Valkyrie Drive: Ragnarok

Chapter 1:

Gone

Six weeks had passed since she had left Mermaid, and she still didn't feel entirely comfortable. She was 15, to be fair, but school, of all things, was something someone her age was used to, whether they enjoyed it or not. That assumed, of course, that they hadn't spent their lives as child soldiers, hired out to one battlefield after another, before being tossed onto a prison island to rot.

In short, the subdued, day-to-day humdrum life of a first-year high schooler was about as alien to Mirei Shikishima as anything. Not unpleasant, exactly, but uncomfortably alien.

The staring had taken a bit of getting used to. Staring from her classmates, who had clearly been wondering if the girl who looked as if she were in her early 20's had the right classroom. Mamori had giggled when she heard about this, to Mirei's mild annoyance. But what Mamori told her afterwards turned out to be true; once the initial surprise and confusion faded, the stares faded with them.

Trying to catch up to the high-school curriculum, that hadn't been pleasant. Chemistry and algebra hadn't been considered necessary learning for those in the SOLDIER program, so for those first few days Mirei had tried to keep her head down, hoping that she wouldn't be picked on to come to the board and answer a problem she didn't know. This backfired spectacularly, as her instructor turned out to be one of those sadistic types who liked calling on the poor souls who didn't raise their hand. After a couple of embarrassing math errors that first day, Mirei had pored over her textbooks: she had always been a fast learner, and a few days later she had gone from know-nothing to ace student.

Not bad, if she did say so herself. Maybe she'd be able to hack this 'civilian life' thing after all.

She had just survived another gym class, at least. Well, 'survived' may have not been the right word. The hard part wasn't keeping up with the rest of the students, not by far. Just the opposite in fact: she needed to maintain that delicate balance of being as athletic as she appeared, but not too much more. Torino, if that even was her real name, had stressed the importance of keeping a low profile. Knowledge of Valkyrie Drive's existence, and the ramifications of it, needed to be kept tightly controlled for the moment, lest Mamori and Mirei be swamped by girls desperate to be cured of the Armed Virus, and those with less savory intentions for their powers.

Mamori had complained about it, but even she realized their 'handler' had a point. The time would come for the cure to be made public. Until then, Torino had advised them to keep a low profile, and take pride in the fact they had already cured the girls of the artificial islands and sent them safely back to their families. Mermaid, Siren, Lorelei, Scylla…Mirei paused, her hand freezing on her shoe locker's dial lock. She couldn't help it. Couldn't help wondering.

What on earth had happened on Bhikkhuni?

Everything had gone smoothly until they had approached that island. There, their boat had run up against a blockade of nervous-looking UN operatives who had spoken to Torino in a hushed tone. She had returned to them ashen-faced and turned the boat around heedless of Mamori's pleas, zooming them all away at full engine.

Mirei fumbled with her lock as she remembered watching Bhikkhuni vanish over the horizon, how there had been a billowing plume of smoke rising from deeper in…

The door popped open and an envelope toppled out onto Mirei's feet. Mirei blinked.

Another one. It had to be. She had been receiving these things regularly for a while now. Sure enough, when she slid the envelope open, she found a cute pink letter within saying simply 'I love you, Shikishima-san!'.

Turning around quickly, she caught a glimpse of a dark-haired girl hiding around the corner watching her intently. The girl gave a little 'eep' and ducked out of sight. Mirei couldn't help but give a little chuckle.

'I'm flattered. But you're a little too late, miss: I'm already spoken for.' With a little smile, Mirei pocketed the letter. She'd throw it away discreetly on her way to algebra: there was no need to be pointlessly mean.

"X squared plus 5x plus six…correct! Very good, Shikishima-san!"

Mirei nodded, placing the chalk back in its tray and heading back to her desk. She gave a glance at the clock on the wall as she passed it. Just a couple more hours before school was out and she could see Mamori again. Her lover had promised to show her a ramen shop famous in her city after school, and personally Mirei was looking forward to it. But as if on cue, as if waiting for her to express hope for a delicious ramen dinner with the one she loved, a distant rumble of thunder paused her steps. She glanced out the window and, yep: the clouds were darkening.

Oh…well, that sucked. If the weather got too bad, Mamori would probably insist on heading home instead. It wouldn't be a total loss, there was plenty the two could do indoors, but still, ramen was ramen and it would be a shame to miss out.

"Back to your desk, Shikishima-san." The teacher said in a playfully stern voice. "We got a lot left to go over, and a thunderstorm won't stop us from having class."

Mirei nodded, heading back to her seat as the teacher continued speaking. "Alright, picking up from what Shikishima-san just demonstrated…"

Mirei was right by her desk when it hit her. An all-too-familiar sensation, born from years of combat training. A pervasive sense of wrongness…

Seconds later, the classroom erupted in flames.

*WHAP!*

A floor below, Mamori was jumping with a squeak as a ruler smacked down loudly on her desk. She looked up at her teacher with a rapidly-reddening face. "Y-yes sensei?"

"Just wanted to see if you were awake, Tokonome-san." The teacher said with a bit of irritation in her voice. "Keep your head out of the clouds while you're in class, alright? Plenty of time for daydreaming after school."

Mamori sighed with embarrassment as the teacher went back to the front of the class. Someone poked her in the side: she looked away from the teacher and over to the white-haired girl seated next to her. "Thinking about her again?" the girl whispered.

Mamori nodded, a sheepish smile on her face. The girl sighed. "Have I told you how jealous I am of you, Mamo-chan? I mean, you've got the hottest girlfriend alive! Seriously, there's no way she's our underclassman."

Mamori shrugged. "You'll find someone, Hana."

"If I ever get the courage to ask, that is." Hana sighed. "Man, Mermaid must've been something else…all those hot girls, and you didn't have to be scared to ask..."

Mamori looked away. "It was no paradise, Hana. Most of the girls were trying to kill me."

Hana pondered this for a moment, then leaned in again, looking genuinely curious now. "How'd you get back, anyway? I thought once you had the Armed Virus, you were shipped off for good."

Mamori stiffened. "Oh. Er…I'm cured." Hana blinked.

"Seriously?"

"Y-yeah." Mamori giggled, painfully aware at how fake it sounded. "Guess my immune system fought it off…eheheh…"

"Oh man…" Hana looked entirely away with the fairies now. "I thought it didn't have a cure, but if I can have it just long enough for a trip to one of those islands…"

'You'd be alone and very, very confused.' Mamori thought, grinning internally. 'There's no one left on Mermaid. I've put that all behind me, and now I'm back to a normal life as normal little Mamori Tokonome, the normal high-school girl…who can turn into a sword when she's sexually aroused.'

She looked back at the teacher, who fortunately had been too engrossed scribbling on the chalkboard to have noticed the two girls' whispered conversation. Mamori felt her eyes glazing over as she scanned the mass of markings on the board, but just as she was starting to make a modicum of sense of them a noise caught her full attention.

*CRACK! CRACKCRACKCRACK!*

The sound of splintering glass made the entire class jump, one of the boys leaping clean out of his seat and looking around widly. "Wawazzat!"

"Alright, everyone calm down!" The teacher barked, cutting off the panic before it could gain traction. Mamori was looking around for the noise when Hana poked her in the side again.

"Look, the window! What…what are those things?" she stammered.

Mamori stared at the large window that served as the wall, and saw what Hana had noticed: four thick black cords had punched through the sheet glass, stretching partially into the classroom while the rest of them were out of the building, angled toward the ground. Disbelieving, Mamori's gaze followed the cords to where they had struck the ceiling: all four of them were anchored in firmly and pulled taut.

Mamori was no soldier like her lover was, but even she realized that something awful was about to happen. "Everyone, get…" she shouted, panic rising in her voice as she jumped to her feet. "GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!"

Her warning went unheeded, and even if it had, the danger was upon them in the next second. There was a strange chorus of whirring noises, and moments later the window exploded into shards. Screams went up from the students as a quartet of men in gas masks and Kevlar vests came zip-lining through the plate glass and into the classroom.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" One of them roared, as their high-tech looking assault rifles came up with a series of threatening *click*s. "NOBODY MOVE!"

The children were so petrified they probably wouldn't have run anyway. The teacher seemed caught between outrage at this act of sheer audacity and terror at the sight of the automatic weapons. The men were scanning the classroom, when one of them spoke up, raising his arm and pointing.

"Red hair. It's that one!" He snapped.

The soldiers were upon Mirei before she could so much as gasp. They yanked her roughly from her seat, threw her to the hard tile ground and pinned her beneath a knee in one fluid motion, one of them aiming his rifle at her head while the other one produced a plastic case from his utility vest.

"Intel says that her Drive is a sword." He was saying, as he opened the plastic case and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear liquid. He gave the needle a few flicks with his finger as he kneeled down by Mamori and stretched one of her arms out. "Can't fuck up on this one, we need to make sure."

"Wait, wha…what are you doing?!" Mamori finally found her voice. "What is that stuff-AAGH!"

The man stabbed the needle into a vein, giving Mamori a full dose of whatever the syringe held. Satisfied, the man pinning her got up and stood back with his partner, the two keeping their guns trained on her. Mamori's mind was spinning, wondering what horrible manner of drug had just been injected into her, when suddenly the first wave hit.

An overwhelming pulse of arousal.

'No…!'

Mamori was acutely aware of everyone in the room staring at her as her body heated up and her heart began to pound. An aphrodisiac of some kind, it had to be, and a supremely powerful one at that. She rolled over onto her back, pinning her hands beneath her butt in a desperate attempt to keep them from wandering.

'Fight it, Mamori…don't cum…you've got to fight it…!'

One of the men was grimacing. "Jesus, I feel unclean watching this…" He turned to his comrade, trying to ignore Mamori's gasps and sighs. "She's the only one in the class with red hair, Sarge, I think she's the one we want."

"We bring in the wrong one and we spend the rest of our lives on latrine duty. So we make sure." Snapped the other man before looking back at Mamori with an irritated growl. "You heard the man, Extar! You're making him uncomfortable! Quit wasting everyone's time and Drive already!"

She didn't need any encouragement. Mamori was losing the battle with her primal instincts, and the resistance she was putting up was only serving to wind her up even more. A climax was coming and there was nothing she could do about it. As soon as she did, she would Drive, transform into her Arm form, and when that happened…

When that happened…what would these people do to her?!

'Mirei…please…help me…!'

She squeezed her eyes shut, arching her back as her willpower gave out on her. With a wail that was half-despair and half-pleasure, Mamori's body became enveloped in an ethereal light, and when it faded, she was gone. In her place lay an ornate and very sharp-looking cutlass, bearing an adorable little cat charm on the pommel in the style of her beloved cat hairpin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~"

The soldiers approached the blade cautiously, as if it were about to spring up and start slashing around of its own accord. "Yeah." Said the sergeant as he pulled something off his belt. "She's the one."

The odd device he produced made a whirring noise and unfolded into a long instrument lined with spider-like limbs. Stepping forward, he held the device above the Arm, the limbs planted firmly on the ground to either side of it. There was a loud clicking noise as sheets of glass flicked down, surrounding the sword: when the man stood up again, the sword was lifted up with him, encased safely in a device that had come to resemble a futuristic glass briefcase of sorts. "Alright, package secured, let's move out."

"Hold it." One of the other soldiers said. His attention was firmly on the students still sitting petrified at their desks at gunpoint. A blue light was glowing from a lens on his helmet. "Scan's pickin' up two more confirmed hits. That one with the white hair, and the blonde with those stupid drills."

Hana and the blonde girl in question looked utterly terrified as the three remaining soldiers moved in on them. "We know what kind?" The sergeant said.

"Blondie's A-type. Hang on…she's a Liberator. And the other one…" the man analyzing the girls tapped his scanner. "Well, how 'bout that. She's got the V-type. We got ourselves a Hybrid." He glanced at his commander. "We takin' 'em in?"

"Affirmative."

"NO!" Hana shrieked, losing her head entirely and dashing for the door. For a horrible moment, she expected to be cut down from behind by a hail of gunfire. Instead, she got a far less lethal but still incredibly painful strike to the back that sent her sprawling. The soldier that had knocked her down clamped a set of heavy manacles on her wrists as his buddies went to work capturing the blonde girl, who clearly had no idea what was happening to her. "Lucky little duck you are." He sneered. "Lucky you kept your condition secret all this time. You could've been on Bhikkhuni a few weeks ago. That wouldn't have been fun. Awright, get up! ON YOUR FEET!"

He hauled Hana to her feet and shoved her roughly toward the ziplines as the sergeant turned to address the class of terrified children and their teacher. "We're leaving now. You're not gonna call anyone. Not the police, not the SDF, not anyone. You call and we'll know: we'll come back and kill every fucking one of you! GOT IT?!" He turned away and headed toward the zipline as well as he held a walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Hati squad, come in. This is Skoll Squad. Package has been acquired and we're moving to secure it. What's your 20?"

The walkie crackled for a moment, and then a frantic voice issued from the speaker. "This is Hati squad! We need back up! We've engaged the Liberator, it's a SOLDIER! It's tearing us apa-AAAAAARGH!"

The sergeant lowered the walkie with an irritated growl as he turned to his squad. "That Extar's our priority." He snapped, gesturing at the Arm in the case. "We secure it first! Move out!"

The other members of his squad had finished escorting their two prisoners to the ziplines, roughly slapping harnesses on them and sending them on their way. Hana screamed all the way down to the ground, where she and the blonde Liberator met two more masked men, who disengaged them from the lines and promptly shunting them in the direction of god-knows-where.

The blonde Liberator hadn't said anything, but she had broken down crying. Hana could hardly blame her. 'Is this how it happened to you, Mamo-chan? Are we going to the islands?'

If so, her fantasy wasn't living up to the hype.

"That her?"

"Blonde, overdeveloped, and I'm gettin' a hit on the scanner. A-Strain, Liberator. It's her alright."

"Don't get too close. Fuck it, we should just put a mag in her to be sure…"

Mirei had come to amid the burning wreck of her classroom. All around her lay the wounded, dying or dead. A quartet of shadowy figures with guns were closing in on her.

Her mind went blank and icy calm: she didn't need to think to get out of this mess. She had been trained for this until it was as natural as breathing. One of the figures was inching closer, leaning down to make sure she was dead, and in doing so, he had dropped his guard. In a burst of motion, Mirei lunged to her feet. The man gave a little yelp as her fist plowed right into his face. The other soldiers nearly jumped out of their Kevlar as their squadmate was sent flying through the gaping, burning hole in the wall behind them, the man screaming all the way down.

"SHE'S STILL ALIVE!"

"OPEN FIRE!"

Mirei bobbed and weaved, the automatic gunfire seeming to move in slow motion as she dodged them, closing in on another one of the soldiers. She had no Arm: she would have to make do with a cruder instrument. Reaching out, she yanked the gun out of the man's hand and brought it forward into his face. The lenses of his gas mask splintered under the blow and he was knocked clean off his feet. In a smooth motion, she swung the gun around and pulled the trigger, sending a barrage of bullets into the chest of the third man. He cried out and stumbled backwards, overbalancing and collapsing onto his back.

The fourth soldier wasn't shooting at her: instead, he was screaming into a walkie-talkie. "This is Hati squad! We need back up! We've engaged the Liberator, it's a SOLDIER! It's tearing us apa-"

Mirei cut his sentence off with a swift roundhouse kick to the head that sent him spinning to the ground in a heap. Her foes neutralized, she surveyed her work and tried to catch her breath.

Barring the man she had (inadvertently) sent plummeting from the third floor, they were still alive. Thanks to the Kevlar vest he wore even the man who had taken half a magazine worth of bullets was alive, though his torso was likely a mass of bruises that would take weeks to heal.

It would have to do. Mirei had other things to worry about. Whoever these assholes were, there was no way some obsolete second-gen was their primary target. Not when one of the strongest Extars alive was in the school too.

Her heart started to pound with anger. If these bastards had harmed so much as a hair on Mamori's head…!

She took a running start and leaped through the hole in the wall, her long blonde hair blowing behind her as she plunged to the ground. She hit the ground rolling, any damage she would have sustained in the fall healed so fast by her SOLDIER alterations they had no time to register as pain. Leaping to her feet, she looked around frantically for some clue, anything to tell her where she was off to next.

By some miracle, another squadron of these mysterious assailants had breached a window on the second floor, and four of them were hurrying to a nearby APC. Among them were two terrified-looking upperclassmen, and one of the soldiers was holding a strange glass container with a handle. Something metal was housed within, a razor-sharp sword with a kitty charm on the pommel…!

Mirei took off running with an inarticulate roar of fury, speeding as fast as she could toward the quartet of masked men. They heard her: looking up, they shoved their prisoners to the ground, pinned each of them beneath a foot and aimed their rifles at the furious SOLDIER heading right at them.

"Open fire!" One of them shouted. He and two other soldiers let loose with a hail of bullets, while the fourth, the one with Mamori, took off running for the APC.

Mirei didn't break stride or give the three gunmen so much as a glance as she closed in on her target. Mamori's captor realized that that target was him about five second before she was on top of him. Looking over to his three comrades, he wound up.

"Heads up!"

Mirei gasped as Mamori went sailing through the air, the sight distracting her just long enough for the man she was charging at to regain his footing. She expected him to shoot at her as his comrades were doing: at her distance and speed, dodging his bullets would be tight, but manageable.

But instead, he shifted his grip on his gun, bringing it back as something below the muzzle flared brightly. Mirei dropped to her knees, sliding along the ground just in time: a scintillating blade of plasma hummed through the air above her mere inches from her nose.

The sergeant had snagged Mamori out of the air and immediately tossed it to one of his nearby squadmates. "These useless fucking popguns…" He grunted in annoyance as he activated a plasma bayonet of his own. "Secure the Extar, and get these prisoners on the APC!"

"Yes sir!" One of the men responded, reaching down and dragging the blonde to her feet. "On your feet! Move it!"

Mirei glanced up from her attempts to dodge her foe's onslaught: the man was clearly an expert with the plasma blade mounted to his gun, and every time Mirei tried to counterattack or disengage and go after Mamori he was right in her face, slashing and stabbing away at her. 'His movements…' she thought. 'If he wasn't a man, I would think he was a SOLDIER. He's in peak condition, it's like Kasumi Shigure all over again!'

To make matters worse, another man was moving to enter the fray, and with every passing second, those two others were getting closer to the APC. If they loaded Mamori onto it and took off…!

Throwing caution to the wind, Mirei went on the offensive, and by no small amount of luck she managed to land a solid haymaker on the man without getting skewered. She yanked the gun from his hands as he fell, bringing it to bear just in time: sparks flew as her bayonet and the sergeant's clashed. Mirei groaned in exertion as the man bore down on her, his chuckles distorted by his mask.

"That's no Arm, Liberator. You think you can handle it?" he crowed. Mirei growled as she and the man descended into a furious dance of thrusts, slashes, parries and feints.

Dammit, she didn't have time to play swordsman with him!

With a cry of exertion, she managed to catch the sergeant in a clinch, direct the muzzle in his direction and pull the trigger. The bullets slammed into his chest and he went down. 'Two down!' Mirei didn't even watch him fall: she had already taken off running at full speed right at the remaining assailants.

It was at this point her luck began to turn. Between Mamori and the two prisoners for the soldiers to worry about and the fact Mirei had a weapon of her own now, they didn't offer nearly as good a defense. One of them didn't activate his bayonet in time and Mirei sliced his gun clean in two before rifle-butting him to the ground. The second dropped Mamori and tried to fire at Mirei one-handed at the same time: his bullets didn't even come close to her.

It took a great deal of effort for her to use the butt of her rifle. Oh how she wanted to drive the plasma blade into the bastard's black heart, make him pay with his life for threatening Mamori…

But Mamori wouldn't approve, and Mirei had made a promise. So instead, she settled for giving him a concussion. The man took the stock of the gun in the face and went down with a grunting noise. Mirei didn't even give herself the luxury of catching her breath. She strode over to Mamori's prison, looking it over for any release mechanism. Nothing doing: she would have to resort to different measures.

Grabbing the handle, she raised the case high above her head and brought it down on the concrete with all her might. In a rare show of luck, this high-tech container seemed to be made of entirely normal glass, and the blow put a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. A second blow, and then a third that finally shattered the container entirely. Mirei scrabbled to pull Mamori loose, not particularly caring if she cut herself on the sharp shards of glass.

Then, and only then, did she breathe a sigh of relief.

As she stood there, trying to calm down, she heard a noise from a ways to her left: sniffling and sobbing. As much as she wanted to change Mamori back to her human form, to embrace her in relief that she was okay, it seemed she still had use for her Arm form. Striding over to the two girls chained up on the ground, she carefully drew Mamori's edge along their manacles. The Arm's blade cut through the metal bindings like they were warm butter. As soon as they were free, they got to their feet, the blonde girl trembling so badly that she had to lean on Hana just to stay upright. The two stared astonished at their sword-wielding underclassman, who put on a gentle smile.

"Head inside. Call the police."

"T-they said…" the blonde girl managed to choke. "I-i-if we…if we called anyone, they'd…"

Mirei looked around at the unconscious men strewn around them. "They're in no position to hurt anyone. And if more of them come, we'll protect you." She raised Mamori: even under skies that were rapidly darkening with storm clouds, the blade still gleamed. "Mamori and I will protect all of you."

Hana's eyes were shining with awe…or perhaps tears. Either way, she looked spellbound. "So this…this is a Liberator…and her Extar…"

Mirei smiled reassuringly again, nodding toward the school. "Get going." She said.

Hana nodded, looking over at the blonde girl clinging to her. "Hey, what's your name?"

The blonde girl wiped her eyes. "Ho…homura…"

"Homura…alright, Homura-san, let's go. We're safe now, let's go…"

And with that, the two trudged back toward the school. Mirei watched their retreating backs for a moment, then looked down at the sword in her hands. Turning it over, she put it point-down in the grass, and as she did so it began to glow. There was a blinding flash of light, and when it faded, the sword was gone. Mirei's hand now rested on the shoulder of Mamori, who slowly opened her eyes as consciousness returned to her.

It took her a moment to realize Mirei was standing in front of her, but as soon as she did she stepped forward, planting a kiss on her lover's lips. It broke only when the two had to take a breath, Mamori nuzzling her face against Mirei's breasts and sighing in abject relief. They stood there silently, too drained to speak, until a thunderclap brought them out of their trance.

Mirei looked skyward, her eyes narrowing. The clouds had looked angry before, but they were worsening by the second, literally before her very eyes. The storm was worsening with almost preternatural speed. "Let's get inside." She said quietly, and Mamori nodded. Getting caught in the rain would be the cherry on top of what had become a truly horrible day.

But then she heard something; she glanced past Mirei and gave a surprised little gasp. A wracking groan had caught her ear, as one of the men, the sergeant, slowly came to. Mirei had noticed too, motioning to Mamori to keep her distance and storming over to the man as he struggled to stand. She reached down, grabbing him by the front of his bulletproof vest, ripping his gas mask off of him and yanking him upward to about an inch from her face, giving him the most venomous glare she could muster as yet another rumble of thunder rang out above them.

"You're not Organization." She snapped. "They would have sent SOLDIERs. Who are you?"

The man seemed entirely unfazed by either his injuries or the angry super-soldier glaring daggers at him. In fact, he was giving her a cocky grin. "I'm the devil." He scoffed.

Mirei growled menacingly, giving him a violent shake. "Who do you work for?!" She snarled.

The man's grin widened. "Your mom!"

Hauling the man up, Mirei lifted him clean off his feet. "Who?!" she shouted, nearly drowned out by the tremendous thunderclap above her.

'Strange…' The though entered her mind unbidden. 'The storm is on top of me and yet…no rain?'

The noise had also caught the man's attention, and he was looking skyward, his eyes calm and his smile wide. "Hey…did you hear that?" He said mockingly. "Hey...hey…you know what it means, you virus-ridden freaks? It means you're dead! It means you're fucking dead!"

The thunderclaps were becoming more frequent by the second, and the sky had become dark and angry. Mamori gasped as the wind picked up, trying to keep her skirt from blowing around as she looked around frantically, watching as lightning bolts laced their way across the sky one after the other. Mirei's lip curled up in an irritated sneer as she dropped the man to the ground. It couldn't be helped: the men were defeated, the survivor wasn't talking, and the weather was getting more dangerous by the second. She needed to get Mamori safe indoors and away from this storm. "Mamori, come on." She said, taking her girlfriend by the hand.

The two were moving to head back indoors, when the biggest lightning bolt of them all exploded against the ground right in their path.

The thunderclap drowned out Mamori's scream, and a wave of static-charged air swept over the two of them. Mirei felt the hair on her arms prickle, and her long mane of blonde hair billowing behind her as she covered her face, stars dancing in front of her eyes from the searing flash.

'Missed us by feet!' She thought. 'If we had started back even ten seconds earlier…!'

But as her sight returned to her, any relief she felt from this near-miss began to fade. There in front of them, where the lightning bolt had struck the ground, stood a dark, towering figure that hadn't been there before.

"Nnh…" Mamori was blinking the tears from her eyes and rubbing them in an attempt to get them working again. "Now what?!" Mirei moved in closer, kneeling down and pulling Mamori to her side. It was difficult to make out details in the darkness of the sudden, unnatural storm, but as the towering figure tromped closer at a steady, menacing pace, with footsteps that clanked loudly on the stone sidewalk, an ominous blue glow enveloped them. Illuminating them just enough for Mirei to make out a few details.

Armor…the figure was clad from head to toe in cybernetic armor that cracked and sizzled with electricity, the static causing the fur cape draped over their shoulders to stand on end. The helmet was an unnerving blank for the most part: the only designs were two crecents on either side of it: coupled with the general shape of the helmet, it looked as if the stranger had a goat skull for a head.

Mamori stifled a gasp as Mirei's fingers brushed her nipple. The message was clear: 'get ready to Drive again'. Mirei continued caressing Mamori as discreetly as she could, hoping that the near-constant rumbles of thunder were drowning out Mamori's gasps and sighs, and that the darkness of the storm at least somewhat hid what she was doing. Staring up at the armored figure, she took a breath to steady herself.

"Who are you!?" She shouted over the wind. The figure came to a stop. It said nothing, did nothing for a moment. Then, with a flourish, it swept its cape aside, revealing its right arm and raising it high.

Something was clenched in its hand. Something long, two-handed, with a solid looking hammerhead on the end that snapped and sparked with bolts of electricity.

An Arm! Mirei had seen enough: she moved in to give Mamori a passionate kiss, to put her over the edge and transform her. But as she leaned in, closing her eyes, her lips touched something decidedly unfamiliar. By Mamori's muffled gasp of surprise, her kiss hadn't reached its target either. Instead of Mirei's soft, warm lips, she had kissed something cold, hard and metallic, with a painful buzz to it that stung Mamori's tongue and made her lips go numb. It was like she had kissed a static-charged doorknob. Her eyes snapped open as five metal fingers closed around her lower face like a vice, and seconds later, she was tossed screaming through the air.

Mirei gasped, pulling away from the strange barricade and jumping to her feet. "Mamo-!" the rest of her sentence vanished in a scream of pain as something slammed into her face, knocking her clean off her feet and sending her flying. She struck the stone hard, rolling to a stop: she was twitching all over, each of her limbs seemed to have a mind of its own. She could smell burning flesh…whatever had hit her had sent a surge of electricity through her at the same time, knocking her nervous system for a loop.

'She was…more than ten meters away...and she still closed the distance in an instant.' She though groggily. 'That armor…is that an Arm too? Is she a SOLDIER? Who is this person-?!'

'Clank-clank-clank-clank-clank…'

'No…move!' Mirei's eyes widened as the blue glare faded from her vision and she could make out the dark, hulking silhouette clomping its way towards her, contemptuously wiping her hand on her armored leg. 'Mirei, MOVE!'

Her muscles had stopped spasming…mostly. It was at least enough for her to get to her feet and stare down the approaching electric giant. She couldn't see where Mamori had gotten to in the darkness. Not good…if she was going to stand a chance against this mysterious Liberator, she needed an Arm of her own. She needed Mamori…if she could just find her and Drive, they could drain the Armed Virus right out of their assailant, render her powerless.

The giant tilted her head, seemingly bemused by this show of defiance. Then there was a lightning flash, a thunderclap, and she had closed the distance.

Mirei stared up in shock as the armored giant raised her warhammer, lightning surging around it. Instinctively, Mirei leaped backwards, the hammer slamming down right where she had been standing mere seconds before. As soon as it made impact, a huge explosion of lightning erupted all around the giant, lashing out in every direction. Mirei was airborne: she couldn't dodge. One of the bolts slammed right into her, and once more her body lit up with neon-blue agony.

By some miracle she managed to control her body enough to land on her feet, but that was all. She could offer no defense, not even an attempt to raise her guard as the giant lunged, swinging her hammer right into Mirei's stomach. Mirei's eyes bulged as a third surge of electricity rushed through her and the air exploded from her lungs. The impact was enough to send her flying backwards like a bullet, slamming into one of the sakura trees lining the walkway hard enough to leave a cracked, splintered dent in it. There she lay, slumped at the tree's base completely stunned, feeling blood from some damaged organ bubble up her throat. She could do little but gag and try to cough up the coppery liquid as the looming silhouette of her foe tromped implacably closer.

But then the armored giant stopped. Mirei sat there, helpless, as the giant raised a hand to her ear.

"Thor here. Go ahead."

A deep, growling voice, like she was gargling gravel. She? Despite a metallic reverb, the voice Mirei was hearing was clearly masculine. If so, her foe was a man…that weapon, the armor, they couldn't be Arms.

This was no Liberator. He was no Liberator, and yet he was beating her senseless without a hint of effort. Who was this person?

"Acknowledged." The giant thundered. "Just wrapping up here. Prepare the Extar for transport. I'll be right with you."

'The Extar?' Mirei's blood ran cold as she realized there was only one Extar this 'Thor' person could be talking about.

"MAMORI!" She screamed, her left eye glowing with searing blue light and her limbs twisting into sharp black armor as her Enhancements activated. Damn the backlash, these people were not taking Mamori-!

A huge hand clamped around her throat, Thor lifting her effortlessly off the ground as she tried to make a dash for it. Ignoring the difficulty she was having breathing, Mirei twisted and flailed, trying to dig the sharp nails of her Enhanced hands into the giant's metal-plated arm. Her claws may as well have been butter knives as they squeaked and scraped harmlessly off. Thor glowered at her in the darkness, a bolt of lightning throwing ghastly shadows on his mask. Then he launched his attack. The last thing Mirei saw before conscious thought failed her was a flash of brilliant blue light.

She couldn't hear herself screaming in pain over the sustained, deafening crackle of electricity.

Thor looked the thoroughly-charred girl he held aloft up and down. She was limp, blood oozing from her nose and eyes, her mouth lifelessly agape. A job literally well-done, at least at a glance. This was a SOLDIER after all. Better safe than sorry. A thin blue light swept glowed out of Thor's helmet and swept over Mirei's shattered form, up and down, left and right, before the scan delivered its diagnosis.

*NO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED*

Target neutralized. Satisfied, Thor tossed Mirei aside like a rag doll, then trudged off without a backwards glance. "This is Thor." He said into his helmet's comm-system. "Mission completed. Good job, Ensifer: let's go home."

A/N: I've broken my own rule writing this in the middle of cooking up another fic (the Risa/Miya sidestory for Megami no Hanabira I promised at the end of said story), but it's been burning a hole in my brain for a while now. Should I continue this one, or focus on the Gaiden story?