting. Miranda is kinda explaining things to Elizabeth and talking a lot about stuff that has no relevance whatsoever.
“Wow. I need a break.” I pant.
“We still have to fight the boss.” Paulina reminds.
A giant robot flies over and lands. It has six arms, A laser canon, A flamethrower, A sword, A claw, A circular saw, and a chainsaw
“Wow. That robot is decked out!” Miranda says. “Just like this other robot I saw, in…”
“It doesn’t matter.” Rosalind says, not meanly, but firmly.
“Initiating extermination mode.” The boss robot says. “Destroy all moving targets! Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!”
The flame thrower spouts fire at us and the chainsaw roars to life! We jump away. Paulina manages to temporarily plug the flamethrower with ice.
“I got the chain saw!” Miranda says. She runs over in her mesh and tries to fight it using her blade arm. The chainsaw cuts the blade in half.
“No fair!” Miranda complains, but she has to move quickly before the chain saw cuts uo the rest of her mech.
The ice in the flame thrower melts, and all the fire bursts out.
Rosalind plugs it, but this time she uses rocks. The pressure builds up and the flamethrower explodes!
“Alright!” I say. “My turn!” I use balancing act at the chainsaw. When I aim at the blade it does nothing, and the attack diminishes in a flash of light. Next time, I aim at the gears. The darkness swirls around the gears, theres a horrible noise and the chain saw stops moving.
Elizabeth is using her mech’s blade to fight with the boss robot’s blade. While that’s going on, Paulina freezes around the claw, completely stopping it from moving. Elizabeth manages to slice the boss robot’s blade clean off.
Two arms left.
The laser cannon and the Circular saw.
Two arms, four girls. That means two unites.
“Alright Paulina!” I yell. “Lets unite!”
“I got it!” Paulina says.
We syn uo our powers, and then…
“Unite!”
Our attack completely dismantles the circular saw. And Miranda and Rosalind’s take out the laser cannon.
Elizabeth smashes what remains of the boss robot.
“Initiating all units self destruct.” The boss robot says. “10, 9, 8.”
“Wait! What!” Miranda freaks out. Elizabeth climbs out of her robot without mobbing phased much.
“7, 6, 5, 4.”
“Ahhhh!” Miranda topples out of her mech and bolts over to us.
“3, 2, 1.”
All robots disappear in a puff of smoke.
Miranda breaths heavily.
“Wow! That was panicking!” Miranda says.
“Miss Bennet!” A young man runs over to us. He must be Mr Darcy. “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
“No! I do remember previously when you uttered those words, strange machines attacked!” Elizabeth says. “I’m leaving for Longbourn. Good day!”
She runs away. Mr Darcy hesitates before going after her.
“Uh, was that how it happened in the book?” I ask Rosalind.
“Umm, no. But I guess its as good as we’re getting.” Rosalind says. “With any luck they’ll start talking about Jane, and Mr Darcy will still write the letter.”
“So, I guess that’s as good as we’re getting for now.” Paulina says.
“Lets go home.” Miranda says. “I actually wanna read pride and prejudice now!’
Rosalind looks confused. “Really?”
…
I walk over to Miranda after school. She has a book out.
“What are you reading?” I ask.
“Pride and prejudice.” Miranda says.
“Really?” Rosalind asks walking over. “Pride and prejudice is a lot thicker then that.”
“I know.” Miranda says. “This is the abridged abridged manga abridged version.”
I can’t help but laugh. Who knew something like that existed?
