---

Crystal glanced in the direction Castra had gone before slumping her shoulders just barely enough to be noticeable. "Thank you, Liam. I appreciate it. If you wish to dance, however, it would be wrong of me to refuse." She took a moment to look the boy over before continuing, regardless of whether the two began to dance or not. "Though if I may offer some advice to the one who saved me from losing my mind in public... Take those lessons." Crystal smiled softly, the first time since she got to the ball. There's practical reasons, but I assume a boy would more care about the way dancing has been made into a courting process. It's silly, but not everyone will find skipping out on the formality endearing." Her smile turned to a frown. "Apologies. I didn't intend to be as condescending as I sounded." She continued without waiting for a response, finding herself rambling now, likely to her future detriment. "I've been forbidden from using my usual coping mechanism for stress, and have more than I should for a self-imposed reason. Then there's the heat from sticking so many people in one location, the speech that went on and yet nowhere, the need to keep up appearances... Though it's selfish of me to be under such duress when everyone is experiencing those things all the same."

The quiet girl was talking more than she normally would as a way to keep her mind occupied. When she noticed this, she stopped, her eyes widening slightly as she caught herself. "And now I'm rambling and making a fool of myself. Once again you have my apologies."

Depending on whether the young man wished to dance regardless, Crystal would find herself in one of two realities.

---

"True enough," she replied simply, subtly adjusting her steps as to account for the change in partner height and respective role. It wasn't too terribly often she got the chance to follow rather than lead— proof positive that there was some merit in taking up the offer, if for nothing else. Practicing on her weak areas was far easier when it came to dance than in her studies— speaking of which.

"As for classes, well." she rode the twirl tightly, taking care to mind her close proximity with everyone else on the floor. As much as she did enjoy a good clothesline every now and again, there was a time and place— and clubbing what may well have been a noblewoman in the throat with a back elbow because one decided to get a little too samba in their waltz was a step far, even for her.

Get it?

If anything, this Hyun boy's confidence surprised her; albeit less so in gamely chatting up a fun-loving tree and potential future coworker (that all made a certain amount of sense), but more in his foot position and rhythm, how he comfortably lead her along in their wheel within wheels. All things considered...

"I can't imagine they're that boring, if they're finding time to drill a little clean dance in as well. You'd be surprised at how much theory they throw at us with Nox concentration, diffusion, manifesting your Parma, blah blah blah..." she replied, smirking down at him, wry edge to her voice. Sounded like school was the same no matter where you went— in a way, it was comforting. While she often dreaded some of the drier lectures they'd all politely endured day in and day out together, it was a kind of stability she knew she'd one day no longer have. A bedrock block of schedule, a clear goal and task for each day.

In a way, having something to throw herself towards was a part of how she stayed even-keeled. Something to fall back on.

Kind of ironic, given how that choreography kept breaking every time she tried to picture it. What was the word, again? In English, it was supposed to be self-exemplary— an oxymoron, riiiiiight. That was a fun word. She ought to use it more, really keep their literature professor on her toes.

Regardless, though, the charming young cadet had mentioned something that piqued the taller girl's curiosity, and a raised eyebrow atop a face that was falling back into a curious frown. Not malevolent, not discontented, but mildly puzzled. A familiar expression, given all the talk of their schooling.

"So what exactly have you guys over at the Officer Academy heard, anyway?"

She had to wonder. The examinations were on a video feed, and had dozens of eyewitnesses present, so the C-Class manifesting on top of poor Chie's run was probably a lost cause to cover up in full.

The subway too, though? As far as she'd known, the four of them that came out of it, thick as thieves, had kept it to themselves.

---

"A perfectly laudable goal." The musician said with an easy smile. "I think those with the potential to better the world have an obligation to do so, in whatever form that is. Not all that different from why I elected to become an Ars Magi."

"Have you kept in practice?" Rivka tilted her head inquiringly. "With the piano. To do a simple thing well is better than a difficult thing poorly, and it's always a shame if a skill is allowed to rust. Perhaps you can let me know how it has gone if you go to another show. I intend to perform at the same venue as often as they'll let me, schedule permitting."

The night wears on, the crowd eventually thinning as the dignitaries and military officials make their exit. The cadets too eventually begin to make their exodus, a few final dances before the band winds down and the great hall is emptied for the night.

The Ars Magi return to their dorms afterward, the common room briefly abuzz with giddy chatter and shared stories.

Soon it will be time to retire to bed though, the evening finished and the festivities over.

---

The night, all told, had been perfectly acceptable.

That was the conclusion of her own internal after action report. She sang her way through the thought process, every detail of the evening from front to back— but quietly. Ish. Crystal had asked very diplomatically if she could keep it down and in light of such a reasonable request Rivka was doing her best. 'Quiet' was something of a foreign concept; with so many musicians under one roof she was accustomed to the air being filled with sound, whether she added to it or not. But it was a simple request on the face of it.

If only obliging it was proving so easy.

Nevertheless she gave the evening due consideration as she removed from herself the uniform that she had come, with some reluctance, to at least accept. It needed a wash, then an iron, but more importantly she needed a shower. It would help to muffle her singing, too. Dancing with the cadet— Amalee— had been nice. To chat, to discuss her feelings on music, perhaps to encourage someone to pick their instrument up anew— worthwhile indeed. Ahhhh and the tsarina.

A smile that a lesser mortal might have called smug rather than satisfied crossed her lips and unbidden her tune climbed a few decibels while the Baeterran washed her hair under the water. That had been a victory, a coup-de-grace even. She was allowed to be smug about that. Progress was progress, a few steps further towards her proper success. Ah, but that seemed— more sensed than heard— to be a grumble from Crystal. She was getting a little loud. Think on that more quietly, at least for now.

Who knew what new triumph the morning would bring?

"Crystal?" She asked, turning off the water and swaddling herself in a towel. "Did you want the shower before bed?"

All in all, things were shaping up well.

---

Crystal found herself smiling slightly as Liam reminded her that sanity was worth chasing even in such a place. Though by the time they were all released from the festivities she was barely holding herself together. As soon as she could she left and made her way to her room, where she ripped open a pack of citrus flavored gum and shoved six sticks of it into her mouth. As the password was accepted she realized that she may, in fact, have a problem. It was rather like a smoking habit, actually. Good thing she didn't use nicotine gum, at least. When Rivka arrived she was met with a calm-ish Crystal, who already was beginning to re-panic as she realized she hadn't gotten the chance to show the other four her work yet. A quick request to keep as quiet as she could to Rivka and she went over the day in her mind. In hindsight, of course, it hadn't been so bad. But the thing that one lacks when looking into the past is the pressure of the moment, so it was to be expected that she felt that way.

As Rivka took her musical shower, Crystal retrieved her finished piece from the container she had taken it in, carefully unrolling it and placing it on her desk. She placed it upside down and wrote a small note on another piece of paper, placing it on top of the larger card stock. 'Wait until you hear the water start, then flip this over!' she wrote. Since she decided she desperately needed a shower after the day's events, that should give Rivka enough time to process what she'd see, especially since Crystal's showers tended to be long even without a sweat-inducing day beforehand.

The final image was a wonderfully colored Chrysina gloriosa shown from above with a slight angle, the viewpoint being from slightly to the left and front of the beetle, as it flew. It's shard was a light azure, a crystalline structure that seemed to be translucent to show the wings and body underneath. The rightmost wing was a brilliant sapphire with an amethyst '-' symbol embroiled in bronze flames, while the leftmost wing was a shining ruby with a matching violet '+' symbol that sat inside a invar tidal wave about to crash against the thorax. The thorax itself bore a mighty oak tree in silver, with its roots reaching to the bottom of the creature and its leaves spreading out across the very top of the elytra, bending with it being open. The entire scarab was slightly distorted, like viewing it through a haze of heat or under the effects of warped gravity. The body of the beetle was gold except for the emerald thorax and its eyes were a dark black, the darkest black Crystal could make it, to symbolize none other than the black holes of space. Above the scarab was the word 'Kepher' in different colored letters. She had gone a few different directions than she initially planned, but that was part of the creative process. She was satisfied that it was a good product. Now if only the others would accept it.

Having placed it and the note, Crystal gathered her things for a shower and waited for Rivka to finish hers. Once she did, she spat out the gum she'd been chewing since arriving at the dorm, replaced it with two fresh pieces of blueberry gum, and went in to take her own shower. It would be about an hour before she'd finish, in part because of her apprehension at showing Rivka the emblem, but even if it were rejected at least she'd feel better for being clean.

---

As the music wound down to its denouement, and the cordial pair's sweeping arcs too dwindled, Selma nodded along as her dance partner replied in earnest to her (by conifer standards) careful probing. Seemed that word of the specific difficulties her team had suffered in the long ride over to Palmyra hadn't quite gotten out... Good, honestly. That encounter following them like a stormcloud would weigh on everything they did after— the judgement of their actions, their progression as Ars Magi, their reputations— and even if it were in a positive light, extra expectations could be a burden all their own on the girls.

It would be best if it stayed this way, you know?

Best they all took only the lessons they needed from it, and nothing more.

Hyun cracked a grin.

“Personally I’d rather hear what Selma has to say about Selma than read about it in a report.”

She could only respond in kind, but while his was wry, the verdant titan's was all but leonine. Far removed from her affectations of princely bearing for Chie's sake, Hyun looked up at a girl who knew, down to her bones,

"I say they're not ready for me out there. And if the manifestation at the exams are anything to go by? They know it, too."

Their hands parted soon after, courtly bows exchanging before a much more easygoing farewell in the spoken word. She took the invitation to the cadets' table into the back of her head for now— every chance she might wind up over there to drop by and say hello should the night drag on enough, but at present, she had a Chie and a Crystal to scoop back up— and, hopefully, not a band to save from Rivka.

---

WHUMP-"Aaaaah..."

The well worn springs of the mattress strained heroically as an all-too familiar weight of one Miss Rosmarie collapsed upon it, a graceless flopping that only tower demolitions, sequoia deforestation, and wiped Ars Magi could replicate.

It wasn't as boring a night as she'd expected, in all fairness. Spending time in various duos and trios with her favorite four girls on the planet, as it turned out, couldn't manage to turn out that way, but cripes if it wasn't a long one. What was more, she might have snatched one or two hors d'oeurves too many off the revolving platters that the serving staff had so graciously carried (she hoped they got paid well enough, in retrospect) throughout the night, if the rock she felt in her stomach was any indication.

Tonight was gonna be one for a good, looooong snooze.

She stretched her limbs on the bed, back arching until she pulled a fairly satisfying pop out of somewhere between the shoulder blades. Mossy hair splayed in a wave all across the pillow, she let her head lull to the side to regard her partner in crime across the room, before letting her gaze turn up towards the ceiling.

"Say," she began, breaking their companionable silence almost in time with the sounds of running water through the walls between them and their next door neighbors. Fitting, because for all intents and purposes...

"Whaddya think the like... funniest thing you could do with your Elementum would be?"

After all, it was kind of a shower thought.

"Because, you know how we basically always are being watched by the staff? Like, I even saw some people at the ball keeping an eye on us— and they put us in teams, right? So I'm guessing they expect us all to synergize, have good teamwork, have powers that complement eachother, all that stuff—"

Clearly thinking aloud at about the same clip as the words came to her head in the first place, she made the herculean effort to prop herself up onto an elbow as she rolled on.

"So at some point, I'm gonna guess we need to come up with combo moves, too. And with Earth and Gravity... is it weird that I immediately just think of dropping a rock really hard on a Void?"

And it wasn't just themselves they'd be graded on ease of teamwork with, she reckoned...

“We’re supposed to be receiving individual dossiers for our next exercise. With most of you having unique powers, we have to understand what you’re capable of to do our jobs.”

The Officer cadets were there for a reason too.

She would be more than a little surprised if, whenever joint exercises began, they didn't meet a face that wasn't familiar to at least one of the girls.

To that point of Hyun's, maybe it was time to start considering how their tandems played out.

"...I dunno how seriously I could take splatting a void like what's in my head, is all. What's your take?"

Rivka never did get that crucible she wanted out of her...

---

---

Chie, always the silent yet (not quite so) strong type, kept quiet as Cayman explained the circumstances around his school. Despite his claims to the contrary, it didn't sound that much different to what she and the girls had to go through. If you replaced the drilling with magical practice it almost sounded like a perfect match- though it's to be expected, with the two institutions being sibling schools and all. Her face remained passive for the rest of their time together. Normally this would be a bad thing, and truthfully Cayman might've thought so. In Chie's case it was nevertheless a sign of her growing more comfortable having this dance partner around.

The dance came to an end, they parted on polite terms and Chie gave him a friendly smile to see him off with. Soon as she was out of line of sight, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. The Ars Magi to be couldn't get a read on Cayman at all, both her inexperience with boys and his passive demeanor playing a role in this. It was funny, really- he seemed a little similar to her in that way. One thing he'd mentioned- the part about them working together in future- stuck with her. She wondered if he meant the officer school in general, or him and that other boy.

Chie wasn't quite sure which of those options she preferred.

---

Once back in their shared room, Chie didn't have much more energy than Selma had. Unlike her roommate, though, Chie didn't intend to nor cause her bed to nearly split in two by dropping a metric ton's worth of weight on it at high speed. Instead, she just gently sat down on the edge of hers. The party did drain her; dancing with the officers hadn't stopped at just the one. No, the cosmos saw it fit to punish Chie by pushing her to dance with increasingly eccentric partners the whole night. None beside the girl's first partner stuck out in her mind as his embrace was the only gentle one of the whole night. If she knew it'd end up the way it did, Chie might've asked him to stay with her the whole night rather than ending their rendezvous prematurely.

"Say," the voice of her roommate echoed to snap Chie out of her daze. "Whaddya think the like... funniest thing you could do with your Elementum would be?"

"...Huh?" Chie replied, slightly confused. Selma went on to explain; apparently, she was thinking of how to combine the group's power. The topic of the day: hers and Chie's. All Selma could come up with was to increase the center of gravity on a void to make rocks fall and everybody die, but that didn't sound quite right to Chie. She gently let herself fall onto her back, almost mimicking Selma's gestures.

"I wonder...?" she mused for a bit. Without looking back at Selma, she followed it up with: "I think... it might be limiting to just think of it that way. You tried that already and it didn't go so well last time. I'm not really sure what I can do yet, but... instead of dropping the rock harder, couldn't I just make it like a magnet?"

She realized the suggestion sounded a little esoteric the way she worded it, so Chie clarified: "What I mean is, if you increase the gravity on the rock and not the void, wouldn't it act like a kind of black hole? Sticking everything to it, keeping it all in place. You could make maybe anchor that 'black hole' mid-air if you also reversed the gravity of the floor underneath..." she trailed off. It sounded a bit ludicrous when she put it that way; she wasn't even sure if she had enough control of her powers to that extent.

Chie rolled onto her side, looking at Selma opposite to her. "Maybe that's a bit far... you can open a hole in the ground, right?" she said to switch the topic. "If I increased the gravity before you did that, the void would fall really really fast into it. That might be interesting, no?"

The prospective Ars Magi yawned after that last possibility. She couldn't really hide her sleepiness. Chie said: "Rivka and crystal are creative... we should ask them. Aoife, too."

After that, she dragged herself off the bed. The sounds of the neighbors showering made her really hanker for one, too. She told Selma that "I'm going in first," and promptly scooped up her things for a quick rinse. She wasn't sure how much energy Selma had left in her, but hopefully it wasn't too much when Chie returned- tomorrow was going to be very painful if her roommate kept her up all night... again...

The next several weeks pass uneventfully now that the pageantry has finished. There’s plenty of time in the immediate aftermath of the ball for gossip and swapping stories, and there’s more than one Ars Magi that’s got a later engagement with a partner from the ball. Selma herself receives a gift a few days later: A bouquet of flowers from the confident cadet she’d favored with a dance.

Eventually, however, it comes time to return to schoolwork, magical drills, and the normal routines of Academy life. As each Ars Magi becomes increasingly familiar with their powers their exercises ratchet up in intensity, gradually building each girl toward a confident proficiency in their unique abilities. Occasionally Palmyra’s senior Ars Magi offer personalized instruction, testing individual cadets in mock-battle.

Throughout the month there are also rumors swirling around, mostly based on gossip overheard and stories traded at the ball. There’s talk of the new anti-Void machines, and of the upcoming joint exercise between the academies. The latter is confirmed by Nova Lux’s instructors soon enough, the date set for the end of the month.

The time passes quickly for most, until the day draws near.

---

“This will be your field of operation.”

The screens in the center of the briefing room flicker, cycling through green-tinted images until an aerial view of Palmyra’s abandoned district appears on the central monitor. From above the tall concrete walls cordoning off the district are made visible, towering above the desolate half-structures that fill the empty streets. The Nox diffusers, tall pylons that stretch above the streets, glow a pale blue in the afternoon light. The cadets will recognize at least some portion of the district from their entrance exam, and one of the observation towers is still half-destroyed from the incidents during that exercise.

The officer presenting, instructor Drier, gives her audience a moment to digest the image. The cadets from Nova Lux are arranged in a circle around the central monitor, all seated in neat rows and sorted according to their established teams. In the dim evening light the monitors are clear and glowing, and the five girls have a good vantage from their place near the front row.

“In this exercise you will be clearing and securing several key structures, marked here.” On the monitor buildings begin to light up, their skeletons highlighted in fluorescent yellow. “Accompanying you will be several cadets from the Officer’s Academy, who will act in a supporting role as your operations team.”

She continues on, beginning to point out routes and instructions. Selma, Chie, Crystal, Aoife, and Rivka are designated as Team 5—a military moniker unfortunately not as regal as Crystal’s Team Kheper—and instructed:

“Team 5 will be drawing fire away from teams one and two while they secure their targets. You will be directly engaging the enemy in combat.”

The screens flicker again, the images of ruined buildings and debris-filled streets vanishing to make way for something new: Pictures of machines. Tall, bipedal constructs with boxy looking bodies, rectangular heads, and long flexible legs.

“As Voids would be too difficult—and dangerous—to coordinate, your opposition for this exercise will be automated drones, provided by Juno’s Defense Force. Their magitech armaments have been reduced to less-than lethal capability for this exercise, and you are allowed to use any amount of force within your means against them.”

Discussion and planning continues for another hour, until the cadets are dismissed. The next evening, the mission commences.

---

When time Team 5 arrives at their rendezvous point the evening sky is grey, overcast, and very wet. Sheets of rain wash over the empty streets and run-down shattered buildings, forming deep puddles in the pockmarked streets. As the Ars Magi step out of their transport, they find that their partners from the Officer’s Academy are already arrived and waiting outside a small building, three figures shrouded in cobalt cloaks to protect them from the downpour.

Among them is at least one familiar face; Liam Neptune, Crystal’s dance partner from the ball. The other officers aren’t quite as recognizable, a boy and girl, the former wiry and pale, the latter taller and darker skinned. They introduce themselves as cadets Soma and Green respectively, and there’s enough time for brief greetings as the red LEDs on everyone’s clocks slowly count down the remaining minutes until the exercise commences.

“We’re assigned to support you from our outpost here,” Liam explains, “You’ll be engaging in direct combat with the drones, so we’d only get in the way in a straight-up fight. Instead, we’ll be in your ear and keeping you updated on the flow of battle.” He wipes a few errand raindrops from his brow before turning to his comrades, requesting: “Green, can you tell them what they’ll be going up against?”

“The opposition is unmanned drones. Not very smart, but they come with sensor arrays and communication relays. They’re designed to kill Voids, so they’ll probably be good at picking up anything that uses a lot of magic.”

“Right.” Says Liam. “Your job will be to advance up this avenue and, basically, draw fire. We’ll tell you where to move when the other teams need you to.”

The timers beep once, signaling a minute left until the exercise begins. Another beep at thirty seconds. Again at ten. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

“Team five,” Comes the static-laced voice over the group’s radios. “You’re clear to begin.”

Lights begin to flicker to life in the distant streets, specks of red and blue that are soon followed by cones of fluorescent yellow. Spotlights begin to move across the streets and the faces of buildings, and the heavy sound of metal crunching through debris can be faintly heard in the far distance.

---

"Magitech drones." The mere thought of them probably scared the other students, but Crystal had been given a heads-up at the ball. Honestly, she'd love to see one up close and it seemed that she might just get that chance. The team arrived at their destination in the pouring rain. Well, they certainly couldn't have asked for better weather for their team makeup, aside from Rivka, unfortunately. Crystal recognized Liam, and wondered if he'd recognize her in her transformed state. Probably, seeing as the three of them likely had the chance to read up on the team members they'd be working with.

Good at picking up large usage of magic, huh? That'd be useful for them. Looking away from the three officers and out into the pouring rain, Crystal had to stifle a single giggle at the thought that came unbidden to her mind. It would be so easy to make a large output of magic by simply using Aoife and her own Elementum to freeze the ground. With that thought came the idea of Selma and Chie using their Elementum to turn the street into a skate-park, Rivka sliding along the ice with rockets of fire to send her moving. She envisioned her skating across the street, up ramps and slopes made by her teammates as she jumped through the air, blasting fire at the drones as she flew only to make a ten-point landing on another incline, spinning like a professional as she did. The thought was amusing, but not practical. Or maybe it was; for all she knew the drones could be weak to fire, but in the rain like this it probably wasn't going to matter if they were or not.

As she popped a piece of grape gum into her mouth, Crystal came to the decision not to voice the idea. On the one hand, it'd be distracting to the others. On the other, it might be taken seriously, and that would only lead to either horrible failure or horrible success, and she didn't want to stick out as particularly impressive on her first mission. She was an Ars Magi to serve the people, not to rise through the military ranks, and especially not to give an impression to those in power that she would somehow be better in a strategic role than on the field. Not that turning the streets into an ice-rink would give that impression...

She turned to her teammates. "Do we want to follow the lead of the other teams, or try to advance ahead of them to clear the path?" She knew that the answer should be the former, but knowing her teammates...

The spotlights began searching, and she wondered to herself who would be in the metaphorical spotlight when the mission was over.

---

Water was, under the right circumstances, peaceful and serene. Graceful and artistic. Endlessly kind and endlessly gentle and just as implacable, as merciless as Poseidon's wounded pride if its tides were not respected. But most of all, and most relevant at this moment, water was wet.

Haaa-choo.

In Baeterra water was valued, prized even. And it was respected. Without it the land would have been unlivable, its use as carefully considered and measured as any other critical resource. It had never been, in Rivka's life, something so carefree as she had heard in other cities. It wasn't scarce, so large a city could never be supported if it was, but a downpour so torrential was a rare occurrence and one that any sensible Baeterran was inside for. Not standing outside, pitting little more than a thin layer of hydrophobic garment against God's tears. And it was cold. And she had to use fire in the rain.

That they were 'Team 5' and not something much more graceful, a name like that which Crystal had labored upon for so long with such devotion, would normally be an affront but in the face of this misery she could manage little more than a sullen look on the subject. Her own magical affinity, at least, was enough to keep her warm; much of her team, too, if she stood closely enough. But it wasn't making her much happier.

"I want to scrap these quickly." The musician stated, quiet, subdued, and unhappy. "I want something hot to drink. With caffeine. Or marshmallows."

---

"There you go pouting again, mein reizender komponist~"

As ever the study in contrasts with Rivka, all dark, stormy, and moody (probably the rain and being in it), Selma seemed incapable of containing her vigor from the moment the words "draw fire" had left Liam's lips. The big girl's emerald hair was tossed to and fro in the thick, moist air, the moisture buildup seemingly weightless when faced with the energy carried in actions as simple as rolling her shoulders or bouncing upon the balls of her feet.

"You gotta look at the big picture, babe!" She continued jauntily, suddenly sinking down below even Chie's level as she shifted all her weight onto her right foot, hand propped upon the knee, as her long, long leg opposite bounced into a stretch of the hamstrings for one, two, three moments. "We're the distraction."

The spot of green atop the tawny leather and hide rose and fell as she mirrored the motion on her other side, heedless of how it might seem improper in front of the lads present— her mind was on much more important things.

"That means we get to take center stage— and I've never known you to hate havin' all eyes look your way~" she crooned cheekily, rising and pulling the white scarf free from her neck. Rising again to her full height, her arms blurred— to the view of the officers. Even at speed, however, the other girls' transformed eyes could quite comfortably track the biggest and admittedly slowest of the girls in "Team 5" (so lame.) as she very deliberately wrapped it 'round the Baeterran's simpering chin and neck.

A gauntleted fist slammed deep into the palm of its twin, a dull thud resounding through the floor and even a ways up the outpost building as sternly arcane metal met sternly arcane leather.

The Maiden of Mountains sported a familiar look on her face as her eyes met Crystal's. She was transformed. Alive. One with All the Earth, as All the Earth stood behind her and her peers. The snow carver was right— she did already know the answer.

"An' who does that much better than Kheper? We're old hands at getting trouble sent our way— We'll have to see if they can even keep up to begin with."

---

No matter how many times Chie transforms, she'll never get used to it. Her entire body tingling with the faint trace of magic continually coursing through her vein, the process of surrounding corruption being purified into a more suited form. Instead of the body generating heat from burning the nutrients it absorbs, it's creating an awesome and terrifying substance able to bend the very literal laws of physics around Chie's whims. Yet, for all of the power that it gave her, she couldn't help but freeze just as much as Rivka was. The weather agreed with none of the girls, though the flatwoods monster among them didn't seem to let that dampen her spirits in the slightest.

Chie kept a cool look on her face and said: "The officers said the drones pick up on magic use. It'd take too long to try and find them ourselves."

So, instead, the drones should come to them.

Chie raised up her hand and focused on a point somewhat reasonably far removed from the girls; about as far as she could reach without being cut off by a wall anyway. Nox flowed through Chie's body and she started to channel it, both in the point where she stood as well as where she was aiming to. The point in the distance had the rain starting to fall quicker, strands of water suddenly elongating mid-air and even more violently crashing down onto the street. A bit of a weird sight, really, as if the one location was experiencing some kind of spatial distortion. Above the five girls was Chie's second point of gravity, but instead of having the rain drench them even further, she reversed it and had the forces push the rain aside, creating a circular "barrier" of water around them. Really, though, she just did that second part to temporarily shield the group from the downpour they'd been experiencing.

Chie relaxed for a bit with a small huff, then cocked her head to the side. "This should be enough magic to draw them... so we should get ready to move."

Chie summoned her chakrams, then leaped up and through the curtain of water. She hadn't strayed too far from the pack yet, simply taking cover behind one of the nearby ruins. The plan was to catch at least one drone unaware; provided none of her teammated has other ideas in mind.

---

Aoife listened to her teammates rally themselves around creating a quiet catastrophe, nodding along somewhat absent-mindedly all-the-while. She sunk into a deep lunge, while also pulling her right elbow back behind her neck, sinking into the stretches. She glanced out at the downpour with a hint of a mischievous grin flashing past her attempt to meditate on what was important right now. Centering herself.

It wasn’t until Chie transformed, donning her Parma, that Aoife knew it was time to go. She watched as Chie, with some effort, created a rain dish above them, pooling water around the fivesome in a circular formation, like a fountain. A wall of water descended around them, for a moment blocking out their surroundings. Aoife approached the wall of water, glancing into her impressionistic reflection as elements began to change. She saw her Parma through her reflection, her truest self staring back at her, cool, calm and relentless as the stream of water that image was stranded within. Without a second thought, Aoife stuck her hand through the water, an action that should have interrupted the stream, and sent water splashing in every direction.

Instead, a hand was reaching out of the water in the same space Aoife’s had entered. The deeper Aoife reached in to her reflection, the more the silken arm reached out. Feeling a rush of excitement, of trust in herself and belief in her abilities, Aoife pushed forward still, stepping into the stream. Now golden star-like heels and black tights exited the reflection adorned with the constellation of Aquarius, shimmering in inlaid gold and gems. The ebony bodice finally wrest itself free from the reflection, as stepping out where Aoife had just stepped in to the wall of water, was the Lazy Spring Lazulite. Bearing her half-moon blade and a silken ribbon descending from the pommel.

Aoife’s expression had changed for the confident, as the sound of rushing water filled her senses to the brim, imbuing her stomach with a fullness, a feeling of power, of confidence. She offered her team a sturdy glance, looking at Chie, Selma and the others as they all began to adorn their battle-ready appearances. The dull impact of Selma’s hands meeting one another, echoing against the falling water cushioned Aoife’s heady breaths as she chuckled. “If Rivka wants it all taken care of quickly, I expect we’ll all be performing at our best.” Aoife let her blade fall towards the ground, stopping it by catching the ribbon before it made impact. “But I’m warning you,” she sang in a cheery note, “I’m gonna destroy the most drones.”

She felt her raincoated hair dripping down her back, each droplet of water seemingly extending her senses further and further, now all she had to do was wait.

[ MUSIC: Tension ]

At the point of Chie’s focus long lines of water begin to bend downward, crashing into the street under the force of her magic. It’s not long before the distortion begins to draw attention, just as the officers said it would.

Beams of light begin to illuminate the street, fluorescent cones that sweep across the cracked concrete and broken windows. They herald the arrivals of the drones they are attached to, 12 foot bi-pedal machines whose bodies are made up of heavily armored legs and rectangular ‘heads’ mounted with machine guns, antennae, and spotlights. Blue LEDs flash periodically across their surface, blinking in the darkness.

They appear out of the darkness, one, then another, and a third after. The drones converge on the disturbance on the street, walking warily at its edges. Finding no acceptable targets within their headlights begin to roam once again, over the nearby buildings, searching for the source of the magical disturbance. If not prevented they’ll soon begin to move in Chie’s direction, attempting to locate her and the rest of team Kheper amongst the ruins.

The tiny radio in their ears hisses to life, the officer on the other end instructing:

“Engage at will, team.”

---

"That right? We keeping count, Aoife?"

If a sequoia could purr hungrily, then Team Kheper's tree shook the world as she crouched low beneath tight, focused brows. Within her, churning in the emerald depth of the fusion reactor embedded into her navel, her stores of Nox coalesced and channeled, much akin to her peers, her comrades, her teammates. It pooled into the soles of her feet beneath the leather of the boots and steel of the greaves, in the palms of her hide-covered gloves as they pressed upon the wet soil beneath— heedless of the muck. She had nowhere else she felt more at home— that her connection with the Earth she called her Elementum was written in fate far earlier than the Nox could ever have graced her with.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

In the distance, she felt them. Hulking masses of steel and silicon, artifice and technology that she could never hope to understand how to dismantle correctly— their workings were as alien to her as a void's was. In a sense, that made it so much the better for simulation, for the spirit of this exercise. She was fighting the manifestations of something that took from the Earth, twisted it, and made it into something Other than the grand understanding transforming had given her. Were she truly a tree as her teammates claimed... than these were just as Nox-borne demons.

Constructs that her roots did not touch.

But yet.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

They trod upon them. In a trio of heavy, lumbering gaits, the rhythm of searching, she could feel their strides upon the earth. Imperceptible impacts to the other four, yet clear as the midday sun for her. She followed them closely from their path deep into the city out towards the street where Chie's gravity well lay, noting their canter, weight, and position long before they reached the girls' field of view. Already a natural in the unsubtle aspects of this— shows of force, leveraging her prodigious strength, carrying her power for destructive upheavals— so instead, her instructors almost to a head had spent their time with her in specific hammering home the importance of the finer details.

One such was this seismic sense. It was already prudent to be actively listening through her feet for them, knowing where these points of resonance had originated and locating friend and foe alike, but she had been pushed to go deeper— analyzing weight and density by depth of the impact, composition by the tone of the resonant noise, number and stride by the cadence of the footfalls. The importance of knowing ahead of time what her team would face, so she could be best used to brutalize the specifities of the opponent.

For instance—

"Hoooooooh." she let out a low exhalation, almost a warrior's throaty bellow, as the walkers finally came into view, skirting the edges of the gravity well with clear trepidation that belied their artificial origin. Their onboard systems weren't entirely dumb, then? No matter. They could only work against what they could detect, and only were it not too, too late.

—She'd long known that the drones were bipedal, and that they were heavily armored 'round the legs to compensate for attacks trying to ground them. The designers understood a crucial weakness of the layout— but they could never have anticipated it to face the earth upon which those two crucial legs walked.

Kleinbruder manifested in her right hand, raised high into the air above her as her brilliant eyes, alive as a forest, traced a line through the pavement to the base of the rearmost walker. As she'd been dowsing the incoming drones those same vibrations had gifted her a rough picture of the ground beneath, all of its strong, reinforced earth... and all of its weak, easily broken soil.

She dashed the silvery axe's bearded edge against the earth, and from it, a rush of cracking ground erupted forth along the length of this ad-hoc "fault line". A plume of dust, stone, and soil rocketed free and into the air as the directed impact traveled through like all the seismic footfalls before it, tearing, tearing, ripping up the street—

Until it exploded beneath the armored boot of her quarry, sending it off-kilter and into a nearby building.

There was a chance, she supposed, that it could right itself yet.

"One." she declared in triumph, before rearing back to strike the earth again.

But that was only if she let it.

A meteor from the Academy's finest hit the deck, and in response to that call, a jagged spike of earth erupted forth, tearing through the foundations of the former office building as it stabbed deep into the cuboid central body of the stricken machine, grinding against armor. Juno making fairly quality robotics, there was little telling if it was immediately punctured by stone rising to meet the force of its own careening weight.

Heedless of the result, a green and silver blur rocketed towards the fray them moment she wrenched her axe free.

"Let's get cooking!"

Concrete bursts, cracking and shattering as the ground tears itself asunder at Selma’s command. The fissure cuts a jagged line along the rain-soaked street, the earth below letting out a groan of effort as the green-haired giant’s magic pulses through it. A vicious line that ends underneath the vulnerable foot of one of the hulking machines that Chie’s called to the hunt, the explosion of rock, mud, and asphalt throwing it off balance.

Off balance and right into the spear formed to meet it. In the wake of the attack, it rests impaled against the nearest building, the spike of earth entombed partway inside of the drone’s center mass. Heavy legs twitch and buckle, but they seem to be dying throes rather than anything that might be cause for alarm.

The remaining two drones make themselves less easy targets. The fall of one alerts the other, and then move with surprising agility toward the source of their fellows demise. Heavy legs flex in long strides, the machines propelling themselves over debris and toward the advancing Magi.

There’s a shrill hiss from the first as it lets loose the opening volley, four distinct trails of smoke exploding from one of the rectangular shaped pods attached to its central body. From each contrail leads a bone-white missile, a painted cylinder bearing a magic-charged payload to be delivered in full to one Selma Rosemarie.

The second machine, perhaps surprisingly, doesn’t double-down on the threat to the green giant. Instead it chooses to focus on the other sources of magic that burn in the rainy nighty. Staccato machine-gun fire rips through the darkness, tiny flashes illuminating the ruined street. The rubble that Chie’s sequestered herself behind pops and cracks as bullets perforate her shelter and puffs of dust begin to rise from the detritus. The machine lopes closer still as it fires, threatening to soon overtake her.

---

Selma had— she admitted perhaps reluctantly— a point.

Here she was upon a stage, with an expecting audience and a performance to give. Did she revel in the chance? No. She had been pouting beneath the rain. It was Godless and unpleasant, that went without saying; but she was wrong to simply accept it. More than that she was wrong to wish her own performance over quickly, however much she might prefer the warmth and dry.

Then again, she could make her own.

The devushka's scarf barely qualified for the term so large it was, but it had been draped around her neck for warmth. She gathered the ends and drew them taut about her throat to keep it safe. Much of her team— of Kheper— was already in motion, but they had things easily in hand thus far. One was down for the count, its disgraceful flailing indicative of an artificial mind that knew not when it was beaten. If there was a single quality for which she praised them— since it certainly wasn't aesthetics— it was drive. Single minded, unthinking, unquestioning drive. They would act in pursuit of their directive so long as there was power to their circuits. Such determination would have been laudable in a living being. In a machine, an imitation of human imperfection, it was simply... Sad. A facsimile of true will that it could never begin to understand, let alone truly emulate. It had no choice, no agency in its actions beyond that granted to it by a few lines of code. It strove without knowing for something that not only lay beyond its reach but beyond even the scope of its comprehension.

Enough was enough.

Her Parma appeared about her, garnished in addition by a single white scarf, and in an instant she was as warm and dry as she had been in her own bed. The ground for a few feet around her was dry, the water upon it lifting off in a cloud of steam as the artisan brandished her Gladius.

"Bang."

The four missiles streaking towards Selma had been launched from the same box, and though capable of seeking were locked upon the same target. They were clustered, a fact that increased their capacity of simultaneous destruction as much as their potential for unintended fratricide. If one went up, so too likely would the others. For example, if a brilliant flame detonated in their midst and took the magically charged warheads with it. That would clear Selma for the moment, next up was the importance of helping her pinned comrade.

With a melodic war cry, announcement as much as challenge, she sent a blast straight at the second drone's sensitive looking 'head' seeking to draw its attention.

---

Blinding speed that ill-fit the jagged spear of Earth sent erupting by Selma’s will through the body of the cuboid adversary shocked Aoife. Well, if that motion had been fast, the next was the speed of sound. Selma wrenched her axe free from the ground with more force in one arm than Aoife would be able to muster in both before shooting off like a bullet fired from a gun. "Let's get cooking!"

The simmer of excitement spread up Aoife’s spine as the tingle met her jaw, causing it to clench. A smell of gunpowder filled Aoife’s nostrils before one mech fired an entire silo of four at Selma’s trajectory, but in response perfectly timed was Rivka’s response. The girl’s Parma appeared musically around her, and the source of that gunpowder smell became evident. Aoife’s eyes lit up with excitement as she watched the burst of flame originating from a brief spark in the musician’s resolve as her Gladius took aim.

“Enough standing around then,” Aoife said, lightly rolling her foot and stretching her shoulders. Aoife carefully stepped out into the rain, closing her eyes and letting it wash over her form. She felt each impact against her Parma, felt as each of the petals of water unfurled against her form, absorbing into her. She adopted a runner’s stance, placing both hands against the soaked pavement, and thrusting her back into the air. Aoife titled her chin to get a better look at the mech that Rivka had fired upon in order to distract it. Hopefully, she could beat Selma there, she had talked a bid game after all. She spied a close by light pole, taking note of its distance from herself and the mech. Her chest tightened as her lips parted ever so minutely in order to let a long inhale hiss through the sound of the rain, which paused around her as she did. All of the water on her form spread along her body, lining her heels in coats of compressed water. “Turning up the heat,” Aoife called into her headset.

She burst from the ground, streams of water shooting across the pavilion near them as she was thrown through the air as if by divine action itself. She spun and flipped through the air, one hand tightly wound around Joyeuse, the other trailing through the air, collecting rain water and manipulating it as she did so. A thing razor like wire of compressed stream water flowing in sharpening spirals around itself, bound only by the girl’s will. The momentum had proved to be problematic, however. So Aoife had to improvise. She created a small wave of water ahead of her that she spun into and caught with her feet, surfing along it and towards the mech.

She descended upon it, sending her aqua javelin towards its primary sensors as she circled around it. She swung her blade towards the mech in tandem with the impact of the javelin but her cut was too shallow to connect. Luckily the ribbon connected to Joyeuse’s hilt continued outwards towards the emotionless visage now tracking her. It wrapped itself around a nearby streetlight, pulling Aoife along as she continued to surf around it before leading herself cresting upwards above the machine. Hoping that Rivka’s shot was enough to knock it off balance when combined with her javelin, she gracefully allowed the momentum of her arc to carry her, closing her eyes until she felt her position reached.

When Aoife opened them once more, she was looking straight down at the top of its head. She plummeted downwards, reaching out to her Elementum to sharpen the droplets of rain, increase their velocity. She fell with them, a million translucent blades. “Fall,” she said.

And she, and her homemade barrage, did. She plummeted into steel carapace impacting with a heavy groan as her blade buried itself to the hilt in its body. She stood up, confidently pulling the blade from its sheathe, water and oil spraying in the arc as the blade landed flat on her shoulder. “One a piece,” she offered her rival.

---

Having had the, perhaps misguided, foresight to transform on the way over, Crystal had no impressive metamorphosis to dazzle the Officers with. Instead, she waited and watched as her teammates fought, using their Elementum and Gladius magnificently each. And before she could even examine the coming machines, two were down. One certainly at Selma's hand, another likely at Aoife's, with help from Rivka. She supposed she should probably act, but...

"Is it really only these three? Surely not." Or rather, surely not as they were now. There was always a distinct chance with machines that there were other functions than those visible on it. You wouldn't guess most mechanical purposes without seeing them in action, after all. "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That was the quote, wasn't it? And for those with magic, the Ars Magi, that saying would be much more terrifying than it would to a normal person if true. Knowing the depths of magic only made Crystal more worried about the ease with which her teammates defeated these drones. Sure, she was proud to be on their team, to be standing alongside such wonderful Ars Magi, but perhaps it was best to simply stay in the back for now.

If all five of them used up too much of their reserves, then a secondary threat would decimate them. Chie had run the dinner bell, so it was certainly time to eat, but... She doubted that this was anything more than an appetizer. And while she trusted Selma's ability to grasp the battlefield, there was always another possibility; that the drones took more from their namesake than simply their autonomy. Instead of joining the fight in an offensive manner, perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone? Distract and survey.

Crystal went to the nearest building and looked up at it. It appeared to be high enough to get a good grasp on her surroundings, so she expended a small fraction of her Nox reserves to form platforms of ice alongside the building out of the falling rain. It took only a moment for her to have a path up, which she took quickly, rising to the roof where she stood and looked out upon the mission area. If there was even a single airborne drone, she would alert her team and draw its, or their, attention so that she and her team could begin the process of violently dismantling.

And if not? Well, she could always use some target practice, being mostly suited for close-combat, and there were surely other threats than these three nearest.