Dana smiled and nodded as Penny gave her explanation for why she preferred Altea over Alexis, knowing that everyone had their own unique tastes and that Penny’s opinion as well as her own were both completely subjective, and thus, completely valid. And that was perfectly fine. After all, such differences usually led to some of the best discussions, at least in Dana’s personal experience. Indeed, just after Penny had finished describing her sisters, Nicole had joined the conversation, professing her love for Eradicator II.
“Oh, totally!” Dana agreed. “I’m a big fan of that series, too! And you’re right about the second being the best,” she added after Penny voiced her own thoughts on the series. “But, like, isn’t that the case with most series? The second installment is usually the best one. I mean, ya got Aliens, Wrath of Khan, Empire Strikes Back, Judgment Day…”
By this point, the conversation had shifted to home cities, leaving Dana to take up the role of a passive listener. Hasta sounded really cool, and she couldn’t help but feel that it was a shame they weren’t heading there instead… Still, Palmyra was probably cool too, in its own way. After all, it was home to Nova Lux Academy! That alone made visiting it something to look forward to.
If they ever got there…
“Woah!” Dana yelped as the airship shuddered violently. She then felt her heart stop as a glowing, red eye appeared outside the viewport. It departed moments later, but it still left Dana more than a little shaken up. She had never seen a void up close before, and she doubted any of her fellow Ars Magi candidates had either. Before she could confirm that by asking, or even glancing at their faces, they were all thrown into the air by a massive jolt. Dana was sent flying into the rear wall, slamming her head in the process. The vessel finally regained control a few seconds later, but before Dana’s dizzy mind could even take note of that, the lights flickered off, bathing the room in darkness.
“Owww…” Dana groaned, wincing as she clutched her aching head. “I’m a little beaten up, but I think I’ll live,” she replied to Penny’s inquiry as she slowly got to her feet. “Anyone get the number of that giant eye monster?” she asked after a moment, in a meager attempt to add a bit of levity to the situation.
She could hear the sounds of weapons fire from beyond the door, so they clearly weren’t out of the proverbial woods just yet, and it was still quite dark, although Penny seemed to be providing some sparks to help with that problem. Dana was just about to add her own powers to the effort when the calm, but commanding voice of Vanna requested she do just that.
“Sure thing!” she replied. Gathering her magic, she formed a small sphere of glowing, golden light above the tip of one finger.
After that, Vanna swiftly took charge of the situation, providing two possible courses of action. Astrelle was quick to give her vote to the second option, and Dana found herself in full agreement with the other girl’s sentiment.
“Sounds like a plan!” Dana declared with what she hoped was a reassuring grin. “People may need our help, and if there’s a chance we can make a difference, then we gotta take it!”
Steph exhaled in relief after the harpy’s partially decapitated body crashed to the floor in front of her.
Welp, I guess that takes care of that… Now I just have to deal with those creatures out there…
Moving to a better position, Steph saw that several of the beasts were gathered around a centrally located building, attempting to get inside. She only had three, perhaps four, shots left, so she needed to make each one count. Taking careful aim on the first creature’s head, she squeezed the trigger, snapping off a quick shot, before moving on to the next.
One.
Two.
Three…
Four.
A quartet of corpses now lay upon the ground surrounding the building, but there were still six of the creatures left, and Steph’s rifle was now completely out of energy. She needed a new plan… Thinking fast, she instructed her nanites to reassemble her rifle into a sword. Although she was reluctant to engage the creatures in close combat, she knew her enhanced body was fully capable of doing so.
She took a deep breath.
Okay… Here goes nothing!
Leaping from her balcony, Steph used the momentum she had generated to bring her blade down hard upon her first target’s neck. This, coupled with her superhuman strength, allowed her weapon to slice clean through, neatly decapitating the creature. Wasting no time, she swiftly jumped over to the next beast and repeated the process. She kept this up until the area around the central structure was completely free of the beasts. This didn’t mean Steph was about to let down her guard, though. She had been keeping count, and she was well aware that there were a few beasts still unaccounted for. Not wishing to hunt them down, and potentially be caught unawares, she opted to take up a defensive position in front of the structure’s entrance and wait for them to come to her…
“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that,” Dana conceded in response to Penny’s observation that Altea had better character arcs than her own favorite show. “At least, if you’re only talking about the first season,” she added with a grin. “Season two took a really deep look at a lot of Alexis’s emotional vulnerabilities, especially her until-then unrequited love for her best friend. But that’s not really the reason why I love her show,” Dana continued. “It’s mainly because of all the crazy, hyperkinetic action and cool designs for characters, vehicles, monsters, and all that stuff! Then there’s all the comedy too! It’s just really fun to watch! I mean, what other show has the main character go up against a biomechanical titan the size of a sanctum city in the first few minutes of the very first episode?!”
It was clear to see that Dana was getting even more excited than usual just thinking about it, but she quickly shifted gears when Penny voiced a new question.
“Oh, uh, sisters? Yeah, I have four,” Dana replied. “They’re all older than me, though, which is fine, cause they’re all really encouraging and supportive. The perfect big sisters!” she added with a giggle. “What are your sisters like?”
Steph’s aim was true, and she grinned as her cryostasis bolt struck the harpy’s wing, blowing it clean off. The creature fell from the sky, wounded, but not killed…
Guess these bolts don’t have enough juice to affect an entire creature in one shot… Steph reflected. This would be more difficult than she’d first thought, but she was up for the challenge.
Her determination was put to the test a moment later, when her hyperaware senses detected a flash of light. She dropped to the floor less than a second before a beam of bluish energy shot through the space she had just been occupying.
Holy crap! That was close!
Quickly regaining her bearings, Steph utilized her superhuman perceptive abilities to locate the source of the beam. Not wasting a moment, she snapped off another shot, this time, aiming for the creature’s head…
“Wow! Quite the bumpy ride we’re havin’, huh?” Dana asked with a giggle as she tightly grasped her cup. She was perhaps a little nervous, but she had confidence that their vessel’s sturdy construction would safely see them through to their destination.
Victoria swiftly departed as soon as the shaking subsided, leaving the five of them on their own. Penny was the first to break the short silence that followed, asking about their thoughts on becoming Ars Magi.
“I’m really lookin’ forward to it!” Dana announced with a big grin. “I think it’s gonna be really exciting and fun! And the best part is, once we’ve graduated, we’ll be able to help so many people with our new powers!”
Her grin broadened when Penny mentioned Divine Magical Maid Altea.
“So you like Altea, too, huh? My sisters were big fans of that show,” she explained, “so I ended up seein' a lot of episodes with them, but I kinda preferred Beautiful Guardian Gunslinger Alexis myself.”
“Golly wolly~!” MDP exclaimed after FanFan had introduced herself. “Your namey wamey is, like, sooo super duper cute~! (giggle!) And, like, Magical Dream Princess would just wuv to have a tea party with her new friends~! Oh~! And don’t you worry~!” she added after Leena had told her the most important thing to remember about the upcoming mission. “Magical Dream Princes knows that taking care of Mariettey Wettey is, like, totally wotally the most important wortant thingie wingie~! You can, like, totally wotally trust her on that~! (giggle!)”
Connie watched quietly, while MDP chatted away with the Beacon girls. She was still very nervous, but she did her best to stay calm and focused on the reason she was doing this. Her friend needed help, and several girls needed saving from a horror. If she could assist in any way, then she was going to do so, regardless of how much the situation terrified her. That said, she made especially sure to keep the glass side of her broken mirror facing away from her as she stored it within the folds of her robe. After all, even a broken mirror could still show your reflection…
Connie gulped when Ronin explained that it was certain that a trap would be waiting for them. She only hoped what Leena had said about being able to nullify them was true. After that, it was time to depart.
“Ready, little sister?” Gaia asked as she placed a comforting hand atop Connie’s.
“Y-Yeah, Mia,” she replied with as much confidence as she could muster. “L-Let’s do this!”
The next moment, they were transported into what seemed to be a featureless, black void.
“Golly wolly~!” MDP exclaimed. “It’s so dark and icky wicky in heresie~!”
“Y-Yeah…” Connie replied softly.
The masked girl couldn’t help but cling to Gaia, her nervous body beginning to tremble. No sooner had they entered than a voice that could only belong to Mariette addressed them. Alicia and Mariette went on to exchange a few words, before the latter informed them that they had arrived in the aptly named Void Room, a place where she sacrificed things to her Patron… Connie was on the verge of a panic attack, when Mariette activated a wind trap. Fortunately, Connie, Gaia, and MDP had chosen mirrors, instead of candles, but Ronin wasn’t as lucky. Although she really didn’t seem to care about that at the moment, as a bigger problem had made its appearance... Wasting no time, the small samurai had created a barrier platform, upon which Connie and Gaia soon joined her.
“W-What are those things?!” Connie cried in alarm as she used her own tentacles to fend of the ones emerging from the floor.
“They’re super duper icky wicky~!” MDP added as she blasted them with rainbow beams of sparkly energy from her wand. Having conjured a sparkly pink cloud for herself, the childish magical girl was now zooming around the void room, blasting the dark hands and tentacles as she went.
Ronin then mentioned that they needed to escape, and fast, something that seemed rather obvious, as far as Gaia was concerned.
“That certainly seems the most advisable course of action,” the verdant magical girl agreed, while firing a beam of emerald energy at one of the nearby tentacles. “Perhaps our space-warping ally can be of some assistance in that regard?” she asked, while directing her gaze to Tenebra.
As Steph continued to observe from her hiding place, her attention was drawn to the sky, where what appeared to be a harpy was also taking note of the battle. Based upon the creature’s screeches, it was very much in favor of beasts, and by the looks of the local terrain, chances were that it was the one who had brought them here. She was momentarily taken aback when a spike of mountain blasted out from one of the buildings, impaling a beast attempting to claw its way inside. It appeared the villagers did have a protector of some kind after all. Even so, Steph knew that they would need help if they wished to fend off this attack, especially with that harpy circling overhead…
While this was transpiring, Steph’s nanites had returned from their search and informed her that while there were indeed numerous sources of metal from which to craft a weapon, she would have to venture out from her hiding place to make use of it. That didn’t seem like a good idea, and even if she could somehow escape notice, she doubted a simple sword would be all that effective against these creatures, especially a flying opponent, like the harpy. There had to be another option, something closer…
It was then that Steph remembered the cryostasis chamber. It was easily the most advanced thing here and she certainly had easy access to it. Her nanite swarm was only programmed to manipulate metal, but if anyone could modify its programming, it was Steph. After all, she had reprogrammed her first robot at the age of five. Reprogramming the nanites to reassemble the cryochamber into a weapon was well within her capabilities. After hastily tapping away on a holographic display, Steph was ready to let the cloud of tiny machines go to work. After only thirty seconds, it was complete- a cryostasis rifle. It would only be good for five shots, six at most, but Steph knew that if she could make those shots count, then the village would surely be saved.
Once more taking up position at the pagoda’s entrance, Steph waited patiently for the harpy to come into view. Once the creature had done so, she placed her finger on the trigger, took careful aim…
“Oh, uh, for about a year, I guess,” Dana replied to Victoria’s question. “It’s really not all that amazing, though,” she added with a sheepish grin, feeling a little embarrassed by Penny’s astonishment at her abilities. “I mean, I haven’t exactly ‘mastered’ anything yet. I can only patch up minor injuries and stuff. So, yeah,” she finished with a nervous giggle. “Nothin’ really special…”
“But those lighting powers of yours are pretty sweet!” she told Penny, hoping to take the focus off of herself for a bit. “And don’t worry! I’m sure once you get your Ars Armgaus and learn to better control your abilities, you’ll be able to do all kinds of cool stuff!”
Sirens blared, warning lights flashed, and, even this far below ground, the hardened complex shook violently.
“Hurry, Stephanie!” her father implored urgently as they ran down the shuddering corridors. “We don’t have much time!”
Stephanie had never seen her parents look so frightened before, and that sight scared her far more than any other aspect of the cataclysm raging around them. It had all happened so fast… One moment, she had been working in one of the labs, the next, and the entire complex had exploded into complete pandemonium. Dozens of voices chattered at once, adding to the already cacophonous wailing of the alarms. Someone had said that Harbinger had gone insane and was now attacking the planet it had been created to protect. Others relayed reports of thermonuclear strikes, supervolcanic eruptions, and the formation of massive hypercanes all across the world. Stephanie had struggled to keep up with the rapid flow of information, even as her parents spirited her away to the deepest, most secure recesses of the complex. What happened next was a blur of hastily applied genetic enhancements and cybernetic augmentation, after which Steph found herself before a prototype cryostasis chamber.
“Get in, Steph,” her father instructed. “Quickly, now! There’s not a moment to lose!”
“W-What’s going on, Dad?!” Steph asked, her shaky voice filled with a mixture of fear and confusion. “W-What even is all this?! A-And, what about you and Mom?!”
“I’m sorry sweetie,” her mother apologized as she helped her into the chamber. “There’s no time to explain, but I promise that we’ll tell you everything when you wake up.”
Steph could see that her mother was trying her best to sound reassuring, but she couldn’t hide the tears in her eyes.
“Y-You mean you and Dad also have cryochambers? B-But, I only saw this one… Where…?”
“Just trust us,” her father told her with an encouraging smile. “I promise you that everything will be okay.”
He was crying, too.
Steph was beginning to feel increasingly frantic now.
“Mom, Dad, please!” she pleaded, tears streaming down her own cheeks. “I-I don’t want to do this! I-If we stay together, m-maybe we can work this out, fix whatever’s wrong with—”
“I’m sorry, Steph,” her father said softly. “This is the only way.”
“We love you, sweetie,” her mother sobbed as the chamber was sealed.
“Mom!” Steph cried out as the cryostasis system activated.
Steph awoke feeling groggy and disoriented. The last thing she remembered was her parents, her mother saying that she loved her. And then….
“Mom!” Steph tried to call out, but her throat was so dry that her attempt came out as a hoarse croak. Needless to say, there was no answer. In fact, the chamber had yet to even open. She felt a pang of fear at the thought that she might be trapped inside her chamber, with no chance of escape, doomed to die a slow death by starvation, but her attention soon refocused on the faint, almost musical voice calling out to her. Calling her name. Telling her to wake up.
“Mom…?” she inquired uncertainly, her voice slowly beginning to return.
No, this wasn’t her mother. The voice belonged to what appeared to be a holographic fairy. The fairy introduced itself as Asra, said it was sorry, that there was no time, and then… Nothing.
Was she simply imagining things?
Everyone’s sorry… Steph reflected bitterly. And there never seems to be enough time…
She heard a hissing sound, and her attention was drawn to her pod’s lid, which was now slowly beginning to open. Once it had done so, Steph carefully stepped out and took a moment to get her bearings. To her shock, the room she found herself in was not the most secure lab of an ultra advanced underground complex, but an ancient pagoda-like structure. No one seemed to be present, and there were no signs of advanced technology anywhere. Well, aside from her cryochamber, of course.
Looking back at the now horribly out-of-place device, Steph was momentarily startled as a cloud of nanites emerged from an opening on the side of the machine. The cloud rapidly coalesced into a form-fitting suit, which glowed with streaks of neon, much like her current outfit. Stepping up to it, she allowed the suit to mold itself to her body, the nanofluidic garment feeling like a second skin. After a moment, the suit formed a small holoprojector on her wrist, which promptly activated, displaying an image of her parents.
“Dearest Stephanie,” her father began. “It is our sincerest hope that we will be able to explain all this to you in person when you wake, but in the event that we are not, we have recorded this message.”
“Please try to understand, Stephanie,” her mother continued. “Your cryochamber was the only one in full operational status at the time, and we needed to use it to ensure your survival. Our own pods should be ready soon, and, if at all possible, we’ll use them to join you. But, if not…”
“We never wanted to leave you alone, Steph,” her father told her firmly. “But you needed to survive. You are one of the few who are capable of restoring the world to its former glory. We have no idea what condition the world will be in when you awake, so to aid you we have enclosed this suit of nanofluidic armor in your pod. It will supplement the increased vitality and protection provided by your genetic enhancement, as well as allow you to camouflage yourself in order to better fit in with those you encounter. Your cybernetic implants should already provide you with full knowledge of your enhanced body’s various abilities, as well as those of the nanite swarm the implant allows you to control. Of course, the complex also contains a supply of weapons and useful equipment, but there’s no guarantee any of that will be available to you when you wake.”
“E-Even if we can’t be with you, there are others who were placed in cryostasis just as you were,” her mother told her between sobs. “Try to find them. They’ll help you in rebuilding our world.”
“We know you can do this, Steph,” her father assured her. “You are a true gift to this world, and we are so very proud of you.”
“We love you, Steph!” her mother called out as the image began to flicker. “Never forget that!”
Steph felt a tear roll down her cheek as the image faded away.
So her parents were really gone. Or, at least, had been moved elsewhere. She felt a small glimmer of hope at that thought, but she forced herself to clamp down on it. She needed to focus on her present situation. She was alone, in a strange structure, with no idea of how long she had slept. The first thing she needed to do was acquire some information, and for that, she needed to find someone to provide it. Making her way to the structure’s entrance, Steph was momentarily left breathless at the sight that greeted her.
"Where am I...?"
Arrayed below her was a rather primitive village, seemingly located high up in the mountains. But that wasn’t the most shocking thing. The village seemed to be under attack by a number of monstrous beasts. Steph had never seen anything like them before, and it appeared that they were far more than the village’s inhabitants could hope to handle. Steph knew that with her enhanced physical abilities she was the best hope the villagers had of fending off the beasts, but she was understandably hesitant to rush into things. She was still a little disoriented from being in cryostasis, and even with her increased physical prowess, she was still only one person. Could she really hope to take on all these creatures and win? Escape seemed the most logical option, but she needed answers, and she didn’t want the death of an entire village on her conscience. Not if there was a chance that she could help save it.
But how to go about doing that? For now, she resolved to simply observe, intently studying the creatures and trying to discern any potential weaknesses. Meanwhile, she instructed her suit to adopt the appearance of a typical villager’s attire, while instructing her nanite swarm to locate some nearby sources of metal to form into a weapon.
BrokenPromise
RPM
Majoraa
Shadow Dragon
Dezuel
Ravion the Red
AtomicNut
Ariamis
