Chapter 9 – Chrono's Force of Will

The next day, Sarah went over to Sakura's house to get her due full explanation. Nanoha as she was living at Sakura's house no longer lived in the forest and Lance had started staying there as Nanoha's pet since there had apparently been a few close calls the previous week with people wandering just a little too close to his campsite for his liking, even with the protections he had placed around it. He didn't mind this new situation at all though, as he liked being a ferret. As Nanoha had said, he would even change into a ferret when he was at home because he found that he was relaxed when he did. Sarah was told the story front to back. She was actually very smart and sensible for her age (Thus her getting the scholarship to an English boarding school) so she could handle the story, as outlandish as it was. When they got up to the point of where she came into the picture, she had a pretty good idea about what was happening.

She then asked the question, "So am I allowed to help too or not." Everyone thought for a moment. Nanoha and Lance didn't want to drag even more people into their problems than they already had, but it was clear that Sarah was every bit as capable as the rest of their new friends. Nanoha thus did what any self respecting teenager would do in this situation and passed the buck off, "I think Lee should decide. He is your big brother and was also the only one who saw what you could do." Sarah looked at him pleadingly, "Please Lee, I promise to be careful." Lee thought for a few minutes. He was worried but knew after he saw her that she would be all right. Lee "Alright, you can help but under two conditions. The first is that you won't go into another fight until you finish some basic training with Nanoha and Lance like the rest of us. The second one is that you have to promise me that you won't do something completely stupid and get yourself severely injured or worse. I wouldn't know what to tell mom and she would give me hell and go all ballistic and such?" Sarah was quick to reply with a loud "YES."

Lance suddenly stood up, "Shall we get started now then." Sarah looked raring to go, "I'm game for that." And so they all held onto Lance who teleported them to the old campsite where everyone else had trained. No one noticed that they left the house because no one was there at the time. And so the training began. The first part was seeing what she could do. When all was finished with, she had the exact same capabilities as Lee except she had one more wide area attack and one less mid range attack than Lee. This meant she would be good against many enemies as well. She also had his out of battle powers like limited mind reading and the ability to move stuff with her mind except she couldn't use his immobilization power. Lance pointed out when they were talking about their similarities that family usually had similar powers to each other and also again that these small powers were just natural affinities and that after awhile, such things would be child's play. Another thing was surprising was that she seemed to have a high amount of control. She learned faster than the others did except for Lee. She had it all down by sundown two days later as impossible as it was for Lance and Nanoha to comprehend. It was like something was in the water around here that just gave people ungodly magical abilities.

Lance, "What's really amazing is that she already has two finishing moves, that's huge for someone who just awakened her powers." Sakura, "I know, me and Chrono don't even have finishers." Chrono suddenly smiled, "Speak for yourself, I asked Black Falcon about that last night and he told me that I do have a finisher." Sakura, "Well then, why don't you show us?" Chrono, "Fine then, but you may want to step back a bit." They were all curious so they stepped back and watched as he transformed. "Okay Black Falcon, STRIKER Form, ACTIVATE." His staff then changed into a weird looking spear with what looked like a burning blue point. The point came out of a barrel behind it, which also seemed to have two thrusters. He suddenly started gathering magical power into the head of the staff. They all looked on curiously, except for Nanoha whose eyes had widened when she looked at Chrono's staff. It looked very similar to something she knew very well, and if she was right, then things were about to get dangerous. Nanoha knew that she had to intervene here, "WAIT!" Suddenly, everyone looked at her, including Chrono. He lost the charge in his staff due to the break in his concentration. Chrono, "Something wrong?" Nanoha, "Sorry, but I don't think you should use that spell, especially not here where there are other people, it's not safe." Chrono, "How do you know?" Before Nanoha could answer, Sarah looked down at her watch, "Whoa, look at the time." Lee looked at his watch too, "Your right, if we don't get going soon, mom will fry our heads." Sakura, "I'm going too, I'm tired just from watching you guys." Lance, "I'll come with you. What about you Nanoha?" Nanoha, "I'll be right back, I just want to have a small talk with Chrono first."

Everyone then headed home except Chrono who was asked to stay behind by Nanoha, "Chrono, I want to show you something." Nanoha suddenly activated her device and transformed. "EXCELLION MODE." Nanoha's staff changed into a spearhead somewhat similar to Chrono's. "I have a similar ability with Raging Heart and I think I need to explain something to you. Attacks like the one you were about to use are very powerful, but you need to be careful. After you are done with them, there is usually a severe backlash effect from the strain of the attack, not to mention that they take a huge amount of magic to use. Attacks like this are generally considered kamikaze attacks used as last resorts, and almost always leave the user completely drained and defenseless afterwards." Chrono, " I think I know what you are talking about, I felt a bit woozy after just trying to charge it up and I never even set it off. Black Falcon also told me the same thing, so I don't think that I'll be using it too often." Nanoha, "Good, at least you know, we should probably head back now."

The next thing they knew, the sky went black and a tree in front of them started to grow at an insane rate until it was as tall as a skyscraper. Nanoha to lance telepathically, "Lance put up a barrier over the entire city right now." Lance, "Consider it done." They both saw a barrier go over the entire city. Nanoha, "Lets do this Chrono." Chrono also transformed for battle, "Okay." They both started flying straight at the monster tree. The tree seemed to spawn little trees that could move. "Okay, Black Falcon, any other moves you would like to tell me about." Black Falcon, " Crash Shot." "Okay," and Chrono pointed his staff at the oncoming tree army, "CRASH SHOT." He shot a blast of magic at the tree army. It exploded on contact making all trees around the one hit explode. Unfortunately, it only made a dent in the rapidly growing army. They now started shooting wood spikes at them, and they were painful when they hit. Chrono tried to remember what defenses he had, "ROUND SHIELD and WARRIOR ARMOR." Then he started to glow blue with armor like aura. "I need a better attack BLACK FALCON." They started to become surrounded by the army. Nanoha, "AXCEL MODE," her staff changed back to its normal form. "AXCEL SHOOTER, FIRE!" Nanoha shot a flurry of shots all around them, "SPLIT SHOTS." Now all the shots Nanoha fired now split into many smaller shots so a ton of small shots hit at the army all around them and cleared a path for them.

They ran for the large tree. Then Nanoha flew up into the air and Chrono followed. Nanoha, "Chrono, cover me. I am going to find the source with some search magic but I am defenseless when doing it." Chrono, "Okay, I'll hold them off, but hurry." Black Falcon suddenly gave Chrono a suggestion, "Try INFERNO CANNON." "BLUE INFERNO CANNON!" Chrono unleashed a ray of flaming blue magic from his staff. He found that he could move the staff while firing so he spun around once while firing it to hit them all. He succeeded in making a good dent in the army. Nanoha, "Chrono you okay. I found it. It is at the base of the tree in the back. You'll need to hit it there, I'll stay back and cover you and so I can seal it when I get the chance." Chrono didn't know what he should use, trying to conserve his rapidly depleting power, but then BLACK FALCON spoke up, "Use VWD master." Chrono, "MWD?" Black Falcon, "Mode specified for versatile combat." Chrono, "Okay, let's give it a go. VariableWeaponsDriver, activate," and his staff changed into a Hilt. Then a large blade made of Blue Magic came out of the hilt. Chrono thought he wouldn't be able to use it due to his size but when he picked it up, it felt as light as a feather.

The sword's blade seemed to be burning as well; it was giving of some heat. Chrono charged forward and found that he could cut through the enemy no problem. He liked the sword but thought to himself how cool it would be if it was an axe given that his enemy were all trees. As if it was linked to his thoughts, the sword blade disappeared and was replace by a pole with an axe head at the top, which was made of his magic. "Whoa," said Chrono. BLACK FALCON, "It can become your weapon of choice but you currently cannot use any spells. Your physical attributes are also enhanced." Chrono, "Cool. Its like I have a private armory." He continued through to the back of the tree. Then another army of tree's came at him from behind. "DIVINE BUSTER!" Nanoha shot her attack from her staff (Now in Buster Mode) at the trees, which got blown to bits. With his increased speed, he flew quickly to the back of the tree. He tried chopping it with the axe but the tree just grew the parts back to replace the ones chopped off. The same thing happened with the sword mode.

Chrono was running low on power, and was starting to get beat back. He tried throwing everything he had at it to no avail. Nanoha was in trouble too. She wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Nanoha too looked like she was being beaten back as well. Nanoha had been trying her best, but at her current level she couldn't compete with them due to their sheer numbers. There was one thing she could do, and she was contemplating it, but she knew that there would be no putting that genie back in the bottle, and didn't want to do it if she didn't have to, and so before going that route, turned to Chrono, "Have any ideas what to do?" Chrono though didn't know what else he could do, "Wait, I haven't tried everything. I don't even know if I have enough power for it but I guess I have no choice. Time to be stupid." He turned to Nanoha, "Get ready with the sealing." She wasn't sure what he was talking about until he started charging up magic. "Okay, FlareStrikeDriver, Activate," Chrono's new Striker form staff came out. Chrono suddenly started focusing all his remaining power into this final attack, "OVER BLAZE STRIKER, DRIVER IGNITE!" The blue flaming point came out. He started focusing his all to the spell. He had too, since he hadn't even used it before, but he had a good idea about what to do, so he followed his gut. The thrusters suddenly ignited and shot him high into the air. Chrono, "Whoa!" He trying to steady himself. He aimed carefully, "TARGET SHOT, FIRE." He shot an almost invisible blast of magic straight at the monstrous tree, and it hit on the mark making a small hole in the tree, which quickly recovered. But that didn't matter, Chrono could feel it, he could almost see a line between him and the spot where it hit, and with this he knew that he couldn't miss. Chrono, "Nanoha, make it quick after I launch." Nanoha looked terrified at the thought of what Chrono was about to do, "Don't do it. You don't have enough power left. Be sensible about this Chrono. I have a better way!" Chrono "It's okay, I can do this. I will not be defeated." Chrono aimed himself, "AIM SET." Nanoha, "Don't Chrono, you'll die!" Nanoha looking terrified at the thought of what Chrono was about to do. Chrono, "Don't worry, I refuse to die!" He turned to the giant tree as the head of his now flaming pointed staff was glowing wildly, "Here I go! OverBlazeStriker, GO!" With a bang from the thrusters on the head of his staff, Chrono shot himself at the large tree like a flaming bullet. Its branches tried to get in the way but burned up on contact. Then at the moment that he hit the tree full force, "IMPACT!" The tree exploded on contact and a HUGE flaming blue shockwave shot out from the point of contact, so powerful that Nanoha had to fly up to avoid getting caught up in it as it was disintegrating the entire army of trees as it passed over them.

When the aftershock of Chrono's attack died down, the only part of the large tree that was left was a small chunk of it and in the middle was visibly the Saren Stone. "SEALING MODE," Nanoha's staff changed into its sealing mode and the large wings came out. "SEAL IT." RAGING HEART sealed it up no problem. As the stone was absorbed into RAGING HEART, "Number 22, sealed." "CHRONO!" Nanoha yelled out over and over again. She went over to the craters edge and down in the center, Chrono was standing, leaning on his staff, which had a few cracks that were slowly healing. Nanoha sighed with relief, "Chrono! I was so worried about you. That was an insanely stupid thing you just did. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You could of died." Chrono, "If my WARRIOR ARMOR hadn't been activated, I probably wouldn't of came out of that with this minor level of injury, but the thing is it WAS activated so no worries."

At this point, everyone came flying at them in the sizable crater, though they look surprised at the extent of the damage around them. "Are you two all right," said Lee and Lance in unison. Chrono, "We're okay, but I have definitely felt better." Lee, "That is good to hear." Lance tried to heal some of Chrono's wounds with his magic. When he was done, Chrono could walk again normally, but he was still clearly exhausted. Lance, "I've healed your wounds, but you still need to get some rest." Lance used MAGICAL RESTORATION to fix the battle site to what it was before hand, tough it took a bit longer given the extent of the damage and they fact that it was mostly forest. Lance had told them before that while basic organic matter like most plants could be restored, it took a good bit longer and more complex things like most trees and animals and people were impossible to bring back with any kind of reconstruction magic. After Lance was done he asked everyone to return to normal so everyone released their barrier jackets and staffs. Lance let the barrier down as they teleported to Chrono's large back yard, Chrono collapsing almost immediately from exhaustion, when they arrived causing Lee and Lance to carry him in. They brought Chrono inside and due to Lance's and Lee's treatment, only looked like he had over exerted himself so his parents didn't ask about it thinking he had just had a long and tiring day.

When they got to Chrono's excessively large room, they helped Chrono walk over to his bed where he collapsed from exhaustion. He fell straight to sleep. "Okay, please explain what happened Nanoha. We saw the giant tree but the power from the Saren Stone stopped us from teleporting there?" Lee and Lance asked in unison. With this, Nanoha told everyone in excessive detail what had happened with battle footage provided by Raging Heart. She showed them the entire battle and brought them up to date on what happened. They were all amazed at what happened but decided to leave it at that as so to let Chrono sleep in peace.