Episode 2 : Jawbreaker
"Got enough gizmos and gadgets in here?" Reimu asked as she picked her way carefully around a tangle of thick cables towards the dais where the Coordinator of the Border Compact stood. Somehow, the title sounded considerably more impressive than Toyosatomimi no Miko looked, tapping her foot impatiently as she glared at a large display screen. Miko had made a project out of deciphering the Divine Crusaders, and after Byakuren had suggested that she either automate or her notes were going to suffer an unfortunate accident, she had modernized with a vengeance. After some truly shameless poaching of materiel intended for use by the Skyreach Project, the basement of Myouren Temple contained an array of computing power sufficient to rival a major research lab. Miko's machines were also powerful enough to put a serious strain on the only available source of power, which happened to be located beneath Reimu's reconstructed Temple of the Radiant Sun.
"I think so, for the moment anyway. If you're here to present me a bill for utilities, pass it on to Byakuren." Miko smirked. "This was all her idea anyway, let her foot the bill for the moment."
"No bill, yet, but I am here to tell you you're at your limit. Please don't plug anything else into the taps from my reactor."
"Oh?" Miko turned and gave Reimu a expression with just a touch of challenge in it.
"Yeah. Not because I'm being stingy, but because we're right at the reactor's operational limit. That's holding back only the 10% design slack to handle power spikes. 20% more and we start worrying about structural instabilities."
"How bad are we talking?"
"Well, Utusho kinda cringed and took a step back when I mentioned that, and she's more-or-less immune to high-energy plasma and ionizing radiation so . . ."
"So call Nitori and tell her to bloody well optimize something for once, got it." Miko replied. "Have we got that sodding satellite feed yet?" Miko barked, glaring at her assistant.
"No, we don't, and we're not gonna have one, either, Your High-and-Mighty-ness!" Nue Houjuu replied, gnawing on her stylus pen rather than tell Miko what she really thought about the situation, and with the Princess of the Clever Ears, "speaking her mind" meant anything up to and including thinking about it with intent. "Satellites fly in static orbits, remember? Valcyone can read a clock as well as anybody, and once again, she chose a time where there's nothing overhead that we can use." Despite her irritation at the current situation, however, Nue was thoroughly in love with her current job. Originally Nue had been assigned as Miko's assistant as part of her ongoing probation for her troublesome ways, but the chimeric girl craved mystery as a mortal might crave food or air, and she had quickly discovered that there were few things in the modern world with as much mystique, awe, and terror attached to them as a computer hacker, and the rest was history.
"Oh, come on, surely there's something you can find." Miko grumbled.
"Well, yeah, I could grab the launch-detection sat watching North K-reep-a, but I do that and it'll freak enough people out that I guarantee you the muggles will find away past the Border to bust us."
"Bah!" Miko scoffed. "Find yourself missing all the excitement yet?" This question was directed at Reimu, who chuckled and shook her head.
"Even if I was, Remi promised me that if I tried to get back in she would have me spanked and sent to bed without supper."
"Hah!" Miko snorted out a laugh. "And would the Sun Goddess let her number-one worshiper get pushed around like that?"
"Are you kidding? Utsuho offered to do the spanking!"
"Well, seems like those two are coming to terms with each other, then."
"Oh, they've come to terms, alright, and even worked out a time-sharing agreement. I feel conspired against." Reimu muttered.
"Hah! I know the feeling. I love Byakuren, I truly do, but some days I don't wonder if I'd be in less danger trying to arrange a three-way with Flandre and Koishi." Miko replied. Reimu simply grimaced at the thought, which sat about as well as Eirin's anti-rad potion.
"Signum, do you remember how I wanted everybody home for supper?" Hayate asked, her tone filled entirely with sweetness and light.
" . . . yes, Mistress." Signum replied, still holding her communicator link in hand.
"So you realize that your leaving is the exact opposite of what I hoped for?"
" . . . yes, Mistress."
"Just so we're clear on that point." Hayate pushed her wheelchair over to the Knight of the Sword. "Do you trust those people, who have you at their beck and call?"
"I trust that they're being truthful when they say that a group of troublesome mages is in town, and I trust in the maxims of Ancient Belka, that describe the best form of defense as being 'a sure and victorious assault'."
"Well, then, I'll put supper back in the oven to keep warm. You'll want to have Shamal and Zephira along for your 'sure and victorious assault', I'm certain." To this, Signum merely nodded.
"Oh, and one other thing," Hayate added, catching Signum at the door. "You can expect for there to be a punishment game ready for you, after you return." said Hayate, an impish grin on her face.
" . . . yes, Mistress."
"Okay, so you're an alien. What does that make her?" Saya asked Ranko, while indicating Hotaru.
"Pissed off, is what it makes me!" Hotaru snapped. "I spent months learning all this school shit for nothing!"
"Well, I hope you weren't paying your tutor anything, because obviously they didn't do a good job-"
"You don't want to go there." Hotaru's eyes flared with anger. "We only have to get you back to HQ safely. You'd be amazed how many parts a Human can lose and still be safe, if you cauterize the wounds quickly enough."
"Do what now?" Saya asked, ignoring the threat for the moment. It's just another of her stupid boasts. She wouldn't really harm me, not when I'm her "mission". Would she? "What if I don't want to leave, huh? I never agreed to go with you in the first place!" Silence reigned for a moment as Saya looked at her "rescuers".
"Well, if you'd prefer, I can give you a quick and painless death," Ranko supplied. Saya felt her jaw drop, because it hadn't been a threat- Ranko had made the suggestion in the same cordial tone that she might use in offering to let a struggling classmate copy her notes.
"Uh, t-that's nice, but . . . Things can't really be that bad, right?"
"Thou witnessed the shiver of despair that shook this place earlier? My kindred created the monsters that hide behind the night in order to further their aims, but they had been banished from this land by our friends. Now they threaten to return, merely as a side-effect of the wickedness worked by the Divine Crusaders. The end of days is upon us." Ranko continued to keep a straight face as she explained, "I should know, for I once held that position."
"Not saying I believe you, but how do we get outta here then? And what about our stuff?" Saya asked, though the latter was mostly for Ryusei's benefit; as she was wearing her arcade clothes, sneakers, and purse, Saya had a good 20% of her worldly possessions with her already.
"Goods take a far cheaper coin to replace that lives." Ranko replied.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing I didn't join that plastic-model club after all," Ryusei chuckled, but he was interrupted by a sudden curse from Saya.
"Club . . . what about Merry, and Renko?"
"Those two weren't placed here by the DC, which is why I didn't seek them out."
"Yeah, but you said they had some kinda gift, right? What are the chances the DC won't sniff them out?"
"Wait, I thought you hated their guts?" Hotaru put in.
"Well, yeah, but I'm not going to let 'em get crunched in my place." Saya replied, scowling. "You got a problem with that?"
"You sure picked a damn inconvenient time to get all noble. Especially seeing as how we don't have any of our big guns on hand." Big guns? Saya wondered, looking over at the steaming scraps that had once been a Guarlion.
"Mayhaps I can rectify that . . ." Ranko pondered aloud, her eyes going unfocused. Sliding one hand up the opposite sleeve, Ranko concentrated for a long moment, then with a tiny "aha!", she withdrew her hand and a fistful of what appeared to be blank playing cards.
"Where did those come from?" Saya and Hotaru both asked, in nearly equal tones of shock.
"Suffice it to say, Rumia-san is going to have some harsh words for me when we get home," Ranko said, blushing very slightly.
"You goosed the Shadowfiend and still managed to get your hand back in one piece?" Hotaru shook her head. "You really are insane!"
"Do I deduce that you wish to decline your share of the bounty, in that case?" Ranko replied, fanning the cards in front of Hotaru.
"Oh hell no! Gimme!" Hotaru reached out and snatched the trio of cards offered to her, rubbing them together as if they were made of gold. "Alright! Now, do we remember where those idiots live?"
"Yeah, I felt it too. If it gets any worse out there, I'm going to investigate." The girl known to the Uminari Central School District as "Fate Haralown" gave a slight giggle as she sent the text message- reading her words rendered on the screen before her reminded her that the plan of action she had just espoused was technically a felony, and technically the girl on the other end of the phone was obliged to turn her in for it. But Fate wasn't worried, for Nanoha Takamachi was the dictionary definition of acting on instinct over orders- a fact to which Fate owed her very life. The only sticking point in the operation would be the Time-Space Administration Bureau officer who had been assigned to monitor Fate's parole; however, Lindy Haralown would only be a problem because she took her duty as Fate's adoptive mother all too seriously, and if she found out, she was likely to hold Fate up for half an hour or more while layering the girl down with every defensive spell she knew.
She's certainly a better mother than Precia. Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. A frown crossed Fate's face as she contemplated her "biological" mother. Precia cared quite a bit for her daughter, so much so that she was willing to clone her and send the clone to round up a Lost Logia device to resurrect her! That mission had ended badly, if judged strictly on the merits; Fate and Arf, her familiar, had a much different opinion on the matter. Nanoha saved us, more than saved us . . . ahh crap! Thinking of Nanoha derailed Fate's train of thought- she had originally been texting Nanoha for help with homework when the strange phenomenon lit up the skies.
"So, do we have a plan of action yet?" Kyōko asked, turning to look at Daichi in his White Knight custom armor.
"Shooting everything isn't a plan?" Sayaka replied over the comms, drawing a few chuckles.
"Cause if not, somebody put in a special request; seems Sparky and the Oddball left something behind in the dorms and they would appreciate us attracting attention while they go back to get it."
"I think we can do that." Daichi said, drawing his katana and holding it high as a signal to the rest of the STAR officers. "All units, power up and move out!"
Sayaka led the charge, throwing on her interceptor's lights and sirens, just in case the DC second wave weren't aware of their opposition. Almost immediately the threat receiver lit up with hostile signals, which Sayaka cheerfully relayed to the rest of the STAR team. A button on the steering wheel armed the interceptor's missiles and Sayaka quickly selected two likely targets among the incoming swarm, and a second press of the control dispatched a pair of missiles. And Sayaka wasn't the only one shooting- after their debut battle, the Gespensts were issued a single Javelin launcher per squad to help even the odds, and both teams fired as soon as they saw the shots leave the interceptor. Just like in Mitikahara, the DC got to start the fight already in negative points, and that fact had them diving out of the sky like angry bees, boiling with the desire to sting back.
Alchemie watched the battle from on high, holding on to the railing surrounding her chosen skyscraper's observation deck with a white-knuckled grip, the better to keep from leaping over the side and calling forth her Personolichkeit to punish the impudent defenders. No, no, mustn't jump in, or I'll be getting called in to help every time a recruit sees his own shadow. Besides, a solution for the problem is already on its way. Or we'll be discovering whether shredded Wolkenritter makes a good popcorn topping later on this evening.
The opening round of fire from the DC forces made a mess of the pavement but inflicted no casualties, although one Gespenst took a pair of rails through the arm which rendered it unable to fight back. That would change quickly, however, as the airbound Lions swooped down for a second pass. Down low, the DC units superior speed would make them much harder to hit, especially since the STAR officers had learned the hard way that standing still long enough to aim was an invitation for death. Or we could see if Satori's computer nerds have earned their keep! Sayaka decided to put that theory to the test, and the first step was to turn her Interceptor around. This was accomplished with a shrieking, 100kph J-turn that left her facing the circling DC forces while still rolling away from them. Next, Sayaka cycled her targeting system over to 'command' and lit up the Lions. Now the Interceptor's computer was doing all the work, calculating vectors for the selected target and feeding it to the AFs on the ground, who only had to line their guns up with the indicator markings provided and fire.
Round two went to the STAR forces as several Lions were punctured by gunfire and fell, or were forced to break off the engagement due to damage, but at the same time Sayaka cringed as she saw one of the link indicator lights on her comms panel blink and go dark. Combined with another combat-ineffective casualty caused by an electrolaser blast cooking off the rounds for 2nd Squad's missileer, the STAR team was running out of fighting strength as quickly as they were going through targets. Even worse, Kyōko was practically begging to be shot by standing her distinctive suit right out in the open but the DC weren't taking the bait, as they had come to recognize the unique constraints on the "Bloody Angel's" attacks. There were no Lions low enough or buildings high enough for Kyōko to get her spear into play, and so Kyōko's only contribution to the current battle was a spatter of increasingly vile profanity and the occasional unguided squirt of fire from her gun. And then things went from bad to worse, with the change in fortunes being heralded by a scream of terror over the comms followed by a sickening crunch, the sound emanating from a Gespent that came hurtling across the battlefield crushed and bent double by some enormous force. Sayaka couldn't help but gawk at the destruction, and she looked to where the wrecked AF came from, expecting to see a vehicle-mounted battering ram, or Alchemie in her monster suit.
What she saw was a girl who looked the right age to be in Charlotte's class, dressed in a heavily-embellished red Gothic dress and matching beret, carrying a croquet mallet. Fiery red braided pigtails completed the look, and for just a moment Sayaka thought that either she was hallucinating, or she was going to need to perform an emergency evacuation of a cosplay kid, and then she locked on to the girl's eyes. In the bright blue depths, Sayaka could see only violence and a smattering of contempt. Okay, that's trouble. BIG trouble! Sayaka thought, pushing the appraisal out on the empathic link. "Damnit! Kitamura, get back!" she called out, trying to warn off the closest of the remaining Gespenst pilots.
Officer Kai Kitamura ignored the warning, but not out of bullheadedness; rather, his experience as a fifteen-year veteran of the Constabulary told him that someone was going to have to try containing the problem until the appropriate assets could be brought to bear, and he said as much over the comm, even as he went to work on the unusual new threat. Not wanting to give the girl a chance for a windup attack, Kai cocked his fist and ignited the Gespent's close-combat weapon, the Jet Magnum. A technological analogue for Kyōko's Jet Phantom maneuver, the weapon consisted of a set of three plasma pistons which gave the Gespent a lightning-edged set of brass knuckles. In test firings, the Jet Magnum proved sufficient to blast a hole completely through a cinderblock wall, or render a car down to scrap, and Kai fired his maneuvering jets at the apex of his swing, bringing him down on his target faster than she expected, too fast for her simply to dodge. I'm impressed! I didn't think this miserable planet was going to be able to cough up a challenge! Vita smiled for just a moment, savoring the thrill of battle for the first time in her current existence
Instincts honed on countless battlefields caused Vita to throw up a shielding spell rather than learn how her physical defenses would handle the Jet Magnum. The Panzerscild spell stopped Kai in his tracks, although the sheer momentum of the attack forced Vita back a step. Kai wasn't going to get another try at breaching the spell wall, however, for Vita swung her mallet around and dealt him a sidelong whack. This was a hurried blow, rather than the full-force shot that had started the battle, so the constable would live to see another day, although the strike shattered the Gespenst's arm and sent him reeling.
"Hey, pick on somebody your own size!" Kyōko shouted, pouncing on Vita with her version of the Gespenst punch. Vita gave her attacker a look of incredulity through the transparent circle of her barrier, which was enough to draw a snort of laughter from Kyōko- Vita had her Panzerscild held up almost like an umbrella to block Kyōko's strike, emphasizing the disparity in their respective heights. Before Vita could respond, though, Kyōko boosted backward and launched her scorpion spear to loop under the shield, but the attack only drew a laugh from the little Knight of the Hammer.
"A chain-wielder? Boring!" Vita declared, tossing up a steel ball and then serving it with an overhand smack from the mallet and a cry of "Schwalbefliegen!" Kyōko threw herself out of the way of the projectile, noting with some alarm the hole it punched in the concrete, then feinted forward while letting her scorpion spear loose in a trailing strike that was hidden by the mass of her AF. The surprise was all on Kyōko's end though as Vita wound her mallet in the chain links and slammed it into the ground, jerking Kyōko forward into an uppercut that rattled her brain even through Ophelia's helmet.
"Alright kid, playtime's over!" Kyōko snapped, dispelling her AF and throwing herself into the fray once again. Freed from the need for verisimilitude Kyōko cut loose completely, the scorpion spear stretching as she twirled it around for another attack, and this time Vita was caught looking, the pole slamming sidelong into her and flinging her across the street.
Okay, maybe this won't be so boring after all, Vita thought as she rolled to her feet, a suspicion confirmed by the sight of Kyōko's spear licking out for her at unreasonable velocity once again. Vita whirled out of the way of the strike, and even managed to smack another handful of ball bearings at her attacker, but Kyōko let her scorpion spear break apart once more, the head carving through space in a sinuous arc that ended with the Schwalbefliegen shots being slapped away. Before Vita could follow on with another attack, before her spear had even re-formed, Kyōko pounced, twirling in the air to pull her spear together before stooping on her foe at maximum extension. Once again, Vita had to throw herself out of the path of the attack, which tugged at her hair in an unusual manner as it passed overhead. The reason for the odd sensation came to Vita in scraps- while she had managed to evade the strike, her hat had not, and Kyōko had obliterated the beret in the process of pulling her spear free of where it had embedded itself in the building facade.
"Y-you beast! That was a gift!" Eyes wide with rage, Vita popped to her feet. "Graf Eisen! Load Cartridge!"
Javhol! came the response, spoken by the weapon itself. A sleeve mechanism upon Graf Eisen's haft slammed forward, energising the head with a charge of pure mana.
Well, that's new, Kyōko mused as she watched Graf Eisen work. Still screaming, Vita stepped forward and began swinging the hammer around, gaining speed from a thruster flaring fire from the head. At the same time, Kyōko grounded her spear, bracing for the incoming attack rather than risk taking her eyes off the furious Knight long enough to clear out of the area. Then Vita released her attack, the momentum pulling her into a broadside swing with a shout of "Raketenhammer!" In the instant before the shot hit home, Kyōko felt her blood run cold as she witnessed how the Device functioned- the release wasn't the apex of the attack, but instead Graf Eisen was still consuming mana at an exponential rate, still accelerating after Vita loosed the swing, and so the brutal chisel tip of Graf Eisen arrived well before Kyōko was prepared for it. The shock of the impact was mirrored an instant later by the shock of her body smashing through the wall of the adjacent building, and Kyōko blacked out somewhere in between the two.
When Kyōko managed to open her eyes again, she discovered that the party had relocated to la-la land for only a few seconds, judging by the quality and quantity of the pain flooding her body, long enough for Sayaka to bolt out of her car, transform, and be in the middle of a ferocious leap that saw her stitching Vita's immediate vicinity with thrown swords. Watching Sayaka in action caused Kyōko to recall the first time she had met the blue-haired girl. That should have put you out of action for months, Kyōko had said after inflicting a blow on Sayaka similar to the one she had just received. Yeah, a three-month vacation sounds pretty good right now, but I don't expect Funsize the Second over there is gonna let me. And so, Kyōko gritted her teeth and levered herself to her feet, after checking to make sure that her legs were still actually attached, and then she stepped out of the hole- just in time to see Sayaka get crossed up by the shining silver blade of a second Knight.
"Two against one, it hardly seems fair," Signum remarked as she drove Sayaka back.
"Yeah, well the only fair I know happens in August and sells taiyaki!" Sayaka shouted back, before pulling a Spellcard from her sleeve. "Crusader Sign ~ Calamity Cross!"
I was not informed that they could do this, Signum thought as she turned and slashed with her Laevateinn, trying to parry the falchions that assailed her from all sides. The bite of cool air in open cuts brought a frown to Signum's face. I'd rather not have to have Hayate fuss over me tonight. "Laevateinn! Load Cartridge, assume Schlangeform!" Laevateinn complied, giving Signum the ability to sweep the attacking blades away with its bladed-whip form, but she was barely clear of the Spellcard's effects when Sayaka charged again, her aegis leading the way. A low sweep pushed the serpentine Laevateinn away from her body, and the follow-through saw Sayaka throwing a reversed-grip cut that forced Signum to bend almost double in order to avoid. As soon as she knew she wasn't going to score a hit, Sayaka leaped out of the engagement before Signum could bring her weapon around for another sweep. Signum growled in frustration as she pulled Laevateinn back into sword form, and took off after her opponent.
Vita hadn't gotten involved in the exchange between Signum and Sayaka; while she was justifiably proud of her power in combat, Vita knew she didn't have the precision to keep from possibly tagging Signum in the battle, and making that mistake never ended well. Now that the battle had turned into an aerial chase, however, it seemed like a good time to join in- but the telltale jangle of chains told Vita that her original opponent was still active. Being the consummate professional that she was, Vita put aside insignificant questions such as "how the hell is that girl still in one piece, let alone able to fight?" and waded in once more.
Kyōko struck first, bursting forward with explosive speed and letting her scorpion spear go wild, the chains singing as she lashed out at Vita, who entwined Graf Eisen within the links and foiled the strike. Vita thrust Graf Eisen down, discarding the obvious feint quickly so that she could move to parry and counter Kyōko's next move, but this time the Puella Magi was a step ahead- as soon as Vita moved her hammer out of line, Kyōko dropped her own weapon and used the opening to wrap her hands around the little Knight's throat and smash Vita's head against the wall.
"Damnit! Break already, you hardheaded bitch!" Kyōko snarled, hauling Vita up to try again. Vita would have quibbled on the "hardheaded" point, as her skull felt somewhat like a cracked eggshell at the point, with her brains serving as the scrambled-in-the-shell eggs, but that would have required an amount of concentration she didn't currently possess, so she settled for action instead.
"G-graf Eisen, Raketenform!" Vita choked out, firing the hammer as soon as it had fed upon another cartridge. The sum total of the guidelines for using the powerful Raketenform while holding the hammer in only one hand and without firm footing were simply "ist verboten", for reasons which Vita recalled quite clearly even as she did so anyway, but on the whole, the Knight of the Hammer decided that having her arm all but pulled out of its socket and her dress catch slightly on fire from the firing were better than having her brains splattered all over a wall. Likewise, Kyōko decided that abandoning her hold on her opponent was preferable than having Graf Eisen hit her in the temple at speeds approaching Mach 1, so she flung Vita away and dived backward to keep from being hit. Vita let the hammer pull her through a complete turn and then turned Graf Eisen through a loop before her to bleed off the last of the thrust and cover her while she got focused on the battlefield once more, but it appeared the battle had temporarily abandoned her- Kyōko was nowhere to be found. "What the hell?" Vita asked of the empty air, but she didn't much like the hackles-raising answer it gave her.
"There it is again. I'm headed to your house unless you have a better place to meet. See you in five." Fate mashed the key to send the text then snatched up the storage form of her Device, Bardiche, although she didn't activate the magic weapon just yet. Whatever that was, it's bad. Not just acting with a bad intent, like I was at first, but evil right down to the core. Fate shuddered as she looked out her window at the dead black sky. And those were air-raid sirens earlier. Maybe it's a coincidence that those DC fanatics attacked here at the same time whatever this is happened, but I sure wouldn't bet dessert on it! I really hoped Nanoha's world was going to be better than this.
Fate yanked open her bedroom door and started to rush through it when she realized there was already someone there, and then she was trying to stop her lunge in time to keep from completely plowing Lindy Haralown over.
"Going out?" Lindy asked, grinning at bit at the near-collision.
"Uh, yeah," Fate replied tentatively, unsure if she should feel like she had been caught at something.
"Well, if you hadn't been I was going to ask you to. I don't like the feeling of whatever this is, and the sentinel left in orbit by the Asura shows a large barrier formed over part of the city."
"I didn't know there was anybody around here that had that kind of power. This is bad," Fate frowned, and started for the front door, when a sudden, sharp pain in the back of the leg. This made Fate yelp, and she took an involuntary half-step, half-leap away from the the source of the pain, but instead it came along for the ride, latched on to her sock. "Ahh! Sorry, Arf, I didn't forget about you, I just didn't want you to be in danger."
"Yeah, well, I've got two things to say about that," said the lupine familiar, once Fate had released the seal upon her so that Arf could return to her humanoid form. Arf balled up a fist and thunked Fate over the head. "That's for forgetting that if you die, I die," Arf stated, and then thunked Fate again. "And that one was because the only thing you seem to have picked up from Takamachi is her bullheaded stupidity. Jeez, no wonder Yuuno always looked so bent outta shape."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! And don't you start!" Fate pointed a finger at Lindy, who was giggling at the situation.
"Of course the Witch would have to show up now. Every other bit of this outing has turned to shit, why stop here?" Hotaru snapped, shaking her fists at a deranged sky. "Hey, punk, you actually know how to shoot that thing?" This was directed at Ryusei, who was holding on to Sleigh's discarded pistol like a magic talisman.
"Um, maybe?" Ryusei turned the pistol over, feeling much less confident about it than when he had first picked it up. "Why?"
"Cause these things don't like to fight fair, and they always have-" Hotaru's diatribe cut off in a grunt of effort, as she leaped to get a line on something approaching from behind the group, and Saya and Ryusei dove for the dubious protection of the writhing, hissing grass as their youkai companion hurled fluorescent yellow bullets at a hideous stone statue which had appeared behind them. The statue exploded into chunks which screamed in pain as they spattered across the landscape before disintegrating. "Like I was saying, they've always got minions." Hotaru finished upon landing. "(This is your area of expertise, do something!)" the firefly snarled, directing her words into Ranko's ear while the others were still distracted by the strange circumstances.
"Verily, I am," Ranko replied, holding her sword before her in a salute.
"Standing there looking cute isn't what I'd call something useful!"
"I am calling for help."
"Well, this is starting to suck." Kyōko grumbled over her shoulder. Sayaka was pressed up against Kyōko, back to back as they watched over the battlefield. In ordinary circumstances, being close enough to touch was comforting, even inspiring to the Puella Magi pair, but with the DC and STAR fighting below them, the Wolkenritter circling around them, and Ranko's empathic plea ringing in their heads, there was little comfort to be found.
"Go ahead and run then, if that's what you want to do, ya damn delinquent!" Sayaka snarled, leaning in to her shield to take the hit from a Schwalbefliegen, hurling a conjured saber sidearm at Vita, who was obliged to dive to avoid the whickering blade.
"What, and leave your Newbie-ass skills as the only thing carrying the honor of the Puella Magi here? Like hell!" Kyōko snapped back, punctuating her point with a stretching thrust of her spear that clipped a lock from Signum's hair.
Before either of the girls could make another verbal volley, a strangely distorted voice filled the link. If you lot could put your personal problems on hold for a minute and light up your Witch-hunting lanterns, I could send you some help. Help with your new flying friends, that is. The rest of it you'll have to sort out yourselves!
"Uh, sure," Sayaka mumbled, too surprised to put anything more into words as she obeyed the voice and activated her Soul Gem, causing it to flare brightly in the darkness.
"Hey, who the hell are you, and how'd you get inside my head?" Kyōko asked, but she also did as instructed.
"You'll find out in a flash." The words came from Miko, but the voice was Koishi, using her gifts to channel the Coordinator's words into the empathic link. Reimu shook her head in amazement as she watched.
"Okay, that was . . . impressive," Reimu said, choosing the most diplomatic option for her feelings on letting Koishi into her mind intentionally. "But how are you going to get there? If they had the time to 'Card somebody in, they would have done so."
"Watch this, oh ye of little deviousness," Miko replied with a smirk, before flinging one of her Spellcards to Nue, who fed it into a strange box attached to her computer.
"Setting up the coordinates now . . . where do you want to go?" Nue asked, tapping in a long string of numbers on the screen.
"Right on their bloody heads." Miko replied, drawing out her sword. "Go!" Nue hit the 'enter' key, the machine pinged and burned the Spellcard within, and Miko was gone before Reimu even had time to flinch.
"Okay, how does that work? And what's wrong with not being devious?" Reimu asked with a frown.
"Pretty simple, really." Nue shrugged. "I picked up their flares on the satellite feed, and use that to pull the coordinates. Then the transmitter here sets the location as the destination for the 'Card. We can only jump to a place we know, or be pulled to a spot by a friend, but this thing 'knows' any location that has satellite coverage. Patchy did a great job with the original magic, but she was only looking to retrieve people. Miko wanted a way to sneak up behind somebody and knife 'em in the back if needed, which is something that somebody straightforward like yourself wouldn't look at."
"Uh-huh," Reimu replied, glaring daggers at the back of Nue's head. "But wait, didn't you just say you couldn't get any satellites earlier?"
"Yeah, not imaging satellites. But when we were messing with this idea, we discovered that the Soul Gem's witch-hunting lantern shows up in the microwave bands. TV satellites transmit and receive in that range, and those are a dime a dozen."
"Okay, I'll pretend I understand any of that . . . " Reimu muttered. "Shouldn't Miko have taken more backup though? Or should I call Utsuho over and have you send them another care package?"
"Oh, she did. We didn't actually build the transmitter, and we had to promise the creator she'd get dibs on the first combat jump." Nue offered, smirking at the thought.
"That's the most ridiculous form of payment I've ever heard of. But I suppose I don't have to ask who built it then . . ."
BGM: IOSYS – Touhou Variable Spellcaster – "Nighttime Cruising"
With the sharp pop of displaced air and the sudden blast of searing sparks, Signum's first thought was did one of them just set off a bomb? Then a beam of shockingly bright light sliced through the air towards her, tracking the Knight of the Sword as she attempted to evade, and she had her answer.
"Reinforcements! Vita, we need to wrap this up." Signum commanded, feeding another cartridge into Laevateinn. Three cartridges. We underestimated the quality of our opponents. I failed to do the appropriate amount of planning for this mission. Frustration drove her arm as Signum lashed out at the new attacker, but her target out-flew the bladed whip and made it look easy.
"Hi! What's your name?" Marisa asked, cheekily, as she braked to a sudden halt before Signum. "Now, that's not very neighborly!" said Marisa with an exaggerated frown as she rolled over on her broom to avoid another snap of Laevateinn. "My name's Marisa, and this. . . this is my Hakkero!" Marisa presented the mana reactor and fired, smashing Signum with a beam of laser light.
"Y-you honorless fiends!" Vita cursed Sayaka and Kyōko as they piled on to her, Sayaka shouldering in with her shield to foul Graf Eisen while Kyōko wrapped her up with the scorpion spear.
Down below, the commander of the DC regulars found that the tide was turning against his forces as well, as he found his strafing run aborted by a sword crossing him up. "Have at you!" Miko shouted gleefully, locking up the Guarlion's assault blade with Shichi-Sei Ken, in a clash that carved curls of metal from the DC pilot's titanium blade. Coordination began to fall apart among the DC corps, followed by the Lions themselves as Miko held her target at bay with ferocious slashes while throwing bullets at everything else that flew.
Within the Witch's Barrier, the would-be rescue party were themselves waiting for rescue, having closed into a tight circle. Despite judicious use of Spellcards, and Ranko's enchanting Ryusei's pilfered gun, turning it into a human-sized simulacrum of a Lion railgun, the situation was getting uglier by the minute.
In the middle of the circle, Saya was miserable. Damnit! I wish I had any kind of power. If they weren't worried about covering me, the others could be doing something useful. I never asked to be anyone's burden. Is it too much to ask, not to be stuck like this?
Salvation arrived suddenly, in the form of singing wires that ripped the stone statues asunder. Alice Margatroid touched down lightly before the team. "Shall we adjourn?" Alice asked, her phalanx of doll soldiers swarming around the perimeter, prepared for flight or fight.
"Not just yet, Lady Alice. We must prosecute this Witch first and foremost, and complete the mission which brought us here besides." Ranko stated, bowing in apology.
"Understood. Give us the course." Alice replied. "But first," the magician tasked two dolls with carrying teacups that she filled with a fragrant red tea, one each for Saya and Ryusei. "A simple enchantment potion, do not worry. It will grant you the ability to fly for a short period of time, which will make the journey much easier."
"Uhh, huh. And how do we fly, exactly?" Saya asked, eying the cup dubiously.
"You just, y'know, jump. And don't come down." Hotaru explained, earning a glare from Saya.
"No, she is approximately correct, if lacking tact." Alice replied. "Flying is not really a skill that can be explained to those who aren't born with it. But it is more simple than it might seem, and I assure you, you won't fall from the sky. Unless the enchantment wears off, of course."
"Riiight." Saya growled, but she slugged down the tea. Much to her displeasure, Saya discovered that Hotaru pretty much had the right of it. It kinda feels like stretching for something, only it doesn't stop.
Taking to the air made the going much easier, at least until the statues learned to chip pieces off one another and hurl them skyward, but even then the projectiles were an annoyance rather than a real danger. Soon enough, Ranko cried out and dived towards her goal, and the rest of the party followed. In the rear, Saya was interrupted by a doll in a red dress that parked in front of her, holding out a pill.
"Mana actuator," Alice supplied when Saya made to shoo the doll away. "It will give you a temporary ability to fight, enough to see you through this battle." When Saya frowned at the pill and its bearer, the dollmaker said, "I could sense your vexation earlier, at not being able to defend yourself. I thought this would help, but I won't force you to use it."
"Uh, it's not that, although how did you learn how to psychoanalyze people on the spot? Anyway, I can't dry-swallow pills. Got anymore tea?"
"Oh, right." Alice produced another teacup and sent it over. "As for the other bit, I'll introduce you to the answer when we're done here. She's helping out your other friends with their battle." Saya considered correcting Alice on the nature of her relationship with Kyōko, thought better of it, and downed the pill. As the magic took hold, Saya had to hold back a shout of excitement at the feeling of power flowing through her, and with that power in hand, she dove into the fight, but the battlefield had suddenly become very crowded indeed.
"I was not informed they could do this either," Signum muttered, her mood as dark as the blood dribbling down her chin. Three-on-two were not terrible odds for a Knight of Ancient Belka, but when those three were a pair of veteran Puella Magi and the greatest Human magician in Gensokyo, the fight wasn't pretty either. Frustration with the way the battle was going enraged Signum, and she made a deliberate choice to abandon tactics and instead try to remove at least one of the combatants with an unrestrained assault. Part of the problem was the fact that the team opposing the Wolkenritter were almost perfectly designed to counter their abilities. Their chain-wielder had obviously worked on the other two in the past, for Laevateinn's Schlangeform held no terror for them, as it had for so many foes in the past; the shield-bearer meanwhile was doing too good a job bottling up Vita, whose best attacks all required a long windup in Raketenform, and the blunette just wasn't letting her have that much time to herself. And I would go relieve her, but that bitch on the broom keeps strafing me! Signum shook her head, bearing her teeth in a snarl. There is only one way this can end, and I wish it wasn't so. It's been too long since we've had a good, proper challenge. But duty comes first.
Unfortunately for the Wolkenritter, calamity came sooner, in the form of a truly wicked crossup which saw Kyōko wrapping her spear around Sayaka and pulling her free of her current clash with Vita before throwing her across space to engage Signum. Stymied by an angry Puella Magi in her face, Signum was forced to pull up short and cross blades with Sayaka, which left Vita in the open and Marisa on the loose.
"Nine-Sided Circle ~ Sticky Candy!" Marisa announced, putting one of the fruits of the curious collaboration project she had joined over the summer into play. Gobs of glowing orange danmaku filled the space before her, sticking and crystallizing upon Vita until she was frozen in place in a prison of sugar. Eyes wide with anger more than fear, the Knight of the Hammer shouted the worst profanities she knew at Marisa, who was too busy to listen. "Nighty-night!" Marisa jeered as she pressed her right hand to the back of the left, providing a sturdy brace for the Hakkero as it wound up to full charge. But when the arcane reactor reached its apex, the ravenous light of the Master Spark was nowhere to be seen. Marisa didn't even call out her signature spell, instead giving only a tepid cough.
". . . oh. That's new," Marisa stated, too shocked to shout as a hand appeared out of her chest, clutching a radiant spark that had been torn from her. Then Shamal, third member of the Wolkenritter, the owner of the hand that had torn Marisa's soul out of her mortal shell, invoked the Book of Darkness that she held in her other hand, and by then it was too late for screaming.
"Cut it close enough, Shamal?" Vita snapped as she watched the transference ritual begin. The Knight of the Hammer began to squirm in her bindings immediately after, as she knew the other two were still out there, and while she expected them to try and go after Shamal for what she was doing, Vita didn't want to bet her life on her opponents following a set pattern. "And drain her faster, these things aren't coming off!"
In fact, Marisa very much wanted to scream, but the pain was too great. Her knowledge of the arcane told Marisa exactly what was happening, and as a magician, she could almost admire the trick; her attacker was draining her mana directly from her soul, and along with it, she was getting the imprints of any spells Marisa had prepared for use that day. But there was a big problem with the arrangement; while a normal mage would be rendered unconscious and quite possibly damaged by having her mana torn from her in this manner, Marisa was still holding the Hakkero, and so the siphon was draining its baleful energies as well- straight back through Marisa's arm. These guys are so bad, they would do something like this just to win a fight? No way. I cannot let them win. I will not let them win. Throwing every bit of herself she had left at it, Marisa took control of the Hakkero's power once more, and spurred it to act. "non . . . directional . . . laser!"
Beams slashed through the darkness, searing Vita and Signum, and one arm of the laser passed over Marisa. While a Spellcard wouldn't affect its caster, the same couldn't be said for the hand sticking out of Marisa's torso.
"Yeouch!" On a rooftop far removed from the battle site, Shamal yelped and canceled her spell, getting back a hand that looked like it had been lightly boiled. "Those ones are certainly clever. I'll give them that. I can't remember the last time I've actually been interrupted during a siphon."
"Clever, and powerful," said the lupine humanoid who accompanied Shamal, agreeing with her assessment. Technically speaking, Zafira was not a Belkan Knight, as he lacked both their training in sorcery and one of their cartridge-fed Devices. But as the Guardian Spirit bound to the Book of Darkness, he was one of the Wolkenritter, and the differences between himself and the three Knights was too slight to matter to anyone who might encounter him in battle. "We got thirty pages out of that."
"Thirty?! Now I'm really glad I got to that blonde one in time. I'd hate to see the condition Vita would've been in if she had been hit with whatever that was she was winding up."
"Indeed," Zafira replied, leafing through the Book of Darkness. "And from what I'm reading, her other spells were pretty damn good too. But right now I would suggest we make our exit with all haste."
"I don't think we need to worry. From the impressions I got, our enemies are too soft-hearted to pursue us, when they have an injured comrade to deal with."
"It's not that, milady," Zafira shook his head. "Rather, I don't want to see if Mistress Hayate will make good on her threat of having a doghouse installed for me to sleep in if I don't get you lot home before dinner gets cold."
". . . there is that," Shamal agreed, wincing slightly.
"Raising Heart, Divine Buster!" Nanoha swept the blazing beam of her staff across the face of the monster below. The monster- and Nanoha could think of no better name for the thing whose physical form appeared to be nothing but a writhing mass of stone serpents with faces that flickered and blurred in a way that was nauseating to see- recoiled and tried to shy away from that hot light shining down upon it. Several serpents were burned off or blasted to pieces, but there always seemed to be more, and now a few darted out to snap at Nanoha, but these were met in turn by Fate's Photon Lancer, which smashed through the heads and sent their bodies plummeting to the ground. Now the beast thrashed and writhed faster, and Nanoha pulled back slightly, wary of a new kind of attack, but then she realized that the strange contortions were because she and Fate weren't the only ones attacking it.
Lances of utter darkness crashed into the hide of the monster, followed by a projectile of some sort, hurled deep into the mass. The missile bit into the monster's flesh with a crunch, that became a crack!, then a thunderous roar as the stone crumbled to dust. As the thing disintegrated, Nanoha spied a ball of black iron that had been held within the monster, now laying in the center of the pile of wreckage. Turning to Fate, Nanoha pointed to the object, and she saw on her friend's face that Fate had the same idea; that thing looks like one of the Jewel Seeds, only corrupted, or something. Readying Raising Heart in case the monster had any more surprises, Nanoha descended to investigate.
There were surprises in store, for sure, but not of the kind Nanoha had expected. Instead, a thin, wickedly sharp silver sword barred her path to the strange object, and at the other end of the sword was yet another surprise. ". . . Ranko?" Nanoha asked, thrown off-balance by seeing one of her classmates at the site of the battle. That's weird, I thought she was . . . well, okay, not really normal, but not . . . like us. "What are you doing here?"
"I sensed the disturbance caused by this Witch, and took actions to expunge its darkness from the land, which I surmise was your intent as well?" Ranko asked, although Nanoha noticed that the other girl still held her sword over the object.
"Y-yes. That thing there, it's dangerous . . ." Nanoha looked down at the black iron ball on the ground.
"It is called a Grief Seed, and you are correct it is dangerous, moreso than you can know."
"Here, I'll dispose of it-" Nanoha started to reach for the Grief Seed, but she was interrupted by Ranko's sword being placed on a decidedly hostile line towards her throat.
"You are not one of my kindred, thus you have not the ability to do so. I shall dispose of it, after I have taken my due from it." Ranko stated, her tone grave.
Fate landed next to Nanoha, Bardiche at the ready. "(What do we do? I'd rather not fight them-)"
"Damn right you don't!" Hotaru stepped up beside Ranko, cracking her knuckles to hide the motion of palming one of her Spellcards.
"Hotaru?!" Nanoha blurted out, frazzled by the appearance of yet another member of Uminari Middle School's Third-Year cohort. "What's going on here?"
"If you seek a culprit, look to the Divine Crusaders. Their sins are what darkened the city enough for this disease to take root." said Ranko. Rather than wait for another round of questions, she speared the Grief Seed with her sword and flipped the foul device into her hand. "I trust our business here is concluded?" Ranko asked, although it had the tone of a command.
"Uh- yeah." Nanoha replied after a long moment.
"Then I bid you farewell and good night."
Meanwhile, Saya had missed the battle and its attendant drama, for she had discovered another problem within the Witch's house of horrors. Two problems, in fact- Merry and Renko, trapped within the Barrier and running for dear life from one of the animated statues. Time to see how this works, I guess, Saya thought, gathering power within her clenched hands. Swooping down over the statue, Saya hurled the gathered magic with a credible kiai shout, and the blast flattened the statue completely- along with everything in a two-meter radius. "Oops!" Saya frowned at the crater she had made, looking around to make sure she hadn't tagged the very girls she was trying to save with the shot.
"Good evening, Browning-san." Renko managed to be cordial and irritated at the same time when Saya landed before her. "Have you gone as mad as the rest of this place, or is there an explanation for all this?"
"Uh, no I haven't and yes there is, but I can't tell you yet, because I haven't been told it myself. But once the big nasty thing gets killed-" Saya was interrupted by the bizarre landscape abruptly fading away, leaving the girls standing in a landscaping planter along the Quad. "Just like, er, that, I guess. Anyway, Alice and Ranko should be free and they can give all of us some answers. Wait, where's Alice?" The last bit was for Ranko, who was walking across the green with only Hotaru for company, and looking mightily displeased.
"She was obliged to exit with great haste, I believe due to complications with the larger battle. I suggest we prepare to do likewise." Ranko said, then she stopped and did a double-take when she saw who else was with Saya. "Ahh, that simplifies matters. Ladies, we shall be needing to leave the city tonight. What is the minimum amount of preparation you require in order to so, and how quickly can you carry out said preparation?"
"Now, wait just a minute!" Saya and Renko flinched and looked at each other, having both started on the same page with the reading of the riot act to their self-appointed leader. "Mind giving us an explanation on why we have to leave in such a damn hurry?" Renko asked.
"Because the winds of La Gias are blowing, and they carry with them the chill of the grave," Merry supplied, her wide blue eyes radiating terror. "This was only the beginning."
"Right, change of plans. How soon can we leave?" Renko asked, rubbing at Merry's arms to try and restore warmth that had been stolen from her by means other than the physical.
"Everybody link hands," Ranko gave the command, and the rest of the rather spooked party did so with little complaint, the only laggard being Ryusei, who was tripped up by the fact he was still holding a gun in one hand. Pocketing the pistol, Ryusei grabbed Saya's hand. Ranko then drew a Spellcard, spoke the command word to draw upon its magic, turned the card over . . . and then the group was somewhere else, a simple if large foyer in what appeared to be an office building.
"Well, that definitely beats waiting for the bus," Ryusei remarked.
"Hey, clear outta here! We've got wounded incoming!" This announcement came from a girl whose hair was as fiery as the temper she was sporting, dressed in a gray skirt-suit cut rather less conservatively than one would call proper for an office setting, but not so outrageous as to make one wonder what else she was selling. In any case, Saya was paying attention to the girl's clothing mainly because she didn't want to meet her eyes. We just teleported across the city, no more like partway across the country. I don't even know how I can tell that, but I can, and the only thing I can think of is to bitch about being bossed around by this girl. How did abnormal become so normal so quickly?
Numbly, Saya locked on to the smudge of red hair in front of her and started following it, barely registering as Merry peeled off to go check out something that drew her interest, taking Renko with her; then Ryusei was lost, stuck to a bay window overlooking the Gespenst workshop as if it were flypaper; then Ranko and Hotaru were lost in a joyous reunion with their friends, of the type that would have made Saya nauseous if she had been paying attention; and then, suddenly, the red smudge stopped, and Saya had to pull up short to keep from running in to the owner.
"So, Boss, looks like we've got a live one here," the redhead snarked, stepping aside to reveal . . . a woman who hardly looked older than Merry, dressed in a leotard and arm- and leg-warmers, performing a stretch that came either from ballet training or a desire for self-destruction, as best as Saya could tell. Of course the "boss" is a weirdo. Everybody else in this cockamamie operation is a barking looney!
"Well yes, it's weird, but it's in my contract; 'as per the renumerations agreement, the chief executive officer is permitted to obtain one (1) additional personality quirk per one billion yen of year-over-year profit increase', which just goes to show that the pen is mightier than the sword, when placed in the hands of a sufficiently talented lawyer. And I'll have you know not everyone here is a barking looney. Some of my employees meow or chirp."
"Uh . . . okay? Wait, I didn't actually say any of that-"
"Aloud? No, but you thought it, which makes no difference for me. I'm Satori, by the by, and normally I don't outright pluck other people's thoughts from their heads, but I figured it would be best to get things out of the way straight off." Satori turned but did not stop her exercises as she addressed the other occupant in the room. "Rin, can you fetch some black tea and the service? Browning-san is about two minutes away from a complete adrenaline crash, and it would be distastefully ironic to lose one of our rescuees to shock."
"Can do, Boss!" Rin replied and stepped quickly from the room, pulling the door shut on her way out with an appendage that Saya belatedly realized was not her hand.
". . . your secretary has a tail?" Saya asked, too drained to do more than shake her head at the latest measure of madness.
"Two, actually; bakemono earn an extra tail for every hundred years of continued sentience, and they tend to be very fussy about the distinction. What, you thought I was joking about the chirping and meowing part earlier?"
"Yeah, actually, and could you, er, not do that?" Saya eyed Satori dubiously as she worked through yet another set of seemingly impossible stretches, which drew a wince from Saya as she tried to imagine contorting her own limbs in a similar fashion.
"I'm afraid I cannot. Please understand that when I say my Third Eye allows me to read the thoughts of others, I mean all others within a certain radius, and I can't turn it off. And right now, there's a girl downstairs in the medical ward who is in more pain than a Human body ought to be able to experience. The Divine Crusaders and their new allies did something to her out there, I don't know what, but it burnt her from the inside out. They're trying to decide whether to cut off her arm to keep the damage from accumulating, and she's trying to decide whether or not it would be better just to die than be maimed in that way. And past that are the 'ordinary' hurts of the constables we sent out to try and stop the bastards, who got shot up in the process, and the background hum of a city gripped by fear." As she spoke, Satori caught her foot in both hands, behind her back, and pulled until her heel touched the back of her head. "So no, I can't stop. This pure agony within me is the only thing keeping everything else out."
"That's nice," Saya spat. "What do you want me to say, huh? 'Sorry you got all tore up doing a rescue I didn't ask for'? I never asked to be a part of any of this, alright!" A hasty kick caught Satori's ankle, breaking her only connection with the floor, at least until gravity kicked in and brought the rest of her down to the ground. Seeing her fall, witnessing the moment of vulnerability, Saya felt all the stress of the day rebound upon her. The magic Alice gave her was gone, but for a moment Saya felt like she could make her own thunder from the anger inside her. The moment stretched to unbearable length, neither party breaking eye contact while the hateful emotions hung in the air.
"I'm sorry." It was Satori who spoke first, once the immediate danger passed. "It was cruel of me to lay the situation upon you in such a fashion when you've suffered your own trials. And no, this wasn't your fault, we would have responded to the DC raid in either case, and so the outcome would've been the same, most likely."
"Sorry for dumping you on the floor like that. I guess I just wanted to hurt something after all this today, and I couldn't get at the people who deserved it, so I went for the first thing I could get my hands on." Saya held out a hand to Satori, who accepted the help to stand.
"For what it's worth kid, that was a pretty decent try." The voice was Rin, standing behind Saya with a tea tray in one hand, and the other stretched out, sharp black claws extended from each fingertip. "I woulda had to drop the tea to get you in time."
"Uh, thanks, I guess. Yeah. I'll take that tea now," Saya responded, but as she flopped down onto the office couch, she was asleep before her body came to a halt.
"Wow, that went fast," Rin muttered, watching as Saya crumpled onto the cushions.
"Perils of the unaugmented Human form." Satori replied with a frown.
"Speaking of, how're we gonna deal with, y'know . . ." Rin glanced to the floor, and the medical facilities below, fearful of jinxing the patient by speaking the situation out loud.
"She will pull through, somehow, I expect. That's the flip side of being Human- they get none of our advantages, and nowhere near as much time to get things right, so it forces them to work harder for what they want. Cold as it might sound, this could work to our benefit in the end. It occurs to me that our conflict with the DC is much like a danmaku duel; it's not who plays the first card who wins, but who plays the last. With that in mind, I think it's time to take up Tesla-Leicht on their offer to set us up with a new manufacturing line. We'll let the raven of chaos take wing, and see how the DC handles a fight on their own turf."
"So, how did it go?" Valcyone asked the nearly-empty shadows.
"Dirty pool," Alchemie growled, waving the sheet of bubble wrap that had been laying on the floor behind the command seat in front of her contractee.
"Hey, you were the one who said we would succeed only if we continued to adapt and counter the enemy's next move before they make it."
"Yes, well, use that on the enemy, not me. In any case, do you think Minions R' Us has a sixty-day like-it-or-return-it policy? I almost had to go in and rescue the Wolkencritters, instead of them doing the rescuing like they were supposed to."
"I thought the after-action report said they destroyed one of the enemy mages."
"Well, yeah, but it took them a while to pull that trick, and I wouldn't bet lunch on Unit 952's crew standing still long enough for them to do it twice."
"That may be good enough. An enemy who is busy dodging your attacks has no time to throw any of her own. And anyway, I was talking about your project, not the battle itself."
"Oh. Right." Alchemie frowned. "We're going to have to step lightly from now on. Even with STAR there blunting the raiding party, a Witch still formed near the AO."
"Damnit," Valcyone growled at the bad news.
"And one of theirs managed to scoop the Seed."
"Double damnit!"
"My thoughts exactly. I only hope they can keep their heads. We really don't need this turning into a three-front war with a full-blown Witch infestation."
"We need to do something, though, we're running low on Grief Seeds, and they have two teleporters to our one."
"And we're almost out of ice cream too," Alchemie added. "But I would like to point out that I told you taking over the world was going to be a pain in the butt before you made your Wish."
"You also told me that Incubators were duplicitous, amoral fiends, and never to be trusted." Valcyone pointed out.
"Well, I never said I was always right."
There was one last stage of the mission for the Wolkenritter, and this part they approached with the utmost stealth. After straining to hear if any alarm had been raised by their return, Signum gently eased open the tap on the garden hose, having first dragged a length of the hose around the side of the house. Slipping through the shadows like a wraith, the Knight of the Sword picked up the hose and went to run its thin stream of water upon her arm, to begin the process of washing off the dried blood there. Still watching the surroundings more than the water, Signum didn't realize the stream had disappeared until she touched the end of the hose to her wrist. "The hell?" Signum wondered, thrown off by the incongruity. What, are even the household tools going to revolt upon me now, just to round out the evening's frustrations? Shaking the hose didn't dislodge anything, so Signum took the logical, if unfortunate, next step; she looked down the end of the hose.
Hayate chose that moment to roll her wheelchair off the hose, and a startled squawk and a thud told her that her trick had worked quite well. Startled laughter told Hayate that she wouldn't have to look any farther to find the rest of her missing friends. "If you really thought that I wasn't waiting for you to get back, and couldn't hear the faucet from inside the house, you deserved that." Hayate declared, sticking out her tongue at the drenched and dismayed Knights. "Now would you please get inside and do your cleaning up where it's warm?"
"Wait, you're not going to do anything evil to us for being out so late?" Zafira wondered, which earned a dirty look from Signum.
"Only if you're not inside in one minute!" Hayate stated, which encouraged a swift retreat to the house. Ever the polite one despite her role in the field, Shamal grabbed the wheelchair's handles and helped Hayate inside. The contrast between the Wolkenritter as she saw them and the impressions of the battle as related to her by the Book of Darkness itself made Hayate shiver. I wish you didn't have to do this. I wish you could just be the good people I see before me, not the weapons you were conjured to be.
When the phone began to ring, Jail Scaglietti seriously considered hauling out the DC-issue handgun he had pilfered on his last visit to the Orcus and blasting the warbling menace straight off his desk. However, the fast pulse of the ringer indicated that the call was a direct connection, which was something he knew shouldn't be possible with the way the Skyreach Project configured its office exchanges. That was unusual, and unusual was rarely good when it came to the type of work Jail was doing. Gritting his teeth at the incoming complication, Jail snatched the phone off the cradle.
"You've reached Dr. Scaglietti's office. Office hours are between 'not right now' and 'not until later'-"
"Shut the hell up and listen, Scaglietti, before I send someone over there with an S-Rank weapon to renegotiate our deal!"
"Ah, good evening to you, Admiral. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"You never told me there were Incubators operating on this planet of yours!"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that was a problem?" Jail replied, genuine confusion in his voice. What are you afraid of, Admiral? Surely not the chance our red-eyed friends will pump out a few more zombie mages, that would only help the Wolkenritter fill their little magic diary faster.
"Well it is. Find them and dispose of them, or I will do the same for you-" The conversation abruptly ended when a gunshot shook the office.
"Oh dear, so sorry Admiral, there seems to have been an equipment malfunction," Jail said, sarcastically sweet, into the now useless handset. "Seems I'll have to get Building Services to replace that, and this time with one that can't be reached unless I want it to be." Jail smiled in a very unpleasant way at the information sitting on the screen before him. "So Incubators are a problem for you, Admiral? I'd say you just handed me a tool I can use . . . if I wasn't already planning to use it."