And so the attacks to the raging metal hornet are delivered. Lilac’s last minute save of Nessie to turn her fumble around into a successful strike. The combined powers of the gathered girls work in conjunction to create a powerful arrow like projectile that pierces directly into the black heart of the created machine. The hornet beast hadn’t had the time to even make a successful retaliatory strike before crumbling into pieces bit by bit. Bolts and screws would litter the floor as the machine crumpled apart and disintegrated into a heap. A giant drill rested above the scrap metal as the last reminder of its previous state. Lilac’s
“Very well done! Well done! Bravo!” Valeria would clap her metal hands together, which sounded like metal pipes clanging against one another.
“A little sloppy here and there but you grasped the concept immediately and nicely! Even some creativity with Lilac there. Vehr gut!”
Then Valeria’s expression changed into a serious scowl. “But did you not notice some of the members of your team are without ranged attacks? You may have harmed them with your spells as they were coming into battle. And your positioning was hmm…questionable. You ought to organize yourselves with melee focused casters in ze front and the ranged in the back to provide support. Coordination between you and your teammates is key. Those ranged arrow attacks from Suzuya could’ve easily hit Lilac and Tensi. Not to put you on the spot or anything..ohoho~”
She’d come to the pile of rubble with her arms raised out from her sides. Small glowing vortex discs of magic would begin to pull the remains of the hornet piece by piece. Gears, screws, bolts, and bits of metal all began to float around in a line circling around the center of the pile. Valeria waved her arms in a rhythmic fashion, composing a silent song to herself as she repaired the former hornet into a nice long Volkswagen limo, complete with the insignia pin hanging up from the hood.
Valeria hopped on the hood and kicked her legs up.
“I suggest to you all to find yourself a team leader. Someone you trust to coordinate yourselves and make attacks that make the most out of each of your abilities. You all show great promise, but you need organization.”
“So that is why you are being placed into teams of two! And you will have to come up with a team name, and an attack from both of you that utilizes both of your skills properly! You will have to chose the leader of the team, and who you will be partnered with yourselves. I will judge it and see how well you performed. Then you will be given one more examination to see if you are truly combat capable, fighting against myself!” She'd place her hand over her chest and brandish a very big smile, excited by the prospect of waging war on her own students. Truly the only reasons he ever took up this job offer in the first place.
She’d honk the car horn, blasting it loudly to signify a class bell.
“Class dismissed! Auf Wiedersehen! Oh and ja if you have any questions you can speak me with me any time!”
Riku awakes, clutching tightly to Akiko and barely cognoscente of what was going on. She held on tightly to her back like a monkey. Memories of Sheol hung in her mind, but they are quickly cast away by the wild reality that was around her.
"Oh my god, Akiko! There's Nephy! And Runa! They're together!? How'd they come together like that!?"
Everyone had arrived to a junkyard instead of a traditional classroom. Scrap metal, old cars, airplane parts. The various machines that kept London going had to go somewhere when they ceased to function, and this their graveyard. Giant floodlights hung over the corners to give sports stadium lighting across the entire area for best visibility during the night. Valeria would take in that lovely air of oil and rust, breathing it in like a fine perfume.
"This is where the real magic happens!" She'd throw out her arm and introduce the majestic heap of trash and scrap. With a quick jump she's landed on top of a heap, using it as a podium to better speak to the gathered students below.
"So from what I've read of you all. You have an assortment of dazzling powers, some of the most impressive I've seen in generations! You should know, all the power in you won't matter unless you can work as a team."
As Valeria is speaking, her arms are moving akin to a composer to create a composition of junk into forms and bodies. They'd take the shape of a large metal Pageless. The scrap formed together into armored plate, brandishing a heart of metal gears churning inside and powering the great beast to life. A giant drill hung below it, attached by tubing to complete the design. A mechanical battle hornet, complete with bear like claws on its fists.
"And that is the goal of this exercise. Zusammenarbeit! Or...what's the word for it in english...Interplay! Playing together!"
Valeria had a little machine hover over to her shoulder carrying an english dictionary. She'd quickly scan over it.
"Bah. Stupid language anyways." She'd shoo the machine away.
"This machine is unique, understand? It requires an attack together from you all as a team! You must cooperate and use your powers in conjunction with one another. I've calibrated its armor to each of your Grimoires will coordinate to the seal inside of its chest. It's all a lot of complicated pseudo science and magic techno babble blah blah...hit the big glowie thing in the center all at once? Ja? Ja. You are all smart little kinder."
The walls of the scrapyard come to a close, creating a protective barrier so the magical girls can use their full power without risk of causing collateral damage to the city or academy. Valeria would reposition herself on top of the iron gate, where she could best observe from behind the students and also make sure no one isn't sneaking off from the challenge ahead of them.
"Oh and by the way! I might be shooting some explosive rounds every now and then to really spice things up! I wouldn't worry much about it. Now...onward! Attacke! Do not be afraid! I will not let it go too far!"
She'd fire off a around from her hand cannon which sent a flare into the sky, exploding into a dazzling array of sparks. At this, the machine would let out a loud mechanical yell and pump into high gear. It'd move fast and immediately charge for the gathered group of girls with it's drill revved up at full spin. It'd drag across the ground, belching dirt up into the air as it aimed to tear apart every girl involved.
Off to the side, a robotic voice was reading off the rights and legal immunities the Grand Ministry had for whatever may happen to its students and were not legally responsible for loss of life and limb.
Valeria always forgot her own strength, only remembering not to crush someone when Ozma brought it up and setting the girl down. Eagerly she'd turn her attention to the approaching girls and draw them into a organized line with her extended robotic arms putting every magical girl before her like soldiers before their commander.
"I just thought the little kinder could handle more but...ah well! Anyways, from my observations here as the OFFICIAL substitute teacher your student body is completely hopeless in the event of a Pageless attack! So, I got brought on board, can ya believe it? They must be getting desperate."
The guncaster would notice she's getting a crowd, and would need a proper introduction as Ozma's companions filed in.
"Hallo, hallo. I'm Valeria Weizenbaum. I'm the substitute teacher for your magical self defense class. The last one was exploded, do not ask."
Her metal arms would transform rapidly into large gun turrets, aimed at the onlookers. They'd fire out fireworks instead of explosives, thankfully for the crowd.
"And I must say. You're all lacking in ruthless action and strategic planning! Inakzeptabel! It's time for a German to show you how to fight!"
She'd march forward and inspect every gathered girl, eyeing them down from head to toe and taking note of their equipment and gear. She'd take particular attention to Nessie. She'd stare her over before returning to Ozma and whispered in her ear.
"Ja, mark this one off she will not make it."
"Ahem! We've got to get you in shape as Pageless attacks continue. That is why you're all being subjected to my training course! I will teach you the best of self defense, Prussian style discipline, and independence of thought. Auftragstaktik!"
Valeria would march up and down the row of gathered girls. She'd clear her throat and glance over at Ozma.
As Ozma walked the halls of Marrywell Academy, something exciting was unfolding.
With the sound of thunder, a large explosion bursts up from the right wing of the school. An entire classroom went up into smoke as students poured out through the halls in fear and panic, thinking they were under attack. A fire alarm would ring and sprinklers would spray cold water across the halls. All of this certainly got the attention of Ozma and any other students who had arrived at the academy.
The culprit would step out from the smoke and dust, coughing and blowing the smoke from her face with a wave of her hand. Her metal arms would crackle with electrifying power to summon a large vaccum nozzle, sucking up the dark clouds and removing them from view. Any flames nearby are promptly put out with a water nozzle hose, summoned just as fast on her transforming arms.
"Ozma! You're late! You missed my defense training class, dumkopf! It was a real banger!"
The perpetrator would rush up to the redhead and suddenly tackle her in a gripping hug, squeezing her waist and covering the poor magical girl in soot and ash. It's none other than Valeria Weisenbaum, Charlotte's old partner from her past.
"Bit of a minor miscalculation there with a student's spell, but nothing to fear! I've got it under control!"
Behind her, the roof of the blasted out classroom finally collapsed in onto itself and was reduced to a heap of rubble and metal with gray smoke bellowing up from its destruction.
Distracted by the scene of Thomas and Akiko gave enough time for the whale to make her mark. She was thrown up into the side of a cavern wall, slamming into rock and letting out a grunt of pain. She'd quickly fall to the floor and draw her sword in a defensive stance, getting her space away.
"Hesitation!? You don't know what you interfere with! I've saved us all, and you're too stupid to see."
The wolf would hiss. In a blink of shadow her sword has transformed into a long spear that closed the gap between them in a moment. WIth it's metal prong it'd aim for Kanbaru's chest and have her seized up like a spit roast.
"All I need is time, and mauling you is just for my own personal pleasure!"
The thrust of Nephy's spear merited a growl of irritation, one preceeding the slaming of Kanbaru's sword down into the ground betwixt them. The tip of the spear would meet the flat of the blade imposed as though a tombstone foretelling the wolf's fate, and the moment it's momentum bled off into the ringing of clashing steel Kanbaru struck again. Her sword faded into motes of light, opening the way for her to grasp the shaft of the spear and pull it forward, reeling in Nephy as her fist reared back for a punishing overhead smash into the unforgiving stone.
"You could have been under the night's sky if you just shot the Princess before she calmed Katie down. You. Would. Have. Been. FREE!"
Kanbaru's strength was mighty, better than Nephy. The wolf is yanked forward like a fish on the line into the incoming punch. Nephy's advantage is just how multipurpose her weapon is. In an instant it's transformed into it's katana form and is slashing violently across the whale's chest before she can give her long winded smash. Nephy is as quick as the wind, dancing around Kanbaru with constant swipes and slashes that are careful and precise as they are damaging.
When she draws back to recover her stamina, she licks the whale blood off her lips.
"Do you think that would've been enough? Do you have any idea of the powers contained here already? Katie jumped ahead, and would've wasted herself against that barrier. It'll take all of us together, and even then the most of us that we can bare. It's better if we cut the dead weight."
She'd draw Nekuromata, and point it towards Kanbaru.
"Is this the best you have? There has to be more under all that whale blubber of yours. Where's your true power? I want to seize it!"
The shapeshifting spear proved pesky, Kanbaru dashing backwards to create space between herself and the keen edges of Nephy's reprisal with an arm curled around her bleeding chest. It was an instinctual response to a blow that would have disemboweled a lesser being, but the JSTR's rationale asserted itself and she focused on the injury itself. Just as she was empowering her muscles with her control of her bodily fluid, she forced the wound closed with the very blood that sought to escape. Removing her hand revealed a bright crimson track through the slash in her garments as her sword returned to her hand.
"I promised you your freedom, and because you could not trust me even a little you've made a liar of me. Twice you've just spat in my face, all because you can't even grasp the power inside Katie or her place in the natural order of things." Her hand disappeared under her cloak and an instant later the shattering of glass heralded the assimilation of a Serei card. Henry the Demon of Avarice could do nothing to change her appearance when so tightly wound with her parasite in union, but her Portals and Treasury fell to her command.
Together Kanbaru and Nephy were surrounded in a dome of shimmering openings in the air and the whale wasted no time and leaping forward as the portals directly behind Nephy spat a thunder wreathed hammer directly behind her head. But Kanbaru held no illusion the undead could not dodge such an attack, already anticipating it to flow past her so she could snatch it by the handle and smash it in a cross chop alongside her own heavy sword.
"You inserted yourself as the hero of this world. No one else did that." Nephy snarled, prepared to attack again before Kanbaru revealed a trick up her sleeve. The serei summoning the demon of avarice and encasing the area around them in a series of portals and openings. This stalled Nephy, and as Kanbaru predicted she'd seen the first swing coming but not the second.
A yelp sounds off from her as she's slashed across the wrist. She'd sooner lose a hand than lose that blade, taking the blow directly and staggering backwards as black blood trailed down her right hand.
"I'll show you what power I have been containing. I'll bring out the beast inside you, even if I have to tear that ugly parasite from your heart itself."
As she spoke, her voice began to become more bestial. Her ears lengthening in size and her wild white mane growing out down her back and beginning to touch the floor. The beast within her was coming out of its flesh vessel, claws growing longer and irises filling out the whites of her eyes. In a few seconds she's on all fours and stabbing Nekuromata inside of herself as she often did. The black blade combining with her as she exploded into a violent transformation into a great and terrible white wolf.
With a loud feral howl, the beast charged forward with tooth and claw instead of slashing swords. She'd aim right for Kanbaru's head and charge forward with the strength only a blood frenzy animal could carry, intent on chomping her head off.
In an ugly guttural voice that could barely be understood, Nephy spoke.
"Bear witness to me!"
Courtesy kept both parasite and host rooted to the ground, not lifting a finger to stop a textbook transformation being carried out before them. With one of them formerly being a Magical Girl, it was taboo to interrupt those sorts of dramatics, and the JSTR simply enjoyed the novelty of Nephy further debasing herself for the sake of her struggles.
"Silly puppy. I am the hero this world needs, and I'm still going to save your hides, but not before I beat it raw." Though the spike in physical power was impressive, and Kanbaru held little doubt Nephy could have pulled her body apart in spite of her blood control working to keep her intact, it seemed the undead pooch had forgotten were exactly she was standing. There wasn't even a gesture to herald the slab of solid metal shooting down to impose itself between them. A great structure like the gates of an unassailable fortress fell before her, followed by a second and third to hem the wolf inside a triangle.
Kanbaru appeared atop the walls and stared down as the stone cracked and parted, ice water surging up in a geyser of arctic chill to pull the strength from bone and meat alike as she waited with sword raised to keep a lid on her dog trap. "I'll thaw you out on the surface and maybe you'll see the beast when I work you through your trust issues."
The wolf would not allow herself to become caged. Her speed and power would help her here to jump in between the gaps between that metal to keep her sights onto her prey. With great speed possible only by the four legs of a wolf, she'd dodge those incoming slabs. Of course in this mad dash, she couldn't very well stop herself as Kanbaru's ice and sword came to great her. That chilly wind ruffling even the great white wolf fur that the black marked wolf stayed her muscles. She'd slam her legs down and claw into the earth to steady herself, letting out a great and terrible roar.
"Coward!" She'd snarl, black ichor leaking from her canine teeth.
She'd rear her chest up, a dark and beating mark on her chest from which her soul rested. Tearing into herself she'd fling out black ichor that would land on top of Kanbaru, slowing her movement and gluing one of her legs to whatever remained of the ground. Another terrible roar that forced the winds to still, and a quick whip of her tail to send the whale flying.
"Tricks will not stop me! Nothing will! Pray to your gods or parasite! I will kill you here and now!"
Kanbaru judged that Nephy's speed was beyond her expectations but her intellect hadn't risen to match, the wolf throwing herself into the obvious trap and being smashed down for her troubles. The same single minded stubbornness that had her fighting like a beast was keeping her from being winded for long, the whale soon grunting as the ichor of a literally blacked soul sought to hold her down.
And she let it. Bracing herself in place she turned the fractured ground to smooth ice beneath her and rooted herself there as the tail came around. And then...it passed right through her. The parasite Nephy so loathed pulled the whale out of phase with the reality around her, then snapped her back so she could drive the tip of her sword through the wolf's calf. With a twist and a heave she'd then raise it high, dragging her foe in an upwards arc before driving her into an icy hell with a roar of exertion that saw Kanbaru red in the face to match the depths of her Jester touched eyes.
Kanbaru escaped just as claws that would've rendered her to shreds make their move. She is in and out of time, diving off and then raising Nephy upwards. There the wolf began to realize the full extent of Kanbaru's power. It is intimidating as much as it was amazing to see.
But Nekuromata has a life of its own. The wolf would drive down with gnarled claws to slash and cut with magic paws to crush into that vortex, attempting to cut through the whale's body and attack the parasite directly. Even as she began to freeze the beating heart of her long dead family kept her warm and impassioned, and a hard bite came to Kanbaru's neck that would clamp down and crush it. The two are sent upward together, Nephy snarling and clawing all the way as she refuses to go quietly.
Just as Nephy had a living weapon, so too did Kanbaru have several. Hands emerged from her body, holding back the jaws that sought to clamp upon her neck. The JSTR smiled broadly, shark teeth bared scant inches from the snapping beast as she held the maw wide open. A torrent of water plunged inside and bloated Nephy's beastly form with ice, the creeping cold expanding within and without as the ice crystalized blood and shredded her insides.
A keyblade fell into the Whale's free hand and she swung hard, taking the lashing hind legs at the knees and smashing them aside with no small amount of force to render the flailing a moot point. Both whale and parasite glowered at the increasingly frozen wolf as the Golden Portals winked out of existence.
"We are the hero, and you are the one we are dragging to a happy ending."
The great white wolf collapsed in the walls of ice coming crashing upon her, filling out her throat and the fur coat outside with shards of poking and painful ice. The wolf would fall onto her side and gasp for air as those teeth chomped and tore the frozen crystals apart. Overwhelmed by Kanbaru's power, the wolf form began to crumble away into ash, disintergrating up into the air. Nephy could maintain it no longer, her human self revealed to be on one knee as the beast around her faded. She'd clutch her katana tightly, shuddering under the freezing cold. Her wolf form fading had cleaned herself of the worst of the ice, but it still hung in the air.
"What a bunch of freaks I've run into..." She'd remark to herself, unable to continue fighitng.
As long as she has the material and energy to supply said building, she can work pretty fast. As for larger buildings like the Empire State building, she'll probably still need a few weeks to get it properly constructed. The speed wouldn't be much of an issue, just the intense resources like bricks and mortar and energy and fuel demand to power such a construction. The bigger the building, the more demand which would slow her down.
Description: A feisty and wild girl from Bavaria who has been an occasional ally of the Grand Ministry in recent years. She is fiercely independent and prefers to keep her own path, driving the world in her mystical van to collect trinkets, talismans, and most importantly to her, metal junk to smith guns and prosthetics. She proudly immerses herself in punk culture from her homeland and never plays well with authorities. Her and Ozma go way back, and she was one of the first magical girls to work with her. She offers her services to the Grand Ministry these days as a vendor and sometimes helping hand.
History: She was born with hypochrondroplasia or small limbed dwarfism in the 1940s during the Hitler years. At this time it was German Nazi party policy to euthanize the genetically inferior. Her family attempted to plead with the government for her life while she lay in the hospital. During her stay, she’d discover the fable story that’d become her grimoire and restore her limbs with silver metal. Fleeing Germany afterward filled her with a sense of independence, and a demand to travel the world around her instead of the culture that rejected her. With her new magical girl powers, she constantly edits and adds onto her limbs for herself and has found her trade in her producing, buying, finding, and selling just about any needed item in the magical world.
Grimoire: Das Mädchen ohne Hände (The Girl Without Hands)
Classification: Fable
Description: An old german story over a miller’s daughter who must give up her hands due to her father making a deal with the devil. She finds and falls in love with a King and is given new hands made of silver.
Grimoire’s Power: Incredible powers of creation with her prosthetic hands, able to mend and mold metal in seconds to create devices ranging from guns and artillery to cars and buildings. She is able to heat them up to smelt iron and adjust them into various tools to make herself into a living and breathing foundry. In a pinch, she can turn them into hand cannons and explode her enemies with shrapnel and cannon. She can also create shields, swords and just about anything she can physically imagine and bring to life with her silver hands.
She is a huge fan of Einstürzende Neubauten, Kraftwerk, and Can.
Snowdrops
TheWendil
Damycles
BrokenPromise
Dreaming One
Noctis
