Meanwhile...
Getting out of the chopper, Nanoha made her way over to the group. "Alright, so... Why is there a ring floating in the middle of the air?"
"No clue," Teana shook her head, "we don't want to touch it."
Nanoha nodded, pleased at that. "Good call. Alright, here's what's going to happen, we're going to get her onto the helicopter, I want you four to secure the area, Arashi, you're going to go with her," she knelt down next to her brother as the Forwards shifted into their barrier jackets, "it's very important that you keep her safe, okay?" Arashi nodded and went with the girl as she was put on a stretcher and loaded into the helicopter. "What about this one?"
"Here's the case it was in." Vita said as she picked up the two halves of the container. "I think if we..." She blinked as she put the bottom of the box under the ring and it stopped hovering and fell into place. "...Weird." She closed the box before taking it over to the helicopter. "Get these back to base safely, Vice!"
The pilot turned and saluted them. "Not a problem, Vita."
Nanoha nodded to Vita as the chopper took off. "Well then..." There was an explosion that happened in the streets, causing people to start running for cover. "Raising Heart!"
"Graf Eisen!" Vita yelled as they transformed into their outfits.
"Limiter Release!" They called out at the same time, a quick flash of energy later and they rushed out of the alley way, expecting the worst.
(---)
Teana was the first to notice and react to the explosion that caused several cars to turn into flaming wrecks. "Who!?" Her eyes widened as she saw two figures walk through the fire before coming into view. "Nove?!"
The redhead looked at Teana before looking at Subaru and narrowing her eyes. "You two really shouldn't be here." She said calmly before looking at Cinque, who was standing next to her calmly.
"Nove! What's going on?!" Teana called out to the younger girl. "Come on, you can tell me. Why are you, Wendi and Sein fighting us now?"
Nove narrowed her eyes as she looked at Teana. "We were never on your side!" She threw her hand out to the side, growling. "What made you think that we'd ever work for the Bureau? The same Bureau that makes weapons like us and then turns its agents against us!"
Teana took a step back, stunned at the outburst. "Nove, I don't..."
"Enough, Nove," Cinque said quietly, calming the redhead down almost instantly. "The fact is, we don't like the Bureau too much, for forcing our creation, and for forcing us to become what we have." Pulling out some knives, she narrowed her eye at Teana before turning her head and looking up to see Subaru on the roof top.
"You're outnumbered!" Erio yelled as he stood on a parked pickup while Caro rode on Fried's neck. "The captains are here as well, you don't have a chance against us!"
Nove smirked and looked up at the helicopter. "Maybe..." Her smirk became a grin as several pink beams started pelting the ground around them. "Maybe not!" Pointing her gun knuckles at the group, a freezing cold liquid was shot out at them, turning into vapor that instantly froze anything that it came into contact with.
"Don't try to hit them too hard." Cinque muttered as she threw a few knives into the ice. With a snap of her fingers, the knives exploded, sending metal and ice shards everywhere.
"You know..." Nanoha said as she walked forward, a protection barrier around her body, "that stuff doesn't hurt me."
"How well does it block out gas?!" Nove asked as she put her hand on her right gun knuckle and turned a dial. Taking aim, she fired right in front of her as a yellow gas was launched at Nanoha at high speeds.
"Diem wind." Nanoha whispered as she held her hand up, the wind blast scattering the fumes to the breeze. Nanoha's pupils shrank when she no longer saw Nove in front of her. "Where did..?"
"Above you!" Vita called out as she sent a few flying swallows at Wendi, who was laughing while shooting them down. "Knock it off, girl, before I get mad and hurt you."
"HA!" Wendi laughed and snapped her fingers, causing a huge array to appear under Vita, who stared as it exploded upwards in a towering inferno of energy.
"Vita-chan!" Nanoha turned to look, only to blink in surprise as Nove was right in her face, grinning. "Strike..." Nanoha held a palm out in front of her.
"Sorry, not her!" Nove punched into and through her barrier and let loose another blast of those gas fumes.
"ACK!" Nanoha stepped back, coughing as her eyes watered heavily. 'What is..?' She wondered, not seeing the knives that sunk into the ground around her feet, at least until they exploded, shattering her shields and causing her to cry out in pain.
"That takes care of them," Wendi grinned, only to stare in shock as Vita flew out of her eruption to slam her head into Wendi's nose. "GAH! You!"
"Raketenform!"
The next thing Wendi knew, Vita was spinning around a couple of times before slamming the spiked end of that hammer into her ribs and sending her sprawling to the ground below. "I'm a LOT tougher than that, kid!"
Nanoha let out a scream and the explosion abruptly ended as she stood there panting, her eyes red and watery.
Nove growled and was about take another shot at Nanoha when the a red flame passed through in front of her. Turning, her pupils shrank as she saw Teana, Subaru, Erio and Caro glaring at her, Cinque and Wendi, who was still on the ground, clutching her ribs.
"We told you, you're out numbered." Vita said calmly. "Now then, just give yourselves up and we won't press charges for attacking us."
"Nove, stand back." Cinque spoke up as she moved her left hand to her eye patch. "Allow your big sister to handle them."
Nove looked at Cinque in shock. "You can't!"
Cinque smiled lightly. "I have gotten some control over this power, not much, but I can draw out just enough to cause them trouble." She was about to pull off her eye patch when Quattro's voice was heard as a large screen appeared near them all.
"My my! This just won't do!" Quattro shook her finger as she spoke to them all chidingly. "Nove, I told you, didn't I? Direct combat against superior beings is pointless, especially when they have superior numbers." Quattro chuckled while grinning. "Anyway, we're going to be shooting down that helicopter now."
"What?!" Nanoha turned to look and shook her head. "Raising Heart?"
"Dangerous power is detected."
"What the hell, Quattro?!" Nove yelled as the glasses wearing cyborg sighed heavily.
"You failed, Nove, so, we're doing this my way... We'll shoot down the chopper and send in a Megah to pick up the remains." She smiled until she saw Wendi and raised an eyebrow. "Huh, someone hurt her, well then, I probably wouldn't want to be around, oh well, tah tah..."
Nanoha frowned and took off to the air. "Vita-chan, deal with this, I've gotta protect that thing!" She rushed forward, putting on as much speed as she could. Sure, her eyes still hurt and it was a little hard to breathe, but whatever Nove had blasted her with wasn't too bad, just irritating. 'But if she had stuck one of those explosive knives into me after blasting me in the face...' Nanoha's line of thought trailed off and she had to admit, she was impressed by the vicious little redhead.
"Flash move!"
Zipping forward, Nanoha gasped as she saw a red and black beam the size of a Buick rushing for the chopper from the other side of the chopper. "I won't make it..." Even with as fast as she was going, she didn't know if she could make it to the chopper and block that attack.
Moments before it could hit, a large yellow beam intersected the red beam, causing it to explode harmlessly away from the chopper. Turning her head, she smiled as she saw Fate there. "Fate-chan..." She sighed in relief, though part of her wondered where Fate had been all day.
"Sorry I'm late, I was in town at meetings, Hayate gave me a call about what's going on, and since I was close, I thought I'd help out."
Nanoha nodded and smiled softly as she saw the helicopter fly away safely. "Alright, let's..." She blinked as a girl with red hair, green eyes, white ankle boots, a blue skirt, blue and white shirt and a blue jacket appeared in front of her. "You are?"
"Amitie Florian, your opponent," Amitie pulled out a couple of small guns, "and I'm sorry, but I don't have a choice in this matter."
Not too far from them Fate was staring at a pink haired, pink eyed girl who was wearing light pink shoes, a pink skirt, white and pink shirt and a pink jacket while holding a fairly large sword down to the side. "...You must like pink."
The girl shrugged and grinned at Fate. "Maybe, my name's Kyrie Florian, and I have to say, you look good in black, but I need to fight you for now." She giggled at Fate's weird look. "Don't worry, I don't want to kill anyone, but I've got my orders to fight you." Giggling, she grabbed the hilt of her sword and split it right down the middle. "So, come on! Let's have some fun!"
Fate narrowed her eyes. For some reason, she didn't think that this was going to be easy.