Chapter 19 – Beyond Potential

About 30 minutes later, they were all in the transportation room, which had been given top priority to be fixed. Apparently, it was both rude and difficult to teleport directly onto another ship, especially in the middle of the Dimension Shade, and according to Lance any warship worth its salt would have anti-teleport shielding. Thus they were directed back to the same room that they had originally appeared in, where John directed them to send them. And so with the press of a button, they were teleported to a similar looking room where a person was waiting for them. "Assistant captain in command of the 4th Division 12th platoon under General Grayson, Henry Matthew's reporting. Please follow me." He led them around the ship until he came to a door at the end of a hallway. He opened it and inside, there was a square table in the middle with a single 5-person couch on each side. The opposite wall was a big window and there were snacks on the table along with tea. The rest of them proceeded inside while the officers who John had brought with him, Roger and Fusaki, settled themselves outside until they were needed.

"My, you've brought some young ones with you," said the elderly but fit looking man. He had to be at least in his sixties by the look of his face and grey hair, but he had an almost rippling physique and was easily a good two sizes larger than John and easily stood at taller than six feet. John, "We'll these are the people that are related to the current situation that you are sure to be dying to ask me about, and three of them also happen to be my children. The other two are friends of theirs and the last two are also friends, but I think you've already met one of them and I know you know the second." Suddenly, he looked at Nanoha and his eyes went wide, "Now this is a pleasant surprise, what is my favorite niece doing here?!" Nanoha ran over and hugged General Grayson, "How have you been Uncle Will." "Great, it's so good to see you again." Lee then said, "This is a surprise, you never told us he was your uncle." Nanoha, "Sorry, I never got the chance."

General Grayson, "Okay, well as pleasant as this is, lets get ourselves seated shall we I've had tea and refreshments already prepared for you so help yourselves." They all sat down on the couches and then the general turned to them all, "Let me formally introduce myself to those of you who do not know me. I am William Grayson, General of the 4th Section of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, and for those that I've met for the first time, it's a pleasure to meet you." They all introduced themselves. Grayson, "Now if I were to guess, I would say you three," pointing at Lee, Sarah and Sora, "are John's children, am I right." Sarah, "Is the relation that obvious." Grayson laughed a bit, "To be frank, yes. You all look just like him, in a good way. That said, I must count myself surprised. Last time I checked, John told me that none of you were mages." John, "And that's because they weren't. This is a very recent development." Grayson nodded in understanding, "Well its abnormal to be sure, but there are plenty of documented cases of repressed magic appearing later than average, so I guess I should say congratulations."

They thanked him, but Sarah was dying to ask her own own question, "I have a question? We were told that you are from Earth, so then how are you related to Nanoha since she said she's from some place called Maral?" Grayson, "Ah, good question, but I'm afraid the answer is not all that much a mystery. As much as I care for my favorite niece, I married into the Takamachi family. I am the husband of her father's eldest sister, Nanoha's aunt Tomoe, and thus her uncle."

John, "Now before we get started, I think you might like to get to know Chrono and Sakura a bit. Both are brilliant new mages with massive potential and they are both completely 100% from Earth like you." Grayson's eyebrows rose a bit at this, "Are they now. Now that is something." He turned to them, "And which country are you from?" Chrono, "We're both from Japan, Tokyo Prefecture." Grayson, "Ah, yes, Japan. I have visited there many times myself. I even have some family that moved to Japan, not that far from where John said he's located memory serving. I myself however am originally from English descent, though work has kept me quite busy so I haven't actually been back to Earth in a long time. I wonder how my brother's family is?" John then interrupted, "Your family is good." Lee, "You know the General's family?" John, "You do to, they have a different last name since moving to Japan but they are our old neighbor's from back when we lived a few blocks down, the Kaiten family. That said, their actual name is Grayson, but I think they changed it because Kaiten is easier to write and sound out in Japanese."

Lee looked surprised with this unexpected twist of faith, since he remembered the family quite well, "I would have never guessed. They didn't seem to be not normal?" John, "Well to be fair, its not like mages are all that different from non-mages for the most part. That said, only the two oldest, the ones yours and Sora's age have developed their powers to a point where it could be called magic last time I recall, and back when they were our neighbors only the oldest had come into his powers. Also I believe that the two youngest still haven't shown signs of magic. Their father is brother to General Grayson who works as the head of an English Stockholding company in Japan, and their mother was actually a colleague of General Grayson's which is how she met Grayson's brother." Nanoha, "Wait, my cousins have been down the street this entire time?" John, "More like a few blocks over, and if it makes you feel better, they go to a different school too." Grayson, "Well still that's serendipity if I ever heard it."

"Okay, I think we're done with introductions. Now it's time to discuss the reason why I called you here. So, John, what exactly happened that put you ship in this state. We got a reading from your ship all the way back at headquarters for a power level of 450 million, and since it didn't match anyone's in the database, all sorts of alarms went off. We even tried to contact your immediate General, but Ferro is still out of contact from his current mission apparent. So what the hell went down? Was there a battle here or something?" John laughed, "No, no, nothing nearly as serious as that. You see, my children and the two from earth as I said only discovered their powers recently, within in the last few months, so logically I thought to give them a power level assessment. And let me tell you, there were some surprising results. All of them are at least AAA rank mages." Grayson paused for a moment, carefully looking over all the younger members present, "Now that is something special. Five brand new mages with AAA levels of power, that's not something you hear about every day. But that doesn't explain what happened here." John smiled, "Well, in this case, it actually does. When it was Lee's, my middle child's turn to go, none of us were prepared for it. It is still hard to fathom that a kid, even my own son, could have a power level of over 450 million at his age and level of training. I still have a hard time believing it." Grayson looked a bit skeptical at this, "So you say this teenager, who by all accounts has only awakened to magic in the last few months, was that giant power level. I have a hard time believing that one. I've seen prodigies having over 200 million, even over approaching 300 million at the most, but 450 MILLION is a little too extreme for me to believe, especially if what you say about him being a brand-new mage is true. I may have possibly believed it if you said it was your oldest, but even still…" John, "We'll that is why I brought some witnesses." He signaled to his officers, Roger and Fusaki, to come in, where they both explained the series of events that happened and how Lee's power seemingly broke the scanner so they didn't have an accurate reading on the Power Level.

With so much witness testimony, General Grayson eventually conceded, "Okay, I don't think any of you are lying but this is the type of thing I can't believe without seeing it for myself. As such, I want to see it for myself. That said, we can't do it today, I am not prepared for it, and if this is all true, then I'm sure your son isn't in a ready condition either. How about tomorrow at 10 A.M. sharp, I'll pick you up in my ship and we'll head over to Fretica." Sora, "Fretica?" Lance was surprisingly one to answer "It's a desolate planet that, even though it can sustain life, is deserted of any organisms. It's an old but famous story actually, but the short version is it used to be a planet full of life until a Dimensional Shift destroyed the entire ecosystem there. Dimensional Shifts are mysterious things; you never quite know exactly what they're going to do. Due to its lack of life after that event centuries ago, it was turned into a training ground and testing facility for the Time-Space Administration Bureau." Grayson, "Correct, and with no one around, there aren't any civilians to accidentally get hurt or ships to destroy so I say it will make a great location for this endeavor. We also happen to be in luck since while it's out of normal teleport range and setting up a relay on such short notice wouldn't really be practical, the dimensional currents are with us for a round trip, so we could easily make a day of it by ship." John, "Okay then, that sounds good to me since tomorrow is a Sunday. 10 A.M. then, we'll be waiting in the park near my house for pickup. I trust you know where that is." General Grayson, "Obviously. In fact, I think I am going to take advantage of the situation to visit my family tonight. As long as it's under the jurisdiction that I am "Looking after" a possibly great prospect, I can even put it into my work hours and not take away from my vacation time." John grinned, "Slick move for a General." Grayson, "Even we Generals are human and like to take a break every now and then. And don't worry about your ship, I'll file it as an accident for you so no one comes prying." John, "That would be nice of you and a lot less hassle for me. I always hate paperwork. You're really luck, you know that. A general's words are as good as paperwork to anyone within earshot." Grayson smiled, "Just one of the perks, but in all honesty, you should be careful what you wish for. I probably get much more paperwork then most anyone else when all's set and done."

It was almost 5 pm when Grayson's ship teleported them into a clearing in the middle of the woods near the park. General Grayson had already called his brother saying that he could come visit tonight, and they were apparently enthusiastic about the prospect. They all walked towards Lee's house. Chrono and Sarah were invited to dinner at Lee's house so they went with them. When they got to the street where Lee's house was on, they were all surprised to see the entire Kaiten family out in front of it waiting for them. Even though he called up first, it was obvious that they were all still surprised to see their relative, whom they only saw about once every other year on average, come walking down the street after calling only a half an hour before hand to say he was in the area.

That said, while Grayson went over to greet his family. John decided to reveal a bit of 'small and unimportant' information to them that he realized he may have neglected earlier. When Lee heard it, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN MOM KNOWS ABOUT YOU BEING A MAGE. DIDN'T YOU SAY EARLIER THAT YOU DIDN'T TELL US OR MOM ABOUT IT!" John grinned, "No Lee, I didn't. You asked why I never told you and your Mom about being a mage. I told you a specific reason for not telling you guys but I never gave a reason why I didn't tell her, or even say I didn't tell her in the first place. You only assumed that I didn't tell her because I didn't tell you. Do you think you could marry someone and not tell her that type of information; especially if it kept you away for long periods of time. That type of secret would destroy the relationship."

When they arrived, the Johnson's decided in celebration of their relative's sudden visit, they were going to have a small party and invited the Cross's and their friends over as well. They accepted graciously and said they would be over shortly. The Cross family had one last thing they needed to take care of first before they could do anything else. Though their mom knew about their father being a mage, he had never told her about them being mages and they thought now would be just as good a time as any to do so, though he admitted that it was mostly just because he wanted to see her surprise. As such, when they entered the house to find their mom doing some bills, John asked her to go into their room so he could tell her something important. They went into their room for ten minutes and then came out. Mary said, "I am so PROUD of you three. But why didn't you tell me about this sooner. Did you think that you couldn't trust your own mother?" Sora said, "Definitely not, but at the time, we didn't know anyone outside our little group that even knew magic. So naturally we thought it was weird and inhuman and stuff so we didn't want to shock you that much. We just didn't think you could comprehend it, that's all, mostly because I'm still having a hard time comprehending it myself." Their mother though just smiled, "You truly are your father's son. He basically said the same thing when he told me about himself as well."

When all was sought out in the family, Lee asked Lance, "I thought you said there wasn't a lot of mages on Earth? I have to be honest, based on what I've seen, it hasn't really been all that rare so far." Lance, "Well actually, I believe I said there wasn't a lot of mages from earth. That said, there are always some Bureau mages assigned to most known planets to have intelligent magic beings to keep tabs on them. You will find that there are probably a good number mages on Earth at any one time, or any planet for that matter, which now that I know it's the home of at least two of the highest ranking TSAB officers is probably doubly true for Earth." John, "And beyond that, there are a few other reasons that the TSAB is trying to have a bigger presence here as well."

They headed the few blocks down for dinner. There Mr. Gary and Mrs. Lillian Kaiten were setting up, along with Garret (the one Sora's age), Matt (the one Lee's age), Rachel (Sarah's age) and the 9 year old Louise. When they saw Lee and the rest come in, their parents said they should go out back until dinner was ready so they could catch up. Matt was already asking Lee how he'd been, since before they went to different middle schools they had been pretty good friends. Lee also hadn't been over in a while due to all the battles he had to fight and other things related to that. Thus he replied saying that he had been good but he had also been very busy as well. Then he asked, "So, what type of mage are you?" Matt was so unprepared for the question that he seemed to choke on his own spit for a second before he replied, "What do you mean?" as if he didn't know anything. It then occurred to Lee that there was no way that Matt would know that he was a mage as well. Thus he simply held up his pointer for a second and shot a small ball of magic into the air, then controlled it to hit a soccer ball into a cone.

Matt said with a look of surprise on his face, "Since when have you been a Mage?" Lee, "Not that long actually, just a few months." Matt, "Huh, I would have never guessed, but I guess that explains why you came here with my uncle." He then looked at everyone else Lee had brought over. "This may seem silly as Earth Mages like my uncle are rare but are any of them mages also." Lee, "Yeah, they're all mages to be precise and apparently good ones according to my father." Matt looked surprised, "But I thought it was rare for Earth people to be able to use magic? When uncle Grayson became a mage, my father said he had never seen anything like it." Lee, "It is, but our dad said our family is originally from some place called Mid-Childa so we all inherited our powers. Obviously you already know Lance and Nanoha are originally from a place called Maral that is already a planet of mages so they obviously got magic. The only thing is that Sakura and Chrono ARE apparently real 100% earth Mages unless they have some secret relatives no one knows anything about, but that's very unlikely. But I have to assume that is at the very least less surprising then if we all were random Earth mages?" Matt let out a deep breath, "You got that right. Now to answer your question, we aren't sure yet, you see my magic apparently is still not fully awakened yet, which is a bit uncommon but not unheard of, though given that you said yours only appeared recently you probably get it more than most. So thus far I can only do a few things as of yet. My brother though is a fully realized mage specializing in long range combat for the TSAB. You might not believe this but he is already a AA+ rank mage, pretty impressive huh?"

Lee tried to imagine it, but it was possible his own views on the subject were a bit skewed given who his friends were, "Apparently it's supposed to be but not with the mages I know I guess." Matt looked confused so Lee went on, "Apparently, my friends and I are all supposed to be special or something like that. Between my friends and I, the lowest rank I believe is AAA" Matt suddenly grimaced, "You're obviously not serious, that's impossible." Lee smirked, "Dead serious, we were tested today. Sakura ended up being a AAA, and so was my sister Sarah. My other friend Chrono ended up being AAA+, and Sora ended up being an S class. That said, Nanoha, who was tested before this is supposed to be far beyond us as some sort of super SSS class mage or something, and Lance is supposedly the same, so it shouldn't be that surprising." Matt, "Well yes, I admit that Nanoha and Lance are a special case, but even still. And you still haven't mentioned what your supposed super awesome level is yet." Lee, "That's because we don't know. In fact according to my father, all we do know about is that it is higher than 450 million. The scanner broke after that and I kind of accidently destroyed my dad's warship, the Asura. Luckily, your uncle said he was going to take care of it for him so apparently no harm done. Actually, I guess it's because of my power level that your uncle is even here, since he wants to see me at some special base on a deserted planet or something tomorrow so he said that he was staying here for the night." Matt looked shocked at the fact that all of the teenagers in his back yard and Lee's little sister were all stronger than his supposedly super elite brother, someone who he had looked up to most his life.

At that point, Garret started laughing across the yard and came over to where Lee and Matt were sitting, "I'm guessing he has told you about all of his friends here being mages already but get this, Sora says that they are all AAA or higher. Now isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard. How could those little girls over there be stronger than me? I admit our cousin Nanoha is a unique special case and that from what she says Lance knows more about magic than anyone I know, and I could accept it if Sora was stronger obviously, but an 11-year-old girl?" Matt let out a small nervous chuckle, "Yeah, I know, Lee just said the same thing." Garret laughed a bit, "Okay, okay, that joke is now getting old so you can tell me your real levels now? There's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has to start somewhere." Sora, "I already have, those levels weren't a joke, go ask you uncle."

With his face a little pale, Garret did as Sora suggested went and asked to ask his uncle. He came back a minute later, his face now completely devoid of color. Matt, "So what did he say Garret?" Garret, "AA or SS rank doesn't really matter. It's how you use it that really makes you strong and I who have been training for years definitely have so much more experience that I am still at least twice as strong as–," Sora had disappeared and reappeared using ZAE SHUNPO with FLARE STORM half released into sword form right at Garret's neck, "What the hell type of magic was that." Sora smirked, "None, have you forgot already that I was the undisputed champion of the Kendo club? And truthfully that was just a resume builder since you know I practice formal Kenjutsu." Garret looked shocked, "Not magic my butt. No human could do that without magic. It's just not possible." Lee interjected, "Not all power comes from magic. There is physical strength that can be honed to do amazing things if you train hard enough." Sora, "And believe me when I say that I've trained hard enough." Garret was suddenly remembering back to when they used to live closer to the Cross family, and remembered that Sora spent much of his time learning Swordsmanship from his father, so much so that Sora went on to be nationally ranked in their shared middle school. Thus, knowing when he was outmatched, he admitted defeat.

They eventually started talking about how their magic had started to influence their lives as of late. Lee told them about how he encountered magic and what had happened on that occasion. Chrono and Sakura joined the discussion to tell everyone how they discovered magic. Apparently, Matt had discovered magic on purpose, unlike everyone else. He was so eager to try and be as strong as his older brother Garret that he tried every day since his brother got his magic to try and discover his own. He tried everything his mother had suggested, working hard every day to awaken it. That said, one day a few years ago he suddenly flared up and his magic appeared, though it wasn't yet fully awakened just like now. Since then, he said he had been able to do some spells that any typical under-developed mage could do. Lee though found that as new to magic he was, he was having a hard time comprehending this as all the mages he knew that were his age, including pure mages were at least this supposedly super high AAA in strength at a minimum and capable of doing so many things, and he was truthfully only just getting used to the whole power level scale in general. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing, but he could tell that his views of weak and strong were probably very skewed at the very least.

Elsewhere, the younger girls were just sitting on the steps listening to the older kids talk. Rachel turned to Sarah, "Don't you wish you could use magic. I did a little bit once so we know I'm not a lost cause, same with Louise, but nothing real yet, just the commonplace accidental stuff that happens from time to time. It just proves that our magic is growing." Louise, "I want to do magic too. It would be fun to fly." Rachel, "You know what mom said, even if you do get magic, only super strong mages like Garret are able to fly. It's not something that everyone can do." Sarah smirked, "Well, I can tell you that flying is actually not that hard to do honestly, and it is very fun." The other two looked astonished, Louise, "YOU can do magic Sarah?" Rachel though was a bit more skeptical, "I bet it's a bluff. Mommy says magic at our age is near impossible and if we do, it isn't enough to do anything with, and that even if it was flying is super hard and you need to be super strong like Garret to be able to do it. Even if you had magic, you aren't old enough to do it yet." Sarah, "But what about your cousin Nanoha? Wasn't she a super beyond god strong super ranked mage when she was 9?" Rachel, "That's different, Nanoha-chan is just special, but that doesn't mean you are." Sarah smirk grew, "Just watch me." She then stood up and started to float a few inches in the air. The other two looked impressed so she thought that she should show off a little more. Rachel, "That's really cool but my older brother still has a one-up on you. He has already materialized a custom device and it has two forms at that." Sarah suddenly summoned her sword in a half release to make the two girls look on in awe and applauded. Sarah decided to put on a bit of a show as she swung the sword about for a bit in a fashion a bit flashier than her father would normally approve of, "And this is just a half release. If I go full release, I get something called a barrier jacket and my sword has two more forms. My hair even turns this cool white color. But this form is called HBD or Holy Blade Driver. It's a cool short sword that enhances my physical abilities as well as having a special power to permanently cut anything." The other two girls looked at Sarah with renewed admiration.

Their parents called out for them to come in because it was dinnertime. They went in and ate the very English turkey dinner that had been prepared. Lee wondered how a turkey probably big enough for 20 people was made in the 1-hour time span warning that Mrs. Kaiten had been given. Then Lee remembered that she was supposed to be a mage so he put it down to it being magic. They ate through the full course dinner. After dinner, they were all around the house when Rachel turned to her mother, "How come Sarah can fly now and I can't?" Her mother looked confused, then turned to John, "Can she really use aviation magic, at such a young age?" General Grayson was the one to reply, "Why yes, she can and quite well in fact. She is beyond what you would call a prodigy, in fact, they all are. One might even go as far as to call them superhuman. They all have power levels that far exceed typical mages. The lowest one in the group is a AAA rank mage if all accounts are to be believed." Mrs. Kaiten choked on her drink for a second. "T-T-T-Triple A rank mage. And that is the lowest. Now call me crazy, but isn't that a bit too absurd to possibly. How could those children or any child for that matter be a AAA ranked mage? I have a hard time believing it." Grayson took a deep breath, "I have a hard time believing it too. But it is not unheard of, and remember that Nanoha was already SSS when she was 9. But if you want to hear something so crazy that it can't be true, then listen to this. There is a possibility that John's middle child, Lee, is also a SSS rank mage. We won't know for sure until tomorrow. All we know is that his power is above 450 million. The scanner broke after that so we're going to bring him to Fretica. They have some of the most advanced scanning equipment the TSAB has to offer. Even from an entirely different dimension, it was able to get a reading on that monster that Nanoha back there defeated 5 years ago." Nanoha, who was in the corner started to blush out of sight, "And that was a once in a century kind of event, so we know we will get the data we need there. In truth, that reason alone is how I was able to come and visit. I put it under 'surveillance of an special interest prospect' so I don't even have to take it out of my vacation time." Mr. Johnson struck up conversation with John for a while about random stuff that had been happening. Lance transformed into a ferret to amuse Louise. And the rest of them just talked for a bit

"So Nanoha," Sarah turned to her, "Does this mean that you're related to the Kaiten's?" Nanoha, "Yes, though I never visited them here before and honestly didn't know they changed their name from Grayson. I didn't even know they lived in Japan, let alone this close to you. I only saw them on Earth while visiting with my Uncle at his place, and that was over 7 years ago in England, though they visited us on Maral a few times." They continued about their chatting and the other two girls joined and started asking questions about magic. Nanoha was famous as the "Genuine Prodigy" defending multiple worlds against certain doom at age 9 along with Lance. After a while, they decided it was time to go home. Lance who was a ferret currently climbed onto Nanoha's shoulder and went with Nanoha and Sakura as they teleported back to her place. Chrono, tired as he was from the day's events did the same thing to his own abode, with the rest of them soon to follow.

The Cross Family woke up at 8 the next morning, fully refreshed and ready to go as they hurriedly ate breakfast so that they all could arrive to the park on time minus Mary. They were surprised to find that not only Nanoha, Chrono, Lance and Grayson were already there but also that the entire Kaiten family was present too. Matt, "We want to see the miracle prodigy for ourselves." Garret, "And uncle Grayson said as long as I was with him on his 'assignment' that he could have my leave extended, and so the rest of my family is tagging along as well."

And so they waited there, chatting amongst themselves while waiting for Grayson's ship to arrive, but after the first few minues, it was clear that something was amiss. T waited for about a half an hour, and then an hour, until ten on the dot, but still not a word from the General's crew. Grayson of tried to contact his ship multiple times but got no response. It got to the point that he was forced to make a call to headquarters to get to the bottom of this mess when he was finally able to contact his ship's second in command, "Hello, General Grayson is that you. Sorry but it looks like the testing will have to be postponed. While towing the Asura, the BARANGER went haywire from all the magic left from the event that caused its damage. We were able to get back to headquarters ourselves, but just barely, and so we aren't able to take off at this time. The engines basically died as soon as we landed and-." The transmission broke off from a weak signal.

Grayson now didn't know quite what to do "Now what? We are far outside the range of a single long-range teleport, and there are too many of us to try to coordinate multiple jumps in any timely manner, and setting that kind of relay up on such short notice would be a nightmare." Lance though already had an idea as he asked Sakura telepathically, "Why don't you give it a shot." Sakura at first wasn't sure what Lance was referring to. Lance, "Remember, your special ability?" It took Sakura a moment before she remembered Lance once told her that she was a portal mage, though in truth hhe had never actually tried to make a portal after that discovery since she hadn't really had the need. That said, there was no time like the present to give it a shot. Sakura, "Okay everyone, let me try something real quick..."

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sakrura transformed into her barrier Jacket. "Oh, pretty!" Louise and Rachel watched in awe as Sakura reappeared in a pink dress with matching blazer Her staff materializing next to her at the same time. Sakura, "Okay Cerenity, let's do this!" Her staff grew large red wings on the side and a giant magic circle appeared under her, and she read something off a piece of paper Lance gave her, "Coordinates: 3242-9467-7564-8123-5937, FRETICA GATE 1, OPEN!" A vertical red magic circle about ten feet in diameter suddenly appeared in front of her, surrounded by a strange red aura that none of them seemed to recognize, but it was crackling with something similar to electricity. Then, the middle turned into something like a hazy window, but they could just make out an image through it. On the other side, they all saw the doors to a large complex. "My god," Grayson was pleasantly surprised, "An earthling portal type, I would have never guessed." Sakura blushed, "This is my first time actually making one though." Grayson though could immediately tell that first attempt or not, it was clearly well made and stable, which was an impressive feat considering that as strong as Sakura was, portal magic was an incredibly high level skill usually requiring an S level mage to carry it out. In any case, he was confident enough in it to walk through first, followed by John and then the rest. They reappeared on the other side, just where they saw from through the portal. After the last of them came through the portal, it disappeared. Sakura look a little exhausted. Lance said this was normal as portals took a lot of power and Sakura also didn't have any experience with them.

Most of the group was walking towards the door near them, but then stopped when they noticed that a few of their group weren't moving. Lee, Chrono, Sarah, Sora and Sakura were frozen in place, their heads though were swiveling in every direction, taking everything in, much to the surprise of everyone else in the group. Lance was the first to turn to them, "Everything alright guys?" Chrono, "Yeah, we just need to take it in for a moment." Lance, "Take what in, it's a dead planet, not much to see." Sakura, "Yeah, a dead PLANET, as in a NOT EARTH PLANET!" Sora, "We are literally on an ALIEN world, you do know that right?" Lee, "Exactly, we're like astronauts or something, beyond the final frontier!" The rest of them started to get the gist of it. While for them, this was at least slightly more commonplace, while Lee and the others had been told of the existence of other worlds, this was in fact their first time actually on another world. It was a completely new experience, and given that until a month or two ago they thought alien life and other worlds were just myths and fantasy and sci-fi and otherwise not real, it was suddenly understandable, at least to the original Earthers. And so they did give them a few minutes to take it all in, but eventually they caught up with the group who were entreated to the story of General Grayson's own first experience on another world.

With that all settled though, Grayson finally went to the side of the door and signaled for them to open up so that they could enter the complex. Once inside, it suddenly dawned on them the magnitude of the place they had just entered, it was huge. There were rows and rows of buildings going in a circle. In the center, there was a large circle that had to be at least 2.5 to 3 kilometers across. "This", Grayson told them, "Is one of the TSAB's most advanced power analysis and development testing facility. This will be the place where Lee will be tested for his power level." Grayson told them to follow him as he went to a fairly large building near the practice field. They followed him into the building, "We're going to meet a friend of mine so please be patient." They all wondered whom he was talking about. They then entered a large elevator that took them all to the top floor.

They entered a lounge looking room with a bunch of couches. There, a young-looking person sitting there as if expecting them, but there was something strange about him. Even though he looked like he couldn't be much older than his mid-twenties, the feeling that he emanated was something Lee would attribute to someone his dad's age. Lee could tell this man had been through many experiences and was probably older than he looked. "Morning General," said the man sitting on the couch. "Good morning too you to, General Jackson Faraloon." Jackson then saw John and immediately jumped up, clearly happy to see him "John, it's been forever. You haven't visited me at all lately" John, "Really, they keep me busy, though it would be easier if you weren't hiding out here in the middle of nowhere and just stayed around Mid-Childa like most the other Generals." General Faraloon, "Ah, but that's one of the great privileges of my position, I get to pick where I want to set up shop. Besides, out here I find that I get a lot less of those annoying meetings and events, something I bet you could appreciate." Suddenly the two of them laughed. It was clear that they must have been old friends. Grayson then told the group at large that the two of them had been friends since their training academy days and even spent some time in the same units afterwards until their career paths diverged.

Jackson motioned for them to sit and they took the invite, sitting on the couch, "In any case, once I heard that John was coming with his kids and company, I made sure to make the time to be here, so to those I haven't met yet, hello." They all went around and introduced themselves quickly, though for some reason a few people in the room were very nervous for some reason, mostly the Kaiten's. John though deduced the reason quite quickly, as he realized that this pretty much informal gathering was quite the collection of TSAB top brass. After all, it wasn't every day that two General's and a Captain Commander were all in the same room after all. Jackson though continued on like nothing was wrong "So are all these kids the wonder mages you told me about yesterday? Quite a lot of them." Grayson, "Not all of them, just those seven," he pointed at Lee and the others, "The others are my nephews and nieces," he pointed at Garret and his siblings." General Jackson, "Seven. Well, that is still remarkable, seven teenagers of AAA or higher, I'm surprised the recruiters aren't already knocking down doors, though the relative newness of this discovery is probably to blame for that. So, who is the one who needs to still be tested. Something about his power overloading the on-board scanner of the Asura?"

Grayson, "That would be young Lee over there, John's middle child." Lee quickly shook the general's hand, "Thank you for your help today". Jackson just smiled, "No worries, the pleasures mine. I expect this is going to be fun, definitely better than that pile of paperwork I was going to start on at any rate. But I must say, it was a big surprise here when we heard that last name of yours yesterday. John had told everyone that he hadn't picked up a trace of magic in any of his children, though clearly that's over, he looks quite pleased now." John, "Can't complain, well except for the fact that my son accidently broke my ship." Jackson, "Well you know Johnny, stuff happens, what are you going to do." John, "Truer words have never been said." Jackson though suddenly got up, "In any case, we're burning daylight people, so let's get a move on shall we." He walked to the other side and entered the elevator, with the other's following his lead.

They exited the building and walked to the training field entrance, where there was surprisingly a ship waiting for them. "Okay all, if your name isn't Lee, into the ship," he pointed behind him where a small air carrier was waiting for them. He then told Lee to transform and he did. "Okay Lee, I want you to follow the airship from outside. We're going out to the center for the testing, that's where we get our best results, and by flying there, you'll be able to get yourself warmed up magically so that we can get a prime reading on you." Everyone boarded the airship before it launched vertically up into the air and started towards the center of the training area. Lee followed outside the ship to the center of the training grounds until the ship stopped in mid-air and Jackson told Lee to land. Lee did as he was asked and landed on the ground a good bit away from the ship before he got another message, "Good, now we need to get set up, I'll tell you when to go. Just wait there for a few minutes." Lee sat down while up at the ship, the technicians were preparing the scanner link to hook up to the real scanner back at the base's central command tower. Honestly, Lee felt like this was a lot of work to just to do some readings, but his father assured him that it was necessary, "With power like yours, its best to be sure." That said, true to his word, it was only two minutes later when Lee got the go ahead, "Lee, whenever you're ready…"

Lee focused in as he started to gather his power, a magic circle automatically appearing below him as he did so. Back on the ship, one of Jackson's men started reporting the status of the test out loud, "Okay General, we have positive confirmation. All levels seem normal. Power output for mage Lee Cross is stable. Power reading currently at 100 million and increasing rapidly 120 mil, 150 mil, 185 mil." "Good, good," Jackson was watching intently. Back on the ground, Lee was focusing on nothing more than gathering as much power as he could. He was glowing gold now and his magic circle was at least 50 yards across. It was glowing brightly as well. "Commander, he has just broken the AAA+ rank level, 195 mil, 210 mil, 249 mil. My God, what is this kid, he's hit the S rank level and is still going up, 285 mil, 340 mil, 365 mil, 377 mil, 385 mill, 391mil. It has peaked sir, Power level stopped increasing at around 395 million." The commander was about to tell Lee to stop, kind of disappointed when John stepped in, "Don't worry, just give him a second, he's nowhere near done. He just needs to reach that point."

On the ground, Lee was at a mental block. He was trying to remember what he had done exactly to break the limit and go full throttle the previous day. He remembered finding his reason to fight. Then in a single moment, he remembered. He focused as hard as he could on his resolution to SAVE. The outer effect of his revelation was near instantaneous, the ground below him started to crack and tear itself up and the golden magic circle below him doubled in size all at once. Even the winds started to swirl, even the clouds gathering as they all started to swirl around Lee, pulled by the gravity of his power. At this point, not even the ground itself could resist the energies Lee was giving off as a crater formed under Lee, getting bigger and bigger as he dug deeper and deeper into his own magic. Externally, a gold twister of his own power formed around him and he forced himself to go even further. Chunks of the ground started to rise up and explode. Anything that got close to Lee disintegrated.

"Sir, the scanner reads 420 mil and rising, 442, 457, 473, 489, he's going to break the SSS ranking. This is insane!" Jackson looked on with amazement. John was smiling as Lee's friends looked on with awe. The Johnsons were all looking on with complete disbelief. Matt most of all was having a hard time of it. Here they were, two kids who lived next door to each other and while he could only do a bit of magic, here was Lee surpassing almost every mage in existence. Garret was looking on in awe. He thought his AA+ rank was impressive but compared to this; it looked like a child's level, which compared to many of the actual children next to him it basically was. Mrs. Johnson continued to look on in shock and amazement. The two Johnson girls were looking on in pure awe, easily labeling this as the coolest thing they have ever seen. Even general Grayson had to be utterly impressed with what he was seeing.

Lee was focusing harder and harder. He was thinking of nothing but his resolve. He cleared his mind of all thoughts except his desire to save his friends, his family. Then it happened, his power came rushing forth, a massive torrent of raw magic bursting out of him, a giant crater appearing under him swallowing the already damaged ground in his vicinity. The force was so great that it was literally causing earthquakes to start. The spectators even in the air could tell that the entire complex was probably shaking now. People were running out of the buildings while they could feel the power pulsing from the training grounds. Even here at a base specialized for such things, this was not a normal occurrence, they could tell that something spectacular was going on. As a sort of motivator, Jackson sent a large visual of Lee to a large intangible screen he formed in the sky so everyone could see what was going on. They were all in awe as they saw Lee power up. Lee himself though had no intention of letting up, his power just kept growing, higher and higher, as high as he could. The entire planet felt like it was shaking now, the sky had turned dark, and the airship his friends were in was shaking from massive turbulence caused by Lee's power-up. But then, Lee finally felt it, he hit the plateau, his power stopped growing, and the effects on the world around him died down. But this time, he felt it stabilize, and while it was still there in its entirety, he could tell that it was under his control, though for how long was anyone's guess, as he had no idea what to do with it all.

Back on the airship, "Holy Crap, it finally stopped growing at… 816 MILLION! Easily a SSS+ rank, I can barely believe it!" Even Lee's friends jumped with shock at this. Lance looked at Lee, thinking hard. He was wondering what exactly Lee was, for as strong as he suspected Lee of being, he never imagined that it would be this much. Truthfully it put him on par with Nanoha, if not higher, and that was a terrifying though all on its own. The Kaiten's were totally insignificant now so they stood in the corner watching the event unfold. Nanoha was looking on in awe. Even Lee's dad, John, couldn't help but be surprised and impressed. He freely admitted that his own power ranking from his last test was only 842 million. He was also part of the chosen elite, the rarest of the rare SSS+ class of mages along with Grayson who he knew was last recorded at 865 million. Lee fit right in with them in terms of power, and that was terrifying.

Back at the scene though, Lee was currently encountering a large problem. Lee realized he couldn't power down, the power was stable, he could control it but he couldn't lower it. Jackson then said telepathically, "Lee, you've clearly hit your upper limit, but I am guessing you can't shake it off now." Lee, "Yeah, pretty much, but I don't think I can hold it back for long." Jackson, "That's okay; we want to measure your absolute peak reading. That can only be achieved when you are focusing you power on something. That said, since you're still new to the whole make thing, lets make it simple. I just need you to point your staff in a blank upwards direction and shoot your most powerful blast. This should alleviate the power and get us the readings we want, but be careful. A mages level and a mages attacks level are on completely different planes. They are much stronger from the intense concentration required to control them." Lee nodded to the ship as he prepared to do as he was instructed. He changed HARUNO into shooting mode as he pointed it into the open sky ahead of him as he started charging his most powerful spell. Three rings, bigger than ever appeared in front of the staff. "VARIATION TWO," he started to focus all of the power he had built up. Jackson, "Keep track of the attacks power. My guess is that it will hit 1.5 to 1.7 billion. Change over to the spell scanner." They did a few adjustments so it could measure the attacks power.

The sphere of magic in front of Lee's staff kept growing. It grew to massive proportions almost immediately from the raw power Lee was channeling into it, wreaking havoc on the ground around them, and it wasn't even close to done yet. It just gained more and more force as Lee tried to channel his all into it. That said, at this point Lee started to feel the fatigue from maintaining such a huge amount of magic, but even then he realized that he had suddenly it had hit a peak as he could even feel the strain on his device, "Haruno, you okay." "YES MASTER. LET US GO ALL OUT. SAY THE WORDS AS I TELL YOU." Lee for a moment was shocked, for he thought he was already at his peak, but when Haruno said those words, he could sort of instinctually feel it, there was one more level for him to reach for, and then felt words come to his mind flowing from Haruno. "I summon the light of destruction down upon my prisoners. Stars, gather and become the light which pierces everything. Tear through everything in a blaze of light," three unfamiliar pink rings appeared intertwined with Lee's golden ones and of the same size as well. Then, a large pink sphere appeared next to Lee's golden one, though he had no idea what it was. That said, back on the ship, it was clear that at least one of them could recognize it as Nanoha's eye's widened upon realizing what attack Lee was forming; it was hers. "Powers of the light and the stars, now combine to create a brand-new power, COMBINATION ATTACK, PURE LIGHT BREAKER AND STARLIGHT BREAKER!"

What happened next was beyond what anyone watching could have ever thought of. Somehow, against all odds, the two giant attacks somehow impossibly started fusing together to create an even bigger sized super bright gold glowing sphere with a powerful pink aura. It was at least twice as big and even more powerful. Jackson, "What's the reading on that attack!?" The crewmen looked at his screen and his eyes seemed to bulge out of his head in shock. "Sir, as it stands, the scanner has to be going on the fritz. It is giving a reading of 1.9 BILLION and rising. Now it's at TWO BILLION ah!" The scanner short circuited and the screen exploded. "Someone tell main tower to keep a lock on that thing with the main scanner and alert the base that we're activating disaster protocols. This is going to hit hard!" Everyone looked on with pure amazement as Lee prepared to launch his behemoth of an attack. He made sure that he was aiming well clear of his friends. That said, the power he had created was immensely difficult to control, and it was taking everything he had just to keep it from exploding, but he persevered. That said, he felt the attack peak, it was ready, and he could hold it back no longer. "FINAL COMBINATION ATTACK, SHOOTING STAR, RAGNAROK BREAKER!"

Lee let the massive spell loose as a giant wave of bright golden magical energy, bathed in a pink aura that was flickering like flames, shot into the sky, parting the clouds as it passed. The main scanner was going crazy now. Even from the edge of the training grounds, the wave of magic was clearly visible as it shot into space. The airship spun out of control through the air as the wave passed it. Lee's super wave filled the air with magic, but it was an immensely strange kind of magic. Despite its terrifying power that could most likely destroy them without a trace, it somehow felt warm and inviting, almost like healing magic. Pulses of magical energy were erupting from Lee as he fired the spell. Everyone on the airship just kept looking on in utter amazement. Eventually Lee's attack reached the planet's outer atmosphere, disrupting the magnetic field for a second and shot into the deep void of space. It was only when it traveled a far distance away that it finally blew up in a HUGE explosion 1000's of times the size of the attack. It was easily seeable, even though it was so far away and it was the daytime, with its light literally eclipsing the entire sky. It was a sight to behold as it exploded in a big whirl of gold and pink, making it look like some type of godly fire. Everyone in the base looked on in total awe of the attack's raw, unrestrained power. At the same time, an odd, almost ethereal looking bright white light flashed across the entire planet, blinding everyone for a moment and making them feel a bit weird.

It took a few moments, but eventually, everything died down as Haruno opened the staff's bottom vents up and released a huge amount of endless steam from the exertion, so much that it created a cloud obscuring Lee entirely. The airship by this time though had landed back at the edge of the training area as it couldn't land in Lee's vicinity due to all the magic still left in the area from the attack. They tried to teleport out but there was too much interference. They decided to run out. It took them a few minutes to fly out there. Except for Garret, who joined them, the Kaiten's stayed behind, unable to keep up with the top class mages through the dense magic and debris floating in the air. By the time they got to Lee's location though, the steam cloud had disappeared. That said, they were all in shock, unprepared for the scene that awaited them. What they came across was a massive crater, easily over a hundred meters wide with Lee at the center, standing with the support of his staff Haruno, using it as a makeshift crutch to keep himself up. Upon seeing this, they all rushed out to see how he was, only to find that he was no longer conscious, having somehow fainted on his feet. John though walked over and picked him up before he could fall over, "You did a fine job Lee; you deserve a rest…"

During the event, back at T.S.B.A Headquarters on Mid-Childa, people were running around like crazy. They were scrambling around, trying to solve the mystery of the insane power reading they had picked up in the vicinity of the FRETICA base. One mage ran to his General's office to make a report. The General, "What's going on here? What was with that insane reading, is the scanner on the fritz?" The messenger, "No General Verona maim, we have confirmed that it is not the scanner. We have pinpointed it to the T.S.A.B. special training development base located on the deserted planet, Fretica. The source though is still unknown and the magic signature doesn't register with any we have on file. We can confirm though that the aftermath of the unknown event has created a small dimensional shift in the vicinity of the planet. It is further confirmed that communication with the base will be out for about 2 hours and that actual transport to the base will not be possible for at least 48 hours. We will alert you when we get a line through." The General suddenly let out a small 'tsk' sound, "What's that damn Jackson up to this time…" The mage left and the General, as impatient as she was, decided to make a personal visit, since despite it being the regular haunt of General Jackson, the facility was officially under her section's jurisdiction.

Luckily, she had an advantage over almost everyone else in terms of transport, despite being told that it wouldn't be possible for at least another two days. She quickly scribbled a hasty note for her assistant before she sat down on the floor and started meditating in, for this would take most of her concentration to pull of. She was focusing on the space around Fretica, attuning her senses to the slight variations in its dimensional location. Specifically, she was looking for a small breach in the dimensional shift to slip through, for while most people would not be able to slip through such an opening in a cataclysmic event like a Dimensional Shift, she wasn't just anyone. It took her a few minutes, but she finally found one on the direct opposite side from where the source had been located. General Verona focused hard and managed to lock onto a spot to teleport to near the weak spot in the Dimensional Shift, and then in a small flash, she vanished.

The next thing the General knew, she was somewhere in the middle of a rocky mountain range as the dust in the air and the high winds blowing about bombarded her before she was able to put up any environmental protections. Not even phased about the abrupt attack of her current environment, she simply tapped on her device located on her wrist, making a map appear on a floating screen in front of her and tried to find her location, and then remembered that she had had to teleported to the exact opposite side of the planet. The general of course tried to teleport herself to the base, but found it impossible with all the interference in its general vicinity, but she wouldn't be discouraged. This, she simply rose herself into the air, and at a speed faster than any bird and some small planes could hope to match, she started to fly in the direction of the source of this mysterious event.

Author's Note:

Ok, so quite a bit happens in this chapter that I feel requires unpacking and explanations, but before that, I'm going to do something here that I promised myself I would not do, and that is to compare this new version of The Haruno Chronicles to the original one I posted 13 years ago directly, but in this case I'm going to make an exception.

In truth, this was one of a few arcs from the original story that I was going to either change or remove completely at first. I admit that it outsizes Lee, and that from a plot perspective, it feels a little off to reveal his overwhelming power in such a way. That said, after writing a while different version of this arc as well as simply removing it and replacing it with a few paragraphs of exposition, I found that as I had written the story up to this point, it was sort of necessary. In truth, I would say that starting with the previous chapter, the story officially moved into a new phase or saga, whatever you want to call a super story arc. In any case, if the first saga had a running theme, I would probably label it as "discovery". The main cast was being joined together for the first time through the discovery of powers they had just gained, and for the most part those chapters let them start to delve into this new world they had entered full of magic and monsters. But that kind of origin can't be elongated forever, since it would detract from any future plots if dragged on longer than necessary. Thus, in order to establish the tone for the next saga, I needed someway to establish the power of the cast against ordinary entities and circumstances. In other words, I needed to show that they were special. Of course, I could have simply done this by causing some existential crisis that only they could solve, but that would currently have detracted from the main story too much at this point and felt out of place, thus the only other classic Shonen solutions would have either had to be some kind of tournament type setting, which would have felt off here given I literally just had one a few chapters ago for the Cross family, or else a direct approach to determine their overall powers compared to the universal average, and so I went with the latter, especially since this arc introduces multiple concepts and plot points that are necessary for future parts of the plot. That said, clearly this has been heavily revised and edited from the original to improve its overall flow and quality.

In addition, I made another overall story change to the family we are introduced to this chapter compared to the original story, changing the name of the Kaiten family, which in the original version was the Johnsons, for the singular reason that while the origin of some names are purposefully not Japanese, I felt that there was no real reason that theirs shouldn't be given that despite the father being of English decent as was his brother, the mother was designed to be half Japanese and Mid-Childan, and so living in Japan, it would be easier to have them take on a more traditional sounding name. Thus after consulting a friend who speaks a little bit of Japanese, he said that "Kaiten" could be said in Japanese in a similar fashion to "Grayson", and that it was ok for them to not be phonically identical. In any case, despite them being basically invisible for the second half of this chapter, I felt that their presence was important to the overall plot. The Kaiten family exists to effectively be a measure of the expected standard, the ordinary in terms of mages. I needed something to compare the main cast against in order to show how special they were, and so I wrote them into the plot to act as that kind of baseline.

But outside the comparisons, I feel the need to unpack quite a bit from this chapter. To start with, we are introduced to not one, not two, but THREE General's this chapter with mention of a fourth. As it's been stated, the TSAB in this story is a monolithic entity, beyond the scope and size of individual worlds by several orders of magnitude, and the Generals are those that sit at the top of the pecking order in such a vast organization, thus this is meant to be a very significant occurrence, which I did to signify how important our cast is compared to ordinary people, to be able to justify centralizing the plot around them even after the introduction of such an organization as the TSAB.

On that note, we also get a bit more backstory for Nanoha, for General Grayson is revealed to be her uncle by marriage. This was done to try and connect Nanoha more to the TSAB, with the reasoning for that being something that I don't want to spoil currently. In addition, we get some flavor for John by way of introduction to the second General, General Jackson Faraloon, with whom he is clearly well acquainted beyond just their stations.

And then finally, it's time to unpack the elephant in the room, the actual major event of this chapter, Lee's power test. There is a lot that is revealed here, most of which will be explained soon enough so I will let the next chapters speak for themselves. That said, I want to explain it clearly that the whole point of this chapter is to officially establish Lee as an unnaturally powerful entity, well beyond the ordinary pale, which I think this does quite nicely. Lee is supposed to be Chad-levels of overtly powerful, even if he's rough around the edges. Moreover, it is here that he first discovers what I'll call his first real "Shonen Protagonist Plot Power", that thing that almost all Shonen protagonists seem to have that separates them from the ordinary cast, a special power or ability that lets them do something extraordinary, but for the full explanation, you'll have to wait for the next chapter…