In the quiet and unassuming town of Angel Bay, New South Wales, Australia, Estella, Anja and Natalia Kendrick are three normal university students going about their daily lives, until said lives are flipped upside down when the university suddenly comes under attack by a mysterious horde of shadowy soldiers commanded by the evil "Tenebris Imperatoris", cocooning people to create more soldiers with the purpose of taking over the entire town, and eventually the world.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the trio are gifted powers and equipment that allow them to fight back - Estella is gifted an ancient, sapient magic sword named Galowye and runes that allow her to use magic, Anja bonds with a symbiotic creature whom she names Prometheus, and Natalia gains cybernetics and a Neural Interface Assistant (NIA) AI in her head, and an advanced combat suit and weapons. As it happens, this isn't an accident - the trio were on the short-list for training as defenders of the Earth, hand-picked by a group of friendly aliens seeking to prepare Earth for a potential invasion by the Salvron Empire, only for the Salvron to invade earlier than expected just as the Tenebris Imperatoris attacks Angel Bay, forcing the aliens to have to deal with the incoming invasion while sending two of their own to help prevent Angel Bay from becoming overrun.
Now the Kendrick Sisters, their friends and their new allies have to deal with not only the Tenebris Imperatoris and his soldiers, but also other threats from out of town being drawn in by the evil self-proclaimed Emperor...
Henshin Sisters
is an adult Web Serial Novel by Candescence that is a mixture of Science Fantasy, superhero and Henshin Hero elements of various types. It is still currently ongoing.
Can also be read on Royal Road (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here) and SpaceBattles.com (here, without explicit material).
Henshin Sisters provides examples of:
- Akashic Records: The living planet Akasha is not this, but it's the human name for it because it's the closest possible thing.
- Alien Invasion: The Salvron Empire is attempting to invade Earth in the background, which requires the Galactic Defense Force to set up a planetary shield to keep from reaching Earth until they can fight them off.
- Bee People: The Zevurn are a semi-insectoid species with hive-like societies.
- But Not Too Foreign: The Kendrick Sisters are half-Japanese and half-Australian.
- Charm Person: Powerful supernatural beings have an innate supernatural charisma that allows them to charm less powerful beings. Hanzo in particular attempts to use his on a tired and exhausted Natalia to try and seduce her.
- Feed It a Bomb: Natalia does this to Taniwha. Twice.
- Homosexual Reproduction: The Sisters have two mothers, Ryana and Atsuko, and have genetic traits of both, which clashes with their claim that the girls are the result of a sperm donor. Tharen and Gartho suspect magic is involved. Said parents confirm that was indeed the case when they talk to their daughters via video chat.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Natalia makes use of this - specifically cybernetics, a combat suit, and a variety of weapons and vehicles stored in matter compression capsules.
- Intelligent Gerbil: The Piancar heavily resemble but not identical to armadillos and pangolins, though somewhat larger and their claws function well enough to be fingers.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Estella and Clarette Leigh are multiple decades apart in age, but that doesn't stop Estella from taking Clarette to a bar and diner to spend time with.
- Intrepid Reporter: Karla tries to her best to be this. Unfortunately, being a non-magical journalist in a setting where the paranormal is real and the government really wants to crack down on knowledge of the paranormal makes this difficult for her, forcing her to cooperate with the authorities to some degree to avoid getting mind-wiped.
- The Lost Lenore: A male example - Matthew Braeman is implied to have been Anja's boyfriend in high school, and is also implied to have been killed in some kind of vehicular incident during that time, which is also implied to be the cause of Anja's depression. Chapter 17 finally shows what happened - Matt was killed when he was hit by a street racer while walking home with Anja and their friends after a late night party, saving Anja's life in the process by pushing her out of the way. Anja feels guilty about putting them both in that position to begin with by stopping in the middle of the road (despite there not being a vehicle in sight at the time), while Harlan believes if he hadn't suggested going out to the party that night Matt would still be alive.
- Lizard Folk: The Miama are reptilian aliens.
- Masquerade: The various governments of Earth are attempting to maintain one of these for various reasons. The sudden appearance of a planetary shield visible to everyone makes this significantly more complicated for them.
- The Mentor: Both Clarette and Aurelius take it upon themselves to help teach Estella how to become a proper Arcane Knight by teaching her swordplay and magic respectively.
- Mind Control: The witches can induce this on people whose hair they've acquired - the evil witch does this to Estella's ex-girlfriend June, and then does this to Karla before having sex with her.
- Mirror Match: The second battle with the Tenebris Imperatoris involves his copies fighting the Sisters in mirrored ways - he and Natalia fight on hoverbikes, Anja fights him hand-to-hand and in close quarters with formed blades, and Estella engages in a magical swordfight with him.
- Most Common Superpower: Just look at that page illustration!
- Naughty by Night: Natalia is relatively modest compared to her sisters, and isn't as openly horny as her best friend, Florrie. She's no less perverted than them, however (even if she's in denial about it), and no less prone to getting involved in naughty situations.
- Outside-Context Problem: The presence of the Tenebris Imperatoris seems to actively be drawing in hostile paranormal entities not only not native to Angel Bay's region, but also not native to Australia, either, as seen by the Taniwha and Hanzo.
- Posthumous Character: Matthew Braeman, implied to have died years ago. The night of his death is later depicted in a flashback.
- Prehensile Hair: The Aboriginal witches use this as part of their magical abilities, alongside using both their own hair and the hair of others as part of their magic.
- Rape as Drama: After the evil witch uses mind control on Karla and has sex with her, and after Arika saves her, Karla immediately realizes she was basically raped, as any "consent" was magically induced. She's both horrified and immensely pissed off about it, but her initial reaction is somewhat more awkward due to the circumstances, aka being brainwashed into enjoying it, making it difficult to process normally.
- Serial Romeo: Estella has had a lot of boyfriends and girlfriends ever since high school. She claims she just has bad luck with them.
- Shout-Out: When Anja, Sonia and Gartho take a trip to the bio-labs where Prometheus was created, the former two note that the entrance and lobby reminds them of Black Mesa. Specifically, it resembles a combination of the entrance to the building from the chapter "Questionable Ethics" and the lobby from the beginning of the game.
- Estella tries to do the Kamehameha while practicing magic.
- The Stoner: Arika is constantly high on some homemade drug, explicitly for spiritual purposes.
- Stripperiffic: Estella's Arcane Knight outfit is... Not particularly modest. This is entirely deliberate on her part. It's not as impractical as it looks, however, due to it being an illusion and Estella actually wearing a full head-to-toe set of protective magic armour. Clarette is not particularly pleased that Estella chose this particular glamour, but at the same time she remarks that Princess Avaline of Halothine apparently likes to dress even more immodestly.
- Survivor Guilt: Both Anja and Harlan feel this way over Matt's death a few years ago for different reasons.
