Chapter 2: Battle and Discovery

Ari and David followed the two girls through the door, and into a very large room with candy and ice cream forming the walls, ceiling and floors, and in the center were several tables, which were long poles with gear shaped tabletops, and then David and Ari turned to look at a chair that is near the highest table, and whatever is on the chair is emanating a very powerful disruptive field.

Ari gets to a high enough position on top of a large lollipop and got a good look at the source.

"Is that a stuffed doll or something," said David as he got behind Ari.

Ari shook her head as she continued to stare at the small toy doll like thing at the top of the chair, then several bullets punched right into the doll and sent it off the chair.

Ari, having pulled out her Spartan Laser, and had it pre-charged watched as the girl continuously blasted the doll with untold amounts of bullets and then saw her pull a very large cannon from out of nowhere and fired it at the doll, blasting the doll, but Ari and David realized the situation was not looking well.

Even after all the attacks, and getting hit by enough firepower to turn an APC into a pile of burnt and twisted metal, the doll-like thing looked basically unharmed, literally looking no worse for wear, which was simply not right in any way.

Then the girl fired into the head of the doll as it was lying on the ground, and still relatively no damage, then she fired another shot and this time a very large amount of ribbons were holding the doll in the air, and the girl was pulling out more rifles for a final shot.

Then the sensor in the helmet registered a very large distortion coming from the doll, meaning something big was coming out, and whenever that happened, it only mean bad things.

The doll began to shake and its cheeks welled up, and Ari aimed the Spartan Laser at the doll, ready to fire, the dolls mouth opened up and from it …

… came a HUGE worm like creature that looked like someone took a giant alien worm and tried but ultimately failed to make it look non-threatening by dressing it up as a clown and trying to make it look like a cartoon character, but this only made it look much more disturbing and it was ABOUT TO BITE THE GIRLS HEAD OFF WITH THOSE HUGE FUCKING TEETH!

Ari ceased analyzing and locked onto the head of the thing and then …

…. Squeezed the trigger.

Mami Tomoe had just been ready to finish the witch known as Charlotte off, when its true form came out, and the shock of seeing it had caused her to lose her focus and then it opened its gaping maw and prepared to make her its next meal.

Then, its eyes seemed to notice something, and then they suddenly widen and the thing recoils right back …

… just as a very powerful red beam of energy rips right through where it was and impacts the base of a table, and the explosion vaporizes the table and much of the ground in a size-able explosion that causes a powerful shockwave that blows Mami, Sayaka, Kyubey and Madoka down and causes the witch to collapse onto the ground, but it recovered and then turned to face its new adversary.

Mami, Sayaka, Madoka, and Kyubey looked to see who fired the beam, and saw on top of a lollipop, balancing a smoking weapon which looked to be a beam cannon, and saw the figure holding it.

It was a tall person in black armor that covered the whole body, and the head was covered with a helmet that had a gold visor on it, and the figure looked like a soldier of the distant future from a sci-fi show or game, and next to the figure was another soldier holding some type of futuristic gun that looked like a rifle, and wore full body armor as well, though it didn't look anywhere as good as the other persons armor and the person also wore a helmet that covered the face, except the visor was larger and was also silver colored.

Then the witch lunged at the pair, and Mami and the others could only watch as the fight happened.

Ari and David immediately got out of the creatures way, Ari going left, David going right and the worm devoured the lollipop they had just been on, and then David fired his rifle, the armor-piercing rounds slammed into the creature, penetrating the skin and causing it to flinch at the impacts, but that just made it more mad and it charged at David, but then it doubled back just as another energy beam shot past, almost leaving a car sized hole in it and the beam hit a part of the wall and the explosion, knocked a good part of the wall down, and several oversized gumballs that were on the wall fell around both the two and the creature, the creature getting hit by two of the gumballs and being left dazed from the impact while David and Ari successfully evaded the large spheres.

Then the creature shook its head and was soon looking at them with a large frown and charged at the two, its mouth wide open, but then Ari pulled out her Fragmentation grenades and threw them into the creatures mouth, and apparently the grenades did not seem to go well with it as it opened its mouth and the grenades were at the end of its tongue and it looked at the weapons, until the grenades went off and blew its tongue off and leaving scars in its face, and it now had a really pissed off look, but still enough of a mind left to dodge another beam as it almost blew its brains out, and it barely missed the doll body before it finally hit the table the creature had originally been on, and blasted straight through and hit the ceiling, blasting the candy at the top and causing large bars of chocolate, ice cream, and what looked like a candy cane to fall to the group below, and a the two soldiers, the witch and the group of girls were moving out of the way of the ballistic sweets as they crashed into the ground, though a chocolate bar hit the creatures head and sent it into the ground, and Ari realized that there may be no other chance to get a good shot and as she avoided the candy cane, she propped the laser up and charged the shot, and the she fired the weapon.

The beam cut through the chocolate like it was wet tissue and blasted into the creature, and the explosion was most satisfying as the monster was consumed in the blast, a large amount of smoke and fire enveloping the area where the thing had been.

"Well, that was quite a fight," said David, "hang back; I'll go check if the damn thing is dead."

"Okay, I'll go talk to those girls and find out what the hell is going on," said Ari and she turned to walk to the trio standing near a giant piece of broken peppermint.

The yellow-haired girl had a rifle out but it was pointed down; another blue-haired girl had what looked some sort of very strange bat and the final girl who had pink hair was holding what looked like a strange type of feline.

'Either that thing is some sort of mutant cat, or it's an alien, and my gut is telling me the latter,' Ari then walked to the pair and the yellow-haired girl had a look of fear and defiance in her eyes, which must have come after seeing the fight against the creature.

Ari set the language system to its Japanese mode, and she spoke, "Relax, I am not here to harm you, I only came here to find a strange energy disturbance and ended up in this messed up place."

The yellow haired girl was silent at first, but then seemed to gather herself up and then spoke, "Who are you, and why are you here."

Ari expected that question, "My answer will be a bit unbelievable but since there is no one who I can get in trouble with or charge me with treason here I guess I'll say, as long as you tell me what's happening here."

"First off, the organization I am from is one that exists from where I was from, and is known as the UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command, the current governing body of the Earth and all of her colonies, and as for myself, I am Spartan Ari-676 of the UNSC, defender of humanity and its allies," Ari finished.

Looks of shock were on the faces of the girls, as well as disbelief, then the blue haired girl said, "so you guys are from the future or something like that," the girl said.

"Yes and no, we are from the future in your sense, but we are from an alternate reality, and thus from a different timeline, not this ones," Ari finished, "now I answered your question, now answer mine."

Mami spoke, "well as you can see, I am a magical girl, or a Puella Magi, and in exchange for a miracle we, and yes there are other puella magi, have to fight witches, which are monsters like the one you fought, and –"

Then her eyes began to go wide and she looked around, as if something horrible was going to happen.

"Mami, what's wrong," said the pink haired girl.

"Madoka, Sayaka, remember what I said about when a witch is defeated, that their barrier disappears," she said and now much more scared, "the barrier is still, here, which means that the witch is not dead, its still alive!"

The words to a while to sink in, but it was a very short while and Ari then said:

"Oh FUCK, David, get the hell away from that-"

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!"

David's scream ripped through the comm. and then the smoke was blown completely away, and the group saw the ODST, his right leg ripped off, his other leg breathing horribly, his rifle hanging in two pieces from his left hand, his right arm however was wedged between some teeth.

The razor-sharp teeth of a now pissed off witch, which had somehow regenerated and had a look of murder in its eyes.

Then, as the others watched, the girls with a look of horror in their eyes, Sayaka's and Madoka's fear greater than Mami's, and Ari having put the Spartan Laser into a charger she brought along, was getting the now fully charged laser out, the creature fully opened its mouth and then fully swallowed David, but not before he primed the four grenades he was carrying.

As it swallowed, the grenades went off and an explosion blew a large hole in the witch appearing to kill it, but then its mouth opened and another worm form came out, and it was just as mad as the last, and then, it single-mindedly attacked Ari, but again avoided another beam from the Spartan laser, and the explosion hit the door.

Homaru Akemi had gotten out of the bind, and was now outside the door, having used time manipulation and a desert eagle to kill the familiars outside and was about to enter when she thought she heard something, and thought that the battle inside had gone sou-

KABOOM

The whole door blew open and Homaru was sent flying into a sundae, and was stuck in it, and then a large candy cane was on her arm which had her shield/time manipulation device, and it would take her a while to get loose, but saw the armored figure that was fighting the witch, and also the others, but she mostly focused on a specific someone.

A certain pink-haired someone.

Ari dodged every which way, and fired her rifle at the witch, which was behind her and trying to chew her head off for what she did, and then several magic bullets fired from Mami impact the witch, but the witch completely ignores the attacks, more focused on getting rid of the Spartan and the beam cannon.

Then the witch decides enough is enough as a swarm of bullet shoots its eyes and leaves it blind, causing it to get a new body to compensate, and it then used its long tongue, wrapping it around Ari's right leg and lifting her up and then prepared to swallow her.

That is until another blast from the Spartan Laser ripped by its head and left many burns, the beam also traveled out the open doorway hitting a large hill of ice cream and candy, blowing up a large portion of the hill and also causing a candy cane to be blown away and releasing a formerly trapped magical girl.

The witch tossed Ari into the air as it recoiled from the shot, slamming her into the ceiling and causing large portions of the roof to collapse.

Ari was soon falling, realizing that even with the Spartan Lasers power, it was not enough with a single shot to kill the witch, so Ari decided to end it in one big attack.

She had known of the limiter, a device that had been added into the Spartan Laser when it was built due to its power, and that releasing it would allow the one firing to use up all the shots in one powerful and ultra-lethal attack, but as a trade-off the laser would be rendered completely useless and be incapable of functioning or being recharged ever again, and that was only a 50 percent chance, the other half being that the weapon would explode and kill its operator and anyone nearby.

Ari had no more time for thinking and then thought, "SCREW IT."

She accessed the laser and deactivated the limiter, and then held the charging system down, and waited for the large piece of cake to move enough for a clear shot.

Mami, Madoka and Sayaka dodged the falling pieces of dessert as it fell and sat the witch as it lunged up, its mouth fully open ready to finish the black armored annoyance off once and for all.

They could only watch, Mami would not be able to use her rifles fast enough, and they saw as the cake the Spartan was behind was getting closer and closer to the witch.

Then, a red light began to fill the room, and a loud wine began to get louder and louder.

Then the cake moved away ….

…. revealing Ari holding the laser cannon, which was glowing like the eye of a powerful demon, and glowing more and more, the sheer power growing stronger and they all could feel it.

The witch, was now wide eyed in what seemed to be shock as the light grew bigger, and then a mere second later….

…. Ari squeezed the trigger.

The beam was huge (the size of a divine buster), and the witch had barely even micro-seconds to react as the beam tore straight through where it once was, burning its side and causing most of its body to burned, then the beam hit the ground ….

… and continued straight on through.

The beam hit the edge of the barrier but then in a massive shudder that caused the space to warp a bit, a resounding crack echoed through the barrier and the beam plowed into reality, the barrier failing in some spots and portions of reality were becoming visible, and the beam plowed through, the dirt, concrete and more as it traveled deeper into the ground, turning any matter in its way into dust and glass.

Then the beam hit something, something very tough, and when it couldn't go through, the beam detonated.

A massive shockwave of heat, concussive forces and more tore up from the hole, heading straight up the way the beam came down, and then it reached the exit, and the explosion blew out, sending Mami, Madoka, Sayaka and the recently arrived Homaru flying back a very good distance, and they were pounded by large pieces of candy, concrete and more and were left with many bruises, the witch was hit by a large blast from the hole and was burned by the heat and pounded by the concussive blast from the explosion, and hit the ground hard.

Ari however managed to grab a bubble shield and activated it in time, keeping herself safe from the blast, but then the air that the blast depleted was being quickly replaced by new air, and air rushed into the hole, and Ari was sucked down with it into the hole.

The others soon got up and made it to the hole, and then looked down to see only the sheer deep dark, then they also noticed the shadow that was above them, and saw the face of a thoroughly pissed off witch, that immediately leaped over them and dove straight into the hole, right after Ari.

They only stood and watched as the witch fell into the hole.

Then after some silence, Sayaka said:

"Now what"

Outside the door, Rena and Amy had pretty much shot any familiar that tried to get near the opening, killing them, but after hearing the massive explosion they decided to go find out what had happened.

Not noticing the barrier itself was starting to shrink.

"HOW DEEP DID I MAKE THIS FREAKING HOLE?"

Ari fell like a rock, looking to see the walls of the hole pass by her at high speed, seeing layers of cement rock and dirt go by, and then saw the bottom ….

…. Which for some strange reason looked like it was metal, a very advanced type of metal to be exact.

"Oh this is going to hurt," Ari thought, and immediately got in crash position.

She slammed into the metal, hard, and her Spartan strength and the armor protected her, but she knew that she would be sore for a while.

Then she noticed as the witch was right behind her, falling at an incredible rate straight at Ari, its mouth wide open, its teeth bared.

Ari fell backward, bits of her life flashing before her eyes, and considered it a life lived quite well (it was not), not noticing her hand was on a panel, and that the panel glowed a bit and pulsed.

Then the ground beneath Ari opened up, as an advanced doorway came online and opened in a second, allowing Ari to fall in ….

…. and then closed, allowing the witch to (quite comically), slam into the virtually impenetrable metal, giving the witch what would amount to a concussion, and leaving it to pretty much sway around from the impact before it fell backward into the wall and was left with a rather bad head trauma before it finally shook it off and with a scowl looked at where Ari went down trying to figure out a way in.

Ari realized quickly that she was not dead, and that she was also in a rather dark place.

Ari slowly got up and began to walk around, activating her suits built in illuminators, and she found herself in long hallway, a very large hallway.

She kept walking, finding that the hallway went down, and then saw that the walls had a soft light, illuminating glyphs that looked very alien to Ari, and also ones that she was sure she had seen before somewhere.

She kept walking down, holding her rifle after abandoning the now destroyed Spartan Laser, and kept going down the dark halls.

She went through several doors that slid open when she came close, the pulsing energy looking an almost clear white color, and she passed several large chambers, what looked a very advanced medical clinic, and a room that had appeared to have energy couplings, with the energy flowing from the roof into the floor, though the beams were very small, showing that the place was running on minimal power.

Then she came to the largest and darkest of all rooms.

She walked forward, going around what appeared to be large structures of some type, though it was too dark to tell what they were, and after five minutes, found a large control room in the center of the room, and then found an elevator, and went up.

She was soon at the top floor where the elevator ended, and looked around.

She saw a glowing blue sphere on a panel, and inscribed into it were many symbols, all of an alien alphabet, and it was silently pulsing, waiting, waiting for it to be activated.

"Well, I came all this way," said Ari as she walked to the panel.

Back in the hole …

The witch was pounding at the metal doorway, but not even leaving a dent, much less a scratch in the armor, and then tried to think of anything, but due to its nature it really wasn't much of anything in the way of thinking.

It then found that the arm of its previous victim was hanging out, virtually torn up at the upper arm but the lower arm and hand were somehow still intact.

It then maneuvered a bit to eat the arm whole, and then the arm touched the panel, and the panel glowed slightly before the hand was pulled off, leaving it unable to fulfill its scan.

The witch saw this, however.

It decided to put the hand on the panel again, and again it glowed before the witch took the hand off before the scan could finish.

Then it put the hand on for longer and the scan did complete, and the door opened for the witch.

The witch, named Charlotte smiled big and dove into the doorway after eating the arm, entering the facility as well, and a barrier was slowly starting to take form, though form some strange reason could not take form.

"Waaaagh," yelled Madoka as she clung to Mami, who held her bridal style, Mami having to increase her strength by a sizeable amount since Sayaka was also on her back, holding on for dear life.

"There it is," said Mami as she saw the witch enter the doorway, and then saw as it closed up on them, and Mami used her ribbon to slow them down and prevent them from crashing into strange metal structure.

"Wow, this looks very Sci-fi," said Sayaka as she looked at the metal structure, sharp angled, glowing a dull silver, and what appeared to be energy running through it.

"So how do we get in," said Madoka.

"You don't," said a rather harsh voice from above.

The trio looked to see Homaru Akemi land in their midst.

"I told you that I would handle this witch, and that I could defeat it, but here you all are going after it into who knows where, now Madoka, I told this has nothing to do with you know come on," said Homaru.

"Bu-but I don't want to go, I can't leave Sayaka and Mami alone with that witch," said Madoka.

"Homaru, you can't make Madoka leave, she came of her own will, so it's her right to be here," said Mami.

"Yeah, and besides, look at where were standing, this could be the greatest discovery ever her, this thing is obviously not man-made, and if it was, why bury this deep in the gr-wha,wo-woa-waagh, ooph," Sayaka had tripped on the metal and landed face first.

Her hand settling on the access panel.

Before anyone could say anything, the doorway opened again, while they were all on top of it, and the only thing they said as that happened was:

"Eh"

Then they fell right in, the door closing moments afterward.

Ari, soon reached the panel, and first looked around a bit, noticing the room must be a control room.

She then looked at the panel, stood for a second …

… and reached for it.

The witch was going through the halls, going past the rooms, ready to make the Spartan hurt, then it noticed that its barrier was not coming up and it was still in the same hallway.

It then put more of its grief energy into the barrier, and soon the barrier was taking shape.

"Owww, that hurt," said Sayaka as she rubbed her face, happy nothing was broken and that she did not get a concussion.

She got up as Mami, Madoka and Homaru were straightening themselves out, and looked around, seeing the dull light and the strange alien symbols on the walls, glowing from the energy running in the facility.

Then they saw the distortions of a forming barrier.

"You said what about this place," said Homaru to Sayaka.

Sayaka laughed a bit nervously and turned away, though she started sweating a bit.

Mami prepared herself with her muskets, and Homaru was ready to use her arsenal of weapons the second a familiar shows up.

Ari walked up to the panel ….

…. And activated it.

A surge of power instantly rushed through the facility, and the once dark room became illuminated by the light, which was so bright that Ari had to close her eyes at it came up.

The witch was about to make its barrier when a surge of energy came from nowhere …

… and caused its barrier to completely fall apart, and the whole facility came to life in a flash that left the witch blinded.

The group saw as the barrier disappeared, and then in the next instant a flash of light hit them, and soon they were left blinded a bit.

Slowly there eyesight came back, and what they now saw …

… left them in awe.

"I can't believe it, now I remember where I saw this stuff," said Ari as she looked out.

The room wasn't large, it was massive.

Large amounts of very large rectangular structure, looking like incredibly advanced containers of countless sizes were everywhere, and the room was long enough to fit a large town, and tall enough to fit small skyscrapers.

But what got her were the symbols she now saw clearly.

She remembered them, remembered the digs, remembered the excavations she guarded, and realized exactly who it was who made the facility.

Then she saw something come down, a sphere-like drone, glowing with a soft light, using advanced anti-gravity systems, and had a single glowing blue (almost white) eye, and it spoke, in a monotone male voice:

"GREETINGS, RECLAIMER"