THE MOMENT
"Oh!" Once Brooke made sense of the document, the pieces were easy to put together. She was sitting in the home of a new friend, completely surprised that she was invited inside, and was further asked for a favor. She was thrilled at the chance to apologize for her rudeness so quickly, but even as she was walking up to the enormous home, she had no idea why. The first time Brooke visited the home, she was threatened and asked to leave. Once inside, she was greeted by a holographic teenager with curly rainbow hair and pink eyes. But now, with a notarized death certificate in her hands, she understood her new friend a lot more. It was all perfectly clear. "So you're a ghost! That explains it," she said.
"No," the holographic girl, Mallory, sighed with stern eyes. "I'm not a ghost," she said. "I'm not even dead," she gestured down at her holographic body. "I just don't like leaving my room, and you're still technically a stranger. Anyway, my parents moved and left me the house with everything in it. I found that while organizing the office," she nodded at the death certificate. "You want to apologize for wasting my time? See what you can dig up about that. It's got Sharp branding all over it, kinda like you," she smirked.
"No problem," Brooke smiled. It really wasn't a problem, and it was something Mallory could've easily accomplished on her own. But she felt that pointing that out might seem like she didn't want to help. "I'll ask Helios," she said. "
"No-," Mallory began protesting even as Brooke called for the A.I. assistant.
"Hey, Helios!" she said. Nothing happened, and Mallory was able to finish her warning.
"He's not allowed in here. I try not to connect anything to Sharp Development if I don't have to," she said.
"Oh, okay." Brooke was unfazed and stood up eagerly as she dropped a black card at her feet. She was glad to see the portal wasn't blocked in the same way Helios was. "I'll be back in a flash," she said.
"Okay." Mallory nodded as Brooke descended through the portal and vanished below the surface. The moment she was gone, the holographic girl faded out of existence too. For almost 10 minutes, the quaint guest living room was completely still. Then, Brooke stepped out of a black portal and, in the same instant, Mallory reappeared just out of sight, as if she'd been there waiting. Brooke turned to see Mallory waiting for her and smiled.
"It's just kind of a placeholder," she said. "It's a regular Sharp Service. Your parents had it made when your magical powers first got appraised by Sharp Development. It was kind of a backup plan in case you couldn't control it. If anything terrible happened, the plan was to claim you died and hide you, but according to our records, it was never used."
"Oh, that's... kinda boring," Mallory laughed to herself. "I'm SO glad I didn't pay for that info," she smiled and nodded at Brooke. "Thank you. But it was so mundane; now I feel like I owe you a favor."
"Oh, you don't owe me anything," Brooke smiled. "But I've never met an Arcoíris Unique Soul before." It wasn't on the death certificate, but Sharp Development absolutely knew what she was. It was her indirect way of letting Mallory know that it wasn't a secret. "Maybe we can be friends?" she asked with palpable hope. Mallory smiled and shook her head.
"I'd rather owe you something," she said. "You helped me with Sharp Development scouting, so I don't owe 'Brooke' anything." She met Brooke's eyes. "But if Magical Girl Redline Express ever gets in a pinch, maybe I'll be able to help her through it."
"That's a deal!" Brooke smiled. She could understand why Mallory was separating her identities, and if it helped keep the relationship open, she was all for it. And she hadn't said no to friendship entirely, just that particular approach of owing favors.
"Great," Mallory nodded. "Good deal. I got my question answered... so... please leave?"