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Test Drive
 Author
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: USA
Age: 33
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rising Dragon
Should I feel bad that Agito reminded me of Chioutzhou and Dragon Ball Abridged?
"Wait, what--"*EXPLODE*
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Time for something different! I've felt bad about commenting on stories and the like here without contributing to much, so I've started writing a couple stories of my own. I'm not ready to post a full chapter, but hell, I've got enough for a teaser. Hope you all enjoy:
MAGICAL GIRL LYRICAL NANOHA:
THE COLLARED
Spoiler for Teaser:
It had already been over a day since the fateful and brutal attack on Ailotana, and yet the sun still seemed to struggled to pierce through the ominous, black clouds the drifted overhead. And with evening fast approaching, it was like the sun had given up on this futile battle against the bleak weather, and as it set, the destroyed settlement was painted in orange that glowed against the black. Nearly all of the structures in the settlement were charred and blown apart in the attack, leaving them gutted and broken, with the streets full of debris—clean-up efforts had been hazardous so far. A wind cut through the site, but it offered no coolness or comfort to the beleaguered survivors or the relief crew from the Time-Space Administration Bureau. It was uncomfortably warm and humid, adding to the miserable atmosphere and the terrible conditions the survivors were facing.
Enforcer Teana Lanster sighed and brushed a strand of reddish-orange hair from her face, doing her best to ignore the wind that was blowing through the ruins of Ailotana. Behind her, in the nearby valley, several tents had been erected to help care for the injured survivors that the rescue squad had been able to recover from the destroyed buildings. But for every survivor they had managed to find, there seemed to be three more body bags, which were all laid out a short distance from the tents.
But it was what lay before her that had caught her interest, in the plain that lay just before the entrance to Ailotana. Off in its center, surrounded by mages in protective clothing, stood a massive construct, nearly twice the size of a full-grown man. The sleek armor plating was easily seen from the distance, perhaps because of the eerie, foul glow of magical energy that, even now, still seemed to burn off of it like a funeral pyre. The amount of magic was so dense, and so dangerous, that nearing it without the protection of a barrier jacket and proper shielding spells would grant the unlucky ones something akin to radiation poisoning.
The same radiation poisoning that now afflicted nearly all of the survivors of Ailotana.
“Teana.”
The girl turned to see her superior officer walking up the hill to her. She nodded to Fate briefly as she crested the hill and stopped beside her, then turned her gaze back to the armor below.
“Have they discovered anything new?” the older woman asked, also looking down to where the mages worked on purging the harmful magic the area.
“We’ve managed to identify the armor’s wearer,” Teana replied slowly, bringing up the file in a holographic window. “It’s him, Fate. I’m sorry.”
Fate’s expression seemed to fall slightly, disappointed at the knowledge. “I see. Any idea why he’d attack this place? I thought the two of them were friends, of a sort.”
“We’re still not sure,” Teana replied. “His Device wasn’t on his person, even though the armor seems to require one to operate. We think it was taken after his death.”
The other Enforcer nodded briefly. “Let me know if you discover anything else. Especially anything pertaining to—”
She was quickly interrupted by the yell of another one of the officers on site. “Ma’am, you better come and see this!”
Both women turned at the sound of the voice, which came from the direction of the medical campsite. “Stay here and keep an eye on the investigation, Teana,” Fate ordered softly.
The younger woman quickly nodded. “Yes ma’am.”
Fate proceeded back down the hill and joined the other TSAB official before they made their way towards the camp at a brisk pace. “We’ve managed to identify one of the survivors, ma’am,” the officer informed her as they approached. “He’s in recovery right now, but the medics say he’s able to talk now.”
“Understood,” Fate replied, nodding once. “Maybe now we can find out what happened here. Show me where he is.”
“Right away, ma’am.”
He took her to one of the smaller tents used for patients with more serious injuries, and reported to the guard stationed at its entrance, while Fate proceeded inside. Two medics were watching over a single elderly man resting in the wheeled bed in the center. I.V. lines had been administered to the back of his hands, and the skin around his balding head looked slightly mottled and unnaturally pale. His breath was coming in long rasps, though he didn’t seem to look like he was suffering from a breathing problem. His eyes, thankfully, were alert, and despite his fragile condition, he shifted to rise as he spotted Fate enter the tent.
“Please, rest,” she said to the man, one Emil Valare, motioning for him to lay back down. Valare considered it for a brief moment and acquiesced.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you were the one who investigated this catastrophe, Ms. Harlaown,” he said amiably, settling back down. “Not with everything that’s happened lately.”
Fate nodded. “You witnessed the fight, didn’t you?” she asked, sitting at the corner of the bed. Valare nodded. “You know who’s responsible for this tragedy.”
“I do. It’s a shame, really,” Valare said wistfully, looking off to the side. “He showed such promise, only to come to an end like this. At the very least, those two managed to stop him.”
“We never really knew everything that happened since we met him,” Fate said quietly. A nurse approached and began writing off a reading on the machine Valare was hooked up to. “He never told us, and she never broke his confidence, even during their time with us.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He never was much for other people.”
“Perhaps you can tell us, then,” suggested the Enforcer. “We need to know, so we can figure out where to go from here. Everything, from the beginning.”
Emil glanced at the woman, only to see her patient face. Slowly, he nodded. “I suppose we owe you that much.
“Some time ago, Ailotana lost its greatest scientific mind. It was the death of a legend, and with it, a mass pilfering of his technology,” he started, clasping spindly fingers together as he recollected. “The man she saved was an unrivaled mercenary, and we paired him with an Intelligent Device that Research and Development had been using in their experiments. Our settlement fell into a sharp financial crisis after we lost our edge in the technology market. Relying on a mercenary was the inevitable resolution to keep food on the table.”
The man suddenly began coughing, and he brought a hand up to cover his mouth while the fit subsided. Fate looked concerned and made to rise, but he quickly waved at her to stay seated. After a moment, he was able to continue. “I used that man… and through him, her. I make no claim of righteousness. He was simply the only one who could have made it happen.”
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There will be more, right? 
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