[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/81IEtdI.png[/img] [/center] [hr] Despite her best efforts, Dana couldn’t keep her face from turning a bright shade of red when Aiya inquired if there might be someone in particular she was looking forward to kissing, the Duodecim girl’s lips curling into a mischievous smirk as she did so. [color=Gold]“W-Well, uh…”[/color] Dana stammered, her mouth forming a sheepish smile as she scratched the back of her head and giggled nervously. Yet, before the sunny sharpshooter could come up with a coherent response, Aiya went for the killing blow by nonchalantly mentioning that a spare cabin was available for those wishing to engage in more… [i]intimate[/i] interactions. At this, Dana was sure she could feel her heart abruptly stop beating, even as blasts of steam shot from her ears. A quick glance at Noah revealed that the big cadet was looking equally uncomfortable and, as with Dana herself, he seemed unable to articulate any sort of response to Aiya’s playful teasing. The irony of the fact that she was now getting a taste of her own mischievous medicine wasn’t lost on the young Ars Magi, although, thankfully, Aiya mercifully chose to end the torment and offer the pair a way out of the awkward situation. [color=Gold]“O-Other games?”[/color] Dana echoed, the Norban desperate to latch onto anything that might provide a means to escape the humiliating spotlight that had been placed on her and Noah. [color=Gold]“T-That sounds like it could be fun, right Noah?”[/color] she asked the big cadet in a hopeful tone. As it happened, not only was Noah equally eager to move on to other things, but two other cadets were kind enough to join the pair in their game of cards. Soon enough, the awkward exchange with their host was but a distant memory and Dana was back to her boisterous and bubbly self. The rest of the night passed in a blur of fun and frivolity, until the Assurance finally returned to the dock in the early hours of the morning. Yet, before making her wobbly way off the yacht, a quite tipsy Dana had still managed to give Noah a quick kiss when no one was looking. Just thinking about that moment brought a contented smile to the cheerful Norban’s face that persisted even after she had returned to her dorm, collapsed onto her pillow, and drifted off to dreamland. [hr] By the following morning, however, those dreams had turned into a nightmare, and that smile was long gone. In its place was a wince of painful discomfort as the sound of Penny’s groaning voice woke her with a sharp lance of pain to her aching head. [color=Gold]“P-Penny…?”[/color] Dana mumbled, her own exhausted voice sounding just as anguished as her roommate’s. [color=Gold]“H-Holy crap… You look terrible…”[/color] she added a moment later as she slowly opened her burning, groggy eyes and got her first glimpse of the bespectacled Siscian’s haggard visage. Just then, a knock on the door sent another spike of pain shooting through her, forcing the Norban to squeeze her eyes shut and press her pillow against both sides of her head. [color=Gold]“Owww…”[/color] she groaned. [color=Gold]“N-Not so louuuud…”[/color] she whined in protest, carefully opening one eye to see that Penny had opened the door, revealing a surprisingly perky Priya. [color=Gold][i]Wonder what she’s doing here…[/i][/color] Dana idly pondered as she closed her eyes once more and pulled her covers back over her head. [color=Gold][i]S’kinda early…[/i][/color] However, before she could drift back into blessed unconsciousness, the suffering sharpshooter dimly made out Penny saying something about a hangover. [color=Gold][i]Huh… So [b]this[/b] is what a hangover feels like…[/i][/color] Dana thought to herself, before giving voice to a small giggle. In hindsight, she probably should have expected as much. The party had been such great fun that she had quickly lost track of just how much alcohol she had consumed, and now she was paying the price for that not-so-slight slip-up. Thankfully, Priya had come bearing gifts, namely, various items to help get Dana and her roommate back on their feet. [color=Gold]“Y-Yeah…”[/color] Dana confirmed when Penny asked if she needed any of Priya’s offerings. [color=Gold]“I-I’ll have some in a… lil’… bit…”[/color] she mumbled before slipping off into slumber once more. [hr] When she woke up again a few hours later, Dana found that Priya’s gifts did a world of good. While she hadn’t been feeling very hungry, and thus chosen to forgo the eggs, the water was gulped down with the speed of one dying of thirst. Yet, it was the aspirin that she was most thankful for. It might not have fully cured her headache, but a dull soreness was far more preferable than a shooting pain. Slowly but surely, Dana made her weary way to the dorm’s common room, where she wasted no time in sprawling her tired body across the room’s comfiest couch. [color=Gold]“Yeaaah…”[/color] the Norban replied with a drawn-out sigh when Penny noted that drinking so much just [i]might[/i] have been a mistake. [color=Gold]“I’m kinda startin’ to think the same thing…”[/color] she added with a wry smirk as she turned her head to face the bespectacled brunette. As was often the case, a news report was playing in the background, and the mention of the approaching Nox front caused Dana to perk up. [color=Gold]“Hey, they were talkin’ about that the other day, right?”[/color] she spoke up. [color=Gold]“Ya think it’s gonna turn into a full-blown storm?”[/color] Such storms were blessedly rare occurrences for an inland city like Norba, but even Dana’s monolithic, man-made mountain of a home had felt their fury, and she dimly remembered how worried her parents and siblings had been when the entire city went into lockdown ten years prior. She and her family had ultimately weathered the storm just fine, but she later learned that Voids had still managed to breach the city’s outer defenses and wreak havoc in its otherwise impregnable residential core. If one were to strike a sprawling port city like Palmyra, the damage was likely to be far worse. Then again, while it might lack the extensive defenses of consolidated, fortress-like Norba, it [i]did[/i] have one distinct advantage Dana’s home lacked- Nova Lux. With the world’s largest concentration of Ars Magi on hand to help defend it, Dana was confident Palmyra could withstand whatever tempest the Earth’s corrupted atmosphere cared to dish out. However, the following days would put that confidence to the test, as Dana, her teammates, and the entire population of Palmyra watched the Nox front strengthen into a raging cyclone of cataclysmic proportions, one that would almost certainly strike the city head-on. Tensions mounted as the city prepared, the term “Storm of the Century” being used more and more often by increasingly anxious voices to describe the swiftly approaching tempest. A day before the storm was due to hit, Dana and her team were told how [i]they[/i] would be aiding the city’s defense. Team Three, along with the rest of Nova Lux’s student body, would be held in reserve, placed at key locations around the city to respond to any potential incursions, while the veteran Ars Magi stood guard on the front line of Palmyra’s perimeter wall. Although Dana did her best to keep her team’s spirits up with encouraging words and discussions about where in the city they might be assigned, even the irrepressible Norban couldn’t help but feel that they would soon be facing the biggest challenge of their young lives… [hr] When the tempest hit at 4 pm the following afternoon, Dana and the rest of her team found themselves stationed in Nova Lux’s own Grand Hall. In light of their various predictions on what far-flung point of the vast metropolitan area they’d be assigned, it was almost comical how close to their dorms they had actually ended up. Yet, this was clearly no time for levity. The last time the group had been in this hall, they had been attending a mandatory ball, but now the festive ambiance of music and light hearted conversation had been replaced with the far harsher sounds of clipped orders, roaring wind, and pounding rain, punctuated by sudden, jarring thunderclaps. As the apparent command center for the school’s defensive operations, the rest of the hall was occupied by several clusters of officers, gathered around their respective workstations. Not wishing to interrupt their obviously important tasks, Dana decided to content herself with watching their monitors from afar, alongside the other members of her team. At first, the grinning gunslinger’s full attention was fixed on the various monitor screens, her auric eyes flitting from one display to another in an attempt to spot the first sign, the first hint, of a disturbance, but as the hours dragged on and afternoon turned to evening, the lack of activity gave rise to a sense of increasing boredom. Without anything else to occupy their racing minds, the members of Team Three turned to admittedly awkward attempts at small talk. [color=Gold]“Really startin' to think they should’ve made those [i]indoor[/i] gardens, y’know?”[/color] Dana quipped with a smirk as she watched the stately trees beyond the rain-lashed window nearly bend over backwards in the howling, hurricane-force winds. [color=Gold]“Still, [i]this[/i] storm’s got nothin’ on Team [i]Radiant[/i] Storm, right guys?”[/color] [color=Gold]“I wish…”[/color] the Norban replied with a sigh when Penny jokingly asked if any of her companions had brought some playing cards. As it was, aside from the tracksuits they had on, none of the girls had been permitted to bring anything other than some water and light snacks. While Dana could sort of understand the logic behind such a decision, that still didn’t make it any less annoying. Yet, just as the tedium of waiting was about to become unbearable, something finally happened. At first, Dana had thought the sound was simply another thunderclap, but that idea was swiftly rejected. Not only did the detonation sound slightly off, it was immediately followed by an array of warning lights flashing into existence on the officers’ myriad screens and consoles. Indeed, those same officers were even now in a state of urgent motion, and it wasn’t long before the senior officer present began snapping orders to Dana and her team. The school was under attack, and they were to head to the medical wing immediately. However, it was the officer’s next words that made Dana’s blood run cold. The enemy they would be facing weren’t Voids. They were Ars Magi. At first, Dana wasn’t sure she was hearing correctly. Sure, she had seen Victoria Glass duel what [i]looked[/i] like another Ars Magi on the Laurus’s rain-lashed deck during her initial trip to Palmyra, but she had simply assumed that it had been nothing more than a Void capable of mimicking such a form. Perhaps that was case here as well, she pondered. Then again, perhaps actual Ars Magi truly [i]had[/i] sided with the Void for whatever inexplicable reason in a chilling real-life analogue to one of the most shocking episodes of Guardian Gunslinger Alexis, an episode in which a team of Alexis’s most elite allies revealed that they had been secretly working for the evil Doktor Xylannis all along! That said, the idea of [i]Ars Magi[/i], paragons of heroism that they were, voluntarily joining the inhuman enemies of their species was utterly incomprehensible to an idealistic girl like Dana, and she soon found herself wondering if the hypothetical traitorous Magi had actually been [i]brainwashed[/i] instead. Yes, she realized, they could be victims of some new type of Void puppet master, forced by it to work against their former allies to ensure its own nefarious ends. Even so, whether mind-controlled puppets of the Void, or autonomous agents working towards some currently-indiscernible goal, Team Radiant Storm would almost certainly be going up against full-fledged Ars Magi, with all the abilities such a title entailed… Clenching her hand into a fist, Dana called upon the power stored within her Armagus and, after the flash of a golden sunburst, the grinning gunslinger was once again bedecked in her Parma, her shining Gladius held at the ready. [center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/76msg18.png[/img] [/center] [color=Gold]“Okay, guys!”[/color] Dana called as she followed after Penny. [color=Gold]“Let’s show these jerks what Team Radiant Storm can do!”[/color] There was no doubt that this would be their greatest challenge yet, but Dana was confident they would be up to the task. They would [i]have[/i] to be.