AFTER

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” she said through the other side of the confessional booth. “It has been one week since my last Confession.”

“What is your sin, mija?” Father Gonzalez asked. He sat in the darkened booth, the voice on the other side muffled and haggard, hoarse from what sounded like hours and hours of sobbing. 

“Murder.”

Father Gonzalez’ thick gray eyebrows shot up, and his hand trembled. He’d been here before, on the other side of the booth, begging for forgiveness and absolution after violating a sacred Commandment. “Whom did you murder, Mija?”

“Does it matter who?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Because what I did was wrong.”

“Si,” Father Gonzalez said. “It was. But who and why do matter. Let’s start with why. Why did you murder someone?”

“... Because they were going to hurt the people I love.”

BEFORE

Pink and Red streaks burned across the night sky, beneath a full moon that hung heavy over the city of Boston. Over cobblestone and brick and cement, their flight carved slashes of illumination. Nicole gritted her teeth and smiled as she narrowed the meager gap between herself and Cass. She weaved between buildings and down alleyways and over bridges, shooting towards the shore. The bet was simple: starting on the far west end of the city limits, first to reach the ocean won; loser had to treat the winner to a trip to the comic book store, an upper limit of fifty dollars’ worth of comics to buy. 

The harbor came into view, a wave of salt and brine and seaweed crashing into her nostrils. Nicole trailed behind Cass by ten yards. Five yards. 

Three. 

Two.

One. 

Zero. 

The ocean sprawled beneath them, and Nicole willed herself to slow down and come to a gradual halt. Cass did the same. 

“Dammit!” Cass said. “Did we just tie?”

Nicole laughed. “I think we just tied.”

“DAMMIT!”

“Wow, you’re really upset,” Nicole said with a smug smile and half-closed eyes. 

“Because I had you, and you… You-”

“I what?” Nicole said. 

“You… Caught up to me,” Cass grimaced. “But I had you for most of that!”

“Yeah, you did, I just got my second wind at the last minute,” Nicole chirped. 

“Damn you!” Cass brandished her fist dramatically. 

“Hey, c’mon, good race,” Nicole said, offering up a high five with her well-manicured hands with pastel pink polish on her nails. 

Cass returned it, her own crimson manicure illuminated by the moonlight. “Let’s go again!”

“Right now?” Nicole said. 

“Yeah, when else?”

“Tomorrow, maybe, but not tonight,” Nicole said. “I’ve got a final tomorrow.”

“What? It’s not even Thanksgiving yet,” Cass said as they lowered themselves onto the beach. The sand sprawled horizontally as far as the eye could see, while verticaly it gave way to a small field of seagrass before hitting the gray pavement of the road. “Weren’t midterms two weeks ago?”

“Yeah, but a lotta my profs wanna get done with the semester sooner rather than later,” Nicole said. “They speed-ran the past few weeks of lessons and then decided we could call it a couple weeks early. Debbi’s in the same boat. Same with Heather- why do you think she has all those essays right now?”

“Oh yeah,” Cass said, touching feet on the sand. “Is that why they couldn’t come with us tonight?” 

“Well, that and the fact that they knew we’d kick their butts,” Nicole shrugged and gave a mischievous giggle. 

“Pffftt,” Cass blew out with her lips. “Cheeky. When did you get a sense of humor?”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “I bought one at the dollar store a few days back. It was on sale for eighty-nine cents.”

“Must’ve been, given how corny all your jokes are,” Cass deadpanned. 

Nicole gave a short laugh as the pair hiked their way up the steep sand incline, the surface shifting as they walked without rhythm. “Seriously, though, why are we so much faster than the others?”

“Dunno,” Cass said as she powered down. 

Nicole did the same as they took in the sight of reeds of seagrass before an empty boulevard leading into the city. “Ugh, I wanna fly back but I’m tired, and I don’t wanna risk sleeping through my exam tomorrow.”

“I getcha. I can call us a ride-share, though,” Cass said. She winced as she said it- she’d come into some inheritance money recently. In spite of her late birth-mother having disowned her, evidently Juanita Ortiz had neglected to update her will before she was forcibly shuffled off the mortal coil. Her savings weren’t much, but her life insurance policy was enough to keep Cass comfortable for at least the rest of the school year. 

“Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not in the same boat with exams right now,” Nicole said. “The school seems pretty eager to get the semester done before the monster attacks start up again.”

“Yeahhhh,” Cass said as she finagled with her phone. “I mean… I might be in the same boat.”

“Whaddaya mean ‘might be?’”

“I mean I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if you have exams?”

“Si.”

“Cass!” Nicole said. 

“Please don’t tell Amy and Debbi,” Cass said, her normally blank face shifting into full-fledged puppy dog eyes. Nicole wasn’t sure if the freshman even knew she was doing it, but Blue Blazes was it effective… 

… Or at least it would be on someone else. Monica was an expert at puppy dog eyes, and Nicole had built up a considerable tolerance to them over the years.

Nicole gave her freshman friend a flat stare. “Cass.”

“... I’ll find out,” Cass said. “I just… God, I don’t even know what the point of it is. I don’t care about any of these stupid core curriculum classes! And I still don’t know what major to declare!”

“Well, what do you like?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Cass screamed. 

Nicole flinched and took a step backwards. 

“Sorry,” Cass said, looking down. 

A silver Chevy Malibu pulled up in front of them on the empty road. Cass gestured to it, and the pair climbed into the back. Their driver was a middle-aged white man in a crisp eggshell suit with a red bowtie and golden cufflinks. His jet-black hair was cropped short and parted neatly to the right, and his eyes were a vibrant green. His face was well-aged, the scant handful of wrinkles serving more to make him look distinguished rather than withered. 

“How y’all ladies doin’ tonight?” he drawled with a thick Louisiana twang, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in a strange rhythm. 

“Doing good,” Cass and Nicole said in unison. 

“Good to hear, good to hear,” he said. “Muh name is Lyle, and it’s muh pleasure to be your driver this evenin’. So, where we goin’? We goin’ ta’ the university?”

“Nearby it,” Cass said. She turned to Nicole and said, “I put the address in for your place. Mind if I crash on the couch tonight?” 

“Mmm… I dunno, we’ve been having overnight guests a lot lately, and Amy is burning the midnight oil right now ‘cause of her exams,” Nicole said. 

A pang of guilt shot through Nicole, but she tried to suppress it. She didn’t need to bend over backwards all the time for people, she was allowed to prioritize her needs and her girlfriend’s needs sometimes. And they’d now had Iris and Monica over two weekends in a row, and intended to do the same again this weekend. 

“Eh, fair enough,” Cass shrugged. 

“I’ll take ya’ the rest of the way home, little lady,” Lyle said. “No extra cost necessary.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Cass said. She turned back to Nicole. “How are things with you and Amy?”

“Really good,” Nicole smiled, and perhaps blushed a little bit. Or a lotta-bit. 

“Spare me the details, she’s my sister,” Cass rolled her eyes. 

“Not like that- we haven’t- we’ve not gotten around to-”

“As I said, spare me the details,” Cass half-groaned, half-laughed. “Seriously though: good for you guys. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her this happy. And you’re my friend too, I guess, so that’s nice.”

“What a flatterer,” Nicole rolled her eyes. “Better lock me down, Amy, or your little sister may steal me away.”

Cass chuckled. “Be still, my heart.”

“How about you and Matt?” Nicole asked. 

“Well, we still haven’t gotten to go on an actual date,” Cass said. 

“What? Why not? I thought you guys had one planned.”

“Yeah, but then I have class all day or he has work all day or we wind up all doing something together as a group … It just keeps not happening,” Cass said. 

“You’re gonna have to make it happen, then.”

“And how does one do that?”

Nicole shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Very. Helpful,” Cass said, her voice flat enough to shelve books atop. 

They pulled up in front of Nicole’s building. Nicole gave Cass a tight hug and said, “You get home safe, yeah?”

“Okay,” Cass said. 

“And lemme know how things go with Matt!”

She sighed. “Will do.”

Nicole watched the car drive away and waved good-bye to her friend. She traipsed up the stairs and opened the door to her apartment, where she found her girlfriend sitting in the eye of a paper hurricane. Amy’s notes and textbooks and laptops were all sprawled out around her. She sat on the floor, leaning back against the loveseat, and her study materials covered the entirety of the rest of the living room. An empty pitcher of coffee rested on the table, along with an empty mug and empty plate. Amy had bags under her eyes, her hair was pulled up in a high, messy ponytail, and her posture was bent and slouched. She drummed her finger on the table rapidly as she read through a medical textbook, not looking up as Nicole entered the apartment. 

Nicole smiled mischievously, and she walked up and poked Amy on the nose. “Hello there.”

Amy jumped and yelped, and their downstairs neighbor shouted up from below to keep it down. “Sorry, sorry,” Nicole said, to both of them. “Didn’t mean to scare you, I just-”

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Amy said. “Totally fine, absolutely fine. Just fine-”

Nicole raised an eyebrow. 

Amy gulped. “Okay, I know what this looks like-”

“You told me you’d finish up studying and go to bed by the time I got back,” Nicole said, closing Amy’s books and clearing space on the couch. 

“Yeah, but I wasn’t done- I’m still not done- I-”

“How many cups of coffee have you had?”

“... Several.”

“How much is several?”

Amy looked at the floor. “Six.”

“Blue Blazes, Amy!” Nicole said. “Your stomach! Your poor, poor stomach!”

“I feel fine!” Amy said, still drumming her fingers furiously. 

Nicole cleared off the couch and handed Amy all her notes. She patted the cushion next to her and gestured for Amy to take a seat next to her. 

“But I’m not done studying!” Amy said. 

“What time is your exam?”

“... 1 PM tomorrow.”

“And what time is it now?”

“11 PM.”

“And how will you do if you haven’t gotten a wink of sleep?”

“... Poorly.”

“Yes. You will,” Nicole said. 

Amy sighed and sat down next to her. She was nervous, twitchy. She hadn’t done well on her midterms, and given the medical track she was on, she couldn’t afford to fail any classes when she was so close to starting actual med school. “I’m a mess, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but you’re my mess,” Nicole said, grabbing her twitching hand and giving it a tight squeeze. 

Amy pulled Nicole’s hand to her and gave it a kiss. “Thank you.”

“You need to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, but I’m still on a metric gallon of caffeine, I can’t sleep right now.”

“Well, then, let’s start with something that will get the nervous energy out of your system,” Nicole said. An idea formed in her brain, something that erstwhile would have lived and died inside The Box, never seen the light of day, never even been consciously acknowledged. But there it was. And Nicole looked at this mess, at her mess, at her wonderful, adorable girlfriend and all her neuroses and knew that she needed to act on it. She leaned in and gave Amy a kiss on the mouth, the softness of her bare lips the most beautiful sensation she’d ever known. Amy was eager, nervous, happy, relieved- it all came through when they joined lips. 

“I need to take a shower,” Nicole said. 

“Makes sense,” Amy said. “You just flew a race against Cass- you must be sweaty and-”

“And you’re coming with me,” Nicole whispered into her girlfriend’s ear. 

Amy’s milky-white face went tomato-red as her jaw dropped low. Gradually, it reassembled into a very happy smile. “Are you sure?”

“I am,” Nicole said. “We both need to clear our heads. We both need to clean up. And I can’t think of a better way.”

Another part of herself, once locked away in The Box, resonated loud and clear, her shield thrumming next to her heart as the words flowed confidently out her mouth. 

Amy’s eyebrows arched, and she gave an evil smile and hopped off the couch. She grabbed Nicole by the wrists and pulled her to her feet and then into a passionate, open-mouthed kiss. They danced together around the garden of books and papers as they continued kissing, and gradually they found their way into the bathroom. 

The shower ran for a solid hour before they were done. After that, they climbed into Nicole’s bed, bodies interlocked as they drifted off to sleep together. 

The next morning, Nicole woke up awash in warm, gentle joy, like none she’d ever known. Amy had shown her the ropes, guiding her through her first time like the expert she was, taking her places she’d never thought possible. Her girlfriend slept next to her, a happy, drooling young woman with the cutest smile Nicole had ever seen. 

Nicole looked at her phone to check the time- 10 AM. Good; Nicole’s exam wasn’t for another hour, and there was plenty of time for Amy to wake up and eat breakfast and take some stomach medicine before hers. But then a news alert pinged on her screen, over the home image of the six members of their team together: a bank robbery had occurred last night. Someone had made off with several hundred thousand in cash. The only clue left behind was a red bowtie left on the scene, and an overpowering scent of sulfur emanating from the bank. 

Nicole’s eyes went wide as the memory of Lyle the Uber Driver burned behind her eyes. 

***

Debbi dotted the last i and crossed the last t on the essay portion of her exam and turned it in to Professor Perez. She cracked her neck as she walked out the door, and found Nicole waiting for her directly outside, sitting on a wooden bench atop the purple-carpeted floor. She’d finished her exam first and promptly left the classroom, but had evidently sat there the whole time waiting for Debbi to finish. 

“Hey,” Debbi said to her friend. “How do you think you did?”

“Not bad,” Nicole said. “But, uh, I’ve got something we need to talk about. Work stuff, if you catch my meaning.”

They walked and talked out of the building, making their way through the grainy November overcast. A palpable dampness clung to the air, cooling Debbi’s skin but making her foundation run. “Gah,” she said, fumbling through her purse for makeup wipes. 

“Here,” Nicole said, handing her one from her own supply. 

“Thanks,” Debbi said, dabbing at her forehead. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Nicole filled her in on her encounter the previous night, and her suspicion about her Uber driver. “So, fearless leader, how do you wanna handle this?”

Debbi felt a headache coming on. “Let’s call a team meeting.”

Debbi texted their group chat. Matt had only recently acquired a smartphone thanks to the stipend the Church gave them, and he bombarded the chat with one-word responses in a massive, successive string explaining he would be on his way ASAP. They’d have to wait a bit for Amy to get done with her exam and for Matt to get off work, so they stopped for coffee at the Doghouse. The crowd inside was a swelling mass gathered over the linoleum floor, all manner of students desperate for a caffeine fix to get them through the next few weeks. Campus was liable to clear out by December, given how much the school seemed to want to get everyone out before something else happened. 

And now something else was happening. 

At least they’d gotten two weeks respite. It was more than Debbi had expected, to be completely honest. But it didn’t stop the cops from prowling the city nonstop, didn’t stop the military from coming in and setting up a base of ops out past the West End. Military Police was the logical next step if anything happened, and this city was already on edge after a solid month of nonstop monster attacks. People had died, homes had been destroyed, livelihoods ruined. Nicole had personally gone to the hospital to heal everyone who had been injured, but not even she could save everyone. The best thing for Boston, for the whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts, would be for the resident superheroes to deal with this new demonic threat quickly and quietly. Still, it was weird that a demon was robbing banks. What was up with that? It was a wicked strange application of demonic power, and what could they possibly need the cash for anyway? 

Not that they could talk about this out in the open- secret identities and all that. Debbi navigated into less dangerous topics: “How’s Iris holding up?”

Nicole flinched. The whole situation with her little sister, half-in her eggshell and half-desperately-trying-to-hold-the-pieces-together, was a bit of a mess, but still- the kid had come a long way. And both Iris and Monica were fucking adorable when they visited on weekends. “She’s doing as well as could be expected, all things considered,” Nicole finally answered. 

“That’s good,” Debbi said. “Has she told your parents yet?”

“No, Dad’s only been home on weekends lately,” Nicole said. “And Mom is… Well I love Mom, but she and Iris have had some problems over the years and… My Mom likes to make everything into an argument. And she’s never found an argument she couldn’t win through force of personality.”

“Oh dear,” Debbi said. 

“Yeah, and she did kinda tell my whole hometown that I’m trans,” Nicole said. 

“I’m sorry, what?!” the person in front of them in line spat, pivoting and turning to face them. She looked the same age as them, with dark brown skin and dark eyes and jet-black hair that fell in natural waves around her face. She was clad all in black: black Nirvana shirt, long black skirt, black heeled boots, black eyeshadow, and black lipstick. Everything black, save for the trans pride flag pin she wore on her lapel. She was the same height as Nicole, with a wide, stocky frame covered up by her baggy clothes. “Your mom did what now?” 

“Uh… Well, after I came out as trans, she decided she wanted to be a good ally-”

“By outing you to everyone you know?” the girl shouted, a bit too loudly. Heads turned around to face them, a few at a time. Debbi winced. Oh boy, this was gonna turn into a whole scene, wasn’t it?

“Not everyone- just our neighbors and the people at my old high school.” 

“And you’re still talking to her?” the girl said. “What the fuck? Why on earth would you still be talking to that fucking bitch?!”

That was when Nicole made a face Debbi hadn’t seen before: her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowed, her nose scrunched up, and her mouth shifted into a snarl. “Don’t say that about my mom!”

“It’s true!”

“You’ve never met her!” Nicole screamed. “You don’t know her! You don’t know me! You don’t even know my freaking name, for crying out loud!”

“WELL I DON’T WANT TO!”

“THEN WHY DID YOU SAY ANYTHING IN THE FIRST PLACE!?”

“BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!”

“WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG!”

That was when an air-horn sounded from the front of the cafe, and all attention was drawn towards the barista behind the counter. He was a young, pasty little manlet with bags under his eyes occupying the majority of his face, clad in a hat that said ‘don’t @ me, bro’, a level of exhausted disdain on his face achieving levels Debbi had only seen on her father at the end of a twelve-hour road trip. He pointed at the door. 

Nicole and the other girl pointed at themselves, both wearing sheepish expressions. 

The barista nodded gravely. 

Nicole scampered out of the cafe immediately, the other girl going out the back exit. Debbi walked up and put a fiver in the tip jar, gave the poor lad a thumbs’ up, and walked out to join Nicole. 

They started walking towards the church- they could always just chill there for a while, she supposed. “What was that?”

“Hm?” Nicole said, grinding her teeth.

“You just… Don’t usually get that angry with people,” Debbi said. 

“She was talking bad about my mother,” Nicole said simply. “Anyway. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Are you sure? That got pretty heated-”

“I lost my temper,” Nicole said. “I’m protective of my family. That’s all it is.”

Debbi narrowed her eyes. “Nicole, as team leader, I can’t necessarily force you to talk to me, but I can say that keeping secrets from me is a bad idea.”

“... I… Okay, I might, maybe, possibly, have some unresolved angst about the whole situation with my mom,” Nicole said. “But that’s it.”

“Fair enough.”

“Can we talk about something else now? I’m really not comfortable talking about my family drama out in the open like this.”

“Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

“... How do you think you did on the test?”

“Not bad. Yourself?”

Nicole chuckled. “Not bad at all.”

They talked about nothing in particular until they reached the church. Heather was waiting for them on the front steps, leaning against the wooden door. She was clad in black skinny-jeans and a warm green flannel and white converse all-stars, black hair un-gelled and parted to the right, face sans makeup. Debbi’s heart fluttered as she approached her girlfriend, took her hand and gave her a kiss on the lips. Heather’s warm lips joined with hers, all soft and delicate in their touch, just like her- big and strong outside, all gentle and gooey on the inside. 

“Hey, you,” Heather said, wrapping her muscular arms around Debbi’s narrow waist. 

“Hi,” Debbi purred. 

They made out for a while on the steps, Nicole navigating around them and going inside presumably to pray. Eventually, Cass and Amy walked up to them as well, and they all gathered inside. Nicole was kneeling in a pew, and crossed herself and sat up. Father Gonzalez was seated in a simple wooden chair before the altar, clad in his black frock and white collar. 

“How’d you do on your exam?” Nicole asked Amy. 

Amy gave her a thumbs-middle, while Cass gave a thumbs’ down. 

Amy looked at Cass. “You had an exam today?”

“It was news to me as well,” Cass said. “Is Matt not here yet?”

“No,” Debbi said. “What time does he get off work?”

“Twenty minutes ago,” Cass said, shuffling nervously as she walked over to a pew and sat down. She wore a burgundy turtleneck sweater and a long black A-line skirt, golden hoop earrings, and a silver pin shaped like an owl in her high hair-bun. 

“I’m sure he’s just running late,” Amy said, putting a consoling hand on Cass’ shoulder. Amy wore a peach-colored halter-top blouse and a white miniskirt, something Debbi still, after knowing her nearly twenty-years, couldn’t comprehend in this weather. And yet she’d always done so, as if the cold temperature were totally irrelevant to her. Debbi had once seen her sister wearing a thigh-hugging bodycon tube-dress outside during a blizzard and not seeming the least bit bothered by it. 

“Maybe we should get started, fill him in once he gets here,” Cass said. “Because I think I know what this is about.” She looked at Nicole and said, “The Uber driver?”

“Yeah, the Uber driver,” the blonde nodded, gingerly crossing her legs in the pew as Amy took a seat at her side. Nicole filled the others in on what had happened last night, and on what she’d seen on the news that morning.  

“A demon… Is robbing banks?” Heather said, scratching the back of her head. Debbi’s girlfriend sat next to her in the pew behind Nicole and Amy, while Cass was in the row to their left with her fingers steepled together. “Why?”

“Great question,” Cass said. “I’d like to know that myself.”

“Why doesn’t matter,” Nicole said. “We just have to stop him. He’s a demon, he’s our responsibility.”

“‘Why’ could turn out to be relevant,” Heather said. “Could illuminate his motives, give us insight into his plans. Plus…”

“Plus what?” Debbi asked, looking Heather in the eyes. 

“Well… Wouldn’t we have an obligation to do something about this even if he were just a normal bank robber?” Heather asked. 

“I dunno about that,” Debbi said. “We were given our powers for a pretty specific reason.”

“Yeah, I know,” Heather replied. “But we’re superheroes- don’t we have a responsibility to protect this city from all sorts of dangers?”

Debbi paused and considered that, sucking in her cheeks and running her lower-teeth over the gums. “Hm. I mean, maybe. If it were a terrorist attack, or a home invasion, or an assault on the streets. But a mundane bank robbery doesn’t really seem like it’s something we should be getting ourselves tangled up in.”

“Why not?” Nicole asked, turning her head around and looking Debbi in the eyes. “Aren’t heroes supposed to fight crime? It’s not like the cops are doing such a bang-up job at it.”

“Hm,” Debbi said, tugging at her ponytail. She’d never considered this before. She’d never had to consider this before. But she was the leader now- if something like this was in the cards, if something like this arguably fell under the purview of their responsibilities, then it was her personal responsibility to make that call. 

The doors to the church slammed shut, and the unlit candles atop the altar rose from their stationary position into the air. Debbi’s head jerked to her left, and she saw Cass was gripping her knees white-knuckled. “No,” Cass said flatly. “No, we can’t.”

“Cass,” Debbi said. “Put the candles down. Please.”

Cass blinked, and then her eyes drifted over to the altar. She breathed out, and the candles lowered back onto the flat surface. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was… Look, we just can’t.”

“Why not?” Nicole asked. 

“... Because I’ve tried it before, and it didn’t end well,” Cass said. 

Cass didn’t often talk about what she went through during her first year on the job as a Magical Girl. Debbi knew it hadn’t been easy for her little sister- she’d been all of thirteen years old when it happened, and had still been living with her birth-mother at the time. Still, even saying this much about it was progress for Cass, as far as Debbi was concerned. Same with her realizing she was using her powers unconsciously- Debbi still had the occasional flashback to Cass’ first Thanksgiving with the Donahues, wherein she’d gotten a little too intense during a Smash Bros game and launched the apple pie through a closed window. 

“Cass,” Debbi said. “I understand where you’re coming from. But this is different. And there’s more of us now. And besides, if we want to expand our duties to include mundane crime, we can put it to a vote.”

“And we can’t do that without Matt here,” Heather added quickly. Good- Debbi had been afraid her girlfriend would get gung-ho about this. Maybe she still would, but at least she wasn’t diving in head-first without a life preserver just yet. 

“Plus, that’s not the situation we’re dealing with right now,” Nicole said. “This is a demon- it has to be. That makes it our responsibility, plain and simple.”

“Right, right,” Cass said, shuffling her feet around over the hardwood floor. 

“Um, guys?” Amy said, looking down at her phone. “I think our responsibility wants our attention.”

“And what makes you say that?” Debbi asked her sister. 

Amy showed them her phone, a livestream of a news report at a bank downtown. The entire building was awash in black smoke, and the news reporter indicated that a man dressed in a white tuxedo had gone in just before it all started. Nobody had been able to get in or out- the few police officers who’d tried had gone radio-silent immediately upon entry, and none of the civilians inside had been seen or heard from since it all started. 

“Blue Blazes,” Nicole muttered. “Guess we’re doing this now.”

“Nice of him to wait until after our exams, I suppose,” Debbi monotoned. “Alright ladies, let’s-”

That was when Cass’ phone rang. “It’s Matt,” she said. She answered it. “Hey, what’s going- oh. Oh dear. Okay, be there ASAP.”

“What’s going on with Matt?” Heather asked. 

“The garage he works at is under attack by Hellhounds,” Cass said. She stood up, transformed immediately, and looked at Debbi. 

It took Debbi a moment before she realized her little sister was asking her permission. “Go to him. Nicole, go with her.”

“Are you sure?” Nicole asked. 

“Positive. Hellhound wounds will kill you faster than smoke inhalation. Regroup at the bank as soon as it’s taken care of- or, vice versa, if we get this done before you do.”

Heather hopped to her feet and gave a thunderous clap fueled by super-strength. “Alright, ladies, it’s go time!”

“Be careful, mis hijas,” Father Gonzalez said. “And come back here afterwards- there is something else we all need to discuss, but it can wait.”

The remaining four of them transformed, awash with their respective colors as Ave Maria rang loud and true from the Heavens above. 

Five Magical Girls atop broomsticks burst out of the church door and took flight, three northbound, two southbound.