"I have one," Samuel said. If he was doomed, he wanted to know the whole story first. "If those things feed on fear and bad feelings, then why the hell would they WANT to wipe out humanity? That would mean the end of their primary food source!"
Instead of hitting him on the head bringing him one step closer to being one of them, Mirror Mira smiled. "Good. You're thinking. If we wanted Magical Girls who'd blindly follow orders, we'd want magical dolls, not girls. First, there are two theories. First, is that they don't just feed on human negativity, but are born of it, and driven by the death instinct that exists in all humans. Second, is that they aren't really interested in destroying all of humanity, just have a population in constant fear to feed them, like cattle, and they're 'culling the herd'."
Lee Chin then asked. "So . . . all of those things are giant scorpions?"
"Oh no!" Mirror Mira said. "They take many forms, bears, sharks, snakes, a swarm of wasps with one mind, giant bats, dogs, but always something that inspires FEAR, and always inhuman enough that it'll not just dangerous, it's WRONG, that terror of the unknown means they're always changing shape. But there are signatures to their forms regardless of shape they take. And all that said, the more intelligent ones can organize, but most simply join together. There's even the theory that they were all originally one creature. That one you saw could be considered a heavy assault vibe. Thankfully most Shattered Ones are destroyed before they grow that large."
Mirror Mira said, "I was once bitten in two by one of those things, I didn't know intestines could spread that far, thankfully Miracle Mary was able to heal me before I bled to death. The scar goes all the way around my entire body. You big boys and girls wanna see?"
They 'class' all shook their head.
Keith Hanson asked. "WHAT are those things?" He pointed at one of those cat-rabbit things, it was currently playing a mean game of Tetris on a hand held game, and was the one who'd been operating the projector.
"Oh! Moon Beam!"
"Uh! Wha!? Yes Mira?!" The cat-rabbit thing quickly hid the game behind his back.
"Care to explain what you are?"
"Oh! Well! Ahem. You could say my kind is the opposite number of the Shattered Ones. We feed on positive emotions of humans, and no, not like Count Dracula does blood, it's more like how a flower lives off sunshine. Speaking of Dracula, any of you seen the newest remake? I think they really overdid the CGI there-"
"Moon Beam! Focus!"
"Sorry! Anyway, our purpose and function is to serve and help magical girls, in particular newbie magical girls like you're going to be. You're going to cut your teeth on Embryonic-class Shattered Ones, and bank robbers, terrorists, and my job is make sure you don't get killed before you're in top shape. I also have a movie blog if any of you are interested- Oh! Right! Focus!"
"Okay." Matt Nickson said. "I've got a question. Why THE HELL! Haven't we ever heard of any of this Sh*** before now?! Is there some massive conspiracy going on?!"
"Yes . . . AND no." Moon Beam said. "You see, the more you know something, you more you understand it, the less terrifying it is, fear of the unknown is the most potent fear right next to classic fear of death. So the Shattered Ones have an aura that makes those without magic be unable to properly identity what ate their friends and families when asked later. Even on film. The fact you can all remembered what you just saw means the magic of the Star Stone is already rooted in you. Magical Girls . . . its more complicated, you see, Magical Girls are pure, well," Moon Beam rolled his eyes. "Pure enough, nobody's perfect, but Magical Girls . . . they're so ideal, so selfless, so idealistic . . . that most people can't bear to remember them . . . the idea that something so good can exist in a world with so many problems . . . most people just ignore them. It's not the same as a perception filter, it's more like people, media, witnesses, like to pretend they didn't see it. Though things HAVE been changing lately so that's slowly no longer the case."
"Make no mistakes kiddos!" They turned to see another Magical Girl. This one was slightly different. She had tanned skin, red hair, yellow eyes, but also little horns and bat wings, and her costume was reds and blacks. Her weapon was a staff with a red star on top.
"Hello Lilly." Mira said politely.
"Hey Mira."
"Girls and future girls, meet Lilly Lilith . . . the only one of her kind . . . she was a low-rank Shattered One who tried to grab the Star Sone . . . and being in direct contact with it changed her into a magical girl."
Everyone cringed.
"I don't really remember much. I can't remember where I came from. All I remember from my time as a shattered are . . . FEED, INSPIRE FEAR, FEED, INSPIRE HATE, KILL, INSPIRE DESPAIR, HARVEST, . . . I want you all to understand that . . .those things . . . the low level ones are driven by blind instinct, their only thoughts are to kill you. Because magical girls are the natural enemies of fear and despair. So you won't be prey to them, you'll be seen as a THREAT to them, and they DON'T care about their own survival, they'll fight to the death. Expect no mercy."