Summit is smart and her abilities do allow her to understand a lot more than the vast majority of other Practitioners. It's the core principle her magic operates on, after all. Getting a BBM attack spell shouldn't be an impossibility, and there are at least two possible assistants/research partners. Night Sky, who can copy and adapt spells. And Scholar of Light, who can synchronize and refine spells.
That said, you don't have any objections on the self-boost/aggro-draw spell, do you?
I don't object to looking into coming up with our own spells based on those spells, just understand that whatever we get will not be the same spell as whatever we're basing it off of.
Honestly, Summit with any kind of buff spell is something to fear because of the number of attacks Summit could possibly instigate. Attack buffs make Summit hit harder while defensive buffs allow Summit to fight for longer either isn't good for her enemies.
Honestly, Summit with any kind of buff spell is something to fear because of the number of attacks Summit could possibly instigate. Attack buffs make Summit hit harder while defensive buffs allow Summit to fight for longer either isn't good for her enemies.
...dammit. I thought I gave Bard of Light the dodge-only variant of Auto-Rhythm.
You're missing something in your plan: A Magical Girl's spell list is heavily influenced by her theme. Warrior of Light has Deathblow because she's an incredible warrior in her theme. So having a critical hit effect fits with that and also acts as a call to the deathblow materia from FFVII. There's also the detail that it's a powerful spell for a Myth-level magical girl, Legend-Makers tend to have about half the numbers of Myth.
So if Summit studied the effects and put a spell together to replicate Boost By Modifier you might expect something with Base Damage of 2-5 and a Magic Modifier that isn't too far out of line with Panoply.
There's a decent chance to pick up a Light-based healing spell, probably at reduced effectiveness because of lesser existence.
For reference, there are a couple of Magical Girls that can yoink spells at full power from other MGs. Silver Hero and Night Sky. Silver Hero runs on just that effect and it alone makes her a top 10 contender, even with otherwise no defensive or evasive abilities. Night Sky has to earn them instead of just copying them, and she is the most powerful girl at Milidia (by raw power. The older of the Saber sisters is skilled beyond belief, and Madama Morte can kill most anything she can touch).
Edit: Beyond the Limits is a buff spell, but it doesn't linger. Victor's Rites turns all the corpses you've made in the last minute into zombies.
...dammit. I thought I gave Bard of Light the dodge-only variant of Auto-Rhythm.
You're missing something in your plan: A Magical Girl's spell list is heavily influenced by her theme. Warrior of Light has Deathblow because she's an incredible warrior in her theme. So having a critical hit effect fits with that and also acts as a call to the deathblow materia from FFVII. There's also the detail that it's a powerful spell for a Myth-level magical girl, Legend-Makers tend to have about half the numbers of Myth.
So if Summit studied the effects and put a spell together to replicate Boost By Modifier you might expect something with Base Damage of 2-5 and a Magic Modifier that isn't too far out of line with Panoply.
There's a decent chance to pick up a Light-based healing spell, probably at reduced effectiveness because of lesser existence.
For reference, there are a couple of Magical Girls that can yoink spells at full power from other MGs. Silver Hero and Night Sky. Silver Hero runs on just that effect and it alone makes her a top 10 contender, even with otherwise no defensive or evasive abilities. Night Sky has to earn them instead of just copying them, and she is the most powerful girl at Milidia (by raw power. The older of the Saber sisters is skilled beyond belief, and Madama Morte can kill most anything she can touch).
Edit: Beyond the Limits is a buff spell, but it doesn't linger. Victor's Rites turns all the corpses you've made in the last minute into zombies.
Assume that Deathblow is a starter spell... "Typical Myth" has N/A-200 on both Damage and MM, while Deathblow has 300 on the Damage and not-quite-defined on the MM. Possibly a flat 3, possibly something else. I digress. "Typical Legend Maker" has N/A-100 on both Damage and MM. Divide by 2 on the "Growth Affinity" modifier to satisfy the differences. Divide by 5 on the "Divine Favor" modifier to satisfy the fact Hydaelyn is a patron deity of Warrior of Light, so a better-than-usual spell is to be expected. And get the base damage 30 for the spell... That's close enough to pick Aggressive Absorption as a starting point, though it's a Hit by Level (hit more times) instead of a Boost-based (hit harder) spell. Honestly, assuming the formula for Spell-Boosted Boost By Modifier Spell Damage is the most advantageous one:
Total Damage = [(Spell Base Damage + Weapon Base Damage + Spell MM Roll + Weapon MM Roll) * (Spell MM Roll + Weapon MM Roll)]
TD = [(SBD + WBD + SMMR + WMMR) * (SMMR + WMMR)]
...Or at least the one where the first multiplier still has WBD and the second multiplier still has WMMR, then with the damage quotient described I'd give the spell base stats of Damage 10, MM 1/5 levels, and model it off of Aggressive Absorption thematically. Probably something like the following:
(Magical Girl Summit) Deconstruct
Deconstruct
-Overpower your Fuse ability, consuming everything around you. Targets everyone within the distance of Fuse ability, centered on Magical Girl Summit, multiplied by magic modifier roll.
Level 1
Base Damage: 10 (+10 per level)
Magic Modifier: 1 (+1 per 5 levels)
Affinity: Discovery | Implacable
Ability: Detonate | Disintegrate | Boost by Modifier
The spell should thematically progress towards greater degree of Collateral Damage. Possibly Omnipresent. An upgrade (or a modification) would instead make it work in a cone, giving one's allies a chance to remain unscathed... Or simply make the allies under the effect of Guardian Touch (so handy it can get Target by Modifier) exempt.
As for the possible other spells...
1) I still maintain it's entirely in character (and rather in theme) for Summit to pick up Warrior of Light's other spell, All Eyes On Me - or at least a variant with Taunt/Attack Draw that also improves her combat abilities. Sure, a 150/level MM boost to both attack and defense is too much, but 50 might be doable. Add Mana Charge to it as a high-level upgrade, say it actually becomes Attack Draw (and not Taunt) when Mana Charge is used, and it's even better.
2) I see our possible Fire-Affinity Flare Arrow spell has a similarly named Light-Affinity spell Flare Arrows on the Bard of Light's profile. Coincidence or inspiration?
3) Victor's Rites doesn't sound like a very useful spell in the situations Summit has been finding herself as of late, though I can see it moderately useful as a niche spell, since it's useful for both a delaying action (kill a few hundred demons and raise them to halt the horde of a few thousands from moving past you) and a flanking action (kill a few hundred demons to one side, order them to attack a horde/strongpoint from that side, while you move further or move to the other side to wreak havoc there).
4) Beyond the Limits from the description seems like a candidate for one or more of the following: One Turn Effect, XXX Turn Effect, One Shot, XXX Turn Cooldown. Possibly with a health cost, too. Still, it would need to be decently powerful in terms of a buff spell, what with those constraints. Hmmm. Could it be an Upgrade (improve levels of ability/weapon/spell) spell? That would be a decent one, then.
I was looking over things trying to think of stuff I could offer in the Shop and came to the conclusion that I messed up some of Summit's kit. Flawless Interruption and Unstoppable Blow are based around Intercepts but intercepting is usually a bad idea for Summit. That's fine in the big-bag-o-tricks but not fine when there's multiple abilities that interact with something an MG is bad at . Fierce Protector is also a bit lackluster.
Plan unfuck intercept stuffs: remove Flawless Interruption and Unstoppable Blow, change Fierce Protector to increasing RAGE bonus to 150% if an ally was harmed by your target.
Having a leveled ability that can't be leveled is also starting to feel a bit odd. Since I don't want to uncap Diamond mind and deal with thinking at x150 speed I was going to add Overclock as an unleveled sub-skill of High-Speed Combat and basically have it act the same way I've been writing it. That's more a bookkeeping matter than anything that will change mechanics.
More bookkeeping ideas: Practitioner as sub-skill of Peerless Explorer with a note that it applies to building spells, Brandcraft, Necromancy, Magic Binary, and Akashic scrying. Merge Skydance into Flight. Convert Diamond Mind into Overclock. Spoiler all the newb spells no one's using because Aggressive Absorption is a lot better at dealing damage .
Does anyone have a Protection-based shiny they'd like in exchange for the bits I want to tear out? Elegance is worth extra points. Or you could just demand I let you keep the intercept items anyway.
The issue is that Summit doesn't have Intercept as part of her 'kit' or theme. She's supposed to be a spotter and trickster, not a brawler. Earning Implacable made her a lot harder to overwhelm without doing much for her offense. At the moment she's been picking up a lot of spells due to a nudge from... never mind who. Anyway, Intercept isn't something Summit excels at because of her low damage output and it feels off that Protection would grant that Ability when she wouldn't be able to use it at that point in time. Add in that it has never seemed important because Summit is bad at Intercept and a retcon doesn't feel like a terrible idea. (I'm also planning to jam all the space-warping together soon-ish.)
Does anyone have a Protection-based shiny they'd like in exchange for the bits I want to tear out? Elegance is worth extra points. Or you could just demand I let you keep the intercept items anyway.
Placeholder
-When fighting together with allies of lesser growth than you, gain a free cast of Guardian Touch each turn.
This? It basically lets her cast a second Spell that has to be Guardian Touch while she fights with Story Makers, Myth Makers or people without a growth Affinity.
The biggest toy I want to get is something that only requires Training instead of EXP, and should be pretty easy to figure out with the crazy reaction time we have from the combination of High-Speed Combat and Diamond Mind.
I want to get Intercept (False) on Wave Force.
False Intercept doesn't do any damage, but having it on a spell means that you can block enemy spells by tossing your spell at theirs.
The thing is though, Wave Force has the Grand Dispel ability, which is three tiers of upgrades above the Spell-Cancel ability. This means two things:
If someone casts an offensive spell at us, we can use Wave Force to cancel their spell any time between when they start casting it and when the spell actually hits us.
In addition to our standard method of using Wave Force as our big offensive trump card, we gain the alternative option of using it to change a 1v1 fight into "Neither of us are allowed to use offensive spells". This results in the majority of the Top 50 struggling to even scratch us, because most of them use their regular attacks for dealing with mooks and their offensive spells for dealing with serious threats.
All we actually need in order to pull this off is some time practicing using Wave Force that way, but it will work even better once we buy the upgrade that turns Wave Force into a ranged attack.
I was looking over things trying to think of stuff I could offer in the Shop and came to the conclusion that I messed up some of Summit's kit. Flawless Interruption and Unstoppable Blow are based around Intercepts but intercepting is usually a bad idea for Summit. That's fine in the big-bag-o-tricks but not fine when there's multiple abilities that interact with something an MG is bad at . Fierce Protector is also a bit lackluster.
Plan unfuck intercept stuffs: remove Flawless Interruption and Unstoppable Blow, change Fierce Protector to increasing RAGE bonus to 150% if an ally was harmed by your target.
Having a leveled ability that can't be leveled is also starting to feel a bit odd. Since I don't want to uncap Diamond mind and deal with thinking at x150 speed I was going to add Overclock as an unleveled sub-skill of High-Speed Combat and basically have it act the same way I've been writing it. That's more a bookkeeping matter than anything that will change mechanics.
More bookkeeping ideas: Practitioner as sub-skill of Peerless Explorer with a note that it applies to building spells, Brandcraft, Necromancy, Magic Binary, and Akashic scrying. Merge Skydance into Flight. Convert Diamond Mind into Overclock. Spoiler all the newb spells no one's using because Aggressive Absorption is a lot better at dealing damage .
Does anyone have a Protection-based shiny they'd like in exchange for the bits I want to tear out? Elegance is worth extra points. Or you could just demand I let you keep the intercept items anyway.
The issue is that Summit doesn't have Intercept as part of her 'kit' or theme. She's supposed to be a spotter and trickster, not a brawler. Earning Implacable made her a lot harder to overwhelm without doing much for her offense. At the moment she's been picking up a lot of spells due to a nudge from... never mind who. Anyway, Intercept isn't something Summit excels at because of her low damage output and it feels off that Protection would grant that Ability when she wouldn't be able to use it at that point in time. Add in that it has never seemed important because Summit is bad at Intercept and a retcon doesn't feel like a terrible idea. (I'm also planning to jam all the space-warping together soon-ish.)
I feel that the time for "plan Dispose of Intercept" is past, because as she is now, Summit is anemic no longer.
On the other hand, Flawless Interruption and Unstoppable Blow could be merged with Inhuman Skill... As in give Summit one of those special snowflake 1-to-1 attack negation, ONLY IF SHE IS PROTECTING SOMEONE ELSE. And if you're feeling generous, make it implicitly useable at range. And if you're feeling extraordinarily, Christmas All Over Again generous, still retain that flawless interruption that guarantees Summit is never harmed WHEN NEGATING THE ATTACK ON SOMEONE ELSE. Even if the enemy has that "fuck Attack Negation specifically" kind of ability.
Fierce Protector might instead offer a free attack on the enemy who, again, attacked your ally, if you negated their attack.
If you're going the Overclock idea, give us an upgrade at Flight 20 prerequisite that allows it to grow WITH High Speed Combat. Problem with having our ability and leveling it too is solved.
So yeah if you want things elegant:
1) Fold Intercept into special snowflake 1-to-1 attack negation, ONLY IF Summit is negating an attack on someone else;
1a) Make Fierce Protector a retribution ability not unlike the one Furies had, keyed to negating attack on someone else;
2) Tie the growth of Diamond Mind/Overclock to Flight/High Speed Combat.
Edit: Reasons to merge intercept and inhuman skill:
1) Thematically close, as both work with enemy attacks
2) Summit has seen Furies and Major America, using a counter and a dodge-counter respectively, in the last three days.
3) Suits Summit more with a finesse approach
4) Higher tiers would have a handy "for another's sake" trigger condition, which again suits Summit
I'm not even insisting on the special snowflake 1-to-1 attack negation right off the bat. Make it a shop item.
Possibly go with multithreaded thought processes. Which lets her think of things without being interrupted by thinking or doing other things...but mechanically all that means is that talking or fighting doesn't stop her from having a dozen tangential trains of thought without distracting her. But still the same number of eyes, actions and limbs.
Possibly go with multithreaded thought processes. Which lets her think of things without being interrupted by thinking or doing other things...but mechanically all that means is that talking or fighting doesn't stop her from having a dozen tangential trains of thought without distracting her. But still the same number of eyes, actions and limbs.
Really experienced/skilled MGs can imitate the effects of High-Speed Combat without having the actual ability. Means that they're keeping track of that stuff without any magic helping them do so (and presumably would be able to keep track of those fast objects even when untransformed). Examples of this include the Goddess Four and the Old Guard.
I'm saying make Diamond Mind's effect be like that. Take it off the sheet completely and just know that she can think a lot faster than her High-Speed Combat level would suggest.
Mock-up of changes and planned upgrades. (No, I'm not planning on dumping all the levels. And once-per-action is an upgrade from once-per-turn.) I've been awake for 24 hours, what am I doing, aaaaaa.
Abilities
Skydance
Level 18
-Summit can fly at 170 mph. In aerial combat you may use half of your attacks.
High Speed Combat III
-Summit can track targets moving at 270 mph.
Overclock
-Improved ability to think, plan, and learn at high speed.
Aegis Field
Level 20
-A protective Barrier. Governs Resilience (+50). Adds 200 Health per level. Gives 20% of incoming Damage as bonus Resilience.
Fierce Protector
-Increase RAGE bonus to 150% if your target has harmed one of your allies. May enter RAGE state instantly if an ally is injured.
[possible] Guardian Touch Extender
-Mortals continue to have the effects of Guardian Touch even if you cast the spell on others. Note that Magical Girls are beyond mortals...
Inspect
Level 15
-Summit can merge items into herself to add their abilities to her Panoply. Some items may allow for new Abilities to be purchased. Higher levels allow for larger items to be absorbed. Summit may also discover Abilities by holding magical items for one minute or remaining within an immaterial effect for the same duration.
10cm radius per level.
Crush (Melee)
Rain of Blows (Melee)
Double Hit (Melee)
Multi-Slash (Melee)
Intercept (Melee)
Laser
Danmaku (Ranged)
Double Tap (Ranged)
Multi Shot (Ranged)
Ray (Ranged)
Ordnance (Ranged)
Collateral Damage
Anti-Infantry
Manufacture
Heavy Caliber
Adamatine
Instant Manufacture
Burn
Spell Boost
Omni-Caster [May be selected multiple times to boost level]
Rend
Homing (Ranged)
Anti-Air (Ranged)
Horrorslayer
Vampire
Peerless Explorer
-Improves Discovery Abilities. Immune to Blind and derivative Abilities. Allows improving assimilated Abilities. Targets of a Discovery-based attack take an additional 200 damage. Allows casting and development of spells as though you possessed the Light, Blood, and Magic Affinities, May be improved.
Practitioner (Omni)
-Allows the creation and upgrading of spells. Furthermore grants the ability to learn and use any form of magic.
Upon Wings of Imagination
-The Panoply is sword, shield, and support. Body Modifiers do not restrict actions.
Machine Talk
-May talk and listen through radio waves directly.
Discern
-Summit can tell at a glance what Affinities something possesses.
Argus Watchfulness
-Summit can see in all directions.
(I should make a shop item that combines Argus and Discern...)
Shifting Level 7
-Summit may choose to teleport somewhere within 700 meters during her action.
Elsewhere Level 15
-Summit may expand or contract distances 150 meters during her action
Gating Level 10
-Summit may teleport herself to a known location, this takes (distance in Kilometers/1000, or 12 -- whichever is less) minutes. Summit may transition between adjacent dimensions in her Local Dimensional Cluster.
Halting Level 15
-Summit may block space-altering effects within 75 meters of her. Doing so prevents her from using her own space-altering abilities
Stabilize -Rather than teleporting immediately with Coiled Spaces Summit may choose to create a portal to her destination point. This portal remains open until Summit passes through it or stops channeling this Ability.
(Future) Coiled Spaces
Level 1 To break your prison you had to understand it, to seize its key functions. When you picked up the pieces you were intimately familiar with the applications. Now you are the center of those paths and walls.
-Allows substantial space warping actions. Spend an action to teleport 50 meters, contract or expand distances within 50 meters, or to stop and prevent space warping within 50 meters. Extended and careful use permits travelling to an adjacent dimension. This ability may be channeled to create a portal that others may use, passing through portals you have stopped maintaining expends the portal
Ceaseless Warrior
Level 21
-Years of fighting have strained your mind and body, but you are all the stronger for it. Stuns and mental effects do not restrict Summit's actions. +500 Health per level. Reduce End Damage by 60%. Each time you are attacked increase your Attacks Per Turn by one, up to the level of this ability, bonus attacks granted this way are shed after combat ends.
Inhuman Skill
-Spend two Actions to nullify an opponent's action.
Skillful Dodge
-Sacrifice four moves to avoid an attack.
Self-Repair
Level 10
-Spend an action to regain 120 Health. 10% chance of removing negative status effects each use.
Serene In Adversity
-Aura effects and Environmental effects can't damage you.
A Law Unto Yourself
-Take 50% less damage from sources that posses the Rule Affinity.
To Defy the Gods
Divide incoming damage by the first digit of the attackers Existence bonus.
[Special: This also divides the Resilience granted by Aegis Field.]
No Strength In Numbers
-Attacks against Summit are resolved individually.
Note: This prevents a team attack bonus and lets Summit use her resilience against each attack individually
Unless you plan for someone to be capable of negating this ability, better to just remove it completely and make soft mechanics that aren't on the sheet know that Summit can think faster than her HSC level suggests.
Allows casting and development of spells as though you possessed the Light, Blood, and Magic Affinities, May be improved. Practitioner (Omni)
-Allows the creation and upgrading of spells. Furthermore grants the ability to learn and use any form of magic.
Fierce Protector
-Increase RAGE bonus to 150% if your target has harmed one of your allies. May enter RAGE state instantly if an ally is injured.
[possible] Guardian Touch Extender
-Mortals continue to have the effects of Guardian Touch even if you cast the spell on others. Note that Magical Girls are beyond mortals...
Guardian Touch Extender sounds nice, but it isn't exactly a good name.
Fierce Protector modification (and the explicit points made once before about RAGE significantly narrowing one's focus to the extent casting spells or having elaborate plans is all but impossible) loops directly back to your complaint about the fact "She's supposed to be a spotter and trickster, not a brawler". Soft Mechanics would reduce her right back to the brawler.
Stabilize -Rather than teleporting immediately with Coiled Spaces Summit may choose to create a portal to her destination point. This portal remains open until Summit passes through it or stops channeling this Ability.
(Future) Coiled Spaces
Level 1 To break your prison you had to understand it, to seize its key functions. When you picked up the pieces you were intimately familiar with the applications. Now you are the center of those paths and walls.
-Allows substantial space warping actions. Spend an action to teleport 50 meters, contract or expand distances within 50 meters, or to stop and prevent space warping within 50 meters. Extended and careful use permits travelling to an adjacent dimension. This ability may be channeled to create a portal that others may use, passing through portals you have stopped maintaining expends the portal
Considering that our 1/turn action Shifting possibly will have 1500m distance limit on it, I suggest considering starting this ability off at level 5. EDIT: Sorry, missed that you said it won't start out at level 1 anyways.
That said, here's a couple of abilities if we decide to fold the abilities into Inhuman Skill instead.
Inhuman Skill
-Spend two Actions to nullify an opponent's action.
For Another's Sake -When negating an attack at an ally, make a free counter-attack at the enemy whose attack is being nullified. Ignore any abilities that would prevent the attack on an ally from being nullified. Supreme Protector
-Alters For Another's Sake to make the counter-attack Unblockable (as in cannot be intercepted or negated in turn);
-May negate an attack at any ally you can reach in a single turn.
Explanation is the following:
1) Flawless Interruption as before, "take no damage when intercepting an attack on someone else", effectively makes the action of "intercept an attack on someone else" an effective attack nullification, with the possibility of damaging the enemy. This allows us to use it as a path to join it to Inhuman Skill.
2) Fierce Protector gets folded in as a counter-attack. Previously it was "+75% damage when attacking a target that means to harm something other than yourself.", at a cost of 350 EXP. We're improving damage by making it a counter-attack, and not an Intercept - though we're narrowing its effects from being useful in any mass engagement, to being useful only in defense of others. That said, making it with greater damage is also a possibility.
3) Unstoppable Blow, one that allowed us to force an Intercept if our attack was negated, gets folded into making the counter-attack Unblockable on the second tier of the ability.
Finally, the improvement of Supreme Protector makes our attack negations broadly useful, allowing us to negate attacks at our allies from across the battlefield.
Edit: It's been weeks since last post... And the promised "spoiler all the newb spells" has yet to happen.
So here's my guess on Mana Bolts in particular: It seems like a moderately typical spell that is only just within a Story Maker's reach... And it has no base damage. Being a ranged spell without base damage it's suddenly losing out on both Full Auto and Ray as possible effects... Leaving it to progress (likely) through Double Cast line to Omni-Magic at level 20-ish. But what happens next? My guess is - Auto Max Charge.
On a side note, a DMG 50 spell that solely progresses through Full Auto line is at high levels roughly equivalent to MM 75 spell with Omni-Magic and AMC.
Possibly go with multithreaded thought processes. Which lets her think of things without being interrupted by thinking or doing other things...but mechanically all that means is that talking or fighting doesn't stop her from having a dozen tangential trains of thought without distracting her. But still the same number of eyes, actions and limbs.
Flawless Paladin taps her chin, "You're already getting shoved back to work. Sheesh, that's a rough schedule."
You keep yourself composed and avoid responding to her comment. Letting things slip to her could be insidiously dangerous.
"The wonders of having non-combat skills, Pally. If bean-counters had their way she'd spend all the time they could manage tucked away like Machine Code." Steel Monsoon comments.
"Isn't that what's happening now." Flawless points at you, "You're a lot more sullen than before. It's because you've gotten worn out from keeping watch and all the work they've made you do. You should just take a break and maybe catch up on some combat practice with us today."
Ugh. Somehow she noticed that you were treating her differently. Steel Monsoon at least seems to support you.
"I still have a lot of things to work on. It give me time to stretch my control over my weapon, so I'm not neglecting combat entirely. And most of the time on watch was very quiet." you say.
"Great." Steel Monsoon smiles, "Not to argue with you, you would know you best, but if you do need to take a day or afternoon off it's just fine. You do seem kinda tired and becoming familiar to the other girls is a worthwhile goal."
"There's a bunch of activities running. Fencing, culture, math and physics, astronomy, meditation, and even a flying sportsball thing." Flawless Paladin adds.
You nod and dart out of the building, taking to the air immediately after passing through the doors.
----
The lines of damaged tanks have a large number of people gathered around, 122 by your count. An apparatus is sending intermittent sparks into the air at the front of the rows, with an odd pipeline running from a tent to it. People run to and from three different tanks and a pair of skyhook cranes are lifting one of them on top of over-engineered jack stands. Several people are tapping the two that aren't being lifting with jet-black chisels.
Your workshop setup has been dragged near the sparking ...thing. It doesn't look to have been touched and is wrapped in red tape. You descend near it and walk towards the tent, it looks like it's controlling the blatantly magical object and is as good a place as any to start.
Someone squawks on the radio about an intruder by the foundry, followed by another person yelling that it's just Summit and two others mentioning a 'builder girl'. You notice that many of the people running back and forth are putting chisels into rows and pulling from the opposite end. There are also a few working with some sort of surveying equipment and metal barrels.
The apparatus is definitely magical in a non-aligned way. All the rows of black chisels are arrayed so the line radiate out from it and the surveyors are arranging their items to some precise point from it. There are five hovering masses of yellow-hot metal that are periodically bathed in sparks. You think it's meant to make that metal easier to work with.
The tent has a tightly coiled wire made of smaller coils leading right to it. A hum emanates from the wire and non-distinct magic flows through it.
Some kind of collector? Why a tent? On reflection it's probably a relay to… stabilize the magic? Which still makes it a likely point to find someone who knows who's in charge.
Inside raises further questions. You see Yuki using a stylus on some metal slips and a grey-haired man squinting at some tubes that connect to the wire. The far half of the tent has a table set up with three younger guys in Counter Force uniforms handcuffed to that table. They don't seem to being doing much, the youngest and the largest have dropped their faces and appear to be trying to sleep. On the left a boy with messy black hair seems familiar somehow, he's leaning heavily on the table.
A rope with strips of rune-covered papers encircles the three handcuffed boys. A few wires lead from that to the tubes that… ah. That explains where the magic is coming from. Whatever process is being used must be efficient since you don't see any magic from the donators.
"Hello Summit. You'll probably want to bug Vincent, he jumped into one of the tanks to help kick out a panel or something." Yuki says after a brief glance your way.
The boy perks up, "Summit? Save us please, they're draining our life to power-."
"Nothing to see here, Kei is just being a pest again." Yuki interrupts sharply.
That's Kei? Something about him feels off. The face and height are correct when you look at them, but he's missing something. It's like part of him is missing.
You walk towards him, needing to handcuff them into staying is worrying. This will give you a better grasp of what's happening and how.
"Dont!" Yuki commands and tries to jump up as you cross the rope.
The boundary is palpable as you cross it. A sense of numbness coats your skin and you feel light-headed for a moment. Then everything starts feeling heavy with mounting intensity.
The vision through your Panoply fades, followed by your weapon flowing to the ground to support itself. You reach out with your hands to support yourself with the table as your Panoply can no longer lift you.
No sooner have you caught your balance then your transformation departs. Your arms spasm and you slip to the ground.
There's a squealing noise from behind you and the numbness vanishes. This is followed by a scattering of pink sparks around Kei's feet and a sharp metallic sound. He runs over from his side of the table and lifts you up. You notice that his handcuff chain snapped.
"Are you okay?" Kei asks from inches away.
A sharp thought that the scratches on the metal cuff were put there by his own strength has you twitching in an uncoordinated fashion for a moment. Then an odd sense of grounding appears. He's not an enemy. And you're only weak, slow, and small because you haven't chosen to become strong.
"Could you put me down!" you squeak.
"Good news everyone! Kei's girlfriend didn't ruin anything. In fact she give a consistent enough surge to jumpstart the foundry ahead of schedule." a man says behind you.
Kei cheers at that. You tap his arm insistently. He doesn't seem to notice until a hand comes to rest on his shoulder.
"Oi." Yuki intones from behind Kei.
With exaggerated care you're set down to sit on the table. As soon as he lets go you draw upon the power within your soul to assume your Magical Girl Form.
That's much better. You can see again, and the magic is back. The largest cadet (Courage) has lifted his head up to squint at the competition and the smaller one (Metal) still appears to be asleep.
Ahead of you the wire coils are softly glowing and the older technician is pulling gloves on. Yuki pulls Kei away from you and glares at you both.
"Was there any thinking going on here?" she hisses.
"I'm sorry. I was curious and couldn't tell what was happening. Still can't actually, how did that drain magic so quickly?" you explain.
"It makes you numb, so it really sucks to be in there. That makes the magic get sucked up faster." Kei mutters.
"Ugh." Yuki scowls.
"Give them some slack. She's saved us some time by barging in." the older tech gingerly starts unscrewing something. "I'll calibrate the field to something hopefully more pleasant, so she won't have to worry about her buddy suffering."
"Tom, don't encourage him." Yuki says in a deadpan tone.
"Mm-hmm." the tech, Tom? Nods.
"Where did the mana drain come from? The brandcraft doesn't seem to do anything." you ask.
"I know how, but I'm not allowed to tell. It's Magic Science!" Tom grins.
"It's not Brandcraft, that part just defines the area to focus the effect. Walking into it was stupid." Yuki adds.
You direct your attention over the tools on Tom's desk. After careful inspection you have no idea how those items are supposed to work. Most things have two distinctly colored wires snaking out with the ends clipped somewhere. Right now he's taking one of those items apart.
"I shouldn't have joked about being in danger." Kei says while looking at his feet.
"That's right. She's basically a jet fighter so you should think about what you say in that light."
A thought occurs to you, "Why not have a Fairy provide magic?"
Tom chimes in again, "Because that would be bad for them. Since they breathe magic a system to draw it out will either get slammed in a big pulse if it draws peaks or choke them if it draws from base."
"Yep." Kei says, "The long term stuff gets us strapped in, otherwise some Fairies help out."
Yuki nudges Kei.
"Ah. And I'm sorry for the trouble and for grabbing you, I'll leave you alone in the future." he finishes contritely.
He looks rather down, you feel an urge to explain yourself. "I understand your concern in that circumstance, what worried me was noticing how strong you had made yourself."
"Oh…" Kei looks at the broken handcuff on his wrist. "Whoops."
"You're being nice now?" Yuki blinks at you, "Weren't you, oh nevermind."
"What did I miss?" the taller boy at the table lifts his head.
"My fool of a brother complained at Summit, who proceeded to enter the boundary and almost killed everyone here via magic explosion." Yuki says icyly.
"The exploding issue has been solved for more than a year, at worst some bits would melt." Tom pulls something apart with tweezers.
"Say thanks Billy, she gave us a reprieve." Kei says.
The boy sits up and gives a thumbs up gesture at you.
"Tom, you're really starting to get on my nerves." Yuki turns to address the man fiddling with a desk of arcane tools.
"If you want to pick a fight with a Magical Girl I don't recognize, well, could you do it outside?" Tom says without looking up from his tools.
"That reminds me." Kei fishes a Datamine out of his pocket. "Your thread has been talking about you a lot."
You skim the indicated post. Seeing yourself mentioned as 'seriously badass' is gratifying to read. For a moment you wonder if any of this got put in your threat sheet, you doubt it because of timing. If that had been updated more frequently some of the inaccuracies would have been addressed.
A couple things come to mind, like how your posts had been authored by an intelligence agent or that you had no idea what nukes looked like. You think better of mentioning them.
"Thank you. It's nice to be recognized."
Yuki spins back to point at you. "Tom, you don't have the context for this. Kei has been working on a mind control spell, last time the two met Summit expressed concern over possibly being affected by it, just a minute ago she didn't want him near her. If you want to make teasing comments because you think they 'fit' you should think about that first."
"I never charmed her!" Kei protests.
That's something to think about. Kei felt like a different person to you when his magic was suppressed. Now that it's back he…
Stands out? Your face feels a bit warmer as you connect incidents. It's not like the sensation when you were watching James practice, but it's similar. Closer to the way Thorn Warden caught your eye when he was introducing himself.
You hope Winter Queen and Summer Queen don't find out about this. Having them needle you into speaking to James was embarrassing and confusing, you'd probably hear another incomprehensible suggestion about flying and 'implications' if they learned you had become attracted to another boy.
Come to think of it, James had magic from his Magical Girl, so all of them had magic. Adding that made things different somehow. It also explained why you only noticed when you were in your Magical Girl form.
"Don't you dare charm her to prove it." Yuki says rapidly in response to Kei lifting his hand.
Tom furrows his brow as he looks up at you.
"Uhh…" Kei emits an uncertain sound.
Which meant that you had been treating Kei differently. Once you transformed you had wanted him to approve of you and given him more deferential treatment. And you didn't have to worry about getting bones broken by magically-enhanced strength once you were Summit. You should say something about this, he apparently had been punished earlier.
What to say?
"Kei didn't charm me. I find his magic attractive." you say briskly.
That should do it.
Yuki keeps her face stern, but pauses a bit.
Kei raises his hands, dropping his Datamine, "Thank you!"
Behind you Billy shakes his head and lets himself rest on the table again.
Tom gives a thumbs-up, "Great job! You should kiss him to celebrate figuring that out."
**Steal him, he's pretty
You can feel more blood rushing to your face.
"Right, you said Vincent was running things? I should go find him, thanks for guiding me." you babble out before Shifting out.
There's an odd sense of pressure as you vanish.
----
Scanning over the rows of tanks and people working on them gets your mind back in order. You spot the red figure of Vincent carrying an armful of scorched electric equipment out of a tank that had its turret removed. He hurls the items over the side and ducks back in while four other men work on a warped bit of armor.
Vincent must have been inside one of the tanks earlier. You fly over to land near his tank.
The red-skinned demon-turned-officer leaps out shortly after you touch ground."Ah, Summit. Glad to see you here."
"Yuki says you're directing things. It's a lot busier now than it was yesterday."
"True enough. I am coordinating efforts. It is a matter of some urgency to get these up and running, please focus on one at a time and let us know which ones you're working on. That way we can avoid getting in each other's way as much." Vincent says.
"You aren't going to point me at anything?"
He taps his chin. "Two reasons. First I expect you alone to be nearly as fast as this new team promises to be. Second is that I think you are uncomfortable with me. For now that is enough reason to let you continue to work how you wish. Perhaps later I will need you to follow a plan."
For a moment you aren't sure what to say to that. Then an idea comes to you as you take in a tank that had most of its front melted.
"I have an idea to modify tanks. Would that cause problems?" you ask.
"I lean towards recommending not to change things. What did you have in mind?"
"I think the hovertank I examined earlier could be scaled up to let a full-sized tank fly. There's enough room at the base to make it stable and act a bit like the treads when moving." you explain.
Vincent blinks, "That's… worthwhile to say the least. Please start with that so our teams can take a look at it and get some practice."
You nod and take to the air again. After a moment you declare your intention to work on a particular tank.
----
Some time later you step back from the trio of tanks you had worked on in parallel. Lines of runes carved into the rock emit higher fountains of sparks as you charge them with your own magic. Until it reaches a threshold and everything flows in at once.
Some reach with your Panoply lets you turn on one of the tanks and set it to hover. It smoothly raises several meters into the air to let you armor over the hover plates. Every little piece that you had rearranged works in tandem to keep it steady.
It is both amazing and infuriating. You've given the power of flight and mirrored your Panoply's rays for the secondary weapons. But everything is a compromise. To be stable introduces drag when trying for high speed. To be armored makes it so heavy it has to be armored. And the loader will have a terrible time doing anything if it tilts heavily.
And the less said about visibility the better. As soon as the cameras get broken the driver will be working off of two narrow windows and the commander's periscope.
At least you've managed to pick up speed. Your Panoply has gotten more powerful and responsive, as well as sharpening your talent at modifying parts. This has made it quicker to remake on the spot instead of searching through other vehicles for a useable component.
What used to take more than an hour was finished in minutes.
Almost finished. You still need to get the other two hovertanks charged with magic.
----
While you're working on your second batch Yuki arrives. Or stops to stare at the first three tanks hovering in the air near you at any rate.
"That's… well, putting aside that. How am I supposed to inspect your work when you've parked the tanks 4 meters in the air?"
You turn to face her while your Panoply keeps working, "I could bring them back down for you. When I finished I checked how well the flight worked and just left them mid-air so they would be out of the way."
Yuki looks up a them hovering tanks, "Makes sense. How would someone other than you fly these?"
"I added a pedal. Push it up to ascend and push it down to descend."
You reach out with a tendril of Panoply to direct one back down.
"And why did you do this instead of fixing them like yesterday? Is this how you've gotten faster?" she asks intensely.
"Vincent okayed it. And it's easier in some ways to get the hovering working, yes." you answer.
Dirt shudders as your directed tank touches ground.
Yuki shakes her head slightly and mutters, "Either the crews will fight to use these or they'll fight to avoid using them. If it works at all." she looks you in the eye, "You need to avoid my little brother, Kei."
"I didn't mean to cause trouble-" you start to apologize.
"No. Not that. My little brother is a bit of a prodigy, but he doesn't have the common sense of a moth flying into a bonfire. Furthermore he's obsessed with Magical Girls. If you keep running into him he'll do something stupid and try practicing his new mind-warping spell on you. I've got a resistance to it, and I think it's weaker when he's not crazy about the target, but you could end up with him magically changing your psyche so you tolerate the fool. I can't imagine you want someone editing your mind."
That feels like an over-reaction. You think it over for a second, stopping work while you do so.
"I see you get my point." Yuki comments.
"When I got back to Earth I went through two sessions of radical ego diving. Together that was more than 24 hours of letting a team edit my mind. That didn't change me very much, and I'm sure that Kei doesn't have the power to do more than that." you reply.
Yuki's jaw drops, "What the fuck. How can you say someone dug around in your head and barely care?"
The memories are rather hazy. The time between when you broke your way out of the prison artifact and when you woke up after your first treatment is a blur. You aren't even sure how long it took. What you do recall is being terrified.
"It helped me. I was suffering before that." you explain.
Yuki rubs her forehead and walks toward the tank to inspect it.
A few minutes of her poking armor plates with a stylus later she returns, tapping her holster.
"On a different note, have you seen the improvement you helped make to my blaster?"
"No" you answer.
You weren't even aware you had improved anything for her.
Yuki grins and pulls her weapon out, "It's really cool. I can move and spin the output muzzle of my blaster. Only a few dozen centimeters right now, but I can shoot around corners now."
As she talks a tangle of magic faintly glows from the barrel of her blaster and spins around, always pointing at the ground.
"Interesting. Can you see where you're shooting?"
"That part isn't working well. It needs a better lensing effect than I'm using right now." Yuki reholsters it. "I need to check the diagnostics and other computer controls to see how your hovering interacts with them. Wish me luck."
----
As the morning goes on the hovertanks you create are pulled away for testing and practice as fast as you finish them. Four hours of effort has seen you put fifteen tanks afloat and the experience of rapid construction is starting to wear thin.
Which is why you found Vincent again and explained that you were going to catch up on missing sleep. The demon thanked you and promised to thoroughly check your modifications. One of the technicians he was talking with however…
"Please help Team GILDED," he bows on his hands and knees towards you, "I know you're tired, but we need your talent."
"I'm worried that I'll either start making mistakes or fall asleep on the spot if I don't rest. It's no good for combat either." you explain.
"But you're a builder. Vincent, please back me up here."
"I will not and should not. You must petition other commanders if you need Magical Girls to do your work for you."
Your gating finishes soon after that and you drop yourself back to the dorms.
Waving your card and entering brings you to a major gathering of transformed MGs. Raging Heart, Destined Lightning, and one of the Saber Sisters (with Space magic) are glaring at a pair of the Emissaries of Light, the latter two look rather sheepish. Almost a dozen others are watching with rapt attention.
"I'm really sorry, something came up and I had to go." Caster of Light says contritely.
"It's not just that by now. How about them way you've pushed so when we're sitting right behind the wall your group gets to stay on the couch here and watch movies? Teleporting is neat, but now I have to worry you'll decide to run away when we need you most. And you still haven't said why you needed to sneak away." Something Saber says.
"We will henceforth pledge to also guard the walls. But when Hydaelyn requests our aid or our silence her Emissaries will grant it." Scholar of Light answers.
She almost theatrically glares at Caster of Light, "But it will not be secret if we must attend to other duties. We will inform you."
Destined Lightning leans forward a bit, "You also stuck your locator under your pillow. Don't try to act like you it wasn't also your idea."
"I only did it because I thought you would be mad that I had to leave." Caster adds.
Sakura Saber scowls and puts her hands on her hips.
Raging Heart points at you, "You were there right? Would you say people almost died because your backup didn't arrive?"
"Many elves did die, but other reinforcements were able to arrive promptly and prevent disaster." you answer.
Caster flushes red and looks to the ground. Scholar frowns and scans the room.
"It may have been better that the Emissaries were delayed. One of the champions sent had a spell that destroys Light." you add.
Scholar starts talking almost before you've finished your last word, "See? Hydaelyn was looking out for us. She's wise and delayed us to disrupt the plans of the dark."
"Just admit you were wrong already!" Sakura Saber shouts. "Apologize for pretending you were here when you had run away."
"I didn't run away!"
"It would be nice if Hydaelyn looked out for the rest of us." Destined Lightning says bitingly.
Getting further embroiled into this wasn't what you had planned. You walk through the lobby and duck into the cafeteria to pick up some lunch, Caster of Light following after you. It's rather empty there, it appears most of the people that would gather around food were instead watching the drama near the entrance.
The refrigerator-sized machine pushed in the corner reminds you of something. And you've seen enough Brandcraft in the last couple of days to give the kernel of an idea.
"Do you know how the ice cream machine works?" you ask your follower.
"Yeah! A little, you clean it out and add water with a powder mix. Then you wait for the temperature to get low enough. After that you just pull the lever to dispense the ice cream." Caster of Light answers.
"I thought it didn't work anymore though, so you can't make ice cream anymore." she adds after a moment.
You draw your Panoply out to pull the machine towards you and start carefully opening panels. A few arrays should chill the basin consistently and quickly.
Caster just stares as you remake the machinery. A few minutes later you've disconnected the refrigeration and turned parts of the cooling fins into Brandcraft waiting for a charge. Thankfully it takes a small enough jolt that you can charge them from your Panoply directly. No need to make a pattern of feeders to boost the energy.
A little bit of work to screw everything back together and you're done. Once you clean the hopper and plug the machine back in it should work fine.
"Are you done? Does it work?" Caster of Light asks.
"I think so. I'll need to clean it and put some mix in it to be sure."
She hops in place a couple of times before starting to talk quickly, "Great! I know where the mix is and I'll help."
She darts into the kitchens and says "ice cream" a few times while in there. Less than a minute later she returns with a bag in her hands and a floating orb of water trailing after her.
"I can do some useful magic too." Caster declares before slicing the bag open with her bare hands and dumping the powder into the orb of water.
You'd better get the machine clean before she decides to add the mix anyway. You lean back into your Panoply and snake out tendrils to grab a towel and some water. A little vigorous scrubbing clears out the gunk to an acceptable level. Finishing with a clean towel and water you motion for Caster to add her magically-controlled orb of ice-cream mix.
The machine makes a dull whirl as it works. Caster hops from one foot to another before ducking back into the kitchen for cones. A chill emanates from the vents as your arrays pull heat into themselves. In short order you feel the cooling effect lessen as it reaches the desired temperature.
"I think it's done now." you prompt Caster, holding you hand out for a cone.
Caster hops forward and pulls the lever to dispense her own cone, "I added mix so I get to go first." she declares, "That's the rule."
She takes a lick from her tall cone and grins.
"Hey! Everyone! Summit fixed the ice-cream machine!" She shouts.
The lobby gets very quiet for a moment, Caster gives you an empty cone, the sound of a dozen feet rushing echos into the cafeteria.
Sakura Saber appears right next to you with a corona of pinched space. She grabs a cone from Caster and queues behind you as you finish taking your serving of ice cream.
"Ice cream? Ice cream." she sing-songs.
Several other Magical Girls follow in a rush, then a trickle of support staff. Soon the room is filled with almost a dozen Magical Girls and the same number of officers scattered about.
"How did you fix it?" Sakura Saber slides next to you and leans an elbow on the wall.
"I adapted an array that draws in energy to cool the vat to a specific temperature." you summarize.
You unwrap the paper from your cone and finish eating it. These are rather small cones, another one would be nice even if it isn't quite as creamy as you would like.
"That's awesome. I heard the last repair guy said it was broken and needed to be replaced." Sakura Saber gives a thumbs up, "What do you think about Scholar of Light? You were supposed to have instant backup there but they ran off."
You run the morning's battle through your head, "It could have been helpful or it could have been a disaster if her group had arrived."
She frowns at that, "Trust them. You know when to keep your head down and they can avoid trouble too. We're all here to help."
Sakura Saber darts to the back of the perpetual line that has sprung up in front of the ice cream dispenser.
Another girl, a short girl with blonde hair in a bun, waves at you with her free hand, "Thanks for fixing it. I spent days setting up a fortress and was disappointed that the machine broke while I was gone."
You wave back slightly, then walk over to a trash can to discard the paper.
"Oh." she pulls a card from her pocket, "I'm Magical Girl Dwarven Overseer by the way, even if I don't spend much time transformed right now. And I already heard who you were."
"Is mystery girl being social now?" Prisma Drake briskly walks closer to you, "I wanted to know if you've seen any of the Magical Boys they're keeping at the other base."
"What?"
Raging Heart covers her face and Sakura Saber starts giggling.
"It's simple. While the Counter Force recruits us on the basis that we have awesome power we aren't the only magic-holding people that get recruited that way. There's some young males that have an interesting talent too. They can't transform or get crazy strong like we can, but in a lot of ways we're in the same boat of needing to fight to survive.
"I feel for these champions. They have it hard. Long have I ached to embrace them tenderly as beloved companions. But they keep us segregated for some reason. Are any of them cute?"
Sakura Saber's giggles grow stronger and Raging Heart's face grows a bit flushed. A few of the officers facepalm.
"H-how would I know?" you deflect.
"Elementary, my dear Watson. Floral Glory had the hots for you, which means you're into dudes." Prisma Drake says triumphantly.
"That is hilariously reliable." Destined Lightning mentions from behind Prisma Drake.
"Um…" you run through things to say with blazing speed, the world slowing while you try to figure out what you're thinking and want, "I met a few and two of them were good-looking. The third was pretty young."
Prisma Drake pumps her fist, "Ha! I knew it! You should bring them here. I'd like to meet them and ...talk." she wiggles her eyebrows, "Ninja of Light wanted to talk with them too."
"Ahem." one of the officers stands up and points her finger at you and Prisma, "You know damn well why the TS cadets are segregated. And you'll get punished if you subvert this."
"Spoilsports. Thanks for the ice cream Summit, I wish I could visit the guys without getting yelled at, like you can."
The silent figure in armor takes a seat and brings a tall ice cream cone to it's mask. The helmet flips up to reveal an ordinary-looking young women's face beneath it.
She takes a bite of her ice cream, then scowls at you.
"I can tell you're looking at me and I don't like it." she says flatly.
The buzz of conversation ends.
"She's not looking at you, her head is pointed in a different direction entirely." Caster of Light offers. "And she fixed the machine for us."
Dark Steel frowns, but doesn't reply. She turns around and faces a corner so you can only see her armor before continuing to eat her ice cream.
The talking picks back up in a moment, just in time for Reinforce to swing in with her arms draped over Night Sky's shoulders.
"Is there any left?" Night Sky chirps happily.
The line parts for the newcomers and Night Sky skips up to you with Reinforce following right behind.
"Thanks Summit! You're the best."
Reinforce nods slightly.
"And your magic is pretty neat, but it's a bit noisy for adjacent magic the way you did it." Night Sky adds before devoting her attention back to her ice cream.
"Thanks? I didn't spend a lot of time on it." you offer
"Hmm?" Night Sky hums and stares at you.
"I wasn't sure Dark Steel was human until a minute ago." you say softly, "I thought she was a tame Nightmare like-"
Reinforce's wings bristle. You trail off.
Night Sky swallows her morsel, "Like who?"
You direct your gaze away from Reinforce, "Nevermind. I'm going to get some rest, I missed a bunch of sleep last night."
"But I want to know! What tame Nightmare?"
"Please don't be rude. She did fix the ice cream maker for you." Reinforce pats Night Sky's shoulder.
On further thought there will probably be plenty more soft-serve later. You give a small wave and duck out of the room, Scholar of Light runs after you.
"Wait, I wanted to tell you something." she calls quietly.
You turn around to hear her out.
"Um, I was getting picked on a little bit when you got everyone's attention. Thanks for that. I'll try to do you a favor if you need help or something later. And you can tell people I owe you one." she says while fidgeting, "Does that make us even?"
"Shouldn't you owe Summit two favors then?" Raging Heart darts out of the cafeteria, "Or you should let her know what you really owe her for."
Scholar of Light groans, "Fine. I also owe you for keeping things together while I was occupied."
Scholar shoots a dirty look at Raging Heart and strides away. Raging Heart moves to slightly lean into your personal space.
"I'm prying a bit, but I think you should visit Dr. Talon when she gets back. Every time I've met you I've seen sorrow and fear in your eyes." she says in a low voice.
"I've been in therapy already. And I'm not scared."
"Dr. Talon isn't like a therapist. You don't need to lie down on a couch or anything, she just talks with you and you can be sure she'll keep things secret. She can even set up videocalls with your parents if you're getting homesick."
Raging Heart pauses after that and claps her hands over her mouth, "I'm sorry." she says softly.
"I've had a long day." you say before Shifting away.
----
After a short soak you refresh your transformation, draw the curtains, and slip into your own bed to rest. Sleep arrives quickly.
Bloodsport
Once again, Summit charges through the demon ranks at the edge of South Staging Ground, picking some off and forcing the others to chase after her, only to turn on other demons in frenzy as she disappears. With nearly a quarter of Staging Ground in disarray, hundreds of demons are dead or dying in chaos, and best of all, nobody is paying any attention to the two invisible soldiers Summit left with the beacon at the edge of the area, where a short burst of speed would allow anyone to clear the distance to the still-open lava dome entrance. As Summit is rising into the air to get a bead on situation, she notices a flash of light from the direction of the beacon. Fearing the worst, she immediately Shifts to the beacon site.
(Summit: 2440 Teleport backlash damage
Summit: 12200 - 2440 = 9760 Health)
She was right to have been worried. Lysander Cook is pinned to the Beacon with the butt of the spear held by a Magical Girl (Darkness, Light, Legend) while Mohammad Shah is lying to the side, clearly thrown off with some kind of blow. Worse, you can see a Demon Commander and a group of demon footsoldiers surrounding the beacon location. Despite demons covering their eyes, Dark Magical Girl does not, immediately spotting Summit:
"Do nothing or they die, Anna!"
Summit freezes in hover above the site, a part of her mind noting that the demons she was whipping into frenzy instead congregate on her location now, visibly calming down. A greater part of her attention however is devoted to the Dark Magical Girl who effortlessly twirls her spear to push Cook off the beacon and hold him at spearpoint.
"You have shown yourself to be too much of a nuisance today, Anna, so listen well. You may run, and I will cut them where they are before hunting you down. You may duel me, and whatever happens, they live - this I promise. Or you can surrender, and I let them run away. Your choice."
**Never again!
Summit can feel that the powerful adversary in front of her is deadly serious, but snarls inside at the mere suggestion of surrender. Only understanding that lunging at the Dark Magical Girl in front of her will do nothing but get everyone killed, holds her in place. As she lowers herself to the ground, Summit grinds out an answer:
"I will not be chained in Hell. Never again. I will die before I surrender - and I will kill before I die."
A flicker of emotion (disappointment?) shadows the face of the Dark Magical Girl, followed by a brief moment of inattention. Then she raises her spear and takes a step away from the beacon and the Counter Force soldier. Both Lieutenant Shah and Sergeant Cook vanish into thin air, just before the demons surrounding the spot start lowering their arms to watch the scene of impending deathmatch with eager eyes. A brief burst of attention - at heightened speed of perception - allows Summit to determine the Magical Girl had been shot at with the soldiers' shotguns, but that left not a single mark on the Magical Girl herself.
**She's tough.
"I am Magical Girl Starlancer, Anna. These are the rules. The flight is prohibited - and I will be taking measures to ensure that. This is single combat - feel free to kill anyone who interferes, but don't expect ANY help from your allies. Using that spell that you broke your cage with is prohibited - and I will kill them both if you try. Now, don't resist. Twilight."
(Twilight: N/A Base Damage, +167 Dice = 167 Damage
Wonderwall removed by Spell-Stop! Ceaseless Warrior stacks set to zero!
As the Dark Magical Girl's spell washes over Summit, a wave of darkness with points of light appears around her from nowhere, utterly draining the well of strength of her Panoply and forcing the defensive spell on her to break down. Simultaneously, Anna feels her magic be ripped from her and captured in the tip of Starlancer's spear, bound by the spell she uttered.
"As I said. No help from your allies. Now, land, Anna. You are too late anyway," Starlancer gives an order, and starts taking measured steps moving her away from the beacon. Summit touches down, noticing that the gate of lava dome is closing - that the Dark Magical Girl in front of her was correct. She then feels the space warp around the spot, dropping off several runestones (Earth, Chaos) that give off a pulse.
It was unpleasant. Summit could feel her Panoply bound somehow, incapable of propelling her through air. And yet, reaching further, she felt that there was potential in her Panoply she had yet to tap into. It would have to be enough.
This is the spot where there would have been a break in updates in order to have a combat and experience plan. Starlancer would start her attack in two turns, advancing on Summit while throwing her spear, most likely resulting in the latter's demise. Here's the EXP gains list for the "update":
+50 EXP Killed ~400 Demonic Footsoldiers
+50 EXP And 5 Demon Commanders
+150 EXP Things Gone Wrong
+10 EXP Big Damn Heroine?
+25 EXP Met Magical Girl Starlancer
+5 EXP Deathmatch Imminent
+5 EXP Mission Success No Longer Possible
506 + 295 = 801 Total EXP
1) I've asked and got confirmation from @kelllogo before posting, in PM:
Ramming Speed is basically a charge attack. I throws Summit in a straight line at her target and covers her in a very powerful defensive field. It can still work under no flight even if it throws her at an aerial target (unless the "no flight" effect stops things like bullets and thrown weapons).
2) Due to @kelllogo expressing their dislike to Crush proccing both on weapon-vs-weapon part of Intercept Conflict and on winner-vs-resilience part of the Intercept conflict if it wins, I'm only using the x3 Crush modifier on the weapon-vs-weapon part of Intercept Conflict.
3) Melt is a stronger version of Burn, "with better chance of body damage modifiers" - implication that Burn can also do them.
4) I'm denoting start of every turn with the name and configuration of the panoply. It is then followed by the turn-based effects proccing at the beginning of the turn description.
Drawing a portion of the power she hadn't before, Summit reconfigures her Panoply as she launches herself - not directly at the Starlancer, but beside her: "Ramming Speed!"
(Ramming Speed: 1700 Damage, Dice Negated, -850 Not Aiming At Her = 850 Damage
Magical Girl Starlancer: 990 Base Resilience, +429 Dice, +990 Defensive Roll, -1485 Juggernaut = 924 Damage Reduction
Attack Ineffective!)
Summit suddenly accelerates, her own spell allowing her to momentarily ignore the power of the flight-inhibiting runestones. Caught off guard, Starlancer instinctively rolls to the side, barely evading the lunge, but is unable to react in time to prevent Summit from slamming her Panoply into the ground.
(Exploding Panoply: 1040 Damage, Dice Negated, +520 Ramming Speed, +100 Crush and Burn, +200 Light of Discovery, +186 Fight Smart, -620 Indirect Attack, x3 CRUSH = 4278 Damage
Magical Girl Starlancer: 990 Base Resilience, +124 Dice, +990 Defensive Roll, +330 Not Facing It Directly, -660 Caught In Explosion = 1774 Damage Reduction
2504 End Damage
50% Polaris Armor
1252 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Starlancer: 8000 - 1252 = 6748 Health
Burn Triggers! 80 Damage Per Turn!)
The ground explodes in all direction with red-hot stone fragments and concussive force, catching Starlancer and throwing her off to the side as the shockwave and shrapnel overtakes her. Yet, even tumbling in mid-flight, she launches her spear at Summit in retaliation, who attempts to swat the projectile down.
(Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +167 Dice, -600 Thrown Back By Explosion, +300 Legendary Power = 5467 Damage
Intercept!
Exploding Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +100 Crush and Burn, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 4020 Damage
4884 End Damage
60% Ceaseless Warrior
1954 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 9760 - 1954 = 7806 Health
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (2 Extra ATP))
The spear thrown at Summit very nearly drills through her Panoply as if it thirsts for blood, and yet the explosion from the collision is enough to shift it off course, allowing the attack to graze Summit's side rather than pierce it outright. As Summit is attempting to grab the offending object, it dissolves into thin air, only to reappear in the Dark Magical Girl's hand. Both combatants ready themselves for another bout, Starlancer making several quick steps back towards the beacon to discourage further acts of wanton destruction by Anna. Both of them spare a second to eye the other one warily after the exchange.
In the meantime, the demons have congregated in a tightly packed crowd all around the beacon site, guaranteeing that the possibility of Shah and Cook slipping out, slim as it was even with invisibility, is reduced to zero. Summit uses a brief burst of hyperfocused attention to ascertain that her allies are still inside, and cannot escape on their own. It is at that moment Summit recalls her spar with another spear user - with Red Rose - that happened shortly after her escape from Hell. Recalling the training session, Summit chooses the shape of her weapon and her next move.
Turn 1 End
Turn 2: Red-Hot Spear Panoply (Crush, Burn, Rain of Blows)
Summit assumes a combat-ready pose, shifting her Panoply around to form a spear of her own. The spear is covered with alternating orange and black bands across its shaft, and its tip is glowing an angry glow. Upon seeing it, Starlancer's face turns into a scowl and she begins to say:
"What kind of mockery is this?!"
Summit capitalizes on this and lunges forward with the opening moves of the combo Red Rose used on her that day, boosting her perceptions once more. In her state of hyperfocus, Summit observes everything slow down - or rather, her own reactions are sped up enough that she can see the combat clearly. Summit makes note of the ways her own imitation combo falls short of Red Rose's - and yet, the opponent in front of her is clearly not even close to being her equal in skill, let alone that of Red Rose. In this state, she easily picks up on, forces open, and takes advantage of all the minute openings in the Dark Magical Girl's guard - openings Summit herself had never given to Red Rose in the first place.
As Summit's imitation combo is getting to the final stage, Starlancer - pressed heavily by the assault her own skill had not chance against - suddenly releases her spear from one hand to recall it to another, in an attempt to score a strike and ward off Summit. Her attempt comes far too late to change the outcome.
(Red-Hot Spear Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +390 Red Like Roses, +100 Crush and Burn, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 8310 Damage
Intercept!
Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +259 Dice, -200 Pressed Hard, -200 Off-Hand, -300 Opposed By Legendary Skill, +300 Legendary Power = 5459 Damage
3668 End Damage
60% Ceaseless Warrior
1468 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 7806 - 1468 = 6338 Health
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (3 Extra ATP))
Dark Magical Girl's leg is pierced right through by the glowing spear, searing the wound shut and cooking off all the muscles in the area. Starlancer lets out a shrill scream of pain and stumbles back, barely able to use her now-lame leg. The arrogance and anger at percieved mockery in her eyes are gone, replaced by pain and dawning fear. Summit slams Halt in the area and presses on her attack.
The demons surrounding the site of duel are no longer jeering as they were mere seconds ago, the decisive wound scored in the deathmatch forcing them to reevaluate the outcome they thought clear.
Turn 2 End
Turn 3: Spear Panoply (Crush, Double Hit, Rain of Blows)
"NO! Ascalon!" Legend-affinity Magical Girl stumbles back, wincing with every step. Her cries are unanswered. The demons around the area fall silent, their wariness of their ally replaced by wariness at both magical girls currently in the circle.
"No! Why?.. NO! Anna, stop! Twilight!" Starlancer's eyes are no longer fearful - what they show is utter terror. She launches her spell, and throws her spear at Summit twice, to no avail.
(Twilight: N/A Base Damage, +237 Dice = 237 Damage
Mythril Spear: Attack Negated by Inhuman Skill!
Mythril Spear: Attack Negated by Inhuman Skill!
+3 stacks of Ceaseless Warrior (3 Extra ATP))
Summit walks through the cloud of darkness without any concern, and swats aside the spear launched at her with contempt. Then she launches into her final assault, guided by her battle-honed instinct that was paid for in blood.
(Spear Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +390 Tranquil Fury, +200 Implacable, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 8610 Damage
Spear Panoply: 1040 Base Damage, Dice Negated, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +208 Rain of Blows, +390 Tranquil Fury, +200 Implacable, +200 Light of Discovery, x3 CRUSH = 8610 Damage
8610+8610=17220 Unified Damage
Intercept!
Mythril Spear: 5600 Base Damage, +299 Dice, -400 Lame, -300 Stares Death In The Eye, -100 Opposed by Inhuman Skill, +300 Legendary Power = 5399 Damage
10147 End Damage
50% Polaris Armor
5074 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Starlancer: 5114 - 5074 = 40 Health
Mythril Spear: 0 Intercept Damage, +511 Dice, +5399 Punch-Through, -400 Lame, -300 Stares Death In The Eye, +300 Legendary Power = 5410 Total Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 680 Resilience, Dice Negated, +826 Reactive Field, -100 Accepting the Blows, +500 Resistant to Darkness Effects, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 1606 Damage Reduction
3904 End Damage
60% Ceaseless Warrior
1562 Final End Damage
Magical Girl Summit: 6338 - 1562 = 4776 Health
+1 stack of Ceaseless Warrior (4 Extra ATP))
Starlancer falls, with Summit's Spear piercing her breastplate and pinning her to the ground. Lethally wounded Magical Girl coughs weakly, tasting the blood in her mouth and seeing the edges of her vision turn dark for the first time since she awakened her power. She look up at her enemy.
Summit pulls out Starlancer's spear out of her calf, seemingly without a care - not for the wound, not for Starlancer, and not for the demons surrounding the arena. Then she speaks dispassionately:
"That was Red Rose's combo, and you, you are no Red Rose. And you never will be."
The last thing Magical Girl Starlancer sees is her spear sundered in twain, the fragments vanishing right afterwards in the shower of orange light of her opponent.
Turn 3 End
Turn 4: Autocannon Panoply (Collateral Damage, Multi-Shot, Full Auto)
As Starlancer expires, Summit feels her magic surge within her once again. She rises in the air, her panoply unfolding from a spear to a multitude of autocannon turrets, training themselves on the frozen demons.
"Are you still here?"
The demons break and run, hounded by explosions wreaking havoc all over the battlefield. A moment later, two Magical Girls Summit recognizes (Light, Destruction, Myth, and Light, Magic, Myth) appear near the beacon, and Summit's internal radio hears Commander Black's order of withdrawal. Summit and her allies aren't bothered as they leave the battlefield.
----
Floral Glory's Nightmare
Turn 1:
"Extinguish."
(Extinguish: 1000 Base Damage, +33 Dice, +5000 Lightslayer = 6033 Damage
Magical Girl Floral Glory: 1920 Resilience, +798 Dice, +74 Rock On, -150 In the Open = 2642 Damage Reduction
3391 End Damage
25% Iron Body
2543 Final End Damage
Something pulls the breath from your lungs, the thoughts from your head, and the strength from your body. You're looking up at something that glares in your eyes.
A hacking cough tears loose from your mouth. Focus, your power will make you whole. Everything is going to get better.
It doesn't.
Turn 2: (Vitality Surge Negated by Absence of Light!)
You convulse as a shadow covers your field of vision. The dark angel! Her wings are spread wide as she reaches down and grabs you by the throat.
"Behold your champion!" she crows.
Fear gives you desperate strength-
-and a different memory briefly imposes herself on you - a memory of a taciturn girl telling you to let your magic guide you to victory:
"Let it take over. But make sure to remember what you needed."
-And you push on, making your magic flow and battering the enemy gripping your throat as you try to push her away with your palms:
"Master Spark."
(Master Spark: 4000 Base Damage, Dice Unavailable, +74 Rock On, +800 Easy Target, +300 Legendary Power = 5174 Damage
Herokiller Mica: 999 Resilience, +815 Dice, +10348 False Existence, -5174 Weak against Legend, -4629 Juggernaut,-200 Grandstanding, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 1859 Damage Reduction
3315 Final End Damage
Herokiller Mica: 11000 - 3315 = 7685 Health
Master Spark cast incorrectly! Does not unify damage, counts as two separate spells!
Master Spark: 4000 Base Damage, +343 Dice, +74 Rock On, +800 Easy Target, +300 Legendary Power = 5517 Damage
Herokiller Mica: 999 Resilience, +959 Dice, +11034 False Existence, -5517 Weak against Legend, -4887 Juggernaut, -500 Thrown Off, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 1788 Damage Reduction
3729 Final End Damage
Herokiller Mica: 7685 - 3729 = 3956 Health)
A beam of light from your palm pushes your opponent off of you, followed by another one, launched off your other palm. A sense of wrongness tells you it's not quite how the spell should have been cast - and yet, your enemy is thrown off, and is rolling on the ground, unable to stop. You wheeze and cough, your throat free once more.
Turn 3: (Vitality Surge Negated by Absence of Light!)
The dark angel gets its bearings and rushes away, its survival instincts taking over, and breathing out a spell of its own: "Herokiller's Mantle".
(Herokiller's Mantle increases Resilience by 1200! The next spell to strike Herokiller Mica is automatically negated)
You take another breath, and expel your fear and pain with the words that came to you before, though the feeling of wrongness persists.
"Master Spark."
(Master Spark: 4000 Base Damage, +357 Dice, +74 Rock On, +300 Legendary Power = 4731 Damage
Herokiller Mica: Herokiller's Mantle, hero
Master Spark cast incorrectly! Does not unify damage, counts as two separate spells!
Master Spark: 4000 Base Damage, +308 Dice, +74 Rock On, +300 Legendary Power = 4682 Damage
Herokiller Mica: 999 Resilience, +519 Dice, +1200 Herokiller's Mantle, +9364 False Existence, -4682 Weak against Legend, -5160 Juggernaut, +500 Speeding Away, -300 Hostile Legend Effect = 2440 Damage Reduction
2242 Final End Damage
Herokiller Mica: 3956 - 2242 = 1714 Health)
The dark angel is barely clipped by the first beam, with no visible result, and yet, the second one smashes into them, once again throwing off their flight and forcing them to tumble uncontrollably. Just as you are launching the second beam, you see a magical girl - the same one whose advice you followed - appear in the air above your enemy. She launches herself at the Greater Nightmare, wreathed in light, and with an utterance on her lips: "Ramming Speed!"
(Ramming Speed: 1700 Base Damage, +158 Dice, +1786 Spell Boost, +850 Death From Above, +10 Surprise = 4504 Damage
Herokiller Mica: 999 Resilience, +47 Dice, +1200 Herokiller's Mantle, +9008 False Existence, -8405 Juggernaut, -500 Thrown Off, +200 Bigger Object in Collision = 2549 Damage Reduction
1955 Final End Damage
Herokiller Mica: 1714 - 1955 = -241 Health
I think you've driven the point home, Summit)
And smashes into the enemy feet first, driving its neck and right arm into the ground, pushing the enemy from being thrown off and in motion, to being utterly still. As the taciturn girl steps off to pick up the halberd the dark angel held in the struck arm, the dark angel fails to react. You feel the vitality return to you, restoring your energy once again and washing off the lingering effects of the now-dead Greater Nightmare's spell.
(Vitality Surge: Restores 36% Max Health to all allies
Floral Glory: 15057 + 6336 = 17600 Health)
As the warmth carries you away from the nightmare turned dream, you smile in relief.
Omake End
----
You wake to the dull thuds of firing artillery. Some listening over the radios suggests no one is in particular distress and your Datamine doesn't have any alerts.
There are a few messages. First is that Thomas Tomson sent you a number 'to contact Rokusabe Kei and finish shared projects'. Next is a pair of messages from Machine Code, the earlier one demanding you work on a project for her followed shortly by a command to disregard the last message. Mageslayer sent you an abbreviated thanks for ice cream. And Floral Glory's number was apparently used by Shapeless Isle to say meeting you was good luck for her.
There's a lot of heart and thumbs-up icons in Floral's/Isle's message.
It seems you have a few moments to yourself. You set the Datamine to playing some music and consider the odd feedback your teleportations started giving you.
A few minutes of Shifting from one end of your room to the other lets you catch it. If you try to speed up the Shift and hold it tight you can make a glowing orb appear near you. Throwing pillows through teleports them to where your Shift was meant to lead. Touching the orb collapses it and teleports you smoothly to the destination.
It feels a little like Gating, so you spend a minute to make a path and try holding that 'open' as well. If anything, it's easier to make the orb/portal this way. Passing through leads you to the room in another smooth transition to the roof. Your shampoo bottle appears unperturbed by its journey. There's also the command trailer setting up in the front of the dorms again.
A quick teleport back down lands you in your room again. The portal entrance is completely gone from where you had stabilized it, you can't tell the difference from your normal Gating method. It's certainly useful, and you already have some ideas for how to take advantage of being able to send things ahead of you, but it's still not a way to make a permanent path through space.
This would be more comfortable for passengers, if you find yourself needing to move them by Shifting. As well as allow for others to be transported through your Gating method.
Now what to focus on?
----
Pick One:
[X] Bother Machine Code and see what she's up to.
[X] Find Steel Monsoon and see if your nominal team leader has any instructions for you.
[X] Fly back over to Moral High Ground and get a little more work done while you're free.
[X] Bother Signals for information.
[X] See if the Emissaries of Light are still awake. Sticking with them should make things easier in case of trouble.
Note: The other shoe will drop quickly for any of these options.
----
+225 EXP Hovering Behemoths
+40 EXP Ice Cream Social
+25 EXP Reflections
+1 EXP Late Update
[] Plan Aeon Hoverspam
[] Fly back over to Moral High Ground and get a little more work done while you're free.
-[] See about installing barrier generators on the existing hovertanks
[] [EXP] Save it.
Basically, see if we can get some mobile shield generators. Because barriers make everything better. It should force any attackers to come within melee range, letting anyone with a ranged attack (hovertanks, us, possible escorting soldiers, possible escorting MGs) pick them off while they approach, and then once in melee range they still have to attack the tanks.
No EXP spending, because while there are things we could buy like flight or gating, they aren't useful for playing field engineer or "squishy" (tank escort, and I use this term sarcastically, because we are probably tougher than the tanks. In the original the tanks had 1000 HP and 100 resilience. So less than a tenth as tough as we are right now.)
Of course, since this is a write-in I'm going to wait until I get approval from the QM to actually vote for it. This will also allow for public comments on what, exactly, could go wrong with this as oppose to more hovertanks.
That's Kei? Something about him feels off. The face and height are correct when you look at them, but he's missing something. It's like part of him is missing.
"Good news everyone! Kei's girlfriend didn't ruin anything. In fact she give a consistent enough surge to jumpstart the foundry ahead of schedule." a man says behind you.
Yuki spins back to point at you. "Tom, you don't have the context for this. Kei has been working on a mind control spell, last time the two met Summit expressed concern over possibly being affected by it, just a minute ago she didn't want him near her. If you want to make teasing comments because you think they 'fit' you should think about that first."
Which meant that you had been treating Kei differently. Once you transformed you had wanted him to approve of you and given him more deferential treatment. And you didn't have to worry about getting bones broken by magically-enhanced strength once you were Summit. You should say something about this, he apparently had been punished earlier.
What to say?
"Kei didn't charm me. I find his magic attractive." you say briskly.
"When I got back to Earth I went through two sessions of radical ego diving. Together that was more than 24 hours of letting a team edit my mind. That didn't change me very much, and I'm sure that Kei doesn't have the power to do more than that." you reply.
. Fierce Protector is also a bit lackluster.
