Ch 8: Goddess of War
"Heh heh. Looks like the stage is finally set. It sure took a while but the opening cast looks fairly- Hm? You're worried they might just talk things out? Oh phooey, that won't do at all. Everyone's going to be super disappointed and bored then. Hmmm... maybe we should step in a little just to ensure we get some quality entertainment. And no, that doesn't mean I'm letting you eat one of them."
...
"Oh, quit your whining. Here, you can have some of my popcorn if you're really that hungry. Just make sure not to eat too much. You're still on a diet after all."
Rom remained fixed in place as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Having finally taken a good look at her attacker's face, there was no denying that the girl standing before her was really Uni. However, the sheer amount of disparity between this younger Uni and the one from her own time period made it hard for Rom to fully accept this fact.
For one thing, their appearances were completely different. Sure there was the obvious age gap of about ten years between them (in terms of physical looks at least) but that was not the main point of contrast. Future Uni - Rom decided to just refer to her friend as this for simplicity's sake - had naturally adopted the trademark tsundere twintails and even wore an outfit that was fairly similar to what Noire had worn during her CPU days. This younger Uni, however, had cut her hair short just above her shoulders. Judging by its rough edges, Rom guessed that she had cut her hair with a knife and had never bothered to properly trim it. As for her clothes, she wore a white tank top that emphasized her chest, tight black shorts that barely covered her thighs, and an open black military jacket that she wore over her top. While the outfit definitely seemed more practical for combat than a dress, it was also a rather... bold choice of fashion that Rom was fairly certain Future Uni would be too embarrassed to put on outside of a cosplay event.
Speaking of, that was another major difference that Rom noticed between the two Unis. The Uni standing before her radiated an aura of cool confidence that was noticeable even as she stood looking confused. Future Uni, on the other hand, had never really gotten over her crippling flaw of always comparing herself to Noire. As a result, she still retained a bit of an inferiority complex even after decades of successfully leading Lastation as the new CPU. She still managed to put up a confident front around her citizens but Rom had always managed to pick up on the subtle hints of doubt that presented itself on her friend's features whenever they were in public. However, Rom could not detect even the slightest bit of this insecurity from the Uni she was currently facing. In fact, this Uni gave off such a self-assured and commanding presence that even Brave's imposing aura seemed to be dwarfed in comparison.
She almost reminds me of Future Ram with that cocky demeanor of hers, Rom thought. As she continued to stare at Uni, she found her eyes wandering towards the high-tech back and leg processor units that she had spotted on her earlier. Also, why is she using those to fly around in her human form rather than just activating her HDD?
She did not get the chance to properly ponder about this as Uni suddenly broke the silence that had fallen over the recently-scorched wasteland.
"Alright, who are you really?" Confusion still lingered on her face but it was now accompanied by a large amount of wariness as well. "And don't bother acting like you're the real Rom," she added, raising her pistol again to highlight her warning. "I know for a fact that she doesn't know how to cast a cloaking spell. Not to mention, she wouldn't have been able to get past the barrier I set up at the border to begin with."
Rom felt her eyes widening in surprise at this.
"Wait, you're the one who set up that-?"
A loud gunshot suddenly silenced her words. Judging by the lack of reaction from her magical barrier though, it was clear the bullet had been purposefully aimed away from her.
"Last warning," Uni stated, her tone taking on a cold edge. "Answer my question or the next shot will be between your eyes."
Hmph. Looks like impatience is another similarity she shares with Ram, Rom thought wryly.
Not wanting to escalate the situation any further though, Rom raised her hands as a gesture of peace.
"I'm not an enemy," she said calmly. "I really am Rom and-"
She never got the chance to finish as a giant icicle suddenly erupted out of the ground underneath Uni's feet. The Lastation CPU Candidate barely managed to leap out of the way and avoid being impaled as Rom realized with a large amount of shock that the attack was a copy of her very own Ice Coffin spell and even carried the same energy signature as hers. Even more strangely, she thought she heard a faint giggle echo out from her side despite seeing and sensing absolutely nothing there.
Unfortunately, she had little time to question either of these things as Uni landed back on her feet and opened fire with her pistol. All of the bullets were once again stopped by Rom's magical barrier though which caused Uni to quickly reevaluate her strategy and put away her low-caliber gun.
"So... that's the way you want to do things, huh?" Before Rom could say anything, Uni pulled out an odd catapult-like rocket launcher from her inventory and aimed it at her. "Fine then. Let's play."
Rom barely managed to gather her wits just as the football-shaped rocket was fired. Despite her barrier still being active, a sudden sense of foreboding came over her causing her to quickly gather up her Spirit Energy and fire off a large spear of ice. Listening to her instincts turned out to be a wise move as the intercepted rocket exploded several meters away from her but still produced a strong enough blast to put a visible crack on her barrier.
The fuck?! Where the hell did Uni get a weapon this powerful?!
The thought had barely crossed her mind when a hailstorm of bullets suddenly tore through the fire and smoke and impacted against her shield. Unbelievably, these too managed to cause several tiny cracks to appear on her barrier forcing Rom to raise up her right hand and apply even more Spirit Energy to reinforce her shield.
How is this even possible?! she thought incredulously. As far as I can tell, these are just regular bullets! How are they dealing this much damage without being enhanced by share energy?!
She failed to come up with an answer as Uni continued to pin her in place with what she now saw was a large Gatling-style machine gun. Forcing herself to calm down, Rom took a deep breath and used this opportunity to analyze her situation.
It was clear to her that an unknown third party was purposefully trying to pit her against Uni but to what end she did not know. Regardless, this interloper had done a fine job in riling up the trigger-happy goddess leaving Rom with little choice but to either fight back or escape.
Fighting's definitely not an option here, Rom quickly decided. I'd be playing directly into the hands of whoever contrived this entire mess. Not to mention, I have no idea just how strong this Uni is. Even Ram wouldn't be stupid enough to charge in blindly in a situation like this. There was a brief pause before Rom immediately reconsidered that thought. Okay, scratch that. Ram would definitely charge in blindly here. Of course, I don't have her asinine luck to bail me out once things inevitably go wrong so... yeah. I should probably just look for a way to get out of here.
This was easier said than done though thanks to the numerous obstacles that lay in her path.
So I just need to figure out a way to disable a giant battleship, distract all three of Uni's followers, and finally incapacitate Uni long enough to make my getaway. Oh, and let's not forget about her earlier mention about locking onto my energy signature. I don't know if she was bluffing or not but I should probably test that out before making any major moves.
Rom could not help but let out a sigh as she considered these difficult conditions.
Ugh... I miss the simpler days when the worst I had to worry about was what color I was going to graffiti Blanc's books with.
As she pulled herself out of her wistful thoughts, she suddenly became aware of another problem. Though it was just a guess, there was a strong possibility that the mysterious third party had caused this fight to spy on both her and Uni. If that was the case, then she needed to be careful not to reveal too much of her hand here or she would end up giving this hidden enemy a dangerous advantage.
Fucking dammit. It's just one thing after another. Rom bit her lower lip in frustration and worry as she considered her situation. Getting out of here is going to be difficult enough even without having to purposefully nerf myself. I can probably still do it but I'd feel a whole lot better if there was something I could use as a back-up plan or- Hm?
Rom's gaze was suddenly drawn towards a small metallic item lying on the ground not too far from her.
...That could work.
With her strategic mind whirring into overdrive, Rom swiftly put together a plan.
Uni could not help but let out an irritated growl. Even after twelve continuous seconds of fire from her Heavy Minigun, the impostor Rom's barrier had refused to budge at all.
Well, there goes four hundred thousand Credits, Uni thought bitterly, thinking of all the custom-made bullets she had fired so far.
"You need our help with this one commander?" 643 asked, his voice coming over the tiny communications device that they all had in their ears (excluding their robot members of course; they had a handy communications app installed into their hard drives instead).
"Ooh! Let me help!" God Eater chimed in enthusiastically. "I've been practicing my aim lately and I want to show how much I've improved!"
Uni was very glad the younger girl could not see her face as she gave an involuntary wince. While the God Eater of the future had rivaled both herself and K-Sha in terms of marksmanship, the current God Eater had a hard time shooting the broadside of a barn... that was the size of Lastation... and was also at point-blank range.
"Er... it's fine you two," Uni said aloud, trying her best to repress the painful memory of their latest monster-hunting mission together. "I can handle this on my own."
"Awwww," God Eater whined. "Come on U- I mean, commander! I even made a new modified bullet and everything!"
"No, really it's fine," Uni replied, perhaps a tad bit too quickly.
"She probably doesn't want you shooting down the Imperius and bringing it down on top of us," 643 said in a flat tone.
"Hey! That was just one time!" God Eater retorted heatedly. "Plus, I didn't shoot down the whole thing! I just happened to accidentally knock out one of its main thrusters... and three of the back-up engines... and maybe also the life-support system..."
Uni let out a sigh as her two junior officers began their daily squabble. Thankfully, Brave came to her rescue as he redirected the conversation back to the matter at hand.
"Uni, are you certain that this Rom is an impostor?" he asked. "Because I just scanned her energy readings and I picked up a high concentration of share energy coming from her."
Uni immediately turned serious again as she glared at her pinned target.
"Don't be fooled by that. I noticed her share energy too but that's not her main power source. I don't know what sort of energy it is but I can sense her using it to power her barrier right now. If this actually was the real Rom, she'd be using her share energy to power her spells instead."
Brave gave a simple "I see" as he seemed to accept Uni's explanation easily enough. And really, he had every reason to. Uni's energy detection skill had proven to be a reliable and indispensable asset ever since she had (re)trained herself to properly use it several weeks ago.
Of course, Uni hadn't told anyone about the true origin of this skill - or really any of her other major skills for that matter. While her inner circle knew of her status as a time traveler, she had kept certain details such as these under tight wraps. Not because she didn't trust them, of course, but because... well... how was she supposed to explain that the ones who had taught her these invaluable skills were their future selves? Future selves that had all ended up dying in the War because she had been too weak to-
Uni quickly shook her head as the dark shadows of her future past threatened to surface again. As far as she was concerned, there was no point ruminating about a time that no longer existed (or at least she hoped it no longer existed). She had received the miracle she had been seeking and she was prepared to do everything in her power to make sure that accursed future would never come to pass.
"Er... Uni?" God Eater suddenly asked. "Are you feeling okay? Cause you're letting out some really scary growling noises right now."
Uni took a deep breath as she forced herself to calm down.
"I'm fine God Eater. I'm just... irritated that this impostor's barrier still hasn't come down." Following up on that excuse, Uni decided it was high time she actually did deal with this fake Rom.
"God Eater, 643. I want you two to keep watch over our prisoner." The ASIC extremist leader had gone mostly forgotten about until now but Uni had made sure to keep him in the back of her mind. Based on the situation, there was a decent likelihood that this fake Rom was trying to cause a distraction so that the extremist leader could escape. Luckily, Brave had remained as vigilant as ever and still held the slippery bastard at sword-point.
"Brave," Uni continued in a firm voice, "I'd rather avoid bringing out the big guns for this one. Think you can break through that barrier instead?"
There was a brief pause as Brave most likely calculated the probability of his success.
"It's possible," he eventually responded. "With my recent upgrades, I should be able to- what the-?!"
Uni felt the spike of energy coming from the impostor Rom before the spell activated. With no time to swap to a stronger weapon to stop her, Uni could do little but look towards the direction that the energy had gone. To her surprise, an enormous set of hands made of rock suddenly erupted out of the ground right next to Brave, 643, and God Eater. As Uni and her officers watched with shocked looks, three enormous stone golems, each the size of Brave, pulled themselves out from the ground before deafening the area with their roars.
"What the hell?!" 643 shouted out in a panic.
Brave, on the other hand, did not waste any words before immediately swinging his sword around towards the golem closest to him. Surprisingly, Brave's sword managed to slice through the giant mass of stone with remarkable ease as the golem's severed upper torso fell to the ground with a resounding crash.
Just as Brave settled back into a neutral stance though, Uni felt a sudden surge of energy coming from the seemingly destroyed golem.
"Brave, watch out!"
The robot knight barely managed to jump out of the way as a large rocky fist suddenly swung a ferocious punch at him. Shifting her gaze to where the attack had come from, Uni was shocked to see that the arm had sprouted out of the golem's lower half. Even as she watched, the golem's severed upper torso sunk into the ground as if being absorbed before growing back out of its standing lower half. In less than a second, the stone golem was fully regrown as it let out another roar and resumed is attack on Brave.
Off to Uni's side, she heard 643 and God Eater take to the air using their flight processors as they pulled out their own weapons to fend off the golems coming after them.
"Looks like I get to show off my new bullets after all!" God Eater enthusiastically declared.
"Now's not the time!" 643 immediately shut down. "Draw in their aggro with your sword and shield instead! Leave the long-range support to me!"
Figuring the two could figure things out on their own, Uni decided to deal with the main source of their problem. Before doing so, however, she spared a quick glance towards their prisoner.
As expected, the ASIC extremist leader had immediately started running the moment Brave had become preoccupied with the golem. Thankfully, he was still within Uni's firing range as she quickly swapped out her Minigun for her tranquilizer pistol. With careful aim, she raised her gun and was just about to fire when she suddenly felt another surge of energy coming from the fake Rom. To her surprise though, she saw the fleeing terrorist leader fall face-first onto the dirt as his legs were spontaneously encased in ice.
What the-? Uni thought in confusion. Does this mean she's not working with the extremist faction?
The question went unanswered as she turned around to face the fake Rom. However, all she found was an empty wasteland as the impostor was nowhere to be seen.
Another invisibility spell? Tch, talk about pointless.
The impostor had apparently thought she had been bluffing when she mentioned locking onto her energy signature earlier. Too bad for her, Uni had been telling the truth as she could clearly sense the cloaked girl standing a few feet away from where she had originally been. However, Uni did not make it immediately apparent that she knew where her opponent was as she put on a confused expression and allowed her eyes to wander. At the same time, she switched out her tranquilizer pistol for an older-fashioned handgun, her modified Thompson Contender.
This should break through her magical defenses easily enough, Uni mused. Now the question is, do I want to kill her outright or take her in for questioning?
It didn't take her long to decide that there were far too many questions that would go unanswered if she went for the kill. With that in mind, she loaded in a regular armor-piercing bullet instead of her custom-made anti-mage bullet.
With her preparations set, Uni silently waited for her opponent to make her move.
The fake Rom remained still for a while longer as she most likely wanted to make sure that her opponent had not spotted her. Uni continued to play along as she waited for the impostor to lower her guard. Even when the fake Rom slowly moved a few feet to the right, Uni refused to act as she knew her opponent was likely using this as a test to see if Uni could really see her or not. It was only after a few more of these tentative steps that the impostor finally decided she was safe and broke out into a full-on run. Of course, that was when Uni finally decided to strike.
Gotcha you little faker.
With a triumphant smirk, she swiftly brought her Contender around and fired at where she sensed her opponent's leg to be.
With a shattering noise loud enough to be heard over the battle between her officers and the golems, the bullet pierced through the magical barrier and seemingly hit her target. To her surprise though, she saw something become visible as it was violently detached from the main mass of energy she sensed.
Shit. Did I accidentally take off her entire leg?
Uni winced as she figured she had overestimated the faker's defenses. Due to her opponent's visage, she had mistakenly assumed she would be as durable as an actual CPU Candidate. Considering that a shot from her Contender was strong enough to break a CPU's bone even with their share protection (a fact Uni had tested multiple times during her past/future battles), it was very possible for a normal person, especially one as small as the faker, to lose an entire limb from the blast.
Dammit. I didn't mean to- wait. That's not a leg. That's...
Upon taking a closer look, Uni noticed with a mixture of relief and confusion that the detached object was actually the fake Rom's muffin hat.
What...?
Slowly, Uni began to realize what had actually happened. The impostor had most likely not been fooled by Uni's act and had reinforced her magical barrier at the last possible second. As a result, the bullet had been deflected severely off-course after punching through the insanely durable barrier and had ended up blasting off the faker's hat instead.
Uni's train of thought was halted right there as the ground suddenly began to shake. Looking over with wide eyes, she saw that the earthquake seemed to be emanating from the fake Rom as she slowly became visible once again.
"That was my favorite hat you know," the impostor growled, an unbelievably powerful aura of blue magical energy flaring up around her minute form.
Before Uni could react, the faker brought up her right hand in the form of a finger gun. This probably would've seemed funny were it not for the terrifying amount of energy that Uni sensed gathering at her fingertips.
With a bone-chilling glare that probably could've paralyzed normal humans, the fake Rom unleashed her attack.
"Niflheim Requiem!"
An enormous beam of freezing energy surrounded by a flurry of razor-sharp ice crystals blasted out of the faker's fingertips at a speed that even Uni's trained eyes had a hard time tracking. In fact, it was only due to her instincts honed through a lifetime of battle that she managed to automatically activate her Acceleration skill and dive out of the way at the last second. Even so, her left shoulder still ended up being clipped by the outer edges of the attack.
"Gah-!"
To her complete shock, the barrage of ice shards not only managed to pierce through her share protection but also her military jacket as it left a deep cut in her shoulder.
Wha- How is this possible?!
Considering that her clothes were made from a highly advanced synthetic material that provided her with unparalleled defensive stats compared to anything found in the current time period, it was unfathomable that anything could touch her. And yet, this impostor had done just that with a single attack.
Dammit! Who the hell is this person?!
Uni wasn't given a chance to properly recover as the fake Rom began moving. Rather than running away from Uni, however, she seemed to circle around her as if trying to flank her.
Like I'd let you, you little brat!
Ignoring the pain coming from her shoulder, she swapped out her Contender for one of her larger, high-tech guns.
"Eat this!" Uni yelled, opening fire with her BFG.
To her surprise and growing irritation however, the green bursts of plasma were intercepted by several blue beams of energy. As the smoke from the resulting explosions cleared, Uni saw that a large circle of floating blue ice crystals had formed around the fake Rom and had most likely been the source of the interception fire. This guess turned out to be correct as the crystals began to speed up in their orbit before firing off another volley of energy beams at her.
It was now Uni's turn to go on the defensive as she activated her flight processors and took to the skies. With aerial maneuvering that would've put most professional pilots to shame, Uni managed to swerve past all of the energy blasts.
As she steadied herself in midair, Uni looked down and saw that her opponent was still running. Unfortunately, she had little time to pinpoint where exactly the little brat was trying to go as the ice crystals surrounding the faker began firing at her once more.
Tch... This is getting old real fast. After intercepting the energy beams with multiple blasts from her BFG, she brought up a hand to her communications device and contacted Affimojas. The robot general (well, admiral now) promptly answered as Uni wasted no time in handing out her orders.
"Raise our cannons' energy output to thirty percent and target the fake Rom!"
Affimojas had most likely been keeping tabs on the battle below using the Imperius's cameras as he gave no question about this rather overkill amount of firepower.
She should be able to survive this... probably, Uni thought grimly. Seconds later, she heard Affimojas give the order to fire.
A massive series of explosions resounded from above in response. However, none of them resembled the boom of the ships' cannons that Uni had expected.
Looking upwards, she was utterly dumbfounded to find her capital ship on fire as numerous gigantic explosions continued to detonate across its surface.
What?! H...How?! I didn't sense the faker direct any of her energy up there!
"Affimojas!" she called out, a slight tinge of panic entering her voice. "Affimojas, are you okay? Answer me dammit!"
To her immense relief, the robot admiral replied a few seconds later.
"We're fine Uni! None of the explosions reached the bridge! Damage reports are still coming in but it seems none of our main systems were hit!"
Uni could not help but let out a sigh of relief as she tried to slow her racing heart.
Get it together Uni! she mentally berated herself. You can't afford to freak out like that every time one of your comrades gets into danger!
It was only after she had successfully managed to calm herself that she spoke up again.
"What exactly happened up there?"
There was a brief pause as Affimojas most likely received more intel from his crew members.
"Our technicians have detected traces of a massive build-up of ice on our destroyed cannons," Affimojas eventually reported. "This is only conjecture but it seems the impostor CPU Candidate magically froze our cannons' barrels causing the backed-up energy to rebound internally. At the moment, all of the cannons within firing range of your location are either destroyed or shut-down from the damage done to the weapons' energy grid."
Uni grit her teeth in frustration as she looked down towards the perpetrator of this act. To her surprise though, she found that the fake Rom was no longer running or even firing at her as she simply stood in place. To make matters even more confusing, she was currently looking down at her own self while angrily muttering something that Uni could not hear.
What exactly is her game here?! Uni thought, not able to figure out her opponent at all. Is she trying to fight me or just simply annoy me?! And just how exactly did she disable my ships' cannons without me noticing?!
After a moment of thought, an unsettling explanation crossed her mind.
Don't tell me... she can somehow cast spells without me noticing it?! But that's impossible! Even if she knows I was detecting her energy, how could she use her magic without it being noticeable at all?
Unfortunately, she could not come up with any answers due to her rather limited knowledge of magic. The fact remained however that this fake Rom was clearly able to bypass one of her main advantages when fighting against a mage.
"Uni," Affimojas suddenly said, breaking her train of thought, "should I send down some of our Alloy Gears to reinforce you?"
Uni gave this some thought before deciding against it.
"Negative. I'll take care of this on my own."
If her assumptions were true and this fake Rom could in fact hide her energy while casting, then it was clear that she was heavily holding back. The wound on her shoulder proved that the impostor's attacks could easily kill her if they landed. The fact that she had dragged on this battle for so long without once attempting to stealthily cast a lethal blast from a blind-spot indicated that her goal was not to kill.
Of course, if I bring out all the stops and directly push her into a corner, there's no telling what she might do.
With that in mind, Uni decided her best bet was to catch her opponent by surprise and knock her out in one hit.
And I've got just the thing for a situation like this.
With a small smirk, she swapped out her BFG for a small silver pistol.
Sadly it seemed the fake Rom had finally finished with her bizarre rant as the ice crystals surrounding her suddenly shot towards the sky. Uni was forced to evade once more as the crystals began firing off multiple energy beams as they chased after her.
Something's not right here, she noted as she dodged. There's no way this impostor would expect such an obvious attack to hit me. What's her goal here?
This soon became obvious when she began to notice the energy beams purposefully blocking off her escape at specific points.
So she's trying to lure me somewhere. Hmph. No matter. I'll just play along until I can get close enough to her.
Uni purposefully made her movements look a bit shaky to continue giving the impression that she was under pressure. Eventually, the beams forced her near the ground several meters away from the fake Rom. Figuring this was as close as she could get, Uni swiftly brought up her silver pistol. Rather than pointing it towards her opponent, however, she aimed it at her own head.
Let's see how you like this.
Without a grim smile on her face, Uni pulled the trigger.
"Persona!"
Instead of a gunshot, a sound like shattering glass echoed out from the gun (actually an Evoker) as what looked like transparent shards of energy blasted out from Uni's head. The shards immediately began to spiral around her before a large humanoid form slowly began to take shape above her.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
With a deafening roar filled with insanity and rage, her Persona became fully materialized. Resembling an enormous giant of a man with ash-white skin, red war paint, and clad only in a leather loincloth and armlets, her Persona struck a terrifying figure with just his mere presence. This effect was only further enhanced by the pair of blazing swords that were linked to two long metal chains that were tightly wound across each of his muscular forearms.
With her smile widening at the shocked look the fake Rom was giving her, Uni swept out her hand in front of her. With another frenzied roar, her Persona threw out both of his blazing swords before swinging them around on their chains. All of the floating crystals were instantly destroyed by her Persona's attack as the air around Uni sparkled from all the shattered ice shards.
"Time to end this," Uni declared. With a triumphant look, she pointed towards the fake Rom with an air of finality. "Finish her."
Mentally, however, she ordered her Persona to strike his target with the flat of his blade. Even with all the trouble the faker had caused, Uni decided it would still be wise to capture her alive for questioning.
Her Persona obediently did as told as he retrieved his blades before hurling them once more towards his new target.
Let's see you try to block this one you little brat.
From what she had seen of her opponent so far, she knew that the fake Rom preferred to block her opponent's attacks rather than dodge them. Unfortunately for her, the only way to block a Persona's attack was with another Persona.
And it's not like she'd be able to- WHAT?!
Uni felt her mouth open in astonishment as the fake Rom suddenly brought out a blue spell book and held it open in her palm. The main cause of Uni's surprise, however, came from the large glowing card that suddenly appeared over the open book. Before her disbelieving eyes, the fake Rom snapped the book shut causing the card to shatter into a very familiar veil of glowing shards.
"Persona!"
The flaming blades from Uni's Persona were violently deflected as an enormous pillar of light shot up around the impostor. As the light slowly cleared, Uni was utterly flabbergasted to find herself staring at another Persona.
Floating regally above the fake Rom was a beautiful young woman with pointed ears and flowing blue hair. Clad in an elegant blue and green dress, she seemed to radiate a wise and serene air that contrasted sharply with Uni's own brutish Persona.
Im...Impossible! Uni stammered as she looked upon this sight. There's no way this impostor could know how to summon a Persona! I know for a fact that Ms. Atlus won't show up in this dimension for another twenty years at the least! And as far as I know, she's the only one who knows how to bring out one's Persona!"
She did not get a chance to properly recover as the fake Rom suddenly gestured towards her with her free hand. Her Persona immediately answered by lifting up her own hand so that her palm faced towards her foes. A very familiar array of three golden triangles suddenly appeared in the air between them as an immense feeling of power radiated from the magic symbol. As Uni stared with wide eyes, the triangle on the bottom left suddenly began to glow brighter as the other two triangles rotated inwards as if being drawn into it. As soon as the three pieces overlapped, something that could only be described as a magical black hole formed in the center of the fused triangles as Uni's Persona began to be sucked towards it.
No! Uni mentally cried out, finally getting over her shock.
Her Persona desperately tried to resist the magical force drawing him in but to no avail. All he could do was let out a furious scream as he was swept up into the glowing triangle's vortex like an ant in a water drain. With it's prey captured, the magic triangle immediately began to get smaller as Uni felt an uncomfortably familiar feeling of defeat and despair closing in on her.
No... I refuse to let it end like this!
As if responding to her furious resolve, Uni's Persona gave one final roar as it threw out one of his flaming blades just as the vortex closed behind it and severed the chain. Miraculously, the sword managed to find its mark as the fake Rom's Persona was directly impaled through the chest. The blue-haired woman had just enough time to let out a pained cry before she disappeared in an explosion of bright light. Unfortunately, her demise came too late to stop the spell as the triangle finished shrinking down to a dot before exploding into a burst of light as well.
"Argh-!"
Uni lost control of her flight processors and fell to the ground as the shock and pain of having her Persona destroyed momentarily stunned her. Judging by the pained sound coming from in front of her, it was clear that the fake Rom was similarly incapacitated.
N... Now's my chance, Uni thought, desperately trying to clear the daze in her head. I just need to get to her first and-
Sadly, things once again did not go her way as the fake Rom recovered before her. To her surprise, however, her opponent did not fire off a spell and instead ran forward before launching a full-body tackle against her.
Caught completely off-guard by this unorthodox move, Uni was easily knocked off her feet as the two went tumbling across the wasteland. Eventually though, Uni managed to regain her senses and knocked away the younger girl with a vicious kick. Coming to a halt in a low crouch, Uni pulled out her Thompson Contender again with her free hand as she looked up to see where her opponent had ended up.
As it turned out, the fake Rom had managed to land on her feet several meters away from her as she stood panting. More importantly, however, Uni quickly realized that the impostor was holding something in her right hand.
What the-
That was all she managed before the younger girl pressed the bright red button on the metal object she was holding.
The next thing Uni knew, the entire world seemed to disappear in an explosion of molten rock and fire.
Maybe I went a little overboard with that flame-enhancement charm...
The combination of the ASIC extremist leader's trap along with her spell had ended up creating a much larger explosion than Rom had anticipated. It was almost as if a small volcano had erupted as the entire wasteland was covered in fire, smoke, and molten debris. In fact, she probably would have been caught up in the massive blast as well if she had not formed a powerful magical barrier to protect herself.
I'm sure Uni managed to survive that. Several large pieces of flaming rock crashed against her barrier as she thought this, casting a bit of doubt on her assessment. Um... I hope.
Shaking her head, she quickly decided to put aside her concerns for after she had safely gotten out of the area.
Ugh. This ended up being a lot messier than I anticipated, Rom groused, gathering up her Spirit Energy once more. I especially wasn't expecting Uni to pull out a Persona of all things. I thought Atlus was the only one who could unlock one's potential for that. Well, either way, I suppose I should be grateful she taught me how to summon my own Persona during our meeting. Otherwise this battle could've gotten extremely troublesome. Hmm... maybe I'll buy Atlus a cake as thanks once I get back to my own time period.
Even as she thought this, she continued to carefully prepare her spell.
Originally, her plan had been to activate her HDD and fly away at this point but that was no longer an option. She had tried to activate her transformation earlier while Uni had been distracted by her ship blowing up but Rom had found an unknown force preventing her from doing so. After venting her confusion and ire for a bit, she had realized that the hidden third party was the most likely culprit for her sudden inability to activate her HDD. She had no idea how they were doing it but it was clear this interloper was trying to force the fight to last as long as possible and was not going to allow Rom to escape prematurely. However, Rom had quickly come up with a back-up plan to get around this.
Let's see them try to stop me now.
With that thought, Rom activated the most advanced cloaking spell she knew.
Rom swiftly disappeared from view as she became invisible once more. This time however, she was also covered in an advanced form of the energy cloaking spell she had used earlier against Uni. Unlike her previous one, this cloaking spell not only hid the energy she projected outward while casting but also her inner reserves. Essentially, she was now completely undetectable both physically and magically.
After casting a lightweight charm on herself as well to make sure she wouldn't leave any noticeable footprints, Rom broke out into a run.
I just need to get far enough away from Uni's forces and this hidden enemy. After that, I should be able to use my HDD again to-
That was as far as Rom got before she suddenly found herself frozen in place by an unknown magical force.
What? No! How could they have found me?!
Even as she thought this, Rom felt all of the spells she had cast on herself dispel itself as well. At the same time, the same infuriating giggle from before sounded out from right next to her once more.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Rom shouted out. "Why are you-"
Her outburst was cut short as the debris cloud near her suddenly parted. Rom's eyes went wide as she saw Uni burst forward with an overwhelming fury burning in her eyes. Her jacket was in complete tatters and her entire body was covered in countless bloody cuts and burns but none of that seemed to hinder her in the least as she rushed towards her enemy. Without any regard for the fact that her target was a small child, Uni launched out a vicious roundhouse kick that seemed to break the sound barrier itself.
With all of her defensive spells stripped away and her body still frozen, Rom had no way to defend herself as the devastating blow connected directly against her body.
"Urk-!"
That was all that managed to escape Rom's mouth before she was sent flying across the wasteland. Everything disappeared into a dizzying mix of pain, motion, and blurred shapes as she bounced across the rocky terrain several times. After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached the end of her flight as she vaguely registered herself skidding to a halt across her back.
By this point, Rom was barely clinging onto her consciousness as she dazedly tried to focus and take stock of her condition. It was clear her share protection had saved her from any outright lethal damage but it was clear she was in pretty bad shape. Even without an analysis spell, she could tell she was suffering from a major concussion as her entire head seemed to be ringing. Her body was also equally injured as her right arm and both her legs refused to move. It was very likely she was suffering from multiple broken bones but it was hard to tell due to her body being numb with shock at the moment. Of course, this was probably for the best as she figured the pain would've been enough to knock her out immediately if she had been able to fully feel it.
I need to... heal myself... quick...
Her countless years of training and battle allowed her to almost instinctively cast a healing spell on herself despite her condition. Her head began to clear up just a tiny bit thanks to this though the ringing continued to persist.
Before she could heal herself any further though, multiple footsteps were heard approaching her.
"No more games," Rom heard Uni growl in a murderous tone.
As her vision slowly focused, Rom saw that she was completely surrounded. Forming a loose perimeter around her were Brave, God Eater, and the reformed ASIC thug. Most likely, her golems had been dispelled either from the mysterious interloper earlier or due to the damage she had just suffered which allowed the three followers to finally confront her. However, the main threat at the moment came from Uni herself as she stood in front of her while pointing the old-fashioned handgun from before directly at Rom's head.
"I tried to play nice but you just had to go and piss me off," Uni snarled, her hand shaking a bit from what was presumably a mix of rage and fatigue.
"Uni, calm down," Rom heard Brave say from behind her. "You've already taken her down. There's no need to-"
"No! That's just what she wants you to think!" Uni yelled, a touch of madness entering her voice. "Every single time I force her into a corner, she somehow finds a way out! Well no more! Nothing's going to stop me from attaining my victory now!"
Before anyone could stop her, Uni pulled the trigger. Luckily, her shaking hand botched up her aim as the bullet ended up hitting the ground several feet away from Rom's head instead.
"Uni!"
"Commander, stop!"
Rom meanwhile finally realized the seriousness of her situation. She had no idea what the deal was with this Uni but it was clear that she had accidentally pushed the unstable CPU Candidate past her mental tipping point. As things stood, it was very likely that this Uni would actually kill her if she wasn't stopped. However, in her current condition, the only way Rom could feasibly stop her was by...
No, she stopped herself. Killing her isn't the answer. That's probably what the hidden enemy wants anyways. I need to figure out a different way to...
Rom gave a wince as the ringing in her head became louder.
Fuck! Why won't this damn sound go away?! I need to focus on...
She stopped as a sudden realization struck her.
Wait... Is this... my notification spell?
Before she could ponder about this any further, Uni roughly pushed aside God Eater (who had stepped in to try and stop her) and approached Rom once again. Ignoring the protests from her followers, she leveled her gun at Rom with a cold glare.
"Time to end this for good," she said in a deadly whisper. "Say goodnight you little-"
She never got to finish as a sudden flash of white appeared between them.
"What the-?!"
As Rom watched with wide eyes, several long strips of white cloth suddenly shot forward and wrapped around Uni's form. In the blink of an eye, the Lastation CPU Candidate was completely restrained as her arms were tightly bound against her body. Not only that, Rom saw that the rest of Uni's followers were similarly tied up as well by several other lengths of the bizarre white cloth.
"You know," a voice suddenly called out from their side, "this probably fits into my list of Top Ten Weirdest Scenarios I've Teleported Into. And considering some of the other stuff on that list, that's saying a lot."
Rom found her mouth opening in shock as she immediately recognized this familiar voice. Hardly daring to believe it, she slowly and painfully turned her head towards the direction the voice had come from and found...
...a giant mass of pink foam.
"Huh?"
The giant mass of foam seemed to give an amused chuckle at her baffled expression before speaking up once again.
"Heh, I have to say you really got me good with your little prank," the foam said with a laugh. "It's been a while since I actually fell for something like that. But anyways, mind dispelling the paralysis spell now? It's kinda hard to move around with it and I want to get rid of all this foam."
A small part of Rom wondered how anyone could move at all while under the effect of her paralysis rune. However, she was too stunned to really pay this much mind as she simply did as asked.
"Thanks!"
With that, a bright flash of pink light lit up the area before the mass of foam exploded outward. Everyone gathered ended up being splattered by bits of the flying foam (with Uni getting the majority of it) before the light swiftly faded away and the newcomer finally became visible.
Gone were her standard pink muffin hat and winter outfit. Instead she wore a pink and white blouse with short ruffly sleeves, a long pink skirt with slits at the sides, and a pink beret with a golden star on it. The thing that really stood out, however, was her completely bandaged left arm which turned out to be the source of the restraining lengths of cloth that held Uni and her comrades in place.
"You-!" Uni yelled, recognition finally entering her furious eyes.
Her response was met with an obnoxiously loud laugh.
"Yup! Me!"
With a large grin on her face, the rambunctious rascal struck a silly heroic pose as she held out her left hand in a victory sign towards Rom.
"There's no need to fear, for the ultimate protagonist Ram is here!"
And thus the insanity meter rises to critical levels. I bet even Neptune would have a hard time making sense of all this craziness. Maybe it's for the best that she continues being trapped in the Gamindustri Graveyard for the time being...
Normally I'd put my author's notes at the start of the story but I figured it'd make more sense to talk about this after Ram's big reveal. As I'm sure you've noticed by now, there's actually a new cover-art for this story! I want to give a big thank you and shout-out to Weresdrim for the amazing artwork of Future Rom and Ram! Be sure to follow them on their Twitter/DeviantArt page and leave a nice comment if you like the new cover-art as well! :D
Oh, a few things to note though to avoid confusion. First is that Rom is still in her canon outfit in the story (minus the hat at the moment). Second is that Rom and Ram's actual ages in the story differ a bit from the cover-art. Rom's is pretty close but Ram is... well, you'll see. Either way, the artwork should definitely give a good general idea of what the two would look like in their late teens/early twenties.
Anyways, be sure to leave a review! I really want to know what you all thought about this roller-coaster of a chapter. Everyone who does so can have some of Nepgear's popcorn as thanks! Of course, I'm not responsible for any injuries or deaths resulting from the Gehaburn not wanting to share. :P