Celestial Sonata

"♪ O your smile is tainted and your face is cold. You have no place in a world where all must grow old... ♪"

I hummed as I dashed through the halls, taking care to avoid the bullets and the blasts of magic that were hurled my way. It had taken a bit to fight through the guards on the lower levels, but the going was much easier now that I'd smashed through one of the elevators and flown up a number of floors.

A small grin tugged at the corner of my mouth.

I couldn't claim to be THE fastest Magical Girl in the world. There were probably ten or fifteen faster, but I was close enough that it didn't matter.

The air around me shimmered as I raised an arm to deflect an incoming barrage of ice shards, sending them careening off into the walls, ceiling, and floor. I ducked low and sidestepped as a man in a black suit fired off a burst from his submachine gun.

I spun and kicked the gun from his hand, following up with a roundhouse to the side of his head that sent him crashing into a heap. A few tricks I'd picked up using lumina dampened the blow enough that it didn't do more than give him a serious migraine, and I continued on.

This wasn't a game. It was serious business. My actions had serious consequences.

But I still enjoyed a bit of fun now and then on the job. I still tried to be as efficient about it as possible, but it's not like I could just teleport to wherever I wanted.

I ducked and rolled out of the way as a woman in a black trench coat rounded a corner lunged at me, her sword glowing with a faint green aura.

Another of the six Magitech Soldiers, huh? I mused.

Most professional Magitech Soldiers were comparable in combat ability to D-Rank to B-Rank Magical Girls, and the best of the best were some of the most dangerous people on Terra.

She was fast. Very fast.

But she was still slower than I was.

"Whoopsies! Sorry, miss. I don't think I'm on your dance card tonight," I said as she swung her blade at me.

I twirled away, my skirt and frills fluttering in a pretty, hypnotizing pink, white, and blue spiral as she tried to follow me.

She wasn't bad at all. She had excellent control of her sword and the mana blade was sharp and precise.

However, compared to avoiding Princess Uriko's blades for training back in Zhou Ling City, she might as well have been moving through molasses.

I didn't know how much she could even pierce my dense aura, but I made it a point to never find out if I could help it.

Magitech was a drag to handle at the best of times. Especially when you didn't know what you were dealing with.

I spun around, flipping upside down and kicking off of a nearby wall as I danced away from her. She followed, snarling in frustration.

She was fast and skilled. I could tell that much by the way that she moved.

But she was also clearly an absolute amateur compared to Uriko.

"♪ The sun has risen on a city that's gray. Where has the light gone that shone so bright, they say? ♪"

"Stop running, damnit! Stand still and fight!" the woman growled as she chased me down a hallway.

"Oh, I think I'm perfectly happy running around like a headless chicken," I teased. "You'll just have to catch me if you want me to stand still."

I heard her snarl, and I smiled to myself.

I flipped and twisted from another leaping horizontal swing, kicking off of walls and sliding across the floor.

I dodged to the side as she chopped down and lashed out with a quick jab to her side, and I watched her stumble.

She quickly recovered, swinging her glowing blade in an overhead arc, nicking me in the side. My skirt fluttered and I winced. She hadn't hit me meaningfully but a cut was a cut. And I'd confirmed she could penetrate my skin.

I flipped back to put some distance between us.

"Hmph! You're fast alright," I admitted.

I was distracted.

Had been really, since my brush with death.

I thought of the green-clad Magical Girl. The tragedy of the Jo Loon Incident. The loss of her found family. Her personal sacrifices.

The world had been denied a Magical Girl even more talented than I was supposed to be. She had been one of my key mentors, although she was only three years older than me at the time.

I'd wanted to save her, and her brothers if possible. I wanted to be a light in the dark and help them through the pain and suffering that had been forced on them. But that was just one of many failures that week.

I sidestepped and raised my fist, infusing it with golden lumina. I timed her footwork, stepping on the inside inside and throwing a sharp uppercut into my opponent's stomach.

Her movements were sharp and precise, but ultimately too rigid. Too inflexible and predictable.

...

I was tired. I wanted a break.

"Oof," she grunted as she doubled over, and I caught her by the throat with my other firmly on the wrist of her sword hand.

"Listen, lady," I hissed, my tone suddenly serious. "You have two options here: either you drop the weapon, or I'll have to get nasty. And trust me, you don't want that. So do us both a favor, and surrender. Or else this won't be fun for either of us."

The woman growled at me, and the blade in her hands pulsed with green light. I shook my head, disappointed as she broke my grip with a burst of green mana and jumped back, re-sheathing it and dropping into a low stance.

I simply snapped my finger, using Symphonie Estelle to dispel the mana she was gathering before she could firmly find her footing.

I quickly stepped in, lunging with a stabbing front kick to her belly. She grunted and stumbled back, her blade clattering uselessly against the tile. She glared daggers at me as I bounced on my toes.

"You should know better than to try to hurt people, especially little kids like me, shouldn't you?"

The woman had scarlet red hair and her uniform was torn in a few places, showing off the toned olive-skinned physique underneath.

Her honey-gold eyes were wide, her face covered in a sheen of sweat. Her chest heaved as she gasped for breath. Her lips parted as if to speak, but all that came out was a ragged wheeze. Good. The body work had done its job.

She tried to raise her hands to cast a spell, but she was too slow.

"Goodnight!!" I said, whispering into her ear as I flashed behind her between blinks.

Then, I flicked her on the temple with my glowing finger.

Her eyes rolled up as the spike of lumina I'd loaded sparked against her skull, and she fell limply to the floor, the light in them going dark.

"...And sweet dreams."

I frowned, turning around to examine my handiwork on this floor.

That was three of six Magitech Soldiers, a good two dozen mooks give or take, and a whole bunch of security drones. Even if I outclassed the three Magitech Soldiers who'd gone after me, it still took me time to find an opening to subdue them without killing them. That wasn't even mentioning the amount of trouble the regular security personnel brought to the table.

The longer I spent in a fight, the greater the chance of collateral damage, and I really, really didn't like collateral damage.

I'd learned that the hard way.

I shook my head. It was better not to think about that. Focus on the job.

I put my hands on my hips and turned around, surveying the damage. There was clearly a spatial distortion spell on this building — it was significantly larger on the inside.

I didn't see anything particularly unusual on the lower floors, just a whole bunch of regular offices. A lot of work went into this building for certain.

I waved my hands, summoning golden ribbons to constrain the unconscious security forces.

I sighed. Why did all of these places always have to be crawling with mooks? You'd think that a high-tech secret base wouldn't have a need for this much hired muscle.

"Something stinks here," I said with a sigh as I kicked a locked double-door off its hinges.

The doors slammed into a nearby wall with a loud bang, shaking the floor. I stepped into another brightly-lit hallway. It looked... boringly ordinary. Nothing to see here. Just more offices and hallways.

I stepped through the hall, the polished tiles echoing under my boots.

I continued walking, the light of my golden aura, the only thing breaking up the monotony.

"Hmm... now, let's see what you're hiding, shall we?"

I snapped my fingers and my world shrank.

Time almost seemed to freeze place, the air around me shimmering with a faint golden glow as I tapped my foot on the ground to create a pulse of sound, my ears pricking up at the slight variations of pitch and intensity that echoed back.

There!

I smirked, looking up at the ceiling a few paces ahead as my world snapped back into focus.

I took a deep breath, focusing my energy and raising my arm. A beam of golden light shot from my outstretched hand, tearing through the ceiling with ease. I'd felt a few faint mana signatures coming from the upper floors. More than a few. I leaped into the air, easily clearing the hole that had opened up and landed lightly on the floor above.

I heard a group of men nearby shouting as they raised their guns and prepared to fire at me.

I rolled my eyes and closed the gap in a fraction of a second, moving like a streak of light.

My fists lashed out at the men before they'd even finished raising their weapons. One man immediately went tumbling across the floor from a sharp sidekick to his solar plexus. Then, I threw out a combination of punches in a quick flurry, crumpling a man with body blows.

The third stumbled backwards, off balance from the aftershock of my entry, and I tripped him up to the floor with a quick foot sweep. The last one standing tried to fire at me with his rifle, and I threw up a barrier to deflect the bullets.

The bullets pinged harmlessly off my aura shield as I closed in with another lumina-infused right hook, knocking the man unconscious as his rifle skittered away from him.

I stepped over the bodies and looked around.

All told it was less than two seconds between the time the first of them had seen me and the time I had knocked them all to the ground. I sighed, summoning yet another set of bindings for them as I continued onward.

There were more mages here than I'd initially guessed, and a few of them were packing quite the arsenal.

As for where I came out at...

It was different from the rest of the building, looking less like an office building and more like an actual military facility, with thick concrete walls and steel doors. I was in some kind of fitness room. The sort you'd expect a barracks or a boarding school to have. It was pretty spartan and functional. No frills here.

But the energy was all wrong here.

It felt... cold. Lifeless. Empty.

A shiver ran down my spine.

This felt like a prison. Like a place where you went to work, but never came home.

I frowned as my magically enhanced ears picked up distance noises once again.

I could hear the distant sound of gunshots and shouting. A lot of shouting downstairs. I'd assumed the security forces were just after me or potentially Raiko at first, but there were multiple sources of explosions and gunfire downstairs.

I had a strong feeling I wasn't the only intruder in this facility. But whoever it was that was fighting their way through here, they were moving at a snail's pace.

I took a step towards the nearest door, which opened with an ominous hiss. It slid open into a hallway, and I instantly spotted a woman in a lab coat hiding behind an overturned table.

"W-Who are you?! What do you want?!" she yelled.

She held what looked like a letter opener in both hands, her entire body shaking.

I raised an eyebrow as I stepped closer - and I frowned, looking at the improvised weapon in her hand. She didn't look like a combatant.

"Hey," I called out in my softest voice. "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. Are you okay?"

I raised my hands to show that they were empty. My voice was soft and gentle, my eyes kind. My aura pulsed gently around me, enveloping me in a soft golden light that lit up the room. The woman's trembling settled, and her body language changed.

She slowly rose up, still holding the knife tightly, but no longer pointing it at me.

"I..." she began to speak.

"There's the intruder!!!" someone shouted from down the hall.

The woman in the labcoat screamed and dove down. I quickly projected my aura outwards, forming a barrier that just barely covered her ahead.

I heard a burst of gunfire, and bullets ricocheted off the walls. A couple of bullets pinged harmlessly against my dense aura. I quickly zoomed down the hall towards them, closing the distance and using my momentum to throw out a flurry of kicks, knocking down several men.

One of the men was sent tumbling head over heels before he slammed into the wall. He didn't get up again after that. One managed to roll away and draw a gun. I moved quickly, grabbing his hand with the butt of his pistol before slamming him into the ground hard and spiking everyone near me with a burst of non-lethal Lumina.

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Taking a second to catch my breath, I summoned another set of bindings, tying up their arms and legs in a blink of an eye.

I quickly ran back to the woman. "Hey! Hey! It's alright! I've got you now, okay?"

The woman in the labcoat whimpered. She had a cut on her forehead, probably from being knocked down. There were tears streaming down her cheeks, and her hands shook like leaves.

I reached out to touch her shoulder. She jerked back, screaming and scrambling backwards until her back was pressed against the wall. She stared at me wide-eyed, slowly standing back up, the letter opener gripped tightly in her hands, pointed straight at me. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, her chest heaving.

I smiled gently. "Hey. Hey. It's okay. It's okay. It's just me. I won't hurt you, okay? I promise. You can trust me. You can put that thing down, alright?"

She was a couple of inches taller than me, probably in her mid to late twenties, with light brown skin and long pink braids that fell past her waist.

Her shock and terror was quickly replaced by relief as she took in my attire. Then, she looked at the fallen soldiers behind me. She swallowed heavily and took a step closer to me, lowering the weapon.

"Are you... are you here to get us out?" the woman asked, her voice quavering a bit.

"I- Excuse me?" I asked, stunned.

"Please... please! Help us please!" the woman said in a panic, rushing towards me.

Her hands were still trembling as she reached out and grasped the sleeve of my Magical Girl costume.

I raised my hand in a placating gesture. "Please calm down miss. What's going on?"

She looked up at me with tearful eyes and gulped. She had a pair of large, black goggles pushed back onto her forehead.

"T-This is... I don't know. It's where we're being kept," she said. "There's a small army keeping us here, and... and they're not letting anyone leave!"

"Who's keeping you here? What's your name?"

"I'm Dr. Amelia Livingstone, Assistant Director of the Mana Research in the Brahms Academy of Magic and Sciences up in Massachusetts Territory. I've been forced to work for this... this... Evergreen Foundation," she said, shuddering at the name. "And I'm not the only one. Far from it. As far as I can figure, they've been gathering experts in both magical research and spatial mechanics from across Terra and Earth and keeping us all hostage in here. There are... there are others like me in this building."

"Okay. Let's take a moment to breathe and calm down, yeah?"

I took her hands, holding her steady, and looked into her eyes. "You're safe now. I'm going to make sure that nothing happens to you or your colleagues, alright?"

The woman nodded and wiped the tears from her face with the sleeve of her coat.

"Now, what do you mean by keeping you all here?"

The scientist sighed.

"A little more than a month ago, I was kidnapped. They put some sort of... some sort of drug in me and then dragged me out of the Institute in Boston and put me on a plane. When I came to my senses, I was here. And the rest of us were in a similar situation. Some of them have been here for well over a year. But some are like me, brought in within the past few weeks."

"I see," I nodded. "So you were... kidnapped and forced to work against your will. I think I get the picture."

I bit the inside of my cheek.

How could they get away with this in the middle of a residential district? This wasn't exactly the sort of thing you could easily hide, even with magic. And this was a big operation too.

I had to get to the bottom of this.

"Do you know what this Evergreen Foundation wants?" I asked. "Or what their endgame is?"

The woman shook her head. "Our work is pretty sequestered. The guards were under strict orders to not talk to us except to keep us in line. We've had a couple of people disappear when they got too... talkative. They've got some of the most impressive magitech I've ever seen. The guns the guards have? State of the art. The security system? The drones? It's... I can't believe an operation like this would need that kind of technology. All I can gather is that we're working on a project involving emotional resonance of some kind, but the orders came down to me second-hand."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "They had us doing some research and experiments. But the final results of those experiments were only selectively sent back to us. Our supervisors... we never saw their faces."

"I... okay," I muttered.

This wasn't something I'd expected to stumble into here at all. The deeper I got into this the more complicated it became.

"So you're a captive researcher? There's other researchers in the facility?"

The woman nodded, her pink braids bouncing. "Yes. I don't know the exact numbers. But I'd say there's a couple dozen of us being forced to do research. It's like a prison up here. We're fed well and have amenities, but we're cut off from the world outside and monitored 24/7. We're never let outside of the facility."

She looked around, biting her lip. "I don't even know where we are, just that there's mana being drawn to a transceiver at the center of this place. I think have a few layered wards to prevent us escaping if anyone tries to make a run for it, but nobody has tried with security so thick."

"Is anyone else in danger right now?" I asked.

"No. "Umm... I think you took everyone by surprise. I heard a commotion here and... well, I didn't expect to see Celestial freaking Sonata of all people popping out of a hole in the ground. And I certainly didn't think you'd come to help."

She sniffled. "Thank you, Miss Sonata. It... it's a relief to see you here."

"Well, I'm glad to see you too, Amelia," I smiled, patting her shoulder. "I promise you, I'm going to do what I can to help."

My smile tightened into a grimace as she hugged me, bursting into tears. I couldn't afford to let her see that though.

"Please," she said between sobs. "Please save us. Get us out of here! I have two younger daughters waiting back in Massachusetts. I can't... I can't leave them without a mother!"

My heart sank.

This was all wrong. I wanted to believe that I could get her out of here.

But the truth is I was more lost than ever.

I was hoping that I'd find something easy. Some simple sketchy operation in this district. Maybe a simple illegal environmental mana siphon, or maybe even a few low-level traffickers or something. Something simple that I could shut down without any fuss.

Instead, I'd found a lab full of captive scientists and some sort of bizarre, top-secret facility packed to the brim with goons heavy duty state-of-the-art hardware.

And whoever else was fighting in here?

They were moving at a snail's pace compared to me, but the more I heard the fighting - distorted and muffled as it was a dozen floors down, the less I felt like they were the good guys.

There were too many unknowns and it was... overwhelming.

But no matter how many times I had to smile to get someone else to calm down and feel safe, I would do it.

I wouldn't fail them. Never again. Never, ever again.

"Hey," I whispered softly. "Don't worry, okay? You'll be out of here in no time."

The woman sobbed into my shoulder and nodded, pulling away. She sniffed and wiped away the tears with her sleeve before taking a deep breath and composing herself.

"What do you know about the layout of this place?" I asked. "If I can figure out where your friends are being kept, we can start getting you guys out of here and somewhere safe."

"Um. Well... I've been kept in this area since I've arrived," the woman said, pointing back at a hallway. "There's dorms and a mess hall and... and the labs. Most everyone is being kept up on the upper levels of this place, I think. It's where we're being watched and controlled."

"How many are being held captive here?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around this. It was just so much.

"About forty or fifty or so of us. We're... um. We're the ones with clearance for the floors where we're being kept."

"Is the elevator access controlled or something?" I asked, frowning.

"It requires biometrics to get to the lower floors. We've got a bunch of guards posted at each of the access points too, plus the wards and the drones."

I frowned, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "So you're being kept here by a bunch of armed guards, biometrics, and security wards? And you can't even go downstairs to leave without permission."

The woman nodded. "Pretty much. And I've never even been let onto the lower levels."

I clenched my jaw.

This was bad. Really bad.

"Okay. Let me think about this for a second..."

If the elevator needed biometrics to access the lower levels, that probably meant there weren't any stairs.

I could probably fly forty people out over time if I cleaned out the place, but there was still the unknown variable of the other groups battling the security forces. I couldn't be complacent and caught flat-footed, especially not while I was escorting people out.

And that was just assuming that the security forces were just human and some autonomous drones.

If there was anything like those Magitech Soldiers down below, things could get really messy, really quick. I was under the assumption the Magitech Soldiers were expensive hired guns, and wouldn't sacrifice their life force to try and stop me. But if I was wrong about that, I could find myself dealing with multiple threats comparable to A-Rank to S-Rank Magical Girls at once. Even I wouldn't come out unscathed if they were willing to overload their Promethean Nodes.

"Can you take me to the other hostages?"

She nodded. "Uh, yeah. The guards just started their shift changes. They don't usually expect any trouble during this hour. We've been wondering what's going on... a lot of them left to fight you, I think."

I smiled, and then gave the woman a gentle push. "Then show me to the others. Quick. If the guards come back, we're gonna have a real problem on our hands."

"R-right," the woman said. She nodded and led the way down the hall, the lights flickering around us.

I shook my head and took a deep breath.

I could do this. Just one problem at a time.

The place was creepy, with its sterile white walls and tiled floor. It practically came out of a Hollywood sci-fi movie.

The woman led me past several large doors to the laboratories.

"I've never even been in these ones," she said. "We've all got specific areas of expertise, but they've sequestered us away from each other. We're not allowed to talk about our work to one another, not outside of what we need to know for the job. They're... listening right now. Watching us."

"Listening?" I frowned.

"I don't know exactly, but I'm sure of it. With both magic and technology. There's something about the security system that lets them watch everything that goes on. It's how they're able to keep tabs on so many people."

"I'll have to find a way to deal with that," I muttered, biting my lip as I mulled over that bit of information. That would be a priority. I couldn't leave these people in danger.

If whoever was running this heard everything we said, the next logical step would be to take the scientists hostage or just outright kill them if the security forces decided to play dirty. No matter how much raw power I had, I didn't trust myself to be fast enough to stop everyone from dying.

"Is there any way we can disable it? Do you have any idea who is in charge here?"

"I don't know who is in charge. LIke I said... We never see their faces, and the security is all kept under tight control."

"So, we don't even know what we're dealing with? And we don't know what they're even doing here."

I looked at the scientist and sighed, my shoulders slumped.

This was way, way more complicated than what I'd bargained for.

I raised my wrist, tapping on the communication crystal that linked to my Nexus Device. It flickered with golden light as it activated in response to my mana signature, connecting it to the local heavy hitters' private chat.

I figured it would be a good idea to put out a voice message SOS with the A-Ranks and up in the city.

"Hello. This is Sonata, I'm on-site at a research and development center in Greenhaven owned by some kind of Evergreen Foundation. There's some sort of secret facility here, and... I need backu—"

"Hello?" a familiar girlish voice suddenly cut me off. "This is Raiko again."

Raiko. That girl from earlier.

What was going on?

I paused for a moment, my heart skipping a beat as a sense of dread washed over me. Was she on site with 'Sparky' or whats-his-face?

"Celestial Sonata? Can you hear me?"

I spoke into my communicator again.

"Yes, I can hear you, Raiko. Where are you right now?"

"Guiding Sparky. We're here in person and dug up some files. I'm just keeping him alive."

My stomach lurched, my face twisting into a frown. Why couldn't this just be a simple case of some bad guys that were easy to deal with?

I felt the blood drain from my face.

Sparky. Fifth Floor.

"Raiko, you guys need to get out of there! There are multiple unknown intruders on site, and it's turned into a total war zone. I don't want you to get caught up in the crossfire, and I'm fumbling in the dark and trying to figure out what the hell is going on up here."

"We've got a bit of intel on that. It's a lab for the Evergreen Foundation, but they've also been running experiments with... well, it looks like some sort of human experimentation. They've been draining the emotional energy from the residents in the district. Sucking their very hopes and dreams right out of their souls."

My blood ran cold.

"What did you just say?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly.

"Draining emotional energy," Amelia suddenly spoke up. "The whole place is basically just one giant emotion siphon. I don't know exactly what we're using it for, but I was tasked with using small amounts on rats and rabbits to affect their behavior."

She took a breath. "...Some of the other researchers. They... I've heard rumors that they're doing the same to humans, and the experiments have not gone smoothly."

The woman looked down at the floor, tears welling up in her eyes as she bit her lip, shaking her head.

I looked at her, feeling sick to my stomach.

"So they're using the people living in Greenhaven as guinea pigs?"

She nodded again, her eyes watering as she looked up at me, guilt and shame written all over her features. "I had to... to survive, you know?"

"Raiko, do you know who's running the place?" I demanded coldly.

There was a long pause. The only thing I heard was a loud bang and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground hard.

Then the voice on the other end came back.

"The people running this place? Well, we do know, actually. They're a front. The Evergreen Foundation is a shell company. But if you go far enough up the chain, it's owned by Zamir & Petrov."

"Zamir... Zamir and Petrov...?"

The world seemed to slow to a crawl, everything moving at a glacial pace.

I couldn't breathe.

That... that was a hell of a bombshell.

Co-founded thirty two years ago by Aleksei Zamir and Mikhail Petrov.

Aleksei Zamir was a rising star of an entrepreneur, a man with big ideas and a brilliant mind. His best friend Misha had money, connections, and was a business savvy man.

It was a legendary story. Aleks Zamir had been the Head of Engineering, responsible for collaborating with Sisyphus to improve their Negentropy Reactor designs.

Misha Petrov was a genius financial analyst, and had been the one who brought the capital to the table, using his network of wealthy connections and his brilliant mind to build a global corporation.

Aleksei Zamir was a man with big ideas, big ambitions, and a heart of gold. He was the man that wanted to change the world and bring the impossible to reality.

Mikhail Petrov was his childhood best friend. They'd been practically inseparable since childhood.

He was the brains to Misha's muscle and the heart to Misha's charisma. The Russian and the American.

A pair of childhood friends that had wanted to revolutionize the world and did.

I'd heard the stories.

I knew all of the fairy tales and the fables and apocryphal stories.

Because it was all a sham.

Aleksei Zamir was screwed out of his ownership and intellectual rights to his work, and was pushed from his own company in favor of a woman who'd seduced his partner. Misha had gone on to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful people on Terra, and Aleksei's stake had been diluted to nothing.

He'd been betrayed by the one person he'd trusted. And if the rumors were true, assassinated by the same woman's father in order to silence him.

And Mikhail Petrov?

He'd died at the ripe old age of forty-eight in his penthouse in New Teotihuacan from a heart attack.

His son had taken up his mantle as CEO. His son.

"Sonata?" Raiko asked. "Sonata, are you still here with me?"

"Um... Yeah, I'm here," I replied, trying to steady myself.

"Where are you right now?"

"I just penetrated the research facility above the offices. There are some... disturbing things happening here. A whole bunch of captive scientists are up here. They were abducted and forced to do their work. They've got state of the art weaponry and defenses here and it's been a real pain."

Another long pause.

"Well, that definitely changes our plans then. On that subject, we've got some... really bad news," she repeated.

I bit my lip. "What kind of really bad news?"

"Don't freak out. But... we managed to take down one of the intruders and interrogate her for a bit a few minutes ago. It's the same group that hit the Mana Exchange about two weeks ago."

"The same group?"

"Yeah. And they're carrying something bad. Something that can deal with all the scientists and their data."

A pit formed in my stomach.

"What do you mean?"

I took a deep breath to steady myself.

"We have reason to believe that the intruders have brought a bomb to destroy this building. They're carrying it right now."

My eyes went wide and I felt a jolt of terror course through my veins.

"A... a what?"

"A bomb. Probably multiple, actually. They're gonna level the building."

"Raiko," I hissed, struggling to contain myself. I couldn't let the poor scientist lady see me freak out.

She looked at me worriedly. She nodded and took a few steps back, looking at the communicator in my hands with apprehension.

"Are you sure?" I asked gently.

"Yes," the girl said on the other line. "They're terrorists or mercenaries as far as we can gather. We can deal with one right now, maybe. But multiple bombs going off in the facility is probably a really bad thing."

"How many are there?!"

"I... don't know. They probably brought several. They could be planted throughout the building. In which case..."

I turned to look over at Amelia, the captive scientist.

Her face was pale and her hands were trembling again.

She was afraid.

She was probably terrified.

"Hey," I whispered. "It's going to be alright, okay? Remember who's here with you."

I put my hand on my chest, winking at her and putting on my best Magical Girl smile.

I turned back towards my communicator and took a deep breath. "Just hold tight," I said to both the scientist and Raiko. "I — Celestial Sonata, the angel of Love and Justice. The Songstress of Hope — will figure it out, and everyone is going to get home safe and sound, got it?"

Amelia took a step closer and gave me an uncertain nod, and Raiko hummed a sound of affirmation.

"Good," I said, my voice soft and reassuring. "Because I won't let anything happen to any of the people in here."

Even if it killed me.

Even if my world was crumbling around me and everything was coming crashing down around my ears.

The world was cruel and dark.

It always has been and it probably always will be. People are cruel and heartless, selfish and uncaring. The fact that this was a Zamir & Petrov was a touch of irony.

But that wasn't going to change what I would do here and now.

"Raiko," I said into my communicator, taking another deep breath. "You were able to unlock the security on the lower floors and stall their forces in the elevators. I take it you aren't able to access the systems up here?"

"Yeah. I can't access anything up there. The entire upper part of the facility has security protocols that are way more complex than what I can access. I can't hack it remotely. We need to find some way to physically access it from the upper floors. That means that there's nothing Sparky or I can do to help you out there. It's all up to you."

I bit my lip.

Nothing she could do to help me. Great. Well, at least I had her on the line. I could work with that.

"I need to find the hostages and rescue them before I can go looking for the bombs," I said. "If you guys find anything out, tell me."

"Right."

I huffed, returning to my device and sending out my message.

The truth is, I was scared too.

I wanted nothing more than to go back home and curl up in my bed.

Between a crazy conspiracy involving a global megacorporation that my parents had intimate history with, a terrorist group that somehow sicced a Marquis-class chaos beast on my fellow Magical Girls, a small army of goons, and several dozen terrified hostages who were in the line of fire. It felt like an almost impossible situation.

And that wasn't even taking into account the number of 'surprises' that could be waiting for me up here.

"Miss Sonata..." Amelia began tentatively.

I turned to her, putting on my most reassuring smile and patting her shoulder again.

I was tired. I was stressed and I was scared.

I was also fifteen and in way over my head.

"Come on. Just who do you think I am?" I winked. "The Songstress of Hope will save you all! No matter what!"

That was my role.

I would save everyone, no matter the odds.

"Now. Let's go save the world, Amelia. One step at a time!"

She gave me a small smile, her face softening ever so slightly.

I grinned, flaring my aura once more and walked down the hallway with my head held high and a confident stride.

Even though I was feeling anything but confident right now.

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