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Cards And Devices

Chapter 11 - Mission

by Sniperk

How much time has passed since she'd been locked in that room? She didn't know. Everyday was exactly like the one before that and the one before that. Morning would come, that woman would bring her some food, she would ask questions about where she was, the woman wouldn't respond. Noon and night it repeated. The same woman would bring her lunch and dinner. The long haired girl would spend her whole day talking with the fairies. They said that Sakura was near. They could feel the cardmistress, but they were not allowed by the bond created by her to leave Tomoyo's side. They would be always near her, comforting her, listening to her. Tomoyo had long given up in trying to ask them to go to where Sakura was. It wasn't that they wouldn't, they just couldn't. But one thought still permeated her. Her friend came to where she was. She was near, even though she couldn't tell how near, she too felt the cardmistress. She was too happy to take notice that she was a hostage anymore. She didn't care. Her mind was filled with how Sakura would save her. She played those images in her head over and over, imagining the cardmistress exploding a wall near her, calling her name. Or Sakura flying in through the window, or taking the door down in magic blast. Those images played over and over, and to her now, her situation wasn't that of a captive anymore. She was like the princess that would be rescued by her charming prince, like in the fairy tales. She picked up singing again, one of the things that she deemed too painful in the past years to do, because everytime she sang, she would sing with all the emotions she had in her heart, and her heart was almost completely filled with love for the green eyed girl. But now, her songs had a meaning. They soothed her, they calmed her, and most of all, they would express all her feelings for the girl that, until a month ago, she didn't want to love so much as she did.

"So this is the situation till the moment," Chrono finished telling the news to the sequence of screens on the top of his desk. Hayate, Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, Carim and, even if he didn't want the girl to know yet, Sakura was one of them too.

"Where is this place?" Sakura asked, trying to get up from her chair, being forced to sit again by Nanoha.

"Wait, Sakura-chan. There's probably too many people there." Turning to the monitor, she asked, "Hayate-chan, how's the scans of the city area? Did you guys pinpointed the place where Tomoyo-chan is being held?"

"No." Hayate frowned. "The whole city is being hidden by a type of gap." She touched a few strokes and a picture of a white haired man appeared in the monitor. "I believe he's the reason."

"Is this that Hon guy?" The cardmistress was torn between forcing herself out of Nanoha's grip and staying to listen to what these people were saying.

"Yes." The General continued, "Hon Ittsu. Age 53. Worked for the TSAB for twenty five years. According to his record, he was part of the team that created the IA concept for the devices that we use today. He was an expert with magical signatures. He was the one that developed the first sensors that were compatible with the Devices, and was part of the team that came up with the idea of infusing personality traits in the Devices to transform them into companions for the mages, not just tools for battle." She took a moment to breathe. "About eleven years ago, he was discharged from the TSAB Engineering Departments. Apparently he was suspected to be the one that sold the secrets of the devices' technology to the mafia, but since nothing was ever proven, he was just discharged."

"Is he a mage too?" Yuuno asked.

"A C ranked one, that is to say, almost a normal person, but because his expertizes in recognition and survey, he was often used in missions accompanied by normal mages. He was once used in a mission in Non-Administrative Planet 97 too, but I believe it would be unrelated to this case, since it was more than twenty years ago."

After another pause Chrono asked, "And how is this related with our current inability to scan the Hell City?"

"He probably created something to counter our sensors. It isn't actually all that difficult," Yuuno said. "The concept is pretty simple, but the problem is having the equipment to build it."

"So what do we do now?" Carim was the one asking this time.

Hayate leaned back in the chair. "From what I can see, we have three options. First, all out attack with full power to the city itself. Second, infiltration in the auction. Three, wait for the auction to end and catch the buyer. But I'm open for ideas."

"Do we have manpower for an all out attack?" Nanoha asked.

"Unfortunately, at the moment no. We have too many ships in long distance missions," Chrono informed.

"Wait. What is our primary objective in this mission?" Fate argued.

"Find the girl, Tomoyo, and take her and the source out of the hands of the group that is holding her captive." Hayate answered.

"Then we don't need a whole city layout. Just the location of the mansion, am I right?"

"Yes." Hayate was almost guessing what her friend would suggest.

"Then can't we take the agents that uncovered this information with us, directly to the place?"

"No, we can't." Chrono frowned and then sighed. "The agent is in an induced comatose state for draining too much energy from her Linker Core in the teleportations back to the base. It'll take days to weeks before she's is capable of any activity."

"Oh."

"Sakura-chan, can't you ask your cards for a premonition to where the house is?" Carim suggested.

"I am using Dream every night." Sakura flushed at this, remembering the dreams she was having every night.

"What she meant was that Dream and Sleep were the last cards she used in every training session, since it took eight hours of deep sleep for each usage. After she used them, I would take her home every night. Since it wasn't used so much, Dream's one of the few cards that isn't yet used to the normal level," Nanoha explained.

"And Dream is acting strange. It doesn't show images of the future. Just past memories I have with Tomoyo," Sakura added.

A few moments of silence between them, then Fate spoke again. "Yuuno, is possible to track down the source from a close range?"

"I believe it's possible. Why?" the librarian answered.

The idea formed inside Fate's mind. "How about this. We gather a special unit, with only mages triple A ranked and above, and create a diversion in the city. Meanwhile another unit would enter from a different place, the sea, I believe would be best for this, and track down the source."

"I think we don't have that many people available. I can count just about a handful of people that would fit your description and that are on Mid right now." Chrono started to count. "You, Nanoha, Hayate, Vita in unison with Reinforce, Signum in unison with Agito."

Nanoha looked at Fate, then turned to Hayate. "I think it's enough." She grinned.

"But then who would be in the second unit?"

"It won't need to be at full power like the main one, since Sakura-chan already proved that she can handle her own against the two that took her friend, she and two or three more can make a unit. She would be the main attacker, so a wing guard, a full back and a center."

"The best wing guard and full back on the planet right now on the planet would be Erio and Caro," Hayate mused. "And they already work together, so they're partnership is already proven, and Caro is apt with detection magic. We only need a center. Teana maybe?"

"Teana left on mission two days ago," Fate informed.

"Take Vivio," Nanoha suggested, to everyone's surprised

"Vi-Vivio?" half the people on the screens said almost in unison. They weren't surprised by the name of the girl coming up, since it was known that the younger Takamachi was indeed powerful. The surprise came from Nanoha putting her name on the table.

"She received training in school, already is a Third Class Private, is a ranged mage, and in Sankt Kaiser mode, she has the firepower to pull it off. Since Caro is going, we can switch the command to her, and not worry about Vivio's inexperience in real battles."

"Na-Nanoha..." Fate stammered "Vivio is still too young. She's just reached her teens."

"And how old were we when we started doing this kind of thing?"

"But you remember what happened to you that day."

"That's why I trust her. She isn't like me. And with Caro and Erio there, she'll be alright." Nanoha smiled. "After all, she wasn't training with me all her life for nothing."

"Are you sure? Wasn't you that said that she shouldn't be picking fights?" Fate asked mentally to her.

"Nyahaha. She isn't picking a fight this time. In this situation we have to go with what we have, and she's one of the more capables mid to long range shooters we have available. Even if the mother in me doesn't want to involve her in this."

Fate closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

"Is everyone okay to go with this?" Hayate asked.

"It's not like we have time to plan more," Chrono said. "Very well. Contact every one of them. Yuuno, how much time do you think it'll take to get here?"

"If I have authorization for a leap, five seconds." The librarian grinned.

"Consider yourself authorized." Hayate then turned to her floating device. "Rein, contact Signum, Vita, Agito, Caro, Erio and Vivio. Everyone is to assemble at the briefing room in an hour." She turned to the screens again. "I'll call Shamal and Zafira too. See you all in an hour."

There were nods and understanding sounds coming from all the screens before every one of them closed.

"We'll be splitting into three teams," Hayate started after the briefing of the situation was finished. "Vanguard, infiltration and backup. Vanguard will be me, Vita, Fate-chan, Nanoha-chan and Signum. Signum and Vita will be in unison with Agito and Rein. We'll enter the city in the flashiest way we can. We need to gather as much attention to us as we can. Meanwhile the infiltration, Caro, Erio, Vivio and Sakura-chan, will enter the city from another point. This team will be in charge of pinpointing and rescuing Sakura-chan's friend along with the source. The backup team, Shamal, Zafira and Yuuno, will be in charge of getting us near there and out once the mission is over, and it'll be our communication link with the control room. Zafira will be the guardian of the backup team. I want to remind you all that we don't know how many people are in the city, be it innocent or criminal, so proceed with caution. Remember, our mission isn't to take down the criminal factions that are in the city. This is a search and recovery mission. As soon as this objective is achieved, I want every one out of there, no exceptions."

"Also, don't forget that Hell City is in a complete communication black out, that is to say, you can't rely on your devices to communicate with the Control Room directly. Every contact will need to be relayed through Shamal and Yuuno."

"The Control of this mission will be with Chrono. Is everything clear?" Hayate asked after the brief in the mission was complete. When no one made mention to say anything, she said, "We're departing immediately then."

"Yuuno, you take them to the sea shore, on the other side of the city. Not too close, but still in its sights. As soon as I give the signal, understood?"

"Okie dokie, General."

"Shamal," Hayate continued, "you remain here and relay all information to the control room. Zafira, guard them."

"Very well, Hayate-chan," the blonde answered.

"Understood," the Wolf guardian echoed.

"Everything ready, guys?" After a few nods and words of understanding, "Then let's go."

They all took off full speed in the direction of the city. They were expecting some kind of artillery being triggered against them as soon as they got in range, but that didn't happen. A few minutes later and they were all hovering above the city, in what seemed to be the downtown area.

"Look for a place spacious enough for us to start." A smirk played in the General face as she said the last word.

"There. A park." Fate answered after a few seconds.

"Good enough for me." They all went to the place and landed there, back to back with the others forming a semicircle. "Well, I hope we don't need to fight, but... Everyone, set Devices to track every source of magical power that can be considered a threat."

"Roger," the other almost instantly answered, as they talked to their Devices.

After they landed there, nothing happened for a few minutes. No Device triggered in the vicinity. The women were starting to get restless, and Fate was starting to wonder if this was really a good idea. When she was about to suggest that they should split up, the Devices started to report, one after the other.

"Seven devices triggered," Raging Heart started, followed by the others.

"Number of triggered Devices increasing, Hayate-chan." Rein, in unison with Vita, informed. "Total of 44 and counting."

"Alright. Seems like it worked. Let's take this guys down. Just remember, try to take them down directly, or lure them away from the city. We don't want to hurt innocent people." Then she relayed to Shamal, "Code green. Send the Infiltration team."

"Not yet?" Vivio was more nervous than she thought she'd be. This wasn't her first mission. Since she was ten, Hayate had used her several times, but this time was the first that her mothers would be participating in the same mission.

"Calm down, Vivio." Caro patted her head. "You're the pillar of this team. You have to get yourself together, okay? Look, not even Sakura-chan, who has everything waged in this mission is so nervous." Vivio glanced at the cardmistress. She indeed didn't seem nervous. She was holding her deck near her forehead, eyes closed.

"Summon Friedlich, Caro-san," Shamal said after Clearvind's sensors started to pick up signals from the city. "I think Hayate-chan will give the signal shortly." Caro immediately called her dragon and climbed on his back, followed by Erio. Less than a minute later, the Lady of the Lakes informed, "Yuuno-kun, now."

"I hope you guys are ready for this," the librarian said. "Remember, you'll be teleported in midair," he added, and ended his chant while saying this.

After a few moments, the four of them were gone, and only the trio remained there.

"I'll raise a shield here, just in case," the librarian decided.

"FLY!" the cardmistress called as soon as she felt that her legs weren't supporting her weight anymore.

"Let's go. We have to find the source as soon as we can," Caro said to the other three, as they all nodded.

A few minutes later they were near enough to the city for Caro to start scanning the area. Anyone that seemed to have magical powers were in the direction of the TSAB Aces on the other side of the town. If her little group was lucky enough, they wouldn't need to pass by them to get to the source. They landed on a beach that was most likely abandoned a few moments before they arrived, seeing that there were a lot of itens left behind in the sand.

"Huh?" Sakura started to look in a direction contrary to where Hayate and the others were.

"I'm picking up a faint sign-" Caro started, but was cut off by the cardmistress.

"I can feel her."

"Huh?" Caro looked at the green eyed girl a moment before scanning the area she was looking at.

"The signal is coming from there. Let's go."

Before she had even finished her sentence Sakura and Vivio had already took off.

"I can feel her. We're getting near."

A little behind the two, Caro and Erio rode the dragon, watching as they got closer to a residential area, with various mansions and big properties.

"What the hell is happening there?" the white haired man yelled at his cohorts.

"The information we have so far is that four or five TSAB's aerial mages entered town and are in a stand off in the middle of the Great Lake Park," the woman behind him answered. "They're just there, not moving, as if waiting for something."

"At this point there isn't much for we to speculate," Chris finished.

"They intend to fight every single mage in the city? They wouldn't be so stupid to do that," Reeve said as soon as his barrier jacket was summoned.

"Maybe they are a forward team, and the rest of the TSAB is going to invade town after they start to fight," Chris said while looking at the windows.

"Raise the house's defenses. Send everyone available to the courtyard," Hon yelled at his secretary. "You two go get the girl and let's get out of here."

Immediately, the two men ran inside the house.

"Five magical beings detected, Chief," Kron stated. "One aerial mage, two ground mages, one summoned beast and the fifth has the same pattern as the source."

"What?" The redhaired man didn't know what to do for a moment. He was still battling with himself when Chris dashed past him.

"The source is being taken away from the house," Ana informed.

"Shit." Chris was already seeing what must have happened before he entered the corridor to the door of the 'guest room'.

When the duo got there, they noticed the guards on the door were down, and a redhaired young man was holding a spear in their direction.

"Who are you?" Reeve asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"We're here to take something back that doesn't belong to you lot," the young man said. "As long as you don't resist, you won't end like these men here," he added, nodding his head to the guards lying on the floor.

"Damnit." Chris cursed mentally. "Estimate rank level?" He asked Reeve.

"AA. But he isn't an aerial mage." Reeve answered.

"Big deal. If you didn't fuckin' notice, we're fuckin' indoors, idiot."

"What I meant, shrimp, was that if he isn't an aerial mage, then the aerial mage must already have gotten the girl."

"Damnit. Damnit all." Chris breathed deeply once to calm himself down. "Look, kid. If you don't wanna get hurt, then get out of our way."

The young boy smirked; almost at the same time a huge explosion came from the room. "I think I'm not the one who will get hurt," He said as the duo raised their shields to cover themselves.

"What the...?" Reeve pointed his staff to the place where the young boy was.

"Stay down," the boy said, pinning Reeve to a nearby wall, after piercing his shields so fast that even Kron's auto-shields didn't managed to reform themselves in time.

"Why, you little..." Chris turned to the boy that was on his back now. When he was about to fire a shot at him another explosion destroyed the wall at his side, taking him with the debris into another room.

"I said that we're not the ones that would get hurt, didn't I?" The boy appeared from in the opening, taking Reeve in his shoulder, with a seal binding his companion.

"Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit." Chris started cursing as he got up, unsteadily. "Reeve, are you okay?" No answer. "Damnit, this binds are strong. I can't even communicate with him."

"Don't worry, you'll accompany us." A pink haired girl riding a dragon appeared hovering outside the house, through the destroyed wall, with the raven haired ex-hostage at her back. "Just be glad that we managed to convince Sakura-san to take care of the courtyard. Otherwise you two wouldreally be inra world of pain." She smirked. Chris got to his feet, and was wondering what should he do when the girl spoke again. "Surrender now, or you'll end up like your friend. You can come with us at your own will, or we'll use force."

"And do you think you can take me down, just like that?" Chris smirked. He still had one trump card. "You just got me because I was careless. That's all." And his trump card was, of course, to bluff. "Ana, release limiter."

"Command recognized. Changing mode, Honey," Ana said. A second later all that was left of Chris in the room was the place where he landed with the debris. He used Ana to create a bright glow to blind the boy and the girl that were in his line of vision, at the same time that he took off through the window outside.

"Helga. They got the girl and Reeve. I can't go against them alone. Ask the Boss, what should I do?" he asked mentally while trying to get altitude, when a multicolored beam, shot from outside his line of vision, nailed him in the back, shattered his shields, and sent him to the ground. He took a moment to verify if his bones were still intact before he looked to where the beam came. A blonde little girl was hovering, pointing her staff in his direction.

"I believe we said that we would use force," the pink haired one said as her dragon landed a few feet away from him. "Now be a good man for once and stay quiet." She finished as she bound him with a seal.

He took a moment to look around the courtyard and saw that it seemed more like a warzone.

Then he saw the image that would haunt his nightmares for months. The brown short haired girl that he had fought on the other planet, the one that almost killed them, stood alone in the middle of debris and people that were part of his boss's defense unit. She looked at him, and he could swear that she was fighting with herself not to get on top of him and start firing at point blank. He got so scared of the mental image that he had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, it seemed like it was really going to happen, as the girl was walking in his direction. He looked at her companions, waiting for them to stop her, but they didn't move. He looked again at the girl and she was already only inches away from him. He could see the anger in her eyes. Fear took over him when she raised her staff and pointed in his direction, effectively brushing his barrier jacket aside in the process. She took a card from a holster.

"SLEEP!" The girl called and he was out, completely asleep, not noticing sighs of relief coming from the others that were around.

"With this, I think we can go back now," Caro said as she positioned the two men they had just captured in the back of Friedlich.

"Call Yuuno, and pass the coordinates. Let's get out of here," Erio said, still looking around to see if some of the men in the ground would get up. It took some time to convince Sakura to not attack the house herself. She was the most suitable to take care of the people around the house, and if she had attacked the house, she probably would've ended up killing the ones that kidnapped her friend.

"Someone called?" Yuuno was already beside the redhaired boy, which took him by surprise, and he almost knocked off the head of the librarian in reflex. It just didn't happen because Yuuno transformed into a ferret in that instant. "Hey, calm down." Then he changed back into his human form, and steadied himself. Erio was still eyeing him when he gulped and looked at the others. "So, who need a ri..." He trailed off finally noticing the amount of people lying in the ground. "I don't even want to know what happened here." He then looked at the group around again. "I can't take you all in one leap."

"Take them first." Sakura said. From the moment the cardmistress put the short man to sleep, she rushed to her raven haired friend and was hugging her till that moment, crying in joy. "Then you can come back and get me."

"I'll stay too." Vivio said. "Sakura-nee alone can't protect her friend. Not here at least." Sakura felt a pang in her chest at the little girl's words, but she didn't had the courage to say anything back.

"Alright. Get ready people." Yuuno started to chant. "I'll be right back."

In the moment that he finished the teleportation chant a beam came from behind him. They disappeared in the instant that beam was about to reach them, but now it was going directly to the trio. Sakura reached for her cards, but before she could call any of them a multicolored shield had already formed in front of them, deflecting the attack.

"The girl stays," A white haired old man said while being carried by a woman who was floating in the direction from where the beam was sent. She landed and put him on the ground, before getting up again. She was wearing what it seemed to be a standard barrier jacket from the TSAB's Air Forces, only the color was brown instead of purple. Her black hair was at the height of her shoulders. "She is my golden pot at end of the rainbow."

"Not quite." Vivio got in front of the duo. "The only thing you two will get is a one way ticket for the TSAB's penal colonies."

"Vivio-chan." Sakura let go of her friend. "Take care of Tomoyo-chan. Leave those two to me." Vivio was about to protest when she looked at the cardmistress determined face. "I'll take care of them myself. Okay?"

"Yeah." Vivio didn't know if what she felt was fear or compassion when she locked with Sakura's eyes.

"Don't worry. Sakura-chan is invincible," Tomoyo said behind the heterochromatic eyed girl. "She'll take care of them."

Vivio wondered if she should bring up the fact that the blue-eyed girl was in this situation because of Sakura, but accepted her words. She then put the raven haired girl on her back and raised her shields.

"I believe that you don't intend to surrender peacefully." Sakura eyed the woman on the other side of the courtyard.

"Surrender? Why? You don't have a chance of defeating Helga," the man said, taking a sit beside a tree. "Make it fast, Helga. We don't want to get stuck here when the other TSAB's mages arrive."

"Very well." She lifted her staff in the direction of Sakura. "Brink Destruction." A flash of blue energy formed and fired almost instantly from her staff.

Sakura didn't move at all, as the attack was getting closer. In the last instant, without reaching for her cards, the cardmistress called. "SHIELD!" A sphererical transparent ball of energy surrounded her. She still didn't move, even after the shot hit the shield. The woman took flight and was aiming another attack when Sakura looked up. "FLY! DASH!" An instant later she was behind the blackhaired woman. "WATERY!" The sprite came out of her card, and collided against the woman's shield, shattering the first two layers, sending her back a few yards.

"She has indeed a large variety of spells, as Chris and Reeve said," the woman thought. "And what's worse, she can switch between them too fast to raise a specific shield against each of them, in that case..." She looked at Hon in the ground, and he nodded. She flew back to open more space between her and the cardmistress. "Activating Magilink Mode. Activating Protection Field. Activating AMF."

Immediately a pulse of energy flowed from her and engulfed the whole area. Vivio's shield disapeared in the same instant. She gulped and then reformed it, but she noticed that she needed to use almost all her powers just to keep the shield up. "AMF. I learned about this, but didn't think it would be so hard to act inside this field in a real battle."

"You're making a mistake there, little missy," Hon said from his spot. "This isn't just a AMF. It's a draining field. Every magical being in the area will have his powers drained to Helga. She can use this as a way to feed her spells." He started to laugh. "The more power you put into using your spells, the more powerful her counter will be."

Vivio gritted her teeth, then looked up, and widened her eyes. She looked at the man again. "Are you sure?"

"Huh?" The man looked up as he saw Sakura still hovering near Helga. "How can this be?"

"Simple." Yuuno appeared behind him, with Caro, who started to bind the white haired man. "She doesn't use any type of energy that you had time to research. If this device of yours really is what I think it is, then it'll have no effect on her." He knelt beside him. "She draws energy from the planet itself, not from her Linker Core."

As the librarian was finishing saying this, Sakura called, "FIERY!" The flames engulfed the woman hovering, melting her shields faster than she could raise them again. She started to scream in horror. The cardmistress then called another card. "SWORD!" She floated, slowly getting closer to the woman. When the flames subsided Helga saw Sakura's sword pointed directly at her throat. A few more inches and she would be stabbed. "Surrender, or I'll make you feel all the pain and sorrow you people made me and Tomoyo-chan feel."

The woman looked at her staff, the equipments she used to call her field were completely destroyed. She then looked at the old man being sealed, and admitted defeat.

Hon looked at the woman floating back to the ground still with the girl's sword pointed at her and at the pink haired one that had done this to them and started to seal his secretary. He then reached for his pocket and pressed a button in a device he kept there.

Vivio released her shield and started to walk in the direction where Caro was, while pulling Tomoyo by the hand.

Hon activated his mechanism, and instantly the binds that were around him disappeared. "If I can't have the source, no one will," he said as he reached for behind his shirt, pulling out a pistol, a non magical one. He pointed to Tomoyo and pulled the trigger. Everyone starrted as the loud shot came from the direction where he was.

A body lay in the ground moments later. A blonde haired little girl.

A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I got problems with getting over it, the beta got problems with school to finish it.