[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Sorry for the delay.

Between new games, some fics, etc, my muse has been distracted.

So, here's a new part to make up for it.

Though... Due to certain people...

I've been giving serious thought about not posting any more updates here.

ViVid

Revolution Start

Revolution 2

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - Revolution 3:

"Did we escape?" Nove asked as she looked around, expecting to be attacked at any time now.

"Looks like it." Einhart said as Nove put down the three kids she was holding. "Nove, what was going on back there? Nothing I or Vivio-san did worked on those things. What were they?"

"Mazoku." Arashi said, his voice repeating a lesson that had been drilled into his head for years. "They're creatures of thought and energy. What you saw back there was their shadow." He sighed at the confused looks he was getting. "Mom told me that their real bodies don't exist in the world. Or rather, we can't see them because we don't have special eyesight. What we saw and fought was just their shadows. We can't really hurt them, but..."

"They can hurt us." Ixpellia finished for Arashi. "How do we hurt them then?"

"Your knife things." Arashi pointed at her hands. "They seemed to hurt that one pretty good."

"From what I recall," Vivio tapped her chin, "they can only be hurt by Astral, Black and Holy magic, or weapons with those properties, right?" Arashi nodded and she sighed. "Great, maybe my Divine Buster is Holy, but I know Chris doesn't have those properties."

"For now," Nove spoke up as she rubbed Corona's back as the girl was hunched over and dry heaving, "we're going to travel and keep going until we come across a road or something." She sighed as everyone but Ixpellia looked at her in confusion. "From what I saw, this is an older world. roads, even if it's just two dirt trails due to wheels going over a spot over and over again, would indicate that some sort of civilization is nearby. Even if we can't find signs of carts, we could probably find a dirt path where people walk on foot." Nove was never more thankful for Due, Tre and Uno drilling her and her other sisters on what to do if caught in a heavily undeveloped world without support. "We'll go in one direction, stay close to each other, Vivio, you take the front and look for anything that would indicate a village, city or even just a cottage, okay?" Corona finally stopped dry heaving and stood up, blushing hard.

Vivio nodded and started to walk while Arashi, Ixpellia and Einhart followed behind her while Nove and Corona brought up the rear.

"R...Rio..." Corona sniffled , looking more miserable than Nove had ever seen her or any of Vivio's friends look before. "W...Why?"

"Corona," Nove stopped and turned the younger girl to look at her in the eyes. "Can you keep moving right now?" She looked at Corona with an understanding sadness. "When we settle down for the night, you can let it out, okay?" Corona nodded and turned away, stumbling forward and sniffling miserably.

Nove sighed heavily, wondering how the heck they were going to get out of this one. "Jet Edge, scan for any sort of life forms for a radius of three kilometers."

"Yes."

"And don't be a smart-ass either, report as soon as you find anything." Nove grumbled, remembering some of the complaints that she had heard from her mother about some of the Intelligent Devices that were in the Bureau.

Though, Nove did wonder if her mother ever met Thoth. That would have been interesting. Still, Nove wondered just who had the bright idea of putting a perverted program into an Intelligent Device in the first place. 'Probably Mary or Shari.'

As they walked along, Nove wondered if they'd find a way back home any time soon.

(---)

Back on Carnaaji, Nanoha narrowed her eyes as she felt dark energies slowly leak out from the spot that Lutecia had brought her and the others to. "Definitely Black magic here." She looked at Yuuno, who shook his head and sighed. "Damn." Yuuno was way better at teleportation spells than she was, and if he couldn't scry just how far away the kids were, then they could be anywhere in reality.

"See?" Nanoha turned to look at Lutecia. The young girl was smiling nervously at her, fidgeting and wringing her hands together. "See? I told you. I didn't... It wasn't... I couldn't..."

"Lutecia." Nanoha said softly, causing the girl to cringe softly, "I'm not upset at you." When Lutecia sighed, Nanoha mentally cursed Levi for what she did to the poor girl. "You did a good job." She smiled at the young girl, who finally relaxed. "Go back to the house, okay?" Lutecia nodded and turned around, running off towards the house and was met part way by Erio. "So..." Nanoha turned to look at Yuuno and Fate, as the latter walked towards them, worry clearly written on their faces. "What do we know?"

"Black magic teleporation magic." Raising Heart helpfully supplied for everyone.

"Thank you," Nanoha bit her lower lip, unable to stop herself from worrying. "Fate, Yuuno, can either of you..." She wasn't surprised when they shook their heads.

"I can't say what this is, but I can say that it's unlikely it ended up anywhere in this universe."

Yuuno, Fate and Nanoha all looked at Thoth in shock. "And... Why do you say that?" Yuuno asked his device, who seemed, despite not having a face, to be rather smug.

"Because the level of complexity is way too high to be a simple spacial disruption. It's beyond what most humans could do, outside of using magic to tear the Universe apart. So it's possible that they're in one of the other three universes. Since the Dark universe is off limits to Mazoku and Shinzoku for the moment, it leaves only the Red and White universes."

"And what makes you think..?" Nanoha began, only to get cut off as Thoth played a recording that she had long since forgotten.

"This universe will be absorbed by this... Big Crunch... And then be reborn. Without Mazoku or Shinzoku to influence it this time around."

Yuuno nodded and adjusted his glasses. "So, if it's unlikely they're in this universe, which of the other two would they be in?"

"It's not like we could preserve this and find a Mazoku to ask." Fate mused to herself and blinked when Yuuno and Nanoha both stared at her. "...What?"

"You do know that there's spells that keep magical energy from dissipating, right?" Yuuno pointed out as he knelt down next to the spot. "We could keep this pretty much preserved for a few months if we need to. As for finding a Mazoku..."

When Yuuno sighed, Nanoha grimaced. "Riksfalto?"

"It's not like we could ask Xellos or one of his bosses, could we?" Yuuno shot back to her. "I mean, it's not like..."

"We could go to Hong Kong back on Earth."

"Thoth... What are you..?"

"If she didn't get bored of it, I recall that Mazoku Lord Zelas is in charge of the criminal underworld in Hong Kong these days."

Yuuno frowned at his device as he set up the field. "Thoth, I'm going to feel stupid for asking, but, how is it that you have so much information on Mazoku?"

"I have over 20 files and 200 sub-files regarding Mazoku, Shinzoku and any information on the Lord of Nightmares to pull up in a hurry. This includes all information on where they are at the current moment. No data on the unknown White Staff universe, all Shinzoku of this universe are unknown, the only known Mazoku include Garoth, sealed into the Sea of Chaos, Levi, currently fate unknown, possibly alive due to footage from the outer rim areas of the Bureau," Yuuno and Nanoha both looked at Fate, who shook her head. They all knew that it was probably her, but without concrete proof they had nothing to go by, "next Mazoku that is known is Lucefer, last seen years ago talking to Lindy Harlaown at a social gathering, presumably stays on Earth most of the time. Mazoku Neph was defeated by Agent Lanster three years ago during the Mariage crisis, its former host, Runessa Magnus, is currently living a peaceful life on Cranagan. Mazoku of the Red Staff universe include Riksfalto, who travels to worlds in war, Xellos, who spends most of his time on his home world, Mazoku Lord Dynast Sherra, who was only seen once on this staff, Mazoku Lord Deep Sea Dolphin was last seen some years ago and Mazoku Lord Greater Beast Zelas Metallium took over the Hong Kong underworld before leaving behind a proxy of herself."

Nanoha bit her lower lip, dealing with Riksfalto would be bad enough, but having to deal with a Mazoku Lord... "So, do we try and find Riksfalto or take a trip to Earth?" She grimaced as both Yuuno and Fate agreed going to Earth would be faster. "Alright. We'll go then." This was going to be a pain in the ass. She didn't want to deal with Zelas if she could help it. "But, I'm going to call mom up, maybe she can figure out what happened here first."

"I hope so." Fate said, knowing that Lina's knowledge of stuff like this was beyond most people's, even if she did pass on as much as she could. Sometimes, even if you knew something, you could miss something that other people would notice.

(---)

The sun was starting to go down when Nove called it a day. Seeing the kids sigh in relief, she shook her head and cleared her throat. "Alright, listen up, we don't know what's going to happen, so, first thing's first, Arashi, you and Ixy clear an area out that we can build a campfire."

"It's Ixpellia." The redhead replied automatically as she went to do what was asked of her.

"Einhart, Vivio, find some dead branches and wood and bring it back here. Don't go too far though." They both nodded and took off. Nove was just grateful they stuck to their adult modes for now. "I'll find some rocks and other stuff. Corona..." She sighed when Corona looked at her blankly. "Just... Just help Ixy and Arashi, okay?" Corona nodded at her as Nove went to find some rocks to use to help control the campfire.

"It's Ixpellia." Ixpellia called after Nove.

(---)

It was hours later, after the sun had long gone down, that the group found itself around the campfire. Arashi, Einhart and Vivio had long since fallen asleep, followed by Corona, who was occasionally sniffling in her sleep and finally Ixpellia had finally laid down to rest her head.

Nove sighed softly as she looked at the group. Even if they were trying to be strong, she could see that what happened to Rio was affecting Vivio and Einhart just as badly as Corona. Considering the way that the two of them were twitching in their sleep and mumbling Rio's name, she wouldn't be surprised if they did something stupid to try and avenge what happened to Rio.

Rubbing her forehead, Nove tried to figure out what to do next. Other than finding a city and hopefully getting into contact with the Bureau, the most she could do was try to make sure that they all survived this adventure. "What I wouldn't give for some advice right now."

"Now, now, Nove, you really shouldn't be talking like that." A familiar voice spoke up and Nove paled as she looked around, wondering if a Mazoku was messing with her mind. "Didn't I teach you better than that?"

"Doctor?" Nove stood up and looked around. "What's going on?" She gripped her device tightly and was prepared to fight when she heard another voice that should have been impossible to hear.

"Maybe if you stopped squeezing your device, you could find out."

"Un-nee?" Nove gasped and held up her device, staring in shock as it flashed several times. "...Jet Edge, what's going on?"

"Sorry," Uno's voice spoke up and Nove gasped as miniature holograms of Uno and Jail suddenly appeared in the palm of her hand, "I hacked this device, we're the OS now." She crossed her arms under her breasts and smirked. "Not a bad device, I have to admit, but it could use some tweaks to it."

"H...H...How?" Nove was trembling as she fell to her butt in shock. "You two are dead. I didn't get this device until after you were dead, how the hell are you two in it?"

Jail grinned at Nove. "Have you forgotten? I'm a mad scientist! I can do anything! Hahahahahaha!" He threw his hands up as he laughed at the question.

"Yes, and the fact that you slipped a little program into Nove's Gun Knuckle has absolutely nothing to do with it." Uno rolled her eyes at the other hologram's antics. "Yeah, that's what happened. Shortly after the doctor created your Gun Knuckle's modifications, he made a program that would sleep until you ran across a Mazoku for real. Or at least battled one directly." She shrugged, deeming it unimportant. "But, dead? Really?" Uno raised an eyebrow at Nove. "You sure that we weren't just badly injured and people thought we were dead?"

"Bah! As if death could stop me!"

Uno snorted at Jail. "Yes, because things don't die when they're killed."

Jail coughed, which Nove found weird, considering he was a hologram. "Anyway, if you're curious, Nove, the gas weapons that I incorporated into your Gun Knuckle..." He grinned at her. "While they're mass-based weapons, they don't hurt humans too much, do they?" Nove shook her head. "Well, it's interesting, but I found a nice little side-effect to the gas mixtures I was making. While it could, at most, irritate skin and eyes, and do some other not so harmful effects, the gas was a nerve toxin to Astral based beings. I admit, the Shinzoku Sirius was a big help in that regard."

"So... You just gave me a weapon that works opposite of what most weapons and spells are supposed to work against Mazoku?" Nove stared in shock as Jail grinned at her. "...How the HELL did you pull that off?"

"I'm an evil genius." Jail laughed at her and fell over when Uno smacked him hard. "Oww!"

"Knock it off." Uno rolled her eyes. "Anyway, either Jail or myself will be around if you need to talk, Nove." She frowned as Nove looked at them weirdly. "What's wrong?"

"It's... Good to see you both." Nove rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "Even if you're just a program in my Intelligent Device, I've missed you a lot."

"If I was alive, I'd probably tell you the same thing." Uno smiled at her. "...Are you sure that I'm dead? I mean, did you recover a body?"

"Due-nee told us that a Mazoku possessed Quattro and then used her to stab you in the back and the doctor in the front and then the Mazoku took your bodies to get rid of them." Nove sighed and fought back a pang of sadness as she spoke about it.

Jail frowned and looked at Uno, who shrugged. "Well, if you say so, but I really don't think we're dead."

"It's been over three years." Nove rubbed her eyes. "Going on four now. I think you two are gone."

"Fine, fine." Uno waved her off. "Anyway, we're still scanning for anyone who's human or not, but so far, it's just your group." She smirked at Nove. "So, when did you become a babysitter?"

Nove just groaned. Even if they were just a hologram, it was nice to see Jail and Uno again.

Spoiler for MST3K review:

Me: They're ba~ck!!!!

Odin: The mad scientist and his secretary is back from the death, well their minds were.

Val: This is one thing to keep Mega happy from those nutsie who passed ʀᴀ ɴᴏ. 10175, the so-called cybercrime law of the Philippines...

Odin: They're nothing more Neanderthal, poisoned by US lobbyist in the government of that they think of a cyber bill should be.

Me: Or a certain comedian-turned-senetor's revenge over those who commented from the net that he just simply copy-pasted a quote.

Reia: Enough of that. The kid gonna be in a trial of fire, big time. And they're gonna need help.

Sarah: Someone gonna get into a lot of trouble.

Me: Poor Corona...

Val: Thoth being serious? Crouching moron, hidden badass?

Sarah: What do you expect?

Val: Nothing except for a certain Zealot of Trollzama acts again, ranting about how the story goes, tick off the author and made him to stop posting in AS.

Odin: Then we shall point to the so-called zealot of Trollzama that he's the reason of another person, stopping the publishing of a great story.

Me: Emphasizing of him being a zealot of Trollzama.

Sarah: What do you expect from him? He stalks Signum, Aschen(in DTD mode) and Lamia. And want to marry them.

Reia: Or he's an agent of those IP/CR zealot...