Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Yasanagi

Spoiler for Extra MD since I'm on Christmas Holidays!:

Sein had been looking forward to enjoying the temporary new change in routine. After getting settled into the guest suite that had been set up for her and her fellow Church Knights, they would be able to put their energy towards a more meaningful task. Sure, she didn’t mind spreading the faith about the Kaiser but she needed something else. The best part of all was being able to sleep in past the usual wake up call. No more annoying alarm bell from Sister Schach! Well, at least for a while…

Of course, Otto or Deed would have none of that. “Wake up, Sein.”

“Unnggghhh…”

“Sein, we have a busy day ahead and much to do so get out of the bed,” said Deed in a polite but firm tone. She was already dressed for the day in her standard Church attire along with her masculine looking twin.

“Come on, lemme sleep in for a while!” whined the elder sister before she tried burying herself under the pillow. “I’ll probably never have another chance to be able to sleep past six forty-five for ages!”

“You do recall that Sister Carim and Sister Schach will be checking on us regularly to ensure that we are diligent in our duties. If they find you slacking off…”

“Ugh, right…” Eventually Sein got out of her comfortable bed but not without a few grunts of protest. It took her a while to find her short sleeved nun’s habit and change into it. After straightening herself out, it was time to join her two fellow sisters in a brief morning prayer before breakfast.

They all stood together in front of their religious symbol, a simple marble monument of the Sankt Kaiser’s Crest, and lowered themselves to the ground, bending one knee to the floor before beginning their prayer.

“In the name of the Kaiser, we destroy all that which is evil. So that which is good may flourish.

In the name of the Kaiser, we thrust into hell: Satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

O Kaiser, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

Allow us to be your warriors and servants. Strengthen us to champion your Will through our everyday lives.

Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen.”

With their morning ritual complete, they all headed out to get something to eat at the cafeteria. It was fairly crowded with morning crews picking up coffee and breakfast for co-workers so there was a bit of a line up. “Excuse us but is this the back of the line?” asked Otto to the uniformed man and woman just ahead of them.

“That’s correct…” As soon as the man noticed the three of them, he trailed off a bit. “Oh, it’s you three. The Saint Church Liaisons, right?”

Sein nodded. “Yes and you are?”

“Vice Granscenic, helicopter pilot and sniper for Special Duty Section Six,” replied the man before pointing to the young lady next to him. “And this is my friend and colleague, Alto Krauetta who runs communications for the division.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Alto in a polite tone.

“Hmmmm… I think I’ve heard about you somewhere before, Mr. Vice.” Deed put her index finger and tapped it against her cheek while she tried to remember where she had seen him.

Otto perked up in surprise upon hearing Deed recognizing that man. “You probably saw him in the crowd when Hayate-san introduced us.”

“No, it was before that. I can’t quite put my finger on it…” Then it dawned on the younger woman as soon as she remembered how he introduced himself. “Could it be that five years ago, you were the one who… fired that shot?”

“Er… yeah, how did you know…?” asked Vice, who started sweating a little.

“I believe it was Nove who found out about it and spoke about it with her new friend Teana. I happened to overhear the conversation,” replied Deed simply.

“Oh… uh, well… I’m sorry for what I had to do back there. Nothing personal.” He mentally grimaced at that last part. ‘Yeah… real smooth back there…’

The young Church Knight nodded. “I understand completely. After all, snipers are strongly dedicated to professional standards which state that they should be polite, efficient and always have a plan to kill anyone they meet.”

Cue awkward silence among the group before Sein laughed nervously. “So how about that Materials case?”

Of course, Deed didn’t notice the attempt to switch topics and continued with her questioning. “Mr. Vice, if I may ask you something?”

“Er, yes?”

“How much do you enjoy being a sniper? I understand that it’s challenging work and that you are not confined inside an office at a desk doing paperwork. If anything, the demand for your services should remain constantly high since as long as there’s two people left on this world… and on other worlds, someone is going to want someone dead.”

“I… uh…” Okay, situation now officially more awkward.

“Do your parents approve of it? If you would like, I can pay them a visit to ensure that they understand the difference between a crazed gunman and an assassin.”

“Deed, what are you doing?” asked Otto, who finally snapped out of her stupor.

“Making small talk in order to warm up the atmosphere as Sister Schach suggested,” replied the other Number. “Is there something wrong?”

“Well… you could say that…”

Heh, Deed's got a lot to learn when it comes to interacting with people.

Page claim for Deed

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by AtomicoX

Have a Christmas horror in two parts. Inspired by Amnesia.

Spoiler for Vivio's Christmas: The Dark Descent Part 1:

Vivio had often heard about the place called the Rockstone Facility. Abandoned years ago, it had been the place for experiments that had taken place several years before her time. The government, having discovered its operation, had eventually shut it down and purged it of illegal specimens. Still it was now a popular belief around the time of Christmas that these specimens came back to haunt the facility. Weird lights could sometimes be seen during the night and tales of shadows or ghosts wandering the dark halls was a popular thing to include in the stories.

Vivio had often wanted to check the place out, but there was no way her Mama would let her do such a thing by herself. Sure, she was almost fourteen now, but the facility was scheduled for demolishment in a couple of weeks. Which only spurred her on to check it out.

And so, one day, an opportunity came. Her Mama would be away the day before Christmas. She would be alone at home. She mentioned this to both Corona and Einhart, but neither wanted to go through with it. “No, don’t go there, Vivio! It’s dangerous!”, seemed to be their main argument. Vivio wouldn’t have any of it. She was going to check it out. She wasn’t a scaredy cat and she could take care of herself. That’s what her magic was for, after all.

It was seven pm when she decided to head out to the Rockstone Facility. It was already starting to darken when she eventually arrived by foot. The facility stood on a hill just outside Cranagan, in plain view of the city. The area had been cut off by fences, but that was no match for her magic. For some reason, the authorities hadn’t laden the place with anti-magic. Vivio found it weird at first, but eventually forgot about it as the facility craved her attention.

The courtyard before the entrance was empty of trees or even grass. All that remained were broken vehicles that had been used in the purge. The entrance itself was covered in wooden boards that had been nailed across it. Vivio looked at them for a while, pondering if this was such a good idea after all. She would not only break in, which was illegal in itself, but she was also disobeying her Mama.

Then again... Wasn’t she always a good girl, at all times? Weren’t she allowed to let her wings be free, if only for a little while?

Vivio decided to go through with it. She grabbed a hold of them and ripped them off, one by one. In the silence of the night, the sound they made as they were forced off was like shouting out. Here I am! I’m breaking in! Come and get me! She tried not to think of it.

When all of them were removed, she opened the doors. A terrible whine came from them, a revenge for not having been serviced for so long. Inside, there were only darkness and silence. Vivio swallowed once and poked her head in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, if you didn’t count the obvious abandonment of the building.

She walked through the door and wondered where she would go nex-

Her thoughts didn’t manage farther than that before the floor promptly gave away and she fell through. Darkness overwhelmed her and the silence was broken by her surprised scream.

***

She woke up a few minutes later, disoriented and pain throbbing all over. The fall had been long, almost over ten meters, but for some reason she hadn’t been gravely injured. She only had a few bruises here and there. No, that’s not what she found strange. What surprised her the most was that her magic was gone. She couldn’t feel mana inside her, nor the familiar warm fuzz when trying to concentrate on a spell. Nothing.

She admitted to herself a little fear, but that was about it. She was fine. She could get out another way. She looked around in the place in which she had landed. It almost looked like a library. A very small one, but nonetheless, a library. Books were lined up in big bookcases, standing two meters tall and the entire length of the room. At the end of them room was a door, and next to it a desk. Spiderwebs were in every corner and dust lay thick on everything with a horizontal surface.

She got up on her feet and dusted herself off. She looked up through the hole and saw the moon’s light shining up there. The night had come faster than anticipated. How lucky that in this room there were torches lit. Otherwise she would stumble around in total darkness.

Torches? The facility was over forty years old. It had been abandoned for twenty. Why where there lit torches down here?

“An underground facility?” Vivio whispered to herself. As the shadows cast strange figures everywhere, she walked towards the desk and discovered a note on it. Or rather, a paper riddled with text. Foreign text. She hadn’t seen these odd letters before, but she still understood the first part of the paper. Confused, she picked the paper up and read.

June 9th, 1940.

I do not think that Doctor Stein realize just what we have here. It might well be the greatest discovery of the century. But the ignorance of the fool. Give me strength. He will be the fall of us all. Of this project. Everything will fall under his ignorance.

Today he said that budget cuts forced us to eradicate some of the samples. Eradicate the samples? You must be mad I had told him. He had only shrugged, the fool. He do not care about the project. A true scientist would not simply shrug such a thing off. No, he would not. I for one do not. This must be dealt with.

The rest of the text Vivio couldn’t understand no matter how much she tried. Eventually she put the paper down and searched the desk for clues. All she found was a bottle of oil and a few matches. She stuffed them into her pockets, because she figured they might come in handy - though for what she didn’t know - and began to search the bookcases.

All of the titles were in the same language as the paper she had found, but she didn’t understand any of it. How weird. The first part of the paper she had understood, but not this? They obviously shared the language, but...

Eventually she gave up on finding anything useful, but not before discovering a lantern. It took her a few seconds to realize that was what the oil was for. She retrieved the bottle from her pocket and poured some into the lantern. She didn’t light it yet though. There was no need.

She approached the door and rattled the handle. It wasn’t locked. She turned it around and let the momentum open it. A dark corridor met her, without any lit torches. She decided to light the lantern with one of the matches and stretched the arm holding it out into the corridor. The light from the lantern revealed stone walls covered in moss, but nothing else. Looking both right and left, there were only darkness in either direction. And silence. The silence which began to terrify her. Abnormal silence.

She took a step out and decided to head to the right. As she walked, her footsteps echoed between the naked walls and the library from where she had started disappeared in the distance. The faint glow from the torches inside helped to point out the location, but even they began to dim the farther she got. She decided to not look back. The light that was playing was creating horrible creatures from her wildest imaginations.

For five minutes she walked on. The corridor seemed endless and infinite from her perspective. There was only darkness in front of her. The lantern lit up the corridor for only a few meters in front of her. But, eventually, before her fantasies began to play evil tricks even more than they already had, she could see a faint glimmer further ahead. She increased her speed a bit, eager to reach it.

The dim light didn’t disappear. She shut off the lantern to save fuel and dashed towards the open door just ahead. When she got closer she slowed down, breathing heavily. She could hear something inside. Or someone. A cold wind rushed through the corridor as if a door further ahead had been opened. She tried to ignore it best she could and focused.

A cold sweat broke out over her back and her body tensed up. She slowed her steps until she sneaked forward. The sound hadn’t disappeared, it was still there. The sound of glass being clinked together. Someone mumbling. Someone writing.

She was just at the door now. Whoever was beyond it, she would ask him or her what the hell this place was. And how she could get out. She tensed up even more and prepared.

She opened the door more and stepped in... into an empty room. A glass flask fell over as if it had just been used and made her jump. The voices and the other noises had disappeared just as she had managed to see into the room. There was nothing in there now. Whatever had been had hidden... or hadn’t been there in the first place. The wind returned again and blew over her neck. She shuddered and shook her head.

“Am I going mad?” she whispered to herself.

Another noise appeared suddenly, as if to answer her question. A low, guttural sound, almost like an animal’s growl. It came from the library. Deep into the darkness. What she heard was just an echo. Every hair on her body stood up. Her ears focused. The echo dissipated. Was it just the wind? No, too far down. Though what was it that just blew past then... Support beams groaning? Maybe. A specimen?... No, that’s silly.

The growl returned, closer this time, yet still an echo. Vivio shut the door behind her and frantically searched the room for a weapon. It was an animal. Or something. A beast for sure. Maybe a wild animal from outside that had gotten in. Whatever it was, she needed something to defend herself with.

The lit torches provided her with light, but she found nothing. Everything was useless as a weapon. But she did find several creates at the back of the room. A crazy idea emerged in her head.

Maybe she should hide?

The growl returned, even closer. She decided to hide. If the beast had a good scent, it would find her anyway. She jumped on the possibility that it had good sight instead. Or hearing. She could stay quiet. That was easy.

She climbed over the crates and hid behind them. There, you couldn’t see her unless one looked over the creates themselves. With the light from the torches, that might be easy. She cursed herself. Why hadn’t she put them out? One mistake after another. And she called herself a mage?

The handle on the door rattled and all her thinking stopped. She breathed lightly, controlling herself. She strained her hearing and closed her eyes. She visualized the door handle.

The door groaned as the beast entered. She could hear its terrifying, guttural noises. It was like nothing she had heard before and a curious feeling began to ascend. No. She wouldn’t peek up. That’d be idiotic.

She could hear the creature rummage around. It didn’t touch anything, as far as she could discern. It merely stood in place, sniffing and searching. So maybe it had a strong sense of smell after all. I’m sorry, Mama. I will never do this again. Please, just let me get out of here.

The creature sniffed again and remained silent. Vivio could see its shadow playing on the wall thanks to the torches behind the beast. But the shadow was weird. Disfigured. Perhaps the light was bad. Then, as if giving up, it left the room with a low growl. Vivio could hear it disappear in the distance and decided to sneak up from her hiding place. The room was the same as before. Nothing had been touched.

She got up and closed the door. She leaned against it and let out a long breath. Safe, for now.

She started to search the desks, wasting no time to continue. She found more bottles of oil, and a few matches. She thought it weird. Why would anyone let these things be spread out randomly? It was almost as if she was playing a game. Here, have some limited oil and some matches. Don’t use it too much or the lantern will run out of fuel! She laughed at herself. How silly.

After a few minutes of scrounging around, she found another note. This one was shorter and she understood all of the writing.

June 10th, 1940.

We seem to have encountered a minor problem. Doctor Stein do not want us to fix it, the fool. I have to do something about him soon. We cannot keep working under these conditions! Such a discovery in the hands of fools! It goes against everything I have learned!

No, I need to do something. I have a vague feeling of what it would be. Perhaps tomorrow. Or the day after that one. But it will be done.

Vivio put the note down and pondered. She didn’t particularly care who the author was or who this Doctor Stein was. No, none of that intrigued her. What did, though, was the date. If it was even a date. June 10th. That much was obvious. But 1940? Where had she read that before?

She groaned and furrowed her eyebrows. She knew she had read about it somewhere. But where...

“Ah.” The revelation caused her face to lit up. “Mama’s old history books.”

That’s where she had seen it. Earth. 1940. Word War II. The Reich. The language on the notes... was German. She understood that now. She faintly remembered an excerpt from a letter in one of those books. The language was exactly like on the notes she had found.

Earth. 1940. Nazis on Mid-Childa? Absurd. Impossible. But still...

She decided to leave the room and continue onwards. She was certain the beast had returned towards the library and so she continued down the corridor. The silence and darkness came upon her again. But this time, it didn’t last long...

***

The darkness gave up to the brink of new light when she opened the heavy door at the end of the corridor. The room behind it looked as if it was inside a church. To the right, far up on the walls, were beautiful, colored windows with wonderful patterns. The blue shine of the moon could be seen falling in through it. Dust that hovered in silence was lit up by it. Everything in the room, or perhaps chamber, was frozen in time.

There were two staircases, one to the right and one to the left, both in the middle of the room. The left one led upwards, towards a small balcony and another door. The one leading right went underneath the large windows and into the underground. Obviously the windows were too high up for her to reach them. Even with her acrobatic skills, she might fall and injure herself. She didn’t want to take the risk. There were still other options.

The ground crunched as she walked. Pieces of glass and dirt covered it. The noise echoed throughout the chamber. It was almost serene. A quiet moment to relax. A safe heaven. Vivio could feel her tense body loosen up inside this chamber.

As she held the lantern high, since there wasn’t any torches in this chamber and the moonlight wasn’t enough, she took the left stairs and climbed it carefully. It led upwards, not downwards. It should be closer to an exit. The stair groaned under her weight and for a brief moment she thought it would collapse. It was old, after all.

It didn’t break, and she reached the little balcony. She approached the door and rattled the handle. It was locked, which would force her to take the other route. Would the key be in there? If this was a game, it would be. Typical.

She turned around and eyed the other staircase, the one leading downwards. She would have to go that way, wouldn’t she? Maybe there was a key down there. She sighed and went down to the middle of the chamber again. She stopped just before the next step downwards. The dust still hang in the air. The wind blew as her again and produced an eerie noise.

And what if there wasn’t a key down there? What if this door was locked too? What if there were more corridors down there, like a maze, and she would become lost? What if...

Tears formed in her eyes. She had been strong so far. She wouldn’t give up. No, never. But she missed her Mama now. She would know what to do. Oh, how stupid she had been. Why hadn’t she listened to what Mama had said?

She cried for a few seconds before wiping the tears away. A determined expression replaced the gloomy face. No. She would not stop here, crawling into herself, crying like a baby. She would move on. She would find a way out of here and celebrate Christmas with her Mama. Like always.

She took the first step downwards and the rest of the staircase followed swiftly. She opened the door, relieved to find it unlocked. But instead of a corridor, she found herself in something akin to a laboratory. Large glass flasks were suspended by ancient machines and cables were everywhere, leading to somewhere. Big caskets were gaping open in a corner, with a weird, yellow fluid still dripping from them. Each drip echoed in the room. Echoes, always the echoes. Silence.

She took a couple of steps into the room and was suddenly blinded by a bright flash. From where it had come from she didn’t know, but she suddenly felt sluggish. She almost lost her footing and had to lean against the doorframe. Her vision became blurry and she could hear voices. Figures danced before her eyes. Humans. But they felt oddly distant, as if they weren’t really there.

“This is absurd! You are a fool, Stein!” one of them shouted. Vivio tried to reach them but collapsed on the floor. She still saw the figures though, arguing.

“I am not a fool, Gördinger! It is you who are delusional! You, with your silly experiments!”

“Silly?! I am silly? We have created a new race, Stein! It is the discovery of the century!”

“A new race? Allow me to laugh! That *thing* is a new race? A new type of being? Hah!”

The blur in front of her eyes began to dissipate and the voices grew faint. She could still see them, now fighting with each other. They traded blows with each other. A third figure appeared behind them. But it didn’t look human. She tried to call out to them, but for naught. The creature rose slowly in the shadows.

“Stein! You bastard- Aah!”

“What are you doing, Gördinger?! This new creature of yours think that you ar- No! Get away from me! Get away from me! Monster!”

The creature jumped about, trashing Stein and Gördinger. Vivio saw something shoot out from their bodies, something gray. Blood, probably. Everything was black and white. The fight didn’t last for more than a few seconds, and only the creature remained. The two scientists lay dead on the floor. The creature looked at Vivio now, where she half-crouched at the door. It started to advance. As if it now was real.

“No... Please!”

The closer it came, the more details emerged. Its arms were abnormally long. Its feet was large and its toes long. It was naked, clad in sickly gray skin. Its face was... Vivio didn’t know how to describe it. She didn’t want to. It was too nightmarish.

The creature was almost upon her and it reached out with a grotesque arm.

“... Viv... io...” it whispered in a non-human voice. The creature dispersed into thin air when its hand was almost touching her face and Vivio collapsed on the floor. Silence.

End of Part 1

This. This cannot end well. I know you, and I know this cannot end well.

So all I shall say again is, damn you. Because I hate these kind of horror stories, but you keep getting me interested in them!

[Nanya01]

A's

Jump

New Parts 1-40

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - New Part 41:

"Miss Lina!" Sylphiel pouted as she and the others made their way back to the inn. "It's not fair!" She couldn't believe that Lina had just told them that they had to serve food that night. She was a shrine priestess, not a serving girl! Especially not a serving girl in such a... Revealing outfit!

"What isn't fair?" Lina asked and mentally grinned as she remembered the way all those men had been practically falling over themselves to get a taste of her treats. It made her feel pretty good about things. Especially since she promised that there would be more treats at the Inn that night.

"Making us serve those... Those..." Oh, she just couldn't think of the right word at this moment, she was just too flustered.

"Perverts." Amelia and Filia said at the same time, causing Sylphiel to nod as she glared as Lina, who shrugged at them.

"What are you going to do about it? People are naturally perverted, using some sex appeal to get their attention never hurt anyone."

Amelia slumped as she gave Lina a flat stare. "The miss Lina I remember would have blown them all up."

Lina rolled her eyes and spun around to look at the three of them. "Look, there's a big difference between looking and touching. If someone wants to look, I say let them. That just means that you're attractive to them. If they touch you, feel free to blow them up."

"You really have changed, Miss Lina." Amelia said softly as she looked at the older woman in a bit of awe and confusion. "I... Does having children change you this much?"

Lina put an arm around Amelia and smiled softly. "It makes you learn patience, especially since children are going to screw up a lot."

Even with the perverts?" Amelia asked as she looked at Lina with a disturbed expression on her face.

Lina let go of Amelia and shrugged as they got back to the inn. "Like I said before, if they're looking at me like that, then it means I'm still attractive and that's a good feeling. Besides, like I said before, if boys want to see your goods, there's not much that you can do to stop them." Then again, girls were the same way, they just covered up their tracks better. She smirked at the way the three of them blushed. "Now, come on, I've got to get dessert ready for dinner tonight."

"You know..." Amelia spoke up softly as they walked into the inn. "I didn't think that she was serious about running a bakery. But it seems that Miss Lina really has settled down a lot since I last saw her."

(---)

Lyos groaned as he slumped against a tree and panted hard, Banisher was in by his side as Shiro called for a training break. He looked at Fate, who had several bruises on her body due to strikes from him, but she had still won their little sparring match. "You're fast." Not to mention really tough, but he really couldn't mention to a little slip of a girl that she was tougher than he was.

At least unless he started using his power, then he could take anything she could dish out and then some.

Not that Shiro would let them use much of their power at all when they were sparring. It was meant to increase their skills, not prove which one had the easier time beating the tar out of other one with raw power.

"You're pretty good." Fate smiled softly at him, before stretching slightly. "Shiro-papa works us hard." Though, she did see the point that her sword style quite frankly left a lot to be desired. As fast as she was, it normally wasn't a deal, but she had to stop to attack sometime, and her attacks were kind of choppy as well.

He nodded and shook his head as Zelgadis called Fate over to practice some spell or something. "Ugh..."

"Rough day?" A female voice spoke up and he found himself nodding.

"Yeah..." He groaned and stood up slowly, before blinking as he saw who it was. "Milady... What are..."

She held a finger up to her lips and smiled at him gently. "Oh, just checking on how my Knight was doing, that's all." She saw the confused look on his face and she laughed softly. "You don't think that I couldn't come out here to see you, do you? I mean, I did give you the item you needed to get here."

Lyos chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, you did. But, hey! I can actually use my power now."

Her eyes seemed to widen in anticipation at that. "Really? Well, that's interesting then, my Knight." She patted his arm, before turning and walking away. "Do keep getting stronger, Lyos. I promise you, it won't be for naught."

"Of course not." Lyos grinned and turned as Gourry called to him. "Just you wait." He grabbed Banisher and made his way to the blond swordsman. "I'll get even stronger."

Unseen to him, Huraker just chuckled as she smiled at his retreating back. "Oh, I'm sure you will... I'm sure you will..."

(---)

Hours later...

Chrono blinked as he and the others, after getting back to their rooms and getting washed up, walked out into the Inn's dining area. "What the heck?" The place was full! He couldn't see a single table open to sit down at and eat, and he was starving.

"Wow, guess Lina wasn't kidding when she said that she could get business." Zelgadis chuckled and Shiro nodded and excused himself as Lina called him down to the kitchen.

"So, do we have to wait outside?" Gourry asked. He was starving and he wasn't sure he could wait that long to eat.

"Hey! It's Miss Lindy!" Nanoha pointed as she spotted Lindy and Amy in a corner table. "Hey! They see us!"

"Looks like they're wanting us to join them." Zelgadis nodded as the group went down the stairs over to the table.

"Chrono, why don't you sit here between Amy and myself?" Lindy asked with a pleasant smile on her face.

Amy, on the other hand, had a dark aura surrounding her. Even though she wasn't a mage, Chrono found himself reeling slightly, before Gourry slapped him on the back and made him get between them.

"Hi!" Filia smiled, though everyone could see her skin glistening in sweat, as she came up to the table. "Here are some menus, we're serving some brownies, cakes and other fine desserts with dinner tonight."

"Lina has you working hard, huh?" Zelgadis said flatly, getting a nod from Filia. It wasn't too hard to guess, the way that the blonde was panting slightly, which was doing some... Interesting things to her chest.

"I'll be back to get your order soon." She smiled and bowed, revealing far too much cleavage, before she turned and left.

Amy was twitching and turned to Chrono, who was staring at the spot that Filia was at a moment ago. "C..H...R...O...N...O... You weren't... Ogling her... Were you?" The practically visible black aura of doom tripled as Chrono didn't react to her speaking to him.

Lindy put a hand on Chrono's shoulder, causing him to yelp and jump back. "Really, Chrono, I know that she's pretty, but you really shouldn't be trying anything with her."

"But, I'm..."

Fate pouted as she looked at Chrono. "And I thought he was a nice boy." She sniffled and grabbed Nanoha, who was sitting right next to her. "Waaah! He just wants to see me naked."

"There, there, Fate-chan." Nanoha smiled as she hugged Fate. "I'm sure that the naughty pervert won't do anything while we're looking." Her eyes went blank white as a thought came to her. "But then again..." She held up a finger to her cheek. "He has all those binds, he could just bind you up and do naughty things to you when you can't fight back."

"I wouldn't do that." Chrono hissed and Amy twitched as she looked at him.

"No, you were just undressing her with your eyes, weren't you?" Not that it was hard, Filia was practically in her underwear and showing everything off. It didn't help matters any that even Amy could see that she was incredibly beautiful when she was a human. Not that she was interested in girls, but she knew when there was a woman who was good looking.

And Filia made her feel a touch insecure about her own looks.

One really couldn't blame Amy for feeling like that. Chrono's own teachers were very pretty, his mother was drop dead gorgeous, Nanoha and Fate were far too cute for their own good, Hayate and her knights ranged from cute to incredibly sexy and now Filia was making passes at Chrono.

What chance did she have unless he kept his attention on her?

Lindy just smiled at Chrono. "Chrono, when we're done eating, you and I need to have a talk about a few things." The way he blanched was quite... Enjoyable.

Lyos and Gourry just blinked in confusion while Yuuno's face was red at the mental images that came to his head, thanks to the way Nanoha and Fate were talking.

(---)

"Ugh..." Filia groaned as she, Amelia and Sylphiel all slumped forward onto the tables after all the customers had left. "I swear, I think my butt's going to be red." She couldn't believe that Lina had forbidden them, on punishment of doing horrible things to them, to hurting any of the customers. It was even worse, since she KNEW that the men were grabbing at her butt when they could and she couldn't turn back to yell at them.

"You all did a really good job." Lina smiled as she sat down, her body was covered in various cooking powders and sauces, but she had a tired smile on her face. "Sorry about making you all suffer through that. I forgot how grabby some men can be."

"We've got to do this again tomorrow, don't we?" Amelia asked, getting a nod from Lina. "Why..?"

"It's just for three days, Amelia." Lina smiled at her. "Well, actually, just tomorrow if we get enough sales in here."

The three girls perked up at that. "Really?"

"Yep." Shiro said as he sat down next to Lina, before pulling his wife onto his lap and causing all three girls to blush heavily as they saw the way that he grabbed Lina and the way that she relaxed and sighed into his embrace. "If we make as much tomorrow as we did today, then we'll get free room and board for as long as we stay here."

"Considering how much we can all eat..." Amelia trailed off as her stomach, Filia's stomach and Sylphiel's stomach all started growling and demanding food. "Um..."

Lina laughed and got out of Shiro's embrace, before going back to the kitchen and coming out with some food and setting it in front of them. "Always make sure that your employees and co-workers go home happy." Lina smiled as she saw the three dig into the food in front of them. "Even got you some dessert as well."

She walked over to Shiro and leaned down, whispering to his ear.

"That's... Not a bad idea." Shiro grinned as the two waved the group a good night and went to check up on their kids before going to their own room.

It was always fun in the bedroom after a long night of hard work.

(---)

As he lay in the room he was sharing with Lyos and Yuuno, Chrono couldn't help but stare at the ceiling, completely red faced, after the "talk" his mother gave him. "I... I... The banana and the bagel... And..." It was impossible that his mother could talk like that, especially with a completely straight face.

He didn't know if he could look at anyone, especially Filia and Amy, the same way again.

"Wait, why..." A sudden mental image of Amy and Filia, both naked, came to his mind's eye, before he shuddered. "Why me?" He couldn't take it anymore as his eyes rolled back into his head as he passed out, his face practically lighting the room up.

The pleasurable sensory overload was too much for him.

Poor Chrono.

[vic-vic]

Originally Posted by Yasanagi

Spoiler for Extra MD since I'm on Christmas Holidays!:

Sein had been looking forward to enjoying the temporary new change in routine. After getting settled into the guest suite that had been set up for her and her fellow Church Knights, they would be able to put their energy towards a more meaningful task. Sure, she didn’t mind spreading the faith about the Kaiser but she needed something else. The best part of all was being able to sleep in past the usual wake up call. No more annoying alarm bell from Sister Schach! Well, at least for a while…

Of course, Otto or Deed would have none of that. “Wake up, Sein.”

“Unnggghhh…”

“Sein, we have a busy day ahead and much to do so get out of the bed,” said Deed in a polite but firm tone. She was already dressed for the day in her standard Church attire along with her masculine looking twin.

“Come on, lemme sleep in for a while!” whined the elder sister before she tried burying herself under the pillow. “I’ll probably never have another chance to be able to sleep past six forty-five for ages!”

“You do recall that Sister Carim and Sister Schach will be checking on us regularly to ensure that we are diligent in our duties. If they find you slacking off…”

“Ugh, right…” Eventually Sein got out of her comfortable bed but not without a few grunts of protest. It took her a while to find her short sleeved nun’s habit and change into it. After straightening herself out, it was time to join her two fellow sisters in a brief morning prayer before breakfast.

They all stood together in front of their religious symbol, a simple marble monument of the Sankt Kaiser’s Crest, and lowered themselves to the ground, bending one knee to the floor before beginning their prayer.

“In the name of the Kaiser, we destroy all that which is evil. So that which is good may flourish.

In the name of the Kaiser, we thrust into hell: Satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

O Kaiser, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

Allow us to be your warriors and servants. Strengthen us to champion your Will through our everyday lives.

Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen.”

With their morning ritual complete, they all headed out to get something to eat at the cafeteria. It was fairly crowded with morning crews picking up coffee and breakfast for co-workers so there was a bit of a line up. “Excuse us but is this the back of the line?” asked Otto to the uniformed man and woman just ahead of them.

“That’s correct…” As soon as the man noticed the three of them, he trailed off a bit. “Oh, it’s you three. The Saint Church Liaisons, right?”

Sein nodded. “Yes and you are?”

“Vice Granscenic, helicopter pilot and sniper for Special Duty Section Six,” replied the man before pointing to the young lady next to him. “And this is my friend and colleague, Alto Krauetta who runs communications for the division.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Alto in a polite tone.

“Hmmmm… I think I’ve heard about you somewhere before, Mr. Vice.” Deed put her index finger and tapped it against her cheek while she tried to remember where she had seen him.

Otto perked up in surprise upon hearing Deed recognizing that man. “You probably saw him in the crowd when Hayate-san introduced us.”

“No, it was before that. I can’t quite put my finger on it…” Then it dawned on the younger woman as soon as she remembered how he introduced himself. “Could it be that five years ago, you were the one who… fired that shot?”

“Er… yeah, how did you know…?” asked Vice, who started sweating a little.

“I believe it was Nove who found out about it and spoke about it with her new friend Teana. I happened to overhear the conversation,” replied Deed simply.

“Oh… uh, well… I’m sorry for what I had to do back there. Nothing personal.” He mentally grimaced at that last part. ‘Yeah… real smooth back there…’

The young Church Knight nodded. “I understand completely. After all, snipers are strongly dedicated to professional standards which state that they should be polite, efficient and always have a plan to kill anyone they meet.”

Cue awkward silence among the group before Sein laughed nervously. “So how about that Materials case?”

Of course, Deed didn’t notice the attempt to switch topics and continued with her questioning. “Mr. Vice, if I may ask you something?”

“Er, yes?”

“How much do you enjoy being a sniper? I understand that it’s challenging work and that you are not confined inside an office at a desk doing paperwork. If anything, the demand for your services should remain constantly high since as long as there’s two people left on this world… and on other worlds, someone is going to want someone dead.”

“I… uh…” Okay, situation now officially more awkward.

“Do your parents approve of it? If you would like, I can pay them a visit to ensure that they understand the difference between a crazed gunman and an assassin.”

“Deed, what are you doing?” asked Otto, who finally snapped out of her stupor.

“Making small talk in order to warm up the atmosphere as Sister Schach suggested,” replied the other Number. “Is there something wrong?”

“Well… you could say that…”

Well, we know that Deed didn`t want to case any harm, but now Vice` reputation soiled. Very much.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

A's

Jump

New Parts 1-40

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - New Part 41:

"Miss Lina!" Sylphiel pouted as she and the others made their way back to the inn. "It's not fair!" She couldn't believe that Lina had just told them that they had to serve food that night. She was a shrine priestess, not a serving girl! Especially not a serving girl in such a... Revealing outfit!

"What isn't fair?" Lina asked and mentally grinned as she remembered the way all those men had been practically falling over themselves to get a taste of her treats. It made her feel pretty good about things. Especially since she promised that there would be more treats at the Inn that night.

"Making us serve those... Those..." Oh, she just couldn't think of the right word at this moment, she was just too flustered.

"Perverts." Amelia and Filia said at the same time, causing Sylphiel to nod as she glared as Lina, who shrugged at them.

"What are you going to do about it? People are naturally perverted, using some sex appeal to get their attention never hurt anyone."

Amelia slumped as she gave Lina a flat stare. "The miss Lina I remember would have blown them all up."

Lina rolled her eyes and spun around to look at the three of them. "Look, there's a big difference between looking and touching. If someone wants to look, I say let them. That just means that you're attractive to them. If they touch you, feel free to blow them up."

"You really have changed, Miss Lina." Amelia said softly as she looked at the older woman in a bit of awe and confusion. "I... Does having children change you this much?"

Lina put an arm around Amelia and smiled softly. "It makes you learn patience, especially since children are going to screw up a lot."

Even with the perverts?" Amelia asked as she looked at Lina with a disturbed expression on her face.

Lina let go of Amelia and shrugged as they got back to the inn. "Like I said before, if they're looking at me like that, then it means I'm still attractive and that's a good feeling. Besides, like I said before, if boys want to see your goods, there's not much that you can do to stop them." Then again, girls were the same way, they just covered up their tracks better. She smirked at the way the three of them blushed. "Now, come on, I've got to get dessert ready for dinner tonight."

"You know..." Amelia spoke up softly as they walked into the inn. "I didn't think that she was serious about running a bakery. But it seems that Miss Lina really has settled down a lot since I last saw her."

(---)

Lyos groaned as he slumped against a tree and panted hard, Banisher was in by his side as Shiro called for a training break. He looked at Fate, who had several bruises on her body due to strikes from him, but she had still won their little sparring match. "You're fast." Not to mention really tough, but he really couldn't mention to a little slip of a girl that she was tougher than he was.

At least unless he started using his power, then he could take anything she could dish out and then some.

Not that Shiro would let them use much of their power at all when they were sparring. It was meant to increase their skills, not prove which one had the easier time beating the tar out of other one with raw power.

"You're pretty good." Fate smiled softly at him, before stretching slightly. "Shiro-papa works us hard." Though, she did see the point that her sword style quite frankly left a lot to be desired. As fast as she was, it normally wasn't a deal, but she had to stop to attack sometime, and her attacks were kind of choppy as well.

He nodded and shook his head as Zelgadis called Fate over to practice some spell or something. "Ugh..."

"Rough day?" A female voice spoke up and he found himself nodding.

"Yeah..." He groaned and stood up slowly, before blinking as he saw who it was. "Milady... What are..."

She held a finger up to her lips and smiled at him gently. "Oh, just checking on how my Knight was doing, that's all." She saw the confused look on his face and she laughed softly. "You don't think that I couldn't come out here to see you, do you? I mean, I did give you the item you needed to get here."

Lyos chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, you did. But, hey! I can actually use my power now."

Her eyes seemed to widen in anticipation at that. "Really? Well, that's interesting then, my Knight." She patted his arm, before turning and walking away. "Do keep getting stronger, Lyos. I promise you, it won't be for naught."

"Of course not." Lyos grinned and turned as Gourry called to him. "Just you wait." He grabbed Banisher and made his way to the blond swordsman. "I'll get even stronger."

Unseen to him, Huraker just chuckled as she smiled at his retreating back. "Oh, I'm sure you will... I'm sure you will..."

(---)

Hours later...

Chrono blinked as he and the others, after getting back to their rooms and getting washed up, walked out into the Inn's dining area. "What the heck?" The place was full! He couldn't see a single table open to sit down at and eat, and he was starving.

"Wow, guess Lina wasn't kidding when she said that she could get business." Zelgadis chuckled and Shiro nodded and excused himself as Lina called him down to the kitchen.

"So, do we have to wait outside?" Gourry asked. He was starving and he wasn't sure he could wait that long to eat.

"Hey! It's Miss Lindy!" Nanoha pointed as she spotted Lindy and Amy in a corner table. "Hey! They see us!"

"Looks like they're wanting us to join them." Zelgadis nodded as the group went down the stairs over to the table.

"Chrono, why don't you sit here between Amy and myself?" Lindy asked with a pleasant smile on her face.

Amy, on the other hand, had a dark aura surrounding her. Even though she wasn't a mage, Chrono found himself reeling slightly, before Gourry slapped him on the back and made him get between them.

"Hi!" Filia smiled, though everyone could see her skin glistening in sweat, as she came up to the table. "Here are some menus, we're serving some brownies, cakes and other fine desserts with dinner tonight."

"Lina has you working hard, huh?" Zelgadis said flatly, getting a nod from Filia. It wasn't too hard to guess, the way that the blonde was panting slightly, which was doing some... Interesting things to her chest.

"I'll be back to get your order soon." She smiled and bowed, revealing far too much cleavage, before she turned and left.

Amy was twitching and turned to Chrono, who was staring at the spot that Filia was at a moment ago. "C..H...R...O...N...O... You weren't... Ogling her... Were you?" The practically visible black aura of doom tripled as Chrono didn't react to her speaking to him.

Lindy put a hand on Chrono's shoulder, causing him to yelp and jump back. "Really, Chrono, I know that she's pretty, but you really shouldn't be trying anything with her."

"But, I'm..."

Fate pouted as she looked at Chrono. "And I thought he was a nice boy." She sniffled and grabbed Nanoha, who was sitting right next to her. "Waaah! He just wants to see me naked."

"There, there, Fate-chan." Nanoha smiled as she hugged Fate. "I'm sure that the naughty pervert won't do anything while we're looking." Her eyes went blank white as a thought came to her. "But then again..." She held up a finger to her cheek. "He has all those binds, he could just bind you up and do naughty things to you when you can't fight back."

"I wouldn't do that." Chrono hissed and Amy twitched as she looked at him.

"No, you were just undressing her with your eyes, weren't you?" Not that it was hard, Filia was practically in her underwear and showing everything off. It didn't help matters any that even Amy could see that she was incredibly beautiful when she was a human. Not that she was interested in girls, but she knew when there was a woman who was good looking.

And Filia made her feel a touch insecure about her own looks.

One really couldn't blame Amy for feeling like that. Chrono's own teachers were very pretty, his mother was drop dead gorgeous, Nanoha and Fate were far too cute for their own good, Hayate and her knights ranged from cute to incredibly sexy and now Filia was making passes at Chrono.

What chance did she have unless he kept his attention on her?

Lindy just smiled at Chrono. "Chrono, when we're done eating, you and I need to have a talk about a few things." The way he blanched was quite... Enjoyable.

Lyos and Gourry just blinked in confusion while Yuuno's face was red at the mental images that came to his head, thanks to the way Nanoha and Fate were talking.

(---)

"Ugh..." Filia groaned as she, Amelia and Sylphiel all slumped forward onto the tables after all the customers had left. "I swear, I think my butt's going to be red." She couldn't believe that Lina had forbidden them, on punishment of doing horrible things to them, to hurting any of the customers. It was even worse, since she KNEW that the men were grabbing at her butt when they could and she couldn't turn back to yell at them.

"You all did a really good job." Lina smiled as she sat down, her body was covered in various cooking powders and sauces, but she had a tired smile on her face. "Sorry about making you all suffer through that. I forgot how grabby some men can be."

"We've got to do this again tomorrow, don't we?" Amelia asked, getting a nod from Lina. "Why..?"

"It's just for three days, Amelia." Lina smiled at her. "Well, actually, just tomorrow if we get enough sales in here."

The three girls perked up at that. "Really?"

"Yep." Shiro said as he sat down next to Lina, before pulling his wife onto his lap and causing all three girls to blush heavily as they saw the way that he grabbed Lina and the way that she relaxed and sighed into his embrace. "If we make as much tomorrow as we did today, then we'll get free room and board for as long as we stay here."

"Considering how much we can all eat..." Amelia trailed off as her stomach, Filia's stomach and Sylphiel's stomach all started growling and demanding food. "Um..."

Lina laughed and got out of Shiro's embrace, before going back to the kitchen and coming out with some food and setting it in front of them. "Always make sure that your employees and co-workers go home happy." Lina smiled as she saw the three dig into the food in front of them. "Even got you some dessert as well."

She walked over to Shiro and leaned down, whispering to his ear.

"That's... Not a bad idea." Shiro grinned as the two waved the group a good night and went to check up on their kids before going to their own room.

It was always fun in the bedroom after a long night of hard work.

(---)

As he lay in the room he was sharing with Lyos and Yuuno, Chrono couldn't help but stare at the ceiling, completely red faced, after the "talk" his mother gave him. "I... I... The banana and the bagel... And..." It was impossible that his mother could talk like that, especially with a completely straight face.

He didn't know if he could look at anyone, especially Filia and Amy, the same way again.

"Wait, why..." A sudden mental image of Amy and Filia, both naked, came to his mind's eye, before he shuddered. "Why me?" He couldn't take it anymore as his eyes rolled back into his head as he passed out, his face practically lighting the room up.

The pleasurable sensory overload was too much for him.

Poor Chrono.

Chrono want harem, but Amy and/or Filia will wreak his head off if her dare to suggest it, and i doubt that even Line could stop them.

[SNobleJr]

Originally Posted by AtomicoX

Have a Christmas horror in two parts. Inspired by Amnesia.

Spoiler for Vivio's Christmas: The Dark Descent Part 1:

-snip

I've only played the Penumbra series so far, but since Amnesia is a spiritual successor, I think I can safely say that you got the pants-wetting terror as right as it is possible with only words.

And I agree with RadiantBeam, this can't possibly end well.

Originally Posted by Yasanagi

Spoiler for Extra MD since I'm on Christmas Holidays!:

-snip-

...oh, LOL. Saw the whole reference coming the moment Deed said "polite". Though to be honest, maybe you dragged it out a little too long. And when does the story take place? Some time between Vivid and Force? I don't think Deed would be that socially clueless after five years or so.

Also, the prayer was a bit weird. The "fighting against evil" part is all well and good, fits with the Saint Church's knightly traditions, but the motifs you lifted straight from Christian myth just feel out of place in a fictional religion that reveres a magical warrior queen...

[Nanya01]

Updated BTF on FF.Net again.

[NorthernFallout]

@RB & SNobleJr: Much excellent. Part 2 might be out today, but most likely tomorrow.

I also have this idea of a linear CYOA, in the theme of this. I'm working out the rough edges, but it'd basically be a "horror game" with A/B/C choices. And, knowing me, the answers might result in... quite amusing things. One right, two wrong~~

[Yasanagi]

I just borrowed pieces here and there based on what sounded cool. As for Deed, I figured that certain social aspects would still give her trouble since she lived a somewhat sheltered life as a Combat Nun for the past five years.

[00-Raiser]

I think the fact that she struck up a conversation at all is telling of her change from StrikerS, it's just that apparently she's not too good at reading the mood.

[Evil Rick]

My comic Nanoha Revolution is ready and up!

10 full color pages of this new take on the Nanoha Universe, art and story by myself.

Cover: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kijj
Rights: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kinp
Intro: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kirl
Page 1: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kjhc
Page 2: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kjwa
Page 3: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk01
Page 4: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk4c
Page 5: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk88
Page 6: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkcx
Page 7: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkgt
Page 8: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kklq
Page 9: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkow
Page 10: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kktf

Enjoy and please share any opinion.

[vic-vic]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

My comic Nanoha Revolution is ready and up!

10 full color pages of this new take on the Nanoha Universe, art and story by myself.

Cover: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kijj
Rights: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kinp
Intro: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kirl
Page 1: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kjhc
Page 2: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kjwa
Page 3: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk01
Page 4: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk4c
Page 5: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kk88
Page 6: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkcx
Page 7: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkgt
Page 8: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kklq
Page 9: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kkow
Page 10: http://evil-rick.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d35kktf

Enjoy and please share any opinion.

Well, This hunter dude sure a quirky. But i like this type of character. But i afraid, his life will be in true danger, when Yuuno and Fate will know that he hot for Nanoha.

Um, but Nanoha look wery OOC, why she so distant and i didn`t think she will cast away helping hand, even though the hunter try to kill her in his first appearance. Aren`t many of her friends try to kill her too in the past?

[NorthernFallout]

Part 2. The second and the last.

Spoiler for Vivio's Christmas: The Dark Descent Part 2:

The light wasn’t there anymore. The laboratory... had changed. She lay in the middle of it now and the door was closed. The lantern lay next to her, being the first thing she felt when she woke. Total darkness ruled. But that wasn’t the worst thing.

She could hear shuffling. And growling. That same growl she had heard back then. The beast was in this room, together with her. And she couldn’t see it.

Her heart was beating in her chest. She could both hear and feel it. She hoped the beast wouldn’t hear it. At any rate, it couldn’t see her in the darkness. If it could, it would have already been upon her. So she waited, her muscles frozen. Her breathing slow. Cold sweat flowing down her back.

The creature walked around, not doing anything in particular as far as she knew. As long as it didn’t walk where she was, she would be fine. She would be fine. Yes. She was sure of it. As long as she kept her cool. Her Mama always did and so could she.

The creature sniffed in the air and took a step towards her. Maybe she wouldn’t be fine after all. Where was the door? Two meters away. There was a faint light through the keyhole that made it possible for her to locate it. If she ran, she could make it out. And where would she run? The door on the balcony was locked. She needed a key-

That’s when she felt something in her pocket. She slowly drew her arm there, trying not to make a sound. She let her hand drift into the pocket and it touched something metallic. She felt it with her fingers. It had the form of a key. If it was the right one, she had no way of knowing. But it might be worth a shot...

She didn’t want to think about who had put it there. Or maybe it had been there all along. Either way, it was where it was. It was now or never. She could stay where she was, waiting for the creature to stumble upon her and end it all. Or, she could try to run. Without weapons, hiding and running seemed to be the best alternatives. After seeing what happened to the two scientists, she didn’t want to fight it.

She made up her mind and her heart started to beat faster. Adrenaline began to surge through her muscles. The time was now. Now or never.

She grabbed the lantern and got to her feet. The movement caused a ruckus in the silence and the creature growled at her. She ran towards the door and flung it open. Light flushed in and she, against her better judgment, tossed a view back.

She gasped, but forced herself to keep going. Her mind tried to erase the image, but in vain. She took the stairs in giant leaps and was in the chamber in no time. The dust that had frozen in time was thrown about by her body that rushed through them. The glass on the ground crunched continuously under her boots. The lantern made a metallic rustle for each step. And she didn’t look back. She knew the creature was right behind her. She could hear its growling, almost feel its breath. That was the worst feeling. She knew it was so close and could grab her at any moment... But the moment didn’t come.

She climbed the stairs to the balcony which was lit up by the moonlight . She almost flew up. As soon as she put her foot on the balcony she rushed towards the door and pushed the key into the keyhole. She prayed it would work.

A click was heard as she turned the key and the door opened. She retrieved the key, wasting no time and threw the door open. She got inside and closed it behind her, turning the lock. The second after the creature arrived and banged at the door. Vivio remained with her back against it, as the door almost flew off its hinges from the violent banging.

Then, silence. She listened intently. There wasn’t a growling anymore. Not a thing. The door was still and she couldn’t hear any slithering steps behind it.

Her heart began to settle. The adrenaline stopped to fuel her muscles and she slumped down, almost hyperventilating. Tears flowed again, more from relief than fear. She had made it across. The creature was locked out.

She sat there for a few moments, gathering herself. Though her lantern wasn’t lit, there was still light in this room. A few torches burned with vigour, providing the large room with light. It was circular, she now noticed, and in the middle there was a fountain. The water that poured filled the room with a serene echo.

Feeling calm enough to get going again, she got to her feet and approached the fountain. It was a grotesque sculpture that spit water from its mouth. It had the face of a baby, but the body was that of a snake. Its body had weird protrusions on it, to which she couldn’t find words. Vivio grimaced at it. She couldn’t fathom what a sick mind could come up with something like this. Ironic, she thought, considering what just had passed in the last hour.

Hour... The time. She sat down on the fountain’s edge and checked her clock on her wrist. When had she entered the facility? Seven pm. What was it now? Ten past seven pm.

She stared at the time. Then minutes had passed since she had tumbled down that hole? Impossible. Unless...

A sudden shaking interrupted her. The whole building had begun to shake, its groaning amplified throughout the structure. Dust tumbled down from the roof and pebbles of stones prickled the floor. Vivio tried to keep her balance, but failed. She was plunged into the water of the statue and everything went mute and blurry. She trashed around, trying to get up. It was suffocating, horrible. She was helpless for whatever could approach.

She managed to grab a hold of the edge. She heaved herself up and gasped for air. She hadn’t been under for more than a few seconds, but it felt like forever.

While underwater, she hadn’t heard the cave-in. The door from which she had come was blocked from rocks. Not that it mattered. She wouldn’t go that way anyway. Not with that thing out there. No, what brought her mood down was the fact that the matches and oil she had found was now drenched in water. They were still in her jacket that followed with her into the water. The lantern was utterly useless.

She crawled out from the fountain and tried to squeeze most of the water out of her hair and clothes. It formed a pool underneath her feet. It splashed when she stepped around in it. Echoes joining more echoes. But this time it wasn’t serene.

She noticed a door to her right. After drying up as best as she could, she picked up the lantern, as useless as it was, and approached the door. The closer she got, the more clearly she could hear... music. A piano playing.

She stopped in her steps and listened. She didn’t recognize the song, but it was sad. A sad song, for some reason. She started walking again. It wasn’t from behind the door. It was farther away. There wouldn’t be anything behind this door. Nothing.

The door was already slightly open when she got within her arm’s reach. She pushed it open to reveal a small room. It seemed to be a study, with a desk and a chair behind it. A lone window let the moon shine in and this time it was low enough for her to escape from. That was the first thing she went for. A way out of here, one she hadn’t seen before.

She put down the lantern and rushed to the window. She put her hands on it, greeted by extreme cold. She could barely see outside due to frost. Which didn’t make sense. But she had stopped to worry over things that didn’t make sense. She was way past that mark.

She rubbed with her hand to see if she could remove some it from the inside with her own body heat. It worked, to a degree. She wished she hadn’t when she got a glimpse of what waited outside.

A snowstorm raged. White snow flew around in chaos. She was no longer in Cranagan. Maybe she wasn’t even on Mid-Childa. Because here, she was in a castle. A castle high upon a mountain’s top. She couldn’t even see the bottom. It was all white.

She removed herself from the window and sat in the chair with an exasperated look on her face. An odd sense of hopelessness washed over her. Was there a way back home from here? Where was here? How did she get ‘here’?

She buried her face in her arms as she leaned down on the table. She was actually quite tired, she realized. Even after being knocked out two times. She checked her watch again. It still worked after the fountain, but it had only moved a minute forward.

Time. Did it move more slowly here? Or did it move normally, but the time that showed on her clock, belonging to Mid-Childa, was what moved slowly? Was this another dimension? Where time worked normally? An alternate reality?

She couldn’t wrap her head around it. A headache threatened to emerge. She was hungry and tired. She wanted to rest. The theories felw around in her head and she tried to stop them.

She decided that rest was a good idea. So she fell asleep. Plagued by nightmares.

***

When she woke up, everything was as it had been before. Nothing had moved, no creature had emerged. Except for one thing. Though she might have been too tired to realize it was there before. A device. It looked like a radio. It had a Play button, a Stop button and a Record button. She pressed Play, unable to think on anything else. It urged her to push it.

“The Portal! It has been opened!” The voice was grainy, old. “Why, oh why?! This can’t be happening! These creatures they... They were not created by our experiment! They came from the portal! We can’t get out either!” The voice paused. A paper seemed to be picked up. “What is this?... Dimensional space? A closed space-continuum? Impossible... We are walking in circles!” Vivio could hear the door break and the voice panicked. ”No! Monster! Get away! Get awa-”

The recording broke off into a scream and a high-pitched growl. Silence.

The door had been broken. But the one she had entered through didn’t look broken. Which meant...

She suddenly stood up, goosebumps all over her arms. There was another door in here and one of those things had burst through it. Where was it? She had to block it.

No matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find the door mentioned in the recording. Maybe it was hidden. But that didn’t make her feel safe in here. She searched the desk and managed to find the paper the recording had talked about. It lay underneath the desk, stained with blood.

The blood was dry, but had smudged out some of the text. The rest of it read;

June, 24th. 1940.

The creatures Gördinger said had been created by us... weren’t. He lied to us. Maybe he was brainwashed by these... these aliens. They came through a portal. Stein found it this morning. We call it the Dimensional Gate. If only the creatures had not... We could have researched it. Discovered the secrets that lay dormant in our world.

The portal was found in the lower levels of the fortress. How ironic, it was even inside the library. Ever since its discovery, we have not heard anything from the outside. It is as if we are shut in... A closed space-continuum. Or something. I do not know which.

But I think I know how to reach and close the portal, even from these levels. The hidden passageway. Though only I know about it. I need to share it with the others. But for whoever will read this, for I do not think I will be alive when this is read, the controls for the hidden passage is in the fountain room. You just need to-

She just had to be in a game. All the mechanics. All the clues. The blood that manage to smudge out the most essential part of the text.

She crumpled the paper and tossed it away in anger. A dimensional portal? That’s what she came through? And the only way to get back to Mid-Childa was to go through it again. Before it closed or changed dimensions.

The fountain room. She picked up the lantern and left the office, closing the door behind her. The fountain room, again. There had to be a switch here somewhere. She eyed the fountain. It couldn’t be that easy?

She stepped into the water and reached towards the baby’s face. She inserted two fingers into its eyes and her thumb into its mouth. Then she turned it clock-wise. The face turned with her and a heavy clack echoed in the room.

“This must be a game,” she said, shaking her head. “A sick nightmare. It was so obvio-”

Her sentence was replaced by a scream as the fountain opened in half and the ground on which Vivio had been standing disappeared. She fell down, hitting her butt on the slightly slanted ground. That didn’t stop her descent into the dark, however. She slid down, picking up speed. She tried to stop, or at least to slow down, but nothing helped. The round walls flew past her, and weird lights or shadows flew past her mind.

Slowly the decline turned into an ascent and the fall flattened out. She came to a complete halt in a new room with a few lit torches in it. The lantern wasn’t with her. She had lost it in the fountain room. She had to do without it, she couldn’t bother to worry about it. It wouldn’t bring it back to her anyway.

Her head was spinning from the rush. Her vision still rolled as she observed the room. It was no more different than the corridors she had walked through. In actuality, it was completely empty. She shook her head to clear it and got up from where she had landed. She stood up, listening. Silence. That damn silence that tormented her.

She approached the door and tried the handle. It wasn’t locked. She brought it down and let the door swing out. When the next room came into view she had to clasp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Her heart went into a race of beats. Her blood froze.

The room was the most horrifying she had come across. The monsters all... stood there. A dozen of them. They were... sleeping?. Standing straight up, their horrible eyes closed. Their bottomless maws hanging open. But they hadn’t noticed her. Not yet.

She collected herself and took a deep, calm breath. Right, sneaking time. A stealth section. Dammit.

She got down on her knees and hands. She had decided to crawl. She didn’t trust her shaking legs to carry her through this room. Of course, that brought her closer to the creatures’ legs, which wasn’t particularly nice. But did she have a choice? No.

The room was too dark for her to see far ahead. Her eyes’ night vision had adjusted, but only as far as her hands reached. That’s why she crawled slowly, carefully. She planned her movements, as to not bump into one of the monsters. She crawled along the wall. The easiest method of navigating through a room. She was bound to encounter a door after a few meters.

Then she faced a problem. A bunch of the monsters stood in a line, blocking her path. She didn’t want to go around them. She didn’t know what she would bump into. But she had to. Again.

She turned left and tried to get around. The dust on the floor lay heavy and tickled her nose. Such brilliant timing. If she sneezed now it would all be over. She brought a hand up and scratched her nose. It helped and the tickling stopped. She sighed silently, smiling at the absurdity, and continued her crawl.

A door. She could faintly see it through the darkness now. The revelation brought hope into her heart and she sped up. A brief moment of success clouded her judgement.

Her hand slipped on the floor and she tried to retain her balance on the remaining one. She bobbed back and forth on all fours, or threes now, desperately trying to stabilize.

The sudden movement brought another layer of dust from the floor. She shut her eyes and focused hard on her balance, remembering her martial arts training. Even without magic, she could do it. It was easy. Just a little more...

She made it. She recovered her balance and she was stable again. She smiled and didn’t notice the sneeze that came all of a sudden. Not with her bursting heart.

The silence was broken. All of the monsters’ eyes opened at once, immediately focusing on her. Those dots of a dark abyss. Sucking her in. Warping her mind.

Now wasn’t a time to crawl. Now it was time to run. She got up on her feet and rushed to the door, throwing it open. Her luck meant that it was unlocked. All of the monsters roared and turned to charge after her.

It was a gauntlet. The final stage of the game. Adrenaline surged again. Her blood boiled. Now or never. Again. Her muscles exploded and she ran through the corridor. She ignored the monsters that kept pouring out of the doors that she passed. She could hear their exciting growling as she passed. Their breaths stank of rotten flesh.

The library. She could see it just ahead. A dim light in the darkness. A lighthouse on the dark oceans. Inside, the portal was waiting for her, and nothing could stop her now. She wouldn’t let anything do it.

The sheer number of monsters that ran after her created a vibrating echo through the corridor. She couldn’t hear herself think, she couldn’t hear herself breath. The noise and smells turned her head into mush. But she tried to ignore them. She had to.

Salvation reached her hands as she clenched the library door’s handle and flung it open. Empty. There weren’t any monsters in here. She got inside as fast as she could and searched for something she could use as a blockade. The bookcases were an apt alternative.

She hung on one of them, trying to tilt it. Outside the door she could hear the monsters approaching. Her heart skipped a beat as they began to rattle the handle. With one last mighty pull the bookcase lost its balance and fell over, across the door. Sweating profusely and breathing so fast she thought her lungs would burst, she backed away from the door and fell on her butt. She could still hear them outside, banging. Wanting to come in. To taste her flesh.

A moment of rest. That’s what she needed. And now that moment had passed. It was over as fast as it had come. She swallowed hard and stood up again. She ran to the back of the library, where the hole, and the portal, was waiting. She stopped underneath it and looked up.

Dark matter moved in slow-motion in the air a few meters over her. She could see the moonlight still shining in the dimension that was Mid-Childa. Though she hadn’t seen the portal before, it was there now. That was all that mattered. It wanted her to enter it. She would be happy to oblige.

She jumped and grabbed a hold of a broken ledge. She slung her leg up and got a good hold on the next part with her other hand. She slung her other leg up and repeated the process until she stood, balancing on the few broken, groaning, wooden edges that remained.

She could hear the barricade break. The monsters had broken through. It spurred her on and she climbed faster. She didn’t look back. She could hear the monsters down there, looking up, drooling. But not climbing. Perhaps they were too stupid too realize how to climb. Or they belonged to this dimension now. They still growled, though. That growling that etched itself into her mind.

One meter left, but the edges she could climb were now few and unstable. She tested them carefully before reaching for a new one. They held, so far. Her feet stood on two platforms, distributing the weight. Her hands searched for another edge. The portal was so close now. She could glimpse other dimensions within it. It was hypnotising.

For a brief moment she just stared into it. Into that dark abyss with unknown worlds. Then one of the platforms she rested her feet upon broke.

Her muscles, fueled by adrenaline, reacted reflexively and managed to grab a hold of another ledge. Her heart almost burst through her chest. That’s when she decided she was done.

She pulled every last power she had. All the reserved energy. Her muscles tensed and she half-jumped, half-pulled, reaching with a thin, outstretched arm for the Dimensional Gate.

***

“Ahh!... Oh...”

She woke with a short scream on the desk chair before she realized where she was. This was her room. In front of her was the computer screen, ‘Game Over’ written in damp red text. That’s right... Hadn’t she been up late last night playing that horror game? What was the name again... Something with memory loss.

She pondered for a while before shrugging and standing up. It didn’t matter. That was one hell of a nightmare she had though. She was glad it was over. She tossed a glance out her window and saw the bright light of the sun and white snow falling from the sky. A beautiful day. Christmas.

Mama! She missed her so much. She had to give her a hug right now. Stupid nightmare.

She pushed the handle on the door and opened it. The morning sun shone in and warmed her face. She closed her eyes and smiled. But a very cold wind was apparent. Very cold. Had a window been broken?

When she thought of that, she also remembered that there were no windows outside her room. Where did the light come from if...

She opened her eyes and stared straight into a snowstorm. On the snow-covered mountains far away, beyond the dark abyss, beyond the fortress she knew so well, the morning sun just rose towards the sky. The sun’s rays reflected in the snow, throwing themselves back at Vivio. Blinding her. And that’s when she knew that the Dimensional Gate had changed.

To Earth, Germany, in 1940.

[Nanya01]

A's

Jump

New Parts 1-40

New Part 41

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - New Part 42:

Amy sighed as she sat in the outdoor bath. "For being a rather primitive world, they do have some nice stuff." The heat and water washing over her nude form was just so relaxing that she couldn't help but relax.

She turned and frowned slightly as she saw Filia, still in those underwear, though her breasts seemed to be free now, walk into the bath area and sit down to start washing herself off. "Afraid of getting people germs?"

Filia frowned at her as she washed the sweat that had accumulated under her breasts off. "I can't get these clothes off! The best I can do is lower my top slightly."

"Sure you can't." Amy snorted as she saw Filia wash her skin up. "Oh, for crying out loud!" She got out of the bath and walked over to Filia, ignoring her nudity and grabbed at the Dragoness' clothing and pulled on it. "I bet... This..." She growled and yanked on it.

"Oww!" Filia hissed and spun, her breasts swaying as she did so. "Listen you, that hurts! I've tried to pull these clothes off, they won't come off!"

"Then how come you were able to get your top dowoah!" Amy slipped on some soap that was on the ground and fell forward.

"Eeek!" Filia tried to catch her, but she found herself slipping and falling down on her butt as Amy crashed, face-first, onto her breasts with a splat. "Oh, just great!" Filia muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's not my fault, I swear! Whatever I did, Lord Vrabazard, I'm sorry."

Amy looked up and looked at Filia's face closely. "...You... You really aren't... Trying to seduce him, are you?"

"Not on purpose, but he keeps trying to look at my butt and boobs and undressing me with his eyes..." Filia whined. "Besides, you seem attracted to him."

Amy blushed as Filia pointed that out. "Well, yeah. He's a really great guy..." A flat look appeared on her face. "Even if he's being a pervert these days."

"At least he wasn't grabbing my butt like those other men were." Filia admitted softly. "So, maybe you're right, he doesn't seem like a bad guy."

Amy sighed and dropped her head forward, planting it squarely between Filia's breasts, causing the Dragoness to get wide-eyed and gulp slightly. "You're so beautiful though... I can't compare to you."

Filia sweat-dropped heavily. "But... You're not bad looking. I'm sure that he looks at you when you're not looking."

"I bet he's upstairs, in his room, thinking about you right now."

Filia shook her head. "Nah uh! He's probably thinking about you more than me." Her face turned red as Amy shook her head. The sensations were rather... Distracting, and pleasant.

"Prove it." Amy muttered and Filia blinked a few times as she looked at the naked brunette.

"Well... Um..." Her face was flushed, she couldn't believe she was going to suggest this, but... "We could go up to his room and you'll see that he's not thinking of me."

Amy blinked a few times and pulled away from Filia. "Huh, why didn't I think of that?"

"But, first..." Filia pouted. "Can you wash my back?"

"Sure." Amy sighed as she moved behind Filia and frowned as she put a hand over Filia's clothing. "...You know... This doesn't feel like clothes at all."

"Huh?" Filia blinked as Amy ran a finger down her back.

"Yeah, it's weird, but I think it's your skin..." Amy tilted her head in confusion.

"Wait!" Filia's eyes widened and teared up at the same time. "That means I'm running around naked?!"

"Maybe." Amy scratched the back of her head. "But, hey, if it's just a spell that's keeping people from realizing that you're naked, then it's not so bad, right?"

"But I'm a Dragon... I should be able to turn into my true form, use magic, fly." Filia sniffled as Amy slowly washed her back. "I'm useless like this. At least Lyos, Gourry and Shiro all have skills that are useful in a fight. What good is a Dragon that's stuck as a human and can't use any power?"

"You've still got your super strength, right?" Amy asked and Filia sighed, shaking her head. "You don't?"

"I don't know. Mace-sama disappeared after I got this new outfit and..." She trembled, before putting her hands on her face. "And the Supreme Elder became evil and abandoned me. My tribe... They went evil and they just want to torture me now."

"Filia..." Amy stopped scrubbing the blonde's back. "I'm sure that when this is over, you can find other Dragons and..."

"Be betrayed just like the Ancient Dragons were?" Filia asked bitterly. She may not have wanted to believe that her race was capable of doing something so horrible, but if they could abandon her to freeze to death after stripping her naked and getting a curse on her, it wouldn't surprise her if all Golden Dragons were like that.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure..." Amy trailed off as Filia stared crying. She sighed and got behind Filia and wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. "Come on... Not all Dragons are like..."

"We were..." Filia sobbed, "supposedly the protectors of this world, and all we did was screw up." She did appreciate the hug that Amy was giving her, but it wasn't helping her mood at that moment. "I... I believed that Xellos was the worst enemy of all Dragons." She may not have liked him, but he was right, her kind did slaughter plenty of Mazoku back then too. "Now I think... I think that maybe the world would be better off without us. At least Lord Vrabazard wouldn't feel betrayed by us."

Amy sighed softly. "Hey, come on..." She tightened her hug and wondered what she could do to help the Dragoness, the poor dear was just so stressed out at that moment that Amy wasn't sure what could help.

She could try asking the captain, but then blanched at the thought of asking Lindy just what she would recommend to relax.

The woman was just... Weird.

(---)

As she looked in on the two, Lindy smiled to herself. Who knew all Amy needed to calm down was trying to console an upset girl?

Still, she was a touch worried for her son. If he took after his father anymore, he was going to have both Amy and Filia fighting over him like she and Leti had for Clyde.

Oh well, it wouldn't be as bad as it had been between her and Leti.

At least she hoped so.

[vic-vic]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

A's

Jump

New Parts 1-40

New Part 41

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - New Part 42:

Amy sighed as she sat in the outdoor bath. "For being a rather primitive world, they do have some nice stuff." The heat and water washing over her nude form was just so relaxing that she couldn't help but relax.

She turned and frowned slightly as she saw Filia, still in those underwear, though her breasts seemed to be free now, walk into the bath area and sit down to start washing herself off. "Afraid of getting people germs?"

Filia frowned at her as she washed the sweat that had accumulated under her breasts off. "I can't get these clothes off! The best I can do is lower my top slightly."

"Sure you can't." Amy snorted as she saw Filia wash her skin up. "Oh, for crying out loud!" She got out of the bath and walked over to Filia, ignoring her nudity and grabbed at the Dragoness' clothing and pulled on it. "I bet... This..." She growled and yanked on it.

"Oww!" Filia hissed and spun, her breasts swaying as she did so. "Listen you, that hurts! I've tried to pull these clothes off, they won't come off!"

"Then how come you were able to get your top dowoah!" Amy slipped on some soap that was on the ground and fell forward.

"Eeek!" Filia tried to catch her, but she found herself slipping and falling down on her butt as Amy crashed, face-first, onto her breasts with a splat. "Oh, just great!" Filia muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's not my fault, I swear! Whatever I did, Lord Vrabazard, I'm sorry."

Amy looked up and looked at Filia's face closely. "...You... You really aren't... Trying to seduce him, are you?"

"Not on purpose, but he keeps trying to look at my butt and boobs and undressing me with his eyes..." Filia whined. "Besides, you seem attracted to him."

Amy blushed as Filia pointed that out. "Well, yeah. He's a really great guy..." A flat look appeared on her face. "Even if he's being a pervert these days."

"At least he wasn't grabbing my butt like those other men were." Filia admitted softly. "So, maybe you're right, he doesn't seem like a bad guy."

Amy sighed and dropped her head forward, planting it squarely between Filia's breasts, causing the Dragoness to get wide-eyed and gulp slightly. "You're so beautiful though... I can't compare to you."

Filia sweat-dropped heavily. "But... You're not bad looking. I'm sure that he looks at you when you're not looking."

"I bet he's upstairs, in his room, thinking about you right now."

Filia shook her head. "Nah uh! He's probably thinking about you more than me." Her face turned red as Amy shook her head. The sensations were rather... Distracting, and pleasant.

"Prove it." Amy muttered and Filia blinked a few times as she looked at the naked brunette.

"Well... Um..." Her face was flushed, she couldn't believe she was going to suggest this, but... "We could go up to his room and you'll see that he's not thinking of me."

Amy blinked a few times and pulled away from Filia. "Huh, why didn't I think of that?"

"But, first..." Filia pouted. "Can you wash my back?"

"Sure." Amy sighed as she moved behind Filia and frowned as she put a hand over Filia's clothing. "...You know... This doesn't feel like clothes at all."

"Huh?" Filia blinked as Amy ran a finger down her back.

"Yeah, it's weird, but I think it's your skin..." Amy tilted her head in confusion.

"Wait!" Filia's eyes widened and teared up at the same time. "That means I'm running around naked?!"

"Maybe." Amy scratched the back of her head. "But, hey, if it's just a spell that's keeping people from realizing that you're naked, then it's not so bad, right?"

"But I'm a Dragon... I should be able to turn into my true form, use magic, fly." Filia sniffled as Amy slowly washed her back. "I'm useless like this. At least Lyos, Gourry and Shiro all have skills that are useful in a fight. What good is a Dragon that's stuck as a human and can't use any power?"

"You've still got your super strength, right?" Amy asked and Filia sighed, shaking her head. "You don't?"

"I don't know. Mace-sama disappeared after I got this new outfit and..." She trembled, before putting her hands on her face. "And the Supreme Elder became evil and abandoned me. My tribe... They went evil and they just want to torture me now."

"Filia..." Amy stopped scrubbing the blonde's back. "I'm sure that when this is over, you can find other Dragons and..."

"Be betrayed just like the Ancient Dragons were?" Filia asked bitterly. She may not have wanted to believe that her race was capable of doing something so horrible, but if they could abandon her to freeze to death after stripping her naked and getting a curse on her, it wouldn't surprise her if all Golden Dragons were like that.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure..." Amy trailed off as Filia stared crying. She sighed and got behind Filia and wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. "Come on... Not all Dragons are like..."

"We were..." Filia sobbed, "supposedly the protectors of this world, and all we did was screw up." She did appreciate the hug that Amy was giving her, but it wasn't helping her mood at that moment. "I... I believed that Xellos was the worst enemy of all Dragons." She may not have liked him, but he was right, her kind did slaughter plenty of Mazoku back then too. "Now I think... I think that maybe the world would be better off without us. At least Lord Vrabazard wouldn't feel betrayed by us."

Amy sighed softly. "Hey, come on..." She tightened her hug and wondered what she could do to help the Dragoness, the poor dear was just so stressed out at that moment that Amy wasn't sure what could help.

She could try asking the captain, but then blanched at the thought of asking Lindy just what she would recommend to relax.

The woman was just... Weird.

(---)

As she looked in on the two, Lindy smiled to herself. Who knew all Amy needed to calm down was trying to console an upset girl?

Still, she was a touch worried for her son. If he took after his father anymore, he was going to have both Amy and Filia fighting over him like she and Leti had for Clyde.

Oh well, it wouldn't be as bad as it had been between her and Leti.

At least she hoped so.

I was wrong, seems that Chrono will have his harem. And Lindy is master of mind-control on her team.

P.S Now think about Xellos/Lindy pairing.

[shiroi mahotsukai]

Originally Posted by AtomicoX

Part 2. The second and the last.

Spoiler for Vivio's Christmas: The Dark Descent Part 2:

The light wasn’t there anymore. The laboratory... had changed. She lay in the middle of it now and the door was closed. The lantern lay next to her, being the first thing she felt when she woke. Total darkness ruled. But that wasn’t the worst thing.

She could hear shuffling. And growling. That same growl she had heard back then. The beast was in this room, together with her. And she couldn’t see it.

Her heart was beating in her chest. She could both hear and feel it. She hoped the beast wouldn’t hear it. At any rate, it couldn’t see her in the darkness. If it could, it would have already been upon her. So she waited, her muscles frozen. Her breathing slow. Cold sweat flowing down her back.

The creature walked around, not doing anything in particular as far as she knew. As long as it didn’t walk where she was, she would be fine. She would be fine. Yes. She was sure of it. As long as she kept her cool. Her Mama always did and so could she.

The creature sniffed in the air and took a step towards her. Maybe she wouldn’t be fine after all. Where was the door? Two meters away. There was a faint light through the keyhole that made it possible for her to locate it. If she ran, she could make it out. And where would she run? The door on the balcony was locked. She needed a key-

That’s when she felt something in her pocket. She slowly drew her arm there, trying not to make a sound. She let her hand drift into the pocket and it touched something metallic. She felt it with her fingers. It had the form of a key. If it was the right one, she had no way of knowing. But it might be worth a shot...

She didn’t want to think about who had put it there. Or maybe it had been there all along. Either way, it was where it was. It was now or never. She could stay where she was, waiting for the creature to stumble upon her and end it all. Or, she could try to run. Without weapons, hiding and running seemed to be the best alternatives. After seeing what happened to the two scientists, she didn’t want to fight it.

She made up her mind and her heart started to beat faster. Adrenaline began to surge through her muscles. The time was now. Now or never.

She grabbed the lantern and got to her feet. The movement caused a ruckus in the silence and the creature growled at her. She ran towards the door and flung it open. Light flushed in and she, against her better judgment, tossed a view back.

She gasped, but forced herself to keep going. Her mind tried to erase the image, but in vain. She took the stairs in giant leaps and was in the chamber in no time. The dust that had frozen in time was thrown about by her body that rushed through them. The glass on the ground crunched continuously under her boots. The lantern made a metallic rustle for each step. And she didn’t look back. She knew the creature was right behind her. She could hear its growling, almost feel its breath. That was the worst feeling. She knew it was so close and could grab her at any moment... But the moment didn’t come.

She climbed the stairs to the balcony which was lit up by the moonlight . She almost flew up. As soon as she put her foot on the balcony she rushed towards the door and pushed the key into the keyhole. She prayed it would work.

A click was heard as she turned the key and the door opened. She retrieved the key, wasting no time and threw the door open. She got inside and closed it behind her, turning the lock. The second after the creature arrived and banged at the door. Vivio remained with her back against it, as the door almost flew off its hinges from the violent banging.

Then, silence. She listened intently. There wasn’t a growling anymore. Not a thing. The door was still and she couldn’t hear any slithering steps behind it.

Her heart began to settle. The adrenaline stopped to fuel her muscles and she slumped down, almost hyperventilating. Tears flowed again, more from relief than fear. She had made it across. The creature was locked out.

She sat there for a few moments, gathering herself. Though her lantern wasn’t lit, there was still light in this room. A few torches burned with vigour, providing the large room with light. It was circular, she now noticed, and in the middle there was a fountain. The water that poured filled the room with a serene echo.

Feeling calm enough to get going again, she got to her feet and approached the fountain. It was a grotesque sculpture that spit water from its mouth. It had the face of a baby, but the body was that of a snake. Its body had weird protrusions on it, to which she couldn’t find words. Vivio grimaced at it. She couldn’t fathom what a sick mind could come up with something like this. Ironic, she thought, considering what just had passed in the last hour.

Hour... The time. She sat down on the fountain’s edge and checked her clock on her wrist. When had she entered the facility? Seven pm. What was it now? Ten past seven pm.

She stared at the time. Then minutes had passed since she had tumbled down that hole? Impossible. Unless...

A sudden shaking interrupted her. The whole building had begun to shake, its groaning amplified throughout the structure. Dust tumbled down from the roof and pebbles of stones prickled the floor. Vivio tried to keep her balance, but failed. She was plunged into the water of the statue and everything went mute and blurry. She trashed around, trying to get up. It was suffocating, horrible. She was helpless for whatever could approach.

She managed to grab a hold of the edge. She heaved herself up and gasped for air. She hadn’t been under for more than a few seconds, but it felt like forever.

While underwater, she hadn’t heard the cave-in. The door from which she had come was blocked from rocks. Not that it mattered. She wouldn’t go that way anyway. Not with that thing out there. No, what brought her mood down was the fact that the matches and oil she had found was now drenched in water. They were still in her jacket that followed with her into the water. The lantern was utterly useless.

She crawled out from the fountain and tried to squeeze most of the water out of her hair and clothes. It formed a pool underneath her feet. It splashed when she stepped around in it. Echoes joining more echoes. But this time it wasn’t serene.

She noticed a door to her right. After drying up as best as she could, she picked up the lantern, as useless as it was, and approached the door. The closer she got, the more clearly she could hear... music. A piano playing.

She stopped in her steps and listened. She didn’t recognize the song, but it was sad. A sad song, for some reason. She started walking again. It wasn’t from behind the door. It was farther away. There wouldn’t be anything behind this door. Nothing.

The door was already slightly open when she got within her arm’s reach. She pushed it open to reveal a small room. It seemed to be a study, with a desk and a chair behind it. A lone window let the moon shine in and this time it was low enough for her to escape from. That was the first thing she went for. A way out of here, one she hadn’t seen before.

She put down the lantern and rushed to the window. She put her hands on it, greeted by extreme cold. She could barely see outside due to frost. Which didn’t make sense. But she had stopped to worry over things that didn’t make sense. She was way past that mark.

She rubbed with her hand to see if she could remove some it from the inside with her own body heat. It worked, to a degree. She wished she hadn’t when she got a glimpse of what waited outside.

A snowstorm raged. White snow flew around in chaos. She was no longer in Cranagan. Maybe she wasn’t even on Mid-Childa. Because here, she was in a castle. A castle high upon a mountain’s top. She couldn’t even see the bottom. It was all white.

She removed herself from the window and sat in the chair with an exasperated look on her face. An odd sense of hopelessness washed over her. Was there a way back home from here? Where was here? How did she get ‘here’?

She buried her face in her arms as she leaned down on the table. She was actually quite tired, she realized. Even after being knocked out two times. She checked her watch again. It still worked after the fountain, but it had only moved a minute forward.

Time. Did it move more slowly here? Or did it move normally, but the time that showed on her clock, belonging to Mid-Childa, was what moved slowly? Was this another dimension? Where time worked normally? An alternate reality?

She couldn’t wrap her head around it. A headache threatened to emerge. She was hungry and tired. She wanted to rest. The theories felw around in her head and she tried to stop them.

She decided that rest was a good idea. So she fell asleep. Plagued by nightmares.

***

When she woke up, everything was as it had been before. Nothing had moved, no creature had emerged. Except for one thing. Though she might have been too tired to realize it was there before. A device. It looked like a radio. It had a Play button, a Stop button and a Record button. She pressed Play, unable to think on anything else. It urged her to push it.

“The Portal! It has been opened!” The voice was grainy, old. “Why, oh why?! This can’t be happening! These creatures they... They were not created by our experiment! They came from the portal! We can’t get out either!” The voice paused. A paper seemed to be picked up. “What is this?... Dimensional space? A closed space-continuum? Impossible... We are walking in circles!” Vivio could hear the door break and the voice panicked. ”No! Monster! Get away! Get awa-”

The recording broke off into a scream and a high-pitched growl. Silence.

The door had been broken. But the one she had entered through didn’t look broken. Which meant...

She suddenly stood up, goosebumps all over her arms. There was another door in here and one of those things had burst through it. Where was it? She had to block it.

No matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find the door mentioned in the recording. Maybe it was hidden. But that didn’t make her feel safe in here. She searched the desk and managed to find the paper the recording had talked about. It lay underneath the desk, stained with blood.

The blood was dry, but had smudged out some of the text. The rest of it read;

June, 24th. 1940.

The creatures Gördinger said had been created by us... weren’t. He lied to us. Maybe he was brainwashed by these... these aliens. They came through a portal. Stein found it this morning. We call it the Dimensional Gate. If only the creatures had not... We could have researched it. Discovered the secrets that lay dormant in our world.

The portal was found in the lower levels of the fortress. How ironic, it was even inside the library. Ever since its discovery, we have not heard anything from the outside. It is as if we are shut in... A closed space-continuum. Or something. I do not know which.

But I think I know how to reach and close the portal, even from these levels. The hidden passageway. Though only I know about it. I need to share it with the others. But for whoever will read this, for I do not think I will be alive when this is read, the controls for the hidden passage is in the fountain room. You just need to-

She just had to be in a game. All the mechanics. All the clues. The blood that manage to smudge out the most essential part of the text.

She crumpled the paper and tossed it away in anger. A dimensional portal? That’s what she came through? And the only way to get back to Mid-Childa was to go through it again. Before it closed or changed dimensions.

The fountain room. She picked up the lantern and left the office, closing the door behind her. The fountain room, again. There had to be a switch here somewhere. She eyed the fountain. It couldn’t be that easy?

She stepped into the water and reached towards the baby’s face. She inserted two fingers into its eyes and her thumb into its mouth. Then she turned it clock-wise. The face turned with her and a heavy clack echoed in the room.

“This must be a game,” she said, shaking her head. “A sick nightmare. It was so obvio-”

Her sentence was replaced by a scream as the fountain opened in half and the ground on which Vivio had been standing disappeared. She fell down, hitting her butt on the slightly slanted ground. That didn’t stop her descent into the dark, however. She slid down, picking up speed. She tried to stop, or at least to slow down, but nothing helped. The round walls flew past her, and weird lights or shadows flew past her mind.

Slowly the decline turned into an ascent and the fall flattened out. She came to a complete halt in a new room with a few lit torches in it. The lantern wasn’t with her. She had lost it in the fountain room. She had to do without it, she couldn’t bother to worry about it. It wouldn’t bring it back to her anyway.

Her head was spinning from the rush. Her vision still rolled as she observed the room. It was no more different than the corridors she had walked through. In actuality, it was completely empty. She shook her head to clear it and got up from where she had landed. She stood up, listening. Silence. That damn silence that tormented her.

She approached the door and tried the handle. It wasn’t locked. She brought it down and let the door swing out. When the next room came into view she had to clasp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Her heart went into a race of beats. Her blood froze.

The room was the most horrifying she had come across. The monsters all... stood there. A dozen of them. They were... sleeping?. Standing straight up, their horrible eyes closed. Their bottomless maws hanging open. But they hadn’t noticed her. Not yet.

She collected herself and took a deep, calm breath. Right, sneaking time. A stealth section. Dammit.

She got down on her knees and hands. She had decided to crawl. She didn’t trust her shaking legs to carry her through this room. Of course, that brought her closer to the creatures’ legs, which wasn’t particularly nice. But did she have a choice? No.

The room was too dark for her to see far ahead. Her eyes’ night vision had adjusted, but only as far as her hands reached. That’s why she crawled slowly, carefully. She planned her movements, as to not bump into one of the monsters. She crawled along the wall. The easiest method of navigating through a room. She was bound to encounter a door after a few meters.

Then she faced a problem. A bunch of the monsters stood in a line, blocking her path. She didn’t want to go around them. She didn’t know what she would bump into. But she had to. Again.

She turned left and tried to get around. The dust on the floor lay heavy and tickled her nose. Such brilliant timing. If she sneezed now it would all be over. She brought a hand up and scratched her nose. It helped and the tickling stopped. She sighed silently, smiling at the absurdity, and continued her crawl.

A door. She could faintly see it through the darkness now. The revelation brought hope into her heart and she sped up. A brief moment of success clouded her judgement.

Her hand slipped on the floor and she tried to retain her balance on the remaining one. She bobbed back and forth on all fours, or threes now, desperately trying to stabilize.

The sudden movement brought another layer of dust from the floor. She shut her eyes and focused hard on her balance, remembering her martial arts training. Even without magic, she could do it. It was easy. Just a little more...

She made it. She recovered her balance and she was stable again. She smiled and didn’t notice the sneeze that came all of a sudden. Not with her bursting heart.

The silence was broken. All of the monsters’ eyes opened at once, immediately focusing on her. Those dots of a dark abyss. Sucking her in. Warping her mind.

Now wasn’t a time to crawl. Now it was time to run. She got up on her feet and rushed to the door, throwing it open. Her luck meant that it was unlocked. All of the monsters roared and turned to charge after her.

It was a gauntlet. The final stage of the game. Adrenaline surged again. Her blood boiled. Now or never. Again. Her muscles exploded and she ran through the corridor. She ignored the monsters that kept pouring out of the doors that she passed. She could hear their exciting growling as she passed. Their breaths stank of rotten flesh.

The library. She could see it just ahead. A dim light in the darkness. A lighthouse on the dark oceans. Inside, the portal was waiting for her, and nothing could stop her now. She wouldn’t let anything do it.

The sheer number of monsters that ran after her created a vibrating echo through the corridor. She couldn’t hear herself think, she couldn’t hear herself breath. The noise and smells turned her head into mush. But she tried to ignore them. She had to.

Salvation reached her hands as she clenched the library door’s handle and flung it open. Empty. There weren’t any monsters in here. She got inside as fast as she could and searched for something she could use as a blockade. The bookcases were an apt alternative.

She hung on one of them, trying to tilt it. Outside the door she could hear the monsters approaching. Her heart skipped a beat as they began to rattle the handle. With one last mighty pull the bookcase lost its balance and fell over, across the door. Sweating profusely and breathing so fast she thought her lungs would burst, she backed away from the door and fell on her butt. She could still hear them outside, banging. Wanting to come in. To taste her flesh.

A moment of rest. That’s what she needed. And now that moment had passed. It was over as fast as it had come. She swallowed hard and stood up again. She ran to the back of the library, where the hole, and the portal, was waiting. She stopped underneath it and looked up.

Dark matter moved in slow-motion in the air a few meters over her. She could see the moonlight still shining in the dimension that was Mid-Childa. Though she hadn’t seen the portal before, it was there now. That was all that mattered. It wanted her to enter it. She would be happy to oblige.

She jumped and grabbed a hold of a broken ledge. She slung her leg up and got a good hold on the next part with her other hand. She slung her other leg up and repeated the process until she stood, balancing on the few broken, groaning, wooden edges that remained.

She could hear the barricade break. The monsters had broken through. It spurred her on and she climbed faster. She didn’t look back. She could hear the monsters down there, looking up, drooling. But not climbing. Perhaps they were too stupid too realize how to climb. Or they belonged to this dimension now. They still growled, though. That growling that etched itself into her mind.

One meter left, but the edges she could climb were now few and unstable. She tested them carefully before reaching for a new one. They held, so far. Her feet stood on two platforms, distributing the weight. Her hands searched for another edge. The portal was so close now. She could glimpse other dimensions within it. It was hypnotising.

For a brief moment she just stared into it. Into that dark abyss with unknown worlds. Then one of the platforms she rested her feet upon broke.

Her muscles, fueled by adrenaline, reacted reflexively and managed to grab a hold of another ledge. Her heart almost burst through her chest. That’s when she decided she was done.

She pulled every last power she had. All the reserved energy. Her muscles tensed and she half-jumped, half-pulled, reaching with a thin, outstretched arm for the Dimensional Gate.

***

“Ahh!... Oh...”

She woke with a short scream on the desk chair before she realized where she was. This was her room. In front of her was the computer screen, ‘Game Over’ written in damp red text. That’s right... Hadn’t she been up late last night playing that horror game? What was the name again... Something with memory loss.

She pondered for a while before shrugging and standing up. It didn’t matter. That was one hell of a nightmare she had though. She was glad it was over. She tossed a glance out her window and saw the bright light of the sun and white snow falling from the sky. A beautiful day. Christmas.

Mama! She missed her so much. She had to give her a hug right now. Stupid nightmare.

She pushed the handle on the door and opened it. The morning sun shone in and warmed her face. She closed her eyes and smiled. But a very cold wind was apparent. Very cold. Had a window been broken?

When she thought of that, she also remembered that there were no windows outside her room. Where did the light come from if...

She opened her eyes and stared straight into a snowstorm. On the snow-covered mountains far away, beyond the dark abyss, beyond the fortress she knew so well, the morning sun just rose towards the sky. The sun’s rays reflected in the snow, throwing themselves back at Vivio. Blinding her. And that’s when she knew that the Dimensional Gate had changed.

To Earth, Germany, in 1940.

I didn't see that coming, I really didn't. You suprised me there, although this situation may be even scarier for Vivio than the alternative. Then again if she died there would be nothing to be afraid of afterwards I guess.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

A's

Jump

New Parts 1-40

New Part 41

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - New Part 42:

Amy sighed as she sat in the outdoor bath. "For being a rather primitive world, they do have some nice stuff." The heat and water washing over her nude form was just so relaxing that she couldn't help but relax.

She turned and frowned slightly as she saw Filia, still in those underwear, though her breasts seemed to be free now, walk into the bath area and sit down to start washing herself off. "Afraid of getting people germs?"

Filia frowned at her as she washed the sweat that had accumulated under her breasts off. "I can't get these clothes off! The best I can do is lower my top slightly."

"Sure you can't." Amy snorted as she saw Filia wash her skin up. "Oh, for crying out loud!" She got out of the bath and walked over to Filia, ignoring her nudity and grabbed at the Dragoness' clothing and pulled on it. "I bet... This..." She growled and yanked on it.

"Oww!" Filia hissed and spun, her breasts swaying as she did so. "Listen you, that hurts! I've tried to pull these clothes off, they won't come off!"

"Then how come you were able to get your top dowoah!" Amy slipped on some soap that was on the ground and fell forward.

"Eeek!" Filia tried to catch her, but she found herself slipping and falling down on her butt as Amy crashed, face-first, onto her breasts with a splat. "Oh, just great!" Filia muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's not my fault, I swear! Whatever I did, Lord Vrabazard, I'm sorry."

Amy looked up and looked at Filia's face closely. "...You... You really aren't... Trying to seduce him, are you?"

"Not on purpose, but he keeps trying to look at my butt and boobs and undressing me with his eyes..." Filia whined. "Besides, you seem attracted to him."

Amy blushed as Filia pointed that out. "Well, yeah. He's a really great guy..." A flat look appeared on her face. "Even if he's being a pervert these days."

"At least he wasn't grabbing my butt like those other men were." Filia admitted softly. "So, maybe you're right, he doesn't seem like a bad guy."

Amy sighed and dropped her head forward, planting it squarely between Filia's breasts, causing the Dragoness to get wide-eyed and gulp slightly. "You're so beautiful though... I can't compare to you."

Filia sweat-dropped heavily. "But... You're not bad looking. I'm sure that he looks at you when you're not looking."

"I bet he's upstairs, in his room, thinking about you right now."

Filia shook her head. "Nah uh! He's probably thinking about you more than me." Her face turned red as Amy shook her head. The sensations were rather... Distracting, and pleasant.

"Prove it." Amy muttered and Filia blinked a few times as she looked at the naked brunette.

"Well... Um..." Her face was flushed, she couldn't believe she was going to suggest this, but... "We could go up to his room and you'll see that he's not thinking of me."

Amy blinked a few times and pulled away from Filia. "Huh, why didn't I think of that?"

"But, first..." Filia pouted. "Can you wash my back?"

"Sure." Amy sighed as she moved behind Filia and frowned as she put a hand over Filia's clothing. "...You know... This doesn't feel like clothes at all."

"Huh?" Filia blinked as Amy ran a finger down her back.

"Yeah, it's weird, but I think it's your skin..." Amy tilted her head in confusion.

"Wait!" Filia's eyes widened and teared up at the same time. "That means I'm running around naked?!"

"Maybe." Amy scratched the back of her head. "But, hey, if it's just a spell that's keeping people from realizing that you're naked, then it's not so bad, right?"

"But I'm a Dragon... I should be able to turn into my true form, use magic, fly." Filia sniffled as Amy slowly washed her back. "I'm useless like this. At least Lyos, Gourry and Shiro all have skills that are useful in a fight. What good is a Dragon that's stuck as a human and can't use any power?"

"You've still got your super strength, right?" Amy asked and Filia sighed, shaking her head. "You don't?"

"I don't know. Mace-sama disappeared after I got this new outfit and..." She trembled, before putting her hands on her face. "And the Supreme Elder became evil and abandoned me. My tribe... They went evil and they just want to torture me now."

"Filia..." Amy stopped scrubbing the blonde's back. "I'm sure that when this is over, you can find other Dragons and..."

"Be betrayed just like the Ancient Dragons were?" Filia asked bitterly. She may not have wanted to believe that her race was capable of doing something so horrible, but if they could abandon her to freeze to death after stripping her naked and getting a curse on her, it wouldn't surprise her if all Golden Dragons were like that.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure..." Amy trailed off as Filia stared crying. She sighed and got behind Filia and wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. "Come on... Not all Dragons are like..."

"We were..." Filia sobbed, "supposedly the protectors of this world, and all we did was screw up." She did appreciate the hug that Amy was giving her, but it wasn't helping her mood at that moment. "I... I believed that Xellos was the worst enemy of all Dragons." She may not have liked him, but he was right, her kind did slaughter plenty of Mazoku back then too. "Now I think... I think that maybe the world would be better off without us. At least Lord Vrabazard wouldn't feel betrayed by us."

Amy sighed softly. "Hey, come on..." She tightened her hug and wondered what she could do to help the Dragoness, the poor dear was just so stressed out at that moment that Amy wasn't sure what could help.

She could try asking the captain, but then blanched at the thought of asking Lindy just what she would recommend to relax.

The woman was just... Weird.

(---)

As she looked in on the two, Lindy smiled to herself. Who knew all Amy needed to calm down was trying to console an upset girl?

Still, she was a touch worried for her son. If he took after his father anymore, he was going to have both Amy and Filia fighting over him like she and Leti had for Clyde.

Oh well, it wouldn't be as bad as it had been between her and Leti.

At least she hoped so.

Yay, Crowning Moment of Heartwarming this chapter, that was nice for christmas eve. Also maybe if everyone starts geting closer together like those two did we wouldn't have as many silly little arguments for silly reasons...or maybe I'm a little too optimistic.

[Yasanagi]

Spoiler for Extra MD:

Verossa Acous wasn’t accustomed to getting up early in the morning. He set his own schedule and chose when to come into work or if he would skip work for the day. As long as he got worthwhile results on his investigations, his superiors never had any complaints. So it was surprising for him to be waiting in the cafeteria at this early hour with a coffee in hand and another cup sitting by for the person he was supposed to meet.

‘Geez, where is that guy anyway?’ Just as he took another sip of his coffee, he saw a paper airplane land quietly in front of him. The writing on the folds instructed him to open it up and underneath was a perfectly illustrated map of where his contact was waiting along with a message.

“I am currently holding at this position. P.S. This message will self destruct in-”

‘Is that guy obsessed with writing that self-destruct message every time?’ The investigator crumpled up the paper before looking around the area. He managed to trace the source of the plane to another table not as out in the open. With a small disgruntled sigh, he moved to the other table quietly with the drinks. “Did you have to call me for a meeting this early? It better be important, Skyhawk.”

Agent Skyhawk was one of the more efficient officers of the Bureau’s intelligence division although he was rather eccentric thanks to years of service in other secret service agencies. He looked like a plain sort of man with brown hair and a conspicuous looking white trench coat over his uniform. “Don’t worry; this piece of info is pretty hot and relevant to your latest investigation.”

“Then let’s hear it.”

Skyhawk looked around him to make sure that nobody was listening before leaning in to whisper. “The jam is moldy in the kitchen and the rolling rabbit gathers no moss.”

“Huh?”

“The monkeys are restless and my dog has fleas.”

This was going to be one of those times where Verossa wished for one of two things: Either Skyhawk becomes a magic user so he could just tell him what he wanted over telepathy or someone gave Verossa a crash course in ‘Spy Speak’. “What are you talking about?”

“If you can’t stand the heat, go to the dentist and get it fixed.”

“Good grief, man… SPEAK NORMALLY!” Normally Verossa was a calm person but dealing with the other agent on a regular basis when he did his ‘Spy Speak’ often drained his patience quite quickly.

“I can’t! Who knows if there’s an enemy spy among us?” said Skyhawk as he carefully kept an eye on the people surrounding their table in the cafeteria. “We need a better spy check system around here to dispel transformation magic. I’m thinking fire would be good to flush them out so maybe a squad of professional spy checkers with flamethrowers should do the trick.”

“But we’re in a heavily guarded military base. It’s not likely-”

“That won’t stop them,” hissed the agent in as quiet a tone as possible. “You don’t know enemy spies like I do. They’ll infiltrate any base, kill any personnel, disguise themselves to obtain top secret enemy information and worst of all… seduce our mothers to the point where they become presidents of their fan club!”

Verossa rolled his eyes. “Look, I know a few people up in the higher ranks so I’ll speak to them about implementing that ‘spy checker’ squad you wanted. Now can you tell me why you summoned me so urgently?”

Satisfied that at least someone would look into his concerns, Skyhawk began to speak. “Last night, a contact of mine told me that subspace communications went offline at one of them off world prisons. At the same time, someone broke in and caused a helluva mess there.”

“Which prison was it? How bad is the situation?”

“I believe it was ‘Lubsoulim’ Orbit Prison’s 6th branch on Uninhabited World 17. The latest casualty count is eight dead with twenty three heavily wounded. The internal structure is apparently quite a mess with several walls having been blasted through. And surveillance footage did manage to get a good picture of that intruder…”

Verossa took a moment to absorb the information in. “This has been reported to the main branch, right?”

Skyhawk took a sip of his drink. “My partner’s already reporting it. Of course, I betcha those admirals wouldn’t appreciate hearing such bad news before they had their morning coffee. The odd thing is that eyewitness accounts are reporting that the only thing that the intruder wanted was food… and a sidekick.”

“Say what?”

“Yeah, she’s a weird one alright. Looking exactly like that Fate chick you got running around in your base.”

‘So this is something related to the Materials,’ thought Verossa to himself. “You mentioned a sidekick earlier? What did you mean by that? And who did she take?”

“Hey, that’s their words, not mine. As for the prisoner that she swiped, it was that tall pink haired Combat Cyborg with a huge rack and-”

*CRASH*

Their conversation was interrupted by someone dropping a breakfast tray nearby, spilling the contents on the white tiles. And there were only three words that the shocked Sein could say in response to her sharp hearing picking up the description of one of her incarcerated sisters. “Sette… is out…?”

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by vic-vic

Well, This hunter dude sure a quirky. But i like this type of character. But i afraid, his life will be in true danger, when Yuuno and Fate will know that he hot for Nanoha.

Um, but Nanoha look wery OOC, why she so distant and i didn`t think she will cast away helping hand, even though the hunter try to kill her in his first appearance. Aren`t many of her friends try to kill her too in the past?

Thanks for the support, yeah, I suppose Nanoha has made friends the 'agresive' way with almost everyone else in the Nanoha cast but the thing here is, someone else is the one who seeks to befriend her in the "Heavy damage" style XD

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Yasanagi

Spoiler for Extra MD:

Verossa Acous wasn’t accustomed to getting up early in the morning. He set his own schedule and chose when to come into work or if he would skip work for the day. As long as he got worthwhile results on his investigations, his superiors never had any complaints. So it was surprising for him to be waiting in the cafeteria at this early hour with a coffee in hand and another cup sitting by for the person he was supposed to meet.

‘Geez, where is that guy anyway?’ Just as he took another sip of his coffee, he saw a paper airplane land quietly in front of him. The writing on the folds instructed him to open it up and underneath was a perfectly illustrated map of where his contact was waiting along with a message.

“I am currently holding at this position. P.S. This message will self destruct in-”

‘Is that guy obsessed with writing that self-destruct message every time?’ The investigator crumpled up the paper before looking around the area. He managed to trace the source of the plane to another table not as out in the open. With a small disgruntled sigh, he moved to the other table quietly with the drinks. “Did you have to call me for a meeting this early? It better be important, Skyhawk.”

Agent Skyhawk was one of the more efficient officers of the Bureau’s intelligence division although he was rather eccentric thanks to years of service in other secret service agencies. He looked like a plain sort of man with brown hair and a conspicuous looking white trench coat over his uniform. “Don’t worry; this piece of info is pretty hot and relevant to your latest investigation.”

“Then let’s hear it.”

Skyhawk looked around him to make sure that nobody was listening before leaning in to whisper. “The jam is moldy in the kitchen and the rolling rabbit gathers no moss.”

“Huh?”

“The monkeys are restless and my dog has fleas.”

This was going to be one of those times where Verossa wished for one of two things: Either Skyhawk becomes a magic user so he could just tell him what he wanted over telepathy or someone gave Verossa a crash course in ‘Spy Speak’. “What are you talking about?”

“If you can’t stand the heat, go to the dentist and get it fixed.”

“Good grief, man… SPEAK NORMALLY!” Normally Verossa was a calm person but dealing with the other agent on a regular basis when he did his ‘Spy Speak’ often drained his patience quite quickly.

“I can’t! Who knows if there’s an enemy spy among us?” said Skyhawk as he carefully kept an eye on the people surrounding their table in the cafeteria. “We need a better spy check system around here to dispel transformation magic. I’m thinking fire would be good to flush them out so maybe a squad of professional spy checkers with flamethrowers should do the trick.”

“But we’re in a heavily guarded military base. It’s not likely-”

“That won’t stop them,” hissed the agent in as quiet a tone as possible. “You don’t know enemy spies like I do. They’ll infiltrate any base, kill any personnel, disguise themselves to obtain top secret enemy information and worst of all… seduce our mothers to the point where they become presidents of their fan club!”

Verossa rolled his eyes. “Look, I know a few people up in the higher ranks so I’ll speak to them about implementing that ‘spy checker’ squad you wanted. Now can you tell me why you summoned me so urgently?”

Satisfied that at least someone would look into his concerns, Skyhawk began to speak. “Last night, a contact of mine told me that subspace communications went offline at one of them off world prisons. At the same time, someone broke in and caused a helluva mess there.”

“Which prison was it? How bad is the situation?”

“I believe it was ‘Lubsoulim’ Orbit Prison’s 6th branch on Uninhabited World 17. The latest casualty count is eight dead with twenty three heavily wounded. The internal structure is apparently quite a mess with several walls having been blasted through. And surveillance footage did manage to get a good picture of that intruder…”

Verossa took a moment to absorb the information in. “This has been reported to the main branch, right?”

Skyhawk took a sip of his drink. “My partner’s already reporting it. Of course, I betcha those admirals wouldn’t appreciate hearing such bad news before they had their morning coffee. The odd thing is that eyewitness accounts are reporting that the only thing that the intruder wanted was food… and a sidekick.”

“Say what?”

“Yeah, she’s a weird one alright. Looking exactly like that Fate chick you got running around in your base.”

‘So this is something related to the Materials,’ thought Verossa to himself. “You mentioned a sidekick earlier? What did you mean by that? And who did she take?”

“Hey, that’s their words, not mine. As for the prisoner that she swiped, it was that tall pink haired Combat Cyborg with a huge rack and-”

*CRASH*

Their conversation was interrupted by someone dropping a breakfast tray nearby, spilling the contents on the white tiles. And there were only three words that the shocked Sein could say in response to her sharp hearing picking up the description of one of her incarcerated sisters. “Sette… is out…?”

Guess they needed to worry about eavesdroppers after all

That 'spy speak' stuff... I remember hearing it on some TV show or something somewhere but I can't remember what specifically...

[Kaijo]

Bit of a note for some people, since I just discovered this myself, but apparently ff.net is screwing with fics again. Basically, it removes extra punctuation, which can mess with a few things. For instance, if I write:

"Where did you come from!?"

ff.net chops off the second punctuation mark so it becomes:

"Where did you come from!"

Fairly annoying, and not quite sure how to bypass this yet. And I have no idea why they'd want to screw with fics this way, either. Beginning to hope another fanfiction site pops up out there that let's people post fics the way they want. Mediaminer is a close second, and I'm debating moving everything to there, but we'll see.

[Jimmy C]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Blood That Flows - New Part 42

As I recall from the eariler chapters of this season, they sent Lindy away for 3 days to test the time difference between this world and the rest of dimensional space. Yet, here she is, and no one seems to care about the results of that experiment.