Thunder and lightning cracked.

  Marloes was tired of the explosive sounds and the bright flashes, dampened though they were by her helmet’s functions. She had tired of them since the first ten minutes of the typhoon reaching Tokyo.

  Rain fell in an unending torrent.

  Marloes was tired of feeling like a lake was constantly being dropped on her head by a lakeomancer. If there was such a class, she decided that she hated them. Not that it actually affected her thanks to her armor.

  Still, it wasn’t all that bad, again, thanks to her armor. Without it she would’ve been wet, deaf and blind.

  She leapt across the rooftops of skyscrapers vainly chasing a raging, destructive fight.

  The predictive combat virtual intelligence algorithm thing in her armor struggled to chart a steady track. It kept throwing two separate and wildly divergent ones up on her HUD.

  The two combatants were moving across the landscape so fast that even she was struggling to follow the action.

  The outworld invader with the skin color of dark and bright halves split down his center grappled with a blue oni that reminded her of a more chiseled sumo wrestler. The latter dwarfed the former. Like said sumo wrestler to a child.

  “Switch to emergency channel. Prepare to receive video. Seeking guidance.”

  Silence.

  Cal?

  Silence.

  She sighed.

  Not entirely unexpected with the crucial ops the others were undertaking.

  More concerning was her inability to reach home base despite satellite links.

  “Hi! Hi! Sparkle-sama! I put them somewhere safe and I’m ready to help again! Where are you? You’re moving so fast!”

  And yet, her fellow mahou shoujo could reach her just fine.

  The comms issues had to be because of something in the black clouds above the city.

  “I can see you on my minimap. Is yours malfunctioning?”

  “Nope!”

  “Then why—” she shook her head. “Never mind.”

  Her mind worked quickly. Balanced right on the edge of the franticness that accompanied combat. Assessing threats. To her. To the people in the closest emergency shelters. To those that, for whatever reason, hadn’t been able to make it to a bunker and were forced to shelter in place. In their homes or the sturdiest buildings nearby or the empty parking structures.

  Hundreds, thousands of people in potential life-threatening danger depending on which of the two projected combat tracks in her HUD ended up by correct.

  What could she do?

  Evacuate them out of the way?

  Impossible with the wind and debris.

  She was safe in her armor and mahou shoujo-ness, but a civilian probably didn’t have the gear, the spells or Skills to survive, let alone run.

  “Sparkle-sama, what do you want us to do?” Dashing Bandit Celebration chirped.

  Marloes thought as she continued to dash and leap after the two powerful monsters. It as all she could do to keep them within visual range even with the assistance from her armor’s thrusters.

  Could she and Dashing Bandit Celebration’s stupid Justice Squad or Avenging-whatever somehow herd the vicious cat battle away from civilians?

  Perhaps out of the populated portions of the city entirely?

  “Us?”

  “Oh, yeah! I found a few others or maybe they found me?”

  Marloes could picture the other mahou shoujo’s carefree shrug.

  “Who’s with you?”

  She hoped it would be enough to change the calculation that kept coming up negative for the civilians.

  “Um, let’s see… there’s Koomba, Goopa, Am— nope! That’s your name because your hat makes your head look like a mushroom and you’re called that because you have turtles!”

  Marloes only got one side of the argument.

  “I’m your big sister. It’s my duty to give you your names— yeah, yeah, I know you have names, whatever— well, sorry, Koomba, but I have you beat by at least three months. So, you have to listen to me, nyeh! Goopa, please summon your turtle pok— what? Not one? You keep it in a ball that you throw to summon turtle-chan. How is that not a pok— I don’t care that your ball is black and silver and not red and white. How do I know you didn’t just paint it like that, hmmm? I think I remember they were red and white when you were a little boy— it doesn’t matter that I’m only two years older than you. As your big sis, I matured earlier anyways.”

  “Listen,” she said. “Leave anyone not near your level.” She shared her plan with the other mahou shoujo, hoping that nothing would be lost or messed up in the subsequent game of telephone.

  It wasn’t the dire type of hope.

  Dashing Bandit Celebration was a competent professional when it mattered despite the facade she presented for her personal amusement.

  “Awesome, Sparkle-sama. Amuro’s giant robot can carry us! What? Yeah, I know that’s not your name— and code name, but I’m even more your big sis, so, nyeh… anyways, we’re on our way Sparkle-sama. Team Justice Strike to the rescue!”

  Incoming projectile warning blared and flashed in Marloes helmet.

  Mid leap wasn’t a good place to be when taking a shot.

  Lucky for her she had beyond human agility, reflexes and thrusters.

  She fired them, twisting her body just enough to allow the chunk of building to skim underneath her back like she just cleared a high jump bar.

  The outworld invader glared at her from the distance.

  He had somehow found the time to kick the small car-sized chunk of rubble the blue oni had tried to smash him with her way.

  She supposed he must’ve decided to try something else than hitting her with lightning bolts that did nothing to her armor.

  He was going to need something magical or Skill-based to tickle her. Even then, she had magic gems and magitech to blunt some of that nonsense.

  She thought cybernetic thoughts, locking on the dark and bright outworlder.

  The blue oni hadn’t done anything to her, had barely given any indication he noticed her existence.

  Better to not poke that big, muscular bear prematurely.

  Micromissiles streaked from hidden launchers.

  The outworlder glared her way, sending a bolt of lightning streaking down from the pitch black skies. It sliced through the rain, igniting the missiles well short of her target.

  She lost sight of the two as their brawl carried them off a roof and behind the building.

  Repositioning in a hurry she reacquired them down on the empty street in ankle-deep water flowing like a rapid river.

  Micromissiles away… and… another lightning bolt.

  Thus, she shot the outworlder in both eyes, point-blank with her best AP bullets.

  He blinked.

  She watched the deformed bullets deflect off his eyelids.

  It wasn’t a complete waste since she gave the blue oni a split-second opening in which he managed to grab the outworlder’s head like a ball and proceeded to slam him into the street like there was a fire that needed putting out.

  All the while Marloes peppered that strange half dark, half bright body with every exotic bullet in her arsenal.

  Alas, nothing did any lasting damage beyond smudging his skin and some light bruising. She couldn’t even damage his pants.

  The blue oni roared suddenly.

  Marloes grimaced.

  Pain was a universal language.

  One didn’t need to speak blue oni to understand.

  She saw the cause a moment later as the outworlder sprang loose with a bare foot planted in the blue oni’s face.

  Blue fingers comparable in length, but thicker, to footlong hotdogs stood twisted and bent in the wrong directions. His hands resembled twisted trees in the winter time.

  Wait?

  Was it snowing around the blue oni?

  Yes.

  It was, in fact, snowing.

  “Freezing aura or effect centered on the blue oni.”

  “Oh! I have just the heat visions for that!” Dashing Bandit Celebration said.

  A lightning barrage split the dark, drowning sky, interrupting what Marloes had been about to say.

  The blue oni was buried, obscured by the brightness and sudden eruption of steam that bloomed across a wide swathe of the street.

  As for the outworlder?

  He flew on a gust of wind toward a distant roof.

  Marloes was about to knocking him out of the sky when a furious roar drowned out the thunder.

  A red missile shot out of the steam cloud like a burning rocket.

  It took her a second to understand that it was the oni, just now completely red.

  Wreathed in steam from the rain drops that failed to reach his skin, he plowed into the outworlder.

  The momentum carried them into that distant building.

  A medium-sized residential tower.

  Marloes knew it was one of the populated ones.

  The two powerful combatants ignored the building’s inherent protections. They crashed through a window, sending shards twinkling down to the street.

  She scanned it desperately.

  Heat signatures.

  Life signs.

  She sighed with relief.

  Not many compared to what it would’ve held on a normal day.

  That meant most of the occupants had gone for the nearest emergency shelter.

  “Changing the plan.” She selected the building in her mini map, sending it to Dashing Bandit Celebration. “Civilian rescue operation takes priority. Only send me those not needed for it.”

  “Gotcha, Sparkle-sama!”

  Marloes leapt, engaging her thrusters to carry her in a high arc over the building.

  The two had fought straight through several blocks worth of buildings, ending up in a dark entertainment area that would’ve been polluting the night with its bright lights and loud music if not for the unnatural typhoon.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She followed the sounds of thunder coming from ground level, which was easy because they were much louder and more violent than the actual thunder in the black clouds.

  They led her to the subway underneath the street.

  Smashed monsters lay scattered all over. Their blood and other fluids smeared into the floors and walls. Rain water flowed fast around her boots as it carried the chunks down toward the train tracks.

  She found them just past the ticket gates in the large space where passengers would wait.

  Well, not so large with the massive red oni taking up so much space.

  The outworlder wasn’t a small man either.

  He towered Marloes even with the extra height her armor gave her.

  Punches and kicks flashed too quickly for her to keep up with.

  The outworlder fired hooks into the red oni’s chiseled midsection. The dreaded liver shot had the oni dropping his tree trunk-sized arms.

  The outworlder stretched a fist into a rising uppercut to the jutting, broad chin.

  It was the only way for him to reach up that high.

  Marloes figured it was like trying to uppercut the ceiling of standard room, perhaps just a bit shorter.

  Crimson and spit flew.

  The red oni roared.

  She could see the air shimmer around him. A haze of heat intense enough to cloud them in steam like they were in a sauna.

  Massive fists hammered down.

  “Smash… you… evil… leave… alone!”

  Stilted, but understandable despite the guttural rage of the deep, booming voice, despite the sharp tusks poking out from upper and lower jaws.

  The outworlder scrambled back.

  Water sprayed in his face from the near miss.

  Footlong fingers snatched through quicker than a viper, clamping around neck and thigh.

  The red oni raised the wriggling outworlder with a triumphant roar.

  He turned suddenly.

  Marloes stifled a curse.

  He had finally noticed her existence.

  Dark eyes narrowed.

  Then widened in something that she thought, hoped, was recognition.

  Not that she knew who or what this thing was.

  That fact that he spoke human words— Japanese from what it sounded like to her— led her to the hope that it was one of her fellow countrymen. An individual that had achieved the highly sought after and exceedingly rare last moment power up while on the verge of certain death and defeat.

  He had to be, right?

  Cal definitely didn’t have a red and blue oni anywhere in his files. Files that were so comprehensive that many powerful people in the world would’ve been rather upset to know what they contained about them.

  The red oni hesitated. His grip around the outworlder eased. Thick muscles relaxed a fraction.

  Marloes frowned.

  “Well… don’t stop because of me. Please continue, Oni-san.”

  The outworlder glared at her.

  Before the red oni could split the wishbone a titanic crash shook the subway and rained debris on them.

  …

  Marloes crawled out of the rubble to the sound of a chirping bird in her ear.

  “Sparkle-sama! Are you alive?”

  “Where are they?”

  “Here…”

  The location pinged in her minimap.

  “The oni has… he… it’s like a child’s arm holding an apple… a big one.”

  “What?” Marloes struggled, wriggling like a baby chick out of a cracked egg. Damage reports in her HUD weren’t bad. Nothing catastrophic. Movement remained green. Systems remained green. A few weapons and defensive systems were out. All shields gone. Burned out by the tons of rubble collapsing on her. Structural integrity was green. As for her physical body? The slight concussion potential was the only noteworthy issue.

  “His dick! It’s huge! It’s flapping around like a… a child’s arm holding an apple!” Dashing Bandit Celebration giggled. “Why didn’t you mention he was naked?”

  “It was irrelevant.” Marloes finally pulled herself completely free. “Stop acting like a teenage girl. It’s not like you haven’t seen a dick before.”

  “Sure, sure, but not one almost as big as my arm! It’s… amazing! I mean from a curiosity standpoint.”

  “Ask him out later.” Marloes oriented herself toward the flashing dot in her minimap. “I’m on my way.”

  She caught up to the battle just in time to watch a colorful giant robot five stories tall topple like a felled tree.

  The outworlder flew on 200 KMH winds, cracking the robot under its metal chin with a punch.

  She couldn’t be sure, but from the way the torrential downpour moved like a curtain over an open window on a rainy day, it looked like an equally fast gust of wind had swept in low at the back of the robot’s knees at the same time.

  The thunder was joined by the sound of a building ruined in the robot’s fall.

  She hoped that it was empty or the occupants had evacuated because it was too late to do anything.

  Lightning bolts lit up the darkness as they fell on the robot in the rubble like arrows from an army.

  “Um… that’s not good…”

  Marloes located Dashing Bandit Celebration crouched in the shadow of the biggest structure in the immediate area.

  The other mahou shoujo waved.

  “Amuro was the last one.”

  Marloes sort of vaguely recognized the giant robot. She was fairly certain that wasn’t the pilot’s name. Real or code name.

  “I hope he’s not dead. He’s just a kid.”

  “The others?”

  “Yeah, ummm… everyone not helping the civilians back there are… uh… probably dead… I think… Koomba definitely lost an arm and a leg. The outworlder threw him that way,.” Dashing Bandit Celebration pointed to the north. “Errr… the JSDF cybersoldiers might be okay. They’re kinda scattered around… here?” she gestured vaguely. “The streets are getting flooded though. I hope they don’t drown or get swept away. I guess it depends if their main meat parts are okay, like, the outworlder only ripped and smashed the cyber parts, you know? Say, Sparkle-sama… can you maybe call Relentless?”

  “He’s busy.”

  Not that those comms were working at the moment.

  “Where’s the red oni?”

  Dashing Bandit Celebration pointed to the west. “Somewhere over there. Wind and punch and lightning combo. Pow! Sent him flying. Oh… and he was blue, not red. Uh oh—”

  Marloes cursed.

  She lost sight of the outworlder at the same time.

  He had been standing on the edge of the ruined portion of the building directing lightning strikes on the giant robot like a conductor.

  She located him quickly or rather his fist located the back of her helmet.

  The world spun wildly.

  It was, she thought dimly through the stars in her eyes, what she imagined being inside a washing machine must’ve been like.

  Round and round she tumbled across a flooded street in darkness, if not for her helmet’s enhanced visual modes. Which, was useless at the moment since she couldn’t see anything beyond said twinkling little lights.

  She skidded to a stop on the other side of the building she had gone cannoning through like a, well, cannon ball.

  The outworlder landed near her, spraying her with water and chunks of the street.

  “Your powered armor is impressive. As good as our best, maybe even better.” He grabbed her wrist. “Weakness lies in the need for articulation. Just like ours.”

  She tried to scramble, but he had her in an armbar before she could blink.

  Her armor’s power source whined as the artificial muscles and structure squealed in protest.

  Text book.

  Legs, hips and body worked as one.

  A moment was all it took for the outworlder to bend her elbow the wrong way.

  The white stars in her vision grew blinding.

  He let go as she fired bullets at him in a panic.

  She heard the sizzle of vaporized water and the outworlder curse.

  Vision cleared.

  Dashing Bandit Celebration’s Justice Avenging Squad or whatever had joined the fray.

  The tanuki in a blue and red skirted swimsuit had a glowing golden lasso around the outworlder’s neck. Together with the tanuki in blue with a red cape they flew against the winds somehow managing to hang the outworlder on his tiptoes.

  The one in plain black workout attire swept in and glared twin beams of solar heat from his glossy, dark brown button eyes. He swooped under a swiping hand the color of the darkest night to land a blistering series of punches to the outworlder’s chiseled abs.

  A high-pitched roar, almost squeak-like, heralded Dashing Bandit Celebration’s largest tanuki. The muscular green beast bounded across the flooded street. He slammed fists into the outworlder’s face and proceeded to act like the world’s angriest and smallest gorilla as he punched, bit and ripped the outworlder’s hair.

  “I will not be made sport of by toys!” the outworlder roared. He grabbed the green tanuki, crushing his head and ripping his body in two in a shower of cotton and cloth. “How is this thing so hard? I see no skeletal structure… spires-cursed classes.” He tossed the pieces aside to grab the lasso around his neck, using it to whip the two tanuki at the other end into the side of the closest building.

  A tiny hammer, like a block of stone zinged out of the darkness into the outworlder’s nose.

  He spat, blinking.

  To Marloes’ disappointment, there was no blood.

  The remaining tanuki plushies attacked with eerie coordination.

  The remaining tanuki plushies were destroyed seconds later.

  “Retreat!”

  Marloes hoped Dashing Bandit Celebration listened.

  The other mahou shoujo couldn’t fight an opponent on this level without her plushies.

  She stood and leapt, engaging her thrusters only to be slammed back down into the street.

  The outworlder kept his hold on her ankle, spinning into a kneebar.

  Just like that, she now had two joints bent the wrong way.

  “Where is the master? Of the soft dolls!” the outworlder snapped.

  “It’s weird that those are the things that cracked your stoic demeanor. Bad childhood experiences with living toys?”

  If she could start a conversation she could buy time.

  For what?

  She didn’t have much hope at the moment.

  The only thing she had was that message she had sent to home base.

  “I believe in dignity. Both in the giving and receiving. Yes, I know of and have fought with and against puppeteers, doll captains, toybox commanders and the like—”

  “Then why are you so rattled.”

  “I don’t know how it is with you Earth humans, but all thinking beings I’ve ever met are a mix of the rational and irrational. We all have things that stick in our gums like a thorn fruit’s, well, thorns.”

  It occurred to her that she could hear the outworlder’s voice crystal clear despite the howling winds and she was pretty sure that it wasn’t thanks solely to her helmet’s audio. There was quite a bit of damage according to her HUD.

  Marloes was saved from one of her irrational thorns, conversation with a stranger, by the roar of thunder.

  Not actual thunder, but a literal roar.

  Loud and angry.

  “Get… away… her!”

  The oni was back and red again.

  He crashed into the outworlder like a boulder, a naked boulder.

  “Immodest beast! I granted you a reprieve!” The outworlder absorbed a two-handed overhead smash on his arms that buckled the street beneath him and countered with a kick to that immense appendage between the red oni’s tree-trunk thighs.

  If it hurt, the oni gave no sign as he kicked the outworlder down the street and through a building.

  Marloes lost sight of them and found Dashing Bandit Celebration.

  Rather, the other mahou shoujo found her.

  One superhero tanuki left.

  The one with the green ring and mask scooped her up into a translucent green bubble with Dashing Bandit Celebration.

  “Let’s go! You need medics!”

  “No!” she said through grit teeth. The pain throbbed through her, but she held off on releasing the stronger anesthetics. Just the healing gel injected into her elbow and knee. Had to stay alert. “Armor’s repairing. I’ll be good in a few minutes.”

  Dashing Bandit Celebration eyed her dubiously. “If you say so. I still say we should retreat. We can’t do anything to him or them. Look what he did to my babies…”

  “You lose a few every couple of months.”

  “Sure, but it still hurts to see them torn apart like that. I made them myself and I know it sounds weird, but through them I know what it is like to be a mother,” she said solemnly.

  Marloes grunted. She was sure that actual mothers would have unkind things to say to her friend about that had they heard.

  “Keep us close to them. If we know where they are, then…”

  Someone stronger could come in and deal with them.

  Besides, they still needed to do what they could to steer the raging fight away from civilians.

  “Hmm, they fight like cats, yeah?” Dashing Bandit Celebration said.

  Marloes partially agreed in that the two sort of rolled in a vicious ball of punches, elbows, knees to the groin, eye gouges and even biting on the part of the red oni.

  Sharp teeth and tusks did less damage to the half dark, half bright skin of the outworlder than she expected.

  Then again, her big shots hadn’t managed to do more than bruise him lightly and, it was hard to tell on account of poor visibility conditions, but it looked like those had already healed.

  Those little pinpricks of blood weren’t going to last long based on that.

  “Oh, boo,” Dashing Bandit Celebration said.

  “What?”

  “He’s got red blood, well, they both do. It’s a little disappointing. I want weird colors, like in some monsters, but in people… you know, right?”

  “As long as it’s not acidic or lust inducing, I’ll take it.” Marloes suppressed a shudder at a memory of a monster with the latter. The embarrassment would’ve been as large as Mt. Fuji had Cal not been there to counter the effects of the many tongued and tentacled monster’s blood and other liquids spray attacks.

  Dashing Bandit Celebration gagged.

  “Ouch city for the oni-san!”

  The outworlder had ripped one of the horns right off the oni’s head.

  Its root appeared rather shallow compared to other monster and animal horns she had been a part of ripping or shooting out.

  In response the red oni jammed a thick, footlong finger in the outworlder’s mouth, hooking the soft part of the inside cheek and pulling violently.

  “Oni-san fights dirty! Go oni-san! Fight on!”

  The outworlder had no choice but to turn his head with the pull, which was a problem because the red oni had clamped one giant hand on his shoulder to hold his body in place.

  A bite, a roar and a lightning bolt.

  When the steam cleared the two had separated.

  The red oni’s skin shimmered.

  Swirls formed, running up and down his limbs, to and from his chest and back.

  Blue.

  The two colors touched, but didn’t mix.

  “Oh!” Dashing Bandit Celebration clapped. “So pretty! It’s like olive oil and vinegar at the Italian restaurant at the corner. You know, the one you dip the bread in!”

  “You are too easily entertained.”

  The other mahou shoujo shrugged again.

  “One has to find the littlest, cutest joys in an existence filled with gigantic horrors, after all,” she said sagely.

  Blue replaced red.

  Instead of steam rising from the oni, frost and snow began to form as the torrent failed to reach him.