Maria Ciliega sat on a chair in the break room after her shift ended for the day. She was an average looking woman in her early twenties. She had light skin, green eyes and wavy caramel hair hanging down to her shoulders. She was wearing her work uniform, a red shirt and black pants. The break room in question had white and black tiles on the floor in a checker board pattern, a black refrigerator, and a white microwave. There was in addition, a television and two vending machines each one for drinks. She sat down watching a superhero show, Agent Jupiter, on the television set; she sighed.

    "You always get to save the day.” she said looking for the television. “All I am is a simple lot attendant at a grocery store.” Her friend and co-worker, Cheyenne, came in. She was a little heavier set. The two of them were friends since they first met in Kindergarten. She had light skin, shorter brown hair, and blue eyes.

    "Hey Cheyenne." Maria stated as she waved to her. Cheyenne noticed her and waved back

    "How are things going, Maria?" she replied as she walked over.

    "I'm doing fine. I, finally, get to leave for the day. Eight hours at a cash register is not fun."

    "I hear ya." Then a voice was heard over the loudspeaker.

    "Maria, please report to the back." the voice stated.

    "Really?" Maria stated with a frown appearing on her face. "I just punched out. Do I have to go to the back?"

    "I don't know why you are being called to there." Cheyenne added. "If it was one of the offices it would make sense. But why are they calling you anyways?"

    "I don't know. Regardless, I'll head back and check. Then, we can head to the park."

    “I’m glad you remembered.” Cheyenne smiled. “I thought you were going to forget.”

    Maria left the break room and headed down stairs. She walked past the line of cash registers, the ones in the center were a self check-outs. She walked past the service center and she arrived at the pharmacy.

    “Oh, Hello Maria.” a guy at the pharmacy said. He was wearing a grey hat and had a braided goatee. Maria turned to him.

    “Oh hello there.” she replied.

    “I was able to fill up the prescriptions that you requested to be refilled.”

    “Okay, I’ll pick them up when I return to the front.”

    “I’ll hold on to them.”

    She walked to the back area of the store. It was still inside. There were extra groceries ready to be put on the shelves of all kinds, so many boxes and packages. There were two areas for trucks to drop off their good and three compacter; One for plastic, one for cardboard and the last one for trash. But the one for plastic was currently broken. Maria didn't find the one that called her.

    "That's odd. There's no one here." She thought. "It might be some sort of prank." But then, noticed the bag of plastic bags upstairs near the stairs heading down. “Just what I need some lazy guy to leave some bag for me to clean up. I just wish things could get better.” She picked up the bag and noticed what sounded like a song but didn’t understand what was said. “What’s that?” She remembered the radio was broken; she heard it from downstairs.

      She carried the bag downstairs with her. At the bottom of the stairs, she came to two doors. The one on the left was made of iron leading to the electricity supply for the store. The door on the right was made of dark oak wood. She looked around the door post noticing that a lavender outline was around it.

      “Who’s doing the paint job down here?” She thought. Before she opened the door, she could hear the song was on the other side of the door and noticed it was a chant of some sort. “Well, here goes nothing.” She opened the door and looked inside. “What in the…”

      Instead of the spare shelves for the store and a pile of plastic bags that she had gotten use to seeing. She had saw in that small area a field of grass growing where the floor should be and above her was the sky dark blue as in the evening. She walked into the field and the bag in her hand disappeared and a feelings of calm and serenity had instantly removed her stress from the day.

       “Wow, it’s so calm and peaceful here.” she stated. “The designer must have outdid himself.” She looked around and noticed that no one was in the room yet the calming chant continued. “What are they saying?” Maria said. She had a feeling from above her and she noticed a star above her moving. “Huh?”

    The chanting continued as the star moved towards towards her. Maria stepped backwards in fear and awe. The star changed shape into a ghostly tall humanoid with a slender build wearing a white flowing robe with his palms together as though in prayer. She saw he had one blue eye on his right and a red eye on his left. Those were the only features that she was able to make out.

    “Hello.” he said. She jumped back in fear. “Do not be afraid. I mean you no harm.”

    “Is there a reason for this?” she asked him.

    “I am here, aren’t I?” he stated “Simple as that, you don’t have to worry about anything damaged, Maria.”

    “Who are you and how do you know my name? And what is going on here?” she responded.

    "I go by the name of Jonathan.” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

    “Waiting for me?” she said stressed out. “For what?”

    “For your destiny to emerge and for us to meet face to face, duh.”

    “What’s this destiny thing?”

    “I can’t say right now, but I will say this. You will end up back here again tomorrow.”

    “What?”

    “Until then, see you later.” He turned back into a star and went back into the star and the chant stopped. She left the room and up a few stairs turned around and went back down, seeing the room return to normal.

    “You mean that field was just an illusion?” Maria thought with a look of disappointment on her face.

    "Maria. Maria." She started to hear Cheyenne's voice.

    "Cheyenne?" Maria asked; she turned around and saw her.

    "What are you doing down here?”

    “I was just putting a leftover bag of plastics down here.” She looked and noticed the ring around the door was still there. "It's still there."

    "What's still there?" Cheyenne asked.

    "The lavender ring around the door." Maria replied.

    "What ring?" She asked. Maria pointed to the ring. "Maria, I don't see a ring.”

    "But it’s there, don’t you see it?" Maria replied.

    “No, I don’t.” Maria sighed.

    “Okay, we should leave and go somewhere." Maria was trying to get what she saw out of her mind as she and Cheyenne punched out.  As they left, the pharmacy man tried to pursue to get their attention.

    “Wait, Maria.” he stated. “You forgot your prescriptions.” He wasn’t able to get their attention or catch up with them.

    The two girls decided to go to the park for it was a beautiful day in early spring in the year 2038, she and Maria sat down on an iron bench with pine wood by the sidewalk. The flowers have yet to bloom. They were having ice cream cones during that time.

    "This is sad." Maria said. "None of the flowers or creatures has come back yet."

    "Yeah." Cheyenne replied. "But that's life, you have to keep waiting."

    "I wonder what it'll be like." Maria stated.

    "I'm not sure."Cheyenne replied. "This is the only green spot in the entire city. You can't get your hopes up."

    "I'm also imagining what it would be like…" Maria asked.

    "You can't be thinking about the past." Cheyenne replied. "It just a bunch of old stuff nobody cares about. You got to think about the now. You can’t be thinking about fantasies."

    Just then, a pizza car was driving by and it hit a pothole. The tire blew out as the driver lost control of the car. It stopped in front of the girls. The girls jumped out of the way.

    "Hey watch it." Cheyenne replied.

    “Well, sorry.” the guy in the car said. The car window rolled down and Maria's breathe was taken away. The driver was a slightly muscular man with blue eyes and had spiked short red hair. He was dressed in green shirt and blue jeans. “It didn’t mean to get to the side.

    "My apologizes." he stated as he left the car. He checked the car and saw that his back right tire was blown out. "Damn, the tire's gone bad." He went to get the spare tire from the trunk and Maria walked up to him.

    "Watch your tires next time.” Cheyenne said.

    “What’s your name, though?” Maria asked him.

    "Me?" the man said. "I'm Brian. I'm sorry for scaring you."

    "No, you didn't do anything wrong." she replied.

    "Thanks." he replied. "I'll get this tire fixed and I'll be on my way."

    "Hey, Brian." she asked. "Will we see each other again?"

    "Possibly." he stated I work at the pizza shop.

    "Okay. I hope to see you later." She said.

    "All right. Same here." He replied.

    "That was unexpected." Cheyenne stated. "A guy gets in an accident right in front of you."

    "I know. That was unexpected." She answered in reply.

    "If you want to see him again, then go to the pizza shop and ask you want to hang out." Cheyenne stated but she saw that Maria was watching a chipmunk running around the tree.

    "That's a cute chipmunk." Maria added.

    "You never changed since Kindergarten. You tended to have a clueless yet happy-go-lucky attitude." She answered.

    “And you’re little Miss Richie.” Maria stated to her.

    “I heard that.” Cheyenne rebuked. After spending some time with Cheyenne, Maria went home.

    That night, Maria was lying in bed in her pajamas. The image of the field and the mysterious stranger couldn’t leave her head. She clung to her teddy bear.

    “What did he mean ‘my destiny’?” she thought. “Well, he said I’ll be there tomorrow, so I’ll ask him when I get there.” She went to sleep after those thoughts.\

    The next morning, she woke up and after getting dressed and realized that she forgot to pick up her prescriptions at work.

    “Oh no. I forgot my meds.” Maria said. “Why am I such a scatterbrain? And the latest issue of Agent Jupiter was coming out today.”  She rushed over to the store she worked at and made it to the pharmacy counter.

    “Ah, there you are, Maria.” the pharmacy guy said. “I was worried you wouldn’t come back.”

    “I just remembered in time.” But while traveling through the store, she heard a load intrusion coming from the entrance.

    "EVERYONE, GET ON THE GROUND!!" She heard a guy shout. She heard gun fire too. The sounds of panic echoed throughout the store as Maria fled in fear into the back forgetting about the reason why she was there. She saw one of the intruders following her; in terror ran down the stairs. She went through the wooden door on the left hand side. And pulled out her cell phone and tried to call the police.

    “Crap, there’s no signal.” she stated. She heard a criminal was coming down the stairs, so she hid behind the pile of plastic bags. And the armed criminal came into the room. There was silence in the room. He laughed.

    “I know you’re in her somewhere.” the criminal stated. “Come on out, I’m not going to hurt ya. Much.” Then, some chant was being heard again. “What the hell?”

    “I remember this chant from somewhere but what is it?” Maria thought. Then, a star appeared from the ceiling and change into the humanoid shape from before. “I wasn’t imagining things. It’s John.”

    “Who the hell are you?” the criminal asked him. John said nothing but he gave off a bright flash of light at him. He dropped his gun, screaming in pain. “AHH!! MY EYES!!”

    “Away with you, foul being!!” he shouted towards him. “Leave NOW!!” And the criminal ran away. The area turned back into the meadow and sky from before. John turned to Maria with calm eyes. “Maria, don’t be afraid. But I understand why you decided to hide. Fear is a basic human emotion.”

    “What am I to do?” she asked him.

    “Maria, you have a great power that you have and until now you were completely oblivious on its existence." He explained.

    “But I’m just a lot attendant.” Maria rebuked in disbelief. “How can I fight them?”

    “You have a power to fight the forces of darkness in this world that mourns, pleading for aid.” he said. “I want you to fight the intruders off from the store with your power… unless you’re chicken.”

    “I’m not a chicken.”

    “Are you sure?”

    “Yes, I’m sure.”

    “Then, I shall ask you this.” he explained. “Will you, Maria Ciliega, fight against the forces of darkness in this world with the power that has been granted to you?” She sighed gathering her courage.

    “Yes, I will.” Maria said.

    “Maria Ciliega, humilis Virgo, excitare de somno.” he said. Maria’s eyes widened as a light came from her chest engulfing her completely.               

    Her clothes disappeared as an ambient wind blew around her. It was replaced with a violet top and skirt. She had lavender lacing under the skirt and lavender gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of lavender with an amethyst crystal in the center. Then, some of the ambient winds that swirled around her came to her forearms. In the right hand, it solidified and turned into a gladius. On the left arm, it solidified and turned into an iron shield.

    "Wait," she thought. "What is this feeling?"

    "This is the power within you." he replied. "It is now awake and the gentle winds are at your command."

    “So, I’ve become like Agent Jupiter?” she asked.

    “Uh... yeah, you’re now like Agent Jupiter.” he said. “Can we get back to what is going on?”

    "Fine, so what do I do now?" she asked.

    "While this happened, the police are approaching the store but won't make any progress. The burglars will try to escape through the back." He explained. "Where we are currently are. You must prevent them from leaving that way."

    "And I have to fight them?" Maria asked.

    "Our advantage is that they are unaware of your presence." He added. "My purpose is to guide you on your journey. As for now, you must fight." He disappeared as a star and Maria returned from the downstairs to the back room of the store. She still had her new look on.

    "Okay, Maria." She said. "Get it together, girl."

    "Hey, there is no way out of the front." A bandit from the other side of the door said.

    "I'll head to the back and make an escape route." Another stated. A bandit ran through the door and saw Maria. "Out of the way, girly." Maria lifted up her hand by reflex and a powerful shot of air blasted him in the face stunning him. Seizing the opportunity, Maria headed towards him. He aimed the pistol and fired but missed every shot. A sword strike from Maria knocked him out.

    "How did I do that?" Maria thought as she looked at her hand. "Well, at this point there is no going back now." She noticed another bandit coming so she hid inside the open meat cooler.

    "Hey, what's going on back here?" That bandit asked." He noticed the unconscious person. "Holy crap." He picked up a com-radio he had with him.

    "Guys, we got company back here." he stated into the com-link. "I don't know what's back here."

    "Well," a voice stated. "Find out what it is. I'll send back some more guys to aid." Maria hid in the shadows as more came. All of them came in with guns.

    "Okay, spread out and search for anyone who should get in our way." the bandit said to the rest. "Then, either kill them or capture them for an extra hostage." A bandit went over to look for Maria. She was hiding and the bandit found her.

    "I found a girl in a purple skirt." A bandit shouted.

    "Capture her." the bandit leader said. "She'll make an excellent hostage and…” She banged his head against her shield. “GET HER!!” The bandits ran to her. The bandits didn't draw the guns not thinking she was an actual threat.

    A bandit from the front charged and she bashed him with her shield. Another charged and she swung her sword and he got back from her. As this occurred, a nebula formed at their feet covering the ground. A bandit from the rear tried to flank Maria, an arm formed from some of the stuff. That arm lengthened and punched the attacking guy hard in the solar plexus knocking him back.

    "What the hell is this?" that bandit asked. Maria didn't notice the strange arm but noticed the ectoplasm. From it, a silhouette of a man formed with glowing yellow eyes. He was behind Maria but looking towards the bandits.

    "LEAVE THIS PLACE AND NEVER RETURN!" the silhouette shouted at the bandits behind her. The bandits dropped their weapons, screamed in terror, and ran away in fright. The silhouette turned to her.             "Maria, go and fight. I shall protect your flanks and rear." She turned and saw the specter. From his voice, she knew it was Jonathan protect her.

    "John, you look scary right now." She stated to him.

    "Okay, since you put it that way. I'll possess cute little animals from now on." He replied. She brought her shield and sword up and fought the bandits. The bandits that didn't fight fled towards the front terrified and fled through the front door.

    "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" they shouted. "THE STORE IS HAUNTED!" The news had sent shivers down the spines of the employees. The bandit leader heard this and slapped his forehead.

    "For crying out loud," he replied. "There is no such thing as ghosts." At that moment, Maria as the maiden of humility came in.

    "Hey you," she stated to him. "You shouldn't be picking on these people." He saw how ridiculous she looked and busted out laughing.

    "Are you, out of all people, going to stop us?" the bandit asked her.

    "Uh… Yeah." she replied.

    "Well then, I'll just have to kill you then." he replied. He pulled out a machine gun and started to fire at Maria. He brought up her shield and dodged behind a counter. She fired some wind blasts at him. The wind knocked out and jammed the gun as she advanced towards him. He pulled out a spare pistol and aimed. Maria got close enough and swung her sword before he could fire any ammo. The gun was thrown to the side. "I'm not going to give up that easily." He stated as he headed toward his pistol.

    "Quick, use your finishing move." Jonathan said to her.

    "I have a finishing move?" Maria asked.

    "Yes." He replied.

    "I don't know how to use it." she replied back to him. She threw the sword at the bandit leader. The blunt end struck the bandit's head knocking him out.

    "That was not exactly what I had in mind." he stated. "But excellent job."

    "Thanks." She replied.

    "You better get out of here." he added. "The police will arrest you thinking you are with the other bandits." The police came in as she left through the back. Everyone was in confusion on what happened. People did get pictures of her fighting the bandit. Meanwhile, Maria and Jonathan were in the back storage room where the ring was.

    "Can you promise me one thing?" Jonathan asked Maria.

    "What's that?" Maria asked in reply.

    "Never reveal to anyone that you are a magical maiden." he replied. "Never reveal that you were the one that fought the bandit."

    "How come?" She asked.

    "You would endanger yourself and those around you if you did." he explained. "This will not be the first time that you will become the maiden of humility."

    "Okay." She said. "Now, now do I transform back?"

    "Wait, don't transform yet…" he added. But it was too late, she transformed back but she was in a very ridiculous outfit. Jonathan gave her clothes back completely folded neatly.

    "Your clothes were teleported to a pocket dimension, so they could be stored for later use." He explained. "I asked you to wait so I can get them." She grabbed her clothes and hid behind a crate to put them on.

    "Wait, if my regular clothes are there, then what am I wearing?" She asked. John held up a mirror to her and she was shocked. “Holy cow, I end up looking like Madonna.”

    "And not the Virgin Mary, either." He stated breaking the fourth wall. Maria came out completed dress this time.

    "Just what exactly are you anyway?" She asked.

    "Like you said before a ghost." He explained. "The ghost of a man that used to be." Then, he faded away.

    "Well, at least I don't have to worry about this anymore." she thought. “It’s probably a one-shot comic issue.”

    Maria woke up the next morning. The sun was shining and there was not a single cloud in the sky. Maria was going to meet up with Cheyenne today. She looked at her clock.

    "Holy crap!!” She stated. “I’m going to be late!!” She rushed to get dressed in casual clothes and ran out the door. Along the way however, she slipped. She regained her balance but she dropped her cell phone. It broke as it hit the hard sidewalk. “Oh, great. Just what I need.” She gathered up the pieces that she saw and left the area trying to put the phone back together again. The two met up outside of the mall.

    “Hey there.” Cheyenne stated as she saw her come.

    “Sorry, I’m late.” She replied.

    “Don’t worry, you made it right on time.” Her friend said. “But one thing, you forgot to do your hair.” Maria groaned as she did her hair. The two entered the mall. They entered on the side of the food court. There was a variety of foods being sold and the aroma from them was flying through the air. Maria tried to turn on her phone, but it didn’t work.

    “Oh great.” She stated.

    “What’s wrong?” Her friend asked her.

    “My cell phone isn’t working anymore.”

    “What happened to it?”

    “I was in a hurry and dropped it.”

    “Okay, we can stop by Vector Phone Company to get a new one. I’ll get one too.”

    “Are you sure?”

    “Yeah. I have 5.5 million in my checking and savings accounts at BMZ.”

    “I know you were little miss Richie, but I didn’t know you had that much.”

    “I do. My family got our wealth in the most efficient way possible.” Maria noticed a sale on a chocolate sundae at the ice cream while Cheyenne was talking.

    “Can we get some ice cream?”

    “Okay.” the girls decided to go to the ice cream parlor. The woman at the counter was of slightly golden skin. She had short black hair and blue eyes. She wore a white apron over top her blue shirt and jeans. Her name tag said Hikari.

    “Hello,” the woman at the counter stated. “What can I get you?”

    “Can we get two double cones?” Maria asked.

    “Okay, what flavor would like?”

    “I would like strawberry.” Maria explained.

    “I will take chocolate.” Cheyenne added.

    “Okay, two double cones: one chocolate, one strawberry?” The woman asked.

    “Correct.” Cheyenne replied.

    “That will be $5.00”. Cheyenne handed a five dollar bill her. “Okay, your ice cream will be ready momentarily.” She went back and prepared the two cones.

    “You know Maria. I don’t know why you tend to be spontaneous.” Cheyenne asked.

    “What are you talking about?” She replied.

    “Well, I noticed you were having difficulty staying on a single task, unless it’s enjoyable.”

    “Oh…”

    “I’m just concerned about you.” They continued to eat their ice cream while sitting on one of the mall benches. Maria finished her ice cream first and started to head to the escalator. “Where are you going?”

    “I’m going to take care of business.” Maria stated as she went up.

    “Assuming it has something to do with her comic book obsession.” Cheyenne thought as she continued eating her cone. “I’ll might as well go with her.” She headed up the escalator as well.

    Maria found the comics shop on the second floor. There were comic books lining the racks in the center of the store and manga on the shelves on the side. She went to the counter. There was a man with brown hair and a mustache dressed up in a blue robe and a big yellow wizard hat.

      "Ah, hellooooo, Clarisse.” The man at the counter stated.

      “I’m not Clarisse.” Maria replied.

      “You’re not?” he paused. “Oh wait, I forgot to put on my monocle.” He put it on his right eye. “Oh, it’s you, Maria.”

      “Yeah.”

      “As soon as the newest Agent Jupiter comic book came in, I was anticipating your arrival.” He stated. “Allow me to go back and get you a copy. It’ll take a while.”

      “Okay.” He went back into the back as Maria waited at the counter. While she was waiting, a girl came to the counter with some manga in her hand. She was of light skin and had blonde hair in pig tails. She was wearing a crimson sailor fuku with a white top, had two bows in her hair where the pigtails are, and penny loafers. The two looked at each other.

      “Hey there.” the girl said to Maria.

      “Hi.” she replied. “My name is Maria.”

      "Hi there, I’m Joan.” the girl replied.

      “So, what are you getting?”

      “I’m getting my favorite manga in here.” Joan stated. “It’s a fantasy shoujo about this girl who dreams about being able to run her own restaurant in a small town. It’s my personal favorite; I love the storytelling in it because the manga-ka is such a genius when she made it and I simply love how the art style is done, it’s so kawaii.”

      “I’m just getting the newest Agent Jupiter comic book.”

      “Okay, I do read comic books now and then, but I’m a huge manga fan and I love to cosplay as well. My co-workers say I’m a complete weeaboo. I’m an otaku, not a weeaboo, there’s completely a huge difference between the two.” She paused. “Wait, I’m not talking too much am I? Because my co-workers sometimes say that I talk way too much.” Then, the manager came back with the comic book.

      “Here you are, Maria.” he stated. “Here’s the newest issue.”

      “Thanks.” she replied.

      “If you want to, we can hang out sometime and talk more.” Joan replied. “I work over by the maid café nearby the college. You’re able to make reservations over the phone and…”

      “Oh, wait that’s right. My cell phone.” Maria stated. “I forgot about that.”

      “You got to go?” Joan replied.

      “Yeah, sorry I can’t stay.”

      “Okay, then. Nice meeting you.”

      “Same here, see you later.” Maria said

      "Bye-nii!” Joan replied as Maria headed out the door. Maria met up with Cheyenne again on the same floor, then head over across the mall to the phone place. There were phones on the shelves and other stuff. They looked around at the various phones. One pocket sized phone stuck out. It was a stark black mobile phone; Maria picked it up.

      “What is this thing?” She thought.

      “That my friend is the newest and hottest phone on the market.” A salesperson stated as he came over. It spooked her. “That model of phone is the dragontooth.”

      “Dragontooth?” Cheyenne walked over to hear about it.

      “What does it do?” Cheyenne asked him.

      “Well, it does a whole bunch of things.” The salesperson replied. “It has wireless internet, unlimited talk and text, has a massive amount of memory (about 20 GB to be exact), it’s pocket-sized, all apps are compatible with it, and it’s waterproof.” He tossed it to Cheyenne. “Here, you can see for yourself.” Cheyenne looked at the phone and felt an unusual sensation.

      “We’ll take two.” Maria ended up confused for a bit. “How much do I owe you?”

      “Nothing. We are going to give you a 30-day risk free trial and if you don’t like it, you can send it back. We’re so confident that you don’t want to leave it alone.”

      “Sweet.” The two of said simultaneously. The salesperson handed the two dragontooths. “Thanks.

      “You’re welcome.” He replied. After getting the phones, the two headed out of the shop. After a day at the mall, they decided to head home although they did notice people acting out of place. They didn’t think about it at the time.

      That evening, Maria was reading the latest issue. It was a normal sized bedroom. The walls were painted purple and it had red carpet. The room was slightly messy. She was sitting on her junior-sized bed. Jonathan came in as a beagle puppy.

      “Hey there.” he said. Maria looked and saw it.

      “Oh my god,” She stated shocked. “A talking puppy.”

      “Sorry to scare you, It’s me Jon.”

      “Okay, why are you a puppy?”

      “A cat in a magical girl story has been done to the point that it’s a cliché.”

      “What are you talking about?”

      “Nothing.” He paused. “But, I did find your cell phone battery.” He pulled the battery to her old cell phone out and handed it back to Maria. “I was going to hold on to it until I found you.”

      “Huh?” She replied as she got her old cell phone out. She put the battery in and it turned on. “Hey, it works.”

      “Of course, it works. A cell phone can’t work without a battery. So, you didn’t have to get a new cell phone.”

      “How did you know about that?”

      “I saw the new phone as I entered.”

      “Oh...”

      “Did you even turn it on?”

      “Not really, I was too busy with TV shows and comic books.”

      “I see, but if you did look at the phone, don’t the two phones look the same?” She looked at the two phones and saw the similarities between the two.

      “You know, they do look the same. I should call Cheyenne and…” Her phone interrupted her. It was a call from Cheyenne.

      “Why speak of her and she calls.” Maria opened her phone.

      “Hello?”

      “Hey there.” Cheyenne stated. “We need to get to the store.”

      “But the mall is going to close soon.”

      “Not that store. The store is by the river.”

      “By the river, I don’t remember a store there.”

      “There’s a store there. We have to be there at midnight.”

      “Midnight?”

      “Be there, okay?”

      “Uh, okay. I’ll see you there.” The two hung up and she turned to Jonathan. “I didn’t know there was a phone store by the river.

      “Originally, there was a large old shack there.” He replied. “The store appeared there a few hours ago. It appeared out of nowhere, no order or construction.”

      “That’s odd. You think something is up?” Maria asked.

      “This is very strange and it sounds very suspicious indeed.” He said. “We’ll have to investigate this place. Things don’t add up.”

      “Did you check inside of it?”

      “Normally, I would. But when I tried, I couldn’t get in. Something was blocking my entry.”

      “I think this is bad. We need to do something. I think we should go and investigate.”

      “I can agree with you on that.” The two arrived at the store at midnight like they were asked to but instead of going in they hid in the shrubs and bushes and watched as many people arrived and were entering the store.

      “I guess Cheyenne wasn’t the only one who wanted to come.” Maria stated to Jon.

      “These are the people who bought a dragontooth.” He replied. “This is very…”

      “Oh look, there’s Cheyenne.” she said as she went over to see her.

      “Wait, wait, wait. Don’t go…” She was already out. “Crap.”

      “Hey there.” Maria said to Cheyenne. She turned to her friend.

      “Hello there.” Cheyenne replied with a glazed look in her eyes. “Have you come for the event?”

      “Event?” Maria was confused. “No one told me about an event.” She noticed that there was a glazed look over her eyes. “Cheyenne, are you feeling all…” She was interrupted when a guy knocked her out with a two-by-four. Cheyenne and a few others dragged her inside. Jon was able to sneak inside before the doors closed up.

      Maria regained consciousness in the middle of a large crowd. She tried to move but couldn’t. She noticed that she was tied up. Rope wrapped around her arms and body. In addition, her ankles were tied together.

      “What’s going on here?” She stated. “Why am I tied up? You better have a good reason.”

      “You have finally awaken?” a voice stated. “It seems that you weren’t affected.” The salesperson who gave her the dragontooth earlier walked out of the crowd.

      “YOU!! You were the one from the store.”

      “My, you are a smart one.”

      “What did you do to Cheyenne and these people?”

      “Don’t you like it?” He explained. “This is the power of mind control. I can manipulate them through the phones I gave.” He paused. “Oh, by the way, I noticed you bought one yourself. How come you aren’t affected like the rest of them?”

      “That’s none of your business.” Maria rebuked him.

      “I have ways of finding out how it’s done.”

      “What are you going to do to them?”

      “I’m glad you asked. I am going to free them from the complexities of reality. I will make them a part of the Techno Hivemind. But you weren’t affected by my techniques, henceforth you shall be the first of these people to join. Prepare to be assimilated.” Suddenly, the lights went out and it was completely dark. “HEY!! WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS?? Someone get me a lamp, match, flashlight, anything.”

      “Go.” Jon stated to Maria. “Now, is the time to transform.”

      “How do I do that?” Maria replied.

      “Wait, you don’t know how to transform?”

      "No, you didn’t tell me.”

      “Put your hands together over your heart and say ‘humility, awaken’.”

      “Okay.” She placed her hands together and placed them over her heart. “Humility, awaken.” Then, at that moment, she transformed into the maiden of humility. The lights turned back on and she was out of her ropes.

      “A magical maiden?” The salesperson stated. “Well, I too have power; a lot more than you.” He transformed into a large leopard-print iPhone monster. It did something and pushed the ‘send’ button at his crouch.

      “Eek. A monster phone.” Then, she got a text message. “Uh? Who can be texting me?” She opened up her phone and looked at the text.

      “You’ll be crushed by my might.” the text said. She knew it was from the monster.

      “Use your mouth, if you have one.”  The monster did something and pushed ‘send’. Maria got another text message.

      “I don’t have a mouth; I have speakers. Prepare to die. LOL.” The monster charged forward and spun around to kick. She brought up her shield and blocked it. The monster pulled up a laser app. The camera fired a laser that hit Maria, knocking her back. She was a little scratched.

      She did blasts of wind against it; the phone got some of the wind. It pounced toward her. Maria slashed downward and smashed the camera. Sparks spat from the busted camera. It selected an app for radio. It turned its speakers toward Maria and blasted massive sonic waves at her. It hit her as she was trying to dodge it. She took some damage from it and her ears were ringing. She turned and saw the monster sent another text.

      “I’m gonna delete you from existence through the cell phone texts and there is nothing you can do about it. LOL.” the text stated. She noticed a box full of dragontooth phones and began throwing at him. The monster couldn’t concentrate because of the phone projectiles. She charged and with her sword cut off the ‘send’ button. “Where is the ‘send’? Defeat does not compute.” It thought.

      She smashed the screen with her saber completely blinding it. She knocked it backward and causing it to fall over. The word ‘ouch’ appeared on the screen. She jumped up with the saber in both hands point down.

      “Delete this.” She stated as she came down finishing off the monster. Her sword went right through it. It shut off as she got of the creature. She swung the gladius and the monster exploded; she flinched but didn’t look. Then, there were smaller explosions from all of the dragontooth phones they didn’t bother her. She put her sword and shield away. Everyone who was under the monster’s control returned to normal and the surrounding store changed back into a shack.

      “Huh?” One asked. “Where am I?”

      "What am I doing in a shack?” A second asked.

      “Who’s the girl in the purple skirt?” A third responded. Attention turned to Maria.

      “I’m... uh…” Maria stated. She looked at John. He was holding up a cue card stating ‘Don’t use your real name’. “I’m ‘Breezy Girl’ and I saved you from the Techno Hivemind.” She looked at Jon and he was holding a different cue card saying ‘Breezy Girl? Really?’.

      "That name is the worst name ever.” a guy said.

      “But at least, we can head home.” another replied. Then, the people started heading home.

      “Wow, I can’t believe that a superheroine actually exists.” Cheyenne thought. “I’ll head home and tell Maria that there is a real one. She’ll probably go nuts over it.” The only ones remaining were Maria and John.

      “Did you really have to pick Breezy Girl?” He asked.

      “I couldn’t come up with another name for what I had time for.” Maria replied.

      “It just sounds so cheesy.”

      “Well, superhero names have always been cheesy.”

      “Fair enough. But we’ll have to come up with another name before someone starts calling you something else.”

      “I’m beat.” Maria said. “Can I go home now?”

      “Let’s head back.” he said. “But this won’t be the last villain we’ll encounter.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “I can get vague images from the future but such images are rare.” he said.

      “Oh, what else can you do?”

      “I, also, have psionics if you were wondering.”

      “Oh. If that’s the case, you can be my sidekick.” Maria stated. John just facepalmed.

      “Let’s not start that and just get home.”

      “Oh yeah, right.”

    Maria was resting in her bedroom in her apartment. She was in her pajamas sleeping in her bed, talking to herself. Jonathan, in his beagle form, came into her room.

    "Maria, it’s time to get up.” he said.

    “Not now, dad.” she replied. “Can I have five more minutes?”

    “Maria, get up.” He patted his paws on her face. She woke up seeing John on her bed; she screamed and knocked him off the bed.

    “Why did you get me up so early? My next shift doesn’t start until the late afternoon.”

    “We have to start our search.” He stated.

    “Search? What search?” she asked.

    “The search for the other Virtue Girls.”

    “There’s more of us?” she asked again.

    “Yes, can you tell me how many more we need to find?” He asked her back.

    “Uh… I never learned that.” She paused.

    “I’ll give you a hint. There are seven virtues.” He said.

    “There would be… six more to find?” She asked.

    “Correct and…” He said. Then he sniffed her. “If I’m not mistaken, you were nearby two of them yesterday.”

    “How do you know that?” she asked.

    “Dogs have a heightened sense of smell and it was amplified by my normal abilities.” he said.

    “Well, are you able to identify which girls they were?” she asked.

    “No, I have to smell it directly.” he replied. “Well, get some breakfast, get dressed, and we’ll head on out.” After some time, she did that they headed out of the door in a lilac t-short and jeans. They looked around the streets. John was sniffing the ground and a little while later he lifted his ears.

    “What is it?” she asked him.

    “I found a scent trail. It’s one of the Virtue Girls.” he said. “Quick. Follow the trail.” The two started running down the trail. They went around the bend quickly and Maria collided into another person. They both fell over onto the ground.

    “Hey, can you watch where you’re going?” the person asked.

    “Sorry about that.” Maria replied as she got up. “You need a hand?”

    “No, I can take care of myself.” She was a woman in her forties wearing a black turtleneck and a pencil skirt. She had red high heels on as well.

    “Who are you?” she asked.

    “My name is Usagi Takeuchi.” the woman stated.

    “WOW!!” Maria stated. “Miss Usagi Takeuchi, the author?”

    “Yes, that one.” The woman replied. “But I can’t stay around and chat. I have to go to a lawyer.”

    “Huh?” She asked. “What happened?”

    “Somebody stole my work and is now using it as part of a package at the mall.” Usagi explained. “I’m going to the Law Firm to put a stop to this copyright infringement.”

    "Miss Takeuchi, you don’t happen to be... uh…” Maria asked but stopped. The author looked at her with an odd look.

    “A… what?”

    “Nothing.” Maria replied.

    “I’ll be off to the law firm of Mister Harvey.” she said. “This will ruffle his feathers.”

    “Okay, see you later.” Maria stated as Usagi walked off. John looked up at Maria and she looked back at John. “We’ll need to get the ebook back for her.”

    “I heard that and if you were wondering, she’s not a magical girl.” he replied. “There is still some trail to follow yet.”

    “Okay.” Maria stated. They continued to follow the trail of the scent until they arrived at the mall. “I guess we can take down two birds with a single stone.”

    “But there’s a problem though.” John stated as he pointed to the sign. “No pets allowed except for service dogs.”

    “What are you going to do?” Maria asked.

    “Well… I can hop out of the beagle and into another body. But it can’t be too obvious.” he said looking around and he spotted a fly. “I’ll hop into a fly.” He hopped out of the dog and into the fly. “I might have to hop into your change purse until we enter the mall.”

    “Let’s go.” Maria took out and opened her change purse; John flew in and Maria closed it up. She released him after she entered the mall.

    "I can still follow the scent,” he stated. “but it’ll be through my mouth.” She had difficulty following John due to his size but he picked up the scent leading towards a crowd. They were by a new bookstore that was just opening up. John followed the scent into the crowd.

    “Hey, I found the girl with the scent.” John stated. “It’s…” Then, there was a whack and a ghost fled.

    “John, what happened?” she asked him.

    “I died.” he said. “I’ll have to find another body. I’ll be right back.” Maria decided to go to the food court and pick up a little something to eat for lunch. She noticed a girl that she spotted in the crowd earlier by the sub stand, so she decided to go to the sub stand as well. She saw the girl from the ice cream shop yesterday.

    “What would you like, Hikari?” the guy at the register asked.

    “I would like two foot-longs, one cold-cut combo and one meatball marinara, and a medium drink.” she said.

    “Two foot-longs?” Maria asked. “I can only finish one. How can she eat two of them?” Hikari watched as her sandwiches were being made. Then, she turned in her direction.

    “Hey, you want something to?” Hikari asked her.

    “Umm… uh…” Maria added. “Sure, one turkey breast sub. Can you make it a foot-long?” She pulled out her purse.

    “No need, I can handle this.” she replied paying the cashier for the sandwiches. “Well, come on now. I can tell you’re hungry, so let’s eat.” The two sat down at one of the tables in the food court and she handed Maria her sandwich. Hikari said her grace before eating.

    “I think I saw you yesterday.” Maria stated.

    “Oh, I remember weren’t you the one girl who got your friend to shop at the ice cream place?” she asked.

    “So, you’re the one who was at the register.” Maria said.

    “My name is Hikari Matsuyama.” she answered. “And you are?”

    “Maria Ciliega.” Maria replied.

    "Nice to be of acquaintance.” she said as she started eating.

    “Are you sure you can eat all that food?” Maria asked.

    “I can eat all of it.” Hikari replied as Maria started eating.  After sometime, Hikari had finished eating the meatball sub and started on the cold cut sub.

    “How can you eat so much food?” Maria asked. “I’m surprised you aren’t a little on the tubby side.” Hikari glared at her.

    “I train a lot in martial arts plus I have a high metabolism.” she explained. “Thus, I have a huge appetite. So, don’t call me fat understood?”

    “Okay.” Maria backed off.

    “After eating, I’ll head back to the new bookstore. I saw that Usagi Takeuchi is giving away ipads as part of the grand opening ceremony.” Hikari stated. Maria stood up.

    “That’s not true.” Maria said.

    “How do you know?” Hikari asked.

    “I saw her this morning, she was heading to a law firm because someone stole her work.”

    “Wait, if she’s at a law firm, then who’s…” Hikari said. Maria rushed back towards the new bookstore. “Hey, wait up.” Hikari hurried after her.

    “Welcome everyone to the grand opening of this fine bookstore.” the imposter proclaimed. “As you know, that there are rumors about me giving away an ipad to everyone who gets the next ebook in the series. Well, that is true. They are in the room behind me, but it can only hold up to fifty people at a time. We will do business fifty people at a time.” Everyone thought it was the real author. After fifty people were selected, the doors began to close. Maria and Hikari were able to sneak in before the doors completely close. They snuck underneath a table and saw the box full of ipads.

    “What are you doing here?” Maria asked Hikari.

    “I’ve come to expose the fake.” Hikari said.

    “It’s not safe for you here.” She replied.

    “Can’t I even help you?” Hikari asked.

    “Fine, just be quiet.” Maria replied. All they did was watch as all of the people got free ipads. She noticed that as they ran out, he smiled.

    “The ebook is in the ipad. You may open up the ipad now.” he said. “Which is in no way an evil device.” The devices turned on; the ipads gave off a yellow ray to each of the viewers. Then, everyone collapsed except for the two girls and the faker. “Hahaha, jokes on you, it’s an evil device. I has sucked out your consciousness and trapped it into these ipads. You will forever be trapped in those ipads. As I place these chips onto your heads and your bodies are slaves to the hive. Then, I will be ready for the next batch of suckers.

    Maria was sliding out to a corner to transform; she didn’t notice that Hikari ran out to punch the imposter out. But the faker saw her coming and blocked her attack.

    “Well, well, well. It appears that I missed one.” the imposter said.

    “I don’t know how you did that. But I demand them to let them go.” Hikari said.

    “Or what are you going to fight me?” The monster laughed reaching back. “Well get a load of this.” He flashed the ipad at her and Hikari was knocked back falling over to the ground with her eyes shut. “Now, I got them all.”

    “Not quite.” Maria appeared again in her maiden form before the imposter. “Now, stop what you are doing and return the story that you have stolen.”

    “Who are you anyway?”

    “I’m Breezy Girl.” Maria stated. “The magical maiden of humility?”

    “Breezy Girl? That’s a stupid superheroine name.” The imposter explained. “And the maiden of humility sounds unappealing.”

    “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t sound attractive. It fill out the role its supposed to.” she explained. “Return the story that you have stolen.” The imposter laughed.

    “Did you think I was actually use the story?” it stated. “I was just using it as bait for my trap. That you have willingly walked right into.” The doors locked from the outside and the imposter transformed as well. He transformed into an anthropomorphic rooster.

    “And you are supposed to be?” Maria asked.

    “I am known as The Chick; I’m an original character, do not steal. Now, prepare to perish.” He started throwing stuff at her. She dodged out of the way. He threw another set and she raised her shield. He threw a third set and she blew it away with her wind. Some of the stuff landed near Hikari. She struggled to stay awake as she tried to get on all four legs.

    “What are those things?” she thought. Then, she got closer. “Pamphlets?” She picked one up and started reading it. She groaned and threw it aside. “These pamphlets are mind-numbing pieces of garbage.” Some more pamphlets were thrown at Maria and she cut them down. “Wait a second, why am I still conscious?” She saw a cockroach approaching her.

    “I can say why that’s the case.” the cockroach said.

    “Was there a bad mix in the sub?” She asked. At that point, Hikari fainted from shock. Maria was stumbling over the unconscious bodies of the victims laying on the ground.

    “I have to keep these people safe.” Maria thought. “If I fight here, they’ll get hurt.” Then a pamphlet flew by and gave her a cut on her right cheek. “Hey, follow me.” she shouted at the monster.

    “Gladly.” the monster replied and started following Maria. But Maria turned around and lunged her sword forward. She stabbed him in the chest. “No… Fair… You… Cheated.” He fell down dead. She noticed that the ipads’ screens cracked and people were beginning to wake up. They noticed the maiden.

    “Hey, I remember her.” a guy said. “She’s the one people were talking about.”

    “The one who helped those people against the cell phone thing?” a girl asked.

    “Let’s get out of here.” he stated as they walked away leaving her and Hikari. Maria went up to Hikari, she pushed her and she didn’t move.

    “Hikari?” she said. “Hikari, can you hear me?” The cockroach walked onto Hikari’s back.

    “Maria, it’s me, John.” the cockroach said.

    “Okay, what happened to her?” She asked him.

    “She just fainted from seeing a talking cockroach.” He replied.

    “So, what do we do now?” She asked.

    “Well, we can take her back home.” he replied.

    “But I don’t know where she lives and we might be sued for breaking an entry.”

    “Then, we can take her back to your place.” He said.

    “And how can we do that when the exit way is a crowded mall?”

    “I have a way out.”He stated. Some time later, Hikari came to on Maria’s couch. She noticed an icepack on her forehead. She looked around the room with confusion. Maria came out.

    “Oh, you’re awake.” Maria said.

    “What just happened here?” Hikari said.

    “You fainted from seeing a cockroach talking.” Maria replied. “I brought you back to my place so you can rest up.”

    “I can see that, Maria.” she replied. “But why didn’t you take me back to my place.”

    “I don’t know where you place was.”

    “That explains a lot.” Then, she noticed a beagle walking up to the couch. “That’s a cute dog.”

    “You don’t have to call me cute.” The beagle stated.

    “Oh great, I still haven’t awoke yet.” she said.

    “You’re not sleeping, Hikari. You are fully awake.” the dog said. “I’m John.”

    “Okay, so what do you want with me?”

    “I have an offer to tell you about.” Maria overheard and tapped John’s shoulder.

    “What’s the offer?” She asked. John turned around to face her.

    “Hikari has the maiden mark just like you do.” He explained.

    “So that means…”

    “Yes, she is a magical maiden.” He replied.

    “Wait, I’m a magical girl?” Hikari asked him.

    “Correct.” he said. “One of the Virtue Girls to be precise. Maria, who is behind me, is also a Virtue Girl as well. I’m asking you to become a part of our team.”

    “Do we get to fight for justice?” Hikari asked.

    "It comes with the territory.”

    “I’m in.” Hikari said.

    “Hikari Matsuyama, patiens virgo, excitare de somno.” he said. Her eyes widened as a light came from her chest engulfing her completely.

    Her old clothes were washed away as an ocean wave wrapped around her. It was replaced with a blue top and skirt. She had azure lacing under the skirt and azure gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of azure with a sapphire crystal in the center. Then, some of the water that splashed onto her wrapped around forming a belt. Ten layers of water wrapped around themselves to form a katana and an 11^th to create the sheath all appearing on the belt.

    “Whoa,” Hikari mentioned. “This is so cool.”

    “It is definitely cool.” John replied. “But you have to be responsible with your powers and not get reckless. You understand?”

    “Okay.” Hikari said.

    Maria dozed off, again, during her break for obvious reasons. But then, someone slapped her on the back of the head.
     “Oww!” She stated.
     “MARIA!! Get up, your break is done.” A guy stated harshly. She saw him wearing formal attire. One is able to clearly tell he was spoiled rotten just by his facial expressions.
     “Sorry, Mr. Tremor.” She stated.
     “SORRY. Don’t. Cut it; I want results. No slacking off.” He replied.
     “But…” She added.
     “No buts.” He interrupted. “Get back to work!!” As he left he slapped her on the back of her head. She walked down the stairs meekly down the stairs. A tall, almond-skinned man wearing casual clothing walked through the door to look around as she punched back from break.
     “Hey,” Cheyenne stated. “Did you hear?”
     “Hear what?” She asked.
     “An inspector is going to come in and check the store. Our boss wants it to be perfect.” Her friend explained.
     “No wonder he’s more harsh than usual.” Maria asked. “And why is he in charge anyway? He’s an asshole.”
     “I know, all his workers think the same thing. But we can’t say that or else we would be fired on the spot.” Her friend answered and quivered at the thought. “And even worse, all the workers he fires that talk badly about him, he writes ‘Do Not Rehire’ on their work record.”
     “Can we do anything?” She added.
     “I’m afraid not.” Cheyenne replied.
     “Something must be done.” Maria snapped indignantly.
     “You can’t Maria. If the inspector comes, he or she has to figure it out for themselves.” Her friend replied. This frustrated the both of them. “You’re also the one to check the store for any bumps and bruises to cover before the inspector arrives.”
     “So, he’s cheating?” Maria explained.
     “In a word, yeah he’s cheating.” Cheyenne added.
     “That’s three words.” She stated.
     “I’m a heavy tipper.” Her friend replied. Maria sighed.
     “Fine.” She was handed the clipboard and she began to walk around the store to examine the place. “My boss is an abusive little man, who can’t get of his high horse. Yet the CEO doesn’t do anything, and that’s not okay. I wish a miracle would occur like in that one issue of Agent Jupiter where…” At that particular moment, she bumped right into the almond man who walked in earlier. She fell down as he remained standing.
     “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” she stated.
     “It’s nothing.” he said calmly as he reached out his hand. “How are you today?”
     “I’m fine.” She replied covering her anger. “An inspector is coming today I’m to pre-inspect the store to fix any problems before he gets here.” The guy took it as a shock.
     “Really?” He asked.
     “Our manager asked me to do so.”
     “I see. Can I be of assistance?” He asked.
     “What makes you want to help?”
     “I have my reasons to help. I’ve been in retail for a long time and know how things are supposed to go in a place like this.”
     “Okay. Just don’t get in the way.” Maria said.
     “Lead on.” The man said. So, he went with her throughout the store. Everything was clear, she was upset though.
     “What’s wrong?” He asked. “You seem upset.”
     “Can you keep a secret?” She asked.
     “Yes.” the man replied.
     “My boss is a total asshole. We can’t complain or we would be fired with a ‘Do not Retire’ on our work record. He, also, treats me and my co-workers like animals without mercy. If my boss found out I said this, I’d be fired for sure.” The man was definitely holding anger back.
     “Can you take me to him?” he asked.
     “I don’t know why but sure.” She stated. “Just don’t do anything that could get me fired, okay?”
     “Don’t worry, I won’t.” He replied. She took him upstairs and they went to his office on the second floor. The door was shut. “I can do the rest."
     “What are you going to do?” She asked.
     “Just watch.” He stated calmly. He inhaled breath very slowly and gently grabbed the door handle. He cracked the door open to check, if he was in there and he was. He slammed the door open very hard. It almost cracked the wall. “MR. TREMOR!?” He shouted in rage. He looked at him.
     “Wait, why does he know his name?” She thought.
     “HEY, WHAT GIVES!?” Her boss replied. “I DON’T ALLOW CUSTOMERS IN MY OFFICE!!”
     “HOW DARE YOU MISTREAT YOUR EMPLOYEES!!” The man stated. “AFTER BEING TOLD MULTIPLE TIMES NOT TO DO SO.”
     “Yeah, whatever.” He replied. “It’s not like I’m talking to the owner of the store. I’m the manager, and I can do whatever I want.”
     “You have unleashed my most dreaded anger. I have shown you mercy because you asked for it. Yet, you don’t do the same with your workers. So, I SHALL NOT. HAVE. MERCY. ON YOU!!”
     “Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway!?” The boss replied in anger.
     “I am Antinanco, the CEO of the company.” The man explained. Maria was completely shocked; Mr. Tremor on the other hand didn’t have a reaction. “You have too proud to fit in the tribe of stores. Consider this, your permanent resignation.”
     “So, you are going to fire me!?” he asked.
     “In a word, yes.” Antinanco replied, causing the boss get very angry.
     “WHAT ARE YOU FIRING ME FOR!? I’M THE BEST LEADER HERE, NO ONE DOES THIS JOB BETTER!! WHO CAN POSSIBLY HAVE TO REPLACE ME!?” The CEO turned to Maria and back to him.
     “She will.” He pointed to her.
     “NO!!” Mr. Tremor shouted. “I’M NOT GIVING MY GRAND POSITION TO A RETARDED GIRL WHO STAY CAN’T STAY FOCUSED FOR FIVE MINUTES!!” She shouted angering her.
     “I tried peace and it has failed. I shall take that position away from you by force.” He ripped his shirt off exposing his big muscles and six pack. He jumped on top of his desk and grabbed Mr. Tremor’s collar pulling him to his face. “Did I forget to mention warrior blood runs through my veins?”
     “So… what are you going to do?” he asked. Antinanco grabbed him by the collar.
     “I’m going to take out the trash.” The CEO replied. He yanked the corrupt boss out of his office; he went to a window, opened it up, and thrown him out the window. Mr. Tremor fell from the second floor into the full and fetid dumpster below and the lid shut as the impact happened. Antinanco went back into the former boss’s office. Grabbed his work record and wrote ‘DO NOT REHIRE FOR HE IS CORRUPTED.’ on it. He calmed down completely and turned to Maria. “My apologizes for that disturbance.”
     “It’s all right.” she replied.
     “I would now like to talk to you about a promotion.” he said. “There is an open spot.”
     “You’re asking me to be the manager? For Real?” She asked with her jaw agape. “I thought that was a joke.”
     “This is no joke, Maria. I would like you to be the manager.”
     “By why me? Aren’t there other employees more qualified?”
     “You have exposed the truth to me. In addition, I see a great potential in you even though I can’t exactly tell what it is.” He replied. “Whether you live up that potential your choice; I shall aid you along the way, teaching you leadership if you wish.”

     When Cheyenne heard about Maria’s promotion to becoming the manager of the store, she told all of the other employees. There was initially silence and then the employees cheered.
     “It’s Independence Day.” the pharmacy man stated waving a flag while ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ was being played in the background. Maria came down the stairs trying to see what was the commotion. Some employees lifted her up into the air.
     “Three cheers for the manager.” they said. “HIP HIP!!”
     “HURRAY!!” the others stated.
     “HIP HIP!!”
     “HURRAY!!”
     “HIP HIP!!”
     “HURRAY!!”
     “Can you guys settle down?” she asked. “We’re in the middle of a work day.”
     “Oh, yeah.” one of the guys stated as the music stopped.
     “Let’s get back to work.” another stated and they raced back to their positions.
     “Congratulations, on becoming the manager.” Cheyenne stated as she was punching out.
     “Thanks.” Maria replied.
     “I was thinking on going out to eat tonight.”
     “Where do you want to go?”
     “I heard about a maid cosplay café near the college.” She stated. “I heard they have good desserts there.”
     “Wouldn’t be a little raunchy?”
     “I heard it looks very different.”
     “I’ll take your word for it.”
     Later in that day, Maria and Cheyenne met up at the outside the maid café. Maria was able to get Hikari to tag along to introduce her to Cheyenne.
     “Cheyenne,” Maria said to her. “This is Hikari.”
     “Hey.” Cheyenne stated.
     “Hikari,” Maria again said. “This is Cheyenne.”
     “Pleasure.” Hikari replied. “I’m getting a little hungry let’s head in and eat.”
     “We don’t even know what they have.”
     “I’m sure it’s like a regular café.” Hikari stated. Then, the three entered.
     “Welcome home, Mistress.” the girl at the entrance stated. She was in a rose dress, a white pennicoat and pinafore with a pink heart on it. In addition, she had a rose frill on her head and a rose chocker with a pink heart in the center and had pink shoes, white knee-high stockings and white cat ears and tail.  “How many are with you?”
     “Three please.” Cheyenne said.
     “Right this way, mistress.” she said. They were guided to the table in a happy, friendly, bubbly atmosphere. “The waitress will be with you momentarily.” The girl went away.
     “You’re right, Cheyenne.” Maria said. “This is different.”
     “The designs are incredibly cute.” Cheyenne added. “Especially the kitten, puppy, and baby animal designs.”
     “What do you think, Hikari?” she asked.
     “Yeah, it’s fine.” Hikari replied. She turned away. “It’s so cute, I think I’m going to be sick.” she thought. She tried to think of something that wasn’t on the restaurant itself. “I don’t like it that Dr. Set has been promoted to the top government-sponsored scientist.” Hikari added.
     “Dr. Set?” Maria asked her.
     “I guess you really don’t read the tabloids,” She assumed. “But then again he is also on the news as well.”
     “Who is he?” She asked.
     “He’s a famous scientist whom works for the government.” She explained. “But the downside is he’s an immoral lunatic.”
     “Okay.” She replied. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
     “I heard he was working with the army to make…” Then the waitress came up to their table. She had blonde hair and pigtails.
     “Good afternoon.” She said with a smile, she looked towards Maria. “Oh, I remember you. You were the one I met in the comic store in the mall right?” Maria looked back at her.
     “I think I recognize you.” Maria said. “Who were you again?”
     “Joan.” she said.
     “Oh, yeah.” She said. “Now, I remember you.”
     “I thought so.” Joan said as she pulled out a pad of paper. “May I take your order, mistress?”
     “I would like a strawberry shortcake.” Maria stated.
     “I’ll have a parfait.” Cheyenne said.
     “One cappuccino, please.” Hikari asked .
     “Okay.” Joan stated. “I’ll get these orders in a moment.” She walked away to the kitchen.
     Then a rough muscular guy with rigid movements walked in wearing a pink tuxedo and sat down. And another and another, all three of them looked exactly the same. Then, a fourth and a fifth one came in.
     “What’s going on here?” Maria asked as a sixth and seventh walked in. Three more walked in as Joan came out with the food.
     “Okay.” She said. “I got your…” All of the guys looked at her as she dropped the food onto a table.
     “MINE.” One of the guys stated. Then, all of the men repeated it over and over again at random intervals. They went after the food as the other staff fled. An eighth, ninth, and tenth came in.
     “I don’t like this. They look rather unsavory.” Hikari said. They started to fill up all the tables.
     “They all look identical to each other.” Maria added noting the maids were getting a little nervous. Joan had a plate of dishes out looking at the customers to get the order. One of the men in puck suits stuck his legs out and caused Joan to trip and she fell over dropping the food. The ones at the table smirked and did a small chuckle.
     “That’s it.” Hikari stood up and walked over to the table. “Hey. Apologize to her right now.” The men looked at her.
     “What are you saying?” he said.
     “You’re being a jerk right now and if you don’t stop, they are going to throw you out.”
     “They can’t do nothin’.”
     “If that is the case, I throw you out myself.” She got in a fighting stance.
     “Oh, it’s a fight you want.” he said. “You get the first shot I won’t even block.”
     “Alright, then.” She replied. Then, she threw a punch right at his chest and it went klang. She pulled back her hand. “Oww.” She thought as she shook her hand.
     “My turn.” The man stated in a monotone voice. He punched her back and she hit the wall. “Prepare yourself.” His right arm turned into two barrels.
     “You got to be…” She thought as she moved out of the way. It fired from its arm as she dodged out of the way. The maids and customers panicked running away. Cheyenne fled the area. A second shot fired towards Joan and Maria grabbed her behind the table.
     “What do we do now?” Hikari asked Maria.
     “We’ll flee through the bathroom.” Maria said.
     “There’s no exit in the bathroom.” Joan asked. “But there is an exit through the kitchen.”
     “Okay, we’ll go that way.”
     “Don’t fall behind, Joan.” Hikari added. The girls fled out to the kitchen and left through the back door. Joan locked the door behind them.
     “At least, we’re safe for now.” Joan said.
     “It’s time to get moving.” Maria stated to Hikari.
     “It’s go time.” Hikari replied.
     “Wait, what?” Joan thought. Then, Maria and Hikari transformed into their maiden form. “That’s so awesome that you’re like a magical girl.” The two looked at her.
     “Oh, crap. She knows want we can do.” Then, John appeared behind them.
     “That’s okay.” John replied. Then, the two looked behind and saw him in his beagle puppy form.
     “How is this okay, John?”
     “I’m saying that this girl right here is…” he explained and he sniffed Joan’s leg. “Yep, she’s a maiden alright.”
     “So, I’m a magical girl too?” Joan asked.
     “She is?” Maria asked.
     “Yes and I can unlock her power now.” he said.
     “That’ll be cool. Please do so.” Joan stated.
     “Joan Lachance, libratus virgo, excitare de somno.” he said. Her eyes widened as a light came from her chest engulfing her completely.
     Her maid outfit was scorched turning to cinders. It was replaced with a red top and skirt. She had magenta crimson lacing under the skirt and magenta gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of magenta with a ruby crystal in the center. Then, a fire ball appeared in her hand and a slender strip of flame shot away from the ball. It solidified creating a rapier.
     “Well what do you think?” He said holding up a mirror.
     “It’s… so… KAWAII!!” Joan said. She jumped and did a super cute pose.
     “That’s too cute.” Maria thought with stars in her eyes.
     “Oh god, it’s overkill.” Hikari thought.
     “Okay, enough poses. It’s time to get back to the situation at hand.” John said.
     “Right.” Maria replied.
     The three girls head out from behind the maid café to engage the robots when they noticed a man dressed in an ivory lab coat and black pants. He had motor-oil black hair and he had swirly goggles on his forehead.
     “My testing of the warbot prototype mark-1 is going better than planned.” he said. “Now, I can pull up the results and write the report.”
     “Stop right there.” Maria stated. He turned around seeing them.
     “Who are you might I ask?” the doctor stated.
     “I am Breezy Girl; My team: Swirly, Flamer, and I are going to take you down.” She stated. The other girls looked at her.
     “Breezy Girl? That’s the stupidest superhero name.” Hikari said.
     “Since when did you pick our names?” Joan asked.
     “I can make so many dirty jokes with that.” the scientist said to her. “I am Dr. Set, expert robotic researcher and agent.”
     “One whose gone rogue.” Hikari mentioned.
     “I have my allies who help me. He is a technical master to aid my cause.” He explained and turned to his robots. “They have performed well in other tasks but haven’t tested their combat capabilities. Robots, attack them!!” Then, the warbots came forward their arms transformed into shotguns.
     The girls dodged out of the way of the shotgun blasts. Hikari pulled out her katana charging forward and slashed off one of the arms of the first warbot. Maria went forward and bashed the second with her shield. Joan launched a fireball at the third one; it didn’t do much damage but distracted it. The doctor backed away worrying about being caught.
     The first one punched at Hikari and she tumbled out of the way. Then, she sliced the midsection of the warbot clean open and oil leaked out. The robot stumbled then collapsed face first onto the ground. The doctor decided to send two more warbots in and as this happened he fled.
     Maria created a whirlwind knocking the second one over; she leapt into the air and thrusted downward onto the warbot’s throat. Joan dodged the third warbot’s shotgun arm shots, she leapt onto the robot’s shoulder and fired a shot at the fourth one advancing on Hikari. It was a headshot.
     Hikari washed the fifth robot in a stream of high speed water hitting straight on as the robot prepared an uzi. It aimed at her but the water got into its wires causing a short circuit. Joan leapt off the robot landing next to Maria.
     “Wildfire Whirlwind.” The two stated. Maria launched a tornado out and Joan mixed in a stream of fire. The swirling fire completely engulfed the robot causing the exterior to melt and it froze in place due to the welding. The girls caught their breath and they heard the sirens. At that moment, they fled.

     The girls met up in Maria’s apartment for they to rest up from what happened. Jonathan appeared in his beagle form.
     “You girls did alright working as a team.” he stated. “The Virtue Girls are well under way on forming.”
     “The Virtue Girls?” Maria asked.
     “It’s best for me to name it, otherwise someone might give the group a cheesy name.” he said. “With three of the girls together, we can grow.”
     “Any words on… whatever you are looking for?” Maria asked.
     “No. I don’t have any more as of right now. This will give you girls time to get to know each other.”
     “So, we are a team of heroines now?” Joan asked.
     “Yes.” he replied.
     “That would mean…” Joan turned to Maria and Hikari. “They’re Maria and Hikari-sempai now.”
     “Oh, damn it.” Hikari said.

Maria, Hikari, and Joan were in Maria’s apartment while the two were visiting. Maria was sitting on the couch getting ready to watch some TV. Joan came out of the bathroom chasing Hikari around the couch in a pink nurse outfit while another one was in her hand.
 “Come on, Hikari-sempai.” Joan said.
 “Joan, no.” She said. “I’m not going to put it on.”
 “But it’ll look cute on you. We can look like twins.”
 “We don’t even look alike. How can we possibly be twins?”
 “C’mon put it on.”
 “No, I am not.”
 “Can you two settle down?” Maria asked the two. “I live in an apartment building. Some of the neighbors might start complaining. Why don’t we just sit down and watch some TV?”
 “Okay.” Joan said sitting on the left side of the couch while Hikari sat on the right side. “What are we watching? I hope it’s a good show.”
 “I haven’t turned it on yet.” She turned on the TV using the remote. It was on a little kids program where the characters were puppets. “I’ll check the…” Then, a news flash came up. The anchorman appeared. He was short, had short blond hair and a goatee. He wore a classic suit.
 “Good afternoon, this is David Brown.” the anchorman stated. “We have just received word of what looks like a large reptilian wondering the streets; police have arrived on the scene but have not managed to get the creature under control but it has been reported that it has withdrawn. Wolf Nine News reporter, Kim Evanich is at the scene now live.”
 The reporter was dressed in a dark grey slim dress with the microphone in her hand. The houses behind her were trashed but can be repaired.
 “As you can see before you, the devastation that the monster has caused is remarkable.” Kim said. “The creature could not be identified at this time. It was last seen heading southbound towards Lake Meyers before the police lost sight of it.”
 “Looks like our TV time will have to wait.” Maria said.
 “Finally some action.” Hikari added.
 “Let me put the costumes away first.” Joan replied. She went away to the bedroom.
 “Isn’t there an allotment down there?” Hikari asked.
 “I think it’s Whispering Meadows.” Maria replied. “Despite it being an allotment for the rich, no body lives there. That’s what I heard from Cheyenne.” After Joan returned, all three of them headed down towards Lake Meyers. All three of them transformed upon arrival. They arrived at a very high class allotment with green lawns and cut grass. The roads were very clean as well. But all of the houses were empty for the most part.
 “This place looks creepy.” Joan said.
 “Let’s go, Joan.” Maria replied. Hikari started to rush in the area in looking for the monster with Maria and Joan following her. They searched and searched and searched but no results.
 “Ugh, where is it?” Hikari said. At that moment, John appeared in his little beagle.
 “You need some help?” he asked.
 “Yeah, have you seen a large reptilian thing?” She asked him.
 “No, but I feel his presence.” he said. “But the monster has become invisible.”
 “How can we take down an invisible monster?” Maria asked.
 “Only spirits can go completely transparent. I sensed that the invisible monster is not a spirit, so it can’t go transparent.”
 “So, it’s not really an invisible monster.” Joan stated.
 “It’ll just be very hard to spot. He is in this allotment. I know you’ve only known each other for a little while but you girls need to work together on this one.” he said.
 “Why should I work with one who’s constantly trying to put me in cosplay outfits?” Hikari said.
 “Hikari-sempai, why do you have to be so stubborn?” Joan asked. Then, the two got in a little argument. Maria went over and found a large boulder.
 “A-ha.” She said. “The creature has to be nearby.” Maria looked around the boulder for any clues on where the monster might be. She looked down near the bottom edge of the rock. “Oh, a red piece of meat.” She grabbed it and pulled on it; it wouldn’t budge. “If I can get this piece of meat from under this rock, I could lure the monster out.” She grabbed her sword and cut the meat from the rock. “Got it.”
 She heard a roar and something knocked her back onto her butt. She saw a large reptilian tail swirling around with the cut mark that she made. What she thought was a boulder shown it’s legs and head.  It appeared as a bright azure blue three-horned chameleon with spines on its back and it gnarling its fangs at her.
 “GIRLS!! I FOUND THE MONSTER!!” Maria shouted. It reared up and stomped on the ground. Maria dodged it. “PLEASE HURRY!” The two stopped arguing.
 “We’re coming, Maria.” She replied. The monster’s right eye had its sight on Maria, but then it’s left eye saw the other two. It took in a large breath; he faced the two girls and shot out a fireball.
 “WATCH OUT!!” They both dodged it, but Joan’s hair got a little singed.
 “Ugh, it’ll take a week to get the ash out.” Joan said stopping in her tracks. Hikari had charged forward as the monster turned towards her. She cut it right in the front left leg and the monster flinched.
 “Got the first hit in.” she said and she turned around seeing that there was no wound. “What the… I cut on the arm.”
 “Focus on the creature, Joan.” Maria said. The creature can forward and tried to bite Maria. She dodged the blow and it bit into a tree. Liquid came from the creature’s mouth and the tree died. “AH, it’s like a salamander.” It ripped the tree out and spat it out at the girl. Joan and Maria jumped out of the way. It swung it’s claws and it made a dent in Maria’s shield that she raised. It lashed its tail around and it whacked Hikari, knocking the wind out of her. Joan leapt up and caught her.
 “You okay?”Joan asked.
 “Fine, it was a lucky shot the creature had.” The monster roared again. It launched another fireball at the two. Maria raised her shield and blocked the fire. Maria charged forward and jammed her sword into it’s throat and did a deep gash.
 “That should do it.” Maria looked back at it and saw it rapidly heal up. She didn’t notice the creature’s foot raised up to squash her. Joan launched a fireball at the creature and it landed in its eye. The aim of the foot was knocked off and it missed Maria.
 “Girls, it has a regeneration ability.” she said heading towards them.
 “I’ll take forever to take him down if he can regenerate.” Joan said. The monster launched another fireball at them and Maria blocked it with her shield.
 “We’ll have to fall back and come up with a plan.” Maria stated.
 “But can’t we just cut him down?” Hikari asked her.
 “We can’t waste our energy.”
 “Fine.” The three girls pulled back away from the monster; the creature didn’t bother to pursue them. It decided to head towards the lake proper. The girls decided to hide in one of the houses to catch their breath.
 “We’ll, that didn’t turn out so well.” Maria said.
 “He’ll be gone in a little bit.” Hikari replied. “I’ll say that once we are fully rested we head back out to fight it before it gets away.”
 “Aren’t you being hasty, Hikari-sempai?” Joan asked. “We should listen to Maria-sempai.”
 “Can you stop calling me that?”
 “Okay, Hikari-kun.”
 “Oh, give me a break.”
 “Maybe we can lure it back.” Maria said.
 “With that piece you cut off of it?” Hikari asked.
 “It’s worth a shot.” John appeared as they were talking.
 “Maria, is there a spine on that piece of flesh?” he asked her.
 “I don’t know. I didn’t check it.” she said; she check the meat and found a small spine. “I found one.”
 “Good.” he said. “During the battle, I noticed when he was regenerating he was receiving a transmission from someplace else and it was being received through the spines and horns.”
 “So, this spine can reveal how we can beat it?” Joan asked.
 “Well, check the spine out.” Hikari added. John went over placing his hand on it and used his telekinesis to scan the spine. “Well, anything.”
 “Apparently, it is connected to the internet drawing something to help is regenerate. I was able to get a site from it.” John explained.
 “And that is…”
 “Cornbob.com.” He said.
 “I’ve never heard of it.” Maria said. “I wish we had a tech expert in our group.”
 “We’ll have to go back and get on the computer to find out what it is.” Joan said.
 “It’s there a way faster?” Hikari asked.
 “Wait, I think I might have a solution.” Maria stated pulling out her cellphone.

 Meanwhile, Cheyenne was lying on her back wearing a maize colored bikini with red spots on it. She was on a deckchair by the swimming pool at her house. She had a patio table next to her where her cell phone is. An older gentleman with a black suit and bowtie with a white cummerbund came out carrying a tray with a glass of lemonade.
 “Here is your lemonade, madam.” he said.
 “Thank you, Cecil.” Cheyenne replied.
 “Is there anything else I can get for you?”
 “No right now. Thanks anyway.”
 “You’re welcome. I’ll leave you to your business.” Then, he went away and Cheyenne laid back.
 “Since I don’t have anything to do, I can work on my tan today.” She put on some sunglasses. “I wish I can invite Mikey over, but my parents won’t let me. I don’t understand why.” Then, her cellphone rang and she answered. “Hello?”
 “Hey Cheyenne, it’s Maria.”
 “Oh, hey there.” Cheyenne said.
 “Can I ask you a favor?” Maria asked.
 “What is it?”
 “I’m sure you’re not busy right now, so can you go online and look up cornbob.com? I don’t know what it is.”
 “Where did you find the address?”
 “I just found it somewhere.”
 “Oh, All right.” Cheyenne got out of her chair and headed inside in her bikini. She sat down on her computer. “Okay, let’s see.” She thought. “cornbob.com.” She typed in the address. Then, when she entered the text. The screen was black and a message appeared in the window. “Please confirm that you are 18 or over? That doesn’t sound good.” She clicked the continue button and advanced to the site. She was filled with shock. “Maria, the site you stated is a porn site.” The other girls were surprised.
 “Okay, thanks for letting me know.” Maria said.
 “Is that all?”
 “Yeah.”
 “Well, I’ll talk to you later.” Cheyenne stated.
 “See ya.” Maria replied. She hung up on the call.
 “Miss Cheyenne,” Cecil stated. “Why do you do that?”
 “Maria is my friend; I need to answer her phone calls.”
 “Not that, I know you’re more liberal. But why do you have to look at internet porn.” Cheyenne looked and the window was still up.
 “Uh… I can explain.” She replied.

 Meanwhile, Maria hung up her phone and looked to the other girls and explained what was causing the regeneration power.
 “That’s just wrong.” Hikari said.
 “But because so many people are looking at those sites, I won’t be surprised to pick it as the source for its regeneration ability.”
 “So, what’s the plan, Maria-sempai?” Joan asked.
 “I’m thinking before doing anything else we’ll have to remove the spines.” Maria replied.
 “That seems like the only logical plan we have.”
 “Let’s get going then.” Hikari stated. “We’ll have to start looking.”
 “Where do we start?” Joan asked. Then a hobo came out of the shadows.
 “Are you, fellas, looking for that monster?” He asked; the girls turned around. When the girls see him, they jump back for a second in surprise.
 “Who are you?” Hikari asked him.
 “I’m just a nameless hobo who just sits in this house.” he said.
 “What are you doing here?” Joan asked.
 “Nobody lives in the entire allotment. Apparently, the high funders ended up wasting money building this place. It’s now a place for hobos and gangs.” he explained. “So, you want me to find the monster or not?”
 “You can help.” Maria added.
 “Okay, buddy. Follow me.” the hobo said. The girls followed the hobo across the allotment until they came up to Lake Meyer where they saw the monster lizard. “There she is.” The girls looked at it seeing it had ten spines on it.
 “Looks like we have our work cut out for us.” Joan said.
 “Let’s strike it down.” Hikari said.
 “Wait, we shouldn’t let it see us.” Maria said. Then, the creature’s eye focused on them. “It saw us.” Then, it started running towards them. “Get out of the way!” The girls went towards the sides while the hobo run away. He looked back as the creature leapt forward. He screamed as it landed and its jaws wrapped around his hips.
 The creature lifted its head up with the hobo kicking about halfway in its mouth with blood dripping from it. Then, it swallowed him whole with a big gulp. He turned to face Hikari and Joan with its jaws agape.
 Maria leapt on its back and it noticed. He tried to aim correctly but failed; Maria was able to cut one of the spines off. It got on its hind legs knocking Maria off and it turned around lashing its tail towards Hikari and Joan. Hikari leapt out of the way but it hit Joan hard. She flew right into a wall knocking the wind out of her.
 The monster sent a fireball towards Maria and she dodged out of the way. Hikari grabbed on to one of the spines. And the monster landed back on all fours throwing Hikari off. She tried to make the landing on the concrete but she failed. She screamed as she landed on the ground.
 Maria rushed towards her as Hikari tried to get back up. As she stood, she was wobbly; she fell again but Maria caught her. The monster roared and charged towards them. Maria helped her dodge but they barely got out of the way in time.
 Joan sat up and noticed that there was a canister of propane close by and she picked it up and headed towards the monster. Maria got Hikari to a tree and the monster looked towards them and blasted a fireball out; Maria blocked it with her shield.
 “HEY UGLY, OVER HERE!!” Joan shouted as she turned the handle on the propane. She threw the tank at him and the monster bit down on it. The tank exploded and its head blew up; the monster fell over. “Talk about an explosion of flavor.”
 “Oh brother.” Hikari stated and she flinched in pain.
 “What’s wrong?” Maria asked.
 “It’s nothing.” she replied. Joan ran over as Maria touched it. Hikari moaned upon touch.
 “Let me see, Hikari.”
 “I can take care of myself; I’m a trooper.” Maria pulled down her sock and saw her ankle is swollen and bruised. Hikari flinched.
 “Hikari, you’re in no condition to fight.” Maria said.
 “But…”
 “No buts, Hikari-kun. You’re ankle’s sprained.”
 “Fine, let’s head back.” Maria and Joan helped her get back to Maria’s house to finish up the day. Hikari was sitting down on a chair while Maria was getting crutches in the closet. Joan was wrapping a bandage around her ankle.
 “Joan, thanks for the bandage but do you still have to wear the nurse’s outfit while you do it?” Hikari asked.
 “The nurse’s outfit is my first-aid outfit.” she said.
 “How many outfits do you own?” she asked.
 “I have one for school, for work, for first-aid, for being at home, for parties, for cleaning, and even one for… well, let’s not go into that right now.” Joan explained. “I have a ton of outfits.”
 “Wait, you have an outfit for cleaning?” Maria asked.
 “Yeah, I’ll be right back.” Joan stated and she went away. Then, she came back dressed in a shrine maiden’s outfit complete with wooden sandals. “Time to clean and purify the place of evil spirits.”
 “You got to be kidding me.” Hikari said. “You just had to go there.” Maria sat down and turned on the TV set so the girls would have something to watch.

The girls were hanging at Hikari’s house at the time being. There was a dojo that was attached to the household. They were in the living room sitting on a L-shaped couch and they had a piece of paper on the coffee table.
 “You can’t be called ‘Breezy Girl’, Maria.” Hikari said. “Remember what Dr. Set stated? He said he could make dirty jokes with the names you gave us. We need to change them.”
 “And we have to give ourselves our own names too.” Joan said.
 “Well, what names do you have?” Maria asked.
 “I would like my heroine name to be Hanabi.” She added.
 “Joan, you’re not Japanese.” Hikari pointed out. “Stop trying to be that. That’s like me calling myself, Eau Fille.”
 “That’s not a bad name for you, Hikari-kun.”
 “You’re missing the point, Joan.”
 “What names do you have for a suggestion?” Joan asked.
 “Huh?” Hikari thought. At that moment, Jonathan showed up.
 “There you girls are.” he said. “We have something going on.”
 “What is it?” Maria asked.
 “There has been a case for us to get cracking on.” he explained. “I can’t give all the details at the moment and there are rumors of being a team of superheroines have spread through the town.”
 “What…!?” Joan asked.
 “Information is spreading but it can’t be confirmed as of right now.” he said. “My suggestion is to start keeping your identities as such a secret.”
 “Okay, I understand.” Maria replied.
 “So, who are we meeting up with?” Hikari asked.
 “We are going to be meeting up with veteran psychiatrist, Dr. Jalmari Langenberg. He will be giving the information needed for the case.”
 “Oh, I know him.” Maria said.
 “You do?” Hikari asked.
 “Ya… he helps me handle my…” she explained and then shut up.
 “Handles your… what?” she asked.
 “Nothing.”
 “We’ll have to come up with names later.” Joan stated. The girls had left the house and they got into Maria’s car, a silver Malibu, and drove towards the rendezvous point with the psychiatrist. He was a larger built man wearing a dark-brown suit with an ivory tie with birds on it.

 “Oh, hello, Maria.” he said. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
 “I’m going to help with the Virtue Girls today.” she said.
 “So, these two are part of the Virtue Girls, I take it?”
 “Yeah.” she stated.
 “Thank goodness, the rumors were true.” he stated. “Come with me.” He led on and the girls followed them. “I’ve been doing very well for some time but now I’ve been having trouble with some tough cases.”
 “Like what?” Maria asked.
 “For the past week or so, there has been a spike in the cases of nightmare disorders in college students. But the situation is that at least 33% of college students are experiencing this.” he explained.
 “It can’t happen that frequently.”
 “It doesn’t at that great of a scale.” he said. “I’ve been working with some of the patients and I’m starting to get overrun. I need the Virtue Girls to find the source of the nightmare disorder and remove it.”
 “Okay, was there anything special about the cases?” Maria asked.
 “As I was interviewing one of the patients and I noted that most of them mentioned ‘Fairy Heroes’. I’m not sure what it is though.”
 “Oh,” Joan stated. “I know what that is. That’s an MMO.”
 “Have you played it before?” Hikari asked her.
 “I’ve heard about it but I’ve never played it before.” Joan replied. “But I do know where to go to download the game.”
 “Perhaps, that is the first place that the Virtue Girls need to start first.” Jalmari explained. “Perhaps, that MMO might be the key to solving this case.”
 “I can imagine that.” Maria replied. “We’ll work on it.”
 “Thank you, girls.” He replied. “And Maria, I want to remind you of the appointment you have next week.”
 “Okay, I get it.” Maria stated. “See you later.” It was getting to the evening, so the girls had to part ways to their homes. They were able to the game onto each of their computers and agreed to meet up online later that night.
 Maria was on the computer and had downloaded the game; she entered the application and approved the license agreement to enter and she customized the character. John came up to her.
 “Do you know who to look for when you log on?” he asked.
 “I was able to learn that Hikari’s character is TaeKwonGal and that Joan is Hanabi32.” she stated. “I told them my character is going to be TwisterChick36.”
 “At least, Twister Chick is better than Breezy Girl.” he said.
 “Shut up.” Maria added. “This is just like that one issue of Agent Jupiter in which he is forced to enter into an MMO where…”
 “Just make your character and start playing.” he said. “I’ll tell you how to channel your powers into your characters once you three meet-up.”
 “Okay.” she said and then she logged in.

 She appeared in a fantasy world. She was on a dirt trail facing South to the nearby town with a field with grass on the side. The trail led north to a forest with evergreens. She noticed the name of her character was floating above her head.
 “This feels weird.” Maria stated.
 “Maria, over here.” Hikari said. She saw Hikari and Joan’s characters; she walked over there.
 “I’m glad we were able to meet up, Maria-sempai.” Joan stated.
 “Yeah.” Maria replied. “But there’s one problem. We know nothing about the MMO.”
 “Perhaps, I can help with that.” a person said. They turned and say an elvin character with red hair wearing a cream-colored battle skirt and armor; she was carrying a broadsword. She had the name, DQuinn74, above her.
 “Hey there.” Joan said.
 “Hello, are you new here?” she asked.
 “Yeah, I’ve been wanting to play this game for a while.”
 “Welcome to Fairy Heroes.” the character said. “My name is Dymphna. What’s yours?”
 “I’m Joan.” She replied.
 “Are these your friends?” Dymphna asked.
 “Yeah.” Then, the girls ended up getting a notice on their hub. The girls check it and it was a friend request from her. Joan accepted the friend request as well as Maria. Hikari just ignored it but didn’t decline it. Maria check Dymphna’s friend list.
 “Wow, Dymphna. Your friend list is really large.” Maria said. “You must be very outgoing and social.” Dymphna paused for a minute.
 “Not really.” she replied. “I’m only outgoing online. In real life, I’m… kind of… shy.”
 “Okay. We have our reasons.” Maria said.
 “Anyway, I just accepted a quest that just appeared. And it’s offering a massive award for the players want to join my party?”
 “Sure.” Maria replied. The girls got a request to join the party and all three accepted; Hikari turned to Maria.
 “Well, at least this will let us practice before we face the trouble maker.” She stated. Then, a shirtless macho guy wearing a black speedo carrying a battleaxe was coming their way.
 “Oh great, here comes trouble.” Dymphna said.
 “Hey there, baby.” the guy said. “You look nice.”
 “I told you, I’m not interested in you.” Dymphna stated to you.
 “C’mon.” he said.
 “For the last time, I told you, NO!!” she shouted at him.
 “Okay, okay.” he stated turning to the others. “Maybe one of your friends might be interested in a hot time.” And he copped a feel of Joan’s butt.
 “You want a hot time?” Joan said. “I’ll give you a HOT TIME!!” She slammed both of her hands on the guy’s chest and the guy burst into flames.
 “OH MY GOD, WHAT THE FAQ!!” he shouted. “AHH!!” His character fell over dead. Dymphna was completely shocked.
 “Holy cow.” she said. “I’ve never seen a spell like that before and my character is a level 30 spellblade.”
 “Oh… Sorry.” she replied.
 “No, many of us are glad you did that. That guy hacks into the game’s programming so he gets what he wants, will always win, and he bullies the newcomers. That’s why he’s such a noob; check that worse than a noob.” She explained. “I’m glad somebody taught him a lesson about respect.”
 “Okay.” Joan answered.

 “Who would play a character like that anyway?” Hikari thought.
 Meanwhile, at the jerk’s computer, the main menu screen was on his screen. There was a red comfortable chair and it turn away from the computer. It was a male Russian blue cat sitting on the chair and it meowed.

 “So, want to start the quest?” Dymphna asked.
 “Sure.” Maria added.
 “Here are some items.” she said.
 “There’s no need for the items.” Maria added.
 “Oh… okay.” She replied.
 “Lead the way, Dymphna.” Hikari stated. She lead them northward to the evergreen forest. As they entered the forest the trees covered up the sunlight so none would reach the floor.
 “Dymphna, is this supposed to be normal?” Joan asked.
 “Now, that you mention it. I’ve been through this area before and it never has gotten this dark.” The girls kept wandering through the forest then they heard a growl. Joan stopped in her tracks.
 “What was that?” she asked.
 “What’s what?” Hikari asked.
 “That sound.”
 “What sound?” They heard the growl again only it was louder this time.
 “It sounds like a jaguar.” Maria replied.
 “There are no big cat based monsters in this area.” Dymphna said. “So, I doubt that is the case.”
 “But it certainly sounds like there’s one.” The girls continued moving as they huddled closer together, they moved at a slower pace than before.
 “I know the basic programming on the monsters in the game.” Dymphna explained. “They are not programmed to actively attack the player unless attacked.” Then, Maria looked up and saw something coming at them from above like if pouncing.
 “RUN!!” Maria shouted. The group moved and it landed behind them. They turned and face the rear. They saw a large jaguar measuring at 9 feet long and 45 inches by the shoulder. It was growling at them.
 “THAT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN WITH THE PROGRAMMING!!” Dymphna shouted.
 “Who said I was part of the program?” The jaguar said.
 “That confirms it.” she added.
 “This must be the target.” Hikari thought.
 “Com now, why don’t you let me strike you?” it said. “It’s not going to hurt; after all, it’s just a game you know.”
 “So, you are the one who has been giving the players nightmare syndrome.” Maria stated.
 “I think that was part of the quest.” Dymphna said.
 “You are a clever girl.” the jaguar stated as he leapt up into a tree. “I am a creature who had spread terror in the ancient days and I still terrorize you unto this day.”
 “Well, who are you exactly?” she asked.
 “I am Tezcatlipoca.” it stated. “I have full Ctrl here and you can’t esc out of this one, girls.” He gave out a roar and leapt on the tree to pounce on the girls all of them dodged out of the way. Dymphna launched a spell from the game at him but it had no effect. “Stupid Player, those won’t work against me.” He blasted shadow out of its mouth, hitting her straight on and she flew back into a wall taking massive damage. She couldn’t take much more damage without her character being killed.
 The creature leapt towards Dymphna and Maria jumped in the way of the beast using her shield to block and she pushed Tezcatlipoca away. Hikari charged forward with her saber and he dodged slashing at her with his claws. It hit and they noticed a red number temporarily appear above her head.
 “What’s that?” she asked.
 “That’s the HP damage you took.” Dymphna stated.
 “Okay, I see that.” she replied.
 Joan tossed a fireball at the creature; it caught on fire and it rolled on the ground as it tried to put the flames out. Maria rushed forward and slashed at the creature cutting at its front limb. Then, Hikari sprayed a water stream over to smash it against a tree. It was stunned, then Joan moved forward and stabbed it with her rapier.
 “We’ve won… and get to level up.” Joan said.
 “You think you have won?” Tezcatlipoca said. “That’s an error. I will crush you girls, but that will be in another modem.” The jaguar disintegrated. “I will be back.” Then, the forest in the area returned to normal.
 “Wow, I didn’t know what was going on.” Dymphna said. “Thank you for saving me, Maria.”
 “Don’t mention it, Dymphna.” Maria said.
 “Apparently, the quest disappeared as though it never existed to begin with.” she said. “That’s weird.”
 “I hope we can keep in touch.” Joan stated.
 “Yeah, we should.” she replied. “Thanks again for coming online.” Dymphna logged out of the MMO. Then, the other girls did so as well.

 The next morning, Maria was getting out of bed and getting a bowl of cheerios. When she got a telephone call, she picked it up.
 “Hello?” she asked.
 “Oh, Maria.” Dr. Langenberg said was on the phone. “I’ve got good news.”
 “What is it, Dr. Langenberg?”
 “I’ve noted that all of the cases of nightmare disorder have disappeared and all those affected made an excellent recovery. I want to thank the Virtue Girls for their aid.”
 “I’ll let them know.” She said.
 “Ciao.” he stated. Then, he got off the phone and she hung up.  John came in as a beagle and he sat up next to Maria on the couch.
 “You know, Maria. I also have been thinking about superheroine names myself.” He explained. “How about taking the name, Miss Humility?” She looked at him in a funny manner.
 “Miss Humility?” She asked. “I can’t take that name; it’s not very appealing and it makes me sound like I’m some sort of wallflower.”
 “Being a wallflower and being a doormat to the world is not humility. It’s only pride in disguise.” He said. “As you continue your career as a Virtue Girl, you will discover what true humility is like. And you’ll might even like the name I suggested.”

Maria went to work that day feeling tired. She struggled to stay awake while she was on the clock. Cheyenne came to her while she was on break resting in the breakroom.
 “Hey there.” She stated.
 “Yo.” Maria replied exhaustedly.
 “Did you see the maiden yet?”
 “Not yet.” Maria lied trying to hide the fact that she is the maiden Cheyenne was referring to.
 “She rescued me and a bunch of other people multiple times. It’s all over the news and everyone’s talking about the existence of magical girls. Although, I don’t know exactly from what. I want to talk to and thank her for saving me.”
 “I’m sure she’s rather busy.”
 “I know you’re sleepy. I’ll get you something very sugary to help wake you up.” Cheyenne left to get her an energy drink that wasn’t in the vending machines. Maria just went back to sleep. But, Jonathan as a phantom appeared to Maria.
 “Maria, wake up.” He stated. “We have work to do.” She woke up.
 “Jon, can’t I get some sleep?” She asked. “Fighting a difficult battle against Tezcatlipoca, just like in that one Agent Jupiter…”
 “Never mind, Agent Jupiter right now, we have more important things to worry about. We have some news to show you.” he interrupted. “Turn on the TV and it’ll show you.” She turned on the TV and it showed the hospital surrounded by police vehicles. Kim Evanich was there live at the scene.
 “It has been a disaster at the All-Star Hospital” Kim reported. “for we received word that all of the medical equipment has gone haywire and started attacking the faculty and patients. The police currently has the hospital under lockdown so as not for any machines to get out.”
 “Aren’t the police able to handle it?” She asked lazily.
 “No, they can’t find anybody doing it.” He added.
 “What about my job?” She admitted.
 “I’ve already got a sick leave note to your boss. Now, transform and let’s get this rescue started.” Maria transformed into the maiden of humility. The moment she was heading out; Cheyenne returned.
 “Okay, I got you some…” She stated and saw the maiden. “Oh my god, it’s her.”
 “Oh hey,” Maria replied, knowing this situation is awkward. “Look, I’m a little busy. I really gotta go. Bye.” She zoomed out the door.
 “What was that all about? I need to talk to her.” She thought. “I know, I’ll follow her and talk with her when she’s done.” Cheyenne left to follow the maiden. As Maria left the store a kid at the check tried to get his mom’s attention.

 “Mommy, mommy, look. It’s Breezy Girl.” he said.
 “No dear, it’s just your imagination.” the mom replied.

 Meanwhile, she was moving through the alleyway with Jon to meet up with the other girls. During this time, they were hearing ‘The Lineman’. Hikari and Joan had transformed into their maiden forms before they left. After they arrived in the alleyway beside the hospital, the music continued and they looked at John who was carrying a stereo.
 “Oh, sorry.” John stated and he pushed the stop button as the song ended.

 “Okay, what’s going on here?” Hikari asked him.
 “Rogue Medical Equipment.” He replied. “If we don’t act soon, the military might get involved.”
 “Can’t we tell the police the information?” She asked.
 “No, they won’t believe us anyway.” He replied sincerely. “When do they ever listen to someone they aren’t involved with? We are the peanut gallery to them. Besides, they don’t trust you yet.”
 The girls looked around and found an entrance way that wasn’t blocked through the parking garage. They, all, sneaked inside and noticed that the hospital appeared to be abandoned.
 “Girls, best of luck in there.” He said. “The people inside are either hostages or hiding from the equipment.” As they walked by a broom closet, the door moved and got their attention.
 “Something’s behind there.” Joan said jumping.
 “I’ll open the door.” Maria said. “Can you check, Hikari?” She grabbed the door as Hikari her saber.
 “Go.” Hikari said as Maria opened the door.
 “Please don’t hurt me.” the thing said. “I have a wife and six kids.”
 “Oh,” Maria stated with relief. “It’s just a doctor.”
 “You… you aren’t going to hurt me?” he asked.
 “No, we’re here to help.” She replied. “What happened here?”
 “This hospital gets the most advanced and experimental technology from the government.”  he explained. “Everything, and I mean everything, has a computer. Even the toilets have a computer.”
 “Okay, can you speed things up?” She asked impatiently.
 “Yes, of course.” He replied. “We were doing regular routines. Then, someone hacked into out computer mainframe. Next thing, we know our security system stopped working, and everything with electronic parts turned against us. If you are here to aid us, please help us.”
 “I’ll help you.”  She explained. “I came in through the parking garage; you can escape from there.”
 “Oh, thank you. I won’t forget this.” he stated as he fled the scene.
 “Now, let’s kick some cybernetic butt.” Hikari stated.

 Meanwhile, Cheyenne made it to the police barrier around the hospital. She wanted to get through but an officer stopped her.
 “Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked.
 “I need to see the maiden.” Cheyenne stated.
 “What maiden?” he asked
 “The magical girl, Breezy Girl.” she replied.
 “Oh, you’re talking about that hoax those stupid teenagers posted on the web.” he said.
 “She’s not a hoax.” she explained.
 “Hey, this girl thinks that magical girl exists.” He told another mockingly. “Oh, look at me. I believe in that little pretty maiden.” The two laughed in ridicule.
 “I’m serious.” Cheyenne added frustratedly.
 “Yeah, right.” He added. “If she exists, prove it.” At that moment, the doctor came out.
 “Oh, thank you officers” he explained. “…for sending someone to help us.” He left to behind the line.
 “Wait a minute,” the officer stated. “We didn’t send anyone in there yet.” He grabbed a megaphone and held it up. “Whoever went in there, get your ass out here and get back in line!” he shouted thinking it was another officer. Meanwhile, Hikari noticed the call.
 “It’s an officer telling us to get out of there.” Hikari stated.
 “Don’t mind him right now.” Maria said. “We’re busy right now.” She turned around the corner and saw a large tan robot surgeon with bright green lights as eyes. And two black sensors underneath the eyes. It was turning its head and Maria hid.
 “What is it, Maria-sempai?” Joan asked.
 “A large rogue medical droid.” Maria stated. “It’s too dark in its area to attack it.”
 “Why are you scared of it?” she asked.
 “Because it resembles that one foe from Agent Jupiter, PCS-173.” They heard it moving on the ground and the sound was getting louder and louder.
 “It’s getting closer.” Joan stated.
 “Wait, until we can see it better.” Hikari stated. The girls stayed until the robot came around the corner; then, Hikari cut its head off. “Go!!” The girls rushed through while the droid was looking for its head.

 As more and more patients and doctors were freed, the more angry that officer got. “Okay, that does it.” He turned to another one; he had a blue military uniform on. He was in his early thirties, had hazel eyes and silver hair, mustache, and chinstrap. “Nicholas, get in there and show whoever is in there a thing or two about manners.”
 “But sir, whoever it is, is freeing the hostages, perhaps it may be best to aid them.” Nicholas said. But the officer didn’t listen.
 “I’m the one who gives the orders here, not you.” The officer rebuked. “Get in there and kick them out.”
 “Fine.” Nicholas stated unhappily. He entered the hospital with his pistol drawn. “I don’t know why he is so mad when people are coming out. That’s supposed to be a good thing.” He thought.

 He explored the inside of the hospital; the lights were out because of the droid takeover. A neuroimaging droid came scanning the area in front of him. He almost got detected by the scanners, but he ducked out the way. He bumped into another droid that used to be a blood pressure device. It went berserk and began to chase him. He fired off his gun several times as he ran; it barely made a dent and his gun got jammed. He tripped on the cord that the droid let out. The rubber hose tangled his arms and legs, the cloth used for restriction wrapped around his throat. It got tighter and tighter preventing him from breathing.
 The hose was cut and the droid was sliced in two. Nicholas was able to breathe again and he ripped the restrictive cloth off his throat. There remained a red mark on his neck from the suffocation. He looked to see who saved him. He saw Maria and the other girls standing before him; at first it was blurrly.
 “Wh… Who are you?” He asked.
 “We’re the magical girls.” she replied. His vision finally cleared up.
 “So, the rumors were true.” He stated in gratitude. “There are a group of superheroines running around. I am high officer, Nicholas. I was sent in but I didn’t do any good.”
 “You tried to help at least, right?” Joan asked.
 “Yes, I failed at it.” He stated in sadness.
 “Don’t beat yourself up.” She stated.
 “I would have died if you haven’t come.” He explained with earnest. “With that I am in gratitude.”
 “You’re welcome.” Hikari replied.
 “So, what is the situation?” he asked.
 “It seems like the computer system has been hacked.” Joan explained.
 “We would need to cut off the hacker’s control over the system.” He replied.
 “My theory is that we would need to shut down the main computer manually.” Joan explained.
 “Do you know where that is?” He asked.
 “Uh…” Joan uttered. “I don’t have the slightest idea.”
 “I don’t have any idea.” The two looked at Hikari.
 “Don’t look at me, I’m no computer expert.” Hikari rebuked.
 “You girls have no idea where the main computer system is.” he stated. “This is going to be helpful.”
 “I suggest we go search the place from bottom to top.” Maria suggested.
 “We’ve got nothing better to do. So, let’s go.” Hikari said.
 “This place still gives me the creeps, Hikari-kun.” Joan said.
 “Now is not the time for that.” she answered. “Just go with Hikarin, okay?”
 “Okay.” she replied.
 The group headed down the stairs avoiding any of the droids that might be on those floors. The floor they arrived in was much smaller than the other floors. On the north side of the room was the main computer unit. Every robot was linked to this computer. There were several screens showing the status of everything on it.
 “This is it, all we have to do is unplug it and we’re done.” Maria stated. “I think this is it.” They entered the room calmly and confidently but there was nothing protecting the computer until… the screens turned blue and a gold jaguar face imprint appeared on it.
 “You think you can stop me?” it stated.
 “It’s Tezcatlipoca.” Hikari replied.
 “I told you that I would be back.” he replied.
 “Well, we are going to stop you right here and now…” Joan said. “Hijō ni OROKADE BACA!!” The girls and Nicholas looked at her in a weird manner.
 “Someone’s been watching way too much anime.” Hikari stated.
 “You can’t. You lack the updates. The whole world will be my domain.” He stated. “But before I do that, I will send in medical droids to defeat you.” Then, a series of droids came out.
 “Nicholas, can you handle the connection? The girls and I’ll handle the robots.” Maria explained.
 “Got it.” He replied as he started to work.
 “Ha ha ha.” Tezcatlipoca stated. “This will not be software on your looks. Get them, my droids.” The droids advanced towards them. A few of the droids fired multiple needles for shots at them; Maria lifted up her shield and blocked them. Hikari was blocking them with her katana as Joan was just dodging them. Another droid came from behind her and kicked her in the butt knocking her over. She fell on the ground and got back up.
 “How’s that for a reboot?” Tezcatlipoca asked the girls clearly taunting them. When one of the droids stopped firing their needles. He charged towards Maria and  Maria rushed him using a shield bash. Maria did cause some damage but she was knocked back.
 “If you were to live up to the rumors, you have to do beta than that.” Tezcatlipoca taunted.
A droid noticed that Nicholas was trying to shut down the system and he started advancing towards him. Joan spotted the droid’s behavior and she blocked its path as the droid created a sword from its our arm. She began to fence against it.
 Another droid was changing weapons to a radiation cannon. Hikari used a water blast to soak one of the droids and stun it. Afterwards, she ran forward and sliced him in half. She had to catch her breath.
 “What’s wrong? Feeling tired?” He asked. “I bet you need a java; don’t worry about me, I have plenty of it.”
 “Will you shut up?” Hikari asked facing him.
 “I’m not the one who is destroying expensive equipment while scrolling around.” he rebuked.
 “Enough of your bad puns!!” Maria shouted.
 “You can always join me.” Tezcatlipoca said. “I will give you girls cookies.”
 “The cookies are a lie.” Joan replied.
 “At least, he didn’t offer us cake.” Hikari commented.

 Then, the droids shut down and collapsed. The lights began to flicker. The face on the screen started to struggle to stay on.
 “What is this?” it stated. “You found a way to overcome the hack. You might have won this time, but I will be back and when I do, I will ROM you into the ground.” Then, it shut off as well as the lights. It was completely dark.
 “There.” Nicholas stated. “That should do it.”
 “Yeah.” Maria replied. “It would be better if we could see.”
 “I’ll find the switch.” Hikari tried to navigate in the darkness.
 “Ow.” Maria stated.
 “What is it?” she asked.
 “You stepped on my foot.” Maria explained.
 “Sorry.” She answered. Then, Nicolas tripped over a droid.
 “Be careful.” Maria stated.
 “Thanks for telling me.” He said with sarcasm.
 “Oh, wait a second. I could just make a light.” Joan said. Then, she lit a fireball in her hand. It gave enough light in the room for the girls to find a light switch.
 “Found it.” Maria stated. She turned the power back on, and they could see again. She helped Nick get back up out of the droid parts.
 “It took us a while, but we got it done.” Hikari stated.
 “Thanks Nick.” She replied.
 “Now, I’ll contact the man upstairs that we won.” He exclaimed.
 “Please, no more puns.” She asked. Heading outside, she saw many grateful patients and doctors. She, also, saw distraught police officers. She knew Nick was grateful. Fleeing the scene, the girls entered an alleyway, tired from the fight. John showed up in his beagle as usual.
 “Excellent job, girls.” He said. “You handled yourselves well in that darkness.”
 “Yeah,” Maria replied as they transformed back. “But without Nicholas’s help, I wouldn’t have succeeded.”
 “But remember, you did most of the work.” he added. “And from what I heard, saved his life. You girls are the heroines of the day.”
 “Can you quit boasting about us?” She asked.
 “I’m not creating a gasconade.” He replied with earnest. “I’m just stating observations…”
 “Wait… how were you able to know all this without even telling you?” Hikari asked.
 “I’m a psychic, remember?” John said.
 “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that, Hikarin.” Joan added. Then, they heard a soda can fall over. The girls stood up on guard and on high alert.
 “Who’s there?” John stated. There was no response. “Show yourself.”
 Then, a figure slowly and meekly walked out of the shadows of the alleyway. It was Cheyenne still in her work uniform. She had a very hurt expression on her face.
 “Cheyenne.” Maria stated. “How did you…” Cheyenne was trying to hold back. “You didn’t see me…”
 “Maria?” She asked. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!” She broke into sadness and tears. “I CAN’T BEILEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS!!” Maria walked up to her.
 “Cheyenne, Please calm down, I can explain this.” Then, she slapped Maria in the face.
 “I can’t believe you hide something like this from me.” Cheyenne said. “You’re such jerk, Maria. She ran off crying and in disbelief.
 “Cheyenne, I…” Maria replied. “Cheyenne, wait. Please come back.” She was already gone. “Oh, Cheyenne.” Maria fell onto her knees; the other two said nothing. After a moment’s pause, she turned to Jonathan. “Jonathan?”
 “Yeah?” he replied.
 “Was there a cost to having these powers?” she asked him.
 “This is something that would apply to all three of you.” John explained. “There is a cost to having these abilities. You might be considered an outcast by some people, others will be terrified of you for being different, and with others will despise for you for the same reason; nevertheless, you must help all regardless of their response.”
 “By the way Cheyenne looked at me,” she continued. “I feel like I lost a friend; a friendship lasting from kindergarten now destroyed by one having powers and not the other.” The others walked up to her.
 “You will have to talk about this and hopefully find a way to make it up to her.” He explained. “But now, we would need to allow her to vent her emotions, but we should pray for her safety.”
 “We both have a work shift tomorrow at the store, perhaps it’s best to talk about it tomorrow.” Maria replied.
 “Only when no other persons are around.” he stated. “We’ve already have one in shock we don’t need any more emotional collateral.”

Cheyenne Dakota was walking home, alone and upset. She was lost and didn’t know what to do or anything. Not only was she venting sadness; she was also venting anger as she walked down the alleyways.
 “How could she do this to me?” She stated. “Why didn’t she tell me she was a superheroine? We could have so many fun adventures together.” She kicked an aluminum can as she was walking. “It would be so cool to be a super heroine team except that she left me out.” She kicked it a second time. “Pff, why am I joking? She has her new friends now. I’m nothing to her now. I want to show her I can be a super human too.” She kicked an aluminum can a third time and it flew into the air; it was caught in mid-air by the covered hand of an unknown figure in front of her. He was wearing black gloves and blood red bracers.
 “You do know that you are supposed to throw cans into the recycle bin, right?” he said as he threw the can over his shoulders without looking. It landed in the recycle bin.
 “Just go away.” She replied.
 “Before I do, I want to know what is upsetting you.” he answered. “I might have something that can help you, assuming I know what it is.”
 “Are you sure you are going to help me?” she asked.
 “I will help you.”
 “Well, my friend didn’t tell me that she had all this power.” Cheyenne explained. “She kept it a secret.”
 “That is most hurtful.” he replied.
 “I know.” She agreed.
 “I don’t know how to help you with the relationship, but I can give you these.” He stated as he pulled out some googles. They had an olive green frame with circuitry in the frame. On top of the bridge was a big slender pack with electronics built into it.
 “Uh?” she stated. “It’s just googles.”
 “These aren’t just ordinary googles.”
 “What are they?” She asked.
 “These are AMAZO-SPECS.” He responded. “They are goggles that grant the ability to alter reality.”
 “Pff, yeah right. It’s impossible.” She said.
 “They really can do it.” He persisted.
 “Can you prove it?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Yes, I’ll put them on and show you.” He explained as he put them on. “There are two flamingoes, one on each side of you.”
 “Yeah, like that’s gonna…” She said. Then, she noticed the two flamingoes in confusion. “Wait, where did these come from?”
 “This is the power of augmented reality.” He stated taking the them off. “They have that power.” He tossed them to her. “Go on, put them on and give them a shot.” She put them on.
 “There…” She stated and paused. “…will be flowers growing out of the trash cans.” And from what she said, it was done. This completely surprised her.
 “See, what did I tell you, they work.” He stated. “I believe you are on par, or even greater than your one friend.” She went to take them off. “You can keep the glasses you need them more than I do.” She reached for her wallet.
 “Well, thank you, stranger.” She replied. “How much do I owe…” Then, she noticed he was apparently gone. “I can’t wait to tell Maria about this.” She walked off happily.
 “No. Thank you.” The figure said as she was out of sight. He gave a sinister chuckle before he disappeared.
 The next day, Maria was upset at work about the situation that occurred. Then, Cheyenne appeared with the glasses in her pocket.
 “Hello.” Maria said to Cheyenne.
 “Hey Maria.” She stated. “I, recently, got a new set of goggles.”
 “Oh?” Maria wondered. “What are they? Are those the goggles that Agent Jupiter uses when fighting the space aliens from the Xth Dimension?”
 “No.” Cheyenne answered. “They are AMAZO-SPECS.”
 “Cool, what store did you get them at?” she asked.
 “They were given to me.”
 “Okay.” Maria stated. “So, what do they do?”
 “I’ll demonstrate what they can do.” Cheyenne said as she pulled out the glasses and put them on. “I can fly.” A pair of large butterfly wings appeared on her back, and she flapped them and began to fly. Maria was in awe.
 “How is that possible?” She asked.
 “The glasses can do it.” Her friend stated as she landed and made the wings disappear.
 “Can I give it a try?” Maria asked.
 “No, you already have special abilities.” Cheyenne replied. “This allows me to be your equal.” Maria could not believe what she just heard.
 “What?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”
 “I know you have your super powers and your heroine friends but now I’m just as good as you are.” She stated.
 “Cheyenne, what has gotten into you?” She asked frustrated.
 “You think that because you have magic, you are better than me.” Her friend replied.
 “I didn’t even say that.” She added. Jonathan appeared during the argument in his ghost form.
 “Maria, we got something bad on our hands.” he stated.
 “Not right now.” She stated to him.
 “Oh, so you don’t want to talk right now.” Cheyenne said.
 “No, no, no. You got it wrong. We can still talk.” Maria replied. “I don’t know why you’ve become…”
 “This is important.” He explained. Maria sighed as she headed to him.
 “Fine,” she stated. “This better be good.” The two headed up to the break room.
 “Oh, just running away.” Cheyenne said. “Note that I won this argument Maria.” Maria went up to the break room and sat down in one of the chairs.
 “So what is it, John?” Maria asked. “This better be important.”
 “This.” He turned on the TV. And it was showing college basketball. “Wrong channel.” He flipped the channel and then found an advertisement. “There, that’s better.”
 “John, that’s a commericial.” she said.
 “I know that, but what are they advertising?”
 “There showing the AMAZO-SPECS.”
 “Exactly.” he said. “It is not the toy it claims to be.”
 “Why are you showing me this TV ad?” She asked.
 “Did you ever wonder on why the number of people that have superpowers is so low?” He asked in reply.
 “What does that have to do with this?” She answered.
 “This is very important information.” he said. “Please don’t delay the conversation farther than necessary.”
 “What’s the important information?” she asked him.
 “Most people weren’t meant to have power. When these people get that power, magical or not, they tend to be corrupted by it.” He stated. “In addition, these glasses are giving people a power that no mortal should ever have. It will certainly corrupt them.”
 “Cheyenne has a pair of those.” Maria explained to him; this had scared him greatly.
 “We need to get rid of them before she gets the power stickers.” He replied.
 “Power stickers?” She asked.
 “It’s in the second half of the commercial.” He stated as it came on. It explained about stickers that would be placed onto the goggles to boost the abilities. Maria looked at the main sticker needed for the others to work; it was the shape of a jaguar head. It was the one to connect the goggles to the internet. It would end up being on the forehead. He paused the TV. “Now, take a good look at it. Anyone, who has a pair, has seen this commercial.” Maria looked at it. It looked like a big computer chip with the notches towards the brain.
 “Oh no.” She stated. She noticed at the center of the device was the imprint where the jaguar head sticker would go. “We got to stop Tezcatlipoca.”
 “Yes, first we need to save Cheyenne.” He stated. “She will certainly fall into this trap.”
 “Humility, awaken.” She stated and transformed into her maiden form. She hurried down stairs to find Cheyenne. “Where is she?”
 “She might have already left.” John said. “She might try to see whoever gave her the goggles.” Maria rushed out the door hoping that she won’t be too late to stop Cheyenne.

 Cheyenne went to the alleyway to get the stickers as the shadowy figure appeared again to her. He was holding the pack of stickers in his hand.
 “Ah. I’m glad you have arrived.” he said. “I have what you seek in my hand.” He held it up. “I’ll give it to you for a price.”
 “Oh, really.” Cheyenne asked. “What’s the price?”
 “Surrender your loyalty to the Techno Hivemind.” He stated. She was shocked.
 “No way am I going to do that.” She answered.
 “You don’t have a choice.” He explained. “You have the goggles.”
 “I’ll make you disappear.” She added as she pulled them out and put them on.
 “Fool, do you think that they will work on me?” A blade came out from something being held in his hand and he tripped Cheyenne making her fall onto her back; she was stunned as she hit the ground. She struggled. “You don’t stand a chance against me.” He smiled an evil grin. “Now, give up, you cannot run away from your fate.” As he got closer, she tried to get back up. She noticed he changed directions only to a leg with black pants and rust-colored shoes swinging towards her face.
 Later, Maria was running around when she encountered the alleyway Cheyenne was in. She found her standing.
 “Cheyenne, don’t take the stickers. It’s a trap.” Maria stated but she didn’t answer. “Cheyenne?”
 “0, Maria. Why do you wish to fight it?” Cheyenne stated. She was puzzled for a moment as her friend walked out of the shadows. “1, Give in to the hivemind. Resistance is futile.” The recharger was on her forehead and binary code was overtop the glazed lens of the glasses. Maria was completely shocked and felt guilty of this whole mess.
 “What’s wrong, Maria?” The man in the shadows said. “Why are you shocked? I did your friend a favor and freed her from the harsh reality.” Maria got angry from this.
 “10, you are correct.” Cheyenne added.
 “People will be free from the world of reality starting with this town.” He added.
 “What is with the damn goggles then?” She asked.
 “It’s simple. They are simply the thing to get the foothold in people’s mind. And many people have the goggles and its sticker. They are under the hivemind’s control through the internet. And more will join them.” Maria pulled out her sword. “Not that I would care one way or another. I’m just playing along for thrills.”
 “Not if I have anything to say about it.” Maria stated. “I will take you down with Tezcatlipoca.”
 “Well, if it can’t change you. Your friend will.” The figure stated as he handed a set of goggles and a sticker to Cheyenne. “Get her and incorporate her.”
 “11, as you wish.” Cheyenne ran to her creating a saber from computer coding. Maria blocked the strike. The shadowy figure fled. He forced the two to fight each other. Cheyenne kept attacking without end, while Maria kept defending. “100, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to be freed?”
 “There is no freedom in a hivemind.” She replied to her friend. “This isn’t you, snap out of it.” Maria wasn’t willing to hurt her friend, but had to fight. Cheyenne threw the sticker at her at an open spot. She saw it and cut it in half. “Cheyenne, if you are still in there. I’m sorry for not letting you know about my situation.” She held the sword with both hands as Cheyenne prepared to charge. “This might hurt, but I am going to set you free for the hivemind’s evil influence.” She dodged Cheyenne’s swing and landed a clear hard blow onto the forehead, where the auto-recharger was. It cracked causing immense pain, then it and the glasses shattered. The digital saber disappeared and her friend fell to the ground unconscious. Maria went over and picked her up. Cheyenne opened her eyes shortly after being picked up.
 “Maria?” She asked. “What happened?” Maria hugged her.
 “I’m glad you’re back.” She stated as she teared up.
 “I’m sorry for being such a jerk.” Cheyenne added. “Can you forgive me?”
 “Of course,” Maria explained. “You’re my friend.” Jon as the tabby cat came in.
 “I hate to ruin a tender moment.” He said. “But aren’t you forgetting about the hivemind.” The two got the reminder.
 “Oh, yeah. The hivemind.” She remembered. “Cheyenne, do you remember anything?”
 “I remember that the main control is at the main computer center.” She explained. “That is where the signal is coming from.
 “Then, we need to get there asap.” Maria stated.
 “Cheyenne?” Jon asked her. “Wanna help Maria kick the Techno hivemind’s ass?”
 “Okay.” She replied. “But can I have something low tech?” Jon pulled out a bow and arrow.
 “Jonathan.” Maria stated. “Be serious. A bow isn’t going to do…”
 “No, it’s fine.” Cheyenne replied. “I always wanted to take up archery as a hobby.”
 “Good, now that everything is in order.” he stated. “We need to get back with the other girls immediately. They need to be informed of this right away.”
 “But how are we going to do this?” Maria asked.
 “You have a cell phone, Maria. Use it.”
 “Oh, yeah.” she answered. Then, she called up the other two while John went away to fetch something that the girls will need for this battle.

Maria and Cheyenne ran through the alleyways until they reached the rendezvous point with Hikari and Joan in front of a burger place. They were already in their maiden forms.
 “What took you so long?” Hikari asked them.
 “We got lost in the alleyways on the way here.” Maria said.
 “All right, I’ll get a burger to go and we’ll get moving.” she answered. Joan leaned back in shock.
 “Wait a minute, Hikari.” she said. “You already ate three triple cheeseburgers, two medium fries, and a large drink. And you’re still not full? How much food can you eat?”
 “I’m able to eat five triple cheeseburgers.”
 “Holy crap.” Joan said
 “Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.” She replied.
 “But why do you have to eat so much?”
 “I’m surprised she’s not fat.” Cheyenne whispered to Maria. Hikari glared at her.
 “I heard that.” she said. The streets started to become filled with panic with people running from those enslaved by the hivemind trying to assimilate them.
 “Forget the burgers until later.” Maria said. “Let’s go.” The girls headed out into the streets. They noticed a dark skinned girl with dark brown dreads being chased by a few of the techno zombies. She tripped and fell down. Cheyenne grabbed one of her arrows and fired; she grazed one of the goggles of the zombies and they turned towards the girls instead. “Here they come.”
 Hikari was the first to move forward. She didn’t draw out her blade. She just punched one of the zombies in the face knocking him over. Two others flanked her on each side. She got into a horse-riding stance and palm-smashed on both sides knocking them back. They stumbled and regained their balance.
 “Focus your attention on the goggles.” Maria stated.
 “Got it.” Joan replied. She threw a fireball at one of them landing at their feet. The zombie dodged out of the way as she ran forward. She used her rapier to knock the goggles off of the person’s head knocking it out.
 Maria rushed forward as a zombie headed towards her and she shield bashed him knocking him off of his feet and she slashed the goggles open knocking him out. Hikari dodged the zombies attacks and she leapt forward. She chain punched him in the gut and kicked him away. It ran right into a wall knocking him out. She just walked up to him and toke the goggles off. She looked at it and threw it in the trash can.
 “Hey, thanks.” The girl stated
 “You’re welcome.” Cheyenne replied as the girl headed off to hide. The girls headed down the street and they had to fight more. Same thing as they went farther still.
 “They just keep coming.” Hikari said. “I’m getting warmed up.”
 “But some of us are tired.” Joan added. “What do you say, Maria-sempai?”
 “We will need to find the source of the signal and destroy it.” Maria answered.
 “It should be at the main computer center.” Cheyenne reminded them.
 “How are we going to get there though?” Hikari asked. Then, a plum-colored jeep pulled up nearby them and John’s beagle was in the driver’s seat.
 “You girls need a lift?” he asked.
 “What!? That beagle can talk?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Yeah, it can talk.” Maria replied. Joan and Hikari went up and entered the car.
 “This is a very nice jeep.” Hikari said as the girls entered it; Maria got in the driver’s seat and Cheyenne guided her to the main computer center. “Where did you find the car?”
 “Oh… allow me to explain.” he said.

A week ago…
 John was looking around the streets and he came across the dump. He tried to avoid it shaking his head.
 “Why do these people have to make such junk piles?” he thought. Then, he noticed a rich kid driving a nice jeep into the junk yard while a limo was parked by the entrance. “What’s a rich kid doing here?” John followed the car into the dump.
 As the jeep was parked in the yard, a rich kid in his teens got out of the driver’s seat and a much older servant got out of the front passenger’s side.
 “There.” the rich kid stated. “Now, I can just leave it.”
 “You’re just leaving it here, sir?” his butler asked.
 “That’s the plan. I’m throwing it out.”
 “Why? It doesn’t make any sense.”
 “I asked for the latest model. This is not the latest model. So, I’m throwing it away.”
 “It is a perfectly running jeep.” John thought. “That guy’s a moron.”
 “Anyway, we’re leaving it here and that’s final.” the kid said.
 “As you wish, sir.” the butler replied.
 “Nobody is going to want a used car anyway.” The two of them walked off and they entered the limo; the two of them left the jeep there.
 “He put it in a well hidden spot.” John commented. “No one will expect a jeep here.” He walked up to the vehicle and saw the keys were on the seat. “I call dibs.” He hopped in and revved it up; he drove away in it.

Present…
 They approached the main computer center and the girls got out of the jeep. It was a complex facility with various buildings and it was fenced off.
 “So, this is it?” Maria said.
 “Yeah,” Cheyenne replied.
 “How are we going inside?” Joan asked.
 “We’ll climb the fence.” Hikari stated as she walked towards it. “It’ll be the easiest way…” She grabbed the fence and got electrocuted. She let go and had static in her hair; she fell over. “Or not.”
 “Is there a better way in?” Cheyenne asked.
 “I did add one adjustment to the jeep.” Jon stated as he pushed a button. It transformed into a trebuchet. The girls were stunned at what they just saw. “I installed this in about a week’s time. We can use this to enter the center.” The girls looked at each other.
 “Well, it’s worth a shot.” Joan stated.
 “Not the time for puns, Joan.” He said. They hesitantly got in the launch pad.
 “On the count of three, it’ll launch you to the other side of the fence.” He explained as he prepared the sling. “One…” The trebuchet unexpectedly launched the girls and they landed inside a building by breaking through a window. He looked at the jeep. “I thought I fixed that bug in the system. I’ll have to get that thing fixed.”
 The girls ended up in a laboratory. They were getting up even though they were dizzy; looking around seeing no one was in the area.
 “So, much for a stealthy entry.” Hikari stated.
 “Where are we?” Joan asked.
 “I think we’re in a lab.” Maria said. “We’ll have to look around for some clues.” The girls looked around the room and they found a control room with a large device with three platforms hooked up to it. They noticed that some of the equipment’s switches were locked and jammed into place.
 “This is going to be a problem.” Cheyenne stated. “I should check the database.” She checked the hivemind status. “Holy crap. The country-wide assimilation rate of people is at 50% and rising.”
 “We need to do something and fast.” Maria explained. Hikari walked by a closet and Joan was with her as she sniffed the air.
 “What is that rotten smell?” She thought; she noticed the smell was stronger looking at Hikari and her eyes widened.
 “Ugh, Hikari… What did you eat?” she asked her.
 “Me?” Hikari replied. “I didn’t do it.” She smelled the air and her face turned green. “If you smelt it, you dealt it.”
 “It looks like it’s coming from that closet over there.” Joan replied. She went over and opened it up. She screamed as she found a dead scientist already decaying. He died of starvation; there was a note in his hand. “OH MY GOD, IT’S A DEAD BODY!!”
 “I see that, Joan. Just calm down.” Hikari added trying to get Joan to chill. “Hey, there’s a note in his hand.”
 “Well, I’m not touching it, Hikarin.” Joan said. “Dead bodies are icky.” Hikari reached over to pull it out despite it being held by a dead guy. “Maria, I found a note from a dead guy.”
 “What does it say?” Maria asked as she walked over to her. Hikari began to read the note.
 “If you have gotten this note,” it said. “then the worst has yet to happen. I am a scientist who worked her before it came. After completing my most recent invention, I investigated the databases and noticed something wrong with some of the data, but at the time I thought it was a typo. Oh how, was I wrong. Our computers were infected by a computer virus; none like those we’ve ever since before. It has destroyed our security systems.”
 “I guess that explains why no alarms are going off.” Hikari commented.
 “No anti-malware programs worked on it,” the note continued. “not even the most powerful  anti-virus software couldn’t stop it. It used our software and computers to kill every member of the staff. Only I remain. I watched as the very computers we made to help humanity turn against us and creating those damn AMAZO-SPECS. I know I am going to die here. So, whoever reads this note, please use my greatest creation that is over by the control panel. Use it to enter cyberspace and slay the virus for it is the one creating this mess. I wish you luck and godspeed.” The three noticed the invention.
 “I guess this thing is it?” Maria asked.
 “I think so.” Joan replied. Cheyenne tried to stop the assimilation process by messing with the computer controls and nothing was working.
 “They’re coming.” Jonathan said as he came up.
 “Who’s coming?” Maria asked.
 “They’re coming.” Cheyenne replied.
 “Whose coming?” Joan and Hikari asked.
 “Look out there.” John explained. The four girls looked out the window. Everyone who was assimilated was near the facility and trying to get inside. “One of you has to stay and fight off the horde. If this platform is destroyed, whoever is inside will be trapped in cyberspace forever.” The girls had to make a tough decision.
 “Maria,” Cheyenne stated. “I owe you one. I’ll stay and protect you girls from the horde.”
 “Are you sure, Cheyenne?” Maria asked her.
 “It’s the only thing I can do in order to make up for being such a…” Cheyenne begin saying.
 “Make your decision now.” John interrupted.
 “All right, Cheyenne.” Maria said.
 “I wish you girls luck.” She replied as the three girls stepped onto the platform. The machine revved up and the they disappeared into cyberspace. She reached back for an arrow and panic came to her face.
 “What’s wrong?” John asked.
 “I’m out of arrows.” She stated.
 “Don’t worry.” he stated. “Pull on the bowstring and watch what happens.” She pulled on the string and an arrow appeared loaded on the string.
 “If the bow was able to do that, then why supply the arrows?” Cheyenne asked John.
 “You wouldn’t have believed it could do that initially.” he replied. “That magic bow can form any arrows you wish even some that inflict non-lethal blows.
 “Okay,” she stated. “Now, I can fight.”
 “I’ll help you do so.” he answered.
 “What can you do to help?” she asked.
 “I’m glad you asked.” he responded.

 Maria, Hikari, and Joan reappeared in cyberspace on a digital ground resembling a gird with light green lines. The skies overhead were dark and lightning streamed across it once in a while.
 “I guess this must be the infected area…” Maria stated. She looked around. “What the…?” The girls looked down. Their outfits changed as a side effect of entering that area of cyberspace. It changed to skimpy one-piece bathing suit and they had bunny ears and tails.
 “I should have known this was going to happen.” Hikari answered.
 “This is actually just like the outfit I wear when I’m at the beach.” Joan said. Maria and Hikari gave her a funny look. “Only on hot days.”
 “Anyway, let’s find Tezcatlipoca and defeat him.” Maria said. After walking a distance, dragging her sword due to weight issues, she came across a giant thing. It was the virus.
 “So, you have arrived. I didn’t expect you to come to my digital domain.” It stated. It was a giant jaguar-print T4 virus. On every side, there was a jaguar head. That the end of each of its legs was a set of claws. It rose up and up where everything connected was the jaguar head. “I am impressed that you made it this far.”
 “Well...” She replied. “We’ll be taking you down.”
 “You do not realize humans.” It said. “I am a supreme being of power.”
 “What you say is a lie.” Hikari said. “There is only one supreme power and it ain’t you.”
 “I am Tezcatlipoca.” It explained. “The mightiest in the world.”
 “That’s like saying Hikarin is an otaku.” Joan stated.
 “Finally, Joan. You get the picture.” Hikari said.
 “We will stop you and your ridiculous puns.” Maria added.
 “Thank you for reminding me to muse puns.” It stated.
 “Me and my big mouth.” Maria stated.
 “Do not worry, your demise will be shift and painless, if possible.” It said as he took off. Maria lifted up her sword and shield but had difficulty doing so. Hikari and Joan dodged out of the way. He opened his claws and spun around in a circular motion going clockwise. She blocked the attacks as spark flew of her shield. The attack left cut marks on it as the virus backed off and flew around.
 Joan threw fireballs at it as it flew around; it hit the virus leaving scorch marks and that was it. Hikari blasted water at it. It left areas soaked but not a lot of damage done to it. Maria responded by throwing wind gusts at him. They hit him and he countered the water and the wind with balls of binary code. These balls were thrown at the girls; they dodged out of the way and the balls left craters wherever they hit.
 Tezcatlipoca reached forward to grab her with one of its legs and Maria cut it off. He roared in rage. Hikari rushed forward with her katana out; the virus tripped her and grabbed her by the shirt lifting her up. Joan stabbed that limb with her rapier. It roared and dropped Hikari.
 Grabbing the ground, it leapt into the air to smash down on top of the two. They got out of the way and the tremor knocked them aside. It sped forward towards Maria with his mouth open. She lifted up her shield as it bit down on it. He flailed her around; she flew off her shield with her sword. She heard the crunching sounds of her shield being destroyed.
 “What’s the matter, don’t you like my megabyte?” He asked. “How about this?” Energy began to gather at its mouth. She went out of the way to dodge it and the beam missed her. She met up with the girls.
 “You need to combine your powers.” A voice said to them. “Put the energy into your blades.”
 “Did you hear that?” Maria asked the girls.”
 “What was that?” Joan asked. They saw another beam from Tezcatlipoca’s mouth and they dodged out of the way.
 “A voice saying to combine our powers.” Maria said.
 “I didn’t say that.” Hikari said.
 “Not me either.” Joan added.
 “Then, who said it?” she asked.
 “We have more important things to worry about.” Hikari answered. Tezcatlipoca found them once again and prepared to fire another attack. The girls put the energy into their sabers and they glowed with a colored light.
 “Zephyr beam” Maria stated.
 “Ocean wave” Hikari said.
 “Fire Pulse” Joan answered.
 “TRIPLEX STRIKE!!” All three of them shouted. The digital energy fired from Tezcatlipoca mouth; it came close to the girls. And their technique fired and the two collided, each holding each other back. She gave an extra push and her attack blasted through the digital shot and hit the virus. It, literally, shredded him into pieces. Barely able to stand, the girls were victorious. But inside them, they felt a lot of power; she teleported back to the real world where Cheyenne and Jonathan greeted her.
 “Maria,” Cheyenne said. “You’re okay.”
 “I’m glad, you’re okay.” Maria replied. They hugged each other like sisters.
 “Well down, girls.” Jon stated. “You have defeated the Techno Hivemind. They are gone for good. You should be proud of yourselves.”
 “Jonathan?” Maria asked.
 “Yes?” he asked.
 “What is this thing that gave me power?”  Maria added.
 “I know this part. It isn’t the most advance piece of technology. It is not the fanciest piece of equipment, nor is it the prettiest or most handsome fashion. No, they are material goods that can be taken away.” He explained.
 “Okay?” She stated.
 “The thing that gives you your power, is not of the material world. It comes from the thing that all humans and creatures have, regardless of gender, class, ethnicity, or species. The soul.”
 “Are you talking about shoes?” Cheyenne asked just joining the conversation. “Or the South Korean City?”
 “No, Cheyenne.” He explained facepalming out of frustration. “It’s neither one of what you said. I’m talking about your heart and soul. All mortals are born with one, the essence of your very existence. All made from the life energy, manna.” He and the other girls noticed Maria fell asleep halfway through the lecture.
 “Maria…” She stated. She was going to wake her up, but Jon stopped her.
 “She is exhausted. Let her sleep; she earned it.”

 Sometime later, the press finally caught up and cornered them. The press had so many questions for the girls.
 “You four, what is the name of your group?” one of the reporters asked.
 “Uh…” Maria answered. “Hold that thought.” The four got into a huddle. “Girls, what do we do?”
 “Well, come up with a name for our group.” Cheyenne answered. “Isn’t that obvious?”
 “But what do we name it? I didn’t expect the question.” She replied.
 “How about Mach 4?” Hikari asked.
 “That sounds too much like a metal band?” Maria answered.
 “What about Sky Girls?” Joan replied.
 “That name is already taken.” She stated.
 “How about the Fantastically Awesome Girls?” Cheyenne asked, the other three looked at her. “What else do you got?”
 “We’re waiting.” the reporter stated. “Hurry up! You’re wasting time!”
 “Be patient.” Hikari replied sternly to him. “We’re trying to come up with a good name.”
 “Use the ‘Virtue Girls’ name.” John said as he walked up to them. “It’s the title of the story.”
 “What do you mean ‘title of the story’?” Maria asked him.
 “Just go along with it.” he said. “Also, the heroine names: Miss Humility for Maria, Balanced Sparkler for Joan, Patient Tides for Hikari, and Sureshot for Cheyenne.”
 “Well, it’s better than what Maria comes up with.” Hikari said.
 “Okay.” Joan stated. Maria sighed.
 “I’m cool with it.” Cheyenne added.
 “Fine. I’ll go along with it.” Maria answered. Then, they told the press the name of the group of heroines were to be called by.

There was something going on beneath their feet of civilization. There was a dark chamber and some beings were sleeping. The ceiling began to crack and it broke open releasing dirty water soaking and waking one of the figures. He looked around.
 “What just happened?” He thought as he looked. “What’s going on?” Looking down he noticed the water was polluted. “Why is this water not safe to drink?” He stated waking up the others. Noticing a hole above him, he traveled up the hole. As he reached the top, his form became visible as a dark brown person with black hair and hazel eyes appeared. He had a head piece of buffalo skin and horns with a crown of bright feathers around it. He had face paint on. Two black stripes on his chin and two blue stripes on his cheeks.
 He was shocked to see what he saw at the top when he left the hole. He saw a fracking plant at the top and saw the surrounding area in an unimaginable state in his mind. It was a polluted, uninhabitable wasteland. Furiously, He brought up the others; the sight angered and enraged them.
 “My brothers,” he stated. “Look what they have to our mother. They have raped her and are making her barren. We need to act; humanity must pay for their crimes. Now, let us go and teach them a lesson they shall never soon forget.” The figures cheered and they worked together and destroyed the plant. They had enough of the destruction of nature and they are going to fight back.
 “I do not know what those humans were thinking when they did what they done.” He thought as his brothers wrecked the plant. “But I refuse to believe that they would do this for any good. Something must be done, so the rest of this planet won’t suffer as this place did. For I and my adonudos, will do something about this before it is too late…”
 It didn’t take long for them to destroy the fracking plant. The disaster was on the front page of the newspaper the following day. But the ones responsible for it according to the paper are unknown.

 Maria was busy all day, so Cheyenne and Hikari went to the park. It was a bright sunny day. The interior of the park had a river that ran through it from the nearby woods. A distance away from the river was the restrooms and a drinking fountain.
 Cheyenne was on the ground looking up in the trees as Hikari climbed up one of them up to what appeared to be a stable branch.
 “What are you doing?” She asked Hikari.
 “I’m going up to practice my martial arts up here.” Hikari answered.
 “Are you sure this is a good idea?” She asked
 “I’m sure I can do this.” Hikari replied.
 “You could get hurt.” She added.
 “Just don’t worry about it; I can handle it.” Her friend added. She jumped onto the branch and then it broke from under her weight. She hit the ground hard and the branch was falling towards her; Cheyenne caught it.
 “So much for doing it on a branch.” Cheyenne said.
 “Whatever.” Hikari replied.
 “Just why do you have to go up there in the first place.”
 “I have to outdo my older brother, Shingen.”
 “Your older brother, Shingen?” She asked.
 “Yes, my older brother, Shingen!!” Hikari stated smacking herself. “I just said that a little bit ago.” She sighed from the situation.
 “What do you have to outdo him in?” Cheyenne asked.
 “My brother is a martial arts champion. I have to beat him in a match.” Hikari added.
 “But isn’t martial arts training on unstable tree limbs going overboard?” She continued to question out of concern.
 “You don’t know how good my brother is at it.” her friend replied. “He kicks my ass every time I spar him. But I will beat him one day.” Hikari had the look of fiery passion in her eyes.
 “Your foot’s on fire.” Cheyenne said. Hikari looked down and saw flames. She jumped around trying to put out the fire and she was able to do so. “Where exactly is he at right now?”
 “I know exactly where he is.” her friend answered. “He owns an 80s theme night club in the downtown area. He is the manager and the head bouncer. No drug dealer or gang member has messed with him without getting their butts kicked several times over.” Maria looked away for a little bit.
 “Wow.” She said.
 “I know.” Hikari answered. “I am so determined into training.”
 “Don’t you want something to drink?”
 “I’m a little thristy.” Hikari stated heading towards the drinking fountain. She took a sip from the fountain as she turned it on.  She spat it out. “UGH!! YUCK!!”
 “What is it?” Cheyenne asked.
 “It’s the fountain water. It tastes like crap.” she said. Cheyenne walked over to it. And Hikari turned on the fountain and they saw that the water has turned orange. The jerked back.
 “I don’t wanna drink that.” Cheyenne said.
 “We should get to the bottom of this mess.” Hikari said.
 “We should.” She said. “Look at the river.” she pointed towards it. It started to have an orange hue to the water color. The two looked on and ran to the river.
 “What’s happening to the river?” Hikari asked. At that moment, John showed up in his beagle form running from behind them.
 “What’s going on?” He asked; then he looked at the river. The two girls looked back at him. “Uhh, nasty. It’s looks like the sewer backed-up.”
 “We can tell John.” Hikari said. “It tastes like crap.”
 “Hmm, let’s have a look and see.” he said as he picked up a stick. He went over into the river and dipped the stick in. Then as he pulled it out, he saw the portion he stuck in was gone. “Oh no, the water… it’s turned into acid rock damage.”
 “Huh?” Cheyenne asked.
 “What’s that?” Hikari asked.
 “It is usually referred to the outflow of acidic water from metal or coal mines.” John explained. “But the water is exposed to rock containing an abundance of sulfide minerals causing the pH level to be as low as -3. And such sulfide minerals include…”
 “Wait, hold up.” Hikari asked. “Where did you learn this?”
 “I take a look at magazines of various topics.” He said. “As the group’s advisor you don’t expect me to just sit around and do absolutely nothing? It would get extremely boring.”
 “I know it would feel.” Cheyenne said.
 “The point is we have to stop this mess before it starts to contaminate the other water sources. Failure will result in the city having to rely on government supplied water.” He said. “And that is a bad thing.”
 “No need to point out the obvious.” Hikari responded.
 “So, where do we start?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Well, the good place to start would be the river.” He stated. “Contamination heads downstream, so if we head upstream we would find the source. At least, that’s what I think.”
 “Okay, then.” Cheyenne said. “Let’s get moving.” She started to rush down a direction.
 “HEY, CHEYENNE!!” HIkari stated.
 “WHAT IS IT!?” Cheyenne shouted.
 “You’re going the wrong way.” Hikari said. “Upstream is that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction. Cheyenne paused.
 “Uhh…” she responded. “I knew that; I was testing you.” She walked back to the two and the three headed upstream. As they continued up in that direction, they noticed the river becoming more opaque in appearance of the orange crud. The nearby trees were sick and dying from the contaminated water. At the end of the river was a lake and it was turned into an orange stinky pool of acid.
 “I think we found the problem.” Hikari said as she covered her nose. The others covered their noses as well.
 “So, who do you think caused the problem?” Cheyenne asked. Then, they heard a roar.
 “I think that is the answer.” Hikari responded as she transformed. They saw a humanoid golem approaching them. Its torso and head made from black coal and its arms and legs made of rusted metal. A green flame glowed from the golem’s eyes. “Don’t mess with the water, bub.”
 “So, you are here to stop me?” it said.
 “And who are you supposed to be?” Cheyenne said.
 “I am Etchemin, the spirit of water.” the golem answered to them.
 “You don’t look like a water spirit as all.” Cheyenne said.
 “And you’re attacking your own source of power, you moron.” Hikari said.
 “Who are you calling A MORON!?” he said. He formed orange sludge in his hands.
 “I don’t think we can reason with him.” Cheyenne said drawing her bow.
 “Get out of the way.” Hikari said as the slidge was thrown at they were able to get out of the way. It had eroded away the leaves behind them into nothing. Cheyenne stated to fire arrows at it; they hit but they didn’t scratch the rock-hard shell.  Hikari decided to try to cut the shell using her katana, Again, it hit be there was barely a scratch on it.
 As they were fighting him, John sat down on the side of the lake trying to make sense about the whole meaning of what was just said. And after much contemplation and analysis; he had come up with the answer.
 “Girls, weaken him and hold him down.” He said. “Don’t kill him.”
 “You want us to do… WHAT!?” Hikari asked.
 “Hold him down.” John repeated. “Trust me on this.”
 “Alright, if you say so.” Cheyenne said.
 “You better have a good reason for asking us to do this.” Hikari stated dodging the golems punches. She blasted him with a stream of water knocking him back. Cheyenne fired a few arrows which entangled the golem in a net.
 “I’ll take it from here.” John said as he rushed forward and leapt into the air. A glow of white energy surrounded his right paw. “RUQYA PUNCH!!” He punched the golem right in the chest. The golem screeched loudly as it started to break apart into tiny pieces. And what took its place was a large bipedal frog laying on its back out cold. The girls just stood there shocked.
 “What just happened?” Hikari asked. John got up from the unconscious frog and turned to the girls. He sat down.
 “Let me explain.” He said. “Remember when he said he was a water spirit? I did some thinking and I remember that nature spirits don’t attack their own power source. He would not actively or willingly attack his own source of power.”
 “So, you’re saying he was corrupted?” Cheyenne asked.
 “That’s exactly what I am saying.” he replied. “Someone or something had corrupted the local water spirit and forced him to disrupt nature.” They noticed the frog coming back awake; it looked our at the lake.
 “AHH!!” it shouted. “Pardon my French, but what the bloody hell has happened here. There is muck and acid from here to across the pond. Whoever did this is making me off on one.”
 “Are you sure he’s from around here?” Cheyenne asked.
 “I have serious work to do to fix. this. up.” Etcheman stated. “This is banana skin, I tell you. BANANA SKIN!!”
 “I think we should go now.” Hikari said.
 “Yeah, we should.” John said. And the nature spirit kept on yapping as he started working on cleaning up the lake.

 The girls got back to the park and Hikari continued her training while John rested beside Cheyenne. She looked at him.
 “John, where did you learn that technique?” she asked.
 “The ruqya punch?” he said. “It was something I picked up. I’ll teach it to Maria when the time is right. But until then, I have another important matter at hand.”
 “What would that be?” she asked.
 “I picked up the scent of another girl with high manna.” He said.
 “Oh…” Cheyenne replied as she sat up facing him. “Do you know anything else?”
 “I noted that the scent is extremely odd.” He said. “So, I’ll investigate this for a little longer before I can send someone out to ask them about joining up.”
 “Okay, so what do I do until then?” She asked.
 “I’m not sure exactly what to do, Cheyenne.” He said. “I’m going to make sure to add board games to the lair.”
 “New lair?” She asked. Since John was peaking her interest
 “I’m setting it up in the Whispering Meadows.” He said.
 “Why there?” She asked rolling her eyes. “There are a lot more better places than that.”
 “There is no body living in that area.” he said. “And it is the last place anyone is going to look for a superhero’s hideout.”
 “I can see where that would…” Cheyenne replied and noticed Hikari was gone. “Hey, where’d Hikari go.”
 “She’s over there.” He pointed toward the hot dog stand.
 “I would like to have two chili dogs with the works, please.” Hikari asked the guy at the stand.
 “Okay coming right up.” the guy said.
 “Training, one minute; and chowing down, the next.” John commented. “That’s Hikari for ya.”

Maria was heading back from the work place that evening. She was getting tired from working nearly ten hours in one day. She drove back home towards the apartment complex. When she pulled into the parking lot, she noticed something was digging in the trash.
 “Hey, get out of there.” Maria said to it. When she noticed it was inside the bin she stuck her hand in there; she got a hold of something. “Gotcha.” She pulled it up and she held in her hand a little golden-colored kitten. She didn’t “Ah, it’s so cute.” She looked on it and noticed it had a collar on it.
 “Mirza.” she said reading the collar. “I’m not sure why anyone would have this as a pet, but I should look after him until I find its owner.” She took it inside the apartment and sent it down. “Hmm, “I’ve never owned a cat before but I think I have some fish sticks I can give it.” She went over to the fridge. She decided to sit down on the chair and read the next issue of Agent Jupiter. As she opened it up she saw a paper inside of it. She picked up the paper.
 “Lost lion cub.” it stated. “He is currently being taken care of by Christina Gulbadan. He is golden-colored and has three hazel stripes on its head. His name is Mirza. If anyone has information on his whereabouts please call 330-605-2602.” Maria looked at the kitten.
 “Well, looks like you’re a lost kitty after all.” she stated as she headed towards the phone. She dialed the number. She waited for a little bit and then someone answered the phone.
 “Hello?” a voice of a little girl asked.
 “Hello, I’m looking for Christina Gulbadan.” Maria said.
 “Oh… hold on a sec.” the girl said. “Mommy, it’s for you.” After a little bit, a woman answered the phone.
 “Hello?” she asked.
 “Hello, this is Maria.” Maria replied. “I came to talk to you about your lost lion.”
 “Oh, thank goodness.” Christina replied. “What do you know?”
 “I found him digging around in the garbage can. I currently have him right now. You want me to clean him up?”
 “Sure thing.” She replied. “I’ll come by later to pick him up.”
 “My address is 1260 Peach Street and I live in apartment #3.” Maria said.
 “Okay, thank you very kindly.” Christina added.
 “Good-bye.” Maria answered. And the two turned off their phones. She turned to the cub. “Okay, I’m going to get the tub ready. Then, you…” She pointed her finger at him and he tried to bat at it. She dodged it. “You are going to get a bath.” She turned and started hearing racket outside. “Oh now, what?” She went outside onto her porch and saw a skeletal humanoid wearing leather armor on its body. “Who are you?”
 “I see you are endangering or wiping out animals.” He said.
 “I don’t do that.” She replied.
 “You hunt creatures down until they are extinct.” He stated.
 “I don’t know who you are nor do I know what you are talking about.” Maria added.
 “I will avenge the birds whom you have killed.” it said.
 “All I’m seeing is someone wanting to pick a fight.”
 “So you do plan to fight. The birds have been amplified with supernatural capabilities.” He explained. “Which I have provided.”
 “You don’t think we can… you know… just talk this over?”
 “Prepare to be defeated.” he stated.
 “Looks like a ‘no’.” Maria said. She went back into the apartment and transformed inside. She turned to Mirza. “Mirza, be a good kitty and stay until I get back.” It meowed as she left; it just sat there on the couch.
 As she exited the building and into the lot; He tossed a deep green ring onto the ground.
“Go, dodo.” A dodo appeared where the ring landed. Maria let her guard in confusion.
 “A dodo?” Maria asked him. It ran at high speed toward her and jumped. “Is this the best you…”
It kicked her in the gut and sent her flying back into the car garage. She stumbled while getting back up. She left the garage and the dodo charged again. She dodged the attacks again and again but it was too fast for her to get a sword strike on it.

 Meanwhile, the lion cub sat on the couch watching a baseball game that was on TV. They were showing the home plate with a guy up to bat.
 “Now the rookie is up to bat.” the announcer said. “His first time up on the plate; Can he impress the coaches this time? The crowd is anxious to see his performance in this game.” Maria kicked the dodo back. Maria dropped her shield because it was slowing her down. The dodo rushed forward towards her again. “And he comes the pitch.” Maria swung her sword and hit it sending it flying high and away. “The ball is out of the park and the crowds going wild.”

 “How about this?” He threw out another ring and when it landed an orange ostrich with dark brown wings on its back appeared. The ostrich inhaled and then spewed out fire. She was able to dodge it.
 “Hey, ostriches are still around.” Maria pointed out.
 “Oh really, this is an extinct subspecies of ostrich.” he pointed out. “one that lived in the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East until its ultimate demise.” The ostrich again shot a stream of fire out of its beak. She lifted up her shield to block the fire; the bird ran towards her and she used her shield bashing it in the head knocking the bird out.
  “Damn it.” He returned the ostrich. He sent out a very large black and white duck.
 “A duck?” Maria asked. “This is starting to get into the ridiculous territory.”
 “I have amplified the duck’s size and given it a sticky tongue.” he stated. “You aren’t taking this seriously?” A little dog was barking at the giant frog. It was a cute little chihuahua. It stuck its tongue out and ate the dog whole.
 “Even so, but it still looks goofy.” The duck lashed out its tongue and Maria lifted up her shield. It pulled back and ate Maria’s shield. “Oh boy.” She thought as it lashed out its tongue again. She was forced to dodge it’s attacks. It kept jumping around as it attacked. The beast ate a lawn gnome, a couple of potted plants, all of the underwear hanging on a clothes line, two squirt guns, a tractor lawn mower, and a squirrel. “Damn, how much can it eat?” It jumped and landed on top of a car and took a huge dump on it.
 “Hey!!” a random guy in a robe said as he came up. “That’s my 1995 Pontiac, you piece of lard!!” It toward him and ate the guy’s robe exposing his pink boxers. He ran back inside his house embarrassed with his hands over his crotch.
 It lashed the tongue out again at Maria. She dodged and the tongue hit a telephone pole. It couldn’t withdraw his tongue; it was stuck. She slashed at the duck’s stomach seeing the opportunity and the duck fell over dead. Maria was able to get her shield through the cut. She reached in and pulled it out. It was covered in saliva and stomach juices.
 “Ugh, don’t want to fight with this.” She said as she tossed it into the trash.
 “You are making me really mad!!” he said as he sent out one more bird. It was a giant bird with purple feathers standing up at 9 feet tall and had a giant yellow beak. “This is one you can’t possibly beat.” The bird cried out and charged a beam of light in its beak as it levitated in the air. Maria got focused for the fight.
 It fired the first beam and Maria blocked it with her saber. The second beam hit her and she got some burns on her skin. She was able to dodge the third beam. She deflected the four beam in a different direction but didn’t know where it went.
 Meanwhile at a random house, a little girl was being led outside of her house to see her surprise gift that she got for her birthday. She ended up extremely happy.
 “Yay!!” she said. “I got a pony!!” She ran over to it, but a pink shot from the battle hit the pony. It turned pink and got a horn and wings. “Even better, a pink alicorn!!” She hopped on and she and the pony flew away with her on it.
 “Sweetie, get back here.” her mom said.
 “WHEEEEE!!” The girl stated as her pony flew around.

 Maria was busy fighting the titanus bird. The bird ran forward with its beak open and Maria had to dodge the attack to prevent from being pecked at or bitten. Jon showed up in his beagle form.
 “Maria, he said I have some news.” he said.
 “What is it?” Maria asked; she dodged the peck and jumped towards him. “I’m a little busy.”
 “I have some news on new girls.” he said. Maria moved out of the way. “It’s…” The titanus bit on John breaking the beagle’s neck. “Dammit, Now I have to find a new dog.” And John’s orb floated away. The Titanus looked towards Maria and it charged towards her with magic in its beak. She dodged out of the peck and rolled out of the way of the magic blast. She leapt into the air grabbing onto its wing. She jumped up into the air as the bird looked towards her and she lunged the sword into the bird’s skull; killing it. The humanoid ended up becoming infuriated at her.
 “YOU…” He shouted. “You have defeated my birds. NOW!! I’M GOING TO DESTROY YOU!!” He yelled at the top of his voice and ran towards her flailing his arms and legs. Maria just dropped her sword and punched him in the face. He was knocked out instantly.
 “That was anticlimactic.” Maria said. She managed to drag the creature up to her apartment, tied it up using rope, and threw him into the closet. She went back into her maiden form and went back to the lion cub. “Now, that we have that out of the way. It’s time for you to get a bath.”
 She picked up the lion cub and took it to the bathroom and started to fill the tub up with water. She wrestled with the lion cub trying to get it to go into the tub and miserably failing. Then, someone knocked on the door. She set the cub down and opened the door.
 The woman that was at the door had fair skin, blue eyes, and long straight deepest brown hair with two long, thin side locks in front of her ears. She was wearing a causal green shirt and jeans.
 “Hello, are you Christina Gulbadan?” Maria asked.
 “Yes, I am.” she replied. “Are you the one with Mirza?”
 “Yeah.” Maria answered. Then, Mirza came out of the bathroom.
 “Oh, there you are, Mirza.” the woman said. “Come here, now.” The lion cub went over to her. “Now, don’t you run away again.” She picked him up.
 “What are you doing with a lion cub anyways?” Maria asked her.
 “I work with wildlife.” Christina explained. “Working with wild animals whom have become orphaned or injured. I also volunteer with the ‘Save Our Swamp: Wetland Protection Group’. Again, I can’t thank you enough.”
 “Sure, no problem.”
 “Esmail and Naomi are missing you.” Christina said to the cub. “We better get you back home.” After the two left, Maria decided to take a bath herself and get into her pajamas. She looked outside at the night sky while she was in the bedroom and noticed something odd. There was a bright orange cigar-shaped UFO with flashing lights on the side. It turned away from the ground and left the Earth at supersonic speed. Maria just stood there in awe and confusion trying to comprehend what she just saw.
 “Man, I must really be tired to see something like that.” Maria said going to bed and going to sleep. But she didn’t see that the creature had escaped from its ropes and the closet to warn its master.

 A knight with silver armor was riding his chestnut horse through the countryside. He had his lance on his back. He rode from a nearby village and he approached a lake where he encountered a two-headed giant sitting by the lake; one head was red, the other blue. But one of the heads spotted him.
 “Look, brother.” Red stated. “A knight has come.”
 “Let’s take him down.” Blue replied as the giant stood up.
 “You will not harm the villages in Orleans anymore.” the knight stated.
 “You should fear us.” Red said.
 “For we are mighty.” Blue added.
 “Your boastful words are not amusing.” the knight replied as he got his lance out and he began to engage the giant. They clashed and the giant was losing; having no choice he fled into the cave. “Running away like a coward? I will end this.” He paused. “Let’s go, Rosâtre.” He charged right into the cave and both sides vanished…
 
 It was time for the annual Renaissance Fair in town. It was hosted each year by St. Thomas University. It was full of fun and festivities. But the biggest thing that everyone was excited to see was the jousting tournaments.
 Maria was in her work outfit while doing promotional work for the store she worked for making sure the stand for the festival was running properly. Hikari was in a blue shirt and jeans, while Joan was in a sparkling red princess dress.
 “Hey, Hikarin. I got you something.” Joan said.
 “What is it, Joan?” Hikari asked.
 “I found this on sale. I hope you like it.” she said. Joan pulled out from the bag and she pulled out an iron bikini. “What do you think?” Hikari facepalmed.
 “Joan, think about it.” She replied. “Do you actually think I’m going to wear that?”
 “I bought this with own money.” Joan replied. “You can’t you at least try it on?”
 “It’s not…” Hikari replied.
 “Girls, I got a text message.” Maria interrupted them. “Cheyenne got the seats to the jousting tournament ready.”
 “Okay.” Joan said. “Aren’t you coming?”
 “I have some things to straighten up here.” Maria replied. “I’ll catch up with you in a little bit.”
 “Okay.” she answered and the two girls headed out.
 Maria returned to her work and she punched out of the place. She headed towards the stadium when she came across a tall man.
 He was donned in a black suit armor with a horned helmet that included a nose guard and curved shoulders. There was chain around his mouth, so only the eyes were seen. He had blood red bracers and the tips of the horns were blood red.
 He looked at her and she looked back to him. All she saw in his expression was an abysmal void filled with hatred. She was frightened until he looked away; he said nothing but walked off.
 “That guy is extremely frightening.” She thought and paused. “Oh wait, the jousting match… I almost forgot.” She ran off towards the stadium. Maria made it to her seat next to Hikari, Joan, and Cheyenne; she was in a pink princess outfit. There were four jousting areas in the stadium; one for each set of bleachers for the audience. And there was a podium in the center of the field.

 There were two women who appeared and they stepped onto the podium. One had light, fair skin and a large chest. She, also, had green eyes and wavy red hair. She had an emerald-colored dress and a cloth wreath on her head. She looked rather nervous and she was sweating.
 The other had mocha-colored skin and hazel eyes. She had long dark burgundy dreadlocks. She had an orange robe on with a robe to keep it together. And she was smiling.
 “Hello dere, everyone.” the dark one said. “I’m Reina Smith and this is my friend, Dymphna Quinn. We are going to be your hostesses today for the jousting.”
 “Uh… Hi.” Dymphna replied, trying to shy away.
 “Are you ready for da jousting?” Reina asked. The audience cheered. “I can’t hear you.” The audience cheered louder. “We’ll begin with da opening match.” One of the guys nearby the four girls started whistling at Dymphna.
 “Hey girl, show us the goods.” he stated; Cheyenne turned to him. “We want to do some jousting of our own. Because I have a big…” She punched him knocking him out.
 “Sorry.” Cheyenne said to the girls. “that guy was annoying.” The first rider came out on a black horse with red draping on it. He was wearing red armor on.
 “On the left side, we’s got our first rider – Kirby Hooker.” Reina said. The second rider came out on a white horse with blue draping on it. He was wearing blue armor on.
 “And on the right side, we’s got our second rider – Miguel de Santigo.” The audience cheered for both of them.
 “Go, Mikey.” Cheyenne said.
 “I would like to dedicate this tournament to my babe… I mean, lady, Cheyenne.” he stated. The audience awed. Kirby was challenging Miguel using hand gestures.
 “Whoa, we’s haven’t even started and things are getting feisty.” Reina added.
 “I’m not feeling comfortable here.” Dymphna said. “Can I go now?”
 “You can’t leave now; we’re being paid to be here.”
 “Okay, okay.”
 “Besides, dis would make a good experience for you.”
 “But so many guys are looking at me for all the wrong reasons.”
 “Well, you can tell dem to shove it up deir ass.” The audience gasped in shock. They looked at the people. “Oh great, I forgot to turn da microphone off fo’ personal comments.” The two contenders got their lances in their hands from the staff.
 “Anyway, riders. Go in three… two… one/” Reina said. Then, ball lightning appeared in the center of the field stunning everyone interrupting Reina midsentence. Then, the two-headed giant and the knight appeared fight each other. The blue head looked around while the red one focus on the battle.
 “Brother, I don’t think we’re at the cave.” the blue head said. “Where are we?”
 “Does it matter?” the red one replied. “It’s not that important.” The knight looked and saw he was in an odd place. The giant saw this chance and punched the knight off of his horse. It went towards the side as the knight got back up drawing his sword. The giant moved towards the side it ended up near Mikey.
 “Hey, why do you have to butt in to the jousting match?” he shouted poking him with his lance. The giant turned and grabbed him by the collar. “Uh oh.” And he threw him at the knight; the knight in question stood is ground and caught him. He was pushed back a little but not off his feet.
 “Êtes-vous bien? (Are you okay?)” the knight said.
 “English.” Mikey said. “Do you speak it?” The knight noticed the giant picking up the lance that Mikey had dropped and he started heading towards him. He tosses Mikey aside and drawn out his sword, blocking the giant’s attack. Kirby ran away.
 “Reviens ici, espèce de lâche!! (Get back here, you coward!!)” the knight shouted at him.
 “I think we better leave.” Dymphna said.
 “Right behind you.” Reina added as the two fled. Tension was starting to spread amongst the audience members. The girls decided that it was an emergency so they left the stands and went into the rest rooms. Then, they transformed into their maiden forms except for Cheyenne who just got her bow out.
 “Hey, how come I don’t get a transformation sequence?” Cheyenne asked.
 “It’s because you don’t have any magical powers.” Maria said.
 “But isn’t there some other way it can be done?” she asked. “So that way I can change within three seconds; I don’t want to be it so by the time I’m ready for battle, it’s already over.”
 “You’ll have to talk to John about it.” Maria stated.
 Meanwhile, the giant was facing off against the knight. The red head shot out a stream of fire out of its mouth and he blocked it with his shield. The blue head shot water out of its mouth and the knight dodged out of the way and started breathing hard.
 “Quel est le problème? (Oh, what’s the matter?)” the red head stated.
 “Es tu fatigué? (Getting tired?)” the blue head added.
 “Tu deves être fatigué aussi. (You must be tired too.)” the knight replied. The giant tired to attack Mikey who was trying to get back up. The knight moved in between them and blocked the attack. The giant picked the knight up and threw him onto the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him. The girls headed out onto the field when the knight was knocked over by the giant. The giant laughed as he raised his foot to crush him. Cheyenne shot an arrow and it landed right in its leg. It moved back and noticed the girls. The knight looked at the girls.
 “Qui être-vous? (Who are you, girls?)” the knight asked the girls.
 “Nous sommes les Virtue Girls. (We are the Virtue Girls.)” Joan replied.
 “Merci d'être venu. (Thanks for coming.)” the knight said. The giant got reorganized and started headed straight for the girls. “Le géant peut tirer feu et l'eau. (The giant can shoot fire and water.) Attaquer les jambes!”
 “Bien. (Okay.)” Joan replied.
 “What the hell did he just say?” Hikari said.
 “Aim for the legs.” Joan said. Cheyenne shot another arrow towards the giant and he used the dropped lance as a club to block it. The blue head shot out a water blast; while the red head shout out a fire blast.  Hikari sent out a water stream and Joan sent out a fire ball. The fire and water of both attacks negated each other.
 Maria ran up towards it getting behind it; she stabbed the sword into the giant’s Achilles tendon. The giant picked up the knight and threw him at Maria, she got out of the way. It was starting to limp because of the injury.
 “YOU’LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!” the heads shouted. Cheyenne fired some more arrows striking at the knees. Then, the giant began to fall. Maria grabbed the knight and got out of the way as the giant collapsed onto the ground. Hikari and Joan ran up to the giant and slashed down onto the necks of the giant taking the giant down. Maria looked at him.
 “Are you okay?” Maria asked the knight.
 “Je ne sais pas ce que vous dites. (I don’t understand what you’re saying.)” he replied.
 “Are you able to speak English?” she asked.
 “Anglais? (English?)” he replied in shock. “Je suis en Angleterre? (Am I in England ?)”
 “Uh…” Maria stated; then she turned to Joan. “Joan, you seem to understand him. Can you help me out?”
 “Sure.” Joan replied; then she turned to the knight. “Monsieur, comment vous-appelez-vous? (Sir, who are you?)”
 “Je suis Cornielle Lécuyer. (I am Cornielle Lécuyer.)” the knight replied. “Et toi? (And you?)”
 “Je suis Joan Lachance.”  she replied. “Je vais vous expliquer ce qui vient de se passer. Bien? (I’ll explain to you what just happened, okay?)”
 “Bien.” he replied. Joan got him up off the ground and started to escort him off of the field. Meanwhile, Cheyenne ran over to her boyfriend’s side.
 “Mikey.” She said to him. “Are you okay?”
 “Babe, I’m a little shaken up.” he answered. “Other then, that I should be fine.” He tried to stand up and he flinched. “Or not. I think I’ll need a little ice.”
 “Just wait there.” She said. “The medics are coming to help you out.” Then, a black Labrador came up to Maria as she and Hikari were leaving.
 “Maria,” the black lab said to them.
 “Is that you, John?” she asked.
 “Yeah. How do I look?” he replied.
 “Not bad.” she answered. “What do you have?”
 “Well, I investigated the odd scent for potential Virtue Girls. And I found out was I was smelling two different sets of scent.”
 “So, what does that mean?”
 “It means I’ve found two candidates and they hang out together. So, if one is in the area; the other is nearby.” he explained.
 “What a find.” Maria said.
 “I know.” He replied. “Well, I better have you come with me. There is something I want to teach you some time in the future.”
 “What is it?”
 “I can’t tell you right now.” He responded. “I have to tell you in private; it’ll be a technique that will be useful in the future.”

 Hikari went out to the stands in the marketplace. She was holding a cotton candy stick in her hand and eating it up when she noticed a crowd on the side.
 “Hmm? What’s going on?” she said as she finished the snack. She entered the crowd and she saw a guy and a girl in an arm wrestling contest. The girl had tanned skin and honey eyes. She also had chestnut shaggy hair. She wore light tan leather pants and a white cotton shirt. She beat the guy down.
  “This is stupid.” He shouted. “This is the lamest game I have ever played in. UGH!! I’m going to get a chili dog.” He stomped past Hikari.
 “Wow... *hic* Talk ‘bout a sore loser.” She stated as she took a drink from the bottle nearby her. Then, she faced the crowd. “I’ll tell y’all. There ain’t nobody here… *hic* that can beat me. Any of you fellers want a piece of me?”
 “I’ll take you on.” Hikari answered. As she sat down, she could smell the alcohol in her breath. “Did she beat all these people while drunk?” she thought.
 “Excuse me, are you a guy or… *hic* a girl? ‘Cause you look a little flat.” She asked.
 “I’m a girl with a B-cup.” Hikari answered irritated.
 “I see. Well, let’s see if you can beat Flora.” She exclaimed.
 “Flora?” Hikari asked.
 “That’s my name.” the girl stated. The two grabbed hands and began arm-wrestling. Hikari had to put a lot of effort to stay up, but see eventually won the match.
 “Yeah.” Hikari cheered. Then, she noticed that Flora fell asleep. “Oh great, she fell asleep. I guess it was from the alcohol.” She looked around. “Well, now what?” she thought as the audience left. “I’ll move her to the side, so as not to get in anyone’s way.”

Cheyenne was at St. Thomas University cleaning up the mess since the Renaissance Fair festivities were done. She had finished up cleaning the stadium when she decided to walk away to get a drink; At that moment, she bumped into someone.
 “Ow.” She stated.
 “Oh, I’m so sorry.” the person answered; blushing from embarrassment. Cheyenne looked up and saw her. One had light, fair skin and a large chest. She, also, had green eyes and wavy red hair. She had an emerald-colored dress and a cloth wreath on her head. She, currently, had a green long shirt and jeans on her.
 “Hey, I remember you.” Cheyenne said. “You were one of the announcers for the jousting festival yesterday.” She shivered at that. “What was your name again? Dymphna was it?”
 “Yeah.” she answered frightened. “Please, don’t remind me of that.”
 “Why what happened?” Cheyenne asked. Then her friend appeared.
 “Hey, what’s happenin’, Dia?” Reina asked coming up to her; wearing a white t-shirt and blue shorts. “Are you meetin’ someone new? Way to go, girl.” She turned to her. “I’m Reina Smith. You are?”
 “Cheyenne Lakota.” Cheyenne answered.
 “Nice to meet ya.” Reina replied shaking her hands. “Wait, are you the girl that one person was mentionin’?”
 “I’m Mikey’s girlfriend.” she said.
 “Wow, it’s a small world.”
 “Can I ask you about…?”
 Oh, Dia…” Reina replied. “She’s just shy around new people, especially guys. I’m glad she was meeting someone new by herself now.” Dymphna blushed.
 “No… it was just an accident really.” she said backing away. “I just bumped into her, that’s all.” Cheyenne ended up getting curious.
 “What exactly happened?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Oh… It happened back in high school.” Reina said. “I was going to the inner city school at the time. I was hearing we were getting a new student there. And I heard she was very fine. I wanted to meet her to talk.”
 “Um… shouldn’t we let, Dymphna speak?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Fine, I’ll tell you.” Dymphna said gathering her courage. “I was the new student at the school. I had to be transferred from my old one since it was being torn down. And it was true, I was the prettiest and most beautiful girl in school.” She paused and started to tremble with fear. “But, I wasn’t able to get through a single week in school without at least one guy hitting on me.”

 Dymphna was walking back from school back to her house; she was moving around the corner when she encountered a gang of boys from her school. They looked at her with malicious intent.
 “Hey girl.” one of them said. “Aren’t you a little lonely?” Dymphna tried to run away, but a larger guy blocked her from leaving the corner. “We can help you out.”
 “Just leave me alone.” Dymphna said as she ran through the streets. The guys pursued her and she ended up tripping on some debris that was on the ground. She fell over to the ground and tried to get back up. Two of the guys caught up with her and grabbed her two arms. “STOP IT!!” She struggled and kicked one of the guys away.
 “Stop squirming. You’re gonna thanks us afterwards.” the guys said as another grabbed her ankle. The guy started heading towards her. Then, a girl from the shadows came out and clabbered a baseball bat on one of the guy’s heads giving her the opportunity. Dymphna was able to escape their grasp. A mocha-skinned girl appeared from the darkness.
 “It’s Reina Smith the brute.” another of the guys said.
 “Why can’t just keep your things in your pants?” Reina stated. “Get out of here.” They didn’t respond. “NOW!!” She expressed a lot more anger. They ran away in fright. She turned around and face Dymphna. “Hey, are you all right?”
 “I think so.” she replied. “Who are you?”
 “I’m Reina Smith.” the girl said. “What’s yours?”
 “My name is Dymphna Quinn.” Dymphna replied.
 “What’cha doing out here?” she asked.
 “I was just heading home when those guys came after me.”
 “Oh, those assholes.” she said. “You gotta be careful around these parts.”
 “Do you mind if you help me get back home?” Dymphna asked.
 “Sure thing.” Reina replied. “I hear that you’re the new student here. Have you got any friends yet?”
 “No.” Dymphna said looking sad.
 “I’ll help you out and be your friend.” Reina said.
 “Thanks, Reina.” Dymphna replied to her.

 “And that’s how we met and became best friends.” Reina finished telling Cheyenne.
 “Okay.” Cheyenne said. “Good thing you didn’t kiss each other outright.” The two girls looked at each other.
 “Why would we do that?” Dymphna asked.
 “Dat’s just wrong.” Reina added.
 “Did you find the other two girls?” Joan said.
 “I’ve picked up their scent.” John said. “They’re close by.” Then, Jonathan and Joan appeared looking for two girls. They approached Cheyenne.
 “Hey, Joan.” Cheyenne said to Joan.
 “Oh, hi.” Joan replied. “What are you doing here?”
 “I was just cleaning up the place.” John was sniffing at Dymphna and Reina.
 “Yep, these two are the ones.” He said.
 “Wait, did that dog just talk?” Reina asked in surprise.
 “Yes, I did.” he said. “My name’s John.”
 “What do you know a talking dog.” she added.
 “I’ve been following the trail of two candidates for new Virtue Girls.” he explained. “And you two are the ones the trail leads to.”
 “The Virtue Girls?” Dymphna asked. “I’ve heard of them.”
 “Are you two wanting to join up?” He asked.
 “Sure, why not?” Reina added.
 “Um… I don’t know.” Dymphna replied.
 “Oh, come on, Dia. I’ll be fun.” Reina said. “A lot more fun than that MMO you’re always playing.” Joan heard that conversation.
 “Wait,” Joan said. “MMO?”
 “Yeah.” Dymphna replied.
 “Wait, is your username, DQuinn74?” she asked. Dymphna was in shock.
 “How do you know my username?” she asked. “Are you Hanabi32?”
 “I am.” Joan answered.
 “Wow, I didn’t expect one of my MMO friends to live nearby.”
 “And yet, this is the first time you talked to each other in person.” Reina added. Dymphna had no comment on the issue. “Are you going to join up?”
 “Okay.” Dymphna added. Then, they heard a loud roar. “What was that?”
 “It sounds like it came from the PE buildings.” Joan said; she transformed into her maiden form. Dymphna and Reina were surprised to see her transform in front of them.
 “You’ll get something like that.” John said. “Let’s go.” Cheyenne got her bow out as they ran towards the building. When they entered, they found a woman in her thirties. She was wearing a black clock and hat over her body and had long white hair.
 “What do we have here?” She spoke with a deep voice.
 “Who are you and what’s going on?” Cheyenne asked her.
 “I am Jadvyga.” she replied. “I’m just helping someone get their revenge.” She backed away.
 “Helping who exactly.” Joan replied. Then, the water got dark and a giant octopus monster with twenty tentacles climbed out of the swimming pool and it roared.
 “My work here is done. Bye.” Jadvyga ran off.
 “Hey, get back here!” Cheyenne shouted as she started to run after her. A tentacle came down blocking her path. Using eight of its tentacles, it stood up. It started flailing around with the other twelve. The four ducked for cover.
 “Wait, tentacles…” Joan said becoming terrified. “OH NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!”
 “What is it Joan?” Cheyenne said.
 “Tentacles are a magical girls’ kryptonite.” Joan tried to dodge the tentacle coming her way and it grabbed her ankle. The other three ended up getting captured by the tentacles as well. “And I know what ends up happening next.”
"Daturus Virgo et Castam Virgo..." John stated frantically as the monster lifted them up. "excitare de somnos." Then, Dymphna and Reina were wrapped in a bright light.
 Dymphna’s clothes were buried under a sheet of falling snow and it curved around her/ forming a pale turquoise top and skirt. She had white lacing underneath the skirt as well as matching gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of white with moonstone in the center. Then, a falling snow fell onto the ground packing together creating a claymore. Then, it jump right into Dymphna’s hand.
 Reina hear thunder from the sky. Then lightning shot down and engulfed her. She, then, wore a yellow top and skirt. She had light corn-colored lacing under the skirt with matching gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of corn with a sunstone in the center. Then, lightning landed in her hand creating an Ida blade in her hand. It had a blade that got wider as the distance from the handle increased. Then, it sharply thinned to make the point.
 Despite transforming, they were still in the tentacles grip. The girls tried to get out but couldn’t. Reina noticed the static she was making.
 “Eww.” it stated. “Tingly. Do it again.”
 “If you thought that was tingly,” Reina stated to the monster. “Try this.” She unleashed a massive amount of jolts of electricity. It hit the monster, but it also hit Dymphna, Cheyenne, Joan, and Jonathan too.
 “Hey!!” a security guard said as he opened the door. He got struck by the lightning and was electrocuted for a few seconds. “I’ll get an ice pack, mommy.” He fainted, twitching on the ground. The monster let go of the four girls dropping them.
 “Can you watch what you’re doing?” Cheyenne asked her.
 “Sorry,” Reina replied. “Dat’s my first time. Dymphna, what can you do?”
 “I’m not sure.” Dymphna answered. The monster shook off the paralysis and turned towards her. He sent his tentacles forward to seize them; she stuck her hand out in reaction as a beam of ice blew from her hand hitting the monster. It flinched from the chills.
 “AHHY!! COLD, COLD!!” it shouted.
 “Oh.” she stated as she stopped the attack.
 “What are you doing?” her friend answered. “Keep going.” The monster lunged again. Dymphna fired out more of it again knocking him back into the pool.
 “It’s a corrupted adonudo.” he said.
 “A donut-o.” Reina asked.
 “No, a nature spirit.” John explained as the monster started climbing out of the pool again. “I’ll be able to purify it but it needs to be weakened first.”
 “I’ll get your skirts.” it said.
 “Yep, definitely corrupted.” Dymphna said.
 The cephalopod jumped up and down flailing its tentacles in anger; it thrust out them out towards the girls; the girls dodged out of the way and the tentacles left holes in the walls and the ceiling. The chairs, the diving board, the lifeguard lookout were smashed by the tentacles. But not a single tentacle hit the girls as they dashed for cover. Cheyenne fired two arrows at the thing. They hit the shell, getting its attention.
 “I’m not going to get that kind of treatment.” Joan said as she threw fire balls at it. It jerked back lashing one of its tentacles at her and she dodged out of the way. Reina went up to it and slashed it with her ida. The creature sweeped it across. Reina jumped over it as well as Joan. Cheyenne and Dymphna were knocked off their feet. Reina helped Dymphna back up onto her feet and Joan helped Cheyenne back up. John stepped up to the field.
 “I got to find an opening.” he said. “Can you make one?”
 “Sure.” Cheyenne said. She aimed her bow as the other three girls fought the beast. She fired the arrow and it suck piercing the shell. “There, attack at the arrow.”
 “On it.” He said as a tentacle swung down towards him. He dodged out of the way and ran onto it. He howled as he ran up the slippery slope then leapt into the air.
 “RUQYA PUNCH!!” He shouted and slammed right into the opening created by arrow. The creature roared as what looked like electricity came off of it. It fell over backwards unconscious into the water. It shrank down to a small size as it sank to the bottom of the pool. John swam out towards the edge and Cheyenne fished him out. The other girls were catching their breath.
 “Nice job.” She said.
 “Thanks.” he replied. “Sorry about this.”
 “About what?” She asked. Then, John shook himself off to dry off and water went everywhere. “Ugh, John.”
 “Would you have preferred to get a little wet or for me to start to stink?” he asked.
 “You have a point.” She said.
 “I have taken the time and finished up the lair at Whispering Meadows.” He said. “We can now open for business, metaphorically speaking. Just head there when you’re ready.”
“I’ll head over there, now.” Joan said. “See you later, Dymphna-kun and Reina-kun.” Then, Joan headed off.
“What was that about?” Reina asked.
“It’s just something she does.” He answered.

~~ The girls were moving their stuff into the new Virtue Girls headquarters. It was among the new looking uninhabited allotment housing that have been unoccupied since they were built.
 It was a two story tudor house. The first floor had a cobblestone wall exterior while the second floor had a pine wood exterior. It was supported by oak beams. It had two brick chimneys one on the North end and one on the south end. The majority of the house was surrounded by a flower bed with bushes growing in it and in the backyard was a red wooden doghouse.
 “Okay, girls.” John said. “The main areas are on the first floor. The residence rooms are on the second floor. The training area is in the basement.”
 “It looks a little tacky.” Reina said.
 “I had difficulty trying to find a house that could be used as a headquarters. This was the only possible one I could find.” He replied. “You can’t choose what you want all the time.”
 “Dere are some oder big houses.” she added. “Why not pick one of dem?”
 “Because Reina…” he said. “The other houses are in street gang territory; the Wannabeyaks kept sabotaging my stuff for the headquarters.”
 “We’ll just have to avoid dem.” she said as she walked into the doorway with her things.
 “Don’t worry about getting beds up there. I’ve have the stuff in the rooms already. You just have to worry about the sheets.” He said looking around. Maria was coming towards him. “I thought Cheyenne was going to join us.”
 “She was going to join up with us later.” She said; then, they heard a scream.
 “Isn’t that her?” he asked.
 “Let’s go.” She said as she transformed. John ran inside to get the other girls. Maria headed towards the scream. And found Cheyenne being chased by a giant plant walking on its roots. It was wearing a hippie outfit and had an afro on its head. “Leave her alone.” The plant looked at her as Cheyenne ran behind her.
 “Why are you defending her, man?” the plant stated.
 “What reason do you have with my friend?” Maria rebuked.
 “She inflicted harm on me.” the plant replied. “I heard she wanted to try some weed; then she came by and ripped off some of my leaves.”
 “And what are you exactly?” she asked.
 “I’m a cannabis plant.” it said. “I could have just given her the leaves, if she just asked first. It hurts when you tear the leaves off.” Maria glared at Cheyenne. She ended up laughing nervously.
 “Cheyenne, you’re a moron.” She said.
 “Oops.” Cheyenne replied. “It is legal in all fifty states.” At that point, the other girls showed up.
 “Still, you don’t do that kind of stuff.”
 “So, I’m going to rip her arms off as punishment.” the plant said.
 “That’s going too far.” Maria said. Then, the girls joined her in defense.
 “Very well, then. So, be it.” He sprayed out a purple mist from his mouth, hitting all of the girls. The girls shook it off; they unintentionally inhaled the smoke. They coughed a little bit. Then they got into a battle stance. Hikari rushed forward with her katana. She began to cut some of the leaves. The monster roared and sent the leaves and it cut her skin.
 Reina sent out lightning. The plant put his roots into the ground and redirected the lightning into the Earth without harming himself. While Dymphna was throwing ice shards at him, he wrapped the vines around to make a shield and blocked the shards.
 Joan made a careless mistake of sending a fire stream at him and it was a direct hit. It was burning him and he screamed producing a lot of smoke engulfing the whole area. The girls started coughing and it was hard for them to see.
 “Somebody, put the fire out. I can’t see very well.” Dymphna said.
 “Me neither.” Reina replied. Hikari was able to spot the flames and sent water bombs putting the fire out. Maria used her wind to try to blow the smoke away from them and the area.
 “Whoa, what’s going on?” Maria stated as the whole area became psychedelic in colors.
 “I’ve got no idea.” Hikari said. “But something weird’s going on.”
 “Look at our outfits.” Joan said. “This is really trippy.”
 Hikari was in a blue qipao and her hair was in two buns and she had a white cloth wrapped around each bun. Joan was in a gray miniskirt; her hair had turned light blue with her pigtails becoming super long and her rapier had turned into a leek . Reina’s hair has grown longer and has turned white. She was in battle armor with a big X on the chest. Dymphna has a light blue gown with pale blond braided hair.  Maria’s outfit had became a green shirt and a plaid miniskirt. She had a rosary around her neck and she ended up having long pink hair. Cheyenne had a blue dress on with a white apron and had black shoes.
 “Are we stoned or someding?” Reina asked the other girls.
 “Honestly…” Dymphna said. “I don’t know.” Meanwhile, the monster in question was flying above them on a carpet made up of dollar bills. It was being carried by exactly twenty monarch butterflies.
 “I’m wondering if the author is on drugs.” John thought. “I mean I’m able to break the fourth wall but still… I need to make sure that isn’t the case.” Then, he left the area.
 “Man, this is so trippy.” the pot monster stated. “I didn’t know my own leaves were able to have a powerful hit. No wonder she went after my leaves.”
 “I never did a joint.” Cheyenne stated. “But this is great.” She fell over unconscious.
 “Looks like someone’s smoked for this.” Reina stated.
 “Let’s just continue already.” Hikari said trying to keep her balance. Maria lifted her sword and pointed it towards the pot monster. She saw it turned yellow and had a bunch of dinks in it.
 “Wait, this isn’t my sword.” Maria said throwing it away. She pulled out another one, it looked like a giant key. “Not this one either.” Then, she pulled out a big katana with a furry hand guard. “Nope.” She tossed it away. “Why can’t I find my saber?” At that moment, they started to hear singing and music.
 “What’s that music coming from?” Joan said. Dymphna started to move around.
 “Wait, What’s going on?” Dymphna stated as she noticed she was moving her hips side to side. “Why am I dancing?” She tried to stop moving suggestively but couldn’t. “Oh no, I can’t control myself.”
 “Oh well, I’ll help you.” Reina said and started dancing with her.
 “You’re not helping Reina.” she replied.
 “Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena.” the song sang. “Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena; Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena; Heeeeey Macarena. AAAhAA!”
 “This is the ultimate cosplay party.” Joan stated. "Want to dance, Hikarin?"
 “We’re supposed to be fighting…” Hikari stated. “Who are we fighting again?”
 “Uh… the plant creature?” Maria said.
 “Oh, yeah.” Hikari said.
 “I didn’t think we were fighting.” the creature said.
 “I think we’re so high that we forgot what we were doing for a minute.” Maria said. “But Hikari, Joan, and I are going to combat you.”
 “I can’t fight with this leek, Maria-sempai.” Joan said. “She has feelings.” She noticed that it had a face. Hikari saw this too.
 “She’s right.” Hikari anwered.
 “Hi Joan.” the leek said. “Can I talk to you about the Lord?”
 “Okay, it’ll just be me and Hikari then.” Maria said. Then, the carpet came down carrying the plant and he jumped off it.
 “Bring it.” the plant responded.
 The three were moving slower than before in a circle. He jumped and entered parachute pants dodging Hikari’s katana strike. He charged towards Maria and she blocked him with her shield; She lifted him up into the air and tossed him into the air. His pants inflated to slow down his fall.
 “U can’t touch this.” John returned to the area.
 “I checked the author. He’s clean and sober.” John said. “He’s just trolling the audience and the characters in a surreal manner.”
 “What are you talking about John?” Maria said.
 “I’m talking about the narrator. You know the one who wrote the story.” he answered.
 “Wait, we’re characters in a story?”
 “Never mind.” he said. As the plant landed, he whipped a vine towards Hikari and she dodged it. The wind picked up a little bringing the purple haze back into the area.
 “I thought I got rid of this.” Maria said and she blew it away. They ended up laying on the ground at the time. Dymphna and Reina were sitting on the ground back to back.
 “I’ll get you girls sooner or later.” the plant said laying on his back.
 “We’ll get you first.” Hikari responded.
 “I think we’re too stoned to do anything right now.” Dymphna responded.
 “We’ll just sleep dis out.” Reina said and the two took a nap. Joan cuddled up with her leek pushed into her bosom.
 “Stop please, I can’t breathe.” the leek said but her voice was muffled. The plant found a small pink rabbit with a bass drum going by. He picked it up and threw it at Hikari. She caught it and threw it back at him.
 “This is starting to get out of hand.” John said. “Things can’t get any weirder than this.” Then, a flying saucer came down from space. The window opened up and an orca and a dolphin looked out the window.
 “Oh, look humans.” The orca said as he snapped a picture of the Virtue Girls.
 “The tabloids aren’t going to believe this.” the dolphin said as they re-entered the UFO and shut the window. The UFO took off into outer space.
 “All right, that’s it.” John said turning to Maria. “Maria, use the ruqya punch on him.”
 “But you never taught me the technique.” Maria rebuked him.
 “Oh, why do I have to do this myself?” He said; walking up to the plant monster. “Ruqya punch.” He punched the monster on the cheek and knocked him out. “Can I go back now?”
 “Sure, go ahead.” Maria said. Then, a ladder came down and John climb up it into a giant yellow submarine. Then, it floated away. “This is outrageous.” She fell onto her back and closed her eyes as the colors faded to black.

 Maria opened up her eyes when it was close to the evening hours. She sat up on the roadside where she laid back and she placed her hand on her head. Also, the monster was nowhere to be seen.
 “Ugh, my head.” She said. “What happened?” Maria went over to Hikari and woke her up. “Hikari, wake up.”
 “Uh,” Hikari asked. “What am I doing on ground?” She got up. Maria noticed all the girls were on the ground.
 “What happened to everyone?” she asked. “I don’t remember what happened.”
 “Me neither.” Hikari said. “My head feels like its spinning.”
 “Let’s get the other girls up. They got to know something.”
 “We’ll do that.” Hikari answered. “Can we get something to eat afterward?”
 “Yeah, I’m rather hungry too. I don’t know why but we can.” They went around waking the girls up and ask them but to no avail. Maria woke up Cheyenne.
 “Cheyenne,” Maria asked. “Do you remember what happened?”
 “Huh?” she asked. “What are you doing here, Maria?”
 “The better question is what are you doing here?” She responded. Cheyenne tried to think.
 “Ugh, I can’t remember.” Cheyenne said. “It’s all blank and why am I hungry?”
 “What were we doing?” Maria asked. She turned to Hikari. “Any luck?”
 “Nope, it seems everyone has lost their memory of what happened.” Hikari replied. Then, John walked into the area.
 “You girls were working at the new lair, getting stuff in and you girls took a nap.” John explained.
 “But why are we out in the middle of the road?” Maria asked.
 “And why am I here?” Cheyenne added.
 “Cheyenne came by to help you girls out later on; and she forgot to get the food for a picnic.” John lied bluntly and the girls believed him.
 “Oh yeah,” Cheyenne said. “I was going to get food, do you girls want?”
 “How about pizza?” Hikari asked.
 “Okay.” Maria said.
 “We’ll take two pizzas: One of them a supreme pretzel crust pizza and the other is a pepperoni lover’s with a stuffed crust.”
 “You aren’t going to eat a whole pizza while I’m here, Hikarin.” Joan answered. “Save the rest of us a slice.”
 “And what makes you the cuisine boss.” Maria asked. “We can go with two pizzas, but can’t you ask the other girls what they want?”
 “I don’t mind a supreme pizza.” Dymphna said.
 “I want black olives on my slices.” Reina added.
 “Why olives?” Her friends asked. “Olives are gross.”
 “Look who’s talking.” Reina replied. “You’re da one who likes anchovies.” The girls looked at Dymphna with a funny look. They continued to argue over the pizza until they finally agreed on a meat lover’s and a supreme; both with regular crust.

~~ Antinanco Wise Eagle was the CEO of the Grande Falcon Grocery Store Company. He noted that Maria didn’t have any experience as being the manager of a store chain. Thus he has decided for the time being, to her advisor until she is able to run things on her own.
 “Now, Maria…” he explained. “As you know as well as I do that the manager is the head of the store’s business. The media usually portrays us as sitting on our butts all day and telling people what to do. But that is not entirely true.”
 “Then, what is to be the actual truth.” Maria asked.
 “We do have to give orders, yes.” Antinanco stated. “But being a manager is a huge responsibility. First, you have to make sure that the business is profitable. However, many businesses in the past, took it way too far.”
 “How’s that?”
 “When a business can no longer expand, the investors would like to keep increasing the profits indefinitely.” he said. “They would then start to overcharge customers; in turn, this will drive them off to competitors who can sell the same product at a cheaper price.”
 “Okay.”
 “In addition, they will try to save money by decreasing the quality of said products. In trying to make the customer by more of the product,” He added. “thus contributing to the collapse of the store into oblivion.”
 “What does that have to do with the current situation?” Maria asked.
 “Currently the business is growing, but there will be a point in the future where this store can no longer grow.” He explained. “I know the potential that you have.”
 “How do you know that?” she asked.
 “I don’t exactly know.” he said. “Call it a leap of faith that’s also a gamble as it will.”
 “I see.” Maria said.
 “Second, you must be respectful to the employees and the customers.” he said.
 “I know that from the last one.”
 “Thirdly, there will times in your career when…” Then, an employee came in. “Yes?”
 “It’s your son, sir.” the employee said. “He’s sick and he needs your help.” Antinanco stood up.
 “Call him and tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He said. He turned to Maria. “I’m afraid I have to cut this meeting short. You’ll have to attend the business meeting happening in a few minutes; when they arrive tell them, I’m not going to be there.”
 “Okay.” She said.
 “For now, good day.” Antinanco stated and he left the room. She leaned back on her chair and thought about what he said.
 “Oh, what was that third thing he was going to say?” Maria said; then her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
 “Maria,” John said. “This is Jonathan.”
 “Hey, what’s up?”
 “Listen, I have heard that the celebist church were deciding to built a temple nearby the city.” He explained. “And we have been hearing rumors about their construction being constantly delayed. Is it possible for you to investigate this?”
 “John, I’ve been asked by my boss to attend a business meeting.” she said. “I’m sorry; I won’t be able to do that.”
 “You want me to dispatch a team for you? If so, who would you like to dispatch?”
 “Send Hikari, Reina, and… Cheyenne.” She answered.
 “Okay, I’ll do that.” He said. “Thanks.” He hung up the phone. John looked out into space. “I, personally, don’t like them for they only are worldly, hedonistic turncoats. They don’t even deserve the title; it’s nothing but a cult. But, we still have to help them. I send out the dispatch at once.”

 Later that day, the three girls were sent out to meet up with the one in charge of the group of people. He was a man wearing a pink robe, a red boa, a bright blue feathered headdress, and was barefoot approached them. He was carrying a walking stick.
 “Oh, hello there.” he said.
 “Yeah, are you the guy we are to ask about the project?” Reina replied.
 “Oh yes, sweet heart.” he replied. “Yes, we were trying to build a temple. And are equipment doesn’t function properly, even though it’s been repaired over and over again.”
 “So, you want us to want the equipment?” Hikari asked.
 “That’s right, hun.” the man said.
 “Well, this’ll probably be easy.” Cheyenne said.
 “We’ll watch over the equipment.” Reina stated.
 “Well, that’s just splendid.” the man said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Toddles.” He danced off waving his fingers towards the girls.
 “That guy gives me the creeps.” Hikari said.
 “Same here.” Reina added. Cheyenne just nodded her head. She looked around and noticed that there were buckets of water are on the ground.
 “What are all these water buckets for?”
 “Maybe, There cleaning up the floor?” Reina said.
 “Perhaps.” It wasn’t before long that Cheyenne noticed something at the corner of her eye. It looked like a humanoid gopher. He went over to the bulldozer and tired to mess with it. Cheyenne pulled her bow out and fired a shot towards the person deliberately missing.
 “Hey!! Get away from there!!” Cheyenne shouted. The gopher turned to her and noticed the other two are seeing him. He started running away.
 “Quick, after him.” Reina stated.
 “You don’t need to tell me.” Hikari answered. Then, the three started to chase it away and continued to pursue it. Then, they came across a mound that was near the park. It had a single oak tree on it as well as a white gazebo. At that point it lost his strength to run and collapsed onto the dirt. The girls, although, just as tired were still standing, they rolled him over.
 “Okay, gopher.” Reina said. “What are you?”
 “I’m an adonudo.” he stated. “What is your business?”
 “We want to know what you’re doing.” Reina asked.
 “Well, I have to protect the mound.”
 “What is the mound that you speak of?”
 “The Kikiwala Mound; it is a very important mound and has much history.”
 “Can you describe that history to us?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Certainly.” he stated. “The Kikiwala Mound is a burial mound where Iroquois Soldiers were laid to rest. In addition, many of these soldiers in the Northwestern Frontier, were also fighting alongside the Americans in the Revolutionary War. The Celebist Church is threatening to destroy it to build a temple.”
 “We’ll let them know why and let you go.” Reina said. “But first, tell us. Where is the Kikiwala Mound?” He pointed to the mound.
 “The mound that you are standing in front of, that is Kikiwala.” Hikari jerked back and Cheyenne was a little shocked.
 “They are going to destroy it?” She asked.
 “What’s important about the mound?” Reina asked.
 “It was the last place I remember being with my father.” Hikari explained. “It happened when I was a little girl.”

 The scene shifts to when Hikari and Shingen were little kids. Their father, Hibiki Matsuyama, was spending some time with them in the park while their mom was away on a business trip. He sat down at the mound.
 “You’re the greatest daddy.” Hikari said.
 “Yeah. You’re the best.” Shingen added.
 “I know.” Hibiki replied. “You two are the darlings of the family.”
 “We’ll always be together, right daddy?” Hikari asked.
 “Yes, Hikari.” Hibiki replied. “We will always be together, even if we are apart we will always be with each other.” He kiss the two of them on the forehead.
 The three headed down to the park; he sat down on the bench to read a book while the two children played. The two children were playing on the jungle gym when a couple of larger playground bullies came around and bugged them.
 “Hey, you little sissies!” a bully stated as his gang surrounded the two. “Give us what you got!”
 “Leave us alone.” Shingen stated.
 “Oh yeah.” a second said. “Make us.” He pushed him over knocking him down.
 “That’s not very nice of you.” Hikari said.
 “Who cares what you have to say.” a third bully explained. “You’re a stupid girl.” He slapped her in the face knocking her over. Hibiki looked up noticing the commotion. He sprang from his seat and head over to defend them.
 “Now, give us your…” the second one said. He was interrupted by Hikari’s father picking him up and throwing him to the side.
 “Oh crap.” the third stated. He headed toward the kids and their dad grabbed him by the collar and tossed him right on top of the other one.
 “LEAVE MY CHILDREN ALONE!!” Hibiki shouted.
 “So, you’re their dad?” the bully said.
 “That is right.” He replied. “You have no business here. How dare you hurt others who are weaker then you!?”
 “Yeah.” Shingen stated.
 “You go, dad.” Hikari said.
 “So what!” The bully added.
 “As you bully others, it shows that YOU are nothing but a dishonorable coward.” Hibiki stated. “You are a disgrace to your family’s integrity.”
 “Family Integrity? Bah. That is nothing but a bunch of nonsense.” the bully stated.
 “NOW, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT AND NEVER COME BACK!!”
 “I will.” the bully stated. “You stupid weak piece of shit!!” Then, the bully pulled out a gun and shot two bullets into Hibiki’s chest. The two children were completely shocked as they saw their father hit the ground. The bully ran away without even flinching. Hikari and Shingen went over to their dad, now laying on the ground motionless.
 “Daddy?” Hikari asked. “Daddy, please say something.” She shook him but no response. “Please daddy, wake up.” Shingen saw that his father was in a pool of his own blood. Both of them began to form tears in their eyes. “Why isn’t he waking up?”
 “It’s something. You don’t want to know about yet.” Shingen answered as held her in his arms as the ambulance came.

 “He was already dead by the time the hospital staff arrived. That happened when I was in elementary school.” Hikari explained. “It was labeled as a hate crime, but that damned bully was never captured.” She slammed her fist into the dirt in anger; she was now crying. “If I only was strong enough back then, I could have beaten his ass up and dad would still be alive.”
 “Oh, Hikari…” Reina went over to comfort her as well as Cheyenne.
 “I have something that is important here as well.” Cheyenne said, pointing towards the gazebo. “Mikey and I were over in the gazebo over there when we first entered our relationship. We were there to get out of the rain that day and that was the sight of our first kiss.”
 “Okay, on one hand, we have those guys wanting to tear up a mound for their temple. And on the other hand, the mound has important history and we have memories with that mound.” Reina said. “I’ll call up Maria and let her think on this.” She called up her phone.
 Maria answered the phone and Reina explained. The conversion went on for a few minutes; then Reina was frustrated when she hung up.
 “What happened?” Cheyenne said.
 “Apparently because there‘s no clear bad guy, Maria decided not to get involved.” Reina said to her. The two girls were shocked.
 “What!?” Hikari responded.
 “I’m probably sure she has a reason.” Cheyenne said.
 “But I doubt it’s a good one.” Reina replied. “I’ll state a complaint to John about this.”
 “So, what now?” Hikari asked.
 “We’ll take this into our own hands.” Reina replied. “We’ll head back to the temple and question them about the temple construction.”
 “Very well, then.” Cheyenne said in doubt of Reina’s decision.
 “But what about the adonudo?” Hikari asked.
 “Let him go.” Reina said. “We have no quarrel him.”
 “Do you want me to assist you?” He asked.
 “You may aid, if you tell us your name.” she replied to him.
 “I am Office.”
 “Alright then Office, come along.” Reina replied. The party had returned to the temple and encountered the man in charge once again. “Hey, we have to talk to you.”
 “Oh, hey girls.” the man stated. “How was the guarding?”
 “We want to ask you someding.” Reina replied. “Why are you building a new temple?”
 “Oh, it’s just that our current one has a leaky roof.” the guy stated. The girls had their jaws agape. Then, they looked at each other and back to him.
 “Dat’s it?” Reina asked.
 “Our temple’s roof is leaking rain water.”
 “Why don’t you just fix the roof?” Hikari said.
 “We desire a new temple.” the man stated. “And will be even better than this one.”
 “You’re wasting valuable funds on building something that you already have.” Cheyenne stated. “Repairing it will be a lot less expensive than getting everything for a new one.”
 “We want our new temple and we want it now.” the guy answered.
 “Tough luck.” Hikari answered.
 “We will get what we want, because we have the money to do it.” He answered. “If you aren’t going to help us, then get out.” The girls looked at each other.
 “Okay, see you later.” Reina said. Then, the girls left the temple and they encountered the gopher. “They are a bunch of morons. You can keep doing what you did before.”
 “Thank you for helping at least.” He said. “I’ll inform Glooskap about this.” He dashed off.
 “Wait, get back here.” Hikari said, but he was gone. “Who’s Glooskap?”
 “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” Cheyenne said.

 Maria was in her bedroom in her apartment when it was just turning night with the last of the sunset’s rays fading away. Jonathan appeared to her through the window sill. Maria opened the window.
 “John, what is going on here?” she asked. John leapt in through the window and onto the ground nearby her bed.
 “Maria, sit down.” he said. “You have got some explaining to do.” Maria sat down on the bed. “I have recently got a complaint from Reina about you not being a good leader.”
 “How is that?” she asked.
 “She called you earlier today about the mound situation.” he said. “She told me that you didn’t want to get involved with it.”
 “Uhh…” she tried to back away from the topic.
 “I see that she just wasn’t shooting her mouth off, then.” John stated. “Well then, Maria answer me this question. Why did you not get involved?” Maria stayed silent. “You are not acting in a good manner, Maria. Speak up.”
 “There was nothing clear about the whole situation.” Maria stated back, slightly upset.
 “Go on…” he stated. “We’re making progress.”
 “There’s not enough information.”
 “Information?” He asked her.
 “There’s no way to tell which side has the bad guy on it.”
 “So you didn’t act because all you saw wasn’t black or white, but a shade of gray. How many did you see?” He asked; Maria facepalmed.
 “Don’t go there.” Maria rebuked.
 “Look my point is that being the leader of the Virtue Girls isn’t easy.” he explained. “I never said it was. But you are going to have to be a better leader. There are going to be times, where there are only gray areas of action. You’ll have to make decisions that are hard.”
 “But someone innocent will be offended.” Maria said. “What if I make the wrong decision?”
 “If you ended up making the wrong decision,” he said. “You are to make up with the person. This not only applies to the girls either. This also applies elsewhere to like, your friends or family or work.”
 “Oh… I see.” Maria answered learning something at that moment.
 “Now, I’ll be teaching you that technique I’ve been meaning to get around to.” he said. “Do you have the free time tomorrow?”
 “I can make a free day.” Maria answered.

~~ Maria was in the training room of the headquarters it had foam pad flooring. She was in her maiden form and she was facing a red punching bag. She was breathing softly she was gathering energy in her white hand. The energy went out before she went to punch at the punching bag. John was standing on one of his rear paws; the other rear paw on his knee. The front paws are outstretched to the sides to the East and West.
 “No, Maria.” he said. “I’m glad you are able to gather the energy into your hand, but you have the energy in the wrong hand. It’s supposed to be in the punching hand.”
 “Can I use the Ruqya Punch with my left hand?” She asked.
 “No, it’s impossible to do it with the left hand. It has to be the right hand.” He paused. “Try again.” Maria returned to face the punching bag. She gathered the energy into her right hand. She punched the bag but halfway towards the target the energy disappeared. John facepalmed.
 “What happened?” she asked.
 “You need to hold the energy as you punch.” He said. “Keep it up all the way, concentrate as you fulfill the attack.” He paused. “Now, try again.” She lifted up her hand again. She gathered energy into her hand. “That’s it. Keep the energy up.” He paused. “On the count of three, punch the bag with that energy.” He paused. “One… Two… Th…” A scream interrupted John and Maria’s punch missed the bag entirely.
 “That sounded like Joan.” she said.
 “We’ll check it out.” The two of them ran up the stairs and they entered the area where Joan was. Reina appeared as well. “Joan, what’s wrong?”
 “EEK!!” She stated. “THERE’S A RAT IN THE HEADQUARTERS!!”
 “A rat? Really?” John said.
 “It’s over there.” She said pointing towards the rat. It was a little white rat with beady blue eyes. “Somebody, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.”
 “I’ll do it.” Reina said as she started heading over to it. She bent down on her knees. “Nikki?” The rat looked towards her. “What are you doing out here?” She placed her hands on the ground. “Come on, you’re not supposed to be outside right now.” The rat ran towards her and jumped into Reina’s hands. She raised up her hands and closed them up holding her gently. She turned the girls. “Problem solved.” The three other girls were confused.
 “Who’s Nikki?” Joan asked.
 “Nikki?” Reina responded walking towards the other girls. “She’s my pet rat.” She held her out and  Joan trembled from fear. “Want to hold her?” At that point, Joan fainted at the thought.
 “Uh… I think that’s a bad idea.” Maria said.
 “Why a rat as a pet?” John asked.
 “I grew up in da ghetto.” Reina said. “And a lot of time; my folks and I were in poverty and we couldn’t afford a cat or a dog. Also, it sure as hell isn’t like what you hear in rap music.”
 “Okay.” Maria said. “I hear you.”
 “Speaking of which,” Reina added. “We’ve heard of some character yesterday known as Glooskap. Heard of him?”
 “No.” Maria replied.
 “Me neither.” Reina said. “I thought you might know.”
 “Can you have Dymphna look up the information?”
 “Sure,” Reina said as she walked out. “Hey Dia, you got a minute?”
 “Do you have any idea who he is, John?” Maria asked him.
 “Well…” He said thinking about it. “I did remember of a guardian of nature. That might be Glooskap, but I’m not certain.”
 “Well, if Glooskap is this guardian of nature.” Maria rebuked. “Then, why would he attack natural places.”
 “He won’t. Someone has been corrupting his allies.” he reminded Maria. “Our goal is to find the one who’s been corrupting the adonudos and stop it.” Reina came in looking around.

 “Nikki?” Reina said. “Nikki? Where you run off to?”
 “What happened?” Maria asked.
 “I set down Nikki and now she’s gone.” she said.
 “Oh boy. Want me to help you?” Maria stated.
 “Yes, please.” She smiled. They started to look around the lair for a while as Joan came too; Maria looked outside of the lair and found Jadvyga outside of the house unaware of where she was located. She was levitating the rat in the air with her magic.
 “Wait, that woman…” Maria said. “She has the rat.” Reina looked outside; she saw the witch.
 “HEY!!” Reina shouted and transformed. She headed out the door.
 “Reina, wait.” Maria transformed.
 “Finally, I can make a potion out of your fine quality tail.” Jadvyga said to Nikki.
 “HEY, YOU. LET GO OF MY RAT!!” Reina shouted at her. Jadvyga noticed her.
 “Oh, I remember you.” she said. “How was the octopus?”
 “It was gross. That was you?”
 “Yeah, so.”
 “I’m going to take you down now.”
 “Oh? You and what army?” Jadvyga asked. Maria came out as well as Joan both transformed.
 “Why did you bring me out here?” Joan asked.
 “You’ve been on the computer too long.” Maria said.
 “But…” She asked.
 “What’s the matter?” Jadvyga asked. “Don’t like mice?”
 “So, what of it?” Reina asked.
 “I’ll set a curse on it like I cursed Glooskap’s adonudos.” Jadvyga said and the girls remained silent. “Okay, I said too much.” She zapped the rat with her magic it turned into a giant rat with fangs. It screeched and the girls covered their ears and Jadvyga fled to the background.
 “Nikki, fight it.” Reina said. Unfortunately, the rat didn’t have enough brains to fight it. It lashed its tail out at her; Maria went over and blocked the shot with her shield. “We can’t kill Nikki. It’s my pet.”
 “I can’t promise that it won’t be hurt.” Maria said. “Joan, flank it.” She said nothing. “Joan. Flank him.” Joan only stood there frozen from terror. Reina rushed up to the rat and tugged on its tail. The rat turned to see Reina.
 “Nikki, stop this at once.” she said. Nikki slashed its claws towards Reina and she dodged out of the way. “Don’t make me hurt you.” It screeched at her and saliva splashed on her.
 “Joan, what are you doing just standing there?” Maria said at Joan in a angry manner.
 “I’m scared, Maria.” Joan said.
 “You faced a giant lizard with ease.” She replied.
 “I can’t rats are icky and disgusting.”
 “Tell me the reason why can’t you face this giant rat?”
 “Didn’t you know I have murophobia?” Joan asked her.
 “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Maria asked.
 “I fainted remember?” she answered. The rat had noticed the argument for Maria and Joan and she whacked Reina away with her tail. She charged towards the two of them; the two got out of the way.
 “Joan, you have to fight him.” Maria said. “It’s not like it has supernatural abilities.” She swung her sword towards Nikki and spiky bone armor formed around the skin. The sword made only a tiny dent but couldn’t penetrate the armor. “Me and my big mouth.”
 Maria tried multiple strikes against the rat but couldn’t get through. The rat threw around the armored tail and it warpped around Maria and threw her into the air. She flew up and crashed down into Reina.
 Joan looked straight on to Nikki as it slowly faced her. Joan saw her friends were badly hurt. She saw the fear was around her. Then, she got angry at her.
 “How dare you harm my friends.” Joan shouted at Nikki. “I’m afraid of you, yes. But I’m not going to let you harm them anymore.” The rat screeched and Joan trembled. The rat tried to run towards Joan but it could only slowly walk. “The bone armor’s slowing you down.”
 Joan threw a fireball at it; it hit but it was dispersed by the armor. She thrusted out a fire stream. Nikki jerked its head back amongst the flames; the fire failing to get through the armor but blackening the surface of it. She swung her tail around and Joan dodged it. Nikki tore off the first layer of armor because of the heat it was sustaining.
 “I think I got it.” Joan said. “Maria, lend me a hand.”
 “Don’t kill her, will ya?” Reina asked angerly.
 “What am I to do?” She asked.
 “Use your wind on her.” Joan replied. Maria blew a gust of wind at the rat. “Steady.” Joan ran over and placed a stream of fire with her. The flames glowed a yellow hot. It hit Nikki straight on and the bone armor caught on fire. It started to spread to other layers of the armor. The rat rushed towards the lake and submerged itself into it putting the fire out.
 The three girls ran over to the shore to see that Nikki pulled itself out of the water. The armor had become very brittle and pieces were falling off; there was smoke was coming out from the inside of it. Nikki shrieked from pain. John can out following the noise.
 “Do you want to save Nikki or not?” he said.
 “We need to save her.” Reina replied. He turned to Maria.
 “Maria, you have to use the ruqya punch on Nikki.” He said.
 “But I haven’t got the technique down.” She replied.
 “If you want to save Nikki, you don’t have a choice in the matter.” He said; he turned over to the other two. “Joan, distract it. Reina, get the armor off. Maria will purify the rat.”
 “Why do I have to tear off the armor?” Reina asked.
 “You know the rat’s body structure more than Joan.” John explained.
 “Alright.” Reina sighed.
 Joan waved her hands around; it got Nikki’s attention but it didn’t move from its spot. Reina was getting up close to comfort Nikki as she tried to find the weak spot in the armor. Maria rush forward to do the Ruqya punch but the rat’s tail batted Maria away. She got back up shortly after landing on her back.
 “Come on, Maria.” John said. “You have to do this.”
 “I’m working on it.” she said. Reina was able to get a chunk of the armor off. Nikki was enraged from the pain and smoke was coming from the skin. Reina dodged out of the way of Nikki’s claws.
 “OVER HERE!!” Joan stated and the rat faced her. Maria ran up a second time and the rat saw her coming. Nikki threw her claws out at Maria and they slashed her left arm; she fell back but remained on her feet.
 “There’s no way I can get close to him.” Maria thought. “But I have to do this.” She gathered the white energy into her right hand. He shouted and threw the punch. When the punch reached its full extent, the energy kept going as a bullet. It hit the open spot straight on. The curse had broke, the armor came off, and Nikki reduced back down to her normal size. Reina reached out to pick her pet rat up but it was still covered in burns.
 “Oh, Nikki.” Reina said. Her rat laid in a fetal position in her hand. “Let’s take you home.” She walked back to the headquarters carrying her back. Meanwhile, Joan and Maria were still by the lake.
 “At least, that’s done.” Maria said.
 “But we have other things to worry about.” John said. “We know that Jadvyga is corrupting Glooskap’s men. We have to let him know of this. I’ll find the closest adonudo and inform him of what occurred. You two head back to the headquarters.” So, the three went their ways at that moment.

 Later, Maria was back in the training room once again. John was now watching her near the punching bag again.
 “I don’t understand why the technique ended up like the way it did.” Maria said.
 “First of you, were just able to do it for the first time.” John said. “There are going to be flaws in the attack. However, never have I ever have seen it done successfully at a range. Not even I can pull that off.”
 “What does that mean?” She asked.
 “I’m not sure.” He said. “But for now, we know you can do the ruqya punch; turn to the punching bag and repeat the punch. This should be a simple exercise now.” he paused. “Okay, gather your energy.” Maria gathered manna into her hand. “On the count of three, punch.”
 “Got it.” Maria replied.
 “One…” John said. “Two… Th…” Then, Joan screamed interrupting John and Maria missed the bag again.
 “Oh, now what?” Maria said heading upstairs. She found Joan scared. “What is it another rat?”
 “No, there’s a cockroach.” Joan said on the chair. The roach scrurried across the floor and Hikari showed up with a newspaper rolled up. She walked up and whacked it dead. “Oh, thank you, Hikari-sempai.” She got off the chair and hugged her. “You saved me.” Hikari whacked her with the same newspaper. “Ow.”
 “Your screaming can make someone deaf.” Hikari said to her.
 “I’m just going to back to the training room now.” Maria thought as she went back downstairs. “It’s a false alarm.”

~~ There was nothing for the girls for the past few days. So, for the time they could focus on being friends and getting to know each other more at the headquarters.

 Hikari and Reina were in their maiden forms but not having their swords out. Reina rushed towards Hikari; she punched and Hikari dodged out of the way. She did a side kick towards Reina and she ducked out of the way.
 “I can tell you have a lot of power behind your hits, Reina.” Hikari said. “But you lack form.” Reina threw some more punches at Hikari and she blocked them with her arms and hands.
 “That’s because I’m not use to so many rules in a fight.” Reina said. “I got my training at the school of hard knocks.” She was able to slip a punch past Hikari’s blocking and it landed on her face. She jumped back.
 “Okay, that was a lucky shot.” Hikari said.
 “Then, why do I keep having the same good luck?” Reina asked. “Did I just find da weak spot in your defenses?”
 “Hey, I know where the weak spot in your defenses are. And I don’t go after it.” She said.
 “You, liar.” she said. “You constantly aim for it.” The two girls were panting.
 “Well, I think we’ve been at it for a while.” Hikari said. “Perhaps we can take a break.”
 “Are you just saying dat to back out?” She said.
 “We’ll get right back to it after we had time to rest.”
 “Okay, fine.” Reina said sitting down next to Hikari.
 “Besides, I won anyways.”
 “You won?” Reina asked. “No, I won that match.”
 “No, you didn’t.” Hikari stated.
 “Yes, I did. And I can prove it too.”
 “Oh, is that a challenge?”
 “You bet, it is.”
 “Let’s go another round, right now.” Hikari said. And the two continued sparring.

 Meanwhile, Maria and Joan were in Joan’s room. Maria was sitting on the bed while Joan was on the chair reading some manga. Maria looked at the outfits and comics.
 “You have quite a collection.” Maria said.
 “Thanks, I’ve started collecting them since high school.” Joan replied.
 “I’ve never been much of a comic book fan until after I graduated.” Maria said. “But I like them now.” Joan smiled. “My favorite comic book is Agent Jupiter, but I like the works of Usagi Takeuchi.”
 “Amazing.” Joan replied. “I’m such a huge fan of her work; that story I was talking to you about when we first met, that was the project she was currently working on.”
 “Sweet. I’ll have to read it sometime.” Maria said.
 “By the way, did you ever see Hikari with any of those costumes on?” Maria asked.
 “No, I didn’t get to see Hikari-sempai wear them.” Joan said.
 “Maybe, I can try them on.” She said.
 “Okay.” Joan said, smiling. “I can help you put them on.” Maria and Joan put on the maid outfits that Joan wears to work. Maria looked in the mirror. “Wow. You look so good in that outfit.”
 “I can’t believe it.” Maria said. “But you’re right, I do look good.”
 “Can we get a picture of us?” Joan asked.
 “Sure.” Maria replied. Joan took out her smart phone and she took a selfie of her and Maria in the maid outfits. She saved it on her phone. “Can you send me the picture?”
 “Okay.” Joan replied.

 Cheyenne and Dymphna were in the living room sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. Dymphna was starting to cry as they were watching a soap opera on TV.
 “How could she simply fall for him?” Dymphna asked Cheyenne. “I mean, he cheated on her for her friend.”
 “I think you missed an episode.” Cheyenne said.
 “Which one?” she asked.
 “There was the episode that showed that Jennifer was Eric’s concubine for the past two years.” Cheyenne explained.
 “I just simply don’t get it.” Dymphna added.
 “I can tell you don’t get out much.” Cheyenne answered. “Concubines are quite common nowadays.”
 “Sorry about the crying.” Dymphna replied. “I’m just glad I can have some peace and quiet for once. Reina is always wanting to go outside when I just want to chill.”
 “I can relate to that.” She answered. “Maria is usually energetic as well.”
 “I see.” Dymphna said; then the two paused for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”
 “Sure, what is it?”
 “I heard you have a boyfriend. Is that right?”
 “Yeah. Why?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Well… you see.” Dymphna said, blushing. Cheyenne smiled.
 “There’s a guy you like isn’t there.” She added.
 “Uh…” she paused. “His name is Ben.”
 “What would you like to know?”
 “I would like to go out on a date with him.” She said. “But what if he doesn’t like me back? What if he’s not interested or already has a girlfriend?”
 “Dymphna, you need to have courage and just ask him.” Cheyenne said. “You’ll never those answers if you just…” Then, they saw the TV become static. “Hey, who messed with the program?”

 A dark brown person with black hair and hazel eyes appeared on the screen. He had a head piece of buffalo skin and horns with a crown of bright feathers around it. He had face paint on. Two black stripes on his chin and two blue stripes on his cheeks; he held a staff in his hands with small gourds with loose seeds inside them and he wore a turquoise necklace around his neck.
 “Talk about a major plot twist.” Cheyenne said
 “Greetings.” the man said pounding his fist into his chest. “I am Glooskap, the guardian of nature.” He put his staff down. “I am infuriated at the destruction you have committed against our mother. You have stabbed her in the back and you will suffer for your treachery.”
 “Uh…” Dymphna said. “Are you sure this part of the program?”
 “Henceforth, humanity does not deserve to have civilization.” Glooskap shouted. “By the end of the week, all of advanced civilization shall be removed from existence and you will return to the tribal lifestyle as punishment.” Thunder was heard in the background. “However, among you there are people who are trying to protect her. I have no quarrel with them but I do not know where you are. Therefore you are to paint the areas with blue organic paints. So, when my armies come they will see those sections and pass over you. You have twenty-four hours to complete this task.” Then, the TV returned to the soap opera.
 “What was that?” Cheyenne asked.
 “It sounded like an ultimatum.” Dymphna added. John entered the room.
 “That’s because it was an ultimatum.” he said. “Gather the girls at once. We have work to do, we’ll meet in the dining room.” John went into the room adjacent to the living room. Then, the girls came in two at a time.
 “Now that everyone is here, we can start the discussion dealing with the recent set of events.” he said. “I was able to get the message to one of the adonudos who in turn gave it to Glooskap.”
 “Which adonudo would that be?” Maria asked.
 “I gave it to the gopher.” he said.
 “I see.” Maria said.
 “He did allow me to know he was going.” he said. “And my mental radar confirmed the location of where Glooskap’s base is at.”
 “And that would be…” She asked.
 “It will be at Chimney Rock.”
 “That’s all the way out in Nebraska.” Hikari said. “We’re in Ohio. How are we ever going to get there?” Cheyenne raised her hand.
 “We should get a private jet and fly there.” She said. Everyone looked at her.
 “Cheyenne, I like your enthusiasm but we can’t do a jet.” He said.
 “Why not?” Cheyenne rebuked.
 “First, we don’t have the money. Well, you might but the rest of us don’t.” he explained. “Second, we don’t have the room for one. And third, is one really necessary?”
 “Uh…” Cheyenne said, thinking about it.
 “Anyway, you girls have to get moving if you want to stop him.” he said. “I was working on the jeep and I made it bigger. You can use that to get to Chimney Rock.” John tossed Maria the keys.
 “Thanks.” She said.
 “But one of you has to stay here to watch over the headquarters so it doesn’t get broken into.” John replied. The girls looked at Cheyenne.
 “What?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Do you mind house sitting?” Maria asked.
 “I’ve need some time away from the mansion.” Cheyenne said. “I can handle myself.”
 “Are you sure you can handle yourself without your butler?” Maria asked teasing Cheyenne.
 “I told you I can handle myself.” She replied. “I’ll hand you the money needed for your road trip of yours.”
 “This isn’t a road trip, Cheyenne.” John reminded them. “I’ll show you the van.” He walked them to the garage. “You’re not just going there.” He paused as he opened the door. “You’re going in style.” The girls were amazed at it. The van was a large vehicle that had a chrome exterior. In addition, it had black rims on the tires and black bumpers. There was a gold imperial dove was on the hood. The license plate stated ‘GOOD GRLZ’ and on the dashboard was an archangel bobblehead.
 “EEWW, shiny.” Maria said.
 “Yes, I know it’s shiny.” He said. “If you leave now, you’ll be able to make it there with about an hour to spare.”
 “I better make us some lunches.” Hikari said.
 “Don’t be gobbling up the stuff we’re to eat.” Reina added.
 “I’ll have to install a GPS into the van.” Dymphna said. After some time, when everything is prepared, the five girls headed out onto the road towards Kansas.

 It was the evening. Cheyenne was sitting on the couch continuing to watch the soap opera from earlier. She looked at the calendar.
 “Tomorrow is the season finale.” She said. “I’ll tell her about it when she gets back.” Then, she got a call on her cell phone. She answered it. “Hello?”
 “Hello, Cheyenne.” a woman’s voice said. “It’s been a long time.”
 “It sure has.” Cheyenne replied.
 “Have you ever tried the pot?” She asked.
 “I tried to get some but I got attacked by a cannabis monster.” Cheyenne said.
 “Oh, is that so.” she answered. “And how is Maria?”
 “She’s doing fine at the moment.” Cheyenne replied. “And she doesn’t approve of the pot even though it’s legal.”
 “Hmm.” she answered. “Well, there’s one thing you can try.”
 “And that is?” Cheyenne asked.
 “Perhaps getting in bed with your boyfriend.” She said.
 “What!? I… I don’t know if we’re ready.” Cheyenne answered.
 “You should try it. The rush is so exciting.” the woman replied.
 “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”
 “I know. See you later.”
 “Bye.” Cheyenne disconnected the cell phone. “I don’t know what has gotten into her. Still…” She held a picture of her boyfriend and she was looking at it. She picked up her phone again and called. “Hey there, Mikey. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

 Meanwhile, the girls were rushing down the highway. The Virtue Girls were now getting pumped up to face against Glooskap and his army.
 “At last, we can have some action.” Reina said.
 “And we’re making great timing. I doubt anything can stop us.” Hikari said. At that moment, Maria looked up into her rear view mirror and frowned as she saw a vehicle with flashing blue lights behind her.
 “Oh no.” Maria sighed as she slowed down and pulled over.
 “Why are we stopping?” Reina asked.
 “It’s the highway patrol.” Maria said as she turned off the car. The officer got out the car with a flashlight and Maria rolled down the window. “Uh… good evening officer.”
 “Do you realize how fast you were going?” he asked.
 “I’m not sure.” Maria replied.
 “You were going 85 miles per hour.” he replied. “The speed limit here is 65 miles per hour. I’m going to have to ask for your license and registration.” She got her wallet out and gave her the license and insurance card. “Thank you, I’ll be right back.” He returned to his car to do paperwork.
 “Dymphna, where are we exactly?” Maria asked.
 “According to the GPS, we’re still in Ohio.” she replied.
 “At least, it’s not going to be a major incident.” Maria said.
 “Have you ever been pulled over before?” Joan asked.
 “No, I guess this is a first time for everything.” The officer, then came back.
 “I’ll have to write you a ticket for speeding.” he said writing something on a pad of paper. “Where exactly are you heading?”
 “We’re heading to Nebraska.” Maria said.
 “That’s a long ways off.” the officer added taking the paper off and giving the slip to Maria. “You will have to pay a fifty dollar fine for the speeding. Since you’re going on a road trip, we’ll give you two weeks to pay it off. Do this and no farther actions will be taken.”
 “Understood.” Maria said.
 “Have a good night.” the officer said walking back to his car. Then, he drove off ahead of them.
 “We can handle the speeding ticket after we take care of Glooskap.” Maria stated as she turned the car back on and continued driving towards their destination.

~~ The girls arrived in Nebraska after 23 hours of driving, stopping at rest areas to eat and do business, and getting gas. The area was a smooth plain with waves of golden grains. The girls parked the van into the parking lot outside of Chimney Rock National Park. It was a warm day out and the air was partially dry in the steppe. The tall grass was a light tan. The girls got out of the car stretching their bodies.
 “We made it.” Maria said.
 “This is my first time outside of the city.” Reina said. “I’m glad I got to come along.”
 “Well, good for you.” Hikari said.
 “But Chimney Rock is still several miles away.” Dymphna said. “Why do we have to park here?”
 “The adonudos that follow Glooskap will find out that we are coming and will start the assault immediately.” Maria said. “We have to go the rest of the way on foot.”
 “I really don’t like hiking long distances.” she complained.
 “Well, you can stay in the car.” Reina said.
 “Fine, I’ll come.” she answered. The girls transformed into their maiden forms and left the car, locking it on the way out.
 They walked a couple miles in the area and they came across a colossal camp full of adonudos, kachinas, totems, fey, elves, yokai, and many other nature spirits near the base of Chimney Rock.
 “Look at all of them.”Joan said.
 “There has to be at least a million of them.” Dymphna added.
 “I think they are after revenge.” Hikari said. “All of them.”
 “Then, we have to do something fast.” Maria replied. At that moment, they saw that the nature spirit army was looking towards a figure on the top of the slope of the area. And Glooskap was there rallying them.
 “The time is fast approaching for all of us to strike down on upon the ‘so-called’ human civilization. They exploit our Mother Earth, rape her of her natural resources, mercilessly and needlessly killing off her children. In fact, they even exploit their own brethren and yet they have the nerve to call us ‘savages’? I think some education should be beaten into their heads.” Glooskap stated. The audience started to cheer.
 “We have the immense blessing of numbers on our side, so unless we fight like complete idiots we are certain to win.” He continued. “But do not underestimate our foes, they will try to use the most advanced technology against us, so use caution in battle. I have given a warning to all the humans who seek to protect nature, you are not to harm them. I have given you the sign to look out for.” The audience remained.
 “It is time to fight. In battle, think on what you do for our Mother you are saving. The people shall have a mass exodus from their wasteful ways. Let us restore a new promised land of a greener Earth!!” Glooskap finished the speech and the entire mass cheered and rallied together as a united peoples. Then, the legions began their march into 12 different directions. The girls noticed that one of the legions was coming their way.
 “We need to hide.” Hikari said. “Quick into the tall grass.” The girls headed into the grass where they were unable to see them.
 “I think we should wait here until they pass.” Reina replied.
 “Let’s see now.” Hikari stated.
 “Ahh, those are cute Prairie Dogs.” Maria said commenting on some of the babies exploring.
 “Maria, you’re the leader and you are focusing on prairie dogs?” Hikari said. “Get back to the situation at hand.”
 “Okay,” Maria said. “We should beat the leader before any cities are harmed.” Dymphna looked out and watched the legion go by.
 “At the rate, they’re moving.” She said. “They would be out of our range in 8 minutes and the first city won’t be attacked until an hour or so.
 “So, what do you want to do until then?” Joan asked.
 “Wanna play 20 questions?” Maria asked.
 “Fine.” Hikari sighed.
 “I’ll go first.” Maria said and she thought of something. “Okay.”
 “Are you a vegetable?” Joan asked.
 “Nope.”
 “A mineral?” Dymphna asked.
 “No.”
 “An animal?” Hikari asked.
 “Yes.” Maria said.
 “Do you fly in the air?” Reina asked.
 “No, guess again.”
 “Are you a mammal?” Joan asked.
 “Yes, I am.”
 “Are you a small animal?” Dymphna asked.
 “Yeah.” Maria said. Then, Hikari thought for a minute.
 “Let me take a wild guess.” Hikari said. “You’re a prairie dog.”
 “Wow, how did you know that?” Maria asked.
 “It was obvious.” She replied.
 After a few rounds, the legions went past the girls and now in the distance. The girls looked up and saw only Glooskap and his elite guards were remaining. They came out of hiding and ran up towards the base of the rock. 
 “It’s over, Glooskap!!” Maria shouted and he and the guards faced the girls. “We are not going to allow you to harm the people any farther.”
 “It needed to be done. They needed to be taught a lesson.”
 “Couldn’t you just talk it over?” Joan added.
 “The ones you call conservationalists have been warning them for years and the people have never listened to them.” He added. “This will be the only way for them to listen.”
 “You aren’t listening to what we are saying.” Reina said. “You’ll hurt more than you’ll help.”
 “We know what is best for Mother Earth; there is nothing else that could be done.” he replied.
 “Millions are going to be harmed because of your carelessness.” Hikari said. “And we are going to make sure that doesn’t happen.” She had prepared her katana for battle. The elite guards began to approach the girls in protection of Glooskap.
 “STOP!!” he said. “They have come to challenge me; thus I shall face them in reply.” He leapt into the air landing at the base of the site. He took out two tomahawks and gave out a battlecry.
 He leapt into the air and came down striking the ground hard; the girls were hit by the seismic waves. The girls were stunned but remained on their feet. Hikari ran forward with her blade; Glooskap blocked her attack and parried it away. He used one of the tomahawks to trip Hikari. Reina sent out a lightning bolt to strike Glooskap and he tumbled out of the way.
 He threw a tomahawk at her and Dymphna raised a shield of ice in front of her. The axe struck the ice shield and stayed there. Glooskap raised his hand and the surrounding grass came from the ground behind him forming arrows. Hikari noticed him being distracted got up to strike his back. He noticed her as she was preparing to strike. He twirled around grappling with his tomahawk as he drew his spear. The arrows fell to the ground. He kicked her away.
 “Is this all you can do?” he asked. Dymphna came forward and was able to strike Glooskap on the arm. He turned towards her and swung his spear towards her. The tip made a cut on her tummy. He raised his lance up bringing up the arrows; He slammed the spear down firing the arrows on the girls. Hikari dodged out of the way with Reina. Arrows got stuck in Dymphna’s blade and Maria’s shield. Joan used her fire to burn the arrows before they reached her. Reina dodged out of the way unharmed.
 “This is going to be a tough one.” Maria thought. “There has to be a weak spot somewhere.” Maria came up and created a twister; she was able to suck Glooskap into the whirlwind but she got caught in it as well. Reina did a face palm.
 “What a moron.” She thought. The twister subsided spitting the two out. Maria and Glooskap landed on their butt at opposite ends of the field, getting back up again. He jumped into the air with his spear in hand. He thrust it into the ground, creating an earthquake. It ripped apart the ground. The girls had a difficult time to dodging the boulders. The prairie dogs were getting out of there.
 The girls were having trouble getting up and were fatigued. Glooskap noticed all of the arrows were gone except for one. He fired the arrow at the girls; Dymphna reflexively raised her claymore up. The arrow ricocheted off of Dymphna’s saber and Maria’s shield; striking down the prairie dog. Glooskap noticed its death.
 “Look at what you have done to that creature.” He stated to them.
 “Us?” Maria shouted. “We were trying to defend against the attack you did.”
 “The arrow was to strike you.” Glooskap stated.
 “Your arrow struck down and killed one who was innocent, damaging the very thing that you cherished.” Maria explained. Glooskap put away his spear and tomahawk going over to the prairie dog. He picked it up; but it was dead. He leapt up Chimney Rock to see the area. And saw the earthquake had ravaged the countryside. He said nothing but only a single tear began to roll down his cheek.
 He looked at the necklace that was around his neck and another tear rolled down. He ripped off the necklace and tossed it down the side of the butte. He pulled out a piece of wood wrapped a white band tying the tomahawk to it and threw it down as well. He tossed down the feather headdress as well.
 “What’s taking him so long?” Hikari asked. She saw him come down but towards the North and ran off. “There he is he’s retreating. Maria noticed the necklace coming down and stopped her. “Hey, what’s the big idea?”
 “Look.” She said picking up the necklace. “Isn’t this?”
 “The necklace of the guardian of nature.” An elite guard said. “Why did he throw that down?” Then, they noticed the piece of wood with the white band. “Apparently, he wants us to cancel the invasion.”
 “What!?” The girls stated.
 “After all dat, he’s going to quit.” Reina asked. “Just like that?”
 “Well, his tomahawk is tied to it.” another guard said. “We’ll have to go to all the legions and tell them the campaign has been cancelled.”
 “The spirits are not going to be happy about it.” the first one said. They looked up and saw the headdress gently floating down.
 “What’s this one?” Dymphna asked.
 “No chieftain ever throws down the headdress unless resign from power.” the guard said. “Could he be resign from the chieftain position and the guardian of nature too?”
 “Then, who is going to be the chief and who is going to be the guardian?” the another replied.
 “I don’t know.” Maria said holding to the necklace.
 “So, what do we do now?” Joan asked.
 “Well, I guess there’s nothing else for us to do here.” Maria said. “The invasion is cancelled. We’ll might as well head back to Ohio.”
 “Ugh, not more hiking.” Dymphna said.
 “At least, it’s good exercise.” Hikari added.

 “But on the way back, I’m driving.” Reina stated.

 Jonathan stayed at the headquarters that night. He was looking up into the night sky in a terrier this time around.
 “The girls…” he said to himself out loud. “They have started to surpass my expectations. In fact, Maria has started to show abilities I was never able to do.” He paused. “Could the role of the girls become more important than mine? But regardless, I have to remain their instructor. But just have I gotten myself into? That is the thing I can only wonder.” He sniffed the air, catching a whiff of something.
 “This smell; this foul stench.” he stated aloud. “Could it be?” He toke another smell of the aura that was in the air. The aura is completely tainted with black malevolence mixed in with the smells from the infernal and wicked abyss. “So, I am correct. You have returned my old enemy from long ago. You’ve come back for another battle. I will not let you win…  Nero.”

                It’s been a week since the girls have gotten back from Nebraska. There haven’t been any major events that have happened since then. Maria had gotten a distress call coming from the inner city asking the Virtue Girls for aid. Cheyenne was on a trip at the time of the call, so she had gathered the others. They transformed into their maiden forms and journeyed to the source.

                The girls had entered the alleyway where the caller had asked them to meet. They looked around among the dumpster and trash cans but didn’t see anyone.

                “Hey Maria.” Reina asked. “Are you sure this is the right alley?”

                “The guy on the phone said to meet at this specific alley.” Maria said.

                “I’m starting to think that da call is bogus.” Reina replied.

                “Bogus or not. At least, you’re here.” a man stated. This slightly startled the girls.

                “Wait, who said that?” Reina asked.

                “I did.” the man replied. He was laying up against the wall. He was wearing a brown longcoat and a large tan hat. The girls were unable to see the man’s face. “At least, we are able to have our discussion.”

                “So, what’s the emergency?” Hikari asked.

                “There’s no emergency.” he answered. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

                “Then, why didn’t you just go to the headquarters?” Joan asked.

                “I don’t know where it is.” he replied.

                “You got a point there.”

                “I have watched you girls for some time and I will admit, I am impressed with your progress.” he stated sincerely.

                “Thanks for the compliment.” Hikari said.

                “I will say that you are the most effective crime-fighting force out there.” He said.

                “Why thank you.” Joan replied.

                “I am one who works with the elite.” the man explained. “And they are impressed as well.”

                “So, what are you saying?” Dymphna asked.

                “I would like to offer you a position among the elite.” he said. “You can still continue to do what you are already doing.”

                “And what’s in it for us?” Reina added.

                “Why we are going to offer you the most advanced equipment and training, we can offer you a great headquarters, and whatever you can ask for.” he explained.

                “Anything?” Reina asked.

                “Anything.” He replied. “For saving the world, you have earned it.”

                “I think that is a good deal.” Dymphna said.

                “I can agree with that.” Hikari added.

                “Can you get us VIPs?” Joan said.

                “Absolutely.” he answered. Maria gazed upon the man and started to feel uncomfortable around him and noticed the other girls were being swayed. “Your rewards have been long overdue.”

                “I don’t know…” Maria said.

                “There is much you can achieve with our aid.” He continued.

                “Like what?” Reina said.

                “Your willingness to help others will inspire others. And with our help your aid will reach millions upon millions of people.” He said. “Isn’t that what you want? To help others in need.”

                “Yes, but…”

                “But what? Is there something I’m missing? I can certainly add it on.” He said and paused. “I’m also having a very difficult time trying to pick from you girls to be my mistress, but I can have a harem.” He thought.

                “I don’t know if I can trust this offer.” Reina said.

                “Your issue is trust?” he asked a little surprised. “The elite is granting you so much; how can you refuse such generosity?” At that point, Maria became very uncomfortable as though he was almost hostile.

                “Come on, Maria.” Dymphna said. “We can trust him, right?” Maria noticed that the girls are applying pressure on her to accept the deal.

                “As the leader of the Virtue Girls,” Maria explained to him. “I have a huge responsibility. I have a job as a manager of a store as well. I am content with what I have. So even though your offer is extremely generous, I’m afraid we have to turn it down.” At that point, the man broke the façade.

                “So, you are wanting to exchange everything for nothing?” he said and something slid into his hand. “Very well, then, you had your chance. For refusing my offer, I’m going to have to kill you now.”

                He raised his hand creating a wall of shadow behind the girls. His longcoat and hat were torn to shreds revealing the black armor with the horned helmet and nose guard; the chain around his mouth and the blood red bracers.

                “No one shall her you scream as I plunge my blade into your throat.” he stated as the long blade appeared from the handle. She swung his blade around throwing an arch of shadow towards them; the girls were caught off guard and it struck the girls getting all five of them in the gut.

                He teleported away from in front of them to above them; he starting coming down with his blade pointed downwards. The girls spotted this and barely got out of the way. The girls turned around to face them.

                “What’s wrong, girls?” he said. “Surprised? Come at me, if you dare.”

                Reina sent out a lightning bolt towards him and he blocked it with his saber aiming it back towards the girls. They had to get out of the way. Joan sent a stream of fire at him, in response he created a shield of shadow in front of him. And sent it forwards toward her.

                He saw Hikari advancing towards him with her katana. He dropped his saber and used his bracers to block the attack. He noticed Dymphna trying to flank him; thus he rammed into Hikari, picked her up and threw her at Dymphna. It hit.

                He turned to face Maria as whit energy gathered in her right hand. Nero chuckled under his breath at her. Maria went forward.

                “RUQYA PUNCH!!” She shouted and she blasted the energy at him. Putrid black energy gathered in Nero’s left hand.

                “SIHR PUNCH!!” He stated and he punched the attack redirecting it into the ground. Maria was shocked when this happened. “Did you actually think that attack was going to affect me? I think not.”

                “How can this happen?” Maria stated.

                “I sense you are scared.” the man said to her. “And rightly so.” Reina came up to attack him from behind and she sent a shadow beam at her knocking her over. Joan helped her up. “You have no hope of ever beating me.” Maria tried to rush him with her shield up. “How pathetic.”

                He jumped and did a downward strike. It hit Maria causing a large slash from her left shoulder to her right hip. She fell to the ground on her back. He placed his foot on her chest and started to apply pressure.

                “Phff, It seems I’ve overestimated you girls.” he said looking down at her. Dymphna sent some ice shards towards him; he formed a rope out of shadow and wrapped it around the shards. He whirled them around him and threw them back at her. He returned his focus to Maria who was struggling to breathe.

                “Who are you?” she asked him. All four girls tried to attack him all at once. He swung his blade knocking them all away with arches of shadow damaging all the girls. They fell onto their backs. He turned back to Maria.

                “The masses are unaware of my existence, but I am the one who leads those to greatness.” He slid his foot onto Maria’s throat and began to choke her. “For I am Nero; a name that you girls will learn to fear.” Nero raised his sword into the air intending to kill Maria right there for resisting. Then, a terrier came down from above biting his wrist. “Agh!!”

                He stepped off of Maria and focused on the dog. He slammed the dog into the ground and crushed its skull under his boot. John came out of the dead dog with an uppercut and sent him flying into the air; landing hard onto the ground. John used manna to make himself a human shell.

                “Maria, are you alright?” John said putting his hand out to her.

                “I’m fine, thanks.” Maria replied and he helped Maria get back up. Nero got up from the ground and looked at them.

                “Oh look, tuxedo mask has come to save you. How pathetic.” He stated. “And it just happened to be my old nemesis, Jonathan.”

                “And you are just as wicked and vile as ever, Nero.” John replied.

                “You two know each other?” Maria asked.

                “We go back a long time.” John said to Maria.

                “Like it matters.” Nero added. “You girls will be dead before John can explain.”

                “You will have to get through me first.” John said.

                “John…” she said.

                “Maria, take all the girls and run.” He said. “Nero’s too powerful for you to handle.” John blasted a hole in the wall of shadow.

                “But…” Maria added.

                “GO!!” John shouted at her. Maria and the other girls fled.

                “You might be able to run, girls. But you can never hide. The elite are in charge of all. The elite controls all and sees all. And those who defy their will shall be punished severely.” Nero shouted to them. Then, he turned to John. “Now, John, we have unfinished business.” John formed a longsword in his hand and charged towards Nero. Then, Nero also charged towards John.

                The two clashed blades and pushed each other back. Nero leapt into the air; black raven wings appeared on his back to keep him afloat. He swung his bladed sending out shadow arches. John dodged them and ran up the wall. He leapt towards him with his blade out.

                They blocked the attacks and Nero hurled him into the air; white eagle wings appeared to stabilize John’s flight. He rammed downward into Nero slamming him into the pavement leaving a crater in the ground.

                John leapt out of the crater. Shadow arches flew towards him and he countered them with light arches. Nero charged upwards and he rammed John. He grabbed him; spinning and sent him flying right into the side of a building.

                John used the platform as a springboard back toward his opponent. He sent light arches towards him. Nero faced the attack and formed a shield of shadow in front of him. John teleported behind him as he blocked the arches. He was able to cut off Nero’s right wing.

                He fell to the ground and he used the blood from the wound and splashed it on his left wing, changing it to a cape. He sent more shadow arches up towards him and sent a sihr punch towards him. John was able to block the arches but not the sihr punch. It struck his left hand.

                John jerked back and saw his shell was cracking there and becoming defiled. John’s spirit broke out of the shell through the right hand. He grabbed the shell he originally wore flew up and back onto Nero.

                He performed the ruqya punch with the shell in his right hand. The technique spread throughout the shell and it wrapped around Nero sealing him inside. But only his left hand was freed. Nero tried to use his shadow attacks on him but nothing happened.

                “Damn you, John.” He stated. “Damn you to hell.” Nero ran off. John looked at the damage that his hand has sustained. He saw the cancerous taint was spreading towards the rest of his body.

                “This isn’t good. I have to return to Purgatory at once.” he said. “I hate to not tell the girls but I have no choice.” Jonathan flew away.

                The girls returned to the lair that evening. They came back as a beaten and bruised mess. Maria who was the most injured of the girls went upstairs into the dormitories and decided to go to bed early after her wounds have been bandaged up. She closed her eyes and went off to sleep seeing it was 9:00 PM.

                She found herself floating in a magenta space with white stars around her. She noticed that John was floating in the space with her completely in human form. He was wearing a set of turquoise pajamas on him. (He saw he had freckles and light brown short straight hair.)

                “John.” She said and he faced her.

                “Hello there, Maria.” John answered.

                “Where have you been?” She asked.

                “I fought against Nero in order to protect you and the other Virtue Girls.” He said. “I was able to drive him off and he is now in a weakened state. But alas, I am severely weakened as well.”

                “What do you mean?” Maria asked starting to tear up.

                “I’ll never be able to appear in a physical form or be able to take control of a cute animal to talk to you in the physical world.” He said flying upwards and landing on the moon. “However, I am still able to appear to you girls, but only in dreams and visions as well as anything similar for the time being.”

                “John…” Maria said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” He came down and comforted her.

                “You’ve made a mistake.” He said. “To error is to be human, and to forgive is to be divine.” He continued to comfort her. “But there is another way.”

                “There is?” She asked looking up. “Can you explain?”

                “As you know, Nero controls the elite who in turn control the state and culture.” He stated. “There are some people who willingly defy the will of the state for what is good and just; they are harassed and persecuted against because they do not go along with the rest of the masses. In turn, they are viewed in the eyes of the powerful and mighty as terrorists. But they are rebels against a totalitarian regime.”

                “Okay, I understand the situation.” Maria answered.

                “There is one among these rebels who is able to be a guide to you and the Virtue Girls on Earth, while I can be the guide in spirit.” He said.

                “And who is this guide?” She asked in reply.

                “He is Father James Wabiri.” He stated. “He is currently hidden among the population and goes by a pseudonym for he is in hiding. Seek him out to be of help to the Virtue Girls. For now, I must leave.”

                “John, please.” Maria asked. “Don’t go, can you at least give me a hint?”

                “He goes under the alias of Charlie Harlin.” He answered afterwards he disappeared.

                Maria sat up awake and looked around. She was still in the bedroom and in the bed she was sleeping in. She looked at the clock and saw it was 1:45 AM.

                “I’ll look for this Father Wabiri in the morning.” she said to herself. “Until then, I need some more sleep.”

                Nero was in an underground lair. He was in the main chamber. There was a wormwood stand in the center with a dark crystal sitting on top of it emitting energy from it. Nero was pulling on himself trying to get the shell of John off but to no avail.

                “Damn.” he said. “I only have the power of a normal human being while I’m trapped in this blasted shell.” He paused. “It appears that I have to alter my strategy against the Virtue Girls, but I can still use my sihr punch and I can still teleport outside of combat.” He approached the crystal.

                “Now then,” He said placing his hands on the crystal. “Crystal of darkness and crystal of woe; Show me one who is vulnerable to influence from below.” The crystal glowed and showed him a biker who is sitting on the side of the road. “Excellent, I’ll see him at once.” He teleported to the shadows shown in the picture.

                Meanwhile, Maria was out and about looking for Father James Wabiri. She first looked around the park. She found a pair of two girls on the bench looking into each others eyes.

                “Excuse me.” Maria asked. The two girls looked at her. “Have you two seen James Wabiri?”

                “Nope.” one said.

                “Never heard of him.” the other answered.

                “Oh…” She said. “Well, can you help me look for him?”

                “Sorry, we’re a little busy.” the first stated.

                “Yeah.” the other replied. The two started kissing each other.

                “Sorry to have bugged you.” Maria said continuing on her way; she facepalmed and shook her head as she walked down the pathway. She ended up seeing Brian sitting on the bench by the road; exactly on the same bench she was seated on when she saw him for the first time. He was dressed in a green dress shirt and blue corduroys.

                “Oh, hey.” she said to him. He turned towards her.

                “Oh, hello.” He said. “You’re Maria, right?”

                “Yeah. Do you mind if I talk to you?”

                “No, I don’t mind.” Brian replied. “I have plenty of time.” Maria sat by him. “How’s your work?”

                “Well, I can’t say I’m happy with it.” he stated. Maria was a little saddened.

                “Why?” she asked.

                “I’ve been laid off.” he said.

                “You’ve been laid off by a pizza place?” She asked in shock.

                “I’m just getting over the shock of the job loss.” He replied. “After this is done, I will try to find another job.”

                “I hope you do find one.” Maria said. She noticed that there was a crystal around his neck.

                “That’s a nice crystal you have.” Maria said.

                “Thanks, it was a gift from my dad.” he stated. “He sent it hoping I do well in my studies.”

                “Okay.” she said. “I was looking for someone.”

                “Who are you looking for?”

                “Either James Wabiri or Charlie Harlin.” Brian looked at her curiously.

                “I’ve never heard of James Wabiri.” He said. “But I do remember a Charlie Harlin.” Maria looked up with enthusiasm.

                “Who is he?” She asked him.

                “He’s a weird biker.” He said. “He usually goes to the bar at the edge of town during the evenings when it’s quiet.”

                “Can you take me there?” She asked him. Brian was shocked.

                “Well, I guess.” he said. “Why do you want me to take you there?”

                “Nothing.” She said. Brian stood up.

                “Very well, then. Follow me.” She stood up from the bench and they started heading out. But a few steps later, he stopped.

                “I sense something evil is nearby.” he stated. “Stay here.” He walked across the street as Maria sat there just watching him. She looked around.

                “I don’t see anything.” she thought. Then, she heard what sounded like a motorcycle engine. “An engine?” Then, a biker appeared before Brian.

                “Stop right there.” he said to him.

                “Oh? What for?” the biker said.

                “Why have you come here evil being?” Brian asked him.

                “Why should I tell you, punk?” he replied.

                “You are going to cause trouble, aren’t you.” Brian said, glaring at him.

                “So, what are you going to do about it?” the biker asked him mockingly. Brian grabbed a metal pipe that was lying on the ground.

                “I’m not going to let you cause trouble.” he said. “And by the gods, I shall remove you from this place, you fiend.”

                “Really?” the biker said mocking him. “I would like to see you try. Come at me.”

                Brian did a chant generating a ball of energy and shot it at him. It hit him and he shook it off. Brian did another chant and lifted his pipe into the air and lightning came down on the person. It knocked him off of his bike.

                “Is that the best you can do?” the biker said, provoking him. Brian started getting frustrated and he danced and brought wind up around him.

                “Oh… Ah… No…” the biker said, mockingly. “I can’t leave.”

                “I’ll make you leave, beast.” Brian said. He continued to dance and magical energy began to move around him. The biker just laughed at him. He merged with his own bike into a centaur-motorcycle monster.

                “Your pathetic little magic tricks are useless.” the biker said. Brian stopped.

                “I don’t understand.” he said. “My magic… why isn’t it working?”

                “Maybe you have gotten a little over your head.” the monster said. Maria went into the bushes and transformed. It leapt up and whacked Brian away with the rear tire. A lance appeared in the monster’s hand. “Now, little magician… prepare to die.”

                A spinning gladius came from the side and knocked the spear out of his hand. The sword returned to Maria and the two looked at her.

                “It’s one of the Virtue Girls.” Brian said. “I forget what her name is.”

                “Doesn’t matter.” he said. “She’s a goner.” The biker headed towards her. Maria dodged out of the way; he charged towards her again swinging a punch. She blocked the punch with her shield as she moved out of the way.

                As the centaur made that pass, he picked up his lance cutting Brian on the arm. Maria moved to the side and thrusted her gladius into the front tire. It popped causing the motorcycle to swerve uncontrollably. The biker detached from his bike.

                “This isn’t over.” he stated as he grabbed his bike and retreated from the area. Maria headed towards Brian.

                “Brian, are you alright?” She asked him.                Brian looked at her and didn’t see it was Maria.

                “I’m fine right now.” he answered. “You’re Breezy Girl, right?”

                “Uh… yeah.” she replied. “What was the deal with the magic?”

                “I’m a druid. I’m considered a prodigy in the arcane arts because most druids at my age are only able to do the basics.” he explained.

                “I see.” Maria said; she was a little down in feeling. “Well, which way did the monster go?”

                “I am able to find the signature.” he said. “I’ll be able to track him.” They followed the monster at a distance making sure he does not detect him.

                “He might be cursed man that needs help.” Maria said.

                “I don’t sense anything of that sort, Breezy Girl.” Brian replied.

                “I’ll stick with what I have.” she said. “We have to spare him.” Brian looked at her in a funny manner.

                “Are you crazy?” he asked. “He just tried to kill you.”

                “We’ll have to trap him first.” She said. “Do you have any ideas for a trap?” Brian thought for a minute.

                “Well, we can make a magical labyrinth that will be impossible for him to escape.” He said. “And we isolate him from each section of the labyrinth until he has nowhere to escape. Then, you can do what you want with him.”

                “Or we can just use a net.” Maria stated.

                “Eh.” He responded with surprised. “Oh.” The two continued to follow the monster until they have arrived at the bar at the edge of town. There were many motorcycles in the parking lot.

                “Well, this is going to be a problem.” Brian said.

                “How are we ever going to find him?” Maria asked.

                “We should take him down while he’s at the bar.” He stated as he moved forward. Maria stopped him in his tracks.

                “No, don’t be rash.” She stated. “A bar fight will start and we will get hurt or worse. We’ll have to lure him outside.”

                “Very well.” He said. “I’ll at least identify him.”

                “Okay.” Maria replied as she set up a trap. Brian went inside the bar itself.

                The bar had a solid oak wood floor; there was a pool table in the center of the room. There were wooden tables scattered around the room. There was a counter on the side for ordering drinks. There were many bikers in the facility.

                “Now, one of these bikers has to be the monster.” Brian looked around the bar; he ended up getting some funny looks from the bikers but nobody bothered him. He noticed the monster was at the bar. “There he is.” He ended up bumping into another biker and spilled his drink; the biker looked at him angerly.

                “Oh, excuse me.” Brian said. The biker punched him to the ground.

                “Watch where you are going, you little brat!” the biker stated to him.

                “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” he replied.

                “I’ll make you sorry.” the biker said going back for another punch. But someone stopped him.

                He was a ripped muscular man with hazel eyes and aged brown and gray hair. He was wearing a button-up shirt underneath his black leather jacket and camo pants.

                “He apologized.” the man said. “Can you at least forgive him?”

                “He spilled my drink and embarrassed me.” the biker replied. “He deserves to be given a smackdown.”

                “You always have to resort to violence to solve your problems.” The man said.

                “Now, you are a problem.” the biker punched him in the face but the man stayed up on his feet. The man grabbed the biker by the collar of his shirt with one hand. He threw the biker over his shoulder across the bar and out an open window. The man turned to the boy and stretched out his hand. Brian noticed a Roman collar hidden on his shirt but didn’t know what it meant.“Are you okay?”

                “I’m fine, thank you.” Brian said. “My name is Brian CuChulainn.”

                “I’m Charles Harlin.” the man said in reply.

                “Oh…” he said remembering. “There’s someone who want to see you.”

                “And who would that be?” Charles asked.

                “Maria.” Brian replied. “She said something about a Father James Wabiri. Perhaps you might know some information about him.”

                “I’ll have to see her for I can tell a lot about him.” He answered.

                “There’s a monster in here as well.” he said. “One of the Virtue Girls is pursuing him and he ended up in here.”

                “I’ve all ready drawn attention to myself.” He said. “I can’t draw more.”

                “All right.” Brian said starting to leave. “I sure hope Breezy Girl has a trap ready.” He thought; then he used magic to levitate a beer bottle that was full of beer. He threw it at the monster and it hit the back of his head.

                “WHO DID THAT!?” He shouted; he looked and saw the druid. “YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!!” He started running towards Brian. Then, he ran out the door frightened. The biker monster pursued him on foot.

                Brian was able to outrun him, so the monster went to his bike. He had repaired the wheel and merged with his bike. He continued following him and was catching up with Brian.

                “Breezy Girl, help.” Brian said. “He’s catching up.” Then, the monster produced a spear in his hand getting ready to shank him.

                “No one is going to save you now.” the centaur said. Maria showed up to the side with her gladius tied to a cable which in turn was tied to a tree. She threw the gladius again; this time it got caught in the body of the bike. The monster turned towards her with a great fury.

                He turned his bike towards her and accelerated towards her on all cylinders. Maria stood her ground taking a battle stance while holding newspapers in her hand. When he got close enough, she tossed the papers and got out of the way. The papers ended up right in his face.

                “HEY!! WHAT IS THIS!!” he shouted. He ripped the newspaper off of his face and threw it away. He looked forward and saw a big tree in front of him. “AAAAIIIIIEEEEE!!” He slammed hard into the tree and he stopped completely in his tracks. The tree cracked and then fell over. The biker monster’s mouth was agape; he had a few teeth missing and he was cock-eyed. He just stood there for a moment and then fell over.

                “Okay.” Maria said. “I guess he can be purified.” She used the ruqya punch on him and he was freed from the curse. Of course, he was moaning from the pain.

                “Wow, he really was cursed.” Brian said. “How did you know that?”

                “I just seem to know.” she answered.

                “Anyway, Charlie Harlin is in the bar.” he said, but at that moment, he came riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. “Here he is. I’ll be off now.” Brian left.

                “What happened to the monster?” Charlie asked. “I’ve seen he is beaten.”

                “What’s going on here?” the biker asked.

                “First off, tell me why were you attacking me?” Maria stated.

                “Attacking you.” the biker said. “The last thing I remember is talking to this guy in black armor and then I’m on the ground in front of you.” Maria is surprised.

                “It has to be Nero.” Maria thought. “I know he’s in a weakened state but he can still be a threat. John must know something about him.”

                “Anyways, I have to go now.” the biker said. “Everything hurts. I’m going to a doctor.” Then, he rode off.

                “Can you tell me where I can find Maria?” Charlie asked her. “I haven’t seen her in years.”

                “What do you mean?” Maria asked him.

                “I heard Brian say that she was looking for Father James Wabiri.” He said. “It’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

                “What are you…?” She asked.

                “Father James Wabiri?” he answered. “I am. I seek to speak with Maria Ciliega.”

                “I am her.” Maria replied.

                “Oh, so you are.” He said, smiling. “I’ve heard much about you, but this is the first time I have seen you in ages. The last time I saw you, you were only four and your brother was seven.”

                “What happened to you?” she asked him.

                “The state became suspicious of the activity and we were forced to flee the place. Because we as Catholics refuse to yield to the oppressive will of the elite, thus we are hated by them. If caught, our members would be put in asylums for ‘treatment’. And if it failed, they would be quietly removed. That’s what I heard.”

                “I see.”

                “It’s not just the Catholics that are punished. But anyone who is defiant would be punished, regardless of creed. For the elite claim that they know what is right and wrong; they claim that they are above the law; they are claiming to be what they are not.”

                “Okay, at least I understand.” Maria said.

                “As for me, I better get moving.” James said.

                “Wait…” Maria said. “You can hide in the Virtue Girls headquarters if you want.”

                “Where’s it at?” he asked.

                “It’s within Whispering Meadows.” She said.

                “Very well.” he said. “I’ll stop by there sometime. For now, I must bid ado.”

                “Bye.” Maria said. James did a wheelie, then drove off into the night. She saw that the license plate said GLORIA.

                It was now very rainy with low visibility and it was expected to last for the whole day. The virtue girls couldn’t really do anything. Maria and Cheyenne were in the dining room. They were sitting at the table. Maria was heating up water for some hot chocolate.

                “Would you like some hot chocolate?” Maria asked.

                “No, I don’t want any.” Cheyenne responded.

                “What’s wrong, Cheyenne?” Maria said.

                “Nothing is wrong.” She answered.

                “Something’s been bugging you.” Maria said. “You’ve been acting different since the trip to Nebraska. You seem to have changed.”

                “Changed? How have I changed?” Cheyenne rebuked Maria. “It’s you who have changed.”

                “What!?” Maria stated back to her.

                “Don’t be clueless.” Cheyenne responded. “I saw how you behave. You’ve been hanging out with Hikari and Joan. And you have thrown me aside.”

                “Cheyenne, you’re my best friend.” Maria said.

                “Do you need a reality check?” Cheyenne answered.

                “You don’t have to be so aggressive.” Maria answered. “Cheyenne, I’ll never throw you aside. I’ll…” Then, she noticed Reina in a raincoat carrying a big green tub heading outside. “Uh… Reina, what are you doing?”

                “I’m going out to collect water from the rainfall.” Reina said. “This downpour will be perfect to fill up on.”

                “You do know we have running water.” Cheyenne replied.

                “Wait… we do?” Reina said in surprise.

                “Yeah.” Cheyenne answered.

                “Wow.” Reina responded. “Back in da ghetto where I’m from, it’s very rare to find someone with running water?”

                “What? There are people who don’t have that?” Cheyenne replied in shock.

                “Have you ever heard of poverty?”

                “Never mind that, how are you able to get by without it?”

                “We just do.” Reina replied. “We also have to deal the guys who constantly want one-night stands without caring if the girls get pregnant and…” At that moment, Cheyenne got up and ran out of the room heading upstairs. They heard a door slam and the two just remained there. “Was it something I said?”

                “I’ll talk to her, Reina.” Maria answered. “You just do what you were going to do.”

                “Okay.” Reina replied. She picked up the green tub and opened the door. She, then, heard distant thunder. “I’ll just stay indoors.” She slid the tub outside and shut the door.

                Maria headed upstairs and started heading toward her room. She had noticed a soft sound coming from inside the room.

                “Cheyenne, are you…?” Maria asked.

                “Go away!!” Cheyenne interrupted; Maria could now tell that she was crying.

                “Cheyenne, I…” She stated.

                “Just leave me alone!” Cheyenne continued interrupted.

                “Please, I want to help you.” Maria stated. “Can you at least allow me to comfort you?” Initially, there was no answer; then the door opened for her.

                Cheyenne had held the door open for her. Maria saw that her eyes were full of sorrow and tears ran down her face. She entered her room and the two saw on her bed. Cheyenne continued to cry and Maria rested her hand on her shoulder without saying anything.

                “It’s my fault.” Cheyenne said softly.

                “Hmm?” Maria responded.

                “It’s my fault.” Cheyenne repeated.

                “Your fault?” Maria said. “I’ve gotten over it.”

                “No, it’s not that.” she responded getting up from her seat.

                “What do you mean?”

                “It’s something different.”

                “If it’s not the argument, then what is it?” Maria asked. Cheyenne hesitated by pausing but when she tried to speak nothing came out. But more tears came out of her eyes and her cheeks began to puff up. “What is it?”

                “I can’t say it.” Cheyenne said.

                “You can’t?” she replied.

                “No… I can say it. I don’t want to say it, but I must.” Her friend added.

                “Cheyenne, if it’s too painful you don’t have to say it.” Maria stated.

                “I SLEPT WITH MY BOYFRIEND IN THIS ROOM!!” Cheyenne shouted near the top of her lungs. Maria gasped in total surprise.

                “When did this happen?” Maria said.

                “I called him over here while you were away in Nebraska.” she said stopping Maria. “After talking for a bit, we can up to this room and had sex on the bed. I know we both enjoyed it, but now… I know it’s a huge mistake.” She paused as tears rolled down her face. “Maria, I’m now pregnant with his child.”

                “Does Mikey know about the child?” Maria asked.

                “I haven’t told him yet.” She answered. “I’m too scared to tell him. I don’t know how he’ll react to this.”

                “Cheyenne, you’ll have to tell him.” Maria responded. “This is too important not to tell. The pain has built up until it exploded. I’ll aid you if you need any help.” Cheyenne ran into her arms.

                “Thank you, Maria.” she said crying. “You are a true friend. I shouldn’t doubt you.”

                “There, there.” Maria said as Cheyenne continued to shed tears in Maria’s arms. In turn, Maria comforted Cheyenne in her sorrow.

                Meanwhile, Joan and Dymphna were on the MMO playing with each other doing a quest to get the Freyja Apples to the save the sick princess, and they were respawning  after an encounter with a couple of red dire wolves.

                “Ugh, these ones are tough ones to beat.” Dymphna said.

                “I know we ended up keeling over multiple times against them.” Joan answered.

                “We are either going to have to level grind or go on another quest.”

                “Or we can ask for help.”

                “That too.” Dymphna responded. “I think I remember those wolves are weak to piercing weapons. But I’m a warrior and you’re a mage.”

                “What classes can carry ranged weapons?” Joan asked.

                “We are probably looked for like a ranger or a rouge.” she answered. Then, Dymphna noticed that a user known as MacBen24 come online to the MMO. “Ah, he’s online.”

                “Who’s online?”

                “Ben’s online.” Dymphna answered. “I’ll ask him for help on our quest.” She sent a massage towards him.

                “Hey Ben,” It said. “I’m currently on a quest with a friend and we need some help. Can you help us out?” She waited a bit. Then, she got a reply.

                “Sure, I’ll help you out.” the response said. “I’ll be there in a minute.” Dymphna turned to Joan.

                “He accepted the invitation.” Dymphna said. She forgot about the loss against the red dire wolves and started getting a little giggly.

                “Uh, Dymphna…” Joan asked titling her head. “Are you feeling okay?”

                “Oh, Joan.” Dymphna responded. “I’m perfectly fine. Why do you think I’m not okay?”

                “You’re laughing too much.” Joan added.

                “No, I’m not.”

                “Right.” Joan stated sarcastically. Then, a character appeared he was slightly on the taller side and had slightly larger muscle tone having blue eyes and light curly brownish-red hair. He was wearing a green tunic and carried a longbow on his back.

                “Ben.” Dymphna said running towards him.

                “Dymphna.” he replied opening him arms. Dymphna ran right into him and they hugged. “It’s been a while, lass.”

                “I know; it’s been a while.” she replied.

                “I’ve finally have completed by Master’s in Astronomy.” he stated. “And can finally come home from Edinburgh.” She was starting to radiate a feeling of happiness. It was the first time Joan got to see her smile.

                “Congratulations, I’ll make sure to have a welcome home party for you when you arrive.” Dymphna replied.

                “Thanks Dymphna.” he said.

                “Uh… hello?” Joan asked.            

                “Oh yeah.” Dymphna said. “Ben, I would like to introduce to you to my friend.”

                “My name is Joan Lachance.” Joan said.

                “Greetings.” Ben said. “I am called Ben.”

                “Wait, what’s your last name?” Joan said. He looked around.

                “My last name is Macbeth.” he said. Then, stray arrows came down from above striking Ben’s neck and upper back. “I have to respawn; I’ll be right back.” Ben’s character fell over dead and disappeared. The two girls heard someone shouting at the top of their lungs, but it didn’t come from inside the game.

                “What was that?” Joan asked Dymphna directly instead of using the chat box.

                “I don’t know.” Dymphna answered. “It’s probably Hikari and Reina sparring again.”

                “I guess it’s not important, then.” Joan replied; both of them oblivious to what happened.

                Maria had trouble sleeping that night. She had her eyes closed but was still restless. She found herself in the magenta space again with Jonathan in the same outfit.

                “Is something bothering you?” he asked. “Having trouble sleeping?”

                “Yeah, you hear about Cheyenne?” she asked.

                “Yeah, I remember hearing about it.” he answered. “I was able to see it in Cheyenne’s dream as well. It’s unfortunate for her to be in such pain.”

                “But there was something I wanted to ask you.” She said. “What do you know about Nero?” John was surprised.

                “Nero and I go back a long time. We started fighting back in my hometown of Williamsburg. I was born there on June 21, 1672.” He explained. “I started fighting him when I became of age at the time and discovered my psychic abilities at that time.”

                “Oh.” Maria responded.

                “I was pursuing him when he fled Northward toward New Hampshire, but I was unaware of the trap he set up at Andover.” He paused. “I’ll let you see the rest.” He placed his two fingers on Maria’s forehead. She saw a bright light in front of her eyes.

                She found herself in a small town. She noticed children were playing around nearby her and the children were coming her way.

                “Wait, don’t get any closer.” She answered. “I’m…” The child ran right through her. “What’s going on here, John?”

                “Right now, you are watching my memories.” John said. “No one here is able to see you or hear you. There is nothing you can do to interfere.”

                “But can you at least tell me, what this place is?” Maria asked him.

                “You are currently in Salem, Massachusetts.” He said. “The day is November 28, 1692. The final day I was among the living.” Maria turned and she saw a cart full of people accused for witchcraft. Jonathan was among them.

                “John.” she said.

                “That is my younger self.” he said. “I was falsely accused by Nero.”

                Maria watched as the seven prisoners were taken to the gallows. Then, one by one, the prisoners were hung; only John’s rope broke.

                “HE’S TRULY A WITCH!!” a man shouted. “HANG HIM AGAIN!!” Some of the crowd removed the corpses from the nooses to attempt to hang John again. The second time the rope broke again. They continued down the line. They beat him up, gave him lashes, threw stones at him, cut off his hands and even burned the offense onto his skin as each rope broke.

                “JOHN!! STOP!!” Maria shouted. “THIS IS TOO PAINFUL TO WATCH!!” She saw another bright light and was taken from that scene.

                She saw she was in a damp, dark prison cell. As her eyes got adjusted to the darkness, she saw two guards dragging in a pulverized Jonathan. They opened up his cell door and threw him in. They slammed the door behind him.

                “The judge has decided that you will stay in your cell until you are weak.” the guard said.

                “Then, we will try to execute you again.” the other replied. They left the prison and locked the outer door behind them. The young Jonathan was crying and is enduring unbearable pain from the torture he was inflicted.

                Then, the area began to get lighter as he started to see a falling eagle feather. He looked up and saw a great winged man wearing centurion armor. He was carrying a sword in its scabbard in one hand and scales in the other. John was full of fear.

                “Hey, don’t be scared will you?” the angel responded.

                “Are you an angel?” John asked.

                “I am.” the man said. “Listen, I’m not usually the delivery boy. But I’ve been asked to tell a message to you.”

                “What would that be?” John asked.

                “My Lord noticed that you have been enduring immense pain.” he stated. “He is going to have another plan for you.”

                “Can you explain?”

                “To put it shortly, he wanted you to be the mentor of a group of heroes in the future.”

                “Me?” Young John asked surprised. “A mentor? How could I mentor anyone? I don’t have any experience as one.”

                “Are you going to question the Lord?”

                “No, I’m not questioning him. But I don’t know if I can do it.”

                “We’ll help train you until you are ready to go.” he added. “You don’t have to be afraid.” He stuck out his hand. “Are you ready to accept this journey?” John originally hesitated. He reached out seeing his hand separate from his body.

                “I will, then.” John responded.

                “Okay, it’s time to go.” the angel said. “Be careful on the way out, it might sting a little.”

                “After what I endured, a sting wouldn’t faze me.” John commented. John grabbed Michael’s hand and he gently started to float upward. Young Jonathan breathed his last as his spirit departed his broken body.

                “Come, Maria.” Older Jonathan said to her.

                “John, you just died.” she answered. “For real, this time.”

                “Maria, I’m still here. Aren’t I?” he asked.

                “But why?” she rebuked him.

                “There is one last scene I want you to see.” he said. Maria saw one more flash of bright light.

                When the light faded, she looked around and saw she was in the hospital. She was confused until she saw John again with an angel.

                “So, why are we here?” Young John asked the angel.

                “It is time for your mission to begin.” The angel replied. “Follow me.” The angel led John to another location. Maria followed them. The two entered a particular room and she looked inside. “The leader of the team of heroes is the one you are asked to guard. She is in here.”

                Maria couldn’t hold back her curiosity and rushed into the room. She was in shock when she saw what was in the bed. She saw a woman with light skin and caramel hair.

                “Mom?” Maria asked. “What are you…?” Then, she noticed that her mom was holding a baby in her arms; it was a baby girl and she was crying.

                “Now, now.” the mom said softly. “Don’t cry.” She hummed a lullaby to the baby, a tune that Maria remembered. The baby opened her eyes and looked at her and smiled. “I thought you like that… my little Maria.”

                “When she grows up, she will lead a team of seven girls to fight for what is just. Not on what the world says is just, but what is truly just.” the angel said. “They are granted power from above. Will you guard her and the other six? Will you mentor to them?”

                “I will.” Young John said enthusiastically.

                “Then, I shall leave you with her.” the angel said. “May the Lord’s peace be with you.”

                “May it be with you as well.” John responded back to him. The angel left John there and there was a bright light flooding Maria’s sight.

                John took his two fingers off of Maria’s forehead and she came to. She saw herself floating back in the magenta space once again.

                “Now, you know.” he responded.

                “John, I didn’t realize that…” Maria tried to say but couldn’t finish what she was going to say.

                “You don’t have to apologize.” he replied. He paused. “On a lighter note, I was able to find the other two Virtue Girls.”

                “Cool.” Maria said.

                “But because I can’t go to the physical world, you’ll have to find them on your own.” He said. “One lives in the Farasi District; the other usually goes to the bar.”

                “Can you be a little more specific?” Maria asked.

                “You shall recognized them when you see them.” he said. “I will allow you to see what they look like right now.” She heard some beeps as he was placing his fingers on her forehead again to show her.

                “Why is there beeping?” She thought as she was shown. She found out the source of the beeping. It was her alarm clock. As she woke up, she saw that the rain had stopped.

                Joan was asked by Maria to head to the Farasi District to look for the Virtue Girl that was in there. She came up to a sapphire-colored wall; she started to smell something from the other side of the gate. She was wearing her short-sleeved sailor fuku outfit.

                “This is the entrance to the Farasi District.” Joan thought. “I don’t want to go in there. It’s Little Baghdad. But Maria won’t like me to return empty-handed.” She paused. “Okay. Here goes nothing.” She pushed on the door and opened it up and entered. The smell of incense and spices began to overload her senses causing her to become dizzy. When she got used to the smell, she noticed that she was in a classical bazaar marketplace and nearby was a great mosque.

                “Did I just walk into Arabian Nights?” she continued. “No, there are no camels here.” She went walking through the bazaar and many of the residents started to notice her. There were three young guys on the side leaning up on the wall. One of them spotted her.

                “Hey, Sa’id. Check that out right there.” one of the guys said.

                “What? Where?” Sa’id asked.

                “Right there.” the guy said pointing towards Joan. The young guys started checking her out from a distance. The third one did a loud cat-call towards Joan. She started getting a little uneasy. Meanwhile, there was a little boy with his mom and aunt.

                “Mommy, why does she look different?” the boy asked pointing towards her.

                “Don’t look.” his mom said covering his eyes.

                “The girl is just asking for trouble.” his aunt added. Joan was trying to get out of the bazaar when she bumped into another man. He looked at her.

                “Hey there,” he said. “I’m looking for a good time. How much do you want?” He started holding up some dollar bills.

                “I gotta get out of here.” Joan said out loud. Then, a loud announcement appeared on the megaphones. The call to prayer was being played on the soundboxes. The men stopped what they were doing and headed towards the mosque. “Now’s my chance to get out.” She ran out of the area and stopped to catch her breath.

                She found an old man with a white beard and green robe with a white crescent moon on his left breast. He wore a blue turban on his head. He noticed her and jerked back.

                “My word,” he said. “Are you a harlot or a stranger from the outside?”

                “Why do people think I’m a stripper or worse?” Joan asked him. He thought for a moment.

                “Is this your first time here?” the old man asked.

                “Yeah, this is my first time here.” she replied.

                “I see.” he stated. “No wonder, you are lacking in some stuff.”

                “This is what I wear around the house and around town.” Joan said. “And no one bothers me.”

                “It works differently here.” He said. “I forgot to introduce myself. I am Imam Zayed.”

                “Hello.” She answered. “How come you’re not at the mosque?”

                “I’m retired.” he said. “But I can help you out with the problem.” He pulled out a crimson long robe with a hood. “Here put this on over top of your outfit.”

                “But…”

                “I know it’ll be uncomfortable.” he rebuked. “But you’ll have to put it on, otherwise you’ll get some unwanted attention.” She put it on to at least be able to hide.

                “Good luck on whatever you were going to do here.” Zayed stated as she left.

                An hour had passed since she had first entered and she hasn’t found the one she was looking for. She stopped to think.

                “I’ve checked everywhere and still haven’t found her.” Joan stated. “Oh, yeah. There’s one place yet I haven’t checked; the bazaar. I ran out of there without getting a good look.” She reentered the bazaar and no one noticed that she was there.

                The first place she had entered upon the bazaar was the incense stand. She walked up to it and there was an ‘on break’ sign by the stand. The mixture of frankincense, cedarwood, and galbanum flooded her senses. She began to see John from the mixture.

                “Hello, Joan.” he stated.

                “John, I’m not sleeping and I’m still sober. How can I see you?” she asked.

                “The scents you smell are used in religious rituals and to heighten prayer.” he explained.

                “Anyway, John.” She said. “I’ve been looking around and I still can’t find her.”

                “You are looking among the single women.” he said. “She is actually a mother of children.”

                “Magical girls can’t be mothers, right?” she asked.

                “No no no.” He said. “You were supposed to say ‘Mothers can’t be magical girls, right?’.”

                “How did you know what I was going to say?” she asked.

                “I reviewed the script for the chapter.” he replied.

                “Huh?” Joan asked in confusion. “What script? And what do you mean by chapter?”

                “Uh… never mind.” he answered.

                “That still doesn’t help me find the girl.” Joan answered.

                “You don’t have to.” he said. “The first customer that comes to the stand when the merchant comes back, is the one you seek.”

                “So, all I have to do is wait?” she asked.

                “That’s all that needs to be done.” He answered. “I better get going now. Good luck.” He vanished from view.

                Meanwhile at a high quality house, a tax collector was sitting a chair and he was holding on to stacks of bills, one in each hand.

                “Ah, yes.” he stated. “I love the smell of fresh green.” He smelled the money in his hand. He heard a knock on the door. “What is it?”

                “Sir,” a man stated. “Someone wants to see you.”

                “What for?” the tax collector asked.

                “He wanted to strike a deal with you.”

                “Fine, send him in.” The door opened and Nero appeared. “What do you want to talk about?” Nero took a chair in the office.

                “So, you are Ova Withdra.” Nero said. “One rumored to excessively charge customers and scrap off the top.” The taxer reached for his phone and Nero stopped him. “Don’t get to hasty. I’m not going to turn you in. I just want to make a deal with you.”

                “What do you want?” Withdra asked.

                “I noticed you love money, so I would like to give you a sample of superpowers to get even more money.” Withdra took notice at his offer.

                “How much are you asking for?” he asked.

                “Oh, perhaps of a small amount.” Nero stated. “Perhaps two hundred thousand.”

                “Two Hundred Grand!?” Withdra asking. “What are you trying to pull on me?”

                “I’m not trying to pull anything.” He said. “What’s the $200,000 to you? When you can make 1.5 million in the process. I’m saying it would be a good investment, if you ask me.”

                “Shut up and take my money.” Ova Withdra said handing him a suitcase full of cash. Nero did a knock with his left hand on the tax collector. Ova Withdra became overly ripped and muscular; his shirt tore off. “Me feel power. Lots of power.”

                “It was pleasure doing business with you.” Nero said.

                “Me get riches.” He busted a hole in the wall and headed out. Nero grinned.

                “And thus the tax collector whose use to exploiting commoners is the one who got scammed.” Nero commented as he walked out the door taking the suitcase with him. “What a sap.”

                Meanwhile, Joan waited by the incense stand as the merchant for the stand came back. He noticed her.

                “Hello,” the merchant said. “What would you like?” Joan turned to him.

                “Uh, me…” She replied. “Uh… I was just looking at the uh… what you have.”

                “Well, we have incenses of all types of scents.” he said. “Take your time and see which ones would be nice.”

                “I have to make it look like I’m looking for some.” Joan thought. “To buy some time for the girl to show up.” At that moment, a woman wearing a green robe showed up at the stand. She had fair skin, blue eyes, and long straight blackish-brown hair with two long, thin side locks in front of her ears.

                “Well hello, Omar.” the woman said. Joan looked and faced her.

                “Oh Christina,” the merchant replied. “It’s good to see you.”

                “I would like the Ishtar blend, if you don’t mind.” Christina said.

                “It’ll take me a while to make it.” Omar added. “But I can make some within a few minutes.” He went to work on making the mix; Christina noticed Joan.

                “Hello, are you looking for something in particular?” she asked Joan.

                “No, I was just looking around.” Joan replied. “I’m surprised at all the scents.”

                “Incense is very nice. I’m very experienced at using it.” she said. “What’s your name?”

                “I’m Joan.” she answered. “Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand.

                “Same here.” Christina replied.

                “So, do you live here?” Joan asked.

                “I do live around her with my husband and two kids.” she answered.

                “Okay, I asked a dumb question.” Joan thought.

                “But I do want to move.” Christina replied. “I was thinking on getting a lakeside cabin in the future.” Joan was surprised. “I don’t want my children growing up in the city.”

                “Why don’t you go then?” She asked.

                “I know that Farasi District is the only place I know my children will be safe and outside of the walls is a very corruptive world.” She replied. “I want to do something, so I and my husband won’t have to worry about our children’s safety.”

                “She’s very kind.” Joan thought out loud. “Maybe, that’s why she could be a Virtue Girl.”

                “Hmm?” She asked. “What’s this about a Virtue Girl?”

                “I was saying you might be able to be a Virtue Girl.” Joan answered.

                “I doubt it.” Christina said. “I end up being busy with the family.” Then, there was a crashing sound in the bazaar.

                “MY CABBAGES!!” a merchant in the distance shouted. Then, they saw a giant muscled man ornamented in gold and jewels approach them.

                “Give me gold.” he said. “Give me money. Me want wealth.”

                “There’s trouble.” Joan said moving towards the side; then she transformed into her maiden form. Then came out. “HEY, STOP RAMPAGING IN THE BAZAAR!!”

                “OOOOHHH!!” he said. “PRETTY LADY!!” And they saw guys looking at her.

                “What’s going on?” Joan thought. She looked down seeing the robe was gone. “OH NO!!”

                “Me want woman.” The muscular guy said charging towards her. Joan stood in her defense with her rapier ready to pierce him if necessary. He dodged out of the way of the strike, knocking over incense and grabbed her under his arm.

                “HEY!! PUT ME DOWN!!” Joan said kicking and screaming. He jump onto the wall and started climb it with Joan trapped in his grip. “This is starting to get ridiculous.”

                “Oh no.” Christina said. “What do I do?” Then, she saw Jonathan. “Who are you?”

                “I am John. I can help you.” He said. “You are able to save Joan; you are a Virtue Girl.”

                “Stay back, please.” she said.

                “Who knows what will happen if you don’t help Joan.” He commented. She looked at the wall and the muscular guy climbed over it.

                “What do you want me to do?” she asked him.

                “Go after him.” He said. “I will unlock your powers.” She ran after the man. “Christina Gulbadan, genus Virgo, excitare de somno.”

                Her robe disappeared as she was engulfed in light. She was wrapped up in red flower petals tightly into a cocoon. Then, the flower bloomed releasing her. She was wearing a green top and skirt. She had light green lacing under the skirt and light green gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of light green with an emerald crystal in the center. Two vines sprouted next to her and she picked them up and they became two falchions.

                She raced upwards to face the muscles. She saw that he had simply tied her up in ropes. He was dancing about cheerfully.

                “Me have woman. Me have woman.” he stated.

                “This guy’s a moron.” Joan commented. He saw Christina coming.

                “Me no let you take woman.” He shouted towards Christina. He started to pick up barrels and throw them at Christina. She dodged out of the way of the barrels. She spun around swirling up flower petals. He was having difficulty aiming at her; then, she cut free Joan.

                “Now, you are going to get it.” Joan said as she threw a fireball towards him. It hit him directly and he was knocked back. He fell off the building, bounced off of a roof of a stand and landed on the ground. Christina and Joan followed downward standing on their feet. He got up angerly at them.

                “Me get angry now. Me destroy…” the man stated. Then, he returned to normal to his scrawny self. “Wait, what just happened?”

                “Looks like your time ran out.” Christina said.

                “I have unlimited power.” The tax collector stated. “I returned to normal?” Then, he noticed a whole crowd of angry people gather around him. “Oh crap.”

                “GET HIM!!” a man shouted. They dog piled on him beating him up. They tied him up with a rope and set him down.

                “Time for one last thing to do.” Christina said. She ran up and kicked him away. She screamed as he was sent flying. He flew between the two minarets at the mosque. Then, the imam lifted both of his hands into the air.

                “I love football.” he stated. Christina turned to Joan as the two got out of the streets.

                “Joan?” Christina asked.

                “What is it?” Joan replied.

                “I think I’m going to accept the offer on joining the Virtue Girls.” She answered. “I’ll most likely protect my children better this way.”

                Hikari walked up the stairs into her older brother’s bedroom to see his older brother, Shingen. He was tired and laying in bed in his pajamas. She brought in a box of tissues as he sneezed.

                “Why did this have to happen?” Shingen stated.

                “You didn’t get this cold intentionally.” Hikari replied. “So, no one can blame you.”

                “This stinks.” He replied looking up at the clock. “Oh great, I need to get going.”

                “What for?” she asked.

                “I have to get the club open.” He answered.

                “NO!!” she stated sternly. “You are to stay in bed. You need to recover from this sickness and you can’t spread it to any clubbers.”

                “I have to leave early.” he replied. “There was a big rave tonight; everything needs to get ready. If I can’t do it, then who?” Hikari ended up thinking about it.

                “I’ll do it.” she replied.

                “Are you sure?” He asked her. “You don’t have any clubbing experience, you’re so busy training you never went out to have any fun.”

                “Don’t worry.” Hikari replied. “I can handle this.” Then, her brother sighed.

                “Okay, sis.” He responded. “I’ll have to let Kenshin know that you are coming.” He picked up his phone.

                “Kenshin?” she asked.

                “He is my partner who runs the club.” He explained. “He, also, works as a bartender; so, he’ll help you if need be.” He dialed the number and called Kenshin to explain the situation; He finally agreed to let Hikari take his place. “Okay, you’re all set.” He tossed Hikari the keys. “Give it your all out there. Remember the rave starts at 10PM tonight.” Hikari picked up the keys and left.

                “Okay.” she said as she left. She went outside and hopped onto her bicycle and started heading to her brother’s club, Naoki Dance Club. It was a fair ride on her bicycle; she reached a rather large building with an arched entryway and a picture of two dancers above the door. She put her bike on the bike rack nearby and put the key in the lock. An pale skin man with a scar over his left eye appeared behind her.

                “Hey, who are you?” She asked him.

                “I’m Kenshin.” He stated. “You must be Shingen’s little sister.”

                “Uh, yeah.” She answered, a little nervous.

                “I was expecting you.” He answered. “Since Shingen isn’t around, I’ll be in charge. Got that?”

                “Got it.” Hikari sighed.

                “Good, now we need to get the stuff ready for the rave.” He explained. “This will be the first rave we ever had, so everything must be perfect.”

                It reached ten PM on the clock as the Naoki Dance Club opened up its doors to a long line of ravers and bar patrons at the door. The trance and electronic house music was filling the air. Most of the guests went out to the dancefloor and started dancing immediately. Others went to the walls and started to chit-chat with each other.

                Hikari was working at the bar serving drinks to the patrons, while Kenshin was making them. She looked around and saw a couple come up to the counter. She saw it was Cheyenne and Mikey; they were dressed up in neon.

                “Oh Cheyenne.” Hikari said.

                “Oh. Hi, Hikari.” Cheyenne stated waving.

                “What are you doing here?” She asked.

                “My boyfriend and I are here for the rave.” She answered. “What are you doing here?”

                “I had to take my brother’s place at the bar.” Hikari answered. “He’s sick right now.”

                “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Cheyenne said. “Anyway, we’re going to go dance.”

                “Okay, you two have fun.” she responded.

                “We will.” Cheyenne answered. The two went onto the dance floor and began to dance with each other. The two laughed.

                “You’re good at dancing as always.” Cheyenne said.

                “You don’t have to say that.” Mikey replied.

                “Babe, I’m just saying as it is.” She answered. They got up close to each other.

                “These lights remind me of the day we first met.” He said.

                It was a few years ago, at a rave. Cheyenne was by herself at the rave. She was wondering around. She ended up bumping into a guy who was dancing and fell down. He turned and noticed her and stopped dancing.

                “Hey there, are you alright?” he asked reaching out his hand.

                “Uh… thanks.” She answered grabbing his hand; he helped her get back up.

                “Are you new around here?” he asked.

                “Yeah, I am.” She replied.

                “My name is Mikey.” He said. “What’s your name?”

                “I’m Cheyenne.” She answered.

                “Nice to meet you.” He said, smiling.

                “Same here.” She replied.

                “What brings you out here?”

                “I was actually snuck out.”

                “Of where?” He asked interested.

                “There was this rich man’s party I was supposed to attend.” She said.

                “Why didn’t you go there?”

                “Because the rich mens’ parties are so boring.” Cheyenne explained. “I don’t want to go to them.” She sighed.

                “Well, you can always rave.” He said, reaching out his hand. “Have you attended a rave before?”

                “No.” She answered.

                “Well, here we just dance to the music anyway you want.” He answered.

                “Okay, I guess I can try.” Cheyenne smiled and the two started dancing with each other.

                “Hey,” a random person stated. “Why are you to just standing there?” The two snapped out of their flashback. “You should be dancing.” Then, Mikey and Cheyenne were now doing the bump together. They smiled and looked into each others’ eyes.

                “I had so much fun that night.” She said.

                “And I hope we have many more fun nights together.” He replied. The two got close to each other and kissed on the lips.

                Meanwhile, Hikari was attending to the bar top when she noticed another girl come up to the bar. The girl had tanned skin and honey eyes. She also had chestnut shaggy hair. She wore light tan leather pants and a white cotton shirt.

                “Hey,” the girl said. “Is it okay if I get something to drink?” Hikari saw her.

                “I remember you.” Hikari said. “You were the girl who called me flat.”

                “Huh?” she asked. “I don’t even know you. What are you talking about?”

                “At the renaissance fair, you called me flat.” She explained.

                “I don’t remember seeing you there.” the woman replied. Hikari thought for a minute.

                “You are named Flora, right?” Hikari asked.

                “How do you know my name?” Flora asked.

                “You told me your name while you were drunk.” She said. “My name is Hikari.”

                “Hey, I’m feeling a little tired right now.” She said.

                “Okay, just take a rest on the bar.” Hikari stated.

                Over on the side, there was a DJ shaking from fear. He wore a stocking cap on with this purple sweater and jeans.

                “Oh man, oh man.” he stated. “This is my first live performance. I have to go out there when I’m called.” He moved but stopped. “No, what if I screw up? Then, the whole thing is ruined.” He wanted to move out there, but couldn’t. Then, Nero came up from behind him.

                “What are you doing?” he asked him. The DJ was spooked. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

                “Oh.” the DJ said.

                “What’s bothering you?” Nero asked. “Perhaps, I can help with you.”

                “I’m just so nervous on going out there.” the DJ replied.

                “Just go out there and have fun.” Nero said.

                “Oh, thank you.” The DJ stated.

                “Certainly go out there…” Nero said as he prepared his shir punch. “And do it.” He struck him with the punch. The DJ corrupted from the dark energy he absorbed.

                “It’s time for me to go on stage now.” The DJ said in a droned voice.

                “Don’t fail me.” Nero replied. “Make their feet bleed.”

                “I will.” Nero fled into the background. Then, the DJ was called to the stage. The announcer came onto the speakers.

                “And now, our opening act will come on stage to get the party started.” he stated. “DJ Farlands.” The DJ hooked up his computer to the systems and started up his new tracks. They were getting everyone on the dance floor and on their feet.

                Hikari noticed the new energy that was in the air from all of the people dancing. She turned towards Kenshin.

                “Everyone out there is dancing.” she said.

                “I’m having a problem back here.” Kenshin stated. Hikari went away from the bar to the back.

                “What’s wrong?” Hikari asked. She noticed that Kenshin was dancing to the music as well. “Why are you dancing?”

                “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Kenshin answered. “Stop me from dancing.”

                “Why can’t you do it yourself?” Hikari said.

                “I tried my body is not responding to what I tell it to.” He said. “Try to move away from the music. Can you do that?”

                “I’ll try that.” He said. She noticed that Flora was still resting on counter top. She went over and woke her up.

                “Huh? What?” Flora asked.

                “How come you aren’t dancing?” Hikari asked.

                “I was talking to some guy.” She said.

                “What guy?” Hikari asked.

                “Some guy named John.” Flora replied. “He said I was capable to be one of the Virtue Girls. I asked if I could join. He said yeah.”

                “Oh…” Hikari said.

                “Then, he said some strange words.” She stated.

                “Okay,” Hikari replied looking around. “Apparently, there is something strange with the music.”

                “It’s called trance and electronic music.” Flora answered.

                “Not that.” She answered. “I saw the guys in the back can’t stop dancing, even if they wanted to. There’s dark magic involved.”

                “We’re going to find the source and take it down?” Flora asked.

                “Yeah.” Hikari answered. “You’re a Virtue Girl now. Let’s hurry somewhere and transform.” Then, the strobe lights came on with the music.

                “Or do it now while no one can see the change.” Flora said.

                “Come on.” Hikari said. The two headed to the restroom and Hikari transformed. Flora began her transformation sequence. She was wrapped up in light.

                Her outfit started to crack from the pressure of another outfit underneath. Then it shattered to pieces being replaced by an orange top and skirt. She had lighter lacing under the skirt and lighter gloves and boots. On her chest was a plumb of light orange with an amber gem in the center. Then, a stone pillar came up from the ground and she grabbed it. It formed a macuahuitl with a wooden handle and flint teeth.

                The two girls came out of the restroom and turned to look around. They also noticed that the DJ was not affected by the music either. Then, the DJ noticed them.

                “Why aren’t you to dancing to the music?” the DJ said. “You should be dancing to it.”

                “So you are the one who’s keeping the audience dancing.” Hikari answered.

                “I’m the DJ.” he replied. “I’m supposed to have them dance.”   

                “But not everyone wants to dance.”

                “You are wrong. All people love to dance.” he stated. “And you threaten the dance.” He moved onto the turntable. “I will have to eliminate you from the area.” He turned. “Security.” But the bouncer was dancing too. “I guess I’ll have to do this myself.” He leapt off of the table and onto the dance floor as the beats dropped. The dancers moved out of the way.

                “Oh how convenient.” Flora stated.

                The lights lowered with the music and two records appeared in his hands. He threw his records towards the girls. The girls dodged out of the way; the records were flying around the room going in for another run. Flora blocked one with her sword as Hikari blocked the other.

                Hikari swung her katana at the DJ, he dodged out of the way. She stopped in her tracks to avoid hitting the bystanders.

                “We got to be careful here.” Hikari said.

                “I can tell.” Flora added. “Hey DJ Farce, follow me.”

                “You take that back.” the DJ stated.

                “No, follow me.” She responded.

                “You’re going to get it.” He focused on Flora and got his two records and they were flying to Flora and she got out of the way. Flora got up onto the countertop.

                “You don’t have very good aim do you.” She said provoking him again. He ran up to her cracking his knuckles. He punched towards her and she dodged out of the way. He sent the records flying towards her again. She smashed them with her blade.

                “I have more records where those came from.” He stated and two more appeared and they were sent flying towards Flora. Hikari noticed where the records came from; they were from the turntable.

                “I got it.” Hikari thought to herself. Flora created some rocks that formed in her hand and tossed them at the records. Breaking them apart in the instant they came into contact. Hikari was noticing that the turntable was connected to the computer.

                “I’ll win this battle.” He stated. He generated sixteen records from the turntable raising them into the air. “See if you can dodge this.” The records were flying towards Flora. At that moment, Hikari was able to disconnect the computer from the turntable. Then the records fell to the ground breaking apart. “My records.” Flora formed a rock and threw it at the DJ, knocking him out.

                “We’re clear.” Flora said to Hikari.

                “Let’s get him out of here.” Hikari stated. They rushed the unconscious DJ out of the facility and tied him up with rope, so he won’t cause them trouble.

                Cheyenne went outside to get some air. At that moment when she was heading back in Mikey came outside to check up on her.

                “Babe?” Mikey asked. “Are you feeling alright?”

                “I’m fine, Mikey.” Cheyenne replied.

                “I know there is something on your mind.” He said.

                “It’s a little hard to say it.” She answered.

                “Tell me. What is it?” Mikey said; he jostled with her for a little bit.

                “I’m pregnant.” She said. Mikey was very shocked at this news. “What?” She started to be upset.

                “I never expected that to happen.” He stated.

                “I know.” She responded. “I don’t know why that was the case.” The two of them remained quiet for some time. The two hugged each other.

                “I don’t know what to do.” he said. “But I know for certain. I will help you with the child.”

                “You will?” Cheyenne looked up at him.

                “I will.” He said. “I ended up being raised by a single mom. She had me when she was sixteen and I never knew my father.” He paused. “I don’t want your child to have the same fate that I had long ago. So, I’ll aid you by whatever means necessary.”

                “Oh, thank you, Mikey.” Cheyenne said.

                “You’re welcome, babe.” He replied and they remained together for the rest of the night.

                Maria was at the headquarters with Joan. Maria was sitting on the couch reading a comic book, while Joan was on the computer; she was getting frustrated. There was J-pop music on the internet radio that Joan was playing.

                “Ugh.” She said.

                “What’s wrong, Joan?” Maria said.

                “I have to complete a term paper for my teacher.” Joan replied.

                “What’s the term paper about?”

                “It’s about internet media.” She said.

                “That’s outside what I know about.” Maria replied, shaking her head. “Perhaps you can ask Dymphna to help you with that.”

                “Okay.” She said, getting up and taking her computer with her. She gently walked up to Dymphna’s room and knocked on her door.

                “Yes?” Dymphna asked softly.

                “Hey Dymphna.” Joan said. “Can you help me with a term paper?”

                “Sure, come in.” She replied and Joan entered her room. Maria just sat back on her recliner with her comic book.

                “Finally, I can get back to my Agent Jupiter comic book.” She said. “This is a huge event: He’s getting married to his lover in this issue. Let’s finish this issue.” Then, the telephone rang. Maria grunted out of frustration. “Who can be calling now?” She went over and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

                “Well, if it isn’t Maria.” the voice stated.

                “Jezebel.” Maria answered.

                “I was intending to call Cheyenne.” Jezebel stated. “I wanted to find out if she had fun with her boyfriend like I suggested.”

                “So you were the one giving her the suggestions.” Maria stated in anger. “How dare you.”

                “So? What are you going to do about it?” Jezebel demanded. “You going to attack me?”

                “If you don’t hang up, I’ll consider doing to just that.” She responded.

                “Oh, scared are we?” Jezebel mocked her. “Meet me in fifteen minutes at the fork at Limbo Street and will duke it out.” She paused. “And don’t late, bitch.”

                “You’re toast when I get there, slime ball.” Maria shouted; then she slammed the phone down. She picked up her coat. She headed out slamming the door behind her.

                “What was that about?” Dymphna asked.

                “I don’t know.” Joan answered.

                “Let’s just get back to the paper.” Dymphna stated. “I see that the main body for the paper is good, but you need to improve on citing your sources.” She paused. “And you can’t use Mikipedia as a source.”

                Maria Ciliega came out to the location in which Jezebel had told her. She looked at the watch she was wearing and saw it was five minutes past the deadline.

                “And she has the nerve of being late, when she frames me for it.” Maria went to pull out her comic book.

                “And your short attention span wins out.” Jezebel stated as she appeared from behind a street light post. She was same build as Maria but only slightly taller. She had long feathered auburn hair and green eyes. She had an ivory short-sleeve shirt and a tan knee-long skirt. “It’s been a long time hasn’t it.”

                “There you are, Jezebel.” Maria replied.

                “It still amazes me how you became friends with Cheyenne again.” She replied. “She was the rich girl who went to a private school when she turned fourteen.”

                “I still try to keep in contact with her.” She said.

                “She was out of our league, Maria.” Jezebel responded. “And you know that. All three of were friends since we all met in elementary school.”

                “I still tried to be friends with her.” She said. “Unlike you.”

                “Don’t be too hasty now.” She rebuked in reply. “We had our own fame together; all needed was you and me. Just look at the two of us back then. We were the most popular girls in high school but I was just a little more. And I was the most active.”

                “I know where this is going.” Maria said. “It’ll go back to October 2^nd won’t it.”

                “You didn’t deserve to be the Fall Homecoming Queen, I did. You were paired with my old boyfriend too. I just had to settle with just being a court member. I’ll never forgive you for that.”

                “You are going to make my life and Cheyenne’s life miserable over a social title!?” Maria exclaimed.  “I never did anything with your boyfriend nor did I want to. He’s the all-star football player who had a school-wide harem of twenty girls.”

                “But I was his favorite.” Jezebel rebuked her. “I’ll make you suffer like I did.”

                “It seems like I’ll have to settle this myself if word convince you.”

                “I’m not the one who needs convincing here.” Then, six other girls showed up and they surrounded her.

                “What’s the meaning of this?” Maria said.

                “You actually thought I was going to fight you alone?” Jezebel stated. “I brought my whole gang with me, the Deva Girls.” She turned to the other girls. “Introduce yourselves to our guest.” The first girl was a smaller girl with white skin, blackish-brown hair arranged with odangos with pigtails coming from them, and brown eyes. She was wearing a shirt stained with blood and jeans and was playing with a pocket knife.

                “I’m Shinku.” She said with a monotone voice. “If Jezebel told me to cut your throat open, I would have already done so.” She cut her hand getting blood on the knife and she started to lick the blood off of it.

                The second girl was bigger than the others and slightly overweight. Maria thought she had freckles but on closer inspection those were just food crumbs. She had golden blonde hair arranged as a chignon and had green eyes. She had a green shirt with shorts.

                “Just call me, Leota.” she answered.

                Then two girls walked up. One of them had fair skin and just as busty as Dymphna. She had deep blue eyes that almost appeared as purple and her medium shaggy hair was dyed light blue. She was wearing a red crop top and miniskirt. The other had darker skin with grey eyes and black hair like cornrows. She was wearing a hoodie with the hood cut off and baggy pants.

                “I remember you two.” She answered. “I saw you in the park the other day.”

                “I’m surprised that was you who distracted us.” the lighter one said. “They call me Delilah.” She closely looked over Maria moving around. “And I say, you have such a nice, sexy body.” And she touched Maria’s butt. Maria slapped her across the face.

                “HANDS OFF, LECHER!!” Maria shouted at her.

                “Delilah?” the dark one asked pouting. “Why are you looking over her? Why not me?”

                “I need a break once and a while, Lilith.” Delilah replied walking back to her. “Don’t be mad at me.” The two kissed.

                “Don’t worry, I’m not.” Lilith replied as they continued kissing deeper, moving back as Delilah kissed her chest. The sixth girl came up. She was the same as Lilith except she had dark brown spikey hair. She was a sweater and jean shorts.

                “I’m Tia, the fraternal twin sister of Lilith.” the girl stated. “I don’t mind about Lilith’s relations with Delilah.” She looked at her. “You do have nice clothes though. It would be bad for you if they were taken.”

                Then, the last girl came up to her. Maria’s face turned green and she covered her nose for she smelled as though she hadn’t taken a bath in a month. The girl’s breath was even worse. She had a long straight cinnamon brown hair with matching eyes. She was just wearing orange and green pajamas.

                “Lastly, I’m Bertha.” the girl said. She just stepped back.

                “And I am their greatest leader, Jezebel.” Jezebel stated. “Girls, you have free reign to do what you want with her.” She noticed that Shinku was started to smile her normally psychotic smile. “Except for killing her or putting her in a coma.” She stopped smiling and pulled out a steel bat instead. Then, the six other girls attacked Maria with Jezebel waiting.

                “Jezebel!!” Maria stated. “Why can’t you fight your own battles?” She dodged out of the way of each of the attacks.

                Meanwhile, in a nearby tree, Nero was up in the branches looking out towards the city areas. He was contemplating on the recent events.

                “It seems like my short-term schemes haven’t worked out very well.” he thought. “I’m going to need to have a better long-term plan.” He was thinking about it.

                Maria came underneath that same tree catching her breath as she was hiding from the other gang members. Then, she transformed under there unaware of Nero’s presence. She moved out from under the tree to face Jezebel that was the moment that Nero noticed the moment and faced her.

                “So, the leader of the Virtue Girls is here and hasn’t seen me yet.” he thought. “I’ll follow her at a distance.” He began to pursue her until she encountered Jezebel. Then, Nero stopped to hid behind another tree to watch.

                “Stop right there.” Maria stated. Jezebel turned to her. “You are to stop hurting innocent people this instant.”

                “What!?” Jezebel stated in surprise. “Breezy Girl? How did she…?” She paused and then smiled. “Oh, now I get it.”

                “What do get?” Maria asked her.

                “Oh nothing,” She responded. “You just had me a little surprised there for a minute, Maria.” Maria was shocked and was getting nervous.

                “Eh… I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She answered.

                “Don’t play dumb with me.” Jezebel rebuked. “I know clearly your identity.” Maria put her hand behind her neck and was sweating.

                “You kind of got me really confused for someone.” Maria lied. And she was doing a very poor job at it. Jezebel walked closer.

                “Oh please, you’re obviously lying.” She said. “You look and act like Maria, even to the point you have her voice. It’s extremely clear you’re still Maria.”

                “This woman.” He thought. “Perhaps she could be very useful indeed.” Maria saw it was hopeless trying to hide that fact after Jezebel knows the truth.

                “This always works in the magical girl shows.” Maria explained.

                “But there is one major flaw.” Jezebel replied. “This isn’t a television show.”

                “Of course, it isn’t TV.” Nero thought. “This is an online book.”

                “It doesn’t matter though.” Jezebel stated. “You’re still outnumbered seven to one. We’re still going to beat you, even with your powers.” Maria had her shield up as the girls came towards her. She didn’t bother pulling her sword out.

                Leota was going to tackle her and Maria dodged out of the way. Maria did a charging shield bash towards Bertha hitting her straight on and sending her flying backwards onto her back. Lilith came from the front and Delilah grabbed her from the back reaching for her chest. Maria grabbed the girl behind her and threw her hitting Lilith too.

                She turned and saw Shinku charging towards her swinging the bat like crazy. She stuck out her hand and blew a strong wind keeping Shinku away just out of range of her swinging. She held it as she turned around and was hit by several stones thrown be Bertha. She also saw Leota coming her way as well. She turned her other hand to the ground and shot a powerful gust.

                She flew into the air as Shinku rushed forward slamming into Leota. The two of them knocked the wind out of each other. Tia came forward and started kicking at her. Maria used her shield to block the kicks. Maria grabbed both of Tia’s legs and threw her towards Bertha, hitting her and removing her from the battle.

                Lastly she saw Lilith and Delilah coming her way. She ran to the side removing her shield and holding it. She used her wind to flip up Lilith’s skirt. Delilah got distracted by Lilith’s panties giving Maria a chance. Maria got behind Delilah and clobbered her with her shield, knocking her out. As Lilith got her skirt back down, Maria knocked her out too. Maria turned to Jezebel and she got incredibly angry at her.

                “NO FAIR!!” Jezebel shouted. “YOU CHEATED!! I am going to take you down myself.” Maria went up to her and knocked her down with a single punch.

                “I don’t want to see your face again.” Maria said sternly. “And I don’t want to hear you call Cheyenne ever again.”

                “I swear it, Maria.” Jezebel said on her back with her eyes closed. “I will have my revenge one day.”Maria turned away.

                “Good night, Jezebel.” Maria stated as she ran off. Nero came out of hiding after Maria had left.

                “Hmm, that didn’t end well.” Nero said. “But I will check on this Jezebel.” He went over to her and held her in his arms taking off his helmet. He had light skin like Jonathan and short straight dark brown hair. He had one blue eye on the left side and one red eye on the right side.

                “Hey.” he stated calling to her. Jezebel opened her eyes seeing Nero and she blushed.

                “Oh hey, handsome.” She said. “What’s your name?”

                “I go by Nero.” He said. “And you?”

                “I’m Jezebel. Nice to meet you.” She answered.

                “Are you alright?” Nero asked her helping her stand up.

                “I just hate that Maria.” She said. “She just humiliated me and my Deva Girls.”

                “Listen, I think I can help you out.” He said.

                “How so?”

                “I’m going to fund a project to make some super-powered soldiers to combat the Virtue Girls.” He said. “Perhaps I can help you with your revenge too.”

                “You do that?” Jezebel asked.

                “I will.” Nero said smirking.

                “Thank you, Nero.” Jezebel answered. “You’re so fine and handsome.” She got near him and grabbed hold of his hand and hugged his arm. He blushed.

                “Just one thing.” He stated. “What do you know about that Maria?”

                “I’ll tell you everything.” She said. “Let’s get the Deva Girls involved.”

                “I can do that as well.” He answered. “All of them.” Jezebel told him all that she knew about Maria Ciliega. She was sitting right next to Nero.

                “I see.” He stated. “So, she is one of the Virtue Girls that I’m fighting.”

                “So, are we going to attack her friends and family?” Jezebel said eagerly.

                “Not so fast, Jezebel.” He replied. “We can go a lot farther with this information than just target practice.”

                “You have a plan?” She asked.

                “I do.” He said. “I can tell you what it is.”

    The girls, in their maiden forms, went over to the intersection that Nero was going to meet them, if they wanted to battle. They looked around and didn’t see him.
    “Where is he?” Maria thought to herself.
    “I’m down here, girls.” he stated echoing. The girls looked down and they noticed that the man hole was open. “If you want to fight me, you are going to have to follow me to the arena.”
    “Do we have to go down into the sewer?” Joan asked. “It’s all dark, icky and gross; and full of vermin.”
    “What’s wrong with you, Joan?” Flora asked. “Afraid of getting a little dirty?”
    “I just…” Joan said.
    “Come on, let’s go.” Flora said.
    “Does anyone have a flashlight?” Maria asked.
    “I didn’t bring one.” Hikari answered.
    “Well, somebody must have brought one.” Reina said. Then, Reina and Flora looked at Joan.
    “What are you looking at me for?” Joan asked uncomfortably.
    “Okay, Joan. Your first going down the hole.” Reina replied picking her up.
    “Hey, put me down.” Joan said struggling.
    “Okay, hold on to the rail.” Reina answered.
    “What?” Joan said grabbing the rail. Then, Reina let go and Joan screamed as she went down the ladder into the sewer. She landed on her two feet.
    “You all right?”
    “You should have warned me you were going to do that.”
    “How’s it look?” Joan lit up a flame in her hand and looked around. It seemed to be empty as she threw the fire ball down the tunnel. She noticed Nero’s shadow on the wall at the far end.
    “I SEE HIM!!”
    “Let’s get down there.” Maria stated. Hikari went first, then Reina, then Maria, then the other girls went down into the sewer; the last one to go down was Dymphna.
    “Where was the shadow?” Maria asked.
    “That way.” Joan said.
    “Follow the sound of my voice, girls.” Nero stated and chuckling afterwards. The girls followed the echoes. “You’re getting closer.” He chuckled again. After the chuckle getting louder and louder, the girls came to a dead end and the laughter stopped.
    “Man, we came across a dead end.” Reina stated. The girls began to turn around but Christina stopped them.
    “Hold on a second.” She said walking up to the wall. Christina held up her hand to the wall as well as her ear. “I feel a breeze coming from the wall. We have to get this wall down.” Flora started using her rock powers to move it but was having trouble so the girls aided her. And they made a hole in the wall just large enough to walk through. The hole revealed a cave on the other side.
    “Continue on.” Nero stated.
    “Let’s get going.” Maria said. 
    The girls explored the cave, noticing the Karst features inside it. The area was very moist and dark; only Joan’s flame was their light. The sound of dripping water is heard in the background and a cool breeze blew through.
    “These are very odd formations in these walls.” Christina stated. The girls were continuing to go forward to the front.
    “STOP!!” Nero shouted not showing himself. “Don’t go anymore forward. There’s a huge drop right in front of you.” Joan sent her fireball forward and he was telling the truth. She sent the fireball to the left and the right, seeing it went on for a long distance on both sides.
    “Flora, can you check how big the drop is?” Joan asked. Flora sent a small rock into the wide pit. The girls waited for it to hit the bottom and they heard it after 20 seconds.
    “Yep, I might not be a scientist but that is way too deep for us to handle.” Flora stated.
    “Exactly, you’re looking around at least a quarter mile drop.” Nero stated. “I don’t want you girls to die prematurely.” Then, he chuckled. “Let me light things around here.”
    At that moment, the cavern started to become lit up. The light has shown that it was the ruins of an ancient city mixed in with the rocky cavern. The lights were not coming from torches but from glowing crystals that were sticking out of the wall. The girls were just in awe upon seeing this.
    “What is this place?” Dymphna asked noticing the elaborate crystalline circuitry on the wall shaped in various patterns. “Whoever built this must have technology hundreds, if not thousands, of years ahead of us.” Reina saw one of the spires had fallen over forming a bridge across the ravine.
    “Forget the tech here.” Reina responded. “We’ve found a way to cross. Let’s go.” The girls began to cross the ravine using the fallen spire.
    “And thus, the battlefield is now decided.” Nero stated. Then, he appeared on the other side of the ravine. He stepped onto the spire. “You were excellent on getting this far. But I will say this, this will be as far as you go.”
    “We are not going to lose to you, Nero.” Maria stated.
    “Is that so?” Nero replied in a mocking manner. “I guess Jonathan is going to help you? Oh wait, that’s right. He can’t. There will be no saving you this time.” He paused. “I have given you multiple times to surrender to the side of the elite. And you refuse, there’s no way you can win against us.”
    “And how is that?” Hikari asked.
    “We had planned for there to be an unruly lower class.” He explained. “This is why the elite brought out Tezcatlipoca to help us develop the Amazo-specs. When you girls eliminated him, we have decided to frack on the place where Glooskap was resting with the intention on waking him up and sending him into a berserk rage. We would then manipulate him into doing our dirty work.”
    “We’ll beat you.” Joan stated. “Then, report you to the police.”
    “And even if you do survive, there is no way you can report this to the authorities.” Nero said. “Where is your proof?” The girls said nothing. “There is no way you can ever stand a chance against me and the elite. For we are the gods of this world and I am their king. And if you join me,” He faced Maria. “I shall make you my queen…” He faced the rest of the girls. “and you my most prized mistresses.”
    “Blasphemy!!” Christina shouted.
    “I said ‘no’ once; And I’ll say it again.” Maria stated. “I refuse to follow you.”
    “Very well, then. That was your last chance.” Nero stated as he pulled out his saber; the balde came out of the handle. “Now, you girls have to die in this dark place.” He swung his saber down the girls dodged out of the way; then he swept his blade across the area.
    Reina sent out a bolt of lightning as Hikari rushed forward. Nero dodged out of the way of the bolt and blocked Hikari’s attack with this blade. He parried her attacks then teleported toward the back of the group. Maria noticed him behind her and was barely able to block the incoming attack. Maria punched him knocking him back.
    As the girls faced him, he adjusted the blade. The first blade shortened and a second blade came out of the other end. When Maria blew a gust of wind at him, she turned his blade to chop up the wind. Christina advanced forward and Nero stopped spinning the blade, blocking her attacks. Joan send forward a fireball. It hit Nero in the chest. Christina took the opportunity to strike Nero’s chest and it hit. Nero rushed back.
    “You think a simple slash is going to finish me?” Nero stated. “Think again.” He activated a switch on the wall. A nearby weapons defense system had activated. A large drone started to head towards the girls. It was carrying a gatling gun. It fired upon the girls as it flew by; the girls were able to dodge the bullets.
    Nero came back onto the field again rushing past each of the girls with his twin blades. All of the girls had to block the attack. He twirled around slashing and kicking as he went. Dymphna was able to hit one of his feet with ice. He had to stop spinning to maintain his balance.
    Reina rushed forward with Flora. Nero was able to block their attacks simultaneously. He noticed the drone was going around in order to make a second run. He teleported out of the way. Flora saw the drone doing this as well. She hurled a rock at it hitting it directly. The drone was shaking as it flew towards the girls. They got out of the way as it crashed into the fallen spire. The spire tilted by 15 degrees making it unstable to stand on.
    “Be careful, girls.” Maria stated. Nero was standing on the other side of the platform. Maria headed forward with her blade and shield in hand. She dodged and blocked his attacks; then the two entered a deadlock.
    “Had enough yet?” Nero said.
    “That depends on what the question’s about.” Maria rebuked.
    “You should remember that the highest does fall.” Nero remarked.
    “And that…” Maria said changing her footing. “You’re correct.” She thrusted herself forward with all her strength. She fell to her hands and knees as she knocked Nero over the edge of the spire.
    “THIS ISN’T OVER YET, GIRLS!!” Nero shouted as he fell into the ravine. “I SWEAR IT!!” He disappeared into the shadows below.
    “We did it.” Dymphna said. “We actually did it.” The girls began to cheer, but then there was a great rumbling on the spire.
    “Oh no.” Flora stated. And the spire broke loose and began to tumble down with the girls on it. Maria quickly gathered all of the girls together to say some final words to them. But reflexively they used their powers while linked up.
    Then, there was a light below them. What appeared to be a giant dove made of blue flame appeared. It gave out a loud cry as fourteen licks of fire came up to the girls; two onto each of their backs. Then, wings sprouted where the licks landed. Without saying a word, the girls were able to fly from the falling spire back up to the top of the building. They landed softly on it and turned seeing the dove flying up towards them. Then, the girls blacked out…
    
    When Maria came to, she was laying in a bed. She looked around and was able to figure out that this was her room at the hideout.
    “Huh?” She thought. “When did I get here?” Then, John came in. He was in a human form.
    “Maria. You’re okay.” he stated.
    “Oh, John.” she said. “What happened? Am I dreaming or something?”
    “I noticed you were waking up.” He said.
    “How are you in your human form?” She asked.
    “I was able to make a full recovery.” He said. “I didn’t expect to be able to appear in human form here either to be honest.”
    “Wait, where are the others?” she asked.
    “They are downstairs waiting for you.” he replied. She headed down the steps and just like he said everyone was waiting for her.
    “Morning, sleepyhead.” Joan stated.
    “I decided to make pancakes.” Christina said while in the kitchen with Cheyenne.
    “Do you think we have enough pancake mix for everyone?” Cheyenne asked her.
    “I’m certain we’ll have enough.” Christina responded. Maria looked and saw Hikari and Reina resting on the couch.
    “No sparring today?” Maria asked.
    “We just got done fighting Nero.” Reina stated. “You think we have the energy for dat right now?”
    “We agreed to rest up before going back to our normal routine.” Hikari explained. Maria saw that Joan and Dymphna were on the computer playing their MMO. She sat down at the table with Flora. She was having a beer at the time.
    “Well, Maria.” Flora said. “That was fun. Thanks for bringing me along.”
    “You’re welcome, Flora.” She answered.
    “You are something else. I tell ya.” She said. “I bet you’ll make a great leader for the team.”
    “Okay.” Maria said. She went outside to look at the surroundings. The sun glistened down on her and the setting. She looked around. “Even though it’s still the same place. It feels different here.” She thought. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m curious to find out. I’ll continue being a Virtue Girl and see where it leads me.”