Wood Gathering

To Dorothy's view, she sees everything in an old school movie style. She's even wearing her white and blue dress.

She looked around through her memories of the old farmhouse.

Seeing multiple people that had been coming through that day; the Inventor, Nick Williams who was building robots; Capt. Daniel Wallace of the US Military in order to obtain bravery; and Prof. John Denslow, who's a mathematician expert.

All of them were having dinner together. Dorothy looked around as she saw her old friends. Continue to look around as you see the animals and landscape.

Feeling lonely and letting the handle of time hit her soul as she had leap over 100 years. Seeing her parents as they're doing farm work, Dorothy waves at them but realises that they'll never wave back. Seeing the rainbow, but remembering that her last interaction with her parents was having a fight, she threatened to run away before the tornado struck.

Dorothy sees Toto, her small dog, sleeping on her bed and seeing the Gems are glowing, mostly Ruby, Silver and Emerald.

"Mrs. Green, they're starting to glow."

Almira walked up to the window, riding a bike. "That means the wood choice is coming out."

Dorothy looked around as she walked around, picking up each kind of wood that she could find but nothing.

"It doesn't seem to be responding to anything I'm picking up."

Walking up to her. "Of course. Because a Witch's Wand is something that is meant from your heart. You can't just grab a random stick or else everyone can just call themselves a Witch. So what were you thinking when they started glowing?" Comforting Dorothy.

Eyes looked around then turned back to Toto's bed. "My dog."

Looking back then, a thought came to her mind. "Perhaps maybe it's his favourite kind of stick?"

Dorothy's eyes widened. "That's it!" She popped out then walked around outside as the colours came back to her life, as well her modern look. "Toto will always grab a certain kind of stick."

Walking into the woods with Almira joining from behind.

"It was the tree where I fought the Magical Girl!" Dorothy is walking back to the battleground.

§

Both Becky and Serena are walking through the forest of the battleground.

"So this is where you had fought the Witches?" Serena examines the area. Looking at the impact and a few lightning strike marks onto the ground. "So much destruction. I guess these Witches might have been powerful."

Serena pawed her gemstone while Becky was looking at the field with memories. Serena has some kind of glasses that help her detect any kind of Magical traces.

"Quite a few." Serena is making a couple of reports as she sees the entire forest had been hit by some kind of magic.

"Mrs. Serena, I do have a question though." Becky turned to her.

"Ask away." Serena continues on writing her report.

Becky grabs her Magical Girl Locket. "How did you find me? It had been a week since you moved in, but I was slightly blind to ask you about that."

"Simple; it's from your purchase to that locket of yours." Serena answered. "We monitored those who wanted to become a Magical Girl, and we kept a record. We would do a simple background check from your bank card, shipping location, and the retailer. So you picked out the Fairy Tale: Red Riding Hood model, so you must have loved the story or like Wolves due of your appearance? Could had picked the Apex Predator Model."

"No, it was the only thing that's cheap and affordable. I wanted a Princess theme one, but I don't have 100K on me. So I picked this one out, but did cost me a bundle of money." Becky is embarrassed of her money problems.

"Understandable." Serena nodded with an approving look. "As long as you want to bring Justice and Love, then there's no harm. But we do get Witches buying them."

Becky looked astonished. "What?! You mean Witches can buy these too?"

"It is a public site, so anyone can access it. But their credit cards and shipping location gave it away." Serena passed over both Becky's purchase, and previous purchases from Witches on a sheet. Becky starts reading it. "I'll admit that when we heard about a purchase from this side of the Country, we were skeptical. But when we look through the residents' social media accounts, it turns out someone is out there being a Vigilante. So It's not much to worry about."

"Vigilante? But I'm a Magical Girl in Training." Becky passed back the sheets.

"When you enter La Magical Girl Academia, that is where you earn the right to be in Training. But to those who do the things as you do, we call them Vigilantes." Serena explained.

"Oh!" Discouraged, Becky looked down.

"There's no point in being discouraged, Ms. Wolfe. It's a common mistake." Serena walked up to her. She leaps onto her shoulders, and paws petting Becky's head. "Great Magical Girls started out as Vigilantes when they all first starting out."

Becky softly smiled. "Thank you, Ms. Serena."

Serena leaps off and looks around. Notice a huge trace of magic usage at the tree nearby.

"What happened here?" Serena asked.

Becky noticed the tree. "This is where I got that Witch before the Salem Witch came by and saved her."

"Hmm..." Serena started pulling up multiple Wanted reports or Captured profiles. "This must be a Mentor and an Apprentice. And as for this Salem Witch, how do you describe her? Or does she match any of these on profile?"

Becky walked up to see the amount of Wanted Witches and Captured. Carefully looking through them, but doesn't notice her Witch, even though she passed a Wanted Witch: Almira Green but didn't recognize her due to her having shorter hair and no glasses with an older look. And a Wanted Witch named; Mariel Crimson, but chooses to ignore it. "She doesn't seem to match anyone here. She has green skin and black eyes."

"At least give me the hair colour, because Witches will tend to disguise themselves."

"Black hair." Becky answered.

"That should be enough for now. For now." Serena filed the report of the Salem Witch. "But this is all very helpful. And magic here is quite strong. Perhaps I should call for a Witch Hunt here if there's two around."

"Wow! You mean other Magical Girls will be coming here?!" Becky seemed excited.

"Vigilantes. You're not the only other Vigilante wanting to become a real Magical Girl, and this might be a fair project that will teach you about teamwork." Serena corrects her. "But I will give you dues, that you had encountered and survived an actual Salem Witch. Normally they wouldn't let a Magical Girl or Vigilante live. So how did you manage to survive that?"

Becky looked back at the dead tree where Glinda was leaning back. "That's what confused me the most. Why did Glinda save my ass from the Salem Witch?"

Serena looked at her facial expression. "Witches are a confusing bunch. They're either back stabbing each other, or only to trick everyone else in order to survive."

"Oh, pardon me!" A voice calls out to them.

Both Becky and Serena looked at them. Serena meows like a cat while Becky waves at both Dorothy and Almira, wearing landscape workers with multiple people behind them grabbing the dead Cottonwood tree. They're obscuring their faces with caps.

Almira is speaking with a gruff tone as Dorothy waved at them. "We're here to take this tree here due to the recent Witch attack that might happen here."

"Oh good! You're working with the MGGA." Serena signed with relief. "You came here much faster than expected."

"Right!" Almira walked up to them. "The name is Mallory Holmes. I need you to sign here and the Magical Vigilante here." Almira presented the paperwork.

Becky signs her details but is confused, as Serena does so. "What is the process for the Cottonwood here?" Serena asked.

Becky asked Serena. "What is their job description?"

"There to take any kind of Witch's magic, and the rumour has it that anyone can become a Witch if they take a tree like this one."

"That's correct, Ms. Serena." Almira nods. "New Witches are born from picking one branch of a dead tree." Almira turned. "Alright you lot! Take this tree down, and I want this at the nearest woodchipper!" The workers are pulling down the tree.

Serena is looking over and notices Dorothy. "I may have your name, miss? You seem too young to be doing this kind of work." Serena is curious.

Dorothy had a thick Russian accent. "The name's Melina Crawford. I'm new around here." Almira looked uncomfortable at Dorothy's accent choice. "I'm Mrs. Holmes' apprentice here from my mother country of Russia!" Dorothy plays out the characteristic choice.

"Okay, Melina. Perhaps you should take care of the Cottonwood tree here, while I work with the officials." Almira cuts in and tells her off to join the workers.

"Right away, comrade!" Dorothy nods.

"Just need you to sign here, and here." Almira presents more paperwork as they continue to sign more work.

From the background, Dorothy is chipping away the branches as the workers are carefully placing the Cottonwood onto the back of the working truck.

"I wonder if Ms. Crawford might be interested in being a Magical Girl? She seems to be the right age." Serena seemed interested in Dorothy.

"She looks like Green or even Blue Magical Girl material, but as you can see here, you're looking at one of the next and hopefully a potential Pink Magical Girl, right here!" Becky is taking pride. Both Serena and Almira are looking at her with a doubtful look.

"I heard that you fought a Salem Witch. Did you pissed your pants when you fought against her?" Almira tries to hold back her snickering.

"I fought two Witches here!" Becky presents two fingers. "They're my launching point as a real Magical Girl!" Grins at Almira who looked annoyed but continued to hold back the snickering.

"Right...!" Almira's long pause agreed to Becky's claims. "So do you know who this Witch is?"

"As of right now, no. But we'll just be call them Witches till we find out who they really are." Serena answered.

"Right!" Almira smiled. Looking over her paperwork. "Alright! Paperwork seemed fine. We'll take care of everything here." Almira excuses both of them.

"Doing fine work, Mrs. Holmes." Serena nods. "And tell Ms. Crawford to give me a call. I left my current location on the paperwork there!" Serena said as both she and Becky left the area.

Dorothy and Almira are riding the truck with their helpers, with Almira driving.

They drove and drove with loud music till they finally leave their sights. Turning down the music.

"Russian accent? Really?" Almira questioned Dorothy's choice in her normal tone.

"One of my family relatives was from Russia." Dorothy shrugs her shoulders, speaking back to her southern accent.

Almira rolled her eyes. "If I want to hear a Russian, it would have to be Malvonia. And I can barely tolerate her accent as it is."

"So why did we need to trick them? We could have just grabbed a branch and left." Dorothy said to Almira while questioning their method.

"And you're teaching a Witch to be an actual Witch?" Almira looked at her then back at the road. "By the way...!" They stop at the nearby woods to turn the helpers back to bears, sending them back to nature. "Why we need the whole tree is to find the perfect balance. It's a trial and error type of situation. Many Witches killed more people with a perfect balance."

Dorothy slowly looked at Almira's Wand. A straight and smooth wand. "I think I can understand that. How long did it take you to build this?"

"Around two months and three weeks." Almira answered. Looking at the paperwork. "Poor little pup. Becky doesn't have what it takes to be a Pink Magical Girl, due to her attitude and body, more specifically her weight and bust size. She fits more into the Green Magical Girl dorm. But all of that is basic knowledge, since she does cause nothing but trouble in Oztown. More than me." Almira snickered.

Dorothy looks over Serena's business card. A black card with a crescent moon design next to her name. "So why do we need this information if it's common knowledge to you?"

"To mess with them!" Almira cackled as she tossed the paperwork away.

"Woah! Why toss them away! They could be really valuable information!" Dorothy questioned Almira's decision.

"We have an hour to disappear before the real MGGA workers will come by. And these kinds of paperwork always have a trace in order to find us. So we just took a quick look at their information, then tossed it aside." Almira gives out a Witch's crackle.

§

An hour later.

Serena received a call. "Good day." Serena is listening to the caller. "That's right." Her happy expression turned soured as she heard. "What?! You mean...?!" Looking down. "I see then. Thank you for the information. Have a good day." Serena turned to Becky who was eating the leftovers from Peter's workplace. "We fell for an old trick from a Witch. The old switch-a-roo."