Latest revision as of 22:50, 11 January 2017

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    It is not a Jewel Seed, but something else... The Arthra going up in smoke resulted in all manner of debris and delicate Lost Logia to spill from the holds, and something going off, could always potentially set off a false positive on a Wide Area Search spell. Of course getting something else could always be a bonus for helping re-ingratiate with SOMEONE at least; if not Precia, then Takashi back at UMBRA.
    <Fate, I picked up something over in this sector, where the stadium is, get over here and let's see if we can get our hands on it first.>
    The message from Arf had Fate's attention fast. Her faithful familiar had fallen almost as somber as she had in the past two days, and for good reason. Arf hovers over the empty field of Easter Stadium, one hand nervously scratching at her neck, close to her collar, without daring to actually touch it.
    There's something here at least worth investigating.
    <Right.> Fate replies, softly from afar, already en route as soon as she received the first message.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi has a dream. She is eating a delicious sweet yam. It is so big and delicious and nom nom no--- wait why is the yam now yelling at her!? Arggghhhh!

Eyes blink and open and Yuuno is yelling at her and for some reason she is... trying to eat Yuuno. Well.

"Nanoha! >,<." cries Yuuno. "There's something out there!" he insists!

Nanoha Takamachi gets into her barrier jacket and off she goes into the air, following her area search- which brings her toward's the Stadium. Yuuno Scrya is back home not being a fuzzy yam.

Well. There's no giant cats or dogs or bugs or creatures rampaging yet. That's a good sign.

Right?

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    No, there are no mega nekos, sabertooth kittens, or incredibly big dogs.
    There is, however, a wolf.
    Arf might be a surprising sight, by the time the mage in white arrives; the Familiar already in her war form on sensing another mage's approach, guarding what appears to be a sealed case, crash landed in the stadium lawn. <... Oh geeze, it's you.> Arf growls lowly. Just as the barrier forms. Color muting from the sky as the familiar sensation of a Mid-Childan style barrier overtaking the area.
    The soft click-click of heels can just barely be heard, as another familiar silhouette appears, standing perched on one of the tall foul poles.
    Lightning flashes once. Thunder claps.
    The flare of golden light casting the familiar flutter of long twintails and cloak in stark shadow, save for the gleam of scarlet eyes.
    A low ping from Bardiche sounds next, a wordlessly intoned promise of threat as the black axe is hefted to point right for Nanoha.
    "... You again..."
    Fate Testarossa's glacial warm greeting is tired and sorrowful. Much like the half-lidded crimson eyes that regard the mage in white warily.
    It has been some time since they last saw one another. And here they are again, as though starting all over again.
    "I'm only going to warn you one more time... Don't stand in my way." Her ultimatum is final. A clear statement that she will not be swayed tonight, before she adds on ever so quietly...
    "... Please."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
The last time she saw Fate, she was safe with Runealy. In fact. When she sees Fate and Arf- there is a look of pleasent surprise! They can work together to find out the cause of the disturbance , right?

Something is off, though. There's something wrong here and it starts with...

'You again.'.

She blinks a bit confused. < Warning, Master. > spits Raising Heart. It can sense the activity. Not from the potential Lost Logia in the area, but from Fate.

"Fate-chan....?" she asks. "What's... wrong? We're supposed to work together on this now. Don't you remember?" she asks.

That's what they agreed upon, right? Why suddenly... stay out of my way? all over again?

The concern on Nanoha's face is practically palpable now.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    Much has clearly changed. Runealy certainly isn't here, and the blonde's stance should be a warning sign in and of itself, holding her Device at the ready, her silence mirrored by Bardiche. The girl calls her by name, and scarlet eyes slowly squeeze shut. Fate steels herself with a slow breath, shoulders visibly rising and falling just once.
    Promises were made, weren't they? Promises that must now be broken.
    "I remember." She admits, at length, the sudden flare of gold light forming around her as Bardiche spawns four projectiles, arrowhead-shaped lances of voltaic light. She wants to answer honestly. She wants to say things have changed. Her hands are tied.
    <ORDERS, SIR?> Bardiche finally speaks, waiting for further clarification, waiting for his master's ultimate decision before giving her his full support whatever direction she may choose. Her answer comes.
    "... I'm sorry."
    And once again, Fate Testarossa is forced to harden her gentle heart.
    <PHOTON LANCER: FULL AUTO FIRE.>
    "Fire."
    It is a warning shot if anything. By now, with the skill Nanoha has achieved, it should be completely clear Fate has utterly no heart in the order even as the golden spheres are off, each with the speed and force of a bullet.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
She remembers. So why is she here being adamant about not interfering. These are words she's heard before. When she first encountered Fate. Don't Interfere. Stay Out Of My Way.

But.

That was nearly over a year ago already. Things are supposed to be better.

She's caught in her internal thoughts and wonder and shock of how Fate is acting right now that she almost doesn't catch the full attack callout. 'Fire'. Is all she hears, at the last moment as she raises her hand and auto-guard takes hold- caught by surprise as the circular- magenta barrier emits from her hand. It blocks the bullets that impact her location directly, but the others explode around or behind her.

She throws it off when the attack has ended, lifting Raising Heart. She looks unhappy. Not mad. or upset. Maybe somewhere between bewilderment and sadness.

"Raising Heart, Cannon Mode."

< Cannon Mode. >.

Her Staff changes shape- into a more flatter tipped version of itself.

"I'm sorry, too..." is all she says.

< Divine Shooter. > "Divine Shooter!" calls out Nanoha as she begins flinging magenta, energy bullets as the spell is cast--- the balls streak into almost laser like lines as she begins to spam Fate's location.

"Why...?" is she finally calls out.

It's pretty obvious as to what the 'Why' is about. She practically doesn't expect an answer while Fate is like this. She never got one before.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    Nanoha has come far in a year, hasn't she? Able to withstand Fate's spell. Though the blonde had put so little effort into it, it was little better than a series of warning shots at best. But Nanoha remains adamant, doesn't she?
    Yes, Fate remembers that much about her. Once the girl is set on a course, there is no swaying it, is there? Unfortunately for Nanoha, it is much the same for Fate, and in that brief instant following the initial aggressions, this turns from a clash between mages into a clash of convictions.
    <<Because we don't have a choice.>> Arf snarls, reminsing Nanoha that she is, in fact there. She also reminds Nanoha that this is not a one on one fight, and she will be sorely let down if for one second to assume the Familiar will not come to her Master's aid. All it takes is a single distraction at best- if Nanoha so much as blinks, she might miss that Fate is already on the move. And she moves.
    The rattle of orange chains formed from Arf's mana lash out, attempting to pin the tiny mage in white down... For the blurred blitz of black and gold streaking right for her, weaving amid the barrage of pink return fire, only vaguely thrown of course by the bolts that do graze or land, leaving singed welts on Barrier Jacket. Fate's speed is both inhuman and possibly unfair as she closes the distance between herself and Nanoha in a single heartbeat.
    There is just the briefest glimpse of those defeated scarlet eyes up close, as the only answer she recieves, before Fate jinks sidewards. And makes to swing around for a blind spot in that same instant.
    <SCYTHE MODE.> It's the only telltale warning of what is to come next. It's no new trick. It's simply Fate's way of trying to end the encounter as quickly and painlessly as possible.
    But painless for who exactly...?

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi doesn't travel with Yuuno often on these excursions. She doesn't have the deep personal magical tie to Yuuno that a mage does with a familiar because- well- /Yuuno/ isn't her familiar. He is a friend- and a tiny space archelogist. Yuuno has his own life and desires and Nanoha is helping with that.

She is probably going to be emabrassed as all get out when she realizes he's actually a boy shapeshifted into a ferret for various countless reasons. That is of course. The furthest thought from her mind right now.

'Because we don't have a choice'. This is a fallacy, to Nanoha. You always have a choice. Just. There's always consequences for choices. She was given a choice once by Fate's mother.

'Give the Jewel Seeds you have, or I will hurt everyone in Tokyo when they've already been through so much.'. A filthy trick. Nanoha had a choice. She could had said no. But then countless people could had been hurt. So she gave up her Jewel Seeds. Hesitantly. No Doubt. This was also going to end with countless people getting hurt. But it would not be immediate. She had time. To change /that/ outcome. She and Fate. We're going to work together.

Her thoughts on what consequences Fate and Arf might have when they say they don't have a choice.

Her mind are one these things. Raising Heart lets out a warning beep of the incoming attack-- and she's too slow to counter it. Binding chains catch limbs.

She was caught off guard. This entire night has caught her off guard.

She knows what mode that is- but she also forgot how utterly quick and fast Fate actually /is/.

With limbs bound and Fate making a swing- she can't do anything against it. The scythe slices against her- and it's enough force to cause her to push against those magical chains and break them- but she also took a strong hit- a strong cut.

She is very glad for barrier jackets right now. The jacket is ripped. Damaged.

She raises her hand bringing Raising Heart in front of her defensivly as she fires off one of her auto-casts. Shoot Barret. She doesn't hold fast. This serves two purposes.

One- to fire something at Fate to try to get her to back off- and Two- not holding fast means velocity propels her backwards and away at the same time the spell fires off- letting the recoil fling her backwards. She does spin in the air at least once- but regains her stature a moment.

"Nrg." No sign of the Lost Logia that was supposed to be her yet. Did Fate.. already seal it? Is she late?

"Fate..."

"Stop this..." she says. "Say something. Say /anything!/." she almost pleads for a moment- instead of actually firing anything more for the moment.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    Everything is back to square one. It's all right back where it began, and history is so sadly repeating after only a year. Things changed so very much when Fate's mother came into play, didn't they? Giving Nanoha just a taste of what was spurring Fate's actions back then, and even still with no real explanation. That terrible encounter ended in Nanoha losing a Jewel Seed, certainly, but if Fate is once again hunting Lost Logia down with such a grim expression, the implications can be left to Nanoha's imagination later.
    Right now the only person at risk of getting hurt, in this moment, is Nanoha if she does not keep her head in the game. More will come later without a doubt, but the pressing matter at closest hand is Fate's swift and uncompromising turn to violence right now.
    One year ago, Fate is silentely certain, that attack would have been decisive. She would have cut Nanoha down and left her in the grass of the baseball field, unconscious, or worse. Now she can only silently dread just how much the white-garbed mage has improved. But she shakes the thouht from her mind. Rather than let the small kernel of doubt take hold, she suppresses it. Suppressing the notion that one day this girl will probably be able to go toe-to-toe with her.
    It's so much easier that way.
    She is of the Testarossa bloodline. She is strong. This is what she will prove to Precia Testarossa even if it breaks her in the process, and it is the simple mantra of 'I'll win. I'm stronger' repeated in her mind that makes her almost able to ignore the stunning pain of that snap-casted bolt of pink that batters against her arm as she presses her assault. She chases Nanoha through the air, contrails of golden light blazing in the night sky after pink, in her wake.
    The girl begs her to say something. She pleads. And Fate raises Bardiche in response.
    "Just walk away..." This is her reply as Bardiche is brought to bear with injurious intent, trying to forcibly keep Nanoha in melee range, where Fate excels far too well for a mage, with heated swipes and cutting flurries.
    "Please. ... I don't have to hurt you if you just walk away."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
A year makes a difference. The only reason she's failing right now is because she's letting herself get distracted. She can only guess what's gone wrong. She has a good hunches going through her mind already.

Precia made another threat.

Riventon is controlling her.

Maybe both.

Nanoha Takamachi is of no special bloodline. Well. Not in the manner that helps her right now. She isn't some sort of samurai. She literarly had no apparent talent until Yuuno entered her life- but she's trained hard everyday. And she gets up early every morning. And she runs. and she's /teaching/ someone else sometimes now too.

Nanoha let's Flier Fin carry her backwards. She's good at flying. She's practiced. She becomes practically a bolt of magenta- like a laser. She isn't as fast as Fate- but she can give Fate a surprising run for her money.

"Just walk away?"

"So you can take something dangerous back to your mother?"

"Is this what this is about again now?" she asks through gritted determined teeth. "To let her hurt more people?"

Raising Heart cases a bind spell. Silently. The only action taken a soft pink glow as it tries to hone in on Fate as Nanoha spins around and levies Raising Heart down at Fate. < Barrel Shot >. "BARREL SHOT!" calls out Nanoha, the basic blast firing out. Something quick- without molding it into something greater yet.

"You know I can't do that Fate-chan." she says with a more steeled resolve than earlier. She's stopped letting herself get sidetracked in her thoughts.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    It would seem all of that training has paid off. At least right now, enabling Nanoha to endure Fate's assault. Enabling her to keep up well enough that she's not getting shot down over wild and distracted thoughts. But Fate is, once again, relentless. In terms of speed, Fate keeps up with Nanoha more than easily. But the mindsets of how both girls fight is so vastly different, Nanoha able to think so fast on the fly.
    The bind catches Fate at the ankle, arresting her momentum sharply with a grunt. Desperation burns in her eyes as Bardiche works on the counterspell to break it as the other girl makes demands and accusations.
    "... Mother made it very clear how much she needs them." She finally relents. But that is as deep an answer as she's going to give whe nthat blast of pink light streams ofr her.
    <DEFENSER!>
    Bardiche forsakes breaking the bind for the sake of protecting his master, the stalward black axe acting in her defense and forming a half-dome of golden light, to intercept the beam. It strikes. Hairline fractures forming as the shield spell struggles. Cracks spread, widening dangerously, as Fate pulls free of the bind.
    This time it's not fast enough. The shield shatters like sugar glass. Fate jinks sidewards, but she was held down too long, and the impact is much more solid than she would like when it crashes against her side.
    Nanoha's spells are non-lethal, she knows that much, but the sudden roiling wave of ache and fatigue that comes with a much more direct hit changes things.
    When she regains her balance in the air, there's a new look in her eyes, a wilder desperation in the face of that iron will. Why is this girl so stubborn?
    "Bardiche..."
    <YES SIR.>
    She is, initially, sluggish after the impact. But once shaken she launches herself forward. No more words now. Those are done for the night. Nanoha is in her path. Mother made things very clear.
    No distractions.
    One last attempt to cut Nanoha from the sky, an all or nothing gambit putting every ounce of her speed and strength into a blow that cuts the air hard enough to flash like lightning and crack like thunder, and determine who gets to go home with the contents of that box off the Arthra.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is glad to have at least one question in her head answered. 'Mother made it very clear'. That woman. She had words for her. Words that come from someone in the fourth grade, but probably still somehow more scatching because of that.

Fate blocks her attack. She'd excpect as much. She wasn't as used to casting spells at the split moment. Something that Fate's still better at.

She needs to work on her casting speed. She needs to get better at that.

She has to now. Fate is too quick an opponent.

It's this specific weakness that stops her from setting up what was going to be her next follow through if she managed to put Fate out of it harder- but that barrier spell changed her plan too hard- enough that she doesn't have enough time to come up with a counter of being sliced hard and fast.

That is searing pain from the blade of Bardiche burning through the barrier jacket and indeed, she does get cut from the sky and toward's the ground. Nanoha has no such closer counter. Raising Heart is a ranged type. Not a close combat type.

She did try to throw another auto-protect- but her hand didn't raise in time and in fact, it's her hand that's kind of limply following after.

The arena below was setup for Baseball the last time it was used and thusly, she falls directly onto home plate. She is however, anything far from safe.

It's hard to tell if she's out for the count yet.

But she also doesn't get up right away.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    Bardiche strikes true. And Fate watches, eyes half-lidded as Nanoha is stricken from the sky. Fate most likely said too much in giving that answer. But it is a moot point now, as she hovers for a long moment after the mage in white makes a bad landing on the plate.
    <<Come on Fate, let's get out of here!>> Arf is quick to suggest, snatching up the TSAB storage case in her jaws.
    <<... Go on ahead.>> Fate replies mentally, slowly lowering herself to the grass.
    Her approach is hesitant; almost timid. As though waiting for Nanoha to leap back up and fire upon her in some sort of feint. But she approaches the fallen mage anyway.
    To make sure she didn't kill her.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha knows the case doesn't contain a Jewel Seed. Yuuno knew /that/ much. He did know it was a Lost Logia of some kind. Belkan signatures are easy for him to discern. It's his thing.

Maybe that's part of the reason she didn't fight for her life.

Nanoha is alive- and also definitly out for the moment. She is alive. VERY much so. She won't be down much longer. It was a strong hit- but she has the energy to spare to keep herself from dying from it.

Her barrier jacket got /really/ beat up. She probably would be much hurt if she was subjected to another assault.

Fate T. Waldia has posed:
    Sigh.
    It's a relieved sigh.
    Slim shoulders sag as Fate heaves a slow breath through her teeth. No further assault comes. While it would be pragmatic to get rid of an obstacle in her renewed purpose, Fate could never be that kind of girl.
    Whatever is in that box off the Arthra is now in Arf's jaws, already leaving, but Fate lingers, staring at the other girl's unconscious form. This girl that always so obstinately stood in her way- who also always reached out to her no matter what. Fate stares at her in silence for a long moment, head swimming with an exhaustion she refuses to admit to.
    How many times did this girl hold out her hand so earnestly?
    How many times has Fate ignored her?
    It is with a sad, dawning, understanding that Fate realizes something. Now... Now, she's just slapped that hand away. But there's no turning back now, with Precia so adamant on Fate resuming her course.
    But this doesn't stop her from tugging off her cloak. It's a construct of her magic, like the rest of her Barrier Jacket. It will eventually fade. But for now, there's a better purpose for it, laid over Nanoha as Fate turns and flies off, glumly, to join Arf.
    "I'm sorry."