A house as colorful and bright as that one shouldn’t have seemed quite so intimidating. Pastel, happy colors, the kinds that decorate the toys of small kids and are generally associated with cheery children. Unfortunately, a building that was shaped like a dollhouse got kind of creepy when you made it swell to the size of a real house and when you knew it was the domain of a Villain.

Hina looked up from her Magic-Analyzer tool. “Barrier, just like we thought! I think it’s probably warped the building too. Bigger on the inside, maybe?” she said, tapping at her visor to shift vision mode back to normal.

“Aw, these types are always so annoying…” Celica, currently Vita Sun, sighed. “Why couldn’t it just be a nice wandering villain we can beat up and call it a day?”

“Because this one seems to want to play with dolls, and a dollhouse is an appropriate scene for that.” Maya, AKA Vita Rose, replied. “Did there seem to be any conditions to enter?”

Hina shook her head. “Nope. This Barrier isn’t that type. It looks like it’s more the territory-defining type than the rules-enforcing type.” Hina reported. “It won’t force us to do anything but it does mean the Villain will be in more control of the place. And… I think I’ll have to come in with you, it’s blocking anything looking deeper than the outer walls.”

The Vitalizers - the trio of magical girls along with Hina as the Handler - had been called to the scene of a new Villain attack. Unauthorized magic use and the construction of a Barrier around the long-running toy shop meant Villain activity - even if one didn’t account for the fact the odd living doll had been spotted in the surrounding areas snatching up civilians.

Once the region was cordoned off by cops, it was time for Magical Girls to deploy. Hina had tried to send a construct to scout ahead, but her connection to it fizzled within a minute of sending it inside - what she’d managed to see through it’s eyes before that happened was an elaborate doll house, well in line with what had been spotted by bystanders and police before. Along with that was the Barrier - containing the entire perimeter of the building, it morphed an old brownstone into a whimsical facade and expanded it’s interior well beyond the bounds of it’s physical limitations.

“Well, let’s get to it then!” Alex, or Vita Sky at the moment, said confidently. “We’ve beaten worse, right? No need to wait around! The longer we wait the more time the Villain has to prepare!”

Well, she had a point - the team nodded to each other and decided to head inside so that they could track down the Villain.

The inside of the doll house was in the same saccharine pastels as the outside, and the instant the team entered they could tell that the scans had told true - the Barrier had utterly warped the space inside the toy shop, placing inside of it the winding halls of a large mansion rather than the cramped but cozy one-room storefront it was meant to be.

What should have been a cute aesthetic became creepy as a result of the classical music playing from an invisible source combined with the unnaturally lengthy hallways. It felt like at any moment something might leap out at them and attack, complete with a scare chord and flashy visual effects.

With nowhere to go but forwards, the Vitalizers picked a direction and walked. Hina created a viewing construct and sent it out ahead, putting it’s view into a window in her visor so she could keep an eye on it as it scouted the path.

“I think this Villain is a bit scared of us, hmm hmm~?” Vita Sun said idly as they walked.

Vita Rose rolled her eyes. “I wish they would come out already. I’m getting tired waiting.

The scanner construct came to a fork in the road, and Hina had it pause to wait for them to catch up. No matter where they went the background noise didn’t change in volume or location, seeming to come from all around them - it was disorienting, making it hard to be sure how far they had gone or what direction.

It was at the intersection that the first signs of something more than endless halls was seen - doorways. It was a T-intersection, with two paths besides the one on which they’d arrived, and a pair of doors in the wall of the intersection.

“Huh. I wonder which path we should take… do you think they’re trying to confuse us?” Vita Sky wondered aloud.

“I can try and send some constructs down each path and see if we can find anything,” Hina suggested.

“Wait on that.” Vita Rose said, holding up a hand to her ear and listening. There was a sound of soft footsteps approaching from the left and the right. “We have some company.”

Groups of humanoid figures turned the corners of the different paths. At first they looked like just people, but as they approached it became obvious that they weren’t - at least not anymore. Too-perfect skin in just slightly off colors, with an artificial sheen. Hair in colors just a little too vibrant to be natural. Jerky movements as they were pulled along by strings - the dolls might look human at a glance but it was clear that the minions of this Villain were just puppets.

Minions, especially clearly-mindless ones such as these, were easy pickings for even your weakest Magical Girls - but there was a whole lot of them here, surrounding the team from either side. It would be three against many, with Hina having to be protected too. Not an ideal battle scenario.

“Fall back.” Rose snapped, but even as the Vitalizers turned to run back down the way they came to force the enemy to come from one direction, they saw that there was now another platoon of minions barring the path.

The dolls march turned into a sprint, and the battle began. In no time the girls were pushed up against the intersection wall by sheer numbers. Every time Vita Rose punched one out or Vita Sky blasted a hole in their line or Vita Sun rammed them into the walls with magical shields, another group took their place. The invisible strings pulling them along didn’t care for any damage, and that meant they had their work cut out fighting through them.

“This isn’t looking good, hmm…” Vita Sun grunted, as she tried her best to keep her allies empowered while shoving around the dolls to keep them from overwhelming any.

“There’s more coming!” Hina reported, “When did they even get the time to make so many…?”

As they were being pushed back, Hina found herself pressing against the wall - and the door she’d accidentally pushed against swung open, causing her to fall through with a yelp of surprise.

Vita Sky whirled around. “Hina!” She cried out, following Hina through the door - which shut behind them.

“We’ll have to try the other one.” Vita Rose said immediately; it was untenable to hold the position with Sky’s firepower gone, so they had to split up and hope to regroup further into the Barrier.

— — — — —

“Ow…” Hina grumbled, rubbing her butt as she stood up.

“Are you alright?” Vita Sky asked, helping Hina to her feet.

“Yeah, I think so! Sorry…”

“Not your fault! We had to get out of there anyway.” Sky tried the door, finding it had locked behind them. “…Well that’s not great…”

“I guess we’ll have to try and find the other two… they had a door too, right?” Hina said.

This part of the doll house was a good bit different to the rest of it - the pastel colors were replaced with fancy woods and wallpapers that made it look much more like an actual house. There were also, unlike the blank hallways before going through the door, actual rooms. The pair had found themselves in a kitchen first, and left it to find a dining room, then a lounge. It was just as ominously empty of life as the earlier halls had been, but it was at least not completely empty.

It was a few rooms deeper in - passing through a library and a study - that that once again changed. The room they entered was just as oversized as nearly every other room they’d seen thus far, but much more densely furnished. Toys were scattered about the floor. A desk at one end had a half dozen books haphazardly spread across it, and there were shelves full of dolls - normal sized ones rather than people sized. And in the middle of it, a small table arranged for a fancy tea party, with a young woman sitting facing the door and sipping tea.

“Oh, two of our guests have arrived. How delightful!” The young woman said with a wide grin on her too-pale face. She looked very doll-like, though unlike the other denizens of this establishment she seemed actually human. She had pale, nearly chalk white skin, and was dressed in an elaborate gothic-lolita black dress. Her blonde hair was visibly silky smooth even from this distance, and there wasn’t a visible flaw anywhere on her, as if someone had brought a child’s doll to life. “Shall I pour you some tea, or will we have dress up time first? The Dollmaker cannot be a poor hostess.” The young lady asked.

Hina wondered whether putting a sign saying ‘Villain Here’ over the girl would make it any more obvious who was in charge of the doll house.

“I’d kind of like some tea, I’m thirsty- w-wait I mean, stop your dangerous magic this instant, Villain!” Vita Sky said, falling into a combat posture with her wand out and ready to blast. “I don’t want to hurt you but I will if you make me!”

The young woman smiled. “I see, dress up it is, then.”

Hina didn’t see any magical attack coming from her, no charge of energy - so what was she going to do? She remembered how the dolls had been before - tugged around on invisible strings, and looked up.

“Watch out!” Hina cried as the magical strings launched down at the pair of them from the ceiling. Vita Sky moved fast, interposing herself between the wires and Hina, and trying to blast them. Some of the wires got blown away but more made it through, attaching themselves to Vita Sky at her shoulders and limbs - and then some went under her arms and between her legs to get at Hina anyway.

The pair split apart, tugging at the strings and trying to pull themselves free - they were really firmly in there, having magically attached themselves to their very skin. Wherever the wires made contact a weird cooling sensation spread across their bodies. It didn’t take an experienced heroine to take a guess at what the strings were trying to do to them, and while they couldn’t see their own changes, they could each see the exposed skin of the other taking on an artificial tint and shine. Their skin was turning plastic as they were pumped full of transformative magic, bodies separating into posable segments, joints splitting off and rounding. “I always thought dolls were creepy, I don’t want to be one!” Hina complained, trying to yank the wire out of her arm - and succeeding? When she pulled it out it stayed out.

Alex, even her hair beginning to take on the strange texture as it went from natural human hair to synthetic fiber, struggled free of her own wires. She managed to pull away and shoot another blast at them. “This isn’t going to be enough!” she said in her most heroic voice - she could still fight this!

The transformation was odd; they were still free to move, even though they’d been transformed. There hadn’t even been a mental side to it that they could notice, still just as bent on stopping the Villain as they had been when the transformation began. The wires hadn’t tried too hard to hold on once their designated zone was transformed.

The two now-dolls turned their attention back to the Villainess, only to find she was no longer seated at her tea table. Instead, she was right in front of them. “Hmm. You’re very cute. But I think I can do better. Your sculptors were skilled, but they were hardly masters, I think.” She said, critically examining each of them.

“W-Wha-" Hina stammered, stumbling back.

Vita Sky pulled her wand up, trying to blast the Villain. “Too close!” she yelled as she sent a beam of magic at them. The Dollmaker dodged the attack, continuing to press closer.

“Interesting, but perhaps a bit too aggressive.” The Dollmaker noted idly. She snapped a finger, and suddenly more of the minion-dolls from earlier appeared, holding the girls. They were fairly weak minions, and even Hina could break free of their grip, but all they had to do was hold them.

Just as the pair were getting away from the dolls, the Dollmaker reached out. One hand on each of their heads, she grabbed, and pulled - the wigs being torn free of their heads.

They didn’t have the time to respond; the moment the Dollmaker did that, they froze in their positions, Vita Sky and Hina now nothing more than inanimate dolls.

The Dollmaker smiled, inspecting her prizes. “Hmmm… the highlights are a little… uncouth, for my taste…” she murmured looking at Hina’s wig. “And this one’s color is too vibrant for a doll - it’ll distract from her dress.” She said of Alex’s. “I think I can work with these nonetheless…”

She sent another group of dolls to mess with the other intruders; she wouldn’t stand for any interruptions while she worked. Meanwhile, she had her newest acquisitions moved to her workshop where she could get started.

Making them into dolls was a fine first step - but now the Dollmaker had to make them into her dolls. She was very exacting in her standards, and dolls sourced from Magical Girls simply had to be the finest examples in her collection, or else it would be a waste of good material.

First she went to work on their wigs. The high-quality synthetic fibers were quite responsive, and combined with her magic merged smoothly with the extensions she added. She adjusted their styles. The one with the highlights got bouncy, elegant curls falling to what would be shoulder length, while the one with twintails had it’s hair taken out of that style and redone smooth and straight down the back.

She could feel their identities tied into the wigs, becoming looser and more malleable as they were changed out of their original style. That was good - they were to be her dolls, so she wanted to make their backstories herself, none of this drivel they came with. Where was the fun of using the official story when you could come up with your own? To further reinforce the loss of identity she dyed their hair; the one with highlights was bleached a pearly white tone, while the blue wig was darkened to midnight black.

“Hmmm. Hina and Alex, that was your names… Bella and Alicia, now.” The Dollmaker said aloud. “I think you shall be twins. Elegant noble ladies, doting to each other and your close friend the Dollmaker. Tea parties and fancy dresses and gossip is your duty now, none of that silly heroism. That’s for the help, and we are far above such things.”

While the new identities sank into the wigs and started to push out the old, she got to work on the dolls. First she had them stripped of their outfits and new ones prepared. While that was arranged, she worked on their faces. This was something she would have to do personally, even if it was manual labor - sanding down here, a little knifework there. A bit of magical putty to bring things together, and then another sanding to smooth out the finish; it was delicate work but she was a skilled sculptor.

She had them dressed in new outfits. Bella, formerly Hina, was getting a black gothic dress to contrast her white curls, one with many ruffles and frills. She’d get nice leggings and heels as well. Meanwhile, Alicia was going to have lacy white dress to contrast her black wig, a big fancy one that was nearly like a wedding dress.

There was more sawing and modification to be done to get the twins look down; making sure they had the same height, adjusting both of their figures to be the same, making some last touches on the face and shape of the head. By the time she was done with them, they were completely unrecognizable as the duo that had entered her abode not long before - just the way she liked them.

With most of her work done, she carefully placed the wigs on their respective dolls. After a moment, the dolls came back to life, animating in place.

There was momentary confusion as they looked at each other - but it passed quickly, new identities settling in. “Oh, you look quite nice, Alicia.” Bella said with a smile.

“Oh, but not as pretty as you, Bella.” Alicia replied with a matching grin. The pair then turned to the Dollmaker, and curtsied. “Greetings, Mistress,” the twins said in unison.

“You’re both positively adorable, my darlings~” the Dollmaker said. She clapped her hands together. “Now, teatime?”

— — — — —

“Ah, would you pass me a sugar cube, Bella?”

“Of course, Alicia,”

“Did you hear about the intruders? I’m told they were ‘Magical Girls’ - some young ladies in frilly outfits spouting nonsense about justice.”

“Oh my! How childish of them. And very rude, to invade private property. The staff are disciplining them, no?”

The dolls gossiped and gabbed as the hours whiled on, and the Dollmaker looked to her timepiece. It was taking a bit too long to deal with them, was it not? They should have been there…

The doors opened, and two bedraggled ladies stomped in, one overwhelmingly red in coloring and the other aggressively yellow. “You’re the Villain, right?” the red one snapped.

“I am the Dollmaker. And you are rude.” The Dollmaker said with a ‘hmph’.

“How uncouth,” “How boorish,” added in the dolls.

“I don’t care. We’ve been dealing with your dolls for hours!”

“It gets tiring after a while, I have to say.” The yellow one agreed. “Now, this is the part where we fight you, I believe?”

“Interrupting a tea party is unforgivable.” Bella said. “I think me and my sister shall have to remind you of your manners.”

“Well said, sister,” Alicia said, standing and assisting her sister in doing the same. “Mistress, we shall handle them.”

“Of course. Alicia, Bella, do be gentle. I’m sure I can get some use out of these two as materials.”

“You won’t be talking so smug for long.” Vita Rose said, preparing to get to fighting.

“Especially when Vita Sky and the handler catch up…”

The Dollmaker tilted her head. “Oh? You’re the only intruders here. Not for much longer, though.” The strings were already coming down behind them…