The Haruno Chronicles

Ch. 38 Group upgrades, translations, tea and cookies; a fun chapter while waiting for the results of what happened at the ruins plus a good chance to see what everyone's new customizations are.

Disclaimer: Everything, material, characters, locations ect… are property of the respective people.

Chapter 38 – Prepare

It was around noon when Lee and John got back from their little expedition. They went to Nanoha's house first. When they entered, they saw Nanoha's mother cleaning the living room. "Welcome back; please try to be quiet, Nanoha's still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her up." Lee and John looked at each other for a second both thinking the same thing, and then they both decided to go over to Lance's house.

When they entered the house, they didn't see any signs that Lance had even left his dad's office. "I wonder if he realizes how much suspense he is putting us through," said Lee. "Well Lee, since today was technically your last school day for the week, why don't we just resolve to stay here until Lance has an answer." Lee thought about it for a second, and then agreed. "But would it be okay to invite everyone else?" "Good idea, you can bring them to Al Parts for some customization." "Cool, I can try out one of my customizations." "Huh?" said John. "I asked the owner to add a few new features. One of them was a part that allows dimensional teleportation without them long dimensional address." "Nice idea, maybe I should get one. Very useful add-on." "Okay, I'll get them when school ends," Lee said happily. "No need to wait. They are already out of school." Lee looked confused, "What are you talking about, it's only lunchtime." John laughed and then said, "You probably didn't notice since we were inside an underground ruin for almost six hours but we teleported here at 1 pm our time but arrived here 9 am Maral time. So in other words, we are four hours behind Earths time so there, it's about 4 o'clock. Why don't you send them a telepathic invite and meet them. I'll take care of their parents. Don't forget to invite your sister why you're at it." Then John had another idea, "Why don't you go and pick up Sora as well, he was already planning on visiting us for the long weekend." "Cool idea. I leave right now. Tell Nanoha when she wakes." Lee stepped outside into the back yard, and then focused. His device began to glow for a second, and then Lee disappeared.

Lee reappeared in mid air. It took him a second to catch himself. Lee looked down to see a set of fairly large set of buildings. "Yes it worked," Lee thought to himself. Lee drifted down just far enough to be able to see. "Okay," said Lee. He focused again and his device did a semi release. His sword appeared in front of him. "Time for another test." Lee focused on his device in its sword form. It suddenly changed into normal mode though it was still in its semi-release state. "Okay, the semi release switch part works like a charm. Now, AREA SEARCH." He held out his staff and a large gold magical circle appeared under him. Lee searched the entire of the university until he found who he was looking for. "Okay, off I go."

Sitting at a desk in a small dorm room was Sora. His nice but noisy and distracting room mate was out visiting family on the long weekend so Sora was taking advantage of the quiet to do some homework before he left to also visit his family. Suddenly, his quiet was interrupted when he saw a flash of light behind him. Lee appeared in front of his brother. Sora jumped back in surprise but got over it a second later. Then he said, "Oh, hi Lee. Do you have any reason for dropping in on me? I would have been home tonight anyway?" Lee then said, "Oh, were not going home, though it is a pit stop." Without a second thought, Lee grabbed Sora's arm teleported them both.

They appeared in the Dojo at their house. Lee walked into the kitchen where his mother was cleaning. "Oh hi Lee, your dad called saying you were stopping. I already packed you, Sarah and Sora a suitcase. Oh and Lee, I put all your missed Homework that your friends brought over for you in your suitcase so you wouldn't be bored." "Uh thanks I guess. See ya." Lee then tapped on their suitcases and they disappeared. Then Lee's device said, "Items stored." "Good, the storage feature works as well." Lee then grabbed Sora's arm and teleported them again. This time, they appeared in the sky above Lee's high school.

Everyone had gotten the same message in their minds, "Meet me on the rooftop at 4." It was 4:15 and Sarah was getting impatient. "Are we sure that this wasn't a fluke or it was just our imaginations?" The other two were also getting impatient. Suddenly, Lee and Sora appeared in the middle of them all. "Hello," said Lee. They were all quiet for a second, then Sarah said, "Where have you been, Dad didn't leave Mom or me any information about where you where." Then Chrono walked over and said, "Man, you look like you've been on vacation or something for someone who supposedly is sick." Then Sakura said, "I was wondering where you were. You could have sent us an email or some form of communication at least. It was like you vanished off the face of the planet or something?" "Well Sakura as usual is right on the money. This is my first time on Earth in a few days." "Huh?" everyone said together. "And is that the only reason why you have brought us together?" said Sora. "No, actually I came to bring you all to where I have been. Everything's been taken care of. Now If Sakura could transform for us and make a portal." "Okay," said Sakura. She lifted her wrist where Cerenity (her device) was placed and then she transformed. She reappeared in her pink dress with white frills and matching blazer. "Okay, now can you make a portal please?" "Sure, but where too?" Lee smiled, "Don't worry, I'll take care of the destination" Sakura didn't understand but she pointed her staff up. Suddenly, A vertical red circle appeared behind her. But the center of it looked like an endless red vortex. "Okay, now for my part," said Lee. He half released his staff again and tapped it to the edge of the portal and thought about his destination. Suddenly, Gold got mixed in with the red and the vortex stabilized a bit and became still. "Okay, were good to go. After you," Lee said as they walked through the portal.

They reappeared in Lance's backyard. "Welcome to Maral," Lee said, "Home of the Saren Stones as well as two of our good friends." "So you've been here for the last few days?" said Chrono. "Yes." Lee led them out to the front and next door to Nanoha's house. They entered to find John and Nanoha in an intense game of go fish. "Ah, hello Lee. I see that you were able to get everyone." Nanoha then suddenly jumped off the couch and ran over to them all. "Hello," she said. "Ah, Nanoha, glad to see that you. For some reason, my parents thought you left early to see your actual family. I guess that was your doing." "Yes, it was but I didn't need to lie, this is my house. "Oh, I should have guessed that by how casually we came in here." Suddenly, Nanoha's mother came into the room, "Hello, you must be Nanoha's friends I've heard so much about. I am Nanoha's Mother. Thank you for being such good friends with Nanoha." "No problem," said Sarah.

"Okay," said Sora, "is anyone going to explain what you all have been doing here for the last few days? And where is Lance why I'm at it?" "One in the same," said John, "We came here to see what needed to be done after we got all the Saren stones. To do this, we went to the ruins where Lee and his dad originally found them. Ever since we got back, Lance has been working non-stop in his dad's office working on deciphering the stuff we found. And I can't tell when he will be done because his dad's office is in some unknown location where he teleported to. So we have been waiting here since yesterday. Lee and I went and explored the town this morning and had some fun. That's pretty much it." Chrono walked over to Lee and said, "So you really were off having a vacation adventure leaving the rest of us in school to rot in the classroom. Lee you lucky son of a-," "My dad told me to come so I did. But were all here now. How about some lunch." Everyone looked surprised at this. Sakura then said, "Uh Lee, you do know that it's four in the afternoon, right." Lee laughed, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there is a four hour difference between here and earth so its somewhere around noon here." "Oh, I see," said Sakura. "So what did you bring us her for." "A few reasons. One was I wanted you to all know the news as soon as we have it, another is it's good experience for inter-world travel and three, I knew you all must have been curious as to what we were doing here in the first place."

"Okay, I get that, but what are we going to do until then?" said Sarah. "Lee can show you around town. There is actually one shop that you should go to at least. It's another reason for me bringing you here." "Okay, that sounds fun," said Chrono. John then threw a card at Lee, which he caught. "That there is sort of like a credit card. There should be enough for you guys to have a good time." "Okay, thanks dad," said Lee.

They all headed out except for John who said that he wanted to stay in case Lance came out. They were talking on their way into town. Lee showed them all around town. They stopped at a café and ate a snack. Then Lee brought them to Al Parts. "Too bad, it looks like it's closed," said Sora. "Don't worry," said Lee. He knocked on the door and waited a second. Then a young woman came to the door. "Sorry, we're closed to-" She stopped when she saw Lee and said, "Oh, hello Lee." She then called to her father who came and saw Lee. "Ah hello my new young friend." "Hello sir, I was wondering if you could help my friends out." "See no reason why we can't. I'd be glad too. Please come this way." They headed into the store. "Okay, can I see each of your devices please?" They were all hesitant at first but then Lee nodded and they all handed him their devices. Okay, Please follow me." They headed into the back room and the owner placed their devices each on a different small pedestal in the center of the room. "What is he doing Lee?" Asked Sakura. "He is scanning your devices. This shop is for tuning and modifying devices. I had him take a look and tune mine for me and it's working better than ever." "I see. So this will make them work better?" "Yes."

The owner then turned around and said, "This is going to take about half an hour. Why don't you go and look at some parts you may want added." "Okay," said Lee and he lead them out to the main part of the store. "Okay," Lee said and he explained to them about the different types of parts and how they worked. After that, they split up to go and look at the different parts. Each of them found a few parts that they liked and brought them back to the owner. "Oh good. I just did a tune up of all of them and replaced a few parts that were either in bad condition or no longer seemed to get the job done." He then took the parts from each of them and told them he would be done in a few minutes. They waited at the counter. A few minutes later, the owner came and gave them back their devices. "All done and good to go. Now something I forgot to mention to Lee. The next time you fully release your devices, it will take about a minute for their systems to fully reboot with the new parts installed so keep that in mind."

They left the shop and headed back. "How about we try them out later." When they got back, they went to Lances house. They waited there for half an hour, talking and chatting. Then John walked into the room. "Has he come out yet?" Asked John. "No, he has-," suddenly, a green light filled the room and Lance appeared. He looked like he hadn't rested in days. He took a step towards them but then collapsed onto the floor. "Lance!" said Nanoha running over to see if he was okay. "Poor guy, he probably has been working this whole time non-stop. We should let him rest for now. The answer can wait. Sora and Lee then picked Lance up and brought him to the couch and put him down. John found a blanket and a pillow as well.

Lance did not wake up until the next day. He got up not realizing where he was. The last thing he remembered was finishing the deciphering and then he blanked. He then saw that there was a blanket and pillow where he was sleeping. He didn't remember any of that as well. He went around the house to see that it was empty. He went next door to find that they were all eating breakfast. When he entered, it was to relieved and happy faces. "How are you feeling Lance," said John. "Fine, I feel fine." "Then you should join us for breakfast then. We set you a spot." Lance walked to a chair with a set spot with eggs and toast on the plate. "Thank you," said Lance and he started eating.

When they finished, Nanoha's mother cleared the table while everyone gathered in the living room. "Okay," said Lee, "Now I think is a good time to answer that all important mystery." "Okay," said Lance. He made a cube appear in front of them all, each of the four sides facing them showing the same screen. "Here's how it breaks down. I was able to translate the writings from the ruins in two hours or so." "What! It only took you two hours to translate, then what were you doing for the other 22 hours you were in there?" "I'm getting to that. Okay, as I was saying. I translated them in no time at all but that wasn't enough. I translated the words but not the meaning." The screen started to display words.

The 26 are the keys. They open the gateway to the hidden and unseen, back or forward to that which is lost to all. To those who seek, a trial must be conquered. Scattered the 26 to a realm unknown. The game starts and all who dare be my guest. Find and seek the 26. Only the victor may gain passage. To the stones, a sacrifice must be made before the trail can commence and once more, a sacrifice innumerable times as much as the first from the victor to gain passage. Be warned, not for the light of heart. Once started, it cannot be stopped. Be advised, the 26 are only obtainable to those of worth. That is a warning. For Lucks way we give you grace.

"So what does that all mean?" said Sarah. "This is what took me such a long time to decipher. The first part was easy enough. The 26 are the 26 Saren stones. Now the second part was tricky. I still only have a guess but if I am right, the 26 Saren stones act in unison like a portal. To where, I think that is up to the user. I think that united, the stones have the power to take any one person to ANY location of a persons choosing, including those that have already transpired or in another time." John then spat in, "Wait, time travel is impossible, even with magic. How would that be possible?" "Yeah," Lance continued, "Well this is why we call them Lost Logia. The remains of Al Hazard have been known to break the laws of magic before. Now for the next part, I think the trial is probably finding the stones after they were scattered to a realm unknown, which coincidentally happened to be earth. The part about the game starting just means that anyone who is able can try and collect the other stones first. Now for the next part, to start the competition, it states a sacrifice needs to be made." "So what was it?" asked Chrono. "From what I can tell, the toll is life. To start, it needs the power of a human life." Lance drifted of and started to look out the window at the back yard at the tombstone.

"It also states that a sacrifice must be made afterwards as well, any ideas on that one Lance," said Sakura. "I am not quite sure. It is said to be innumerable times as much as the first and the first was life so I have come to only one conclusion. The second sacrifice probably means that using the stones will create a dimensional distortion and one of great power." Everyone look at each other quietly, and then Lance continued. " The next part was not hard to decipher at all. It just states that if one starts and releases the stones, there is no way to stop until they are all captured. Now this last part was the hardest. It is the instructions on how to capture and seal the stones. It took me a while but I was able to translate it. It states that only those who are worthy, or battle the stones honestly can truly take possession of them. It also states that the stones are non-transferable or to say, we cannot simply just give them to someone. They can only be obtained through a fair battle. Now the last part I still don't know if I got it but I think Luck is a being because they made sure to write it like a name. For what purpose I do not know though. That concludes my report." The screen vanished.

"Okay Lance, that was a fine job you did. Now for the meaning, we can throw all the stuff about the trial out. All twenty-six stones have been sealed. Now for what happens next. I think we need to gather all the stones to one side. Right now, we have all but 7 stones which reside with Fate." "So do we just go and capture her and take the stones then?" said Sakura. "Unfortunately, it's not that simple. According to this, you can't take, only win or in other words-." In other words," John interjected, "You will have to battle Fate, head on and no holding back. And most importantly, you must win.

In a far off place:

"Fate," said a cold, cruel voice, "You have been searching for almost 6 months now and you have nothing but 7 Saren Stones to show for it." The woman made a staff appear in front of her with a purple handle and a gold bat with a hole in the center on top with a purple orb in the hole. She then transformed it into a whip. She then headed over to Fate who was suspended in mid air by purple binds. "I am sorry mother," was all she could say. Presia slashed her with the whip multiple times. "Now Fate, there is one last chance. Now that all the stones have been collected, there will be a big battle and the victor will obtain all twenty-six stones along with the right to control passage. You must go and fight with all the others who have stood in your way and deal with them, PERMANENTLY." "Yes mother," said Fate, doing all she could to hold her tears in. "Good, you don't want to make your mother upset." She then whipped Fate several more times. "Okay, now leave me and you better not come back without ALL the stones and the right of passage." "Yes Mother," said Fate as she fainted from the pain.

Back at Nanoha's House:

"Okay, now that we got things covered, why don't we get back to our planet? You guys need to test out your new devices." Everyone agreed. They all went and packed their things. Nanoha said good-bye to her mother, and then they all gathered out in the road. Then Sakura transformed and using the same part that Lee had bought, made a portal without the access code and they walked through.

They reappeared inside the telebay in the Earth HQ. "Okay, it's only two in the afternoon and I promised you back to your parents at seven so I say we do a training session now. Everyone agreed and they headed for the training room. "Okay, Lady's first," said John motioning to Sarah. She entered the training room and tried to transform but she couldn't. "Hey, what gives, its not working. "Don't worry; remember what the owner told us. The first time they need to reboot with the new parts." About 30 seconds later, Sarah's white marble glowed and said, "All parts functioning, system good and ready master." "Okay, BRIGHT DESTINY, SET UP." This time, she transformed and it worked. But when she reappeared, she was wearing white shorts with a matching white blazer. "Good." "Okay," said John, "Now try out your customizations. "Okay, lets see, the first one." She stuck out the staff and changed it into a sword. "Lets see if this works." She focused in on her sword. The blade then started to glow bright white. "Good, it works. Can I have a target please." John pressed a button on the control panel and a large rock appeared at the other end of the room. "Okay, watch this." She swung her sword down. At first, everyone thought she had messed up or that something had gone wrong. But a second later, the rock cut itself in half. "I attached a sonic emitter to the sword so I can send shockwaves now." "Cool idea," said John. "Also," said Sarah. She stabbed her sword into the floor. Then she said, "SONIC EMMISION." Suddenly the sword sent out Shockwaves of magic into the floor. The floor cracked and the rock turned to dust. "Nice adaptation," said John.

"Okay, Next the young Lady," John said. Sakura entered the training hall. "Okay," she entered the room and tried activating and like she thought, it didn't work. A minute later however, CERENITY said, "ALL GOOD TO GO." "RIGHT, CERENITY SET UP." She transformed but when she reappeared, she looked different. Now she had a white miniskirt and a pink with a black rim blazer with a black undershirt. "It was getting hard to battle in the long dress. I don't know how you do it Nanoha." "It took a bit of getting used to I'll admit," replied Nanoha. "Kay, could you set up some projectiles." John pressed another button and two yellow orbs appeared in front of them, then they split into 10 shots. "Okay, shoot." John fired them all from different angles but Sakura didn't do anything. "AUTO GUARD on," said Cerenity. The shots tried to hit but an invisible shield blocked them. The places where it impacted turned red for a second. "NICE," said John." "And one more thing," she said, She pointed her staff out, "DELTA SMASH," suddenly; the shield exploded and created a created in both the floor and ceiling. "I admit that it's a little copy-cat from Nanoha except that this one goes in all directions." "It's okay, I like your variation."

"Okay, Chrono's turn now," Said John. As Sakura exited, Chrono entered. "My turn. He tried, waited a minute until his Black and grey wristwatch said, "LETS DO THIS, SYSTEM GREEN. "Cool, all right. BLACK FALCON SET UP." He transformed and reappeared in front of them. "Here's the first change." He took his staff and pounded it in from both sides and it disappeared, then both his hands glowed for a second and a black and silver gauntlet appeared on each. "I put in a quick change bypass to let me go directly to the MWD's flip mode, then I had him re-customize the gauntlet system so I got one on each hand. "Cool," said Lee. "And it doesn't stop there." He held his hands together curled. "I also admit that this is a complete copy." Suddenly, a Gold sphere appeared in his hands, "But the difference is." The ball expanded. "I make this look good," The ball was trying to burst out of Chrono's hand it was so powerful. It then turned blue like the hottest of flames, "SHINNING BUSTER," He put out both of his hands, palms vertical, and the ball of blue magic shot out a blast of immense power, similar to Lee's. Lee walked in and up to Chrono, "Nice one, but you do it all wrong." Lee then went into a rant about the correct way (his way) for using his buster. "By the way, how did you do that? You know, copy my attack without an incantation." "Oh, that. Well when I was looking through the parts, I came across a part labeled, "PreSync." It allows one to preload another person's spell into their device and use it without an incantation. I remembered that one of my weaknesses is my lack of ranged attacks so I decided to copy Lee's buster." "Smart idea," said Lee, "At least we know you have good tastes in spells."

"Next up we have Sora." Sora walked in. He waited the minute until Flare Storm said, "Good and Ready." "Okay, FLARE STORM, SET UP." Sora transformed and reappeared in front of them. "Okay, for the first modification." He focused on the blade. It suddenly sprang into flames. "Good, The Ignition driver works. Now for the second improvement, STORM MODE," he changed his staff into Storm mode. Suddenly, the top of the staff glowed red and the room began to boil. The thermometer showed it at 200 and rising but Sora looked fine. "The heat-wave generator is working fine as well as the element shield I installed." "Good ones," said John. "Wait I'm not done yet. I want to show you the new move I learned." He took his staff and raised it above his head. "IGNITION START," he said and both ends ignited. He then started to spin his staff above his head. As he did, a large flame orange magic circle appeared under him. He was spinning it faster and faster until it was making a small whirlwind. "Okay, FLARE STORM," suddenly, flames appeared at the edge of the magic circle. Then they got caught in the now powerful whirlwind and created a fire tornado. It then started to expand. John changed the magical dimensions of the room to make it look like Sora was in the sky and with the space as well. The tornado they saw was actually a sphere that was growing and growing, "FIRE!" The Large sphere of Fire surrounding Sora exploded in a huge burst of flame covering more than a good ½ kilometer with its heated fury. John changed the room back to normal and tried to enter only to find that the door handle had been melted. He tried to push the door open to also find that it was burning to the touch. Eventually, He just blasted it away with magic, which was a stupid decision. All the heat in the room exploded out this one exit and almost scorched them all if not for Sakura's quick thinking in creating an elemental barrier around them. John finally was able too turn on the exhaust fans and the air-conditioned to cool them all off. Sora walked out of the room though as if nothing had happened. He wasn't singed or burned anywhere. "I wanted a hot new explosive attack to impress you all with. "Well I for one think that your new attack hits all those categories nicely, though it was a bit Overkill" said John.

They waited for the room to cool off again. "Okay, now for Lee's turn. When we went, He had all the major components replaced with ones that fit his level better. According to the owner, the old ones were holding him back." "Lee could already destroy the universe as it is, and that was with a bunch of crappy low level parts?!" Lee waited a minute, and then mini-Haruno popped out and said, "Everything is in working order Lee so go whenever you're ready. Oh and I hope you like my surprise." "What surprise?" said Lee. "You'll find out," said Haruno, disappearing. "Okay, HARUNO, SET UP." There was a huge blast of gold light. Then Lee reappeared but his clothes were slightly different. His shoes had pointed wings on the heel of his shoes and shoulder pads and on the back of his blazer said GOD OF FLASH. Haruno reappeared on his shoulder and said, "I thought it matched your Final form." "Thanks Haruno, I like it." Haruno smiled and disappeared. Lee then said, "I only made one battle related improvement. He changed his staff into his sword. "Well, two that are related really. Here's the first one." He quickly swung his sword and as it did, it changed into a true Japanese Katana." "N-I-C-E," said John, "I don't know why I haven't thought of that." "Thanks, but here is the real improvement." Lee then held up his sword. "BREAK IMPACT," Lee swung his sword down and it created a huge crater in the ground. "I used a magic bypass part to make it so I could do spells even with my sword. I also added an auto seek part so I can teleport between dimensions without a dimensional code."

With all of them done with testing their devices, John took them home. He first dropped off Sakura and Nanoha with Lance in his ferret form, and then he dropped of Chrono at his house. Finally, with his three, John went to his own house. They had a nice dinner to welcome Sora and then they all went to sleep.