Panting, Ingvalt grimaced in pain and ducked into an alley. "Must have... Hit me... Harder than I thought she did." There was a flash of light and Ingvalt shrank to reveal a young child with green hair in black and white clothing. "What was that attack?"
A moment later, the child was on the ground and out cold.
(---)
"Are you okay?"
"I can't move, I feel like I'm going to throw up if I do anything more than breathe and I'm butt naked. Of course I'm not okay." Nove couldn't be too upset at Jet Edge, it was just trying to help after all. "Make a call to Subaru, Ginga or Teana for me." She knew her mother was going to find out, but she really didn't want her mom to come and pick her up. And who knew what the younger two kids would say to her when they found out.
Though, she suspected that her dad would be amused more than anything else when he found out.
A few seconds later, a screen popped up in front of Nove's face. "Subaru... I..."
"NOVE!" Subaru's eyes widened as she looked at her younger sister. "What happened to you?!"
"Got into a fight, got beat up, ended up naked... And I can't move right now." The redhead gave Subaru a flat stare. "Can you come pick me up? And bring a blanket. I kind of don't want people to see me like this."
"I'll be there soon!" Nove sighed as the screen turned off and closed her eyes. She just hoped that no one came by and got a free show. She doubted she could live it down.
Five minutes later, Nove opened her eyes as she heard Subaru's voice. "Hey." She groaned as Subaru put a blanket over her. "Damn, what the hell kind of punch was I hit with?"
"I'm not sure." Subaru helped Nove up while keeping the blanket over her. "Where'd your assailant go?" She looked around, not seeing anyone.
"Up for carrying two people?" Nove asked, smirking at Subaru, who just nodded slowly.
(---)
Nove, in a loose fitting shirt and shorts, smirked as the child in front of her started to stir awake. "Well, good evening, Emperor Ingvalt..." When the child's eyes widened, she laughed before wincing and groaning. "Urgh, okay, whatever you hit me with, hurts... Einhart Stratos."
Blue and purple eyes stared at the redhead in shock. "How did..?" Einhart started to ask, but was cut off as Nove flicked a small plastic card at her.
"If you're going to do anymore brawling in the streets, I really suggest you don't carry your school I.D. with you." Nove rolled onto her back and groaned. "I have two questions for you. One, why are you trying to prove your strength like that?"
Einhart looked away and bit her lower lip. "Weakness is a sin, if you're weak, you can't protect anyone." Her eyes widened as Nove laughed at her. "What? It's true!"
Nove ignored the hurt and angry look in Einhart's eyes. "You should meet my other sisters... They'd probably disagree with you."
"How did you find me?"
Nove closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the pain finally started to subside from her body. "Remember that blue gas I shot at you?"
"How could I forget?" Einhart asked as the memory of that attack came back.
"Yeah, well, you should know that the gas was loaded with micro-tracers that cling to your clothes, skin and hair." Nove couldn't help but grin as Einhart stared at her in shock. "And the gas is pretty similar to sleeping gas, but it takes a few minutes to kick in."
Einhart twitched and glared at Nove as she spun on the bed to look at her more fully. "That was a dirty trick."
"If it wasn't a street fight like it was, I wouldn't have used it." Nove sighed at her. "Listen, Einhart, you need to stop with what you were doing before you get hurt." Einhart mumbled something that Nove didn't quite catch, causing the cyborg to sigh. "What was that?"
"I said that I wouldn't get taken by surprise again. After all, people don't really know it's me when I fight them."
"Oh yeah!" Nove shifted on the bed so that she was laying on her side. "Tell me something, just why do you use transformation magic to turn into an adult guy?"
Einhart blinked at the question like it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard. "While I can become an adult female, I figured that it would not be hard for people to know who I was if I went from a child to what I would look like as an adult, so I decided to fight all of my street fights as an adult male so no one could figure out who I was."
"Well, you probably should make your adult form have shorter hair if that's the case then," a new voice spoke up and Einhart gasped as she spun around, seeing an older teenager with short purple hair standing at the doorway. "Nove couldn't even tell if you were a boy or a girl until she..."
"Subaru!" Nove growled as she and Einhart both turned red from the memory. "Not exactly something I want to think about... But, how did you get it to be so accurate?"
Einhart looked at Nove and shrugged. "The library has lots of books, and there's the internet." She wondered why both Nove and Subaru just groaned at the answer.
(---)
"So," the older woman said as she looked at Einhart, "you're the one who beat my daughter up?" For someone who actually managed to hurt Nove so badly, the girl was rather fidgety. When she nodded, the woman sighed softly. "Well, I guess I need to increase her training. I mean, really!" She walked off towards Nove's room. "Losing in a street fight! I thought I taught you better!"
"Don't worry about mom, she can get like that when martial arts comes up." Another girl, this one was almost a carbon copy of the woman who ran off, minus a few stress lines and other indicators of age. "My name's Ginga Nakajima, you beat up Nove, Subaru brought you home, and you just met my mother, Quint Nakajima." She was glad that Aston and Cecilia were asleep right now. "Dad's not around, but..." She trailed off as she heard the door to the outside close. "Hey, Teana," she waved without looking over her shoulder.
"Ginga." Teana nodded as she walked into the kitchen. "Urgh, what a day..." She raised an eyebrow as she saw Einhart looking at her. "Subaru, did you bring home another orphan?"
"Oh, come on, Tea!" Subaru stuck her tongue out at the redhead. "I didn't do anything of the sort."
Teana sighed and nodded before smiling at Einhart. "My name is Teana Lanster, and you are?"
"Einhart Stratos." The girl replied, grabbing her dress and bending at the knees slightly. Seeing that, Subaru, Ginga and Teana all had one thought running through their heads at that moment.
'Too cute.'
Ginga shook her head and looked at Einhart and then at Subaru. "So, Subaru, what are you going to do with her? She was picking fights in public, we're just lucky no one's been too badly hurt."
"OWWW! MOM!" Nove's voice was heard coming from her room.
"Like I said, too badly hurt," Ginga ignored the yell. "Still, it's been bad enough that the police are asking questions about who's been causing fights."
"It's mostly a domestic issue, but," Subaru looked at Teana, who nodded to her.
"I'll see what I can do, but I don't think she'll get into too much trouble," Teana smirked at Einhart, who was looking back and forth silently, "after all, who wants to admit that they got beaten up by a little kid?" Teana sweat-dropped before clearing her throat, "at least a little kid that hasn't saved a few worlds before she was fourteen."
Both Ginga and Subaru nodded at that. "Better." After all, Ginga still had an urge to beat Nanoha up at times, she knew that she'd never be able to defeat the redhead in combat. And Subaru?
Well, she still idolized Yuuno and he had been there with Nanoha in every major case after all.
Teana idly wondered what would happen if Nanoha or Yuuno knew what Ginga and Subaru thought about them. She then shrugged it off and just figured they would either ignore it or find it amusing.
"So, may I leave?" Einhart blinked when she saw Ginga smirk at her. "I guess not?"
"Well, you did beat up my little sister," Ginga's grin was almost predatory, "so, I think if you have to stay here overnight and wait for Nove to get better..."
"Yeah, that's fair," Teana nodded and smiled at Einhart. "And don't try sneaking out, okay? I'd really hate to have to track you down, okay?"
Einhart sweat-dropped but nodded. Oh well, she probably did deserve this for beating up that redhead after all.