Kaylee nods.  "The more I think about it... maybe he keeps pushing the 'teamwork doesn't work' line because he's - not confident enough to go off-script?  But that just kinda passes the buck..."

"I don't know. I still don't really trust him, even if the reason's just incompetence..."

"That's fair.  But it probably has - implications for how we deal with it."

A voice from downstairs:  "Kaylee!  Lianne!  Dinner!"

Kaylee stands up.  "We should head down."

"Yeah, lets."

"Coming!"

Down to dinner.

Lianne enjoys the pizza, and makes sure to say so.

Afterwards, she turns to Kaylee and says, "This's been really fun! We should do it again sometime. Unfortunately I think I should be getting home, though. See you tomorrow?" 'And we can test the telepathy range at least some once I'm back home.'

"I'd love to do this again, I had a lot of fun too.  See you tomorrow!"  'Good idea.'

So Lianne solicits a ride home, lets her mom know she's back, then heads up to her room.

'Testing, testing, one two three,' she sends, for lack of any better ideas.

'Hi Lianne,' Kaylee says.  'It reaches at least this far.'

'Yeah. How're you doing?'

'Pretty well,' she says.  'How about you?'

'Missing you already. It's boring here, and now I have to do homework. Ugh.'

'Awww!  I miss you too.  And yeah, homework sucks.  We'll see each other tomorrow though.'

'Yeah.'

And indeed they do.  Days pass; they hunt together on Friday, and it's as exhilarating as ever.  Saturday comes, and it's time for another meeting of the League of Magical Girls.

"How'd meeting with the other magical girls go?" Alex asks when they get there. It's just her, Sophie, and Mal so far; Taylor's running late.

"Not very well," Kaylee says.  "We only found two, and they were both - unfriendly.  We got into a fight with one of them."

"Man, that sucks. You two okay?"

"I am.  Thanks."  She glances at Lianne.

"Yeah. Wasn't very pleasant, but we won without too many injuries."

"Still."

"I'm glad to hear you're both alright. It's good you were able to get out of the fight, though of course bad to have gotten into one. What happened, do you mind me asking?"

"We showed up in what turned out to be her territory, hunting witches and looking for other magical girls, and she just - attacked.  And told us we should be running, and then decided to - "take us down," I don't know if she wanted to kill us or what - and steal all the grief seeds we had on us."

"I'm sorry that happened to you. Girls like that aren't too common, but they exist."

"Thanks.  The other one - wasn't as bad, but I think that could've turned into a fight too if Lianne wasn't as good as de-escalating."  She smiles at Lianne.