Good morning, Starlight City!

  It's a cozy twenty-three degrees Celsius, courtesy of the Aurora Stellaris. Expect sunshine, rain, or maybe even snowfall by noon; you never know. Hedge your bets now!

  Aaanyway, we start the day with a bang! The Starlight Billboard Rankings had an update, and we have a new number one in town! Oh, who would believe that? Of course, it's still the one and only White Wish, everybody's little angel!

  And she's starring in her very own debut movie! The reviews are in, and as expected, she's going to sweep the awards with this one! Magical Girl Rendezvous, save the date, bring a date, and watch movie history in the making!

  Now, onto the nitty-gritty from last night: Monster activity in Old Neon was at brown alert. Named so for when the city's finest have to put on the brown pants. But worry not, the SLPD's magical girls, Star Patrol and Moon Warden, took care of things real quick! Only three civilian casualties, a new record!

  Graybricks had their first monster attack in a week! Not a single injured, let alone dead, as expected of its watchful protector, the ever-reliable Gearbelle!

  In Meridian, a mischievous little doggy caused a car crash. Nobody was injured, but it was more excitement than the district has seen in months!

  Higashi is peaceful as ever, not a single thing to report.

  On the other hand, Atlas is doing Atlas things. Over a dozen dead, no monster involvement needed. It's about time for another crackdown!

  This has been your morning news with Bobby Williams at Night Media. More at noon!

  A cloudless blue sky. Distant fireworks, or perhaps gunshots. The eternal wailing of police sirens. Occasional hovercars flying overhead. The droning of a metropole ridden with crime and disproportionate punishment.

  Starlight City.

  "I'm in control," came Nightingale's voice through the earpiece. "Are you sure about this, Raven?"

  "Let's go," Raven responded and stepped in through the Raytronics Corporation headquarters' front entrance. Two years of preparation time led up to this. They would not fail because of a moment's hesitation.

  The lobby was a steel framework clad in glass. Hanging suspended by steel wires were models of the company's most outstanding products: A luxurious hovercar, an engine of the RC-21 air-superiority fighter jet, and the large mining robot currently working on the Moon's surface. Beyond the oval reception desk and the metal detector gateways was the main building with the elevators, featuring a more traditional granite and brass design.

  "Good afternoon, how may I help you?" The receptionist lady spoke in a barely noticeable mechanical tone. Repetitive jobs like these had been the first to go, replaced by the Mind's Eye Technologies androids. This one was kept deliberately 'naked', revealing a chrome face with simple features and a wasp waist as thin as a human's spine.

  "I have an appointment with the CEO," said Raven with a charming smile.

  "May I have your name?" The android didn't recognize her and maintained its synthesized amicable but professional speech pattern.

  "Here's my business card." Raven pulled out her homemade magicoil shotgun and shot the android in the face. Even before the pieces of the metal and silicone head hit the floor, she had vaulted over the reception desk. She unleashed another shot at the security guard standing by a nearby pillar as he fumbled for the gun in his holster. The force of the slug was mostly lost due to the distance and hit him in the body armor. Still, it was enough to slam him against the granite surface behind him, leaving him unconscious.

  The alarm rang out, and the lights in the lobby turned red. Four trap doors opened on the ground and raised military-grade security robots on platforms. They were Banshees, bipedal walkers with rotating heads sporting a pair of high-caliber guns each. Automated warnings rang out from their onboard speakers in authoritative, warbled female voices, "Drop your weapons and surrender."

  Raven walked forward fearlessly and shot one of the Banshees with her magicoil shotgun. The magically infused slug hit a glowing barrier and shattered without penetrating it. She clicked her tongue and dove behind a concrete planter as the four walkers unleashed a barrage of conventional gunfire at her. They stopped the instant their onboard intelligence recognized the futility of shooting at an enemy behind hard cover.

  They exchanged screeching noises, their form of high-speed communications, and fanned out. When they rounded the planter, Raven leaped out from it. The closest Banshee noticed an attachment on her magicoil gun's rail, but before it could relay that information to the others, a shot penetrated its barrier, destroying the control unit in its swivelling head.

  Raven held a cylindrical object in her other hand and pressed a button on it right on time to deflect a barrage of high-caliber rounds from the remaining Banshees. Then, one shot. Two shots. Three shots. All four walkers were downed with pinpoint accuracy. Raven dropped her overheated weapon carelessly and pulled a phone-like device from her synthetic leather jacket.

  The security guard pushed himself off the ground and looked around. Raven walked past him and pointed the device at his head without even looking. He blinked and fell unconscious again. She headed toward the elevators, stashing the device again. Her footsteps were the only thing echoing through the completely silent entrance hall.

  Then, the ding of the elevator bells interrupted the short tranquility, announcing company. She flicked her wrist, and a small gun slid out of her sleeve into her palm. The doors opened to reveal a squad of heavily-armored security forces carrying military-grade ballistic shields. Behind them were the Blackpoint Security Solutions' prided magitech Druzhina, equipped with an enhanced bodysuit and Image Blades capable of cutting through anything.

  The shieldbearers unleashed a barrage of submachine gun fire. Raven's barrier blocked them all. She aimed her small gun from behind the magical barrier and pulled the trigger. There was no projectile, but the center of one of the heavy ballistic shields started glowing red hot as if an invisible laser was heating it up. The man behind it dropped it with a yelp.

  Raven rushed forward under the suppressing fire and rammed into the much taller man with her barrier. To the security forces' surprise, he was launched backward with such speed that he impacted the wall beyond the elevator lobby a split second later.

  "She's enhanced!" said one of the Druzhina as he charged at her with his weapon. The Image Blade was a straight metal rail containing a visual aberration. As if a piece of existence itself had been cut out, the opening revealed an ever-shifting monochromatic soup - a glimpse into another dimension.

  The weapon cut through Raven's barrier unhindered, and she retracted her arm in time to avoid losing it. She retreated from the pursuing Druzhina and dropped the cylinder that produced her barrier. He stopped his chase and took the time to kick it aside. "She lost her barrier. Get her."

  Raven raised her hands, and the gun in her right palm slid into her sleeve. She watched the shieldbearers aim their submachine guns as if the world was slowed down for her alone. Flicking back her leather jacket, she revealed the hilt of an Origami Sword on her belt. With a blindingly quick draw, she stepped forward and cut the Druzhina's Image Blade from the side, severing the rail containing the spatial anomaly. With the containment unit broken, the dimension inside discharged violently, ripping through space itself like an out-of-control hose. It snapped through the Druzhina and erased the upper half of his head before collapsing out of existence.

  From the shadow of the falling man emerged Raven with her Origami Sword fully unfolded. The shieldbearers fired a spray of bullets, but every single one within her silhouette was deflected by the most minimal of movements from her wrist. One of the armored guards realized the truth. "That's spec ops-grade enh-"

  Before he could finish, Raven's sword sliced through his shield, the arm holding it, and his chest behind it. Even without an Image Blade, she could cut through most anything. The Druzhina behind the shieldbearer faced her with his weapon, but her speed was overwhelming even to one of the most elite security guards money could buy in Starlight City.

  Raven was a black blur, cutting through one man after another until there was only one Druzhina left. He raised his Image Blade and took a defensive stance with both hands on the hilt. Decades of sword training instincts kicked in. He would not fall here. His wife and kids would-

  The world flipped over. For a moment, he wondered if he had been thrown. But when his own body, still standing, brandishing the Image Blade, came into view, he understood. As his head flew in an arc through the air, he watched Raven sheath the automatically folding Origami Blade. She didn't even look at her handiwork and walked toward the elevators, hearing the thud of a helmeted head hit the blood-slick floor before the body followed.

  She raised one hand and flicked a finger. The cylinder for the magitech barrier shot up from the ground and flew into her palm. It slid into her sleeve, and she walked toward the elevators without a glance back at the mayhem she left behind.

  When she approached the door, it opened automatically for her, revealing a mirror. Jet black hair under a Raytronics Corporation promotional baseball cap. Eyes as black as the sea at night. A slightly pale, blood-splattered face. The face of a killer stared back at her. She looked down at her black leather jacket and the skintight bodysuit underneath. No damage, but covered in the blood of her enemies. A skilled killer.

  "Here is your ride, princess," Nightingale quipped, pulling Raven from her thoughts.

  "Cut the sarcastic small talk," came her stony response as she stepped into the cabin. The doors closed without her input, and the elevator started moving up. She looked at the display, so out of place for the otherwise classical brass and mirror interior. It showed her destination: EX - the executive floor, only accessible through the correct magimetrics. Or when tampered with by the city's greatest hacker.

  The nondescript music in the elevator didn't even register for Raven. Her mind was filled with deafening silence. Two years. She had dreamed of this in her sleep. She had practiced for it in her every waking moment. The day she would step up to the CEO of Raytronics Corporation, David Song, and confront him about what happened two years ago.

  "You got a welcoming party in the hallway. Two shieldbearers at the door, eight Druzhinas, a dozen regular security detail, one unknown, assume hostile," Nightingale warned. The elevator chime played, but the doors didn't move. "Give the word, and I'll open it."

  Raven drew her Origami Sword and slid her fingers along its surface. She glanced up at the camera. Nightingale was watching, and nobody else. From here on out, she didn't need to hold anything back. That was, of course, if the enemy even warranted her full power. So far, she hadn't even broken a sweat.

  Upon her nod, the elevator door opened to reveal a long hallway filled with security guards. At the other end was a penthouse office with a window filling the entire back wall. Outside was a garden and a landing pad. Her target was nowhere to be seen. Surely hiding in one of the adjacent rooms.

  Just outside the elevator stood two shieldbearers, greeting her with a barrage of submachine gun fire. She slowly advanced, deflecting every bullet heading for her. They stepped backward as they continued to shoot, until one of them ran out of ammo.

  Raven rushed forward in a blur. The other shieldbearer couldn't keep up with her speed as she left his shots behind. Her Origami Sword moved through the guard's body, right as he finished reloading, without even drawing blood. She deployed her magitech barrier and crashed into the other one with such force that he dented the hallway wall. The inside of his ballistic helmet exploded with blood, and he slid to the ground lifelessly as his counterpart fell into two pieces.

  The first Druzhina reared his head. He matched Raven's speed, a blur of black and white, cutting through the hallway toward her. She kicked up the shieldbearer's submachine gun, caught it in one hand, and held down the trigger. Unlike her physical Origami Sword, the Image Blade couldn't be used to deflect projectiles. His bodysuit was rated for small arms fire, but the bullet impacts stopped him in his tracks.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Raven advanced while shooting, pummeling him on the approach. He desperately covered his head and stumbled back, blocking the path for his colleagues. The moment he heard the hammer click empty, he brandished his Image Blade. It was right in time for the Origami Sword to cut through both his wrists and then his face from below.

  As he fell past her, Raven dropped the empty submachine gun and continued walking as if she were on an evening stroll. The next Druzhina was more careful and waited for her to strike first. When she did, he would cut her sword instead of trying to strike at her. Once disarmed, she would pose far less of a threat.

  With a flick of her wrist, she drew her small gun and pulled the trigger. The Druzhina felt heat rising on his face as his visor heated up. Before he could fumble at the strap to take it off, a hole was burned through his head. The men behind him looked through the smoldering remains to see a coldly staring Raven as she dropped the melting gun. It hit the ground at the same time as the guard's knees.

  No amount of discipline could make a man stand his ground against an opponent this overwhelming. The remaining eight Druzhina hastily retreated to the end of the hallway. Raven saw no reason to pursue. There was no other way out of this penthouse office. Nightingale had made sure of that through repeated checks.

  "Hovercar incoming," as if on cue, Nightingale spoke up.

  "Robin," Raven said.

  "Yes yes," responded a lazy-sounding young girl's voice.

  A moment later, the sound of a small explosion reached Raven's ears. Then, she saw the hovercar crashing on the landing pad, generating a massive pink explosion from the magical battery inside rupturing. The windows were shattered and blown inward, and a shockwave traveled through the hallway.

  Raven sprang into action and sped toward the utterly shocked Druzhina. Elite security forces they might have been, but they were still humans. Unforeseen circumstances always caused confusion in their ranks. She used that opportunity to cut them down one by one.

  Finally, she set foot in the office space. It was not just one room but an entire floor, featuring a living space, training chamber, and a meeting room large enough to seat the entire Raytronics Corporation board. Raven didn't have time to play hide and seek with him here. "Where is he?"

  "In the meeting room with the remaining bodyguards. And I've identified the unknown. It's Jess Asrain, also known as Railroad. Affiliated with Norhem Heavy Industries. Rank thirteen on the Starlight Billboard Rankings," Nightingale responded a few seconds later. "Be careful."

  Raven sniffed in disdain and walked across the carpet, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints. Her steps were muffled, but maybe it was her blood pumping through her ears. She was so close now. This rank thirteen would not stop her. Nothing would stop her at this point. She had come too far.

  The penthouse space was filled with glass partitions, many of which had shattered from the earlier hovercar explosion. She walked around the central column housing the elevator and reached an undamaged area. Finally, she saw the meeting room and the security detail hunkering down behind a makeshift barricade.

  "Leave it to me!" Railroad announced as she stepped out into the open fearlessly. She was a tall and lean girl with tan skin, bleached blonde hair, and puckered lips with pink gloss. Her garish makeup stood in stark contrast with her clothes, which one could only describe as a rust-colored tactical cheerleader outfit. The Norhem Heavy Industries logo was plastered across her ballistic vest and printed on the hem of her pleated skirt. "Terrorist spotted. Engaging!"

  She looked like the typical bright-eyed and empty-headed, trendy schoolgirl who didn't know the ways of the world. But despite seeing Raven covered in blood, she seemed wholly unbothered by the knowledge that she was facing a murderer who had killed only moments ago.

  Railroad pulled out a two-handed sledgehammer with her company logo on the mechanical head from inside her short skirt. It shouldn't have been able to fit in such a small space, but such was the power of magic.

  She was a second-generation magical girl.

  Raven looked past her and saw David Song hiding behind the executive chair in the meeting room, covered by two security guards. She had seen him on screen and afar many times before, but his terrified expression as he feared for his life was a new one. Her eye twitched.

  "Looking away when I'm here?" Railroad activated the magic booster on her belt and slid forward on the wheels under her combat boots. A bright magic jet ignited in the hammerhead, adding to her speed. She swung her hammer at Raven's head diagonally, leaving as little space for her to maneuver as possible. She was used to fighting.

  But Raven was more so. She barely stepped out of range and swung her Origami Blade at Railroad's exposed arm. It was blocked by a magical barrier. The corporate magical girl continued forward, pushing Raven back. She deployed her own barrier and dug in her heels, stopping the taller girl's momentum. It seemed to surprise her.

  "Military-grade enhancements? You look all natural to me, though," said Railroad, showing that she was more than a dumb girl with a loud appearance. She stepped back and swung her jet hammer. Raven didn't even try to block it with her barrier and instead stepped into the magical girl's range with her Origami Sword.

  Railroad stopped her heavy weapon's momentum with the superhuman strength only a magical girl had and kneed Raven in the stomach. The impact would have scrambled the internal organs of a regular human before the force launched them into the wall, splattering them against it. But the black-haired girl put her barrier between herself and the knee just in time.

  Still, she felt both her radius and ulna snap. The pain caused her to lose her grip strength, and her hand dropped the cylinder that deployed her magical barrier. Railroad saw her opportunity and followed up with a horizontal swing with her hammer. It tore through the reinforced concrete wall beside her as if it were made of papier-mache.

  Raven ducked under it and met the handle with her Origami Sword. Despite the folding blade being able to cut through composite steel alloys, it was stopped by the weapon of a magical girl - her wand. Her hand went numb from the impact, and she nearly let go of her sword. Then, the shockwave of the hammer knocked off her baseball cap.

  "Heh, you're actually pretty cute. A shame I'll have to cave that face in," commented Railroad.

  "Nightingale, confirm blackout," Raven ignored the taunt and spoke into her earpiece.

  "Confirmed. You can let loose," came the immediate response.

  Raven dropped her Origami Sword and extended her hand. She opened her palm, and an elongated glittering object emerged from it. It morphed into a more elaborate shape before the light faded to reveal a torch-like wand with trailing ribbons. A flame appeared in the cup, exploding outward.

  It set Raven on fire. Her entire body was engulfed in magical flames. Black hair turned into flaming red. She extended her arms from within the blaze, and white gloves with orange and red ribbons covered her hands. Her broken arm was healed in an instant. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she pulled aside the curtain of fire to reveal a short red dress with white accents. Two flames trailed from her shoulders like wings. When the fire around her legs dispersed, her combat boots had been replaced with burning high heels.

  Railroad stared at the black spats peeking out from underneath the dress, and her eyes widened. "Flameheart!"

  Flameheart completed her transformation and took hold of her wand. Her eyes, previously as dark as night, were filled with an all-consuming blaze of rage. The former number one on the Starlight Billboard Rankings pointed her torch-like wand at Railroad wordlessly. A stream of fire shot out and rolled toward the second-generation magical girl.

  The corporate magical girl raised her barrier, covering the entire hallway, and stopped it from reaching the meeting room behind her. This was Flameheart. There were no doubts about that. Jess had just started high school when she saw on the news that all the first-generation magical girls had been buried alive in a monumental fight against the deep dwellers. They had sealed the Ultradeep Borehole Research Facility from which the monsters poured out into the city, sacrificing themselves to defeat the threat.

  She remembered crying bitterly when the rescue team finally drilled through the collapsed hole and found that nobody had survived. The magical girls were her heroes as much as anybody else's in Starlight City. She had applied to the corporate joint venture project to usher in the next generation of magical girls through a combination of innate magical abilities and magitech.

  Jess had been one of thousands of applicants. Back then, she thought she stood no chance, but her latent magical powers were discovered during the trial phase. Her physical aptitude was high, but her long-range magical output was lackluster. Thus, she was trained in close-quarters combat and soon debuted as Railroad, part of the Norhem Heavy Industries' roster of magical girls.

  Railroad had worked her way up the ranks rapidly, not only within her own affiliated company but also among the other magical girls in Starlight City. Placing thirteenth against hundreds of competitors was a feat comparable to being in the top three two years ago, when there were fewer than fifty of them. After all, they now had better training and equipment compared to the magical girls of the first generation, who started out as nothing more than vigilantes.

  "You strayed from the righteous path, Flameheart!" Railroad shouted over the roaring flames as she pushed forward with her barrier. She could easily withstand her magic. The barrier device in her wrist guards, far more powerful than the one Flameheart had used earlier, supplemented with her own overflowing magical energy, could block even tank shells. "As your former fan, I will bring you to justice!"

  Flameheart's eye twitched. Justice? How dare this newcomer, ordained by a corporation, speak to her about justice? She stood between her and true justice!

  The magical girl of fire turned up the heat and increased her output. Her flames grew increasingly concentrated until they became a beam of pure energy. Railroad was stopped in her tracks and pushed backward again. She noticed her barrier disintegrating slowly, and some of the heat was making it through. It felt like that time she went to a steel mill as part of her promotional work. She could withstand temperatures that regular humans needed protective gear against. But even she could tell that Flameheart's full power would be too much for her.

  "Are you burning away your very life? Why are you doing this?" Railroad screamed over the roar of the plasma beam. The glass and wall cladding around her lost their shapes and melted away. "Stop, you can't keep going like this!"

  "Hm? You think this is my full power?" Flameheart sounded genuinely surprised. "And you say you were a fan?"

  Railroad's eyes widened at these words. Then, the beam concentrated into a point and shot right through her barrier as if it were light passing through glass. She felt coldness spread across her body, and her fingers grew numb. As she looked down at herself, she understood why. A hole taking up a quarter of her torso had been gouged out of her flank. All matter within it, ballistic vest, uniform, skin, flesh, organs, and bones, had been vaporized on the spot, leaving behind only a cauterized crater.

  She fell to her knees and looked up. Flameheart walked forward without deigning her another glance. Railroad tried to raise her hand to grab her wrist, but her body wouldn't listen to her. She couldn't even turn her head to look at her former idol and fell on her side. Her transformation dissipated, leaving her naked underneath her ruined tactical gear. A final breath escaped through her numb lips as she died without understanding why the greatest hero of Starlight City had turned into a ruthless murderer.

  Flameheart waved her wand casually and created an invisible barrier of heat. It evaporated the barrage of handgun fire from the remaining guards. She advanced on the makeshift barricades, the heat emanating from her setting paper, clothes, and hair on fire. The screams of the men being burned alive didn't even register in her ears as she fixated her flaming eyes on her target.

  When she entered the meeting room, the glass door and walls shattered. She kicked the long table, crushing one of the two remaining bodyguards against the rear wall. The other scrambled back to his feet and aimed his gun at Flameheart with a desperate scream. David Song watched the man's head burst into flames from the inside, his eyes popping like water balloons, before he collapsed lifelessly.

  He couldn't even make a sound anymore, and his whole body shook in terror at the sight of the magical girl who should have been dead.

  Flameheart let the heat from her body die down, bringing it back to regular levels. She sighed and lowered her wand to look at her target. David Song, CEO of Raytronics Corporation since the magitech boom ten years ago. Fifty-two years old but looking not a day older than thirty. Clearly, a beneficiary of the Pantheon Life Sciences magimed anti-aging treatment. One affordable only by the rich and famous. Obviously.

  "SLPD inbound. Collect the package and go," Nightingale warned.

  "Why was Railroad here?" Flameheart suddenly asked nobody in particular. David flinched at her cold voice.

  "A 'special' meeting? I don't know," responded the voice in her earpiece in a dismissive tone.

  "My security received an anonymous tip that a foreign agency was after my life, so I took precautions - I swear I don't know who it was!" David answered, shaking in his sleek and visibly expensive designer suit.

  "Get up," Flameheart declared. She pointed her wand at him, and he leaped up to his feet like a puppet on strings being yanked by his puppeteer. Someone this wealthy was most afraid to die, so he would comply with anything she said until he was safe. "To the elevator."

  David walked with his hands raised. Flameheart had fought her way through a small army without even transforming. And she had made short work of the rank thirteen magical girl after transforming. Even if he had a weapon in his pocket, he would be vaporized before he could draw it.

  The elevator doors opened as they approached, and they entered wordlessly. Without either of their input, it started moving, showing the underground garage as their destination. David was too scared to speak up unless prompted, but countless questions and scenarios ran through his head. How had Flameheart survived the massacre in the Ultradeep Borehole Research Facility? How much did she know? What would she do with him once she learned the full truth?

  He flinched as the elevator chime announced their arrival. The doors opened to a well-maintained parking space with granite pillars and a floor polished to a shine. A van with tinted windows waited only a dozen steps away. The sliding door opened to reveal a young man with slicked-back blond hair and wearing shades, waving them over. In his other hand was an assault rifle.

  David glanced back and found that Flameheart had undone her transformation without him noticing. She was back in her bodysuit with the leather jacket on top. Her hands were empty now, but he was under no illusion that she couldn't kill him in the blink of an eye anyway.

  "Within the projected mission time. Impressive," said the man as they approached the van. He spoke with an accent, and David realized that perhaps this whole operation was a kidnapping by a foreign competitor, and Flameheart was only hired muscle. Maybe she didn't know anything.

  "How much are they paying you? I'll pay you triple for you to save me!" he turned to the girl and offered desperately. He had a feeling that if he stepped into that van, he would never see the light of day again.

  "That's enough out of you, old man," he heard the young man's voice behind him, but before he could turn around, his vision shook from an impact to the back of his head. Then, darkness.

  Raven stared at the collapsed David with her eyes widened in rage. He really thought nothing about her return and wanted to buy her off. The audacity!

  "Let's go. Clock's ticking," Neri's voice and the sound of distant approaching sirens cleared her mind. She quickly helped Neri lift David's legs into the cargo space and closed the door before rounding the van to get into the passenger seat. Igor grunted and nodded to acknowledge her presence. Although the interior was spacious enough for regular folks, he made it look small with his massive frame. One would be hard-pressed to believe that he was only a getaway driver.

  "We're heading out," Raven stated.

  "Robin is already gone. See you on the other side, Raven." Nightingale responded before cutting the line.