Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia
Four: Eternal Blaze II
Subaru Yagami hefted the staff, feeling knowledge flowing invisibly between her and Raising Heart. It was a little like a virtual reality game, the gem showing her in her mind how to call up the basic attacks and defenses the gem made her capable of.
"Reverent Shooter!" Subaru called out the command as five balls of red energy formed around the top of Raising Heart. She pointed the staff at the three hardsuits that were chasing after Alicia and ordered, "Shoot!"
Ran Mizuno, pilot of the red hardsuit and leader of the officers cursed as the blonde parried a energy bolt with a round shield even as she swung her scythe blade to force Haruhi back. The flying blond was good, very good, and for some reason their two Time Space Administration Bureau allies were just standing around watching. A alarm made her jink aside as a red energy ball blasted Hazuki backwards, then four more swept in on them all.
"Wow," Alicia murmured, faintly surprised. She had sensed the girl's magical potential, but shew hadn't expected her to be able to use Raising Heart so quickly!
Ran blasted away on afterburners and dropped chaff from compartments in the armor, but the balls followed them all relentlessly. 'They're Midchilde magic,' she scowled, accelerating to put some room between them, turning and shooting at them with her gauntlet blasters. They detonated in a spectacular boom, almost as bright as the ones that hit Haruhi, staggering her.
From the sidelines Vita and Signum watched the battle, staying out of it for now. "She already made multiple bullets," Vita noted admiringly. When Nanoha Tackamachi had first acquired her Device Raising Heart she had only managed one at first, which might imply some interesting things about this new user.
The taller warrior Signum nodded, "It's very impressive. It also implies that Raising Heart is cooperating with her."
"Should we call off the fight?" Vita wondered, the smaller woman suspecting that the theft charge was probably bogus. She hefted her mallet easily, a slight smile appearing on her face as she considered going into battle..
"No," Signum said as she watched the three hardsuits fight Alicia and a suddenly flying Subaru, "I want to see how quick a study she is."
"You've got to be kidding me," Haruhi muttered as the pilot moved her blue hardsuit, dodging the girl with the staff. The girl had manifested glowing wings on her boots and soared into the sky, not to mention easily blocking her plasma blasts with a energy shield.
"Subaru," Alicia called from where she was handily holding off the other two suits with her Bardiche in a sword-like mode, "this isn't your fight!"
"Maybe I just don't like seeing people getting ganged up on," Subaru called back as her blue opponent swept in close, swinging a punch. "Ugh!" she yelped, her shield blocking the superhuman blow, but just barely.
"Jet Zanbar!" Alicia yelled as Bardiche's sword blade swept outward, lightning dancing around it as it nearly cut both suits in half, shorting one's electrical systems out.
Ran raced down to catch Hazuki, glad to see the suit registered she was unharmed, even if the suit itself was toast. Setting her down on the pavement she took off after Alicia, her lips pulled back in a angry snarl. Her suit may have looked like the others but it was a custom model built by Stingray herself, with some nasty surprises.
A mental order deployed the anti-photon gun mounted on her shoulder, the targeting scope appearing before her eye. It fired off reverse charged photons, effectively 'anti-light' and since Alicia's shields were effectively magic light... The beam swept across the shield and destroyed it, in the process generating a very powerful explosion that stunned Alicia and sent her flying.
"Alicia!" Subaru yelled, alarmed, He turned towards Ran and swept her staff around, words forming on her lips as the weapon powered up. "Reverent," she called out furiously as a massive charge of energy formed, "BUSTER!"
Ran brought her suit's energy shields up a half-second before that river of raw power hit, but it was like closing a door on a flash flood. They overloaded in a second and the beam hammered her backwards even as her boot thrusters tried to stop her. She plummeted to the earth as armor melted away, the bolt thrusting her into the ground on a steep angle.
"Wow," Alicia flew to Subaru's side as the girl slumped tiredly, helping support her as the final
armored trooper watched in shock.
Subaru smiled weakly, "You're all right?"
Alicia hugged her reassuringly as she promised, "I'm fine."
"Ma'am!" Haruhi soared down, helping pull Ran's smoking and sparking armor out of the hole. As Hazuki limped over in her crippled suit she asked, "What do we do now?"
"Get reinforcements," Ran growled, glaring at the TSAB agents who were still just standing there! She was even more annoyed by her scans of Subaru... unless she misunderstood the readings, the girl still hadn't gone all out yet!
"I think we'd better break this up," Vita looked up at Signum.
"No one's been hurt yet," Signum protested mildly, "and I'm curious to see how they'll do against more hardsuits."
"Maybe," Vita conceded that point, "but Subaru has already used variations of Nanoha's Divine Shooter and Divine Buster." She smiled grimly, "Do we really want to see her come up with something like Starlight Breaker?"
"Urk," Signum made a face as she imagined the destruction the girl could cause, "point."
"And," Vita pushed on, "Subaru hasn't even used Raising Heart's cartridge system yet. If she uses that, too...."
"The Queen's going to be a bit upset if we let them destroy the neighborhood," Signum agreed. "You go talk to the hardsuits, I'll take Alicia and Subaru."
"Right," Vita agreed as she jogged off to where the three armored women were standing as Signum gracefully took off into the sky.
Subaru pointed Raising Heart at Signum warily as she demanded, "What do you want?"
"To talk," Signum said, floating nearby while holding her hands away from where Lethanthien rested at her side.
"I thought as agents of the TSAB you were here to arrest me?" Alicia asked calmly, raising her eyebrow slightly.
"If you are who you say you are," Signum said, "and I'm fairly sure you are, it makes that situation somewhat complicated."
Ran had her visor flipped up, the blue haired young woman glaring down at Vita. "Are you telling me," she said to her flatly, "that this entire fight was unnecessary?"
"Hey, you jumped her first," Vita quickly protested. "Besides, if you hadn't fought them," she said reasonably, "we couldn't have confirmed those devices were the real deal."
"And that's important because?" Haruhi demanded, the boyish brown haired woman looking at her questioningly.
Patiently Vita explained to them, "Intelligent Devices like Bardiche and Raising Heart are at least partially sentient." When they gave her blank looks she elaborated, "They choose their users and would refuse to work for someone that they considered to be unworthy."
"Huh," Ran muttered, looking over at the two young ladies who were descending to join them beside Signum. "Guess I have to," she muttered to herself as they landed.
Alicia tensed as Ran walked towards her, her armor battered and missing much of it's outer layers from Subaru's attack. "Yes?" she asked warily, her hand tightening on Bardiche. She could probably manage a scythe attack if she had to....
"Ran Mizuno, hardsuit commander," she introduced herself. She took a deep breath and surprisingly offered her hand as she said, "I want to apologize for attacking you." She frowned over at Signum as she reluctantly added, "I should have waited to see what the situation was."
Alicia took her hand, shaking it firmly as she gave the battered woman a once over and asked, "I hope you weren't hurt?"
"Nothing hurt but my pride," Ran admitted wryly.
"Uhm," Subaru smiled tentatively at Ran and the other hardsuit pilots as the younger girl asked, "am I in trouble?"
Ran grimaced, "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure." She looked over at Alicia, then at Signum and Vita, "Could someone please explain the situation?"
"It's a long story," Alicia sighed.
Subaru looked at the miraculously undamaged sundae shop nearby and suggested, "Want to have something to eat while we talk?"
Vita's stomach growled loudly, making everyone look at her questioningly,. She smiled sheepishly and said, "I vote yes."
Not long after Ran emerged from the bathroom in her armor under suit, the white cloth uniform clinging to her body as the two relatively undamaged suits followed, one carrying her battered armor in it's cube shaped storage mode.
"Grab a table nearby and get some sundaes," Ran instructed her two wing mates, "I'll see if someone can explain what's really going on."
"Will do," Hazuki nodded firmly.
Signum waited for Ran to sit down at the larger table, five fresh sundaes already delivered. "First of all, I apologize for not acting sooner," Signum admitted. "I was reasonably certain that Alicia was who she claimed, and seeing her abilities proved it."
"So, am I in trouble on Midchilda?" Alicia asked as she watched Subaru demolishing yet another sundae along with Vita.
"Probably not seriously," Vita said as she happily shoveled the chocolate covered ice-cream away, "you see, you're basically Fate's sister." She waved her spoon for emphasis, "Any property she had, you could inherit as long as a will doesn't bar it."
"And Fate had no children?" Alicia asked a bit sadly.
"Several, actually," Signum told her, "she was guardian to several children, and adopted Vivio with Nanoha. But she didn't have any biological children."
"Ah," Alicia brightened a bit at that. She felt a little sad knowing she didn't have great grand-nieces and nephews around, but at least Fate had a family.
Ran frowned a bit as she had a smaller amount of ice-cream, "She may have a claim on Bardiche, but she stole Raising Heart."
"I'm not giving her back," Subaru said firmly as she grasped the red gem that was currently hanging around her neck.
"I have no intention of trying to take it away," Ran said quickly, thinking of the butt kicking they had already received.
Signum had some of her own ice-cream, "Raising Heart is a intelligent device, Ran. I feel quite certain she did not go anywhere she did not wish to."
"We're gonna have to deal with the offended museum officials," Vita had to admit, "but I think we can handle it." More cheerfully she added, "We have enough friends high up in the TSAB to quash the robbery charge."
"I'm willing to face charges for stealing Raising Heart," Alicia offered mildly, "I knew it was robbery when I took her."
"Or freed her from captivity," Subaru offered loyally.
"If you really feel guilty," Signum politely offered a suggestion, "limit yourself to this world while we go back home to Mid and check things out. Worse comes to worse we might have to haul you back for a slap on the wrist."
Ran nodded, "And in return for wrecking my suit, stick around and help out, as well as train Subaru here. All right?"
Alicia looked at the three women, considering the request for a moment then she smiled and nodded, "All right."
To be continued....
Notes: I substituted 'reverent' for divine in Subaru's attacks to make them different from Nanoha's. My basic assumption is that 'Shooter' and 'Buster' are basic attacks already loaded into Raising Heart, so Subaru could learn those pretty easily. Nanoha claimed 'Starlight Breaker' was her own variation, so it may take Subaru a while to make a similar attack.
Inheritance laws as relating to clones is total guesswork on my part, but I would assume since Midchilda has the technology to clone & copy memories, they would have provisions in the laws.
The rights of Intelligent Devices is also something not covered in Nanoha. My take is that they do have rights and freedom of choice, but they need a advocate to stand up for them. For whatever reason Raising Heart did not have such an advocate, and she ended up in a museum.