Welcome to Gaia! ::

The night air over Destiny Park was unusually still. Moonlight shimmered across the fountain, but the usual peace was broken by a faint, gnawing clatter echoing through the empty paths. Howick’s eyes narrowed beneath her hood.

Rats, she thought. Ordinary enough… until she saw the first one bite through the wrought-iron railing without a second thought. Then another, and another, tearing through the fence like it were paper.

She crouched on the edge of the fountain, cloak brushing the stone, watching as the creatures swarmed with unnatural speed, moving through barriers as if the world itself offered no resistance.

“This isn’t normal,” she murmured, voice low, almost swallowed by the night. She flexed her fingers, ready, but waited. Something about the pattern of their movement… it felt deliberate, intelligent.

A soft rustle among the shadows drew her attention elsewhere. Not the rats. Something else. Someone else.

Her eyes caught the glimmer of a book—or a figure holding one—emerging from the darkness at the park’s edge.

Moon Knight shifted, ready to confront, but the question remained: was this ally… or part of the strange puzzle the city had suddenly become?

Moon Knight turned as the other senshi stepped into the light. The faint scent of paper and ink reached her before she even spoke—Books. That explained the aura she’d felt.

“Watch yourself,” she said quietly, eyes fixed on the rats gnawing through metal fencing. “They’ll chew through anything.”

A spark jumped from a torn wire, hissing in the dark.

She glanced back at the newcomer, expression steady beneath the moonlight. “You’ve seen this before?”

Howick stepped back as Lacaille’s paper flared through the air, slicing cleanly into the swarm. The rats scattered, a few vanishing into the shadows, but several lingered—still gnawing, still wrong.

“They can be hurt,” she said, watching the ones that smoked faintly where the paper struck. “But I don’t think they’re alive. Not in the usual sense.”

She crouched near the edge of the grass, where one had been moments before. The ground glistened—metal shavings melted into the soil.

Straightening, she met Lacaille’s gaze. “If they’re magic, there’s a reason they’re here. Something’s calling them.”

A rustle echoed deeper in the park, low and sharp. More movement.

“Looks like we’re not done yet.”

Moon Knight gave a low hum of agreement as she stepped closer, the pale light of her hourglass flickering across the torn grass. “I know the feeling,” she said quietly. “The city never gives us much rest.”

“Feels like we barely finish one mess before another starts.”

She kicked one of the creatures away as it lunged for her boots, metal teeth sparking against stone. “You’re holding your own. Just stay clear of their bite.”

Her eyes flicked toward Lacaille, a faint smile tugging at her lips despite the chaos. “Not every fight needs a perfect weapon. Sometimes endurance is enough.

Moon Knight sidestepped another lunge, the rat’s teeth scraping harmlessly against a stone bench before it crumbled under the bite. “Agreed,” she said, voice steady but tense. “If they can eat through that, we won’t hold them here.”

She backed toward the path, motioning for Lacaille to follow. “Let’s fall back before they chew through something important—like the gas lines.”

A grim smile flickered across her face. “We’ll regroup once the city figures out what to do with them. Assuming there’s a city left to fix.”

As they retreated down the path, the sounds of gnawing and cracking echoed behind them, swallowed by the dark. The park that had once been peaceful now looked like something hollowed out, half-eaten by shadows.

Moon Knight cast one last glance over her shoulder. The rats were already fading into the grass, leaving behind nothing but the smell of metal and dust.

“Let’s hope this is the last we see of them,” she murmured. Then, quieter still, “But I doubt it.”

With that, she turned away, the faint glow of the moon following the two of them as they disappeared into the night.