ASH: Shadow Girls Bonus Track #6.5 - Too Cool for School?

[Dave Van Domelen]

     [Cover shows five thick envelopes of the "school admittance papers"
      variety, with the names Julie, Tammy, Tee, Liv, and "???" on them.]

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 .|, COHERENT COMICS PRESENTS             An ASH Universe Story
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 '|`   SHADOW GIRLS      #6.5 - Too Cool For School?
	BONUS TRACK	 copyright 2023 by Dave Van Domelen
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[Editor's Note: this is a scene that I realized later probably needed to have
happened earlier.  Rather than try to shoehorn it into the escalating action
of the currently-being-written issue (#11), it is presented as a standalone
"bonus track" set between the first and second arcs.]

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[May 15, 2027 - Battery Park, Manhattan Autonomous Sector]

     Saturday night at the Clock Tower was always busy, although between the
cloak and dagger ambience and the extensive (and expensive) privacy
shielding, it could be hard to tell sometimes.  The only real way to tell was
by the wait to get a table...and sometimes they made people wait just to
obfucscate that point.  All part of the theme.
     "I dunno why I don't just drag the girls across the bridge and make them
enroll in the Academy," Maddie sighed to her friend and former co-vigilante
Jessa Dumont.  "I'm not really cut out to lead an entire team of teenaged
girls."
     "Is anyone?" Jessa arched an eyebrow.  "Cats, herding, etc.  But I'm
starting to suspect that if you tried handing them off to the Combine, you'd
run into all kinds of interference, both subtle and not."
     Maddie frowned.  "Do you think there's some sort of gods-damned Prophecy
here?" 
     Jessa shrugged.  "Could be.  We know the gems are divine in nature, and
gods are known to wear ruts in the structure of reality to make sure that
their favorite stories keep coming to pass.  Superpowers and magic all break
the laws of nature, but prophecy and legends are kind of like the gods paving
a path that nature has trouble growing over."
     "Oh, lovely.  It was bad enough when Rebus was faking a godly prophecy
to mess with the city, but a real one?" Maddie buried her face in her hands.
     "Well, if it's just an echo of an old story, it might not have that
strong a hold on you," Jessa admitted.  "But it could be a purely mundane
sort of interference.  Professor Shade, even if that's who he really is,
clearly has a reason for handing out invitations to the magical girl ball."
     Maddie nodded.  "Yeah, I've been trying to figure out his angle.  He
could be totally on the level..."
     Jessa snorted derisively.
     "I didn't say it was *likely*.  But even if he is on the level, he has
reasons for doing it here and not in the Combine.  He wants superpowered
teenaged girls running around in Manhattan, and I guess if he could break
into all those homes unnoticed to plant the gems, he could also mess with any
attempts to escape from New York.  Not sure how, though."
     "And assuming he's a false front," Jessa added, "for whom?  Umbrae
certainly has the ability to make this work, and I can think of a couple of
reasons he might want a replacement bogeyman...or women...now that Warden's
gone.  Or maybe one of his rivals back in Khadam wants to make his life more
interesting, distract him with more heroes just when he thought he'd gotten
rid of all the local problems."
     "Beth implied the other day that the Combine really wants more of a
toehold here," Maddie's brow knit with concern.  "Could they be behind this?
If so, they'd definitely find a reason to reject any Academy applications
coming out of my little coterie...they would want the girls here for
Reasons." 
     "I'll keep digging, and I'm sure you will, but the whole Origin Story
here just stinks to high heaven of someone wanting the Morning Stars active
*here* and *now*.  Whether we agree with their reasons, much less LIKE them,
doesn't mean they won't act against our attempts to weasel out of things.
Looks like you've got students whether you like it or not."
     Maddie took a long pull from her drink.  "WE'VE got students."

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Author's Notes:

     Sure, Goncharov's Clock Tower didn't get introduced until issue 9, but
it was implied there that the two had been meeting there every so often for a
while.  So, why make up a new location for a private talk?

     I'd initially thought of this as a talk with Beth, but decided that the
whole "we have to talk in code" would make that too annoying and implausible,
even though she'd be more likely to know about things like the Godmarket and
any divine monkeybusiness.  (But not divine-monkey business, I'm not doing
Sun Wukong this time around.)

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