To Wish Upon a Star




Nocturne's efforts against Helix had begun to take a toll on the institute.
Slowly but surely, the institute was losing many of its projects and
facilities. But the battle was far from over and Nocturne needed as many
allies as she could find, in order to turn the tide. Luckily for her, her
struggles hadn't gone unnoticed by those willing to fight.

Earlier that night, Nocturne had received a tip that some of Helix's security
crews were on high alert and searching for something. The would be hunters
were unaware that they were being hunted by the Mistress of the Night, as
Nocturne took the high ground and located them near a factory. "Alright
Nightshade, I think, I got them. Security crew seems to be gearing up for
something important. Unsure of what it is though, I need to investigate a bit
more. How are things on your end?" Nocturne said through her communicator, "So
far everything seems ok. No incoming ships or anything. Gonna patrol the area
for an hour and then report back." May replied, "Alright, if anything arrives
at the pier let me know. Gonna head out now." Nocturne replied before cutting
communication. She then silently moved through the rooftops and perched
herself on the factory's roof.

Nocturne scanned the area and quickly estimated that there were roughly twelve
mercenaries, she also noticed that they were geared far better than the
average Helix mercenary. It seemed clear that this was no ordinary mission,
but what they were after was still a mystery. Nocturne then took out a small
device and with this she managed to eavesdrop on the mercs' conversation.
"Man, I dunno about this. I always hate when we have to do clean up duty." One
of the mercs said to another, "I hear ya, things always get bloody. I just
hope we don't lose any guys tonight." The other merc replied, "I heard some
horror stories from those who encounter this one. One guy told me that he saw
as that thing teared one of his buddies apart." Another merc added,
"Shiiiiiiiiit, man we should scram. They don't pay us enough for this."

For five minutes, it didn't seem like spying on the mercenaries was going to
get any results, that changed when one of them said, "Alright guys, we got the
order. Let's head inside, be careful." The mercs quickly got in formation and
headed inside the factory, Nocturne followed them from behind. She quickly
infiltrated the factory and perched herself on the ceiling, analyzing the
situation from the shadows. The mercs dispersed and moved through the
facility, searching for something. Nocturne wasn't planning on making her move
just yet, she wanted to see what they were looking for first, but whatever
they were looking for, found them. A shadowy figured appeared from behind one
of the mercs and before he could react, the entity slashed him in half, a
scream engulfed the entire room. The other mercs quickly ran towards the
source of the scream, but the scene they found completely terrified them and
froze many of them, three of them began too shoot at the entity but they only
managed to get the entity's attention, which resulted in them being cut down
like the first merc. Nocturne quickly descended from the ceiling and went
after the entity, she threw a couple of smoke pellets around the area to
disorient it.

Nocturne rushed and attacked the entity so as to get its attention away from
the mercs. She landed a punch on the back of the entity's head which managed
to stun her for a bit. The entity then turned its attention towards Nocturne
and it was then that Nocturne realized what she was facing. Before her stood a
woman clad in a black stealth armor and equipped with a blade, her expression
showed a complete loss of any sense of sanity and her glowing eyes posed a
deranged stare.

"No....it can't be..." Nocturne looked in shock, "Jor-gumo?"

"MY PREY!!" Jor-gumo shouted at Nocturne, "FINALLY, YOU WILL BE MINE!"
Jor-gumo sheathed her blade and launched at Nocturne with two swift punches.
The heroine quickly dodged the punches, Nocturne then retaliated with a couple
of strikes which managed to land on Jor-gumo. This however, didn't do much to
the super enhanced assassin, who quickly retaliated with a punch to the belly
of Nocturne. The punch knocked Nocturne back and made her drop to the floor.
Nocturne quickly got back on her feet and dodged the incoming attacks, however
the assassin instantly adapted her attacks and began to move around Nocturne's
defensive actions.

As Nocturne took a palm strike to her face the assassin then went low and
jabbed her extended fingers into Nocturne's belly.

Instantly Nocturne realized the assassin had struck some pressure point as a
painful sensation ran through her abdomen. Nocturne felt like her intestines
had been lit on fire.

Jor-gumo followed up with a slap to the side of her head that made Nocturne
tumble to the floor.

Before Nocturne was able to get up the assassin pushed her face against the
floor and sat down on her lower back.

With both hands Jor-gumo cupped Nocturne's chin and began to lean backwards,
forcing the heroine's back in a painful arch.

"MY PREY!! I WILL SNAP YOUR SPINAL CORD"

Nocturne had always realized that being a heroine was a high risk choice.

No matter how carefully she prepared and how diligently she trained. There was
always the change that one day she would run into someone that would outmatch
her and kill her.

As Nocturne's neck slowly got pulled back to the breaking point she realized
today was the end of the Mistress of the Night.

It seemed like it was all over as Jor-gumo prepared to end Nocturne, but
suddenly, the entire room was blinded by a flash bang. When the room cleared,
Nocturne noticed a beautiful woman clad in a colorful blue and red costume
standing in front of her. "Looks like I arrived just in time!" The woman said,
extending her hand to help Nocturne stand up. "Thanks." Nocturne replied,
"Well here comes round 2, get ready!" The woman shouted as she took her fight
stance, Nocturne followed as well. Jor-gumo, however, still blinded by the
flash bang began to rampage through the room, destroying everything around
her. Her rampage was so intense that she managed to break through a wall and
escape.

"Well that's one way to make an exit..." The woman said, she then looked at
Nocturne, "Ohh, where are my manners?! Name's Shooting Star, nice to meet
you!" Shooting Star smiled, "Well, I'm definitely glad to meet you, Shooting
Star! I'm Nocturne." Nocturne replied, "It's a good thing you arrived when you
did. Though I'm curious, if you don't mind, what brought you here?" Nocturne
looked at Shooting Star with a curious expression, "Just doing a favor for a
friend. She told me she needed me to investigate a lead on Helix for her
investigation and well here I am!" Shooting Star shrugged, "Well if you stick
around, you are definitely gonna have a big scoop. We need to stop Jor-gumo
before she rampages through the city." Nocturne began to walk towards were
Jor-gumo left, "Joro who?" Shooting Star struggled with the name, "Jor-gumo.
She's one of Helix's earliest prototypes, but possibly one of its deadliest
too. Went rogue and that means a lot of trouble if we don't stop her."
Nocturne replied. "Well you can count on me....uh oh..." Shooting Star noticed
that there were more mercenaries arriving, "Look's like we got company, shall
we dance?" Shooting Star chuckled, "Let's show them a couple of moves."
Nocturne replied.

After the massacre at the factory, Helix dispatched another batch of
mercenaries in an attempt to clean up the mess. The mercenaries weren't
interested on hearing Nocturne's explanation of the situation, so Nocturne and
Shooting Star quickly took a defensive stance. Nocturne threw a couple of
smoke pellets and the room engulfed in smoke. This gave the heroines a chance
to plan their attack, in total there were around ten mercenaries. "You take
the ones on the left, I'll take the ones in the right." Nocturne said.
Shooting Star attacked one of the knocked out one of the mercs, the other four
tried to shoot her down but the heroine moved with an grace unmatched by any
of the mercs, she dodged every bullet with an almost inhuman speed and
flexibility. As she dodged the bullets, she managed to land behind one of the
mercs and she quickly incapacitated him. Meanwhile, Nocturne disarmed one of
the mercs and incapacitated him by hitting him with his own assault rifle in
the face. Like with Shooting Star, the mercs tried to gun down Nocturne but
she was too fast for them. After dodging two mercs, she hit them with a flying
kick sending them to sleep, the fourth merc continued the strategy but
Nocturne knock him down with a sweep kick and then punched him straight in the
face. The final merc was scared out of his pants, Nocturne however had
different plans for the last one. She grabbed him by the throat, "Tell Helix
to call off their search unless they want to cause a massacre." Nocturne
shouted, "But but but.." The merc tried to reply, "Unless you want to end up
in a body bag, leave this to us." Nocturne shot back, "....ok" the merc
nodded. Having dealt with her mercs, Shooting Star made her way back to
Nocturne, "So..what's the plan now?" Shooting Star asked, "We already wasted
too much time with these guys. We need to chase Jor-gumo and stop her now."
Nocturne replied.

Having dealt with the mercenaries, the two heroines began to track down
Jor-gumo. Luckily, the area didn't have any residences as it was mostly and
industrial area so the chances of the rampaging assassin hurting any civilians
were somewhat small.

"So what exactly is Jor-gumo?" Shooting Star asked,

"I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that she was part of a project called
the Araneaes. Helix has a plethora of supersoldier experiments, this was one
of them. She is the most dangerous of them. I read in a report that somehow
she is able to read body movements, predicting what you will do. She is also
able to instinctively spot weak points in your body structure, so be careful.
She might target nerve clusters, pressure points and other sensitive area's.
She is unlike anything I have ever encountered before" Nocturne replied.

"Sounds like Helix's schemes are far more sinister than I imagined..."
Shooting Star pondered, "That's just the tip of the iceberg. Helix needs to be
stopped." Nocturne replied. "Hey...look!" Shooting Star pointed at a nearby
debris, "She must have passed through here. But where does this leads?" "To
the outskirts of the city, let's go!" Nocturne exclaimed.

Nocturne and Shooting gave chase to the rampaging assassin, thankfully the
destruction she lay along her path served as a trail for them to follow. "I
don't understand...why..did she stopped...trying to...kill you and...left?"
Shooting Star said, panting. "I think..that your flash bang might have damaged
some...sort of sensor that made her go berserk.." Nocturne was panting as
well. It didn't take long for the road to get dangerous, the further they
chase, the rockier the road became. Before long, Nocturne realized that
Jor-gumo, in her recklessness, ended up cornering herself by running towards
a cliff that overlooked the sea.

The heroines followed the trail to its end and just like Nocturne expected,
found themselves on a cliff with Jor-gumo at its end.

"Be careful, this is a dangerous battleground. A false move can end in an
untimely fall." Nocturne said and Shooting Star nodded.

The assassin was still struggling, but it seemed that something had brought
her to her knees, she was screaming and shaking her head. Nevertheless that
didn't stop her from noticing the heroines' arrival, she quickly leapt up and
looked at Nocturne, she seemed to calm down as she gazed at Nocturne.

"My PREY, YOU have come. NOW I will KILL you!!"Jor-gumo spoke in a calm,
determined tone,

"Well, here we go".

She swung her blade at Nocturne, but the heroine dodged her with her usual
grace. While Nocturne took a defensive stance as the assassin came at her.
Jor-gumo seemed solely focused on Nocturne so Shooting Star took the
offensive and used a plethora of strikes to attack Jor-gumo. The flurry
landed and knocked the assassin down but again, it didn't do much damage to
the assassin, who then shifted her attention towards the brightly colored
heroine. Shooting star tried to punch Jor-gumo in the face while at the same
time trying to twist the sword out of her grip. However this time the assassin
intercepted her with a punch to the gut that stunned the heroine. Without
pause Jor-gumo seized her hair, forced her to her knees and raised the sword
to chop her head off.

As Jor-gumo prepared to kill Shooting Star Nocturne took the opportunity to
tackle her which made Jor-gumo lose the blade. Both women struggled but
Nocturne managed to straddle the assassin's chest, she then began to punch her
in the face, Jor-gumo however, forcibly pushed Nocturne off her. Both women
got back to their feet. Nocturne threw a punch but the assassin caught her arm
and used the momentum to throw her away. The heroine was thrown with such
force that she almost fell off the cliff.

Shooting Star tried to use another of her flash bangs but the assassin quickly
caught up with her and punched the heroine right on the chin, making her drop
to the floor. Shooting Star was dazed and the assassin raised her feet and
stomped down on her belly, making Shooting Star gasp for air.

Before Jor-gumo could continue her assault on Shooting Star, Nocturne
intercepted her with a kick, staggering her. With Jor-gumo staggered,
Shooting Star managed to recover and team up with Nocturne, both heroines
began to attack the assassin from both sides, landing some heavy blows.

This however, backfired as Jor-gumo suddenly regained her focus, the assassin
then screamed in a fit of rage and with inhuman speed, leapt up and attacked
both heroines.

In little more than a second Shooting Star received a punch to the gut and a
elbow to her back that knocked her to the ground, but Nocturne got the
attention, as Jor-gumo kept throwing punches at her with no signs of
stopping, Nocturne tried to defend them but the punches slipped past her
defense.

Nocturne took swift but painful punches to her breasts and belly that seemed
meant to drive her backwards. Nocturne noticed that each punch forced her a
bit closer to the edge of the cliff. Nocturne found herself at the edge and
realized she had to attack. Nocturne attacked with a perfectly timed counter
punch aimed at the throat of Jor-gumo.

A normal person would not have stopped this punch. However this assassin was
from normal. In a blur of movement she caught her arm and spun Nocturne
around, quickly twisting her arm high behind her back.

Nocturne grunted in pain as her arm nearly got dislocated. The assassin used
her free hand to slowly explore Nocturne's ample bosom.

The assassin gently touched Nocturne's right breast as she leaned with her
face forward and nuzzled the ear of the heroine.

"MY PREY!!! YOU ARE MINE!!!"

Nocturne felt a shiver going down her spine as Jor-gumo went with her hand
towards Nocturne's crotch.

A loud scream escaped Nocturne's mouth as the assassin painfully squeezed her
womanhood.

As she was in pain she did not realize the assassin slowly moved her towards
the edge of the cliff.

"MY PREY!!! YOU ARE MINE. AND NOW YOU WILL DIE!!!! "

Jor-gumo let go off Nocturne and gave her a hard shove against her back,
pushing her off the cliff.

It seemed like the end for the Mistress of the Night, but miraculously, she
managed to hold on to the edge. Jor-gumo didn't noticed and thinking that
Nocturne was gone, she turned her attention towards Shooting Star, who had got
back up and was running towards the assassin in a fit of anger. Shooting Star
attempted a jumping kick but the assassin easily sweeped her leg and made her
fall to the floor. Shooting Star bounced back to her feet and attacked the
Asian superhuman with a flurry of strikes.

To her surprise Jor-gumo was able to avoid and parry all of her attacks.

Shooting Star kept attacking but was unable to lay a hand on her. Remembering
what Nocturne had said about the assassin being able to read body language
Shooting Star went low pretending with her entire body that she was going to
kick.

However at the last moment she suddenly changed her movement and sended a
punch straight to the face of the superhuman.

The punch struck the assassin on the nose and made her head snap backwards.
Her nose was bleeding but a furious look appeared on the face of Jor-gumo.

"I..WILL...END...YOU!"

Shooting Star knew the attack was coming but the assassin moved with blitzing
speed.

A hard punch caught her in the gut and knocked her wind out. Jor-gumo then
jabbed her extended fingers in the right shoulder of the heroine. Instantly
Shooting Star felt her right arm going limb and she realized the assassin had
just struck a pressure point.

Her right arm unable to move Shooting Star tried to defend herself as best she
could. However the assassin grabbed her throat with both hands and began to
choke the life out of the brightly colored heroine. "I..WILL...END...YOU!"
Jor-gumo shouted as she kept choking Shooting Star.

Her vision getting blurry Shooting Star was beginning to lose her grip on this
world and she didn't have a way to break Jor-gumo's grip on her. "DIE DIE DIE
ALREADY!!" Jor-gumo shouted once more, "WHY WON'T
YOU......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" Jor-gumo shrieked as she saw her arm being cut
off, freeing Shooting Star from her murderous grip.

Nocturne had recovered and in a desperate attempt to save Shooting Star, she
had grabbed the assassin's blade and slashed her arm off. The mechanical arm
fell to the ground and a dark liquid began to pour from Jor-gumo, the
assassin began to shriek. With what little strength she had left, Jor-gumo
continued her assault on Shooting Star, she tackled and pushed Shooting Star
to the edge as she did with Nocturne. Nocturne raced towards them, but
Jor-gumo tried to push Shooting Star before she could get to them, luckily
Shooting Star managed to dodge her with her speed. Jor-gumo lost her balance
and fell off the cliff and into the abyss.

"Woah, that was close....we did it! We.." Shooting Star was astonished, but
before she could finish what she was saying, she slipped and almost joined
Jor-gumo. Nocturne managed to grab her in the nick of time, she pulled her
away of the edge and into her arms. Unintentionally, Shooting Star ended up in
a very romantic hold as Nocturne held her by the waist and back, almost as if
she were about to kiss her. "Oh my, I can see why they call you Mistress of
the Night!" Shooting Star teased. Nocturne blushed before breaking the hold,
"That was an accident! I only wanted to save you!" she protested. "I guess we
are even!" Shooting Star exclaimed, "I guess so. Anyway, thanks for helping me
with Jor-gumo, I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself." Nocturne
replied, "No problem! Besides, I got a big scoop now, thanks to you!" Shooting
Star smiled. "You are pretty good. If you are interested in more scoops and in
the process to do some good for this city, you should join me in the fight
against Helix. What do you say?" Nocturne extended her hand, "Sounds good to
me. I'm sure my friend would appreciate it too." Shooting Star shook
Nocturne's hand, "And who knows, maybe I'll take the Mistress of the Night on
a date one day! That would be a very interesting scoop!" Shooting Star winked,
Nocturne's face turned completely red.

The heroines smiled and parted ways. Nocturne headed back home for a well
earned rest. The fight with Helix was just starting, but with allies like
Shooting Star, she was beginning to feel that that she could have a chance at
stopping Helix and liberating Fortune City from their evil schemes.