"If she is that dangerous, what's your recommendation?" A colonel, Regisus, if she remembered correctly seemed to be aggressive to anyone not in the Bureau's service.
First, it's "Regius." Second, he shouldn't be in this conference. He's in Mid Childa's Ground Forces, been there his whole career. Lindy is Fleet, completely seperate branch. This is solely a Fleet matter.
Quote:
The end of S1. Then it's off to A's!
One thing to note is that the Book of Darkness' awakening happens in less than a month from the end S1. I wonder if Lina will be able to detect it happening.
First, it's "Regius." Second, he shouldn't be in this conference. He's in Mid Childa's Ground Forces, been there his whole career. Lindy is Fleet, completely seperate branch. This is solely a Fleet matter.
Hmm...
Good point.
I'll fix then.
__________________
My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
What can I say? All the posts recently put me back in the mood!
Spoiler for 'Ready, Sette, Go!' Part 5:
In order to fully comprehend the events that followed, it was necessary to have a basic understanding of the hit Midchildan Arcade Shooter franchise, 'Blood Zombies'. I know that even with this knowledge, I still have difficulty comprehending exactly what occurred.
Created in Mid calendar year 52 by a small, privately owned company called 'Ecliptic Electronics', the original 'Blood Zombies' was a low-budget piece, to be generous. To be less generous, it was programmed by four men in a garage, it just happened to be four men who called themselves a 'company'. 'Blood Zombies' was created using technology equal to 'whatever they could find' and a budget of 'whatever they could scrounge'. As a result, the release was a shoddy product, vastly behind the times; 2-D graphics, non-learning AI, a story that was essentially nonexistent because no writer was hired. Despite this, 'Blood Zombies' quickly became a cult classic among serious gamers due to one thing it did have; brutal, unrelenting difficulty. All enemy characters moved quickly and randomly, and could only be destroyed by targeting a very specific and very small area that differed on each enemy sprite; ranging from the heads of the titular zombies to certain enemies with weak spots only a pixel or two in width. Further, the enemies tended to appear in large numbers, and did far more damage to the player than in other, similar games. Being merely proficient in 'Blood Zombies' was considered a badge of honor. Being skilled enough to beat the game was enough to make many gamers minor celebrities in their local arcades; free tokens or prizes, photos on the wall, and other such honors. Having at least one 'Blood Zombies' machine became not merely hoped for in all major arcades, but expected.
This unexpected success was sufficient to propel Ecliptic Electronics to status as a legitimate business, if a small one. Excellent sales of the more polished but equally difficult home console version pushed them further. And so, seeking to take advantage of this success, they began work on a sequel that would cement their position as a major entertainment company. 'Blood Zombies 2' was, in every way, superior to the original. The graphics were cutting edge, the story was surprisingly detailed for a work primarily revolving around a gameplay mechanic of shooting zombies until they ran out of blood, and the AI was now able to study the players as they progressed and conceive of plans to counter them.
And, of course, the famous difficulty was only enhanced by this, despite what Wendi seemed to believe. This will become important later in the report. I have here used what is called 'foreshadowing', or the use of current events to imply future ones.
At the time, of course, I knew none of this. I was merely satisfied that a combat simulator had finally been provided. It appeared to be geared toward long-range shooting combat, which was a specialty of mine (though I used thrown bladed projectiles rather than firearms, as the simulator provided), which I doubly approved of. The targets were somewhat abnormal, but I supposed it was largely irrelevant if this helped me get my long-range reflexes back.
I analyzed my weapon, considering the combat potential. According to the instructions ('Blood Zombies 2 Arcade Edition, Gameplay Instructions), the weapon could fire six consecutive shots before requiring a recharge, which was accomplished by pointing the weapon off-screen and pressing the firing trigger. This was not terribly realistic, but then this appeared to be a sort of civilian system for amateur marksmen. I supposed realism was secondary to improving basic skill and reflexes.
I lined up six shots, and felled six targets. The targets were rapidly moving and somewhat small, but my reflexes were honed in genuine combat. I was quite used to making precision attacks on fast-moving targets, and eliminated one target with each round. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill...
"Wow, you're good at this!" Wendi said. "How do you always get the... what do you mean he bit me?!"
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"Gah! Where did that spider thing come from? What the... zombie bees? Where the Hell did they get zombie bees?!"
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"Oh, come on there's no way you can be hitting... what the #$(*&, zombie pigs now?! Where the #$&^#%$ did those #*%&^#$* things come from?" Wendi screamed, loading a new token into her side of the simulator.
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"H-how do you keep track of all the little... GAAAAAH! #*#$&^#! Where did he come from? I just came back to life and I'm already dead again!" Wendi snapped, adding in another admission token.
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"Sette! Sette! Shoot this one he's got a chainsaw and... #$#*&$^*&^*&$^!$%!&$%&^!" Wendi said. I had never heard many of these words she was using before, and logged them for future analysis. She added another token.
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"You're cheating." Wendi said darkly. "This game is cheating. Everyone is cheating. Well, I won't let this game kill me, and I won't let my frickin' little sister out-score me, and I woSON OF A BITCH, WHAT THE #&$@ DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE ZOMBIE PIRANHAS IN THE PUDDLES? THERE ISN'T ENOUGH ROOM FOR FISH IN THERE!" Wendi said.
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
"THAT'S IT. SCREW THIS GAME." Wendi snarled, laying one hand on the simulator console.
One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.
The machine began to glow. Wendi snapped her fingers.
And I learned, first-hand, exactly how and why Wendi had been temporarily banned from the establishment upon playing the original 'Blood Zombies'.
I wondered, vaguely, if the restaurant was called 'Pizza Explosion' because Wendi ate there often?
As we left the establishment, passing the arriving fire crews, my sisters and Ginga Nakajima appeared distraught. Wendi had been banned from 'Pizza Explosion' again, this time for the remainder of her natural life. Further, our meals had not yet arrived when Wendi detonated the arcade floor and prompted management to remove us from the premises. As a result, morale among the group was low in general.
"My scores were excellent. However, I do not believe that device's memory system survived, and therefore it will be impossible to compare to existing scores to determine my placement." I said, imparting positive information in an attempt to 'lighten' the mood.
"I... I think that was a lot of fun too." Wendi said. "Like... so much fun, we should just... keep going. Let's just keep having... lots of fun."
"We are going home." Cinque said. "We'll get something to eat there, where Sette can have a nice, calm meal in a family environment. And then we'll go back out again. Only this time, you'll be staying behind."
"Why?! I wanna go out toooooo!"
"Punishment. I thought that was obvious."
"B-but it was the game's fault! I didn't want to blow it up, I just..."
"Did the same damn thing you did last time? Got mad because you were losing and blew up the game?" Nove asked.
"N-no, I..."
"You do know that when I'm involved in incidents like this, my superiors hear about it, right? They'll find out I was at the scene." Ginga Nakajima said. "I take a day of leave to spend time with my new sister, and this happens. Poor Sette must be traumatized, and here comes a new black mark on my record..."
"It is all right. I am used to explosions in contained quarters." I said helpfully. "As to your other concerns, given my observations of your behavior thus far I have determined that you most likely have many black marks on your personnel records already. I doubt that another will seriously impede your career progression."
"... ... ... ..." Ginga Nakajima said. She must have been considering the wisdom of my words. Her performance was largely sub-par in most military matters, but she seemed to take instruction well. With time, effort, and leading by example, I could, perhaps, eventually mold her into a passable soldier. As the Nakajima family were not charging me any rent for my room and board, this would be an acceptable method of repaying them, I felt.
"... right. Sette, remind me that after we finish accustoming you to your surroundings, our second lesson for you should be 'tact'." Cinque said.
"Understood. New mission confirmed, to commence upon completion of current objectives." I said. I was quite pleased; as expected, Cinque had seen the value of my presence and continued to provide suitable objectives.
"... Yes. Well. That's... great. In any event... Wendi, all you had to do was behave, and you couldn't. So it's home with you."
"She cheated! Just like Dieci cheated last time!" Wendi whined.
"I didn't cheat! I'm just a good shot!" Dieci protested.
"All of my actions were within the parameters of the simulation. Further, I can state definitively that Dieci's marksmanship scores, as of last comparison, exceed my own by a combined average of 15.7%." I said. "Cinque, please confirm this analysis."
"Neither of them cheated. They're just better than you." Cinque said patiently.
"...Th-then that game cheated!" Wendi sniffled.
"It didn't cheat, you're just not any good at it!" Nove said.
"Your... your combat strategy does tend to favor large explosions rather than pinpoint accuracy." Dieci said.
"... I don't wanna go home." Wendi whimpered.
"Tough!" Ginga Nakajima said. I believe she had been looking forward to lunch.
"... ... Setteeeeeee! They're picking on meeeeeeeee!" Wendi said.
"Oh. I see." I said. I could think of nothing further to add.
"... ... ... ... you are no help at all, Sette."
This concerned me briefly, until I recalled that none of my current mission objectives required giving Wendi aid.
After depositing Wendi at the Nakajima Residence, my remaining sisters, Ginga Nakajima, and I commenced our second bout of reconnaissance.
"So, now that we've dropped the dead weight..." Nove began.
"Nove, be nice." Cinque said.
"Sorry. Now that we've gotten rid of the one person most likely to ruin any excursion..."
"... when did I become den mother to a flock of children?" Cinque asked. I saw no children, so I assumed this to be some sort of play on words and not a statement that Cinque had begun a new career without noticing.
"... what do you want to do next, Sette?"
"My current mission objectives are complete. Local sites of interest have been found and inspected." I said. "I am currently awaiting Cinque's approval to commence my second mission, tentatively titled 'tact'."
"... so in other words, you're open." Nove said.
"Yes, that is true."
"You had something mind, Nove?" Ginga Nakajima asked.
"Well... Sette wanted to train herself, right?" Nove asked. "I'm feeling antsy too, and I haven't dropped by today, so... why don't we work out some of her naturally aggressive tendencies in a socially acceptable situation? How about we enroll her in my Strike Arts class?"
Cinque frowned slightly. "I'd prefer to avoid anything martial, Nove."
"With all due respect, Cinque, perhaps Nove has a point." Dieci said. "Combat is... well, all Sette understands."
"I also understand cooking." I said. They seemed to have forgotten my new-found skill with pancakes.
"... yes. Well, in any event, my point is that, maybe... it might not be a bad idea to sort of ease her out of that. Wendi was just screwing around as a way of getting Sette to shoot zombies with her, but she did have a point: a way to channel Sette's natural drives into a civilian channel might not be a bad way to begin weaning her off her military mindset." Dieci said.
Cinque considered this for a moment, before smiling slightly. "That's... not a bad point. Cold turkey rarely does any good, after all. All right, Nove, the ball's in your court."
"Whoo-hoo!" Nove said, pumping her fist exuberantly. "Sette, you're going to have a blast, I promise!"
"I see no court, nor ball." I said. "So I believe Cinque was mistaken about the ball being in your court. I apologize."
"... yeah. Yeah, that's great." Nove said. She did not sound as enthusiastic.
Perhaps she had been looking forward to having a ball.
Spoiler for Author's Note:
A bit short, but this seemed a good place to break it off, and after that last monster I posted I might still be a little burned out. Still, better than nothing, right? Right.
... I probably shouldn't do these author's notes unless I actually have something important to say, huh?
So basically, you used this chapter as an excuse to throw in just about every zombified animal you could think of, didn't you?
And once again, beneath all the humor I still manage to find something that is a little sad/depressing. Wendi's screaming at the game had me in stiches, but it was rather sombered by the fact that Sette was so focused on her "One shot, one kill" mantra the whole time. It's like an ultimate contrast; you have the complete and utter hilarity that is Wendi cursing out zombie fish and zombie pigs, and then you have Sette who is being single-minded and rather lgoical about all of it. I don't know, I find something about that a little sad.
So basically, you used this chapter as an excuse to throw in just about every zombified animal you could think of, didn't you?
And once again, beneath all the humor I still manage to find something that is a little sad/depressing. Wendi's screaming at the game had me in stiches, but it was rather sombered by the fact that Sette was so focused on her "One shot, one kill" mantra the whole time. It's like an ultimate contrast; you have the complete and utter hilarity that is Wendi cursing out zombie fish and zombie pigs, and then you have Sette who is being single-minded and rather lgoical about all of it. I don't know, I find something about that a little sad.
Well, to be fair, if you're cutting them down as efficiently as Sette is, they're not really all that scary. (And similarly, she grew up with Quattro as her primary frame of reference, so mere brain-eating zombies aren't that frightening by comparison!). Plus I found Sette's greater levels of amused snark in this chapter to be less sad.
...Given that Deici was actually better then Sette, I wonder how her reaction to the game was?
...You know, I think Sette and Einhart would get along very well. Ein's basically one of those obsessed "I must get stronger!" shonen leads transplanted into the body of a moe girl. Or maybe Ein could introduce Sette to her little sister Seibenhart...
Okay, so I decided to close that poll I had going. Out of 124 votes, 80 want me gone, 42 (plus 3 from this thread) want me to stay, and 2 don't care. So this goes to show it's not just a vocal minority that hates me, but a clear majority (or atleast a minority that's bigger than the minority that want me to stay).
Basically all this means is that I know to focus on writing for atleast 45 people.
But because I'm a scientific sort, I am curious as to what lengths I would have to go to to make people think better of me. So I put up another poll on my profile asking what changes others want to see made. Obviously if the demands are too ridiculous, I won't go through with it, but if, say, people just want to see me write more NanoFate, I'd be willing to accomodate that.
"So, what's going to happen to all of them?" Nanoha asked Chrono as the two of them, Yuuno and Lina were in the ship's cafeteria.
Chrono shrugged at her. "Well, we need to take them back to Mid-Childa with us to stand trial."
"You're going to put Fate in prison, huh?" Lina asked as she drank some water, getting a gasp from Nanoha and Yuuno. "She's a criminal by your laws, she showed no remorse nor regret for what she did, and she's likely to not testify against Precia, so, by the law, you don't have much of a choice."
Chrono winced mentally at that and practically flinched when Nanoha glared at him. "Look, she won't talk to anyone, if I can't get a statement from her, I won't have much of a choice. She's not helping herself."
"Excuse me." Lina stood up and walked out of the room, causing the kids to blink, before they got up and followed her. For some reason, whenever Lina did something, things went completely crazy and out of control.
But that was always so much fun!
(---)
Precia looked up from her bed in the medical bay. "What are you doing here?" She was under several seals and guards, all keeping her from using magic as they had her hooked up to various life-support machines.
Lina ignored her and looked at the girl in the tube. "...I'm surprised that they let you have her here..." She touched the tube softly before looking at the ship's doctor, who had just walked in. "Tell me, does this girl have any brain activity?"
The doctor shook his head. "No, why do you ask?"
"I mean, is there any chance for this girl to have any brain activity?"
"Um, maybe..."
"Good, find out if there is, I got somewhere else to be." Lina walked out, before stopping at the door and turning to Precia. "This isn't for you, woman, you're still going to pay for what you did, this is because I don't like sitting around doing nothing when I can try something."
(---)
"You can't..." The guard blinked as Lina smiled at him softly. "I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed to see her."
"I understand, you're just doing your job, it just wouldn't be right if you let anyone in to see her." Lina nodded at him, causing him to relax. "However, considering that if I wanted to, I could just blow the wall down and take her, her familiar, Nanoha and Yuuno with me back to Earth and there's no way you can stop me, do you want to let me in freely or do you want me to leave, come up with a plan and sneak back here and steal her away and make her a member of my family and thus no longer subject to the laws of your land?"
"She would..."
"Listen, I don't like threatening people who are just doing their jobs, so, if you just look the other way for... Let's say five minutes, I'll get what I want and you won't have any problem, hmm?"
Gulping, he shook his head. "N...No, ma'am, I can't let you..." He closed his eyes and slumped to the ground as Lina sighed. Sleeping spells weren't her forte, but they made it so easy to go and kill certain assassins who nearly ruined her husband's life.
Fate blinked as her door opened. Her eyes widened as Lina walked in and waved at her and Arf. "What are...?"
"I heard you aren't going to testify against your mother." Lina sighed as Fate looked away. "You remind me so much of Zelgadis it's not funny, girl."
Fate tensed and blinked as Lina picked her up and sat down where she had been a moment ago. "What?" As Lina rubbed her back, she trembled softly.
"You never felt this, huh?" Lina whispered softly and Fate shook her head silently. "Hmm... Well, Zelgadis was a friend of mine... He and I were once enemies and fought against each other. He was a great swordsman and spellcaster, and a reliable friend. If my life was in danger, he was one of the people I trusted to save me." She smiled softly as the girl relaxed in her embrace softly. "There was a man, his name was Rezo, the Red Priest and one of the great sages of the world. That man, born blind, traveled the world, studying magic for ways to cure his blindness. Along the way, he became known as a great healer who could cure any disease, even bring light to those that were born blind, but despite his talent in magic, he could not open his own eyes. He eventually, in the years he lived, became desperate for a cure, so much so that he turned his own grandson, or was it great-grandson, I forget, anyway, he turned Zelgadis into a chimera of a human, golem and demon, before he eventually found a mystical stone that would increase his magic many fold and finally allow him to open his eyes."
"...What happened?" Fate asked softly as she rested her head on Lina's chest.
"I got the stone before anyone." Lina chuckled softly. "Zelgadis wanted it to stop Rezo. Rezo wanted it to cure his blindness and I was just unlucky enough to be caught in the middle. Rezo eventually threatened to turn every village to stone if I did not give him what he wanted."
Lina smiled to herself as she heard Chrono, Nanoha and Yuuno all gasp as they heard that. The girl in her arms tensed, but she just rubbed the girl's back and tried to get her to calm down. In the corner of her eye, she saw Arf, in her wolf form, looking at her curiously.
"So, I went with my traveling companions at the time. After a bit of trickery, Rezo got the stone and used it. Doing so, he managed to open his eyes. But we found out that the reason he couldn't open his eyes... Was because he was acting as a seal for a fragment of the most powerful evil creature in the world."
That... had not been a fun fight, Lina didn't like thinking about how close she came to losing her life in that fight. "In the end, two people who had traveled with us had died to this creature, and Zelgadis, myself and a friend of mine, Gourry, faced off against him a day later. Nothing we used worked on him. No magic that any human could use could even affect the guy. Magic weapons, spells, even my favorite Dragon Slave was useless against him."
"How did you beat him?" Fate asked, her voice still soft.
Lina sighed softly. "I used a forbidden spell, the Giga Slave, calling the Lord of Nightmares from the Sea of Chaos into the world. It was the only way to beat him. But if I had screwed up, the whole world could have been destroyed. I got lucky."
"...Oh..."
"Listen, Fate..." Lina smiled softly at her. "Do you really not want to testify against your mother?"
"I... I have nowhere else to go." Fate whimpered softly, her body trembling softly.
"You asked if I would teach you magic, right?" When Fate nodded, Lina smiled. "Then why not come back with me? It wouldn't be too hard to get you an extra room in my house." Hell, she was tempted to get an extra room built so that Yuuno wouldn't have to sleep in Nanoha's room anymore if he didn't want to. Besides, if she was going to teach some kids, she was going to have them live with her family, darn it!
"You mean it?"
Lina nodded as Fate looked up, the little girl's eyes sparkling in wonder. "Yeah... I wouldn't mind it if you wanted to live with me."
Fate hugged Lina tightly, burying her face in the redhead's chest. "Thank you."
Lina smiled at that. "No problem."
Spoiler for Blood That Flows Part 14:
"I really wish you'd at least let me know what you were going to do before you did it." Lindy sighed softly before shaking her head. "Still, thank you. None of us were getting through to her."
Lina shrugged, it wasn't a big deal to her. "Alright, you wouldn't have asked me to the big table room unless you needed something from me. I'm guessing that you listened in on my conversation with Fate and have more than a few questions for me." She chuckled at the embarrassed look on Lindy's face. "I have some questions of my own, so, how about a back and forth?"
"I ask one, you answer, then you ask and I answer?" When Lina nodded, she sighed. "As long as it's nothing to sensitive or restricted."
"Fine." Lina nodded at her. "You first then."
"I need to know... What is the Sea of Chaos? The Lord of Nightmares? And this Giga Slave..."
"That's three questions." Lina smirked at her. "But all three have the same answer. The Sea of Chaos that exists between the dimensions, it's the Lord of Nightmares. The Giga Slave? That's also the Lord of Nightmares. The Lord of Nightmares herself? She's the one who created everything. Mother of Mazoku and Gods."
"But..."
"Ah ah ah!" Lina waggled a finger at her. "My turn." When Lindy sighed, she chuckled softly. "So, about Fate... Are you going to take her with you?"
"We'll need to." Lindy nodded at the question. "She needs to testify, and current laws prohibit her from testifying over the phone." Lina nodded at her. "Mrs. Takamachi, when you were talking to Fate, you called the Giga Slave a forbidden spell that could destroy the world. Why would you use it?"
"Didn't have a choice." Lina shook her head. "A demonic entity known as a Ma-oh had been released from his seal and threatened the whole world." She paused, before laughing at that. "Sorry, but I never really did fight him for noble reasons like you might think. I just didn't want to die, because there was so much food I hadn't eaten, spells I hadn't learned, bandits I didn't crush." Seeing Lindy's look, she chuckled. "I was known as the Bandit Killer when I was younger, and I had a bit of an ego to me." Not that she didn't deserve both the nickname and the ego, but looking back, Lina wondered how the hell her friends put up with her. "What about that woman?"
"We need to put her on trial for setting everything up on Earth." Lindy sighed. "She might not have caused the Jewel Seeds to fall to Earth, but if she hadn't ordered Miss Fate to collect them, none of us would be here right now. Miss Fate won't have to face any penalties, since all she did was collect them." Well, Fate and Arf had attacked her son, but she was certain that Chrono wasn't going to really bother with bringing that up at trial. "This... Ma-oh, what was its name and are there more?"
"I'd almost call that two questions," Lina chuckled at her serious look, "but his name was Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, one of the four Ma-Oh in direct opposition to the four Dragon Gods. The other Ma-Ohs that exist are Dark Star, Death Fog," Lina knew that Lindy probably wasn't going to like the next name that popped up, but oh well, "and Chaotic Blue."
"WHAT?!" Lindy gasped, her eyes wide, for reasons unknown to her, Lina looked totally calm. "You said you called upon the power of Chaotic Blue to do that Nemesis Breaker. But, doing that could..."
"Just destroy what I ask it to destroy." Lina shrugged at Lindy's look. "Despite its name, Black Magic isn't evil, even if the source is. At its core, Black Magic is just magic that's highly destructive and can affect both the physical and astral plane of reality at the same time." Well, it was more effective in fighting Gods than Mazoku, but she didn't have access to Holy Magic, so nothing could be done about that. Lina blinked and tapped her chin. "Huh... I don't think I have anymore questions..."
"I have two more then." Lindy sighed, man, this was going to be a pain in the ass to explain to her superiors. "You said to Fate that the Giga Slave can destroy the world... How?"
"Not like you think." Lina chuckled softly. "It certainly CAN destroy the world if it's miscast. But there's no guarantee. Unlike other spells that call upon the power of something, either from spirits, gods, Mazoku, demons, or your own power, the Giga Slave is a spell that calls the Lord of Nightmares INTO your world." Seeing Lindy's eyes widen, she nodded at that. "Yeah, calling the creator of everything into your world isn't the safest thing to do. If the spell is screwed up... Then the world's at her mercy. She could destroy it, leave it alone, or change everything so that mice are in charge and humans are vermin to be exterminated."
"And you would risk that, why?"
"Like I said to Fate, if I didn't use it, Shabranigdo would have destroyed the world. Guaranteed destruction of the world or possible destruction of the world? Either way, neither's a good option, but I'd rather risk everything on the chance that the world would survive rather than the fact that the world would have been destroyed." Though, a part of Lina wondered just why Hellmaster never bothered showing up when Ruby-Eyes had been freed from his seal. It would have been simple for Hellmaster to have killed her, Gourry and Zelgadis back then and use that fragment of Shabranigdo to free the Demon King of the North, find other fragments and destroy the world.
"I see..." Lindy nodded and sighed. Well, this wasn't going to be good to tell her superiors. "Have you used the Giga Slave lately?"
"Not since I was sixteen. I don't plan on ever using it again if I can help it. The spell will die with me, I doubt any manuscripts that have any information on it exist anymore, the Dragons aren't going to let anyone near the Claire Bible anytime soon."
Lindy nodded at that. "Thank you."
Lina smiled at her. "Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on something."
Watching her leave, Lindy sighed, wondering how someone could act so mature one moment and so crazy the next.
Spoiler for Blood that Flows Part 15:
"So..." Lindy sighed as she looked at the conference call she was making with her superiors. "That's the full situation here."
"If she is that dangerous, what's your recommendation?" A colonel, one she didn't recognize off the top of her head, spoke up, though he looked like he wanted to do something stupid and dangerous.
"If I may..." An older, cultured voice spoke up. "I say we do nothing to her."
"What?!"
"I'm inclined to agree with Admiral Graham."
"Thank you, Admiral Leti." Graham nodded at her. "She'd not an enemy of the Bureau, and if she's that strong and her daughter is that strong, I would rather not have them be enemies, but rather allies."
"I doubt I could recruit her." Lindy shook her head. "If we had found her when she was younger, maybe, but now? No, she has a family that she's responsible for on Earth. Her daughter, we might be able to recruit, but that's up to her, as you all know." Lindy chuckled to herself. "It's much better to have people neutral to us than against us, don't you agree?"
"Very well." The colonel grumbled. "But if she does anything against the Bureau, it's on your heads." His screen turned off and the others on the screen rolled their eyes before turning them off.
"Actually, Admiral Lindy..." Graham smiled at her softly. "I was planning on returning to Earth in a few months, perhaps you could introduce me to this Lina Takamachi then?"
"What makes you think I'm coming back here?" Lindy asked with a raised eyebrow.
Graham chuckled at the question. "You said it yourself, that woman is interested in Miss Fate, and who knows what other spells she has up her sleeves."
Considering that Nanoha and Yuuno had managed to combine Lina's magic style with the Mid-Childan style, it made Lindy curious if Chrono could learn something from Lina as well. "Alright." Plus if they could get her to use most of her spells through an Intelligent Device, they might be able to start a new magic style that could give the Bureau mages a powerful boost in combat.
(---)
"Ah, Mrs. Takamachi." The ship's doctor nodded to her and Yuuno. "About your earlier question... There's some brain activity, but only if I stimulate it..."
"So, she's not completely dead then..." Lina muttered and looked at Yuuno. "Go for it."
"You sure?" He blinked when she nodded at him.
"Yeah, get Nanoha to meet you there, you might need Raising Heart for this." She smiled as he nodded and ran off.
"Um, just what's going on?" The doctor blinked as Lina smiled at him softly.
"Let's just say... There might be a way to save her..." Lina shrugged at the doctor's look. "Whether or not it works, I can't say. It might work, it might not. We'll find out soon enough."
She idly wondered why she was even bothering, she could have just blown up the Garden of Time and gone home. Why was this so important to her?
(---)
"Yuuno-kun!" Nanoha blinked as she met him by the room. "What did you need?"
Yuuno blushed as she looked at him curiously. "Um, I need Raising Heart... That girl in the tube, your mother thinks that she can be saved."
"Oh." Nanoha's eyes widened slightly as she called Raising Heart into its staff form. "Raising Heart, please help Yuuno-kun out."
"Alright."
Yuuno nodded as he took Raising Heart into his hands and walked into the room. He ignored the way Precia looked at him as a green circle appeared under his feet. "Let's go."
Taking a deep breath, he recalled the chant that Lina had taught him, the energy matrixes, and with Raising Heart's help he began to chant while doing the calculations in his head for the conversion.
"Blessed, humble hand of God,
life and breath of Mother Earth,
I pray thee come before me,
show your great compassion to this person and deliver them back to us!
Resurrection!"
The whole room glowed with a bright light, so bright that everyone had to close their eyes, even as the light covered everyone. For some reason, all of them felt better, a lot better, well, except for Yuuno, who was about to pass out from exhaustion from holding the spell for only twenty seconds.
(---)
As she opened the door, Lina had to shield her eyes from the white light. 'Amazing. If he lived on my home world, he'd be heralded as the next great sage.' To go from just basic healing spells to being able to use Resurrection in just over a week, even if he had to leave the majority of the heavy lifting to Raising Heart, she had never heard of anyone learning that fast, aside from herself, of course. His ability to soak up magical theory had to be just as good as her own.
When the light faded, Yuuno slumped to the ground, Raising Heart falling from his fingers as Nanoha grabbed him to keep him from hurting himself.
Lina shook her head and looked at the jar. 'Now's the moment of truth.' She thought to herself.
Still, she wondered why she even cared. She should have just took Nanoha home and let these people sort it out themselves.
But no matter what she tried, something kept stopping her.
Spoiler for Blood That Flows End:
"I guess, in the end, she was gone for too long." Lina sighed as she watched Yuuno eat like she used to. "Sorry that you tried in vain."
Yuuno shook his head and gulped down the food. "No, that's fine. Better to try and fail than not try and never know, right?"
Nanoha giggled and nodded. "Yeah! That's something mom kept teaching me when I was younger all the time!"
"Be that as it may..." Lina cleared her throat. "Nanoha, it's time we head back home."
"Aww!" Nanoha pouted at that. "What about you, Yuuno-kun? You're welcome to come back with us."
Yuuno shook his head. "Nah, I wanna head back to Mid-childa for a bit. I think Fate could use a friend, you know?"
"Aww!" Nanoha pouted and crossed her arms. "Everyone's leaving at the same time."
Lina chuckled at that. "When I was a teenager, Nanoha, my friends and I went our separate ways all the time. We'll see them again."
Yuuno nodded. "Yeah!" He smiled at Nanoha. "Oh, Nanoha, you can keep Raising Heart."
"Eh?!" Nanoha looked at the gem in her hands. "You sure?"
"Yeah, she seems to like you more." Yuuno chuckled softly before blinking as Lina dropped a notebook in front of him. "Eh?"
"Some basic Shamanistic, barrier and healing spells." Lina waved her hand at him, smiling. "When you get a chance, come back with Fate, I wanna see how you two have grown."
Yuuno rubbed the back of his head. Sure, they were basic spells, but he didn't mind, he could figure out how to perfect the fusion of her style and Mid-Childan style. "Alright."
"Actually..." The trio turned to Chrono, was looking at them with an eye closed. "As much as a pain in the rear this has been, someone wants to say something." He jerked a thumb to the door behind him, where Fate walked in, looking embarrassed.
"Fate-chan?" Nanoha blinked as the girl walked up to them and smiled softly.
"Thank you... All of you." Fate smiled at them while blushing. "Um... When the trial is done... Can I come back?"
Lina smiled at her. "Yeah." She looked at Chrono, who was looking away. "Just try not to break any laws, huh?"
Fate blushed and nodded. "I'll do my best."
Nanoha blinked, she just realized something. "Fate-chan, your hair..."
"Um..." She held up her black hair ties. "Chrono said that if I wanted you to remember me... I should give you something... This is all I have..."
Nanoha's eyes lit up. "Hold on!" She undid her hair ties and let her hair down, Fate and Chrono were rather surprised how long Nanoha's hair was when it wasn't tied up, Yuuno thought it was weird that she would let her hair down. "Here. You can have mine. Then you can remember me too."
"Thank you." Fate blushed as the two of them traded hair ribbons.
Lina chuckled. "Come on, Nanoha, I'm sure that your father's worried sick for us by now."
Nanoha nodded and smiled, before giving Fate a quick hug, causing the girl to stiffen and blush, before she let go and ran over to Yuuno and gave him a quick hug as well. "I'll see you two later, I promise that I'll keep working and get stronger!"
"But only after your homework's done."
"Ahhhh!" Nanoha's eyes went blank. "That's right! I have a test tomorrow!" She grabbed her head as she started to panic. "I gotta study or I'll fail!"
The others in the room laughed as Lina grabbed her and had her move towards the teleporter.
"And don't worry." Chrono said to them as they stepped on. "We'll bring her back. It might be a few months, but these two will be back on Earth before you know it."
Lina nodded at him. "We look forward to it."
Nanoha smiled and waved at the people on the bridge, surprisingly Amy and Lindy both had shown up, along with a few of the crew members. She didn't remember all of their names, though she recognized them. In the front, Yuuno, Arf and Fate all smiled at her as she was teleported down to the surface. "Mother..."
"Yeah?" Lina raised an eyebrow as the two walked back to their home.
"I want to get as strong as I can."
Lina chuckled, she could respect that. "You better put in hard work and guts, Nanoha. For you are to learn from the Undefeated Sorceress of the East!" She took a pose, her left foot sticking out, her left arm angling down while her right hand was next to her head and her right leg was bent slightly. Really, she couldn't help it, she had been working on her Master Asia victory pose for years now!
Nanoha clenched her fist, her eyes practically lighting themselves on fire. "YEAH!"
The two stopped posing, before laughing and walking back to their home.
It was going to be interesting, the next time they saw Yuuno and Fate.
End
The ending of this part of the story made me really happy for some reason, i guess it has to do with the final scenes the goodbyes and sparkling eyes of gratitude.
The title really makes it sound much more sinister than it seems to be up 'til now.
warnings about things to come perhaps?
__________________
"The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul"
"When desperate there are two choices: Lock shields for the last stand or draw your sword for the final charge"
"There are no winners or losers, there are only the living and the dead."
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
So basically, you used this chapter as an excuse to throw in just about every zombified animal you could think of, didn't you?
And once again, beneath all the humor I still manage to find something that is a little sad/depressing. Wendi's screaming at the game had me in stiches, but it was rather sombered by the fact that Sette was so focused on her "One shot, one kill" mantra the whole time. It's like an ultimate contrast; you have the complete and utter hilarity that is Wendi cursing out zombie fish and zombie pigs, and then you have Sette who is being single-minded and rather lgoical about all of it. I don't know, I find something about that a little sad.
It's cool, I've grown accustomed to it. Like "Well, everyone's laughing... I wonder what will depress RB?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by DezoPenguin
Well, to be fair, if you're cutting them down as efficiently as Sette is, they're not really all that scary. (And similarly, she grew up with Quattro as her primary frame of reference, so mere brain-eating zombies aren't that frightening by comparison!). Plus I found Sette's greater levels of amused snark in this chapter to be less sad.
...Given that Deici was actually better then Sette, I wonder how her reaction to the game was?
...You know, I think Sette and Einhart would get along very well. Ein's basically one of those obsessed "I must get stronger!" shonen leads transplanted into the body of a moe girl. Or maybe Ein could introduce Sette to her little sister Seibenhart...
I like to think Dieci was actually good enough to drag Wendi through the game for fifteen minutes, or more!
Hee, hee... I was actually thinking much the same...
Quote:
Originally Posted by 00-Raiser
Okay, so I decided to close that poll I had going. Out of 124 votes, 80 want me gone, 42 (plus 3 from this thread) want me to stay, and 2 don't care. So this goes to show it's not just a vocal minority that hates me, but a clear majority (or atleast a minority that's bigger than the minority that want me to stay).
Basically all this means is that I know to focus on writing for atleast 45 people.
But because I'm a scientific sort, I am curious as to what lengths I would have to go to to make people think better of me. So I put up another poll on my profile asking what changes others want to see made. Obviously if the demands are too ridiculous, I won't go through with it, but if, say, people just want to see me write more NanoFate, I'd be willing to accomodate that.
Um... is one of the options 'More explosions'? Because I'd vote for that. I vote for that in almost any poll, really.
...You know, I think Sette and Einhart would get along very well. Ein's basically one of those obsessed "I must get stronger!" shonen leads transplanted into the body of a moe girl. Or maybe Ein could introduce Sette to her little sister Seibenhart...
I googled Seibenhart and found nothing, so could someone explain the reference?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moczo
Um... is one of the options 'More explosions'? Because I'd vote for that. I vote for that in almost any poll, really.
YES! Explosions are good. Big ones, small but numerous, shaped explosions, etc...And you don't have to be on a grimdark setting to utilize them, just ask Moczo *cough*Stardust Fall*cough*
Sighing as she knocked over the Bureau mages, the short redhead gripped the book in her arm. She hated this, but she needed to do this. "Book of Darkness."
"Absorption" The book called out in a female voice as the Linker Cores of the two mages were brought up and absorbed into the book. When they got low enough, she closed the book and turned and left.
"Barely three pages between them." She grumbled at the small amount of mana these mages had. Oh well, they had a lead on a rather strong source. If things went well, they'd probably have at least ten pages filled.
There was no way in hell she'd dare for more.
(---)
Nanoha panted as she gripped Raising Heart and took a stance in the park, before casting another spell, several pink bolts flew from around her straight ahead. Across from her, her mother smirked as she threw up another barrier, causing the attack to bounce harmlessly in front of her. "Good enough for today."
Nanoha panted and slumped to her knees. "Ugh... Why couldn't Miyuki-nee spar with me today?"
Lina laughed at her. "Your sister's a bit busy, that's all. Besides, don't you want to surprise Fate and Yuuno when they get here?"
Nanoha's eyes lit up at that. "Yeah!" The thought of seeing her friends again, after six months, was rather appealing to the little redhead.
"Come on!" Lina chuckled at her sweat-drenched daughter. "Let's get cleaned up for breakfast and get you off to school."
Nanoha cheered and called Raising Heart to its jewel form.
Chuckling, Lina followed her. She was feeling a touch hungry herself. Oh well, nothing an extra large breakfast wouldn't fix, and she knew that Nanoha would eat a ton herself.
Looking up into the sky, Lina shivered slightly as a cool breeze ran across their bodies. "Hey, Nanoha, we're going to have to stop training out here for winter."
"Awww..." Nanoha pouted, but understood. If it was going to be this cold, they could easily get sick from the sweat and the cold air.
Lina looked into the sky again and took a deep breath. "I hope these peaceful days can just last forever." She said softly, though she knew that might not happen."
(---)
Later that night...
"I can feel it..." She muttered to her wolf companion. "A powerful magic user is here, somewhere, Zafira."
The wolf, Zafira, nodded. "I've felt it too." He turned his back to the redhead. "Vita, I'll check over this way, call for help if you need it."
"Ha! A Belkan Knight, needing help against one opponent? Don't make me laugh, Zafira." Vita smirked at him. "I'll catch this one by surprise and get the Linker Core and be back before anyone worries." Part of that was bravado, she would admit, but she wasn't worried. She was certain that no one had the experience needed to take on a Belkan Knight. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to keep up with them for very long.
After all, who in this world had the experience, skill and knowledge to fend off opponents who specialized in magical close combat anyway?
(---)
"ACHOO!"
"You okay, Lina?"
"Just fine, Shiro. Now, where were we?"
"I think, just about here."
"Eeek! Mmm! Naughty."
"You like it though."
(---)
Looking around on the roof of some businesses downtown, Nanoha looked around for the source of her discomfort. "Seriously, who goes around throwing up fields like this?" Nanoha grumbled, before a warning from Raising Heart warned her to an incoming attack. Looking to her side, she threw up a barrier as a metal ball crashed into it. "What?" She didn't get time to contemplate the attack as a redheaded girl in a red dress swung some sort of hammer at her. Raising her free hand, she grimaced as the hammer connected with her barrier with more force that it should have had.
"Raising Heart, please."
"Alright. Axel Bolt."
The hammer girl's eyes widened as she was covered in electrical energy and forced away from Nanoha with a scream as she was forced out of the air and onto the roof, where she rolled away before spinning to her feet. "Okay, didn't expect that one." So the girl could convert electricity easily, huh? Made for an interesting opponent at least.
Nanoha's eyes widened as the girl seemed to disappear. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up and she dropped to her knees as the hammer passed right where her head had been a moment ago. "Diem Wind!"
"Huh?" Her opponent was blown away, quite literally, by surprise as the attack connected, sending her tumbling through the air.
"Raising Heart!"
"Alright. Standby, Drive Ignition."
Nanoha grit her teeth and threw her hand to the side. "Lyrical, Magical! Nanoha Takamachi, let's go!"
"Set up!"
Her opponent shook her head and saw that the girl had finally stopped messing around and called up her staff and Barrier Jacket. Narrowing her eyes, she rubbed her knuckles across her lips. "Damn, didn't know she was that good."
"Divine."
Nanoha flew off the roof and started circling her opponent. "Why are you attacking me?"
"You don't need to know, just lay down and be still!" She growled out as she held a ball in her hand.
"Flame."
Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "If you won't tell me, then I guess I'll have to beat you first."
"Ha! You can try!" The hammer girl laughed at her and held her weapon up, ready to strike the ball. "Graf Eisen!"
"Jawol!"
"Buster!"
The girl was startled by the word, when she finally noticed that the staff had been in a shooting mode before a white hot gout of fire erupted from the tip.
"What? Dual elements?!" She gasped, even as she threw up a barrier with all her might, her ball falling to the ground harmlessly. Gritting her teeth, she grunted as she was pushed back, the heat from the attack melting the snow on the ground and turning it into steam even as the entire downtown area was lit up like the mid-day sun.
"GO!" Nanoha yelled loudly and put more effort into the attack, before focusing a pink ball in front of her and snapping it forward, where it crashed into the girl's shield and exploded, knocking her onto her back in mid-air.
"Huh?" The girl blinked before grabbing her head and pulling her hand away to find that she had nothing but ashes in her hair. "...my hat..." The rest of her outfit was just as worn, but that hat... Hayate had fixed that hat up just special for her! Glaring at the girl, even as tears leaked out of her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU! GRAF EISEN! CARTRIDGE LOAD!!"
"JAWOL!!"
Nanoha blinked as the device snapped up and down, then it changed shapes and the girl rocketed forward, far faster than she had moments before. "Ack!" Throwing up her barrier quickly proved futile as the girl's spike broke through the barrier, slammed into and right through Raising Heart, leaving the shaft mostly destroyed. The girl then spun around again and slammed the pointy end of her hammer RIGHT into Nanoha's ribs. Nanoha's eyes widened and a couple drops of blood slipped out of her wide-open mouth as she was thrown violently into a nearby building, crashing through the wall and ending up at the water dispenser.
Groaning, Nanoha shifted slightly, even as the water poured from the broken dispenser over her head and body. She couldn't even see properly, just darkness and water. "Nnngh..."
Taking a deep breath, the other girl strolled towards her. "Don't go around destroying people's hats."
Nanoha tried to move, but found that doing so sent waves of pain through her body. Her back hurt, her ribs were likely broken, Raising Heart was trashed and this girl looked like she was going to kill her. "Mom... Dad.... Oneechan, Oniichan... Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan... Someone..." She whimpered as the girl stopped just in front of her.
"Tck... This is why I don't like picking on kids, they don't know how to handle a serious fight." Oh well, she'd just call Shamal to make sure that the girl survived getting her Linker Core stolen. The last thing they needed was someone dead because of this. "Just sit still..." Her eyes widened as she jumped back from several icy spikes that crashed through the ground, trying to get her. "What the?!"
The ice spikes shattered, revealing two blonds, a boy and a girl, the girl was pointing an axe-like device at her while the boy's hands were glowing a soft blue. "Damn, reinforcements? Who the hell are you punks?!"
"Her friends!" The girl in black took a stance in front of her. "Yuuno! Protect Nanoha, I'm going to deal with her."
The boy nodded. "No problem, Fate."
"Tsk." The girl spit to the side before flying back. "I'd like to see you try!" As soon as she was out of the building, she was kicked in the butt, sending her up and bouncing off of the outer wall of the building. "What the?!"
Glaring up at her was a redheaded woman with wolf ears and a tail. "A guardian beast?" Just where the hell were these people coming from?
(---)
"We should get to the roof." Yuuno said as Fate nodded, the two of them didn't know how long Arf could hold off the crazy redhead, but they had to get Nanoha somewhere safe.
"Nnngh... Fate-chan... Yuuno-kun... You two came for me." Nanoha smiled, even as pieces of Raising Heart rested on her body.
"Shh!" Yuuno tried to quiet her as they got to the roof and Fate took off. "Arf's here with us. We'll save you and send that girl back wherever she came from."
Nanoha nodded as Yuuno went to work with healing her.
(---)
"Alright, who are you?" Fate asked after she got the girl in some binds on the girl's arms and legs. The girl snorted at her and glared. "Very well, I guess." Her eyes widened as Arf and Bardiche shouted a warning to her that came a moment too late as a pink-haired woman with a sword flashed up and slammed her weapon against Bardiche, knocking her back, before she sliced down, slicing through Bardiche's shaft, before kicking her down out of the air.
"Fate!" Arf yelled, before yelling as she was kicked in the small of the back, sending her away. "Arrgh!"
"Signum!" The bound girl gasped before looking away. She didn't want her leader to see her like this. "I could have handled it."
"Of course you could have, Vita." Signum nodded at her. "Zafira, keep that one busy." The male nodded and raced after Arf. "But, Vita, think about our master. If you were hurt, she would be upset." She looked at the outfit before sighing softly.
Vita looked away, blushing. She didn't like the fact that her outfit was in tatters. "Hayate's not going to be happy about this." Signum turned away after she broke Vita from the binds. "Still, this fight is three-on-three... And there's no way..."
"A Belkan Knight can lose in a one-on-one fight!" Vita finished for her as the two took off.
(---)
Yuuno looked up at the sky, before grimacing. "Nanoha, you okay?"
The girl nodded before blinking as a green barrier popped up around her. "Yuuno-kun?"
"Just stay in there." Yuuno smiled at her. "That barrier will keep anything out as long as you're in it, and it will keep healing you. Fate needs help." She nodded as he ran off and flew straight into the fray.
"Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan, Arf-san..." Nanoha mumbled softly as she watched the fight unfold.
She just hoped that they would all be okay.
(---)
Vita growled as Graf Eisen bounced off of the blond boy's shield again. "Damn you!"
"Freeze!" The boy clapped his hands together, before spreading them apart. Several icy daggers appeared in front of him. "GO!"
"Damn, that was you!?" Vita yelped as they all crashed into her barrier, creating a frozen disk. "Ha!" She smirked as the ice fell down from her barrier. "Is that all you..." She trailed off as several more icicles appeared around her as the boy flew down. "Damn!"
"Blocking only helps if you can keep the other guy from firing at you!" She heard his voice before the spears launched at her. She threw up several smaller barriers around her and smirked as all the attacks were blocked.
"HA! Take that you OOOF!" Vita's eyes widened as that ice puck smashed into her gut, bending her over, before it broke and she went flying back. "Oww! What the hell was that for?" She rubbed her gut even as she struggled to regain control of her flight. Seeing the angry look on the blond boy, she actually gulped despite herself.
"You broke my friend's ribs!" He yelled and snapped forth several more ice spikes.
"What is up with everyone knowing elemental attacks?" Vita mumbled to herself even as she threw up more barriers. "Alright! You wanna play! Let's play!" She looked at Graf Eisen. "EISEN!"
"JAWOL!" Her device yelled as it snapped her last Cartridge up and got much larger. "Gigant Form!"
Vita smirked as his eyes widened. "Hate to waste this on you, but, I don't have time to waste with you!" He was far too nimble of an opponent to risk the full size, not until he was down, but she could still hit him with it as long as she kept it from getting too large
"NNNGH!" The boy grunted as it slammed into a green barrier, sending him skidding back along the air.
"Damn, what is he made of?" Vita asked herself as she couldn't feel any give to the barrier at all, this was her strongest attack and he was LAUGHING at her! "I'll show you!" Putting forth more effort, she was pleased to see that he was pushed out of the air. The pleasantness didn't last long as she saw that his barrier never broke. "Damn, must be more tired than I thought..." She grimaced as she looked at her hands. "...No way." She had at least two broken bones from that. "...Who ARE these people?!"
(---)
Watching the fight, Nanoha looked at the barrier. For some reason, she couldn't contact anyone else. "Raising Heart... We need to destroy the barrier."
"Alright. Starlight Breaker, Barrier Piercing."
"Can you do it, Raising Heart?" She asked, her body felt like crap, her device was in pieces, she felt bad for asking her device to do this too.
"I can be shot, my master."
Nanoha smiled at that. "Thank you." Taking two steps out of the barrier, she pointed straight up. "Everyone, I'm going to fire a Starlight Breaker and get us out of here. I need ten seconds though."
"Right!" She heard Arf, Fate and Yuuno all say to her at once. "Ready, Rasing Heart?"
"Raising Heart." Nanoha gasped. "If it's too hard."
"I can be shot. Count 2. Count 1."
Nanoha's eyes widened as she felt something she had never felt before. Looking down, she saw a hand sticking out of her chest. "...That's not normal..." She gasped as the hand was pulled back, before pushed through again, this time, it was latched onto something small, glowing and round. "What?" Briefly, she heard something say something about downloading or absorbing, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she felt a LOT of pain as the ball started to shrink, and shrink. Her mind went blank even as Raising Heart slipped from her numb fingers. 'What... Is that...'
Destroy... Enemies... Protect...
(---)
Shamal sighed, she hated doing this, but at least it would be done and they could get out of there.
(---)
Signum closed her eyes as she heard the target let out a small whimper. "It's done." She ignored the way that the blond girl in front of her glared. She just needed to keep her away from what Shamal was doing and everything would be fine.
(---)
Yuuno and Arf glared at the girl in tattered clothing and the male wolf creature as they blocked their way.
"Just a moment longer, then you can just..."
"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!" A blood curdling scream interrupted the battlefield and everyone looked at Nanoha, who was screaming, her eyes open wide.
"What the?!" Vita gasped, this wasn't normal. This wasn't normal at all!
(---)
Gasping awake, her left eye glowing brightly, Lina looked outside. "Oh no..." She trembled and got dressed quickly. "Nanoha!"
"What's wrong?" Shiro got to his feet, pants on his body just as Lina opened the windows. "Lina?! What about Nanoha?"
His wife turned to him with a look of dread on her face. "What I feared most has come true."
(---)
Nanoha screamed, her body, mind and soul were on fire. Her magic circle appeared under her, but it wasn't pink this time, it was a bright gold color, black lightning crackled out from it and surrounded her even as her red hair turned a bright golden color. The white of her eyes turned pitch black even as her blue eyes turned gold.
(---)
Shamal stared, this wasn't normal, not at all. She trembled as the girl turned to her and grinned before pointing at her. The Knight of the Lake screamed as lightning covered her body, zapping her and the Book from all angles, causing soul-shearing pain to run through her. It felt like something was ripping her apart slowly and deliberately.
(---)
Nanoha turned away from the immediate pain before looking straight at Vita. "So... You wanted to hurt me..." Her voice was distorted and sending shivers down the spines of EVERYONE on the battle field.
Nanoha snapped her fingers and pointed at Vita. The grin on her face became more disturbed as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the girl for a moment before it abated. Hearing the screams and seeing her fall to the ground in a spray of blood from her body was just music to her ears and eyes.
She looked at the other two. "Which of you two... Shall be the next to go?"
(---)
Vita screamed, her whole body, inside and out was on fire, her arms, legs, face, neck, belly, chest, back and ass were bleeding even as she fell to the ground. As she crashed into a car, she rolled on the ground, through snow banks in a futile attempt to stop the pain. "HURTS! STOP!" She screamed, even as the snow covered her, it didn't stop the fiery hot pain from continuing to engulf her.
What kind of monster was that creature? What kind of creature could do something like this so easily?
(---)
Signum dodged like a woman possessed, those black spheres were no joke. She had tried to block one with her attacks, only to find that anything she used was quickly swallowed up by the spheres, and even her barriers didn't help, even if they slowed the attacks down long enough for her to escape. "Zafira! Get to Shamal and Vita!"
She had only taken her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, only a moment, but that was all that was needed for a black sphere to clip her leg, sending shockwaves of pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, rushing through her body. Looking up, she saw a large black sphere heading towards her. Closing her eyes, she waited for the end, she wasn't a coward, but she wished that she could see Hayate again. She gasped as she felt someone grab her arm and pull her out of the way. "You?" She blinked at the blond girl.
The girl, Testarossa, she believed, shook her head. "Nanoha's not a killer, something happened to her, get the others and get out of here."
Signum was about to say something, when her leg started burning hot. "Nnngh. Right."
(---)
"Where's the last one? Little dog, little dog... You need a spanking." Nanoha turned and grinned as she saw him try to grab the one that had hurt her the most, only to get covered in the same lightning that had got her. "Burn! Burn in unholy hellfire!" She held up a black ball that started crackling with fire, before throwing her hands up, the ball moving above her head. "Now, take this!"
"Holy wind, which flows gently across the land,
let all things be filled with your pure breath.
Van Rail!"
Nanoha's eyes widened as her legs and arms, including her attack were covered in ice. Turning her head, she saw Yuuno panting. "You would defend them? After what they did... Then..." A gold pillar engulfed her. "You shall go too!"
Yuuno's eyes widened, he didn't think that she'd turn on him. "NANOHA! SNAP OUT OF IT!" He screamed even as she charged up a black and gold ball in her hands.
"Yuuno!" Fate screamed as she raced towards him, she wasn't going to make it, nothing could stop this tragedy from continuing.
Suddenly the barrier shattered like glass, and before anyone could react, the trembling, out of control chaotic energies were stopped.
Fate looked and saw Nanoha passed out and a panting Lina's fist in her belly. "What are you waiting for?!" Lina yelled at her, Arf and Yuuno. "Get down here!" She then turned to see Signum grabbing a still screaming and rolling Vita on the ground. "You, get out of here!" She wanted to punish them, she did, but if that Chaos took over again, she needed to make sure that she was nearby to keep her daughter from destroying the Earth.
She'd deal with them at a later date, this was more important.
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My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.
Sighing as she knocked over the Bureau mages, the short redhead gripped the book in her arm. She hated this, but she needed to do this. "Book of Darkness."
"Absorption" The book called out in a female voice as the Linker Cores of the two mages were brought up and absorbed into the book. When they got low enough, she closed the book and turned and left.
"Barely three pages between them." She grumbled at the small amount of mana these mages had. Oh well, they had a lead on a rather strong source. If things went well, they'd probably have at least ten pages filled.
There was no way in hell she'd dare for more.
(---)
Nanoha panted as she gripped Raising Heart and took a stance in the park, before casting another spell, several pink bolts flew from around her straight ahead. Across from her, her mother smirked as she threw up another barrier, causing the attack to bounce harmlessly in front of her. "Good enough for today."
Nanoha panted and slumped to her knees. "Ugh... Why couldn't Miyuki-nee spar with me today?"
Lina laughed at her. "Your sister's a bit busy, that's all. Besides, don't you want to surprise Fate and Yuuno when they get here?"
Nanoha's eyes lit up at that. "Yeah!" The thought of seeing her friends again, after six months, was rather appealing to the little redhead.
"Come on!" Lina chuckled at her sweat-drenched daughter. "Let's get cleaned up for breakfast and get you off to school."
Nanoha cheered and called Raising Heart to its jewel form.
Chuckling, Lina followed her. She was feeling a touch hungry herself. Oh well, nothing an extra large breakfast wouldn't fix, and she knew that Nanoha would eat a ton herself.
Looking up into the sky, Lina shivered slightly as a cool breeze ran across their bodies. "Hey, Nanoha, we're going to have to stop training out here for winter."
"Awww..." Nanoha pouted, but understood. If it was going to be this cold, they could easily get sick from the sweat and the cold air.
Lina looked into the sky again and took a deep breath. "I hope these peaceful days can just last forever." She said softly, though she knew that might not happen."
(---)
Later that night...
"I can feel it..." She muttered to her wolf companion. "A powerful magic user is here, somewhere, Zafira."
The wolf, Zafira, nodded. "I've felt it too." He turned his back to the redhead. "Vita, I'll check over this way, call for help if you need it."
"Ha! A Belkan Knight, needing help against one opponent? Don't make me laugh, Zafira." Vita smirked at him. "I'll catch this one by surprise and get the Linker Core and be back before anyone worries." Part of that was bravado, she would admit, but she wasn't worried. She was certain that no one had the experience needed to take on a Belkan Knight. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to keep up with them for very long.
After all, who in this world had the experience, skill and knowledge to fend off opponents who specialized in magical close combat anyway?
(---)
"ACHOO!"
"You okay, Lina?"
"Just fine, Shiro. Now, where were we?"
"I think, just about here."
"Eeek! Mmm! Naughty."
"You like it though."
(---)
Looking around on the roof of some businesses downtown, Nanoha looked around for the source of her discomfort. "Seriously, who goes around throwing up fields like this?" Nanoha grumbled, before a warning from Raising Heart warned her to an incoming attack. Looking to her side, she threw up a barrier as a metal ball crashed into it. "What?" She didn't get time to contemplate the attack as a redheaded girl in a red dress swung some sort of hammer at her. Raising her free hand, she grimaced as the hammer connected with her barrier with more force that it should have had.
"Raising Heart, please."
"Alright. Axel Bolt."
The hammer girl's eyes widened as she was covered in electrical energy and forced away from Nanoha with a scream as she was forced out of the air and onto the roof, where she rolled away before spinning to her feet. "Okay, didn't expect that one." So the girl could convert electricity easily, huh? Made for an interesting opponent at least.
Nanoha's eyes widened as the girl seemed to disappear. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up and she dropped to her knees as the hammer passed right where her head had been a moment ago. "Diem Wind!"
"Huh?" Her opponent was blown away, quite literally, by surprise as the attack connected, sending her tumbling through the air.
"Raising Heart!"
"Alright. Standby, Drive Ignition."
Nanoha grit her teeth and threw her hand to the side. "Lyrical, Magical! Nanoha Takamachi, let's go!"
"Set up!"
Her opponent shook her head and saw that the girl had finally stopped messing around and called up her staff and Barrier Jacket. Narrowing her eyes, she rubbed her knuckles across her lips. "Damn, didn't know she was that good."
"Divine."
Nanoha flew off the roof and started circling her opponent. "Why are you attacking me?"
"You don't need to know, just lay down and be still!" She growled out as she held a ball in her hand.
"Flame."
Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "If you won't tell me, then I guess I'll have to beat you first."
"Ha! You can try!" The hammer girl laughed at her and held her weapon up, ready to strike the ball. "Graf Eisen!"
"Jawol!"
"Buster!"
The girl was startled by the word, when she finally noticed that the staff had been in a shooting mode before a white hot gout of fire erupted from the tip.
"What? Dual elements?!" She gasped, even as she threw up a barrier with all her might, her ball falling to the ground harmlessly. Gritting her teeth, she grunted as she was pushed back, the heat from the attack melting the snow on the ground and turning it into steam even as the entire downtown area was lit up like the mid-day sun.
"GO!" Nanoha yelled loudly and put more effort into the attack, before focusing a pink ball in front of her and snapping it forward, where it crashed into the girl's shield and exploded, knocking her onto her back in mid-air.
"Huh?" The girl blinked before grabbing her head and pulling her hand away to find that she had nothing but ashes in her hair. "...my hat..." The rest of her outfit was just as worn, but that hat... Hayate had fixed that hat up just special for her! Glaring at the girl, even as tears leaked out of her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU! GRAF EISEN! CARTRIDGE LOAD!!"
"JAWOL!!"
Nanoha blinked as the device snapped up and down, then it changed shapes and the girl rocketed forward, far faster than she had moments before. "Ack!" Throwing up her barrier quickly proved futile as the girl's spike broke through the barrier, slammed into and right through Raising Heart, leaving the shaft mostly destroyed. The girl then spun around again and slammed the pointy end of her hammer RIGHT into Nanoha's ribs. Nanoha's eyes widened and a couple drops of blood slipped out of her wide-open mouth as she was thrown violently into a nearby building, crashing through the wall and ending up at the water dispenser.
Groaning, Nanoha shifted slightly, even as the water poured from the broken dispenser over her head and body. She couldn't even see properly, just darkness and water. "Nnngh..."
Taking a deep breath, the other girl strolled towards her. "Don't go around destroying people's hats."
Nanoha tried to move, but found that doing so sent waves of pain through her body. Her back hurt, her ribs were likely broken, Raising Heart was trashed and this girl looked like she was going to kill her. "Mom... Dad.... Oneechan, Oniichan... Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan... Someone..." She whimpered as the girl stopped just in front of her.
"Tck... This is why I don't like picking on kids, they don't know how to handle a serious fight." Oh well, she'd just call Shamal to make sure that the girl survived getting her Linker Core stolen. The last thing they needed was someone dead because of this. "Just sit still..." Her eyes widened as she jumped back from several icy spikes that crashed through the ground, trying to get her. "What the?!"
The ice spikes shattered, revealing two blonds, a boy and a girl, the girl was pointing an axe-like device at her while the boy's hands were glowing a soft blue. "Damn, reinforcements? Who the hell are you punks?!"
"Her friends!" The girl in black took a stance in front of her. "Yuuno! Protect Nanoha, I'm going to deal with her."
The boy nodded. "No problem, Fate."
"Tsk." The girl spit to the side before flying back. "I'd like to see you try!" As soon as she was out of the building, she was kicked in the butt, sending her up and bouncing off of the outer wall of the building. "What the?!"
Glaring up at her was a redheaded woman with wolf ears and a tail. "A guardian beast?" Just where the hell were these people coming from?
(---)
"We should get to the roof." Yuuno said as Fate nodded, the two of them didn't know how long Arf could hold off the crazy redhead, but they had to get Nanoha somewhere safe.
"Nnngh... Fate-chan... Yuuno-kun... You two came for me." Nanoha smiled, even as pieces of Raising Heart rested on her body.
"Shh!" Yuuno tried to quiet her as they got to the roof and Fate took off. "Arf's here with us. We'll save you and send that girl back wherever she came from."
Nanoha nodded as Yuuno went to work with healing her.
(---)
"Alright, who are you?" Fate asked after she got the girl in some binds on the girl's arms and legs. The girl snorted at her and glared. "Very well, I guess." Her eyes widened as Arf and Bardiche shouted a warning to her that came a moment too late as a pink-haired woman with a sword flashed up and slammed her weapon against Bardiche, knocking her back, before she sliced down, slicing through Bardiche's shaft, before kicking her down out of the air.
"Fate!" Arf yelled, before yelling as she was kicked in the small of the back, sending her away. "Arrgh!"
"Signum!" The bound girl gasped before looking away. She didn't want her leader to see her like this. "I could have handled it."
"Of course you could have, Vita." Signum nodded at her. "Zafira, keep that one busy." The male nodded and raced after Arf. "But, Vita, think about our master. If you were hurt, she would be upset." She looked at the outfit before sighing softly.
Vita looked away, blushing. She didn't like the fact that her outfit was in tatters. "Hayate's not going to be happy about this." Signum turned away after she broke Vita from the binds. "Still, this fight is three-on-three... And there's no way..."
"A Belkan Knight can lose in a one-on-one fight!" Vita finished for her as the two took off.
(---)
Yuuno looked up at the sky, before grimacing. "Nanoha, you okay?"
The girl nodded before blinking as a green barrier popped up around her. "Yuuno-kun?"
"Just stay in there." Yuuno smiled at her. "That barrier will keep anything out as long as you're in it, and it will keep healing you. Fate needs help." She nodded as he ran off and flew straight into the fray.
"Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan, Arf-san..." Nanoha mumbled softly as she watched the fight unfold.
She just hoped that they would all be okay.
(---)
Vita growled as Graf Eisen bounced off of the blond boy's shield again. "Damn you!"
"Freeze!" The boy clapped his hands together, before spreading them apart. Several icy daggers appeared in front of him. "GO!"
"Damn, that was you!?" Vita yelped as they all crashed into her barrier, creating a frozen disk. "Ha!" She smirked as the ice fell down from her barrier. "Is that all you..." She trailed off as several more icicles appeared around her as the boy flew down. "Damn!"
"Blocking only helps if you can keep the other guy from firing at you!" She heard his voice before the spears launched at her. She threw up several smaller barriers around her and smirked as all the attacks were blocked.
"HA! Take that you OOOF!" Vita's eyes widened as that ice puck smashed into her gut, bending her over, before it broke and she went flying back. "Oww! What the hell was that for?" She rubbed her gut even as she struggled to regain control of her flight. Seeing the angry look on the blond boy, she actually gulped despite herself.
"You broke my friend's ribs!" He yelled and snapped forth several more ice spikes.
"What is up with everyone knowing elemental attacks?" Vita mumbled to herself even as she threw up more barriers. "Alright! You wanna play! Let's play!" She looked at Graf Eisen. "EISEN!"
"JAWOL!" Her device yelled as it snapped her last Cartridge up and got much larger. "Gigant Form!"
Vita smirked as his eyes widened. "Hate to waste this on you, but, I don't have time to waste with you!" He was far too nimble of an opponent to risk the full size, not until he was down, but she could still hit him with it as long as she kept it from getting too large
"NNNGH!" The boy grunted as it slammed into a green barrier, sending him skidding back along the air.
"Damn, what is he made of?" Vita asked herself as she couldn't feel any give to the barrier at all, this was her strongest attack and he was LAUGHING at her! "I'll show you!" Putting forth more effort, she was pleased to see that he was pushed out of the air. The pleasantness didn't last long as she saw that his barrier never broke. "Damn, must be more tired than I thought..." She grimaced as she looked at her hands. "...No way." She had at least two broken bones from that. "...Who ARE these people?!"
(---)
Watching the fight, Nanoha looked at the barrier. For some reason, she couldn't contact anyone else. "Raising Heart... We need to destroy the barrier."
"Alright. Starlight Breaker, Barrier Piercing."
"Can you do it, Raising Heart?" She asked, her body felt like crap, her device was in pieces, she felt bad for asking her device to do this too.
"I can be shot, my master."
Nanoha smiled at that. "Thank you." Taking two steps out of the barrier, she pointed straight up. "Everyone, I'm going to fire a Starlight Breaker and get us out of here. I need ten seconds though."
"Right!" She heard Arf, Fate and Yuuno all say to her at once. "Ready, Rasing Heart?"
"Raising Heart." Nanoha gasped. "If it's too hard."
"I can be shot. Count 2. Count 1."
Nanoha's eyes widened as she felt something she had never felt before. Looking down, she saw a hand sticking out of her chest. "...That's not normal..." She gasped as the hand was pulled back, before pushed through again, this time, it was latched onto something small, glowing and round. "What?" Briefly, she heard something say something about downloading or absorbing, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she felt a LOT of pain as the ball started to shrink, and shrink. Her mind went blank even as Raising Heart slipped from her numb fingers. 'What... Is that...'
Destroy... Enemies... Protect...
(---)
Shamal sighed, she hated doing this, but at least it would be done and they could get out of there.
(---)
Signum closed her eyes as she heard the target let out a small whimper. "It's done." She ignored the way that the blond girl in front of her glared. She just needed to keep her away from what Shamal was doing and everything would be fine.
(---)
Yuuno and Arf glared at the girl in tattered clothing and the male wolf creature as they blocked their way.
"Just a moment longer, then you can just..."
"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!" A blood curdling scream interrupted the battlefield and everyone looked at Nanoha, who was screaming, her eyes open wide.
"What the?!" Vita gasped, this wasn't normal. This wasn't normal at all!
(---)
Gasping awake, her left eye glowing brightly, Lina looked outside. "Oh no..." She trembled and got dressed quickly. "Nanoha!"
"What's wrong?" Shiro got to his feet, pants on his body just as Lina opened the windows. "Lina?! What about Nanoha?"
His wife turned to him with a look of dread on her face. "What I feared most has come true."
(---)
Nanoha screamed, her body, mind and soul were on fire. Her magic circle appeared under her, but it wasn't pink this time, it was a bright gold color, black lightning crackled out from it and surrounded her even as her red hair turned a bright golden color. The white of her eyes turned pitch black even as her blue eyes turned gold.
(---)
Shamal stared, this wasn't normal, not at all. She trembled as the girl turned to her and grinned before pointing at her. The Knight of the Lake screamed as lightning covered her body, zapping her and the Book from all angles, causing soul-shearing pain to run through her. It felt like something was ripping her apart slowly and deliberately.
(---)
Nanoha turned away from the immediate pain before looking straight at Vita. "So... You wanted to hurt me..." Her voice was distorted and sending shivers down the spines of EVERYONE on the battle field.
Nanoha snapped her fingers and pointed at Vita. The grin on her face became more disturbed as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the girl for a moment before it abated. Hearing the screams and seeing her fall to the ground in a spray of blood from her body was just music to her ears and eyes.
She looked at the other two. "Which of you two... Shall be the next to go?"
(---)
Vita screamed, her whole body, inside and out was on fire, her arms, legs, face, neck, belly, chest, back and ass were bleeding even as she fell to the ground. As she crashed into a car, she rolled on the ground, through snow banks in a futile attempt to stop the pain. "HURTS! STOP!" She screamed, even as the snow covered her, it didn't stop the fiery hot pain from continuing to engulf her.
What kind of monster was that creature? What kind of creature could do something like this so easily?
(---)
Signum dodged like a woman possessed, those black spheres were no joke. She had tried to block one with her attacks, only to find that anything she used was quickly swallowed up by the spheres, and even her barriers didn't help, even if they slowed the attacks down long enough for her to escape. "Zafira! Get to Shamal and Vita!"
She had only taken her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, only a moment, but that was all that was needed for a black sphere to clip her leg, sending shockwaves of pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, rushing through her body. Looking up, she saw a large black sphere heading towards her. Closing her eyes, she waited for the end, she wasn't a coward, but she wished that she could see Hayate again. She gasped as she felt someone grab her arm and pull her out of the way. "You?" She blinked at the blond girl.
The girl, Testarossa, she believed, shook her head. "Nanoha's not a killer, something happened to her, get the others and get out of here."
Signum was about to say something, when her leg started burning hot. "Nnngh. Right."
(---)
"Where's the last one? Little dog, little dog... You need a spanking." Nanoha turned and grinned as she saw him try to grab the one that had hurt her the most, only to get covered in the same lightning that had got her. "Burn! Burn in unholy hellfire!" She held up a black ball that started crackling with fire, before throwing her hands up, the ball moving above her head. "Now, take this!"
"Holy wind, which flows gently across the land,
let all things be filled with your pure breath.
Van Rail!"
Nanoha's eyes widened as her legs and arms, including her attack were covered in ice. Turning her head, she saw Yuuno panting. "You would defend them? After what they did... Then..." A gold pillar engulfed her. "You shall go too!"
Yuuno's eyes widened, he didn't think that she'd turn on him. "NANOHA! SNAP OUT OF IT!" He screamed even as she charged up a black and gold ball in her hands.
"Yuuno!" Fate screamed as she raced towards him, she wasn't going to make it, nothing could stop this tragedy from continuing.
Suddenly the barrier shattered like glass, and before anyone could react, the trembling, out of control chaotic energies were stopped.
Fate looked and saw Nanoha passed out and a panting Lina's fist in her belly. "What are you waiting for?!" Lina yelled at her, Arf and Yuuno. "Get down here!" She then turned to see Signum grabbing a still screaming and rolling Vita on the ground. "You, get out of here!" She wanted to punish them, she did, but if that Chaos took over again, she needed to make sure that she was nearby to keep her daughter from destroying the Earth.
She'd deal with them at a later date, this was more important.
There we go, that's what i was waiting for. The title makes perfect sense now. Something, however tells me this is bad, bery bad.
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"The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul"
"When desperate there are two choices: Lock shields for the last stand or draw your sword for the final charge"
"There are no winners or losers, there are only the living and the dead."
You overlooked one thing. Why wasn't Lina caught in the barrier that caught Nanoha in the first place? Another thing is that Shamal shouldn't be Nanoha's line of sight. But that just makes Chaos!Nanoha scarier.
Sighing as she knocked over the Bureau mages, the short redhead gripped the book in her arm. She hated this, but she needed to do this. "Book of Darkness."
"Absorption" The book called out in a female voice as the Linker Cores of the two mages were brought up and absorbed into the book. When they got low enough, she closed the book and turned and left.
"Barely three pages between them." She grumbled at the small amount of mana these mages had. Oh well, they had a lead on a rather strong source. If things went well, they'd probably have at least ten pages filled.
There was no way in hell she'd dare for more.
(---)
Nanoha panted as she gripped Raising Heart and took a stance in the park, before casting another spell, several pink bolts flew from around her straight ahead. Across from her, her mother smirked as she threw up another barrier, causing the attack to bounce harmlessly in front of her. "Good enough for today."
Nanoha panted and slumped to her knees. "Ugh... Why couldn't Miyuki-nee spar with me today?"
Lina laughed at her. "Your sister's a bit busy, that's all. Besides, don't you want to surprise Fate and Yuuno when they get here?"
Nanoha's eyes lit up at that. "Yeah!" The thought of seeing her friends again, after six months, was rather appealing to the little redhead.
"Come on!" Lina chuckled at her sweat-drenched daughter. "Let's get cleaned up for breakfast and get you off to school."
Nanoha cheered and called Raising Heart to its jewel form.
Chuckling, Lina followed her. She was feeling a touch hungry herself. Oh well, nothing an extra large breakfast wouldn't fix, and she knew that Nanoha would eat a ton herself.
Looking up into the sky, Lina shivered slightly as a cool breeze ran across their bodies. "Hey, Nanoha, we're going to have to stop training out here for winter."
"Awww..." Nanoha pouted, but understood. If it was going to be this cold, they could easily get sick from the sweat and the cold air.
Lina looked into the sky again and took a deep breath. "I hope these peaceful days can just last forever." She said softly, though she knew that might not happen."
(---)
Later that night...
"I can feel it..." She muttered to her wolf companion. "A powerful magic user is here, somewhere, Zafira."
The wolf, Zafira, nodded. "I've felt it too." He turned his back to the redhead. "Vita, I'll check over this way, call for help if you need it."
"Ha! A Belkan Knight, needing help against one opponent? Don't make me laugh, Zafira." Vita smirked at him. "I'll catch this one by surprise and get the Linker Core and be back before anyone worries." Part of that was bravado, she would admit, but she wasn't worried. She was certain that no one had the experience needed to take on a Belkan Knight. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to keep up with them for very long.
After all, who in this world had the experience, skill and knowledge to fend off opponents who specialized in magical close combat anyway?
(---)
"ACHOO!"
"You okay, Lina?"
"Just fine, Shiro. Now, where were we?"
"I think, just about here."
"Eeek! Mmm! Naughty."
"You like it though."
(---)
Looking around on the roof of some businesses downtown, Nanoha looked around for the source of her discomfort. "Seriously, who goes around throwing up fields like this?" Nanoha grumbled, before a warning from Raising Heart warned her to an incoming attack. Looking to her side, she threw up a barrier as a metal ball crashed into it. "What?" She didn't get time to contemplate the attack as a redheaded girl in a red dress swung some sort of hammer at her. Raising her free hand, she grimaced as the hammer connected with her barrier with more force that it should have had.
"Raising Heart, please."
"Alright. Axel Bolt."
The hammer girl's eyes widened as she was covered in electrical energy and forced away from Nanoha with a scream as she was forced out of the air and onto the roof, where she rolled away before spinning to her feet. "Okay, didn't expect that one." So the girl could convert electricity easily, huh? Made for an interesting opponent at least.
Nanoha's eyes widened as the girl seemed to disappear. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up and she dropped to her knees as the hammer passed right where her head had been a moment ago. "Diem Wind!"
"Huh?" Her opponent was blown away, quite literally, by surprise as the attack connected, sending her tumbling through the air.
"Raising Heart!"
"Alright. Standby, Drive Ignition."
Nanoha grit her teeth and threw her hand to the side. "Lyrical, Magical! Nanoha Takamachi, let's go!"
"Set up!"
Her opponent shook her head and saw that the girl had finally stopped messing around and called up her staff and Barrier Jacket. Narrowing her eyes, she rubbed her knuckles across her lips. "Damn, didn't know she was that good."
"Divine."
Nanoha flew off the roof and started circling her opponent. "Why are you attacking me?"
"You don't need to know, just lay down and be still!" She growled out as she held a ball in her hand.
"Flame."
Nanoha narrowed her eyes. "If you won't tell me, then I guess I'll have to beat you first."
"Ha! You can try!" The hammer girl laughed at her and held her weapon up, ready to strike the ball. "Graf Eisen!"
"Jawol!"
"Buster!"
The girl was startled by the word, when she finally noticed that the staff had been in a shooting mode before a white hot gout of fire erupted from the tip.
"What? Dual elements?!" She gasped, even as she threw up a barrier with all her might, her ball falling to the ground harmlessly. Gritting her teeth, she grunted as she was pushed back, the heat from the attack melting the snow on the ground and turning it into steam even as the entire downtown area was lit up like the mid-day sun.
"GO!" Nanoha yelled loudly and put more effort into the attack, before focusing a pink ball in front of her and snapping it forward, where it crashed into the girl's shield and exploded, knocking her onto her back in mid-air.
"Huh?" The girl blinked before grabbing her head and pulling her hand away to find that she had nothing but ashes in her hair. "...my hat..." The rest of her outfit was just as worn, but that hat... Hayate had fixed that hat up just special for her! Glaring at the girl, even as tears leaked out of her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU! GRAF EISEN! CARTRIDGE LOAD!!"
"JAWOL!!"
Nanoha blinked as the device snapped up and down, then it changed shapes and the girl rocketed forward, far faster than she had moments before. "Ack!" Throwing up her barrier quickly proved futile as the girl's spike broke through the barrier, slammed into and right through Raising Heart, leaving the shaft mostly destroyed. The girl then spun around again and slammed the pointy end of her hammer RIGHT into Nanoha's ribs. Nanoha's eyes widened and a couple drops of blood slipped out of her wide-open mouth as she was thrown violently into a nearby building, crashing through the wall and ending up at the water dispenser.
Groaning, Nanoha shifted slightly, even as the water poured from the broken dispenser over her head and body. She couldn't even see properly, just darkness and water. "Nnngh..."
Taking a deep breath, the other girl strolled towards her. "Don't go around destroying people's hats."
Nanoha tried to move, but found that doing so sent waves of pain through her body. Her back hurt, her ribs were likely broken, Raising Heart was trashed and this girl looked like she was going to kill her. "Mom... Dad.... Oneechan, Oniichan... Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan... Someone..." She whimpered as the girl stopped just in front of her.
"Tck... This is why I don't like picking on kids, they don't know how to handle a serious fight." Oh well, she'd just call Shamal to make sure that the girl survived getting her Linker Core stolen. The last thing they needed was someone dead because of this. "Just sit still..." Her eyes widened as she jumped back from several icy spikes that crashed through the ground, trying to get her. "What the?!"
The ice spikes shattered, revealing two blonds, a boy and a girl, the girl was pointing an axe-like device at her while the boy's hands were glowing a soft blue. "Damn, reinforcements? Who the hell are you punks?!"
"Her friends!" The girl in black took a stance in front of her. "Yuuno! Protect Nanoha, I'm going to deal with her."
The boy nodded. "No problem, Fate."
"Tsk." The girl spit to the side before flying back. "I'd like to see you try!" As soon as she was out of the building, she was kicked in the butt, sending her up and bouncing off of the outer wall of the building. "What the?!"
Glaring up at her was a redheaded woman with wolf ears and a tail. "A guardian beast?" Just where the hell were these people coming from?
(---)
"We should get to the roof." Yuuno said as Fate nodded, the two of them didn't know how long Arf could hold off the crazy redhead, but they had to get Nanoha somewhere safe.
"Nnngh... Fate-chan... Yuuno-kun... You two came for me." Nanoha smiled, even as pieces of Raising Heart rested on her body.
"Shh!" Yuuno tried to quiet her as they got to the roof and Fate took off. "Arf's here with us. We'll save you and send that girl back wherever she came from."
Nanoha nodded as Yuuno went to work with healing her.
(---)
"Alright, who are you?" Fate asked after she got the girl in some binds on the girl's arms and legs. The girl snorted at her and glared. "Very well, I guess." Her eyes widened as Arf and Bardiche shouted a warning to her that came a moment too late as a pink-haired woman with a sword flashed up and slammed her weapon against Bardiche, knocking her back, before she sliced down, slicing through Bardiche's shaft, before kicking her down out of the air.
"Fate!" Arf yelled, before yelling as she was kicked in the small of the back, sending her away. "Arrgh!"
"Signum!" The bound girl gasped before looking away. She didn't want her leader to see her like this. "I could have handled it."
"Of course you could have, Vita." Signum nodded at her. "Zafira, keep that one busy." The male nodded and raced after Arf. "But, Vita, think about our master. If you were hurt, she would be upset." She looked at the outfit before sighing softly.
Vita looked away, blushing. She didn't like the fact that her outfit was in tatters. "Hayate's not going to be happy about this." Signum turned away after she broke Vita from the binds. "Still, this fight is three-on-three... And there's no way..."
"A Belkan Knight can lose in a one-on-one fight!" Vita finished for her as the two took off.
(---)
Yuuno looked up at the sky, before grimacing. "Nanoha, you okay?"
The girl nodded before blinking as a green barrier popped up around her. "Yuuno-kun?"
"Just stay in there." Yuuno smiled at her. "That barrier will keep anything out as long as you're in it, and it will keep healing you. Fate needs help." She nodded as he ran off and flew straight into the fray.
"Yuuno-kun, Fate-chan, Arf-san..." Nanoha mumbled softly as she watched the fight unfold.
She just hoped that they would all be okay.
(---)
Vita growled as Graf Eisen bounced off of the blond boy's shield again. "Damn you!"
"Freeze!" The boy clapped his hands together, before spreading them apart. Several icy daggers appeared in front of him. "GO!"
"Damn, that was you!?" Vita yelped as they all crashed into her barrier, creating a frozen disk. "Ha!" She smirked as the ice fell down from her barrier. "Is that all you..." She trailed off as several more icicles appeared around her as the boy flew down. "Damn!"
"Blocking only helps if you can keep the other guy from firing at you!" She heard his voice before the spears launched at her. She threw up several smaller barriers around her and smirked as all the attacks were blocked.
"HA! Take that you OOOF!" Vita's eyes widened as that ice puck smashed into her gut, bending her over, before it broke and she went flying back. "Oww! What the hell was that for?" She rubbed her gut even as she struggled to regain control of her flight. Seeing the angry look on the blond boy, she actually gulped despite herself.
"You broke my friend's ribs!" He yelled and snapped forth several more ice spikes.
"What is up with everyone knowing elemental attacks?" Vita mumbled to herself even as she threw up more barriers. "Alright! You wanna play! Let's play!" She looked at Graf Eisen. "EISEN!"
"JAWOL!" Her device yelled as it snapped her last Cartridge up and got much larger. "Gigant Form!"
Vita smirked as his eyes widened. "Hate to waste this on you, but, I don't have time to waste with you!" He was far too nimble of an opponent to risk the full size, not until he was down, but she could still hit him with it as long as she kept it from getting too large
"NNNGH!" The boy grunted as it slammed into a green barrier, sending him skidding back along the air.
"Damn, what is he made of?" Vita asked herself as she couldn't feel any give to the barrier at all, this was her strongest attack and he was LAUGHING at her! "I'll show you!" Putting forth more effort, she was pleased to see that he was pushed out of the air. The pleasantness didn't last long as she saw that his barrier never broke. "Damn, must be more tired than I thought..." She grimaced as she looked at her hands. "...No way." She had at least two broken bones from that. "...Who ARE these people?!"
(---)
Watching the fight, Nanoha looked at the barrier. For some reason, she couldn't contact anyone else. "Raising Heart... We need to destroy the barrier."
"Alright. Starlight Breaker, Barrier Piercing."
"Can you do it, Raising Heart?" She asked, her body felt like crap, her device was in pieces, she felt bad for asking her device to do this too.
"I can be shot, my master."
Nanoha smiled at that. "Thank you." Taking two steps out of the barrier, she pointed straight up. "Everyone, I'm going to fire a Starlight Breaker and get us out of here. I need ten seconds though."
"Right!" She heard Arf, Fate and Yuuno all say to her at once. "Ready, Rasing Heart?"
"Raising Heart." Nanoha gasped. "If it's too hard."
"I can be shot. Count 2. Count 1."
Nanoha's eyes widened as she felt something she had never felt before. Looking down, she saw a hand sticking out of her chest. "...That's not normal..." She gasped as the hand was pulled back, before pushed through again, this time, it was latched onto something small, glowing and round. "What?" Briefly, she heard something say something about downloading or absorbing, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she felt a LOT of pain as the ball started to shrink, and shrink. Her mind went blank even as Raising Heart slipped from her numb fingers. 'What... Is that...'
Destroy... Enemies... Protect...
(---)
Shamal sighed, she hated doing this, but at least it would be done and they could get out of there.
(---)
Signum closed her eyes as she heard the target let out a small whimper. "It's done." She ignored the way that the blond girl in front of her glared. She just needed to keep her away from what Shamal was doing and everything would be fine.
(---)
Yuuno and Arf glared at the girl in tattered clothing and the male wolf creature as they blocked their way.
"Just a moment longer, then you can just..."
"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!" A blood curdling scream interrupted the battlefield and everyone looked at Nanoha, who was screaming, her eyes open wide.
"What the?!" Vita gasped, this wasn't normal. This wasn't normal at all!
(---)
Gasping awake, her left eye glowing brightly, Lina looked outside. "Oh no..." She trembled and got dressed quickly. "Nanoha!"
"What's wrong?" Shiro got to his feet, pants on his body just as Lina opened the windows. "Lina?! What about Nanoha?"
His wife turned to him with a look of dread on her face. "What I feared most has come true."
(---)
Nanoha screamed, her body, mind and soul were on fire. Her magic circle appeared under her, but it wasn't pink this time, it was a bright gold color, black lightning crackled out from it and surrounded her even as her red hair turned a bright golden color. The white of her eyes turned pitch black even as her blue eyes turned gold.
(---)
Shamal stared, this wasn't normal, not at all. She trembled as the girl turned to her and grinned before pointing at her. The Knight of the Lake screamed as lightning covered her body, zapping her and the Book from all angles, causing soul-shearing pain to run through her. It felt like something was ripping her apart slowly and deliberately.
(---)
Nanoha turned away from the immediate pain before looking straight at Vita. "So... You wanted to hurt me..." Her voice was distorted and sending shivers down the spines of EVERYONE on the battle field.
Nanoha snapped her fingers and pointed at Vita. The grin on her face became more disturbed as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground, engulfing the girl for a moment before it abated. Hearing the screams and seeing her fall to the ground in a spray of blood from her body was just music to her ears and eyes.
She looked at the other two. "Which of you two... Shall be the next to go?"
(---)
Vita screamed, her whole body, inside and out was on fire, her arms, legs, face, neck, belly, chest, back and ass were bleeding even as she fell to the ground. As she crashed into a car, she rolled on the ground, through snow banks in a futile attempt to stop the pain. "HURTS! STOP!" She screamed, even as the snow covered her, it didn't stop the fiery hot pain from continuing to engulf her.
What kind of monster was that creature? What kind of creature could do something like this so easily?
(---)
Signum dodged like a woman possessed, those black spheres were no joke. She had tried to block one with her attacks, only to find that anything she used was quickly swallowed up by the spheres, and even her barriers didn't help, even if they slowed the attacks down long enough for her to escape. "Zafira! Get to Shamal and Vita!"
She had only taken her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, only a moment, but that was all that was needed for a black sphere to clip her leg, sending shockwaves of pain, unlike anything she had ever felt before, rushing through her body. Looking up, she saw a large black sphere heading towards her. Closing her eyes, she waited for the end, she wasn't a coward, but she wished that she could see Hayate again. She gasped as she felt someone grab her arm and pull her out of the way. "You?" She blinked at the blond girl.
The girl, Testarossa, she believed, shook her head. "Nanoha's not a killer, something happened to her, get the others and get out of here."
Signum was about to say something, when her leg started burning hot. "Nnngh. Right."
(---)
"Where's the last one? Little dog, little dog... You need a spanking." Nanoha turned and grinned as she saw him try to grab the one that had hurt her the most, only to get covered in the same lightning that had got her. "Burn! Burn in unholy hellfire!" She held up a black ball that started crackling with fire, before throwing her hands up, the ball moving above her head. "Now, take this!"
"Holy wind, which flows gently across the land,
let all things be filled with your pure breath.
Van Rail!"
Nanoha's eyes widened as her legs and arms, including her attack were covered in ice. Turning her head, she saw Yuuno panting. "You would defend them? After what they did... Then..." A gold pillar engulfed her. "You shall go too!"
Yuuno's eyes widened, he didn't think that she'd turn on him. "NANOHA! SNAP OUT OF IT!" He screamed even as she charged up a black and gold ball in her hands.
"Yuuno!" Fate screamed as she raced towards him, she wasn't going to make it, nothing could stop this tragedy from continuing.
Suddenly the barrier shattered like glass, and before anyone could react, the trembling, out of control chaotic energies were stopped.
Fate looked and saw Nanoha passed out and a panting Lina's fist in her belly. "What are you waiting for?!" Lina yelled at her, Arf and Yuuno. "Get down here!" She then turned to see Signum grabbing a still screaming and rolling Vita on the ground. "You, get out of here!" She wanted to punish them, she did, but if that Chaos took over again, she needed to make sure that she was nearby to keep her daughter from destroying the Earth.
She'd deal with them at a later date, this was more important.
... Ladies and gentlemen, I believe things just got complicated. Damn.
EDIT: Also, my new official couple for all of anime is Chaos!Nanoha and Magia Erebea Negi.
The Italian in the white hooded robes stopped short of the doorway he was about to step through and turned to look at his comrade. "Make some friends."
There was a flash and now a man in a similar-yet-different white robe leaned against a wall in a Middle Eastern marketplace. He waited until a bunch of patrolling guards was almost past his position, then stepped forward and put his right hand over the mouth of the last one
while punching the man’s back with the left. Before the guard could resist, a blade sprang through where the robed man's left fourth finger should have been and stabbed into the guard's spine. The robed man gently put his victim on the ground and strolled away calmly.
There was another flash and the view was back to the Italian, who was wearing a different set of robes from the first time. Hidden in a group of gaudily-dressed courtesans, he had his left forearm raised to point at an old man on a ship, with the right arm supporting it. There was the sound of fireworks going off and the old man fell forward-
"Nanoha!"
The sight dissipated, leaving Nanoha Takamachi to shake herself out of her stupor and turn to face her friends. The twenty year-old brunette played with her side-tied ponytail and chuckled nervously. "Sorry."
"Are you still thinking about the coming visitor?" Yuuno Scrya asked.
Nanoha looked at her green-eyed blond friend and wondered how to answer. She had never told anyone, not even her family, about the visions that had once troubled her. They had started after her father Shiro had been badly injured in a bombing. In the days that had followed, the rest of her family had spent time at the hospital where he had been warded, leaving her by herself most of the time. Her mind had brought to the fore sights that she should not have known, centred on white-robed men slaying evildoers. The visions had taken her all around the world, but more often than not reflected a part-Arab during the Third Crusade and an Italian who lived during the Renaissance.
The visions had stopped appearing after she had met Yuuno and gained the magical Device known as Raising Heart, introducing her to a wider inter-dimensional world and the Bureau that watched over the myriad realms. That had been 11 years ago. So why had they returned recently?
Nanoha suspected that it had something to do with the message and the visitor. Scarce a week ago, her father had sent a message to her informing her that a distant cousin of his would be visiting her. He had also hinted not-too-subtly that he had known about the visions.
"Isn't it about time?" Nanoha's other present friend, the red-eyed blonde Fate Testarossa Harlaown, said.
Nanoha looked at the cafe's wall clock and said, "Yes, it-"
"Excuse me?" said a man who had appeared by the table from seemingly nowhere. He looked at Nanoha, then at something on a smartphone, then back to her. "Are you Nanoha Takamachi?"
The three jumped in their seats.
"Sorry, I know I have that effect on people sometimes," the newcomer said. "I should introduce myself." He made a shallow bow, then offered his right hand. "Luis Ramon Columba." Black-haired, brown-eyed, dressed in an unremarkable smart casual outfit, he could have been one of any number of generic civilians. The three of them knew better and Nanoha, finding something about him reminiscent of her visions, reflexively looked at his left forearm.
There was indeed a bracer on it, the inner side of which he was trying to keep out of sight, as if there was something to hide there.
***
A/N: I blame my friend who WMG'd the idea of Ezio being Nanoha's ancestor, based on those two lines that I quoted at the start. Is this a oneshot? I do not know yet, but I have no concrete plans. This was meant as a throwaway to indulge the muse, so I did not bother to shore up any potential plotholes.
The Italian in the white hooded robes stopped short of the doorway he was about to step through and turned to look at his comrade. "Make some friends."
There was a flash and now a man in a similar-yet-different white robe leaned against a wall in a Middle Eastern marketplace. He waited until a bunch of patrolling guards was almost past his position, then stepped forward and put his right hand over the mouth of the last one
while punching the man’s back with the left. Before the guard could resist, a blade sprang through where the robed man's left fourth finger should have been and stabbed into the guard's spine. The robed man gently put his victim on the ground and strolled away calmly.
There was another flash and the view was back to the Italian, who was wearing a different set of robes from the first time. Hidden in a group of gaudily-dressed courtesans, he had his left forearm raised to point at an old man on a ship, with the right arm supporting it. There was the sound of fireworks going off and the old man fell forward-
"Nanoha!"
The sight dissipated, leaving Nanoha Takamachi to shake herself out of her stupor and turn to face her friends. The twenty year-old brunette played with her side-tied ponytail and chuckled nervously. "Sorry."
"Are you still thinking about the coming visitor?" Yuuno Scrya asked.
Nanoha looked at her green-eyed blond friend and wondered how to answer. She had never told anyone, not even her family, about the visions that had once troubled her. They had started after her father Shiro had been badly injured in a bombing. In the days that had followed, the rest of her family had spent time at the hospital where he had been warded, leaving her by herself most of the time. Her mind had brought to the fore sights that she should not have known, centred on white-robed men slaying evildoers. The visions had taken her all around the world, but more often than not reflected a part-Arab during the Third Crusade and an Italian who lived during the Renaissance.
The visions had stopped appearing after she had met Yuuno and gained the magical Device known as Raising Heart, introducing her to a wider inter-dimensional world and the Bureau that watched over the myriad realms. That had been 11 years ago. So why had they returned recently?
Nanoha suspected that it had something to do with the message and the visitor. Scarce a week ago, her father had sent a message to her informing her that a distant cousin of his would be visiting her. He had also hinted not-too-subtly that he had known about the visions.
"Isn't it about time?" Nanoha's other present friend, the red-eyed blonde Fate Testarossa Harlaown, said.
Nanoha looked at the cafe's wall clock and said, "Yes, it-"
"Excuse me?" said a man who had appeared by the table from seemingly nowhere. He looked at Nanoha, then at something on a smartphone, then back to her. "Are you Nanoha Takamachi?"
The three jumped in their seats.
"Sorry, I know I have that effect on people sometimes," the newcomer said. "I should introduce myself." He made a shallow bow, then offered his right hand. "Luis Ramon Columba." Black-haired, brown-eyed, dressed in an unremarkable smart casual outfit, he could have been one of any number of generic civilians. The three of them knew better and Nanoha, finding something about him reminiscent of her visions, reflexively looked at his left forearm.
There was indeed a bracer on it, the inner side of which he was trying to keep out of sight, as if there was something to hide there.
***
A/N: I blame my friend who WMG'd the idea of Ezio being Nanoha's ancestor, based on those two lines that I quoted at the start. Is this a oneshot? I do not know yet, but I have no concrete plans. This was meant as a throwaway to indulge the muse, so I did not bother to shore up any potential plotholes.
So, here's a little something I thought up last night at work.
Spoiler for Just Sit Right Back...:
"Oh! Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale! A tale of a fateful trip!
That started from this Suppol port, aboard this tiny ship!
The mate was a mighty befriender, the captain had long green hair!
Five passengers set out that day, three hours in their care.
Three hours in their care!
*CRACK-A-DOOM!*
The weather started getting rough!
The tiny ship was tossed!
If not for the courage of our fearless crew, the Arthra would be lost!
The Arthra would be lost!
The ship sunk down on this uncharted desert planet!
With Nanoha!
The Admiral too!
The Bridge Bunny and her boy!
The clone mage.
Yuuno and Familiar Girl!
Here on Nanoha's world!"
...
What?
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My fics Due to certain things, I am not here, find me over on TFF.