[IC][WIP][Arc 1] How I Managed to Quit Worrying and Love The Grief Seed

[Bob Schroeck]

Ack. On an emotional level I truly hate those kinds of hooks -- so much good and just a reminder of evil. As a writer, yes, perfect use of the perfect device for the moment. But I so want to smash the little bastards.

Oh, and I caught a few typos you'll want to fix:

As the Lunar icon apeared on her head, so too did the Silver Moon Crystal.

"Appeared" is misspelled, and as written suggests that the Ginzuishou appeared on her head, too.

Fate and I... we we’re lucky to meet.

were

Fate put her arms around Alicia and burring her head into the pillow next to her sister’s.

"Burying", and the sentence is a fragment.

[Black Aeronaut]

<applause>

Good going.  Your stinger gave me an unrelated idea for another stinger, when I finally write my action chapter.  Lots of stuff happened today, so I'll do an editing pass later.

Ack.  On an emotional level I truly hate those kinds of hooks -- so much good and just a reminder of evil.  As a writer, yes, perfect use of the perfect device for the moment.  But I so want to smash the little bastards.

Inspiration and a Desire To Annihilate?  Mission Accomplished.  

So far only noticed:

conamination

Oh, and I caught a few typos you'll want to fix:

As the Lunar icon apeared on her head, so too did the Silver Moon Crystal.

"Appeared" is misspelled, and as written suggests that the Ginzuishou appeared on her head, too.

Fate and I... we we’re lucky to meet.

were

Fate put her arms around Alicia and burring her head into the pillow next to her sister’s.

"Burying", and the sentence is a fragment.

Thanks.  I'll fix all these when everyone else has weighed in.

I'm also curious if Hild's song a standard minor key with Aeolian mode, or something weirder like Dorian mode to give it a more otherworldly quality.  (no not actually expecting an answer here lol)

I have no idea, but this was the clip in particular that I watched to get an idea of how she sounded... (EDIT: No worries, this is the original Japanese audio, not the English dub. As a bonus, it is however, subbed in English.)

[Labster]

I'm actually pretty crappy at music analysis, but it sounds a lot like natural minor scale until the goddesses join in and start adding major thirds.  It's pretty neat.

“...a possibility," said Rei at barely more than a whisper, her voice filled with awe.  "Something that could have been, but never was.”
Aside: That along with Hild-chan's part of the story makes me wonder if OA is in doublet with Hap, but I'm not sure I'm cruel enough inflict to The OA on y'all.  But your scene would have been one of the more normal things that happens on that show, seriously I haven't been so surprised by an octopus since Anthy's closet.

I do think that what your doing is huge.
you're

and I love her more than anything else in all of existence.
Then why don't you marry her? … … Hey come back, I didn't mean right now!

I have an admission to make.
I'm curious what Rei looks like around this soliloquy.  Is there nervousness, like the tapping of a foot, or she staring directly into Ben's eyes?

“It is so weird to think about... for them to want to start a family at such a young age...”
What was Rei thinking during those episodes after Chibiusa showed up?

somewhat smaller young woman, and bowed his head.
Rei's only 4cm shorter than you, so somewhat smaller is confusing in this context.  And I think the bowing implies that much of a height difference, so if she tips her head forward, you can show instead of tell.

As Hild spoke, Washu wheeled out one of her hospital beds.  In it was Alcia,
You spelled Alicia and Washu-chan wrong

“If you wanna try it, I can set you up,” said Washu with an impish grin.
You're missing the next sentence:  "I have a couple of theories about photoreactive hormones I've been dying to test."

Rin stepped back with a sickly smile.  “Ah, thanks but NO thanks.  Really.  I like my circadian rhythm the way it is.”
You mean Ben not Rin, right?  But then two paragraphs later Rin is talking?  I'm confused.

Fortunately, Rin was able to complete her task with no incident.
Show don't tell please.

Belldandy and the others
This was written Belldandy-tachi in the original Japanese.  

road to hell
should be spelled: Hel

An orb or pristine light
s/or /of /;

But you’ve done this before.



the Onsen here.
and that one should be lowercase.  Italics if you like, but I wouldn't bother -- I tend to reserve italics for foreign words that would otherwise be parse errors for readers, either for being too strange, or being too much like an English word.

“Good.  I may be in the business of gathering souls for hell, but I wouldn’t want to see those girls broken up over you.”
"In fact, I'm excited to see what sort of arrangement you work out with those gorgeous lolis.  And where there's one arrangement, there can be many.  Just think of the possibilities."

Having you as a consort will be something else entirely~.  Think about it, Benjamin.  But not too hard.”
You can be gentle our first time.

[Black Aeronaut]

“...a possibility," said Rei at barely more than a whisper, her voice filled with awe.  "Something that could have been, but never was.”
Aside: That along with Hild-chan's part of the story makes me wonder if OA is in doublet with Hap, but I'm not sure I'm cruel enough inflict to The OA on y'all.  But your scene would have been one of the more normal things that happens on that show, seriously I haven't been so surprised by an octopus since Anthy's closet.

The OA? You don't happen to mean Akio Ohtori, do you?

As for this scene seeming odd, well, that's the beauty of the new setup I came up with for the cosmology. It's easy enough in this case to say that, somewhere, sometime, Benjamin was actually Hino Ichirou, older brother of Hino Rei* and Almighty Lord of "Your Shit Doesn't Smell Like Roses".

And now, one of my favorite bits from Jonathan Livingston Seagull comes to mind...

If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?

It's really very romantic to think about: a couple of lost bits of causality, finally meeting each other again between Here and Now.

* This could be a sign of how horrible Rei's father was - since in this continuity, he would have had a son already, Rei would have literally meant nothing to him, a zero, and thus, Rei. Their mother made sure, though, that the kana on the birth certificate didn't have that implication. Fodder, perhaps, for one of Ben's and Rei's little get-togethers.

and I love her more than anything else in all of existence.
Then why don't you marry her? … … Hey come back, I didn't mean right now!

PFFT! I think I can work this in...

Unnoticed by either of them, Kuroko had been creeping closer and closer to eavesdrop on the very personal conversation. So it was natural that the both of them nearly jumped out of their skin when she suddenly and loudly piped up,

"Well if you love her so much, why don't you -ULP!-"

Kuroko never got to finish that last bit as a glowing golden chain of heart-shaped links suddenly wrapped itself around her, covered her mouth, and then yanked her clear over to Rail Gun, who swiftly dispensed punishment.

You could almost actually see the sweat drops forming on the backs of Ben's and Rei's heads.

With a visible effort, Rei continued where she left off despite Kuroko getting read the riot act in the background.

I have an admission to make.
I'm curious what Rei looks like around this soliloquy.  Is there nervousness, like the tapping of a foot, or she staring directly into Ben's eyes?

Yes, this wasn't up to my usual standards. I'll be going back to fill in these little details. The wonder of the [WIP] tag is that we can take it to mean that the contents of the story posts are subject to change.

“It is so weird to think about... for them to want to start a family at such a young age...”
What was Rei thinking during those episodes after Chibiusa showed up?

Probably something along the lines of "Ah heellllll naaaaahhhhh!!!"

somewhat smaller young woman, and bowed his head.
Rei's only 4cm shorter than you, so somewhat smaller is confusing in this context.  And I think the bowing implies that much of a height difference, so if she tips her head forward, you can show instead of tell.

Yeesh. That's one thing that's going to get fixed when Ben gets his second childhood - the better all-round nutrition means he's gonna grow to be taller than I am. (Seriously. I was perpetually underweight until I joined the Navy.) I really should have been 5'10" and not the 5'8" I'm at now.

“If you wanna try it, I can set you up,” said Washu with an impish grin.
You're missing the next sentence:  "I have a couple of theories about photoreactive hormones I've been dying to test."

Pffft. Thanks.

Rin stepped back with a sickly smile.  “Ah, thanks but NO thanks.  Really.  I like my circadian rhythm the way it is.”
You mean Ben not Rin, right?  But then two paragraphs later Rin is talking?  I'm confused.

Again, not my best quality here.

Fortunately, Rin was able to complete her task with no incident.
Show don't tell please.

.... you do realize you're asking me to describe several minutes of "nothing really notable happens here", right?

road to hell
should be spelled: Hel

But you’ve done this before.

I figured some people might like that. The last bit, "Life is waiting for you!" was inspired by a song by Our Lady Peace.

the Onsen here.
and that one should be lowercase.  Italics if you like, but I wouldn't bother -- I tend to reserve italics for foreign words that would otherwise be parse errors for readers, either for being too strange, or being too much like an English word.

Eh. I kinda did that because, in my mind, that is THE Onsen. I just haven't gotten around to writing scene in there yet. I really should - that can be the source of some great shenanigans despite Washu's safety measures.

“Good.  I may be in the business of gathering souls for hell, but I wouldn’t want to see those girls broken up over you.”
"In fact, I'm excited to see what sort of arrangement you work out with those gorgeous lolis.  And where there's one arrangement, there can be many.  Just think of the possibilities."

*Belldandy shows up with a paper fan and starts bapping hild over the head with it*
"Bad demon! No treat for you!"

Having you as a consort will be something else entirely~.  Think about it, Benjamin.  But not too hard.”
You can be gentle our first time.

Pffffft!

[Labster]

“...a possibility," said Rei at barely more than a whisper, her voice filled with awe.  "Something that could have been, but never was.”
Aside: That along with Hild-chan's part of the story makes me wonder if OA is in doublet with Hap, but I'm not sure I'm cruel enough inflict to The OA on y'all.  But your scene would have been one of the more normal things that happens on that show, seriously I haven't been so surprised by an octopus since Anthy's closet.

The OA?  You don't happen to mean Akio Ohtori, do you?

As for this scene seeming odd, well, that's the beauty of the new setup I came up with for the cosmology.  It's easy enough in this case to say that, somewhere, sometime, Benjamin was actually Hino Ichirou, older brother of Hino Rei* and Almighty Lord of "Your Shit Doesn't Smell Like Roses".

And now, one of my favorite bits from Jonathan Livingston Seagull comes to mind...

If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?

It's really very romantic to think about: a couple of lost bits of causality, finally meeting each other again between Here and Now.

The OA is a mind screw drama on Netflix. Parts of it are horror, with torture and escape, parts of it are just elaborate storytelling, parts of it are philosophy, and then there's the weird modern dance bit. Spoilers, but in a lot of ways it doesn't really matter because the show is all about mood and storytelling. The first season is largely about the question, can you believe someone who claims to have had a religious experience? It ends rather inconclusively, which is par for the mind screw genre. The second season kinda throws all this out by assuming, yes, it's true, and here's what's happening in an AU. (Addendum: and your enemies have followed you.) I suppose more than anything else, the second season is about fate and destiny, and the extent to which we would go to achieve or escape it.

You will like it if you're the kind of person who can step back and let the plot happen without asking too many questions, it's enjoyable, if not, you're gonna have a hard time. Example: At a certain point, Prairie decides her real name is OA, like the letters. But what the letters mean, she doesn't even know. So she's telling this story, and eventually finds out her name means Original Angel. It feels like a total revelation. But what does that mean about her? Well, it's kinda discarded as a plot point. So it makes you feel something is important, but it's not really important at all, it's just the journey to getting there. So um, spoiler not spoiler.

HAP is not too dissimilar from Akio Ohtori, though.

* This could be a sign of how horrible Rei's father was - since in this continuity, he would have had a son already, Rei would have literally meant nothing to him, a zero, and thus, Rei.  Their mother made sure, though, that the kana on the birth certificate didn't have that implication.  Fodder, perhaps, for one of Ben's and Rei's little get-togethers.

and I love her more than anything else in all of existence.
Then why don't you marry her? … … Hey come back, I didn't mean right now!

PFFT!  I think I can work this in...

Unnoticed by either of them, Kuroko had been creeping closer and closer to eavesdrop on the very personal conversation.  So it was natural that the both of them nearly jumped out of their skin when she suddenly and loudly piped up,

"Well if you love her so much, why don't you -ULP!-"

Kuroko never got to finish that last bit as a glowing golden chain of heart-shaped links suddenly wrapped itself around her, covered her mouth, and then yanked her clear over to Rail Gun, who swiftly dispensed punishment.

You could almost actually see the sweat drops forming on the backs of Ben's and Rei's heads.

With a visible effort, Rei continued where she left off despite Kuroko getting read the riot act in the background.

Um, I'm not sure that's better <grin>

I have an admission to make.
I'm curious what Rei looks like around this soliloquy.  Is there nervousness, like the tapping of a foot, or she staring directly into Ben's eyes?

Yes, this wasn't up to my usual standards.  I'll be going back to fill in these little details.  The wonder of the [WIP] tag is that we can take it to mean that the contents of the story posts are subject to change.

Don't worry about standards. I'm just pointing out things I notice as an editor. I'm the kind of person where I give something like three readthroughs before I even consider posting it, and then I sit on it for at least a week, but more likely a month and then it goes on the wiki, and then I still want to improve it. I'm probably a better editor than a writer.

Fortunately, Rin was able to complete her task with no incident.
Show don't tell please.

.... you do realize you're asking me to describe several minutes of "nothing really notable happens here", right?

Magic should feel like magic. What did her magic circle look like? Did a gem glow, were her eyes closed in meditation? What kind of gem is it anyway? What room is the ritual happening in, can you describe it? Was there a nervous energy among those who were waiting? You can give the reader the sensation of time passing slowly by throwing in description here, with the side effect of making the magic seem momentous.

Or alternatively, you can remove the line entirely if you want a boring part to feel faster, because "Alright, it’s done" conveys all of the meaning of that sentence in less words.

the Onsen here.
and that one should be lowercase.  Italics if you like, but I wouldn't bother -- I tend to reserve italics for foreign words that would otherwise be parse errors for readers, either for being too strange, or being too much like an English word.

Eh.  I kinda did that because, in my mind, that is THE Onsen.  I just haven't gotten around to writing scene in there yet.  I really should - that can be the source of some great shenanigans despite Washu's safety measures.  

Oh you mean "The Onsen". Got it.

[robkelk]

“...a possibility," said Rei at barely more than a whisper, her voice filled with awe.  "Something that could have been, but never was.”
Aside: That along with Hild-chan's part of the story makes me wonder if OA is in doublet with Hap, but I'm not sure I'm cruel enough inflict to The OA on y'all.  But your scene would have been one of the more normal things that happens on that show, seriously I haven't been so surprised by an octopus since Anthy's closet.

The OA?  You don't happen to mean Akio Ohtori, do you?

As for this scene seeming odd, well, that's the beauty of the new setup I came up with for the cosmology.  It's easy enough in this case to say that, somewhere, sometime, Benjamin was actually Hino Ichirou, older brother of Hino Rei* and Almighty Lord of "Your Shit Doesn't Smell Like Roses".

And now, one of my favorite bits from Jonathan Livingston Seagull comes to mind...

If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?

It's really very romantic to think about: a couple of lost bits of causality, finally meeting each other again between Here and Now.

* This could be a sign of how horrible Rei's father was - since in this continuity, he would have had a son already, Rei would have literally meant nothing to him, a zero, and thus, Rei.  Their mother made sure, though, that the kana on the birth certificate didn't have that implication.  Fodder, perhaps, for one of Ben's and Rei's little get-togethers.

A little something from Dragonflight, which he wrote for me before I had a chance to tell him Rei was already busy during the Halloween party... but maybe we can use this elsewhere later.

As she sipped the drink and grinned at something one of the boys said, she heard someone at the back call out, "Rei! Got a minute?"

Mars glanced over, and called out, "What's up?" right as another girl across the room also said, "What do you need?"

The two girls blinked and looked across the room at each other. Mars wasn't happy with what she saw. She'd seen the other girl for the last few hours, standing by the wall, and generally excluding herself from the party. Frowning, she stalked over to the other girl, who just watched her approach with the same casual indifference she apparently treated everything else.

"So, let me get this straight," Mars began. "Your name is Rei as well?"

"Yes," the other girl replied softly. "Although it is surprising to know another girl has the same name. I know why I was labeled 'Zero.'" She tilted her head to the side. "What's yours?"

Mars spluttered, eyes wide. "Z-zero? What!?" she glared impartially around at the whole room, and grabbed the other girl by the hand. Rei allowed the red and white-clad girl to haul her across the room to an adjoining room. "No girl is ever 'zero.' Anyone who tells you that is trying to keep you under their thumb." She glared back at the pale girl, who followed with a slightly wide-eyed look. "It's high time you learned to be more assertive. Stop being a doormat, for heaven's sake!"

She pushed Rei into a side room, and glared again at the room full of partygoers. "Trust me. I've taught assertiveness classes before. Before tonight's out, you'll learn to like yourself a hell of a lot more, and stand up for yourself!" She pushed the other girl into a chair as she reached back and closed the door, separating them from the party. Rei continued to look at the dark-haired girl with surprise and speculation. "Besides," she finished as she closed the door. "Any guy worth dating likes assertive women. So. first lesson..."

On the far side of the main room, Shinji and Asuka traded looks. Asuka had a smirk on her face as she watched events, while Shinji just had a poleaxed look on his face. "Okay," the redhead said as she casually threw an arm around the wimpiest Eva pilot and leaned close with a conspiratorial grin. "I can't wait to see what wonder girl is like tomorrow morning. You?"


I hadn't mentioned Rei Misaka, either...

and I love her more than anything else in all of existence.
Then why don't you marry her? … … Hey come back, I didn't mean right now!

PFFT!  I think I can work this in...

Unnoticed by either of them, Kuroko had been creeping closer and closer to eavesdrop on the very personal conversation.  So it was natural that the both of them nearly jumped out of their skin when she suddenly and loudly piped up,

"Well if you love her so much, why don't you -ULP!-"

Kuroko never got to finish that last bit as a glowing golden chain of heart-shaped links suddenly wrapped itself around her, covered her mouth, and then yanked her clear over to Rail Gun, who swiftly dispensed punishment.

You could almost actually see the sweat drops forming on the backs of Ben's and Rei's heads.

With a visible effort, Rei continued where she left off despite Kuroko getting read the riot act in the background.

"Railgun", not "Rail Gun". And, much for the same reasons as Ayeka or Tomoyo, Kuroko would not allow such a scene to take place in public - she'd teleport herself, Mikoto, and Minako elsewhere.

[robkelk]

As Hild spoke, Washu wheeled out one of her hospital beds.  In it was Alcia,
You spelled Alicia and Washu-chan wrong

It isn't in dialogue - I think we're safe leaving off the "-chan".

road to hell
should be spelled: Hel

But Rob and Hyoga haven't been to Hvergelmir yet...

[Bob Schroeck]

As Hild spoke, Washu wheeled out one of her hospital beds.  In it was Alcia,
You spelled Alicia and Washu-chan wrong

It isn't in dialogue - I think we're safe leaving off the "-chan".

Rob, you're suffering from the same thing that hits me a lot -- seeing what you expect to see and not what's actually typed.  You have spelled it "A L C I A" in that line.

[robkelk]

As Hild spoke, Washu wheeled out one of her hospital beds.  In it was Alcia,
You spelled Alicia and Washu-chan wrong

It isn't in dialogue - I think we're safe leaving off the "-chan".

Rob, you're suffering from the same thing that hits me a lot -- seeing what you expect to see and not what's actually typed.  You have spelled it "A L C I A" in that line.

"A L C I A" is a funny way to spell "Washu"...

(Yeah, the other name needs to be fixed, but BA already said he'd do that.)

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh. I must have missed that. Sorry.

[Black Aeronaut]

Just something I wanted to give a quick tonue-in-cheek response to because I was on mobile the whole time and iOS doesn't like some of MyBB's features for some reason.  (Yes, it's the OS itself, not the browser.  I got the same results in Chrome and Firefox for iOS.)

Fortunately, Rin was able to complete her task with no incident.
Show don't tell please.

.... you do realize you're asking me to describe several minutes of "nothing really notable happens here", right?

Magic should feel like magic.  What did her magic circle look like?  Did a gem glow, were her eyes closed in meditation?  What kind of gem is it anyway?  What room is the ritual happening in, can you describe it?  Was there a nervous energy among those who were waiting?  You can give the reader the sensation of time passing slowly by throwing in description here, with the side effect of making the magic seem momentous.

Or alternatively, you can remove the line entirely if you want a boring part to feel faster, because "Alright, it’s done" conveys all of the meaning of that sentence in less words.

Just keep in mind that you're talking to a guy who is the epitome of the following meme:




In case you can't tell, I'm the Engineer.  "Huh.  That's nifty.  But let's make sure that doesn't go anywhere so it can actually handle shock and acceleration..." 

I'll see what I can do about it, though.

[Black Aeronaut]

Too damn quiet in here.

Have a snippet for the upcoming Volume II

I had to DIG in order to find the original version of this - it was all the way back in the first Planning for Arc 1 thread!  My how the time flies.

---

Later that night as Ben worked on the enrollment forms for all the girls, he couldn’t help but be reminded of his own past - how he had once had a course catalog for high school thrust in front of him, and no idea what to do because he had no frame of reference, and worse of all, not enough confidence in himself to make the choice.

He sighed as that brought back memories.  Not the good ones.  The ones where he’d cower in front of a man that was supposed to be his father.  How that father would demand that he not cower before him despite doing everything possible to make him cower.

He spent several minutes like that, lost in a sort of memetic loop of bad memories.

There was a knock on the door and Ben looked up from his laptop, his thoughts immediately dispelled as he wondered who on earth it could be.  To his surprise, Alicia was waiting for him as he opened the front door.

"Alicia!” said Ben in shock.  “What are you doing here so late, sweetie?  Come on inside before before someone sees you and wakes up your sister."

Quietly, she came inside, her slippers padding on the ground as she hugged her teddy bear close to her chest.  As she worked at getting herself settled, Benjamin went and put a glass of milk in the microwave.

"Alright,” said Ben as he sat down next to the girl, “it's only you and me here now.  You can tell me what's bothering you."

Alicia was silent for a moment before the microwave beeped.  As Ben went to get her milk, she suddenly said, "You were thinking about stuff again, weren't you?"

Benjamin paused in mid motion, then sighed and brought Alicia the warm milk.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," said Ben as he sat down next to her, leaving the glass of milk on the coffee table in front of her.  Rather than say anything, though, she latched onto him, sniffling softly.  Ben put my arms around her and said, "Oh Alicia.  I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," she whispered through her gentle sobs.  "You brought me back.  You made it so I can live with my sister.  You made her happy.  You made me happy.  But as much as I feel what hurts you, big brother, I also feel what makes you happy.  And I know that seeing big sister and I together...  it makes you so happy that it blots out the pain."

Ben knew it may seem strange for such a little girl to be so articulate, but Alicia had always been ahead of the curve for her age - every bit the budding intellectual that her mother had been in her own youth.  And she only grew more sharp and intelligent once she was resurrected.  Washu-chan was absolutely certain that Benjamin’s intellect was passively bleeding through like an osmotic process.  Which probably meant that very soon she would be able to start learning the basic calculations she needed to know in order to become a mage like her sister.

Benjamin reached to his computer and brought up some music - a selection of soothing and uplifting tracks by James Horner.  Not only to ease Alicia's reciprocal hurt, but to help soothe him as well so the feedback effect would be cut off.  He then got her to drink her glass of milk, and then showed her what he was up to (their enrollment paperwork - boring adult stuff, but she found it mildly interesting anyhow to see how things behind the scenes worked).  Ben then picked her up and went to Fate and Nanoha's apartment.

Fate opened the door before Ben could even knock.  "Just bring her inside, Benjamin," she said kindly.  Alicia was already dozing on his shoulder.  As Ben laid her down in her bed, Alicia sighed and snuggled her teddy bear closer.  A quick little kiss on her forehead left a content smile on her lips as she drifted off completely.

Suddenly, Ben felt Fate's arms around him.

"Fate?"

"It's alright," she said quietly.  "I just want to stay like this for a moment.  I am so grateful for you and everything you've done, and everything you keep on doing.  You know that you're the closest thing she has to a father?"

It made Ben’s heart twinge in a bittersweet way and he put his arms around Fate's petite form and hugged her back.

"Yeah... it's hard not for me to treat her like as if she was my own.  Every day she seems to become just a bit more like me - she might as well be my daughter anyhow."

"That's fine by me," whispered Fate.  "Her becoming more like you...  I can't think of anyone better.  I love you so much after all - just as much as I love Nanoha."

Benjamin couldn't even sigh at that.  A love that true he could never berate.  Not in a million years.

But more importantly, Benjamin knew that Fate would soon start growing like a weed once her adolescence hits - he was sure it would do so hard and fast - and she would start turning into a woman before his eyes.  While he knew that the building hormones were a factor, he also knew that there was nothing false about what she felt.

Benjamin kissed the top of Fate's head.  There was simply no way for him to lie about it - he loved Fate dearly.  And Nanoha, too, for that matter.

Fate looked up at Benjamin with those beautiful ruby eyes of hers.  They normally seem more like a brilliant hue of brown, especially when half-shaded by her low-hanging bangs, but once the light caught them, they glittered like the finest cut corundum.  She was already so gorgeous, even as a child.  She would be breathtaking once she was an adult.

"I need to get some sleep,” she said.  “You do, too.  Go on, Benjamin.  We still have a lot to do tomorrow."

Ben rolled his eyes at that.  "Oh lardy, do we ever."

[robkelk]

Too damn quiet in here.

Well, I did promise to let you folks catch up to me...

"It's alright," she said quietly.  "I just want to stay like this for a moment.  I am so grateful for you and everything you've done, and everything you keep on doing.  You know that you're the closest thing she has to a father?"

She isn't the first to mention that - and no doubt won't be the last.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, moving right along into the next volume...

---

How I Learned to Quit Worrying, and Love The Grief Seed

Volume 2
Murphy Strikes Back

Prologue

He held The Book closely to his chest as he prowled around, suspicious of even the slightest movement.

The Book was important, he knew it.  It was the fabled Grimoire, the ultimate book, the one that could open up heaven and hell and bend it all to his whims.  And it had chosen him.

For now, he had to keep it safe until he learned all its secrets.  He would let no one even see it.  He had to…

Where was he?

He was not in any part of the city he knew.  In fact, it looked like some kind of nightmarish version of a frilly little girl’s room.

“You’re not mommy,” said a ghastly voice.  “Only Mommy is allowed here.”

There was suddenly a hackles-raising chittering sound coming from all around him, like little girls giggling on a record being played too fast.

It was the last sound he ever heard as the familiars descended upon him, and devoured him, body and soul.

“What is this?” asked the voice as one of the familiars, a horrible looking china doll with glass eyes that rattled and jittered in their sockets, offered up The Book.

Within the Book of Darkness, Reinforce Eins cried out in despair.

And the Ultimate Defense Program smiled and thought to itself, Oh yes.

##

Yagami Hayate woke with a start, bolting upright in her bed.

This was not her room.

Panic began to pool in her guts - she couldn’t feel the Tome of Night Sky.  It was not on the bed stand next to her.  She then cast her mind about, trying to find her Wolkenritter.

“Signum!? Vita!?  Shamal!?  Zafira!?  WHERE ARE YOU!?”

But there was nothing there but empty silence.

“Hayate!  Oh thank heavens it’s really you!”

Her attention was suddenly drawn to the door, where Aria and Lotte, in their human forms, were standing.

“I’ll go get Master,” said Aria.  “You stay here with Hayate.”

“Right!” replied the shorter-haired twin.

“Lotte!?” cried out Hayate in alarm and despair.  “What’s happened?  I can’t find them!”

“It’s going to be okay, Hayate,” said Lotte, trying to comfort the girl.  “Admiral Graham is here with us.”

“But where is here!?”

“You’re still on what seems to be Unadministered World 97, but on a different continent.”

“WHERE!?”

“I think it’s called Austin - it’s a city in the United States - in the State called Texas.”

“Texas?” said Hayate weakly.  “We’re on the other side of the Earth?”

“Hayate!” came Gil Graham’s voice from the door.

“Mr. Graham?” said Hayate plaintively.  “What’s happening?”

“I’m sorry, Hayate,” said the old Englishman as he came to Hayate’s bedside and knelt down beside her.  “We’re not sure yet.  But we’re trying to find out.  So far I seem to have lost contact with all of TSAB.”

“Master,” said Lotte with some urgency.  “She says she can’t find them or The Book.”

Gill Graham went pale.  “Oh dear God have mercy on us all.”

---

Chapter 1

Nanoha Takamachi stood before her opponent, sizing him up carefully.  She had to do this right.  Not too much, and not too little.

“Deviiiiiiinnnnnnne,” she called out, feeding the variables into Raising Heart as it generated the needed spell circles to contain the energies it was drawing off of her.  “BUSTEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!”

Her opponent, clad in dark, generic-looking armor, braced himself against the attack.

But then, for no apparent reason at all, the energy beam began to decohere, losing a good deal of it’s potency.  However, it was still strong enough to send her opponent sprawling.

“BENJAMIN!” yelped Nanoha in alarm as she immediately terminated the attack.

He rolled and, to her surprise, righted himself, on one knee with the leg behind him for stability, the other bent at ninety-degrees at the knee with the foot in front of him and flat on the ground, his opposite arm down with his palm flat against the ground, and his right arm up, still deflecting the beam as it trailed off.

“I’m alright, Girls” called out Benjamin as he got up.  “The armor did its job.”

Nonetheless, Nanoha, along with Fate and Alicia - who had been standing a safe distance away - all ran up to Ben to see if he really was alright.  But as Ben took off his helmet and revealed his smiling face, they were able to set their fears to rest.

“Okay, let’s call it there for now,” came Washu’s voice as she approached from the other side of the field.  “As much as I’d like to run more tests, anymore than that might compromise the armor.”

“No complaints here,” said Ben as he hugged each of the three girls in turn, leaving small, subtle kisses on each other’s cheeks.  “So, what’s the news?”

“Very interesting,” said Washu.  “According the to telemetry from the armor’s sensors and from Raising Heart, your anti-magic field is fully effective at dispersing spells up to C-Rank.  You can also massively degrade B-Rank spells, but only somewhat degrade A-Rank spells.  Judging by this curve, I would say that Double-A-Ranked spells will be negligibly affected by your AM-Field.

“And just for the record, Rin was kind enough to provide me with sample of the protective portion of the spell on Alicia’s phylactery.  Thanks to that, Ben and I have been able to peg the protective measures on Alicia’s phylactery at Triple-S-Rank - I don’t think we’ll need to worry much about her, but it’s best not to be careless.”

As Washu said that, Alicia climbed up onto Ben’s back, wrapping herself around him and closing her eyes as she buried her face in his hair.

Moth to a flame indeed, he thought in mild amusement.  It was as if Alicia could simply not get enough close contact with Benjamin.  What was more, Ben could, with some effort, pick up on her emotional state, if not her thoughts.  At that moment, he could sense a low buzz of contentment from the girl.

Fortunately, Nanoha and Fate thought nothing of it.  They knew that Alicia saw Ben as nothing more than a beloved older brother.  It was not unlike the relationship a young child has with a much, much older sibling who they idolize and aspire to.

The amount of physical contact simply reinforced the familial bond that was growing between them.  They both knew that in the future, they’d always be able to count on each other for support because they were family in all but name and blood.

Ben idly wondered what his mother was going to think of this.  He knew she’d like the girls... but the thing with Nanoha and Fate would have had her glaring daggers at her son - his mother thought of bigamy in very unfavorable terms.  Ironically, the age difference would only a mild concern by comparison.  So long as they continued to behave chastely, she’d have no issue with that.

“Got it,” said Ben as he got up, carrying Alicia with him, who clung to him like a limpet much to Fate’s and Nanoha’s amusement.  Ben, however, paused at this.  “Little Sis?  Alicia?  Sweetie?  Gotta get out of this armor.”

“Nope,” came the little girl’s glib reply.

“… Can I get an assist here?” asked Ben of Nanoha and Fate.

“Nope,” said Alicia.  “Bath time.”

“But Alicia,” said Nanoha in surprise.  “It’s barely even noon!”

“Big Brother is starting to get smelly,” said Alicia from her perch up on Ben’s shoulders.  She then sniffed Ben once more to make sure.  “Not really smelly.  Just a bit.”  She then fixed Nanoha with a mischievous grin.  “And you look sweaty, Nanoha-onee.  I bet you have girl-stink!”

Nanoha spluttered incoherently while Fate slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  Ben’s eyebrows shot clear to the top of his forehead in a classic ‘Did that shit really just happen!?’ look.

Washu raised an eyebrow.  “That’s an awfully astute observation for someone your age, Alicia.  How did you know about that?”

“I was taught that I always need to be careful about smelling bad,” she said, being careful not to mention Precia - she knew only too painfully how reminding Fate of their mother had a tendency to rub salt over the raw emotional scars.  “Especially when I get to Big Sister Fate’s age - I was taught that will be when my body will start growing up to be a woman - and that’s when I’ll start to get girl-stink.”  Alicia then grinned wickedly.  “I know Big Sister Nanoha has gotta have Girl Stink because her breasts just started growing.”

Fate exploded into uncontrollable laughter.

“Aliciaaaaaaaaa!” cried out Nanoha with a put-upon expression.  “So mean!”

“… Is this really happening?” said Ben lamely.

Washu regarded the mischievous girl on Ben’s shoulders coolly.  “Alicia, you and I are gonna have a discussion later on so I can figure out exactly how much you know.”

##

Eventually, Alicia had been pried off of Ben so he could divest himself of his armor, and he spent some time cooling down by pacing through the aquatic specimen zone, wandering around with his hands linked and resting on his head so he could radiate away heat in the relatively cool space.

And do a bit of gawking.

Ben did indeed marvel at some of the strange creatures being kept in that place, but the one thing that stopped him cold was quite possibly the most dangerous creatures that Washu had on display.

Massers.

Ben slowly approached the tank with the odd little blobs.  For being so simple, they were strangely cute with their expressive, beady little eyes.

They scattered once they noticed him coming.  He frowned at that.  It was disappointing, but understandable.  Just as Ben was about to move on, though, he noticed that one of the strange little creatures hadn’t fled, and was eying him with a great deal of curiosity.

“Well hey there little fellah!” said Ben with a smile.  “Why aren’t you with the rest of your friends?”

The Masser blinked its eyes at Ben as though to say, “No idea.”  And then, to Ben’s surprise, the little yellow blob pressed up against the glass, and then began to phase through it.

Ben stayed calm, but all the same…

“Washu-chan?”

A holo screen popped up next to Ben with Washu on it.  “Yes, what’s wro-GHHK!”

“Yes, my thoughts exactly,” said Ben as the Masser orbited Ben, examining him closely in a manner unnervingly like a bee.

“Stay calm, Benjamin,” said Washu.  “I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Cool as a cucumber,” said Ben.  “I think he’s just curious.”

A portal in the floor opened and Washu rose up out of it as though being elevated by a lift.

“Looks like you’re right,” said Washu as she approached calmly.  “I don’t see any signs of agitation.  Can you stay calm a little longer?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure this little guy doesn’t mean me any harm.”  And just as those words left Ben’s mouth, the Masser suddenly began to nuzzle Ben in the side of his face.  “Wha!?  Hah-hey there!” he cried out, not quite able to keep all the laughter out of his voice.

“Well whaddya know?  It’s bonding to you!”

“Is this a bad thing?” Ben asked as he gently nudged it with a finger and getting a happy purr-like sound in return.

“The last time I saw behavior like this, it was with Ryo-ohki.  But they simply copied her desire to help Tenchi.”  Washu then snapped her fingers.  “I got it!  It thinks you need company!”

Ben blinked at that.  “Wait.  You mean this little guy thinks I’m lonely and doesn’t want me to be alone?”

Washu nodded.  “Massers are very social creatures.  If they find that one is alone, others will join it or they will welcome it into their own collective.”

“Huh.  Talk about being adopted by your own pet.  So what now?”

“Now I keep an eye on how this develops.  For the time being, try to keep thinking happy thoughts.  It’s going to be following your lead based on your emotional state.”

“Okay… so how do I care for this little guy?”

“Massers are semi-aquatic - they can spend extended periods of time out of the water.  But it will help if you set up a fresh-water aquarium for it to rest in.  Preferably with some nice plants and an air stone to make sure the water keeps enough oxygen at night.”

“Good thing I was thinking about setting up a fish tank or two.  Tank mates?”

“Only if you want to feed it.  They actually prey on smaller aquatic lifeforms.  So if you plan on having other tanks with fish, make sure this one is well fed.  I can supply you with a suitable feed for it.”

“Thanks,” said Ben.  “You sure this is going to be safe, though?  I know these guys can spit antimatter.”

“Unless someone is trying to intimidate you, it should be fine.  I don’t see anything like that happening here at the complex.”

“But outside…” said Ben.

Washu nodded in agreement.  “Yes.  I’ll set something up to keep it from following you.”

Ben raised an eyebrow.  “Not that I’m not grateful, but you seem to be going to a lot of trouble for this little fellow.”

Washu shrugged.  “It’s not often I get to observe this kind of behavior.  Massers are typically very skittish creatures.”

“Got it,” said Ben.  “Well, I guess I better get started on your new home, little guy.”

“I’ll round up some plants for you,” said Washu.  “That’ll save you a trip to the pet shop.  I take it you already have everything else?”

“Yeah - got a twenty-gallon tank, along with water filter, gravel, some air stones and air pumps, and water conditioner.”

“Good.  You go ahead and get started on that.  I’ll be up in your apartment in a few minutes.”

##

For the moment, Ben went to check the mail and smiled as he pulled out a thick sheath of letters - some from the Northside Independent School District, and some from a private school called The Keystone School.

Right away, Ben fired off a group text to all the tenants and within minutes everyone had gathered around a table in the courtyard.

Tenchi made it there first, and then blanched at the sight of the Masser sitting on his shoulder.

“BEN!” yelped Tenchi in alarm.

“I know!” said Ben, trying to placate him.

“Oh wow!” came Sasami’s voice.  “Is that a Masser?”

“What’s a Masser?” said Kaname as she approached.  “That blobby little thing?”

“It’s Ryouko’s Honorable Father!” piped up Mihoshi.

“Oh please don’t start that!” cried out Ryouko in a rare instance of mortification.

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Teletha.

“I”ll explain later,” said Noike.  “Privately.”

“Thanks,” said Ryouko.

“Is it dangerous?” asked Sousuke.

“You could say that,” said Aeka with a sickly smile.  “It can destroy this entire city if it wanted to.”

There was a moment of stunned silence as the non-Jyuraian displacees took that in.

“Say what?” said Melissa Mao.

“Everyone just stay calm,” said Ben as he rubbed the little Masser with his finger, making it purr again.  “As long as we all stay cool, it’ll be fine.”

“But how the hell can something that small destroy this whole city?” said Kurtz Weber incredulously.

Ben shrugged.  “As weird as it sounds, these little guys can create antimatter and spit matter-antimatter bombs.  They’ve been known to take out warships that way because they tend to move in flocks.”

“So why is this one with you?” asked Nanoha.

Ben shrugged.  “This is gonna sound hilarious, but it thought I needed a friend.”

That broke the tension as everyone began to splutter, giggle, and laugh at how ridiculous that sounded, and was yet all too true.

“God, Ben!” cried out Kaname mirthfully.  “That is just LIKE you!  Only you can wind up having a living weapon of mass destruction as a pet, you weirdo!”

Teletha leaned over to Kaname and stage-whispered, “I thought Sousuke was the weirdo~.”

“Shut up, Tessa,” replied Kaname without any ire.

“Alright, alright,” said Ben, getting everyone’s attention back on him.  “Now that everyone’s here… We just got everyone’s test results back.  Tenchi!”

“Here,” said the boy, accepting the offered envelope.

“Aeka?”

“Here, thank you,” said the princess.

“Kaname?”

“Thanks!”

“Teletha?”

“Right here.”

“Sousuke?”

“Present!”

Everyone waited while the five went over their test transcripts.

“I passed!” cried out Tenchi jubilantly.

“As did I!” added Aeka.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Kaname with a blithe smile.

“Aced it,” said Teletha.

“It seems my efforts were more than sufficient.”

There was a round of applause and everyone exchanged congratulations.

“Alright then,” said Ben with a smile.  “Now that you guys have your GEDs, we can see about getting all of you enrolled into colleges if you want.  Now, there’s a lot of great schools here in San Antonio, so I prepared some information packets on each school detailing the campus lifestyle and culture as well as degree programs that are being offered.  Those who are interested can just poke their head into my office later on and I’ll provide you a copy.

“That said, let’s move on now to the younger ones.  Nanoha?”

“Here!”

“Fate?”

“Here please.”

“Alicia?”

“Here I am!”

“Sasami?”

“Haaaiiii!”

“Alisa?”

“Right here!”

“Suzuka?”

“Here, thank you.”

“Francesca?”

“Thank you very much, Mister Rhodes.”

“Alright girls, with the exception of Sasami, I’ve been designated as your caretaker by your parents or guardians, which means that its up to me to make sure your enrollment forms get filed on time.  Take some time to look at your placement results - I’m sure some of you have qualified to be in a grade higher than what you attended in your own schools.  In about an hour, I want you all to come up to the Manager’s Office so I can get you squared away.  Remember: here in the USA, you have the freedom to pursue whatever courses you want after your core academic requirements have been satisfied - you have lots of leeway here.  The reason for this is that in the earlier eras, high school was not compulsory and was considered to be prestigious higher learning in preparation for university, and there are a lot of hold-overs from that time.  Take some time to dwell on your options, then come and find me.

“Everyone good?” asked Ben and there was a round of agreements.  “Okay then.  One hour, girls.  I’ll see you then.”

---

"No 'Boom!' today.  Boom tomorrow.  There's always a 'Boom!' tomorrow."

[robkelk]

Still half-asleep... refresh my memory, please. Francesca is ... who?

[Black Aeronaut]

The younger of the Tsukimura servants. In Nanoha they give her name as “Farin”, which, near as I could figure, is a mutation of “Fran” which would be short for “Francesca” which actually fits with their utterly and unrepentantly German surname of “Ehrlichkeit”.

[robkelk]

Oh, Falin! You didn't mention that the maids had come along. Or, if you did, I'd forgotten.

Any Triangle Heart 3 influences, or are they only what we see in Lyrical Nanoha?

(And "Falin" is a perfectly good Ukranian family name.)

[Black Aeronaut]

I don’t believe they were ever in Triangle Heart 3 because there, Shinobu is an orphan living a student’s life by way of her inheritance. Despite being a vampire. Yeah, I think TH is prey off the walls, too.

And yes, you did miss it. I specifically mention Fran being in the van on the ride back to the apartments (where Ben and Miyuki have their talk) several times, and have her pop up a time or two afterward. It was actually plot relevant: her relaying what she heard in the van once the cat was out of the bag was what set Alisa off.

[itsune9tl]

A Masser. ... 'scuse me I need to go change my shorts.
Next time a QB shows up there will be a Crater, and a very surprised Anti-bunny-bunny thing trying to re-spawn.
...

[Black Aeronaut]

A Masser. ... 'scuse me I need to go change my shorts.
Next time a QB shows up there will be a Crater, and a very surprised Anti-bunny-bunny thing trying to re-spawn.
...

Oh yes.  There will be craters.  And a lot sooner than expected.

Also, this is one of the ways I'm just utterly demented.  I'd be like Naofume in Legend of the Shield Hero where he shows up with all those freakin' balloon monsters gnawing on him and he's just casually chucking them at the Spear Hero who's completely freaked out that he has all these freaking MONSTERS on him!

Why yes, I was one of those kids.  What can I say?  I have and always will love freaking the 'danes because their reactions are always fucking priceless.

[Black Aeronaut]

Chapter 2

As Gil Graham filled out paperwork for a rental car, he heard a sound that was almost music to his ears at that moment - his Device was receiving thaumic communication on an official TSAB Frequency.

He tapped his device to connect the line via telepathy.

“This is Graham.  To whom am I speaking to?”

“Oh GIL!  Thank the stars it’s you!”

“Lindy!  It’s good to hear your voice!  What in the bloody hell is going on?”

“It’s… complicated.  Gil… Dimensional Space itself nearly collapsed.”

“What?  You mean here in the vicinity of Earth?”

“No.  All of it.”

“All of it?”

“Yes.  I know it’s a lot to take in - we’re just getting over the shock ourselves.”

“But how?”

“That’s something that’s still being sorted, but it apparently started as an isolated incident in another parallel universe that somehow got out of control.  It began to break down the barriers between universes and merge all their causalities together.  A group of 12th dimensional beings managed to stop the worse of it, but there’s still people like us who’ve somehow wound up in this new universe, which they’re calling The Metacontinuity.”

“Metacontinuity?  What nonsense is this?”

“It’s apt.  Gil, we’re fictional characters to these people.  Infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters - and eventually one of them typed up all the great works of Ancient Belka.”

“… If this were coming from anyone else, I’d think that they were daft in the head.  Very well then.  What now?”

“Someone should have made contact with you by now - someone who is very familiar with the fictional work we appear in.  They’re supposed to be an apartment manager and provide you with housing.”

“We’ve met no such person yet.”

“How strange… Gil, are Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate with you by any chance?”

“Hayate is.  I would have thought that the Testarossa and Takamachi girls were with you.”

“No.  It’s only myself, Chrono, Amy, and Yuuno.”

“Blast it all to hell!  As if things can’t get any worse!”

“Gil. What’s wrong?”

“The Book of Darkness - rather the Tome of Night Sky - has gone missing.  Along with the remnant of Reinforce Eins, and the Wolkenritter.”

“…  Oh no!  You’re right, this is VERY bad!  Admiral, even though you’ve been discharged from the service, I feel that it’s best that we defer to you for the time being.  You not only have experience, but you know this world better than any of the rest of us - including Yuuno.”

“I’m sorry Lindy.  As much as I would like to shoulder this burden from you, it’s no longer my place to do so.  However, there are no rules saying that I cannot act as a civilian consultant.”

“… Very well then.  We’ll make preparations for a teleport to your location.  Do you have a safe arrival location for us?”

“I’ll have one for you in fifteen minutes.  Anything else?”

“No.  Our apartment manager is just now getting fully up to speed herself, but she mentioned that there may be another who does know where Fate and Nanoha are.  By the time we arrive we should know more.”

“Good.  I’ll see you soon, Lindy.”

“It’ll be good to see you again, Gil.  Admiral Harlaown, out.”

---

The rest of the day passed without incident.  Ben set up the aquarium for the Masser, who he had dubbed ‘Squishy’.

“Why ‘Squishy’?” asked Sousuke.

“Because,” said Ben, matter-of-factly, “he’s squishy.”  He then demonstrated by squishing the Masser in his hand, causing it to make excited noises that were easily translated as ‘That was FUN!  Do it again!’

Sousuke reared back, blanching not because of how it looked, but because Ben was squeezing a living matter/antimatter reactor in his hand.

“See?” said Ben with a shit-eating grin on his face.  “Squishy.”  Ben then cackled wickedly.  “Oh relax, Sousuke.  Washu-chan explained it to me.  These guys are stupidville tough - nature has designed these creatures very well through the process of evolution.”

“If you say so,” said Sousuke, though the look on his face said otherwise.  It quickly circulated around the complex that the Masser’s name is ‘Squishy’ and you should not ask why unless you wanted to have a heart attack.

Afterwards, Ben mowed through his paperwork while alternating between using Squishy as a stress ball and tossing him bits of Masser Kibble that Washu had scared up for him - the little Masser took to gleefully zipping after the treats and snatching them out of the air.  

Ben spent that time working out the accounting for the month.  The idea for everyone inclined towards it to take up programming had hit upon moderate success and the displacees had more than enough income to cover the meager rents that Ben had asked for.

He smiled as he looked over the lease application for Kyouya and Shinobu - his first official application!  Both families had given their blessing, not wanting to stand in the way of a beautifully blossoming love.  That, and they trusted the two of them to act responsibly.  It was one more unit filled, and one more step closer to balancing out the total operating costs.

As much as Sebastian gave Ben the willies, Lord Phantomhive was a pleasant man in spite of his past - and why not?  He had gotten exactly everything he had ever wanted, including a family of his own.  And Ben did like giving the man something else to smile about.

“I live to please,” Ben had told him.

He sighed at that, reflecting on how all his young life he’d been nothing but a screw up for such a long time that making someone happy with his efforts was something he did with nearly slavish fervor.  He knew it wasn’t a healthy state of mind.  It was part of what drove him to make that pact with Hild in the first place - not that he hadn’t thought carefully about it.  But he still made that decision on impulse, and only to make someone else happy.

At the very least it was for someone who said that his own happiness is important to them.

Just then, the door to the office had opened and one reason for his own happiness bounded energetically inside.

“Bath time!  Bath time!” Alicia practically shouted joyfully, causing Squishy to perk up and bounce around the air after her, attracted by the joyful emotions coming off the girl.  She might be deferred for a moment, but she would never allow her desires to be put off forever.  And right now, her desire was to draw Ben and her Big Sister as close together as possible.

And Nanoha, too, because she was so much fun to tease.  Just like Ben.

Alicia felt that the best way she could pull that off was by making them all be as close and intimate as possible.

Forget those stupid laws.  They were stupid laws by stupid people that don’t know what love is like.  And Alicia wanted them all to be one big family together.

Even if Mother wasn’t there anymore… Alicia didn’t mind too much.  What had truly made her sad was the terrible things Mother had done to Fate.  Mother was in a better place now, smiling down on her and everyone else.  And someday she knew her Big Sister would be able to forgive Mother.  And then the two of them could at last talk about the happy memories of her, which they shared.  And she knew that the closer Big Sister Fate and Big Brother Ben got, then the sooner that day would come.

She only wondered about Ben’s family.  His life was… rough.  Very rough.  But now they all seemed to be nice people.  They just needed to… say sorry, maybe?  Alicia wasn’t certain of how to fix that, but she knew she’d figure it out in time.

Besides, she liked the idea of having a whole bunch of Big Brothers and be doted on by them.

But for now, bath time!

“Okay, okay,” said Ben with his hands up in a placating gesture.  “I’m up, I’m going.”

“Yaaayyyyyyy!”

---

It was a somewhat complex affair.

Despite Alicia’s hardest lobbying, they didn’t actually wash together.  Instead, they washed in the separate Men’s and Women’s areas.  And to her further disappointment, bathing suits had been mandated by everyone, with herself, Mihoshi, and Ryouko being the only dissenting votes.

And on top of that, a chaperon was to be present.

However, who that chaperon was to be was on a completely voluntary basis.  Thus, it was somewhat startling when Aeka volunteered to be their chaperon for the evening.

Nanoha was in first, followed by Fate.  Nanoha was wearing a spaghetti-strap choker-top one-piece bathing suit that covered her well - mostly white, with pink bands around the leg holes as well as the edging and straps at the top, complete with a tiny decorative pink bow over her chest.  Fate’s was simpler, but far more daring.  It was an all-black two-piece bandeau bikini.  Ben was just glad that the bottom wasn’t Brazilian-cut, but the amount of exposed skin still left him feeling somewhat on edge.

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Alicia was next, wearing a traditional pink one-piece suit with a frill around her waist.  And then there was Ben, wearing his Navy PT trunks - good for both regular PT and swimming.

“This is my first time in here,” said the Princess as she entered last.  Her bathing suit was a one-piece as well, but with a crawling vine design with beautiful purple flowers.  She also wore a sheer sarong around her waist that matched the flowers.  “Ah, it is just as lovely in here as the ladies side.”

And indeed it was.  Tropical flowers grew from tiered terraces all around in the warm, humid room.  Colorful birds and insects flitted around, providing the space with an actual ecology.  In fact, the background was filled with the songs of tree frogs and insects, giving the space a rustic ambiance that was not unlike being at a mountainside hot springs resort in Japan.

“Yeah, gotta hand it to Ryouko and Washu-chan,” said Ben with a smile.  “They really outdid themselves here.”

Aeka smiled at Ben.  “It is rather like a romantic getaway, is it not?”

Ben blushed at that, much to the girls amusement.

“Girls, you three go ahead,” said the Princess of Jyurai.  “I must speak with Benjamin on some matters.”

“Okay, Aeka-onee,” said Nanoha and Fate together, causing her smile to grow more fond.  Alicia was a bit sullen, but went along with her sister and Nanoha.

Ben smiled and looked up to his little companion.  “Oi Squishy?”

“?” said the Masser.

“Do me a favor and keep Alicia company?”

“!” replied Squishy and it flew off after Alicia, causing a startled yelp from Nanoha as the Masser decided to goose her along the way, causing a peal of laughter to erupt from Alicia.

Ben snorted in amusement at the sight and Aeka herself was not immune, giggling behind her had at the shenanigans.

The Princess then turned to him and said, “Please, Benjamin.  Walk with me.”

And so, they did, pacing along the boardwalk that surrounded the bath in a meandering circuit.

“One imagines that Her Highness has something important to disclose,” said Ben in a pleasant, but very respectful tone.

Aeka returned a mild smile.  “You know that you don’t have to be so formal with me, Benjamin.  After all you’ve done for us?  I am of a similar mind to my dear little sister.  I, too, would wish to welcome you into our family, should you so choose it.”

“My apologies, Aeka,” said Ben with a sigh.  “It’s just that even though you’re being so nice about this, I can’t help but feel that this is a matter of great gravity that you wish to discuss.”

“It is,” agreed Aeka.  “It involves those girls that love you so dearly already.”  They were silent for a moment as Ben took that in and Aeka prepared her words.

“First and foremost,” began the Princess, “we are all very happy for you.  Though Miss Chidori’s feelings on the matter are somewhat more complicated, but that is to be expected.  But we are all glad that you no longer feel quite so alone.”

“Thank you,” said Ben.  “It does feel better… but still…”

Aeka nodded.  “Yes.  Their age.  I understand.  Which is why I feel it is all the more important that you consider joining our clan, Benjamin.  There is also the marriage to consider.  If you go with the Takamachi clan, under the laws of the land there, you can only be wedded to one of them while the other must bear the title of Mistress.  And I am certain that does not sit well with you, especially considering that any children that come of your unions will not be lawfully yours.”

Ben sighed.  “It might not be so bad.  Nanoha and Fate, once they go back home, will enter active service with the Time-Space Administration Bureau.  And as such, they’ll become citizens of Midchilda.  From what I understand, their laws are different in regards to matters like these.”

Aeka nodded.  “There is that, I suppose.  And they do have a purpose they need to fulfill.  I suppose it cannot be helped then.  But know this, Benjamin: when the time does come for us to part ways… I will miss spending time with you.  You can be such a loud and brash person, almost like Ryouko.  But then, there is always the quieter side of you.  The one that grew up with no friends.  Only the music of dreamers and books by the light of your moon to keep you company.  It breaks my heart sometimes, trying to imagine you - a few years younger than I, taught to think so little of yourself, and escaping into such fantastical worlds.  Stories such as our adventures with Lord Tenchi.

“I wish we could have been there for you, Benjamin.  To have taken you up to the stars.  To let you have the kinds of adventures you would read about.  To help you heal while you still had something left of your boyhood.  To see what sort of man you would become.

“I know that some say ‘Better late than never.’  But I have never put much stock into such ideas.  I do not blame myself or anyone else.  It simply hurts to know… even if there was nothing we could have done, it hurts nonetheless.

“And it is not only myself that feels this way.  We all do.  Lord Tenchi, my dear little sister Sasami, Washu-chan, Mihoshi, Noike…  Even Ryouko…  No, especially Ryouko.”

Ben looked at Aeka in askance, but then blinked as he thought about it.  “Of course.  Her having lived under Kagato’s whim all that time.”

Aeka nodded her head solemnly.  “It’s part of what has helped me to forgive her and see her as family - knowing that she was forced to live that way.

“But that is another matter.  Benjamin, we all want you to be happy.  And if being with Miss Takamachi and Miss Testarossa brings you happiness, then we’ll help in any way we can.  So long as you never do anything to harm them, we’ll protect you no matter who has a grievance with you.”

“Thank you, Aeka,” said Ben quietly, with a small, wan smile.  “All the same, though, I think it would be best if I did as little to court such attention as possible.  The reaction that young Alisa had was tame compared to how others would react.”

Aeka sighed.  “Sometimes the culture of your country worries me, Benjamin.”

“It wasn’t always this way,” said Ben.  “One of the most famous sharpshooters of our history was a woman known as Annie Oakley.  Her abilities became known at the age of fifteen when she defeated a marksman named Frank E. Butler, who was twenty-two at the time.”  Ben then grinned at Aeka.  “She married him a year later after she turned sixteen.”

“Oh my!” said Aeka with a slight flush, but a happy smile.  “But did they… last?”

Ben’s smile softened into something more genuine.

“Until the day she died, almost a hundred years ago.  Her husband was so heartbroken that he stopped eating and died eighteen days later.”

“Oh!” cried out Aeka, crestfallen.  “That is so sad!  But… they really did love each other, did they not?”

“They did,” said Ben.  “The kind of love that you only ever read about.”

Aeka smiled.  “You mean like the love that the two girls over there feel for you.”

Ben scoffed with a rueful smile.  “Touche, Milady.  Touche.”

“Getting back to what I was saying, though,” said Aeka, “if there is precedence for matters such as these, and in such a well known historical figure, then why is your case so controversial?”

Ben sighed.  “There, you start to get into education issues in this country.”

Aeka’s eyes narrowed at that.  “I see.  Nothing against Miss Tsukino - she is such a sweet person - I believe I will need to speak with her on such matters.”

“That will probably be Ami’s department,” said Ben with a wry grin.  “Managing the education system is definitely a task that Usagi would prefer to delegate to someone else.”

Aeka’s serious mien evaporated in a chuckle.  “She certainly would!  I suppose in that case that I would have nothing to worry about - her people are in good hands.”  Aeka then sighed.  “I can only wish that the same could be said about your people.  Enough of this, now.  Let us go and rejoin with your fledgling family, dear Benjamin.  I fear that we have kept them waiting long enough.”

“Yeah, any longer now and I bet Alicia will try something,” said Ben with a grin.

“It’s about time!” called out Alicia as she saw them coming.  Right away, she climbed out with Squishy orbiting her, ran to Ben, grabbed his hand, and began pulling him over to where Nanoha and Fate were both relaxing in the water of the simulated hot spring.

Ben allowed himself to be pulled along and then eased himself into the hot water, settling in next to Fate and sandwiching her between himself and Nanoha.  Alicia hummed contently as she settled in on Ben’s other side, pressing her side against him and practically demanding that he put his arm around her.  And Squishy had settled onto what was quickly becoming its favorite perch - the top of Ben’s head.

Aeka watched with a happy smile at how close they all were.  It was a pity that they would not choose to go with her and everyone else back to Jyurai.  They would be such a magnificent family.  And Aeka would not have been surprised if a First Generation Tree would choose him.

And she had not been lying one bit when she told Ben that she would miss him.  He really is like everyone’s brother: Brother Benjamin, who cares for others like they were his own. His name’s ancient origins in Hebrew even fit him: The most beloved one; The right-hand son.  She was absolutely certain that Ben would become her Father’s Right Hand.  Benjamin had a great heart - one that wanted for all people feel peace and happiness.  Even if that meant that the mighty beat of that heart became a war drum that called him into action.  He would act for the sake of others.  Her father would be quick to realize this.  And he would be just as quick to put the man into a position where he would have the greatest effect, and, most importantly, quietly praise Benjamin for his devotion and diligence.

She sighed.  It was a shame.  But as long as Benjamin was happy, then that was all that mattered.

---

Meanwhile, in her lab, Washu watched the girls with Ben on a monitor.  There were several others all around her - each one with various information feeds from Bardiche, Raising Heart, and Alicia’s phylactery.

The pint-sized scientist smiled as she looked over Nanoha’s and Fate’s endocrine readings.  The two girls were certainly caught in the throes of their early adolescence.  Washu had vowed to herself to keep a careful eye on the two.  Puberty was hard on young girls, and doubly so when someone had caught their interest.  And at that moment, their heart rates and hormone levels showed clearly that they were experiencing some very strong feelings.  Very strong and pleasurable feelings, Washu was certain. 

She almost envied them.  The awakening of one’s sexuality is certainly a thrilling experience.  If Fate and Nanoha weren’t experimenting together already, then it wouldn’t be long until they start - all it will take is an ‘accident’ that provokes their curiosity.  And even if Benjamin couldn’t actively take part, those two still had each other.  That will hopefully be enough for the time being.  However, once she was sure the two were sexually active with each other, she’d make it a point to impress upon them how important it was that Ben hears as little about it as possible.  Otherwise…

Well, it was no secret that his anxieties were vile little creatures that paid very little heed to the rational parts of his mind.  He would feel a sense of rejection no matter how hard he would try not to.  If Dioxygen-Difluoride were an emotional state, then Benjamin would own it, lock, stock, and barrel.  It was amazing that he could even function at all with such function with such anger and self-loathing in his head, let alone be a kind and loving person.

The poor man.

Alicia’s readings were far more sedate.  In fact, looking at her electroencephalograph readings, Washu figured that she would probably wind up dozing off soon.

What really interested her was the real-time APO images in the holotank.  There, she could see Alicia’s soul and Benjamin’s.  They were connected somewhere in the fourth and fifth dimensions, with Alicia’s soul hungrily lapping up the energy that Ben’s soul willingly offered.  It was actually quite lovely to look at.  Ben’s soul was hardy - she might almost use the term ‘built like a tractor’.  He had power a-plenty to spare for the girl.  Her soul was actually quite fragile looking… but not distressingly so.  It had a delicate appearance to it, but in a lovely, graceful sort of way.  And the power that Ben fed into her only made that beauty stand out even more.

It was going to be a long process, but Alicia’s soul was already showing improvements as the first tentative connections with her body began to strengthen and develop.  Eventually, those bonds would be strong and healthy, and Alicia’s soul by itself would suffice in keeping her alive and well.

Whether or not she would be able live without the phylactery was another matter, but even if she couldn’t, it would not stop her from living a normal life.  She would simply have to keep it with her for the rest of her life.

But then there was the thing that interested Washu the most: Benjamin and his anti-magic field.

As nearly as she could figure, Ben’s ability to disrupt magic was very similar to the ability of The Counteractor that had appeared and nearly killed Tsunami.  It was amazing how the Choushin was absolutely helpless against that being.

Benjamin’s ability wasn’t even a spark in a dark room compared to that.  But if he could bring enough power to bear?  Washu shuddered at the thought.  The stories of all intelligent species all have at least one legend of a mortal being that rose up and slew a god.  And she was of the learned opinion that, no matter how distorted, these tales likely have some truth to them

According to the readings from the phylactery and the intelligent devices, Ben’s AMF was at a low ebb.  The lowest she’d ever seen it, in fact.  She watched with rapt attention as it continued to dwindle with Ben’s slow lapse into unconsciousness.

And then…

“Huh.  Wonder if Belldandy knows about this.”

---

Later that night, after Squishy was comfortably resting in it’s new home, Ben worked on the enrollment forms for all the girls.  He couldn’t help but be reminded of his own past - how he had once had a course catalog for high school thrust in front of him, and no idea what to do because he had no frame of reference, and worse of all, not enough confidence in himself to make the choice.

He sighed as that brought back memories.  Not the good ones.  The ones where he’d cower in front of a man that was supposed to be his father.  How that father would demand that he not cower before him despite doing everything possible to make him cower.

He spent several minutes like that, lost in a sort of memetic loop of bad memories.
There was a knock on the door and Ben looked up from his laptop, his thoughts immediately dispelled as he wondered who on earth it could be.  To his surprise, Alicia was waiting for him as he opened the front door.

"Alicia!” said Ben in shock.  “What are you doing here so late, sweetie?  Come on inside before before someone sees you and wakes up your sister."

Quietly, she came inside, her slippers padding on the ground as she hugged her teddy bear close to her chest.  As she worked at getting herself settled, Benjamin went and put a glass of milk in the microwave.

"Alright,” said Ben as he sat down next to the girl, “it's only you and me here now.  You can tell me what's bothering you."

Alicia was silent for a moment before the microwave beeped.  As Ben went to get her milk, she suddenly said, "You were thinking about bad stuff again, weren't you?"

Benjamin paused in mid motion, then sighed and brought Alicia the warm milk.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," said Ben as he sat down next to her, leaving the glass of milk on the coffee table in front of her.  Rather than say anything, though, she latched onto him, sniffling softly.  Ben put his arms around her and said, "Oh Alicia.  I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," she whispered through her gentle sobs.  "You brought me back.  You made it so I can live with my sister.  You made her happy.  You made me happy.  But as much as I feel what hurts you, Big Brother, I also feel what makes you happy.  And I know that seeing big sister and I together...  it makes you so happy that it blots out the pain."

Ben knew it may seem strange for such a little girl to be so articulate, but Alicia had always been ahead of the curve for her age - every bit the budding intellectual that her mother had undoubtedly been in her own youth.  And she only grew more sharp and intelligent once she was resurrected.  Washu-chan was absolutely certain that Benjamin’s intellect was passively bleeding through like an osmotic process.  Which meant that very soon she would be able to start learning the basic calculations she needed to know in order to become a mage like her sister.

Benjamin reached to his computer and brought up some music - a selection of soothing and uplifting tracks from various scores and motion picture soundtracks.  Not only to ease Alicia's reciprocal hurt, but to help soothe him as well so the feedback effect would be cut off.  He then got her to drink her glass of milk, and then showed her what he was up to (their enrollment paperwork - boring adult stuff, but she found it mildly interesting anyhow to see how things behind the scenes worked).  Once she started showing signs of drowsiness, Ben then picked her up and went to Fate and Nanoha's apartment.

Fate opened the door before Ben could even knock.  "Just bring her inside, Benjamin," she said kindly.  Alicia was already dozing on his shoulder.  As Ben laid her down in her bed, Alicia sighed and snuggled her teddy bear closer.  A quick little kiss on her forehead left a content smile on her lips as she drifted off completely.

Suddenly, Ben felt Fate's arms around him.

"Fate?"

"It's alright," she said quietly.  "I just want to stay like this for a moment.  I am so grateful for you and everything you've done, and everything you keep on doing.  You know that you're the closest thing she has to a father?"

It made Ben’s heart twinge in a bittersweet way and he put his arms around Fate's petite form and hugged her back.

"Yeah... it's hard not for me to treat her like as if she was my own.  Every day she seems to become just a bit more like me - she might as well be my daughter anyhow."

"That's fine by me," whispered Fate.  "Her becoming more like you...  I can't think of anyone better.  I love you so much after all - just as much as I love Nanoha."

Benjamin couldn't even sigh at that.  A love that true he could never berate.  Not in a million years.

But more importantly, Benjamin knew that Fate would soon start growing like a weed once her adolescence hits - he was sure it would do so hard and fast - and she would start turning into a woman before his eyes.  While he knew that the building hormones were a factor, he also knew that there was nothing false about what she felt.

Benjamin kissed the top of Fate's head.  There was simply no way for him to lie about it - he loved Fate dearly.  And Nanoha, too, for that matter.

Fate looked up at Benjamin with those beautiful ruby eyes of hers.  They normally seem more like a brilliant hue of brown, especially when half-shaded by her low-hanging bangs, but once the light caught them, they glittered like the finest cut corundum.  She was already so gorgeous, even as a child.  She would be breathtaking once she was an adult.

"I need to get some sleep,” she said.  “You do, too.  Go on, Benjamin.  We still have a lot to do tomorrow."

Ben rolled his eyes at that, but smiled anyways.  "Oh lardy, do we ever."

[Black Aeronaut]

Sorry, no story content, but I will be picking apart one of the future relationships that I haven't really talked much about yet.

Usually, the way this happens is that I'll hear a piece of music that will perfectly fit as one characters love song to another.  And then as I keep replaying it over and over again, the picture becomes clear as I construct a believable narrative of how these two characters could interact in a romantic manner.

A lot of the times, these songs are dark, moody, and absolutely oozes with a heartfelt pain.  But that is what tends to color these relationships that Ben has as he relates his pain to those that begin to come into his heart.  Ironically, the relationships he has that are more physical than emotional will look oddly wholesome on the surface because they're exuding an air of two people just out to have fun and be human together.

But with those closest to him?  They've seen the wounds.  They've tasted the poison as they've taken turns sucking it out of his heart.  These relationships are far deeper and more subdued... at least to outside observers.  This will, in part, be a remnant of habits formed before when they had to hide their love for each other.  The romantic gestures are there, but they are subtle and seldom seen.  It will always be a little bit different with each of his wives, but there will always be a certain gravitas in the way they look at each other in the eyes.  People will see right away that there is a very deep bond at work here, and any attempts to disrupt it will end in futility, and possibly a great deal of humiliation.

Between Madoka and Benjamin, this theme of one gently healing the other's hurt comes through loud and clear.  With this, it's honestly no surprise that they develop feelings for each other.  But even though this takes a toll on Madoka, her heart breaking each time she learns what caused each of his scars, Benjamin comforts her in return, reminding her that despite the odds he somehow made it out.

Placebo's cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" is every bit as dark and moody as the parts of Ben's heart that have been scarred beyond recognition.  He envies Madoka for what she had in her childhood - a family full of love and support - but he's not afraid of communicating this to her, and he does so in a frank and honest tone.  Madoka, in turn, is glad that he does not keep these things to himself - even though it pains her to hear it.  The pure and agonizing hell of it is that they both know: if it was possible, Madoka, with all of her selfless love, would have gladly traded places with him in a heart beat.

Video

Lyrics

It doesn't hurt me
You want to feel how it feels?
You want to know, know that it doesn't hurt me?
You want to hear about the deal I'm making?

You
(If I only could, be running up that hill)
You and me
(If I only could, be running up that hill)

And if I only could
Make a deal with God
And get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could, ooh

You don't want to hurt me
But see how deep the bullet lies
Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder
And there's a thunder in our hearts, baby
There's so much hate for the ones we love
Tell me we both matter, don't we?

You
(If I only could, be running up that hill)
You and me
(If I only could, be running up that hill)
You and me, won't be unhappy
(If I only could, be running up that hill)

And if I only could
Make a deal with God
And get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could, ooh

C'mon, baby
C'mon, c'mon, darling
Let me steal this moment from you now
C'mon, angel
C'mon, c'mon, darling
Let's exchange the experience, ooh

And if I only could
Make a deal with God
And get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

And if I only could
Make a deal with God
And get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

(If I only could)
(Be running up that hill)

And it's not as though Madoka wouldn't have her own love song for him!  The only thing in the world that makes her as happy as seeing Homura smile is seeing Benjamin's smile as well.  She can always tell when it's his real smile because it's the one that make his eyes glitter with mischief.  And she truly loves seeing that smile.

This song is kinda hard to find.  I know it's on Google Play along with the rest of the album plus one other, but I'm not so sure about iTunes.  Either way, I had to create an unlisted Youtube video so I can share it here.  I'm sure that Amy Fox would not mind.

Video

Lyrics

He is a stranger and he's come a long way
At least that's what I knew at the start
And he doesn't speak to anyone, they say
He's either rude or just not too smart

But I do love
I do love
I do love the way he
Smiles

And he's uncomfortable with crowds of any kind
He'll disappear and you'll wonder was he here at all?
And he hates conflict, but defends his own affairs
Angrily, if he's forced to take a side

But I do love
I do love
I do love to see him
Smile

Time can close a good man down
And life can shut a good man off
And make him seem a stranger to a friend

Time can send a good man south
And life can shut a good man's mouth
And make him never want to smile again

So when he comes to me, reaches for my hand
Lays it out for both of us to see
He says, Do you want to live with me?
Do you want to share our lives? Do you think that you could understand?

I say, I do love
I do love
I do love to make you
Smile...

And so you have the story of two hearts here.  One so riddled with old wounds that it's amazing that it still beats.  The other such a kind and empathic heart that it not only bleeds for him, but it cannot help but be drawn closer.  Because even though it is battered, his heart is strong.  It's gotten him to this point.  And she knows that his heart will keep going strong for a long, long time.

[Black Aeronaut]

For some reason, Firefox glitched out on me while I was getting this ready.

Maybe this time I'll be able to get this thing posted.

Sorry for not having it ready sooner, even though I only had to do a few more little things to it.  Depression and anxiety together is a real bitch.

Hope you guys enjoy this installment.

---

Chapter 3

The first order of business for the day was to get the girls all enrolled into school.  So it was that after everyone had gotten fed, they all loaded up into the passenger van, now dubbed Athena by Ben.

It was a jolly affair, with Ben driving, Aeka riding shot-gun, and Sasami Nanoha, Fate, Alicia, Arf, Alisa, Suzuka, and Francesca scattered throughout the back.  They all chattered like a flock of song birds, giddy and excited about the new possibilities going to a new school would provide.  It put fond smiles on Benjamin’s and Aeka’s faces.

And then the entire world color-shifted into purple and green hues and all the other people and vehicles disappeared.

“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL!!!” cried out Bardiche and Raising Heart together as layers of pink and yellow barriers sprung up around the van while it sped down the highway.  No one even had a chance to wonder why as a massive concussive blow struck the shields.

“WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!?” cried out Benjamin as his adrenaline spiked and he worked at keeping Athena going straight, then made a bee-line for Exit 13 to Bandera Road.

“PROTECTION STATUS: ALL GREEN!” called out Raising Heart.

“ENEMY DETECTED,” stated Bardiche.  “IT IS WOLKENRITTER.  RECOMMEND STEALTH AND EVASION.”

“The Wolkenritter!?” cried out Alisa as Nanoha and Fate both changed into their barrier jackets.  “But I thought they were supposed to be our friends!”

Ben reached up and opened one of the storage compartments in ceiling console, revealing a pair of buttons - one blue and the other green.

He pushed the blue one.  It flashed three times, then remained lit.

“Storming field is up!” called out Ben.  “I don’t know if that will keep us safe from Shamal.”

“What do we do, though?” said Aeka.

“We try to get away,” said Ben tersely, “but we also defend ourselves.  You might want to change into your battle armor, Aeka.”

“Of course!” replied the Princess as she touched her ring, and suddenly her outfit transformed into her combat dress.

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” said Ben as he hooked the easy right-turn onto Bandera Road at speed.  “We don’t know for sure who they’re after.  But if they attack again, we’ll abandon the van and then scatter.  Nanoha, Fate, I want you two to get Alicia back to the apartments and into Washu’s Lab as soon as possible.  Then get back over here so we can beat some sense into those four.  Fran, Alisa, Suzuka, Sasami, I want you all in one group together.  Find a place to hide and stay hidden.  Aeka, Arf, you two run interference if you can.  Especially be on the lookout for Shamal.  Blond hair, green eyes - can’t miss her.  Rocks out the gentle onee-san look almost as good as Belldandy does.  She’s their command and communications specialist as well as their rear echelon support.  Bother her and you’ll impair the rest of the Wolkenritter.”

“What about you?” said Nanoha.

“I’m gonna act as a decoy and keep driving,” said Ben, braking to take the right turn onto Timco West, and then slaloming through the s-curves.  “If they’re busy chasing me, then they aren’t following you, and Alicia is probably the most vulnerable out of any of us right now.”

“But you’ll get hurt!” cried out Fate in alarm.

“If I get hurt, I can get better.  If Alicia gets hurt, it might kill her.  And trust me, I’m a tough bastard.  If they want to hurt me, they’re gonna have to work for it.  And I’ll make damn sure they know it, too.”

Nanoha and Fate said nothing as Ben braked once more to make a right turn onto Callaghan Road, then floored it.

“You’re a courageous fool, Benjamin Rhodes,” said Aeka just loud enough for Ben to hear her.

“Is there any better?”

Aeka laughed despite her concern.  “Touche, Benjamin.  Touche.  But please, for Our sake and theirs… come back to us safely.”

“I’ll take that as a Royal Decree, Your Highness,” said Ben soberly.

The van rocked once more, causing the girls all to cry out in fear.

“PROTECTION STATUS: EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT,” called out Raising Heart.

“And that’s our cue,” said Ben through gritted teeth as he hooked a right turn onto Thunder Drive, passing Lawrence Powell Elementary School, and dropping into the heavily tree-shaded sub-development.  Ben then hooked a left onto Warpath Street and then brought the van to a stop.

“Okay, you know your groups,” called out Ben.  “GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!”

The girls wasted no time as they all piled out - except for Aeka who suddenly leaned over and kissed Ben on the cheek.

“A Princess’s Favor for good luck.  Be safe, Benjamin.”

“As safely as I can,” said Ben.  The doors then slammed shut and Benjamin floored it once more.

---

It was a peaceful day there at Westwoods Apartments.

And then the Good Neighbor system was tripped and the alarms began hooting loudly throughout the complex, startling everyone.

But they didn’t stay startled for long.  Everyone went to the nearest wall and each of them tapped out a rhythm that was unique for each one of them.  A portal would open where they knocked on the walls, leading each of them into special rooms.

For the members of Urzu squadron, it was a mech bay with their two M9s and Sousuke’s Arbelest.  For Tenchi and his family, it was armory and staging areas where they could quickly change into battle gear and, for those where it applied,  arm themselves.  And for Kaname and Teletha, it was a Combat Information Center, where Kaname took command of the small army of cloaked drones that were just then filling the air, and Teletha could oversee and control the tactical plot in the holotank.

“What do we have?” called out Teletha as Kaname read the information at lighting speed.

“Four enemy units,” she called out, just as Washu entered the CIC.  “Possibly mages - heavy thaumic activity detected.  Approximately five miles north-northeast of the Complex.”  Kaname’s eyes suddenly widened in horror.  “THEY’RE AFTER THE KIDS!!!”

“OVER MY DEAD BODY!” came Ryouko’s voice over the coms.

“Do it, Ryouko!” called out Teletha.  “They’re going to need all the help they can get and as quickly as possible!  Urzu Squadron, status report!”

“Full battle rattle and ready to roll, Captain,” replied Mao.

“Sortie immediately!”

“Opening portals,” called out Washu.  “Event horizons are stable!  GO!”

---

Benjamin’s heart hammered as Athena zoomed down Warpath Street.  He didn’t want to get hurt, but he felt he had no other choice - getting their attention away from the girls was absolutely critical.  Little else mattered, save that he continue being a distraction.

But distracting was definitely something he could do.

He reach up to the ceiling console again, then tagged the green button, then the red.  Both flashed three times, then the red one went out and the green one stayed lit.

The storming field was no longer running.  But that was a-okay because the shield was now up.  Ben was sure there wasn’t much that could hurt him for now.

But that didn’t mean that the Wolkenritter wouldn’t be ignorant of the ruse for long.

He turned right onto Ingram Road and raced along as quickly as the turbo-diesel engine could push him.  At the very least, it wasn’t slow. 
Not amazingly fast, but definitely not slow.  He thanked himself once more for splurging on Athena.

The van rocked as someone took shots at him once more, but it was a lot less pronounced now.  Washu’s tech was top-notch, but not even Ben - especially not Ben - was going to put it to the ultimate test.  All things are finite, and he didn’t know for sure how hard they were actually hitting him.

The Loop 410 overpass began exploding into dust, stones, and twisted rebar as he zoomed under it.

Pretty hard, then, he reasoned, feeling oddly calm despite the danger.

He swung far to the left side of the road and plummeted through the right turn slip-lane leading into the parking lot of the Ingram Park Mall.  Another right behind the Chik-Fil-A, past the Outback Steakhouse and then a sharp left.  He gunned it across the empty parking lot and didn’t even think of hitting the brakes until he plowed through the southwest entrance to JC Penny’s, utterly annihilating the doors, cash wrap, and display cabinets packed with that year’s winter fashions.

Ben shut the engine off and then jumped out, not bothering to close the door behind him.  He ran to the back of the van, knowing he’d have only seconds, opened it, grabbed the large, flat, and heavy case from there, and cheesed it through the women’s department, only stopping to take cover in the midst of thickly packed racks of women’s clothes.

Only then did Ben set down the case and open it up, revealing the treasure inside.  The smooth, angled sides in matte black with the short barrel and impressive muzzle break greeted him.

The Saint George Arms Leader A1 .50 cal BMG semiautomatic bullpup rifle.

If this little beasty doesn’t make the Wolkenritter stop and reconsider, thought Ben to himself, then I don’t know what will.  Hoo-yeah, Gunners Mate.

For a gun chambered for .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun rounds, the weapon was incredibly light-weight - at 18.5 pounds, it was the lightest mass produced weapon of its kind in the world.  This was owed to the fact that the gun had a long-stroke gas-piston operation rather than a recoil operation, allowing for far less heavy materials and reinforcement for the receiver assembly to mount the barrel.

The ten round magazine, when fully loaded, added about five pounds to the total weight, but that was behind the grip where it would serve to counterbalance the heavy steel barrel.  Rather than a bipod, Ben had a pistol grip added to the front of the weapon, as well as a thick butt-stock pad in the back.  A floating red-dot scope of low power was fixed to the top rail.

Of course, it had been expensive, but as far as Ben was concerned, it was paying for itself already.  Even though he wasn’t counting on this to do anything more than inconvenience one of the Wolkenritter, weapons like this were despised in magical societies for their utterly indiscriminate nature.

And then there was his anti-magic field.  If he pushed it enough, then just maybe…

Ben hurriedly clipped a pouch to his belt - it carried two of the ten-round round magazines, already loaded with .50 cal BMG.  He took a third magazine and slapped it into the receiver, pulled back and let go of the charging handle, and then flicked the safety off.

And not a moment too soon.

“I know you’re in here,” came Vita’s voice.  “All we want are the Testarossa girls.”

Shock, dread, and rage began to fill his chest all at once.

“No fucking way,” called out Ben, certain that the acoustics of the department store would keep her from being able to follow his voice.  He shoved the active hearing protection muffs over his ears and began to move, quietly duck-walking his way through the clothing racks towards the entrance to the mall.  “I had to practically sell my soul to get that girl back from the dead.  You’re not gonna take her away just like that.”

“I admire your spirit, but I think you’re being a little melodramatic about it.”

Ben felt his anger begin to build.  “Little girl, you have no fucking clue what you’re dealing with, here.  This isn’t the world you think it is.  There are literal Gods and Monsters out there these days.  And they’re the sort that think of you and I as either a tasty treat or a fun toy to play with.”

“Do you think that’s supposed to scare me?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” called out Ben.  He then dared to poke his head out because it sounded like she was moving away.  He was in luck - she wasn’t looking in his direction, so he brought the gun to bear on her, sighting through the scope.  “But I’m pretty sure this will.”

Fun fact about Ben - he was certain his vision was actually 20/15 rather than 20/20.  The optometrists always stopped at the 20/20 line, even though he could still read the next two.

He noted, aside, that she was wearing the default combat suit she originally appeared with, and not one of Hayate’s outfits.

Ben pulled the trigger and the gun punched him in the shoulder.  The gas actuated action and muzzle break took away the worst of the recoil, but it still kicked like a mule.

Ben wasn’t used to it, but he sucked it up and fired two more times.

Vita had no idea what hit her - but it was just as hard as one of Signum’s ranged attacks of lesser power.  And three times!  She actually saw stars with the second and third impacts as her barrier jacket could only absorb so much kinetic energy in such small points.

Ben took his opportunity and bolted for the mall entrance.

---

As they entered the dimensional bubble, Noike put her many years of experience with the Galaxy Police to work.

“Ryouko!  Three fast-movers heading in our direction.  That has to be Fate, Nanoha, and Alicia.  Get to them before someone else does.”

“Right!” snapped off Ryouko before she zoomed off fast enough to leave shock waves in her wake.

“Aeka, are you online?  Status report.”

“Noike, good to hear your voice.  I’m here with Arf.  Benjamin sent us looking for Shamal - she’s supposed to be a com-com support specialist.  Wait one, Noike.”

There was a split-second burst of static, then Arf’s voice came onto the channel.

“Arf, now online.  Noike, we’re dealing with a group known as the Wolkenritter.  Don’t let the name throw you - these people are very high-level combatants.  There are four of them.  Signum is their command unit.  She specializes in frontal assault, but she can do ranged attacks if she needs to.  She is tall, full figured, with fuchsia hair.  Vita is their heavy assault unit.  Child with red hair.  Don’t be fooled by her looks.  Even if she looks no older than Nanoha, she was able to take Nanoha out in under two minutes the first time they met.  Zafira is a canid familiar much like me.  He’s a CQC and front-line support specialist.  And you heard about Shamal already.  Similar build to Signum, but blond with green eyes.

“Use extreme caution when engaging.  They specialize in taking out hard targets.”

“Thank you Arf.  Did everyone copy that?”

There was a round of acknowledgments at that.

“Very well, then.  Urzu Squadron, hang back.  I don’t think even the Arbelest will be fast enough to effectively face them.”

“Understood,” replied Mao.  “Standing by for further instructions.”

“Aeka, what about everyone else?”

“Sasami has the other girls with her.  Benjamin went ahead with the van to run a distraction, and it seems to be working.  Their efforts have been effectively divided.”

“Does Sasami have coms?”

“No.  We will remedy that as quickly as possible.”

“And Benjamin?”

“He has his cell phone, but I wouldn’t call it unless it was absolutely necessary.  Even if he has silenced it, the distraction could be lethal.”

“Understood.  I’ll pass that along to Washu-chan.  Continue as you were.  Tenchi, Mihoshi, wait here with me.  I’ll hold you in reserve until we need you.  Urzu squadron, deploy at the edge of the dimensional barrier - hold your positions until I give the word, but if you see a real opportunity, then you may use your own discretion.”

“Urzu squadron copies.  Moving out.”

---

In Benjamin’s bedroom, Ben’s little Masser was agitated.

And with good cause - it could sense Ben’s emotions like they were it’s own.  And right now, it knew Ben was in danger.  It was straining itself against the glass, trying to get out.  However, Washu had placed a protective device on the tank to keep Squishy from escaping.

But that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t take that lying down.

With a determined look in its eyes, a red glow lit up the Masser from within.

*PhTOOEY-BOOM!*

And just like that, the little creature spat a precisely measured matter-antimatter bomblet at the top of the cage, completely destroying it and shattering the aquarium.

Normally, Washu might have noticed it, but it was just one minor warning amongst other alarms at that moment - very much like the Reactor Sump Warning Light at Three Mile Island - a critical warning lost in a myriad of others.

With its freedom secured, the little Masser phased through the bedroom window to the outside, and then zoomed off, making a beeline for Benjamin.

It hoped that he would be okay when it got there.

---

Sasami led Alisa, Suzuka, and Francesca down the block - one house at a time, hiding under overhangs and in car ports.  The little Princess’s foot falls were unusually quiet, as were Suzuka’s.  At one particularly large carport, Sasami stopped them all for a short moment.

“How is it that you can move as quietly as I, Sasami-chan?” asked Suzuka.

“Special training,” replied the Princess as she took off her hair ornaments, letting her long cerulean hair come down in a single, beautiful fall.  She then used one to tie her hair back up, this time in a single high ponytail.  “My mother is in charge of the Emperor’s Bodygaurds.  It was only natural that she would teach me the same way.”  With that, the leftover ornament on her hand did something.  The elastic band straightened and stiffened, and then expanded into a long staff with the ball ornaments forming studs at either end.

“How do you do it?” asked Sasami.

Suzuka smiled.  It was a friendly smile, though the fact that she let her fangs come out on display put the lie to that.

“Vampiric ability.  We can deaden any noise we generate.”

“Whatever your abilities are,” said a cool, clipped, feminine voice, “I assure you that they will not match my own.”

They all snapped to look - Suzuka hissing as her eyes glowed red and she bore her fangs, Sasami taking a defensive stance, and Fran…

…From seemingly nowhere, Fran pulled out a Colt Government, racking the action and flipping the safety off in one fluid motion.

“WHAT THE HELL!?” cried out Alisa in alarm.  “HOW THE HECK DID YOU HIDE THAT THING AND SINCE WHEN DO YOU SHOOT A GUN!?”

“My masters are Vampires, Miss Lowell-Bannings,” said Francesca primly.  “Ever since I could lift one, I’ve been trained to protect myself and my Masters from other Vampires, or worse, Vampire Slayers.”

“…I’m still here,” said the woman before them.

And it was certainly a woman indeed.  She was tall and beautiful with a sharp, narrow face, an athletic build despite her buxom attributes, and had a truly large sword leveled at them.  Her incredibly long hair was a vivid hue of fuchsia, and barely tamed by the high ponytail style she wore, tied with a thin gold ribbon.  She wore a gray greatcoat with segmented bracers over her fore-arms and armor at her waist, protecting her midsection and upper legs.  Under her coat she wore a halter-top tunic, black and featureless.  Her boots were shod with metal reinforcement at the heels, toes, and in the uppers above the ankles.

“What do you want?” called out Sasami with a severity that was all out of proportion to her size and appearance.

“Tell me where to find the Testarossa Girls and I shall leave you in peace,” said the woman coldly.

“Okay, that’s it!!!” snapped Alisa.  “I am through with being the bystander!  No more!”

“Alisa?” said Suzuka, puzzled by her friend’s sudden turn.

“Now it’s my turn!  Now I have the power to do something about this!”  She then held out a beautiful glowing green gem, caged in gold like a Faberge Egg.  Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of green light, and then the old Alisa was gone.

In her place was a girl with her features.  But she wore a western hat that bore a brilliant green gem in the fastener of the hat band, a blouse with a rather severe looking corset with a large white collar and loose-fitted sleeves, leather riding gauntlets, a pleated skirt that bloomed around her small hips and went all the way down to her calves, and a pair of knee-high button-up Edwardian Boots with modest heels.  And it was all in the color of an Army Officer’s Khakis.

With a final flourish, an ornate winchester rifle appeared in her right hand, spinning on the lever-action and cocking the gun just before she caught the grip in her hand and then took aim at Signum.

“I’m Magical Girl Sure-Shot!  In the name of Love and Justice, I’ll shoot you right through the heart!”

Without any further warning, she began shooting at Signum, rapidly working the lever action between each shot like she had done this for far longer than she had lived.

Signum, despite all her experience, was caught completely flat-footed by the barrage, though this was mostly due to the horror she experienced at what she had witnessed.

Sweet merciful Kaisers in Heaven!  Is that really her soul inside that gem!?

Not only did she have to deflect the magical gunfire, which came out as something more like plasma bolts than actual bullets, but she also had to dodge real bullets coming from Fran’s gun.

These were not ordinary bullets, of course.  The .45 ACP is a good man-stopping round, but when faced with Vampires or Slayers, you needed something with a little more oomph.  These were custom-loaded rounds made by Noel, her older sister: hot-loaded Teflon-jacketed tungsten carbide penetrators.  The additional charge was only to make up for the incredible weight of the rounds so they kept the mussel velocity at the cost of increased recoil.  But Francesca had been well-drilled with this particular combination of weapon and ammunition, and as a result her aim was nearly unerring.  The weight and hardness of the tungsten carbide made them cut through armor like a hot knife through cold butter, and the thick Teflon coating only added to the penetration power.

In fact, Fran normally had often been warned about overpenetration, but she knew from past experience that the dimensional barrier they were inside would curtail collateral damage and civilian casualties entirely.

Suffice to say, the heavy, slippery rounds in combination with Alisa’s magical firepower were giving Signum a difficult time.

And then there was the blue-haired one.

Signum had the sinking suspicion from the way the girl moved that she was easily her equal.

And this was born out as she suddenly moved like a wraith over water, somehow weaving herself through the magical and non-magical gunfire, and closing the distance faster than she thought possible.

No little girl should ever have such an expression that so clearly communicates a killing intent.  That alone sent a chill up Signum’s spine - she had only ever seen such looks from mothers protecting their children.  But that couldn’t be right - there was no way this child was a mother in any way, was there?

The final nail in the coffin was seeing the demonic looking little girl nick her thumb with one of her fangs, and then begin to paint a magic circle in the very air itself with her blood.

A BLOOD MAGE!?

Granted, Signum was in no real danger.  While what Suzuka was doing was an bit advanced, it was one of the few tricks she knew, and only by virtue of having it drilled into her by her father, mother, and older sister.

What it did was special, for certain.  It was a protection spell that used her own blood to reinforce her body and those of her allies, making it far more difficult for anyone to hurt them.

Of course, Signum did not know this.  In fact, she did not want to stick around to find out at all - she had heard stories of magic like this, and it always ended with scores of battle-hardened warriors dying hideously gruesome deaths.  The few that survived such encounters were never right in the head afterward.

Time to fall back.  The others were probably faring better anyhow.

---

Zafira was most decidedly not having a good day.

It had started out well enough.  For certain, Vita’s first strike had been unable to breach the shields that sprung up around the vehicle, which then vanished.  That had stymied them for a moment until Shamal could figure out how to trace them, and then relay that information to Vita so she could try again.

And that had made them run scared, breaking up into several groups.  Zafira had gotten lucky and found the Testarossa girls, breaking cover like frightened rabbits and flying at high speed to escape with the white-suited one firing shooter spells at him to force him to keep his distance.

And suddenly he was struck in the face with what felt like an artillery shell.

“Hey, who do you think you are there?” called out a husky female voice.  “The Big Bad Wolf or sumthin?  Ya know it ain’t nice to pick on little girls.”

The woman he saw was easily as tall as Signum, but far more lightly built.  Everything about her physique screamed speed and agility, and yet there was not even the slightest implication that she was any sort of glass cannon.  Not with the way she dressed in such an eye-catching black and red pattern.  And that was to say nothing about that wild and utterly untamed mass of blue hair.

“Stand aside.  My Master has called for the deaths of those two little females.”

“Hold on,” she said in surprise  “You’re going to kill them!?”

“Was I not clear?” said Zafira.

The woman glared at him coldly.  “Oh, I heard you alright.  I just wanted to be sure, because if you’re going to try and kill them?  Then that means I get to do far worse to you, buddy.”

“And who are they to you?”

“To me directly?  Nothing much.  But to someone I care about?  This guy, you see, he gets me on a very personal level.  And I get him, too.  If I didn’t already have a man in my life, then he would have been a strong contender.  But these girls?  They’re very special to him.  He calls them his family.  And I don’t mean that in a metaphorical way.  They belong to him and he belongs to them.

“So even if they aren’t anything to me directly, you might as well have just threatened my own family.  Get ready, buster.  I’m about to rearrange your face so badly that your own mother won’t even recognize you.”
And that was when Zafira’s day became very bad indeed.

---

Right after entering the mall concourse, Ben looked around and then charged straight into the Lane Bryant store.  After he settled himself in behind the display stands stacked with clothes, he heard Vita’s voice drifting in from the concourse.

“Alright!” she called out, sounding equal parts annoyed and impressed.  “I gotta admit.  You got me with that one.  But whatever the hell that was, it’s not gonna be enough to take me down.”

Ben could just barely see through the gaps in the displays and clothing racks out into the concourse, but it was enough.  He could see Vita pacing around like a circling shark, looking for him.

She then went on, “I’ll tell you what.  You give up the girls nice and quietly, and I’ll let you live.  You’re obviously a warrior with some serious guts.  And I really don’t like having to kill guys like you.”

Ben’s anger began to boil over and Vita was starting to feel it - a faint hiss like the background radio noise of the universe.  It made her skin prickle and sent a shiver up her spine.

“First of all, I’m a Sailor of the United States Navy and a Gunners Mate - I’m a bringer King Neptune’s Thunder.”  Vita head snapped to the direction of the Lane Bryant store and Ben took aim.  “Second of all, I’m a lot harder to kill than you think I am!”

He snapped off two shots - one for the head and one for the body.  Vita cried out in pain as the kinetic energy bled through her barrier jacket.  This time, she had actually been hurt.  Not fatally, but the kinetic forces were like a hammer-blows to her head and her chest, laying her out like a puppet with its strings cut.

Once again, Ben cheesed it, this time for the back door, but taking the time to open and shut the door quietly.  He found himself in one of the service corridors that gave each store a back door access.

Suddenly, his phone rang and Ben cursed quietly, pushing the button on his blue tooth headset to take the call and then pushed one of his muffs aside so he could stuff an earbud in his ear.

“Yes?” said Ben in a terse, low tone.

“Oh thank God you’re okay, Benjamin,” came Teletha’s voice.  “Where are you and what’s your situation?”

“Inside Ingram Park Mall.  I have Vita hunting me in here.  They’re after Fate and Alicia - she thinks I got them with me.”

“Good.  They just arrived here.  Nanoha’s going back out, but Fate is staying just in case.  Are you really alright though?”

“For the moment.  And I seem to be doing a good job of keeping Vita occupied.”

“Just get out of there!  Fate and Alicia are safe for now.”

Ben paused, then nodded to himself.  Mission accomplished.  Time to go home.

“Copy that.  I’ll try to get out unnoticed.”  He then clicked the button on his headset, disconnecting the call.  And to be safe, he took out his phone and silenced the ringer.

Just then, he heard an enraged shout from inside the store and the sound of a great many things crashing against the walls.
Vita was back up on her feet and she was not pleased.

“Fucking coward! SHOW YOURSELF!”

“Not on your life,” whispered Ben as he made for the exit of the service corridor.  He never got there, though.

The wall next to him exploded and everything went dark.

---

Shamal, meanwhile, was doing what she did best: coordination and support.

She had to admit - whatever trick they had used to hide themselves after the opening salvo from Vita had been a good one.  But not good enough - it left a very subtle dimensional wake.  It was hard to detect, but not so much for Shamal.  She just had to be careful.

Once Vita had struck again, they had scattered, forcing them to divide their efforts.

Shamal was surprised by the sheer guts being shown by the man driving the vehicle.  Even if he was shielded somehow, it spoke volumes of him that he wasn’t panicking.  Surely this was no ordinary man.

While she directed Signum and Zafira after their targets, she wondered where the other group was.

She didn’t have to wonder long as she suddenly detected something coming at her.  Only a hastily performed fast movement spell kept her from being pounded into the dirt by a young woman wearing the strangest and most elaborate barrier jacket she’d ever seen.

She then stood up and glowered at Shamal through her war-painted face.  “You will cease and desist at once!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said Shamal as she began to consider her options.

“That was not a request,” said the girl in a tone that reminded her of the highest of the Belkan Nobility.  The girl then gestured grandly and suddenly the air was filled with… cut logs?  Almost a split-second too late, Shamal realized they were drones of some kind.

Very powerful drones.

Cursing internally, Shamal executed a fast-teleport spell, and not a moment too soon, as the drones blasted the spot she had previously occupied into molten glass.

It was so close that she felt the heat.

“Heya Shamal,” said a voice directly below her - the use of her name made her skin crawl.  How does she know my name!?  “What’s up?  Trying to steal linker-cores again?”

Below, Shamal found a woman with brilliantly orange hair and a much simpler barrier jacket with maroon short-shorts and a white form-fitting mid-drift halter-top.  A short cape and half-skirt gave her relatively good coverage, and she also wore heavily armored boots and fingerless gauntlets.  The white-tipped ears and tail gave her away as a familiar as she glared up at Shamal with pale-blue eyes.

As Shamal worked on another teleport spell in the back of her mind, she also prepared Claerer Wind to bind this new intruder.

“How do you know my name?”

“Huh.  So you don’t remember me?” said the familiar in mild puzzlement.  “Does the name Hayate mean anything to you?”

That made Shamal pause as the name tugged sharply on something in her mind, but the Ultimate Defense Program acted quickly, making sure that she would not remember anything about that name.

Even so, Shamal was still left somewhat rattled.  But not so rattled that she didn’t act.

“That doesn’t matter,” said Shamal as her binding suddenly sprang into being around the familiar.  “What does matter are my Master’s orders.”

The familiar didn’t even struggle.  “Huh.  So that’s how it is, then.  Go ahead and clobber her, Aeka.”

Shamal didn’t even waste any time.  She executed the teleport spell and got out of there, and right before the Jyuraian Princess flew through the space Shamal had formerly occupied.

Shamal sighed, safe now at a fair distance from the battle field.  Quickly she checked on the status of the others.

Vita... Vita was HURT!?  By a baseliner!?  Going over the damage log, Shamal winced.

Mass weapons.  I should have known.  This is going to be more difficult than I thought.

Vita was already getting back up on her feet and she wasn’t happy.  Shamal didn’t envy the guy that she was after.

Checking on Signum, Shamal got another surprise.

Signum was emotionally disturbed!

“Signum, what is going on?”

“Bad omens, Shamal.  One of those children was a Lich and another was some kind of Blood Mage.”

“Blood magic!?  But how?  I thought that had been wiped out by the Kaisers hundreds of years ago!”

Signum then appeared by way of a teleportation spell and said, “Regardless, it seems an isolated pocket has persisted.”

“We may need to retreat," said Shamal as she went over the sensor readings from Claerer Wind.  "I’m now reading the presence of some kind of golems armed with mass weapons.”

“Zafira here.  Agreed.  This is a loss.  The Testarossa girls have escaped and I’ve been seriously injured.”

Signum frowned thoughtfully at that.  “Zafira, this is unlike you.  What happened?”

“A woman.  She was incredibly powerful.  And faster than anything I have ever fought before.  She was... most displeased with us.”

“Displeased?” said Signum.  “That’s not like you, either.  What is so special?”

“... If this wasn’t a blood feud before, then it is now.  The only reason I still breathe is because she prioritized the safety and wellbeing of our targets over my elimination.”

Shamal and Signum shot concerned looks at each other.  Wars over succession were one thing.  They were practically commonplace in Belka.  But a blood feud meant that someone had taken a very personal offense - one so grave that they were now out to completely exterminate your family line.

The looks on their faces communicated their thoughts clearly: What have we found ourselves in the middle of?

“Can you move, Zafira?” asked Shamal.

“I should make it to the fall back position.  I will let you know if that changes.”

There was suddenly a deafening report coming from the direction of the mall.  By the time the sound had gotten to them, there was already a petite mushroom cloud forming in that direction.

“Good, because I think Vita is in trouble.”

---

The first thing that registered in Ben’s conscious mind was a garbled noise.  Like a hundred computers were generating those warbled digitized tones that film makers in the 1970’s thought computers of the future would make.

Ben had only heard this sound once before, and it was when he’d nearly blacked-out from a choke-hold.

Huh.  Something bad must have happened.

The next thing he registered was pain.

A stinging, burning, pins-and-needles sensation all over his body that made him want to writhe in agony, but he couldn’t because every touch brought a new explosion of pain.  Something had momentarily pinched his spinal nerve, putting it to sleep.  So he simply grit his teeth and tried not to scream.

Shit, I REALLY must have fucked up...

Finally, though, he could open his eyes.  And then he wished that he hadn’t.

His right arm was gone below the shoulder.  Right away, Ben distanced himself - purposefully pushing himself to the very brink of outright dissociation.

Okay.  I don’t see a whole lot of blood.  Which means the artery went into spasm... but that won’t work for long.  Gotta tie a tourniquet and fast...

A concerned sounding chirping noise came from overhead, and Ben saw his pet Masser drifting down through the wreckage.

“Squishy!” he called out weakly.  “Ngh... ‘m hurt bad lil’ guy.  Need you... find ‘shu-chan.  Can you do that?  Huh?”

Benjamin knew that Massers were very simple creatures, pretty much responding to stimulus and not much else.  They were profoundly empathic, though.  And it was clear that Squishy knew exactly how bad off Ben was just by the pain and emotion he was experiencing.

For this, the Masser as a species had only one response.

“Squishy?” said Ben in concern as he saw a determined look settle on the little blob’s beady little eyes.

Those eyes suddenly vanished into its mass as it then went straight for the stump of Ben’s arm... and was absorbed.

“Uurrrgghh!” groaned Ben, caught somewhere between pain and nausea as his innards suddenly began to shift.  Without him noticing, a new arm suddenly sprouted from the stump of his old one, glossy and featureless as the Masser are, but slowly starting to take on definition and texture.

In just seconds it was over and Ben laid back as he caught his breath.  Afterwards, Ben opened his eyes again and then stared in amazement at his whole and intact right arm.

“oh squishy,” he murmured mournfully to himself.  But for some reason, he couldn’t bring up any sense of loss for his little friend.  Instead, there was only a sort of strange satisfaction that what needed to be done had been done.  There was also an echo of something... it wasn’t exactly words, but an emotion.  If Ben had to put it into words, he would say it was a sense of Nakama - of the idea behind the many supporting each other.

“You’re not dead yet?” came Vita’s voice from up above, raising Ben’s hackles.  Though he took some grim satisfaction in the fact that she was sporting one hell of a shiner on her left eye.  “Boy, you weren’t kidding when you said you’d be hard to kill.  Sorry, it’s not usually in my nature to kick a guy when he’s down like this.  Belkan Code, you know.  But I just figured out your trick.  You’re an anti-mage.  You create anti-magic fields just by existing.  And that means you’re way too dangerous for me to allow you to run around.  Don’t take it personally, but I’m gonna have to put you down permanently.”

“shut up,” muttered Ben at a barely audible level.

“...What?” said Vita in surprise.

“I told you to shut the fuck up,” said Ben as he slowly and painfully levered himself up.  Squishy had fixed the major damage, but all the smaller hurts had remained.  But that only became fuel - fuel that was added to the already massive bunker that was his rage at life’s unfairness, and how he so dearly wanted to wreck life’s shit until it caved in to his desires.

Vita began to back away.  That prickling sensation was back, and with a vengeance as her ears began to fill up with that hissing sound again, only it grew louder and louder as he spoke.  Even her vision was starting to get hazy from all the interference.

She didn’t understand how it was that he could have suddenly become so strong.  Was he this strong all along?  Had he just been messing with me!?  But what neither of them knew was that Benjamin now had a biological antimatter reactor in his chest.  And that reactor was now powering his anti-magic ability to a degree that Ben could never have accomplished, even with training.

For Vita’s part, though, despite her not having any real memories until recently, she somehow knew this much for certain: this was the first time in a very long time she had actually started to feel fear for her life.

“I’m so fucking DONE with this bull shit!” snarled Ben as his rage started to spool up, hitting critical levels as he felt his chest become heavy and hot.  “I’m gonna beat you down so fucking hard that you won’t be able to stop me from turning you over my knee and whaling the goddamned tar out of your ass!”

And then without really thinking about it, he raised his right arm, shut his eyes, and felt something release.

He only heard a brief scream saying “MASS WEAPON!?” before there was a massive report that knocked Ben back down on his ass and left him deaf.

Once he could open his eyes again, it was to a mind-bending tableau.  A few hundred feet away in the middle of the parking lot, there was a crater with a fireball climbing up into the sky, and a thin plume of smoke trailing from the epicenter of the blast.

Did I just...

Suddenly, Ryouko was there, yelling something... Ben couldn’t tell because he was still deaf.

He pointed at his ear, made a fist, and then a ‘boom’ motion with his hand.

Ryouko grimaced, then nodded, understanding exactly what had happened.  She simply helped Ben up and then and then teleported back to the complex.  If Ryouko understood only one thing, it was that Ben had been severely hurt and needed to get to Washu-chan, ASAP.

---

Shamal knew that Vita was in trouble.  Fortunately for her, the area was clear for the moment, their targets having fled and the rest of the enemy withdrawn, allowing Shamal the chance to do the same with Vita.

And Vita was in a sorry state indeed - her barrier jacket was all but completely destroyed, blackened and soot stained, with the burnt-away patches leaving second degree flash burns all over her body.

“Saint Kaiser’s Blood!  What happened to you Vita!?”

Vita winced as she slowly tried to push herself up.  “it’s... bad shamal,” said Vita weakly.  “he’s got... NGH!  mass weapon now.”

Shamal went to work right away, running a quick diagnostic.  “But ordinary mass weapons can’t do this!”

“no... reaction mass weapon.  think... was anti-matter.”

The color drained out of Shamal’s face and she checked the diagnostic report.  Indeed, Vita had been exposed to a truly horrendous burst of Gamma Rays so intense that it nearly flash-cooked her on the spot.  This was bad - not only because Shamal was going to need to spend the rest of the day repairing the systemic DNA damage and radiation burns, but also because this meant their enemies had an irresistibly powerful weapon in their hands. 

At a certain point in the history of ancient Belka, even the most bloodthirsty among them had given up on reaction weapons such as those simply because they were far too destructive - of course, that was too little too late, for Belka was for the most part no more.  But now?  Now there was someone among their enemy who had access to Matter/Antimatter weapons.

And the Wolkenritter had just walked right into a blood feud against them.

“Mother of Kaisers," whispered Shamal in horror.  "What have we started?”

[Bob Schroeck]

Wow.

[Norgarth]