Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia
Chapter Thirteen
Lady Venus slammed her hand on the desk as the striking blond haired woman roared, "How DARE you?"
Veronica Aston-Martin winced visibly, but the police officer met Venus' eyes calmly. "I did not break any of the agreements between our worlds," she said coolly. "Besides, it appears you are spying on me quite closely."
"Damn right," Venus agreed, "and with cause it appears." She waved Veronica to a seat even as she sat down too.
Veronica sat down, looking across the desk at Minako Aino aka Lady Venus. One of the mythic Sailor Soldiers she was over a thousand years old, but looked about thirty or so. She was also frighteningly powerful, on the level of the Saint Kaisers.
Venus got her annoyance under control, mostly. "I have no issue with you contacting Alicia, if you had actually gone through channels," she said flatly, "but piggybacking on Accord's meeting with her? That was innapropriate."
"Would you have let me see her otherwise?" Veronica challenged.
"Yes of course," Venus shrugged as Veronica looked at her in surprise. She continued, "Look, I have no problems with either your politics or the Saint Church. Why wouldn't we let you see her?"
Veronica looked disconcerted, "I seem to have misjudged you."
"Not likely," Vanus snorted, "I am well aware you belong to the more radical faction of the Church. But Crystal Tokyo has no intentions of messing with your world's internal politics."
"You are aware there's at least one expansionist group on Mid that wants to conquor this world?" Veronica asked, bemused.
"You'd get quite a bloody nose trying," Venus shrugged, "we both know the numbers of real world class mages on Mid has declined, it's why you've also beefed up your device technology to compensate."
Veronica looked at her coolly as she mused, "It seems you are better informed than I realized."
"You are our nearest neighbor in the dimensional sea, we keep a eye on you the same way we do our near galactic neighbors," Venus shrugged.
"Well, fair enough," Veronica conceded, though inside she was less than pleased. These people were daring to spy on her homeworld?!
"All right, your here for a intelligence sharing meeting," Venus continued briskly, "now, if it was up to me I'd tell you to go piss up a rope, but my Queen expects me to play nice."
Veronica grit her teeth, striving to not let her temper get the best of her.
"We've got a issue, and it relates to Mid," Venus admitted as she activated a holographic screen, "This is Asgard, out in the League of Non-Aligned Words."
Veronica had to work very hard not to react to that. Damn it, this woman was a wizard!
"Asgard has recently become aggressive with their neighbors, including taking over nearby Valhalla," Venus noted, "and their armed forces are supported by warriors using replica Belkan devices, as assume imported from Mid."
Veronica kept her voice even, "Do you know who is supplying them?"
"I was hoping you would tell me," Venus said with a sneer.
Veronica jerked forward slightly, "How DARE you accuse us of..."
Venus smirk, "Than you for the confirmation."
Veronica froze, then cursed her lack of self control. "This proves nothing," she growled out as she flopped back into her seat.
"I don't NEED to prove anything," Venus said dryly. She looked curious, "Why Belka devices? They're so limited, in a lot of ways."
"You don't expect me to actually answer that, do you?" Veronica asked disbelieving.
Venus shrugged in a annoyingly casual way. "I could hope," she said. "I can usually find out how enemies do something, and so on, but motive often escapes me," she admitted.
Veronica ignored that. "And what are you going to do about Asgard?" she asked warily.
"At this point, nothing," Venus shrugged.
"Huh?" Veronica blinked.
"Valhalla isn't a ally, and we don't CARE about the non-aligned worlds other than as a trading partner," Venus explained. She continued, "I would advise you to explain to Asgard that it WOULD be a very bad idea to hit any Earth flagged trading vessels. That would bring... repercussions."
"While I am in no way connected to them, I would attempt to pass that on," Veronica said dryly.
"Oh, goody," Venus said with a sigh. "Any intelligence you'd care to pass on to Earth?" she asked with a smile.
Veronica nodded, "Actually, we've been contacted by agents of Mesa. They want reliable cross dimensional tech, and are willing to pay well for it."
"Any sellers?" Venus asked, actually looking concerned.
"Surprisingly, no," Veronica answered. "Say what you will about our leaders, but even we draw the line somewhere."
The meeting continued for a short while longer, then Veronica thankfully took her leave. She briskly headed out to the streets, blending in with traffic. She traveled by foot, then bus, before finally reaching the Midchild embassy.
"Welcome, Miss Aston-Martin," the guard nodded respectfully.
"Thanks," Veronica nodded, "please go to security stage two."
"Yes ma'am," he nodded, touching a keypad by the gate.
Veronica strode into the courtyard, then up to the small, old fashioned house. SUPPOSEDLY the house had once belonged to the Takamachi family, though she wasn't sure she believed it. Still, it was comfortable, and her superiors had equipped it fully.
The security system activated, then Veronica activated the scramblers too. In theory no one could monitor them, though she had her doubts. Her superiors had certainly never expected Crystal Tokyo to know about their Asgard operation. She strode into the communications office, sat down at the desk and brought up the communications system.
Signum looked annoyed, the pink haired and much older woman meeting her eyes calmly. "Did things go as expected?" she asked.
"Not exactly," Veronica admitted, "I didn't even have to tell them about Asgard. They already knew about it."
Signum nodded ruefully, "I underestimated Venus, I take it?"
"She thinks we're behind it though," Veronica added.
"Or more accurately that you are behind it," Signum noted. "Will there be a problem getting back to Mid? I can mobilize a team, if absolutely needed."
"No, I think Venus will respect my official position," she reassured Signum. Veronica continued, "My only concern is that Venus tells me that Crystal Tokyo won't act against Asgard."
"Officially," Signum agreed, "but I strongly suspect Venus will move unofficially, solving our little smuggling problem."
"You know, we could have just told her officially," Veronica noted.
Signum snorted, "Where's the fun in THAT?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So, wait a minute," Venus blinked at her second in command, Motoko Kusanagi, finished giving her a summary, "it is not the Mid government behind this?"
"Not exactly," Motoko corrected her boss, "it's a faction. Remember reading about Jail Scaglietti and his bunch?"
"Yeah, Jail did illegal research for the TSAB," Venus nodded, "but I thought his bosses were killed?"
"They were," Motoko agreed, "but their faction is still around. They stay in the background, but actively support a more 'ends justify the means' philosophy than the main TSAB."
"But what are they doing here?" Venus wondered, then frustratedly added, "And why Asgard of all places? It's out in the middle of nowhere."
"Precisely," Motoko agreed.
It took Venus only a moment to get it. "They were hoping not to be noticed," she realized, then looked thoughtful. "A test run?"
"Arming a local civilization with basic Devices and seeing what would happen," Motoko agreed. "We'll need to be on guard in case they try it in our region of space."
"Agreed," Venus said. She frowned, "I'm going to need a full report on what's going on out around Asgard. The queen will want to know."
"And you want to plan a raid, if needed," Motoko mused.
"That too," Venus agreed willingly.
To be continued...
Notes: Setting up some plot threads both here and for my Eternal City Crystal Tokyo fic. Alicia needs some villains, and a evil faction of Nanoha characters might be interesting. Sorry for the chapter being so talky...