Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by biodude711

I'm starting to really, REALLY, REALLY hate Levi.

I think some of us might already hated her during A's arc while she's still carrying the name Alicia Testarossa. The hatedom just grew when when she doing those mazoku things at the peak arc....

And those Mazoku would love those awful emotion coming from us...

[GaelicDragon]

Spoiler for Mad Scientist Fate snippet:

MadScientist Fate-chan

By: GaelicDragon

From atop one of the taller residential towers, Fate watched as the cradle edged closer to the core of Caragan proper. Dozens of flashes came as the nearest air force mages were shot down by those that she might have called sisters. Her cape flapped in the breeze as she watched the venerable Authuria let loose a few familiar beams of magic. Her friends were out there. Fighting with every last breath for the cause that they believed in. Fighting to either protect their dreams, or to rescue their family. Fate would have been out there, hell she should have been out there fighting with them. But, she had a different card to play.

“Are you really sure that you want to show your hand,” questioned Yuuno. Currently he was in ferret form resting along her arm. It was her favorite position for thinking on her next project.

“He…has…Vivio,” stated Fate as she continued to watch the various battles occur from the lights of the explosions and the data from her various screens. She noted that it was coming time to make her entrance upon the stage.

“Forces are entering position. Ready when you say that magic words,” said Yuuno as he watched information scroll down on his own screen. Fate was rather proud the day that she poached Yuuno from the Infinity Library. He was sooo good at anticipating almost any of her needs.

“May I ask just why you demanded me in my ferret form for this,” questioned Yuuno. Fate got into strange moods sometimes. Then again, she had become a bit of a shut in after she had started on her new path.

“Because Arf would get upset if I got a white cat familiar and Arf’s puppy form looks too cute to pull off the look,” replied Fate with a grin.

“You and your spy movies,” huffed out Yuuno. Sometimes he wondered what Miyuki was thinking showing her Bond movie collection to Fate and Nanoha. Well it could have been worse. She could have showed it to Shari or one of the other tech heads.

“Quiet, its time to steal some of Jail’s thunder,” joked Fate quietly as she made sure to position herself in the best way with the wind blowing into her cape. If one must make a statement, add drama.

“Ok, show time in ten,” responded Yuuno as he executed a few programs and started shutting down his screens.


Today had been going smoothly so far. His daughters had been performing magnificently and his contacts in the TSAB had left the planet virtually defenseless. Oh, Hayate and her Riot Force was being very proactive, but one can’t account for everything.

“Communication from the planet, it’s a powerful signal sir,” shouted Quattro as she worked the computer system. His daughter, ever the scientist.

“Let’s see what HQ is going to demand this time,” remarked Jail as he looked towards the screen in relative front of the room.

“Hello Jail,” stated Fate from his view screen. He had been pleasantly surprised when he found out that Precia’s project Fate had been selected for work in the TSAB. Granted, she was beyond the Jar’s ability to directly manipulate, but her acceptance by most of the soldiers led him to up his time table for this little rebellion by years.

“Hello Fate, so your finally joining the party.”

“You know us Testarossa’s, always fashionable late.”

“Yet still early enough to get in on the action,” replied Jail with a slight smirk. He remembered some of the banter he played around with Precia all of those years ago. It almost made him nostalgic. Well, that and even he would admit to lusting after those outfits that she liked to wear.

“Precisely, now I can’t stay and chat because I have my own issues with my…sisters, actions,” remarked Fate smoothly as she continued to pet Yuuno’s ferret form. Jail was rather confused by the ‘sisters’ comment. As far as his research indicated, she had no living family.

“Your sisters,” questioned an intrigued Jail. Even Quattro outside of viewing range turned from her screens on the ensuing battle to look at Fate in confusion.

“Why, those cyborgs that you created using the majority of the data from Project Fate,” replied Fate with a small smile. Only a short time left.

“Ahh, you do realize that I had first claim at them being family. Especially since some of them are truly my daughters,” stated Jail. Fate was giving him some…amusing surprises.

“Yeah, but hurting my children and kidnapping someone who I consider something between a little sister and a daughter is too far for me to tolerate,” stated Fate as she snapped her right arm out and Bardische switched from inactive form to its ax device form.

“There is only a few words I have to say to you…LET’S GET STUCK IN IT,” shouted Fate at the end as she swung Bardische around and then forward. Numerous contrails appeared behind her. From the opposite direction of directions the contrails seemed to appear from the ground by the dozens.

Jail would admit that he was surprised. It looked like Fate had some how smuggled a few air force divisions in under the radar. But, he had all the back doors to the TSAB’s forces and they had no one that could pull that off.

“What the hell,” spoke Quattro as she magnified the contrails coming at them at a fast pace. The computer had tagged them similar to Precia’s own Knight drones…but, they were green and patches of red and a few other dark colors. A buzz then appeared on some of the communication channels. A sound that grew louder and louder as Fate’s forces drew closer. I was until finally they heard the sound of….

See you next segment

Something for an idea I posted on SpaceBattles during the forced closing of this forum.

[Filraen]

A lot of developments, but I think I like this part the most:

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 20:

"Nanoha..." Fate, in nothing more than black panties and a dark, semi-transparent nightie, rolled over in her bed and raised an eyebrow as she saw her roommate looking at a square box. "Those are..?"

"The Demon's Blood Talismans." Nanoha, in only a large t-shirt and panties, said as she ran her thumb over them, before shaking her head and putting it away. When Fate asked her what she was doing, Nanoha turned to look at her. "Fate-chan, don't you ever get the feeling that we're nothing more than monsters in human flesh?" Fate blinked at her, confused by the question. "I mean, you, myself, Hayate-chan, we're all so powerful, sometimes I wonder..." She trailed off as Fate, who she swore was in bed a moment ago, got behind her and hugged her.

being a very valid concern I hadn't thought about.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-31

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 32:

"It's called Levitation."

Teana stared and for the first time all day, a sense of hope came to her.

This can seriously change the way Teana thinks of herself, though I don't know if it will be enough to prevent her incident.

[Craxuan]

Lol? They are like, the TSAB's three most powerful mages in the world. Any single one of them can wipe out an entire army, and Hayate probably could shoot down a few spaceships on her own given the time and opportunity.

[Shigan]

Originally Posted by Craxuan

Lol? They are like, the TSAB's three most powerful mages in the world. Any single one of them can wipe out an entire army, and Hayate probably could shoot down a few spaceships on her own given the time and opportunity.

I see potential in this idea...

Deathcurse, if you see this, you gave me armies. Now, you give me spaceship blasting Hayate, please

[Sunder the Gold]

Originally Posted by shiroi mahotsukai

I'm likely going to spend my weekend trying to write that now.

Promises, promises.

Still feeling up to it? I'll gladly take it later rather than never.

[Nanya01]

StrikerS 1-31

StrikerS 32

StrikerS 33

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 34:

The next day around lunch time...

Teana blinked as she saw Vita eating alone. Normally it wasn't something that would interest her too much, but the woman looked like she was slightly upset about something. "Hey, Vita..." She said softly as she moved near the table. Teana's eyes widened when Vita looked at her. "What happened?"

"Sparring match with Suzuka." Vita grumbled, her eye was blackened and she had some blood on her face around her nose. "I lost."

"Ah, but, but, how?!" Teana stared and Vita snorted, grimacing painfully.

"I'd curse Shamal, but she said she'd fix me up in a little bit, as for how? It was a sparring match, pure hand-to-hand, no magic and I didn't use Graf Eisen," Vita grinned painfully, "she got a lucky shot in and pinned me for three seconds, she won."

"Bu, bu, bu..." Teana stuttered as Vita rolled her eyes.

"Look, sometimes it's not who's more powerful, more skilled or more experienced, sometimes a fight comes down to a stupid lucky, or cheap, shot." Vita shrugged at her stare. "Trust me when I say that there's no one more skilled in armed combat than Signum is and she tends to win any one-on-one sparring match she's in, or at least draw. But throw her into a group sparring match and she's one of the first ones to lose." Vita smirked and shook her head. "If you're wondering about the blood, lemme tell ya, headbutts against the nose hurt." Taking a napkin, she dabbed at her face again before getting up and leaving the table. "See ya this afternoon."

Teana could only slowly shake her head. "...Everyone in this place is insane."

She just wondered what kind of insanity they lived through to make them come out like this.

(---)

A couple of hours later...

Subaru was bending down, stretching as she and Erio spoke before afternoon practice. "Really? The whole chicken?"

"Yeah!" The boy laughed as he twisted his back to get some tension out of it. "Great grandma was crazy with that recipe, but yum, it was good!"

Subaru laughed as she tried to imagine it. "Oh wow, I couldn't see mom doing that."

Erio kept laughing. "It got really funny with Fried was accidentally thrown in as well, great grandma wanted the other chicken but grabbed him instead. I thought Caro was going to cry."

"Great grandma shouldn't be trying to cook Fried!" Caro yelled at Erio while Fried chirped in as his mistress sat on the ground and tried to stretch her legs and back out. "It's not Fried's fault he was flying near the live chickens, he's a growing Dragon and he was hungry!"

"Ku ku!" The Dragon landed on Caro's shoulders as she sat up properly.

Caro had a rather mischievous grin on her face. "Besides, at least I didn't get kidnapped by a mama pig like you did, Erio-kun."

"That's a lie and you can't prove it!" Erio spun on the ground to face and point at her. "I was just playing with some baby pigs and followed it, that's all."

"Uh huh..." Caro grinned at him. "That's why Yuuno-papa found you in the mud begging to get out of the pig pen?" She giggled as Erio hung his head and sighed heavily.

Erio wanted to get mad, he really did, but seeing her smiling and giggling, well, it made it hard to get angry at her when she was being so cute. "Subaru..." When the older girl looked at him, he grinned at her. "Wanna help me with some stuff later?"

Subaru blinked a few times and shrugged. "Don't see why not." She bent over as she stretched her legs out again. After a few more minutes of stretching, she shook her arms and legs to get any lingering pains out of them before blinking as she saw Erio and Caro running laps around a few trees. 'Wait, no, is she chasing him?' Subaru had seen the two argue and fight before, but this was the first time that the two had acted like actual children, with Caro running after Erio, swinging her arms up and down and Erio running and sticking his tongue out at Caro, occasionally putting on a burst of speed so he could kick her in the butt before changing directions.

Looking at Fried, she just blinked as the small Dragon sat on the ground, doing nothing, no, wait, it was doing something, it was eating some jerky.

Subaru looked at Erio again and chuckled. 'He... He bribed a Dragon.' She knew how protective of Caro Fried was, the small Dragon had headbutted her several times in practice for nearly hurting Caro by accident.

"Alright! Knock it off!" Vita's voice was heard and the two children stopped running around and Subaru looked up as Yuuno, Vita and Teana walked towards them. "Arisa and Suzuka'll join us later, anyway..."

"Aww!" A new female voice spoke up, one that had Yuuno and Vita instantly pale and tense up. "And I was so looking forward to having some fun with those two kiddies again!"

Yuuno, Vita and Teana all turned to see a rather tall and muscled woman with green hair, sunglasses over her eyes, a large grin on her face, looking at them. She was dressed in a green tank top that did absolutely nothing to hide her curves and what looked to be like military-grade camouflage pants with black boots on her feet. On her back was a sword hilt, but that was all most of them could tell at first glance.

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno and Vita hissed at the same time as the Mazoku general chuckled to herself.

"Glad to see that you didn't forget about me, kiddies!"

"Who is.." Teana started to speak, only to get interrupted by Yuuno.

"Someone who could likely fight everyone in the Riot Force right now and wipe all but a few of us by the time everything was said and done. She's nothing but a ruthless battle maniac who actually taught at our school back on Earth. At one point, she was an enemy, right now, you could probably place her in the category of ally... Tentatively."

"Aww!" Riksfalto suddenly disappeared before reappearing in front of Yuuno, hugging him tightly. "You say the sweetest things about me, and all it took was you nearly killing me when you were younger too!"

"Hey!" Caro yelled while swinging her arms up and down. "Stop hugging my papa!" It was rather simple for Caro, she didn't know Riksfalto personally, but she had heard Vita, Suzuka and Arisa complain about Riksfalto in gym class to give her the image of a horrible monster that liked to torment people endlessly. Besides, Riksfalto wasn't on Caro's "approved huggers of papa" list.

Granted, it was a very short list that really didn't extend too far, but it was still her list, dang it!

"You're that weird lady!" Erio pointed at Riksfalto. "You said to try and not blow everything up to me."

"Hmm?" Riksfalto let go of Yuuno, mentally amused by the fact that he somehow managed to be both blue in the face and red on his cheeks. Then again, she did hug him against her impressive chest. "Oh yeah, I remember you. That still stands kiddo, don't try to..." She trailed off as she looked at Caro and almost felt like taking a step back and looked at Yuuno. "...You adopted her?"

Yuuno patted his chest. "You do remember the rumors in school about me having a daughter?" He pointed to Caro. "She's my daughter."

Riksfalto looked at Caro, who smiled brightly and waved her hand slowly. "I see.." She looked at Teana and Subaru, both of whom were just looking at her in confusion. "I guess you two are interested in who I am?" They nodded slowly. "Name's Riksfalto, General to Lord Deep Sea Dolphin of the Red Staff," she lifted up her sunglasses, revealing one eye that was closed with a scar over it and the other eye had a look of almost insanity on it, "and I'm one Mazoku you'll never forget."

Subaru looked at the Mazoku and felt a shiver go up her spine. She wasn't exactly sure what a Mazoku was, but it probably wasn't a good thing.

"By the way, Yuuno..." Riksfalto shot to Yuuno, who took a wary step towards Caro as the Mazoku general looked at the girl again. "You do realize who those two are, right?"

"Erio and Caro being Dark Star and likely Vorfeed's reincarnations, yeah, why?"

"Just making sure." Riksfalto didn't like subterfuge, at all. However, when dealing with something that the Lord of Nightmares set up, well, it was best to not be straight forward.

"Actually..." Vita had a wicked, evil and flat-out mean idea enter her head at that moment. "We were about to start the afternoon training..." She trailed off and looked around. "Hey, where's Ginga?"

"Oh, mom needed her." Subaru rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I thought you knew."

Vita crossed her arms under her breasts and let out an annoyed snort. "Fine, well, you four..." She jerked a thumb at Riksfalto. "Caro to try and beat her up?"

Riksfalto grinned and pulled her sword out. "Give me a good fight, or I may... Hurt you a bit."

"You sure this is a good idea, Vita?"

"Trust me, they need to fight against a Mazoku, right? Unless she's ordered to, Riksfalto's never tried to kill any of us intentionally, and despite everything, she's always been straight-forward, right?"

"...True..." Yuuno broke the link and looked at everyone and then at Riksfalto. "...Just don't kill them, please?"

Riksfalto smirked at him. "No killing, but I can't guarantee I won't maim them."

Yuuno stepped away from the upcoming battlefield with Vita patting his back and wondered why all the women in his life were all violent maniacs. When he said it out loud, Vita just laughed and elbowed him lightly.

"Hey, at least it's not a romantic comedy manga, right?" Vita grinned at him as they stood by to watch the upcoming fight. "Even if your life kind of parallels some of the manga I've read. Then again, if it did for real, Signum, Shamal and myself would probably be interested in you as well."

"You're not?" Yuuno asked, fairly surprised as the battle was about to take place.

Vita rolled a strand of her hair in front of her eyes. "To be honest, Yuuno, I do like you, and I probably wouldn't mind going on a few dates with you. If it led to something more, I sure wouldn't complain." She looked at him and smiled softly before lightly punching him in the arm. "I could probably steal you away from the Takamachi sisters easily enough too." She nearly laughed as he blushed pretty hard. "But I'm not going to." she put her finger on his lips to keep him quiet, "because I respect your relationship with Nanoha, Fate and Miyuki to not do anything." She shrugged and turned back to watch as Riksfalto caught Subaru's punch with ease before throwing her through a tree. "Ouch, that had to hurt. And, Yuuno?"

"What?" He had to admit, he had never seen this side of Vita before.

Vita grinned at him. "If you end up wanting all three Takamachi sisters, let me know ahead of time, okay?" When he stared at her, she blushed softly. "What? After Chrono married Amy and Filia, I would have thought you would have gone for the same thing too."

"Uh..." Yuuno scratched his head. "Vita, I'm only nineteen, you're eighteen, we don't need to rush, do we?"

The redhead shrugged at that. "Not really, though it is fun to experiment and find out what we really want and need..." She sighed heavily. "Though, sometimes I think that dad doesn't really understand that."

"Hayate's had Reinforce for a long time, Vita..." Yuuno winced as Riksfalto smashed Fried into the ground hard enough to cause a small crater. "And there's Zwei..."

"I know..." Vita grumbled softly and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Did you know that I wanted what Reinforce has? Still do, actually."

"...You wanted to be Hayate's lover?"

Vita smirked softly. "I'll never get that in my life, though it's kind of stupid now that I look back at it."

"Not really." Yuuno said while watching the fight continue, though from the looks of things, Riksfalto wasn't trying too hard. After all, she put her sword away. Not that she needed it with how she was literally mopping the ground with Erio. "Erio! You might want let go of that spear when she grabs it and tries to use you as a squeegee!"

"Not really?" Vita snorted at him, "that's rich, coming from you."

"...Considering that I was dating Miyuki for a few years, Vita, I'd say that a notion like that doesn't bother me."

"Hey," Vita narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of Miyuki, is she still on Earth?"

"Last I heard..." Yuuno muttered, hoping that Miyuki didn't follow him to Mid-Childa. He had nothing against his girlfriend, he just wasn't sure if he could deal with Miyuki, Nanoha and Fate at the same time. Signum's constant amusement from watching him deal with his girl troubles was never a good thing.

(---)

"We're going to see Nee-chan now, Miyuki-nee?"

"Yes, Arashi," Miyuki smiled as they stepped off the ship and into Cranagan, "we're going to go see Nanoha now."

"Yay!" The young boy cheered and jumped into the air. "I can't wait to show her!"

"I bet." Miyuki sweat-dropped and hoped that this wasn't a bad time. Oh well, at least she could see Yuuno again, that was always nice.

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-31

StrikerS 32

StrikerS 33

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 34:

The next day around lunch time...

Teana blinked as she saw Vita eating alone. Normally it wasn't something that would interest her too much, but the woman looked like she was slightly upset about something. "Hey, Vita..." She said softly as she moved near the table. Teana's eyes widened when Vita looked at her. "What happened?"

"Sparring match with Suzuka." Vita grumbled, her eye was blackened and she had some blood on her face around her nose. "I lost."

"Ah, but, but, how?!" Teana stared and Vita snorted, grimacing painfully.

"I'd curse Shamal, but she said she'd fix me up in a little bit, as for how? It was a sparring match, pure hand-to-hand, no magic and I didn't use Graf Eisen," Vita grinned painfully, "she got a lucky shot in and pinned me for three seconds, she won."

"Bu, bu, bu..." Teana stuttered as Vita rolled her eyes.

"Look, sometimes it's not who's more powerful, more skilled or more experienced, sometimes a fight comes down to a stupid lucky, or cheap, shot." Vita shrugged at her stare. "Trust me when I say that there's no one more skilled in armed combat than Signum is and she tends to win any one-on-one sparring match she's in, or at least draw. But throw her into a group sparring match and she's one of the first ones to lose." Vita smirked and shook her head. "If you're wondering about the blood, lemme tell ya, headbutts against the nose hurt." Taking a napkin, she dabbed at her face again before getting up and leaving the table. "See ya this afternoon."

Teana could only slowly shake her head. "...Everyone in this place is insane."

She just wondered what kind of insanity they lived through to make them come out like this.

(---)

A couple of hours later...

Subaru was bending down, stretching as she and Erio spoke before afternoon practice. "Really? The whole chicken?"

"Yeah!" The boy laughed as he twisted his back to get some tension out of it. "Great grandma was crazy with that recipe, but yum, it was good!"

Subaru laughed as she tried to imagine it. "Oh wow, I couldn't see mom doing that."

Erio kept laughing. "It got really funny with Fried was accidentally thrown in as well, great grandma wanted the other chicken but grabbed him instead. I thought Caro was going to cry."

"Great grandma shouldn't be trying to cook Fried!" Caro yelled at Erio while Fried chirped in as his mistress sat on the ground and tried to stretch her legs and back out. "It's not Fried's fault he was flying near the live chickens, he's a growing Dragon and he was hungry!"

"Ku ku!" The Dragon landed on Caro's shoulders as she sat up properly.

Caro had a rather mischievous grin on her face. "Besides, at least I didn't get kidnapped by a mama pig like you did, Erio-kun."

"That's a lie and you can't prove it!" Erio spun on the ground to face and point at her. "I was just playing with some baby pigs and followed it, that's all."

"Uh huh..." Caro grinned at him. "That's why Yuuno-papa found you in the mud begging to get out of the pig pen?" She giggled as Erio hung his head and sighed heavily.

Erio wanted to get mad, he really did, but seeing her smiling and giggling, well, it made it hard to get angry at her when she was being so cute. "Subaru..." When the older girl looked at him, he grinned at her. "Wanna help me with some stuff later?"

Subaru blinked a few times and shrugged. "Don't see why not." She bent over as she stretched her legs out again. After a few more minutes of stretching, she shook her arms and legs to get any lingering pains out of them before blinking as she saw Erio and Caro running laps around a few trees. 'Wait, no, is she chasing him?' Subaru had seen the two argue and fight before, but this was the first time that the two had acted like actual children, with Caro running after Erio, swinging her arms up and down and Erio running and sticking his tongue out at Caro, occasionally putting on a burst of speed so he could kick her in the butt before changing directions.

Looking at Fried, she just blinked as the small Dragon sat on the ground, doing nothing, no, wait, it was doing something, it was eating some jerky.

Subaru looked at Erio again and chuckled. 'He... He bribed a Dragon.' She knew how protective of Caro Fried was, the small Dragon had headbutted her several times in practice for nearly hurting Caro by accident.

"Alright! Knock it off!" Vita's voice was heard and the two children stopped running around and Subaru looked up as Yuuno, Vita and Teana walked towards them. "Arisa and Suzuka'll join us later, anyway..."

"Aww!" A new female voice spoke up, one that had Yuuno and Vita instantly pale and tense up. "And I was so looking forward to having some fun with those two kiddies again!"

Yuuno, Vita and Teana all turned to see a rather tall and muscled woman with green hair, sunglasses over her eyes, a large grin on her face, looking at them. She was dressed in a green tank top that did absolutely nothing to hide her curves and what looked to be like military-grade camouflage pants with black boots on her feet. On her back was a sword hilt, but that was all most of them could tell at first glance.

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno and Vita hissed at the same time as the Mazoku general chuckled to herself.

"Glad to see that you didn't forget about me, kiddies!"

"Who is.." Teana started to speak, only to get interrupted by Yuuno.

"Someone who could likely fight everyone in the Riot Force right now and wipe all but a few of us by the time everything was said and done. She's nothing but a ruthless battle maniac who actually taught at our school back on Earth. At one point, she was an enemy, right now, you could probably place her in the category of ally... Tentatively."

"Aww!" Riksfalto suddenly disappeared before reappearing in front of Yuuno, hugging him tightly. "You say the sweetest things about me, and all it took was you nearly killing me when you were younger too!"

"Hey!" Caro yelled while swinging her arms up and down. "Stop hugging my papa!" It was rather simple for Caro, she didn't know Riksfalto personally, but she had heard Vita, Suzuka and Arisa complain about Riksfalto in gym class to give her the image of a horrible monster that liked to torment people endlessly. Besides, Riksfalto wasn't on Caro's "approved huggers of papa" list.

Granted, it was a very short list that really didn't extend too far, but it was still her list, dang it!

"You're that weird lady!" Erio pointed at Riksfalto. "You said to try and not blow everything up to me."

"Hmm?" Riksfalto let go of Yuuno, mentally amused by the fact that he somehow managed to be both blue in the face and red on his cheeks. Then again, she did hug him against her impressive chest. "Oh yeah, I remember you. That still stands kiddo, don't try to..." She trailed off as she looked at Caro and almost felt like taking a step back and looked at Yuuno. "...You adopted her?"

Yuuno patted his chest. "You do remember the rumors in school about me having a daughter?" He pointed to Caro. "She's my daughter."

Riksfalto looked at Caro, who smiled brightly and waved her hand slowly. "I see.." She looked at Teana and Subaru, both of whom were just looking at her in confusion. "I guess you two are interested in who I am?" They nodded slowly. "Name's Riksfalto, General to Lord Deep Sea Dolphin of the Red Staff," she lifted up her sunglasses, revealing one eye that was closed with a scar over it and the other eye had a look of almost insanity on it, "and I'm one Mazoku you'll never forget."

Subaru looked at the Mazoku and felt a shiver go up her spine. She wasn't exactly sure what a Mazoku was, but it probably wasn't a good thing.

"By the way, Yuuno..." Riksfalto shot to Yuuno, who took a wary step towards Caro as the Mazoku general looked at the girl again. "You do realize who those two are, right?"

"Erio and Caro being Dark Star and likely Vorfeed's reincarnations, yeah, why?"

"Just making sure." Riksfalto didn't like subterfuge, at all. However, when dealing with something that the Lord of Nightmares set up, well, it was best to not be straight forward.

"Actually..." Vita had a wicked, evil and flat-out mean idea enter her head at that moment. "We were about to start the afternoon training..." She trailed off and looked around. "Hey, where's Ginga?"

"Oh, mom needed her." Subaru rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I thought you knew."

Vita crossed her arms under her breasts and let out an annoyed snort. "Fine, well, you four..." She jerked a thumb at Riksfalto. "Caro to try and beat her up?"

Riksfalto grinned and pulled her sword out. "Give me a good fight, or I may... Hurt you a bit."

"You sure this is a good idea, Vita?"

"Trust me, they need to fight against a Mazoku, right? Unless she's ordered to, Riksfalto's never tried to kill any of us intentionally, and despite everything, she's always been straight-forward, right?"

"...True..." Yuuno broke the link and looked at everyone and then at Riksfalto. "...Just don't kill them, please?"

Riksfalto smirked at him. "No killing, but I can't guarantee I won't maim them."

Yuuno stepped away from the upcoming battlefield with Vita patting his back and wondered why all the women in his life were all violent maniacs. When he said it out loud, Vita just laughed and elbowed him lightly.

"Hey, at least it's not a romantic comedy manga, right?" Vita grinned at him as they stood by to watch the upcoming fight. "Even if your life kind of parallels some of the manga I've read. Then again, if it did for real, Signum, Shamal and myself would probably be interested in you as well."

"You're not?" Yuuno asked, fairly surprised as the battle was about to take place.

Vita rolled a strand of her hair in front of her eyes. "To be honest, Yuuno, I do like you, and I probably wouldn't mind going on a few dates with you. If it led to something more, I sure wouldn't complain." She looked at him and smiled softly before lightly punching him in the arm. "I could probably steal you away from the Takamachi sisters easily enough too." She nearly laughed as he blushed pretty hard. "But I'm not going to." she put her finger on his lips to keep him quiet, "because I respect your relationship with Nanoha, Fate and Miyuki to not do anything." She shrugged and turned back to watch as Riksfalto caught Subaru's punch with ease before throwing her through a tree. "Ouch, that had to hurt. And, Yuuno?"

"What?" He had to admit, he had never seen this side of Vita before.

Vita grinned at him. "If you end up wanting all three Takamachi sisters, let me know ahead of time, okay?" When he stared at her, she blushed softly. "What? After Chrono married Amy and Filia, I would have thought you would have gone for the same thing too."

"Uh..." Yuuno scratched his head. "Vita, I'm only nineteen, you're eighteen, we don't need to rush, do we?"

The redhead shrugged at that. "Not really, though it is fun to experiment and find out what we really want and need..." She sighed heavily. "Though, sometimes I think that dad doesn't really understand that."

"Hayate's had Reinforce for a long time, Vita..." Yuuno winced as Riksfalto smashed Fried into the ground hard enough to cause a small crater. "And there's Zwei..."

"I know..." Vita grumbled softly and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Did you know that I wanted what Reinforce has? Still do, actually."

"...You wanted to be Hayate's lover?"

Vita smirked softly. "I'll never get that in my life, though it's kind of stupid now that I look back at it."

"Not really." Yuuno said while watching the fight continue, though from the looks of things, Riksfalto wasn't trying too hard. After all, she put her sword away. Not that she needed it with how she was literally mopping the ground with Erio. "Erio! You might want let go of that spear when she grabs it and tries to use you as a squeegee!"

"Not really?" Vita snorted at him, "that's rich, coming from you."

"...Considering that I was dating Miyuki for a few years, Vita, I'd say that a notion like that doesn't bother me."

"Hey," Vita narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of Miyuki, is she still on Earth?"

"Last I heard..." Yuuno muttered, hoping that Miyuki didn't follow him to Mid-Childa. He had nothing against his girlfriend, he just wasn't sure if he could deal with Miyuki, Nanoha and Fate at the same time. Signum's constant amusement from watching him deal with his girl troubles was never a good thing.

(---)

"We're going to see Nee-chan now, Miyuki-nee?"

"Yes, Arashi," Miyuki smiled as they stepped off the ship and into Cranagan, "we're going to go see Nanoha now."

"Yay!" The young boy cheered and jumped into the air. "I can't wait to show her!"

"I bet." Miyuki sweat-dropped and hoped that this wasn't a bad time. Oh well, at least she could see Yuuno again, that was always nice.

Me: And the trainees got a crash course against a Mazoku General....

Odin: It's a start for RF6 to get ready for any other Mazoku threat popping out of the wood-works.

Me: Yeah. And I have a sinking feeling that Levi got to climb Olympus Mon Figuratively.

Val: And Miyuki is now coming to town. Hm... *looks at the training(read: total beatdown) by Riksfalto* Rei?

Reia: Yes?

Val: Call the medical personnel. *points at the "fight"* They'll need it.

[Lycodrake]

Ah, Riksfalto, how Yuuno loves to hate you...and hates to love.
Yuuno and Vita talking there was certainly interesting and enjoyable, too.

Nanya, you acursed ship-tease. =w=

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Lycodrake

Ah, Riksfalto, how Yuuno loves to hate you...and hates to love.
Yuuno and Vita talking there was certainly interesting and enjoyable, too.

Nanya, you acursed ship-tease. =w=

I found his shipping quiet amusing as well as entertaining, not to mention able to explore the other possible pairing that might pop out of MGLN... XD

[Filraen]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-31

StrikerS 32

StrikerS 33

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 34:

The next day around lunch time...

Teana blinked as she saw Vita eating alone. Normally it wasn't something that would interest her too much, but the woman looked like she was slightly upset about something. "Hey, Vita..." She said softly as she moved near the table. Teana's eyes widened when Vita looked at her. "What happened?"

"Sparring match with Suzuka." Vita grumbled, her eye was blackened and she had some blood on her face around her nose. "I lost."

"Ah, but, but, how?!" Teana stared and Vita snorted, grimacing painfully.

"I'd curse Shamal, but she said she'd fix me up in a little bit, as for how? It was a sparring match, pure hand-to-hand, no magic and I didn't use Graf Eisen," Vita grinned painfully, "she got a lucky shot in and pinned me for three seconds, she won."

"Bu, bu, bu..." Teana stuttered as Vita rolled her eyes.

"Look, sometimes it's not who's more powerful, more skilled or more experienced, sometimes a fight comes down to a stupid lucky, or cheap, shot." Vita shrugged at her stare. "Trust me when I say that there's no one more skilled in armed combat than Signum is and she tends to win any one-on-one sparring match she's in, or at least draw. But throw her into a group sparring match and she's one of the first ones to lose." Vita smirked and shook her head. "If you're wondering about the blood, lemme tell ya, headbutts against the nose hurt." Taking a napkin, she dabbed at her face again before getting up and leaving the table. "See ya this afternoon."

Teana could only slowly shake her head. "...Everyone in this place is insane."

She just wondered what kind of insanity they lived through to make them come out like this.

(---)

A couple of hours later...

Subaru was bending down, stretching as she and Erio spoke before afternoon practice. "Really? The whole chicken?"

"Yeah!" The boy laughed as he twisted his back to get some tension out of it. "Great grandma was crazy with that recipe, but yum, it was good!"

Subaru laughed as she tried to imagine it. "Oh wow, I couldn't see mom doing that."

Erio kept laughing. "It got really funny with Fried was accidentally thrown in as well, great grandma wanted the other chicken but grabbed him instead. I thought Caro was going to cry."

"Great grandma shouldn't be trying to cook Fried!" Caro yelled at Erio while Fried chirped in as his mistress sat on the ground and tried to stretch her legs and back out. "It's not Fried's fault he was flying near the live chickens, he's a growing Dragon and he was hungry!"

"Ku ku!" The Dragon landed on Caro's shoulders as she sat up properly.

Caro had a rather mischievous grin on her face. "Besides, at least I didn't get kidnapped by a mama pig like you did, Erio-kun."

"That's a lie and you can't prove it!" Erio spun on the ground to face and point at her. "I was just playing with some baby pigs and followed it, that's all."

"Uh huh..." Caro grinned at him. "That's why Yuuno-papa found you in the mud begging to get out of the pig pen?" She giggled as Erio hung his head and sighed heavily.

Erio wanted to get mad, he really did, but seeing her smiling and giggling, well, it made it hard to get angry at her when she was being so cute. "Subaru..." When the older girl looked at him, he grinned at her. "Wanna help me with some stuff later?"

Subaru blinked a few times and shrugged. "Don't see why not." She bent over as she stretched her legs out again. After a few more minutes of stretching, she shook her arms and legs to get any lingering pains out of them before blinking as she saw Erio and Caro running laps around a few trees. 'Wait, no, is she chasing him?' Subaru had seen the two argue and fight before, but this was the first time that the two had acted like actual children, with Caro running after Erio, swinging her arms up and down and Erio running and sticking his tongue out at Caro, occasionally putting on a burst of speed so he could kick her in the butt before changing directions.

Looking at Fried, she just blinked as the small Dragon sat on the ground, doing nothing, no, wait, it was doing something, it was eating some jerky.

Subaru looked at Erio again and chuckled. 'He... He bribed a Dragon.' She knew how protective of Caro Fried was, the small Dragon had headbutted her several times in practice for nearly hurting Caro by accident.

"Alright! Knock it off!" Vita's voice was heard and the two children stopped running around and Subaru looked up as Yuuno, Vita and Teana walked towards them. "Arisa and Suzuka'll join us later, anyway..."

"Aww!" A new female voice spoke up, one that had Yuuno and Vita instantly pale and tense up. "And I was so looking forward to having some fun with those two kiddies again!"

Yuuno, Vita and Teana all turned to see a rather tall and muscled woman with green hair, sunglasses over her eyes, a large grin on her face, looking at them. She was dressed in a green tank top that did absolutely nothing to hide her curves and what looked to be like military-grade camouflage pants with black boots on her feet. On her back was a sword hilt, but that was all most of them could tell at first glance.

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno and Vita hissed at the same time as the Mazoku general chuckled to herself.

"Glad to see that you didn't forget about me, kiddies!"

"Who is.." Teana started to speak, only to get interrupted by Yuuno.

"Someone who could likely fight everyone in the Riot Force right now and wipe all but a few of us by the time everything was said and done. She's nothing but a ruthless battle maniac who actually taught at our school back on Earth. At one point, she was an enemy, right now, you could probably place her in the category of ally... Tentatively."

"Aww!" Riksfalto suddenly disappeared before reappearing in front of Yuuno, hugging him tightly. "You say the sweetest things about me, and all it took was you nearly killing me when you were younger too!"

"Hey!" Caro yelled while swinging her arms up and down. "Stop hugging my papa!" It was rather simple for Caro, she didn't know Riksfalto personally, but she had heard Vita, Suzuka and Arisa complain about Riksfalto in gym class to give her the image of a horrible monster that liked to torment people endlessly. Besides, Riksfalto wasn't on Caro's "approved huggers of papa" list.

Granted, it was a very short list that really didn't extend too far, but it was still her list, dang it!

"You're that weird lady!" Erio pointed at Riksfalto. "You said to try and not blow everything up to me."

"Hmm?" Riksfalto let go of Yuuno, mentally amused by the fact that he somehow managed to be both blue in the face and red on his cheeks. Then again, she did hug him against her impressive chest. "Oh yeah, I remember you. That still stands kiddo, don't try to..." She trailed off as she looked at Caro and almost felt like taking a step back and looked at Yuuno. "...You adopted her?"

Yuuno patted his chest. "You do remember the rumors in school about me having a daughter?" He pointed to Caro. "She's my daughter."

Riksfalto looked at Caro, who smiled brightly and waved her hand slowly. "I see.." She looked at Teana and Subaru, both of whom were just looking at her in confusion. "I guess you two are interested in who I am?" They nodded slowly. "Name's Riksfalto, General to Lord Deep Sea Dolphin of the Red Staff," she lifted up her sunglasses, revealing one eye that was closed with a scar over it and the other eye had a look of almost insanity on it, "and I'm one Mazoku you'll never forget."

Subaru looked at the Mazoku and felt a shiver go up her spine. She wasn't exactly sure what a Mazoku was, but it probably wasn't a good thing.

"By the way, Yuuno..." Riksfalto shot to Yuuno, who took a wary step towards Caro as the Mazoku general looked at the girl again. "You do realize who those two are, right?"

"Erio and Caro being Dark Star and likely Vorfeed's reincarnations, yeah, why?"

"Just making sure." Riksfalto didn't like subterfuge, at all. However, when dealing with something that the Lord of Nightmares set up, well, it was best to not be straight forward.

"Actually..." Vita had a wicked, evil and flat-out mean idea enter her head at that moment. "We were about to start the afternoon training..." She trailed off and looked around. "Hey, where's Ginga?"

"Oh, mom needed her." Subaru rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I thought you knew."

Vita crossed her arms under her breasts and let out an annoyed snort. "Fine, well, you four..." She jerked a thumb at Riksfalto. "Caro to try and beat her up?"

Riksfalto grinned and pulled her sword out. "Give me a good fight, or I may... Hurt you a bit."

"You sure this is a good idea, Vita?"

"Trust me, they need to fight against a Mazoku, right? Unless she's ordered to, Riksfalto's never tried to kill any of us intentionally, and despite everything, she's always been straight-forward, right?"

"...True..." Yuuno broke the link and looked at everyone and then at Riksfalto. "...Just don't kill them, please?"

Riksfalto smirked at him. "No killing, but I can't guarantee I won't maim them."

Yuuno stepped away from the upcoming battlefield with Vita patting his back and wondered why all the women in his life were all violent maniacs. When he said it out loud, Vita just laughed and elbowed him lightly.

"Hey, at least it's not a romantic comedy manga, right?" Vita grinned at him as they stood by to watch the upcoming fight. "Even if your life kind of parallels some of the manga I've read. Then again, if it did for real, Signum, Shamal and myself would probably be interested in you as well."

"You're not?" Yuuno asked, fairly surprised as the battle was about to take place.

Vita rolled a strand of her hair in front of her eyes. "To be honest, Yuuno, I do like you, and I probably wouldn't mind going on a few dates with you. If it led to something more, I sure wouldn't complain." She looked at him and smiled softly before lightly punching him in the arm. "I could probably steal you away from the Takamachi sisters easily enough too." She nearly laughed as he blushed pretty hard. "But I'm not going to." she put her finger on his lips to keep him quiet, "because I respect your relationship with Nanoha, Fate and Miyuki to not do anything." She shrugged and turned back to watch as Riksfalto caught Subaru's punch with ease before throwing her through a tree. "Ouch, that had to hurt. And, Yuuno?"

"What?" He had to admit, he had never seen this side of Vita before.

Vita grinned at him. "If you end up wanting all three Takamachi sisters, let me know ahead of time, okay?" When he stared at her, she blushed softly. "What? After Chrono married Amy and Filia, I would have thought you would have gone for the same thing too."

"Uh..." Yuuno scratched his head. "Vita, I'm only nineteen, you're eighteen, we don't need to rush, do we?"

The redhead shrugged at that. "Not really, though it is fun to experiment and find out what we really want and need..." She sighed heavily. "Though, sometimes I think that dad doesn't really understand that."

"Hayate's had Reinforce for a long time, Vita..." Yuuno winced as Riksfalto smashed Fried into the ground hard enough to cause a small crater. "And there's Zwei..."

"I know..." Vita grumbled softly and crossed her arms under her breasts. "Did you know that I wanted what Reinforce has? Still do, actually."

"...You wanted to be Hayate's lover?"

Vita smirked softly. "I'll never get that in my life, though it's kind of stupid now that I look back at it."

"Not really." Yuuno said while watching the fight continue, though from the looks of things, Riksfalto wasn't trying too hard. After all, she put her sword away. Not that she needed it with how she was literally mopping the ground with Erio. "Erio! You might want let go of that spear when she grabs it and tries to use you as a squeegee!"

"Not really?" Vita snorted at him, "that's rich, coming from you."

"...Considering that I was dating Miyuki for a few years, Vita, I'd say that a notion like that doesn't bother me."

"Hey," Vita narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of Miyuki, is she still on Earth?"

"Last I heard..." Yuuno muttered, hoping that Miyuki didn't follow him to Mid-Childa. He had nothing against his girlfriend, he just wasn't sure if he could deal with Miyuki, Nanoha and Fate at the same time. Signum's constant amusement from watching him deal with his girl troubles was never a good thing.

(---)

"We're going to see Nee-chan now, Miyuki-nee?"

"Yes, Arashi," Miyuki smiled as they stepped off the ship and into Cranagan, "we're going to go see Nanoha now."

"Yay!" The young boy cheered and jumped into the air. "I can't wait to show her!"

"I bet." Miyuki sweat-dropped and hoped that this wasn't a bad time. Oh well, at least she could see Yuuno again, that was always nice.

Actually, I was wondering about Riksfalto today. nice to see her again.

[Justin_Brett]

So I forgot to add this for a little while, but I finished an update of Section Thirteen while the topic was locked. Enjoy.

[Nanya01]

StrikerS 1-31

StrikerS 32

StrikerS 33

StrikerS 34

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - Strikers 35:

Meanwhile...

"Thanks for meeting with us, Hayate." Quint smiled at the young commander as she, Ginga, Zest and Reinforce stood by in Hayate's office.

Hayate waved it off and smiled at her. "Not a problem." She nodded at Zest, who had a stony expression on his face. "You're a lot of fun, I see."

"I mean no disrespect for you or your organization, Hayate Yagami, however..."

"It's that mission that we had." Quint spoke up and looked at Ginga, who nodded. "You know that both Ginga and Subaru are..."

"Combat Cyborgs," Hayate nodded at Quint and looked at Ginga curiously, "you know that I personally don't care if she's a Combat Cyborg, a Dragon or anything like that, so why bring this up now?"

"Because the enemies that we've run into..." Quint took a deep breath, "are likely Combat Cyborgs as well." Hayate looked at her with shock on her face. "The two that injured Vita and Nanoha, the four that showed up in our last mission... Sein... And there's probably at least three others that I know of personally."

"Are you sure?" Hayate asked, narrowing her eyes. "So, there's ten others... Maybe more?"

"Considering that they seem to be named for numbers..." Ginga spoke up, catching Hayate's attention. "Well, Sein, Otto, Deed... Deed means twelve, doesn't it?"

"Not to mention she had a numerical symbol for twelve on her neck." Quint continued to speak to the room. "And my research..."

"Jail Scagiletti's behind this," Zest spoke up, causing Quint to sigh.

"Zest, you need to learn about proper delivery, but yes, Zest's right, Jail Scagiletti." Quint wanted to belt her former commander for ruining any suspense she had been trying to build up.

"Scagiletti..." Reinforce muttered and closed her eyes. "From what I heard, he completely disappeared, went so far underground that no one can find him." Even Vita's contacts, which, if Reinforce stopped to think about it, was rather scary, since she knew so many rather shady people, hadn't turned up anything about Jail Scagiletti in the past few years. "If this is true, then this is the first time he's made any sort of movements in years."

"I believe so," Quint nodded, "Zest and myself have unsolved issues with him, so we wish to partake in any mission that may lead us to him."

"I can authorize that on a couple of conditions," Hayate looked at Zest, "one, I wish to know just why you're interested in this and two, if any of your co-workers or subordinates are in need of help and you can give it, you are to give help. I don't want any crazy need for revenge to cloud your judgement."

"Agreeable, as for why," Zest narrowed his eyes, "there was a girl that took place in that last battle, her name is Lutecia Alphine," he gave Hayate a look that had even her shivering slightly, and the next words chilled everyone in the room, "and she is my daughter."

That, Hayate decided, was more than enough reason for anyone to want to fight against someone else.

(---)

"Ne, Signum-nee..." Rein Zwei said as she floated along-side Signum as they walked outside. "You think that there's going to be something bad happening soon?"

"I hope not, Rein," Signum narrowed her eyes as she looked out at the sky, "considering what happened to Testarossa, Scrya, Vita and that thing," Signum had a tight smirk on her face as she remembered the nick-name that she had given Nanoha, it hadn't been serious, but for some reason it just clicked, "I do think that something bad happening is likely."

"Mou..." Rein Zwei let out an exaggerated groan, "you're pretty bad, Signum-nee, can't you call Nanoha-san, Nanoha-san at least?"

"I'm ten years older than her, doesn't mean I don't have a childish side when it comes to her or any of our friends."

"Being somewhat selfish never hurts anything," a new voice spoke up and Rein grinned and zipped over to the speaker, slapping the offered palm, "then again, Signum was always selfish."

"Sure, Shamal," Signum smirked at her, "so, you ready?"

"Yes," Shamal smiled at her, "thank you for giving me the ride today."

"It's not a problem," Signum nodded as the three of them entered Signum's car, "as it stands, I was heading to the Saint Church today anyway, why are you heading there again?"

"A few supplies, nothing too much, plus Hayate wanted me to pick up some stuff that Carim had for her."

Signum nodded and looked at Zwei as the young girl took her larger child form and got into the car seat in the back. "Are you okay, Zwei?"

"I'll be fine. Even if I'm not that good at regulating magic in this form, I should be just fine. Besides, mommy says that I have to get used to being in my bigger form more often."

Shamal smiled at Zwei, "you wouldn't want to be small forever, you'll need to grow up like your mother has." She then giggled as Signum started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot. "Of course, a small Zwei is still a really cute thought." She turned and settled against her seat, grinning with her eyes closed. "A cute little Zwei who's smaller than a ripe tomato? That sounds so cute..." Plus the thought of Zwei actually trying to eat something so large compared to her was rather cute and adorable.

Had Signum not rolled her eyes at that moment, she may have noticed a pink blur zip past her car on the freeway. As it was, she never noticed anything, but for some reason, she had to fight the urge to hug herself. If only she knew why.

(---)

"So, what do you think of Cranagan?" Kuma said as he turned a corner rather fast.

"The ice cream is good." Kyrie grinned in the back seat. "Ami," she whined when her sister snorted, "why can't I be in the front seat?"

"Because I'm in the front seat." Amitie closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. "Tell me, Kuma, what will happen to us?"

"Well, I don't know," he was uncharacteristically somber as he spoke to her, "but, from what you've said, I think I've got an idea," a grin came to his face suddenly, "and if I'm right, we won't need to work for that Mazoku for too much longer. HA HA!"

Amitie didn't want to admit it, but for some reason, this man, Straight Kuma, gave her hope.

Which was something she thought she had lost when she was only six years old when her father was brutally murdered in front of her and Kyrie.

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-31

StrikerS 32

StrikerS 33

StrikerS 34

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - Strikers 35:

Meanwhile...

"Thanks for meeting with us, Hayate." Quint smiled at the young commander as she, Ginga, Zest and Reinforce stood by in Hayate's office.

Hayate waved it off and smiled at her. "Not a problem." She nodded at Zest, who had a stony expression on his face. "You're a lot of fun, I see."

"I mean no disrespect for you or your organization, Hayate Yagami, however..."

"It's that mission that we had." Quint spoke up and looked at Ginga, who nodded. "You know that both Ginga and Subaru are..."

"Combat Cyborgs," Hayate nodded at Quint and looked at Ginga curiously, "you know that I personally don't care if she's a Combat Cyborg, a Dragon or anything like that, so why bring this up now?"

"Because the enemies that we've run into..." Quint took a deep breath, "are likely Combat Cyborgs as well." Hayate looked at her with shock on her face. "The two that injured Vita and Nanoha, the four that showed up in our last mission... Sein... And there's probably at least three others that I know of personally."

"Are you sure?" Hayate asked, narrowing her eyes. "So, there's ten others... Maybe more?"

"Considering that they seem to be named for numbers..." Ginga spoke up, catching Hayate's attention. "Well, Sein, Otto, Deed... Deed means twelve, doesn't it?"

"Not to mention she had a numerical symbol for twelve on her neck." Quint continued to speak to the room. "And my research..."

"Jail Scagiletti's behind this," Zest spoke up, causing Quint to sigh.

"Zest, you need to learn about proper delivery, but yes, Zest's right, Jail Scagiletti." Quint wanted to belt her former commander for ruining any suspense she had been trying to build up.

"Scagiletti..." Reinforce muttered and closed her eyes. "From what I heard, he completely disappeared, went so far underground that no one can find him." Even Vita's contacts, which, if Reinforce stopped to think about it, was rather scary, since she knew so many rather shady people, hadn't turned up anything about Jail Scagiletti in the past few years. "If this is true, then this is the first time he's made any sort of movements in years."

"I believe so," Quint nodded, "Zest and myself have unsolved issues with him, so we wish to partake in any mission that may lead us to him."

"I can authorize that on a couple of conditions," Hayate looked at Zest, "one, I wish to know just why you're interested in this and two, if any of your co-workers or subordinates are in need of help and you can give it, you are to give help. I don't want any crazy need for revenge to cloud your judgement."

"Agreeable, as for why," Zest narrowed his eyes, "there was a girl that took place in that last battle, her name is Lutecia Alphine," he gave Hayate a look that had even her shivering slightly, and the next words chilled everyone in the room, "and she is my daughter."

That, Hayate decided, was more than enough reason for anyone to want to fight against someone else.

(---)

"Ne, Signum-nee..." Rein Zwei said as she floated along-side Signum as they walked outside. "You think that there's going to be something bad happening soon?"

"I hope not, Rein," Signum narrowed her eyes as she looked out at the sky, "considering what happened to Testarossa, Scrya, Vita and that thing," Signum had a tight smirk on her face as she remembered the nick-name that she had given Nanoha, it hadn't been serious, but for some reason it just clicked, "I do think that something bad happening is likely."

"Mou..." Rein Zwei let out an exaggerated groan, "you're pretty bad, Signum-nee, can't you call Nanoha-san, Nanoha-san at least?"

"I'm ten years older than her, doesn't mean I don't have a childish side when it comes to her or any of our friends."

"Being somewhat selfish never hurts anything," a new voice spoke up and Rein grinned and zipped over to the speaker, slapping the offered palm, "then again, Signum was always selfish."

"Sure, Shamal," Signum smirked at her, "so, you ready?"

"Yes," Shamal smiled at her, "thank you for giving me the ride today."

"It's not a problem," Signum nodded as the three of them entered Signum's car, "as it stands, I was heading to the Saint Church today anyway, why are you heading there again?"

"A few supplies, nothing too much, plus Hayate wanted me to pick up some stuff that Carim had for her."

Signum nodded and looked at Zwei as the young girl took her larger child form and got into the car seat in the back. "Are you okay, Zwei?"

"I'll be fine. Even if I'm not that good at regulating magic in this form, I should be just fine. Besides, mommy says that I have to get used to being in my bigger form more often."

Shamal smiled at Zwei, "you wouldn't want to be small forever, you'll need to grow up like your mother has." She then giggled as Signum started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot. "Of course, a small Zwei is still a really cute thought." She turned and settled against her seat, grinning with her eyes closed. "A cute little Zwei who's smaller than a ripe tomato? That sounds so cute..." Plus the thought of Zwei actually trying to eat something so large compared to her was rather cute and adorable.

Had Signum not rolled her eyes at that moment, she may have noticed a pink blur zip past her car on the freeway. As it was, she never noticed anything, but for some reason, she had to fight the urge to hug herself. If only she knew why.

(---)

"So, what do you think of Cranagan?" Kuma said as he turned a corner rather fast.

"The ice cream is good." Kyrie grinned in the back seat. "Ami," she whined when her sister snorted, "why can't I be in the front seat?"

"Because I'm in the front seat." Amitie closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. "Tell me, Kuma, what will happen to us?"

"Well, I don't know," he was uncharacteristically somber as he spoke to her, "but, from what you've said, I think I've got an idea," a grin came to his face suddenly, "and if I'm right, we won't need to work for that Mazoku for too much longer. HA HA!"

Amitie didn't want to admit it, but for some reason, this man, Straight Kuma, gave her hope.

Which was something she thought she had lost when she was only six years old when her father was brutally murdered in front of her and Kyrie.

Odin: Those clubs and pubs that Vita hangs around are a goldmine for information, more especially those under the table.

Me: Looks like the signs of defection is slowly making itself known to us. It's just a matter of time before Levi's plan gone down the drain.

Val: Of course, there's the station of the canon to follow. So it's gonna be at least around the equivalent of ep 20 StrikerS before that happens in my estimation.

*The three of us got douse with cold water.*

Reia: Stop spoiling, you morons.

Odin: Ah.... Thank you for the bath.

Val: I think someone got sick here.

Me: ACHOO!!!!

[Nanya01]

StrikerS 1-35

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 36:

Elsewhere...

Teana groaned as she tried to pick herself off of the ground. Looking around, she noticed that none of the others were better off than she was, in fact, Caro and Fried were out cold, Erio was just climbing out of a lake, Subaru had her butt literally stuck into a tree and was trying to get out, while she was just lucky enough to be covered in dirt and flowers. Looking at their opponent, Teana had the strangest sensation that she barely even tried against them.

"Have to admit, Yuuno, your standards are slipping," Riksfalto turned to look at Yuuno, irritation lacing her voice, "I mean it, these four would have been dead in two seconds back when we first met. Even that man who married Lina Inverse put up a better fight than they did!"

"YOU!" Riksfalto suddenly grinned as she turned and caught a punch in the jaw, sending her spiraling across the field through mid-air and into the parking lot, smashing into a random parked car.

Suzuka growled and cracked her knuckles while Arisa, who was behind her, sweat-dropped heavily. "Suzuka, do you like breaking cars or something? Because every time you hit her, a car tends to get broken. This isn't Street Fighter after all."

There was a laughter in the air as Riksfalto reappeared on the training ground, though it looked like her jaw was out of place. Putting a hand on it, she adjusted it back into position. "Now THAT is what I was looking for!" She pulled her sword out and grinned at Suzuka, who glared at her. "Come on! Let's have some FUN!"

The next thing that Suzuka and Riksfalto knew, they were chained up and forced to their knees. "Not right now, you two." Yuuno said as he and Vita walked forward. He canceled the binds on the two of them to let them up. "If you to tear into each other, those four won't have learned anything."

"Besides how outclassed we are?" Teana said as she finally was able to get to her feet. Chancing a glance at Subaru, the cyborg had managed to pull herself out of the tree and was rubbing her butt while making her way over to Caro and Fried, while Erio did the same. "Look at you four, she beat us so easily and yet you, Yuuno, were able to pin her down like it was nothing. Even when Subaru punched her, nothing happened, yet Suzuka could hit her to the parking lot. This was all just a matter of making fun of us, wasn't it?"

"Tea..." Subaru said softly as she watched what had to be a massive car accident happening in front of her.

"No! I'm saying it now!" Teana yelled as she looked at her instructors, Arisa, Suzuka and Riksfalto. "What's the point of taking us on, other than to humiliate us at every chance you can? Why do you need to prove that you're so superior to us all the time?!"

Vita growled and was about to step in and say something but Yuuno waved her down.

"I get it, you could totally kick our butts if you wanted to, our training is just because of some sort of agreement." Teana closed her eyes, tears leaking out of them as she continued to speak, "you guys are so much more powerful than any of us could be it's just stupid and..."

"Alright, I'm tired of this." Riksfalto walked up to Teana and punched the girl so hard that she flew back several feet before sliding onto the ground. "You're a complete moron, aren't you?"

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno yelled at her and got in front of the Mazoku General. "That's enough."

Riksfalto snorted and took off her glasses to glare at him. "You're honestly okay with her yelling at you like that?" Yuuno shook his head and she growled. "Then why let her?!"

"Because I can see where she's coming from!" He yelled back, much to her surprise, not to mention Teana, Subaru, Erio and Caro. "Ten years ago, I found a little girl who had a ton of magical potential, she quickly learned everything I had to teach her and went on to develop her own spells. Her mother was so powerful that she could destroy a city-sized object with ease and was able to teach both myself and her daughter spells that we never thought possible. One day, I looked at them in practice and asked myself why I was there, I felt like I was completely worthless and weak compared to them." Yuuno turned away from her and walked over to Teana, who was still on her back, stunned. "Which is why, Teana, I'm not mad at you for being frustrated." He held his hand out to her, smiling. "Teaching you, yes, is part of a political deal to be here." Helping her to her feet, he looked at Subaru, Erio and Caro, the latter having only woken up to hear his last bit. "The reason we're training you is to be able to fight against beings like Riksfalto."

"But every time we attacked her, it was like our spells failed to go off!" Subaru yelled and glared at Riksfalto, who turned and smirked at her.

"Magic cancellation, kiddy. If you can't handle it, you can always fight against a bunch of weak thugs." Riksfalto moved her neck back and forth. "Well then, I'll see you around." She grinned and put her sunglasses back on before disappearing completely.

"Hard to imagine that she's actually not very good at it." Vita muttered as she looked at the others. "Come inside, we need to have a meeting."

The kids all looked at each other in confusion.

(---)

A little later, in the large conference room...

Vita nodded to Hayate as she, Reinforce, Quint, Ginga and Zest had joined them. "Thanks for joining us. They met Riksfalto."

Hayate narrowed her eyes at that name. "I am NOT having that woman as our gym coach." Reinforce just laughed at her. "She's pure evil! She worked us to the bone day in and day out, just so that we would all be upset, and tossed out things that annoyed all of us! Arrgh!"

"I'm sure she is, after all, she did bring those paintball guns to school that one day and made it so that the paintballs exploded..." Reinforce smiled as she remembered Vita and Hayate coming home covered in red, green, blue, brown and white colors. It was actually quite hilarious and she still had the pictures of that event. Not to mention that Lina had sent her pictures of Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno in all sorts of paint as well. After all, one had to make sure that embarrassing moments were shared among parents. "Anyway, I think we're here for something else?"

"Yeah." Vita nodded and closed her eyes. "The Garoth Incident."

Subaru looked around as all the adults got rather silent at that. "Um... What's wrong?"

"Ten years ago," Reinforce began, "Hayate and Nanoha were kidnapped by a powerful Mazoku known as Death Bringer Garoth." A holo screen appeared on the table facing everyone as a man with shoulder length black hair in a tuxedo appeared on the screen, holding what looked to be a much younger, unconscious Nanoha in his arms. He had a Priestess as his servant," a woman with blue hair with dark tips and purple eyes grinned at the screen, she was in a standard Bureau outfit. What shocked everyone at the table was when her hair and eyes changed color.

"Fate-san?!" Erio gasped and looked at the woman. "But..."

"She's not Fate-chan..." Hayate closed her eyes for a moment before opening them, sadness on her face. "She was Fate-chan's sister, Alicia Testarossa. Shortly after Garoth and Alicia kidnapped Nanoha-chan and myself, he took over the Ground Forces Headquarters and tried to use Nanoha-chan, or her mother to destroy a black crystal pillar. You may have noticed the thing in the city."

Subaru blinked and looked at her mother, who had a grim look on her face. "...But, I thought it was an ancient monument that no one knew what it was for?"

"Cover story," Quint sighed heavily. "When this... Garoth person took over the Ground Forces Headquarters, he managed to keep all of the Bureau from doing anything, it wasn't until Miss Lina, Hayate's family, Fate and Yuuno showed up that we were able to do anything." Quint frowned and blinked. "...There was someone else there, but I don't remember who exactly..."

"Chrono," Yuuno smirked and couldn't wait to let Chrono know that people had forgotten him already, "but, yeah, we went up against someone who made Riksfalto look like a wet paper rag. The only reason we survived is because he didn't want to kill us, not yet, he wanted us for something else. None of us outside of Reinforce, Hayate, Lina or Nanoha had a chance to even hurt him." The children stared in shock as Lina, in the image, created a black blade that cut the Mazoku Lord in half, only to see him reform completely fine a few moments later. "Even that was no guarantee."

"Chrono got a crazy plan to use some Lost Logia, known as the Jewel Seeds," Vita continued as the images on the screen changed to Chrono, Yuuno, Shamal and Zafira standing close to the pillar but far away from Garoth as he toyed with Lina, "to break the dimensional fabric and seal Garoth into the space between dimensions."

"But that's completely against everything that the Bureau wants!" Teana stood up, protesting. "We don't want stuff like that to happen."

"We know," Yuuno said as the screen revealed what Chrono had done. "We didn't have a choice in the matter at all."

Those who had never seen what went on paled as they saw Garoth get sucked into a black and gold pit of nothingness. Even Zest felt the urge to shiver as Garoth was sent into the hole before Chrono, Yuuno and Shamal sealed the hole away.

"We weren't created to deal with normal threats," Vita looked at Teana, "we were gathered to deal with threats that the rest of the Bureau would get crushed against. And beings like Riksfalto are what we're teaching you to fight against."

"But, they're gone, right?" Teana chuckled nervously and Hayate shook her head.

"Even if those two are gone, there are other Mazoku Lords out there. One of which introduced himself to Admiral Lindy Harloawn a few years ago." Hayate bit her lip lightly. "Even if he does not become a threat, there may be others out there that could become a threat."

"We're trying to help you so that you can fight against such beings and have a hope to live," Yuuno looked at the four younger recruits, all of which were looking rather overwhelmed by this information, "against beings like Riksfalto, you might get lucky with a well-timed blast, but against beings like Garoth... You'll need a team," he looked at Arisa and Suzuka, before looking at Quint, Zest, Reinforce and then Hayate, "as for this, well..." He looked at Hayate, who smiled at them.

"I dunno if Yuuno was going to let you have today off or not, but I figure that letting everyone have a day off to go have some fun isn't a bad idea."

Subaru looked at Hayate, and then at Yuuno, before looking at Vita, who just rubbed the back of her head and grumbled softly. "You, you mean it?"

"Eh, you guys haven't done too bad, besides, doing nothing but training is hard on the body, so, take some time off and relax." She grinned at them savagely. "Today and tomorrow, but when your days off are over, don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Seeing Vita cackle to herself caused Teana to gulp nervously.

Oh well, they had a day and a half off. Maybe that would be enough to help her relax completely?

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-35

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 36:

Elsewhere...

Teana groaned as she tried to pick herself off of the ground. Looking around, she noticed that none of the others were better off than she was, in fact, Caro and Fried were out cold, Erio was just climbing out of a lake, Subaru had her butt literally stuck into a tree and was trying to get out, while she was just lucky enough to be covered in dirt and flowers. Looking at their opponent, Teana had the strangest sensation that she barely even tried against them.

"Have to admit, Yuuno, your standards are slipping," Riksfalto turned to look at Yuuno, irritation lacing her voice, "I mean it, these four would have been dead in two seconds back when we first met. Even that man who married Lina Inverse put up a better fight than they did!"

"YOU!" Riksfalto suddenly grinned as she turned and caught a punch in the jaw, sending her spiraling across the field through mid-air and into the parking lot, smashing into a random parked car.

Suzuka growled and cracked her knuckles while Arisa, who was behind her, sweat-dropped heavily. "Suzuka, do you like breaking cars or something? Because every time you hit her, a car tends to get broken. This isn't Street Fighter after all."

There was a laughter in the air as Riksfalto reappeared on the training ground, though it looked like her jaw was out of place. Putting a hand on it, she adjusted it back into position. "Now THAT is what I was looking for!" She pulled her sword out and grinned at Suzuka, who glared at her. "Come on! Let's have some FUN!"

The next thing that Suzuka and Riksfalto knew, they were chained up and forced to their knees. "Not right now, you two." Yuuno said as he and Vita walked forward. He canceled the binds on the two of them to let them up. "If you to tear into each other, those four won't have learned anything."

"Besides how outclassed we are?" Teana said as she finally was able to get to her feet. Chancing a glance at Subaru, the cyborg had managed to pull herself out of the tree and was rubbing her butt while making her way over to Caro and Fried, while Erio did the same. "Look at you four, she beat us so easily and yet you, Yuuno, were able to pin her down like it was nothing. Even when Subaru punched her, nothing happened, yet Suzuka could hit her to the parking lot. This was all just a matter of making fun of us, wasn't it?"

"Tea..." Subaru said softly as she watched what had to be a massive car accident happening in front of her.

"No! I'm saying it now!" Teana yelled as she looked at her instructors, Arisa, Suzuka and Riksfalto. "What's the point of taking us on, other than to humiliate us at every chance you can? Why do you need to prove that you're so superior to us all the time?!"

Vita growled and was about to step in and say something but Yuuno waved her down.

"I get it, you could totally kick our butts if you wanted to, our training is just because of some sort of agreement." Teana closed her eyes, tears leaking out of them as she continued to speak, "you guys are so much more powerful than any of us could be it's just stupid and..."

"Alright, I'm tired of this." Riksfalto walked up to Teana and punched the girl so hard that she flew back several feet before sliding onto the ground. "You're a complete moron, aren't you?"

"Riksfalto!" Yuuno yelled at her and got in front of the Mazoku General. "That's enough."

Riksfalto snorted and took off her glasses to glare at him. "You're honestly okay with her yelling at you like that?" Yuuno shook his head and she growled. "Then why let her?!"

"Because I can see where she's coming from!" He yelled back, much to her surprise, not to mention Teana, Subaru, Erio and Caro. "Ten years ago, I found a little girl who had a ton of magical potential, she quickly learned everything I had to teach her and went on to develop her own spells. Her mother was so powerful that she could destroy a city-sized object with ease and was able to teach both myself and her daughter spells that we never thought possible. One day, I looked at them in practice and asked myself why I was there, I felt like I was completely worthless and weak compared to them." Yuuno turned away from her and walked over to Teana, who was still on her back, stunned. "Which is why, Teana, I'm not mad at you for being frustrated." He held his hand out to her, smiling. "Teaching you, yes, is part of a political deal to be here." Helping her to her feet, he looked at Subaru, Erio and Caro, the latter having only woken up to hear his last bit. "The reason we're training you is to be able to fight against beings like Riksfalto."

"But every time we attacked her, it was like our spells failed to go off!" Subaru yelled and glared at Riksfalto, who turned and smirked at her.

"Magic cancellation, kiddy. If you can't handle it, you can always fight against a bunch of weak thugs." Riksfalto moved her neck back and forth. "Well then, I'll see you around." She grinned and put her sunglasses back on before disappearing completely.

"Hard to imagine that she's actually not very good at it." Vita muttered as she looked at the others. "Come inside, we need to have a meeting."

The kids all looked at each other in confusion.

(---)

A little later, in the large conference room...

Vita nodded to Hayate as she, Reinforce, Quint, Ginga and Zest had joined them. "Thanks for joining us. They met Riksfalto."

Hayate narrowed her eyes at that name. "I am NOT having that woman as our gym coach." Reinforce just laughed at her. "She's pure evil! She worked us to the bone day in and day out, just so that we would all be upset, and tossed out things that annoyed all of us! Arrgh!"

"I'm sure she is, after all, she did bring those paintball guns to school that one day and made it so that the paintballs exploded..." Reinforce smiled as she remembered Vita and Hayate coming home covered in red, green, blue, brown and white colors. It was actually quite hilarious and she still had the pictures of that event. Not to mention that Lina had sent her pictures of Fate, Nanoha and Yuuno in all sorts of paint as well. After all, one had to make sure that embarrassing moments were shared among parents. "Anyway, I think we're here for something else?"

"Yeah." Vita nodded and closed her eyes. "The Garoth Incident."

Subaru looked around as all the adults got rather silent at that. "Um... What's wrong?"

"Ten years ago," Reinforce began, "Hayate and Nanoha were kidnapped by a powerful Mazoku known as Death Bringer Garoth." A holo screen appeared on the table facing everyone as a man with shoulder length black hair in a tuxedo appeared on the screen, holding what looked to be a much younger, unconscious Nanoha in his arms. He had a Priestess as his servant," a woman with blue hair with dark tips and purple eyes grinned at the screen, she was in a standard Bureau outfit. What shocked everyone at the table was when her hair and eyes changed color.

"Fate-san?!" Erio gasped and looked at the woman. "But..."

"She's not Fate-chan..." Hayate closed her eyes for a moment before opening them, sadness on her face. "She was Fate-chan's sister, Alicia Testarossa. Shortly after Garoth and Alicia kidnapped Nanoha-chan and myself, he took over the Ground Forces Headquarters and tried to use Nanoha-chan, or her mother to destroy a black crystal pillar. You may have noticed the thing in the city."

Subaru blinked and looked at her mother, who had a grim look on her face. "...But, I thought it was an ancient monument that no one knew what it was for?"

"Cover story," Quint sighed heavily. "When this... Garoth person took over the Ground Forces Headquarters, he managed to keep all of the Bureau from doing anything, it wasn't until Miss Lina, Hayate's family, Fate and Yuuno showed up that we were able to do anything." Quint frowned and blinked. "...There was someone else there, but I don't remember who exactly..."

"Chrono," Yuuno smirked and couldn't wait to let Chrono know that people had forgotten him already, "but, yeah, we went up against someone who made Riksfalto look like a wet paper rag. The only reason we survived is because he didn't want to kill us, not yet, he wanted us for something else. None of us outside of Reinforce, Hayate, Lina or Nanoha had a chance to even hurt him." The children stared in shock as Lina, in the image, created a black blade that cut the Mazoku Lord in half, only to see him reform completely fine a few moments later. "Even that was no guarantee."

"Chrono got a crazy plan to use some Lost Logia, known as the Jewel Seeds," Vita continued as the images on the screen changed to Chrono, Yuuno, Shamal and Zafira standing close to the pillar but far away from Garoth as he toyed with Lina, "to break the dimensional fabric and seal Garoth into the space between dimensions."

"But that's completely against everything that the Bureau wants!" Teana stood up, protesting. "We don't want stuff like that to happen."

"We know," Yuuno said as the screen revealed what Chrono had done. "We didn't have a choice in the matter at all."

Those who had never seen what went on paled as they saw Garoth get sucked into a black and gold pit of nothingness. Even Zest felt the urge to shiver as Garoth was sent into the hole before Chrono, Yuuno and Shamal sealed the hole away.

"We weren't created to deal with normal threats," Vita looked at Teana, "we were gathered to deal with threats that the rest of the Bureau would get crushed against. And beings like Riksfalto are what we're teaching you to fight against."

"But, they're gone, right?" Teana chuckled nervously and Hayate shook her head.

"Even if those two are gone, there are other Mazoku Lords out there. One of which introduced himself to Admiral Lindy Harloawn a few years ago." Hayate bit her lip lightly. "Even if he does not become a threat, there may be others out there that could become a threat."

"We're trying to help you so that you can fight against such beings and have a hope to live," Yuuno looked at the four younger recruits, all of which were looking rather overwhelmed by this information, "against beings like Riksfalto, you might get lucky with a well-timed blast, but against beings like Garoth... You'll need a team," he looked at Arisa and Suzuka, before looking at Quint, Zest, Reinforce and then Hayate, "as for this, well..." He looked at Hayate, who smiled at them.

"I dunno if Yuuno was going to let you have today off or not, but I figure that letting everyone have a day off to go have some fun isn't a bad idea."

Subaru looked at Hayate, and then at Yuuno, before looking at Vita, who just rubbed the back of her head and grumbled softly. "You, you mean it?"

"Eh, you guys haven't done too bad, besides, doing nothing but training is hard on the body, so, take some time off and relax." She grinned at them savagely. "Today and tomorrow, but when your days off are over, don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Seeing Vita cackle to herself caused Teana to gulp nervously.

Oh well, they had a day and a half off. Maybe that would be enough to help her relax completely?

Me: Another invitation to murphy? Nanya, you really like tempting fate.

*Everyone looked at Fate T. Inverse, who blushed at the attention.*

Me: UGH!!! *facepalms.* Wrong fate, mates. Wrong fate....

[Filraen]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-35

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 36:

One of which introduced himself to Admiral Lindy Harloawn a few years ago.

Misspelling the surname.

[Nanya01]

StrikerS 1-35

StrikerS 36

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 37:

Jail had to admit, he was rather impressed with what Quattro had found. "How did you find this?" All of his search parties had turned up negative, to see this...

"The cradle? Came across it by accident," Quattro smiled at him as she, Uno and Jail walked through the Cradle, "to think it wasn't too far from our own base... Which is probably why we couldn't find it."

Uno snorted as she looked around. "Pretty coincidental that this place is near our mountain base. Then again, who would look under a bunch of trees for a large space ship?"

Jail chuckled and looked at the place. "Well, I have to admit, this place impresses me. If everything works well..."

"You'll need the Saint Kaiser for power and piloting of this ship." Quattro said as they turned a corner towards the throne room. "Oh, doctor, I hope you don't mind, but those Megah? I've moved the majority of them into the ship itself."

Jail nodded and looked at Uno. "We're still way behind on finding the right Relics."

"Mostly because you were too busy with upgrading everyone's weapons to suit their new powers." Uno rolled her eyes at him. "Still, thanks to some stuff that Cinque found, we've gotten quite a collection. Though, I am surprised that the Bureau never interfered."

Quattro slowed down and smiled darkly. 'Master Levi only need you two for a little while longer, of course, those Brains think that we're on their side.' She nearly laughed at that. The founders of the Bureau were probably the most corrupt beings in the whole Bureau, which was quite interesting to her. "Who knows? Maybe they're too busy having to deal with problems that keep propping up here and there. Then again, that Riot Force did get their hands on that rather large stash of Lost Logia a week ago, didn't they?"

Jail waved it off. "Mostly minor trinkets and some Relics, but they didn't get the few that I needed for this ship."

Quattro didn't care one way or the other, but part of her wondered just what Levi had planned. Her master had gone through a lot of trouble to make sure that her timing on things was just right.

Oh well, it was sure to be interesting at least.

(---)

Meanwhile...

"Nanoha!" Miyuki smiled as her sister came out to greet her and Arashi. "How are you?" She hugged the girl before letting go so Arashi could hug his sister tightly.

"Pretty beat actually," Nanoha laughed softly as she rubbed Arashi's head. "Something the matter? You said on the phone that you needed to show me something when you got here, so..." Nanoha blinked as Miyuki pointed at Arashi. "...Arashi?" She stepped back when he let go of her and smiled at him. "Is there something you need to show me?"

What happened next had Nanoha flat on her ass and staring in shock.

Miyuki nodded as they both watched Arashi create a single golden ball of energy that was surrounded by a black corona. "Yeah, shocked mom too... But..." She sweat-dropped as Arashi threw it straight up and the ball exploded into fireworks. "It's pretty, but that's all he can do with it."

"Fireworks pretty!" Arashi giggled and created several more balls of energy that went up and harmlessly exploded into fireworks.

"...Miyuki-nee, what the heck? That's not normal magic, that..." Nanoha stood up, her hair was frazzled as she looked on, wide-eyed as Arashi disappeared in a black flash, only to reappear a few feet away. "...That was mom's teleportation skill..."

Miyuki threw her hands into the air. "I have no clue, I'm not a magic person like you are. Mom can't even figure it out, he can't even cast a simple light spell, but he can use that werid Chaos power like this?! The only thing she can think of is that she used a lot of Chaos magic when she was pregnant with him, but..." Miyuki trailed off as Nanoha paled. "Nanoha, what's going on?"

"I just remembered... Mom tried to use the Giga Slave back then." Nanoha couldn't recall the incantation off the top of her head and wondered if Raising Heart had the information or not, but she did recall a black ball of energy above her mother's head and the sheer terror that came from just looking at it. "And there was all those other Chaos spells she used..." Nanoha gulped and looked at Arashi as he laughed at them. "I guess he was flooded with so much Chaos magic that it's natural for him."

"That's what mom says too..." Miyuki sighed and turned to Arashi. "Stop doing that, you'll scare people."

"Sorry, Miyuki-nee," Arashi pouted, causing Miyuki to walk up to him and rub his head. "You mad at me?"

"No, I'm not." Miyuki knelt down to look at him. "Just that a lot of people will get scared if you throw around your magic like that."

"Okay," Arashi nodded before blinking and looking at Nanoha, "is Erio-nii and Caro-nee here?!"

"I think so," Nanoha scratched her cheek nervously, "but I'm not sure, if you want to hang out with them, I can arrange that." She walked over to Miyuki and whispered to her older sister. "What is mom thinking?"

"She can't take the time to teach him. It's not like when you were younger, sis," Miyuki hissed back, "besides, when you were younger, there were more people around to learn magic with. Arashi doesn't have that advantage."

Nanoha twitched, she could see the logic, but still... "I can't take the time to teach him magic right now."

"You don't need to, actually," Miyuki shook her head and looked up as Arashi ran after a butterfly, "mom just wants him some place where if he uses magic he won't cause problems."

"And the first thing she thought of was sending him here?!"

"Actually, you were the eighteenth option." Miyuki sighed heavily. "Nanoha, you don't need to teach Arashi anything, right now he can only do teleportation and those fireworks. Besides, mom's going to show up in a couple of weeks."

Nanoha blinked at her. "...What?"

"Mom and dad are going to come to Cranagan in a couple of weeks." Miyuki shook her head. "So, I thought I'd come and warn you about it." Nanoha just groaned and Miyuki nodded in sympathy. "Look, Nanoha, if you want, I'll take Arashi back to Earth, so far the Chaos hasn't done anything else but..."

"It's not fair really," Nanoha grumbled to herself, "I can't use Chaos like that, why does he get to?"

"Mom thinks it's because you were already developed as a magic user when your Chaos powers were awakened, so they were more powerful and dangerous than his."

Nanoha gave her sister an annoyed look. "I think mom's pulling this stuff out of her ass now."

Miyuki laughed and put an arm around Nanoha's shoulders as they walked to the building. "You and me both, sis, you and me both. So, you want us to stay or..."

"Stay here..." Nanoha shook her head. "I don't think Hayate will mind too much, there are others who have their families stationed in the building as well."

Still, Nanoha had a bad feeling about all of this. She raised an eyebrow as Arashi ran back towards her while Erio, Caro and Fried came out of the building. "Erio? Caro?"

"What's Arashi and Miyuki doing here?" Erio asked, confused, causing Miyuki to sigh. "...Did something happen to grandma?"

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Miyuki shook her head before pulling her arm off of Nanoha's shoulders to rub the back of her head, "but, ah... Are you two busy right now?" They shook their heads. "Don't suppose Arashi can hang out with you?"

"Nah, he's cool." Erio grinned and Caro nodded, smiling. "Hey, Arashi, bet I can beat you to town!"

"Hey! No fair!" Caro whined as Erio and Arashi took off. "Wait for me!" She yelled, swinging her arms up and down with Fried following them, chirping the whole time.

"...Feels like home." Nanoha laughed softly. The fact that her little brother could use Chaos power was never in doubt in her mind. What really bothered her though, was that he could use it so freely and easily. That sent all sorts of warning bells in head off. "Hey, Miyuki-nee... Has anything weird ever happened because of this?"

"Other than Arashi saying something about an exploding cat and wanting to show you this forever, no, why?" Miyuki blinked at Nanoha, who nodded to her.

"Thanks, but this is going to be a PAIN to explain to everyone." Nanoha hung her head and just hoped that things wouldn't get too crazy too fast.

Spoiler for Comments:

What? You thought Arashi wouldn't get to use Chaos freely?

Especially when Lina used the Ragna Blade, Double Ragna Blade and the Giga Slave in Try?

Heck, he was born glowing gold, even if for only a moment.

[mega1987]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

StrikerS 1-35

StrikerS 36

Spoiler for Blood That Flows - StrikerS 37:

Jail had to admit, he was rather impressed with what Quattro had found. "How did you find this?" All of his search parties had turned up negative, to see this...

"The cradle? Came across it by accident," Quattro smiled at him as she, Uno and Jail walked through the Cradle, "to think it wasn't too far from our own base... Which is probably why we couldn't find it."

Uno snorted as she looked around. "Pretty coincidental that this place is near our mountain base. Then again, who would look under a bunch of trees for a large space ship?"

Jail chuckled and looked at the place. "Well, I have to admit, this place impresses me. If everything works well..."

"You'll need the Saint Kaiser for power and piloting of this ship." Quattro said as they turned a corner towards the throne room. "Oh, doctor, I hope you don't mind, but those Megah? I've moved the majority of them into the ship itself."

Jail nodded and looked at Uno. "We're still way behind on finding the right Relics."

"Mostly because you were too busy with upgrading everyone's weapons to suit their new powers." Uno rolled her eyes at him. "Still, thanks to some stuff that Cinque found, we've gotten quite a collection. Though, I am surprised that the Bureau never interfered."

Quattro slowed down and smiled darkly. 'Master Levi only need you two for a little while longer, of course, those Brains think that we're on their side.' She nearly laughed at that. The founders of the Bureau were probably the most corrupt beings in the whole Bureau, which was quite interesting to her. "Who knows? Maybe they're too busy having to deal with problems that keep propping up here and there. Then again, that Riot Force did get their hands on that rather large stash of Lost Logia a week ago, didn't they?"

Jail waved it off. "Mostly minor trinkets and some Relics, but they didn't get the few that I needed for this ship."

Quattro didn't care one way or the other, but part of her wondered just what Levi had planned. Her master had gone through a lot of trouble to make sure that her timing on things was just right.

Oh well, it was sure to be interesting at least.

(---)

Meanwhile...

"Nanoha!" Miyuki smiled as her sister came out to greet her and Arashi. "How are you?" She hugged the girl before letting go so Arashi could hug his sister tightly.

"Pretty beat actually," Nanoha laughed softly as she rubbed Arashi's head. "Something the matter? You said on the phone that you needed to show me something when you got here, so..." Nanoha blinked as Miyuki pointed at Arashi. "...Arashi?" She stepped back when he let go of her and smiled at him. "Is there something you need to show me?"

What happened next had Nanoha flat on her ass and staring in shock.

Miyuki nodded as they both watched Arashi create a single golden ball of energy that was surrounded by a black corona. "Yeah, shocked mom too... But..." She sweat-dropped as Arashi threw it straight up and the ball exploded into fireworks. "It's pretty, but that's all he can do with it."

"Fireworks pretty!" Arashi giggled and created several more balls of energy that went up and harmlessly exploded into fireworks.

"...Miyuki-nee, what the heck? That's not normal magic, that..." Nanoha stood up, her hair was frazzled as she looked on, wide-eyed as Arashi disappeared in a black flash, only to reappear a few feet away. "...That was mom's teleportation skill..."

Miyuki threw her hands into the air. "I have no clue, I'm not a magic person like you are. Mom can't even figure it out, he can't even cast a simple light spell, but he can use that werid Chaos power like this?! The only thing she can think of is that she used a lot of Chaos magic when she was pregnant with him, but..." Miyuki trailed off as Nanoha paled. "Nanoha, what's going on?"

"I just remembered... Mom tried to use the Giga Slave back then." Nanoha couldn't recall the incantation off the top of her head and wondered if Raising Heart had the information or not, but she did recall a black ball of energy above her mother's head and the sheer terror that came from just looking at it. "And there was all those other Chaos spells she used..." Nanoha gulped and looked at Arashi as he laughed at them. "I guess he was flooded with so much Chaos magic that it's natural for him."

"That's what mom says too..." Miyuki sighed and turned to Arashi. "Stop doing that, you'll scare people."

"Sorry, Miyuki-nee," Arashi pouted, causing Miyuki to walk up to him and rub his head. "You mad at me?"

"No, I'm not." Miyuki knelt down to look at him. "Just that a lot of people will get scared if you throw around your magic like that."

"Okay," Arashi nodded before blinking and looking at Nanoha, "is Erio-nii and Caro-nee here?!"

"I think so," Nanoha scratched her cheek nervously, "but I'm not sure, if you want to hang out with them, I can arrange that." She walked over to Miyuki and whispered to her older sister. "What is mom thinking?"

"She can't take the time to teach him. It's not like when you were younger, sis," Miyuki hissed back, "besides, when you were younger, there were more people around to learn magic with. Arashi doesn't have that advantage."

Nanoha twitched, she could see the logic, but still... "I can't take the time to teach him magic right now."

"You don't need to, actually," Miyuki shook her head and looked up as Arashi ran after a butterfly, "mom just wants him some place where if he uses magic he won't cause problems."

"And the first thing she thought of was sending him here?!"

"Actually, you were the eighteenth option." Miyuki sighed heavily. "Nanoha, you don't need to teach Arashi anything, right now he can only do teleportation and those fireworks. Besides, mom's going to show up in a couple of weeks."

Nanoha blinked at her. "...What?"

"Mom and dad are going to come to Cranagan in a couple of weeks." Miyuki shook her head. "So, I thought I'd come and warn you about it." Nanoha just groaned and Miyuki nodded in sympathy. "Look, Nanoha, if you want, I'll take Arashi back to Earth, so far the Chaos hasn't done anything else but..."

"It's not fair really," Nanoha grumbled to herself, "I can't use Chaos like that, why does he get to?"

"Mom thinks it's because you were already developed as a magic user when your Chaos powers were awakened, so they were more powerful and dangerous than his."

Nanoha gave her sister an annoyed look. "I think mom's pulling this stuff out of her ass now."

Miyuki laughed and put an arm around Nanoha's shoulders as they walked to the building. "You and me both, sis, you and me both. So, you want us to stay or..."

"Stay here..." Nanoha shook her head. "I don't think Hayate will mind too much, there are others who have their families stationed in the building as well."

Still, Nanoha had a bad feeling about all of this. She raised an eyebrow as Arashi ran back towards her while Erio, Caro and Fried came out of the building. "Erio? Caro?"

"What's Arashi and Miyuki doing here?" Erio asked, confused, causing Miyuki to sigh. "...Did something happen to grandma?"

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Miyuki shook her head before pulling her arm off of Nanoha's shoulders to rub the back of her head, "but, ah... Are you two busy right now?" They shook their heads. "Don't suppose Arashi can hang out with you?"

"Nah, he's cool." Erio grinned and Caro nodded, smiling. "Hey, Arashi, bet I can beat you to town!"

"Hey! No fair!" Caro whined as Erio and Arashi took off. "Wait for me!" She yelled, swinging her arms up and down with Fried following them, chirping the whole time.

"...Feels like home." Nanoha laughed softly. The fact that her little brother could use Chaos power was never in doubt in her mind. What really bothered her though, was that he could use it so freely and easily. That sent all sorts of warning bells in head off. "Hey, Miyuki-nee... Has anything weird ever happened because of this?"

"Other than Arashi saying something about an exploding cat and wanting to show you this forever, no, why?" Miyuki blinked at Nanoha, who nodded to her.

"Thanks, but this is going to be a PAIN to explain to everyone." Nanoha hung her head and just hoped that things wouldn't get too crazy too fast.

Spoiler for Comments:

What? You thought Arashi wouldn't get to use Chaos freely?

Especially when Lina used the Ragna Blade, Double Ragna Blade and the Giga Slave in Try?

Heck, he was born glowing gold, even if for only a moment.

Me: looks like the WILD cards starting to gather.

Odin: I don't think Levi taken to account the appearance of these unknown factors at the moment.

Val: The only thing missing is a surprise visit from the Slayer cast and Levi might reconsider her plans due to an army of super powerful people, granted that some are mazoku but they're on a truce with the shinzoku, suddenly appeared/came.

[Old_Iron]

Sorry that this took so long and I apologize that its not as long as the others. But I hope you enjoy it all the same.

Major credit goes to Kuroi Hadou for beta-ing this chapter and helping me get off my sorry arse.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3a
Chapter 3b

Spoiler for Swords and Shields: Chapter 4:

Nanoha Takamachi had a great deal on her mind. She was seated in her office, re-watching the video feed portraying one of the most vicious battles she'd seen in recent memory. It was not the scenes of violence that bothered her, she herself had been party to more than a few bloody battles. No, it was whom the participants were that she had a problem with.

Never before in Nanoha's memory had the matches between Yuuno and Signum gotten so… intense. It was different from the times when both were at their best and putting everything into their efforts. Those matches never turned the pair into raging animals throwing themselves at each other in a mindless display of their baser instincts. Nor did they leave the battle broken, bloody, and half-naked at the end.

Well, on occasion, they did. But not to this degree.

As Raising Heart began playing the recording again, Nanoha felt something uncomfortable settle into the pit of her stomach and it lay right next to the simmering anger at what had been done to Fate the previous week. Signum was on her way to this very office at the brunette's request and she was certain the inevitable conversation would reveal things she would not be comfortable with.

She'd seen that battle hungry expression on Singum's face before, sometimes she had been on the receiving end of it. What had truly disturbed Nanoha, more than the ferocity of the battle, was that Yuuno had donned a very similar expression on his own face. It was unsettling to see such a look on her childhood friend and teacher. Why had he done it? What had prompted them to go so far? Those questions and more swirled about her mind in the empty office.

The only sound in the room was that of battle, and it was finally interrupted by three sharp knocks at the door.

Steeling herself for what was to come, Nanoha asked Raising Heart to pause the recording and then called out, "Come in." The door opened and into the office stepped the source of more than a few of the brunette's current concerns.

Signum stood in front of Nanoha's desk, stoic as ever. "You wished to see me, Takamachi," she stated without preamble. It was obvious from both her tone and her wording she knew some of what was to come.

Nanoha gestured to an empty chair, "Have a seat, Signum." When the Knight did so, the brunette continued with folded hands and a stoic expression similar to the woman across from her, "You probably already know part of why I wanted to talk with you." Nanoha's current look was perhaps more unsettling than the fake smile she usually wore when she was unhappy.

"You refer to my bout with Testarossa." If there was any sign of confusion on Signum's face at what Nanoha had said, she had either missed it or it was indiscernible at best.

Nodding, Nanoha's eyes narrowed as she spoke, "I want you to tell me exactly why you decided to beat Fate senseless."

The Knight maintained her stoic demeanor. "Testarossa allowed herself to become complacent. She gained only enough strength and skill to make use of Bardiche and nothing more. I was under the impression she was the kind of woman who strived for excellence." Signum paused, allowing her words to sink in before continuing, "I felt it best to show her what the price of such a mindset is."

There was no response from the brunette, only a stony silence.

"...I will admit that my actions may have been in excess, but I will not apologize for them. Better for Testarossa to learn of her folly here, in a sparring session, than in the field, where such a lesson could very well cost her life," Signum finished flatly.

Nanoha raised one eyebrow at the Knight's words. It was one thing to hear the explanation from Fate or one of the other Wolkenritter. It was another thing entirely to hear it from the General of Fire herself. "You really believe that? You couldn't have just pointed that out to her instead of beating her sensel-"

Signum cut her off sharply, "And how would you have me prove it to her otherwise? With sugared words and gentle taps?"

"You could have told someone about it. Hayate, Vita, anyone! Me!" Nanoha snapped back, "We could have taken care of her problem without landing her in the hospital or breaking her spirit!" A part of the brunette knew she was exaggerating severely, but anger at what the pinkette before her had done to Fate was clouding her mind. "Aren't you her friend?"

"I am her friend, and as such I could not allow this to continue when I realized the gravity of her situation," Signum responded just as sharply as before, but she maintained the composure Nanoha seemed to be losing.

Nanoha glared at Signum for a time as she worked to reign in her anger. She truly disliked losing her temper like that, but with everything that had been going on as of late it was unfortunately easy to do. "I'm not sure I can believe you," she eventually said in a somewhat concerned tone.

Those words hit Signum sharply, as though she'd been physically struck by the brunette. "What do you mean?" Though her expression did not betray her shock, the Knight's voice did. Even if it was only a slight sliver of the emotion, it was still noticeable.

"Signum, we've gotten into some absolutely vicious battles before. You remember our match a few years back? When everyone was wondering who was stronger between the two of us?" Nanoha waited until Signum confirmed the memory before continuing, "I don't think I'll ever forget the expression on your face. More than wanting to beat me, you wanted to fight to your absolute limit. No holding back. Maximum power. Am I right?"

"I did indeed desire to fight you to my fullest capacity at the time, however I-" Signum's reply was cut off.

"I've seen you enjoy fights. Its simply part of who you are. But I've only seen you with that look in your eye one other time and I'm pretty sure if got my hands on the footage from when you fought Fate, it would be three," stated Nanoha with some sense of finality.

"I would appreciate it if you would get to the point." Signum may be a patient woman, but she did not appreciate being led around as though she were a child.

Nanoha sighed, "My point is that for whatever reason, you wanted to fight Fate like it was a life or death struggle. And when she didn't deliver, you punished her for it. Whatever limitations you may have seen were just an excuse for you to try and push her into going all out."

Signum's eyes flashed dangerously at the accusation, "Takamachi, yo-"

Again, she was cut off, "What happened between you and Yuuno? Whatever it was, it was enough to drive you to go after Fate like you did, and..." A motion of Nanoha's hand bade Raising Heart to bring up a paused shot of the recording. It was zoomed in on Yuuno and taken just after he had stood from being hurled into a wall. He was broken, beaten, bloody, and exuded with such an overwhelming desire to fight, to strike down his foe and dominate her that it was almost palpable from the screen. "...It was enough for you to turn Yuuno into that."

The image elicited an odd, tightened sensation within Signum's core. Her hands balled into fists as she remembered being on the receiving end of that gaze.

"I've never seen him make that kind of expression before, not once. I've never seen him fight this way either. I've never seen that kind, gentle man act so..." Nanoha trailed off as words failed her. "I'll ask again, what is going on between you and Yuuno?" She paused as Raising Heart played back more and more of the battle. Nanoha nearly winced when the image of Signum driving her armored foot into Yuuno's face came around.

Silence reigned as Signum processed what Nanoha had laid before her. While the Knight had truly seen such shortcomings in Testarossa's capabilities, had it merely been an excuse to go further? She thought back to the feelings that bubbled up within her breast when Yuuno had decided to throw caution to the wind and fight with everything he had. It didn't matter that she severely outclassed him. He still fought on, trying to better himself with every blow he received and landed. Adapting himself to go beyond the limitations of his mortal frame. To become a sword, rather than a shield.

That feeling he had given her, that burning sensation… had she sought a similar feeling from Testarossa in their match? All her battles against Yuuno, however few they may have been, starting from the one which resulted from their chance meeting that fateful night had ignited such a heat within her. It was a high that only came about with the right mindset and the right stimulus.

Yuuno had kept her drunk on that high and she had savored it like a fine wine. He'd given her that life or death struggle and she'd pushed him on to further it. For a 'battle-junkie', there was no greater satisfaction. Was she even concerned about his original intent at this point, so long as he kept satisfying her primal urges?

The lack of an immediate answer disturbed the normally unshakeable General of Fire.

"Well?" asked Nanoha, having found the oppressive silence to have stretched on for too long.

"I..." For once, Signum did not have an immediate reply and she languished further in her concern. After a time, she opted to explain the beginning of things to Nanoha. "It began a few weeks ago..."

And so Signum told the tale of her unexpected late night rendezvous with Yuuno Scrya. She told of their first match where he made the initial decision to step beyond his limitations and strike out against her, culminating in their mutual decision to grow as warriors against one another. Her story flowed from there and Nanoha's expression seemed to waver between surprise and worry. The slivers of passion that slipped into Signum's voice on occasion did not soothe the brunette any.

"...it was wonderful. I can find no words to properly describe that feeling other than wonderful. Basking in the afterglow of such a vicious battle against someone with whom I can exchange blows with in earnest..." Signum's words sent a shiver down Nanoha's spine while the faint traces of red on the Knight's face seemed wholly out of place. "I have never known such a feeling... Against you, your drive was only to win, was it not?"

Nanoha felt herself nodding as the surreal nature of the situation continued to permeate her mind.

"Even against Zest, whom I shall always regard as a great and formidable foe, he did not draw out such a feeling." Signum subconsciously wetted her lips. "Scrya, however, fights like a man possessed. He is driven neither by ideals, nor by the approval of others, nor by something so fleeting as victory." A strange glint appeared in the Knight's eyes that did not go unnoticed by Nanoha. "He is driven by the singular desire to become strong enough to dominate his foe and relish in doing so..."

"Signum...," began Nanoha after the other woman had gone silent, a look of horror having taken residence on the brunette's face as she began to realize just how deep Signum's distortion ran, "Have you completely lost your mind? You said that you were going to help him improve himself, not turn him into a maniac and use him as a... a-a way to relieve yourself!"

Signum's eyes widened at Nanoha's accusation, but she was unable to retort as the White Devil continued on, "Yuuno is not that kind of person. He's a kind man who loves books and history, not battles!"

"Then explain to me what that is," demanded Signum harshly as she stood, pointing to the maddened look in Yuuno's eyes on the paused recording. "That does not look like a man who desires to sit down and turn the pages of ancient tomes. That looks like a man who would step up to the greatest of foes and do everything in his power to make them fight with their all."

Nanoha's eyes narrowed. "That, looks like a man twisted into something to fulfill your desires and nothing else. From my perspective, you may have started out with good intentions, but now you're just using him for your own benefit without a care in the world. You're toying with him. And with how things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if you tossed him aside the moment you got bored with him!" she finished with a raised voice that carried more anger than Signum had ever heard from the brunette before.

The Knight's hand twitched before balling into a fist. "You dare accuse me of that, Takamachi Nanoha? You would dare think I would sully both my honor and his by acting in such a manner?"

"I think you already have. Whether you realize it or not," stated Nanoha with a finality that shook the other woman.

Signum's fire left her and she fell back into her seat, an unusual and uncomfortable expression upon her face. "What would you have me do then? I may have sparked his drive, but he is ultimately the one who decides whether or not to follow it even if I push him towards it."

"That's... I don't have an answer for you. If I knew, I'd tell you. This is something you'll have to work out between yourself and Yuuno. But I'll tell you this right now...," Nanoha trailed off as she took a deep breath, "Yuuno is a very important person to me, more so that you probably realize. If you don't fix this and end up hurting him because of it, there will be nowhere you can hide from me. Do you understand me, Captain Signum Yagami?"

The Knight felt the sincerity and power behind Nanoha's words and nodded, even if she did not truly know what to think about them. At the very minimum, she had far more to think about now than what her next bout would be like.

- Scene Break -

To say that the Infinity Library was truly a massive place would be somewhat of an understatement. It was constantly growing, more and more tomes, scrolls, and data files added to its shelves every day. Unfortunately, this made navigating the halls a rather difficult task unless you either had a map or were a constant presence in the library.

"Mmm! Where is he?" grumbled Reinforce Zwei as she suffered that exact problem. Even if she usually came to the library with Hayate, who was a rather frequent visitor, Zwei was still not nearly so familiar with the layout as her mother.

It did not help that she was looking more for a specific individual rather than a specific piece of information. She'd have called him ahead of time, but she didn't want him to run away from her.

Right now, though, she was regretting her decision of conducting a sneak attack. At the very least she knew that Yuuno Scrya was near his office, assuming Arf's information was correct. "...I think I'm lost," Zwei said aloud as she pulled up the map again. Sure enough, her location was now further away from Yuuno's office than it had been ten minutes ago.

"Zwei?"

"Hya!" the Unison Device squeaked in alarm before whirling about to lay eyes upon the one who had snuck up on her. To her welcome surprise, it was the very man she'd been looking for. "Y-Yuuno! Don't sneak up on people like that!" she admonished after regaining her senses.

"Right, right. Sorry about that," Yuuno apologized with a smile, his arms carrying a stack of rather old looking tomes. "Anyway, what can I do for you Zwei? It’s rare for you to come by without Hayate."

Blinking as she remembered her self-appointed task, Zwei then flew up closer to Yuuno's face. "I have to talk with you about something important, Yuuno."

The expression on Zwei's face conveyed the seriousness of her words to Yuuno. "We should talk in my office then. It'll keep anyone else from overhearing," he replied before gesturing with his head for her to follow him.

Much to Zwei's consternation, it took all of three minutes to reach Yuuno's office. It had taken her nearly twenty just to get as far as he did and even then she had gotten lost in the end.

"Stupid map...," she mumbled while glaring at the holographic display.

"Ahh... Sorry about that. We're expanding some of the sections on Ancient Belka and the Nasuvians. The maps haven't been updated yet." The blonde's words did not do much to appease Zwei, who shut the large doors of the office behind her while Yuuno set down the heavy books.

Before Yuuno could offer Zwei a seat, she had assumed her fully grown form and now stood imperiously before him. Although the effect was slightly offset by the fact that she was still shorter than him and had to stare upwards to lock eyes. "Yuuno Scrya!"

"Y-yes?" he stammered in response to Zwei's sudden offense.

"What are your intentions towards my sister?" demanded the young, blue-eyed woman pointing a finger at his nose. She didn't care if she was the baby of the family, Zwei was going to do everything she could to look out for her mother and older sisters. Even if that meant going up against their longtime friend.

"Your sister? What's are you talking about?" asked Yuuno, blatant confusion evident on his face.

"Don't try to play dumb," Zwei retorted with some fire in her voice, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. And don't think you won't be hearing from everyone else either. We haven't even given you proper approval in the first place. I'll permit it only so long as you follow the proper laws for courting one of the Wolkenritter!"

Yuuno had gone from simply confused to flabbergasted and bewildered. Not to mention the embarrassment that was creeping up his spine. "Would you please explain what's going on and what you mean by 'courting'?" Last he checked, he wasn't in that kind of relationship with anyone.

Zwei gave a frown of irritation and placed her hands on her hips. "If you're going to be dating big-sis Signum, there are rules you're going to have to follow. I won't have you treating her badly or taking advantage of her kindness." She ignored the poleaxed look on the librarian's face as she continued, not letting him get a word in edgewise.

"Firstly, you will treat her well and with proper respect. She's a good woman who deserves it and I won't have you trampling all over her heart. Secondly, you'll have her home by curfew as set by Lady Hayate. No more mysterious late night funny business, got it? You're not even married yet! Thirdly, if you try to force her into something she doesn't want or make her cry, I'll make sure they never find your body! Fourthly...," Zwei seemed to be running out of steam, but did not stop.

"Fourthly... Err... You'll take her to nice places on dates. No dingy bars or the cafeteria on base. Make sure it’s the full deal. Full candlelit dinner, music, romance, the works! The whole nine yards! Fifthly... Um...," she paused and scratched her head as she tried to think of something.

"Zwei!" Yuuno called out, taking advantage of her stalling and causing the powder blue haired young woman to jump in surprise. "Zwei, please back up and explain why you think I'm dating Signum."

"Y-your're not? That's even worse! Taking advantage of her like that. How could you?! I-I thought you were a better man than that." Zwei looked truly distraught as she drew her own conclusions from Yuuno's words and her already limited knowledge of the truth about the situation between Signum and the blonde standing before her.

"What in the Kaiser's name has gotten into you? Signum's just helping me with my training," he explained quickly, trying to assuage Zwei's fears.

"T-Training?" she inquired slowly.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Yuuno continued, "Training. I've hit a wall where my own ability is concerned and Signum offered to help me with it. We're not in that kind of relationship." Though if he were to be honest, he would not deny the pull that Signum held over him. It was different from the attraction he had once harbored for Nanoha. It was more ...tangible, solid, if he were to describe it.

"Then why does Signum come home so happy from training with you?" Zwei pressed on, not quite ready to believe Yuuno's denial.

Yuuno crossed his arms and looks thoughtful for a moment, as though thinking of how to explain that. "Well... We don't train like how Nanoha or Vita train the new recruits. We just... fight. Trial by fire. She... seems to enjoy it. I'll admit that I do as well." He scratched his cheek in embarrassment as he recalled his own developing battle-lust going head to head with Signum's.

"It gets pretty vicious, but I can say that she's helped me far more with this method than by standard means. And we've only had three sessions so far," Yuuno admitted somewhat sheepishly.

The wind having been taken out of her sails, Zwei slumped over a bit. "Then... I was worried over nothing?"

Yuuno patted her head affectionately. "Hardly. Signum's lucky to have a little sister like you watching out for her."

"D-don't think I'm letting you off the hook that easily. Even if you aren't dating Signum right now, that doesn't mean you might not try to in the future. So I want you to remember what I've said," stated Zwei, trying to build up a stern composure as the heavier atmosphere lifted.

"I'll do that. But, you forgot one thing." Yuuno gave a small grin at Zwei's confused look. "You told me four of the rules, but not the fifth."

"Ah! I almost forgot. The fifth rule is that you must take Signum's little sister out for ice cream. Or she'll make things very difficult for you in the long run." Zwei maintained her stern look at least until Yuuno gave a sigh of resignation.

"I guess I have no choice then...," he stated in mock despair. "If I am to return to the good graces of the Yagami family, then I must find a nice ice cream parlor and treat their youngest to a frozen treat from it." He knew it was hammy, but he couldn't resist in the face of Zwei's demands.

Zwei giggled in response. "Then let’s go. It’s not good to keep a lady waiting."

"Especially if that lady is my good friend and training partner's little sister," quipped Yuuno as he gathered his jacket and sent a message to Arf, explaining his sudden absence.

"You learn quickly," Zwei stated winningly.