The fighting stopped, not so much because any surrendering actually happened, but more because Mary's declaration had come from so far left field that even her allies needed some processing time.

"What? No we don't," said Tracy.

"Yes, we do. Look, he's not even fighting seriously. It should be obvious that we can't win."

"He might not be fighting seriously, but you're not fighting at all," pointed out Stacy. "That does kinda make things easier for him."

"And he seemed pretty serious to me," said Natasha, taking the opportunity to peer down. "Huh. I've never noticed that my magical girl transformation changes my bra. What for? It's not like anyone ever sees it."

"I've seen it," shrugged Decay, who, despite his flippancy, was looking a little uncertain. "And now I've also seen one of your planet's defenders surrendering to an invader. What do you make of that, Will of the World?"

"It is against the nature of things, but so is your entire existence," sighed William. "I won't object. For now."

"For now? Do you expect me to simply let your pets go, so they can try another strategy tomorrow? You wish to use the word 'surrender' as a meaningless tool, knowing that with my self-imposed restrictions, I can't continue fighting them if they don't fight back?"

William didn't answer.

"It doesn't matter what he thinks, because we're not giving up!" exclaimed Natasha, launching a punch at Decay from behind.

Decay simply twisted a hundred and eighty degrees at the waist, caught Natasha's fist and squeezed.

The half-naked girl screamed.

"Why are you all so... so... stupid," sighed the Bane as Stacy picked up another girder. "Why would you broadcast your intentions while attacking? My attention was elsewhere, but you nevertheless insisted on shouting, drawing my attention right when you should have avoided it. And you, green one. Yes, as a weapon that has a lot of weight behind it, and I really wouldn't want you to smack me with it, but even with your enhanced strength, it's far too unwieldy. Even the most devastating attack means nothing if you can't land it."

Proving his point, he simply ducked under her swing.

"Not to mention I still had a grip on your teammate," he continued, as if nothing had happened. "What if I'd tossed her upward into the path of your swing? You'd have batted her straight off the building."

"We all know that you can't," answered Tracy, edging sideways to keep the Bane surrounded.

Decay clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Some surrender this is, but fine by me. Let's finish undressing this yellow one."

"Nooo!" screamed Natasha.

"Really? Death and injury don't scare you, but the shame of nakedness does? You lot are perfect matches for the others of my race."

"Thanks?"

"That was not a compliment!"

"Everyone, just stop already," sighed Mary. "We can't hurt him and he can't hurt us, so it's in all our interests to not drag this on any longer. The more energy we force him to use, the more he needs to replace, which isn't something any of us want."

"That's... true," admitted Tracy. "Fine. Let's retreat, for now."

"Really?" asked Natasha. "We're just going to run away?"

"It's not running away," said Stacy. "It's a strategic disengagement."

Decay clicked his tongue in annoyance as his trio of combatants regrouped around Mary, then blurred past them as they backed away towards the missing wall, blocking their way to the exit.

"Whu?" exclaimed Natasha. "We're running away! What more do you want?!"

"And why would I let you simply run away?" asked Decay, sounding genuinely confused. "I believe it is safe for me to do whatever is required to ensure my safety, and if I let you go right now, you will simply attack again. Maybe it won't be tomorrow, but you'll come up with some other foolish plan at some point, and I would rather not take the risk that one of them will work."

"Yes, it's true that we could just attack again tomorrow, but that would be equally true if we kept on fighting," said Mary. "As you said, you can't harm us any more than necessary for... self... defence..." she continued, stuttering to a halt as she realised what Decay was planning.

Mary knew full well that Natasha wouldn't be so energetic had she experienced the same terror that she had.

"It won't work," she continued. "Yes, you got me, to the extent I can't even think of fighting you without my body trembling, but now that we know you're fangless, you won't be able to instil the same fear into the others."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"I'm hardly fangless," he said. "I'm certain I can find a way to instil into your teammates the appropriate amount of despair without breaking my protection."

"Perhaps, but if we surrender, you're not going to find out. No way will your protection survive attacking us after we've given up."

"If you surrender," echoed the Bane. "Surrendering means accepting a loss. Acknowledging the victory of your opponent. You do not get to simply walk away unscathed, ready to begin another round at your leisure. If you want to surrender, make an oath you will not attack me again, otherwise I'll take whatever minimal steps I feel necessary to ensure you will not attack me."

"No," said Mary, hoping that she sounded more confident than she felt. "Even if we continue this fight, I don't think you can give yourself any certainty of that. Knowing the personalities of my teammates, it's more likely you'll just harden their opinions that you need to die."

"Oh? And you don't share that opinion?"

Mary didn't answer.

Decay clicked his tongue again. "Fine. I'm sure a few more failed plans will teach you the futility of continuing to oppose me, regardless of how much effort I put into beating the lesson into you. Since you've made this night a complete write-off, I'll accept your surrender if you simply replace the energy I intended to gather along with what I've wasted defending myself."

"Wh... What?" exclaimed Natasha, blushing as she recalled Decay's usual method of obtaining nourishment.

"Is that safe?" Mary asked William.

"Of course not!" exclaimed the mascot. "But... for as long as he wants to maintain his protection, I suppose he can't take too much, and thanks to your powers as a magical girl, you have plenty to spare..."

"I'm not kissing you," she said, turning her attention back to the Bane.

"Why do you think I'd want to?" he laughed, lowering his gaze at a point somewhat lower than Mary's eye level. "I prefer my women rather better developed."

"You're seriously going to let him drain your energy?" asked Tracy. "That seems... ill advised."

"It's the only way you get out of here with your dignity intact," said Mary. "Face it; the moment he blocked the falling debris, we had no hope of winning today."

"But he can't hurt us!" shouted back Natasha. "We only need to get lucky once."

"He can hurt us plenty, in ways that leave no scars," said Mary. "Believe me, I know, and given your current state of undress, it should be obvious to you, too. Now, unless you want to go through what I did, shut up and let us get on with it."

"I don't like this..."

"And you think I do?! This isn't a game! We don't get to quit and reload when things don't go our way."

"At least one of you has some common sense," snorted Decay, waving a hand and summoning more of his solidified shadows, which immediately grasped at Mary's ankles.

The breath of the poor magical girl immediately caught in her throat as the trauma of her previous defeat once again overwhelmed her conscious thoughts.

"What are you doing?!" demanded William, glaring at the Bane.

"Not kissing her," he answered with a shrug, uncaring of Mary's panic as the black bands slowly mummified her. "Don't worry. This will only take a minute."

Mary, for her part, despite hyperventilating, managed not to move. Admittedly, it helped that she knew she couldn't; from the moment the Bane's magic had caught her legs, there was no escape. Instead, the darkness wrapped her from bottom to top, pinning her arms to her sides and covering her mouth, eyes and ears, although this time he did at least leave her nose poking out.

A thin blue haze rose from the black cocoon, before seemingly being sucked straight back into it.

Decay staggered backward, barely managing to catch himself before he fell. "What the hell? Did you just..."

After shaking his head rather violently—more like he was trying to shake something loose than as an expression of denial or disagreement—he frowned and jumped off the building without uttering another word to any of the girls.

"Mary!" exclaimed Natasha, diving toward the cocoon.

"Nnn!" answered Mary from inside, the airtight seal over her mouth a rather effective gag.

"Don't worry! I'll get you out right now! Argg, dammit! What are these things made of?! Tracy and Stacy, help me out!"

The trio of girls tugged at the bands of darkness, but they had no give. Magical attacks proved useless.

"Hey, William! How do we get her out?"

"I think you'll have to wait for them to dissipate on their own. Without Decay nearby, it shouldn't be too long."

"Rather cunning of him. It ensures that we couldn't chase him," said Stacy.

"I'm not sure it was deliberate, actually," said Tracy carefully. "Didn't you see him at the end there? Was this whole surrender thing a ruse by Mary? Did she poison her energy somehow?"

"Nnn," answered Mary.

"I have no idea what 'nnn' means," sighed Natasha. "Tell you what, moan once for yes, twice for no. Did you just poison Decay?"

"Nnn nnn!"

"I'm not even sure that's possible," said William. "You can't 'poison' someone's energy. At least, not in any way that wouldn't kill its owner, and that would be very obvious to a Bane before they absorbed it."

"Hey, I think his magic ropes are decaying," said Stacy as the bands of shadow started to fray around the edges. They faded further over the course of a minute, before vanishing with a crack. Stacy caught Mary as she fell over.

"Woah. You look... uh..." started Natasha, looking her teammate up and down.

"I don't feel too bad," said Mary. "Just a little light-headed."

"Your costume is transparent," said Tracy. "I can see your skin straight through your dress."

"Oh, please don't tell me Decay just stole her magical girl powers," said Stacy.

"No, that's not how they work," answered William. "They can't be stolen, but since they rely on their users' internal energies, being drained would have weakened them. Mary will recover quickly enough, but I suggest you undo your transformation for now."

Mary nodded and concentrated, her transparent dress bursting apart and a denim jumpsuit forming back in its place. Her hair darkened slightly and shortened.

"Huh? Now I feel... perfectly fine," she said.

"You've lost too much energy to sustain your Graceful Aqua form, but you have more than enough left to be human."

"Interesting... And you say I'll recover quickly?"

"No," said Natasha. "I bet you're thinking something silly like 'if I can keep him fed on my own, we won't need to kill him and he won't need to attack anyone'. Well, forget it. No way can you go through that every day."

"What if the rest of us chip in?" asked Stacy, turning to William. "You said we have plenty of energy compared to regular people? Would we be better off spending it keeping him fed rather than fighting him?"

"It would probably work, for a time, but you couldn't sustain it long term. Even if you took it in turns, at once every four days, the damage would still accumulate faster than you recovered. It's not as if I can just create more companions for you, either, else I would have done from the beginning."

"Pity. That might have been a viable solution."

"Let's just go home. Today was a complete failure, but perhaps we'll think up another idea tomorrow," said Natasha.