"Lux... Lux! Wake up! We have to get out of here!"

Elysia was shaking my body. She had a look of concern on her face, and her hair was a mess. The ringing in my ears faded and was replaced by the sound of gunfire. I could see smoke rising from the ruins of the building around us.

My mind felt like it was moving at a snail's pace, but I could still process the scene in front of me. I glanced around, and saw that Elysia had created a large layered shield that protected us from the blast. It looked like the missiles had destroyed the back half of the restaurant.

The entire wall separating the private rooms and the front was completely destroyed, but we'd somehow wound up outside in some kind of hexagon layered in a spherical shape around us.

I glanced at Elysia's hands. She had a blue aura that surrounded both her and me, and she seemed to be using that to create a protective bubble. Elysia had saved us from certain death, but we weren't out of danger just yet.

"E-Elysia?"

She didn't answer me, immediately rushing over to the side out of my line of sight to where Ichigo and Albert had fallen. Albert hissed, his arm covering his head while he had a terrified expression on his face. He was shakily getting up and dusting himself off, looking up at Elysia in a daze.

Ichigo, on the other hand, had taken more of a beating, her clothes were torn and she was covered in blood. I could see that her legs had been shredded by the shrapnel.

"Your barrier gave me just enough time to weave my own, but..." Elysia muttered, her eyes wide and panicky. "It was so ridiculous, I... I didn't expect it. They were designed to tactically penetrate barriers and disable through powerful auras."

"Yee. Haw," the man's voice drawled as his silhouette appeared at the hole.

He pointed his glowing sword at the three of us, the glowing red eye of his helmet staring us down.

"Come out and give yourself up, lil' man, or else I'm gonna hafta use more o'these here explosives," he said. "I ain't gettin' paid no extra to keep ya alive if yer a lil' roughed up, y'hear?"

Black Star groaned, crawling to his feet as well. The mercenary took a step forward, his heavy boots thudding against the pavement. The man's gaze shifted to him and the red eye glowed.

I gulped, my throat tight as I clutched the barrier and stood up, my body aching as I did. The man's aura was a massive swirl of blue and black. The red and black of his armor matched the glow of his energy.

It wasn't just power I saw, it was ruthlessness. He had killed before. He had killed many people before. The aura told me everything I needed to know about him. He was an unstoppable force that had destroyed countless lives. I had no idea how to fight him.

"You ain't the ones I'm after," the man said, pointing to me and then Elysia. "Get lost."

He pointed the glowing sword at Black Star.

"I reckon we can take care of this quick 'n' easy. Contract's a capture job. Alive. Yer a lil' rascal, ain'tcha?"

Elysia put her arm in front of me protectively. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him.

"Lux..." she whispered.

I gulped.

"We can't... we can't fight that," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "If we try, we're all dead."

She was right, I knew she was. My legs were shaking, my heart pounding in my chest, my palms sweating, but I had no idea how to fight him.

"Alright," Black Star sighed, getting to his feet. "Alright. Just don't hurt them, alright? You got what you came here for. Just... Just leave them out of it. This is my mess."

"Enrico!" Claw Strawberry cried. "No!"

"I'm sorry," Black Star muttered, shaking his head. "But he clearly wants me alive, so... if I might ask, who hired you, Scuttler?"

The red and black armored man laughed. "Now, now, that would be spoilin' the fun of ya gettin' to see their faces when I hand ya off."

Black Star's expression turned dark.

"Couldn't be Voltage. Not his style," he said, scratching his chin. "Not the South Street Serpents. Too much effort for them. Not the Black Knights or any of the other families in their brannch. Couldn't have been the Russians. So..."

His expression changed to one of pure rage as a terrifying realization came over him. His eyes went wide, his pupils contracted, and his hands clenched.

"It can't be," he whispered.

Scrapper Scuttler laughed, his voice crackling with static through the mask's audio modulator.

"Only the people who Arsenal brought along should even know I'm here..." Black Star hissed. "And that means... the person who hired you... was someone in her faction of the Crimson Order."

Scrapper Scuttler burst out laughing. "Now, I'd be telling, but I can tell you this. You're in for a heck of a time when I bring you to the guy who's been after ya!"

He stepped forward, and I felt a surge of terror as his aura swirled. Elysia's eyes widened in shock. She stepped back, clutching her arms and looking away. She was shaking her head.

Claw Strawberry 's wounds had already been partially healed with her aura visibly wrapping around her but her expression was one of pure fear. I could feel her aura wavering, her tail swaying and ears folding back as her hands shook in fear.

"Now... now that the little twerp figured it out..." the man in the skull mask growled.

I felt my legs turn to jelly as he took another step forward.

"Yer all loose ends," Scrapper Scuttler said.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

We were going to die.

We were all going to die.

Visions of the armored mercenary killing all of us ran through my head. The way he had killed the gangster with such ruthlessness. The way he'd cut through him without even flinching. The way he had fired the missiles at the back half of the sushi place without hesitation, just because we had been there.

We were going to die. And I couldn't stop him.

Those missiles hadn't even been designed to kill. I could see it now. They had been designed to take down barriers. My barriers. Elysia's. To take down people who relied on shields.

There were probably shrapnel inside that were designed to penetrate magical shields and defenses. To take out magical girls.

A hand on my shoulder brought me out of the haze, and I looked back to see Albert's terrified expression on his face. The same fear was present in his eyes, and he looked like he wanted to scream, but he just stood there, steadying his breathing.

"Lux," he whispered gently in my ear.

I couldn't bring myself to face him, so instead, I looked down at the ground.

"Stay focused, alright? Just focus. Focus," he whispered.

Focused? What the fuck? What the hell did he mean by that?

I turned around and saw Elysia standing there, her hands trembling, and her face pale.

"Please don't hurt us," she pleaded.

"Remember," Albert whispered, trembling as his voice cracked. "Your Signature. Focus, and breathe. In... out..."

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

That was right.

Someone. Something was affecting our auras.

Making us... terrified. Giving us visions.

Compliant.

I opened my eyes, seeing the armored mercenary stalking forward. There was something wrong with his aura.

It wasn't just black and blue, it had a sickly green and red streak that was moving throughout. The black and the blue, it was just a cloak, an outer shell.

My aura sight was letting me pierce the veil.

It was... some kind of illusion. A projection.

It was covering something else up. I didn't know how I'd missed it.

The man wasn't a monster, he was just... a normal, albeit very powerful, mercenary. I could sense that he'd had enhancements, but not many.

The sickly green energy that was seeping out was the cause of our fear and panic.

"Henry," I said, grabbing Black Star by the arm and pulling him back. "I'm not going to let anything happen to us."

"Sparkle Princess?" Black Star whispered.

I looked at Scrapper Scuttler and saw that he was walking slowly towards us, and then he stopped.

...

"Ah, dangnabbit. Not these clowns again."

He whipped around as a bright green comet suddenly lit up the sky above us, rocketing downwards.

I closed my eyes, seizing on the momentary distraction to reach out with my Luminary Conversion technique.

The moment I did, my senses were flooded with information. I could see the sickly red and green magic running through everyone's auras, like a virus. It was complicated and sophisticated. It would be impossible for anyone to detect without an extremely advanced form of magical sense. But I knew what to look for because of Stella.

The aura was like a net. It was wrapped around me. Around us. Around the world.

I reached out with my aura. And grabbed.

I seized the aura, the curse that was wrapped around my own, and I dragged it into myself, absorbing the magic as my own.

The fear disappeared. The visions vanished. I opened my eyes.

"On my mark! Go!" a youthful male voice shouted from above.

"'Tis a pleasure! Aero Art: Dynamic Entry!"

Scrapper Scuttler fired a burst of energy from his suit and launched himself into the sky, just as a screaming purple figure came shooting out of the comet of light in an explosive burst of air.

The armored man swung his glowing sword to intercept.

Then, I felt another wave of magical energy.

It wasn't the mercenary, this one. It came from the newcomer. A surge of blue and purple.

My eyes snapped to the source of the attack as a gigantic purple tiger lit up the night sky.

"Howling Fist: Heavenly Strike!"

I watched the purple figure's hand move faster than I could possibly perceive as he suddenly dashed in mid-air. There was a blast of purple light as their fists slammed into Scrapper Scuttler.

The mercenary's armor crumpled, and his body was sent flying back, his glowing blade flying off in a different direction, vanishing in a flash of light. The mercenary was sent tumbling through the air like a ragdoll.

The purple newcomer was sent tumbling to the ground, hitting it hard as he tucked into a roll.

Another bright yellow aura separated from the green comet, soaring over the armored mercenary and smashing into the pavement in front of us.

I gasped in surprise as a tall, muscular man wearing a Roman breast plate with a stepped out of the smoke and flames.

"When the cries of maidens are heard in the air, when evil men seek to harm those innocent of malice, and when injustice is rampant in the lands of men, we shall appear!" he said in a deep, booming voice.

The newcomer with the purple aura dashed over to Claw Strawberry, kneeling down beside her.

He wore a purple and gold outfit, with a hood over his head, a large tiger mask that'd cracked down the middle, and a long purple cloak.

"C-Claw Currant?!" I gasped.

"Big... big bro?" Ichigo echoed.

He was silent, checking over Claw Strawberry's wounds, but a palpable sense of anger came from his purple aura as it washed over me.

Claw Currant, Ichigo's big brother, had a terrifying look on his half-masked face. His face was almost blank, but his aura was a whirlpool of dark purple that swirled around him. It looked like he was consciously holding back from losing his shit any second.

It wasn't large like the winged boy standing between us and the armored man, but it was finely honed and sharp.

"Strawberry..." he said, putting a hand on her cheek. "You are injured."

Ichigo shook her head. "N-No, I... I'm okay. I can focus now. Pushing the damned shrapnel out now that I can focus. They... they did something to us. Messing with our heads. Be careful."

The tall, blonde, and winged boy wearing Roman-style armor stepped towards the mercenary.

"Hark! A knight of justice is upon the scene, and thou art a foul creature of evil that doth wish to cause pain upon these innocent souls! Thou art a villain, a scourge, a plague!"

The streak of green light circled around us one more time, before landing next to him.

"Fear not, friends! We are the knights who come to vanquish evil, to slay the villainous monsters of darkness, to restore order to a chaotic world, and to protect the meek and innocent!"

The blinding green light dispersed, revealing a boy who couldn't be much older than us.

"Light, Darkness, Chaos, Order, and all that's in between, the powers of balance and equilibrium! With our powers of friendship, justice, harmony, and teamwork, we have come!" he shouted, his vulpine ears and tails swishing. "The world shall know our names!"

"Braveheart Gryphon!"

"Braveheart Kitsune!"

Claw Currant sighed, glancing at me and Ichigo with an embarrassed look. "...Honorary Braveheart Tiger."

Braveheart Kitsune cleared his throat. "And, uh... and together, we are... the team that protects the innocent and fights the villains, and, uh, the forces of chaos and stuff... Crap. Where's Kraken when you need him? He always says the team stuff right."

Braveheart Gryphon chuckled, patting his friend on the shoulder. "It's the three of us against evil! Braveheart versus the darkness!"

"I... I still think that sounds stupid," Claw Currant said, his cheeks red as he jumped into a fighting stance. "But come at thee!"

I looked around, stunned at the sudden appearance of the trio.

...

"Are they always like this?" Elysia asked, the cobwebs from whatever was affecting us visibly clearing from her eyes as well as she clutched her head.

"Thankfully..." I answered.

They might have been cheesy, over the top idiots.

But these boys were always a beautiful sight for sore eyes.

I could only smile as I looked up at the sky once more, seeing several streaks of different lights bounding toward us over the rooftops in the distance.