-Chapter 2, Princess
Thirty seconds and some arguably dangerous overrides later, Sam hurtled towards Tenguu city, the wings of her suit glowing bright blue as her thrusters were pushed up to eleven.
"Sam, you're approaching the speed of sound. Slow down or you'll lose control!"
"Kannazuke, it's fine!" Sam had to shout as loud as she could over the rushing wind for the earpiece to pick up her speech.
"Fine? You're sure about that? The fastest you've tested this thing was just over two-hundred miles-per-hour."
"Yeah, but I built it to be able to withstand a thousand!"
Kannazuke, high up aboard the Fraxinus' bridge, looked towards his commander, but the girl nodded back and waved him on. "Alright, continue as you are."
"Thank you." If it hadn't been for the adrenaline and the horrible twisting feeling in her stomach, Sam very much wouldn't have been going this fast, but she had to get to Nat, and she had to do it fast.
"Altitude is at three-thousand feet and falling quickly," Kannazuke read out from the monitor's screen in front of him.
"What's the status on the quake?" Sam responded.
"Expansion is at eighty-five percent, but the rate is starting to slow. Origin is somewhere down-town."
"Down-town?" Sam thought, "Nat lives near the station, nowhere near that. Then why am I so damn worried?"
"Energy signatures match Princess," he said plainly.
"Princess?! Remind me!"
"Big sword."
"Oh yeah." Sam easily remembered the Spirit's file after that.
"Two-hundred feet!"
"On it!" Sam slammed open her air-brakes and her wings folded out fully at her side, causing such a sudden increase in drag that Sam was almost caught off-guard as she slowed. "Woah!"
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, but I don't think the suit liked it."
"Wouldn't seem like it, turbine two is out of action. The fans are completely sheared."
"Wait, you're joking, right?"
But he wasn't joking, and a second later, Sam felt it. Her left wing completely gave out and flapped uselessly and lifeless as she dropped. "Damn it! Kannazuke, I'm jettisoning the whole array. Get ready to transmit it back to the ship once I'm free."
"Acknowledged."
"First time going out in this thing and it bloody breaks," Sam grumbled to herself as she looked over her shoulder and confirmed that it was, in fact, totally disabled. "Right, releasing in five! Four! Three! Two! One!" The wings shot away from Sam's back, then were teleported away almost an instant later.
Now wingless, Sam plummeted to the ground towards the rapidly-retracting spacial quake. The crater it left was huge, at least a half-mile in diameter and several stories deep, but even that was nothing compared to the creature that would appear within.
"Retrieval successful; time to test the shock absorbers then?"
"Looks like it!" Sam locked her eyes shut as she crashed into the ground, her armour absorbing most of the impact and her legs absorbing what they could of the rest, but she didn't look up until her breath had returned to her. The landing had still winded her. "Okay…I'm down. Has Princess…appeared yet?" She drew in deep, long heaves as she peered out from behind the dust cloud that had been thrown up all around her.
"Not yet," Kannazuke replied, "but she will soon."
"Great." Sam took off at a run and made her way down the edge of the crater, shouting out her friend's name as she went. "Nat! Nat! Nat! Where are you?"
At first, the silence reassured her. It told her that he wasn't here, and that he was safe. That she had nothing to worry about except for the job at hand and that the dread looming over her was just her imagination, but soon that feeling took hold of her stomach again and twisted that silence into something more sinister; something more deadly.
Maybe she was too late. Maybe he was already dead.
She shook her head with frustration. No. She wouldn't believe that. "Nat, where are you?!" Crying out in what she hoped wasn't vain, she continued her search. She felt the wind picking up again. She knew Princess would soon appear, but that wasn't important to her right now.
"S-Sam…?"
A weak voice met her ears just barely, and she turned towards it. "Nat?"
"I'm here…"
"Nat!" Sam's eyes darted around, trying to locate her friend amidst the rubble and wreckage that hadn't been warped to whatever dimension the Spirits come from.
At last, she found him, trapped under a block of concrete beneath one of the many destroyed buildings that loosely lined the perimeter of the crater. It may have once been a block of flats at one point, but now it was unrecognizable, lost to its fate.
"Sam, you came…" Nat's face was ashen white and his breathing was shallow and irregular, but he still managed the faintest ghost of a smile as he looked up at his own guardian angel.
The smile managed to put Sam a little at ease and quell her hammering heart, so she smiled back. "Nat, why the hell are you even here?"
"I'll tell you…all about it later. Just get me out of here," he got out before coughing meekly.
"Right, right." Sam bent down to pick Nat up, but before she could, a sharp pain lashed across her back like a whip and threw her down onto her friend, where she only narrowly avoided crushing him by thrusting her hand out to stop her fall. "Ah, give me a second," she grunted as she turned to face her assailant.
"Be quick…" Nat let out as he closed his eyes.
A girl stood before Sam, dressed in brilliant armour plating. It was purple, with yellow highlights and black accents, and covered the girl's body almost entirely, with the exception of her head, the front of her collarbone and her upper arms. Around her torso she wore a corset, decorated with gold ornaments and a black bow at the top. Her spalders were rounded whereas her gauntlets and skirt were more jagged. From out of the skirt a pink fabric, no doubt imbued with her magic and glowing its colour with passion, billowed out and covered her legs. It was impossible to see if she wore anything beneath the skirt, apart from the black boots that peeked out.
Her hair was a plum violet in colour, and fell down all the way to her thighs. Her narrowed eyes were a brighter hue, but still purple, and shone with the power of the quake itself. A purple-and-yellow ribbon adorned itself on top of her head.
Finally, locked in the grasp of her two gloved hands, was an awesome broadsword – similarly ornamented. She wielded the weapon with ease, and as she stared at Sam, a grimace played across her mouth and she swung with great strength. A slice of pink energy leapt forward in an arc and sped towards its target, but this time, the target was ready.
Sam swung her right hand down as a blade of blue plasma materialized from her forearm and cut through the arc, splitting it in two and destroying it. She may have never fought an actual Spirit, but she had trained to extensively.
"Yep, that's her," she said, grinning and retracting her weapon.
"Well, you've already put up a better fight than everyone else," the purple-haired girl spat.
Sam strode purposefully forward towards 'Princess' and replied, "I'll take that as a compliment." before coming to a stop about ten feet from her. She held almost a foot over her opponent, but was quite similar in body shape apart from that.
"Hmph, that attitude won't get you anywhere when I draw your blood upon my blade." At this, she readied that very blade and brandished it with confidence.
Sam took up the offer and readied herself, activating both of her plasma swords and bending her knees. "Bring it on."
"Your funeral."
Princess sped forwards, using her magic to propel herself just above the ground, kicking up dust as she gained speed. She brought the sword down on top of Sam in a powerful motion, but Sam pirouetted out of harm's way and kicked the Spirit back, then followed that up with a barrage of energy and light. Princess leapt up and over the assault, slicing into thin air and sending her own barrage of projectiles towards the other, but again these didn't manage to connect, and only exploded into the ground.
Now both skyward-bound, the Spirit rushed Sam down, swinging erratically and angrily. The blows were poorly aimed, and Sam easily dodged between despite being severely handicapped in the air. However, as Princess became angrier, and struck with newfound ferocity, her swipes became much faster, and one particularly broad swing kicked Samanya to the curb. She bounced up off the ground and landed on her feet, skidding backwards as the Spirit floated back down to ground level.
Sam wiped a speck of blood from her mouth and grinned. "You fight better than the training hall, that's for sure!"
"What? Do you think this is just a joke?" Princess growled.
"No, not really," came Sam's reply as she stretched her back and worked her neck, "but I'm not even trying yet."
"The last minute would beg to differ."
"Oh I like you!" Sam rubbed her hands as the dusk air started to chill her, penetrating further through her armour than any of Princess's attacks really have, then she charged, lighting Princess up with a rapid-fire of plasma bolts. These were deflected easily, but on the ground, Sam outpaced Princess by quite a margin. She bobbed left and right, running circles around the Spirit, dodging or blocking any attack that came her way and returning it with twice as many. Still, the Spirit's guard was incredible, and Sam only managed to open her up after a meaty swing missed by a hair's breadth. Now off-balance, Princess could only brace as a punch sent her flying.
"Trust me, the feeling's not mutual." She retorted as she clambered back up onto her feet. Her mouth, unlike Sam's, didn't show any eagerness for more, but appeared much more reserved and tight-lipped. It was as if she was doing her best to hide her true emotions and intentions.
The sentence seemed to give Sam pause, so she quickly spoke a question into her earpiece. "Kannazuke, how are we looking?" she whispered.
Kannazuke looked up from the monitor on his desk and up at the view screen that filled the entire far wall. Splayed all over it were various graphs, charts and statistics, all monitoring the target's mood, affection (which was especially low for Sam) and other vital information. One of which, oddly, was respect. "Well, she definitely doesn't like you, but you have gained her respect. Somehow."
"Ha-ha! Knew it!" She cheered as she heard exactly what she wanted to hear.
"Knew what?" Princess demanded.
"Nothing," Sam replied in a sing-song voice.
"Well, if you're done talking to yourself, maybe we can finish this before your friends get here."
"My friends?"
"You know them, I know you do. You look exactly like them!" She gestured at Sam's armour. "All you people do is try to kill me. I haven't done a single thing to anyone, and yet you all want me dead!" Her voice was struggling to contain the rage welling up in her throat, despite her efforts just before.
"Sir?"
"She could be referring to the AST. Your armour, to the untrained eye, is similar," he replied, adjusting his glasses.
"Oh crap, I can't believe I forgot about them!"
"The AST, or Anti-Spirit Team, are a product of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and solely exist to eliminate the Spirits."
"By killing them?" Sam remembered querying.
"Yes. Unlike us, they attempt a far more violent method, and because of this, their weapons and armour are on par with your own."
"Wow, really?"
The red-haired girl nodded. "In the right hands, yes."
"That's pretty scary."
"Mmm, worse for the Spirit though. Imagine being brought into a world only to be attacked and hurt. Have your very existence despised by everyone you meet."
"That…that sounds terrible."
"It is."
Blinking herself out of the flashback, Sam sighed and looked towards the Spirit. "I'm…I'm sorry."
Startled, Princess froze for a moment. "What?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not with them. I don't fight to kill. Not like them." Sam's head drooped. Coming here had been a mistake. She had gotten so caught up in the thrill…
The purple-haired girl, bemused and shocked, stared at Sam. There was a new feeling. Warmer than anything she'd felt before. She enjoyed it; it felt nice to her, so she took one step towards the apologetic girl, then another. "Then why are you here? Everyone wants my life ended."
Sam lifted her chin and tilted her head up. Her bright green eyes met Princess's purple ones. She took a deep breath. "I-"
The ground erupted once more with explosions; the evening sky painted over with yellow and orange and black. Dark and destructive hues that clouded the two fighters. The deafening cacophony of hell-fire pierced Sam's ears and the unrelenting pain made her cry out.
The AST continued their assault, levelling the earth with bullets and missiles, not caring that someone else had been caught in the line of fire.
"That was a cheap shot!" Princess roared as she sprung out of the smoke and made a bee-line for the closest member.
The girl's eyes widened and she threw her hands up in front of her, but the sudden appearance of a field of green energy protected her, and stopped the impressive hunk of metal mid-swing.
Princess growled and kept attacking the girl, before being driven back to firmer footing by her squad-mates' supporting fire. She landed next to the newly-recovered Sam, and glared up at the AST. Their armour was close to Sam's, but painted a slate grey instead of her cherry red and bleached white. It also offered higher mobility at the cost of lower resistance, but the suit's 'territory' made up for that. A powerful tool that utilized the magical energy the armour ran off of. It could bolster one's defence, assist aim and even cancel inertia and momentum. Also built into the suit was a thruster array, like Sam's wings, but they were far less complex and only provided one jet per wing.
Still, at least they had them, unlike Sam right now.
"Hey, if you want to prove what you say is true, now's your chance," Princess stated.
Invigorated and a little ticked off, Sam clenched her fists and nodded. "You got it. On three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three!" Both of them together rushed the AST down, hurling projectiles as they closed the gap. Sam winced as she got left behind in the air, but after a hasty brawl, she managed to draw a couple down with her, and now on fairer terms, Sam outmatched the two with ease. "Come on! That all you got?" she challenged as she jumped over a sweeping blow from one of the pair's laser sword. Sam drove her fist into her foe's green, dome-like shield, visibly cracking it, and then shattering it totally with a vicious kick, accelerated by the rocket boosters in her calf and thigh.
Meanwhile, Princess took on at least six at once in the air, flying with far more fluidity than any of the AST could have dreamed of. She dispatched three of them quickly, leaving them scared and retreating, before turning her attention to the rest. "You can't beat me. You must know that by now."
Now with only four members left able to fight, the rest injured or routing, the IC of the squad, a brown-haired girl in her twenties, called a full retreat. "Everyone! Get back here now, and those that can't, we'll come to you. Either way, I'm not letting any of you get slaughtered!"
"Yes, ma'am!" came the chorus of replies, all in different tones – some angry, some exhausted and some fearful.
Then, the IC turned her glare to Sam. "I don't know who you are, civilian, or where you got that armour, but you better not cross me again, or God help me."
Smugly, Sam gave her a two-finger salute, before watching as the girl she drove into the dirt was picked up by her friend and carried off, and retracted her blades once more, a proud smile on her face. "I'd say that was a success, wouldn't you, sir?"
"So it would seem." Kannazuke leant back into his chair, put his arms up behind his head and stretched. The whole ordeal had taken little over ten minutes, from the initial signs of the quake to the AST beating a fast retreat. He had to admit, that wasn't bad for Sam's first proper mission, but then again, why wouldn't it be? He'd seen just what Sam was capable of for himself a long time ago.
With the threat removed, Sam ran over to Nat to check on him. He was unconscious, but still drawing a steady breath, which was relieving, to say the least. Sam picked him up and carried him in her arms as she walked back over to where Princess was, sticking her tongue out at the Spirit's stare.
"Who is that?" she asked.
"Hinata. He's my best friend. He got caught in the blast," Sam replied.
"The blast? Just now?" Princess cocked her head.
"No, no. Before that. When you appeared."
"When I appeared?"
Sam stopped and frowned. "You don't know?"
Princess also frowned. "Know what?"
Her mouth dropped open, and it took her a second to regain her composure. She pointed around them. "This. All of this. It all occurs when you arrive in our world."
This startled the girl, and now with a different lens, she looked around at the destruction wrought be her arrival. "I caused this?"
"Yes, you did. Did you not mean to?"
"No!" Princess quickly responded, recoiling a little. "But, I think I understand why your people hate me so much, if this is what I cause…" her eyes flitted towards the boy in Sam's arms as she spoke. "I did that too, didn't I?"
Reluctantly, Sam nodded. "Yeah, you did. He'll be fine, don't worry…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say.
"I…I'm sorry."
"Look," Sam carefully slung Nat over her shoulder and squeezed Princess's, "I don't hold it against you for hurting my friend. You said you had no want to, and I believe it. Call me naive, but I can't see a reason why you would lie."
She eased her gaze upwards to meet Sam's. "Why don't you hate me?"
Sam gave that one some thought, but eventually came to the conclusion of, "I guess I have no reason to. You hurt people, but not because you want to, because you sometimes can't do otherwise. I hurt people sometimes, but only because I believe what I'm doing is right. You and me…we may be more like each other than either us are willing to admit."
Shining with aspiration in those violet eyes, the Spirit nodded. "Thank you. This is the first time I've been able to have a conversation with a human."
"No problem!" Sam grinned big, and in return, Princess flashed the slightest smile Sam had ever seen, but it was enough. "See? We're practically best buddies now!"
"I guess so."
Their conversation had lasted longer than either of them had expected, but after enough time had passed, the girl was whisked away back to her own dimension, leaving Sam and Nat in the crater alone, the latter of which was conscious again, and doing surprisingly well for all that he'd been through. But, with dusk becoming dark, twilight becoming night, they began walking away from the encounter, and made their way back to Sam's home. She'd worry about her report in the morning, because right now, exhaustion had caught up to her, and she needed to sleep. She had offered several times on their walk to take Nat to the hospital, but each time he had refused, saying he didn't feel that bad. Sam was jealous, because she sure as hell felt like death.
Finally, they reached her front door, and as Sam was about to turn the key in the lock, letting them both in to her apartment and out of the cold, Nat forced her to look at him.
He smiled his familiar, easy smile and said, "You've got a lot of explaining to do, Sammy, but for now, I don't care. I'm just so happy you came to save me."
Then, without giving Sam time to reply, Nat surged forwards and kissed her deeply.
Sam's breath hitched in her throat as it happened, but before she could pull away, her body acted on it's own, and so she kissed back, grasping at Nat's straight, jet-black hair with one hand and holding him close to her with the other.
And just like that, the rest of the night drifted dreamily away.