A rotting carcass leapt out at the girls, with a shriek of challenge and pain alike. Ava shrieked with terror and stumbled backwards, into the wall. An icy grip landed upon her shoulder, and she turned slowly to see a skeletal arm coming from the wall. Another scream, another stumble, and the green-haired tomboy fell against a third surface. This one squishier than the last one. Except instead of, for example, a mass of exposed flesh, it was her friend Kei’s modest chest. “...Are you done?” Kei said after a few moments.

    “Keiiiii, come on, it’s no fun if you don’t lean into it!” Ava complained, righting herself and pouting at her partner.

    “...Why pretend to be afraid?” she said, poking at the clearly fake zombie. “We fight actual monsters, and I’m not afraid of those either.”

    “That’s because you don’t really emote much at all. It’s part of the enjoyment, you know it’s fake but it’s no fun if you act like it’s fake!” 

    Kei shrugged and looked at the zombie again. “Ack. The horror. So scary.” 

    The two magical girls had decided to spend their day off doing something fun together. Or rather, Kei had decided to stay at home and catch up on her reading and then Ava had shown up at the door and dragged her outside to go do something fun together. Recently one of the old houses in Ava’s neighborhood had been converted to a haunted house, so she decided they’d go there. 

    As they continued down the hall in a circuitous route through the elaborate manor, Ava continued to make a show of her fear, while Kei continued to completely underreact. The production values were actually surprisingly decent; they didn’t exactly have access to the kinds of magical illusions with which the pair were familiar, but the makeup was well done and the cast seemed really into it.

    Despite her general disdain for this kind of thing, Kei was enjoying herself; she liked being with Ava. She… honestly wasn’t all that great at the whole ‘emotions’ thing, but Ava’s whirlwind energy and almost aggressive friendliness could rub off sometimes. They passed a couple on their way out, the girl clinging to the guy closely. Kei didn’t really get why, but she did understand it was a display of affection and the next time Ava theatrically flailed into her she latched onto her arm. 

    Before Ava could ask anything, a staff member in a witch’s costume popped out of a doorway. “Aw, what a cute couple~” she said. 

    “C-Couple?” Ava stammered.

    “Yep!” the witch said cheerfully. “We have something special for couples, you know…” she leaned in and whispered, “If you come into the basement there’s a special scare for you~” 

    “I, I mean, we’re not really-” 

    “Let’s go, Ava.” Kei said simply. 

    “K-Kei?” Ava looked at the blue haired girl clinging to her arm. She wasn’t emoting any more than usual, and she shrugged. 

    “May as well get our money’s worth, no?”

    The witch smiled, but then gasped and raised a hand to her mouth. “Hey… I think I’ve seen you before…” she snapped a finger, “Magical girls, right?”

    Strictly speaking, magical girl identities were secret. Honestly speaking, they were open secrets and the girls were on a status similar to celebrities or pop idols. Ava grinned, and promptly struck a pose. “That’s right~!” she said, “But you didn’t hear it from me, ok?”

     “Right, of course.” The costumed employee said. “Say, can I see the transformers? They’re always so hard to see on TV, since you usually just get shaky phone cam.”

    “No, I’m sorry, those are classified-” Kei started, but Ava had already taken hers out as well as dragging Kei’s catalyst, attached to a necklace, into view by tugging on the cord. A pair of bright gems, an emerald and a sapphire, set in their jewelry. 

    “Aren’t they pretty?” Ava gushed, “I’d wear this even if I wasn’t obligated to keep it on all the time honestly.” 

    “Yeah, they are,” the witch said, staring quite intently at the gems. She reached out, almost as if she was going to touch them, but pulled back. “Anyway! Right this way…” She stepped out of the way, revealing she’d been at the top of a set of stairs. 

    The pair headed down the steps, deeper and deeper into the basement. Or rather, sublevel - going off the echo, it was large enough that ‘basement’ was inadequate. And they had only the echo to go on, because it was incredibly dark, only a trickle of light from the stairwell coming down. “Echo!” Ava called, and pouted when there wasn’t a returning echo. 

    “Even if it’s as big as the whole house, it likely isn’t laid out in such a way as to echo.” Kei pointed out.

    “A girl can dream, can’t she?” Ava said, stepping out into the dark with her friend in tow. She squinted hard - she could just make out some outlines ahead of them, but it was too dark - 

    The room burst into light as the lanterns scattered across the walls came to life, with a suddenness that forced the magical girls to shield their eyes. Once they blinked the sparks out, they saw the apparent theme of this room’s scares; they hadn’t been visible in the dark, but there were nearly a dozen incredibly lifelike, life-sized dolls filling the room. 

    Ava jumped nearly a foot in the air in shock and even Kei took a step back, before both calmed down. “Whoa… no build up at all just right to the scare, huh?” she said, with a nervous laugh. She wasn’t great with dolls, honestly - it always felt like they were staring into her soul.

    “Indeed.” Kei said, frowning to herself as she staired at the two in front of them. It was a male and female doll, one clinging to the other’s arm. They seemed oddly familiar, like she’d seen them before… “Ava, I believe we have a problem.” 

    They were familiar… because Kei had seen their faces upstairs. 

    “Wow, you’re a sharp one!” a cheerful voice said from behind them. The witch had come down the steps behind them and was grinning at them. “Do you like my dolls? I love taking couples especially - you can’t have just one doll now can you?”

    As she spoke, some of the dolls began to move - at first stiffly, stretching out as if just waking up and slowly transitioning to smoother movement.

    “You made a mistake though!” Ava said, “Trying to take on magical girls? You have to be stupid!” Ava and Kei raised up their trinkets and activated their transformations.

    “Who was stupid? Me, or the girls who let me get close to their magical artifacts?” The witch said with a smirk. 

    It was too late to stop the transformation - the girls had to go through with it whether they wanted or not. Part of the transformation went as normal; the magic empowered them, creating their fancy magical dresses / armor and all that. Unfortunately, it was only part that went normally, as they started to change in a rather different way to usual.

    While the transformation was instant from the outside, from Ava and Kei’s perspectives they could see what was happening to them quite well. From the toes on upwards they felt their skin… change, harden. Every passing second more flesh became plastic. Ava reached down to touch it, to try and block it off, but all she succeeded at was getting a good feel of the hard material. Kei stumbled as her knees first froze, and then kind of popped as new ball joints formed in them. 

    The witch must have done something, the girls realized at the same time - she’d set a spell on their artifacts and it triggered as they tried to transform, hitchhiking onto the usual enchantment to have an easier time of changing them. The plastic rapidly spread up their legs and thighs. And it didn’t just harden them, it also changed their proportions; a doll, after all, could look like whatever their creator wanted. Hips and thighs grew out, and as it reached their waists they slimmed down. 

    There was nothing they could do to resist it as it climbed their chests and froze their formerly soft orbs into the same creeping material. As it gained ground, there was a distinctly strange sensation of… emptiness, inside. The parts that were plastic were hollowed out as they changed, leaving nothing inside but air and the magic that now animated them.  

    Their arms rapidly followed their chest, shoulders, wrists, and hands gaining doll joints at the same time as the plastic crept up their faces. While their faces too morphed into plastic, the magic that animated them allowed them to maintain their expressions, even as much of their features became painted-on. The last change was to their hair, turning more washed-out in color as it transformed from natural fiber to synthetic nylon, and separated at the roots to become wigs. This particular change felt strange to the girls, even moreso than the sensation of becoming plastic already did.

     The light faded, and the witch cackled in delight as she saw their transformations. “Oh my, you do make such wonderful dolls! I’ll have much fun playing with you… but first,”

    “But nothing!” Ava shouted, summoning a sickle from thin air. 

    “We can still fight.” Kei said quietly, drawing back her bow. 

    “...I need to change you to my taste~” the witch finished, as the dolls that had once been the couple came up behind the girls, and grabbed their hair.

    Ava had enough time to blink in surprise as the wig was yanked off her head, and the doll froze; it’s features seemed to fade away, leaving the doll faceless, standing there in it’s combat pose. The witch walked up to her two new dolls, and tapped on their heads. No response but for the sound of knocking on hollow plastic. “Theeere we are, no more of those pesky identities!” the witch trilled, “Nothing left in your heads but air, huh?”

    The faceless dolls didn’t respond. The witch smiled - she had some work to do. 

    About an hour later, with the wigs safely stored in the workshop (she’d probably modify them later so she could use them for other dolls - the blue one could probably use some trimming, and the green one needed some dye…), she had the dolls ready for their new identities. They still had ample magic in them, so they’d be very good servants indeed and thus deserved to have personalities. 

    She’d dressed them up, too. One of them had been given a long, fancy black gothic dress with frills and ruffles going down to the floor. The other had been given a dark blue gown that emphasized the curves and bust. The witch had already forgotten which had been who, but it didn’t really matter. The dolls had forgotten too, their thoughts derailed into silence as the wigs that contained their identities were pulled off. 

    The witch had some new wigs for them, and new identities with them. She gave the first the white one with long, elegant ringlets to complement and contrast her dress. As the wig settled onto the dolls head, new features carved and painted themselves onto it’s face; bright red eyes, even paler (although still clearly plastic) skin, and a wicked smile. The doll curtsied. “Good evening, mistress.”

    The witch took her hand and kissed it. “And to you as well, Amelia. Welcome to your new body - I do hope she’s satisfactory. She was once a magical girl, you know.” 

    Amelia smiled, running her hands along her curves. “Mmmh, yes, this one will do nicely. I can feel her magic still. My sister?” 

    “Alysia will be along in just a moment.” the witch reassured her minion, turning to the other doll and fitting her with the a black wig with a side ponytail. Another set of features formed on the doll, similar to the first. Then, it too curtsied. 

    “Ah, it’s good to be back~” the doll said in a sultry tone, “You look as lovely as ever, mistress~” 

    There was a loud knocking from up the stairs. 

    “And you as well, Alysia.” the witch said. She wrapped her arms around the pairs waists. “Now, the humans are still upstairs - how about we have a survey of our new home, and plan for our next moves?”

    The trio went up the stairs to greet whoever was knocking - they had a few more minions to create before they could be ready to debut to the world.