Chương 2: Stalking

"Mary! Mary!" shouted Natasha. Mary's eyes fluttered open as she gradually reclaimed her grip on consciousness.

"Is this the afterlife?" she mumbled.

"But I didn't finish my exams..."

"Mary! Thank goodness!" exclaimed Natasha, lifting her defeated colleague from the ground and squeezing her in a tight hug.

"I'm... alive? But... What happened? How did we win?"

"You didn't," flatly stated William.

"You fainted, and then he just... left."

"Pardon?"

"I said, he just left. You passed out and your transformation broke while you were still tied up, but he just chuckled, dispelled your bindings, caught you as you fell, gently lowered you to the floor, then ignored you all and walked away. He talked to that woman from the bar for a bit, then helped her into a taxi and walked off in the opposite direction. That was about half an hour ago, before any of you woke up. He hasn't attacked anyone else since, thank goodness."

"But... that makes no sense. He had us at his mercy. Why didn't he finish us off?" asked Mary, sitting up.

"Eww. I fell into a puddle. My skirt is sodden."

"Uh... That's not a puddle," said Natasha carefully.

"Sorry."

"Then what is it?" asked Mary, before noticing the off-yellow colouring and familiar aroma.

"Oh..."

"From what William described, you must have been very scared. I can't imagine what that must have been like."

"Thanks for the reassurance, but it's okay. It's funny. We've been in some tight spots before, but I've always known, deep down, that we'd be fine. That all we needed to do was work together and try our best, and we'd pull through. This time... that feeling just wasn't there. There was nothing but terror and helplessness. Enough terror that I passed out, apparently, because even if he stopped me breathing, it wasn't for long enough for me to suffer oxygen deprivation.

I looked into his face, and I knew that I was going to die."

"Well, I'm glad that you didn't," said Natasha, leaning in for another hug despite her friend's urine-drenched clothing.

"I'm glad none of us died, or even took serious injuries," said Tracy, who was a little distance away, carefully inspecting Stacy's neck.

"As far as I can see, Stacy only has some light bruising."

"Light... bruising...?" asked Stacy quietly.

"Talking... hurts..."

"With our rapid healing, you'll be fine in an hour or two. Just rest your voice for now. But I echo Mary; why didn't he kill us?"

"He didn't think he needed to?" suggested Natasha.

"Maybe he thought we were so far beneath him that we weren't worth his time?"

"That may be, but then why didn't he finish off the lady he was draining? He was acting as if he attacked her specifically to lure us, and he treated the entire encounter as some sort of test."

"He wanted to test if my power worked on him, and if his worked on me," confirmed Mary.

"And the answers were not good. How is that even possible?"

"I don't know," answered William.

"I sensed nothing from him but pure evil. There wasn't a shred of light in him. Nothing that should be capable of resisting your powers. I agree that he considered the encounter a test, though. At the beginning, he seemed almost scared of you. It wasn't until he took Mary's attack head-on without a scratch that he began acting confident."

"He seemed to think you should know," pointed out Mary.

"He accused you of not telling us."

"Well, I don't. Maybe he was trying to drive a wedge between us, or maybe it's something only he thinks is obvious."

"Not much point playing mind games with us when he can finish us off at a whim," said Tracy.

"True, but I can't think of anything obvious he could do. Your powers exist to erase evils like him. It's their entire purpose. He can't just make himself immune."

"We should stalk him!" declared Natasha.

"Hmm? Why?"

"It's Saturday tomorrow, so let's follow him around all day and see what he's up to. If it's something he thinks is obvious, maybe we can spot it."

"Huh, so Nat does come up with good plans once in a while," said William.

"Hey!"

"I agree. Me and Stacy should be the ones to do it, though," said Tracy.

"With just two of us it'll be easier to hide, Mary needs time to recover, and Nat wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut and would be distracted by every cafe we walk past."" Hey! I mean, true, but still... Hey!"

"I'm fine, honestly," said Mary, who had either not noticed or was ignoring the way she was still trembling slightly.

"I just had a bit of a fright. But yes, I agree a smaller team would be less conspicuous. Can you track him, William?"

"Yup. Now that I've seen him, there's no way he can hide from me! He's currently about eight miles in that direction." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The Earth spirit pointed.

"... That abandoned factory outside of town again?" asked Tracy.

"Yes, it's about the right direction and distance," agreed Mary.

"Seriously? Why do they all end up there?!" complained Natasha.

"The place is spooky."

"We should consider trapping the building," said Tracy, adding, "What?" when the other girls turned to stare at her.

"Seems a bit dangerous," said Natasha.

"If our enemies aren't going to play fair, then neither should we," Tracy countered.

"And on a related note, we should transform before we rush into an encounter, not after."

"But if we run through the city in our magical girl costumes, we'll be seen," said Natasha.

"What if someone figures out our secret identities? I don't want paparazzi chasing me around! Banes aren't allowed to attack us while we're transforming!"

"They aren't allowed to steal energy from people, either, but that hasn't stopped them before. Personally, I think it's weirder that they normally wait for us."

"You don't need to worry about people figuring out your identities, for the same reason you don't need to worry about your hair being conspicuous," admitted William.

"I agree with Tracy. From now on, make sure you're transformed before you encounter this new Bane."

"Why would my hair be conspicuous?" asked Natasha, taking hold of a lock of her unnatural yellow, pulling it around in front of her eyes and staring at it in incomprehension.

"Never mind. My point is that you can run through the city transformed, and your powers will cause people to... well, it's not that they won't see you. They just won't think they've seen anything strange or noteworthy."

"Huh. Cool. In that case, let's go home for the night."

"What? No mention of ice cream?" asked Mary.

"I'm... really not in the mood," sighed Natasha.

"... Once I catch up with this Bane, I'm going to wring his neck," stated Stacy, who had recovered somewhat while the others were conversing.

"He broke Nat!" And so, the following day, a pair of incredibly conspicuous girls in impractical frilly dresses crouched behind a bush, staring between the branches at a handsome gentleman as he proffered a hand to an elderly lady. She took it, smiling thankfully as he led her across the road.

"What?" asked Stacy. Transformed into magical girl Resilient Nature, she wore a green dress of similar shape to Graceful Aqua's, except woven from leaves. Vines replaced ribbons and webs replaced lace.

"Don't ask me. I have no more clue than you do," replied her twin sister, in her Shining Nova form. Again, while the shape was similar, the materials substantially differed, Tracy's blood-red dress shimmering as wisps of flame danced across its surface and drizzled from the hem, continuing to burn without heat on the pavement for a few seconds before fizzling out.

"I mean... Quite aside from why Decay is helping elderly ladies across the road, I didn't realise helping old ladies across the road was a thing that actually happened in the first place."

"And again, I'm as clueless as you are." They watched the lady hobble into a convenience store. The Bane watched, too, briefly flipping her the bird the moment she was out of sight, before marching off down the street.

"I'm starting to form a suspicion," admitted William.

"If I'm right... it's not the worst news in the world."

"He's completely immune to our magical powers and we're helpless against his!" exclaimed Stacy.

"How is that not the worst news?"

"Wait and see; I want to confirm my hypothesis before I say any more, because relying on it would prove disastrous if I'm wrong."

"... I don't get it, but let's keep following him, then." The pair of girls shuffled from bush to bush, trying to keep out of sight of their prey, but ignoring the other pedestrians on the street. The other pedestrians ignored them in turn.

"I have to say, this perception filter thing is handy," said Stacy.

"Why haven't you mentioned it before?"

"Not handy enough to hide me, alas," answered William from where he was hiding inside Tracy's dress.

"But it's never been relevant. Besides, I assumed you knew. I mean, some of your fights have taken place in malls, busy streets, that war museum. Didn't you ever wonder why your faces haven't ended up plastered over the news?"

"Hmm... Now that you mention it, that is a bit strange."

"Does any of this filter apply to us?" asked Tracy, somewhat suspiciously.

"Hey, look, he's turning into that building!" exclaimed William, abruptly changing the subject.

"A charity soup kitchen?" asked Stacy.

"But Banes don't need to eat physical food, do they?"

"No, they don't. Back in Midnight, the ambient energy was sufficient to sustain them, or they could drink from the black river if they exerted themselves so much that they required more. Here, they can get some of Midnight's ambient energy that leaks through the rift, but it's not enough to survive. They can only sustain themselves by draining energy from humans."

"Then what's he doing in there?"

"He's gone into the back," said Tracy, watching through a window.

"I think he's working there."

"More likely volunteering. It's a charity, and I doubt they have the money to pay staff wages." They watched for a few minutes longer, Decay emerging from the back room with a rather fetching apron tied over his suit and taking over service at the counter, dishing out bowls to anyone who asked for one. He smiled charmingly at every visitor, no matter their condition, only for his expression to curl back into a disgusted sneer whenever no-one was looking.

"Helping old ladies across the road? Volunteering in a soup kitchen? What the heck is up with this Bane? He obviously hates it."

"Well, I think that settles it," said William.

"He's being nice. His motivations are completely screwed, but apparently that doesn't matter."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Tracy.

"Think through the spell you use to transform. Is one of the lines not 'Grant me the might to enact justice'? To enact justice is to punish someone deservedly, and not to punish those who have done no wrong. Is it 'just' to use your power to kill someone who helps old ladies across the street and volunteers to help feed the destitute?"

"But he attacked that woman!"

"It... uh... appeared to be consensual, to some extent. And he didn't take much from her. Enough to sustain himself, but certainly not enough to widen the rift. After all, she was able to walk away afterwards without even realising anything was wrong. Previous victims of Banes have typically ended up hospitalised, sometimes spending multiple days in a coma."

"So, you're telling us that there's nothing we can do?" asked Stacy.

"I think he's telling us that there's nothing we need to do," said Tracy.

"We saw yesterday that Decay was scared of us until he realised his plan was working. It seems this Bane is so terrified of us that he's acting good. If he keeps it up, does it matter what he really thinks? Besides, as long as he's here, it means a worse Bane can't squeeze through. We'd be better off keeping him."

"... This doesn't sit right with me," admitted William.

"Let's keep watching, at least. His heart is pure black. Who knows what he'll do if we leave him to his own devices? He's not going to continue helping old ladies across the road if he thinks we've given up on beating him."

"Yeah, I agree that we can't just leave him alone," said Tracy.

"But was this what you meant by good news? That he's not going to widen the rift and flood Earth with his kind?"

"Well, yes, there is that, but I was also referring to the fact that he can't hurt you."

"He sure hurt me yesterday..." disagreed Stacy.

"He did the minimum required for self defence. Despite having the opportunity to kill her, he didn't hurt Mary at all, beyond terrifying her half to death. I'm pretty sure he can't. After all, injuring a bunch of girls who are devoting their life to protecting the world would be a seriously evil act. The moment he tried it, he'd lose his protection."

"... Then it appears we're at something of a stalemate," sighed Tracy. The other two nodded in resigned agreement.