Author's notes: in order to really understand what's going on with what lead up to the events here, you need to read the previous stories in this series. Details on my profile page.

…..

Classes had ended on Monday and Raven's attack force (minus Ashlynn and Melody, who would join them later) had gathered outside the school, ready to go into the woods and begin training. Sparrow had agreed to let them train in the patch of the woods around the treehouse he lived in instead of a dorm.

Daring had taken Cedar to the school's weapon's locker so she could pick a weapon to use. After looking over the selection, Cedar decided to go with a long-handled war hammer that she was able to use well due to her being stronger than a human.

Daring had checked out the war hammer and would return it later, claiming he was doing some hextra-curricular practice with it. As long as he checked it back in at the end of the day, this wouldn't arise any suspicion.

"Four others will be meeting up with us," Raven told the group as they began walking towards the woods.

"What others?" Duchess asked, not liking this sudden development.

"You'll see," Raven answered. They walked for a few minutes and then met up with who Raven mentioned: Meiling, Finelope in her magic carpet apolstered wheelchair, Kamen Rider Star Knight (actually Darling Charming) and the White Knight (really Jillian Beanstalk). Finelope had her spell rifle and bandolier of energy capsules with her while Meiling had a straight sword at her side and a staff ending with a curved blade on her back.

"Why's Finelope here?" Duchess asked rudely. "The only way she could help is by beaching herself onto someone."

"You should fairy careful what you say around me," Finelope coldly stated as she aimed the rifle at Duchess. "Hexspecially while I have this."

"What kind of weapon is that?" Dexter asked.

"This kind," Finelope answered as she shot a bolt of green energy near Duchess's feet, causing everyone's eyes to widen in shock.

"Finelope, please don't shoot Duchess," Raven said. "At least until I so: then you can go nuts."

"Okay," Finelope agreed as she lowered the rifle.

"And please tell me you brought the things I wanted," Raven said.

"I did," Finelope answered as she reached into a big bag strapped to the back of her wheelchair and took out the magic bow and the sheathed charge blade.

"Who the hex are the other three?" Sparrow asked. "Start with the muscular Chinese girl."

"That's Meiling," Finelope spoke up. "She's a friend of my roommate is a serious fitness nut."

"The silvery Kamen Rider," Raven began, "is named Star Knight. I met her on an adventure I had a while ago. She's kind of my sidekick. And the armor is a suit that Dexter let me use an artifact on it to make it move on it's own."

Those were the cover stories Raven had decided to go with for Jillian and Darling. She couldn't tell the truth about Jillian being inside the armor because that would lead to questions about how she got the armor from Darling and what Darling was doing with it earlier, then it wouldn't take long for Darling's secret to come out. Jillian even went the hextra mile by duct taping her mouth shut so she wouldn't make any grunts or other noises that would destroy the illusion of no one being inside the armor.

"With that out of the way," Raven started as she took the charge blade from Apple and walked towards Cupid, "I want you to give this a try. press this," Cupid took the blade and pressed the switch on the side as instructed, causing the magical blade to materialize.

"Wow," Cupid said as she performed a few practice swings. "I can work with this."

"Change if you need to," Raven said to the group as she materialized her belt and focused her magic into her right hand. "Henshin," she cried out as she put the magic into the belt, turning into Kamen Rider Nocturnal.

Maddie reached into her hat and took out her Astro Switch. She pressed it and turned into the Cassiopeia zodiart. Duchess closed her eyes, called upon the cosmic energy inside her and turned into the Cygnus zodiart.

Cerise, Daring, Hunter, Briar and Dexter got together and raised their right forearms vertically in front of them. As they did this, a tattoo like symbol appeared on each one of their hands of their Dremora spirit animal.

"Spirit unity," the five of them cried out at once. This caused their Dremora spirits to pop out of their backs, travel in an arc back towards them. When the Dremora returned to their bondmates, this caused them to be enveloped by bright flashes of colored light that donned them in their Dremoranger suits.

"Wow," Cedar said, impressed by the group transformation.

"So glad I passed on that," Sparrow muttered, finding the suits to look ridiculous but not wanting to antagonize everyone else by sharing that opinion.

"Do you guys have any ideas what your abilities are?" Apple asked.

"Yeah," Dremora Green answered. "I'm not sure how I know this but we all get these special bows." Dremora Green summoned a green bow to appear in his right hand and the other Dremorangers also summoned matching bows. As a demonstration, Dremora Green drew back the bow which caused a metal arrow to materialize. He aimed at a nearby tree and let go, the arrow hitting its mark and then dematerialzing.

The other Dremorangers also drew their bows and aimed at the same tree. Blue and Yellow's arrows also hit the tree due to previous hexperience with archery but Red and Pink's arrows missed.

"It's not as easy as it looks," Apple said from past hexperience.

"We also get individual weapons," Dremora Pink said as she summoned her weapon: a large pink yo-yo with a silouhette of a fox on both sides. "My Vixy Yo-yo may not look like much but looks can be deceiving." She threw out the yo-yo, causing a pink energy aura to appear around it. It hit a nearby tree, causing an impressive thud that shook some leaves from the top.

The other Dremorangers dispelled their bows and summoned their personal weapons: Blue had a mace with a blue handle, Green had an axe with a green handle that was long enough for him to grip with both hands if he wanted, Yellow had two yellow and black gauntlets that ended in lion heads larger than his fists and lastly, Red had two red-handled knives with curved, black blades.

WIth that out of the way, everyone began training in their own ways. The Dremorangers began practicing with their weapons, Star Knight and the White Knight began practicing sword fighting with Star Knight giving pointers. Raven summoned her magical duplicate, Maggie, and began sparring with her. Finelope, Cedar and Cupid began practing with their weapons.

Apple and Meiling went over to Finelope and took out items from the bag on her wheelchair. Apple took out a quiver of arrows while Meiling took out a chinese weapon called a meteor hammer. Apple strapped on the quiver and also put on a pair of sunglasses that were actually her prescribtion glasses with the lenses tinted red. Each of them began practicing with these weapons, Apple putting aside using the magic bow's ability to bestow special effects on its arrows to focus on brushing up on her archery skills. Sparrow went into his treehouse and took out two short swords to practice with them.

"You're not going to use a bow?" Apple asked.

"Nah," Sparrow replied. "I've never really gotten the hang of archery."

"That doesn't surprise me: archery requires focus and discipline, which are not traits I'd associate with you."

"Pfff, you sound like my dad."

While this went on, Maddie and Duchess got used to their zodiart forms: Maddie practiced with her ice powers and swinging her scepter like a club while Duchess tried to adapt her ballet skills into a fighting style.

A few minutes into practice, the group was joined by their last two members: Ashlynn and Melody.

"I think I missed a lot," Melody said as she looked around and saw some strange looking people that she didn't recognize. Nocturnal stopped practicing with Maggie to greet them.

"I'm guess that's Hunter and everyone else," Ashlynn said as she pointed towards the Dremorangers, "and I recognize Maddie but not the knight, the smaller knight or the swan thing."

"The swan thing is Duchess," Nocturnal answered. "She had a serious side effect to something Evan did." Nocturnal then repeated the cover stories for the white knight and Star Knight. "What did you two get?"

"I brought this," Melody said as she held up a gold flute. "It's a magic flute my dad got before I was born. If it works, it will strengthen up to three people close to me."

"And I got this wand," Ashlynn began as she held it up, "from Farrah. She was kind enough to let me borrow her spare when I mentioned it was to stop Evan. Unfortunately, I can't do much with it cause I'm not a magical being but I'll do my best."

Nocturnal directed Melody to see what her flute could do for Sparrow and Meiling. Melody walked towards Meiling and her eyes widened in shock when she got a good look at the Chinese girl.

"I take it I'm the most muscular girl you've ever seen," Meiling said with a smile while she flexed her right arm, producing a small but firm bicep.

Melody then noticed all the weapons she had.

"Do you think you brought enough weapons?" Melody asked sarcastically.

"No but this all I can carry," Meiling answered, ignoring or not noticing the sarcasm. She motioned Sparrow to come over to them. When they were close, she played the flute. While there was no visible effect, this wasn't the same as nothing happening.

"I feel great!" Sparrow hexlaimed as energy surged through him. He and Meiling resumed practicing with their weapons, moving almost twice as fast as before.

Ahylynn used the wand to shoot out sparkling blasts of energy. After a few shots, she tried using the wand telekinetically move small rocks.

After about twenty minutes of practice, two white lights appeared around Duchess. The lights went into her hands and turned into two bladed fans that were made of segments that looked like white feathers. Duchess was confused as to why this happened but was enjoying having new weapons.

"Raven," Duchess called out, got her attention and showed the fan blades. "I just got these and don't know why. Any ideas?"

"Zodiarts sometimes get new weapons and abilities," Nocturnal began, "depending on their personalities."

"Ah," Duchess said in understanding. "So that's why these look like ones that were used by a female character in a martial arts film I saw last week."

I'll have to thank Hopper later, she thought. Shad heard Hopper talk about how great martial arts films were and decided to watch one at the small theater in Asia Town. She got a better look at the fan blades and took a few practice swings. A combination of gracefulness and deadliness: my two favorite of all the -nesses.

...

While this was going on, Evan's cabal had gathered at the same spot they used earlier.

"We're going to add some members to our group," Evan said as he addressed Hopper, Lizzie and Blondie. "I need the three of you to close your eyes and think about how much you want Raven to pay."

The three of them did as instructed while Evan took out three metal coins called Cell Medals. He threw them at his allies' foreheads, which caused slots to appear there before the coins went inside them. A moment later, a grey humanoid that was wrapped in what looked like white bandages emerged from each of them.

Evan closed his eyes and focused his magic into making these creatures evolve into their next forms. The one from Hopper changed into a light green mantis monster with antennae, small leg-like appendages on the face and torso that was wielding two sickles made to look like a mantis's bladed arms. The one from Blondie turned into a white creature with a red face that had furred arms and legs as well as a furred hood that looked like an owl's head and a short white cape that looked to be made of white feathers. The one from Lizzie became a muscular brown monster with an ant's head and six small bug legs along the torso.

"What the hex," Hopper shouted at this strange sight.

"These creatures are called yummies," Evan began. "They are manifestations of your desire to fight Raven."

"You realize how weird that sounds, right?" Blondie asked.

"I know, I just don't care," Evan said gleefully, pleased to show of his monster making capabilities.