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

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

  My mi like it was moving at a snail's pace, but I could still process the se in front of me. I gnced around, and saw that Elysia had created a rge yered shield that protected us from the bst. It looked like the missiles had destroyed the back half of the restaurant.

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

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

  "E-Elysia?"

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

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

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

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

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

  "e out and give yourself up, lil' man, or else I'm gonna hafta use more o'these here explosives," he said. "I ain't gettin' paid ra to keep ya alive if yer a lil' roughed up, y'hear?"

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

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

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

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

  He poihe glowing sword at Bck Star.

  "I re we take care of this qui' easy. tract's a capture job. Alive. Yer a lil' rascal, ain'tcha?"

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

  "Lux..." she whispered.

  I gulped.

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

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

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

  "Enrico!" Cw Strawberry cried. "No!"

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

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

  Bck Star's expression turned dark.

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

  His expression ged to one of pure rage as a terrifying realization came over him. His eyes went wide, his pupils tracted, and his hands ched.

  "It 't be," he whispered.

  Scrapper Scuttler ughed, his voice crag with static through the mask's audio modutor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Yer all loose ends," Scrapper Scuttler said.

  We were going to die.

  We were all going to die.

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

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

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

  There were probably shrapnel ihat were desigo pee magical shields and defeo take out magical girls.

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

  "Lux," he whispered gently in my ear.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

  That was right.

  Someone. Something was affeg our auras.

  Making us... terrified. Giving us visions.

  pliant.

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

  It wasn't just bd blue, it had a sickly green areak that was moving throughout. The bd the blue, it was just a cloak, an outer shell.

  My aura sight was letting me pierce the veil.

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

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

  The man wasn't a monster, he was just... a normal, albeit very powerful, merary. I could sehat he'd had enhas, but not many.

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

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

  "Sparkle Princess?" Bck Star whispered.

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

  ...

  "Ah, dangnabbit. Not these s again."

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

  I closed my eyes, seizing on the momentary distra to reach out with my Luminary version teique.

  The moment I did, my senses were flooded with information. I could see the sickly red and green magining through everyone's auras, like a virus. It was plicated and sophisticated. It would be impossible for ao detect without aremely advanced form of magical sense. But I knew what to look for because of Stel.

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

  I reached out with my aura. And grabbed.

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

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

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

  "'Tis a pleasure! Aero Art: Dynamitry!"

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

  The armored man swung his glowing sword to intercept.

  Then, I felt another wave of magical energy.

  It wasn't the merary, this o came from the newer. A surge of blue and purple.

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

  "Howling Fist: Heavenly Strike!"

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

  The merary's armor crumpled, and his body was sent flying back, his glowing bde flying off in a different dire, vanishing in a fsh of light. The merary was sent tumbling through the air like a ragdoll.

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

  Another bright yellow aura separated from the green et, s over the armored merary and smashing into the pavement in front of us.

  I gasped in surprise as a tall, muscur man wearing a Roma pte with a stepped out of the smoke and fmes.

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

  The newer with the purple aura dashed over to Cw Strawberry, kneeling down beside her.

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

  "C-Cw Currant?!" I gasped.

  "Big... big bro?" Ichigo echoed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Hark! A knight of justice is upon the se, and thou art a foul creature of evil that doth wish to cause pain upon these i souls! Thou art a vilin, a sce, a pgue!"

  The streak of green light circled around us one more time, before ndio him.

  "Fear not, friends! We are the knights who e to vanquish evil, to sy the vilinous monsters of darkness, to restore order to a chaotic world, and to protect the meek and i!"

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

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

  "Braveheart Gryphon!"

  "Braveheart Kitsune!"

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

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

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

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

  I looked around, stu the sudden appearance of the trio.

  ...

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

  "Thankfully..." I answered.

  They might have been cheesy, over the top idiots.

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

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