A Saga of Tanya the Evil/The Irregular at Magic High School crossover.
I do not in any way, shape, or form lay claim to either of these works.
This is just a work of admiration from one fan, to those others that share the same interest.
The only characters or places I lay claim to are those solely of my own creation.
Chapter 11: Of the impenetrable nature of time, and the endless marching of time.
Saturday June 14th, 10:00 AM, 2094. New Berlin Hospital, Medical Research ward.
Tanya takes a slow, deep breath to center herself, looking towards the waiting doctor for confirmation before she proceeded. At the curt nod, she takes one more breath and says "Tanya Degurechaff beginning stasis test 3." With that, she vanishes into a bubble of black.
Once the field stabilises, Doctor Schugel gives a nod to one of the technicians who quickly enters a command on their console, and then all present watch as a large hydraulic ram slowly descends to the top of the bubble and stops even as the readings quickly begin to climb.
"One-hundred kilograms. One-fifty, two hundred kilos. Two-fifty, three hundred. Three-fifty, four hundred. Holding at four hundred. Do you wish to proceed, doctor?" She technician asks as they stare at the readouts.
"Proceed, call out at every one-hundred kilo's tile we reach the test goal for today of one-thousand kilos." Doctor Schugel says as she watches the readings on her screen intently, the nervous form of Visha at her side.
"That...Is a lot of pressure, doctor. Will Tanya be ok in there?" Visha asks nervously, her hands slowly wringing over each other.
"Do not worry your pretty little head, Visha. The range of play on that ram will end well above your friends head. Plus, the last time we did this test we took it to seven-hundred and fifty with no degradation in the field's stability. As far as she is aware, she is just standing still for ten seconds at a 60 to 1 ratio. Now that we have the ratio as a mostly fixed point, we shouldn't have any issues but waiting for her to time out." Doctor Schugel says as she rests a hand on Visha's shoulder, glad for the classes on bedside manner the doctor had taken.
The technician continued the experiment, calling out each one hundred kilo's until they reached the goal for the day. "Doctor, we are stable and holding at one thousand kilos. No signs of degradation in the field."
Doctor Schugel gives a satisfied little smirk to the slowly relaxing Visha. "There was a reason that the two of you were safe in that bubble of static time your companion had created. If my theory is correct, I don't think there is any amount of physical force that could penetrate that shell of hers. Every molecule and atom, down to the quantum level is almost completely static in the event horizon of her magic. That said, there does appear to be limits on its ability to stop penetration. Energy, especially light, will eventually penetrate it's way to the center of the effect." She takes a sip of her drink and looks sideways at Visha. "So, I would recommend that the two of you try to avoid lasers."
Visha blinks and nods, still not exactly sure what exactly a laser is, but figuring it must be some sort of optical effect, from the frame of reference. She shakes her head and looks at the doctor. "So, what do we do now?"
"We wait." The doctor says as she sips at her cup of coffee and watches the time.
Once they reach a minute until the target time for the experiment, she nods to the technician who begins to retract the hydraulic ram while they wait for the field to collapse.
A few minutes later, Tanya joins them in the observation room while they start to reset the test room below them. "Tanya Degurechaff reporting, Ma'am." She says with a snap born out of long habit.
Doctor Schugel gives an amused little snort. "At ease, Degurechaff. Honestly, you military types." She rolls her eyes and sits in her chair, bringing up the results of the experiment. "It's as the models predicted, the event horizon of your effect creates a bubble of stasis that effectively locks the molecules of the air around you into what is almost a monomolecular construct. We should be ready for the next test in just a few minutes, as long as you are good for the next test?"
Tanya nods, taking the cup of coffee that Visha is offering her. "Of course, doctor. Do you really think that the next test will reach the conclusion you laid out? I mean, it does seem a bit fantastic."
Doctor Schugel snorts. "You are a living relic from not only another time, but another alternate universe, and you think that what I am proposing is overly fantastic? I dare say, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your expectations."
Visha gives a nervous little chuckle, gently rubbing her hand where their fingers had briefly touched, debating whether the warmth she is feeling is from the cup of coffee, or the brief brush of Tanya's hand on hers. Perhaps it was something she could maybe bring up with Jane? She did seem to be a bit more of an expert in that area than she was, and wasn't the Argent always reminding her to seek out the advice of experts when in an unfamiliar situation. It would just be following her advice, as she always did.
Her reverie is brought to an end as the doctor and the Argent start to move to the other room, Visha hurrying to catch up as they take the upper stairs to a platform set over a mat. She looks down the twenty feet to the floor below, and then at the platform at the end of a catwalk rigged with a quick release door. Dubious is one way to describe the feeling that she gets from this arrangement.
Tanya doesn't seem to bat an eye, though as she walks out onto the platform and looks to the doctor for any final instructions. She checks her stopwatch one more time while the doctor looks over her notes.
"Ok, set your target at ten to 1, 2 seconds duration. Set the radius to, let's see." She checks her notes once more. "82 centimeters. Make sure you are standing on the pad, as well." She double checks her figures then nods, making sure that Tanya is in the correct place before looking to the technicians for confirmation before leading VIsha back into the observation room.
Tanya stands patiently on the little rubber mat until she gets the green light, in this case literally as the light above the camera array changes from yellow to green. She clicks the stopwatch, and for her, the world goes white.
Inside the observation room, the synced systems engage as she presses the button on the stopwatch, dropping the platform as she is replaced by a 164 cm diameter bubble of blackness that falls to land on the mat twenty feet below. Twenty seconds after the bubble came into existence, it flickers out with Tanya dropping the fraction of a centimeter to stand on the mat and give them a salute as she is rushed by the medical staff.
Doctor Schugel turns to the technicians and gives them an expectant look as they quickly review the data. Each one responds in order, a well oiled machine.
"Heart Rate and EKG, blood saturation and brain waves are normal."
"Accelerometer fluctuated for a moment when the field dispersed, but the recording shows no vector from the time the field engaged to when it disengaged. No evidence of gravitational or kinetic affect within the field."
"Air, thermal, and sound nominal. Some displacement as the sphere fell, but as far as we can tell no actual interaction."
"Psion levels are nominal, no spike or surge."
The doctor nods with each report her smirk growing more pronounced. "Well done, everyone. That will be all for now, Tanya. Well done. You two ladies are free."
As the two teens leave after Tanya finishes her shower, doctor Schugel is still reviewing the results as a slightly more and more manic gleam settles into her eyes, a look that Tanya would have perhaps been a bit too familiar with.
"Lets see, one kilometer drop would be 14.29 seconds. Two cubic meters of air comes to about 2.6 kilos, she weighs 50 kilos, with gear and the air, that is about 80 kilos." She checks her figures and grins. "So, that would be an impact of about 784,000 joules." She starts to giggle, then laugh as she looks over a proposition that she had come up with last night, a strange little note scrawled at the bottom, just two words in Latin.
Deus Vult.
Monday June 16th, 6:00 AM, 2094
Breakfast for the two teens is the usual quiet affair, each enjoying the presence of the other in their own way, completely ignorant of the thoughts of the other in relation to their current living arrangements. Being Visha's choice today, they had a traditional Germanian breakfast, consisting of plenty of sausage, bacon, and toast with fried potatoes along with a fresh pot of coffee for the Argent, and milk for Visha.
"I will never understand your preference for milk, Visha." Tanya comments as the two of them skim along rapidly on their way to school.
"I'm a growing girl, Tanya. It's important that I drink my milk and eat right." She shifts a bit as they round a corner, the extra motion doing interesting things with her anatomy.
WIth a cough and a slight blush Tanya tries to focus her attention forward once more, and not oggle her former adjutant any more, not being seemly or probably wanted. "I think you are growing just fine, Visha." She says as they make their way through the gates, dropping the magic enhancement to walk normally through the gates.
With a blush and a covert little look at the trim figure of her former superior Visha drops her chin slightly in embarrassment. "You're too kind, Tanya." Then she says in a much quieter voice. "And I think you are growing up very well, as well."
Her reverie is interrupted by that most dire of things, school.
On a slightly less dire note, it does bring the presence of Jane and Lisa as well, who are waiting just inside the gate for the two former soldiers.
With a friendly wave, the waiting members of the student council join the other two, and the foursome makes their way into the school, three of them falling into light conversation while Tanya, as usual, observes their interactions and takes secret delight in just how Visha's face lights up when she is talking to people she can relax around.
Obviously, what she is feeling right now can't be jealousy. Such things would be below her.
5:30 PM, same day, practice fields.
So far, Tanya had to admit that she was starting to feel good about the situation she had found herself in. The other students were starting to fall in line with her and Visha's recommendations and suggestions. The fact that she hadn't yet had to resort to her more vigorous training methods was a relief, but she had a few ideas already in mind and ready to execute when it was finally necessary. The fact that Visha was not able to participate in the event herself, and instead would just have to function as a manager was a let down, but understandable considering that her heart was far from an acceptable CAD, and it was best not to test the limits by having her use a standard CAD. The chance of it passively interfering with her heart was a risk that Tanya was not willing to take in the slightest.
As she observed the girls running the route and routine that she had devised for Mirage Bat, she noticed a small, mousy looking girl looking over at her in a manner that she would guess was supposed to be covert, before quickly sketching on the pad she had cradled close to her body. A few more of those little exchanges take place before Tanya makes her move, having already figured out the pattern that the other girl had fallen into.
Thus, when the would-be watcher looked up again, the subject of her surveillance was no longer in view until a hand reached past her to tilt the pad where they could see it better. "You don't mind, do you?" Tanya says from well within the other girls personal bubble.
The girl jumps, dropping her pens and pad then quickly trying to gather them as Tanya reaches down and lifts the pad, looking at it with a raised eyebrow before passing it back to the nervously blushing girl.
"That is a rather good sketch, you have some talent. Though, I would have gone without the mustache myself." Tanya says, standing behind the nervous wreck. "I'm Tanya Degurechaff, first year. And you are?"
"W...Willa Von Eldstadt, ma'am. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bother you or anything, I just saw you and I thought it would be fun to sketch you, I should probably be going, I need to get to the theatre club, I have to finish fitting them for the play…" She hurriedly rambles as Tanya eyes her, then looks back at the drawing.
"Ms. Eldstat, or can I call you Willa?" Tanya starts, derailing the ramblings of the nervous girl who looks at her and blushes, then swallows and nods. "You are a seamstress, then? And a designer, I see." She says as she looks at the drawing once more.
"I..I just do it for fun, usually, but they wanted me to help with the play, so...I have been making the outfits for them." She says as she once again clutches the pad close to her chest, reaching up to adjust her glasses nervously.
"I see...And that drawing, do you think you could do the outfit you drew there, without the mustache, of course." Tanya continues, leading the blushing girl towards where she had left Visha.
"I..I think so? I mean, but why?" Willa glances aside at the taller girl.
"You have seen what they expect me to wear for mirage bat, haven't you?" Tanya says in a deadpan.
WIlla nods and smiles. "Oh, I have! It's such a cute outfit."
Tanya sighs and shakes her head. "And completely not what I am used to, or find fitting. That, on the other hand, has potential."
Willa looks at her, then back at the drawing. "You….Really think so?"
"Oh, definitely. I've been told before that I should have been born around the time of the second world war, that I have a very old soul." Tanya says as she motions Visha over to see the drawing.
Nervously, Willa turns the pad for both of them to see better. It depicts Tanya, with a very particular mustache, directing her 'troops' with a riding crop tucked under one arm, wearing slightly poofy uniform pants along a style that was close to the formal uniform she had worn during her time at the war college, the jacket is a tailed military suit jacket and atop her head is a very familiar looking cap. The fancy looking slippers seem to be an odd addition, but overall seem to fit the general theme.
The two temporal refugees look at each other, then back at Willa before Tanya starts to talk again. "Willa, why don't you show that, without the mustache, to Lutz over there, and see if he thinks it would be an acceptable replacement for the outfit I was wearing for Mirage bat? And, if not, I will go along with the least amount of alterations to the design, that is, if you think you can make it?"
Willa blinks owlishly at Tanya, then back at her drawing before nodding. "I...I think so. I..If you are sure that you would want something like this?"
Tanya gives her that trademark smirk of hers. "I think it would be a much better fit for me."
With that, Willa hurries off towards Lutz while the two girls watch her go.
"That was very nice of you, Ma'am." Visha says, leaning just a bit closer for reasons that she doesn't really feel comfortable examining right now. She couldn't have been upset with how close Tanya was to Willa, could she?
"I do have a reputation to uphold, after all." Tanya says as she leads Visha towards the group that they were going to help next.
Neither had paid much attention to the title scrawled at the bottom of the page.
The Beast of Berlin.