MGLN: Future Tense
Chapter 9: Point of Contention
Xx~~*~~xX
This was bad, Nanoha decided.
Even if she could evade or shield against a point-blank shot by Teana, she still had to contend with both Nove and Wendi, the Enforcers, and a dozen sentinel drones now ringing the town. Also, there was Givo to consider, although the others seemed to be paying him no mind; Nanoha really hoped he kept his cool and didn't try anything rash. So far, he had been silent.
“We've actually been tracking you these past couple of days,” Teana informed her casually. “And when we realized you were heading for this town, well, it made the perfect trap. There's nowhere for you to run.”
"No arrest speech, Enforcer Lanster?" Nanoha questioned as orange binds encircled her body. "Things at the Bureau really have changed."
"What makes you think we plan to simply arrest you?" the gun Enforcer mocked, Nanoha catching the undertones in the lighthearted words. "And it's Head of Homeworld Security Teana Lanster Nakajima, now."
Nanoha raised an eyebrow at the last name; she hadn't heard about that particular development. "So did you..."
"Genya adopted me," Tea clarified quickly.
"I heard about Subaru, I'm sorry," Nanoha offered, promptly receiving a hard, physical strike to the back of her head with the butt of the gun.
"You don't have any right to speak her name, clone!" Teana seethed. "The only reason you're still alive right now is that I want answers. What is Jail sending you to do? Why did he clone you?"
Nanoha groaned at the pain, having only remained upright due to the binds holding her. "Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know?"
Teana surprised her with her response. "Heh, we had considered that the programming might be subconscious, with you not even aware. And I admit, my orders are terminate you, but I was curious to know exactly what Jail had planned for you. If you have the real Nanoha's memories, then you can understand the danger of someone with your power having subconscious programming."
The idea did make Nanoha pause; was there hidden programming she wasn't aware of? She had already accepted that she didn't know what Jail intended for her, although apparently that would serve his goals, which she assumed to be similar to hers; the removal of Hayate from power. But what if it were something more nefarious? All this time, she was just working under the assumption that she'd decide what to do once she found out, and that if she learned it was bad, she'd decide to do something else.
But what if she didn't have a choice? What if Teana was right, and she'd instantly act and do something unspeakable, something she had no control over? The very idea shook her to her very core; it almost made her want to turn herself in.
Almost.
"Maybe," Nanoha admitted at last. "And perhaps Jail does have something bad planned. But it can't be much worse than what I've seen since I awoke. I know a bit of what happened after the real Nanoha died, but I never believed my friends would turn our world, our universe, into a dictatorship that ruled through fear."
"Things have changed; we do what we need to in order to keep the peace," Teana told her, an audible click and then a quiet whine from Cross Mirage as she prepared a shot. "But it's no longer your concern."
"Tea, I wanna do it!" Wendi complained as the two cyborgs stopped a couple of meters away. "I want revenge for what she did to me!"
Before Teana could respond or fire, however, white binds sprang into existence around Wendi, catching everyone by surprise. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, Givo had launched himself toward the trapped cyborg, knife out.
"THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER!" he screamed in such a rage that Nanoha wondered how he was holding it back all this time.
But despite the surprise on his side, the cyborgs recovered quicker; Nove stepped between them and smacked Givo down hard, sending the body tumbling through the dirt, the knife spinning away. Wendi recovered a second later, grimacing as she broke the binds holding her, then advanced on the boy.
"Little brat!" she seethed, picking him up by his neck and holding him up at arm's length. "Hey, I remember you! You're the kid that hit me with that weak spell before. I'm gonna enjoy messing you up."
Givo defiantly stared at her in anger, blood leaking from his lip from his mouth as he grabbed her arm and tried to free himself, but it the difference in physical strength was plainly evident.
"No, don't-" Nanoha started to say, turning, before Teana blasted her and sent her to the ground; it was a non-lethal stun shot, but it still hurt a whole lot more than the stun shots she was used to.
"Wendi, he's a mage, you know what that means," the gun mage told her sister sternly.. "You can rough him up a bit more later, but Hayate's orders take precedence."
"One little mage won't make much of a difference," Wendi argued back, beginning to squeeze as Givo gasped for breath.
Nanoha watched from the ground as the cyborg choked him, her body still unresponsive, and she was still bound even if her limbs would respond. A stinging tingle still resonated in almost every cell, but the greater pain was watching Givo being choked, and the regret of bringing him along; she should have realized it was a bad idea, given how dangerous her situation was. And now he would pay the price.
"Wendi," Teana ordered again, seemingly conveying a lot with a single word.
"Feh, fine," the cyborg replied, dropping Givo to the ground as he coughed for breath. "You got off lucky, kid. The next time you try to kill someone, make sure you succeed."
Teana bound Givo then returned to Nanoha, kicking Nanoha over to her back, grinning slightly since Nanoha's hood was now off and exposing her head. "Well, looks like you decided on a makeover; shame, I was rather envious of your hair at one time. But listen close, because the only reason you're still alive, is that you're going to tell us where Uno is."
Nanoha's eyes narrowed."If you're going to kill me either way, why should I say at all?"
"Because if you don't, I let Wendi have another round with the kid, and this time I won't stop her," Teana threatened.
This wasn't the Teana that she knew, Nanoha realized, because she honestly realized the woman could go through with that threat. And in her mind, Nanoha could hear Uno berating her for that fact;
I told you they had changed.
"Uno is dead," Nanoha stated solemnly at last.
Teana raised an eyebrow. "I'm not entirely sure I believe you, but I suppose we can always have Quattro examine your brain when you're a corpse later. You telling us now would have simply saved us the trouble." She charged a shot. "Goodbye, Nanoha."
[So this is how it ends,] she thought bitterly, straining against her binds again, but she knew Teana would get the shot off before she broke them. [I'm sorry, Uno, I guess I couldn't accomplish anything on my own after all.] She found her eyes closing.
And promptly shot open again as she heard a magic shot fire, and yet she was still alive. Staring, she caught the after-image of a thin green beam piercing Teana's gun, surprise on her would-be executioner's face as the weapon was knocked from her hand.
x~~*~~x
On a hill over a kilometer away, a figure breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his head from his rifle sight, pleased he had done it when the call was ordered. Almost immediately, he tried to steady his hands as they began to shake, a consequence of him trying so hard to hold his body still; these episodes were coming more and more often these days.
Still, he managed to pat his gun and smile. "Thank you, Storm Raider,"
"My pleasure, old friend," the sniper rifle replied cheerily.
x~~*~~x
"Someone stop her!" a male enforcer shouted.
Nanoha's eyes, along with everyone else's, were a new individual had darted across the road and zig-zagged through the Enforcers at incredible speeds, making everyone else seem like they were moving in slow motion. Nove and Wendi stepped up to stop her as she got close, but the figure leapt over them, planting hands on each of their heads while upside down in mid-air and knocking them together, before coming to a stop in front of Teana with her hands up.
"That's far enough," the gun mage told her, her other weapon out and pointed at the newcomer. “Who are you?”
Nanoha wondered for a brief moment why the woman suddenly stopped and raised her hands in surrender, as a couple dozen Enforcers surrounded her, covering her with their staves. Behind them, the two cyborgs were dizzily getting to their feet and rubbing their heads, but attention was centered on the mysterious woman; she reached up and untied the neck strap on her cloak, letting it fall to the ground, exposing a head of neck-length red-violet hair, a colorful fighting outfit, and a huge smile that indicated she was quite pleased with herself.
"Rio Wesley," Teana intoned, disgust evident in her voice.. "I didn't think you'd be so stupid as to come this far south. Your group hasn't been active for quite awhile, and you may just have managed to keep surviving if you kept your head down. You're dumber than I thought you were, to come here alone."
"What makes you think I came here alone?" Rio hinted, still grinning like a madwoman at Teana's glare. In response to that question, more people appeared in doorways and windows, pointing their own staves and improvised weapons at the Enforcers, making Nanoha wonder if anyone in the town was a regular villager. "But if you'll kindly hand over the woman and the boy, we'll be out of your hair."
"Sense of humor still working for you, I see, but you'll notice that you're a bit outnumbered," Teana pointed out, Nanoha realizing that was true; her own approximation put it about 60:30 in favor of the Enforcers.
Rio simply folded her arms across her chest, smile never wavering as a large stone golem erupted from the ground just outside the town wall and smashed two drones together with it's large hands.. "So what we have here is a good 'ole fashioned standoff. As a friend of mine would say, 'Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?'"
Teana glared at the woman as the wind blew, sending a tumble weed down the main dirt road through town, and even the Enforcers were looking around a bit nervously; everyone knew that it would only take a single spark and the entire situation would go up in flames. For a moment, Nanoha wondered if Teana would give in or not. She felt it unlikely, but she only needed a few more seconds to undo her binds, realizing that was probably the reason Rio was trying to draw things out.
"Maybe...." Teana said at last, lips slowly curving upwards. "KILL THEM ALL!"
"KAISER FORCE GO!" Rio yelled in response.
The next few seconds erupted into complete chaos as everything went from the frying pan into the fire.
Almost literally.
The gun mage fired on Rio, but the other woman was already leaping into the air, wings of flame erupting from her backside and a fiery shield blocking the shots that didn't miss. The spot she had just vacated, though, erupted into twin columns of magic energy topped by dragon heads, one of lightning and one of flame; they coiled around each other as they rose, their appearance creating a shock wave that knocked back the surrounding circle of Enforcers.
Teana then seemed to remember Nanoha and began to turn her way to finish her off, but the latter had just broken free of her binds and rolled out of the way, shedding her cloak and pack and grabbing Randy's staff in one smooth motion while extending the handle and shielding against Teana's fire. Then the gun mage dove into the alley between the buildings as both Rio and Nanoha fired on her position.
At the same time, the entire town erupted into crisscrossing beams of magic energy and explosions, friend and foe almost lost in the massive free-for-all; friendly fire was almost more deadly than those coming from the enemy, and it was for this reason that Nanoha ignored Teana and dove for the still-bound Givo. Teana's magic was strong and it had taken Nanoha several minutes to break free, so she knew it would take him even longer; in the meantime, he was a sitting duck.
Fortunately, she managed to reach him and scoop him up under her right arm, using Axel Shooter salvos to lay down cover fire while she addressed him. "Hold still, and I'll get you out of that in a moment."
Her first inclination was to fly out of of the area to safety, but a large barrier suddenly went up over the town, negating that prospect; she'd need another Starlight Breaker to shatter it, and there was currently no safe place for her to stand and charge one.
"NANOHA!" Wendi screamed angrily, firing while she swooped in on her board; clearly, Givo wasn't the only one who wanted revenge.
Nanoha threw up a shield as she took to the air, sending a wave of pink orbs at Wendi who tipped her board up and strengthened her AMF, dissolving the shots, but the action did serve to give Nanoha some distance and temporary breathing space. She wasn't quite sure whether this Rio had some sort of plan, but they needed to coordinate if they were going to win.
"[Rio, can you hear me?]" Nanoha sent telepathically weaving between beams and firing a wave of magic missiles as several enforcers targeted her, joining Wendi in her pursuit. "[Do you have a plan?]"
"[Kinda making it up as I go along, heh,]" Rio admitted a bit sheepishly. "[Oof! We have someone working, unh, on the barrier from outside but not sure – hiyah! - when he can bring it down.]"
"[If you have a safe place I can put a young boy, then I can bring down the barrier,]" Nanoha offered, dodging as Wendi came in again.
Rio was silent a moment, then, “[Take him to the golem; a friend of mine can hide him inside.]”
Nanoha wondered at that, but headed there anyone, weaving through scattered beams and other magical shots while blocking others. The golem itself was a mass of hard rock, and as soon as Nanoha began to wonder how it would protect Givo, a small opening appeared on the back of it's neck with a voice in her head telling her to put him in. Nanoha wasted no time dropping him into it against his cries to let him go, and the hole promptly closed up again.
Then Nanoha was forced to divert her attention as Wendi coming in again, firing, Teana with her, too.
x~~*~~x
In the chaos of the battlefield, two old "friends" quickly found each other.
Rio did a series of flips backward to gain some space while Nove swung around on her Airliner road, then leapt off, angling her body towards her opponent and spinning feet first in a full-body drill kick. The ground exploded as Rio barely dodged it by twisted away in mid-air, but the shock wave still knocked her away. Nove leapt out of her newly formed hole to follow up on her advantage, planting a hand on the ground and flipping her body over to come down in an axe kick that aimed to slam into Rio's gut and nail the woman to the ground.
However, her nimble opponent recovered and twisted in mid-air, kicking out with one leg to meet Nove's, the power behind each attack causing a pause in the action for a split second. Then the moment passed and Nove's momentum proved to be greater, pushing Rio away who planted a hand in the dust as she landed, then sprung forward the instant her feet hit the ground. For the next several seconds, a series of close range blows, blocks, and counters were exchanged, but neither could pass the other's defenses until Rio spun and threw a straight, flaming, power punch that the cyborg was forced to block with both arms.
Nove glanced up after skidding backwards several meters, while the two lightly panting women sized each other up.
“Not bad,” Nove offered, lowering her arms and brushing them dramatically. “It's been, what, 20 years years since we've clashed like this? During the war, I believe.”
“Something like that,” Rio agreed, then her face changed to show some respect, and her tone became a bit softer. "I had a good teacher."
The cyborg nodded while preparing her stance again. “And yet the student will never best the master, because I taught you everything you know. But this isn't exactly a fair one-on-one fight, don't you think so?”
A slow smile crept over over Rio's face. “You're right. Agito, please.”
“[But...]” Agito started to complain, then realized Rio was serious and would have her way; she canceled the unison. “I hope you know what you're doing.”
“So do I,” Rio chuckled as her hair and barrier jacket returned to normal colors, giving the little demon a soft look. “Go help the others, I'll be fine." She then turned back, mirroring her ex-mentor's attack stance while. "Alright, Nove, it's time to show you the new tricks I've learned since we last fought.”
Agito took one last look at the two, sighed, then shook her head and flew off, deciding to take her flaming anger out on the drones.
"Let's find out!" Nove growled, skates providing speed as she charged in, fist raised.
The two women met again, each very familiar with the other's style and thus neither one was able to really gain much of an advantage. Nove's last minute leap and spin kick was dodged under, and Rio's return handstand kick was blocked by Nove's arm. The roller skate cyborg punched downward but only struck dirt as Rio pushed off with her hands, launching her body into the air and quickly putting up a shield as a hail of yellow energy bullets emerged from the dust cloud that currently obscured her opponent. Nove continued to fire as Rio allowed her body to fall, rolling out of the way from follow-up shots when she hit the ground as she prepared her own spell.
[Fire magic in the left hand, lightning magic in the right,] she recited mentally, the corresponding fists igniting with their element.
Rio rolled to her feet, spinning and lashing out with the left hand. "Hiyah!"
Nove's eyes widened as a fireball streaked towards her, barely managing to twist her body out of the way as the red ball almost grazed her. She turned back just in time to see Rio up close and personal, right hand crackling with lightning magic as the other woman swung low and slammed into the cyborg's gut, all the muscles in her body undergoing spasms as the electricity coursed through her. Then Rio finished her jumping uppercut and sent Nove flying away, hitting the ground and rolling, but managing to recover enough to form another Airliner road sideways, that allowed her to spin out of follow up two-fisted hammer blow then threw up another cloud of dirt.
There was another pause while Nove finally returned to her feet, wiping blood off her lip, her limbs shaking slightly as they worked off the electrical energy. "The fireball was new."
Rio grinned and assumed a ready stance, stretching out her arm to beckon with her hand. "Told ya, new tricks."
"You're not the only one," Nove countered, clenching her fists. "Jet Edge, stage two." Short, yellow, energy spikes emerged from the toes of her skates, while two longer ones emerged from her gunknuckles, effectively forming forearm energy blades. "Let's do this."
Rio raised an eyebrow; this wasn't going to be as easy as she expected.
x~~*~~x
It wasn't so much of a hole as it was a doorway that Givo tumbled through, cursing the entire time. The only bright spot was that he finally managed to break his binds when he hit bottom; they were much stronger than the ones Seikou used to bind him with, which made him think she was holding back on him. Still, it enabled him to sit up and glance around the cramped compartment he found himself in.
And made him realize he wasn't alone.
"Hello!" greeted the woman who shot him a brief look and smile, buried up to her waist in rock with a holographic view screen in front of her. "I'm Corona Timil. And you are?"
"Givo," he said, his anger giving way to curiosity. "Are you controlling this thing?"
She nodded, her eyes returning to the view screen as the golem shook, some of the Enforcer's firing on it. "I used to ride on top, but it could make things a bit difficult. I find this a nice compromise."
Givo glanced at the screen, following the action for a bit before he noticed Seikou in the sky, darting around with Wendi and another woman after her. "Hey, it's her! I need to get that woman! How do you get out of this thing? I.. .woah!"
He found himself rolling against the side of the compartment as the golem moved suddenly, lurching and twisting, quickly realizing why the woman had anchored herself in the rock.
"Sorry about that, but you'll have to remain here for now," she told him, swinging at the air with her fists which caused the golem to punch out, slamming into the ground and sending Enforcers flying while Givo tumbled across tiny stone cockpit again.
"Hey, stop that!" he protested, sitting up again and rubbing his head.
Corona patted a space next to her, and a small hole formed there. "Lower yourself into that and I'll secure you so you don't roll around." He simply stared at her, and she shrugged. "Well, you're not getting out until this is over, so it's up to you."
Sighing, he slipped into it up to his waist, and the rock snugly held him instead of crushing him like he expected. "At least get that Wendi woman!"
Corona caused the golem to look up which tilted the view screen into the sky as she considered it. "Hmm, she's a bit out of range and moving too fast. I can't fly with this. But you're right; your friend could use some help."
They both watched as Seikou blocked combined fire from the gun mage and surfboard cyborg, which shattered her shield and sent her plunging to the ground, the surfboard cyborg and gun mage firing as they descended after her.
Then Givo had an idea. "Get us over there and get their attention, and I think I can do something."
"You got it!" she chirped. "Brunzell, let's pick up the pace!"
"I do hard!" a little dagger replied with bad grammar which Givo noticed for the first time; it was plunged, blade first, into the rock in front of her.
The golem broke out into a run while Givo concentrated, keeping the image of Wendi in his mind and on the screen. The two antagonists on screen appeared to notice the lumbering giant headed their way just as Corona took a deep breath and focused. Outside, the golem's 'mouth' fired a magic green beam that swept the sky, sending the two antagonists scattering in different directions, but pelting the giant with return fire as they did so.
The golem listed to the side as bits and pieces of magically-hardened rock chipped and broke off which threatened to completely overwhelm it, but a large pink beam shot out of the ground and nearly enveloped Teana who was forced to shield then fly away. Givo kept his focus on Wendi and reached out with both hands, releasing his spell.
The surfboard cyborg found her left wrist bound, locking her in mid-air as Corona fired off another green beam from the golem's head, but Wendi merely angled her board up, pumping up the AMF generator and completely nullifying the attack. The cyborg stuck her tongue out and reached up with a finger to pull her right eyelid down.
Corona's eyes narrowed, then she raised both her arms, making fists.
Wendi's grin faded and her eyes widened as the golem's fists shot off from the arms, ascending like twin rockets and heading straight for her. The cyborg twisted her board and right arm cannon, firing on them and managing to blow one of the fists up in a shower of debris, then yanked her arm free of Givo's bind as the second barely missed her.
She grinned, laughed, and stated the obvious fact. "HA! You missed!"
Corona smiled, and made a small gesture. Wendi apparently sensed something was off, and slowly turned around to notice that the remaining fist had arced back around and was now considerably large in her vision. She only had time to to cover herself and pump up her generators, but AMF didn't do much against plain old kinetic energy as the fist slammed into her. Corona quickly plunged the remains of her golem's arms into the ground, pulling them out with new hands just in time to clap them together on the falling cyborg.
Wendi fell to the ground, out of the fight.
"YES!" Givo cheered.
Corona smiled and high-fived him. "We make a good team!"
x~~*~~x
"Wendi!" Teana shouted in alarm, firing on her opponent with a hail of orange bullets. "You'll pay for that!"
Nanoha was almost able to suppress a small smile as she saw the stone golem take out Wendi; that made things easier on her, since now she could focus solely on Teana. "If you want to make me pay, you'll have to try a lot harder than that. Fighting for the wrong side has distorted your senses."
As Nanoha ducked and weaved through Teana's shots, canceling others with Axel Shooter, she realized she'd have to work to back up her own boast. Teana was much stronger and much more skilled then Nanoha remembered, but then again, 50 years had passed. If she had Raging Heart, it might have been a different story, but Randy's staff was barely able to handle the magic she was forcing through it, which limited her firepower.
And that left it as a battle of wits and tactics. [Think, Nanoha; you trained Teana, helped design Cross Mirage, you should know her tactics. Combine that with what you know of her now and figure something out!] Binds were out of the question for the moment, as Teana's flight was too quick and unpredictable, like her own.
"Don't give me that!" Teana shouted at her, firing. "Your wide-eyed naive optimism may have sounded great when we were young, but age has shown me the real world. You can't save people just by doing your best and working hard. Real life isn't a fairy tale!"
The words stung as the two exchanging homing magic missile in a deadly mid-air dance; Nanoha could sense the lethal magic the other woman was employing. But what she said affected her far more, as Nanoha had seen first hand that her normal attitude just wasn't working in this world. Would she totally have to change everything about herself, discarding her previous beliefs? Would she have to become as hard as Teana in order to win?
She didn't know, that that's what scared her the most, as she fired another Divine Buster while on the move. Teana flew under it, but Nanoha was diving towards the ground as she prepare another set of orbs that ringed her body, weaving between buildings in an attempt to lose her pursuer. Teana kept up the pressure, though, pelting the buildings in the area with Crossfire shots, reducing them to splinters and Nanoha used the temporary debris cover to fire two of her orbs straight into the ground.
The barrage promptly let up as Nanoha approached the timber wall at the edge of town, away from the main street fighting. It was almost a bit too quiet she decided while glancing around for her quarry, suddenly finding Teana aiming at her from a broken window in the one of the buildings. Nanoha fired one of her orbs first, however, but when the image dissolved, she realized too late that it was Teana's illusion magic.
Glancing up, she found another Teana in the air who had just fired, but Nanoha dodged and rolled while releasing a second orb, but that one vanished as well. Nanoha grit her teeth as she ran, counting at least four more Teana's that vanished when she used the last of her orbs on them, leaving her wondering where the real one was.
Nanoha forced herself to focus. [If I were Teana setting up an illusion trap, I'd be right... there!] Twisting, she found the real Teana standing almost behind her, who had just fired a shot that Nanoha barely got a shield up to block. But as the shot dissolved against her shield, the magic turned into chains that arced around the shield wrapped around her arm and body. [A trap!]
"I've learned a lot since you died," Teana told told her, Nanoha catching the double meaning in the words. "That was one of them. This is another."
"Starlight Annihilation," Cross Mirage intoned ominously.
Nanoha's eyes widened. [There is no gathered magic in front of Teana, so where...] As her thoughts trailed off, her gaze went up. There, at the top of the dome, was a fairly decent-sized ball of purple magic that represented a mix of Teana's orange with the pink of a Starlight Breaker, and Nanoha instantly realized she must have been charging it all this time, but at a distance.
"It's your turn, for a change," Teana told her, raising her gun and preparing to pull the trigger.
Nanoha's eyes narrowed, sighing. "That was a good move; you almost had me. I figured you'd get me with an illusion, so I prepared this in advance."
Before Teana could respond to that, Nanoha's two earlier Axel Shooter orbs that she had fired into the ground, promptly exploded from the dirt at Teana's feet, shooting both guns out of her opponent's hands. The gun mage's eyes were wide as she stared in shock, then quickly tossed a beleaguered glance up as the ball of magic became unstable and began to expand outwards, dissipating.
Teana dove for her weapons But Nanoha didn't give her time, tipping her staff up and firing a Divine Buster that forced to Teana to shield as she picked up a gun.
"I didn't teach you that move to turn it into something lethal," Nanoha told her solemnly, breaking the bind and grasping the staff with both hands, continuing the attack as the other woman was forced back. "Things may not be perfect in this life, but that doesn't mean you give up trying. My life would have been much different if I allowed events to defeat me the way you've allowed them to."
"Shut up!" Teana shouted at her, anger very evident as she angled her shield down to slip off the beam and take to the air, returning Cross Mirage to dual gun mode. She turned to face down as she flew backwards, orange magic gathering at her gun's tips against a holographic sight. "You don't know what I've been through! It was because of you that I lost people I cared about! I'm not going to lose anyone ever again!"
"We've had this conversation before," Nanoha reminded her, planting her feet and aiming as she gathered the magic, made much easier and quicker since Teana had done much of it earlier; she needed only recapture and refocus it. "So like before, I guess I need to cool your head a bit."
However, unlike before, Teana got off her charged attack. "Phantom Blazer!"
Nanoha's own attack wasn't as fully charged as she would have liked, but she had no choice now. "Starlight Breaker!"
The lesser energy involved allowed her to keep better control of the staff and not damage it quite so much this time, as an ascending pink beam met a descending orange one and for a brief moment, both struggled for dominance. But one of Teana's guns was damaged and the cartridges of her other ran dry, while Nanoha focused and kept drawing in spent magic to power hers; thus, the wave of pink magic pushed back and swallowed up Teana's attack, engulfing her as it shot up into the air, continuing on to shatter the barrier covering the town.
The whole town seemed to stop and grow deathly quiet at that moment, as practically all eyes were drawn skyward to see if Teana had survived. But to the surprise of all, including Nanoha, the gun mage came out of the blast conscious, though her barrier jacket was heavily shredded. And as she began to fall, she still managed to turn and point her gun, squeezing off a hail of orange bolts.
But it wasn't Nanoha she was aiming at, the cloned mage realized, her eyes attempting to track exact where Teana was aiming. But someone else figured it out before she did did and let loose an anguished telepathic cry that hit almost all present.
"[RIO!]"
x~~*~~x
Nove panted heavily, two of her blades broken, but satisfied to see Rio was equally worn down, cuts and scrapes along her opponent's stomach and arms. She had to admit they were fairly evenly matched; discounting skill, Nove's cyborg strength canceled out Rio's magically-reinforced attacks. Just when she was wondering how to end this, both womens' gazes turned upwards as the column of pink magic erupted across town, shattering the barrier.
"[Nove, run, NOW!]" Teana sent, leaving the cyborg confused.
"[But-]" Nove started to send back, before a second wide-broadcast telepathic cry sounded and cut her off.
"[RIO!]"
Nove was forced to roll backwards and cover herself as a hail of quick orange fire shot out of the sky and engulfed her opponent, who tried to put up a shield at the last second.
Nove heard Tean repeat the order. "[GO, NOW!]"
Cursing, Nove knew enough to follow the command, forming an Airliner ramp over the town wall and putting on speed once she cleared it, clenching her eyes shut and sending one last telepathic message. "[I'll be back to rescue you, I swear it!]"
Then she was out of range. She went to maximum speed while a thin, green beam of magic grazed her arm, racing away from the scene of their defeat and the loss of her sisters, cursing all the while as the wind stung her wet cheeks.
Xx~~*~~xX
Author's notes:
I know a number of people wanted to see Vivio, but have patience. :P You just know Rio and Corona are gonna some things to say about that to Nanoha. ^_~
You can credit "JusticeHasCometh" for his request that I include the "cool your head a bit" line, which was from Strikers. Didn't have it planned before, but decided to try and work it in, heh.
2010-07-04, 01:47
Author
Especially when they think I somehow owe them something.
