Sayaka wakes up with horrible pain in the back of her head, but it quickly subsided.
Thank you healing factor she thinks to herself.
She starts to look around to figure out where they are because they for sure weren't in the forest anymore. The tile-like design on the ceiling, or that there was a ceiling at all was enough proof they weren't in the forest. She looks over and sees Mami, Kyōko, and Homura out cold.
They don't look hurt
She thinks happy to see Mami and Kyōko were alright and mildly wondering how Homura can look evil even when she is asleep.
Her attention then falls to a conversation ahead of her. She gently pulls herself up, under a meter away she sees a man that looks no older than 25 with brown hair talking to a green haired woman, still lying in bed.
"I'm fine." The woman says rubbing her arm, "My cuts have healed and the antivenom already ran its course. And I know, next time don't try to engage a viper in close quarters combat. But come on it's not like I had another choice it had seen us we needed to take it down."
The man chuckled a little, "Jesus, Jade, we ranger are given swords for a reason. But, you lived, just please don't try that again. Alright?" The man said, sounding a little worried.
"I promise I won't try that again. Oh hey, " The woman saw Sayaka and waves, "One of those kids are awake. Well better leave you to do your mission report. Man, that is one thing I enjoyed not doing." The woman laughed a little as the man grabbed a clipboard form a desk and walks over to her.
"Hello the names Connor, yours?" The man asked with a grin from his past conversation still on his face.
"Sayaka Miki, nice to meet you, Connor." Though Sayaka didn't know exactly where she was, so far they seemed trustworthy.
"I am gonna assume you're from Japan then? It seems very Japanese."
Sayaka nods.
"Alright, Nice to meet you, Miki, right? Sorry, I'm American and my high school only offered Spanish, do I call you by the first or last?" Connor said while writing on the clipboard.
"You're actually right, it's just the last name."
American? She thought after informing him.
"And speaking of names, May I ask who is that green-haired woman?"
"Oh, her names Jade, like the gem."
Connor then scans a small note on the side of the clipboard before furiously apologizes.
"Ouch sorry. The chosen assassin is a real pain, do you want some pain killers or something?"
It takes a second for Sayaka to figure out that this 'Chosen Assassin' is what hit her in the back of the head.
"Oh no, I'm fine, it really doesn't hurt that much."
Connor raises an eyebrow. "You sure? Last time I got hit by her it was so bad I was on the stuff for a week."
"No, I'm sure, I've always had a thick skull."
She says with a dumb smile trying to avoid answering his question directly and proceeding to thank her healing factor once again.
He laughs for a second before looking back down at the clipboard.
"Alright, any idea why the chosen would want to capture you alive? And any idea who saved you guys?"
That is a harder question to answer, wait, could those things have known we were magical girls? These guys definitely don't know, so how would those things? Sayaka ponders this for a moment before giving her answer.
"No, I can't think of why they want us, and sorry all I remember was getting hit in the back of the head, I don't know who saved us." She says trying to look innocent.
Connor jots down a few more notes before saying.
"Alright, thanks for the cooperation, oh and you should probably know that you're pink haired friend is taking to some guys up at the bridge, she should be brought back here when it's over. Well, have a good day Miki."
As the man walked away Sayaka laid back down and through more about these 'Chosen'.
Hey what if chosen is just another word for a magical girl? Kyubey never said if magical girls were all called magical girls everywhere on Earth. That at least would explain how it took me down with just one hit. She thinks before an idea hits her.
Kyubey! she thinks, He can help.
She tries to telepathically call for Kyubey, but she receives no answer.
Well, that's, worrying.
She rests her head on the pillow behind her, it was a bit rough, but it would be a comfortable spot to wait for the rest of them to wake up, sense she really felt like walking around would raise too much attention on her.
o - o - o - o - o - o
Tessa sets in the corner of the Avengers on ship bar.
Looking over the place she notices that, like after every successful mission, it was roaring with laughter and half-drunken conversation.
With every table filled, people that never saw each other were tossing back beers and some throwing up whatever remained of there lunch together.
But there she sat, in the corner of the room with the closest thing to human contact she had was to look at the memorial for the lost soldiers.
She hears as the door swings open, she looks seeing Connor's familiar face.
Oh, Connor, the youngest member of there squad. The hothead was a master of doing something the dumbest way possible and living to tell the tale. She still hasn't figured out wither he actually had skills, or if he was just really, really lucky.
She saw Connor set down and order a glass of whiskey. Like always he downed a couple of sips before someone started to ask him about Jade.
"One, two, three." Tessa said.
Just as she reached three a man asked Connor about him and Jade.
Jade, she was a pretty good combat medic. Especially on the combat side, the girl was a great shot, and she has a Doctorate degree in engineering.
As soon as the girl saw that Specialist get a tiny flying drone called gremlins she immediately signed up to help the resistance.
Some still swear to this day they heard the girl squeal upon getting the drone.
But the reason people were so caught up with Connor and Jade was Connor's not so secret crush on her.
Even when fighting aliens people still enjoy office gossip.
Typically guys. Tessa thinks.
Would rather go first to cuffs with a berserker then talk about there feelings.
Then, her gaze eventually lowers down at her own table, three empty sets, and her now empty glass in front of her.
She lets out an internal sigh. She decides to head up to the barracks, not like anyone would notice if she took her to leave earlier then normal.
Tessa got up and made her way across the room with little trouble. She vaguely heard a couple of insults tossed her way.
Tessa was unfazed by their taunts.
An ex-Black ops soldier wasn't going to be bothered by some insults.
But as she opened the door she saw something that still had some effect on her.
On the other side of the hallway. She saw Anna's soft, snow-like hair, and those deep royal blue eyes. Those caring eyes that just looking at them warmed her very soul. She missed those eyes so much.
The only time she saw Anna's either she had her mask on or she was glaring at her and looked ready to kill her.
But for a second while Anna walked past the bar's open door, for just a single glance, she saw those eyes she loved so much.
Tessa watched as Madoka and Anna walked past, they seemed to be heading towards the medical center. Tessa takes the opposite direction heading to the barracks.
o - o - o - o - o - o
Kyōko wakes up rubbing her neck where the dart landed. She slowly puts together that, whatever attacked them knocked her out before she could even see them.
She was furious.
That bastard drugged me! I'm gonna make it pay when I find it! That thing will-
Kyōko angry rant was stopped when she saw a green haired lady looking at her with her right arm covered in bandages.
"Oh, sorry for staring," the woman said apologetically, "They aren't letting me out of here for another few hours and I've just been daydreaming."
Weirdo. Kyōko thought.
"Who is 'They'? And why aren't they letting you out?" Kyōko asks starting to think she may have to fight her way out of wherever she is.
"Oh, the doctors and other medical staff." The woman says. "They just want to make sure my arms fully healed."
Doctors eh, haven't seen one of them in a long time, must be in a hospital or something.
The woman then gently taps her hand against her head.
"Where are my manners! I didn't introduce my Self, my names Jade. Nice to meet you-" Jade cuts off waiting for an name.
"Sakura."
"Well, nice to meet you Sakura."
"Nice to meet you too, Jade."
"So, all your other friends seem to be asleep. Well, Miki was awake but I think she may have fallen back asleep. So want to talk? Great way to kill time."
Eh, why not, if I didn't want to answer I could just lie.
"Sure, and they're not my 'Friends' more like, 'acquaintances'. "
"Oh, alright. So Sakura, are you from Japan as well?"
"Yup."
"Neat, I'm from Europe. So do you go to school?"
"Yea." Nope
"Well, how is it?"
"School." No idea
"Well, you're just lovely at small talk." Jade says with no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
"What, I'm just being direct." Kyōko shoots, back.
"Alright, fine. What do you do in your free time?"
Fighting eldric abominations and stealing whatever I want.
"Umm, stuff."
"Wow, thanks for sharing." Jade said sarcastically.
"Well, I enjoy tearing electronics apart and putting them back together better than when we started. Speaking of which."
Jade turns over to one of the doctors on a computer and asks, "Can I please have her back now?"
The doctor lets out an annoyed grunt before leaning down and fliping some sort of switch. Suddenly a small humming can be herd as a small little device flys up before flying over to Jade and making a noise sounding close to a dog seeing there owner again after a long time.
"Aww, I missed you too Lola." She says seeming to pet the little floating drone.
"Wow, that's pretty cool." Kyōko says a little impressive. The thing seemed pretty neat.
"Yup, this was originally one of our standard issued gremlin drones, but," the thing then circles around Jade before floating Just above her lap as she seemed to scratch it like a pet.
"I made several improvements. Longer battery life, improved artificial intelligence, upgrade electrically discharger, and lastly, I added in the pet like behaviors to improve morale."
"Hey, mind if I take a look at it?"
"Sure."
Jade then point over at Kyōko the little thing slowly floats to her.
The thing circles around Kyōko several times before hovering right above her lap.
She pets the little drone and begins to make a cat-like purr.
Eh, this thing seems pretty cool. I think I might have to take it before I leave.
"You can play around with Lola for a while since we're both stuck here for a little while longer."
"Thanks." Kyōko replies kinda enjoying the drones the company.
o - o - o - o - o - o
The two tall slim purple creatures called the chosen stand opposite of one another.
The one called the Hunter holds a small half-filled data packet, that showed the Avenger's routine flight path.
The one called the chosen Assassin holds the missing half.
"So, we have agreed to work together this once, sister." The hunter says with its raspy growling voice.
"Yes, brother, but. If you dare fail do not expect me to be so kind again." The Assassin replies aggressively.
"Worry only about yourself faltering, after all, you were only able to take out one of them before being killed."
"At least I didn't hide like a coward."
"Alright sister, let's get to the point." The Hunter holds hand offering out his data packet, "Take it, I'll make sure to show up once you bring it down."
The Assassin tasks it, the Hunter turns to walk away but says looking over his shoulder.
"And remember, we need to capture those things alive. We both must expect heavy resistance from, "
The Hunter then looks down at his chest were Mami shot him, "Them."
The Assassin watches as the Hunter walks away.
Then Assassin looks at her own chest, were Homura empty an assault rifle magazine into her.
The chosen Assassin was the vengeful type and someone just put them self on the top of her hit list.
"There are five of them after all," The Assassin says with a growl.
"If one is, accidentally, killed, there still be plenty for what the elders have planned."
o - o - o - o - o - o
Homura shots up taking a sharp breath seeing Sayaka, Kyōko, and Madoka awake, Mami asleep and a green haired woman looking at her.
"Wow there kid, you alright?" The woman asks.
"She's fine. oh Akemi, meet Jade." Kyōko says with a little drone still in her lap.
"Yes, I'm fine," Homura replies in her monotone voice without any hint of emotion.
"Hello, Jade."
"Nice to meet you Akemi," Jade says.
"Alright Jade, your arm should be fully healed, please make your way to the bridge for a brief overview of the mission you missed." A doctor on the other side of the room informed her.
"Alright, well time for me and, "
Jade looks over at Kyōko still letting the drone hover in her lap.
"Nothing, I'll just call her back when I need her, see you later girls." Jade says before waking out the door.
"Who was the that?" Homura asks, secretly hiding her soul gen in her hand.
What has happened? This has never happened before? Did I do something differently? Well, I did, no, Sayaka seems the only one changed by that.
"Jade, she's pretty nice, but you should have been here when Anna was here, she was really sweet." Madoka says in her normal cheerful town, but something seemed off like she was trying to avoid something.
"Kaname."
Homura voice was demeaning,
"What are you hiding?"
Sayaka jumps to her friend's defense.
"What do you mean? You're the one that been hiding everything!"
Before looking at Madoka, she was nodding, the raven haired prick was right.
"I, know it sounds crazy but,"
Madoka says meekly, "We are in, the future."
Sayaka and Kyōko both look at her mildly confused.
"And," Madoka continued, "Aliens have taken over the earth."
"Okay now you're defiantly screwing with us," Kyōko says.
"Yea, is this some kind of joke?" Sayaka asks.
Homura remains quite.
"Wait do you, kids, not know about the aliens?" One of the doctors asked.
"What?" Kyōko and Sayaka say almost in unison.
"Yea, the old elders, those bast-, jerks, took over Earth, here let me pull some images." The doctor says before pulling out a folder from his desk.
He walks over and hands them out. These elder seemed to have four arms or at least that is what their statue showed them as. Then there were their minions, these alien creatures that look like they could have been taken straight from a witches labyrinth.
A praying mantis-like creature with a hard purple carapace that had four almost swordlike spikes for legs, with two hands that pointed into three needle-like fingres, a jaw with two sharp points that could easily rip the flesh off anything that would dare get close to it.
A creature that looked like it was taken from some old pantheon, it looked like the upper half of a human male, but just the upper half. The thing seemed to have a rocket pack on its pack that made to look like a crescent moon almost touching. It was decorated in gold, and in its hand, it also held a golden staff with a green tip.
"Wait, "
Kyōko says pointing to a snake-like creature, but it had two human-like hands and stood just as tall as your average adult male.
"Is this the thing Jade fought against?"
The doctor nods.
"Yea, we call the Vipers, you know how dangerous a snake is, well now it can shoot its venom in a 10-meter range, oh, and it has a plasma rifle and knows how to use it."
Homura eyes remain blank, but, her hand seemed to be shaking.
What? How? More aliens? Are these things Kyubey's back up? What if, this is just a trick, he's going to let us see this, then try to get Madoka to wish it all away. I spent years trying to fight Walpurgisnach, now I'll have to fight a whole world worth of aliens too?
A thought came to her, she could just summon her shield and reset herself back to the start of the loop, but before she did even something she felt deep down, something was different. She felt like, something else was messing with her soul gem, she had a feeling that, she no longer had a second chance.
Then, she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time, fear, fear that all those years she spent were wasted, that she couldn't save her.
Her strong facade fractured for merely a second, for merely a second the girl she once was showed her face once again, the one Madoka saved so many loops ago.
But her attention changed and repressed that feeling as the room around them shook to the sound of a anti air weapon ripping open the sky, the lights turned red, and something close to an air siren was blaring at full blast.
The doctor runs to his desk grasp hold of it and yells out.
"Hold on to something we are going to be making an unplanned landing!"
They all follow his in instruction as suddenly they Avenger suddenly violently dives down.
Several small objects were tossed around the room before they heard the sound of metal scraping against the ground and the sounds of trees falling.
"What, just, happened?" A very confused Mami asks.
"I would explain everything, but long story short, " the doctor loads medical supplies onto a table.
"The chosen just shot us out of the sky, stay here we can handle this, "
The doctor says before pushing the supply-filled table through the door.
"What is a chosen?" Mami asks, still just as confused.
"Umm," Madoka says nervously.
o - o - o - o - o - o
Tessa walks out of the Avengers hanger.
The door was wide open to allow as many soldiers as possible to help take down the anti-air gun towering over them in the distance.
This is strange, by all accounts neither of the Chosen should have enough information to find us.*
But Tessa waves it off that the Chosen just got lucky.
She arms her self raising her 50 caliber rifle off her back and makes her way to the back line with the rest of the snipers.
The sniper team were already taking pot shot on the odd viper or advent soldier that tried to push forward. The whole of the resistance stood in front of the downed Avenger.
Everyone was ready, they all knew the Chosen would not go down easily, much less there near endless army they could throw at them. Odds are, not everyone would live to the end.
But, no one would go down without taking as many alien bastards with them as they could.
"Vigilo Confido." A man says. The old X-com motto, that roughly translated to 'I trust in vigilance'. The motto still sparked a feeling of hope, which many of the recruits were desperately needing.
The old feeling of those long lost days, when X-com curbed stumped the elders, not the other way around.
When X-com was a beacon of hope and heroes to humanity, not hiding in any hole they can find.
When X-com was the whole worlds greatest defense, not this small resistance.
"This is central, the heat sink shows they are beginning to advance. Everyone be ready to engage."
o - o - o - o - o - o
"Well, that is, interesting," Mami says a little dazed at the information told to her.
"Yea," Madoka says nervously.
"So you're telling me these chosen things, are what attacked us?" Kyōko asked, she also was a little annoyed that the drone she was holding just flew away.
"I, believe so," Madoka answers.
"And that doctor said the chosen just shot us down?"
A devilish smile could be seen on Kyōko face.
She then walks towards the exit of the room.
"Sakura what are you doing?" Homura asks.
"Well one of them chosen bastards attacked us, more importantly, they attacked me! I want to go and even the score. See ya!"
Kyōko dashes away before anyone could get another word in.
"I mean, she is right. They did attack us. And there are people in trouble out there. Why shouldn't we help?" Sayaka asks.
"Well, you are right Sayaka, " Mami says pondering the thought, people were in danger after all.
"See we should go out there and help!" Sayaka was ready to bolt out the door just like Kyōko.
"Alright, let's go Sayaka, but please keep it quite. We don't want everyone to know what we are." Mami was still getting used to working with someone, but she definitely enjoyed having Sayaka by her side.
The two of them run out leaving only Madoka and Homura left.
"Aren't you gonna help two?" Madoka asks.
It was an interesting choice.
She could go out and help fight, there first meeting with the chosen seemed to show that getting caught by them wasn't going to end well.
On the other hand, would it be a great idea for these people to know what they were?
Or she could be playing right into Kyubey's plans.
It was hard to keep her act of control when she no longer knew what would happen, especially when she couldn't retry.
These chosen seem just as dangerous as any which, and, protecting her friends was one way to lower the reason for why she would make a wish.
Homura lookd at Madoka, almost staring right thought her.
"Kaname, I am only assisting for all of our mutual safety, I must request that you stay out of harm's way."
Madoka nods, she already heard her say this before.
Homura then summons her magical girl outfit looking at Madoka one more time before vanishing.
Now it was just Madoka setting in the medical center. Hoping her friends would be safe.
o - o - o - o - o - o
To Homura time was at a standstill.
Everyone but her was frozen in time, in a single second everything stopped.
She walked and notices something, every person she passed had a look, though it surprised her what look they had.
She expected looks of fear and worry, but every one of the people she passed had looks of determination, and unbridled fury.
Odd, at least for what she saw by looking over shoulders and other bits of information lying around the force they were facing are even half true these normal people are facing an almost cretin death.
Yet not a single person had an even hint of fear.
She moved through the halls before seeing a room with the words "Armory," Marked on the top of the doorway.
Her supply of weapons were low, all she had left in her shield was an empty fully automatic handgun, three 30 round magazines for it, and three pipe bombs she made before they all were tossed into the future.
She walked in, the room was very simple the walls were a metallic color and were lined with gun racks, but most of them were empty. She puts together that the missing weapons are most likely being used to take care of the alien threat outside.
She looks over the weapon before picking up an assault rifle and inspects it.
It was high-grade military quality, the rifle felt perfect in her hands.
Much better than the ones she stole, all the automatics weapons were black market and for the most part, they worked. But they jammed often and several have chip bits and pieces that could cut up the skin if not held right.
She then grabs several magazines for the rifle.
She then turns to grab more interesting weapons.
A pump action shotgun, and several shells.
A 50 caliber sniper rifle, and a 308 caliber rifle, and matching ammo for both rifles.
Then her eyes fell on the heavy weapons, a Gatling gun with three barrels, and a Grenade launcher.
She decided against taking the Gatling gun, too much bulk and would restrict her movement.
She then took down the Grenade launcher and looked over it. The launcher had the capacity to hold six grenades, she then saw the stash of grenades. She fulled the launcher and took 20 for herself.
She then left the Armory and followed the path of soldiers, she eventually reaches the hangar, its door lowered to the ground revealing the battle frozen in time.
Bullets and green balls of energy stopped mid-air, images of soldiers pulling a downed comrade into cover.
She immediately notices Sayaka and some spots of red and yellow hair ducking into some bushes unnoticed.
Homura takes a point to hide on the top of tree branches just out the three girls sight.
She then reached for her shield to allow the follow of time to continue, but she hesitated.
From her new position she saw the full battlefield, the Avenger's crew and the soldiers were outnumbered three to one.
She thought about the problem she was looking at.
On one hand, if these people failed right here, Madoka, her and the other three would ultimately be captured by these chosen, and so far she hadn't had any reason not to believe these aliens had only the worst attention.
On the other hand, if she helped and they saw her, how would they react? She tried, getting others, getting military involved, at least to kill Walpurgisnacht, they either laughed her off and called her crazy, or tried to lock her up and use her as a lab rat.
She quickly weighed her odds. Which end with Madoka's safety above all else.
Okay.
Homura thinks to herself.
I will only help them if they desperately need it.
Homura turns her shield and watches as time starts to move once again.