Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 14

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Strange As Angels

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Content warning! Bad language and suggestive behavior are present in this chapter. Oh, and violence.

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Misa frowned as she looked at the figure sleeping on the bed. The guards had brought Yue in yesterday evening. Apparently, the girl had been given too strong a dose of tranquilizers, and had been in what amounted to a coma for quite some time following her capture. Her captors, obviously worried, had kept her under a tight watch with near constant monitoring until her condition improved. She had woken up for the first time since the kidnapping midday of the day before, and had only been sent to rejoin the cheerleaders when the doctors were sure she would be alright. Things had looked pretty bad for a while, there. Now the girl was dozing.

"Come on girls, you've got another roommate," the guard, Saburo, said as he opened the door. Misa and Sakurako stepped back as another man entered, carrying a dark haired girl thrown over his shoulder like a sack of wheat.

"Madoka?!"

"What's wrong with her? What did you do?!" Misa demanded.

"It will wear off in another ten hours or so, don't worry about it. We'll try to find another cot somewhere, just sit back and relax." At the cheerleaders' disbelieving looks, the man heaved an exaggerated sigh while his companion placed the unconscious girl on the bed beside the still-sleeping Yue, stepping carefully around the playdoh cats in the floor. "Ok, ok. I guess I can tell you this, they didn't tell me not to. They might not need you girls; if it's true, you'll probably be let go before too long."

"R..really?" Misa asked, the hope clear in her voice.

"Yeah, really," the man responded with an honest smile. Sakurako gave him a scrutinizing look, and he shrugged. "Just be good and don't try to escape, and you'll be released in a few more days, I think." He stepped close and spoke quietly so only the two girls could hear. "You don't want to draw their attention, my boss's boss isn't a very nice man," he said conspiratorially. "Just be good and they'll forget they even heard of you before too long."

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The first thing Setsuna was aware of was a deep, throbbing pain all over the left side of her body. It pulsed with her heartbeat, burning. She was weak as a kitten as well, it was all she could manage to open her eyes and see the sterile white room she was in. Well, one eye. The other one was covered by the large bandage that covered half of her face. It was only when she tried to move to a more comfortable position that she realized she was heavily restrained.

Panic welled up, adrenaline was dumped into her bloodstream, and she thrashed violently against her bindings until a man rushed into the room and injected her with something, which only served to make her jerk around more wildly. Another injection was too much for her, however, and she quickly slowed as her energy melted away, the violence of her thrashing lessening until she was reduced to moving her head back and forth. That soon stopped as well. She fought off the cold feeling that crept over her extremities as long as she could, but it was too strong, and soon her eyelid drooped, and she was asleep.

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Max flew down to the ground awkwardly and landed with a hard thud that made Jennifer wince. That must have been the twelfth time he had done that in the past hour, and it looked like it really, really hurt.

"I don't think these wings are very functional," he muttered as he took off the odd bowl-style helmet. For some reason, the pactio card only granted him this odd looking, toned down version of the armor on the card, along with what appeared to be bat wings. He still looked fearsome, only more 'ancient viking' and less 'soldier of hell'. Jennifer found the whole thing hugely amusing, especially since the toned down version of her armor basically amounted to a pretty dress that nevertheless offered much freedom of movement.

"Don't worry, you'll get it sooner or later, crow-san," she said, cracking a smile.

"Great, now you're doing it too," he complained as he rubbed his elbow, which had hit a rock on his most recent crash landing. While Jennifer had quickly worked out how to use the wings granted by her pactio, Max had only succeeded in learning how to glide. Oh, and also twenty-three different ways to hit the ground. Painfully.

"Maybe you should take a break?" Jennifer suggested. As amusing as it was to watch, she was starting to get hungry.

"I wish Setsuna were here," Max said darkly as he plopped down beside her. "She could tell me why I'm falling so much."

Jennifer nodded and looked at the false sky. "It's hot in here." Eva's resort was apparently always in 'summer mode', unless one went to the snowy mountain section. She didn't particularly like the heat, but…

"It's Eva-chan's resort, ask her about it," Max said with the sort of grin he saved for Jennifer alone. The heat didn't have any real effect on him.

Jennifer grimaced. "Ugh, no thanks. Have you gotten used to your new sword yet?"

Max summoned the sword that was a part of his artifact, an enormous german-style two-hander. He had seen similar swords called Zweihanders or Flamberges, but this one didn't quite fit the type; it was close, but the scale of it and the ratio of hilt to blade were too different. The blade was very wide for a sword of its size and longer than any functional two-hander he had ever seen. It was so long in fact, that he was forced to carry it the way Setsuna often carried Yuunagi, horizontally via a sling over his shoulder. He also had to make sure to be careful when he turned, lest he break too many lamps or wine bottles and get kicked out by Eva. The blade also had parrying hooks above the ricasso, and very wide, if somewhat plain, quillions. The whole thing was made of some black metal and was surprisingly light. It was his type of sword to be sure, but he still found the ridiculous length to be a bit unwieldy. Almost seven feet really was a bit much just for the blade, after all, a good two or three feet longer than what he was used to.

"I could use it as a spear, I suppose," he said aloud, bringing an amused grin to Jennifer's face. "Do you remember the look on Asuna's face when I summoned it that first time?" he asked.

"I remember," the brunette answered. "She was so upset that your sword was longer than hers that she challenged you to a duel on the spot."

"Ha! Yeah, angry redheads are not a thing to trifle with, that's for sure," Max said, flopping back on the ground to look up at the sky. "How are you doing with that…whatever it is?" he finally asked, referring to the odd lance-like weapon that had been granted to Jennifer.

"It's…unwieldy at best," she said truthfully, glancing down where the weapon lay at her side. "I want to use it like a spear, but with the way it's sharpened most of the way down, I don't know. I feel like I'm not using it properly." Roughly eight feet long, it was roughly the same length as Max's sword and was like no weapon she had ever seen. Half the length was taken by the handle, the other half by the fairly wide blade, which started with a wide crossguard at the base and came down to a sharp point at the tip. Unlike a proper spear, however, the edges were sharpened and shaped in a manner that allowed easy slashing and cutting. It was an odd weapon, and she didn't have any idea where to begin. Well, she had found one excellent use for it; when using the wings granted by Akira's pactio, she was able to swoop down like a hawk and skewer things, running the blade through the target to the crossguard and then jerking the weapon to the side, slicing the target in half. It was a fearsome weapon indeed, as long as she could learn to use it to its full potential.

"Abeat," Max said, unsummoning his equipment. "I'm beat. I think I'll go check on what's going on outside. Care to join me?"

"No, I'll stay here. I need to figure out how to use this," Jennifer said distractedly. The problem of her weapon just kept gnawing at her like a rock in one's shoe or someone mispronouncing 'Champagne' or 'Bordeaux'.

"Suit yourself. I'll be back later."

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Chisame peeked out around the corner of the building warily. This was impossible! How had she ended up in Mahora?! Something was nagging at the back of her mind; countless shows where time travel and teleportation played important parts. Pocket dimensions, mysterious powers, the hidden world… She backed deeper into the alley and thought about what she knew. 'This is definitely Mahora, and the place I was before definitely was not.' Was it teleportation? She wasn't sure. It had to be, though...right?

She looked out around the corner again and found herself face to face with Akira.

"Chisame-san?" Akira asked, obviously surprised at seeing her.

"Okochi…you're you, right? Ah…nevermind. Come here," Chisame said, pulling Akira into the alley. When they were safely hidden, Chisame got right to the point. "Okochi, this is Mahora, right?"

Akira nodded, and Chisame slumped against the wall in relief.

"Everyone will be glad to see you back, Chisame-san, we thought you were kidnapped. What happened?"

"I was kidnapped," Chisame snapped. 'Calm down, breathe. Okochi is a perfectly normal, calm, logical person. It's not like she's Baka Pink or anything. She'll be able to help me.' "…it's a long story," she finally said. "I don't want to repeat it, so I'll wait until everyone is together. What happened here?"

Akira frowned. "I guess you wouldn't know…the school was attacked."

"What?!" Chisame exclaimed. What had she missed?!

"Hundreds of robots attacked from the east entrance to distract the teachers while other people kidnapped students."

Chisame frowned. "Others were kidnapped too? Who? How many?"

"Asakura-san, Yue-san, Misa-san, Ku Fei, Konoka-san, Haruna-san, Setsuna-san, Sakurako-san...Nodoka-san and Madoka-san and you, too. Takane Goodman-san and Sakura Mei-san were also taken."

Chisame leaned back against the wall and took off her glasses in order to rub the bridge of her nose. "So many…I mean, I knew about Kugimiya, but the rest…"

"Did you see Madoka-san?"

"Yeah, she was with me," Chisame said thoughtfully, considering the information. So many! "We were in a van that wrecked; that's how we escaped. After that, she saved me from getting captured again; she pushed me into a store and ran the other way when they found us. I saw them putting her into another van after that…" Chisame trailed off. She was still disoriented from several days of running for her life and some sort of weird teleport that she just didn't understand. She would have to ask the brat about that later.

"Come on, Chisame-san. Let's find Negi-sensei."

Chisame nodded.

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Roughly thirty minutes later, everyone was gathered around a table in Eva's resort. Eva silenced the usual chatter with a glare and looked at Chisame. "Ok. Spill it."

Chisame related the story of how the men had come into her room and injected the drugs, Madoka's unfortunately timed visit, the way they had awakened in the van, and their subsequent run through the countryside, followed hesitantly by her account of Hodge's bar.

"And that's what happened," she said.

The others members of Ala Alba and their friends fell into silent thought as Chisame finished her story.

"Hodge…that name is familiar," Eva said after a moment. "In any case, you have teleported over one hundred miles. Perhaps you are useful after all," Eva said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Let me see that key."

Chisame took the key from her pocket and handed it over.

Eva examined it for a moment. "This is not just a key…it serves as a focus for some sort of power. Teleportation perhaps…?" she trailed off.

Negi scrunched up his forehead as he concentrated. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, something he had read about teleportation that wasn't really teleportation. He had come across it in his research years ago.

Eva's look suddenly sharpened and she abruptly focused on Chisame.

Negi's eyes widened as he looked at his student.

"Alternate dimensions!" Negi shouted.

"Movement between dimensions," Eva said.

Chisame, startled, looked back and forth between them. "Wh-what?!"

Asuna was standing up, waving her arms around. "Wait wait, you guys mean like a slider, right? Chisame-chan is a slider?! That's so cool!"

Kotarou watched the unfolding drama with a bored expression. "So…?"

Negi stood up and started 'Lecture Mode'. "You see, there are theories that this Earth is not the only Earth, but that instead there are many Earths, side-by-side in a kind of—Ow!" Negi stopped and rubbed his head where Eva had smacked him.

"Everyone knows about theories like that," Eva said dismissively. She turned on Chisame again. "You. How did you do it?"

"I don't know," Chisame said. This was followed by silence as everyone looked at her. 'Gah, why won't they just shut up and let me get some sleep?! I'm exhausted…' "I don't know how it worked. It was just that one minute, the door wasn't there, and the next, it was."

Kamo jumped down onto the table from Negi's shoulder. "That would make sense, since her pactio ability is like that too. They say the artifact you get is related to your abilities and personality, after all. And her pactio does allow controlled movement between two different worlds," he said. Most of the others nodded thoughtfully.

"But I'm worried about Madoka-san," Negi said suddenly.

"Yeah," Kotarou said, leaning forward to prop his arms up on the table. "She's strong, she could've beaten anybody that tried to kidnap her, easy."

Asuna looked troubled. "Was she ok? She wasn't hurt, was she?" she asked Chisame, who shook her head. "Then why didn't she fight back?"

Eva sighed in annoyance and shook her head. "For some reason, she's afraid," she said, frowning as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Her control is terrible. She almost killed two men during the summer, one of whom is still in a coma. The idiot told me a few times that she's scared of killing people. Hmph. Fool."

Asuna nodded. "That's true; she was always very careful during sparring. I don't think she went at me full power even once."

"She never used more than a tenth of her power against you," Eva said disdainfully.

"That's so nice of her!" Negi interupted, clenching his fist as tears flowed.

"Idiot."

"What happened to the laptop computer?" Ayaka suddenly asked. She had been so quiet throughout the meeting that some people had forgotten she was even present. Chisame and Madoka had likely been kidnapped because they were in possession of the computer, which she herself had given to the glasses girl. Just her latest in a long line of mistakes.

"I gave it to Hakase," Chisame said. "She said she would look it over; she wanted to know why they wanted it so badly." 'Please, just let me sleep…'

"Oh…"

The questions and explanations continued for hours as theories and ideas were discussed and dismissed, and plans for a counter strike were made. The meeting ended after that and the participants scattered for training or research or, in Chisame's case, some much needed and well deserved rest.

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Kazumi scrambled back in her small hotel room as Caesar approached, finally ending up against the wall next to the window. He approached in a partial crouch, his arms spread wide to prevent any attempts at escape. She sidestepped until she came to the corner, and realized with horror that she had just trapped herself as he approached quickly, blocking any chance of escape from the corner.

"You can't get away now, red." He narrowed his eyes and grinned, then leapt quick as a snake and seized her in a bearhug, squeezing tightly until she could hardly breathe. "Come on, make this easy on yourself. It won't be too bad," he said, the alcohol on his breath making her want to vomit. After a moment, he let up on the bearhug and she took the opportunity to reach down and grabbed a very sensitive place, squeezing until she felt something pop and squish out like a grape. The vile man dropped her on the floor and fell to his knees, clutching his groin with both hands as he let out a wail of agony. Adrenalin surging as she panicked, she kicked him in the face and ran to the door, which she threw open. She darted out into the hall and ran straight into Rav.

"I-I-I—"

"Are you trying to escape?" he asked with a scarily normal look on his face.

Kazumi was reminded of a snake about to strike as she recalled his warning on her first day, where he had basically told her escape means death. "N-no. C-Caesar, he tried…he…" She was backing up in spite of her best efforts.

Rav looked past her to where Caesar was trying to get to his feet, still clutching his groin. "I see. Come in for a moment," he said, pushing her back into the room.

"She broke my fucking balls," Caesar said in a pained voice as he looked at Rav. "She broke my—"

*BLAM* The gunshot was extremely loud in the small room, and it left Kazumi's ears ringing.

"So I see," Rav said as he put the small gun back into its hidden holster somewhere under his suit jacket.

Kazumi just stared at the dead man in the middle of the floor, then looked back at Rav. "What…?" While she had seen dead bodies during the incident a few months ago, she had never seen someone killed before her eyes, not like this. She felt her meager lunch welling up and ran to the room's tiny bathroom. When she returned, Rav gave her a bored look.

"Are you quite finished?"

Kazumi started to shake as she carefully avoided looking at what was left of Caesar, focusing instead on Rav's blank gaze. "Why did you…did you…"

"Do not misunderstand, I did not do this for your sake. He had been warned, and he disregarded that warning." After a moment, he amended that statement. "I require absolute obedience from those working under me. This is a dangerous business, and it wouldn't do to have rebellious troublemakers despoiling potentially valuable hostages."

Kazumi thought she saw something flicker in his eyes. Regret? Disappointment? She wasn't sure. Kazumi's eyes kept straying back toward the dead man, which she desperately tried to avoid. One look at the surprised expression on the corpse's face was plenty, she told herself. But…a sense of morbid curiosity and a reporter's need for information made her want to inspect the body, turn it this way and that, measure the temperature and check the reflexes to see if there was any life left. She fought back dry heaves while one of her hands snaked out and clamped onto Rav's expensive jacket.

He looked down at her hand and raised his eyebrows slightly. "I received a phone call this morning. Congratulations, you are now considered a semi-valuable hostage." He glanced back into the small room where the body lay. "Considering your new status, I don't believe I will leave you here," he said thoughtfully. "I suppose I will just put you in the room with the other girl," he said, grabbing her upper arm in an iron grip and pulling her through the doorway and down the dimly lit hall, soon stopping at another door in the corner. He pulled a keychain from a pocket and found the proper key, then unlocked the door, all while keeping one hand on Kazumi's arm. "Here we are," he announced as he pushed the door open and entered the room.

Kazumi blinked in the bright light from the open curtains and saw someone sitting on the edge of a bed.

"Asakura?!" Haruna asked in surprise.

"Paru?" Kazumi asked in disbelief. Tears started welling up at the sight of a friendly face as the horrific stress she had been under the past few days began to catch up with her.

Haruna took her hand and lead her over the bed, then put an arm around her in a friendly hug. "There, there, Asakura. It's ok…"

Rav exited quietly and locked the door, leaving the two girls alone.

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