The Girl
“With ‘The Coming of the Light’, the Luminescent came to our world with only one goal. To purify it of all human beings. When all hope seemed lost, the Goddess Raftilia came to our aid. Through her divine powers she created the Umbra Girls, young girls gifted with supernatural abilities and the power to stop the Luminescent. We were the last resort, the last battalion, all that stood in their way of purifying us all out of existence.”
Within the field of wheat a teenage girl stepped out of a dark portal. She had tan skin, was about five feet three inches tall, and was quite thin. Her golden blonde hair was tied up in a single french braid with a pink ribbon tied at the end. She had dark blue eyes that portrayed a far older look than her adolescent appearance. Both were different from the ones she was born with, but that was a consequence of her line of work.
Her pink sundress was knee length with just a hint of lace at the skirt, and the ends of the sleeves. Black platform shoes protected her feet from the muddy ground, but they did nothing to stop the ears of wheat from scratching at her knees. Despite this she showed no signs of discomfort, no signs of anything but sheer determination. She had a goal, and she was going to achieve it.
The portal closed behind her as she sighed and pushed her way through the wheat field. On the other end was a farmstead. A red house on her left, a closed barn in the back, and a stable on her right. She decided to start with the red house. Part of the roof had fallen to the ground, leaving a few shingles hanging loose from the part that remained standing. There was a small crack in one of the windows, perhaps more but she felt no need to investigate further. She had found something far more interesting than those two things. The paint was brighter on part of the wall, suggesting that someone had begun a new paint job, but not completed it. What concerned her was that it didn’t stop at the bottom or the top. Instead it ended in a large uneven swath, suggesting that the painter had been interrupted suddenly.
She didn’t want to dwell on it too much, so she moved to survey the stable. The door was slightly ajar, hanging on it’s hinges as if some kind of force had knocked it open a little too hard. Inside were various horses with name plates decorated with engraved flowers above their individual stations, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. Several of the horses had a nice meal in front of them, while some of them had none. There was an open bag of hay leaning on its side and spilling its contents onto the stable floor. While she wanted to move quickly to the next point of interest, some part of her that she had long forgotten moved her to fill the dish of the horses that had none.
After that act of kindness she systematically moved to the barn. The only thing of note was a trolley parked on the side of the building, half full of barrels of hay while the rest of the stacks lay next to it in a sad pile, as if waiting to be hauled so it could move to its next destination.
This is very peculiar, she thought. It’s almost as if whoever was here just up and left in a hurry.
Getting closer to the barn she saw an old dirt road that led to a white wooden gate. She had initially missed it, but now it was firmly in her sights. She left the farmstead behind, that small part of her secretly wishing the horses would be okay.
The dirt road continued past the gate and led to what used to be a street. Sometime after the Coming of the Light, they became hollow. If you stepped on them it was like stepping on a frozen lake. You could easily fall into the caverns below. The reason behind it was unknown. Conspiracy theorists claimed it was Mother Earth punishing us for our transgressions, but the more sane scientists determined the cause to be the Luminescent. Everything went to hell after they came to Earth. After they murdered over five billion people. Whatever the reason, it remained a fact that all around the world concrete roads had become unstable. For this reason she stayed on the side of the road, where the plants and vegetation had survived.
Walking across the greenery she saw a split in the road. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a glint. She turned her attention towards it to discover a fallen sign. Grabbing a nearby stick she crouched down and carefully pulled it towards her, making sure not to stick her foot on the deathtrap. Dusting it off with her forearm, she inspected the sign. It had a large arrow pointing to the right with the words: Handerson’s village: Population 325. Under that was an arrow pointing left that said: Freeway. She gave a sad smile to the sign, it might have been 325 at one time, but it was probably much much lower right now.
She paused for a second then cradled her chin with her hand. “Am I too late?” Her voice would have been sickeningly sweet had it not been for the gruff tone she used. At one time it might have been forced, but now it was as natural to her as breathing.
As if to answer her, a loud alarm sounded in the direction of the town. A warning that the Luminescent had been spotted. She ran towards the village in a sprint. Within minutes she arrived to complete chaos. About ten to fifteen people passed by her, trying to escape. The town was split into two lines of wooden buildings, one on each side of what used to be an old cement road. It had completely disappeared into a crevice below, so a wooden bridge was created to allow crossing. There also were wooden floors to replace the concrete sidewalks. There were various shops, and stores. Selling wares from clothes, to perfumes, to groceries, or any kind of necessity.
Normally someone would have approached her for moving towards the danger, rather than away from it. Her Diversion Field took care of that problem. It stopped everyone around her from caring about her or even noticing her. It was a special magick that Umbra Girls could use.
Ignoring the panicked screams she began surveying the area. Glowing yellow divots sparsely laid about the bridge. These poor souls had been purified. The fact it was still glowing meant this was a fresh kill. They were still here.
Suddenly a loud gurgling laugh pierced through the silence and broke her out of thoughts. She knew what that meant, it was the voice of a Luminescent. Luminescents sounded similar to if you tried to speak with your head submerged halfway under water. It was speculated that they spoke a different language, but the strange method of talking was their way of trying to communicate with us.
It was coming from a building on the right side at the far end that had a tilted sign with the words: “Sister Mary’s Orphanage.” The building was old and decrepit, the walls were yellowed, and greenish-yellow mold grew on the sides. Through a dirty window she saw black mold growing on the corners of the ceiling. She visibly shuddered at the thought of children living in such horrid conditions. To make matters worse there was a U-shaped hedgerow that would be perfect for trapping innocent children in a corner. With zero hesitation she ran towards the hideous giggle, hoping to save the unfortunate soul who was in their grasp.
“Why does the queen care about this pathetic town anyway?” a masculine voice gurgled.
“There will be no questioning our orders while I am in charge,” a feminine voice did the same.
Most Luminescent were no more intelligent than wild animals. However, the ones who could speak were the most dangerous. These two were clearly much higher up on the food chain than the others.
“I got it, I got it. Let’s just purify this last brat and be done with it.” Hearing those words, she immediately circled to the other side of the building and saw something much more dangerous than she had imagined.
The Luminescent were about the size of a normal human. They resembled a velociraptor from a Jurassic Park movie, but were made entirely of yellow glowing energy. The only thing that wasn’t glowing yellow was the white void that served as their eyes, mouth, and jagged teeth. The male ones were usually about five feet tall, while the female ones were a bit smaller with proportional claws. Though their size could vary widely like any other animal.
If there had been only one or two or even five it wouldn’t have been so bad. Instead there were at least fifteen of them, maybe more. She had gotten herself in hot water, and she wondered if this might be the time she finally was taken down. Nevertheless, she never backed down from a fight, no matter how dangerous.
The boy in question looked about a little younger than she did. Thirteen, at most fourteen. He had a brown complexion with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was a little short, and quite thin. He wore a tattered shirt with dirtied jeans and had no footwear. The only thing he had was abject fear as they closed in on him. In front of him were pits of steaming white light. There must have been at least eight children. Now there was only this single boy left.
Looking deep into herself, she found her Night Crystal and tapped into it. The Night Crystal was the lifeblood of an Umbra Girl. It stored energy by defeating Luminescents or doing good deeds. The reason it was necessary to store energy was because if an Umbra Girl ever became empty she would explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.
Inwardly she drew a large spiritual cord from the center of her Crystal, then swished it outward towards the path she had taken. It was almost like a magickal version of a collect call. The cord glowed with a faint dark energy as it reached back into her Night Crystal. Someone on the other end had answered.
“Bunberry? What are you doing? What’s going on, are you okay?” A worried feminine voice spoke inside her head.
“I’m fine Blue Bubbles, I just wanted to let you know I’ve located about fifteen Luminescents, I’m going to take them out.”
“Bunberry, you know the boss won’t be okay with that. You need to wait for reinforcements, I’m sending some to your location now.”
“Sorry, but there isn’t time. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
“No! You can’t do that, you need to wa—” with that she cut off the call and walked towards her targets.
“Sorry kiddo, it’s the end of the line. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt, you’ll be purified just like your friends. You should be happy, you’ll be able to meet them soon.” His horrifying voice punctured through the air, he was going to kill this boy. She absolutely would not let that happen.
“Get the hell away from that kid you bastards!” They immediately turned towards this girl that had somehow snuck in. The Diversion Field worked faintly on Luminescents too, but only if she stayed about fifteen feet away. She was now about ten feet away from them. If the boy wasn’t occupying their attention, she might have already been spotted by them.
“Who in the world are you, girl?”
She wasted no time and began to incant. “With a blade of darkness, I will cut through the light. Swallowed into blackness, You will be slain by my eternal spite!” During her recital she performed an unusual dance. First “with a blade of darkness” she cupped her hands as if she was holding a double handed weapon. Next “I will cut through the light” was her slashing that invisible two handed weapon diagonally. When she said “Swallowed into blackness, ”She held the imaginary sword horizontally in front of her. Finally with “You will be slain by my eternal spite,” she gripped her air weapon and swung it to the sky.
“An Umbra Girl?! No!” Even with white glowing holes for eyes, they still were capable of expression, and his was one of absolute terror. In a panic he leapt towards her but smacked onto the hard surface of a gigantic dark energy bubble which encased her like a cocoon. He scratched and bit and shoved it, but no matter how hard he tried, the Luminescent couldn’t get through it. Even if it were possible, there would have been no time to stop the incredibly powerful dark shockwaves emanating from her body which sent him flying into the pit behind them.
Now that the riffraff was dealt with, an incredible metamorphosis began to take place. A swirl of bunny-shaped blueberries suddenly spun around her intensely. A brown bunny tail popped into reality, poking against the back of her dress. Her ears melted into her head, and light brown rabbit ears grew atop her crown. The rest of her remained human as her entire outfit disintegrated into darkness. The bunny blueberries flew down towards her feet and began to spin rapidly. They slowly ascended upward while hopping and giggling, and as they rose she was given new clothing. Her footwear transformed into a pair of brown mid-calf boots with two bunny blueberry pom poms on each. Her hands now sported black armored fingerless gloves with a bunny blueberry symbol on the back of the hand. A dress with frills and lace and a bunny blueberry design stitched onto it poofed into existence. Immediately after, black plates of armor melded themselves to the dress, forming a sort of ornate dress armor. Her braid was undone and her hair was straightened and lengthened down her back. A black tiara with a blueberry gem resting in the middle of it completed her look.
"How many more did you bring? You can’t possibly be the only one.”.
“I am the only one they need.” The Luminescent girl broke into laughter at her declaration.
“Do you realize the situation you are in? There are twenty of us. and one of you. As soon as that shield falls, we’ll have you. How do you plan to win?” the woman said. With a smirk she motioned with her claw. While Bunberry was still encased in the dark energy, the small army surrounded her, waiting for her protection to drop.
“Nineteen now.” She smirked but the lizard girl gave her a smirk back.
“Sure, whatever you say, Umbra Girl,” she mocked. That would have alarmed Bunberry normally, but calling her an Umbra Girl bothered her more.
Bunberry smiled a sad smile, then held her right hand above. “I’m not really an Umbra Girl. Not anymore.” With a loud boom a comically large greatsword fell from the sky and landed in her hand. It was all black, with a blueberry shaped pommel, and looked sharp enough to cut a strand of hair lengthwise in half. The cocoon faded and she entered a fighting stance. “I’m the Umbra Knight.”
“I-It doesn’t matter who you are, we have way more of us.” Her voice was shaky, clearly the Umbra Knight’s reputation had preceded her. The Umbra Knight was feared amongst the Luminescent for how many she had killed while alone. In fact she always worked alone, she never teamed up with any other Umbra Girls. It was almost like her trademark.
The lizard woman held her claw outwards and screamed. “Atta—!” The Umbra Knight moved with superhuman speed and silenced her before she could even finish her command. She screamed in agony as she disappeared with a bright flash. There would be no hesitation from the Umbra Knight. There was no uncertainty in her eyes, only cold death.
After seeing their leader die the remaining lizards charged towards her. Sensing their movements, the Umbra Knight slashed diagonally downwards, killing one of them. Without stopping she placed her feet clockwise ninety degrees, then using the force from the previous attack, sliced diagonally upwards ending the lives of two more. Moving ninety degrees again she slashed diagonally downward again killing another two. It wasn’t a flawless assault, they had scratched her and bit her repeatedly. There was no way she wouldn’t suffer an attack or two in this situation. Normally a scratch or bite from a Luminescent would cause that part of the body to disappear from existence. Or, at least, that’s how everyone would perceive it. The victim would know that it was there, but their brain wouldn’t comprehend it or believe it. They would look at it and feel as if that part was gone or never had been there in the first place. Thankfully, that fate wouldn’t befall an Umbra Girl. Umbra Girls used their magical powers to cover themselves in a shield. It protected them from any attacks by a Luminescent, and from being purified. However, it wouldn’t last forever, and enough attacks would break the shield, leaving her just as vulnerable to purification as any normal human.
Despite that risk, the Umbra Knight didn’t care. She fought like someone who wasn’t afraid of death, in fact she seemed to welcome it. She wasn’t going to give the reaper the satisfaction of doing it easily, though. It was going to have to work for its prize.
Realizing a ground assault wasn’t working, the Luminescents leaped high into the air and pounced at her from above. Despite their attempt at an aerial attack, the Umbra Knight was a trained veteran, and this was not the first time she had seen an assault like this. Using the momentum of the last blow, she crouched downward then sprung herself upward and swung her sword 720 degrees while in the air. Her greatsword cleaved four more of them in half as she landed back down on the ground. The rest backed off then turned towards the boy. They took off in a retreat towards him. Their first orders apparently superseded their last ones as they bared their fangs and claws at him.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the trepidation in the boys’ eyes. She cursed herself for getting so absorbed into the battle that she had not even once thought of the boy she was trying to protect. She knew she couldn’t let herself be distracted by that thought, however, and steeled herself thinking of a way to save him. Instantly it came to her: She had to use her secret weapon. It would drain an immense amount of energy from her, but she had little time to stop them so there was no other choice.
She leaped high into the air as bunny shaped blueberries swirled around her then entered her sword. Fully powered up, she screamed at the top of her lungs, ”BLUEBERRY EXECUTION BLAST!” Her sword glowed blue, then at unfathomable speeds slammed down in front of them. Countless bunny blueberries glowing with a dark energy violently discharged out of the spot she struck. The blast instantly incinerated the rest of the nine Luminescent. They were gone, and the boy was saved.
After she landed she felt completely drained. Her shield was down, and her body struggled to hold her transformation. She couldn’t let him see who she was as a human, so she had to keep it up. Her Diversion Field was held up by her magick, as was her transformation. Once her transformation fell, her Diversion Field would too. It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened to an Umbra Girl, or to her for that matter, but it wasn’t something she really wanted to deal with right now though, so she used as much energy as she had left to stay standing. She turned to the boy then dropped her greatsword to the floor as its weight was starting to overwhelm her.
“You okay?”
Instead of answering he squealed excitedly. “That. Was. Awesome!” he exclaimed loudly. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”
“So you’re not hurt?” Her eyebrow furrowed. He seemed to ignore her question.
“They were all, ‘there’s only one of you,’ then you were like ‘I’m all they need.” He attempted to mimic her gruff voice, while moving back and forth. “And slash slash slash, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, blech.” He grabbed at his throat as if he was choking then dramatically fell to the floor.
She sighed and shook her head. It wasn’t as glamorous as he may have thought. Being an Umbra Girl didn’t only mean you got to save people. It was also a huge responsibility, and required great sacrifice. Though, his enthusiasm did remind her of someone she once knew, someone she once knew quite intimately.
Without warning the excitement left the boys eyes, and instead was replaced with dread. With a shaking finger he pointed behind her. The voice of the lizard girl echoed in her head, ‘There are twenty of us and one of you.’ She immediately ran the numbers in her head of all the Luminescent she had killed. Two, one, two, two, four, nine. She had killed all twenty, that should have been enough.
“I’ve got you now!” The male’s voice from before shook her to her core. With that voice she realized she had made an egregious error. The first one wasn’t killed, Luminescent cannot be killed by any means other than an Umbra Girl’s attacks. The shockwave had merely knocked him away. He probably climbed back up sometime during the battle, then snuck up on her. She was getting sloppy, the toll from constantly throwing herself into danger might have been finally reaching its peak.
He was close, much closer than she felt comfortable. If she didn’t do something, both she and this child would be purified. Thinking at lightning speeds she looked to her sword lying on the ground and formed a quick but crude plan. She stomped on the handle of the sword sending it flying upwards, with one quick movement she grabbed it as the handle rotated perfectly and with the last of her strength she stabbed it behind her. The boy’s face turned to relief as they heard a scream and a flash of light. The battle finally over, the Umbra Knight used her sword as a makeshift cane to walk towards the wall, then laid her back against it and slid down till she sat on the grass. Her transformation undid itself as all energy was drained from her, so unfortunately he had seen her human form.
“Kid, get out of here. You’ve seen what I look like, you need to run,” she warned the boy.
“What, why?”
“If you don’t hurry she’ll be her—” before she could finish she felt a tap on her shoulder.
“Princess Bunberry, I’m disappointed in you,” a feminine voice said. The voice was quite high pitched, but despite that it commanded an immense air of superiority. In less than a few seconds a familiar puppy face appeared before her. She was about two feet tall and looked as if a chihuahua was standing upright like a human. She had pink fur and two red eyes. The Umbra Knight knew this was the Goddess Raftilia.
“Y-you’re… a dog. How are you talking if you’re a dog?!”
“You saw murderous sentient energy lizards kill your friends, but a talking dog is out of the realm of possibility for you?” The boy put his hand up to say something, then immediately dropped it. “Besides, you won’t remember any of this anyway so stop interrupting me.”
“B-boss,” the Umbra Knight, no, Princess Bunberry said and looked to the floor. Her voice no longer had that gruff tone, it had the small whimper of a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Don’t you b-boss me,” Raftilia scolded. “You are in huge trouble young lady, we will talk back at the base. First, I have to erase this kid’s memories.”
“N-no please. I want to remember this, I want to remember how I was saved,” he said with a pout. Then sank to the floor dejectedly. Raftilia didn’t seem moved by his words and walked towards him mechanically.
“Sorry kid, it’s the rules.” She held out her paw. “You saw her real form.”
“I-I watched my friends die…I don’t want to forget them, please” he begged. Raftilia only rolled her eyes at him. She continued holding her paw outwards at him. Tears fell from his eyes as he slammed his fists onto the floor. “If I only had power. If I only was stronger maybe I could have saved them.”
Immediately at those words Raftilia’s ears perked up. Bunberry’s eyes went wide at the realization of what was going to happen. “Oh, do you? Do you really? What if there was a way? A way you could have that power you seek?” Raftilia asked cryptically and lowered her paw.
“R-really? That sounds great,” he exclaimed.
“You only need to—” before she could finish, Bunberry yelled out. “No! Don’t do it, you don’t want thi—” Bunberry herself was silenced as Raftilia held out her paw and a dark portal opened up under her. Her body fell inwards as she braced herself on the nearby grass to stop herself from fully falling in. Slowly she was pulled in more and more as she clawed at the ground, trying to warn the child before it was too late. Unfortunately she was stopped as Raftilia looked at her disapprovingly, then kicked her into the portal and turned back to the boy. “Now, where were w—”
That was the last thing Bunberry heard before she succumbed to her injuries, and fell into blackness.
The Boy
“I am still shaking from being chosen as an Umbra Girl! I even got a squad and everything. Can you believe it? Me? Of all people? I’m so excited, I just can’t wait till they let me out into the field!”
The boy grew a bit wary seeing the talking dog get rid of his savior. However, his desire to be able to help others had overwritten any trepidation that had taken over him. If only he had power, then he could have saved them. That was all he could think about.
“Now, where were we? Oh yes, you want power to save others. Well first, let’s see your compatibility, stare at my eye please.”
“Your eye, don’t you mean your eyes?” To answer him a third eye opened up on her forehead. He cautiously stared directly into it, and felt as if she was looking into his very soul. After what seemed like an eternity it closed.
“You are absolutely perfect.” She raised her paws in joy and did a little dance. “You will make a great addition to our team. I can’t wait to see how you turn out!”
“So… what do I do to get this power? Also, what do you mean your team?”
She looked at him slyly then held out her paw. He stared at it for a second, then she coughed while holding out her paw even more enthusiastically. He mentally facepalmed and placed his hand in her paw. As soon as he took it, he felt a jolt of electricity flow throughout his entire being.
“What the heck did you do to me!?” His voice was pained and confused, the dog creature, however, didn’t seem to notice or care.
“You’re going to feel a bit of nausea, and some minor discomfort. You probably will lose consciousness. Don’t worry, this is completely normal, see you soon.” He was unable to react as she pushed him into a dark portal that opened up behind him. He fell into it, and as she had warned him, he felt as if he was going to throw up. The ‘minor discomfort,’ however, was not even close to what occurred. His body felt as if it was crushing him into a cube like a car in a junkyard. The pain was immense, and it caused him to fall into blackness.
“Kid, are you okay? Wake up, wake up!” a feminine voice spoke in the darkness. Her voice was a high soprano, and also was filled with compassion and caring and made him feel warm.
His eyes burst open but he couldn’t see anything. Everything was pure dark, and he started to panic. It was made worse by the fact he realized he was tied down with leather straps on a metal hospital bed. “Were am I? Who are you? Are you going to hurt me? Please don’t hurt me!” Tears fell from his eyes as he felt a gentle finger caressed his cheek.
“Kid, it’s okay. Your eyes are just adjusting, you’ll be able to see soon. Just calm down. I know you are scared, but it’s okay.” Suddenly he felt burning pain in his eyes. For the next minute or two he felt intense, agonizing heat coming from his iris. Just as he was beginning to fear it would last longer than he could stand, it abruptly stopped, and he found that despite being in pure darkness, mysteriously he could now see as clear as day. Before, he couldn’t see the purple flames he now saw lighting the room, but now that his eyes had adjusted he could see everything.
It looked like he was in a hospital bed, with multiple beds around him. He grimaced at the smell of disinfectant, then observed multiple surgical tools on a metal tray next to him. He saw the faint appearance of an intercom on the wall to the back. The walls were pure black and of a material he had never seen before. To his right he saw a closed curtain that barely peeked open. In the open slit he thought he saw strands of blonde hair and wondered if it was his savior. He turned his head slightly to try to see more of the open slit, but felt the same hand from before take a hold of his arm.
The girl standing over him wore a white lab coat with a business skirt and blouse. A stethoscope hung from her neck, dangling against her pure white dreads that offset the dark tone of her skin. She was a bit taller than him and had yellow irises. That was not a natural eye color.
“W-what are you going to do to me?” he asked, his eyes full of uncertainty.
Her voice turned stern and annoyed. “I don’t know why you think I’m going to do anything to you. If it weren’t for me you’d still be out of commission. First timers always get a little beat up from using the Dark Portals.” She looked at him with daggers in her eyes that seemed to say “How dare you think I’d ever hurt you.”
“O-oh, I’m sorry.” The poor boy looked downward like a kicked puppy and tears began to fall down his cheek once more. He noticed he was crying a lot more than he usually does. No one could blame him though, he was kidnapped by a strange dog and tied down to a bed. Anyone would be scared and most likely cry in that situation.
Her look softened and she took a hold of his hand. “Look, it’s going to be okay. I know you’re scared, I know you don’t know what’s happening to you, but I’m a doctor and I’m going to take care of you.” She looked at him with a warm smile, unfortunately that warmth faded from the room as the door flew open.
“Oh? Is the child awake?” The familiar voice of his captor rang throughout the room. She walked into the door with a smile on her face, and her tail wagging. Despite her joviality, his thoughts were of the agony of being in that portal.
“I thought you said it’d be ‘minor’ discomfort! I felt like I was being crushed into dust!”
“Well, it will be minor compared to when I finish giving you your power.”
Fear gripped his soul like ice, quickly becoming hysteria. How had she not finished yet? What more was she going to do to him? “N-no please don’t hurt me, please!”
The dog creature rolled her eyes. “Kid, you asked for power. Great power comes with great sacrifice. It’s too late to regret it now, just accept it and move forward.” Her face held no emotion. It wasn’t malicious, nor did it have compassion. Instead, it was almost robotic. Something about that frightened him more than the threat of pain.
“F-fine what do I have to do?”
“Just lay back and let me do all the work, Lamp Flower, is everything ready?”
The kind doctor that looked over him nodded. The dog creature clasped her paws with a smile. She walked away from his bed and towards the intercom.
“Attention all Umbra Girls, you are called to meet in the Ceremony Room. This is not a request, attendance is mandatory. Of course with the exception of a certain… troublemaker. Regardless, the rest of us must all be there to show support to your newest member.”
What had she meant their newest member? Was he going to be an Umbra Boy? Were there any Umbra Boys? He wasn’t sure. He’d heard of the Umbra Girls, everyone had. They saved people from the Luminescent. Though he had never heard of an Umbra Boy before, so he began to wonder if maybe he was special, or possibly the first of his kind. Dismissing any fears he had, he relished the idea of being able to protect others. He’d finally have the power he wanted, the power to save people, like those of his friends he lost.
“Lamp Flower, wheel him in.” With the command the dog creature left, and the one known as Lamp Flower grabbed onto his bed and then started wheeling him out the door.
The hallway was consumed in darkness just like the hospital room. It was nondescript, and pretty basic with multiple doorways on the sides. He couldn’t see anything special except a few nameplates on some of the doors he was wheeled past. Each one seemed to have a different style, some more flowered than others, while one had a skull in the name. The other ones seemed to have names associated with different things IE: Blue Bubbles, Lightning Dust, Dagger Flower, but the skull one was unlike the others . Oddly it appeared as if it originally was two words, instead all of it was scratched out with what looked like a sharp weapon. There was only a single visible word: Dragon. That name was awesome, it seemed to answer his question about Umbra Boys. He wondered if there were any more, and if he could meet them.
He’d calmed down after that revelation while Lamp Flower wheeled him into a room with a door that read “Ceremony Room.”. This room was not like the other he had been in. Those purple flames that he saw in the hallways and the room were now circling the ceiling. Even more bizarre was strange writings in an unknown language pulsated on the walls. He was wheeled towards the center. A sea of both natural and unnatural hair colors crammed themselves through the doorway. There actually weren’t that many, maybe ten at most, but they definitely seemed in quite the hurry. The ones he was able to see on the end, (he couldn’t see more as his head was firmly turned away) looked pretty girly. They seemed to have their nails painted, wearing high heels and skirts and dresses. Ignoring his stares they lined up as if at a bootcamp inspection. Then the dog creature walked in and examined the girls.
“Is this everyone?” She scrutinized the girls intensely, as if to count each one.
“Yeah, I think so,” a sweet girl with blue hair and blue eyes said. The dog creature frowned.
“Where is Princess Dragonberry?” Her voice dripped with annoyance. The boy could tell there was some tension between her and this “Princess Dragonberry.” For a brief moment he remembered the door, the one with Dragon on it. Was that who she was talking about?
“Well… uhhh… I think in hi-her room,” the blue haired one said. The dog creature shook her head.
“Go retrieve her, I want every Umbra Girl here.” The dog creature tapped her foot impatiently.
A girl with green hair stepped out of the line up and held her hand outwards. “I-I can go get Dragon if you want, we’re friends.”
“Dagger Flower, you know her name is Princess Dragonberry, why does everyone insist on shortening their names? I do not understand you mortals.” The dog creature pinched her nose and shook her head.
The one known as Dagger Flower’s skin was light brown, her long flowing hair was bright green, and her irises were silver. Almost a metallic kind of silver, which seemed impossible. She was lithe and short with a modest bust and high cheekbones. She wore a mid-thigh black pleated skirt over a pair of jeans along with a blue v-neck top, and a pair of sneakers. She looked kinda quirky to him, but also kinda cool. He felt he could get along with this girl. She skipped out the door, and down the hall and within moments he heard a loud crash and muffled yelling. In a matter of moments he saw Dagger Flower walk back towards the end of the line with a person that looked very different from all the other girls here.
They had pale skin with extremely short bright orange hair cut in a cool wave style, and red irises. They wore black jeans, a bright orange wife beater under a large black coat with black boots. They had a belt with a skull on it holding their jeans up. Their short and scrawny figure didn’t fit those clothes at all but they did their darndest to make it fit. It was difficult to tell this person’s gender, but he leaned towards male. It gave him his confirmation that this person was an Umbra Boy, just like he was going to be soon. In his mind he became a hero like the Umbra Knight, and rescued others with cool flashy attacks.
“You look lovely as always Princess Dragonberry,” the dog creature said. The one he thought was an Umbra Boy scowled.
“How many fucking times do I have to tell you, my name is DRAGON, not princess, not Dragonberry, D-R-A-G-O-N you goddamn literal bitch!” The boy was very put off by Dragon’s language. He also felt slightly guilty that he had mistaken another girl for a boy. However, even though she was upset he felt that reaction was a little uncalled for. The dog creature definitely didn’t appear amused either.
“Princess Dragonberry, you will not speak to me like that in front of a new recruit.”
The girl called Dragon spat on the floor. “Tskch, Fine, where is this girl anyway?” The moment she laid eyes on the boy her eyes enraged. “Are you fucking kidding me Raftilia? Do you know how much you are going to fuck this kid up? When are you going to stop doing th—”
Before the girl could finish, Raftilia, as he had learned she was called, held out her paw. Dragon’s mouth closed, and her body straightened. He watched as she walked back to the line like an automaton, and was completely silent and still. “We’ll discuss your attitude later, it’s time for the Adaption Ceremony.”
“Uh, okay, so am I going to become an Umbra Boy now?” Raftilia burst into laughter.
“Oh no no no, silly child. There are no Umbra Boys.”
“Th-then how am I going to join you all? You said I’m going to be a recruit!”
“Well yes, that’s what we’re here for. You simply need to be... Adapted.”
Those words didn’t sound good, they made every inch of his body visibly shake. Something awful was coming, his animal instincts kicked in and he tried to break free. Every ounce of his body supplied him with adrenaline as he struggled and pushed and fought against his binds to try to escape. Despite his favorite stories, no amount of willpower was going to save him. The straps remained unbroken as Raftilia approached.
“No more distractions, it’s time.” Raftilia wasted no time; she took the boy's hand in her paw. His entire body burned with agony as he saw dark lightning coursing around him. It felt like before, only this time it was much much worse. He felt as if she was draining out his life energy itself. The dark lightning condensed itself into her paw and then miraculously it formed a large black crystal.
“This is your Night Crystal. You will learn what it does in time, but that’s not important right now.” Before he could respond, she shoved the Night Crystal right into him. He expected it to collide with his chest, but instead it went right through him. As if she was pushing it into his very essence.
There would be no words out of his mouth for now he was subjected to incredible pain, the likes of which he had never had before. He felt every cell of his DNA twist and turn as his bones cracked and his skin turned bubbled. There was no end to the pain as he felt small bulbs push against his shirt, and as he felt his waist cave in, and his hips expand. Next his face felt like it was on fire as his skin twisted and turned while his face creaked and cracked. Every part of his body was changing into something new, none of it felt like his own. As if to make matters worse he felt stretching and tugging at his throat, which caused him to cough violently. His skin stopped bubbling and he saw pink strands of hair fall onto his face. With that the pain stopped and he somehow knew it was over.
“W-what did you to m—” he spoke but suddenly stopped. This voice wasn’t his own, It was sweet as strawberries, it was adorable, it was… cute. Raftilia seemed pleased.
“The Adaption Ceremony went well. You are absolutely precious.” The girl known as Dragon looked at him with pity. Somehow she had broken through Raftilia’s spell, at least partially anyway.
“W-why me? Why did you do this to me? I’m a girl, why did you turn me into a girl?” His emotions were all over the place. She had promised him power, but this? Was this worth it? Not to mention he didn’t feel anymore powerful, had she tricked him? To make matters worse his clothes felt so loose now.
“Lamp Flower, release her bonds, we don’t want her restrained for this part.” Lamp Flower nodded, then undid his straps. He immediately got up off the bed and landed in front of Raftilia. He stood tall and looked her in the eye when suddenly he couldn’t move. “Now show us who you really are.”
A dark cocoon completely enveloped him as a strange sensation fell over him. He heard a slurping sound as he felt his ears disappear into his head. Then he felt them move upwards onto his crown. Something soft and fluffy grew out from his behind and it pushed against his jeans finally making them fall down. In front of him something extraordinary happened, he saw sparkling bright red cherries circling around his head. They flew down towards his feet and then swirled around starting at the bottom and then spiraling towards the top. His shoes changed to black mary janes with a red cherry buckle. White tights crawled up and encased his legs. A poofy light red skirt with a cute little petticoat shimmered into reality. A pink top with short princess puff sleeves with a single sparkling cherry embroidered on the ends appeared. He felt a pull as his hair split into pigtails with two ribbons that each had a cherry in the center. A dark portal opened up and a golden stafff with a sparkling cherry at the top, and a pink gem in the middle dropped into his hands. With that, the cocoon dissipated and he completely examined himself. He looked even more adorable from before, to make matters worse his outfit made him look a few years younger than his actual age.
“This is an extraordinary day, we haven’t seen one with your type of magick in a long time.” Raftilia’s tail wagged as she doted over him and examined him from head to toe, even crawling over him and ruffling through his hair.
“C-can you not do that please?”
“Oh, sorry, just you don’t understand how serious this is. You are a Sparkle!” He looked at her like she had grown a second head. “Ah, right, of course you wouldn’t know. It doesn’t matter, you’ll learn soon enough.”
“I-if you say so, it’s bad enough I was turned into a girl, but now I look even younger than I did before!”
“It’s time for The Naming,” she said, completely ignoring him. With the words The Naming, he was filled with immense dread. Especially as she clasped his hands in her paws then looked into his face and smiled.
“Welcome to the Umbra Girls, Cherry Sparkles.”
Umbra Girl!? I am what?
“Training was much harder than I could have ever anticipated. I persevered, though. I am going to be a great Umbra Girl. I am going to work hard. I don’t want to fall behind anyone. I’m not going to let anyone suffer anymore. I am going to save them all.”
“Welcome to the Umbra Girls, Cherry Sparkles.”
It had only been a day since he had heard those fated words, but they still clung to his mind like a fish on a hook. To make matters worse whenever he tried to think of his old name, it was replaced with Cherry Sparkles. Even looking into his deep memories, it was as if someone or something had rerouted the part of his brain that contained his name.
He was indeed one of the Umbra Girls now. He even had his own room that seemed to have willed itself into existence. It wasn’t anything like he had expected, however. It wasn’t filled with frills, or lace, or other girly things. It was fairly nondescript with, a full length mirror, walk in closet—sadly empty, at least for now—a vanity, and a large, fluffy bed. The walls were pure black, just like the rest of the place was, but the floor had a fresh carpet. All in all, it was kind of plain but also homey in a way.
Staring at himself in a mirror, he still couldn’t believe just how much he had changed. A cherub-like face, soft brown skin, much wider hips than he was used to. They were probably just average for a girl, but they felt impossibly large to him. Then there were the breasts and … what he didn’t want to think about that was under his skirt. To make matters worse he was shorter. He wasn’t sure by how much. It could have been a few inches, or maybe more. Then there were the white fluffy puppy ears with the black tips sitting on his head, and the white fluffy tail with a black tip that wagged behind him. It seemed like these changes should be the ones to stand out most to him. After all, he’d never had a tail before. Shouldn’t he be worrying more about that than his larger hips? Yet his thoughts were continually drawn to those hips, breasts, and the unsettling feeling under his skirt. The girl in the mirror would have been cute, if it wasn’t him. That thought alone caused his puppy ears to fold downward.
Shaking his head of those thoughts, he walked over and plunged onto his bed. He took comfort in that it was softer than anything he’d ever slept on. Back at the orphanage, the lumpy, worn mattresses that he and the other kids had slept on could hardly be called beds. This bed, however, felt as if his body was falling onto clouds. It was so comfortable that he just wanted to lay there forever. He probably would have fallen asleep if it weren’t for one of his pigtails falling on his face and latching itself inside his mouth. The taste of hair on his tongue made him spit out violently. He sighed as he realized this was one more thing he was going to have to get used to now. He had tried to untie them earlier, but they were as strong as steel, or maybe harder. It was as if they were stuck that way with no way of putting them back.
“Cherry Sparkles, report to the examination room immediately.” Lamp Flower’s voice made him sigh. He really didn’t want to face anyone right now, let alone the woman that had helped Raftilia turn him into this form. He wondered if she was even a doctor, she claimed she was but what reason did he have to believe her? She was what, sixteen, seventeen? Was that even possible to be a doctor at that age?
Despite his trepidations, he forced himself up off the bed, and stared at the mirror once more as he walked out the door. Following the familiar purple flames towards the infirmary, he passed a few Umbra Girls on the way. They were friendly and waved to him with a smile. Since they were being so polite he couldn’t help but reciprocate. He wasn’t angry at them, it wasn’t their fault after all. The blame lay solely with Raftilia and her minion Lamp Flower.
Lamp Flower’s head peeked out of the makeshift hospital room. “Good, come, we have to talk.” She grabbed him and pulled him in. “Last time you ran away before I could do an examination, I let you rest because I didn’t want to overload you. I find a good night’s sleep can help clear one’s head.”
She motioned him to lay on the table once more, the one that he had been transformed on. His fear tripled and he began to visibly shake.
“N-no, please, what more could you do to me? Please don’t hurt me!” Lamp Flower’s gaze softened and she placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Cherry, calm down, it’s okay. This is just a simple scan to make sure everything is in order.”
“W-why do I need to be scanned? What does that mean?”
“You had your entire DNA sequence rewritten, I’m just going to make sure nothing went wrong with the transformation.” At her words he put his hand up to say something, then realized she was right, and lowered it. He nodded, then laid down on the metal table. “Raftilia insists that the process is flawless, but I’m a doctor. A doctor knows to not assume that everything will always go one hundred percent perfectly. So far, she’s been right, and we’ve had no problems. However, I don’t want you to be the first, understand?”
He nodded and found himself in deep thought. She really seems to care about me. Then why did she help that horrible dog lady do this to me? I don’t understand, she’s so confusing.
She pulled a strange machine above him, then gently held his shoulder. The machine looked like a vacuum with various lights on it. It was bulky, and imposing, and it made him more afraid. He felt so awful being so scared all the time. It wasn’t very manly. He was supposed to be strong, so why was he so weak? “Just stay still, and don’t move. It’ll be over before you know it.” He made himself perfectly still. A red laser scanned him from head to toe. After a few seconds it was over and he breathed a loud sigh.
“All finished, see? You are perfectly healthy. Everything is where it should be, and no side effects have occurred.”
He got up from laying on the table, sat down on it, then took a deep breath. Then he remembered something from before, when he was rescued, the Umbra something had transformed into what appeared to be her original body. His mood improved as he wondered if he too would turn back. If that meant his transformation was only temporary, that would be most welcome. It would be a bit weird turning into a girl to fight, but it was a sacrifice he was okay with.
“So when does this end?” he asked, waving up and down along his body.
“Oh, that. It’ll be over shortly. That transformation only lasts that long on your first time.” There was no word for how happy he was. Shortly it’ll be over, shortly he’ll be back as his normal self. With a pep in his step he got off the bed and started to walk away.
She reached for his arm, trying to stop him.
“What is it? You already gave me a clean bill of health. I want to leave.” He was whining like a child, but felt he had the right. This girl had done him wrong in more ways than he could count.
“I need to help you learn to take care of your body. Not only that, but soon you’ll start menstruating, and you need to know how to take care of your period.”
A period? He’d seen an older girl at the orphanage who had been on that. She had told him it was something only girls get and that he shouldn’t worry about it.
“Why do I need to worry about that?”
“Because you have a fully functioning uterus and ovaries.”
“Well duh, this stupid transformation turned me into a girl. It’s okay, though, you said it’ll be over shortly. Hopefully soon, I can’t wait to get back to being a boy.” At his words Lamp Flower’s gaze softened to one of pity.
“Oh sweetie… Adaption doesn’t wear off. It’s permanent.” Her words felt like a loaded shotgun blast to his chest. Permanent? That’s impossible, he thought. No, no she’s lying I’m not stuck like this. I’m not a girl, I’m NOT a girl.
It seemed as if she could read his mind. “Look, it’s not the end of the world. I know this is a huge adjustment but this doesn’t mean anything. You are still you, just in a different shell.”
Nothing she said made sense, it completely went against what he had been taught. His body was designed for one thing and one thing only, to inseminate girls to restore the human race. It wasn’t fair, but life wasn’t fair. A girl’s duty was to help repopulate the earth. At least, that’s what he was told. He didn’t like it, but it was the only way to save them all. However, was that going to be his future now? While Umbra Girls were seen as an exception to the rules he laid out, just how much was this going to change him? Was he going to like boys now? Was he going to be a wife someday once he became too old to be a Umbra Girl anymore? He’d never heard of a Umbra Girl that was an adult, after all. He had to retire sometime, didn’t he? He tried his best to picture himself as a wife and mother. He had a faceless man for a husband, and a little faceless kid holding onto his pretty dress. He shook the thought from his head. No, he was going to find a cure. He was a man. It wasn’t possible for a man to become a girl. This was not his destiny. For now, though, he decided he would play the part.
“W-what do I have to do?” Lamp Flower spent what felt like an eternity thoroughly explaining to him tampons, pads, how to track his period, and various ways to take care of his new body properly. He barely listened, as it seemed like useless information that wouldn’t affect him for long. Afterwards she tapped her clipboard then placed the back of a pen in her mouth. She seemed to want to ask him something.
“How old were you before the Adaption process?” He didn’t want to be reminded of that awful experience. However, he realized he needed to answer her question.
“I’m thirteen. I’ll be fourteen in a week. Why?” Her eyes told him everything he needed to know, that something was wrong.
“Cherry… your body is reading as eleven almost twelve years old. I’m so sorry, but you’ve regressed two years.” Her words sliced into his heart like a butcher’s cleaver through a fresh chunk of meat. He was hyperventilating, his world was spinning. Not only was this permanent, now he was younger too? The constant amount of things that he now had to deal with was weighing on him heavily.
“So, that’s it then… my life is over. I’ll never get to be my old self again, I’ll never be able to do the things I wanted to do, to fulfill my dreams...” He collapsed to the floor and curled up in the fetal position. He continued to fall deeper and deeper into despair. All hope seemed lost until he felt that warm embrace again.
“Cherry, it’s okay. I’m here for you.” For some reason, even though he was utterly devastated, her words somehow brought him back. Something about her voice was so soothing, almost motherly. “You can still accomplish your dreams. Don’t let this beat you.”
“I-I guess I’ll try.” She smiled at him and pet his head, scratching behind his ears. It felt like electricity shot throughout his entire spine. Not the evil kind like Raftilia had done, but a kind, sweet, loving one. It made him feel like he had worth. If but for a moment, it brushed away the dark thoughts and insecurities that were in his head. He didn’t want this feeling to stop, but unfortunately it couldn’t last forever.. She patted his head one last time and helped him to his feet.
“It’ll be okay. I know it hurts like hell right now, but I’ll do everything I can to help you. If it becomes too much to bear, let me know. We have a therapist in our squad.” He raised an eyebrow at that. What in the world was a therapist? “Oh, also you need to report to Dragon. Boss' orders.
Cherry nodded and left, his thoughts awash in confusion. There was far more to Lamp Flower than met the eye. He also wondered if his saviour would also pet him like she had. Thinking about that made him blush and feel terribly embarrassed. He shook the thought from his mind and continued down the hall towards Dragon’s door. He knocked three times, then waited. He heard the sound of yawning, and rustling behind the door.
“What the hell do you want?” The voice was annoyed, and sounded a little tired as well. Cherry was a little apprehensive about that, but steeled himself. He was a man, he had to be a man, he had to be strong. This Dragonberry girl person was really scary, but he couldn’t let himself be intimidated.
“Ummm… I-I’m supposed to train with you? I-I’m Cherry Sparkles.” It wasn’t as assertive as he would have liked. It was always so hard for him to act that way. The head of the orphanage told him how pathetic he was because of it. He began to wonder if he was right.
“Oh, you’re that Adapted kid, I’ll be right out, gimme a sec.” She spoke with her mouth half full. A few seconds later Princess Dragonberry emerged. Just like before her attire was quite lazy. A baggy sweater, loose sweatpants, and slippers. She seemed quite the tomboy, Cherry surmised.
“Follow me, we’re going to the training room.” She walked out the door and Cherry followed. Across from Dragonberry’s room was a double door. She pushed it open and motioned for Cherry to go in. Cherry nodded then pushed past the doors, and followed behind her.
The room was impossibly wide. He wondered how it wasn’t crashing into the other rooms. Its floor was hard and shiny. Its walls were also that same material that the entire place seemed to be made out of. There was an exercise area in the front, with various exercise machines and benches set up. In the back was something that looked like an arena. It was incredibly large with a fence all around it made of the same mysterious metal. He was reminded of the Umbra person’s gigantic blast that saved him from a fate worse than death. He surmised that part of the training area was for testing things like that.
Dragonberry cracked her neck then sat down on a nearby bench. She patted the bench and waited for him to sit. He sighed then sat next to her.
“Raftili—sorry boss said I got to explain some stuff to you. Then after that I got a little surprise for you. Ready kid?” He nodded. “First, let’s talk about the types of magick. There’s Bubbles, Flowers, Dust, Gemstones, Berries like me, and finally Sparkles which is what you are.”
Cherry became instantly intrigued and was silent as Dragonberry talked. “For some bizarre reason Raftilia always names Berries Princesses. Which is why she calls me Princess Dragonberry, and the girl who saved you is Princess Bunberry. However, there is something you need to understand. I’m not a Princess, I’m not a girl, I’m a guy. I’m Dragon. Call me anything else and I’ll knock your teeth out.”
He was taken aback at that. She was very aggressive. He didn’t understand why she insisted she was a guy, but he didn’t want his teeth knocked out. Though, maybe she wasn’t really a she at all, was she or … he, possibly like him?
“Y-yes s-sir.”
“Good, we’ll get along great then.” He should have waited for the appropriate time, but his curiosity got the best of him.
“So umm… were you also a boy before ... you know?” Cherry’s ears drooped down as Dragon’s face lit up with anger. Then he took a deep breath and softened.
“Kid, you’re new and you’re young, so I’ll let you know a tip. You don’t ask people if they are Adaptions. Even if you witness one, just don’t worry about it. Also, for me, it’s a bit of a different situation. To, uhhh, make it as simple as possible, I was born a girl but I’m a guy in my brain. It ain't perfect terminology but you should be able to understand it better that way.” Cherry didn’t know how to take those words. His confusion and curiosity bubbled to the surface. How could someone with a girl’s body be born with a guy’s brain? Despite his misgivings, Cherry didn’t want to hurt this person. He didn’t understand, but maybe she, no he was telling the truth? He decided he’d have to put it in his long queue of information he needed to sort through later.
“Look, we can talk about gender shit later. Right now we need to get to the serious stuff.” Dragon suddenly looked at him sternly. He felt uncomfortable at his gaze and gulped. “How much do you know about the Luminescent?”
“Uhhh… they are weird glowing lizard things?” Dragon shook his head.
“I suppose I shouldn’t have assumed you’d know anything about them. It’s not like it’s exactly public knowledge. You need to listen closely then, understand?” Dragon looked at him sternly. He nodded rapidly in response. “There are four types of Luminescent. The Grunts, which are the ones that just attack everything like wild animals. Then there are the Generals, the ones who you’ve seen speak. They are usually in charge of the raids or accompanied by the third type, the Royal. They are incredibly dangerous and if you see one you need to call us immediately. Royals not only are immune to your Diversion Field, but they can take on the full appearance of a human. So if you ever see a human talk to you, get the fuck away from them. Finally, the fourth is the Glimmering Queen herself. No one knows just how powerful she is. No one knows where she is either."
Cherry had no idea what a diversion field, or a Glimmering Queen, or any of what he said was. He took it in, and listened, but his mind felt even more muddled than before. The sheer amount of information was overloading him. He just wanted whatever training this was to end, so he could sort out his feelings on all this.
“I-I think so, I got it D-Dragon.”
Dragon seemed to read right through him and sighed. Then a large smirk grew on his face.“Uhhh, change of subject I guess. How old are you kid?”
He looked to the floor in shame.“I-I was supposed to be turning fourteen next week, but I guess I’m turning twelve now.”
“Huh, my birthday is tomorrow, seems we’re close.”
“Oh cool, that must be good for you. Turning uhh… how old are you?”
Any sign of life left Dragon’s face. “I’m seventeen.”
“Oh cool, you’ll be eighteen then? You gonna retire from being an Umbra Girl?”
“No, kid. I’m going to be turning seventeen.”
“What? What do you mean? Uhhh, then what about next year?”
“I’ll be turning seventeen then, too.”
“I-I don’t understand.” The math didn’t add up. He was turning seventeen after being seventeen?
“I’m going to turn seventeen this year, and the next year, and the year after that. I’m always going to be turning seventeen. You can’t age past seventeen as an Umbra, kid.” Cherry couldn’t make sense of what Dragon was saying. How could someone stay seventeen for more than one year? The possibility horrified him. “Also, there is no retirement from being an Umbra, kid. Unless, of course, you become unable to do so. Such as Fluffy Ruby. She lost her arms and legs. Can’t really fight Luminescent without those.”
“L-Lost her arms and legs?!”
“Kid, this life ain't nice, you can have all kinds of horrible things happen to you. Anyway, I think it’s time to stop with this depressing talk. Time for some fun.” His expression changed instantly from gloom to a mischievous grin. Dragon cracked his knuckles then leaped up off the bench and headed to the arena. “Come on kid, follow me.”
Cherry followed as Dragon moved to the center of it, then held his arms out like he was a performance artist. “You ready to see some real power kid? I’m going to show you what a Umbra is truly capable of.” Cherry’s face twisted in perplexity.
“Don’t worry, it’s harmless, you’ll be fine.” The grin on Dragon’s face did not make Cherry feel safe.
“The light pushes onward, expecting us to lay down and die. However, I am the flame in the night and I will burn them to ash!” Just like with Bunberry he did a strange dance. With “the light pushes onward,” he put his right foot forward, and crossed his left elbow with his right hand. “Expecting us to lay down and die,” he swung his right hand outward, facing forward with a snarl. Then “however, I am the flame in the night,” he planted both feet firmly. Finally “and I will burn them to ash,” he crouched lightly and clenched his fists with rage in his eyes.
Just like with Bunberry, the gigantic darkness bubble appeared, and swallowed him completely. His physical form changed first as strawberries shaped like dragons flew around him. Two orange horns dug their way out of his scalp, then his hands became like clay and formed into draconic claws, lastly from his back sprouted a pair of red dragon wings. With his physical transformation over, it was time for his attire. His clothes melted away as the dragon strawberries fluttered around him. They swirled from his feet up towards his head, clothing him in something very different from what he normally wore. His shoes changed to orange mary janes with a dragon strawberry buckle, and white knee high socks with dragon strawberries at the top. Two white fingerless gloves with dragon strawberry embroidery shimmered onto his hands. An orange skirt that had built in white shorts formed on his waist. A plain white top with a large dragon strawberry in the center poofed into existence. Lastly, a dragon strawberry clip on the right side of his short hair materialized.
He looked himself over, then pumped his fists. “Fuck yeah it worked! Bunberry was right, you can change it. It’s still pretty girly right now, but just you wait.” He let out a laugh.
It seemed like Dragonberry was talking to himself and Cherry did not want to interrupt. Within seconds Dragonberry’s celebration ended, and he turned back to Cherry. Without a word he held his hand to the sky. From above a gigantic warhammer fell into his claws. The hammer was mostly black, with a red handle, and a dragon strawberry at it’s hilt. He had to admit, it looked kind of badass. Dragon was an interesting person.
“Okay, kid, remember how I told you it was harmless?” His bubble of darkness faded and he cracked his neck.
“Y-yes, why?”
“I lied.” Immediately he gripped his hammer and slammed it into the ground. The entirety of the ground shattered and flung Cherry onto his bottom. He scrambled upwards and looked at Dragon with terror.
“What are you doing?!” Cherry was confused. Was Dragon sent here to kill him? Had he done something wrong? Was it because he didn’t understand his wanting to be a boy despite being born a girl?
“I’m teaching you an important lesson. Umbra abilities can hurt more than Luminescent, it can hurt normal humans, and other Umbra too.” Cherry was taken aback, did that mean his savior could have hit him and he’d have exploded too like those Luminescent had? “You’re going to get a squad one of these days, and you need to learn how to work around your teammates without hurting each other. I ain’t gonna be the one to teach you that, however, that’s for your instructor.”
“O-Oh kay. Ummm, what is the lesson?”
“Take out your staff.”
“Uhhh, what are you talking about?”
“I told you to take out your staff. I saw it yesterday.” He realized Dragon was talking about the strange staff he manifested after his wardrobe change. However, that staff was gone now.
“I-I don’t know how.” Dragon ran his palm down his face in frustration.
“Kid, just imagine it inside your head, then pull it to you.” Cherry had no idea what Dragon was saying. However, he still wanted to try. He closed his eyes, and tried to picture that beautiful weapon from before. He could see it, he reached for it. Mysteriously it flew away from him, every time he tried to reach for it, it eluded his grasp.
“I-I can’t. It keeps running away from me.” Dragon looked at him as if he had just confessed to murder.
“What the hell does that mean? Just... do it again.” Cherry tried again, but it was the same result. He shrugged.
“I’m not fucking around kid, take it out, or else.” Cherry grew more afraid as Dragon’s rage continued to increase.
“I don’t know why it won’t come out. I’m sorry, please don’t be mad at me.” Dragon suddenly took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“Fine then, if you want to play games, I’ll play games.” Dragon brandished his hammer in his claws then ran at him full speed. He had zero time to react as the hammer connected with his stomach, and flung him into the arena wall thirty feet away. Despite how hard he hit, Cherry felt no pain, only pressure. There was a strange glowing energy flowing around him, protecting him. Dragon stopped, crossed his arms and smirked.
“Good, you brought out your shield. Still no staff, so I guess I’m going to have to turn up the heat.”
“P-Please don’t do that.”
Dragon slammed his hammer into the ground, then pointed his claw at him. Every hair on Cherry’s body stood on end. Something was coming, something bad.
“Strawberry Devastation.” The moment he finished the entire arena shook violently. Cherry was thrown to the floor as he watched the ground twist and turn. A crevasse opened up under him and threatened to swallow him in. He clawed at the floor and tried to keep himself from falling inside. He closed his eyes expecting his own death, instead he felt himself being lifted into the air. He opened his eyes and saw a large claw made out of that same black material was holding him above.
“God you need some toughening up. You’re such a whiny little pussy.” That struck Cherry like an arrow to the heart. He’d been called that before, Dragon was probably right. So was the head of the orphanage. He was a loser, a waste of space. Dragon lifted into the air and landed next to him. “Do you want to die you fucking idiot? Bring out your goddamn staff”
“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m such a loser. I’m sorry I’m such a waste of space. I’m sorry I’m an idiot.” With each declaration more and more tears fell from Cherry’s eyes. However, something else was also occurring. Inside of him, something was stirring.
Dragon’s eyes softened, and the claw let him to the ground. “Kid, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I’m trying to help you.” Dragon’s words fell on deaf ears. Cherry continued to spiral.
“I’m sorry I’m a pathetic excuse for a man. I’m sorry I’m a pussy.” Cherry’s inner essence seemed to reverberate as he fell deeper into despair. Dragon awkwardly walked over to him, and pulled him into a rough embrace.
“I, uh, I’m not good at this shit, but I hope it helps?” Dragon held him in his claws, but Cherry didn’t stop. His entire body started to glow with a white light. “What the fu—”
“I’M SORRY I EXIST!” Cherry screamed at the top of his lungs, and with that last declaration Cherry’s soul erupted. Within his mindscape his staff flew into him. Then materialized out of thin air into his hands in the real world, and he looked Dragon dead in the eye. All he could see was all the times he had been insulted. All the times he was made to feel less than. All the times he was told he was never good enough. All of that concentrated into a ball of pure self loathing and rage. He slammed his weapon into Dragon’s chest as a gigantic beam of energy exploded from the staff.
Dragon screamed as the beam carried him upward and slammed him into the ceiling with a large explosion. That expenditure of energy was finally enough to undo his transformation. The puppy features and the rest of his wardrobe disappeared. All he was left with was the ill fitting clothes he wore before he was Adapted. To his despair, he didn’t change back. He wasn’t able to complain about it, or be vocal in any way. His eyes felt heavy, the world seemed to sway back and forth. Then the guilt occurred. Had he just killed that person? What was that huge beam of energy? What caused his staff to appear like that?
“Kid, that was fucking awesome.” He looked up to see Dragon hovering above him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw he wasn’t dead. He definitely looked a bit battered and worse for wear, but definitely was okay.
“I-I-I.”
Dragon waved his claw at him.“It’s fine. I asked for your staff and oh boy did I get it. I guess I should be careful what I wish for.” He broke into a hearty laugh, one that reminded Cherry of this one boy named Fred in the orphanage. He always had such great guffaws. He missed him… he didn’t deserve what happened to him.
“I can’t wait to see how you refine that power. You’ll be a force to be reckoned with if you can get that beast under control.” Cherry wasn’t sure how he should take that. He wasn’t sure of much of anything, as his eyes kept fluttering between open and closed.
“Hey kid, you okay?” Those were the last words Cherry heard as he collapsed to the ground and fell into blackness.
Bunberry's Punishment
“I can’t believe it! I saved my first person today. She’s a girl a little younger than me and is cute as a button. Though the strangest thing happened. The Goddess Raftilia showed up and seemed to take an interest in her. I was instructed to leave, so I did, though I wonder why she was there?”
"—were supposed to train—” Bunberry struggled to move her body or even open her eyes. Consciousness felt so close to her, yet it still eluded her. The voice was indiscernible, although she could feel it had authority.
“—t wasn’t my fault. The kid di—” Another voice, an agitated one this time. She wondered what kind of conversation was going on.
“—not afford to lose her! She is a Spa—”
“—id is fine. Just calm dow—” The annoyed one, seemed to try to pacify the magisterial one. Then she heard the ending of a crash, and angry stomping away. Before Bunberry could make sense of these words, the blackness dragged her into unconsciousness.
“Wake up, Princess Bunberry, wake up.” Her eyes shot wide open as the familiar calm soothing voice pulled her out of her sleep. She sat up, then rubbed her eyes, and stared at the owner of the voice. She realized she was wearing nothing but a hospital gown, which made sense as she was in the closest thing they had to a clinic.
“What happened to me?” Bunberry reverted back to her gruff voice, then yawned and stretched her arms. Then she saw Lamp Flower stand over her, her clipboard in hand, and a stern look on her face.
“You sustained a massive amount of damage from your last encounter. When Raftilia gets here, we’ll see if you have any permanent injuries.”
“I see.” Bunberry found herself lost in thought. She wondered if she had finally pushed too far. She wasn’t dead, but was she in worse condition than that? What if she became unable to fight Luminescent? What if she couldn’t get her revenge?
Lamp Flower looked left and right, as if she was looking for someone, or making sure someone wasn’t there. “Look, Bunberry, you have got to stop doing this. You have been in my infirmary more than any other Umbra Girl here. You’re going to get yourself killed. As not just your doctor, but your friend. Please… stop this.”
Bunberry just sighed. “Lamp, what would you have me do? Those people needed to be saved. I stepped in because no one else was available.”
“You are correct, however, you simply could have called for backup earlier, instead of waiting till the last possible moment. Which you do every single time.” Raftilia appeared in the doorway, and Bunberry stood firm.
“They needed help.”
Raftilia rubbed her temples in frustration. “And how much help will you be able to offer if you die? If we lose you? You are one of our most powerful Umbra Girls. If we lose you we might lose everything.” Raftilia’s words dug into Bunberry’s soul. Was she really so important? No, there were others.
“Dragon is more than capable if something happens to me.”
“You don’t seem to understand. We cannot lose you… I… cannot lose you.” Raftilia’s face became crestfallen as tears trickled down her face. “We’ve lost so many, I’ve lost so many. I don’t want to lose any more of you.”
Bunberry sighed, then nodded. “I’ll take less risky missions.”
Raftilia sighed, then signaled Lamp Flower. “Let’s check her for injuries, then I have to attend to the other girl.”
Lamp Flower nodded. “Princess Bunberry, please strip.” Bunberry did as she was told, then held her arms up. She’d done this before, Raftilia would scan them for any potential scratches or bites. For some reason only Raftilia could see where parts of them had been erased. Raftilia’s third eye opened and she slowly moved around Bunberry in a circle. Then she immediately moved backwards towards her back. Bunberry felt Raftilia’s paw rub against her back, then when she got to a specific spot she winced.
“I’m sorry Princess Bunberry, but you have a new permanent injury.” Bunberry’s world froze, what did that mean? Had she finally pushed too far? “Part of the area near your spine has been erased, you’re going to have to slow down a bit from now on.”
She remembered that Luminescent that was behind her, she thought she got him without incident, but she was wrong. Her body was running on adrenaline so she didn’t notice his attack connected. It was a grave error. “I… see. Well, I’ll be going then.” Bunberry had a lot to think about. She got up off the examination table, and started to walk out.
“Now hold on just a minute, young lady. I’m not through with you.”
Bunberry sighed. She had hoped Raftilia had forgotten about her punishment.
“Your punishment, of course. Do you understand what you did?”
“I tried to stop you from recruiting that boy.” She was only trying to save him from a horrible fate, but Raftilia wouldn’t see it that way.
“Exactly. Why would you do such a thing? We are completely understaffed. We need as much help as we can get.” Raftilia was angry but her voice was more concerned than furious. “So many Umbra Girls have died, we need to replace our numbers if we want to have a chance to survive.”
“So then, was he worthy?”
“The boy was completely incompatible.” Inwardly Bunberry breathed a sigh of relief. “However, because of your recklessness and inability to follow instructions. I’m removing your ability to move freely between our worlds.”
“What?! You can’t do that!” Bunberry was dumbstruck. If she could, she’d have flipped a table.
”I can, and I have. I already informed Blue Bubbles that you won’t be able to use the Shadow Gate without my express permission.” She had never enacted such harsh punishment on her before. Bunberry realized she had screwed up big time. “One other thing. Our new recruit is incredibly inexperienced but is also a top priority VIP. You will be in charge of her training.”
“Wait, I have to babysit some kid?” Bunberry didn’t seem to care about how important this girl was. “Besides, isn’t Dragon better at that kind of thing?”
“Princess Dragonberry already failed that spectacularly.”
“Excuse me, it’s not my fault the kid has a fucking giant laser.” Bunberry turned behind her and there was Dragon laying on another bed holding his side. Bunberry smirked and shook her head.
“A giant laser huh? Dragon, have you been slacking off with your training? You shouldn’t be losing to a rookie.”
At her teasing, Dragon's face turned several shades of red. “L-Look, the little brat just got a lucky shot in, I didn’t expect it, that’s all.”
“A newbie really took down the Dragon? Now I’m intrigued.” Bunberry’s mind was awash with questions. How had this happened? Was this new girl really that powerful?
“Just don’t make the kid mad, that’s all I have to say.”
“No spoilers, Dragon. I’ll handle her myself.”
“Yeah about that. The kid is a—” Dragon paused and then closed his mouth. “—nevermind.”
Before she could contemplate why Dragon had stopped mid sentence, a loud ahem was heard.
“Princess Dragonberry, Princess Bunberry, there is a much more pressing matter than your pointless bickering.”
“For the love of God can you at least just call me Dragonberry? I’m not a fucking Princess.”
“That is your name, though. I do not understand your aversion to it. You humans are so strange.”
Before Dragon could respond Bunberry heard a groan coming from behind her. She raised an eyebrow, then walked towards it. She saw a small girl with pink hair laying in a hospital gown. She’d never seen this girl before. Was she the one she was supposed to look after now?
She heard rustling and saw the pink haired girl sit up and rub her eyes. She yawned then stretched her arms upwards. “W-What happened? Where am I?” The girl’s voice was adorable. She had to have been around the ten to twelve range in age. Maybe even younger. Bunberry wasn’t sure, but the girl inside her gushed at how cute she looked.
“So you’re the Umbra Girl who kicked Dragon’s ass huh?” Bunberry tried to reassert herself. She didn’t want to dissolve into that girl again. No good would come of it.
“Hey! It wasn’t that bad.” Dragon’s pitiful attempt at saving face backfired as he winced a little in pain.
“That sounds pretty bad.”
“I’m fine. I’ll walk it off like I always do.” Bunberry shook her head, he was as stubborn as a mule. However, she knew better than to try to stop him. He’d learn the hard way himself after he landed back inside the hospital. She was interrupted from her thoughts as she heard rustling behind her and saw the pink haired girl rub her eyes. The girl yawned a second time, then looked at Bunberry with her eyes half closed.
“Wh-Who are…” The girl stopped mid sentence then immediately straightened out. “Oh. My. God. It’s you! It’s the cool girl with the sword!”
“How do you know about that? I don’t believe we’ve met.” Bunberry raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“You know, you went slash slash slash, ahhhhhhhhh blech!” she held her hand to her throat and Bunberry instantly remembered that gesture. She shot her head towards Raftilia.
“Raftilia!” Her anger was boiling inside of her.
“You do not get to use my name. Call me Boss, like the rest of them.” Bunberry shrugged her off.
“That doesn’t matter right now. You said the boy is incompatible! Did you lie to me?”
Raftilia looked quite annoyed at her. “I said the boy was completely incompatible. The girl, however, is perfect.”
“If only I had called for help sooner...”
“I’m actually glad you didn’t. This situation worked out perfectly. That girl, my dear Princess Bunberry, is a Sparkle.”
Immediately at those words Bunberry’s heart froze. “D-Did you say Sparkle?”
“Yes, isn’t it wonderful? We haven’t had one since we lost Dia—”
“Don’t say that name!” Bunberry was furious with anger and grief.
“Apologies. Either way, you are in charge of this girl’s training. Remember, protect her with your life. She might be the key to winning this war.”
“No, you can’t do this, Raftilia. A Sparkle and an Adaption? You c-can’t possibly be this cruel!” Tears fell from Bunberry’s eyes like rain. Her voice cracking between her gruff voice and her normal voice. As if she was being torn between her two personalities.
“I’m sorry, but you need to get over what happened. You are the best suited for this task, your ‘Stubborn’ Trait will guarantee her safety. I am sorry but there is no one else I can depend on to keep her safe.”
Bunberry walked over and slammed her fist into the nearest wall. “Damn it!”
Raftilia left before she could protest further, and Bunberry turned her head towards the confused and frightened child. She couldn’t imagine what was going on in that poor kid’s head. She didn’t hate ... Cherry was it? There were just some things he didn’t understand and she didn’t feel comfortable sharing. She sighed, then motioned towards Dragon. “Clean the kid up, take him to the canteen. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
She walked towards the exit, then turned to Cherry. “I’m sorry I failed you.” Before the transformed boy or Dragon could respond, Bunberry left the room.
With that, Bunberry left down the hall towards her room. She stopped at the door, there was still her old nameplate. It read “Princess Bunberry” in flowery letters with a heart for the dot on the i. She was hoping it had changed, but that part of her still existed. She pulled open the door and peered inside. The entire room was split in half, like night and day. There was a pink canopy bed, with stuffed animals, pink wallpaper, a soft pink carpet, and a vanity on the right side. On the left was a suit of armor, hardstone floors and walls, a calendar, walk-in closet, and several assorted weapons that hung on the wall, Finally, in the back was a bathroom with a large mirror above the sink, a bathtub/shower combo, and a toilet.
Bunberry walked into the bathroom, stripped off what she was wearing, and stepped into the shower. She watched as her hospital gown dissolved into the ground, then turned towards the showerhead and turned it on. The blast of warm water massaged her achy bones as she fell deep in thought.
She thought about her task, she was supposed to teach Cherry Sparkle how to survive. Cherry Sparkle… the kid just had to have been a Sparkle. She couldn’t help but think of the other Sparkle she knew and tears started to fall from her eyes. She shook her head. She didn’t want to remember that event. She didn’t want to remember what happened. She’d talk about it later with Fluffy Ruby.
She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off then walked to her closet. She wondered what outfit she’d get today as she walked inside. The clothes inside the closet were based on what she really, truly wanted. Not what she thought she wanted, but what she desired in her subconscious. Today it clothed her in an outfit more befitting a student than a teacher. A pink blazer with a white blouse, pink pleated skirt, white socks, and black mary janes. Her hair was straightened out and a single pink headband slid onto it. She sighed, that girl had won again.
Bunberry walked over to the calendar and flipped it open to the current date: June 7th, 2038. In three more weeks it will be the anniversary of… she didn’t want to think about it. She closed the calendar quickly and left the room. The hall seemed to stretch forever. It had a habit of getting longer any time a new recruit arrived, but it did eventually end. At the end of the hallway was a large hub. It had several chairs, and a few couches with a pull out sofa for weary heads. Purple flames surrounded it’s ceiling, along with that black wall and flooring that existed everywhere. There were three other hallways besides the one she just arrived from. Each one lead to a different place, on the left was Fluffy Ruby’s Therapy Room, in the center was the Command Center where the Shadow Gate was, and the terminal. Finally on the right was the Canteen, and right now she was glad to go get a bite to eat.
“Oh, it’s Princess Bunberry, what a pleasure to see you today. How are you?” Bunberry recognized that haughty and high pitched voice. She turned to face the speaker. Coarse Amethyst. Her skin was a light tinted brown, with purple hair and purple eyes to match. She wore a knee length red dress with a slit on the side for her stockings and heels. For some bizarre reason she believed that Adaptions were to blame for all the losses they’d suffered. The sad part was some of the girls had bought into her bullshit and they formed a little anti-Adaption group. They’d been trying to recruit Bunberry for months now, she refused every single time. She was glad she was alone this time as she didn’t want to deal with more than one of these imbeciles.
“I’m fine Coarse Amethyst, just got a new injury is all.” Coarse Amethyst scoffed as Bunberry spoke.
“Why must you use that horrid voice? Your real one is so much better.” Bunberry looked to the ceiling in frustration. The girl had such a stereotypical view of women and it pissed Bunberry off. “Also you know I prefer you to call me Amethyst, or Ame. My full name is rather droll.”
“Fine, Ame, now i need to go do my job so if you’ll excuse me.” Bunberry went to move past but she blocked her.
“Have you given any thought to my offer?”
“I have, and I still think it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Bye Ame, I’m going to catch some food.” Bunberry rushed past Ame before she could respond. She had enough of this nitwit.
There was a large chandelier in the center with various lamps of different colors surrounding it. Beautiful golden tables and booths littered about the area, along with a red carpet in between each walkway. On the sides were large water tanks filled with various fish and aquatic creatures. In the back was a golden bar counter with a shiny exterior. Several barstools sat in front of it. In the back of the bar counter was various liquids and mixing ingredients, along with dishes and silverware. Above was a blank screen that served as a menu. Sitting at the counter was the bartender/chef/waiter, he insisted on doing everything himself no matter how much other girls had offered to work for him. He looked to be in his thirties and was the only adult in the entire base. His skin was the color of ebony, his black hair was in long beautiful dreadlocks, and he had dark brown eyes. He wore what looked to be an expensive white double breasted suit with fancy white men’s dress shoes.
Remembering her mission, Bunberry looked around and didn’t see Cherry or Dragon, she let out a grunt then shook her head. She didn’t know what was taking so long but she figured she might as well get something to eat. She couldn’t go training a rookie on an empty stomach. She walked and sat down in front of the bar counter and the Bartender turned to her.
“If it isn’t Princess Bunberry. I heard you got hurt, but I’m glad you’re okay. I’d miss you terribly if anything happened to you.” His voice was kind and soft. You could tell he had only the most purest of intentions despite being the owner of a bar that served teenagers drinks and food. Though there was no alcohol allowed for Umbra Girls, which annoyed Dragon to no end. “So, what’s going on? Anything you want to tell old J.J.?”
Bunberry leaned against the counter and looked him straight in the eye, then took a deep breath.
“It started with a wheat field…”
Chapter 5: Cherry with a side of ice cream
“I-I don’t know what to say or think. That girl I told you about, she’s now part of my squad. It feels a little weird, but I won’t let her down. It’s my fault she’s now part of this.”
After Bunberry left, Cherry was at a loss for words. He was face to face with the same person he had injured, along with the one who had taunted him. He said he was sorry but it was still a bit fresh.
Cherry stood there with his hands folded in front of him, while staring downward. “I uhh… I’m sorry.”
Dragon shook his head. “Kid, you don’t need to be sorry, I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that and called you a pussy. It was wrong of me.”
Cherry wasn’t used to someone apologizing to him. He always thought it was his fault when bad things happened to him. The Head of the Orphanage constantly told him so. It was his fault for being a “worthless specimen of a man.”
“Uh… okay, I’m sorry.”
Dragon facepalmed at the second apology.
“W-whatever. Anyway, it’s my own fault for being a dumbass. Let’s get out of here.” Dragon leaned forward and offered his hand. Cherry inspected it carefully, he wasn’t sure if it was a trick to hurt him again. Dragon gave a half smile to sedate him, so Cherry softened and took his hand, allowing him to lead him out the door.
“Not so fast, Dragon, we need to have a word.” Lamp Flower’s voice dripped with venom and Dragon gulped. Behind them stood a very angry Lamp Flower, holding some kind of diagram or medical papers, Cherry wasn’t really sure what it was.
“Y-Yes maam.” Dragon went back inside to talk with Lamp Flower. Their argument was a bit too loud, even for a private matter, Cherry didn’t even need to eavesdrop to hear most of it.
“—hy are you lying to me?” Lamp Flower’s anger could be felt through the wall.
“What are you talk—” The confusion in Dragon’s voice made Cherry wonder what exactly they were talking about.
“—ou aren’t even hurt!”
“W-What?”
“—machine says you have zero injur—”
“I-I am not lying it really do—”
“—ut of here! Now!”
Cherry heard footsteps as Dragon emerged, the discussion finished. Dragon took Cherry back to Cherry’s room, stopping at the door. “Okay, kid, go get dressed. If you don’t know how, just walk into your closet. After that, you’ll understand. Make sure to take a shower first though.”
Shower. That word terrified him more than any other. He’d have to face what had become of him. Cherry sighed and walked into his room. As soon as he was inside, he was struck with an unsettling sensation. He felt as if something had changed inside his room, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he found himself staring into the mirror. His beautiful light brown face looked at him. The eyes in the mirror were so sad, yet inviting. It almost seemed to call to him, to make him see something he hadn’t seen before. He looked not only into the mirror, but into his very soul.
“What the fudge is wrong with you, Cherry?”
A disembodied feminine voice caused him to jerk upward, but he found he was not in the room anymore. He was in his own mindscape, the same place where he had seen his staff. His staff wasn’t hiding anymore, the cherry at the top was pointing right at him. He didn’t have any idea why it was like that, it seemed to have a mind of it’s own.
“Uhhh, hello, is there anyone there?” There was no response. No matter how hard he tried to look around, he couldn’t see anyone.
“Cherry, I’m right behind you.”
Immediately the boy turned around and there was the staff pointing at him again. He gulped at the implication.
“A-Are you the one talking to me?”
“No duh, dummy!” Despite it not having a face, he absolutely could feel the staff’s glare. It was as if in his mind he could visualize the emotions the staff was having.
“I-I’m sorry.”
The staff sighed. “Cherry, why are you acting like this?”
He didn’t know what she… he… it was saying. How could a staff even talk to him in the first place?
“I-I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes you do.” After a moment of hesitation, he suddenly realized what she meant.
“You mean… but it’s so hard, and it shouldn’t have happened!”
“Yeah, it sucks, but does that mean you have to just be a mopey dopey all day? Why can’t you just accept it and move on?”
“What?! Accept it, I’m supposed to just accept I’m a girl now? What next, are you going to have me dating men and becoming a mother and having a baby?”
“Cherry, you know what kind of person you are. You care about others, you just want to help, and you wish you could do more. Now you have the power to do so.” The staff’s words cut him deep. It was telling the truth. “Also why do you keep thinking about being a mother and dating a guy? You really keep going back to that over and over again. Have you considered that maybe you liked boys before you were ‘Adapted?’”
“What the hell?! That’s impossible. You know what the Head of the Orphanage said. It just can’t happen.”
“Do you really trust the words of someone who abused you nearly every day? Even if he never hit you, words can cut deeper than physical violence sometimes.”
“I-I never thought about that. How do you know so much about me anyway?”
“Because, I’m you, silly.”
“Wh-What? If you’re me, why do you sound so feminine?” The staff winked, then smiled.
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Maybe you should figure that out for yourself.” With a final giggle the Staff disappeared. Cherry found himself sitting on his bed, no longer in his thoughts. His staff was right, it was time for him to stop being so upset. He was going to meet his heroine! He stood up and looked toward the shower. Taking a deep breath, he walked inside.
Feeling refreshed after a nice shower, he felt proud of himself. He had conquered his fear. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought. He still was unfamiliar with everything, but for now this was a victory, even if only a small one. He walked over to the closet. Nothing about it was all that special. It was just a basic walk in closet, but it was completely empty. He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to help him, but he decided to trust Dragon.
Cherry walked into the closet. To his surprise, in less than a minute clothes had magickally appeared on him. A knee length light pink skirt with lace at the hem, a white top with a peter pan collar and princess puffed sleeves, white socks peeked just above his shoes, and his feet were adorned with light pink mary janes. Lastly his hair was straightened with a light pink headband. Something was different this time though as he felt something fruity on his lips. He ran over to the mirror and saw he was wearing some kind of glossy lipstick. Not only that, he also had a bit of glittery eyeshadow. What bothered him the most though was why was he wearing so much pink? What in the world was wrong with this closet?
Cherry shook his head, he needed to get going, he could worry about his outfit later. He opened the door and outside was a sleeping Dragon. He was dressed in jeans, an orange hoodie, and sneakers with orange laces. Cherry walked over and shook him. Dragon immediately bolted upright.
“What the?!” He looked left and right until he saw Cherry, then smirked. “Oh, it’s you, kid. Finally done I see. Also it seems someone puked pink all over you. Nice.”
“Sh-Shut up! I didn’t choose this, that stupid closet did!” Cherry was embarrassed and crossed his arms with a pout.
“Okay okay kid, it’s fine. That closet reacts weirdly, I’ve been put in a disgustingly pink dress from it before. There’s a sort of… trick to it.” Cherry didn’t know what to think about that. What kind of trick could possibly cause such a bizarre change? “Some people say it gives you the outfit you desire, but that’s not true. It gives you the outfit you perceive you desire or rather, what you think you should be. That’s why I got the pink dress, I was so caught up in my transformation that I saw myself stuck as that girl my mother wanted. So I got my old outfit back my mother used to force me to wear. I was devastated but eventually got myself under control. Fluffy Ruby is a great therapist. You really should see her later.”
Cherry had much to think about, but he felt it wasn’t the time. He had to find his heroine. “So… we should leave. Miss Bunberry is waiting for us.”
Dragon nodded.“You’re right, kid. Let’s go.”
“Oh, where do you plan to go, Draggy?” a familiar voice said. Elated, Cherry turned to see Dagger Flower. He’d been wanting to see her again. She was so cool. This time she was dressed in a rainbow-colored fluffy skirt with a petticoat, a white blouse with the words “Happy Pride, fuckers :D”, rainbow socks, and brown boots. Her hair was done up in a side ponytail held together with a rainbow ribbon, and lastly a little star on her cheek. Cherry already loved this girl. She was so weird and cool. He wasn’t sure what a Pride was, but he really wanted to go to it.
“Dag, it’s good to see you. Though I don’t have time, Bunberry wants this kid at J.J.’s place ASAP.”
“Okay, okay, I just wanted to see how you were.” Dagger walked over to Dragon, held her arms around him and kissed him. Dragon reciprocated by grabbing her waist and pulling her in for another. Cherry blushed at the two being overly affectionate. Dragon looked over at the blushing Cherry, broke his kiss, then face palmed.
“My bad, kid. Just haven’t seen my boyfriend in a while.” As soon as the word “boyfriend” left Dragon’s mouth, Cherry’s brain crashed. Boyfriend? Dagger Flower was a boy? Also Dragon was into boys? Wasn’t he a boy, though? What in the world was going on? He thought back to his staff’s words. Was his staff right? Was this really okay, let alone possible? Dagger Flower was dressed like a girl, how could she err… he be a boy? Dagger Flower seemed to catch onto his confusion and held out his hand.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Dagger Flower, please call me Dag though. My pronouns are He/Him/His.”
“O-Oh okay, so, uhhh, you’re a boy, then?” Dagger Flower shook his head.
“Well, sort of? I’m sometimes a boy, and sometimes not a boy.” If Cherry’s brain was broken before, now it was in full shutdown mode. How in the world could he be a boy and yet not a boy?
“So… you’re also a girl sometimes?” Dagger Flower shook his head.
“No, never a girl. I’m a boy sometimes, and sometimes I’m something else. Specifically, I'm Gender Faun.” The confusion on Cherry’s face was palpable. “It means I’m Genderfluid between a boy, and then something that isn’t a boy or a girl. Okay?”
Cherry just nodded despite not having a clue what the world Dag was talking about. He just accepted that he should call him ‘he,’ just like he said. He really didn’t understand, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be respectful. There was so much Cherry didn’t know, so many new things that were cracking his world view. It would take time for him to figure it all out and now his attention was needed elsewhere.
“Anyway, how rude of me, what are your pronouns?”
Dag’s question baffled Cherry. “What do you mean by my pronouns?”
“Remember how I said, my pronouns are He/Him/His? It’s like that, what should I call you? Boy, girl, something else?”
Cherry wasn’t sure how to answer. His body was clearly a girls, wasn’t it? So wouldn’t that mean he should use girl pronouns? Though that’s not right, he’s a boy. It isn’t possible for a boy to be a girl. Though… Dragon was a boy despite being born a girl, and Cherry wasn’t sure what Dag was born. Was it really so simple? Cherry shook his head. No, he was a boy, there’s no way he could be anything else, they were just exceptions, he couldn’t possibly be like them.
“Uhhh, I think the same as you? I-I’m a boy, I think.” Cherry facepalmed, why was he so noncommittal to his answer. Was it really so hard to just say I’m a boy firmly?
Before Dag could answer he heard the click of heels behind him.
“Princess Dragonberry, why do you insist on hanging out with those kinds of people? They aren’t even real girls!” Cherry watched as a girl with purple hair and eyes approached Dragon. She was wearing stockings, a red dress, and heels and Cherry thought she looked really fancy. However, at that moment the air in the room seemed to change. Cherry looked at Dragon and saw fury in his face. The anger and hatred resonating from him terrified Cherry. Dragon slammed his fist into the wall. Impossibly, the force of his punch penetrated the wall and made a massive crater.
“Call me ‘princess’ or ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ again, Amethyst, and I’ll slam your fucking face against this wall.” Cherry could tell Dragon wasn’t kidding. He retrieved his arm, and the wall mysteriously repaired itself. Cherry thought he saw some liquid drip from it, as if there was a tear where the hole had been. He wondered if he had hallucinated that.
“S-Sorry, please don’t hurt me! I’ll never call you that again, promise.” Amethyst got on her hands and knees and begged. Dragon smirked, then Dag put a hand on his shoulder.
“Dragon, what did I tell you about overwhelming violence?” Dag asked sharply. Dragon’s face softened and became ashamed. While his devastating aura was now gone, Cherry was still shaking in fear.
“But Dag, she called me a princess. I can’t fucking stand when people do that!” Dag pointed towards Cherry, who was still shaking with tears falling down his face.
“That may be, but look at what you caused!” Dragon looked at Cherry and he reached out towards him, but Cherry retreated away.
“D-Damn it, sorry kid. I just sort of lose my temper when someone calls me girly crap.” Cherry shirked away back and forth three times as Dragon tried to comfort him. Cherry eventually calmed down then accepted his embrace. “I-I’ll try to be better.”
“You better be, you know what the Boss’ll do if you don’t.” Dragon gulped at Dag’s words, then nodded. Amethyst stood up and brushed the hem of her dress off.
“First Bunberry, now you, I hope one day you realize what I am trying to accomplish.” Dragon just rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I need to be going, I don’t need to be dealing with those disgusting Adaptions, especially you Dagger Flower.”
Dag just smirked then looked her straight in the eyes. “Am I an Adaption though?” Amethyst backed away into the wall.
“O-Of course you are, why else would you side with those other ones?” Dag gave her personal space but still had a mischievous grin.
“Who says I am? No one was there during my Ceremony, remember? Everyone was off on an important mission. No one knows if I’m an Adaption or not, not even my boyfriend.” Amethyst looked towards Dragon with sweat dripping from her brow, Dragon just shrugged.
“You know what’s the best thing about that? You will never know if I’m an Adaption or not.” Dag looked her dead in the eye, his grin continuing to grow. “So you can’t shove me away or you might be alienating one of your ‘precious sisters.’ Though if you welcome me into your fold, then you might be letting a “dirty Adaption” into your group. No matter what you do, you’re fucked because only the Boss herself knows the truth, and you know her policy on that.”
“T-T-Tú zorro estúpido!” Amethyst scurried away with tears running down her face as she seemed to realize that Dag was right. Dag was smug as a fox and Cherry giggled a bit at it. He really liked him.
“See Draggy, you don’t need to be violent to communicate your point or to win an argument. I never lifted a finger and she ran away crying.”
“Guess you’re right Dag.” Dragon let out a hearty laugh and that made Cherry smile. He remembered Fred once more and felt his cheeks go red as they kissed again. Then Dragon placed a hand on his shoulder. “Anyway, Kid, let’s go see your hero.”
Dragon and Dag took each of Cherry’s hands and he felt like a small child led by his parents to an unknown destination. Though he’d never met his parents, he often wondered what they would have looked like, or how they would have acted towards him, had they not died. He liked to think they’d love him and hold him and accept him for who he was. Unlike the Head of the Orphanage who caught him doing… He didn’t want to think about it, it was such a painful memory.
After arriving at a large open hallway suddenly Dragon grabbed at his side and started scratching it. He continued scratching furiously at his back and side and couldn’t seem to stop the itch.
“What the hell? Dag help me, something bit me or something, I’m itching all over.” Dragon fell to the floor scratching himself violently. Dag immediately rushed to his side, and held him in his arms.
“Dragon, what’s wrong!?”
“Goddamn this itch, it’s awful Dag, can you check my back, maybe there’s a spider or something?”
Dag nodded, then lifted up Dragon’s shirt. Cherry watched as his back was displayed, and was utterly impressed at the amount of scars he had. His back looked scratched up and torn to hell, though there was part of it that just seemed untouched, it was weird.
“What the... this can't be possible. Cherry, I’m taking Draggy to the infirmary. The canteen is just up ahead. You'll meet with Bunberry there."
Dragon grabbed ahold of Dag’s arm and nodded. Dag pulled him over his shoulder and walked towards the hospital.
Cherry looked at the entrance to the Canteen with both excitement and apprehension. What if she didn’t like him? What if she hated him? His eyes started to fill with tears at that thought. He shook his head though, then walked forward. He had to be strong, he had to be a man. As he got closer he started to hear a voice.
“—just don’t know J.J., it’s so hard.” He approached closer, hanging outside the hall just out of vision. The voice of Bunberry was heard.
“I know, but you can’t blame him. It’s not his fault. Raftilia has made up her mind, you know what that means.”
“Carajo... Esta bien… okay,” The words of Bunberry were unknown to him. He’d never heard that language before. What was she saying?
“There you go, It’s gonna be fine, I know how much this hurts you. Try not to think of him as the same as… you know who. Think of him as his own person. This kid is counting on you. Also seems to be a sort of fanboy from what I hear.” Cherry blushed at the words. The man wasn’t wrong, he really looked up to her. He wanted to be as cool as her.
“I know… I’ll try to be better. It’s gonna be tough, I just hope he’s not too hopeless.”
The man’s voice broke into a chuckle.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine. Won’t you, little one.” Cherry heard the voice directed to him and yelped. “It’s okay, I aint mad you were eavesdropping. Come on, come out here.”
Cherry gulped, then carefully peeked out from the wall. The place was gorgeous, it was more like a fancy restaurant than just a café. He’d never seen a man like him before. He had skin like nighttime, even darker than Lamp flower, and his eyes were a beautiful dark brown. The man in question was incredibly handsome and made Cherry blush.
“There you are, come on. I can tell you're hungry. Let ol’ J.J. make you something scrumptious.”
Cherry’s tummy suddenly rumbled, breaking him out of his negative thoughts. The man was right. He smoothed his skirt under him, sat down, crossed his ankles, and held his head down with his hands firmly in his lap to make himself appear as small as possible. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do and didn’t want to offend anyone.
“Don’t be afraid, ask whatever your heart wants, no matter what it is.”
Cherry wasn’t sure how that was possible but he thought back to the orphanage and food he really wanted to try.
“I’d like some green ice cream with little brown things in it.”
“Mint chocolate chip? Good choice, that’s not enough though you need some real food too. Want some steak, a hamburger, shrimp? Whatever you want, just ask.”
Cherry thought deeply then remembered a food that had always made his mouth savor.
“Umm, what about the umm crispy chicken. They look so yummy.”
“Crispy chicken it is, and a little something special that I hope turns that frown upside down.”
J.J. walked over towards the back wall when impossibly a door opened up leading to a kitchen that he couldn’t really see. As he sat there and waited, Bunberry came, and sat next to him.
“Hey… Cherry. It’s gonna be okay. I’ll teach you how to defend yourself. Anyway, how are you?”
Cherry was suddenly on cloud nine. His heroine was not running away from him or calling him a freak or anything.
“Umm, I’m okay. I had a weird episode in my room. Is your weapon supposed to talk to you?”
Bunberry let out a laugh. “Yeah, they do that. It’s a bit difficult to face your inner self, but I believe you can do it.”
“I-I’m okay with that, it’s just… it was so feminine and... girly. What does that mean?”
Bunberry seemed deep in thought and cradled her chin with her finger and thumb.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It might not mean anything at all. Our inner spirits are… complicated. Their messages aren’t always clear.”
After about five more minutes J.J. emerged with a serving tray with some delicious looking crispy … chicken he had called it. Unfortunately there was no ice cream. Instead, the tray held a giant metal cup and a large glass. He peered inside and discovered he was wrong. It did contain ice cream as well as some kind of weird brownish-black liquid. It had a spoon inside it, so he decided to take a taste. The sugary drink combined with the soft ice cream felt wonderful on his tongue. And the crunchy chicken alongside the ice cream and drink made him feel as if he was in heaven.
“I see that you like it. Little ones always love their sugar.” J.J. gave a chuckle, which for some reason reminded him of Fred. It was probably his kindness, Fred was always so kind. Thinking of Fred gave him conflicting emotions. He was still extremely sad about what happened to him, but Cherry also felt butterflies in his tummy when he thought about Fred. Fred had always loved when he was positive. He was there for Cherry when the Head of the Orphanage had told him such horrible things. He missed his friend greatly, but he resolved to not let his sadness ruin his good mood. Fred had always made him smile when he was sad.
“Thank you very much, ummmm, J.J.? Uhhh, does that stand for anything?”
“It does, but just call me J.J. I hope that’s not too much trouble.” This man was far more polite than any man he’d ever seen. He was so unlike Dragon, and unlike the Head of the Orphanage or even the town mayor. Just who was this man, anyway? For that matter, why was he a man, if there are no Umbra Boys?
“Wait, are you an Umbra Boy? How are you here?”
J.J. broke out in a snerk.“I was wondering when you’d ask that. No no, I’m not part of your squad. I’m just a normal, average, every day boring human. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Anyway don’t worry about putting your plate away, either. I’ll take care of it.”
Cherry finished the rest of his meal in silence, enjoying the feeling of the warm and delicious food inside his belly. He’d never tasted something so wonderful. After his meal, Bunberry held out her hand.
“Time to go Cherry.” Cherry nodded and took her hand. She led him to a familiar place, the training room.
Bunberry walked towards the bench then took a deep breath. “How much did Dragon teach you?”
“Oh he taught me a lot of stuff, about the four types of Luminescent, and that I can hurt or be hurt by other Umbra. The different types of magick, oh and… that I’ll never age past 17.”
“Good. Did he teach you about your Trait?”
“T-Trait? What is that?”
Bunberry ran her hand down her face in frustration. “Okay, you know about your magick type, you know about your transformation, but he didn’t tell you about your Trait? One of the most important aspects of being an Umbra Girl?”
Cherry tilted his head to the side.
“Great, fine, guess he left it to me. Okay, listen. Every Umbra Girl… or err… person has a specific Trait. We don’t know a hundred percent why your Trait is what it is, but every one of us has one.”
Cherry nodded, this sounded really interesting.
“For instance, my Trait. It’s called ‘Stubborn’ but me and Dragon like to call it “Berserker.” No matter how much damage I take, I can continue to fight until my magick runs out.”
No matter how he looked at it, this girl was incredibly cool. Even her Trait sounded awesome.
“Then what’s Dragon’s?”
“His is called ‘Brute.’ He has an insane amount of strength, which he can use whether he’s transformed or not. He might look lithe, but that guy has grabbed what was left of a building and smashed it into a Luminescent before to save someone.”
Suddenly Dragon’s earlier display made sense. That was how he had made such a huge crater in the wall.
“You’ve probably also noticed that whenever Lamp Flower talks to you, you feel sort of sedated right? That all of your anger or sadness is gone? That’s her Trait: Calm.”
Cherry felt a surge of anger. “So that’s why she always felt so motherly. She was using a dirty trick to take away from the fact she’s a monster!”
Bunberry's voice grew angry. “Listen here, Cherry. Don’t you ever call my friend a monster again. Lamp Flower is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. She has done more for the Umbra Girls than anyone, possibly even more than Raftilia herself.”
“She’s the reason I got transformed, though. She helped her do this to me!”
Bunberry sighed. “Cherry, she’s not the reason you transformed.”
“She’s not? She helped Raftilia. I was there, you know. I saw as I was strapped to that table.”
“I don’t know why you weren’t told, or maybe you were and you didn’t understand. I know you’re just a kid, so I’ll let this slide but you need to understand that the moment you accepted Raftilia’s deal, you became one of us. The transformation just happened faster because of the Ceremony. Normally it’d take about a week or two. I knew... someone that tried to run away from the Ceremony, came back fully transformed in a week and a half. Later told me it was one of the most painful things he’d ever gone through.”
Cherry was dumbstruck, Lamp Flower wasn’t an accomplice. Just like she said, she genuinely just wanted to help him. Cherry’s eyes started to tear up at the thought of all the horrible things he’d thought about her.
“I-I-I’m sorry…”
Bunberry sighed. “It’s okay, you didn’t know, but you know now so you better not badmouth my friend again. Or else, got it?”
Cherry nodded. He didn’t want to get on her bad side any more. He was terrified of her hating him. Now that the conversation was over, Bunberry walked to the center of the ring.
“With a blade of darkness, I will cut through the light. Swallowed into blackness, You will be slain by my eternal spite!” Again, with a graceful dance she repeated the same series of motions along with the speech.
The gigantic dark bubble consumed her and her transformation finished in less than a few seconds. It remained no less impressive to Cherry. Her sword fell from somewhere above, just like before, and as soon as she grasped it the darkness went away.
“So cool…” Cherry whispered to himself.
“Cherry, your turn now.”
“Huh?”
“Cherry, transform.” Cherry sat there like she’d asked him to grow a third head. Bunberry facepalmed. “Cherry, look deep inside you, the words will come to you. Say them, then let your body do the rest.”
Cherry did as she instructed, but found something horrifying. There was no way he could say this, or do this. “I-I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“These words… there’s no way this is inside me.”
“Cherry, just say the words. It doesn’t matter what they are.”
He nodded.“The Light and the Dark, cause countless innocents to suffer. However, I am the great equalizer, and I will put an end to it all!” Cherry felt his body move without his control, almost as if he knew these moves from deep within his subconscious and had performed them a thousand times. With, “The Light and the Dark,” he performed a perfect pirouette. Then “cause countless innocents to suffer” he clasped his hands and closed his eyes as if in prayer, and a single tear fell from his eye. With ‘However, I am the great equalizer,” he crossed his arms in front of him. Finally “and I will put an end to it all!’ he swiped his arm outward.
The dark bubble enveloped him and his transformation began once more. He heard a slurping sound as he felt his ears disappear into his head once more. He felt the bizarre sensation as his puppy ears reemerged. From behind him, his fluffy tail grew outward. The floating sparkling red cherries circled his head, then flew towards his feet. Starting from the bottom to the top his clothes began to change. His shoes changed to black mary janes with a red cherry buckle. White tights crawled up and encased his legs. A poofy light red skirt with a cute little petticoat shimmered into reality. A pink top with short princess puff sleeves with a single sparkling cherry embroidered on the ends appeared. He felt a pull as his hair split into pigtails with two ribbons that each had a cherry in the center.
“Oh fuck, you really are a Sparkle. And what the hell was that incantation?” Bunberry’s disappointment made Cherry’s puppy ears fold downward, and tears started to form in his eyes. Why would she like him? He was a freak, a loser, a monster. “Fuck, sorry Cherry. I didn’t mean it that way, I just meant...”
He felt a warm hand on his head and once again felt that scritching sensation that Lamp Flower had given him when scratching between his ears. He started to calm down and nuzzled into the hand that was giving him this wonderful feeling. He dried his eyes then looked up at the face of Bunberry. She was … smiling. She wasn’t upset with him. She wasn’t disappointed in him. She didn’t hate him.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful with my words from now on. Okay?” Her voice had lost the gruffness and had become something more soft and sweet. Her entire aura felt much more kind than she normally seemed. Cherry wasn’t sure how to respond, so he simply nodded. Even if she was acting weird, he still loved her giving him pets. He noticed his tail wagging back and forth, and blushed as she gave out a little giggle. Then, however, she stopped petting him and he felt a much more familiar air about her as her face twisted.
“Now back away, and show me what you used to take down Dragon.” Bunberry’s personality seemed to have changed back as her gruff voice and cool warrior’s demeanor returned. Cherry wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t want to disappoint his heroine. He held out his staff and then… nothing. Bunberry face palmed again.
“Cherry, look inside of you again. Try to recall that attack you made, then say the words that come to you.”
Cherry nodded then looked deep inside himself. He saw his staff once again, and it seemed to look him in the eye and he felt it wink. The words landed onto his tongue and his staff materialized in his hands once more. He held it out in front of him, and pointed directly at Bunberry. “Cherry Cleansing Beam!”
Bunberry’s eyes went wide as a gigantic beam of white energy exploded from his staff and towards her. She immediately held her sword outwards to brace herself from the immense amount of energy. The energy crashed into Bunberry’s sword, forcing her back until she hit the wall. The wall started to groan as her body was pushed harder and harder into it.
“Now I see what happened.” Bunberry said through gritted teeth.
Cherry let out a small cough, and his eyes felt a bit heavy. He thought that maybe he had not gotten enough sleep. Though he did his best to force them open. He wanted, no he needed to see Bunberry’s reaction to his attack. Was he as cool as she was now? Would she be proud of him?
She smirked and looked Cherry directly in the eyes. “Dragon’s gone soft.”
Cherry’s brow furrowed, it looked clearly like he was winning. True, she had blocked his attack but how long could she hold back the immense beam. It clearly was overpowering her. She was being pushed harder and harder into the wall. He looked on at her and coughed loudly.
“This is your first combat lesson, Cherry. Listen, and listen well.” She said with a groan. Just when he thought she was finished, with a sweeping motion she swung her sword away from her. The force of her swing interrupted the flow from his staff, cutting off the beam and sending what remained of it flying twenty feet before it exploded in a white blast. How the fudge did she done that?! “An Umbra weapon cannot be destroyed by any means. Use that to your advantage if you find yourself cornered by the Luminescent, or in the direct line of an attack.”
She continued to be the cool warrior he wanted to be so bad. How could he learn to be as smooth as her? His thoughts suddenly started to fade. His eyes fluttered from open to closed, open to closed.
“Cherry? What’s wrong? Cherry, are you okay?”
Cherry found himself swaying back and forth. His balance was off, and he felt like he was going to fall over. He coughed into his hand again and felt something wet. Looking at it, he discovered he’d coughed up blood.
“Oh Goddamn it, you used all your energy in that attack, didn’t you? FUCK!” Cherry could just make out the words, but had no idea what she was talking about. He watched as she scooped him up and then ran out the door towards the central hub.
“Blue Bubbles, get me a portal to a low level incursion immediately.”
“Bunberry, you know I can’t do that. Raftilia isn’t here to a—”
“He’s dying Blue Bubbles, he used up all his Night energy, do you want to explain to Raftilia that another one exploded when they could have been saved? Especially a Sparkle?” Cherry wasn’t sure who she was talking to. He just was along for the ride, feeling the warmth of her bosom. He felt like he was being protected by a big sister. He could feel his breathing increase, and pain filling in his lungs. The last words he heard as his eyes started to close were:
“Goddamn it, Cherry, I’m not letting you die on me!”
The Dance with Death
“That girl I told you about, I thought she was just a normal girl, but she told me she was something called an Adaption? I wasn’t there for her Ceremony but she said she was born a boy? I don’t really understand but she seems all girl to me. I wonder if that’s because of the Ceremony or who she really is?”
Bunberry crashed through the portal with Cherry safely cradled in her arms. She landed in an open field with a sign in the back that directed survivors to a nearby shelter, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. There was a Luminescent breathing down the neck of an old woman who was next to an unconscious old man. She was cowering at the sight of her impending demise.
While the woman was in trouble, Bunberry was more concerned for the young boy in her arms. She gently put him down, and scanned him over. His skin was discolored, his breathing strained. She knew she had to act fast. She wasn’t going to let him end up like Ice Dust. She wasn’t going to watch another one explode.
It didn’t appear that the Luminescent could see her presence. It was focused on its prey and was about to strike. Bunberry moved as fast as she was able to and with her sword deflected the claw strike. “Get out of here, it’s not safe! I’ll handle this.” She called to the old woman.
The Diversion Field kept the woman from seeing where she actually was. That was part of being an Umbra Girl. She could never really interact with people, they’d always think they were talking to some random girl, but always in a slightly different direction. It happened automatically whenever an Umbra Girl transformed. No one could ever look at her directly.
The old woman complied and quickly ran away, leaving the old man on the ground. Bunberry wondered if he wasn’t that important to her. Her thoughts were shaken by the amount of force that was being pushed into her sword by the Luminescent hovering over her. It attacked her with savage fury, growling, with glowing yellow globs of drool dripping from its mouth; some of which fell onto her shoulder.
She turned her full attention to it then swung outwardly knocking it backwards. She leaped into the air and slammed the flat end of her blade onto it’s skull, knocking it to the floor and leaving it lightly stunned. What to do with it now?
The gears in her head began to turn and a plan formed. “You aren’t going to like this.” Bunberry brought her sword down with the maximum amount of force she could muster and smashed the Luminescent’s left leg. Despite being made of energy, Luminescents still seemed to have functioning body parts, by doing this, she essentially made this creature’s leg completely unusable. The force of the attack caused it to break out of it’s stupor, before it could react she had already flattened the other one. The creature writhed in agony, but Bunberry was unmoved by its crocodile tears and broke its arm. No matter how much it cried or whined, Bunberry moved with surgical precision and disabled the final arm. The creature looked pathetic. Wailing and flailing on the ground. Its eyes begging to be put out of its misery. Bunberry wasn’t going to give it the satisfaction, however, at least not yet.
Bunberry grabbed it by its broken legs and quickly dragged it over to Cherry’s fallen body. Now was the next part of her plan. Bunberry grabbed Cherry’s face and shook him to try to wake him up. “Get up Cherry! Get up! It’s going to be okay, you can finish this one off easily, it won’t be able to hurt you.” Bunberry’s words were frantic. She was desperate to save the boy. When he didn’t react, she said a small prayer that he’d forgive her for this.
She readied her hand and slapped him hard. Immediately, Cherry’s eyes opened.
“Bluh? What’s going on?” Cherry’s voice was groggy and upset. His staff was sitting against his arms, barely in his grasp.
Bunberry walked over and grabbed the head of the disabled Luminescent and dragged it in front of Cherry, then bound it’s snout with her arms. “Go on, kill it!
“Where am I? My head is spinning.” Cherry wobbled back and forth.
“You need to refill your Night Crystal or you’re going to die. Kill it now!”
Cherry looked down at the Luminescent, hesitating, but after a moment Bunberry could see in his eyes that he remembered what happened to his friends at the orphanage. He plunged his staff into its chest. As soon as his staff touched the Luminescent’s chest, Cherry began to glow with white energy. Extraordinarily, the yellow glowing energy that comprised a Luminescent’s body, began to turn orange. It started from the point of contact, and quickly spread across its entire form.
Bunberry had never seen a Luminescent turn orange, or change color in any way, for that matter. She looked at Cherry with wide eyes. What in the world was this kid’s power?
Suddenly, the creature cried out in pain as she let go, apprehensive of what the orange energy might do to her. “Ah! It hurts! It hurts! Oh God, oh God! Please, please make it stop!” Bunberry gaped at the creature. She had been certain it was a Grunt, but they couldn’t talk. Was it actually a General? Why hadn’t it spoken until now?
“Oh God, please, help me! Help me! I don’t want to die!” It begged. It sounded genuine. Almost human, even. However, Bunberry wasn’t going to be fooled. The phrase “Never let down your guard,” was burned into her soul.
“Cherry, finish it off.”
Cherry nodded, then held his staff above the pathetic lizard’s head. He moved to thrust downward, but before he could finish the deed he paused.
“Cherry, what are you doing? Kill it.”
“I-i-it feels wrong. Something isn’t right about this. My body won’t let me. I’m sorry.”
Bunberry sighed. The kid wasn’t strong enough yet. She wasn’t going to push him, though. It wasn’t easy to kill something that looked you in the eyes and begged you not to. Bunberry, however, had no such limitation.
Bunberry turned her sword downward and drove it into its skull. It gargled and twitched and then, it turned to dust. That too, was odd. Luminescents normally vanished in a flash of light. Bunberry made a mental note to be more attentive to oddities like this. If their enemy was changing, it could spell trouble. Unless… no, it couldn’t have been something Cherry had done. That was impossible.
Cherry turned away from her, tears falling from his eyes. “Why did you do that?"
She sighed. The boy had a weak stomach. It was to be expected from someone so young. Though she noticed the color was returning to his skin, whatever he had done had regained enough Night energy to stabilize him. She knew that inflicting pain also allowed one to refill their Crystal, though it was a method that many Umbra Girls looked down on.
A groan came from behind them, and Bunberry turned towards its source. It seemed that the old man had woken up. His hair was short and blonde, with deep blue eyes and vanilla skin. He reached for a wooden derby walking stick with a golden handle, then a brown bowler hat and put it on his head. He stood up, looking quite dapper in his brown tweed suit. It seemed as if he’d stepped out of one of the old history books Bunberry had read back in school.
Cherry looked at her and she motioned for him to help the old man. While sulking, Cherry walked over to the old man, dried his tears, then held out his hand. He still was upset at what she did. He’d learn eventually, but for now she would let him stay innocent.
“Why, thank you, young lady. May I ask where I am? I seem to have taken a hit to the head.” The old man chortled. His voice was hearty and jovial, a little too jovial after what just happened. He didn’t seem to notice Cherry’s previous tears, which was part of the Diversion Field. It wouldn’t do if the innocent civilians could see the emotions of an Umbra Girl. They only needed to be saved or helped. Anything else could get in the way of the mission. You didn’t want some empathic person to distract you while fighting deadly monsters.
Bunberry smirked as Cherry looked left and right till he saw the sign that read “This way to the shelter.” He was smart . She liked that.
“We’re near the shelter. I’ll help you get there.”
“What a sweet little girl, I’d appreciate the help.,” the man said with a tip of his hat to the right of Cherry. Cherry hobbled a little as he slowly walked the old man in the direction the sign indicated.
Bunberry smiled. He was a good kid. She could see some more color return to him. This good deed was helping him. Her smile, however, faded as the air suddenly changed and every hair on her body stood up. The old man had turned to Cherry and looked him dead in the eye. “Tell me, little girl, what is your name?”
Before Cherry could answer, Bunberry felt her feet moving towards them at maximum speed. She grabbed hold of Cherry and flung him as far away as she could. The boy flew about fifteen feet before crashing to the ground. It was probably a little painful, but it was better than the alternative. Cherry hadn’t realized it, but she did. No human could have seen through the Diversion Field. They were standing in front of a Royal.
With a slow clap, he smiled wickedly. “Bravo. I’d heard you were astute, and you did not disappoint.”
“What do you want, Royal? This is a small area that’s barely worth your time. Why are you here?” Bunberry readied her sword in front of her.
“Why, my dear Princess Bunberry, I’ve been dying to see you. Or should I call you the Umbra Knight?” His words pierced her. He knew who she was.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
“That is none of your concern. Oh, but where are my manners? I am Allightstar Allbright, at your service,” he said with a formal bow. Bunberry did not return the gesture. “It seems deportment was not in your education. Very well. Let’s be on with it then. I’ve longed for the day I would cross swords with the Umbra Knight. I’ve heard so very much about you. Let us see if the rumours hold up to the real thing.”
He turned the golden handle on his cane, and from inside he drew out a thin golden sword. Royals were extremely unpredictable, she couldn’t risk trying to retreat and have Cherry be hurt. Nor could she try to call for help as he already was ready to strike her. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, the one thing she knew though was she had to keep his attention on her and off of Cherry. “Fine, but leave the kid out of it.”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. After I kill you, I’ll be taking her with me. Mother wants her, and Mother always gets what she wants.” Bunberry was filled with horror, the Gleaming Queen herself wanted Cherry? How did she even know Cherry existed? For that matter, why in the world did she want him? Bunberry couldn’t imagine a world in which that was good.
Bunberry could wait no longer, she clutched her sword tightly and attacked with a downward swing. Allightstar blocked it perfectly with a frown.
“Is that it? Surely you have more than that. I suppose it’s my turn now, en garde!” The man moved faster than she could register, and slashed diagonally at her. The force of his attack knocked her back ten feet. Luckily her shield held up, but before she could even react he struck her again. He continued his barrage again, and again, and again, and again. Her shield protected her from each blow, but it was beginning to crack. Bunberry gasped for air. She was taking heavy damage.
Allightstar looked at her with disappointment, then swung one last time, shattering her shield entirely. His sword made contact with her chest and purified a swath of it. This was very, very bad. She couldn’t handle him, not like this.
“I know you have more power than this. Quit holding back!” he said through gritted teeth. He slashed again, causing more of Bunberry’s body to fade. He looked at Cherry and smiled wickedly. “Perhaps you just need a little motivation.”
He ran over and picked up Cherry, holding his sword up against his neck. Cherry was conscious now, and his eyes begged her to save him. He was silent, and afraid, like the scared child he was. Bunberry felt rage boiling inside her. She wasn’t going to let him die. She had to do something. “Leave Cherry alone!”
“Oh, is that her name? Cherry? What an adorable name for such a cute little girl. However, I tire of this little game, show me what you are made of or the child will die.” She knew she had no choice. She would have done so earlier but it was unwise to transform in the midst of combat. It took time to say the incantation. But if this is what he wanted, she’d give it to him. It was time for her to go to the next level.
“The Light thinks it has won, but I will never give up. I will wipe out every last one of you, for I am the Umbra Knight!” She performed another dance, a different one this time. With “The Light thinks it has won,” She placed her left leg forward and swung her sword diagonally upwards to the right. Then “but I will never give up.” She slashed her sword diagonally to the left. “I will wipe out every last one of you,” she spun the sword in a full circle. Finally with “for I am the Umbra Knight!” She thrust her greatsword into the ground and stood tall. Just like before, after her performance a darkness cocoon enveloped her. This time, however, it was much smaller and more compact.
She was cloaked in darkness as her clothes vanished. Blueberry bunnies giggled and bounced as they swirled around her feet then rose upward. With a pop her feet were covered with sabatons made out of a black metal that had a bunny engraved on them with blueberries for eyes. Her hands had the same black armored fingerless gloves, except with the same symbol as the sabatons this time. A black dress with frills and lace materialized on her. More black metal plates than before melded themselves into the dress, leaving about forty percent frilly dress, the rest was armor. In the center was a large bunny with blueberry eyes. Atop her head a black tiara with that same symbol floated down onto her head.
Allightstar looked like a kid in a candy store. “That was magnificent! Why were you hiding this thing of absolute beauty?” Despite being covered in darkness, a Royal’s vision was absolute. He could see clearly what was happening. Bunberry, however, didn’t even acknowledge him as her sword dematerialized. She held her hand to the sky and from it dropped another greatsword but this one was much different. It still had the black blade, but now it had sawblades slowly rotating along the blade. It looked like an unholy combination of sword and chainsaw. This time the pommel was a bunny with blueberries for eyes. The darkness sphere faded, and now she was exposed once more.
“I did what you asked. Now let Cherry go,” she commanded.
Allightstar smiled. “Why of course. I can’t wait to see what—” He tossed Cherry away mid sentence, and as soon as Cherry left his grasp Bunberry charged. Before he could even finish what he was saying she was in his face, her sword pressing against his own. He had blocked her but he was having a much harder time against her increased strength. He was going to regret giving her this chance to go to a higher level form. He was going to regret threatening Cherry.
“What the devil are you?!” he cried out as she relentlessly swung over and over and over again. She screamed out in rage as her attacks increased in intensity. All she could focus on was protecting Cherry, by any means necessary. He was faster, technically, but she was far stronger. Each blow of hers pushed him further and further back. Luminescent weapons were also invincible, so she couldn’t break his sword, but she’d caught him off guard and she couldn’t waste this opportunity. It was time to finish him.
Without giving him a chance to react she kicked him in the crotch, then performed a full somersault as he stumbled backwards. Her sword glowed with blueberry bunnies as her chainsaw revved. “BLUEBERRY JUDGMENT SLICE!” She screamed at the top of her lungs and slashed her greatsword diagonally left while in mid air. A gigantic crescent moon made of blueberry bunnies flew towards him, threatening to cut him in half. He moved away but not fast enough, because the attack severed his left arm. To show he wasn’t human, he had no visible bones or blood, just a viscous glowing yellow liquid seeping from the wound.
“You bitch! My arm! What did you do to my arm?!” All courtesy seemed to have left him as he screamed and cried. “I’m going to transform, then I’m going to kill you!”
He intended to show his true form but Bunberry wasn’t going to give him the opportunity. She wasn’t stupid enough to let her enemy transform to gain power while she had the upperhand. She leaped high into the air and a large amount of blueberry bunnies charged into her sword. There were far far more than her last attack. She was going to end this, she was going to rid the world of Allightstar once and for all. He cowered as her eyes burned with hatred. “BLUEBERRY JUDGMENT BLA—”
“Allightstar, are you finished yet?” Bunberry was cut off by a man’s voice that sent a shiver up her spine. It wasn’t maniacal, or cruel. It was like the voice of your friendly neighbor, and was just so frustratingly average. She stopped her attack, and landed on the ground, paralyzed with fright. Behind Allightstar appeared a portal made of pure light, and out walked a young man. A young man that was the only thing that gave Bunberry true fear.
At a glance he wasn’t particularly frightening. Caucasian, brown hair, green eyes, about average height, but rather skinny. Dressed rather casually in jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. It wasn’t his appearance that was scaring her, it was what he was capable of.
“Allightstar, what are you doing?” The man asked. “Did you secure the girl?”
“Oh, uhhh you see, I have everything under control. See, she’s right there.” He pointed towards Cherry. “I’ll just transform and-and everything will be fine.”
“Allightstar,” the young man said with a sigh.
“What, Luc—” Before Allightstar could finish, the young man slammed his fist into the old man’s chest. Allightstar cried out as he passed out from the pain. The young man picked him up, then threw him into the portal. Then he picked up Allightstar’s arm, examined it, rolled his eyes, then threw it into the portal. After that he turned to Bunberry and smiled that same disgusting smile he always did. That smile that he used when he’d… she didn’t want to think about it. This was no longer in her control, she reached into her Night Crystal, and performed the collect call again. It rang a few times without doing anything, making her heart nearly stop, before it was finally picked up.
“Bunberry, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Her voice was strained, she clearly had been working a bit too long today.
“No, Blue Bubbles, everything is not okay! We’re in severe danger, we encountered not one, but two Royals! One of which is now gone!” Bunberry’s thought voice was in a panic
“A Royal?! Okay I’ll be getting a squad to your location as soon as possible. How many do you think you need?”
“All of them.”
“All of them? Really, it’s just one Royal right?”
“Bubbles, it’s him, he’s here and he’s going to kill us if you don’t do something!”
“No. No. No no no no no no, not him! Okay I’ll get a squad there immediately, we should be there shortly. We’ll use the quick portal. It’s dangerous but we can’t lose you and Cherry.”
Bunberry severed the connection, and faced the man directly.
“Bunberry! It’s been so long. What has it been, five months, seven months? A year?” the bastard asked with a smile. His presence alone forced her to remember what happened, what he’d done. She shook head to get those intrusive thoughts out. She couldn’t let him get under her skin.
She heard ruffling as Cherry rubbed his eyes, then stood up and looked at the man. “Who are you?” Cherry asked and Bunberry turned to him immediately.
“Cherry, don't talk to him!”
“Oh, how rude of me.” He said, then turned to both of them. “My name is Lucid Allbright, and yours is… Cherry, right? Cherry… Sparkles.”
Bunberry’s mind went into overdrive. How had he known Cherry was a Sparkle? Cherry had never even been out in the field before, he’d never done anything that could have informed anyone.
“I can see you’re confused. I wouldn’t think too much on it.”
“What do you want, you bastard!?”
“Oh, Bunberry, don’t be like that. What happened before? That’s in the past, and it’s not like I did it on purpose. I was just following orders.” Everything about him made her want to smash his face in. “If you must know, I’m here for that adorable little girl. Mother wants her, and what kind of son would I be if I didn’t get her what she wants?”
“You aren’t going to touch one hair on his head, Lucid!” Bunberry stood tall and clenched her sword. “Cherry, get behind me, I won’t let him touch you.”
“Oh, aren’t I? What are you going to do? Are you going to stop me?” He never stopped that disturbing ‘neighborly’ smile. Bunberry readied her blade. “So that’s how it is, very well. Come at me then.”
Bunberry swung her chainsaw sword at him with fury. Her energy was low and without it even her Stubborn Trait would give out. He smashed his two hands at the sides of the blade, performing a perfect blade grasp, then forcefully pushed her away. “Why won’t you just die!?” she shouted.
“Bunberry, you’re exhausted. We should continue this another time. It’s no fun to squash a tired bug. I prefer when they’re fully rested.” Bunberry spat at him, and he wiped it off, his smile finally broken. “Hand over the girl. I won’t ask twice.”
Bunberry looked at Cherry cowering behind her. He’d been silent this whole time, she never wanted his first day to be like this. He’d been frozen with fear, but his eyes told everything. “Please, save me.”
“You can’t win, Lucid,” Bunberry said, feeling a warm metallic tasting liquid in her mouth.
“Oh, and why not?” He regained his smirk. She breathed heavily then looked him in the eye.
“Because the other Umbra Girls will be here soon. The entire squad. You can’t beat us all. You might kill some of us but we’ll take your ass down.”
“The lone wolf calling for friends? I’m loving this new and improved Bunberry. Keep improving and I’ll just have to make you mine.” He laughed and it made Bunberry recoil in disgust. She had no idea why Royals acted so much like humans, it was as if they’d copied all the ones they’d killed and made some horrid concoction of their best and worst traits.
“Well, it seems it’s time for me to leave.” A yellow glowing portal opened up behind him, and he stepped backwards, saying one last thing. “Don’t worry though, I’ll see you both again, very soon.”
Bunberry tried once more to slash at him as the portal completely closed. After her failed attack, all of her emotions she was bottling up exploded and she thrust her sword into the ground. She sank to the floor crying ugly saltine tears, covered in snot, mucus, and saliva. “LUUUUUUUUUUUUCIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!” She screamed and slammed her fist into the ground repeatedly, even more ugly tears pouring down her face and clothes.
She felt warm childlike arms wrap around her and saw Cherry there holding her, his puppy ears folded downward. He said nothing, just held her tight. She struggled a bit, but then without reverting to that other girl she felt her defenses drop, and let herself be held. Something about Cherry allowed her to be held by him. She hadn’t let herself be held since what happened a year ago.
“Where is that bastard? I’ll smash his head in!” Dragon roared. Clearly the brigade had finally arrived, Bunberry hadn’t noticed while being lost in Cherry’s embrace. She didn’t budge from her position, however. Fatigue was finally setting in as her transformation faded, and her Trait deactivated.
“I think it’s over, Draggy.” Dag replied.
“What happened?” Blue Bubbles asked.
Bunberry said nothing she continued to just be held by Cherry, tears streaming down his own eyes. Lucid was gone, she’d protected Cherry, but at what cost? The answer to that appeared as Bunberry lost consciousness in Cherry’s arms.
Chapter 7: Graveyard Shock
“I got another new member to my squad. Though, something really bothered me about it. She was an old lady, like in her thirties. Then when she went through the Ceremony she turned into a fourteen year old like me. I thought it only made you lose two years, like how I went from sixteen to fourteen. She was eerily calm about it though. I don’t know how I’ll get along with her, but I’ll try.”
Cherry gently held Bunberry’s hand as she laid in the emergency room bed. He never left her side, not even once. This girl had saved him twice now, she had even tried to save him from being Adapted. He didn’t even know why she had fought so hard to protect him, why she cared so much about him?
Lamp Flower assured him that she wasn’t going to die, but she was going to have egregious injuries leaving her unable to fight. He couldn’t stop picturing her doing her best to defend him, to take the attention off him and onto herself. Each slash that she took, each blow, every single one of them was burned into his memory. He wouldn’t let this happen again. Then there was Lucid, he came off as so frightening and yet so ordinary. Cherry was terrified of ever seeing him again. What had he done that even Bunberry cowered before him? Her movements normally were so fluid, but against him she had seemed suddenly helpless.
His concentration broke as Raftilia walked into the room. Her pink fur was wet, and she left a trail of water droplets behind her, but her mood was surprisingly jovial. “Lamp Flower, I have great news. I’ve found a new recruit. Coarse Amethyst is taking care of bringi—” She stopped mid sentence at the sight of Bunberry unconscious. “What happened?! What happened to my Bunberry?!”
Cherry gulped, then turned to her with eyes filled with tears. “She protected me.”
Raftilia’s sadness was palpable, you could almost feel it in the air. “She did?”
“Yes.”
Raftilia turned to Lamp Flower. “Is she...is she going to live?”
“Yes, but she’s in bad shape.” Lamp Flower said glumly. “She’ll be unable to fight like this, too much of her spine has been purified. She’ll have to use a cane to walk.”
Raftilia’s mood seemed to crash at those words. “I see. What happened to cause this?”
Cherry took a deep breath, and gulped. He had to admit the truth. “It’s all my fault. I was training with her and I accidentally used all my, umm, Night Energy. She took me to a Luminescent, then let me get some back. Then, this guy named Allightstar Allbright showed up.”
“A Royal?! She fought a Royal alone?” Raftilia’s voice was strained and upset. “How did you two even escape?”
“He let her transform into some kind of more powerful form. Then she kicked his butt. It was really cool, she was about to defeat him then….then…” Cherry looked to the floor in despair. He couldn’t get the man’s face out of his head, his voice, his mannerisms, everything about him. “Someone named Lucid Allbright showed up.”
Raftilia’s eyes went wide, her pink fur paled in abject fear. “Is he the one who did this to her?”
Cherry shook his head. “No, she was able to get him to leave. It was all Allightstar. She got her shield broken, then he started to make her disappear, it was terrifying.”
“At least she protected you. It’s a devastating blow to lose someone of her combat prowess, but it would have been worse had we lost you.”
“They didn’t want to kill me, they said their, umm, mother wanted me?” As soon as the word “mother” left his lips, Raftilia’s eyes seemed to show realization of something. Cherry felt this wasn’t just fear, Raftilia knew something. “M-Miss Boss, d-do you know why they’d want me?”
“Of course, you are the key to saving us, so of course they’d want you. Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping you under heavier protection this time.” Raftilia said, but Cherry couldn’t help but feel she was hiding something. Her mood changed as she suddenly smiled, then held her paws outward. “We just got a new recruit, she’ll be joining us shortly. Head to the Ceremony Room, we don’t have any time to waste.”
A welcome distraction from seeing Bunberry in so much disrepair, he decided. He’d have much to think about, but for now he’d focus on what was before him. Raftilia headed to the intercom as Amethyst poked her head inward, dragging a table with a young man strapped to it. The young man had extremely pale skin, wore black jeans, black steel toe boots, black top with a white skull in the middle, fingerless gloves, and calf socks.
“Attention all Umbra Girls, report to the Ceremony Room, we have our newest recruit, and I want you to be there to welcome her when she is ready.” Raftilia headed to the Ceremony moon, and beckoned Amethyst to follow her. Amethyst mumbled to herself, she was clearly uncomfortable, but still followed orders and pushed the table to the Ceremony Room.
The words finally clicked in his head. He wasn’t focusing on it because of worrying about Bunberry, but that young man was about to be Adapted. Just like he was. He frantically paced as he felt a rough hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Dragon giving him a half smile.
“Come on, kid. The boss lady is calling us. Best not keep her waiting.” Today was a bit different, however. He wasn’t dressed as lazily as he normally did. He was wearing a clean black shirt with the words “Metal head,” in the center of a skull, a pair of black jeans, and some black shoes. His hair was slicked back, he had a strange smell, and his stride was confident. He reminded Cherry of the things men would do and wear when they were on a date. Dragon walked to the Ceremony room with a confident, strong stride, as if he owned the place. Cherry wondered if he’d have been that kind of boy had he not grown up in such a sheltered environment. Without responding he nodded, then followed Dragon out the door. Now that his brain was settled knowing that Bunberry was going to be okay, he suddenly remembered Dragon’s horrific display before everything went to hell.
“Dragon, are you okay? Last I saw you, you were…” Cherry stopped before he could finish, choking back tears. He wondered what fate could have befallen him but he looked quite healthy, a lot different from when he last saw him.
“Yeah, actually. I’m feeling better than ever. I don’t know how, but somehow, whatever it was that happened removed all the purifications on my body. That’s why I itched so badly, and why I was in pain.. It was them slowly removing from my skin.” Dragon explained. Cherry was utterly flabbergasted. Wasn’t that supposed to be impossible? Before Dragon could answer they made it to the Ceremony Room. Dag was already there, wearing a brown fluffy skirt, brown knee high boots, green thigh highs, and a green top that said “Fuck your gender binary :P” Even if he didn’t understand, Cherry couldn’t help but love the interesting outfits Dag always wore.
Dragon took Cherry’s hand in his, then helped him up towards the line of girls or at least what he thought were girls. After Dragon and Dag, he started to wonder who really was a girl, and who wasn’t?
As he saw Raftilia return to her same position, with the metal table right where he was during his Adaption, he felt a pang in his chest. Lamp Flower was there too, as the man suddenly awoke.
“Wh-Where am I? What’s going on?” The young man twisted around. Cherry wanted to warn him, but Dragon squeezed his hand tightly. He looked up and Dragon shook his head. He had to let it happen, no matter how much he didn’t like it. He was reminded of Bunberry’s words. It was already too late.
“You are in the Ceremony Room, it’s time for your Adaption. We don’t have time to waste, we just lost another, so I’m sorry for this.” Raftilia wasted no time, undid his straps, then grabbed the young man’s chest while he was disoriented. The electrical shock surrounded the man’s body. Seeing it from an outside perspective it looked horrifying. The dark lightning coursing through him, around him, like a snake wrapping around it’s victim. His Night Crystal was pulled out of his chest. “This is your Night Crystal, we don’t have time to explain what that is.”
“What the hell did you do to me?” The man cursed in confusion.
Without answering she shoved the Night Crystal into his chest. Cherry suddenly remembered his own transformation, and almost felt himself transforming along with the man. His own memories collided with the current horror this young man was being subjected to. Every crack, every bubble, every strand of hair that grew, Cherry watched and felt. The lack of a bulge and the large breasts on his chest made Cherry shiver. To make matters worse the young man started to turn younger. He was really tall before, but now he had become really short. At least a foot and a half shorter. His face became more supple, with a button nose, and an angular jawline. His hair was pure silver, and the iris in his eyes were pure black.
“What did you do to m—” He suddenly paused and grabbed his throat. “Wait, no way. I sound!?” He immediately looked himself over, feeling up and down his whole body, his face, his hips, his chest, his legs, his entire body. Then he pinched himself. “Oh my god it’s real, it’s real!”
He picked Raftilia up and held her in his arms, spun around then put her back down. “Thank you thank you thank you so much!” Cherry was dumbfounded. This boy liked the transformation? He liked his new body? Why? Suddenly he was reminded of Dragon and Dag, was this person like them? Was this person a girl that was born a boy?
“Finally, some gratitude for the gifts I give. It’s good to see someone accepting being an Umbra Girl so easily. However, that is not the end, it’s time for you to show us your true form. Show us the beauty of your soul.”
“Wait wha—” The young woman(?)doubled over as her ears melted into her head, replaced like batlike ears over them. Out of her back grew batlike wings. With the physical transformation ended, her clothes disappeared into darkness. Strange dark purple flowers with dark purple coffins for petals spun rapidly around her. Starting from her shoes, up to her head they reclothed her. Her shoes were now knee high black boots with three straps that had those same coffin flowers for buckles, then dark purple lace socks stretched out from the boots towards her thighs. Shimmering into existence a black dress appeared on her. It had short puffy sleeves that lead into purple lace gloves with a middle finger loop adorned with that same flower. The hem was adorned with purple lace and a ring of coffin flowers. Her hair was twisted into a single braid with a coffin flower holding it together. Lastly four black coffin flowers appeared on her back, almost hovering there.
“Wow, you’re pretty.” Cherry immediately covered his mouth after he said it. He was extremely embarrassed but he found this girl attractive. Though wasn’t he attracted to boys? Had his staff been wrong?
The new girl blushed at his comment, then looked at herself. “Holy fuck, you’re right I’m hot.” She was utterly giddy and held herself in her arms with a smile so large it could topple mountains.
“Good, now it’s time for the Naming.” Raftilia’s face turned stone cold.
“The fuck is that?” The girl was visibly confused, and Cherry visibly shook. He remembered his own naming, the day Cherry Sparkles became his name forever.
“Welcome to the Umbra Girls, Coffin Flower.” As soon as she said those words, Coffin Flower collapsed to the ground.
“I suppose we rushed it too much and her brain overloaded. No matter. Coarse Amethyst, carry her to her room. It should have manifested by now.” Raftilia waved her paws like a queen ordering her peasants.
“You can’t be serious my Goddess, you know how much I hate those people!” Coarse Amethyst was not happy, Cherry couldn’t help but smile a little at that. He felt bad for doing so, but truthfully after she had said those awful things about him, was he really in the wrong?
“Exactly why I chose you. You need to learn to get over your petty rivalry. It is dangerous. If we want to win this war we have to work together.” Without giving her time to answer, Raftilia turned on her heel and walked out of the Ceremony Room, and towards the Hospital. She was clearly still worried about Bunberry. Cherry couldn’t help but feel the same. Coarse Amethyst begrudgingly carried Coffin Flower down the hall, and Cherry considered following Raftilia. Before he could, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on kid, it’s time to train.” Dragon’s voice made him sigh. He was right. If Cherry wanted to make sure this never happened again, he would have to get more in touch with his staff and that strange power he had. Turning Luminescents orange? What did that even mean? He nodded then walked towards the training room.
“Oh, Princess Dragonberry, I see you’re still associating with those aberrations.” The voice was cold, harsh, and frightening. He turned to see a girl in ripped jeans, a green top, and sneakers. She had a vanilla ice cream complexion with golden eyes and green hair. Her posture was extremely aggressive and sent chills down Cherry’s spine.
“What did you just fucking say, Lighting Dust?” Dragon’s fist was clenched, he could feel the anger and rage coming off of him.
“Oh don’t even bother threatening me. You couldn’t hit me if you tried, or did you forget about my trait missy?” Lightning Dust suddenly moved with incredible speed, flipped Dragon’s nose, then immediately returned to where she was. Dragon couldn’t even react.
“You goddamn bitch! I’m going to kill you!” Dragon’s rage was growing, then Dag held a hand on his shoulder.
“Draggy, let me handle this. Oh Lightning Dust, you really should calm down sweetie.” Dag approached her, and she seemed unmoved.
“What do you want, Dagger Flower?” Lightning Dust looked him dead in the eye. “I haven’t got time for Adaptions right now. I’m busy with your girlfriend.”
“What makes you think I’m an Adaption? After all, no one but Raftilia knows whether I am or not. So if you alienate me, then you alienate a potential sister.” Dag’s face was sly as a fox. Cherry saw this routine before. He wondered how flustered Lightning Dust would get, would it be like Coarse Amethyst from before?
“My trait allows me super speed, but what is yours? Messing with people? Your skills are laughable in combat as well. I don’t care if you are or are not an Adaption, you’re just as worthless.” Dragon had enough, he charged at her, slamming his fist into the wall, but Lightning Dust expertly dodged it. Then something welled up within Cherry and he gripped his hands tightly.
“Why are you so mean!?” He yelled at her and she instantly turned to him. He felt he had made a horrible mistake.
“Oh, you’re that new girl, Cherry Sparkles? Raftilia has told me a lot about you. You’re going to save us supposedly.”
“I’m not a girl! I mean, I don’t think I’m a girl.”
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me, another victim of the patriarchy? What makes you think you aren’t a girl?”
“Well, I, I can’t be one.”
“Cherry… don’t.” Dag immediately tried to warn him but he didn’t understand why he shouldn't.
“Shut up, fox boy. Why not, little girl?” Her gaze felt like it was digging into his soul.
“Because I wasn’t born one.” At those words Lightning Dust’s eyes turned from cold to pure overwhelming hatred. He’d seen Dragon mad, but this was beyond that.
“You’re a fucking Adaption? The ‘savior’ of our world is a fucking man?” Venom poured from her every word. She legitimately seemed to hate him to his very core. “Oh no, oh hell no. You aren’t going to ruin this for us. I won’t let you.”
Before he could respond Lightning Dust grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. “You aren’t going to get in our way, I’m going to finish you off right here.”
Of Gods and Monsters
“This time I saw another Adaption. It was a grown man, he was kinda handsome if a bit short, but he turned out really cute. Though he freaked out so much that I felt bad he had been transformed, he wasn’t at all like the younger girl. I am starting to think not everyone who was chosen to be an Umbra Girl, wanted to be one.”
There were no words to describe how horrified Cherry was. He could feel each of her fingers digging into his throat. With each squeeze and ounce of pressure he lost hope. Thankfully, Dragon and Dag were there to save him, he just didn’t know how.
“What the fuck are you doing, Lightning Dust? He’s just a kid!” Dragon roared and stepped closer to her.
“You don’t want to do this, Lightning Dust! If him being a child isn’t enough, think of what Raftilia will do if you do this!” Dag warned. “Put Cherry down!”
“I don’t care, I’d rather us all be purified than be saved by a fucking man.” Cherry’s breathing grew strained. Was he really just going to let this happen? Was his declaration to improve himself just a farce? As he remembered the fight with Allightstar, and Bunberry’s bloodied body laying inside the infirmary, he felt his fist moving. He swung and it connected to her face. He didn’t stop there, he kicked and clawed at her and did everything he could to stop her.
That gave Dragon his opportunity, and he shoulder slammed towards Lightning Dust while Dag delivered a quick roundhouse kick. Cherry was sure they would save him, and closed his eyes waiting for their triumph. Instead he was sorely disappointed as he felt his body collide with the wall. He felt a wave of intense pain and heard an audible crack. As he began to scream, Dragon and Dag turned their attention to him.
“Cherry, no! Lightning Dust, you BITCH!” For the first time, Dragon had called out his name, his actual name. He smiled, then frowned as he felt something warm and metallic dribble out of his mouth. His vision started to fade as he saw blurs engaging in battle, Dragon and Dag were surely defending him but he couldn’t see it that well.
Whether it was delirium or his own impending death, suddenly his life was beginning to flash before his eyes. He started to relive important events that had happened in his life in reverse. He saw Allightstar attack Bunberry and the horrible injuries she incurred. He saw his destructive laser attack on Dragon after he had goaded him. He saw himself strapped to that table and later getting Adapted. Then he found himself back at the Orphanage, as his friends were purified in front of him. He saw the Head of the Orphanage, who always seemed to have it out for him. His short blonde hair, his pale skin, his cruel green eyes. He was never physically abused, but what he did to him might have been considered worse, telling him he was useless, worthless, and a pathetic excuse of a man. He saw the first time he’d tried on a dress. He had been so happy that the girl, Melanie, had let him try it. Then he saw himself playing with it, spinning around without a care in the world, until he found himself face to face with the Head of the Orphanage. He blamed Melanie for making Cherry a “faggot” and a “failure of a man.” Then, with a strong grip, he dragged her away. She screamed and cried, but eventually The sound of the outside door cut her off.” Cherry never saw her again. He was told she was taken to another orphanage, and that it was his fault this happened to her. Cherry didn’t know why he focused so much on him, but not the other boys, but he vowed to never wear another feminine article of clothing again. How had he forgotten that?
Before his memories could pull him back further, he awoke in his mindscape, the same one that he’d talked to his staff in. His staff was nowhere to be seen, however. Instead there was just an endless expanse of void. He wandered within this emptiness, unsure of how much time was passing—was it an instant or an eternity?—until he saw a bright flash of light.” He instinctively went to cover his eyes with his arm, but discovered that, despite its brightness, the light wasn’t blinding at all. Instead he saw a large locked door in the middle of it. Nearby, his staff materialized, and turned towards him.
“Cherry, you don’t want to go in there. You aren’t ready!” The staff warned.
“Why not? What’s in there?” he questioned.
As if to answer him, above the door words wrote themselves into existence, reading “What was lost,” in the same energy the Luminescents are made out of.
“I’m going to die, aren’t I? Why can’t I know what’s in there?” It was his mind, so shouldn’t he get to see what he wanted?
“You might not die. You’re hurt really bad, it’s true, but you aren’t dead yet. So maybe…”
“Staff… let me in. Now!” Cherry commanded.
However the staff was insistent. “F-fine, it was going to come out sooner or later. Just, Cherry, what you find in there, please, don’t misunderstand.” With that last cryptic message, his staff transformed into a key, then flew into his hands. With a deep breath, he shoved it into the lock. A bright flash of light exploded from the door as it burst open, revealing even more blinding light within. Cherry hesitated at the threshold, wondering why this door was supposed to be such a big deal, before tendrils of light reached out from within, grabbing and dragging him through the doorway. He fought and scraped and clawed by instinct, already regretting ignoring his staff’s warnings. More of the tendrils wrapped around his arms, legs, and mouth, finally pulling him upward and yanking him fully inside. His consciousness faded as the light overtook him.
He woke up and felt something was off. Instead of his normal self, he was now seven, almost eight years old. He felt a harsh tug as he looked up to see the Head of the Orphanage pulling him towards a mysterious woman. She had pink hair, pink eyes, and brown skin just like his own. It was impossible to tell her actual height as everyone looked like giants to him, but she was quite thin and she also somehow felt familiar to him despite him never seeing her before.
“As requested, here he is.” Even in his dreamscape hearing the Head of the Orphanage’s voice made him visibly shake.
“Good job, Benjamin, he looks well fed and healthy. Though, I have one more command for you, make sure he grows up into a fine and proper young man.” Her voice sounded almost ethereal. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating because of how he was dying, or if he simply misremembered, but her voice was impossible, maybe even inhuman. Despite this, Benjamin—as she called him—nodded and stayed still. Young Cherry hadn’t realized it, but the current Cherry noticed something off about his behavior. It was almost trance-like. “You can leave now.”
Benjamin walked away, and Cherry was left with this strange yet familiar woman. She picked him up and held him in her arms and he felt safe.
“Oh Cherry, I’m so sorry. I want you to know I had to do this to protect you. I didn’t do this to hurt you or because I didn’t love you.” Her words immediately made him freeze. Was she his…? “I know you won’t remember this right now, but when you do remember, find me. The Luminescent are the key.” With that he felt himself thrown out of the door, and back in his mindspace. His staff staring at him, back to it’s normal self.
“Was that my mo—” before he could finish he felt the mindscape fade.
He gasped heavily as he woke up. He was barely breathing, his body was badly hurt, but he was still alive. For whatever last few seconds it would be, as he saw Lightning Dust about to smash his head in with a hammer blow. He looked to the sides of the hallway, and saw Dragon and Dag looking exhausted. What had happened while he was passed out? How long had he been unconscious?
“Guess your time is up, goodbye, Cherry Sparkles.” Lightning Dust moved to finish him, the world seemed to slow down as she got closer towards him. He imagined Bunberry jumping in and saving him again, which was ludicrous because she was in intensive care, but right now he needed someone to save him. She didn’t, and the hammer blow closed the space more. He closed his eyes, accepting the inevitable.
“Now, now, Lightning Dust, that’s no way to treat a new friend, mew.” A girl’s voice said. Her voice was soft as ice cream, melodious and nearly gave him diabetes with how sweet it was. Also she didn’t even make a cat noise, she just pronounced the word “mew.” He found that oddly cute.
“Oh fuck, it’s the goddamn cat!” Lightning Dust exclaimed, as she halted her attack. Cherry struggled on the ground, glad to be alive, and suddenly he found himself smiling? He wasn’t sure why, he had almost just died, but still he started to feel happy, almost jovial?
“Ugh, I’ve never been so happy to see that fudging cupcake.” Dragon said uncharacteristically. He wasn’t swearing. Dragon always swore. It baffled Cherry, though his feeling of happiness overruled his confusion.
“Why, you must be Cherry Sparkles. I’m so glad to meet you. I’m Princess Kittenberry, mew.” The girl was wearing a floral pink dress, with pink mary janes and white knee socks. She had light brown skin, much lighter than his. She had red eyes, and bright pink hair held back by a floral headband. Seeing her made him so happy, he seemed to forget his injuries while in her presence. Not only that but he felt a feeling of attraction. She was sooo cute and her smile seemed infectious as he felt his own growing even larger.
“I’m getting the fudge out of here. Keep away from me, you ice cream cake!” Lightning Dust hurried away with a smile on her face. Everyone seemed to have a smile on their face, it creeped Cherry out a little.
“Princess Kittenberry, thank you so much. We don’t know what she would have done.” Dag’s blissful tone echoed Cherry’s mood.
“I’d never let such a cute, defenseless child be harmed, meow.” She put her arms around Cherry gently. Even though normally he’d be apprehensive, he felt good in her arms. She was cute, she smelled like cherries and cream, and she looked young, maybe even as young as him.
“Th-Thank you Miss Princess Kittenberry.”
“It’ll be okay, Cherry Sparkles. I know this world is mean and cruel, but there are many like us that want to instead spread joy and love, mew.” She smiled at him and patted his head. He felt himself blush, he wanted her to do it again. “Oh, before I forget. She/her pronouns for me, I’m 1000% girl, mew!” She held out her hand and made a peace sign with a wink. It was as if she was cuteness made flesh.
“Oh uhh, okay, I’m uhh…” before he could answer he coughed violently.
“We need to get him to miss Lamp Flower right away! Come on Mister Dragon, let’s go, mew.”
“Dag, go get Lamp Flower, we can’t move him, he looks badly beat up, I also think I heard a bone break earlier.” Dragon commanded, and Dag took off. “Cherry, stay with me, don’t close your eyes, fight it. You can beat this.”
He wanted to listen to Dragon’s words, he wanted to fight. He also wanted to sleep, his desire to give into the darkness and fade away. That feeling faded as he felt a kiss on his forehead. He looked up and there was Princess Kittenberry. She stroked his head, and gave him a few more forehead kisses. He blushed again, despite coughing up some blood.
“You’re going to be okay, Cherry. You’re going to be okay.” She assured him, and he felt like she was telling the truth.
Dag returned with not only Lamp Flower, but also Raftilia. Lamp Flower immediately took stock of the situation. “What the hell happened to Cherry? Why is she in such bad shape?” Lamp Flower was horrified, he could see it on her face as he blinked. Did she call him “she”
Raftilia looked even more worried. “My precious Cherry Sparkles! Lamp Flower, you must save her, at all costs!” Raftilia commanded. Lamp Flower nodded, then began to do a strange dance.
“The light pierces flesh and bone, it seeks to crush our hopes and dreams. No matter the problem I can cure all that ails. For I am a doctor and I’ll save you all!” With “the light pierces flesh and bone,” she crossed her arms in front of her. Then with “it seeks to crush our hopes,” she bowed her head in sadness. “Unfortunately for it I can cure all that ails,” she stepped forward with her right leg then swung her right hand outward. Finally with “For I am a doctor and I’ll save you all!” she rotated her right arm under in front of her, then rotated her left arm above her right, as if holding an invisible large spherical object.
The darkness covered her in a large cocoon as it did with all the others. Then she underwent a transformation, her head became more like a sheep’s head, with sheep ears, and fur, along with a sheep-like face. She gained cloven hooves for hands, and sheep legs. She looked like she was a sheep shaped like a human, with her same beautiful Black skin tone, added with blue fleece and her same yellow eyes. Flowers with Lamp petals spun around her rapidly, rising from the bottom to the top. Her clothes vanished and she was given a new outfit. Her shoes turned to brown flats, with yellow thigh high socks. A short fluffy yellow dress poofed onto her. It had a single large lamp flower embroidered on the front. It had three tiers divided by brown lace that reached just above her thighs. A long white doctor’s coat with a lamp flower nestled itself into its side pocket. Then a stethoscope with a lamp flower that replaced the stem and bell settled around her neck. Her hair was in pigtails with two flowers with lamp petals holding it tight. Then inside her hands, appeared a pure black crystal ball. It would have looked beautiful, had it not had a swirling dark vortex inside that scared Cherry. Despite that, adding the doctor theme to her outfit, also with the frilly dress was a weird combination, but Cherry liked it.
She wasted no time, she looked at Cherry, and pointed it at him. “Lily Soothing Mending!” After her words, lamp flowers appeared, and started shining heating rays on him. He felt uncomfortable but he noticed he started feeling better. His bruises were fading, that crack he felt earlier suddenly didn’t put him in agonizing pain anymore. His throat felt better, and he could breathe easily. After it finished, he felt amazing. Thinking he was fine, he tried to stand up but found himself falling back down. Clearly he wasn’t as fully healed as he thought.
“I saw a crack in her ribs, I’ve mended it for the time being. She’s okay for now, she’s stable. I’ll need to keep her under my care for a while, though.” Before he could react to her calling him ‘her,’ he looked over and saw Raftilia’s eyes made of pure rage.
“Who did this to her? Who did this to my Cherry?! You are not supposed to be this rough with our newer recruits, Dragon!” Raftilia was furious. It seemed that whatever was making them smile and feel happy wasn’t able to affect Raftilia. She was a Goddess, after all, so it did make sense.
“It wasn’t me, it was Lightning Dust. She tried to kill the kid. We tried to stop her, but you know how fast she is.” Dragon admitted. “I’m sorry, I should have been better. I’m only glad Princess Kittenberry arrived to stop her.”
“She… WHAT?!” Raftilia screamed in anger. Raftilia stomped over to the intercom. “Lightning Dust, you are required in the Infirmary. This is not a request, this is a demand.”
Within moments, Lightning Dust appeared. “What is it, boss?”
“What have you done? You tried to remove our only chance to save this world. What would possess you to do such a thing?” Raftilia asked angrily.
“You expect me to put my faith in an Adaption when you have plenty of real girls who have incredible power and probably could easily do the job you think this little boy can do.” Lightning Dust remarked.
“I do not understand your aversion to your sisters in battle. It doesn’t matter what they were born, or who they were before. What matters is we are trying to fight and win this war.” Raftilia clenched her paw into a fist and raised it. “You are all Umbra Girls here, Prin—Dragon as she prefers, Dagger Flower, Lamp Flower, you, and Cherry Sparkles. You’re too valuable to lose, but I can’t permit you to murder members of our own ranks. I’ll need some time to consider what to do. In the meantime, you are off duty until I decide your punishment. Get some time with Fluffy Ruby to ruminate on your misdeeds.”
“What? You can’t do that! You need me!” Despite her frustration she continued to smile. That was probably what unsettled Cherry the most. This entire time everyone was still smiling, except Raftilia.
“Speaking of, Lightning Dust, where is Acorn Flower? My birthday is tomorrow, and I wanted to invite her. I’m turning Seventeen, I’m so excited! Last I saw, she went with you on your latest mission. Did you see where she went when you got back, mew?” Princess Kittenberry asked.
Lightning Dust’s smile became a cocky grin. “She didn’t make it. We ran into a royal. She wasn’t fast enough. I was.”
Immediately the eyes of Princess Kittenberry grew wide, then tears started to form in them. She started to cry, and suddenly Cherry felt himself starting to cry too. He felt as if he had just heard someone extremely close to him had died, like how he felt when he saw Bunberry’s broken body in the infirmary. He didn’t even know this girl, why was he feeling like this? What was even more strange was how everyone around him seemed just as upset. He started to think whatever feeling Princess Kittenberry was feeling, she’d somehow spread to everyone else.
“N-No, that’s not possible! She’d never fall to a Royal, never ever! Acorn Flower was my best friend, she’s… she can’t be. She can’t be dead, she can’t be!” Princess Kittenberry bawled which caused everyone else to bawl.
Despite bawling, Lightning Dust continued to emanate maliciousness. “Look, it’s not my fault some dumb Adaption was stupid enough to get himself killed. Adaptions just are inferior to us real girls.” It was difficult for her to get the words out between the sobs, but she made sure to pronounce each and every one.
The moment she said that, Princess Kittenberry’s mood turned to a mixture of sadness and rage. “You-You killed her. You left her to die, you you YOU MONSTER!” Princess Kittenberry screamed at the top of her lungs, grabbed onto her and angrily pounded on her, with incredibly weak arms unable to do any real damage. She settled back into sadness as she sank to the floor, crying into her hands.
“It’s not my fault! All you Adaptions are just too frail,” Lightning Dust wailed mournfully.
However, Cherry looked over, then saw Raftilia. Her entire aura emanated something beyond rage. She was showing an emotion stronger than anger, stronger than hate. She moved over to the intercom. “Calling all Umbra Girls, report to the Ceremony Room immediately. This is not a request.” Then she turned to Lightning Dust, and held out her paw. “You, stay there and wait.”
Lightning Dust tried to move, but found herself unable to. Just like what had previously happened with Dragon. “What are you doing? Be reasonable!”
“Be quiet!” At Raftilia’s order Lightning Dust looked unable to speak. It reminded Cherry of when Dragon wasn’t able to talk during his own Adaption Ceremony.
Princess Kittenberry couldn’t take it anymore, and ran away, despite the order. Raftilia didn’t stop her, even Cherry could tell she needed time to heal. The moment she left everyone’s attitude changed back to normal. It seemed his theory was right, whatever she was feeling, everyone around her felt it too.
“Oh, thank the Goddess, I can curse again.” Dragon said with a sigh of relief. Then with a snarl he turned to Lightning Dust. “You’re a piece of shit, you know that? You’re less than the slime on my shoe, you fucking asshole!”
Raftilia straightened up, then took a deep breath. “Follow me.” Cherry watched as Lightning Dust moved like a puppet as Raftilia marched towards the Ceremony room. She beckoned the rest of them, and Cherry and the others followed. Cherry struggled to walk, so Dragon picked him up in his arms bridal style. Cherry blushed at that, but didn’t struggle. His body was stable, but still it hurt to move too much. He felt so frail, so weak, but this time he didn’t care. He just relaxed into the safety of Dragon’s arms.
They followed Raftilia, until she went to the middle of the ceremony room, with all the current Umbra Girls present, minus Bunberry and Princess Kittenberry. “I’ve called you here today, to show you an important lesson.” Raftiila said, holding her paws behind her back and pacing. “There is one among you, who has committed heinous crimes. Her name is Lightning Dust.”
Lightning Dust seemed unable to speak as the crowd audibly gasped, and broke into murmurs.
“Five. Five Umbra Girls were put in her care, and none of them returned. At first I thought it was simply a tragic coincidence, but now I know the horrible truth. Lightning Dust let them die, she effectively got them purified or killed. Our latest to fall is Acorn Flower. Not only that but she attempted to murder Cherry Sparkles within these very halls. What say you, Lightning Dust? Why would you do this?”
Lightning Dust’s mouth moved again. “Guess the cat is out of the bag, but what does it fucking matter? They weren’t even that powerful anyway.” Her words horrified Cherry. Was that how she saw the world? The weak fall, and the strong survive? It reminded him of the Head of the Orphanage “They were just a hindrance, so yeah, I let them get purified. Some were killed, but that’s the fate men deserve. They’ve oppressed us for millenia. Men don’t belong in women’s spaces, especially in something as serious as being an Umbra Girl.”
The other Umbra Girls didn’t seem to be able to stay silent.
“Y-You’re a Demon!”
“I don’t know, she has a point, but killing them? That’s going too far.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?! You murderer!”
“Acorn Flower was so sweet and nice to everyone. She was the kindest soul ever. She was more of a woman than you’ll ever be, you bitch!”
“Please, calm down, I know you are angry, I am too, but I promise you. Proper sentencing will be handed out.” Raftilia promised. “Lightning Dust, kneel.”
Lightning Dust did as she commanded, then Raftilia walked over to her, and plunged her paw in her chest, and pulled out her Night Crystal. “This is your Night Crystal. Normally, I’d freeze it until you needed it again. This time, however, I don’t feel that’s an appropriate solution.” Suddenly dark lightning shot out from Raftilia’s paw and latched onto the Night Crystal. Cherry watched as it then pierced into it, and started pulsating, as if it was sucking energy from it.
“What are you doing?! You’ll kill us all! She’ll explode!” one of the girls yelled. A drop of blood fell from Raftilia’s nose. Cherry glanced around. Had anyone else noticed that?
“Normally you’d be right, however, not when I do… this.” Raftilia’s entire body erupted with dark lightning, as it violently ripped energy from the Night Crystal until it looked completely inert. More blood came from her nose as finally the crystal fell still. She then held it in front of Lightning Dust’s face and took a deep breath. “This is your Night Crystal.” With a single paw, she crushed it into dust. “I have permanently removed your magick. You are no longer fit to be an Umbra Girl. From now on you are a normal human.” Lightning Dust’s hair returned to a neutral brown, and her eyes were now green. Raftilia wasn’t kidding. Though her age stayed the same, as did her body. Cherry expected her to change back into whatever old hag she really was, but she didn’t. It seemed this process wouldn’t restore Cherry’s body. He felt a tinge of disappointment.
“N-No! You can’t! You can’t take my powers away from me! Plea—”
Before she could plead more, a dark portal opened up. Raftilia grabbed her by the arm, then flung her into it. Lightning Dust screamed as she was exiled from the Umbra Girls forever. Cherry was frightened by the display, but he felt justice was served, at least a little. She deserved worse, in his mind, but this would suffice.
However, the other Umbra Girls erupted into panic.
“Yo-You can do that?!”
“Holy fuck what did you just do?!”
“What she did was awful, but wasn’t that a bit extreme?”
“Calm down, I sent her to a heavily populated human settlement. With her knowledge of the Luminescent, she’ll be fine, possibly. I couldn’t care less.” Cherry had never seen Raftilia act so cold. Then he noticed her limp a little, and took a deep breath. “I’m going to my office. If any of you do anything like this again, you will suffer a similar fate. I cannot have an Umbra Girl that seeks to sabotage what we are doing here. We have to work together to fix this world, or we will all die or worse.”
With those last words, Raftilia limped through the crowd, down the hallway, with more blood coming from her nose. Whatever she had done, it didn’t seem to be something that came without consequences. While the other Umbra Girls dispersed, Dragon and Dagger Flower stayed, still silent. Then he heard the sound of wood clunking behind him.
“Hello, Cherry, I’m back.”
He turned to see Bunberry walking with crutches and a smirk on her face. His own face lit up with a real smile this time. She hobbled over to him, and with permission from Dragon, held him in her arms. He closed his eyes, as he felt a hand running through his hair, and a scratching that caused his body to settle down. At that moment, all fears and worries of this day vanished and all he could feel was five simple words as they escaped his lips.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I hope you all enjoyed that! I have a special announcement! I've been chosen for a special collab, so I'm going to be working on that before I come back to finish chapter 9. I hope you enjoy what's to come, thank you all from the bottom of my heart ♥
Thank you as always to the lovely msblackandblue who without I"d never have come this far
Enter the Dragon
“Today I met this extremely old lady. She was really, really pretty and her graying hair seemed to make her even more beautiful, especially with the contrast of her dark skin. She was stern, but also kind. I liked her. She became really cute after the transformation too!”
“I know you won’t remember this right now, but when you do remember, find me. The Luminescent are the key.”
Cherry awoke with a start. He quickly took note of his surroundings. He was in Lamp Flower’s hospital, though he wasn’t alone. There were a lot of other Umbra Girls here, too. Dragon was also here, laying down while awake in a bed next to Cherry’s. He wasn’t sure what in the world had happened while he was asleep.
“Oh, hey kid. If you’re wondering why we’re here, the fast portal has its consequences.” Dragon winced in pain.
“Yes, it does. Thanks to that I’m now swamped with patients.” Lamp Flower was clearly annoyed. Cherry, however, had no sympathy for her. Even if he himself was starting to question his gender at this point, she had no right to just choose for him.
“Serves you right,” Cherry muttered under his breath. Unfortunately it was a bit too loud.
“What did you just say, child? Did I hear that correctly? Serves me right? I do not understand what your agenda is against me, but I suggest that, as I am the one taking care of you, you set it aside,” Lamp Flower warned. Cherry gulped but stood his ground.
“Do you even really care? You called me a girl earlier. I bet you even call Dragon a girl behind his back,” Cherry spat out.
“For your information I personally delivered that man’s pregnancy at least two years before the Luminescent appeared.” Lamp Flower was furious, leaving Cherry confused. Dragon had a baby? But he was a guy. Why would a guy want to get pregnant and have a child?
“Jeez, Lamp, did you really have to mention that?” Dragon groaned.
“M-Mister Dragon, you had a child?” Cherry asked.
“Yeah, I did, with my wife. She wanted a baby and I wasn’t against the idea, so I gave her one.”
“But how?”
“Simple. She impregnated me,” Dragon said matter-of-factly. Cherry was awash in confusion. How could his wife impregnate him? Then he realized she must have been like Dragon, except the opposite. Born a boy, really a girl. Was he also like that?
“I will allow these careless statements this time. However, Cherry, as you will learn, it is not wise to speak up against Raftilia’s views. If I had called you a boy, she would have spent time correcting me and gone on a rant, which could have impeded saving your life,” Lamp Flower said.
“O-Oh, I…I’m sorry.” Cherry felt extremely bad about that. “I just…I think I’m so confused, Miss Lamp Flower.”
“Apology accepted. Don’t do it again.” She grunted, then moved towards the next patient bed.
Dragon, however, leaned inward. “Kid, what’s got you confused?”
“I-I remembered some stuff about my life. At one point, I liked wearing girl’s clothes. I also saw what I think was my mother. It was really weird though. She had pink eyes and pink hair. Also, she told me something even weirder.” Cherry couldn’t stop thinking about her. If she really was his mother, why did she leave him?
“Pink eyes and pink hair? So she likes colored contacts and dyeing her hair. That isn’t that weird. Pretty common for young women before this whole end of the world mess, honestly. Pink isn’t entirely the most used color, but well, it’s not that unbelievable.” Dragon mused. “Also Dag wears feminine clothing all the time. It doesn’t really change who he is.”
“It wasn’t that, it was what she said, that I should find her, and that the Luminescent were the key.” Cherry sheepishly said. He wanted to ask him about how he knew he was a boy, how he could have possibly figured that out, it seemed an impossible question to answer.
“That. Is a bit more bizarre. How in the hell would the Luminescent help you find her? Kid, puzzles ain’t my thing. I suggest you ask Fluffy Ruby about that. She’s good at that kind of thing.” Dragon advised. Cherry had been told several times to visit her. He wondered what kind of person she was. Her name suggested an Umbra Girl, but Dragon had told him that she had lost her arms and legs. His thoughts hooked back onto his question, though, and it burned inside of him. He summoned up the courage to say it, and stared Dragon in the eyes.
“Dragon…how did you know you were a boy?” Cherry asked.
“I dunno how to explain it, kid. I just always felt off, and being called a girl felt wrong. Despite how much my family tried to make me one,” Dragon said. “I did figure it out later in school though.”
“C-Can you explain it to me? I’d love to know your story. You’re so cool. I bet your life was super interesting,” Cherry said. Dragon sighed.
“I guess I could tell you since we’re stuck in these stupid beds for the time being. Okay, kid, I hope you’re ready for a long story,” Dragon warned. Cherry nodded. “It began when I was born…”
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The day I was born my mother was ecstatic. I had three brothers and she had finally gotten her daughter. The one she had been begging God for. She imagined all the cute and frilly dresses and skirts she could dress me in. She imagined signing me up for ballet, piano lessons, gymnastics and maybe someday cheerleading. She had my whole life planned out for me. I’d finish highschool, then she’d find a nice Christian man to marry me, I’d have her grandchildren she wanted so desperately and live happily ever after as a conservative housewife. She quickly found out how wrong she was.
As a baby and toddler I really didn’t have much choice in what I could wear, but as I got older I asked for pants. Mother didn’t believe in pants. She thought as her church did, that girls should only wear skirts, dresses, and other frilly things. I insisted, however, and I tore up dress after dress until she relented when it started to get expensive. She let me wear jeans, but they were the really girly kind with hearts embroidered on the butt or glittery pant legs. I accepted it as a compromise even if it made me uncomfortable.
That wasn’t the only thing I put her through, I also had a bit of a reputation for loving rough and tumble games and would scrap with the boys if they gave me reason to. As I grew to about ten years old I got into a big fight with a bunch of boys. I lost, as it was five to one. I got a black eye and my fifth grade homeroom teacher grew worried that I’d ‘turn into a lesbian’ and so she told my parents in one of those parent-teacher conferences.
Shortly after, I found all my ‘masculine’ clothes confiscated, and a pink suitcase packed with my old name on it. I asked them what was going on, but they only said they were doing this for my own good, that I was falling into sin and they had to help me lest I be sent to Hell. A bus showed up right after, before I could plead my case, and I was forced into it. The bus was full of girls. I begged to be taken out of there, but it was too late. The bus was already driving off. Problem girls, we were called. Some had their heads shaved, some wore tattoos, some seemed a bit gruff. They didn’t seem all that bad to me, but we weren’t what they wanted. We weren’t prim and proper little princesses. So they resolved to make us that.
St: Abigail’s Finishing School for Young Ladies. That was the nightmare we found ourselves in after the bus ride. It had pink walls, pink carpet, pink furniture, pink curtains, everything was so disgustingly pink. We were told this was to help us embrace our femininity. I was annoyed, but at the time I could not have fathomed just how bad it would get.
When I got to my room, I began to realize just how far this saccharine hell extended. A pink canopy bed, pink vanity, pink rimmed floor length mirror, pink carpet, pink dresser, and worst of all: frilly pink dresses with white tights—which we were told was to help us regain our innocence—and pink mary janes. Everything was so stereotypically girly that I almost threw up. My suitcase, I found, was filled with the same crap, along with some dolls and stuffed animals they’d bought me before that I didn’t care for.
They wanted to keep us away from masculine things, so they only taught us shit like sewing, conservative fashion, crocheting, art, and homemaking. Even the normal-sounding classes, like English and History, were just as bad. English was more concerned with teaching us neat, feminine penmanship than vocabulary or grammar and History was all about the Bible and biblical women and Christian teachings about a woman’s role. We talked about a few historical women, but only in how they supported their damn husbands in a biblical manner.
It was utter bullshit. I wanted to learn real shit, and I was shut down every time I asked. Though that wasn’t what got me in the most trouble. Being called by my old name irked me, and being called a girl irked me even more. Of course in this reality that would have been Princess Dragonberry, not my old deadname. Err, a deadname is a name you were born with that you don’t want to associate with anymore because it isn’t your real name. Since that reality change that would have been my name, Raftilia’s changes are horrifying, even your own family thinks of you with that name. Yet because of the Diversion Field they don’t think anything of the fact their kid was named something like I dunno some normal name. Now instead it’s Princess Dragonberry. It never even registers to them, you’ll get used to it but trust me it’s hella weird.
So anyway I started calling myself Prince, instead. I hadn’t yet found my real name. I just knew one thing, I wasn't a girl. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep my damn mouth shut so I kept insisting I wasn’t a girl. As a response they devised a ‘special’ program for me. The teacher in charge of detention told me I had to say I’m a pretty girl. It was supposed to help me get ‘back in touch with your God given femininity.’ I internally said fuck that and instead said “I’m not a girl.” When I first felt the paddle on my butt I was utterly shocked. I realized these people were fucking insane. They’d literally inflict violence on a child for saying they weren’t a girl.
They sent me back to my room with instructions to learn some other girly crap like walking in high heels or books on how to be a proper lady. They did this at the end of every month, and despite the punishments, I always told them the same thing, “I’m not a girl.”
After about a month of this, something miraculous happened. It was the strangest thing, a girl in the school asked me out of the blue why I act so much like a boy. That was when everything clicked. All of it made sense, my entire body lit up with euphoria and I knew that’s what I was. The next time they pulled me in, I looked her in the eye and said. “I am not a girl, I’m a boy.” There was no word for the amount of pain I experienced after that. After that I knew I was going to stop it for good.
I decided for my plan my masculinity was going to have to take a hit. Before the next month I started wearing extremely girly ankle length skirts and long sleeve tops. I worked hard on make up and did my hair in feminine styles. I copied their stereotypical feminine actions and mannerisms. Because of this they stopped the special treatment. They assumed I had finally “accepted my place as a girl.” They never could have fathomed what my true plan was.
Over the next two years I used those overly thick books they forced us to read—and also used as a means to keep our posture in heels—as weights. Then, during my last month in that Hell, I overheard someone talk about a boyfriend named Dragon, or rather it was a different name but you get what I mean. That name resonated with me in a way I didn’t think possible. I stopped doing my hair, in fact I found a knife in the kitchen and cut off as much of my hair as I could. I stopped doing my makeup and I stopped caring about my mannerisms. I finally knew who and what I was, and I didn’t want to hide it anymore.
Of course they wouldn’t ignore it, even until the end of the month. I was taken to her again, her paddle in hand. She told me how disappointed she was that I regressed, that I had been doing such a good job. What she never realized, is never once did I refer to myself as a girl, and never would. She brandished her paddle and said, “Say you’re a pretty girl, Princess Dragonberry. You need to stop this tomboyish nonsense.”
I knew this would be the last time she would ever try to make me say that. I looked her dead in the eye and said “My name is Dragon, and I’m a boy.”
She started to swing the paddle but I was faster. I grabbed her arm and bent it back making her drop it. I told her, “You’ll never hit me or anyone ever again, bitch.” Then I broke her arm. She never asked me that question again. In fact, I was expelled for violence. Despite their abusive and archaic methods they were able to get away with it all through some ‘religious freedom’ bullshit and pressed charges on me instead. My parents were furious but I didn’t give a fuck. That place could burn to the ground for all I cared. As I left I felt bad for the kids stuck there, but there was nothing I could do for them.
Being forced into juvie—err, that was slang juvenile hall, which is like a prison for misbehaving kids. Anyway being forced into juvie was one of the most enlightening and terrifying things I went through. All of us were given blue jumpsuits to wear to the chagrin of my parents. They wanted me to wear skirts, but this particular facility just liked us all neat and uniform and shit.
I behaved, picked up trash, pretty much did everything they wanted. I wanted out early because I was determined now. I was going to succeed no matter what my parents wanted. I was going to become a boy.
Of course that was kind of hard for a twelve year old to do. So I had to endure more of my parents' bullshit over the years. My mother eventually gave up trying to force me into ultra girly crap, but I did have to make compromises. I still had to wear a girly hair clip in my hair and girly jeans if I wanted to wear jeans at all. I was allowed a backpack instead of a purse, as long as it was at least somewhat feminine. It wasn’t honestly that much of a compromise but it gave me at least some reprieve from the ultra feminine shit my mother tried to put me through. It also meant I could keep my hair short.
I graduated highschool but my parents refused to pay for college so I ended up doing small time jobs to survive. I got my own place and, well, fast forward to about sixteen years later, when I finally met the woman of my dreams, Anna. Yes kid, I told you I was a man. No, my age is seventeen, I already told you that. Anyway, as I was saying there weren’t words to describe her beauty, not only that but her personality was a perfect fit for me—no, for us. Her desire for children opened my heart, and so I got pregnant for her. She was always the mother, though, even though she impregnated me. None of that mattered. No matter what anyone says, men can get pregnant, and there is nothing wrong with that. My little girl was born, and she was the sweetest little thing you ever did see. My little Kaylee. My little angel. When she was about four years old, almost five, the Luminescents attacked where we lived. I was the only survivor. I made a pact and well now here I am..
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cherry was flabbergasted at Dragon’s story. It was so powerful and left him wondering about himself. Was he really a boy? He forced the words out of him, words that had been boiling inside. “I don’t know if I am a boy, and that scares me.”
“What makes you say that, Cherry?” Dragon asked. Dragon seemed to flip flop from calling his name and calling him kid but he much preferred when Dragon called him by his name.
“I…I think I like dresses, and girly stuff. I got weird memories that make me think maybe I was a girl. I don’t know, though. I don’t have that…knowing like you do. I think I’ve never thought about it, I just did what I was told.” Cherry revealed.
“I see. Well, Cherry, the only way you can tell for sure is to try it then yeah?” Dragon suggested. “If you aren’t sure, it makes logical sense. Just try out being a girl for a week or month or something, I dunno, however long makes you feel comfortable.”
Cherry was awash with emotions. Could he do that, could he just be a girl? Try it out? See if it was right for him, or was that her? “O-Okay, I’ll try.”
“If that’s what you want, Cherry, then I’ll think of you that way,” Dragon said and that made Cherry smile. She felt so loved around him. It would be a little weird to think of herself this way, but a week couldn’t hurt. If she wasn’t really a girl, maybe she was something else? It was too early to tell. Right now, she just knew she was going to try being a girl.
Cherry sat up straight and with determination said, “Then I’m a girl!”
Like an Open Coffin
“This time I met an interesting lady, she was like a grown adult or something I think. She was really nice, and she really seemed to get along with the little girl. Almost in a big sister kind of way. She tried her best to help her learn girly stuff too. Though what made me the happiest was that we were finally a squad, Raftilia told us that we were ready. I can't wait for our first mission as a team!”
Bunberry twisted and turned in her sleep. She was having a horrific nightmare. A nightmare of the past. She was home, she was warm, she was safe. She had everything she wanted. Then, while she was talking and laughing with her family, it happened. He appeared. The rest was a series of flashes of remembered events. The door exploding, his flash of light obliterating her parents, his hand holding her sister in the air as he slowly purified her. Then with her alone, he walked over to her and as his hand reached for her face…
She woke up with a gasp and looked around left and right, scanning the area. She was in her room, her twisted bizarre room. She wasn’t there again, she was safe. She slowly picked herself up from her bed. Not being able to walk without support was going to take some getting used to. She wished for a cane, and one rose from the floor of her room.
She next asked for a hot tub, and the floor bubbled and shifted as a hot tub rose inside the bathroom, the room expanding to incorporate it. She stripped out of her night clothes then settled into the hot tub. The warm water soothed her muscles and allowed her to think. Or she would have been able to if she hadn’t sunk out of the hot tub and into the void. Behind her, a sword poked at her. She turned to face it, and of course it was accompanied with a black wand with a blueberry for the bottom, and a blue heart shape with blue bunny ears at the top. She sighed. It still existed.
“Of course I’m still here, you dummy.” The wand's voice was so disgustingly sugary and sweet. Just like her.
“We’re both still a part of you, whether you like it or not.” The sword said, a much gruffer tone just like Bunberry used.
“What do you two want now?” she asked.
You’re not doing well, Bunberry. We know you aren’t,” the wand said.
“Of course I’m not!” Bunberry snapped. “I saw him and I wasn’t able to do anything! If I wasn’t protecting that stupid kid then I’d have finally got my revenge!”
“You really think that’s how you feel?” The sword was stern. “You’re a fool.”
“What do you mean?”
“You didn’t just protect Cherry because you were ordered to,” the wand stated. “You genuinely care for him, just like you cared for your sister. You're becoming attached, Bunberry.”
Bunberry was furious. “No one can replace my sister, no one! Especially not some snot-nosed kid that… that…” Bunberry’s face fell as she realized the truth. She was lying to herself. “It’s not fair. He’s so much like her. So innocent, such a little churro. It’s hard to not want to get attached.”
“He doesn’t have to replace her. He is his own person,” the sword said, bobbing knowingly.
“Y-You’re right. Damn it, you’re right. Still, I doubt he’d want to be friends with someone like me. I’m incredibly dangerous and a loose cannon. I don’t know what I’ll do if I see that man again.”
“You’ll be fine,” the wand said. “I think Cherry is good for you. He’ll keep you stable. You didn’t just fight that man alone, after all. You called for help. You never call for help. Not even once since… you know.”
“I-I-I…” Bunberry’s words were cut off by her own thoughts.
“Well, we’ve got to be going now, be more honest with yourself, also, stop swearing so much. You never used to. You were such a kind girl.”
“There’s a lot of things I never used to do, there’s also a lot I lost. This is part of who I am now, so get used to it, you children’s cartoon reject,” Bunberry shot back.
The wand looked hurt at her words then disappeared.
“You didn’t need to be that cruel to her, Bunberry. Perhaps more time with that Cherry boy will soften some of your edges,” the sword said. Even though she knew better than to disagree, she found herself falling back into old habits.
“Excuse me there is nothin—” Bunberry’s words fell on deaf ears as she was back inside the hot tub and no longer in the void. “Typical.” She huffed, then finished her bath.
She dried herself off and headed to her closet. Once inside she was surprised to find herself clothed in something other than a girly dress and heels. Instead it was tight jeans, sneakers, a jean bolero jacket and a black top with a blueberry bunny in the middle. It was different from her usual, leaving her genuinely surprised but not displeased.
Fully dressed, she reached onto the counter and picked up a familiar photo. 4 girls and one boy were all smiling and hugging each other. It was bittersweet. With a melancholic smile she set it back down, then went out the door.
Bunberry hadn’t seen Cherry today, but she figured he’d still be in the infirmary with Dragon. Interrupting her thoughts was a young girl she hadn’t seen yet. She was quite short with pale skin, silver hair, and black eyes. Her Transformation seemed to be a bat aspect, possibly vampiric. Bunberry wasn’t sure. She also briefly wondered if this girl was an Adaption or not. And if so, did she actually want it?
“Are you Princess Bunberry?” the girl asked. Her voice was a little shrill but not in an annoying way. It was actually kind of cute, like you might hear from a little girl. Bunberry wondered how old she really was. Was she taken in at the youngest, twelve years old? She decided she’d table that for later.
“Yes, I am. What of it?” Bunberry responded.
“Oh, good. I’m supposed to be training with you. The pink dog thing said so.”
Bunberry winced at that. This kid was going to have to learn not to say things like that in Raftilia’s presence. “First off, since when am I your trainer? Second, I’d advise you to just call her boss. Not ‘pink dog thing.’ She’ll get pretty angry at you if you don’t address her right.”
“Oh, well the boss said that I’m part of someone named Cherry Sparkles’ squad? And that you also are part of it? And that you are the veteran that’ll train us?”
Bunberry ran her hand down her face in frustration. She forgot that she was now part of Cherry’s squad. Despite all that had happened, the habit of being a lone wolf hadn’t gone away overnight. “Fine, what’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Coffin Flower—woah.” Bunberry felt a jab of pity as the girl’s face flushed. The name thing could be very uncomfortable at first. “I still can’t say my name. I wonder what else it can do to me. Can it suppress my personality and make me into the perfect Umbra Girl? That’d be sooo cool!” Bunberry’s brain felt like it had hit an unexpected bump. Apparently the girl was excited, not embarrassed. But why? And why had she just described a horrifying scenario with the enthusiasm of a kid going to an amusement park?
She decided that there was no way she had heard her right and that the best thing she could do was change the subject. “Pleasure to meet you, I go by Bunberry. Now let’s go.”
Bunberry walked Coffin Flower towards the arena. She seemed to ooh and ahhh at all the training equipment and the very large training area. Bunberry felt annoyed but remembered the time she herself had felt the same. Those thoughts started to bring her down memory lane so she shelved them for later.
“Okay, how much do you know so far?”
“Literally nothing.” The girl was rather direct.
“Okay, then we’ll start with the basics. Though now I’m wondering if Dragon showed Cherry this part. He usually jumps straight into the action. Oh well, I’ll address it with him later. Close your eyes and envision your Night Crystal,” Bunberry instructed. “If you don’t know what I mean, then think of that dark crystal that Raftilia put inside your body. Focus on it. It’s a bit impossible to describe what’s going to happen after you do, but just go with it.”
Bunberry watched with amusement as the girl closed her eyes and stood still. Meeting your Night Crystal was always a bit surreal. Bunberry remembered her own words she’d said to her own Night Crystal, and grew embarrassed. It was best that she was saying this all internally, the kind of things that the Night Crystal shows you is an experience that can’t very easily be explained.
“Hey, Miss Bunberry, can you hear me?” Coffin Flower’s voice echoed in Bunberry’s mind.
“Figured out how to use the calling function, I see. Good, I like a fast learner. Also, don’t call me Miss, it’s weird.”
“Oh, would you prefer Mistress?”
“The fuck…? No. Hell no, please never call me that.”
“Okay.” Her mental voice was far too jovial. Bunberry shivered at the thoughts going through this girl’s head. “Anyway that nice Crystal taught me how to do it. It’s so kind.”
“Yeah, it does that, as long as you are good to it.” Bunberry was reminded of someone from her past, someone who had to be taught how to use the Night Crystal properly. He didn’t really appreciate it as others did.
“Yeah, I gave her—Him? It?—a hug and then it showed me how to do it. It, like, gave me this mental image and everything. Isn’t that cool?”
“Yeah, it’s definitely an interesting experience. I still can’t help but feel like a proud mother when talking to mine.”
“M-Mother?!”
“Well, it is essentially born from us, so naturally that’s probably the reason it loves us so much.” It was an unusual function of the Night Crystal, but it most definitely was at least partially sentient. It was an overwhelming experience at times, the amount of love it felt for you was immeasurable. “Anyway, I’m ending the connection.”
Bunberry severed the connection. Then watched as the girl took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
“Wow… that was… you weren’t kidding, it was indescribable.”
“Told ya. Anyway, now that’s over, let’s move on. Time for the boring part of training.”
“Okay, I’m all ears.”
Thankfully the odd girl was curious. Some Umbras were impatient to get into swinging their weapons. “Every Umbra Girl has something called a Diversion Field. The Diversion Field makes everyone that is affected by it see you as only a normal non-descript girl. They will ignore you and pretend as if you are unimportant. It doesn’t work on Luminescent the same way though, but we’ll get to that later. Also, as long as you have Night Energy to spare then it will remain active. If you use up too much Night Energy, your transformation will fall and you will lose your Diversion Field. That’s highly frowned upon, just letting you know. Raftilia might punish you if you do that.”
“P-Punish me? Really? Like how? Will she make me her servant and force me to wear a maid outfit and clean for her?” She had a dreamy look in her eyes
Bunberry was beginning to sense the pattern of the girl's odd reactions, but she still couldn't make sense of them. “Just don’t make her mad, it’s a bad idea. It’s not… whatever the hell you think it is.”
“If you say so,” Coffin Flower said glumly. But her eagerness returned a moment later. “Anyway, what is Night Energy?”
“Night Energy is the lifeblood of an Umbra Girl, it allows you to transform, use your special magick attacks, it keeps up your Diversion Field, and it keeps you alive. If your Night Energy ever fully drains, your Night Crystal explodes and essentially turns you into an atomic bomb.”
“The fuck?! How do I keep it from doing that?”
“You do good deeds, and also kill Luminescent. It’s the two most effective ways. Well, most of the time.”
“God, that’s terrifying. I’d be okay if it, like, drained my lifeforce and turned me into a human doll, but exploding? That’s definitely not desirable.”
How was that scenario any more desirable? No, Bunberry decided, she was not going to contemplate that now. Just keep going with the lesson “Oookay, next section. The Luminescent, you need to know the types.”
“Th-there’s more than one?” At least Coffin Flower seemed to be easy to distract from…whatever was going through her head.
“Yes, four in total.”
“Four?!” She was clearly taken aback. It always seemed to shock newcomers once they found out the truth of how diverse the Luminescent were. Also how much more complicated and deadly they could be.
“First is the Grunts. They are the ones that act like rabid animals. Though do not underestimate them, they can think on the fly and will look for a weakness in your defenses. Then is the Generals, the ones who are capable of that weird gurgling speech thing they do. They are smarter than the Grunts, and if found in a large quantity they are likely accompanied by a Royal. Royals are something you should never mess with. If you see one, you need to get the hell out of there immediately. They are fully capable of human form and are capable of normal speech. It’s a running theory that they absorb the memories of the people they purify and use that to mimic human speech. It’s near impossible to tell one from a normal human, but there is one way. If they talk to you, they are a Royal. Grunts and Generals can see your Diversion Field if you get close, but if you stay away it’ll fool them just like any other person. Royals, unfortunately, are immune to your Diversion Field. If a human talks to you, and your Diversion Field is up, get the fuck away from them and call for help immediately. Absolutely do not engage, you will be purified.
“Okay… and the fourth?”
“The Fourth is the Glimmering Queen herself, legend has it that only the first Umbra Girl ever saw her, and her abilities are unknown. If you somehow see her, then you must contact us immediately. If you live to tell about it.”
Coffin Flower swallowed. “Okay… that’s a lot to take in. Is there anything else?”
“Yeah, we’re getting to the more active part now. Summon your weapon.”
“Summon my what?”
“Your weapon. Just, uhh, like before, close your eyes and concentrate on it. It should appear to you, and tell you how to summon it.”
“Oh, right, okay.” She closed her eyes and suddenly four black coffin flowers shimmered onto her back. She twisted around to look at them. “Oh wow, they’re so cute. I wonder what they do.”
“That’s what we’re here to find out. Hmm, I won’t be able to train you much like this, but I can do one thing.” Bunberry wasn’t a fan of using this, but it was quite helpful when it was necessary. She walked over towards the training arena, and looked for a certain spot on the wall. Once she found it, she pressed into it and a panel came outwards. It had a big, red, cartoonish button. She pressed it then the entire Arena began to shift. The ground opened up and brought forth training dolls in the shape of the Luminescent. They also glowed a bit thanks to some LED’s.
“Oh, wow, it’s so pretty. So… what now?”
Bunberry facepalmed. “You attack them, practice using your weapon and your abilities. We need to drain your magick so you transform back. Then the real training can begin. For now, though, just attack the dummies.”
“Oh, okay.” She concentrated and suddenly bolts of light fired from the four floating coffin flowers. It seemed they were like hovering machine gun turrets. The training dummies took heavy hits, but then mysteriously healed the damage. Despite this, Coffin Flower seemed impressed by her own attacks. “Woah…”
Bunberry smiled. “Good, now try other things. See if you can move them individually, to attack multiple targets.”
Coffin Flower nodded, then attempted to do so. The turrets unfortunately seemed to only be able to focus on a single target. “I don’t think that’ll work.”
“Hmm, not like Amethyst then. That’s unfortunate, but still seems quite strong,” Bunberry mumbled to herself. “It’s fine, now, use your magick on them.”
“My magick?”
“Just close your eyes, and look for the words deep inside you.”
She closed her eyes but for a moment, then shot them wide open as her orbital spheres began to glow. “Coffin Wraith Beam!” The moment the words left her lips, her coffin flower turrets flew high into the air above the stadium, then like Voltron combined together into one large orb. In a matter of milliseconds the end of it began to glow and it fired a gigantic laser. It crashed into one of the training dummies and erupted into an explosion, devastating a handful of the puppets.“Oh wow! I did that? That was so cool! Can I do it again?”
Bunberry immediately held her arms outward. “No! You are too new, your Night Energy reserves are still too small. You can only perform that once, so make sure to make it count. Nice magick, by the way. It kicked ass.”
Coffin Flower smiled slyly. “So if I use it again, will the pink dog, or—err—the boss punish me?” She shivered with excitement.
Bunberry looked at her in horror. “No, you’ll drain your Night Crystal, and eventually explode with the force of an atomic bomb.”
“O-Oh, right, the atomic bomb thing. So that’s how it happens? If I use my magick twice?”
“That’s one way, but as I said before you can just incur it naturally, too, if you don’t replenish your Night Energy. You have to kill Luminescent, or do good deeds, or else...” She didn’t want to mention the third method as this girl might misunderstand and get herself hurt or worse.
“Okay, is there anything else? Wait… why do I feel so empty.”
“That’s your excess Night Energy leaving you. When you first transform you get a special pocket of Night Energy. Once that leaves, then you will be in danger of exploding. Think of it like training wheels on a bicycle. You get your first day of training wheels, then you have to ride your bike without them.”
“Wow, that makes a lot of sense, actually. You’re a pretty good teacher, Miss Bunberry.”
Bunberry blushed at the compliment. Was she really? Could she really be a teacher to these two? She didn’t really have much choice, at the moment. She couldn’t really fight Luminescent like this. Well, not without that anyway.
The girl yawned. Then swayed dangerously, nearly falling to the floor as the transformation faded. “That really takes a lot out of you.”
“Yeah, it does. Let’s get you to the infirmary. Cherry’ll be there. You need to meet your other teammate, after all.”
Coffin Flower seemed to perk up at the news. “Then let’s go there immediately!”
“Okay, just don’t go too fast, this cane is a pain in the ass.” Bunberry winced.
“Oh, sorry. Okay, I got an idea then.” She leaned up against Bunberry and Bunberry turned to her bewildered. “I’ll let you lean on me so you can walk easier. I’m still a bit tired, and feel a bit sore, but I can still help.”
“Oh, umm, thank you.” Bunberry had never had someone offer this before. She was quite confused, but also a little happy. Was it really possible to make friends like she had before? She wasn’t sure, so instead she decided to focus on the task at hand. “Well, let’s get going then.”
Coffin Flower helped Bunberry out of the Arena and down the hall. She seemed very focused on the task at hand, and didn’t make any more of her comments. Though even with her weird behavior she was quite kind. Bunberry knew she’d have to be careful not to judge this girl too harshly. She might say some off-putting things but there wasn’t actually anything wrong with her. She was a curious case.
After making it to the outside of the infirmary, they walked in on Cherry and Dragon making conversation. Bunberry gave a gruff ‘ahem’ and interrupted them. They turned to her and Coffin Flower.
“Cherry, good to see you. Cherry, this is Coffin Flower. Coffin Flower, this is Cherry,” Bunberry said, pointing to Cherry, then she waved to Dragon. “Also, Coffin Flower, this is Dragon. Dragon, this is Coffin Flower.”
“Nice to meet you, Coffin Flower. I’m Cherry Sparkles.” Cherry said politely and held out his hand in a feminine manner for her to shake. Coffin Flower walked over and gently took his hand in hers.
“Awww, you’re so polite and precious! Wow, you’re so young too. Are you an actual child or a transformed adult like me?”
“I was originally thirteen, almost fourteen. My birthday is in a few days. Now I’m, like, eleven, almost twelve, though.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I was twenty-five. I hope that’s not too off-putting.”
“Kid, I was in my forties before I joined this mess.” Dragon said and Coffin flower blinked twice.
“F-Forties? Wow, that must be a huge change. Also, love the tomboy look you got going on.”
Dragon’s demeanor changed. “Look, there’s something you need to understand about this place. Not everyone here is a woman or a girl. I’m a man. Call me a guy, or else.”
Bunberry immediately looked to Coffin Flower in horror, was she going to say anything?
“Normally I’d ask ‘or else what’, but... I’d never misgender someone, not even for a punishment. Though… why would you become an Umbra Girl then? Or, err, Umbra Boy in your case?”
“I was tricked, and wanted revenge. My daughter and wife were purified by a Royal. I’m did it so I can have the power to eventually bash his fucking skull in.” Dragon said, then did a double take. “Wait, did you say not even for a punishment?”
“I see. Wait, did you say the opposite of me?” Uncharacteristically, she seemed to ignore his last sentence. Bunberry noticed that she seemed genuinely concerned for the first time.
“Yeah, I’m a trans guy.” Dragon shrugged.
With that Coffin Flower’s face fell. “T-Trans guy? Why would she do this to a trans guy?” Her demeanor had taken on a dark turn. She looked unsure and uncomfortable. “Hopefully you weren’t needing to transition, right?”
“Eh, she detransitioned the hell out of me. Sucked losing those years of hormones and surgery but this power is worth it for now. At least, that’s what I tell myself anyway. I can endure this suffering for the sake of my revenge.” Dragon clenched his fists tightly.
“It’s okay, though, Mister Dragon is really nice and a kind man. He’s kinda scary sometimes, but he really means well!” Cherry said.
“Yeah yeah, Cherry, you’re going to make my face red. Stooop.” Dragon was too late, he had already blushed.
Coffin Flower remained unmoved. She looked deep in thought, horror in her eyes.
“Great, we traumatized her,” Bunberry sighed. “Anyway, Dragon, are you feeling better? Coffin Flower has exhausted her excess Night Energy. She will need to rest a bit.”
“Yeah, I can do it. Here, kid, lean on me. I’ll get you into bed.” Dragon said. Coffin Flower, however, refused to look him in the eye. Not like she hated him, but more as if she had wronged him in some way. Regardless, he picked her up with ease and helped her onto a bed, then got back into his own. “Damn that stupid quick portal. Should be okay tomorrow, at least.”
“It’s good to see you again, Bunberry. Dragon was teaching me girly stuff. Was my handshake good?” Cherry asked, and Dragon nodded.
Bunberry was confused. “Girly stuff? Why was he doing that?”
“I… umm, decided I want to try out being a girl. Not because of my body or anything but just because I never really knew what my gender was. I don’t know if I’m a boy or a girl or something else. I’m confused so I want to test stuff.”
“I see. Okay, I guess I’ll try to call you that.” Inwardly Bunberry’s mind was a mess, despite her confident tone. Was Cherry really just a replacement for her dead sister? She shook her head to get rid of the intrusive thoughts. Right now she needed to be supportive to Cherry, no matter what he—no, she said she was.
“Dragon told me his life story too. It was really sad.”
Bunberry was taken aback. “You told her your story?!”
“Yeah, kid really was confused about her gender and asked me how I knew mine so I told her. Kinda hard to explain it without, ya know.”
“I see, that makes sense.” Bunberry gave a deep sigh, she wondered if she should do the same. One part of her didn’t want to, the other part wanted to tell everything. Both sides of her bit at each other like ravenous wolves. It felt like ages of war in her head, but was only a matter of seconds in real time when a victor was finally crowned. “Since you’re going to be here another night, Cherry, maybe I should give my own. I am going to be your instructor and it might give you some insight into what goes on here.”
“Really?! You’ll tell me your story.” Cherry’s demeanor changed to an excited little girl. The side of Bunberry that won smiled.
Coffin Flower was roused from her stupor and turned over towards them. “Story? Did someone say story?”
“Bunberry, you sure about this? It might not be a good idea for a kid to hear about that,” Dragon warned.
“Maybe hearing the whole story will help them understand just how dangerous this all is.”
“Okay, go on, I’ll keep quiet.” Dragon said, and was silent.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you both but just let me explain it, don’t interrupt at all. Got it?”
“Don’t worry, I’m a good listener.” Coffin Flower said.
“Me too! I’m so excited, I can’t wait to hear how you became so cool!” Cherry said excitedly.
Bunberry’s face turned sad at her words. “Well, then I guess we better start at the beginning. It started in a small human settlement in California…”
Chapter 11: The Birth of the Umbra Knight Part 1
“It was hard being the leader of my squad. I wasn’t a commander, I was just a sixteen year old girl with no training whatsoever. Most of my teammates were older than me, the only exception being that cute little girl. I still felt a bit bad, being adapted at twelve years old and being turned into a ten year old must have been so hard. She felt like a younger sister to me, I’d do anything to protect her.”
It started in a small human settlement in California. It wasn’t a particularly large settlement, in fact it was quite small and unnoticeable at the time. The Luminescent seemed more focused on the major cities for the first few years, so it was largely unnoticed. It was a far cry from where I was when the Coming of the Light happened.
My family had fled our original home, putting a sudden end to my brief attempt to study Chemistry in college. I lived with my little sister, mother, and father. We had a nice little home, it was small, and my sister and I had to share a bedroom, but it was where we lived. What was that saying, ‘home is where the heart is?’ Sure it wasn’t sustainable, none of our situation was, but we still tried our best to survive.
You remind me of my sister, Cherry. Her name was Aricella and she was the sweetest girl in the world. She was so innocent, and kind. She was also born male but was really female on the inside. Though I guess that’s more like Princess Kittenberry, as she’s more firm on that. I’m sorry. I’m not trans, and I’m not the best at this.
Anyway, there were only eight families living there, including my own. It was hard to even call it a settlement, it was more like a church picnic at best. It was a pretty simple set up, we had a butcher, a carpenter, a tailor, and a mayor. We also sort of had a doctor—technically a nurse who was just starting pre med before everything went to hell. She hadn’t finished her training but she did do her best.
The way the village—if you could call it that—survived, though, was the butcher, mostly. He was extremely good at cooking and making sure meats were free of any poison or bacteria. I suspected he may have been a professional chef before the Coming of the Light. He couldn’t really do his job, though, without volunteers for the Hunt. Which really just meant we went out into the wild, found some animals, killed them and brought them to the butcher to feed the town with.
”This time I had volunteered to go on a hunt. No one protested, we didn’t really have rules separating genders or queer people or any of that nonsense. If anyone helped the settlement they didn’t care what you were, because the entire settlement focused on only one thing. Survival. I went with my then best friend. She was paler than a ghost with blonde hair, and the kindest emerald green eyes you’d ever seen. She was a hard worker, worked harder than any of the boys, and was very good with weapons. Secretly, I admired her. I was nowhere near as strong as I am now, but I was very good at tracking. My father was an outdoorsman, and even though I hated his lessons as a little girl, after everything that’s happened I am extremely grateful.
With my tracking skills I was able to locate three fully matured Columbian black-tailed bucks, which would hopefully feed us for a while. I also found a few rabbits but lied and said I didn’t see any. I really liked rabbits and couldn’t bear to eat any. An incredibly stupid thing to do when you think about it but, well, at the time I was really adverse to eating or killing small creatures, especially rabbits.
We set out for our trek home. It’d only be about twenty minutes, but halfway in, just as we were about to exit the forest. I spotted another buck, this time a Californian mule deer. My friend didn’t seem to notice and continued to pull the cart with me. I should have just left well enough alone. I should have been happy with the three bucks we had. Hunting on its own was dangerous, but if you saw a Luminescent you were done for. It wasn’t wise to risk it, but we’d never caught four in a single trip before. I could only think of how proud of us everyone would be. I called it out to my friend and said we should get it and she was all too happy for another triumph. It only took her about five minutes to kill it. Five seemingly insignificant minutes. Five minutes that changed our life.
We were loading our cart when we heard her. That sweet and melodious southern belle voice. I’ll never forget it.
“That looks like quite a lot of food. Would you mind giving some to me?” The voice came from behind us. It was sweet and melodious but also had just a pinch of venom. The voice belonged to a young woman with dark skin, the strangest lilac eyes, and snow white hair tied in twin tails. She wore a frilly cream dress with a knee length multi tiered skirt, which was under a brown multi tiered overdress that was decorated with faux gold lace on each tier. Holding it all together was a brown double belted corset, pulled tight to give her a slim waist. Brown fingerless gloves, white stockings, and brown boots with golden buckles finished the rest of her outfit. It was completely impractical for the woods, and looked like something out of an anime or video game. Growing up in the settlement, I’d never seen such opulent fashion in person. Stranger still was her most defining feature; her teeth were all canines, like some kind of shark. I wasn’t sure how it happened, probably some kind of birth defect caused by inbreeding was my thought at the time.
“Uhh, sorry, this is for our settlement. We’re a bit low on resources, miss,” I said, my voice lacking confidence.
She looked at our load. “Do you really need that much? Can you not even spare a single leg?”
“Look, lady, we’re barely surviving as is. Surely you can go find your own food,” my friend remarked.
She tsked, and shook her head. “A pity. You two seemed like such reasonable girls. I do so hate being disappointed.” She held out her hands, and a yo-yo as large as a person’s head appeared in them. “Mother ordered me to purify all in this area. Now that I know such a selfish town exists, I will do so, gladly.”
“Who are you?!” I was freaking out. What could she mean by purify? She couldn’t be a Luminescent, could she? I’d seen a Luminescent only once, when we had escaped our first home. They looked like some kind of weird dinosaur, nothing like this woman. Well, of course, as you know I was wrong. Royals aren’t really public knowledge, however.
“My name is Lampina Allbright, daughter of the Glimmering Queen.” Her words sent a shiver through me. “And you have been most inhospitable.”
She let her yo-yo down by its string. She began to twirl it, so fast that it seemed to form a blurry ring around her arm. She threw it outwards and it completely destroyed a nearby boulder. A demonstration of her strength, I suppose. After retracting it back, she turned towards me, and let it fly. I closed my eyes. Would there even be anything recognizable left of me? A second passed, then another. Realizing nothing had happened I opened my eyes to find something I never expected; a teenage girl with long teal hair in twin tails hanging behind her clashing against the yo-yo with a sword made of black ice. The most unusual thing, though, was that she had fae-like wings. She was wearing an outfit I’d never seen before that was called a hanbok, a traditional Korean garment. It had a short teal jeogori with translucent sleeves and snowflake embroidery, then a high waisted light blue chima with snowy dust as its pattern. On her feet were teal beoseon socks with a snowflake embroidered at the top, and light blue gomusin. It was beautiful to behold.
“You will not harm those girls, Royal. Leave now of your own will, or meet your end.” Her voice was heavily accented. It was obvious English was not her first language.
“What makes you think I’ll just back down? You think I care what you think, just because you’re an Umbra Girl?” The southern cosplayer said. It had finally clicked inside of me, of course the newcomer was an Umbra Girl. She had an unusual outfit, unusual powers, and an unusual physical appearance.
“My name is Ice Dust. I am one of the First Squadron. I have killed far stronger than you. Leave now and I may consider sparing your life.” She spoke with commanding authority. If I had been a Luminescent, I’d have been peeing my pants.
The girl seemed to grow afraid at the mention of her name. “F-Fine… let that awful town and those awful people continue to starve their fellow humans with their own greed.” The shark-mouthed girl turned her tail between her legs, then ran into a glowing yellow portal that appeared behind her. I was in awe, just the mention of this girl’s name had sent shivers down that monster's spine.
A dark portal opened up behind her, and I watched as a little pink dog on two legs walked out, its paws behind its back. I nearly squealed, it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
“Ice Dust, what happened here? I smell the scent of a female Royal, but I don’t see her anywhere.” The dog speaking definitely caught me off guard. I had seen a lot of things in my lifetime but talking dogs were not among them.
“She fled. I was busy protecting these people.” She responded.
“Am I drunk or something? Is that dog talking?” my friend asked. I nodded.
“Oh, right, humans. Though, this could be an opportunity.” Her cute little face suddenly took on a sinister quality.
“Opportunity?” I asked.
“Yes, how would you like the power to fight back against the Luminescent?”
“Power, to fight back?” I asked. I thought of that girl and how she had single handedly defeated the Luminescent without even trying. “Absolutely!”
“Wait, are you… are you the Goddess Raftilia?” The legend of Raftilia the Goddess who created the Umbra Girls was spread far and wide. Supposedly no one had ever seen her. Hell, no one I knew even knew anyone who had even seen an Umbra Girl, but everyone knew stories about how they fought tirelessly against the Luminescent and how Raftilia created and guided them.Though, I admit at the time I didn’t expect the Goddess to be a dog. That was a shocker.
Her eyebrows raised. “Yes, I am. Do you want the power, or not?”
The rumors said she recruited young girls to join the Umbra Girls, so I was a little surprised that I met the requirements, but my confusion was quickly replaced with excitement and possibility. I could protect my family! My friends!
“Yes, a thousand times yes! We would love to join the Umbra Girls!”
“Good, let me see if you are worthy.” Her third eye opened up, and scanned me and it was just as invasive as you all know. I still shiver at the thought of how deep she scanned my entire being, my entire soul. Then she did the same to my friend. Afterwards she jumped up and down and did a little dance, it was … adorable. “This is wonderful! Two in one day? What wonderful news! Ice Dust, go on ahead and tell Lamp Flower they’ll be arriving.”
“Of course, Raftilia, I'll let them know,” she said solemnly. I later asked her why she was so silent during this. Why she didn’t warn us. She explained it was unwise to stop the recruitment process for Raftilia. Besides, she had always seen being an Umbra as preferable to being a normal girl. I guess most people would after what she had been through.
“We’re gonna be Umbra Girls? Omigod!” I was so excited, and I jumped up happily and hugged my friend. She nearly picked me up with her own strength and swung me around. Our celebration, however, was interrupted with an ‘ahem’ from Raftilia.
“All you have to do is shake my paw and then the deal will be sealed.” She held out her paw to each of us, I shook it immediately, my friend following a moment later. The shock was unexpected, I wasn’t even sure what had happened. I thought it was static electricity. “You’re going to feel a bit of nausea, and some minor discomfort. You probably will lose consciousness. Don’t worry, this is completely normal. See you soon.”
As the dark portal swallowed us, what I felt was definitely not ‘minor’ discomfort. It was agonizing pain. Mercifully it ended with me passing out in the darkness. When we woke up together, I found I wasn’t even afraid. I was so excited. After our Ceremony—of which I don’t need to go into the details I’m sure—I couldn’t wait to get out into the field. Oh wait, why is my name Princess Bunberry instead of Princess Rabbitberry or Princess Bunnyberry? Raftilia explained the reason is that the most popular term for rabbits in human media was to call them simply buns. It was a bit silly but luckily she never heard the one my mother used to call rabbits, because Princess B-N-U-U-Y berry would have been hella awkward and impossible to pronounce.
I made a secret promise to myself while I slept. I promised that like Ice Dust, my name would strike fear into the hearts of the Luminescent. If only I had known that simple, careless wish would have doomed me to a life of suffering, because it would come true and it would cost… everything.
The birth of the Umbra Knight part 2
“We went to the Recreational Room and had a blast. I’m still feeling anxious, though. Being in charge of so many people and their lives in my hands is frightening. The calm lady, the thirty year old one, who is named Fluffy Ruby, is helping me. She gave me some pointers on how to stay calm, which helped when working with Dragon. He was that man I mentioned, though he wasn’t really an adaption since he was transgender, I think he said? Something about being born female? I didn’t really get it, he seemed like a normal guy to me. Though I had to be careful as he went off the rails a lot so Fluffy’s training on keeping myself serene helped a lot. Also the arcade. He really liked the arcade. The super old lady, though, her name was Lamp Flower and she was a doctor, like a real life doctor. And her magick could heal people. It was so cool. Then there was that little girl, Princess Kittenberry, she had a really weird Trait but was sooo cute I couldn’t be mad at her. Lastly there’s Coarse Amethyst, who really seemed smitten with Kittenberry, talking to her like a big sister to a little sister. I felt a little jealous but apparently there was room for two sisters, Kittenberry said so herself. It was adorable. I was so glad everyone was starting to get along.”
Wait, did Coffin Flower fall asleep? Well, that makes sense. Not even sure how she held on that long. Anyway, back to the story. After I woke up and got a good look at myself in the mirror, I was shocked to see just how much I had changed. I looked far younger, I had blonde hair now and blue eyes. I saw I was still wearing that blueberry-inspired lolita dress I had gained when I transformed. I poked my rabbit ears and they moved like real ears. I tried to find my actual ears but they were gone. After that I was called down to Lamp Flower’s infirmary. I went there and was surprised to see another girl there. She had green hair and green eyes. Not only that but wolf ears and a wolf tail. She wore black mary janes with green bubble engraving on the sides, black tights with green bubbles on the sides to match the mary janes. She had a large ankle length black dress with green bubbles embroidered along on the hem. I realized she was Green Bubbles, and she realized I was Princess Bunberry. We embraced each other and giggled with ecstasy, we were Umbra Girls now. We couldn’t wait to get out into the field. I will say, though, finding out I was going to go through puberty a second time wasn’t my idea of fun. Luckily it’d just be the tail end as I wasn’t a late bloomer when I was still human. You didn’t realize? Cherry, we aren’t human anymore, we’re Umbra Girls. We heal far faster physically and mentally than a human can. We also can eat any food and not get sick or gain weight. I thought it would have been obvious. Continuing on.
Lamp Flower examined us and told us we were perfectly healthy and fit, and that our instructor was going to be Ice Dust. I couldn’t have been more happy. I wanted to learn everything about her, and she obliged to a degree. She was force fed Christianity from near birth, her parents even ensured she only went to private Christian schools. Despite the submissiveness they’d try to force on girls, she fought back and refused to be told to back down or to act like a good girl. Her refusal to be a cog in their machine meant they offered her no protection when other students bullied her. She tried to tell her parents but they only said it was for the best that she continued going to that school.
The only times she really enjoyed herself were when her parents would let her visit relatives in South Korea. She loved it there, and hyper absorbed their culture, their manner of dress, and their beliefs. She cast away Christianity as easily as you would an ill fitting shirt. I imagine even if she’d been taught by good Christians—the kind that actually were like the Jesus they preached about—she’d still have done the same. Her spirit was in Korea, and it died a little every time they brought her back. It got worse in high school when she discovered she was a lesbian. The church her parents forced her to attend was informed of her attraction to other girls and tailored sermons on how evil and horrible gay people were. It only made her gayer, however, which increased the amount of bullying she received.
Things should have gotten better when she finally graduated, but her parents insisted on her going to a Christian college. She felt pressured and listened. When the college was the exact same, she felt more of her spirit wither inside. She was given salvation when she was 19 years old, and the Coming of the Light occurred. Her relatives in Korea warned her about what was going on, but America largely tried to shut it down as rumors for the first few months… until it came to America too.
They thought their technology would save them, assuming their high powered weaponry could stop the Luminescent. They were wrong. Their bullets, their bombs, even their nukes did nothing to them. It looked bleak for the world, until Raftilia arrived and created the first Umbra Girls. Ice Dust’s college was one of the first places Raftilia found. She barely escaped purification, and Raftilia recruited her. It was the best thing to happen to her. It was dangerous, yes, but she was free to be herself in a way she only felt in Korea.
Next, she told us about the First Squadron, and what it was like working with the greatest Umbra Girl to ever live, Pink Sparkles. Yes, Cherry, she was a Sparkle like you. She also was the first Umbra Girl. To date there have only been four Sparkles, including you. As you can see, they are incredibly rare, which makes you very special.
After learning about her we were eager to get into training. She gave us the same spiel everyone gets: About the four types of Luminescent, the Diversion Field and how it works, your magick shield, about our Night Crystal and how to communicate with other Umbra Girls, and lastly how to summon our weapon and our magick. Though one thing we didn’t understand was that your first transformation gave you an excess amount of energy, and that energy had to be released or there would be devastating consequences. It’s why you usually get your ass beat, or you just use all your magick at once like you did, Cherry. Either way, Ice Dust wanted us to learn, so she told us to take her two on one. We thought we could win. We were very very wrong. Green Bubbles' weapon was a gigantic green axe that trailed green bubbles as she swung it and my wand was able to shoot bunny-shaped projectiles. We thought we had her beat. Greeny would tank her, and I’d shoot her from a distance. We were quickly shown just how much difference it made to be an Umbra Girl of her calibur. Her weapon was black ice, and she could create it from any liquid. Even the sweat on your body or the condensation in the air. We didn’t stand a chance. She easily defeated us, without even using her Magick.
After our energy was depleted we were put into Lamp Flower’s infirmary to rest. When we woke up we were given quite the news. A new girl had been recruited while we slept. We didn’t know her name but we were to meet her in the training room. We were super excited, as I would have put it then, and rushed to the training room as fast as possible. What we were greeted with was an otherworldly beauty. Her long sparkling silver hair and clear sparkling eyes accentuated her already gorgeous features. An adorable nose, high cheekbones, vanilla ice cream toned skin. She looked like something out of a fantasy novel.
Her dress was an elaborate silver gothic lolita dress with sparkling diamonds sewn along the hem. She had sparkling diamond slippers with sparkly hosiery. Lastly her animal aspect manifested itself as a sparkling silver lizard tail.
I was enamored by this girl but after a quick conversation with her I realized that she wasn’t who she appeared to be. In fact she wasn’t a she at all, it would be the first time I’d ever heard of the term Adaption. She was a guy, and he was pissed. While I later learned some Adaptions loved their new life, this most definitely wasn’t true of Diamond Sparkles.
When it came time for him to get his tutorial, he made a grave error. He referred to Ice Dust in a racist and misogynistic manner. It made us all angry. But Ice Dust—it made her furious. She decided to put him in his place. First she made him pull out his weapon, giving a quick lesson on that. He pulled out a sword made of golden energy, which was kind of frightening given what the Luminescent used, but it wasn’t quite the same color. I’d later learn all Sparkles had golden colored weapons, same as you, Cherry.
Once he was ready she cut off any escape he could have with jagged black ice, but he scoffed at it. He challenged her by saying she couldn’t touch him if she gave him a fair fight. That he, after all, was the best fighter of his human settlement. She obliged, and formed her own sword, promising to not use any more than that. He might have been a good fighter as a human, but as an Umbra, he was barely a novice. She danced around him with an elegance I’d only ever seen in anime. She was fast, far faster than he could handle. She also was strong, there was nothing he could do to stop her. After he had been defeated, she made him use his magick on her. He was all too happy to. It was called Diamond Eradication Beam. He fired off a gigantic beam of white light that split into four other beams, all hell bent on converging on her. She formed black ice around her and created several funnels, and turned his own beams at him. He screamed as his consciousness was ended by his own attack.
After he’d been taken to the infirmary, I asked her how she was given such a strong weapon when mine seemed so weak in comparison, but she revealed that it wasn’t always that powerful. That originally she could only create small icicles. It was the killing of Luminescent that helped her grow more powerful. Given she was an Umbra girl for the past five years, she had killed a lot of Luminescent.
After that I went to Raftilia and asked her if she could make my sister an Adaption. I would have loved for her to become an Umbra Girl too, I even fantasized of all the things we could do together. She went there and gave me the bad news. My sister was unworthy, which meant she couldn’t become an Umbra Girl. It was impossible to tell what made someone unworthy—Raftilia never shares what criteria she uses to measure the potential of an Umbra Girl—but even if I couldn’t help her, I resolved to become the best Umbra Girl I could be so I could protect her.
The next day, our final member of our squad was given the Ceremony, her name was Sunny Dust. She was an Adaption, just like Diamond Sparkles, though she was the opposite of him. He hated being an Adaption and she felt like her wish from when she was a child had come true. While he moped around she was a little ray of sunshine. She saw the best in everyone and always had a smile. No matter what happened to her, she’d always try to find a silver lining. I don’t think I’ll ever forget her smile.
Her transformation aspect was a pair of monkey ears and a monkey tail. She was very energetic, and always moving around while her tail bounced behind her. It was cute, just like she was. Princess Kittenberry might have had competition with her if… nevermind. Her outfit, though, was so stereotypically anime that I loved her even more. She had white platform shoes with suns crumbling into dust motifs on the sides. White thigh highs with little dust suns on them adorned her legs. She had a yellow three tiered mini skirt, with a white top with a large dust sun on it. She had white gloves with dust suns on the ends. Lastly her hair was tied in twin tails with little dust sun clips. Despite how adorable and sweet she was, her weapon was a double barreled shotgun. Which is kinda interesting considering Kittenberry’s weapons are also firearms.
After our team had been fully put together, Raftilia told me I was best suited to be the leader. Diamond seemed a bit hurt by that, but supported me regardless. I wasn’t sure at first if I could do it but I felt with the power of love, friendship, and justice, I could do anything. That was a theme for me, I felt as if this world was just like the anime I loved. That everything could be solved with those three things.
Our first mission was a little sloppy but we still were able to get through it with no issues or purification scars. That increased my optimism. I attributed it to my mantra and we continued to get missions. I became a better leader, and in what felt like no time at all, we fought our first Royal. He was a bastard named Brighton Allbright, and we luckily stopped him before he fully purified the poor woman, but honestly…we should have let him finish. The lower half of her jaw was purified. She couldn’t talk as her body no longer registered that she had the capacity to do so. Not only that she had no way to eat food, and would slowly starve to death. It was a horrifying existence but, mercifully, a Luminescent General took her out. It was one of the first times I saw the real horror that purification could accomplish. The next worst we saw was someone who could speak but was missing the upper half of their head. Watching someone calling out for the daughter they couldn’t see, while their mouth continued to voice the words of an absent brain was utterly unsettling.
After we wore him down and cornered him, he told us he was going to transform. Or he would have had Diamond not used his ‘Diamond Eradication Beam’ to blow his head off. It shocked me a little but I realized it was a logical course of action. Why would you ever let your enemy power up or transform? Only an idiot or a fool would do that.
Raftilia was overjoyed, but she was quick to remind us that Pink Sparkles was far more powerful than we could ever dream, and if we wanted to reach her level, we’d have to work even harder. That only fired up Diamond even more. He wanted to surpass her, to become the strongest Umbra. Our goals being similar led us to talking one time. He told me about his home and what he had been through. He’d been living in what could only be described as a cult. It was why he had his horrible beliefs, but over time he had learned that he was wrong. The more time he spent with me, Sunny Dust and Ice Dust. He really grew as a person. He formally apologized to Ice Dust and to Sunny Dust for any racist remarks he made. He especially apologized to me, which I found odd, but he explained that he had horrible racist thoughts towards me. I didn’t really believe in thought crimes but thanked him for realizing that wasn’t good. Then called his father a fool saying Latin women were ugly because I was the most beautiful girl he’d ever met. It was strange hearing him say that, given our new ages, but maybe some of the Ceremony had adjusted our brains to be more like the teenagers we now were. Or maybe it was hormones, but either way… I fell for him. I told him about my hopes and dreams, about my family back on the settlement, and how I was worried about them. He didn’t seem to understand about my sister, it was something he really struggled with but he was respectful around me. I guess having his own body changed didn’t help, as it gave him immense mental anguish.
Sunny Dust though was the one who came up with the name I now called him, Diam. It sounded more masculine since Diamond felt too girly to him, and he was satisfied to be called it. Especially by me. I never told him she came up with it though, I wish I had. He gave me his own name too, Little Bunny Froo Froo. I wasn’t sure what that meant but he said it was a song he remembered from his childhood. He couldn’t quite remember how it ended though.
The months felt like a blur, we’d fought so many Luminescent without a single scratch. Our squad seemed unbeatable, Raftilia had such high hopes for us. Not only that, but my relationship with Diam deepened. We made it official, and the girls were super happy for us and gave their blessing. The only issue I really had was that he constantly fretted over his female body. I couldn’t blame him, though, and I always reassured him that I was only into men, which is true, and that his body didn’t matter. To me he was incredibly manly. That wasn’t a lie, either. I really felt attracted to his masculinity, even if his body wouldn’t normally be described as such.
We kept getting victory after victory, our squad had more victories than even Sunshine Sparkle’s group. The only ones we were second to was Pink Sparkles, but that was a given. She was legendary. That didn’t stop him or me, we knew we were going to be the best we could possibly be. Which… unfortunately led to the one time I made my greatest mistake.
Given my status as a berry I was allowed to go out whenever I pleased, Diam was given the same permissions but he rarely went out alone. I was hungry for power and continued to throw myself into mission after mission, reasoning that I couldn’t succeed in my endeavors without more power. Unfortunately refusing to rest was an error in judgment that would cost me everything I ever loved.
I got sick, or the closest thing an Umbra Girl can get to being sick. Over exhaustion from too many outings. My poor Night Crystal was overworked and I had to rest. The day I rested, Diam and Green went out for a mission at Raftilia’s behest. A mission that ended my belief in those three words. Sunny Dust was away, Raftilia had her assisting another squad. And I was in bed. I could have been there with them but I wasn’t and… they were left alone. The alarms blared in the base, a new Royal had been born. This one, though… wasn’t like the others. It didn’t seek to just purify, sometimes it would torture its victims too. When I saw what was left of Green Bubbles… I hated myself, if I had been there then maybe they wouldn’t have lost the fight. To make matters worse, there was no sign of Diam. He’d likely been purified.
I was beyond upset. I wanted to avenge them, I wanted to bring the one named Lucid Allbright down. I brought Sunny Dust along to a mission and my prayers were answered. It was supposed to be a simple mission but somehow he was there. After we destroyed the last of the Luminescent he stepped into the light and said how happy he was to see us. Especially me… he called me Little Bunny Froo Froo. I knew then that he had purified Diam and absorbed his memories. Just like all the other Royals had done to other poor souls.
Sunny and I charged at him, and I thought I could avenge Diam. I started to believe in the power of love, friendship, and justice again. We were overpowering him, Sunny Dust with her intense firepower, and me with my staff. We thought we’d won. We were wrong. He was just toying with us. To prove his point he slammed me into the wall, breaking my magick shield and ending any hope I had of stopping him… by breaking my legs. My Trait will let me fight on, even if I’m purified, but it doesn’t work for physical injuries. Then he grabbed Sunny Dust and he threw her down. I begged him to stop. He decided to make her suffer, he applied the pressure slowly, cracking at her magick shield until it shattered. Then… he didn’t stop, he didn’t even try to purify her, he just continued applying pressure. She kept saying it was okay, someone would save us, everything was going to be okay. After thirty seconds of this she started begging him to stop, as he applied more pressure. The pain must have been excruciating for her as she cried in agony. Then he stopped as a portal opened up, and I thought maybe she was right, maybe there was hope. But he stomped down on her head, popping it like a hammer smashing a watermelon. I’ll never forget that horrifying visage, her eyeballs falling out of their socket, the explosion of brain matter, flesh, and bone. And the blood… so much blood. I knew then that love, friendship, and justice were all bullshit. We just got lucky. There was always a bigger fish and we learned that the hard way. Lamp Flower healed my legs, but for Sunny Dust Raftilia could only hold a Last Rites. Lamp Flower could fix many things, but what had been done to Sunny Dust was not one of the things she was capable of curing.
After I watched the Last Rites and saw Sunny’s Night Crystal and body disintegrate, I didn’t want to be an Umbra Girl anymore. I’d rather have exploded than ever go on another mission. Raftilia took note of this and gave me mercy. She told me she could freeze my Night Crystal, which meant that it wouldn’t explode because I wouldn’t have access to my powers. Though she told me if I ever needed them it would unfreeze, but she could never freeze it again. I agreed to her terms and she dropped me off at my parents. Luckily the settlement that I had started at still stood. My sister was now thirteen years old. It took a bit to explain who I was to my parents, but my sister, she knew right away. I don’t know how, but she did, she really was special even if she wasn’t worthy.
For a few months, everything was fine. I had gotten back into a routine of being just a normal girl. I reconnected with my sister and my parents and started to heal a little from the horrific experience I had gone through. Things seemed to be going good, it’d been a month or two since the tragedy had occurred. I thought I’d finally gotten away, but I was wrong. So very wrong.
The Luminescent came but acted erratically. They marched past all the houses, not even harming anyone in their way. They had one goal in mind, my home. As their master had commanded them. Once they were in view, I tried to hide with my sister and parents, but there wasn’t time. The door exploded and Lucid Allbright walked in. He said he’d been dying to see me, that he missed me and wondered where I’d been? When I asked how he knew where I was, he said a little lizard told him. I realized he had learned of my location through Diam’s memories. Diam really was gone. He didn’t purify me. I thought he would but instead he did something worse. He tied me to a chair, going on about how I was being held back from my true potential. Then he made me watch… as he purified both of my parents. I screamed and begged him to take me instead, but he ignored me. Then he grabbed my sister, and I closed my eyes, afraid of what he might do. He reached over to me, and held my eye open with his thumb and forefinger. Then with his other hand he slowly purified my sister in front of me. Starting with her feet all the way up to her head. I screamed, and he let me go. He was disappointed in me, he said, that I should be grateful. With a sigh he left in a golden portal, but not before ordering his two generals to get rid of the evidence. As they approached, I was terrified, I’d lost everything, my friends, my lover, my family, and now I was going to lose my life.
As the final claw came for my head something awoke in me. I wasn’t going to go down just yet, it wasn’t my time. I felt my power return and I was covered in the cocoon once more. I felt my wand in my hand again, though it had changed a little. It looked almost more like a mace. I gripped it tightly and smashed the head in of the General in front of me, then with a swift upward smack I knocked the other one on the ground. I walked over to them, rage in my heart and soul, and smashed both of them until they vanished in a flash of light. That day I learned a secret, killing Luminescent wasn’t the only method to gain Night Energy, making them suffer worked too.
I called for a portal. I had nothing left here. From then on, my weapon began to change. It turned from the wand I was accustomed to to the sword you’ve seen me with. My outfit also changed, armored plates decorated my dress, further alienating me from the other Umbra Girls. There is a price for using the third method of torturing them too much, but I relished it. I spent the next few months learning how to use my new weapon, and becoming more in tune with my Night Crystal. I slammed myself into more and more Luminescent, but this time alone. I felt nothing like before, I felt no love, no friendship, no justice, only pure unfettered rage. I didn’t see myself as an Umbra Girl anymore, I was something more vicious, more cruel. So I called myself the Umbra Knight and the Luminescent began to fear that name.
Raftilia was grateful for my growth but she was worried about the direction I was heading, so she assigned Ice Dust to work with me. It was nice to see my old mentor. If it had been anyone else it wouldn’t have worked, but she was able to convince me to go with her. I went on a few missions with her, and I almost felt my heart softening a little. She was a very kind woman, and she pushed me to be more sociable.
One month after we had started working together we were called for a mission. It was a pretty simple task, two batches of Luminescent, about ten each. I took the ten on the left which was out in a forest and she took the ten on the right which was in what looked to be a cave. I finished mine quite easily and tried to contact Ice Dust but she didn’t respond. Fearing the worst I rushed into the cave. Fresh lamps lit the cave signaling some humans had recently been here. They must have thought there would be materials in the cave, likely to help rebuild their settlement or one of the few surviving machines. They were rare but some were still workable with a little bit of work. Given the glowing craters on the ground they only found purification. The cavern had some beautiful crystals but nothing that looked too valuable. I wondered why they had risked their lives for something like this. As I went further in I began to hear arguing, then fighting. I rushed towards the source to see Ice Dust fighting with a bizarre-looking Royal. She wore a fluffy knee length pink dress with no socks or shoes. She had translucent butterfly-like wings, pink hair, and pink eyes. It was like she wasn’t even trying to hide that she was a Luminescent. The thing that concerned me the most was the terrifying scythe she held. It was made entirely of flashing pink and gold energy. Not only that but Ice Dust had gone level 2. Her jeogori was sprinkled with ice dust just like her chima. Her twin tails now had two teal ice dusted ribbons, and her hair itself was dusted with ice.
From what I could see they were having a conversation while fighting, but I couldn’t quite make it out. The only thing I could make out was that it looked like Ice Dust was an even match for her. I thought maybe my help could turn the tide.
I contacted her through my Night Crystal, asking her if she needed help. She turned to me horrified and told me internally to leave. Unfortunately the Royal noticed where she was looking and spotted me. Without so much as a warning she was just gone, and then appeared right in front of me. Like she could just walk through spacetime as she pleased. She looked me in the eyes and then looked at Ice Dust and said. “Is this the one holding you back from understanding our plans?”
Ice Dust quickly created a Black Ice slide out of her weapon, and made her way towards me at incredible speeds. She landed in front of me and brandished twin ice daggers. “Get away from her!”
The Royal brandished her scythe and looked at her and then at me. “Why can’t you understand? What we are doing is helping this world.”
“There is nothing good about what you are doing to humanity. Die, Luminescent scum!” She attacked with a flurry of ice daggers, but most of them seemed to just go through the Royal instead of making direct contact. It was like she could phase herself in and out of this physical plane. Her powers were terrifying, but I knew I had to help, or at least I thought I did. I had no idea just how out of my league I was. I charged, and she struck me. It only took a single hit and my magick shield was shattered. Not only that, but my transformation dropped. Somehow she’d just nullified all my defenses and undid my transformation. I was completely helpless.
“I guess there’s only one way to get you to listen.” She vanished, then reappeared high above the ceiling, then snapped her fingers. Countless Luminescent emerged from deeper in the caves, roaring in fury. There must have been thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands. “Do you understand now how futile this is?”
“There is no futility in love, justice, and friendship!” Ice Dust spat at her, putting extra emphasis on friendship. It reminded me of my own beliefs. Had Ice Dust felt the same way? Did she suffer a similar tragedy and yet kept true to her ideals? Then she spoke to me inwardly: “I called for Blue Bubbles, a portal will be here soon, stay strong. I’ll protect you.”
“Foolish. Purify them, starting with the weak one. I’m leaving,” she ordered then disappeared in a flash of golden light. The Luminescent looked in my direction, then charged. I backed myself into a corner, hoping to get away, praying for Blue Bubbles to give us that exit portal.
Ice Dust put herself in front of me, as swirling ice dust gathered around her and into her hands. “ICE KINDNESS LASER!” she screamed. From out of her hands erupted a massive cold laser. The Luminescent in front of her were blasted away but more kept coming. Her energy increased in intensity as I realized she was not stopping. Hundreds of Luminescent were falling to her beam but they continued charging, and she continued her assault. Her magick never faltered, it stayed strong and continuously fired, killing any Luminescent that approached. She kept up the beam as they started to try to crawl around it. For some reason they couldn’t just dig and take us, I never understood why. It might have been that particular cavern, perhaps it was made of a material that the Luminescent feared. Normally they could dig through the ground as if they were swimming through the water. I never got to learn why, however, because Ice Dust didn’t stop using her spell. I could see the strain on her body and I begged her to stop but she continued. When finally we were given a portal, she looked at me with sad eyes… as dark electricity encompassed her being. She told me: “I’m glad I was able to save you...” Her body began to glow with dark energy, I realized she was about to explode. I begged her to stop, but it was too late, she had used up all her magick, and more Luminescent were pouring in. She stopped her spell, then pushed me in a portal as she said one last thing: “Bunberry… I’m sorry… please forgive me.”
I knew then it was my fault. She exploded and destroyed the entire cavern and everywhere around it within a two mile radius. If we hadn't gone there together, she'd have won the fight with that Royal. Me being there is what made her lose. After that I decided I’m a lone wolf from here on out. That’s the story of how I became the Umbra Knight… not as pretty as you were expecting, I imagine, but reality rarely is as fun as fantasy.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bunberry looked to the floor in sadness as she finished her tale. And Cherry came up and hugged her. She was shocked. Her story was completely fucked up, and she’d gotten one of the most powerful Umbra girls to ever live killed. Why would Cherry be kind to her?
“You went through a lot, Bunberry. I’m sorry I idolized you without understanding what you really went through. I promise to be a better partner to you in the future and… a better friend.” Cherry’s words broke her and she hugged onto her tightly.
“Thank you, Cherry. I’m sorry the ‘super cool’ Umbra Knight isn’t as awesome as you hoped.”
“I wouldn’t say that. If anything, I’d say you’re even cooler. I mean you fought through all those horrible things and still saved me? You’re amazing!” Cherry’s positivity brought a smile to Bunberry’s face. A rare sight that even caught Dragon off guard. “Anyway, I need to go, I’m kinda hungry. Do you think Mr J.J. will give me something nice?”
“He’ll give you whatever you want. That’s how it works.” Bunberry smirked.
“Well I’m gonna challenge that, then! I got some ideas. Bye, Bunberry!” She waved, and walked out of the infirmary.
“Why didn’t you tell her the whole truth?” Dragon asked. “Is it really wise of us to hold that back from them? I know Raftilia said to not talk about the First Ones, but I worry the day they might return.”
“Yeah, I know, but we haven’t seen anything from the Faerie Queen, so I doubt we need to worry about her right now. I’m a lot stronger than that time though, we both are. The next time she shows up, we’ll be ready for her.”
“Yeah… I hope you’re right.” Dragon said, then walked out of the infirmary.
Bunberry sighed, then looked over the sleeping Coffin Flower as Lamp Flower came to check up on her. Bunberry looked at Lamp Flower, since no one was here she had something to tell her. “Lamp, I want to see her.”
Lamp Flower looked shocked. “Are you sure? She’s not doing well, it might be best to just—-”
“Lamp, I said I want to see her.” Bunberry demanded, cutting her off. Lamp Flower sighed, then walked to the back of the infirmary, where her office was. She led Bunberry inside of it. It was a small office, with a cabinet full of patient files, and a messy desk. She walked over to the desk, and pulled out a drawer, inside was a keypad. She pushed certain numbers, and behind her desk the wall opened, revealing a staircase. Lamp led Bunberry down the staircase. The purple flames revealed a second infirmary, without any patients except for one. A containment unit with a girl, a girl with green hair and green eyes. Bunberry hadn’t been entirely honest. Not even Dragon knew about this, but Green Bubbles had survived. Though “survived” might have been overselling it. She had so many wires and cords in her, it was difficult to tell if she’d ever wake up again. More than 70% of her body had been purified, only with Raftilia’s help was Lamp Flower able to attach the machines to the right areas of her body to at the very least, keep her alive.
Bunberry put her hand on the cylindrical pod, as a tear fell down her cheek. “Greeny… what did you see? What happened out there? Please, wake up and tell us. No… tell me.”
And that's a wrap for chapter 12! I hope you enjoyed it, I know it took a long time to come out. I'm very sorry about that but I want you to know i'm so very grateful to you all, thank you from the bottom of my heart ♥
“I can’t believe it but I did it. I helped my team come together and we took out a Royal! He was terrifying, his name was Fluorescon, and his ability scared me. He could upgrade his Luminescent generals giving them the ability to fire bolts of light. I thought we were all going to be purified, then I took a deep breath like Fluffy told me to do, and focused. Once I did I was able to take command. I had Dragon lead in the front to take the brunt of the hits with his Brute trait. Then I had Kittenberry and Lamp on support with me, focusing on healing everyone’s Magick Shields and buffing our attacks. Fluffy and Ame were our main source of damage so I had Ame take out the Generals, while Fluffy attacked the Royal from range. It felt like an eternity, but when he fell it made me believe I could really do it, I really can be a leader!”
It had been three days since Bunberry told her story, and Cherry was still having trouble thinking of himself as a girl. He wondered if it was because he had never tried before and had lived so long as a boy. It would probably be really hard to adjust to that, so he’d just have to try really, really hard. It was just for two weeks to see if it fit, but it was no use unless he—err, she—really put in an effort. So she was a girl for now, and she was going to be the best girl she could be.
She thought back to when she learned that liking masculine or feminine things didn’t determine your gender. She wasn’t sure exactly what to think of all the stuff she learned, but she had to start somewhere. And she did like some feminine things, regardless if she was really a girl, so she decided to try a nice 3-tiered pink skirt, white top, and some open toed sandals to show off her painted nails. Her hair was held back by a pink headband, and the rest flowing down her back. The gender stuff might be confusing, but at least she loved the outfit.
She thought back to her Night Crystal, and the events of Lightning Dust. The Night Crystal was alive, it breathed, it cooed, it was almost like a baby or toddler. Did Raftilia kill Lightning Dust’s Night Crystal? Mercifully she was given her chance to have her question answered right away when she made it to the main lobby. Raftilia was before her, moving towards the back wall. She was a little afraid of the dog-like being, given what she could do, but she summoned up the courage and quickly approached her. “Raftilia, can we talk?”
"Hmm? Oh, Cherry Sparkles, how good to see you. Is everything alright?” she asked as she turned towards Cherry.
“I just had a question.” She bit her lip, then took a deep breath to get the confidence to ask what she wanted. “With Lightning Dust, I-I wanted to know what happened to her Night Crystal. I know mine is alive, and so I was wondering… did you… hurt it?”
Raftilia shook her head, her demeanor turning quite sad. She turned back towards the lobby, then found an empty couch and sat on it, patting the empty seat next to her. As soon as Cherry sat down, Raftilia gave a deep heavy sigh. “Originally I didn’t even plan to break it, but when I touched it everything changed. Cherry Sparkles, her Night Crystal was already dead. Her evil deeds and cruelty had long killed her Night Crystal. It was nothing more than an empty vessel for her power, and I wasn’t going to allow her to use it that way anymore.”
That caused Cherry to breathe a sigh of relief, but also to feel a little sad. Lightning Dust had killed her Night Crystal for power. How could anyone do such a horrible thing to such a sweet innocent being? Though, another question was Cherry’s main concern.
“You told me I’d come to learn what being a Sparkle meant. Could you tell me now?” Cherry asked.
Raftilia paused, then looked Cherry in the eyes. “Alright, what do you want to know? I do believe you’ve earned some answers.”
“Why does being a Sparkle matter? Bunberry is super strong and she’s not a Sparkle.”
“A Sparkle doesn’t necessarily have destructive power, some are more supportive. Sunshine Sparkles wasn’t extremely powerful, she was the weakest one of the Sparkles. Her Trait, however, was incredibly useful. She was able to amplify the Traits and abilities of anyone around her.”
Cherry was intrigued. “Really? What could the other Sparkles do?”
“Well, Diamond Sparkles had the ability to copy Traits from others. Pink Sparkles had the ability to absorb Luminescent entirely.”
“Absorb … Luminescent?”
“Yes, she could place her hand on them and just… absorb them, giving her a massive boost of power that she could send back at them.”
“That’s crazy! No wonder she was so powerful.”
Raftilia’s eyes lit up. “Oh, she wasn’t just powerful. She was kind, she was loving, she was… amazing. To describe her would be impossible. You know, I used to push new recruits by telling them they weren’t as strong as Pink Sparkles. I later realized it was more of a detriment to my efforts so I stopped.”
“I see. I wonder what my Trait is.”
“I’m certain it’ll be as wonderful as you are, Cherry Sparkles. I meant it when I say, you are our last hope. I’m sorry to put that on you, but something about you… I can feel it, I can see it. You are special, far more special than you realize.”
Cherry wasn’t sure what to make of that. She was special? Was she really? “Well, I hope you’re right. I want to end this war, and I don’t want anyone else to suffer.”
“I’m more than confident you will. Either way, Cherry Sparkles, I do have things I need to do. Is there anything else you wanted to know?”
She bit her lip and thought for a moment. What were they like as people? Maybe some information on them might help her relate to them more. “I was curious, did the other Sparkles have any hobbies or things they liked?”
Raftilia paused for a moment, then smiled. “Well, Pink Sparkles really liked the occult and things relating to it. She often mused how it was like the Umbra Girls were witches. Sunshine Sparkles really liked dinosaurs, her favorite was a great beast called a Plesiosaurus. Diamond Sparkles really liked a human game called Chess, she also enjoyed various strategy games like Risk and Stratego.”
Cherry was amused by how simplistic and silly their favorite things were. Their deeds were still phenomenal, and Cherry still had a lot to live up to, but hearing they had such simple hobbies helped them feel more down to earth. She wasn’t sure what a strategy game was, or what an occult was, but they sounded kinda cool. She kind of wondered what her hobby would be someday. Fangirling Bunberry couldn’t really be a hobby, could it? “Thank you very much Raftilia, I think that’s all.”
“It’s always a pleasure, Cherry Sparkles, take care.” Raftilia got up, then left for the wall. She pushed something on it, and before Cherry’s eyes the wall opened up into a lengthy corridor. Shortly after Raftilia walked into the corridor the wall closed. So that was where she went when she had things to do. It was probably her office or room or something.
Cherry was glad to get answers to her questions, but something else was bothering her more. Her stomach. It craved sustenance. As she entered J.J.’s restaurant she was greeted by some kind of music. It was really catchy, with instruments Cherry wasn’t familiar with. Some were light and reedy, and others were sharp and boisterous. Atop that was a singer with an accent Cherry had never heard, light and slow and full of emotion. As strange as it was, it gave the restaurant an uplifting atmosphere. Even better, she found Coffin Flower and Kittenberry sitting at a table.
Coffin Flower wore a nice knee-length midnight black dress with a slit up the thigh, along with a matching pair of heels, with a pair of red stockings to give a little contrast to her dark outfit. Her hair was decorated with a couple of dying flowers, that may or may not have been clips.
Kittenberry wore a pink pleated above-the-knee skirt with a white top with a calico kitten motif on it. Then white knee highs with calico kittens at the top, and finished with a pair of pink T-strap mary janes. Her hair was done up in twin tails with calico kitten clips.
Cherry loved both their outfits in different ways. She loved Coffin Flower’s for the uniqueness—she’d never seen someone dress in mostly all black before—and she loved Kittenberry’s because it was just so cute.
“Kittenberry, Coffin Flower, can I sit with you?” Cherry asked.
“Cher Cher! Of course you can!” Kittenberry said brightly.
“Of course, Cherry. Always a pleasure.” Coffin Flower happily nodded as well.
With a smile on her lips, Cherry sat down. “So, do you know what that music is? I really like it, but I’ve never heard anything like it.”
“That is the music of the soul, the sounds of some of the greatest musicians of all time. Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday to name a few. I always liked jazz. It can liven up a room and just spread good vibes all around,” J.J.’s voice spoke from behind Cherry.
“Eep! J.J., I didn’t see you, sorry.” Cherry squeaked.
“No worries, Cherry, I’m always happy to talk about my favorite music and musicians. Anyway, it’s so good to see you all. What would you like?” J.J. asked with his signature smile.
“I’ll have a veggie burger with pineapple and horseradish sauce, fried morels and a root beer.” Coffin Flower ordered as if looking at a restaurant menu.
“You got it. Cherry, Kittenberry?” J.J. prompted.
“Mew, I’m gonna have some mozzarella sticks and a salmon spiced up just the way I like, with lemon drizzled on it.” Kittenberry said. “Also some apple juice, and a glass of water.”
“Mozzarella sticks? What are those?” Cherry asked.
“They’re these yummy breaded sticks with cheese and stuff, mew. And they come with a yummy sauce to dunk them in.”
Cherry’s mouth watered at the description, she wanted to try some. “Can I have some of those?”
“Of course, Cherry, you can have anything your heart desires.” J.J. responded.
“Oooh, then I’ll have that!” she said, then paused. There was something else she wanted, something she was certain J.J. couldn’t make. “I also want these weird meat sticks I saw one time, they look like long strips and have this yummy sauce on it. Oh, and that cold fluffy drink from last time.”
“All right, mozzarella sticks, barbecue ribs, and a Coke float. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” He walked away with a smile and Cherry was confused. Ribs? Like bones? He was going to feed her bones? That didn’t make any sense. Regardless she gave a smug smile, he wasn’t going to be able to get this one. She was going to win!
“Anyway, Kittenberry, as you were saying, you can just change the way people feel by them being around you? That’s amazing!” Coffin Flower said in awe.
“Uhhh, I guess so? I wish it didn’t affect Umbras too, and only affected Luminescent, meow.” Kittenberry said sadly.
“Oh… right, most people probably wouldn’t like that too much.” Coffin Flower mused.
“That and you can’t swear around me, either. Go ahead, try it.” Kittenberry goaded.
“Oh, well apple pie! Wait, Cake! Donuts! Goddess, cupcakes and jelly beans! Wow… that’s… incredible!” Her eyes seemed to light up, Cherry had never seen someone so happy about being unable to swear.
“Yeah, mew, it’s just how it is around me. As long as I’m conscious anyway and you’re within my range. Same with the feelings thing. Though as a countermeasure, mew, I take medication to keep my emotions in check, and mental exercises to keep myself stable. As long as I don’t express strong emotions I’ve found it won’t leak out onto others, meow.”
“It’s okay, you’ve been through a lot.” Cherry said. Then suddenly thinking back to the cake and cupcake comment Coffin Flower made, she remembered something she had forgotten. “Oh no, Kittenberry I’m so sorry, I missed your birthday. Happy belated birthday.”
“It’s okay, there’s no point to a birthday without my Acorn,” Kittenberry said solemnly.
“Oh, right Acorn Flower was your friend, I’m sorry.” Cherry consoled her.
“She was… more than a friend, Cherry. We were… she was… she was my soul mate.” Kittenberry said and suddenly Cherry understood. They weren’t just friends, they were lovers. “We were the same age—as humans, I mean. She was so kind, and loving, and also strong, mew. She was the only person that could ever be around me and not be affected by my Trait. She loved to swear around me to spite others who got angry at me or made fun of me. It was pretty funny.”
“Really? How did she do it? Is there a way to become immune?” Coffin Flower asked. She seemed unusually fascinated by the details of Kittenberry’s Trait.
Kittenberry shook her head. “No, the reason is her Trait was Nullification. She was immune to Traits and most abilities. Even a Royal’s powers held no sway over her. She would play hopscotch in Allightstar’s Energy Cage just to make him angry, it was pretty funny.” She giggled.
“That’s incredible. Wait, did you say powers?” Coffin Flower asked.
“Oh, yes, each Royal has their own kind of Trait, a special ability only they have. You have to be careful whenever you're around them. That's why we always say to stay far away from them.” Cherry couldn’t believe what she was hearing. They were already terrifying enough, but they had special abilities too? Why were they so much like the Umbra Girls? That thought alone was terrifying.
“Why didn’t I hear about that from Dragon during my training? Or Bunberry?” Cherry asked.
“Likely Bunberry thought you’d already been told,” Kittenberry explained, “but Dragon can be… he isn't a very good teacher, mew. At least not for the, umm, knowledge like stuff. But for combat Dragon is the best teacher we have. Even better than Bunberry.”
Cherry was in disbelief. “Really? But Bunberry said he’s gone soft.”
“They got kinda a rival thing going on, they like to push and tease each other. They’re basically best friends. The only times she seems to smile anymore is when she’s competing with him. The Umbra Knight doesn’t smile much, meow.” Kittenberry said, deadpan.
“Why does she call herself that? The Umbra Knight, I mean?” Cherry asked.
“Well, she has crossed a boundary most Umbra won’t cross. Rather than just killing Luminescent, she takes great pleasure in torturing them. She claims it gets you Night Energy, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. Even if they are trying to end humanity, they’re still alive right, mew? I don’t know, I know we kill them anyway, but it feels wrong to do what she does sometimes.” Kittenberry shivered.
Cherry didn’t like hearing that. So what if what she did was a bit out of the ordinary? Bunberry was awesome, she was the coolest person ever. She had been through so much and still saved her and fought off a horde of Luminescent by herself. What wasn’t to like about that?
“Well, I don’t know about that stuff, but what I do know is that you deserve to be happy, Kittenberry. We’re heading to the Recreational Room after we eat, then we’re gonna give you a birthday to remember, right Cherry?” Coffin offered.
Cherry looked up to Coffin Flower, jerked out of her thoughts. “Huh? Her birthday? Yes, absolutely.”
“R-Really? You’d do that? For me, meow?”
“Absolutely, it’ll be your special day.” Coffin Flower said matter-of-factly.
“Okay, then I’ll go with you, mew.”
With that, J.J. returned with their meals. Cherry was brimming with anticipation as he approached. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife as he lifted the pan lid. Impossibly, despite having a poor description of it, the dish underneath was exactly what Cherry wanted.
They thanked J.J. as he left to go attend to another Umbra Girl. Cherry ate her food with a pout. She really thought she had him this time. She’d thought that the last three times too, but every single time he always knew, no matter how bad the description was. It was almost like magick, but he said he was a normal human. So how? Her food was delicious, at least, and soon they had finished. Leaving the dishes behind, as they had before, they left the restaurant. Heading out the door to the left was the Recreational Room. Cherry hadn’t been in here yet, but she’d heard good things.
Coffin Flower opened the door, and led Cherry and Kittenberry in. She was acting kind of like a parental chaperone. It felt a bit weird to have someone you’d only known for three days acting like a mother hen towards you, but it also felt kind of nice. Cherry would have preferred it was Bunberry though.
The inside of the Recreational Room was unlike anything she had seen before. It had three sections. The left side had soft carpet on the floor and nice beige colored walls. In the center were several big comfy couches with side tables next to each side of them. They were all curved inward to face a massive entertainment center. There was a large flatscreen TV with a metal box attached to its bottom that was covered in those strange runes like the ones in the Ceremony Room. Under that was a sliding glass door with objects Cherry couldn’t quite make out from the door.
To the right was what looked like several large tables, some had paddles, some had balls, and some had board games. They had board games back at the Orphanage, but most of them had missing pieces or were unplayable.
To the back was a dark room with all kinds of neon lights. Cherry couldn’t quite see what was in there, but she could hear loud noises. And a sign with glowing letters in a rainbow of colors above it read: “The Umbra Arcade.”
Cherry walked over to the left, and opened one of the glass cases. She took out one of the things inside, it was curved and oblong, with buttons on it, and a little stick that stuck out of one side. “What is this?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s just a video game controller. You can play any kind of game here, and also watch any kind of movie you can think of. The remote is over there, mew.” Kittenberry pointed to a metal rectangle with buttons. It was on one of the tables, sitting next to a large empty glass bowl. Kittenberry walked over to it as Cherry’s eyes rested on it. “Oooh! You’ll love this, mew. You can get all kinds of snacks from the bowl. You just reach in and grab what you want.”
Cherry looked at her like she was from outer space. The bowl was clearly empty, there was nothing in it. Kittenberry grabbed her hand, and put it inside the bowl.
“What in the?!” Cherry watched her arm go inside the bowl, and then pulled out several pieces of chocolate candy. The kind she saw in her books.
“Yeah, mew, it’s so cool. No matter what snack you want, it’ll give it to you. You just reach in, and pull it out.”
“Really? That’s fascinating.” Coffin Flower said, and reached inside a glass bowl on the opposite side. She pulled out some chocolate balls. “Malted milk balls, I wonder?” She popped one in her mouth. “Wow. It really works. Our boss really pampers us, doesn’t she?”
Kittenberry nodded, and Cherry couldn’t help but agree with her. Despite the initial deceit at the recruitment process, Raftilia really seemed to care about them. She had free healthcare, free therapy—which is something Cherry promised herself she’d get into eventually—any food you could ever want—maybe, Cherry was still determined to find food J.J. couldn’t make—and a huge Recreational Room with countless entertainment options. It was all only for the low, low price of leaving behind everything you know and risking your life to fight Luminescent and do lots of good deeds to stave off explosion. Still, Cherry wasn’t sure if it really was such a bad trade. Her life was infinitely better as an Umbra, she got to learn all kinds of new stuff. Gender, sexuality, and countless other things.
“So, what would you like to do, Kittenberry?” Coffin Flower asked. “It’s your birthday celebration. Whatever you want, we’ll do.”
Instead of answering Coffin Flower, Kittenberry broke into tears and grabbed onto her in a large hug. Cherry joined in the hug, and Kittenberry cried into both their arms. After a few minutes, she broke the hug. Then wiped her tears away. “I really like the arcade. You up for that?”
“You got it, Kittenberry. I’m not sure what an arcade is, but I can’t wait to see!” Kittenberry hadn’t just saved her life, Cherry could tell there was more to her. She wondered why everyone avoided her or hated her so much. You’d have thought she’d done something terrible or something. However, it seemed like a bad time to ask that at her Birthday Party, so she kept quiet.
“The Arcade is quite fun. I’ve still got some tickets left over. I’m saving for the skull heart choker. Maybe we’ll get enough this time. That’d be cool!” Coffin Flower was excited at the prospect. Cherry wanted to know what tickets were, and what they were for, so she also agreed to do so.
Kittenberry led them inside the Arcade, and Cherry’s senses were assaulted as soon as she went inside. It was much larger than she expected, with hard flooring and stone walls. The room was dimly lit with only the flashing lights of the machines to illuminate the room. Not only that but the machines made so much noise that was both exciting and overwhelming.
“Okay, we’ll need some tokens to get started, mew. You always get twenty a day, so make sure you make the most of the games. There’s a lot here, so I hope you find stuff you like.”
Cherry followed Kittenberry and Coffin Flower over to a machine that dispensed 20 coins into her hands. She looked around after getting her tokens and felt overwhelmed with the amount of choices. There were games that had people beating the stuffing out of each other. Games about shooting people who apparently came back from the dead? Games where you throw a ball into a hoop? Though one game in particular sounded kinda cool.
“Get ready for Ultimate Skee Ball! Everyone’s favorite game. Try your skill here and prove yourself worthy to obtain the Golden Ball, and then score a victory for massive ticket rewards!” a feminine mechanical voice said from the machine. Cherry wanted to get that golden ball. She didn’t know what it was, but she really wanted it.
“Can we do this one?” Cherry asked.
“Oooh, skee ball, that’s a very fun game. You up for it, Kittenberry?” Coffin Flower asked.
“I love that game mew, I wanna get the max ticket prize!” Kittenberry seemed fired up.
“Okay, so, how do we play?”
“Simple, little girl. You get 10 balls, you roll the ball up the slope and try to get in the small holes. If you miss, you hit the empty zone and get nothing. If you hit, you get tickets. If you hit 3 times in a row you get a Golden Ball. It’s possible to get 3 Golden Balls in a single run. Go for a high score and that max ticket prize!” The voice answered. Cherry was shocked it recognized her question. Was it alive? She decided it wasn’t good to think about that stuff when involved with this place. After all, it was pretty much filled with magick, wasn’t it? Nothing worked here like it would normally.
“Yeah, I wanna play,” Cherry declared.
“I’ll play too, mew!” Kittenberry said.
“Count me in too,” Coffin Flower added.
“Then let Ultimate Skee Ball begin!” Ten balls slid towards Cherry, and she picked them up.
She rolled the first one down and… it fell in the empty zone. She grabbed another one, and…it went in the empty zone. She got annoyed and threw another… straight into the empty zone. She was getting frustrated. She rolled another and missed again “Grrr, this game is impossible!” She pouted. Then rolled another down, and got a hit. That changed her feelings immediately. “Wait, it hit? Omigosh it hit!” She rolled another down, and it also hit! She threw another and it looked like it was about to go in, but then… rolled off the edge into the empty zone. “What?! That’s not fair!”
“Cherry, it’s okay, you still got 3 balls left. Don’t give up, mew!”
“She’s right. You got this, Cherry!”
Her friends' cheers helped her regain her composure and she gripped the ball in her hand and tossed it with all her determination, and it went in! She threw another, and it also went in. Finally, she threw one more and sure enough it scored!
“Congratulations, Cherry Sparkles, you have earned one Golden Ball, best of luck.” After the voice spoke, a ball rolled down towards Cherry’s hand. One that was golden, and shiny. She tried not to let it get to her that it called her by name, and instead focused. She rolled the ball and it went inside. The machine whirled and made a loud noise. “You did it, you sunk the golden ball! Your total winnings, 500 tickets + 100 tickets+100 tickets+100 tickets. Then, doubled to 1600 tickets! Congratulations!”
Cherry was overjoyed as the machine spewed out tickets, she found herself having trouble keeping up with them as it continued until it dispensed exactly 1600 tickets.
“Nice job, Cherry. I wasn’t able to get a Golden Ball on my first try.”
“Me either, mew. You’re a natural.”
Cherry enjoyed the praise, but now it was Coffin Flower’s turn.
“All right, let’s see if I can beat my previous score.” She walked up and threw a ball, it went in! Then a second, another hit. Sadly the third missed, denying her chance at a Golden Ball. “Hmm… gonna have to focus harder.” She kissed the ball then threw it and it went in. Then she tossed another, and it went in. Her sixth ball hit the mark, and the machine blared.
“Congratulations, Coffin Flower, you have earned one Golden Ball, best of luck.”
Coffin Flower grabbed the golden ball and held it tight, then tossed it with deadly precision. It went in. The machine was overjoyed.
“You did it! You have four balls left, make them count!”
“Hehe, I love it when you praise me.” Coffin Flower seemed very happy with the machine.
“Errm… yes. Anyway, continue.” The machine didn’t seem to know what to make of her words. Neither did Cherry. Coffin Flower was an odd one, but she was a really good person. Cherry would definitely have to be careful about judging a book by its cover.
Coffin Flower grabbed three balls and threw them all at once. All three of them impossibly flew in.
“Wow… that’s… incredible. Either way, you’ve earned a Gold Ball, good luck.”
Unfortunately it seemed something had distracted Coffin Flower, as she threw it half-heartedly and it sank.
“No tickets, unfortunately, but better luck next time? You still have one ball left.”
“That’s okay, can’t win ‘em all. Though if you ask me, I definitely won regardless. I think I got enough for what I want, but one more can’t hurt.” She threw the ball and it went in.
“500+100+100+100+100+100+100+100+100+100. That’s 1400, then doubled to 2800 tickets. Congratulations, Coffin Flower.” The machine was about to spew out tickets, but Coffin Flower slid a card next to it and instead it stopped. “Tickets deposited. Great job, Coffin Flower.”
“Yep, that’s plenty. Thank you skee ball machine. I’m always grateful for your compliments.”
“Oookay, next one. Princess Kittenberry, you’re up.”
“Oooh, I’m feeling good about this one, mew!” Kittenberry threw one ball and it went in perfectly. Then she threw two more, one after the other and they hit as well.
“Congratulations, Princess Kittenberry, you’ve earned a Golden Ball, good luck!”
Kittenberry took a deep breath then threw the ball, and it went in!
“You did it! You have 7 balls left, you can do it!”
Kittenberry threw another ball, and it went in. Then she threw a second and a third and again all went in.
“Wow, two Golden Balls in a row? You don’t see that often, you can do it, I believe in you.”
“Yeah, we believe in you too! Go Kittenberry!” Coffin Flower cheered.
“Get ‘em, girl!” Cherry joined in.
Kittenberry grabbed the golden ball and tossed it, and it went in perfectly.
“Two Golden Balls collected, will you get a third? You’re on fire, Princess Kittenberry!”
Cherry was deeply concerned, Princess Kittenberry was on fire? He looked her over immediately but she seemed neither on fire or harmed. “Kittenberry are you okay?”
“Cherry, it’s an expression. It means she’s doing a really good job at the game."
“Oh, sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, mew. Jeez you’re so silly, Cher Cher.” Kittenberry giggled, then picked up another skee ball. She threw it, and in it sunk. She threw another, and bam! Another hit. She threw one more with bated breath. Everyone gasped as it fell in.
“This is unprecedented, three golden balls? Princess Kittenberry you are making Ultimate Skee Ball history!”
She brought it up to her head, and closed her eyes. She tossed the ball. Cherry was shocked. She did it with her eyes closed? Wasn’t that reckless? Regardless, the ball circled around on the edge of victory and then fell inside. She had done it.
“Three Golden Balls! Congratulations! Only one more to sink and you will have won the maximum prize!”
“Jeez, Kittenberry you’re amazing!” Cherry was starry eyed at Kittenberry’s accomplishment.
“Thank you, Cherry!”
“Yeah, I’m jealous, I want her to compliment me like that too. I’m going to have to work hard to learn to be as good as you at this game to earn it.”
“Anyway, mew… last ball.” She took a deep breath. Her hands were shaking, she clearly was very nervous. Cherry wondered if the nerves were getting to her. Unfortunately, Cherry’s fear became true as she accidentally lobbed the last ball, it bounced and pitifully landed in the empty zone. “Oh, well. Still, mew, I did really well.”
“Yes, you did, Princess Kittenberry. You made a new record that will be very hard to beat. Now, for your prize. 500+500+500+100+100+100+100+100+100+100+100+100. That’s 2400, then doubled to 4800, then doubled to 9600, then doubled to 19200 tickets. Absolutely fantastic job!”
Cherry wondered if they were going to be swimming in tickets when Kittenberry, too, took out a card, and swiped it on the side of the machine just like Coffin Flower.
“Tickets deposited, have a good day.”
“Meeeeeew, that was so good, I’m so happy!” Kittenberry’s extreme joyful emotions bled over to Cherry. She wasn’t bothered by it, however, and Coffin Flower seemed absolutely ecstatic.
“So this is how it feels… I feel wonderful, no, better than that! Kittenberry your Trait is phenomenal!”
“O-oh, sorry! I’ll try to fix it!” Cherry felt her trying to suppress it, as her emotions fell back to normal levels. “Please don’t hate me… I’m sorry!” she begged.
“Why would I hate you?” Coffin Flower asked. “You showed me something amazing. Thank you.” Cherry wasn’t sure it was amazing, but she definitely didn’t hate Kittenberry.
“I don’t hate you Kittenberry.” She thought to herself. What was a good way to show her appreciation? What about a nickname? Kittenberry was pretty hard to find one for, but then it came to her. “In fact, I really like you, Kibby.”
“Cher Cher, did you just give me a nickname?”
“Y-Yes, is that okay?”
“It's more than okay. It's the best. Thank you so much!” Kittenberry hugged Cherry tight.
“Anything else you two kids want to do?”
“First, the tickets. Why do you have some card thing, and I have to hold mine?” Cherry pouted.
“Oh, that’s because it’s your first time meow. Once you turn them in you get your own card too and won’t have to carry them anymore.”
“Oh… can we turn them in, then?”
“Hmm, okay, mew, but I wanna do more games after!”
“I’m totally up for that. I just want you girls to have a good time.” Ever the chaperone.
They led Cherry away from the games and into a small room. Inside were countless objects sealed inside a glass counter, and hung on the wall. Toys, games, stuffed animals, and even hair accessories. Upbeat music filled the room, but there was no one at the counter.
“Hello, Cherry Sparkles, Princess Kittenberry, and Coffin Flower. How are you today? Please deposit your tickets and choose your prize.” An upbeat mechanical feminine voice said. This one was less exuberant than the other one. It was softer, and giggled after welcoming them.
Kittenberry pointed to the empty counter, and so Cherry went over to it. She placed the tickets on the table, and watched in awe as they sank into the counter, completely out of sight. In their place rose a small card. She picked it up as Coffin Flower pointed to what Cherry assumed was a choker. It had a little heart buckle and was black with lace. She laid her card down and then it rose from the glass counter. She picked it up and put it on immediately.
“Well, I’m happy. What about you two?”
“I wanna play some more stuff, I’m saving up for something big, and I don’t have enough yet mew.”
Cherry looked at her ticket count, then spotted something out of the corner of her eye. A cute little rabbit plushie that was dressed in an armored dress and carrying a big sword. She wanted it soooo badly, but saw she was short quite a bit of tickets. That made her sad, but then also determined. “Me too, I’ve got my eye on something, also.”
For the rest of the day, they played different games inside the Arcade. Cherry found a newfound admiration for the shooter games. They were really fun to her, especially with friends. She preferred the one with shooting dinosaurs over the one with zombies though. After the games ended, they wound down with Kittenberry’s favorite movie: A Whisker Away. Cherry had never had so much fun in her life, sadly she still didn’t have enough for the plushie but she would definitely come back again and get more tickets. After such an exciting day, she vowed then and there, that she would never regret becoming an Umbra Girl. She’d never have been able to meet all these wonderful people. Sure there were people like Lightning Dust and Coarse Amethyst who were a problem, but there was also Dragon, Dag, Kittenberry, Coffin Flower, and of course Bunberry. With them, she felt like she could do anything. The only real thing bothering her, was that strange memory she had. Little did she know that in just a few short days time she would have her answer, and come face to face with the woman from her memories. That meeting would challenge everything she knew about the world, and it would shake the very foundations of her identity and her soul.
Cherry’s Birthday Surprise part 1
“We continued to perform impressive feats and as we grew as a squad, we grew in power as Umbra people—I don’t really want to call us all girls because Dragon isn’t one, and I care about all of my squad. It wasn’t long before we finally hit Level 2. It was quite a shock, seeing that they were so much weaker than our Level 1 forms. I was confused, but as we continued to fight and grow I realized it had much faster growth potential, and in less than two weeks we had already surpassed our Level 1 maxed out forms. And, oh, did we surpass them. Our new spells and abilities were only just beginning to reveal how much potential an Umbra had.”
Bunberry was deep in thought as she stared at the ceiling shortly after she had woken up. So much had changed in such a short time, and with it her room also seemed to change a little bit. She willed herself out of bed, grabbed her cane, and went to check the damage. Some of the cracks in the center of the room seemed a little closed up. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but for some reason her room had a little less split in it. She looked over to her dresser and sure enough there was the same picture of her friends and lover before he showed up. Though thinking of that made her remember seeing him again, the emotions she had, the feelings that bubbled up inside of her. Then… something strange, there was the memory of arms around her. She felt warm tears falling on her shoulders, and then realized she was recalling when Cherry was hugging her. That sweet gesture was burned into her mind, and she wished to see it again. At her wish, from out of her desk, rose a frame with a picture of that exact scene, Cherry holding a crying Bunberry. How the room could get a picture of something she couldn’t see, from a perspective she didn’t have, she didn’t know. The room could do so many things that seemed impossible. She wondered if this was a perfect recreation of what had happened. It probably was, just like the picture of her time together with her squad.
She picked it up and smiled wistfully at it. This wasn’t even her other self. No, this was her, the Umbra Knight, smiling. It wasn’t like when she smiled as she sparred with Dragon, enjoying the heat of competition. This was something else, something that almost seemed to thaw her cold heart. She put it down, and with a small smile, left to get ready.
A quick shower and she was ready for her closet. The pink floral dress and flip flops along with her long blonde hair tied back in a french braid didn’t really faze her anymore. Her other side seemed to always have control of what she wore. She’d gotten used to it, though, so it didn’t really bother her. She was about to walk out of her room when she heard a knock. She couldn’t guess who it was, since she wasn’t expecting anyone. But she opened the door to find a familiar figure wearing a three-tiered jean skirt over a pair of leggings, boots, and a hoodie with the words: “Am I a boy or a girl? LUL”. It was Dagger Flower.
“Hi Bunberry. So, umm, there’s news. Raftilia is concerned for you, so she decided to hire a second veteran. So I’m here to help with your training of Cherry and Coffin Flower.”
Of course she’d already replaced her. Not like she could do much to help them. Though… that wasn’t entirely true, but it was easier to not have to use that.
“Anyway, I’m going to go get them up. You get some rest okay. Or you can join us, just don’t hurt yourself. Draggy and I both would be terribly sad if you got even more hurt.” He looked genuinely sad.
She gave a large sigh. “Dag, I can’t just stay in my room forever. She can’t freeze my Night Crystal again, that was a one-time thing. I’m stuck, for better or for worse, fighting.”
“I… I know, but I’ll be there to help, okay? I know, I’m… nowhere near as strong as you or Draggy, but I’ll do my best to pull my weight,” he vowed. “Oh, also, it’s Flower today. Not really feeling boy this time. Of course, still He/him. If that ever changes I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, Flower it is. Also, damn right you will, and don’t sell yourself short, your Trait is pretty insane. You just need to believe in yourself.”
“Thanks, Bunberry. I really wish you’d let others see this side of yourself more often. You don’t always have to be harsh and abrasive on everyone, you know? I know it’s like your… thing when you’re the Umbra Knight, but please think over how you act, okay? You don’t want to push everyone away.”
Flower’s words hit her hard. She only pushed everyone away so they wouldn’t get hurt or killed. Just like Ice Dust. Just like her squad. Though, lately… she was wondering if that was truly the correct thing to do. Perhaps Flower was right. Cherry definitely had a hand in helping her open up to this possibility. “All right, I’ll… consider it.”
“My, oh, my. Really? That Cherry girl is really doing a number on you, isn’t she? Well I’m grateful, Bunberry, you really need to stop blaming yourself so much. It wasn’t your fault.”
The attempt at reassurance, unfortunately, only caused Bunberry to doubt Flower’s words a little more. He meant well, but could he even understand why Bunberry couldn’t allow others to rely on her? Still, her more rational side had to admit that she was probably overreacting. She was, after all, in a delicate situation. It was ironic thinking of the Umbra Knight as delicate, but it was true. Her mind was like walking along a tightrope high above a pit of spikes while flamethrowers and swinging pendulums blocked her path. “Thanks, Flower. I’ll go get Cherry, actually. You go get Coffin Flower, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“Of course, Bunberry, meet in the training room. We’re just gonna discuss some training plans, then we’ll head to breakfast together, okay?”
Bunberry smirked and waved him off. “Yeah yeah, I’ll make sure.”
Flower smiled, then left. Bunberry stretched, then made her way towards Cherry’s room. Along the way though she saw something unusual. Kittenberry was there, talking to someone that Bunberry never would have thought would associate with her in a million years. The new head of the Anti Adaption Council, Gray Bubbles. She had dark skin with short teal hair with long bangs and gray eyes. She wore a pair of slacks with a loose teal top and flats. She had a crescent moon hair clip clipped on the left side of her hair, a crescent moon necklace, and crescent moon earrings, along with a single monocle on her right eye. “I’ll be taking you both on a mission. Don’t worry, you won’t be in any danger, it’s already been cleared by Raftilia. I think… perhaps we’ve treated you wrongly, Princess Kittenberry, and so I’d like to make amends.” Her voice was soft and flat. Even as she spoke kindly to Kittenberry, her tone struck Bunberry as bored, as if everyone was a waste of her time.
“U-Uh… okay, Gray Bubbles. I, umm, I always believe that people can change. Umm, thank you, and… were you telling the truth? Is it… really possible?” Kittenberry seemed deep in thought, Bunberry wasn’t sure what she was thinking or what they were talking about.
“Yes, I know for a fact it is. Do not worry. You will see her again, soon.” She said matter-of-factly. It sounded as if she was planning to do something unorthodox, and she seemed way too confident for Bunberry’s taste. “Anyway, I have things to prepare. See you tomorrow,” she finished as she walked away.
Bunberry didn’t feel good about that exchange but she had another mission to deal with. She needed to get Cherry up. Flower wouldn’t like to wait too long, after all. Bunberry hobbled down the hall towards Cherry’s room with her cane, and knocked on the door. She heard shuffling as a fully dressed Cherry opened the door.
“Bunberry! It’s so good to see you. Is it a training day, today? Isn’t it a wonderful day? I hope tomorrow is just as wonderful, if not better.” Cherry was full of energy. Bunberry wondered if Kittenberry might have been infecting her.
“Yeah, it is, though you look really excited. Something good happening?”
“Yep, it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m so excited, I’m gonna turn twelve, I guess, in Umbra years, but fourteen for real!” she said, excitedly.
“That’s wonderful, Cherry.” Bunberry smiled, her energy was just so adorable. “So, got any plans?
“Thank you, Bunberry, but, umm, I don’t really have a party or anything, but could I maybe spend some time with you?” Cherry asked.
“Of course you can.” Though, was that enough, just hanging out with her? An idea was forming inside of Bunberry’s head. She was not sure if it was the influence of her other self or not, but… just this once, she might listen to her. “Well you need to get to the training room. Flower is waiting for you there. He’s joining your squad as my co-instructor. If you want to know more he’ll explain. I have something to do, however, so take care, okay?”
“Oh, uhh, okay. Thanks Bunberry.” The young girl moved in for a hug, and Bunberry reciprocated.
Bunberry broke the hug, then waved her off as Cherry left. Then she set about her newly-formed plan. She walked down the hall and towards Dragon’s room and knocked. After about five minutes of no response, she decided to try something a little different. She contacted him through her Night Crystal. Hopefully he wasn’t doing anything important or dangerous, but even if he was, it was Dragon. He’d probably be fine.
“Hey, Dragon, Cherry’s birthday is tomorrow. I’m thinking of throwing her a surprise party, you in?”
“The fuck is this? Wait, is that you, Bunberry? Wait really, it’s her birthday? Of course I’ll join. Lemme finish eating,” Dragon responded.
Bunberry smiled, then reached into her Night Crystal to pull out a second cord. She intertwined the two cords so the one connecting to Dragon was also connected to this one. Then sent it off to someone else.
“Kittenberry, Cherry’s birthday is tomorrow, you wanna help plan a surprise birthday party for her?” Bunberry asked.
“WOULD I?! Of course, I’ll make sure she’s got the cutest birthday ever, you’ll see! OMG thank you for asking me!” Kittenberry squealed through her Night Crystal.
“Bunberry, did you really have to just put Kittenberry in here with us? She’s so loud and I’m eating…” The grown man whined.
“Yes, and I’m about to bring more, so behave.”
She heard a groan come from his end, as she took out more cords, and sort of made a magickal Skype group chat. It was all inside their heads so nobody outside of the called would hear anything, though it might throw off some concentration. She connected a cord to Flower, Coffin Flower, and Lamp Flower.
”Hey, everyone, sorry to just shove you all together like this, but Cherry’s birthday is tomorrow. I want to plan a surprise party.”
“Really, a surprise party? I remember doing those for my granddaughters. I’d love to help.” Lamp Flower responded.
“Oh? Awww, how cute. Of course I'll help.” Flower said.
“Really? Right after Kittenberry’s, huh? That’s kinda sweet. Where are we gonna have it?” Coffin Flower asked.
Bunberry had to stop and think for a minute, where could they have it? Then it came to her. “How about J.J.’s, he loves this stuff.”
“That’s a great idea. We’ll have to go to him after this. Organizing a birthday party, Bunberry, that child has made a really positive impact on you. I’m proud of you. That doesn’t mean I’ll just let you go off and get yourself hurt anymore, however. Improvement is good, self preservation is paramount.” Lamp Flower could really lecture when she wanted to.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, Lamp. I’ll be careful.”
“You’d better.” Then Lamp Flower hung up.
“Okay, I’m going to meet at J.J. 's. Coffin Flower and Flower, keep her occupied. The rest of us will get to planning.”
With a collective round of approval she cut off the call and made her way to J.J.’s restaurant. Or she would have, if she wasn’t stopped by one of the least favorite people on her list. Coarse Amethyst, wearing a tweed business skirt suit and heels, with her hair let down.
“Bunberry, why do you insist on denying our offers? We’re in desperate need of members and you would be a great help to us.”
Bunberry was utterly sick of these people, so she decided she’d try a different approach this time. “What makes you think I’d want to join an organization like yours? Have you considered that people don’t believe in your bullshit? Amethyst, my sister was transgender, what makes you think I’d join a group that would have made her life hell?”
“I … uhhh, didn’t know that, I suppose… that wouldn’t feel good to hear? Also, what do you mean she was transgender?” Amethyst asked.
“She’s gone. In fact she was gotten rid of by someone who held similar views to yours. Someone who didn’t accept trans people.”
“I don’t understand what you are getting at.” Amethyst had nervousness and uncertainty plastered all over her face.
“Lucid held my sister up in front of me, and tried to hammer in that he thought she was a man. Then he purified her from her feet to her head, slowly… and made me watch. When your beliefs match Lucid Allbright’s, maybe you should rethink your fucking life choices.” She brushed past leaving a stunned Amethyst in her wake.
With that dealt with, Bunberry made her way to J.J.s, luckily she had no other interruptions, and instead just went inside. The only person she saw there was Dragon, the others hadn’t arrived yet. She took a seat near him.
“So, got any ideas? You know, before Kittenberry comes in and super girlifies everything.” Dragon asked.
Bunberry gave a hearty laugh. “Yeah, she is going to do that, isn’t she? Cherry seems to like that stuff though, so it might not be too bad.”
Dragon groaned but nodded. “Fine, but I’m not wearing any fudging pink… wait… did I… oh no.”
“Heeeeey Drag drag!” Kittenberry said from behind them.
“Hey, Kittenberry. Also please… never call me that again.”
“Oh, sorry, I’ll find a different nickie. Anyway, I’m so excited, meow! Cherry’s birthday party is gonna be so cute. You‘ll love it. I got a ton of ideas, mew!”
Bunberry laughed. “Good, we’ll need your expertise, Kittenberry. Cherry likes ultra girly stuff like you do.”
“Kittenberry, Dragon, Bunberry, how great to see you all? What would you like?” J.J. said, approaching the table while they talked.
“Well, J.J., I was thinking of planning a birthday party for Cherry, see, she turns fourteen tomorrow. Well, technically twelve in Umbra years.”
“Say less. You need any kind of special birthday cake or something for her?”
“That sounds great, I also was thinking we could have the party here. Would you be okay with that?”
“Why Bunberry, I would be honored. I’m assuming Kittenberry is handling the decorations and things? It is kind of her thing.”
“Yes, mew! We’re gonna need streamers, and ribbons, and a princess crown and—”
“Calm down, little one. We’ll get it done, don’t worry.” J.J. laughed.
“Yeah, Kittenberry, it’s going to be okay. Anyway, J.J. I could use a light breakfast, how about some toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and a glass of orange juice.”
“Okay, Bunberry, you got it.”
“Oh, I’ll have some pancakes with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, a poppyseed muffin and a glass of water, mew! I really need to get my brain juices going!”
J.J. laughed. “Always happy to help.” He walked away to the back wall, it opened up and swallowed him once again as he prepared the orders.
Bunberry worked with Kittenberry and the others as they filed in, preparing for Cherry’s surprise birthday. It would take the rest of the day, and a lot of misdirection to keep Cherry from realizing what was going on. Little did they know, however, her birthday was going to mark the beginning of the end. That the events that would transpire would change… everything.
Cherry’s Birthday Surprise part 2
“Diary I… I don’t know what to think. We got into combat, and I got separated from my squad. Then while separated I ended up encountering a Royal calling herself The Faerie Queen. She talked with me, didn’t even try to purify me or hurt me. And she told me things. Impossible things, things I can’t believe. If what she said is true then, then, I don’t know. I’m sorry, I can’t write anymore today. I need to visit Raftilia, I need to figure out if what she said was true.”
Cherry awoke with a smile on her face, today was her birthday. She got up out of bed and moved to the shower. She found herself singing a small tune, similar to the one she heard in J.J.’s restaurant as she showered. Soon it was over and she walked into her closet. A pair of sparkling pink low heels with a sparkling cherry on the toes adorned her feet. White knee highs, and a sparkly pink party dress with sparkling cherries on the ends. Her hair was braided into twin tails with two sparkling cherries holding the ends together. It screamed Cherry Sparkles and she loved it.
Cherry patted her closet, and whispered a thank you. She felt a rush of warmth from that. Sometimes she wondered if her room was alive, if the entire base was alive. It definitely seemed to be able to give good feelings and accept gratitude and honestly that wouldn’t be all that weird considering some of the things in this place. She decided to table those thoughts, though, because she was excited for her outing with Bunberry. She just hoped that Bunberry liked her outfit.
Cherry walked out of her room with confidence, and headed to Bunberry’s room. Bunberry had previously given her permission to go into her room without knocking. So she opened the door and went inside.
Bunberry’s room was definitely starting to improve. It started to look more upright, instead of the bizarre slanted mess it had been the first time she went in. She noticed a picture on the dresser and looked it over. It was when she held Bunberry after they met that horrid man, Lucid. That warmed her heart. She also noticed a door in the back she hadn’t seen before. Curiosity overtook her and so she went over to it. Once she got closer she heard the muted sounds of Bunberry and Dragon talking. She knew she shouldn’t, but the temptation was too good to pass up, so she put her ear to the door and listened.
“Okay, now that we’re done with the preparations, Dragon, we need to address something else.” Preparations? What was Bunberry talking about? Cherry was confused, was Bunberry planning something special for their outing? Well good thing she missed it, she didn’t want to ruin the surprise!
“Address what? Is this about Crushed Tourmaline? Look, she’s fine.” Dragon stated. Crushed Tourmaline? Was that another Umbra Girl she hadn’t met yet? She surmised that she really should get to know as many as possible. While the ones she knew were pretty good, maybe she could make more friends, too? She always wanted more friends, especially now that she’d met so many people who were kind and supportive.”
“Is she, though? You understand she’s an actual child, right? She was recruited a bit before Cherry. She’s about her age, too. Even if her Trait is a shield which was able to block your attack, you never should have tried to hit her in the first place!” Bunberry’s scolding was definitely warranted. Cherry remembered how scared she was when he was gonna hit Amethyst. He was so strong. He shouldn’t be hitting anyone. He could seriously hurt someone… or worse.
“Look, maybe I overreacted. But I didn’t know she was a kid, I honestly never even saw her around. She’s just… I…” Dragon was stammering over himself.
“Dragon, I’m your best friend. I care about you. I’ve seen you spiraling lately and I’m concerned. Have you considered going to Fluffy Ruby?”
“Her?! You mean for her to tell me to look inside myself or some other stupid shit? She helped me before, and I can’t recommend her enough, but ever since then she keeps giving me bad advice.” Dragon’s voice dripped with disdain. Wasn’t Fluffy Ruby the one he told her to go to? If he wouldn’t go himself, why would he recommend her?
After that Bunberry’s sigh could be heard even through the door. “Fine, have you at least decided to finally say something to Kittenberry? You’ve been avoiding her for forever. I know you used to be friends, you told me. Why did you stop?”
“You really want to know? It’s because of how she—” Dragon gave pause.
“Not being able to swear bothers you that much? Or is it the emotional empathy thing she does? Yeah, that can be a bit annoying, but not enough to make you hate her, right?” Cherry agreed, it was really minor. Cherry never swore, but the emotional thing could be hard at times. Still, it wasn’t enough to make her never want to see Kibby or be kind to her.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that she’s so. Damn. Girly. Like, why is she fucking femininity personified? Just being around her makes you feel more fucking feminine. It’s fucking weird. Like her trait just brings out your feminine side or some shit.” Cherry wasn’t sure if this was true. She never really felt more girly around Kibby at all. Strange.
“I don’t think that’s how it works, Dragon. Air Dust, rest his soul, never seemed to get less masculine despite being a trans guy like you as well. And he didn’t have any issues with her.” Cherry had never heard of Air Dust, but it sounded like he might not be alive anymore, and that made her a little sad.
“Well, it definitely messes with my fucking head. Not all the time, but sometimes, okay? I know that doesn’t make sense but sometimes it’s like… I almost want to… nevermind.”
“Is this seriously the reason why you’ve been treating her like shit?” Even Cherry agreed he was overreacting. It wasn’t clear what he was trying to say, but outright alienating Kibby felt wrong. She was such a ray of sunshine, and Cherry really liked her.
“I… well… umm—” There was a pause, and then. “—yes.”
“Dragon, you promised to make up with her the last time we talked. What happened to that?”
“Look, I’ll just wait till her birthday, then I’ll try.” Cherry felt a pit in her stomach. Had he really not realized?
“Her birthday has already passed, according to Coffin Flower. She and Cherry apparently had a small party for her. It was quite adorable, I heard.” Cherry smiled at that, she recalled the party and Kibby’s smile. It was a blast.
“I missed it? Fuck, really? Damn it!”
“I missed it too, so don’t feel too bad.” Another sigh was heard. “Dragon. I’m the anti-social bitch that everyone avoids. You’re supposed to be the hero. What’s happened to you? People used to praise you, because you’d literally dive into a portal to go save someone even when you didn’t know them. You used to really care about other Umbra.”
“There’s a reason, but I don’t feel comfortable talking about it, yet, Bunberry. I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine. Just remember I’m your best friend, okay? I just want you to be okay.”
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you should go. Cherry is probably waiting for you.”
“All right, I’ll head on out.” Once Bunberry said that, Cherry started to panic. She heard footsteps approaching but she couldn’t move her body. Her fear had frozen her in place. She wanted to hide, but she ran out of options as the door opened and she was face to face with Bunberry. Bunberry was wearing a light pink floral dress with flip flops, and her hair straightened with a light pink floral headband.
“Uh… hi? I’m here for … yay?” Cherry couldn’t get a coherent sentence out of her mouth.
Bunberry sighed, and led her to her bed, closing the door behind her. “How much did you hear?” Her voice wasn’t judgmental, instead it was concerned, which perhaps had been worse.
“I heard you and Dragon talking about Kibby and someone named Crushed Tourmaline?”
“And?” she asked.
“Honest, that’s all I heard.”
“Okay, good. That conversation was private, but I’m not mad at you, okay?” She reassured her with a head pat. “Just remember it’s not good to snoop on someone’s private talk.”
“O-Okay. I’m sorry.” The head pat felt warm and good but at the same time it might have made it worse.
“It’s fine, anyway, you wanted to go out right? You look cute by the way.” Bunberry’s words instantly lifted her mood to the moon. Any and all doubts or fears melted away.
“Thank you. You look good, too!” Cherry said.
“Yeah, my other side is very good at girly fashions. Anyway, let’s head to the main lobby. We can talk there.”
Cherry followed Bunberry to the main lobby. It was rather empty which made it nice to have a couch all to themselves. Cherry leaned against it, and Bunberry sat next to her.
Cherry bit her lip and was lost in thought. There was something she really wanted to know, but wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask.
“Something on your mind, Cherry?” Bunberry asked, seemingly picking up on her uncertainty.
“Bunberry, can I ask you something? Something private?”
“Yeah, sure. What’s up?”
“Why are there two of you? There’s like… The cool you, and then there’s this really sweet version of you. It always kind of confused me.”
“Ah, it’s the price of my sin, for lack of a better term. I torture Luminescent for power, and it comes at a cost.” She gave a deep heavy sigh. “It’s why my dress has armor plates, and why I’m split into two. My current self, and my past self.”
“W-Why do you torture Luminescent for power? That seems so…cruel.”
“I dunno, anymore. Maybe I’m still angry at them for what they did, maybe I’m just a crazy bitch who's too far gone.” She shrugged. “Either way, until I’m given a reason, I’m not going to stop. I need to be strong enough to kill anyone that gets in my path. And thanks to it I’ve reached record speeds of growth.”
Cherry wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Mostly because sometimes she felt almost kinship with the Luminescent. Which didn’t make sense, as they took away her friends and hurt people, but, the fleetest of feelings made her really wonder. What are the Luminescent, really? Who are they? Is it really as simple as aliens from space?
“Anyway, what do you want to do? It’s your birthday. Want to play a game or just keep talking?” Bunberry asked.
“Umm, I wouldn’t mind more talking. I just want to spend time with you.” As she said that, Dragon walked on by.
“Oh, hey Cherry, I got stuff to do. See you later.” He waved and walked away towards the hallway, presumably towards his own room. She’d have liked him to have wished her happy birthday, but he didn’t say anything and instead went on his way. Wouldn’t Bunberry have told him? Or, did he not want to wish her a happy birthday because of how he felt about his own birthday? She wasn’t sure, but she felt a pang of sadness at that.
“Okay, we can go to the recreational room then. I got a movie I think you’ll like.” That made her spirits immediately rise. A movie Bunberry recommended? She’d want nothing more.
“Yes, yes, let’s go do that!” The excitement in her voice was palpable. Bunberry just smiled, got up out of the chair, and walked towards the recreational room, while Cherry followed.
Inside, things were just like she remembered, and luckily it was free. No one was watching any movies or playing any games. She sat down as Bunberry loaded the movie in. It was a cute movie called Encanto by Disney. It was about a magickal family that went through many hardships. Including reuniting with an estranged uncle, learning to let others shoulder your burdens, accept yourself for who you are, and recognizing past trauma to help work on it.
After the credits rolled Cherry thought about her own family. What would they have been like had she not been put in the orphanage? Would her mother be doting on her? Would she be judgmental? Would she have been cruel? Or kind? And did she have any siblings? If she did, what were they like? Were they older than her? younger? She really hoped she’d find her mother, she had so many questions to ask.
“Did you like it?” Bunberry asked. Cherry nodded her head furiously. “Good. Want to get something to eat?”
Cherry wasn’t sure until she heard her tummy rumble rather loudly. Bunberry gave out a laugh, and shook her head.
“Come on, Cherry. Let’s go eat.” She offered her hand and Cherry stared at it. Was she going to hold her hand? Like a little kid with her big sister? Cherry smiled at that thought. Bunberry would make a great big sister. Cherry took it and she led her to J.J.’s, though something was strange. The lights were all off, and there was no music.
“Bunberry, it’s really dark in here. Did something happen?” Bunberry didn’t answer her. She froze, suddenly unable to feel Bunberry’s hand anymore. Terror crept into her heart, as she thought she saw figures moving in the dark. Was this a nightmare? Was this the end? Had something happened to the Umbra Base? As she suddenly felt something grab her hand, she screamed.
Cherry’s Birthday Surprise Part 3
“Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. Raftilia is lying. She is not who she says she is!”
Cherry screamed as suddenly she heard—
“SURPRISE!” The lights burst on, and there was a big pink ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERRY’ banner above written with little hearts and sparkling cherries. There were tables with pink sparkly cherry patterns, along with all kinds of streamers and decorations of sparkling cherries. All her friends were there, and they were dressed in various dog themed outfits. Kittenberry even had on a pair of pink puppy ears to go with her pink lolita dress. Bunberry had apparently slipped on a pair of doberman puppy ears. Dragon had on a poodle onesie, while Dag stood next to him in a bulldog onesie. J.J. had on a yellow suit with brown paw prints on it, and a pair of golden retriever ears. Lamp Flower had on a gray paw print dress with a pair of scott terrier ears. Coffin flower had on a dark black gothic dress with a corset, and a pair of great dane ears. She figured it out quickly, they all wore dog themed outfits because her animal aspect was a puppy. “Happy birthday, Cherry!” They said in unison and cheered.
“How did you put this together?” she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Kittenberry put up the streamers and banners and decorations. Dragon helped, because of how strong he is,” Bunberry said, waving her arms at them.
Dragon blushed and Kittenberry giggled, infecting everyone with her joy, eliciting giggles from all, even Dragon. Then Kittenberry walked over, and put a crown with the words ‘birthday princess’ on Cherry’s head. “Thanks Kibby.”
“Anytime, mew. I’d never miss an opportunity to give someone a super cute birthday!” Kittenberry responded.
Bunberry moved it along, giving a fancy wave towards Dag. “Dag helped with some of the coordination, while Kittenberry is good at cuteness, Dag is great with proper placement.”
Dag gave a theatrical bow. “Anything for the birthday princess.”
“Lamp Flower came up with the idea of the costumes. Though we all put our own spin on it of course.” Bunberry waved at Lamp.
Lamp gave a warm smile. “When you’ve had children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren you learn a few things.”
“Coffin Flower procured most of the things we needed while we were setting everything up.” Bunberry pointed to Coffin Flower.
Coffin Flower blushed herself. “Well, someone had to get the supplies.”
“J.J. allowed us to use his restaurant for the surprise party.” Bunberry waved towards him.
“Ol’ J.J. would never miss an opportunity for a surprise party.” He gave his signature smile.
“And I am the mastermind behind it all. We all worked together to get you this party, Cherry. Because we love you and want you to know how much we care.”
No one had ever been this kind to her. She couldn’t think of a single birthday that was worth remembering, she had almost come to dread them, as it meant she was getting closer to being expelled from the orphanage like the other big kids had been. There was no callousness here, however, there was only love. She had never felt so much love in her life. These thoughts made her eyes tear up. “Thank you all, so much. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
“It’s not over yet. J.J., you got it ready?” Bunberry asked.
“You know it!” J.J. walked on over as the lights dimmed and he was holding a big chocolate cake on a platter. It had 12 pink candles on it, and two gray ones. The two gray to symbolize the years she lost, apparently. That was a bit melancholic but any sadness she had towards it instantly evaporated when she smelled how good the cake was. J.J. cut a slice out and handed it to her. “Birthday girl always gets the first slice, house rules.” When she looked at the slice she realized it wasn’t just chocolate cream cake, there was also ice cream! This was a sugary nightmare but for someone her age it was heaven.
She sat down, while Bunberry got a slice and sat next to her. Everyone got slices and they all sat down around the tables. J.J. went to his kitchen and came back with a bunch of huge bowls full of special punch. He gave everyone a glass and filled it up. It was red and tasted really fruity and a bit sour too. Cherry liked it.
After everyone finished their meal. Bunberry stood up. “We got one more thing planned just for you. Dag, if you would?”
Dagger Flower rose from his seat happily and turned to J.J. “Just this once, J.J., to make her happy?”
J.J. shook his head with a smile. “All right, but don’t make a habit of this, just this once.”
Cherry watched in anticipation as Dag moved some tables and chairs around. “It’s been awhile since I did this. You see, I used to be a circus clown. My name was the Great Enigma. I don’t know if you ever saw Magnum’s Magnificent Oddities, you were probably too young. There were several performers there I think you would have liked. Anyway, let’s see if I still got it. J.J. if you would!”
J.J. nodded and then a different music played. A cheerful, airy music which seemed to fill the room with a sensation of excitement. Cherry was sure she’d heard it somewhere before, but she wasn’t sure where. Maybe when she was very small. She’d learn later it was called circus music.
Dag wasted no time. Immediately he backflipped onto a table, then front flipped right on top of a chair in perfect balance. He didn’t stop there though, he was just warming up. He backflipped back on the table, cartwheeled around it in a circle, then front flipped onto another chair. Afterwards he immediately executed a 360 degrees pirouette mid air, turning himself upside down and landing on his hands, lifting himself up by just one of them. It seemed his onesie allowed for quite a bit of flexibility. Everyone clapped excitedly, especially Cherry. It was really freaking cool.
Suddenly he did something really weird. He walked over to her, and pulled out of thin air what looked like a black circle. He placed it in the air right next to her and it didn’t move, it somehow was just floating there. Then, moving farther away, he placed one in the air above a table. “If you’ve never seen my performance, you’re in for a real treat.” He stuck his hand through the hole which was at least twenty or thirty feet away, and it appeared right next to Cherry. Cherry gasped and then he took it out and stuck his head in the hole, and it appeared right next to Cherry too. It was incredible. Like those holes were a portal of some sort.
Then he walked over, grabbed the hole from Cherry’s side, and moved to a new location. He slapped it on the table then he grabbed the other one. He leaped into the air and slapped it about twenty feet upwards right above it. “Geranimo!” He cried out as he leaped and spun himself like a drill into the hole. Only to appear above, and then continuing his corkscrew he flew out of the top hole, to the bottom hole, then to the top hole and the bottom hole, going faster and faster and faster in a seemingly infinite loop. His body began to blur as it fell faster and faster through the portal. To the point it was getting hard to see if he was even there anymore. Cherry watched with morbid fascination as suddenly he and the black holes were gone.
“Dag? Where did Dag go? Is he okay?!” Cherry was worried. Dragon pointed upwards. Cherry looked up, to see Dag hanging upside down on a flying broom, his twin tails falling from above.
“Awww, Dragon, I’m going to punish you for that later. Don’t ruin the trick.” Cherry wasn’t sure what he meant by punishing him, but the red mark on Dragon’s face definitely implied something.
Despite whatever thing was going on with Dragon and Dag, Cherry’s mouth was agape in awe. “H-How did you do that?”
“It’s my Trait, Mischief. I can perform cartoon-like abilities in real life, transformed or not.” Dag said, as he flew down on his broom, right next to Cherry.
“Wow! That’s really cool!”
“I know right? Anyway, that’s enough for me. I’ll be going now,” he said, getting off his broom as it vanished in a puff of smoke. However, he suddenly started walking backwards. Cherry wasn’t sure how he would be going anywhere walking towards the back table, until Cherry saw something impossible. Dag had walked past the table and just disappeared. As if where Cherry was, was a center stage and Dag had just walked off of it.
After watching this, Cherry began to wonder if the world itself was Dag’s plaything.
“Nah, I’d never leave you like that,” he said, as he walked out right from behind Cherry. Cherry leaped into the air in shock. “Sorry, that’s my last trick, but that was fun, wasn’t it?”
Cherry was a bit spooked but definitely agreed. Dag was incredible. She’d want to see more of this later. After the show Dragon started clapping and everyone else joined in. They clearly enjoyed it too.
“That was incredible, Dag. Can you use your powers on others? Like you know the cartoon where their eyes go swirly and they hypnotize them?” Coffin Flower asked enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I can, but uhh…” He looked over to Dragon, unsure. Dragon shrugged. “Well, sit still then.” His eyes swirled with rainbow lights, and Cherry watched Coffin Flower’s body stiffen as her expression became blank. “You are under my spell… uhh… touch your toes.” Coffin Flower touched her toes. “Poke Dragon in the nose.”
“Wait what, Dag what are you—” Before Dragon could finish, Coffin Flower minced over and poked him right in his tiny button nose. She had to lean down since he was quite a bit shorter than her, only four feet nine inches tall, but she did it with that same blank expression. “Gah! Please stop! That feels so weird.” Cherry giggled at the spectacle. It was pretty funny.
“All right, now bark like a dog,” Dag commanded, and with sudden enthusiasm Coffin Flower barked like a dog. Cherry swore she could see an almost imaginary tail behind her, her performance was so good. “Okay, now return to normal.” He snapped his fingers.
Coffin Flower looked back and forth, momentarily confused, then let out a delighted giggle as she blushed. “Mmmm, if only a girl had your Trait. Oh well, thank you, that was lovely.” Cherry loved her, she was so goofy and silly.
Dag just looked at Dragon again, he responded with another shrug. “Uhhh, sure. Anyway, we should get going. First though.” He moved up to whisper something into Dragon’s ear. Dragon seized up and nodded. “Good boy. Anyway, goodbye everyone. Happy birthday again, Cherry.” Dag waved, then walked out of the restaurant.
Dragon walked over to Kittenberry near Cherry, and took a deep breath. “Kittenberry, can we talk?”
“D-Dragon, you sure, mew? You, umm, I…” Before she could respond further, he walked over and gave her a hug.
“I’m sorry, Kittenberry, I’m sorry for every horrible thing I ever said or did to you. I was wrong. I am dealing with some harsh ice cream and it's not fair to take it out on you.” Dragon said, remorseful. Cherry was proud of Dragon for admitting that.
Kittenberry’s eyes teared up. “D-Dragon I.. I only wanted to be your friend, mew. I’m sorry what happened to Fluffy Ruby… it…”
“It doesn’t matter. I got stuff I got to work through, and I never should have taken it out on you. If you will have me. I’d love to try to make a friendship work with you again.” Kittenberry responded with another hug and a nod as tears filled her eyes. Cherry was glad they made up. She couldn’t have imagined how long ago this should have been done. At least now though, it was finished.
The festivities over, everyone began to shuffle out, Kittenberry stayed behind, but everyone else went their merry way. Cherry felt more warmth and love today than she ever had. Though she had one more surprise left.
Kittenberry walked over to Cherry. “Hey, Cher Cher. We got a mission, if you are up for it. We’re gonna go with Gray Bubbles.” Cherry had never met Gray Bubbles. She was kind of excited too. Cherry agreed, and walked with Kittenberry to the portal area. There she saw someone who interestingly had the same skin color as Lamp Flower. Huh.
“Ah, Cherry Sparkles, good to see you. Happy birthday, I have a surprise for you. Let’s go.” She walked over to Blue Bubbles.
Blue Bubbles was someone that Cherry loved seeing. Her radiant navy blue afro complimented her dark skin well and looked gorgeous with her beautiful blue eyes. She wore a dark blue ankle length dress with white lace decoration on the hem, sleeves, and collar. Along with a pair of stockings, and dark blue heels.
“Ah, you’re all ready. Okay, here’s your portal. Nothing is really there though, but I know better than to mistrust your judgment, Gray.”
Gray Bubbles smirked. “Excellent.” She walked inside.
Kittenberry smiled at Cherry. “See you on the other side, mew!”
Cherry was about to walk in, when suddenly she realized, she’d never actually asked Blue Bubbles what she wanted to be called. She stopped for a moment and turned to her. “Blue Bubbles, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, what’s up Cherry?”
“Gender has been on my mind lately and I realized I never asked yours. Could you tell me? For now I’m trying out being a girl and using She/her pronouns.”
Blue Bubbles started to tear up. “Literally no one has asked me that besides Dag. I’m agender, I don’t really feel male, female, or anything. I use they/them pronouns. If you forget it’s fine, everyone else does but… if you want to use them. I wouldn’t be against it.”
Cherry smiled warmly at them. “I’ll remember that for the future. Thank you.” She then walked inside happily, and she swore she saw Blue Bubbles smile for the first time ever since she had met them.
On the other end of the portal was just a simple open field. Gray and Kittenberry were waiting. Cherry looked left and right but didn’t see anything all that dangerous. Was there even any Luminescent here? Gray started walking away and Cherry followed.
It was about a few minutes before Gray suddenly stopped. “This is the spot. Now we wait.”
“Now we wait for what?” Cherry asked. To answer her two golden portals opened up. And out walked… Lucid Allbright.
Kittenberry looked at Gray Bubbles with fear. “This isn’t what you said would happen! Why is he here?!”
“It seems you kept your end of the bargain, Gray Bubbles,” he said.
Cherry’s brain went into overtime, what did he mean?
“Yes, now give me Lightning Dust! You promised!”
“Of course. Lightina Allbright. You can come out now,” he called out.
From out of the other golden portal walked out a woman with olive green hair, golden eyes, and wearing a lavish forest green gown. She looked over towards the group.. “Huh… been such a long time. I suppose I owe you an apology, Cherry Sparkles.”
Cherry was utterly freaking out. Two Royals were here, including Lucid Allbright, what could she possibly do against this? On top of that Gray Bubbles was in league with them? She’d never even met her until now. What in the world was going on?
Kittenberry also was afraid. “Y-you didn’t say anything like this. You said I could see her again! Gray what did you do?!”
“Oh, right, the decoy,” Lucid said, then from behind him, brought out an Umbra girl with light Orange hair and light orange eyes. She wore a dirty white blouse with a red jumper and a red ribbon in her hair.
“Fuck, Kitten, why did you listen to that asshole!” the girl shouted. “Damn it, Cherry, run! Run as fast as you can!” The girl could swear. That should be impossible, right?
Lucid grabbed onto the girl. “That’s not part of the deal. Look, we don’t have a choice in the matter, neither do you. You don’t understand what’s at stake here, Acorn Flower. The girl cannot escape or we’re all doomed.”
It was Acorn Flower, but hadn’t Lightning Dust killed her!? Cherry had no idea what was going on!
“Acorny I’m sorry. I wanted to see you so bad, but I didn’t think this would happen. I’d never betray my friends, I just wanted to see you again. I’m so sorry, she tricked me, I…” Kittenberry’s eyes filled with tears.
“Just complete the exchange already. Lightning Dust, it’s so good to see you again. Shall we pick up where we left off?” Gray looked extremely happy to see this girl.
“Gray, we weren’t even married, and even if we were, ‘til death do us part kind of sailed already. I was purified, became a Luminescent and then a Royal. Lightning Dust is basically dead at this point. I’m Lightina now. Besides, we were wrong, trans people are real. I’ve seen it first hand.”
Kittenberry and Cherry were both horrified by this revelation. “What do you mean became a Luminescent…” Cherry asked.
“Simple. Sorry to put this on you so soon. When a human is purified, they can become a Luminescent, and certain ones can become Royals. You’ll learn more at the base. Come, Cherry, it’s time to meet Mother,” Lucid said matter-of-factly. He didn’t seem as cruel as before. Something was definitely off about him.
“What is this utter sugar muffins?! Lightning Dust, Adaption hater Lightning Dust is telling me she suddenly believes in trans people? After all we fought for? After everything we did?” Gray was furious, and Cherry was confused.
Nothing made sense, everything was upside down. Humans were Luminescent?! How was that possible? Also to meet his mother, did he mean the Glimmering Queen? Everything was crumbling around her.
“Gray, go home. Cherry, I’m sorry but you have to come with us. The fate of the entire world depends on it. Thanks to my errant ex-girlfriend.”
“No, no no no no! I didn’t make a fey pact so you could just leave me. I got you saved, Lightning Dust! You can’t abandon me!” she cried out. Then Lightina sighed and bashed her upside the head, knocking her out.
“But I-I don’t want to leave Bunberry and the others.”
“It is up to you if you ever see them again. I haven’t got all day, the clock is ticking. Either come with us, or else I’ll be forced to take Acorn back.”
“No! Please, no!” Kittenberry cried out.
Cherry knew what she had to do. Kibby had suffered for so long, even had her girlfriend miss her birthday party. Cherry couldn’t let that happen to her again. “I’ll go.”
“Great, then here.” He tossed Acorn Flower towards them. “She’s unharmed, as promised.”
“Yeah but I was locked in a cage for a fucking week. I got to say, Hotel Luminescent sucks ass, I’m so giving you a bad Yelp review.” Acorn Flower seemed kinda snarky. Cherry would have appreciated it had she not been heading to certain doom. She only hoped Kibby would be happy.
“I will not miss that mouth of yours.” Lucid seemed exasperated. Then held his hand out to Cherry. “Come, Cherry. It’s time.” A golden portal opened up. Cherry gulped as she took his hand.
“I’m sorry Cherry, I really didn’t know, I’m so sorry please don’t hate me…”
“I don’t hate you Kibby, please let the others know what happened,” she said, as she was swallowed into the golden portal.
Bright, that was all that could be described. It was so bright, the lights were blinding. She couldn’t see at all. “It burns! My eyes!” she cried out.
“Don’t worry, it’ll pass, just give it a second,” Lucid reassured her.
Sure enough, he was right. Suddenly she could see, it kind of reminded her of the Umbra base and how it had been too dark to see at first. Looking around she looked to be in some kind of abandoned temple. There were stone pillars, stone floors, and stone walls. She was in some kind of lobby. There was a hallway to the right, but behind her was a single wooden door. In front of her was a massive staircase with an even more massive set of stone doors at the top of it.
“Come with me,” he said, and then took her up the stairs. He pushed open the doors and walked inside. She followed closely behind him, afraid. “I’m not going to hurt you, I know that’s hard to believe but you’ll understand soon enough.”
Inside of the doors was a massive throne room. There was a layer of pillars on each side that encircled a giant room. At the end was a large stone throne and to the left of that throne was a smaller throne. Sitting on the large throne was a strange female figure. She was glowing with such bright light that it was impossible to tell what age she was, or even what her skin color was. She surmised this must be the Glimmering Queen. Next to her was someone that nearly made Cherry’s heart stop. A woman with light skin, pink hair and eyes, and faerie-like wings. She was the Faerie Royal that Bunberry described, and Lucid was leading her right to her! She started to struggle but Lucid kept his grip.
“Calm down, Cherry, it’ll all make sense soon.”
Suddenly the faerie royal got up out of her throne and ran over to her as fast as she could, enveloping her in a hug as Lucid released her. “Cherry! Oh, Cherry, finally! I’m so glad!”
“Wh-What do you want?! Who are you?” Cherry asked, taken aback by the hug. Then suddenly a shiver ran up her spine as the faerie royal broke her hug.
“Oh, Cherry, my sweet Cherry,” she said, and suddenly transformed before Cherry’s eyes, losing all of her fey attributes to start, then changing her body entirely. After it was over, there was a woman very familiar to Cherry, a woman in her thirties with brown skin, the same color skin as Cherry, with pink hair and pink eyes. “I’m your mother.”