Vitalizers Chapter 5 - Blessings (OC Cultist MC)

Signs of a Villain Attack: How to Protect Yourself and Others! -New Union One

Anniversary of MGA Founding to be held in Violet Park This Month -Atlas Times

How Minions Work - Analysis of Villainous Brainwashing -MagiGal Watch

Alex groaned softly as her alarm blared at her, feeling around the bedside table without opening her eyes. It took a few attempts to hit it right, but the quiet blissfully returned. She flipped over to her other side with a sigh of relief, sinking back into sleep.

“Nope! Get up, lazy bones!”

The voice pierced through Alex’s drowsiness, especially as it was accompanied by a click as the light was flipped on. Alex groaned louder, but was now unfortunately quite awake.

Shielding her eyes as she blinked them open, she shot a glare at the culprit. The black, winged dog-thing was gliding back to the ground after hopping to hit the light switch, and gave her a shit-eating grin.

“Not even five minutes, Boo?” Alex grumbled.

“Not when your five minute naps turn into three hour naps.” The chimera replied. “I can’t just let my favorite Magical Girl turn into a sloth sleeping all day.”

Alex sighed. “If you call me a sloth again I’m going to skip your morning walk.”

“Understood boss.” The dog-thing said.

Alex begrudgingly stood up, and made the mistake of looking in a mirror. She winced away from the boy’s face she saw. She wasn’t the most masculine of biological males to begin with thankfully, but still enough that she would rather look literally anywhere other than a mirror. She must have turned back overnight, unfortunately; it meant the night gown was awkward and incorrectly shaped. “Vitalize, Vita Sky. Cancel Mantle creation.” She said softly, and sighed in relief as her body returned to her preferred state.

“You’re going to have to switch back later.” Boo noted.

“I know.” Alex said, perking up dramatically as she now saw a cute, feminine face in the mirror. That was so much better she didn’t even truly have the words. “That doesn’t mean I have to endure a rough morning looking like that.”

Shower, breakfast, getting dressed again. Alex checked her emails - mostly some college course stuff and adverts that didn’t need responses. There was one from her mom checking in on her, which she sent a short reply to.

A simple morning routine that felt amazing just because she could do it in a body of vaguely the right shape. She’d been learning how to do her own hair properly. Her transformation styled it for her, but she wanted to know how to do it herself.

Boo hopped onto her lap as she went about breakfast and correspondence. She didn’t have any classes that day, so she was free until she had to report into the Magical Girl Association. She pet them like any other dog. “Think there’s going to be a Villain today?” Boo asked.

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s been a bit. You ask that every day, don’t you?” Alex responded, making sure to stroke the base of the wings.

“I’m a Familiar! It’s my job to ask.” Boo complained, but their tail started wagging as they got pet anyway.

“You’re a good dog, is what you are. Very good dog.”

Alex frowned as the clock ticked ever further, closer to when she’d have to head out, which meant changing back to “boy-mode” as she called it. Honestly, it was more of a disguise than Vita Sky was. Back to talking with her friends who thought she was a guy and not trusting them to know the real her.

She shook her head, trying to chase away the bad thoughts. Whatever else happened, just being able to sometimes look in a mirror and not hate what she saw was enough that she’d never regret becoming a Magical Girl.

— — — — —

“Work” for a Magical Girl tended to be… not much besides sitting on standby. It wasn’t every day that a Villain would show up and cause problems, even if it often felt like it. The local MGA rotated it’s heroines on shifts, so there would always be a team waiting in the wings to leap for any given fight and avoid tiring them out with constant patrols. It was what let the young women (and a few men) live relatively functional lives outside of their hero work and what let Alex and Maya do it part-time.

Everyone passed the time in their own ways. Maya was usually handling some college work or occasionally personal research, keeping up on reports and other dutiful things like that. Celica  was often napping or occasionally doing some rough sketches with a tablet. Alex… didn’t do much. She had brought Boo with her this time after reluctantly switching back to mundane form and heading out.

Alex entered the lounge area where the team usually spent most of the shift, finding she was the last one there - for once Celica had come on time. “Good morning…”

“Good morning, Skyla~” said Celica in reply. Alex blushed bright red at the memory.

“I-I’ve been back to normal for a few days now! You can stop calling me that!”

“Awww, but you were so cute as my darling princess~”

C-Cute? She’d managed to look cute? Alex blushed harder, trying very hard not to be obviously happy about that. She couldn’t let them know how much she enjoyed such a little word.

“Good morning.” Maya interjected with a rather more subdued and polite nod.

Alex nodded back, thankful for the distraction. “Is Hina here yet?” she asked.

“No, she’s not. Odd for her to be the last here.” Maya said with a shrug.

“Too bad~” Boo said, hopping up onto the table in the middle. “I haven’t been able to meet her yet, even though she knows now~!”

“I’m sure she’ll find you adorable~” Celica assured the familiar, giving them some pets while they waited.

It was a bit later, still without a sign of Hina, that the door opened again. It wasn’t their absentee Handler, however, but a certain redhead in a business suit. Director Clarisse Marion stepped into the room. “Good to see you all.” She said, “Sorry I’ve not been able to keep in touch much - last couple weeks have been pretty hectic for me. Villains on the rise and all.”

“Oh… it’s fine.” Alex said. “Did you need something?”

“Hmm- oh, right. Reason I came here, yeah. Hina’s not here yet, huh?”

“She’s not. So…?”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. Missed my coffee this morning, I’m out of it.” Clarisse waved away the question - answering instead by hitting a button on her watch. A sharp whistle sounded through the room, while a light flashed in the corner. Director Marion shook her head. “There we go, that’ll knock your head right back into the game… anyway, forgot to mention the Villain sighting. First report about ten minutes ago, just got verified.”

The girls stared at her for several seconds, before leaping to their feet. “Where?”

“Down in [neighborhood name]. Shouldn’t be too far.” Director Marion said, looking at their phone. They swore under their breath. “Well, looks like there’s a good reason Hina’s late. She’s right there.”

— — — — —

Hina had been having a normal day up to that point. She had been in the neighborhood to pick up some groceries (her local place had been out of some very important things - how do you allow your store to run out of premade pizzas and pudding!?), fairly sure she could make it back before she had to head out to work. She was only popping over for a few things after all!

Of course, that was before bad luck struck. She was just leaving the grocery store when she noticed that there was a group of women in black and white robes, kneeling in the middle of the street. Hina wondered what they could possibly be up to, blocking traffic as they were. Was it some weird religious group? Those had apparently become more and more common since magic started being a thing again (or came out of hiding? Hina wasn’t overly familiar with the history there) but New Union didn’t have many of those.

They were chanting something, and the leader was standing, shouting something about the “light of the divine” and how it would “cast the shining light of truth upon all”. Your standard cult-y nonsense, in other words. Hina was just getting ready to continue on her way without giving them a second thought - you didn’t live in New Union all your life without learning how to filter out weirdos - but then they started to glow. Oh. It was that kind of group then. A piece of her magitech gear started buzzing like crazy in her pocket as it detected a spike in magical activity, and Hina ducked for cover.

Hiding behind a car, she peaked out to see that a woman had appeared in the middle of the street. Or rather something that looked like one - she was a bit too tall and glowing to be a normal person. Wearing flowing white robes and with angelic wings, she was a striking sight - and that was before getting into her impossibly pretty face, and perhaps rather more pressingly, the giant glowy sword. Hina caught herself staring for several seconds. She was so beautiful, Hina wanted to go out and- she shook her head, nope. That was clearly not real. She activated her visor - disguised as a pair of pink headphones - and the moment the obstacle was between her and the angelic being the pressure in her mind eased. It was dangerous being this near a Villain with no magic of her own to provide a barrier to passive influence.

Right, what was she doing? Reporting in? Right. She called out on her comms, tapping the side of her headset. “Hey, uh, got a problem! We’ve got a Villain out here, or at least unregistered magic I think…”

“Confirmed.” Came Maya’s calm voice over the radio. “We detected it too and are en route.”

“Oh, good.” Hina said, daring a glance over the car. “I’m, uh, already here looking at them. It looks like a culty group and, uh, I think the one they worship? Big angel lady type.”

“Oh, is she pretty~?” Celica giggled.

“V-Very, but I don’t think that matters right now?” Hina said. “Anyway, I saw them doing a ritual in the street and I thought it was just some cult-y crazies but then…“ Hina’s explanation trailed off as the side of the car was suddenly awash in light. “…Oh damn it.”

A soft but firm hand on her chin turned Hina’s face towards the angel-esque being that had appeared. “Oh, sinful child, why not look upon Me with thine own eyes? Art thou afraid thy gaze will be burnt upon my radiance?” she said in a voice as smooth as silk.

“Hina? Hina, what were you saying!?” Alex called through the radio urgently.

“Uh, no, I just have better places to be- ah!” Hina’s complaint was cut off as her headset was pulled from her head by the angel. She’d been taken in before, but now she was staring at them point-blank. “O-Oh… oh…” she stammered. What had she been worried about again? She should be worried about something. She… wasn’t supposed to look, right? But why wouldn’t she want to look. This angel was so pretty. So pretty. She deserved to be looked at.

Hina’s eyes swirled with spirals as the angel gently picked her up. She didn’t resist the move, unable to truly process what was going on at the moment - not that struggle was going to do her any good at this point. The radio kept buzzing but it didn’t seem worth listening to anymore, honestly. Much better to give all her attention to the angel who so deserved it.

“Ah, so peaceful now. Good, good. Relax. Fall deeper.”

The intoxicating voice of the Angel swirled around Hina’s head, bouncing around her brain and purging it of thoughts besides the Angel. Hina nodded, eagerly diving deeper into a trance, eagerly letting herself be remade. “Yes, Angel…” she muttered dreamily.

“Such a sinful young lady, are you not? This world is full of dark things. I will help you. I will help you expose the dark inside you so that you may be rid of it, so that you may devote yourself completely to me.

“Yes… very sinful… please, help…” Hina muttered. The transformation had begun, her casual clothes morphing, jacket and top merging along with her skirt. They were becoming robes, mostly black. Her hat was changing into a hood as well.

“To overcome your sin, you must present it to the world. What are you most guilty of, child?” The Angel asked. A part of Hina wondered if she was truly guilty of anything, but that was quashed quickly. The Angel said she was, so she was.

“Ah… I-I am guilty of lust…” the words were torn out of her mouth without any conscious thought.

She didn’t say any more yet, but she didn’t need to. The angel had produced from her flowing robes an ornate ivory mask - one with a face in orgasmic bliss. “You will bear your mark of sin, and in time you may overcome it. Continue to confess and you will be purified.” She said.

The mask was pushed onto Hina’s face - a mask of lust and arousal, the face of a woman in intense climax. Shudders ran through Hina’s body, and the changes shifted - rather than the concealing robes of her “elder” sisters in worship, hers were revealing, showing skin. What there was clung tight to her body - except around her breasts, where it was cut out so that her “lustful” parts might be exposed in the wind. Already the black silk and leather was beginning to tint white as Hina’s sin was “purified” in this way - though at this point if you didn’t see her hair you could hardly tell at a glance that it was Hina.

“Please. Please help. Please purify me-“ Hina said in worshipful tones.

On the other end of the comms, Maya sighed as Hina was temporarily lost to them. Alex was clearly angry and worried, while Celica just wondered what had been done to their cute friend.

— — — — —

The team arrived to see the “congregation” had begun to spread. They hadn’t really known what to expect besides something vaguely cult-ish, since that was all they’d managed to get out of Hina before she went radio silent. It was very easy to suspect she had been converted by the Villain, and with how many converts there already were, it seemed to be accurate.

The Vitalizers first heard, rather than saw, their targets - singing loudly as they knelt in a circle around a pale-skinned, feather-winged woman floating in the air and holding a sword. Their appearances were largely uniform - masks with different sorts of expressions, from angry to lustful to a jovial grin, along with black-and-white robes exposing certain parts of the bodies. A few of the angry-masked members weren’t in the circle, instead rushing about to drag random people off the street to join them.

Alex - or rather Vita Sky at the moment - looked around, trying to see if she could spot Hina in the masses. With their face concealing masks they seemed to be doing their level best to render each member of the cult anonymous, but Hina had some pretty distinctive hair - she was in the circle closest to the angel, her pink-tipped ponytail identifying her. Vita Sky blushed as she realized Hina was one of those with a lustful mask, breasts (did those seem… bigger, than her usual size?) hanging out of her robes. After she was done blushing from embarrassment, the heat didn’t leave her face - instead it transformed to anger as she saw that the non-lust masked cultists casually reached over to grope her whenever they felt like it!

“So… angelic Villain gathering a following?” Vita Sun suggested as they approached, not yet seen by their foes.

“Seems like it.” Vita Rose replied, “Probably draws power from worship. I wonder, should we try and incapacitate them, or will that cause a bigger issue…”

As the two wondered, Vita Sky kept glaring at the congregation. Or more specifically, at the two members of the angry-faced bunch that approached them. “We are guilty of wrath…” one of them intoned.

“I struck my sister in anger,” the other said,

“And I struck my brother,” the first continued.

“And the Angel has helped us to confess all…”

“Tell us your sinful secrets…”

“And be reborn…”

The cultists spoke in over-eager tones, and as they approached it was clear they weren’t making a request - it was definitely a demand to go over there and spill anything you felt bad about, to let the Angel take you. Despite it however, Vita Sky found her lips moving on their own. “I’m- I deceive-“ she started, before shaking her head. “Looks like we’re about to get noticed.” She reported - just before blasting the wrath-cultists away with magic, sending them flying.

The cult turned towards the Magical Girls, and the Angel stepped forward. “Ah. You. My darling worshiper told me of the Vitalizers, I’ve been expecting you.”

“Mmmhm, Mistress! This is them!” Hina said eagerly, and was rewarded by another grope of her breasts by a fellow cultist. Her face couldn’t be seen through the mask but it wasn’t hard to imagine her expression matched with the visage strapped to her as she spoke. “Please help them like you helped me! Help them confess their sins!”

“The divinity wills that you join us.” Said a hooded cultist in pure white robes - the first of them, maybe? He was the main one that kept fondling the lust-themed cultists.

“Let her go and fight us yourself!” Alex demanded, raising her wand and already charging magical power.

“Why would I ever do that?” The Angel laughed. “She’s so happy, now that she has the weight of her sin off of her. Hina, would you like to confess again to show them?”

“Of course, Mistress!” Hina said, kneeling and clasping her hands as if in prayer. “I am guilty of lust! I found the changed and corrupted forms of my friends really really attractive! I thought Ruby Rabbit was hot and Lieutenant Sun was cool and Princess Skyla was just so cute… forgive my sin…”

Vita Sky blushed deeply at that - H-Hina thought she was cute? But then she shook her head, refocusing on the battle at hand. The ‘confession’ was causing something to happen - Hina was glowing, and the Angel was as well. The light grew brighter, and some kind of energy flowed through the air between Hina and her “Mistress”.

“Thank you, my loyal servant.” The Angel said with a serene smile. The blade in her hand began to glow. “Now then. These deceitful sinners will feel divine wrath!”

Vita Rose had decided not to just stand around letting the Angel power up. By the time she was making her challenge, Vita Rose was already launching a leaping left hook towards her face. It made contact and the Angel reeled from the blow as Vita Rose kicked off and landed back on the ground before her, but when the Villain straightened again, she was completely unharmed - the physical force of the blow had sent her rocking back, but not actual injury had been achieved. “You talk too much!” Vita Rose shouted as she stepped back out of the way of the counterattack, bouncing foot to foot.

Vita Sky forced her surprise down - Maya was cool-headed in her normal form but was always surprisingly brutal in magical mode - and assisted. Before the Angel could launch another attack, Vita Sky raised her wand and sent a burst of magic out towards the foe. The blast caught the Angel square in the chest. She was shot away from Vita Rose and out of range of further attacks, but when the light of the attack faded, she was smiling as calmly as she ever had. “Oh, darlings, is that all you have? Do you think that’s enough to defeat a divinity such as myself?”

“Maybe not a god, but we can definitely beat a villain like you!” Vita Sky called back - she was more angry about this than usual herself. Probably just because she got to Hina, right? Whatever the case, the Magical Girl shot another blast at the Angel. This time, though, rather than just eat the hit the Angel intercepted It with her shining blade. The blast hit the sword square on. But rather than expending itself or dissipating from the contact, it was deflected back towards the party!

Vita Sun interposed herself between the foe and her friend. “You don’t exactly act very angelic, now do you?” she said, as with a wave of her hand golden shields formed in the air. They blocked the reflected strike, shuddering slightly but holding their integrity.

“A mortal sinner cannot make such a judgment.” The Angel said. As she spoke, Hina and the other cultists renewed their praying, and the Angel glowed brighter still - she was becoming difficult to look at directly in her radiance, and this problem would only grow worse as she charged an attack. “Now. Confess your sins and be cleansed, or else I shall force it from you.”

She didn’t wait to hear an answer, and instead charged at the barrier. Her blade paused as it hit the shield, and for a moment it seemed that the shield may hold - but there was a sharp sound like breaking glass as one of the shields shattered.

The Vitalizers were on the back foot, now, as the Angel launched attack after attack at them. Vita Sun’s shields only slowed the strikes enough that her teammates might avoid blows, while Rose’s punches and kicks and Sky’s magical blasts landed to little effect. Vita Rose tried to leap onto her back to pull her down from behind, but after she managed to grab on, the Angel just flexed their wings and sent her flying.

One countered blast was redirected to hit Vita Sun instead of it’s intended target, and Celica was knocked away as well - leaving Vita Sky face to face with the Angel. “Your sins weigh heavy, child. Why not share the burden? Why not confess?”

There was something in her voice, an intensity with magic behind it. This was no request, as much as she acted like it was, but a demand. Alex found her body falling to it’s knees without her say-so. Hina, still nearby, seemed quite excited. “Yes! Yes, join us! It’s so nice…”

Alex found herself speaking, her mouth moving on it’s own. “I’m guilty of deception…” she found herself muttering. She felt her heart freeze - she was going to admit everything right then and there? She… she wasn’t ready to tell them! She was going to tell them soon obviously, but she just couldn’t confess it now! She did feel bad about pretending to be something she wasn’t but… not like this… her voice hitched, as she tried her hardest not to say anything.

She was going to tell them all. Just… not when it was forced out of her like this. She wanted it to be on her own terms. That was all. As her voice hitched, one of the cultists stepped forward. “Give in to the divine light!” they demanded angrily. “Join us, worship with us!”

Something about the man seemed… off, to Alex. He wasn’t so deeply under control as the others. He hadn’t featured much in the fight thus far, but he’d been beside Hina the whole time. Vita Sky felt her mouth opening againin response to his exhortations, but she was saved from the confession by a sudden jerking feeling - shields closed around her and physically pulled her away from the Angel.

“Be a bit more careful, hmm hmm~? Can’t have you going and getting yourself brainwashed!” Vita Sun giggled. “Now then, where were we?”

“Fighting an Angel.” Vita Rose said flatly.

“Right, right, I know that!” Vita Sun laughed.

Vita Sky shook herself. Returning to her senses, she thought she had an idea. Nothing they did was hurting the Angel… so what if… “I don’t think the Angel’s the Villain here…” Alex said.

“What? You have to explain a bit more than that!” Vita Rose said.

“I don’t think the Angel created a cult,” Alex continued, “I think the cult created the Angel… keep her busy!”

The Angel had been approaching as they spoke, eager to resume her conversion - but was intercepted by Vita Rose and Vita Sun. “We’re your opponents now!” Vita Rose declared.

“Foolish children… you’ll all be mine soon enough…”

As the fight went on, Vita Sky took a closer look at the worshipping cultists, trying to spot who the real Villain was. Surely they had some identifying mark, something marking which of the ‘cultists’ wasn’t so brainwashed.

One of the cultists groped Hina again. Then went flying as Vita Sky’s blast of magic hit him.

As the man crashed to the ground, the cultists scattered in shock - and with their leader down and the chanting broken, the Angel’s form began to flicker. “No- no! I won’t leave them-“ she tried to say, but her words were useless as she dissipated into magical energy. No summoner, no source of magic, meant that the constructed creature would vanish.

“How did you know it was that one?” Vita Rose asked, raising an eyebrow as she turned back to her companion.

“Huh? Did that do something?” Alex asked in between heavy, angry breaths. “I-I mean, they acted like they were in charge, so…”

“Hmm, hmm~? I suppose they did~” Vita Sun said in a voice that Alex knew meant she was in for teasing later.

The brainwashed cultists were all stunned and confused by the sudden defeat of their leader - at least until they looked over at Alex and rushed over. For a moment, Vita Sky thought she was going to have to blast them - but then they fell to their knees at her feet…?

“Divine one! Divine one!”

Oh dear.

— — — — —

Director Clarisse Marion, head of the New Union Magical Girl Association, wasn’t someone who liked paperwork. It was all she did these days - but she generally did her best to get out of it, her secretary was better at it than her anyway. She’d ended up in this role because she’d once been a Magical Girl rather than for any bureaucratic experience and it often showed.

She wasn’t trying to get out of it right now, because there was something worrying her and reports were the only way to learn more. Villain attacks on the rise. On it’s own merits, all that meant was exactly what it sounded like - there were more Villain attacks recently. Magical Girl and other hero recruitment had stepped up to compensate. The problem was the targets.

More and more, these Villain attacks were targeted. They weren’t just random rampages but very clearly meant to bait out magical girls - or even going after them directly. In some cases even, the Villain would screw off after managing to transform a few rather than continuing to rampage.

The attacks seemed unconnected at a glance. There wasn’t a common theme or particular recurring foes. But Clarisse knew how Villains acted, and when they were working alone it wasn’t like this. No, these Villains were coordinated - and they had a goal.

The MGA was under assault. Slowly, bit by bit, they were wearing them down.

Clarisse looked at a photograph. It showed two figures high up in the air. It had been taken during a fight with a doll-themed Villain last week. Another was earlier, taken while the Vitalizers had fought a magician type.

The secretary ducked in and quietly placed a few more documents on Director Marion’s desk. At the top was another photo.

— — — — —

“Should we be concerned about that young lady taking a picture of us?”

“No need. They’ll know us soon enough anyway.”

“Fair, fair. It would be a pain if they found us early though. They might guess our plan.”

“They won’t. And if they did, a week wouldn’t be long enough to do anything about it.”