Carol watched as the smoke rose from the crater. It slowly dispersed, to reveal Rui had shielded Hibiki, and was left breathing heavily from defending her.
"Oneesama!" Hibiki yelled in concern.
"I'm fine." She said. "I'm not gonna let this little brat kill you."
She stood up, and turned to face Carol. Hibiki slowly got off the ground alongside her sister.
"Why won't you don your Symphogear?" Carol asked Hibiki. "Why won't you fight?"
"Before we fight, I want to hear why you want to shatter the world!" Hibiki said.
Carol stared for a moment, before floating down and landing gracefully on top of a larger chunk of rubble.
"If I tell you the reason, will you step aside?" Carol asked, her eyes shadowed by her hat.
"I… I don't want to fight!" Hibiki said.
"Unlike you, I have a cause worth fighting for!" Carol shouted.
"...getting a real case of deja vu here." Rui commented.
"Atchoo!" Shirabe sneezed.
"Bless you, dess!"
Seeing that the Tachibana and Yukine twins likely wouldn't return for the night, those that had stayed behind at Chris's apartment had gone out. They all walked down the street, though Kirika and Shirabe lagged a bit behind.
"And here I was hoping we could have a nice sleepover together." Yumi said.
"We can't play around while they're out there fighting for us." Shiori said.
"It worked out, since Hina had the keys to Kinechri-senpai and Kururi-senpai's place." Kuriyo said. "How come you did though?"
"Uh… good question." Miku said. "I don't remember. Rui must've given it to me at some point."
"...wait." Yumi said. "Hibiki I could understand, but why would Rui of all people have a key-?"
"Excuse us, dear senpais!" Kirika said, running in front of them with Shirabe. "But we live this way, dess!"
"Thanks for having us." Shirabe said, briefly bowing her head.
"Be seeing you, dess!" Kirika shouted, as she grabbed Shirabe's hand and ran off.
"Bye-bye!" Yumi said, waving.
"Take care!" Miku called after them. "...I should buy some rice balls from the convenience store."
The others reacted with surprise. "I thought you'd be a lot more worried." Kuriyo admitted.
"Helping people is what Hibiki does. With Rui at her side, she'll be fine." Miku said. "If anything, I'm a lot more worried about her coming home on an empty stomach."
Chris and Shuri had been dropped off earlier. They were a fair distance from the burning buildings so they could try and find the culprit of the fire. They watched as the helicopter took off.
"The rescue mission from the burning building is going smoothly thanks to Hibiki-chan and Rui-chan." Aoi reported to the two.
Chris smirked. "I can't let those two have all the glory."
"This isn't a contest, Oneesama." Shuri sighed.
Clink.
An odd noise rang through the air. The split second after, the helicopter exploded.
"What?!" Shuri yelled in shock.
Chris quickly scanned the area, before finding their target. An odd figure resembling a woman standing atop the monorail tracks.
"Did you do that?!" Chris shouted at her.
The deafening silence only grew.
"No response…" Shuri said.
Unbeknownst to the two, someone else was watching them. The same, small hooded girl from before.
Are they…?
"We've lost the dispatch helicopter!" Aoi reported.
"What's going on?!" Genjuro asked.
"It seems the gear users are under attack!" Aoi said.
"We've also received reports from London that Tsubasa-san and Maia-san are engaged in battle!" Fujitaka added.
At the same time? Genjuro thought. Are they trying to throw us into turmoil? However…
He pressed a button at his station. "Ogawa! Jeanne!"
While the screen said audio only, the two made it through.
"Sir!" Ogawa said.
"What is it?" Jeanne asked.
"We don't yet have enough information to determine the enemy's objective." Genjuro said.
"Roger. We'll work with the IAS and MI5 to assess the situation." He said, before hanging up.
"Some things never change, do they?" Jeanne asked him.
"It seems like they don't, Jeanne." Ogawa said, as the two quickly dashed off to find Tsubasa, Maia and Maria.
Chris and Shuri stood their ground, as several coins peppered the area around them, but never hit them once. One coin was close enough to sever several of Chris's hair strands. The odd woman held up her hands, holding coins between each of the gaps.
"I am ready." She said.
"Wonderful. Then I won't feel bad about this afterwards." Chris smirked, as she pulled out her pendant. "Don't come crying to me when you lose!"
"Let's go, Oneesama." Shuri said, drawing the pen from her pocket.
"Yeah. Let's kick her ass, Shuri!" Chris shouted. "Killter Ichaival tron~"
(Insert TRUST HEART by Ayahi Takagaki)
Chris donned her Symphogear armor, while Shuri's pen unfolded into Okami's more familiar sniper rifle form. Chris twirled the crossbows in her hands, before unleashing a hailstorm of crossbow bolts. The woman dodged each and every one of them with expertise and grace. Shuri was peering through the sniper scope, but it was hard for her to target the enemy. But even then, she was able to analyze the movements.
"Those moves aren't superhuman… they're physically impossible." Shuri said. "She's not human at all!"
"I welcome it!" Chris yelled, as the woman caught two of her bolts and landed atop a small roof, crushing the energy constructs in her fists. Chris aimed her crossbows once more. "Makes it all the easier to deal with you!"
"Commander!" Fujitaka said.
"What is it?" Genjuro asked.
"Could these be related to that mysterious signature we detected last night?" He theorized, a single bead of sweat rolling down his face.
Genjuro crossed his arms. "An unknown presence turns out to be a new adversary…"
Chris unleashed a much more concentrated burst of bolts, but the woman pulled out several coins, deflecting each and every one of them. Neither could gain a solid advantage, and they were left at a stalemate.
The cloaked girl from earlier was observing the fight. "She has the most offensive power of all the Symphogear users, with superb phonic gain, and yet she still can't touch Leiur."
Shuri aimed a shot at Leiur's feet, but she managed to dodge it in time and took off running. Chris ran after her, and the two became blurs, sparks flying all over the battlefield. Shuri could barely keep up with it thanks to her well-trained eyes.
"I have to bring them Dvergr Dáinn's legacy as soon as possible!" The hooded girl said.
Leiur landed on a wall, as Chris's crossbolt morphed into a gatling gun. She aimed and fired away. Leiur managed to keep ahead and dodge every one of them. Shuri was firing more explosive rounds, but Leiur changed direction just before she was about to get hit. She jumped into the air above the two, but Chris smirked.
"Got you right where we wanted you!" She yelled.
The compartments on her legs unfolded to reveal an array of missiles, that all launched at their target.
MEGA DETH PARTY
Leiur gasped, as the missiles all struck true, the smoke blocking Leiur from view.
"A direct hit?!" The hooded girl said.
Back in London, the three there were staring down the Autoscorer. Tsubasa thrust her sword, and the Autoscorer met it head on, only for Tsubasa's weapon to be deflected upwards and out of her hand. This was planned, however, as the weapon shifted into a massive sword, catching the Autoscorer off guard as the sword landed on top of her, shoving her into the ground.
"Did you get her?" Maria asked.
"I only knocked her through the floor." Tsubasa said.
"Well that works." Maia twirled her swords. "Gives me plenty of time to shove my swords up her-!"
"We're leaving, you two!" Maria shouted, grabbing Tsubasa by the arm and pulling her along, causing the blue-haired idol to blush in confusion.
"Okay, tactical retreat works too!" Maia said, running after them.
Chris and Shuri stared at the plume of smoke, but they both knew that their foe wasn't defeated.
"Stop screwing around and show yourself already!" Chris yelled.
Shuri squinted through the smoke, and saw Leiur's figure slowly come into view. She saw the yellow barrier made from the coins.
"Move!" Shuri shouted, as the twins quickly ran to dodge the coins being shot at them.
"What's going on, Chris-chan? Shuri-chan?" Aoi asked.
"We've engaged the enemy." Shuri reported.
"What's going on with you?" Chris asked, firing several shots back at Leiur.
"Watch out!" Came a voice.
Chris and Shuri looked behind them for the sound, only to look back up and see multiple boats falling towards them.
"You've got to be shitting me!" Chris cursed.
"Those are boats-" Shuri said, before she was cut off.
The Yukine twins jumped out of the way barely in time… only for the boats to explode and sent them both flying. Leiur was observing from atop a building, as a gigantic figure stood in the harbor, the culprit of the flung boats.
"I'm hardly the subdued type." Leiur said, looking at the giant holding two more boats. "But this is a bit too much, even for me. Time to turn down the volume a little."
The giant faded away, letting the boats fall into the water.
Kirika and Shirabe stood side by side, waiting for the pedestrian signal to change so they could walk across the road. They remembered what the older Symphogear users had told them.
"You two hold down the fort here! You're not fighting out there without LiNKER!"
"It makes sense if you think about it." Shirabe said.
"Despite how they seem, they're kind to a fault, really." Kirika said. "When we were taken into custody after the Frontier incident, the girls we once faced as enemies came to take care of us, dess."
"They may consider it custody, but they even let us attend school." Shirabe said, remembering that first day. She and Kirika were both glued to the entrance gate, before Chris gave them the literal push.
"What are you so scared about?" She asked.
Waiting for them were Hibiki, Rui, Miku, Shuri and all their friends.
"Hurry up, or you'll be late!" Hibiki had said with a smile and wave.
Rui walked forward and held out a hand to Shirabe.
"How about we start over?" She said with a surprisingly soft smile. "My name is Rui Tachibana."
Shirabe still remembered how warm Rui's hand was. A far cry from the girl she was at odds with several months ago.
"I never would have imagined living this happily in FIS's headquarters." Kirika said.
The light turned green, but the two didn't walk.
"Can't we support them somehow?" Shirabe asked.
"I want to do something, whatever it is." Kirika agreed, pulling out her pendant. "We have the power to help them right here."
"Don't forget that power on its own isn't enough to change things, Kiri-chan." Shirabe reminded her.
One of the large screens on the building side lit up with a news report.
"Now, back to report on the fire tearing through a high-rise apartment building and its surroundings."
The two looked up at it.
"While details are still unclear, there have been multiple reports of suspicious individuals. We cannot rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack."
The two widened their eyes, as the helicopter in the footage exploded.
"Did it just…" Shirabe muttered.
"Explode in mid-air, dess?!" Kirika said, as Shirabe turned to her.
"Something else must be going on." Shirabe said.
The Yukine twins had taken cover behind some bushes, while they looked at the resulting destruction from the boats.
"She's really going to town…" Chris muttered.
Shuri was observing through her sniper scope. "It's a good thing we canceled our tickets to the S.S. Plummet."
"Really?" Chris asked, deadpanning at the joke. "You've hung out with Maia-senpai too much…"
"I've learned that keeping a positive mood helps a team." Shuri said, looking back to her sister. "Though I'm not sure if I'm that good at-"
"Are you two okay?"
The two of them turned to the soft voice.
"Yeah, we're-" Chris noticed what the new face was wearing and stuttered. All this new person was wearing was a black and purple hood, with only black panties and boots covering her below.
"Wh-Where are your clothes?!" Shuri asked, hands over her eyes as a noticeable blush formed.
"Who are you?" The small girl asked.
Panicking to hide her identity, Chris quickly covered her face and spoke in a false voice. "I'm Little Red Singing Hood. I have no relation to the UN or the Japanese government at all!"
"Oneesama, please…" Shuri sighed, putting a face on her hands.
"I work day and night to make the wor-!"
"You're the wielder of the Ichaival Symphogear." The little girl said. "Chris Yukine, aren't it?"
"Wait, your voice…" Shuri thought back.
"You're the one that helped us earlier!" Chris realized.
The girl took off her hood to reveal fluffy blonde-green hair. "My name is Elfnein. I've been looking for you and your friends to help me protect the world from Carol's alchemy."
"Alchemy…?" Chris repeated, while Shuri contacted the base.
"Alchemy?" Aoi asked. "You mean that hyper-advanced technology that existed before science and magic diverged?"
"That would mean we are against a heretical discipline different from that of the Symphogear." Fujitaka said.
"A new enemy…" Genjuro said, looking at the pictures of Carol and Leiur. "Alchemists…"
Back with Carol and the Tachibana twins, around the corner was a young man. He was filming Carol with his phone.
"Score!" He said. "Now, what's the best way to sell this juicy footage to a TV channel?"
"Filming ladies without permission, are we?"
The man turned to see a pale girl in a blue dress walk up to him.
"Now, now, didn't your mother raise you better than that?" She asked, before grasping his chin.
His eyes widened as the girl took his first and last kiss, draining him of life. His hair turned white as his corpse hit the ground. The girl grinned, licking her lips from the kill. This had all transpired unknown to the conflict nearby.
"A cause worth fighting for?" Hibiki asked.
"Indeed." Carol said. "You had one yourself, didn't you? That's why you prevented the destruction of the Moon with your songs. You fought with your songs, with your Symphogear!"
"No!" Hibiki shouted. "I had no other choice! I didn't want to do it that way… I didn't want to fight. I wanted to use my Symphogear… to protect people!"
Rui smiled at Hibiki, but saw that Carol's glare only grew stronger.
"Even so, you must fight." She said, as a yellow magical circle glew around her feet. "Face me with all that is within your power."
"I don't want to use a power meant to help people for fighting." Hibiki said.
Carol scoffed. "Do you, too, mean to die helping people?!"
She raised her arms, and Hibiki could feel the power shake the area. Rui stepped forward between the two.
"Alright, kid." Rui said, holding up her fists. "Just because she won't fight, doesn't mean I won't. Try it. I'll send you running to mommy and daddy."
Carol glared as her power slowly increased. "How dare you…"
"The energy readings are off the charts!" Fujitaka shouted, looking at the screen. "The enemy's right there! Why won't Hibiki fight?! I don't know if Rui will be able to handle this foe!"
"Send in reinforcements!" Genjuro ordered. "In fact, if there are no Noise, I'll be the reinforcements! Set course for their location!"
"No!" Aoi shouted. "Without you, the bridge of communications will break down!"
Genjuro grit his teeth as he could only watch his students.
Rui ground her foot into the ground, keeping her fists up. Despite the likely attack, Hibiki kept talking.
"But… when I saw you before, you were crying!" Hibiki shouted.
Carol hesitated, as Hibiki continued.
"I don't want to fight you! I want to find out why!" Hibiki said.
Carol grit her teeth. "You spied on me… You invaded my privacy…" Carol snapped her fingers. "Turn to dust, along with the world!"
Rui used that moment to jump at Carol for a punch, but Carol's power exploded first. She was launched back, crashing into the side of the crater. She couldn't see where Hibiki went, but she heard the scream.
As the SONG agents back at the headquarters tried to discover what the power exactly was, the explosion faded. Carol was left breathing heavily, but Hibiki and Rui had both survived. Hibiki's clothes had been torn up slightly, though Rui remained relatively untouched thanks to Kagutsuchi's protective field, though she did seem drained.
"Why do you want to destroy the world?" Hibiki asked, as she used a rock to pull herself up.
"It is a task left to me by my father." Carol answered finally. "Do you not have one of your own?"
"Father…?" Hibiki repeated.
Rui's eyes were shadowed by her hair… before she collapsed facedown. Kagutsuchi turned back to normal.
"Oneesan!" Hibiki shouted, kneeling down by her sister's side, shaking her by the shoulders. "Oneesan!"
"Man, what a pain in the neck." Said the pale girl in the blue dress from earlier.
Carol looked up to see her sitting on the bridge above them. "Were you watching us? You're rotten to the core, Garie."
She landed next to Carol with a twirl. "Please don't say that. You made me this way, Master."
"How goes the collection of memories?" Carol asked.
"According to plan." Garie said, as she faked crying. "Micha's never satisfied though. She's greedy!"
"Then let us withdraw for now. On the double." Carol said.
"Roger!" Garie said with a salute, mood shifting instantly. "I'll do my best!"
She dropped some sort of capsule on the ground, creating magical pentagrams where it shattered. She twirled atop it, before waving. "Sayonara!"
Garie disappeared in a small flash of light, while Carol stared down at the Tachibana twins. She held up her own capsule.
"Next time, we will fight." Carol declared. "How else will I destroy everything you hold dear?"
She broke the capsule and disappeared. Hibiki had turned Rui onto her back, using her legs like a pillow for her older twin.
"A task…" Hibiki muttered. "Dad didn't… leave us anything…"
She felt something drip onto her leg, and she expected her own tears.
But it wasn't. The tears came from Rui. Her sister's eyes were barely open, but she could see the broken look in them.
"I fucked up… again…" Rui muttered.
All Hibiki could do was pull her sister closer to her.
"Retrieve Hibiki-chan and Rui-chan!" Aoi shouted. "This is an emergency!"
Genjuro frowned as SONG scrambled. Something feels terribly off.
In London, several of the MI5 agents had been deployed by the concert.
"We are assessing the situation."
"Hurry up and seal exits A3 to 6!"
They heard footsteps, and saw Maria, Tsubasa and Maia running out of the stadium. "Agent Maria!"
"Your involvement in this operation is restricted!" One of them shouted, as the three ran past them.
"Sorry, but this is an emergency." Maria said, as she and the Kazanari twins stood by the parked taxi. "Sorry, but we're borrowing your car." She apologized to the driver.
"You have no such authority!" The agents all said, pulling out their guns.
BANG BANG BANG
The agents were left shaking, unable to move an inch. Behind them, Ogawa's own gun was smoking, having shot the shadows.
Shadow Weaving
"Ogawa-san!" Tsubasa said, as the ninja nodded.
"You agents really are just "shoot first, ask questions later," aren't you?" Jeanne asked, stepping past them. "Fools."
"Thanks for the assist, Jeanne." Maria said.
"It was no issue. We'll handle things here." She turned to Maia. "You're gonna want this."
Jeanne handed Maia a familiar uniform.
"Man, this one takes me back." Maia grinned, as Maria and Tsubasa got into the car's front seats.
"Sorry, but I'll have my way with Tsubasa!" Maria shouted as she sat behind the wheel.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA!" Maia yelled, getting in the back as Maria stepped on the gas. "That's a little too forward even by my standards!"
"What is going on?" Ogawa asked, as he watched them drive off.
Jeanne handed the confused taxi driver several stacks of pound sterling bills to pay for his vehicle. "I don't know myself, but it seems that the peace we fought for hasn't come to pass yet."
With the Yukine twins, they were standing by an empty road with Elfnein when they got a call.
"Someone got the better of the dummy and chuunigure?!" Chris asked.
"What's the situation with Tsubasa-san and Maria-san?" Shuri asked.
"The two of them are regrouping." Aoi reported.
"Is alchemy stronger than the Symphogears?" Chris muttered.
"We have a 2-5-2 here." Shuri said. "Requesting pickup."
"Shit!"
Chris quickly grabbed Shuri and Elfnein and jumped out of the way, as something crashed right where they were standing moments before. They watched as the smoke glew red, as the ground was being eaten away.
"What is this?" Chris asked.
"Ugh…"
Shuri held up a hand to her forehead. It felt as if a headache was coming on. But it wasn't from the attack…
She looked at the box Elfnein was holding. She moved closer by an inch, and the pain slowly grew. Why was that causing it…?
"Tsubasa-san, what's going on?" Ogawa had asked through the comms.
"Sorry about this, but Maria has an idea." She said. "Please take care of things there with Jeanne."
She ended the comm. "It's about time you explained yourself."
"Yeah." Maia took off her jacket. "What's your plan?"
"Just think about it." Maria said. "She was clearly after Tsubasa instead of either of us. In order to minimize civilian casualties, the best course of action was to take you away from other people."
Tsubasa raised an eyebrow. "All the more reason we should ask for more help and-"
"She's under a lot more restrictions than you'd think." Maia told her sister, as she unfolded her SOUL uniform. She pulled off her shirt. "It was a miracle we made the deal we did with the UN folks."
"You want me to lie even more?!" Maria shouted, reading the agreement.
"Given your position, we would like you to play this role in order to calm the situation." The agent on the other side of the glass said.
"Play a role?"
"We'll say that the singer Maria was actually an agent working for us at the UN." He said. "You infiltrated the enemy in order to thwart their plot from the inside. A simple tale of heroism will be easiest for the masses to swallow."
"I'll have to play the idol again…?" Maria muttered.
"An idol? Why yes, in both meanings of the word. Imagine a heroic idol touring the world, putting on charitable concerts for a righteous cause! Wonderful propaganda!" He said, standing up. "As a part of their low-level manipulation, the US performed an Echelon backtrace, and erased all data from all networked devices, including personal computers."
The tablet changed to pictures of Hibiki, Shirabe and Kirika. "That girl, and your underage accomplices, still have a future. You may no longer have your Gear, but you can still fight to help others. To even seal the deal, we've already had one of the most loyal UN agents becoming your acting manager-"
"Sorry, but there's been a change in plans."
The two of them looked at the entrance, to see a familiar smirking Kazanari walk in.
"Maia…" Maria said.
"Get out of here, Mickey." Maia said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm taking over from here."
"How can you just speak to someone like myself-?"
"A low level UN grunt that barely knows jack shit, yeah?" Maia finished. "You only learned of the situation once you got the freaking tablet and skimmed through it like an hour ago. And you're talking to someone that had a dinner date with the higher ups, so make like a tree and fuck off."
The UN agent grunted, before leaving the room with a huff.
"No tears this time. Progress." Maia smirked, before she took his seat in front of Maria. "Yo, how has it been?"
"...his name is Mickey?" Maria couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah. His coworkers made fun of his name all the time." Maia said. "But anyways, you read the agreement?"
Maria frowned. "I'm going to have to lie again…"
"I'm sorry." Maia apologized. "My Uncle and I tried to argue for a different option, but it was the one that made the most sense. Even if we found a better plan, S.O.N.G. only has so much influence in the UN that we couldn't do it if we tried."
Maria looked back down at the pictures of Hibiki, Kirika and Shirabe. Scrolling down, she saw a few pictures of the others as well.
"...is Jeanne going to be my manager?"
"Huh?"
"Well, she's become Ogawa's new partner, so that's what I'd assume." Maria said.
"Oh uh… no." Maia said. "You're kind of… looking at your new manager right now."
…
…
…
"...you've got to be kidding me." Maria sighed.
"Listen, I argued for Jeanne being your manager, but they didn't want the French Winter Soldier to do it." Maia shrugged as Maria struggled to keep a straight face at that nickname. "Then Uncle volunteered me and they all jumped on it before I could argue."
"... I suppose I'll have to agree with this, but this is not going to go well at all." Maria sighed.
"Since when has anything gone right for us?" Maia laughed. "But Tsubasa's gonna be happy that she'll get to sing with you again."
Even then, this isn't what I should be fighting for! Maria said, looking down.
"Watch the road." Maia told her, as she laid down to slip off her pants.
Maia's nonchalant comment turned out to come true, as Tsubasa took her eyes off Maria and looked to see an obstacle. The Autoscorer was standing in the middle of the road.
"Maria!" She shouted.
Maria stepped on the gas in an attempt to run down the Autoscorer, but they drew their arm back and swung forward. Tsubasa and Maria lowered their seats, just as the sword cleaved right through the car horizontally, missing them by an inch. Through the broken glass, Tsubasa grabbed her pendant.
"Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri tron~"
(Insert Beyond the BLADE by Nana Mizuki)
She donned her armor again, and in the split second, she grabbed Maria and Maia.
"Wait!" Maia shouted. "Let me put on my pant-!"
She took off. The two halves of the car crashed into the side of the bridge, exploding. The smoke cleared as Tsubasa landed and put the two down, as she turned to face the Autoscorer.
"Are you freaking serious, Tsubasa?!" She yelled, pulling up her SOUL uniform's leather shorts while holding her normal clothes. "Give me a second to put on my pants! I'm not planning to streak down the streets of London tonight!"
"There wasn't time." Tsubasa said.
"I get that, but dick move little sis, dick move!" Maia yelled, tossing her normal clothes aside and holding up her weapon in its massive singular broadsword state. Tsubasa followed suit, enlarging her own blade as the two of them charged at the Autoscorer. Their two swords clashed with the enemy's own. She was holding them off well, despite it being two on one in the deadlock.
"My sword is the bane of all blades: sword breaker." The Autoscorer said.
White cracks traveled across Tsubasa's blade, shattering it into its smaller katana form, knocking her back. But surprisingly, Maia's weapon was still putting on the pressure. The Autoscorer frowned. "That shouldn't be possible."
"I guess I'm just built different!" Maia grinned, before turning on the rocket boosters and unleashing a powerful slash that sent the Autoscorer skidding back. "Screw your swordbreaker, I have a hoverboard!"
The Autoscorer's smile returned however, as she held up odd orbs. She dropped them on the ground, as they all shattered. The ground glew red, with several summoning circles bringing forth several familiar creatures…
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me." Maia cursed.
"It can't be!" Maria shouted. "Noise? But how?"
SONG had relayed the message to Chris and Shuri, who were dealing with a similar situation of their own. The attack from earlier wasn't meant to hurt them, but rather summoned Noise.
"Signatures identified!" Fujitaka said. "They match the patterns we detected last night!"
Genjuro punched a fist into his hand in frustration. "Weren't Solomon's Cane and the entire treasury of Babylon consumed in a million-degree inferno?"
Tsubasa rushed forward, slashing away at the new Noise with ease. Maia was doing the same, slashing up any in their way.
"You should just be a good girl and let me kill your sword." The Autoscorer said.
"I'm not the type of woman who simply sits back and does what she's told!" Tsubasa shouted, cutting down several more before going back-to-back with her sister and aiming her blade. "My friend once told me that the sentinel's sword isn't just a pretty face."
"You bring that up now?!" Maria yelled, quite mortified, especially considering who was present.
"You called her a pretty face?" Maia asked, sporting the absolute biggest shit-eating grin imaginable.
"Focus on the fight!" Maria shouted at her, as Tsubasa continued to cut down hordes of the Noise.
Chris was peppering the Noise full of bullet holes, while Shuri was picking off the ones furthest away from them.
"Come at me all you want!" Chris taunted. "You Noise are a piece of cake now!"
Shuri frowned. This seemed too easy.
Tsubasa was slashing through the Noise one by one. A Noise with needles on its arms thrust at her, and she met it head on. She stabbed at it, expecting the tip of her blade to tear straight through.
But it didn't. A small shockwave was created as her weapon didn't pierce. While the Autoscorer smirked, everyone looked on in shock as Tsubasa's katana was disintegrating as it touched the Noise.
"My sword-?!"
The Noise stabbed at the pendant crystal below her neck, creating cracks.
"What… the hell?"
Chris had blocked a hit from the Noise, but found that the armor on her arm was dispersing at the touch.
"The fate you deserve for assuming they're Noise." Leiur said, standing atop a lamp post.
"I won't let you off with a simple defeat." The other Autoscorer said.
"What the…" Maia's eyes were wide. "Her Gear…"
"It's disintegrating…?" Shuri said, watching her sister's armor disappear.
SONG was on high alert, seeing this new development.
"What does she mean, they're not Noise?!" Genjuro shouted.
Carol sat on a throne in a massive room. Four stands were in the center, one of which had another Autoscorer standing atop it.
"Alca-Noise…" Carol said, seeing that the results bore fruit. "What will you do now, Symphogear?!"
Despite her armor slowly disintegrating, Tsubasa kept on fighting, cutting down every Noise she could in the time she had left. But with one more slash, electricity sparked on her, as the Symphogear finally shattered.
"Tsubasa!" Maria yelled, running up as the girl hit the ground. She was completely stripped bare.
Maia picked up Tsubasa's cracked pendant, her eyes hidden by her bangs. "Maria."
She tossed the older girl her civilian clothes.
"Dress her in that. I'll take care of this." She said, walking forward.
"...understood." Maria said, knowing that she could never underestimate the twins, as Rui showed her in the past. "Give her a good hit for me."
"I plan on it." Maia said, as she held up Takemikazuchi. "She messed with my sister. Safe to say… she pissed me off."
"System destruction confirmed." The Autoscorer said. "That should settle this for now."
She clicked her heels, and several of the Noise returned through the magic circles.
"Oh, shit hasn't been settled, you fucking bitch." Maia darkly chuckled. "Thanks for making it easier."
"What are you doing?" The Autoscorer asked, seeing the cracked pendant in her hand.
"Chris-san! Chris-san!" Elfnein shouted as the girl collapsed. Shuri wordlessly took off her SOUL jacket and covered her sister, before grabbing the cracked pendant.
Leiur landed behind the Noise, but narrowed her eyes when she saw Shuri's own as she walked up with Okami in hand.
Her eyes were full of silent rage.
"We're no longer detecting Ichaival!" Aoi reported.
"The Noise did this…? No way." Fujitaka said. "The Symphogear are Noise-proof!"
"So it wasn't the normal carbonization?" Genjuro said, gritting his teeth, before the screen showed Shuri standing up against the enemy, holding the damaged pendant.
"The Alca-Noise were created to dissect the world." Elfnein told Shuri. "If they're used as weapons…"
"Penetrating a simple defense field like that of the Symphogear is child's play." Leiur said. "It's time for a new cast to take the stage."
Elfnein held her arms out protectively in front of Chris, but Shuri said nothing.
"Not if we can help it, dess!"
Leiur looked up, to see Kirika standing atop the bridge, with a banner around her billowing like a cape. She tossed it aside, before pulling out her pendant.
"Zeios Igalima raizen tron~"
(Insert Overkill Scythe Hell by Ai Kayano)
Kirika had donned her Symphogear. She raised her scythe, creating two extra blades. She swung her weapon, unleashing the two blades at the Alca-Noise and cutting them down.
Kill Juliet
Kirika jumped down and ran at the hordes, spinning around like a bladed top as she slaughtered several more.
Calamity Ring: Tinkerbell
"You're certainly not holding back." Leiur commented, watching the younger Symphogear user fight.
"Look at me."
Leiur turned to Shuri, who hadn't moved from her spot.
"Your fight is with me."
"Kirika-chan has intervened!" Aoi reported.
"Without LiNKER?!" Genjuro shouted.
"But if she can pull it off..." Fujitaka said.
Several of the Alca-Noise had come closer to Elfnein and the unconscious Chris, but Shirabe was there, already in her armor and cutting down more Alca-Noise. She jumped, shooting hundreds of small buzzsaws at the Alca-Noise.
Alpha Style: 100 Saṃsāra
"A goddess…" Elfnein muttered, before passing out. Shirabe caught her in time.
"You put on quite the show…" Leiur muttered, as she saw Kirika wrap Chris up in the banner she had earlier. "But diversions don't work on me."
(Insert BAYONET CHARGE by Ayahi Takagaki and Nana Mizuki)
"My kouhai distracted you long enough." Shuri said, as she opened up the bullet compartment of her weapon.
"I'm gonna take a leaf out of my partner's book for this." Maia said, as she slotted the cracked Ame-no-Habakiri into Takemikazuchi.
AME-NO-HABAKIRI! AUTHORIZED
"This is not just for my sister, but for my friend, who you hurt." Shuri said, inserting the cracked Ichaival into Okami's compartment.
ICHAIVAL! AUTHORIZED
Electricity did not spark this time, as Maia drew her sword back and Shuri aimed her rifle.
RELIC BATTLE MODE; READY
"Henshin!" They both shouted.
Their eyes glew red. Maia slashed outwards twice, unleashing the two beams that cut down the Alca-Noise nearby, before converging upon her and enveloping her in blue crystals. Shuri fired a shot, as the bullet pierced through several of the remaining Alca-Noise before returning to her. She shouted and punched the bullet, as it shattered to envelop her in red crystals.
The crystals shattered, completing their transformation. The smug expressions dropped off of the Autoscorers' faces completely.
"No… that's impossible!" Carol shouted, sitting up in shock at the new development. "That's… that's a miracle… no!"
"We're detecting an Aufwachen waveform!" Fujitaka shouted. "Ame-no-Habakiri and Ichaival are back on our radar!"
"It's the same data from several months back…" Aoi said "But the sync rate is normal!"
Genjuro knew what this was from, and smiled. "Ryoko… you continue to assist us from beyond the grave."
TAKEMIKAZUCHI: HABAKIRI MODE
OKAMI: ICHAIVAL MODE
Maria smiled at Maia, while Kirika and Shirabe were in awe at Shuri. With their enemies stunned at the new development, Maia and Shuri only had one thing on their mind; to avenge the defeats of their sisters and Rui.
"Your fate…" They both held out a hand, letting their capes flow in the wind. "Is mine to decide!"
A/N: Ooh? A new development and the return of the Twins' Relic Battle Modes? That wasn't in canon!
But yeah, this is the first of the many ways that GX will have a lot more differences from canon. Not the hugest diverge (that'll come later), but a hint of things to come.
Aside from that, no other major changes.
Except for an announcement, Symphogear X2 now has a TV Tropes page! You can find it via the Fan Works page for Symphogear. Feel free to edit it when you have the time.
Feel free to leave a review. See you all next time.