Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

[] Dragon, Vista, and Chevalier


"Maaaaaaybe. Maybe not." You turn a questioning stare onto Samantha and her self-satisfied grin. "Whoever said we couldn't call for a little backup of our own?"

Heatstroke 10.2

"What do you mean?" you ask. You don't exactly have any teammates you can call on. Well, Tim technically is a teammate, but he isn't the kind of person you want to throw into a combat situation. He's a crafter, not a fighter.

That said, if you're going after a ruthless bomb Tinker, someone with Tinkering skills of their own wouldn't go amiss… "You're talking about calling Dragon into this, aren't you?"

"She's one of the people I was thinking of," she agrees with a nod. "We're going after a villain who is clearly high up in the Protectorate hierarchy. If it's just us who accuse Calvert of being Coil, they might ignore us or drag their feet. If we have the world's greatest Tinker and a member of the Guild backing us up, it's going to be a lot harder for them to shut their ears. And then we'll also have someone who can defuse Bakuda's bombs."

"One of the people…" You blink and realize immediate who the other person is. "No."

"Yes."

"No! We are not taking Vista to confront a mad bomber."

Samantha crosses her arms. "And why not?"

"Samantha, dragging her into my fights already cost her an arm! I'm not putting her in that situation again."

The raccoon woman sighs and puts her hands on your shoulders. "Don't you think that should be her decision to make? Especially since you were the one who thought taking Vista to the villain meet was a good idea because she had implied she wouldn't mind being poached from the Protectorate."

That isn't the same thing, you want to say. That was a simple meeting, with little risk involved. This is going after a trio of villains who have no qualms with bombing a building and killing everyone inside just to kill two people. The dangers are entirely different. And yet, you can't ignore the point Samantha is trying to make. Missy's issue with how the Protectorate has treated her is that they are making her decisions for her. If you are concerned about that, shouldn't she have the right to refuse or accept of her own accord?

"Give her a call," Samantha tells you with a knowing look. "Tell her what we're doing, and let her make the decision. If you really want to give her that degree of autonomy, that's the best way to treat this situation. I'll call Dragon and give her the backstory."

With a wink, your Guardian Beast strolls off and calls up a screen in front of her. Your shoulders slump, and before you can even make your request Perfect Storm is already calling the other heroine.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Missy. It's Taylor." You can tell she is about to engage in small talk, so you hurry on. "Sorry, but I need to talk about work stuff. You know that apartment that was turned to crystal?"

"…Yeah?"

"That was where I used to live. We figured out who it was who did it and that he was gunning for me in my civilian ID. We're heading out now to absolutely wreck his shit," you hiss with rising anger. "Samantha wondered if you wanted—"

"Hell yeah. Give me five minutes, and you can pick me up at headquarters."

Well. That was… quick. "Vista, it won't just be a simple smash and grab. He's involved with the PRT, and he has a bomb Tinker on call. It's going to be dangerous. Another traumatic amputation–grade dangerous, even." Silence fills the line. "If you want to come even knowing that, I'll come by and get you. If you don't want to risk it, I won't hold it against you in the slightest. This is personal."

"…And you think you can put yourself in that much danger without me worrying about you in return? No chance. Bombs just mean I'll have acceptable targets to blow away with a particle cannon.

"Protectorate base rooftop. Five minutes. Don't keep me waiting, Calamity Witch."


Five minutes later, you and Samantha swoop down to the Protectorate building with a smile that rapidly fades. Vista looks sheepish, and the reason why becomes obvious when Chevalier steps out from behind a section of air conditioning duct. He gives you a strained smile of his own. "Good morning, Calamity Witch. I take it you can explain why Vista was planning to run out without a word to anyone. And maybe why she's wearing a coat in eighty degree weather."

You glance back at Vista and her thin coat and gloves in surprise. "They don't know about…?"

"I didn't have a good opportunity to tell them?" she replies with a faint wince. Looking back and forth among the three of you, she sighs and pulls off the jacket to reveal the chrome-plated combat arm attached to her shoulder.

Chevalier stares at it for a moment. "I see. Shipwright's work, I presume?"

"Things were getting heated enough around here that we felt Vista would benefit from having some actual protection." You aren't ashamed of that choice, and you want to make sure that he knows it.

He shakes his head. "She shouldn't be in a position where she needs armor. Wards aren't meant to be fighting in the first place—"

"Oh, you've made that clear," snaps Vista, any embarrassment burned away now. "It doesn't matter that I'm a better fighter that Sere and have the villain captures to prove it. It doesn't matter that I'm the one who had to teach Flambé and Cherry Bomb about Protectorate procedure. I'm thirteen, and that's all anybody sees. Not my actual abilities."

"Because as powerful as you are, you're still a minor, Vista. That makes us responsible for what happens to you. It's our job to keep Wards out of danger as much as possible."

"Then I'll just quit." You blink at her in shock, and the leader of the Protectorate is caught equally off-guard at that comment. "I'm one of eleven Shaker 9s in North America, and I have four years of experience being a cape. If the Protectorate doesn't want my skills, I'm sure I can find another team that will, and you'd be rid of a troublesome Ward who won't stop complaining about how things are being run. Problem solved."

Chevalier slowly turns to you, and you raise your hands to ward off any accusations. This was not your doing! Not directly, anyway, and not intentionally. It just so happens that you are doing things in the Brockton Bay style as an independent, and that is the lifestyle Missy wants.

"We… can talk about this later, Vista," Chevalier finally says, clearly not sure what to do about the ultimatum that was just dropped in his lap. You don't envy him, either. "I still fail to understand just what you were planning on doing."

"Heading to Chicago to deal with the villain that bombed our apartment," says Samantha. At least someone is calm about all this.

"Or you could have told me. I would have passed the information on to the heroes in Chicago, and they would have been able to arrest him."

"Even when that villain is leading PRT troops?"

That shocks him into silence, and you take the quiet as a sign to explain the entire situation. You… may be a little bit more pointed with your comments than you would have been otherwise, but you have to admit that his pseudo-accusations stoked your temper just a little.

When you're done, the irritation and anger in his eyes has been blown out, or at the bare minimum banked to be sorted out later. Chevalier runs his hand over his mask. "This is… How could this have happened? Calamity Witch, are you completely sure of everything you said?"

"I double-checked some of their facts," Dragon says from her screen, the A.I. turned Unison Device having been called halfway or so through the conversation. "Not all of them considering the time constraints, but what I dug up matches what they found. Calvert at the very least shouldn't be walking around a free man, and the timeline for Coil's activity in Brockton Bay matches when Calvert lived there."

"I suppose it explains why every time I would have been able to talk to him in person, he was busy with something else." You tilt your head at the odd comment, and Chevalier explains, "It isn't common knowledge, but I have a minor Thinker power that lets me see an aspect of people's powers. It isn't perfect, and it can be blocked by some kinds of Stranger powers or Tinkertech, but it's something I've found useful from time to time and is in my files. Files Calvert would have access to."

"And now you know why we couldn't pass this through official channels," Samantha adds. "He'd see that we were coming and would have time to hide his tracks. We need to grab him now before he has a chance to run, and we can sort out everything else later."

He shakes his head. "It won't be that simple. If you're going to accuse someone like Calvert of being a villain, you need some kind of solid proof. Something that could be easily verified. Otherwise you need to make a demonstration he simply can't blow off."

"Like what?"

"Like literally unmasking him. Bring Coil in in full costume, then pull off the mask to show Calvert's face. It would be hard to argue against that, particularly with both Dragon and myself standing right behind you."

That… might work, too, you suppose.

"Concern. Chicago PRT administration scheduled for meeting. Target Calvert supposed to attend."

Chevalier frowns. "That makes things more difficult, but there were a few debriefings here that Calvert wasn't physically present for. He would just call in and talk over the phone. There's no way to know if he does things the same in Chicago or if he avoided the meetings here because he knew I would be present."

"Um, guys?" You turn to look at Vista. "Coil is important, but shouldn't we be more worried about the bomb Tinker? Masterminds tend to be Masters or Thinkers if I remember right, so while he needs to go down, Bakuda would be the cape who's the most immediate danger. Take her away, and he'll be left with just his mercenaries with no other capes backing him up."

"Couldn't we split up, then?" you ask. "Half go after Bakuda, and half go after Coil?"

"No," Chevalier and Dragon say in stereo, and he waves his hand for the Tinker to elaborate. "Capturing Bakuda means attacking a Tinker in her workshop, and that is always a dangerous proposition. On the other hand, Coil may not be as much of a danger on his own, but he has mercenaries at his disposal, and from what Samantha told me earlier, he has laser rifles as well. There is no telling what other weapons they have access to. The five of us should be enough to storm either location, but not both at the same time.

"Unfortunately, all three targets will likely reveal our intentions, so if we're wrong, Coil and Bakuda will be have time to prepare themselves for our next attempt. Not a lot, but they may not need a lot of time. We need to make our first choice count."


No! Vista, what are you doing? Now is not the time for this!

Sorry, my characters are, uh, doing their own thing at the moment. While I try to convince them to follow the script, you guys figure out which target the team will pursue.

[ ] Bakuda – Of your enemies right now, Bakuda is the most immediately dangerous (that you know of). Put the mad bomber down before Coil knows you're out for his blood.
[ ] Coil – You may have been hurt by Coil's dirty trick, but there are rules for capes, and you won't stoop to his level. Bring him to his knees and pretend to be surprised about who he really is.
[ ] Calvert – Coil wants to attack you at home when you're out of costume? You can return the favor. Hit him in the one place he isn't looking: his own civilian identity.

Don't worry about specific plans just yet. You still need to physically meet up with Dragon, and more information about whichever route you go will be provided next chapter so you can actually make a sensible plan.