Magical Fracas, Episode 4: School Rumble?

[Arhra]

Being in the seat directly behind Iriumi, it was difficult for Mitsuko not to notice the thing that ws happening between her and Kaemon Juro. It could have worse - Kaemon could have chosen not to venture into unexplored territory. Sakiko nodded at her knowingly, noticing Mitsuko's thoughts were clearly running in the same direction.

Lurking in Kaemon's shadow was Rei Shoda, another old classmate. She'd always wondered why he hung out with him.

Mitsuko supposed she ought to step in and diffuse the situation. Then Takuso stole her idea before she even came up with it.

Why do large bodyguards never materialise for me? Mitsuko pondered. Whoever this girl was, she was very popular.

[Unnecessary.]

Mitsuko jumped a little at Bright Day's mental voice.

"Oh, she's so cool!" Sakiko whispered next to her simultaneously. Iriumi's fan club had just gained a new member

Looking up, Mitsuko noticed Demi furtively moving into the desk in front of Iriumi's, almost obscured by the small crowd of people around Iriumi's desk. She started making strangled noises. She had seen Demi before - a pale maniac at the center of a snakes' nest of black thread.

"Are you alright?" Sakiko asked. "You're very twitchy today and you keep making strange sounds."

Mitsuko turned it into a cough. "Oh, I came down with something on the weekend. I guess I'm not completely over it."

Sis! Mitsuko thought with all her might towards Akari. One of the Verda-type mages is here! What'll we do?!

The second bell went off, the home room teacher stepped in. He was a athetic and angular looking man, a slight, but seemingly permanent smile on his face. He walked briskly to the board, picking up a piece of chalk. "For the students who haven't had me before, I'm Mr Yamada." He wrote it down. "I'll also be your PE teacher this year. We have a number of new students, so you should all get to know each other properly. We can not have a schism in our fair school! Could all the new students come out the front? We must introduce everyone to everyone!"

OOC: Eh, you don't have to put any real detail into intros. This is mainly to let everyone who would recognise each other do so. New students are in the minority, they make up about 1/3 of the class. If there's not any objections, I'll leap straight to lunch after this?

[phil_]

Synopsis: Ohno is concerned by Panko's twitching. Erika is annoyed by Ohno's concern. Panko wonders if Alex is a mage. Yamada shows up. Erika texts Panko to make fun of her. Ohno is concerned again. I dropped the -san's and -chan's and stuff that I used in that dream two threads back because they're not important.

Not expecting a reply, Panko jumped in her chair when she heard Alex's voice in her head. Ohno gave her a concerned expression. "Are you really sure you're alright? Maybe you didn't quite get over your cold yet, Kowaiza."

Panko gave a quick shake to get her head back together. "No, I'm fine, Shiawase."

"Really? Let me check your forehead." Ohno reached across her desk toward Panko.

"Ohno, quit acting like her mom," Erika looked up from her phone to grumble. "If she says she's fine, she's fine. Kowaiza's never sick, anyway." She added the last part while looking back at her phone, her thumb rapidly tapping the keys.

Shortly, Mr. Yamada walked into the room and the new students started introducing themselves. Panko still wasn't sure if she had actually heard Alex, or what she was thinking trying to talk to him. She thought that she could never see him as a magician, but now she gave it some consideration. He did stand out with his long hair and delicate features. Magical people tend to stand out, right? Her skirt pocket buzzed, interrupting her thoughts. She surreptitiously pulled out her phone and slid it open.

"lol jelous much?"

Panko wondered what Erika could mean by that. Her phone buzzed again.

"looks lk orphans got im. tuff luck"

Panko blushed as she realized that she had been staring at Alexander for the last few minutes. Not wanting to get caught with her phone out, Kowaiza opted to give Erika a silent gag. A look of concern returned to Ohno's face. All Panko could do was shake her head.

[Arhra]

Alright Mitsuko, keep calm. Mitsuko thought to herself as she walked to the front of the room, feeling like she was walking in front of a firing line. Demi apparently hadn't noticed her. She hasn't spotted you yet. Maybe she were too distracted by your flashy costume to remember your face. She can't start anything here. Stay cool.

She foundelf almost at the end of the line in front of the blackboard, Sakiko on her right and Akari on her left. Sakiko went first, nattering happily about here likes and dislikes and her club memberships at Chuuko before Mr Yamada cleared his throat meaningfully and she cheerily brought to it to a close.

Mitsuko was next. She stepped forward, trying to control her nerves. "Hello everyone, my name's Mitsuko Shimizu and I hope to have a good year with all of you. Uh, I like sports and I was class rep back at Chuuko, hopefully I get to know all of you better..." she gulped - was the creepy thread girl was looking at her? "Oh, I also help out at the Tatsuda Shrine, and -"

There was a solemn tone like a huge bell and everything slowed and stopped. Colours dimmed and desaturated while shadows vanished. Everything brightened as if the room was lit by harsh, omnipresent light.

Mitsuko jumped and flailed in alarm, arms bumping into both Akari and Sakiko.

"Uwa, what's happening?" Sakiko said, steadying Mitsuko. Some sort of weird aura was hanging around her.

"I don't know." Mitsuko said, looking around with alarm. Two thirds of the class were deaturated and immobile, the rest wreathed in that strange aura. The sky outside was black. It felt vaguely like a Phantom Zone.

["Appears to be stasis magic. Mana reserve is shielding us from the effect, but once depleted we also will be trapped. Locate and destroy source."] Bright Day thrust into her mind helpfully.

The unfrozen members of the class were starting to babble in alarm. Mitsuko tried to take charge. "Stay calm everyone! Uh, Akari, Shimizu," she tried to look like she was picking out the fellow Autekka-type mage at random, "and I will go and see who else is unfrozen, everyone else stay here."

"What about me?" Sakiko asked, looking scared. "I need you to stay her and keep people from panicking." Mitsuko said in a low voice, improvising valiantly. "There's no-one else I know who can do it."

Sakiko summoned a determined expression. "OK then. Good luck."

"Hurry." Mitusko said to Akari and Shimizu, heading for the door.

[phil_]

If Panko were asked that morning to make a list of things she didn't want to happen at school today, "A magical eclipse freezing everyone but her and a few others" would have been near the top of the list. Maybe, if she sat still, no one would notice? No, no way. Sliding out of her desk, she tried to make her way to the door, hidden behind Ohno and Erika. Slowly, she slid open the back door and slipped into the hall.

She tried calling Picky, since she didn't have anyone else to call when the world stopped making sense. "Hey, Picky, what the heck just happened?"

She waited for a moment before hearing Picky, who sounded more concerned than she'd expected. "I'm not sure, but I'm on my way. Find somewhere to transform, and I'll meet you as soon as I can. Just try not to start crying or anything until then."

"Right," she said outloud as the front door to the classroom opened and one of the new girls stepped out.

[Teal Mage]

Alex's back went rigid the instant he heard Mitsuko call herself Shimizu. But he didn't have much time to put his thoughts in order before Miranda's mental voice chimed urgently into his mind.

Magical anomaly detec- The sound of a ringing bell cut off whatever else she had to say as Alex shot up from his chair. The sudden gray scale hit most of the class from what he could see. Except the person who mattered. There she was, Mitsuko Shimizu, entirely unaffected by whatever this was. He recognized her now, she'd held a spear in an outlandish costume last night, but her voice-her last name-was more then enough to trip all the right alarms.

Then she called another name he recognized, Akari, the bow girl. Had he paid closer attention, he might have realized that the third name hadn't just been a pause in saying her sister's last name. But right then, his mind was whirling from the suddenness of this whole thing.

Alex forced himself to take a deep breath, and relax before stepping fully out of his desk. He glanced toward Demi, and noticed with some relief that she wasn't greyed out. The blond also noted Iriumi had escaped that fate. Does that mean? He gave his head a small shake, Later. He told himself firmly.

He glanced to the door in time to see Mitsuko exit, and barely managed to stop himself from grimacing. I have to go after her. He resolved, taking a step forward, before pausing by Demi's desk. He needed a cover.

"Demi," he said putting hints of nervousness and worry into his voice, not that they were much of stretch right then, "I'm going to check on the others." Whether or not she followed was up to her. Without looking toward her again, he forced himself to walk toward the door taking careful measured steps. He wasn't moving too quick, so had someone rushed out after Mitsuko, they'd easily get to the door first.

* * *

Black Ankh earrings glinting darkly in the eerie gray scale that had descended on the school, Mia Tsukino thrust open the door to her classroom. The bell had frozen all the others, and she had a sinking feeling she'd be next.

Heart pounding loudly in her ears, the Goth walked hurriedly down the Touhou's grayed out hallway. But first, she needed to find Alex. If he was frozen too...

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

[PhoenixFlame]

Akari went over and over what she was going to say in her head, trying to reherse it to get it right. In all honesty, a short introduction that would be almost immediately forgotten didn't warrant anything near as much stress, but she wasn't about to make a fool of herself. Some things about Shimizu Akari didn't change, even if she had a little extra responsibility and courage than a normal girl. Things like problems following her around to make those extra responsibilities meaningful.

She almost hadn't noticed the time freeze effect until her sister began to panic, and Mitsuko'd already volunteered Akari and Shimizu to come with her and look for the others before they could react.

"Priority Alert." Ceres' voice wasn't far behind, "Maleviolent anomaly detected. Triangulating... Please stand by."

"H-hey, Sis!" Akari called as she rushed after Mitsuko, "Shouldn't we um..." looking back at the classroom, noticing not everyone had been entirely frozen yet. With a lowered voice she continued her concern, "Try to find it as soon as we can, before it gets everyone else?" Admittantly, she didn't know precisely what the field was up to, but the effect seemed to be localized to only part of the classroom, and it was highly improbable all of them were mages.

[Naqel]

Daichi, who was still pretending to be taking a nap, felt a strange sensation, few voices around him started to talk about frozen people and magical stuff.

"This ain't looking too good, better if I pretend being frozen too."

He slowed his breath down and tried not to move as he listened to what's happening. Hopefully nobody would actually bother to give a bump to everyone in the classroom. He also tried to apply one of the mental exercises for hiding magical potential, though he doubted it'd help much without the component, which he had forgotten what it was anyway.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Iriumi didn't really register the names of the two sisters as Autekkan. They were new people to her, and so she listened attentively to one of them babble. There were so many new people to make friends with, Iriumi thought she'd definitely be busy this week!

What she didn't expect was for the world to suddenly go a little brighter, washing away the colours of the surrounding people and environment, seeming to freeze almost everything in place. Iriumi sat there like a stunned mullet for a few moments. Alex seemed to get up so fast he was a blur, mutter something about checking on other people, then left.

Iriumi, I'm reading some fancy sort of signature magic here, Ivy's mental whisper rustled into her mind calmly, stay where you are until everybody has left. Pretend to try and wake people up if you have to make it look authentic.

Iriumi didn't really listen, but she was already doing what Ivy had told her. Getting up woodenly, she turned around. Takuso was frozen, in the act of drawing phallic symbols on a piece of paper pointed at a stick figure, Chichyuu and Shana were at the front, still frozen in attentive blankness. She didn't need to act as if panic set in.

"H-hey guys? What's going on?! Takki!? Wake up! P-please, w-wake up," she tentatively pushed the boy. Takuso's stiff body was rigid and unmovable.

"I--Iriumi? What's going on?!" Tayuumi's voice called out, panicked. Iriumi knocked her chair over in the process of racing over to the girl's table. She was leaning over another friend, crying and trying to wake him up to no avail.

"It's no use, Tayuumi, I tried too. They're stuck like that," Iriumi thought she sounded braver than she actually should be as she hugged Tayuumi. It must be the fact that she knows what's going on, and better act on it before it gets worse.

"This is a n-n-nightmare! W-what's guh-going on?!" the other girl hiccuped, "Oh guh-god, I remember this in a d-dream! People wuh-were just suh-suh-staring ahead and ignoring me-...." At that time, Tayuumi too faded out into pale wash.

No use. She had some magical residue on her after contact with us, but now it's been drained, and I can't confer anymore onto her. Get going, the Verda will need you.
Iriumi unwrapped her arms from around the frozen girl and, looking around panicked, dashed out of the room. It looked like the girl finally snapped, and is going home.

~~

I sense no movement coming our way.
Alone in a corridor somewhere in school, Iriumi was walking calmly, waiting for Ivy to gather data of her surroundings. The girl nodded, and spread out her arms. Ivy, back on her neck again, sent her vines down Iriumi's arms and unfurled large leafy fronds, gathering as much as possible the energy they absorbed from the eerie bright light shining all around them.

"What do we do?"
"Nothing yet. I have yet to pinpoint a general direction of the source's origin. Until then, stay on the move, make sure all corridors you are in are either filled with emptiness or frozen people."
"... and if we're found, could you at least make those leaves a little less conspicuous?"
"I concur," Ivy responded, folding the leaves away slighly so that it merely looked like Iriumi was wearing a thin cape made of green-gold leaves. With that completed, Iriumi started moving, directed by Ivy's sensitive movement-detectors as she silently and restlessly paced the empty, white corridors.

[Relm Zephyrous]

And suddenly, the classroom went almost totally gray, no not the gray she occasionally got when she bumped her head a little too hard those few times, don't ask about that, forget I even mentioned it. But a total lack of color, and it stayed that way. Well, there were a few glows of radiance left in this torment of dusk, most notable to her right now Alex, who was moving up to her right at the time and talking, saying... something. She couldn't hear too well for being too caught up in her own internal discussion.

Hey, what the hells going on? Why did everything just... do that?
"Its not just color, everything has stopped moving. Look, the pencil you dropped just now... its hanging in the air!"
"~Precisely. I'm not too sure on what is causing this disturbance in the natural order of things, but merely keeping out of its effect is eating up our mana. Further... most of the surroundings aren't yielding anymore.~"
Thats... bad, isn't it?
"~....~"
"I thi-"
"~...!!!!! Yes thats bad! Very very bad! We don't have the mana reserves to deal with this for much longer, Mogura, extend yourself around Demi, the strings retard magical effects, like it does with the red star, I think it'll slow down the need for shielding from this as well.~"
"But-"
"~DO IT~"
"Fine..."

The doll Demi was carrying began spreading out like fabric, almost melding with her clothing. She held it close to her bosom, partly to disguise the fact that it was now practically sown into it. Its threads weaved throughout her clothing, and on her head formed an extremely thin but nethertheless effective beret.

"~Ok... good. That bought us some time... not much though.~"
Um...
"We need to find more mana... I can actually feel the strain..."
Er...
"~Or, for a solution that'll actually do something, find the source of the disturbance. Only problem is, I haven't gotten an exa-~"
Hey!
"~What?~"
I think we should follow Alex.

They stop their internal debate to notice Alex almost at the door in quite a hurry, looking like he knew where he was going. Immediately, Demi stormed after him, taking glances around at all the students that were frozen, and more importantly, at the surprising amount who weren't.

"~Yeah that works, least until I can actually find the source myself, shouldn't be long now.~"
Yeah yeah now hush, I'm trying to figure out what he's doing.

[ApatheticFoxboy]

The new students lined up at the blackboard, all pale as ghosts. He heard the pretty Chuuko transfer rattle off how brightly she shined back at Chuuko. Try as he might, Dojima lost focus. His thoughts about the upcoming year, like exposed negatives, blurred and burned in the morning light. He remembered Mr Yamada from swim practice last quarter.

Dojima was looking forward to his daily thirty laps, when he heard the faint BEEP. Swimming was a sport he really excelled at and enjoyed. It almost got him a big damn trophy. Another BEEP caught his attention. It was at this point Dojima was sure his possessed backpack would freak out his instructor along with the rest of the class and ruin the year for him.

A strip of paper flew from the zipper and Dojima ripped it from the maniac device. It read, “Triggering Event has occurred. Please vacant the premises before-” A low deep tone boomed in Dojima’s ears. He looked back to the blackboard. He recognized the other transfer as Mitsuko, the girl he had meet Friday with the spear. The color had run out of her face. The color dripped off everything else. Then there was the neat effect of the sky turning black. BEEP went Jax bringing Dojima back to the device’s note, “-latent stasis field activates.”

He grabbed the backpack, and hugged it to his chest, “OK, stupid robot, get me out of here.” When it didn’t miraculously teleport him out of the weird classroom, Dojima punched it. Jax remained stoic. It’s mana reserves scorched Jax’s circuits just keeping the field effect off the both of them. Nothing went to the teleporting drives. Jax printed a message, “Warning 100% USAGE///Danger of EXHAUSTION! Source radar ON.” And with that Jax started binging just like underwater sonar.

“Fine, we’ll do this your way,” Dojima put on the backpack and headed to the door. A pair of wraparound sunglasses appeared over his eyes, while a single glove covered his right hand. “I’ll follow this trail, turn the sun back on, do my thirty laps,” He pointed his finger up with his gloved hand, “and get home early enough to make Ami dinner.” With that Dojima walked out of class, Jax binging incessantly.

[Astral Harmony]

"Kiyuri, just hang on! I'll find out what's going and save you."

Shimizu rose from her seat and was fully transformed before she was out the class, helping Mitsuko try other classes. "They can't be targeting the regular students, do you think?" she asked offhandedly. "Damn it, this is all our fault. We've gotta get to the bottom of this fast."

Then she remembered something. "Ponpon, I need Spreiga!" she demanded.
"Hailing Spreiga. Please link up with us, paya." Ponpon said. Shimizu looked outside the window at the bleak-colored world and opened a window for Spreiga to suddenly enter. It must be another talisman like Mitsuko had. This time, Shimizu would be there to lend a hand.

[Arhra]

"Uh, no! Please don't leave!" Sakiko said as apprxoimately half of the remaining unfrozen class trooped out.

"where did she get that beret?" Sakiko wondered to herself, spotting Demi. It was a lovely hat and she was sure he hadn't been wearing it before.

"Uh, perhaps we should tell stories to keep our spirits up?" Sakiko tried desperately, trying to hold on to the rest of the class.

* * *

"H-hey, Sis!" Akari called as she rushed after Mitsuko, "Shouldn't we um..." looking back at the classroom, noticing not everyone had been entirely frozen yet. With a lowered voice she continued her concern, "Try to find it as soon as we can, before it gets everyone else?"

"It seems a large section of the school is affected." Mitsuko said, striding down the corridor with Akari and Shimizu. The brittle silence was oppressive, their voices and footsteps seeming intrusive. "Do you think whatever's causing it would be at the center?"

"They can't be targeting the regular students, do you think?" Shimizu asked offhandedly. "Damn it, this is all our fault. We've gotta get to the bottom of this fast."

"This probably would have happened whether we were here or not." Mitsuko replied forcefully as they entered the stairwell. It was normally dim and cool, but all refuge was abolished by the strange constant light. "I don't know about it being a trap - I saw one of the Verda-type mages in our class and she seemed just as surprised by this as we did. Something might have been randomly triggered."

"Hello?" a girl called. She looked up from the lower landing, tears streaking her face. Mitsuko didn't recognise her - she wore the Tohou uniform and had her long hair plaited into a single queue down her back. She started running up the stairs. "Everyone in my class froze! I thought I was the only -"

The bell tolled. The rippling glow about her faded and she became a still statue, frozen in mid step.

Mitsuko closed her eyes and slowly opened them again. "We have to hurry. I don't know how much time we have." She fished Bright Day out of her shirt and clecnhed her fist around the medallion, feeling the nubs of the sunburst points digging into her palm.

"As long as there are the Sun, the Moon and the stars, by the light of dawn and the dying day, let the sacred contract be fulfilled." Mitsuko paused. In this silent, empty, unchanging place, there was no Sun or Moon or stars. She gritted her teeth and finished the activation phrase. "By my resolute will, my burning spirit and this magic in my hand, release the power of the heavens! Bright Day, set up!"

OOC: Just giving some time to establish the mood and let the groups to assemble.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Anomaly determined, it is a general vicinity area time siphon, impeded by our peripheral auras. Drain is asymmetrical, and I believe I can locate the source by magnitude variations." Ceres reported stoically in Akari's head. Immediately, an aura of crackling light formed around Akari, and slowly equalised into a sphere-like field around her before disappearing from view. "Personal shields will attenuate the effect. Endeavour to not have them damaged."

"We have to hurry. I don't know how much time we have." Mitsuko spoke while clenching bright day, as Akari began to piece together the most obvious of all plans.

"I think we've got an idea how to find it, the drain is probably greater closer to the source, so we've got to go towards it." Akari nodded to both the other girls as her sister began to transform, "I don't know if they're targetting us or everyone... At this point, it doesn't really matter either way. Ah, Ceres?"

["Understood, Main Drive Ignition."]

With a high pitched whine of a spinning fan, the bracelet began to glow brightly, obscuring Akari from sight for several moments.

[Krylo]

"Huh... What's..." Keitaro Akihito said as he looked around the room. Man of the students were frozen. A wadded up ball of paper one of the delinquents in the back was frozen in mid air. The room was bright. Harsh. His eyes hurt a bit from it, but he didn't let it get to him. He had always dealt with the problems of his life as they came, and he knew he was strong.

The girl who had been introducing herself, Mitsuko, ran out with her sister and another girl, seeming like they knew what they were doing. Akihito didn't understand at all, but he figured they must--and three girls like that would probably need protection.

"Hey! Hold on! I'll protect you!" he shouted after them as he ran to his desk, opening up the duffle bag he had set next to it and pulling out his boken. He ran out into the hall to catch a glimpse of the three girls turning a corner a bit away from him. He began to give chase, but soon found himself lost, and slowly froze up in a deserted classroom.

Rei Shoda, on the other hand, had frozen up as surely as if he had actually been caught in the magical spell. It wasn't until Akihito ran out after the girls that he was able to force himself to move. He knew that Akihito may be strong, but he wasn't magical.

'Yes he is, the familiar 'voice' of Tenken rang out in Rei's head, 'It is his mana reserves that allow him to resist this, as it is ours that allow us to.'

Rei nodded slowly, sullenly. Akihito was magic, too. It was only a matter of time before he was passed up in this as well... if he wasn't already.

'What are you doing? We have to act. Magic or not, he isn't trained and can not use it. He'll need our help as much as the other mages. Transform and assist.'

Rei nodded once more and ran from the classroom, though he didn't chase after the girls, right away. He found an empty classroom, slamming the door behind him. To anyone watching, he would have appeared to have simply been running away in fear, though in a few seconds he was transformed, his visor quickly finding the locations of Akihito and the girls.

He pulled out one of the windows in the room and leapt out.

--------

It wasn't long before Rei caught up to the girls, arriving from behind just as they finished their transformation sequences.

[Teal Mage]

As Alex exited the room, he purposely chose a direction opposite the trio of Autekka. He didn't want to pick a fight with them, not yet anyway. With Demi and her new beret trailing in his wake, he turned down the first corner that he could find.

With a sigh, he leaned back against the wall, looking across at Demi. "This might be a good time to-"

"Alex!" A familiar female voice shouted from the other end of the hallway. The blond bit off his sentence, as he looked over. Wheat blond hair flowing out behind her, Mia ran down the gray scale hall toward the pair. She arrived, panting, before them.

"Ahem." She began, straightening her back and pulling on a mask of composure. "Good to see you're okay." Mia glanced toward Demi and offered her a smile, "And I can't say I'm surprised see you okay too."

"The others?" Alex asked the Goth, concern in his voice.

Mia shook her head, "They don't have-" The toll of the bell that had started this whole mess cut her off. Both she and Alex winced, as the strange glows around them seemed to dim. The auras returned a moment later, but Mia's seemed paler then before.

[Relm Zephyrous]

She was following along, beret almost growling slightly, having two beads in it in the front, that if one didn't know better, would seem like eyes. Regardless, Demi thought nothing of this half-way transformation that kept her looking perfectly normal, and simply let Alex and Mia talk as she politely waved. By now, she was used to those kinds of smiles, but what was there to be done about it? Of course, then there was the bell, and everything seemed weaker, the presser on her strings pounding for a moment and then retreating. If she hadn't done that, she'd have surely been affected to a crippling extent.

Ok, we know what he's doing kinda but crap. Now what? I'm suffocating here!
"~This is the problem, least we aren't as affected now. But we still need to find a way to stop this.~"
What about the others?
"Who cares! Unless we stop this, then we're done, and then who'll figure this out. Besides, break the source, break the problem. Its like us and our draining really."
"~Problem is, we can't actually do anything. We don't have enough magic.~"
Can't we use our strings to sappy the evil doers?
"~Yeah, but that requires finding them before time is out, and even then, you know what happened the last time you focused solely on strings...~"
"But we're better than that now!"
"~Not the point. Look, only battling with strings against fully capable mages and such is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gun fight!~"
I like knives... I like knives...
"~Not the-~"
They cut things... They cut things... and 'break' problems of all sorts. and 'break' problems of all sorts.
"~Stop! Grrr... not the point! Point is, we need our stars and drains and such. But, because of the thing pressing down on the environment, its mana reserves are depleted.~"
"So... we need to drain from the adversaries. And you saw the classroom, there are dozens of magical students to siphon from."
But then they don't have enough to help us!
"~.... unless...~"
"They can spare a little.... unless what Sentinel?"
"~Heh... heh... heh...~"
Spit it out!
"~Our problems are solved, if my theory is correct.~"
"So we're gonna put our fate on a gamble?"
"~Sort of. The idea is, there is no energy in the area around us, because something is freezing it all in place. But, this isn't natural, there has to be something pushing down on it to cause this effect, like the blue star of ours. Therefore...~"
...
"..."

The buzzing in her mind went on and on, despite the total silent exterior, and her insides began laughing profusely from the plan that they had concocted. If it worked, then they weren't in immediate mortal peril after all. A small grin began forming on Demi's face though, hinting at some devilish secret locked deep inside.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"Multiple autekkan signature magic have been detected," Ivy said suddenly, starting Iriumi out of her concentration. The girl had been trying to watch where she placed her feet so as to make the smallest sounds possible, and she stomped her next one.

"Huh?"
"Do I have to explain everything again?"
"No... you caught me off guard. Do you recognise any of the signatures?"
"Most. There is one that is possibly new."
"Should I?"
"Should you what? Call up the barrier in response? Perhaps. I leave it up to your discretion, but I cannot cloak our presence when you're summoning the barrier jacket."
"... That should be ok then, right? I'd be able to signal to the Verda of my presence."
"Pause and think some more."
"... Yeah, ok, you're right. I'd alert any Autekka mages to my presence too. And what happened to the link between me and that priest-man-woman----person?" Iriumi finished lamely.
"Complication occurred during our communication. I apologise, I did not realise the backlash due to disconnection would be so brutal as to make you wince."
"Wait... you severed it?"
"I wished to talk. She apparently did not."
"You mean he?"
"The familiar intercepted communications."
"So she attacked you?"
"... no."

Iriumi's confusion was written clearly throughout all her thoughts.
"I apologise. I acted rashly. The familiar tried to trace our whereabouts without permission. I was wary, since the message I sent was intercepted by a black-haired angel, and not a young man dressed in priestess robes."
"Ah."
"Anyway, again, whether you decide to transform or not is entirely up to you. It will alert both autekkan and verda mages to your presence, but mayhaps that is a good thing. If we can make both meet, perhaps we can figure out who is doing this."
"Don't you think it's the Autekkan who did this? It doesn't feel like Verda-type magic."
"Correct, but remember that we were not responsible for the forced-activation Talisman. This could may well be an anomaly that has occurred within the school due to the sudden accumulation of mages in one spot."

Iriumi nodded, rounding a corner and entering the nearest empty-looking room she could find and closed the door silently behind her.
"Here goes nothing," she breathed as she began the ritual of calling up the jacket. Her hands unclasped the seedling pendant around her neck, and she held it cupped in her hands. The seed glittered like fire.

]"I call on the ancestral power, the primordial force of Gaia. You, who gave us life from the loam of death, who tilled the earth and sowed the seeds long before mankind set foot upon its fertile grounds. Embrace me, True Wilderness, and make me a vessel for your eternal strength!"

The seed flashed once, a brilliant green and gold, enveloping the entire room in its incandescence. All over the school, all mages could sense the sudden spike in Verda-type magic that exploded into their extrasensory receivers like a beacon, almost double the amount of what normal barrier-jacket summoning power seemed to emit.
But, just as fast as it appeared, it vanished without a trace, leaving a sort of 'negative' imagery as to where the location of the activity was, like what happens when somebody malicious shines a bright light in your eye then turns it off, leaving that black hole in place of blinding white.

~~

Iriumi, now in her leafy green-gold outfit, perched herself carefully on the desk of a frozen student and waited.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Contact! Approximately thirty metres... Nrrgh... It's that Verda sniper from nearly a week past." Ceres reported almost immediately after Akari's transformation had finished, a tone of mild exasperation managing to creep into her calm, measured voice. Even though she immediately recognised whom Ceres was speaking about, Akari felt much safer clad in her flamboyant blue battle armor.

"Mitsuko said she saw one of the Verda mages in class..." Akari replied with a musing tone as she waited for the other girls to finish. "Could they be setting a trap for us?" She hadn't noticed the masked boy arrive until afterwards, but she gave him a friendly smile as if thanking him for his promptness. She was going to have to make a note to ask his name again, before he vanished.

"It's possible." The device's voice sounded doubtful, but Ceres couldn't deny the Verda had a penchant for randomly appearing in the most unlikely places. "Either way, their presence here doesn't change anything. We're indoors, and inside an anomaly where neither of us can respire magic, any fighting would go badly for us."

["Jupiter AESA Online."] The large bow chimed once, as Akari's display eyepiece phased into being on the left side of her face. Among its other reads, the display gave Akari a general idea where the stronger areas of the time-distortion field were. "Just stay focused, find the source, and disable it."

"Okay everyone, this way!" Akari called to her compatriots, running down the hall in what she believed was the direction of the anomaly's source.

[ApatheticFoxboy]

Behind his cool shades Dojima saw a cloud of immaterial jelly congeal to every surface, including the school uniform. He batted the air. His gloved hand passed through the jelly, and the aura radiating off it burst substance in bright flashes of different colors. The sonar binged down the hall towards a collection of auras, like his, repelling the effects of the magical stasis field. The bell rang again. The auras dimmed for a few seconds then flared quickly back. The cloud of jellies crept in their space.

Dojima’s gloved hand lead the rest of him through the photo negative cloud that had descended on the school’s hallways. From his index finger full spectrum light sprayed his arm. His concentrated aura broke through the drab surroundings, acting like an arctic icebreaker. The strain tried Jax’s systems. The sonar’s binging grew faint. When he stopped the binging began again in earnest. Taking a few steps fighting the cloud, the sonar quit.

Dojima slide his glasses to his forehead. Before him where the auras in his shades had been before were the Chuuko transfers from class. One he recognized as Mitsuko holding her spear at the ready, “My thing is broken again. Isn’t this the worst time for that to happen? I was going to follow it. But not anymore I guess.” At that point a bow in the flamboyant blue battle armored mage possession chimed with some really nifty information.

Still wearing mostly his uniform and holding no real weapon Dojima felt underprepared. Dojima wished his Device was as sophisticated as these other mages, not the Junker hanging from his back like an overgrown cell phone. “Radar that thing has radar! Awesome. Wish I had that.” Behind Dojima’s back Jax printed a very sad message, which Dojima ignored in the moment as the blue armored mage ran off confident in her Device’s navigating capabilities.

"Okay everyone, this way!" she called after the stragglers.

[Arhra]

Mitusko re-appeared out of the golden sphere of her transformation, crimson Barrier Jacket settling about her.

"Okay everyone, this way!" Akari called, starting to run down the corridor in search of the maker of the stasis field. Mitsuko moved to accompany her blue clad sister, following with the group.

"Masked Man." Mitsuko nodded in aknowledgement as Rei fell in alongside her. The group was coming together. The Verda were around too, but assembled like this she felt they could deal with anything.

She turned, seeing Dojima coming up. "New Kid! Looks like you're about to see what this is all about."

Unexpectedly the trail took them onto the school office's roof, a large, flat area marked with occaisonal vents and objects that seemed to be part of the air conditioning system. In the center was a floating blue globe, perhaps a meter across. Crystalline, kaleidoscopic shadows moved slowly through it.

["Object is a contained dimensional space. Barrier prevents entry."] Bright Day reported.

"Ya!" Mitsuko hit it with Bright Day.

There was a flash but nothing else happened.

The magical girl stepped back and paused for a second, something like a smile creeping onto her face. Now, at least, things were clear. She circled a quarter of a circuit around it, turning back to address the others.

"If we combine our attacks, we should be able to break through easily." Mitsuko declared. She swiped Bright Day in a dramatic gesture. "Full power destruction!"

OOC: Yeah, a mid level attack ought to do it actually. I debated not saying that last bit, as full power destruction isn't really needed, but gave in to temptation.

[Naqel]

With every potential wizard, magician, witch, and whoever being gone, Daichi was the last person in the classroom left unfrozen. As soon as this happened, he pulled out his book and found the pages about conspiracy and secrecy related to magic.

"A representation of the desired disguise..." He thought to himself looking around. An idea crossed his mind when for a while he wondered how's Hidesuke and Kyokei doing. He pulled out a keychain with a wizard figure attached, which he recieved from Hidesuke long ago.

"Teka Arai Veir." He whispered holding the keychain. His clothing slowly began to transform into a complete wizard costume. When the transformation was done few seconds later, Daichi was still frozen in amazement.

:O <- His face looked like that.

He shook off the stupid expression, and pulled the hat lower, noticing it having the chain and keys still attached to the tip. With his face covered well enough to remain unrecognized he went to the window near the front row seat.

"Too high too jump... But I don't want to bump into any other wizards." He opened the book again. "Flying, flying, flying... Here!" He found the right page. "A piece of clothing..." He touched his cape with his right hand and spoke out.
"Arai Efa."
Nothing happened.
"Arai Efa!" He shouted louder than he intended to. And his costume cape became a pair of slightly deformed and moderately sized wings with smooth edges, slightly torn at the end.

"Damn... Nevermind... How do I use those anyway."
He focused on moving out through the open window, and as natural as he hoped it to be, he began to fly slowly. After a few feet outside, he had to land though, reminding himself what he had for breakfast. With visual aids...

After a while back in air, he was already used to lack of ground enough to safely check the classroom Yoshida twins were in. Everyone frozen still, some people while checking what happened to others. But most of them still in their regular places.

Hoping to get a better overview, Daichi flew higher. As soon as he noticed someone else being on the roof, he instantly submitted himself to gravity, hoping he wasn't noticed. He flew back up just enough to be able to climb on the roof and hid behind one of the vents being a part of the cooling system.

[Menarker]

Menarker twitched in general confusion, as the grim mood set in the class. He curiously glanced his glazed expression toward the students, wondering why some of the students remained motionless and not the others whom clambored and debated with a few suddenly alarming him with displaying magical transformations right in front of everyone's sight. He picked up on a variety of objects which remained suspended in their locations, physics be damned. His energy slowly felt like it was abandoning him, consternation slowly furling his brow. He was just about to motion and inquire what was going on, but they all left swiftly as the words he would say died in his mouth. Just as he would leave to examine the hallways, when another student broke out of the silent stupor he was in, transformed in a stately wizard's apparel and flew out promptly.

"I wish Mero was around here by now. She would definately shed light on the matter. No matter, if the panic is causing the ones who are mages to reveal themselves and rush off..."

The lad's uniform shifted into his comfortable black barrier jacket, silverish emblem shimmering slightly as he decided to follow after the beret girl, dashing off with unyielding calmness.

-----------------------------
OOC: Sorry for the large delay and the short and perhaps crappy post. ^^; Exam and all. Leaving for work too.

[phil_]

Synopsis: Frog suit, Panko goes up the stairs to the roof, she sees Akari, Mitsuko, and Rei. She doesn't recognize any of them and now is just standing in the doorway, holding it open.

In the second-floor girls' bathroom, Panko wished that she were taller. She couldn't see her frog suit in the mirrors!

"It looks like I'm going to be late for the party, Panko. This barrier's something else. Your frog suit's good at regulating your energy, but you still need to figure out what's going on." Panko was still hopping up and down to admire her new cuteness. "Are you even listening?! What the heck are you doing; get going!"

Panko huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine, I got it. Any idea where I should go?"

" I feel something pretty high up. It's probably on the roof."

"Roof, right," Panko said as she opened the bathroom door. No one seemed to be in the hallway, so Panko hopped toward the stairs, over the "No Students" sign, and up to the roof.

As soon as she opened the door, she wished she hadn't. There were already a few people in weird costumes up here, none of whom she recognized from Friday night. A boy with a sword, a girl with a spear and one with a bow; were these the Autekkans that wanted to fight her? Panko stood dumbly in the open door, not knowing what to do.

[PhoenixFlame]

"If we combine our attacks, we should be able to break through easily." Mitsuko declared. She swiped Bright Day in a dramatic gesture. "Full power destruction!"

As Mitsuko circled the coruscating ball of energy, Akari stood motionless at the place where she'd first seen it, musing from a distance how it would best be disrupted. As tempting as it felt to agree with Mitsuko's earlier observation and punch straight through the dimensional rift and possibly out the other side, Akari's recent training convinced her there was a more cerebral solution to the obstacle.

"Our target is inside. We need to cut through to gain entry. It would be... wise to not exhaust ourselves on it's outer shell."

"Ah, so it's a barrier!" Akari exclaims audibly as she watches Mitsuko's probing attack, and considers Ceres' assessment of the anomaly's function. "Sis, we probably don't have to blast through it with everything! If it works like our shields do... Then if I hit it in multiple places simultaneously, it should be weakened enough in this direction for you to punch through it."

"Correct, and an interesting plan. The shield shouldn't be able to re-allocate quickly enough."

"Okay... Here goes. Second star light technique!" Akari says with a deep breath, slowly bringing her bow down to her lower-left side and seizing the string. Continuing with a mild uncertainty in her voice, she draws the weapon as fully as she is able in this awkward position. "Every direction arrow..." Snapping the string once, raising the weild and continuing like the motion of a clock, each of the rods of energy lanced forth and froze in midair past where they had been launched from. The motion was finished in a single fluid maneuver after sweeping overhead to her lower-right.

"Embrace the stars!"

["Sidereal Embrace."]

Each of nearly twenty arrows lanced off simultaneously in a starburst eminating outwards from Akari, from parallel with the roof to straight overhead. Dropping her weapon to her side and raising her right hand, Akari closes her eyes and clenches her teeth in concentration. It was bad enough that she'd messed this spell up sparring her sister, and she certainly didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of everyone.

[FCS Disabled.]

"It's all yours, Akari. Relax. There are not too many, feel all of them as one being, with you at their center."

Reaching outward with her mind to feel the expanding mass of energy, she closed her outstretched hand, imagining each arrow as one in the same with each other and their target. As one, each of the lances of azure light curved back with glittering aerial contrails, rocketting towards the dimensional sphere from every direction in a vertical plane.

[Krylo]

As Akari discussed their new tactic with her sister, and carried it out, Rei took a few steps backward, concentrating on holding in as much of his energy as possible. This was all far too easy, and if there's anything Sailor Starlight Megatokyo had taught him, it was that these kinds of things were never this easy. There had to be some kind of villain controlling this, or some other form of defense about it. Maybe both.

He silently drew his rapier, and stood at the ready, as Tenken gave his silent support, 'Be ready. This may be as easy as they believe, but it is likely not.'

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu joined Rei on the roof, watching Mitsuko and Akari. She quickly looked around, her scanner picking up no enemies yet. She sighed internally. This time she was actually present to lend a hand, but if Mitsuko dealt with the source of the malicious magic gripping the school, then she was just as useless now as her absense was then.

Still, she kept a close watch. She didn't trust in luck, and things that were as smooth and easy as this were too good to be true. This could very well be a trap designed to get the Autekka mages exactly where someone or something wanted them to be. Spreiga hovered idly nearby.

[Teal Mage]

"So, Alex, Demi," Mia began, "I think I know-" She bit off her sentence as her gray eyes widened. A young man in silver-white marked black clothes had appeared around the corner. Her surprise turned to determined seriousness as she read absolute calm on his face. A distant part of her recognized him as Mernarker Darshiva, but that part only served to strengthen her resolve.

"Alex, Demi, move!" Mia cried, hand drawing a black handled knife from in the holds of her uniform's bow, "The one who caused this, he's behind you!" Her earrings shimmered darkly as she flourished her blade, a casting circle with image of an Ankh in its center superimposed itself over the blade.

Not stopping to question why her Wiccan magic was appearing in such on obvious form all of a sudden, she spoke loudly and clearly. "Elements of Air and Flame in this blade, by my Will, Repel!"

Repelling force surged around Mern, as the air itself responded to Mia's cast. The spell couldn't possibly hurt him, since her magic wouldn't allow that. But the force of the magic was more then strong enough to force him through one of a windows in the hallway behind him.

Alex had, meanwhile, spun to face a mage he didn't recognize. The aura around the blond haired school boy seemed to bulge for a moment, taking on the likeness of a winged woman made of white light.

Its come to this... Alex thought, blue eyes alert as he watched the new mage. The words to call his barrier jacket awake on the tip of his tongue, he waited.

((OoC: Mern, just so you know, the spell's originating around you. Actually, it was cast directly on you, so dodging it won't be easy. I'm not even sure if you can dodge something like that.))

[ApatheticFoxboy]

Following the others to the roof, Dojima was surprised. He had never been on the roof before. He looked up. Seeing the black dead atmosphere, he felt anxious under the strange sky. At that moment, being a mage seemed to be frightening proposition. Mitsuko turned his attention to floating source of the ubiquitous stasis magic, a point of an enfolding dimension.

"Ah, so it's a barrier!" he heard the blue battle armor chick say. She steadied her own attack.

Dojima pointed his gloved hand at the blue sphere. "OK, Jax -that's right I'm using your proper name just like you like- it’s time. The starting gun's just fired. Sink or Swim!" Intense energy crackled in his palm, tickling the nerves in his hands with a pickling. Power coursed through Dojima's arm charging at the end of his arm. His aura shimmered bright violet on his arms, leaving the rest of his body only dimly lit. Domjia's legs lock up along with all his other muscles, ready to take the shot's recoil.

Jax's system took a shock and began a completely different program. Energy for launching the attack got redirected to Jax's teleporter.

"Fire!" He shouted as his attack disappeared from his hand. Amazed Dojima felt his jaw drop. Frustrated that his power had been aborted, he screamed. Turning from the blue ball, he hung his shoulders in disappointment. Looking down he saw the field grabbing his unprotected leg. Dojima batted the field away.

Timed perfectly, Jax coordinated the energy bomb to reappeared on the sphere's surface just after Akari's twenty arrows hit their target. It produced a rather satisfying crackle before detonating.

((OOC: Yeah so, Jax perfroms the "Plant Bomb" attack to hit just after Akari's arrows hit. I don't know what it actually damaged, the blue ball or the thing in it so I'm leaving that to Arhra. Going to bed now.))

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

There were voices coming just around the corridor. Iriumi opened her eyes from her sensory meditation. Something was going to go horribly wrong. Ivy indicated a strange presence beside one she was familiar with, as well as the sudden Autekkan activity high above them. Demi, with her draining abilities, was almost invisible Iriumi's straining, clumsy attempts at her own data-gathering, but the noises they made were real enough for her to pinpoint their directions. She heard Alex talking with them.

Silently, she stood and opened the door in a fluid motion. The corridor she was in was empty, but they were just standing around the corner. Within close vicinity, another verda-type mage had just transformed, and was walking unknowingly towards the other group. That’s ok. Good regrouping metho-
“The one who caused this, he's behind you!”
Huh? Isn’t that Alex’s friend, Mia? What’s she—
Careful. Wild magic is being cast. I suggest- Ivy was interrupted when Iriumi’s hands called forth the Ancient’s Wrath.
No. Verda mages should not be attacking each other. Our void-type mage should at least know. They’re going to fi-
“—Repel!”
Iriumi reacted on instinct. Leafy wings exploded out of her back as she leapt forward, giving speed to her run. She landed vertically on the wall of the corridor that ran perpendicular to hers, just in time to see Menarker getting thrown back forcefully. Her primordial bow had barely begun unfurling. Oh my god! He’s about to hit the window!

Her arm rose, the prematurely-formed crossbow cranking taut with a glowing leaf, come on… I don’t want to entangle, just want to prevent him hitting the glass. There’s no phantom zone here, it’ll be an unexplainable occurrence! Iriumi aimed and pulled the trigger, sending a burst of empowered energy into the vine blast.

“VINE WEB!” Iriumi’s muffled yell was distorted as the still-unfolding crossbow let loose its weakly-formed vine blast. It spiralled like a bright green blur past Demi, Alex and Mia, splashing across the wall and window like a vine-filled spongy mass. Whatever would happen, if Menarker didn’t recover in midair, he would be cushioned by the strange vine mess.

"Oh jeeze. Let me at least finish transforming, will ya?" Ivy remarked sarcastically, the whispers of the leaves surrounding Iriumi as she staggered awkwardly off the side of the wall. She turned to the shocked trio (Mernarker excluded), and bowed apologetically.
“Sorry! He’s on our side, please don’t fight. If you want to know the location of the disturbance, the rooftop might be a good place to go. Pleasedon’tattackme,” she added, her body tense and ready to flee if any of them tried anything, noticing how wary everyone else was.

[Menarker]

Menarker glided along the hallway, trying to catch up with the blond hair boy and the girl with her thread spawned hat, patiently expecting to learn more about the ongoing situation once he joins up with the group. After a few brief moments, he had slowly caught sight of them after turning the corner and was just about to flag them.

"Alex, Demi, move!" Mia cried, hand drawing a black handled knife from in the holds of her uniform's bow, "The one who caused this, he's behind you!"

Wait, what?

He stopped abruptly, his shield up strongly within the front, but the force brushed him and his protection roughly across the hallway, as he braced himself against collision against the wall. His short journey ended with a soft thud as something soft cushioned him, a mesh of vines wiring to block where a window would have been. He looked back on group and saw a recent arrival in the form of the lass in gilded green garment.

“Sorry! He’s on our side, please don’t fight. If you want to know the location of the disturbance, the rooftop might be a good place to go. Pleasedon’tattackme,”

Menarker held his back to the wall briefly, very much shaken by the sudden and rather unwarrented attack, glancing his eyes back and forth between all of them, focusing more so on the flora magic girl who vouched for him. He slowly moved toward the group, a little off to the side near the wall.

"Thank you kindly, I'm in your debt. Admittably, I wouldn't be in any danger from falling, but your support is very much appreciated."

Menarker focused his gaze on the trio he was following, and started to desperately explain himself, nervously using gestures and trying to suddenly conjure any sort of information that could convince them of his pure intention.


"Listen, I followed you guys cause I thought I recognized her at least." He pointed lightly at the beret girl. "She used thread magic against a monsterous spider and its guardians that I was also fighting against a couple of nights ago when I first got my magic and my familar took me to the park. I was in the same classroom as you guys, and I saw her weave her hat out of similar sort of power. I was kinda out of it, wasn't paying attention during student introduction, so I didn't catch up on situation. Plus, my familiar had told me that there were Autekkas mages possibly, but I haven't encountered any myself, so I didn't know who was who, and I didn't want to risk following a random person in case there was a heated relationship between them and Verda. So I was just following the one person I thought I recognized. I just wanted to know what was going on, and perhaps help out..."

His legs shook a bit as if ready to take off in the opposite direction if things took an unfriendly turn, his expression much taken aback by the abrupt accusation and assault by those he had intended to help.

Awww shit. I'm now starting to wish that this school allowed me to bring pets. I could really used Mero's presence to back me up at least.

-----------
OOC: In the middle of revising character bio with Teal for more balance and easier reading profile, so my character will stay a little bit out of combat.

[Teal Mage]

A guarded expression on her face, Mia's gray eyes flicked from the green clothed girl to Mernarker. She held the black handled knife loosely in her hand still, and didn't seem to have any intention of putting it away.

As Mernarker began to explain himself, she inched closer to Alex, idly noticing that his aura had returned to normal. "Alex," she whispered, "what do you think?"

Alex's expression had smoothed since the appearance of the auburn haired Verda, becoming unreadable. "Seems like there are a lot of awakened mages in our school." His flickered shifted sidelong to Demi.

Mia nodded; she was being to feel like the amateur here. "I can't fight them. This Timeslip's drained me more then I thought. I might freeze at this rate."

"I'll give you some of my power." Alex replied in a whisper, assessing the red bond between the Goth and him, "Let's give them a chance." He empowered the link, turning the invisible line into a ribbon of red magic.

Mia's eyes widened at the influx of power, she didn't think Alex would be able to do something like that, especially without his own aura darkening.

"...I just wanted to know what was going on, and perhaps help out..." Mernarker finished, looking nervous.

Projecting his voice so it could be heard clearly on both sides of the hallway, "My friend Mia might be able to explain that better then me." Alex said, gesturing to the girl, "She isn't exactly a stranger to magic."

"Sorry," Mia began glancing at Mern; through her expression still said she didn't trust him, "this whole thing has me on edge." She glanced back toward the other mage, then to Demi, and back to Alex, "As I was saying before you arrived, I think we're in something called a Timeslip."

"Its a magical event that causes the flow of time to behave oddly, move faster, slower, in reverse, or stop altogether, depending on the spell. Obviously," she smiled humourlessly, "this is a freeze. Normally these sorts of things can only be noticed by people with magical powers, and originate from a central point." She glanced back at the female mage again, "The roof in this case."

"But that might not be the case," Mia added, now musing aloud, "if the time freeze didn't grow stronger whenever the bell tolled, it would be simple enough. But it does, which means something's causing the bell to ring. Either it’s really complicated and is operating on a timer of some sort or," she glanced at Demi, the unnamed girl and Mernarker, "another fully realized mage is controlling this."

"That’s what I know." Mia finished, confidently flipping her wheat blond hair.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

It didn't really take a genius to notice the recognition flicker in Iriumi's eyes. That subtle ribbon connection between Mia and Alex made her and Ivy arrive to the same conclusion. It was him!

As to Mia's next few comments, Iriumi displayed mild confusion. "Wait, the freeze is growing stronger?" she asked, her slender brow drawing close in a slight frown. The whisper of breeze and leaf around the mage seemed to grow louder, a voice carried through the rustle of ivy.

"Good morning, children of magic," Ivy spoke pleasantly in that soft voice of hers, her words carrying clearly to the others ,"I am the Orichalchum Ivy, and my partner stands before you. She is currently unaware of the effects of the drain due to my self-sustainability. We are currently looking for a priestess and an angel, who might gain advantage by linking up with us. This way, we may confer some of my abilities onto them and sustain us through this small predicament."

"Again."

"Again," Ivy agreed amicably, before the rustle of leaves fell silent. Iriumi adopted a more calmer stance. She'd lowered her weapon long ago, but was still cautious of Mia. Whatever her magic is, it's not Autekkan or Verda-type, and therefore possibly dangerous. And what's with that crazy outfit?!

[Arhra]

"Sis, we probably don't have to blast through it with everything! If it works like our shields do... Then if I hit it in multiple places simultaneously, it should be weakened enough in this direction for you to punch through it."

"OK." Mitsuko said, raising her weapon high an offensive stance for an overhead swing and focusing her energy, a Celestial Sphere materialising in front of her.

Akari's horrendous overkill of magical arrows shot force, azure lances circling around and striking the sphere from every direction. The cycling pattern on the sphere went crazy, flashing through its sequence as magic crackled over it.

Mitsuko took a step forward and swung Bright Day down through her Sphere, a planar slice of energy erupting out of the slash and stabbing into the barrier, struggling against it.

Jax's teleported bomb went off and the sphere's surface broke up, expanding into a large blue sphere marked by irregular dark ripples, giving the impresison of being a circular hole in space. The pattern rapidly started to stabilise again.

["Dimensional space is open. Hurry - barrier is regenerating."] Bright Day chimed.

"Good job everyone." Mitusko said. "Come on!"

She jumped into the portal.

Inside it was all still, a ringing silence in the air like after the toll of a bell. The floor seemed to be a still pond, ripples spreading out from where their feet touched it and propogating across the entire room. The center lit up as the ripples touched it, four bells in a simple housing spaced evenly around a metallic shape like a closed flower bud. It opened, metals pieces sliding and rearranging to form an abstract, vaguely humanoid shape, suggestive of a robed figure wearing an ornate headdress.

The Autekkan construct cocked its faceless head at them inquisitively, with a musical chime. "You are noise and motion where none is permitted. The judgement of the heavens has descended upon this place, as was decreed. Depart or accept your judgement."

[phil_]

Panko watched the Autekkans' display of power, seemingly without being noticed by anyone on the roof or in the stairs. They acted like a real team, had cool costumes, and used laser beams and beam spears. "Cool."

"Panko, what's going on in there?! Are you and that kid having a rematch or what?"

"Huh?" Panko replied outloud to Picky's voice in her head. "Wait, sorry. What?"

"I'm pretty sure that I felt Psycho's power for a sec. It cooled down really quick, though. Anyway, I felt some Verda magic for a bit. Also, there was some-"

"Autekkan magic?" Panko cut him off. "Yeah, I just watched some girls blow up this blue thing. Then they walked through it. I don't think they saw me."

"Well, I'm getting tired of banging my head on this barrier, so hurry up and do something about it."

"Right!" Time to be reckless. Panko hopped away from the safety of the doorway and into the portal. A little kid in a silly frog costume appeared behind the Autekkans with a "Huzzah!"

[Teal Mage]

"Well," Mia said, turning toward the green Verda, "I'm actually not sure if the field's getting stronger. It did surge when the bell rang, but it might have just been directly assailing our magical stores, instead of just holding its grip on time."

Earring jiggling, the Goth shrugged and turned toward the others. "In any case, I'd like to go get a look at the roof." Her black shoes clicking loudly on the hall's floor, she began to walk in the direction that Alex, Demi and Mern had come.

"Wait." Alex called, moving up behind her. Mia paused and glanced over her shoulder at him, giving him a curious look. "If you just want to see it, I can help with that." The blond continued with a small smile, "Let's go to the windows." He paused, the added in a louder voice, "The rest of you can come too."

Mia nodded, gray eyes now shining with curiosity, and the pair set off into the hall past Mern, to one of the clear windows.

Alex waved his hand over the reflective surface and whispered, "Dancing Colors." Red light frosted the window's edges, and the surface grew misty as colors flickered across the glass, eventually resolving themselves into a view of the Tohou's roof, just in time to catch a glimpse of Mitsuko vanishing into a rippling hole in space.

Beside him, Mia let out a breath, "Fascinating..." Alex wasn't sure if she was referring to his spell, the number of mages in the window, or the blue hole itself.

Experimentally, Alex waved his hand over a corner of the window, trying to call up of an image of Mitsuko, and her new location.

((OoC: Just seeing if I can scry what’s inside the sphere. He’s trying to get a second image, not dispel one for another. Arhra?))

[PhoenixFlame]

Akari rushed the barrier the moment the hole had opened, feet tapping audibly agaisnt the rooftop as she uncharacteristically did not fly. Given the nature of the field and her previous experiences with overextending herself, Akari was in no mood to needlessly waste power. However, she did not leap through into obscurity without preparations.

"Sattelite Expansion!" She ordered firmly, while swinging her bow out to her left side. As one, the twelve autonomous gun drones resting in Ceres Aphelion's armbits broke off and formed a ring at their master's back. Without taking any time to view her surroundings, Akari lept into the rapidly closing hole in the anomalous barrier.

["Hostile Contact, Six O'clock."] Ceres warned immediately as the pair had entered the anomaly. Whirling around in suprise as the Bellringer began to speak, Akari ended up face to face with a frog-costumed young girl. She couldn't help but notice Ceres' eyepiece had highlighted the girl with a red box.

"Um... Hello? You're not here to shoot at me, right?" Akari stammered in suprise, backing up slowly and almost bumping into Mitsuko as she did. Honestly, how else does one react to a frog-suited girl suddenly ninja-jumping behind them?

"Great. Even more Verda we haven't seen before. Look sharp, stop embarassing us." Ceres groaned in Akari's head, immediately snapping her into attention at the first use of her scolding voice.

"I-I mean don't interfere, citizen! We've got this under control!"

"We seriously need to work on your communication skills."

[ApatheticFoxboy]

Dojima heard the timed explosion, and felt a grin on his face. With the coordinated mage's attacks, the barrier that had protected the sphere broke. But the sphere's pattern was quickly stabilizing. Dojima rushed across the roof, leaping into the portal. On the other side of the portal he landed on his stomach. Ripples propagated from under him, and there was a ringing in his ears.

The backpack he wore broke away from him, and transformed into a clicking, chirping crab spider. The jittery mechanical bug puttered into the formation of Cere's gun drones. Floating amongst the satellites, it looked intensely interested in the drones' weaponry. It's eyestalks zoomed on the barrel of the drone's gun, and made a impressive whistle sound.

Dojima jumped up, his ears still ringing. He saw the metallic humanoid shape. It said, "You are noise and motion where none is permitted. The judgment of the heavens has descended upon this place, as was decreed. Depart or accept your judgment."

Dojima took a step back, "Crap… Listen. We don't want trouble. But we can't have school frozen in time like this. Not on the first day of school. So you've got to turn off this field right now or… um." Dojima couldn't think of a worth wild threat. "Jax, little help."

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu spun around at the sudden outburst of "Huzzah!", almost blasting Panko until she got a better look at him. It was some little dude in a frog costume. "Hey, kid." she began.
"I'm a computer, paya!" Ponpon interrupted with interspaced giggling. "Stop all the downloadin', paya. Help computer, paya."

Shimizu felt a strong urge to smack her mechanical friend for that reference. "You should go back. It's going to be really dangerous so leave here, okay?"

She didn't wait for a response, and turned towards the strange guardian. "We don't have time to talk, just fight. I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but get out of our way or get destroyed."
Shimizu aimed Ponpon at the guardian. Her Star Brand warmed up. "You've got until the count of three before I fire."
"Mother!" Ponpon called out. "The scanner reports that the child behind you is a Verda mage, paya!"
"Aw, screw it! Three!" and Shimizu opened up with a Boom Burst before dodging to the side in an attempt to avoid any attack Panko may try.

[Krylo]

(OOC: Note, Panko in suit appears to be about ten or so. She's an elementary kid in so far as we know.)

Rei had followed the others into the rift, like a good little mage, and had kept his attention diverted between the Verda and the Autekkan construct, that is until Shimizu threatened the frog girl and then attacked.

He had been ready to react, and his body glowed brightly as his speed and strength increased, sending him flying directly between Shimizu and the frog girl, his arm raised toward the boom burst. A shield materialized almost instantly, Shimizu's attack destroying it but doing no further harm.

"She's just a girl, Verda or not," Rei stated as he dropped his arm, shaking it slightly, as though flicking dust from his sleeve, "And this thing has assaulted us both equally. We can't afford to fight a battle on two fronts right now... and we've no need to start wars."

He looked back over his shoulder at the girl, a smile on his face, and spoke as one would be expected to when addressing a child--kind but slightly condescending, "Thank you for coming to help us, but don't hurt yourself, ok? Let the grown ups handle this."

With that he moved toward the construct his face serious, Tenken having already informed him that the creature was of Autekkan make.

"Stand down. We are Auttekan Battle Mages. You have been inactive for a very long time, and the Judgement has been recalled. We have been sent here to shut you down as this is currently a civilian facility and civilian casualties will not be permitted. If you do not cooperate you will be considered a rogue device and handled accordingly," the boy bluffed strongly, as Tenken coached him.

Hopefully the construct wouldn't call the bluff, but if it did, he was certain they could handle it.

[phil_]

What was this? Panko had expected to break up some secret Autekka meeting, save the day, and maybe make Picky choke out a compliment. But they were all treating her like a little kid!

And then one shot at her. Panko was about to jump out of the way, but then a boy in a mask dashed into the blast to protect her. Off balance from preparing to jump, Panko fell on her side like a clutz. The boy was really cool... until he started lecturing her too!

"Hey! I'm not little kid! You don't need to... wait, I am a little kid..." she trailed off to herself. Darn it, she'd show them! Just as soon as she was sure about not jumping back out of the portal, away from the robot girl with the arm cannon.

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu felt a little guilty about trying to annihilate a small girl. But Ponpon reported him to be a Verda mage, and maybe she was just trying to appear defenseless to take them all offguard. Lord knows how many times Shimizu used her feminine wiles and curves to get herself out of trouble. "Well, then just send that kid back through the portal or something! I'm not good with distractions and a Verda jumping into the fight from behind while we're dealing with some guardian sounds like a helluva distraction to me."

[Arhra]

Mitsuko was looking between the construct and the frog-girl with concern, not sure which one was the bigger threat. This kid was a Verda-type mage, just like the ones who had attacked in the middle of the night a few days ago, but she was a little kid.

Shimizu had gotten rattled and fired at her, Rei stepping in to shield the girl and try to call off the construct. It had merely continued to stand of the center of this place, not lifting a finger to assist.

Must look professional! Mitsuko thought, doing her best to school her face into a stoic mask. "Who are you?" she asked, trying to sound calm, but authoritive.

There came a single tone and the bellringer replied to Rei.

"Eternity's judgement, a decree of silence and stillness, was commanded by the lords of the sky. Command validation was received for current parameters." the construct replied to Rei. "You are one who would contradict the will of the heavens. You do not have the right. Command access denied."

It paused for a moment, returning to a neutral stance. A musical progress of notes ofllowed and then it drew itself up sternly. "This judgement must achieve its full closure, the forward march of time halted. Offer of safe departure has been waived. Declaration of hostile intent noted. Use of force is permitted."

Circuit-like patterns of light crept over the bells and their housings and, which a clunk of a mechanism unlatching, they lifted in the air, slowly circling the stylised humanoid form of the bell ringer.

"Prepare yourself."

[Astral Harmony]

"Should've blasted it when we had the chance," Shimizu said, taking aim at the Bellringer. "So, this is the first time I'm fighting alongside all of you." she said to the others. "I guess you say I'm great when it comes to dealing great damage, but I can't maintain my damage potential before I have to cool down, or the Star Brand on my hand will burn me badly."

Her branding had just finished cooling down from the Boom Burst, and she decided to redirect her star energy assault to the Bellringer. "Spider Strike!" she shouted, and Ponpon shaped the ejected energy into a synchronous eight homing energy rounds, arcing towards those suspicious-looking bells the guardian had brought forth.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"That's it, I can't stand around while a kid's even in there trying to do something," Iriumi said as she watched Panko flail about. The verda mage moved away from the scrying window and opened an adjacent one, pulling herself out to the wall outside with liquid ease.

With small leaps and bounds and the help of her ivy wings, Iriumi scrabbled up to the school roof without much incident.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ivy asked as they located the orb. The shield looked like it was still regenerating, and had plenty of space for Iriumi to jump in.

"A young child in there just got shot at by an autekka. Even if the child in question is Verda, they shouldn't think about harming those so young in thinking," Iriumi said firmly. Ivy still radiated a bit of uncertainty, but didn't voice her opinions further, so Iriumi bent forward and touched the glowing, pulsing orb behind the shattered shield.

~~

"Prepare yourself."

Iriumi blinked. In front of her were many people - some that looked alien, others that looked familiar. She noticed Rei in his suit (but his secret identity was safe!), and the kid he was protecting. The one that had spoken just as Iriumi found herself in the orb was... strange.

Faceless, robed. This was not a human or a mage, but...
Hhhkk... Autekkan magic. It's almost overwhelming my extrasensories, Ivy managed in Iriumi's mind. She tensed when she saw Akari, before blanching suddenly at Shimizu's attack aimed at the faceless creature.

[phil_]

Synopsis:Panko doesn't recognize Hana (since she's never met her), embarrasses herself one more time, and fires her laser.

Panko wasn't sure if the girl in the green jump suit was an ally or not, but she knew that the glowing robot was definitely a bad guy. She mumbled, "Why the heck is he trying to stop time?" then, trying her best to sound heroic regardless of falling down like an idiot, called out to the Autekkan construct, "You won't get away with this!"

Oh, man, that sounded a lot less cheesy and clichéd in her head.

But this was no time to be embarrassed, even if she kept embarrassing herself. Panko jumped to the side and, clear of the Autekka, yelled, "Cutie Beam!" A pink blast of cuteness arced from her hands towards the robot trying to stop time

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu suddenly reeled back as though punched in the stomach. "Cu-...Cutie Beam?" she asked with an injured tone, her expression like one suffering from a really painful toothache.

"Seriously..." Shimizu said really slowly. "Cutie Beam?"
"It'd make a hell of an attack against perverted old men with lolita complexes, paya."
"Not helping, Ponpon." Shimizu rubbed her forehead. "Not helping at all."

[Menarker]

Menarker had curiously watched the interaction of the other mages he encountered in dead silence, feeling slightly out of the loop. How they were able to discern the situation without first hand evidence was foreign and fairly astounding. While he suspected and agreed with the proposed time stop effect, the exact clarity by which they compiled their information bewildered him. Alex's window scrying talent in particular intrigued him, as he watched with the others of the scene on the roof as he caught slight of their counterpart for an instant.

"Hmmm, I never seen an Autekkan before. Interesting... Wait..." He pointed swiftly at the small frog girl's form. "That... might be Panko, Another Verda. We dueled a few days ago for practice. Animal form transformation style... I don't recall her having a frog form, but I don't know any other mages that look like they are elementary school students. But what is she doing here in the first place? Any chance we could view inside that dome?"

He watched silently as the screen was apparently able to accommodate his request coming in closer, but they barely got to examine the scene when a shot was fired toward the frog. His reaction was a mix of relief but also severe annoyance mixed with confusion.

"Guess the Autekkans don't all have the same view on Verdas... or attacking small children... without warning." Mern hastily added the last bit, remembering his duel which ended up making her run in tears. "God, I hope she doesn't tattle on me."


"That's it, I can't stand around while a kid's even in there trying to do something," Iriumi said as she watched Panko flail about. The verda mage moved away from the scrying window and opened an adjacent one, pulling herself out to the wall outside with liquid ease.

Menarker stared sluggishly, apprehensive about Irumi's sudden departure and glared back at the screen, as if praying for some additional bits of insight to suddenly fall into his lap.
"Come on, Mero, where are you?" It's going to be difficult fighting without you." His conscience wavered as he second guessed himself. It was either going with Irumi to assist despite being outnumbered to assist Panko, or doing the strategically appropriate tactic and waiting until his familiar came back at the very least.

"Hold on..." He peered and squinted at the screen, examining the window in the same way as one would a "Find Waldo book". "Her familiar isn't there..." He expression also soured as the images of most of the other mages focused on that of the faceless construct which he himself guessed to be the foremost target.

"Not a pleasant scenario, I'll say that much."

[Arhra]

"Now is the hour of tranquil stillness. Mana Stasis." the bellringer declared. The bells spun around it and halted at one, its patterns brightening. It lit up with blue symbols and tolled.

Two loose, spinning rings of similar symbols appeared around one of the Spider Strike attack, spiraling in as they chased the bolt. They locked and disappeared. The bolt halted in mid-air, turning faded and indistinct. In rapid sequence, this happened to each bolt, the last one unable to be intercepted and striking one of the bells. A blue shimmer hugged the bell's surface around the point of impact, indicating a defensive shield.

The bellringer raised a hand, a rotating, four sided shield materialising to block the Panko's Cutie Beam. Similar symbols marked it as well, including circles of them centered on each corner.

"Crystal Bind." The shapes on the active bell changed, some going dark and new ones lighting up. It tolled again.

Four crystal chunks appeared around Panko and shot inward.

Mitsuko found her request for Panko's identity had been interrupted by the bellringer's declaration. The judgement had been confirmed? Was there some higher level construct malfunctioning? The Irumi burst in. Mitsuko recognised her from the other night.

"What should we do?" Mitsuko asked Bright Day, moving to the left to make the group less of a target.

["Stasis defense has reduced effectiveness against volley or high energy attacks."] Bright Day chimed matter of factly.

Mitsuko winced. That hadn't quite been what she'd been asking. And maybe she should have stayed in the virtual training to practice the Celestial Sphere variants like Bright Day had wanted.

She nodded sharply, summoning determination. "Alright, walk me through it."

* * *

In the homeroom, half the remaining students had frozen. Sakiko was sitting at the front with them, looking pale and strained. The door swung open and closed again. Sakiko jumped. There was nothing there. Then orangish energy swept out, clinging to the walls, floors and ceilling of the room. Everyone inside vanished, the room filled instead with hazy vapours.

OOC: The crystal bind basically starts to expand to trap you in a funky crystal statue on contact. They generally target limbs to form a manacle first. That orange field is hard to detect, but seeing the Verda are mostly within the same building... yeah. It's a modified Phantom Zone. You can't even open the doors or windows without breaking into the field.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Distractions can wait, Akari. We have a battle to win." Ceres' voice interrupted Akari's attempt to continue conversing with Panko or the other mages, visibly nudging her attention back to the Bellringer with a pair of blinking red arrows on her eyepiece's viewer.

"Right." Akari nodded, turning to face the ancient machine, and raising her bow to aim at it. Drawing the string as she listened to the automata's madness, she prepares to launch her signature attack and end the battle early. The Bellringer's own magic however, seemed to have another idea, as both Akari and Ceres alike understood what it was doing as the attack dispersion fields materialized to stop Shimzu and Panko's own.

"Stasis field is interfering with peripheral condensers. We cannot charge to fire."

"Huh, and it's draining existing attacks in flight?" Akari bit her lower lip, eyes scanning the geometrically uniform boxes and triangles the Bellringer used, noting how similar a small portion of them looked to her own magicks. While she held her stance, the two rings of the mandala at her feet that stabilized her bombardment magic flickered weakly as they failed to overpower the interference.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. It is disrupting inflight attacks with a focused form of its stasis field."

One of Shimizu's attacks managed to pass through however, if barely. The young bombardment mage's eyes lit up as she understood precisely what this entailed.

"Divide and split it's attention! Incalculable Star Sky Attack!" She said with a resolute ringing tone, as a single bright white-blue arrow materialized inside the already drawn bow. Taking aim at one of the Bellringer's ancillary bells, she let the attack fly, immediately drawing again and targetting the next bell in the circle, firing at each and doubling back to fire at the first when she could see no more targets. "Now, rend the heavens! Hit them all!"

["Understood."]

In unison, Ceres drone formation broke and flitted toward the assembled Bellringer's own, stopping just inside their optimal firing range for maximum effect. Splitting focus between all of them, they lended another twelve attacks to Akari's diversified simultaneous strike. Energy arrows and fixed beams alike rained down upon every one of the Bellringer's subordinate devices, seeking to overwhelm its point defenses.

[Krylo]

For just a moment Rei was confused as to why Akari was doing, essentially, the same thing that Shimizu had just done, but it was for just a moment. He quickly realized, as she had, that one of Shimizu's attacks had made it through, over powering the shield. If that were the case...

Rei quickly held his free arm out, while pulling the rapier back behind his shoulder, before charging toward the Autekkan construct. He would strike forward with all his might, twisting his torso and thrusting forward his arm, in a single piercing attackthrough construct's shield, and hopefully through the construct itself, at exactly the same moment that Akari's arrows would strike. Such tactics had worked before, they should work again, he reasoned.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

It was here that Iriumi leapt forward, her speed picking up just as the for crystals formed around Panko.
"ANCIENT'S WRATH!" She yelled, her voice muffled by her mask. Her arm rose and fell, smacking two crystals out of the air just as she leapt to one side of Panko and shattering them against the ground. Ivy's secondary leaf shield bloomed on the other side of Panko, and the other two crystals splashed and crystallized the hovering barrier instead. Her weapon pulsed as it shook off the crystalization. The auburn-haired mage turned to Panko, grabbed her arm and pulled her back behind Iriumi.

"Are you ok? Please, cover me. I'm going to change into something more useful in this combat. Ivy!"
"Yes?" Ivy's voice was whispered audibly around the mage. Even Panko heard it clearly.

"How long is the transition?"
"A few seconds max. I can bring down the time if I consume excess energy."
"Do it."

Iriumi stepped forward from Panko, and the other mage realised why.
"Ember Vine Suit, Evolve!"

Where the plant mage stood, it suddenly erupted into wild, green-gold fire, which rapidly turned gold and red. The self-immolation was a fierce event, and the dim silhouette of Iriumi's body could be seen behind the veil of roaring flame. For a full second, while Akari's bombardment rained down upon the enemy, Iriumi's barrier jacket changed to Version 2.

As the fire died down, the silhouette seemed to reel back before lashing out, cleaving through the sheet of dying flames with a whip that left a wake of shimmering heat behind it. Two spikes of fire tipped the whip, aimed to pierce through the bellringer's shields a split second after Ceres' attack finishes.

Behind the attack, the red-gold of Iriumi's new barrier jacket glittered and shimmered in an aura of heat.

[Astral Harmony]

"Hmmm...one of my Spider Strike shots got through," Shimizu observed to herself. "It can stop my star energy, but not very quickly. I know the next move."

Shimizu aimed Ponpon straight up. "Spreiga, I choose you!"
"Spreiga's not a Pokemon, paya." Ponpon said absently.
Still, Spreiga came rapidly at Shimizu's call, hovering some ten feet above Ponpon's barrel. Shimizu's Star Brand started to heat up for the next attack.
"Lookit what I can do," Shimizu said with a wolfish grin. "Spreiga, get ready for this! Spider Strike Swarm!"

Shimizu's Spider Strike was fired again, but this time Spreiga went to work on it. Zipping rapidly from shot to shot, Spreiga absorbed the energy into itself, amplified the power of the bolt and divided the powered up attack three times, turning each bolt of the original Spider Strike spell into a new Spider Strike spell. If the span of about five seconds, Shimizu's eight energy bolts had multiplied to a frightening sixty-four. "That oughta give ol' Bellboy something to sweat over."
She sure hoped so. The Star Brand had a violent tingling to it, like several bees were ruthlessly stinging her palm. Shimizu pulled back and hoped to avoid danger until the overheating of her branding came down to a tolerable level.

[Teal Mage]

((OoC: Longer then my usual posts. This'll teach me to try to compile stuff. Summary is Alex changes his scrying window, then asks Mern and Demi to check into the classroom at Mia's urgings.))

After his experiment with Mitsuko turned out well, Alex had expanded that scryed image so it covered three quarters of the window, refocusing it so that it gave him a more generalized view of the field beyond the blue rippling portal on the roof.

With a few slow graceful waves of his right hand, glowing red from the magic, Alex called more miniature images to the edges of the scrying window. Each new window focusing on a different mage, even Mia, himself and the...faceless thing surrounded by bells. He didn't want to miss anyone.

He watched the window as the scene unfolded silently before him, pictures he could get, but sound was another story, his expression carefully unreadable.

"Alex." There was a hint of anxiety in Mia's voice as she laid her hand on Alex's blazer clad shoulder. "Something's..." Her gray eyes flickered down the hallway, in the direction Alex, Demi and Mern had arrived from, "...not right."

The blond glanced away from the now thoroughly flashy scene, to follow her gaze. He didn't see anything, but he wasn't sure what he should be looking for, and holding the scrying spell took too much of his magical concentration for him to extend his senses far. Instead, he opted to seek an expert's opinion.

Miranda?

He got a sense of surprised distraction in response, Hm? Yes?

Alex ignored the sense for the moment, Mia said she senses something off that, he mentally indicated the direction, way.

Ah. There was silence for a moment as the aura around Alex dimmed for an instant, before resurging, There's something in the classroom you left. Miranda said, almost lamely, I didn't notice.

Alex turned his head back to Mia, "Let me look." Then, he waved his hand in front of the window and, yet another, mini scrying image appeared. This one was filled in with an orange mist covered, and empty, classroom.

"What's...that?" Mia asked clearly confused.

A phantom zone. Miranda hissed. Alex repeated it aloud.

"A phantom what?" Mia asked, still as confused as ever.

Would you look into it Miranda? Alex thought-asked.

If I do, the familiar replied grimly, neither of you will have enough magic to avoid the timeslip. I'm holding the time spell back from you so you can devote your magic to Mia.

Alex shook his head in response to Mia's question, "Later." Then, glancing toward Mernarker and Demi, "Would you two please go look into it?"

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko considers the last round and tries to come up with a Cutie Beam variation.

Hana rescued Panko from the bind spell, pulled Panko behind herself, and then burst into flames. Panko was pretty sure she was a Verda, since she didn't look like a robot and didn't have an overcomplicated, mecha weapon, but the sides didn't really matter to her anymore. She'd been useless this whole fight. Picky wasn't there to save her, either. It was really humiliating.

No, if she couldn't do anything, she'd just have to think of something she could do. That made sense, right? The Autekkan girl with a bow, the boy who'd protected her, the girl who'd attacked her, and even the girl who'd just saved her all let out attacks. She didn't know what the green girl's suit meant, but she caught on to the Autekkan's dispersed attacks. The robot couldn't block every way at once. But, all Panko had was Cutie Beam. It was pretty all-or-nothing...

Picky said earlier that her frog suit was the best at regulating her magic. Maybe she could...

Panko spent a moment trying to visualize a new spell in her head.

[Relm Zephyrous]

"~I think its working, at least a little. Not sure what kind of a benefit it'll be though.~"
"Seriously, you actuall-"
"~Yep!
...
Sorta?
...
Maybe. Yeah, I'm going with maybe for a final answer.~"
"Great. So now we're no better than before."
"~Yeah we are! I've got this figured out, those metal mages seem to be taking care of the time bell thin-~"
"Ok yeah we're screwed. You're oversimplifying. Metal mages? Time Bell thingie? Least make it convincing when you pull crap like this."
Hey you two, shut it for a sec. Allie's asking us to do something.

Demi was actually the one that was paying attention to her surroundings this time, though remained quiet about the whole fight until now. After a delay that might have seemed odd, but to Alex was probably typical before getting a reaction from the girl, her eyes focused onto the area with the orange cyclonic swirls, and stepping a few paces towards it. "Can do." There was a bit of a laugh from her insides, her clothes actually. They shifted, grew, darkened. Soon, Demi was covered in a total blackness, preparing herself and becoming ready to make the leap inside. Only violet eyes, glowing now, and nodding to Alex one last time, before diving headfirst into the orange sparking portal.

...and promptly getting thrown backwards off of it. "Um... o-kay...." Demi thought for a little while of what to make of what she assumed would be a totally open revenue, of course Sentinel already forcing its strings through the cracks without her guidance.
Hey, what're you doing?
"~Saving us a minute of time.~"

[Arhra]

Mitsuko lifted up her spear like a staff. Three symbol rings appeared in the air about it, a Celestial Sphere materialising in each one. "Shoot!" she made her own contribution to the fusilade.

If the Bellringer was taken back by the obscene number of magical bullets fired in its direction, it did not show it.

Having no face helped.

"Hour of wandering journeys, simultaneous activation. Mana Stasis. Space Rotation."

A second bell lit up with green patterns. The freezing vice of the stasis rings collapsed about attacks in rapid sequence once again, clearly not fast enough to stop everything. But there was something new, spindly traps of emerald lines materialising about attacks and the bolts suddenly shooting off at right angles to their previous path.

Even this wasn't enough, hits clearly impacting on the construct and its attendant bells. At the tail end, Rei and Iriumi rushed in to strike with a shining sword and flaming whip.

The volley ceased, stasis circles inexplicably materialising about straggler shots that had been deflected but not yet hit the boundary of the dimensional space.

Smoke rose off the Bellringer and its bells. Iriumi's flame tipped whip burned furiously against it. The bell that Rei had stuck flickered dully and went dead, falling back to the ground with a thud. Three remained. The Bellringer's directional shield wavered and changed, adopting a triangular configuration.

"Diverting power from stasis encryption. Offensive systems, full activation. Hour of swift motion, activation." The third bell lit up with red runes. "Blessing of Swiftness." The bell tolled.

A crimson glow appeared the Bellringer and each bell.

"Spatial Rotation." The green shapes materialised around each stasised shot, spinning them back to face the main group.

"Mana Release." The frozen fields of trapped magical bullets flashed red and were released from stasis.

"No!" Mitsuko shouted. She dashed sideway, throwing herself in front of Akari. ["Wide Barrier."]

The Bellringer lifted a hand and something materialised there. It looked like a sword made of glass. It swung out at Iriumi with alarming speed.

"A judgement of destruction is decreed. Set up Apocalypse Bell."

The bells all tolled at once and lifted up into the air, spinning with increasing speed. A casting circle appeared around each one as they began slowly ringing.

* * *

Back in the hall, Alex's scrying on the mysterious new Phantom Zone suddenly flickered and then warped disturbingly, an unstable ring of orange symbols appearing around it, blackness inside the ring. A blast of crackling energy preceding it, something like the blackened skeleton of a constrictor snake, wreathed in orange flames flew through and hurled itself at Alex.

OOC: If you weren't in there trying to hit things, you are in danger from the reflected volley. Sword is actually a stasis field, hits will take you much closer to being frozen. Prolonged contact with it through a parry or a shield isn't a great idea, since it'll basically embrittle anything magically generated. Also the bells are charging up a bombardment attack. On the plus side, you're not getting drained anywhere near as fast. Enjoy!

[Astral Harmony]

"Aw, he-" Shimizu said bleakly before covering as much as her body as possible and vanishing in the light given when some of the energy volley struck where she stood. Shimizu's scream penetrated from the light, and then she was thrown from the spot by the explosion. Her limp body flew back, eventually struck the ground, and even flipped twice before coming to rest on its back.

The armor had some fractures, a trail of blood trickled down the side of her right cheek, her scanner was shattered, and her legs and arms were covered with scrapes. She struggled weakly and groaned with some coughing, but she wasn't getting up.
"Mother!" Ponpon called out desperately. "Get up, paya! You've got to get up, paya!"

Spreiga came down and nudged Shimizu's shoulder, but to no avail. Shimizu had taken massive damage, and the armor was the only reason she survived to complain about how much it hurt. Finally, she managed to roll onto her side. Her movements were painfully slow and awkward, as though simply moving her limbs opened her senses to more agony. "Most of the damage was absorbed by the armor, paya." Ponpon said with a worried tone as though trying to reassure itself that Shimizu would pull through. "Scanner and jetpack are most down, but weapons system is all good. No considerable injuries suffered to the user, but-"

Ponpon paused, trying to come up with some humor. "You won't like how you'll feel in the morning, heh heh heh. Right, paya?"
"Screw you," Shimizu coughed on her elbows and knees, though managed to let out a chuckle to suggest that she wasn't angry. Spreiga drew close, and Shimizu used its help to finally struggle to her feet. "Is...did everyone else at least come out of this without being hurt?"

[Krylo]

As the Bellringer 'drew' his sword, Rei's mask quickly scanned the magical workings within, various numbers and points that he couldn't really understand. Luckily Tenken could.

"The sword is a condensed version of the stasis field. Don't touch it. Not even to parry."

It was then that the construct moved to strike, the blade heading toward Iriumi with dangerous speed. Speed, however, was not the purview of the time-manipulating construct alone. The magical lines on Rei's suit glowed dully as he pushed himself to move fast enough to stop this, a burst of light shining from under his feet.

The boy seemed to momentarily vanish as he jetted first to the right, appearing only momentarily at the border of the Bellringer's triangular barrier. The construct's eyes flickered over, but it was too late as Rei vanished once more as he jetted around the Bellringer's guard. He held a hand to the back of his rapier's blade as it met the Bladeringer's arm with all the force he could muster, ceasing the movement of the blade toward Iriumi.

"...You could have struck a decisive blow just now? Why did you waste it saving our enemy?" Tenken asked within Rei's head.

"I'm not going to let this thing... the Auttekan's, OUR mistake, hurt anyone else," came the Kamen's answer, as clear as day over the din of combat.

It sounded quite heroic.

[Teal Mage]

"Huh?" Alex muttered, a frown crossing his face as his scry of the classroom warped, and an orange and black summoning circle appeared around it. He didn't miss the similarity between the color of the phantom zone in the classroom, and the circle's runes either.

Behind him, he heard Mia's, "Oh no." Just before a blast of energy made him flinch back a step.

And then a flying fire snake was leaping at his throat.

Activate Angel's Shield. Miranda coolly intoned, as a white disc shield with a pair of crossed white wings in its center appeared between the snake and Alex.

The snake struck the magical shield...

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

OHSHI- Iriumi's thoughts went as thus as time seemed to slow for her. In this bullet-time vision, the blade hurtled closely towards her, and her body was already responding in an effort to dodge. She definitely didn't want to be hit by something like that. The magic in it seemed to vibrate very similar to the stasis field around the school, only stronger and more scarier.

Then the kamen intervened faster than she could react, stopping the blade with all his might at the bellringer's arm. Her body already in the motions of escape, she decided she might as well complete them. There was a roar of fire, and a superimposed image of green-gold flames where the plant mage used to stand. The next words Rei uttered somehow infuriated Iriumi.

"What do you mean, this is your mistake? Don't you dare blame yourselves for something you have no control over!"

This time, there was a louder roar as the whip came down from up above. The twin fangs of fire were particularly menacing this time, forcing the bellringer to break contact from Rei and leap a small distance away. Iriumi landed next to the kamen, her hair flaring dramatically around her due to the heat her barrier jacket generated. Under her helmeted visor, her green eyes glared at the bellringer.

"Thank you, but it looks like our allies are having troubles, and going at this by yourself won't be as effective as going at it together, neh?" she added as her whip seemed to tremble and lash the ground with heavy anticipation.

[PhoenixFlame]

"A gestalt defense system? Grgh... Whatever, just stay focused." Ceres growled in frustration as her drones flew back to dock with the main arms of the bow. The pair watched as each set of attacks slowly spun to face their launchers, among them mostly Shimzu's spider strikes, and a pair of 90 degree bent fixed lasers from Akari's own drones. Her arrows attempted to reacquire their target, but wouldn't manage to hit it anytime soon, if ever.

"What do we do, Ceres?" Akari asked with a tone of terror as she stood behind her sister's shield.

"I'm thinking."

"So am I, but something's telling me we don't have a lot of time!"

"You have a stunning grasp of the situation." Ceres' trademark sarcasm surfaced once more. "We'll shoot them down." The targetting reticule over the bellringer on Akari's eyepiece broke into fifty or more smaller ones, each falling over one of the incoming attacks. It was clear that it would be impossible to shoot all of them in the few seconds allotted.

"Whic-"

"Target everything, just FIRE!"

["Starry Sky"]

Drawing her bow and randomly firing into the incoming attacks, Akari tries to thin the swarm for Mitsuko's defenses.

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko jumps out of the blast, still gets hurt a bit, and then tries to heal the girl who shot at her.

It was kind of like watching a fireworks show, except the loud bursts of color were coming back to Earth in a torrent of destruction instead of lazily floating down in a haze of cinders. Basically, the colors and noise were the same.

Panko jumped as high as she could as several Spider Strike bullets and starry arrows crashed to her position. She avoided a direct hit, but the blast from the impact knocked her off balance. As she tumbled to the ground, a few remaining blasts whizzed past her, and she thumped back to the ground with a few extra bruises. Panko climbed back up and shook her head to regain her focus.

While she did so, she noticed that the girl who had shot at her earlier had taken a much worse impact from the Bellringer's attack. Before she could think, she was already running over to the girl in broken armor. "Princess Kiss!" Panko blew a kiss to Shimizu, which took the form of a pale green heart as it fluttered over.

Now she had time to think, but all she could think about was how embarrassing that spell was.

[Menarker]

Menarker peered curiously at the visual of the orange fog that pervaded the classroom he had left not too long ago. The reaction from Mia and Alex were not encouraging in the slightest

"Would you two please go look into it?"

"Can do." Demi's transformation ensued as Menarker weighed the options that he could see.

The lad twitched slightly, glancing at his partner to be as she transformed, as he peered back toward the screen, his mind divided between the unknown orange mist and the original chaotic conflict. Gradually his expression lightened ever so slightly as the two factions seemed to operate with some resemblance of a cohesive truce. The students frozen and unseen in the mist would require his presence more than the other mages would.

"I understand. Be careful." He glanced toward both of them briefly waving swiftly as if it was some sort of informal salute, and dashed after Demi toward the cloud, stopping briefly as Demi bumped against it. Mern merely sighed with annoyance as he was going to report back when the flash of energy alarmed Menarker, as he dashed to Alex's aid. A snake conjured from the scrying window darted toward the throat thankfully impacting the shield. Bent on removing that threat from the immediate location, Mernarker collected electricity along his body as he slammed the full brunt of his shocking fist against the deterred biter, hoping to bolt it back away if not incapicate.

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu felt guilty for shooting at a young girl who had just healed her wounds. "Th-thank you," Shimizu almost whispered, then stood between Panko and the Bellringer. "Stay near. There's gotta be some kind of way to take him down, there's just gotta be. Maybe impale it with its own sword?"

"Can't scan it, paya. Jetpack systems are done as well, paya. If he comes after you, don't expect to easily dash away."
Shimizu never intended to. Dashing out of the way would put Panko in the attack's way, and Shimizu was now determined not to let the little magical girl come to harm.
"Spreiga?"
"Cooling down, paya. Please wait for complete cooldown before using Spreiga's abilities again, paya."

Shimizu aimed Ponpon at the Bellringer again, hoping to nail him while he was attacking Iriumi. "Eat this! Boom Burst!"
A powerful energy bolt was ejected from Ponpon. Shimizu quickly discovered that her jetpack had an automatic recoil dampening effect. With the jetpack out of order, Shimizu was forced to pinwheel her arms to maintain her balance.

[Arhra]

The unusual pair of an Autekka-type and Verda-type mage stood defiant before the stylised, clean form of the reactivated construct that had plunged the school into crystalline stillness with the power of its subordinate bells.

In a graceful, dancing motion, the construct stepped to the side, the crimson aura of its bell's enhancement spell boosting its speed. Shimizu's Boom Blast passed harmlessly through the space it had just occupied.

Lifting its free hand, the air wavered and the glassy form of an identical second stasis blade appeared. Advancing, it suddenly lunged in a great step to force itself between Iriumi and Rei, a blade scything out on its left and its right to strike at them both.

* * *

["Starry Sky"]

From behind Mitsuko's shield, Akari launched a salvo of defensive fire, a series of seven rapidly conjured arrows arcing around the curved crimson wall. Each one intercepted one of the Bellringer's reflected attacks.

But the majority of the storm of missiles remained, hitting with a sound like thunderous hail, wreaking havoc amongst the assembled mages.

With a sound like breaking glass, Mitsuko's Wide Barrier shattered, breaking into jagged fragments that fell for a second before dissolving completely.

Mitsuko yelled in alarm, reeling back as if struck. She fell to her knees, hands planted on the ground, Bright Day beneath them. Breathing heavily, head lowered, she spoke. "Thanks Sis."

She looked up at the tolling of bells. The three bell drones of the bellringer spun about each other, the spell circle surounding each one expanding into a larger, combined pattern incorporating the originals. The ringing was getting faster, crackling energy appearing as the bombardment spell charged.

Mitsuko didn't know if projectiles would still get stopped.

["Impulse Rush."]

Blazing into life, Mitsuko's Impulse Wings hurled her up into the air, Bright Day reconfiguring into the naginata form as she raised it up to swing at the dark, lightning strobed cocoon of energy building. Blade glowing with her own power, she stabbed at her target.

There was an explosion as the two conflicting energies touched, hurling Mitsuko. She tumbled head over heels as the Apocalypse Bell spell continued to charge unfazed.

* * *

Finding the classroom door firmly sealed, one of Demi's personalities insinuated the black threads making up her Barrier Jacket through the gaps in the door frame. It was of no use; the dimensional fissure making up the perimeter of the Phantom Zone was essentially impervious to her draining strings.

The snake smacked into Alex's shield, the rest of it's flaming, skeletal body coiling into it from momentum. It hung, dazed for a second and then sinuously coiled back, moving to strike again.

Menarker's lightning empowered fist impacted its head. The creature went flying apart practically before getting hit, the bony head disintegrating like brittle chalk.

But the blacked segments of its bones were undettered. As Menarker's fist continued to pass through the slowly expanding debris cloud, the sections shuddered and darted inwards, connecting like links on a chain to wrap his arm in a restored flaming skeleton monster. The lead segment warped, beginning to turn into a new head as it squeezed.

OOC: Orange magic person likes tricksy things, as you may have noticed. Sorry on the delay, just haven't been able to write good lately.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Thanks Sis." Akari couldn't help but smile weakly at Mitsuko, knowing full well it had been her sister that had saved her, not vice versa. This left Akari, to her knowledge, as the only unscathed mage in the group. As her eyes looked up at the bellringer, she knew what it intended to do, and the Verda next to them seemed reasonable enough...

"We're running out of time. It's withdrawing portions of its stasis field so that it does not impede it's own energy."

"Yeah. Sis, try and delay it as long as you can..." Akari continued with a weak, 'trust me' smile. "Ceres, setup Locus mode, and deploy all our drones."

["Locus Mode, Setup. Sattelite Expansion in Crane Formation."]

"I sure hope you know what you're doing. If this doesn't work, we'll all be in a bad way. With options, this will take at LEAST another six seconds to charge, and that's if I can even compensate for the barrier." Ceres chided mentally as she discerned what Akari was doing. So predictable.

"Don't suppose you know anyone ELSE who has a gestalt drone system..." Akari sarcastically growled back, under her breath as the bow's armbits crackled with blue electricity and slid backwards, pulling the accellerators apart as each of the twelve drones shot outwards in a rough ring. With a chime of energy, a familiar mandala erupted outwards from a pair of counterotating boxes of light to encircle Akari's feet. Quickly multiplying until one could hardly see the space between spokes, each "ring" shot off to encircle one of the drones rotating in a rough ring orbit around their master.

The primary mandala remained, and each of the secondaries rotated in synch with that one. Raising her bow skyward to the Bellringer's own sinister array, Akari's face turned brightly righteous.

"Maximum power."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"When he attacks, I'll block and you counter attack, ok?" Iriumi directed at Rei. He could barely squeeze in a nod before the bellringer lunged forward with an extra blade. Without another word, Iriumi seemed to shimmer in gold and red flames as she stepped forward slightly, arms forward in the direction of one of the blades.

Both familiar and mage deployed their shields simultaneously, Ivy in the other direction of the second incoming blade. The leaf-like barriers unfurled much like umbrellas, even with the strange sound-effects. The two stasis blades of the Bellringer struck the shields, and the effect of the swords was incredibly visible, rapidly spreading across each shield in a crystallization effect. At the same time the swords impacted the shields, Iriumi yelled to Rei.

"NOW!"

Her shields won't hold much longer than a few seconds most.

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko uses Cutie Shoot to bombard the Bellringer.

Strangely happy to see the girl who shot at her on her feet again, Panko's brain jumped back onto the track it was on before getting bombarded by shooting stars and sparkly bullets. Shimizu fired a concentrated blast at the robot and missed. Bow girl also seemed to be preparing one big attack. The robot would almost certainly be able to stop or dodge another single burst if it could stop the torrent before.

Panko took a deep breath, then threw her hands in front of her like she was firing her Cutie Beam. "Cutie Shoot!" Instead of a concentrated beam, hundreds of motes of cuteness volleyed from her hands, sending a pink hail of ordinance to assist Akari. It didn't matter if he sent it back at her, as long as something hit those bells.

[Menarker]

"Awwww, shitter, get off, get off!"

For a moment, Mern flailed his arm in as the blazing form caused him to panic briefly, while attempting to keep that monster away from his face. Focusing his magic energy into a field, Menarker encased his fore-arm and the monster inside a force field much like an enlarged magic shoe-box with a narrow hole where his arm protruded, winching at the burns, and paranoia running through his mind about what being bitten by a burning zombie snake would do to him.

"Eat point blank lightning!"

Mern spiked his fist down against the floor, impacting his own box barrier wrapped around, as his fore-limb surged with a compressed surge of electricity which had previously seemed to have been effective. The lad then struggled roughly to pull his arm out, squeezing out of the very narrow opening of his own field, with the belief that the hole which was narrow enough only for his arm, combined with the sheer focused impact of the electricity crackling in the magic cage would weaken its grip or cause it to crumble into dust again, allowing himself freedom from the painful burning skeletal form.

"If I can pull my arm, I'll seal the hole in the field and attempt to capture it. Seal it if you have the power!"

[Astral Harmony]

"That's it!" Shimizu shouted. "I've HAD it! That thing goes down, right the hell now!"
"Mother, Spreiga is fully cooled down, paya."
"Excellent, let's own this thing!"

Without the jet pack, Shimizu broke into a full sprint. Not easy with full armor on, but anger spurred her towards the Bellringer. She got as close as she dared and then directed her gun to Spreiga. "Spreiga, let's do the Boom Burst Buckshot!"
She fired the Boom Burst at Spreiga, and recoiled in pain from the heat spike of the Star Brand. The powerful shot of star energy struck Spreiga's energy port, then suddenly became a shotgun blast of Boom Burst shots. If she didn't hit the Bellringer good, Shimizu was at its mercy. Her body was exhausted and she'd never be able to get away in time.

[Krylo]

As Iriumi blocked the Bellringer's strike, Rei dashed forward with all his might, planning to thrust, though at the last second he noticed Shimizu's own attack firing toward the automaton. Instead Rei allowed his sword to trail behind him, and quickly snaked his arm out, wrapping it about the Bellringer's his hand clutched on the things shoulder, hoping to cease its movement, before striking forward with his thrust from his other hand.

He intended to run the creature through, while simultaneously keeping it from moving away from Shimizu's attack--knowing that without its body to absorb the blasts he would be directly in the line of fire.

[Teal Mage]

Mia really couldn't say she was surprised when the snake wrapped itself around Mern's arm. With magic, nothing was ever easy. She'd learned that lesson a long time ago. But, she did wish that her own ally wasn't the cause of the latest complication. Shoulda toasted him when I had the chance. The Goth mused, keeping her distance from the pair, Wonder if I can just forget he's a person...

Meanwhile, on the window behind Mern, the images in Alex's scrying spell had been unceremoniously replaced with a rippling blue pattern. The blond could feel Miranda’s distant annoyance as he backed away from Mern and his new armwarmer. She'd been watching that. He supposed that if he wasn't a little more concerned about the zombie snake, he'd been annoyed too.

"Does he always talk this much?" Mia asked, glancing at Alex as Mern's outbursts continued.

Alex smiled at her crookedly, "What makes you think I know?" He let the scrying spell lapse as an afterthought.

"Dunno." She shrugged, calling up her magical energy. A pair of casting circles appeared, one of them superimposed itself on her black handled knife, and the other over the hidden medallion under her shirt. She only had two wiccan tools on her, but, they'd be more then enough to seal this zombie.

[Relm Zephyrous]

It was blatantly obvious to them, that their draining technique would be useless here. The things that were resistant to it were few and far between, but they had just ran headfirst into one of them right at the worst possible time to do so. The trifecta paused, deep in thought, snickering at the scene around them but thinking more about the barrier than anything else, surely the rest could handle that by themselves. Though seeing what exactly was happening, the proverbial sweatdrop apparated on her forehead, expression and downward lines accompanying.
"~Oh... well this really sucks.~"
What do we do now?
"Hrm... how about we shoot it? Blowing things up is always the perfect solution."
"~No, we don't have a way to.~"
"Um, you stupid? The white star has those awesome pretty clear lasers it c-"
"~No you dolt its not method its ammo. We're suffocating from magic depravation as it is, wasting the rest on a possibility is out of the damn question, we still need most of it for once we enter to take care of whats on the other side.~"
"Alright then brainiac, what do we do?"
"~I... I'm not sure. We don't have anything, so we should just wait for the others to come over and help.~"
... we bash it.
"~Pardon?~"
We just break the door down. That simple.
"~But Demi, we aren't nearly-~"
Mogura can take care of that, the exoskeleton magnifies my strength, right?
"~Sort of, it amplifies your defense and functions as armor.~"
But it enhances my strength.
"~But not enough!~"
And thats where my red shiny comes in. Individually they don't amplify too much without excessive energy, but as we know, five times five equals twenty five, but five to the third power equals one twenty five. Having double modifiers for my power will bring it up to excessive degrees!.
"~...~"
"..."
...
"~Demi.~"
Yes?
"~I'm proud of you, you're getting brilliant, you pass.~"
"Wait you mean you were seri-"
"~No time hush Demi initiate it!~"
"Bu-"
"~I said shut the hell up!~"

And with that, the red star having already been conjured and placed inside her during the explanation, and dashing towards it during the same, Demi took a glow on of a deep reddish black. She violently thrashed at the shield with all the magnified might she was capable of mustering in her focused state, strings fluttering behind her individually and dramatically from the suit and her wide eyes forming into dark violet slits.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Beginning equalization, this should only take a few seconds..."

Arcs of electric blue jumped from each of Akari's drones, causing each mandala to dim momentarially before brightening to a uniform level. As each did, it projected a ringlike ribbon of light in front of it, the emitter head brightening to a blinding white in the same manner Ceres herself did. With a screech of grinding glass, a quartet of familiar bands drew themselves around either side of the weapon's rails, framing the Bellringer to their master's sight.

"Done. Firing locks are in place, saftey is released!"

"Lunarrr!" Akari yelled in a long, declarative manner, drawing the weapon skyward to target the central scaffold of the Autekkan device. "FLARE!"

A pinpoint beam lanced forth, before exploding outwards to the ends of the firing locks, showering the Bellringer and it's drones in a column of celestial fire. As Ceres began to rattle with feedback energy from beam contact, Akari grit her teeth and locked her knees agaisnt the cracking ground. Two seconds into the beam, she yelled again with the weapon's option command. "LIIIIIINK!"

In clockwise sequence, beginning at the top and bottom, Akari's sattelites rotated in pairs to target the Lunar Flare stream approximately a quarter of the way down the beam. As the rotated into place, each fired its own stream in a similar manner to the primary one, pumping the main beam with additional collected energy to overwhelm the shields of the bellringer's own drones.

[Arhra]

"Can't get close enough to hit it and other attacks might get turned back. What to do?" Mitsuko mused, coming out of her aerial tumble and looking at the trio of bells in front of her with trepidation.

["There is a method."] Bright Day chimed. ["However, time is insufficient. Advise high energy attacks are less open to subversion."]

"Alright, Celestial Sphere." Mitsuko declared, pointing the spear at the enemy. The firing disc appeared at the end of her sphere, a circular matrix of burning crimson lines. "Expansion!" A larger ring of symbols appeared further out, orbiting the widest point of the forming barrier shell.

Further back Panko threw her hands in front of her. "Cutie Shoot!" A storm of pink motes rained from her hands, the stream of cutesy particles chewing into the storm cloud aura about the incessantly tolling bells with a crackle of lightning.

"Shoot!" Mitsuko shouted, making her own contribution. Her shielded orb fired at the bells, a fire at its center like a miniature sun. It ploughed into the cloying aura building about the bells and detonated inside it, arcs of unstable energy radiating out. Panko's continuing volley poured into the brief opening, blowing the still forming bombardment spell apart entirely. The bells shuddered, lingering wisps of lightning and darkness fading around them.

The Bellringer found its twinned strike blocked by a pair of leaf-like shields thrown up by Iriumi and Ivy. The fiery hues of autumn leaves dulled and greyed where the bellringer's glassy stasis blades contacted the shields, crystalline patterns of embrittlement creeping through them like a bizarre petrifying disease.

"That's it! I've HAD it!" Shimizu shouted. "That thing goes down, right the hell now!"

With Spreiga cooled down, she used the little Pon Bit again, firing a hellish cluster shot of blazing star energy. Putting the last of her energy into it and overheating the Star Brand, she hoped it would be enough.

At the same moment, Rei dashed forward to take advantage of the opening Iriumi had given him, suddenly changing plans seeing Shimizu's attack. Blade trailing him, he grabbed the construct's shoulder and stabbed, intending to run it through and keep it in place. Its head swiveled slightly; it turned the blade that had been originally intended for Rei. Grip reversed, it swept its arm back to block Tenken in a fluid motion. The point of Tenken ground against the flat of the stasis blade, the Device's golden glow dimming.

This left it wide open to the Boom Burst, staggering as several bolts thudded into its torso, with a pale flash of reaction from its skintight shield, more of the scatter shots blazing past. The stasis blade wavered and then vanished like melting ice, Tenken stabbing into the construct.

And then a thin finger of intense blue light stabbed into the construct's center of mass. Akari's drones then contributed their own firepower, transforming the pinpoint laser into a fat cylinder of heavenly fire.

The lights on the bells faded and they fell slowly to the earth. Mitsuko turned to the ground zero with fear. The Bellringer had dissolved but there'd been several people there too when it had been blasted into oblivion. "Is everyone' alright?" she called out with concern.

The light dimmed and then returned to normal, repeating again. The stasis field was beginning to unravel.

* * *

Menarker tried to deal with the flaming effigy wrapped about his arm, wrapping it in a containing field. At the lightning blast, the skeletal beast broke apart to protect itself again, loosing another segment.

Finding itself then entrapped and its prey lost, the snake-like monster went berserk, thrashing wildly again the barrier surrounding it.

Mia stepped up, volunteering to seal the beast but it was unnecessary.

After its frantic efforts were in vain, the creature went perfectly still and then screamed like a frustrated banshee. It flared and then crumbled to cinders.

And then the light dimmed briefly, normal shadows returning for a second, and the peculiar omnipresent light of the stasis field reasserted itself. The stasis effect was coming apart.

The door to the classroom treated Demi's frenzied assault with the same obdurate presence it had shown when she had attempted to walk through it. Faint orange ripples appeared at the point of each strike, the Phantom Zone withstanding the assault.

And then suddenly it stopped.

The Phantom Zone had vanished.

[Naqel]

Daichi realized he must have been frozen in time while something important happened.

Last thing he remembered was some other magicians running in some sort of a portal, but now there wasn't anything of such sort to be seen.

Attempting to remain unnoticed, he crawled down the roof and then continued to flight back to the classroom. He flew back through the window, and locked it behind himself.

"How do I get rid of this disguise?..." He thought to himself while flipping the pages of his magic book and moving his finger along the verses.
"Here it is... Sif Mana Veir!" He spoke out the incantation, and the wizzard costume turned back in to a key chain figurine.
"I don't remember it having wings..." He noticed that now the little wizard had small blue wings instead of a cape. "Must be some minor side effect."

He took his seat and began to pretend taking a nap again. Before anyone else returned, he was already actually asleep.

[Teal Mage]

((OoC: Moderately long epilogue post, sorry Relm, Mern; Alex and Mia are ignoring you.))

Summary: Alex and Mia talk, Mia's not feeling very well. Alex is taking her to the Nurse's Office, then walking her home.

"...looks like they won." Alex said, toying with a lock of his blond hair as he felt the stasis field fray. Then, noticing a scuff mark of the sleeve of his blazer. the androgynous youth grimaced. It fell into a soft laugh a moment later. If that was the worst of the damage, he shouldn't complain. He set about dusting off and straightening his clothes.

Beside him, the casting circles on Mia's tools winked out. The pale haired goth let out a relieved sigh as she returned her black handled knife to its hidden sheath. "I wish I'd gotten to see the end." She said, glancing at Alex with a small smile.

Alex paused in his ministrations, and glanced at her with a crooked smile. Miranda was saying the same thing. "It probably was spectacular." He said lightly.

"Exactly my point." Mia replied with a half laugh. "Anyway, you can probably drop the magical feed to me." The Goth running a hand through her pale hair, "I should be alright from here on out, we're safe enough."

"Somehow, I doubt that." Alex stated, this time without pausing in his fussing with the uniform.

The Goth looked taken aback for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Even so." She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, "Can you hold the connection while I'm halfway across the school?"

"...right." Satisfied that his uniform was back in pristine order-even if he still hated the tie-Alex straightened and turned to his friend. He let out a short laugh, "I forgot we're in different classes." His blue eyes flickered to the metaphysical red ribbon connecting them, "I'll dispel it now." There was a short sparkle of red light at his finger tips, and the already invisible tie dissolved.

Grey eyes widening, Mia staggered as dizziness and exhaustion assailed her. She hadn't realized how much she'd been relying on his magic. By luck, she caught her balance before she fell.

"You don't look so great." Alex said as he watched Mia take a shuddering breath.

"...yeah." She replied, she felt like she'd just run a thousand miles, "Sorry, took more out of me then I expected. I think...I need to go home or something." Mia gave him a tired smile.

"Nurse's Office is closer." Alex supplied, "I'll take you there-then walk you home."

"Skipping school already?"

Alex smiled brightly at her, "You bet."

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu slowly relaxed as the Star Brand reached tolerable levels. "Yeah, I'll live. Ugh...you'd think I'd get used to the pain after so many overheats," she said with an exhausted smile, then looked at her armcannon. "Ponpon, disband."

Shimizu tried to do whatever she could with her ruined hair and battered skin, which was a whole lot of not much. Then, satisfied that no one in school would ask too many questions, she turned to Ponpon.
"Hey, what about my gear? Can it all be fixed?"
"Of course, paya! Self repair is already underway, paya. However, the gear suffered a lot of damage from the battle so don't hold your breath about it being ready for the next battle, paya."
"I guess I'll just make due. Now I really, really want an parfait. Or just an ice cream or something."

[Menarker]

Menarker smirked at the crumbles of ash, stomping on it once for retributive purpose and sweeping it aside with his heel. Slightly perplexed at Alex's dismissive behavior, he heaved a large sigh, his barrier jacket reverted to that of his uniform, as he instantly tugged at the damned tie. He walked along back toward class intent on resuming as normal, waving briefly at Relm as if in a vague sort of friendly acknowledgement.

"See you soon, I guess."

Taking his seat, he mentally noted to at least pay a little bit more attention to class introductions, with the emergence of potential allies and foes.

"This world of magic is a lot more vast and alive than I expected... I should chat with Mero more about it... And think of a way to smuggle her here next time... Would hate to think I get caught in something worse without some sure-fire support."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"Nnng!" Iriumi and Ivy both felt the effects of the drain immediately. They provided what they could for Rei to swing in. He shifted his focus, though, which forced Iriumi to move slightly to one side to continue the block.

Lucky for her she did. In less than a split moment, the miriad of Shimizu's beam attack blasted past her harmlessly, aimed square at the bellringer. The shields she maintained were a little useless in that moment as the bellringer was pushed back, overwhelmed by the simultaneous attacks.

Oh no... Ivy saw Akari's beam attack before Iriumi could react in time. The thin laser-like white fire struck the bellringer dead-on. Iriumi turned around, but too late. Ivy saw the rapid widening of the beam into a column.

~"Emergency Defense Measures Activated"~

"Wha-"

Everything went blue-white.

It was perhaps another twist of luck that Rei decided to angle his attack. Otherwise Iriumi wouldn't have survived even when Ivy went into countermeasures to save their asses. Akari's Lunar Flare didn't hit them full-on, only catching them in the expanding radius. While the Bellringer was annihalated from the straight burst of power, Iriumi raised her hands in a useless defense gesture against the expanding radius of light. Suddenly, as she was engulfed in the powerful beam, blinding green-gold fire engulfed Iriumi and a chord of the beam's circumference, visibly fighting against Akari's beam.

The green and gold rapidly turned to a reddish brown pulse, and two silhouettes could be seen within the blaze. One was clearly straining against the oncoming energy blast, while the other behind it was protected by the sudden burst in protective transformation power.

Within the brilliant green flames, Rei was somehow unharmed by the powerful clash of defensive power. He was the first to see Iriumi's transformed barrier suit - an earthy coloured armour suit, seemingly composed out of compacted earth held together by beautifully-scrolling roots that sprawled across her body. The heavy-looking armour glowered with defensive runes, expanding around her like wild tendrils of earthy fire, blown backwards by the force of Akari's power. It barely covered the front of Iriumi's battlesuit in a thin film of protection. But it was enough.

For clarification, it looked a bit like this (http://silent-murmer.deviantart.com/art/Something-for-NPF-123417248).

Only when Akari's lunar flare died out did Iriumi's explosive transformation too, the wild energy dispersing rapidly, leaving Iriumi panting in exhaustion on all fours. There was a withered look to her battlesuit, as if nearly all the energy from it was drained from that single transformation sequence.

Iriumi tried to lift her heavily-armoured head, but found it very hard. Moving slowly and painfully to a sitting position, she got to one knee and tried to lift herself up. Damn, but her arms were so heavy! The hand she propped onto the bent knee slipped off senselessly, and Iriumi groggily tried to understand what happened.

"...Ivy?" She rasped. She felt her familiar stir weakly in her mind. What happened? Why is her suit all chunky and heavy right now?
"Nnnn... sorry about that. I had to use almost all our energy to survive that blast."
"Oh. Did somebody attack us?"
"No. We were in the way."
"...oh."

Iriumi blacked out briefly, but her armour prevented her from collapsing and locked her in a half-kneeling position. When she came to a few seconds later, she managed to lift her head to look around.

"Is everybody else ok?"
"I think so. The stasis field is coming apart."
"Does that mean we won?"
"... You could say that. We should probably get back to the classroom before reality resumes without us."
"..."
"Something wrong?"
"I can't move."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," Ivy sounded sheepish that she totally forgot about the now extremely heavy barrier jacket.

[Arhra]

"You're not hurt?" Mitsuko asked, hastening over to Iriumi and Rei. She took in Iriumi's limp, leg bent posture, locked into position by the restraint of her unpowered Barrier Jacket. This was something Mitsuko could do something about.

An unholy gleam lit in Mitsuko's eyes as she halted in a ready stance, the armoured portions of her Barrier Jacket settling about her. "Hold still." she said to the trapped Verda-type mage, voice calm and steady.

She took a deep breath to focus and then swept her naginata in a wide, powerful arc straight at Iriumi, trailling a near instantly fading purple edge. "Phantom Cut!" Incentivised, Ivy dissolved Iriumi's Barrier Jacket as Mitsuko's blade swept straight through it. A purple line glowed on Iriumi for a moment but then faded, the blade having done no harm to her.

Blissfully unaware of the heart attack she had probably given Iriumi, Mitsuko turned away partially to address everyone. "We have to hurry, this stasis isn't going to last much longer. Otherwise we'll be missed. Bright Day, storage mode."

["Deactivating Barrier Jacket."] Bright Day chimed in response. Mitsuko's crimson dominated attire glowed and dissolved into red motes, Bright Day collapsing down into a smaller version of the sunburst surrounded amber jewel that was just below the blade. Mitsuko tucked the amulet inside her returned school shirt.

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko tries to get to the room in her normal shape before all of you, and I godmode that she succeeded because I didn't think you'd mind. She probably doesn't wake up Daichi.

For some reason, the phrase "Run, you fool" came into Panko's mind. It probably wasn't Picky.

"Well, everyone's ok now, right? Good ok bye." Panko hopped as fast as she could out the portal and back onto the roof. Hopefully, no one was waiting for her in the classroom. As she jumped down the stairs, she mentally congratulated herself on Plan: Get back before anyone else and pretend to be frozen.

"Panko, the barrier just got weaker. What happened? Did you manage to do something for once?"

Panko chose to ignore Picky for the time being. She could explain when Plan: GBBAEaPtbF was a success. Maybe make him worry a little.

Arriving on her class's floor, Panko hastily looked down both sides of the hall to make sure no one was there. Seeing no one, she transformed on the stairs and, back in her uniform and high-school shape, clumsily spy-rolled across the hall and sidled along the wall back to her class, sneaking back into the rear door. No one seemed to be moving. With a sigh of relief, Panko took her chair again and hoped that everyone would start moving again before anyone else reached the class.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Iriumi tried to fight down the urge to scream, but her body had half-froze when Ivy was forced to dismiss their barrier jacket in time to see the long bladed staff of Mitsuko strike ever-so-close to her body.

"What the hell!?" came Ivy's incredulous comment. Iriumi managed to collapse back onto her knees again. Ignoring Ivy's ranting about how dangerous a move Mitsuko pulled, she managed to unsteadily get to her feet again. The 'time zone' was faltering.

"Ivy, how long does it take us to get down to our classroom again?"
"And not to mention-- Maybe half a minute, if we sprint," Ivy managed to calm down to respond. Iriumi didn't say anything else, but bent her head down and pumped her arms as fast as she could as she raced back to the classroom.

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu checked herself over, and decided to go to the infirmary. Panko's healing was sufficient, but the girl was a Verda and Shimizu wasn't sure if she trusted the effects of healing magic...at least not without a physical checkup with someone. Besides, she didn't feel like explaining the bruises and minor scrapes on her body to Kiyuri and the other students yet.
"I'm going to go make sure I'm not really hurt. Anyone coming with?"

[PhoenixFlame]

["Power is restored to shields, master."] Ceres proper informed Akari as the beam terminated, and the mass glittering of attacks and defenses began to clear and allow them to properly see the bellringer. Electric arcs of energy finished reforming around Akari, restoring integrity to her deflectors that Ceres had been forced to terminate to allocate enough power to their attack.

"Oh... Damn it!" Akari was slightly taken aback by Ceres' sudden reaction, as the machine rarely became agitated enough to resort to cursing. Of course, soon Akari understood why. "I knew hostile ECM interfered with my auto-targeters, but..."

"It's okay, Ceres." Akari whispered softly, with a guilty voice, "I should have known they hadn't moved out of the way yet." she stood there in the back as Mitsuko and the others helped Rei and Iriumi back to their feet, "They look alright. Heh... We should probably get back to class before the field terminates, huh?"

"Indeed."

Sheepishly unwilling to confront Iriumi after her mistake, Akari and Ceres silently slip away down the rooftop access stairwell.

[Arhra]

Dashing into the still mostly unmoving classroom, Mitsuko rushed for her seat and it suddenly dawned on her where she'd seen Iriumi before. The Verda-type mage was that popular girl sitting right in front of her! At least two Verda-type mages were in this very class with her!

The classroom unfroze.

The teacher at the front of the class looked from side to side for a moment, confused. There were students scattered all over the place, some still coming in the door. "Please be seated." the angular featured man said. "No sleeping during homeroom!" he barked at Daichi in the back corner.

He waited a few seconds for the scraping of seats to end and then continued.

"Hello everybody, I am Mr Yamada and I will be your home room teacher for this semester." he turned to write it on the board and frowned slightly; he'd already written it down.

He frowned again at the fact one of the windows near the front had been forced wide open, a strong breeze coming through. He stepped over to it and pulled it back to a more respectable angle.

"Sakiko, are you OK? I felt terrible leaving you like that." Mitsuko whispered urgently to her friend sitting next to her.

"What are you talking about?" Sakiko asked, looking blank. Her eyes were unfocused and she seemed half asleep.

"No whispering!" Mr Yamada snapped. There was something wrong and he couldn't put his finger on it, making him crosser than normal.

"Since we have a great many new students, we should get everyone to know each other." he said, his smile returning. "Could all the transfer students come to the front..."

* * *

The day seemed to drag on longer than it had any right to but then, finally, it was lunch.

Mitsuko untensed a little. Iriumi was a potential enemy, there was that strange child mage, her friend had lost her memory and there were a lot of unanswered questions.

But now she could attend to at least a little of it.

She sought out Shimizu immediately. "Are you alright?" she asked, coming up on Shimizu and her friend Kiyuri. She'd seen the fiery redhead come back from the nurse, but wanted to be sure Shimizu was okay, feeling she was partially responsible for getting her caught up in this.

Then perhaps together with Akari they could make a delegation and confront Demi or Iriumi. It was a pity she had no idea who Masked Man was.

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu laughed nervously and scratched at the back of her head. "Ha ha ha, yeah. The nurse told me to stop getting into fights, as if I was one of those girls who gets rebelious and winds up in a gang or something."

Kiyuri blinked. Shimizu had been a little wild for a couple of years after her father died, but Kiyuri decided to keep that under wraps. "Hey, wanna eat with us, you 'n' your sister, Mitsuko? Man, I'm starving!"
"Starving, huh?" Kiyuri asked. "You didn't used to be like that."
Shimizu leaned in kind of close and lowered her voice so that Mitsuko and Kiyuri alone would hear. "It's the Star Brand. Using it takes up a lot of energy and I get so hungry afterwards."

Shimizu's homemade lunch was, as it always was, chinese. This time she made sweet and sour pork with veggies. "Chinese again?" Kiyuri groaned.
"It's all I know how to cook," Shimizu shrugged. "But I am starting to learn some western recipes. Some weekend, I wanna do some grilling. Cook up some serious meat."
Then, Shimizu opened her right palm towards her face. "Maybe I can cook using the Star Brand?"
Kiyuri chuckled. "But I thought you wanted to grill, not obliterate."

[Teal Mage]

Summary: Alex and Mia skip classes, Mia puts the pieces together about Alex being a mage, they theorize a bit.

After a long and surprisingly difficult walk, Alex and Mia arrived at their destination; Mia's house. The witch's parents weren't home in the daylight hours, so they didn't need to worry about explaining why Mia was having a hard time standing, without Alex's magical help.

"You're sure you don't mind skipping the first day?" Mia asked, as the pair ascended the stairs to her attic bedroom, "The Principle might not be happy about that start."

"It's the first day of school." Alex replied with a small smile, "What would we do there anyway? The first day never means anything." He paused in mid step, "Why are we going to your room? It’s so dark in there."

"To talk." Mia said without stopping, "Just trust me, kay?" She reached the stair's peak, and pulled open the black painted wood dark waiting there. She threw a look that all but said, 'well, hurry up!' Over her shoulder before plunging into the dimly lit room beyond.

Alex frowned, his connection to her had snapped when she'd stepped through the doorway.

She uses these strange Earth Magics, Miranda observed coolly, I'm afraid even I'm at a loss to predict what she can do.

"You've been very helpful lately." Alex murmured dryly, before following after Mia. He bit back a gasp when he crossed the door's threshold-it felt like he'd just walked through a bucket of ice water. Miranda's mental presence had fallen into a fit of spitting coughs.

"Sorry, did I forget to mention the wards?" Mia asked, sitting on the foot of her dark quilted bed. "Nothing magical gets into my room without my saying so, or," she smiled coldly, "it gets a bad case of freezer burn."

"N-not bad." Alex stammered with a shakily laugh; he could see patches of frost on his sleeves.

"After what you said in the hall," Mia gestured to the dark wood desk and chair across from her bed, "I thought we should wait to talk about what happened in the school until we got here-if there is someone behind that Time Slip, they won't be able to get in here, or listen in on us, without setting off my wards." She smiled, "If you thought a Bone Snake was bad, wait until you try scrying on a Witch's Room."

"I'd rather not." Alex replied, dusting the frost from his sleeves as he walked toward the chair. "What did I say in the hall?" He asked, pulling the chair out and turning to toward Mia's bed, before settling gracefully onto its black leather upholstery.

"You said we weren't safe." Mia replied, "The Time Slip wasn't random-It was orchestrated by whoever set up that orange field."

"I don't know about that." Alex sighed, "It's possible, but I'm not sure."

"Why wouldn't you be-" Mia frowned, cutting herself off. "You're not telling me something." The Witch paused again, gray eyes studying Alex carefully, "You're fully awakened, aren't you? Just like the others." She sounded like she was musing aloud, "That explains why I don't sense anything of the Craft around you, and why you know about phenomena I don't recognize."

Silence held in the room for a time, as Alex stared out toward one of Mia's heavily curtained windows. For Mia's part, she sat patiently, she knew how to wait.

Just tell her. Miranda intoned after the silence had stretched. She's involved now, whether either of you like it or not.

After another moment's thought Alex nodded, "I'm one of the Verda, yeah." He paused, "But, I'm not the best person to explain this all to you." The blond smiled crookedly, "Let me call an expert." He paused, remembering her words, "Kay?"

Gray eyes glinting excitement, Mia nodded, "Go ahead."

Making me do all the hard work? Miranda asked dryly.

Making you earn your keep. Alex replied with equal wryness.

"This is my Familiar," Alex stated firmly, as a summoning circle written in white light appeared in front of him, "Miranda." White light blossomed up from the circle, like a pair of wings unfurling...

((OoC: Thought it would be long enough as it is, stopping there!))

[Arhra]

Mitsuko felt a little tension unknot. Shimizu was fine. She gladly accepted Shimizu's offer to have lunch together, sitting down next to Shimizu and Kiyura and shuffling over to make room for Akari. She tucked into her meal of rice and leftover chicken curry. Still not entirely over the mana depletion and sore from tired from her and Akari's little training session, she hadn't thought to prepare a lunch yesterday evening.

With the subject of lunches in vogue, Shimizu considered something new. "Maybe I can cook using the Star Brand?"

Kiyuri chuckled. "But I thought you wanted to grill, not obliterate."

Mitsuko chuckled too. "I never thought about it that way." she saind introspectively. "I wonder what we could do with this..." she trailed off, trying to think of an unobstrusive word "...stuff." she finished lamely.

She put down her chopsticks to snap her fingers dramatically. "That's the other thing I was thinking." she said. "Perhaps we should make an after school club to give us some time to organise ourselves? I don't know..." Mitsuko knew she wanted at least a little time to herself. "It's something to think about at least."

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu followed Mitsuko's dramatic finger snapping with one of her own. "That's an awesome idea, Mitsuko! I can already see it, too. We could have a kickass name, like 'Masters of Mana' or something like 'Spellsabers!'"

Kiyuri was trying hard not to laugh. "Spellsabers? Yeah, I think you're just about done watching anime for the next several years."
Then she looked around. "Hey, Shimizu? Where's Kazuki? You 'n' him're an item now so I figured he'd come to eat lunch with us."
Shimizu looked almost appraisingly at a piece of pork held in her chopsticks. "It's not like I keep tabs on him or something, but I think he's always so busy with the student council and can't come out."
"Oh, that's right. I imagine when the current president graduates, they'll elect my brother to take control."

Shimizu stuffed a couple of carrots into her mouth. "But enough about Kazuki. This club sounds great. Hey, we can do a website 'n' stuff! Find good people out there who have the gift of mana but aren't involved in the fight to save the world, yet. Oh, and we can advertise like in that one anime. I have no problem wearing a bunny girl costume to pass out fliers."
Kiyuri had a hand on her forehead. "Yep, definitely too much anime, Shimizu."

[PhoenixFlame]

Akari quietly sat down next to her sister, rotating her lunchbox and rummaging through the contents. Within moments, she was munching on delicious onigiri, the little riceball treat rather easily transported for such sudden lunchings. Hungry and thoroughly engrossed in eating (Bombardment spells were taxing!), Akari ravenously devours several various prepared edibles she'd stuffed in her comparatively tiny lunchbox. Unlike Mitsuko, she was very food-focused when the prospect of lunchtime presented itself.

Although quietly '^_^'d' across the table from Shimizu, she couldn't help but overhear the group pondering the concept of a magic users club, which sounded really fun. Of course, they were kinda already a club, and Akari felt it kinda went agaisnt principal to randomly advertise super magical powers on the internet.

"Mmh, that sounds cool, Shimizu, but uh... Aren't we supposed to keep this thing secret? I mean, I'm all for getting together so we can train with each other, but how do you think other people'd react to it? We can't just have a website, can we?"

[Astral Harmony]

Shimizu frowned thoughtfully. "Well, I was kind of hoping that maybe only people who had magical powers or saw them up close and personal would think the site was serious and respond while regular folks would just think we're total lunes and never visit the site again."

Kiyuri swallowed down an entire riceball, struck her chest firmly with her fist to get it in successfully, and exhaled. "So you guys are set, huh? I mean, I guess you really can't talk to the police or something. Even if you showed them your magical powers, Shimizu kind of told me about how bad she'd been struck during your latest fight in the infirmary. I don't think the police could deal with that kind of power."
Shimizu's lips curled strangely on another bite. "Mmm...too much sour, not enough sweet. Maybe my cooking's slipped a bit since I took up the fight against magical terrorism or whatever we're fighting against. Anyways, the way I see it, the best the cops could do is function like some kind of information network, but in reality I think our own magichines are better at sniffing out these perilous artifacts for us."

Kiyuri looked at Shimizu. "Magichines?"
"Some word Kazuki invented early on while examining Ponpon. A combination of magic and machine, I guess. I thought it was pretty cute, myself. A lot easier than calling them Intelligent Devices like Ponpon insisted."
Kiyuri closed her lunchbox. "What about the military?"
"Too much prep time," Shimizu said with obvious disappointment. "We have the gear with us wherever we go and we're set for battle at a moment's notice, and so far as I've seen, our battles don't last all that long when you get right down to it. The military couldn't really help given that they'd probably have to gear up first and then deploy. Besides, I don't really like soldiers and war stuff like that. And more importantly, think about the steps the government would take when they found out a bunch of kids possessed technology and powers like the magichines. Arresting us and confiscating our gear while interrogating us and everyone we're affiliated with sounds like the least of what our problems would be if the military ever found out about us."

Kiyuri nodded. "I hadn't thought about it like that."
Shimizu closed her lunchbox. "The best we can do is get strong and respond to each new magical event as soon as possible if not even sooner. Mitsuko and Akari ultimately have the right idea. Nobody, not even the appropriate authorities, must know. They'd just be more of a hindrance than a help to us. At least, that's what Kazuki told me."
Kiyuri sighed. "I knew that you sounded too smart for your own good."
Shimizu had no hint of a smile on her face as she looked out the window. "I've got a sexy body, and that's what I think Kazuki likes enough to disregard the fact that I can be pretty dumb when I set my mind to it."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Iriumi barely managed to get back on time. She sat there quietly as she drew deep slow breaths to slow her racing heart from the sprint back before time started moving again. Tayuumi sat next to her, who didn't seem to remember what happened to her right before she faded, looked at Iriumi worriedly. She slipped Iriumi a small note asking her if she was alright, because she definitely looked pale.

Time to hit the medical facility, Iriumi.

Iriumi didn't need prompting. Straight after class finished for the lunch break, she managed to get up and - apologizing profusely to the young men and women all looking to share a lunch with her - excused herself to the sick bay. A few of the guys tagged along out of concern, but Tayuumi designated herself to be Iriumi's sick-bay buddy, shooed them all away eventually.

"Shoo! Go on! She can't have all of you around breathing her precious oxygen!"

"Yuumi," Iriumi protested mildly to the way her friend acted. Instead, it only gave Tayuumi incentive to hang onto her arm and steered her through the doors.

The nurse was surprised.

"First Alex, and now you, Hana Iriumi. My, you look like you've run a mile with less than half an hours' sleep!" she exclaimed. Iriumi looked slightly guilty. She felt like it too. The lady hustled her onto one of the sickbeds, took her temperature and pulse and did some more cursory medical analysis before announcing she'd just been suffering from exhaustion, and that she should have a good drink of water and a good rest at lunch. Iriumi shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

"Can I please have the blinds open, Nurse?"
"Of course, darling. A good bout of sunshine is what you probably need too. My, you look pale as death!"

Golden light bathed the room from the now unshuttered windows. Iriumi heard Ivy mentally sigh with relief.

"Now you be a good girl and sit there for the lunch. I'll be back right before class starts to see how you're feeling. Apparently a couple of the other students have also come around a little ill too. You make sure she gets some good rest, Tayuumi!"

"Yes'm!" Tayuumi almost saluted. The nurse bustled out, leaving them in silence. The other girl turned to Iriumi. Her eyes spoke before her mouth.
"I didn't go crazy, right? It really happened, didn't it?"
"What did?" Iriumi asked cautiously. She remembers...
She had traces of magic after initial interaction with you during the travel to school. The residual effects was enough to allow her a brief protection against the draining field's effects.
"Oh don't play silly, Iriumi! I saw you standing around, and other people too! Suddenly the room froze and faded out and I couldn't get everybody to move, and suddenly everything goes back to normal and you look all tired. I'm not crazy, am I? You did something."
"I didn't," Iriumi stated simply. It was kind of the truth. She didn't really do much at all and even the last bit where they struck the final blow she was almost swept away by one of the Autekkan's attacks. Tayuumi looked as if she was about to cry.
It will be hard to placate her. 'I don't know what happened. When you froze too, I stood up and ran around the entire school to see if everybody else was like this too. Then when it started to stop i panicked and ran back as fast as I could.'
"I don't know what happened. When you froze too, I stood up and ran around the entire school to see if everybody else was like this too. Then when it started to stop, I panicked and ran back as fast as I could," Iriumi repeated. Tayuumi looked relieved. She wasn't going bonkers. Iriumi looked down at her hands. She could feel the warmth of the sun literally revitalizing her. She'll be back to a suitable energetic level by the end of lunch.

"Sorry I don't know much else. I'm a little tired right now," she added. She did look it. Tayuumi nodded and sat down next to the secret verda mage.
"Ok. I'll stop bothering you. Just let me know if you need anything." Iriumi smiled and nodded her assent, thanking her with her genuine expressions.

[phil_]

Synopsis: Panko eats lunch with Erika and Ohno, and by "eats lunch," I Erika wasted no time in bullying a frehman into getting them lunch. That, and Erika grills Panko about ditching them for the weekend, then gives up on it.

Panko met Erika and Ohno for lunch in their usual spot, an out-of-the-way breezeway near the gym. Shortly, a scared-looking girl approached carrying two bags of fast food. Erika must have coerced a freshman into picking up lunch for her. The girl nervously presented the bags at arms length, like she was hand-feeding a crocodile, as she stammered out a lame "Here you go."

Panko silently snatched a bag from the poor girl. Ohno took the other with a polite and completely out of place "Thank you."

After handing over the food, the girl lingered awkwardly, as if she wasn't sure if she could go or not. With feigned annoyance to hide the fun bossing this girl around clearly gave her (clearly to Panko, anyway), Erika dismissively waved her hand and said, "What are you still doing here? Get lost, I'm done with you."

The nameless girl disappeared into the school and Ohno started to divide up the food.

"So, Kowaiza, where the heck were you this weekend, really? And don't just say you were sick 'cause I'm not buying it."

Taken off-guard by Erika's sudden question, Panko took a bite of her sandwich to buy some time to think.

"Maybe she went on a date?" Ohno chirped excitedly.

Panko nearly choked.

Erika laughed. "Ha ha, really? Kowaiza with a boy?! Yeah right!"

Panko now wished she had choked, but she forced out a weak "heh" and hoped that Erika would drop the subject after her little laugh.

She didn't. "Seriously, though, you want to explain why you blew us off for two days?"

Panko did the only thing she could think of and asked Picky for help. "Picky! Picky, they didn't buy it!"

"Who's 'they' and what didn't they buy?" Picky responded, sounding unconcerned.

"I need a new excuse for where I was the last two days."

Panko could almost hear Picky roll his eyes. "Really? And you can't think of something yourself because...?"

"I'm dumb, ok! Now help me figure out-"

Tired of watching Panko make faces, Erika crossed her arms and sighed weightily. "Listen, if you're just going to make something up again, forget it. I don't care." Her last sentence was less than convincing. "It just better have been darn important for you to ditch us."

[PhoenixFlame]

Akari was thinking about the things Shimizu and Kiyuri were discussing, and it wasn't long before Ceres interjected the obvious answers to questions that Akari rolled over in her mind. The military and police were kinda scary and a little extreme to think of, but... Maybe they were right?

"Your military and police forces consist of mundanes, yes? Obviously so, since your population has not yet discovered magic. Involving them would be unwise, no matter how well armed, they are not able to penetrate even the weakest phantom zones with any regularity. Resistance to actual offensive techniques would be... Well."

"I donno, Shimizu, even if they were prepared, how do we know how our weapons size up?" Akari interjected, but before she could continue, she was cut off by a pair of familiar face.

"Hey Akari!" "Oh, there she is!"

Miyuki and Reiko wasted no time finding their friend, carrying trays of the school's mass-produced and mildly edible lunches. This would explain why they were late, but it did not explain why Akari hadn't looked for them earlier. The whole concept failed to cross her mind after the events on the rooftop.

"Oh, hey Miyuki, Rei!" She sheepishly waved, the former of the two looking far more acceptive of this than the latter. Reiko was obviously playing, but Akari was nonetheless wounded by her accusitive glare.

"New friends, huh? Akari's cheating on us!" She declared, forcibly seizing the seat next to her and making her presence known. Miyuki tried to hold back a restraining suggestion that Reiko shouldn't speak so loud, but she fell in line with the others silently.

"Oh, no... Nothing like that!" Akari tried to defensively explain herself, gesturing to the others at the table, "Ah, Mitsuko, Shimizu and I, and... And Kiyuri were talking about what happened earlier."

"Ah, I was wondering about that... Everything seemed strange for a second, and then it got better... But you could tell something was wrong." Miyuki said with a musing tone.

"Pah, everyone's overreacting! Two clocks stop at the same time and everyone freaks out like it's the end of the world." Reiko on the other hand was quick to dismiss the event as little more than an overactive set of imaginations.

"Ah, I guess you're right... We're just imagining things, I guess?" Akari agrees, looking at Mitsuko and Shimizu with a 'Ah, help me out here ^^;' glance.

[Krylo]

Keitaro Akihito, captain of the kendo team at back at Chuuko (OOC: is that right?), strode up to Akari and Mitsuko's table with a confident smile, as he dropped his gym bag, a boken sticking part way out, by the seat across from Akari.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked, as he took the seat, not bothering to wait for an answer. "This new school's pretty big, huh? You been finding everything ok? I had their kendo team show me around right after I signed up if you need any help." He smiled across the table at the Akari and the girls around her.

Rei Shoda, meanwhile, could only look on and sigh as Keitaro sat down next to his 'team mates' acting cool and charming as ever.

Kaemon seemed entirely clueless as to Rei's plight, rambling on with the look in his eyes of a true pervert, "So hey, Shoda, I think that girl, Iriumi? Yeah, that was her name. I think she might like me. She was nice to me and everything. No girl's done that before. Mmmm... and she was QUITE a looker, huh Rei? What I wouldn't give to..." Keitaro mumbled off for a moment, the thoughts going through his head visible on his face for a moment before he turned to toward Rei, noticing his silence at last, "Rei!"

"Huh? Oh yeah, she's pretty..." he mumbled, satisfying Keitaro and sending him off on another tangent.

[Astral Harmony]

"Yeah, that's what the nurse told me," Shimizu said, covering for Akari. "Just imaginating stuff. We're all right, the school's all right-"

"But you're not all right, Miyasaki Shimizu-chan!"

Kiyuri and Shimizu craned their heads to see who suddenly addressed the group. It was a girl who wore the uniform of the student council. Her hair was dark green, her eyes were a pale brown, and she wore square-rimmed glasses. Shimizu smiled to herself. "Well, Kiyuri, we must be off. I wouldn't want to bring down the generally good mood here by arguing with this bitch."

"I heard that and-hey, stop! Miyasaki, I'm talking to you!"

Shimizu stood up and promptly left, with the student council girl in hot pursuit. Kiyuri stood up. "Yayoi Hiragi. She's had her designs on my brother for over a year and now that him and Shimizu are dating again, I can already smell the blood. I'd better go as well to head off any impending violence in the love triangle. Take care of yourselves."

And just like that Shimizu, Yayoi, and Kiyuri all left.

-----

The fight was moved to out in the hallway. Before Shimizu and Yayoi stopped walking, Kiyuri dashed in between them and raised her hands to part them. "Here are the rules, girls. One, you will stand six feet apart from each other at all times. Two, you will not throw anything. Three, try to keep profanities down to a minimum. If either of you violate these rules, I'm kicking you in the stomach. Now fight."

Yayoi looked at Kiyuri with one raised eyebrow. "Is she serious?"
Shimizu folded her arms. "Yep, she'll kick you. She's kicked me plenty of times."
Yayoi looked at Shimizu. "Why, Miyasaki? Why did you start going out with Mitsurugi-sama again?"
"Not that it's really any of your business, but at first I just needed him to look at some electronics for me."
Yayoi's eyes narrowed. "That's it?"
"That was it," Shimizu shrugged lightly. "But I really didn't like breaking up with him. I felt terrible for a long while after we broke up last time."
"So you're doing it out of pity, then?" her tone was accusatory.
"I wouldn't date Kazuki if it was just out of pity or if all I wanted was for him to fix some machine," Shimizu said earnestly. "I like him, okay? I really like Kazuki. And hell, it may even turn into love, y'know? But I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, Hiragi. Kazuki's never been interested in you, and he never will be. To be honest, he once told me that he finds you calling him 'Mitsurugi-sama' a little frightening."

Shimizu was about to get into Yayoi's face about it, but Kiyuri raised her leg and Shimizu shrunk back at bit. Kiyuri meant what she said and Shimizu had suffered enough punishment today. "That's always been the problem with your pursuit, Hiragi. You have a scary obsession with him that just puts him off. And I dunno why you're even getting angry. Kazuki and I were separate for a good while, and yet you haven't managed to get any closer than 'a good friend' with him. Shouldn't that clue you in? If you really love Kazuki, then respect his decisions instead of blaming me because I happen to be what he wants in a girl."
"I can be what he wants in a girl, too!" Yayoi nearly screamed.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, I am!"
Shimizu folded her arms. "Fine, then, let's do that."
Both Kiyuri and Yayoi looked at Shimizu with "What?" expressed on their faces. Shimizu held up one hand. "Tell you what, Hiragi. We'll have a competition, and it won't be like the casual competition for Kazuki we've always had. I'm going to help you transform. I'm going to help you transform into something that Kazuki would like."
"Into something that Kazuki would like," Yayoi said to herself.

Shimizu stepped forward, but Kiyuri ignored the rule she laid out. It seemed Shimizu had already ended the fight. "You're going to have to come with me, though. And you're going to have to do exactly what I say. Some of it will be very embarrassing, which is a given considering the conservative life you've had. But you're not going to get Kazuki any other way than by following my instructions."
"How can I trust you?"
"What've you got to lose?" Shimizu asked rhetorically, then swung her arm around Yayoi's shoulders. "Kazuki's mine and he's going to stay that way if you keep on behaving like you always have been. But I think you deserve more than a fair chance at true love so we're going to go do some shopping right after school. You meet me by the main gate right after school."
"B-but the student council-" Yayoi was quivering.
"B-but Kazuki." Shimizu countered.
"Grrrgh, fine!" Yayoi said. "Miyasaki, I'm counting on you!"

And then Yayoi walked away with brisk steps. Kiyuri gave Shimizu an applause. "Are you sure it's gonna work?"
"With Kazuki? Doubtful." Shimizu said uncaringly. "Yayoi could probably never get Kazuki, but if she just came out of that whole 'sheltered and rich girl' shell, she could easily come out of this competition with some male attention, either with Kazuki or some other decent guy."
"So that's the plan, eh? Get her off your back by reforming her and getting other guys to notice her?"
"She's got the looks, but they're going to waste inside her stuffy clothing and refined mannerisms," Shimizu said with finality. "Anyways, I hope no asshole guardians attack this afternoon. I don't feel like standing her up."

[Arhra]

OOC: Yup, Chuuko.

Mitsuko half raised a hand, as if she had a point to make when Shimizu took her vague idea of possibly making a club and ran with it until she vanished over the metaphorical horizon but then froze when she realised she had no idea of what to say.

Luckily Akari and Kiyuri stopped Shimizu with their words before she dragged Mitsuko off and forced her into a bunny outfit.

Mitsuko had just thought over the talk about the necessity of secrets and what they should plan to do next when Akari's friends, Miyuki and Reiko, turned up. It was necessary to clam up. They had a secret.

Miyuki suspected there was a secret with this morning's strange events. Reiko, not so much. Akari turned to Mitsuko and Shimizu for help.

Bright Day declined to comment on plausible explanations in much the same way the Device had not commented on planning, politics and policing. Mitsuko held in a sigh.

Shimizu ran off with Kiyuri, fleeing from a student council girl in hot pursuit. Mitsuko let out the sigh in relief. The point seemed safely derailed by the abrupt exit. Then the massively popular captain of the kendo team from back at Chuuko showed up and started talking to her... sister.

Mitsuko speculated. He couldn't possibly be the enigmatic Masked Man, could he? There was definitely something similar about the way he carried himself.

Time to find out. "Oh, a little trouble." Mitsuko confessed about finding her away around the new school. "It's weird though, I thought I saw this weird belltower at one point."

"Hoy! Mitsuko! We've been looking all over for you!" Sakiko called out, dragging a rangy, dark haired boy behind her. The drama devotee and Sosuke, an athletics club member were an odd couple.

Sakiko's eyes flicked over the group. They hovered on Keitaro for a moment. She let go of Sosuke's sleeve. They slotted in, filling the space Shimizu and Kiyuri had abandoned. "Sakiko's been dragging me all over looking for you." Sosuke grumped.

Mitsuko felt a little stab of guilt that she hadn't tried to catch up with her friends. It prodded her more deeply when her next thought had been that it seemed they'd never get down to business with so many others around.

"I think I took a strange way here, heh." Mitsuko said, with a weak laugh.

Sakiko looked around the assembled group brightly, running a hand through her hair a little self consciously. "That's alright." she said. "Oh, seeing we're all together like this, would you all be free this Saturday? I'm getting the details finalised for my birthday party and it would be great if you could all come."

Mitsuko suspected this little outburst had more than a little to do with Keitaro Akihito.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Only a little." Akari smiled to Keitaro's question, glad that the situation had been elegantly defused and that more normal things had replaced it. Keitaro Akihito wasn't a boy she'd talked to often before, and while she tried to be as polite as possible, she couldn't help but wonder if he was the masked boy that'd helped them earlier. His timing, and arrival at their particular table was curious, and he was about the same size...

Surely, he knew who she was, right? Of course, there's no way he'd admit to it, the boy wore a mask for a reason, right? Ceres wouldn't say anything either way, but Akari did remember her earlier suggestion. 'I would encourage any martial extracurricular activities', she said. Well, what better way to find out who the masked boy was?

"Ooh, Kendo! Our older brother was really good at that, and I've thought about learning things myself." Akari tried to be conversational, blissfully oblivious to Keitaro's motives while her friends quietly whispered between each other, no doubt about the unfolding scene. Around that time, Sakiko arrived, and everything went silent. Too silent, and Akari could feel a palpable tension she hadn't anticipated before.

"Aah... I suppose it wouldn't be a problem?" She finally replied after a short moment of strenuous tension, immediately after which Reiko and Miyuki both followed suit with equally nebulous affirmative responses.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"Seems you are getting settled in finally Keitaro." Ito Nori stated in greeting as he walked up to the table. The boy looked around, seeing the girls he was sitting around. "Haven't even been here a week and you already are going after the girls?" Nori joked passingly. After a chuckle at Keitaro's witty response, Nori seated himself at the table, taking up whatever empty space he could.

"You best be careful, you are now trying to compete with the legendary Kazunori in terms of attractiveness. Most girls here always get that dazed look in their eyes when they see him. Along with his dashing best friend." Nori jokingly said, trying to pose and look sexy while he cracked out another line. "You would have liked to meet Kazu, I think he would give you a run for your money in not only women but Kendo as well. It's too bad he is out sick today." Nori took a bite of some food he had on him, giving it a good chew while he thought for a moment.

"Over the weekend I checked up on him and he seemed fine. Probably wasn't looking forward to being attacked by girls and wanted to delay it for a few days." Nori started to go into a rant. For him, this was normal behavior, and for those people that would be used to him would learn soon that they should just tone him out after a while.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Iriumi sneezed politely, before waving away some sun-fluff from her face at the same time. Tayuumi leapt to her feet, before being calmed down by the other girl.

"Don't worry, I'm not catching anything," Iriumi said jokingly, "somebody must be talking about me in the school."

Then she remembered something.
"Oh! I totally forgot. There were two new students at the school today! I'd meant to show them around during lunch..."
"Ugh! You don't mean that fatso and his skinny sidekick, do you?" Tayuumi made a small face. Iriumi frowned mildly.
"I'm sure they're nice people once somebody befriends them."
"I wouldn't mind showing them around," Takuso's voice came from the sickbay entrance.
"And I'll make sure Takki behaves like a good boy," added Shana's voice. Iriumi looked up, startled to see two more of her friends rock up to see how she was feeling. The jock-like young man was currently in the process of knuckle-rubbing Shana's beautiful hair after the quip, but then realized in whose presence he was in, and halted immediately, looking innocent while Shana rubbed her sore crown.
"Oooww, why'd you do that for? I was telling the truth!"
"Hey! I don't beat up everybody Iriumi meets!"
"You just did that to me!"
"Did not!" Takuso stuck out his tongue.

"... Are you sure you guys can handle them?" Iriumi mused, covering her smile with one hand. Takuso rounded again and saluted.
"Yes, ma'am! Come on, Shana, let's go find them!"
"W-wait! You just messed up my hair! You can't just let me-aaaaah!" Shana's complaint ripped off mid-sentence as she was jerked around the door and out again. Iriumi shook her head.
"With any luck, they'll find the wrong people to hassle. Honestly, they'll probably make a mess. I'll go and make sure they don't frighten the slime brothers," Tayuumi sighed, lightening the bed Iriumi and she were sitting on.

"Tayuumi, they're not-"
"-bad people, I know. I'll try not to think of them like that, but if that fatso tries to pull one on me... well, Chichyuu's been giving me some lessons in self defense. Don't worry, I'll be nice!" Tayuumi added after Iriumi's pained look, before vanishing after the duo.

I was wondering when she'd leaf.
Hey, no mental puns while I rest, please, Iriumi cautioned, catching the small echo of tittering laughter in the corner of her mind. Jeeze, at this rate Ivy might evolve the wrong sense of humour...

[Menarker]

"Hmmm, nomnom...."

Menarker strolled along outside within the school borders, eating his bagged lunch along the way, the fares rather basic with only a bit of milk and cookies to really brighten the meal. His mind was pre-occupied with the previous battle and the events of Alex's scrying. The frog figure who may or may not be the same Panko he had fought and departed on bad terms, and the Autekkans whom any could be his next opponent, the nagging worry that the feud between them and the Verda be so prevalent as to attack a child, especially with their refined weaponry.

"Hey... Mena."

Menarker looked curiously back and forth noticing a few groups of people each doing their own thing of chatting, playing or just hanging out. Sensing a little emotional tinge signal, he looked upward spotting his own familiar up in a tree. Mern looked side to side again to make sure no one was actively looking his way and hid behind the tree, beckoning his kitten to the lunchbag, in the attempt to smuggle his familiar as he headed out of school property and toward someplace more secluded and distance closer to home. He opened the bag, but Mero made no effort to crawl out, as she cuddled within its linings. Mern pulled out her lazy limpish body, petting her much to both parties' amusement.

"I'm sure glad to see you. New rule. You'll staying with me during school hours. I'll try to figure out some way to keep you hidden..."
"I see..."
"Well, you wanted to come to school in the first place... How the heck did you get here anyhow? I know I locked the door." Mern's nose twitched involuntarily.
"You left the window open, and I'm no ordinary house-cat."
"Oh god, you jumped out the 2nd floor and... what the heck is that smell?"
"What smell?" Mero tried to look innocent but Mern examined his surroundings and found the smell strongest near Mero. Mern heaved a sigh of disgust and a prompt face-palm reaction.
"Oh hell. Crap, you were in my lunchbox... barely been a few hours and you already getting down and...!" Mern dumped the few remaining items in his lunchbag in the trash, his face somewhat blanched.
"It didn't last long, after I rushed to help you. Stupid barrier kept me out."
"Well, you smell like those scant minutes were the most intense stuff you've ever done."
"Well, there were quite a few..."
"SPARE ME THE DETAILS!"
"Well, I imagine human biology is just as dirty if not more so."
"...I don't need to hear more about today's wild escapism."
"Fine... anyhow, the barrier kept me out, and believe me, I tried shapeshifting and attacking it. I just couldn't get in..."
"Yes, that's why I got to smuggle you in the future, so there isn't more of that seperation issue. ANYHOW, let me explain a bit about the incident."

The lad went into detail about the time stop, his encounter with other Verdas, seeing the Autekkan through the scrying window dealing with the bell-bringer, and his brief yet shocking conflict with the firesnake along with the orange barrier whose origin and purpose remained undefined.

"Alright, let's take this a few steps at a time... Do you have contact with any of those Verdas you met?"
"No, I would have to seek them out..."
"Disappointing... Would be useful to have some allies... But from what I grasp, the Autekkans don't know you, so you won't be actively targeted by them. All the same, it would be good to have some counter-measures..."
"Well, their armor and weapons look mechanically high tech. They probably have good armor, but I can use eletricity. Aside from potential issue that their metal might conduct the current, but my electric ability is a natural life current which I imagine doesn't have the same flow as ones that flow through wires. I'm sort of suggesting a "brown-out" if you will. Computers are known to get permanent damage if the source of electric power that sustains them is incompatible and a sharp surge of it might short out or overload a few things. Of course, this is all conjecture, but it's the best I can think of aside from going toe to toe with lasers."
"Well, I guess that's worth a shot."
"Mero, as much as you have helped already, I was wondering if there was some way you could contribute more, aside from just being there to aid my power boost like before?"
"You're already pretty effective a bit judging on your little solo adventure today. You're growing fairly nicely. Heck, let's give it a try, and you can try some light training."

The familiar shifted to her battle form, nodding for Mern to get his power boost, but some repeated touches and patting and Mern looked at her and his hand rather oddly.

"Any time now, Mena." She gazed lightly with a bit of impatience.
"I'm not getting a reaction."
"Eh?"
"My electric ability also changed a bit from how I used it before. At first I thought I was just getting used to how to channel it better, but now I'm starting to wonder if my absence from you is changing both our skills."
"I don't think it could be that at all." Mero looked somewhat distraught and confused in her enlarged form, as she examined body for any obvious defects. "My abilities... without exception, had always worked, as far back as when I was with Sora and without changing either. I can shift form, so it's not like my powers are useless."
"Sora? What does Sora have to do with your abilities? And you don't seem to be quite confident about your powers always having worked."

[Teal Mage]

With the latest hit pop/alternative rock song blaring over her iPod's speakers, Leanne Tachibana danced through her home's sizable kitchen in her slippers and pyjamas. The bluenette hummed along to the lyrics as she slowly collected all the necessities of a traditional Japanese lunch, instant ramen, instant rice, and a perfectly chilled can of saké.

She'd just finished adding the hot water to her ramen when, even over her blaring music, she heard her grandma's sweet old voice coming from the hall.

"Leanne deary, I'm home!"

Leanne couldn't help wondering how her grandmother managed to shout like that. The young woman shook her head, before pushing the pause button on her iPod.

"How was the Farmer's Market Grams?" Leanne called, as she opened the saké.

"Oh, it was the most fun I've had in weeks!" Came her grandma's happy reply, "I met Marta there too! She had the most darling story to tell."

Leanne took a deep gulp of saké, her grandma was about to tell a story. "Really Grams?" She asked, praying she wouldn't regret her question.

"Yes dearie." Something in her grandma's tone gave her pause; had someone died? "You see dear, a few nights ago, Marta saw strangest thing outside her window. These kids were all standing in the street!"

"What's so weird about that?" Leanne asked, deciding it was just another of her grandma's boring pieces of gossip. She took another sip of saké.

"They were all wearing the most outlandish costumes too, Marta says she one of them dressed like a Miko!" Leanne breathed a laugh, Marta's eyes were terrible. "And there were all these lights and colors! It was like someone was filming a movie-"

"So, what'id ya buy?" Leanne quickly interjected. She loved her grandma to pieces, but she really didn't want to hear an eye witness account from someone who was almost blind.

"Oh! I did buy something." Her grandma didn't sound nonplussed at the topic change. "It’s in the hall! Have a look for yourself." Leanne flinched, that meant it was a present for her, or Alex. "I'm off to the garden!" The door shut as she finished.

Taking another deep gulp of saké, Leanne steeled herself for whatever surprise her grandma had brought. With a deep breath, the bluenette strode boldly out of the kitchen, through the living room, and into the hall. The bag was by the door. She closed the distance.

Leanne stared down at it balefully. Then, with a sinking feeling, drew the bundle of fabric out into the light. With an expect flick of the wrist, the bundle unrolled before her wide eyes. It was frilled. It was pink.

It wasn't her size.

* * *

"...and that's how you use Hammerspace." Miranda concluded, crossing her arms. Mia, sitting on her bed in front of the familiar, nodded. "Since you use tools for your spells, Hammerspace will be a key-"

She was cut off by a cheery ringing from Alex's pocket. Miranda looked over at her partner, she wasn’t happy.

Alex gave her an embarrassed smile, "Sorry, forgot to turn it off." The blond reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, "Its a text." He stated.

"From?" Mia asked, she looked vaguely curious.

"Leanne." Alex replied, two keystrokes later, "There's a picture..." He trailed off, eyes widening. After a moment, Alex sagged into the chair, letting his phone clatter to the hardwood floor of the room.

A frilled pink dress was on the screen, the message, "Grams bought you this. -Leanne." Just below it.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

There was an argument coming from the corridors just outside the lunch hall. It sounded quite heated.
"...'s fault is it that I had to fix out all the snags in my hair before looking halfway decent to be a guide, huh?"
"You looked fine with knots in your hair! Seriously, nobody would notice!"

The cafeteria door slammed open, discharging two heated students well into their argument. It was late lunch, and Kaemon and Rei were seated. Takuso and Shana vaguely noticed and headed straight for them, still debating whose fault it was that made them late.
"Seriously! You shouldn't have overreacted when I told you off in front of 'Rumi. What am I, some kind of stuffed doll?"
"Sometimes I think you are. You brush your hair every other second, and it's never the same hairstyle throughout the entire day." This was true. Instead of the high ponytail Shana sported early morning, it had now come down alluringly in curled golden locks. The top half of her mane was pulled back to prevent the hair from falling in front of the girl's eyes.
"Oh, whatever," Shana harrumphed, before becoming all smiles and cheer in front of Kaemon and Rei, "good afternoon! You two must be Rei and Kaemon. Welcome to our school."
"And we're sorry for our previous 'altercations', too," Takuso added after a nudge, using the word 'altercations' as if it was some strange and exotic new word to him, "we were hoping to make it up to you two by showing you around the school today at lunch, but it seems like most of the lunch has already gone because lovely Shana here forced us to stop on the way to fix her hair, OW! What'd you do that for?"
"Ahahaha," Shana fluttered as she shifted her bodyweight subtly back from putting her heel firmly on Takuso's big toe, "Takki here jokes too much. I'm Shana and he's Takus-"

"WHATDOYOUTHINKYOU'REDOINGYOUMONSTERDON'TYOUDARETOU CHSHANA!!!"

"-o-crap."

Before Kaemon could spring the sleaze on Shana, it looked like Tayuumi had gotten the jump already. Flinging the door open in red fury, the other girl barged in, her dark hair flinging prettily as she charged at the table Kaemon and Rei were sitting on, completely ignoring anybody else there in the process.

"Wuh-wha?! I didn't do anything!"
"Don't lie! I SAW YOU!"

"Tayuumi wai-"
But the other girl didn't. In her fit of possible PMS, Tayuumi picked up a chair - despite her slight stature and frail-looking frame - and smashed it at Kaemon, who was smart enough to leap epically out of the way. Rei barely escaped grievous bodily harm too, leaping after his fatter friend, while Takuso and Shana flung themselves to one side to avoid Tayuumi's wrath as she began chasing the two newcomers around the school cafeteria, yelling all manners of things.

~~
Are you glad you came?
"Regretting every moment of it," Iriumi winced from the doorway. She naturally didn't really trust the trio to do a good job, and risked the wrath of the returning Nurse to come join the lunchroom. She heard the commotion long before she reached the doors, and dreaded to know what had transpired while she was gone.
What now?
"I... should calm Tayuumi down."
But...?
"I... can't... stop... watching..." Iriumi's eyes were riveted in horrid fascination on the fat rolling blubber of stomach Kaemon possessed wobbling all over the lunch room, closely followed by the steaming Tayuumi and her Chair of Doom.
And you say I need help... Ivy mentally rolled her eyes.

[Arhra]

School's out... next episode! (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?p=952036#post952036)