[Story][RFC --PLEASE!!!]The Gauntlet

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Reaction shot to Scene 8, with assistance from Rob.

---

“Eep.” Yayoi looked wide-eyed at the screen as she watched A.C. almost casually tear a FESWAT Landmate team apart, even in a simulated environment and with Laevatein from Lyrical Nanoha of all things in her hands. She’d somewhat suspected A.C. was holding back a lot, only slowly becoming more comfortable with what she was (Mal’s promotion party came to mind, with that trick with the fully laden drinks tray). Even after the field reports from Boskone Four had come in and been verified, the true extent of what The Scarlet Angel could do when roused hadn’t really registered with her. Or, she suspected, the other SMOFs.

For the first time in her existence, Yayoi was actually afraid of her other dad.

And afraid for her other dad, if very many other people were now feeling that way.

[Black Aeronaut]

Not Benjamin. He's suspected for a long time just what AC was capable of. (Despite that suspicion, he's always been courteous and respectful towards AC, because she's always been good people in Ben's book.) If anything, Ben's just really impressed.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

New part. Had to tweek the comment scene a bit.

---

… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ … ~ - Thoughts

**9**

Exploding skywards from the gas cloud, the purple-and-white clad woman dodged heavy automatic fire and took off towards the magma pit with a heat-seeking missile in pursuit. Some quick dodging, and the keep looked the worse for wear. Only then did she start breathing again, certain she was clear of gas contamination.

“Damn.” A.C. was anything but dumb. She knew what the changing tactics meant.

Rüstung zu Sternennacht-Modus. [Knight Armour to Starry Night mode.] Laevatein wasn’t dumb either, especially linked as he was to his Meister. A purple triangular array with circles at its points appeared below her, and with a quickly rising band of energy, the white and purple outfit was replaced by the much more familiar dulled-grey and black of her previous armour.

Feeling a bit more secure in space-worthy and sealed armour, A.C. took in the changes to it. The clamshell was more contoured to allow the remaining and now black long skirt to stay fastened around her waist, her boots had a bit more heel than before, and her gauntlets had become noticeably more ornate.

It was rather a pity the armour she was using was almost two generations out of date, given it was based on the suit she’d been using before the Visitors had turned up and she was most of the way through the redesign to deal with her enhanced capabilities. Scrapping it and going for a riggable power armour was looking more preferable at this point.

~ Still, ~ she mused as she dived down and headed for one of the many concealed entranceways to the underground area, ~ the therm-optic camouflage would come in REALLY useful right about now. ~

Diving into the entrance, she bounced around the corridors to disrupt potential tracking before making her way stealthily to her nearest workbench. She was almost done with the building on the new cartridge system. Then she could try to hook up one of the salvaged black boxes to the tricorder from a landmate emergency kit and see if it had any records of the supply drop.

***

“Are you sure we shouldn’t use her more M?” General Huray asked the image in the com-window.

“Not without good reason Nick.” The dignified female image of Dame Judy Dench replied. Even between senior people like this, compartmentalisation was everything. “Technically, we didn’t recruit her for her combat abilities.”

The General snorted.

“Recruit? Try press-ganged. We were just more successful than the Senshi, and it damn near ruined us. Serenity’s STILL looking for a way to get her to agree to ennoblement.”

The image of M rolled her eyes.

“Still, it might be a good idea to have her put a team or two through their paces.”

“Agreed.” Nicodemus nodded. “I’ll see if we can shake a team free from Champ-Ops and get her here.”

[Dartz]

There's not much more I can say other than that I'm waiting for the next installment.

And that I may have an idea how this might end, if I read something right.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Cobalt Greywalker]

At least you don't have to wait long. And I doubt you will guess how it will end just yet, though you may get some things right.

---

- Radio communications
... [...] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ ... ~ - Thoughts

**10**

Very carefully, the connection was put in place. A.C. didn't sigh though, picking the micro-tool from where her hair held it and tightened a screw.

Verbindung gesichert. Darstellende Systeme prüfen. [Connection secured. Performing systems check.] Laevatein reported, quickly checking the new system. Check abgeschlossen. Alle Systeme grün. [Check complete. All systems green.]

"Right." A.C. picked up a cartridge and loaded it into the modified clip.

Nachladen. Laevatein near purred in pleasure.

"Close up Laevatein." A.C. smiled a thin smile. "I'll clean up here."

Less than 30 seconds later, A.C. was re-pressurising her armour having dumped the tools from her hair and re-coiling it at the back of her head.

Eingehende. [Incoming.]

"Then let's give them a warm welcome."

***

Purple-17 crouched at the corner using its landmate's boom camera to look around it.

Purple-6 and 7 dove out and aimed their weapons down the hallway, fingers on the triggers for the under-barrel grenade launchers. Purple-17 slid out behind them to aim over them and search further down the passage.

The three of them flinched when their networked motion sensors screamed at the very fast projectile headed in their way, but the landmate's systems didn't. The computer took control of the arms, raised the weapon held therein, and fired. As calculated by the point defence program, the projectile exploded 20 metres away.

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells all the way!" The Xmas grenade sang out at high volume, a massive amount of glitter-snow filling the corridor. Incidentally blocking the motion sensors and vision at that point.

Purple-7 shouted, launching his grenade just as A.C. shot out of the cloud at speed trailing vortices.

Explosion! Laevatein called, triggering one of the new, larger, cartridges. Instantly, he transformed to his Snake Form and ignited down the length of his blade. With a thought and a flick, his burning chain-blade whirled and drilled down the corridor. Bullets deflected, grenades exploded, and armour parted. With another thought and flick he was back as a sword, and the landmate exploded.

The wry smile slipped along the neuro-com link between Meister and Device.

Ja.

**11**

Green-17 ignored the screams coming over the tac-net and concentrated on the battle-map, watching the progress of the target.

Not now...

Not now...

Not-NOW!

His helmet's audio managers muffled the crack of the round leaving the muzzle, but he still felt the immense recoil throwing the Motoslave back with a grinding skid.

~ Suck on THAT, Bitch! ~ He thought, as the rail-bolt flew downrange at Mach 7.

***

Even at maximum combat processing, A.C.'s reactions were ever so slightly too slow to dodge the incoming projectile Laevatein detected. But her tactical processor wasn't, and jerked her to the side just a tad. Combined with the auto-guard shield Laevatein half got up, and the field projected by her armour the 20mm projectile glanced off to the side just enough to miss.

The kinetic force however had to go somewhere, and combined with her speed this sent A.C. flying into the tunnel wall with enough force to imbed herself into the bottom of the metre deep crater she formed.

The A.I. in A.C.'s tactical processor deemed this unacceptable, as did Laevatein. The Armed Device triggered a small cartridge and ignited.

Sonic Bewegen. [Sonic Move.]

The Motoslave fired a full burst from the railgun at the cyborg, each of the ten shots carving through the air like thunderbolts.

But the Scarlet Angel was now running under the Sonic Move spell, which magnified her speed by six times and with her Belkan Armour enhancements allowed her to ignore that pesky thing called inertia. She'd gone from nought to Mach 3.8 pretty much instantaneously, and was ploughing her way down the corridor towards her attacker trailing a flaming supersonic shockwave and shattered walls. Laevatein sliced the rail-bolts to ribbons as she passed them, then blurred as she passed the Motoslave.

The Motoslave shattered into several pieces when the shockwave hit, then exploded.

And then the entire corridor imploded, collapsing the section.

***

It was a very rare day indeed to see Haruhi Suzumiya gaping in wide-eyed, open-mouthed surprise at ANYTHING.
Having all the SOS-dan doing that, especially Yuki Nagato, probably qualified as a sign of the Apocalypse.

They never did find out who took the photo of the event.

***

Roberta idly brushed off her hands on the apron protecting her maids dress and she finished preparing the cheesecake base according to Madam Kasumi's instructions. Being an android based on a fictional character had surely helped her domestic skills.

Rosarita 'Roberta' Cisneros on the other hand, was tapped into the Forge's network and watching the video stream from The Gauntlet with delight. Mistress Attim was ripping her way through her enemies with true fervour. Oh how she wished Master Garcia existed here, for her beautiful Mistress would make the perfect guardian and mentor for him.

Roberta blushed as she envisioned her Mistress, dressed to the nines, presenting Master Garcia to society. Then she shook the image away and continued making the cheesecake. The Mistress would surely want it after her activities today. And she had to thank Master Adonis for the washing detergent, as it made cleaning up so much simpler.

[robkelk]

**11**

Traffic around Stellvia, what little there was still flying, was in a holding pattern. Everybody was watching the feed from The Gauntlet.

Including the entirety of the command staff, using the 50" screen in the boardroom.

(And including half the other people on the station, but only because there wasn't room for anyone else in front of the big monitor in the Hotel Stellvia's theatre.)

"Kagome. Tactical analysis."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Scott, but I have no idea what the 'Laevatein' unit can do. It exceeded the design specifications in the source material known to me when it went space-worthy."

"Thank you anyway. Kohran...?"

She didn't let Noah finish. "From what I've seen, I think A.C. can shrug off anything short of an area-effect attack with extremely high explosives. I don't know whether Tama could take her on without resorting to kaboomite."

"You and your toys," Jake muttered under his breath.

"Let's not run the experiment," Noah answered his chief engineer. "Yuu, any thoughts?"

"Can't talk - drawing."

"Right. Yayoi, what do you think?"

There was no answer. Noah turned to his vice-president and best friend, and immediately started worrying.

Before that moment, he had never seen Yayoi trembling in fear.

**11**
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

Fun thought: Gina + Danmaku.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Next tidied up part.

---

- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ … ~ - Thoughts

**12**

~ God damned mines. ~ A.C. snarled to herself. Because of them she’d had to fly higher, and that had made her more visible. Which was why she was jinking wildly in the air dodging the large amount of bullets attempting to intersect her airspace. It was bad enough there was apparently someone out there who’d made it their mission to put a bullet in her brain. She needed an exit, as more of the Op-For was showing up.

Case in point, two Motoslaves popped up from ground cover wielding what looked like Valkyrie GU-11 gun-pods. That wouldn’t be so bad if she had room to dodge them. It was the fact that two more Landmates also broke cover and aimed Gatling guns in her direction. Her link to Laevatein’s sensors and her tactical processor were working overtime with her to avoid the sheer amount of fire being directed her way.

How to get a way out?

***

And two missiles leapt into the sky on tongues of flame.

***

Deep in his logic core, Laevatein was concerned. His Meister was being increasingly placed on the defensive, and even she was being overwhelmed by the number of enemies now focused on her.

And then he detected the twin missile launches.

He analysed several thousand options in what few microseconds he had to spare, and chose one.

***

Inside her dedicated tactical processor, the trajectories of the missiles were computed and analysed.

She wasn’t going to make it.

Make Up.

And the world was awash with flame.

***

They had her!

At least, that had been the feeling right up until the bloody FIRE COCOON had appeared around her and absorbed the explosions of the two SAMs they’d fired. Then it had exploded outwards with a shockwave that had forced them to brace and stop firing.

And upon looking up, they found that awe and terror mix surprisingly well.

Her raven’s black hair flowed like liquid silk in the wind, showing the pale expanse of throat wrapped with a single red ribbon upon which hung a gold star. Red stars hung from her ears, and a red stone was set in the tiara that surmounted her brow. The white bodysuit clung tightly to her body, outlining every curve and reflecting the burning orange of the sky with sparkles glittering from the translucent frills of her shoulder guards. The red miniskirt flared in the breeze as the long tails of the split underskirt moved, large bow trailing ribbon to the rear. Long white stockings and opera gloves sheathed her legs and arms, trimmed at the tops in red, with red armoured heels and red enamelled vambraces.

Two miniature stars flared into being over her shoulders and resolved into miniature duplicates of her, one in filmy white lace, the other in scanty black leather.

Then her eyes opened, twin pools of blazing emerald green, and glared out with such force that those in its path stepped back in fear.

***

And every Senshi watching roared in triumph.

***

There was too much going on in her mind as Phobos and Deimos linked with her to truly think, but A.C. near-instinctively knew what she needed to do.

“Karyu…!” She snapped her free hand out to the side, forming a blade of white flame, before bringing the blazing construct across her body. “Issen!” And she slashed it across the line of battle.

A line of fire exploded into being along that line, wiping out half the Opposing Force.

Over her shoulders, the figures of the twins shimmered brightly for an instant before fading to reveal their own fukus.

A.C. ordered.

“Burning Mandala!” And burning circles of energy rained down on the remainder of the force.

When the group recovered, there was no sign of the newborn Senshi.

***

Lebia finished wincing.

“Yeah. A.C.’ll be really mad.” Greenpeace agreed.

[robkelk]

~That bitch,~ thought Natsuko. ~That damned bitch. Saying all this time she didn't want that job, and then using it to help win a game.~

Natsuko Aki's contempt for her co-creator increased. Slightly. She abandoned her current sniping location and went further into the undergrowth.

~And I don't have any cryogenic weaponry in here. Now my only hope to keep her from winning is to hold out and not get killed myself. It's a good thing I'm very good at not getting killed... but am I good enough?~
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Natsuko's making a fairly large assumption here, which seems a little out of place given that she's a cop and has no evidence for it (she obviously didn't see A.C.'s glare). I also didn't think she felt that badly of A.C.

[robkelk]

She's caught up in the moment, and she's not thinking completely straight.

(She also isn't as good at hiding as she thinks she is.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

A bit of a digression: It's a pity that this image is copyrighted and likely not available for use, because I'm getting a distinct A.C. vibe from it. How close is she?

http://forum.daz3d.com/po.../origimage_1_3107798.jpg
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Foxboy]

From what I understand, AC is supposed to be more... upfront than that admittedly hot femme fatale.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[robkelk]

A.C. also doesn't wear glasses... but I'd like Cobalt to say where else this lady doesn't match.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

The Baroness eh? I can see where you'd get the same feel.

Onto detailed differences then:
Foxboy's right, A.C. is more...upfront...than this lady (much to her chagrin). I'd have to say maybe a bit more toward the hourglass in her figure as well (bit off the waist, bit more on the hips and rear), with maybe a bit more leg length.

Facewise... Besides the glasses, the first thing that stands out is her nose. I'd put A.C.'s a bit sharper. Making it a bit slimmer would also work. Eyes are obviously the wrong colour, I use emerald green when describing them. Eyelashes need to be thicker and longer. Eye size needs to increase maybe five percent? The lips...I'm not sure if they need reducing a tad or not.

Hair... Needs to be maybe 10% thicker at most, but definitely need to be longer. Like her templates, by default her hair reaches down to the waist/small of her back and has that high tuft over the front.
Skin colour is OK, not sure if being a shade lighter would work better or not.

Outfit... A.C. has a pair of Whistler Custom Glock 18s, so she wouldn't be using the H&K MP5s the lady in the pic is using. Also the bodysuit would close fully a bit higher up the neck in a typical form (if the zipper wasn't lower to show off her assets) and would be waved latex or leather (looking smother that the material in the pic at least).

As to the fic... I've got some inspiration, but most of it is currently on other things so my buffer is a bit low. I'll see what I can shake loose.

[Proginoskes]

MY question is, does AC have the talent for Belkan and Senshi magic, or is this a feature of The Gauntlet?

Actually, never mind -- she obviously does. The real question is, will AC explore and train these new abilities? I can imagine her ignoring Senshi magic entirely in favour of studying Belkan and Midchildan casting. The reason, if I recall correctly, that Midchildan mages need an Intelligent Device is to handle the computations needed for Midchildan spells, which implies a relatively large quantity of Real Science involved. I can easily imagine AC preferring Difficult But Interesting when it comes to magic.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Comments after.

---

- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ … ~ - Thoughts

**13**

Well away from the remains of the attacking force, A.C. stopped and released her two companions from her hair.

“Sorry about that ladies.” The cyber-senshi apologised. “I wasn’t sure how fast you can move, and we WERE in a bit of trouble there.”

“No need to apologise Mistress.” The Red-clad miniature Senshi replied, settling on a shoulder.

“Yeah.” Her Blue-clad partner agreed, alighting on the opposite shoulder. “They needed their asses kicking.”

That brought a small smile to the raven-haired woman.

“Well, on that pleasant note, it’s time for introductions.” She raised her sword. “Phobos. Deimos. Meet Laevatein.”

Guten Tag. The Armed Device greeted them.

“Laevatein. Phobos in red, Deimos in blue”

“Good day to you.” Phobos nodded at the sword.

“We’re going to get on great.” Deimos told the device cheerfully.

“And with that out of the way,” A.C. said, “I should get you up to speed on what’s going on.”

“We already know Mistress.” Deimos told her.

“Although your mind is startlingly well organised Mistress.” Phobos added.

“Comes from having a cybernetically enhanced brain.” A.C. gave a slight shrug (as to not dislodge her companions). “Well then, we should be expecting company soon. And it would be impolite to leave them waiting.”

***

A hissed “Dear!” and a sharp poke broke Ben out of his concentration on the video stream to look at Gina, who twitched her head at the Senshi compliment. Ben turned, and it was only Gina’s assistance that didn’t have him recoiling in terror at the hearts in their eyes.

“Ooooh crap.” He remembered the last time they had that look, and shuddered.

“Warning the Forge now.” Gina whispered. “I don’t want to think what A.C.’ll do to them if they head that way.”

“You and me both My Lady.”

***

As much as he knew it was necessary, Purple-12 hated being on point. Especially since the Scarlet Angel had gone to the Senshi side.

He didn’t notice a blue fuku-clad figure hiding in the shadows of the corridor roof, guiding A.C.’s aim. Thus the AP bullet that caught him in the neck was a surprise.

Deimos made good her escape as the gunshot echoed.

**14**

A.C. was used to having multiple trains of thought in her head, it was practically her nature. She was also used to having multiple simultaneous opinions on those thoughts, well aware of her multiple ‘personalities’. The A.I. of her tactical system had more or less slipped in with the rest after her ‘awakening’ on Jusenkyou, and she was getting used to the A.I. in her neural interface.

It was having three NEW minds linked to hers that was taking a little effort to deal with. Oh, Laevatein was easy. While the link between them was very tight, they were entirely separate beings.

Phobos and Deimos were an altogether different kettle of fish. The two Guardians were still independent, but otherwise an integral part of the Sailor Mars persona she was currently in. And they got on with Laevatein frighteningly well.

It was this connection that allowed the two Guardians to see the power-ups hidden around. Especially in the hard to spot or reach places. While the extra cartridges were welcome, the jewellery box contained a few things she didn’t want, same with the temporary tattoos. And now they had found a sealed thigh pouch.

~ What IS going on? ~ The Scarlet Angel wondered to herself.

***

“There are currently fifteen messages waiting, all currently asking what is wrong with the system.” Libbie announced.

“Tell them we can’t get a full readout until the Gauntlet ends.” Lebia replied. “And it was never envisaged that we’d need to interrupt it, so we can’t do THAT either.”

“Although we’re already planning it.” Eddie interjected. “The Boss’ll demand that.”

“True.” Leonard agreed. “The Lady will probably have further refinements as well.”

“Um, Guys?” Greenpeace interrupted.

“Wow!” One of the toy-like holographic Tachikomas said, Loki by the floating tag. “Looks like the Major will beat the longest time!”

“Aye, that she will.” Adonis sighed. “Roberta lass?”

A comm. window popped into existence.

“Yes Master Adonis?” The bespectacled maid replied.

“How’s the cheesecake coming along?”

---

OK, not sure If I got Ben's, Gina's, and the A-Team's reactions right but...

MY question is, does AC have the talent for Belkan and Senshi magic, or is this a feature of The Gauntlet?
Actually, never mind -- she obviously does. The real question is, will AC explore and train these new abilities? I can imagine her ignoring Senshi magic entirely in favour of studying Belkan and Midchildan casting. The reason, if I recall correctly, that Midchildan mages need an Intelligent Device is to handle the computations needed for Midchildan spells, which implies a relatively large quantity of Real Science involved. I can easily imagine AC preferring Difficult But Interesting when it comes to magic.

The whole 'magic' thing is currently KoFen sim only, due to A.C. having Laevatein and a certain transformation pen. But, as you can see, somethings seriously screwy with the sim anyway.

Could A.C. use magic in RL (or what passes for it in Fenspace)? As far as I'm concerned, techically anyone can use magic. At its most basic it requires willpower and magical energies (which we'll call mana for now). However, knowledge and talent help tremendously.

Unless TSIR becomes canon, A.C. won't have the knowledge of Linker Core creation from Honami's dual Awakening, and unless A.C. enters a high mana area (and knows it, and thinks about trying to) there'll be no casting otherwise. Not for at least centuries (assuming trans-universal travel gets invented in Fenspace).

[robkelk]

The whole 'magic' thing is currently KoFen sim only, due to A.C. having Laevatein and a certain transformation pen. But, as you can see, somethings seriously screwy with the sim anyway.

I suspect Natsuko would try to bug-out at this point - she's a trained investigator and thus a trained observer, so if anybody inside the sim notices that there's something wrong, then so will she. Will she succeed, or is she stuck in the sim for the duration?

Could A.C. use magic in RL (or what passes for it in Fenspace)? As far as I'm concerned, techically anyone can use magic. At its most basic it requires willpower and magical energies (which we'll call mana for now). However, knowledge and talent help tremendously.

Well, I did mention in LoGG that the Girls think Noah can't use gate magic. That may mean his willpower is aspected toward things other than magic, or it may mean he doesn't have enough willpower at all (doubtful considering he's a self-made billionaire), or he might not have the capacity for magic.

Unless TSIR becomes canon, A.C. won't have the knowledge of Linker Core creation from Honami's dual Awakening, and unless A.C. enters a high mana area (and knows it, and thinks about trying to) there'll be no casting otherwise. Not for at least centuries (assuming trans-universal travel gets invented in Fenspace).

And there aren't a lot of known high-mana locations in Fenspace. (I can only think of two, offhand - part of the area enclosed by the dome two kilometers north of Little Jakarta that used to belong to La Mariposa, and a spot on Stellvia's main concourse...)

Edit: Although this line of speculation does present a scene for the fic:

**14**

"Yayoi? What's wrong?" Noah was focused completely on his closest friend, the video all but forgotten. "Come on, Yayoi; speak to me!"

"A. ... A.C. ... she's ..." the rest was a whisper, too soft for Noah to make out.

But Kohran heard it, and went pale. "Are you sure, Yayoi?" She was answered with a nod. "But how? She was here on Stellvia while we were cleaning out La Mariposa's base - she never came into direct contact with The Girls!"

Noah shook his head. "She spent at least an hour alone with Nancy."

"But Nancy isn't a mage," complained Leda.

"Isn't she?" Kohran looked straight at Leda. "There's no way other than magic that you can explain the I-jin; technology can't reproduce some of the things she can do. She's a mage, a lot like Doug."

"Who?"

"I'll explain later," Noah interrupted. "Are you telling me that A.C. is a spellcaster of some sort?"

"I don't know. But I think she isn't the same person she was before The Girls visited."

"Oh, dear ..." Noah stopped for a moment. "But you and Yayoi spent more time with The Girls than anyone else here, other than Sora. What effects did they have on you?" After another pause, he ran his hand through his now-green hair and continued, "Or on me?"

The senior staff at Stellvia switched off the feed from the Gauntlet. They had more important things to worry about.

**14**
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Ooo... Big comment with lots of stuff. Let's get stuck in.

I suspect Natsuko would try to bug-out at this point - she's a trained investigator and thus a trained observer, so if anybody inside the sim notices that there's something wrong, then so will she. Will she succeed, or is she stuck in the sim for the duration?

As noted in the Forge scene after 14, there was never foreseen a need to quit the Gauntlet early so she (along with everyone else) is stuck for the duration (plus there's dumpshock). The whole thing was designed to be ridiculously hard for Class 1 combatants, who are monsters in normal terms. Why do you think the Op-For gets all the advantages they do, and the contestant is limited as they are?

Well, I did mention in LoGG that the Girls think Noah can't use gate magic. That may mean his willpower is aspected toward things other than magic, or it may mean he doesn't have enough willpower at all (doubtful considering he's a self-made billionaire), or he might not have the capacity for magic.

Willpower, by definition, needs thought. People think in different ways, so some may not be able to wrap their minds around the idea of being able to cast. The reason (as I see it) is that Noah has a strong...well... I hesitate to call it this, but let's call it a Nesting Instinct. He's built His Home (note the capital letters), against what the uncaring Universe and the vagaries of Handwavium has thrown at him, and gained a family. Deep in his core, he doesn't want to give it up to traipse around the Omniverse.

At least, not yet.

Another factor is Belief. He doesn't believe he can cast (again, yet), so he can't. Given what A.C.'s made of, and the opinion of various and sundry, this does not bode well for A.C.'s future. Wild Magic anyone? At least she can normally deal with things without resorting to spontaneous manifestation.

I'll state for the record right now, A.C. does not currently have any magical talent. She has the open mind and willpower, I'll admit, but no knowledge. The knowledge bit may change, but not for the next Season or two. Most importantly, she doesn't believe she can cast as of yet.

And there aren't a lot of known high-mana locations in Fenspace. (I can only think of two, offhand - part of the area enclosed by the dome two kilometers north of Little Jakarta that used to belong to La Mariposa, and a spot on Stellvia's main concourse...)

Given that A.C. would only suspect the one on Stellvia, we're safe here.

You know, I can sorta see your point here, but I'm gonna have to rework this scene if I use it, and I'll have to use it later.

Congratulations, you've just got a preview for why. Check your email.

[robkelk]

Before I go look at the email, I'll say that just because Yayoi and Kohran are sure doesn't mean they're right...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[HRogge]

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!"

[robkelk]

Okay, I'm back...

The senior staff at Stellvia switched off the feed from the Gauntlet. They had more important things to worry about.

At the least, we're going to have to ditch this line and replace it with something that justifies the Stellvians continuing to watch the video feed.

Edit: And a scene for much, much later... possibly as the start of a new story altogether, assuming Mal goes with an idea he mentioned he was toying with.

Re-Edit: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/8659]Scene moved to its own thread, so as to not disrupt the narrative flow here.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

OK, next bit with help from Rob. Bit of a rework of the scene Rob posted, but I feel it works.

---

- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ … ~ - Thoughts

**15**

Laevatein was already aflame as A.C. brought him down at the middle Spartan-II, who blocked him with a Covenant Plasma Sword. The rear two Spartans behind were engulfed in flames from Phobos and Deimos, distracting them from assisting. That left the two now behind A.C. With a vicious rear kick, she slammed an armoured heel into the crotch of the one to her rear-left, then she used the two contacts to spin herself counter-clockwise to free herself. She landed, dropped, and spun.

Schlangenform.

The Belkan Senshi of Mars finished her spin, Laevatein returning to Sword Form.

The Spartans came apart.

Ziele immer noch in Reichweite. [Targets still in range.]

A.C. replied as she and her helpers raided the remains before taking off.

Phobos warned, causing A.C. to hug the roof. Thus she saw clearly the energy blades fly through the middle of the corridor.

Narrowing her eyes, the cyborg dropped centreline to the corridor and accelerated.

The three waiting device users were blasted through like paper.

***

“Is it just me, or are things getting ridiculous?” Noah asked wryly.

“It’s not just you.” Leda replied, still slightly flushed in embarrassment at the looks the others had given her when she’d cheered at A.C.’s senshi transformation. She was a visibly pregnant woman! Blame it on the hormones!

“The explanation is going to be interesting.” Kohran noted. “You gotta admit, this is cool. Not enough explosions though.”

Noah turned his head, and noticed that Yayoi was still trembling with fear.

"Yayoi? What's wrong?" Noah focused completely on his closest friend, the video all but forgotten. "Come on, Yayoi; speak to me!"

"A. ... A.C. ... she's ..." the rest was a whisper, too soft for Noah to make out.

But Kohran heard it, and went pale. "Are you sure, Yayoi?" She was answered with a nod. "But how? She was here on Stellvia while we were cleaning out La Mariposa's base - she never came into direct contact with The Girls!"

Noah shook his head. "She spent at least an hour alone with Nancy."

"But Nancy isn't a mage," complained Leda.

"Isn't she?" Kohran looked straight at Leda. "There's no way other than magic that you can use to explain the I-jin; technology can't reproduce some of the things she can do. She's a mage, a lot like Doug."

"Who?"

"I'll explain later," Noah interrupted. "Are you telling me that A.C. is a spellcaster of some sort?"

"I don't know. But I think she isn't the same person she was before The Girls visited."

"Oh, dear ..." Noah stopped for a moment. "But you and Yayoi spent more time with The Girls than anyone else here, other than Sora. What effects did they have on you?" After another pause, he ran his hand through his now-green hair and continued, "Or on me?"

“Um?” Takami interjected. “Wouldn’t A.C. have noticed? I mean, didn’t she examine Noah after he got back?”

There was silence for a few moments as they all thought about that.

"Would she know what to look for, though?" Kohran asked.

"Oh, right." Takami blushed.

“We REALLY need to keep this from the Wizards.” Kagome blurted.

“We need to invite A.C. to a Halloween party.” Kohran added. At the looks she got she expanded. “Just think of the Sorceress costumes she’d have for us!”

Noah and Yayoi did, and blushed.

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with wanting to throw fireballs, would it?” Noah asked suspiciously, trying to redirect attention.

Yayoi blinked, then turned to give Kohran a Look. Kohran shivered.

“Oh look!” Kohran pointed at the big screen. “More action!”

**16**

Now that her tactical systems had built up a decent experience knowledgebase, A.C. was finding it easier to deal with the tactics of the Op-For. Which was why she was shielding against the assault the Mages were pouring at her, and dodging the other fire while wondering about the layout of the arena. It seemed fairly wasteful, given she was currently 200 metres above the top of the keep (300 metres above the average ground level and, according to the map from her orientation system, 600 metres above the deepest point she’d found while exploring the underground).

Laevatein was finding the increase in magical power due to his Meister’s Senshi Mode very useful. He hadn’t had to trigger a cartridge since the upgrade and he was able to handle the shielding fairly easily.

However, this didn’t help when a woman came blazing in with a flying kick. She bypassed the planar shields Laevatein was generating and smashed A.C. back.

It hadn’t hurt her, as the cyborg had raised a barrier around the hand she’d blocked with, but she didn’t like the fact she’d been trapped like that. Never mind she’d been hit by an Otome.

Deimos warned, causing A.C. to spin out of the way of the approaching hardsuit and its Knuckle Bomber.

The hardsuited figure caught themselves with a heavy burst of thrust and span around, unleashing a jet boosted Leg Bomber enhanced roundhouse kick. A.C. flipped forward, deflecting the kick by essentially performing a hand stand on the leg. Then she snapped out her own kick, thrusting a 9cm armoured heel into the faceplate of the helmet.

The crack resounded over the landscape.

Grabbing an arm, the raven-haired cyborg heaved with all her senshi-enhanced cyborg strength and swung the limp power armour at an approaching pair of motoslaves.

“Get a shot of leg boys!”

The armed Leg Bomber smashed into the side of the lead motoslave, blowing off an arm and knocking it into the other one.

The Otome shot in, causing the Belkan cyber-senshi to block her Element with Laevatein. The two broke, and Laevatein ignited before A.C. hopped in mid-air back at the Otome with an overhand strike. Flaming sword met Element with a great crash, before cutting through. Wide-eyed, the Otome threw a hand up to block as the emerald-eyed woman drew her Device back and swung again, this time throwing all her weight into the swing.

Two and a half tonnes of momentum plus senshi-enhanced strength plus impact-magnifying spell against Otome robe force field equals Otome-style bunker buster as said Otome hit the ground at about the speed of sound. She crashed through five metres of dirt and rock to penetrate the first level, then made it most of the way through to the second level.

The violet edged ball of plasma that followed her down pushed her the rest of the way, incidentally fusing the walls of the tunnel the Otome had carved into the complex.

Turning away from the explosion on the ground, the magical combat cyborg faced the approaching forces and decided to give a new spell a go. The formulae for spell creation were complex, which was why she hadn’t tried one not in Laevatein’s memory already. But she didn’t really care right now. The sim was shot to hell anyway.

A Belkan magic triangle spun into being in front of her and she began casting.

“Three suns newborn, a rosette against my foes.”

The circles at the points of the triangle ignited into blazing balls of plasma.

“Light orbits and encircles, racing Fate’s winds.”

The triangle array increased its spin, faster and faster until a fire-wreathed ring of light appeared.

“Gather in the eye, a whirling dervish of purification. Crush it!”

Laevatein triggered three large cartridges in rapid succession as A.C. assumed a two handed grip on him, the mage knight not yet used to the simulated drain.

“FIRESTORM SMASHER!” And she thrust into the centre of the array.

A maelstrom of burning energy as wide as the Belkan Senshi was tall roared forth, raging through the incoming forces and continued to hit the far side of the town/village. The resulting dome of destruction levelled everything in a 50 metre radius, and left a 15 metre wide hole in the ground through which the underground industrial complex could be seen. The top four floors of it now had a skylight.

A.C. was long gone when the Op-For finished gaping.

***

“You were saying something about explosions Kohran?” Takami teased.

Said android blushed.

“You have to admire the skill that went into the construct.” Takami continued. “It’s holding up well considering.”

"If I am some kind of mage now," Noah commented sourly, "please stop me from doing anything that ridiculous. Besides, I strongly doubt that I would look good in a fuku."

"Well," Leda mused philosophically, "at least we know how I really got pregnant. A wizard did it."

[Star Ranger4]

"Well," Leda mused philosophically, "at least we know how I really got pregnant. A wizard did it."

*spittake*
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children