Another drone exploded in Fate's wake as she dove to avoid the incoming attacks. She gritted her teeth as she did a quick survey of the battle below her. Smoke billowed out from every direction. Once pristine buildings now laid in ruins with large blast holes through them. Those that took the bulk of the initial attack were piles of rubble scattered across the landscape. Bright lights danced around the city's ruins as Bureau mages engaged into combat with the enemy.
Photon Lancer
"Fire!"
More drones exploded only to have more fly in to replace them. She didn't know how long they had been fighting, but it seemed like the enemies were endless. They were already outnumbered from the start even with the Forwards fighting at their full power. Even Hayate and her Knights were pushing their limits to keep the enemy at bay from advancing any further. And Nanoha... Fate took a deep breath. She had disappeared a few days prior to the siege, probably kidnapped by the enemy. They had searched and searched but there was no sign of the Ace of Aces. After so long, they feared the worse. They didn't want to believe it, but it was there at the back of all their minds.
Sir, enemies approaching from the rear.
The blond whipped around and nearly dropped her Device. There were so many. Even after they had destroyed them one after another they still had this many?! She brought her Device up and prepared to attack as the drones charged their own weapons.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
Explosions ripped across the line of artificial combatants. The shear size of the explosion drew attention of friendly and enemy mages alike. Hovering the closest to the epicenter Fate had to shield her eyes from the blast. Then, she saw something. Something zipped through the falling debris and slammed into another drone. Something pink.
"Nanoha?!"
Through the smoke and glow of exploding power cores, an all too familiar figure hovered into view. Her long Barrier Jacket rippled in the wind with Device held firmly in hand. Then she spoke.
"You tried to bend my will to your own. You tried to kill me using your underhanded methods. But you failed. No matter who you think you are or what you try to do, you cannot take away my beliefs, my will, nor my trust in my friends! With Raising Heart Excelion by my side I will blast a path to victory! Who the hell do you think I am?! I am Nanoha! Taking on all with maximum power and destruction! I am Nanoha the Befriender!!"
All eyes on the battlefield had turned skyward to the white mage. Even the drones seemed to pause their fighting at the speech. Silence covered the crater-riddled area until it was broken...by Fate's facepalm.
*RUNS LIKE HELL*
Oh ma dear lawd... I think I broke something from laughing too damn hard.
__________________
Kill the Darkfic.
Burn the Angst.
Purge the Bad End.
And this was my response to Eva's crack in the FF Thread:
Do the impossible!
See the invisible! ROAR ROAR Fight the POWAA!
Touch the untouchable! Breaker the unbreakable! ROAR ROAR Fight the POWAA!
What you wanna do is whacha gotta do
Just, Breaker your way through and you'll make them see the truth.
Uh huh.
You'll see the power of Pink coming through baby.
Gah. Another double post. Oh well, time for the resident n00b to make an announcement.
*ahem*
Several months ago, I joined Outer Cadia with one goal in mind, and that was to have a good time making characters and coming up with storylines with people who held the same interest in the greatest of all magical girl shows as I did. And after a rough start and a few mishaps with the locals, I finally got around to making a few characters, which were (I thought) balanced.
For the record, I’m still not sure what’s wrong with Zero.
But after a short while I noticed a disturbing tendency I had, and that was to skip around way too much, jumping from idea to idea and storyline to storyline with no certain focus. Just recently, I realized one of the big reasons for this.
I hate the StrikerS layout. I would give anything to force 7Arcs to go back and make the girls stay out of the TSAB and do Season 3 differently, because the Ace’s association with the bureau limits their ability to be heroes; they have to follow the structure of the military, they have to wear those damnable limiters, and worst of all, they have to follow orders. Ugh.
Worse by far, however, was the treatment Hayate got, being turned into a glass cannon and relegated to a leadership role when we all thought she was going to be just as active as Nanoha and Fate. You’ve heard this all before, you probably share my opinions, so I’ll cut the rant short and get to the point.
I’m changing this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby give you my plans for my own answer to Kerokanon and REBUILT of StrikerS. I’m going back to the beginning and I’m doing things my way, putting the Magical Girl back into Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. This is not a passing thing that I’ll abandon within a week or two, this is the story I’ve wanted to do since the beginning, and I’ll be damned if I let this project die out on me.
In addition to a few OCs to join the crew (including a new Ace, my answer to Keroko), significant changes will be made to the storyline following the A’s epilogue owing to the fact that Hayate is not a glass cannon and is therefore able to conduct missions on her own or with small amounts of assistance. This simple fact, with the added influence of the previously-mentioned OC, sets off a chain of events which culminates in a narrow avoidance of the Nanoha Incident thanks to the presence of Hayate on the battlefield with Nanoha and Vita.
Following this incident, which ends with a badly-wounded Hayate, Nanoha expresses a desire to personally hunt down the person responsible for Hayate’s injury, and derails her plans to become a combat instructor, leading her to join Hayate as a Special Investigator. As investigators, Hayate and Nanoha have all the freedom of movement that Acous displayed during StrikerS, able to go anywhere and do virtually anything to solve their cases. They are, in essence, the magical girl versions of James Bond and his ilk. Expect Acous and the disappearance of Zest’s team to feature prominently in the storyline, and the battle with Jail will take on a completely different tone as the girls hound him and the Numbers at every turn
This is but a brief description of the plans I have in mind for Hayatecanon, centering on the OC I mentioned earlier, one Alexander Crestwood.
Spoiler for Basic Background and Changes to A's:
Alex is the long-delayed steel mage I’ve been keeping on the back burner for several weeks now, and I’ve finally figured out how to make the concept fit right in to Nanoha canon (he has a special talent for creating and manipulating pseudomatter, like Vita’s Schwabe Fligen, not for creating actual steel), so I’m sticking him in here to make things interesting.
Alex comes into the story after living for the first few years of his life on the streets. Having fallen in with Tokyo’s yakuza after his parents died, Alex (a Mid-Childan/human hybrid) moves with the organization into Uminari City right around the same time Nanoha and Fate are having their fun with the Jewel Seeds. Alex is a practicing mage who keeps his abilities to himself, but he’s self-taught and has neither a device nor any formal magical education. In comparison to Nanoha, he sucks… for now.
While the Yakuza are interested into expanding some of their operations into Uminari, they fail to realize the number one reason others haven’t tried to do the same; namely, the Takamachi parents. Shiro and Momoko are perfectly willing to come out of retirement every now and then to keep the streets safe for Nanoha and her friends, and the yakuza learn this the hard way not long after they set up shop. The gang splits, and Alex gets left behind in Uminari.
After wandering the streets trying to live as a pickpocket, Alex finally decides to try his hand at burglary, seeing no other option to keep from going hungry. The problem is that the house he targets, coincidentally, is none other than the Yagami household. And as he’s hopping the fence to get into the backyard during his attempt, he loses his footing and falls and cracks his head on the pavement. When he wakes up, Hayate is taking care of him, completely oblivious to his intentions.
Alex’s concussion forces him to stay put for a while, which he uses to get to know Hayate. After about a week of being in her presence, all desire to leave her, much less rob her, has left. The two become fast friends after their initial introduction, and Alex lets Hayate in on his secret (being a mage). This takes place approximately at the end of S1.
After living together for a while, summer rolls around and Hayate and Alex are joined by the Wolkenritter. Once the Wolks have settled in and gotten used to the idea of being a family instead of servants, Signum begins taking some time out of her day to educate Alex in the finer points of the Ancient Belka style, as well as professional swordplay, which Alex doubles up on by attending the classes Signum teaches at a local dojo.
When the BoD begins to increase its’ drain on Hayate’s core, Alex is largely unable to assist. Since he has no connection to the BoD, he can’t drain linker cores and he isn’t strong enough to be of much assistance to the Wolks. Nevertheless, he all but orders Signum to drain his core dry before they go searching for any others. They get about 26 pages out of Alex’s core (about the same as they got from Nanoha), but also render him bedridden for several weeks. They explain it to Hayate as a training accident.
Alex doesn’t completely recover until the events of episode 5, when he follows the Wolkenritter into battle, maintaining a safe distance and keeping an eye on Shamal, which pays off when Chrono makes his move. Instead of the Lieze twins showing up, Alex makes his move and attacks Chrono, giving Shamal the time she needs to break the barrier and let everyone escape. However in the process, Chrono all but hands Alex his ass on a platter, kicking off a grudge that will persist for the rest of the series.
Alex redoubles his training while the Wolks continue to fill the book with pages, keeping Hayate company while the others are out “doing their own things”.
Just prior to the final battle and the awakening of the BoD, Alex is spotted by Chrono while out in public, and the two engage in a running cat-and-mouse game through the city while under one of Chrono’s barriers. Finally, Alex breaks the barrier by beating Chrono to within an inch of his life. The barrier drops just in time for Alex and Chrono to get telepathic calls for help from their respective groups. They arrive at the hospital just in time to see Hayate activate the BoD.
While Chrono interrogates the Lieze twins, Alex joins Nanoha and Fate in assaulting the BoD, using every trick in his arsenal to little effect. Finally, Reinforce utters something along the lines of “she desires your presence”, and absorbs Alex into the BoD.
Through a sequence I’m still working out in my head, Hayate and Alex meet up in their shared dreamworld, as they both desire to live happily together with each other, their friends, and the Wolkenritter. Together, they break out of Reinforce’s dreamworld and Hayate reassumes control over the book. The final showdown goes just as it should, and Reinforce fades away. The only difference here is that Hayate’s vast amounts of power do not interfere with her ability to use that power, though she needs training to perfect her control over the spells she borrowed from everyone.
Thus ends A’s, and so begins the StrikerS manga… and the hard part of creating this wonderful little world of mine.
__________________
Kill the Darkfic.
Burn the Angst.
Purge the Bad End.
And I see you're going to mess with Caro. That's going to be interesting, not many authors do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tk3997
I don't think I've seen Caro play a major role in any fic... um ever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keroko
Shows how much of an impact she made.
To be honest, I'm wondering about Caro's lack of action in fics.
I mean, here's a character who can boost her allies' abilities to disgusting levels, and she's a summoner, and she's a dragonrider, and she's a cute little girl. Is she just overshadowed or something?
For the purposes of Lyrical Melancholy, she's an obvious inclusion, because I needed a summoner whose kidnapping would bring down major retribution from the Aces.
Location: Formerly Iwakawa base and Chaldea. Now Teyvat, the Astral Express & the Outpost
Age: 44
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkellis
I mean, here's a character who can boost her allies' abilities to disgusting levels, and she's a summoner, and she's a dragonrider, and she's a cute little girl. Is she just overshadowed or something?
Seven Arcs seems to have given up on developping erio and Caro the instant Vivio has entered the picture. And no, the previous sentence is not meant to hate on Vivio, but just pointing out the director's cast mismanagement that bring me memories of School Rumble Nigakki. So far, only anime in this decade that has pulled a tightly managed large cast is Baccano! That people should check out if they have not done it yet.
True, but after the first few chapters I was expecting... dunno... human oponents.
Meh like I said this is the first real battle of the fic and a couple of the human antagonists do appear next chapter. Ya gotta have some build up though you know? I mean StrikerS didn’t even bother to show human enemies until what Ep.12 or something?
Anyway we're only on chapter three and frankly at the current rate I'm thinking this is going to be AT LEAST ten chaps. This fic is going to be epicly long winded if nothing else.
Quote:
Shows how much of an impact she made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkellis
To be honest, I'm wondering about Caro's lack of action in fics.
I mean, here's a character who can boost her allies' abilities to disgusting levels, and she's a summoner, and she's a dragonrider, and she's a cute little girl. Is she just overshadowed or something?
I think the biggest problem is that she never really kicked ass herself yeah she summoned a big mean dragon, but when someone summons other stuff to do there work for them if the something they summon is too awesome the character themselves can get overshadowed by there subordinate. (I shall dub this Saber Syndrome..)
Quote:
If we did, don't you think we'd have torn into them by now?
Area of effect ranged spells are hardly note worthy it would take ALLOT for such a thing to raise many eyebrows.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdmiralTigerclaw
Wait, he's still alive?!
Lucifer was never really alive to begin with being a presumably immortal (fallen) angel and all...
Quote:
Originally Posted by stormturmoil
Yeah, He's still alive...
He ain't gonna be leading any legions eleventh dimensional demons out of hell any time soon, though....
Hild-Sama took care of That
remember, Hell hath no fury?... with Hild it's the worst of Both worlds...
Tch Lucifer is the OD he was corrupting souls and reveling in sin while that little upstart was still wetting diapers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheba
Wrong, when the nine circles of Hell are on the loose, when despair has overwhelmed humans' hearts, well when everyone are royally screwed up, you call...
Spoiler for The badass undead-slaughtering demonassbeater:
I'm back. Sort of, again. And with something new, too...So without further ado, I would like to present to all present:
The ZENITH Project ~Act One, Scene One~
Spoiler for The First Part...:
An unknown place.
A forgotten era.
A single person, trudging painfully through empty hallways, a sea of glass where time and space had already lost their meaning, wandering yet not aimless, reflecting upon many things into that expanse of living stillness.
Upon life, the source of all things, which had been given, created, and taken away from her, as though mocking her in some sort of cruel macabre joke, a Baudelairean senselessness that pervaded thought, corrupted heart and gave birth to sin. Upon sin, giver of all that was forbidden to any man who would seek her. The root of despair, the mother of death, and harbinger of eternal suffering and torment…
…And upon despair, the endless downward spiral that greeted with open arms and willing bosom all who would reach that final, fallen state of void existence, empty eternity and deathlessness devoid of any and all meaning.
This was the event horizon, the endgame state, ending yet not ended, purgatory for the eponymous lost ones.
But there was something to hope for at the end of those endless hallways, where so many others had strayed from the path and descended into nothing, weary of the struggle and having lost all hope of pulling away from this enshrouding limbo.
One last chance.
Her face was pale and drawn, her clothes were threadbare, and she walked with a deathlike gait, bent as though bearing a burden of morbid weight. She seemed dwarfed in the stark blank landscape about her that blotted out all horizons in infinite expanse, a pathetically tiny speck of color in the midst of a world of bare, pristine canvass.
I won’t back down…not now…
The air was changing, as the surroundings themselves seemed to tingle in excitement in anticipation of the arrival of their wandering guest, the rippling vibrations sending messages of welcome.
She could feel it somehow that she was reaching her goal. The once empty sky seemed to sift like flies over the fetid corpse of its old state, shaking her ethereal form to its core.
The end of her wait was nigh. She could feel it.
…This is it.
The point of no return.
With a cry of sundered earth, the very ground beneath her gave way to rapidly-widening fissures, huge vents of energy swirling from the very bowels and abysses from whence they came, pent-up forces from the deep rising up to the sky with fervent outstretched arms. In answer, the sky rent open, a vast bosom opened to welcome the streams of lighter-than-air waves as they broke upon its limitless surface, forming a huge roiling mass in the sky, stretching out across the heavens like a blanket of light.
As if on cue, the huge glowing yarn unraveled all at once in a single titanic burst, sending its brilliant, blinding, all-permeating threads hurtling outwards in all possible directions.
And a voice cried out in the resounding timbre of many drums, its roaring echoes ringing throughout the now formless plain of infinite brightness.
Hail, mortal child…
…So you have to see me?
“W-who...are you?”
I was there in a time beyond the ages…
Past the endless gateways of forgotten eons…
Surpassing the fabric of space…matter, even time.
I always have been…
I always will be.
I watched you, since you were born…
Do you not know me, young one?
The reply was forced, the voice of the speaker trembling as one standing in awe and great fear before an infinitely mightier being.
“I knew you not then…and perhaps now I still do not.”
You have sinned much in your past life…And made those close to you suffer for your folly. Know you that, young one?
“I...I have no defense.”
But that has changed, and now you stand before, not of my doing or volition, but of many other devices that have conspired to this result…most of all, that of your own. I congratulate and salute you. Few, among the strong as much as the weak, have come this far to seek counsel and audience with me.
“Indeed…I have travailed far and wide in this soulless, endless void…just to see you, great one.”
Almost as though ashamed of her very existence, the figure bowed low, her face down to the ground in overflowing respect, and a growing, smarting awareness of her filthiness before this very incarnate of light.
You need not prostrate yourself before me. Lift your head, daughter. Look upon me, and do not be ashamed in your own eyes, for you are not ashamed in my eyes.
“...I-”
The voice was impossibly powerful…and yet so gentle, warm, almost unthreatening.
Peace, little child. There is no evil so noble as good misguided, and I know your heart through and through. That you have come here means you wish for a second chance, do you not?
The young lady, her skin translucent, a faded shadow in the omnipresent light that invaded every corner of her vision, while yet…strangely allowing her to see. “Y-yes…I do…but-”
Your fear is unnecessary. I can feel your will…you wish to live more than anything, do you not, my child?
“I…simply wish to make some things right. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Your will is strong, perhaps stronger than death itself. Now, to the main issue: Where do you wish to travail?
“Back. Back to where I started. But there are still many things, so many things I still need to accomplish…and to finish, will I ever-”
Hush, now…Hush. There is no need for you to state the obvious. The voice chided her for her immaturity. As much as she bore the façade of one with experience, if the frail lives of humanity could be adjudged to have experience at all, [/I]Do not all men wish for life? But yet few are those who can be content with merely one life. One must learn to live day by day, and be content.[/I]
But there were some things that lay beneath the thick shells and enshrined sacrosanct beliefs of all living human beings that could never suffer being denied: Fear of one’s past, the grief and drudgery of the present, the looming specter of the future, all of them contributed to the many sorrows, worries and sins of all men high and low, its grave debilitation visiting most upon the perpetrators of all that was wrong, as high-minded as their motives may have been.
And of those sinners, I may as well rank among the greatest.
Blaming yourself again, now are we?
Her eyes widened, even as her head hung lower still for being found out so effortlessly. But what else should I have expected…
You need not do so…it is no longer important now, not anymore. Let a new beginning be a new beginning. Dwell on those things no longer, for you will be a new person.
“A new person…” Her lips pursed briefly, reflecting upon those double-edged words.
You seem to be thinking of something…what might that be?
“I know this sounds selfish…but may I make ask something of you?”
The light almost seemed to smile at her in spite of the general impassiveness of light, and the terrible pun oft used in children’s books as it replied, its still-small voice gentle as always, like that of a doting parent.
A doting parent that I never was. There is a chance that I could be that person again though, if only for a little while.
Ask whatever you wish, it will be given you.
And as for the risks, I can think about that later.
Her voice finally seemed to coalesce into something altogether different: more firm, more decisive, and finally ready for what awaited her. “Could you take away my memories of that, at least for a while till the time is right?”
A strange request you have for me, but it shall be so. The voice from within the incandescent shroud paused for a little while, before resuming. [B]Since you have decided on your path, I shall oppose you no further…
She slowly found that lifting her eyes to the sky was becoming less and less painful. The prism of lights that played their abstract patterns across the horizons began to recompose themselves as a singularity of glorious splendor, like a giant sun in its prime, a light at the apex of its strength.
And yet it does not hurt to stare at it, not anymore. No more shame. No more fear. What is this thing?
And so she continued staring, as it took on a more humanlike state, the cascading waves of light folding into place slowly, a veil of humanity to disguise the omnipotent light beneath.
And she gasped…
…for the form that the light had chosen to take was her own.
The figure before her smiled. Did I not tell you that I had been with you all this while?
“But…this is impossible!” Deep down though, she knew it was so. It had to be so.
It simply felt like the truth.
Impossible to a finite mind, perhaps, but true nonetheless, true to those who have the ancient knowledge, that which can surpass everything, even the hallowed bond of life and the hollow shadow of death.
I have borne, and cancelled your transgressions. You still have a purpose to serve, a task to accomplish, and most of all, you are destined to something, a great commission that you shall soon know, even if you knew not then or now.
Now go forth and fulfill this destiny, young one, and may you find the peace that you sought.
The figure retained her smile, her repose like that of spring, in the fullness of life and its bloom, even as she waved a hand lightly towards her young charge.
A brilliant, yet not blinding light flashed before the younger’s eyes. She suddenly felt lighter, not only in body, but also in spirit. The air before her slipped into cold nothingness as the void caressed her form in stasis’ grip. Arcane tunes shot out in enchanted helixes, arcing around as far as the eye could see, before gradually wrapping themselves around her. She could no longer see the light, or anything else for that matter.
She was returning.
Just before all her senses were reduced to null, the voice called out to her once more in the silent storm.
Go forward, my child.
Indeed.
She allowed herself a small, lonely smile.
The first one for time immemorial.
I’ll do that, or die trying.
-----------------------------------
A lone figure sat in a darkened room, its vaguely masculine outline cast in a state of contemplative repose. Sporadically silhouetted by a glowing light at the end of the room, its rapidly scrolling figures and charts revealing it to be one of the TSAB’s standard issue in-office interface pads. It spoke naught, and moved little, save for the brief heaving of the chest as it breathed slowly, thinking, reflecting.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Since I’ve been in this room…it almost feels as though it isn’t mine anymore. Running around the known administrated galaxy on the orders of others and whatnot, doing really crazy things that no one with any good sense would do, laughing and having a good time while I’m at it…And there’s always my obligatory report to whoever it was who asked for the services of someone they most likely don’t even know in the first place.
Lifting his head, he stared rather blankly into space.
This, though, is a novelty. I rarely get requests for light chats from those higher-ups for my reports. I usually offer to write the official dossier whether I led the mission or not, so in general the leader of the mission should get the honor of the meeting, and not me. I wonder how they got wind of my existence in the first place, actually…
[You’ll forgive me, master, but just how long do you plan to sit there and act like you have the weight of ten planets on your shoulders?]
The formal, but admittedly comely female voice of his system’s AI reminded him just in time to cease his impertinent mental revolt before it got out of hand, even if ‘she’ didn’t realize it. And turned his attention to the matter that had been the main issue, at least until he began to drift off into his own world of anti-construct sophistry.
“Well, if their data is anything to speak of, I did, my dear.”
The AI in question materialized herself right beside his desk, taking the lithe form of a young lady about half his height, dressed in the tight corset, long sleeves and graceful frills of the Victorian era, her long skirt flowing all the way to the ground in voluptuous folds, trailing a little behind her as she leaned forward to scold him for his apparent misdeeds.
[Well, I find it encouraging that you’re still very fond of me, and that you’ve have been on task while I’ve not been around to nag you and remind you every other day to do those things that keep you alive-]
“You’ve forgotten your manners.” He lifted an accusatory finger at the semi-corporeal female in front of him, stopping her short mid-sentence?
[I…did?] Some shock registered on the usually perfectly composed face of his personal Artificial Intelligence.
Absolutely perfect.
“Yes, you did. I haven’t heard you greet me in like fashion for years.”
[Ah…I-I’m sorry, master…] Gathering herself rapidly, she straightened up before giving as regal curtsy as any red-faced lass could give. […Charlotte D. Aulin, at your service. How might I abet you?]
“Heh. I wasn’t being one hundred percent serious when I asked you to give me a more appropriate greeting, but anyway…you could start abetting me by booting up my briefing interface. I’m expecting a couple of higher-ups to come and give me a quick rundown of what they think of my last assignment.”
[No problems here, Master. Consider it done.]
She turned to the screen behind her.
[Comms Interface, Activate. Set channel type to Secure, Channel “Tome”. Master, I detect a sum total of two peers on the same zone. We have company, and by their credentials…I’d say they’re just the right rank for you.]
The voice of the unknown figure sounded much gladdened by this. “Excellent.”
Now all we need to do is wait for those bigwigs to start our little chat.
He didn’t have long to wait, though.
“Operative Surgeon, are you present?”
He twiddled his thumbs for a moment, and tapped a button on his link to the secure communication ‘room’, causing his avatar, a pair of long scalpels engraved with a set of arcane runes on their gilded hilts set against the TSAB’s crest, to be joined by another pair. Each of them bore also the same crest as his, but also sported their rank designation below, unlike him.
And expectedly so, since full-blown admirals have less need for secrecy as compared to the real on-site agent. But Charlotte was right, judging from their rank I can’t crap around this time like I normally do.
Still, two admirals is one too many if my memory can be trusted to keep my ever-changing roster of bosses in mind…the other one’s probably an observer. Still, they both deserve my respect whether due to their rank or not, and therefore, I shall give them their dues.
“Admirals,” He stated with his well-honed flair for the semi-melodramatic, “here am I.”
The first avatar spoke first, the voice coming out sounding mechanically crisp, a synthesized tapestry of sound waves. “Special Operative Death Surgeon…we’ve read through your mission report. Flawless work, as always. We have no objections upon any point inside it, although I must say that your methods were as questionable as they were honestly put.” The “machine” vibes it gave him were somewhat unpleasant, much more than the laughable sting of being criticized, but he knew that his own voice would have sounded the same on the other end: detached, cold and robotic.
Ah, but to hell with the Golden Rule. So what if I’m the epitome of what I denounce?
“Nothing to it, sir.” Not as though he really cared for what others thought of his ways and means of completing missions. Booby traps, use of minor conventional albeit improvised arms and a certain level of deviousness, after all, saved one countless precious seconds on the job. And that’s not considering the fact that it allows one to keep one’s combat effectiveness with magic in optimal condition for a longer period of time, so of course I don’t give a damn if my methods are a little off-the-book. “But what, may I ask, might you want of me since there seems to be little or no error in my report?”
“Alright then, to the main point. I simply have something simple to ask, Surgeon, about this comment of yours. ‘An unknown gunman was detected at 1905 hours’. I would then like to refer back to earlier reports of yours. Out of 4 prior reports on missions of a similar caliber, you have reported an unknown, as yet un-apprehended gunman 3 times. And in all three, this gunman played the role of a third-party sniper, it seems, attempting to take out units from both sides.”
“That’s correct.”
“Therefore, I have come to suspect that perhaps you have something else to say, some things that remained altogether unstated in your reports, about this gunman. And therefore, I would like to hear your views upon said subject.”
The Surgeon laughed and shook his head, getting and ignoring a rather peeved “didn’t-yo-mamma-teach-you-any-manners” look from his AI. “You refer to my random speculations, sir? I am afraid that it would be quite a little bit of time wasted for the two of you should I expound on those groundless hunches of mine.”
“Still, we’ve had some favorable word of the accuracy of your so-called ‘hunches’, so just go ahead.” the second voice spoke in a similarly distorted, but nonetheless not genderless tone. Its source was female, unless that too were a disguise. “We’d like to hear what you have to say.”
“Alright then. The reason why I featured the ‘gunman’ in my reports is because I would suspect that his role is not a third party, as could be suggested from his general course of action in combat, and also that the three gunmen featured are in fact the same person. However, as yet I have no solid proof upon this matter, nothing but logic jumps and speculation.
However, of note, as you said before, are the similar roles and the caliber of the mission. The three missions in which the gunman was featured are dangerously similar in type and in objectives, as you said.
I noticed, too, that in all the missions, while we were able to complete our mission objectives, I somehow feel that in those three especially, there was a feeling of ‘that’s not all there is to it’ to their endings, which I would attribute to the presence of the gunman. There was an undercurrent of activity in those missions that I fear due to our limitations in number and in time we could not discover, and since the only factor changed was the presence of that gunman, I say there is much more to him than we can currently see.
Also presently to show are the casualty lists. You’d think that if he were any old sniper, more of our people would be dead and screwed by now…” Pausing to marshal his thoughts, he slowly picked up a piece of paper and started to fold it. “But no, that doesn’t happen, and instead what we have is that the enemy suffers much greater losses than expected, and than what the troops we had on hand at the time could inflict even with a lot of effort.”
The first voice again. “Fascinating, I did not consider the casualty lists. Your conclusion?”
“My conclusion? He was probably there to silence whatever witnesses we might attempt to take in for happy-happy time. More to come, perhaps, should I get any more evidence to back my as-yet baseless statements. I will post it in my next report, but don’t mind me for now.
Still, I’d like you to know, that if my speculations prove correct…”
Lifting his hand at the completed paper airplane, he tossed it into the air.
“…I believe that we will have no less than the workings of a veritably big op on our hands soon.”
He waited for his words to sink in, while entertaining himself with the strangely pleasing sight of the plane’s graceful flight, flitting in and out of the illumination of the light, before coming to an abrupt stop, blasted to ash by his slightly annoyed AI. [You are getting more and more informal by the moment, master. Please keep yourself under control.] In reply, Ashcroft shot her a rather miffed, nonplussed look.
Surprisingly, it was the second voice who replied to his statements though. “Rather grand ideas, for something blown out of thin air.”
“Yes, ma’am, I enjoy drawing castles in the air whenever I am at liberty to do so.”
The admiral chuckled softly, betraying her amusement at his ability to return fire so easily. “Indeed, indeed. Still, rest assured that we will take what you have said with all due consideration. As a matter of fact I personally am looking forward to hearing from you on this issue…I think it is just about right, I guess, that you be allowed to have a nice break after this rather heavy slew of missions.
In short, we are hereby dispensing of all your responsibilities as the Operative Death Surgeon. You will, however, keep the privileges of a Special Operative, just so we can facilitate certain actions that you may have to undertake even when not bound by those duties.”
Not really. I enjoy my missions, although it’ll be a little variation at the very least.
He tried to sound cheerful, though.
“So I’ll be using my real name from here on out, as per normal?”
Her avatar glowed rather warmly, in keeping with the lighter subject matter in question. Her voice was, while less heard throughout the meeting, somewhat easier on the ears. “Yes, you may do so as of the time you leave this room. It’s a nice change from the one you’ve been using for this while, isn’t it?”
Well, it’s a hell of a nice change until you kind lot of high-hats decide to give me another novelty for a name.
“Indeed, ma’am. My real name never felt so foreign.” A sardonic scrunch of his lips brought his expression into something quite rare for him, an expression he hadn’t been at liberty to show for a longer time than anyone would have bothered to remember: a laugh. And laugh he did, for just a few moments, enough only to vent a moment’s amusement. “A name like ‘Death Surgeon’ was a rather fitting way to describe me, but nonetheless sorely unappreciated, I believe.”
“And before you leave, let me just advise you not to get too carried away with your short break…it won’t last long.”
Of course not. Since when did paid leave ever last long?
The young man in white known up till now only as the Surgeon grinned even as he sorted out the documents before him with the deftness only a seasoned slave of one’s paperwork would possess. Quite a lot of his break was about to be spent on clearing some of said things which various people would require, and when added to his more personal appointment, his break was as good as burned whether he liked it or not.
But still…I will have to give a more diplomatically suitable answer that will neither cut the bone too much nor make no impact at all. Otherwise stated, I’ll have to make a politically correct exit. That is the rule of public relations, no?
He put on his best smile for that reply.
“Of course, ma’am. Of course.”
The first voice spoke once more. “Then, Operative Surgeon, this meeting has officially ended. Enjoy your little holiday, hmm?”
“Definitely.” Turning to address his system’s AI, the unknown operative spoke with a little less officialdom this time. “Charlotte, initiate shutdown.”
[Comms interface, Channel “Tome”, Initiating Shutdown in 3…2…1…Shutdown is complete, Master.]
“Thanks.”
The lights in the room dimmed, and soon the room was pitch black again, just like before, the only source of visibility having died on its master’s command. Without turning to any alternative source for illumination, he walked over to the entrance to his room. Facing it, he gazed steadily at the door as a small beam of light from a hitherto unseen source played over his eyes.
"Yes. What, you'll miss me? Thought you were right pissed at me just a few moments ago, Charlotte. The hearts of women are truly very fickle, and subject to abrupt and stunning about fa-"
[M-Master!] The AI went completely red in the face, her embarrassment by now as clear as day. Oh, she's absolutely furious right now...a resounding success. [That's...that's absolutely UN-true! How could you possibly say such a thing?!]
The Surgeon simply grinned back at her. "Alright, sorry about that, I was just jesting! And anyway, thanks for helping me dispose of a most valuable piece of information back there."
[I...what?]
"It was that plane you blew up in your loss of composure, but don't sweat it. Valuable information's better off that way." He swiveled to face the door once more, hiding his amused face at his AI's priceless expression which was in a word, 'flabbergasted', which in his dictionary really meant 'funny'. "In any case, the information's already right here in my head, where it rightfully belongs."
[Um...right. I'm sorry about that.]
He just shrugged. "It's okay, I already told you not to sweat it, so don't."
She bowed. [Understood, master. I shall try to put it off my mind, at least till you forget the contents of that document, in which event you can't blame me for fretting over you again.]
"Thanks...Door, open."
The door slid open, flooding his rather austere working place with light. There was no sign of any fanciful decorations to it, not even any sign of having been modified in any sense, like a brand new room. However, in a rather remote, though now visible corner of the room, hung a pair of engraved daggers, their crystalline facets shining in the invading swaths of light.
It also enlightened him to the fact that he had an unexpected guest.
“Hello, old fruit. I see you’re back from your long term assignment…gonna have any fun this week?” A rather youthful-looking man leaned against the wall opposite his room in a casual stance, running a hand through his well-maintained locks even as he spoke. The first noticeable thing about the two men now facing each other with looks of familiarity was that their style of dress was absolutely identical, the only difference being the color of their ties, and of their hair.
One of them had hair as white as hoar frost, save for two streaks of red at the sides, and the other had it in bright emerald green. One of them was the Death Surgeon.
The other was his former boss, Acous Verossa.
“Hello yourself. And anyway, long term assignments are the bane of paperwork, and thus my friends. I quite miss them, actually.”
Acous Verossa shook his head in mock dismay at his one-time partner and oft-distant friend’s, as put in their words, “dismal” attitude. “There you go again. What happened to us, and everyone else you talk to around here? The fellows in the mess, in the cafeteria, you mean you don’t enjoy talking to them?”
“Well, we mostly talk trash, so minus the danger factor, they’re more or less equivalent to the average person I take down every other mission I take…” The younger man did his best to sound less nonchalant than he had originally meant to. It didn’t work out very well.
Verossa just sighed this time. “Ahhh. Same old you, as always, Surgeon…I wonder why I never gave up on changing that habit of yours, of demeaning most of the things that others would logically find valuable.”
The Surgeon’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t call me that. I’m off assignment, and so I can now use my real name. Oh, Hallelujah.”
“You don’t sound glad, Su…” Taking a death gaze from his old friend with his usual healthy dose of savoir-faire, Verossa continued smoothly in spite of him. “…Ashcroft Ravenholm. You don’t sound glad at all at being freed from the oppressive weight of a false identity at all.”
The Investigator known as Ashcroft Raveholm rolled his eyes in mild disgust at the mere thought of being glad at a change of identity, the two crimson jewels set in the centre of them lolling rather joyfully around, reveling in his sarcasm. “What’s in a name? It makes no difference anyway. I’m still sardonic, shameless and irreverent, aka in top form, so it doesn’t matter what name I’m using.”
"That's good to know...how life been?"
"The usual. Neither completely screwed nor anything to celebrate."
Acous tried again. "Any worldview changing experiences on your various travails?"
He would be disappointed, though.
"No. I still think the world's a piece of shit mostly. Anything else you might like to talk about? I'm free in the evening..."
"Brushing me off, eh? I thought you of all people should know me better."
Ashcroft simply chose to say nothing, beginning a rather awkward silence between them, one similar to the many they had in the past, the plague of their relationship that cropped up whenever they hit a rock such as this one.
And you, Acous, of all people should have known that I decided on our little long silence because I didn't like your worldview and you didn't like mine, and neither of us wanted to compromise. I don't really think you know me that well either...
Shrugging, Acous decidedly brought the short, but nonetheless vitriolic exchange of caustic verbal juice to an end. With some more of it. “Glad to know that. Rather nice reunion the two of us had here, honestly, and more productive than it was nice…Anyway. You must excuse me, but I, too, have matters to attend to right now, and I believe that without a doubt you have some too. So if you’ll excuse me-”
“-I’ll let you off the hook?” Ashcroft jerked his index finger towards his former boss, indicating his agreement as much as he did some form of condescending flourish at his opponent’s general retreat from the battlefield of words. “Of course, on account of common suffering, that is.”
Oh, come on. Don’t we all? After all, that is where the lines of rank get blurred. We all get our fair share of bullshit, so deal with it, boss.
“Yeah right. Maybe one of these days I should wipe the floor with you in training, just for a bit of payback for all those times you…heck, nevermind. See you later, old fruit.” Perishing the wishful (though obviously satisfying) thought of receiving some sort of remuneration for the multiple thrashings he had received in earlier times, pitiful as it might have been in paling comparison to the crushing overall scoreboard, Acous successfully dismissed the rather awkward reunion with a wave of his hand.
As Verossa passed, Ashcroft brushed his left shoulder lightly, as though clearing off some trace debris off said part of his body.
“So I’ll see you around, then?”
“Definitely. Take care of yourself. Don’t get killed.”
The usual stuff.
“You too. You never know what might happen to us, talking like that all the time...” Stealing a rather furtive glance in Acous’ direction, the younger Investigator raised an rather pleased eyebrow at the dull specks of dust that had settled lightly on his old partner’s blazer. Turning to go, he tapped his left temple in what counted as a rather sheepish muse on his part.
Ah, me and my little random thoughts. I hope he wouldn’t mind if I dropped him some fairy dust, just for kicks…and for my entertainment in raining on his parade.
Before allowing the door to shut, he decided to give out some last orders first.
“Charlotte?”
[Yes, master?] The miniature female looked up, her arms akimbo.
“Get my old pupil for me. I heard she’s in town…”
[You…have an offer she cannot refuse, I believe?]
Ashcroft could only grin at that one.
“Stupid question. I always call people with offers that they cannot refuse, and this time is not an exception. Just call her. I’ll dictate the message, and you’ll send it. Consider this my first appointment of my little holiday.”
Charlotte D. Aulin paused for a moment, and a less-than-prudish smile crossed her lips for once, revealing a side of her more open to her master’s madcap antics.
[Very well.]
Last edited by XenahortCharybdis; 2008-06-05 at 07:19.
Ahem, Double Post. Sorry, AS really didn't like the length of my post
The ZENITH Project ~Act One, Scene One~
Spoiler for ...And the Second Part:
A green sigil insinuated itself into the ground, as a green mist floating around, hugging the ground as it spiraled around its caster.
“Miasma Lance!”
Cecile Arkham, Lt, 2nd Class, hefted the extra weapon as needles attached themselves to the fast-sprouting conglomerate of a spear, preparing to launch it at her opponent.
Or more accurately, her personal tactical combat instructor and respected senior, Ashcroft Ravenholm, who seemed to be enjoying his old job of being her sparring opponent.
And a most frustrating role play it had turned out to be. Despite being 2 ranks above him, and told she was “pretty damn young for an Lt”, she had completely failed to get so much as a graze on him; on the contrary, she had already been given much more than she was giving.
Her instructor, looking pretty youthful himself at a strapping 23 years of age, was pretty much all over his advantage, grinning like a Cheshire cat and standing in a rather casual position, teasing her in a friendly sort of way. Not that he could be underestimated, though, Cecile had learned over their time together that under that veneer of mild and lazy mannerisms lay a monster in the realm of tactical intelligence: content simply to hold her off, waiting for his moment to strike a fatal blow.
On one hand, she was ruing the fact that she had literally begged for this chance to take him on again, and that she had dared, foolishly, to entertain the mere fantasy that he would go slightly easier on her after her departure to another unit in the SI. Not to mention that she had somehow failed to notice his barely disguised glee at another opportunity to wipe the floor with her in the training centre. Again.
‘But on the other this is a good chance to prove the Investigator known as the “Wraith Serpent” wrong for once. He only needs one hit to win, as always…but I’m not going to let sempai have that chance. Not this time.’
“Hyaaah!” She threw the lance, and immediately ignited a Flash Move, blazing after her lance and gathering three basic magic projectiles around her free wrist. “We’ll see how you take this!”
“Just like anything else in life, of course.” Ashcroft smirked. “Just roll with the punches.”
Surprisingly, he did not flinch in the face of the heavily lethal spear. Instead, he raised his left hand, and simply caught the weapon in mid air as it sloughed armor off his gloves like dead skin. He let his left leg slide almost ninety degrees to negate its impact, before flicking himself over her head in a well timed jump, just when she had swung her Armed Device, Lesale at him, effectively dodging both spears simultaneously.
[Haemos Viper. Priority, Low.] She spun around, bringing Lesale along with her in a backhand swing, arming it with a watered-down Haemos Viper mid-swing, but ended up waving her blade in empty air as Ashcroft hunkered down, before swinging a single magically enforced combat boot at her torso, forcing her to perform an awkward block with her free left hand to stop herself from being pulverized by the impact of his strike and her momentum combined.
Rising to his feet once more, Ashcroft stood at ease a double-layered sigil inscribed itself into the ground, signaling his acknowledgement of the second round of their bout, which his student had initiated with her assault.
His limbs moved in unison, as one body, sliding slowly into a combat pose, all four limbs glowing eerily with purplish-grey tendrils of energy: the defining trait of his personal non-incanted spell, the Gauntlet Dream. The sigil dissipated into mere wisps as the glow waxed, and then steadied.
“I would advise you to get serious already, because at this rate, I’ll have you pinned on the ground in another 5 minutes, my little Cecile.”
‘“this’ll only take me 5 minutes” he says…damn it, he’s always so confident!’
“You haven’t changed at all, sempai…”
Ashcroft didn’t move at all, or even react to the usage of the term which would usually have his hair standing on end in annoyance. “Unlike you, naturally. I see you have, and for the worse. I see the mean tactical skill of the TSAB has been dropping in general.”
Almost imperceptibly, Ashcroft’s lips began to move in the words of a tongue unknown to Cecile.
“αρχαίο σιδηρουργείο της ιερής φλόγας, Σας, καλώ!…”
‘He’s incanting something?...That’s not common for him at all. Still-’ She snapped her own train of thought in favor of action, as Ashcroft began the next round with a side-ward strafe in mid-air.
“I’m not gonna let you do that!!!” Dashing towards him from the left, she released a pair of Miasma Needles to the right, sending the two homing darts flitting towards Ashcroft, who seemed content just to continue chanting will dodging her shots.
“γίνετε το σφυρί μου και το αμόνι μου…” raising a hand in the air as the words seemed to flow from his mouth like flowing water, Ashcroft punched both needles aside with blinding speed, pulverizing them into sparkling shards before turning around to face Cecile as she came crashing into view.
“Enshroud!” [Asphyxiate!] A sick green smog of poison blasted outwards around her. Cecile gritted her teeth, and braked on the spot, before kicking out at him with a catridge purge, sending the deadly cloud rolling towards him.
Ashcroft’s eyes widened, his first surprised look of the whole fight so far. “What’s this-”
‘If you can’t see me, you don’t know where to cast your illusions even if you can use them…’ Another pair of cartridges clanked onto the ground, spitting forth hissing exhaust as she launched a wave of Needles, bursting forth from their shooting circle like raven feathers, arcing towards him from above, just as he burst the cloud with his own purge, very much unharmed, save for a green tint to his normally hoar-frost-white blazer.
Ruffled, but not shaken yet, his voice persisted in brazen, self-assured defiance of her efforts. “Ο εσείς ουρανοί και η γη…”
Drawing two crystal blades from his twin device, he dropped to the ground, and flicked himself into mid air with a left-slant, slashing 3 needles, and kicking 2 aside, before dodging the last one with a shimmy, racing with his student for the initiative of the next engagement.
Sweat beaded down Cecile’s face as she considered the situation briefly. ‘I still haven’t prevented him from incanting, I’m simply slowing him down. For now I’m still detecting his illusions okay with Abyssal Mist with a few exceptions, but if he gets close enough to use his Nightmares rather than just Chaos or Order, then I’m in for it.’
The Investigator’s eyes narrowed, energy crackling around the blades and down his forearm, and with a swift swash from both arms, he hurled the 3 foot swords like pikes at her. [Ghost Runner.]
Cecile braced herself for the combined attack. This was often the point of time when Ashcroft would get rough, and usually knock her down in a short time. But that was in the past. “Not this time.”
Spinning Lesale in front of her person like a barrier, she parried both blades, even as she noticed a pair of Ashcrofts emerging from behind the original one, and ran at her as he arrived earlier, swinging his fist at her right fist, which was pivotal in her usage of her device.
Shifting her footing, she pierced the onrushing foe with her spear, as a magic knife materialized in his hand, and drove home into her arm even as he dissipated into nothingness. Pain lanced through her arm as crimson blood spurted from the raw, livid wound, and she jerked back on reflex, even as the rest of the foes closed in on her. Nothing was certain anymore at these close-to point blank ranges, where Ashcroft’s Nightmares could be used.
‘No, wait…that is an illusion…I’ve – not – given – up – YET!!!!’ She screamed at herself in the recesses of her mind, quelling the spark of panic in her guts, and recalling her years of training, she coolly sidestepped the second illusion and cutting him to pieces with a flick of her wrists, as needles tore through the once-corporeal phantasm. Spinning around, she formed another greenish-sigil about herself, and sprang forward, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second, bringing her immolated spear to bear on the last Ashcroft.
[Corruption Wave.]
Ashcroft did not blanch, and instead went down on one bent knee, blocking the full blooded blow with a two-handed catch. Cecile groaned. This is gonna suck…
Shifting all of the Gauntlet Dream into his 4 limbs, he caught the pole-arm in a death grip and threw Cecile into the ground, before escaping the dust cloud of his own making, uttering the final stanza to the ominous sounding canticle. “Στα χέρια μου θα είστε ως Θεός, Λόρδος των θαυμάτων, της πυρκαγιάς και του ξίφους!”
So he finished it. Nothing she could do about it now.
[Pandemic Wave, Stack on previous.] Her whole body blazing with cankered purple and green flames, she fired 2 lines of venomous flames after her opponent, spitting the ground with ravaging, poisonous burns as it came.
Ashcroft was duly impressed by her reactions, and it showed.
“Very good, indeed. I take back my words; perhaps time away from me has raised the bar a little more than I thought-” Ashcroft ground to a halt, and seemed to become one with the back wall of the sparring room, as his Twilight Cowl rendered her spear and its pathogenic wave of toxins useless against him.
Coming out of that almost hazardously magic-hungry ethereal form as he continued his movement, he dodged a torso-level backhanded sweep with a sliding tackle, before catching the spear with his right hand, stopping it short. “-But, I can still match 2 spells of mine against 3 of yours, so you’ve got a ways to go in terms of tactical skill, and utility in using your deck of cards. After all, we aren’t playing no-trump down here...”
Cecile growled at the sardonic undertones of his comment about her infamously reckless, and in his not-very honest view tactless style, and forced both her hands into action, wresting her spear from her opponent’s grasp, before bringing it to torso level, parrying an otherwise deadly kick from him. Falling back several meters, she noted with some displeasure that they were back to square one again.
‘I’m definitely going to get more earfuls from him about reading the battle again at this rate. He probably isn’t at his limit of thought yet…’
It wasn’t altogether wrong. Despite what she had previously (and now evidently erroneously) thought to be a major improvement in her knowledge of battle tactics, Ashcroft still seemed to be reading her every move like a book, while he was a sealed book with the keys locked up inside the book: completely unreadable and unpredictable.
Now as they squared off again, she took a closer look at her former teacher. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to start another round of the brawl, despite the fact that the sands of time were rapidly sinking around his self-given 5 minute deadline for victory. Instead, he simply seemed to be content with recharging and regulating the flow of the Gauntlet Dream, the glassy verdant glow of its energy waves playing havoc with her view of his limbs.
“Hallo, what have we here, sleeping beauty? Short attention span acting up again, I see.” Ashcroft’s voice rang out clearly behind her, sending her whole body on alert as she spun around to face the oncoming-
-nothing?
‘There’s no one…Wait-?!’ A familiar feeling of dread crept up her spine. Too little, too late though, as a thin gauntlet shot out in a nerve-strike, crippling her left forearm. She closed her eyes, and did a back flip from a standing position, feeling her pole-axe meet resistance for a moment, and then swing free with an ominous cracking sound. Opening her eyes once more, she was just in time to see Ashcroft standing just a stone’s throw away from her, supporting his smoking right gauntlet with his left, which was brutally nicked with a jagged scar, evidence of her wild, but nevertheless accurate strike.
“Well done, you minimized the damage well. Ready for another go at experimenting with your reflex speeds?”
She ignored that one.
[Black Immolation.] Lesale was suddenly wrapped in a veil of spinning black flames, the fiery tendrils licking upwards all the way to cover her entire right shoulder like burning chains, a brimstone shield. 4 cartridges, discharged in wildly rapid succession, hit the dirt. “Wanna-” She rose up into the air in mid-flight, preparing a direct assault, “-Bet on it?”
“Definitely. I suppose this will be the last round of attacks? Just as well.” He pointed to the crystal on the left of him. “Engima-”
Right in front of her eyes, his figure wavered, like a mirage, and disappeared completely into nothingness. Cecile’s eyes narrowed as she attempted to decipher the implications of the sudden maneuver. ‘Complete disappearance of body as well as magical signature…This really kicks surety to the curb. Ash has improved his own abilities a lot too.’
The floor below her suddenly gave way as Ashcroft burst out amid the shattered debris, revealing a tunnel he had dug underground. In his balled fist he held a bauble of stabilized energy, its dancing swords of light juxtaposed against the folds of what counted as his battle armor, and spinning his torso to the right, prepared for a strike at the airborne mage.
‘Impossible, I heard nothing and saw nothing. Still, no chances taken.’ She leveled Lesale in his path, preparing to shoot him at point blank. The needle round fired, sending 5 pikes of energy straight at the onrushing figure.
But for a reason beyond comprehension, Ashcroft still streamed in towards her, towards the three energy spears that would spell instant defeat for him, and-
-he dodged them with a flick of his head, the 3 shots screaming behind him.
‘No matter! This is my win!’
“Envelop!” lifting the spear in the air, she launched the spear, its deadly point aiming straight for his heart, and mentally commanded the shots back in a phalanx-esque formation to draw a bead on him; a magical pincer maneuver. There was nowhere to run now, and no ordinary barrier could block that.
She shielded her eyes against the huge explosion and the consequent blaze that consumed the area, retreating from the sheer heat of the conflagration, before dropping onto one knee, panting heavily as sweat glistened all over her, recovering gradually from the debilitating effects of the spell’s magical and physical drain.
[Phantom Ripper.]
A burst of energy blasted the flames away, revealing to a mortified Cecile the silhouette of Ashcroft, still standing, and relatively unharmed save for some burns on his coat, where the enhanced fabric had been seared away in charred shreds. He held up a smoking right glove, source of the latest spell, and also a Belkan Shield, held up against the 2 crystals that made up his device.
Within them, its edge half entrapped within those cracked but unbroken surfaces which it had pierced in its cankered fury, was Lesale. Forgetting the situation, Cecile found her mouth almost agape with shock. “You used your Devices as shields?”
Ashcroft nodded matter-of-factly.
“Indeed. It’s called victory by partial loss. I tank the hit, and by extension deprive you of your ability to use magic, and-” He snapped his fingers, and crystal blades burst forth from the still pristine facets of his twin Device, criss-crossing themselves around Lesale, rendering it unmovable. “-most critically, your main weapon.”
“GEH!!!” She got up and attempted to retrieve her weapon, but it was futile: She had used up too much energy. She crashed to the ground.
Ashcroft looked torn between a lecture and a laugh, but in the end he did neither: he sighed and shook his head. “Ah, well, hotheads will be hotheads. Still, I will have you know that I have won this round.”
“Enigma, Colossus, Delay Spell, activate.”
[Euoe.]
“And…THIS, by the way, is what the incantation earlier was for.”
‘What on earth is that-’
The earth turned into a yawning maw under her as oily black ripples seemed to metamorphose what was once the surface she was standing on into a deadly whirlpool sigils of the arcane woven into its tapestry of death, binding her with tendrils of viscous liquid, caressing her within its dark bosom.
Ashcroft’s trump card: Acheron, Chains of the Nightmare.
Victorious through strategy once again, he landed lightly in front of Cecile, and gave her his hand, amid the now dissipating, retreating extensions of his spell, a sea of binds parting before their master. Weakly, grudgingly, she took his hand, the defeated taking the magnanimous hand offered; or more accurately now, a teacher picking his student up from the ground after a lesson learnt.
“This match ends here. I’m not changing our current head-to-head combat result status, on the basis of our pre-agreed mercy rule.” Cecile rolled her eyes sardonically, already anticipating his next line. “I reckon seven to nada in my favor is already quite enough…”
“…Although…”
“Although what?” A sudden flash of thought disturbed her. ‘Don’t tell me its…’
A cheeky smile crossed his lips as he savored the other thing that as the victor of the match
“…The debrief starts now.”
‘Oh damn, I knew it-’ Cecile groaned in despair. “Not those again, you go on for ages and ages EVERY OTHER TIME…Can’t I have a break this time?!”
But Ashcroft would have none of it, and simply floated a finger in front of her face rather imperiously, with the air of a strict schoolmaster, or an angered disciplinarian. “Now, I have 3 good reasons why you should just sit down and listen up good to whatever I have to say. Firstly, you lost, so it’s my right to give you a lecture, even not considering that I was your teacher and in many ways still remain as such, since our relationship was never officially dissolved by mutual agreement or otherwise. Secondly, although I will have to concede that you have improved tremendously over our time apart, this improvement, like all improvements brings with it its own new strengths, possibilities and also errors, and all the more I should be helping you to analyze them, since your test is next week.”
He took in a deep breath after the torrent of words, and brought forth his last, and most forcefully forwarded point. “Thirdly, and lastly, I purposely limited myself to a 5 minute battle so that I would have time to do this, eat lunch and then rush off for my next appointment, which although may not happen at all, could possibly take up the rest of my damn day, not counting the time taken to complete the task itself, so this is a concession from me. You should be appreciative.”
“Any more questions?”
Cecile threw up her hands. If there was ever a time to capitulate, it was now.
-----------------------------------------------
“What say you about this little bout we have on our hands?”
Acous turned to look briefly at the young lady sitting across him from the table as they watched the sparring battle with interest. The combat training in question was raging back and forth, with both parties gaining the upper hand on several occasions. The SI’s Spec Ops division was famed the TSAB over for its reputation of producing some of the finest tactical minds in the whole Bureau. Acous was among the best, and now they watching two more.
The lady nodded, indicating some sort of an approval. “So that’s Ashcroft Ravenholm? He seems to be taking the mock-up rather seriously.”
Acous laughed almost flippantly. “But of course. That girl whom he’s fighting is his prize student of 3 years, Cecile Arkham. She previously left on one of those long term assignments, and now that she’s back, she’s itching to have another go at her old battle master again.” He seemed to know them quite well, which was natural, since it was their private little joke that he had pretty much single-handedly orchestrated both their inductions into the Investigators.
“What are her chances of winning?” Reinforce, unable to control her curiosity, which had thus far proven true, popped her head over the table together with a question.
Acous shook his head with a rather resigned smile as he leaned back into his chair a little. “Not very high, I’m afraid, a careless mistake on Ash’s part notwithstanding…He’s pretty good, and he has some other trumps up his hand other than those we are currently seeing, not to mention more live combat experience. He’s only very well known inside of the SI itself, but there we call him the “Serpent”, because he’s a nightmare at close-combat.”
He paused for a moment, wearing a rather awkward look on his face.
Noticing it, Hayate made a face, imitating that of the Inspector’s. Acous chuckled knowingly, acknowledging the cajole and giving himself up rather willingly. “Oh, well…I just didn’t want to say that in addition to all that, their head-to-head win loss ratio is seven to zero. In his favour, and it’s like that because of a Mercy Rule.”
So it was a lot worse in reality…
“Sorry I asked.”
“No, it’s alright.”
“Better than you, maybe?” Rein floated over the table and onto her own personal perch made from the natural incline of her meister’s shoulder, her silver hair moving softly as she hovered in mid-air.
Acous shrugged lazily, although there was a vaguely evasive look on his face. “Perhaps, though I myself have never attempted to tango with him. I could, however, rate him as being on a similar level with the Wolkenritter in terms of close-combat skill. In terms of magic though…that’s a completely different topic, but I digress.”
Turning back to the ranking officer who had dragged him here for a chat, he drew the conversation back on topic. “The more important question is: what do you think, Hayate?”
Hayate chuckled to herself as her Unison Device, though she herself was unaware of it, stuck Acous in a spot so easily, although it was to Acous’ credit that he was able to avoid having to open what she was certain was a can of worms concerning the character in question. Avoiding the issue is always smart, after all…but I won’t let him get away with it so easily.
“Mmm…” The younger mage mused to herself as she leafed through the related documents. “Ashcroft Ravenholm, estimated age 28, birth date not known, self-given birth date 19th of August. Occupation, Special Investigations Tactical Analyst. Home planet, Seretoia…that Seretoia?” Her look was slightly more serious as she glanced up from the file at the senior Investigator.
“Well, that is true, although Ashcroft is little trouble until you get on the wrong end of him, or on the opposite end in battle.” Seretoia had always been a problem world for the TSAB, and while it had been tamer in recent days, one never knew when the more militant than healthy populace would start itching for some mayhem again. And while the file stated expressly that the person in question was of redoubtable and not doubtable character, neither of them believed that a slight inquiry would be of detriment. “And as to his home planet…”
Hayate leaned forward, indicating a piqued interest in the matter. “What does he say?”
Acous sighed, as though digging up some slightly disturbing scenes from his memory. “He was honestly quite blunt, to the point of being brutally blunt. His view of his home planet is that if they refuse to accept the fact that times have changed, they can go ahead and self-destruct if they want to.”
“That’s quite a rough of him…” Rein muttered a little loudly. “Not a very kind thing to say, is it?”
“That’s very true, even though he’s right about that, Seretoia is just being obstinate for very nonsensical reasons right now, rather than any noble cause of sorts.” Acous admitted rather freely. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to omit that from my introduction, because that’s one of the things that he actually has a more subjective viewpoint on. He normally keeps his two cents worth to himself, and even when he has to say something, he does keep his views more balanced to the point of being too politically correct…until his tongue starts to slip, which happens only because he feels like it, or if he’s feeling at home around you.”
So, this is one of the more hardcore characters, huh? The rest of his data seems to be in perfect order, though…
Hayate gave Acous a strange look, and closed the file with a soft snap.
It was hard to tell by now which of them had shoveled the other out of the office, and away from a hot steaming coffee to this rather dreary job of man-hunting. Both looked equally tired at having to do this at such an early time in the morning. Still, it was a good thing, at least to Hayate, that Acous had a wide range of contacts: it meant that less time was spent finding people. Like right now. When one needed to find a special man for a job, one went to the Special Investigations. Acous knew all about it, and he was the best man for the special job of finding another special person to do some extra work.
Also, Hayate was confident that Acous had committed himself fully to this job. After all, if successful, it would lead on to something that would be of interest to him.
“While this means more serious work, it means more of a challenge” was what I said, if I remember. If all goes well, we can hopefully not only secure the success of this mission, but we may also be able to…
“Is Meister occupied with something?” Rein popped herself in front of Hayate’s face, bursting her train of thought like a bubble. Behind her, Acous was casting a rather amused look at the rather distracted mage, as though taking some cryptic pleasure in watching the show in front of him. Immediately, her face flushed slightly in embarrassment at her blatant lapse in concentration, and she apologized rather sheepishly. “Sorry Acous, my bad.”
The Investigator waved his hand dismissively. “Nah, it’s nothing, go on reading. I can understand that life’s really tiring. Happens to everyone, you know.”
“Um…okay…Main talents lie in tactical analysis and tactics-oriented operations, as well as reconnaissance and espionage/counter-espionage.” She put the file down. “In short, he is an all-rounded tactical special ops mage, except for his relatively low rank. He is currently at rank B+ is he not?”
“You are right,” Acous interjected, “except on two points.”
“And what are they?”
“First and foremost, I would somehow hesitate to tag him with a “mage” label; on the contrary, the term “soldier” would suit him better. To put it in more familiar terms, he is a magic user who leans more towards the “knight” class. He fits into that mold much better in my opinion, whatever his codex says about it. Secondly, his rank is no obstacle to his job in the least. I would also like to mention that the only reason why he’s not any higher than B+ is because of his own choice, and not because his aptitude for magic is too low.”
“Hmm… I am actually quite impressed by his abilities; to say the least, he’s actually quite a genius on the field…and he uses illusions in battle, even if as a mainstay rather than a supplement. It reminds me of someone else.”
Rein grinned widely, and Acous’ eyes shone knowingly as Hayate’s eyes seem to drift a little. “Ah yes, him. There is some similarity, I suppose. Still, you seem concerned, or should I say, hesitant on a certain matter. What might that be?”
“In my mind, he’s more or less in, but do you think he will agree to this? You know him better, so-”
“Yeah, I get it.” Acous hesitated for a few moments, placing one hand on his temple, in deep thought. “I was worried about it before, but I think he’ll be alright with it. He doesn’t have any close ties with anyone save a few people, and then again knowing him those relationships won’t compromise mission-related things either. It’s only his views and some…quirks that I worry about, and with some diplomacy those can be fixed.” Although the Senior Investigator did say before that Ashcroft would understand that the mission was important enough to be non-optional, but Hayate could already gather that from what other things she had been told about him that even if he did, there was still no surety of success.
“So you’ll speak to him?” Hayate stood up, and Acous did likewise. The short discussion was over, and the real action would soon begin.
“Definitely.”
Hayate tossed her head playfully at him. “If he disagrees, you’ll just have to use that tactic on him, and see if he bites, no?”
“He’ll bite alright, though I hope it won’t come to that. Just pray that everything goes smoothly once he does, would you? He can be a very big problem even when he’s on your line.” Just as the green-haired man turned to go, Hayate stopped him for a moment. Her face wore a more cheeky look. “You hesitated earlier when you were answering Rein-chan’s question. You have had a prior experience with him before, haven’t you?”
Acous pursed his lips, but knew when he was beaten. “Well, it’s true, I have. A lot, actually…I used to mentor him when he first came in. We’ve grown a little distant recently though, he’s gotten a bit too cynical for my taste.”
Wonder why he never mentioned it.
Rein looked just a tad annoyed, but was more curious than to sound that way. “Then why didn’t you want to answer the question properly?”
“I have my own reasons for that…But if you must know, I have had a single experience of being on the wrong side of him: It was in a game of chess. And the result was that I was completely defeated by him, even though I was going quite serious on him. Anyway, I’ll go catch him once he’s done settling the aftermath of his fight, eh?”
“Alright then, thanks a lot!” And with that, the two parted ways, for the time being.
Turning to the viewing screen on the left, she noted that the battle had already ended.
Slowly clearing up the leaves of pages that made up Ashcroft Ravenholm’s profile, she reflected on his last words. They seemed of little significance, other than reinforcing what the two of them had agreed on all along. Chess…hmm? He seems all the more like the tactical buff now, doesn’t he?
Then it hit her, the truth, like a crack of thunder.
Wait a minute…
He defeated you…in…Chess?
She turned a strangely enlightened, but at the same time intrigued, and significantly widened pair of eyes to the departing Investigator’s figure.
“O αρχαίο σιδηρουργείο της ιερής φλόγας
Σας, καλώ!
γίνετε το σφυρί μου και το αμόνι μου
Ο εσείς ουρανοί και η γη
Στα χέρια μου θα είστε ως Θεός
Λόρδος των θαυμάτων, της πυρκαγιάς και του ξίφους!”
Roughly Translated As:
“O ancient forge of the sacred flame,
Hearken to me as I call!
Become my hammer and my anvil,
O you heavens and the earth,
And in my hands you shall be as a God,
A lord of marvels, fire and sword!”
I'm gonna wait till someone else posts before posting my major(-ly delayed) backlog breaker, just to avoid a triple post.
Location: Formerly Iwakawa base and Chaldea. Now Teyvat, the Astral Express & the Outpost
Age: 44
Quote:
I hate the StrikerS layout. I would give anything to force 7Arcs to go back and make the girls stay out of the TSAB
So basically Fate and Hayate should have left TSAB as soon as their probation time is done? You are expecting a paramilitary organization to let go such powerful mages and not worry about them going rogue?
Quote:
and do Season 3 differently, because the Ace’s association with the bureau limits their ability to be heroes; they have to follow the structure of the military,
The bureau is not a limit, it broadened the scope beyond "CTHULUH AWAKENED FROM HIS SLEEP ARE U BAD MAGICAL GIRL ENOUGH TO SAVE HUMANKIND". Instead of more powerful enemies that goes in the realm of universe destroyers, TSAB would deal with corrupt officials (something like in The Shield), infiltrated criminals (a la Infernal Affairs) or agents who have gone rogues (like in Apocalypse Now).
Quote:
they have to wear those damnable limiters,
A device that made sense when you see that glimpse about Nanoha's past but poorly executed by 7Arcs.
World destroying powers should come with a price, always, both psychological and physical. Otherwise, the writer who handle an universe destroying device or power to a lead character is a dumbass.
Quote:
and worst of all, they have to follow orders. Ugh.
This is actually meat and bone for drama. American and europeans audiovisual works has dozens of powerful stories involving orders that are questionable.
For the record, the only changes being implemented into the final version are the addition of a new spell with grenade-launcher properties and a five-second charge time, and the toning-down of Barret Shell's explosive power to approximately the level of incendiary rounds or somewhere below the level of a Swallow Flier.
Once I post Rex's final revision I'll be getting to work on my next project, Operation De-Shaft Hayate, and an OC strongly related to said project.
Spoiler for Meet my unnamed Steel Mage. For real, this time.:
Wish me luck.
Hmmm certainly looks cool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelion Xgouki
*spreads some crack in here, too*
Spoiler for Battle Speech:
BOOM!
Another drone exploded in Fate's wake as she dove to avoid the incoming attacks. She gritted her teeth as she did a quick survey of the battle below her. Smoke billowed out from every direction. Once pristine buildings now laid in ruins with large blast holes through them. Those that took the bulk of the initial attack were piles of rubble scattered across the landscape. Bright lights danced around the city's ruins as Bureau mages engaged into combat with the enemy.
Photon Lancer
"Fire!"
More drones exploded only to have more fly in to replace them. She didn't know how long they had been fighting, but it seemed like the enemies were endless. They were already outnumbered from the start even with the Forwards fighting at their full power. Even Hayate and her Knights were pushing their limits to keep the enemy at bay from advancing any further. And Nanoha... Fate took a deep breath. She had disappeared a few days prior to the siege, probably kidnapped by the enemy. They had searched and searched but there was no sign of the Ace of Aces. After so long, they feared the worse. They didn't want to believe it, but it was there at the back of all their minds.
Sir, enemies approaching from the rear.
The blond whipped around and nearly dropped her Device. There were so many. Even after they had destroyed them one after another they still had this many?! She brought her Device up and prepared to attack as the drones charged their own weapons.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
Explosions ripped across the line of artificial combatants. The shear size of the explosion drew attention of friendly and enemy mages alike. Hovering the closest to the epicenter Fate had to shield her eyes from the blast. Then, she saw something. Something zipped through the falling debris and slammed into another drone. Something pink.
"Nanoha?!"
Through the smoke and glow of exploding power cores, an all too familiar figure hovered into view. Her long Barrier Jacket rippled in the wind with Device held firmly in hand. Then she spoke.
"You tried to bend my will to your own. You tried to kill me using your underhanded methods. But you failed. No matter who you think you are or what you try to do, you cannot take away my beliefs, my will, nor my trust in my friends! With Raising Heart Excelion by my side I will blast a path to victory! Who the hell do you think I am?! I am Nanoha! Taking on all with maximum power and destruction! I am Nanoha the Befriender!!"
All eyes on the battlefield had turned skyward to the white mage. Even the drones seemed to pause their fighting at the speech. Silence covered the crater-riddled area until it was broken...by Fate's facepalm.
*RUNS LIKE HELL*
Yeah... the facepalm was needed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
For the record, I’m still not sure what’s wrong with Zero.
Could you re-link his profile?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
I hate the StrikerS layout. I would give anything to force 7Arcs to go back and make the girls stay out of the TSAB and do Season 3 differently, because the Ace’s association with the bureau limits their ability to be heroes; they have to follow the structure of the military, they have to wear those damnable limiters, and worst of all, they have to follow orders. Ugh.
They followed orders ever since S1 though. Admitidly the millitary geeks here have places far more restraint on the cast then what we are seen in the show.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
Just prior to the final battle and the awakening of the BoD, Alex is spotted by Chrono while out in public, and the two engage in a running cat-and-mouse game through the city while under one of Chrono’s barriers. Finally, Alex breaks the barrier by beating Chrono to within an inch of his life. The barrier drops just in time for Alex and Chrono to get telepathic calls for help from their respective groups. They arrive at the hospital just in time to see Hayate activate the BoD.
One point of critic here though: He goes from getting his ass handed to him by Chrono to beating Chrono within an inch of his life in that short a period? That's a bit too much shounen powerboost, don't you think? Even Nanoha and Fate only went from 'being outgunned' to 'equal match' and that was due to the difference in their devices, and with the Wolkies holding back. I would personally find it more believable if Alex had an equall fight with Chrono.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
Through a sequence I’m still working out in my head, Hayate and Alex meet up in their shared dreamworld, as they both desire to live happily together with each other, their friends, and the Wolkenritter. Together, they break out of Reinforce’s dreamworld and Hayate reassumes control over the book. The final showdown goes just as it should, and Reinforce fades away. The only difference here is that Hayate’s vast amounts of power do not interfere with her ability to use that power, though she needs training to perfect her control over the spells she borrowed from everyone.
.... concidering this is your own private timeline, I have zero say in this, but as an inserter I don't really like this. The focuss of the scene was Hayate's power, and Hayate's strength. Now it looks as if she needed someone else before she could break free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkellis
To be honest, I'm wondering about Caro's lack of action in fics.
I mean, here's a character who can boost her allies' abilities to disgusting levels, and she's a summoner, and she's a dragonrider, and she's a cute little girl. Is she just overshadowed or something?
Well, like Tk said, she never does anything herself, which almost erases her presence.
I mean, all she really does apart from summoning dragons is cast a random boost spell here and there to make other people look awesome, and those spells don't even look that flashy. Yuuno is a support mage, but managed to look awesome becaus he threw himself in the midle of a battle. Heck, even Shamal, who's role is smaller then Caro manages to look far superior.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tk3997
Meh like I said this is the first real battle of the fic and a couple of the human antagonists do appear next chapter. Ya gotta have some build up though you know? I mean StrikerS didn’t even bother to show human enemies until what Ep.12 or something?
Anyway we're only on chapter three and frankly at the current rate I'm thinking this is going to be AT LEAST ten chaps. This fic is going to be epicly long winded if nothing else.
I'll wait and read before drawing conclusions, then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tk3997
I think the biggest problem is that she never really kicked ass herself yeah she summoned a big mean dragon, but when someone summons other stuff to do there work for them if the something they summon is too awesome the character themselves can get overshadowed by there subordinate. (I shall dub this Saber Syndrome..)
In Shiro's defence, he was at least doing something. When Saber was off fighting Gil, he was fighing his own battle. Or -if you've read UBW- fighting the Big Bad himself!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tk3997
Tch Lucifer is the OD he was corrupting souls and reveling in sin while that little upstart was still wetting diapers.
Groovy...
Concidering that AMG wise Hild is to hell what God is to heaven (one could say she is Lucifer, in a way)... doubtfull. But then, comparing these two is useless because Lucifer is an Angel, which in the AMG-verse means there would have been a god/dess involved too.
Too much difference in the worlds to compare these two.
I'm back. Sort of, again. And with something new, too...So without further ado, I would like to present to all present:
The ZENITH Project ~Act One, Scene One~
Spoiler for The First Part...:
-snip-
Quote:
Originally Posted by XenahortCharybdis
Ahem, Double Post. Sorry, AS really didn't like the length of my post
The ZENITH Project ~Act One, Scene One~
Spoiler for ...And the Second Part:
-snip-
FULL TEXT FOR INVOKE ALPHA:
Original Greek:
“O αρχαίο σιδηρουργείο της ιερής φλόγας
Σας, καλώ!
γίνετε το σφυρί μου και το αμόνι μου
Ο εσείς ουρανοί και η γη
Στα χέρια μου θα είστε ως Θεός
Λόρδος των θαυμάτων, της πυρκαγιάς και του ξίφους!”
Roughly Translated As:
“O ancient forge of the sacred flame,
Hearken to me as I call!
Become my hammer and my anvil,
O you heavens and the earth,
And in my hands you shall be as a God,
A lord of marvels, fire and sword!”
I'm gonna wait till someone else posts before posting my major(-ly delayed) backlog breaker, just to avoid a triple post.
*hangs his head for FA to smack it*
Woot! Acous apears! That certainly was a welcome surprise, we don't get to see much of Acous around here (I really wish StrikerS had done more with him).
And the Greek... Negima influence? (<-- Chao fan)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheba
The bureau is not a limit, it broadened the scope beyond "CTHULUH AWAKENED FROM HIS SLEEP ARE U BAD MAGICAL GIRL ENOUGH TO SAVE HUMANKIND". Instead of more powerful enemies that goes in the realm of universe destroyers, TSAB would deal with corrupt officials (something like in The Shield), infiltrated criminals (a la Infernal Affairs) or agents who have gone rogues (like in Apocalypse Now).
Seconded, I rather like the change from generic magical girl series to something more original
Quote:
Originally Posted by haiz123321
Cadia Zwei = ?
and it seems that everyone pretty much changed their sigs avatars
Like how Reinforce has Reinforce Zwei, we have Cadia Zwei. And like Rein, she's small and adorable.
One point of critic here though: He goes from getting his ass handed to him by Chrono to beating Chrono within an inch of his life in that short a period? That's a bit too much shounen powerboost, don't you think? Even Nanoha and Fate only went from 'being outgunned' to 'equal match' and that was due to the difference in their devices, and with the Wolkies holding back. I would personally find it more believable if Alex had an equall fight with Chrono.
This is more a case of superior tactics and knowing the layout of the city better than Chrono does. During the initial engagement in episode five, Chrono smacks Alex around because the environment is open air, where Chrono can use his superior mobility and arsenal of ranged attacks to bring Alex to his knees, while Alex is struggling to get a flight spell working. A month later, he's got that flight spell working just fine, but he also lures Chrono into engaging him in enclosed areas where his vastly superior melee skills are of the greatest use.
Quote:
.... concidering this is your own private timeline, I have zero say in this, but as an inserter I don't really like this. The focuss of the scene was Hayate's power, and Hayate's strength. Now it looks as if she needed someone else before she could break free.
Good point, this might just shaft Hayate even further if I leave it the way it is. I'll work on this a bit more and get back to it.
Quote:
Could you re-link his profile?
If I can find it in 300+ pages of backlog, yeah.
Quote:
Seconded, I rather like the change from generic magical girl series to something more original
Well I didn't, not in the slightest. My take on StrikerS is going to have minimal amounts of interference from the higher-ups. I compared the SIs to James Bond, and that's pretty much what the girls are going to be doing, complete with a License to Kill. They get assigned (or select on their own) a case relating to JS, and they follow it through to the conclusion, crossing blades with Zest, Lutecia, the Numbers, and hoards and hoards of gadgets, but at no point will you see them dedicating multiple chapters to training a bunch of green recruits or dealing with Regius's political bullshit. That last one in particular is getting completely axed. The Forwards may appear in some other context, i.e. Subaru and Teana show up as a couple of GF mages working on a crime scene, but don't expect Erio and Caro to get more than a passing mention from Fate.
Quote:
Woot! Acous apears! That certainly was a welcome surprise, we don't get to see much of Acous around here (I really wish StrikerS had done more with him).
Count on him showing up more often in my fanon to make up for the missing Forwards.
__________________
Kill the Darkfic.
Burn the Angst.
Purge the Bad End.
This is more a case of superior tactics and knowing the layout of the city better than Chrono does. During the initial engagement in episode five, Chrono smacks Alex around because the environment is open air, where Chrono can use his superior mobility and arsenal of ranged attacks to bring Alex to his knees, while Alex is struggling to get a flight spell working. A month later, he's got that flight spell working just fine, but he also lures Chrono into engaging him in enclosed areas where his vastly superior melee skills are of the greatest use.
When I read this, the first thing that came to my mind was 'Superior tactics? Against Chrono?'
I know you have somewhat of a... low respect for most of the male members of the cast, but during A's Chrono is the biggest tactical mind our heroes have, barring Lindy. That said, simply luring him into a field of advantage should not make Chrono get beaten within an inch of his life. As smart as he is, he would realize his disadvantage in melee and simply retreat. Remember: Chrono was able to defeat Fate, a melee specialist. And by the looks of it without excessive trouble too. Even though that was prior to Bardiche's upgrade, it shows that Chrono is no slouch when it comes to melee combat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
If I can find it in 300+ pages of backlog, yeah.
That's why I asked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comartemis
Well I didn't, not in the slightest. My take on StrikerS is going to have minimal amounts of interference from the higher-ups. I compared the SIs to James Bond, and that's pretty much what the girls are going to be doing, complete with a License to Kill. They get assigned (or select on their own) a case relating to JS, and they follow it through to the conclusion, crossing blades with Zest, Lutecia, the Numbers, and hoards and hoards of gadgets, but at no point will you see them dedicating multiple chapters to training a bunch of green recruits or dealing with Regius's political bullshit. That last one in particular is getting completely axed. The Forwards may appear in some other context, i.e. Subaru and Teana show up as a couple of GF mages working on a crime scene, but don't expect Erio and Caro to get more than a passing mention from Fate.
Heh. You might want to rephrase the License to Kill part. You make it sound as if the cast is going to butcher and blow up anything in their path.
Though its strange... you say you're going to axe Regius and his doings, yet you also say you're going to prominently feature Zest and Lutecia, even though these two hold very strong connections to Regius and his doings, particularely Zest.
Translation Keroko: Comar hasn't fully finished thinking things out. As opposed to say a military otaku like me, where my crack is tactically sound and makes sense.
...well there was the time I was postulating making micromissile launcher CFTs....
Anyway after much thought I'm srapping Diverted Tangent, simply because it's pointless crack. Likewise Joint Training; I MAY at some point get off my ass and rewrite Chapter 1 (god knows it and Chapter 2 are pretty much non-canon already), and I need to write the following scenes which will be referred to in Alpha in passing:
1) Franz vs Subaru & Teana ended in him beating both, though Subaru broke Magnum in the process, and he won vs Tea due to being able to move faster than her, which basically meant that she fired Barrtt F at him, he tossed flares and bumrushed her and body-checked her into the ground. Franz vs Subaru was filled with lots more Hot blood however.
2) Emili vs Signum. Wasn't pretty.
3) Franz vs Nanoha rematch called off due to events of PT is Lotsa Fun.
4) Franz vs Vita. In which Franz broke Cortana on Graf Eisen, but he managed to take Vita out despite Eisen managing to defend more or less sucessfully against Giga Drill Breaker. In the wake of this, Vita begins work on a new spell.
Oh, and since she was completely broken, Cortana insisted on being transferred to Chief's armor and refused to have anything to do with Franz anymore.
5) The Final Battle. One Big Massive Brawl. Ending in four words: "JET MAGNUM!" "Starlight Breaker."[/i]
6) Franz/Naomi waffbonding.
7) [Franz has pwned Vita. Franz has mastered Shooting Juice Up Nose. Franz is now the Vita Master.]
8) "I've had worse. But not by much," said Ivanovich, grimacing at the taste of Shamal's health drink. Chief merely looked at him.
__________________
One must forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.Heinrich Heine.
Translation Keroko: Comar hasn't fully finished thinking things out. As opposed to say a military otaku like me, where my crack is tactically sound and makes sense.
I'm well aware that Comar hasn't finished thinking things out, and what he has is little more then a rough draft. That's why I'm helping his straighten things out before he starts writing, rather then afterwards. I believe we did the oposite once, and Dkellis wasn't exactly happy about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Goose
7) [Franz has pwned Vita. Franz has mastered Shooting Juice Up Nose. Franz is now the Vita Master.]
And hospitalized.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Goose
8) "I've had worse. But not by much," said Ivanovich, grimacing at the taste of Shamal's health drink. Chief merely looked at him.
Shamal's health drinks arent the one you need to worry about...
2008-06-04, 22:08
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