The question then is if we're in a Pragmatists Reality or an Idealists Reality. *Looks at all the shit that's happened* Uhh... Not looking to good.
And it's all the player's fault.
It actually takes QUITE a bit of work to skew things so much that you wind up Conquest.
We're already slated for a couple of Kaleidoscope dreams on it, so... Eh.
The Core Containment upgrade raises your Health.
That's something I put there a as heads up for something else.
Well, here's a question: who says that Reequip is limited to our normal human allies? Or can't be used on us? It's "improve team equipment", not "improve others equipment".
The instant you knew the shit had hit the fan was when what was distinctly the roof of your house landed on the track field and spectacularly crushed the gym teacher and half your class. You survived the opening attack because you had been tripped by the spoiled rich kid that had just been impaled by flying debris. You huddle under her corpse just long enough to watch the giant... thing plow through the main school building.
Resembling liquid flesh, the giant plows through stone and mortar like it was made from toothpicks and sheet paper. Screams filter through the air as you watch the beast suddenly inhale what looked to be the entire student body. Blood fountains from the gaping maw as your survival instincts finally stop gibbering in terror and you scramble to your feet and sprint for your life. You ignore the gore raining down around you, instead focusing solely on the little voice in your head screaming at you to get the fuck out of dodge!
You manage to make it to what's left of the school fence and out into the street filled with corpses before the monstrosity realizes you're on the run.
"▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▄▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅!"
The sound hurts your ears. As in literally, physically hurts your ears. You feel a wet sensation drip down the sides of our head as you continue to sprint away from the titanic beast. Lines flash across your sight as the pain you can't feel tries to rob you of consciousness. Adrenaline is all that stands between you and a sudden and brutal death.
The beast plows through everything to get to you. Buildings, reduced to rubble, vehicles smashed like tin cans. You can hear the screams of the poor souls it had consumed, echoing from it's body as it chases you, but somehow you manage to ignore them. To focus on escape-
"Get down!"
Instinct screams to trust the voice and you dive. You land heavily. Chin cracking against the pavement and consciousness swimming for a moment, but the move saves you. A hair-thin tendril of mass swings over your head, slicing through everything in it's path. A light pole falls to the ground in front of you as you roll over, and the sight of your savior greets your eyes.
She's not even half your age. Painfully obvious, the girl isn't even nine yet. Frilly pink tutu, with glittery knee-high boots, and a heart-tipped wand in hand she's the epitome of 'cute little magical princess'. Her beautiful red hair is done up in twin pig tails with a sparkling tiara adorning her forehead with a shining sapphire placed perfectly in the middle.
For a moment. You sit there and gape. Poor girl doesn't even last a second.
"I'm Magical Girl Candy Heart! The slaughter of innocents is something that I cannot abide by! And in the name of Love and Life! I will- Gaaaahhh!!!"
A tendril snaps out from the beast in the middle of her introductory speech, wrapping around her ankle in an instant. "▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Lifting her up into the air the beast roars again. This time part of the pain hits you through the adrenaline induced haze, but it fail to drown out the girl's shouts.
"H-hey! What do you think you're doing? Put me down! Hey!"
A ripple along the tendril holding her. A wave in the flesh like someone snapped the end of a tied down rope...
"AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHH-" *CRUNCH*
Blood spatters you, and you flinch. The kid is driven into the ground inches from you. The concrete of the sidewalk cracks under the blow. Your surprise and hope breaks into mute horror at the same time her face meats the pavement.
Her hand twitches. She's still alive.
Pure reflex begins to move you to try and free her from the tendril still wrapped around her leg, but it's too late.
More ripples travel down the length of the tendril, snapping the girl violently into the air before immediately slamming her into the ground again...
Then again...
And again...
And again...
Four times the monster slams the child into the ground. Blood covers you, and you taste some of the liquid that splashed into your mouth. Viscera and pieces of bone are mixed in with the mess. Your hand hangs limply in the air as the tendril lifts her one last time. A squelching sound, as fragments of what's left of the road are torn from where they impaled her. She rotates slightly in the air, giving you full view of her brutalized body.
A tear streams from her remaining eye. You gasp, and the beast reacts: a maw opens up, and a final tendril lashes out, to wrap around the girl's neck. You can see saw-like teeth lining it's gullet.
"Run..." The girl's last plea is barely a whisper, before the tendril retracts as suddenly as it had appeared...
And drags her head-first down the thing's throat. She has no more blood left to spill as she's torn apart on the way down to it's stomach.
You sit there stunned, as the beast enjoys its most recent meal.
Then something snaps.
The world turns red and you let out your own blood curdling scream! But instead of horror, or even fear, what come out of it is rage.
A red hot RAGE. The world parts. A pillar of light engulfs you as part of the sky seems to almost crack.
The light starts red, then turns white. Before fading to purple. Power wraps around you as you feel your mortality almost melt off you.
"KNEEL IN THE DARKNESS, AND BURN IN THE LIGHT! I AM MAGICAL GIRL SOLID CORE!"
Your school uniform literally disintegrates and is replaced by a form-fitting white armor. But it doesn't stop there. You feel wings of energy burst from your back as a weapon form in your hand. It resembles a hand-held beam cannon with an energy blade mounted to the underside.
The change happens between breaths.
Pure rage guides your hand as power floods into your weapon. The beast lunges at you as you pull the trigger.
(Purifier Beam: +10 base damage, +4 dice, +5 RAGE = 19 total damage
Spawn of Mayhem: +50 Base Resilience, -10 Weak to Purification Effects, no dice roll due to focus = 40 Total damage reduction
Spawn of Mayhem Health: 5000 - 0 = 5000)
The beam that comes from the weapon is hilariously anti-climactic compared to the power your transformation released. Barely the width of your torso, it spears at the raging monstrosity and burns an even smaller hole clear through it, but the damage doesn't even seem to register on the creature.
"Gah-" A vague instinct you never had before causes you to move. But the unfamiliarity leads to hesitation, turning what would have been a leaping dodge into a stumble to the side. It costs you, and you fail to completely avoid the wall of flesh that swings at you. Enough power to pulverize a brick wall hits you full on and you feel your arm dislocate as the limb tears through an air-thin golden barrier that flashed into existence for less then a second. "-Urk" you're flung over two blocks with enough force to shear off the top of a parked car with impact alone.
(Solid Core: +5 Base Resilience, +7 Dice, +2 Dodge Attempt, +0 ??? = 14 Damage Reduction
Spawn of Mayhem: +100 Base Damage, no dice bonus, -70 Not really trying to kill you yet = 30 Total Damage
Parked Car: +5 death on impact = 5 total damage
Magical Girl Solid Core Health: 100 - 21 = 79)
You gasp from your position on the ground where you landed. The pain is new. Your average life meant that you never really experienced this kind of pain before. The agony is stifling.
You force yourself to your feet as the beast moves again. You're barely to your knees before it reaches you. But your saved yet again!
This time? A tank literally bursts out of a wall and rams the sonuvabitch!
The half-formed roar turns into a squeal of surprise as the silver-lined front edge of the tank hit its head on!
(Templar Anti-Demon Tank: +25 Base Damage, +22 Dice, +15 Ramming Speed = 62 Total Damage
Spawn of Mayhem: +50 Base resilience, no dice bonus, +10 Solid Wall, -25 Blessed Silver = 35 Damage Reduction
Spawn of Mayhem Health: 5000 - 27 = 4973)
The damage is negligible. But the real assault from the tank isn't so easily shrugged off. The turret rotates with speed, pointing it's three nozzles straight at the beast and unleashing an inferno!
(Templar Anti-Demon Tank: +25 Base Damage, +39 Dice, +50 Blessed Napalm = 109 Total Damage
Spawn of Mayhem: +50 Base Resilience, no dice bonus, -25 Weakness to Holy Napalm = 25 Damage Reduction
Spawn of Mayhem Health: 4973 - 84 = 4889)
The fire is almost white in it's brightness, but the blue is easily identifiable as the inferno washes over the creature. It squeals in agony as the fire burns away at it. It a desperate bid to get away, the beast lashes out with it's tendrils, trying to push it's attacker away-
(Spawn of Mayhem: +100 base damage, no dice, +15 Desperation = 115 Total Damage
Templar AD Tank: +100 Base Resilience, -25 Covering You = 75 Damage Reduction
Templar AD Tank Health: 1000 - 40 = 960)
The blow dents the armor significantly, but fails to pierce it. Instead the blow simply rocks the tank enough to allow the creature to retract the piece of itself that had been under it's silver-lined treads in order to quickly retreat. The breath of air this allows you,gives a chance to realize that you had just been saved by what is likely the Counter Force. Humanity's answer to the Forces of Darkness.
And the premiere fighting force of the Forces of Light.
Armed with weapons blessed by the clergy of religions around the world and backed by the most advanced technology that Humans could bring to bear against their extra-dimensional foes, they could go toe to toe with the nastiest monsters in the cosmos.
And when something came along that they couldn't fight, they had...
The sound of metal boots on cement breaks into your thoughts. As you turn a new sight greets you.
Clad in black cloth, and draped in resplendent golden armor your ultimate savior stands before you.
"Considering you only just awoke your powers, the fact you're still alive is rather impressive."
Magical Girl Goddess Gold.
The strongest Magical Girl to ever exist, and quiet possibly the sole reason that the Unified Darkness has yet to simply attempt to drown Earth in unending waves of Demons. She represented pure, unrefined, power.
Her mere presence is almost enough to crush you like a bug.
"Don't worry." Her sudden grin is smug. "You're safe now, and this thing isn't going to get far."
She steps past you, and just like that, the air seems to forget it's desire to crush you.
"Now let's see." You look past her to where the Tank that had saved you is now fighting the beast with another two having joined it, along with what looks like a small platoon of soldiers.
One of the tanks spews fire at the creature, but in the open it is nimble enough to flow out of the way, and the bullets from the infantry seems to simply be pissing it off. Punctuating this fact, the beast takes another shot at the tank it had damaged earlier, but this time throwing it's all behind the attack!
(Spawn of Mayhem: +500 Base Damage, +76 Dice, +25 RAGE = 601 Total Damage
Templar AD Tank: +100 base resilience, no dice bonus, -10 Previous damage = 90 Damage Reduction
Templar AD Tank Health: 960 - 511 = 449)
The blow shears through armor and pierces deep into the machine. A shout, screams, and something gives.
(Templar AD Tank Critical Failure: +250 Base Damage, +225 Remaining Health, +50 Blessed Napalm = 525 Total Damage
Templar AD Tank: +100 base Resilience, no dice bonus, -50 Previous Damage = 50 Damage Reduction
Spawn of Mayhem: +50 Base resilience, no dice bonus, -75 Holy Stuff Blowing Up = +25 Bonus Damage
Templar AD Tank Health: 449 - 475 = -26 (No survivors)
Spawn of Mayhem Health: 4889 - 550 = 4339)
The blast vaporizes the tentacle that had impaled the tank. Flame and fire vomits out, and liquid napalm is spewed everywhere. The beast screams in agony as the death curse of the machine reaps more damage than any hit before had managed. But you knew that the soldiers in the tank couldn't have survived the furnace.
"That's enough of that." Goddess Gold's voice in enough to halt the battle in it's tracks. Soldiers scramble aside as she walks forward and the beast suddenly begins to back off. It knows what's coming. "It's about time you go back to the pits from where you came. Chains of the Earth."
Golden links hiss through the air. And in the blink of an eye, the creature that once seemed unstoppable is rendered inert. It's almost liquid form is rendered immutable by the Chain's powers. And as it struggles Goddess Gold rears back her hand... and power floods into the space next to it.
"It's past over. Oblivion Awaits!" What comes next is almost indescribable.
(Goddess Gold: +10,000,000 Base Damage, Dice Rolls Negated, -9,950,000 Trying not to wipe out the Earth = 50,000 Base Damage
Spawn of Mayhem: +100 Base Resilience, -1000 Chains of the Earth, Dice Rolls Negated, +2000 Highly Resilient to Annihilation Magic = 1,100 Damage Reduction
Spawn of Mayhem Health: 4339 - 48,900 = -44,561)
Red and Black light. The shockwave from the attack's release is nearly enough to send you flying on it's own. For the beast?
It doesn't even have the chance to scream. The wave of erasure doesn't even slow as it sweeps over it. And just like that, the nightmare is over and silence is all there is...
-/Line Break Identified\-
You sit on the curb across the street from what was once your house. The crater is all that's left of it. You had lived alone with your elder sister in the house, but you knew she hadn't survived. The leg sticking out from beneath the crushed pickup truck with her favorite keychain hanging out of the only visible pocket was all you needed to know the truth of that.
Your listless melancholy is interrupted by a beautiful blond sitting down next to you. Her presence, though muted, tells you that this is Goddess Gold without her armor. She wears a simple white shirt with basic blue jeans, but she somehow manages to make them seem like the raiment's of Queen Elizabeth herself simply by wearing them.
You're simply clad in your ruined school uniform.
"You alright kid?" Her question is as calm and collected as if she was talking about the weather. Or had just erased a High-End Demon with a fraction of her power.
It was more than a little unnerving.
"I... When I woke up this morning all I was looking forward to today was just another day in school. I was in the middle of gym class when... this." You wave weakly at the carnage around you. "And now... Everyone I've ever known or loved is dead and I'm apparently a Magical Girl? How the Fuck does that work?"
A CF Rescue team transport rolls slowly past you, the two guards several feet away waving them on past, making sure that the young woman sitting next to you isn't disturbed. Said girl merely leans back against the flipped sedan behind you.
"It's called Fate being a bitch." You blink and look at her. She's grinning at you from where she lay, "Fate's a bitch, Destiny is a Whore, and poor Karma gets blamed for their damn antics while simply trying to do her job. This? This isn't Karma. This is Fate being an outright bitch. Bad luck simply decided it's going to be you."
Your not sure if you should be insulted by that or not.
"Shit like this happens every day around the world. Best you can do,is simply roll with the punches and wait for the chance to hit back. Roughly six out of seven Newly Minted Magical Girls tend to try going off on their own right after awakening their power. Half tend to die. Most of the rest join up with a sponsor, but every now and then, one keeps independent and makes it big. Like Magical Girl Red Rose."
You knew her. She was officially the tenth strongest Magical Girl alive. And the Second Strongest Magical Girl that fought for the Forces of Light.
She had no official backing from any of the Light Factions, but was Directly responsible for the deaths of not one, not even two, but a whole three Lords of Darkness in open combat. And she didn't even have any legitimate combat spells save possibly one confirmed.
"Anyway, the CF are almost done here, so I'm leaving soon... -ish. I was going to ask you if you felt like joining up with the Counter Force directly, or if you were planning on trying to go at it solo."
You blink. To be honest, you hadn't really thought about it at all. More focused on the fact your everything had jut been wiped off the face of the map...
But... You were a Magical Girl now! You remembered all the news articles on Magic Life Today, but you had never really thought much about it, believing yourself to be just another girl!
You could go with the Government and get special Training, even funding... but that faced the fact you'd forever be compared to the other magical girls that already worked for the Counter Force. Or you could run the risk of going at it alone. You'd have a chance to make a name for yourself without having to worry about being stuck under someone else's shadow but...
Just looking around and the memory of Candy Heart is all that is needed to point out what would be the most likely outcome of that situation.
What to do?
[]Go with Goddess Gold and join the Counter Force. The safety is too enticing to pass up, and you're not sure if you can face this without some kind of support.
[]Strike it alone. Red Rose proved to everyone that you didn't need backup, so you could do the same!
-Survived First Encounter! +100 EXP
-Survived Encounter With Class 5 Demon! +150 EXP
-Met Goddess Gold +5 EXP
-Total EXP Gained: 255
(Unlocked Character Sheet!: Magical Girl Solid Core!
Unlocked Character Sheet!: Magical Girl Goddess Gold, LeveL 1!
Unlocked Data File: United Light!
Unlocked Data File: United Darkness!
Unlocked Data File: Counter Force!
Unlocked Data File: United Earth Front - Akasha!
Unlocked Data File: Basic Magic!
Unlocked Data File: Magical Girls!
Unlocked Data File: Magic Practitioners!
Unlocked Bonus Data: EXP!
Unlocked Bonus Data: Growth!)
A/N: I'll write up everything you unlocked before next update. You'll find it all on the first page.
You sit there for a time. Simply staring at the remains of your home as you chew over the older Magical Girl's question.
While the possible fame of going at it alone was nice... The thought of dying lost and alone against the Unified Darkness terrified you.
"I'll come with." Your answer has a note of finality to it as it's spoken. And you acknowledge that your previous life is now over. And with it, Goddess Gold sits up from her position and shoves her grinning face into your line of sight. You flinch at the sudden intrusion with a squeak.
"Good choice! And don't worry! We'll be the... best of friends."
Suddenly her grin seems a lot more vicious then it was a few moments ago. You're not sure if you should be unsettled by that or rethinking the choice. She doesn't give you much time to ponder if you screwed up or not.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"Here: keep ahold of this also. It's known as a Data Mine. And as far as you're concerned, it's your new best friend. It has a universal net-connection that'll let you connect to the Dim-Net damn near anywhere. I've already set it up to have you as a user, but you'll have to add a password yourself later once your settled in. You'll be able to look up topics on the Akashic Record on the fly as well as keep a ton of personal notes. Don't lose it!"
The small mechanical object is dropped atop of the pile of clothes and other items you are desperately trying not to drop as Rei Mitsubishi, also known to you as Golden Goddess, practically drags you through North America's central Counter Force base. It is wide open, with large areas between each building. You had a feeling that you would learn why the base was built this way later. Instead you were more focused on the piles of stuff Rei was dragging you around to collect for your future stay on the base.
"You'll be in barracks Ten with your squad. Each magical girl is given a team of five soldiers to help watch her back when out in the field. Training starts tomorrow at Four A.M. sharp, understood?" You don't even get a chance to respond before she knocks open a door and pushes you in. "Standard Uniform for Magical Girls when not transformed are the plug-suits I gave you back at the shop. If you're on duty, you wear those. Unless you get strong enough that no one feels like trying to argue with you, but that might be a while. So when you get up tomorrow, wash up quickly and put one on. Once you do that, you'll gather with your team right outside your Barracks where I'll pick you up and bring you to Power Studies. There we'll tinker around with your powers for a bit before moving on to training with your team."
She comes to a stop in front of an empty bunk, hidden away slightly into the wall of the bed area.
"Now. Originally the plan was for new Magical Girls to undergo complete military training, but that got vetoed by a lot of important big-wigs whose daughters are Magical Girls. Instead you'll be given a few weeks mandatory basic before being allowed into the field with heavy supervision. It'll be focused around initial physical conditioning, teamwork, and teaching you basic command structure. If you're going to be part of the Counter Force these three things are absolutely required. Despite the moaning and groaning of military commanders everywhere."
You nod jerkily as you place the pile of... stuff, that Rei had helped you gather onto the bunk. Alongside the Data Mine that she had given you, there were five 'plug-suits' that were better described as skin-tight full body leotards that adjusted automatically to your shape, a set of augmented-reality shades that you could hook to your Data Mine to use it hands-free, a base ID-Card that she had clipped to your hair, and left to dangle in full view of everyone that so much as glanced at you, along with a wide variety of other miscellaneous items. Some of which you failed to catch their purpose as they were tossed at you. "Umm... Rei... Ma'am?" You stutter as you release your load. "N-not to sound ungrateful o-or anything... but..."
You trail off, unsure how to continue. But you couldn't help but feel it was a valid question.
Right after you agreed to join the Counter Force, Rei told you her name - a secret many civilian throughout the Unified Light, and god knows how many individuals from the Unified Darkness, would literally murder and rape for - then promptly drug you almost by the hand back to the base from which she staged her heroics. From there she towed you around the selfsame base, collecting essentials -and possible essentials- as well as going through the trouble of planning out your first few days...
All in all, it was almost line she had claimed you as a...
"You're my pet."
Your thoughts come screeching to a dead halt at her declaration. And in the sudden silence she smiles viciously at you, almost like she was daring you to say otherwise.
"I-I... what?" Sadly, in your current state, you weren't capable of doing much of anything besides stuttering and gaping like a fish.
Rei turns away, crossing one arm beneath her breasts and using the free hand to point into the air. "Magical Girl Training is done by Apprenticeship. I haven't had any of my own for a while, and you impressed me by surviving alone against a Spawn of Mayhem as long as you did. So you're mine. And there's nothing you can do about it." She struts away towards the door, leaving you gaping like a fish after her.
"I really should have struck out alone."
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
Four hours later found you exploring the rather extensive storage space around your bed. Several hidden drawers that you quickly commandeered for your clothes, or what was left of them, along with a small tv that was connected to a video call function, and a small ledge where you put the only picture of you and your sister you had left.
From there you found the shared showers and washed off the dried blood that had been stuck with you ever since your roof killed your class. You manage to fight a 'uniform' on just before the door to the barracks opens and admits the five individuals into the dorm. The sudden entrance has you spinning around with a squeak, as you try to cover your self.
The stupid suit felt about as revealing as it got.
The soldiers - for they were obviously soldiers - stopped the same time you had spun around.
From left to right there were four men and a woman. With the woman in front, with the guys trailing behind her in what appeared to be oldest to youngest. Or at least that's what it looked like.
"Umm... hi?"
Your question is trailed, again, by silence for roughly a minute before the woman speaks.
"They forgot to tell you that your perfectly allowed to put something on over that, didn't they?"
Your resultant Blush is atomic.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
You huddle dejectedly over your re-heated steak and bean soup in the cafeteria at dinner time. The soldiers that are apparently your team deign to allow you to wallow in your embarrassment in quiet solitude as they eat their own food.
The woman, her name Jessica Robert, was -amazingly enough- the tallest of the group by a whole three centimeters. And being a whole 190 centimeters, she was a very tall woman, dwarfing your 167 with ease. She was slim, with no noticeable features. Her eyes were brown, and her hair was a dark blonde.
The eldest, and team leader, was her brother, James Robert. At 187 he was the second tallest, with the same hair and eye color as his sister. The difference, was where she was slim, he was huge. His arms alone looked like he was probably able to pick you up and toss you across the room with little effort. But he was a surprisingly nice guy with a significant temper to match.
The third eldest, and third tallest, Samael Balier, was about as average as average could be. Average height, average hair color, average eye color... The outstanding aspect for him was that he was missing an eye. Complete with eye patch. When you began to form a question he answered with, "High School love potion incident. And that's all I'm going to say on the matter." You dropped it there.
Fourth Eldest, and shortest, was Michael Rodriguez, who had a seemingly stereotypical Mexican-origin name. He was also dark skinned and had a thing for milkshakes. And a bad habit of goading Jessica into cracking jokes that made no sense to you.
And last but not least, was the unfortunately named Richard Nixon. Apparently his father had a sick sense of humor. Made even worse because he was black haired and green eyed. This sadly caused him to look a lot like the deceased American president.
A short round of introductions had you learning each of their names and a few bits of information that was better left unsaid, while revealing that you were the brand new Magical Girl that had been tacked onto their team literally less than an hour ago and dropped, a bit confused, into their laps.
"Sorry for the need to babysit me."
The light conversation sputters out at your apology. The soldiers that you've barely just met blinking in surprise before turning to you with various expressions of curiosity. But your too lost in your thoughts of your sister to really register any of them.
"I know... I know that there are soldiers on the front lines right now dying, fighting against the Unified Darkness... and... you're all stuck here babysitting a barely awoken Magical Girl that doesn't even have a clue how her power are supposed to work. So... sorry."
You mope for a moment longer before Mike slaps your shoulder, catching your attention. "Don't worry about it kid. Not sure about these morons, but I'm kinda happy to be here. Especially if it means I get to look after one of you girls. I was saved by a Mahou Sojou our on the front once, y'know?" You blink at the Japanese name for Magical Girl as Michael grins. "Never told any of you, but a few months ago, my platoon was pinned down by a bunch of Demons with those huge arbalests. Bastards were picking us off one at a time, and we were certain we were going to all die. But then, right out of nowhere a fucking energy wave blows a group of them to pieces. The chaos allowed us to break off and regroup enough to fallback. Learned a while later that her name was Magical Girl Judgement Core. Had this cannon twice her size, and packed a punch bigger than most tanks we have on the front. So, if getting recalled to Earth to babysit a newly minted MG,is needed, then I told them to sign me up. Keeping you alive long enough to get the experience that allows you to go out and save more shmucks like me? That's worth getting benched for."
Samael whistles at the sudden story. "Damn mate. I never got to get my but saved, but I did get a chance to see a few Magical Girls go at it. Personally got to see Red Rose go toe to toe with five Dark Magical Girls all at once. Seeing that? Now that was Epic."
"Nah ah! Pics or it didn't happen!"
"Don't believe me? Alright... here ya go." The man pulls out a Data Mine, bringing up pictures of the fight he witnessed...
And holy hell was it a fight. Blurs of movement barely captured by the digital camera built into the Data Mine clashed in the still. The ground looked to be disintegrated around them as they fought, with stones floating in the air to be sliced apart. You couldn't make out individual fighters from the chaotic mess... but you could tell from the looks on the soldiers faces that this was what a high-level Magical Girl fight looked like from their perspective.
"Holy shit. Just five? I swear I count at least six blurs here."
"Nah, one was an illusionist. The extra blur is her double."
"How did you get so close?"
"I was huddled in a fox hole and the fight migrated over to me. Survived because they were more focused on each other than possible soldiers ducking into the dirt to avoid getting splattered."
It was a truly impressive image. With the soldiers pointing out barely-there details, even your own untrained eye was able to make sense of at least some of what it was showing. Five against one, and Red Rose obviously dominated the fight.
A saying you heard once came to mind: the difference in strength at the top, mattered only to those at the top.
You had a long way to go if you were to make it to that level.
Few more hours 'till bed. Tomorrow you start Immediately.
[]Get to know your new teammates. You'll be working together for the foreseeable future, and they don't seem that bad so far.
[]Go to bed Early. It's an early start, and you'll need all the rest you can get.
-Meet New Teammates! +10 EXP
-Joined the Counter Force! +10 EXP
-Adopted as an apprentice by Goddess Gold! +5 EXP
-Total EXP Gained: 25
(Unlocked Character Sheet Level 2: Goddess Gold!)
"So kid. What are you going to do now?"
James' question reaches you as you huddle in your bunk, staring at the picture of you and your sister. The peaceful scene was captured only a mere two years ago. She had just turned eighteen, and your mother had kicked the both of you out... It hadn't been a happy year, but somehow, she had found a way to make it all better. A way to prove to you that the world wasn't ending, and that the day after would be better than today. And at the time, you had somehow convinced yourself that life would be as close to perfect as it could get from then on out.
And now she was dead.
"I don't know. My sis... she... what am I supposed to do? Everyone's been so helpful but... I still don't know what I'm supposed to do next! I'm so lost right now that..." You half gasp, half sob, as you bury your face into your knees, as you pull your legs close. "I'm so scared! What do I do James? I'm so confused!"
James sighs as you curl even tighter into your little ball. And for a moment, sat in silence. "I honestly don't know kid." You manage to stifle your sobs and look at him: he's cleaning a handgun, frowning in thought. "I joined the C-Force when a fight between them and a Hell attack force swept through my neighborhood. Got to watch my girlfriend get raped and chopped to bits right on front of me. After it was all over and I was saved, I decided that I'd join up and keep something like that from ever happening again. And here I am."
From there, silence creeps in. But... its a slightly more comfortable silence of understanding. The two of you sit there for several more minutes as James finishes cleaning his gun and puts it away.
"Hey, James?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks."
"No problem kid." He kills the light and you go to bed earlier than everyone else, but not as early as you originally planned.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
Flashes. Images. A world you've never seen.
A flash from a sword. An image imposes itself: a woman with angelic wings, facing down a man with a massive sword.
Another flash. A wave of golden light facing down a wave of black. Blood flies.
"Hey sis! Look at me!"
"Careful Ana! You know climbing trees, is dangerous."
"I know N▄▄▄▄▄▄."
Static. A scream.
You see your sister's cold corpse. Crushed by the nightmare beast. She smiles at you...
"Don't worry. It doesn't hurt at all..." A tendril of flesh grows from the stump of an arm. "Won't you join me? ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄?"
You wake screaming at four in the morning as Jessica's alarm goes off with a loud bang, waking everyone instantly.
No one is groggy when Rei comes to collect you.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"You wearing your skin suit?" When you nod at Rei she smirks at you, "Good. Strip down to it."
"Eh?" Your voice is reduced to a squeak. "S-s-s-s-strip?!"
As if to answer, Rei promptly shucks her jacket and loose pants to reveal a bright yellow skin suit of her own. "Of course. They're going to be using the suit to attach a number of Leeds to you in order to measure your Quantum Imprint to figure out what your magical affinities are. As varied as magic is, there are some constants that can be identified. Otherwise the other Factions wouldn't have gotten as good with it as they have. I'll be providing demonstration."
And probably to show off, a traitorous little voice in your head muttered to you. She was definitely far more developed than you, and completely lacked any shame of that fact. You studiously ignored the little pang of jealousy that shot through the back of your head as you walked out of the changing room behind her and into the main testing chamber.
The room itself was actually rather small. Runic arrays covered the walls, with lines of English text forming circles in the center of the room. Among these arrays stood a small handful of scientists, thankfully all women, who were prepping a number of cords that stretched off into the wall to some hidden machines.
"As you know," Rei began as the scientists waved you over, "Humans have only recently confirmed Magic's existence. This means that despite what they're teaching in schools now a days, we know very little of what it's truly capable of. But the Fairies and False Heaven have generously donated some of the few universal thing they know about magic to aide in our own research.
"The first thing is that excepting a few specific details, all magic is customized to an individual species. One of those universal constants are Affinities. All the different groups of the Local Dimensional Cluster originally believed that there were only Elemental Affinities. And this was mostly true, until Humanity came into the picture and we introduced Conceptual Affinities."
A brief word to one of the scientists, and Rei stood in the middle of the room. From there, she raised her arms and the scientists began to attach Leeds to her. Since she was busy with that, a scientist standing off to the side picked up the explanation.
"All magical practitioners have a minimum of one Affinity. An Affinity denotes how their magic works. For example, someone has a Water Affinity: that means that person's magic is based around the manipulation of liquids and semi-solids. Or someone has a Summoning Affinity. That person's magic would be based around the summoning of different things to facilitate their magic. But I digress. The more Affinities someone has, the stronger they are. Or the stronger their potential. Someone with Two Affinities is considered a genius, while three would be normally reserved for the oldest of Practitioners. A Magical Girl though, is unique in that they all have a minimum of three Affinities. This chamber allows us to scan and identify those Affinities."
One of the scientists helping Rei called out, and you turn to her.
She stands, hands spread, in the middle of the room. Cords and thin cables stretch through the air to the walls like chains as she slowly opens her eyes... and you can feel her magic rise and travel down the false-restraints to the arrays around the room. Said marking begin to light up, one by one, until the entire room is bathed in a dull red color.
The English characters that surround her begin to move on their own. Each slowly rotates across the floor, lining up into three easily identifiable words that stick out in stark contrast to the jumbled lettering of the rest.
Rule
Annihilation
Epic
They mean nothing to you. But the scientists collective nod in satisfaction.
The one that had been explaining before starts up again, as the others begin to help Rei remove the Leeds. "Each Affinity represents something different. For example, Rei's Rule Affinity means that she grows stronger the more she believes she rules over. Her Annihilation Affinity grows stronger the more solidly she believes she can destroy something... But her Epic Affinity represents something else entirely." The last of the connections to Rei's skin suit are removed and you are beckoned forward.
With a gulp you do so. Self-consciously you hold your arms over your head, giving the techs room to work as the scientists continues her lecture. "The third Affinity of all Magical Girls we've been able to identify signifies their growth potential. It also has some other exotic effects we're still looking into such as Immunity to specific abilities for some reason but it isn't bearing as much fruit a we'd hope-"
"Doctor. You're rambling." Rei's grin is slightly amused as the scientist blushes. She quickly looks down at her clipboard to hide it, while the techs attach the last Leeds to you and guide your arms down so you don't accidentally dislodge any of them. From there, they immediately activate whatever mechanism that draws your power out for the magical array to analyze. The room lights up a light violet as the letters begin their crawl across the floor.
And just as quickly as it starts, it's over.
Purity
Faith
Divinity
You blink. "Are those normal?"
It's only afterwards that you realize that Rei Mitsubishi actually Squeed.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
Your merely human teammates find you sitting in the cafeteria with a slightly shell-shocked expression plastered on your face.
"Damn kid. You look like you got goosed." When you fail to react to Michael's jab they share a look before Samael dumps his drink over your head.
"Pfft! H-hey! What was that for?" You squawk as Jessica passes you a few paper towels to clean up the resultant mess.
"Well, you were a little unresponsive there for a moment. So, we did what any good friend would do." You blush in embarrassment as they all sit down with some kind of breakfast. "We just got out of orientation for being your new teammates for the foreseeable future. How did testing go?"
You wad up the towels you just used and dump them onto Michael's plate - "Hey!" - before you respond, "Turns out I got three really rare Affinities. Two of witch have only ever been shared by four other Magical Girls ever. And the last happening only a handful of times in the past. So I got to watch the research team collectively flip their shit and got to sit through three hours of being poked by needles, while listening to my new mentor gloat over a phone. Apparently our first team practice is going to be against another Magical Girl. So yeah. Happy days."
"Huh. So we get the really rare Magical Girl that probably has some upper awesome prophecy about her floating around?" Michael scarfed down a hot dog. "I can dig it."
Jessica Rolls her eyes, "Yeah, just watch: most of us will probably wind up dead before she even learns it."
"Mou- lets not joke about that guys!" They just laugh at you.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
You stare at the person standing before you.
Right behind you Jessica slapping Samael is actually audible. Part of you is curious, while the rest of you fervently doesn't want to know why she felt the need.
So instead, you again focus on the very famous person right in front of you.
More specifically? Magical Girl Red Rose.
Her outfit looks like it's made of silk. Her dark purple hair is almost as entrancing as her blood-colored eyes. But the most distinguishing feature is the scent of blood.
A scent that you were very familiar with now. But was still unnerved by.
"This the kid?"
Her voice is rough. Almost scratchy.
"It is." Rei's voice is almost giddy as she confirms... something.
"She's cute. I'll give her that."
"Bitch. She's fucking adorable. And mine."
Now you're sure you were missing something.
"Don't you have enough stuff? I've never had the chance to equip a little sister before."
Wait... Oh no. Oh god no. Please-
"She's my pet. No little sister equipment for you."
Yup. It's happening. "Oh, come on... not again." Your whispered despair attracts the attention of Richard beside you. He leans over slightly as to not draw the attention of the now arguing Magical Girls.
"What's wrong?" You glare at him in an adorably cute way.
"A bad joke got out of hand years ago between my sister and her friends. It only lasted a few days but it ended with me getting the nickname 'Nepgear' and it never left! And at this rate it's going to come back and I'll never be rid of it!"
He smiles at you, "For what it's worth I think it's a brilliantly adorable name!" He says it loud enough to draw everyone's attention. Then tells Rei and Red Rose what you just told him.
Once Rei announced that your new name was 'Nepgear' you decided that you would leave the bastard to whatever fate the coming training had in store for him.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"Help!"
"Nepgear, help him!"
"Not until he apologizes!"
"If you don't help him we're going to lose!"
"We were going to lose anyway!"
"How do you know that?"
"Have you seen her throw those spears? I try going up there to help him, she's going to 'catch a sister' as Rei so eloquently put it!"
"You should still help him..."
"Not until he apologizes!"
"INCOMING!"
"For wh-OH SHI-!"
The explosion knocked you and the rest of your team out.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"Uhhgggg..." You moan softly into the cafeteria table. Red Rose had left shortly after the... training, you were hesitant to call it. Citing that she had to return to the front. Rei had then promptly hauled you and your team to a healer to get patched up and then led you all to the cafeteria.
Said woman was eating heartily of a steak that you hadn't even known the cafeteria served, grinning amusedly at your pained whimpers. "Don't worry. I've known several fliers over the years. A bit of practice and you'll be far more at home in the air than your performance just now." She ignores an incoherent moan from you and continues. "That beam cannon of yours is also rather impressive. It takes you too long to charge up right now, but once you can fix that little kink you should be good. And while I don't know what that little barrier trick of ours does, I have the feeling that it's important to something. I have you roughly a week before your ready for the front lines. In the mean time you should focus on improving what you got." She downs the last of the steak in one massive go, before polishing off the rest of her food. A deep drink later, she asks another question that floors you.
"Also, have you all decided a name for your squad yet? It's a bit of tradition amongst support teams for MGs across the front."
You blink. Really? It seemed a bit weird and really informal, even amongst the already-informal nature of your little 'posting' as it was. It seemed a bit too free-form for a military assignment.
"Why would they-"
Your half formed question is answered by Samael. "It has to do with morale. A Mahou Shojou is like a super soldier. Think Spartans from that old video game. When a MG's support units takes the field, it almost always means their MG is with them and out there as well. So, in order to differentiate them from other - regular - squads, they're given custom names. When really infamous ones show up, it tends to end with weak-willed enemies running in mass. So it's become a bit of tradition to name a MG's squad with something."
Huh. Interesting bit of trivia there.
"Anyway, you have the rest of the day to your selves. Tomorrow you'll be getting up with the rest of the soldiers at their usual times around Oh-Five-Hundred. So you'll be able to get a bit more sleep today then yesterday. If you need anything, I'll be near Barracks 23. I have some reading I need to catch up on." And with that Rei leaves you.
So, You think to yourself, now what?
[]Go to bed Early. That training Session kicked your ass.
[]Look around the base. There might be other Magical Girls here that you don't know about.
[]Get to know your teammates. You'll be working with them in the future, better to know them.
[]Name Team? -Write in-
(Character Sheet Unlocked! James Robert! Level 4!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Jessica Robert! Level 0!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Samael Balier! Level 0!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Michael Rodriguez! Level 0!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Richard Nixon! Level 0!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Magical Girl Red Rose! Level 1!
New shop Item Unlocked!)
Met Red Rose! +5XP
Got your as kicked by Red Rose! +2XP
Bonded with James! +1XP
Equipped as 'Little Sister'! +1XP
Total XP Gained: +9
A/N Will add updates to shop and new character sheets soon.
You stare at the cup of orange juice in your hand for a moment. Name eh?
You were probably going to regret it but... "To Team GEAR." You raise you glass, holding it at eye level as the rest of your team looks at you. You stare at them resolutely while they process what you said. If you were going to be stuck with the damn nickname that spawned off your sister, then the rest of them could share the misery.
With a chuckle, Richard raised his own glass, "I can get behind that." And with that the dam broke. It took mere moments for the rest to raise their own glasses, and join in the toast, and with it, sealing their agreement to the team name.
"To Team GEAR!"
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"So, what's everyone's plan for this afternoon? I'm going to be looking into how the front is going, just to keep an eye on how the war is." James says.
Jessica is first to respond, "I need to return a book to the library. I'll swing by there, then return to the barracks for some shut eye."
"Need to bring my equipment in for a few repairs from the training exercise today. Since someone left me hanging." Richard looks to you pointedly, and you frown at him. It's is own damn fault for causing the whole mess.
Michael and Samael both roll their eyes before announcing their own plans. "Sam needs to swing by the base store. He's running a bit low on supplies for his hobby and I'm going with to pick up some rubbing alcohol for my med kit."
They then all look at you in expectation. Plans? Hm... "I want to meet the other Magical Girls on the base. So I'll probably be wondering around."
James nods at that. "Understandable. If I remember correctly, there's only five on base right now. Including you, Goddess Gold, and Red Rose. The other two are Truth and... Life Drinker I think? I can't remember her name to save my life. Anyway, Truth is probably over with the Regular grunts giving out sword lessons, and Miss-Whose-Name-I-Can't-Remember, tends to hang around the helicopter pads with her pet. When your ready, we should all be done and get ready for another long day tomorrow."
You nod and thank him, as GEAR leaves the cafeteria, giving you a chance to hunt down the other two Magical Girls currently on base.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
First stop you make is at the Sword Fighting grounds: the sound of clashing metal fills the air as groups of infantry swing blades at one-another. Human soldiers held an advantage against the legions of demons that acted as the Unified Darkness' main attack forces, but that tended to hold only until they closed the range: a gun didn't do very good when your opponent was literally in your face, swinging a blade almost half your size at you.
So many soldiers had taken up some form of melee combat, the most popular being bayonets, with sword coming in a close second.
Jessica herself had a rapier that she carried with her, though you didn't know how good she was with it. Or how strong it was.
Towards the northern end of the base though, was a place set aside for soldiers to learn whatever melee weapon they chose, should they take one up. Red Rose was known to give combat lessons, as well as a number of other Melee-oriented magical girls. And instead of taking it as an insult, a lot of soldiers took them up on the offer.
The reason? A Demon Foot Soldier was almost twice as physically strong a baseline human. This meant that they could swing their steel swords with enough strength to dent the titanium armor that had become standard issue with each blow. So, in return, a Human had to be skilled enough with their chosen weapon to negate that strength advantage. And one of the best ways to do that was to fight someone with a similar power advantage that wasn't actively trying kill you.
Thus the lessons.
In the center of this training ground, roughly a dozen soldiers with various weapons surrounded a rather demonic looking girl.
Magical Girl Truth was a rather average MG, but was semi-famous for her love of training human soldiers. Her massive blade was known to be nearly indestructible and her armor, if it could be called that, was enough to repel small-arms fire. Her powers you didn't know, but it was a wide-spread fact that she had an aura that prevented people from lying when around her.
How it went about this wasn't disclosed, but it was known to effect literally everyone and everything. Even Demons couldn't escape the truth-causing effect, which had lead to more than one Dark General to be publicly executed during a fight by their lords. The most notable of which had been the Battle of Las Vegas, when a Dark Lord had invaded the famous city in order to use it as a staging ground for his invasion of the rest of the Earth. Truth and Red Rose had broken into their headquarters with about a half dozen other magical girls, and she had asked the present Dark Generals if they had truly served their lord with all their might.
When both of them said yes, she asked if their lord was in the room with them on reflex, and got both to say no. Considering the Dark Lord they were supposed to be serving was in the room with them it had led to a few moments of awkwardness that ended with the Lord killing his two generals and Red Rose killing him while he was indisposed.
Back at the training field though, Truth was swinging her sword with a single hand, sending the soldiers she was sparring with flying in groups of two or three a swing. The whole time she was doing this, she also taunted them with insults in Russian and Korean. Weather or not they even understood them was up for debate, but it motivated them enough to come at her again.
She sent them flying shortly thereafter.
"Halt! That's enough for now. You all look thoroughly abused right now." The soldiers stopped trying to fight again, some moaning in frustration, while others sighed in defeat. "You're all getting better. A bit more work on timing your attacks and I might have to start using both hands to keep up. Anyway, I'll let you all go for now so I can meet the new girl." She turned around, facing you directly as the soldiers picked themselves up off the ground. From where you stood, she was easily taller than you. Heck, she was almost as tall as Jessica really. "So... new girl eh? Red Rose has been ranting about how cute you are. And I have to say: Your definitely perfect little sister material. Wanna go home with me?"
"Eh?" That wasn't a question you were expecting. "Umm... Rei kinda already claimed me as hers?" Your not sure what else to say... but the pouting frown on what was definitely an evil-looking face was jarring as hell, "Umm... what exactly did you mean by that anyway?"
The pout doesn't go away, but she replies. And you quickly wish she hadn't: "I'm a bit of a sis-con. But none of my little sisters ever want to do anything with me."
Oh, you wonder why. Shell shocked, you thank your lucky stars that Truth had somewhere to be and didn't stick around much longer.
Trying to scrub the image of Truth 'glomping' you in the middle of the base, you half-stumble your way to the Air Field where they parked the helicopters.
Once there you're met with another shocking sight.
Namely: Magical Girl Carnage. Another relatively mediocre magical girl, but known as the mot psychotic fighter for the Unified Light. And number six on the Popularity Polls for MGs.
She was known for her love of battle, and the focus all of her powers had on it save for one: the ability to summon a powerful dragon.
The White Dragon wasn't a dragon in the true sense of the world, being a purely magical construct. But it had all the same strengths as the Dragons that roamed the Local Dimensional Cluster.
Power-wise, Carnage wasn't very notable in any aspect. Instead she excelled in wholesale slaughter of the forces of Darkness. One on one, she was hard to take down. One on a thousand, she was virtually unstoppable. And it was also thanks to her rather skewed personality that very few people actually interacted with her.
Why you were doing it was probably going to be up for debate for years to come.
"Oh? Someone has come looking for me? What does the little flower want?"
Her voice is husky and soft. The huge dragon behind her rests softly on the ground, cracking open an eye as you approach. Stopping barely five feet away, you sketch a jerky bow. "I- um... I'm the new girl. I was going around in hopes of meeting the other Magical Girls on base. I hope we can be friends..." The smell of blood is heavy around her. You can also smell a thick layer of soaps and perfumes, an obvious attempt to cover the smell of blood, but..
Carnage walks closer to you, bending over slightly in order to look you in the eye. The flower sprouting from her left smells slightly of decay and rot. But the perfume mostly masks it's smell, even at this range. "It's not often anyone chooses to seek me out. Even rarer one tries to befriend me. Considering most of them die." She smile would be kind if it wasn't for the hint of teeth. But... you could see a hint of sadness in her eye. "If you want to be friends, then fine. Come back here sometime after training and we can hang out. I'm not to be deployed again for another week." Her acceptance is surprising, and rather sudden.
And with that, she turns away from you, and promptly begins to ignore your existence.
Taking the dismissal for what it is, you promptly turn around and walk away your self. Doesn't seem like she was all that bad.
A bit before you had to be down for the night. You might be able to squeeze something else in...
[]Find Rei. Your curious about some things.
[]Find some of your teammates. Team GEAR is a thing now, and your the resident Magical Girl. Lets get to know each other.
[]Go to bed Early. Some more rest might be helpful.
+5XP Met Truth
+5XP Met Carnage
+10XP Total = 24 Current XP
(Character Sheet Updated! Jessica has a sword.
Character Sheet Unlocked! Magical Girl Truth!
Character Sheet Unlocked! Magical Girl Carnage!
Shop Items Unlocked!)
