"Hello, Teana." Shari smiled at the orange-haired girl as she and Teela walked into her office. "Hello, Teela." She got a smile and wave in response from the device. "Glad you come in so soon."
Teana shrugged as she took off her light jacket. "It's alright. I've got a meeting with a few people this afternoon, but nothing major right now." Most of her current time dealt with getting Teela fully registered and making sure that Teela was working properly.
"That's right, you're going to be going out to the field soon, right?" Shari smiled at the enthusiasm that Teela was showing to Teana. Still...
"About that..." Shari spoke up, getting their attention. She hated to do this, but the two needed to know. "I've looked over the information at least a dozen times now..." She trailed off, not really sure how to phrase it for them.
"Shari?" Teana frowned softly. The woman generally didn't withhold information without a good reason and Teana couldn't think of any good reasons she would have to hold anything back.
"Teela, Teana, forgive me, this is going to sound rather harsh." She pushed her glasses up her nose since they were starting to slip down. "I even gave the data to Mari and we compared notes, but, Teela..."
"What?" The blond device looked on fearfully at the brown-haired woman.
"Don't tell me that she's dying still." Teana had a worried frown on her face that turned to confusion as Shari shook her head.
"No... But if anything, she's incomplete." When they looked at her in confusion, Shari sighed softly, this was going to be a problem. "Tell me something, Teana, how many Unison devices do you know of?"
"Just three." Teana answered and frowned softly. "But there are more out there. They're just... very rare."
"Exactly. And until now, all have been Belkan." Shari nodded at Teana before continuing. "Well, Teela here is incredibly powerful, but when you unisoned, one or both of you could have ended up dead." Now that she had their attention, she wasn't going to stop, she just hoped that they wouldn't hate her over this. "To use an analogy here, Teela is like a super weapon of mass destruction that was quickly built due to a war. The weapon output is strong, the frame is tough, the weapon can surely destroy anything in its way. The problem is that no one installed any safety devices or programs into her."
Teela blinked a few times. "...huh?" She almost sounded like she wanted to cry.
"I don't know who made you, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say that you were only thirty, no, closer to forty percent complete."
Teana frowned at that. "So, what's missing?"
"A lot." Shari shook her head. "At the very least, several of the safety features that should be there aren't there." There had to be more, but Shari wasn't sure. "To go back to that weapon analogy that I used, she has all the power, but no one made sure that the user would be safe." She blinked as Teela suddenly winced and whimpered. "What?"
"...One time, someone unisoned with me and..." Tears were welling up in her eyes. "I don't know what happened. I don't! Suddenly they grabbed their chest and fell over, crying out in pain. Someone came up, grabbed me and said "guess I need to do a little more with you." before something happened and everything went dark."
Sighing heavily, Shari nodded at the Unison Device. "I figured as much." Seeing the look of confusion that was slowly bleeding away to comprehension on Teana's face, Shari continued. "I think whoever it is that built you put enough safety programs into you to keep you from killing your user right away but..." She didn't finish her sentence.
She didn't need to. The two understood what she was saying, even if they didn't like it.
"Look, Teana, Teela, I can get the files on Agito and Reinforce, do some comparisions with Teela's information and see what changes were made and what's missing."
"I see..." Teana said softly and looked at Teela, who looked incredibly depressed and miserable.
"I'm going to have to stay here, huh?" She asked Shari, who shrugged at that. "Huh?"
"Oh, you don't know, do you?" Shari smiled at the confused device. "I often times go with Teana and Fate when they go on missions, or at least I'm just a short distance away." She winked and went over to her bench, picking up a digital note pad and a box. "At the very least, I can compare the data on hand, see the differences and hopefully come up with a way to finish what was started."
Teela blinked a few times, smiling gratefully. "Thank you." Shari waved it off, smiling at the small device.
"Shari..." Teana trailed off, looking at Teela in concern. "If something does come up that forces me to Unison with Teela..."
Shari sighed at that, she had been hoping that question wouldn't come up but since it did. "I can't say don't unison, especially since not doing so could cause a lot more problems in the long run. If you do, try to keep how long you stay unisoned limited, and try not to get into direct combat if possible." After saying that, she shook her head and chuckled softly. "What am I saying? You're Nanoha's student, just make sure to come back alive when you go against what I just said." Seeing their looks, Shari just laughed. "Nanoha always went against what we told her not to do. The best we could hope for is that she came back alive."
Teana smirked slightly. "Don't worry about that, Shari. Unlike Nanoha, I'm not a battle maniac."
Shari just smiled at that and chuckled. "Just don't let her hear that."
(---)
As he walked into the meeting room, Genya had a small smile on his face, his steps were considerably lighter and quicker. He raised an eyebrow as he saw General Lenard there waiting for him. "General."
"Hello, Major Nakajima." The man nodded to him, gesturing for him to take a seat. "Glad you were able to enjoy your time with your family." At the mention of his daughters, Genya had a soft smile on his face as he sat down. "If I had known that they had shown up, I wouldn't have sent someone to bother you."
Genya nodded blinking as the lights were dimmed and a projector appeared in the middle of the table, several images appearing on the screen.
"As of 0945 today, a major prison riot affecting several high-security prisons was quelled." As scenes of various prisoners being put back into prison, one person's image caught Genya's attention.
"That one..." He pointed to the tall pink-haired woman in prison clothes being led back into her cell. "What about..?"
"Her older sisters, Uno, Tre and Quattro, as well as Jail Scagiletti are still in their cells." There was no disguising the look of relief on Genya's face as he heard of that. "That riot started at 0700 and took as long as it did to quell it. As far as we can tell, a few dangerous criminals did escape however."
A man's image appeared on the screen. He had a ridged scar over his right eye, dark hair that was starting to lighten up that reached at least past his shoulders. "This man, Rudal Bernstal, is one of the people that escaped."
Genya's eyes narrowed. "...This isn't good." He remembered that man, then again, he didn't think anyone his age or older could ever forget the man, the former TSAB agent that had betrayed the Bureau, had gone mad with ambition and had done so much damage to everything around him before he had finally been arrested.
What had made it worse was that the man had been one of the stronger mages that had existed at the time.
"If he escaped..."
"We're tracking him. But we're not sure when he managed to escape." Lenard looked at Genya, who nodded, realizing why he hadn't been told that it was an immediate problem that needed his attention. It was, but seeing as they had no real information on the man or anyone else that had escaped...
"I'll get my men caught up on the situation." Genya said to Lenard. "How many more managed to escape?"
"Just three more, but all of them are extremely dangerous." Lenard shook his head. "We're not sure where they are now, but we've already put all administered worlds on alert for them."
Genya frowned softly as he looked at the picture. "If he got the seal on his magic taken off somehow..." He trailed off, he didn't need to explain. Both of them knew what could happen.
(---)
Sighing as she finished looking over the engines, Ginga, dressed in shorts and a tank top, mostly because it was so hot in the ship's engine room, blinked as she found something interesting. "What the?" Reaching into the engines, she pulled out some sort of stick. "This thing, what..."
"It's a tool designed to cause machines to break down and stop working for no real reason." A familiar voice spoke up, causing Ginga to gasp and turn, seeing William standing there dressed in more heavily padded clothing than she was used to seeing. "It moved on me." He smirked darkly as he pulled out a bladed weapon and dashed at her, thrusting forward, before he was forced to stumble back from a kick to the gut. "Impressive."
"William?" Ginga gasped and frowned. "Blitz..." She blinked as she remembered something. "Oh shit!"
"Imagine my surprise when I saw your precious device back in your room." He chuckled softly at her dismayed look.
"Why are you doing this?" She grimaced as he swung his blade in a quick arc, a short blade slipping from his fingers flying right at her head was a moment ago as she rolled out of the way.
"Nothing personal, honestly. I was just hired to kill you."
"What?" She gasped as a tool box got kicked in front of her and William jumped over the pipes, taking a swipe at her head again. Thankfully, his aim was just as accurate as the last time as he missed her while she ducked and kicked up, knocking him in the chin and making him stumble back, grabbing his jaw. She got to her feet and jumped at him, preparing to knock him out before anything worse happened. Suddenly her eyes widened as she felt pain like she had never felt before slam into her body, causing her to scream out in agony as she flew from where she was into the wall behind her, where she stuck for a few perilous moments, before gravity slowly pulled her to the floor.
"Remember that mission you took that brought you out into the boondocks?" He chuckled as understanding slowly dawned on her pain-filled face. "Those pirates you and your kind screwed up? They couldn't afford too much after you destroyed everything they had, but they hired me to kill you, the pink-haired one and the carrot top." He sighed softly. "After looking your information over, I realized that you'd be the easiest one to kill. The pink-haired one would be too much trouble, even for the money they were offering me."
Ginga coughed softly, wincing with each breath as she struggled to stand up. "You..."
"I truly have nothing against you." He shook his head, sighing softly as he walked up to her slowly. "Having trouble moving? This gun's just a stun blast, not meant to kill anyone, but it fucks you up something fierce." He grabbed her by her throat and lifted her up. "Not to mention that poison I slipped you last night."
"How... Dare... You..." She groaned, coughing as she felt the blade in his hand push between her breasts and against her skin.
"Again, this isn't personal, I did like you."
"All of it... Was a lie, wasn't it?" Ginga groaned, hoping to get him to hold off just a few more moments.
He shrugged. "Not really. You are an incredibly beautiful woman, it's just too bad that things didn't work out." Ginga gasped, her eyes wide as the blade slowly pushed into her skin. "Sorry, but I do love the look on people's faces as they realize that it's over.." He smirked as he gave the blade a twist, just to enjoy the look of pain on her face a little more. The blade itself was slowly, ever-so-slowly and agonizingly painfully, pushing into her chest. William couldn't help but watch as blood pooled out of her chest from the wound, around his blade and down her body. It really was too bad that he had to kill her. Oh well, money was money after all. "Alas, all good things must eventually come to an end."
The next thing William knew he was on his back, grabbing his face as Ginga pulled the blade out of her chest and gripped it. "GRAH!" William cried out, grabbing his bloodied and broken nose. "Damn you."
She snarled at him, feeling woozy. "How... dare... You..." She coughed, feeling her chest burn horribly.
"I underestimated you." He admitted with a grimace as he went for his gun, before he saw some blue sparkles appear around him and several binds wrap themselves around him tightly, immobilizing him.
"You did..." She admitted before she grimaced and fell down to the floor. "If you wanted to kill me... You should have done it... When I was asleep." She closed her eyes, wondering just what was going to happen next.
(---)
"Hello." Teana nodded as she walked into the conference room, blinking as she saw Cinque, Dieci and Wendi there already. "Sorry I'm late." She turned to the side to see Signum standing against the far wall with Lenard sitting near her. The older man waved her off.
"It's alright, whatever it was, I'm sure that you had a good reason." He cleared his throat as Teana sat down at the table. "Sorry for pulling rank and having all of you meet with me like this, but it's easier to tell you all at once rather than getting reports from different angles, especially since no one really knows much right now." The others waved it off as the lights in the room started to dim, but not darken completely. "This morning, there was a major prison riot across several prisons on different worlds." A holo-image appeared in the middle of the table, getting everyone's attention as they studied it intently. "At this moment, we're not sure if there was any plotting between people or if it was just a giant coincidence, though we're leaning towards the former right now." A few images appeared, showing various criminals being led back to their cells. "Sadly, in the confusion, four criminals managed to escape from imprisonment."
Lenard looked at Wendi, Cinque and Dieci and gently bit his lower lip. "I think you three should see this." An image popped up of Sette being led back to her cell, getting the attention of the three cyborgs. "None of your sisters escaped, nor were they hurt, so you can rest easy about that." Seeing the small amount of tension that the three had leave their bodies, Lenard hid a smile, glad that they were able to relax with that information, though he idly did wonder what the three would do if any of their locked up family had escaped in the confusion. "Of the four, this one catches our attention the most." The others in the room sat a bit straighter as they saw the same man that Genya had seen previously.
"Rudal Bernstal, S-ranked criminal, former TSAB member, betrayed the TSAB over twenty years ago before finally being brought down and in." Lenard shook his head as he looked at them. "None of you know him, so don't worry about that, it was before your time, but he was a very strong S-ranked mage back before he was finally stopped. He would have had a harsher sentence but he cooperated enough to bring down several dangerous criminal organizations."
"I'm guessing that his crimes were far worse than our own?" Cinque asked the older man, who nodded at her.
"None of you killed anyone..." Seeing Cinque wince, he ignored it. He knew that she had killed Zest years ago, but the information that the undead mage had given Signum before dying again had a note saying that he never blamed Cinque for what happened and not to punish her for that. "On the other hand, several people ended up dead and badly injured with by this man. He was too dangerous to let loose, but he wouldn't have cooperated if we gave him a harsher punishment, so life in prison was agreed upon by everyone."
"I bet that went over well." Signum said dryly, getting a nod from the general and a sigh from the pink-haired knight. "I thought so." She could still remember the problems that Hayate and her fellow knights had when they were going through trial, though that was mostly because of what she and the other Wolkenritter had done for so long. "Any leads yet?"
"None so far." Lenard shook his head, hating that part. "We've put this as a top priority, but no luck so far."
"You want to keep this fairly low key right now while making sure everyone knew what was going on, huh?" Teana asked, getting a nod from the general.
"If the public knew that a major criminal was running loose with people to help him..." Everyone in the room grimaced slightly, the sheer amount of panic that would have incited would be just horrible.
"You know that the media isn't going to be happy about this." Signum said, getting a nod from Lenard, he knew. "If you don't mind, I'll make sure that the church knows." Lenard nodded as Signum left the room.
"Our dad knows, huh?" Wendi asked as the man nodded at her. "So, why tell us? We're not exactly in the defense forces right now."
"I know, but think of it as part of your community service." Lenard mentally smiled at the slight grimace the three gave him. "But I just want you three to take care, if you get called up to help like you did during the Marriage Incident." He looked at Teana. "Sadly, I'd like to say that it would be easy, but.."
"I understand." Teana nodded and sighed. "Keep an eye out for them at all times." Mentally though, she really hated this, a major criminal running around free? Still, something about this was bothering her. "Signum..."
"Yes?" The pink haired woman sent back. "What is it?"
"Can I ask you to do some extra work for me?" Teana was looking over the list of crimes that had been committed by the criminal in question.
"Don't trust what you see?"
"With all the problems that have popped up in the past few years, can you blame me?"
"Not at all, I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you." Teana nodded slightly to Signum as they broke off communication. Sure, if she had to, she'd bring him in, but she wanted to know the full story about what she was getting into. She had no reason to distrust the general, but she knew that the government covered a lot of information up. And sometimes, the information that was covered up was information that could have been used to stop a major problem before it began.
(---)
"Sorry for keeping you here, Nove." Lindy said with a smile as the short redhead waved her off as they finished washing dishes.
Shrugging, Nove wiped her hands after draining the sink of water. "It's okay." She sighed and looked outside, not really looking at anything, only to nearly jump out of her skin as Lindy touched her on the shoulder. "Sorry."
Smiling softly, Lindy nodded at her. "Nove, if you're having any other troubles, just feel free to talk to me, okay?"
"Thanks." Nove smiled softly and looked outside, before shaking her head. "I better get home." She went to get her clothes from the dryer. Idly, she wondered just how upset everyone was with her. Grabbing her clothes from the dryer, she quickly changed and went back past the living room, only to blink as she saw Lindy talking to Teana on a video screen.
"Rudal Bernstal?" Lindy blinked a few times. "...I remember him. He was an inspiration to a lot of people way back when." Leaning back against the couch, she tapped her chin. "From what I remember, he was a heck of a mage, one of the strongest at the time. He's more remembered for betraying everyone one day."
"Oh?" Teana blinked a few times on the screen, clearly interested.
"I don't know how much they told you, but, yes, one day he suddenly betrayed everyone, left his squad-mates badly injured and unable to follow him." Lindy sighed softly. "I can't recall all the details, it was over twenty years ago, but the fact that such a prolific mage suddenly betrayed everyone and went rogue is just something that never completely leaves your mind."
Teana nodded on the screen. "I see. That's about what I've heard here. Thanks."
Lindy nodded as the screen cut off, sighing, she closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "This is just another fine mess."
"What is?" Nove's voice got Lindy to jump in surprise as she turned to look at the confused redhead. "This guy sounds bad."
Lindy nodded at that and sighed heavily. "He is, committed a lot of crimes while he was running free and now he's running free again." Though maybe she was over-reacting, twenty years without being able to stretch any magic muscles had to leave him pretty weak at the very least.
"Sounds like things might get interesting again." Lindy blinked at the weird smirk on Nove's face. "No, I'm not going to stupidly go out looking for this guy, I'm not that crazy." Nove chuckled softly as Lindy sighed in relief.
What had Nove smirking weirdly was the fact that she had something to distract her from her current problems at home.
"Don't underestimate him, Nove." Lindy stood up, looking at the shorter redhead in the eyes, her eyes conveying her utmost seriousness. "Just... Don't go looking for trouble, you'll only end up worrying the people who care for you."
Blinking a few times, Nove could only nod, wondering when Lindy had grabbed her shoulders to keep eye contact. "I know that."
"Sorry, I just don't think anyone wants anything to happen to you." Lindy shook her head slowly and stepped back from the girl. "Just be careful."
Nove looked at the older woman for a few moments before surprising herself and Lindy by reaching out and hugging her. "Thank you." She said softly, enjoying the sensation of Lindy hugging her back.
Lindy smiled softly, letting go as Nove pulled away, blushing slightly. "Just take care, Nove."
"Right, right." Nove muttered as she ran for the door. "See you around." She called out as she left, "Excuse me, Amy."
When the pregnant woman entered the house, she raised an eyebrow at Lindy. "Not... One... Word." The older woman shook her head.
"Of course... Mother." Amy laughed as she left the kitchen to head to the living room.
Rubbing her forehead, Lindy wondered if she really was seen as a mother figure by Nove, before she shrugged it off and shoved it out of her mind. She wouldn't mind being Nove's mother, even if unofficially, but she wasn't going to push or even bring it up.
After all, unlike Fate, when she was in need of a mother, Nove had a loving family taking care of her.
(---)
"Man, I can't believe you managed to get us out of there so fast." A male voice was heard as a large door was slid open, allowing outside light into the darkened room, four separate shadows darkened the new light before the people walked in and the door closed behind them. The four of them were wearing gray pants and light gray shirts as they walked calmly, well, most of them were calm, one was acting fairly giddy and excitable. He was shorter than the rest, a bit hunched over, short, greasy gray hair and an obvious overbite when he opened his mouth to speak. He seemed very thin, lanky and weak, at least compared to the others.
"Knock it off, you weasel." One with short, flaming red hair grumbled as he looked at the more excitable person, his body was fairly muscular and fairly tall. "Remind me how you got in prison again?"
"Uh... Murder?" He chuckled at their disbelieving looks. "Hey, I know I don't look dangerous, but I did kill a couple of people."
"Mostly because you have no sense of self control in a car." The third person, this one had slightly darker skin than the others, said as he twitched, flipping a coin that he had found in his hand over and over. "Amazing how you always walked away without a scratch."
"Eh heh... Being double jointed is always a plus, Kagal." He suddenly screamed out in pain as the coin bounced off his head, making him fall to the ground. "That hurt..." He whimpered as Kagal snarled at him.
"I told you, never call me by my name, you'd just dirty it, Weasel." Kagal snarled at the downed escapee, before he was grabbed by his throat and lifted up by the last member. "R...Rudal..." He gasped as he felt his air supply getting cut off.
"Damned idiots, stop this in-fighting." Squeezing, he threw Kagal into the far wall, getting a cry of pain from him as Rudal glared at the other two.
"Hey, leave me out of this." The redhead said as he held up his hands. "I told you to leave them behind." His eyes widened at the sparks of magic that formed around Rudal's hands. "I thought that your magic was sealed."
"Twenty years, you think I wouldn't come up with a way to use some of my magic in twenty years?" He frowned, knowing that even if he did get the seal removed, he was a mere shadow of his former self. "Anyway, we're here to meet someone, that's all, pyrofreak."
"Did you have to call me by that nickname?" The redhead twitched and glared at him.
"Someone who, about ten years ago, nearly destroyed at least one entire city with fire-based magic, is complaining about their nickname?" Rudal raised an eyebrow, getting a sigh from the redhead.
"Fail at destroying a city or two and no one takes you seriously." He grumbled as a door to the back opened up. "Well, I think I know where we're supposed to go." He shook his head as Kagal joined them, twitching slightly as he glared at both Weasel and Rudal. Not that he could do much against Rudal, the man wasn't just a mage, he was a freak of nature. Even without his magic, the guy was dangerous to know in the best of circumstances.
Entering the room, Rudal raised an eyebrow at the rather empty room. The only thing he saw was a desk with some small boxes on it, a man sitting behind the desk and a woman standing near him. "...It's you?"
The man smirked at him as the other three looked at Rudal in confusion. "Been a long time, I know." He chuckled softly as they walked towards him. "I hear that you have a few nasty problems right now." His smirk became more pronounced as Rudal coughed into his fist.
"So, what'cha got here?" Weasel blinked as he opened one of the boxes. Surprisingly, no one tried to stop him as he pulled out an object. "...A bullet?"
Pyro raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Pitiful, any half-decent mage could easily block a bullet fired at them with no problem."
"Normally, yes." The man behind the table smirked more openly. "If the bullets aren't laced with runes that break barriers and plant delay spells that act up later and cripple more powerful mages."
"Runes?" Kagal, Pyro and Weasel could only blink at the term in confusion.
"Idiots." Rudal straightened up as he snatched the bullet away and looked at it closely. "Runes, long-form magic and ritual-type magic was used a long time ago. It predates ancient Belka even."
"I'm rather impressed with your knowledge." The man blinked a few times as Rudal shook his head in disgust at the other criminal's lack of knowledge, then again, he guessed that there weren't a lot of people that knew this kind of stuff.
"It's powerful, very flexible, but takes a lot of time to even make the most basic of this stuff. Then again, runes can store spells for a very long period of time before wearing out. They're still used, but in the form of seals these days."
"Oh..." The other three nodded as that made sense. Seals were different than most common magic out there. Kagal rubbed his shoulder as he recalled that blond enforcer child and that lighting that she had used to crack him on the shoulder and take him out. What he wouldn't give to get another shot at her.
"This type of magic fell out of style when devices could use combat magic faster and easier than the runes, which took years of mastery to even form one, could hope to achieve." The woman in the room said quietly. "As such, it took us almost an entire life time to make even this small amount."
"Good thing they work." The man muttered as he looked at the confused and interested looks on the faces of the others in the room. "I..." He hesitated for a moment, wondering what they would think, before shrugging it off, what did he care? "I will admit that I've done some shipping of these bullets around with some of my contacts and clients around to various non-administered planets." He started chuckling heavily. "A small group of mages ended up on one of the worlds at the far edge of administered space and stole a rather valuable artifact, but in the ensuing scuffle, someone actually managed to shoot one of them with these bullets." He held back the fact that those bullets had only been laced with runes to shatter barriers, they didn't need to know after all.
"I see..." Rudal frowned at him. "So, can you remove the seals on us?"
"Um, I don't have a seal." Weasel spoke up, getting some glares from the others.
"Then what the hell were you doing in prison?" Pyro snarled as he grabbed Weasel by the front of his shirt and lifted him up.
"Take it easy, man." Kagal shook his head. "As annoying as the little freak is, get him in something that has wheels on the bottom and he's the most dangerous thing ever." Seeing the looks of disbelief, Kagal shrugged at them. "I know, it's weird, but I've seen him turn a golf cart into a flaming ball of debris that turned an armored car into nothing but scrap metal."
"...You have GOT to be kidding me." Pyro looked at Weasel, who chuckled softly and nodded.
"Once, when I was a kid, I was on some roller skates and took out two roller derby teams in four seconds."
Pyro dropped the slimy person and shook his head. "I don't care what you say, that's just stupid."
Kagal shrugged at that. "Well, yeah, but he makes for a great get-a-way driver."
"Heh heh, vroom, vroom, go zoom, zoom, boom, boom, EXPLODE!" Weasel laughed from where he was on the floor.
"I see..." Rudal shook his head, why the hell did he team up with these three again? The answer came to him a moment later as he coughed rather harshly, grimacing at the sensations running through his body. "Anyway, like I said, can you remove these seals?"
"Nope." The man shook his head as Pyro and Kagal yelled in surprise at him. "I do have something that will be of interest to you." The smirk on his face wasn't good as he pulled out a purple crystal gem. "This, on the other hand, could do a lot."
To be continued...
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Yeah, I'm tired, been pushing myself lately to write, so I decided to cut off here. Besides, I can do more in later chapters.