Chapter 9: Golden Darkness
Mami crashed through the trees and slammed into the ground, as pain shot through her body, she saw a glint of gold. Blocking the attack with the rifle she'd managed to keep hold of, she realized it was some sort of long, flexible blade. She looked down to see that it had sliced right through the barrel of the rifle. Tossing it aside, she leapt backwards as several more of the golden blades sliced towards her. As the blades retracted, she lifted her skirts a tiny amount, and two more rifles slipped out, driving barrel first into the ground. Grabbing them out of the ground revealed they had razor sharp foot and half long bayonet's on the ends. Dodging another set of blades, she fired one of the rifles in the general direction of the assault, and instead of the normal magic bullet, the rifle's shot exploded in a brilliant white light, illuminating the area for a second.
A few dozen yards away, a small figure flinched and raised its hand towards its eyes. Mami ran towards it, firing the second rifle, this one with a normal shot, at the figure. She missed, but she'd succeeded in distracting her assailant, and was in close, slashing with her bayonets. As one of the blades sliced towards the figure's arm, it was suddenly no longer an arm, but a sword blade, rising up to parry Mami's strike. "Oh, now that's different", Mami muttered to herself. Realizing that if one arm could turn into a weapon, so could the other, and she barely managed to parry the incoming left arm. Both combatants had both arms neutralized for a moment, which left Mami to suddenly wonder where those golden blades had come from. Her question was answered as the girl's (and it was clearly a girl, a fairly small one at that, noticeably shorter and smaller overall than Mami) hair suddenly transformed into a set of flexible blades.
Leaping backwards, Mami unleashed a storm of ribbons, in an attempt to bind the girl. Her ribbons reached for the girl's limbs, but were quickly intercepted by the golden hair blades. Mami produced more of her ribbons, but as quickly as she could generate them, they were shredded by the storm of blades. Giving up on that tactic, Mami spun in place, causing dozens of rifles to seemingly tumble out of her skirt, embedding themselves into the ground. The mystery girl dashed forward, into the field of rifles, trying to get inside Mami's range. Mami gave a grin and shot a ribbon up into the trees, where it looped around a limb and shot her upwards. As she ascended, she used the one rifle she'd grabbed to detonate the rest, the explosion engulfing the blade girl.
A streak of black and gold shot vertically out of the explosion, taking Mami by surprise as she hung from her ribbon. A slice of an arm-blade sent Mami tumbling back towards the now scorched earth, but a quick roll had her back on her feet within moments. The girl landed behind Mami, but before she could make a move, Mami ducked into a reverse sweeping kick, taking the girl off her feet. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, Mami chose a direction and ran. As she ran through the forest, she heard rustling sounds above and behind her, the girl was pursuing through the tree branches.
Up ahead, Mami could begin to make out the edge of the forest, she could see a glinting, like light on water. She'd have the advantage out in the open, she pushed herself even harder, using magic to enhance her running. But she didn't make it. A rustling ahead of her presaged the girl dropping out of the branches right in front of her. The hair shot out towards her, but instead of blades they wrapped around her arms and legs, pulling her towards the girl. "Where is the key?" the soft, slightly sweet voice wasn't what you'd expect from a monster.
Mami was being held slightly off the ground, causing her to look down towards the already shorter girl. Moonlight shown through a gap in the trees, giving Mami her first good look at her assailant. The girl's face matched her voice, with delicate features and deep, liquid red eyes. Those eyes sparked something inside Mami, a memory of the last pair of red eyes she'd seen. Fate-san? She thought to herself, why is she reminding me of Fate-san? At the same time she noticed the girl's clothes. Black, all leather and straps and buckles. An image flashed in her mind, of a young Fate, dressed similarly, her red eyes filled with the same longing as those of the mystery girl. Mami shook herself out of the distracting tangent, focus, stop projecting things onto someone you barely know. Stupid. She returned her attention to the question the girl had asked.
"Key? What key?" Mami had no idea what the girl was talking about. She decided to try and change the subject. "Who are you?" The girl seemed surprised by the question.
"Konjiki no Yami" Her voice had gotten even softer, she almost seemed embarrassed. She'd turned her head slightly away from Mami as she spoke.
"Konjiki no Yami? Golden Darkness?" That was certainly an unusual name. "Maybe we could be friends, my name's Mami, Tomoe Mami. How about we stop and talk this out, Yami-chan?" Konjiki no Yami's head snapped back around, an expression of shock, tinged with outrage and…something else on her face. The hair ropes around her arms released, but the ones around her legs tightened, and Mami found herself being spun around, and then the binds on her legs released, and she went flying through the trees.
Cecilia turned back towards the forest, right as the two blades hit her shield, one of the golden blades skittered off to the side, deflected by the shield's energy, but the second one penetrated. Cecilia instinctively moved sideways, twisting her body out of the way. The blade which had been aimed right at her chest instead slid across the armor plating below her breasts, leaving a large gash that penetrated almost to the interface suit below. As she spun and slid, she triggered a blast from her sniper rifle, which missed, but the explosion of light briefly illuminated a small figure, with the two long, flexible blades retracting back to it. Triggering a few more shots, she sped into the air, to find a way to counter this new assault. "Shine, whats going on down there?"
"Astraea got hit by someone flying out of the forest, I don't know who it is, but I think she was fighting the girl who just attacked you. The woman in red suddenly exploded with some sort of power, but Perrine and Elise managed to get into the air before she could turn on them. They seem to be ignoring me, but I can't do very much. The Fairlion isn't designed for this sort of combat. I really don't want to fire on those girls." Shine sounded almost apologetic at that.
"No, I understand. We need to try to get through to them." As Cecilia pondered what to do next, the two unknown girls started to converge on Astraea and the girl who'd been flung out of the forest. "Oh that's not good at all." Cecilia triggered a few more blasts, landing between the girl with the extending hair and the other two. The girl turned and looked upwards towards Cecilia, but continued her advance. Perrine and Elise seemed to be trying to stall the woman I the red dress the same way, but with limited success. "Dammit. I don't want to shoot them."
Astraea's eyes opened. "What was that. I felt like something hit me." She felt a heavy weight on her chest, and realized there was another girl laying on top of her, their breasts pressed together. "Oh, that's what happened. Hey, are you alright?" Astraea sat up and started shaking the girl. "Hey, wake up!" she shook her harder. She realized that there was gunfire pouring down nearby. She looked around and saw the woman in red, and another girl, all in black, advancing towards her. She stood up, bringing the other girl to her feet as well. "Hey! Wake up!" The girl murmured a bit and started to open her eyes. "Are you ok? Come on, wake up. We've got a problem."
Mami became aware of a voice yelling at her. "…ey, wake up!" Her eyes flittered open, and she found herself staring into a pair of particularly large red eyes. What was with today and red eyes? The pretty face they were on was slightly distorted by…worry? Fear? Shaking her head, she remembered the other girl, Yami, throwing her into the forest, and then she hit…something. The girl was still trying to get her attention, she managed to clear the fog from her head and focus. This also made her aware of other sounds, what sounded like gunfire, and flashes of light on either side, raining down from above. Looking upwards, she saw three human sized shapes, firing down onto the ground. She realized they were more girls, wearing some sort of flying armors. And their targets…that girl, Yami-chan, and another girl, in a red dress, glowing with a blue light. "I think I understand now," she pulled away from the girl in front of her, wavering a bit, but then standing firm, "we seem to be on the same side. Which one do you want?"
The girl smiled "I have something to settle with the one in red, I think you have the same with the one in black, no?" With that she turned, and with a flap of the wings on her back, dashed towards the girl in the red dress. Mami looked upwards, and a girl with brilliant blue eyes, wearing blue armor looked down and nodded. The girl let loose a massive blast with her cannon, raising dust and sand into the air. Pulling several bayoneted rifles out of her skirt, Mami dashed into the cloud of dust.
Two battles raged across the beach, Astraea fought the woman in red, their movements so swift that Perrine and Elise could do nothing but watch, barely able to follow their movements. Their swords were blurs, reaching out with strikes, parries and feints. Blows blocked with the slightest of movements, strikes landing, but not hitting home hard enough to stop either combatant. Several times both seemed to split into multiple copies, like the Fuso Ninja the Major had spoken of once in lore. Perrine and Elise turned to each other, at a loss for what to do.
Mami and Cecillia fought Yami, the open beach favoring their ranged attacks. They used their guns to keep Yami's hair busy blocking, while Mami would dart in to land strikes with her bayonets. But even when she did land hits, they seemed to seal up immediately, never bleeding, just an open wound, which would heal together before their eyes. Even her clothes mended themselves, as if they were a part of her body as well. Both battles seemed to be stalemates, neither side capable of gaining an advantage. Mami was never more than a middling closer range fighter at best, and even with the support of the blue eyed girl above, she wasn't accomplishing very much. Oh what she wouldn't give to have Kyouko here with her! That sudden thought, of the red haired girl, almost caused her to miss blocking a hair-blade. Dammit, I shouldn't keep letting myself get distracted. And why did I have to think of her, I haven't thought about her in months. She shook the thoughts away, pouring more fire at the girl, Yami-chan. Somehow she knew they shouldn't be fighting, that they were all supposed to be on the same side. But all she could do for now was fight, and hope they could find a way to get through to Yami-chan and the woman in red.
Alarms wailed on Bachstelze and the Fairlion. They indicated a massive energy signature in the distance. A brilliant beam of light suddenly shot straight down the middle of the battlefield, bisecting the beach, barely missing the Fairlion, now hovering over the combatants. The beam impacted right where the beach met the water, creating a massive explosion of sand and steam. Both battles paused for a moment, the woman in red and Yami making eye contact for the first time and nodding to each other. As the light from the beam faded away, a figure could be seen in the crater, getting to its feet. In either hand it held golden swords, the hilts connected by a rope of pure golden light. "Fate-san!" Mami realized who it was as the dust cleared. Fate's outfit had changed, no longer the dark blue skirt and jacket, she was now wearing a jet black leotard, with black gloves and thighhighs. Her hair streamed behind her as a gust of wind blew across the battle scarred beach.
"Mami!" Fate recognized her companion, "watch out! She's coming!" As she said the words, a massive robot materialized with a burst of light and fell a few feet to the ground. Multiple times the size of the Fairlion, it was a gray and green colossus. Yami and the woman in red nodded to each other again, and dashed towards Fate, as the robot opened fire…