20. Anomaly

It had been a week since Ellie had last attended school. Her final day had been the school trip, which had taken place on a thursday, but on friday she had been mysteriously absent. Hera didn't say a word about her during her daily morning greeting either.

The youngest three Cures were worried about her, but they had no means of contacting her. As far as they knew, Ellie had no phone, and they had no idea where she lived.

"Hera probably grounded her for helping Cure Static out," Rae proposed when they had met up the following saturday evening. The others supposed that was possible. Saiko wondered if they should be worried. Gogo shrugged and said surely Ellie would pop up again sooner or later. Rae wasn't too worried either. If anything, it meant less problems for them. Maybe they could re-focus their attention on the barrier, like Rae had been meaning to do for a while.

"Hera would know if we attacked the barrier," Nana said.

"And right now you're not strong enough to break it!" Bit added.

Nana told them about the 'ultimate Pretty Cure powers', and they talked about possible ways to unlock them.

"I remember the Ribbon Precure team from when I was a child. Near the end they looked very different, and they were a lot stronger… But I don't remember how they did that," Rae sighed. "It wasn't something they talked about in interviews, and it wasn't very clear how they accessed it from news stories or old footage; they'd just looked different one day."

Rae promised she'd look into the Ribbon team some more, and with that, they parted.

That evening Rae was sitting on her bed in her hotel room with all her Ribbon Precure memorabilia spread around her. Admittedly, she had been procrastinating on finding the information they needed, as looking back on all of her old merchandise brought back fond memories of when she was a child.

She had a lot of posters and pictures that were obviously posed, but she also had a few candid photographs. She was a lot more fond of them, as they had been gifts from her mother.

They mainly depicted the Cures mid-fight, or doing a finishing move. They were also the only material she owned that showed the monsters Ribbon fought. They were nothing like Glitches; they looked like plush animals with grotesquely deformed faces and extremities, and the Cures would defeat them by tying ribbons around them, which would return them to their original friendly and much smaller forms. Their size was the only thing they had in common with Glitches.

'Lucullans are created when a person's good intentions turn bad', Rae read in an article she had read a million times before. The article featured a little artist's depiction of a Lucullan; essentially an angry teddy bear with claws. Rae remembered how she always thought they looked a lot scarier on the photos.

Her eyes moved to the main visual that accompanied the article: A glorious photograph of the Ribbon Precure striking their signature pose. We don't really have one of those, she thought to herself. She tried to imagine her and the other three girls in various action-packed or glamorous poses, but none of them really seemed right. She looked at the photograph again.

There were three Ribbon Cures. The Charge Up team counted four Cures. Not being able to place anyone in the middle did make it rather hard to make a nice composition, she figured.

Wait, this wasn't why she was looking at all of her old memorabilia, she was supposed to look for clues to access their super forms!

She quickly shoved the magazine aside, and looked for any material she owned of the Ribbon Cures in their powered up forms. There's not a lot, she concluded.

She had one candid photograph of them in their ultimate form, but it was a highly overexposed photograph and it depicted the Cures as little more than floating orbs in a stark white sky.

Rae remembered that the call out for their team attack changed when they were in this form, but trying to remember what it was turned out to be rather difficult. They were barely ever in this form, now she thought of it.

'Tying up every evil into a neat little gift, Ribbon Pretty Cure!' Was their usual slogan, she remembered. And 'Triple-Knot Picot Edge' had been their normal finisher. What was the ultimate form one? She thumbed through a few of the magazines and turned over her posters.

She finally found something useful in a small, battered booklet that had been buried under newer and more colourful books that had fallen off her bed.

It listed the names of all the Cures, a bit of information about the enemies they fought that were known to the general public, and finally a page titled "glossary" with all of their attacks and introductions, including the ultimate form ones at the bottom.

The Ribbon Precure's ultimate form was known as "Sheer Brocade Form". Rae wondered if Bit had thought of a super form name for their team. Maybe I should think up something.

'Sheer Brocade, Unleash!' was how the Cures activated their ultimate form. That's odd, Rae thought to herself, their whole shtick was tying stuff up, why'd they untie something for their ultimate? She frowned and wondered if there was some deeper meaning in this activation sentence.

...Wasn't there something about unleashing their inner strengths?

She felt like she was onto something, like a faint bell was ringing in a faraway corner of her mind to indicate she was on the right track, but it was just outside of her grasp.

Cure Butterfly struggled with her inner feelings, she remembered. Butterfly had been a pink Cure, and the leader of her team. Heh, just like Cure Spark. Rae remembered reading about a falling out she'd had with her team members. 'Cure Butterfly leaves team: "I can't be a leader if I'm not honest to myself"'. The headline flashed in Rae's mind. She bit her lip. What had Butterfly meant, not being honest to herself?

She glanced at the magazines that had fallen on the floor. One cover featured a grainy picture of the team in the top corner. They were hugging. '"We all have inner darkness," Cure Butterfly reconciles with team"'.

Wait.

Rae grabbed the magazine off the floor and hastily looked for the page that went into detail on the event. The little bell in her head started ringing louder, and came within reach.

'Cure Butterfly accepts that no one is truly without a dark side, and that she is no less of a good person for thinking selfish thoughts occasionally. Accepting this side of herself has allowed her to access a stronger form, making her capable of defeating the strengthened Lucullans thought to be unbeatable until today.'

The article featured an artist's depiction of Butterfly's superform, noting that it was near impossible to photograph as the sheer power of light that surrounded Butterfly in this form overexposed them.

That's it! The Ribbon Cures accessed their ultimate powers by accepting certain flaws they had. That's why they'd 'unleash' their powers: They had accepted an unwanted part of themselves.

Wait, we don't have a team introduction, Rae realised to her horror. And we made up our own introductory phrases. How could she possibly find clues to their ultimate form if they didn't have those to provide them with clues? There was nothing about tying up evil or unleashing powers regarding the Charge Up team...

'The hero who fights for the good-hearted, Cure Circuit!'

That was her own introduction. Fit for a leader, she'd thought of the time when she came up with it, though by now she'd long since accepted that place was never intended to be hers.

Bit had come up with their attack phrase though, she thought to herself, though she also remembered it almost felt like she already knew what to call out when the moment presented itself without Bit telling her. 'Precure Charge Up, Override!'

She grumbled. They fought machines, how in the world could she apply 'overriding' something to herself. The Glitches weren't a representation of anyone's inner darkness either, they were just giant monsters created by an angry robot girl. Maybe their super forms were an app they had to install on their phones, or something inane like that.

As silly as it sounded, Rae sifted through the app-store on her phone anyway. Who knows.

"Rae, you have visitors."

The voice of Edward coming through the speakers in her bedroom ripped her from her thoughts.

"Who is it?" She asked, shooing the Precure related thoughts out of her mind.

"It's me and Mimi! Let us in!" Raina's voice came through the speakers.

"Oh, yeah, let them in," she replied as she hastily shoved all the magazines, posters and photos together and stuffed them under her bed.

"Were you taking a nap?"

Mimi and Raina had seated themselves on her sofa before she had the time to leave her bedroom.

"No I was just… Reading. Do you guys want drinks?"

"What were you reading?" Mimi asked, slumping on the sofa.

"Don't be so nosy," Raina scolded. "Just some water would be great!" she said cheerfully as she bounced around on the sofa.

"Have you got anything stronger," Mimi grumbled. She looked around the apartment, looking both bored and tired. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"He's helping out at the local high school. They've got an event tonight which includes a photo expo, and he tutored the kids who set it up."

"Wow, why would you willingly work with teenagers," Mimi croaked. "They're the worst age group. They're whiny, and they think they know everything, and they get mad over stupid stuff."

"Well, Mimi, you do an excellent job of imitating one every performance," Raina said with feigned sweetness. Mimi shot her a look full of hate.

"Guys, please," Rae tried to suss them. She really didn't have the energy to deal with their petty fighting right now.

"But she makes it so easy," Raina protested, "besides- oh, Rae, you've got something…"

She reached out and pulled something off the side of Rae's skirt. It was one of the polaroids Rae had kept on her bed. Raina studied it intently.

"Oh, Ribbon Precure! I've heard of them! They're like the Cures here, right? But from way back!"

"It wasn't that long ago," Mimi said. She sat up a little. "I remember them. Unlike you, I wasn't a baby when they were around. Are you a fan?" she asked Rae, in a slightly friendlier tone than the one she used when she addressed Raina.

"I loved them when I was a child," Rae admitted, blushing.

"I don't remember much of them, but my mother collected their stuff for me. They were my role models growing up."

Mimi cracked a rare, genuine smile. "That's very sweet. I liked them too. I was ten when they saved the world."

"They did what?" Raina sprang up from the sofa, netting her another annoyed look from Mimi. "Why's that not talked about more?"

"That was fifteen years ago. After that, they disappeared. People stopped talking about them after a while, since there was nothing new to say. I think they never tried to find who they really were out of respect for what they did for the world, so who knows where they are now." Mimi took a small sip from her glass while absentmindedly staring at the table.

"I wanted to be like them when I was young. Like Cure Butterfly, specifically. Kids in school would tease me by saying I couldn't be like her because she was so kind and happy, while I didn't smile much, but when she revealed she had her own inner demons I knew they were wrong. The Pretty Cure weren't perfect, and it was okay to have your faults. That really inspired me back then."

Raina opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. Good call, Rae thought. This was one of the rare moments Mimi was open towards them; it'd be in very poor taste to spoil it with a mean spirited joke.

"I'll admit, I thought you didn't like the Precure," Rae said after a moment of silence. "I remember you saying that if they weren't around, there wouldn't be any Glitches." Mimi shot her a slightly annoyed look, though it didn't hold nearly as much venom as her usual looks did.

"I'm just curious! I didn't mean anything by it," Rae quickly added.

Mimi chuckled. "I did say that, didn't I." She looked at the table, gathering her thoughts. Rae wondered if she should say something now she'd caught Mimi being contrarian for the sake of argument, but decided it wasn't the right time.

"I'm actually a little sad nobody suspects me of being a Pretty Cure here. They think it's you," Mimi gestured at Raina. "Maybe I should give more emotional speeches during our concerts."

Raina was about to say something when suddenly, with loud clattering and violent speed, the shutters on the windows came down. A few seconds later they heard a loud rattling noise battering the shutters from outside.

"What the hell was that?" Mimi said as she angrily wiped her shirt with her sleeve. The sudden commotion had caused her to spill her drink all over herself.

A voice unfamiliar to Rae, heavily distorted and unnatural sounding, came over Edward's speakers.

"The city of Clairewood is now in quarantine. You are not to attempt to leave your current place of residence. This quarantine is for your safety, please do not attempt to uncover your doors or windows.

Any trespasser will be dealt with accordingly. The city of Clairewood is now in quarantine. This has been a message from Cure-"

The announcement abruptly cut off. The three girls looked at each other in uncertainty.

"Cure? Cure who?" Raina said. "That didn't sound like any of them."

"Edward, can you put up the shutters," Rae asked in a calm voice.

Raina gaped at her, and Mimi protested. "The voice said not to!"

"It seems I have lost access to them. I apologise."

"That is unfortunate," Rae pondered. "Can you still access the security camera above the window?"

"I can. What would you like me to do?"

"Please show us what's going on outside."

"Of course."

The tv-screen turned on. On it they could see the city, which was decidedly darker than usual, with all the shutters down on all the buildings. It was raining. So that's what's making that racket on the shutters.

"I can't remember it raining ever since we got stuck here," Raina said quietly as they stared at the screen in amazement.

"Edward, can you angle the camera down a little?" Rae asked.

"Of course."

They now got a view of the streets right outside of the hotel. They were illuminated by the street lights and the occasional neon sign. Shadows skittered up and down the streets.

Raina gasped. "Are those people?!"

"They're locked out," Mimi said, slight worry in her voice. She shot a look at Rae.

"Do you think it's the Precure doing this?"

"Of course not!" Raina exclaimed. "They'd never do something like this!"

"The announcement ended with her signing off with 'Cure', in case you didn't notice," Mimi hissed, her eyes narrowed in disgust as she glared at Raina.

"That voice did not sound familiar," Rae said as she got up. She looked at the photo of the Ribbon Precure on the table.

Her phone went off. The caller ID told her it was Nana. She stared at the screen for a while, uncertain if she should pick it up with Raina and Mimi in the room with her. Before she could make the decision, the caller hung up. A few seconds later, she received a message.

[Nana: Rae you have to come outside. This is something we're gonna need the whole team for]

[Nana: I get it if you cant pick up if you have visitors but I don't think we can do this with an incomplete team]

[Rae: What is happening? Where are you?]

[Nana: Me and the others are preparing to break out of the school. Ellie got ahold of a Cure Bracelet]

"Ellie?" Rae mumbled.

"What's going on?" Raina asked her, but she didn't hear it. Nana sent a picture.

On it was a very blurry image of a girl in blue. Despite the blurriness of the picture, it was quite obvious she was wearing a Cure uniform, much like Rae's own. Her face was obscured by a mask, though it was impossible to make out the shape of the iconic cat's face all of their costumes wore.

[Nana: Bit is outside, he just sent us this. There's people outside trying to hide from her, we have to do something!]

Rae hesitated for a second, clutching the phone in her hands. No, this was too important. She couldn't leave the other three when they were asking for her help.

[Rae: I'll be right there.]

"Precure!"

A bright yellow light lit up the room as Rae held her phone up to her bracelet.

"W-what?" Mimi managed before being blinded by the light.

"I-it's you?!" she said, as now Cure Circuit had taken Rae's spot in the room.

Circuit looked over to her friends and put a finger on her lips. She wondered if her mask had vanished now they knew.

"Please don't tell anyone..."

With a single kick she knocked a window out of her apartment, taking part of the shutter with it.

"...And please stay inside while I'm gone, I promise I won't be long."

She found the others on a playground near the school. The rain had soaked her through, though she didn't feel cold.

"Do you know where she is?" Circuit asked Bit.

"She's roaming the inner city," he replied. "I think she's looking for stragglers…"

"Can you deactivate her powers? You've given us ours, maybe you can do something about her," she offered.

Bit frowned. "I can see there's a fifth Cure where there used to be four, but I can't get into her phone or her bracelet like with you guys. Whenever I try…" His eyes distorted like they would whenever he had to dig deep for certain information, but now it was accompanied by a worrying ticking and grating sound, like something inside of Bit wasn't quite functioning the way it was supposed to.

"Anomaly."

The voice that issued from Bit's speaker was nothing like his normal voice. It sounded like a computer's voice synthesizer reading out an error, devoid of emotion and lacking anything organic.

"That's what he said when he tried to access it earlier," Spark explained.

"Yeah, can we stop that now, it's creeping me out," Volt said. "He can't disable her powers, we get it."

"Well, what are we standing around for? Time to find her and stop this nonsense!" Static said.

Spark looked at her, and nodded. "You are right, but maybe we should think of a strategy first. I've got a feeling this isn't going to be easy."

Circuit had to agree she felt a sense of dread about facing Ellie. She'd always thought it would eventually come to a proper confrontation with Hera's daughter, no Glitches, just her, but not so sudden.

"Yeah, I didn't think she'd turn against us after she helped me at the park," Static said. "But we can't leave the city like this!"

Spark nodded. "You're right, but… Think about what she did. She put the entire city under quarantine in mere seconds. We don't have the power to do that, and there's four of us." Spark crossed her arm and looked around, as if waiting for suggestions from the other Cures.

"Maybe we can talk to her," Volt proposed. "I don't know if it will work, but we don't really have time to think of a strategy, there's people running around outside, and she said they'd be dealt with accordingly… Whatever that means. But probably nothing good."

Spark gave Volt a pondering look, but nodded. "You're right. We have to confront her, whether we're ready or not. We should probably go there with drawn weapons, just to be safe."

And so they went.

The darkness of the night and the rain that poured down on them made the streets of inner Clairewood look like an 1980s neo-noir film. The faint glow of the lights on their outfits and weapons reflected on the streets that were now covered in a thin layer of water. There was no sound but the patter of the rain around them, and the splashing of their boots as they moved. Everything felt oddly solemn, like the four of them were the only ones in the city.

"I wonder why she's doing this." Static's husky voice broke the silence around them. Maybe talking would ease the invisible weight that seemed to be bearing down on all four of them.

"Maybe she's trying to make us look bad. She did call herself a Cure," Circuit proposed.

"I hope not," Volt said, sounding dejected. Volt is still keeping faith we can convince Ellie to join our side, Circuit thought.

"What I want to know is where she got that bracelet."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Spark momentarily tense up, though she quickly regained her composure.

"If she was made by the same person who made Bit, it's not that strange of an idea she could get ahold of one, right? Or maybe she made one?" she said quickly.

"Ellie can't make Cure Bracelets!" Bit cut in. "She is smart, but she is not that smart. It takes some very special skills to make Cure artifacts," he added.

"Then where did this Cure 'Anomaly' get hers from?"

A man came bolting towards them before any of them could say anything else. He was in such a hurry he nearly tripped. When he saw the four Cures in front of him, he stopped, looking horror-stuck, and attempted to run another way.

"Hey, wait!" Spark shouted at him, but he didn't listen. He shot into an alley. Spark tried to follow him, but gave up quickly when she realised there'd be no point in chasing him down. "We're not with her!" She shouted after him.

"This is bad," Static said darkly.

"Maybe it's just because we're walking around with our weapons drawn?" Volt suggested, pointing at the crossbow mounted on her wrist.

"I hope you're right," Static replied, inspecting her hammer, which so far she'd been casually wearing over her shoulder, with some worry. "But you gotta admit, someone who calls herself a Cure locking down the whole city isn't gonna look good on us."

"It's not us. We know it's not and that's all that matters right now." Spark rejoined the group, with her broadsword still proudly drawn.

Circuit agreed. "We can deal with our PR once this is over. We should focus on finding Ellie and dealing with her first."

"Uh, guys," Volt said, her voice shrill and loaded with anxiety. She pointed a weak finger in front of her, behind Circuit and Spark, who were facing Volt and thus could not see what was behind them.

When Circuit turned around, she felt a similar rush of emotions, anxiety mixed with excitement. She clenched her fists and straightened her back, trying to not show any fear to the person standing roughly sixty feet away from them.

Electric blue lights illuminated the asphalt Anomaly was standing on. She was standing perfectly still, almost unnaturally so, like she'd been standing in that exact spot for ages and the Cures somehow hadn't noticed her. Her hair, though partially obscured by the mask, looked quite a bit shorter than Ellie's normal hair, and ended in slightly upturned spikes, coloured a deep blue with a bright cyan inside, as if lighting shot through it.

What was most disturbing about her, however, was her mask.

It barely resembled a cat's face, as it kept glitching and changing shape, though it never uncovered its wearers face.

"Quick, Volt, shoot it, because I'm not going near that… that thing," Circuit heard Static whisper to Volt behind her.

Spark took a single step forward, and before any of them could do anything else Anomaly suddenly shot towards them at inhuman speed. Circuit saw her fists flash brightly right before they hit the flat of Spark's sword.

The impact was so great it pushed Spark back; Volt and Circuit jumped aside but Static stood behind Spark, trying to help her catch the blow.

"Ellie, you don't have to-"

Anomaly removed her hands from the sword and shook them, as if shaking rain off her fingertips, and immediately tried to punch Spark again. Circuit now noticed she was wearing gauntlets on both hands.

Spark managed to catch the first blow, but she missed the one Anomaly aimed at her right arm, causing her to drop the blade.

"Please stop!" Bit tried to interfere. For a moment he managed to divert Anomaly's attention off the Cures. She jerked her head to the side to look at him, and like her mask, Bit's eyes began to Glitch out.

"A...no...ma...ly…" he uttered in that same eerie robotic voice, and he fell to the ground, his display turned off.

"Bit!" Volt shouted.

During the distraction Spark had managed to grab her sword again, and she held it in front of her defensively.

"How could you!" Static shouted. She ran towards Anomaly, jumped up, ready to slam down her hammer on the intruder Cure, but Anomaly caught the hammer and swung it around, flinging Static across the street.

"I'm sorry," Volt mumbled through tears as she pointed first at the sky, then at Anomaly, and soon neon-green arrows materialized and rained down on her by the dozens. Anomaly simply held up an arm, and the arrows seemed to break down on a shield just a few inches from her body.

"What do we do? Nothing works!" Static said as she ran back to them. She grabbed Bit and put him in a nearby flower bed, hopefully out of harm's way.

"Don't give up yet," Circuit said, as she drew her staff. Brute force didn't seem to work, so maybe this would…

She got a little closer to Anomaly, who was still warding off the arrows, and slammed the butt of her staff on the ground. The shockwaves that appeared left the Cures unharmed but Anomaly grabbed her head and crouched down, as if she was in pain.

"Quick! Try to purify her!" Spark waved at everyone to assemble.

"Override!" They shouted in unison as the blast of colours hit Anomaly straight on.

"I don't think that worked," Static said while they were still standing in formation, earning her a glare from Volt.

"Why would you say that?! Why wouldn't it work?!" She shouted shrilly. Fighting Ellie seemed to take a real toll on her. Meanwhile Spark kept staring resolutely ahead, at the spot where Anomaly sat, now surrounded by purifying light.

When the light wore off, she hadn't detransformed.

There was no silver-skinned girl with a messy ponytail in place of the absurdly strong Cure they had been fighting just before. Still huddled down, Anomaly remained.

"I told you," Static hissed.

When Anomaly moved her arms in preparation to get up, Circuit noticed one thing had changed: Her mask had vanished.

And when she got up, Circuit noticed another thing.

Anomaly wasn't Ellie at all.

Nana dropped her sword and stumbled forward.

"Y-Yon?" She stammered, all confidence vanished from her voice.

The girl standing in front of them had a blank expression on her face. Her eyes were a bright violet, and her pupils were surrounded by a glowing blue ring. On her right temple sat a small, black device. Wait, that's the singer from our opening act, Circuit realised. That explains why her band bailed on us…

"This is my fault," Spark said, her voice cracking. Circuit had never seen her like this. Anomaly didn't really seem to care about Spark's emotions, and promptly geared up to strike anew.

"Spark!" Volt shouted as Spark didn't move out of the way of the blow. She caught it with her arms, though her face had lost any of its previous determination. She just looked remorseful.

"I shouldn't have given you that bracelet," she said to Anomaly. Anomaly said nothing.

"Who is that," Static asked Volt.

"Yon is one of Nana's best friends, she's like her big sister," Volt explained. "When she was turned into a Docile by Hera, Nana gave her a blank Cure Bracelet in the hopes it'd snap her out of it, but that didn't work…"

"What?! Why didn't I know about that?" Static shouted.

"I didn't either," Circuit interjected, "and like our reputation it really doesn't matter right now. We'll get to it later."

"But-"

Circuit raised a brow. "I think this is a 'tsunami' moment, Gogo," she whispered to Static with a small smile.

Static let out a frustrated growl, and spat: "Fine!"

In the meantime Spark was still weakly defending herself against Anomaly, all the while muttering apologies. When she'd finally dropped her arms, tired from the dozen blows they had withstood so far, Anomaly got ready to punch her again, only for Static to jump between them just in time. She shoved Anomaly away with her hammer, and pushed Spark out of the way with her free arm.

"Get a grip!" she shouted. "Self pity doesn't help anyone: Not you, or us, or Yon!"

When Anomaly charged at Volt, she managed to catch her punches with her open hands.

"Arrows!" Volt squeaked, her right index finger outstretched, and a volley of arrows appeared behind Anomaly. She groaned in pain as they hit her; the first sound she'd made since she'd confronted the Cures, but she didn't stop trying to push Volt down.

The gauntlet on her right arm suddenly sparked. The blue light went over Volt's crossbow, and it disappeared, as did the arrows.

Before Anomaly could do anything else Circuit tackled her to the ground, and tried to hold her down, while Volt stumbled and looked at her arm in confusion.

"She deactivated my crossbow! I can't get it to come back!"

As Circuit struggled with Anomaly, that same spark reappeared. Circuit momentarily loosened her grip in surprise, giving Anomaly the chance to hit her in the face with the back of her fist. Circuit let go and Anomaly got up in a flash, bounding towards Static.

Circuit held her face and felt her nose grow hot… Was she bleeding? They had been fighting metal giants for months, and this normal-sized, flesh-and-blood human was the one who managed to give her, a superpowered Cure, a nosebleed…?

That doesn't matter right now, she thought as she hurried to get up. She tried to summon her staff, but like Volt's crossbow, nothing happened.

"She can deactivate our weapons!" Static shouted, now without her hammer. "What the hell do we do?"

"Use your fists!" Static said. "We can't use weapons but we still have super strength. If you hit her I'm sure she'll go down!"

"No!" Spark screamed. "You can't do that to Yon!"

Volt ran towards Spark but was overtaken by Anomaly, who bounded towards Spark. For a moment Circuit thought she would let Anomaly take her power from her without any resistance, but she caught her gauntlets with her sword again.

"Guys, get over here! I need your support!" She said.

The blue spark reappeared, but Spark's broadsword did not deactivate.

"Hurry, I don't know how long I can stop her," she said through clenched teeth.

To be honest, Circuit wasn't quite sure what Spark expected them to do. Volt made her way over and stood next to Spark, but it didn't seem like she was sure either.

Static did, however. "She'll have to reel again soon," she said to Circuit. "When she does, we'll each grab one of her arms, okay?"

"Okay," Circuit replied. And then what, arrest her? Then again, she had no ideas of her own, so it couldn't hurt to go along with Spark and Static's plan.

Spark dropped her sword down, Anomaly prepared for a hit, and Static screamed: "Now!"

The two of them ran for it. Anomaly stumbled as each of them grabbed one of her arms and jerked them down. She yelped, and for a brief moment Circuit felt bad, as the force she'd used was enough to dislocate any normal person's arm. "Sorry," Static mumbled, who had also been a little too rough while restraining Anomaly.

Volt awkwardly moved behind Circuit and Volt now she understood Spark's plan, and helped the two hold Anomaly's arms behind her.

"Now what," Static said, her eyes peeking out just above Anomaly's shoulder, on tiptoes in an attempt to look at Spark.

"Just hold her back."

"You're not gonna try to talk her out of it, right? She's a docile, that's not gonna work."

"I know! I'm not. Do you think I would've given her the bracelet if I thought I could just talk her out of brainwashing?"

"S-sorry," Static mumbled.

Spark took a deep breath, and then closed her fingers around the black chunk on Anomaly's temple. Blue sparks started flying as she tried to remove it, and Anomaly violently tried to shake loose, but the grip of three Cures was stronger than her own. Volt squeezed her eyes shut and looked down, which covered her face with her hair. Spark didn't seem to be faring much better, her eyes brimming with tears which she was fighting to keep them from escaping.

"I'm so sorry," she said in a broken voice, though her determination had returned.

"I'm so sorry she did this to you."

Anomaly growled, but said nothing.

The blue sparks hit Spark's armor. Her chest plate vanished, and so did the hair decorations and the bracelet on her left arm. For a brief moment Spark was clad in a simple pink dress, her golden eyes the only indicator she wasn't a regular girl.

Then a bright gold and pink light briefly enveloped her and burst apart into a million sparks of its own. But unlike Anomaly's, these sparks were warm and gentle, and made Circuit feel at peace (though thankfully not enough to loosen her grip on the struggling Anomaly). It stopped raining.

Spark had changed. The armor was back on her dress, but it looked more elaborate. The wings that sprouted from the cat emblem on the front had doubled, and Spark looked altogether more angelic. She seemed to be emitting a glow.

"What was that," Static said in wonder.

"It'll be okay now," Spark said to Anomaly. With one swift move she removed the device from her head, and simultaneously Anomaly went limp. With a quick flash she de-transformed. Circuit caught her and gently knelt down to properly support Yon, who'd lost consciousness.

"You… You did it!" Volt said in awe. "The ultimate form!"

Spark looked at her herself, as she hadn't noticed the change. "I did? But I have no idea how," she added, laughing awkwardly.

"Whoa, what happened?" A voice came from a nearby flowerbed.

"Oh Bit, thank God you're okay."

He hovered over to the Cures. Circuit smiled up at her friends, happy this nightmarish ordeal was finally over, until she felt something warm dripping on her thighs.

The rain had stopped the moment Nana reached her ultimate form, why was it still…? She looked down, and gasped.

"We need to get to the hospital immediately," she said, lifting Yon up in a bridal carry and trying to support her head as well as she could.

Volt covered her mouth when she saw the wound on Yon's temple. Spark looked at the hand in which she had been holding the Docile device, and saw to her horror that it was covered in blood.

"It's not far, I know the way!" Static said. "Follow me!" They followed Static as fast as they could without putting any stress on Yon. When they got to the hospital, everything was still covered in shutters.

"This is ridiculous, why does a hospital even have those!" Static swore.

Spark silently summoned her broadsword and walked up to the entrance. With one slash she took off the shutters, and most of the front entrance.

Inside they were met by very frightened looking personnel. "Please, we need your help," Spark said. Circuit stepped forward with Yon.

"She had a docile… thing in her head and I ripped it out, I didn't… Please help!"

After a few minutes some personnel returned with a stretcher and helped Circuit gently lay Yon down on it. "We will do what we can," a nurse assured the Cures.

A weak "thank you" was all Spark could manage. "Can… Can I wait for her?"

"Spark, don't you think it's better to inform her family? Since we don't know her and all," Circuit interjected. She meant for it to be helpful, but she knew how cold it sounded, and she felt a sting when Spark turned around to look at her with a very hurt expression on her face. She had stopped fighting the tears and they were now freely rolling down her cheeks.

"Y-yes," she nodded. With that, they left the hospital.

"Is it me or was everyone inside terrified of us," Static said.

"All they knew was that a Cure put the city in lockdown, and then we suddenly break down the door holding a girl with a giant hole in her head. I can see why they'd be afraid," Spark said. Her sadness had been replaced with anger.

"Oh god, so now we have to convince everyone we're not the bad guys?" Static let out a groan of frustration. "Really clever, Hera!" She shouted at the sky. "Can't wait to see how you spin this one! You can put up the shutters now. Maybe replace them with giant billboards; I can see them now: Precure maim innocent girl, terrorise the city!"

"This is the last straw," Spark muttered. Circuit was the only one who stood close enough to hear, as Static was too occupied with shouting at the sky and Volt was trying to get her to stop.

"She used a docile against us. She put a defenseless human in the way of harm, just for her disgusting propaganda!" She clenched her fists.

She had since returned to her normal Cure form, though Circuit had been too preoccupied with the injured Yon to pinpoint when that exactly happened.

"Spark," Circuit said in a calm voice. She put a hand on her shoulder, and could practically feel Spark shaking with rage. She looked at Circuit with a look full of fire.

"If she won't show herself to us, I will show myself to her."

"Spark, no, you can't do that," Circuit protested.

"Why not? I'm tired of waiting! I will keep in contact with you, and then we can storm her fort or whatever, and-"

"Let me do it."

Spark looked at Circuit with a stunned expression. "What?"

"My friends already know. Right before I left, I transformed in front of them; I had no choice. If any of us is going to reveal her true identity to Hera, let it be me."

Spark studied her for a second, stunned in silence.

"Trust in me. If Raina or Mimi so much as text someone about me, Hera will find out. If you go, she will have the identity of two Cures. If it's me, she'll have only me. Please trust me," she repeated.

It took a moment, but after a few moments Spark nodded. It was a jerky, uncertain nod, but a sign of agreement regardless.

"Fine, then don't answer me!"

Static finished her one-sided shouting match with the sky.

"I now understand why your voice is so raspy," Volt sighed, exasperated.

"Oh my gosh, wasn't that just terrifying?" The shutters on the buildings went up.

Circuit's heart skipped a beat. This was her moment.

"I hope you are all okay. Now you see what happens when those Cures lose control…"

"Oh, now she shows up." Static rolled her eyes.

Circuit saw people standing in the windows, and some of them stepped outside, though the ones who did quickly hurried back in when they saw the Cures standing in the street.

The billboards in the street changed from adverts to cctv footage. Circuit didn't have to look at them to know they were edited in such a way that it made the Cures look like villains.

"Look at that! Dociles are the most peaceful humans in this city, and this is how the Precure think they should be treated."

The screens showed blurry footage of the moment Spark ripped the docile device out of Yon's head. You could barely make her out, she was so bright. The same shot repeated several times.

"Such violence," Hera helpfully commentated.

"Don't worry Spark, after the fifteenth or so time of seeing yourself do something 'evil' you kinda get used to it." Static patted Spark on the shoulder. Spark was still seething.

Hera kept up her spiel about the atrocities the Precure were committing and how she hoped this night had finally opened everyone's eyes, when Circuit started shouting up at her. She felt kind of silly, screaming at the empty, black sky, but where else could she look? Hera was everywhere, the sky seemed appropriate.

"What are you doing?" Static said, but Circuit kept going.

"Look at me, Hera! This is what you want, right? A direct connection with the Precure? Didn't I tell you we should talk, back at the stadium? Well, I'm ready to talk!"

When Hera just kept on talking, Circuit decided she'd had enough.

She took a deep breath, told herself it didn't matter anymore, and de-transformed.

She heard Static and Volt yell out in protest behind her.

"Will you listen to me now? I want to talk to you! No more secrets. It's me! Rae Rivers is Cure Circuit!"

Hera stopped.

"What have we here."

The billboards changed to display one of Hera's housewives. Rae decided to focus on one of them instead of the sky. At least the picture had a pair of eyes she could look into.

"I want to talk to you, at your house," she said calmly, walking towards the board.

She heard shuffling behind her, followed by Spark saying: "No, it's okay," as she stopped Volt from reaching Rae.

"Good. You can go home. I know where to find you."

And with that, Hera vanished. Rae looked back to her friends. She'd expected Hera to say more, and the other girls and Bit also looked a little confused.

"Let's go home. I'll update you when I can," Rae said.

"If Hera comes to you, maybe we can ambush her, and-"

"No." Rae shook her head. "I'll try talking to her. I think there's a chance we can resolve this peacefully. If things go haywire, I'll let you know, and then we can fight her."

Nobody said anything to that. They parted.

The walk home was very surreal for Rae. She saw people looking out the windows at her here and there, and in one street, a child shouted something at her from a window, but it was hard to make out if it was praise or an insult.

When Rae walked through the park to her building, where there were no frightened onlookers, something happened. Rae did not come home that night.