The Gauntlet Part 1

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It wasn't until late April 2014 that the Prometheus Forge crew managed to get back to working on their own projects. With the massive increase in bandwidth available from the improved Interwave system (for which they'd assisted) A.C. decided to work on something fun and planed an update to the KoFen system.

The original system was based around fixed units with limited interworking and expansion. They took this and used the greater bandwidth to move the server units (the part of the system A.C. felt had to be as secure as possible) back to fixed (and guarded) locations and allow the smaller and easier to sell interface units out to the general public.

Removing the servers allowed easier maintenance and upgrading, and allowed Lebia to introduce a public 'sandbox', an area with a published interface that people could create and run their own games in. The most popular of these would be voted on every six months and converted to native code (with the commiserate increase in speed, detail and sensory input. You could, of course, pay to have the conversion done).

Somewhat unsurprisingly, when the Cyber Confederation opened the new servers at the beginning of June the huge demand brought the majority of Fen-net to a crawl.

At the beginning of July, the Forge unveiled a new feature to the KoFen fighting system; this was the ability to win upgrades to your character. The first and most public way was to win competitions announced few hours in advance for a specific server. The gifts here were highly specific to the competition, and provided a reasonable boost to capabilities.

The second and more common way was to hit the Dungeon. The user would face a multitude of monsters in a never-ending stream (in a particularly gruelling version of Space Invaders) and at significant milestones (one million points or an hour of survival, for example) would earn a random power-up object as designated by the semi-sapient AI monitoring the environment.

For Class 1 combatants, the Dungeon was considered too easy. They got a variant called The Gauntlet.

**1**

Green Team 3 arrayed themselves in a defensive ring, watching their motion detectors closely.

<Green Team 3! She's headed your way!> The scream came over the tactical band just as the motion detectors picked the target coming up from the 'North' at a high rate of speed. Moments later a blur shot out of a side passage to the roar of rifles on full auto. She bounced of the walls, floor, and ceiling whilst avoiding the fire and snapped out what seemed to be a ribbon.

The team died instantly, sliced apart by the mono-molecular edge.

She didn't stop, bouncing off the ceiling and dipping low to pick up what ammo she could, before quickly shooting off and ducking into another side passage.

The improvised dead-man's switch triggered then, blowing the remains of Green Team 3 into little bits before fading out.

***

The Gauntlet was simple in practice. The challenger scheduled a request to run it a week in advance. At this point 100 volunteers were sought out to be the opposing force.

Op-For got a number of advantages. First they had infinite re-spawns and unlimited ammo and weapons (although to keep some realism they had to reload their weapons and there was 60 seconds between re-spawns). Second they never lost their weapons during re-spawn, and were always within 2 minutes of the challenger when they did. Third they acted like the protagonist in a First Person Shooter, with no fatigue and minimal pain. Fourth, they had the armour, tactical networking, and motion sensors of a typical FESWAT team. And fifth, they had a real-time map of the one cubic kilometre arena. (Most Fen, used to astronomical distances as they are, consider this rather small at first. That is until someone points out that it's the equivalent of 16 Astroball fields, or a cube you could fit Grover's Corners inside. A cubic kilometre is a surprisingly LARGE amount of space.)

The challenger had none of these. They were in ultra-realism mode, allowing for injury and fatigue. They had no idea of the layout of the arena, and in fact the monitoring AI would actively use the features of the environment against the challenger (hence the real-time map the Op-For had). The only weapons they had were what they could carry or steal from the opposing force (and the Op-For never really lost them, as at re-spawn they'd have them again).

And of course, neither side knew who the other was. At least at first.

**2**

<You sure these things are working right?> One of the troopers asked, carefully scanning the area through the sights of his assault rifle.

<Of course they are Red-2.> Another sighed, sweeping his shotgun across his section. <Don't get jumpy.>

<It's bad enough already.> A third said, looking up into the gloom of the chamber they'd entered. <Given who we're apparently up against.>

<True 'dat. Red-6, Red-12. Sitrep.>

<Falling back to meet you Red-18.>

<Roger. Red-15, anything above?>

<Nothing in any of the balconies, but I'd rather back in the tunnels.> Red-15 told Red-18.

<I hear ya.> Red-18 agreed before something landed on him, breaking his neck.

Red-2 spun round to see a crouched figure put a round right between the eyes of Red-15, through the armoured visor of Red-15's helmet, before rising and driving a knife up through the vulnerable junction between head and neck into his brain.

Red-12 and Red-6 charged directly into a thrown grenade.

***

The challenger did have some benefits. First was they had their usual combat armour and a personal weapon upon starting (and while guns were allowed, you couldn't reload them in the arena. And dumping them when empty merely lost them). And second, they could see and access the various hidden power-ups in the arena. While med-kits were useful, finding somewhere quiet for the roughly five minutes it took to apply them properly was practically impossible. It was the OTHER items that were most useful. If you could figure out how to use them.

It was these you 'won' if you did well enough.

It was, in fact, possible to actually win The Gauntlet. The first way was to last a full 12 hour stint. The longest anyone had gone to this point was 1 hour 37 minutes. Lasting more than an hour was an achievement.

The second way was to score 1000 kills on each Op-For member.

The third way? Kill the entire Op-For within the 60 second re-spawn period.

**3**

<How hard can it be to box the bitch in?> Grey-3 snarled.

<Very.> Grey-7 replied drolly. <However, Blue Team 2 and Red Team 5 have managed to do something useful and funnel her this way.> And he raised his sniper rifle up as the roofless hall opened up in automatic fire, trying to hit the ridiculously fast blur. The chasers managed to catch up and set up the crossfire needed to force the target into cover.

<Come on little lady.> Grey-7 muttered, drawing a bead. <You need to get into position to shoot back...and there you go.>

The challenger made herself visible ever so slightly as she found a good position. Then she threw some grenades at the attacking force and got ready to move again.

<Got you.> Grey-7 smiled, and pulled the trigger.

And missed.

<Holy shit! She DODGED! HOW THE FUCK...?!> Grey-7's rant cut off as a combat knife hit his leg armour with a 'spang'.

Grey-7 looked at the knife, then back to where his target had been. And even though he knew it was just a simulation, he pissed himself.

<She's the Scarlet Angel all right.> He croaked in disbelief.

***

Like any other difficult or extreme sport, there was a fair amount of public interest in those running The Gauntlet. Given only Class 1 KoFen combatants could compete in it, people wondered just what it was like in there.

While details were released when a challenger won an item or a record was broken, only after the first hour was imagery from the arena available to watch. Normally this was a highlights clip (edited to drop the rating), but if the challenger lasted this long a delayed video stream would be available for a price.

Quite a few people had alerts set up for this.

***

The ringing of his desk phone actually brought a relieved sigh from Noah. He needed a break from the paperwork, even if the paperwork in question was to get people hired to take care of the paperwork. Running Stellvia and Artemis was taking its toll.

Then he noticed it was from the watch desk and lost a little joy. He punched the speakerphone button.

"Noah here, what's up Yayoi?"

"Nothing bad Noah." Yayoi's face sprang into holographic life in the air above his desk with a smile. "Just thought you'd like to know someone's running The Gauntlet. The alert's just gone out."

"Anyone we know?" Noah asked.

"Given the highlights," Yayoi paused (in what she tried to make a dramatic fashion), "it's A.C."

"We recording?"

"You kidding?"

**** (Dartz)

The mill at Ford's garage had been waiting patiently for an operator to change out a tool for nearly 20 minutes.

"Hey Jet," Ford called out. "Did you see this yet?"

"What?"

"AC on the Gauntlet. I managed to get the neighbour's stream,"

She sounded inordinately pleased with herself for guessing that the neighbour's password was, well, 'password'. For a mechanic, it felt like the greatest, most nefarious hack in the world.

Jet gave her a wan smile. "Not right now," she said in a tone that clearly meant 'not fucking ever'.

Ford watched another team go to pieces... yes that was a dirty euphemism.... It was also blackly funny. She turned back to Jet and saw the strangest look in her partner's eyes, as if she'd fallen right back into herself for a moment.

"Jet?"

She snapped clean out of it "What?"

"....nothing." Ford said after a moment's thought. Again.

**3.1** (Rob Kelk)

"Excuse me, Your Majesty..."

Tanith looked up from her interwave conference call, putting the microphone on mute. "I left orders that I wasn't to be disturbed, Erin. This trade agreement with the Galacticans is a very delicate matter - I can't afford to annoy the Colonists or the Cylons if we're going to complete the Victory on schedule."

"I'm sorry, ma'am. But Sailor Mars is running The Gauntlet."

"I see. Thank you, Erin. You may go."

She turned back to her call. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but a matter of some internal importance has come to my attention. May we continue this discussion tomorrow?"

"Actually, I was just about to propose we recess, Queen Serenity" replied the ambassador aboard the Pegasus. "I've just been informed of something that I should look into, as well."

The ambassador aboard Colony grinned. "Likewise. Do you think she'll win?"

**4**

A.C. figured the Op-For had fallen back to regroup. This gave her a little time to recover.

She'd gone hunting for the fallback point instead.

Ever since Jusenkyou, she'd become far more accepting of her nature. Or, as she thought in her darker moments, she'd become less human.

She shook off those thoughts, multitasking brain or not, as they were inappropriate when running The Gauntlet. It was time to take stock.

She had an assault rifle and 115 rounds in 3 and a half clips. There was nothing special about the rounds and worst come to worst her armour could take them for a bit. It'd hurt like hell though (especially since she'd got proof positive that her body self-upgraded, something she'd suspected since the Accident anyway). Besides, juggernauting wasn't her style. Two M1911A1 pistols in .45ACP with 6 full clips, 3 in the left, 2 in the right. A.C. missed her Whistler Glock 18s, and although a part of her wanted paired .50 calibre Desert Eagles she didn't think Whistler would laugh if she asked for selective fire on them. Three red-band grenades, have to save those. Eight WMAs, although how they got a Mirage grenade in here meant she'd have to have a serious chat with Lebia later. One USAS-12 with 15 slug shells in a drum magazine, which was unexpected. Seven Ka-Bar knives (which were not very good as throwing knives, but needs must). Her monomolecular single-crystal carbon ribbon sword. About twenty shots in the reservoirs to her gauntlet wire launchers. The map her tactical processor was building up was next to useless, given the variability of her environment (and she wasn't about to try cracking the Op-For tac-net, even if she COULD net-dive now). Her senses were muffled slightly by her helmet. No EVA pack to use for jump assist (it was too heavy. The main reason she hadn't gone to Hardsuits before now was the fact they'd slow her down. Hum, force-field actuated power suit? Tricky, have to talk to Katz. Rig it? Probably). Fatigue wasn't a problem for now (although the fact it wasn't DID worry her). No rations WERE a problem (maybe an oversight in the scenario design?).

So, incredible speed, superhuman strength, worryingly high endurance, surprising toughness, sniper-like accuracy and range with thrown weapons, a decent array of guns, and her sword.

What else? One spare wire reel. A hundred-pack of zip-ties (useless as she wasn't capturing anyone.). A couple of med-kits. A small egg in a spiral (which she recognised, but doubted she could use). A sword pendent on a necklace chain (which she didn't, and thus couldn't unless she was REALLY lucky). And something she was going to kill Lebia for.

***

One of the features of the Dungeon and Gauntlet was something Greenpeace had sweet-talked Leonard into inserting.

Called the Toy Chest, it was basically a web-board on to which anyone could post ideas and models for useful gadgets and objects to be won in either game.

When A.C. found out, the green-fingered pixy got made to take care of it.

While some of the suggestions were taken for use in other games, the vast majority were left in the 'Daydream' area. There were some notable exceptions but, like the infamous BFG-100K Gatling, the majority of these were officially rejected. (The BFG-100K-G itself actually made it back...in the animated opening titles for the Dungeon as the reason for all the monsters. A cleverly disguised but obviously parodied individual is seen working at an almost complete version when it blows up in their face. The resultant explosion on the purposely non-descript planet still gets an appreciative 'Coool' from those who see it, and is made out to be the cause of the mutations that made the monsters the Dungeon contestants face.) Given the nature of Fen, there was an awful lot of information about the objects given during discussions on the board. Eventually, after repeated requests, Greenpeace gave in and set up a wiki for the objects, which saw a lot of activity and was frequently cross-linked to Wikipedia.

Still, out of all the chaff some wheat was found, and after a second vetting by Lebia or occasionally Eddie a pool of weird but useful items based on those ideas built up.

Which just sparked more interest when the Gauntlet came around.

***

Unlike the majority of her subordinates, Utena Ten-Joh was in fact still working. Where they were pretending to work but were actually watching the video from the Gauntlet server, she was writing her latest investigation report.

Hey, crime didn't stop just to watch someone put their computerised ass on the line in a game.

A knock on the door got an idle look up to see Sergeant Walters pop his head in.

"Ma'am? I've got the forensics back on the Greenline sabotage."

"Thank you Sergeant." The Chief Inspector smiled wanly. "It's nice to know some people can ignore distractions in this station. Anything interesting?"

"It looks like someone put oak-flour in the transmission fluid. When the fluid heated up under motion it reacted and froze the entire system solid. Of course as soon as it stopped it began to re-liquefy..."

"And suddenly restarted." Utena finished. "Well, at least it gives us some new suspects."

"That it does Ma'am." Walters agreed. "I'd get right on it, but everyone seems to be busy."

The pink-hared woman rolled her eyes.

"Why they don't just wait until after work tomorrow when it'll be free I don't know."

Whatever the sergeant would have said in reply was cut off when someone else knocked on the door.

"Come in." The senior officer called, admitting a slightly nervous uniformed officer. "What is it Officer Nakajima?"

"Ma'am, I was wondering, can we use the projector in the briefing room to watch?"

Utena Ten-Joh hadn't gotten to her position by being dumb, so the sudden dread that settled into her stomach at that request was well earned.

"No, I'm afraid you can't." The Chief Inspector said in a much put-upon voice. "That equipment is for official use only. So are your desk computers technically." She raised her voice for the last sentence, causing people to duck back down.

"But-"

"Please don't make me call I.T. and have certain servers barred from access. Now, I believe we all have work to do?"

"Yes Ma'am." The disappointed officer saluted, and closed the door.

Sergeant Walters watched his superior let her face sink into her hands.

"There's not going to be a lick of work being done virtually anywhere right now." The woman groaned. "For Serenity's Sake, why my shift Rei?"

The sergeant couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

**5**

At the fallback point, the five teams (Red, Blue, Green, Purple, and Grey) tried to work out strategy. The catacombs complex would normally be their bread-and-butter environment, only the target was too fast and too skilled. Their best chance had come when she'd been put into the open. The auditorium complex might be a good place to set up, but it didn't have enough cover. Forcing her through the underground industrial complex up to the wrecked town/village would be better. Sure it gave cover equally, but right now they couldn't muster enough force quickly enough to pin her down. The keep on top of the tunnels was too confined. While they'd be able to thoroughly sweep it, the advantage would be with her. They needed reach on this target. Plus it was right by the magma pit. The garden with ruins they were currently in would only serve as a quick hiding spot.

The first indication that their time was up was the Mirage grenade going off in the middle of them, providing them with HUNDREDS of targets. Fortunately only fifteen went down to friendly fire. Unfortunately it led to people bunching up.

The Scarlet Angel took ruthless advantage of this to drop some of the grenades she'd purloined during the confusion (and adding another eight kills to that tally) into the two largest groups, before raising both her rifle and one of the few .50 calibre machine guns they had and laying down a brief blizzard of fire to cause the rest to duck and cover.

Then there was silence, before a scream and a crunch brought their heads up. One of the Purples had popped up to try and surprise her, and had gotten the barrel of a red hot .50 calibre machine gun thrown through the face for their trouble.

Of their opponent, there was no sign.

Not until a well placed sniper shot hit an exposed grenade at least.

***

"Yeah, she's scary." Katz commented, as though this was a fact along the lines of water being all wet, Space having no atmosphere to speak of, and gravity being slightly sucky.

"BWAHAHAHA! Glorious! Such deviousness! Such vicious brutality!" Trigon sighed lustily. "What an Empress she would make! I was particularly impressed with her last move. Crushing their hope and filling them with fear with such effortless bloodshed!"

Across the bottom of the screen a banner was scrolling.

***ALERT*** - New Record!: Most Kills in a Re-spawn period at 52. New Record!: Most Kills in a single attack at 45. - ***ALERT***

**** (Rob Kelk)

Team $foo$ had an outrider - a combatant who wasn't working with the rest of the group, because their combat styles were too different. This suited both the group and the outrider just fine.

The outrider wasn't fazed by the Mirage grenade; she was expecting something of the sort. "What took you so long?" she muttered from her hiding place as she started assembling her sniper rifle.

She made the mistake of looking down to ensure the rifle was assembled correctly - a good habit in real life where a misfire could be fatal, but the habit meant that when she looked back at the ruined town square, the Scarlet Angel was gone.

That's what the binoculars were for, though. She looked through them at maximum magnification and spotted A.C.'s tracks, incompletely erased in the dust. This wasn't the first time she'd had to track a perp - "no, in the game it's a 'target'," she thought - by using those techniques. A.C. had either gone to ground or gone through the ruined church, and out of any effective line of fire from the position the outrider was in.

She picked up the sniper rifle in her off hand and drew one of her pistols for emergency use, and made for a position that provided line-of-fire to most of the landmarks in the town. "If I find you there before me, I'll shoot you and win this game ... Peters."

While she wouldn't admit it even to herself, Chief Inspector Natsuko Aki was having the most fun she'd had since the Port Phobos Invitational.

**6**

~ OK, ~ A.C. thought to herself as she hid herself in the rubble of the town. ~ I won't be getting that lucky again. And of COURSE the helmet would disappear when its wearer re-spawned. ~

Whilst the cyborg was primarily thinking about the attack she'd just pulled, she was also thinking about the TWO new special items she'd picked up because she'd glanced at where the helmet had been. One was a box of twenty bullet-less rifle cartridges in what looked like 7.62NATO (In that they were roughly the size of AA batteries). What they were good for A.C. didn't know, and testing them may prove hazardous. The other was a key ring with no actual keys on it. It did have a bunch of key fobs on it though, and A.C. particularly liked the little book shaped LED torch/Laser pointer. She wasn't sure about the funky cube-shaped and prism-like clear plastic charm with a tiny translucent Rubic's Cube in its centre and attached puff-ball, or what use the folding micro-tool, spirit-level/compass, or the mini tape measure would have in here. The USB drive with built in fingerprint scanner and the security token were practically useless. Two of the remaining fobs looked like alarm remotes, but given the setting were worthless as well. There were a few RFID tags, again useless. The last one was the closest to a key and looked like an Isolinier rod, but a bright blue in colour and etched with semi-stylistic grooves.

At this point the monitoring AI, having not really contributed until now, had the magma pit erupt. A huge geyser of molten rock exploded into the air behind the keep (and the image was promptly ripped from the video stream and turned into wallpapers by several people), with attendant earthquakes.

When you're hiding in a ruined town/village with unstable walls, this is a bad thing. Still, A.C. was almost fast enough to get clear. But besides the factor of walls falling down on her, fireballs of magma started falling down in her area.

Auto Wächter aktiviert. Panzerung gewährt. [Auto guard activated. Armour granted.]

Finding yourself floating at roof level is a bit of a surprise, especially when you have reactions like A.C.'s.

"What the Hild?" A.C. asked herself as her innate tactical sense dropped her back down to the ground. Whatever had happened had completely changed her look. It had also vanished her armour and weapons, which left her feeling frighteningly naked.

It was primarily a form fitting (sleeveless she could feel) purple long semi-dress fastened at the front Mandarin style, with a long split skirt belted over it. For some reason they had metal plates fastened to them in a way reminiscent of armour. All of this was over something like a spandex version of a sleeveless short-legged bodysuit. She had a crop-top style jacket on her shoulders, with sleeves just long enough to hide the top of the opera-length fingerless gloves. Vambraces and armoured ankle boots rounded off the combination.

It was the sword that took up most of her attention. It was a simple, straight, drop-pointed, single edge long sword. However its guard was remarkably technological-looking.

Grußworte mein Meister. Ich bin Laevatein. [Greetings my Master. I am Laevatein.]

~ I really MUST have some words with Lebia about this sort of thing. ~ A.C. thought drily.

"Laevatein, mein name ist A.C. Peters. Ich glaube, Sie sind verantwortlich für mein neues Outfit, richtig?" [Laevatein, my name is A.C. Peters. I believe you are responsible for my new outfit, correct?]

Ja.

"Was ist passiert, was ich trug vor?" [What happened to what I was wearing before?]

Gespeichert, bis Ihre Panzerung freigegeben ist. [Stored until your armour is released.]

"I don't exactly know the capabilities of this outfit." A.C. muttered to herself. "And it's not like you could upload it to my WiFi Laevatein."

Suche. Niedrige Bandbreite Verbindung gefunden. Verhandlungsdirektiven... Zugangscode erforderlich. [Searching. Low bandwidth connection found. Negotiating... Access code required.]

A.C. looked at Laevatein in surprise, raising an eyebrow.

"You understand English then?"

Ich verstehe meine Meister. [I understand my Master.]

"Oh Kay then." A.C. concentrated a bit, and located the Bluetooth connection Laevatein had found. "457724."

Zugangscode akzeptiert. [Access code accepted.]

"Prepare to receive high bandwidth access key."

Bereit. Key erhalten. Neue Verbindung gefunden, den Zugriff. Verbindung aufgebaut. [Ready. Key received. New connection found, accessing. Connection established.]

A.C. felt the snarl of her barrier at the connection, but allowed the data in. It took her a few seconds to sort through the information.

"Well, I feel a bit better now. Sorry Laevatein."

Verstanden, Meister. Neue Panzerungs-Modi eingerichtet. Speichermodus Upgrade abgeschlossen. Sperren von Verbindungen. [Understood Master. New armour modes established. Storage mode upgrade completed. Locking connections.]

"Upgrade?" A.C. asked, now feeling better. Laevatein told her via burst transmission on her WiFi link. "Righty-oh. This should be interesting. Sensors?"

Jawohl. Laevatein sounded eager.

"Careful my friend. Those rounds I found won't fit in your cartridge chamber."

Anpassung möglich. [Adaption possible.] Laevatein told her, sent the details via a data burst, then connected the sensor feed.

~ Interesting in the faux-Chinese sense then. ~ A.C. thought. ~ Still need to 'chat' with Lebia though. ~

And they were gone.

***

Op-For command was trying to figure out what the hell was going on when teams all over the map were eliminated in rapid succession. Given no natural threats existed (or were mitigated by their real time map), either their target had picked up something to speed themselves up (NOT a good thing for them) or gotten a helper (ALSO not a good thing for them). The only good thing was they were so spread out to try and encircle her that she was only picking off a team at a time. They'd learned THAT lesson. (Although they were trying to work out what would happen when or if they cornered their target.)

Things got weirder when they got a message from FLAGCOM.

**7**

Down in the wrecked industrial sector, A.C. was working. While not her forte, A.C. had more than a passing knowledge of Gunsmith techniques. With Eddie around that was a practical certainty. She just preferred to let others (like Whistler) do the work.

Given what she had to work with, she felt she was doing pretty well. The chamber assembly was practically a no-brainer, field-stripping a spare rifle provided that and a few careful modifications had sorted that out. It was the feed assembly and magazine that was a pain.

You try building a brand new semi-automatic weapon using key-fob micro-tools and a mono-molecular sword out of salvaged gun parts for an otherwise unknown and sapient device with multi-dimensional components (even if you DID have detailed plans and the assistance of said sapient weapon) in the middle of a seismically active volcano whilst being hunted by a company of well equipped SWAT personnel.

And no, A.C. didn't think it was a coincidence she just HAPPENED to find all these useful things. When she got out she was going to take a good long look at the system.

Eingehende Einheiten. [Incoming units.] Laevatein warned.

A.C. let out a hissing sigh of frustration as she fitted the latest piece into the framework before triggering Laevatein's storage mode and hid it and the tools away again. All the while making another mental note to look at the hyper-dimensional physics from the WFC and see if she could at least 'Wave a similar device together.

Using the data from Laevatein she quickly dropped back through the facility and circled around to the patrol's backup unit. She was unpleasantly surprised to find them waiting for her, with .50 calibre machine guns mounted on gyro-stabilised weapons harnesses.

Her attackers were unpleasantly surprised when she vanished from sight to reappear behind them before putting two very sharp blades to their necks.

"Well HELLO boys." She said huskily with an inviting smile. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"FLAGCOMgaveussomefielddropswithsomeenhancedgearwewerejustgiventhesepleaseohpleasejustkillusquicklywedon'tknowanymore!" The one on the left babbled as the one on the right went for a grenade.

"Hum." A.C. idly flicked her wrists, decapitating the two hapless attackers, then put her swords away and rapidly looted the bodies.

Eingehende. [Incoming.]

The RPG-7 was another unpleasant surprise.

Panzer Geist.

The shielding spell took the direct hit of the Anti-Tank warhead, but the second attack group didn't see that as A.C. used the explosion as cover to counter attack.

***

It took Lebia almost two hundredths of a second to realise what the particular alarm she was receiving was, then she paled and dove into the Gauntlet monitoring system. A frantic twenty seconds of activity followed before Lebia allowed her consciousness to disconnect from the system.

Then she took a quick look at the vid-stream.

"Oh, A.C.'s going to be PISSED."

**** (Rob Kelk)

~ So, ~ Natsuko Aki thought, ~ Peters has gone magical-girl on us. No matter - I haven't gone up against a Dark Senshi who wasn't vulnerable to a head shot, and I doubt Peters is any different. But just in case, I'd better switch the load. ~ She exchanged the magazine in her sniper rifle for one loaded with 'waved-Teflon-coated ammunition (guaranteed by The Professor to probably break through almost any forcefield), adjusted her aim slightly higher, and pulled the trigger.

A.C. was gone before the shot got close, and Natsuko barely missed getting her head blown off by A.C.'s retaliatory 12 gauge slug.

**8**

Her internal timer ticked over the one hour mark, but A.C. didn't pay attention. She had more pressing things to deal with.

A FESWAT Landmate team tended to be like that.

Schlangenform.

With the use of one of his limited supply of fitting cartridges, Laevatein transformed into a chain-link whip as A.C. swooped down. The landmates scattered, but two went down as the sword carved off the legs of their suits. The remaining three kept firing, but it was like trying to hit smoke. The only reason they were surviving so well against her was the automatic fire avoidance feature, and even that had its limits (as evidenced by the two already down). A third was force ejected as Laevatein bit into the engine systems and threatened to detonate the fuel supply. This was unlikely, as A.C. had even better control over Laevatein than her normal ribbon-sword due to his intelligent nature (given that the raven-haired cyborg had once stripped a man to his skin at 3 metres with that ribbon-sword without touching any body hair, that was a frightening level of control) and A.C. knew the systems of the standard FESWAT landmates very well as she'd not only worked on them, but she'd been part of the group that recommended the model in the first place.

Dodging high with her flight ability, A.C. snapped out her ribbon-sword as well and with a whip crack simultaneously sliced the remaining two landmates in half. Length-wise.

The ejected pilot was just getting her bearings when she was yanked unceremoniously upright by the scruff of her neck and slammed into the inert form of her deactivated and stripped landmate. She barely noticed being zip-tied into it as she tried to blink her vision clear.

"Don't go anywhere." A.C. told her conversationally, before picking up the dropped Anti-Material Rifle and walking over to the two legless landmates, still moving although the pilots were in no fit state from loosing their legs and the medication the auto-med systems had pumped and were pumping into them (just because they didn't really feel pain didn't mean that simulated drugs didn't affect them). Taking aim, she fired straight through the centre plates to kill the pilots, then dropped the now empty rifle and used her ribbon-sword to open the cockpits and strip out the black boxes. As the final pilot watched, A.C. also ripped out the survival kits and all but one of the remaining grenades in the shoulder launchers. She wondered why as A.C. strode back towards her, but then those last grenades detonated and destroyed the evidence of her work.

"Now then." The raven-haired beauty smiled brightly at her prisoner. "What else was in that supply drop?"

"Go to hell." The pilot snarled.

"Been there, done that." A.C. shrugged. "Oh well."

The last thing the pilot saw was the barrel of a pistol before A.C. shot her between the eyes.

"Figures this'll be difficult." The cyborg sighed, putting the gun away and grabbing the survival kit from the body.

Ja. Laevatein agreed.

They took off, leaving the final landmate to explode behind them.

*** (+Rob Kelk)

"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.

**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."

**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.

<Clear.>

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.

<Fire!> 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.

<~ Well, that seemed to work eh? ~> The wry smile slipped along the neuro-com link between Meister and Device.

Ja.

<~ Time to get to work then. ~>

**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.

**11** (Rob Kelk)

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.

**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?

***

<Grey-4 ready.>

<Grey-6 ready.>

<Fire Team, Grey-20. Fire!>

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.

"Karyū...!" 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.

<~ On three ladies. ~> A.C. ordered. <~ Three! ~>

"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.

***(Rob Kelk)

~ 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? ~

**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?"

**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.]

<~ Understood. ~> A.C. replied as she and her helpers raided the remains before taking off. <~ What's next? ~>

<~ Mistress! ~> 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.

*** (+Rob Kelk)

"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.

<~ Behind you Mistress! ~> 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."