Chapter 5 – Friends For Life
Today was Monday. It had been 2 days since he had finished his basic how-to-be-a-mage training with Nanoha and Lance. The day after that he had experimented with his magic, feeling that each time he used it, the easier it got, like working out muscles that you hadn't used in a while. That said, he also found out some new stuff as well. One was that he could create a small magical ball, which he could control with his mind and better yet did not create a magic circle. Actually most of the powers he discovered that day did not create a magic circle. That would be handy because he could use them even with people around and as long as he was careful, people would not notice it was he who was doing it all. Another one of his new powers was that if he concentrated, he could move objects with his magic, sort of like telekinesis. He even went so far as to try and bend a spoon like an ESPER kid from an old movie and did so with success. One of the more wild powers he found was that with extreme could also see into a non-magical person's mind but seemed to only be able to see what was on the surface that they were currently thinking about. The last power, which was the only one he needed a magic circle to produce, was that he could seemingly make someone immobile for a few minutes.
He was trying to think how he could use his new powers to help him in his normal life, albeit secretly since he promised not to reveal magic to others, and obviously didn't want to abuse this power either, but that didn't mean it couldn't be helpful also. He found his first use when he saw his bus leave his stop a few seconds before he got there. "Okay" he thought to himself, "I just need to concentrate on the clearing in the small thicket right near the school and…" As he thought it, he started to vanish and a moment later found himself at the clearing with the school right down the street. "Perfect. Now I won't be late." He had been late almost everyday last week and he was told he would get detention if he was late this week too. He ran to school and went to his classroom where he started to get ready for the day while waiting for his friends who were riding the bus.
Chrono turned to him looking a bit surprised, "Hey, how are you here before me, you didn't even ride the bus." Lee, "I missed it so I ran." Chrono, "Well then explain how you got here so fast that you beat the bus." Lee, "Well I ran through the back yard circuit." This could have potentially been true; one could possibly beat the bus if they ran straight through everyone's back yards onto the main street leading up to the school at full speed. "Wow, you must have really been booking it." Sakura just entered the room. She was driven to school most the time because her parents were overprotective.
Lee was still thinking about his promise to keep his magic a secret, but as soon as he saw his best friends his resolve began to waver, as he didn't like to keep anything from them. That said, he also suddenly had another thought, of what his friends would think about it, since his world would be crushed if they had an adverse reaction to what was admittedly something immensely weird and strange, and so decided to do little bits of magic throughout the day in to gauge they would react. He didn't want to lose his friends, and while he did trust them more then that, he still figured that what he could do now was a bit more than strange, if not straight manga level freaky to the point that any sane person would probably distance themselves from it.
He found his first chance during that morning's P.E. class. The boy's were playing soccer and the girls were on the bars. He was running to the goal with the ball when he saw a chance. He kicked the ball to the goal and it looked like it was about to miss so he concentrated on the ball with his magic and willed it to go down and around the goalie's hand and as he thought it, the ball started to move bizarrely and it went down and straight around the goalie and into the goal. Everyone was looking amazed at the shot and tried to feign amazement, "Wow that sure was lucky how the wind pushed the ball around, like magic." Chrono walked over to Lee and gave him a pat on the back, "You don't see that everyday. That was the best shot I have ever seen." The game continued and he did a little more tweaking of the balls movement except he started to do it when other people on his team shot instead of himself. In the end every just thought it was the wind starting up though.
When it was time for a break, he went over to see how the girls were doing. It looked like it was Sakura's turn next and when she went on, she was perfect. Everyone applauded except for the mean group of girls in the back from their class. One of them started chiding her, "A baby could do that," Another pitched in as well, "Hey, I just got a call from the zoo, they told you to stay in your monkey cage this time." Sakura seamed on the verge of tears. Lee knew that she was very proud of her gymnastics skills, especially since she otherwise lacked athletically, and so was very upset and sad when they were denounced. Lee saw this and felt bad for Sakura who did nothing wrong and decided to help her out a bit. The bars were removable and Lee had an idea. He used his magic to slightly move the bars so they would fall off if pulled on too much. One of the girls that had teased Sakura was up, so she went to the bars, and as soon as she pulled herself up, it fell down and she slipped to the mat underneath. All the kids started to laugh why the teacher went over to see if the girl was okay. She was fine since Lee not being cruel made sure the bar fell to the side and missed her. Sakura looked at this and cheered up a little. He then gathered up a small amount of magic in his finger and shot it at the wall. It made a very loud bang sound near the other girls and they all screamed. Sakura cheered up a lot from this little piece of vindictive pleasure and they went on with their P.E. class. He went back to his own P.E. class so he wouldn't get in trouble.
During his math class (his least favorite of all his classes), he used his power to help the class by getting out of class when he guided a bullet of magic he had gathered under the desk through the undersides of the other desks, around their teacher, and up to the smoke detector and set it off. That said, he didn't really think it all the way through. He had intended it to just be something entertaining and possibly get them out of class since there wasn't much of it left anyway, but didn't really think far enough ahead. The fire alarm did go off for a few seconds, but given it was a school fire system, the faculty never took any chances and they were all sent outside like he had thought, but be it good or bad, they were told that school had to be ended early because they needed to go through the school and see what set off the alarm since no discernable cause was visible. Though Lee slightly regretted messing with everyone like this, believing that he had actually taken things too far, all his peers were happy about this because they got out of school 2 hours early. Thus all the students were sent home. On the way home, Lee had decided to tell his friends about everything that had happened in the last few days when they met up in the park later. He decided that despite his promise to Lance and Nanoha and his own personal reservations, they were his best friends, and he couldn't keep what might become a large part of his life a secret from them.
Later in the park they had all gathered like they had planned to before heading off to an arcade or café somewhere. They ended up on a bench talking about a lot of random stuff including their random early dismissal, and it was at that point that Lee said he had something to tell them. Right when he was about to tell them though, disaster struck with such timing that Lee wouldn't have been surprised if they were on candid camera. He saw a large black dog like the one from the other day appear out of nowhere. His friends saw it and being the regular sane non magic believing people they were, they screamed in terror as it launched a large blast of dark colored magic at them. Lee, "Get down now." He went in front of them in a split second and shielded them by creating a magical field all around them.
Chrono and Sakura were momentarily speechless, not quite sure what the hell was happening, for it was beyond their comprehension. Chrono, "What the hell are you doing Lee." Lee, "Listen!" Lee was suddenly using a much more serious tone then his friends were used to hearing from him, " I am going to hold it off, you two run as far away as possible." Sakura looked at him like he was crazy, "What are you nuts, you can't fight that thing, were just lucky that this shield thing appeared to protect us." Chrono, "Yeah, what is this thing anyway?" Lee, "You don't get it, I can understand Chrono but you should've at least be able to tell by now that it is ME holding this thing up. I created it." Sakura, "How did you do a thing like that?" Lee, "I have no time to explain so just trust me when I say I can handle this and you need to get out of here." Sakura looked at him hard, trying her best to understand the situation but failing, but more than that, she trusted her best friend Lee, "Okay, but you better be right behind us." Chrono though realized something, "But what do we do? Aren't we kind of trapped in this shield thing? How do we get out?" Lee, "In a second I will move all of us out of here. The second we are out of range, a new friend of mine will take you somewhere safe. They're probably already waiting for us."
Lee focused in and teleported them the instant after he finished speaking and they reappeared a few blocks away. Chrono and Sakura simultaneously, "That was weird." They were both disoriented, needing a moment to regain their balance, but when their senses came back, they were shocked to find that they were far from where they had been. That said, before they could even ask what had just happened, another voice interrupted them, "Lee, hey Lee. We're over here…" Lee turned to see Nanoha running over with Lance right behind her. Lee, "No time for introductions. Lance, could you please get them out of here if you can. Obviously sooner than I thought it would happen, but I think its time to put that training you gave me into practice. Nanoha and I will try and fight it off, and if you could do me a favor, please explain what is going on? I figure at this point they have a right to know and I was about to tell them anyway right before this monster appeared." Lance was about to say something to the effect of their promise of secrecy, but could easily tell that these weren't just strangers to Lee. It was obvious they were friends, and very close at that, so he understood and just nodded, "Okay Lee, but you guys be careful." Lee, "Okay Haruno, SET UP." He transformed into his barrier jacket and his staff appeared next to him. Lee and Nanoha then flew towards the monster.
Lance turned to Sakura and Chrono, who looked a bit dumbfounded at Lee and Nanoha flying away. Lance, "Okay, I am going to teleport you guys so stand still." He teleported them all to the hill on the edge of town, far away from the monster, but in a perfect location to see everything that was going on in the battle. Chrono and Sakura were for the second time completely disoriented by the sudden shift in location, for teleportation to them was an impossible feat beyond human comprehension, and so their senses weren't prepared for it. Lance, "Okay I think I should explain to you guys what is going on." He started to explain the slightly lengthy story as concisely as he could to a reasonably panicked Chrono and Sakura who were still shocked and disoriented by everything that they had seen in the last few minutes.
"So Lee said he would help us." Lance concluded his mini-adventure story. Sakura and Chrono stood there with their jaws dropped. Chrono and Sakura were both skeptical and hysterical at the story Lance had told them, but watching the fight unfold before theme they were forced to believe they weren't having some sort of shared fever dream. Chrono, "So you say that he now has magic wizard powers and that he and that Nanoha girl are going to fight that thing alone." Sakura, "Then what about us. Can we do anything? We want to help. That is ours and your best friends out there and I just can't stand by and watch." Lance, "Well the sentiments appreciated but it really doesn't matter if you wanted to help of not, since as soon as I erect the barrier, you will disappear into suspended animation along with every other non-magical being, but I guess it's the thought that counts."
Lance started to erect the magical barrier. His magic circle had already appeared and it only took him a few moments to cover the entire area. "Hey, when are you going to erect the barrier thing, we're ready you know." Lance turned around quickly and saw Chrono and Sakura just standing there puzzled. "That's weird," thought Lance, "The barrier is already up so unless…" A thought just occurred to him, but it was wildly outlandish, especially given the planet he was on. The rate of it was less than one in a million, so for it to be not one, but both of them was insane, but Lance couldn't think of any other explanation. Lance, "Maybe you can help after all." He told them to stand perfectly still, much to their confusion. He suddenly focused all his senses and magic onto his eyes and his eyes widened, "But could it be enough?"
Lance then held out his hands and a very large magical circle appeared under a very confused Sakura and Chrono. This wasn't the proper method, or even a good method for that matter but he didn't have much choice right now. Suddenly, both Chrono and Sakura felt something wash over them, a sort of invisible force they couldn't identify. That said, it felt like it was pressing down upon them. For a moment, it felt like all the breath left their body, the feeling was intense. But then the exact opposite happened. Suddenly, from inside them, something started flooding their entire bodies, an immense burning feeling that felt like it would melt them from the inside, gushing out of them and they started glowing. Then two smaller magic circles appeared on top of Lance's, one under each of them. There was a blue magic circle appeared under Chrono and a red circle appeared under Sakura. "What is going on," they said in unison. Lance, "It's as I thought, as insanely impossible as the chances are, you both have sleeping powers just like Lee except yours hadn't been awakened yet, most likely due to not having any catalyst to do so yet, like Lee had when he was in mortal danger since he defended you before it could happen, so I had to provide you with one myself, though this method of awakening a mage is risky and generally frowned upon and not even guaranteed to work, but it looks like this time we got lucky." Two objects suddenly appeared in front of Chrono and Sakura. They looked like marbles, one pink and one black. The black one flew over to Chrono and the pink one flew over to Sakura, much to Lance's surprise.
Chrono, "What are these?" The black one lit up, "BLACK FALCON." The pink one, "CERENITY." Both, "WE ARE YOUR DEVICES MASTER!" Lance was surprised to see that either of them, let alone both manifested a device so quickly, but he didn't have time to ponder it now, " Tell them to set up." Both nodded, not sure what exactly was happening, but feeling like they should just go with it, "SET UP!" There was a flash of light and they reappeared. Chrono had black and silver mage pants with a blazer that was black with silver stripes. Sakura was wearing a white dress with pink frills and black lines going up the sides. She also had a pink blazer. Sakura's staff had a pale pink handle with a gold circular top with an opening at the top and Chrono's was black with a dark gold top that looked like a circle with a point at the top. They were both out of it a bit, everything was happening so fast, but Lance though was shocked, for while not quite as strong as Lee, both of them were exuding absolutely ludicrous amounts of magic for people who had never even used it before, but he just smiled at them, "Well looks like you might be able to help after all." The two with looks of surprise on their face at what just happened started to fly towards the battle, even though neither of them knew how to fly, resulting in initial shrieking from Sakura and a pale expression from Chrono until they figured out that they had complete control over it.
Lee and Nanoha started at the beast again. Nanoha shot her Divine Buster and knocked it back. Then Lee with some focus teleported behind it and hit it with his Break Impact which didn't do much. The monster seemed to have the power to regenerate. Then from out of nowhere came 2 people that Lee didn't recognize for a second. "Hey, how you holding up. Thought we could give you a hand. You look like you need it." Chrono and Sakura arrived right in front of Lee. Lee was sufficiently shocked, "Where did all this come from?" Sakura, "Well when Lance put up the barrier, he noticed we didn't disappear as he expected so he did a little digging and found apparently had some kind of power deep inside that we had no idea about." Chrono, "Then he did some stuff and forced them to wake up and so here we are, ready to help you." Suddenly Black Falcon blinked "MASTER, LETS USE GRAVITON STRIKE." Chrono was about to ask exactly what a graviton strike was when suddenly, he felt something appear on the surface of his mind, and suddenly he knew exactly what to do, "GRAVITON STRIKE!" Chrono found himself launching straight at the beast with his staff aimed right at it. He hit it straight on and his staff seemed to release a shockwave of magic straight through it and blew it to bits. It reformed itself in no time and started to attack. "OKAY MASTER, ITS OUR TURN. TRY USING PLATNIUM SCARLET SMASHER," said Cerenity, "Change mode, Firing type." Sakura's staff reformed its head into what looked like a small cannon barrel. Magical energy gathered and the head started to shine as a red Magic circle appeared under her. "Okay set, PLATNIUM SCARLET SMASHER." She aimed her staff straight at the monster. "FIRE!" A large wave of magic shot at the monster that seemed to damage it until it healed itself.
Lee, "We NEED a more powerful attack. Haruno, is there any way to use FLASH BURST during transformation." Haruno, "No." Lee, "Then what can we do." Haruno was silent for a few moments, then it blinked, "There may be a way, but it's risky if you get it wrong." Lee, "That doesn't matter, lay it on me." Haruno, "There is restricted function, PURE LIGHT BREAKER, but Haruno does not recommend it." Lee, "Pure Light what?" Haruno, "Pure Light Breaker, it is your most powerful spell, but it takes a lot of magic to use." Lee, "Then why didn't we just use it to begin with?" Haruno was silent for another moment then blinked, "Current estimate of master's skill level and total magic at peak is still significantly less than amount necessary for this spell. Normal result of trying to use spells that require more magic and requiring more skill than you have is negative backlash effect most likely resulting in large amount of damage to the mage. Haruno strongly does not recommend this option." Lee could understand what Haruno was trying to say, but right now, he knew that he needed that kind of power and he smiled, "Sounds crazy, let's try it." He changed his staff into shooting mode. Haruno started blinking erratically, as if it was nervous, "Final warning to master, this will use up all magic power, leaving master absolutely defenseless. Also there is an incredibly high chance of the spell backfiring. Spell is much more advanced then master's current skill and power level. Haruno's suggestion, find another course of action?" Lee "I already said it Haruno, I don't care about the risks, I WILL make it work. Now lets do this!"
Lee flew high into the air, higher then all of the surrounding buildings and high above the battle until Haruno told him to stop, still issuing warnings to Lee advising against his current course of action. Lee, "Are you sure that it will be able to hit from so far away, that has to be at least 60 meters down." Haruno paused it's repeated warning to answer, "Do not worry master, it can easily reach at this distance, Master should be more worried about getting caught up in the damage radius." Lee looked a little apprehensive at that, wondering what kind of spell he was about to unleash, but he was already committed, "Fine, I already said I would do it, and I'm not backing down now." Suddenly, a gold magic circle appeared under him and it was big, much bigger than the one he used for his buster. It seemed to eclipse the sky a bit. Then suddenly, magic started gathering in the head of his staff, a LOT of magic, so much that Lee felt light headed and his body felt strained. That said, he could also feel the power that was gathered, and he knew that it was his and everyone's best change, "This is it!" He could feel all the power now all gathering, more and more, waiting to be launched.
Down below at the battle, everyone suddenly realized that there was light shinning down on them, an odd, but somewhat warm golden light. They looked up into the sky with shock as they saw the large golden sphere around the head of Lee's staff that was his attack. Then all at once, they all felt it, a wave of power washed over them, and it was huge; all their eyes were open wide. Chrono, "What the hell is that?" Sakura, "I don't know, but whatever it is, I can feel it from here." Nanoha just stared up at it in awe having no idea how someone who had been using magic for less than three days could do something like that, "That's way to big! Does he really mean to fire that here?" Lance, "I think he does, in which case I think the best thing to do is to get out of his way." Nanoha, "Agreed!" All four of them suddenly took to the sky until they were sure that they were higher than Lee.
Haruno, "Master, all allies have left the battle zone, it is now safe to launch your attack." Lee, "Here we go!" The sheer power of the spell he had created was creating a small gust around him, flicking his hair back. Lee was concentrating with everything he had just to maintain it. The amount of power he was trying to used felt like it was going to tear his body apart, like he was on the very edge, but somehow he was just able to hold himself together, but just barely. The pressure of the magic he was focusing through his hands into his staff had started to literally tear up his hand, making them bleed painfully, and his consciousness felt like it wanted to quit on him, not to mention that the amount of magic being forced out of him for this attack was painful, like his body was on fire, but he persevered through all the pain. Haruno hadn't been kidding about the difficulty or the amount of power needed, but at the same time, something inside him was egging him on, and so he knew he could succeed. Haruno was blinking like crazy as Lee continued to power up his attack, "Max output exceeded, reaching critical levels, Master has exceeded previous limits!" Lee though could tell he was reaching the peak, "Okay Haruno, This is it. This is my all, an all or nothing bet on this one spell." Haruno, "You can do it." Lee, "Here I go! PURE LIGHT BREAKER!" He fired all the magic he had gathered at the beast in one wave of tremendous power and it was unbelievable. The mega wave was so powerful; it tore apart everything in sight just by passing it. Lee was blown back just from the kick of firing it. It was literally disintegrating everything it passed without even touching it. The monster was no exception as it was hit full force with the attack. There was a HUGE explosion on contact that all but disintegrated the monster except for a tiny little blob with the Saren Stone in it. Haruno instantly put up an automated defense around Lee to protect him from the shockwave of his own attack, and then changed into sealing mode of its own accord and automatically sealed the stone quickly, Lee not having the energy to do so himself, the stone being automatically absorbed into Haruno. The bottom of the staff was now shooting steam out from the attack and sealing. He felt himself at a loss for words at what he just did. When he looked back at where he fired the attack, he saw nothing but a crater that was so large, that it looked like the block had just been hit by a missile. He felt drained of all his magic as he suddenly found himself falling from the sky, no longer able to fly, but was caught by Chrono who helped him to the ground.
Everyone was gathering around Lee now as he landed. "Lee, that was INCREDIBLE," was all Chrono and Sakura could say. Nanoha then came and said, "Lee, that attack. What was it?" "Well Haruno told me to use it so I did," said Lee, "What did Haruno call it?" "Pure Light Breaker," said Haruno. Nanoha and Lance were doubly surprised, though Haruno also added, "And to correct master, Haruno warned you against using it, even though it ended u providing the optimal outcome." Nanoha, "That attack, I was surprised when I saw it. I told you before how busters were considered one of the strongest attack types. The one you just used was their upgraded version, the true strongest type, a breaker class spell. Yours was amazing though." Chrono "Lee, how did you do something like that. It was epic!" Sakura, "More like nuclear! You just destroyed a whole city block!" Lee "I just felt it out, I don't know how it happened. Haruno though said it was beyond my current power and skill, though I somehow pulled it off anyway." Sakura, "Well I am just glad you are okay. You would have broken our promise if you hadn't come back." Chrono looked over at the destruction when another thought hit him, "Um, not to be the killjoy here, but this is a lot of damage. We aren't responsible for this, right? I mean my dad would literally kill me even if we can afford it." Sakura suddenly understood what he was saying, "Um… I think this is what insurance is for. We can't honestly be held responsible for this right. I mean we were attacked, yeah that's it. Self Defence!" Lee had the good graces to look ashamed of all the damage that while unintentional, he had most definitely caused, "How do we even explain how this happened?" The three magic newbies continued to start to fret and panic over what could end up being a life destroying situation when Lance suddenly gave a loud whistle and interrupted them, "Okay, enough of the panicking. Given that you all did the hard part, it's my turn to help out as this newly formed rag-tag team's support user. Just leave this to me."
The three earthlings were still confused, but honestly were willing to take any help they could get, despite not knowing what could be done to smooth over this situation. Lance told everyone stand back, since this spell needed some room to work." Lance started chanting, "Catastrophes mark now be gone, erase all traces of your destruction, MAGICAL RESTORATION." There was a flash and when it died down, the entire area had been healed to look like nothing had happened, the crater and all the cracks that had been created by the battle had vanished. Lee, Chrono and Sakura just looked at Lance, dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed, looking around wildly to double check their own eyes, but everything seemed to have returned to normal. Sakura, "But how?" Chrono, "Damn, magic is crazy!" Lee, "Seriously. What kind of magic was that." Nanoha, "Super complicated magic." Lance, "True, this is what is known as restoration magic. Without going into the particulars of all the different formulas, math and theory involved, just understand that between reading magic that caused the damage and other things, it is possible to reassemble matter, and if it is simple enough even basic cell structure like most plants and trees, back to a previous state as long as the matter itself is still in the area and hasn't dissipated too much. It's not completely perfect, as there might be a few irregularities here and there, but for the most part they'll be too small and insignificant to make any real difference. Though I should mention that for more complicated cellular structures, i.e. Animals and larger ecologies, it isn't possible to fix with restoration magic, which is really what healing magic is for anyway but gets more complicated. In any case, fixing up something like a few buildings worth isn't that big of a deal, so don't worry about it." Nanoha, "He says that, but there are very few mages who could have done such a good job so fast on such a complicated area." Lance blushed a bit but smiled anyway, the three new comers just staring at Lance with sheer awe, frankly thinking that despite them having to fight a monster that Lance's achievement was frankly greater than that.
That said, they couldn't just stay there admiring Lance forever. Lance "Okay everyone, disarm your barrier jackets and staffs, I am going to have to let the barrier down soon, I'm too wiped to hold it up much longer and I don't think it a good idea if people saw you like this." They all let down their Barrier Jackets. Lance then told Nanoha to teleport them all outside the barrier. "If I really have to. I'm not particularly good at teleporting, but desperate times call for desperate measures I guess." The three newcomers were a bit apprehensive at letting someone who claimed not to be good at it suddenly teleport them, but before they could protest, Nanoha grabbed ahold of all of their hands and teleported them all to Nanoha and Lance's campsite. Lance, "Okay, good work. I can finally let down the barrier." He released the barrier and everyone who had been temporarily held in stasis inside the area continued with what they were doing as if nothing had happened (as far as they knew, nothing had happen. Lance had done an exceptional job with the clean up.)
