Magical Fracas, Episode 4: School Rumble?

[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.