"Sis! Stop fighting already! You're in a bad shape right now!"
"I can't, I must protect you! I won't fall down unless we both fall down!"
It was a dark and rainy night in Azure City. Two Espers that were saved rescued by a team of rescuers sent by Hiroki back during an urgent mission in Thailand were lost after the team were defeated by Valhalla agents. Fortunately, they managed to fight back and escape to the city. One of the Espers was a girl in her early 20s, sporting a blonde hair with pink tips, a white hair scarf tied into a shape that vaguely resembles a rabbit's ears, a pair of white barettes on her bangs and she was clad in a pink blouse with a white shirt and blue necktie underneath. On her neck was a pendant with a crystal shaped like a fleur-de-lis. She was a very tough fighter, as she was an adept practitioner of kickboxing, Savate, Muay Thai and MMA.
"I'm begging you, stop fighting! This is for your own good!" said the girl's elder sister, who had a larger bust than her and sported a tomato red hair decorated with a pair of fake bunny ears. However, the blonde girl did not listened and kept fighting against their masked assailants. She wiped off the blood that gushed from her forehead, leaving a red stain on her pink fingerless gloves.
"So, you really wanted us so badly, huh? I'll knock your skulls out until all of you stay the fuck out of our lives!"" said the blonde girl angrily. She was unfazed despite her physical condition and her wet and tattered clothes. She then grabbed one of her assailants' head and shoved her knee into his face, knocking him out. The other girl watched in fear as the blonde girl kept fighting.
Meanwhile, a tall bald man with a black suit and sunglasses watched his men falling one by one to the girl's fighting skills. He was the commander of the unit that was sent by Valhalla to capture the two Esper escapees under the order of his boss, Lukretia. The cruel woman in red who usurped the former CEO of Valhalla, Caitlin Bradford in order to take over her research and the Charybdis Deviant, the super-powerful Proto-Deviant that ravaged Angel Grove in California along with his own horde of Proto-Deviants who became her companion and the brains of Valhalla under his human identity, Hideo Iwakura.
Under Lukretia and Hideo's leadership, Valhalla turned from a consortium dedicated to research Espers and fight against the Deviant threat into an ultra-capitalistic consortium bent on world domination. They were infamous for their mistreatment of Espers, via kidnapping, experimentation and brainwashing, all to turn the formerly heroic inhabiants of Sunshine City into mindless super soldiers armed with Sigils that serves as their mercenaries in order to control the world. They were also feared for their agents, half-human and half-mechanical beings that served Lukretia as her footsoldiers and her spies.
"Yes, this is Commandant Officer MacLeod speaking. Our subjects Gabrielle and Amélie has shown a lot of resistance here. Our men couldn't handle them anymore, and one of them hasn't shown any sign of giving up. Miss Lukretia, let me handle her personally" said the man on the phone to her boss.
Eventually, the blonde girl lost all of her energy from excessive fighting and fell from exhaustion. The redhead, who was identified as Amélie by the Valhalla commandant officer screamed in fear. "Sis! Sis! Wake up! Réveille-toi, ma sœur!" said Amélie in a panicked tone as she begged her unconscious blonde sister to rise up. Her clothes were wet as the torrential rain drenched the two siblings down.
"It's no use. Time for you two bitches to get your sorry asses back to our Lord Lukretia. She won't be happy with you two sneaky bunnies scurrying around the city in the middle of a rainy night like this!" said MacLeod. He was very angry and pissed after seeing that his men were defeated one by one by Gabrielle, the blonde Esper. He then grabbed both Espers by their necks. Amélie was choking in pain while her younger sister was already out cold from exhaustion.
Just before MacLeod could drag the two, a mysterious figure slashed the man's right eye. "Ack!" said MacLeod as he grunted in pain. A mysterious black-haired boy clad in a red jacket snatched the two Esper girls and took them to safety.
"You two stay here, we'll deal with this bastard first before we're taking you two to Polaris Sanctuary. You'll feel save there" said the boy before he engaged MacLeod with his partner, a blonde girl with a twintailed hair and a British school uniform. Gabrielle and Amélie huddled each other as they watch the boy and his partner fight their captors before heading to their safe place.
The girl was also an Esper, as she exhibited her Sigil that enables her to control light and fire at will. She burned several Valhalla soldiers to death with a single snap of her finger, while the boy is fighting against MacLeod. He was armed with an anti-Esper pistol, specially designed by Valhalla for him and a knowledge on a grappling and striking-based close quarter combat.
"Heh, you're strong, but you won't be able to outsmart me!" taunted the boy. He then used his bladed yo-yo that resembles a ninja's shuriken to overwhelm MacLeod in an attempt to tie up and wound the Valhalla commandant officer with it.
"Perish!" said the girl as she proceeded to blow up a Valhalla APC with her Sigil. The engine blew up from heat and the explosion killed the remaining Valhalla troops inside it and within the explosion's radius. MacLeod was shocked upon hearing the explosion. "Holy shit! My own men! You psychic brats, you're going to pay for this!" said MacLeod angrily. He cursed the loss of his own men, not knowing that the boy was preparing to strike from behind.
"I'd rather rampage than hide in the shadows!" said the boy before he slashed MacLeod in the throat while he was off guard. The tall and bald Valhalla commandant officer coughed and shrieked in pain as blood gushed from his neck. His body crumbled into the floor upon his defeat in the hands of the Esper ninja. Out of spite, the girl burnt his lifeless body into nothing but charred remains with her own Sigil. "This is for trying to kidnap those innocent girls!" said the twintailed girl.
"Thanks for saving us…" said Amélie. She felt relieved after their captors and MacLeod were all dead. "Your welcome. By the way, my name is Kotaro Tanikaze, and this is my companion Lucy Grange. We're both sent by the Turquoise Foundation to retrieve you two from Valhalla after our boss heard that their forces were beaten back in Azure City and the two of you were going to be retaken by them again. Anyways, we'll take you two to Polaris in no time!" said Kotaro, the boy with the black hair and red jacket.
The two then took Gabrielle and Amélie to Polaris, a sanctuary for Espers located in the snowy wilderness of Hokkaido's Okhotsk Subprefecture. It was a city built for rescued Espers, as Turquoise Foundation dedicated themselves to rescue Espers and look after them, especially after recent incidents of Espers being kidnapped or abducted by Valhalla, as part of Lukretia's twisted plan to experiment and weaponize them. The foundation also had a partnership with Lazuline, who helped them in their hard work in rescuing the Espers.
"Welcome to Polaris Sanctuary, our current population is over 200.000 rescued Espers and counting from around the world. We welcome and serve our gifted refugees with hospitality, kindness and virtue" said the announcer as Kotaro's car passed through the gate to Polaris.
"Next stop, Polaris Castle!" said Kotaro as he drove to the building. Hiroki, who has moved to Polaris after his graduation from Rurigaoka High School alongside with his fellow Azure Shields members waved at the car as it approached the building's gate alongside his younger sister, Kotoha Fujimiya.