Chapter Theme Music: C.L.U. ~ Draft Punk [Tron]
<05/14/1974 – 23:59 | Pharacorp HQ, Polarium>
The fighting continued somewhat in the northern wall that was breached by the rebel forces, evident from the continued chain of fiery explosions and gunfire, but for all who were on this side of the outdoor facility of Pharacorp, the fear in the atmosphere could have stopped all time itself.
Klouse tensed and took a few steps back from the monstrosity before him, dropping his jaw halfway to observe the overpowering evil which he could never possibly defeat. A super weapon of this size and magnitude was never before observed by anybody in Polarium. From where Klouse was standing, even Jane's team was caught off guard by this cylindrical wall of turrets and rocket launchers.
Jane and the others could sense the imminent danger to them, as the bearings steering the turrets and guns started to take aim on them from a distance difficult to tell, but even amidst this much nerve-wracking fear, the fight must go on. "Figure out where it's power core is!" Jane had little time to say anything else, for the airspace became bombarded with the noise of machine gun fire. Jane, Danny, and Taylor all reacted first sensing the danger, bringing up three Farshield walls separate from each other, partially overlapping to protect everybody from the deflecting bullets against their energy walls.
Danny knew already what Jane expected him to do, but it wasn't going to be possible just yet. The Trace he was using earlier has already worn off, and he would need to initiate another one. That would be fine, if it were not for the dozens of guns shooting at them right now! "And where do I get the time to do that?"
Chapter Theme Shift: Darkness of the Storm ~ Eden (Short Ver.)
"I'm on it!" Alyssa reacted for everybody else, since her hands were free standing behind the shield walls generated for her. Being the only person capable of sending an attack over to that intimidating structure, Alyssa started to charge energy into her hands, leaving the others uncertain which attack she would try. After generating the glyphring and controlling the mechanism to allow her to steer the attack, Alyssa chanted the name, giving life to a powerful spell she learned on her own. "Mega Bolt!"
Alyssa released the energy, shooting a large projectile sphere of light-elemental magical energy into the air, and controlling the trajectory with additional telekinetic energy from the safety of her friends' shield. She didn't need to be warned why her decision was futile. As soon as the bolt of light impacted one of the active cannons, the energy simply faded, absorbed into the material just like that. No integrity damage was inflicted on that tower, and it left Alyssa feeling helpless unlike before.
"Focus on defense!" Jane's shouted command was directed to Alyssa, while she felt her concentration straining with the failing point of her shield. The tower lowered its rate of machine gun fire, but increased its rate of cannon and laser weapon dispersion rate. Jane knew her shield would fail first, but Alyssa and Danny were both in this to help each other.
Just as Jane's shield failed, Danny denied an unfavorable outcome, shutting off his own Farshield wall, and generating a new one with his left hand to be right in front of Taylor. This left Jane less protected, but the tower's lasers were suddenly favoring Taylor instead of anybody else. His timing was perfect, since Taylor lost control of her own shield as well, straining to keep it going for too long. It's very difficult to attack like this while everybody is trying not to die.
Alyssa had her new Farshield wall up too, protecting Jane while her side brushed up to Danny. The two of them exchanged a promising glance of planning and action without words, first giving Taylor and Jane the time they would need to recharge themselves. However, it was only seconds later when the booming blasts of fired rockets shot out from the launchers of the tower, now turning several of these missiles on the team.
With Jane protected, she could charge enough energy to turn this around, finally seizing an opportunity to use the tower's own weapons against itself. The metal material may be magic resistant, but not physically resistant. With the 70 missiles now about to impact the four of them, Jane unleashed her magic, draining more of her energy and straining more of her body. "Inversion!" Jane held out both of her glowing hands, instantly controlling and stopping the movement of all 70 missiles at once, knowing she could control a lot more from prior experience. With the use of her spell, Jane sent all 70 of these missiles back to the tower, while steering about three of them over towards Scarwood's position.
Scarwood panicked and jumped back, trying to avoid the shrapnel that Jane surprised him with. His partial armor protected him well, but the explosions still caught him off guard too much for him to counter the move or try anything sneaky. As for the tower however, the explosions barely set a dent in the structure. Only a few metal frames were bent and broken out of place, exposing more of the core mesh from within the tower, but not its energy source.
She wasn't happy to see the tower still functioning at nearly full power, after such an epic Inversion attack. The hopelessness could have eaten Jane alive, but she had the sense to generate a new Farshield wall for herself so that Danny and Alyssa could get a break.
"Now!" On Danny's cue, Alyssa acted first while Danny stood very close to Taylor, who was protecting herself with a shield. Danny had to drop the one he was using after Jane regenerated her own, and he used what little time and focus he had to initiate a new Trace instance. The core has to be somewhere in that tower, and Alyssa can buy him all the time he needs to find it.
"Shadow Copy!" Uncertain whether the A.I. would be fooled by false projections of herself, Alyssa took the risk anyway by making twenty copies of her body appear all around the tower, drawing fire away from her friends and onto her projections. The false copies were being destroyed and shot away swiftly, since the tower has guns on every angle and can simultaneously target many people at once. However, Alyssa knew she had enough time to use the storm in the sky to her advantage, calling on a rare skill boosted by something nobody can easily control. "Have a taste of Thunder!"
Alyssa unleashed her next attack spell, causing a powerful surge of lightning to shoot down from the storm clouds high above the atmosphere of war, and surging its electrical voltage throughout the tower. One of the benefits of a Thunder spell is that the invocation speed and damage level are increased greatly if a thunderstorm is naturally present. Furthermore, Alyssa went to assume the tower would be vulnerable in one way or another from a direct top attack, or to the electrical damage inflicted to the metal structure.
However, she warped herself back to the safety of Jane's Farshield wall just as she was about to be destroyed. The electrical damage to the tower didn't do a single point of damage to the thing. Alyssa was so certain the voltage would at least affect the power core in some way.
"I found the core," Danny exclaimed. Even Flare Tower runs the same Nrixus magic technology, from a central core deeply protected inside the center of the tower's armor. "It's protected by its own shield, so we can't damage it normally. We need a plan!"
"We have a plan!" Jane already thought of several possible ideas while protecting herself with this Farshield wall, and there is now only one plan that would make any positive difference. It's a one-time shot, but if it fails, everybody dies anyway. "Danny? Get everyone ready. We're initiating Skill S8-1." By the time she finished explaining that, Jane used some magic to her daggers to cut a splice line into the ground underneath her, causing one of the sliding panels to come loose, so that she could telekinetically lift it and position it as a barrier in front of her. This gave Jane and everyone else the ability to take their time and charge whatever energy they needed, provided another missile attack was not about to launch.
All this time, Klouse could only stand further back from them and watch nervously while his heart pounded. It was clear to him that they were desperate, but Klouse considered himself so powerless in the moment. The tower was not targeting him, but that's likely because he wasn't in range nor was he making himself a notable threat to the hostile structure. With the way things are looking now, the four of them don't stand a chance, and neither does he.
With their backs all against the metal floor panel used as a barrier wall holding it up, Danny and the others braced themselves for what needed to be done. "Protocol S8-1. Everybody link hands." Danny and his partners each held each other's hands, connecting their magical auras together while continuing to charge energy. The physical contact also gave the others full spectrum of Danny's Trace as the ability honed in on the exact location of the core in the tower, the target of this special shared skill.
Protocol S8-1 isn't just some random team ability thought of on the drop of a hat. The four of them drilled this difficult tactic into their own training during all that time in the LMA. It's a set of decisions, skills, and abilities all designed to be executed perfectly with full synchronization of timing, spell choice, and decisions. It isn't easy to pull off, but in this case, it's the only skill that can remove this tower from existence, and it will work. Scarwood might have done research into Nrixus magic, but he has done no research into Leray magic or how Leray battles work. There is a reason why Leray wielders are so tough. They learn and adapt to very new and unique situations that don't happen naturally in the heat of combat.
While combining their auras together, Jane knew what would come next. They would have to be fast about this, as they only have one single shot, but with total and complete trust and faith in one another, she didn't have to hesitate any longer. The certainty that she would be okay with the people she loves by her side was more than enough to face this fear head on. So, Scarwood? Prepare to watch everything you built burn to hell. "It's time! S8-1 starts now! Zero Zone!" As soon as Jane released her energy, the entire world around her grew much darker and colorless, as the slowing of time removed all noise from the guns and cannons coming from the tower. Even the tall metal panel they were holding up became light as a feather, since gravity was not affecting the object anymore, only those in the Zero Zone aura.
With everybody linking together during invocation, Danny, Taylor, and Alyssa were also brought into the time-phasing aura along with Jane, as is part of the plan. Now protected by the stopping of time, the team moved out from the cover of the panel, and faced the tower directly. Jane brought out her daggers and held them up beside herself, waiting on Danny and Taylor for what was drilled into the four of them.
"Light Infusion!" Danny and Taylor said it at the same time, releasing special energy into each of Jane's blades, and coating the metal with a bright illuminating essence of light-elemental infusion. The act of doing this will boost Jane's dagger striking potential by a factor of five.
Alyssa had to wait a little longer to use her skill, as to not accidentally boost the wrong spell at the wrong time. Once Jane was ready, it was time to give her the help she needed. "Molecular Boost!"
"Dark Strike!"
"Explosion!" The action phase started taking off at once. Danny began a new attack that wasn't part of S8-1, only because his role was already finished. His lone spell would not be enough, but Jane was going to assist too with her new skill. Danny wanted to ensure his remaining MP went to good use, by generating the Explosion spell from within the hidden metal frames of the tower. The armor can't protect an attack from inside the structure.
As for Jane, her Dark Strike aura got a significant boost in power from Alyssa's Molecular Boost, giving her much better control of her movements, and allowing her to phase through some of the tower's exterior at will when passing it by. With the speed of a laser of light, Jane zoomed right through the tower's core location, and dug her glowing blades of steel through the outer frame of the core itself. Jane noticed a light from the Explosion spell about to go off too, but its attack would be delayed until Zero Zone ends, keeping her safe from the friendly fire. With another shift in direction without losing speed, Jane took another slash through the material, this time trying to split the outer frame of the tower apart completely.
In the meantime, Taylor activated her own attack spell of Kill Zone, but she targeted the area beneath the floorboards of the tower, intending on wiping out any more hidden wires and possible backup power feeds from below the tower. Her spell was invisible, but highly effective in her intentions.
With one final spark of determination, Jane went through the tower once more, piercing her glowing daggers right into the internal core of the tower until the glass container shattered a bit, while phasing right back out. Danny also gave it all he had, screaming his heart out to improve the effectiveness of his own Explosion spell until it achieves maximum effect. Such attacks would have normally been blocked by the automatic shield, but as Jane taught them all earlier, power shields can't work in a Zero Zone.
So once the aura finally came to an end, with Danny, Jane, Taylor, and Alyssa all standing together striking an awesome waiting pose, the weapon fire from the tower suddenly stopped on its own, while the remaining mechanism began failing to respond to the hidden loss of power.
Since both Scarwood and Klouse were not involved in that Zero Zone aura, they had no idea what had just happened. From Klouse's point of view, Jane's entire team suddenly relocated from the barrier they created to the middle of open space, without any visible magic or teleportation. Then, something far more incredible happened before his very eyes. An invisible gash going diagonal throughout the center of the tower separated, causing the entire structure to begin sliding apart, while the rest of the mechanisms were shorting and shutting down from the voltage impairment. This left the glowing blue core of the tower fully visible, and even the core was somehow damaged too severely to function properly, its glowing settling down as the tower began to split apart in three ways, while the core itself began to explode in an internal chain reaction that nobody else expected. After a few more seconds, the small explosions turned into a massive one right from the core, blowing apart metal, glass, components, and welds in all directions. Just like that, the team destroyed Flare Tower, causing it to collapse and become effectively useless.
Klouse could understand why Scarwood's jaw was to the floor in surprise, since he believed his fortress weapon to be invulnerable. Klouse felt the same way for different reasons. What exactly was it that Jane did just now? He didn't see the four of them execute a single attack. They just stood there looking at the tower, and it all fell apart! There's no way something like that could just happen. What exactly went on that he couldn't see? Who on earth are these magic wielders?
It took a moment for anybody on Jane's team to celebrate, since they were sinking to the ground in exhaustion mostly. Running out of MP was not the only current issue at the moment. Jane, Danny, Taylor, and Alyssa's magical circuits were all totally stressed to the breaking point now. Using MP orbs isn't going to help with that. By now, Scarwood has to be finished. He just pulled out his final ace, and it was destroyed in a single instance. Amidst the heavy breathing, Jane taunted the madman once more. "Nice work everyone! Scarwood? You're under arrest by authority of the Leray Mitigation Agency, for illegal experimentation, crimes against humanity, and cold blooded murder of the Polarians. Cease your hostilities at once!"
Scarwood growled in frustration, running out of options. He could use Leray magic spells too, but not after whatever that girl did to his aura. It was still corrupted, causing his hands to spark up from intrusive rejection. His weapons won't work if Danny can dodge them, and Jane is still apparently the strongest member of the team even without her symbol. Even so, they're all wiped out now. It's easy to see how spent they are. It's risky, but this fight isn't over just yet! "The fight isn't over until it's all finished!" With one final push of a button on his electronic wrist guard, Scarwood was sending out another signal, one nobody around him would expect to see.
After a few seconds of delay, an open area several hundred meters in the sky lit up of strange transparent distortions, causing several hexagons of energy to form an odd shape in the middle of the area elevated so high. Once the hexagons faded, the floating object in the air which was previous invisible became fully opaque. This was no mere object; it's the R1-XT1 Airship, the same airship with electronic cloaking technology. Scarwood led everyone to believe that optical cloaking was still in development, but here now was evidence to the contrary. It's fully functional now, and this giant airship hidden in plain sight now dominates the sky, facing Jane's team with all weapons locked-on.
It was now that Jane realized the four of them were totally screwed! There is nothing more they can call out to fight against something so powerful, and Scarwood is not taking any more prisoners of surrender. Standing there now smug and happy once more, Scarwood laughed a little while his enemies realized the errors of an early celebration. "I always plan for every outcome. You may have destroyed my fleet of airships, but you missed one. You fought valiantly Jane, but your time to die is here and now! Open fire!"
Cringing with her eyes shut along with the others since they didn't even have the energy to Power Shield anymore, Jane didn't want to know what would happen to her next. It's too scary now that every last option she had was finally spent. Sorry everyone. I tried.
Ear-deafening explosions lit up the sky, making the four of them twitch in terror, but as they didn't feel any pain, they opened their eyes once more, seeing multiple sudden explosions on top of the R1-XT1 Airship, they traced the missile smoke trail over to another R1-VT6 Airship. Before Scarwood's pride and joy could follow through with his commands, some unexpected Airship coming in from the west airspace blasted the other with a barrage of armor-piercing missiles.
In the confusion, the R1-XT1 Airship trailed smoke on three of its AG-Cores, as it began spinning wildly out of control soon to crash into the ground with a strong explosion of energy. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, spotlights from above mounted to the new airship flooded Scarwood's exact position, while the vessel itself began a landing descent onto the field.
Jane was most confused by this sudden development. She assumed that she destroyed all of the other airships, with exception to the cloaked variant. So where did this one come from?
"Attention all Pharacorp and Terracom personnel! Cease combat actions at once! You are all under arrest by executive authority of the LMA! If you do not comply, you will be shot!" The projection speaker of the airship was addressing Commander Scarwood above anyone else, while Taylor and Danny were slapping each other hands up high in a celebration Jane nor Alyssa were informed on.
Chapter Theme Shift: Prelude ~ FFXIII OST
A lot started to happen at once, as several armed soldiers in Sphere Gauge Armor descended from above on jetpacks and energy rifles of a different design than what Terracom had in store. Against all odds, Scarwood finally made his personal decision to hold his hands up in surrender. The fighting from the invasion area ceased as well, as Polarians were making arrests on the surviving Terracom troops at the same time.
"LMA troops? Where did they come from?" Jane turned to face Danny and Taylor, noticing that only Alyssa and Klouse were kept in the dark about this little secret. It was strange to see that these two somehow called for reinforcements with the radio jammers still in effect. They wouldn't have made it all the way to Polarium within a single hour either.
Danny held Taylor's hand, smiling in what felt like a long deserved victory, and he didn't mind explaining what was going on while the airship landed in the center of the HQ, bringing out people to arrest all the top brass of the enemy. "It's the reason we took so long to find you after escaping in the jeep. Taylor and I made a little detour before coming to look for you. We managed to contact Danton and let him know what was going on, last night of all nights. We calculated his arrival to be just after midnight today."
"But how? The jammers would have prevented you from—"
Danny held out his hand, cutting Jane off so that he could finish. "Those jammers only work within the zone of the continent. We drove a bit west outside of Polarium in order to place the call." Danny glanced over at the airship touching down, proud of his efforts finally coming to fruition. "I happen to like the package we ordered." Danny kept this a secret all this time, mainly to prevent Scarwood from catching on. If Jane didn't believe reinforcements were coming, neither would Scarwood. It drained the jeep of gas and left them with just enough to reach Jane and drive back to the HQ one more time, a reckless but necessary plan. Finally, he has arrived.
Hearing a familiar voice shouting at Scarwood, Jane turned around, taking note of the man wearing an incredible royal outfit that was modified for special armor and defensive capabilities, all while holding that familiar special staff. Brash Danton in the flesh, made his way out of the airship which Pharacorp generously lent him earlier, and took Scarwood into custody under special protective measures. Naturally, Jane sprinted towards Danton, to thank him for saving their lives in the nick of time, giving the two of them a most welcoming reunion.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing..." Klouse felt so powerless in that last battle, having never seen the true potential of Jane's own allies, but it was more amazing to see additional allies from Sprawn Valley pouring out of one of Scarwood's own airships. Watching his life-long enemy be put into handcuffs and haled into the small bridge of the modified hull of the vehicle, Klouse finally allowed himself to smile and relax after so long. They did it! They finally won and defeated that monster. Still, Jane was about to be killed by another one of Scarwood's tricks, and she had no counter for it this time. The situation was way too close for comfort.
Returning a warm relaxed glare back to Klouse, Danny offered his hand to him once more, to formally introduce himself. "Believe it. Everybody here and on that airship are all great friends. We all do this for our love of magic, and you were of great help too, keeping Jane alive through all of this." Danny didn't understand why, but Klouse looked guilty right after he said that. "My name is Danny Mason, Leray Wielder of Sprawn Valley. And yours?" Danny already know Klouse's name and role, but introducing themselves again in this new light just felt like the right thing to do. A new, fresh start is what everybody here deserves.
"I'm Klouse, Klouse Yevon, native Polarian, and apprentice of Harvstone. I have to say, I've never seen anything like your skills before."
"You two catch up then." Taylor turned away, happy for Danny's spirit, but more interested in catching up with Danton to find out all that really happened on his way over here, and to find out what will come next. The future of Polarium is still undecided. Scarwood may be in custody; there is no telling what will happen to the natives here who wanted to defend their own land. Everything is all a matter of the LMA now, a fenced organization that Danton controls. So how do things end from here?
