Weeks later at an undisclosed location...
"I trust that you had no trouble getting the materials for me?" She asked as he tossed her a small item.
"Please," he snorted, his voice was pleasantly deep as he adjusted the sunglasses that were on his face, "getting these... Trinkets from high security areas was rather easy, especially since they wouldn't want anyone to know about the illegal operations." He turned and started limping away from her while his back was slightly hunched over.
"You're officially just a C rank knight, and just barely at that." She spoke to him, getting him to stand straight up and turn back to look at her, a slight scowl on his face. "And, yet, from what I've seen, you're at least a AA rank knight, what gives?"
"Please, if I showed off everything I could do, they would have forced me to stay in the Bureau, but me?" He jabbed his chest with his thumb. "I'm not like those guys, I prefer to be wild and free." He grinned at her. "Besides, losing a low-ranking knight like myself was no big loss for the Bureau, and being a mercenary gives me a lot more freedom."
"So, you couldn't handle it then?" She smirked at him, causing him to snort.
"Oh please! If I had wanted to deal with the Bureau's politics, it would be easy." He waved his hand at her. "But I would rather do anything other than politics and limits that they think I have."
"Whatever, just don't forget to hit that train today."
He snorted and waved behind him. "Please, that won't be too hard for me. Just make sure to send a large enough of a distraction so that I don't have to reveal anything." After all, if he went full-out, someone would likely end up dead. "Just the medical supplies, correct?"
"Yes." She said and watched him walk out, before shaking her head. "Fool." He might have been fast, faster than any human had any right to be, but his magic had a severe downside. The stress his body was suffering through made it almost impossible for him to walk unless he was using his magic power.
Still, if he had even a small amount of Astral power added to his kicks and speed attacks, he might be an actual problem for her if he fought against her.
Nanoha smiled at the group as they looked at their new devices. Hopefully they wouldn't mind them too much.
"How come I got a wristwatch?!" Erio looked at Nanoha sourly. "Please don't tell me that I got something like Thoth!" Both Subaru and Teana blushed at that. They had both had to deal with the more... Interesting comments that device spewed out on a daily basis.
Teana knew for a fact that her panties were not in a bunch and she did not need Yuuno to unbind them for her.
Nanoha shook her head. "No, your device isn't like Thoth Driver is, that one was designed for a specific reason, unfortunately, whoever did the core programming was a bit of a weird pervert, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. Your device is meant to help you process data faster for quicker spell usage."
Erio nodded at her. "Okay."
"Anyway," Nanoha smiled at the four, "there's a mission this afternoon, the four of you, myself and Vita are all going to be doing a mission."
"What is it, ma'am?" Teana asked her, hopeful to put their training to some practical use.
"Well, there's some information that there's a train that's smuggling in a Lost Logia to the capital city. The four of you are going to board it and retrieve the Lost Logia, Vita and myself will be backup in case something goes wrong."
"Vita also took the mission because she's tired of the limiter on her, huh?" Shari asked Nanoha, who nodded to her.
"Limiters?" Caro asked, confused as Nanoha turned back and sighed heavily.
"Sadly, as this group is rather... Heavy handed with a few things, a lot of the highest staff members are under strong limiters when not on any sort of mission around here." Nanoha shook her head. "I'm not sure what everyone's limit is, but I'm under a five stage limiter, as is Fate, Reinforce Eins and Hayate. I think Signum and Vita are both under a three stage limiter."
"Actually, you're over-counting, Nanoha." Shari spoke up. "You're under a four stage and Vita's under a two stage limiter."
Blinking, Nanoha tapped her fingers against her thumb and counted down, "huh, you're right." She shrugged at that. "Never said that I was perfect." Nanoha snorted as everyone in the room laughed softly. "Anyway, yes, those of us at or above S rank are under some strong limiters right now. We do, however, in times of emergency, have the authority to recall the limiters for five minutes at a time."
"Why so short?" Subaru asked and Nanoha sighed to her.
"Politics, mostly. As missions change all the time, we can't wait to get the limiters removed from base, so we were given the authority to have our limiters removed for a short period of time every time we go on a mission, in case something goes wrong." The four of them nodded.
"What about Arisa and Suzuka?" Teana asked Nanoha, who rubbed her head softly.
"Those two are currently on a scouting mission not too far from where we'll be intercepting the train along with Yuuno and Reinforce Zwei. If you were wondering about limiters, Yuuno and Reinforce Zwei both have a one stage limiter on them."
Caro frowned softly and looked at Nanoha. "Um, what level are you right now, with the limiters on?"
"A rank," Nanoha shook her head and grumbled at how unfair it was to be limited so hard. No wonder her mother didn't want her as part of the Bureau if they would pull off stuff like this.
"Four stages..." Caro blinked and counted upwards before her eyes widened. "You're a SS mage?!"
"SS minus actually." Nanoha rubbed the back of her head, a little nervously. "Same with Fate. Hayate's a SS plus mage, as is Reinforce Eins. We don't like to think about the levels of power that we have."
"Why?" Teana asked and blinked as Shari shook her head and waved her hands rapidly.
"Because power levels are just a waste of time pondering about." Nanoha growled angrily. "Did you know that even though Suzuka-chan's E-rank, meaning she has no magic ability at all, she could actually beat even Vita in a sparring match? And Vita-chan and Signum-san are both S rank knights."
The four of them sweat-dropped heavily and took steps backwards.
Nanoha cleared her throat. "Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard, think of it as a great way to test your new gear out." The four nodded to her and she smiled at them. "Vita's waiting for us at the helicopter."
"Yes, ma'am!"
An hour later...
Vita frowned as she saw several flying objects between them and the train. "Hey, Nanoha, I don't think those things are supposed to be there."
Nanoha looked out and nodded to her. "I agree." She looked at the four in the helicopter. "Change of plans, the two of us will intercept those fliers, keep them away from the chopper, you four will still board the train as per the original plan."
They nodded and watched as Vita jumped clear and called up Graf Eisen, transforming into her red dress outfit while Nanoha followed suit and transformed into her barrier jacket.
"Hey," the four looked at the pilot, a man with short brown hair that smiled at them, "don't be too nervous, besides those two, there's still four others not too far away that can fight and help you out. So, just relax and do your best, okay?" The four of them nodded to him. "Also, if it gets too bad, just blow the whole thing up." He smirked at their shocked looks. "I was kidding. Don't destroy the train if you can help it."
The four of them nodded at that as the pilot got them through the turbulence and over the train.
In the center car, the man who had been asked to steal the medical supplies shook his head as he carefully put them into a bag. "Man, when she said she'd send some distractions, she wasn't kidding." He smirked and shut the bag before shouldering it and limping his way out of the train. "Now then, all I have to..."
"Hold it!"
Sighing, he turned to see a young girl in her teenaged years with her orange hair done up in twin pigtails, which were held into place by hair ribbons that had crosses on them, her outfit was a short black dress, a short white vest over her shoulders, belts that covered her mid-section that also held the lower part of a white coat while her black-covered shoes led up to stockings that went almost all the way up her legs.
"Hey, Missy," he grinned at her, "if your dress was any shorter, I could see more than you'd want me to." He chuckled as her face got red and she pointed her guns at him. "Ah ah ah..." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I take it you're here for that Lost Logia, well, my job was only to get these medical supplies, nothing more."
"You're still under arrest for theft of property." She said while looking at him. He had on some sort of blue and purple pants with a white jacket on top of it and pink sunglasses. His hair was brown that was combed backwards to a point behind him. There wasn't anything remarkable about him, but she blinked as she felt a quick surge of magic and his legs were covered in fancy boots that went from his feet to his knees.
"Perhaps," he grinned at her, "but you see, little Missy, I'm in a hurry, if I don't get back to my boss and soon, she won't pay me any of that hard-earned money that I asked for, and as long as your captains are busy, it would be easy to just slip away. So, you see, as long as I hurry up and get out of here, there's no problem, right?"
"Wrong, you'll be staying there, I, Teana Lanster, am placing you under arrest."
The man shook his head. "Well, Tiyana," he said, only to get interrupted by Teana.
"That's Teana!"
"Whatever!" He snorted and jerked a thumb behind him. "That big ball is going to break what you're here for if you're not careful." He blinked as Teana smiled before shooting the ground under the large ball, causing a giant metal spike to rip upwards from the train. "...That's one way to deal with it."
"The rest of my team will be here soon, I suggest that you surrender." Teana's eyes widened as the man sighed and spun around before kicking the wall down. "What the?"
"Sorry, Tiyana..."
"Teana!"
"Whatever, well, I gotta jet and it looks like those fliers are useless, so..." He spun around to face Teana before dropping backwards out of the train.
"You idiot!" Teana ran to the edge, only to stare as the man was running along the side of the stone wall, looking up and grinning at her. "...What the?"
"Remember this, Tiyana," he yelled up at her, "my magic is that of Radical Good Speed! HA HA!"
"That's Teana!" She yelled down and stared as he seemingly disappeared in a blur of green, leaving behind a trail of glass in his wake. "...That was weird."
"Tea!" Subaru said as she got into the room. "Is the logia secure?"
Teana stood up and stepped away from the edge, nodding to her. "Yeah, but I just met the weirdest person ever."
Subaru could only blink in confusion.
Minutes later...
Erio was slightly upset as he got off the stopped train. "Well, they weren't too hard..." Though, he had to admit, that weird effect that those machines put out to weaken magic did make things interesting.
Nanoha nodded as she looked at Vita, who lightly bit her lower lip. "That was an Anti-Magic Field. Not very strong by themselves, but they weaken all magic around them," she looked at Fried, who was in his full-size form, "I see someone's been taking their vitamins. Anyway," she ignored the light laughter from the group, "job well done, we'll have to look into this Anti-Magic Field a bit more when we get back, but it shouldn't be too much a problem."
"Too bad," a new female voice spoke up from above, causing everyone to turn and look up as two tall and very curvy women in blue spandex hovered above them, and several more of the drones, the small oblong ones surrounded them, "because that Lost Logia, the Relic, is something that we'll be taking with us." The one with short purple hair said while the one with long pink hair just looked down calmly.
Nanoha and Vita narrowed their eyes. For some reason, they didn't think the following conflict would be anywhere near as easy as the mission had been.
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(Posted Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:49)
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