The Witch of the Neuroi
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.
Ch.5: The Truth, the Warlock and the Revelation
When the group reached the Hive, the Neuroi that looked like an advanced bomber flew underneath the Ju52 and rose up until the plane's fixed landing gear touched its' back. The bomber-like Neuroi them materialized some armor around the plane's landing gear, locking it in place.
Ichiro, taking the hint, shut down the Ju52's three engines to conserve fuel.
The group, with the bomber-like Neuroi carrying the Ju52 transport plane, flew into the Hive, where the Witches (Eila and Sanya woke up when Ixia connected himself to the plane), Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto all looked around with wide eyes, their curiosity at its peak. Then, the "Invincible Trio" took the group to the Hive's Core, where Yoshika (who was wearing a Neuroi mask [imagine Neuroi-Chan's face. That's what the mask looks like]) was waiting for them.
When Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto saw the Humanoid Neuroi waiting for them, they got a familiar feeling, a feeling that they haven't felt in years. Ichiro looked closely at the Humanoid Neuroi. 'That Neuroi looks similar to Yoshika, but that's impossible. She was killed four years ago.' Ichiro thought, while Mio, Sayaka and Akimoto had the same thought.
Then, to the Witches' and Ichiro's, Sayaka's, and Akimoto's surprise, the Humanoid Neuroi spoke. "Axion, Ixia, Xalia, I thank you for bringing them like I asked."
The three Neuroi screeched an affirmative.
Then the Humanoid Neuroi turned to face them.
All the humans present were finally able to see her features. The Humanoid Neuroi had eight spike-like wings, most likely drones, folded against her back. She was wearing a black skintight body suit with Neuroi features. She was also wearing black gloves that had a single red marking on the palms of each hand, and the gloves also had four small holes each at the top of the hands, the purpose of which escaped the humans. She also had short greyish-white hair that flowed down to just below the neck line. She also had black tanuki ears, each with a single blue crystal (this is NOT part of the mask, BTW), sticking out of her head, along with a brown tanuki tail out of her tailbone, and had a black mask covering the upper half of her face, but left her hazel eyes uncovered. To the humans' shock, she was also wearing something similar to a Striker Unit, which was all black and had wing-like stubs, each of which had several red markings.
When Mio, Ichiro, Sayaka, and Akimoto saw the brown tanuki tail and the Neuroi's hazel eyes, their eyes widened. 'This Neuroi looks similar to Yoshika Miyafuji.' Mio thought.
"It looks similar to my daughter.' Ichiro thought.
If only they knew.
"I believe you have some questions for me?" the Humanoid Neuroi asked.
Mio nodded. "We do. What exactly is going on?"
The Humanoid Neuroi was silent at first, but then spoke. "Can you bring the one known as Sanya out? I can use my power on her "Magic Antenna" and have her translate what she hears through your intercoms. And yes, I know all about that."
Eila, who heard this, was about to protest when Sanya beat her to it. "Okay, what do I need to do?" Sanya asked, much to the shock of the other humans present (Yoshika is not a full human, BTW).
"I need you to activate your "Magic Antenna"." The Humanoid Neuroi replied.
Sanya did so, and her green "Magic Antenna" appeared on each side of her head.
"This is going to hurt for a moment, but there's no other way of doing this." The Humanoid Neuroi spoke, before the blue crystals in her ears lit up and fired two blue energy beams, both of them striking Sanya's left "Magic Antenna", making her wince in pain.
As soon as it started, it was over, and Sanya's left "Magic Antenna" was now red, while her right one was still green.
Ixia, who was still carrying the Ju52, asked, "Can you understand me now?"
This time, all the humans gasped in shock; Sanya because she could now understand the Neuroi directly, and the rest of the humans because they could hear what the Neuroi said thanks to their intercoms being connected to Sanya's.
"Y-Y-Yes, we understood that." Erica replied, shocked that she can understand the Neuroi now, even if Sanya was transmitting the translated words.
"Good. My name is Ixia, and I'm the one carrying what you humans call the Ju52. I am a Runner/Fort-class Neuroi, and one of the Commander's elites." Ixia said, shocking all the humans present.
The Neuroi with fourteen spikes then approached. "My name is Xalia. I am a Fort/Carrier-class Neuroi, and also one of the Commander's elites."
Then, the submarine-like Neuroi approached the humans. "My name is Axion. I am a Tank/Carrier-class Neuroi, and also one of the Commander's elites."
"Now that introductions are over, I believe it's time to answer your questions." The Humanoid Neuroi, the one that all the humans now know is the Commander, pulled up several screens, and on each one, scenes played out. Eila recognized one of them as the vision she had, while the others clearly showed what the Neuroi did on other worlds. To the humans' shock, the only time the Neuroi attacked was when they were fired at first. The screens then showed several Neuroi fighting against each other; the ones with red markings firing at the ones with purple markings, and vice-versa.
"The Neuroi are in a civil war." The Humanoid Neuroi explained, surprising all the humans present. "Our faction, which bears red markings and sides with the Neuroi Queen, against the enemy faction, which bears purple markings and sides with the Neuroi King. The Neuroi King wants to take over the universe once he learns everything about it, while the Neuroi Queen wants to live in harmony with all sentient beings after learning everything about the universe. This Hive sides with the Queen, while the Hive in Karlsland sides with the Neuroi King, who has sent a Super Hive to this planet which will arrive in two months." This shocked all the humans present. "But I made contact with the Neuroi Queen regarding the matter, and she has sent her own Super Hive as a countermeasure. Now, take a look at this." An image of a white, humanoid robot with a purple glow around it appeared, making the humans confused. "This is what the human, known as Trevor Maloney, has been working on behind your backs. He intends to replace the Witches with these "Warlock" units, which are the final product of the "Warlock Project", but so far, only one of them has been made." The Humanoid Neuroi explained.
That was when an alert appeared on the screen, surprising all those that were present. A Neuroi approached the group. "Commander! There's an object approaching at high speed!" the Neuroi exclaimed.
"Pull up the image!" the Humanoid Neuroi ordered, and an image of a white jet-like object appeared. "So that is the Warlock…I'm heading out there myself…let's see how powerful it is… Axion show my battle live will you?"
The Humanoid Neuroi warped out of the hive immediately and a screen appeared.
'I did well hiding my feelings there... I almost fell into tears…' Yoshika thought after she warped out of the hive. 'It's not time to wander... now...'
She ran a quick check on her physical state.
'Core running on optimum level.'
'Magic is stable.'
'Variable Wings on standby.'
'Armor at 100%.'
'Plasma Shield Active.'
"Now let's see…" she said as she raises her hand. She activated here "Telescoping Search Eye" and aimed. After a few seconds the Warlock came into sight.
'Charge… Burst…' Yoshika willed and multiple small beams were fired erratically towards the faraway target.
The Warlock took no evasive action as the beams approached it, but the beams were all blocked by a plasma shield (the same as the anime~). The Warlock then opened fire with its machineguns in retaliation.
Yoshika disappeared in a blast of smoke and reappeared twenty meters away from her starting point dodging the bullets.
"If normal beams won't work, then how about this?" Yoshika said to herself as she looked for a weak spot. Surprisingly, there were multiple weak spots; the joints, the shoulders and head are relatively weak. 'If I can destroy the Core then it will be over…' she thought. She then fired multiple beams again, this time combining her magic into the beams, turning them yellow as they raced towards the Warlock. The war machine, sensing that these beams are different, dodged with ease, but that is exactly what Yoshika expected it to do.
Both combatants flew, swerved, dodged and danced in the air.
Using her magic in the beams, Yoshika curved them towards the Warlock, forcing it to dodge again and again but also forcing it to move in the direction she wanted. Making a small grin, Yoshika stopped her beam attack. "Gotcha..." she said as she focused power to her arms as her right hand shine bright.
The Warlock, sensing the danger, also stopped, and transformed into the white robot that she showed the humans earlier, and brought its arms together, charging up a beam shot.
Then, at the same time, both fired charged beams at each other, with Yoshika's being red and the Warlock's being purple, and the beams collided and cancelled each other out after a few seconds. Yoshika gritted her teeth; she only had about six minutes left before she had to turn off her "Telescoping Search Eye", or else she would temporarily go blind for 24 hours, which would make her an easy target.
'I guess I have to start getting serious.' Yoshika thought, before charging at the Warlock, which fired its arm-mounted machineguns in response, driving her off course.
Back at the fight, Yoshika was starting to get tired. 'It's stalling for time... I guess I have no choice.' Yoshika thought, spreading out her wings. "GO!" Yoshika shouted, launching all eight wings into the air and immediately opened fire. The beams fired on the Warlock, forcing it to dodge, but the wings followed. Yoshika then prepared a barrage of multiple super-charged beams, as the red markings on both of her Neuroi Striker Units and her hands glowed yellow, signaling that she was also charging magic into the beams.
Thirty seconds later, Yoshika recalled her wings, and as soon as they reattached to her back, she fired a barrage of magic charged beams, which all followed the Warlock like a homing missile (one of those beams will completely vaporize a human in an instant, and no Witch can block those kinds of beams).
The Warlock started to fall back, retreating at its highest speed.
Yoshika wouldn't give it the chance, though.
"Like I'll let you go!" Yoshika said, before focusing all the fired beams into one big beam, aimed it at the Warlock and she fires.
The Warlock couldn't dodge this beam, and was cut in half, the purple Core used to power it incinerated in the process. The only thing left intact was the left and the right arms (which, while mostly intact on the outside, was molten metal inside). Seeing the leftover pieces of the Warlock falling, Yoshika dived down and grabbed the two pieces, and carried them back to the Hive.
In the Hive, Yoshika approached the group of humans, and gave the leftover pieces of the Warlock to Axion, who covered them with armor for safekeeping.
With the Witches
After the Humanoid Neuroi disappeared in an instant, a screen popped out in the edges of the Hive.
"Uuuu... I'm getting more confused…" Luchinni whined at the side.
"It will take some time before you will understand it all... but for now look." Axion "pointed" at the screen.
On the screen, the battle between the Humanoid Neuroi and the Warlock continues.
The Witches watched as each swerved at high speed while firing their weapons.
"Whoa~!" Trude exclaimed at the number of beams the Neuroi Commander can fire.
All the humans present were shocked by the sheer fire power that one Neuroi can do.
As all the humans do, they started to feel fear towards this "Monster".
"Shouldn't we help?" Mio asked.
"That is not honorable! One on one! That is the way of the warrior!" Xalia exclaimed proudly and continued, "She is strong by herself!"
'She? Her? Do the Neuroi have their own sexual terms?' Ichiro wondered at this.
"Will she be alright?" Minna asked as she noticed that the Warlock is stalling for time.
"It's alright for she is strong for a..." Xalia says proudly.
"Commander! Yes! She is our strongest!" Axion interrupted.
'This is an interesting experience... Neuroi have their own way for communication... they are also intelligent life forms...and I feel that they are hiding something from me.' Ichiro thought.
"You better not speak too much Xalia." Ixia said calmly.
As they watched the battle unfold, the Warlock was defeated in a space of approximately 10 minutes.
"Welcome back, Commander. There are no other enemies in the vicinity but our scanners have found multiple heat signatures in the Witches' Base. We have identified one of them as General Trevor Maloney." Axion said.
The humans present were shocked.
'So he has come to clean up the Witches, eh?' Minna thinks to herself.
'What should we do?' Mio thinks as she gives a questioning look to Minna.
'The fox have come to gloat his supposed victory I guess... would he think that he has failed?' Ichiro thought to himself.
It was silent for a few seconds until the three Neuroi spoke their own thoughts.
"Why don't we visit them?" Axion suggested.
"It gonna make a nice surprise!" Xalia said gleefully.
"Why not…" Ixia said with a monotone.
The Witches were shocked at their way of thinking.
"I see no problem at all... Let's visit for a while. I have a few souvenirs for him." Yoshika said as she pointed at the molten metal, the Warlock's remains.
That was when Minna cleared her throat and asked "What are we going to do about Maloney?" Minna asked.
"Well... what should we do? Let's see when were there shall we?" Yoshika answered and continued, "You three do not fire unless its self-defense; we finally have a chance to end this needlessly long war."
"Right." Axion confirmed.
"Sure." Ixia replied.
"Roger That!" Xalia answered.
Ichiro got into the pilot's seat, while Minna got into the co-pilot's seat, while Eila, Sanya, Sayaka, and Akimoto got into the transport plane, and they both (meaning Ichiro and Minna) performed their preflight checks as the group flew out of the Hive. Ichiro then started the Ju52's three engines, signaling Ixia to dematerialize the armor that was keeping the plane in place, and lowered himself and pulled away, effectively air-launching the transport plane, as Eila and Sanya stayed awake, getting ready for their encounter with Maloney, while Axion, Ixia, Xalia, Yoshika, and the rest of the Witches flew in formation with each other.
Midway through the flight to the base at Dover, Yoshika ordered the "Invincible Trio" to hang back, but to be ready to come in a hurry if she needed them at a moment's notice.
At the Dover base, the Witches and the Miyafuji's noticed Maloney and a group of armed soldiers waiting for them. After the group landed, the Miyafuji's got out of the plane and the Witches walked next to them.
Yoshika, meanwhile, stayed hidden in the clouds, out of Maloney's and the soldiers' sights.
Maloney smirked as the soldiers surrounded the group and aimed their guns at them. "I see that the traitors have shown up." Maloney said.
"Look who's talking!" Minna shot back.
"Yeah! You created the Warlock using Neuroi technology!" Trude yelled.
"Technology that I'm jealous of…" Ursula mumbled.
Maloney started sweating a little. "I don't know what you're talking about." Maloney quickly denied.
"Oh, but you do…" Yoshika said as she hovered down behind the Ju52 and hovered in front of Maloney. "Oh, and here's a gift for you." Yoshika said, before dropping the two remaining pieces of the Warlock, letting them drop to the pavement.
Maloney's eyes widened to impossible proportions. "Impossible! The Warlock was supposed to be invincible! Neuroi! Shoot it down!"
The soldiers around showed expressions of fear and shock as they aimed at Yoshika. They did not fire... for their instincts told them not to.
"OPEN FIRE!" Maloney shouted, making the soldiers open fire.
All the soldiers opened fire but the bullets ricocheted against Yoshika's plasma shield.
The Witches threw up their shields (except Eila, of course. She NEVER throws up a shield), effectively blocking every single bullet that came in their way.
Unexpectedly, a soldier threw a grenade and exploded near Yoshika's left shoulder. The shield couldn't deflect it by reflex and so her armor took the full brunt of the explosion.
Her left arm is still intact but is slightly injured and her blood starts dripping.
"Blood?!" Mio exclaimed in surprise.
Everyone in the vicinity is surprised. A Neuroi is dripping blood from its injury.
"It seems I got too careless..." Yoshika says as she took of her mask. "Do you remember me?"
The soldiers look around in confusion they don't know what is the existence in front of them... is it a Neuroi? Is it a Witch? Each of them thought about it and they all looked at General Trevor for confirmation.
"You! You're not supposed to be alive!" Maloney said in fear. "1st Lieutenant Miyafuji!"
Mio and the Miyafuji family were shocked while the Witches are confused.
'Our daughter is...alive?" Ichiro and Sayaka thought while looking at each other.
Everyone is silent... in this confusion Yoshika spoke.
"That's right... I am Yoshika Miyafuji..." Yoshika proclaimed. "I'm the Commander of the Earth Neuroi Colony led by the Red Queen."
"We do not want endless slaughter... call of your troops or I shall retaliate." Yoshika said calmly as she glared at the surrounding soldiers.
"OPEN FIRE!" Maloney ordered but none of the soldiers comply.
The soldiers in the vicinity confused, started to put down their weapons one by one.
"TAKE YOUR WEAPONS! OPEN FIRE! DO YOU WANT TO BE BRANDED A TRAITOR ALSO!?" Maloney shouted in anger.
None of the soldiers answered. All of them looked down and thought deeply of what's right and they don't know. They simply don't know.
"SO BE IT!" Maloney said as he pulled his hand gun "I'LL DO IT MYSELF!"
"Too slow..." Yoshika whispered as she sliced the general's arm that is holding the gun with a beam.
"AAAaaaargghh!" Maloney screamed in pain "How dare...you... How dare you!"
"…General Maloney, sir." Yoshika continued, adding venom to the word "sir". "How do you feel?"
"Damn it... Don't think this is over... This is not the end of us! We will be back!" Maloney shouted in desperation.
Yoshika wondered about what he said. 'Well, well, well...so he's not the only one... I'll remember this statement.'
"Sure...and goodbye." Yoshika replied, as she raised her right hand as yellow magic beam claws extended from them, showing the purpose of the holes in the gloves, four claws of light moved at an astonishing speed and slashed off Maloney's head, killing him.