[Well. I didn't think this day would ever come. Thank you for beta-reading, kokoruu and nexus schwarz!]

1. Kittens and Bits

She hurried along on the pavement. She didn't have to look in front of her to know where to go; this was a standard ritual for her at this point. As she rounded the corner she broke into a sprint. There it was: The school bus; waiting at a stop. A rush of adrenaline shot through her as she ran, she couldn't miss it again! As she came closer, she saw a familiar head poking out of the side of the bus.

"Nana! Hurry up, the alarm is going off!" the other girl shouted, a worried expression on her face as she held an arm out towards her friend.

Nana got close enough to hear the warning voice-over from the bus, accompanied by a beeping that sped up the longer the warning played.

"Please step away from the doors, you are outside the safety zone. Please step behind the yellow line. If you do not remove yourself within 30 seconds, authorities will be alerted."

The message kept replaying.

"20 seconds." Nana could see people pulling at her friend's shoulders, trying to get her to step back, but she resisted.

"10 seconds." She was almost there…

"5 seconds." She almost grasped the outstretched arm, when the other girl suddenly pulled back. Her friend stumbled back a little as she stopped resisting the people pulling on her, and looked at Nana with a guilty expression as the bus doors closed in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed. Nana gave a sigh and shook her head as she watched the bus drive away.

As she was walking she heard her phone buzzing. She rolled her eyes as she unlocked it.

"Oh dear, Nana. It looks like you missed your bus again!

Maybe you should get up a little earlier in the morning?

Or perhaps not dawdle just because your favourite cartoon is on?

I care about you, dear, I don't want you to miss any of your important studies!

As you know by now, this means you'll have detention after school today.

And it pains me to say this but I will have to add a warning as this is your fifth

time missing the bus: If you are late again I will have to contact your guardian.

Don't forget: I do this because I love you.

Hera."

She stared at the message, lingering at the second to last sentence. "Guardian," she scoffed. "It would've been 'parents' if it wasn't for you."

When Nana got to the school building she saw to her relief that everyone was still in the big square in front of the school. She looked up at the screen that had been attached to the front of the building a month ago; it showed the school emblem. Oh good, I just missed her stupid speech.
She tried looking for her friend, which was hard in the big crowd of all the identical school uniforms. She tried looking for a red and gold striped ribbon, but even then there were enough other students that wore one just like it that it didn't make the search that much easier.

"Nana!" She turned around and there she was, right next to her.

"Saiko! How did you find me?" Saiko brushed a long strand of brown hair out of her eyes and smiled. "I just followed the sound of dramatic panting."

"...Dramatic? Is it really that bad?" As she looked around, Nana noticed some students giving her odd looks. "Hey, give me a break!" she uttered, feeling her cheeks turning red. "I ran for like thirty minutes, you'd be tired too!"

"Did you get detention?" Saiko asked as they walked through the corridors towards their classroom.

"Yeah, I got another one of those stupid texts from her. It's ridiculous, I only missed the morning speech! I can't believe I got detention for that. It's not like she ever says something important, it's just 'oh dear children i love you so much study well eat your fruit brush your teeth blah blah blah'. We're not five!" As Nana did her childish impression of their overseer Saiko cringed a little beside her.

"You need to be careful," she whispered, "you know what happens to people who oppose her."

"I guess," Nana replied, looking defiantly at the floor. "But she doesn't do it to kids anyway."

"You don't know that." Saiko lightly touched Nana's arm. "We haven't seen it happen, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do it. I imagine she thinks kids are less dangerous than adults."

Nana wanted to tell Saiko how dangerous she'd be if she ever met Hera in person, but they had arrived at their classroom and their teacher was standing next to the door. He had a friendly smile on his face, but the luminescent blue rings around his pupils and the small black chip on his right temple just made him look eerie to Nana.

Nana and Saiko's high school was pretty normal compared to any other high school in the world. The only odd thing was the all-overseeing and overly doting AI that stood in contact with every single person there. It wasn't limited to just their academy, she watched over the entire city.

About a month ago, Nana couldn't remember exactly how or when it happened, the city of Clairewood got enclosed by a barrier, and she had appeared. She had called herself Hera, and projected herself on the sky. Hera told the citizens to not worry and that she would take care of everyone, and that nothing bad would ever happen in the city from now on. She asked everyone to please work together so that they could all be happy.

But nobody was happy.

They couldn't leave the city, nor could anyone outside of it get in. Because of this many people had been separated from relatives, including Nana. Her mother had been visiting their grandmother outside of Clairewood that week. Her father had been inside the city when the event happened, but he had disappeared shortly after. The official name for the event was 'The Initiation of Protection Protocol 1.0'.

Hera genuinely didn't seem to mean any harm, she always spoke very lovingly to the people, but strange things were happening in the city. There were no more human policemen and anyone who got too vocal about their dislike of The Protocol would vanish and return, altered, with strange glowing circles in their eyes and a tiny chunk of metal on their right temple.

Nobody was going to accept this way of living forever. Too many people were cut off from friends or relatives. They'd keep fighting to get them back no matter what Hera did, Nana knew it!

At the least it was what she was doing.

As she stared at the azure sky outside, she wondered what was happening in the world outside the barrier. Were they trying to rescue Clairewood? Would they be able to reach Hera?

"Would you like to come to the shelter?" Saiko asked when the bell rang after their final class.

Nana shook her head as she stuffed her books into her bag. "I can't, detention, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Saiko averted her eyes, she looked guilty. "I'm sorry for not holding the door open for you this morning."

"It's okay."

"It's just... The voice warns you they're gonna alert the authorities! What does that even mean? Do they throw you in jail? Everyone was looking at me and they looked annoyed, and someone tried to pull me away from the door and... I panicked." Saiko looked at the floor, her face hidden by her long, russet hair.

"It's okay, Saiko. I understand." Nana smiled at her friend, trying to comfort her. She knew Saiko absolutely hated getting attention, they'd been friends since they were kids.

"Please don't feel bad, it's my own fault for getting there late!" Saiko looked up at Nana, her honey-coloured eyes misty, but a small smile appeared on her face. "I'm sor- Gosh I apologize too much, I'm sor- Argh!"

Nana laughed.

Detention was dull, as always. Nana did her homework as was expected of her. That was actually a good thing about detention; she'd actually do all the homework she had, whereas if she'd been at home she would've procrastinated until the last possible moment.

"Don't forget to scan your chip at the door," the lady overseeing the small group of tardy students said as they were leaving. "Or Hera won't know you've done your detention." As if automatically Nana held her right arm up to the small device next to the door of the classroom; it showed a small graphic of a happy green face and sounded a short, high-pitched "beep!" to tell her the scan had succeeded. Pretty much immediately after her phone buzzed. Nana didn't even bother looking at the message, she already knew it was Hera praising her for doing her detention and then warning her about the repercussions of being late.

As she was waiting for the bus she saw kids pass her on bikes and pondered if it wouldn't be smart to get one herself. It would be easier to get to school in time, and absolutely no AI would be involved. Bikes in Clairewood thankfully only had gps systems, no minds -did AI really have minds?- of their own.

She bit her lip and decided against it when she remembered that she lived in a very busy street with no separate lanes for bikes; with all the traffic it'd be very hard to get around. Why did her brothers have to own a store again?

"I'm home!" she called as she tossed her bag onto the table.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing that, I'm working here!" A young man sat at the table, holding two different tools in both hands. He was working on a small, round, and brightly coloured device, and little bits of electronics were scattered all around him on the table. He looked very irritated.

"Gee, I'm sorry for disturbing your little project. What does this one do, brush your teeth for you?"

The man raised his eyebrows. "Wow, someone's had a bad day. And no, it doesn't. We already have a robot that does that and I'll have you know Toothy Shine is very popular with children and the elderly." Nana let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry. I missed the bus and Hera threatened to contact you if I was ever late again." She walked over to the fridge and looked at the contents. "I don't know what she expects you two to do about it, but it's still kinda scary you know." Nana turned around to look at the young man, holding the door open with one hand. "This huge AI that projects herself on her sky and stuff... Like, what if she makes me into a Docile?"

The young man looked up from his work and scoffed. "She's not gonna do that just because you missed the bus a couple of times! Yes, technically you are defying her but it's not like you're yelling from the rooftops that you think she's a tool."

Please close the door. It is getting a little humid in here!

Nana turned back to look at the fridge, which appeared to have gained the ability to speak. On the third shelf she noticed a small blue robot. It had two rectangular eyes, and its round body had a snowflake design painted on it. It also appeared to be shuddering slightly.

"Shuya...?"

"Ah, it works! Do you like the new version of 'Mei, It's Cold In Here'? It's to remind people to always close their fridge doors."

"Are you serious-"

Please close the door, I can feel my body melting.

"I just wanted to grab some orange juice, I don't need this thing to tell me to close the door everytime I open the fridge."

Shuya turned around to look at her, a big grin on his face. "If you close the door fast enough, it won't talk."

Nana just stared at him for a few seconds. "Don't fridge doors have a built-in system for that sort of stuff anyway?"

"Yes, but this is cuter!"

Please. I am dying.

Nana slammed the door shut. Shuya turned back to his work.

"Was that too extreme? It's still a work in progress," he said, as he resumed tinkering.

Nana realised she didn't get anything from the fridge thanks to the silly robot, but didn't feel particularly interested in opening it up again so she just opted to get some tap water instead.

She sat across from Shuya and watched him work. His short blond hair was a mess, as often happened when he was working. She looked at the faded pink at the tips of it. Somehow the dye had lasted a lot longer on his hair than it had on hers, despite them having the same hair colour. They even had almost the same hairstyle, though Shuya had shaved sides which Nana didn't.

"So what does this one do?"

"It takes people's coats, or at least it's supposed to," Shuya replied without looking up. "But right now it tries to forcibly tear your coat off you when you tell it no." He took a chip out of the robot, put it in a small device plugged into his laptop, and started tapping away on the keyboard.

"Where's You?"

"He's still in the shop. The new sign has arrived and he's putting it up right now."

Nana frowned. "You didn't seriously go with 'If it has a face, it's probably Mori's' for a subtitle, right?"

"You'll see when you look at the front of the store tomorrow."

Shuya and You Mori were Nana's older brothers and currently her guardians now their parents were missing. They ran a small shop called Mori's, where they sold all sorts of household robots they had built themselves. Their inventions were cute, Nana had to admit, but she wished they wouldn't all test them out inside their own house. It was one of their inventions that woke her up in the morning, another one that ironed her uniform for her and yet another one that made her her breakfast. If only they'd invent one that could go to school for her, she thought.

At 8 pm her phone buzzed, and through the window she could see a vague red light shining in the sky.

Attention everyone. It is now 8 pm. Do you know where your children are? Because they should be indoors! If they are not inside by 8:30 pm, I will have to find them and I will make sure to safely deliver them home! But it'd be best if it wouldn't come to that, don't you all agree, guardians? Goodnight! And remember, I love you.

Curfew. Hera's voice was muffled by the walls of the apartment, but Nana had heard the announcement so often now she basically knew it by heart. She didn't know what happened if you stayed out past 8:30 pm, though an urban legend in the school told the story of two kids whose parents were turned into Dociles because they broke curfew.

Suddenly her phone buzzed again; someone was calling her. As she looked at the phone, she saw Saiko's face. She pressed the answer button, and a little hologram of Saiko appeared on her screen. She looked horrified.

"Saiko, whats wrong?"

"I'm outside, I'm lost! I went to the forest because we got a call there'd be a person here with kittens to pick up, but I took too long and now it's dark and I can't find my bike!" It was clear Saiko was struggling not to cry. Nana shot up from her seat and ran to the door. She opened the small cabinet in the entryway and took out a pair of skates. She hurried to get them on, her phone next to her. "I found the kittens, I can't reach my parents... I don't know what to do!"

Nana got up carefully so she wouldn't fall, then opened the front door.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" She heard one of her brothers calling from the living room.

"It's urgent!" She called back as she slammed the door behind her, racing as fast as she could to the edge of the city, where the forest was. It was quite a while away, at least twenty minutes, and then she'd have to help Saiko get back home... They'd never make it before 8:30 pm. Right now that wasn't important though. She needed to get to Saiko and make sure she was okay, and assure her that everything would be alright. If Hera would try to turn Shuya and You into Dociles, she'd… she'd-

Nana couldn't finish her thought as something rather large and white hit her right in the head. She fell and landed hard on her back. "Ow!" She sat up and clutched her head in her hands. Her phone was in the grass next to her.

"Are you okay?" A familiar voice said.

"Saiko? I thought you were lost!" Nana looked up and saw her best friend standing over her.
"I was. But this little guy showed me the way out of the forest." She pointed behind Nana, and as she turned around she saw the thing she had skated into. It was a hovering robot, about the size of a football (though slightly more round in shape). It had two big triangles on top of its head, which were painted green and pink on the inside. Under that was a black display, in which two electric blue eyes softly flickered. A faint light emitted from its underside, and it slowly flew over to Saiko's side.

"I am sorry if you got hurt!" it chirped.

"Wow, it looks like something my brothers would build," Nana said as she rubbed her head. She had all but forgotten about the curfew, as had Saiko it seemed.

"My name is Bit, and I can assure you I was not! I wasn't made by anyone from this city. I am here to save you!"

Saiko smiled. "He said that when he led me out of the forest as well. Look!"

She held up her arms and Nana saw she was holding three mewling kittens. Her eyes went big. "They're so tiny!" Saiko nodded, and her expression grew serious.

"We need to get them to the shelter as soon as possible! I found Bit hovering around them, but I didn't realize he was friendly, so I grabbed the kittens and ran. And that's how I got lost," she added in a small voice.

An alarm sounded from the sky. "Oh no, the curfew! What do we do?" Saiko turned to Bit, as if the tiny cat-like robot held the answers to all her problems. Nana struggled to get up.

"I guess we should try to get home as fast as we can, but shouldn't we find your bike first?"

"I'm scared." Nana put her arm around her friend's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it can't be that bad."

"What if they really turn your family into Dociles, Nana?" Saiko whispered, looking at the ground.

"I am here to save you!" Bit repeated. Nana looked up at the little robot.

"Why do you say that? What does that even mean, are you gonna lead us home or do you mean to destroy the barrier or something...?"

"I was made to protect Clairewood. But I can't do it by myself, I need your help!"

"Our help?" Nana frowned. "What can we do?"

"There's not a lot of time, they're coming to get you right now!" Bit chirped. Saiko let out a small cry of fear. "I can make you strong. I can make you into Precure, and you can fight against the injustice in Clairewood! But I need you to agree to it first."

"Precure? That sounds familiar..." Nana mused. "Where have I heard that-"

"YES LET'S JUST DO IT, I DON'T WANT THEM TO CATCH US!" Saiko suddenly cried.

"Thank you, Saiko!" the little robot said with smiling eyes. "And you, Nana?"

"Please," Saiko said beside her.

It took a few seconds of deliberation, but then Nana nodded. "If it means we can save Clairewood, then I'll do it."

"Good!" Bit made a little jump in the air.
Several things seemed to happen all at once. Nana felt a warmth on her arm and saw a bright, pink-tinged light from the corner of her eye. Her phone lit up in the same colour, still down in the grass where it had fallen when she hit Bit. Saiko let out another small cry and jerked her arm up to look at it. "What is this?" She said, sounding shocked.

Around Saiko's right lower arm, right on top of the scanner chip, a small bracelet had appeared. The outside was solid white that seemed to shimmer in the faint light Bit gave off, while the middle was a translucent green. Right on top, like a watch, was what appeared to be a small, white cat's head. It had two sleepy looking lime-coloured eyes. Nana held up her own arm and noticed a similar bracelet had appeared on hers, only it was pink where Saiko's was green and the eyes on the cat were fully open. "You will need those bracelets to transform into Precure! Now please get out your phones." Nana took her arm off Saiko and bent down to pick it up. When she turned it over she noticed it had completely changed appearance. The back of her phone now had a very intricate design with a cat's head in the middle that matched the one on her bracelet and that appeared to be made out of the same white material.

"Now what do we do?" Saiko said. "You said they were coming to get us, right?" She looked very determined, the kittens still meowing in her arms.

"They are! Hera has sent two policebots to come and get you! They're really close, we have to hurry!" Nana held her wrist up to her phone and noticed the screen started glowing.

"Yes, you got it!" Bit said cheerfully. "Now chant: 'Precure, recharge!' And then, 'Activate'!"

"Wait, when should I say 'Activate'?" Saiko said while putting the kittens down in the grass.

"You'll know when to do it, just trust me!" Bit replied.

Nana took a deep breath and held her phone in front of her, then put her wrist up in front of it.
"Precure, recharge!" The screen started to light up, brighter and brighter. As if by magic, Nana knew exactly the right moment, and shouted: "Activate!"

The bracelet and her phone seemed to melt together and formed into what appeared to be a gauntlet around her arm.

"Quickly, tap your clothes!" Bit shouted, though he sounded weirdly far away. Somehow Nana felt like she already knew that was the next step. As she touched her collarbone, white shoulderplates appeared in place of her jacket, connected by the same cat-face as before with a big pair of white wings sprouting from it. The oversized sweater she had worn underneath it became bright pink and was replaced with a rose coloured dress. When she touched her sides, another piece of shimmery white armor appeared, and a big pink ribbon grew from its back. She tapped her skates, which transformed into boots, and noticed socks and gloves had appeared on her legs and arms, both a darker shade than the dress.

She tapped her head with both hands and felt her hair grow slightly longer and it turned pink, while two small white hairclips appeared on each side of her head. As a final touch she lightly tapped her left shoulder, and a hot-pink ribbon tied itself around it.

"Don't forget to think of a Cure name!" Bit shouted.

"Yes!" Nana replied, feeling a burst of energy she had never felt before.

"The hero who short-circuits all evil-doers, Cure Spark!" She finished. The pink light that had surrounded her faded away and she was back in the dark, on the edge of the forest. In front of her stood Saiko.

"The… The hero who dreams of the future! Cure... Volt!" She exclaimed, though she sounded rather uncertain of herself. "Oh, that was no good," she said slumping her shoulders. "Yours is all cool about fighting monsters and I just talk about sleeping!"

"I think it's a good one, Cure Volt!" Bit said cheerfully while flying around her. The girls looked at each other. "Wow, Saiko, your hair!"

Saiko's hair had turned a bright shade of lime and had grown about 30 centimetres longer. Her outfit looked similar to Spark's, though it was green in colour and her boots were a lot longer. Her skirt wasn't as flowy as Spark's was, and she also had a ribbon, but it was in her hair, not on her upper arm.

"I'd advise you two to not call each other by your real names when you're transformed," Bit added. He landed in the grass beside the kittens, which immediately started climbing up on him.

"Oh no, there they are!" Saiko pointed towards the street and Nana saw the two policebots approach. Just like Bit they hovered a little above the ground which gave off a soft humming noise, which grew louder as they came closer. They were navy and white in colour, with red and gold detailing here and there, and they wore slightly oversized police caps. Nana figured this was done to make them look less threatening, but to her they just looked like garbage cans with hats.

"So, do we beat them up?" She looked at Bit, who fervently shook his head.

"No! You can walk past them and go home. Your Cure form makes you undetectable for robots like them! They won't notice you even if you walk right by them."

Spark frowned. "Wow, I thought being a Precure would be more exciting than this, what with the catchphrases and the transforming."

"Trust me, it will be, soon enough! I will explain everything later."

Volt bent down to pick up the kittens.

"Let's go, Nan- I mean, Spark. I'll pick up my bike in the morning. These little guys really do need to get to the shelter soon, they're too small to be on their own for long."

When they passed the bots, they did indeed not acknowledge the two Cures. The girls quietly walked past them, then broke into a run.

"Hey Bit, how do we turn back? Wait, can we even turn back?"

"Yes! Just turn the little cat face on your gauntlet once, clockwise. You should turn back once we get into the city. Hera can no longer detect you even when you're normal thanks to the bracelet on your arm."

The girls hid in an alley and turned back. Thankfully Saiko's parents' animal shelter wasn't far from where they were.

"Bit should stay with you, my parents don't like having robots in the house," Saiko said as she opened the backdoor of her house. Nana nodded.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Wow, this was a weird night."

While skating home, Nana took out her phone. To her fear -but not exactly surprise- she saw she had thirteen missed calls. It still works like a regular phone, then.

When she moved to open her front door, it nearly hit her in the face. "Nana! Good gods where have you been?!" A tall young man stared at her with a shocked expression on his face, his eyes wide. His glasses were low on his nose and his hair, which he had neatly combed to the side, had some strands sticking out wildly here and there.

"You, I-"

"Get in, get in! Before they see you." He roughly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her indoors. She nearly tripped over her skates as he did so and Bit had to hurry to get inside; You nearly slammed the door on him.

Nana jerked herself loose from her older brother's grip. "I just went out to get Saiko! She got lost in the forest. You know how easily she's scared, I just wanted to help her."

"We were worried sick! Shuya's actually out looking for you right now." You held up his phone, which had Shuya's holographic head and shoulders poking out of it. "Nana, are you ok? Did you get hurt?" He sounded very worried. Just like You he looked rather bedraggled. Nana shook her head, while rubbing her arm. "You didn't have to be so rough," she hissed at You.

"I'm sorry. But we couldn't reach you and you left in such a hurry, I was about to call the police!"

"You're not a superhero, Nana," Shuya's hologram said sternly.

You have no idea, Nana thought.