Lucky was scared.
When Humanity was first introduced into the greater Local Dimensional Cluster, virtually no one had taken them seriously. The wide-eyed idealists that spoke of how great the future was, of how they would rather remain isolated and in peace than enter into the Eternal War against the Darkness. No one had refused to take them seriously after Hell attacked them.
Lucky was scared.
The greatest power Humanity wielded is embodied by the strongest mortals of the LDC. Magical Girls. There are more varieties of Magical Girls than there are of purely vanilla humans, and each one of them, from weakest to strongest, are terrors on the battlefield. Force Multipliers that no other faction can match, save for very specific circumstances.
Lucky was scared.
Murder Machines. That is what they are called by the less informed. A title that, as inaccurate as it is, still manages to encompass how terrifying it is to see one on the field of battle. Even one of the weakest could plow through a dozen or more demons without breaking a sweat.
Lucky was scared.
Once you started looking up though... once you gazed up that pyramid called the Rankings, that acknowledgement would feel hollow. At the top of The List are the twenty most powerful Magical Girls in the world. The Top Twenty. Each of them alone could reshape a battlefield through their actions. And to see even just two of them come into conflict was more than enough to put the gap between Humanity and all others into stark perspective.
Luck had been scared.
Now she is terrified.
Goddess Gold dominates the battlefield, a burning star of annihilation that shatters everything about her. Dirt, mud, and rock floats through the air, kicked about by the forces at play. But even as it gravitates towards her, the infernal red light of Oblivion vaporizes it into nothing before it could mar Goddess Gold's perfect form. Towering pillars made of chains the size of warships rise into the air like the grasping tendrils of some ancient beast. She stands amidst the carnage as if the world is insufficient to contain her existence, an eager grin on her face as she marches against her opponent.
Standing alone against the Golden Annihilator is an almost pitiful star of shining white. The weapon of the Immortal Soul has grown large enough that waves fifteen feet high sweep forward in futile attempts to swallow the burning destroyer whole. Waves of red chase the ghostly afterimages of the Soul across the battleground, never quite managing to touch her directly. She dances on the edge of rationality, moving in unnatural ways that allow her to escape that which is inescapable. Chains try to wrap around a body that doesn't exist, light tries to burn away the form that isn't there.
A battle between Gods. One, so much
more than mortal understanding could define. The other, so much less than mortal understanding could conceive.
And above them, moving through the air in an intricate dance, are the three lights that rival them. The burning green dart that is Juggernaut Drive chases and weaves about the twin stars of purple that are the Solid sisters. Chains that manage to reach that high evaporate from the blows that so much as glance off them, moving at speeds that Lucky knows she has no real personal reference for.
"CORE PURGE!"
A Purging purple
Light envelops the battlefield as Anastasia - Solid Core - unleashes the shackles on her power. "That won't work this time..." Lucky mutters to herself, even as the green
Light plows into the radiant aura of its opponent, the divine shell of the Drive's Armor rendering the
Light of her foe moot.
Impact.
(Segarite Core: +4,500
Solid Core: 39,890 + 4,500 = 44,390 Health Remaining
Anarite Generators: +2,212
Solid Drive: 51,587 + 2,212 = 53,799 Health Remaining
Core Purge: -1,994
Solid Core: 44,390 - 1,994 = 42,396 Health Remaining
Perpetual Spear: 707,534 Base Damage, +106 Dice, +176,883 Ramming Speed = 884,523 Total Damage
Solid Core: 2,600 Base Resilience, Dice Negated, +1,300 High Speed Dodge Attempt, -1,950 Juggernaut, -650 Core Exposed = 1,300 Damage Reduction
883,232 Total End Damage
99% Indestructible Core
50% No Longer Human
4,416 Final End Damage
Solid Core: 42,369 - 4,416 = 37,953 Health Remaining)
The ground shatters. A tidal wave of dirt radiates outward from a singular point as the abused remains of the necropolis are sent rolling away. Had it been any merely mortal foe that blow had struck, their death would have been instantaneous. But death does not claim Solid Core, as a spear of light from the Purifier Beam races into the sky, attempting to turn the coming destroyer away. Something that only happens as the second purple
Light flashes across the ground towards the Juggernaut and takes a swing as they close in with the ground.
Something pops repeatedly as light flashes-
The wave of dirt evaporates with an earth shaking roar. The world is cleaved apart in a straight line, tracing Solid Drive's swing arc. The purple sisters chase the green back into the blue sky. The green destroyer outpaces them easily, arcing through the sky to duck into the growing forest of towering chains. Her pursuers don't follow. Instead they take a sharp turn to follow along the outside of the maze. But it doesn't help, as their target comes out of the maze on her own, plowing through a wall of chains like the very thing she was named after.
(Segarite Core: +4,500
Solid Core: 37,953 + 4,500 = 42,453 Health Remaining
Anarite Generators: +2,212
Solid Drive: 53,799 + 2,212 = 56,011 Health Remaining
Core Purge: -1,994
Solid Core: 42,453 - 1,994 = 40,459 Health Remaining
The Perpetual Spear: 707,534 Base Damage, +50 Dice, +176,833 Ramming Speed = 884,417 Total Damage
Echo of Peace: 574,871 Damage Reduction
Solid Drive: 2,265 Base Resilience, Dice Negated, +1,132 High Speed Dodge, -1,698 Juggernaut = 1,699 Damage Reduction
307,847 Total End Damage
75% Adamantium Frame
50% No Longer Human
38,480 Final End Damage
Solid Drive: 56,011 - 38,480 = 17,531 Health Remaining)
Solid Drive goes flying over the battlefield in an arc, even as the sound from their impact rings out like a bell being hit by a sledgehammer.
"...Shit! INCOMING!"
"GET DOWN!"
Someone tackles Lucky just in time for Solid Drive to slam into the ground not even a dozen feet away. A wave of dirt washes over the soldiers as the magical girl grinds to a halt. "Crap, Sega!" Michael jumps to his feet first and runs over to the down girl, even as she pulls herself from the ground. "Hey, you alright?"
"Anyone get the serial number for the airliner that hit me?" She's squeezing her eyes shut, not moving past her hands and knees.
"No, but it was bright green." Samael snarks as he kneels next to her. "You up for another round? Your sister is still up there and Juggernaut is dodging like a motherfucker.
Sega's eyes snap open at that, and she forces herself to her feet.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
"I am legit impressed right now." Juggernaut mutters just loud enough for you to hear. "In my entire career, the number of people that have survived me attacking them can be counted on one hand... but to survive a direct hit?" She looks at you, even as you stare warily at her waiting for her to continue the battle. "That number has gone up from zero to two in less than ten minutes... and here you are. I've hit you twice, once at full power, and you're none the worse for wear." Her hand twitches, sending the spear in her grip spinning into a new position.
You tense and adjust your own mid-air stance in preparation. "Sorry to disappoint Alex."
She blinks. "Disappoint? Oh no, not even close!" Her smile is brilliant, her stance one again relaxing as if you truly are no threat. "This is actually the best fight I've been in for a while. You're really impressive." She places a hand on her hip, waving lazily with the one holding her spear, "You're definitely Sega's sister. She always took pride in being the hardest one of us to hurt. 'So long as you're not in pain, I can take whatever they dish out to me', she'd always say. And now look at her, able to resist my spear. If you're the source of that new determination, I must thank you for being as devoted a little sister as she always said you were."
"Thank you." The chains around the pair of you suddenly crack and begin to shatter, signalling the end of Rei's battle with White Soul. "Look like we're the only ones still fighting... " The Purifier Beam slumps in your grip as you smile worriedly at Alex, "Would you be willing to surrender now please?"
Juggernaut Drive closes her eyes for a moment, visibly thinking it over... "Nah." She smiles at you, a trace of pride in her eyes. "I'm not so cheap as to bend over at the first sign of things not going my way. If you want me to surrender, you'll have to beat it out of me."
(Segarite Core: +4,500
Solid Core: 42,453 + 4,500 = 46,953 Health Remaining
Anarite Generators: +2,212
Solid Drive: 17,668 + 2,212 = 19,743 Health Remaining
Core Purge: -1,994
Solid Core: 46,953 - 1,994 = 44,959 Health Remaining)
You sigh. "That's what I was afraid of." Straightening, you flare the power that gave you wings. "Then let's end this and go home together, okay?"
Juggernaut Drive returns to her stance. "Definitely! Here I come, Solid Core!" Power erupts as she rushes you, an unstoppable force.
You try to dodge, but it's too slow.
(The Perpetual Spear: 707,534 Base Damage, 290 Dice = 707,824 Total Damage
Solid Core: 2,600 Base Resilience, Dice Negated, +1,300 High Speed Dodge, -1,950 Juggernaut, -650 Core Exposed = 1,300 Damage Reduction
706,524 Total End Damage
99% Indestructible Core
50% No Longer Human
3,532 Final End Damage
Solid Core: 44,959 - 3,532 = 41,427 Health Remaining)
The outward edge of her swing bats you towards the ground like a pinball, and you feel your body creak and groan under the force being exerted even as you recover enough not to slam headlong into the ground. Instead you float backwards as Alex follows you, taking another swing that you barely dodge.
The whole thing is like some kind of demented game of high-speed aerial
Pac-Man. With you as the ghost trying to run away from the empowered chomper of all. Your retaliating blasts of energy from the Purifier Beam are all that manage to hold her at bay, though they are easily dodged in turn by the far faster girl.
She swings, and you barely manage to dodge in time. You retaliate, but the beams go wide as she shoots off to the side. Is this what your life has become? An endless legion of bad jokes and references that most likely no one would get if any were moved out of context? Like fights being little more than a game of nuke tag?
Seriously, who would believe you if you tried to describe any of this?
"Head in the game, Ana!" Your attention returns to the battle at hand the same instant Juggernaut's spear manages to catch up to your face.
(Segarite Core: +4,500
Solid Core: 41,427 + 4,500 = 45,927 Health Remaining
Anarite Generators: +2,212
Solid Drive: 19,743 + 2,212 = 21,855 Health Remaining
Core Purge: -1,994
Solid Core: 45,927 - 1,994 = 43,933 Health Remaining
The Perpetual Spear: 707,534 Base Damage, +558 Dice, +176,833 Ramming Speed = 884,925 Total Damage
Solid Core: 2,600 Base resilience, Dice Negated, +1,300 High Speed Dodge, -1,950 Juggernaut, -650 Core exposed = 1,300 Damage Reduction
883,625 Total End Damage
99% Indestructible Core
50% No Longer Human
4,418 Final End Damage
Solid Core: 43,933 - 4,418 = 38,515)
The ground shatters yet again as you impact it, the strange feeling of it being softer than you once again hitting full force as you sink into the dirt from the kinetic forces at play.
Need to move—
A white clad... greave, you think? comes down onto your stomach with enough force to knock the air out of your lungs. Juggernaut Drive's mostly bare body fills your vision as she shifts her spear into a reverse grip and raises it above you. "Lets see if this works any better... Now hold still Anastasia!" Alex has a strangely happy grin on her face as the green blade hovers above you. Gritting your teeth, you clench your eyes shut and tense, waiting for it to fall.
The soft sound of a hand coming down on someone's shoulder cuts through the sudden tension. Your eyes open, and Alex turns slightly to look at who had just touched her.
Insight is a mess. Her left arm is completely missing from the shoulder down. Her blond hair is caked with blood and is plastered to her face, covering the eye on the same side, though you can glimpse a ragged wound through the tangled strands that has likely claimed her eye. Her entire body is covered in slowly bleeding lacerations to the point you're kind of surprised the girl is standing at all. Overall, she looks like a literal walking corpse... and that grin from before everything went to shit is somehow still there. "Your next line is..."
"
Who the fuck are you?
Who the fuck are you?"
Alex's brain almost visibly locks up as her own words are parroted back at her with the exact same inflection and tone she had spouted them out, just slightly ahead of her. Even your own brain skips a beat as what just happened registers in your mind.
You blink.
And suddenly, Red Rose is there as well on Alex's other side. A few small tears in her own outfit, though there is nothing more than a smattering of scratches. "Her name's Insight. She's a bit of a smug bitch." And the red shaft of her spear comes down on Juggernaut Drive's head with a meaty thwack.
(Blood Spear: 2,000 Base Damage, No Dice, +500 Distracted Opponent = 2,500 Total Damage
Juggernaut Drive: 165 Base Resilience, +98 Dice, -148 Stunned = 115 Damage Reduction
2,385 Total End damage
10% Steel Frame
50% No Longer Human
1,073 Final End Damage
Juggernaut Drive: 750 - 1,073 = -323 Health Remaining)
Juggernaut Drive drops like a sack of potatoes.
You blink up at the sky from your position underneath Alexandria Soft, waiting for the world to start making sense again even as the magical girl reverts to her civilian form.
-/LINE BREAK IDENTIFIED\-
Turns out you get to be the one to carry Alex. Insight is far too much of a mess to walk back to where the barricade had once been on her own, and Red Rose is helping her limp along. And you, being both too short to walk alongside Insight like a crutch, but still capable of flight, are saddled with carrying the unconscious form of your sister's friend to where the barricade used to be. The staging ground still located in the same general area where the sole entrance to the necropolis had once been. Though the place of rest for the dead is now nothing more than a pile of wreckage.
Hopefully none of the dead interned there take umbrage to that.
"Anastasia!" Sega almost lays you flat with a full body tackle. "Are you alright?!"
"I'm okay Sega," you grunt out as your sister locks her arms around you. "How is everyone else?"
"Surprisingly, everyone's alive." Rei chimes in from behind you, drawing everyone's attention to her. The Golden Magical Girl is none the worse for wear, her hair and armor still as immaculate as ever, though her stride is far more energetic then the lazy superiority that you were used to. A beaming smile on her face, she walks casually out of the wreckage of her own fight carrying...
Is that White Soul?
It is. The Immortal Messenger is limp in Rei's grip. Her unconscious civilian form almost pitifully small compared to what you remember from your own confrontation with her. She wears the same burial shroud that all the other recovered Magical Girls are wearing, balled up in Rei's fist like the handles of a shopping sack. Likely to keep the rotted cloth from ripping in her grip. "As far as I can sense anyway. I think Insight there is actually—"
"Shine!"
"Never mind." Rei
chirps, "I think we actually came out of this completely unscathed!" You stare as the normally unflappable person of mass destruction almost
bounces in place. "I can't
wait to get back to base and share this with Commander Mason!"
-Operation Soul Collector Results-
Magical Girl White Soul: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Grey Champion: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Solar Radiance: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Lunar Radiance: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Silver Hero: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Juggernaut Drive: Neutralized / Recovered
Magical Girl Red Rose: Intact
Magical Girl Brilliant Key: Intact
Magical Girl Insight: Near Dead Intact
Team GEAR: Alive, but exhausted
Magical Girl Solid Drive: Intact, but Worry Mode at 550%
"The Old Guard were where it all started. Anime and Cartoons are what built the idea of the Magical Girl, but it was them that defined what we were meant to become in this new age of magic. They are the ones to make us into the paragons we are now. There are stronger girls out there, sure. But even they measure themselves against the Guard. At the end of the day, they would all ask themselves, 'what would Silver Hero think of me? What would Grey Champion think? Would Solar and Lunar look upon me with pride, or disgust? Would Red Rose regret having to put me down if I turned? ... Would White Soul make my death quick out of respect? Even now I ask myself that. Those are the standards I hold myself to even now."
-Goddess Grey, 'Why do You Fight?'
Operation Soul Collector: Crushing Success.
+1,500 EXP The Indestructible Core
+99 EXP Upon that Battlefield of Gods
1,599 EXP Gained = 1,850 EXP Total
~Standby for Mission Select Screen~
"
