[OP: "Paranoia"--Neoni]

"Rumi, watch the desk," Morph said after Raven had gone. "I better get the Saja Boys out of here... No one seems to recognize them, but that could change at any time."

"But what if they ask us to leave?" Rumi asked.

"I dunno, just say that you need to wait to hear from Bobby before that or something." Morph waved it off. "Stall. They like you, so you could try to talk to them. Give her an autograph...you know, to thank her for her help."

"Oh...okay, sure," Rumi said.

"Seriously, how do you guys survive?" Morph couldn't help but say.

"Don't you start that now," Zoey said. "It's bad enough that Raven thinks we're dumb."

"To be honest, that idea was obvious," Mira had to admit. "Rumi is just bad at improvising."

"Hey!" Rumi said. "I don't usually do signings to sway people. That feels kind of dishonest."

"Yeah. That's kind of the point," Jinu said. "I mean...I know that's not your thing, but for once, I'm kind of with Morph."

"For once?" Morph said.

"Fine," Rumi said. "I'll talk to her. Just get them out of here and let me know if anything goes wrong... Though I think this is not a place for Gwi-Ma to attack, but..."

She went back towards the desk.

"Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for your help earlier," she said, smiling. "Was there anything I could do for you? I don't know if maybe you'd like merch..."

"Oh..." The assistant hesitated. "I'm a professional."

"It's no big deal. We do this all the time," Rumi said. "I could at least do an autograph..." She picked up a pen. "Who should I make it out too?"

The assistant smiled.

"I guess she's good after all," Morph said.

"We literally do this for a living," Mira reminded him. "We're not bad at press. We're just bad at lying to people for investigations...not the same skill set."

"It comes naturally after a while," Morph said. "I hadn't realized I've become accustomed to deception as a way of life in the X-men, and I'm not sure that's a good thing, but I guess it comes in handy when you're doing undercover investigations for mysterious singing groups."

"I think it's cool," Zoey said. "If it wasn't so sad, I'd be enjoying this...but it is sad. Poor Rumi... Poor Celine, even..."

"It's easy to see why she wouldn't want to talk about this," Mira admitted. "But it was still wrong to keep it from us, of all people."

"Celine is incredibly resilient if she had to come back from that and keep the Honmoon in good enough shape to not let Gwi-Ma take over," Morph noted. "You have to give her some credit."

He then took Mystery's arm. "Hey, are you okay?"

Mystery looked at him strangely--at least, they thought he did.

"Yes, you don't look so good," Abby said.

"I...don't know. I felt strange..." Mystery said in a low voice. "Not sure why."

"Something about what she said bothered you," Morph guessed. "Let's go outside."

They left the office and headed to the street level.

"What was it that made you feel weird?" Jinu asked Mystery.

"Not sure now..." Mystery looked confused.

"Was it hearing about the scandal maybe?" Zoey said. "That was upsetting to hear. It was an accident... I wonder how that happened."

"Usually it happens because people are under the influence and do stupid things." Mira was brutal. "Another good reason to avoid partying as Huntrix."

"People do think sometimes we're a little elusive, but I guess that can be good," Zoey said. "Celine would never have let us party anyway when we debuted, so we didn't get into the habit. And Bobby always makes sure our events are all above board. We never had to worry about that."

"So, what happens to idols who do that?" Morph asked.

"It would be a secret thing usually," Mira said. "We're not supposed to do anything like that anyway. We have to be role models...but people get into things behind the scenes. Usually they never screw up publicly if they're smart about it, but now and then it happens, and, depending on how bad it is, they can lose a lot of their following. Fans are merciless sometimes... That's the whole faults and fears must never be seen thing."

Mystery put his head in his hands.

"This whole thing is bothering him more than you," Jinu said to the other boys. "Any idea why?"

"No..." Abby said. "I don't remember anything still...but the idea of an accident certainly is tragic."

"Yes, how horrible," Romance said. "I'm not sure I want to remember that if it happened..." But then he realized his words had darker implications.

"So...it's true that you'd rather forget..." Jinu said.

Morph glanced at him and then frowned grimly.

Baby looked at Jinu with a knowing expression.

"So what do we know now?" Zoey had her notebook out. "The scandal was an accident that was caused by some poor decisions, but it was escalated by the Sunlight Sisters being broken up tragically. So the public would have seen any incident as a bad sign, a bad omen, even. Maybe they thought that the Stellae band was jinxed or something just went wrong. That led to the pressure on the band, and they broke up. Was that when they sold out to Gwi-Ma, or did they do it before?"

"So they sold their souls to him to try to get their popularity back, and then he claimed them like he did with Jinu," Morph guessed. "But he waited till he could use them to destroy the next group of Hunters... Maybe he just thought only someone like Jinu would be able to actually use them."

"But it seemed like he didn't like the band idea," Jinu said. "You think he could be lying, but he seemed sincere."

"You used the words Gwi-Ma and sincere in the same sentence," Mira scoffed. "But even if he was...that doesn't mean he didn't plan to use them, just that the boy band idea was already a failure."

"New thought." Morph waved his hand. "What if it wasn't about beating Huntrix...? Maybe he thought he could defeat hunters without the singers, but he wanted to have something to spread his message of despair even farther once he won. According to your legend, there was a time before hunters, right? People fought off demons, even if they couldn't do it well, so that means it's possible for normal people to resist him, a little...so...having the souls of people who could lure them in with their talents, after the hunters were gone, maybe not as a band, but just as individual singers, like Jinu was before... it would be a smarter way to subdue the world so that no hunters would ever come back. Otherwise, some of you would be born again, even if you all were dead, and then remake the Honmoon."

Mira and Zoey both looked horrified at the idea.

"So...he planned to wipe us out and then make sure the world was totally under his spell, using the souls of people he had enslaved to him?" Mira said.

"That's how the devil works in the book," Morph said. "It says that he leads the whole world astray... Gwi-Ma is the embodiment of that. And it makes sense, doesn't it? Why else let Jinu keep his voice for 400 years but never use it?"

Jinu shook his head. "Morph, that is brilliant... I never asked how he intended to use us all after he took out Huntrix..."

[And there, I found an explanation for it that makes more sense than anything the movie said...since it doesn't explain it. But I get it, it's a short movie, and it had a lot of lore that it couldn't explain... That's why I'm here.]

"Yeah...even I'm impressed," Mira had to admit. "Because that makes sense...but I hate it. So that sounds about right."

"Thanks, Mira." Morph decided to just take the compliment.

"That makes it sound like he hunted us or something," Romance shuddered. "We weren't the only ex-humans down there. Did they all have special talents then?"

"I never spoke to most of them," Jinu said. "Never wanted to know the answer... But it's possible."

"The devil wanting the best and brightest of humanity so that God won't use them," Morph said. "Sounds like him...or like any evil person...gross. But, then there are mutants who end up doing the same thing. Magneto is one. Xavier always thinks he could be such a force for good, but he's always encouraging mutants to take revenge on humans or to ignore them instead...never to unite with them. He thinks it's foolish that Professor X wants to do that at all...but there's no hope if we don't even try to unite. We can't keep viewing each other as two different species... But people love to draw lines. I guess that could be why things like Gwi-ma have such an easy time taking over. I don't know whether it's hate, fear, or just that we're naturally selfish, or all three..."

"This conversation is really turning out to be a bummer," Zoey said.

But she'd forgotten about Mystery.

Only Baby appeared to have noticed him. The other two were listening to the conversation more attentively than they usually did.

But now Baby finally said, "You all probably should be doing something about this."

They glanced at him, then at Mystery.

Mystery was shaking.

Suddenly, his patterns appeared much more darkly than before and began to glow all over his face and hands.

"Mystery?" Jinu was shocked--he was the most calm, he thought.

Mystery glanced up like that made him freak out even more.

With a whimper that sounded almost like a dog, he suddenly took off running for the corner of the building.

"Mystery?!" Abby and Romance both called.

"What's with him?" Mira hadn't noticed he'd been panicking till now.

"He's upset," Zoey said, concerned. "Oh crud, I thought it was bothering him a lot...but I didn't know it was that much."

"Even if his mind can't remember, maybe his soul can," Morph said. "It's like that sometimes... We need to calm him down. The last time this happened, Gwi-ma tried to take them. If that happens now, we lose him for sure."

He took off.

But them he saw the red ripple.

Mira grabbed Zoey's arm. "We're too late," she said. "It's already starting."

"No!" Zoey cried. "No, we can't fail now! We're so close!"

She sounded like Rumi, but no one could blame her for that.

"He can't be gone yet," Jinu said. "It takes time to get the Honmoon weak enough for that. Can you stop it?"

"We can try, but we need Rumi to be sure," Mira said. "Someone go get her. We'd better go after Morph. Maybe he can help us for now, but we need to be together. Every time we separate, this doesn't go well."

"Maybe you should ask us to help," Abby said.

"You?" Zoey said. "Uh, look, Abby, we know what happened yesterday, but this could be dangerous, and that was in a need-only situation."

"Mystery is scared of you three," Romance said. "And if he is when Gwi-Ma strikes, he might lash out."

"But aren't you afraid you'll get taken if he does?" Mira said.

Pause.

"But that could happen to any one of us, couldn't it?" Abby finally said. "Isn't it less likely if all of us are involved?"

"No time for this," Zoey said. "Follow us if you want, but we have to go now."

She ran after Morph.

"She's right, whatever." Mira shrugged and then ran after her, pulling out her weapon as she went.

"I'd better get Rumi," Jinu said. He didn't think the boys could be trusted with the job anyway.

He ran back inside.

"So we're following them or not?" Romance asked Abby and Baby.

"We should," Abby said.

Baby saw no benefit to either staying or going, so when they both went, he just followed sullenly.

They weren't left alone for long though.

They didn't expect it, but some more normal-looking demons appeared behind them, when they'd only gone down part of the next street. They hadn't spoken to Mystery yet.

These demons were humanoid ones that could talk and usually were the ones Gwi-Ma took out his wrath on when they failed.

While they were intelligent, they were not, that the Saja Boys could recall, really any more sympathetic to humans. They were just more afraid of them.

"Stop," they said, making all three of them whirl around.

"Oh no..." Romance was sure they were about to get attacked.

He hid behind Abby, who rolled his eyes.

Baby just stared at the other demon.

He thought he remembered this one as their...sort of fan, in the underworld.

Of course, the demons were just fans of them since they were getting souls, but support was support, in Baby's mind.

[I do not agree with that view.]

"Don't come any closer." Abby tried to sound like he wasn't worried...  They didn't have weapons, but these ones tended to have long claws and fangs. "The Hunters are right behind us."

"Hiding behind our enemies is pathetic," snarled one of the bigger demons.

"You're going to attack us," Romance whimpered.

"That's not why we're here. The Hunters are distracted right now," one of the small ones said, as if it was trying to sound reasonable--but demons really didn't do that so well. "Gwi-Ma said to tell you that if you came back now, willingly, he won't punish you, provided you've collected some valuable information on the Hunters' weaknesses...but you have to hurry, before they notice us here."

"No repercussions?" Baby said.

"No...?" The demons looked at him blankly.

They really weren't that good at processing language.

"Punishment," Baby said, with an eye roll of his own.

"Yes, none," they said, with a fake smile.

"But, Gwi-Ma nearly killed us all yesterday," Abby said.

"He was only trying to get rid of those pesky guardians who are hanging around the Hunters now," the big demon said, stiffly. "Of course, he would never punish you for their crimes."

"I felt pretty punished," Abby said.

The demons probably didn't know he'd even done anything. Gwi-Ma wouldn't have shared that with with low level ones.

"Maybe we should just go," Romance said nervously, behind Abby. "We can't possibly really think we're going to escape him? Not if he can show up anywhere... The Hunters can't always be there, and I really am not sure they would help even if they were, not if it came down to the wire... Maybe they're serious, and he won't punish us."

"If we tell him their weakness," Abby said.

"So?" Baby said. "Why should we care? I don't care about any of them to begin with. I know all their weakness." He turned towards the other demons. "I figured this would happen sooner or later."

"Baby?" Romance somehow was surprised. 

"What? If you didn't do that, you're just an idiot," Baby said scornfully. "You didn't plan on having leverage if we got taken back to Gwi-Ma? You know he would never destroy us without at least asking us first if we had something on them. And we have plenty. They've been going on about their weaknesses for days, like idiots."

"Wait, couldn't he hear all that though?" Abby said.

"Gwi-Ma just has words," Baby said. "We have the understanding of them that only demons who were once humans would have. Why else would he use us and Jinu?"

"But you are fine with selling them out?" Romance said.

"Didn't you just say you would too?" Baby said.

"Because I'm afraid of Gwi-Ma, but you sound like you planned this!" Romance said, like that was better.

"Yeah, that's low," Abby said.

"Says two demons," Baby said. "I'm just playing the role we were assigned. Don't act like you didn't do the same thing. Did you forget that Saja Boys were made to defeat Huntrix? They are literally your enemies... Are you two brain dead?"

But that term was not the smartest one he could have picked.

Whatever else happened in the last week, that word had at least been ingrained in the boys' minds as one associated with the mutants and hunters and their efforts to reach them.

"Wait, though, if we go back, we'll forget all of this, won't we?" Romance said, with the voice of one who may be coming to their senses.

"Isn't that for the best? It's been a long week of nothing but them getting mad at us," Baby said in disgust. "What is wrong with you two? This is the plan. We always were going to escape them at some point. We just needed a distraction like this."

"And Mystery?" Abby said.

"Mystery? He'll get brought along after us," Baby said.

This was likely the entire point of this distraction, in fact.

"And you're sure?" Abby said, wavering.

"I'm sure." Baby nodded.

"You need to hurry," the big demon said. "This offer won't last forever. Gwi-Ma is impatient."

On the wall near them, a tear opened up...but it had almost a more controlled look to it, like it was more than just a weak point.

"Could...could he do that before?" Abby struggled to remember, but everything around Gwi-Ma was very hazy in their heads if it wasn't a direct threat.

"I don't know..." Romance said uneasily, "but I guess we better go, if we're going to."

They began to move towards the hole.

Before they went in, though, someone came springing around a corner.

It was Mira.

"What are you idiots doing?" she began to yell at them. "Zoey and Morph--" Then she stopped.

She stared.

They all stared at her.

Abby and Romance at least looked guilty, but Baby just waved at her in a very mocking manner.

"Was...was this just so you could get away?" Mira said, in the tone of someone who was wondering why they were even surprised.

"Uh..." Romance began uncertainly. "Well, the thing is--"

"Get out of here!" The big demon suddenly lunged at Mira before she could say anything else.

It was nothing that Mira couldn't handle on her own, if she'd been ready for it, but she wasn't quite ready.

She still got out of the way, but she didn't plan her escape route very well and ended up backed to the wall instead.

"I... Wait, I think this might have been a trap," Abby realized way too late.

"For who?" Romance said.

"For them," Abby said. "Maybe they used us as bait this time."

"Us?" Baby scoffed. "No, Mira is just stupid to come back this way at all."

"Maybe she was afraid they'd already found us," Romance said.

"You think Mira of all people was worried about our safety?" Baby was not having it. "She's going to kill us as soon as she's done with them. I say we go before she finishes them off."

"I feel like either way that makes us the jerks," Abby said. "Because either we let her kill them, which is letting other demons die for us, or, let them kill her, which sounds bad."

"It's not like they have souls, Abby," Baby said impatiently. "They're just grunts. Gwi-Ma was sending them to die anyway."

"Why are you so okay with this?" Romance said.

"Why are you not? Hunters killed a bunch of other demons when we fought before, and you didn't bat an eyelash," Baby pointed out.

Before they could argue, more demons slithered out of the rift that they were next to.

One of them tried to grab Romance and yank him in, which made him yelp, but Abby yanked him back before it succeeded.

Though he didn't appear to know why he was doing this.

"This doesn't seem right." Abby felt confused.

"Abby, have you lost your mind?!" Baby was getting agitated. "You're working against Gwi-Ma right now! Do you want to die?"

Mira kicked away another of the other demons at that moment and, slashing her weapon, managed to slice the big one in half.

"Where is Rumi?" She looked around.

Based on the amount of demons that just had already crawled out, Rumi likely already had her own to deal with back in the front of the building.

More of them came out now... The tear wasn't closing.

"This seems worse than before," Romance said blankly. "Like...since when could so many of them come out of the same hole?"

"Why are you two not moving?" Baby asked.

One of the other demons suddenly snapped at them. "Get in there!" it said.

Romance leaned away from it.

"Or what?" Abby asked.

The demons looked at him like he was crazy.

"Abby!" Baby said.

"This is not right," Abby insisted. "This is planned... How do we know Gwi-Ma is not going to kill us? I don't trust it."

"Abby, we have to make a decision here," Romance said nervously. "Mira isn't going to hold off all of those alone, but we can't do anything anyway. We're dead if we try. Maybe we should just surrender."

"Did either of you start to think we could all be free?" Abby asked them.

"Not the time!" Baby said. "Why are you even hesitating?"

"What if I don't want to go back to being a mindless drone?" Abby snapped at him suddenly.

But anger wasn't the best emotion to have around demons.

Two of them turned towards him and bared their teeth.

Good news? They moved away from Mira, and she finished off the ones in front of her without more of them jumping on her at the same time.

Bad news, they both lunged towards the Saja Boys and started pushing them into the hole.

Mira had to make a decision fast.

She looked like she'd be cursing if it wasn't a kids' movie, but she made a stride forward, then jabbed her Gok-do into one the demon's backs.

The other one whirled around--and then actually grabbed the handle of her weapon!

Demons didn't usually counter strike like that--only if they were smarter, or if the hunter was distracted, like when Rumi had gotten knocked over on the train.

In Mira's case it was that she was off balance.

Normally, she would've had this, but she wasn't moving as fast as she usually did.

The reason was, when she'd been slammed into the wall the day before, she'd injured her shoulder, but had not mentioned it, since she didn't want anyone but Rumi and Zoey to know about it.

(It was rare for hunters to take any damage that was serious anyway, but when they were alone, of course, they were vulnerable.)

But maybe the demon could tell, or Gwi-Ma had known, since it had been a demon that injured her to begin with, because it yanked on the shaft of the Gok-do handle so hard, it twisted the injured arm.

Mira gasped and dropped the weapon, and then she knew she was screwed.

The demon tossed the weapon aside and then jumped on her.

Just before it could close its jaws around her neck, there was a sharp noise, and it burst into smoke.

They all looked up.

Raven was leaning out of the open window several levels over their heads.

They knew it was her because she had the gun, but she was still in disguise.

She motioned at them like, "Get out of there!"

She must have seen the red tear earlier and known what was up.

"I have never been so glad to see that gun." Romance let out a sigh of relief.

Abby glanced at the tear. "More of them are coming."

It was true, more were crawling towards the hole.

Mira was almost in shock that she'd just nearly died--again--but she started to get up and then put weight on her bad arm and stopped.

"I think we just need to run," Abby said.

"Yeah... okay," Romance finally agreed.

"What?" Baby cried.

"You can just stay here then if you want to get eaten." Abby had had it with him suddenly.

He picked up the Gok-do and then moved away from the tear.

Romance did also, and none too soon, because more of the demons seeped out of it.

Raven fired at them and motioned at Baby to run.

Baby was surprised that she didn't shoot him as well, but after that he started to run.

Mira was struggling to get up again, but Abby didn't let her try this time. He took her by her good arm and then dragged her along, practically.

"Hey!" she said angrily, but Romance just said,

"Not the time to complain!"

They raced to the end of the street and paused.

"Is Raven going to be okay alone, though?" Romance said.

"She'll run as soon she thinks they're going to attack her," Abby said. 

He had no faith in Raven's willingness to stay and fight if she could get away--based on what she'd said about herself to them.

"That was too close!" Romance was ready to panic. "And where is Mystery?"

"Mystery was just down there," Mira said, gasping for breath now. "Zoey and Morph were trying to get him to calm down, but demons..." Then she paused and drew a deep breath. "And Rumi hadn't shown up yet. I thought something was attacking her, so I came back...but that's not what I saw."

"Yeah, about that," Abby said, "this might have been a trap."

"Oh, no, really?" Mira mocked.  "And let go of me!"

"Fine." Abby let go. "Take your spear back."

He pushed it at her.

"It's a Gok-do," Mira said angrily.

"Not the time to care!" Romance said. "Why did we just do that? We're so dead. Oh my gosh, what have we done? I don't feel so good..."

"Romance, I swear, if you faint right now," Abby said, "Gwi-Ma can just have you."

"What? How can you say that?" Romance cried. "And I'm not fainting! Do demons even faint? I've never seen one faint!"

Mira finally just kicked him in the shin, and he stopped talking.

"Look, if you guys are running again, then don't get in our way," she said. "I don't see Zoey or Morph anymore. That means that they had to run with your useless friend, but any second we should see--wait."

Another tear had appeared.

"There." Mira looked at it and glared. "Towards the highway, it looks like. Great."

"You guys just ruined everything," Baby said angrily. "We had a chance to get back without any consequences, and you threw it away!"

"Shut up." Abby was still mad at him.

"What just happened--?" Mira began, then stopped. "Forget it. I'm going after Zoey."

"What about Jinu?" Abby suddenly said. "Rumi didn't come back. What if that means that Gwi-Ma went after him as well?"

"Either he's with her, or it's too late now," Mira said. "But he and Rumi saw that tear also, so that's the best way to meet up with them. And I can't waste more time."

She took off.

"At least she didn't kill us," Romance said. "I thought for sure she would."

"She might as well have because we're dead!" Baby was still mad.

"We can't stay here and wait for the other demons to catch up with us," Abby decided.

They ran for it as well.

* * *

What had happened to Rumi was pretty much as they predicted.

She'd seen the red flash and realized that they had waited too long.

Of course, she thought. We split up... Every time we split up, something happens!

She felt like they weren't learning from their mistakes here.

She made some excuse to the assistant and ran for the exit.

She nearly crashed into Jinu on her way down.

"Oh, good," Jinu said. "Listen, there's--"

"I saw it. What happened?" Rumi had her hand ready to draw her sword.

"Mystery started to freak out, and then we saw the tear," Jinu said. "It might be drawn to him, though, because I didn't see any of them follow me."

He didn't know that was because the demons been focused on Abby and Romance, so they hadn't gone looking for him.

However, as soon as he and Rumi stepped outside the building's door, they found two demons waiting to drop down on them.

Rumi managed to kick away one before it could slash her face.

Jinu got knocked over by the other one, since she was distracted.

Before it could bite him, Rumi slashed her sword through it.

She gasped.

Jinu sat up. "That was...too close..." he said. "Again..."

"I forgot we probably should have gotten Raven before we left." Rumi looked up. "But she probably saw that too, so she'll come as soon as she can, and I can't wait for her."

She reached out her hand to help Jinu up, and he took it. "Uh, thanks..." he said awkwardly.

"Just doing my job," Rumi said, just as awkwardly. "But...um...so which way did they go?"

"That way." Jinu pointed at the corner they'd gone around. 

Before they could run that way, though, more demons, this time the more faceless kind, came scrambling around the corner and down the walls, going towards some people who were just walking out a different building.

The people didn't seem to see them--these ones never seemed to get noticed by civilians...

"Oh no!" Rumi ran after them.

By the time she'd taken those demons down, it would have been too late to stop what was going on in the other street, but she didn't even get a chance to go check it out because more demons appeared farther down the street.

Jinu, who wasn't fighting, was more attentive to the situation than her.

"Rumi, hang on." He caught up. "They're pushing us farther that way."

"Yeah, I know. They're running," Rumi said.

"No, they're taking us more away from the others," Jinu said.

"Oh, well, yeah," Rumi said. "But I can't just let them eat those people, and Zoey and Mira are with Morph, so they have backup."

"But I have a bad feeling about this," Jinu said. "Something about Gwi-Ma's been a lot more calculated than usual lately, and I don't know... This feels like a trap."

"It does, but I can't let them die!" Rumi started to get agitated. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know..." Jinu didn't have a solution.

"Okay, hang on." Rumi sliced her sword through the air and then released the sonic blast attack.

She was able to kill the rest of the faceless demons in that swoop.

"I figure that we're what they really want, right?" She frowned. "So let's just go now. See if they follow us instead... Hope you can keep up."

"I can keep up!" Jinu said.

He couldn't.

Even if he'd been faster than he was, he couldn't keep up with someone who literally climbed into the air if she got charged up enough to.

But nonetheless, they made it to the other side of the building.

Rumi was surprised when the demons didn't keep chasing them or any other innocent humans like they were expecting.

Which was because they had already moved so fast in their attack on Mira.

But when they reached the end of the street on that side, they saw Zoey and Mystery being carried overhead by a large flying creature.

"Tell me that's Morph..." Jinu stared at it.

Since they weren't putting up a fight, Rumi decided it had to be.

"They're running. That has to mean there're a lot of demons," she said.

"We have to follow them--" Jinu started to move, and Rumi stopped him with her arm.

"No, if we go that way around, we're going to get swarmed by them," she said. "They're flying away... I think there's a highway at the end of this area of the city... Maybe Morph can lose the pack of them--but no, that probably won't work, not if they're the mindless ones... I don't see Mira though. Did she double back to look for us? That's not good."

"So which direction do we go?" Jinu said nervously.

"I don't know!" Rumi was losing her cool. "I mean, either one of them could be in trouble. We never should have split up at all. Why were we so stupid!"

"Calm down," Jinu said. "Look, Zoey and Morph are okay. I think we should find Mira, but if you're sure there's a horde of demons around the corner, then what do we do?"

Rumi glanced up. "I guess we'll just climb the roof."

"Roof?" Jinu said. "Uh...I can't just do that."

Then something touched him, and he jumped, real macho like.

Rumi turned with her blade out, but it was only Derpy.

He had just appeared out of the ground.

"Oh, Derpy," she said in relief. "Perfect timing. Jinu, you can just ride him. At least he could take you out of here."

"I don't think I can go through portals anymore," Jinu said. "But both of us could ride him."

"Okay then," Rumi said. She got on. "Come on... Derpy, I hope you can move faster than I've seen you move before."

Derpy didn't seem offended by that request, but Sussy, who had flown after him, gave Rumi major side eye.

Jinu climbed on gingerly.

"Can you take us to the roof?" Rumi asked, patting Derpy on the head.

Derpy jumped up.

Jinu found it a lot harder to hang onto this thing.

He grabbed Rumi by her shoulders.

"Careful!" Rumi said, since he'd pulled her hair.

"Sorry, this is harder than it was before." Jinu looked down. "And...scarier."

"It isn't that scary," Rumi said.

Derpy was on the rooftop in a moment and then bounded to the other side.

Rumi peered down. "I could get used to having a giant tiger to ride into battle... Okay, I don't see anything on the street... No, I do, there's a huge tear in the wall! Crud...but I don't see any demons... "

She spoke too soon because a bunch of them crawled over the edge of the roof.

Either they had been hiding just out of her view, or they had just come out of another hole in the other wall.

Jinu yelped.

Derpy jumped out of their reach.

Derpy was not really a combat animal, that Jinu had ever seen, but it at least knew to dodge scary demons.

Rumi slashed her sword and cut them all into pieces, and they vanished.

"Oh, I am all over this!" She was having way too much fun. "But where is Mira? Wait, can you find her?"

Derpy jumped forward like he'd been waiting for Rumi to ask.

[I think they should have thought of using him before, but I guess they're not used to having a protective tiger spirit around.

Hey, I hope the sequel incorporates the tiger into the girls' battles.]