Disclaimer:
This fic uses characters, places, themes from franchises that are the property of others. I do not own these franchises. This chapter features Rental Magica anime from Zexcs.
Special Thanks to: The Anime Margin: War of the Runes
Charles Xavier, author: For writing an awesome crossover with anime and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Suikosource website: For providing great information that made this fic possible.
By: RB3
First Contact, part 3: Passion and Rage
It was a typical day in a Japanese neighbourhood of the world of Magica. Cars congested the streets as salary men and office workers commuted to corporate buildings. The birds chirped in the trees in the parks, free of any care in the world. Nestled in the urban sprawl was a quiet mansion surrounded by white walls. On the address plaque was the word "Astral," the name of the company occupying the location, promising "a mage to meet your needs."
This company, Astral, was a wizard dispatching company. It operating by taking contracts to deal with supernatural threats from various clients. One such client approached the door to this establishment. He was a fairly normal, clean shaven Japanese man clad in a trench coat. Upon knocking, he was welcomed in by a bespectacled Japanese girl in a black witch's hat and cloak. The brunette gathered the members of her company to the lounge, where the man presented them a contract.
Among the members meeting the client were five people. The first was the company's president, a Japanese boy with an eye patch over his right eye. The second was a senior member with white hair who wore a white shrine garb. The third was the youngest, a shrine maiden. The fourth was a spectral Japanese girl. The fifth and final member was a blonde Caucasian girl with hair in curls. They were motley crew, each representing a different school or method of practising magic.
"Hello, my name is Simon Kisaragi," introduced the man, handing each Astral member a business card with contact information. "I'd like to hire you for a job."
"Of course, Mr. Kisaragi," addressed the girl, Honami. "What would you like us to do?"
"At Yamato Park, there is a chunk of ice with a special Rune within it. I'd like you to retrieve for me," requested Simon.
He showed Astral a picture of the item he wanted. The Rune resembled a drop of water and glowed with a watery blue light that made it quite prominent. It was encased within a clear piece of ice which was floating on top of some water. From other photographs, they determined that the Rune was at a small wading pool for children. The pictures had been taken at night, but the photos were kept lit by the flash of the camera.
"I'm willing to offer you 100M yen to perform the job. I just want to warn you that you may face competition for this item. Also, this item may attack you if you try to claim it. If either case, if you must fight, be prepared. It is very important that this job gets done. You don't have to answer me now, but once you make your decision, call me by tomorrow night and let me know," said Simon.
Simon gathered his materials and left Astral. Once he did, Astral continued its meeting. "I don't know, this job seems fishy," remarked the bespectacled girl, Honami. "He's paying a bit too much just for one little job. It sounds too good to be true."
"I don't know about that. He did say upfront that we might have to fight for it," pointed out the blonde, Adelicia. "I'll agree that if he's paying so much, it must mean this job is very dangerous."
"Still, that's quite a lot of money," retorted Honami.
"I say we go for it," said Astral's president, Itsuki. "We could make a fortune on just this one job. I'll put all of Astral resources on this one to make sure we do it right."
The other members voted unanimously to do the job. Since she was outvoted, Honami decided to follow the group. Itsuki dialled Simon's number on the phone and told him the good news. After a day of preparation, Astral mobilized the following night. They hit Yamato Park as a team, covering their passage through the wooded environment. They made it close to the Rune's wading pool without incident, which was quite fortunate.
"Okay, I'll begin the sealing spell," announced Honami.
"Not so fast!" said an unknown female voice.
A pair of girls, Sakura and Madison, descended from the sky. A trio of teenagers and their monster companions approached from behind on the ground. Astral turned to face their adversaries. "That thing is dangerous. Leave it alone!" announced Madison.
"Who are you?" asked Itsuki.
"We here to remove that thing. I don't want to have to fight you, but I can't let you have it. Let me take it somewhere safe and we'll leave," said Sakura.
"No way, we're being paid big money from our client for this," said Adelicia. "We are not going to let you have it."
"They won't budge, Sakura. We're going to have to fight them," warned Madison.
"Hey, I was getting bored back here. Time for some fun," remarked Marcus.
"Yeah boss," repeated Agumon.
Itsuki tried to move to attack, but found his body wouldn't react. "I can't move!" he announced to Astral. "Something's caught me!"
Adelicia tried to help him, but found herself immobilized. "I can't move too!"
Honami struggled but was trapped as well. "Me too! What's got me?"
Shikamaru emerged from hiding, his shadow connected to Itsuki and the other Astral members. In effect, their movements were linked to his. A horde of Naruto clones leapt out of hiding, descending on the white-haired senior Astral member, Nekoyashiki, and the young shrine maiden, Mikan. The Naruto clones wrestled them to the ground and pinned them there. More clones entered the area. Shikamaru released his Shadow Possession to allow them to pin down the remaining Astral members.
Adelicia attempted to wriggle free, but Rock Lee stepped on her free hand. "Don't think about it," Rock Lee warned.
Sakura immediately sealed the Rune, the Water Rune, within her capsule. "Okay, I got it."
She and Madison immediately opened a gate entered Crystal Valley. The DATS tamers followed and the ninja vanished in puffs of smoke, leaving behind logs where they were once standing. "Great, now what are we going to tell Simon?" asked Adelicia.
Upon return to Runecaptor base, Sakura placed the Rune on a free slot in the altar. Several minutes later, they met Clow Reed to learn of their next move. "Good work everybody. I haven't found any new Runes yet, so let's focus on retrieving the ones from the STAB for now."
With the Illusion Card, Clow Reed showed them a picture of a white, sterile building made of brick and metal. This building was a STAB R&D laboratory, known simply as Lab 1. It was here that the Runes were being kept for study. It was heavily guarded, with soldiers positioned nearly every step of the way into the building. Just a few blocks away was a STAB military base, so the Rune hunters from STAB were certain to be in the area.
"To break into the lab, you'll need a diversion," suggested Reed. "DATS will provide that by attacking the base. Raze it if you want. In the meantime, the others will break into the lab and steal the Rune. Time is of the essence. If they continue their experiments, it's only a matter time before they accidentally activate the Runes and set them loose. Please hurry."
"Of course Master Reed," said Sakura.
"I'll open a gate to where you need to go. Do not dally. We don't have time to waste."
Sakura's team immediately entered the portal and found themselves in the wilderness of an unknown world. In the distance, they could see a massive skyscraper of a public building. As they approached, they came upon a chain-link fence with barbed wire running along the top. In the distance, they could see several soldiers patrolling around in the open, grassy flat land. Some were in towers which cast spot lights on the ground.
"This must be the base. We're going to deal with this one," said Yoshino. "You guys get to the lab and contact us when you're ready to break in."
Sakura's infiltration party split away and approached a sterile, white building some distance from the army base. On the sign on the lawn before this building was sign which read "Space Time Administration Bureau Lab 1." That was their target. Like the army base, there were soldiers patrolling the area, though not as heavily as the base. It was mostly an area for research rather than for training and housing soldiers. Nevertheless, they still had local security to contend with.
"Yoshino, we're here, you can start whenever you're ready," said Sakura over a radio.
"Okay, just watch for the fireworks!" said Marcus over the line.
The Digimon of DATS immediately ascended to their Ultimate levels and flew directly at the base. Some STAB mages spotted them and opened fire. One mage scored a direct hit on Rise Greymon, who didn't feel anything but a slight tickle. The cyborg Digimon immediately spun his gun barrel and unloaded ammunition at anything he saw. His shots tore into office and demolished a lookout tower. The structures burst into flame which could be seen from miles away.
Marcus rushed a guard and blasted the enemy's face with his fist. The guard crumpled immediately, sprawled unconscious on the ground. "Yeah!" he cheered.
At a nearby barracks, Erio was jarred awake by the explosion and gun shots. Nanoha rushed to his room. "Wake up! The base is under attack!"
Nanoha rushed to wake up the others while Erio tossed on a spare shirt. As he rushed down the stairs to the lobby, he was joined by Teana and Subaru, both of whom barely had time to put on anything other than the T-shirt and shorts they wore to sleep. Caro came down, still wearing a nightgown. As they exited the door, an explosion rocked the area, flattening several soldiers. The team immediately activated their weapons and rushed to meet the DATS tamers.
At the lab, Sakura's team began the infiltration. She summoned the Illusion card, which disguised her as a male general. The other members disguised themselves as her retinue of soldiers. The team walked into the lobby, where Sakura expanded the illusion to deceive the cameras into seeing her talk to the secretary. She immediately placed the secretary under a Sleep spell. The woman's eyelids started to droop, growing heavy with fatigue. She slumped onto her desk completely unconscious.
"It's downstairs," said Madison, able to feel the pulses of power the Runes gave off.
"Let's disable the security system first," recommended Shikamaru. "I don't want to rely on your illusions to carry us through."
Sakura looked at the camera watching the lobby. She made the illusion display a scene of the secretary giving the general authorization to enter. "Okay, they'll think the secretary let us in. Let's hurry."
The team walked down the aisles to the security room, which was slightly down the hall. They moved in a calm, collected manner, to appear as though they were meant to be here and avoid suspicion. When Sakura knocked on the door to the security department, a guard answered. "What is it?" he asked.
"Go to sleep," commanded Sakura, putting the guard and his buddies inside under a deep Sleep spell.
"Pull the wires so they don't know we're here," said Shikamaru as he caught the falling guard.
Naruto pulled the electrical cable which directed power into the computers and monitors. All of them went off instantly. Hinata immediately scanned the entire building with the Byakugan. She found the laboratory area, which had large amounts of equipment to perform tests on the Rune's power output. The Rune wasn't in the machine, but she noticed a safe in a nearby storage area. Peering inside, she saw the Wind Rune, but the whereabouts of the Fire Rune were unknown.
"The Fire Rune isn't here?" asked Madison.
"They might have taken it to another lab before we got here," said Rock Lee.
"We don't know where that lab is, so let's grab this one and get home before they find us," said Shikamaru.
A bit later, a small red-headed girl in red garb and a tall, noble pink-haired girl approached the lab building. The younger was known as Vita and the taller one was Signum, members of the Wolkenritter who supported Nanoha's team. Signum noticed the secretary asleep at her desk. "Hey, wake up!" said Vita as she shook the woman.
"She's not going to wake up," said Signum in resignation. "Something must be keeping her asleep."
"I have a bad feeling about this..." remarked Vita. "Let's check security."
The girls went to the door and knocked, yet no one answered. They immediately returned to the secretary's desk and used the public announcement system to call for security. When a guard responded, he unlocked and entered the room to find all of the guards asleep at their posts. Like the secretary, they would not wake up no matter how much they were disturbed. The security monitors had been unplugged and were pitch black. Once the guard restored power, the computers rebooted and the monitors flickered on.
In one of them were the Runecaptors, checking out the Wind Rune. "Did you receive any word of a general coming here to see the Rune?" asked Signum.
"No, not a word," replied the guard.
"We'd better investigate. Stay here and man the station," ordered Vita.
The Wolkenritter ran down and encountered the general and his retinue. "Stop right there," commanded Signum. "I don't recognize your face. Let's see some ID."
"What are we going to do?" asked Naruto in whispers. "They'll find us out!"
"Yes, I'm General Avalon. I've come here to move the Wind Rune to Lab 2," said Sakura.
Even though Sakura's appearance had been disguised by the illusion, the same was not true of her voice. The Wolkenritter noticed this fact right away, finding it quite suspicious that a man in his mid-fifties would sound like a high-pitched little girl. "Who are you?" asked Vita, now very suspicious of them, drawing her weapon.
"Yeah, you're not a general are you?" asked Signum, drawing hers as well. "Tell us who you are or we'll attack!"
"Uh oh!" remarked Sakura, realizing her mistake.
Naruto, desperate and out of options, immediately hurled a kunai at Signum. She instinctively tried to move away, but the blade nicked her cheek as it flew by. Vita immediately swung at Shikamaru. "Why did you attack?" asked Shikamaru as he parried Vita's hammer.
In a rage, Signum charged Naruto, forcing into him onto the defensive. "They were on to us. I had no choice!" he replied, trying hold back the sword with a little kunai.
Naruto backed off and Hinata entered the fray. She landed a blow on Signum's gut. Empowered by a burst of Chakra, the blow took the wind out of Signum and put her onto a knee. At the same time, Rock Lee got behind Vita and delivered a quick kick to the back of her head. "Let's get out of here!" cried Madison.
"Stop!" cried Signum, having recovered enough to through a bolt of energy. It hit the corner just after Madison rounded it. "Damn!" she cursed, just before slumping over in pain.
The infiltration team stormed out of the building just as the alarm sounded. They ripped through the wilderness every bit like thieves fleeing the scene of a crime. They reunited with DATS team, who were fighting the four rookie STAB members and Nanoha. Nanoha unleashed a powerful beam of magical energy at Rise Greymon. It exploded and knocked the mighty Digimon onto his side. Though ruffled, he had taken hits much worse that this.
Nanoha charged up to shoot him while he was getting up. Rise Greymon suddenly fired at her with shots of energy. The first hit and staggered Nanoha, knocking upwards into the air. The second disoriented her, breaking her preparations for an attack. She attempted to fly higher to avoid fire. Rise Greymon had recovered in this time, and score another hit which knocked her out of the sky. She hit the ground with an audible thud and blew up large clouds of dust. Rise Greymon took this time to get up and dust himself off.
"We got the Wind Rune," cried Sakura as she entered the scene.
"Yeah, let's get out of here!" said Naruto, who could feel the soldiers approaching to apprehend them.
At that moment, an explosion thundered from the distance. A pillar of flame burst upwards into the sky, parting and evaporating the clouds overhead. It was so bright that the sky was lit red despite the darkness of the night. The source was a laboratory complex, burnt to the ground along with the technicians which had worked there. The pillar abated and shrank to much smaller, but still massive size and began a path of destruction outward.
Nearby trees and vegetation started to catch fire, expanding the influence and reach of the central flame. It spread rapidly, consuming everything in its path. The central mass of flame seemed in tandem, like it was alive, the body of a massive creature of pure flame. In its wake was nothing but charcoal and ash. The mass of flame seemed to be fixated on a large group of concentrated buildings. The mass of flame was on a beeline for the heavily populated Midchildean capital, Cranagan.
Upon seeing all that transpire, the Runecaptors and STAB had dropped what they were doing to gaze out in the distance. They watched the fire spread, wondering what was happening. Firefighters rushed to the scene to quell the blaze, unloading gallons of water to extinguish the flames. From above, helicopters entered the scene bearing massive buckets of water from nearby lakes. Water mages conjured torrential rainstorms upon the blaze. As the water made contact with flame, it turned to steam and arose with a hiss.
Suddenly, tongues of flame lashed out at the firemen. This phenomenon freaked them out, causing them to drop their hoses and run. The hoses whipped around out of control, splattering water everywhere. The flames turned to the mages, forcing them to bank and make evasive turns. As soon as the mages broke formation, the flame forked with each tongue seeking one of the mages. One had gained distance until a different tongue changed targets and veered to him. The mage's clothes burst into flame as he tumbled out of the sky.
"What's going on?" asked Nanoha as she watched the firemen get burned down.
This sight was all too familiar to the Runecaptors. "It's the Fire Rune," said Sakura.
"Do you get it now?" asked Naruto vehemently. "This wouldn't have happened if you let us get the Rune!"
"Alright, we get it!" replied Nanoha. "Tell us, how do we stop that thing?"
"Get the city evacuated first," said Thomas.
Nanoha was already in the process of doing so. "Way ahead of you. Hayate, this is a Code One emergency. Get Cranagan evacuated immediately! The Fire Rune has gotten loose. It burnt down Lab Four and is headed towards the city."
Hayate looked beyond Nanoha and noticed Runecaptors standing behind her. "They're here..." she remarked, somewhat disturbed by their presence.
"Yes, we're here," replied Marcus. "We're here to stop you from making a big mistake."
"Hayate, they are the only ones who can deal with this. If they can pull it off, we can avoid civilian casualties in the city," said Nanoha. "We have to let them take the Rune."
"The brass will hate me for this, but I have no choice. I'll accept full responsibility. I feared it might come down to this sooner or later," lamented Hayate.
"Don't worry, we'll get rid of the Rune for you," assured Sakura. "You'll never have to worry about it again."
"Good," said Hayate. "I don't know who you are, but thank you for your help. Nanoha, please help them in any way you can."
"Of course," agreed Nanoha.
With the support of Nanoha's team, the Runecaptors travelled to the heart of the moving blaze. Here was where the runic power was the strongest. Despite it being partially concealed by the raging fires, the two teams could see the Rune shining from within. It was a tongue of flame which never moved or changed its form. It glowed with red light filled with intense heat and passion. The Rune's power was now quite palpable now, even to those without supernatural training.
"I can feel it," said Nanoha. "It's much stronger than it was before. This won't be easy."
Suddenly, tongues of flame lashed out at the group! "Run!" cried Caro.
The group scattered. Caro saw one coming straight for her and banked her dragon to the left to get out of the way. As soon as she was reoriented herself, the Fire Rune hurled a billowing ball of flame. Fried the dragon immediately exhaled a blast of fire. The fireball and breath collided, dissipating each other near instantly. Subaru suddenly skated by on a trail of blue and blasted wind into the flames. The Fire Rune turned its attention to her and hurled fireballs.
Subaru saw them behind over her shoulder and turned right, skating away too quickly for the attack to connect. The fireballs sailed behind and upwards past her harmlessly. When the Rune's left an opening, she fired blasts of wind down into the core of the flames. They dispersed the flames, exposing the Fire Rune. Eventually, the flames came back, covering the Fire Rune once again. It lashed out a tendril of flame and despite Subaru trying to veer leftward, it managed to singe her right bicep.
"Now Madison!" cried Kero.
Madison invoked the power of the Watery Card. The ground rumbled moments before a massive geyser burst forth from the ground. It was like a pillar rising from a hole in the ground. Water gushed everywhere, much of which turned to steam on contact with the flames. The geyser had scooped up the Fire Rune, hurling it upwards, separating it from its flames. It bobbed up helplessly up and down the peak of the geyser. With the water in their way, the flames could not shield the Rune.
Kero moved into position and activated his Rune capturing capsule. The Rune peeled from the top of the geyser, stretched ridiculously thin like taffy. Then, it went in, sucked inside like dirt into a vacuum cleaner. Within the capsule, the Rune glowed hot like the last embers of a sun. Even through the capsule, Kero could feel the warmth and passion radiate outwards. It was exhilarating to experience the very fires of creation firsthand. He dropped down and handed the capsule to Sakura.
The STAB Section 6 met with the Runecaptors for one final time. "Thank you all, Runecaptors. You have helped us avert a catastrophe. You seem like wonderful people and I wish I could have known you better, but you can not stay," said Hayate.
"We know," assured Yoshino.
"Yeah," agreed Naruto.
"Wherever you go, we hope the best for you. Good luck Runecaptors, stop the Runes from harming anyone else," said Hayate.
"We will," said Naruto.
END OF CHAPTER