Mahou Madness!

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Anna redirected her kick to target the grenade, apparently instinctively as the look on her face right before the explosion showed how much she regretted such an action, still though, it would only stun her for a moment as the dust kicked up from the dry dirt ground cleared.
"Ehh... That was about it for the cage I'm afraid... But that's hardly my only trick!"
Dulce declared, focusing for a moment as a long whip of energy flowed from the end of her scythe and she began flailing it around, making it quite difficult for Anna to approach, which bough them the minute needed for the others to return, with Sera leading the way, a white and black device that looked almost like an Ipad with physical buttons clutched in one hand.
"I got it! They barely even had any guards there!"
She declared excitedly.

Dulce seemed relieved at the backup.
"Great! Sera, you know what to do in these situations! Show em a demo for the next live concert!"
Sera seemed to need no further prodding, she took a deep breath, energy building at a rapid pace...
"You girls better stay behind her!"
Dulce warned right before Sera started to sing? The sound hit Anna like a physical wave, stopping her in her tracks and wreaking havoc on her magical core, even causing the red armor on her legs to break down and fall away.

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko didn't even flinch when the explosion rocked the three of them, though she did glance back at the winded Anna. She thought of a plan while Dulce kept her at bay with her impromptu whip. Luckily, she didn't need it, because it didn't take long for the other two to appear, the device seemingly in tow. "That was quick," she said idly to herself. "Glad you're here, Luca."

Confused but somewhat interested, Namiko stepped back with the others as Sera let it rip, belting out a melody that struck Anna with inhuman force, buckling her knees and damaging her magical core. From behind it was loud, enough that she wished that she had earplugs, but she felt glad she wasn't on the receiving end of this. "This where the experimentation got us?" she asked. "Impressive."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Eheh... She was hiding from a couple of soldiers... Sera found the thing straight away!"
Luca explained as she prepared to fight, only to discover it wasn't necessary as Sera unleashed her song, not defeating but very heavily damaging Anna, who rather than being boosted, now seemed to be barely holding her transformation together.
"Yup, this is the results of the forced compatibility trial, though Sera here is also the only functional result and that was because of certain special circumstances... Much like what caused Luca's compatibility I assume".
Dulce explained, showcasing her knowledge of the experimental projects of Orphan.

"Now... This battle is just about..."
Before she could finish speaking a beam of white fire struck Dulce, knocking her to the ground as another magical girl sprinted towards them, Sera turned to attack, but was shot from behind! The injured gunner had already healed and fired a round right into the back of her harness, which seemed to destabilize Sera, causing her to drop to the ground, magical core going wild.
"Oh god... This is crazy... No way..."
Dulce seemed genuinely terrified as the girl came into clear view.

Sana... Rank 8 magical girl, one of AAD's aces.
"I am sorry for my tardiness! Anna, Mirai, stand back... I will deal with this".

 

[twinkletide]

Everyone seemed to preemptively celebrate their easy victory, but Namiko wasn't fooled. Things were rarely, if ever, this easy, especially in a place such as this. She needed only to wait a few seconds for her worst fears to be confirmed, as a girl in golden armor stepped into view, motherlike and leonine.

Sana, #8 in the world. One of the AAD's finest.

Namiko could only sigh deeply to herself. "This battle," she said, continuing Dulce's thought, "is only just beginning." She paused. "Any plans, anyone?" she asked, though in truth her brain was rushing to come up with something herself. It was all she could to grip Roanoke on the end of its stock and wait.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Even Luca seemed to understand the situation enough be clearly terrified, it also didn't help that their group was not exactly fresh and ready to fight, Luca was sporting some very nasty looking bruises and a few small cuts, as well as panting heavily, clearly she wasn't used to fighting this long or against other magical girls...

Dulce looked okay, but seemed to rely on tricks and planning in her fights, and judging from the look of absolute terror on her face, she was not prepared for this.
Add to that the fact that Sera seemed to be highly unstable right now and Dulce's next plan made perfect sense.
"RUUUUN!"
She ordered, grabbing Sera's hand to drag her along.

 

[twinkletide]

The battle that was just beginning immediately ended. On Dulce's cue all the girls ran off, leaving a cartoonish trail of dust in their wake. Namiko herself hauled ass faster than she ever had, keeping up pace with the others (but with obvious difficulty, judging from the exertion plastered on her face). But Namiko was 90% sure that Sana would not be far behind. They did, after all, have their precious Macguffin in hand, and who knew how important it was to them? And frankly she was emitting very strong mother bear vibes in her demeanor, and they'd severely injured both of her cubs.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Sana was right behind them! And it seemed her rank was deserved as she was pushing enough power into her movement to slowly gain on them, determination clear on her face as she held her sword out, as if prepared to spear them on it.

As they were running bullets started to fly! It seemed the gunner was helping her friend, and she was VERY accurate, her rounds tearing into Luca's leg and bringing her down! The barrier didn't even slow them down... How tired HAD Luca been?
"Shit..."
Dulce stopped, turning on her heel as Luca went down.
"Well... Looks like we are gonna have to fight!"

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko wheeled around at the sound of her companion hitting the ground and cried "Luca!" She knelt down near her injured friend, heedless of danger, and briefly returned fire to both Mirai and Sana—the latter of which was now within whiffing distance, her sword out and ready to strike. "Shit," she said, "I guess you're right. Foot okay?" she asked Luca, tenderness and worry plainly evident in her voice, an almost doting, cloying sound.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Oww oww oww...."
Luca seemed to be holding back tears as the minor wound on her leg healed, from the size of the wound it was likely a normal non magical human would be missing a leg right then.
"I... Yeah... I'm okay!"
Luca declared, flashing a quick, slightly pained smile to try and reassure Namiko as she climbed to her feet, oddly enough Sana seemed willing to wait for them to recover and turn to fight rather than attacking them while they were weak.

"All right girls... I think I might have a plan forming... Give me like five minutes and if we are still alive then I might be able to slow her down".
It was clear Dulce didn't have much confidence and was trying to put on a confident tone.
"Umm... I don't suppose you would let us run away?..."
Luca actually asked the enemy only to receive an almost sad shake of the head.
"Sorry, no can do... But I will attempt to capture alive and without unnecessary pain".

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko frowned as she stood up after checking Luca. Five minutes? Even three minutes would be a stretch, but...well. She'd see what she could do.

Luca's naivete was almost painful for her to watch. Enemies, they were, both of them, and they had this incredibly important device to transfer. Why even ask? Why even try? She wasn't at all surprised when Sana answered in the negative.

"Well," she said, "I hope you're a tryhard type, then." She whipped her wrist out right in front of her, sending a little canister at their feet that emitted a screen of smoke, covering their movements temporarily. "Hope you're ready!" she said, and without further ado began firing huge bursts of rounds with an LMG, hoping to suppress her long enough for everyone to converge.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The barrage of bullets actually held Sana back for a minute, as powerful as she was the sheer kinetic force was still enough to physically move her back almost an entire meter! Though of course she soon came up with a response, manifesting a shield, her sword melting away to form it, well at least her offensive ability was reduced! Albeit temporarily.
With the shield not only blocking the bullets but seeming to massively reduce the force of the impacts, she charged, quickly closing into range before Luca made her move, taking a swing that Sana stopped to deflect, retaliating by summoning a formless, temporary blade of fire and striking her rainbow sword, which cracked further.

 

[twinkletide]

The nearby clash of flame and light sent sparks into Namiko's eyes. She was displeased with the results of her outburst, seeing as it barely held her back any amount of time; and now she was here, and Luca's sword seemed to be taking a beating, which gave her a bad feeling for some inexplicable reason. She fished into her pockets. "Luca, back away and eyes closed!" she shouted, before flicking a flashbang right at their feet, which exploded with a huge flash of light.

(The way she saw it, she could essentially only play the role of a gadfly with any effect, seeing as Sana could outplay her on every avenue but strategic skill. The best she could do was this, which frustrated her somewhat. Sometimes being cumbersome was troublesome.)

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Luca was more than happy to back away, the battle was pure defense, with her not even trying to get a hit in and risk leaving herself open to one of the powerful strikes her opponent was directing at her, Sana had reformed her sword and each missed swing flung small sparks of flame onto the dusty dry ground.
When she was told to back away, Luca simply blocked less firmly, riding the force of Sana's swing to move backwards, her eyes closed as the blast went off.
It worked amazingly well, with Sana now blinded they had a moment to breathe as she switched to a guarded posture, though Luca was too winded to press the attack.

 

[twinkletide]

The first part of her plan having succeeded, Namiko went straight to work. After firing a single shot at Sana's middle mass to subdue her for at least a second, she darted around, setting three mortars in different positions close within their radius and loading each of them. Rushing back to her original position, she then lifted up her dress to reveal (along with—if one were to look closely—a pair of white bloomers) a 3x3 stack of sandbags that plopped right down in front of her, providing some rudimentary cover.

Total time: 46 seconds. Could be better, but what can you do.

Of course, these were purely defensive measures—she doubted severely that these would do anything more than deter her. She looked behind her shoulder at Dulce. "How's time looking?" she asked, calmly but with a hint of urgency the underlined how precarious the situation was.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Luca's eyes darted over to watch what Namiko was doing, trying to see what she was doing and if she could provide any support, that of course led her getting an eyeful of her bloomers! Though she quickly looked away, Luca was now red (though you could hardly see her face beneath the mixture of blood and dirt that plastered a good portion of her skin, an effect of her taking so many hits and hitting the ground several times!
Namiko's plan worked, for a minute at least, as Sana quickly managed to overcome the attacks and went for Namiko... And was intercepted by Luca again, their blades meeting in a crash of light and force that after a moment ended with Luca's sword shattering! Causing her to fall to the ground again, back in civilian clothes.

However, it seemed they had done enough as Dulce let out a triumphant (yet exhausted) cry and slammed her scythe into the ground, causing a massive burst of energy to fly out... And miss Sana! Instead heading to her wounded friends and creating a cage around them that slowly shrunk down.
"Hey knight girl! You better drop that transformation and back right up or I might have to tighten that cage a little!"
She shouted, and amazingly, Sana did as told, stepping back and returning to normal.
"That is a dirty trick Dulce... Even by your standards..."

 

[twinkletide]

Namiko knew her mortar placement was somewhat haphazard, which was proved by the fact that Sana was able to quickly revocer from the onslaught and go straight for her. However, as soon as she got close she was intercepted by Luca, whose sword shattered in result, reverting her back to her normal form. Namiko began to rush over to help.

A huge flash of light zoomed behind her. She looked to see a cage forming around Sana's friends, sharp and slowly shrinking.

And, just like that, the battle was over.

She frowned. She didn't like what Dulce did, either, but...well, it seemed to have worked, so she was in no position to complain. Nevertheless, she didn't change back herself - wouldn't, unless she knew it was over. "Is that it, then?" she asked cautiously. "Are we good to go?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Luca was still laying on the ground but was at least conscious and didn't seem to be in any danger, rather, this was probably for the best as it would heal her wounds a lot faster without energy being used to hold her enhanced form together.
"Oww.... That felt... Weird".
It seemed she was feeling the peculiar oddness of having a transformation undone by battle damage, if a magical girl survived such an event they were always exhausted and sometimes threw up from the sudden change.

"Heh, well sorry miss Sana, but we can't all be stupidly powerful, this is simply how I have to fight to help my allies".
Dulce didn't seem to have any hint of shame at using hostages to win the fight.
"Yes... Let's go".
Dulce turned to leave, only for a shot to ring out! One of the trapped girls had summoned and fired a rifle, the round fortunately missing Dulce... But striking the device Sera held!
At the moment of impact things seemed to... Break, it was like the world tore itself apart, the ground tearing into chunks and floating away, suspended in a dark void like the night sky.
Namiko would feel chimera... Everywhere, it was like she was inside a chimera, but not quite...
However before she could stop to think a chimera charged at her!
It was a fish like creature, swimming through the air with several tentacle like limbs, each tipped with a sharp looking blade.

 

[twinkletide]

For a moment Namiko let her guard down, feeling like the battle was over. It was a fatal mistake. It took her a second to register the sound of the round striking the steel frame of the device, but it didn't take long afterwards to feel like something was wrong—very, very wrong.

All of a sudden she felt a presence. No—more like an omnipresence. A feeling that screamed "chimera" all around her. The ground shattered underneath her, a hundred huge chunks floating upwards in seeming zero-g. All her peers seemed to be in equal shock, all wavering on their own little islands and making confused sounds. "W-wha-" Namiko said, her eyes frantically and reflexively searching for Luca in the din.

Before she could get her bearings an enormous figure surged roaring towards her, big black appendages flailing—one of them pointed towards her, the tip atwinkle in the bare black light. Namiko barely had enough time to inch out of the way of the tentacle before its abdomen slammed into her, knocking her right into an errant chunk of ground. With a yelp, she lost her grip on her rifle, which went spinning into the abyss below.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The chimera was reading up for a second attack, likely intending to fling Namiko into the abyss, Dulce was too busy keeping Luca and Sara covered to help... But right before it could reach her, Sana of all people came to the rescue, catching it's attention with blasts of fire from her sword.
This gave Namiko a moment to look around... They were in a dark space, lit up by what looked like distant stars and filled with floating chunks of rock and stone buildings... And what was worse, was the chimera, hundreds of them, and all floating towards the wounded magical girls...

"Get to the device and hit the return button! Hurry we we are overwhelmed!"
Sana ordered, their fight temporarily forgotten in the midst of what seemed like fear, though not so much for herself.
The device was floating just a little away from the others.

 

[twinkletide]

It took Namiko a few seconds to get her bearings after the surprise attack, which was enough time for the chimera to rear its head and prepare for another attack. But before it could get to her, a few timely blasts of fire struck near and on the chimera - and what's more, they came from Sana, who they were fighting only moments before. It barely registered how strange this was, though, because there was a more pressing matter. She now realized why the feeling of chimeras was so oppressive. They were all around. They floated in the void, all shapes and sizes, all focused now on one thing - the group, and (probably) killing them.

Needless to say their little feud was now the least of her worries.

"Got it!" Namiko yelled back to Sana over the chimeral din, tacitly agreeing to a truce. She spotted the device, floating not far away from them. Going straight for it would be risky - that is, if you weren't Namiko.

She summoned a grenade launcher and, after loading a beanbag round into the barrel, took aim. 20 meters away. The chimera encroached slowly upon them. There would only be time for one shot, two at most if she missed. It was hard to see in the darkness - but she could catch a little glimmer of red steel in the sights... Aiming...aiming...

And she fired.