01/The Terrible Color of Earth
From the darkness there was light.
Energy swelled out of the rip in space/time as a small shuttle flew out from within the Dimensional Sea and back into reality. Measuring thirty feet from the tip of its nose to the back of the thrusters that were carrying it through the void of space, the ship was urgently scanning its surroundings.
Within the cockpit of the ship, its sole occupant miserably gripped himself.
"No...it really was true." The pilot, a blond haired boy miserably observed the results. "How'd you let yourselves die from something like this?"
Trace elements of metals were registering around the orbit of the moon hovering a nearby planet. The pilot winced and brought his shuttle in closer. Both his mood and expression fell as the wreckage of a ship appeared before him.
According to his sensors, nothing was alive in there.
"I'm sorry..." Yuuno Scrya softly muttered, hanging his head.
The shuttle silently moved closer towards the ship. Seeing no sign of life signs or escape pods, Yuuno activated the sensors on the ship. Twin beams of green light swept up and down the tattered remains of the ship.
Pieces of metal from the destroyed vessel lightly bumped against the reinforced hulls of his ship. Not wanting to risk any damage to the shuttle, Yuuno activated the ship's shields. Unfortunately, the protective element of the mana that now coated the shield dulled the responsiveness of the main sensors.
Thankfully, Yuuno had a solution for that. His eyes lost a bit of focus as he began to synchronize his magical abilities with the ship. Six green spheres of light were fired from the top of the shuttle. The area search spell rushed into the depths of the wreckage.
"Now, show me what happened..." He muttered. The spheres lightly danced through shredded hallways as they explored the depths of the ship. The little bit of environmental data that could be gleamed from within the ship didn't indicate that there were any arms fire within the ship.
'So what happened here? Why isn't there anyone inside?!'
Prodding by Yuuno's urgent question, the area search spheres hurried deeper into the large transport vessel.
Yuuno's attention shifted briefly away from the area search spell. The ship, with all the scattered pieces throughout the area, had finally reappeared back into the visible spectrum. At the same time as it fully finished appearing, an automatic pop up appeared on the ship's main display.
Vessel, please make all necessary steps to conceal presence from [Unadministered World #97] immediately. Any attempts to circumvent the Time Space Bureau's law of noninterference will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
During the time he had been scanning the ship, both vessels had been drifting dangerously close to the planet nearby.
The main display was currently showing the entirety of the planet below.
"My, that's a handsome world." The boy briefly let himself admire the lush planet before him. "Hardly looks industrialized at all, though." He shook his head in slight distaste as he took one last look at the planet. "Deserves to be called by the name its natives gave it, though."
Sometimes he wished the Bureau was slightly less cold.
Yuuno put aside that thought as he activated the ship's spell boosters. Miniature launchers on the side of the ship powered up before spitting out their payload of sixty foot long stakes into the remaining hull of the destroyed transport vessel.
His shuttle's mana reactor hummed to life.
Moments later, the entire region of space they were in was under a cloaking barrier to keep the debris concealed as well.
"There..." He said with a sigh. "Now I just need to open a rip into the Dimensional Sea and the transport vessel will be safe until the Bureau comes to clean it up."
The shuttle's inboard computer beeped, drawing his attention away from his legally required task. Now that he had kept from being turned in to the Bureau by the ship's computer, he could finally focus on recovering the sealed Lost Logia.
A brief image, reported to him by an area search sphere, appeared on the main screen. It showed an image of the main engine room of the transport vessel. Covering the mana generator was a thick black tar. With a look of slight disgust, Yuuno guided the sphere closer to the material that was oozing out from within the power source of the ship.
"What is that?"
A secondary alert popped up, preventing Yuuno from beginning the scan on the material. Switching to another of the area search spheres, it showed the image of a ravaged looking storage room. Thick metal walls, seemingly melted in places, were able to be seen on the fringes of the sphere's sight. What was most important was the ten foot long by ten feet tall case that the sphere had discovered.
Yuuno urged the sphere to move towards the case, glad to see that it had managed to survive the explosion. Satisfaction turned into confusion as the artificial gravity within the transport vessel finally gave up. Confusion turned into horror as as the case, unrestrained by gravity, sprung open to reveal an empty interior.
An alarm, heralding his shuttle being viciously shaken by an unexpected attack, was just icing on the cake at this point.
The ship trembled again, nearly throwing Yuuno out of his chair if it hadn't been for the harness on his seat. Reaching towards his command console, he swiftly keyed in a command to launch eight self automated camera drones from the underbelly of his ship. Even as the ship's shields weakened due to the distribution of energy, the boy quickly got a complete view of his surroundings.
"Oh no...!"
An amorphous blob, only able to be distinguished by the rest of the void by the thick red outline around it and three shining blue lights in its core, slammed into the side of his ship again.
"The Jewel Seeds?!"
The displays beeped at him angrily as the lights dimmed with the exertion of maintaining shields against the creature. It began to fly back for another attempt at striking the ship, but Yuuno was already launching his ship through the rest of the debris field at full speed.
The creature's body swelled, form quivering erratically for a few moments. A burst of energy erupted out from the depths of its body, sending it flying after the shuttle.
"How can it do that?!" Yuuno demanded, twisting the shuttle out of the way of a large chunk of metal in his flight path. The ship's underside scrapped against the steel, causing the energy shield around the ship to flare.
The monster's aura flared moments before it slammed through the debris he had been forced to avoid. Alarms beeped as the scans on the monstrosity revealed a huge amount of energy spiking in its core. The unshielded material of the former transport vessel simply ceased to be as the blob continued rocketing towards him.
"Well, I'm certainly not going to let you try that ramming stunt again!" Yuuno's fingers danced along the command control as he readied his own attack. "I'm not going to let you get away with this!"
The only mana weapon on the ship, located on the top of the shuttle, spewed a blast of energy at the monster behind him. To Yuuno's dismay, the beam split before the vicious red aura around the amorous blob, sliding along its body like water as it flowed over it and away into the darkness of space.
"N-no way!"
The monster's aura briefly flickered. Large portions of its body were launched towards the escaping shuttle almost faster than the boy could react. Yuuno blindly slammed on the panel, channeling his own magic into the control system as he took control. Several of the pieces of the creature missed the ship as the boy's desperate dive avoided most of them, but his attempt to sweep around the flank of the beast were only rewarded with pain as five pieces slammed into the ship.
Yuuno cried out in sympathetic pain as he received an overflow of energy as the ship's systems went wild. The display in front of him flickered, even as it displayed the rapidly dwindling shield stability of the shuttle. The five pieces of the creature hadn't been idle all this time though, slowly spreading over the angrily flaring shield as they tried to invade. Forced to abandon direct mental control, Yuuno quickly resumed manual operation, swiveling the ship's weapon towards attacking the two pieces that were on the same plane as the mana laser.
Two quick blasts later and the slime had been removed, causing the pressure on the shield system to partially ease up. Unappreciative of the action, the blob continued to swell up as it kept chasing Yuuno's shuttle through a dizzying set of twists and turns. Yuuno, unable to handle seeing the night sky turn into a blur of stars and colors from the nearby planet, risked switching entirely to his sensors to guide him.
For the next three terrifying minutes, Yuuno was practically trembling in his seat. The loss of actual visual display wasn't that important as he had been dodging the attacks using the sensors already, but psychologically the boy couldn't care less. Sweat poured down his neck as his clammy hands danced along the panel. The display that had been showing him the night sky was now dominated by the secondary and tertiary screens that came up while in flight.
The second one, the mana sensors, showed a grainy image of space with the relative locations of the celestial bodies, the ship, and monster on it. Far in the distance were the ruins of the transport vessel, faintly glowing with energy.
"What? Did this thing attack it too?" Yuuno wondered, eyes widening as a thought came to mind. "This is my chance!"
With alarms ringing throughout the cockpit, the boy quickly guided the shuttle towards the cloud of metal. Weaving around the ridiculously overpowered attacks the creature was launching at him, Yuuno briefly took a moment to trigger the second bank of sensors.
A third screen came up, overlaying its information on the second display. Data on the beast and the attacks it was launching at the ship filled the outlines of theavailable space he had to work with on screen, but Yuuno made the most of it. With the extra information, he quickly came up with his plan as he finally entered the debris field.
With a swift ninety degree turn which sent him slamming into the side of his seat, Yuuno allowed the debris field around him to take several strikes from the monster. Simultaneously, the camera drones swept past the two of them as they had been attempting to catch up. Three of them in particular slammed into the blob, sinking into its frame.
Immediately, the beast froze. Unlike before, it didn't instantly vaporize the drones. Instead, the monster began to sap the energy of the drones.
"You've been trying get at the ship's mana generator all along!" He declared, now that he had spare cameras, he sent two of them away from combat. Switching on the primary screen using the information they were recording, he overlaid all the information that he had gathered on the monster up to this point.
The deadly aura it had used wasn't activated anymore.
"Well, have some mana, then!"
Yuuno fired the shuttle's cannon at the drones within the beast's body.
A massive fireball, generated by the pressurized mana inside the drones, erupted out of the beast. With the way the monster was thrashing around, Yuuno almost imagined its scream as pieces of its main body were torn off it by the force of the explosion.
The other three drones which were hovering at his ship's side were launched at the monster.
"Take all the mana you'd like!"
The creature, wising up to the attack, turned to flee. It was too slow to keep from being tagged by another drone, though. With another blast, more of the blob's mass was annihilated in another explosion of magic.
Two of the remaining four drones were remotely operated by Yuuno into scrapping along the sides of his shield. The stubborn ooze that had been clinging to the ship quivered before sliding onto the two camera drones. With another two blasts of the ship's weapon, they were annihilated as well.
The return of the shuttle's full power allowed the ship to pick up speed as it kept on the tail of the monster. Switching to remote feed, the two remaining camera drones speed up as they were linked back into the mana generator of the ship. With their full speed restored to them, they were able to zip ahead of the shuttle and towards the amorphous blob.
"I'm not letting you escape!" Yuuno promised, teeth gritted as he sacrificed the final two camera drones. Firing two blasts of energy into the retreating monster, the drones erupted into another set of explosions moments before the creature exited the barrier. Fortunately for Yuuno, the flash of energy from the destruction of the cameras was swiftly smothered by the empty void of space.
The fight hopefully hadn't drawn any attention in that split second.
Which meant that a tiny piece, only about an eighth of the size of the original monster, was left hovering in the darkness of space. Before he could bring down another attack on the creature, the three gemstones within it flared.
Yuuno shouted, bringing the cannon to bear, but the creature was already surrounded by its vicious red aura. No matter how many times he shot at the monster, it deflected them. Before the boy's frightened eyes, it began to rapidly regain its lost mass as the Jewel Seeds within the beast radiated power. Twisting in space, it began to rapidly fly away from Yuuno's ship.
Yuuno wordlessly exclaimed, slamming his hand into the control panel. His shuttle sped forwards as it continued to bombard the creature. His fears were confirmed as the computer planned out the monster's flight path would take it to Unadministered World 97. Terror gripped him at the thought of that thing consuming the world below.
"Mayday! Mayday!" Yuuno shouted, opening all signals to the Dimensional Sea as he chased down the comet. "This is Yuuno Scrya of the Scrya Clan. I have a Class One annihilation event, repeat! A Class One annihilation event!"
Knowing he was overheating the mana laser on the shuttle, the boy still continued to pelt the dome around the monster as his cloaked ship rushed after the beast.
"If there's anyone available, please- please alert the Time Space Bureau about this." He begged as his hands flew over the controls, including his location in real space in the emergency broadcast. "The creature, currently posing a S-rank Lost Logia, has shown the ability to be able to feed off magic, increase its size and mass, and also annihilate matter on contact. I am uploading all the data I have gathered on the creature."
Yuuno paused.
"I will attempt to contain the creature. If I don't make it..." He nervously licked his lips. "Please tell my Clan I'm sorry."
The whirl of the mana generators grew deafening as he finished his work. The ship began to tremble with the removal of the safeties keeping the generator's production of mana in check; the engine spewing forth dangerous amounts of power and making the air inside the cabin grow hazy.
Impossibly, the ship's speed increased as a collision course with the monster was set.
Reaching for his harness, he swiftly undid the buckles holding him down. He swiveled the chair and jumped to his feet. The terrible thought of that monster eating the world below was more than enough to motivate him as he rushed out of the cabin and into his room. He ignored the few articles he had brought onto the ship with him.
Yuuno only had eyes for the Intelligence Device that hung on a clothing hook on the door leading to the bathroom.
"What is happening Master?" Raising Heart asked as he quickly tucked the gemstone into his pocket.
"I'm going to need your help." Yuuno began to explain. "We'll have an extinction event if we don't seal away a rampaging creature."
"I shall seal them, Master."
"Good."
Yuuno exited the bedroom and entered the last room on the ship. The transportation room had the floor dominated by a teleportation system that would hopefully get him down onto the world. Synchronizing with the ship one last time, he mentally commanded it to drop its shield and go for a ramming maneuver on the monster.
Feeling the ship furiously rattle as it slammed into the beast, Yuuno redirected as much magic as he could from the ship's generators, hoping to increase the range on his teleportation.
"At least one of us knows what they're doing." Yuuno shakily stated before he triggered the self destruct. With that, both Raising Heart and Yuuno Scrya were whisked to Unadministered World 97 moments before the entire ship went up a glorious blaze of magic.
- Scene Break -
The winds were intense as Yuuno and Raising Heart appeared in the skies above Unadminstered World 97. The boy's mantle nosily flapped behind him, adding to his momentary battle with confusion from the rushed teleportation. His Barrier Jacket's protection, surging with mana from his Linker Core, kept him reasonably warm and able to breath in spite of the altitude he was currently at.
However, the chill running along his bare legs reminded him he needed to update it to longer legged pants. Tomorrow, maybe.
"Incoming at twelve o'clock, Master."
With Raising Heart's warning, Yuuno glanced upwards. Much higher than they were, the shuttle and monster were streaking down towards the lands far below them. Moments later, his former ship went up in a dome of hellfire, sweeping past the crimson comet.
"Begin scanning, Raising Heart!"
"Yes, Master."
Yuuno began to calculate his personal teleportation spells. His green clad form zipped through the heavens as he treated real space as nothing more than stepping stones, bouncing in and out of reality in a series of short-range teleports.
"Attack has successfully destroyed ninety percent of the creature's mass, Master." Raising Heart announced. "Remains are falling to the following coordinates..."
"Things can never be easy, can they?" Yuuno asked, trembling a little at what that thing was able to do previously. "And now we don't have the shuttle."
"Do not be afraid, Master." Raising Heart soothed. "We shall simply shoot it."
With a silent nod, Yuuno pensively began to fly and teleport the rest of the way down to the ground below. His green eyes narrowed as he observed the lands below. From what he could see from his vantage point, the town that was rapidly growing in his sight had every sign of being inhabited.
Civilized even, considering the roads and buildings looked brand new.
But why did the world feel uninhabited?
"Raising Heart, do you access to this world's records?"
"Negative, Master. We do not possess clearance."
Yuuno's green eyes widened. Making a silent note to himself, the boy acknowledged it and continued his pursuit. It wouldn't matter what happened if that monster devoured everything in its rampage, now would it?
"Has the creature landed?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, give me the area." Yuuno prepared for another long range teleport. "We'll strike hit hard when we arrive. Get sealing mode prepared."
"Yes, Master."
Some mysteries would just have to be put off until the monster was dealt with.
- Scene Break -
The abominable creature came crashing into the center of a lake just moments after Yuuno arrived in a flash of light. The water foamed and evaporated from the heat of reentry; generating enough force to create a mighty back draft of wind.
Dirt flew in the air along with a few unfortunate trees, blinding Yuuno even as he raised a barrier to protect himself.
That moment of vulnerability cost him as the monster struck.
Hard.
The blond let out a cry of pain as his barrier was shattered. The six tendrils that had pierced the field surged forwards through his best protection like a knife through wet tissue. The limbs, glowing faintly with biolumniscience, crashed into his barrier jacket.
Yuuno screamed as one of his arms tried to rise to protect him, only to come back burning with a faint brush with the monster's tentacles. The monster pinned him down to the ground, rapidly wailing at him with loud cracking blows in a steady beat. His vision began to tunnel as he saw the main body of the monster surge towards him.
'Is this it?' He wondered as he grit his teeth. 'No! I can't die yet!'
Gathering magic in his hands, the blond desperately tried to fight back. His arms slammed into the tentacles as he tried to frantically pull away from the monster. Their exchange of blows were brief - it wrapped another tendril around his bare leg.
Yuuno didn't even have time to scream as it swung him upwards. His eyes widened as the monster's tendril whipped him head first towards a tree.
'Someone, anyone, help!' He mentally screamed with all his might.
Darkness suddenly came to him.
- Scene Break -
'-someone, anyone, help!'
Nanoha Takamachi jerked to a stop, letting Arisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura walk ahead of her. Both of them glanced around dazedly as well, even as the brunette's entire body shook from the force of the scream.
"Someone just broke into the network?"
"What a disgusting prank. Sending an emergency signal on the main channel? How stu-hey, where are you going, Nanoha?!"
Nanoha didn't even spare her two friends a backwards glance.
'It isn't a gag, someone is seriously in trouble!' She threw her words back at the two of them as she pushed past a bush to enter the path to the lake side.
'Wait, then why are you running towards danger!' Arisa's voice snarled through the girl's private communications channel. Behind Nanoha, she could hear the two girls shouting for her to come back, even as she heard the crashing noises behind her.
The blonde was following.
'It was strong enough for it to break through security, and... and something about it...'
'I've signaled the closest unit to restrain whatever monster appeared.' Suzuka's voice was calm, but had an undertone of worry as she continued. 'Both of you - stay safe! I'm going to patch through to you both now.'
Nanoha accepted Suzuka's aid without question.
The nearby trees lit up to her eyes as she felt Suzuka's presence start guiding her through the woods. Her eyes swept from side to side as Nanoha tried to find whatever plant or animal had gained enough magic to run wild this time.
'Nanoha, up front!' Arisa's voice advised.
The girl glanced ahead, gasping as she stared at the impossibility before her. Nanoha heard the gasp of shock over her communication line from Suzuka. The area around the lake was absolutely devastated, drained of all of its ambient mana.
Worse still was the creature before them.
Nanoha came to a stop as she saw the collection of ooze leech away at the life around it, an eddy as the energy swirled around it.
'That beast is way outside our ballpark, Nanoha...'
'Doesn't matter.' She answered Arisa with a calm expression. 'Look at what I'm seeing.'
Arisa did so, borrowing Nanoha's sight as both girls saw the figure that was lying motionless below the beast. Nanoha felt Arisa's brief spike of anger for a moment before she disconnected from her. For once, both girls shared the same opinion.
'It's trying to eat him?'
Nanoha silently rolled the right sleeve of her school uniform up as the blonde finally caught up her.
'Not for long.' Nanoha thought as she glanced at Arisa. 'Keep it contained, alright?' She asked her friend with a gentle smile.
'Why me?' Arisa simply tore the sleeves of her own uniform off. Her fingers were gaining a sharp edge to them.
'You got there last.' Suzuka chimed in with a sigh. 'The closest group is about three miles away. They should be getting there in about a minute. Think you'll be alright?'
Nanoha stepped forwards, ignoring the snap of a twig beneath her feet.
The ooze, which had nearly swept its way up the blond boy's chest, froze in place.
"I'll be fine." Nanoha finally spoke out, hoping to draw the monster's attention.
The monster, taking umbrage with those words, twisted and flung the majority of its mass at the steadily approaching girl.
"I was feeling hungry anyway."
- Scene Break -
Yuuno's ears rang as the boy felt himself return to the land of the living. A high pitched scream, which had been what had forced him awake, continued in the background. The boy winced as his headache pulsed behind his eyes.
'Where am I...?' He numbly looked in the direction of the scream. 'Did the...oh no!'
The boy tried to force himself up as he saw his target throw itself at a slim brunette - who was strangely missing one sleeve. Despite his lungs protesting the action, he tried to shrug off the copious amounts of slime that were covering him from below his chest.
"Run away!" His voice was raw, the shout of a child that was terrified by seeing someone else get hurt. The boy managed to wrench an arm out of the slime. His attempt at diverting the beast with a shooting spell came too late, though.
The girl looked surprised, body freezing as she glanced at him, ignoring the slime that descended on top of her.
"No!" Yuuno angrily screamed as the beast slammed the newcomer down into the ground. The girl's form was lost beneath the bulky creature as it began to energetically throb on top of her.
His breath escaped him in ragged gasps as tears flowed down his eyes.
"Hey!" A new voice shouted at Yuuno. He blinked his eyes rapidly to be able to see the blonde that was standing on the opposite side of the clearing. "Why are you being a brat about this? Now Nanoha got her dress all dirty thanks to you."
Yuuno stared at the nonchalant way the blonde was acting.
"Get away!" The boy struggled. "Your friend...your friend isn't just going to get a dirty dress!"
The blonde scoffed.
"You're a weird boy." She shook her head. "But I'll just blame the beating that thing must've given you." The girl pointed at the mass on the ground. "That's Nanoha Takamachi."
A vicious looking blade slid out of the monster - shining against the tar coating it.
"What?" Yuuno's voice was clipped.
The monster's undulations stopped as the beast froze in place. The aura that had plagued Yuuno during their dogfight in space simply evaporated.
"Like an overgrown slime can stop someone from that family."
The blade split into two before the boy's eyes, transforming into a set of giant cutters. They began to spread apart, widening the wound that the blade created. Both fair haired children winced as the monster began to shriek in agony.
Its protests were silenced by a second blade.
Yuuno stared as the monster collapsed; its solid form simply caved in on itself. The material that had bound Yuuno also lost its own cohesion as it melted away like a bad dream. The sludge splashed onto the ground, joining the rapidly expanding pool of the material that had been pinning Nanoha down.
"That was tasty." Nanoha Takamachi stated in a easy going voice as she sat up. Only her brilliant smile, showing off white teeth, and a pair of metallic devices jutting out where her arms should been shone in contrast to the black ooze that was covering her from head to toe.
"He thought you were in trouble." The blonde girl shook her head. "What an amateur."
Yuuno remained silent as he stared at Nanoha, watching her metallic limbs smoothly pull back into her body. The metal warped as they took on the hue and shape of human arms, which the girl used to get back onto her feet.
"Don't be mean, Arisa." Nanoha sounded annoyed. "He fought as well as he could." She turned to face him with the same bright smile, reaching up to wipe the tar off her face with her human arm. Where it made contact with the ooze, it simply melted the material away into black smoke. "Hello there!" Two bright eyes shone at the stunned archaeologist. "I'm Nanoha Takamachi, thank you for your earlier kindness!"
And to Yuuno's amazement, the girl bowed.
Yuuno stammered, wincing as his ribs began to ache as he tried to gesture at Nanoha. A large dollop of black goo fell off the tip of a pigtail and landed on her cheek, sliding down towards her lips.
"Eh?" The girl glanced at him, remaining bowed. "Oh, the monster?" The side of her eyes crinkled as she looked at him and then at the slime. Her tongue shot out and licked at it, lips quirking upward into a smile. "It was very delicious, thanks for asking!"
Yuuno's eyes bugged out.
"Meh, vegetarians." Arisa rolled her eyes. "Can't ever let us have nice things."