Spirit Guard

The main members of the Spirit Guard, from left to right: Serenity, Felicity, Tenacity, Valor, Charity.

### Notable members

* Angela Warrant (leader)
* Mallory Drake
* Vivian Feliz
* Kara Balmer
* Robert Dreese/Robynne Darling
* See Members for more

### Related groups

Hush Corps

The **Spirit Guard** is an organization in *Magical Girl Policy*. It is a superhero group formed to defend Earth from any threats it may face. It is composed of five main members, including leader Angela Warrant, and six supporting members. The foundation of the Spirit Guard was set by the Princess's team thousands of years ago, with each main member of the Spirit Guard a Champion chosen by Fate and reincarnated from that team. The term "Spirit Guard" can refer to the team as a whole or to an individual member, though the team's supporting members are rarely included in the former usage and never in the latter. The group is based in Kessia City, opposing monsters created by Platicore to protect civilians who would have their Investiture drained. The identity of each member is a secret to the world at large, allowing them to lead more ordinary lives alongside their Spirit Guard work. Due to the perception filter of the Standridge Stones, most Kessia City residents regard the Spirit Guard as a normal part of the city, contributing to the team being largely unknown outside of the area. There are those that don't share this sentiment, however, with such people forming the ConSpiriters to investigate the heroes.

## Description

According to Trace, the Spirit Guard's composition is not unusual for a team of Champions: a main group of heroes with an assortment of unique powers among them, aided by a Guide and an obfuscation group. In this case, Spirit Guards do the fighting, Kunapipi manages things and relays information from Fate, and the Hush Corps works to keep the team's secrets safe.

### Primary members

The main members of the Spirit Guard are all Champions selected by Fate. Each one is also reincarnated from a specific Ardentia, inheriting their predecessor's Investiture and special powers. This makes them unusual among Earth's Champions, as they utilize empathokinesis instead of a power system their Guide Kunapipi is more familiar with, and Fate is apparently content to let them receive information through visions of their past lives instead of from messages from her relayed by their Guide.

They are the only members of the team known to exist to the public, having aliases consisting of "Spirit Guard" followed by the emotion associated with their respective powers. They are regarded as heroes of Kessia City, doing battle with the monsters that appear approximately every three weeks. A new Spirit Guard typically appears just as the heroes risk being defeated by a newly advanced monster. They are considered unique to the area, and local merchandise is even modeled after them. What is left secret, however, is that each Spirit Guard spends most of their time living among ordinary people; currently, all of them are students at Schuyler Adamson University. They also at times will work under the cover of their powered down form in order to investigate persons of interest, such as those with unusual auras that a Spirit Guard can sense.

#### Appearance

Each Spirit Guard has two forms: a default, powered down appearance physically indistinguishable from an ordinary person, and a powered up form with a slightly altered appearance, full set of empathokinetic powers, and a tendency for dramatic speech. Seemingly due to the perception filter of the Standridge Stones, a transformed Spirit Guard can appear differently to various observers, including cameras, so witness reports can be inconsistent on the heroes' appearances. A transformed Spirit Guard's costume consists of a color-coded cheerleader uniform and heeled boots. The team's aesthetic wasn't set until Angela transformed for the first time; her subconscious was probed for an image she associated with inspiring positive emotions in others.

Transforming for the first time changes a Spirit Guard's body to more closely resemble the person they reincarnated from, with the changes more pronounced while powered up. Vivian believes some of the changes stem from one's DNA, drawing from attractive features throughout one's family, perhaps as a way to draw larger emotional responses from others and possibly strengthen the team's emotion-based abilities to some degree. For most of the Spirit Guards, the alterations were relatively minor and left them recognizable, but Rob's are drastic and include a change in sex.

#### Common abilities

Each Spirit Guard possesses an aura of a plant scent. The aura becomes more vivid after transforming for the first time. While powered up, the aura greatly increases in potency, shielding its owner from most forms of non-empathokinetic damage, including bullets.

Each member has varying levels of empathokinetic perception, though for all but Rob it is not noticeable until after their first transformation enhanced it. The user is pained when Investiture is drained in their vicinity. While transformed, the user's EKP is greatly boosted.

Each member possesses a complex Investiture inherited from their Ardentia predecessor, which makes them resistant to having it drained. Calling upon their Investiture before their first transformation temporarily reveals their Ardent Resonance: a glow around their body and an Ardentian symbol on their forehead that marks them as a future Spirit Guard. This Investiture serves as the key to retrieving their respective focus from the Standridge Stones as well as activating it.

One transforms into a Spirit Guard by activating their Spirit Stick, a baton-shaped focus matched to each user's Investiture. Once the user first touches their Spirit Stick, it syncs to them, warping around to be near them but out of sight. The user, while feeling the namesake emotion of their Spirit Guard title, speaks a key phrase and pulls the Stick apart. They are obscured in a glow that renders them invulnerable. They are placed in a sort of pocket dimension called the Transformation Station while the process completes, which always takes a fixed length of time in the real world. One powers down with a similar glow by either losing consciousness or willing their power to return to their Investiture while subconsciously feeling out of danger, though their body returning to normal leaves them feeling weak for a short time.

While powered up, a Spirit Guard has a full range of superhuman attributes and are granted their past life's combat instincts to use them. They can mentally summon their weapon to their hands or dismiss them, which initially take the form of a pair of pompoms but will switch between this and their true appearance when clapped together. Each Spirit Guard has a distinct set of empathokinetic moves, with most moves requiring the user to speak the move's name while holding their weapon.

After transforming for the first time, a Spirit Guard gains a supernatural healing factor. It is most effective while powered up, rapidly sealing wounds in order of ascending size. It also attempts to keep their appearance consistent, leaving a Spirit Guard relatively unblemished during even a violent battle. While powered down, the healing factor is not as potent and resembles an accelerated version of the human body's natural regeneration. Powering up or down resets much of the body's appearance and condition to how it was when the user powered down for the first time.

After a Spirit Guard's first transformation, they may receive visions of their past life in the Ardent Empire during their sleep, complete with their Ardentia counterpart's emotions and other sensations. While said visions provide background on the team's mission, they're believed to actually be granted in order to help them in the future.

The Disconnection Effect causes those who see or hear a Spirit Guard or their image to mentally assign only the hero's title to them, but it's weakened via repeated exposure. The effect applies on some level even to those who know a member's true identity, perceiving the two forms slightly differently. It also prevents a powered up Spirit Guard from accidentally calling their teammates by their real names.

After transforming, each Spirit Guard is affected by an inexplicable swear filter, which replaces any attempt to say certain English-language swear words with a corresponding sweet food.

### Supporting members

In addition to the Champions, the Spirit Guard has several additional members who don't battle monsters, but provide aid in other ways. Unlike the main members, who appear under an alias and hide their identities via the Disconnection Effect, the heroes having a support team at all is hidden from the public. Trace and presumably Platicore are seemingly the only outsiders aware of Champion teams and said teams typically having such allies.

Compared to the primary members, the Spirit Guard's support team is a more eclectic mix. Kunapipi is as a Guide assigned by Fate to the five Champions, having mentored a number of Earth's heroes like them in the past. With the Spirit Guard, however, Kunapipi is granted very little information by Fate to actually mentor with, and instead takes a more passive managerial role. She formed the Hush Corps, consisting of Noriko Yukimura, Nick Siekert, and Will Siekert, to help protect the Champions' secrets through various means of obfuscation. Finally, Cory Frost and Eli Drake are mainly confidants and help with miscellaneous tasks.

## History

### Background

During the Ardentia Civil War, people from the Ardent Empire fled to distant worlds using empathokinetic foci called gateways, destroying each gateway afterwards so the enemy and the Other Power couldn't follow. The last remaining gateway was to Earth. In order to protect this young world from threats such as the Empress, Platicore, and the Other Power, the Princess and her comrades set in motion a plan that will allow for the appearance of heroes on Earth that can combat threats to the planet. The Shrine Maiden had the High Spirits reincarnate each team member into humans when their power will be needed; a portion of each human's soul, including their Investiture, will be inherited from their Ardentia counterpart. This specific Investiture will allow the human to retrieve their respective focus stored within the iris of the Earth half of the gateway. These foci created by the Scholar are unlike any other: activating one will add empathokinetic powers and combat instincts from the user's predecessor to their own, which will allow the untrained humans to fight as effectively as the Princess's team and even potentially battle the Other Power. During the final battle for the gateway to Earth, the foci were successfully transferred and the gateway shut, though a gravely wounded Platicore managed to get through, entering hibernation to recover. With the mission complete, the team was slain by the Empress.

Millennia later, the human reincarnations are born. One of them, Angela Warrant, touched the ruined gateway, now known as the Standridge Hill Stone Circle, about a year and a half prior to the start of the series. This sent an empathokinetic pulse dubbed the Hero's Call, signaling Kunapipi to travel to Kessia City to guide the soon-to-be hero, though this also woke Platicore from his slumber. Kunapipi hired Noriko Yukimura, Nick Siekert, and Will Siekert to form the Hush Corps, a team dedicated to protecting the secrets of what would be known as the Spirit Guard. Kunapipi found Angela and informed the Champion of her mission, though they had little information to work off of. A week later, Platicore created a monster and had it attack, with Angela activating her focus. The Spirit Stick probed her subconscious to create the aesthetic of the Spirit Guard; the costume is based on those worn by cheerleaders due to Angela associating them with the idea of inspiring positive emotions in others, being one herself. Angela, now Spirit Guard Valor, defeated the monster, and continued to fight similar monsters as they appeared for several months.

When Angela began attending Schuyler Adamson University, she noticed an extremely potent aura on cheer team captain Cammy DeCroix. Assuming this to be a sign of a future Spirit Guard, she planned to reveal herself to her, but was dissuaded by Kunapipi. Some time after drama with Cammy led to Angela getting booted from the cheer team, she began receiving visions featuring the Princess and Empress. She wondered if the similarity between these visions and her interactions with Cammy means the captain is reincarnated from the Empress, but kept this to herself due to fearing her friends wouldn't believe her or think she's obsessed with Cammy.

Mallory Drake joined the Spirit Guard about half a year after Angela. Angela had sensed Mallory's powerful aura when cheering at her volleyball game and befriended her. Their dinner one night was interrupted by a monster called Alena Alfredo, so Angela ran off to transform. Valor returned to see the monster failing to drain Mallory, so she tossed her a Spirit Stick, and Mal became Spirit Guard Tenacity. Tenacity's first public sighting was against the weightlifting monster Barbella two months later.

Vivian Feliz joined about four months later, having been befriended by Mallory after spectating a volleyball game. Vivian transformed into Spirit Guard Felicity to defeat a monster called Dramatica at an outdoor theater.

Vivian's friend Kara Balmer found herself in a monster attack at a hospital about three months later. She was initially overwhelmed to learn she was to be a Spirit Guard, but transformed into Spirit Guard Charity to heal Valor and defeat the monster. Charity's first public sighting was against Confection Cathy at a Kessia City High School bake sale.

### Week 1

Kara is at the Loose Change arcade when she senses some *Zombie Mansion* players have their Investiture drained. She briefly leaves to alert her teammates, then returns as Spirit Guard Charity to free Robert Dreese, Cory Frost, and Eli Drake from the clutches of Polygal, with Valor and Tenacity quickly joining the fight. Both the Spirit Guard and Polygal are surprised by what appears to be the glow of Spirit Guard Serenity's Ardent Resonance on Robert. Valor and Tenacity keep the monster's attention while Charity defends the boys with Altruistic Barrier. Felicity arrives and restrains Polygal with Encircling Joy, with Tenacity's Intrepid Blade finishing the job. After Polygal is defeated, Rob presses the heroes on what his glowing means, having overheard Valor say it was something to be dealt with later. He is suspicious of them for being unknown outside of Kessia City, but is convinced to give them his phone number so he may be contacted once further research is done into the glow.

The Spirit Guard contact Kunapipi and the Hush Corps for more information on Robert and his glow. It is confirmed that he is to be the final Spirit Guard, so the team decides to meet him and get a read on his character. Mallory along with Vivian visit Rob, Cory, and Eli's dorm under the pretense of fearing for her brother's safety after the monster attacked him at work. They probe Rob on what happened before the Spirit Guard arrived, and are surprised to learn how he fearlessly stood up to Polygal despite being unaware of the heroes' existence. Mal berates Eli and Cory for not running and tells them to leave monsters to the Spirit Guard. Angela meets Rob in their World History class, confusing him with her "theory" of the Standridge Stones being constructed via magic as well as connected to the Spirit Guard and monster attacks. She claims to be a fan of the Spirit Guard since they had saved her from the water monster Saturationa, and is appalled when he considers the monster evil yet clever for taking hostages and says emotion has no place on the battlefield.

The Spirit Guard and Noriko discuss their findings on Robert. Angela worries that Rob's seeming coldness is unfit for a Spirit Guard, but the others assure her it's just part of his calm, calculating demeanor and unsurprising for one with the power of serenity. Eli visits to retrieve a graphing calculator Mallory had borrowed, and is introduced to her friends before leaving. The team decides Rob can be trusted to join them, so the Hush Corps text him to meet the Spirit Guard at the Standridge Circle tomorrow night to learn why he glowed.

The Spirit Guard and Kunapipi meet Robert at the Standridge Circle, where he is told about Fate, the Ardent Empire, and his own role as the last Spirit Guard. Robert turns down joining the team, as becoming Spirit Guard Serenity would transform him into a woman and ruin his life. When he mentions having to leave Cory and Eli as a reason why he won't do it, Tenacity tells him he could remain part of their lives and convinces the Spirit Guard to reveal their identities to him. The team is shocked when Noriko appears with Cory and Eli, who were caught remotely recording the meeting at Rob's request, as he was scared of what the secretive vigilantes might do to him for glowing in a way they seemed to be worried about. Mallory and Eli have a heated argument now that her life-threatening superhero career is revealed, though he agrees not to tell their parents. The team tells Robert they know what they're asking of him is unreasonable, but each previous Spirit Guard had joined exactly when they were needed; Rob had inadvertently helped to defeat Polygal since her attempts to drain his complex Investiture caused her to overload and return all she had drained, greatly weakening her. Rob's refusal remains firm: he won't discard his way of life simply because Fate and the Shrine Maiden arranged for things to be that way. With everyone sworn to secrecy, the meeting ends.

The next morning, Angela and Robert meet in class, with Rob having been unable to sleep due to the sensation of the Spirit Stick he got last night seemingly watching him at all times. She explains it as his empathokinetic sense awakening, and that he'll be able to tune out the Stick's presence given time. She invites him to have lunch with her, Mallory, and Vivian to help clear the air from last night, but he turns her down, clarifying that he holds nothing against them but won't be changing his mind on not joining the Spirit Guard.

The Spirit Guard go to Rale Valley Mall for some shopping, but sense a strange empathokinetic humming from seemingly random locations. Angela and Mallory run into Robert, who senses it as well and offers to help in the search, as though he has no intention of transforming, he is willing to use the powers he does have to protect others. The two are grateful for the offer but ask him to leave the mall, as Mal doesn't want Eli or Cory to once again risk their lives for their new friend if there turns out to be a monster. A little while later, the Spirit Guard sense Investiture being drained in Rob's direction and transform. Valor and Tenacity help Rob, Cory, and Eli escape from Day LaMode, but the team quickly finds itself split up by LaMode's mannequin army, with Valor in one crowd and Charity and Felicity awkwardly on the front lines of another. LaMode continues to pursue Robert in hopes of capturing him for Platicore, so Tenacity goes alone to defend the boys, but is brutally beaten by her nimbler, body hopping opponent. With Eli and Cory in tears as they can do nothing but watch Mallory's death approach, Rob decides he's the only one who can do something about it and retrieves his Spirit Stick, ordering his friends to flee so he can be alone when he transforms. With Tenacity's last ditch effort to summon her sword directly into Day LaMode a failure, she is about to be killed before Robert, now Spirit Guard Serenity, appears to save her. Serenity easily gains the upper hand with her speed, Placid Mist invisibility, and verbal barbs. She feels something like a guilty conscience belonging to something invisible on top of a trash can, but decides against pursuing it in the middle of a fight. After tricking LaMode into charging at the barely conscious Tenacity, Serenity uncloaks, stabs her in the jaw to disable her verbally activated body transfer, and kills her with Geyser of Tranquility. The other Spirit Guard show up and are surprised to see Serenity, grateful for Rob's sacrifice. Noriko warns the team of the police's arrival, so Felicity acts as a distraction, Valor goes to debrief at Kunapipi's office, and Charity operates on Tenacity while Serenity renders them invisible. After Tenacity is carried to her apartment, Serenity enters Kunapipi's office to relay Charity's instructions for her continued treatment.

After Serenity explains why she transformed, Ms. Kuna teaches her how to power down, which she manages to do faster than any of the other Spirit Guard. With the Shrine Maiden's instincts removed, Rob is suddenly fully aware of how wrong her new body feels. She works with Ms. Kuna to set up a cover and a new identity of Robynne Darling. She is reassigned from her old dorm to one shared with Vivian, Kara, and Noriko. Her classes are lightened due to likely having to remain in town to fight monsters over the summer as well as needing less stress while adjusting to her new life. In order to explain her situation to her Uncle Taylor in person where the Standridge Stones' perception filter will help him understand, the Hush Corps will rig a contest to win him a trip to the Homecoming football game in 28 days.

Angela helps Cory and Eli pack up Rob's belongings to be moved into Rob's new dorm. When she laments how things could've gone differently if she had convinced Tenacity to stay with the team and Robert to transform earlier, she is told that nothing can stop Mallory from protecting her brother, and that Rob only transformed because the decision to save Mal was entirely his own rather than something pushed onto him by the manipulation of Fate and the Shrine Maiden. Vivian delivers dinner to the three, then does the same for Nick and Will, who have to work late creating Rob's new documentation.

After Rob's things are moved in, the new Spirit Guard shows up and surprises everyone with her powered down appearance. They discuss Mallory's condition and Rob's cover as Robynne, with Eli offering to help Angela look after his sister. Robynne, not wanting her existential crisis to become apparent to the others, has them leave so she can eat dinner alone and think. Her friends are worried about this but comply, reminding her that they can be called for any reason. Robynne fails to relieve her stress; with no one able to understand what she's going through and unable to speak to her uncle, she breaks down in tears.

A little while later, Robynne's sorrow is interrupted by Vivian, who treats her to a "choco-phagial communication therapy" session where they eat ice cream and vent about her situation. Robynne learns about the Spirit Guard's healing factor, and shares Vivian's interest in theorizing about the team's powers. When Vivian suggests her theory that the Spirit Guard's body alterations stem from attractive women in their family, Robynne shows pictures of her late mother and is told there is a strong resemblance. The photos mysteriously show her mother with scarlette hair instead of the more standard reddish hair they had in the past, but Robynne saves that question for another day.

### Weeks 2-4

Eli visits Mallory's apartment to check up on his recovering sister. He notices Angela's lack of sleep from worrying about Mal and Rob and has her take a nap. He makes Mal eat to fuel her healing factor, and she tells him that Robynne, despite her brave face, needs the help of her friends now more than ever. Mallory's near death against Day LaMode made her realize she's not as invincible as she thought, so she plans to tell her parents she's a Spirit Guard in the near future so the burden won't fall to Eli if something happens to her.

Robynne tells her friends how her first day back to class went, making special mention of the auras she felt around campus. Angela arrives with a largely recovered Mallory and takes interest at the mention of auras. Robynne noticing Angela and Mal's auras before the Standridge Stone warp lit up, describing the team's auras in the most detail, and sensing Eli's aura at all leads to the conclusion that she has the strongest empathokinetic sense among the Spirit Guard.

That night, Robynne has a vision of the Shrine Maiden being visited by the Scholar and learning of drama in the Church of the High Spirits as well as the plan to let the Ardent Empire die and save Earth. Mentioning it to Vivian in the morning causes an impromptu meeting with the whole team. Robynne is skeptical over the plan's need to eradicate the Ardentia instead of saving some people, negative emotions being forbidden, and the vision rendering the team's past lives' names as garbled sounds. She's assured that the plan was apparently decided upon after at least a year of consideration, and Vivian theorizes the name thing is perhaps a sort of precaution to keep the Other Power from tracking the reincarnations. Later that day, Mal tells Robynne of her plan to reveal her Spirit Guard business to her parents, so Rob asks to know how it goes so she can figure out how to explain her own situation to her uncle.

Angela sees Robynne get approached by Cammy during lunch, and the two teammates talk about it in private shortly after. Angela explains her history with Cammy, then presents her theory of Cammy being reincarnated from Empress, as Robynne is the only other Spirit Guard able to gauge the power of the captain's commanding aura. Robynne senses the rest of the team eavesdropping and opens the door so they can cry out their misunderstandings with Angela. Deciding they need a way to find out what kind of threat Cammy is, the gang figures the best option is for Robynne to accept Cammy's invitation to the cheer team and act as a spy. Robynne is uneasy about this plan, but wants to topple Cammy regardless of the Empress theory due to being reminded of Evelyn, a similar schemer who ruined Robert's high school life. Robynne is to return the dress she was bribed with and present a list of demands she's actually interested in, such as letting Vivian join as well so she won't be alone.

The Hush Corps wipe traces of Robynne and Vivian's connection to Angela from social media so Cammy won't suspect the two know her nemesis. Robynne and Vivian find Cammy and join the cheer team, with Robynne managing to get out of promotion duty too.

After the cheer team photo shoot and SFEERS social, Robynne warps using the Standridge Stones to discuss it with Angela in person at Noriko's suggestion. On her way there, she senses something like a song within the center stone that should be empty now that the Spirit Guard is fully assembled. She also gets the feeling of being watched, which she realizes she had previously felt when she showered in her new body for the first time. She guesses it's either Fate or some sort of spy, but loses track of both sensations when her focus wavers. She tells this to Angela, who has felt a similar watchful presence while particularly introspective, but the two hold off on investigating for now so as not to alarm it. Angela apologizes for how she acted to Robert at the Circle; she had assumed the Princess and Shrine Maiden's lifelong friendship would somehow translate to him eagerly joining the Spirit Guard, having always considered the team's past lives extensions of themselves until Rob pointed out the absurdity of it.

Mallory tells her parents about her Spirit Guard business, which goes over well. In order to make her father go easier on Eli, she exaggerates his involvement in the Polygal attack by claiming he went out of his way to lead the children to safety. This convinces their father that Eli has fully learned discipline and no longer needs a job while at college. Mal does all this with only Eli and Robynne's prior knowledge, which annoys Noriko and Kunapipi when they find out later.

### Week 5

While Robynne, Cory, and Eli are at a Buy Bright, Rob senses phones drain trace amounts of Investiture from customers and those they text and send it to a certain store employee. She has Cory and Eli contact the rest of the team, though Mallory and Vivian are preoccupied and don't see the text until later. Fearing the monster will become too powerful if left alone for much longer, she ignores Eli's warning by sending her friends away with her affected phone for Will to examine and deciding to start the fight alone. Immediately after transforming into Spirit Guard Serenity in the restroom, she is attacked by the employee, who reveals herself as a monster called Cell-celia. Wounded and having dropped one of her daggers, Serenity gets Cell-celia to gloat, learning that Cell-celia is an advancement Platicore had sought for a while and that previous monsters had been monitored by a "stooge" of his. Spirit Guard Charity arrives to heal her. Serenity's sneak attacks and attempts to retrieve her weapon are foiled by the monster's signal-based detection, as are her attempts to plan with Charity by the Voice-to-Text move replacing verbal communication with visible text boxes. Spirit Guard Valor arrives, tells Serenity she can recall her weapon by mentally dismissing it first, hinders Cell-celia's signal vision with her Rising Spirit walls, and has her teammates cover her for a finishing blow. Serenity gets chewed out for recklessly fighting alone, with her realizing she knows little of her teammates' capabilities and is a poor team player because of it. She distracts the police by having them pursue her for a while before turning invisible and heading to Kunapipi's office to debrief. Her mention of Cell-celia's human disguise, signal vision, and low-key Investiture collection has the team conclude that Platicore is shifting his monster designs in hopes of harvesting as much Investiture as possible before the Spirit Guard find them. Mallory suggests nightly patrols of the city in order to snuff out newly planted monsters, but the plan is put off until Robynne explains her situation to her uncle.

Robynne panics when told the Hush Corps will contact Uncle Taylor tomorrow so he can arrive in Kessia City that week. She attempts to destress that night by playing *Aspect Realms* and talking with Angela and Mallory, but her fear of her uncle's arrival is apparent. Mal promises he'll be supportive and it'll be a huge relief, but Angela reminds her that Rob has more at risk with only a single family member. Robynne is fatigued from the Cell-celia battle and heads to bed at her friends' suggestion. Seeing her reflection wearing Robert's oversized football jersey and realizing how much of her new life has become routine, she has no idea who she is anymore and is terrified at the thought of her uncle not recognizing the person who doesn't even recognize herself.

During the night, Robynne has a vision of the Shrine Maiden, who finds herself in a cell due to her and her shrine arriving to the capital unannounced, but the Princess and Soldier free her. As part of the plan, she is removed from the clergy and becomes a Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess, who uses her religion's forbidden emotions to lie her way past the corrupt Vice-Archon Liff.

The Spirit Guard discuss Robynne's vision in the morning. The team has started to follow Rob's lead by distancing themselves from their past lives, but Angela is upset that the Princess would compromise her religion even as an act. The others wonder if the reason none of their visions hinted at this is because perhaps the Maiden, like Robynne, had the strongest empathokinetic perception of her team. Robynne is told the team's visions are apparently intended to teach a lesson to be used in the future.

As the meeting winds down, Tanya appears with a surprise promotion assignment for Robynne and Vivian. Robynne is upset that Cammy is ignoring the agreement to ditch promotion, but is told this is a test to see if she'll be remain loyal now that she's had her extorted computer for a while. Rob is assured she's making great progress in her infiltration of the cheer team, and earning Cammy's trust with this job will be a major step in uncovering the captain's machinations.

During promotion duty, Robynne happens upon NightKnight, who sports a new textured aura and an altered appearance since their previous meeting at the SFEERS opening social. She also learns he is a member of the ConSpiriters, a group that investigates the mysteries surrounding the Spirit Guard and monsters. When Stacy tells him she, Robynne, Cory, and Eli were at Buy Bright just before the Cell-celia attack, he is eager to question them. Rob, needing to protect her secret identity but unable to get off of the subject of the attack, makes herself cry, claiming that living in a city with real monsters has been incredibly frightening for her, so she shuts down discussion on the matter. After the job is over, Robynne tells Vivian about what had happened, and the two agree that NightKnight's changes in body and aura are likely connected, noting a similarity to the Spirit Guards' post-transformation side effects. Rob is advised to leave the matter of the ConSpiriters to the Hush Corps so she may focus on her uncle's impending arrival. The two schedule another Spirit Guard meeting for later that day to discuss what they've learned with the rest of the team.

## Members

### Primary members

 Robert Dreese/Robynne Darling | Spirit Guard Serenity | Shrine Maiden | Initially refuses to transform, but does so to save Mallory from Day LaMode. Fights with a pair of knives and water-based special moves, focusing on speed and stealth. Sports a superior EKP.