It's a boring Wednesday afternoon, math class. Exciting as my life outside of school is, my work with the Knights has sort of fallen into a casual routine of movie nights on Saturdays, dinners with them every once in a while and patrols throughout the week, most of which I'm doing with Asha, but I've also been on duty with Ayame a couple of times, which let us bond just a little bit between the moments when she snapped at me for poor technique. I haven't been on patrol with Ida or Faye yet, since both of them prefer to go with one of the other Knights for various reasons, but I've had one with Eden, during which I was having a little bit of trouble concentrating, but we managed without any big troubles. My next one is Friday night with Asha again. The both of us have been exempted from Sunday patrols so it never conflicts with our friend dates with Jeanette.
Speaking of Jeanette, though, she's been a little distant lately and refuses to tell us what's wrong when we ask, she just says it'll be fine and we don't have to worry. I still do, though. Next Sunday, I don't plan to let her go home without definitively answering the question. The teacher, Ms. Sophia, asks a question, indicating the small equation she's written on the blackboard involving multiple X'es and operations. Math has never been my strongest subject and this one is just as confusing as always, and it probably would have been even if my mind hadn't been occupied by the whole Jeanette situation. She isn't even in class today. Luckily for me, or maybe through a subconscious use of my powers - it's a little difficult to tell these days, Ms. Sophia seems to look right past me to Asha behind me. My friend has always been a lot better at this subject than me, and she answers it after less than a couple seconds' thought. "Correct, Ms. Kennedy," she says with a smile and asks Asha to come to the blackboard to explain how she arrived at the answer.
Right as Asha is about to get to her feet, however, she freezes, and a second later I learn why, when I hear a voice in my head. "Don't panic, Destiny, it's just me, Ida. I'm contacting you and the Knights because our aid is needed to minimize a disaster. Make whatever excuse you need to, transform and follow Incarna. She's received a location." I hesitate for a brief moment, unsure exactly how to get out of class at such short notice. Asha, of course, is right on the ball about this and gives Ms. Sophia a certain look.
"Uh, actually. Can I be excused? I need to go to the bathroom," she says, and the teacher seems to catch on to exactly what sort of situation Asha insinuates. I think I know what it is, too, but that's not exactly something my body does.
"I'll see if she needs any help," I offer as Asha disappears from the classroom and hurry out of my seat before Ms. Sophia can object, following right on the heels of my friend. "Hey! Where are we going?" I ask, skipping a few steps as I catch up to her and striding alongside her.
"To the roof first of all. We don't have time to find a more secluded place to transform." Thankfully, the halls are deserted since everyone is in class, so no one hears us, and we can run down the hallway and take one of the emergency stairways that goes all the way up in one go.
"BY MY KNIGHTLY VOW!"
"BLESSED BY THE DESIGNS OF DESTINY!"
We transform simultaneously and lift off. I hover a little, waiting for Asha to show the way, and when she does, she goes a lot faster than I thought she would and have to push myself to keep up with her, having never flown this fast before. We're definitely in danger of breaching the sound barrier if we go any faster at all, heading away from the city center and out towards the ocean.
We fly for almost ten minutes, pushing our speed even further when we're above the water. I'm amazed to see my own mass cause a sonic boom so visibly when the water's surface beneath me breaks and becomes a veil of vapor behind me as we hurry toward wherever we need to go. All the potential dangers aside, being a magical girl is awesome. Eventually, I see the other four girls floating in the air a few hundred meters over the water, and we slow down to join them. A few hundred miles out, there's an oil rig, black smoke roiling off it thick enough to block the sun behind it. Immediately, my joy at my powers dies down as I realize the severity of the situation.
"Here's what's up," Onyxia says when we're all within a couple meters of each other. Ida has used her telekinesis to create a shield around us, blocking out the wind so we can easily hear. They could just do this whole conversation telepathically, but I suppose I'm still not trusted enough to be let into their network. "Thirty minutes ago, an accident started a small fire on this oil rig. The fire went out of control quickly, and now the workers are in danger. We don't know more than has been shared on the news, so we don't know how many workers are in danger, but we can reliably guess at somewhere between forty and fifty. The coast guard is ten minutes out. Usual roles: Kaida and I go inside to look for and rescue survivors. Aria and Incarna, you're on transportation duty to take the victims to safety, where Vida will provide first aid and stabilize those she can. Destiny, do you have any powers you think can help us here?"
I think for a moment, chewing on my lip and scouring my mind for any way to apply the things I've learned about what I can do. Almost immediately, my mind falls on the lesson I had with Chibi Destiny in the desert. "I... I can reach out and sense where everyone is. At least anyone who's still... Alive. But describing the location might be difficult with words."
Onyxia nods, then turns her attention to the short telepath. "Aria. Can you act relay between her and our network?" The Norwegian nods, and before I can react, I hear her voice in my head again.
"Just give me your information however makes the most sense for you. I can translate it to something more concrete for the others." I nod at her and look to Onyxia, whose stern face is full of determination.
"Alright then. Knights, let's save some lives," are her final order before Aria lets the wind barrier dissipate and everyone hurries into position, while I... Just stay where I am, because I can really do my job from pretty much anywhere in the oil rig's vicinity. Even as I get left behind, I close my eyes and hold the needle out in front of me, figuring I can maybe use it as a grounding tool for my magic, or a channeling object. Without Chibi here, I'll have to navigate the tapestry on my own, without her guidance, and I figure having a focus of some sort, along with an incantation, might make that easier.
"Fortune's Revelations," I whisper, once again finding the words easy to come by, a manifestation of spell appearing in my mind along with the words as instinctively as the first time I flew. I only have a moment to wonder if I can force something bigger if I manifest my powers this way more purposefully before I start feeling the tapestry touching not just myself, but the Knights as well. And of course also the victims aboard the oil rig. I start sensing all the life a few meters deep into the sea below and have to pull my senses back a little, floating closer to the disaster area in order to let myself shrink the area my spell covers.
Indeed, there are a lot of victims. I quickly tally them up to thirty-seven and start sorting them by whose strings have the fewest connections to the tapestry around them, figuring that they would be who have the lowest chance of survival if not saved soon. I also see the five Knights as they move into position. Their connections are... Different. Stronger. Brighter, glowing in each of their colors. Whereas pretty much anything else I've seen this way is affected by the strings attached to them with very little influence flowing the other way, the Knights all seem to be able to change minor things around them. I can't quite see the nature in which they do so, or even what they can do, but I have to assume that's how it looks when someone is capable of magic, of outputting immense power. I wonder if the Squires have a similar aura, but I can ask Chibi Destiny about that later. There's more important work to do right now. Starting with a man trapped behind a barrier in a room inside the area currently on fire, I start trying to communicate what I've found to Aria. I do it by just thinking really hard about what I'm seeing myself. It takes a few moments before something happens, but Kaida quickly dashes in through an opening and heads down a few hallways before she cuts the barrier with what I assume to be her sword, grabs the man and hurries to get him out, finally depositing him on an invisible telekinetic platform created by Aria, and he's quickly seen to by Vida.
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After a little bit more calibration, Aria and I manage to streamline the way we communicate what I see, and her relaying it to the Knights' network along with Onyxia's coordination, our rescue efforts pick up the pace rather quickly. Incarna uses her arsenal to punch holes in outer walls with precision fire, allowing primarily Kaida with her complete immunity to the spreading fire to hurry inside and get to the victims faster than they could have without me since the Knights now know the exact locations they need to go to and don't have to guess. Onyxia also helps get people out of the less-on-fire areas, and by the time the coastguard even arrives, we've already saved all but two victims, with Vida ensuring those who are worst off get stabilized first. Aria starts lowering her platform down to deliver the approaching ships where the crew can help victims aboard, and it seems like we might actually make it out of this one with a perfect track record!
KATHOOOM!
Just like the day I got my powers, it feels like time slows down almost to a halt as I open my eyes to see an explosion on the far side of the oil rig rock the entire thing like it was unstable scaffolding at a construction site. Also just like that day, I now see the threads overlaid on the world despite my open eyes again, just with the increased clarity I've gotten from training with Destiny. The strings connected to the remaining two victims are rapidly thinning, some even snapping as I see part of the rig's structure crumble in a manner I don't think is entirely natural. Kaida is busy setting the last man she rescued down on the coast guard's ship, so there's no way she can get to more than one of the other two, and I don't think I can move quite fast enough either... But Onyxia definitely can. I just... Don't have a fast enough way to communicate with her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I do? I can't just let these last two men die!
In my panic, I decide to pull on the last skill I learned and reach out with both hands, all ten of my fingers hooking around threads visible only to me, pulling on some, snapping others and entwining the remainders. My head already thrums and my brain feels like it's trying to jump out of my skull with just that effort, but the effect is immediate as I see both men's strings strengthen as they suddenly get the idea to get up and move on converging paths, away from the collapsing structure, but into the burning areas. Finally, I almost don't dare do it, but I reach out and grab one of Aria's glowing strings specifically, tying it back to myself. I have a very specific intent, but I'm unsure if I can even do it... The indication that I did what I wanted to, however, comes in the form of Aria mentally pushing back, perturbed that someone managed to intercept her telepathic network. "Uh, yeah, I'm sorry, hi. But we don't have time for the translation this time," I say at the speed of thought, receiving back impulses of annoyance and anger at my intrusion. "Onyxia, there's two men left. None of us are fast enough." Along with that message I send her my mental image of their location in the tapestry, hoping she can interpret it fast enough. If nothing else, it seems like she understood, because the leader of the Celestial Knights practically vanishes from sight, even in the time-slowed version of reality I'm currently perceiving. Before I can see anything else, the pain of fucking with reality so much and so rapidly overwhelms me. I feel the power buzzing beneath my skin and feel myself let go of my transformation, then slowly starting to fall before everything goes black.
I don't know how long has passed when I wake up, but the first thing I see is a clear, blue sky above me, soon followed by Vida's cute face moving into my field of vision. "Oh! You're finally awake," she says happily, one of her thumbs caressing my cheek. I realize she's kneeling and has put my head in her lap as she took care of me, a situation I would probably have daydreamed about soon enough with the ways things have progressed lately.
"I- uh-" I croak, feeling my throat dry and my lips a little cracked. "Yeah- Wh- where are we? What happened?" She pushes on my back to help me up so I can see for myself that we're back in Northstar Bay, on a rooftop. I've transformed back to my civilian form, as have everyone except for Vida herself, each standing around me in a circle.
"Well, we saved everyone," Asha answers, sounding almost apologetic on my behalf as she looks to both me and the others. "So mission successful?"
"We did," Eden nods, a contemplative tone in her voice. "And I'm not sure it would have been possible if you didn't do what you did, Destiny. But that doesn't make it okay." I grimace and mentally beat myself up for a moment before responding.
"I- Yeah. I know. I wasn't even sure I could do it, and I damn well sure knew I shouldn't, but... Yeah. I'm sorry. Especially to you, Ida. It's your magic I messed with." The short blonde looks at me with an inscrutable expression, but in the end she smiles.
"I won't say it's okay," she finally whispers, just loud enough to be heard. "But I understand. Saving lives is the top priority." Her Squire rubs their head up against her leg, their fluffy white tail wrapped around her ankle.
"Maybe we just let you into the network next time," Eden muses at me. "It would make cooperation easier, and you've proved you just want to work with us a good dozen times already." She chuckles a little at herself. "Heh. You even want it so bad you're willing to breach our trust to reach our common goal." I make another grimace, and I'm about to apologize again, but before I can do so, Vida - no, Faye, she's transformed back while the others were talking - puts her hand on my shoulder.
"That aside, may I recommend you don't do whatever you did out there again any time soon? Unlike the rest of us, you weren't trained to use your powers before being thrown into this business, and you have access to some serious power. More than most of us. Your body just can't handle it all yet."
"Yeah... Chibi Destiny said something to that effect, too." I can't help but wonder what that means. More power than most of them? First of all, how does she know that? And second, who does she mean when she says most? I've seen Asha blast meter-wide holes in monsters and Eden move so fast she might as well have used that Instant Transmission move from the anime Shawn and I watched as kids. Ida's psychic powers seem nearly limitless in their potential. Only Ayame and Faye seem somewhat limited in scope, though I don't doubt they also could pull out some destructive shit if they really wanted. Especially Ayame. And Faye has near-direct control over the magical energies moving through people. She uses it to heal people, but it doesn't take much imagination to think of other applications. Their powers are great, but as Chibi Destiny said, they're more limited in scope. Maybe that's what Faye meant? "Anyway, yeah, I'm sorry I did what I did. I really am. I really don't want you to worry I'm going to betray your trust again, because I'm going to do my best not to."
"That's all we can reasonably ask right now," Eden says. "Ideally, we'd have you take the same oath we did, but we're not going to force you unless your own Squire wants the same. Some of ours are a little worried what that would mean for them anyways."
As we break it up and people transform to fly away, Ayame stays behind for a moment. Before she transforms too, she shoulder checks me hard enough to almost make me stumble. Even in civilian form, she's a lot stronger than she looks. "You know, normally it's my job to break rank like that. It's nice to have another rule breaker around finally. Sometimes Eden needs a bit of a reality check to break out of her habits, and Asha doesn't do it in the field as much as she does in civvies." I'm stunned for a moment. Did Ayame just compliment me? She spent the entire conversation facing away from me with her arms crossed so I assumed she was fuming, furious even. I barely even manage to stammer something before she yells the Knights' shared transformation phrase "BY MY KNIGHTLY VOW!" and lifts off the rooftop. "Just don't do it too often or I might start to feel threatened," she smirks over her shoulder and then shoots off into the distance, leaving me alone on the rooftop to contemplate everything that happened today.
