Wind whipped at the mages' hair, causing Fate's blonde twintails and Yaris's blue mane to stream out behind them. Both Enforcers were lightning mages, which went hand in glove with above-average raw flight speed.
"We have a report from last night," Aztek responded, his face on a holoscreen next to each mage. "A City Police officer on park duty saw an apparently homeless man sleeping on a park bench. He went to move him along and got zapped unconscious for his pains. The description matches Professor Montana, and the officer noticed the Circlet especially."
"I don't know whether to be upset that this proves he's as volatile as we were afraid he was or happy that he used a non-lethal spell."
"Tell me about it."
"Val," Fate spoke up, "I have Professor Montana's university personnel file from the human resources department and his citizen ID record." Another screen popped open in the air, keeping pace with the flying mages. Yaris skimmed through the record, ignoring the majority of the details of educational background, career history, published work and so on, instead focusing in on the key pertinent detail.
Mage Ranking: B (Midchildan). Specialty: Scrying, analysis, communications. Device: none.
On its surface, he looked like someone that Yaris could take down in a heartbeat, with her superior power level, better-fitted specialties, and extensive battle experience. Fate would barely even notice that a fight was happening.
On its surface.
Things never seemed to go that smoothly when Lost Logia were involved.
"Do we have a plan when we do catch up to him?" Fate asked.
"Isolate Professor Montana from potential civilian casualties. If he's lucid, try to talk him down; if he's belligerent or threatening then try to take him fast before the situation escalates. Anything else is going to depend on circumstances. I just hope we're wrong about the spaceport. I really don't need a worst-case scenario just now."
~X X X~
He stared with horror at the scene before him. Her grave should be there, the elegant monument to Elynn's Janice's life and the love borne her by her family. It should have been there, amidst the green grass of the park beneath the flowering trees she'd loved. He could see it there, see the peace of the burial ground shimmering like a mirage—
—but like a mirage, insubstantial and fleeting. It could not withstand the violence being done to it, the constant motion of people, of wheeled land vehicles, and of large and small craft shuttles and cargo ships that rose and descended, tearing apart the silence and peace owed to the dead, and thrusting their milieu in upon his vision, forcing him to see the great buildings of stone and metal and glass, the roads and runways and launch pads of cold, harsh artificial materials.
He screamed with rage. Was even this to be taken from him? Even the ability to mourn her loss through lasting symbols of her existence?
But perhaps it did not have to be so. It was, after all, the noise, the movement, the activity that made one image seem to dominate the other one, violently rending the sleep of the dead with the relentless, ceaseless chaos. The peaceful burial ground had no chance against it.
Yet if that chaos could be stilled...
~X X X~
The Caledon City spaceport didn't get a lot of foot traffic. The causeway's pedestrian path was basically for the use of bikers and joggers who wanted the water view for their exercise. So when the gateguard saw the figure walking towards the only gap in the security fence, swaying slightly with every step, it caught her attention.
"Hey, Jack, do you see that guy?"
"What guy?" replied Jack, who'd been keeping his eye on the traffic passing through the gate, making sure license numbers were intact and coming back as valid with the National Security Forces database.
"The one walking towards us. Can you get a camera zoom on him? Maybe he's that guy we were alerted about."
"Probably just some drunk, Callie. I'll check it out, though. Can't be too careful." He moved his hand over a touchscreen, selecting a remote viewer, targeting the walking man, and zeroing in.
Then the exercise was rendered moot when a streak of green flame shot from the man's hand and exploded, blowing the guardpost apart.
~X X X~
The screen popped open with a blazing red border indicating the alert's urgency.
"Enforcer! This is NSF Attache Fuso at Caledon City Spaceport! We're being attacked by your Professor Montana!"
This time, Yaris did not bother to moderate her language in front of Fate.
"I see it," she said after venting her feelings. Smoke and dust were rising from the island up ahead. "Have your security forces maintain order as best as possible; we have to prevent a panic." There was at least a chance Montana was flinging around magic damage, which would destroy structures but only knock people out. He'd done it to the cop in the park, after all. Start a riot, though, and you could end up with more fatalities in the stampeding crowd than from the actual attacks. "We'll be there in under a minute. Do not, repeat do not engage."
"We have mages here in our security units. We could offer backup," Fuso suggested.
"Negative that, Attache," she snapped. "Your job is civilian safety. If we need backup," she added with a glance towards Fate, "then we are all seriously screwed. Yaris out." She had Star Sentry close the screen. They were almost there, now, sweeping in over the water. They could see the damage to the gatehouse and to several cans, which had in turn led to vehicles crashing into each other. There, just inside the gate and half-walking, half-staggering towards the terminal, was the figure of a man, and as they watched, he lashed out at a car with spears of green flame as it squealed out of the parking lot.
"B-rank scrying specialty my foot. Fate, do you know any binding spells?"
"Yes."
"Good. You're more powerful, so your binds should hold longer even against a full-strength target. I'll try to knock him out quickly and end this before it gets any more out of hand."
"All right. Bardiche, get ready!"
"Yes, sir."
"Lightning Bind!"
Snapping and crackling, bands of yellow energy seemed to form out of the air, snaring the unsuspecting Montana's wrists and ankles and pulling his limbs outwards, spread-eagled. Yaris leveled Star Sentry at the bound man.
"Spark Cannon."
Three orbs of blue-white energy about the size of a person's head took form orbiting Star Sentry's tip, then launched out in three separate directions before corkscrewing back to slam one another after another into Montana. His body jerked with the impacts, but instead of sagging unconscious a bright green aura seemed to suffuse him, and he wrenched himself free of Fate's binds, shattering them. He spun, facing the air-riders with an expression of pure rage.
"You would fight to keep me from her?" he roared. Beneath his feet a rune shimmered into existence, but I wasn't the Midchildan rune Yaris knew, or the triangular Belkan symbol she'd sometimes seen. This one was basically octagonal in shape, with concentric diamonds within the corners. In the next instant a flaming sphere was streaking up at her. She dodged out of the way, avoiding a direct hit, but as it streaked past it detonated, expanding suddenly into a fifty-foot blast radius. Without an autoguard, since Star Sentry wasn't an Intelligent Device, she had only her Barrier Jacket to protect herself. She was blasted back, feeling the shock of it through her entire body, and grunted at the pain.
Fate wasn't having any easier a time of it; Montana pointed at her, six spears of fire took form around his arm, and launched at her in a rapid-fire stream not entirely unlike her Plasma Lancer. She dodged out of the way, but they homed in, tracking her.
"Haken Form."
A cartridge popped, the scythe came out, and she whipped around towards the magical firebolts, slashing through two of them with the blade and dispelling them. Yaris cast a Plasma Shock, the magical blast engulfing the two at the tail end of the chain, and Fate blocked the final pair with a Defenser barrier. The impact plainly jolted her; even though lightning mages tended to be more of the "hit hard and fast" type than the "stone-wall defense" sort it still told Yaris far too much about the potency of Montana's magic.
"No, definitely not B-rank," she growled, then counterstruck. "Napalm Shot!" Three comet-like firebursts rained down on him, but he lifted his hand and raised a runic shield not unlike a Mid-style mage's Round Shield, blocking the attack. She'd been hoping he'd do that, though, and hit him with a quick-firing Pulse Laser, striking from all sides and evading the shield. He seemed to shrug it off, though, as easily as he'd done to her more powerful Spark Cannon.
I think you're going to have to bring him down, Yaris sent to Fate, not wanting Montana to be able to overhear their combat plans. My attacks don't even seem to be slowing him up. He proved her point when the rune formed beneath his feet once again and pillars of fire burst from under the ground, spearing into the sky. These, at least, didn't detonate or home in and the Enforcers were able to dodge the series of blasts, weaving their way through the columns. As the spun out of the maze, Yaris found another of the flaming orbs zipping up at her.
"Mystic Defender."
This time she got her barrier up in time before the spell's "proximity fuse" went off and deflected the bulk of the blast. Fate, meanwhile, took the chance to counterattack, snapping the blade off her scythe in a spinning arc.
"Haken Saber."
Montana lurched to the side and fell to his knees; the blade missed him by such a small fraction that the chips of the roadway it blasted up pelted the professor like shrapnel, one even drawing a thin line of blood along his cheek.
The prodigy, though, was already into her next move, Bardiche's head snapping back into his axelike Assault Form and shining golden runes taking shape not just beneath Fate's feet but also in front of Bardiche's tip.
"Plasma Smasher!"
A searingly bright beam a good four or five feet across, blasted downwards, crackling and throwing off blue sparks. Montana had no time to do anything but raise a shield and block the massively powerful assault. Yaris was hard-pressed not to just stare; even among her fellow Enforcers that kind of raw power was rare indeed. She suddenly had a feeling that Fate's absurd mage rank was actually on the low end of her potential, reflecting her youth and inexperience.
Being a veteran combatant, though, Yaris did not just hover around and watch but instead let fly with another Spark Cannon, pelting Montana's undefended flanks.
He was breathing heavily when the lightning cleared, wobbly as he pushed back to his feet.
Did that do it?
"Fools!" he screamed, immediately putting a negative to Yaris's mental question. A wave of flame exploded outward from him in an expanding hemisphere, slamming into the two Enforcers and knocking them tumbling away. On the ground, cars—thankfully abandoned by their drivers—were torn to metal scraps or sent flying, while a chunk of the spaceport fence was vaporized. The impact was too much for Yaris's Barrier Jacket to take; she actually blacked out momentarily, though thankfully for a split second only and was able to recover her flight control in time to land safely.
Val, are you all right? echoed in her head.
Yeah...mostly. Ow. How is he doing this?I mean, even if the Circlet is messing with his mind and showing him how to cast Legarian combat spells, where's the power coming from? The memories stuff you thought up at least makes some sense as an extension of the Circlet's known abilities, but 'oh by the way it jacks your mage rank from average to ungodly' just doesn't fly!
I'll have Bardiche try to scan him, though it's not really his main function.
Okay. Meanwhile, I'll try to provide some cover for you.
Yaris glanced down at herself. She wasn't exactly in great shape; the jacket, pants, and cape of her Barrier Jacket all featured various rips and tears and she'd lost her hat. Still, she'd had lots worse in her day, and an Enforcer's job was never done while she was still alive and conscious. She clenched her hands on Star Sentry's shaft, the blue-white spell rune forming under her feet.
"Plasma Rain!"
Surge after surge of magic blasted upward from the rune, arcing into the sky, then turning and showering down, dozens of crackling bolts falling around Montana's location like the spell's name implied. Although one of her most powerful and taxing spells in terms of sheer magical output, it wasn't actually a good weapon to use against a single enemy since it didn't have any way to insure he'd be hit even once.
As a distraction to keep him away from Fate, though, she figured it would work just fine.
Like she hoped he would, he turtled, calling up a domelike barrier and hiding out under it as plasma blasts rained down around him, pelting the area for a good twenty seconds or so. Yaris panted for breath; the spell had taken a lot out of her.
"I've got it!" Fate yelped aloud. She'd descended until she landed no more than five feet from Yaris.
"Get away!" her senior exclaimed. "We're vulnerable to area-effect spells this—"
It was too late for warnings, though; two more fireballs were streaking towards them.
"Defenser Plus," Bardiche announced, and a shimmering dome covered them both just in time to stop the explosion.
"I'm sorry; I just thought you might need a little extra cover to regain strength. Anyway, I think I know what's happening. Professor Montana is casting the Legarian magic at the levels the Circlet's memories recall from Thessidor's life. It's making him overtax the limits his own mind would otherwise place on his Linker Core."
They sprang into the air, flying in opposite directions as another discharge of flame-spears hammered into the ground where they'd been standing.
So, what? It's like a guy on drugs or insane who acts super-strong because he constantly uses his muscles to maximal effort, not knowing he's hurting himself doing it?
Fate sprayed several low-power, unguided blasts of shooting magic back towards Montana, more to keep him confused than anything.
That's right!
Damn.
Yaris had actually heard that some magical researchers were trying to apply that phenomenon to a Linker Core intentionally, to allow a short time—a spell or two, a few seconds of close combat—where a user could drastically increase their abilities. The downside was that, similar to the physical version, the effect would overtax the mage's Linker Core, inflicting injury, or even permanent damage. Death was a real possibility.
So if this battle goes on much longer...there's no way he can keep up. Even if we beat down his defenses so we can capture him...
It'll probably kill him, Yaris finished.
No! Fate yelped. This isn't his fault! We can't let him die! She was all but screaming in Yaris's head, making Val wonder what part of the girl's own past was speaking to her now.
We can't let him hurt anyone else, either, and the longer it goes on, the more likely that is to happen. It might have already happened, if there'd been injured people in the cars wrecked by the big area-effect blast. They have to be protected.
Trying to debate a plan and dodge pyrotechnics wasn't easy, and Yaris had to use Mystic Defender again to stave off another explosive fireball.
I know, but...
If we can get the Circlet off him—and if the effects aren't permanent—then there might be a chance. But he's not exactly going to let us do that, and he's way too far gone for talking.
So if we force it off him, that'll just overload his Linker Core anyway in fighting off our magic?
Yeah, he...no, wait!
Val?
Your Haken Saber, earlier. When it missed, it smashed up fragments of pavement and one cut his cheek. His equivalent of a Barrier Jacket's shrugged off lots worse things than a tiny piece of rock.
Then...it doesn't stop purely physical attacks? At all?
I don't think so. If we can get close enough, I think we can just grab the Circlet and yank it off his head!
"Bardiche—Sonic Form!" Fate cried out.
"Yes, sir."
Light swirled around her, and her jacket, skirt, and cape vanished, leaving her wearing boots, gloves, and something not unlike a one-piece bathing suit.
Fate, what the—if you get hit, an attack of this strength will go through that Barrier Jacket like it wasn't even there!
Everybody says that! she laughed mentally, then demonstrated why that wasn't that big a risk by dodging the next spray of firebolts directed at her. Her speed was incredible; Yaris could barely believe it. Fate's "Sonic Form" must have rechanneled much of her Barrier Jacket's defensive potential into increasing her speed instead.
All right. I'll distract him, and you get in close and grab the Circlet!
Yaris spun and dove, charging directly towards Montana with Star Sentry outthrust like a spear.
"Thunder Blow," the Storage Device intoned, and a blast of blue-white lightning leapt from its tip to slam into Montana's torso. He wheeled towards Yaris, letting his homing missiles slam into the ground instead of continuing to track Fate.
"Yeah, got your attention now, don't I—urk!"
Apparently, the Legarians knew about binding spells, too. This one had burst from the ground like the pillars of fire earlier, except it was only a single one that wrapped around her like the coils of a flaming serpent that squeezed tighter and tighter, its magic surging into her Barrier Jacket and tearing its defenses apart. She screamed, unable to resist the searing pain.
Val!
Get...him!
With Montana's entire attention on crushing or burning the life out of Yaris—or maybe just knocking her out with magic damage so she wouldn't actually suffer permanent injury until her unprotected, unconscious body dropped the sixty or so feet to the pavement—Fate shot into action, arrowing down from her position.
Only, not at Montana.
He reared back and hurled another fireball at Yaris, apparently not content with destroying her with the attack binds.
"Zanber Form."
A cartridge loaded in Bardiche and the axe changed form again, becoming the hilt of a golden-energy zweihander with a blade that was taller and probably wider than Fate herself. In Sonic Form, she appeared in front of Yaris in an instant and severed the bindings with one sweep of the blade.
The fireball detonated a second later. Yaris's Barrier Jacket was so far gone that she could actually feel the heat, even through the flickering shield she'd gotten up just in time to keep the blast off Fate's back.
"Pay attention!" Yaris snapped. "You're too young to sacrifice yourself saving me."
They shot apart in opposite directions as the next attack sailed between them.
"Plasma Shock!"
Yaris aimed to miss, not wanting to put more strain on Montana's defenses and hence his Linker Core, instead using the bright flash of the area-effect attack to distract him. It worked far better than it should have, actually staggering the professor and making him clutch his head. It had to be the effect the Circlet was having on his perceptions, but by that point all Yaris cared about was that it gave Fate the time to fly in like a golden-black streak, close the fingers of her gauntleted left hand around the emerald stone that was the circlet's centerpiece, and pull a high-G turn into a near-vertical, ripping the Lost Logia off Montana's head.
The professor's eyes rolled up in his skull, and he fell to the roadway in a dead faint.
"Lucky bastard," Yaris muttered with more than a little envy. Her whole body felt like a bruise, and now that the fight was over she was feeling it. Hopefully there's nobody that needs emergency-services healing magic more than I do!
As soon as her feet touched the ground, she let her Barrier Jacket drop, resuming her Enforcer uniform. She opened up communications links to Aztek and to Fuso.
"Situation is resolved. Fuso, you can get emergency services and medical personnel ready." Luckily, the spaceport would have trained personnel and the proper equipment immediately available due to the need to be prepared for crashes.
"Is there anything else we can get you?" Aztek asked.
"Yeah. Fetch me a lounge chair, my husband to give me a foot-rub, and a double of the stiffest drink you make on this world." She looked up at where Fate was flying in towards her. "Babysitting is damned tough work!"