Mary woke up to a cacophony of battle sounds and barks of hundreds of frightened puppies. For a brief moment, she wondered how she could have even slept in those conditions, sleep grenade or not. That, and many other thoughts had to be put on standby pretty quickly, as she jumped (or, well, jerked as fast as she could from a lying position) to avoid a series from an uzi. Roy, it seemed, switched to heavier calibres.

“Nice of you to rejoin us,” Paolo said as he shielded crying Rose with a curtain of blood, which bend under the bullets until they slowed down to a halt. “Are the others going back to?”

Mary looked at the other side of the battlefield. Stella still lay motionless. The device-obsessed kid tried to keep Mortimer at a distance with a swarm of drones. It certainly slowed him down, but even partially focused on limiting Roy's destructive tendencies, Mary's party leader was making steady progress. Aria, though...

Mary's heart missed a beat. Seriously, she might have to seek a cardiologist if that trend continued. Aria was stirring awake, but her hair no longer shone in that pink insult to the rainbow - it was white. And as the girl started rising, most of her hair remained on the ground, and those that took a tour to the air made it brief.

“My hair!” she cried, clutching handfuls of her former pride. “My hair!”

“Quit whining,” Roy barked at her while unleashing another barrage of mildly accurate shots. “Wake Stella, we need her now!”

Mary thought she should have been doing something. She wasn't sure what she could do, though. She wouldn't be able to get closer, and-

In a blink, she threw herself over Rose, just as a shrapnel grenade exploded to her right. A lot of pointy and serrated things ricocheted off her armour, while others missed Rose's head by inches.

“Paolo, what are you doing?” Mary asked.

“Trying!” The boy said, sending a wave of bloody spears in Roy's direction. The kid jumped out of the way, but a pool of blood from a previous salvo caught his ankle mid-jump. There came a yelp, a splat, and a lot of cries of indignation, as the spears dissolved into bloodcuffs immobilising the kicking kid.

“My hair,” Aria kept crying. “My hair! Stella is going to kill me...”

The last boy standing glanced at his fallen companions, and tossed the control device to the ground.

“I give up,” he said, throwing his arms high up. His name was... Adam? Mary was pretty sure that's what Stella called him earlier on. “Just end it quickly.”

“No, you idiot, we can't give up! What about Stella?” Roy screamed from where he was bound. Rose walked to him slowly and put her recently freed hand on the boy's shoulder. He went limp. One of the braver puppies that were still running around, a husky, crawled toward them and gave them a long sniff before running away.

“That's why I asked for a quick end,” the surrendering boy explained as Paolo gave him his own set of bloodcuffs. Mary's teammate grew noticeably paler every second.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute,” Mary said as Mortimer approached the boy. “We're not killing anyone here.”

“You... you aren't?” the boy asked, genuinely surprised.

“No! Why would you even think that?”

The boy's eyes went to his still unconscious party leader.

“Mary,” Mortimer said quietly as he collected the control device from the ground, his sword still in a guard position towards the surrendering child. “There's much you still don't know.”

“What do you mean, there's much I don't know? Can't you stop acting like I'm a child and just talk to me straight for once? We're not going to kill them just because of a squabble over team composition!”

Paolo silently gathered some of the blood he left on the battlefield, and bound Aria and Stella the same way as Roy. Neither resisted, though Aria kept crying.

“Stella wasn't just any party leader,” Mortimer continued as he knelt by Stella's side. One of the puppies cautiously walked to her from the other and licked the girl's hand. The fallen enemy still didn't move. “She was blessed with one of the darkest powers I've ever seen, and she used it to rule the Academy's streets with an iron fist.”

“Wait... the Puppylovers were an actual gang? What was Stella's power, anyway?”

“They were, and Stella could summon puppies anywhere,” Mortimer said.

“What? That's it? How is it a dark power at all, and how would it let her rule anyone? It seems... rather lame, to be honest.”

“The wording was literal,” Mortimer said darkly. “She could summon them anywhere.”

“And by anywhere, he really means anywhere,” Paolo spat on the sandy ground.

That somehow sounded ominous, though Mary still couldn't exactly get why. “And why are you all talking about her in the past tense, anyway? She's right here!”

Mortimer sighed. “I can't see her waking up anytime soon. Possibly ever, but that's a bit of a stretch for my kind of powers, and especially around you. I don't know what happened yet, and I don't know where she went, but...” He shrugged.

“So... what are we to do now?” Adam asked.

“We're doomed,” Aria sobbed, “without my hair, I can't use my powers anymore, some two-colour weirdo cursed me, and Stella is as good as dead. Oh, I so wish I had never joined this party!”

“You know...,” Mary trailed off, glancing at her current companions. Mortimer shrugged. “Maybe you could join our party, then?”

Adam was caught by a violent coughing fit. “You... You'd take us in?” He looked nervously at Rose, who smiled at him weakly.

“I think they will,” she said. “They seem nice.”

Mortimer looked at the younger kid. “Just so you know, we do not use enforcing gloves here.”

“It was Stella! She made me do it! I-”

“It's ok, kid. We can put the past in the past, where it belongs.” Paolo said. “Let's get those off, shall we?” he said, recalling all the bloodcuffs back under his skin and regaining some of his usual... well, colour would be a bit too strong a word.

Seconds after he did, Roy bolted away through the herd of puppies. Paolo raised his hand with a blood spear forming, but Mortimer pulled his arm down. “Don't. He won't be causing us trouble anytime soon.” The pale boy shook his head, but obeyed.

"So? Do you want to come with us?” Mary asked the two remaining conscious kids.

“Sure,” Adam said, still not sounding especially confident.

“No, but I have no other choice,” Aria said through her tears. “If Stella is really gone, then I may be free, but I won't survive here alone. But I still don't know if you're any better than her. And why am I even saying all that? And why did I lose my hair!”

“Great. So, before we move on...,” Mortimer looked around. “Does anyone has any idea what to do with those puppies?”