Hope.
There were as many as a thousand variations of that word amongst the varied languages, dead or otherwise, that Yuuno Scrya could recall off the top of his head. Twenty of them were also the word for despair as well.
They had been authorized to dig in this abandoned world, this graveyard that wasn't even acknowledged as an Unadministered World by the Bureau, because there was hope that what had started here could be undone here as well.
[Master, please do not get distracted.]
The sound of Raising Heart, his Intelligent Device and partner, drew him out of the lull that he had almost fallen into. "I'm sorry, Rai." He adjusted his goggles, lessening the pressure the straps were exerting on the sides of his head.
The young boy and his partner, a small red gemstone hanging around his neck, were gazing over several holographic screens. Displayed on them were several photographs taken by Raising Heart while they had begun digging at their new site.
[It is alright, Master.]
Yuuno leaned back into his seat, sighing as he glanced past the cluttering surrounding him and out the window in his office. More than fifty workers were currently combing the edges of a pit in the distance. Other mobile bases like his own were set up around the area randomly with search lights set up around the edges of the digging zone.
It made Yuuno's fingers twitch as he fought back the urge to go out and join the others in the dirt.
"Set an reminder for me to return in two hours." Yuuno gave into the urge to ignore his paperwork for now.
Raising Heart chimed in acknowledgment.
The blond eagerly left his cramped quarters/office and took in a greedy gulp of fresh air. Other rooms like his own were set up alongside his in a row, but he knew that they were empty – his team working at the moment.
The sunlight and fresh spring air caressed Yuuno as he made his way across grassy plains. Occasionally his foot would come across remains of concrete beneath thinner patches of grass, but Yuuno was used to it.
As he made his way up to the pit, one of his workers – one of the communications men - looked up and smiled at him.
"Ah, Mister Scrya, welcome back!" The slim, boisterous man grinned. "We thought we had lost you to the Friar's paperwork."
[I would have dug him out.] Raising Heart replied, taking the man's words at face value.
Yuuno laughed a bit. The boy was forced to look up at his Spotter. "That old codger hasn't drowned me yet. I've still got lots of years left in me, Julius." He replied with a smirk.
"Still, it's good to see you two are here." Julius gestured for Yuuno to draw near, showing him a projection of their progress. He pointed to a particular patch, illuminated by the holographic display. Several ID tags were clustered around it. "The underground shelter is heavily sealed. None of our devices can really make a dent in it."
"We can take care of that." Yuuno nodded authoritatively. He hadn't seen any obstacle that Raising Heart couldn't blast her way through. "Have you already done the analysis if the building itself will hold, though?"
"It'll be fine so long as you keep the blast focused." Julius replied. He glanced over to the gem around Yuuno's neck. "So no going all out this time, madam." He wagged a finger at the Intelligent Device.
[Acknowledged, sir!]
Yuuno laughed. He waved at Julius before floating over the edge of the pit and began to descend down
two miles of earth.
On his way down, Yuuno ran across several more of his men. His fellow clan members, several of the defensively weaker ones clad in more traditional protective suits, waved at him from where they were taking soil samples.
The passive field he had been maintaining all along began to react.
"Raising Heart, get ready." Yuuno commanded, lowering his goggles over his eyes. His barrier jacket – green tunic and silver breast plate flashed over his dusty shirt and shorts. With an application of a standard Bureau formula, the air around him began to be supercharged with mana, burning any germs near him.
They landed at the bottom of the pit. A shattered hallway stretched out before them, with thick vines stretching up and down the the area. The plants were discolored, splotchy purples and blacks in the plant material, but his workers had burnt through it long ago.
[Beginning scan for viral traces...]
Yuuno began to walk down the hallway, mindful of his surroundings as they passed by an ancient sign, long since faded to near illegibility. It had taken them a while to translate it, but they had more or less gotten an approximation of its meaning.
Warning! Hazardous Materials up ahead. Only senior Blackwatch Agents allowed ahead on threat of court martial/death.
*****
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is owned by Masaki Tsuzuki. Prototype is owned by Radical Entertainment. All additional references and parodies are owned by their respective companies.
"Pandora"
*****
The Blackwatch Storage Facility's final barrier was a massive door, about twenty feet tall by ten feet in width, composed of various metals. From their scans, they had determined that a large underground warehouse which contained past this door and had held intact all these years.
But getting to it was a problem.
Raising Heart, in its standard pink and gold staff form, unleashed a devastating and tightly focused beam of energy as Yuuno stood at the front of his diggers. The three members that were here with him were the ones that could consistently maintain the highest levels of defensive barriers and environmental fields – truly the only ones besides Yuuno that had made it to this final destination.
About a half mile behind them, the five Scrya diggers could distantly feel the other members of their team, keeping the tunnel itself reinforced with barriers as the quartet focused their Device's fire on the massive iron door before them.
'Master Yuuno, it is time.' At the mental prodding of Raising Heart, Yuuno immediately cut off the beam of mana he was using to drill. The other three diggers with Yuuno glanced up, following Yuuno's lead.
"Is something wrong, Yuuno?" Marina, the only woman in this group, spoke up. The other two, brothers that Yuuno had gone on with on several other digs, merely leaned up against their own Storage Devices.
"Do you want to take a break?" The younger of the two softly asked.
Yuuno had an amused look on his face. "No, I actually was playing hookey from my paperwork for a bit." His answer caused the older of the brothers to break out in a hearty laugh. He slung his Storage Device, a large drill tipped pole arm, on his shoulder.
"I approve!"
Marina gave the man a scowl, wiping at her face with her gray – formerly white gloves. "You need to stop encouraging him! We're supposed to be setting better examples for Yuuno and Simon."
"His soul will shrivel up and die if he has to deal with that fat cow from the Church." The older teenager insisted.
"There's rules for a reason. Our Guild has to..."
The two younger members of the digging screw looked bemused as another grudge match began in front of them. Simon glanced over at Yuuno with a faint smile and shrug. "They'll be at it for a while. Why don't you head out? I'll get them back on task once they get it out of their system."
"Alright, then." Yuuno nodded. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Simon smiled and opened his mouth to speak.
The earth above them shook. Stray pebbles ominously dropped down from the earth above to clatter down around them.
The four of them held their breath.
'Mister Scrya!' Julius's panicked voice slammed into their minds. The distance and barriers between them and the spotter above caused the telepathic transmission to warble and break into white noise. 'We're under atta-'
A loud roar screamed down the direction of their exit.
Then deathly silence.
'Julius...?' Yuuno tentatively probed at the mental connection. There was no response.
"...what happened?" The older male amongst them questioned. "I'm not getting any responses from my spotter."
The other two nodded, looking fearfully at Yuuno.
That's when the rumbling began. The tunnel above their heads began to drop larger pieces of stone and clods of dirt on their heads. Yuuno could feel the barriers begin to fail as the earth above them almost rolled like a wave.
"Take down this door!" Yuuno snapped, turning Raising Heart on the door. "Raising Heart, full power!"
[Acknowledged.]
A searing blast of mana erupted from the crimson gem at the tip of Raising Heart, joined by the other three with him. Yuuno could hear a jumble of confused thoughts pass between his fellow diggers, but they all knew that if they were dead if they didn't get through this door.
The barricade began to glow red hot as a wave of earth began to cascade down the hallway behind them.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Yuuno begged, the four of them drawing as much mana from their linker cores as they could without weakening their shields. The frame around the massive door trembled as their beams pierced a five foot tall hole in it and continued inwards.
His inner archaeologist wailed in agony as the distinct sound of destruction could be heard within, but his survival instincts bludgeoned it into silence.
"Go!" The leader of their group yelled as the four of them made a break for the opening.
Then the barrier over their heads finally gave way.
*****
A dark haired woman clad in a flowing purple dress and trailing black cloak, clasped onto her body with golden latches, coldly looked down upon the planet's surface from the bridge of her base. The surface of the land was being constantly hammered by a torrent of lightning from the Garden of Time as she kept the ship lurking within the Dimensional Sea.
Precia Testarossa viciously smiled as she observed the archaeological site collapse, swallowed by the hole they themselves had blasted. She glanced at a hovering display next to her, which showed the scans of the site.
'To think they honestly thought they could hide a dig this important from me.' Precia scoffed at the cheek of the Bureau. 'Still, this was worth every penny.'
Beneath her, a magical circle, inscribed with the formula for the devastating lightning strikes shifted with a thought. The entire floor of the bridge lit up as her commands flowed into the hundreds of battle golems she had brought with her.
She crossed her arms across her chest as she sent them enmasse towards the annihilated camp.
'Alicia, I'll get you back soon.'
*****
Darkness.
[Master...]
A faint voice called out to him.
An endless blue skyline, broken up by towering skyscrapers.
[Please wake up, Master...]
Holding hands with a short haired brunet, dressed in a leather jacket with a hoodie, as they walked amongst the grass and trees. His face, somewhat expressionless, still conveys a hint of pleasure by being together.
[I don't want to be alone again.]
Yuuno groaned.
[Master!]
The blond's eyes opened. He immediately wished he hadn't as a sharp spike of agony stabbed into his temple. Yuuno dazedly took in his surroundings, finding himself lying on his side amongst rubble and steel ground.
Behind him were several large pieces of rubble.
A shining red glow two feet ahead of him caused him to blink a few times. His vision sharpened back to normal, spotting Raising Heart's staff form sticking out amongst some rocks. Off in the distance, he could make out a large pit with an old fashioned tram system sliding along the rail set on the roof of the cavern he found himself in.
"Where..." Yuuno coughed. "Are the others?" He asked, tone solidifying as he tried to push himself up. His ribs twitched, but a quick bit of mental arithmetic summoned forth healing mana to his right hand, which he placed on his side.
[They didn't make it Master.] Raising Heart paused. [I apologize, sir.]
Yuuno's face fell. He gazed down at his knees as he silently finished healing himself. Once the pain on his side faded away, he gingerly got up to his feet and made his way over to Raising Heart.
"It's fine..." He softly replied, wrenching the staff out from the rocks around it. "Have you managed to reassert contact with the others up top?"
Raising Heart dimmed slightly.
"I suppose not, then." Yuuno closed his eyes. The dust that choked the air was thick enough that even his environmental field wasn't filtering out all of it. "We don't have a lot of time either." He observed as he looked around.
[Oxygen levels minimal.] Raising Heart agreed. [Scans show that this facility has a backup energy source available.]
Yuuno nodded. It was probably used to maintain the seals on the samples.
"Let's hope it has enough so we can get out." Yuuno muttered, knowing he didn't have enough energy to keep the field up and teleport himself out of this pit. The blond turned towards the rubble behind him and gave it a deep bow.
"I'm sorry. We're moving on ahead." The boy thickly told his comrades. "We'll get you all out, I swear." He turned and made his way towards the tram on this side of the pit.
In the distance, he could see a building on the cliff walls of this cavern.
*****
The battle golems alighted on the surface of the planet and immediately began to fan out. Some of them were devoted to sweeping their scanners past the corpses that littered the grounds, registering them amongst the list of diggers that had arrived, making sure none had survived.
Others used their weaponry to destroy everything that hadn't been annihilated on the opening attack unleashed by their master. Their cannons left only ash in their wake as they stomped through the annihilated plains.
The final, and largest of the golems, were positioning markers around the spot that that was directly over the facility.
High in the skies above, the Garden of Time slipped out of the Dimensional Sea. The asteroid shined in the dusky skies with a fierce and terrible yellow light.
*****
Yuuno and Raising Heart got off the tram at their destination. The blond's goggles were flooded with information that his Device was passively gathering for him. His soft footsteps clicked on the tile floor beneath him as he walked away from the docking station and towards a door set against the wall of the cavern.
A panel next to the door let out a beep as a holographic window popped up in front of him. It showed an open palm, causing Yuuno to briefly stop. The image then switched over towards a card being swiped through a reader. The image continued cycling back and forth for the two.
"So, they need an ID, huh." Yuuno unnecessarily mused.
[That is so, Master.]
A faint rumble near the top of the cavern caused Yuuno to glance up. He then looked over at the holographic image, lightly chewing on his lower lip.
[It will take time to decipher the lock, Master.] Raising Heart spoke up, picking up on Yuuno's worry. [Time we may not have.]
The blond, aware of that due to the sounds he could hear above, slowly nodded in agreement.
"Recommendations?"
Raising Heart's gem began to brighten as it began to gather mana.
"Thought so."
Moments later, the cliff side had gained a new hole as Yuuno rushed into the facility proper. He heard a roar behind him as the roof of the cavern collapsed. His goggles completely burnt out their shielding as they filtered out the excess light generated by a monstrously huge bolt of lightning that had pierced through the earth.
Yuuno stood and stared in horror, ripping off the useless goggles from his head as the light of the dusk sun filtered down into the massive cavern.
[Master...] Raising Heart spoke up. [We have incoming hostiles.]
Yuuno shook off his surprise as massive battle golems, armed with highly advanced weaponry, began to descend from the skies above.
He really wished he only had to worry about potentially suffocating down here now.
*****
"What's this?" Precia wondered, observing a flash of motion in the Blackwatch laboratories through the sensors of her golems. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted a child gaze up at her puppets before rushing into the building. "So someone survived, did they..."
The thought of the boy finding the sample of Blacklight first filled Precia with fear.
"Kill him!" The woman shrieked.
...
The hallways were heavily burnt. Several holes were gouged in them as Yuuno desperately raced through the facility, a hairs width away from death as three massive golems lumbered after him. Their surfaces were only lightly scratched, testifying how ineffectual his one attempt at attacking them had gone for him.
One of them raised its cannon as they entered a straight dash down a hall and unleashed a devastating bolt of energy at Yuuno.
The blond, knowing it was impossible to dodge it, threw everything he had towards defense. His environmental field nearly shattered as he brought up a green barrier before his hands, letting the shield slice the blue ray in twain.
Both sides of the hallway were set ablaze as the entire hall shook as the beams cleaved through the walls.
Yuuno gasped, almost collapsing to his knees. The other two golems finally caught up to Yuuno, and quickly added their own attacks. The blond desperately threw himself into a side room, avoiding the shots as the hallway was engulfed with flame.
The blond was propelled into a table, knocking it over. With each glass that shattered on the ground next to him, dread crawled up Yuuno's back. He quickly crawled past the shattered pieces of glass, desperately praying that his barrier jacket kept them from piercing his skin.
'Master, the environmental field is at dangerous low levels.' Raising Heart warned Yuuno telepathically. 'We cannot sustain direct combat for much longer.'
'I don't think we have to worry about me being fighting them directly anymore.' The blond thought, wishing he could project sarcasm through his message. The sound of a golem stomping through the lab, smashing aside tables as its sensor audibly scanned through the room made him briefly pause as he squeezed himself in between two metal and plastic towers, hiding in their shadow for a moment.
'Master...I could attempt to self destruct.' Raising Heart offered. 'It could cause enough damage to serve as a smokescreen for your escape.'
The other two golems, presumably finishing looking for him in the ruined hallway, entered the room with the first one.
Yuuno stayed quiet.
'Mast-'
'Shut up, I'm thinking.' The blond closed his eyes as he heard the sounds of footsteps draw closer. He dug up everything he could remember about the dig. 'Blackwatch...' The name of which had caused him to send out a distress signal originally to the Bureau when he had discovered it on this ruined world. Did he cause this mess because of his signal? Was it intercepted?
The sound of the golems drawing closer. Their cannons began to power up.
'Blacklight...' A virus that had had gone out of control. Countless died. Countless more sought the power, only held in check by Blackwatch and eventually the Bureau itself when the original world had joined them.
Raising Heart dimmed as Yuuno thought about the avenger. The monster that had brought it all down in flaming ruins.
'...I'm going to drop my environmental field, Raising Heart. Help me focus all the mana beneath our feet. We're dropping into the bottom floor.'
'Master.' Raising Heart sounded alarmed.
"I'm dead either way." At the sound of his voice, the three golems began to converge on his location as their cannons began to whirl with deadly power. "I'll just choose how I go out." With that, he dropped his mana intensive field as he dove out behind cover.
The three golems fired.
*****
Precia Testarossa had a beatific smile on her face. Hovering within a stasis field, securely locked within her lab, was a sample of Blacklight itself. The dark woman idly ran her hand along the surface of the field, allowing the slight surge of electricity tingle up her arm from contact with the protective shield.
'Units back on board.' A mechanical drone from the Garden itself spoke up.
Precia glanced away from the tube containing her daughter's salvation. "Status." She crisply demanded as she began to walk out of her lab and back to the bridge of the Garden so she could maneuver it back into the Dimensional Sea.
'No survivors.'
Precia grinned.
'Three lost units.'
"...hmph. I guess the boy had some fight in him." Precia scowled. The open air courtyard of her bridge appeared as she arrived, sitting down at the throne in the back. A display of the burning dig site below her appeared for her, but she immediately dismissed it. The woman began to channel magical energy into the Garden's control system.
The Garden shuddered as they returned to the Dimensional Sea. The chaotic swirls and eddies all around the asteroid appearing before her view screen.
'Destination?'
Precia pondered. Now that she had Blacklight, it was just a matter of time to bring Alicia back, but...
"The nearest inhabited planet."
'Setting course to Unadministered World 97.' The Garden smoothly replied.
She had very little time left.
"Engage." The Dimensional Sea grew chaotic as the Garden began to move. Precia gripped her throne as exhaustion began to make itself known. The woman's eyes slowly began to lower. She just needed a little bit of rest.
*****
Duke Rodgers, A-ranked Enforcer for the Time Space Bureau, had seen quite a lot of horrible things in his day, but nothing quite put the fear of the Kaiser in someone than a Blacklight Incident. As soon as he had received the distress signal from a Yuuno Scrya, he had alerted his superiors and immediately rushed to help the Scrya Clan suppress the materials.
Hopefully they'd have the site itself opened and the virus sealed away by the time he got there.
Unfortunately, he was instead met by an annihilated encampment when he had landed his ship on the abandoned world. The Enforcer's expression was dark as he saw several signs of combat in the area. He half remembered that the only mages of particular note from the Scrya Clan tended to be defensive specialists – usually the first when it came to dealing with Blacklight since they were good with environmental fields.
"This was a slaughter." Duke clicked his tongue as he arrived at a large hole. His Device beeped as it confirmed that thunder elemental magic clung to the air around the gouge in the earth. He peered down, using magic to grant him night vision, and promptly felt a chill down his spine as he saw the facility on the cliff side.
"Olivie..." He cursed. The man began to descend, using his magic to reinforce the environmental field around his barrier jacket.
Once he was inside, Duke began to run for the area that the distress signal had reported most likely contained the samples. His expression grew more panicked as he saw several holes on the floors leading further down into the depths of the lab.
[WARNING! Blacklight detected!] His Device shrilly declared, causing the Bureau mage to instantly bring his staff before him.
A shuffling sound could be heard further ahead.
Duke slowly began to make his way towards the noise, dropping Area Search spheres behind him to prevent a sneak attack.
The noise grew louder as Duke drew closer.
The Bureau agent gathered mana in his linker core to unleash a fatal attack as he launched an Area Search around the corner up ahead.
The noise briefly paused as Duke triggered the sphere he had launched.
The torso of a battle golem was lying on its side. With its limbs ripped off its body, the machine could only helplessly move its head from side to side, causing the shuffling noise Duke had heard. The limbs themselves, which were scattered around it, tested positive with contact with Blacklight.
Duke took a shuddering breath.
[Incoming communication.] His Device beeped. [Acknowledge?]
"Go ahead." Duke allowed, nerves tense as he walked up to the golem.
'This is -sschkt- Heart.' A soft feminine voice spoke up. The transmission itself was very weak. '-sschkt- uploading?'
Duke, hoping that it was a survivor, provided more mana on his end to boost the signal.
'Repeat, please.' He requested.
'This is Raising Heart,' The monotone voice of a female spoke up. A quick confirmation determined that it was an Intelligent Device after checking on the broadcast identification. 'My Master, Yuuno Scrya, is in charge of the survey into this area.'
'What the hell happened?' Duke demanded.
'The site was attacked by these units. We have removed the communication device in them and are now proceeding to track the main force with it.'
"That's absurd!" Duke exclaimed. "The echos in the Sea make that impossible."
'Improbable. There is no impossible.' Raising Heart replied. The Device's response made the mage scowl.
"Put on your owner." He demanded. "He needs to return to the planet for questioning."
'That is no longer possible.' Raising Heart replied. 'Compatibility issues have arisen.'
"Wait..." Duke spoke up, a slow dawning dread making itself known as he looked at the torso of the battle golem. A fist sized hole had been punched into it easily. He quickly traced the signal using his Device, and found that it was still on the planet. "Exactly where you two are."
'I apologize, but we cannot. This was Master's last will.' Raising Heart replied. 'We will be borrowing your ship. Please follow us once your backup arrives.'
"Stop!" Duke demanded, spinning and racing back the way he came. "You can't let that thing get off planet!" He quickly accessed his Device's spell list and found an override for most general Intelligent Devices – hoping to knock it offline before it interfaced with his ship. "Override Code: Delta Dash Alpha 65!"
'Code denied.' Raising Heart bleated.
"How?!" He demanded, but it was already too late as he felt the signal disconnect as it left the planet.
*****
"I didn't know machines had loyalty." Within the cockpit of the small shuttle, a blond haired boy spoke up. He observed the night skies of the world below give way to the stars above. "Was he really that important of a person?"
He turned his green eyes onto a small red gemstone, which was resting on the controls of the ship through an interface port for Devices. Next to it rested a small box, with wires running from it running into the terminal sloppily.
[Switching to autopilot.]
The shuttle released a burst of energy ahead of it, piercing the veil into the Dimensional Sea.
The boy shrugged as he leaned back against his seat. "Well, I won't speak ill about the dead, I guess." He muttered as he glanced at his right hand. His fingers melded together, darkening to a pitch black tone as they lengthened into a sharp sickle. "He was nice enough to let me be born, after all."
*****
An auburn haired girl lightly hummed as she gazed out her window to the stars above. A faint melancholy was in her expression, blue eyes slightly dim as she rested up against the window sill.
"Nanoha, it's time for dinner!" The sound of her sister drew her attention away from the stars.
"Coming, Miyuki!" Nanoha Takamachi shouted, shoving her faint feelings of helplessness back inside her heart before rushing off to join her family for dinner.
*****
I'm Nanoha Takamachi!
I was supposed to be a normal third grader, but something about missions and atonement happened...
Now I'm a magical girl!
Just what kind of fate is in store for my city? And what about that boy whose name I don't yet know? Was agreeing to help him really alright?
Next time on "Pandora" : Vaccine Cannon Lyrical Nanoha!
[Be careful around him, Nanoha. He's dangerous.]