Episode 4 : Welcome to the Machine
"You know, I've realized something." Saya Browning was taking a leisurely pace along the mall promenade, focusing her attention on anything other than schoolwork. In the two weeks since Professor Shirakawa delivered his ultimatum, the plan of how to handle the situation had more-or-less-entirely consisted of stashing the "refugees" at the Mitikahara school. There was no need for additional security, per se; all of the other Puella Magi save Koishi, Ranko, and Cirno were formally enrolled at the school, and all of them (even Kyōko) were making a solid attempt at attending classes. Everyone in the Tirei operation agreed that anything capable of getting through 8 Puella Magi could probably simply blast the town off the face of the earth, which would render the security situation entirely moot.
"Oh, don't you say it! I will punch you right straight in your fat, stupid face!" Hotaru fumed. Ranko had been able to get away with ducking out, as she had made such an impression at Uminari with her human persona that no one expected to see her keep up the charade of functioning on a normal level. However, that left Hotaru stuck in classes, and no amount of Charlotte's presence could make up for that.
"I, uh, don't hate this place . . ." Saya replied, almost surprised of the answer herself. It was, however, close enough to what Hotaru had expected her to say that it still triggered a violent response, but then the firefly caught the negation and faltered slightly. Meanwhile Saya was smirking, as she had been expecting and maybe even relishing a physical altercation, and so she was already throwing a counter which was fast enough to actually pick off Hotaru when she stumbled.
"Well, I do! So there!" Hotaru snapped, after their clash became frozen in place. "Also, not bad. Seems like the self-defense stuff is starting to sink in. Although . . ." The firefly finished her thought by kicking out Saya's forward foot, leaving her to stumble into Hotaru, who grabbed her blocking hand to keep Saya from tumbling all the way to the pavement. "Gotta follow through or break away."
"Yeah, well, if it's a real fight, I'll do that."
"I'm serious here! You need to be on your game, all the time. Ya never know when the DC might make a try for you, and if you die, I'll look bad! Hey, are you listening to me?" Hotaru poked Saya in the shoulder.
"Yeah, 'm here, just looking to see if you jinxed us or not. On the subject of training, though, who are they sticking us with this week? Mami, or do we have to deal with Hitomi again?" That question got only the sound of grinding teeth for a reply, which caused Saya to frown. "Oops . . . I didn't mean to upset you. Hitomi bothers you, doesn't she? Because of the, er . . ." Saya trailed off, rubbing a thumb over her left middle finger instead of uttering the dreaded "P-word" out loud.
"Meh. It doesn't bother me any worse than it'd bother you to have your tongue torn out and shoved down your throat until you choke," Hotaru replied in a conversational tone of voice. "Seriously, do you even listen to yourself? You are the least tactful person I know, and between me 'n Cirno, that's saying something!"
". . . I said I was sorry."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, my real problem with her is she's got my color. So where am I gonna go when I finally do get my ring?"
"You could just be a second green, couldn't you? I mean, there's three reds."
"Yeah, but those don't count- Nova's gem is actually solid white, like an opal, and Ranko's is black. It's an Incubator thing apparently, they're always that same red color when they turn on. We'd have to see the DC's Incubator in a fight to be sure, but to hell with that!"
"Then challenge her to a duel or something and take her color?"
"I don't think you can change 'em. Why are you so damn hung up on this anyway?"
"Because, it doesn't make any sense. I like understanding how and why things work, and Hitomi, well, doesn't. She doesn't fit in with them, and that weirds me out."
"I know the answer to that, but if we have to go there, I promise you I will hate you forever and a year more." Hotaru snarled.
"You say that like you don't already hate me forever, or at least until the sun goes cold!" Saya smirked as she replied.
"Okay, fine. But you owe me ice cream, got it?" Hotaru sucked in a breath and blew it out hard. "It goes like this; you know how the Incubators worked, with their energy-harvesting scheme and all? Well, back then Nova was still one of the evil furballs, she- it, I suppose?- told Hitomi a tale about how her friends were all leaving her behind with their cool new magic powers. And so Hitomi bought it hook, line, and sinker, because she desperately wanted to be able to keep up with her friends. Then Hitomi learned why you don't make a deal with the devil in order to be one of the cool kids, and she sorta hung up her axe after that. To make matters worse, she didn't exactly get over that 'I need to be equal' bit, and that got her pinched by the big baddie and held as a hostage. So the moral of the story, of course, is Contracts are a bad idea, which is why Char has told it to me at least a dozen times, and that's why I don't like talking about it- and are you even listening to me?" The lack of attention set Hotaru boiling with rage, and she turned to slap the blonde girl silly, but in doing so, she caught sight of what had Saya distracted: A set of goons in black tactical gear carrying compact guns and other nasty toys, moving towards the girls with intent. "Well, shit!"
BGM : .3K – DDR SuperNOVA – "PARANOiA Respect"
Hotaru and Saya were at the railing by the time the tacticals realized they had been made, and were over the side before the shooting started. The drop was just over three meters, barely an inconvenience with the adrenaline shouting in the girls' veins, but it turned out there wasn't any much more room to maneuver on the main floor, with another detachment of the mysterious troops covering the main entrance. "Well, you wanted a real fight," Hotaru snarled, pressing her thumb to the emerald gem on her bracelet to activate the homing function.
"Yeah, well, changed my mind," Saya muttered, triggering her own homing beacon.
"Oh, to hell with that! We're goin' through 'em!" Hotaru rushed forward, throwing a double-handful of danmaku before her the instant that the other shoppers cleared the line of fire. The shots struck one of the troopers high in the chest and knocked him back a step, but failed to do much more as the spellfire splattered against the man's vest in brilliant green sparks. "Oh, come on! Energy-absorbing armor? Bullshit!"
The troopers' guns fired with sharp coughs of gas, hurling thin metal darts through the air, and when one lightly grazed Hotaru, there came a crack of lightning between the weapon and the dart. "Ow! Damnit!" Hotaru swore, clutching at her numbed limb. Horror washed through Saya as she heard the guns begin charging for another round, but then it broke against a reserve of will that the blonde girl wasn't aware she had.
Saya found herself taking a back seat in her own mind as the need to survive took over. Bolts of energy flew from the spell projector on her outstretched hand- not at the attackers with their specialized armor, but at a decorative fountain in the atrium, which certainly was not resistant to the sorcerous fires, and exploded into a billowing cloud of steam. Then Saya caught Hotaru's arm and pulled the unresisting girl into the steam, where the shooters couldn't see the pair to hit them, even if their electroshock guns would function in the humid air.
"Captain, what do we do now? She threw up some kinda smokescreeen!" The man screaming into his radio was nominally in charge of the team inside the mall, but he had been chosen for his ability to follow orders rather than any tactical acumen, and the orders were to bag the blonde girl and get out before the time limit was up. The first part hadn't happened yet and the second was bearing down quickly, and being caught between those two pressures had shaken what little nerve the man possessed.
"Damnit! Just shoot her then, we still get paid part of the money to get her outta Tirei's hands, even if it's just into a box." That was something concrete the team leader could hang on to, and he found himself bellowing out the order to shoot almost without realizing it, at the same time fingering the selector switch that deactivated the experimental electroshock system and turning his gun back into an SMG. The entire team opened fire at once, sending a shower of bullets ripping through the clouded space Saya and Hotaru were using to hide, enough that the grim math of probability guaranteed the eventual outcome. But before that point arrived, the supersonic boom of a weapon being swung so hard it tore the air itself announced that the equation had changed. A body sailed off the upper floor, trailing a red rain of ruin behind it to crash onto the wrecked fountain, and Saya and Hotaru peeked out from behind their cover to see what had happened.
Hitomi Shizuki was what happened, although to the would-be assassins, she may as well have been the punishment of the gods, or a natural disaster. A second trooper went over the railing, after being impaled upon the spike capping Hitomi's greataxe and then hurled aside with the same motion and same amount of consideration as a shovelful of snow. Hitomi let the weapon lead her, turning the axe broadside as it passed over her shoulder to block a fusillade from the now completely panicked team leader, and even as she twisted the weapon to right it, her bottom hand came free of the haft and snapped forward, loosing a smaller throwing axe that hadn't existed until a moment before that sailed directly into her attacker's face.
The beacon bracelets had carried Hotaru's words to Hitomi's ears as if she had been standing next to the little youkai once they had been activated, so she knew that using her spells on the troopers below was unlikely to do any real damage. At the same time though, having beams of jade-green spellfire explode in one's face was never beneficial to holding a precise aim, which was why Hitomi gave the troopers on the floor a generous dose as she leaped down. Landing with a crack of steel on tile, Hitomi was immediately forced to raise her axe to deflect a slew of blind fire. Well, apparently the suppressive fire was a waste. They didn't have any aim to disrupt! Hitomi realized, gritting her teeth as a round creased her side, while screams filled the air behind her as the overshoots rattled the storefronts, and those sounds cut through her in a way that no physical weapon could.
In general, Saya's assessment of Hitomi was correct- the green-haired Puella Magi did not have the taste for battle that her friends possessed, and she tended not to make rash and impulsive decisions outside of the one which had led to her Contract. With her one red line crossed, however, her nature meant that Hitomi was making the calm and reasoned decision to let out a bloodcurdling scream of challenge and charge into the shooters. The first of her foes Hitomi struck down with another supersonic slice, and the man's head simply vanished from sight as if it were a magic trick. Her fury not nearly spent, Hitomi spun and brought her axe around to bear, splitting another shooter completely apart from crown to crotch, and then she somersaulted over the haft of her buried weapon, using the momentum to pull it free from the floor.
At this point, Hotaru also figured out how to overcome her attackers' special armor, a plan she executed with one of her signature flying kicks. Hotaru struck her target in the shoulder, but this was according to plan as it threw him off-balance, at which point Hotaru tumbled over the trooper's shoulder and seized his head as she passed. What Hotaru did then was technically a throw, but with his feet on the floor and hers still in the air, his body didn't move, but rather the shooter's neck was forced to absorb all the energy of the attack, and it failed. That left only one of the pack, who raised his hands to indicate he was open to negotiation, to which Hitomi placed her axe to his throat to indicate she was not.
At that moment, the elaborate windows over the main doors blew in, courtesy of a missile launched from a Lion. The wisps of smoke and sheets of glass blew away to reveal three AFs hovering just outside the building. "Great, this day keeps getting worse!" Hotaru muttered, pulling out a fan of Spellcards.
"Indeed it does . . . for them." Hitomi replied, grinning as she saw the flicker of police lights reflecting off the scenery outside. Moments later, the Lions broke and scattered as Sayaka's Interceptor pulled up to the front door, leading a full squad of Gespensts and a Centipede carrier as well.
"You need to see this," Alchemie said as she used the closet as a doorway into Valcyone's quarters. Without waiting for the DC leader's approval or even an acknowledgment of her presence, Alchemie snatched up the remote and switched the suite's video screen on, then dialed in a satellite news broadcast.
"I wondered why we came up to antenna depth," Valcyone muttered as she set down her reader- loaded with a light novel instead of status reports for once- and rolled over to look at the screen. Off duty and in her quarters, the girl who went by the title of Valcyone had shed her Wish-granted armor and was instead wearing a tank top and punk jeans. Aside from the katana she had reflexively conjured from her Soul Gem signet at the intrusion, she could have been mistaken for an ordinary teenager at the moment. Hanging her head off the end of the bed gave Valcyone an upside-down perspective on the situation, but that didn't make the report on the news look any better. The flashy graphics and inset images were intended to present the attack on the Mitikahara mall as a somber, horrifying affair, but that effect was ruined by a Lion that had been put into the fountain in a piledriver maneuver, its legs flopped apart in an obscene fashion.
"What's the deal? I don't recall authorizing a strike recently. Did they use some wrecks and fake this up or something?" Valcyone asked.
"No, this is partly my fault. I put out a bounty on that weird girl they were claiming they 'rescued' from our clutches down in Uminari, and I made sure it went out where Thomas's 'Independent Action Group' would see it." Alchemie grinned nastily. "Figured either we get the girl so we can figure out what her deal is, or we're rid of those filthy pirates, either way it's a win."
"Hey, does that mean we got a report on how well the diffusion armor worked?" Valcyone asked, referring to one of the experimental pieces of kit Thomas was permitted to "steal" when he broke away from the Crusaders.
"Not well enough, obviously." Alchemie replied. "The initial news report didn't mention any casualties on the Tirei side of things, so either he didn't bring the gear, or didn't bring enough to get the job done."
"Useless is as useless does, I guess."
Someone on the production team must have realized how silly the crashed AF looked, because the view cut away quickly to a podium armed with a forest of microphones, behind which stood Satori, looking severely displeased."I shall take at most three questions, so you had best make them count." Satori declared, setting off a sour murmur among the assembled press.
"Okay, I think I like this girl," Valcyone declared. "Too bad she works for the bad guys."
"This is unprecedented! Do you really think you and your company can survive trying to bully the media in this way?" The bellicose accusation came from deep in the pack and the cameras locked in on Satori in response, trying to pile on the pressure.
"Take this for your answer: Two questions remain. However. . ." Satori leaned into the microphone bank to overpower the sudden chorus of outrage. "If the rest of you ladies and gentlemen will remove this fool from the room, I will give you that question back."
"Ooh, she's good!" Valcyone cackled as the cameras panned to show the foolish blowhard getting shoved out of the crowd and to the door by a crush of his outraged peers. Satori was showing a predatory smile as the press conference returned to a semblance of order.
"During today's confrontation with the Divine Crusaders, a young woman was spotted doing battle with their forces, dressed in a type of form-fitting armor that didn't conform to any known type of Armored Frame. What, ah, exactly was that she was wearing, and how does it work?"
"Obviously for reasons of operational security I cannot discuss details here, but it was an implementation of what we're calling 'Extra-Over Technology'. EOT is derived from data gathered on the techniques used to create the Armored Frames."
"Yes, but- it seems impossible that you could pack that much power into such a small suit!" At this, Satori held up two fingers and waggled them, sweeping her gaze across the room and then settling her focus on the young reporter who blurted out the question. When there was no movement to eject the man from the room, Satori lowered one finger, squared her shoulders, and began her explanation.
"What we have is no more impossible than the Armored Frames themselves, but the technology is not yet ready for mass production-" Satori's explanation abruptly disappeared, as a hard black plastic square slammed into the video monitor, shattering it.
"Ahh, oops!" Valcyone giggled as she noticed what it was she had used to silence the farfetched explanation- her reader, which was in as bad a shape as the monitor.
"Oops, she says," Alchemie grumbled, rolling her eyes. "If I was as cruel a taskmaster as you, I'd haul your ass down to the engineering compartments and make you rebuild those, like you did to me with the torpedoes!"
"Hey, I said I was sorry. Besides, that 'extra-over' whatever was ridiculous! Of course they can't 'mass-produce' their results. You can't just squirt out magic on an assembly line! Extra-over my dead body!"
"Ridiculously brilliant, you mean." Alchemie glared at her Contractee. "Our Armored Frames are sufficient to overwhelm conventional infantry and armor, not a horde of veteran Puella Magi and whatever-the-hell their friends from the other side are, and with the press eating out of that girl's hands, she just neutralized any hope we had of blackmailing them into sidelining their strongest assets. It's not often you get to watch somebody announce the very end of your hopes and dreams at a live press conference. And to think, I had been coming here to bring you good news."
"Oh, do cheer up, spoilsport!" Valcyone replied, rolling over and pulling Alchemie into a sudden hug. "After all, didn't you pick me for my tactical brilliance and ability to find a way out of tight situations like this? Now what's the good news?"
"I picked you, because you were what I had available." Alchemie glared up at Valcyone as she shook off the hug. "The fact that you turned out to be useful was just a plus. As for the good news, here. And try not to throw it at anything, please?" Valcyone tried to glare at Alchemie for the admonishment that came with her personal reader, but the little Incubator glared much harder.
"Does this mean what I think it means? 'I want to be on the winning side of this war, and am convinced yours is it. Please arrange for extraction from Mitikahara at the earliest possible convenience. Will bring useful information along with excellent skills.' This has gotta be a trap, right?"
"That's what I thought, but I've been digging into it, and it seems legit. Now we just have to go in and get her."
"Her? You know who this is already?" Valcyone looked up from the reader in surprise.
"No, but if you think about it, it has to be one of their Puella Magi, I mean, who else would have 'excellent skills' that we might want?"
"I suppose. Good news is that means you can kill two birds with one stone."
"I really hate it when you grin like that. Nothing good ever comes from you grinning like that." Alchemie replied, feeling her stomach do flips as she met her Contractee's feline smile.
"What? It's just a simple smash-n-grab raid. Smash them and grab your defector, simple right?"
"And what are you going to be doing while I'm busy with all that?"
"Oh, nothing much, just a little something on the side, to confuse them."
"Uh-huh." Alchemie glared at Valcyone. "Well, let me just preemptively say 'I told you so', because I doubt I'll get the chance when we're both either dead or in prison from your lunacy."
"Oh, relax, I still need a couple days to get everything in place."
"Well, that makes me feel much better!" Alchemie deadpanned.
"And here I was expecting you to say that made things worse."
"No, it's better because now I have time to find a box sturdy enough to lock you in so you don't try going through with this cockamamie plan!"
"Jeez! Security's pretty shoddy on this system-" Nue bit her tongue as she realized she was talking out loud. While Miko let the chimera have free reign on the computers, even letting her have access to a small expense account to get anything she needed to improve operations, Nue didn't want to advertise the fact she was doing something rather unauthorized. Specifically, she was setting up a back door into Tirei's main computer network; Nue had recently discovered the phenomenon known as "internet gaming", but this brought with it a new set of trouble, for all the good games required an account and a credit card whose billing address lined up with the IP address used to log in. There were two solutions available to Nue, either step outside the border and get a card through a local bank, or set up a proxy server on Tirei's network, and she had chosen the one that she could do without getting out of her seat, or (shudder) having to possibly deal with Reimu Hakurei asking her what she was doing outside the Border. "Still, I woulda thought Satori would have a better lid on things. Otherwise you're gonna get somebody cutting into the top secret files . . . just like- oh, hell!" Feeling sick sweat pop out across her body, Nue dug into the activity logs, grabbing screenshots for evidence where she could before scrambling to her feet. I guess the noobs get to live to see tomorrow. This needs fixed, and NOW. "Miko! Get in here!"
"Yo! Homerun! Time to-" Kyōko's greeting upon arriving at the mostly empty warehouse known as "Tirei Annex" was thoroughly overwritten by the firing of a Barret M82 rifle, the so-called "Light Fifty". The monster sniper rifle sounded like the trump of Doom, and it set a figure at the other end of the building to swinging on a hangman rope. "Ow! Damnit! What the hell was that?"
"Practice." Homura replied simply, flipping off her earmuffs as she stood up.
"Yeah, well, warn me next time. That hurt!" Kyōko snapped, raising the finger encircled by her Soul Gem signet both to show that it was currently expending energy to regenerate the redhead's eardrums and also to deliver her thoughts on the matter.
"You're the one who asked me to take out the Wolkenritter. If you'd prefer that I don't I can always stop."
"Yeah, no, that's still on the menu. But we've got orders from the Chief Executive Eyeball, she needs the space."
"Did she explain why? And not to be rude, but why you? I was hoping to get a ride home." Homura hefted the massive rifle off the floor and smirked slightly. "This thing is just a bit too big to fit into my armory, and I don't expect Sayaka's father will like having to field the calls if I were to walk home with it."
"Oh, I have a car. Mami and I are starting to practice driving after dark, as we're the only ones who look close enough to the right age to pull it off. That's the next item on the list though, figuring out if we can age up any. I can't imagine you and Pinkie and the rest want to go through life constantly getting busted for truancy." Kyōko stated with a fang-filled grin.
"No, that would definitely not do. And let me guess, our know-nothing Incubator knows nothing?"
"Ugh, don't remind me," Kyōko frowned. "Nova decided to dive into the Bad Old Days when I asked, talking about how it's only been an eyeblink in her terms that us Humans have had good enough nutrition to noticeably age during a Puella Magi's uptime, blah blah blah. Actually, I got the sense that she was worried about it, and you know how when she gets worried . . ."
". . . she starts talking so much that it becomes a hazard to her health." Homura finished the thought for Kyōko. "Nice to see things are settling in to a routine."
"Hey! Don't jinx it!"
"Right. Did they explain why I'm losing my shooting range?" Homura then asked, as she started down to the other end of the building.
"Apparently they're shipping in some stuff and they need a place to set it up." Kyōko replied before letting out a sharp whistle as she saw what Homura had been shooting at. There was a Lion hanging from a gantry, using the thick concrete wall as a backstop for the big rounds being shot at it, and the suit had been filled with ballistic gel for completeness' sake, if the stain on the wall behind the missing head was anything to go by. "Nice shot."
"I wish I could agree, but it was my third shot, and I was aiming for the torso." Homura grimaced.
"That bad, huh?"
"That bad. The pain never goes away now. Eirin says it's caused by a disjunction of some sort, continually affecting me."
"Where the hell's that coming from?" Kyōko asked, puzzled. "Didja piss me off in a past cycle or something?"
"I don't know, but if I find out who or what is causing it, well, I hope you ordered extra rounds for your superweapon."
"I'll do that, next time I see Satori- er, maybe the next next time I see Satori," said Kyōko, jumping a bit as she saw the actual Satori standing at the door. "What's up?"
"My delivery. Which will be arriving in 15 minutes, so I would recommend that you two be somewhere else, unless you're planning to study how much it corrupts your Soul Gems to have a transport plane make a VTOL landing on your heads."
"Alright, alright, we're going. Jeez!" Kyōko gave a desultory sort of wave and headed for the door.
"Satori-san, if there's cargo coming in, may I leave my rifle behind, or will it be a bother for the work crews to retrieve it?" Homura asked, and after receiving an nod she stashed the weapon in the little enclosure that served as office space for the annex, then hurried to catch up with Kyōko. "Kyōko, let's go get dinner! My treat."
"Uh, sure? But what's with you tonight?" Kyōko asked, turning suddenly and pressing her forehead to Homura's in a way that was barely not a collision. "Is this disjunction or whatever starting to rot your brain?"
"Not exactly . . ." Homura grinned in a very un-Homura-like way and manifested her buckler and pulled a fistful of cash from the dimensional pocket within. "I figured since the estimable Satori Komeiji was going take her frustrations out on us, the least she could do is provide compensation."
"Homerun, you're a devil, you know that?" Kyōko replied.
"And, just what do you mean to imply?"
"That I love you more than ever when you're like this," Kyōko explained, only half in jest.
"Are you sure you want to admit that with a channel open?" Homura gave a grin that lived up to the accusation of deviltry laid upon her.
"Gah! You really are a devil! You're going to get me killed, or worse, I'm going to get Pinkie Pouted at!"
That the annex building should become a landing pad was due to a bit of misplaced foresight- Satori had purchased the warehouse as a hedge against the need for future expansion of the manufacturing lines, and because of that, a retractable roof had been installed during renovation in order to facilitate the emplacement of large pieces of equipment. Well, I suppose that's technically what's happening now, just not in the usual manner. Satori smirked as she heard the whine of an approaching jet, and motioned to the crew accompanying her. Moments later the sky was lit up with powerful searchlights, which served two purposes; the first was to mark the site for the arriving aircraft and the second, oddly enough, was camouflage. Being near the river, the air above the annex was chilly and damp, conditions which caused a considerable amount of the harsh light from the powerful arc lamps to scatter in all directions from the site. To anyone on the ground, it would be as though there was a curtain of light between them and the arriving aircraft.
First in was a Skylifter, the workhorses of the Skyreach Project construction efforts. Aside from the structural modifications made in order to accommodate the fusion engines and VTOL flight, the Skylifter fit the same fat cigar-shaped profile of cargo planes since the dawn of jet propulsion, and even the stylized soaring arrow Skyreach insignias on the sides of the body and tail did much to relieve the plane's mundane, utilitarian looks.
The second aircraft, however, made up for that entirely. A brawny, thick flying wing design, this craft was also propelled by fusion plants driving ram-air thrusters, but here the intakes were sharply raked back, like a 50's muscle car that had learned to fly, and the entire machine was painted in a deep sky blue metallic shade, with gold and chrome accenting. This machine drew a raised eyebrow from Satori as it dropped neatly into the space provided, and her dubious expression redoubled as the pilot vaulted down from the cockpit.
"Hiya! Irm Kazahara, chief test pilot for Tesla-Leicht Industries, and I must say I'm very pleased to meet you!" Tall and lanky, Irm had a huge smile plastered on his face, and was exuding an aura of charm that was as limp as his hair after the eight-hour flight.
"I can see that. Satori Komeiji, CEO of Tirei Hyperdyamics. I should give you fair warning, try anything more than a handshake and I'll disarticulate you." Satori replied evenly, though she did offer her hand.
"Well, good to know where I stand," said Irm, still grinning ear-to-ear.
"Ah, I see you've met the Fabulous Flying Manchild already." This came from the pilot of the Skylifter, and now it was Satori's turn to be put back a step. She looks more like a sister to me than my actual sister! "Just because she resembles me, doesn't give you call to go after her, Irm." Turning to the slightly flustered Satori, the newcomer introduced herself. "Ring Mao, Chief of Engineering for Tesla-Leicht. I look forward to seeing what you've done here."
"She threatened to disarticulate me, for a starter." Irm put in, although he didn't seem to be too put out by it.
"Well, it seems we resemble each other in more ways than one, in that case." Ring observed, while Satori led the pair to her car.
"This is not to say I mind your presence Irm, but why did you come along? We could have arranged an escort for the Skylifter, and I wouldn't expect you to want to risk a prototype for something like this."
"Nepotism, is why." Ring interjected, although with enough sarcasm to keep it from being an indictment. "His father is the head of R&D, and so of course he keyed the prototype so only Irm could fly it. Actually, that's not quite fair, Irm here is an excellent fighter in his own right. This job takes a certain hot-blooded spirit, and he has it in spades. And live combat data would be considerably useful."
"Well, I'm certain you'll be getting plenty of that soon enough. We're overdue for another round of harassment from the DC, and I'm not sure the flap at the mall counted toward that score." Satori paused for a moment, as the gears turned. "I must say, your group certainly managed to get into the game quite quickly. Considering the advantages we've had here, that's very impressive." The statement implied a question, and surprisingly enough, the answer came from Irm.
"You might say we had a head start, Miss. We had been working on the Tesla Drive for some time, and the design work for my Grungust- ah, excuse me, the 'G-class Mobile Assault Platform'," Irm couldn't help but roll his eyes at Ring after correcting himself. "We started in on it two years ago."
"Two years?" Satori exclaimed, her tone slipping as her mind spun to try and place the date.
"Yeah. Have you read the Poetic Edda? I'll take that look as a no, please don't disarticulate me. Well, in that work it describes the end of the world coming as a dreadful, unending storm, and I do believe I recall that you had a pretty bad, unnatural weather in the spring two years ago."
"What are you trying to say?" Satori asked quickly. I think I get where he's going with this, but I'm sure I won't like where we end up.
"What Irm is trying to say is that he's a horrible literature nerd and we haven't been working him nearly hard enough." Ring cut in. "But more to the point, we don't believe the Divine Crusaders came by their strength honestly. There are those who believe that our world has come under outside influence, that 'messengers from space', if I may be so bold, have been meddling in our affairs. Most people who become believers profess their beliefs openly, and end up congregating together in a place befitting their nature, namely the looney bin.
"However, some of us have tempered our beliefs with skepticism and common sense, and chose to direct our efforts elsewhere. The Tesla-Leicht Institute is exactly as our motto states; a center for application of advanced research. We simply have the misfortune, as my mother likes to put it, of living in interesting times. And so, today we apply what we know to the effort of securing the future of our world from the unseen hand pressing upon us. Sorry, I seem to have gotten a bit preachy there," Mao added, with a slightly embarrassed smile. "All the same, I expect you know much of this. Certainly, the person you sent with your emissary to make the initial contact with us was quite . . . exceptional." Satori nodded, too deep in thought to answer at the moment. What the hell, you only live once, right?
"Just one question for you both," Satori was unable to conceal an impish grin as she put the question to her guests once the car arrived at Tirei Tower. "Will you be terribly disappointed to find out that your 'messengers' are rather ditzy?"
"I, um-" Ring stammered slightly, caught entirely off-guard by the revelation. "Interesting times, indeed."
Gods below, she wasn't kidding! Ring found herself shrinking back against a wall in the conference room, trying not to get sucked into the calamity unfolding in front of her. The fun began immediately after Nova arrived and Irm buttonholed her in a corner to ask about her role in history.
"So, how much of the legends were true? Can you tell me what actually happened at the Ragnarok?"
"Why are you asking her?" Ranko butted in. "I am the one who wore the designation of 'Ragnarok', not her."
"He means the actual Ragnarok," Nova replied, which earned her a glare from Ranko.
"What are you talking about? I am an actual Ragnarok. Well, was anyway," came Ranko's reply. Meanwhile, Irm had already made his exit from the conversation, relying on instincts honed over dozens of confrontations to save himself from becoming collateral damage as the girls argued.
"Ladies, while I'm sure your respective footprints upon this world's mythology would prove fascinating to the appropriate audience, this gathering is no such thing, so please sit down and shut up, before I become compelled to render you prostrate and silent." Satori delivered her ultimatum in a sharply polite tone of voice that only served to heighten the threat of violence, and was sufficient to get both Nova and Ranko to actually shadow-step to seats in the back row.
The conference room filled up quickly, with the entire Mitikahara contingent of the Puella Magi present, save Kyōko and Homura; also present were the commanding officers of the Constabulary's armored division, as well as Nitori and her workshop mechanics. Taken together, it was a packed house when Satori stepped up in front of the projection screen.
"As I am sure everyone on the front lines has noticed, the Divine Crusaders have been fielding greater numbers and more advanced Armored Frames. Rectifying this situation has been my number-one goal since our battles began, and today I am pleased to announce a solution is in hand." Here, Satori waved at the screen, which brought up a display of an Armored Frame the likes of which none in the room had ever seen before, a slender and sculpted humanoid form with a scowling tigerish mask of a face, crowned by a golden V emblem. "Yes, those specs are real, and no, I haven't Wished away the laws of physics to do it. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Huckbein."
"Not that the numbers don't look good," Sayaka frowned at the screen as she spoke. "But when will we actually have some to use? Those things have got to be expensive, and how are we going to get the flight capability?"
"There's a full squad-set sitting at the Annex right now, ready to go, along with the tooling to set up our own production run. For that, we have Mao-san and the Tesla-Leicht Institute to thank. They did most of the heavy lifting on the design. For right now, we'll be using standard weapons with the Huckbein, but there are new armaments in the works, to take advantage of the advantages of the new chassis." A new slide popped up, showing schematics of the new weapons.
"Is that a- pardon me, not trying to be the spoilsport," Sayaka scrubbed at her hair nervously when she realized that all eyes had turned her way. "But is that a yo-yo?"
"Ask your colleague about the value of a yo-yo sometime, Miki-san." Satori replied with a smirk as she pointed to Charlotte, who stuck her tongue out at Sayaka. "The main purpose of that particular device is binding and capturing enemy units, but it looks to be capable of landing a killing blow on regular Lions at the least. Anyway, moving right along, we'll be holding compatibility tests starting tomorrow-" Just then, the door burst open, admitting Nue in something like a panic.
"Satori, we need to stop the meeting and call a lockdown right now!"
"Would you care to explain why?" Satori turned a scowl upon the intruder. "Or perhaps I should contact Miko, tell her you've slipped your leash again?"
"I can't! Not here, anyways." Nue was practically bouncing off the ground as she pleaded. "Please, just trust me!"
"Funny that you should mention trust, as you're asking for an awful lot from me."
"Right, fine, your funeral." Nue replied, deflating a bit. "I found evidence that somebody hacked a back door into your computer network. There's a spy in the building."
"Wait, what's this about a spy?!" Ring shot to her feet, preempting the general rout by about half a second.
"Come to my office." Satori beckoned Ring forward. "The rest of you may not leave the building, but you are otherwise free to go about your business."
"Wait, what about Kyōko and Homura," the bastards! Sayaka asked, keeping the latter bit to herself, or at least to the empathic link.
"Tell them to come back immediately then. No sense in letting them frolic freely while the rest of you are cooped up here, is there?" Satori smiled as she spoke.
"No, no there is not," replied Sayaka, fuming.
"Okay, what is all this business about a spy?" Ring asked again, as soon as the door to the office was closed tightly.
"We detected an intrusion in our computer systems earlier." Satori replied evenly. "Thank you, Nue, for bringing it to my attention, and playing your part so well out there." Ring then watched as Satori turned and seemed to address the empty air. "Well?"
"I didn't detect any guilty consciences out there, or any effort to block us out," came the reply, and afterward the speaker appeared once she opened her eyes.
"Thank you, sister, although I was rather hoping one of them was the culprit. Just once, I'd like something around her to be easy and straightforward."
"Two questions, if I may," Ring butted in, holding up two fingers as her request from the Terror of the Press Room. Satori snorted in amusement and nodded assent, so Ring pushed forward. "First, you said this spy was in your computers? So, before we arrived, yes?"
"That is correct. I sense there's more of a story there?" Satori asked in return.
"I'll get to that in a minute. Second question, what in the hell?" Ring pointed at Koishi. "Where I come from, people don't just fade in like the damned Cheshire Cat, and what did she mean by 'detect'?"
"Your suave friend might be of more use explaining the details, but the short story is, there aren't just space aliens hiding behind the curtains in this operation. All three of us are youkai, which gives us a leg up on our enemies, enough so that they hired mages of their own to even the odds."
"Am I in over my head here?" Ring muttered. It wasn't quite a rhetorical question, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"Oh, cheer up. I haven't started calling in favors from the deities I know yet."
"Interesting times," Ring sighed. It was beginning to become a refrain, to go along with the headache that was forming behind her eyes. "But I suppose we should deal with my spy problem while we're at it."
Satori stalked through the workshop, feeling nauseated by the outcome of the sting upstairs. It would have been so much better if one of them had been the culprit! Logically, Satori knew that infiltration was always a possibility, indeed she had been on-guard for such an event from Day 1, but knowing that it had occurred was far worse than simply fearing that it might happen. The difference was simple; every single other person in the building was now a potential enemy, and the stress of having to think that way was terribly destructive. Just thinking about it made Satori's blood boil, and for a minute she worried that her powers had backfired, that her Third Eye was now broadcasting her dark thoughts outwards, such was the way her employees were scattering before her baleful gaze.
"So, care to explain to me what exactly you mean by 'your' spy problem, and why we're in my workshop?" Satori finally asked, once her patience had expired.
"Better if I show you, and we're here because my cargo was sent here." Ring replied. "This one." The case Ring indicated seemed to be just one more of the sturdy wheeled cargo pods that had been in the Skylifter, but this one began rattling when the executive put her key to the lock, and the reason was readily obvious; inside was a young man with wavy blonde hair and rakish good looks that hadn't been diminished by a rather battering ride in the pod.
"You might consider slapping a 'live lobster' sticker on this container, if you're going to insist on carting me around inside of it." the man muttered, but he made no attempt to get up, mainly because his hands were shackled behind his back, which left him without the leverage to escape confinement.
"Perhaps the ride has loosened your tongue?" Ring asked, glaring at her prisoner.
"Well, yes it has, but only to properly curse out the club-footed baboons who have been moving me about. Honestly! I hope you didn't have anything valuable in any of the other pods, miss, for they're surely battered into junk by now!"
"Nice to see we're not the only ones who attract the weird ones," Satori mused. "What's his story?"
"Ratsel Feinsmecker." Ring gave the man's name, and cut off his own attempt to speak. "He jumped the fence while we were loading the cargo, which is what earned him these accommodations. Resourceful, I'll give him that. Claims to know a lot of things about the DC, but he wants a posting to an Armored Frame unit as his 'ransom' for the information."
"I take it the name doesn't check out?" Satori asked.
"Hah! Not even a little bit; it translates as 'Mystery Gourmet', which has got to be either the weakest or the most brazen cover I've ever heard of." Ring paused as thought came to her. "Actually, considering what you showed me earlier, maybe you could do some digging, find out just what his damage is."
"Perhaps." Satori turned her glare on Ratsel, but shook her head after a minute. Turning her back on the captive, Satori pulled Ring in close so she wouldn't be overheard. "He has a surprisingly strong will. It's going to take a long time to break through and get anything useful, and frankly, I'm too drained from recent events to make a go of it right now. I'd put my sister on it, but Nova has been monopolizing her time lately. I got about all the use I can get of her for the scan earlier."
"Surely this takes priority?"
"In a sane world, yes, but those two are quite well matched, in that they're both fools." Satori shook her head. "However, all is not lost- Captain Miki is the chief of the local police, we can always do this the old-fashioned way."
Daichi Miki was more than happy to help with the interrogation, mainly because it meant he no longer had to be in the same room as Nue. "What kind of youkai is she, exactly?" Daichi asked, while Satori led him to the makeshift interrogation room she had assembled.
"Chimera, at least that's what it says on the tin. More precisely than that, I don't know, but I gathered that was the point. Is that sufficient information?"
"I was mainly wondering if she had any bit of hound in her, the way she growled at us when we tried to take a look at the computer systems. Though to be honest, we don't have a terribly good computer forensics team, so she's welcome to it."
"I wouldn't spend too much time contemplating forensics, or other criminal-justice matters either, in regards to this situation. There's a perfectly good river running past the Annex where a body can be disposed of." Satori growled.
"I understand your concerns, and if it were my department that suffered a breach like this, I imagine I would be in the same place as you are now, but what if . . ." Captain Miki took a hard breath. "What if it happens to be someone thinking they could 'help' by setting up a sting operation or the like?"
"You're worried about your household decreasing in size by 1, which is perfectly understandable, given the nature of those two." Satori narrowed her eyes as she turned to regard Daichi. "If your theory turns out to be true, I'm still shooting the culprit in the head and throwing her body in the river. With any luck, either the bullet or the swim home will cure her of such flights of foolishness. However, at this point I must bid you farewell; I need to get back to the hacking operation, if only to learn my bad news firsthand for a change." Captain Miki nodded his understanding, and headed off to start his own investigative process.
When she reached the office where the counter-intrusion efforts were being run, Satori was greeted by a sarcastically cheerful Nue, who offered "good news, bad news, and worse news".
"Bad news and also worse news? Is that all? I expected there to be something truly terrible in store." Satori deadpanned.
"Yes, well, the relative quality of the good news makes up for it." Nue took a breath before continuing. "The good news is, our intruder hasn't sent anything out. Whoever it is is probably angling for an exfiltration by the DC, so they'll have the data stored on physical media somewhere- and before you ask, no, it's not worth trying to search for it, as what was taken will fit on a standard memory stick, and those are about as common as breathable air.
"The bad news, is what they did get- the Huckebein specs, among other things."
"I . . . see." Satori grimaced. "If that's your bad news, what's the worse news?"
"The worse news is that the back-door account was named 'Polonius Chamberlain', which is a blatant as hell reference, specifically to a play written by some guy named Shakespeare if you were curious. I say that's the worse news because it shows that our intruder has nothing but contempt for the security set-up here. We're dealing with a professional-grade asshole here, Satori."
"That doesn't particularly narrow the field, unfortunately." Satori sighed.
"Oh come on! What kind of cruel and inhuman punishment is this?" Ratsel railed at his captors. By prison standards, the strange tag-along had pretty decent accommodations; one of the "emergency" mini-suites in Tirei Tower had been converted into a cell, a feat that was accomplished by replacing the door with one that had a small slot for passing items in and a peephole that looked in rather than out, as well as stripping out anything that could have been used for a tool. Captain Miki had come out of the first interview just shaking his head; Ring's spy was proving to be a very tough nut, indeed. Despite that, however, Ratsel had been a model prisoner- until mealtime.
"What'd'ya want, chump? We're not eating any better out here!" the guard replied, which wasn't strictly true; unlike the prisoner, he could go down to the cafeteria after his shift, but for now they were both eating plain rice.
"This! What's wrong with you people?" Finally, the man outside turned and looked through the peephole to see what had his prisoner so incensed. Ratsel was holding up the biodegradable spork that had been issued with his meal, which was chosen it would disintegrate after prolonged contact with moisture, rendering it useless as a weapon.
"It's. A. Spork. What's the matter with that?"
"What kind of heathen serves rice with a spork?" came the reply.
"Oh, for the love of- give it here!" The frustrated guard pushed the flap open, and once he had received the offending piece of tableware he shoved his chopsticks through, a set of the cheapest break-apart disposable kind. "There, is that better? Then shut up and eat!" Another curse from within the cell made the guard look again, to see that Ratsel had failed at breaking apart his chopsticks, with maybe three-quarters of one stick in one hand and the rest hanging off the other one. "Hah! Bad luck is what you get for making a fuss!" said the guard, calling out the common superstition involving broken chopsticks.
"Oh, we'll see about that," Ratsel muttered under his breath.
"Well, this is new . . ." Saya muttered, staring at the door that led to the guest quarters. Nominally a fire door, it had pried free of the magnetic latches and closed, then emblazoned with the words "PIS OFF" in spray paint, and as Saya discovered when she attempted to shove the door open, barricaded shut. Of course, given the haphazard nature of the markings, Saya knew who was responsible for the situation if not who in particular had done the actual barricading, and so she activated her bracelet and called on the direct link function, which involved turning the bezel until it "felt" like she was addressing her target. Like most of the things she had been exposed to since leaving Uminari, Saya had no clue how it was actually supposed to work, but it did, and that was good enough for the moment.
"Hotaru, what the hell, over?"
"What what the hell?" came the reply from the braclet. "And I don't remember saying you could call me on this thing!"
"Okay, look; I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I got escorted home from my after-school study session by armed guards, who were looking at me like I was the enemy this time. I want in to my room, which is on the other side of this idiot barricade you've put up. If the door isn't open in 30 seconds, I'm going down to the workshop and I'm going to steal a Gespenst, and then I'm going to punch the door open, and then I'm going to rip your guts out and feed 'em to your girlfriends until they choke, got it?"
"Hey, did somebody mention food?" came the reply from the other end of the line, from a voice that wasn't Hotaru's. Whatever the firefly had been planning to say was drowned out in a chatter of conversation, and then the link cut off, leaving Saya to stare at the door in utter disbelief. After counting to 30 in her head, and then counting to 30 again, Saya had made the decision to carry out at least the punching-down-the-door part of her threat when her ears were assaulted by a horrible grinding, screeching sound and then the door popped open and disgorged a veritable horde of girls.
"Okay, what was that noise?" This came from Renko, who had burst out of the room she shared with Maribel, sounding not quite panicked but definitely unsettled.
"Hotaru was just removing the barricade," Charlotte supplied.
"Ah, okay." Renko replied, and turned to go back to her room when the her brain managed to fully unpack the statement. "Wait, what?! What barricade?"
"It's, uh, kinda a long story. We're going down to raid the kitchen, wanna come along and we'll explain on the way?"
"Uh . . . Sure, why not? Hey, Merry, dinner?" Renko called back, and got a mumbled affirmative, and so the "raiding party" increased by two. Along the way, it became obvious that all was not well in Tirei Tower- between the constables patrolling the halls, the scowling employees, and the general gloom and doom, it managed to shake even the more thickheaded members of the group.
"Okay, I was at the meeting where they announced the lockdown, but jeez! Why is everything such a mess already?" Cirno grumbled, but only once the group was out of earshot of any of the patrols.
"Wait, what lockdown?" Saya asked, along with Renko.
"The daemon spectre of treachery lurks within this sanctuary!" Ranko snarled, and the fury in her voice was startling to her companions.
"Are you alright?" Charlotte asked, reaching out a friendly hand, but then shying back as if she had been burned by reaching for the other girl.
"No. I am not alright, and I shall not be alright. We in the Project are intended to be of single purpose, and fulfilling that purpose is intended to be our singular joy. I was- I am- of the Purifier Directive. My purpose should be to root out such corruption and destroy it."
"So why are you standing here whining?" This came from Rumia, and Ranko turned to the Shadowfiend, eyes glimmering with pain. "Yeah, yeah, not nice, I know. I don't do nice, never have. Actually, that's kinda my point. You and I, we both were changed by the last Incident, on the same freakin' day even . . . I think. Somebody get a calendar and check that, if you're just going to stand around with your jaws hanging open.
"Having my seal removed changed what I look like, but it didn't change who I am, in here." Rumia thumped a fist over her heart for emphasis. "It took me a long time to come to terms with that, and I don't think I'm done yet, but that's not important right now. The point is, nobody can take away who you are unless you let them do it. You want to go find this spy? Then let's go. Satori probably won't say 'no' to some extra help, and she can't stop us even if she does." With that said, Rumia grabbed Ranko's hand and started to pull her towards the elevators, before stopping as she thought of one other thing. "But I call dibs on getting to chop the asshole to bits if they fight back!"
"Oh, quit reveling in it, you're getting your smug all over the carpet!" Hotaru smacked Charlotte across the back of the head as the latter watched the red-eyed pair march off.
"Meanwhile, food?" Saya asked, after her stomach made a noise indicating it was about to implode into a black hole. Upon arriving in the cafeteria, however, it seemed like the gang's hope of acquiring provisions might be doomed- there was already a group in the kitchens, and it sounded like a battle was about to erupt.
"No, you put that down, you've already had your dinner, you damned delinquent!" Sayaka shouted, slapping Kyōko's hands away from a tray of freshly-rolled sushi.
"Yeah, and?" was the redhead's response as she tried to sneak a hand onto the plate. "I'm still hungry, so there!"
"Then you should have eaten more while you were on your fucking date!"
"Well, I would have, but somebody decided we had to come home 'immediately if not sooner', just so we can spend more sitting around in time out. And besides, it wasn't a date."
"Oh, really now?" Sayaka posted her fists on her hips. "So what would you call it, then?"
"Gee, I dunno, being nice to a friend? That's still allowed, isn't it? Besides, if we were really doing something we shouldn't have been, wouldn't Pinkie be pissed at Homerun too?"
"Oh, that's not even fair, and you know it! Madoka's such a squish, she wouldn't get angry if you set her on fire-" Sayaka's tirade was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder, and she turned around to see Madoka looking at her with an expression about halfway to the "Pinkie pout" Kyōko was dreading earlier. "Er, uh, hi."
"For the record, I would too be upset if somebody set me on fire, because then I'd have to go buy new clothes," Madoka deadpanned, causing crackles of laughter from around the room, while Sayaka felt her ears burn with embarrassment.
"Is it safe to come in now?" Charlotte made a big production out of curling her fingers around the doorframe and peeking in as she asked the question.
"Sure thing, Charlotte-san. These two are done fighting where they could spill the food," Youmu replied, leaning on the hilt of her katana.
"Uh, yeah. Definitely done!" Kyōko and Sayaka replied together, moving swiftly to be away from the table and out of the reach of the phantom swordswoman. Charlotte motioned for her friends to come in, and there they discovered just what an epic spread had been put out.
"Wow! What's all this for?" Cirno cried out, jaw on the floor.
"We thought we'd try a terrorist act of our own," Mami explained cheerfully.
"What she means is, we're not letting Satori have any of this until she unlocks the doors." Akiko supplied. "Me, I'd settle for getting credit towards our Home Ec courses for helping out with all this. Mami's a megalomaniac in the kitchen."
"And in the bedroom," Madoka added, which immediately got all eyes on her. "Or so Kyōko-chan wanted to say," Madoka added with an impish grin, before the rest of the assembled crowd had finished their gasps of shock. "Sayaka-chan, please don't kill her, I only said it because Kyōko-chan was biting her tongue so hard that I thought she might bite it off, and that effort would go to waste if you ripped her head completely off, wouldn't it?"
"Okay, fine, but I still say you shoulda let her bite her tongue off, so the rest of us have a chance to eat at least." Sayaka mock-grumped, but her kiss on Kyōko's cheek proved that the storm was over for now.
"Are you really sure you still want to make a Contract?" Saya asked Hotaru as they grabbed plates and queued up. "You'd be permanently linked to these lunatics, you know?"
"Uhh, I'll get back to you on that," Hotaru replied, looking dazed.
Ranko and Rumia arrived at the kitchen in time to get in on the "Round 1" pass at the buffet, with Rumia looking disgruntled. "So, I take it she didn't take you up on your offer?" Charlotte asked, taking the lead as usual.
"Oh no, she did, the wretch," Rumia said, grinding her teeth. "We get to screen the 3rd shift, so somebody pass the coffee."
"At the risk of going more insane, Rumia, you're the, uh, Shadowfiend or whatever, right? Why are you complaining about being up at night?" Saya asked, visibly bracing herself for another lesson in the unfathomable ways of the Nineballs.
"Because I'm more of a morning person. Casting darkness on somebody doesn't really do much when they already can't see."
"That and she can't see in the dark either," Cirno added, which earned her a swat upside the head from Ranko. "Hey, what the hell? When did you two hook up that you're willing to do her dirty work?"
"We have not 'hooked up', as such; I merely noticed Rumia was about to throw a scone at you, and intervened on behalf of the pastry."
"Okay, but you owe me half. That actually hurt!" Cirno grumbled. Ranko nodded, and liberated the scone from Rumia's plate, then broke it in half.
"Mmph?" Saya mumbled around a bite of food when she realized that more eyes were on her than on the antics with Cirno.
"You just put cream cheese on a pretzel." Hotaru stated in a disgusted tone of voice.
"So?"
"So that's fucked up! Like, Ranko levels of fucked up."
"I was not aware that I had been enshrined in the SI?" Ranko replied, looking dubiously at the firefly. "Although Saya does appear to have created a fit offering to place on the altar of Darkness."
"Uh-huh," Saya grunted, looking at her snack as though it were now poisonous. "Anyway, even if it is weird, one, why does that matter, and two, who died and made you the Culinary Inquisition?"
"It's just weird, is what I'm saying," Hotaru fumed. Instead of a reply, Saya swept a hand around, indicating the gathered Nineballs as a unit.
"This makes about as much sense as peanut butter and jelly," Alchemie wrinkled her nose as she looked at the equipment being assembled in the belly of Orcus. "You don't seriously think scattershot is going to work on them do you? I know I've been pressing the importance of not burning up your Soul Gem, but let me reemphasize; it takes an awful lot of damage to take out a Puella Magi." The renegade Incubator let a handful of the ferrous marbles trickle through her fingers as she glared at Valcyone. "If you want to put them down, you're going to want to blow big huge holes in them, not the pinpricks that this stuff will cause."
"Let me worry about that, will you? The important question is, can you lead an attack against Tirei? I need it to be ferocious, and I need it to be unrelenting."
"Chew before swallowing, yes, I understand." Alchemie replied. "I just hope my prediction is correct and the defector is one of their Puella Magi, so I have something to rebuild with when this is all done. What about the, er, special help?"
"I'm taking them with me for this one. You get quantity, I get quality this time." Valcyone stated, grinning.
"Uh-huh. And people call me messed up," Alchemie frowned. "How soon?"
"Not long now, all we need is for the eyes in the sky to be out of our way. Couple-three days, looks like."
So that's it then . . . Alchemie wondered, burying her thoughts deep within, lest she accidentally "leak" them through her telepathy. In less than a week, this will all be over, one way or the other.
